262 research outputs found
Plenary Speaker: Literature and Surveillance
No full textPlenary speaker, Claire Culleton, is the author of Joyce and the G-Men: J. Edgar Hoover\u27s Manipulation of Modernism
Tres aportes al concepto de persona: Boecio (substancia), Ricardo de San Víctor (existencia) y Escoto (incomunicabilidad) / Three Settlements in the Concept of Person: Boethius (substance), Richard of St. Victor (Existence) and Scotus (Incommunicability)
Get PDFThe philosophical concept of person has a prominent role both in understanding the human being as most important in modern debates about ethics, politics and law. In this article we’ll discuss some aspects of the idea of person, following the path in search of their genealogy, especially in the most important area of developing this concept, the Christian debate on Trinitarian theology. Our challenge will be to support the efforts of some intellectuals in seeking to resolve the dialectical tension between what is proper to the individual and what is common to all. We’ll dedicate in this case to the work of Boethius, Richard of St. Victor and Scotus on this matter.</jats:p
Response of imported malaria patients to antimalarial medicines in Sri Lanka following malaria elimination
Get PDFAfter eliminating local malaria transmission and being certified as a malaria-free country, Sri Lanka is facing the challenge of imported malaria. At the same time, the country has the unique opportunity to be a case study for other countries in a similar situation by approaching this issue systematically, guided by evidence. This study demonstrates the importance of developing a mechanism to detect imported malaria and adopting an evidence-based approach to study the resistance of imported malaria to anti-malarial medicines. This is a prospective study of patients diagnosed with imported malaria in Sri Lanka and treated according to the national treatment guidelines, over 24 months (2015/2016). The clinical features, time to diagnosis, origin of the infection, infecting species, parasite density and the treatment given were recorded. All patients were followed up for 28 days, and in the case of Plasmodium vivax and P. ovale infections, the follow up period was extended to 12 months to establish treatment failures and relapses. Fifty nine uncomplicated and 15 severe imported malaria cases were reported in Sri Lanka during the study period. Most of these infections originated in either Sub-Saharan Africa or South and Southeast Asia. Having a P. vivax infection and low parasitic counts were significantly associated with relative diagnostic delay. One of the 14 uncomplicated P. falciparum patients and two of the 12 severe P. falciparum malaria patients who were followed up till day 28 had a late clinical failure. The others responded adequately to treatment both clinically and parasitologically. There was no treatment failure reported amongst any other species. This study, which is the first to assess the therapeutic response of imported malaria in Sri Lanka after elimination, demonstrates that the current antimalarial treatment policies and strategies in Sri Lanka have been effective against infections acquired overseas up until the end of year 2016
Improved limit of detection for zoonotic Plasmodium knowlesi and P. cynomolgi surveillance using reverse transcription for total nucleic acid preserved samples or dried blood spots
Get PDFBackground: Zoonotic P. knowlesi and P. cynomolgi symptomatic and asymptomatic infections occur across endemic areas of Southeast Asia. Most infections are low-parasitemia, with an unknown proportion below routine microscopy detection thresholds. Molecular surveillance tools optimizing the limit of detection (LOD) would allow more accurate estimates of zoonotic malaria prevalence. Methodology/Principal findings: An established ultra-sensitive Plasmodium genus quantitative-PCR (qPCR) assay targeting the 18S rRNA gene underwent LOD evaluation with and without reverse transcription (RT) for P. knowlesi, P. cynomolgi and P. vivax using total nucleic acid preserved (DNA/RNA Shield) isolates and archived dried blood spots (DBS). LODs for selected P. knowlesi-specific assays, and reference P. vivax- and P. cynomolgi-specific assays were determined with reverse transcription (RT). Assay specificities were assessed using clinical malaria samples and malaria-negative controls. The use of reverse transcription improved Plasmodium species detection by up to 10,000-fold (Plasmodium genus), 2759-fold (P. knowlesi) and 1000-fold (P. vivax and P. cynomolgi). The Kamau et al. Plasmodium genus RT-qPCR assay was highly sensitive for P. knowlesi detection with a median LOD of ≤0.0002 parasites/μL compared to 0.002 parasites/μL for P. cynomolgi and P. vivax. The LODs with RT for P. knowlesi-specific PCRs were enhanced for the Imwong et al. 18S rRNA (0.0007 parasites/μL) and Divis et al. real-time 18S rRNA (0.0002 parasites/μL) assays, but not for the Lubis et al. hemi-nested SICAvar (1.1 parasites/μL) and Lee et al. nested 18S rRNA (11 parasites/μL). The LOD for P. vivax- and P. cynomolgi-specific assays with RT were moderately improved at 0.02 and 0.002 parasites/μL, respectively (1000-fold change). For DBS P. knowlesi samples the use of RT also markedly improved the Plasmodium genus qPCR LOD from 19.89 to 0.08 parasites/μL (249-fold change); no LOD improvement was demonstrated in DBS archived beyond 6 years. The Plasmodium genus and P. knowlesi-assays were 100% specific for Plasmodium species and P. knowlesi detection, respectively, from 190 clinical infections and 48 healthy controls. Reference P. vivax-specific primers demonstrated known cross-reactivity with P. cynomolgi. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings support the use of an 18S rRNA Plasmodium genus qPCR and species-specific nested PCR protocol with RT for highly-sensitive surveillance of zoonotic and human Plasmodium species infections
La remodélisation de l'identité sous les systèmes coloniaux : une étude comparative des textes africains et canadien métis par Chinua Achebe, Maria Campbell, James Ngugi et Beatrice Culleton
No full textIn the present thesis I will analyse the phenomenon of the shaping of identity in African and Canadian postcolonial texts. In the world of the texts, this phenomenon occurs when colonial subjects are caught between tradition and modernity. The African texts that I will discuss are Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and James Ngugi's The River Between, which I will compare to the Canadian Métis texts, Maria Campbell's Halfbreed and Beatrice Culleton's In Search of April Raintree. The primary goal of this thesis will be to compare these different texts in order to find the different methods chosen by each author in his or her representation of the space in which the colonial subject evolves and his or her reaction to the changes brought by colonisation. The methodology followed throughout the thesis will consist of a comparative and postcolonial analysis and historical contextualisation."--Résumé abrégé par UMI
Molecular and genetic approach to an investigation of Pyrimethamine resistance in malaria parasites
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Emergence of Indigenous Artemisinin-Resistant Plasmodium falciparum in Africa
Get PDFSupported by a grant (2016YFC1200500) from the National Key Research and Development Program of China, grants (81271870, 81630063, and 81601790) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grants (BK20150001 and BK20130114) from the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, a grant (1500219094) from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China, grants (BE2016631 and BM2015024) from the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology, a grant (16K21233, to Dr. Culleton) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and a grant (BAS/1/1020-01-01, to Dr. Pain) from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
African origin of the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax.
Get PDFPlasmodium vivax is the leading cause of human malaria in Asia and Latin America but is absent from most of central Africa due to the near fixation of a mutation that inhibits the expression of its receptor, the Duffy antigen, on human erythrocytes. The emergence of this protective allele is not understood because P. vivax is believed to have originated in Asia. Here we show, using a non-invasive approach, that wild chimpanzees and gorillas throughout central Africa are endemically infected with parasites that are closely related to human P. vivax. Sequence analyses reveal that ape parasites lack host specificity and are much more diverse than human parasites, which form a monophyletic lineage within the ape parasite radiation. These findings indicate that human P. vivax is of African origin and likely selected for the Duffy-negative mutation. All extant human P. vivax parasites are derived from a single ancestor that escaped out of Africa
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