Molecular characterization of intestinal protozoan parasites from children facing diarrheal disease and associated risk factors in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire

Diarrheal diseases are very common in children under 5 years and may lead to a delay of physical and mental development. Despite this knowledge, data on diarrheal diseases and socioeconomic determinants are still scarce in Côte d’Ivoire. This study is then conducted with the objective to fill part of this gap and specifically assess link between infant diarrhea occurrence and some major socioenvironmental factors. Stool samples were collected from children less than five suffering from diarrhea at Yamoussoukro Regional Hospital in central Côte d’Ivoire. Molecular species specific diagnosis was used to detect Cryptosporidium parvum, Giardia intestinalis and Entamoeba histolytica, three major protozoan parasites which cause diarrhea. Out of 306 stool samples examined, 62.75% were detected as positive at least for one of the protozoan parasite studied. Species specific prevalence was 36.93% for C. parvum, 20.92% for G. intestinalis and 22.55% for E. histolytica. Infection was more prevalent in children whose mothers were not educated although the difference was not statistically significant. No link was found between gender and infection while sanitation infrastructures, mother and children ages and water sources were found significantly associated with diarrhea occurrence. Awareness is then needed for women on lack of hygiene rules that could lead to diarrheal diseases burden.Key words: Diarrheal diseases, children development, parasitic protozoan, molecular characterization, socioenvironmental factors

Antifungal activities of the essential oil extracted from the tea of savanna (Lippia multiflora) in Côte d’Ivoire

The objective of this study was to evaluate the antifungal potency of the essential oil of tea of savanna (Lippia multiflora) on three fungal strains. The essential oil is extracted of Lippia multiflora by steam distillation and the antifungal activity in vitro was investigated on Apergillus flavus,  Asperguillus Niger and Fusarium sp species. This activity was realized by incorporation of the plant extract in Sabouraud medium prepared by a double dilution. The study revealed a sensitivity of these three species to the essential oil extracted from Lippia multiflora. It has been observed, in a descending order of sensitivity, a minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of 2.08 ± 0.58 µl / ml with Aspergillus flavus; 4.16 ± 1.17 µl / ml with Aspergillus Niger and 8.33 ± 2.35 µl / ml with Fusarium sp. The antifungal potency of the essential oil extracted from Lippia multiflora, allows  considering its use as a novel approach in the field of integrated management of cereal stocks in post-harvest.Keywords: Essential oil, Lippia multiflora, Antifungal, Aspergillus, Fusarium

On the gauge boson's properties in a candidate technicolor theory

The technicolor scenario replaces the Higgs sector of the standard model with a strongly interacting sector. One candidate for a realization of such a sector is two-technicolor Yang-Mills theory coupled to two degenerate flavors of adjoint, massless techniquarks. Using lattice gauge theory the properties of the technigluons in this scenario are investigated as a function of the techniquark mass towards the massless limit. For that purpose the minimal Landau gauge two-point and three-point correlation functions are determined, including a detailed systematic error analysis. The results are, within the relatively large systematic uncertainties, compatible with a behavior very similar to QCD at finite techniquark mass. However, the limit of massless techniquarks exhibits features which could be compatible with a (quasi-)conformal behavior.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures, 1 table; v2: persistent notational error corrected, some minor modification

String theoretic QCD axions in the light of PLANCK and BICEP2

The QCD axion solving the strong CP problem may originate from antisymmetric tensor gauge fields in compactified string theory, with a decay constant around the GUT scale. Such possibility appears to be ruled out now by the detection of tensor modes by BICEP2 and the PLANCK constraints on isocurvature density perturbations. A more interesting and still viable possibility is that the string theoretic QCD axion is charged under an anomalous U(1)_A gauge symmetry. In such case, the axion decay constant can be much lower than the GUT scale if moduli are stabilized near the point of vanishing Fayet-Illiopoulos term, and U(1)_A-charged matter fields get a vacuum value far below the GUT scale due to a tachyonic SUSY breaking scalar mass. We examine the symmetry breaking pattern of such models during the inflationary epoch with the Hubble expansion rate 10^{14} GeV, and identify the range of the QCD axion decay constant, as well as the corresponding relic axion abundance, consistent with known cosmological constraints. In addition to the case that the PQ symmetry is restored during inflation, there are other viable scenarios, including that the PQ symmetry is broken during inflation at high scales around 10^{16}-10^{17} GeV due to a large Hubble-induced tachyonic scalar mass from the U(1)_A D-term, while the present axion scale is in the range 10^{9}-5\times 10^{13} GeV, where the present value larger than 10^{12} GeV requires a fine-tuning of the axion misalignment angle. We also discuss the implications of our results for the size of SUSY breaking soft masses.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure; v3: analysis updated including the full anharmonic effects, references added, version accepted for publication in JHE

Dynamical Boson Stars

The idea of stable, localized bundles of energy has strong appeal as a model for particles. In the 1950s John Wheeler envisioned such bundles as smooth configurations of electromagnetic energy that he called {\em geons}, but none were found. Instead, particle-like solutions were found in the late 1960s with the addition of a scalar field, and these were given the name {\em boson stars}. Since then, boson stars find use in a wide variety of models as sources of dark matter, as black hole mimickers, in simple models of binary systems, and as a tool in finding black holes in higher dimensions with only a single killing vector. We discuss important varieties of boson stars, their dynamic properties, and some of their uses, concentrating on recent efforts.Comment: 79 pages, 25 figures, invited review for Living Reviews in Relativity; major revision in 201

Rac1 Regulates the NLRP3 Inflammasome Which Mediates IL-1beta Production in Chlamydophila pneumoniae Infected Human Mononuclear Cells

Chlamydophila pneumoniae causes acute respiratory tract infections and has been associated with development of asthma and atherosclerosis. The production of IL-1β, a key mediator of acute and chronic inflammation, is regulated on a transcriptional level and additionally on a posttranslational level by inflammasomes. In the present study we show that C. pneumoniae-infected human mononuclear cells produce IL-1β protein depending on an inflammasome consisting of NLRP3, the adapter protein ASC and caspase-1. We further found that the small GTPase Rac1 is activated in C. pneumoniae-infected cells. Importantly, studies with specific inhibitors as well as siRNA show that Rac1 regulates inflammasome activation in C. pneumoniae-infected cells. In conclusion, C. pneumoniae infection of mononuclear cells stimulates IL-1β production dependent on a NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated processing of proIL-1β which is controlled by Rac1

Asymptotic safety guaranteed

We study the ultraviolet behaviour of four-dimensional quantum field theories involving non-abelian gauge fields, fermions and scalars in the Veneziano limit. In a regime where asymptotic freedom is lost, we explain how the three types of fields cooperate to develop fully interacting ultraviolet fixed points, strictly controlled by perturbation theory. Extensions towards strong coupling and beyond the large-N limit are discussed

Nonlinearity and Topology

The interplay of nonlinearity and topology results in many novel and emergent properties across a number of physical systems such as chiral magnets, nematic liquid crystals, Bose-Einstein condensates, photonics, high energy physics, etc. It also results in a wide variety of topological defects such as solitons, vortices, skyrmions, merons, hopfions, monopoles to name just a few. Interaction among and collision of these nontrivial defects itself is a topic of great interest. Curvature and underlying geometry also affect the shape, interaction and behavior of these defects. Such properties can be studied using techniques such as, e.g. the Bogomolnyi decomposition. Some applications of this interplay, e.g. in nonreciprocal photonics as well as topological materials such as Dirac and Weyl semimetals, are also elucidated