Influence of pH and CO2 source on the performance of microalgae-based secondary domestic wastewater treatment in outdoors pilot raceways.

Influence of pH and CO2 source on the performance of microalgae-based secondary domestic wastewater treatment in outdoors pilot raceway

Recomendaciones al momento de recepción de los pollitos

La recepción de los pollitos bebés es un momento crítico para la vida del animal. En este período el ave es más vulnerables a los cambios de temperatura, falta de agua, alimentación insuficiente, enfermedades causadas por condiciones sanitarias ineficientes. Recomendaciones para disminuir la mortalidad de los pollitos.EEA Santa CruzFil: Morales, Cristian Gabriel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina.Fil: Haro Gomez, Hector Mario. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina

Affordable Housing for Hot and Sub-Humid Climate in Mexico as Result of a Thermal Comfort Study

El artículo presenta un prototipo de vivienda de bajo costo desarrollada con base en estudios de campo llevados a cabo en Colima, México (clima cálido sub-húmedo). Los estudios de campo se dirigieron a un tipo de vivienda promovido por el gobierno mexicano, llamado “vivienda económica”. Son viviendas de 45 m2 construidas con muros de block de cemento y cubiertas con losas de concreto, sin aislamiento térmico. Su diseño atiende a requerimientos de costo, pero carece de criterios sobre eficiencia energética y confort térmico. A partir de los resultados de la investigación, estudiantes asesorados por profesores desarrollaron un proyecto arquitectónico, utilizando estrategias bioclimáticas como dispositivos de sombreado, masa térmica, ventilación natural (ventilación cruzada), ventilación inducida (efecto stack) y ventilación nocturna (intercambio de radiación de onda larga).A prototype of low-cost housing developed on basis of field studies carried out in Colima, Mexico (hot and sub-humid climate) is presented. Field studies were addressed to a type of affordable housing promoted by the Mexican government, called ‘vivienda económica’. These 45 m2 housings are constructed of concrete block walls and concrete slabs for roofs, without any kind of thermal insulation. Their design concept only attends cost requirements, but it lacks criteria on energy efficiency and thermal comfort. Consequently, their occupants have adapted to extreme temperatures. Besides the thermal evaluation of pre-existing housing, two field studies were carried out consisted in a poll about the occupants’ opinion concerning their houses and a thermal comfort survey according to ISO 10551, within the adaptive model approach. With results of such inquiries, undergraduate students advised by professors developed an architectural project. Main bioclimatic strategies considered were shading devices, thermal mass, natural ventilation (cross ventilation), winds induced ventilation (stack effect) and nocturnal ventilation (long-wave radiation exchange).Universidad Veracruzana

A Neuro-Inspired Spike-Based PID Motor Controller for Multi-Motor Robots with Low Cost FPGAs

In this paper we present a neuro-inspired spike-based close-loop controller written in VHDL and implemented for FPGAs. This controller has been focused on controlling a DC motor speed, but only using spikes for information representation, processing and DC motor driving. It could be applied to other motors with proper driver adaptation. This controller architecture represents one of the latest layers in a Spiking Neural Network (SNN), which implements a bridge between robotics actuators and spike-based processing layers and sensors. The presented control system fuses actuation and sensors information as spikes streams, processing these spikes in hard real-time, implementing a massively parallel information processing system, through specialized spike-based circuits. This spike-based close-loop controller has been implemented into an AER platform, designed in our labs, that allows direct control of DC motors: the AER-Robot. Experimental results evidence the viability of the implementation of spike-based controllers, and hardware synthesis denotes low hardware requirements that allow replicating this controller in a high number of parallel controllers working together to allow a real-time robot control

Nitrogen fertilization in wheat, in clay soils at the Mexicali valley, Baja California, Mexico

The national and international markets' demand for wheat commercialization is conditioned by quality standards, among which the protein content and percentage of vitreous grain, without white belly, stand out. In them, nitrogen plays an important role in the yield and quality of the wheat grain. For these reasons, the objective of this research was to determine the effect that nitrogen has on yield, grain protein, and the vitreous grain percentage. A field experiment, planted on December 16, 2009, was conducted at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. The experimental design was of complete randomized blocks with four repetitions. The assessed treatments were 0, 105, 210, 315, and 340 kg of N ha-1 (N0, N105, N210, N315 and N340, respectively). The sown seed was Aconchi F-76 variety crystal wheat. The evaluated variables were grain yield, protein content, and vitreous grain quantity (without white belly). The results indicated that the 210, 315, and 340 kg of N ha-1 treatments affected the yield, protein content, and white belly decrease in the grain. Grain quality is therefore improved with these nitrogen doses, in relation to the quality of the harvested grain in the plots with 0 kg ha-1 and those cultivated with 105 kg ha-1.

Epidemiology of taeniosis/cysticercosis in Europe, a systematic review : Western Europe

Background: Taenia solium and Taenia saginata are zoonotic parasites of public health importance. Data on their occurrence in humans and animals in western Europe are incomplete and fragmented. In this study, we aimed to update the current knowledge on the epidemiology of these parasites in this region. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of scientific and grey literature published from 1990 to 2015 on the epidemiology of T. saginata and T. solium in humans and animals. Additionally, data about disease occurrence were actively sought by contacting local experts in the different countries. Results: Taeniosis cases were found in twelve out of eighteen countries in western Europe. No cases were identified in Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. For Denmark, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the UK, annual taeniosis cases were reported and the number of detected cases per year ranged between 1 and 114. Detected prevalences ranged from 0.05 to 0.27%, whereas estimated prevalences ranged from 0.02 to 0.67%. Most taeniosis cases were reported as Taenia spp. or T. saginata, although T. solium was reported in Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Portugal and the UK. Human cysticercosis cases were reported in all western European countries except for Iceland, with the highest number originating from Portugal and Spain. Most human cysticercosis cases were suspected to have acquired the infection outside western Europe. Cases of T. solium in pigs were found in Austria and Portugal, but only the two cases from Portugal were confirmed with molecular methods. Germany, Spain and Slovenia reported porcine cysticercosis, but made no Taenia species distinction. Bovine cysticercosis was detected in all countries except for Iceland, with a prevalence based on meat inspection of 0.0002-7.82%. Conclusions: Detection and reporting of taeniosis in western Europe should be improved. The existence of T. solium tapeworm carriers, of suspected autochthonous cases of human cysticercosis and the lack of confirmation of porcine cysticercosis cases deserve further attention. Suspected cases of T. solium in pigs should be confirmed by molecular methods. Both taeniosis and human cysticercosis should be notifiable and surveillance in animals should be improved.Peer reviewe

Perinatal asphyxia: current status and approaches towards neuroprotective strategies, with focus on sentinel proteins

Delivery is a stressful and risky event menacing the newborn. The mother-dependent respiration has to be replaced by autonomous pulmonary breathing immediately after delivery. If delayed, it may lead to deficient oxygen supply compromising survival and development of the central nervous system. Lack of oxygen availability gives rise to depletion of NAD+ tissue stores, decrease of ATP formation, weakening of the electron transport pump and anaerobic metabolism and acidosis, leading necessarily to death if oxygenation is not promptly re-established. Re-oxygenation triggers a cascade of compensatory biochemical events to restore function, which may be accompanied by improper homeostasis and oxidative stress. Consequences may be incomplete recovery, or excess reactions that worsen the biological outcome by disturbed metabolism and/or imbalance produced by over-expression of alternative metabolic pathways. Perinatal asphyxia has been associated with severe neurological and psychiatric sequelae with delayed clinical onset. No specific treatments have yet been established. In the clinical setting, after resuscitation of an infant with birth asphyxia, the emphasis is on supportive therapy. Several interventions have been proposed to attenuate secondary neuronal injuries elicited by asphyxia, including hypothermia. Although promising, the clinical efficacy of hypothermia has not been fully demonstrated. It is evident that new approaches are warranted. The purpose of this review is to discuss the concept of sentinel proteins as targets for neuroprotection. Several sentinel proteins have been described to protect the integrity of the genome (e.g. PARP-1; XRCC1; DNA ligase IIIα; DNA polymerase β, ERCC2, DNA-dependent protein kinases). They act by eliciting metabolic cascades leading to (i) activation of cell survival and neurotrophic pathways; (ii) early and delayed programmed cell death, and (iii) promotion of cell proliferation, differentiation, neuritogenesis and synaptogenesis. It is proposed that sentinel proteins can be used as markers for characterising long-term effects of perinatal asphyxia, and as targets for novel therapeutic development and innovative strategies for neonatal care

Probing invisible neutrino decay with KM3NeT-ORCA

In the era of precision measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters, upcoming neutrino experiments will also be sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. KM3NeT/ORCA is a neutrino detector optimised for measuring atmospheric neutrinos from a few GeV to around 100 GeV. In this paper, the sensitivity of the KM3NeT/ORCA detector to neutrino decay has been explored. A three-flavour neutrino oscillation scenario, where the third neutrino mass state $\nu_3$ decays into an invisible state, e.g. a sterile neutrino, is considered. We find that KM3NeT/ORCA would be sensitive to invisible neutrino decays with $1/\alpha_3=\tau_3/m_3 < 180$~$\mathrm{ps/eV}$ at $90\%$ confidence level, assuming true normal ordering. Finally, the impact of neutrino decay on the precision of KM3NeT/ORCA measurements for $\theta_{23}$, $\Delta m^2_{31}$ and mass ordering have been studied. No significant effect of neutrino decay on the sensitivity to these measurements has been found.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, bibliography updated, typos correcte

Prospects for combined analyses of hadronic emission from γ\gamma-ray sources in the Milky Way with CTA and KM3NeT

The Cherenkov Telescope Array and the KM3NeT neutrino telescopes are major upcoming facilities in the fields of $\gamma$-ray and neutrino astronomy, respectively. Possible simultaneous production of $\gamma$ rays and neutrinos in astrophysical accelerators of cosmic-ray nuclei motivates a combination of their data. We assess the potential of a combined analysis of CTA and KM3NeT data to determine the contribution of hadronic emission processes in known Galactic $\gamma$-ray emitters, comparing this result to the cases of two separate analyses. In doing so, we demonstrate the capability of Gammapy, an open-source software package for the analysis of $\gamma$-ray data, to also process data from neutrino telescopes. For a selection of prototypical $\gamma$-ray sources within our Galaxy, we obtain models for primary proton and electron spectra in the hadronic and leptonic emission scenario, respectively, by fitting published $\gamma$-ray spectra. Using these models and instrument response functions for both detectors, we employ the Gammapy package to generate pseudo data sets, where we assume 200 hours of CTA observations and 10 years of KM3NeT detector operation. We then apply a three-dimensional binned likelihood analysis to these data sets, separately for each instrument and jointly for both. We find that the largest benefit of the combined analysis lies in the possibility of a consistent modelling of the $\gamma$-ray and neutrino emission. Assuming a purely leptonic scenario as input, we obtain, for the most favourable source, an average expected 68% credible interval that constrains the contribution of hadronic processes to the observed $\gamma$-ray emission to below 15%.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to journa

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges