ANÁLISIS DE PÉRDIDA DE CARGA EN UN SISTEMA DE TUBERÍAS DE AGUA: COMPARACIÓN DE RESULTADOS EXPERIMENTALES Y MEDIANTE EL EQUIPO HM 150.11

La presente investigación titulada “Análisis de pérdida de carga en un sistema de tuberías de agua: comparación de resultados experimentales y mediante el equipo HM 150.11” parte del siguiente problema de investigación: ¿Cuál es la eficacia del equipo HM 150.11 en la determinación de las pérdidas de carga en un sistema de tuberías de PVC?; sobre el cual se plantea la siguiente hipótesis de investigación: El equipo HM 150.11 es eficaz en la determinación de las pérdidas de carga en un sistema de tuberías de PVC. El propósito principal que tuvo la investigación fue: Determinar la eficacia del equipo HM 150.11 en la determinación de las pérdidas de carga en un sistema de tuberías de PVC. Como método general empleado en el trabajo de investigación fue el método científico, y como método específico el método descriptivo porque implica observar, medir y describir el comportamiento de un sujeto y/o objeto sin influir sobre él de ninguna manera y el tipo de investigación fue de tipo aplicada, porque se aplicará conocimientos sobre mecánica de fluidos, hidráulica, simulación y ensayo. El instrumento empleado en la investigación fue el equipo HM 150.11 con sus respectivos sensores de medición; proveído por la empresa alemana Gunt Hamburg, empresa especializada en la comercialización de equipos para laboratorio de mecánica de fluidos e hidráulica. También, se hizo uso de las fórmulas matemática con la ayuda de la hoja de cálculo Excel. Como resultado se pudo evidenciar que existe poca desviación entre la medición experimental y con el equipo HM 150. 11; por ello comprobando la eficacia de dicho equipo como medio de aprendizaje para los estudiantes de ingeniería y carreras afines; también la medición con el equipo y los resultados experimentales muestran la efectividad de combinar los dos métodos para medir y estimar las pérdidas de carga y poder tomar decisiones mucho más acertadas a la hora de ejecutar proyectos de redes de distribución de agua.Trabajo de investigació

Associations of faecal microbiota with influenza-like illness in participants aged 60 years or older:an observational study

Background People aged 60 years or older are at high risk for respiratory infections, one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Vaccination is the main way to protect against these infections; however, vaccination is less effective in older adults than in younger adults due to ageing of the immune system, so innovative strategies that improve vaccine responses could provide a major public health benefit. The gut microbiota regulates host immune homoeostasis and response against pathogens, but human studies showing the effects of the gut microbiota on respiratory infections in older adults are sparse. We aimed to investigate the composition of the microbiota in relation to respiratory infections and local and systemic immune markers in older adults during an influenza season. Methods In this observational study, participants were selected from an influenza-like illness (ILI) prospective surveillance cohort in which community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older in the Netherlands were recruited through their general practitioner or the Civil Registry. Inclusion criteria have been described elsewhere. Participants completed questionnaires and self-reported symptoms. To measure microbiota composition, faecal samples were collected from participants registering an ILI event, with a follow-up (recovery) sample collected 7-9 weeks after the ILI event, and from asymptomatic participants not reporting any event throughout the season. We tested associations between microbiota profiles and a set of health-related variables, patient characteristics, and local and systemic immune markers. We cultured identified bacterial biomarkers for ILI with CaCo-2 cells in an in vitro intestinal epithelial model and measured the induced immune response. This study is registered with http://www.trialregister.nl, NL4666. Findings Between Oct 1, 2014, and April 30, 2015, 2425 older adults were recruited into the ILI surveillance cohort. From Oct 1, 2014, to June 15, 2015, faecal samples were collected from 397 participants, of whom 213 (54%) reported an ILI event once throughout the season and 184 (46%) did not. 192 ILI participants recovered and provided follow-up samples. Microbiota composition was altered during an ILI event. The Bacteroidetes (mean relative abundance 17.51% [SD 11.41] in the ILI group and 14.19% [10.02] in the control group; adjusted p=0.014) and the Proteobacteria (3.40% [8.10] in the ILI group and 1.57% [3.69] in the control group; adjusted p=0.015) were more abundant in the ILI group than in the control group. The abundance of Ruminococcus torques was positively associated with ILI and the abundance of Escherichia/Shigella, negatively correlated with alpha diversity, and negatively co-occurred with beneficial taxa, including butyrate producers. R torques was associated with pro-inflammatory profiles, both locally in faeces and systemically in blood. ILI-associated taxa (R torques and Escherichia coli) had symbiotic effects on the cellular immune response when cultured together in an in vitro model. Interpretation The abundances of specific bacteria could be used as potential biomarkers for susceptibility to respiratory infections and as targets for intervention in the ageing population. Copyright (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

Whole-Inactivated Influenza Virus Is a Potent Adjuvant for Influenza Peptides Containing CD8+ T Cell Epitopes

Influenza peptide antigens coding for conserved T cell epitopes have the capacity to induce cross-protective influenza-specific immunity. Short peptide antigens used as a vaccine, however, often show poor immunogenicity. In this study, we demonstrate that whole-inactivated influenza virus (WIV) acts as an adjuvant for influenza peptide antigens, as shown by the induction of peptide-specific CD8+ T cells in HLA-A2.1 transgenic mice upon vaccination with the influenza-M1-derived GILGFVFTL peptide (GIL), formulated with WIV. By screening various concentrations of GIL and WIV, we found that both components contributed to the GIL-specific T cell response. Whereas co-localization of the peptide antigen and WIV adjuvant was found to be important, neither physical association between peptide and WIV nor fusogenic activity of WIV were relevant for the adjuvant effect of WIV. We furthermore show that WIV may adjuvate T cell responses to a variety of peptides, using pools of either conserved wild-type influenza peptides or chemically altered peptide ligands. This study shows the potential of WIV as an adjuvant for influenza peptides. The simple formulation process and the solid safety record of WIV make this an attractive adjuvant for T cell peptides, and may also be used for non-influenza antigens

Human Monocytes Exposed to SARS-CoV-2 Display Features of Innate Immune Memory Producing High Levels of CXCL10 upon Restimulation

Introduction: A role for innate immune memory in protection during COVID-19 infection or vaccination has been recently reported. However, no study so far has shown whether the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can train innate immune cells. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this virus can induce trained immunity in human monocytes. Methods: Monocytes were exposed to inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (iSARS-CoV-2) for 24 h, followed by a resting period in the medium only and a secondary stimulation on day 6 after which the cytokine/chemokine and transcriptomic profiles were determined. Results: Compared to untrained cells, the iSARS-CoV-2-trained monocytes secreted significantly higher levels of IL-6, TNF-α, CXCL10, CXCL9, and CXCL11 upon restimulation. Transcriptome analysis of iSARS-CoV-2-trained monocytes revealed increased expression of several inflammatory genes. As epigenetic and metabolic modifications are hallmarks of trained immunity, we analyzed the expression of genes related to these processes. Findings indicate that indeed SARS-CoV-2-trained monocytes show changes in the expression of genes involved in metabolic pathways including the tricarboxylic acid cycle, amino acid metabolism, and the expression of several epigenetic regulator genes. Using epigenetic inhibitors that block histone methyl and acetyltransferases, we observed that the capacity of monocytes to be trained by iSARS-CoV-2 was abolished. Conclusion: Overall, our findings indicate that iSARS-CoV-2 can induce properties associated with trained immunity in human monocytes. These results contribute to the knowledge required for improving vaccination strategies to prevent infectious diseases

Easi-CRISPR: a robust method for one-step generation of mice carrying conditional and insertion alleles using long ssDNA donors and CRISPR ribonucleoproteins

Background Conditional knockout mice and transgenic mice expressing recombinases, reporters, and inducible transcriptional activators are key for many genetic studies and comprise over 90% of mouse models created. Conditional knockout mice are generated using labor-intensive methods of homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells and are available for only ~25% of all mouse genes. Transgenic mice generated by random genomic insertion approaches pose problems of unreliable expression, and thus there is a need for targeted-insertion models. Although CRISPR-based strategies were reported to create conditional and targeted-insertion alleles via one-step delivery of targeting components directly to zygotes, these strategies are quite inefficient. Results Here we describe Easi-CRISPR (Efficient additions with ssDNA inserts-CRISPR), a targeting strategy in which long single-stranded DNA donors are injected with pre-assembled crRNA + tracrRNA + Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (ctRNP) complexes into mouse zygotes. We show for over a dozen loci that Easi-CRISPR generates correctly targeted conditional and insertion alleles in 8.5–100% of the resulting live offspring. Conclusions Easi-CRISPR solves the major problem of animal genome engineering, namely the inefficiency of targeted DNA cassette insertion. The approach is robust, succeeding for all tested loci. It is versatile, generating both conditional and targeted insertion alleles. Finally, it is highly efficient, as treating an average of only 50 zygotes is sufficient to produce a correctly targeted allele in up to 100% of live offspring. Thus, Easi-CRISPR offers a comprehensive means of building large-scale Cre-LoxP animal resources

Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature II: Pragmatics of Dhāraṇīs

This article is one of a series that reassesses the dhāraṇī texts of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The article seeks to examine dhāraṇī texts by using the linguistic tools of pragmatics, especially historical pragmatics, to assist the understanding of their statements. Rather than the meaning of the term dhāraṇī as a subject term, the domain of truth-conditional semantics, this paper examines statements in texts labelled dhāraṇī. Pragmatics examines meaning in context, and the categories of speech acts developed by Searle has been especially helpful in mapping out differences within such texts and the formalization of statements across texts. The grammaticalization of specific speech elements, especially interjections, in the context of mantra-dhāraṇīs is also discussed

The Marine Microbial Eukaryote Transcriptome Sequencing Project (MMETSP): illuminating the functional diversity of eukaryotic life in the oceans through transcriptome sequencing

International audienceCurrent sampling of genomic sequence data from eukaryotes is relatively poor, biased, and inadequate to address important questions about their biology, evolution, and ecology; this Community Page describes a resource of 700 transcriptomes from marine microbial eukaryotes to help understand their role in the world's oceans