Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), is a serious re‐emerging disease in both animals and humans. The evolution of the Multi‐ and Extensively drug‐resistant M. bovis ...strains (MDR‐TB and XDR‐TB) represents a global threat to public health. Worldwide, the disease is responsible for great economic losses in the veterinary field, serious threat to the ecosystem, and about 3.1% of human TB cases, up to 16% in Tanzania. Only thorough investigation to understand the pathogen's epidemiology can help in controlling the disease and minimizing its threat. For this purpose, various tools have been developed for use in advanced molecular epidemiological studies of bTB, either alone or in combination with standard conventional epidemiological approaches. These techniques enable the analysis of the intra‐ and inter‐species transmission dynamics of bTB. The delivered data can reveal detailed insights into the source of infection, correlations among human and bovine isolates, strain diversity and evolution, spread, geographical localization, host preference, tracing of certain virulence factors such as antibiotic resistance genes, and finally the risk factors for the maintenance and spread of M. bovis. They also allow for the determination of epidemic and endemic strains. This, in turn, has a significant diagnostic impact and helps in vaccine development for bTB eradication programs. The present review discusses many topics including the aetiology, epidemiology and importance of M. bovis, the prevalence of bTB in humans and animals in various countries, the molecular epidemiology of M. bovis, and finally applied molecular epidemiological techniques.
The CONNIE detector prototype is operating at a distance of 30 m from the core of a 3.8 GW sub(th) nuclear reactor with the goal of establishing Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) as a new technology for ...the detection of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. We report on the results of the engineering run with an active mass of 4 g of silicon. The CCD array is described, and the performance observed during the first year is discussed. A compact passive shield was deployed around the detector, producing an order of magnitude reduction in the background rate. The remaining background observed during the run was stable, and dominated by internal contamination in the detector packaging materials. The in-situ calibration of the detector using X-ray lines from fluorescence demonstrates good stability of the readout system. The event rates with the reactor ON and OFF are compared, and no excess is observed coming from nuclear fission at the power plant. The upper limit for the neutrino event rate is set two orders of magnitude above the expectations for the standard model. The results demonstrate the cryogenic CCD-based detector can be remotely operated at the reactor site with stable noise below 2 e super(-) RMS and stable background rates. The success of the engineering test provides a clear path for the upgraded 100 g detector to be deployed during 2016.
We present direct detection constraints on the absorption of hidden-photon dark matter with particle masses in the range 1.2-30 eV c^{-2} with the DAMIC experiment at SNOLAB. Under the assumption ...that the local dark matter is entirely constituted of hidden photons, the sensitivity to the kinetic mixing parameter κ is competitive with constraints from solar emission, reaching a minimum value of 2.2×10^{-14} at 17 eV c^{-2}. These results are the most stringent direct detection constraints on hidden-photon dark matter in the galactic halo with masses 3-12 eV c^{-2} and the first demonstration of direct experimental sensitivity to ionization signals <12 eV from dark matter interactions.
Introduction Ozone (O3) is one of the most prevalent atmospheric pollutants, arising from a photochemical reaction between volatile organic compounds (VOC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sunlight. O3 ...triggers oxidative stress, resulting in lipid oxidation, inflammation, alterations in metabolic and cellular signaling, and potentially initiating cell death in vulnerable brain regions. Inflammation and oxidative stress are recognized for their ability to induce cell death, primarily through the apoptosis pathway, involving various proteins that participate in this process via two pathways: intrinsic and extrinsic. Objective This study aims to identify the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins and Bcl-2 in the frontal cortex, cerebellum, and hippocampus of rats exposed to O3 acutely. Methods Two groups of 20 Wistar rodents (250-300 g) were established. The control group (n=10) was exposed to unrestricted polluted air for 12 hours, while the experimental group (n=10) was exposed to 1 ppm of O3. After exposure, the animals were sacrificed for immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis. Using a t-test, the arbitrary units of pro-apoptotic proteins and Bcl-2 were compared between the two groups. Results Significant increases in caspase-8 and caspase-3 activation were found in the O3-exposed group compared to the control group, specifically in the frontal cortex, cerebellum, and hippocampus. Additionally, notable changes in Bcl-2 expression were observed in these brain regions. The TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling) assay further indicated significant differences in immunopositivity between the groups in the same areas. However, intrinsic apoptotic proteins such as Bax, VDAC1, and cytochrome-c did not show significant differences between the groups within these structures. Western blot analyses aligned with the immunofluorescence results, showing statistically significant concentrations of caspase-8 in the cerebellum, caspase-3 in the hippocampus, and Bcl-2 in the frontal cortex in the O3 exposed group. Conversely, proteins like Bax, cytochrome-c, and VDAC1 did not exhibit significant differences in all analyzed structures. Conclusions This study demonstrates that acute exposure to 1 ppm of ozone can trigger neuronal apoptosis in the frontal cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum of rats, primarily through the activation of the extrinsic apoptosis pathway via caspase-8 and caspase-3. Additionally, it causes a reduction in Bcl-2 expression, an essential antiapoptotic protein. Despite not observing the activation of intrinsic pathway proteins like BAX, VDAC, or cytochrome-c, the study suggests that chronic O3 exposure might promote cell death by activating this pathway, requiring further long-term research.
The CONNIE experiment Aguilar-Arevalo, A.; Bertou, X.; Bonifazi, C. ...
Journal of physics. Conference series,
10/2016, Letnik:
761, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The CONNIE experiment uses fully depleted, high resistivity CCDs as particle detectors in an attempt to measure for the first time the Coherent Neutrino-Nucleus Elastic Scattering of antineutrinos ...from a nuclear reactor with silicon nuclei. This talk, given at the XV Mexican Workshop on Particles and Fields (MWPF), discussed the potential of CONNIE to perform this measurement, the installation progress at the Angra dos Reis nuclear power plant, as well as the plans for future upgrades.
An accurate method is proposed to measure the electrical parameters describing the experimental charge‐discharge curves of Li‐ion batteries and a pack through an equivalent electric dynamic model ...based on heuristic optimization algorithms (eg, differential evolution approach). The accuracy of these parameters is critical for on‐board state of charge and Health (SOH) estimations of numerous applications and devices. The procedure is constructed, based on the simple Thévenin electrical model. Charge‐discharge experimental curves collected for different chemistry and capacity batteries are described with the model, revealing better estimation results with respect to other algorithms such as impedance‐based methodologies (decreasing the error until 64.19%) and particle swarm optimization based approaches (decreasing the error until 94.02%). The proposal was assessed with different chemistries, capacities and with a 28 battery pack (LiFeMnPO4, 100 Ah) used in an electric vehicle.
•Charge is accurately estimated for LiNiMnCoO2 batteries with low computational cost•Robust filtering estimation for State of Charge less complex than Kalman-filtering•Accurate results for higher ...than 1C-rate by performing index tests•Fast response and capacity for implementation in embedded systems•Polynomial acquisition of the Open Circuit Voltage-State of Charge relationship
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This article proposes a novel State of Charge estimation approach for Li-Ion batteries, using Extended State Observers of Generalized Proportional Integral type. The nonlinear relationship established between the Open Circuit Voltage and the nominal state of Charge is simulated via a set of interpolating polynomials, providing a more accurate description, meaningfully improving the classic piecewise linearization results, particularly at low state of charge conditions (0 to 0.1). The proposed method is experimentally tested in a 20 Ah LiNiMnCoO2 battery at different discharge C-rates and noise presence. Likewise, the estimator is compared against a sliding mode estimation scheme and an Extended Kalman Filter, showing competitive results as found by an integral error based performance index measurement with a reduction of up to 35%.
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•C and N codoping in TiO2 surfaces shift its absorption to visible-light region.•Photoelectrocatalytic ozonation abates cefadroxil faster compared to single methods.•Photolysis and ...photocatalysis do not mineralize the cefadroxil.•Most power oxidizing agents are produced from O3 and irradiated photoanode.•Toxicity bioassays were sensitive to the presence of acidic by-products.
Here, we investigate the degradation of 20 mg L-1 Cefadroxil (CFX) in water using photoelectrocatalytic ozonation (PECO), and compared against its individual processes. A carbon nitrogen-codoped titanium dioxide (CN-TiO2) anode is synthesized using ethylene glycol and ethylenediamine as carbon and nitrogen source, respectively. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) analysis conducted to this material indicate a crystalline phase anatase with irregular morphology formed on the electrode surface; while the diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) shows a shift in the photoanode absorbance towards the visible region, unlike undoped TiO2 structure. This behavior results from the inclusion of Carbon and Nitrogen species on the CN-TiO2 electrode in weight percentages of 14.5 and 1.61 wt%, respectively, according to Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. The Cefadroxil (CFX) abatement is monitored UV–Vis spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and total organic carbon (TOC). All techniques reveal that the highest CFX removal occurs with PECO (Photoelectrocatalytic Ozonation) process, decreasing TOC by 57.6% (96% degradation by HPLC) after 90 min of treatment. The main by-products formed from oxidation with the PECO, PCO (Photocatalytic Ozonation) and O3 (Ozonation) systems were acid species presumably corresponding to short chain carboxylic acids. Finally, the germination of lettuce sativa is carried out in water contaminated with the drug, and compared with water treated by PECO and PCO processes, showing that PECO process improves germination by 23.5% on the contaminated sample and 7.4% on the sample treated with PCO. These findings confirm that synergism of oxidation techniques could be a tractable way to resolve the problems related to recalcitrant compounds contained in wastewater.
The influence of sodium and lithium content in the metasilicate crystal structure (SiO32−) is herein analyzed concerning the heterogeneous transesterification reaction for biodiesel production. ...Na2SiO3 and Li2SiO3 were characterized structurally and microstructurally. The catalyst content was evaluated between 1 and 5 wt %, where the maximum conversions to FAME (∼99%) were obtained using 3 wt % of Na2SiO3 during 1 h at 65 °C. After some cyclic experiments, it was determined that Na2SiO3 possesses a better stability and consequently reutilization capacity than Li2SiO3 in terms of its triglycerides conversion to FAME. DFT calculations were then used to analyze these experimental differences, revealing significant differences between these two catalysts in terms of energy, geometrical configuration, and electronic structure. It was found that three active sites are required on both catalytic surfaces to overcome the methanol deprotonation, which is herein suggested as the rate-controlling step of the entire transesterification mechanism. In one site, the oxygen atom of methanol approaches, while Lewis acid and Brønsted base sites are needed for the methoxide anion stabilization and proton stabilization, respectively.
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•Na2SiO3 reusability renders FAME conversion from 99 to 95% at fifth cycle of catalyst•Biodiesel production and catalyst reuse were improved for Na2SiO3 compared to Li2SiO3•The bulk and surface alkaline metals (Na, Li) on catalysts were studied with DFT•A DFT study reveals the feasibility to obtain biodiesel via the methanol adsorption
This article presents the application of a new multi-objective evolutionary algorithm called RankMOEA to determine the optimal parameters of an artificial potential field for autonomous navigation of ...a mobile robot. Autonomous robot navigation is posed as a multi-objective optimization problem with three objectives: minimization of the distance to the goal, maximization of the distance between the robot and the nearest obstacle, and maximization of the distance travelled on each field configuration. Two decision makers were implemented using objective reduction and discrimination in performance trade-off. The performance of RankMOEA is compared with NSGA-II and SPEA2, including both decision makers. Simulation experiments using three different obstacle configurations and 10 different routes were performed using the proposed methodology. RankMOEA clearly outperformed NSGA-II and SPEA2. The robustness of this approach was evaluated with the simulation of different sensor masks and sensor noise. The scheme reported was also combined with the wavefront-propagation algorithm for global path planning.
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