Evaluation of the humoral and mucosal immune response of a multiepitope vaccine against COVID-19 in pigs

IntroductionThis study evaluated the immune response to a multiepitope recombinant chimeric protein (CHIVAX) containing B- and T-cell epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike’s receptor binding domain (RBD) in a translational porcine model for pre-clinical studies.MethodsWe generated a multiepitope recombinant protein engineered to include six coding conserved epitopes from the RBD domain of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein. Pigs were divided into groups and immunized with different doses of the protein, with serum samples collected over time to determine antibody responses by indirect ELISA and antibody titration. Peptide recognition was also analyzed by Western blotting. A surrogate neutralization assay with recombinant ACE2 and RBDs was performed. Intranasal doses of the immunogen were also prepared and tested on Vietnamese minipigs.ResultsWhen the immunogen was administered subcutaneously, it induced specific IgG antibodies in pigs, and higher doses correlated with higher antibody levels. Antibodies from immunized pigs recognized individual peptides in the multiepitope vaccine and inhibited RBD-ACE2 binding for five variants of concern (VOC). Comparative antigen delivery methods showed that both, subcutaneous and combined subcutaneous/intranasal approaches, induced specific IgG and IgA antibodies, with the subcutaneous approach having superior neutralizing activity. CHIVAX elicited systemic immunity, evidenced by specific IgG antibodies in the serum, and local mucosal immunity, indicated by IgA antibodies in saliva, nasal, and bronchoalveolar lavage secretions. Importantly, these antibodies demonstrated neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro.DiscussionThe elicited antibodies recognized individual epitopes on the chimeric protein and demonstrated the capacity to block RBD-ACE2 binding of the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain and four VOCs. The findings provide proof of concept for using multiepitope recombinant antigens and a combined immunization protocol to induce a neutralizing immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in the pig translational model for preclinical studies

Análisis y recomendaciones al sistema administrativo de la Universidad de El Salvador volumen II

La finalidad de este Informe es la de exponer, de un modo integral y objetivo, los diversos pormenores de la investigación científica efectuada en doce diferentes sistemas componentes del quehacer administrativo de la Universidad de El Salvado

Análisis y recomendaciones al sistema administrativo de la Universidad de El Salvador volumen I

La finalidad de este Informe es la de exponer, de un modo integral y objetivo, los diversos pormenores de la investigación científica efectuada en doce diferentes sistemas componentes del quehacer administrativo de la Universidad de El Salvador

Desafíos actuales de la educación superior

El presente libro corresponde al trabajo investigativo realizado por sus autores frente a los desafíos que enfrenta y enfrentará la educación en tiempos actuales (provisional)

XVI International Congress of Control Electronics and Telecommunications: "Techno-scientific considerations for a post-pandemic world intensive in knowledge, innovation and sustainable local development"

Este título, sugestivo por los impactos durante la situación de la Covid 19 en el mundo, y que en Colombia lastimosamente han sido muy críticos, permiten asumir la obligada superación de tensiones sociales, políticas, y económicas; pero sobre todo científicas y tecnológicas. Inicialmente, esto supone la existencia de una capacidad de la sociedad colombiana por recuperar su estado inicial después de que haya cesado la perturbación a la que fue sometida por la catastrófica pandemia, y superar ese anterior estado de cosas ya que se encontraban -y aún se encuentran- muchos problemas locales mal resueltos, medianamente resueltos, y muchos sin resolver: es decir, habrá que rediseñar y fortalecer una probada resiliencia social existente - producto del prolongado conflicto social colombiano superado parcialmente por un proceso de paz exitoso - desde la tecnociencia local; como lo indicaba Markus Brunnermeier - economista alemán y catedrático de economía de la Universidad de Princeton- en su libro The Resilient Society…La cuestión no es preveerlo todo sino poder reaccionar…aprender a recuperarse rápido.This title, suggestive of the impacts during the Covid 19 situation in the world, and which have unfortunately been very critical in Colombia, allows us to assume the obligatory overcoming of social, political, and economic tensions; but above all scientific and technological. Initially, this supposes the existence of a capacity of Colombian society to recover its initial state after the disturbance to which it was subjected by the catastrophic pandemic has ceased, and to overcome that previous state of affairs since it was found -and still is find - many local problems poorly resolved, moderately resolved, and many unresolved: that is, an existing social resilience test will have to be redesigned and strengthened - product of the prolonged Colombian social conflict partially overcome by a successful peace process - from local technoscience; As Markus Brunnermeier - German economist and professor of economics at Princeton University - indicates in his book The Resilient Society...The question is not to foresee everything but to be able to react...learn to recover quickly.Bogot

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

On the impact of collaborative strategies for goods delivery in city logistics

15 páginasCity logistics refers to the process of total optimisation of the logistics and transport activities in urban areas while considering economic, environmental, social and safety aspects. This paper considers a collaborative scenario for the urban goods transport planning and management as a way to reduce transport costs, congestion and environmental impact of this activity. An approach from the Operations Management field, using mathematical modelling, for tactical and operational decision-making is proposed to discuss and compare both collaborative and non-collaborative scenarios. This approach is validated using real data taken from the city of Bogotá, Colombia. Results put in evidence the quantitative benefits that can be achieved when collaborative logistics operations are implemented, represented in both transportation costs and environmental impacts. Although these results might not be surprising (like in the field of supply chain management), the contribution of this paper is centred in the fact that the impacts of collaboration in city logistics have not yet been quantified until now. This allows an ‘ex ante’ evaluation of the benefits of collaborative goods transport in cities

An enhanced Genetic Algorithm with an innovative encoding strategy for flexible job-shop scheduling with operation and processing flexibility

17 páginasThis paper considers the Flexible Job-shop Scheduling Problem with Operation and Processing flexibility (FJSP-OP) with the objective of minimizing the makespan. A Genetic Algorithm based approach is presented to solve the FJSP-OP. For the performance improvement, a new and concise Four-Tuple Scheme (FTS) is proposed for modeling a job with operation and processing flexibility. Then, with the FTS, an enhanced Genetic Algorithm employing a more efficient encoding strategy is developed. The use of this encoding strategy ensures that the classic genetic operators can be adopted to the utmost extent without generating infeasible offspring. Experiments have validated the proposed approach, and the results have shown the effectiveness and high performance of the proposed approach

Uso de una heurística híbrida para resolver el problema de enrutamiento equilibrado de vehículos con restricciones de carga

26 páginasThe Vehicle Routing Problem with Loading Constraints (VRPLC) is strongly related to real life applications in distribution logistics. It addresses the simultaneous loading and routing of vehicles, which are two crucial activities in transportation. Since treating these operations separately may result in impractical solutions, the development of applications for VRPLCs has gained the attention of researchers in recent years. Several heuristic methods have been proposed, but they consider only a limited group of practical characteristics that arise in real world situations. This study proposes a hybrid heuristic method based on the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) metaheuristic and the Clarke and Wright Savings algorithm, to solve a VRPLC with several loading and routing constraints that have not been considered simultaneously before. Experimental results show that the proposed procedure produces competitive solutions in short processing times. Lastly, the impact of the added operational constraints is also analyzedEl problema de enrutamiento de vehículos con restricciones de carga (VRPLC) está fuertemente relacionado con la vida real Aplicaciones en logística de distribución. Aborda la carga y el enrutamiento simultáneos de vehículos, que son dos actividades cruciales en el transporte. Dado que el tratamiento de estas operaciones por separado puede dar lugar a soluciones poco prácticas, el desarrollo de aplicaciones para VRPLC ha llamó la atención de los investigadores en los últimos años. Se han propuesto varios métodos heurísticos, pero consideran solo un grupo limitado de características prácticas que surgen en el mundo real. situaciones Este estudio propone un método heurístico híbrido basado en el Greedy Randomized Metaheurística del Procedimiento de búsqueda adaptable (GRASP) y los ahorros de Clarke y Wright algoritmo, para resolver un VRPLC con varias restricciones de carga y enrutamiento que no han sido considerado simultáneamente antes. Los resultados experimentales muestran que el procedimiento propuesto produce soluciones competitivas en cortos tiempos de procesamiento. Por último, el impacto del agregado también se analizan las limitaciones operativa