Novel approaches for assessing acclimatization in birds reveal seasonal changes in peripheral heat exchange and thermoregulatory behaviors.

Using thermography and behavioral analyses, we found that heat exchange and thermoregulatory behaviors changed seasonally in chipping sparrows (Spizella passerina). Studies on seasonal acclimatization in birds have primarily involved metabolic measurements, few of which have investigated behaviors, and none have investigated changes in peripheral heat exchange. We captured chipping sparrows in the winter and summer of 2022 in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA, and we collected thermal images of these birds at 15.

Acute stress and restricted diet reduce bill-mediated heat dissipation in the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia): implications for optimal thermoregulation.

We used thermal imaging to show that two environmental factors - acute stress and diet - influence thermoregulatory performance of a known thermal window, the avian bill. The bill plays important roles in thermoregulation and water balance. Given that heat loss through the bill is adjustable through vasoconstriction and vasodilation, and acute stress can cause vasoconstriction in peripheral body surfaces, we hypothesized that stress may influence the bill's role as a thermal window.

Coinfections and differential diagnosis in immunocompetent patients with uveitis of infectious origin.

Background: Making a definite diagnosis of infectious uveitis is a challenging task because many other infectious, and non-infectious uveitis, may have similar non-specific symptoms and overlapping clinical appearances. Co-infections in immunocompetent patients are not frequently proved with traditional serologic-diagnostic tools.

Methods: Descriptive transversal study, in a Uveitis Service of an Ophthalmology Reference Center, in Bogotá, Colombia, from July 2014 to February 2016.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in ocular and ganglionar toxoplasmosis and the effect of therapeutics for prevention of ocular involvement in South American setting.

Introduction: Cases of toxoplasmosis present in South America tend to be more severe than that found in other continents. Here, we present our clinical experience of ocular and ganglionar toxoplasmosis in the use of PCR, and of the treatment to prevent ocular involvement.

Methodology: Retrospective analysis of clinical charts of patients with ocular and lymphadenitic toxoplasmosis at the parasitology and tropical medicine consultation in the "Universidad del Quindio" in Colombia.

Detection by PCR of pathogenic protozoa in raw and drinkable water samples in Colombia.

We evaluated the presence of DNA of Giardia, Toxoplasma, and Cryptosporidium by PCR, and of Giardia and Cryptosporidium genera by immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT), in water samples, before, during, and after plant treatment for drinkable water. We applied this method in 38 samples of 10 l of water taken from each of the water treatment steps and in 8 samples taken at home (only for Toxoplasma PCR) in Quindio region in Colombia. There were 8 positive samples for Cryptosporidium parvum (21 %), 4 for Cryptosporidium hominis (10.