Effect of mineral and vitamin C mix on growth performance and blood corticosterone concentrations in heat-stressed broilers

Heat stress is a major problem in the poultry industry, especially during summer months and when birds are raised under high-density conditions. Previous studies have reported that vitamin C or electrolyte supplementation could palliate the effects of heat stress in broiler chickens. The present study evaluated the effect of a mineral and vitamin mix (AHS) added to drinking water on the performance of broiler chickens. In total, 1,824 one-day-old birds were randomly allocated to 48 pens. Maximum animal density was 26.5 kg/m2. The control group received no additive; AHS-1 and -2 groups received the AHS mix at a concentration of 1 and 2 kg/1,000 L in drinking water, respectively; and the Vit-C group received vitamin C in drinking water at 200 g/1,000 L. All birds were fed the same diets based on a 3-phase feeding program; feed and water were given on ad libitum basis. To mimic heat stress conditions, temperature in the barn was raised to 35 C from 08:00 to 14:00 h each day. For the overall growing period (0 to 35 D), adding AHS to drinking water increased final BW, ADG, and ADFI linearly (PLinear Linear 0.10). No significant effect on mortality were found (8.77%; P > 0.10). Relative to control, all the treatments tested reduced (P < 0.05) corticosterone concentration in blood serum. In conclusion, the combined use of supplementary levels of minerals and vitamins could alleviate the effects of heat stress on broilers chickens.</p

Automated lumen segmentation using multi-frame convolutional neural networks in Intravascular Ultrasound datasets

Aims: Assessment of minimum lumen areas in intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) pullbacks is time-consuming and demands adequately trained personnel. In this work, we introduce a novel and fully automated pipeline to segment the lumen boundary in IVUS datasets. Methods and results First, an automated gating is applied to select end-diastolic frames and bypass saw-tooth artefacts. Second, within a machine learning (ML) environment, we automatically segment the lumen boundary using a multi-frame (MF) convolutional neural network (MFCNN). Finally, we use the theory of Gaussian processes (GPs) to regress the final lumen boundary. The dataset consisted of 85 IVUS pullbacks (52 patients). The dataset was partitioned at the pullback-level using 73 pullbacks for training (20 586 frames), 6 pullbacks for validation (1692 frames), and 6 for testing (1692 frames). The degree of overlapping, between the ground truth and ML contours, median (interquartile range, IQR) systematically increased from 0.896 (0.874–0.933) for MF1 to 0.925 (0.911–0.948) for MF11. The median (IQR) of the distance error was also reduced from 3.83 (2.94–4.98)% for MF1 to 3.02 (2.25–3.95)% for MF11-GP. The corresponding median (IQR) in the lumen area error remained between 5.49 (2.50–10.50)% for MF1 and 5.12 (2.15–9.00)% for MF11-GP. The dispersion in the relative distance and area errors consistently decreased as we increased the number of frames, and also when the GP regressor was coupled to the MFCNN output. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the proposed ML approach is suitable to effectively segment the lumen boundary in IVUS scans, reducing the burden of costly and time-consuming manual delineation.Fil: Ziemer, Paulo G. P.. Laboratorio Nacional de Computacao Cientifica; BrasilFil: Bulant, Carlos Alberto. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Grupo de Plasmas Densos Magnetizados. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Grupo de Plasmas Densos Magnetizados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Orlando, José Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Grupo de Plasmas Densos Magnetizados. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Grupo de Plasmas Densos Magnetizados; ArgentinaFil: Maso Talou, Gonzalo D.. University of Auckland; Nueva ZelandaFil: Mansilla Álvarez, Luis A.. Laboratorio Nacional de Computacao Cientifica; BrasilFil: Guedes Bezerra, Cristiano. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Lemos, Pedro A.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: García García, Héctor M.. Georgetown University School of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Blanco, Pablo J.. Laboratorio Nacional de Computacao Cientifica; Brasi

Aportaciones al conocimiento de la evolución paleoclimática y paleoambiental en la Península Ibérica durante los dos ultimos millones de años a partir del estudio de trasvertinos y espeleotemas

En este trabajo se contemplan los resultados principales del Proyecto" Reconstrucción Paleoclimática desde el Pleistoceno Medio a partir de análisis geocronológicos e isotópicos de travertinos españoles" (P. CEC FI2W-CT91-0075 " Paleoclimatological revision of climate evolution in the Western Mediterranean Region, Evaluation of altered scenarios) . Se seleccionaron cuatro áreas de depósitos travertínicos de carácter fluvial (Priego, Río Blanco), lacustre (Río Blanco, Banyoles) y aluvial (Tolox) así como una zona con depósitos espeleotémicos (Karst de la Cueva del Reguerillo). En ellas se obtuvieron datos sobre la evolución del paisaje y del clima, los travertinos y espeleotemas son indicadores de clima cálido s.l. que de forma abreviada son: O Mediante la geomorfología y dataciones (paleomagnetismo, U/Th, Resonancia de espín Resumen electrónico y racemización de aminoácidos), se determinó las historia fluvial de los travertinos de Priego y Río Blanco así como del Karst de la Cueva del Reguerillo donde, además, se dataron un paleosismo y fenómenos de neotectónica. La data más antigua obtenida mediante Resonancia de espín electrónico fue 950ka, mientras que mediante racemización de aminoácidos se dataron depósitos de más de 750ka. Mediante dataciones, sedimentología, análisis de isótopos estables y palinología se determinaron aspectos de la evolución climática de algunas áreas de la Península Ibérica. La correlación entre palinología e isotopía permitió la validación de algunos de los resultados. También se obtuvieron datos cualitativos sobre input hidraúlicos a los sistemas fluviales o kársticos

Memoria del Mapa Geológico de España, Escala 1:50.000, 2ª Serie, 1ª Edición, (MAGNA), Hoja Nº 512, Cifuentes

Peer reviewe

El Perfil sísmico ALCUDIA: una imagen de la Zona Centroibérica (Varisco Ibérico meridional, España)

The 250 km long, vertical incidence seismic reflection profile ALCUDIA was acquired in spring 2007. It samples the Variscan Central Iberian Zone from Toledo to Fuenteovejuna. Its main goal was to continue the structure obtained for the crust and mantle from the IBERSEIS transect towards the N and NE. The acquisition parameters, similar to those used in the IBERSEIS profile have proven to be adequate to show a detailed image of the whole crust and upper mantle. After preliminary processing, the upper crust shows a moderate reflectivity that can be easily correlated with identifiable surface geologic features. The middle and lower part of the crust seems to be very reflective, laminated and afected by deformation, although to a different extent. The Moho is placed at approximately 10 s TWT and appears to be flat in the time section. The section can be divided into four domains of reflectivity that can be key to stablish different domains of crustal evolution. This new transect, together with the previous IBERSEIS profile, complete an almost 600 km long lithospheric section that crosses the southern half of the Iberian Variscides.El perfil sísmico de reflexión ALCUDIA , de 250 km de longitud, fue adquirido en la primavera del año 2007. Este perfil ha muestreado la Zona Centroibérica entre Toledo y Fuenteovejuna, y su objetivo principal ha sido continuar hacia el NE la estructura de corteza y manto ya obtenida mediante el perfil IBERSEIS. Los parámetros de adquisición, similares a los de IBERSEIS, han sido adecuados para mostrar una imagen detallada de toda la corteza y el manto superior. Una vez efectuado el procesado preliminar, la corteza superior presenta una reflectividad moderada que puede correlacionarse fácilmente con rasgos geológicos de superficie. Las partes media e inferior de la corteza son muy reflectivas, laminadas y afectadas por una deformación que varía a lo largo del perfil. La Moho se localiza a unos 10 s TWT y tiene geometría plana en la sección de tiempo. La variación en los patrones generales de reflectividad permite dividir el pefil sísmico en cuatro dominios, que corresponden a diferentes evoluciones corticales. Este nuevo perfil sísmico, unido al anterior perfil IBERSEIS, constituye una sección litosférica de casi 600 km de longitud, que atraviesa la parte meridional del Varisco Ibérico.Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y PaleontologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)Generalitat de CatalunyaJunta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha.pu

Clinical utility of chromosomal microarray analysis in invasive prenatal diagnosis

Novel methodologies for detection of chromosomal abnormalities have been made available in the recent years but their clinical utility in prenatal settings is still unknown. We have conducted a comparative study of currently available methodologies for detection of chromosomal abnormalities after invasive prenatal sampling. A multicentric collection of a 1-year series of fetal samples with indication for prenatal invasive sampling was simultaneously evaluated using three screening methodologies: (1) karyotype and quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR), (2) two panels of multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), and (3) chromosomal microarray-based analysis (CMA) with a targeted BAC microarray. A total of 900 pregnant women provided informed consent to participate (94% acceptance rate). Technical performance was excellent for karyotype, QF-PCR, and CMA (~1% failure rate), but relatively poor for MLPA (10% failure). Mean turn-around time (TAT) was 7 days for CMA or MLPA, 25 for karyotype, and two for QF-PCR, with similar combined costs for the different approaches. A total of 57 clinically significant chromosomal aberrations were found (6.3%), with CMA yielding the highest detection rate (32% above other methods). The identification of variants of uncertain clinical significance by CMA (17, 1.9%) tripled that of karyotype and MLPA, but most alterations could be classified as likely benign after proving they all were inherited. High acceptability, significantly higher detection rate and lower TAT, could justify the higher cost of CMA and favor targeted CMA as the best method for detection of chromosomal abnormalities in at-risk pregnancies after invasive prenatal sampling

Síndromes muy poco frecuentes.

Dismorfología, Citogenética y Clínica: Resultados de estudios sobre los datos del ECEMCAs in previous years, six new syndromes have been selected to be included in this section, aimed to make easier the recognition of syndromes with low-frequency by paediatricians and first health care physicians, particularly those of rural areas. In this Boletín, the following syndromes are included: Megalencephaly-Cutis Marmorata Telangiectatica Congenita syndrome, Van der Woude syndrome, Hay Wells syndrome, Zellweger syndrome, Jeune syndrome and Laurin-Sandrow syndrome. For each syndrome, the most important clinical characteristics, and the present knowledge on their causal factors and mechanisms involved are sumarized.N