Quantile regression forests-based modeling and environmental indicators for decision support in broiler farming

An efficient and sustainable animal production requires fine-tuning and control of all the parameters involved. But this is not a simple task. Animal farming is a complex biological system in which environmental parameters and management practices interact in a dynamic way. In addition, the typical non-linear response of biological processes implies that relationships across parameters that are critical to assure animal welfare and performance are difficult to determine. In this paper a novel decision support system based on environmental indicators and on weights, leg problems and mortality rates is proposed to address this issue. The data-driven modeling process is performed by a quantile regression forests approach that allows estimating growth, welfare and mortality parameters on the basis of environmental deviations from optimal farm conditions. Resulting models also provide confidence intervals able to deal with uncertainty. They are deployed in farm, offering an accessible tool for farmers, veterinarians and technical personnel. Experimental results involving 20 flocks of broiler meat chickens from different farms show the validity of the system, obtaining robust prediction intervals and high accuracy, namely over 81% for every model. The in-field use of the proposed approach will facilitate an efficient and animal welfare-friendly production management.This project was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity, General Directorate for Science and Technology, National Research Program ’Retos de la Sociedad’ Project #AGL2013-49173-C2-1-R P.I. Inma Estevez and #AGL2013-49173-C2-2-R. The authors wish to thank to AN and the farmers for facilitating access to their farms for data collection

The recombinant cysteine proteinase B (CPB) from Leishmania braziliensis and its domains: promising antigens for serodiagnosis of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis in dogs.

Leishmaniasis represents a group of parasitic diseases caused by a protozoan of the genus Leishmania and is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. Leishmaniasis is one of the major tropical neglected diseases, with 1.5 to 2 million new cases occurring annually. Diagnosis remains a challenge despite advances in parasitological, serological, and molecular methods. Dogs are an important host for the parasite and develop both visceral and cutaneous lesions. Our goal was to contribute to the diagnosis of canine cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) using the recombinant cysteine proteinase B (F-CPB) from Leishmania braziliensis and its N- and C-terminal domains (N-CPB and C-CPB) as antigens in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Sera from dogs from Northwest Argentina diagnosed with CL were tested by ELISA against a supernatant of L. braziliensis lysate, the F-CPB protein, and its domains. We found values of sensitivity (Se) of 90.7%, 94.4%, and 94.3% and specificity (Sp) of 95.5%, 90.9%, and 91.3% for F-CPB and its N- and C-terminal domains, respectively. In sera from dogs diagnosed with VL from Northeast Argentina, we found Se of 93.3%, 73.3%, and 66.7% and Sp of 92.3%, 76.9%, and 88.5% for F-CPB and its N- and C-terminal domains, respectively. These results support CPB as a relevant antigen for canine leishmaniasis diagnosis in its different clinical presentations. More interestingly, the amino acid sequence of CPB showed high percentages of identity in several Leishmania species, suggesting that the CPB from L. braziliensis qualifies as a good antigen for the diagnosis of leishmaniasis caused by different species.Fil: Bivona, Augusto Ernesto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Czentner Colomo, Lucas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Sanchez Alberti, Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Cerny, Natacha. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Cardoso Landaburu, Alejandro Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Nevot, María Cecilia. Veterinaria del Oeste; ArgentinaFil: Estevez, José Octavio. Veterinaria del Oeste; ArgentinaFil: Marco, Jorge Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Patología Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud. Instituto de Patología Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Basombrío, Manuel Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Patología Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud. Instituto de Patología Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Malchiodi, Emilio Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Cazorla, Silvia Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentin

Anticoagulant Activity of a Unique Sulfated Pyranosic (133) - ß - L - Arabinan through Direct Interaction with Thrombin

Fernández, Paula Virginia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Biología Aplicada y Alimentos. Cátedra de Química de Biomoléculas. Buenos Aires, Argentina.Quintana, Irene. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica. Laboratorio de Hemostasia y Trombosis. Buenos Aires, Argentina.Cerezo, Alberto S. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Orgánica. Subsede del Centro de Investigación de Hidratos de Carbono (CIHIDECAR). Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina.Caramelo, Julio J. CONICET - Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires (IIBBA). Buenos Aires, Argentina.Pol Fachin, Laercio. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Faculdade de Farmácia. Programa de Pos-Graduação em Biologia Celular e Molecular. Centro de Biotecnologia. Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.Verli, Hugo. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.Centro de Biotecnologia. Programa de Pos-Graduação em Biologia Celular e Molecular. Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.Estevez, José Manuel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIByNE). Buenos Aires, Argentina.Ciancia, Marina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Biología Aplicada y Alimentos. Cátedra de Química de Biomoléculas. Buenos Aires, Argentina.223–233Background: Many seaweed polysaccharides have anticoagulant activity, but the mechanism of action was elucidated in a few cases. Results: A highly sulfated pyranosic ß-arabinan exerts its activity through direct and indirect inhibition of thrombin. Conclusion: The structure and mechanism of action of the arabinan are different from those found for other polysaccharides. Significance: This arabinan could be an alternative anticoagulant in certain specific cases

Structure of CD20 in complex with the therapeutic monoclonal antibody rituximab.

Cluster of differentiation 20 (CD20) is a B cell membrane protein that is targeted by monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of malignancies and autoimmune disorders but whose structure and function are unknown. Rituximab (RTX) has been in clinical use for two decades, but how it activates complement to kill B cells remains poorly understood. We obtained a structure of CD20 in complex with RTX, revealing CD20 as a compact double-barrel dimer bound by two RTX antigen-binding fragments (Fabs), each of which engages a composite epitope and an extensive homotypic Fab:Fab interface. Our data suggest that RTX cross-links CD20 into circular assemblies and lead to a structural model for complement recruitment. Our results further highlight the potential relevance of homotypic Fab:Fab interactions in targeting oligomeric cell-surface markers

Algoritmos de expansión de consulta basados en una nueva función discreta de relevancia

Se ha demostrado que el proceso de expansión de las consultas en el modelo espacio vectorial de representación dedocumentos en un sistema de recuperación de información, es una técnica útil para mejorar la relevancia medidapor la precisión de los resultados entregados a los usuarios. En este artículo se presenta un nuevo algoritmo y unavariación del mismo para realizar expansión de consultas en un sistema de recuperación de información. Estosalgoritmos se basan en una nueva función discreta que define la importancia relativa de un término en una colecciónde documentos. El algoritmo y su variación se evalúan frente a la búsqueda por similitud de cosenos y el algoritmode expansión propuesto por Rocchio, obteniendo excelentes resultados sobre la colección de datos CACM (artículospublicados en la revista Communications of the ACM).It has been shown that the query expansion process in the vector space model of document’s representation in aretrieval system, it is a useful technique for improving the relevance measured by precision of the results delivered tousers. This paper presents a new algorithm and a variation of itself used to perform query expansion in informationretrieval systems. These algorithms are based on a new discrete function that defines the relative importance of aterm in a document collection. The algorithm and its variation were evaluated against the cosine similarity searchand the query expansion algorithm proposed by Rocchio, with excellent results on data collection CACM (articlespublished in the Communications of the ACM journal)

Query expansion algorithms based on a new discrete relevance function

It has been shown that the query expansion process in the vector space model of document’s representation in aretrieval system, it is a useful technique for improving the relevance measured by precision of the results delivered tousers. This paper presents a new algorithm and a variation of itself used to perform query expansion in informationretrieval systems. These algorithms are based on a new discrete function that defines the relative importance of aterm in a document collection. The algorithm and its variation were evaluated against the cosine similarity searchand the query expansion algorithm proposed by Rocchio, with excellent results on data collection CACM (articlespublished in the Communications of the ACM journal).Se ha demostrado que el proceso de expansión de las consultas en el modelo espacio vectorial de representación dedocumentos en un sistema de recuperación de información, es una técnica útil para mejorar la relevancia medidapor la precisión de los resultados entregados a los usuarios. En este artículo se presenta un nuevo algoritmo y unavariación del mismo para realizar expansión de consultas en un sistema de recuperación de información. Estosalgoritmos se basan en una nueva función discreta que define la importancia relativa de un término en una colecciónde documentos. El algoritmo y su variación se evalúan frente a la búsqueda por similitud de cosenos y el algoritmode expansión propuesto por Rocchio, obteniendo excelentes resultados sobre la colección de datos CACM (artículospublicados en la revista Communications of the ACM)

Hepatic abscess induced by foreign body: case report and literature review

Hepatic abscess due to perforation of the gastrointestinal tract caused by ingested foreign bodies is uncommon. Pre-operative diagnosis is diffi cult as patients are often unaware of the foreign body ingestion and symptoms and imagiology are usually non-specific. The authors report a case of 62-year-old woman who was admitted with fever and abdominal pain. Further investigation revealed hepatic abscess, without resolution despite antibiotic therapy. A liver abscess resulting from perforation and intra-hepatic migration of a bone coming from the pilorum was diagnosed by surgery. The literature concerning foreign body-induced perforation of the gastrointestinal tract complicated by liver abscess is reviewed

Response of the fungus <i>Pseudocercospora griseola f. mesoamericana</i> to Tricyclazole

Pseudocercospora griseola, an anamorph of Mycosphaerella, causes Angular Leaf Spot (ALS). The mycelia and conidia from P. griseola are coloured due to the synthesis of 1,8 dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN)-melanin. The aim of this work was to identify in P. griseola f. mesoamericana isolate T4, a highly pigmented fungus, intermediary compounds as a result of the inhibition of melanin synthesis by tricyclazole, and to analyze at the structural level the localization of these dark pigments. The main metabolites were analyzed using ultraviolet matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization mass spectrometry (UV–MALDI MS). Tricyclazole affected P. griseola f. mesoamericana in several different ways. The most evident effect was the reduction of melanin synthesis, and therefore diffusible shunt products were found and identified. Flaviolin was the main intermediate metabolite found in cultures supplemented with tricyclazole. This inhibitor, which affected pigmentation and the cell wall structure of mycelium, revealed macroscopically by the reduction in growth, decreased the stratification and deposition of melanin in the hyphal wall. These results suggest a possible role of tricyclazole to control ALS.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y MuseoInstituto de Fisiología VegetalCentro de Investigaciones en FitopatologíaInstituto de Botánica "Dr. Carlos Spegazzini"Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

Quality of postharvest strawberries: comparative effect of fungal chitosan gel, nanoparticles and gel enriched with edible nanoparticle coatings

This study compared, for the first time, the postharvest conservative action of edible fungal chitosan coatings (gel, nanoparticles and gel-nanoparticle) on the physico-chemical, sensorial and microbiological characteristics of strawberries. The nanoparticles were prepared by an ionic gelation method and characterized by dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. The antioxidant (DPPH* and ABTS*) activity of the edible coatings and the antimicrobial (macrodilution method) action against phytopathogenic fungi were verified. The nanoparticles had a size of 331.1 nm and a zeta potential of + 34 mV. The gel, nanoparticles and gel+nanoparticles exhibited minimum inhibitory concentration values ranging from 4 to 5, 1.5 to 2.5 and 1.0 + 0.5 to 2.0 + 1.5 g.L−1, respectively. All the edible coatings exhibited antifungal action. All the coatings had high scavenging activity, especially the gel edible coating. The coatings, especially the gel+nanoparticles, decreased the weight loss, microbiological growth, soluble solids, maturity index and moisture loss of the strawberry and preserved the pH values, anthocyanin content, titratable acidity and sensory characteristics. Therefore, the use of chitosan edible coating containing nanoparticles can be a promising strategy to improve the post-harvest quality of strawberries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Abscisic acid mimic-fluorine derivative 4 alleviates water deficit stress by regulating ABA-responsive genes, proline accumulation, CO2 assimilation, water use efficiency and better nutrient uptake in tomato plants

Water deficit represents a serious limitation for agriculture and both genetic and chemical approaches are being used to cope with this stress and maintain plant yield. Next-generation agrochemicals that control stomatal aperture are promising for controlling water use efficiency. For example, chemical control of abscisic acid (ABA) signaling through ABA-receptor agonists is a powerful method to activate plant adaptation to water deficit. Such agonists are molecules able to bind and activate ABA receptors and, although their development has experienced significant advances in the last decade, few translational studies have been performed in crops. Here, we describe protection by the ABA mimic-fluorine derivative 4 (AMF4) agonist of the vegetative growth in tomato plants subjected to water restriction. Photosynthesis in mock-treated plants is markedly impaired under water deficit conditions, whereas AMF4 treatment notably improves CO2 assimilation, the relative plant water content and growth. As expected for an antitranspirant molecule, AMF4 treatment diminishes stomatal conductance and transpiration in the first phase of the experiment; however, when photosynthesis declines in mock-treated plants as stress persists, higher photosynthetic and transpiration parameters are recorded in agonist-treated plants. Additionally, AMF4 increases proline levels over those achieved in mock-treated plants in response to water deficit. Thus water deficit and AMF4 cooperate to upregulate P5CS1 through both ABA-independent and ABA-dependent pathways, and therefore, higher proline levels are produced Finally, analysis of macronutrients reveals higher levels of Ca, K and Mg in AMF4- compared to mock-treated plants subjected to water deficit. Overall, these physiological analyses reveal a protective effect of AMF4 over photosynthesis under water deficit and enhanced water use efficiency after agonist treatment. In summary, AMF4 treatment is a promising approach for farmers to protect the vegetative growth of tomatoes under water deficit stress