Development of Simple and Sensitive Score to Assess the Risk of Pneumonia in COVID-19 Patients.

Background: Severe pneumonia is the most common cause of intensive care unit (ICU) admission and death due to novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) respiratory disease (COVID-19). Due to its rapid outbreak, units for the evaluation of febrile patients in the pre-hospital setting were created.

Objective: The objective of the study was to develop a sensitive and simple tool to assess the risk of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients and thus select which patients would require a chest imaging study.

Living on the Edge: Settlement Patterns by the Symbiotic Barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis on Small Cetaceans.

The highly specialized coronulid barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis attaches exclusively on cetaceans worldwide, but little is known about the factors that drive the microhabitat patterns on its hosts. We investigate this issue based on data on occurrence, abundance, distribution, orientation, and size of X. globicipitis collected from 242 striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) that were stranded along the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

IL-17-producing CD8+ T lymphocytes from psoriasis skin plaques are cytotoxic effector cells that secrete Th17-related cytokines.

IL-17-producing CD4+ T lymphocytes (Th17) are currently considered relevant participants in the pathogenesis of psoriasis skin lesions. However, little is known about the potential role of IL-17-producing CD8+ T cells, which are also present at the psoriatic plaque. We have addressed the functional characterization of this CD8+ subtype of T lymphocytes from psoriasis patients.

Molecular and epidemiologic findings of childhood acute leukemia in Costa Rica.

In Central America, nearly 70% of pediatric cancer is related to hemato-oncologic disorders, especially acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Preliminary studies have described a high incidence of childhood leukemia in these countries; however, no molecular analyses of these malignancies have yet been carried out. We studied diagnostic samples from 84 patients from the National Children's Hospital in San Jose, Costa Rica (65 precursor B-ALL, 5 T-cell ALL, and 14 acute myeloblastic leukemia).

Identification of Staphylococcus aureus strains negative for enterotoxins A, B and C isolated from bovine mastitis in México.

A total of 41 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus obtained from bovine mastitis in 7 different states in Mexico were analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine the presence of encoding genes for enterotoxins A, B and C. The oligonucleotides were designed by specific regions of the sea, seb, sec genes. Surprisingly, none of the isolates presented the prospective amplification bands when they were run on agarose gels.