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This article investigates the economic consequences of EU membership for the countries that established the EU in 1992. The Synthetic Control method is used in the frame of an algorithmic methodology that aims to guide the choice of donor pool countries and predictors by testing different combinations. The algorithm allows to judge the appropriateness of the research design by computing a set of synthetic countries able to improve the performance of the benchmark case (i.e., a synthetic country computed using an initial large basket of donor pool units and predictors). According to the results, the algorithm has been able to improve the counterfactual scenarios' precision and robustness for all tested countries. It shows that the economic effect of the EU membership has significantly varied among countries. Results suggest that the European integration process has not prevented persistent divergence and heterogeneity of growth paths among member countries.

Chagas disease (CD), a disease affecting millions globally, remains shrouded in scientific uncertainty, particularly regarding the role of the intestinal microbiota in disease progression. This study investigates the effects of antibiotic-induced microbiota depletion on parasite burden, immune responses, and clinical outcomes in BALB/c mice infected with either the Trypanosoma cruzi Colombiana or CL Brener strains. Mice were treated with a broad-spectrum antibiotic cocktail before infection, and parasite burden was quantified via qPCR at 30 and 100 days post-infection (dpi). Immune responses were analyzed using flow cytometry and ELISA, while histopathology was conducted on cardiac and intestinal tissues. Antibiotic treatment uncovered strain-specific correlations, with Colombiana infections affecting Bifidobacterium populations and CL Brener infections linked to Lactobacillus. Microbiota depletion initially reduced parasite burden in the heart and intestine, but an increase was observed in the chronic phase, except in the CL Brener-infected gut, where an early burden spike was followed by a decline. Antibiotic-induced bacterial shifts, such as reductions in Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium, promoted a more pro-inflammatory immune profile. These findings highlight the importance of microbiota and strain-specific factors in CD and suggest further research into microbiota manipulation as a potential therapeutic strategy.

Economic integration and globalization are expected to promote economic growth and convergence. This article offers a comparative analysis of the pace of development in terms of GDP per capita in 79 economies from 1970 to 2019. Usually, economic convergence literature aims to establish whether catching-up processes have been successful. This article verifies the existence of growth path similarities to identify clusters of countries that grow at a similar pace and react in a similar way to crises, and compares their dynamics in time. According to the results, coherently with globalization pressures, clusters have become fewer and larger. However, growth path divergences persist and suggest a cluster-based convergence. Integration processes, such as the European Union, have not influenced this trend. The extent to which these clusters are composed of structurally similar economies has been investigated and some consistencies have emerged between the composition of clusters and the classifications provided by the varieties of capitalism theory.

In addition to the long-established role in erythropoiesis, erythropoietin (Epo) has protective functions in a variety of tissues, including the heart. This is the most affected organ in chronic Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. Despite seven million people being infected with T. cruzi worldwide, there is no effective treatment preventing the disease progression to the chronic phase when the pathological involvement of the heart is often observed. Chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy has a wide variety of manifestations, like left ventricular systolic dysfunction, dilated cardiomyopathy, and heart failure. Since Epo may help maintain cardiac function by reducing myocardial necrosis, inflammation, and fibrosis, this study aimed to evaluate whether the Epo has positive effects on experimental Chagas disease. For that, we assessed the earlier (acute phase) and also the later (chronic phase) use of Epo in infected C57BL/6 mice. Blood cell count, biochemical parameters, parasitic load, and echocardiography data were evaluated. In addition, histopathological analysis was carried out. Our data showed that Epo had no trypanocide effect nor did it modify the production of anti-T. cruzi antibodies. Epo-treated groups exhibited parasitic burden much lower in the heart compared to blood. No pattern of hematological changes was observed combining infection with treatment with Epo. Chronic Epo administration reduced CK-MB serum activity from d0 to d180, irrespectively of T. cruzi infection. Likewise, echocardiography and histological results indicate that Epo treatment is more effective in the chronic phase of experimental Chagas disease. Since treatment is one of the greatest challenges of Chagas disease, alternative therapies should be investigated, including Epo combined with benznidazole.

BackgroundDomestic dogs are primary reservoir hosts of Leishmania infantum, the agent of visceral leishmaniasis. Detecting dog infections is central to epidemiological inference, disease prevention, and veterinary practice. Error-free diagnostic procedures, however, are lacking, and the performance of those available is difficult to measure in the absence of fail-safe "reference standards". Here, we illustrate how a hierarchical-modeling approach can be used to formally account for false-negative and false-positive results when investigating the process of Leishmania detection in dogs.Methods/findingsWe studied 294 field-sampled dogs of unknown infection status from a Leishmania-endemic region. We ran 350 parasitological tests (bone-marrow microscopy and culture) and 1,016 qPCR assays (blood, bone-marrow, and eye-swab samples with amplifiable DNA). Using replicate test results and site-occupancy models, we estimated (a) clinical sensitivity for each diagnostic procedure and (b) clinical specificity for qPCRs; parasitological tests were assumed 100% specific. Initial modeling revealed qPCR specificity < 94%; we tracked the source of this unexpected result to some qPCR plates having subtle signs of possible contamination. Using multi-model inference, we formally accounted for suspected plate contamination and estimated qPCR sensitivity at 49-53% across sample types and dog clinical conditions; qPCR specificity was high (95-96%), but fell to 81-82% for assays run in plates with suspected contamination. The sensitivity of parasitological procedures was low (~12-13%), but increased to ~33% (with substantial uncertainty) for bone-marrow culture in seriously-diseased dogs. Leishmania-infection frequency estimates (~49-50% across clinical conditions) were lower than observed (~60%).ConclusionsWe provide statistical estimates of key performance parameters for five diagnostic procedures used to detect Leishmania in dogs. Low clinical sensitivies likely reflect the absence of Leishmania parasites/DNA in perhaps ~50-70% of samples drawn from infected dogs. Although qPCR performance was similar across sample types, non-invasive eye-swabs were overall less likely to contain amplifiable DNA. Finally, modeling was instrumental to discovering (and formally accounting for) possible qPCR-plate contamination; even with stringent negative/blank-control scoring, ~4-5% of positive qPCRs were most likely false-positives. This work shows, in sum, how hierarchical site-occupancy models can sharpen our understanding of the problem of diagnosing host infections with hard-to-detect pathogens including Leishmania.

Tegumentary leishmaniasis is a tropical disease caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania. Clinically, the disease presents a broad spectrum of symptoms, the mechanisms underlying the development of lesions remaining to be fully elucidated. In the present work, we performed a correlation and multiparametric analysis to evaluate how parasite- and host-related aspects associate with each other, and with the different clinical manifestations of tegumentary leishmaniasis. This cross-sectional study involved 75 individuals from endemic areas of Brazil, grouped according to their symptoms. Leishmania species were determined by DNA sequencing, and parasite load, antibody production, and cytokine profile were evaluated by kDNA qPCR, ELISA, and flow cytometry. Data were analyzed using the Chi-square test, principal component analysis, canonical discriminant analysis, and correlation analysis. Among the recruited patients, 23 (31%) were asymptomatic, 34 (45%) had primary cutaneous leishmaniasis, 10 (13%) presented recurrent cutaneous leishmaniasis, and eight (11%) had mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. Leishmania species identified included L. amazonensis, L. braziliensis, and L. guyanensis. Surprisingly, no Leishmania RNA virus infection was detected in any sample. In summary, our work showed that parasite load, antibody production, and cytokine levels alone are not determinants for tegumentary leishmaniasis symptoms. However, the correlation analysis allowed us to observe how these factors are correlated to each other within the groups, which revealed a unique network for each clinical manifestation. Our work reinforces the complexity of tegumentary leishmaniasis outcomes - which are associated with multiple host and parasite-related elements and provides a holistic model of the disease.

Chagas disease (CD), caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), is the main parasitic disease in the Western Hemisphere. Unfortunately, its physiopathology is not completely understood, and cardiomegaly development is hard to predict. Trying to explain tissue lesion and the fact that only a percentage of the infected individuals develops clinical manifestations, a variety of mechanisms have been suggested as the provokers of CD, such as parasite persistence and autoimmune responses. However, holistic analysis of how parasite and host-related elements may connect to each other and influence clinical outcome is still scarce in the literature. Here, we investigated murine models of CD caused by three different pathogen strains: Colombian, CL Brener and Y strains, and employed parasitological and immunological tests to determine parasite load, antibody reactivity, and cytokine production during the acute and chronic phases of the disease. Also, we developed a quantitative PCR (qPCR) protocol to quantify T. cruzi kDNA minicircle integration into the mammalian host genome. Finally, we used a correlation analysis to interconnect parasite- and host-related factors over time. Higher parasite load in the heart and in the intestine was significantly associated with IgG raised against host cardiac proteins. Also, increased heart and bone marrow parasitism was associated with a more intense leukocyte infiltration. kDNA integration rates correlated to the levels of IgG antibodies reactive to host cardiac proteins and interferon production, both influencing tissue inflammation. In conclusion, our results shed light into how inflammatory process associates with parasite load, kDNA transfer to the host, autoreactive autoantibody production and cytokine profile. Altogether, our data support the proposal of an updated integrative theory regarding CD pathophysiology.

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of alternative methods of feeding on the performance and mortality rate of suckling lambs. Eighty-four Santa Inês lambs, twins and singles, half male and half female, were used. The animals were divided into three groups: A (control), B (bovine milk) and C (bovine milk plus Multimixture). The experiment began when lambs were three weeks old and finished at weaning at 2 months of age. Each animal from group B received 200 mL of bovine milk daily; group C received 200 mL of bovine milk plus 20g of Multi-mixture daily. Weaning Weight (WW) was 10.90, 13.20 and 13.59 kg, respectively for groups A, B and C. Daily Weight Gain (DWG) was 126, 163 and 168 g.day-1respectively. The mortality rate was higher (p

There is an abundance of thermal indices with different input parameters and applicabilities. Infrared thermography is a promising technique for evaluating the response of animals to the environment and differentiating between genetic groups. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate superficial body temperatures of lambs from three genetic groups under different environmental conditions, correlating these with thermal comfort indices. Forty lambs (18 males and 22 females) from three genetic groups (Santa Inês, Ile de France × Santa Inês and Dorper × Santa Inês) were exposed to three climatic conditions: open air, housed and artificial heating. Infrared thermal images were taken weekly at 6h, 12h and 21h at the neck, front flank, rear flank, rump, nose, skull, trunk and eye. Four thermal comfort indices were calculated using environmental measurements including black globe temperature, air humidity and wind speed. Artificial warming, provided by infrared lamps and wind protection, conserved and increased the superficial body temperature of the lambs, thus providing lower daily thermal ranges. Artificial warming did not influence daily weight gain or mortality. Skin temperatures increased along with increases in climatic indices. Again, infrared thermography is a promising technique for evaluating thermal stress conditions and differentiating environments. However, the use of thermal imaging for understanding animal responses to environmental conditions requires further study.

he paper looks at the deep and the direct causes of the crisis in the Eurozone and considers what changes are necessary. It shows that, together withfinancial aspects, the Eurozone crisis stems from the difficulties of the real economy and the incompleteness of European institutions. The former include divergent real performances, unsustainable development paths of the Member States, and growing distributive disparities. The consequences of misconceived stabilisation policies magnified the effect of the above factors. The international crisis caused a shock that has had asymmetric effects within the Eurozone due to the divergent economic performances and the different institutions of the member countries. At the same time, European institutional incompleteness deprived member countries of effective policy-making and European policy management and support, thus converting the common currency into a problematic asset. Building on thisframework, the paper critically analyses the institutional and economic reforms necessary to vitalise the process of European integration, and it stresses the urgent need to tackle the real and microeconomic causes ofthe crisis.

The field of comparative economic systems has been recently enriched by the arrival of the new comparative economics. This approach is in the line of the law and finance tradition and presents an important contribution under different perspectives. In the paper I present the most important propositions of this new approach and I evaluate them in the light of the problems that the comparative study of economic systems traditionally considers. The conclusion is that this new approach can give important contributions to the development of the discipline in particular fields, but falls short of its pretended general validity.

A ultrassonografia pode ser uma importante ferramenta para a avaliação da composição da carcaça por ser uma técnica não invasiva que permite quantificar diferentes tecidos em animais vivos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estimar as correlações entre medidas tomadas in vivo, por meio do ultrassom e do adipômetro, e na carcaça de ovinos da raça Santa Inês. Utilizaram-se 81 machos, entre 8 e 18 meses de idade, com peso médio de 31 kg. As medidas in vivo obtidas por ultrassonografia foram medida diagonal longitudinal, área de olho de lombo longitudinal, medida diagonal transversal e área de olho de lombo transversal. Determinou-se o peso de carcaça quente, rendimento da carcaça, gordura de cobertura da carcaça, comprimento de carcaça, área de olho de lombo da carcaça e peso dos cortes comerciais: pernil, lombo, paleta, costela e pescoço. As análises de variância, componentes principais, regressão polinomial e correlação foram realizadas utilizando-se programa estatístico SAS®. Não houve diferença entre animais castrados e inteiros para qualidade e componentes de carcaça, indicando, portanto, que a castração não proporciona uma carcaça de melhor qualidade. Os animais com os pesos de pernil, paleta e costela maiores apresentam menores peso de pele, altura de cernelha e peso dos órgãos abdominais, caracterizando um biotipo de animal que seria mais desejável a ser selecionado. Peso vivo, comprimento corporal e área de olho de lombo por ultrassom (in vivo) podem ser usados para predizer a área do olho de lombo da carcaça, peso do pernil, comprimento da carcaça, peso da carcaça quente e da meia carcaça. No entanto, o peso do lombo, pescoço, costela, rendimento de carcaça e peso dos órgãos abdominais não podem ser preditos por estas medidas in vivo. As medidas realizadas com adipômetro não apresentaram correlações significativas com medidas da carcaça, o que indica que não são eficientes para esta predição e, portanto, não devem ser utilizadas. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: adipômetro; área de olho de lombo; castrado; correlação; regressão; rendimento de carcaça.

The article examines the interpretations of the role of the state in market economies. It presents the reasons for the near-demise of the states from the beginning of transition in Central-Eastern European countries. It depicts the complex process of the transition by collective action involving the entire society and presents problems of difficult solutions. The problems and presents a proposal which shows of a spontaneous development of the new institution.