Lower socioeconomic status neighborhoods in Puerto Rico have more diverse mosquito communities and higher Aedes aegypti abundance

Mosquito community dynamics in urban areas are influenced by an array of both social and ecological factors. Human socioeconomic factors (SEF) can be related to mosquito abundance and diversity as urban mosquito development sites are modified by varying human activity, e.g., level of abandoned structures or amount of accumulated trash. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships among mosquito diversity, populations of Aedes aegypti, and SEF in a tropical urban setting. Mosquitoes were collected using BG Sentinel 2 traps and CDC light traps during three periods between late 2018 and early 2019 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and were identified to species. SEFs (i.e. median household income, population density, college-level educational attainment, unemployment, health insurance coverage, percentage of households below the poverty line, amount of trash and level of abandoned homes) were measured using foot surveys and U.S. Census data. We found 19 species with the two most abundant species being Culex quinquefasciatus (n = 10 641, 87.6%) and Ae. aegypti (n = 1558, 12.8%). We found a positive association between Ae. aegypti abundance and mosquito diversity, which were both negatively related to SES and ecological factors. Specifically, lower socioeconomic status neighborhoods had both more Ae. aegypti and more diverse communities, due to more favorable development habitat, indicating that control efforts should be focused in these areas

Glow discharge mixture of Ar/He

Glow discharge mixture of Ar/He at a pressure of 266.66 Pa is experimentally investigated by opticalemission spectroscopy and double Langmuir probe at various mixture compositions. The species observedwere He I and Ar I. The electron temperature was found to be less than 10 eV, and the ion densityin the order of 1010 cm-3

La evolución climática a largo plazo y evaluación de la seguridad

El concepto de almacenamiento geológico profundo para residuos radiactivos de alta actividad basa una parte importante de su seguridad a largo plazo en el comportamiento del medio geológico. De aquí que los estudios de seguridad post-clausura de tales almacenamientos deban contemplar la necesidad de cuantificar los procesos susceptibles de intervenir en la liberación y el transporte de los radionucleidos desde el propio almacenamiento hasta la biosfera, y las modificaciones importantes que esta última pueda sufrir debido tanto a factores naturales como antropogénicos, durante los periodos de tiempo del orden de cientos de miles de años en que se cifra la duración de la liberación de radionucleido

Periocular Myxoma in a Child

Myxomas are locally invasive, benign mesenchymal neoplasms with odontogenic, osteogenic, or soft tissue origin. Facial myxomas probably account for less than 0.5% of all paranasal sinus and nasal tumors. We report a case of a left painless periocular mass in a 11-month-old girl. The lesion was resected with a clinical diagnosis of lacrimal sac tumor. Histopathology and immunohistochemistry proved the tumor to be a myxoma. There has been no recurrence after 4 years of followup. Midfacial myxomas should be differentiated from other benign and malignant tumors such as dermoid, hamartoma, neurofibroma, nasolacrimal duct cyst, and sarcomas in particular embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. Because of the infiltrative nature of these tumors, a wide surgery is required to achieve clear resection margins and avoid recurrence

WMR Kinematic Control Using Underactuated Mechanisms for Goal Direction and Evasion

This work presents the mechanical design and the kinematic navigation control system for a tricycle-wheeled robot (one drive-steer and two lateral fixed passive) with two underactuated mechanisms: a global compass and local evasive compass. The proposed goal-reference mechanism is inspired by the ancient Chinese south-seeking chariot (c. 200–265 CE) used as a navigation compass. The passive lateral wheels transmit an absolute angle from its differential speeds to automatically steer the front wheel. An obstacle-evasive compass mechanism is commutated for steering control when detecting nearby obstacles. The absolute and local compass mechanisms commutate each other to control to the robot’s steering wheel to reach a goal while avoiding collisions. A kinematic control law is described in terms of the robot’s geometric constraints and is combined with a set of first-order partial derivatives that allows interaction between the global and local steering mechanisms. Animated simulations and numerical computations about the robot’s mechanisms and trajectories in multi-obstacle scenarios validate the proposed kinematic control system and its feasibility

APOBEC3G mRNA expression in exposed seronegative and early stage HIV infected individuals decreases with removal of exposure and with disease progression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>APOBEC3G is an antiretroviral factor that acts by inducing G to A mutations. In this study, we examined the expression of APOBEC3G in uninfected HIV-1 exposed individuals at the time of their partner's diagnosis and one year later. We then compared this expression with that of infected individuals at different disease stages. APOBEC3G mRNA was measured in PBMCs from three groups: healthy controls with no known risk factor to HIV infection (n = 26), exposed uninfected individuals who had unprotected sex with their HIV+ partners for at least 3 months (n = 37), and HIV infected patients at various disease stages (n = 45), including 8 patients with low HIV viral loads < 10,000 copies/mL (LVL) for at least 3 years. Additionally, we obtained sequences from the env, gag, pol, nef, vif and the LTR of the patients' virus.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Exposed uninfected individuals expressed higher APOBEC3G than healthy controls (3.86 vs. 1.69 relative expression units), and their expression significantly decreased after a year from the HIV diagnosis and subsequent treatment of their partners. Infected individuals showed a positive correlation (Rho = 0.57, p = 0.00006) of APOBEC3G expression with CD4+ T cell count, and a negative correlation with HIV viremia (Rho = -0.54, p = 0.00004). The percentage of G to A mutations had a positive correlation (Rho = 0.43, p = 0.0226) with APOBEC3G expression, and it was higher in LVL individuals than in the other patients (IQR 8.27 to 9.64 vs. 7.06 to 8.1, p = 0.0084). Out of 8 LVLs, 3 had hypermutations, and 4 had premature stop codons only in viral <it>vif</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results suggest that exposure to HIV may trigger APOBEC3G expression in PBMCs, in the absence of infection. Additionally, cessation of exposure or advanced disease is associated with decreased APOBEC3G expression.</p

Emulsion Microgel Particles as High Performance Bio-Lubricants

Starch-based emulsion microgel particles with different starch (15 and 20 wt%) and oil content (0 - 15 wt%), were synthesized and their lubrication performance under physiological conditions was investigated. Emulsion microgels were subjected to skin mimicking or oral cavity mimicking, i.e., smooth hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane ball-on-disc tribological tests, in the absence or presence of salivary enzyme (α-amylase). In the absence of enzyme, emulsion microgel particles (30 - 60 vol% particle content) conserved the lubricating properties of emulsion droplets, providing considerably lower friction coefficients (μ ≤ 0.1) in the mixed lubrication regime compared to plain microgel particles (0 wt% oil). Upon addition of enzyme, the lubrication performance of emulsion microgel particles became strongly dependent on the particles' oil content. Microgel particles encapsulating 5-10 wt% oil showed a double plateau mixed lubrication regime having a lowest friction coefficient μ ~ 0.03 and highest μ ~ 0.1, the latter higher than with plain microgel particles. An oil content of 15 wt% was necessary for the microgel particles to lubricate similarly to the emulsion droplets, where both systems showed a normal mixed lubrication regime with μ ≤ 0.03. The observed trends in tribology, theoretical considerations and the combined results of rheology, light scattering and confocal fluorescence microscopy suggested that the mechanism behind the low friction coefficients was a synergistic enzyme- and shear-triggered release of the emulsion droplets, improving lubrication. The present work thus demonstrates experimentally and theoretically a novel bio-lubricant additive with stimuli-responsive properties capable of providing efficient boundary lubrication between soft polymeric surfaces. At the same time, the additive should provide an effective delivery vehicle for oil soluble ingredients in aqueous media. These findings demonstrate that emulsion microgel particles can be developed into multi-functional bio-lubricant additives for future use in numerous soft matter applications where both lubrication and controlled release of bioactives are essential

Robust Network Stability of Mosquitoes and Human Pathogens of Medical Importance

Background: The exact number of mosquito species relevant to human health is unknown, posing challenges in understanding the scope and breadth of vector–pathogen relationships, and how resilient mosquito vector–pathogen networks are to targeted eradication of vectors. Methods: We performed an extensive literature survey to determine the associations between mosquito species and their associated pathogens of human medical importance. For each vector–pathogen association, we then determined the strength of the associations (i.e., natural infection, lab infection, lab dissemination, lab transmission, known vector). A network analysis was used to identify relationships among all pathogens and vectors. Finally, we examined how elimination of either random or targeted species affected the extinction of pathogens. Results: We found that 88 of 3578 mosquito species (2.5%) are known vectors for 78 human disease-causing pathogens; however, an additional 243 species (6.8%) were identified as potential or likely vectors, bringing the total of all mosquitos implicated in human disease to 331 (9.3%). Network analysis revealed that known vectors and pathogens were compartmentalized, with the removal of six vectors being enough to break the network (i.e., cause a pathogen to have no vector). However, the presence of potential or likely vectors greatly increased redundancies in the network, requiring more than 41 vectors to be eliminated before breaking the network. Conclusion: Although \u3c 10% of mosquitoes are involved in transmitting pathogens that cause human disease, our findings point to inherent robustness in global mosquito vector–pathogen networks