CDDA: extension and analysis of the discrete dipole approximation for chiral systems.

Discrete dipole approximation (DDA) is a computational method broadly used to solve light scattering problems. In this work, we propose an extension of DDA that we call Chiral-DDA (CDDA), to study light-chiral matter interactions with the capability of describing the underlying physics behind. Here, CDDA is used to solve and analyze the interaction of a nanoantenna (either metallic or dielectric) with a chiral molecule located in its near field at different positions. Our method allowed to relate near field interactions with far field spectral response of the system, elucidating the role that the nanoantenna electric and magnetic polarizabilities play in the coupling with a chiral molecule. In general, this is not straightforward with other methods. We believe that CDDA has the potential to help researchers revealing some of the still unclear mechanisms responsible for the chiral signal enhancements induced by nanoantennas.

Dynamic reflective color pixels based on molybdenum oxide.

Active materials which show phase transitions, usually known as Phase Change Materials (PCM), have paved the way to a new generation of reconfigurable plasmonic platforms. Tunable color devices have experienced a great development in the recent years. In particular, reflective color filters can take advantage from sunlight to select and reflect a specific resonant wavelength in the visible spectrum range. Reflective displays are usually structural color filters based on asymmetric Fabry-Perot cavities (AFPCs). For a fixed geometry, most of AFPCs filters generate static color, limiting their potential as tunable color devices. Dynamic color is achieved by introducing an active layer whose optical properties can be modulated by an external stimuli. In this paper, we propose AFPCs based on molybdenum oxide (MoOx, 2

Life History Traits and Predatory Performance of Belostoma anurum (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae), a Biological Control Agent of Disease Vector Mosquitoes.

Understanding the life cycle and dietary requirements of laboratory-reared insects is critical for optimizing resources (including time) and can provide more reliable ecological basis for using such biological control agents in realistic programs. Here, we evaluated the complete development and the predatory abilities of Belostoma anurum (Herrich-Schäffer, 1848) (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae), an aquatic predator widely distributed in Neotropical region, when reared at different diets. We firstly investigated the predatory performance of B. anurum nymphs upon mosquito larvae (i.e., larvae of Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus, 1758) or Culex sp. (Diptera: Culicidae)) and, second, whether the immature diets (i.e., arthropod-based diet (mosquito larvae and adults of Notonectidae) or vertebrate (fish larvae)-based diet) affect the predatory behavior of B. anurum adults. The B. anurum egg-to-adult developmental time was 85.1 days in an arthropod-based diet. However, when a fish-based diet was offered after nymphs reached 3rd instar, we recorded up to 50% reductions on the B. anurum developmental time. Interestingly, B. anurum adults could live more than 1 year under laboratory conditions, independently of the immature diet regime. Furthermore, the fish diet-experienced B. anurum adults spent less time feeding on fish larvae when compared with adults that never experienced this type of diet. Predatory results revealed that 2nd instar B. anurum were more efficient to catch and consume larvae of A. aegypti than of Culex sp. Collectively, our findings show that B. anurum is long-lived aquatic predators, and demonstrate the impacts of dietary regime on the life history traits and predatory performance of these insects.

Factors related to psychopathological symptoms of female inmates of a prison in Lima.

OBJECTIVES: The objective is to know the relationship between age, time of incarceration, juridical situation, activity in prison, penitentiary classification and having or not children under eighteen years old, with the incidence of psychopathological symptoms of female inmates from a penitentiary in Lima. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The SCL-90-R was used to determinate the psychopathological symptoms in 388 female inmates. Correlations and comparisons were made. RESULTS: Results show low negative correlation between age and depression, anxiety, hostility, psychoticism and PST; time of incarceration has a low negative correlation with depression, paranoid ideation and GSI. Comparisons show significant differences according juridical situation in interpersonal sensibility, depression, paranoid ideation, GSI and PSDI. According activity in prison differences were found in somatization, depression, anxiety, psychoticism, PST and GSI; and, according penitentiary classification differences were found in somatization, obsession compulsion, interpersonal sensibility, depression, anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, PST, GSI and PSDI. There were not differences between inmates with or without children under eighteen years old. DISCUSSION: No overcrowding, accessibility of treatment, and cultural differences are related to the low scores obtained. The low correlations might be related to intermediate variables that were not observed and its recommended to observe in future research.

Reye's syndrome and cerebellar intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies.

A patient with Reye syndrome had intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies in Purkinje cells. Electron microscopical examination demonstrated the inclusions to contain internal particles, but these were not identifiable as known virions. Results of viral studies were normal.

Breast nodule produced by Dirofilaria tenuis.

A case of Dirofilaria tenuis presenting as a breast nodule is reported in a patient who traveled to the southeast United States 6 months before the nodule was noted. It illustrates an unusual diagnostic problem, especially since it presented in a nonendemic area. The morphological criteria for diagnosis of D. tenuis in tissue sections are noted.

Subcutaneous dirofilariasis in Collier County, Florida, USA.

A 10-year review of the surgical pathology files of the Department of Pathology at Naples Community Hospital (Naples, FL, U.S.A.) revealed 10 cases of Dirofilaria tenuis and one of Dirofilaria ursi infection. The review consisted of only those lesions for which the pathologists had recorded the presence of a worm in the lesion. Therefore, an unknown number of subcutaneous lesions without parasites were not reviewed. Nine of the 11 cases of Dirofilaria were diagnosed as Dirofilaria or Dirofilaria tenuis originally. An additional case, previously diagnosed as Dirofilaria, was found to be a sparganum larva on review. This finding indicates that, because of the unfamiliarity of pathologists with the diagnostic characteristics of these nematode parasites, infections with Dirofilaria are underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. If pathologists were more familiar with these parasites, their prevalence and the medical cost of this zoonosis in the southeastern United States could be determined more accurately.

Dioctophyme larva in the subcutaneous tissues of a woman in Ohio.

A nematode larva undistinguishable from Dioctophyme renale was found in the subcutaneous tissues of the abdomen of a 23-year-old woman from Ohio. This is the third case of Dioctophyme larva reported in humans. Although it is not known how the infection was acquired, we suggest that ingestion of raw fish was the probable source. We further hypothesize that such a larva could eventually migrate to the kidney and grow to the adult state.

Dirofilaria repens infection in northern Israel.

The fourth case of zoonotic Dirofilaria repens infection in Israel is reported, and the diagnostic morphologic characteristics of this filariid are reviewed. The importance of the exact anatomic diagnosis of this filaria is stressed in view of the fact that Israel has pockets of settlers from East Africa, a region endemic for lymphatic filariasis (Wuchereria bancrofti). Since the possibility of introduction of such an infection into the country exists, differentiating this zoonotic Dirofilaria from other filarial worms is essential. The clinicopathological features of a Dirofilaria repens infection are distinct. The patient initially has a painful subcutaneous or conjunctival swelling; the excisional biopsy shows the presence of a dead or alive, usually female worm that measures 220-660 microns across; the central intestine and the genital organs (two uteri) are located in the pseudocoelom; the thick, multilayered cuticle is provided with 95-105 sharp, longitudinal ridges, the latter being separated from each other by a distance of 12 microns; the circumferential muscle cell layer, covering the inner side of the cuticle, is bilaterally interrupted by the large chord cells, two to five nuclei of which are discernible in each cross section.

Extrapulmonary Dirofilaria immitis-like infections in the Western Hemisphere.

One worm recovered from the orbit of a patient in Indiana, and two from the peritoneal cavity of another patient in California are described and classified as Dirofilaria. Both patients were elderly men who have lived all their lives in the United States. The main morphologic feature of these three immature worms is the presence of a smooth cuticle devoid of longitudinal ridges, similar to the cuticle of D. immitis. However, because other dirofilariid with similar cuticular characteristics have been found in animals in the Western Hemisphere, and they cannot be conclusively ruled out as the cause of the infection in our patients, a diagnosis of D. immitis-like organism is proposed for these nematodes. The relationship of these worms to other dirofilariid of animals and humans on the American continent is important because of the diagnostic problems these infections posed to practicing pathologists.

Human ectopic fascioliasis in the cecum.

A case of ectopic human Fasciola spp. infection in the cecal wall is reported. The patient, a 27-year-old Korean woman, resident in Seoul, Korea, presented with nausea, vomiting, and epigastric tenderness. One week later a palpable mass was discovered in the right iliac fossa. A clinical diagnosis of a carcinoma of the colon was made and the patient underwent a cecal resection. The mass proved to be an inflammatory reaction containing numerous tracts made by the migrating fluke, Fasciola sp.

Strongyloides stercoralis eosinophilic granulomatous enterocolitis.

Six patients suffering from an unusual form of colitis produced by Strongyloides stercoralis hyperinfection are described. In contrast to the usual Strongyloides hyperinfection syndrome, in which small intestinal and pulmonary manifestations are seen in patients with some forms of immunodeficiency, the patients described here presented with only a characteristic transmural eosinophilic granulomatous inflammation affecting mostly the colonic wall and clinically mimicking ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. This Strongyloides eosinophilic granulomatous enterocolitis apparently results from a florid inflammatory response by eosinophils, histiocytes, and giant cells with formation of granulomas that destroy the larvae entering the colon. This morphologic picture differs from that of the well-described hyperinfection syndrome, in which the bulk of the larvae pass through the colonic wall to complete the life cycle, with only a few larvae destroyed in the colon. The probable pathophysiologic mechanism of this unusual manifestation of hyperinfection is discussed based on the anatomic and clinical observations of patients who presented at different stages in the evolution of their condition and whose length of follow-up varied.

Diagnostic features of zoonotic filariae in tissue sections.

The diagnostic features in tissue sections from patients with zoonotic filarial infections are reviewed. In general, two types of infections are recognized: 1) those presenting radiologically in healthy patients as coin lesions, which are usually removed because a clinical diagnosis of carcinoma of the lung is made and infarcts containing Dirofilaria immitis parasites in pulmonary arteries are found; and 2) those presenting as subcutaneous nodules, in which D. tenuis, a parasite from raccoons, D. repens, from dogs and cats, D. ursi , from bears, and Onchocerca spp, from horses or cattle, require delineation. Moreover, nodules that on microscopic examination are seen to be lymph nodes may harbor Brugia spp. The geographic distribution of these infections, with emphasis on the United States, is discussed.

Maternal deprivation potentiates pituitary-adrenal stress responses in infant rats.

In three experiments we examined the effect of maternal deprivation on the pituitary-adrenal response of 12-, 16- and 20-day-old rat pups to novelty stress. Infant rats were either deprived individually in heated incubators or left in the home nest with their mother and then tested for their corticosteroid response to 30-min exposure to a novel test arena (novelty-stress). In Experiment 1 we showed that the magnitude of the stress response was a positively accelerated function of the deprivation interval. Stress responses were not increased after 1 hour of deprivation, were modestly increased after 8 hours of deprivation, and were dramatically increased after 24 hours of deprivation. In Experiment 2 we asked whether potentiation of the stress response resulted from the maternal or the nutritive components of the deprivation procedure. Pups were tested under one of four treatment conditions formed by a 2 (Maternally Deprived vs. Nondeprived) x 2 (Nutritively Deprived vs. Nondeprived) factorial design. At 12 and 16 days of age, potentiation of the stress response was traced to the absence of maternal care and not nutrients. At 20 days of age, both maternal and nutritive deprivation contributed to the potentiated stress response. The results of Experiment 3 showed that this effect was mediated, at least in part, by increased adrenocortical sensitivity to ACTH, because the corticosteroid response to exogenous ACTH administration was also increased by maternal deprivation. These findings add to a growing body of literature that supports the concept of maternal regulation of infant physiology. They also support previous reports from this laboratory indicating that suppression of the pituitary-adrenal system is modulated by maternal variables during the preweaning period in the rat.

Brugia infection in Northern Ohio.

A new case of infection with Brugia sp. is recorded from Northern Ohio, increasing the geographical range of this zoonosis, known previously in New England, New York and New Jersey. The patient, a 53-year-old man, had a 7-year history of malignant fibrous histiocytoma of the spermatic cord, for which he received intense chemo- and radiotherapy. The worm found was alive at the time of fixation, allowing a description of the parasite in cross sections.

Correlation between histopathology, immune response, clinical presentation, and evolution in Leishmania braziliensis infection.

Skin biopsies from 221 parasitologically confirmed cases of tegumentary leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania braziliensis spp. were evaluated with respect to histopathology, the qualitative and quantitative nature of the cellular infiltrate, and the presence of Leishmania amastigotes. These variables were cross correlated with the Leishmania-specific immune response, clinical presentation, and response to treatment. Physical evidence of prior leishmanial lesions was associated with the absence of amastigotes (P less than or equal to 0.001) and the presence of giant (P = 0.03) and epitheloid cells (P = 0.03) in the biopsy of the active lesion. The presence of amastigotes was inversely related to the duration of the lesion (P less than or equal to 0.001) and the presence of eosinophils (P less than or equal to 0.01), whereas the presence of adenopathy (P = 0.01), necrosis (P = 0.001), histiocytes (P = 0.001), and increased serum antibody titer (P = 0.02) were directly associated with the presence of amastigotes. The lymphocyte transformation response was correlated with the presence of granulomas (P = 0.001), but showed no correlation with cutaneous delayed type hypersensitivity. The presence of epithelioid (P = 0.04) and giant cells (P = 0.03) was associated with less drug being required to achieve healing. In contrast, necrosis was associated with a greater amount of drug to achieve healing (P = 0.05). The observed correlations between tissue responses and immune and clinical parameters provide further evidence for the role of antibody and other soluble mediators of the cellular immune response in the evolution of disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Sulfonylurea effects on acid and pepsinogen secretion in isolated rabbit gastric glands.

The influence of different sulfonylureas on the rate of acid and pepsinogen secretion was studied in isolated rabbit gastric glands. Neither tolbutamide (10-500 microM), chlorpropamide (10-500 microM), glibenclamide (1-50 microM) nor glipizide (1-50 microM) exerted a secretory effect. In contrast, gliquidone caused a marked and dose-dependent stimulation of acid production in gastric glands incubated under basal conditions and potentiated the stimulatory effect of both histamine and carbachol. Gliquidone also increased the rate of pepsinogen release in gastric glands incubated either under basal conditions or in the presence of cholecystokinin-octapeptide or isoproterenol. The secretory effects of gliquidone were associated with a significant increase in the glandular content of cyclic AMP, caused by a competitive inhibition of low-Km cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase. Our results indicate that, among the assayed sulfonylureas, only gliquidone, in the micromolar range, stimulates acid and pepsinogen secretion through a cyclic AMP-dependent mechanism.

Human conjunctivitis caused by the bird parasite Philophthalmus.

We removed a trematode of the species Philophthalmus from under the left upper eyelid of a 66-year-old man who had follicular conjunctivitis for three weeks. After removal of the parasite, the conjunctivitis resolved.

Potential bacterial contamination of eyedrops used for tonometry.

We compared the potential for bacterial contamination of a proparacaine hydrochloride solution preserved with benzalkonium chloride, which is used with fluorescein paper for tonometry, to that of a fluorescein-benoxinate hydrochloride combination solution preserved with chlorobutanol. We contaminated bottles of each solution with Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Staphylococcus aureus (10(7) organisms per milliliter of eyedrop solution). From the fluorescein-benoxinate hydrochloride solution, Staphylococcus organisms were cultured in declining numbers over time, with a half-life of nine seconds, and no Staphylococcus organisms were recovered after five minutes. Pseudomonas organisms disappeared from this solution within 15 seconds. Neither species was viable after 15 seconds in the proparacaine hydrochloride solution. Additionally, we cultured 12 bottles of fluorescein-benoxinate hydrochloride and 15 bottles of proparacaine hydrochloride that had been in use in the clinic for one month. No organisms were recovered from a drop dispensed from any bottle or from the tips, caps, rims, or solution from within any bottle, except that five colonies of Staphylococcus grew from the external rim of one bottle. We conclude that both solutions sterilize themselves rapidly and effectively. Either may be used safely for tonometry.