Anisakis infection in allis shad, Alosa alosa (Linnaeus, 1758), and twaite shad, Alosa fallax (Lacépède, 1803), from Western Iberian Peninsula Rivers : zoonotic and ecological implications

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank M. N. Cueto and J.M. Antonio (ECOBIOMAR) for their excellent technical support and also Rodrigo López for making the map of the study area. We also thank the personal of the Vigo IEO, for providing information about shad captures at sea collected on the basis of national program (AMDES) included in the European Data Collection Framework (DCF) project. We are also grateful to Comandancia Naval de Tui for providing fishing data. M. Bao is supported by a PhD grant from the University of Aberdeen and also by financial support of the contract from the EU Project PARASITE (grant number 312068). This study was partially supported by a PhD grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) SFRH/BD/44892/2008) and partially supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE—Operational Competitiveness Programme and national funds through Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the project BPEst-C/MAR/ LA0015/2013. The authors thank the staff of the Station of Hydrobiology of the USC BEncoro do Con^ due their participation in the surveys. This work has been partially supported by the project 10PXIB2111059PR of the Xunta de Galicia and the project MIGRANET of the Interreg IV BSUDOE (South-West Europe) Territorial Cooperation Programme (SOE2/P2/E288). D.J. Nachón is supported by a PhD grant from the Xunta de Galicia (PRE/2011/198)Peer reviewedPostprin

Infection levels and species diversity of ascaridoid nematodes in Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, are correlated with geographic area and fish size

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is among the most important commercial fish species on the world market. Its infection by ascaridoid nematodes has long been known, Pseudoterranova even being named cod worm. In the present study, 755 individuals were sampled in the Barents, Baltic and North Seas during 2012–2014. Prevalences for Anisakis in whole fish and in fillets in the different fishing areas varied from 16 to 100% and from 12 to 90% respectively. Abundance was also greatly influenced by the sampling area. Generalized additive model results indicate higher numbers of Anisakis in the North Sea, even after the larger body size was accounted for. Numbers and prevalence of Anisakis were positively related to fish length or weight. The prevalence of parasites in whole fish and in fillets was also influenced by the season, with the spring displaying a peak for the prevalence in whole fish and, at the same time, a drop for the prevalence in fillets. Whereas 46% of cod had Anisakis larvae in their fillets, the majority (39%) had parasites mainly in the ventral part of the fillet and only 12% had parasites in their dorsal part. This observation is of importance for the processing of the fish. Indeed, the trimming of the ventral part of the cod fillet would allow the almost total elimination of ascaridoids except for cod from the Baltic Sea where there was no difference between the dorsal and the ventral part. The presence of other ascaridoid genera was also noticeable in some areas. For Pseudoterranova, the highest prevalence (45%) in whole fish was observed in the Northern North Sea, whereas the other areas had prevalences between 3 and 16%. Contracaecum was present in every commercial size cod sampled in the Baltic Sea with an intensity of up to 96 worms but no Contracaecum was isolated from the Central North Sea. Non-zoonotic Hysterothylacium was absent from the Baltic Sea but with a prevalence of 83% in the Barents and the Northern North Sea. A subsample of worms was identified with genetic-molecular tools and assigned to the species A. simplex (s.s.), A. pegreffii, P. decipiens (s.s.), P. krabbei, C. osculatum and H. aduncum. In addition to high prevalence and abundance values, the cod sampled in this study presented a diversity of ascaridoid nematodes with a majority of fish displaying a co-infection. Out of 295 whole infected fish, 269 were co-infected by at least 2 genera

Practical constraints on real time Bayesian filtering for NDE applications

An experimental evaluation of Bayesian positional filtering algorithms applied to mobile robots for Non-Destructive Evaluation is presented using multiple positional sensing data – a real time, on-robot implementation of an Extended Kalman and Particle filter was used to control a robot performing representative raster scanning of a sample. Both absolute and relative positioning were employed – the absolute being an indoor acoustic GPS system that required careful calibration. The performance of the tracking algorithms are compared in terms of computational cost and the accuracy of trajectory estimates. It is demonstrated that for real time NDE scanning, the Extended Kalman Filter is a more sensible choice given the high computational overhead for the Particle filter

Multi-transmission-line-beam interactive system

We construct here a Lagrangian field formulation for a system consisting of an electron beam interacting with a slow-wave structure modeled by a possibly non-uniform multiple transmission line (MTL). In the case of a single line we recover the linear model of a traveling wave tube (TWT) due to J.R. Pierce. Since a properly chosen MTL can approximate a real waveguide structure with any desired accuracy, the proposed model can be used in particular for design optimization. Furthermore, the Lagrangian formulation provides for: (i) a clear identification of the mathematical source of amplification, (ii) exact expressions for the conserved energy and its flux distributions obtained from the Noether theorem. In the case of uniform MTLs we carry out an exhaustive analysis of eigenmodes and find sharp conditions on the parameters of the system to provide for amplifying regimes

Introducing a new method for efficient visualization of complex shape 3D ultrasonic phased-array C-scans

Automated robotic inspection systems allow the collection of large data volumes, compared to existing inspection systems. To maximize the throughput associated with the nondestructive evaluation phase, it is crucial that the reconstructed inspection data sets are generated and examined rapidly without a loss of detail. Data analysis often becomes the bottleneck of automated inspections. Therefore, new data visualization tools, suitable to screen the NDT information obtained through robotic systems, are urgently required. This paper presents a new approach, for the generation of three-dimensional ultrasonic C-scans of large and complex parts, suitable for application to high data throughput ultrasonic phased array inspection. This approach produces 3D C-scan presented as colored tessellated surfaces and the approach works efficiently on challenging geometry, with concave and convex regions. Qualitative and quantitative results show that the approach runs up to 500 times faster than other C-scan visualization techniques

Recombinant factorVIII Fc fusion protein for the prevention and treatment of bleeding in children with severe hemophilia A

This work was supported by funding from Biogen, including funding for the editorial and writing support in the the development of this paper

Quantum Films Adsorbed on Graphite: Third and Fourth Helium Layers

Using a path-integral Monte Carlo method for simulating superfluid quantum films, we investigate helium layers adsorbed on a substrate consisting of graphite plus two solid helium layers. Our results for the promotion densities and the dependence of the superfluid density on coverage are in agreement with experiment. We can also explain certain features of the measured heat capacity as a function of temperature and coverage.Comment: 13 pages in the Phys. Rev. two-column format, 16 Figure

Correction of B-scan distortion for optimum ultrasonic imaging of back walls with complex geometries

Ultrasound undergoes refraction and reflection at interfaces between media of different acoustic refractive indices. The most common ultrasonic method (pulse-echo) monitors the reflected energy to infer the presence of flaws, whereas the lower amplitude of refracted signals is ignored. When the reflector is orientated normally with respect to the ultrasonic beam, the received echo signal shows the maximum amplitude. The pulse-echo method also relies on monitoring the amplitude of the backwall echo to identify or confirm the presence of defects. This works well for parts with constant thickness and with planar backwalls. Unfortunately, parts with complex backwalls are common to many industrial sectors. For example, applications such as aerospace structures often require parts with complex shapes. Assessing such parts reliably is not trivial and can cause severe downtime in the aerospace manufacturing processes or during in-service inspections. This work aims to improve the ultrasonic inspectability of parts with complex backwalls, through sending ultrasonic beams from the frontwall side. Ultrasonic phased array probes and state-of-the-art instrumentation allow ultrasonic energy to be sent into a part at wide ranges of focusing depths and steering angles. This allows for tracking of the backwall profile, thus hitting it normally and maximising the amplitude of the reflected echo at any point. However, this work has shown that a cross-sectional scan resulting from multiple ultrasonic beams, which are sent at variable incidence angles, can present significant geometrical distortion and cannot be of much use for accurate defect visualisation and sizing. This paper introduces a generalised algorithm developed to remove geometric distortions and the effect that variable refraction coefficients have on the transmitted and received amplitudes. The algorithm was validated through CIVA simulations for two example parts with complex backwalls, considering isotropic materials