Bordetella bronchiseptica aislada en paciente con Fibrosis Quística

Presentamos el caso de una paciente de 15 años con Fibrosis Quística (FQ) en la cual, en dos oportunidades y con un intervalo de 2 años, se aisló Bordetella bronchiseptica con idéntico perfil genético estudiado por electroforesis de campo pulsado. El mecanismo lesional de B. bronchiseptica en el árbol bronquial de pacientes con FQ no está claramente establecido, pero la habilidad de esta bacteria para inhibir la función de los leucocitos y su capacidad de adherirse a las células del epitelio bronquial explicaría su capacidad infectiva y su persistencia en el tracto respiratorio.We are reporting the case of a 15 year-old girl with Cystic Fibrosis in whom Bordetella bronchiseptica was isolated twice, two years apart. The germ showed identical genetic profile when studied by pulsed-field gene electrophoresis. The ways Bordetella bronchiseptica causes damage to the lower respiratory tract remains unsettled. The capacity of this germ to inhibit leukocyte function and its adherence to bronchial epithelial cells could explain its pathogenicity and persistence

Using quasars as standard clocks for measuring cosmological redshift

We report hitherto unnoticed patterns in quasar light curves. We characterize segments of quasars' light curves with the slopes of the straight lines fit through them. These slopes appear to be directly related to the quasars' redshifts. Alternatively, using only global shifts in time and flux, we are able to find significant overlaps between the light curves of different pairs of quasars by fitting the ratio of their redshifts. We are then able to reliably determine the redshift of one quasar from another. This implies that one can use quasars as standard clocks, as we explicitly demonstrate by constructing two independent methods of finding the redshift of a quasar from its light curve.Comment: References added, Published in Phys. Rev. Let

A comprehensive methodology for assessing human-robot team performance for use in training and simulation

New methodologies and quantitative measurements for evaluating human-robot team performance must be developed to achieve effective coordination between teams of humans and unmanned vehicles. The Mixed Initiative Team Performance Assessment System (MITPAS) provides such a comprehensive measurement methodology. MITPAS consists of a methodology, tools and procedures to measure the performance of mixed manned and unmanned teams in both training and real world operational environments. This paper describes MITPAS and the results of an initial experiment conducted to validate the measures and gain insight into the effect of robot competence on operator trust as well as on human-robot team performance

MeerKLASS: MeerKAT Large Area Synoptic Survey

We discuss the ground-breaking science that will be possible with a wide area survey, using the MeerKAT telescope, known as MeerKLASS (MeerKAT Large Area Synoptic Survey). The current specifications of MeerKAT make it a great fit for science applications that require large survey speeds but not necessarily high angular resolutions. In particular, for cosmology, a large survey over $\sim 4,000 \, {\rm deg}^2$ for $\sim 4,000$ hours will potentially provide the first ever measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillations using the 21cm intensity mapping technique, with enough accuracy to impose constraints on the nature of dark energy. The combination with multi-wavelength data will give unique additional information, such as exquisite constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity using the multi-tracer technique, as well as a better handle on foregrounds and systematics. Such a wide survey with MeerKAT is also a great match for HI galaxy studies, providing unrivalled statistics in the pre-SKA era for galaxies resolved in the HI emission line beyond local structures at z > 0.01. It will also produce a large continuum galaxy sample down to a depth of about 5\,$\mu$Jy in L-band, which is quite unique over such large areas and will allow studies of the large-scale structure of the Universe out to high redshifts, complementing the galaxy HI survey to form a transformational multi-wavelength approach to study galaxy dynamics and evolution. Finally, the same survey will supply unique information for a range of other science applications, including a large statistical investigation of galaxy clusters as well as produce a rotation measure map across a huge swathe of the sky. The MeerKLASS survey will be a crucial step on the road to using SKA1-MID for cosmological applications and other commensal surveys, as described in the top priority SKA key science projects (abridged).Comment: Larger version of the paper submitted to the Proceedings of Science, "MeerKAT Science: On the Pathway to the SKA", Stellenbosch, 25-27 May 201

Isolation of Bordetella bronchiseptica in a patient with Cystic Fibrosis

Presentamos el caso de una paciente de 15 años con Fibrosis Quística (FQ) en la cual, en dos oportunidades y con un intervalo de 2 años, se aisló Bordetella bronchiseptica con idéntico perfil genético estudiado por electroforesis de campo pulsado. El mecanismo lesional de B. bronchiseptica en el árbol bronquial de pacientes con FQ no está claramente establecido, pero la habilidad de esta bacteria para inhibir la función de los leucocitos y su capacidad de adherirse a las células del epitelio bronquial explicaría su capacidad infectiva y su persistencia en el tracto respiratorio.We are reporting the case of a 15 year-old girl with Cystic Fibrosis in whom Bordetella bronchiseptica was isolated twice, two years apart. The germ showed identical genetic profile when studied by pulsed-field gene electrophoresis. The ways Bordetella bronchiseptica causes damage to the lower respiratory tract remains unsettled. The capacity of this germ to inhibit leukocyte function and its adherence to bronchial epithelial cells could explain its pathogenicity and persistence.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Isolation of Bordetella bronchiseptica in a patient with Cystic Fibrosis

Presentamos el caso de una paciente de 15 años con Fibrosis Quística (FQ) en la cual, en dos oportunidades y con un intervalo de 2 años, se aisló Bordetella bronchiseptica con idéntico perfil genético estudiado por electroforesis de campo pulsado. El mecanismo lesional de B. bronchiseptica en el árbol bronquial de pacientes con FQ no está claramente establecido, pero la habilidad de esta bacteria para inhibir la función de los leucocitos y su capacidad de adherirse a las células del epitelio bronquial explicaría su capacidad infectiva y su persistencia en el tracto respiratorio.We are reporting the case of a 15 year-old girl with Cystic Fibrosis in whom Bordetella bronchiseptica was isolated twice, two years apart. The germ showed identical genetic profile when studied by pulsed-field gene electrophoresis. The ways Bordetella bronchiseptica causes damage to the lower respiratory tract remains unsettled. The capacity of this germ to inhibit leukocyte function and its adherence to bronchial epithelial cells could explain its pathogenicity and persistence.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Anthropometric Variables Accurately Predict Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometric-Derived Body Composition and Can Be Used to Screen for Diabetes

The current world-wide epidemic of obesity has stimulated interest in developing simple screening methods to identify individuals with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) or metabolic syndrome (MS). Prior work utilizing body composition obtained by sophisticated technology has shown that the ratio of abdominal fat to total fat is a good predictor for DM2 or MS. The goals of this study were to determine how well simple anthropometric variables predict the fat mass distribution as determined by dual energy x-ray absorptometry (DXA), and whether these are useful to screen for DM2 or MS within a population. To accomplish this, the body composition of 341 females spanning a wide range of body mass indices and with a 23% prevalence of DM2 and MS was determined using DXA. Stepwise linear regression models incorporating age, weight, height, waistline, and hipline predicted DXA body composition (i.e., fat mass, trunk fat, fat free mass, and total mass) with good accuracy. Using body composition as independent variables, nominal logistic regression was then performed to estimate the probability of DM2. The results show good discrimination with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) having an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.78. The anthropometrically-derived body composition equations derived from the full DXA study group were then applied to a group of 1153 female patients selected from a general endocrinology practice. Similar to the smaller study group, the ROC from logistical regression using body composition had an AUC of 0.81 for the detection of DM2. These results are superior to screening based on questionnaires and compare favorably with published data derived from invasive testing, e.g., hemoglobin A1c. This anthropometric approach offers promise for the development of simple, inexpensive, non-invasive screening to identify individuals with metabolic dysfunction within large populations

Duality Cascade in Brane Inflation

We show that brane inflation is very sensitive to tiny sharp features in extra dimensions, including those in the potential and in the warp factor. This can show up as observational signatures in the power spectrum and/or non-Gaussianities of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). One general example of such sharp features is a succession of small steps in a warped throat, caused by Seiberg duality cascade using gauge/gravity duality. We study the cosmological observational consequences of these steps in brane inflation. Since the steps come in a series, the prediction of other steps and their properties can be tested by future data and analysis. It is also possible that the steps are too close to be resolved in the power spectrum, in which case they may show up only in the non-Gaussianity of the CMB temperature fluctuations and/or EE polarization. We study two cases. In the slow-roll scenario where steps appear in the inflaton potential, the sensitivity of brane inflation to the height and width of the steps is increased by several orders of magnitude comparing to that in previously studied large field models. In the IR DBI scenario where steps appear in the warp factor, we find that the glitches in the power spectrum caused by these sharp features are generally small or even unobservable, but associated distinctive non-Gaussianity can be large. Together with its large negative running of the power spectrum index, this scenario clearly illustrates how rich and different a brane inflationary scenario can be when compared to generic slow-roll inflation. Such distinctive stringy features may provide a powerful probe of superstring theory.Comment: Corrections in Eq.(5.47), Eq (5.48), Eq(5.49) and Fig