Development and validation of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the detection of antibodies against Trichinella spp. in domestic pigs in Argentina

Trichinellosis is endemic in Argentina, with human outbreaks having mainly domestic pigs as focalised sources of infection. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), based on excretory/secretory T. spiralis muscle larvae antigens (E/S ML) is the most recommended technique for epidemiological surveillance to detect anti-Trichinella antibodies in domestic pigs. Available international ELISA kits are expensive and need to be validated in each country. Thus, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of an in-house indirect ELISA based on E/S ML antigen. The artificial digestion (AD) was used as reference technique. A total of 343 swine serum samples were used to define sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and repeatability of the ELISA. Sera tested were from 91 outdoor pigs associated with local outbreaks, 12 of them diagnosed as positive by AD, and 242 serum samples from intensive-rearing farms with strict hygienic conditions and negative results by AD. Sera from 2 pigs experimentally infected with 10,000 T. spiralis ML (bled at five different days post infection) were also included. E/S ML antigen was diluted at 5 μg/ml in coating buffer, samples were diluted 1/100 in wash buffer and peroxidase conjugated rabbit anti-pig IgG was used at 1/2500 dilution (Sigma). Reaction was developed using ortho-phenylene-diamine diluted in a citric acid buffer 0.07% H2O2. After 15 minutes, reaction was stopped with H2SO4 2.5N. The cut-off point was calculated based on the OD values of 5 negative controls (NC) using the formula: Mean NC ± 3 SD. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA were 95.5% and 98.4%, respectively. The accuracy was 98.2%. The inter-assay repeatability (4 plates) calculated for 1 positive and 4 negative controls was under 20%. The performance of this ELISA suggests that it could be used as a reliable and practical tool for seroepidemiological studies in Argentina.Fil: Riva, Eliana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Steffan, Pedro Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Amanto, Andres Fabian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Davila, Agustin. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Bernat, Gisele. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, Alicia Silvina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Fuentes, Mariana Elisabet. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Estein, Silvia Marcela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; Argentina28th International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary ParasitologyDublinReino UnidoUniversity College of Dubli

Variation in stem mortality rates determines patterns of above-ground biomass in Amazonian forests: implications for dynamic global vegetation models

This is the final version of the article. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Understanding the processes that determine above-ground biomass (AGB) in Amazonian forests is important for predicting the sensitivity of these ecosystems to environmental change and for designing and evaluating dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs). AGB is determined by inputs from woody productivity [woody net primary productivity (NPP)] and the rate at which carbon is lost through tree mortality. Here, we test whether two direct metrics of tree mortality (the absolute rate of woody biomass loss and the rate of stem mortality) and/or woody NPP, control variation in AGB among 167 plots in intact forest across Amazonia. We then compare these relationships and the observed variation in AGB and woody NPP with the predictions of four DGVMs. The observations show that stem mortality rates, rather than absolute rates of woody biomass loss, are the most important predictor of AGB, which is consistent with the importance of stand size structure for determining spatial variation in AGB. The relationship between stem mortality rates and AGB varies among different regions of Amazonia, indicating that variation in wood density and height/diameter relationships also influences AGB. In contrast to previous findings, we find that woody NPP is not correlated with stem mortality rates and is weakly positively correlated with AGB. Across the four models, basin-wide average AGB is similar to the mean of the observations. However, the models consistently overestimate woody NPP and poorly represent the spatial patterns of both AGB and woody NPP estimated using plot data. In marked contrast to the observations, DGVMs typically show strong positive relationships between woody NPP and AGB. Resolving these differences will require incorporating forest size structure, mechanistic models of stem mortality and variation in functional composition in DGVMs.This paper is a product of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme AMAZALERT project (282664). The field data used in this study have been generated by the RAINFOR network, which has been supported by a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant, the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme projects 283080, ‘GEOCARBON’; and 282664, ‘AMAZALERT’; ERC grant ‘Tropical Forests in the Changing Earth System’), and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urgency, Consortium and Standard Grants ‘AMAZONICA’ (NE/F005806/1), ‘TROBIT’ (NE/D005590/1) and ‘Niche Evolution of South American Trees’ (NE/I028122/1). Additional data were included from the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network – a collaboration between Conservation International, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and partly funded by these institutions, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and other donors. Fieldwork was also partially supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico of Brazil (CNPq), project Programa de Pesquisas Ecológicas de Longa Duração (PELD-403725/2012-7). A.R. acknowledges funding from the Helmholtz Alliance ‘Remote Sensing and Earth System Dynamics’; L.P., M.P.C. E.A. and M.T. are partially funded by the EU FP7 project ‘ROBIN’ (283093), with co-funding for E.A. from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (KB-14-003-030); B.C. [was supported in part by the US DOE (BER) NGEE-Tropics project (subcontract to LANL). O.L.P. is supported by an ERC Advanced Grant and is a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. P.M. acknowledges support from ARC grant FT110100457 and NERC grants NE/J011002/1, and T.R.B. acknowledges support from a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship

Evolutionary Heritage Influences Amazon Tree Ecology

Lineages tend to retain ecological characteristics of their ancestors through time. However, for some traits, selection during evolutionary history may have also played a role in determining trait values. To address the relative importance of these processes requires large-scale quantification of traits and evolutionary relationships among species. The Amazonian tree flora comprises a high diversity of angiosperm lineages and species with widely differing life-history characteristics, providing an excellent system to investigate the combined influences of evolutionary heritage and selection in determining trait variation. We used trait data related to the major axes of life-history variation among tropical trees (e.g. growth and mortality rates) from 577 inventory plots in closed-canopy forest, mapped onto a phylogenetic hypothesis spanning more than 300 genera including all major angiosperm clades to test for evolutionary constraints on traits. We found significant phylogenetic signal (PS) for all traits, consistent with evolutionarily related genera having more similar characteristics than expected by chance. Although there is also evidence for repeated evolution of pioneer and shade tolerant life-history strategies within independent lineages, the existence of significant PS allows clearer predictions of the links between evolutionary diversity, ecosystem function and the response of tropical forests to global change

Hyperdominance in Amazonian Forest Carbon Cycling

While Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, the abundance of trees is skewed strongly towards relatively few ‘hyperdominant’ species. In addition to their diversity, Amazonian trees are a key component of the global carbon cycle, assimilating and storing more carbon than any other ecosystem on Earth. Here we ask, using a unique data set of 530 forest plots, if the functions of storing and producing woody carbon are concentrated in a small number of tree species, whether the most abundant species also dominate carbon cycling, and whether dominant species are characterized by specific functional traits. We find that dominance of forest function is even more concentrated in a few species than is dominance of tree abundance, with only ≈1% of Amazon tree species responsible for 50% of carbon storage and productivity. Although those species that contribute most to biomass and productivity are often abundant, species maximum size is also influential, while the identity and ranking of dominant species varies by function and by region

Factor H-related proteins determine complement-activating surfaces.

Complement factor H-related proteins (FHRs) are strongly associated with different diseases involving complement dysregulation, which suggests a major role for these proteins regulating complement activation. Because FHRs are evolutionarily and structurally related to complement inhibitor factor H (FH), the initial assumption was that the FHRs are also negative complement regulators. Whereas weak complement inhibiting activities were originally reported for these molecules, recent developments indicate that FHRs may enhance complement activation, with important implications for the role of these proteins in health and disease. We review these findings here, and propose that FHRs represent a complex set of surface recognition molecules that, by competing with FH, provide improved discrimination of self and non-self surfaces and play a central role in determining appropriate activation of the complement pathway

Evaluación espacial de concentraciones de polvo atmosférico sedimentable (PAS) y propuesta de una alternativa de purificación en la Urbanización La Libertad – distrito de Comas, 2021

El estudio tuvo como propósito analizar el nivel de concentración de polvo atmosférico sedimentable (PAS) y proponer una alternativa para su purificación. en la urbanización la Libertad del distrito de Comas. Se describen los resultados del monitoreo al material particulado utilizando placas Petri, como resultado de la evaluación del PAS usando la metodología pasiva, que consiste en pesar el peso inicial y final de las placas con el polvo atmosférico sedimentable. Se desarrolló según el enfoque cuantitativo, con diseño no experimental, longitudinal. Se realizaron mediciones en 30 puntos de muestreo en un periodo de tiempo de cuatro meses. Los datos se recolectaron mediante una Ficha de registro de PAS. Los resultados indicaron que el purificador de aire tiene un mayor porcentaje de remoción de material particulado (MP) y un menor costo de fabricación logrando obtener una concentración a la salida del equipo de MP. Por lo que se puede concluir que el purificador de aire es eficiente cuando se trata de remover MP