The global aquaculture has shown an impressive growth in the last decades contributing with a major part of total food fish supply. However, it also helps in the spread of diseases that in turn, ...causes great economic losses. The White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) is one of the major viral pathogen for the shrimp aquaculture industry. Several attempts to eliminate the virus in the shrimp have been addressed without achieving a long-term effectiveness. In this work, we determine the capacity of the commercial non-toxic PVP-coated silver nanoparticles to promote the response of the immune system of WSSV-infected shrimps with or without an excess of iron ions. Our results showed that a single dose of metallic silver in the nanomolar range (111 nmol/shrimp), which is equivalent to 12 ng/mL of silver nanoparticles, produces 20% survival of treated infected shrimps. The same concentration administered in healthy shrimps do not show histological evidence of damage. The observed survival rate could be associated with the increase of almost 2-fold of LGBP expression levels compared with non-treated infected shrimps. LGBP is a key gene of shrimp immunological response and its up-regulation is most probably induced by the recognition of silver nanoparticles coating by specific pathogen-associated molecular pattern recognition proteins (PAMPs) of shrimp. Increased LGBP expression levels was observed even with a 10-fold lower dose of silver nanoparticles (1.2 ng/shrimp, 0.011 nmol of metallic silver/shrimp). The increase in LGBP expression levels was also observed even in the presence of iron ion excess, a condition that favors virus proliferation. Those results showed that a single dose of a slight amount of silver nanoparticles were capable to enhance the response of shrimp immune system without toxic effects in healthy shrimps. This response could be enhanced by administration of other doses and might represent an important alternative for the treatment of a disease that has still no cure, white spot syndrome virus.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a systemic entity that frequently implies neurologic features at presentation and complications during the disease course. We aimed to describe the ...characteristics and predictors for developing in-hospital neurologic manifestations in a large cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in Mexico City.
We analyzed records from consecutive adult patients hospitalized from March 15 to June 30, 2020, with moderate to severe COVID-19 confirmed by reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction (rtRT-PCR) for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Neurologic syndromes were actively searched by a standardized structured questionnaire and physical examination, confirmed by neuroimaging, neurophysiology of laboratory analyses, as applicable.
We studied 1,072 cases (65% men, mean age 53.2±13 years), 71 patients had pre-existing neurologic diseases (diabetic neuropathy: 17, epilepsy: 15, history of ischemic stroke: eight, migraine: six, multiple sclerosis: one, Parkinson disease: one), and 163 (15.2%) developed a new neurologic complication. Headache (41.7%), myalgia (38.5%), dysgeusia (8%), and anosmia (7%) were the most common neurologic symptoms at hospital presentation. Delirium (13.1%), objective limb weakness (5.1%), and delayed recovery of mental status after sedation withdrawal (2.5%), were the most common new neurologic syndromes. Age, headache at presentation, preexisting neurologic disease, invasive mechanical ventilation, and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio ≥9 were independent predictors of new in-hospital neurologic complications.
Even after excluding initial clinical features and pre-existing comorbidities, new neurologic complications in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 are frequent and can be predicted from clinical information at hospital admission.
An intriguing feature recently unveiled in some COVID-19 patients is the “silent hypoxemia” phenomenon, which refers to the discrepancy of subjective well-being sensation while suffering hypoxia, ...manifested as the absence of dyspnea.
To describe the clinical characteristics and predictors of silent hypoxemia in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
We conducted a prospective cohort study including consecutive hospitalized adult (≥ 18 years) patients with confirmed COVID-19 presenting to the emergency department with oxygen saturation (SpO2) ≤ 80% on room air from March 15 to June 30, 2020. We analyzed the characteristics, disease severity, and in-hospital outcomes of patients presenting with dyspnea and those without dyspnea (silent hypoxemia).
We studied 470 cases (64.4% men; median age 55 years, interquartile range 46–64). There were 447 (95.1%) patients with dyspnea and 23 (4.9%) with silent hypoxemia. The demographic and clinical characteristics, comorbidities, laboratory and imaging findings, disease severity, and outcomes were similar between groups. Higher breathing and heart rates correlated significantly with lower SpO2 in patients with dyspnea but not in those with silent hypoxemia. Independent predictors of silent hypoxemia were the presence of new-onset headache (OR 2.919, 95% CI 1.101–7.742; P = 0.031) and presenting to the emergency department within the first eight days after symptoms onset (OR 3.183, 95% CI 1.024–9.89; P = 0.045).
Patients with silent hypoxemia sought medical attention earlier and had new-onset headache more often. They were also likely to display lower hemodynamic compensatory responses to hypoxemia, which may underestimate the disease severity.
•COVID-19 patients may present without dyspnea despite being severely hypoxemic.•Silent hypoxemia is the lack of self-awareness to hypoxia, with or without signs of respiratory distress.•Prevalence of COVID related silent hypoxemia as 4.89% (95% CI: 3.13–7.25).•Inappropriate respiratory and cardioacceleratory responses suggesting quiescent baroreflex sensibility.
Background Global warming and climate change are threats to the world. Warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns alter water availability and increase the occurrence of extreme ...weather events. South America and the Andes are vulnerable regions to climate change due to inequity and the uneven distribution of resources. Climate change evaluation often relies on the use of general circulation models (GCMs). However, the spatial resolution is too coarse and does not provide a realistic climate representation at a local level. This is of particular importance in mountain areas such as the Andes range, where the heterogeneous topography requires a finer spatial resolution to represent the local physical processes. To this end, statistical and/or dynamical downscaling methods are required. Several approaches and applications of downscaling procedures have been carried out in the countries of this region, with different purposes and performances. However, the main objective is to improve the representation of meteorological variables such as precipitation and temperature. A systematic review of these downscaling applications will identify the performance of the methods applied in the Andes region for the downscaling of precipitation and temperature. In addition, the meta-analysis could detect factors influencing the performance. The overall goal is to highlight promising methods in terms of fitness for use and identify knowledge gaps in the region. Methods The review will search and examine published and grey literature on downscaling applications of temperature and precipitation in the Andes region. Predetermined criteria for eligibility will allow the screening of the evidence. Then, the method used in each application will be coded and mapped according to the country, purpose, variable, and type of downscaling. At the same time, quantitative and qualitative data will be extracted. The performance metrics are particularly interesting for this review. A meta-analysis will be conducted for those studies with comparable metrics. A narrative synthesis, maps and heatmaps will show the results. Tables, funnel plots, and meta-regressions will present the meta-analysis. Throughout the review, a critical appraisal step will categorize the validity of the evidence. Keywords: Scale reduction, Climate change, Climate models, Reanalysis, Spatial resolution, South America, Mountain, Rain, Temperature
Colostrum presence in milk may cause problems in industrial processes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of cheese whey and model-fresh cheeses made from milk containing ...up to 10% colostrum. Physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of colostrum, milk, cheese and cheese whey were evaluated. IgG content in colostrum, milk and cheese whey was also analyzed. The colostrum presence changed cheese milk composition, physicochemical parameters, IgG content and microbial counts. As the presence of colostrum increased, cheeses had higher protein and moisture contents, while aerobes mesophiles and coliform counts decreased. The cheese and cheese whey color were slightly to noticeably different when up to 10% colostrum was added to the cheese milk. The whey IgG concentration increased significantly when the cheese milk contained 5% and 10% colostrum. This should be taken into consideration when this by-product be potentially used in the production of value-added dairy or nutraceutical products.
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•Improvements in the synthesis of aluminum metal–organic framework.•Optimization of solvothermal and green routes.•The solvothermal synthesis avoids the use of modulators.•Production ...of hexagonal bifrustum-shaped crystals.•Carbon dioxide performance and adsorption enthalpy.
Synthetic routes to produce metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) utilizing a sustainable method and the smallest amount of toxic organic solvents are desirable to avoid problems associated with chemical waste liquids. Herein, we report the synthesis of an aluminum trimesate-based MOF, MIL-96-(Al), under solvent-free conditions. Moreover, novel syntheses by reflux and solvothermal methods are described. All the synthetic routes yielded pure crystalline MIL-96-(Al). Solvent-free synthesis was achieved within 4 h, providing an improvement over current literature methods. Solvothermal synthesis prepared in mixed solvents allowed superior quality of hexagonal bifrustum MIL-96-(Al) crystals without surfactants or modulators, as those found in previous reports. Furthermore, reflux methodology was performed in attempts to scale up the yielding of solids. However, the scanning electron microscopy images exhibited variations in morphology, and at least three crystal shapes were observed. The carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorption properties of MIL-96(Al) samples were evaluated to determine the enthalpy of adsorption (ΔHads) of CO2. In the four synthetic routes explored, the CO2 adsorption behavior of MIL-96-(Al)-ST synthesized by the solvothermal route is the most promising, exhibiting a constant value of ΔHads of −30 kJ mol−1, suggesting that the chemical environment and well-defined bifrustum shape of MIL-96(Al) crystals, could play an important role in the diffusion of CO2.
This study shows the results of a simulation tool using the TRNSyS 2017 simulator, validated with experimental data from a greenhouse in an arid zone in northwestern Mexico. Additionally, ...experimental data on the performance of geothermal heat pumps are shown during the year 2020 in heating and cooling mode. With this information, an average deviation of the simulator for the outlet fluid temperature of the geothermal heat exchanger (GHE) of 2.77% and an average deviation of the coefficient of performance in cooling mode (EER) of the geothermal heat pump (GHP) of 3.7% was obtained. In the experimental study, it was observed that in the last 2 weeks of July and the first 2 weeks of August, the subsoil is saturated, which causes a decrease in the thermal inertia of the GHE. During the experimental study, it was possible to determine that the flow indicated in the GHE to obtain the highest performance of the GHP system in greenhouses in arid zones corresponds to 1 GPM, obtaining an EER of 3.24.
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