Antimicrobial susceptibility assessment of Campylobacter on outdoor iberian pig sows

Both Campylobacter and Salmonella are considered the most frequent bacterial causes of human enteritis in industrialized countries. The consumption of raw or undercooked poultry and pork contaminated meat products are the main sources of human infection. The prevalence of Campylobacter and Salmonella was determined in the present work for extensive production Iberian pig sows, Sus mediterraneus. Samples were collected at the maternity area of a creator from, water drinkers, feed and feed containers as well as from sows faecal matter. Of 42 samples, 31 and 23 carried Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. respectively. Only Salmonella spp. was found in all 3 tested water and feed containers. Of the 58 isolated Campylobacter strains only one was identified, by multiplex-PCR, as Campylobacter jejuni, all other were C. coli. Antibiotic susceptibility was performed by disc diffusion method with Nalidixic acid, Ciprofloxacin, Erythromycin, Tetracycline, Chloramphenicol and Ampicilin. While 95% of the tested strains were susceptible to chloramphenicol, 66% and 53% were resistant to the tested fluoroquinolones, Ciprofloxacin and Nalidixic acid respectively. Erythromycin resistance was fairly low in comparison to previous publications with 14% of resistant strains. 38% were resistant to Tetracycline and 57% to Ampicilin. Seven of the 58 Campylobacter strains were entirely susceptible and none were resistant to all the antimicrobials tested. Multiple drug resistance was found in 88% of strains. Cross contamination may occur between sows inside maternity facilities and piglets may become infected in an early age by their mothers. New and better control measures are therefore necessary to minimize transmission between animals reducing the number of contaminated individuals and the potential transmission to human handlers and consumers

Transfer of optical spectral weight in magnetically ordered superconductors

We show that, in antiferromagnetic superconductors, the optical spectral weight transferred to low frequencies below the superconducting transition temperature originates from energies that can be much larger than twice the superconducting gap $\Delta$. This contrasts to non-magnetic superconductors, where the optical spectrum is suppressed only for frequencies below $2\Delta$. In particular, we demonstrate that the superfluid condensate of the magnetically ordered superconductor is not only due to states of the magnetically reconstructed Fermi surface, but is enhanced by transfer of spectral weight from the mid infrared peak generated by the spin density wave gap. We apply our results to the iron arsenide superconductors, addressing the decrease of the zero-temperature superfluid density in the doping regime where magnetism coexists with unconventional superconductivity.Comment: 5 figures, 10 pages; revised versio

The extended minimal geometric deformation of SU(NN) dark glueball condensates

The extended minimal geometric deformation (EMGD) procedure, in the holographic membrane paradigm, is employed to model stellar distributions that arise upon self-interacting scalar glueball dark matter condensation. Such scalar glueballs are SU($N$) Yang-Mills hidden sectors beyond the Standard Model. Then, corrections to the gravitational wave radiation, emitted by SU($N$) EMGD dark glueball stars mergers, are derived, and their respective spectra are studied in the EMGD framework, due to a phenomenological brane tension with finite value. The bulk Weyl fluid that drives the EMGD is then proposed to be experimentally detected by enhanced windows at the eLISA and LIGO.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Extended quantum portrait of MGD black holes and information entropy

The extended minimal geometric deformation (EMGD) is employed on the fluid membrane paradigm, to describe compact stellar objects as Bose--Einstein condensates (BEC) consisting of gravitons. The black hole quantum portrait, besides deriving a preciser phenomenological bound for the fluid brane tension, is then scrutinized from the point of view of the configurational entropy. It yields a range for the critical density of the EMGD BEC, whose configurational entropy has global minima suggesting the configurational stability of the EMGD BEC.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, matches the published versio

Optical and Near Infrared Study of the Cepheus E outflow, a very low excitation object

We present images and spectra of the Cepheus E (Cep E) region at both optical and infrared wavelengths. Only the brightest region of the southern lobe of the Cep E outflow reveals optical emission, suggesting that the extinction close to the outflow source plays an important r\^ole in the observed difference between the optical and IR morphologies. Cep E is a unique object since it provides a link between the spectroscopic properties of the optical Herbig-Haro (HH) objects and those of deeply embedded outflows.Comment: Accepted Astron. J., 8 files: paper, tables plus 6 figure

Gazing at the family: archives, performance and Portuguese photography (1940-1975)

This practice-based PhD thesis investigates photographic family archives and makes critical interpretations of them using performance photography. The two family’s albums contain hundreds of photographs that belonged to my grandparents and represent a period in Portugal’s past (1940-1975) scarred by one of the longest dictatorships in history. The research carries out an ‘iconographic’ analysis of the photographs in the family albums and focuses specifically on images of (my) two grandmothers. As representatives of two women’s lives during this historical period, both women lived under the same dictatorial regime, but one on mainland Portugal and the other in the Portuguese overseas and colonial territories (India, 1951-61 and Mozambique 1962-75). With the end of the regime, these images have been passed down in the form of the identity of women in Portugal to this day, including my own. The key questions of the research thus deal with self-representation, performance and the use of family photographic archives as a method of investigating the processes of identity formation. The thesis draws on cultural theory, including the sociology of family photography, archive fever, cultural memory, postmemory, and representations of femininity and feminism, alongside practices of performance. Relevant authors include Marianne Hirsch, Annette Kuhn, Jacques Derrida, Okwui Enwezor, Anne Whitehead, Hal Foster, Stuart Hall, Joan Riviere and Amelia Jones. The research questions examine four key questions: (i) how can family archives be read as ‘documents’ in relation to social and historical regimes; (ii) how can family photographs be read along official imagery of the regime; (iii) how have other artists developed strategies for questions of inherited family images; and (iv) how can performance photography be used as a practice method for the critical interpretation of archives? These questions and approaches are contextualised by a study of photographic archives, self-portraiture and performance practices including strategies developed by Portuguese artists. A separate iconographic index of the family albums photographs was created to help identify certain specific repeated embodied elements, such as pose and gesture, which were subsequently re-performed for the camera. The different family albums reveal specific social and cultural differences: the specificity of their diverse settings results in distinct family images. The information contained within the archive images is re-written within the performance images. The practice aspect of the thesis has developed a precise performative method for interpreting and enacting the archives. The thesis contributes contribution to knowledge not only by relating specifically to the questions of family, photography and Portuguese history, but has also by developing a method that other photographers and artist can apply to their own performance and family archive work