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Healthy and/or moribund farmed and wild ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta (>0.5 to 900 g) were sampled from hatcheries (n = 2) and Atlantic salmon Salmo salar cage sites (n = 8) in Scotland between February 2016 and October 2018. Less than half of the sampled individuals (n = 43; 32.3%) had been vaccinated (autogenous polyvalent vaccine; dip and/or injection) against atypical furunculosis (type V and VI), while 20 (15.0%) fish were not vaccinated, and the rest (70 individuals, 52.7%) were of unknown vaccination status. Swab samples from skin lesions, gill, liver, spleen and kidney were inoculated onto a variety of bacteriological agar plates, and bacteriology identification and sequencing analysis was performed on significant bacterial colonies. Atypical Aeromonas salmonicida (aAs) vapA type V was the predominant bacterial species (70/215 bacterial isolates, 32.5% of bacterial samples; 43/117 positive individual fish, 36.8%) isolated in this survey followed by Vibrio species, which were the most geographically prevalent bacteria. Photobacterium indicum/profundum was also isolated from L. bergylta for the first time during this study. The collection of these bacterial isolates provides useful information for disease management. Identifying the aAs isolates involved in disease in ballan wrasse could provide vital information for improving/updating existing autogenous vaccines.

Coffee is one of the leading worldwide drinks; therefore, it represents highly valued in the trade. However, coffee is a complex food from sowing to harvesting, processing, packaging, selling and consuming, Although coffee importance in most of its stages, no studies have analyzed the dynamics of global coffee research. This paper presents an analysis of the evolution of Coffee related international research. It is based on the renowned literature databases published by Scopus and Web of Science. The parameters studied included growth of publications, the main journals, countries, institutions, and an author keywords analysis according to their relationship with topics such as agronomy, health, economy, chemistry or biological compound, product and unclassified words. Interest in harvesting techniques and coffee side factors have been increasing through last years in an exponential trend. Producer and consumer countries have composed a synergy with their research interest, that allows stating an upcoming growing in techniques headed to the quality beverage. The contribution is to visualize state of the art in the area of coffee knowledge to generate trends to future researches. Key words: Agronomy; scientopy; countries.

Blood vessel generation is an essential process for tissue formation, regeneration, and repair. Notwithstanding, vascularized tissue fabrication in vitro remains a challenge, as current fabrication techniques and biomaterials lack translational potential in medicine. Naturally derived biomaterials harbor the risk of immunogenicity and pathogen transmission, while synthetic materials need functionalization or blending to improve their biocompatibility. In addition, the traditional top-down fabrication techniques do not recreate the native tissue microarchitecture. Self-assembling ultrashort peptides (SUPs) are promising chemically synthesized natural materials that self-assemble into three-dimensional nanofibrous hydrogels resembling the extracellular matrix (ECM). Here, we use a modular tissue-engineering approach, embedding SUP microgels loaded with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) into a 3D SUP hydrogel containing human dermal fibroblast neonatal (HDFn) cells to trigger angiogenesis. The SUPs IVFK and IVZK were used to fabricate microgels that gel in a water-in-oil emulsion using a microfluidic droplet generator chip. The fabricated SUP microgels are round structures that are 300-350 μm diameter in size and have ECM-like topography. In addition, they are stable enough to keep their original size and shape under cell culture conditions and long-term storage. When the SUP microgels were used as microcarriers for growing HUVECs and HDFn cells on the microgel surface, cell attachment, stretching, and proliferation could be demonstrated. Finally, we performed an angiogenesis assay in both SUP hydrogels using all SUP combinations between micro- and bulky hydrogels. Endothelial cells were able to migrate from the microgel to the surrounding area, showing angiogenesis features such as sprouting, branching, coalescence, and lumen formation. Although both SUP hydrogels support vascular network formation, IVFK outperformed IVZK in terms of vessel network extension and branching. Overall, these results demonstrated that cell-laden SUP microgels have great potential to be used as a microcarrier cell delivery system, encouraging us to study the angiogenesis process and to develop vascularized tissue-engineering therapies.

Atypical Aeromonas salmonicida (aAs) is currently one of the most routinely recovered bacterial pathogens isolated during disease outbreaks in farmed cleaner fish, ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta, Ascanius). Vibrionaceae family bacteria have also been isolated from ballan wrasse in Scotland. This study determined the infectivity, pathogenicity and virulence of aAs and Vibrionaceae isolates in juvenile farmed ballan wrasse (n= 50; approx. 2 gr) using a bath challenge and fish monitored for a period of 16 days. Atypical As caused significant mortalities in contrast to Vibrionaceae isolates. Notably, differential virulence was observed between two aAs vapA type V strains at similar challenge doses. Diseased fish exhibited a systemic infection where aAs was detected in all analysed tissues (liver, spleen and kidney) by PCR and qPCR. Macroscopically, moribund and survivor fish exhibited hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. In moribund and surviving fish histopathology showed granulomatous hepatitis with eosinophilic granular cells surrounding bacterial colonies and endocarditis along with splenic histiocytosis. This is the first report of a successful aAs bath challenge model for juvenile ballan wrasse which provides an important tool for future studies on vaccine efficacy and immunocompetence.

In recent years, an increasing diversity of species has been recognized within the family Francisellaceae. Unfortunately, novel isolates are sometimes misnamed in initial publications or multiple sources propose different nomenclature for genetically highly similar isolates. Thus, unstructured and occasionally incorrect information can lead to confusion in the scientific community. Historically, detection of Francisella tularensis in environmental samples has been challenging due to the considerable and unknown genetic diversity within the family, which can result in false positive results. We have assembled a comprehensive collection of genome sequences representing most known Francisellaceae species/strains and restructured them according to a taxonomy that is based on phylogenetic structure. From this structured dataset, we identified a small number of genomic regions unique to F. tularensis that are putatively suitable for specific detection of this pathogen in environmental samples. We designed and validated specific PCR assays based on these genetic regions that can be used for the detection of F. tularensis in environmental samples, such as water and air filters.

Digital, Many affected counties have had experienced a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to investigate the needs of healthcare professionals and the technical difficulties faced by them during the initial outbreak. A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted among the healthcare workforce in the most populous cities from three Latin American countries in April 2020. In total, 1,082 participants were included. Of these, 534 (49.4%), 263 (24.3%), and 114 (10.5%) were physicians, nurses, and other professionals, respectively. At least 70% of participants reported a lack of PPE. The most common shortages were shortages in gown coverall suits (643, 59.4%), N95 masks (600, 55.5%), and face shields (569, 52.6%). Professionals who performed procedures that generated aerosols reported shortages more frequently (p, Ciencias Médicas y de la Salud

Atypical Aeromonas salmonicida (aAs) and Vibrionaceae related species are bacteria routinely recovered from diseased ballan wrasse used as cleaner fish in the Atlantic salmon farming industry. Autogenous (i.e. farm specific inactivated) multivalent vaccines formulated from these microorganisms are widely used to protect farmed wrasse despite limited experimental proof that they are primary pathogens. In this study, the components of a commercial multivalent injection vaccine containing four strains of Aeromonas salmonicida and one strain of Vibrio splendidus previously isolated from ballan wrasse in Scotland, were tested for infectivity, pathogenicity and virulence via intra peritoneal injection at pre-deployment size (25–50 g) and the efficacy of the vaccine for protection against aAs assessed. Injection with 3.5 × 109, 8 × 109 1.8 × 109 and 5 × 109 cfu/fish of Vibrio splendidus, V. ichthyoenteri, Aliivibrio logeii and A. salmonicida, respectively, did not cause significant mortalities, lesions or clinical signs after a period of 14 days. IP injection with both aAs and Photobacterium indicum successfully reproduced the clinical signs and internal lesions observed during natural outbreaks of the disease. Differences in virulence (LD50 at day 8-post infection of 3.6 × 106 cfu/fish and 1.6 × 107 cfu/fish) were observed for two aAs vapA type V isolates. In addition, the LD50 for Photobacterium indicum was 2.2 × 107 cfu/fish. The autogenous vaccine was highly protective against the two aAs vapA type V isolates after 700-degree days of immunisation. The RPSFINAL values for the first isolate were 95 and 91% at 1 × 106 cfu/fish and 1 × 107 cfu/fish, respectively, and 79% at 1 × 107 cfu/fish for the second isolate tested. In addition, significantly higher anti aAs seral antibodies (IgM), were detected by ELISA in vaccinated fish in contrast with control (mock vaccinated) fish. These results suggest wrasse can be effectively immunised and protected against aAs infection by injection with oil adjuvanted vaccines prepared with inactivated homologous isolates.

Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in women worldwide. While mammography remains the gold standard in breast cancer screening, ultrasound is an important imaging modality for both screening and cancer diagnosis. This paper presents a novel method for the detection of breast lesions in ultrasound images using texton filter banks, local configuration pattern features, and classification, without employing any segmentation technique. The developed method was able to accurately detect and classify breast lesions and achieved an accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of 96.1%, 96.5%, 95.3%, and 97.9%, respectively. The paradigm that we describe may, therefore, be useful as an effective tool to detect breast nodules during screening and in whole breast imaging, enabling clinicians to focus on images where a lesion is already known to be present. The developed method may also serve as a component for automatic breast nodule detection, and, when found, for the subsequent classification between lesion type benign versus malignant.

Application of artificial intelligence in Bio-Medical image processing is gaining more and more importance in the field of Medical Science. The bio medical images, has to go through several steps before the diagnosis of the disease. Firstly, the images has to be acquired and preprocessing has to be done and the data has to be stored in memory. It requires huge amount of memory and processing time. Among the preprocessing steps, edge detection is one of the major step. Edge detection filters the unwanted details in the image, and preserves the edges of the image, which describe the boundary of the image. In biomedical application, for the detection of the diseases, it is very essential to have the boundary detail of the acquired image of the organ under observation. Thus it is very essential to extract the edges of the images. Power is one of the main parameters that have to be considered while dealing with biomedical instruments. The biomedical signal processing instruments should be capable of operating at low power and also at high speed. In order to segregate the images into different levels or stage, we use convolutional neural networks for classification. By having a hardware architecture for image edge detection, the computational time for pre-processing of the image can be reduced, and the hardware can be a part of acquisition device itself. In this paper a low-power architecture for edge detection to detect the biomedical images are presented. The edge detection output are given to the system, which will diagnose the diseases using image classification using convolutional neural network. In this paper, Sobel and Prewitt, algorithms are used for edge detection using 180 nm technology. The edge detection algorithms are implemented using VLSI, and digital IC design of the architecture is presented. The algorithms for edge detection is co-simulated using MATLAB and Modelsim. The architecture is first simulated using CMOS logic and new method using domino logic is presented for low power consumption.

Aims The aims of the current study were to characterize the outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis (Fno) STIR-GUS-F2f7, and identify proteins recognized by sera from tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, (L) that survived experimental challenge with Fno. Methods and results The composition of the OMPs of a virulent strain of Fno (STIR-GUS-F2f7), isolated from diseased red Nile tilapia in the United Kingdom, was examined. The sarcosine-insoluble OMPs fraction was screened with tilapia hyperimmune sera by western blot analysis following separation of the proteins by 1D SDS-PAGE. Liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) was used to identify the various proteins present in the OMP profile. Two hundred and thirty-nine proteins were identified, of which 44 were found in the immunogenic band recognized by the tilapia hyperimmune serum. In silico analysis was performed to predict the function and location of the OMPs identified by MS. Conclusions Using a powerful proteomic-based approach in conjugation with western immunoblotting, proteins comprising the outer membrane fraction of Fno STIR-GUS-F2f7 were identified, catalogued and screened for immune recognition by tilapia sera. Significance and impact of the study The current study is the first report on the characterization of Fno-OMPs. The findings here provide preliminary data on bacterial surface proteins that exist in direct contact with the host's immune defences during infection and offer an insight into the pathogenesis of Fno.

Alcoholism is an adverse situation that changes the functioning of important part of nervous system which is neuron. This changes the functional behavior of alcoholic person. The diagnosis of this state is done with the help of EEG signals which gets modified with the electrical activity of the brain. The EEG data sets used in this paper are taken from the University of California at Irvine, Irvine, knowledge discovery and databases. A review on how the EEG signals get affected by the consumption of alcohol and the extraction of features from these signals help to differentiate alcoholic and uninfluenced people with the help of graphical user interface (GUI) is presented in this paper. GUI is an interface that showcases the features extracted from the raw EEG data and classifies the two different classes. This is achieved with the help of sample entropy, approximate entropy, mean, and standard deviation of raw EEG data collected from the electrodes frontal polar, frontal, and central. This GUI system is economical and efficient which is used as a proper clinical decision support system by clinicians and also helps rehabilitation centres in getting to know about the subject. Quadratic SVM gives a highest accuracy of 95% for the detection of alcoholic EEG signal.

The focal and non-focal epilepsy is seen to be a chronic neurological brain disorder, which has affected $\approx ~60$ million people in the world. Hence, an early detection of the focal epileptic seizures can be carried out using the EEG signals, which act as a helpful tool for early diagnosis of epilepsy. Several EEG-based approaches have been proposed and developed to understand the underlying characteristics of the epileptic seizures. Despite the fact that the early results were positive, the proposed techniques cannot generate reproducible results and lack a statistical validation, which has led to doubts regarding the presence of the pre-ictal state. Various methodical and algorithmic studies have indicated that the transition to an ictal state is not a random process, and the build-up can lead to epileptic seizures. This study reviews many recently-proposed algorithms for detecting the focal epileptic seizures. Generally, the techniques developed for detecting the epileptic seizures were based on tensors, entropy, empirical mode decomposition, wavelet transform and dynamic analysis. The existing algorithms were compared and the need for implementing a practical and reliable new algorithm is highlighted. The research regarding the epileptic seizure detection research is more focused on the development of precise and non-invasive techniques for rapid and reliable diagnosis. Finally, the researchers noted that all the methods that were developed for epileptic seizure detection lacks standardization, which hinders the homogeneous comparison of the detector performance.

Background Sedentary behaviors are associated to the development of noncommunicable diseases (NCD) such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Accelerometers and inclinometers have been used to estimate sedentary behaviors, however a major limitation is that these devices do not provide enough contextual information in order to recognize the specific sedentary behavior performed, e.g., sitting or lying watching TV, using the PC, sitting at work, driving, etc. Objective Propose and evaluate the precision of a mobile system for objectively measuring six sedentary behaviors using accelerometer and location data. Results The system is implemented as an Android Mobile App, which identifies individual’s sedentary behaviors based on accelerometer data taken from the smartphone or a smartwatch, and symbolic location data obtained from Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons. The system infers sedentary behaviors by means of a supervised Machine Learning Classifier. The precision of the classification of five of the six studied sedentary behaviors exceeded 95% using accelerometer data from a smartwatch attached to the wrist and 98% using accelerometer data from a smartphone put into the pocket. Statistically significant improvement in the average precision of the classification due to the use of BLE beacons was found by comparing the precision of the classification using accelerometer data only, and BLE beacons localization technology. Conclusions The proposed system provides contextual information of specific sedentary behaviors by inferring with very high precision the physical location where the sedentary event occurs. Moreover, it was found that, when accelerometers are put in the user’s pocket, instead of the wrist and, when symbolic location is inferred using BLE beacons; the precision in the classification is improved. In practice, the proposed system has the potential to contribute to the understanding of the context and determinants of sedentary behaviors, necessary for the implementation and monitoring of personalized noncommunicable diseases prevention programs, for instance, sending sedentary behavior alerts, or providing personalized recommendations on physical activity. The system could be used at work to promote active breaks and healthy habits.

SummaryIn late 2018, unusual patterns of very high mortality (>50% production) were reported in intensive tilapia cage culture systems across Lake Volta in Ghana. Samples of fish and fry were collected and analysed from two affected farms between October 2018 and February 2019. Affected fish showed darkening, erratic swimming and abdominal distension with associated ascites. Histopathological observations of tissues taken from moribund fish at different farms revealed lesions indicative of viral infection. These included haematopoietic cell nuclear and cytoplasmic pleomorphism with marginalisation of chromatin and fine granulation. Transmission electron microscopy showed cells contained conspicuous virions with typical Iridovirus morphology i.e. enveloped, with icosahedral and or polyhedral geometries and with a diameter c.160 nm. PCR confirmation and DNA sequencing identified the virions as Infectious Spleen and Kidney Necrosis Virus (ISKNV). Samples of fry and older animals were all strongly positive for the presence of the virus by qPCR. All samples tested negative for TiLV and Nodavirus by qPCR. All samples collected from farms prior to the mortality event were negative for ISKNV. Follow up testing of fish and fry sampled from 5 additional sites in July 2019 showed all farms had fish that were PCR positive for ISKNV, whether there was active disease on the farm or not, demonstrating the disease was endemic to farms all over Lake Volta by that point. The results suggest that ISKNV was the cause of disease on the investigated farms and likely had a primary role in the mortality events. A common observation of coinfections with Streptococcus agalactiae and other tilapia bacterial pathogens further suggests that these may interact to cause severe pathology, particularly in larger fish. Results demonstrate that there are a range of potential threats to the sustainability of tilapia aquaculture that need to be guarded against.

Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis is a pathogen of tilapia and other warm-water fish for which no vaccines are commercially available. In this study, a whole cell formalin-inactivated vaccine was developed for the first time using the highly virulent isolate STIR-GUS-F2f7 and the oil-based adjuvant Montanide™ ISA 763A VG. The efficacy of the vaccine was assessed in red Nile tilapia via intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection using homologous experimental infection and correlates of protection such as seral antibody production and bacterial loads in the spleen. For immunization, fish were i.p. injected with 0.1 ml of the vaccine, the adjuvant alone or PBS. At 840 degree days post-vaccination, all fish were i.p. injected with 4.0 × 103 CFU/fish of pathogenic bacteria. The RPS at the end of the trial was 100% in the vaccinated group with significantly higher survival than in the adjuvant and control groups. The RPS in the adjuvant group was 42%, and no significant difference was seen in survival between this and the PBS group. Moreover, significantly higher antibody titres in the serum and significantly lower bacterial loads in the spleen were detected in the vaccinated fish by ELISA and qPCR, respectively. These findings highlight the potential of autogenous vaccines for controlling francisellosis in tilapia.

Francisellosis, induced by Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis (Fno), is an emerging bacterial disease representing a major threat to the global tilapia industry. There are no commercialised vaccines presently available against francisellosis for use in farmed tilapia, and the only available therapeutic practices used in the field are either the prolonged use of antibiotics or increasing water temperature. Recently, an autogenous whole cell-adjuvanted injectable vaccine was developed that gave 100% relative percent survival (RPS) in tilapia challenged with a homologous isolate of Fno. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of this vaccine against challenge with heterologous Fno isolates. Healthy Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (∼15 g) were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with the vaccine, adjuvant-alone or phosphate buffer saline (PBS) followed by an i.p. challenge with three Fno isolates from geographically distinct locations. The vaccine provided significant protection in all groups of vaccinated tilapia, with a significantly higher RPS of 82.3% obtained against homologous challenge, compared to 69.8% and 65.9% with the heterologous challenges. Protection correlated with significantly higher specific antibody responses, and western blot analysis demonstrated cross-isolate antigenicity with fish sera post-vaccination and post-challenge. Moreover, a significantly lower bacterial burden was detected by qPCR in conjunction with significantly greater expression of IgM, IL-1 β, TNF-α and MHCII, 72 h post-vaccination (hpv) in spleen samples from vaccinated tilapia compared to fish injected with adjuvant-alone and PBS. The Fno vaccine described in this study may provide a starting point for development a broad-spectrum highly protective vaccine against francisellosis in tilapia.

Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis (Fno) is the causative agent of piscine francisellosis, an emerging infectious disease in Asia and Latin America. In this study two outbreaks of francisellosis were diagnosed in the UK on the basis of histopathology, electron microscopy, PCR, bacterial isolation and fulfillment of Koch's postulates. Furthermore, a phenotypic fingerprint based on biochemical analyses, metabolic activity, chemotaxonomic composition, and antimicrobial assays was generated for the novel isolates, the Fno type strain Ehime-1 from Asia and other Fno from Latin America. The genetic relatedness between the novel Fno and other Francisellaceae species was investigated by sequencing and comparing the 16SrRNA gene, 8 housekeeping genes (individually and concatenated) and the 16SrRNA-ITS-23SrRNA sequence. The phenotypic profiling indicated a high degree of similarity among the Fno strains as all were able to metabolize dextrin, N-acetyl-D glucosamine, D-fructose, α-D-glucose, D-mannose, methyl pyruvate, acetic acid, α-keto butyric acid, L-alaninamide, L-alanine, L-alanylglycine, L-asparagine, L-glutamic acid, L-proline, L-serine, L-threonine, inosine, uridine, glycerol, D L-α-glycerol phosphate, glucose-1-phosphate, and glucose-6-phosphate. The chemotaxonomic analyses indicated that 24:1 (20.3%), 18:1n-9 (16.9%), 24:0 (13.1%) 14:0 (10.9%), 22:0 (7.8%), 16:0 (7.6%), and 18:0 (5.5%) were the predominant structural fatty acids in Fno. The antimicrobial assays showed little variation between the isolates and high susceptibility to enrofloxacin, gentamicin, neomycin, streptomycin, amikacin, ciprofloxacin, gatifloxacin, nitrofurantoin, tobramycin, kanamycin, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, florfenicol, oxolinic acid, and streptomycin in all the Fno analyzed. In all the phylogenetic trees the Fno strains clustered together in independent branches confirming a high degree of homogeneity. Interestingly in five of the 11 trees i.e., mutS, putA, rpoB, 16SrRNA-ITS-23SrRNA, and concatenated sequence the two Francisella noatunensis ssp. diverged more from each other than from the closely related Francisella philomiragia (Fp). The phenotypic and genetic characterization confirmed the Fno isolates represent a solid phylo-phenetic taxon that in the current context of the genus seems to be misplaced within the species Fn. We propose the use of the present polyphasic approach in future studies to characterize strains of Fnn and Fp and verify their current taxonomic rank of Fno and other aquatic Francisella spp.

A highly virulent strain of Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis , STIR-GUS-F2f7, was isolated from moribund red Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) farmed in Europe. In this communication, the complete genome sequencing of this bacterium is reported.

International audience; We report the design (in silico ADMET criteria), synthesis, cytotoxicity studies (HepG-2 cells), and biological evaluation of 15 hydrazine/hydrazide quinoxaline 1,4-di-N-oxide derivatives against the 3D7 chloroquine sensitive strain and FCR-3 multidrug resistant strain of Plasmodium falciparum and Leishmania infantum (axenic amastigotes). Fourteen of derivatives are novel quinoxaline 1,4-di-N-oxide derivatives. Compounds 18 (3D7 IC50 = 1.40 μM, FCR-3 IC50 = 2.56 μM) and 19 (3D7 IC50 = 0.24 μM, FCR-3 IC50 = 2.8 μM) were identified as the most active against P. falciparum, and they were the least cytotoxic (CC50-values > 241 μM) and most selective (SI > 86). None of the compounds tested against L. infantum were considered to be active. Additionally, the functional role of the hydrazine and hydrazide structures were studied in the quinoxaline 1,4-di-N-oxide system.

Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis (Fno) is the causative agent of piscine francisellosis in warm water fish including tilapia. The disease induces chronic granulomatous inflammation with high morbidity and can result in high mortality. Early and accurate detection of Fno is crucial to set appropriate outbreak control measures in tilapia farms. Laboratory detection of Fno mainly depends on bacterial culture and molecular techniques. Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) is a novel isothermal technology that has been widely used for the molecular diagnosis of various infectious diseases. In this study, a recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay for rapid detection of Fno was developed and validated. The RPA reaction was performed at a constant temperature of 42 degreesC for 20 min. The RPA assay was performed using a quantitative plasmid standard containing a unique Fno gene sequence. Validation of the assay was performed not only by using DNA from Fno, closely related Francisella species and other common bacterial pathogens in tilapia farms, but also by screening 78 Nile tilapia and 5 water samples. All results were compared with those obtained by previously established real-time qPCR. The developed RPA showed high specificity in detection of Fno with no cross-detection of either the closely related Francisella spp. or the other tested bacteria. The Fno-RPA performance was highly comparable to the published qPCR with detection limits at 15 and 11 DNA molecules detected, respectively. The RPA gave quicker results in approximately 6 min in contrast to the qPCR that needed about 90 min to reach the same detection limit, taking only 2.7- 3 min to determine Fno in clinical samples. Moreover, RPA was more tolerant to reaction inhibitors than qPCR when tested with field samples. The fast reaction, simplicity, cost-effectiveness, sensitivity and specificity make the RPA an attractive diagnostic 41 tool that will contribute to controlling the infection through prompt on-site detection of Fno.

Background: Sericulture, since its discovery in China, has spread to become a valued activity in a range of other countries. China remains the leading producer of silk, followed by India and other Asian countries, Europe, Brazil and Colombia. This article examines the evolution of sericultural research between 1892 and 2016, identifying the main themes and applications. Methods: The SciMat software tool and the Bibliometrix R package were used as tools for data analysis in this study, based on records from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science and SCOPUS databases. Results: The results show that research has been growing, both in number of publications from the 1990s onwards, and in the emergence of topics closely related to the sericulture research field, a field that proves to be multi-disciplinary, exhibiting expansion and vitality. Conclusions: The information gathered will contribute greatly to the definition of relevant research strands, bearing in mind a number of significant gaps in information in this field. It will furthermore provide a better insight into the development of sericulture research over time.