Trichomonas vaginalis causes trichomoniasis, an inflammatory process related to an increased rate of HIV transmission. In order to study T. vaginalis infection response in a microorganism-free environment, an infection model was established providing a host–parasite interaction system useful to study the interplay between immune cells and the parasite. Infected mice peritoneal cells were immunophenotyped at different times after infection using flow cytometry. Neutrophils and macrophages showed the most relevant increase from third to 12th day post-infection. A high number of B lymphocytes were present on 15th day post-infection, and an increase in memory T cells was observed on sixth day post-infection. The levels of NO increased at day 10 post-infection; no significant influence was observed on T. vaginalis clearance. Increased viability of T. vaginalis was observed when the NETs inhibitors, metformin and Cl− amidine, were administrated, highlighting the importance of this mechanism to control parasite infection (43 and 86%, respectively). This report presents a comprehensive cell count of the immune cells participating against trichomoniasis in an in vivo interaction system. These data highlight the relevance of innate mechanisms such as specific population changes of innate immune cells and their impact on the T. vaginalis viability.

Lee and Schwarz interpret meta-analytic research and replication studies as providing evidence for the robustness of cleansing effects. We argue that the currently available evidence is unconvincing because (a) publication bias and the opportunistic use of researcher degrees of freedom appear to have inflated meta-analytic effect size estimates, and (b) preregistered replications failed to find any evidence of cleansing effects.

The main sequence offers a method for the systematization of quasar spectral properties. Extreme FeII emitters (or extreme Population A, xA) are believed to be sources accreting matter at very high rates. They are easily identifiable along the quasar main sequence, in large spectroscopic surveys over a broad redshift range. The very high accretion rate makes it possible that massive black holes hosted in xA quasars radiate at a stable, extreme luminosity-to-mass ratio. After reviewing the basic interpretation of the main sequence, we report on the possibility of identifying virial broadening estimators from low-ionization line widths, and provide evidence of the conceptual validity of redshift-independent luminosities based on virial broadening for a known luminosity-to-mass ratio.

The bulk van der Waals crystal Mn3Si2Te6 (MST) has been irradiated with a proton beam of 2 MeV at a fluence of 1×1018 H+ cm-2. The temperature dependent magnetization measurements show a drastic decrease in the magnetization of 49.2% in the H//c direction observed in ferrimagnetic state. This decrease in magnetization is also reflected in the isothermal magnetization curves. No significant change in the ferrimagnetic transition temperature (75 K) was reflected after irradiation. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy shows no magnetically active defects present after irradiation. Here, experimental findings gathered from MST bulk crystals via magnetic measurements, magnetocaloric effect, and heat capacity are discussed.

van der Waals (vdW) magnetic materials show promise in being the foundation for future spintronic technology. The magnetic behavior of Fe2.7GeTe2 (FGT), a vdW itinerant ferromagnet, was investigated before and after proton irradiation. Proton irradiation of the sample was carried out at a fluence of 1×1018 cm-2. The magnetization measurements revealed a small increase of saturation magnetization (Ms) of about 4% upon proton irradiation of the sample, in which, the magnetic field was applied parallel to the c-axis. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for pristine and irradiated FGT revealed a general decrease in intensity after irradiation for Ge and Te and an increase in peak intensity of unavoidable surface iron oxide. Furthermore, no noticeable change in the Curie temperature (TC =152 K) is observed in temperature dependent magnetization variation. This work signifies the importance of employing protons in tuning the magnetic properties of vdW materials.

Highly accreting quasars are possible cosmological probes, as their Eddington ratio is expected to saturate toward values of order unity. We present preliminary estimates of redshift- independent source luminosities and the Hubble diagram for quasars in the redshift range 0.1 ≲ z ≲ 2.6.

We analyzed the light curves (LCs) of several radio-quiet and radio-loud quasars belonging to the same parameter space volume in the 4D Eigenvector 1 (4DE1) quasar sequence, using data from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS). We report preliminary results on detected variability pattern, and discuss possible cases of periodic variability.

Disk galaxies in cosmological numerical simulations grow by accreting gas from the cosmic web. This gas reaches the external disk, and then spirals in dragged along by tidal forces and/or disk instabilities. The importance of gas infall is as clear from numerical simulations as it is obscure to observations. Extremely metal poor (XMP) galaxies seem to be the best example we have of the gas accretion process at work. They have large off-center starbursts which show significant metallicity drop compared with the host galaxy. This observation is naturally explained as a gas accretion event caught in the act. We present preliminary results of the kinematical properties of the metal poor starbursts in XMPs, which suggest that the starbursts are kinematically decoupled entities within the host galaxy.

This work studies the change microstructural and mechanical properties of biomedical component hot forging of titanium; was assessed quantitatively and qualitatively the microstructural features obtained in this titanium biocompatible Ti6Al4V. The forging process was obtained at temperature of 950 °C, after by technical optical microscopy are obtained the microstructural characterization showing the phases present after forging. Likewise, the technical X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows the presence of the phases. Also is evaluated the hardness and modulus of elasticity by technical nanoindentation. The characterization of this material has the objective to show that the results obtained with temperature study of 950 °C. Likewise by the forging process obtained a type phases and optimal properties required for these biomedical materials.

The in vitro leishmanicidal activity and cytotoxicity of pyrazole-containing macrocyclic polyamines 1–4 was assayed on Leishmania infantum and Leishmania braziliensis species. Compounds 1–4 were more active and less toxic than glucantime and both infection rates and ultrastructural alterations confirmed that 1 and 2 were highly leishmanicidal and induced extensive parasite cell damage. Modifications in the excretion products of parasites treated with 1–3 were also consistent with substantial cytoplasm alterations. Compound 2 was highlighted as a potent inhibitor of Fe-SOD in both species, whereas its effect on human CuZn-SOD was poor. Molecular modelling suggested that 2 could deactivate Fe-SOD due to a sterically favoured enhanced ability to interact with the H-bonding net that supports the enzyme`s antioxidant features.

Restoration projects in wetlands are becoming increasingly frequent to recover or to create new aquatic ecosystems, after the significant impact and high degradation they have undergone. In the present study, we focused on the changes in the zooplankton community in a permanent peridunal pond where a restoration was carried out in order to increase its surface as a main objective. For this purpose, the community was compared before and after the restoration (15 years before, the year after and between 3 and 6 years later). Significant changes in environmental variables were observed after pond restoration: chlorophyll a concentration decreased and dissolved oxygen increased. Substantial modifications in the aquatic community were also observed, since species richness and diversity increased after restoration: a large number of new species appeared (84%, mainly cladocerans), from external or internal sources. In addition, zooplankton community structure and composition changed from a low specific richness community copepod-dominated in density (mostly nauplii) before restoration, to another one with higher richness and different composition co-dominated in density by rotifers and nauplii, but with greater abundance of cladoceran species. All this suggests an important change in the ecological functioning of the pond, mainly produced by improvement in habitat heterogeneity and water quality after restoration.

We address the effect of spatial scale and temporal variation on model generality when forming predictive models for fish assignment using a new data mining approach, Random Forests (RF), to variable biological markers (parasite community data). Models were implemented for a fish host-parasite system sampled along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Spain and were validated using independent datasets. We considered 2 basic classification problems in evaluating the importance of variations in parasite infracommunities for assignment of individual fish to their populations of origin: multiclass (2–5 population models, using 2 seasonal replicates from each of the populations) and 2-class task (using 4 seasonal replicates from 1 Atlantic and 1 Mediterranean population each). The main results are that (i) RF are well suited for multiclass population assignment using parasite communities in non-migratory fish; (ii) RF provide an efficient means for model cross-validation on the baseline data and this allows sample size limitations in parasite tag studies to be tackled effectively; (iii) the performance of RF is dependent on the complexity and spatial extent/configuration of the problem; and (iv) the development of predictive models is strongly influenced by seasonal change and this stresses the importance of both temporal replication and model validation in parasite tagging studies.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2009 in Richmond, Virginia, USA, July 26 – July 30, 2009

We examined the patterns of composition and structure of parasite communities in the Mediterranean sparid fish Boops boops along a gradient of fish sizes, using a large sample from a single population. We tested the hypothesis that species forming the core of the bogue parasite fauna (i.e. species which have a wide geographical range and are responsible for recognizable community structure) appear early in the fish ontogeny. The sequential community development observed supported the prediction that core species appear in the fish population earlier than rare and stochastic species. There was also a strong correlation between the order of ‘arrival’ of the species and their overall prevalence. Six key species were responsible for recognizable community structure across size/age cohorts; the addition to this baseline community of key parasite species resulted in a nested structure that is linked to differential species abundance rather than fish size. Information on the life-cycles, distribution and host range of the parasites is used to explain the observed patterns of parasite community structure. We conclude that the small mouth size of B. boops coupled with suction feeding may provide a setting for passive sampling as a mechanism leading to non-random parasite community structure.