Preface : Biohydrology – walking on drylands and swimming through pores

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Quantitative and qualitative analysis of psychosocial factors affecting women’s entrepreneurship

This work aims to clarify the psychosocial variables that lead women to undertake and those that prevent them from doing so. Two studies were conducted using a mixed methodology to compensate for the inherent weaknesses of using each approach. The first study was based on the collection of quantitative data using the GloPEW questionnaire with a sample of 296 people. The second study, of a qualitative nature, was carried out through focus groups with a sample of 26 people. The results show that self-efficacy and emotional intelligence are the main factors to develop to promote entrepreneurship among women. Although the data show statistical strength, it seems necessary to expand the sample and incorporate more profiles of female entrepreneurs, for example, with different levels of training, given the complexity and variety of intervening factors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluación de la concentración de azufre en dietas de bovinos en engorde a corral del sur de Córdoba y Santa Fe

In the southeast of Córdoba and southwest of Santa Fe provinces, feedlot cattle (FC) systems have proliferated, with the inclusion of wet corn destillers grains (WCDG) in their diets. According to the background of high concentrations of sulfur(S) in WCDG, and sulfates (SO4 ) excess in drinking water of the region, an excessive dietary S is possible. Productive-health problems have been reported in FC from this region, compatible with those caused by excessive dietary S, associated with WCDG and / or high SO4 drinking water consumption. The objective of the present work was to estimate and evaluate the concentration of total S in the FC diets in this region of Argentina. During the summer and winter of 2017, drinking water samples were collected from 46 farms in order to quantify SO4 concentration and twenty-six WCDG batches from the regional supply plant were sampled for total S determination. The estimation of dietary S concentration was performed for each water well, considering solid food and drinking water contribution. The estimation of S solid food contribution was performed considering the contribution of standard FC diets with 0 (B0), 15 (B15), 30 (B30) and 45% (B45) WCDG inclusion. The average water SO4 concentrations were 196 and 90 mg/l, in the summer and winter samples, respectively. The average WCDG S content was 0.68%. Estimated total dietary S averages in summer were 0,23, 0,29, 0,34 and 0,43% for B0, B15, B30 and B45 diets respectively, while in winter they were 0,22, 0,28, 0,33 and 0,42% for B0, B15, B30 and B45 diets, respectively. In most FC farms from the studied region, it is unlikely that dietary S levels are detrimental to health and productive performance of FC.En el sudeste de Córdoba y el sudoeste de Santa Fe, han proliferado sistemas de engorde a corral (EC) de bovinos, con creciente inclusión de burlanda de maíz húmeda (BMH) en sus dietas. Según antecedentes de altas concentraciones de azufre (S) en dicho alimento, y de sulfatos (SO4 ) en el agua de bebida de la región, podría existir un excesivo aporte dietético de S total. En ECs de la región se han comunicado problemáticas productivo-sanitarias compatibles con las causadas por exceso de S dietético, asociadas al consumo de BMH y/o agua de bebida con altas concentraciones de SO4 . El objetivo del presente trabajo fue estimar y evaluar la concentración de S total en las dietas de bovinos de EC en la mencionada región del país. En verano e invierno del año 2017 se recolectaron muestras de agua de bebida de 46 establecimientos para cuantificar la concentración de SO4 , y se recolectaron muestras de 26 lotes de BMH provenientes de la planta industrial abastecedora de la región en estudio para la determinación de S total. La estimación de la concentración de S dietético total se realizó para cada perforación de agua, considerando el aporte del alimento sólido como el del agua de bebida. La estimación del S aportado por el alimento sólido se realizó considerando el aporte de dietas estándar de EC con 0 (B0), 15 (B15), 30 (B30) y 45% (B45) de BMH. Las concentraciones medias de SO4 en el agua fueron de 196 y 90 mg/l, en los muestreos estival e invernal respectivamente. La concentración media de S en BMH fue de 0,68%. Las concentraciones medias estimadas de S total en verano fueron de 0,23, 0,29, 0,34 y 0,43% para las dietas B0, B15, B30 y B45 respectivamente, mientras que en el invierno fueron de 0,22, 0,28, 0,33 y 0,42% para las dietas B0, B15, B30 y B45 respectivamente. En la región estudiada, es poco probable que los niveles de S dietético sean perjudiciales para la salud y desempeño de bovinos de EC

Evaluation of species-specific polyclonal antibodies to detect and differentiate between Neospora caninum and Toxoplasma gondii

Neosporosis and toxoplasmosis are major causes of abortion in livestock worldwide, leading to substantial economic losses. Detection tools are fundamental to the diagnosis and management of those diseases. Current immunohistochemistry (IHC) tests, using sera raised against whole parasite lysates, have not been able to distinguish between Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum. We used T. gondii and N. caninum recombinant proteins, expressed in Escherichia coli and purified using insoluble conditions, to produce specific polyclonal rabbit antisera. We aimed to develop species-specific sera that could be used in IHC on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections to improve the diagnosis of ruminant abortions caused by protozoa. Two polyclonal rabbit sera, raised against recombinant proteins, anti–Neospora-rNcSRS2 and anti–Toxoplasma-rTgSRS2, had specificity for the parasite they were raised against. We tested the specificity for each polyclonal serum using FFPE tissue sections known to be infected with T. gondii and N. caninum. The anti–Neospora-rNcSRS2 serum labeled specifically only N. caninum–infected tissue blocks, and the anti–Toxoplasma-rTgSRS2 serum was specific to only T. gondii–infected tissues. Moreover, tissues from 52 cattle and 19 sheep previously diagnosed by lesion profiles were tested using IHC with our polyclonal sera and PCR. The overall agreement between IHC and PCR was 90.1% for both polyclonal anti-rNcSRS2 and anti-rTgSRS2 sera. The polyclonal antisera were specific and allowed visual confirmation of protozoan parasites by IHC, but they were not as sensitive as PCR testing.</p

Multicenter evaluation of the new Etest gradient diffusion method for piperacillin-tazobactam susceptibility testing of Enterobacterales, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii complex

Piperacillin-tazobactam (P/T) is a β-lactam-β-lactamase inhibitor combination frequently used in the hospital setting. Etest is a gradient diffusion method that represents an alternative to broth microdilution (BMD) for performing antimicrobial susceptibility testing. We conducted a multicenter evaluation of the performance of the new P/T Etest compared to that of BMD following U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and International Standards Organization (ISO) standard ISO 20776-2 criteria using Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)-FDA and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) interpretive breakpoints, respectively. A total of 977 isolates (77

Virulence genes and subclone status as markers of experimental virulence in a murine sepsis model among Escherichia coli sequence type 131 clinical isolates from Spain

Objective: To assess experimental virulence among sequence type 131 (ST131) Escherichia coli bloodstream isolates in relation to virulence genotype and subclone. Methods: We analysed 48 Spanish ST131 bloodstream isolates (2010) by PCR for ST131 subclone status (H30Rx, H30 non-Rx, or non-H30), virulence genes (VGs), and O-type. Then we compared these traits with virulence in a murine sepsis model, as measured by illness severity score (ISS) and rapid lethality (mean ISS >= 4). Results: Of the 48 study isolates, 65% were H30Rx, 21% H30 non-Rx, and 15% non-H30; 44% produced ESBLs, 98% were O25b, and 83% qualified as extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC). Of 49 VGs, ibeA and iss were associated significantly with non-H30 isolates, and sat, iha and malX with H30 isolates. Median VG scores differed by subclone, i.e., 12 (H30Rx), 10 (H30 non-Rx), and 11 (non-H30) (p < 0.01). Nearly 80% of isolates represented a described virotype. In mice, H30Rx and non-H30 isolates were more virulent than H30 non-Rx isolates (according to ISS [p = 0.03] and rapid lethality [p = 0.03]), as were ExPEC isolates compared with non-ExPEC isolates (median ISS, 4.3 vs. 2.7: p = 0.03). In contrast, most individual VGs, VG scores, VG profiles, and virotypes were not associated with mouse virulence. Conclusions: ST131 subclone and ExPEC status, but not individual VGs, VG scores or profiles, or virotypes, predicted mouse virulence. Given the lower virulence of non-Rx H30 isolates, hyper-virulence probably cannot explain the ST131-H30 clade's epidemic emergence

Isothermal microcalorimetry minimal inhibitory concentration testing in extensively drug resistant Gram-negative bacilli: a multicentre study

Objectives: To evaluate the performance of an isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) method for determining the MICs among extensively drug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli. Methods: A collection of 320 clinical isolates (n = 80 of each) of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii from Sweden, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands were tested. The MICs were determined using the IMC device calScreener (Symcel, Stockholm, Sweden) and ISO-broth microdilution as the reference method. Essential agreement, categorical agreement, very major errors (VME), major errors (ME) and minor (mE) errors for each antibiotic were determined. Results: Data from 316 isolates were evaluated. Four errors (two ME, one VME, one mE) among 80 K. pneumoniae, six errors (four ME, one VME, one mE) among 79 E. coli, 15 errors (seven VME, three ME, five mE) among 77 P. aeruginosa and 18 errors (12 VME, two ME, four mE) among 80 A. baumannii were observed. Average essential agreement and categorical agreement of the IMC method were 96.6% (95% confidence interval, 94.2–99) and 97.1% (95% confidence interval, 95.4–98.5) respectively when the MICs were determined at the end of 18 hours. Categorical agreement of the IMC method for prediction of MIC by the end of 8 hours for colistin, meropenem, amikacin, ciprofloxacin and piperacillin/tazobactam were 95%, 91.4%, 94%, 95.2% and 93.7% respectively. Conclusions: The IMC method could accurately determine the MICs among extensively drug-resistant clinical isolates of E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii isolates

Making Bipedal Robot Experiments Reproducible and Comparable: The Eurobench Software Approach

This study describes the software methodology designed for systematic benchmarking of bipedal systems through the computation of performance indicators from data collected during an experimentation stage. Under the umbrella of the European project Eurobench, we collected approximately 30 protocols with related testbeds and scoring algorithms, aiming at characterizing the performances of humanoids, exoskeletons, and/or prosthesis under different conditions. The main challenge addressed in this study concerns the standardization of the scoring process to permit a systematic benchmark of the experiments. The complexity of this process is mainly due to the lack of consistency in how to store and organize experimental data, how to define the input and output of benchmarking algorithms, and how to implement these algorithms. We propose a simple but efficient methodology for preparing scoring algorithms, to ensure reproducibility and replicability of results. This methodology mainly constrains the interface of the software and enables the engineer to develop his/her metric in his/her favorite language. Continuous integration and deployment tools are then used to verify the replicability of the software and to generate an executable instance independent of the language through dockerization. This article presents this methodology and points at all the metrics and documentation repositories designed with this policy in Eurobench. Applying this approach to other protocols and metrics would ease the reproduction, replication, and comparison of experiments.This study is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement no 779963, project Eurobench

Nueva estrategia para la construcción de una genoteca genómica de Pinus pinaster en cromosomas artificiales de bacterias

To learn about the structure and organization of plant genomes, molecular cloning of large genomic fragments for representative gene libraries construction is required. The genome library construction on bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) is one of the most frequently used tools for this purpose, and the chosen strategy in this work. But when working with species containing very large genomes, such as pine, construction of this kind of gene libraries is a laborious and expensive task. In this study we have developed a method that starts from P. pinaster cotyledons to construct a pooled BAC library that drastically reduces cost, space and time required to clone a genotype of interesThe current BAC library comprises 83 groups of cells with an average of 4000 clones per group and accounts for a 0.8 X genome content of P. pinaster. It is also shown that a BAC of interest can be quickly identified by PCR (polymerase chain reaction): a pool containing a BAC clone that carries a coding sequence similar to a Class I chitinase of Picea abies has been identified, as well as another BAC clone in a different pool containing a sequence with homology to an unknown P.taeda mRNA. This strategy will allow screening and storing gene libraries from large genome organisms and a quickly location of genes of interest, the method been described in detail.Para poder conocer la estructura y organizaci&oacute;n de los genomas vegetales es necesario la clonaci&oacute;n molecular de grandes fragmentos de secuencias gen&oacute;micas para construir genotecas representativas. La construcci&oacute;n de genotecas gen&oacute;micas en cromosomas artificiales de bacterias (BAC) es una de las herramientas m&aacute;s utilizadas con este fin y la estrategia elegida en este trabajo. Pero cuando se trabaja con especies que presentan genomas muy grandes, como el pino, realizar este tipo de genotecas es muy laborioso y costoso. En este estudio se describe un m&eacute;todo para, a partir de cotiledones de P. pinaster, construir genotecas BAC en grupos de c&eacute;lulas, lo que disminuye dr&aacute;sticamente el coste, el espacio y el tiempo requerido. La genoteca BAC consta de 83 grupos de c&eacute;lulas con una media de 4000 clones por grupo y representa por ahora un 0,8 X del genoma de P. pinaster. Tambi&eacute;n se demuestra que se puede realizar por PCR (reacci&oacute;n en cadena de la ADNpolimerasa) con rapidez la identificaci&oacute;n del grupo que contiene un BAC de inter&eacute;s. Se ha identificado un grupo de c&eacute;lulas que contiene un clon BAC que porta una secuencia codificante similar a una quitinasa de clase I de Picea abies, y otro clon BAC en otro grupo que contiene secuencia hom&oacute;loga a un ARNm desconocido de P.taeda. Esta estrategia permitir&aacute; rastrear y almacenar genotecas de organismos con grandes genomas y localizar en ella genes de inter&eacute;s con rapidez, describi&eacute;ndose el m&eacute;todo en detalle

Epidemiological cutoff values for fluconazole, itraconazole, posaconazole, and voriconazole for six Candida species as determined by the colorimetric Sensititre YeastOne method

In the absence of clinical breakpoints (CBP), epidemiological cutoff values (ECVs) are useful to separate wild-type (WT) isolates (without mechanisms of resistance) from non-WT isolates (those that can harbor some resistance mechanisms), which is the goal of susceptibility tests. Sensititre YeastOne (SYO) is a widely used method to determine susceptibility of Candida spp. to antifungal agents. The CLSI CBP have been established, but not for the SYO method. The ECVs for four azoles, obtained using MIC distributions determined by the SYO method, were calculated via five methods (three statistical methods and based on the MIC50 and modal MIC). Respectively, the median ECVs (in mg/liter) of the five methods for fluconazole, itraconazole, posaconazole, and voriconazole (in parentheses: the percentage of isolates inhibited by MICs equal to or less than the ECVs; the number of isolates tested) were as follows: 2 (94.4%; 944), 0.5 (96.7%; 942), 0.25 (97.6%; 673), and 0.06 (96.7%; 849) for Candida albicans; 4 (86.1%; 642), 0.5 (99.4%; 642), 0.12 (93.9%; 392), and 0.06 (86.9%; 559) for C. parapsilosis; 8 (94.9%; 175), 1 (93.7%; 175), 2 (93.6%; 125), and 0.25 (90.4%; 167) for C. tropicalis; 128 (98.6%; 212), 4 (95.8%; 212), 4 (96.0%; 173), and 2 (98.5; 205) for C. glabrata; 256 (100%; 53), 1 (98.1%; 53), 1 (100%; 33), and 1 (97.9%; 48) for C. krusei; 4 (89.2%; 93), 0.5 (100%; 93), 0.25 (100%; 33), and 0.06 (87.7%; 73) for C. orthopsilosis. All methods included =94% of isolates and yielded similar ECVs (within 1 dilution). These ECVs would be suitable for monitoring emergence of isolates with reduced susceptibility by using the SYO method