Diagnóstico inmunohistoquímico de un caso de leishmaniosis visceral canina

En la leishmaniosis los cuadros clínicos, pese a su variabilidad y escasa especificidad, pueden orientar el diagnóstico siempre que se apoyen en una anamnesis exhaustiva que ofrezca datos epidemiológicos relevantes, como ser: el hábitat, tipo de actividad, tiempo de exposición al vector y otros. El diagnóstico parasitológico se basa en la observación del parasito en frotis o biopsias de material obtenido de bazo, médula ósea o nódulo linfático. Las técnicas determinantes son: reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR), xenodiagnóstico (infección del flebótomo) e inmunohistoquímica. El objetivo de la presente comunicación fue reportar el diagnostico definitivo de un caso de leishmaniosis visceral canina mediante inmunohistoquimica. Dicha técnica reveló la presencia de amastigotes en todos los órganos de las cavidades abdominal y torácica, confirmando el diagnóstico de leishmaniosis visceral. Cabe destacar la observación de dicho parásito en el ovario del animal

Dynamical Evolution of Globular Clusters in Hierarchical Cosmology

We probe the evolution of globular clusters that could form in giant molecular clouds within high-redshift galaxies. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the large and dense enough gas clouds assemble naturally in current hierarchical models of galaxy formation. These clouds are enriched with heavy elements from earlier stars and could produce star clusters in a similar way to nearby molecular clouds. The masses and sizes of the model clusters are in excellent agreement with the observations of young massive clusters. Do these model clusters evolve into globular clusters that we see in our and external galaxies? In order to study their dynamical evolution, we calculate the orbits of model clusters using the outputs of the cosmological simulation of a Milky Way-sized galaxy. We find that at present the orbits are isotropic in the inner 50 kpc of the Galaxy and preferentially radial at larger distances. All clusters located outside 10 kpc from the center formed in the now-disrupted satellite galaxies. The spatial distribution of model clusters is spheroidal, with a power-law density profile consistent with observations. The combination of two-body scattering, tidal shocks, and stellar evolution results in the evolution of the cluster mass function from an initial power law to the observed log-normal distribution.Comment: 5 pages, proceedings of IAU 246 "Dynamical Evolution of Dense Stellar Systems", eds. Vesperini, Giersz, Sill

Efecto de la diminacina en hámsteres inoculados con Leishmania chagasi

La leishmaniosis es una enfermedad causada por protozoarios del género Leishmania, que afecta al hombre y animales a través de la picadura de insectos infectados. La diminacina es una droga con actividad in vitro inhibitoria del crecimiento de Leishmania donovani; también ha sido utilizada para el tratamiento contra tripanosomosis y babesiosis. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue comprobar el efecto de diminacina in vivo como tratamiento ntileishmaniásico en hámsteres, y en caso afirmativo transpolarla como alternativa terapéutica para el control y posible erradicación de la leishmaniosis en caninos. Se utilizaron 26 hámsteres agrupados en cuatro lotes de 6-7 animales cada uno: (a) inyectados con diminacina, (b) inoculados con Leishmania chagasi, (c) inoculados con L. chagasi e inyectados con iminacina, y (d) controles. La inoculación se efectuó con un macerado de bazo extraído de un canino naturalmente infectado con L. chagasi. La diminacina fue administrada a razón de 3,5 mg/kg vía IM. Los frotis y cortes histopatológicos de los hámsteres infectados revelaron amastigotes de L. chagasi. Los ejemplares infectados y tratados con diminacina mantuvieron un mejor estado de salud que aquéllos privados de tratamiento, lo cual sugiere que la droga tendría un efecto benéfico en el organismo del animal infectado

Strong lensing by subhalos in the dwarf-galaxy mass range I: Image separations

The cold dark matter scenario predicts that a large number of dark subhalos should be located within the halo of each Milky-way sized galaxy. One tell-tale signature of such dark subhalos could be additional milliarcsecond-scale image splitting of quasars previously known to be multiply-imaged on arcsecond scales. Here, we estimate the image separations for the subhalo density profiles favoured by recent N-body simulations, and compare these to the angular resolution of both existing and upcoming observational facilities. We find, that the image separations produced are very sensitive to the exact subhalo density profile assumed, but in all cases considerably smaller than previous estimates based on the premise that subhalos can be approximated by singular isothermal spheres. Only the most optimistic subhalo models produce image separations that would be detectable with current technology, and many models produce image separations that will remain unresolved with all telescopes expected to become available in the foreseeable future. Detections of dark subhalos through image-splitting effects will therefore be far more challenging than currently believed, albeit not necessarily impossible.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

The relationship between the preoperative systemic inflammatory response and cancer-specific survival in patients undergoing potentially curative resection for renal clear cell cancer

The relationship between tumour stage, grade (Fuhrman), performance status (ECOG), a combined score (UCLA Integrated Staging System, UISS), systemic inflammatory response (elevated C-reactive protein concentration), and cancer-specific survival was examined in patients undergoing potentially curative resection for renal clear cell cancer (n=100). On univariate survival analysis, sex (P=0.050), tumour stage (P=0.001), Fuhrman grade (P<0.001), UISS (P<0.001), C-reactive protein (P=0.002) were significant predictors of survival. On multivariate analysis with sex, UISS and C-reactive protein entered as covariates, only UISS (HR 2.70, 95% CI 1.00–7.30, P=0.050) and C-reactive protein (HR 4.00, 95% CI 1.21–13.31, P=0.024) were significant independent predictors of survival. The presence of a preoperative systemic inflammatory response predicts poor cancer-specific survival in patients who have undergone potentially curative resection for renal clear cell cancer

Cluster Lenses

Clusters of galaxies are the most recently assembled, massive, bound structures in the Universe. As predicted by General Relativity, given their masses, clusters strongly deform space-time in their vicinity. Clusters act as some of the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe. Light rays traversing through clusters from distant sources are hence deflected, and the resulting images of these distant objects therefore appear distorted and magnified. Lensing by clusters occurs in two regimes, each with unique observational signatures. The strong lensing regime is characterized by effects readily seen by eye, namely, the production of giant arcs, multiple-images, and arclets. The weak lensing regime is characterized by small deformations in the shapes of background galaxies only detectable statistically. Cluster lenses have been exploited successfully to address several important current questions in cosmology: (i) the study of the lens(es) - understanding cluster mass distributions and issues pertaining to cluster formation and evolution, as well as constraining the nature of dark matter; (ii) the study of the lensed objects - probing the properties of the background lensed galaxy population - which is statistically at higher redshifts and of lower intrinsic luminosity thus enabling the probing of galaxy formation at the earliest times right up to the Dark Ages; and (iii) the study of the geometry of the Universe - as the strength of lensing depends on the ratios of angular diameter distances between the lens, source and observer, lens deflections are sensitive to the value of cosmological parameters and offer a powerful geometric tool to probe Dark Energy. In this review, we present the basics of cluster lensing and provide a current status report of the field.Comment: About 120 pages - Published in Open Access at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j183018170485723/ . arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:astro-ph/0504478 and arXiv:1003.3674 by other author

Cosmology: small scale issues

The abundance of dark matter satellites and subhalos, the existence of density cusps at the centers of dark matter halos, and problems producing realistic disk galaxies in simulations are issues that have raised concerns about the viability of the standard cold dark matter (LambdaCDM) scenario for galaxy formation. This talk reviews these issues, and considers the implications for cold vs. various varieties of warm dark matter (WDM). The current evidence appears to be consistent with standard LambdaCDM, although improving data may point toward a rather tepid version of LambdaWDM - tepid since the dark matter cannot be very warm without violating observational constraints.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the 8th UCLA Dark Matter Symposium, Marina del Rey, USA, 20-22 February 200