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Determine the seroprevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in Ushuaia, Argentina, which is the southernmost city in the world.Serum samples were analyzed from 2,991 people, obtained between January 1995 and December 1996. The samples were processed using indirect hemagglutination and either enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or indirect immunofluorescence.The general seroprevalence of T. cruzi infection was 6.8%. According to the residents' country of origin, prevalence was 41.1% among Bolivians, 5.0% among Argentines, and 0.9% among Chileans. The prevalence found in pregnant women was 5.9%; in compulsory examinations (such as for a job or for immigrants settling permanently in Argentina), it was 6.3%; and in examinations done based on clinical or epidemiological reasons to suspect infection with Chagas' disease, it was 30.8%.There is an alarming level of T. cruzi infection in this region, where the insect vector does not even exist. Given the risk of transmission congenitally and from blood transfusions, controls must be maintained on donated blood. In addition, follow-up of children of infected women should be strengthened so that these children receive early diagnosis and timely treatment of the infection.

IMAGINE," THE SCENARIO would begin, "a room/place/device/system that will serve all your communication needs for information, entertainment, messaging, home shopping, protective security, banking and much more .... " In countless books, articles, speeches, television documentaries and news programs these and other promises have been made for decades. In his visionary science fiction work, Voices from the Sky, Arthur C. Clarke imagined this and more. So did technologists who thought cable television would be the instrument for multifaceted new media services. Others spoke of a cosy menage a trois of telephone, television and computer, an integrated world of multimedia wonder wherein all forms and functions of communication would converge into a single system, one that some said would eventually be accessible to all people everywhere.

The draft nuclear genome sequence of the snail-transmitted, dimorphic, parasitic, platyhelminth Schistosoma mansoni revealed eight genes encoding proteins that contain the Universal Stress Protein (USP) domain. Schistosoma mansoni is a causative agent of human schistosomiasis, a severe and debilitating Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) of poverty, which is endemic in at least 76 countries. The availability of the genome sequences of Schistosoma species presents opportunities for bioinformatics and genomics analyses of associated gene families that could be targets for understanding schistosomiasis ecology, intervention, prevention and control. Proteins with the USP domain are known to provide bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and plants with the ability to respond to diverse environmental stresses. In this research investigation, the functional annotations of the USP genes and predicted nucleotide and protein sequences were initially verified. Subsequently, sequence clusters and distinctive features of the sequences were determined. A total of twelve ligand binding sites were predicted based on alignment to the ATP-binding universal stress protein from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii. In addition, six USP sequences showed the presence of ATP-binding motif residues indicating that they may be regulated by ATP. Public domain gene expression data and RT-PCR assays confirmed that all the S. mansoni USP genes were transcribed in at least one of the developmental life cycle stages of the helminth. Six of these genes were up-regulated in the miracidium, a free-swimming stage that is critical for transmission to the snail intermediate host. It is possible that during the intra-snail stages, S. mansoni gene transcripts for universal stress proteins are low abundant and are induced to perform specialized functions triggered by environmental stressors such as oxidative stress due to hydrogen peroxide that is present in the snail hemocytes. This report serves to catalyze the formation of a network of researchers to understand the function and regulation of the universal stress proteins encoded in genomes of schistosomes and their snail intermediate hosts.

​FormerFormer consultant ophthalmic surgeon Salisbury Infirmary and Odstock Hospital, Wiltshire (b 1921; q Oxford/The London Hospital 1946; DO, FRCS), d 19 February 2005. Figure 1 After house jobs and service in the Royal Navy John held ophthalmic posts in Oxford and at Moorfields Hospital, where he became senior registrar. He was appointed to Salisbury in 1955, where he remained for the rest of his career. John was a member of the Magic Circle, and a skilled carpenter and joiner, who designed and made miniature dolls houses and automata (the picture shows him with a medieval cathedral builder, part of an enormous model that he made of Salisbury Cathedral). His great love was the restoration of a near derelict croft on the Hebridean island of Coll. John published House in the Hebrides in 2004 about the croft's restoration and associated adventures. He leaves Doreen, four children, and six grandchildren.

We report here on low temperature magnetic relaxation in the erbium orthoferrite ErFeO 3 . The variation of magnetic viscosity, S ≡ ∂M / ∂ / ∂ ln t , with temperature shows three different regimes below 40 K. The most remarkable is that at T ≤ 3 K where S(T) remains constant suggesting the occurrence of macroscopic quantum tunneling of the magnetization.

PRAY TV: TELEVANGELISM IN AMERICA by Steven Bruce (New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1990–$16.95, paper, ISBN 0-415-03098-6, 272 pp.) RELIGIOUS TELEVISION: CONTROVERSIES AND CONCLUSIONS edited by Robert Abelman and Stewart M. Hoover (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1990—price not given, ISBN 0-89391-643-9, 366 pp.) THE GAME BEHIND THE GAME: HIGH STAKES, HIGH PRESSURE IN TELEVISION SPORTS by Terry O'Neil (New York: Harper & Row [now HarperCollins], 1989—$17.95, ISBN 0-06-016019-5, 291 pp.) GAMES AND SETS: THE CHANGING FACE OF SPORT ON TELEVISION by Steven Barnett (London: British Film Institute/Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990—$35.00/13.95, ISBN 0-85170-267-8 hard, 0-85170-268-6 paper, 214 pp.) SPLIT IMAGE: AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE MASS MEDIA edited by Jannette L. Dates and William Barlow (Howard University Press, 2900 Van Ness St. NW, Washington, DC 20008—$29.95/14.95, ISBN 0-88258-035-3 hard, 0-88258-063-9 paper, 492 pp.) TELEVISION AND WOMEN'S CULTURE: THE POLITICS OF THE POPULAR edited by Mary Ellen ...