Detección de macrófagos infectados con Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis en una vaca en fase clínica IV de la enfermedad de Johne. Reporte de un caso

ABSTRACT: Anamnesis: a six-year-old milking Holstein cow (Bos taurus taurus) was diagnosed with stage IV Johne´s Disease (JD). Clinical and Laboratory findings: the cow suffered intermittent diarrhea during 6 months with no response to antibiotic treatment. Consequently, the cow was subjected to euthanasia. Treatment approach: antemortem milk and peripheral blood samples and postmortem colon, mediastinic, mesenteric lymph nodes, and spleen samples were processed for macrophages isolation. Total DNA was extracted from macrophages and used to diagnose IS900 of Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) through real time PCR. The MAP IS900 segment was successfully amplified from cells of all samples, indicating that these cells were MAP-infected macrophages. Conclusion: macrophages of cows suffering from JD can be used for amplification of the MAP IS900 segment.RESUMEN: una vaca Holstein de 6 años de edad (Bos taurus taurus) presentó sintomatología de la fase IV de la enfermedad de Johne. Hallazgos clínicos y de laboratorio: la vaca presentó diarrea intermitente durante 6 meses sin respuesta al tratamiento con antibióticos. En consecuencia, la vaca fue sometida a eutanasia. Esquema de tratamiento: muestras de leche y de sangre periférica se tomaron ante-mortem; muestras de la mucosa del intestino, bazo y linfonodos mediastínico y mesentérico, se tomaron post-mortem, todas para aislamiento de macrófagos. El ADN total de los macrófagos fue usado para la amplificación del segmento IS900 de Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) por PCR en tiempo real. Conclusión: los macrófagos de vacas con la enfermedad de Johne pueden ser usados para la amplificación del segmento IS900 de MAP

Beyond the mincer equation: the internal rate of return to higher education in Colombia

In order to present an estimation of the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) to higher education in Colombia we take advantage of the methodological approach provided by Heckman, Lochner and Todd (2005). Trying to overcome the criticism that surrounds interpretations of the education coefficient of Mincer equations as being the rate ofreturn to investments in education we develop a more structured approach of estimation, which controls for selection bias, includes more accurate measures of labor income and the role of education costs and income taxes. Our results implied a lower rate of return than the ones found in the Colombian literature and show that the Internal Rate ofReturn for higher education in Colombia lies somewhere between 0.074 and 0.128. The results vary according to the year analyzed and individual´s gender. This last result reinforces considerations regarding gender discrimination in the Colombian labor market.Education returns, Mincer Equation, Internal Rate of Return, Colombia

El «Libro de Caja» de Sebastián de Oleaga (1673-1676)

El «Libro de Caja» de Sebastián de Oleaga, de los años 1673 a 1676, es un documento inédito en la historiografía. Cubre un periodo de necesidad financiera por parte de la Monarquía Hispánica, inmersa en conflictos militares y revueltas, incremento de precios, constantes variaciones monetarias y dificultad para hacer frente a las necesidades por parte la Real Hacienda. Refleja cómo eran recaudadas y repartidas las consignaciones de los asentistas y qué pagos se realizaban a cuenta de los nuevos asientos que se realizaban. Recoge los diferentes métodos de pago y cobro, las monedas empleadas, el coste de su transporte y los cambios que se estaban produciendo en el uso de los instrumentos financieros. Da cuenta de los precios de algunos productos de primera necesidad, de productos de importación, de salarios y servicios y sus variaciones. Evidencia las relaciones comerciales y financieras de grandes hombres de negocios y de comerciantes y financieros nacionales y extranjeros. Revela las compras de oficios, la indistinción entre actividades públicas y privadas y las causas del fin de la actividad de Sebastián de Oleaga. Abstract: Sebastian de Oleaga's "Libro de Caja", from 1673 to 1676, is an unpublished document in historiography. It covers a period of financial need on the part of the Hispanic Monarchy, immersed in military conflicts and revolts, price rises, constant monetary variations and difficulty in meeting the needs of the Royal Treasury. It reflects how the entrepreneur’s allocations were collected and distributed and what payments were made on account of the new contracts that were made. It includes the different methods of payment and collection, the currencies used, the cost of their transport and the changes that were taking place in the use of financial instruments. It accounts for the prices of some necessities, imported products, wages and services and their variations. It shows the commercial and financial relationships of great businessmen and of domestic and foreign traders and financiers. It reveals the purchases of trades, the indistinct between public and private activities and the causes of the end of Sebastian de Oleaga's activity

Monitoring Muscle Stem Cell Cultures with Impedance Spectroscopy

The aim of this work is to present a new circuit for the real-time monitoring the processes of cellular growth and differentiation of skeletal myoblast cell cultures. An impedance spectroscopy Oscillation-Based technique is proposed for the test circuit, converting the biological system into a voltage oscillator, and avoiding the use of very high performance circuitry or equipment. This technique proved to be successful in the monitoring of cell cultures growth levels and could be useful for determining the degree of differentiation achieved, of practical implications in tissue engineering.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2013-46242-C3-1-

Methods for autonomous wristband placement with a search-and-rescue aerial manipulator

A new robotic system for Search And Rescue (SAR) operations based on the automatic wristband placement on the victims’ arm, which may provide identification, beaconing and remote sensor readings for continuous health monitoring. This paper focuses on the development of the automatic target localization and the device placement using an unmanned aerial manipulator. The automatic wrist detection and localization system uses an RGB-D camera and a convolutional neural network based on the region faster method (Faster R-CNN). A lightweight parallel delta manipulator with a large workspace has been built, and a new design of a wristband in the form of a passive detachable gripper, is presented, which under contact, automatically attaches to the human, while disengages from the manipulator. A new trajectory planning method has been used to minimize the torques caused by the external forces during contact, which cause attitude perturbations. Experiments have been done to evaluate the machine learning method for detection and location, and for the assessment of the performance of the trajectory planning method. The results show how the VGG-16 neural network provides a detection accuracy of 67.99%. Moreover, simulation experiments have been done to show that the new trajectories minimize the perturbations to the aerial platform.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Impact of the TEI peer tutoring program on coexistence, bullying and cyberbullying in Spanish schools

The TEI peer tutoring program (in Spanish, Tutoría entre Iguales, hereinafter TEI ) is Spain’s most important coexistence program for the prevention of violence and bullying in secondary schools and one of the first worldwide. So that we may better appreciate the effectiveness and benefits of this program, a comparative study has been developed between four schools that are presently following this preventive strategy (TEI centres) and four other schools that do not carry out the TEI program (non-TEI centres). Controlling the other sociodemographic variables, students’ perception of coexistence, bullying and cyberbullying has been evaluated. In total, 1015 secondary school students belonging to eight schools from four autonomous communities in Spain participated. The results reveal that the students of TEI centres have a more favourable perception of educational coexistence and indicate lower rates of bullying and cyberbullying than those studying at non-TEI centres. These results highlight the benefits of the TEI program and the need to continue promoting and expanding these preventing bullying strategies in schools

Practical Characterization of Cell-Electrode Electrical Models in Bio-Impedance Assays

This paper presents the fitting process followed to adjust the parameters of the electrical model associated to a cell-electrode system in Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Spectroscopy (ECIS) technique, to the experimental results from cell-culture assays. A new parameter matching procedure is proposed, under the basis of both, mismatching between electrodes and time-evolution observed in the system response, as consequence of electrode fabrication processes and electrochemical performance of electrode-solution interface, respectively. The obtained results agree with experimental performance, and enable the evaluation of the cell number in a culture, by using the electrical measurements observed at the oscillation parameters in the test circuits employed.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2013-46242-C3-1-

Sensing Cell-Culture Assays with Low-Cost Circuitry

An alternative approach for cell-culture end-point protocols is proposed herein. This new technique is suitable for real-time remote sensing. It is based on Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Spectroscopy (ECIS) and employs the Oscillation-Based Test (OBT) method. Simple and straightforward circuit blocks form the basis of the proposed measurement system. Oscillation parameters – frequency and amplitude – constitute the outcome, directly correlated with the culture status. A user can remotely track the evolution of cell cultures in real time over the complete experiment through a web tool continuously displaying the acquired data. Experiments carried out with commercial electrodes and a well-established cell line (AA8) are described, obtaining the cell number in real time from growth assays. The electrodes have been electrically characterized along the design flow in order to predict the system performance and the sensitivity curves. Curves for 1-week cell growth are reported. The obtained experimental results validate the proposed OBT for cell-culture characterization. Furthermore, the proposed electrode model provides a good approximation for the cell number and the time evolution of the studied cultures.España, Feder TEC2013-46242-C3-1-