astronomy

María Dora Feliciangeli

María Dora Feliciangeli is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand María Dora Feliciangeli rather than just read about it. In short: María Dora Feliciangeli (1940 - 2017) was Professor of Medical Entomology at the University of Carabobo, Venezuela, who worked on the transmission of tropical parasites especially American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) and leishmaniasis. She was Coordinator of the National Reference Center of Sandflies and the Medical Entomology Section.

Key takeaways

María Dora Feliciangeli belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect María Dora Feliciangeli to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of María Dora Feliciangeli from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

María Dora Feliciangeli (1940 - 2017) was Professor of Medical Entomology at the University of Carabobo, Venezuela, who worked on the transmission of tropical parasites especially American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) and leishmaniasis. She was Coordinator of the National Reference Center of Sandflies and the Medical Entomology Section.

Education and personal life Feliciangeli was the daughter of Zeferino Feliciangeli and Maria Cerutti. She was born in Borgomanero and was brought up in Rieti in central Italy. She graduated with a degree in biological sciences from the Sapienza University of Rome in 1965 and moved to Venezuela with her husband. From 1977, she studied at the University of London and was awarded a PhD degree in 1982. In 1963, she married the Venezuelan José Piñero. They had three children together. She died in 2017.

Career Feliciangeli first worked with insects during her first degree in Rome (Dissertation, Experimental research on chemosterilizers for housefly control (Ricerche sperimentali sui chemosterilanti per il controllo di Musca domestica)). Her first post, from 1966 to 1972, was in the Rural Endemics Division of the School of Malariology and Environmental Sanitation in Venezuela. In 1972, she was appointed at the University of Carabobo, initially as an assistant to Witremundo Torrealba, the head of the Parasitology Department. By 1984 she had been promoted to be a full Professor. She retired from this academic post in 1991 to work as the Coordinator of the National Reference Center of Sandflies and the Medical Entomology Section, still associated with the University of Carabobo at Aragua as well as other national organisations. During her career, she was also involved in setting up and delivering many training courses in public health and medical entomology. She was a member of international committees and research collaborations in medical entomology. Her research focused on the epidemiology, immunology and diagnostics of both the parasites and insect vectors for American trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis. She led research that established two transmission cycles for cutaneous leishmaniasis with the sand fly Lutzomyia migonei as the insect vector. In addition, in 2001, she identified the species Lutzomyia psudolongipalpis within the L. longipalpis complex of at least eight species. She also led studies that demonstrated that infection with the pathogen Leishmania infantum had an adverse effect on the insect vectors. In 2008 and 2012 she was a member of the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization expert committees on aspects of sand flies and American trypanosomiasis.

Publications Feliciangeli was the author or co-author of over 136 scientific publications and books. These included:

M. Maroli, Feliciangeli M. D, Bichaud L, Charrel R. N. and Gradoni L. (2013) Phlebotomine sandflies and the spreading of leishmaniases and other diseases of public health concern. Med Vet Entomol. 27 123–47 N. M. Rodriguez, De Guglielmo Z, Barrios M. A., Barrios R. M., Zerpa O and Feliciangeli MD. (2005) Genetic homogeneity within Leishmania (L.) infantum isolated from human and dogs: the relationship with the sandfly fauna distribution in endemic areas of Nueva Esparta State, Venezuela. Parasitology. 130 611–9. J. Arrivillaga, D.E. Norris, M.D. Feliciangeli and G.C. Lanzaro (2002) Phylogeography of the neotropical sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences. Infection Genetics Evol. 2 83-95 C. Jazzmin, Arrivillaga and M. Dora Feliciangeli (2001) Lutzomyia pseudolongipalpis: The first new species within the longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) complex from La Rinconada, Curarigua, Lara State, Venezuela. J. Medical Entomology 38 783–790. CIPA Group [H. Bermudez (Bolivia), J. P. Dedet (Bolivia), A. L. Falcao (Brasil), M. D. Feliciangeli (Venezuela), E. Ferreira Rangel (Brasil), C. Ferro (Colombia), E.A.B. Galati (Brasil), E. L. Gomez (Ecuador), M. V. Herrero (Costa Rica), D. Hervas (Bolivia), J. Lebbe (France), A. Morales (Colombia), E. Ogusuku (Perú), E. Perez (Perú), I. Sherlock (Brasil), M. Torrez (Bolivia), R. Vignes (France), and M. Wolff (Colombia)] . (1991) Proposition for a standard description for phlebotomine sandflies. Parassitologia 33 (suppl. 1) 127–135.

Awards and honours In 1999 she was International Woman of the Year (1999) awarded by the University of Cambridge for her contributions to medical entomology and parasitology. She was president of the Venezuelan Parasitological Society. The Division of Medical Entomology Dra. María Dora Feliciangeli within the Venezuelan Incubadora Venezolana de la ciencia for multidisciplinary research into tropical disease is named after her.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with María Dora Feliciangeli

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what María Dora Feliciangeli claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to María Dora Feliciangeli before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about María Dora Feliciangeli ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of María Dora Feliciangeli

In research: María Dora Feliciangeli appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses María Dora Feliciangeli in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: María Dora Feliciangeli is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940 births, 2017 deaths, 20th-century Venezuelan scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for María Dora Feliciangeli outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study María Dora Feliciangeli in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what María Dora Feliciangeli means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain María Dora Feliciangeli out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is María Dora Feliciangeli in simple terms?

Why does María Dora Feliciangeli matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study María Dora Feliciangeli?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on María Dora Feliciangeli.