Caractérisation des systèmes de production ovine dans la zone de "Sierra del Segura y la Sagra", Espagne

[FR] Le présent article se propose d¿analyser les caractéristiques les plus saillantes du secteur ovin dans une partie de la zone géographique sous Indication Géographique Protégée (IGP) "Cordero de Segura y la Sagra". Une enquête a été menée sur 93 propriétaires d¿élevages, dans l'objectif de connaître la situation du secteur dans cette zone. Les questions concernaient les sujets suivants: caractéristiques du troupeau, âge, niveau d'études, ouvriers à la ferme, continuité des activités de la ferme. La taille moyenne du troupeau est de 378 animaux et la race "Segureña" est prédominante (99%). Dans 93,4% des cas l¿éleveur travaille à temps plein dans l¿exploitation et le revenu principal est la vente d¿agneaux pour la viande, mais seulement 9,7% des éleveurs font partie d¿une coopérative pour la commercialisation. L'âge moyen du fermier est de 50 ans et 87,1% des éleveurs n¿ont pas d¿études ou de faible niveau. La moyenne du travail employé est de 1,31 UTA, essentiellement de type familial. Seulement dans 12% des cas il existe une sécurité de la continuité de l'activité. Les résultats obtenus montrent qu'il est nécessaire de parvenir à de meilleures conditions socioéconomiques pour les exploitations dans la zone étudiée. L'IGP "Cordero de Segura y la Sagra" pourrait être utile pour améliorer ces aspects.[EN] The aim of this study is to present the basic characteristics which define the sheep systems in some zones of the PGI Cordero de Segura y la Sagra protected area, in order to bring about actions to improve the competitiveness of such systems. A survey has been conducted among 93 farm owners. The questionnaire included questions regarding herd characteristics, age, educational level, workers, and continuity of the farm activity. The average herd size is 378 animals and the Segureña breed sheep is predominant (99 percent). In 93.5 percent of cases the owner works full time on the farm and the main economic benefit is the sale of lambs for meat, but only 9.7 percent of farmers belong to some kind of marketing cooperative. The average farmer's age is 50 years old and a high percentage (87.1 percent) has no education or a very basic one. The year work unit (YWU) is 1.31 and the work is mainly of family type. In only 12 percent of the cases the continuity of the activity is assured. The above analysed aspects show that it is necessary to achieve better socioeconomic conditions of farms. The PGI Cordero de Segura y la Sagra could be useful to improve these aspects. Therefore we suggest that the PGI must be promoted among farmers, especially among young people.Navarro-Ríos, M.; Marín-Bernal, A.; Martí, A.; Fernández Martínez, CJ. (2011). Characterizacion of Segureña sheep production system in the area of Sierra del Segura y la Sagra, Spain. Options Mediterraneennes. Serie A: Seminaires Mediterraneens. (100):211-216. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/107315S21121610

Development of a single tube multiplex real-time PCR to detect the most clinically relevant Mucormycetes species

AbstractMucormycetes infections are very difficult to treat and a delay in diagnosis could be fatal for the outcome of the patient. A molecular diagnostic technique based on Real Time PCR was developed for the simultaneous detection of Rhizopus oryzae, Rhizopus microsporus and the genus Mucor spp. in both culture and clinical samples. The methodology used was Molecular beacon species-specific probes with an internal control. This multiplex real-time PCR (MRT-PCR) was tested in 22 cultured strains and 12 clinical samples from patients suffering from a proven mucormycosis. Results showed 100% specificity and a detection limit of 1 fg of DNA per microlitre of sample. The sensitivity was 100% for clinical cultured strains and for clinical samples containing species detected by the PCR assay. Other mucormycetes species were not detected in clinical samples. This technique can be useful for clinical diagnosis and further studies are warranted

Eliminación/Degradación de Triazinas Mediante Biorreactor de Membrana con Post-Tratamiento de Ozonización

The aim of the research was to evaluate the removal of micropollutants in a combined system MBR + ozonation. The research was carried out in a MBR scale laboratory plant which was fed with synthetic wastewater, doped with simazine (SIM), atrazine (ATZ) and terbutilazine (TBZ). The MBR operational conditions were: hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 20 h, organic loading rate (OLR) of 0.23 KgCOD/KgSSV·day, sludge retention time (SRT) of 30 d, and flux of 5.5 LMH. Two ozone doses were tested: low dose (16 mg O3/L) and high dose (45 mg O3/L). The removal eficiency of organic matter was 96%. For the studied triazines, low biodegradation effiencies were reached by biological treatment (MBR): 57%, 53% and 63% for SIM, ATZ and TBZ, respectively. The complementary treatment of ozonation improved the quality  of the effluents. At low ozonation dose the overall removal efficiencies increased to 95%, 92% and 96% for SIM, ATZ and TBZ, respectively. At high ozonization dose the overall removal efficiencies were 98%, 97% and 97 % for SIM, ATZ and TBZ, respectively, percentages slightly higher than those obtained at low dose. The results showed the combination of MBR + O3 is effective to remove micropollutants from wastewater, contributing to the preservation of a good ecological state of water bodies.Keywords: Bioreactor, Membrane, Ozone, Triazines, Herbicides

Incidence of zygomycosis in transplant recipients

AbstractRecently, a remarkable increase in the incidence of zygomycosis has been reported from institutions in the USA and Europe. The use of voriconazole for the treatment of aspergillosis and, less frequently, the use of echinocandins as empirical treatment for invasive fungal infections are thought to be responsible for the increase. In addition, an increased incidence of this infection has been observed in transplant recipients, including both haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) and solid organ transplant (SOT) patients. There are no global surveys on the prevalence or incidence of zygomycosis, but data from individual institutions and countries show that zygomycosis is an emerging infection. The increased incidence of zygomycosis most probably reflects a greater frequency of predisposing factors, such as higher numbers of patients undergoing HSCT and immunosuppressive chemotherapy. In addition, the emergence of rare pathogens as a result of the rise in the use of antifungal therapy against common species can be postulated. Further, the availability of antifungal agents with activity profiles that are more specific for selected fungi increases the necessity of identifying pathogenic fungi; the frequency of Zygomycetes infections may have been underestimated until now because therapeutic decisions did not depend on the precise identification of pathogenic fungi

Hadamard states from null infinity

Free field theories on a four dimensional, globally hyperbolic spacetime, whose dynamics is ruled by a Green hyperbolic partial differential operator, can be quantized following the algebraic approach. It consists of a two-step procedure: In the first part one identifies the observables of the underlying physical system collecting them in a *-algebra which encodes their relational and structural properties. In the second step one must identify a quantum state, that is a positive, normalized linear functional on the *-algebra out of which one recovers the interpretation proper of quantum mechanical theories via the so-called Gelfand-Naimark-Segal theorem. In between the plethora of possible states, only few of them are considered physically acceptable and they are all characterized by the so-called Hadamard condition, a constraint on the singular structure of the associated two-point function. Goal of this paper is to outline a construction scheme for these states which can be applied whenever the underlying background possesses a null (conformal) boundary. We discuss in particular the examples of a real, massless conformally coupled scalar field and of linearized gravity on a globally hyperbolic and asymptotically flat spacetime.Comment: 23 pages, submitted to the Proceedings of the conference "Quantum Mathematical Physics", held in Regensburg from the 29th of September to the 02nd of October 201

Efficacy of DNA amplification in tissue biopsy samples to improve the detection of invasive fungal disease

AbstractThe performance of a pan-fungal PCR-based technique was evaluated to assess the aetiology of invasive fungal diseases (IFDs). A total of 89 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy samples from 84 patients with proven IFD were studied. Culture of tissue was performed in 68 (81%) patients. The sensitivities of the PCR-based technique and microbiological culture of tissues were 89% and 56%, respectively (p <0.01). According to PCR results, Aspergillus species accounted for 67%, Candida species for 13%, zygomycetes for 11%, and rare and emerging fungi for 9%. Aspergillus species were significantly associated with lung samples (79.6%, p <0.01), Mucorales were associated with skin/subcutaneous samples, and Candida species were associated with gastrointestinal samples. Regarding biopsy samples with Aspergillus species, Aspergillus fumigatus DNA was detected in 43 of 50 (86%), and Aspergillus flavus in six of 50 (12%). PCR was positive in 24 of 30 (80%) cases with negative culture. In nine of the 84 patients, the PCR technique failed to amplify the DNA. Six also had negative cultures, and in the remaining three cases culture was positive (Rhizopus microsporus, Rhizopus arrhizus, and Sakseneae vasiformis), suggesting that the PCR technique was not as effective in amplifying the DNA of some species of Zygomycetes. In five cases, there was no correlation between culture results and those obtained with DNA amplification, indicating the possibility of a mixed infection or the presence of colonizer/contaminant microorganisms. In summary, PCR-based techniques for DNA amplification should be implemented in histopathology and microbiology departments, as they appear to be complementary to conventional methods for IFD detection

Quantum charges and spacetime topology: The emergence of new superselection sectors

In which is developed a new form of superselection sectors of topological origin. By that it is meant a new investigation that includes several extensions of the traditional framework of Doplicher, Haag and Roberts in local quantum theories. At first we generalize the notion of representations of nets of C*-algebras, then we provide a brand new view on selection criteria by adopting one with a strong topological flavour. We prove that it is coherent with the older point of view, hence a clue to a genuine extension. In this light, we extend Roberts' cohomological analysis to the case where 1--cocycles bear non trivial unitary representations of the fundamental group of the spacetime, equivalently of its Cauchy surface in case of global hyperbolicity. A crucial tool is a notion of group von Neumann algebras generated by the 1-cocycles evaluated on loops over fixed regions. One proves that these group von Neumann algebras are localized at the bounded region where loops start and end and to be factorial of finite type I. All that amounts to a new invariant, in a topological sense, which can be defined as the dimension of the factor. We prove that any 1-cocycle can be factorized into a part that contains only the charge content and another where only the topological information is stored. This second part resembles much what in literature are known as geometric phases. Indeed, by the very geometrical origin of the 1-cocycles that we discuss in the paper, they are essential tools in the theory of net bundles, and the topological part is related to their holonomy content. At the end we prove the existence of net representations

On the Reeh-Schlieder Property in Curved Spacetime

We attempt to prove the existence of Reeh-Schlieder states on curved spacetimes in the framework of locally covariant quantum field theory using the idea of spacetime deformation and assuming the existence of a Reeh-Schlieder state on a diffeomorphic (but not isometric) spacetime. We find that physically interesting states with a weak form of the Reeh-Schlieder property always exist and indicate their usefulness. Algebraic states satisfying the full Reeh-Schlieder property also exist, but are not guaranteed to be of physical interest.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure