The Expectations for Faculty in Latin America

Faculty load in the US varies from 40-40-10 (research-teaching-service) in research oriented institutions to 25-50-25 in teaching oriented institutions. Consulting is normally not part of the formula and case writing is generally not considered as part of the research load. Latin America is quite different. A 25-25-25-25 load (that includes consulting as a separate area) is not atypical and research can often be accomplished through case writing. However, Latin America is not homogenous and some very specific institutions are exceptional even including few faculty positions that are 100% research. The panel will provide an overview of the expectations in different countries (particularly Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru) and discuss how current expectations deal with international accrediting bodies that might be requiring different mixtures

High rates of multidrug-resistance in <i>Enterococcus</i> spp. isolated from dogs and cats in Lima, Perú

Enterococcus spp. are opportunistic pathogens which can rapidly acquire antimicrobial resistance causing septicemia, endocarditis or nosocomial infections in humans and animals. The purpose of this study was to identify and determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of enterococci isolated from dogs and cats which were examined in veterinarian clinics in Lima, Perú during 2019-2020. A total of 125 grampositive catalase negative cocci were isolated from urine, skin, ear, oral, abdominal, pharyngeal and abscess samples. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by the disk diffusion method. Inhibition zone diameters were interpreted according to the Clinical Laboratories Standards Institute (CLSI), breakpoints (CLSI, 2018) and, when breakpoints were unavailable for bacteria of animal origin, according to the human CLSI breakpoints (CLSI, 2021).Trabajo publicado en Cagliada, Maria del Pilar Lilia y Galosi, Cecilia Mónica (comps.). I Congreso de Microbiología Veterinaria. Libro de resúmenes. La Plata: Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, 2021.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

A Novel Algorithm Based on the Pixel-Entropy for Automatic Detection of Number of Lanes, Lane Centers, and Lane Division Lines Formation

Lane detection for traffic surveillance in intelligent transportation systems is a challenge for vision-based systems. In this paper, a novel pixel-entropy based algorithm for the automatic detection of the number of lanes and their centers, as well as the formation of their division lines is proposed. Using as input a video from a static camera, each pixel behavior in the gray color space is modeled by a time series; then, for a time period &tau; , its histogram followed by its entropy are calculated. Three different types of theoretical pixel-entropy behaviors can be distinguished: (1) the pixel-entropy at the lane center shows a high value; (2) the pixel-entropy at the lane division line shows a low value; and (3) a pixel not belonging to the road has an entropy value close to zero. From the road video, several small rectangle areas are captured, each with only a few full rows of pixels. For each pixel of these areas, the entropy is calculated, then for each area or row an entropy curve is produced, which, when smoothed, has as many local maxima as lanes and one more local minima than lane division lines. For the purpose of testing, several real traffic scenarios under different weather conditions with other moving objects were used. However, these background objects, which are out of road, were filtered out. Our algorithm, compared to others based on trajectories of vehicles, shows the following advantages: (1) the lowest computational time for lane detection (only 32 s with a traffic flow of one vehicle/s per-lane); and (2) better results under high traffic flow with congestion and vehicle occlusion. Instead of detecting road markings, it forms lane-dividing lines. Here, the entropies of Shannon and Tsallis were used, but the entropy of Tsallis for a selected q of a finite set achieved the best results

Optimal fertilization dose in castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) using partial budgets analysis

Objective: To determine the economically adequate fertilization dose for a castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) crop that improves the producer's benefits using the partial budgeting technique. Design / methodology / approach: The experiment was established at a site located 500 m from the Centro de Chiapas experimental field, with an altitude of 800 m. Two production factors were studied: nitrogen (40, 60, and 80) and phosphorus (20, 40, and 60) with three levels each. The treatments had nine combinations in a randomized complete block experimental design and four replications. Phenological and morphological variables, seed yield, and variable costs economic components were evaluated as a response. Results: With the average yields the obtained net benefits were determined; an adjustment of the benefits was made, and its dominance was determined. Four experiments were dominated, and five showed favorable profits for the producer. The 80-60-00 formulation had a return rate (RR) of 23 %. Conclusions: The 40-20-00, 40-40-00, 40-60-00, 80-40-00 and 80-60-00 formulations were dominant. The 80-60-00 formulation reported the highest RR, an increase in variable cost of US$9.64, like other doses of lower costs and benefits. For this dose, the net benefits increase was us$ 222.61

Anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA) and autoimmune liver diseases

Antibodies to the baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ASCA), recently proposed as a serological marker of Crohn's disease, have also been detected in other autoimmune disorders. The aim of this study was to determine prevalence and clinical significance of ASCA in autoimmune liver disease. The presence of IgG and IgA ASCA was evaluated using a commercially available immunoassay in 215 patients with autoimmune liver disease (primary biliary cirrhosis, PBC, 123 cases; autoimmune hepatitis, AIH, 67 cases; primary sclerosing cholangitis, PSC, 25 cases), 48 with inflammatory bowel disease and 19 healthy blood donors. Anti neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies with the perinuclear pattern (p-ANCA) were assessed by indirect immunofluorescence in PSC patients. The main clinical and biochemical parameters between ASCA-positive and negative patients were analysed and compared. ASCA are predominant in Crohn's disease (70%); among liver patients, PSC and AMA-negative PBC show the highest ASCA prevalence (53% and 44%). In PBC ASCA correlate with higher levels of circulating IgA (P < 0·05). In PSC the detection of either ASCA or p-ANCA is neither associated with any clinical or biochemical feature, nor with an underlying inflammatory bowel disease. ASCA can not be considered an additional serological marker of autoimmune liver disease, but the possibility of detecting such a reactivity in autoimmune liver disorders should be considered; their correlation with elevated IgA in PBC suggests that ASCA may be an indirect sign of enhanced mucosal immunity; in PSC patients neither ASCA nor p-ANCA predict the occurrence of a concomitant inflammatory bowel disease

Vehicle Detection with Occlusion Handling, Tracking, and OC-SVM Classification: A High Performance Vision-Based System

This paper presents a high performance vision-based system with a single static camera for traffic surveillance, for moving vehicle detection with occlusion handling, tracking, counting, and One Class Support Vector Machine (OC-SVM) classification. In this approach, moving objects are first segmented from the background using the adaptive Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). After that, several geometric features are extracted, such as vehicle area, height, width, centroid, and bounding box. As occlusion is present, an algorithm was implemented to reduce it. The tracking is performed with adaptive Kalman filter. Finally, the selected geometric features: estimated area, height, and width are used by different classifiers in order to sort vehicles into three classes: small, midsize, and large. Extensive experimental results in eight real traffic videos with more than 4000 ground truth vehicles have shown that the improved system can run in real time under an occlusion index of 0.312 and classify vehicles with a global detection rate or recall, precision, and F-measure of up to 98.190%, and an F-measure of up to 99.051% for midsize vehicles

Expression of Proteins, Glycoproteins, and Transcripts in the Guts of Fasting, Fed, and <i>Trypanosoma cruzi</i>-Infected Triatomines: A Systematic Review

Chagas disease is caused by the hemoflagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. The main transmission mechanism for the parasite in endemic areas is contact with the feces of an infected triatomine bug. Part of the life cycle of T. cruzi occurs in the digestive tract of triatomines, where vector and parasite engage in a close interaction at a proteomic–molecular level. This interaction triggers replication and differentiation processes in the parasite that can affect its infectivity for the vertebrate host. With the aim of compiling and analyzing information from indexed publications on transcripts, proteins, and glycoproteins in the guts of fasting, fed, and T. cruzi-infected triatomines in the period 2000–2022, a systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Fifty-five original research articles retrieved from PubMed and ScienceDirect were selected; forty-four papers reported 1–26,946 transcripts, and twenty-one studies described 1–2603 peptides/proteins