More productive in vitro culture of Cryptosporidium parvum for better study of the intra- and extracellular phases

The great difficulties in treating people and animals suffering from cryptosporidiosis have prompted the development of in vitro experimental models. Due to the models of in vitro culture, new extracellular stages of Cryptosporidium have been demonstrated. The development of these extracellular phases depends on the technique of in vitro culture and on the species and genotype of Cryptosporidium used. Here, we undertake the molecular characterization by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment lenght polymorphism of different Cryptosporidium isolates from calves, concluding that all are C. parvum of cattle genotype, although differing in the nucleotide at positions 472 and 498. Using these parasites, modified the in vitro culture technique for HCT-8 cells achieving greater multiplication of parasites. The HCT-8 cell cultures, for which the culture had not been renewed in seven days, were infected with C. parvum sporozoites in RPMI-1640 medium with 10% IFBS, CaCl2 and MgCl2 1 mM at pH 7.2. Percentages of cell parasitism were increased with respect to control cultures (71% at 48 h vs 14.5%), even after two weeks (47% vs 1.9%). Also, the percentage of extracellular stages augmented (25.3% vs 1.1% at 96 h). This new model of in vitro culture of C. parvum will enable easier study of the developmental phases of C. parvum in performing new chemotherapeutic assays

Caso clínico: Insuficiencia Respiratoria Aguda en el Postoperatorio de una Cesárea Urgente

Paciente de 31 años de edad, gestante gemelar mediante FIV con feto muerto a la 21 semana. Sin antecedentes personales ni familiares, no consumo de fármacos, no hábitos tóxicos, sin alergias medicamentosas conocidas. ASA I. Ingresa por amenaza de parto prematuro, realizándosele cesárea urgente por situación transversa del feto. Intraoperatorio sin incidentes. Recién nacido prematuro. Al segundo día del postoperatorio comienza con cuadro de abdomen agudo compatible con íleo paralítico, que empeora al día siguiente precisando laparotomía exploradora. Se aprecia peritonitis secundaria a endometritis. Se realizan lavados de cavidad abdominal y se instaura tratamiento antibiótico. Ingresa en la Unidad de Reanimación extubada, consciente, orientada, hemodinámicamente estable con bajas dosis de vasoactivos, y con función respiratoria y renal conservada. Evolución ligeramente favorable en los días posteriores permitiendo retirar vasoactivos; auscultación cardio-respiratoria normal; radiografía de tórax con pinzamiento del ángulo costodiafragmático izquierdo, sin otros hallazgos. Sin embargo, la paciente presenta una discreta taquicardia (100-105 lpm), abdomen distendido, doloroso y sin peristaltismo, leucocitosis (entorno a los 11.000 x 109 L-1) y hemoglobina de 9 mg dl-1 (resto de la analítica compatible con la normalidad). En el tercer día de estancia en la Unidad presenta un importante deterioro del estado general, con clínica de insuficiencia respiratoria aguda severa (disnea, taquipnea, uso de la musculatura accesoria, descoordinación tóraco-abdominal, obnubilación), reagudización del dolor abdominal con distensión, fiebre de 38,5ºC y descenso de la hemoglobina de un punto sin sangrado aparente por drenajes

England SimSmoke: the impact of nicotine vaping on smoking prevalence and smoking‐attributable deaths in England

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: While the use of nicotine vaping products (NVPs) is widespread, their impact on smoking prevalence is controversial. This study considered the potential impact of NVPs on smoking prevalence in England. DESIGN: Indirect simulation model. The England SimSmoke model is validated through 2012, before NVP use became more widely used by smokers. Because information on NVP-related transitions is limited, an indirect method is used; the difference in observed smoking prevalence (reflecting NVPs) is compared with a 2012-2019 counterfactual No-NVP scenario (without NVPs) to estimate the impact of NVPs on smoking and smoking-attributable deaths. SETTING: England, 2000-2019. PARTICIPANTS: Nationally representative sample of population. MEASUREMENTS: England's population, mortality rates, and smoking prevalence estimates from three national surveys and tobacco control policies. FINDINGS: Between 2000 and 2012, SimSmoke projected a decline in age 18+ smoking prevalence of 23.5% in men and 27.0% in women. These projections, as well as those by specific age groups, were generally consistent with findings from the three national surveys. Comparing 2012-2019 relative reduction in age 18+ prevalence from the Annual Population Survey (males 27.5%) with the model-predicted No-NVP reduction (males 7.3%), the implied NVP-attributable relative reduction in adult smoking prevalence was 20.2% (95% CI, 18.8%-22.0%) for males and 20.4% (18.7%-22.2%) for females. The NVP-attributable reduction was 27.2% (22.8%-31.6%) for males and 31.7% (27.4%-36.5%) for females ages 18-24 and 18.6% (15.2%-21.8%) for males and 15.0% (11.1%-18.8%) for females ages 25-34, with similar reductions for ages 35 and above. The implied reduction in smoking prevalence between 2012 and 2019 equates to 165,660 (132,453-199,501) averted deaths by 2052. Other surveys yielded smaller, but relatively consistent results. CONCLUSIONS: An indirect method of simulation modeling indicates that substantial reductions in smoking prevalence occurred in England from 2012 to 2019 coinciding with the growth in nicotine vaping product use

<i>In Vitro</i> Activity of Squaramides and Acyclic Polyamine Derivatives against Trophozoites and Cysts of <i>Acanthamoeba castellanii</i>

Pathogenic strains of Acanthamoeba cause keratitis (AK), granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE), amoebic pneumonitis (AP), and skin infection in human and animals. The treatment of an Acanthamoeba infection is invariably very difficult and not always effective, and compounds that are amebicidic or amebistatic are frequently toxic and/or irritating for humans. Squaramides and polyamine derivatives have been demonstrated to have antitumor and antiprotozoal activity. The aim of this study was to investigate the activity of 5 squaramides and 5 acyclic polyamines against trophozoites and cysts of A. castellanii Neff. Amoebicidal activity against the trophozoites and cytotoxicity against Vero cells were evaluated with a colorimetric assay, using Alamar Blue®, and chlorhexidine digluconate was assayed as the reference drug. The squaramides 3 and 5 and the acyclic polyamine 6 appeared to be the most active against the trophozoites and their cytotoxicity was low, showing selectivity indexes of 28.3, 26, and 25.7, respectively, similar to the control drug, chlorhexidine digluconate (27.6). But only the squaramide 3 showed complete cysticidal activity at the concentrations of 100 and 200 µM, as the chlorhexidine digluconate. Further studies of the mechanism of action and in vivo assays are needed, but squaramide 3 could be used for developing novel therapeutic approaches against Acanthamoeba infections

Description of a new case of Bohring-Opitz (or Oberklaid-Danks) syndrome

Dismorfología y Genética ClínicaIn 1999, Bohring et al. reported a new syndrome clinically distinguishable from cases with C syndrome or Opitz trigonocephaly. All the patients showed failure to thrive, microcephaly with metopic suture ridging, nevus flammeus over the forehead, thick hair and forehead hirsutism, shallow orbits with prominent eyes, depressed nasal root, anomalous ears, retrognathia, cleft lip and palate, flexion deformities of the upper limbs with radial head dislocation and ulnar deviation of fingers. Patients have severe developmental delay, sucking and swallowing difficulties starting in the prenatal period, as suggested by the usual polyhydramnios. The brain anomalies include hydrocephaly/large ventricles, agenesis/hypoplasia of corpus callosum, Dandy- Walker malformation, myelin abnormalities, and cortical atrophy. Occasional symptoms are a small or closed fontanel at birth, inguinal hernias and cryptorchidism in males, and intestinal malrotation. Most patients die early in childhood because of bradycardia and apnea. Although there is an overlap between C-like syndrome and C syndrome, different manifestations in these patients suggest a different entity. This new syndrome has been called (apart from C-like syndrome) Bohring-Optiz or Oberklaid-Danks syndrome. Recently, it has been associated in some patients to heterozygous de novo nonsense mutations in ASXL1 gene, which is required for maintenance of both activation and silencing of Hox genes, suggesting that the syndrome is genetically heterogeneous. Here we describe the first case of this syndrome identified in the Spanish Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECEMC) Registry, and possibly in Spain. Therefore, its minimal frequency has been estimated in 1:2,648,286 newborn infants.N

University quality measurement model based on balanced scorecard

A Higher Education Institution (HEI) has the responsibility to track the processes through indicators that guarantee the measurement of the results in almost real time. This article presents the design of a management and quality model of the processes in a university, through the integration of a Balance Scorecard (BSC) and the implementation of an information system. For which it was required: a review of existing tracing and monitoring systems in the academic sector, definition of the requirements of the proposed technological, a diagnosis of the current measurement system of the HEI analyzed, identify measurement indicators and develop a technological tool. The designed model presents a precise and clear methodological guide that can be replicated in any HEI to monitor its processes

Search for CP violation in D+→ϕπ+ and D+s→K0Sπ+ decays

A search for CP violation in D + → ϕπ + decays is performed using data collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 at a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV. The CP -violating asymmetry is measured to be (−0.04 ± 0.14 ± 0.14)% for candidates with K − K + mass within 20 MeV/c 2 of the ϕ meson mass. A search for a CP -violating asymmetry that varies across the ϕ mass region of the D + → K − K + π + Dalitz plot is also performed, and no evidence for CP violation is found. In addition, the CP asymmetry in the D+s→K0Sπ+ decay is measured to be (0.61 ± 0.83 ± 0.14)%

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Microbiome assembly of avian eggshells and their potential as transgenerational carriers of maternal microbiota

The microbiome is essential for development, health and homeostasis throughout an animal's life. Yet, the origins and transmission processes governing animal microbiomes remain elusive for non-human vertebrates, oviparous vertebrates in particular. Eggs may function as transgenerational carriers of the maternal microbiome, warranting characterisation of egg microbiome assembly. Here, we investigated maternal and environmental contributions to avian eggshell microbiota in wild passerine birds: woodlark Lullula arborea and skylark Alauda arvensis. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we demonstrated in both lark species, at the population and within-nest levels, that bacterial communities of freshly laid eggs were distinct from the female cloacal microbiome. Instead, soil-borne bacteria appeared to thrive on freshly laid eggs, and eggshell microbiota composition strongly resembled maternal skin, body feather and nest material communities, sources in direct contact with laid eggs. Finally, phylogenetic structure analysis and microbial source tracking underscored species sorting from directly contacting sources rather than in vivo-transferred symbionts. The female-egg-nest system allowed an integrative assessment of avian egg microbiome assembly, revealing mixed modes of symbiont acquisition not previously documented for vertebrate eggs. Our findings illuminated egg microbiome origins, which suggested a limited potential of eggshells for transgenerational transmission, encouraging further investigation of eggshell microbiome functions in vertebrates