Water system virus detection

The performance of a waste water reclamation system is monitored by introducing a non-pathogenic marker virus, bacteriophage F2, into the waste-water prior to treatment and, thereafter, testing the reclaimed water for the presence of the marker virus. A test sample is first concentrated by absorbing any marker virus onto a cellulose acetate filter in the presence of a trivalent cation at low pH and then flushing the filter with a limited quantity of a glycine buffer solution to desorb any marker virus present on the filter. Photo-optical detection of indirect passive immune agglutination by polystyrene beads indicates the performance of the water reclamation system in removing the marker virus. A closed system provides for concentrating any marker virus, initiating and monitoring the passive immune agglutination reaction, and then flushing the system to prepare for another sample

Water system virus detection

A monitoring system developed to test the capability of a water recovery system to reject the passage of viruses into the recovered water is described. A nonpathogenic marker virus, bacteriophage F2, is fed into the process stream before the recovery unit and the reclaimed water is assayed for its presence. Detection of the marker virus consists of two major components, concentration and isolation of the marker virus, and detection of the marker virus. The concentration system involves adsorption of virus to cellulose acetate filters in the presence of trivalent cations and low pH with subsequent desorption of the virus using volumes of high pH buffer. The detection of the virus is performed by a passive immune agglutination test utilizing specially prepared polystyrene particles. An engineering preliminary design was performed as a parallel effort to the laboratory development of the marker virus test system. Engineering schematics and drawings of a fully functional laboratory prototype capable of zero-G operation are presented. The instrument consists of reagent pump/metering system, reagent storage containers, a filter concentrator, an incubation/detector system, and an electronic readout and control system

Letter to Editor: Reply to In Defense of Pound Dogs in Teaching and Research

The use of dogs from civic pounds in medical research and teaching is the subject of concern in animal welfare circles today. This matter was the subject of a four-page comment in a recent issue of your journal (Volume 2 (5):241-244, 1981). The title of that item was provocatively given as Sewer Science and Pound Seizure by author Kenneth P. Stoller. It should be noted that the use of dogs in biomedical institutions greatly relates to the instruction of medical and veterinary students. Also, millions of dogs are currently being euthanized annually in shelters across the continent. Their use, before their end, to obtain and convey new and continuing medical knowledge would appear to be an elementary form of conservation

Obituary: Arthur Cruickshank 1932 - 2011. A native Gondwanan, who studied the former continent's fossil tetrapods

Dr Arthur Richard Ivor Cruickshank died on 4th December 2011, aged 79, in the Borders General Hospital, Melrose, Scotland. Arthur Cruickshank was part of the post-war generation of palaeontologists who laid the foundations on which today’s researchers build. Appropriately for someone from an expatriate Scots family living in Kenya, much of his work was on the extinct reptiles of the great southern palaeocontinent of Gondwana

Axisymmetric filamentary structures

Axisymmetric filamentary structure

The nebular spectra of SN 2012aw and constraints on stellar nucleosynthesis from oxygen emission lines

We present nebular phase optical and near-infrared spectroscopy of the Type IIP supernova SN 2012aw combined with NLTE radiative transfer calculations applied to ejecta from stellar evolution/explosion models. Our spectral synthesis models generally show good agreement with the ejecta from a MZAMS = 15 Msun progenitor star. The emission lines of oxygen, sodium, and magnesium are all consistent with the nucleosynthesis in a progenitor in the 14 - 18 Msun range. We also demonstrate how the evolution of the oxygen cooling lines of [O I] 5577 A, [O I] 6300 A, and [O I] 6364 A can be used to constrain the mass of oxygen in the non-molecularly cooled ashes to < 1 Msun, independent of the mixing in the ejecta. This constraint implies that any progenitor model of initial mass greater than 20 Msun would be difficult to reconcile with the observed line strengths. A stellar progenitor of around MZAMS = 15 Msun can consistently explain the directly measured luminosity of the progenitor star, the observed nebular spectra, and the inferred pre-supernova mass-loss rate. We conclude that there is still no convincing example of a Type IIP explosion showing the nucleosynthesis expected from a MZAMS > 20 Msun progenitor.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

The Effects of Ethostasis on Farm Animal Behavior: A Theoretical Overview

Ethostasis – the effect of constraining husbandry practices on animal behavior – is described and discussed. The review describes specific husbandry practices that may give rise to behavioral anomalies and how these anomalous behaviors may be of diagnostic value. Ready identification may facilitate correcting problems leading to lower productivity, diseases, and economic losses

The Effects of Ethostasis on Farm Animal Behavior: A Theoretical Overview

The solution of animal problems that occur on the farm requires a holistic and multidisciplinary orientation and analysis, as well as the acquisition of new investigatory tools by both veterinarians and animal scientists. Field studies may be modeled under more controlled laboratory conditions, but the most relevant investigations must take place on the farm, and the first level of analysis should be ethological. Domestic animal behavior can be monitored and quantified like any other factor in the animals\u27 environment; yet it has been virtually ignored in the development of new livestock husbandry systems. The relationships between husbandry systems, disease problems, and behavioral factors are extremely complex but are known to be interrelated and interdependent. It is postulated that severely constricting husbandry practices can generate anomalous behavior- a phenomenon termed ethostasis. Applied ethology now has a vital and central role to play in investigating the problems that have been created by modern intensive livestock production. The purpose of this overview, therefore, is to delineate some of the husbandry factors that can give rise to behavioral anomalies, and to describe various categories of anomalous behavior that are of diagnostic value in clinical appraisals of stressful husbandry. Ready identification may facilitate recognition and correction of problems that may lead to lowered productivity, diseases, and economic losses; it may also foster concern for the animals\u27 welfare from an ethical, as well as an economic, perspective. These circumstances highlight some of the contemporary animal husbandry problems that warrant further research and quantitative analysis

Prototipo funcional de un servicio e-Health para monitorear, transmitir y almacenar el estado de la presión arterial de pacientes crónicos-hipertensos

Auxiliar de InvestigaciónEn la siguiente proyecto de grado se desarrolla un prototipo funcional para el monitoreo de pacientes crónicos hipertensos con visualización remota. inicialmente mediante un proceso de ingeniería inversa, se realiza la adaptación de un tensiometro comercial para obtener los datos tomados por este, los datos son enviados vía bluetooth a una tarjeta de desarrollo para ser procesados y por medio de una shield M95 de quectel, se realiza el envío de mensajes de alerta y el envío de estos datos a una base de datos creada en ThingSpeak, para luego en el front de una pagina web desarrollada en el entorno de Azure se puedan visualizar los datos de cada paciente.INTRODUCCIÓN 1. GENERALIDADES 2. DESCRIPCION DE COMPONENTES 3. IMPLEMENTACION 4. PRUEBAS DE FUNCIONAMIENTO 5. VALIDACIÓN DEL DISPOSITIVO 6. DESCRIPCIÓN ECONOMICA DEL PROYECTO 7. CONCLUCIONES 8. TRABAJOS FUTUROS BIBLIOGRAFÍA ANEXOSPregradoIngeniero Electrónic