High seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in a subset of Mexican patients with work accidents and low socioeconomic status

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>has been associated with reflex impairment and traffic accidents. It is unknown whether <it>Toxoplasma </it>infection might be associated with work accidents. Therefore, using a case-control seroprevalence study design, 133 patients with a recent work accident and 266 control subjects of the general population from the same region were examined with enzyme-linked immunoassays for the presence and levels of anti-<it>Toxoplasma </it>IgG antibodies and anti-<it>Toxoplasma </it>IgM antibodies. Socio-demographic, work, clinical and behavioral characteristics from each worker were obtained.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eleven (8.3%) of 133 patients, and 14 (5.3%) of 266 controls had anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgG antibodies. Anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgG levels were higher than 150 IU/ml in 8 (6%) patients and 10 (3.8%) controls. Anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgM antibodies were found in one (0.8%) of the workers, and in 6 (2.3%) of the controls. No statistically significant differences in the IgG seroprevalences, frequencies of high IgG levels, and IgM seroprevalences among patients and controls were found. In contrast, a low socio-economic level in patients with work accidents was associated with <it>Toxoplasma </it>seropositivity (<it>P </it>= 0.01). Patients with work accidents and low socioeconomic status showed a significantly (OR = 3.38; 95% CI: 0.84-16.06; <it>P </it>= 0.04) higher seroprevalence of <it>T. gondii </it>infection than controls of the same socioeconomic status (15.1% vs. 5%, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed a positive association of <it>T. gondii </it>infection with boar meat consumption (OR = 3.04; 95% CI: 1.03-8.94; <it>P </it>= 0.04). In contrast, a negative association between <it>T. gondii </it>infection and national trips (OR = 0.40; 95% CI: 0.17-0.96; <it>P </it>= 0.04), sausage consumption (OR = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.05-0.68; <it>P </it>= 0.01), and ham consumption (OR = 0.16; 95% CI: 0.05-0.51; <it>P </it>= 0.002) was found.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In the study described here seropositivity to <it>T. gondii </it>was associated to work accidents in a subset of patients with low socioeconomic status. This is the first report of an association of <it>T. gondii </it>infection and work accidents. Further studies to confirm our results are needed. Results may help in designing optimal prevention strategies to avoid <it>T. gondii </it>infection.</p

Frequency-dependent Drude damping in Casimir force calculations

The Casimir force is calculated between Au thin films that are described by a Drude model with a frequency dependent damping function. The model parameters are obtained from available experimental data for Au thin films. Two cases are considered; annealed and nonannealed films that have a different damping function. Compared with the calculations using a Drude model with a constant damping parameter, we observe changes in the Casimir force of a few percent. This behavior is only observed in films of no more than 300 $\AA$ thick.Comment: Proceedings of the meeting "60 years of Casimir effect", Brasilia, 200

Hepatic artery thrombosis following pediatric liver transplantation: Assessment of blood flow measurement in allografts

The purpose of this study was to define parameters which could be predictive of hepatic artery thrombosis, which continues to be a major complicating factor in pediatric liver transplantation. The hepatic blood flow of 14 pediatric liver patients (15 grafts) who weighted less than 15 kg was measured electromagnetically during orthotopic liver transplantation. The results of blood flow determination and the clinical data in 7 patients (8 grafts) who developed hepatic artery thrombosis were compared with those of 7 control patients. All patients with a hepatic arterial flow of less than 60 ml/min developed hepatic artery thrombosis (4/8 vs. 0/7; p < 0.05), and the patients with hepatic artery thrombosis exhibited higher total hepatic and portal vein flow per 100 gram of liver tissue (262 vs. 136 ml/min; p < 0.001 and 222 vs. 80 ml/min; p < 0.025, respectively) as well as longer cold preservation time (384 vs. 326 min; p < 0.025). The results of our study suggest that hepatic arterial flows of less than 60 ml/min are critical for the development of hepatic artery thrombosis, and that portal venous overflow and increased preservation times may contribute to the development of hepatic artery thrombosis

Casimir-like tunneling-induced electronic forces

We study the quantum forces that act between two nearby conductors due to electronic tunneling. We derive an expression for these forces by calculating the flux of momentum arising from the overlap of evanescent electronic fields. Our result is written in terms of the electronic reflection amplitudes of the conductors and it has the same structure as Lifshitz's formula for the electromagnetically mediated Casimir forces. We evaluate the tunneling force between two semiinfinite conductors and between two thin films separated by an insulating gap. We discuss some applications of our results.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figs, submitted to Proc. of QFEXT'05, to be published in J. Phys.

Phosphomannosylation and the functional analysis of the extended Candida albicans MNN4-like gene family

We thank Luz A. López-Ramírez (Universidad de Guanajuato) for technical assistance. This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (ref. CB2011/166860; PDCPN2014-247109, and FC 2015-02-834), Universidad de Guanajuato (ref. 000025/11; 0087/13; ref. 1025/2016; Convocatoria Institucional para Fortalecer la Excelencia Académica 2015; CIFOREA 89/2016), Programa de Mejoramiento de Profesorado (ref. UGTO-PTC-261), and Red Temática Glicociencia en Salud (CONACYT-México). NG acknowledges the Wellcome Trust (086827, 075470, 101873, and 200208) and MRC Centre for Medical Mycology for funding (N006364/1). KJ was supported by a research visitor grant to Aberdeen from China Scholarship Council (CSC No. 201406055024). The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02156/full#supplementary-materialPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Computation of Casimir forces for dielectrics or intrinsic semiconductors based on the Boltzmann transport equation

The interaction between drifting carriers and traveling electromagnetic waves is considered within the context of the classical Boltzmann transport equation to compute the Casimir-Lifshitz force between media with small density of charge carriers, including dielectrics and intrinsic semiconductors. We expand upon our previous work [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 101}, 163203 (2008)] and derive in some detail the frequency-dependent reflection amplitudes in this theory and compute the corresponding Casimir free energy for a parallel plate configuration. We critically discuss the the issue of verification of the Nernst theorem of thermodynamics in Casimir physics, and explicity show that our theory satisfies that theorem. Finally, we show how the theory of drifting carriers connects to previous computations of Casimir forces using spatial dispersion for the material boundaries.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures; Contribution to Proceedings of "60 Years of the Casimir Effect", Brasilia, June 200