Norovirus Infection and Disease in an Ecuadorian Birth Cohort: Association of Certain Norovirus Genotypes With Host FUT2 Secretor Status.

BACKGROUND: Although norovirus is the most common cause of gastroenteritis, there are few data on the community incidence of infection/disease or the patterns of acquired immunity or innate resistance to norovirus. METHODS: We followed a community-based birth cohort of 194 children in Ecuador with the aim to estimate (1) the incidence of norovirus gastroenteritis from birth to age 3 years, (2) the protective effect of norovirus infection against subsequent infection/disease, and (3) the association of infection and disease with FUT2 secretor status. RESULTS: Over the 3-year period, we detected a mean of 2.26 diarrheal episodes per child (range, 0-12 episodes). Norovirus was detected in 260 samples (18%) but was not found more frequently in diarrheal samples (79 of 438 [18%]), compared with diarrhea-free samples (181 of 1016 [18%]; P = .919). A total of 66% of children had at least 1 norovirus infection during the first 3 years of life, and 40% of children had 2 infections. Previous norovirus infections were not associated with the risk of subsequent infection. All genogroup II, genotype 4 (GII.4) infections were among secretor-positive children (P < .001), but higher rates of non-GII.4 infections were found in secretor-negative children (relative risk, 0.56; P = .029). CONCLUSIONS: GII.4 infections were uniquely detected in secretor-positive children, while non-GII.4 infections were more often found in secretor-negative children

Green composites of organic materials and recycled post-consumer polyethylene

International audienceAddition of organic fillers to post‐consumer recycled plastics can give rise to several advantages. First of all, the cost of these fillers is usually very low, the organic fillers are biodegradable contributing to an improved environmental impact and, last but not least, some mechanical and thermomechanical properties can be enhanced. Organic fillers are not widely used in the plastic industry although their use is increasing. Bad dispersion into the polymer matrix at high‐level content and poor adhesion with the matrix are the more important obstacles to this approach. In this work various organic fillers have been used with a post‐consumer plastic material originating from films for greenhouses. The properties of these green composites have been compared with those of materials filled with a conventional inorganic filler. The organic fillers cause slightly worse processability, due to an increase of viscosity, an enhancement of the rigidity and of the thermomechanical resistance similar to that measured for the inorganic filler, while a reduction of the impact strength is observed. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry

Security Policies to Mitigate Attacks VLAN Hopping in the Data Link Layer of LA Networks

A proposal of security policies based on the ISO 27002 standard is presented, which allows to mitigate VLAN HOPPING attacks at the data link layer level in LAN networks, as it is evident that network administrators pay more attention to policies to ensure the layers of the OSI model, so that internal users with certain privileges can take advantage of these vulnerabilities to access valuable information of the organization. For this purpose, a base network infrastructure of the companies in the city of Riobamba-Ecuador was determined as a case study. In this scenario, a standard four-phase Pentesting was performed to test VLAN HOPPING attacks (Switch Spoofing and Double Tagging) before and after applying the proposed policies, resulting in a 100% mitigation of the technological vulnerabilities found and 90% of organizational, operational, and physical vulnerabilities. &nbsp; &nbsp; Keywords: VLAN HOPPING, Security Policies, Vulnerability Mitigation, Security Mechanism

Gender‐specific Issues in Traumatic Injury and Resuscitation: Consensus‐based Recommendations for Future Research

Traumatic injury remains an unacceptably high contributor to morbidity and mortality rates across the United States. Gender‐specific research in trauma and emergency resuscitation has become a rising priority. In concert with the 2014 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference “Gender‐specific Research in Emergency Care: Investigate, Understand, and Translate How Gender Affects Patient Outcomes,” a consensus‐building group consisting of experts in emergency medicine, critical care, traumatology, anesthesiology, and public health convened to generate research recommendations and priority questions to be answered and thus move the field forward. Nominal group technique was used for the consensus‐building process and a combination of face‐to‐face meetings, monthly conference calls, e‐mail discussions, and preconference surveys were used to refine the research questions. The resulting research agenda focuses on opportunities to improve patient outcomes by expanding research in sex‐ and gender‐specific emergency care in the field of traumatic injury and resuscitation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110065/1/acem12536.pd

Effects of Osteopathic Visceral Treatment in Patients with Gastroesophageal Reflux: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Osteopathic manual treatment has been recommended as a non-pharmacological therapy for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). However, to date, no study has supported the effectiveness of this intervention with respect to the symptoms of the disease. Our goal was to assess the effect of an osteopathic manual technique for the lower esophageal sphincter on GERD symptoms, cervical mobility and on the C4 spinous process pressure pain threshold (PPTs). Methods: A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial was performed. Sixty subjects suffering from GERD participated in this study and were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (EG) (n = 29), who received the osteopathic technique for the lower esophageal sphincter, or to a control group (CG) (n = 31), who received a manual contact, which mimicked the osteopathic technique without exerting any therapeutic force. Randomization was computer-generated, with allocation concealed by sequentially numbered, opaque, sealed envelopes. The GerdQ questionnaire was used to assess symptom changes the week after intervention. Cervical Range of Motion (CROM) and algometer were used to evaluate cervical mobility and PPTs before and after both treatments. Before-after between groups comparison (t-test) was used for statistical analysis of the outcome, with two measurement points (GerdQ), while repeated-measures ANOVA was used for those outcomes with four measurement points (CROM and PPT). Results: The application of the osteopathic manual treatment in subjects with GERD produced a significant improvement in symptoms one week after the intervention (p = 0.005) with a between-groups difference of 1.49 points in GerdQ score (95% CI: 0.47-2.49). PPT C4 improved in the EG after the treatment (p = 0.034; eta(2) = 0.048) (between-groups difference 8.78 Newton/cm(2); 95% CI: 0.48-17.09). CROM also increased in the EG compared to the CG (p < 0.001; eta(2) = 0.108) (between-groups difference 33.89 degrees; 95% CI: 15.17-52.61). Conclusions: The manual osteopathic technique produces an improvement in GERD symptoms one week after treatment, cervical mobility, and PPTs. This may mean that osteopathic treatment is useful for improving symptoms of GERD

Sustainability assessment of half-sandwich panels based on alkali-activated ceramic/slag wastes cement versus conventional building solutions

This study assessed the sustainability of two partition walls and intended to contribute to the Circular Economy in the construction sector. A life cycle approach and a multi-criteria decision support method were applied to know the environmental, functional, and economic performances of the production process of half-sandwich panels based on alkali-activated ceramic/slag waste cement, choosing as system boundary the method “cradle to gate”. The proposed building solutions differ from each other in the type of insulating material used, either extruded polystyrene foam (APXPS) or expanded cork agglomerate board (APICB). Besides, a comparative analysis of the developed building solutions versus three reference constructive solutions: i) a conventional heavyweight partition wall, ii) a lightweight gypsum wall panel, and iii) a conceptual lightweight sandwich membrane building solution was performed. Results showed that the two proposed half-sandwich wall panels (APXPS and APICB) resulted in the most sustainable alternatives, of which the APXPS obtained the best overall results since it combined the best environmental, functional, and economic behavior. Besides, the environmental contribution analysis determined that the greatest environmental burden to the Global Warming Potential (GWP), in the case of the APXPS was associated with the XPS (57%), being the alkali activator (23%) placed as the second major contributor. When the ICB was used as the insulation layer, the energy used (nearly 38%) and the sodium silicate (about 17%) were the larger contributors to CO2 emissions. It is worth mentioning that the use of ICB represented a negative contribution (of about −34%) to the GWP category.This work was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/ 04029/2020, and the research project “CirMat: CIRcular aggregates for sustainable road and building MATerials”(ref. 16_Call#2)is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants and Norway Grants, operationalized by the Portuguese Office of the Secretary of State for the Environment. RENEw, POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033834, that was co-funded by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER), with Programa Operacional da Competitividade e Internacionalizaçao ˜ do Portugal 2020 (COMPETE 2020) The authors acknowledge the support of the DST group construction company for funding the project Chair DST/IB-S: Smart Systems for Construction

TMAO and Gut Microbial-Derived Metabolites TML and γBB Are Not Associated with Thrombotic Risk in Patients with Venous Thromboembolism

Background: The present work evaluates the association between circulating concentrations of Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), gamma butyrobetaine (gamma BB), and trimetyllisine (TML) in controls and patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) with coagulation parameters. Methods: The study involved 54 VTE patients and 57 controls. Platelet function, platelet hyperreactivity, platelet adhesiveness, thrombosis-associated parameters, and thrombin generation parameters were studied. Plasma TMAO, gamma BB, and TML determination was performed using an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography system coupled with mass spectrometry. Results: No differences were found for TMAO, gamma BB, or TML concentrations between controls and VTE patients. In thrombin generation tests, TMAO, gamma BB, and TML showed a positive correlation with lag time and time to peak. TMAO, gamma BB, and TML negatively correlated with peak height. No significant differences were observed regarding TMAO, gamma BB, and TML concentrations between the two blood withdrawals, nor when the control and VTE patients were analyzed separately. No correlation was observed between these gut metabolites and platelet function parameters. Conclusions: No differences were found regarding TMAO, gamma BB, and TML concentrations between the control and VTE groups. Some correlations were found; however, they were mild or went in the opposite direction of what would be expected if TMAO and its derivatives were related to VTE risk

Importance of Life Cycle Analysis of the Printed Circuit Board Computer

Abstract It is estimated that there is a generation of 307,224 ton/year [1] of waste from electronic and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Mexico, of which 10% is recycled, 40% remains stored and 50% reaches landfills or uncontrolled dumps. In the practice, even the regulatory instruments are not consolidated and the adequate management of the use of WEEE management, so the aim of this study is an analysis of life cycle of printed circuit boards (TCI) to identify the management alternatives that represent the least impact to the environment. This assessment was carried out using software SIMAPRO to determine the environmental impact of each scenario, through the comparison of impacts and the proposed improvements to reduce it, following phases of this methodology by applying standards, ISO 14040/ISO 14044 [2], using data from the INE official reports since 2006 until 2010 which concentrate the information of the WEEE problem in Mexico. These data were pooled to carry out inventories according to the availability in the information, identifying the environmental impacts generated by processing. The conclusions of the LCA will serve to identify the stage with greater environmental impact, and thus propose ideas for improvement in order to minimize this impact

Recording 2-D Nutation NQR Spectra by Random Sampling Method

The method of random sampling was introduced for the first time in the nutation nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy where the nutation spectra show characteristic singularities in the form of shoulders. The analytic formulae for complex two-dimensional (2-D) nutation NQR spectra (I = 3/2) were obtained and the condition for resolving the spectral singularities for small values of an asymmetry parameter η was determined. Our results show that the method of random sampling of a nutation interferogram allows significant reduction of time required to perform a 2-D nutation experiment and does not worsen the spectral resolution