Top anomalous chromomagnetic dipole moment in the Bestest Little Higgs Model

We investigate the anomalous Chromomagnetic Dipole Moment (CMDM), $\hat{\mu}^{BLHM}_t$ of the top quark in the Bestest Little Higgs Model (BLHM). We include new interactions with the involvement of the extended CKM matrix of the BLHM and we explore most of the allowed parameter space, obtaining multiple CMDM in the range of $10^{-4}-10^{-2}$. We consider experimental and model parameter uncertainties to integrate them into all our calculations using a Monte Carlo method. This enables us to determine the extent to which deviations arising from experimental errors can be accommodated within the statistical errors of the model and which relate to the physics framework of the BLHM, guiding future theory, phenomenological, and experimental research

Fatty acid profile and in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics of maize silage augmented with canola silage

The objective was to investigate the effect of replacing maize silage (MS) with canola silage (CS) on the chemical composition and fatty acid (FA) profile of total mixed rations (TMR) containing these silages, and on in vitro rumen fermentation and methane production from them. The canola (Brassica napus var. Monty) was cultivated on a small-scale agricultural farm and harvested at 148 days after sowing. Maize silage in a TMR was replaced with 0%, 15%, 25%, and 35% CS to make the rations CS0, CS15, CS25, and CS35, respectively. Proximate analyses of the rations were evaluated in a completely randomized design. The results showed that linolenic acid increased linearly with the level of CS, primarily at the expense of linoleic acid. In vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) was similar among treatments. However, in vitro neutral detergent fibre digestibility (IVNDF) decreased linearly (P <0.05) when the CS proportion increased in the TMR. The lowest ammonia nitrogen content (P <0.05) was observed in CS35. The soluble fraction (A) increased (P <0.05) when the CS increased in the TMR from 0% to 35%. In vitro methane (CH4) production was lowest with CS25 and CS35, decreasing 34% and 23.9%, respectively, compared with CS0. Linolenic acid had a negative correlation with IVNDF (r = -0.94; P <0.05). The IVDMD and methane production were positively correlated (r = 0.60) (P <0.05). In conclusion, 25% and 35% augmentation of MS with CS in a TMR was an important source of linolenic acid (C18:3) and decreased in vitro methane production

Effects of acute unilateral ovariectomy to pre-pubertal rats on steroid hormones secretion and compensatory ovarian responses

In the present study we analyzed the existence of asymmetry in the secretion of steroid hormones in pre-pubertal female rats treated with unilateral ovariectomy (ULO) or unilateral perforation of the abdominal wall (sham-surgery). Treated rats were sacrificed at different times after surgery. Since sham-surgery had an apparent effect on the age of first vaginal estrous (FVE) and serum levels hormone, the results of the sham surgery groups were used to assess the effects of their respective surgery treatment groups. On the day of FVE, compensatory ovulation (CO) and compensatory ovarian hypertrophy (COH) were similar in animals with ULO, regardless of the ovary remaining in situ. In ULO treated animals, progesterone (P4) levels were higher than in animals with sham-surgery one hour after treatment but lower in rats sacrificed at FEV. Left-ULO resulted in lower testosterone (T) concentration 48 and 72 hours after surgery. In rats with Right-ULO lower T concentrations were observed in rats sacrificed one or 72 hours after surgery, and at FVE. ULO (left or right) resulted in lower estradiol (E2) concentrations one or 72 hours after treatment. In rats with Left-ULO, E2 levels were higher 48 hours after surgery and at FVE. Left-ULO resulted in higher levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) five hours after surgery and at FVE. FSH levels were higher in rats with Right-ULO sacrificed on FVE. The present results suggest that in the pre-pubertal rat both ovaries have similar capacities to secrete P4, and that the right ovary has a higher capacity to secrete E2. Taken together, the present results support the idea that the effects of ULO result from the decrease in glandular tissue and changes in the neural information arising from the ovary

New serological platform for detecting antibodies against Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in European badgers

[EN]European badgers (Meles meles) have been identified as wildlife reservoirs for Mycobacterium bovis in the UK and Ireland, and may also have a role in the epidemiology of animal tuberculosis in other European regions. Thus, detection of M. bovis-infected badgers may be required for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring of disease levels in infected populations. Current serological assays to detect M. bovis infection in live badgers, while rapid and inexpensive, show limited diagnostic sensitivity. Here we describe and evaluate new ELISA platforms for the recognition of the P22 multiprotein complex derived from the purified protein derivative (PPD) of M. bovis. The recognition of IgG against P22 multiprotein complex derived from PPD-B was tested by ELISA in the serum of badgers from the UK, Ireland and Spain. TB infection in the badgers was indicated by the presence of M. bovis in tissues by culture and histology at post-mortem examination and TB-free status was established by repeated negativity in the interferon c release assay (IGRA). In experimentally infected badgers, humoral antibody responses against P22 developed within 45 days post-infection. The ELISA tests showed estimated sensitivity levels of 74–82% in experimentally and naturally infected badgers with specifici-ties ranging from 75% to 100% depending on the badger population tested. The P22 multi-antigen based ELI-SAs provide a sensitive and specific test platform for improved tuberculosis surveillance in badgers.SIThis work was supported by the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria of Spain (INIA; RTA2015-00043-C02-02) and the TAVS-CM Programme of the Comunidad de Madrid (S2013/ABI-2747), cofinanced by the FEDER fund ‘A way to build Europe’. This work was partially supported by a FEDER co-funded grant from INIA (RTA2014-00002-C02-01). Jose Antonio Infantes-Lorenzo was supported by an FPU contract-fellowship (Formación de Profesorado Universitario) from the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte of the Spanish Government (FPU2013/6000)

Efficiency Maximization of a Jet Pump for an Hydraulic Artificial Lift System

In science and engineering, mathematical modeling serves as a tool to understand processes and systems acting as a testing bed for several hypotheses. The selection of a specific model, as well as its variables and parameters, depends on the nature of the system under analysis and the acceptable simplifying assumptions. Therefore, it must allow for a good fit between both the hypothesis and the available data. Opposite to other design approaches based on experimental data or/and complex models, this work presents a simpler numerical design method for efficiency maximization of an Hydraulic Jet Pump (HJP) for oil-well extraction process, considering its hydraulic and geometric parameters. The design process consists in setting and solving a constrained non-linear optimization problem by taking into account the hydraulic model of the HJP in terms four design variables: throat area, nozzle area, injection flow, and injection pressure to the oil-well. The objective function of this case aims to maximize the HJP's efficiency avoiding to approach cavitation condition as well fulfilling technical constraints. A numerical technique, Differential Evolution Algorithm (DEA), has been implemented to solve the optimization problem. The proposed methodology leads to a solution set by considering only commercial geometries and feasible operating conditions for the HJP, which facilitates its practical implementation. A set of ten oil-wells with land production data, operating in the southeaster of Mexico, is used to compare and validate several Jet pump designs, i. e., through comparison with actual oil-well's operation condition.Peer Reviewe

Profesionalización de los contenidos de las ciencias básicas con un enfoque interdisciplinar, nueva visión para la educación superior

La profesionalización de los contenidos es un tema de gran actualidad, constituyendo una necesidad en el mundo universitario contemporáneo, dado en lo fundamental por la contribución que esta tiene, en la formación profesional de los graduados. A partir de esta problemática, se presenta este artículo, cuyo objetivo es el siguiente: presentar las ideas rectoras de enfoque científico que regulan la profesio-nalización de los contenidos con un enfoque interdisciplinar para la Educación Superior como elemento esencial para la vinculación directa de los currículos de las asignaturas de formación básica y el perfil del profesional y su contextualización al desarrollo científico técnico del paí

Interconvertible Hydrochlorothiazide–Caffeine Multicomponent Pharmaceutical Materials: A Solvent Issue

The design of new multicomponent pharmaceutical materials that involve different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), e.g., drug-drug cocrystals, is a novel and interesting approach to address new therapeutic challenges. In this work, the hydrochlorothiazide-caffeine (HCT–CAF) codrug and its methanol solvate have been synthesized by mechanochemical methods and thoroughly characterized in the solid state by powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction, respectively, as well as differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analyses and infrared spectroscopy. In addition, solubility and stability studies have also been performed looking for improved physicochemical properties of the codrug. Interestingly, the two reported structures show great similarity, which allows conversion between them. The desolvated HCT–CAF cocrystal shows great stability at 24 h and an enhancement of solubility with respect to the reference HCT API. Furthermore, the contribution of intermolecular forces on the improved physicochemical properties was evaluated by computational methods showing strong and diverse H-bond and π–π stacking interactions.Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (MICIU)European Union (EU) PGC2018-102047-B-I00MICIU/AEI from SPAIN CTQ2017-85821-

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Infection in Eurasian Badger (Meles meles) and Cattle in Asturias, Spain

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/)[EN] The present work investigated the prevalence, spatial distribution, and temporal distribution of tuberculosis (TB) in free-ranging Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) and cattle in Asturias (Atlantic Spain) during a 13-year follow-up. The study objective was to assess the role of badgers as a TB reservoir for cattle and other sympatric wild species in the region. Between 2008 and 2020, 673 badgers (98 trapped and 575 killed in road traffic accidents) in Asturias were necropsied, and their tissue samples were cultured for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) isolation. Serum samples were tested in an in-house indirect P22 ELISA to detect antibodies against the MTC. In parallel, data on MTC isolation and single intradermal tuberculin test results were extracted for cattle that were tested and culled as part of the Spanish National Program for the Eradication of Bovine TB. A total of 27/639 badgers (4.23%) were positive for MTC based on bacterial isolation, while 160/673 badgers (23.77%) were found to be positive with the P22 ELISA. The rate of seroposi-tivity was higher among adult badgers than subadults. Badger TB status was spatially and tempo-rally associated with cattle TB status. Our results cannot determine the direction of possible interspecies transmission, but they are consistent with the idea that the two hosts may exert infection pressure on each other. This study highlights the importance of the wildlife monitoring of infection and disease during epidemiological interventions in order to optimize outcomes.SIThis work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) reference project RTI2018-096010-B-C21 (FEDER co-funded), PCTI 2018–2020 (GRUPIN: IDI2018-000237), and FEDER and Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación. C.B.V. was supported by a grant from the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Spain. Publication costs were covered with funds from RTI2018- 096010-B-C21 (FEDER co-funded). T.D.B. was supported by a fellowship from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES; process number 88887.511077/2020-00)The authors acknowledge invaluable support from their colleagues at SERIDA (Miguel Prieto and Alberto Espí), the University of León, the Servicio de Espacios Protegidos y Conservación de la Naturaleza, the Dirección General del Medio Natural y Planificación Rural del Principado de Asturias, the Servicio de Sanidad y Producción Animal del Principado de Asturias, the Regional Animal Health Laboratory of Principado de Asturias, VISAVET and Instituto de Salud Carlos III. We thank A. Chapin Rodríguez (Creaducate Consulting GmbH) for critically reviewing the manuscript

Specificity of serological test for detection of tuberculosis in cattle, goats, sheep and pigs under different epidemiological situations

[EN] Background: Serum antibody detection has potential as a complementary diagnostic tool in animal tuberculosis (TB) control, particularly in multi-host systems. The objective of the present study was to assess the specificity (Sp) of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the new multiprotein complex P22 for the detection of specific antibodies against the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) in the four most relevant domestic animals acting as MTC hosts: cattle, goat, sheep and pig. We used sera from an officially TB-free (OTF) country, Norway, and from a non-OTF one, Spain. The samples included sera from goats that had been vaccinated against M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) and sheep from a herd in which Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis had been isolated. Results: In cattle, the Sp ranged from 92.5 (IC95% 90.7-94) to 99.4% (IC95% 98.3-99.8) depending on the cut-off used and the origin of the samples (Spain or Norway). Sp in cattle (cut-off point 100) was significantly higher (P < 0.05) for Norwegian samples. By contrast, Sp in goats was consistently low at the 100 cut-off [30.9 (CI95%23.4-39.5)-78% (CI95% 68.9-85)]. A higher cut-off of 150 improved Sp in Norwegian goats [97% (CI95% 91.6-99)], but still yielded a poor Sp of 56.1% (CI95% 47.3-64.6) in Spanish goats. In Norway at the 100 cut-off the Sp was 58.3 (CI95% 42.2-72.9) and 90.6% (CI95% 81-95.6) in MAP vaccinated and non-vaccinated goats, respectively, indicating interference due to MAP vaccination. Sp in sheep was between 94.4 (CI95% 91.7-96.3) and 100% (CI95% 96.3-100) depending on the cut-off and country, and no diagnostic interference due to infection with C. pseudotuberculosis was recorded. Sp in pigs was 100%, regardless the cut-off point applied, and no significant differences were observed between pigs from Norway and from Spain. Conclusions: Due to its excellent Sp in pigs and acceptable Sp in cattle and sheep, this ELISA may constitute a suitable option for TB screening at herd level, particularly in OTF-countriesSIJose Antonio Infantes-Lorenzo was supported by an FPU contract-fellowship (Formación de Profesorado Universitario) from the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte of the Spanish Government (FPU2013/6000). Alvaro Roy is the recipient of an Industrial Doctorate contract (DI-15-08110) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the European Social Fund. Javier Bezos is recipient of a Juan de la Cierva Incorporación research contract (IJCI-2015-24805) funded by the MINECO. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria of Spain (RTA2015–00043-C02–02). This is a contribution to Plan Nacional de I + D + i grant CGL2017–89866 WILD-DRIVER. The funding body was solely involved in funding and had no role in the design of the study, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, or in writing the manuscrip