451 research outputs found
Banding pattern indicative of echinococcosis in a commercial cysticercosis western blot
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>A commercial cysticercosis Western blot was evaluated for serological cross-reactivity of sera from patients with alveolar (AE) and cystic echinococcosis (CE).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 161 sera were examined, including 31 sera from AE-patients, 11 sera from CE-patients, 9 sera from patients with other parasitic diseases and 109 sera from patients with unrelated medical conditions. All AE-and CE-sera were also examined by the echinococcosis Western blot.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>More sera from patients with AE than with CE showed cross-reactivity in the form of ladder-like patterns ("Mikado aspect") and untypical bands at 6-8 kDa (71% and 77.4% versus 27.3% and 45.5%, respectively). In contrast, triplets of bands in the area above 50 kDa and between 24 and 39-42 kDa were more frequent in CE than in AE sera. The fuzzy band at 50-55 kDa typical for cysticercosis was absent in all AE and CE sera.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Atypical banding patterns in the cysticercosis Western blot should raise the suspicion of a metacestode infection different from Taenia solium, i.e. Echinococcus multilocularis or E. granulosus, especially when the Mikado aspect and an altered 6-8 kDa band is visible in the absence of a fuzzy 50-55 kDa band.</p
Sexual transmission of Zika virus in Germany, April 2016
Zika virus (ZIKV), an emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus, causes a mild dengue fever-like illness but has recently been associated with neurological disease and severe birth defects. The virus is currently causing a large epidemic in the Americas. Here, we report a male-to-female sexual transmission of ZIKV in Germany in April 2016, following travel to Puerto Rico of the male patient, demonstrated by subsequent seroconversions and molecular identification of identical virus sequences from both patients
Freshly Formed Dust in the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant as Revealed by the Spitzer Space Telescope
We performed Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph mapping observations covering
nearly the entire extent of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant (SNR), producing
mid-infrared (5.5-35 micron) spectra every 5-10". Gas lines of Ar, Ne, O, Si, S
and Fe, and dust continua were strong for most positions. We identify three
distinct ejecta dust populations based on their continuum shapes. The dominant
dust continuum shape exhibits a strong peak at 21 micron. A line-free map of 21
micron-peak dust made from the 19-23 micron range closely resembles the [Ar
II], [O IV], and [Ne II] ejecta-line maps implying that dust is freshly formed
in the ejecta. Spectral fitting implies the presence of SiO2, Mg
protosilicates, and FeO grains in these regions. The second dust type exhibits
a rising continuum up to 21 micron and then flattens thereafter. This ``weak 21
micron'' dust is likely composed of Al2O3 and C grains. The third dust
continuum shape is featureless with a gently rising spectrum and is likely
composed of MgSiO3 and either Al2O3 or Fe grains. Using the least massive
composition for each of the three dust classes yields a total mass of 0.02
Msun. Using the most-massive composition yields a total mass of 0.054 Msun. The
primary uncertainty in the total dust mass stems from the selection of the dust
composition necessary for fitting the featureless dust as well as 70 micron
flux. The freshly formed dust mass derived from Cas A is sufficient from SNe to
explain the lower limit on the dust masses in high redshift galaxies.Comment: 8 figures: Accepted for the publication in Ap
Measuring Dust Production in the Small Magellanic Cloud Core-Collapse Supernova Remnant 1E 0102.2-7219
We present mid-infrared spectral mapping observations of the core-collapse
supernova remnant 1E 0102.2-7219 in the Small Magellanic Cloud using the
InfraRed Spectrograph (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The remnant shows
emission from fine structure transitions of neon and oxygen as well as
continuum emission from dust. Comparison of the mid-IR dust emission with
observations at x-ray, radio and optical wavelengths shows that the dust is
associated with the supernova ejecta and is thus newly formed in the remnant.
The spectrum of the newly formed dust is well reproduced by a model that
includes 3x10^-3 solar masses of amorphous carbon dust at 70 K and 2x10^-5
solar masses of Mg2SiO4 (forsterite) at 145 K. Our observations place a lower
limit on the amount of dust in the remnant since we are not sensitive to the
cold dust in the unshocked ejecta. We compare our results to observations of
other core-collapse supernovae and remnants, particularly Cas A where very
similar spectral mapping observations have been carried out. We observe a a
factor of ~10 less dust in E 0102 than seen in Cas A, although the amounts of
amorphous carbon and forsterite are comparable.Comment: submitted to Ap
Aspects of ABJM orbifolds with discrete torsion
We analyze orbifolds with discrete torsion of the ABJM theory by a finite
subgroup of . Discrete torsion is implemented by
twisting the crossed product algebra resulting after orbifolding. It is shown
that, in general, the order of the cocycle we chose to twist the algebra by
enters in a non trivial way in the moduli space. To be precise, the M-theory
fiber is multiplied by a factor of in addition to the other effects that
were found before in the literature. Therefore we got a
action on the fiber. We present a general
analysis on how this quotient arises along with a detailed analysis of the
cases where is abelian
A molecular basis of analgesic tolerance to cannabinoids
Clinical usage of cannabinoids in chronic pain states is limited by their central side effects and the pharmacodynamic tolerance that sets in after repeated dosage. Analgesic tolerance to cannabinoids in vivo could be caused by agonist-induced downregulation and intracellular trafficking of cannabinoid receptors, but little is known about the molecular mechanisms involved. We show here that the type 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1) interacts physically with G-protein-associated sorting protein 1 (GASP1), a protein that sorts receptors in lysosomal compartments destined for degradation. CB1 - GASP1 interaction was observed to be required for agonist-induced downregulation of CB1 in spinal neurons ex vivo as well as in vivo. Importantly, uncoupling CB1 from GASP1 in mice in vivo abrogated tolerance toward cannabinoid-induced analgesia. These results suggest that GASP1 is a key regulator of the fate of CB1 after agonist exposure in the nervous system and critically determines analgesic tolerance to cannabinoids
Enhanced ionization in small rare gas clusters
A detailed theoretical investigation of rare gas atom clusters under intense
short laser pulses reveals that the mechanism of energy absorption is akin to
{\it enhanced ionization} first discovered for diatomic molecules. The
phenomenon is robust under changes of the atomic element (neon, argon, krypton,
xenon), the number of atoms in the cluster (16 to 30 atoms have been studied)
and the fluency of the laser pulse. In contrast to molecules it does not
dissappear for circular polarization. We develop an analytical model relating
the pulse length for maximum ionization to characteristic parameters of the
cluster
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