Central Bank of Argentina

Background Mass drug administration (MDA) is a WHO-recommended strategy for the elimination of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in low-transmission settings close to elimination. After achieving zero autochthonous cases between 2013 and 2015, Costa Rica experienced a resurgence, primarily of P. falciparum, prompting an MDA intervention in 2023 in the Los Chiles focus. We evaluate its impact on the incidence of autochthonous malaria. Methods An MDA with two cycles of chloroquine (25 mg/kg per cycle, spaced seven weeks apart) was implemented between April—June 2023 in three localities (Medio Queso, Coquital, and San Gerardo) within the Los Chiles focus. We use a cluster-target trial emulation to estimate the overall average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) under an intention-to-treat approach. We use generalized synthetic control methods (GSCM) to construct a counterfactual for the intervened localities, using malaria surveillance data from January 2021 to April 2024. Our primary outcome was the autochthonous malaria case count at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-intervention. Results We found that the MDA achieved 93.3% coverage across the two cycles (4,316/4,624 people received at least one dose). The first cycle had 77.3% coverage and the second 51.2%, achieving 68.1% adherence (full treatment in at least one cycle) and 20.4% in both cycles. Following the intervention, autochthonous malaria cases in the treated localities decreased to zero in the first month and remained at zero throughout the 12-month follow-up period. Overall, we estimated that in the absence of MDA, cases would have persisted (approximately 3-4 cases/month). The strategy was associated with a significant reduction in cases, with an overall post-intervention Rate Ratio (RR) of 0.23 (95% CI: 0.13, 0.49) and an average reduction of 3.72 cases per period (95% CI: -7.2, -0.94) compared to the synthetic control. Conclusion We found that the chloroquine-based MDA strategy implemented in the Los Chiles focus was highly effective in interrupting autochthonous malaria transmission in the short and medium term. Our results suggest that MDA, when well-planned and implemented in a low transmission setting with a strengthened health system, can be a powerful tool to accelerate malaria elimination.

Different lines of evidence point to a role for Acid-sensing ion channel 1 (ASIC1) in pain perception, acting as sensors in both the central nervous system and peripheral tissues. While elevated ASIC1 protein expression has been documented in various pain conditions, our study focuses on its involvement in the context of Fabry disease (FD). Using a mouse model of FD, we observed a significant increase in ASIC1 protein expression in pain-related areas including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), as well as the spinal cord (SC) and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) at the lumbar, thoracic, and cervical levels. This upregulation was accompanied by increased ASIC1a mRNA levels and ERK phosphorylation. Moreover, in FD mice, ASIC1 protein expression was found to be modulated by age and sex: it was higher in female mice than in males, and increased with age in both sexes. These findings, together with our previous work showing unaltered ASIC1a mRNA levels but microRNA-mediated regulation of ASIC1a protein in the formalin-induced acute pain model, highlight distinct mechanisms of ASIC1a regulation in FD-associated versus acute pain. Additionally, our study revealed heightened mechanical sensitivity in FD mice that could be prevented using a channel blocker, further highlighting the involvement of ASIC1a channels in pain pathways associated with Fabry disease. Our findings suggest that ASIC1a channels may serve as promising therapeutic targets for pain management in Fabry disease.

Seqrutinator is an objective, flexible pipeline that removes sequences with sequencing and/or gene model errors and sequences from pseudogenes from complex, eukaryotic protein superfamilies. Testing Seqrutinator on major superfamilies BAHD, CYP, and UGT removes only 1.94% of SwissProt entries, 14% of entries from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, but 80% of entries from Pinus taeda’s recent complete proteome. Application of Seqrutinator on crude BAHDomes, CYPomes, and UGTomes obtained from 16 plant proteomes shows convergence of the numbers of paralogues. MSAs, phylogenies, and particularly functional clustering improve drastically upon Seqrutinator application, indicating good performance.

Cabe señalar, que este artículo tiene por objeto establecer una reflexión holística sobre los institutos detallados. Ello es posible, a través de algunas vertientes históricas, doctrinales y la subordinación de los aspectos analizados en los modelos arquetípicos planetarios propuestos; en especial, el Dodecaedro del Riesgo Laboral y Ambiental “DoRLA”, los cuales se propicia su discusión y comparación con los probablemente existentes en el ámbito académico. En este entendimiento, nos encontramos con el Nuevo Paradigma de la Administración de Riesgos-Tetraedro de la Administración de Riesgos (NUPAR-TAR); la Nueva Identidad Humana-Espiritual-Solidaria en la Protección, Respeto, Equidad, Ética y Dignidad Planetaria (NIHESPREEDP); el Dodecaedro del Riesgo Laboral y Ambiental (DoRLA) y arquetípicamente el paradigma totalizador de la Constelación Humanoide Planetaria (CoHuP).

Objective:Gliomas are a group of CNS neoplasms arising from neuroglial cells with various degrees of aggressiveness. Resection of brain tumors is complex to perform without neurological sequelae due to the diffuse nature of the tumors. This study aimed to design a neuropsychological battery to examine pre surgical cognitive deficits in a case series of patients with LGG and to determine the post-surgical effects after resection.Participants and Methods:11 adult patients aged 19-65 years (38 ±DS:15.5) with a diagnosis of LGG without cognitive complaint were evaluated with a selection of specific neuropsychological tests to identify possible baseline cognitive deficits and their evolution after tumor resection. All participants completed a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation assessing memory, language, attention, executive functions, visuospatial functions, social cognition, praxis, agnosias, functionality, mood, and quality of life. The neuropsychological battery design was based on a systematic review of the literature on surgical interventions in low-grade gliomas.Results:Despite not reporting subjective cognitive complaints, patients showed deficits in multiple cognitive domains in the pre-surgical evaluation when comparing their performance with normative values adjusted for age, sex, and education. Deficits in executive functions and attention were observed: 36% presented failures in graphomotor speed (TMT A), 27% of subjects presented failures in attentional span (Direct Digit Span), working memory (Inverse Digit Span), and cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) and 9% presented difficulties in processing speed (Trail Making Test A) and inhibitory capacity (Stroop Test). Memory: 18% of the patients showed deficits in immediate logical memory and 9% in delayed memory (Craft Story 21). Likewise, 18% of the patients presented compromise in immediate auditory-verbal learning and 27% in delayed auditory-verbal learning (Rey Auditory-Verbal Test). Language: 18% showed failures in naming (Boston 60) and 9% in comprehension (Token Test). Likewise, 27% of the patients presented difficulties in social cognition (Mind in the Eyes Test). Finally 41% of the patients reported symptoms of depression and/or anxiety in the neuropsychiatric questionnaires.Conclusions:The results highlight the importance of strategically designed pre-surgical cognitive assessment for the detection and follow-up of cognitive and mood disorders associated with the location of the space-occupying lesion (LOE). The patients assessed in this study will be evaluated three months after surgery to document changes in baseline cognitive symptoms. Furthermore, in patients with lesions in the left hemisphere, an intraoperative evaluation will be performed to minimize subsequent deficits, assessing these functions during surgery and emphasizing language.

Fue llevada a consulta al Servicio de Reproducción Animal del Hospital Escuela de la Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias UNLP, un canino hembra, raza Bulldog Inglés, de dos años de edad con el fin de realizar el control del ciclo y determinar el momento de mayor fertilidad1. Se realizó inseminación artificial, se identificó el primer día del diestro citológico y 20 días después se realizó el diagnóstico ecográfico de gestación. En el segundo control ecográfico se registraron sacos gestacionales de morfología normal, y una edad gestacional calculada a partir de mediciones fetales compatibles con edad gestacional de aproximadamente cinco días menos de lo esperado en relación a la edad gestacional calculada a partir del primer día del diestro citológico1. Se planea la cesárea programada el día 56 después del primer día del diestro citológico, encontrándose fetos con retraso del desarrollo y presencia de diferentes grados de anasarca. La determinación del primer día del diestro hizo posible conocer la edad gestacional real de la perra y realizar la cesárea en el momento adecuado.