Interactions among Triatoma sanguisuga blood feeding sources, gut microbiota and Trypanosoma cruzi diversity in southern Louisiana.

Integrating how biodiversity and infectious disease dynamics are linked at multiple levels and scales is highly challenging. Chagas disease is a vector-borne disease, with specificities of the triatomine vectors and Trypanosoma cruzi parasite life histories resulting in a complex multihost and multistrain life cycle. Here, we tested the hypothesis that T.

Raccoons As an Important Reservoir for : A Prevalence Study from Two Metropolitan Areas in Louisiana.

Raccoons are an important reservoir for infection, having been reported to maintain a high and lengthy parasitemia. Although raccoon populations have historically been abundant in Louisiana, the prevalence rate of infection in raccoons in this state is unknown. Here, we tested raccoon tissues from two urban areas in Louisiana, namely Orleans Parish (OP) and East Baton Rouge Parish (EBRP), to investigate prevalence in these areas using direct detection through polymerase chain reaction.

Cannabinoids and hamster circadian activity rhythms.

Circadian activity rhythms in hamsters are entrained to the daily light:dark cycle by photic information arriving from the retina to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the site of the master circadian pacemaker in mammals. The effects of light on adjusting the timing of the circadian pacemaker is modified, both positively and negatively, by a variety of transmitter systems, but the effects of endocannabinoids have not been reported. Therefore, in this study we evaluated cannabinoids specific for the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB(1)) for their ability to modulate light-induced phase advances in hamster circadian activity rhythms.

Convective cooling effect on cooled-tip catheter compared to large-tip catheter radiofrequency ablation.

Background: Both actively cooled-tip and large-tip catheters are currently available clinically to create large endomyocardial lesions during application of radiofrequency (RF) energy. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of convective cooling at physiologic flow rates on RF lesion size using both actively cooled and large-tip catheters.

Methods: Porcine hearts were sectioned into 72 pieces and placed in a temperature-controlled saline bath (37 degrees C) with varying directed flow rates (0, 1, 2, and 3 L/min).