Gastrointestinal helminths in brown trout (Salmo trutta Linnaeus, 1758) captured in Galician rivers (NW Spain)

Specimens of Salmo trutta (n = 613) captured by local anglers in different rivers in Galicia (NW Spain) during the 2015 fishing season (15 March–15 August) were examined. In total 1479 adult helminths were recovered from the gastrointestinal tracts of 221 fish. Moreover, the microscopic observation of the sediments obtained, previous diphasic concentration, revealed the presence of helminth eggs in 485 trout specimens. The following species were identified by morphological and molecular analysis: Crepidostomum metoecus (8.97%) (Trematoda); Salmonema ephemeridarum (16.97%), Raphidascaris acus (9.46%) and Pseudocapillaria sp. (2.12%) (Nematoda); and Echinorhynchus truttae (8.48%) (Acanthocephala). The prevalence, mean intensity and mean abundance of each helminth species were determined in relation to size/age of the fish. The helminth infracommunity comprised a maximum of four species and the species richness was S = 5. The biological cycles of most of the helminth species recovered are dependent on benthic macroinvertebrate fauna, which, in turn, is influenced by the water quality. Therefore, any changes that take place in the aquatic ecosystem (due to anthropogenic activities or climate change) may be reflected in the helminth compositionSC-P is granted by the Programme for the requalification, international mobility and attraction of talent in the Spanish university system, modality Margarita Salas. The study was funded by the Autonomous Government of Galicia (grants 2017-PG073 and ED431C 2021/26)S

A review of the current status of Cryptosporidium in fish

Species of the genus Cryptosporidium (phylum Apicomplexa) infect the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract of several vertebrate hosts, including humans and domestic and wild animals. In the past 20 years, several studies have focused on Cryptosporidium in fish. To date, a total of four piscine-host-specific species (Cryptosporidium molnari, Cryptosporidium huwi, Cryptosporidium bollandi and Cryptosporidium abrahamseni), nine piscine genotypes and more than 29 unnamed genotypes have been described in fish hosts. In addition, Cryptosporidium species and genotypes typical of other groups of vertebrates have also been identified. This review summarizes the history, biology, pathology and clinical manifestations, as well as the transmission, prevalence and molecular epidemiology of Cryptosporidium in wild, cultured and ornamental fish from both marine and freshwater environments. Finally, the potential role of piscine hosts as a reservoir of zoonotic Cryptosporidium species is also discussedThis study was funded by the Autonomous Government of Galicia (grant ED431C 2021/26)S

Removal of the waterborne protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia by photochemical processes, ultrasound and adsorption onto granular activated carbon

Cryptosporidium and Giardia are two important genera of intestinal protozoan parasites that infect a wide range of vertebrate hosts, including humans. The route of transmission for these enteropathogens is the faecal-oral route, directly from person to person or animal to person, or indirectly via contaminated food and water, being the latter the most common route. They cause the self-limited illnesses cryptosporidiosis and giardiosis, which symptoms depend on the immunity status of the host, varying from asymptomatic to diarrhoea, malaise or fatigue, abdominal pain, anorexia and weight loss. The infective forms, oocysts and cysts (oo/cysts), are highly resistant to environmental conditions and to the conventional disinfection treatments of water. Thus, oo/cysts have been reported to occur in different types of water (surface water, drinking water, wastewater) being identified in waterborne outbreaks worldwide. Therefore, new technologies that enhance or optimize conventional methods are needed. This chapter reviews the current knowledge about the efficacy of different technologies that can be applied in the removal of Cryptosporidium and Giardia from water such as photochemical advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), ultrasound (a non-photochemical AOPs) and granular activated carbon adsorptionPart of this work has received funding from the EU’s Horizon2020 Research and Innovation Program under the WATERSPOUTT Project (grant agreement 688928) and the PANIWATER project (grant agreement 820718), which was funded jointly by the European Commission and the Department of Science and Technology, India; under the CRYPTOREGWATER project (CTM2011-29143-C03-02) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; and by the Autonomous Government of Galicia (grants PR 815 A 2014-12P and ED431C 2021/26)2023-06-2

Renewable country hotel

The aim of this project is to study the possibility of getting a house, isolated to the network, as sustainable as possible. It means to achieve the maximum energy savings without neglecting the economic aspect. This should take into account many factors such as using the resources of the place in the best efficient way and be innovative whether it is possible or not. As the house is supposed to be placed in a quite mountainous area, resources that should be developed are wind, solar and geothermal power. In order to get energy from those two resources, solar panels, solar collectors and geothermal pipes should be used. So at the end of this project the house should have the following installations: • Geothermal pump installation in order to keep the house warm: Different alternatives will be analysed so as to get the best option to heat the house. Once the possible solutions are explained, one of those will be choose to be installed in the hotel. • Solar Panels installation so as to connect to the net: In the design of solar photovoltaic installation selling electricity instead of using it for the house own consumption will be more profitable. This is because of the high purchase price of the kWh generated by the photovoltaic solar energy. • Solar thermal installation to provide hot water: This energy will be used in order to produce hot water. Different possible alternatives to this system will be studied and the reasons of the chosen alternative. • Electrical installation: The electrical installation will be performed with its wiring planes and single line diagram. The size of wires will be calculated throughout different criteria. Other objective to be achieved is to get a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, as it is an important issue throughout these years.Ingeniería Técnica IndustrialIndustria Ingeniaritza Tekniko

Cryptosporidium en moluscos bivalvos

El objetivo del presente trabajo de investigación es contribuir al establecimiento de las bases científico-técnicas que permitan garantizar la calidad y la seguridad de los moluscos bivalvos destinados al consumo humano, determinando para ello el papel que desempeñan estos organismos en la transmisión de la cryptosporidiosis

First report of Eimeria myoxi in the garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus Linnaeus, 1766) from Doñana Natural Area (Andalusia, SW Spain)

This work reports for the first time the presence and molecular characterization of Eimeria myoxi in the garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) from the Doñana Natural Area (Andalusia, SW Spain). Fresh faecal samples were collected from a total of 28 garden dormice, which were caught following current guidelines for the ethical use of animals in research, and processing by a standard flotation technique with saturated saline solution. Then, wet drops were examined microscopically, and the number of oocysts was semi-quantified. Eimeria oocysts were observed in 16 of the 28 (57.1%) faecal samples, showing most of them a very low number of oocysts (≤1 oocyst per microscopic field × 400). The unsporulated oocysts visualized in 16 faecal samples were subspherical and of length 19.2 ± 1.2 μm and width 17.4 ± 1.1 μm, being morphologically compatible with E. myoxi. This finding was supported by molecular analysis of the small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU-rRNA) gene, identifying the same species in 22 of the 28 (78.6%) dormice, including 15 samples in which oocyst size was compatible with E. myoxi. Moreover, the subsequent analyses of the apicoplast open reading frame 470 (ORF470) and the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) genes confirmed the molecular identification of the isolates as E. myoxi. The phylogeny analyses were consistent with previous phylogenetic studies and support the existence of three lineages of rodent-infecting Eimeria speciesThe study was funded by the Autonomous Government of Galicia (grant ED431C 2021/26), the Life Adaptamed (grant LIFE14 CCA/ES/000612), and by Dirección General de Espacios Naturales y Participación Ciudadana, Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio, Junta de Andalucía. SC-P is granted by the Programme for the requalification, international mobility and attraction of talent in the Spanish university system, modality Margarita SalasS

An Architecture forRepresenting Biological Processes based on Networks of Bio-inspired Processors

n this paper we propose the use of Networks of Bio-inspired Processors (NBP) to model some biological phenomena within a computational framework. In particular, we propose the use of an extension of NBP named Network Evolutionary Processors Transducers to simulate chemical transformations of substances. Within a biological process, chemical transformations of substances are basic operations in the change of the state of the cell. Previously, it has been proved that NBP are computationally complete, that is, they are able to solve NP complete problems in linear time, using massively parallel computations. In addition, we propose a multilayer architecture that will allow us to design models of biological processes related to cellular communication as well as their implications in the metabolic pathways. Subsequently, these models can be applied not only to biological-cellular instances but, possibly, also to configure instances of interactive processes in many other fields like population interactions, ecological trophic networks, in dustrial ecosystems, etc

Factores explicativos de la rentabilidad de las empresas del Sector Eólico en España

El éxito empresarial reside principalmente en la obtención de rentabilidad por parte de las empresas y este es uno de los principales objetivos que muchos investigadores, desde diferentes perspectivas, han intentado explicar a lo largo de los años. La finalidad que persigue este Trabajo Fin de Grado es analizar aquellos factores explicativos que, a nivel de rentabilidad, diferencian a las sociedades más rentables de las menos rentables del sector eólico en España. Por ello, vamos a analizar las características económico-financieras que diferenciaran las empresas dependiendo de sus niveles de rentabilidad a partir de una muestra obtenida de la base de datos de SABI. Este análisis se llevará a cabo mediante dos estudios, uno de tipo descriptivo para el periodo 2017-2021 y otro de tipo empírico, realizando un análisis univariante (Test de Mann-Whitney) y un análisis multivariante (Regresión logística binaria o Logit) para el año 2021. De los resultados obtenidos, podemos explicar la existencia de diferencias significativas entre los grupos de alta y de baja rentabilidad en catorce de las dieciséis variables utilizadas según el análisis de Mann-Whitney. Y en el caso del análisis Logit, las variables explicativas soncuatro, liquidez, cobertura, importe neto de la cifra de negocios y periodo medio de cobro.Todo ello corrobora la existencia de perfiles característicos en el sector eólico español vinculados con diferentes niveles de rentabilidad.<br /

Kinetic modeling of the synergistic thermal and spectral actions on the inactivation of Cryptosporidium parvum in water by sunlight

Water contamination with the enteroprotozoan parasite Cryptosporidium is a current challenge worldwide. Solar water disinfection (SODIS) has been proved as a potential alternative for its inactivation, especially at household level in low-income environments. This work presents the first comprehensive kinetic model for the inactivation of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts by sunlight that, based on the mechanism of the process, is able to describe not only the individual thermal and spectral actions but also their synergy. Model predictions are capable of estimating the required solar exposure to achieve the desired level of disinfection under variable solar spectral irradiance and environmental temperature conditions for different locations worldwide. The thermal contribution can be successfully described by a modified Arrhenius equation while photoinactivation is based on a series-event mechanistic model. The wavelength-dependent spectral effect is modeled by means of the estimation of the C. parvum extinction coefficients and the determination of the quantum yield of the inactivation process. Model predictions show a 3.7% error with respect to experimental results carried out under a wide range of temperature (30 to 45 °C) and UV irradiance (0 to 50 W·m−2). Furthermore, the model was validated in three scenarios in which the spectral distribution radiation was modified using different plastic materials common in SODIS devices, ensuring accurate forecasting of inactivation rates for real conditionsThe authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under WATERSPOUTT H2020-Water-5c-2015 project (GA 688928) and under PANIWATER project (GA 820718), jointly funded by the European Commission and the Department of Science and Technology of India (DST). Ángela García Gil also acknowledges Técnicas Reunidas for the economic support to finance her scholarship in Residencia de Estudiantes and Spanish Ministry of Education for her FPU grant (FPU17/04333)S

Inactivation of the waterborne pathogen Cryptosporidium parvum by photo-Fenton process under natural solar conditions

Cryptosporidiumis an important genus of emerging enteropathogens responsible for waterborne outbreaksworldwide. This parasite has a robust infective form (oocyst), which is highly resistant to the environmentalconditions and to the conventional disinfection treatments of water. This work evaluates for thefirst time thephoto-Fenton process againstCryptosporidium parvum.For that, a factorial design was used to study the com-bined effects of the Fe2+/H2O2concentration (5/10, 10/20 and 20/50 mg L−1), pH (3, 5.5 and 8) and exposuretime (2, 4 and 6 h) on the oocyst survival in distilled water under natural sunlight. The oocyst viability wasdetermined by inclusion/exclusion of thefluorogenic vital dye propidium iodide. The variables Fe2+/H2O2concentration and exposure time showed statistically significant effects on the oocyst viability, as did the in-teraction of pH with Fe2+/H2O2concentration. The maximum oocyst inactivation rates corresponded to thecombination of the highest concentration of Fe2+/H2O2(20/50 mg L−1), the lowest pH value (3) and longestexposure times (4 and 6 h) (3.68 ± 1.38% and 6.39 ± 2.65%, respectively,vs91.67 ± 3.63%, initial oocystviability). Although further studies are needed to evaluate the influence of the water matrix and optimize thephoto-Fenton process, the results obtained demonstrate the efficacy of this advanced oxidation process againstC.parvumoocysts. The inactivation of this enteropathogen would probably ensure elimination of other less re-sistant infectious agents, providing an appropriate protection for the environment and, consequently, for humanand animal healthThis Special Issue is dedicated to honor the retirement of Prof. CésarPulgarin at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL,Switzerland), a keyfigure in the area of Catalytic Advanced OxidationProcesses. This work was supported by the European Union ́s Horizon2020 Research and Innovation [grant number 688928]S