Post harvest reduction of Salmonella by use of vaccination in growing pigs

This study was a randomized, blinded trial to evaluate effect of vaccine on post harvest Salmonella contamination rate of pig carcasses. Pig was the experimental unit. Litters were assigned to treatment by farrowing date and parity. Piglets were double tagged, sex recorded and entire litters were either vaccinated (oral drench) or left as non-vaccinated controls. No movement of piglets between treatments was allowed. At weaning, control litters were placed on the top level of a truck, vaccinated pigs on the bottom level, transported to a wean-finish barn, and mixed within pen at the wean-finish barn

Enrichment or maceration influence post harvest isolation of Salmonella from mesenteric lymph nodes

Two enhanced microbiological methods were evaluated for recovery of Salmonella species from samples collected at slaughter, with a focus on ileocecal lymph nodes. Samples from one hundred and sixty two animals (vaccinated = 79, non-vaccinated = 83) were collected along with 25 pooled environmental samples (pen, truck, lairage). Animal sample types included ileocecal lymph nodes, peritoneal sponges and shoulder sponges. Initially, swabs from all samples were used to directly inoculate hektoen enteric (HE) plates

Aves y peces como bioindicadores de las alteraciones debidas al turismo en manantiales de zonas semiáridas en México: bases para la gestión

Tourist disturbance in semi–arid springs was analysed; birds and fish were selected as bioindicators. Media Luna spring is the biggest and most spatially complex system in the region, with the highest biodiversity levels and tourist use. Areas with the highest bird species richness and abundances showed highest structural heterogeneity and least direct human impact. No differences in species richness of fish were observed between sectors and the most abundant species were found in the sectors least perturbed by human activity. Factors that explained the bird distribution were the species´ tolerance to the effects of direct tourism (noise and direct presence of people) and habitat quality, mainly riparian vegetation. Aquatic vegetation condition was very important for fish. Six bird species and two fish species were relevant as indicators of the habitat quality related to human impact. Anthropic disturbance such as tree plantation favoured some bird species, whereas aquatic vegetation removal was favourable for some fish species, such as the endemic Cichlasoma bartoni, however, both types of disturbance were unfavourable for other species; riparian vegetation removal was negative for both groups. Controlled tourism promotes good conditions for C. bartoni establishment. Efficient conservation measures such as limiting touristic distribution are necessary for all species, especially for the fish community, in order to conserve biodiversity in general. Key words: Wetlands, Species distribution, Threatened species, Endemism, Habitat loss, Spatial heterogeneity, Bioindicators.Para analizar las alteraciones por el turismo en manantiales de zonas semiáridas se utilizaron aves y peces como bioindicadores. Se seleccionó el manantial de la Media Luna por ser el más grande y complejo, y por incluir la más alta biodiversidad y el mayor impacto turístico en la zona. Los sectores con alta diversidad y abundancias de aves fueron los que tienen la mayor heterogeneidad estructural y menor impacto humano directo. Las mayores abundancias de peces se encontraron en los sectores menos perturbados sin diferencias para la riqueza de especies. Los factores que explicaron la distribución de las aves fueron la tolerancia de las especies a los efectos directos del turismo (ruido y presencia directa de gente) y la calidad del hábitat, principalmente la vegetación ribereña. La condición de la vegetación acuática fue muy importante para los peces. Seis especies de aves y dos de peces fueron relevantes como indicadores de la calidad del hábitat en función del impacto humano. Las alteraciones antrópicas tales como la plantación de árboles favoreció a algunas especies de aves mientras que la eliminación de la vegetación acuática fue favorable para algunos peces como el endémico Cichlasoma bartoni, pero estas alteraciones fueron negativas para otras especies; la eliminación de la vegetación ribereña tuvo efectos negativos para ambos grupos. El turismo controlado crea condiciones favorables para C. bartoni. Para la conservación de la biodiversidad en general, se requieren medidas eficientes de conservación tales como la restricción geográfica del turismo especialmente importante para la comunidad de peces. Palabras clave: Humedales, Distribución de las especies, Especies amenazadas, Endemismos, Pérdida de hábitat, Heterogeneidad espacial, Bioindicadores

Options for National Parks and Reserves for Adapting to Climate Change

Past and present climate has shaped the valued ecosystems currently protected in parks and reserves, but future climate change will redefine these conditions. Continued conservation as climate changes will require thinking differently about resource management than we have in the past; we present some logical steps and tools for doing so. Three critical tenets underpin future management plans and activities: (1) climate patterns of the past will not be the climate patterns of the future; (2) climate defines the environment and influences future trajectories of the distributions of species and their habitats; (3) specific management actions may help increase the resilience of some natural resources, but fundamental changes in species and their environment may be inevitable. Science-based management will be necessary because past experience may not serve as a guide for novel future conditions. Identifying resources and processes at risk, defining thresholds and reference conditions, and establishing monitoring and assessment programs are among the types of scientific practices needed to support a broadened portfolio of management activities. In addition to the control and hedging management strategies commonly in use today, we recommend adaptive management wherever possible. Adaptive management increases our ability to address the multiple scales at which species and processes function, and increases the speed of knowledge transfer among scientists and managers. Scenario planning provides a broad forward-thinking framework from which the most appropriate management tools can be chosen. The scope of climate change effects will require a shared vision among regional partners. Preparing for and adapting to climate change is as much a cultural and intellectual challenge as an ecological challenge

Distribución y solapamiento espacial de las aves acuáticas y ribereñas en un humedal

Spatial distribution of bird community and their niche overlap on Media Luna wetland was the main objective of this work. A wide and heterogeneous use of the system resources were detected, mainlyrelated to feeding and resting activities. By resting activity, most of the species were gregarious, sharing branches and riparian grassland, showing overlap among them. Whereas in feeding activity there was less evident overlap. Piscivorous egrets and herons (Ardeidae) showed high overlap among them, but temporal resources partitioning of nocturnal species such as Nycticorax nycticorax L, or different diet of Bubulcus ibis L, reduce the competence. Some species such as Jacana spinosa L realised all itsactivities in an only type of habitat with the lowest overlap with another species. Low interespecific aggressiveness was observed. Anthropic disturbances may favoured some species abundance and possible decrease of another species. Bad management actions had high consequences in the study area. So, future management actions must consider information of use and resource partitioning of bird group.La distribución espacial de una comunidad de aves y sus niveles de solapamiento dentro del humedal de la Media Luna fue el principal objetivo de este trabajo. Se detectó un uso amplio y heterogéneo del sistema y sus recursos, principalmente en relación a dos actividades: alimentación y descanso. Para descanso, la mayoría de las especies se mostraron gregarias y compartieron ramas deárboles o vegetación ribereña, mostrando solapamiento entre ellas; mientras que en actividad de alimentación hubo un solapamiento de nicho menos evidente. La competencia trófica fue evidente entremiembros de un mismo gremio, como algunas garzas (Ardeidae) piscívoras que mostraron solapamientos mayores al 75% entre sí, pero la repartición temporal de recursos de las especies nocturnas como Nycticorax nycticorax L, o la diferente dieta de Bubulcus ibis L redujeron la competencia. Algunas especies como Jacana spinosa L realizaron todas sus actividades en un sólo tipo de hábitat, con solapamiento menor al 10% con las demás especies. En general se observó poca agresividad interespecífica. Alteraciones antrópicas en el medio pueden favorecer la abundancia de algunas especies en posible decremento de otras. Los resultados mostraron que la repartición en el uso del hábitat es importante para actividades como descanso, además de la alimentación. Acciones de gestión mal llevadas a cabo tuvieron gran repercusión en el área de estudio, por lo que futuras acciones deben considerar información sobre el uso y la repartición de recursos por parte del grupo de las aves, para diferentes actividades

Holy Water: Photo-Brightening in Quasi-2D Perovskite Films under Ambient Enables Highly Performing Light-Emitting Diodes

Quasi-2D perovskites provide new opportunities for lighting and display applications due to their high radiative recombination and excellent stability. However, seldom attention has been placed on their self-stability/working operation under ambient storage. Herein, quasi-2D perovskites/Polyethylene oxide (PEO) films are studied, showing an unforeseen photo-brightening effect under ambient storage (i.e., an increase of the photoluminescence quantum yield from 55% to 74% after 100 days). In stark contrast, those stored under a dark/inert atmosphere show a significant decrease down to 38%. This counterintuitive phenomenon responds to the increasing radiative recombination rate caused by the passivation of the surface Br vacancies in the presence of physically adsorbed water molecules, as corroborated by in situ/ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. Capitalizing on this surprising effect, stable light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using quasi-2D perovskites/PEO color filters are fabricated, realizing high stabilities of ≈400 h@10 mA under operating ambient conditions, representing a 20-fold enhancement compared to LEDs with 3D counter partners. Hence, this study reveals a unique insight into the impact of water passivation on the optical/structural properties of quasi-2D perovskite films, broadening their applications under operating ambient conditions.Y.D. thanks the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC, no. 201808440326). Financial support has been received from AEI-MINECO/FEDER, UE through the Nympha Project (PID2019-106315RB-I00), the regional government of "Comunidad de Madrid" and the European Structural Funds through FotoArt-CM Project (S2018/NMT-4367). F.O. acknowledges funding from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no 754382. M.U.K. and G.N. thank ELI-ALPS, which is supported by the European Union and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (GI-NOP-2.3.6-15-2015-00001). This publication has also received funding from PANOSC, the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 823852. M.U.K. and G.N. also acknowledge Project no. 2019-2.1.13-TÉT-IN-2020-00059 which has been implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the 2019-2.1.13-TÉT-IN funding scheme. O.A.R. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 899987. R.D.C. and L.M.C. acknowledge the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 956923

Quantification of the novel N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor ligand [11C]GMOM in man

[11C]GMOM (carbon-11 labeled N-(2-chloro-5-thiomethylphenyl)-N0-(3-[11C]methoxy-phenyl)-N0-methylguanidine) is a PET ligand that binds to the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor with high specificity and affinity. The purpose of this first in human study was to evaluate kinetics of [11C]GMOM in the healthy human brain and to identify the optimal pharmacokinetic model for quantifying these kinetics, both before and after a pharmacological dose of S-ketamine. Dynamic 90 min [11C]GMOM PET scans were obtained from 10 subjects. In six of the 10 subjects, a second PET scan was performed following an S-ketamine challenge. Metabolite corrected plasma input functions were obtained for all scans. Regional time activity curves were fitted to various single- and two-tissue compartment models. Best fits were obtained using a two-tissue irreversible model with blood volume parameter. The highest net influx rate (Ki) of [11C]GMOM was observed in regions with high N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor density, such as hippocampus and thalamus. A significant reduction in the Ki was observed for the entire brain after administration of ketamine, suggesting specific binding to the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors. This initial study suggests that the [11C]GMOM could be used for quantification of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors

Thermally induced Oxygen vacancies in BiOCl nanosheets and their impact on photoelectrochemical performance

Oxygen vacancies (OVs) have been reported to significantly alter the photocatalytic properties of BiOCl nanosheets. However, their formation mechanism and their role in the enhancement of photoelectrochemical performance remain unclear. In this work, thermally induced oxygen vacancies are introduced in BiOCl nanosheets by annealing in He atmosphere at various temperatures and their formation mechanism is investigated by in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared (DRIFTS) measurements. The influence of OVs on band offset, carrier concentrations and photoelectrochemical performance are systematically studied. The results show that (1) the surface of BiOCl nanosheets is extremely sensitive to temperature and defects are formed at temperatures as low as 200 degrees C in inert atmosphere. (2) The formation of surface and bulk OVs in BiOCl is identified by a combination of XPS, in-situ DRIFTS, and EPR experiments. (3) The photocurrent of BiOCl is limited by the concentration of charge carriers and shallow defect states induced by bulk oxygen vacancies, while the modulation of these parameters can effectively increase light absorption and carrier concentration leading to an enhancement of photoelectrochemical performance of BiOCl.Metals in Catalysis, Biomimetics & Inorganic Material