Search

Las moscas del género Anastrepha constituyen una de las principalesplagas de la fruticultura colombiana. El conocimientode la diversidad de especies presentes en un área es el primerpaso en el diseño de estudios tendientes a establecer tecnologíasapropiadas de manejo. Además de un listado de las especies deAnastrepha identificadas en el Laboratorio de Entomología dela Universidaddel Tolima desde 1988 hasta la fecha a través dediversos estudios realizados en este departamento, el presentetrabajo incluye también la distribución y hospederos de dichasespecies provenientes de diez municipios del departamento,con alturas entre 300 y 2.500 msnm. Se identificaron 60.688especímenes pertenecientes a 24 especies de Anastrepha.Mediante la recolección de frutos se asociaron 16 especies dehospederos (incluyendocinco nuevos reportes) a nueve especiesde Anastrepha. Las especies A. distincta Greene, A. sororculaZucchi y A. striata Schiner fueron las que presentaron unadistribución altitudinal más amplia (300 a 2.200 msnm). Porsu parte, A. obliqua solo se encontró desde los 300 hasta los1.550 msnm. Especies de importancia cuarentenaria como A.fraterculus (Wiedemann), A. grandis Macquart y A. serpentina(Wiedemann) se encontraron por arriba de los 1.100, 960 y 900msnm, respectivamente.

Vitamin D deficiency is epidemiologically linked to prostate, breast, and colon cancer. When compared with European American (EA) men, African American (AA) men have increased risk of prostate cancer, but few studies evaluate vitamin D status in AA men. The authors evaluate the biological and environmental predictors of vitamin D deficiency in AA and EA men in Chicago, Illinois, a low ultraviolet radiation environment. Blood samples were collected from 492 men, aged between 40 and 79 years, from urology clinics at three hospitals in Chicago, along with demographic and medical information, body mass index, and skin melanin content using a portable narrow-band reflectometer. Vitamin D intake and ultraviolet radiation exposure were assessed using validated questionnaires. The results demonstrated that Black race, cold season of blood draw, elevated body mass index, and lack of vitamin D supplementation increase the risk of vitamin D deficiency. Supplementation is a high-impact, modifiable risk factor. Race and sunlight exposure should be taken into account for recommended daily allowances for vitamin D intake.

This paper presents the preliminary tests of a novel system prototype for the physical assessment of mobility in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). The system combines multi-inertial sensors arrays with Kalman Filters-based pose estimation for monitoring spine mobility in patients with AS. This system allows detecting movements with more reliable information than the manual clinical evaluation.

This paper investigates the effect of health insurance on the use of alternative procedures to treat a given medical condition. In particular, we estimate the effect of health insurance on the use of bypass surgery after a heart attack and on the use of a C-section after a normal pregnancy. These procedures are the most expensive, compared to the alternatives. Theoretically, the demand for some procedures like bypass surgery is likely to be inelastic. In this situation, health insurance should have no effect on the use of the procedure. For other procedures such as C-section, demand may be more elastic, especially after a normal pregnancy without complications. We use a nationally representative dataset of inpatient hospital admissions from the United States and control for individual and hospital characteristics. The results from our empirical analysis support our predictions. For patients admitted to a hospital because of a heart attack, being uninsured has no effect on the probability of bypass surgery. However, for patients admitted for childbirth, the uninsured have a substantially lower probability of a C-section delivery., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: We study how the state-wide shelter-in-place order affected social distancing and the number of cases and deaths in Texas. Methods: We use daily data at the county level. The COVID-19 cases and fatalities data are from the New York Times. Social distancing measures are from SafeGraph. Both data are retrieved from the Unfolded Studio website. The county-level COVID-related policy responses are from the National Association of Counties. We use an event-study design and regression analysis to estimate the effect of the state-wide shelter-in-place order on social distancing and the number of cases and deaths. Results: We find that the growth rate of cases and deaths is significantly lower during the policy period when the percentage of the population that stays at home is highest. The crucial question is whether the policy has a causal impact on the sheltering percentages. The fact that some counties in Texas adopted local restrictive policies well before the state-wide policy helps us address this question. We do not find evidence that this top-down restrictive policy increased the percentage of the population that exercised social distancing. Discussion: Shelter-in-place policies are more effective at the local level and should go along with efforts to inform and update the public about the potential consequences of the disease and its current state in their localities., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Castaneda and Saygili.)

Build-up of extracellular matrix in liver fibrosis results in changes on endogenous molecules expression that may be studied through the fluorescence characterization of ex vivo liver samples. To the best of our knowledge, no investigations have provided in-depth evidence and discussion on the changes of the endogenous fluorescence in ex vivo tissue due to the effects of the preservation media. In this work, we contrast and analyze the endogenous fluorescence from tryptophan, vitamin A, hydroxyproline and elastin cross-links potential biomarkers of the liver fibrosis, in in vivo measurements and liver samples preserved on formaldehyde, and two standard preservation media. As it is known, chemical changes in tissue, caused by formaldehyde fixation, alter the endogenous fluorescence spectra. We propose the use of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and Iscove's Modified Dulbecco's Medium (IMDM) to elude the fluorescence changes. PBS and IMDM showed to maintain the endogenous fluorescence characteristics similar to in vivo conditions. The results of this work point the way for a more reliable assessment of endogenous fluorescence in ex vivo hepatic studies.

Simultaneous MIMO-free transmission of 12 orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes over a 1.2 km air-core fiber is demonstrated. WDM compatibility of the system is shown by using 60, 25 GHz spaced WDM channels with 10 GBaud QPSK signals. System performance is evaluated by measuring bit error rates, which are found to be below the soft FEC limit, and limited by inter-modal crosstalk. The crosstalk in the system is analyzed, and it is concluded that it can be significantly reduced with an improved multiplexer and de-multiplexer.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) and quantum communication enable the secure exchange of information between remote parties. Currently, the distributed-phase-reference (DPR) protocols, which are based on weak coherent pulses, are among the most practical solutions for long-range QKD. During the last 10 years, long-distance fiber-based DPR systems have been successfully demonstrated, although fundamental obstacles such as intrinsic channel losses limit their performance. Here, we introduce the first two-dimensional DPR-QKD protocol in which information is encoded in the time and phase of weak coherent pulses. The ability of extracting two bits of information per detection event, enables a higher secret key rate in specific realistic network scenarios. Moreover, despite the use of more dimensions, the proposed protocol remains simple, practical, and fully integrable.

This paper investigates the difference in the health conditions and the health care consumption of uninsured individuals as compared to individuals with private insurance, using a nationally representative data set of inpatient hospital admissions from the US. In line with the previous literature, our results indicate that uninsured individuals are, on average, in worse health conditions. However, if we compare individuals within the same diagnosis category, the uninsured are actually healthier, with a lower number of chronic conditions and a lower risk of mortality. This indicates that the uninsured are admitted to the hospital only for more serious conditions. In addition, our results show that uninsured individuals consume less health care. In particular, conditional on being admitted to a hospital and controlling for health conditions, the uninsured have lower total charges, fewer procedures, and a higher mortality rate.

Mode-division multiplexing has the potential to further increase data transmission capacity through optical fibers. In addition, distributed Raman amplification is a promising candidate for multi-mode signal amplification due to its desirable noise properties and the possibility of mode-equalized gain. In this paper, we present an experimental characterization of the intermodal Raman intensity overlaps of a few-mode fiber using backward-pumped Raman amplification. By varying the input pump power and the degree of higher order mode-excitation for the pump and the signal in a 10 km long two-mode fiber, we are able to characterize all intermodal Raman intensity overlaps. Using these results, we perform a Raman amplification measurement and demonstrate a mode-differential gain of only 0.25 dB per 10 dB overall gain. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the lowest mode differential gain achieved for amplification of mode division multiplexed signals in a single fiber.

We  investigated whether healthy subjects with high (highs) and low (lows) hypnotizability scores differ in the ability to report the position of their right hand in the horizontal plane at the end of passive and active arm movements directed to lateral, intermediate and medial targets of the right hemispace under correct or incorrect visual feedback. Results showed that incorrect visual feedback increased the error in both groups. In lows, the error was similar after active and passive movements; in highs, it was lower for active than passive movements toward the medial position, but lower for passive than for active movements for the lateral one. The highs' error was significantly lower than the lows' one only for the active movements directed toward the medial hand position. Hypnotizability-related differences may be due to different role of efferent copies in highs and lows.

We describe a robotic and virtual reality system for the rehabilitation of the forearm. It consists of a robotic arm and VR scenarios with a dynamic model of the human upper limb. The system allows to assign specific tasks to perform within the virtual environments. The system simulates the actions of the patient limb and allows exhaustive exercising and motor control, giving visuomotor and haptic feedback and trajectory positioning guidance. The system aids to evaluate the mobility condition of the patient, to personalize the difficult level of the therapy and provides kinematic measures of the patient evolution. The patients recruitment phase has already started for clinical pilot studies.

To determine the effects of a distal splenic arteriovenous fistula on endocrine function and pancreatic blood flow, 25 dogs underwent proximal pancreatectomy with the pancreatic tail left in situ and free intraperitoneal drainage of the pancreatic duct. Group A served as controls. In groups B through E, ligation of all nonpancreatic splenic vessels was accomplished. In group B, no further manipulations were performed. In group C, an arteriovenous fistula was created. Groups D and E were identical to groups B and C, respectively, except for the induction of bile pancreatitis. During intravenous glucose tolerance testing, the mean (+/- SEM) basal-to-peak insulin difference was 10.1 +/- 3.5 microU/mL in group A, 16.3 +/- 3.6 microU/mL in group B, 14.8 +/- 5.1 microU/mL in group C, 16.4 +/- 3.1 microU/mL in group D, and 13.0 +/- 4.4 microU/mL in group E. Corresponding mean (+/- SEM) glucose clearance values were as follows: -0.907% +/- 0.24%/min, -0.867% +/- 0.14%/min, -1.056% +/- 0.21%/min, -1.365% +/- 0.26%/min, and -0.887% +/- 0.20%/min. These values were not significantly different. Ligation of all splenic arterial and venous branches resulted in a 64.8% to 78.3% reduction in splenic artery blood flow that was restored to 60.9% to 84.9% of basal flow by an arteriovenous fistula (groups C and E). In conclusion, the creation of a splenic arteriovenous fistula was not beneficial in this model and other factors (rejection or technical) should be considered in vascular thrombosis following segmental pancreatic transplantation.

From April 1975 to September 1980, 16 symptomatic bovine graft aneurysms were identified in 200 grafts used for long-term hemodialysis. Aneurysms occurred in five (3.6%) straight forearm grafts, two (33%) reversed forearm grafts, two (33%) straight thigh grafts, and seven (18.9%) upper arm grafts. Mean blood pressures were similar in the aneurysm and non-aneurysm groups (142/81 vs 153/83 mm Hg). At operation, the aneurysms were determined to be true in three patients and false in 13. Five patients were treated by graft ligation and aneurysm excision and 11 by aneurysm excision and graft revision, with additional graft survivals of one to 25 months. In conclusion, bovine graft aneurysms are usually false and are more frequent in proximal grafts. In the absence of infection, resection is indicated and will result in considerable prolongation of graft survival.

Since elective and emergent nontransplant-related surgical procedures are frequently necessary in renal allograft recipients, it becomes essential to determine the incidence and outcome of these operations in this population. For this reason, a retrospective analysis of 273 consecutive renal transplants performed in 254 patients between January 1978 and November 1985 was accomplished. During this interval, 139 patients underwent 162 nontransplant-related surgical procedures. In the 44 patients who underwent 55 emergent or semiemergent procedures, 8 patients (18 percent) died in the postoperative period. All deaths occurred in patients who underwent major abdominal or thoracic procedures for perforated viscera, gastrointestinal bleeding, or empyema and lung abscess, and all deaths were secondary to sepsis and multiple organ failure. In the survivors of emergent procedures, the mean preoperative and discharge serum creatinine levels were 2.87 mg/dl and 2.82 mg/dl, respectively. In the 95 patients who underwent 107 elective procedures, most of which were performed under general anesthesia, the operative mortality was 4.2 percent. In patients with stable renal allograft function at the time of operation, mean serum creatinine levels preoperatively and at the time of discharge were not significantly different (1.74 mg/dl versus 1.64 mg/dl). In conclusion, emergent operative procedures for intraabdominal or thoracic catastrophes are associated with a high mortality rate in renal allograft recipients. On the other hand, elective surgical procedures can be undertaken with an acceptable mortality rate and no adverse affects on graft function. Of utmost importance in these patients is the close monitoring of the immunosuppressive regimen and the early detection and treatment of potential septic complications.

To determine an index of viability during pancreatic preservation, 15 dogs underwent segmental pancreatic autografting after 24 hr of pulsatile perfusion. These animals were divided into Group A (6) and Group B (9) on the basis of post-transplant normoglycemia or hyperglycemia. In each experiment, sequential perfusate amylase and arterial and venous blood gases were analyzed during preservation. In addition, sequential pancreatic tissue slices were obtained to determine in vitro insulin release. A comparison of perfusion parameters demonstrated no significant differences in pancreas weight (41 +/- 2.9 vs 38.3 +/- 1.5 mg), perfusate flow (0.24 +/- 0.2 vs 0.20 +/- 0.06 ml/min/g), diastolic (24.3 +/- 2.3 vs 26.9 +/- 1.6 mm Hg) or mean pressure (27.4 +/- 1.9 vs 30.1 +/- 1.5 mm Hg). Perfusate amylase levels (u/100 ml) and percentage change from baseline are as follows: (Table: see text). Perfusate amylase was significantly greater at 21 hr in Group A (P less than 0.005). In addition, a significantly greater rate of amylase release was evident in Group A at 1 hr (P less than 0.02), 3 hr (P less than 0.02), and 21 hr (P less than 0.01). Group B pancreata demonstrated significantly increased oxygen extraction at 1 hr (A-V O2 difference: Group A = -33, Group B = -68; P less than 0.05). In vitro insulin release of tissue slices obtained pre-harvest, post-flush, post-preservation, and 15 min post-transplantation was not significantly different in the two groups. In conclusion, sequential perfusate amylase and blood gas determinations may be useful in predicting pancreatic transplant function.

Twenty-five patients underwent bilateral native nephrectomy one to 68 months (mean, 15.6 months) following renal transplantation. The indications were erythrocytosis in two patients, recurrent urinary tract infection in three, medically uncontrolled hypertension in 18, and hypertension and urinary tract infection in two. One patient died two months after the nephrectomy, and one allograft was lost because of acute tubular necrosis. Both patients with erythrocytosis had prompt return of the hematocrit level and RBC mass to normal. Native nephrectomy eradicated the infection in each of the five patients with recurrent urinary tract infections. Results of nephrectomy for hypertension were classified as excellent in six patients, good in nine, and poor in four. Native renal-vein renin ratios of patients with excellent or good responses were not statistically different when compared with those of poor responders.