40 research outputs found
Complete genome sequences generated using hybrid Nanopore-Illumina assembly of two non-typical Avibacterium paragallinarum strains isolated from clinically normal chicken flocks
No full textWe report the complete genome sequences of two non-typical Avibacterium paragallinarum (AP) strains isolated from chickens in the absence of clinical signs. The availability of these genomes can aid scientists in improving current diagnostics and increase our understanding of AP epidemiology and pathogenicity in chickens.This article is published as Hashish, Amro, Maria Chaves, Nubia R. Macedo, Yuko Sato, Stephan Schmitz-Esser, Daniel Wilson, and Mohamed El-Gazzar. "Complete genome sequences generated using hybrid Nanopore-Illumina assembly of two non-typical Avibacterium paragallinarum strains isolated from clinically normal chicken flocks." Microbiology Resource Announcements (2023): e00128-23. doi:10.1128/MRA.00128-23. © 2023 Hashish et al. This is an openaccess
article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.</a
Eight complete and four draft genome sequences of nonpathogenic Avibacterium paragallinarum isolates from naive, healthy layer chickens in the USA
No full textAvibacterium paragallinarum is a primary bacterial pathogen causing infectious coryza (IC), a respiratory disease of chickens. However, nonpathogenic Avibacterium paragallinarum (npAP) has been discovered in naive, healthy chickens, complicating IC diagnosis. Here, we report eight complete and four draft genome sequences of npAP isolates from four US states.This article is published as Shelkamy, Mostafa MS, Amro Hashish, Mariela E. Srednik, Eman Gadu, Maria Chaves, Nubia Macedo, Qijing Zhang, Yuko Sato, Stephan Schmitz-Esser, and Mohamed El-Gazzar. "Eight complete and four draft genome sequences of nonpathogenic Avibacterium paragallinarum isolates from naive, healthy layer chickens in the USA." Microbiology Resource Announcements (2025): e01334-24.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.01334-24.This work has been funded by the Egg Industry Center Grant number SG2706645 and the US Poultry and Egg Association Board Initiative Grant project # BRF-17
Multiple narratives of il/legality and im/morality: The case of small-scale hashish harvesting in Kyrgyzstan
No full textThe aim of this study is to contribute to the current literature concerning the social acceptance of illegal practices. Using legal pluralism as a general framework of analysis, this study discusses the relationship between state law and alternative perspectives concerning its legitimacy. It presents the experience of people involved in hashish harvesting in one of the regions of Kyrgyzstan, how the state defines it as an ‘illegal practice’ and how the local population subsequently invokes normative systems based on local spiritual knowledge and the local moral economy of hashish production. It argues that acceptance of hashish harvesting as a legitimate means of support is not a straightforward process. Despite the predominant legitimating narrative of hashish harvesting, it enters into a conversation with state defined notions of ‘illegality’ and is also shaped by the customary understanding of the spiritual power of cannabis plants that requires caution when making hashish.© 2019, The Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper published in THEORETICAL CRIMINOLOGY uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it
Development of selective culture media for efficient isolation of Avibacterium paragallinarum from chickens
No full textInfectious coryza (IC) caused by Avibacterium paragallinarum (AvP) is an upper respiratory disease in chickens and incurs a significant economic impact on laying hens. Control of IC requires reliable bacterial isolation, but AvP is a fastidious bacterium, and the currently used methods yield poor isolation. To address this need, we developed selective media for the efficient growth and isolation of AvP. Several basal media supplemented with various growth factors were explored, and Mueller Hinton agar (MHA) supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS) plus NAD yielded optimal AvP growth, eliminating the need for nurse bacteria. This medium (named MSN) was further supplemented with vancomycin and crystal violet to produce two selective media, named MSNV and MSCV, respectively, to inhibit commensal Gram-positive bacteria that reside in the upper respiratory tract of chickens. MSNV and MSCV were compared with the standard isolation methods used in veterinary diagnostic laboratories for AvP isolation using samples from IC-positive and IC-negative flocks verified by clinical observation and AvP-specific RT-PCR. The two selective media significantly increased the isolation of AvP from clinical cases (59.4% for MSNV and 46.9% for MSCV) compared to the conventional method (37.7%). In addition, MSNV and MSCV successfully isolated the recently discovered non-pathogenic AvP variants, which were difficult to obtain using the standard methods. Notably, both media drastically reduced background bacteria and improved the purity of AvP isolates. These results demonstrate the efficacy and usefulness of the selective media for AvP isolation, which will enhance IC diagnosis, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and vaccine development.This article is published as Srednik, Mariela E., Mostafa MS Shelkamy, Amro Hashish, Nubia R. De Macedo, Yuko Sato, Mohamed M. El-Gazzar, Orhan Sahin, and Qijing Zhang. "Development of selective culture media for efficient isolation of Avibacterium paragallinarum from chickens." Journal of Clinical Microbiology (2025): e00311-25. doi: https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.00311-25.This study was supported by seed funds provided by the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University
The Reveries of Orientalism and the realities of fiction: an analysis of the short story “The Hashish Man” by Lord Dunsany: An analysis of the short story “The Hashish Man” by Lord Dunsany
No full textLord Dunsany, pseudônimo de Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, é ainda um obscuro autor de literatura de fantasia que, no entanto, é reconhecido como influência decisiva na obra de outros escritores modernos de gêneros como o fantástico, a ficção científica e o horror cósmico. A partir da análise do conto intitulado “The Hashish Man”, investigamos como Lord Dunsany apresenta inflexões originais e novas angulações no tocante às temáticas e imagens orientalistas comuns em sua época. Para isso, exploramos primeiramente como as narrativas novecentistas que tematizam ou versam sobre a toxicomania, sobretudo o ópio e o haxixe, revelam uma faceta das ansiedades imperiais e suas tensões políticas, culturais e econômicas. Em seguida, buscamos uma formulação do modo como o autor, mediante recursos como a metatextualidade e a metaficção (recursos não tão habituais em sua tradição e época), desarticula ou desloca alguns dos tropos e lugares-comuns do Orientalismo, conduzindo sua narrativa não só para um horror cósmico avant la lettre, mas também para um questionamento da própria natureza do real e da literatura.Lord Dunsany (pseudonym of Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett) is still a relatively obscure author of fantasy literature. Nonetheless, he is recognized as a decisive influence on the work of other modern writers in literary genres such as the fantastic, science fiction, and cosmic horror. Through analysing his short story "The Hashish Man," we examine how Lord Dunsany introduces original nuances and new angles regarding the Orientalist themes and imagery common in his time. To accomplish this, we first explore how the 19th-century narratives that thematize or address drug addiction, particularly opium and hashish, reveal a certain feature of imperial anxieties and their political, cultural, and economic tensions. Then we proceed to formulate how the author, through techniques such as metatextuality and metafiction (which were not so common in his tradition and historical period), disarticulates or displaces some of the tropes and clichés of Orientalism, leading his narrative not only towards a cosmic horror avant la lettre but also towards a questioning of the very nature of reality and literature
Correction: Hashish et al. Development and Validation of a New TaqMan Real-Time PCR for the Detection of Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale. Microorganisms 2022, 10, 341
No full textThe authors would like to make the following corrections to this paper [...
Event-Triggered Control for Vehicle Platooning: Application to heterogeneous platoons
No full textThis thesis covers the implementation of Event-Triggering Control (ETC) on Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). CACC has the potential to increase road capacity, by having safe vehicle following with small intervehicle distance (less than 1 second), to increase traffic flow by eliminating shockwave effects, such that string-stable behavior is achieved, and it increases vehicle safety and driving comfort. CACC uses Vehicle-To-Vehicle (V2V) or Vehicle-To-Infrastructure (V2I) communication. However, excessive use of this wireless communication may result in reliability issues of the communication network. By means of Event-Triggered Control, this issue can be tackled by establishing communication only when it is necessary, while guaranteeing desired closed-loop performance. In this thesis, an event-triggered controller for heterogeneous vehicle platooning is designed, which is decentralized, guarantees vehicle-following with small intervehicle distances, is robust against time-varying delays, and guarantees a positive minimum inter-event time. The algorithm is backed up by simulations, and it shows that communication is significantly reduced while maintaining desired closed-loop performance, when compared to periodic communication.Mechanical Engineering | Systems and Contro
Development and Validation of PCR Assays for Improved Diagnosis of Infectious Coryza by Differentiating Pathogenic and Nonpathogenic Avibacterium paragallinarum
No full textAvibacterium paragallinarum(AP) is a primary bacterial pathogen of chickens that leads to infectious coryza (IC) disease. Recently, multiple commercial layer flocks in several U.S. states reported positive real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) results without any history of clinical signs. Owing to the proven specificity of the current IC qPCR assays, these results suggested the existence of AP strains that do not lead to clinical disease in layers, i.e., nonpathogenic AP (npAP) strains. This was further proven by isolating and characterizing npAP strains from these normal layer flocks. Although these strains are clinically nonpathogenic in layers, current IC qPCR assays fail to distinguish them from the pathogenic AP, leading to qPCR-positive flocks with no apparent disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and validate TaqMan real-time PCR assays that can differentiate between pathogenic and the newly discovered npAP strains. Whole-genome sequences of six npAP isolates were generated, and genomic comparison was conducted against 43 pathogenic AP strains. Analysis revealed two consistent features. First, the capsular polysaccharide transporter gene hctA was exclusively present in the pathogenic AP strains but absent in npAP strains. Second, unique lengthy insertions within the HMTp210 gene were observed only in the npAP strains. The HMTp210 insertions were chosen as the qPCR target to identify the newly discovered npAP strains (np-HMTp210 assay). On the other hand, hctA was selected to identify the pathogenic AP strains. During the validation process, 28 isolates and 10 oropharyngeal (OP) swab pools representing the pathogenic AP strains as well as six isolates and 86 OP pools of npAP strains were tested. A wide panel of respiratory, bacterial and viral, pathogens were included in the validation. Both assays demonstrated high performance in terms of analytical specificity in relation to each other and when tested against various bacterial and viral pathogens. Moreover, the hctA and np-HMTp210 assays displayed high sensitivity, with a limit of detection of 1 copy/µl and 2.5 copies/µl, respectively, and PCR efficiencies of 94.62% and 92.99%, respectively. Both assays showed 100% diagnostic specificity and sensitivity. However, after the validation process, an ongoing surveillance effort in clinically normal layer flocks uncovered a new population of npAP strains. This new npAP population refutes our original qPCR design goals to distinguish AP strains from npAP strains because the latest finding renders the differential capacity of this newly developed PCR incomplete. However, the newly developed qPCR in its current status is still useful in differentiating the great majority of cases and is still useful for diagnostic laboratories to provide much needed IC diagnostic answers to the poultry industry. Meanwhile, we will continue to investigate new targets that could either complement or replace the current targets to achieve our goal of the complete differentiation between these two AP populations.This article is published as Shelkamy, Mostafa MS, Amro Hashish, Maria Chaves, Mariela E. Srednik, Nubia R. Macedo, Eman Gadu, Yuko Sato, Stephan Schmitz-Esser, Qijing Zhang, and Mohamed El-Gazzar. "Development and Validation of PCR Assays for Improved Diagnosis of Infectious Coryza by Differentiating Pathogenic and Nonpathogenic Avibacterium paragallinarum." Avian Diseases 68 (2024): 380-390. https://doi.org/10.1637/aviandiseases-D-24-00041The study was supported in part by funding from the Egg Industry Center (Grant No. SG2706645)
Data warehousing quality
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Pour une histoire du cannabis
No full textWhat is known about the history of hashish in France or, more precisely, the history of the relationship between cannabis and the inhabitants of France? Which aspects of these relationships deserve more detailed investigation by historians? Which periods have been most extensively studied and which periods have been neglected? To answer these questions, this article is essentially based on the author’s contribution to Cannabis et adolescence. Les liaisons dangereuses. Before the 19th century, although lndian hemp was not completely unknown in France, it was very poorly known and essentially described in travellers’ tales. For example, no trace was found in the medical literature before the book by Aubert-Roche, De la peste et du typhus en Orient published in 1840. Five years later, the publication of Du haschisch et de l’aliénation mentale by Moreau de Tours raised a certain amount of interest in the medical world. This “alienist”, working at Bicêtre and then at Salpêtrière hospitals, played a major role in the introduction of cannabis in France. The history of this substance therefore begins in the middle of the 19th century. The author distinguishes three levels of analysis, which, although related to each other, possess a certain degree of independence. The author examines the place of hashish in scientific and more particularly medical thought and practice and then examines the place of hashish in literary and artistic representations. Finally, the sociological aspects of hashish consumption are studied. These three aspects obviously do not exhaust the subject. For example, cannabis in relation to the law and public policies constitutes another especially heuristic aspect
