Humoral immune response of pregnant goats to two Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis bacterin formulations

Caseous lymphadenitis is a chronic suppurative bacterial disease caused by Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, and it has a high prevalence among small ruminants. Different vaccine preparations have been employed to control this disease. The adjuvant used in the formulation is a critical factor for the improvement of vaccine efficacy. No commercial vaccines are available in Argentina. The aims of the present work were to compare the specific antibody response against a C. pseudotuberculosis whole cell vaccine formulated with a classical and an immunoestimulant adjuvant in pregnant goats, and to assess the transfer of vaccine-specific antibodies from the goat to the offspring through colostrum. Twenty three pregnant goats were vaccinated. The animals were randomly allocated to three groups: control, aluminum hydroxide Al(OH)3 adjuvant and a new cage-like particle adjuvant (ISPA). Antibodies (IgG) against this antigen were measured by ELISA. A robust humoral immune response was detected in vaccinated animals, with production of specific IgG. No significant differences were found between the vaccines formulated with different adjuvants. High levels of specific antibodies were detected in colostrum samples from both immunised groups, which were passively transferred from goats to offprings. No adverse local reactions in the vaccines injection sites were detected

Influence of the different processing steps on the microstructure of PZT-based multilayer

[ES] Se ha realizado un estudio comparativo de la influencia de los parámetros reológicos y de procesamiento sobre la microestructura y consistencia de chips multicapa de PZT obtenidos mediante un proceso de colado en cinta. Para ello se han realizado medidas de viscosidad de distintas barbotinas con diferente contenido en sólidos y su relación con el espesor y densidad en verde de las cintas obtenidas, se han identificado los puntos críticos del ciclo de quemado-sinterización y, mediante MEB se ha estudiado la microestructura en verde de las láminas coladas y la microestructura final de los chips multicapa fabricados.[EN] A comparative study of the influence of both rheological and processing parameters on the microstructure and reliability of multilayer ceramic chips based on PZT has been conducted. The multilayer chips were obtained by tape casting. Viscosity measurements of different slurries with various solids content have been correlated with both the thickness and the green density of the casted layers. The critical points of the thermal treatments, organics burn-out and sintering, have been identified. The green microstructure of the layers and the final microstructure of the sintered chips have been studied by SEM.Los autores quieren agradecer al CSIC y al Proyecto EUREKA 2309 FACTORY-PAMIS su apoyo en la realización de este trabajo.Peer reviewe

Humoral immune response of pregnant goats to two Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis bacterin formulations

Caseous lymphadenitis is a chronic suppurative bacterial disease caused by Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis with a high prevalence in small ruminants. Different vaccine preparations have been employed to control this disease. The adjuvant used in the formulation is a critical factor for the improvement of vaccine efficacy. No commercial vaccines are available in Argentina. The aims of the present work were to compare the specific antibody response against a C. pseudotuberculosis whole cell vaccine formulated with a classical and an immunoestimulant adjuvant in pregnant goats, and to assess the transfer of vaccine- specific antibodies from the goat to the offspring through colostrum. Twenty three pregnant goats were vaccinated. The animals were randomly allocated to three groups: control, aluminum hydroxide Al(OH)3 adjuvant and a new cage-like particle adjuvant (ISPA). Antibodies (IgG) against this antigen were measured by ELISA. A robust humoral immune response was detected in vaccinated animals, with production of specific IgG, without finding significant differences between the vaccines formulated with different adjuvants. High levels of specific antibodies were detected in colostrum samples from both immunized groups, which were passively transfered from goats to offprings. No adverse local reactions in the vaccines injection sites were detected.Fil: Auad, Jordana. Universidad Católica de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Cerutti, Julieta. Universidad Católica de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Cooper, Laura Gabriela. Universidad Católica de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Camussone, Cecilia María. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Santa Fe. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe; ArgentinaFil: Lozano, Natalia A.. Universidad Católica de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Crespo, Francisco M.. Establecimiento Los Talas. Potrero de Garay, Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Lozano, Alejandro. Universidad Católica de Córdoba; Argentin

Visual and instrumental correlation of sparkle by the magnitude estimation method

Most real surfaces and objects show variations in appearance with viewing and illumination directions. Besides angular dependency, they also show spatial variation in color, i.e., they exhibit some sort of texture. Of the surfaces we see, surfaces colored by special-effect pigments produce several complex visual effects, like change in color and lightness with viewing and illumination angles, and effects like sparkle and gloss on other textures. In the last two decades, different commercial devices have appeared to help ensure the proper characterization of materials with special-effect pigments. However, the instrumental characterization of sparkle is currently available only by a commercial device integrated into a multi-angle spectrophotometer. As it is difficult to find complete open original studies about the sparkle effect for designing and calibrating this commercial instrument, the main objective of this work was to check whether a good visual and instrumental correlation exists between the sparkle that the observer perceives and the sparkle value provided by the device using some subsets of goniochromatic samples with different types of special-effect pigments and colors. Visual assessments were made by a conventional magnitude estimation method in a directional lighting booth, which belonged to the same company owner of the sparkle instrument, in different geometries and at distinct illuminance levels. The results revealed that there was a good visual correlation of the sparkle grade value. By separately analyzing the factors used in its instrument algorithm, such as sparkle intensity and sparkle area values, it was clearly shown that the correlation was not good or simply did not exist. Consequently, and perhaps in regards to the choice of new special-effect pigments, such as synthetic mica and other future ones, we generated herein even more questions about current mathematical algorithms, and only recognized calculating this texture effect at the industrial level.The authors are grateful to the EMRP for funding the project “Multidimensional Reflectometry for Industry”. The EMRP is jointly funded by EMRP participating countries within EURAMET and the European Union. We thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the coordinated project DPI2011-30090-C02 and project DPI-2015-68514 and University of Alicante for project GRE13-28. Omar Gómez Lozano would also like to thank the above-cited ministry for his pre-doctoral fellowship (FPI BES-2012-053080)

Resultados de la aplicación de algoritmos de manejo en la gestión clínica de un servicio de angiología y cirugía vascular. Análisis del período 1990 - 2001

Objetivo: Analizar el impacto de la gestión clínica en los indicadores basicos de calidad asistencial en un servicio de Cirugía Vascular durante un periodo de 10 años. Métodos: Analisis retrospectivo de los indicadores asistenciales del servicio de Angiología y Cirugía Vascular en el periodo 1990 - 2001 y la influencia que una guia de manejo clínico y la elaboración de unos estandares de calidad tienen sobre ellos. Se compara el periodo 1990 - 1994, previo a la aplicación de estas guias, con el periodo 1995 - 200 l. Resultados: Todos los indicadores de calidad asistencial analizados presentan una mejora evidente cuando se comparan ambos periodos. El nivel de seguridad asistencial médico-quirúrgico no se vio afectado por la aplicación de algoritmos de manejo y de guías de cuidados clínicos. Conclusiones: La gestión clínica de los servicos basada en el binomio coste - calidad puede asegurar la eficiencia de un servicio y optimizar los recursos sanitarios sin menoscabo de la calidad de los procedimientos asistenciales. Es posible definir el estandar de calidad por grupo de procedimientos, en función de la utilización de recursos hospitalarios y de las tasas de morbi-mortalidad

Women\u27s beach handball game statistics: Differences and predictive power for winning and losing teams

The objectives of the present study were: (i) to compare beach handball game-related statistics by match outcome (winning and losing teams), and (ii) to identify characteristics that discriminate performances in the match. The game-related statistics of the 72 women’s matches played in the VIII Women’s Beach Handball World Championship (2018) were analysed. The game-related statistics were taken from the official Web page. A validation of the data showed their reliability to be very good (the inter-observer mean reliability was α=0.82 and the intra-observer mean was α=0.86). For the differences between winning/losing teams a parametric (unpaired t-test) or non-parametric (Mann-Whitney U test) test was applied depending on whether the variable met or did not meet normality, respectively. A stepwise discriminant analysis was then performed to determine the variables that predicted performance (victory or defeat). Five variables showed differences between the winning and losing teams: total points (p<.001; ES=1.09), technical faults (p<.001; ES=‑0.96), the number of players with either negative (p<.001; ES=‑0.86) or positive (p<.001; ES=1.05) valuations and overall valuation (p<.001; ES=1.29). The predictive model correctly classified 80.6% of the matches using two variables (Wilks’s λ=0.618; canonical correlation index=0.618): overall valuation and GK shots

J48Consolidated: an implementation of CTC algorithm for WEKA

The CTC algorithm, Consolidated Tree Construction algorithm, is a machine learning paradigm that was designed to solve a class imbalance problem, a fraud detection problem in the area of car insurance [1] where, besides, an explanation about the classification made was required. The algorithm is based on a decision tree construction algorithm, in this case the well-known C4.5, but it extracts knowledge from data using a set of samples instead of a single one as C4.5 does. In contrast to other methodologies based on several samples to build a classifier, such as bagging, the CTC builds a single tree and as a consequence, it obtains comprehensible classifiers. The main motivation of this implementation is to make public and available an implementation of the CTC algorithm. With this purpose we have implemented the algorithm within the well-known WEKA data mining environment http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/). WEKA is an open source project that contains a collection of machine learning algorithms written in Java for data mining tasks. J48 is the implementation of C4.5 algorithm within the WEKA package. We called J48Consolidated to the implementation of CTC algorithm based on the J48 Java class

Excitation of confined modes on particle arrays

We describe both theoretically and experimentally the existence and excitation of confined modes in planar arrays of gold nanodisks. Ordered 2D lattices of monodispersive nanoparticles are manufactured, embedded in a silica matrix, and exposed to evanescent prism-coupling illumination, leading to dark features in the reflectivity, which signal the presence of confined modes guided along the arrays. We find remarkable agreement between theory and experiment in the frequency-momentum dispersion of the resonances. Direct excitation of these modes reveals long propagation distances and deep extinction features. This combined experimental and theoretical characterization of guidedmodes shows a good understanding of the optical response of metallic particles arrays, which can be beneficial in future designs of optical-signal and distant-sensing applications. © 2013 Optical Society of America.This work has been supported in part by the European Union (NMP4-2006-016881-SPANS, NMP4-SL-2008-213669-ENSEMBLE,FP7-ICT-2009-4-248909-LIMA, and FP7-ICT-2009-4-248855-N4E), the Spanish MEC (MAT2010-14885 and Consolider Nano-Light.es), and the research program of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), which is financially supported by the Netherlands Organization for Fundamental Research (NWO) and is part of an industrial partnership program between Philips and FOM. It is also supported in part by NanoNextNL, a micro and nanotechnology consortium of the Government of the Netherlands and 130 partners. X.M.B. acknowledges a Spanish CSIC-JAE grant.Peer Reviewe