Venezuela's humanitarian crisis, resurgence of vector-borne diseases, and implications for spillover in the region.

In the past 5-10 years, Venezuela has faced a severe economic crisis, precipitated by political instability and declining oil revenue. Public health provision has been affected particularly. In this Review, we assess the impact of Venezuela's health-care crisis on vector-borne diseases, and the spillover into neighbouring countries. Between 2000 and 2015, Venezuela witnessed a 359% increase in malaria cases, followed by a 71% increase in 2017 (411 586 cases) compared with 2016 (240 613). Neighbouring countries, such as Brazil, have reported an escalating trend of imported malaria cases from Venezuela, from 1538 in 2014 to 3129 in 2017. In Venezuela, active Chagas disease transmission has been reported, with seroprevalence in children (<10 years), estimated to be as high as 12·5% in one community tested (n=64). Dengue incidence increased by more than four times between 1990 and 2016. The estimated incidence of chikungunya during its epidemic peak is 6975 cases per 100 000 people and that of Zika virus is 2057 cases per 100 000 people. The re-emergence of many vector-borne diseases represents a public health crisis in Venezuela and has the possibility of severely undermining regional disease elimination efforts. National, regional, and global authorities must take action to address these worsening epidemics and prevent their expansion beyond Venezuelan borders

Effects of the Equatorial Electrojet on FM-Based Passive Radar Systems

Urbina, Julio/0000-0001-6281-4905WOS: 000404300900036Passive radar systems operate by employing cooperative or noncooperative radio signals in the environment in order to sense remote targets. This particular feature of passive radar systems provides unique opportunities to expand the coverage map of conventional radars. in using passive radar systems, any undesirable obstacle between the transmitted signal and the path of the desirable target can cause obliteration on the source signal and destroy its key correlative properties. the equatorial electrojet (EEJ) can have unfavorable effects on the operation of the prospective passive radar systems, which can conceivably employ very high frequency frequency-modulated (FM) radio signals around the magnetic equator. the EEJ is a strong flow of current in the upper atmosphere around 100 km of altitude over the magnetic equator. Because of the density irregularities within, the ionospheric current is a geophysical obstacle for the deployment of passive radar systems near those latitudes. in this paper, we assess the effects of the EEJ on the operation of FM-based passive radar systems. First, we simulate the EEJ as a communication channel based on its physical properties by using Gaussian random processes. We simulate the propagation of FM signals through this communication channel and determine the changes in their correlative properties. Finally, we present the experimental data that were collected near the magnetic equator that demonstrates the malfunction of the FM-based passive radar systems due to the EEJ. These observations and numerical results show that careful considerations must be taken when implementing FM-based passive radar systems at equatorial latitudes.Jicamarca Radio Observatory, Instituto Geofisico del Peru, Cornell University, under National Science Foundation [AGS0905448]This work was supported by the Jicamarca Radio Observatory, Instituto Geofisico del Peru, Cornell University, under National Science Foundation Grant AGS0905448. (Corresponding author: Burak Tuysuz.

Rotavirus: cause of acute diarrhea in children under 5 years old who go to urban health centers Dr. Pedro Iturbe, Dr. José María Espinoza and Dr. Edgar Peña, Miranda municipality, Choir. Falcón

El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la frecuencia de infección por rotavirus en niños menores de 5 años que acudieron a los centros de salud urbanos por presentar diarrea aguda. Se realizó una investigación de tipo descriptivo y prospectivo, cuyo análisis y alcance de los resultados estuvieron basados en un estudio de tipo observacional. Se recolectaron datos de antecedentes personales incluyendo vacunación antirotavirus y manifestaciones clínicas mediante una ficha encuesta a 23 pacientes y la detección de rotavirus en heces se realizó mediante inmunoanálisis enzimático directo. Todos los pacientes evaluados resultaron negativos a la infección por Rotavirus. El 86,96 %  tenían el esquema de vacunación anti-rotavirus completo, lo que pudiera explicar la ausencia del virus como causante de la diarrea. Se sugiere continuar con la vigilancia epidemiológica a fin de evitar futuras epidemias de infección por rotavirus. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of rotavirus infection in children under 5 years old who came to urban health centers for presenting acute diarrhea. A descriptive and prospective study was carried out, whose analysis and scope of the results were based on an observational study. Personal history data including anti-rotavirus vaccination and clinical manifestations were collected by means of a survey card to 23 patients. Personal history data including anti-rotavirus vaccination and clinical manifestations were collected and the detection of rotavirus in faeces were perfomed by direct enzyme immunoassay. All patients evaluated were negative for Rotavirus infection. 86.96% had the complete anti-rotavirus vaccination scheme, which could explain the absence of the virus as the cause of diarrhea. It is suggested to continue epidemiological surveillance in order to avoid future epidemics of rotavirus infection

The geoPebble System: Design and Implementation of a Wireless Sensor Network of GPS-Enabled Seismic Sensors for the Study of Glaciers and Ice Sheets

The geoPebble system is a network of wirelessly interconnected seismic and GPS sensor nodes with geophysical sensing capabilities for the study of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, as well as mountain glaciers. We describe our design methodology, which has enabled us to develop these state-of-the art units using commercial-off-the-shelf hardware combined with custom-designed hardware and software. Each geoPebble node is a self-contained, wirelessly connected sensor for collecting seismic activity and position information. Each node is built around a three-component seismic recorder, which includes an amplifier, filter, and 24-bit analog-to-digital converter that can sample incoming seismic signals up to 10 kHz. The timing for each node is available from GPS measurements and a local precision oscillator that is conditioned by the GPS timing pulses. In addition, we record the carrier-phase measurement of the L1 GPS signal in order to determine location at sub-decimeter accuracy (relative to other geoPebble nodes within a radius of a few kilometers). Each geoPebble includes 32 GB of solid-state storage, wireless communications capability to a central supervisory unit, and auxiliary measurements capability (including tilt from accelerometers, absolute orientation from magnetometers, and temperature). The geoPebble system has been successfully validated in the field in Antarctica and Greenland

The geoPebble System: Design and Implementation of a Wireless Sensor Network of GPS-Enabled Seismic Sensors for the Study of Glaciers and Ice Sheets

The geoPebble system is a network of wirelessly interconnected seismic and GPS sensor nodes with geophysical sensing capabilities for the study of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, as well as mountain glaciers. We describe our design methodology, which has enabled us to develop these state-of-the art units using commercial-off-the-shelf hardware combined with custom-designed hardware and software. Each geoPebble node is a self-contained, wirelessly connected sensor for collecting seismic activity and position information. Each node is built around a three-component seismic recorder, which includes an amplifier, filter, and 24-bit analog-to-digital converter that can sample incoming seismic signals up to 10 kHz. The timing for each node is available from GPS measurements and a local precision oscillator that is conditioned by the GPS timing pulses. In addition, we record the carrier-phase measurement of the L1 GPS signal in order to determine location at sub-decimeter accuracy (relative to other geoPebble nodes within a radius of a few kilometers). Each geoPebble includes 32 GB of solid-state storage, wireless communications capability to a central supervisory unit, and auxiliary measurements capability (including tilt from accelerometers, absolute orientation from magnetometers, and temperature). The geoPebble system has been successfully validated in the field in Antarctica and Greenland

Alterations on the growth and ultrastructure of <em>Leishmania chagasi </em>induced by squalene synthase inhibitors

Leishmaniasis is an important disease in widely dispersed regions of the world. In South America, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is mainly caused by Leishmania chagasi. The morbidity associated with the infection is high, and death may occur in some untreated patients. Treatment has been based upon pentavalent antimonial drugs for more than half a century and problems, including development of resistance to antimonials and lack of efficacy against VL/HIV co-infections, have emphasized the need for new drugs. Squalene synthase (SQS) is an essential enzyme for the biosynthesis of protozoal sterol molecules. In this work, nineteen synthetic quinuclidines, potentially inhibitors of SQS, were tested against promastigote forms of L. chagasi and the IC50 values of the compounds were determined. The most active compounds had IC50 values of around 30 nM and induced complete growth arrest and cell lysis at sub-micromolar concentrations. We analyzed the morphological structure of the parasites treated with these compounds by transmission electron microscopy of thin sections. Treated parasites showed significant ultrastructural changes, which varied from discrete alterations to total destruction of the cells, depending on the drug concentration and the time of incubation. One important change observed was a typical swelling of the unique and highly branched mitochondrion, where the inner membrane lost its organization. There was an increase in the number of autophagosomal structures. Changes in the organization of the nuclear chromatin and alterations in the flagellar pocket and flagellar membrane were also observed. Crown Copyright (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.</p

Burnout syndrome in athletes and their association with body image dissatisfaction at a private university

BACKGROUND: Burnout syndrome, from the sporting point of view, is the integration of both physical and emotional signs, caused by the high demands in competition. According to several studies, the prevalence of burnout syndrome is influenced by several factors that would lead to athlete’s body image dissatisfaction. METHODS: The study design is cross-sectional analysis. The study sample was 352 athletes selected from the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC). The main variables of this study are the burnout syndrome; which was measured by Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) and body image dissatisfaction, through thirteen Scale drawings contour figure Gardner. To find the association between body image dissatisfaction and burnout syndrome Poisson regression was used. RESULTS: Athletes with burnout syndrome have 1.08 times more likely having body image dissatisfaction with a value P=0.011 (95% CI: 1.02-1.15). It was also found that a sport collectively practiced is a protective factor for Burnout Syndrome with P=0.015 (95% CI: 0.4-0.9). CONCLUSIONS: Relation between burnout syndrome and body image dissatisfaction in athletes was found. In addition, a relationship between practicing an individual sport and burnout syndrome was also found. More studies are necessary to confirm these relationships.Revisión por pare