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Genetically edited pigs lacking CD163 show no resistance following infection with the African swine fever virus isolate, Georgia 2007/1
No full textAbstractAfrican swine fever is a highly contagious, often fatal disease of swine for which there is no vaccine or other curative treatment. The macrophage marker, CD163, is a putative receptor for African swine fever virus (ASFV). Pigs possessing a complete knockout of CD163 on macrophages were inoculated with Georgia 2007/1, a genotype 2 isolate. Knockout and wild type pen mates became infected and showed no differences in clinical signs, mortality, pathology or viremia. There was also no difference following in vitro infection of macrophages. The results do not rule out the possibility that other ASFV strains utilize CD163, but demonstrate that CD163 is not necessary for infection with the Georgia 2007/1 isolate. This work rules out a significant role for CD163 in ASFV infection and creates opportunities to focus on alternative receptors and entry mechanisms
A neuro-fuzzy approach for the diagnosis of depression
No full textAbstractDepression is considered to be a chronic mood disorder. This paper attempts to mathematically model how psychiatrists clinically perceive the symptoms and then diagnose depression states. According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-IV-TR, fourteen symptoms of adult depression have been considered. The load of each symptom and the corresponding severity of depression are measured by the psychiatrists (i.e. the domain experts). Using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) out of fourteen symptoms (as features) seven has been extracted as latent factors. Using these features as inputs, a hybrid system consisting of Mamdani’s Fuzzy logic controller (FLC) on a Feed Forward Multilayer Neural Net (FFMNN) has been developed. The output of the hybrid system was tuned by a back propagation (BPNN) algorithm. Finally, the model is validated using 302 real-world adult depression cases and 50 controls (i.e. normal population). The study concludes that the hybrid controller can diagnose and grade depression with an average accuracy of 95.50%. Finally, it is compared with the accuracies obtained by other techniques
Successful removal of a surgical clip eroded into the hepaticojejunostomy site by use of a short-type single-balloon enteroscope
No full textRemoval of dye from industrial wastewater with an emphasis on improving economic efficiency and degradation mechanism
No full textAbstractThis paper is a report on a research into the impact of different parameters of current density, anode type, temperature, pH, and electrolyte concentration on the removal of Reactive Red 120 in synthesized wastewater through electrocoagulation using solar energy for the purpose of improving economic efficiency of the process. Current density of 45Am−2 proved to be the optimum level for dye removal. Other optimum alternatives were iron anode, a temperature level of 25°C, a pH of 7, and an electrolyte concentration of 15mgL−1. The characterization of the post-treatment product using GC–MS studies revealed intermediate compounds. Cost analysis was also performed for the treatment process. Further, the obtained optimum conditions were applied to the treatment of six samples of real textile effluent. Electrocoagulation was satisfactory in only four of the cases. Lastly, efficiency of treating the real samples was evaluated by subjecting the experimental electrodes to the SEM technique
Synthesis and spectral studies on monometallic ruthenium (III) complexes of N-(2-hydroxysalicyliden-1-yl)methylenebenzoylhydrazide
No full textAbstractA novel Schiff base ligand (H2L) derived from the condensation of benzoyl hydrazine and salicylaldehyde and its metal complexes with Ru (III) ion has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, thermal analysis (TGA), conductance measurements, magnetic moments IR, UV–vis spectra. The complexes were given the formulae [Ru(L-H)Cl2(H2O)] (1), [Ru(L-H)Cl2(py)] (2), [Ru(L-H)Cl2(2-pic)] (3), [Ru(L-H)Cl2(3-pic)] (4), [Ru(L-H)Cl2(4-pic)] (5). Molar conductance in DMF (N,N-dimethyl formamide) solution indicates that the complexes are non-electrolytes. Magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate that all the complexes are mononuclear and one-electron paramagnetic. Electronic spectral studies suggest six coordinate metal ions in its complexes. IR spectra reveal that H2L ligand coordinates in keto-form to ruthenium metal ion in its complexes. ESR studies of the complexes are also reported
Repair of pectus excavatum in a toddler with Prune Belly syndrome and left bronchus compression
No full textAbstractA 2-year-old boy with prune-belly syndrome and severe pectus excavatum experienced recurrent pulmonary infections. A CT scan of the chest demonstrated compression of the left mainstem bronchus and leftward shift of the heart. The bronchial compression resulted in left upper lobe collapse and left lower lobe air-trapping requiring two hospitalizations for respiratory distress and pneumonia. The child underwent minimally invasive repair of his pectus excavatum and has not experienced any further pulmonary events. The pectus bar was removed 3 years post-operatively and at seven years following surgery he has a sustained repair
Sustainable decommissioning of an offshore wind farm
No full textAbstractThe offshore wind industry has historically focused on setting up new projects, with the decommissioning phase receiving little attention. This can cause future problems as decommissioning needs to be planned at the beginning to prevent complications that may arise, as it implies important operations and high costs. There are numerous features that make decommissioning a challenge, such as the marine environment, the technical limitations of vessels and the lack of specific regulations that determine what should be done, increasing the uncertainty of the process. Additionally, the unique characteristics of the sites involve exclusive optimal solutions for each project. This article analyses the main operation parameters that affect the decommissioning process, identifying the benefits and drawbacks of the influencing variables. A model is designed to compare different transportation strategies, searching for cost reduction. A decommissioning methodology is been proposed based on this analysis, taking into consideration the technical aspects of the process, and minimising environmental impacts. The model forecasts that the predicted duration and costs of this process are not being adequately captured in site decommissioning plans
Dietary inclusion of raw faba bean instead of soybean meal and enzyme supplementation in laying hens: Effect on performance and egg quality
No full textAbstractAn experiment was conducted with 160 Hisex Brown laying hens to evaluate the effect of different inclusion levels of faba bean (FB) and enzyme supplementation on productive performance and egg quality parameters. The experimental diets consisted of five levels of FB: 0% (control), 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, substituting soybean meal (SBM), and two levels of enzyme supplementation (0 or 250mg/kg). Each dietary treatment was assigned to four replicate groups and the experiment lasted 22weeks. A positive relationship (P<0.05) was found between FB inclusion and body weight (BW) change of hens when compared to those of the control treatment. Enzyme supplementation significantly affected the final hens’ BW. Feed consumption (FC) of hens was statistically increased with increasing FB level up to 50%. Supplementing dietary enzyme mixture at 250mg/kg led to improvement in FC at all studied ages (P<0.05). Inclusion of 25% or 50% FB in diets had no adverse effects on feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared to the higher FB inclusion levels (75% or 100%). Egg weight (EW), egg number (EN) and egg mass (EM) were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by FB inclusion in diet during the entire experimental periods, except for EN and EM at 20–24weeks of age. Egg productive parameters were not influenced by enzyme mixture supplementation (P>0.05). The main effect of FB levels replacing for SBM affected (P<0.05) yolk and shell percentages, yolk index, yolk to albumen ratio, shell thickness and egg shape index. It can be concluded that FB and enzyme supplementation could be included in hens diet at less than 50% instead of SBM to support egg productive performance, however higher raw FB levels negatively affected egg production indices and quality
Systemic TNF-α produces acute cognitive dysfunction and exaggerated sickness behavior when superimposed upon progressive neurodegeneration
No full textAbstractInflammation influences chronic neurodegeneration but its precise roles are not yet clear. Systemic inflammation caused by infection, trauma or co-morbidity can alter the brain’s inflammatory status, produce acute cognitive impairments, such as delirium, and drive new pathology and accelerated decline. Consistent with this, elevated systemic TNF-α is associated with more rapid cognitive decline over 6months in Alzheimer’s disease patients. In the current study we challenged normal animals and those with existing progressive neurodegeneration (ME7 prion disease) with TNF-α (i.p.) to test the hypothesis that this cytokine has differential effects on cognitive function, sickness behavior and features of underlying pathology contingent on the animals’ baseline condition. TNF-α (50μg/kg) had no impact on performance of normal animals (normal brain homogenate; NBH) on working memory (T-maze) but produced acute impairments in ME7 animals similarly challenged. Plasma TNF-α and CCL2 levels were equivalent in NBH and ME7 TNF-challenged animals but hippocampal and hypothalamic transcription of IL-1β, TNF-α and CCL2 and translation of IL-1β were higher in ME7+TNF-α than NBH+TNF-α animals. TNF-α produced an exaggerated sickness behavior response (hypothermia, weight loss, inactivity) in ME7 animals compared to that in NBH animals. However a single challenge with this dose was not sufficient to produce de novo neuronal death, synaptic loss or tau hyperphosphorylation that was distinguishable from that arising from ME7 alone. The data indicate that acutely elevated TNF-α has robust acute effects on brain function, selectively in the degenerating brain, but more sustained levels may be required to significantly impact on underlying neurodegeneration
Cancer stem cells: Radioresistance, prediction of radiotherapy outcome and specific targets for combined treatments
No full textAbstractInactivation of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is of utmost importance for tumor cure after radiotherapy. An increasing body of evidence complies with a higher radioresistance of CSCs compared to the mass of tumor cells, supporting the use of CSC related biomarkers for prediction of radiotherapy outcome. Treatment individualization strategies for patient groups with vastly different risk of recurrence will most likely require application of more than one biomarker. Specifically, inclusion of established biomarkers like tumor size for primary radio(chemo)therapy or human papilloma virus (HPV) infection status in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma seems to be of very high relevance. The high heterogeneity of CSC subclones along with changes of the functional behavior of individual tumors under treatment underlines the importance of the selection of the optimal timepoint(s) of biomarker evaluation, but also provides a potential therapeutic target for combined treatment approaches with irradiation