A systematic review (1990–2021) of wild animals infected with zoonotic leishmania

Leishmaniasis are neglected diseases caused by several species of Leishmania that affect humans and many domestic and wild animals with a worldwide distribution. The objectives of this review are to identify wild animals naturally infected with zoonotic Leishmania species as well as the organs infected, methods employed for detection and percentage of infection. A literature search starting from 1990 was performed following the PRISMA methodology and 161 reports were included. One hundred and eighty‐nine species from ten orders (i.e., Carnivora, Chiroptera, Cingulata, Didelphimorphia, Diprotodontia, Lagomorpha, Eulipotyphla, Pilosa, Primates and Rodentia) were reported to be infected, and a few animals were classified only at the genus level. An exhaustive list of species; diagnostic techniques, including PCR targets; infected organs; number of animals explored and percentage of positives are presented. L. infantum infection was described in 98 wild species and L. (Viania) spp. in 52 wild animals, while L. mexicana, L. amazonensis, L. major and L. tropica were described in fewer than 32 animals each. During the last decade, intense research revealed new hosts within Chiroptera and Lagomorpha. Carnivores and rodents were the most relevant hosts for L. infantum and L. (Viannia) spp., with some species showing lesions, although in most of the studies clinical signs were not reported

Identification of factors associated with diagnostic error in primary care

Background Missed, delayed or incorrect diagnoses are considered to be diagnostic errors. The aim of this paper is to describe the methodology of a study to analyse cognitive aspects of the process by which primary care (PC) physicians diagnose dyspnoea. It examines the possible links between the use of heuristics, suboptimal cognitive acts and diagnostic errors, using Reason’s taxonomy of human error (slips, lapses, mistakes and violations). The influence of situational factors (professional experience, perceived overwork and fatigue) is also analysed.Methods Cohort study of new episodes of dyspnoea in patients receiving care from family physicians and residents at PC centres in Granada (Spain). With an initial expected diagnostic error rate of 20%, and a sampling error of 3%, 384 episodes of dyspnoea are calculated to be required. In addition to filling out the electronic medical record of the patients attended, each physician fills out 2 specially designed questionnaires about the diagnostic process performed in each case of dyspnoea. The first questionnaire includes questions on the physician’s initial diagnostic impression, the 3 most likely diagnoses (in order of likelihood), and the diagnosis reached after the initial medical history and physical examination. It also includes items on the physicians’ perceived overwork and fatigue during patient care. The second questionnaire records the confirmed diagnosis once it is reached. The complete diagnostic process is peer-reviewed to identify and classify the diagnostic errors. The possible use of heuristics of representativeness, availability, and anchoring and adjustment in each diagnostic process is also analysed. Each audit is reviewed with the physician responsible for the diagnostic process. Finally, logistic regression models are used to determine if there are differences in the diagnostic error variables based on the heuristics identified.Discussion This work sets out a new approach to studying the diagnostic decision-making process in PC, taking advantage of new technologies which allow immediate recording of the decision-making process.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding of this research from the Spanish Research Agency. Ministry of Health (Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias) FIS PI10/01468 and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

Nanocolumnar films: sustainable manufacturing and applications in biomedicine

Resumen del trabajo presentado en la 3rd International Conference on Nanomaterials Applied to Life Sciences (NALS 2022), celebrada en Santander (España), del 27 al 29 de abril de 2022Nanocolumnar films (NCFs) can be manufactured by glancing angle deposition with magnetron sputtering. This technique is environmentally friendly: it is carried out at RT in a single step (moderate energy consumption) and does not involve chemical products (no recycling issues). Depending on several parameters (namely the gas pressure, the electromagnetic power, the angle of inclination of the substrate and its possible rotation), the nanocolumnar structure can be controlled [1]. Moreover, this method can be scaled up to large surfaces, representing a valid approach for the industrial production of nanostructured films [2]. In particular, concerning biomedicine, NCFs made of Ti, Au and Pt have been fabricated and successfully employed in several applications. Ti NCFs can be used as antibacterial coatings for orthopedic implants [2,3]. Pt NCFs show improved properties as bioelectrodes for electric stimulation [4]. Finally, Au NCFs are excellent substrates for the identification of biomolecules in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, SERS [5]

Anti-Trypanosomatidae Activity of Essential Oils and Their Main Components from Selected Medicinal Plants

Kinetoplastida is a group of flagellated protozoa characterized by the presence of a kinetoplast, a structure which is part of a large mitochondria and contains DNA. Parasites of this group include genera such as Leishmania, that cause disease in humans and animals, and Phytomonas, that are capable of infecting plants. Due to the lack of treatments, the low efficacy, or the high toxicity of the employed therapeutic agents there is a need to seek potential alternative treatments. In the present work, the antiparasitic activity on Leishmania infantum and Phytomonas davidi of 23 essential oils (EOs) from plants of the Lamiaceae and Asteraceae families, extracted by hydrodistillation (HD) at laboratory scale and steam distillation (SD) in a pilot plant, were evaluated. The chemical compositions of the EOs were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Additionally, the cytotoxic activity on mammalian cells of the major components from the most active EOs was evaluated, and their anti-Phytomonas and anti-Leishmania effects analyzed. L. infantum was more sensitive to the EOs than P. davidi. The EOs with the best anti-kinetoplastid activity were S. montana, T. vulgaris, M. suaveolens, and L. luisieri. Steam distillation increased the linalyl acetate, β-caryophyllene, and trans-α-necrodyl acetate contents of the EOs, and decreased the amount of borneol and 1,8 cineol. The major active components of the EOs were tested, with thymol being the strongest anti-Phytomonas compound followed by carvacrol. Our study identified potential treatments against kinetoplastids.Publishe

¿Qué parásito soy?: aprendizaje lúdico de la Parasitología mediante el empleo de pistas e imágenes

La Parasitología emplea muchos conceptos, nombres, taxonomía e imágenes que complican el aprendizaje. Desarrollaremos una actividad basada en el juego para relacionar conceptos e imágenes, al tiempo que los alumnos evalúan su evolución de aprendizaje. La actividad se desarrollará en una página web

Actions of hormone replacement therapy through the L-arginine nitiric oxide pathway on the cardiovascular and nervous systems of menopausal women

La administración de estrógenos como terapia hormonal sustitutiva (THS) en mujeres menopáusicas mejora la función mental y el estado emocional, efectos que pueden ser dados por el acción favorable en la función endotelial que se manifiesta por aumento del flujo sanguíneo cerebral mediado por óxido nítrico (NO). Sin embargo, la inducción de la síntesis no se limita a las células endoteliales ya que otros tejidos también son estimulados, como el cerebro, así que la mejora observada con suplencia estrogénica de las funciones encefálicas superiores de la mujer menopáusica puede deberse a un doble efecto de la THS, uno por aumento del flujo sanguíneo y otro por incremento de No en el propio sistema nervioso central (SNC). La THS induce la síntesis de No en mujeres menopáusicas, lo que se refleja a nivel sistémico en aumento de los niveles plasmáticos de nitritos y nitratos. El incremento de los metabolitos estables probablemente refleja una mejor producción de No en endotelio vascular, que representa mejoría de la VMF. A nivel del SNC el efecto es selectivo y asimétrico.1. OBJETIVO GENERAL 1 1.1 OBJETIVOS ESPECÍFICOS 1 2. PLANTEAMIENTO DEL PROBLEMA Y JUSTIFICACIÓN 3 3. IMPACTO 1 4. MARCO TEÓRICO 13 4.1 DEFINICIÓN DE TÉRMINOS 13 4.2 MENOPAUSIA Y SISTEMA CARDIOVASCULAR 14 4.3 ACCIONES DE LOS ESTRÓGENOS SOBRE EL SISTEMA CARDIOVASCULAR. 17 4.4 METODOLOGÍA DE LA VASOD1LATAC1ÓN MEDIADA POR FLUJO 20 4.4.1 Prueba 22 4.4.2 Factores de Control en el Momento de Selección de Pacientes 24 4.5 MENOPAUSIA Y SISTEMA NERVIOSO 25 4.5.1 Menopausia y Alteraciones del Estado de Ánimo 25 4.5.2 Menopausia y Alteraciones en la Memoria 26 4.5.3 Terapia Estrogénica, Producción de ON y Sistema Nervioso 27 4.5.4 Inventario de Depresión de Beck (IDB) 28 4.6 TOMOGRAFÍA CON EMISIÓN DE FOTÓN ÚNICO (SPECT) 29 4.6.1 Estudio de Perfusión Normal 29 4.6.2 SPECT con Neuroactivación 30 5. METODOLOGÍA 32 5.1 CARACTERÍSTICAS DEL ENSAYO CLÍNICO 32 5.2 PRUEBAS REALIZADAS 34 6. ANÁLISIS ESTADÍSTICO 37 7. RESULTADOS 39 7.2 SELECCIÓN DE PACIENTES 39 7.2 CARACTERÍSTICAS DE LAS PACIENTES INCLUIDAS 40 7.3 METABOLITOS DEL ÓXIDO NÍTRICO 44 7.4 PRUEBAS DE FLUJO VASCULAR 45 7.4.1 Vasodilatación Mediada por Flujo 45 7.4.2 Variadón de la Velocidad Pico 50 7.5 PRUEBAS DE NEUROPSICOLOGÍA 52 7.5.1 Inventario de Depresión de Beck 52 7.5.2 Prueba de Memoria Reciente 53 7.6 PRUEBAS DE ACTIVIDAD CEREBRAL POR SPECT 55 8. DISCUSIÓN 60EspecializaciónThe administration of estrogens as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in menopausal women improves mental function and emotional state, effects that may be due to the favorable action on endothelial function that is manifested by an increase in cerebral blood flow mediated by nitric oxide ( NO). However, the induction of synthesis is not limited to endothelial cells as other tissues are also stimulated, such as the brain, so the improvement seen with estrogen supplementation in higher brain functions in menopausal women may be due to a dual effect. of HRT, one due to increased blood flow and the other due to an increase in No in the central nervous system (CNS) itself. HRT induces the synthesis of No in menopausal women, which is reflected at the systemic level in increased plasma levels of nitrites and nitrates. The increase in stable metabolites probably reflects a better production of No in the vascular endothelium, which represents an improvement in VMF. At the CNS level, the effect is selective and asymmetric

CMS tracking performance results from early LHC operation

The first LHC pp collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 and 2.36 TeV were recorded by the CMS detector in December 2009. The trajectories of charged particles produced in the collisions were reconstructed using the all-silicon Tracker and their momenta were measured in the 3.8 T axial magnetic field. Results from the Tracker commissioning are presented including studies of timing, efficiency, signal-to-noise, resolution, and ionization energy. Reconstructed tracks are used to benchmark the performance in terms of track and vertex resolutions, reconstruction of decays, estimation of ionization energy loss, as well as identification of photon conversions, nuclear interactions, and heavy-flavour decays

First measurement of the underlying event activity at the LHC with √ = 0.9 TeV

A measurement of the underlying activity in scattering processes with p T scale in the GeV region is performed in proton?proton collisions at s?=0.9?=0.9 TeV, using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Charged particle production is studied with reference to the direction of a leading object, either a charged particle or a set of charged particles forming a jet. Predictions of several QCD-inspired models as implemented in PYTHIA are compared, after full detector simulation, to the data. The models generally predict too little production of charged particles with pseudorapidity |?|0.5 GeV/c, and azimuthal direction transverse to that of the leading object

Measurement of the charge ratio of atmospheric muons with the CMS detector

We present a measurement of the ratio of positive to negative muon fluxes from cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere, using data collected by the CMS detector both at ground level and in the underground experimental cavern at the CERN LHC. Muons were detected in the momentum range from 5 GeV/c to 1 TeV/c. The surface flux ratio is measured to be 1.2766 ± 0.0032 (stat.) ± 0.0032 (syst.), independent of the muon momentum, below 100 GeV/c. This is the most precise measurement to date. At higher momenta the data are consistent with an increase of the charge ratio, in agreement with cosmic ray shower models and compatible with previous measurements by deep-underground experimentsWe thank the technical and administrative staff at CERN and other CMS institutes. This work was supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research; the Belgium Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, and Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek; the Brazilian Funding Agencies (CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP); the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science; CERN; the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology, and National Natural Science Foundation of China; the Colombian Funding Agency (COLCIENCIAS); the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport; the Research Promotion Foundation, Cyprus; the Estonian Academy of Sciences and NICPB; the Academy of Finland, Finnish Ministry of Education, and Helsinki Institute of Physics; the Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules/CNRS, and Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique, France; the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and Helmholtz–Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren, Germany; the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece; the National Scientific Research Foundation, and National Office for Research and Technology, Hungary; the Department of Atomic Energy, and Department of Science and Technology, India; the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, Iran; the Science Foundation, Ireland; the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy; the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the World Class University program of NRF, Korea; the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences; the Mexican Funding Agencies (CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLP-FAI); the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission; the State Commission for Scientific Research, Poland; the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal; JINR (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); the Ministry of Science and Technologies of the Russian Federation, and Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy; the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of Serbia; the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, and Programa Consolider-Ingenio 2010, Spain; the Swiss Funding Agencies (ETH Board, ETH Zurich, PSI, SNF, UniZH, Canton Zurich, and SER); the National Science Council, Taipei; the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, and Turkish Atomic Energy Authority; the Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK; the US Department of Energy, and the US National Science Foundation. Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union); the Leventis Foundation; the A.P. Sloan Foundation; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; and the Associazione per lo Sviluppo Scientifico e Tecnologico del Piemonte (Italy)

Transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions of charged hadrons in pp collisions at √s = 0.9 and 2.36TeV

Measurements of inclusive charged-hadron transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions are presented for proton-proton collisions at s?=0.9?=0.9 and 2.36 TeV. The data were collected with the CMS detector during the LHC commissioning in December 2009. For non-single-diffractive interactions, the average charged-hadron transverse momentum is measured to be 0.46 ± 0.01 (stat.) ± 0.01 (syst.) GeV/c at 0.9 TeV and 0.50 ± 0.01 (stat.) ± 0.01 (syst.) GeV/c at 2.36 TeV, for pseudorapidities between --2.4 and +2.4. At these energies, the measured pseudorapidity densities in the central region, dN ch/d?||?|<0.5, are 3:48 ± 0:02 (stat.) ± 0.13 (syst.) and 4:47 ± 0:04 (stat.) ± 0.16 (syst.), respectively. The results at 0.9 TeV are in agreement with previous measurements and confirm the expectation of near equal hadron production in p¯¯¯p?¯? and pp collisions. The results at 2.36 TeV represent the highest-energy measurements at a particle collider to date