In this paper we compare two different methodologies for Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) retrieval from Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) data onboard the European Space Agency ...(ESA) Project for On-Board Autonomy (PROBA) platform. The first methodology is based on empirical approaches using Vegetation Indices (VIs), in particular the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Variable Atmospherically Resistant Index (VARI). The second methodology is based on the Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) technique, in which a Linear Spectral Unmixing model has been considered in order to retrieve the abundance of the different constituent materials within pixel elements, called Endmembers (EMs). These EMs were extracted from the image using three different methods: i) manual extraction using a land cover map, ii) Pixel Purity Index (PPI) and iii) Automated Morphological Endmember Extraction (AMEE). The different methodologies for FVC retrieval were applied to one PROBA/CHRIS image acquired over an agricultural area in Spain, and they were calibrated and tested against in situ measurements of FVC estimated with hemispherical photographs. The results obtained from VIs show that VARI correlates better with FVC than NDVI does, with standard errors of estimation of less than 8% in the case of VARI and less than 13% in the case of NDVI when calibrated using the in situ measurements. The results obtained from the SMA-LSU technique show Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) below 12% when EMs are extracted from the AMEE method and around 9% when extracted from the PPI method. A RMSE value below 9% was obtained for manual extraction of EMs using a land cover use map.
The gas–liquid mass transfer coefficient is a key parameter to the design and operation of biotrickling filters that governs the transport rate of contaminants and oxygen from the gas phase to the ...liquid phase, where pollutant biodegradation occurs. Mass transfer coefficients are typically estimated via experimental procedures to produce empirical correlations, which are only valid for the bioreactor configuration and range of operational conditions under investigation. In this work, a new method for the estimation of the gas–liquid mass transfer coefficient in biotrickling filters is presented. This novel methodology couples a realistic description of the packing media (polyurethane foam without a biofilm) obtained using microtomography with computational fluid dynamics. The two-dimensional analysis reported in this study allowed capturing the mechanisms of the complex processes involved in the creeping porous air and water flow in the presence of capillary effects in biotrickling filters. Model predictions matched the experimental mass transfer coefficients (±30%) under a wide range of operational conditions.
In recent years, it has been demonstrated that the application of elicitors such as methyl-jasmonate (MeJ) and benzothiadiazole (BTH) to wine grapes can increase their phenolic and aromatic compounds ...if they are treated at the beginning of ripening (veraison). However, the veraison period is short, and it is not always possible to apply the treatments in a few days. Therefore, it would be of great interest to optimize the moment of elicitor application or extend the treatment period. The aim of this paper was to analyze during two consecutive years (2016-2017) the foliar application of MeJ, BTH, and a combination of both, during two different ripening periods of Monastrell grapes (veraison and mid-ripening), and determine the more appropriate moment to increase the concentration of anthocyanins. To carry out this aim, analysis of anthocyanins by HPLC in grapes and wines was mainly performed. The most suitable period for the application of MeJ, BTH, and MeJ + BTH was at mid-ripening, since the grapes showed a greater accumulation of anthocyanins at harvest. However, the MeJ + BTH treatment applied during veraison also obtained similar results, which would allow extending the application period if necessary. However, the increase in the anthocyanin content of grapes was not reflected in all the wines, which may have been due to reinforcement of the skin cell wall as a result of the application of elicitors. Further analysis is needed to improve the maceration process of the Monastrell grapes and the extraction of the anthocyanins that were increased by the treatments applied in the vineyard.
The use of bifidobacteria as probiotics has proven to be beneficial in gastroenteric infections. Furthermore, prebiotics such as inulin can enhance the survival and growth of these bacteria. Two ...trials were performed to evaluate the effects of the administration of
subsp.
CECT 7210 and oligofructose-enriched inulin against
serovar Typhimurium or enterotoxigenic
(ETEC) F4. A total of 72 (
trial) and 96 (ETEC F4 trial) weaned piglets were used in a 2 × 2 design (with or without synbiotic, inoculated or not with the pathogen). After adaptation, animals were orally inoculated. Performance and clinical signs were evaluated. On days 4 and 8 (
trial) and 3 and 7 (ETEC F4 trial) post-inoculation (PI), one animal per pen was euthanized. Blood, digestive content and tissue samples were collected and microbiological counts, fermentation products, serum inflammatory markers and ileum histomorphometry analysis were performed. Both challenges had an impact on faecal consistency (
< 0.001), including the faecal shedding of
and increased numbers of enterobacteria and coliforms. The synbiotic administration did not have any effect on pathogen loads but induced changes in the fermentation profile, such as increased valeric acid in both trials as well as decreased acetic acid, except for
-challenged animals. The effect on propionate varied among trials, increasing in challenged synbiotic-treated pigs and decreasing in non-challenged ones in the
trial (P interaction = 0.013), while the opposed occurred in the ETEC F4 trial (P interaction = 0.013). The administration of the synbiotic increased intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL;
= 0.039) on day 8 PI in the
trial and a similar trend occurred in non-challenged pigs in the ETEC F4 trial (P interaction = 0.086). The results did not provide evidence of reduced pathogen load with the synbiotic, although a modulation in fermentative activity could be identified depending on the challenge. Consistent increases were found in IEL, suggesting that this synbiotic combination has some immunomodulatory properties.
Global prevalence of obesity has increased to epidemic proportions over the past 40 years, with childhood obesity reaching alarming rates. In this study, we determined changes in liver and adipose ...tissue transcriptomes of a porcine model for prepubertal early obesity induced by a high-calorie diet and supplemented with bioactive ingredients. A total of 43 nine-weeks-old animals distributed in four pens were fed with four different dietary treatments for 10 weeks: a conventional diet; a western-type diet; and a western-type diet with Bifidobacterium breve and rice hydrolysate, either adding or not omega-3 fatty acids. Animals fed a western-type diet increased body weight and total fat content and exhibited elevated serum concentrations of cholesterol, whereas animals supplemented with bioactive ingredients showed lower body weight gain and tended to accumulate less fat. An RNA-seq experiment was performed with a total of 20 animals (five per group). Differential expression analyses revealed an increase in lipogenesis, cholesterogenesis and inflammatory processes in animals on the western-type diet while the supplementation with bioactive ingredients induced fatty acid oxidation and cholesterol catabolism, and decreased adipogenesis and inflammation. These results reveal molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of bioactive ingredient supplementation in an obese pig model.
Data on suppression of HIV replication in the CNS and on the subsequent risk of neurocognitive impairment using monotherapy with boosted protease inhibitors are limited.
Ours was an exploratory ...cross-sectional study in patients on lopinavir/ritonavir-based monotherapy (LPV/r-MT) or standard triple therapy (LPV/r-ART) for at least 96 weeks who maintained a plasma viral load <50 copies/mL. HIV-1 RNA in CSF was determined by HIV-1 SuperLow assay (lower limit of detection, 1 copy/mL). Neurocognitive functioning was assessed using a recommended battery of neuropsychological tests covering 7 areas. Neurocognitive impairment (NCI) was determined and also a global deficit score (GDS) for study comparisons.
Seventeen patients on LPV/r-MT and 17 on LPV/r-ART were included. Fourteen (82.4%) patients on LPV/r-MT and 16 (94.1%) on LPV/r-ART had HIV-1 RNA <1 copy/mL in CSF (p = 0.601). NCI was observed in 7 patients on LPV/r-MT and in 10 on LPV/r-ART (41% vs 59%; p = 0.494). Mean (SD) GDS was 0.22 (0.20) in patients on LPV/r-MT and 0.47 (0.34) in those on LPV/r-ART (p = 0.012).
Suppression of HIV in CSF is similar in individuals with durable plasma HIV-1 RNA suppression who are receiving LPV/r-MT or LPV/r-ART for at least 96 weeks. Findings for HIV-1 replication in CSF and neurocognitive status indicate that this strategy seems to be safe for CNS functioning.
The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on attendance to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has only been described in city or regional settings. The impact of COVID-19 across an entire country ...with a high infection rate is yet to be explored.
The study uses data from 8629 cases recorded in two time-series (2017/2018 and 2020) of the Spanish national registry. Data from a non-COVID-19 period and the COVID-19 period (February 1st–April 30th 2020) were compared. During the COVID-19 period, data a further analysis comparing non-pandemic and pandemic weeks (defined according to the WHO declaration on March 11th, 2020) was conducted. The chi-squared analysis examined differences in OHCA attendance and other patient and resuscitation characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression examined survival likelihood to hospital admission and discharge. The multilevel analysis examined the differential effects of regional COVID-19 incidence on these same outcomes.
During the COVID-19 period, the incidence of resuscitation attempts declined and survival to hospital admission (OR = 1.72; 95%CI = 1.46–2.04; p < 0.001) and discharge (OR = 1.38; 95%CI = 1.07–1.78; p = 0.013) fell compared to the non-COVID period. This pattern was also observed when comparing non-pandemic weeks and pandemic weeks. COVID-19 incidence impinged significantly upon outcomes regardless of regional variation, with low, medium, and high incidence regions equally affected.
The pandemic, irrespective of its incidence, seems to have particularly impeded the pre-hospital phase of OHCA care. Present findings call for the need to adapt out-of-hospital care for periods of serious infection risk.
ISRCTN10437835.
This paper discusses the application and adaptation of two existing operational algorithms for land surface emissivity (epsiv) retrieval from different operational satellite/airborne sensors with ...bands in the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) and thermal IR (TIR) regions: (1) the temperature and emissivity separation algorithm, which retrieves epsiv only from TIR data and (2) the normalized-difference vegetation index thresholds method, in which epsiv is retrieved from VNIR data.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genetic diversity has the potential to impact the virus transmissibility and the escape from natural infection- or vaccine-elicited ...neutralizing antibodies. Here, representative samples from circulating SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia between January and April 2021, were processed for genome sequencing and lineage determination following the nanopore amplicon ARTIC network protocol and PANGOLIN pipeline. This strategy allowed us to identify the emergence of the B.1.621 lineage, considered a variant of interest (VOI) with the accumulation of several substitutions affecting the Spike protein, including the amino acid changes I95I, Y144T, Y145S and the insertion 146 N in the N-terminal domain, R346K, E484K and N501Y in the Receptor binding Domain (RBD) and P681H in the S1/S2 cleavage site of the Spike protein. The rapid increase in frequency and fixation in a relatively short time in Magdalena, Atlantico, Bolivar, Bogotá D.C, and Santander that were near the theoretical herd immunity suggests an epidemiologic impact. Further studies will be required to assess the biological and epidemiologic roles of the substitution pattern found in the B.1.621 lineage.
•Monitoring the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 in real time is a worldwide priority.•Emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 may have high impact biological implications for public health•The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.621 variant of interest was characterized by several substitutions: T95I, Y144T, Y145S, 146N, R346K, E484K and N501Y in spike protein.
At least 5–10% of subjects surviving COVID-19 develop the post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) or “Long COVID”. The clinical presentation of PCC is heterogeneous, its pathogenesis is being deciphered, and ...objective, validated biomarkers are lacking. It is unknown if PCC is a single entity or a heterogeneous syndrome with overlapping pathophysiological basis. The large US RECOVER study identified four clusters of subjects with PCC according to their presenting symptoms. However, the long-term clinical implications of PCC remain unknown.
We conducted a 2-year prospective cohort study of subjects surviving COVID-19, including individuals fulfilling the WHO PCC definition and subjects with full clinical recovery. We systematically collected post-COVID-19 symptoms using prespecified questionnaires and performed additional diagnostic imaging tests when needed. Factors associated with PCC were identified and modelled using logistic regression. Unsupervised clustering analysis was used to group subjects with PCC according to their presenting symptoms. Factors associated with PCC recovery were modelled using a direct acyclic graph approach.
The study included 548 individuals, 341 with PCC, followed for a median of 23 months (IQR 16.5–23.5), and 207 subjects fully recovered. In the model with the best fit, subjects who were male and had tertiary studies were less likely to develop PCC, whereas a history of headache, or presence of tachycardia, fatigue, neurocognitive and neurosensitive complaints and dyspnea at COVID-19 diagnosis predicted the development of PCC. The cluster analysis revealed the presence of three symptom clusters with an additive number of symptoms. Only 26 subjects (7.6%) recovered from PCC during follow-up; almost all of them (n = 24) belonged to the less symptomatic cluster A, dominated mainly by fatigue. Recovery from PCC was more likely in subjects who were male, required ICU admission, or had cardiovascular comorbidities, hyporexia and/or smell/taste alterations during acute COVID-19. Subjects presenting with muscle pain, impaired attention, dyspnea, or tachycardia, conversely, were less likely to recover from PCC.
Preexisting medical and socioeconomic factors, as well as acute COVID-19 symptoms, are associated with the development of and recovery from the PCC. Recovery is extremely rare during the first 2 years, posing a major challenge to healthcare systems.
Fundació Lluita contra les Infeccions.
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