Leprosy Associated with Atypical Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Nicaragua and Honduras

In Central America, few cases of leprosy have been reported, but the disease may be unrecognized. Diagnosis is based on clinical criteria and histology. Preliminary field work in Nicaragua and Honduras found patients, including many children, with skin lesions clinically suggestive of atypical cutaneous leishmaniasis or indeterminate leprosy. Histology could not distinguish these diseases although acid-fast organisms were visible in a few biopsies. Lesions healed after standard antimicrobial therapy for leprosy. In the present study, patients, family members, and other community members were skin-tested and provided nasal swabs and blood samples. Biopsies were taken from a subgroup of patients with clinical signs of infection. Two laboratories analyzed samples, using local in-house techniques. Mycobacterium leprae, Leishmania spp. and Leishmania infantum were detected using polymerase chain reactions. Mycobacterium leprae DNA was detected in blood samples and nasal swabs, including some cases where leprosy was not clinically suspected. Leishmania spp. were also detected in blood and nasal swabs. Most biopsies contained Leishmania DNA and coinfection of Leishmania spp. with M. leprae occurred in 33% of cases. Mycobacterium leprae DNA was also detected and sequenced from Nicaraguan and Honduran environmental samples. In conclusion, leprosy and leishmaniasis are present in both regions, and leprosy appears to be widespread. The nature of any relationship between these two pathogens and the epidemiology of these infections need to be elucidated

Design of a polishing tool for collaborative robotics using minimum viable product approach

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Carlos Perez-Vidal, Luis Gracia, Samuel Sanchez-Caballero, J. Ernesto Solanes, Alessandro Saccon & Josep Tornero (2019) Design of a polishing tool for collaborative robotics using minimum viable product approach, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 32:9, 848-857, DOI: 10.1080/0951192X.2019.1637026 [copyright Taylor & Francis], available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0951192X.2019.1637026[EN] A collaborative tool for robotic polishing is developed in this work in order to allow the simultaneous operation of the robot system and human operator to cooperatively carry out the polishing task. For this purpose, the collaborative environment is detailed and the polishing application is designed. Moreover, the polishing tool is developed and its implementation using the minimum viable product approach is obtained. Furthermore, a robust hybrid position-force control is proposed to use the developed tool attached to a robot system and some experiments are given to show its performance.This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (Spanish Government) under project [DPI2017-87656-C2-1-R] and the Generalitat Valenciana under Grant [VALi+ d APOSTD/2016/044].Perez-Vidal, C.; Gracia Calandin, LI.; Sanchez-Caballero, S.; Solanes Galbis, JE.; Saccon, A.; Tornero Montserrat, J. (2019). Design of a polishing tool for collaborative robotics using minimum viable product approach. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing. 32(9):848-857. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951192X.2019.1637026S848857329Alders, K., M. Lehe, and G. Wan. 2001. “Method for the Automatic Recognition of Surface Defects in Body Shells and Device for Carrying Out Said Method” US Patent 6,320,654, Accessed 2001 November. https://www.google.ch/patents/US6320654Alexopoulos, K., Mavrikios, D., & Chryssolouris, G. (2013). ErgoToolkit: an ergonomic analysis tool in a virtual manufacturing environment. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 26(5), 440-452. doi:10.1080/0951192x.2012.731610Andres, J., Gracia, L., & Tornero, J. (2011). Calibration and control of a redundant robotic workcell for milling tasks. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 24(6), 561-573. doi:10.1080/0951192x.2011.566284Arnal, L., Solanes, J. E., Molina, J., & Tornero, J. (2017). Detecting dings and dents on specular car body surfaces based on optical flow. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 45, 306-321. doi:10.1016/j.jmsy.2017.07.006Blank, S. 2010. “Perfection By Subtraction - The Minimum Feature Set”. Accessed 2018 August. http://steveblank.com/2010/03/04/perfection-by-subtraction-the-minimum-feature-set/Dimeas, F., & Aspragathos, N. (2016). Online Stability in Human-Robot Cooperation with Admittance Control. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 9(2), 267-278. doi:10.1109/toh.2016.2518670Fitzgerald, C. “Developing Baxter, A new industrial robot with common sense for U.S. manufacturing.” 2013.Gracia, L., Sala, A., & Garelli, F. (2012). A supervisory loop approach to fulfill workspace constraints in redundant robots. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 60(1), 1-15. doi:10.1016/j.robot.2011.07.008Gracia, L., Sala, A., & Garelli, F. (2014). Robot coordination using task-priority and sliding-mode techniques. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 30(1), 74-89. doi:10.1016/j.rcim.2013.08.003Gracia, L., Solanes, J. E., Muñoz-Benavent, P., Valls Miro, J., Perez-Vidal, C., & Tornero, J. (2018). Adaptive Sliding Mode Control for Robotic Surface Treatment Using Force Feedback. Mechatronics, 52, 102-118. doi:10.1016/j.mechatronics.2018.04.008Julius, R., Schürenberg, M., Schumacher, F., & Fay, A. (2017). Transformation of GRAFCET to PLC code including hierarchical structures. Control Engineering Practice, 64, 173-194. doi:10.1016/j.conengprac.2017.03.012. E. K. (2016). TOWARDS AN AUTOMATED POLISHING SYSTEM - CAPTURING MANUAL POLISHING OPERATIONS. International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology, 05(07), 182-192. doi:10.15623/ijret.2016.0507030Khan, A. M., Yun, D., Zuhaib, K. M., Iqbal, J., Yan, R.-J., Khan, F., & Han, C. (2017). Estimation of Desired Motion Intention and compliance control for upper limb assist exoskeleton. International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems, 15(2), 802-814. doi:10.1007/s12555-015-0151-7Kirschner, D., Velik, R., Yahyanejad, S., Brandstötter, M., & Hofbaur, M. (2016). YuMi, Come and Play with Me! A Collaborative Robot for Piecing Together a Tangram Puzzle. Interactive Collaborative Robotics, 243-251. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43955-6_29Mohammad, A. E. K., Hong, J., & Wang, D. (2018). Design of a force-controlled end-effector with low-inertia effect for robotic polishing using macro-mini robot approach. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 49, 54-65. doi:10.1016/j.rcim.2017.05.011Nagata, F., Hase, T., Haga, Z., Omoto, M., & Watanabe, K. (2007). CAD/CAM-based position/force controller for a mold polishing robot. Mechatronics, 17(4-5), 207-216. doi:10.1016/j.mechatronics.2007.01.003Nakamura, Y., Hanafusa, H., & Yoshikawa, T. (1987). Task-Priority Based Redundancy Control of Robot Manipulators. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 6(2), 3-15. doi:10.1177/027836498700600201Ries, E. 2009. “What is the Minimum Viable Product”. March. Accessed 2018 August. http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-productRobinson, F. 2001 “A Proven Methodology to Maximize Return on Risk”. Accessed 2018 August. http://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-productShepherd, S., & Buchstab, A. (2014). KUKA Robots On-Site. Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design 2014, 373-380. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-04663-1_26SYMPLEXITY. “Symbiotic Human-Robot Solutions for Complex Surface Finishing Operations.” European project funded by E.U. through the H2020. Project no. 637080. Call: H2020-FoF-2014. Topic: FoF-06-2014. Starting date: 01/ 01/2015.Duration: 48 months. Accessed 2019 March. https://www.symplexity.eu/Vihlborg, P., I. Bryngelsson, B. Lindgren, L. G. Gunnarsson, and P. Graff. 2017. “Associatio between vibration exposure and hand-arm vibration symptoms in a Swedish mechanical industry.” February 2017.Vogel, J., Haddadin, S., Jarosiewicz, B., Simeral, J. D., Bacher, D., Hochberg, L. R., … van der Smagt, P. (2015). An assistive decision-and-control architecture for force-sensitive hand–arm systems driven by human–machine interfaces. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 34(6), 763-780. doi:10.1177/027836491456153

Extreme Starbursts in the Local Universe

The "Extreme starbursts in the local universe" workshop was held at the Insituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia in Granada, Spain on 21-25 June 2010. Bearing in mind the advent of a new generation of facilities such as JWST, Herschel, ALMA, eVLA and eMerlin, the aim of the workshop was to bring together observers and theorists to review the latest results. The purpose of the workshop was to address the following issues: what are the main modes of triggering extreme starbursts in the local Universe? How efficiently are stars formed in extreme starbursts? What are the star formation histories of local starburst galaxies? How well do the theoretical simulations model the observations? What can we learn about starbursts in the distant Universe through studies of their local counterparts? How important is the role of extreme starbursts in the hierarchical assembly of galaxies? How are extreme starbursts related to the triggering of AGN in the nuclei of galaxies? Overall, 41 talks and 4 posters with their corresponding 10 minutes short talks were presented during the workshop. In addition, the workshop was designed with emphasis on discussions, and therefore, there were 6 discussion sessions of up to one hour during the workshop. Here is presented a summary of the purposes of the workshop as well as a compilation of the abstracts corresponding to each of the presentations. The summary and conclusions of the workshop along with a description of the future prospects by Sylvain Veilleux can be found in the last section of this document. A photo of the assistants is included.Comment: worksho

Rhesus TRIM5α disrupts the HIV-1 capsid at the inter-hexamer interfaces

TRIM proteins play important roles in the innate immune defense against retroviral infection, including human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1). Rhesus macaque TRIM5α (TRIM5αrh) targets the HIV-1 capsid and blocks infection at an early post-entry stage, prior to reverse transcription. Studies have shown that binding of TRIM5α to the assembled capsid is essential for restriction and requires the coiled-coil and B30.2/SPRY domains, but the molecular mechanism of restriction is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated, by cryoEM combined with mutagenesis and chemical cross-linking, the direct interactions between HIV-1 capsid protein (CA) assemblies and purified TRIM5αrh containing coiled-coil and SPRY domains (CC-SPRYrh). Concentration-dependent binding of CC-SPRYrh to CA assemblies was observed, while under equivalent conditions the human protein did not bind. Importantly, CC-SPRYrh, but not its human counterpart, disrupted CA tubes in a non-random fashion, releasing fragments of protofilaments consisting of CA hexamers without dissociation into monomers. Furthermore, such structural destruction was prevented by inter-hexamer crosslinking using P207C/T216C mutant CA with disulfide bonds at the CTD-CTD trimer interface of capsid assemblies, but not by intra-hexamer crosslinking via A14C/E45C at the NTD-NTD interface. The same disruption effect by TRIM5αrh on the inter-hexamer interfaces also occurred with purified intact HIV-1 cores. These results provide insights concerning how TRIM5α disrupts the virion core and demonstrate that structural damage of the viral capsid by TRIM5α is likely one of the important components of the mechanism of TRIM5α-mediated HIV-1 restriction. © 2011 Zhao et al

Ribavirin as a First Treatment Approach for Hepatitis E Virus Infection in Transplant Recipient Patients

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the major cause of acute hepatitis of viral origin worldwide. Despite its usual course as an asymptomatic self-limited hepatitis, there are highly susceptible populations, such as those with underlying immunosuppression, which could develop chronic hepatitis. In this situation, implementation of therapy is mandatory in the sense to facilitate viral clearance. Currently, there are no specific drugs approved for HEV infection, but ribavirin (RBV), the drug of choice, is used for off-label treatment. Here, we present two cases of chronic HEV infection in transplant patients, reviewing and discussing the therapeutic approach available in the literature. The use of RBV for the treatment of an HEV infection in organ transplant patients seems to be effective. The recommendation of 12 weeks of therapy is adequate in terms of efficacy. Nevertheless, there are important issues that urgently need to be assessed, such as optimal duration of therapy and drug dosage

Imprints of galaxy evolution on H ii regions Memory of the past uncovered by the CALIFA survey

H ii regions in galaxies are the sites of star formation and thus particular places to understand the build-up of stellar mass in the universe. The line ratios of this ionized gas are frequently used to characterize the ionization conditions. We use the Hii regions catalogue from the CALIFA survey (~5000 H ii regions), to explore their distribution across the classical [OIII]/Hbeta vs. [NII]/Halpha diagnostic diagram, and how it depends on the oxygen abundance, ionization parameter, electron density, and dust attenuation. We compared the line ratios with predictions from photoionization models. Finally, we explore the dependences on the properties of the host galaxies, the location within those galaxies and the properties of the underlying stellar population. We found that the location within the BPT diagrams is not totally predicted by photoionization models. Indeed, it depends on the properties of the host galaxies, their galactocentric distances and the properties of the underlying stellar population. These results indicate that although H ii regions are short lived events, they are affected by the total underlying stellar population. One may say that H ii regions keep a memory of the stellar evolution and chemical enrichment that have left an imprint on the both the ionizing stellar population and the ionized gasComment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publishing in A&

The Mass-Metallicity relation explored with CALIFA: I. Is there a dependence on the star formation rate?

We present the results on the study of the global and local M-Z relation based on the first data available from the CALIFA survey (150 galaxies). This survey provides integral field spectroscopy of the complete optical extent of each galaxy (up to 2-3 effective radii), with enough resolution to separate individual HII regions and/or aggregations. Nearly $\sim$3000 individual HII regions have been detected. The spectra cover the wavelength range between [OII]3727 and [SII]6731, with a sufficient signal-to-noise to derive the oxygen abundance and star-formation rate associated with each region. In addition, we have computed the integrated and spatially resolved stellar masses (and surface densities), based on SDSS photometric data. We explore the relations between the stellar mass, oxygen abundance and star-formation rate using this dataset. We derive a tight relation between the integrated stellar mass and the gas-phase abundance, with a dispersion smaller than the one already reported in the literature ($\sigma_{\Delta{\rm log(O/H)}}=$0.07 dex). Indeed, this dispersion is only slightly larger than the typical error derived for our oxygen abundances. However, we do not find any secondary relation with the star-formation rate, other than the one induced due to the primary relation of this quantity with the stellar mass. We confirm the result using the $\sim$3000 individual HII regions, for the corresponding local relations. Our results agree with the scenario in which gas recycling in galaxies, both locally and globally, is much faster than other typical timescales, like that of gas accretion by inflow and/or metal loss due to outflows. In essence, late-type/disk dominated galaxies seem to be in a quasi-steady situation, with a behavior similar to the one expected from an instantaneous recycling/closed-box model.Comment: 19 Pages, 8 figures, Accepted for Publishing in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A

The Sensitivity of HAWC to High-Mass Dark Matter Annihilations

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a wide field-of-view detector sensitive to gamma rays of 100 GeV to a few hundred TeV. Located in central Mexico at 19 degrees North latitude and 4100 m above sea level, HAWC will observe gamma rays and cosmic rays with an array of water Cherenkov detectors. The full HAWC array is scheduled to be operational in Spring 2015. In this paper, we study the HAWC sensitivity to the gamma-ray signatures of high-mass (multi- TeV) dark matter annihilation. The HAWC observatory will be sensitive to diverse searches for dark matter annihilation, including annihilation from extended dark matter sources, the diffuse gamma-ray emission from dark matter annihilation, and gamma-ray emission from non-luminous dark matter subhalos. Here we consider the HAWC sensitivity to a subset of these sources, including dwarf galaxies, the M31 galaxy, the Virgo cluster, and the Galactic center. We simulate the HAWC response to gamma rays from these sources in several well-motivated dark matter annihilation channels. If no gamma-ray excess is observed, we show the limits HAWC can place on the dark matter cross-section from these sources. In particular, in the case of dark matter annihilation into gauge bosons, HAWC will be able to detect a narrow range of dark matter masses to cross-sections below thermal. HAWC should also be sensitive to non-thermal cross-sections for masses up to nearly 1000 TeV. The constraints placed by HAWC on the dark matter cross-section from known sources should be competitive with current limits in the mass range where HAWC has similar sensitivity. HAWC can additionally explore higher dark matter masses than are currently constrained.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, version to be published in PR