Rickettsia slovaca Infection: DEBONEL/TIBOLA

Producción CientíficaThis study describes the epidemiological, clinical, and microbiological characteristics of a new tick-borne disease in Spain—Dermacentor-borne necrosis erythema lymphadenopathy (DEBONEL). The clinical presentations include an eschar at the site of the tick bite, surrounded by an erythema and painful regional lymphadenopathy. The disease appears during the colder months and its vector is Dermacentor marginatus (D. marginatus). From January 1990 to December 2004, 54 patients presented at Hospital of La Rioja with these clinical and epidemiological data. The ratio of females to males was 32/22. The average age was 37 years. In all cases tick bites were located on the upper body (90% on the scalp). The median incubation period was 4.7 days. Signs and symptoms were mild in all cases. Only a small number of patients presented mild and nonspecific abnormalities in a complete blood cell count and mild elevation of erythrocyte sedimentation rates and C-protein reactive and liver enzyme levels. Serological evidence of acute rickettsiosis was observed in 19 patients (61%). In 29% sera tested by polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) were positive. The sequence obtained from a PCR product revealed 98% identity with Rickettsia sp. strains RpA4, DnS14, and DnS28. All ticks removed from patients were PCR-positive. Sequencing showed 8 of them identified as R. slovaca and 2 as Rickettsia sp. strains RpA4, DnS14, and DnS28

Bifurcations in the Lozi map

We study the presence in the Lozi map of a type of abrupt order-to-order and order-to-chaos transitions which are mediated by an attractor made of a continuum of neutrally stable limit cycles, all with the same period.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure

Explicit integration scheme for generalized plasticity constitutive models with automatic error control

An explicit algorithm for integrating Generalized Plasticity constitutive models is presented. This automatically divides the applied strain increment into subincrements using an estimate of the local error controlling the global integration error in the stress. The algorithm modifies the well known S. W. Sloan substepping scheme to account for Generalized Plasticity constitutive models, in which, unlike Classical Elastoplasticity, the yield surface is not explicitly defined. The integration scheme is described and results are presented for a rigid footing resting on a layer of specific Generalized Plasticity model for sands, in which a hyperelastic formulation is introduced to describe the reversible component of the soil response instead of the hypoelastic approach originally proposed. The explicit algorithm with automatic substepping and error control is shown to be reliable and efficient for these complex constitutive laws

Soil and Site Improvements of the Marsh Soils in Puerto De Santa María Highway (Cádiz, Spain)

The Puerto de Santa Maria and Puerto Real news highways are 17.4 kms. long, of which about 9 kms. run through a marshland area. The soft soil surveys involved piezocone reconnaissances and the construction of 3 experimental embankments. The embankments rest on ground improved with vertical drains for heights between 2.5 and 4.0 m., and with gravel columns for heights between 4.0 and 9.0 m. Expanded polystyrene was also used, for the first time in Spain, as a light fill in the embankments providing access to one of the bridges. The foundations for the 9 bridges located in the marshland were large diameter, precast, driven pier-piles (Raymond type). Embankment settlement was monitored and controlled by continuous settlement measuring lines. Pile driving was also PDA controlled

The Role of Chiggers as Human Pathogens

Trombiculid mites (Acari: Trombiculidae) are distributed worldwide ectoparasites of a wide range of vertebrates. More than 50 species are known to bite humans, and about 20 have medical importance. The larval stages (chiggers) of the genus Leptotrombidium are vectors of Orientia tsutsugamushi, causative agent of scrub typhus. This life-threatening disease is widely endemic in Asian Pacific regions where more than one billion people are at risk of acquiring the infection and around one million new cases are estimated to occur annually. In addition, although underreported and often misdiagnosed, trombiculiasis, defined as a dermatitis caused by the salivary secretion of biting chiggers, is present in America and Europe

Herschel Far-IR counterparts of SDSS galaxies: Analysis of commonly used Star Formation Rate estimates

We study a hundred of galaxies from the spectroscopic Sloan Digital Sky Survey with individual detections in the Far-Infrared Herschel PACS bands (100 or 160 $\mu$m) and in the GALEX Far-UltraViolet band up to z$\sim$0.4 in the COSMOS and Lockman Hole fields. The galaxies are divided into 4 spectral and 4 morphological types. For the star forming and unclassifiable galaxies we calculate dust extinctions from the UV slope, the H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ ratio and the $L_{\rm IR}/L_{\rm UV}$ ratio. There is a tight correlation between the dust extinction and both $L_{\rm IR}$ and metallicity. We calculate SFR$_{total}$ and compare it with other SFR estimates (H$\alpha$, UV, SDSS) finding a very good agreement between them with smaller dispersions than typical SFR uncertainties. We study the effect of mass and metallicity, finding that it is only significant at high masses for SFR$_{H\alpha}$. For the AGN and composite galaxies we find a tight correlation between SFR and L$_{IR}$ ($\sigma\sim$0.29), while the dispersion in the SFR - L$_{UV}$ relation is larger ($\sigma\sim$0.57). The galaxies follow the prescriptions of the Fundamental Plane in the M-Z-SFR space.Comment: 24 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Applications of 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Clinical Microbiology

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) is a spectroscopic technique usually used for structural determination of molecules. In recent years, this technique has been employed for easy and quick recognition of microorganisms, in antimicrobial susceptibility tests and even for the diagnosis of different infectious conditions. Though 1H NMR shows great potential for expanded applications in microbiological studies, to date applications of proton NMR to microbiological research are not totally standardized. In this chapter, we summarize the state of knowledge about 1H NMR and its current and potential applications in this field