Diversity and distribution of blackflies (Diptera: Simuliidae) of the Tormes river basin (western Spain)

To enhance the partial knowledge on blackfly (Diptera: Simuliidae) fauna in Spain it is crucial to collect all the available data on this group to better understand their ecology and distribution over the years. This study presents data from samples collected along the Tormes river basin (western Spain) during the years 1988, 1989 and 1996 and then stored at the University of Salamanca. As a result of a research stay, a total of 19 species belonging to 3 genera (Prosimulium, Metacnephia and Simulium) and 5 Simulium subgenera (Boophthora, Eusimulium, Nevermannia, Simulium and Wilhelmia) were identified after examining 64% of the stored material, representing 35% of the species known from Spain. In addition, 14 species are reported for the first time in 3 provinces in the study area. Further sampling of blackflies is foreseen in the near future in order to check if the blackfly fauna composition determined in samples collected during the last two decades of the 20th century has changed. This aim gains in importance as a consequence of haematophagous species having been found, relevant for both public health and animal welfare, not only because of the discomfort caused by their bites but also because of their potential as vectors of disease-causing agents in animals and humans

Performance Evaluation of Big Data Frameworks for Large-Scale Data Analytics

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/BigData.2016.7840633[Abstract] The increasing adoption of Big Data analytics has led to a high demand for efficient technologies in order to manage and process large datasets. Popular MapReduce frameworks such as Hadoop are being replaced by emerging ones like Spark or Flink, which improve both the programming APIs and performance. However, few works have focused on comparing these frameworks. This paper addresses this issue by performing a comparative evaluation of Hadoop, Spark and Flink using representative Big Data workloads and considering factors like performance and scalability. Moreover, the behavior of these frameworks has been characterized by modifying some of the main parameters of the workloads such as HDFS block size, input data size, interconnect network or thread configuration. The analysis of the results has shown that replacing Hadoop with Spark or Flink can lead to a reduction in execution times by 77% and 70% on average, respectively, for non-sort benchmarks.Ministerio de Ecnomía y Competitividad; TIN2013-42148-PMinisterio de Educación; FPU14/0280

Meropenem heteroresistance in clinical isolates of OXA-48–producing Klebsiella pneumoniae

OXA-48–producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates often show growth of colonies within inhibition zones in carbapenem diffusion assays. The nature of these colonies was investigated in a series of clinical isolates of OXA-48–producing K. pneumoniae obtained in the context of a hospital outbreak, and they were found to be persistent colonies that reproduced again the same phenotype when they were collected and tested in diffusion assays again. The frequency of mutations conferring resistance to meropenem (8 µg/mL) was determined for the same isolates. The average mutation frequency was 5.47·10-6 (range: 2.59·10-8–5.87·10-5), and the analysis of several resistant mutants showed that all of them had mutations in the ompK36 porin gene. Heteroresistance was investigated using population analysis profiling. The profiles were compatible with mutation frequency assays, and all the colonies analyzed were resistant mutants. In OXA-48–producing K. pneumoniae, the growth of persisters seems to be specific of diffusion assays

Candida albicans Hyphal Extracellular Vesicles Are Different from Yeast Ones, Carrying an Active Proteasome Complex and Showing a Different Role in Host Immune Response.

Candida albicans is the principal causative agent of lethal fungal infections, predominantly in immunocompromised hosts. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been described as crucial in the interaction of microorganisms with their host. Since the yeast-to-hypha transition is an important virulence trait with great impact in invasive candidiasis (IC), we have addressed the characterization of EVs secreted by hyphal cells (HEVs) from C. albicans, comparing them to yeast EVs (YEVs). YEVs comprised a larger population of bigger EVs with mainly cell wall proteins, while HEVs were smaller, in general, and had a much higher protein diversity. YEVs were able to rescue the sensitivity of a cell wall mutant against calcofluor white, presumably due to the larger amount of cell wall proteins they contained. On the other hand, HEVs also contained many cytoplasmic proteins related to protein metabolism and intracellular protein transport and the endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) pathway related to exosome biogenesis, pointing to an intracellular origin of HEVs. Interestingly, an active 20S proteasome complex was secreted exclusively in HEVs. Moreover, HEVs contained a greater number of virulence-related proteins. As for their immunogenic role, both types of EV presented immune reactivity with human sera from patients suffering invasive candidiasis; however, under our conditions, only HEVs showed a cytotoxic effect on human macrophages and could elicit the release of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) by these macrophages. IMPORTANCE This first analysis of HEVs of C. albicans has shown clear differences between them and the YEVs of C. albicans, showing their relevance and possible use in the discovery of new diagnostic markers and treatment targets against C. albicans infections. The data obtained point to different mechanisms of biogenesis of YEVs and HEVs, as well as different involvements in cell biology and host interaction. YEVs played a more relevant role in cell wall maintenance, while HEVs were more closely related to virulence, as they had greater effects on human immune cells. Importantly, an active 20S proteosome complex was described as a fungal-EV cargo. A deeper study of its role and those of many other proteins exclusively detected in HEVs and involved in different relevant biological processes of this fungus could open up interesting new areas of research in the battle against C. albicans

The emotional well-being of Long COVID patients in relation to their symptoms, social support and stigmatization in social and health services: a qualitative study

Background Long COVID patients have experienced a decline in their quality of life due to, in part but not wholly, its negative emotional impact. Some of the most prevalent mental health symptoms presented by long COVID patients are anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders. As such, the need has arisen to analyze the personal experiences of these patients to understand how they are managing their daily lives while dealing with the condition. The objective of this study is to increase understanding about the emotional well-being of people diagnosed with long COVID. Methods A qualitative design was created and carried out using 35 patients, with 17 participants being interviewed individually and 18 of them taking part in two focus groups. The participating patients were recruited in November and December 2021 from Primary Health Care (PHC) centers in the city of Zaragoza (Northern Spain) and from the Association of Long COVID Patients in Aragon. The study topics were emotional well-being, social support networks, and experience of discrimination. All an inductive thematic content analyses were performed iteratively using NVivo software. Results The Long COVID patients identified low levels of self-perceived well-being due to their persistent symptoms, as well as limitations in their daily lives that had been persistent for many months. Suicidal thoughts were also mentioned by several patients. They referred to anguish and anxiety about the future as well as a fear of reinfection or relapse and returning to work. Many of the participants reported that they have sought the help of a mental health professional. Most participants identified discriminatory situations in health care. Conclusions It is necessary to continue researching the impact that Long COVID has had on mental health, as well as to provide Primary Health Care professionals with evidence that can guide the emotional treatment of these patients

Estimación de la velocidad de flujo del agua en cauces efímeros no aforados a partir de datos Lidar y GPS-RTK

The Manning formula is one of the most used to calculate the average velocity of water flow in ungauged channels. In order to be applied, it is necessary to measure in field the hydraulic radius (RH), the slope of the water surface (S), and to obtain the roughness coefficient (n), usually through tables created for this purpose. This involves a difficult, inefficient and subjective data collection in the field. This study evaluates the possibility to obtain these parameters in a more efficient manner, reducing the time of the process and allowing to work in larger areas. To achieve these objectives, the data used in this work were: 1) digital terrain models generated from airborne LiDAR data with a density of 2 points/ m2 , acquired when the channel was dry; 2) the height of the waterline and channel geometry measurements in the field using GPS; 3) Flow measurements. With this information, the velocity (Ve) was estimated and related to the average velocity of water flow (Vc) calculated from data measured in the field. The coefficient of determination between both velocity values was 73.52%, suggesting that the proposed methodology is useful to obtain the average velocity of flow, especially in remote areas or dry riverbeds

Rumen phosphorus metabolism in sheep

8 páginas, 3 tablas.The objective of the present study was to examine the effect of the level of phosphorus (P) intake on ruminal P kinetics in sheep. Twelve Santa Ines male sheep (average body weight 36 kg) were fed a basal diet consisting of roughage (coast cross hay), concentrate mixture (cassava meal, soya bean meal and urea) and a mineral premix. The treatments consisted of the basal diet supplemented with 0, 1.5, 3 or 4.5 g/kg dry matter (DM) of mono-ammonium phosphate to provide increasing P levels representing treatments T0, T1, T2 and T3, respectively. The P content of experimental diets was 1-5; 2.0; 2.5 and 3.0 g P/kg DM, and considered highly deficient, deficient, adequate and in excess, respectively, compared with standard recommended allowances. Animals were injected with (32)P and thereafter samples of blood were collected over 7 days, while samples of rumen fluid and saliva were collected 4 and 6 days after injection. Phosphorus intake affected P concentration in ruminal fluid, whereas P concentration in saliva was not affected. The values for P turnover time in the rumen were 1.42, 1.23, 1.18 and 1.04 days, whereas values of endogenous P entry into the rumen were 1.05, 1.37, 1.53 and 1.91 g/day for T0, T 1, T2 and T3, respectively, both affected by P intake. The specific activity (SA) of P in saliva, rumen and plasma were also all affected by P intake. The relationship between saliva and rumen SA emphasizes that most endogenous P in the rumen came from saliva. The possibility of an extra P source besides saliva contributing to endogenous P in the rumen is discussed. It is concluded from the results that, regardless of P intake, the flow of endogenous P into the rumen contributes to ensure a minimum Supply of this essential element, which may be important in matching the requirements of the rumen microbes.Fundaçao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP Proc. 2004/14532-5) for financial support. Funding was provided, in part, by the Canada Research Chairs Program.Peer reviewe