Substantial reduction in child stunting is differentially associated to geographical and socioeconomic disparities in Misiones Province, Argentina.

Objective: To estimate trends in the prevalence of child stunting in the population of children under 5 years of age covered by public health programmes, between 2009 and 2014 in Misiones, Argentina.

Methods: Using Bayesian model-based geostatistics, we evaluated 724 872 anthropometric measurements corresponding to 110 633 children. In order to identify disparities at local scale, we evaluated the hypotheses of a differential reduction of stunting according to the geographical location (at two-level spatial resolution) and to the socioeconomic level in a rural or urban environment.

Impact of Universal Health Coverage on Child Growth and Nutrition in Argentina.

Objectives: To estimate trends of undernutrition (stunting and underweight) among children younger than 5 years covered by the universal health coverage programs Plan Nacer and Programa Sumar.

Methods: From 2005 to 2013, Plan Nacer and Programa Sumar collected high-quality information on birth and visit dates, age (in days), gender, weight (in kg), and height (in cm) for 1.4 million children in 6386 health centers (13 million records) with broad coverage of vulnerable populations in Argentina.

Natural selection for operons depends on genome size.

In prokaryotes, genome size is associated with metabolic versatility, regulatory complexity, effective population size, and horizontal transfer rates. We therefore analyzed the covariation of genome size and operon conservation to assess the evolutionary models of operon formation and maintenance. In agreement with previous results, intraoperonic pairs of essential and of highly expressed genes are more conserved.

Immunogenicity of hypothetical highly conserved proteins as novel antigens in Anaplasma marginale.

Anaplasma marginale is a tick-transmitted Gram-negative intraerythrocytic bacterium and the etiological agent of bovine Anaplasmosis. Even though considerable research efforts have been undertaken, Anaplasmosis vaccine development remains a challenging field. Outer-membrane-specific antigens responsible for the ability of more complex immunogens could have a significant role in the protective response.

The twin-arginine translocation pathway in α-proteobacteria is functionally preserved irrespective of genomic and regulatory divergence.

The twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway exports fully folded proteins out of the cytoplasm of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Although much progress has been made in unraveling the molecular mechanism and biochemical characterization of the Tat system, little is known concerning its functionality and biological role to confer adaptive skills, symbiosis or pathogenesis in the α-proteobacteria class. A comparative genomic analysis in the α-proteobacteria class confirmed the presence of tatA, tatB, and tatC genes in almost all genomes, but significant variations in gene synteny and rearrangements were found in the order Rickettsiales with respect to the typically described operon organization.