Publications by authors named "Lopez-Hernandez D"

Article Synopsis
  • - A new species of the Allocreadiidae family was discovered in mugilid fish in western Puerto Rico, increasing the total species count in this genus to seven.
  • - This new parasite is characterized by distinct features including size differences and specific morphological traits, alongside genetic divergence of 0.64%-3.45% in a sequenced gene.
  • - The study also provides new mitochondrial and nuclear genetic data to support future evolutionary studies, revealing conflicting results in the phylogenetic relationships among species in the Allocreadiidae family.
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The Azygiidae Looss, 1899 is a family of digeneans with a Holarctic distribution in which members of some genera mature in marine elasmobranchs while others occur only in freshwater teleosts. Some have questioned whether the marine genus Otodistomum Stafford, 1904 indeed belongs to the same family as the freshwater azygiid genera, namely Azygia Looss, 1899, Proterometra Horsfall, 1933, and Leuceruthrus Marshall and Gilbert, 1905. We present phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial genomes, rDNA operons, and partial cytochrome c oxidase I (Cox1) sequences from North American and Asian species that support the monophyly of Azygiidae, and placement of Azygioidea in the suborder Hemiurata, in contrast to recently published mitochondrial genome phylogenies.

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Species belonging to the family Paramphistomidae Fischoeder, 1901, commonly known as "rumen flukes", are a group of parasites frequently related to Brazilian livestock production. They inhabit the digestive tract of ruminants and have recognized pathogenicity during the early stages of infection, which can be responsible for economic losses. These trematodes are often associated with Southern Brazil, a region heavily focused on animal farming, which also makes it ideal for the life cycle of paramphistomes.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aims to identify the characteristics of informal primary caregivers (IPC) for adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Mexico and to examine factors tied to caregiver collapse (CC).
  • The majority of caregivers are women aged 36-58, often daughters, with limited education and low income, who have cared for patients for over five years.
  • Key risk factors for CC include being female, having extensive caregiving experience, living in larger households, while family and social support serve as protective factors.
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  • The study explores how early life experiences, including socioeconomic factors, influence neuropsychological test performance in adulthood, particularly among different ethnic groups.
  • Participants included neurologically healthy college students from African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic backgrounds, with a focus on their educational experiences and cognitive abilities.
  • Findings indicate that while there were some performance differences on tests like the Stroop-C, these differences were only partially explained by education and early financial resources, suggesting that other factors may play a significant role.
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Despite the importance of fish-borne trematodes of the family Opisthorchiidae as causative agents of human liver fluke disease, studies on these parasites outside Asia are relativally scarce. In South America, human focus of amphimerosis is known in Ecuador since the mid-20th century, and Amphimerus spp. have also been reported in wild and domestic mammals.

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Unlabelled: With the aging of the population in developed countries, the number of middle-aged and older women is progressively increasing. During this stage, women suffer from a number of signs and symptoms that could be reduced or treated with physical exercise and dietary supplements. The main objective of this study was to analyse the benefits of exercise and dietary supplements during menopause.

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Species of the family Reniferidae are trematodes found in the oral cavity and esophagus of snakes from Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Although Renifer heterocoelium has been reported in different snake species from South America, the snails involved in its transmission remain unknown. In this study, a xiphidiocercaria emerged from the physid snail Stenophysa marmorata from Brazil and was subjected to morphological and molecular study.

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Echinostomatid digeneans belonging to the genus Rhopalias are intestinal trematodes found mainly in opossums in the New World. The genus comprises seven species, but their life cycles and intermediate hosts have been unknown until now. During our long-term study carried out in freshwater habitats within the state of Minas Gerais, Southeast Brazil, echinostomatid cercariae lacking collar spines were found in planorbid snails Biomphalaria glabrata, Biomphalaria straminea, Drepanotrema lucidum and Gundlachia ticaga in six different batches of snail samples collected between 2010 and 2019.

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Ornamental fish are becoming increasingly popular, but the lack of knowledge regarding their various diseases is a major challenge. Skin diseases commonly found in freshwater fish include black spot disease (BSD), which is characterized by melanin deposits around the metacercariae of some trematode species. Since BSD remains poorly understood, this study describes an outbreak of BSD in Etroplus maculatus raised in outdoor ponds at a Brazilian fish farm.

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, described in Brazil at the end of the 1960s and used as a biological model for a range of studies, belongs to the ‘’ complex of comprising species with 37 collar spines. However, molecular data are available only for a few isolates maintained under laboratory conditions, with molecular prospecting based on specimens originating from naturally infected hosts virtually lacking. The present study describes Valadão, Alves & Pinto n.

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Despite the recent advances raised in the molecular era to the taxonomic knowledge of species of the family Clinostomidae, especially those belonging to the specious genus , some groups of these vertebrate parasites remain poorly studied. This is the case of species of the enigmatic genus Witenberg, 1926, until recently monotypic and restricted to South America, but with its occurrence expanded to North America after the description of . Rosser et al.

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Platynosomum illiciens is a dicrocoeliid trematode from the biliary tract of warm-blooded vertebrates (felines, primates, marsupials, and birds) reported in different parts of the world. Although the veterinary relevance of platynosomosis in mammals, especially in domestic felines, has been increasingly evidenced in the scientific literature, studies involving avian disease caused by P. illiciens are comparatively scarce.

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Although Echinostoma robustum (currently a synonym of E. miyagawai) was reported in the Americas based on molecular data, morphological support on adult parasites is still required. Herein, a new species of Echinostoma is described based on worms found in a chicken from Brazil.

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Typhlocoelum cucumerinum is a tracheal parasite of birds widely distributed across the globe. Nevertheless, aspects of the biology of this cyclocoelid are still poorly understood. Herein, we report the finding of T.

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Earthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provided directly by authors, were collated with information on site locations, including coordinates, habitat cover, and soil properties.

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When subjected to molecular study, species of digeneans believed to be cosmopolitan are usually found to consist of complexes of species with narrower distributions. We present molecular and morphological evidence of transcontinental distributions in two species of Apharyngostrigea Ciurea, 1924, based on samples from Africa and the Americas. Sequences of cytochrome c oxidase I and, in some samples, internal transcribed spacer, revealed Apharyngostrigea pipientis (Faust, 1918) in Tanzania (first known African record), Argentina, Brazil, USA and Canada.

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Amphistome species belonging to the genus Catadiscus are poorly studied intestinal trematodes found primarily in Neotropical anurans. Herein, developmental stages of an amphistome species found during herpetological and malacological surveys in a temporary marsh pond from Brazil were subjected to morphological (light and scanning electron microscopy) and molecular analyses. Adult parasites recovered from anurans were identified as Catadiscus marinholutzi.

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Xiphidiocercariae were found in the invasive snail Melanoides tuberculata collected during a malacological survey in Ceará-Mirim, State of Rio Grande do Norte, Northeastern Brazil in November 2018 and submitted to morphological and molecular analyses. The morphology revealed similarities between the larvae here reported for the first time in M. tuberculata from Brazil and other xiphidiocercariae described in thiarid snails from Asia and Africa.

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Background: Regulatory CD4 T cells (Tregs) exhibit functional alterations in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β is a key regulator of Treg development and function.

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine whether the expression of functionally relevant TGF-β-regulated molecules is altered in Tregs from patients with MS.

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Zygocotyle lunata inhabits the caecum of birds and mammals from the American continent. This amphistome parasite is easily maintained in the laboratory and serves as a model organism in life-cycle studies, but it has seldom been studied using molecular data. Neither the position of Z.

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Introduction: An integral diagnosis of population contemplates within its components the population demographic analysis that is indispensable in the formulation of public policies. Population policy has a clearly transversal nature, since all actions in the economic, social, political, cultural, geographical, and obviously, demographic fields, have direct or indirect repercussions on it.

Objectives: To determine the population dynamics and the global growth of the older adult population (OAP) of 60 years and more.

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Hippocrepis hippocrepis is a notocotylid that has been widely reported in capybaras; however, the molluscs that act as intermediate hosts of this parasite remain unknown. Furthermore, there are currently no molecular data available for H. hippocrepis regarding its phylogenetic relationship with other members of the family Notocotylidae.

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Trematodes belonging to the superfamily Diplostomoidea have complex life cycles involving birds, mammals and reptiles as definitive hosts, and gastropods and different groups of invertebrates and vertebrates as intermediate hosts. Molecular studies of these parasites are numerous, but data from larval stages in molluscs remain scarce, particularly in South America. The present study focused mainly on five morphotypes of longifurcate cercariae found in Biomphalaria straminea (Dunker, 1848) from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, collected between 2009 and 2017.

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