Sand fly vectorial ecology in the state of São Paulo

Ecological aspect of sand fly distribution in the state of São Paulo, Brazil are described. The main man-biting species are Lutzomyia whitmani, Lu.pessoai, Lu.intermedia, Lu.migonei and Lu.fischeri. Their primary habitat is the forest but latter three of the above species are also encountered in domiciliary environment. Sylvatic species such as Lu.flaviscutellata bite man only rarely and Psychodopygus ayrozai seems to be more anthropophilic. The survival of sand flies in the residual forest and in cultivated areas where man has nearly destroyed the forest almost completely is analyzed. Over the last ten years the incidence of human American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) has been increasing: human cases occurring within several municipalities in which there is overlapping with the distributon of domiciliary Lu.intermedia. New ACL microfoci are appearing in the state of São Paulo and these call for further study.

The sand fly fauna (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) of a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Ilhéus, state of Bahia, Brazil

The municipality of Ilhéus, State of Bahia, has a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis where entomological studies were carried out to determine the sand fly species and their habits. Lutzomyia migonei, L. sallesi, L. tupynambai, L. schreiberi, L. intermedia, L. whitmani, L. yuilli yuilli, L. fischeri, L. pessoai, L. shannoni and L. misionensis were identified. Lutzomyia whitmani was the predominant species. Specimens were collected indoors, at peridomestic sites, in the cocoa plantations and in other types of collections. Females fed readily on humans and were attracted to domestic animals. Our evidence suggests that L. whitmani is a probable vector.

The associated microflora to the larvae of human bot fly Dermatobia hominis L. Jr. (Diptera: Cuterebridae) and its furuncular lesions in cattle

The microflora associated to furuncular lesions, larvae and pupae of Dermatobia hominis, as well as the relationships between parasite, host and microflora associated, as a comprehensive microsystem, has been studied. One hundred and two furuncular myiasis due to D. hominis larvae in several breeds of cattle were studied and the following bacterial species were significant: Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, S. warneri, Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli. Closely related, the microflora associated to 141 samples from first, second, third instar larva and both external surface and larval cavities has been studied. The representative associated microflora to the larvae were: S. aureus, B. subtilis, S. hycus and Moraxella phenylpiruvica, Moerella wisconsiensis, Proteus mirabilis and P. vulgaris, M. phenylpiruvica, M. wisconsiensis, P. mirabilis and P. rettgeri were the representative microflora associated to 64 pupae of D. hominis.

Dasybasis (Agelanius) cortesi, a new species of horse fly from Chile (Diptera: Tabanidae: Diachlorini)

The female and male of Dasybasis (Agelanius) cortesi, new species, is described and illustrated from specimens collected in the National Reserve of Río Clarillo, Cordillera Province, Central Chile. Its relationships to other Dasybasis species are discussed.

Notes on the Sand Fly Fauna (Diptera:Psychodidae) in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

The authors report the catching of 13 different species at the Aparados da Serra National Park and at the Turvo State Park in the municipalities of Cambará do Sul and Tenente Portela, respectively, both in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, where those species were practically unknown

Computed tomography angiography vs 3 T black-blood cardiovascular magnetic resonance for identification of symptomatic carotid plaques.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this prospective study was to perform a head-to-head comparison of the two methods most frequently used for evaluation of carotid plaque characteristics: Multi-detector Computed Tomography Angiography (MDCTA) and black-blood 3 T-cardiovascular magnetic resonance (bb-CMR) with respect to their ability to identify symptomatic carotid plaques. METHODS: 22 stroke unit patients with unilateral symptomatic carotid disease and >50% stenosis by duplex ultrasound underwent MDCTA and bb-CMR (TOF, pre- and post-contrast fsT1w-, and fsT2w- sequences) within 15 days of symptom onset. Both symptomatic and contralateral asymptomatic sides were evaluated. By bb-CMR, plaque morphology, composition and prevalence of complicated AHA type VI lesions (AHA-LT6) were evaluated. By MDCTA, plaque type (non-calcified, mixed, calcified), plaque density in HU and presence of ulceration and/or thrombus were evaluated. Sensitivity (SE), specificity (SP), positive and negative predictive value (PPV, NPV) were calculated using a 2-by-2-table. RESULTS: To distinguish between symptomatic and asymptomatic plaques AHA-LT6 was the best CMR variable and presence / absence of plaque ulceration was the best CT variable, resulting in a SE, SP, PPV and NPV of 80%, 80%, 80% and 80% for AHA-LT6 as assessed by bb-CMR and 40%, 95%, 89% and 61% for plaque ulceration as assessed by MDCTA. The combined SE, SP, PPV and NPV of bb-CMR and MDCTA was 85%, 75%, 77% and 83%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Bb-CMR is superior to MDCTA at identifying symptomatic carotid plaques, while MDCTA offers high specificity at the cost of low sensitivity. Results were only slightly improved over bb-CMR alone when combining both techniques.

Field Monitoring of Cypermethrin Residual Effect on the Mortality Rates of the Phlebotomine Sand Fly Lutzomyia longipalpis in the State of Paraíba, Brazil

In a visceral leishmaniasis endemic locality of northeast of Brasil where all settlements were treated with cypermethrin, a follow-up of Lutzomyia longipalpis populations was carried out by regular collections. The residual effect of the insecticide was studied using biological assays on three different types of walls. The results showed that the insecticides had an effect on intradomiciliar Lu. longipalpis populations limited to two months, and had no significant effect on peridomiciliar vector populations. The mortality rates of the tested sandflies were variable according to the type of wall. The decreasing of the insecticide effect was marked since the 3rd month, and mortality rates were identical whatever the type of wall since the 4th month. Unsufficient residual effect was detected after the 4th month.

Lufaxin, a novel factor Xa inhibitor from the salivary gland of the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis blocks protease-activated receptor 2 activation and inhibits inflammation and thrombosis in vivo.

OBJECTIVE: Blood-sucking arthropods' salivary glands contain a remarkable diversity of antihemostatics. The aim of the present study was to identify the unique salivary anticoagulant of the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis, which remained elusive for decades. METHODS AND RESULTS: Several L. longipalpis salivary proteins were expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells and screened for inhibition of blood coagulation. A novel 32.4-kDa molecule, named Lufaxin, was identified as a slow, tight, noncompetitive, and reversible inhibitor of factor Xa (FXa). Notably, Lufaxin's primary sequence does not share similarity to any physiological or salivary inhibitors of coagulation reported to date. Lufaxin is specific for FXa and does not interact with FX, Dansyl-Glu-Gly-Arg-FXa, or 15 other enzymes. In addition, Lufaxin blocks prothrombinase and increases both prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time. Surface plasmon resonance experiments revealed that FXa binds Lufaxin with an equilibrium constant ≈3 nM, and isothermal titration calorimetry determined a stoichiometry of 1:1. Lufaxin also prevents protease-activated receptor 2 activation by FXa in the MDA-MB-231 cell line and abrogates edema formation triggered by injection of FXa in the paw of mice. Moreover, Lufaxin prevents FeCl(3)-induced carotid artery thrombus formation and prolongs activated partial thromboplastin time ex vivo, implying that it works as an anticoagulant in vivo. Finally, salivary gland of sand flies was found to inhibit FXa and to interact with the enzyme. CONCLUSIONS: Lufaxin belongs to a novel family of slow-tight FXa inhibitors, which display antithrombotic and anti-inflammatory activities. It is a useful tool to understand FXa structural features and its role in prohemostatic and proinflammatory events.

Re-opening the black box in societal metabolism: the application of MuSIASEM to water

In this paper we address the complexity of the analysis of water use in relation to the issue of sustainability. In fact, the flows of water in our planet represent a complex reality which can be studied using many different perceptions and narratives referring to different scales and dimensions of analysis. For this reason, a quantitative analysis of water use has to be based on analytical methods that are semantically open: they must be able to define what we mean with the term “water” when crossing different scales of analysis. We propose here a definition of water as a resource that deal with the many services it provides to humans and ecosystems. WE argue that water can fulfil so many of them since the element has many characteristics that allow for the resource to be labelled with different attributes, depending on the end use –such as drinkable. Since the services for humans and the functions for ecosystems associated with water flows are defined on different scales but still interconnected it is necessary to organize our assessment of water use across different hierarchical levels. In order to do so we define how to approach the study of water use in the Societal Metabolism, by proposing the Water Metabolism, tganized in three levels: societal level, ecosystem level and global level. The possible end uses we distinguish for the society are: personal/physiological use, household use, economic use. Organizing the study of “water use” across all these levels increases the usefulness of the quantitative analysis and the possibilities of finding relevant and comparable results. To achieve this result, we adapted a method developed to deal with multi-level, multi-scale analysis - the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach - to the analysis of water metabolism. In this paper, we discuss the peculiar analytical identity that “water” shows within multi-scale metabolic studies: water represents a flow-element when considering the metabolism of social systems (at a small scale, when describing the water metabolism inside the society) and a fund-element when considering the metabolism o ecosystems (at a larger scale when describing the water metabolism outside the society). The theoretical analysis is illustrated using two case which characterize the metabolic patterns regarding water use of a productive system in Catalonia and a water management policy in Andarax River Basin in Andalusia.

Contribution to the sand fly fauna (Diptera: Phlebotominae) of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and Leishmania (Viannia) infections

American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) is endemic in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. As reports of nearby hospitals suggest, the Parque Estadual do Turvo seems to serve as a source for the disease. During three months from November 1996 to February 1997 we collected, in this park, 2,228 sandflies (10 Lutzomyia species and 2 6species). We applied the polymerase chain reaction to 920 females which belong to the following species: Lutzomyia migonei, Lu. pessoai, Lu. fischeri, Lu. misionensis, Lu. lanei, Lu. neivai, Lu. shannoni, and Lu. monticola, in an attempt to verify natural infection by Leishmania (Viannia), the causative agent of ACL. Le. (Viannia) infections were demonstrated by DNA amplification from two Lu. pessoai and one Lu. misionensis female. Lu. pessoai have been found with leptomonas in the gut believed to be Le. (V.) braziliensis in other endemic areas of northeastern and southeastern Brazil. However, Lu. misionensis has never been found carrying a natural infection of Le. (Viannia).

Lutzomyia derelicta (Diptera: Psychodidae) a singular new phlebotomine sand fly from an inselberg in northeastern amazonia

Lutzomyia derelicta n. sp. is described from specimens collected in an isolated xeric habitat in the rainforest in the north of the State of Pará, Brazil. The new species lacks the posterior bulge in the dorsal wall of the cibarium characteristic of the New World genus Lutzomyia, and the armature of the male genitalia is of the pattern found elsewhere only in the Old World species of Sergentomyia. L. derelicta is phenetically intermediate between the known species of Lutzomyia and Sergentomyia, and cannot readily be placed in any existing subgenus or species group of either genus.

Description of Lutzomyia bianchigalatiae n. sp. a sand fly within the subgenus Pintomyia Costa Lima 1932 (Diptera; Psychodidae)

A new sand fly species is described based on males collected in Bananal, municipality of Mariana and the female from Sabará city, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Taxonomic remarks, geographic distribution and the description of new species are presented. The name Lutzomyia (Pintomyia) bianchigalatiae is in honour of Dr Eunice Aparecida Bianchi Galati, friend and researcher at the Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo.

Chemical and carbon isotopic evolution of hydrocarbons during prograde metamorphism from 100°C to 550°C: Case study in the Liassic black shale formation of Central Swiss Alps

Hydrocarbon distributions and stable isotope ratios of carbonates (delta(13)C(car), delta(18)O(car)), kerogen (delta(13)C(ker)), extractable organic matter (delta(13)C(EOM)) and individual hydrocarbons of Liassic black shale samples from a prograde metamorphic sequence in the Swiss Alps were used to identify the major organic reactions with increasing metamorphic grade. The studied samples range from the diagenetic zone (< 100 degrees C) to amphibolite facies (similar to 550 degrees C). The samples within the diagenetic zones (< 100 and 150 degrees C) are characterized by the dominance of C-< 20 n-alkanes, suggesting an origin related with marine and/or bacterial inputs. The metamorphic samples (200 to 550 degrees C) have distributions significantly dominated by C-12 and C-13 n-alkanes, C-14, C-16 and C-18 n-alkylcyclopentanes and to a lesser extend C-15, C-17 and C-21 n-alkylcyclohexanes. The progressive C-13-enrichment (up to 3.9 parts per thousand) with metamorphism of the C-> 17 n-alkanes suggests the occurrence of cracking reactions of high molecular weight compounds. The isotopically heavier (up to 5.6 parts per thousand) C-< 17 n-alkanes in metamorphic samples are likely originated by thermal degradation of long-chain homologous with preferential release of isotopically light C-1 and C-2 radicals. The dominance of specific even C-number n-alkylcyclopentanes suggests an origin related to direct cyclization mechanism (without decarboxylation step) of algal or bacterial fatty acids occurring in reducing aqueous metamorphic fluid conditions. The regular increase of the concentrations of n-alkylcycloalkanes vs. C-> 13 n-alkanes with metamorphism suggests progressive thermal release of kerogen-linked fatty acid precursors and degradation of n-alkanes. Changes of the steroid and terpenoid distributions are clearly related to increasing metamorphic temperatures. The absence of 18 alpha(H)-22,29,30-trisnorneohopane (Ts), the occurrence of 17 beta(H)-trisnorhopane, 17 beta(H), 21 alpha(H)-hopanes in the C-29 to C-31 range and 5 alpha(H),14 alpha(H),17 alpha(H)-20R C-27, C-29 steranes in the low diagenetic samples (< 100 degrees C) are characteristic of immature bitumens. The higher thermal stress within the upper diagenetic zone (150 degrees C) is marked by the presence of Ts, the disappearance of 17 beta(H)-trisnorhopane and thermodynamic equilibrium of the 22S/(22S + 22R) homohopane ratios. The increase of the alpha alpha alpha-sterane 20S/(20S + 20R) and 20R beta beta/(beta beta + alpha alpha) ratios (from 0.0 to 0.55 and from 0.0 to 0.40, respectively) in the upper diagenetic zone indicates the occurrence of isomerization reactions already at < 150 degrees C. However, the isomerization at C-20 (R -> S) reaches thermodynamic equilibrium values already at the upper diagenesis (similar to 150 degrees C) whereas the epimerisation at C-14 and C-17 (alpha alpha ->beta beta) arrives to constant values in the lower anchizone (similar to 200 degrees C). The ratios Ts vs. 17 alpha(H)-22,29,30-trisnorneohopane [(Ts/(Ts + Tm)] and 18 alpha(H)-30-norneohopane (C29Ts) vs. 17 alpha(H),21 beta(H)-30-norhopane [C29Ts/(C29Ts + C-29)] increase until the medium anchizone (200 to 250 degrees C) from 0.0 to 0.96 and from 0.0 to 0.44, respectively. An opposite trend owards lower values is observed in the higher metamorphic samples. The occurrence of specific hydrocarbons (e.g., n-alkylcyclopentanes, cadalene, hydrogenated aromatic compounds) in metamorphic samples points to kerogen degradation reactions most probably occurring in the presence of water and under reducing conditions. The changes of hydrocarbon distributions and carbon isotopic compositions of n-alkanes related to metamorphism suggest that the organic geochemistry may help to evaluate the lowest grades of prograde metamorphism. Copyright (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd.

Free-breathing inner-volume black-blood imaging of the human heart using two-dimensionally selective local excitation at 3 T.

Black-blood fast spin-echo imaging is a powerful technique for the evaluation of cardiac anatomy. To avoid fold-over artifacts, using a sufficiently large field of view in phase-encoding direction is mandatory. The related oversampling affects scanning time and respiratory chest motion artifacts are commonly observed. The excitation of a volume that exclusively includes the heart without its surrounding structures may help to improve scan efficiency and minimize motion artifacts. Therefore, and by building on previously reported inner-volume approach, the combination of a black-blood fast spin-echo sequence with a two-dimensionally selective radiofrequency pulse is proposed for selective "local excitation" small field of view imaging of the heart. This local excitation technique has been developed, implemented, and tested in phantoms and in vivo. With this method, small field of view imaging of a user-specified region in the human thorax is feasible, scanning becomes more time efficient, motion artifacts can be minimized, and additional flexibility in the choice of imaging parameters can be exploited.

Sexing sand fly pupae (Diptera: Psychodidade: Phlebotominae)

We describe a technique to separate male and female pupae of sand flies. This has reduced the labour to separate flies after emergence and also allows the isolation of unmated adults for behavioural and physiological studies.