Integumentary system

Top Searched Dengue Fever Terms:

What is dengue fever?

Dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes.
It is an acute illness of sudden onset that usually follows a benign course with symptoms
such as headache, fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands
(lymphadenopathy), and rash. The presence (the "dengue triad") of fever, rash, and
headache (and other pains) is particularly characteristic of dengue. Other signs of dengue
fever include bleeding gums, severe pain behind the eyes, and red palms and soles.Dengue
(pronounced DENG-gay) strikes people with low levels of immunity. Because it is caused
by one of four serotypes of virus, it is possible to get dengue fever multiple times. However,
an attack of dengue produces immunity for a lifetime to that particular serotype to which
the patient was exposed.Dengue goes by other names, including "breakbone" or "dandy
fever." Victims of dengue often have contortions due to the intense joint and muscle pain,
hence the name breakbone fever. Slaves in the West Indies who contracted dengue were
said to have dandy fever because of their postures and gait.
Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a more severe form of the viral illness. Manifestations include headache, fever, rash, and evidence of hemorrhage in
the body. Petechiae (small red or purple blisters under the skin), bleeding in the nose or gums, black stools, or easy bruising are all possible signs
of hemorrhage. This form of dengue fever can be life-threatening and can progress to the most severe form of the illness, dengue shock
syndrome.

What areas are at high risk for contracting dengue fever?

Dengue is prevalent throughout the tropics and subtropics. Outbreaks have occurred recently in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, the U.S.
Virgin Islands, Cuba, and Central America. Cases have also been imported via tourists returning from areas with widespread dengue, including
Tahiti, Singapore, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, the West Indies, India, and the Middle East (similar in distribution to the areas of the world
that harbor malaria and yellow fever). Dengue is now the leading cause of acute febrile illness in U.S. travelers returning from the Caribbean,
South America, and Asia.A 2009 outbreak of dengue fever in Key West, Fla., showed that three patients who did not travel outside of the U.S.
contracted the virus. Subsequent testing of the population of Key West has shown that up to 55 of the people living in the area have antibodies to
dengue. As of July 17, 2010, 17 individuals have been identified that acquired dengue in Key West in 2010.

Dengue fever is common, and statistics show it may be increasing in Southeast Asia. Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia have all
reported an increase in cases. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are an estimated 100 million cases
of dengue fever with several hundred thousand cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever requiring hospitalization each year. Nearly 40% of the world's
population lives in an area endemic with dengue.

How is dengue fever contracted?

The virus is contracted from the bite of a striped Aedes aegypti mosquito that has previously bitten an infected person. The mosquito flourishes
during rainy seasons but can breed in water-filled flower pots, plastic bags, and cans year-round. One mosquito bite can inflict the disease.

The virus is not contagious and cannot be spread directly from person to person. There must be a person-to-mosquito-to-another-person pathway.

What are dengue fever symptoms and signs?

After being bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus, the incubation period ranges from three to 15 (usually five to eight) days before the signs and
symptoms of dengue appear. Dengue starts with chills, headache, pain upon moving the eyes, and low backache. Painful aching in the legs and
joints occurs during the first hours of illness. The temperature rises quickly as high as 104 F (40 C), with relative low heart rate (bradycardia) and
low blood pressure (hypotension). The eyes become reddened. A flushing or pale pink rash comes over the face and then disappears. The glands
(lymph nodes) in the neck and groin are often swollen.Fever and other signs of dengue last for two to four days, followed by a rapid drop in body
temperature (defervescence) with profuse sweating. This precedes a period with normal temperature and a sense of well-being that lasts about a
day. A second rapid rise in temperature follows. A characteristic rash appears along with the fever and spreads from the extremities to cover the
entire body except the face. The palms and soles may be bright red and swollen.

REFERENCES: sources

Canada. Public Health Agency of Canada. "Dengue in South East Asia." Aug. 23, 2007. <http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tmp-pmv/2007/dengue070823_e.html>.
"Dengue Fever in Key West." Florida Department of Health. <http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Environment/medicine/arboviral/Dengue_FloridaKeys.html>.
Switzerland. World Health Organization. "Planning Social Mobilization and Communication for Dengue Fever Prevention and Control."
<http://www.who.int/tdr/publications/publications/pdf/planning_dengue.pdf>.
Switzerland. World Health Organization. "Vector-Borne Viral Infections." <http://www.who.int/vaccine_research/diseases/vector/en/index.html>.
United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Dengue." May 20, 2010. <http://www.cdc.gov/Dengue/>.
United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Locally Acquired Dengue -- Key West, Florida, 2009-2010." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
59.19 May 21, 2010: 577-581. <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5919a1.htm>.

Dark Matter
08.23.07
The identity of dark matter - the mysterious stuff that makes up about 22% of the Universe’s energy
contents - continues to elude scientists decades after they first inferred its existence. The leading
candidate that might explain the fundamental make-up of dark matter is a hypothetical particle
called the weakly interacting massive particle, or WIMP. But with GLAST, scientists may finally
find clear evidence that dark matter is indeed made of WIMPs.

Gamma rays originate from a multitude of high-energy sources, such as black holes and exploding
stars. But current theory suggests they can also come from WIMPs, which are massive particles that
do not emit or absorb light. Such particles are predicted by supersymmetry, a theory that extends the
highly successful Standard Model of particle physics.

According to supersymmetry, WIMPs act as their own antimatter particles. When two WIMPs
interact, they annihilate each other and release a flurry of secondary particles as well as gamma
rays. Using GLAST, scientists hope to find these high-energy signatures of dark matter in our
galaxy. If they succeed, this discovery will help solve one of astronomy's grandest mysteries.

Image right: According to supersymmetry, dark-matter particles known as neutralinos (which are
often called WIMPs) annihilate each other, creating a cascade of particles and radiation that includes medium-energy gamma rays. If neutralinos exist, the LAT might
see the gamma rays associated with their demise. Credit: Sky & Telescope / Gregg Dinderman.
+ High resolution image

"With GLAST, we hope to actually see individual dark-matter annihilations," says theoretical physicist Michael Peskin of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(SLAC). Ted Baltz, a Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) researcher who also works on GLAST, adds, "GLAST has the real possibility
of making a fundamental contribution to understanding what galaxies are made of."

Even though dark matter interacts much more weakly than ordinary matter, dark matter is not spread out evenly through space and should form clumps in and around
galaxies. If dark matter is in fact composed of WIMPs, this clumping would improve the chances of these particles meeting and annihilating, producing steady streams
of gamma rays detectable by GLAST’s Large Area Telescope.

The trick will be distinguishing gamma rays produced by dark-matter annihilations from those generated by numerous other sources in the Universe. To differentiate
between the two, researchers have established a set of four guidelines:

 Supersymmetry predicts that WIMP annihilations will create gamma rays of particular wavelengths, distinct from those generated by other sources such
as black holes or supernovae.
 Dark-matter annihilations should produce gamma rays exclusively, ruling out interactions that involve other forms of radiation.
 These signals should appear to GLAST not as point sources, but as large patches in the sky - some nearly twice as big as the full Moon.
 These streams of gamma rays should be continuous, a marked difference from the fleeting explosions of gamma-ray bursts, which last only a few
milliseconds to several minutes.

If scientists find a signal with all of these characteristics, chances are good that they have found a source of WIMP annihilation.

GLAST will be running in parallel with numerous other dark-matter experiments, such as searches for WIMP collisions in underground detectors and attempts to
manufacture WIMPs at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland starting in 2008. Given this activity,
many scientists are confident the existence of WIMPS will be confirmed or refuted in the next few years.

"If GLAST detects these signals, it will be enormously important for both particle physics and astrophysics. It will represent a huge intellectual achievement and a big
leap forward in our understanding of the Universe on the largest and smallest scales simultaneously," said Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University in Rohnert
Park, California, leader of GLAST’s education and public outreach team.
by Marcus Woo
α alphaangular acceleration (radians / time 2), Helium nucleus (2 p + 2 n) βbetaelectron Δdeltafinite
change δ"d"instantaneous rate of change εepsilonelectrical permittivity (ε0 = 8.854 x 10 - 12 F / m),
emissivity (dimensionless), efficiency (dimensionless) φphiangle γgammaelectromagnetic radiation,
photon ηetaviscosity (Poise = dyne x s / cm 2 = g / cm x s) κkappadielectric coefficient (dimensionless)
λlambdawavelength μmumagnetic permeability (μ0 = 4 π x 10 - 7 T m / A) νnufrequency or rate of
revolution (1 / time) θthetaangle, angular position ρrhodensity (mass / volume), resistivity (resistance x
length) σsigmaStefan-Boltzmann constant (5.67 x 10 - 8 W / m 2 K 4) Σsigmasummation τtautorque (force x
length, moment of inertia x angular acceleration), radioactive half-life ωomegaangular velocity or
angular frequency (radians / time) ΩomegaOhms* (resistance = volt / ampere)