Abstract. The leishmaniases are protozoan, zoonotic diseases transmitted to human and other mammal hosts by the bite of phlebotomine sandflies. Bolivia has the highest incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Latin America (LA), with 33 cases per 100,000 population reported in 2006. CL is endemic in seven of the country's nine administrative departments. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is comparatively rare and is restricted to one single focus. Most CL cases are caused by Leishmania ( Viannia ) braziliensis (85% cases); VL is caused by L. (L.) infantum. Seven sandfly species are incriminated as vectors and Leishmania infections have been detected in several non-human mammal hosts. Transmission is associated with forest-related activities, but recently, cases of autochthonous, urban transmission were reported. Because most cases are caused by L. (V.) braziliensis, Bolivia reports the greatest ratio (i.e., up to 20% of all cases) of mucosal leishmaniasis to localized CL cases in LA. Per national guidelines, both CL and VL cases are microscopically diagnosed and treated with pentavalent antimony.

et al. Variation of the hepatic C virus 5′ non-coding region: implications for secondary structure, virus detection and typing. J Gen Virol. 1995;76:174976: -61. DOI: 10.109976: /0022-131776: -76-7-1749 Leishmaniasis in Chaparé, BoliviaTo the Editor: In Bolivia, most cases of leishmaniasis are caused by Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis (1). The parasite is transmitted zoonotically by several sandfl y species and, when transmitted to humans, may cause cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), and potentially, mucosal leishmaniasis (ML) (2).Data on the prevalence and effects of CL in Bolivia have been scarce, even though anecdotal and offi cial reports indicate a dramatic increase in the number of human CL cases in Bolivia in the past decade (1,3). Also, although CL was originally a sylvatic disease in Bolivia, some evidence indicates that the transmission cycle has adapted to the peridomestic habitat. However, this evidence is largely based on individual case reports. No information is available on parasite species, vectors, and reservoirs in such a peridomestic transmission cycle.A preliminary study to guide future research focus and assist in immediate leishmaniasis prevention and control policy decision making is underway in Isiboro-Secure National Park, Chaparé, Bolivia. Our objectives were to collect data on the prevalence of leishmaniasis in that area and evidence for peridomestic Leishmania transmission.A survey was carried out during April-July 2007 in 2 communities in Isiboro-Secure National Park, San Gabriel (16°40′31′′S and 65°37′38′′W) and San Julian (16°41′59′′S and 65°38′10′′W). These 2 communities were selected because of local knowledge of disease in the community, their moderate degree of urbanization (i.e., ≈50% of the communities' houses are clustered around the main access road), and the accessibility of the sites to the fi eld team. In this area, CL is transmitted from April through October. We surveyed 133 and 52 households in San Gabriel and San Julian, which represented 86% and 80% of the total households of the respective communities; 21 and 13 households, respectively, were visited but did not participate because the owners refused or were not present. Of the 965 persons surveyed, 488 (50.6%) were male and 476 (49.3%) were female; 9 (0.9%) had active CL lesions and 62 (6.4%) had CL scars. One person had ML, and 3 had evidence of past ML; all ML patients were male. Of those with CL lesions, all had 1 lesion only. The mean lesion size was 2.3 cm (range 1.5-3 cm), and the mean lesion duration (to survey date) was 5.6 months (range 1-11 months). The clinical CL lesions were parasitologically confi rmed by microscopy (n = 4) or PCR (n = 8). Parasite culture was performed on patient isolates (n = 6), and L. (V.) braziliensis was identifi ed and characterized as the etiologic agent of these CL cases.Active lesion and scar prevalence were associated with male sex Whether the surveyed population is representative of the total population living in the study area is debatable. However on the basis of curre...

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Introduction: Botella et al. (2018) proposed to use the 'non parametric bootstrap' method (Efron & Tibshirani, 1994) to the responses given by an individual to the items of a test in order to create confidence intervals for an individual's true test score for situations in which classical procedures cannot be used. In six databases containing the responses to several psychological scales, two procedures were applied to create the confidence intervals; a classical one, Estimating the True Score (ETS; Gulliksen, 1950), and the Bootstrap of items (BSI). When there was an expected change in the criterion of interest after an intervention and when there was not, the rates of significant change obtained with both procedures were very similar. These results suggested that BSI was a promising solution when other methods could not be applied. However, evidence is needed from different research contexts to assess the performance of BSI.Material and Method: On the basis of the Partial Credit Model (Masters, 1982), a IRT model for polytomous response data, two simulation studies were programmed in R to examine the performance of the BSI technique in comparison to the classical ETS method. In study 1, focused on no change scenarios, we examine the influence of several test features on the width of the BSI confidence interval and its coverage rates of the true score. The factors assessed are the subjects' trait level, skewness of the trait distribution, number of items' categories, number of items, and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha). Study 2 was carried out to analyze the significant change rates of BSI and ETS given a change in the subjects' trait level.Results: Study 1 shows that the BSI confidence interval is narrower as the subject's trait level gets more extreme and the test internal consistency is higher. The BSI coverage rates of the true score reach appropriate values when the test is made up of at least 20-25 items. Results from study 2 reveal that BSI has lesser statistical power to detect a significant change than ETS as the change in the subject's trait level is bigger. Conclusion:The classical procedure ETS seems to be yet the best option. Nevertheless, the classical procedures for elaborating confidence intervals involve knowing several properties of the test given a fixed sample and, sometimes, these properties are unknown or are not trustworthy. Given the differences in the performance of the methods examined, BSI is a good option to create confidence intervals for an individual's true test score for situations in which classical procedures cannot be used.

Engineering of a Mouse-Adapted Reverse Genetics System for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 218 ABSTRACTStargets using non-canonical offset seed matches and functional base pairing of nucleotide 10. At the target level, miR-K6-5p was consequently able to regulate most miR-16 targets, albeit at altered efficiencies compared to miR-16. At the functional level, miR-K6-5p shared the tumor suppressive functions of miR-16, including the induction of cell cycle arrest. Altogether, our data suggest that this oncogenic herpesvirus encodes a functional mimic of miR-16. Our ongoing experiments address the hypothesis that miR-K6-5p functions to balance consequences of viral oncogene expression. While many oncogenic herpesviruses encode gene products that antagonize tumor suppressors, this is-to our knowledgethe first example of an oncogenic virus that encodes a homolog or mimic of a bona fide tumor suppressor.