Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected millions of people worldwide since its emergence in 2019. Knowing the potential capacity of the virus to adapt to other ...species, the serological surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 infection in susceptible animals is important. Hong Kong and Seoul are two of Asia's most densely populated urban cities, where companion animals often live in close contact with humans. Sera collected from 1040 cats and 855 dogs during the early phase of the pandemic in Hong Kong and Seoul were tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using an ELISA that detects antibodies against the receptor binding domain of the viral spike protein. Positive sera were also tested for virus neutralizing antibodies using a surrogate virus neutralization (sVNT) and plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). Among feline sera, 4.51% and 2.54% of the samples from Korea and Hong Kong, respectively, tested ELISA positive. However, only 1.64% of the samples from Korea and 0.18% from Hong Kong tested positive by sVNT, while only 0.41% of samples from Korea tested positive by PRNT. Among canine samples, 4.94% and 6.46% from Korea and Hong Kong, respectively, tested positive by ELISA, while only 0.29% of sera from Korea were positive on sVNT and no canine sera tested positive by PRNT. These results confirm a low seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in companion animals in Korea and Hong Kong. The discordance between the RBD-ELISA and neutralization tests may indicate possible ELISA cross-reactivity with other coronaviruses, especially in canine sera.
Introduction This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of capsule endoscopy in detecting gastric foreign bodies in normal dogs, considering variations in the number of foreign bodies and the ...gastric environment. Methods Five healthy male beagles were administered virtual, non-harmful foreign objects that maintained their shape in the stomach. Capsule endoscopy was performed and the images were evaluated by veterinarians and non-veterinarians. Results The overall sensitivity and specificity of capsule endoscopy were 99.1 and 90.4%, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity were comparable between veterinarians and non-veterinarians. Sensitivity and specificity in the veterinarian group were 98.7 and 91.2%, respectively, whereas those in the non-veterinarian group were 100 and 88.5%, respectively. Discussion Capsule endoscopy is a valuable alternative diagnostic tool for identifying foreign bodies in the stomach, particularly in challenging cases in which conventional imaging or invasive approaches have limitations.
This article presents a performance optimization approach to incipient crack detection in a wind turbine rotor blade that underwent fatigue loading to failure. The objective of this article is to ...determine an optimal demarcation date, which is required to properly normalize active-sensing data collected and processed using disparate methods for the purpose of damage detection performance comparison. We propose that maximizing average damage detection performance with respect to a demarcation date would provide both an estimate of the true incipient damage onset date and the proper normalization enabling comparison of detection performance among the otherwise disparate data sets. This work focuses on the use of ultrasonic guided waves to detect incipient damage prior to the surfacing of a visible, catastrophic crack. The blade was instrumented with piezoelectric transducers, which were used in a pitch-catch mode over a range of excitation frequencies. With respect to specific excitation frequencies and transmission paths, higher excitation frequencies provided consistent detection results for paths along the rotor blade’s carbon fiber spar cap, but performance fell off with increasing excitation frequency for paths not along the spar cap. Lower excitation frequencies provided consistent detection performance among all sensor paths.
This paper presents some analysis results for incipient crack detection in a 9-meter CX-100 wind turbine blade that underwent fatigue loading to failure. The blade was manufactured to standard ...specifications, and it underwent harmonic excitation at its first resonance using a hydraulically-actuated excitation system until reaching catastrophic failure. This work investigates the ability of an ultrasonic guided wave approach to detect incipient damage prior to the surfacing of a visible, catastrophic crack. The blade was instrumented with piezoelectric transducers, which were used in an active, pitchcatch mode with guided waves over a range of excitation frequencies. The performance results in detecting incipient crack formation in the fiberglass skin of the blade is assessed over the range of frequencies in order to determine the point at which the incipient crack became detectable. Higher excitation frequencies provide consistent results for paths along the rotor blade's carbon fiber spar cap, but performance falls off with increasing excitation frequencies for paths off of the spar cap. Lower excitation frequencies provide more consistent performance across all sensor paths.
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