Eficacia protectora de dos vacunas frente a la infección experimental de perdiz roja (Alectoris rufa) con el virus West Nile

Trabajo Fin de Máster realizado por Virginia Gamino Rodríguez. Máster Universitario en Investigación Básica y Aplicada en Recursos Cinegéticos, Tema: Enfermedades de las aves silvestres.El virus West Nile (WNV) es un agente zoonótico de distribución mundial que se mantiene en la naturaleza en un ciclo enzoótico en el que participan aves silvestres y mosquitos. Bajo ciertas circunstancias este virus es capaz de infectar a hospedadores accidentales como el hombre o los caballos, pudiendo provocar su muerte. A pesar de las ventajas que podría tener proteger a las aves frente a la infección por WNV, no sólo para reducir la mortalidad, sino para interrumpir el ciclo de transmisión, no existen vacunas con licencia para su uso en éstas. En el presente trabajo estudiamos la eficacia protectora de dos vacunas, una elaborada a partir de la proteína E recombinante (rE) de WNV y otra inactivada que es comercializada para su uso en caballos, frente a la infección experimental con WNV en perdiz roja (Alectoris rufa). El estudio se llevó a cabo con 46 pollos distribuidos en tres grupos de inmunización a los que se les inyectó, respectivamente, la rE, la vacuna inactivada o PBS a nivel intramuscular tres veces a intervalos de dos semanas. Tras la inmunización, las perdices fueron inoculadas a nivel subcutáneo con WNV. Se realizó una observación diaria de las aves y se tomaron muestras de sangre y tejidos en diferentes días experimentales. La rE indujo la producción de anticuerpos y redujo de manera significativa la morbilidad, mortalidad y el nivel de viremia. Por el contrario, la vacuna inactivada no fue capaz de inducir la producción de anticuerpos antes de la infección experimental ni de reducir de manera significativa la morbilidad o la mortalidad asociada a la infección. Ninguna de las vacunas evitó en el 100% de las perdices el desarrollo de lesiones o la presencia de virus en tejidos. Se necesitan más estudios para determinar si estas vacunas podrían ser candidatos comerciales para lo protección de aves frente a la infección por WNV.Peer Reviewe

Obesity in Monterey County

Obesity has become a concerning health issue within the United States. In Monterey County, obesity is becoming an epidemic among children. In Monterey County in 2015, 48 percent of 7th graders were obese in comparison with 38.7 percent in California overall (Kids Data, 2015). Youth Fit 4 Life (YF4L) is a research-tested intervention program that shares a passion for improving the health of children by promoting healthy habits. The purpose of the program is to address childhood obesity and the psychological issues linked to it. After realizing the obstacles that staff were facing, it was important to create a website that provided additional support to conduct the program efficiently. The website provides videos and descriptions of the activities that must be conducted, in order to achieve the objectives of the program. Staff who utilized the website, found it to be a valuable resource

Crust Formation in Soils of Mexico and Louisiana.

Crust formation in three soils from Mexico (Nadurargid, Durustoll and Calciorthid) and three soils from Louisiana (two Fragiudalfs, and a Hapludalf) was investigated. The objectives were: (1) to characterize crust morphology; (2) to quantify type, distribution, and geochemistry of cementing agents; and (3) to evaluate the effect of management practices on infiltration, erosion, crust strength, and corn and soybean emergence. Three management practices, bare, protected, and gypsum-amended were evaluated. Crust morphology in the soils of Louisiana indicated the development of a compacted layer in the upper 0.1 mm of the bare and gypsum-amended soils. Aggregation was improved with the gypsum amendment. The soil surface was sealed by clay-size particles in the protected soil. In the Mexican soils, fine particles were dispersed, sealing the soil surface. Calcite, free iron oxides, amorphous Si, and gypsum, were identified as cementing agents by SEM/XRF analysis. There was no accumulation of free Fe oxides or amorphous Si and Al in the crusts, relative to the subsurface zones. As a soil amendment, gypsum induced precipitation of calcite in cases where calcite was not detected in the soil initially. Infiltration rate and ponding time were improved in all six soils by gypsum amendment. Erosion was decreased in the gypsum-amended soils by 54% and 98% in the protected soils, compared to that in the bare soils. Crust strength increased by 90% in the soils of Mexico and by 25% in the soils of Louisiana as rainfall duration increased from 30 to 60 min. The higher values of crust strength in the soils of Mexico were related to higher water-dispersible clay indices and higher amorphous Si contents in these soils. Corn emergence was reduced by 75% in the soils of Mexico and 13% in the soils of Louisiana when rainfall intensity was increased from 30 to 60 min. Soybean emergence was decreased by 77% in the soils of Louisiana. No soybean emergence was observed in the soils of Mexico when rainfall increased from 30 to 60 min

Tunable asymmetric magnetoimpedance effect in ferromagnetic NiFe/Cu/Co films

We investigate the magnetization dynamics through the magnetoimpedance effect in ferromagnetic NiFe/Cu/Co films. We observe that the magnetoimpedance response is dependent on the thickness of the non-magnetic Cu spacer material, a fact associated to the kind of the magnetic interaction between the ferromagnetic layers. Thus, we present an experimental study on asymmetric magnetoimpedance in ferromagnetic films with biphase magnetic behavior and explore the possibility of tuning the linear region of the magnetoimpedance curves around zero magnetic field by varying the thickness of the non-magnetic spacer material, and probe current frequency. We discuss the experimental magnetoimpedance results in terms of the different mechanisms governing the magnetization dynamics at distinct frequency ranges, quasi-static magnetic properties, thickness of the non-magnetic spacer material, and the kind of the magnetic interaction between the ferromagnetic layers. The results place ferromagnetic films with biphase magnetic behavior exhibiting asymmetric magnetoimpedance effect as a very attractive candidate for application as probe element in the development of auto-biased linear magnetic field sensors.Comment: 5 figure

Racialized Policing on the south Texas-Mexico Border: Mexican American Police Officers' Racialization of Latin-Origin Unauthorized Immigrants

Studies on the police have centered on a variety of issues such as racial profiling, citizen perceptions of police, and police malpractice. However, absent from this body of research is a specific focus on Latino police officers. There is little to no mention of Latino police officers in the current academic literature. Hence, the aim of this study is to illustrate the relationship between Mexican American police officers and their co-ethnic immigrant counterparts. In particular, this study examines how Mexican American police officers racialize Latin-origin unauthorized immigrants. Data for this ethnographic study was collected in a medium-sized police department located on the south Texas-Mexico border over a twenty-month period from 2012 to 2014. The author was a police officer during the data collection phase of the study. Thus, the findings are illustrated from an auto-ethnographic context. The results reveal that Mexican American police officers racialize their co-ethnic immigrant counterparts through the use of derogatory terminology, and as being criminals or being a drain on U.S. social services. From this racialization process, the anti-Latin immigrant subframe emerges, which is derived from the white racial frame

Estimador de ruido para señales CAN

El ruido es un problema presente en todos los sistemas de comunicaciones. El protocolo CAN (Controller Area Network) no es la excepción ya que este ruido afecta la capacidad del canal sobre el bus, por lo que se considera de utilidad el conocimiento del nivel de ruido presente en el bus. En este trabajo se aborda el problema de la estimación del nivel de ruido blanco aditivo gaussiano contenido en tramas de datos simuladas. Esta problemática fue abordada mediante el análisis del ruido extraído de las señales simuladas contaminadas con diferentes niveles de ruido. Dicho proceso se llevó a cabo al filtrar la señal contaminada para posteriormente restar la señal filtrada de la señal contaminada. Finalmente, se calculó la desviación estándar y el promedio del ruido extraído para relacionarlos con el nivel de ruido contenido en la señal. Se comprobó que es posible estimar el nivel de ruido en una trama simulada; sin embargo, no fue posible relacionar el nivel de ruido con el SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) para calcular la capacidad de canal –esto requiere de un análisis más detallado-. También fue necesario adaptar cada uno de los estimadores que dependen de la velocidad de trasmisión considerada en la simulación. En general, los resultados obtenidos tienen un error menor al 20%. Noise is a common problem in communication systems. The CAN (Controller Area Network) protocol is not the exception, since noise affects the channel capacity of the bus and knowing the noise level in a CAN bus is useful for data transmission. Therefore, the aim of this work is to estimate the additive white Gaussian noise level in simulated data frames. The problem of noise level estimation was approached by analyzing the noise extracted from contaminated simulated signals. This process was performed by filtering the contaminated signals and then, subtracting the filtered signals from the contaminated signals, and lastly, the standard deviation and the average value were calculated for each analyzed signal and associated to the level of noise in the signal. After the analysis of the data, it was demonstrated that estimating the noise level in a simulated data frame is feasible. However, it was not possible to establish a relationship between noise level and SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) to compute the channel capacity as a more detailed analysis is required. Also, it is important to mention that the proposed estimators had to be adapted depending on the transmission speed considered in the simulation and the obtained results had an error lower than 20%.ITESO, A. C.Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y TecnologíaContinental Automotiv

Effects of Higher-Order Cognitive Strategy Training on Gist-Reasoning and Fact-Learning in Adolescents

Improving the reasoning skills of adolescents across the United States has become a major concern for educators and scientists who are dedicated to identifying evidence-based protocols to improve student outcome. This small sample randomized, control pilot study sought to determine the efficacy of higher-order cognitive training on gist-reasoning and fact-learning in an inner-city public middle school. The study compared gist-reasoning and fact-learning performances after training in a smaller sample when tested in Spanish, many of the students’ native language, versus English. The 54 eighth grade students who participated in this pilot study were enroled in an urban middle school, predominantly from lower socio-economic status families, and were primarily of minority descent. The students were randomized into one of three groups, one that learned cognitive strategies promoting abstraction of meaning, a group that learned rote memory strategies, or a control group to ascertain the impact of each program on gist-reasoning and fact-learning from text-based information. We found that the students who had cognitive strategy instruction that entailed abstraction of meaning significantly improved their gist-reasoning and fact-learning ability. The students who learned rote memory strategies significantly improved their fact-learning scores from a text but not gist-reasoning ability. The control group showed no significant change in either gist-reasoning or fact-learning ability. A trend toward significant improvement in overall reading scores for the group that learned to abstract meaning as well as a significant correlation between gist-reasoning ability and the critical thinking on a state-mandated standardized reading test was also found. There were no significant differences between English and Spanish performance of gist-reasoning and fact-learning. Our findings suggest that teaching higher-order cognitive strategies facilitates gist-reasoning ability and student learning

Multiple congenital ocular abnormalities including microphthalmia, microphakia and aphakia in a Simmental cross bull

A 20-month-old Simmental cross bull presented to the Scottish Centre for Production Animal Health and Food Safety, University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine, in April 2015 with multiple congenital ocular abnormalities including bilateral microphthalmia. We present this case as an interesting presentation of idiopathic multiple congenital ocular abnormalities in the absence of congenital abnormalities affecting other body systems. This case highlights an unusual ocular presentation and illustrates the importance of a thorough clinical examination. The prognosis for cases of multiple congenital ocular abnormalities including microphthalmia is poor as no treatment is available and welfare is often compromised. It is therefore important that cases are accurately diagnosed so appropriate management decisions can be made regarding the individual and any herd investigations that are required can be instigated