Ergodicity bounds for stable Ornstein-Uhlenbeck systems in Wasserstein distance with applications to cutoff stability.

This article establishes cutoff stability also known as abrupt thermalization for generic multidimensional Hurwitz stable Ornstein-Uhlenbeck systems with (possibly degenerate) Lévy noise at fixed noise intensity. The results are based on several ergodicity quantitative lower and upper bounds some of which make use of the recently established shift linearity property of the Wasserstein-Kantorovich-Rubinstein distance by the authors. It covers such irregular systems like Jacobi chains and more general networks of coupled harmonic oscillators with a heat bath (including Lévy excitations) at constant temperature on the outer edges and the so-called Brownian gyrator.

COVID-19 Testing of United States-Bound Agricultural Workers in Mexico.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents global health, welfare, and economic concerns. The agricultural workforce has experienced adverse effects, placing the U.S. food supply at risk. Agricultural workers temporarily travel to the United States on H-2A visas to supplement the agricultural workforce. Approximately 300,000 agricultural workers enter the United States with H-2A visas each year; over 90.0% are from Mexico. During February-May 2021, a COVID-19 testing pilot was performed with Clínica Médica Internacional (CMI), a clinic that performs medical examinations for US-bound immigrants, to determine the SARS-CoV-2 infection status of H-2A agricultural workers in Mexico before entry to the US. The CerTest VIASURE Real Time PCR Detection Kit was used. Participants' demographic information, test results, and testing turnaround times were collected. Workers who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 completed isolation before US entry. During the pilot, 1195 H-2A workers were tested; 15 (1.3%) tested positive. Average reporting time was 31 h after specimen collection. This pilot demonstrated there is interest from H-2A employers and agents in testing the H-2A community before US entry. Testing for SARS-CoV-2 can yield public health benefit, is feasible, and does not delay entry of temporary agricultural workers to the US.

Smears and cultures for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in an asymptomatic immigrant population.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization estimated in 2010 that 8.8 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases. About one-third of the world's population is infected and 10% will develop active TB disease. While cultures remain the international gold standard for diagnosing TB disease, in many other low-income countries, sputum smears remain the only and most accessible tool with which to diagnose active TB disease. As a consequence, in patients with TB who have negative smears, their TB remains undetected. AIM: The objective of the study reported here was to demonstrate the proportion of smear-positive/culture-positive cases compared with smear-negative/culture-positive TB cases in Mexican immigrants bound for the USA. METHODS: A retrospective study was undertaken of the medical records of 122 active TB cases diagnosed at a clinic in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, from 2009 to 2012. All cases were confirmed by culture, regardless of the sputum smear results. RESULTS: Of the cases, 80% (97 active TB cases) had negative sputum smears, while only 25 cases (20%) had at least one positive smear. All of the cultures were confirmed as positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. CONCLUSION: The fact that 80% of the TB cases were smear negative and 20% smear positive shows that there is a clear gap between the actual state of active TB disease within patients under screening conditions, meaning that eight out of ten actual cases are being missed when sputum smear is the only diagnostic tool in asymptomatic patients with abnormal chest X-rays. Based on these results, it is highly recommended that countries that have not standardized culturing as the gold standard for the diagnosis of active TB do so, so that TB cases - which may endanger global public health - are not missed. It is also recommended that further studies be undertaken to determine the clinical background of the patients diagnosed by smear and culture to identify a direct relationship between clinical signs and symptoms and the smear result.

Uso de Ketotifeno en el asma bronquial alérgica / The use of Ketatifen in allergic bronchial asthma

En este trabajo se valora la utilidad del ketotifeno en el tratamiento integral del paciente asmático alérgico. Se valoraron 15 pacientes con asma bronquial alérgica en base a los parámetros de síntomas diarios y pruebas de función pulmonar antes y seis semanas después del tratamiento con ketotifeno en dosis de 1 mg cada 12 horas por vía bucal, encontrando mejoría significativa en 11 de los 15 pacientes estudiados. Se concluye que ketotifeno puede ser útil en el tratamiento del paciente asmático alérgico