Morteros a base de vidrio de desecho/escoria de alto horno; activación mecanoquímica del vidrio en soluciones alcalinas.

Composite cements of Blast Furnace Slag (EAH) and Waste Glass (WG) were investigated. A fraction WG was subjected to mechanochemical activation aiming to solubilize its SiO4 to obtain solutions of sodium silicate (SS) with silica modulus greater than zero to improve the compressive strength of the cements.  With the solutions obtained by AMQ, composites of 0 to 100% WG were prepared, and as referred to cements 100% BFS with standard alkaline activation. The strength of the latter decreased after increasing the Na2O content and decreased when the curing temperature was increased to 60oC. In contrast, 100% WG cements required very aggressive chemical activation conditions (12% Na2O at 60oC) to obtain good mechanical properties. The composites with 25 and 50% WG required activation conditions similar to those 100% EAH cements, while those cements with 75% WG required activation conditions similar to those of 100% WG.   Keywords: waste glass, blast furnace slag, mechanochemical activation.

Short communication: Stability and integrity of classical swine fever virus RNA stored at room temperature

Worldwide cooperation between laboratories working with classical swine fever virus (CSFV) requires exchange of virus isolates. For this purpose, shipment of CSFV RNA is a safe alternative to the exchange of infectious material. New techniques using desiccation have been developed to store RNA at room temperature and are reported as effective means of preserving RNA integrity. In this study, we evaluated the stability and integrity of dried CSFV RNA stored at room temperature. First, we determined the stability of CSFV RNA covering CSFV genome regions used typically for the detection of viral RNA in diagnostic samples by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). To this end, different concentrations of in vitro-transcribed RNAs of the 5’-untranslated region and of the NS5B gene were stored as dried RNA at 4, 20, and 37oC for two months. Aliquots were analyzed every week by CSFV-specific quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Neither the RNA concentration nor the storage temperature did affect CSFV RNA yields at any of the time evaluated until the end of the experiment. Furthermore, it was possible to recover infectious CSFV after transfection of SK-6 cells with dried viral RNA stored at room temperature for one week. The full-length E2 of CSFV was amplified from all the recovered viruses, and nucleotide sequence analysis revealed 100% identity with the corresponding sequence obtained from RNA of the original material. These results show that CSFV RNA stored as dried RNA at room temperature is stable, maintaining its integrity for downstream analyses and applications

Evaluation of the capability of the PCV2 genome to encode miRNAs : lack of viral miRNA expression in an experimental infection

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is a ssDNA virus causing PCV2-systemic disease (PCV2-SD), one of the most important diseases in swine. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a new class of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. Viral miRNAs have recently been described and the number of viral miRNAs has been increasing in the past few years. In this study, small RNA libraries were constructed from two tissues of subclinically PCV2 infected pigs to explore if PCV2 can encode viral miRNAs. The deep sequencing data revealed that PCV2 does not express miRNAs in an in vivo subclinical infection

Revisiting the genetic diversity of classical swine fever virus: A proposal for new genotyping and subgenotyping schemes of classification

Classical swine fever (CSF) is a highly contagious febrile viral disease caused by CSF virus (CSFV), and it is considered one of the most important infectious diseases that affect domestic pigs and wild boar. Previous molecular epidemiology studies have revealed that the diversity of CSFV comprises three main genotypes and different subgenotypes defined using a reliable cut-off to accurately classify CSFV at genotype and subgenotype levels. However, a growing number of CSFV both complete genome and full E2 gene sequences have been submitted to GenBank (more than 500 sequences are currently available, revised on December 1, 2017). Therefore, the aim of this study was to revisit the taxonomy of CSFV at genotype and subgenotype levels, to unify nomenclature and to provide an update to the classification of CSFV. We propose here a new genotyping scheme with five well-defined CSFV genotypes (CSFV Genotypes 1-5) and 14 subgenotypes (seven for each of the CSFV Genotype 1 and CSFV Genotype 2). The findings showed in this study are relevant for molecular epidemiology approaches and will help to better understand the genetic diversity and spreading of CSFV at a global scale. The update in the classification of CSFV will allow the scientific community to establish more accurately the links among different outbreaks of the disease.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The role of viral and host microRNAs in the Aujeszky's disease virus during the infection process

Porcine production is a primary market in the world economy. Controlling swine diseases in the farm is essential in order to achieve the sector necessities. Aujeszky's disease is a viral condition affecting pigs and is endemic in many countries of the world, causing important economic losses in the swine industry. microRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs which modulates gene expression in animals, plants and viruses. With the aim of understanding miRNA roles during the Aujeszky's disease virus [ADV] (also known as suid herpesvirus type 1 [SuHV-1]) infection, the expression profiles of host and viral miRNAs were determined through deep sequencing in SuHV-1 infected porcine cell line (PK-15) and in an animal experimental SuHV-1 infection with virulent (NIA-3) and attenuated (Begonia) strains. In the in vivo approach miR-206, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-378 presented differential expression between virus strains infection. In the in vitro approach, most miRNAs were down-regulated in infected groups. miR-92a and miR-92b-3p were up-regulated in Begonia infected samples. Functional analysis of all this over expressed miRNAs during the infection revealed their association in pathways related to viral infection processes and immune response. Furthermore, 8 viral miRNAs were detected by stem loop RT-qPCR in both in vitro and in vivo approaches, presenting a gene regulatory network affecting 59 viral genes. Most described viral miRNAs were related to Large Latency Transcript (LLT) and to viral transcription activators EP0 and IE180, and also to regulatory genes regarding their important roles in the host-pathogen interaction during viral infection

Multi-Target Strategy for Pan/Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) Detection: A Combination of Sequences Analysis, in Silico Predictions and Laboratory Diagnostic Evaluation

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease affecting cloven-hoofed animals that causes severe economic losses. The disease is characterized by a vesicular condition and it cannot be differentiated from other vesicular diseases. Therefore, laboratory confirmation of any suspected FMD case is compulsory. Despite viral isolation in cell cultures has been considered for many years as the gold standard for FMD diagnosis, the advantages of real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) technology have motivated its use directly in clinical specimens for FMD diagnosis. The current work was aimed to develop and validate a molecular multi-check strategy using rRT-PCR (mMulti-rRT-PCR) based on SYBR-Green I for pan/foot-and-mouth disease virus (pan/FMDV) diagnosis. From in silico approaches, different primer pairs previously reported were selected and modified to reduce the likelihood of viral escape as well as potential failures in the pan/FMDV detection. The analytical parameters were evaluated using a high number of representative viral strains. The repeatability of the assay and its performance on field samples were also assessed. The mMulti-rRT-PCR was able to detect emergent FMDV strains that circulated in South America between the years 2006–2010 and on which the single rRT-PCRs failed when they were applied independently. The results obtained here showed that the proposed system is an accurate and rapid diagnosis method for sensitive and specific detection of FMDV. Thus, a validated mMulti-rRT-PCR assay based on SYBR-Green I detection coupled to melting curves resolution for pan/FMDV diagnosis on clinical samples is proposed. This study also highlights the need to incorporate the multi-target detection principle in the diagnosis of highly variable agents, specially, of those listed by OIE like FMDV

Identification of microRNAs in PCV2 subclinically infected pigs by high throughput sequencing

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the essential etiological infectious agent of PCV2-systemic disease and has been associated with other swine diseases, all of them collectively known as porcine circovirus diseases. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a new class of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. miRNAs play an increasing role in many biological processes. The study of miRNA-mediated host-pathogen interactions has emerged in the last decade due to the important role that miRNAs play in antiviral defense. The objective of this study was to identify the miRNA expression pattern in PCV2 subclinically infected and non-infected pigs. For this purpose an experimental PCV2 infection was carried out and small-RNA libraries were constructed from tonsil and mediastinal lymph node (MLN) of infected and non-infected pigs. High throughput sequencing determined differences in miRNA expression in MLN between infected and non-infected while, in tonsil, a very conserved pattern was observed. In MLN, miRNA 126-3p, miRNA 126-5p, let-7d-3p, mir-129a and mir-let-7b-3p were up-regulated whereas mir-193a-5p, mir-574-5p and mir-34a down-regulated. Prediction of functional analysis showed that these miRNAs can be involved in pathways related to immune system and in processes related to the pathogenesis of PCV2, although functional assays are needed to support these predictions. This is the first study on miRNA gene expression in pigs infected with PCV2 using a high throughput sequencing approach in which several host miRNAs were differentially expressed in response to PCV2 infection

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured