Comparison of two phenotypical methods to segregate resistant and susceptible lambs to parasitic nematodes

The objective of this study was to compare two segregation methods to select resistant and susceptible female Pelibuey lambs infected naturally with gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) in relation to their haematological and immunological response. For 6 months, faeces and blood samples were taken fortnightly from 40 grazing 5-month-old female lambs. The lambs were classified according to two methods using faecal egg count (FEC) as a phenotypical trait. In the first (reference) method (M3SE, n = 22), resistant (RES) lambs had FEC lower than the mean – 3 standard errors, the susceptible (SUS) lambs levels higher than + 3 standard errors(n = 10) and the intermediate (INT) lambs (n = 8) were categorised by having FECs between the two values. The second method (QUM) divided the population, using quartiles, into resistant (RES; 25%), intermediate (INT; 50%), and susceptible (SUS; 25%) lambs. The agreement between both methods was estimated using the Kappa index. The packed cell volume (PCV), total plasma protein (TPP) and peripheral eosinophils (EOS) were determined for each group. Serum was used to evaluate the IgA levels. PCV and TPP values were higher (P<0.01) in the RES lambs (31.5 ± 3.4 and 6.16 ± 0.5 g/dL by QUM, respectively, and 31.5 ± 3.9 and 6.24 ± 0.49 g/dL by M3SE, respectively) than the SUS lambs (28.1 ± 4.7 and 5.94 ± 0.5 g/d, respectively, by both methods). The EOS and IgA values increased with age. M3SE and QUM were in moderate agreement (Kappa = 0.43). We concluded that the two segregation methods allowed for the identification of the same female SUS lambs, but a greater number of animals were categorised phenotypically as resistant using the M3SE method. PCV and TPP can help to identify phenotypically resistant animals

Caracterización de bacterias halófilas aisladas de un cultivo a cielo abierto tipo raceway de espirulina

Los microorganismos halófilos tienen su origen en los tres dominios de la vida: Archea, Bacteria y Eucarya. Con el objetivo de caracterizar morfológica y molecularmente 6 cepas bacterias halófilas aisladas de un cultivo a cielo abierto en sistema “raceway” de espirulina, se realizó una prueba fisiológica para definir el rango de salinidad en el que las cepas bacterianas presentan crecimiento, éstas se inocularon en agar nutritivo a diferentes porcentajes de NaCl, en intervalos de 5, desde 5 hasta 20%. Además, se les aplicó la tinción de Gram y las pruebas bioquímicas de catalasa y oxidasa. El análisis molecular constó del aislamiento de DNA genómico y mediante la PCR se amplificó y secuenció la región del 16S DNAr. Las secuencias obtenidas se analizaron con el algoritmo del BLAST del NCBI. La comparación de las secuencias de las cepas estudiadas, así como los datos morfológicos y bioquímicos mostraron que pertenecen a los géneros: Bacillus, Halomonas y Pseudomonas.The halophilic microorganisms have their origin in the three domains of life: Archea, Bacteria and Eucarya. Due to the fact of characterize morphologically and molecularly six strains of halophilic bacteria isolated from an open sky growing in a race-way system of spirulina. A physiological test was made to define the range of salinity where the bacterial strains demonstrate growth; these were inoculated in nutritive agar in different percentages of NaCl in intervals of 5, from 5 to 20%. Also, a Gram’s dying process was applied as well as catalase and oxidase biochemical tests were made. The molecular analysis was about isolating genomic DNA, the 16s DNAr was amplified by PCR. The sequences gotten were analyzed with the BLAST in the database NCBI. The comparison between the sequence of strains studied as well as the morphological and biochemical data showed that these belong to the gender of Bacillus, Halomonas and Pseudomonas

Peripheral T Cell Cytokine Responses for Diagnosis of Active Tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: A test for diagnosis of active Tuberculosis (TB) from peripheral blood could tremendously improve clinical management of patients. METHODS: Of 178 prospectively enrolled patients with possible TB, 60 patients were diagnosed with pulmonary and 27 patients with extrapulmonary TB. The frequencies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) specific CD4(+) T cells and CD8(+) T cells producing cytokines were assessed using overnight stimulation with purified protein derivate (PPD) or early secretory antigenic target (ESAT)-6, respectively. RESULTS: Among patients with active TB, an increased type 1 cytokine profile consisting of mainly CD4(+) T cell derived interferon (IFN)-γ was detectable. Despite contributing to the cytokine profile as a whole, the independent diagnostic performance of one cytokine producing T cells as well as polyfunctional T cells was poor. IFN-γ/Interleukin(IL)-2 cytokine ratios discriminated best between active TB and other diseases. CONCLUSION: T cells producing one cytokine and polyfunctional T cells have a limited role in diagnosis of active TB. The significant shift from a "memory type" to an "effector type" cytokine profile may be useful for further development of a rapid immune-diagnostic tool for active TB

In-Home Coal and Wood Use and Lung Cancer Risk: A Pooled Analysis of the International Lung Cancer Consortium

10.1289/ehp.1002217Environmental Health Perspectives118121743-174

CARB-ES-19 Multicenter Study of Carbapenemase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli From All Spanish Provinces Reveals Interregional Spread of High-Risk Clones Such as ST307/OXA-48 and ST512/KPC-3

ObjectivesCARB-ES-19 is a comprehensive, multicenter, nationwide study integrating whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in the surveillance of carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae (CP-Kpn) and E. coli (CP-Eco) to determine their incidence, geographical distribution, phylogeny, and resistance mechanisms in Spain.MethodsIn total, 71 hospitals, representing all 50 Spanish provinces, collected the first 10 isolates per hospital (February to May 2019); CPE isolates were first identified according to EUCAST (meropenem MIC > 0.12 mg/L with immunochromatography, colorimetric tests, carbapenem inactivation, or carbapenem hydrolysis with MALDI-TOF). Prevalence and incidence were calculated according to population denominators. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using the microdilution method (EUCAST). All 403 isolates collected were sequenced for high-resolution single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing, core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST), and resistome analysis.ResultsIn total, 377 (93.5%) CP-Kpn and 26 (6.5%) CP-Eco isolates were collected from 62 (87.3%) hospitals in 46 (92%) provinces. CP-Kpn was more prevalent in the blood (5.8%, 50/853) than in the urine (1.4%, 201/14,464). The cumulative incidence for both CP-Kpn and CP-Eco was 0.05 per 100 admitted patients. The main carbapenemase genes identified in CP-Kpn were blaOXA–48 (263/377), blaKPC–3 (62/377), blaVIM–1 (28/377), and blaNDM–1 (12/377). All isolates were susceptible to at least two antibiotics. Interregional dissemination of eight high-risk CP-Kpn clones was detected, mainly ST307/OXA-48 (16.4%), ST11/OXA-48 (16.4%), and ST512-ST258/KPC (13.8%). ST512/KPC and ST15/OXA-48 were the most frequent bacteremia-causative clones. The average number of acquired resistance genes was higher in CP-Kpn (7.9) than in CP-Eco (5.5).ConclusionThis study serves as a first step toward WGS integration in the surveillance of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales in Spain. We detected important epidemiological changes, including increased CP-Kpn and CP-Eco prevalence and incidence compared to previous studies, wide interregional dissemination, and increased dissemination of high-risk clones, such as ST307/OXA-48 and ST512/KPC-3

Vitamin D deficiency and tuberculosis: what about body mass index?

Eduardo Hernández-GarduñoResearch Unit, State Oncology Centre, Social Security Institute of the State of Mexico and Municipalities (ISSEMyM), Toluca, State of Mexico, MexicoHuang et al conducted a meta-analysis of published studies on various aspects of association between vitamin D and tuberculosis (TB).1 The study concluded that vitamin D deficiency (VDD) was associated with higher risk of TB. However, low body mass index (BMI), a well-recognized and a stronger risk factor of TB than VDD, was not mentioned in this review nor was it accounted for in the multivariable analysis in the majority of case–control studies included in the meta-analysis exploring the association between TB and VDD. Vitamin D levels are likely to be positively correlated with weight/BMI. Infected people who are underweight by $15%, 10%–14% and 5%–9% are at increased risk of progression to TB disease with 2.6, 2.0 and 2.2 cases per 1,000 person-year, respectively.2 Contradictory results were found in the few studies of this meta-analysis1 that considered weight/BMI in the multivariable analysis. One study showed a weak association between VDD and TB (odds ratio: 1.07, 95% confidence interval 1.01–8.52) but only in men.3 Another study found no such association.4View the original paper by Huang and colleagues

Regularization of the Amended Potential and the Bifurcation of Relative Equilibria

In the context of simple mechanical systems with symmetry, we give a method based on blowing up the amended potential for obtaining symmetry-breaking branches of relative equilibria bifurcating from a given set of symmetric relative equilibria. The general method is illustrated with two concrete mechanical examples, the double spherical pendulum and the symmetric coupled rigid bodies