Search

Salmonella enterica subsp. diarizonae serotype 61: k: 1,5, (7) (SED) is a microorganism well adapted to sheep; however, it has also been described producing chronic proliferative rhinitis (CPR) in ovine. CPR causes a proliferative inflammation of the ventral nasal turbinates that may totally obstruct the nasal cavity. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of SED in nostrils and stool of sheep without CPR clinical signs in commercial sheep farms of Spain with and without previous clinical cases of CPR. Five samplings were performed in 10 commercial sheep farms for one year. Samples from nostrils and faeces were taken from four animals without CPR visible clinical signs that belonged to four different age ranges at each farm visit. The prevalence of positive animals was 45.3 %, and the number of positive samples in nostrils was higher than in faeces (38.5 % vs 22.5 %). Only on one farm was no positive result obtained in the entire study. In almost all positive farms, sheep belonging to the youngest age ranges accounted for more than 50 % of positive isolates. Finally, farms with a previous diagnosis of CPR were 1.784 times more likely to have an animal with positive isolation than farms without a previous diagnosis. This could suggest that the infection pressure in the farm might favour the occurrence of clinical cases of the disease. However, further studies will be necessary to unravel why this saprophytic bacterium is able to cross the epithelial barrier causing severe rhinitis in certain animals.

[EN] The Spanish Imperial Eagle (Aquila adalberti) disappeared from Africa as a breeding species in the 1960s coincident with a general decline of their populations in the Iberian Peninsula. Because of a combination of successful conservation actions and a general change in human attitudes, the Spanish Imperial Eagle population has been increasing in Iberia from 103 pairs in 1980 to more than 500 breeding pairs in 2018. As a consequence, the number of juveniles that cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Africa has increased recently. Abundance and distribution of potential prey should affect young eagles’ behaviour and could be a limiting factor for a potential re-colonization of previous North-African populations. Additionally, determination of temporary settlement areas is crucial from a conservation point of view. Conservation actions in these areas, particularly reduction of juvenile mortality, are a priority to facilitate future reestablishment of breeding populations of the species in North Africa. Here we report on the dispersal movements of juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagles marked with GPS-GSM transmitters in Andalusia (southern Spain), some of which crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into north-western Africa, an area that does not have populations of the eagle’s main prey, the European rabbit. We analysed the differences in dispersal patterns and temporary settlement behaviour in the two study areas. We found that dispersal movements were greater, temporary settlement areas were larger, and individuals stayed longer in areas and moved greater distances among them in Africa than in Iberia. We believe that our results are best explained by applying the Marginal Value Theorem, which predicts that individuals will leave a foraging area when the availability of prey drops to similar levels of those of the surrounding environment. We suggest that the increase in the records of the species in Africa could lead to a recolonization of the species in Africa based on birds coming from the “source” Iberian population, but only if the Iberian population continues to increase. We recommend that conservation measures must be established in these temporary settlement areas in Africa., [DE] In den 1960er-Jahren verschwand der Spanische Kaiseradler (Aquila adalberti) als Brutvogel aus Afrika, was mit einem generellen Rückgang seiner Populationen auf der Iberischen Halbinsel einherging. Aufgrund einer Kombination aus erfolgreichen Schutzmaßnahmen und einem allgemeinen Wandel der menschlichen Einstellung wuchs die Population Spanischer Kaiseradler auf der Iberischen Halbinsel von 103 Brutpaaren im Jahr 1980 auf über 500 Brutpaare im Jahr 2018 an. Infolgedessen stieg die Anzahl der Jungvögel, welche die Straße von Gibraltar in Richtung Afrika überqueren, in neuerer Zeit an. Die Häufigkeit und Verteilung potenzieller Beutetiere sollte das Verhalten der jungen Adler beeinflussen und könnte einen limitierenden Faktor für eine mögliche Wiederbesiedlung der Gebiete ehemaliger nordafrikanischer Populationen darstellen. Darüber hinaus ist aus Sicht des Naturschutzes die Ermittlung vorübergehend genutzter Ansiedlungsgebiete von entscheidender Bedeutung. Schutzmaßnahmen in diesen Bereichen, speziell zur Verringerung der Jungensterblichkeit, sind eine Vorbedingung für eine zukünftige Wiederansiedlung der Art als Brutvogel in Nordafrika. Hier beschreiben wir die Dismigrationsbewegungen juveniler Spanischer Kaiseradler, welche in Andalusien (Südspanien) mit GPSGSM-Sendern ausgestattet wurden, und von denen einige die Straße von Gibraltar nach Nordwestafrika überquerten, ein Gebiet, in dem es keine Wildkaninchenpopulationen gibt, welches die Hauptbeuteart des Adlers ist. Wir analysierten die Unterschiede in den Ausbreitungsmustern und im zeitweiligen Ansiedlungsverhalten zwischen den beiden Studiengebieten. In Afrika gab es stärkere Ausbreitungsbewegungen, die zeitweisen Ansiedlungsbereiche waren größer, Individuen blieben länger in den Gebieten und legten zwischen diesen weitere Strecken zurück als auf der Iberischen Halbinsel. Wir sind der Meinung, dass unsere Ergebnisse sich am besten durch die Anwendung des Grenzertragstheorems (engl.: Marginal Value Theorem) erklären lassen, welches besagt, dass Individuen ein Nahrungsgebiet verlassen, wenn dort die Beuteverfügbarkeit auf ein ähnliches Maß wie im Umland sinkt. Wir vermuten, dass der Anstieg in den Nachweisen der Art in Afrika dort zu einer Wiederbesiedlung durch Vögel aus der iberischen “Quellpopulation” führen könnte, allerdings nur, wenn die iberische Population weiterhin wächst. Wir empfehlen den Ausbau von Schutzmaßnahmen in diesen zeitweiligen afrikanischen Ansiedlungsgebieten.

Hematological studies concerned with the determination of normal values of blood parameters in animals have been increasing. However, studies on normal concentration of blood constituents of free-living birds still are not very common, and less than 5% of the species of birds have been analyzed, mostly in captivity. Avian hematology has been used in ornithological studies, because it provides biological data about these animals, their biology, and can be very important in the understanding of ecological and behavioral issues. The main purpose of the study was to investigate the concentrations of certain plasma biochemical parameters in nestlings of Rockhopper Penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome) at the creche phase and the potential influence of some factors such as sex. We captured 95 nestling Rockhopper during the period 24–31 January 2017. All nestlings were randomly selected from colonies in Saunders Island (Falkland Islands). All the sampled birds were between 25 and 45 days of age, with mean weight of 1.778 ± 0.314 kg and mean bill length of 36.0 ± 2.8 mm. No differences in blood parameters or body condition between sexes were found. No parameters but total protein and urea were related to body index. Body index showed a negative significant relationship with urea levels in blood, with penguins in worse condition (those relatively lighter) showing higher levels of urea in blood than those that were relatively heavier. Same trend was observed for total proteins. Urea concentration in blood would be used as a tool in future studies, particularly in young Rockhoppers when they are in creche phase, a period of high level of mortality mainly by predation. Plasma urea was the single variable that reflects the best body index and also has a rationale background explaining this relationship.

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018. This study focuses on a comprehensive study of Automatic Signature Verification (ASV) for off-line Thai signatures; an investigation was carried out to characterise the challenges in Thai ASV and to baseline the performance of Thai ASV employing baseline features, being Local Binary Pattern, Local Directional Pattern, Local Binary and Directional Patterns combined (LBDP), and the baseline shape/feature-based hidden Markov model. As there was no publicly available Thai signature database found in the literature, the authors have developed and proposed a database considering real-world signatures from Thailand. The authors have also identified their latent challenges and characterised Thai signature-based ASV. The database consists of 5,400 signatures from 100 signers. Thai signatures could be bi-script in nature, considering the fact that a single signature can contain only Thai or Roman characters or contain both Roman and Thai, which poses an interesting challenge for script-independent SV. Therefore, along with the baseline experiments, the investigation on the influence and nature of bi-script ASV was also conducted. From the equal error rates and Bhattacharyya distance, the score achieved in the experiments indicate that the Thai SV scenario is a script-independent problem. The open research area on this subject of research has also been addressed.

15 páginas, 2 tablas, 7 figuras., Experimental infections in pregnant sheep have been focused on studying the effect of the time of challenge on the outcome of N. caninum infection, whereas the impact of the dose and route of challenge has not been studied in depth. Therefore, clinical outcome, immune responses, parasite detection and burden, and lesion severity in placental tissues and foetal brains were investigated in 90-day-pregnant sheep inoculated intravenously with 10(5) (G1), 10(4) (G2), 10(3) (G3), or 10(2) (G4) tachyzoites or subcutaneously with 10(4) (G5) tachyzoites of the virulent Nc-Spain7 isolate and an uninfected group (G6). Comparing challenge doses, G1 was the only group that had 100% abortion. Likewise, IFN gamma levels in G1 increased earlier than those in other intravenously infected groups, and IgG levels on day 21 post-infection (pi) were higher in G1 than those in other intravenously infected groups. Concerning vertical transmission, G1 shows a higher parasite burden in the foetal brain than did G2 and G3. Comparing routes of administration, no differences in foetal survival rate or parasite load in the foetal brain were found. Although G2 had higher IFN gamma levels than G5 on day 10 pi, no differences were found in humoral immune responses. Because the outcome after intravenous infection with 10(5) tachyzoites was similar to that observed after intravenous infection with 10(6) tachyzoites used in a previous work (100% abortion and vertical transmission), we conclude that it may be reasonable to use 10(5) tachyzoites administered by the intravenous route in further experiments when assessing drugs or vaccine candidates., We gratefully acknowledge Neus Callizo Esteve from Clinical Veterinary Hospital (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) and Jose Maria Gonzalez (University of Zaragoza, Spain) for their excellent technical assistance. The Animal Experimentation Service (SEA) at the University of Zaragoza is acknowledged for using their facilities to carry out the reproduction programme. Roberto Sanchez Sanchez is supported by a fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (MECD) as a part of the Programme of Training of University Teaching Staff (FPU, Grant Number FPU13/03438). This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2016-75935-C2) and Community of Madrid, Spain (PLATESA, S2013/ABI2906).

13 páginas, 2 tablas, 7 figuras., Neospora caninum is one of the main causes of abortion in cattle, and recent studies have highlighted its relevance as an abortifacient in small ruminants. Vaccines or drugs for the control of neosporosis are lacking. Bumped kinase inhibitors (BKIs), which are ATP-competitive inhibitors of calcium dependent protein kinase 1 (CDPK1), were shown to be highly efficacious against several apicomplexan parasites in vitro and in laboratory animal models. We here present the pharmacokinetics, safety and efficacy of BKI-1553 in pregnant ewes and foetuses using a pregnant sheep model of N. caninum infection. BKI-1553 showed exposure in pregnant ewes with trough concentrations of approximately 4 mu M, and of 1 mu M in foetuses. Subcutaneous BKI-1553 administration increased rectal temperatures shortly after treatment, and resulted in dermal nodules triggering a slight monocytosis after repeated doses at short intervals. BKI-1553 treatment decreased fever in infected pregnant ewes already after two applications, resulted in a 37-50% reduction in foetal mortality, and modulated immune responses; IFN. levels were increased early after infection and IgG levels were reduced subsequently. N. caninum was abundantly found in placental tissues; however, parasite detection in foetal brain tissue decreased from 94% in the infected/untreated group to 69-71% in the treated groups. In summary, BKI-1553 confers partial protection against abortion in a ruminant experimental model of N. caninum infection during pregnancy. In addition, reduced parasite detection, parasite load and lesions in foetal brains were observed., We gratefully acknowledge Jacobo Sampere from the SALUVETgroup (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain), Teresa Navarro andJosé María González (University of Zaragoza, Spain), Isabel Ayala,Lucas Troya, Clara Colmenero, Dolores González, Natalia Peral,Verónica Pérez, Ignacio Gómez and Isabel Santiago from the Clinical Veterinary Hospital (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) for their excellent technical assistance, and also Rama Subba Rao Vidadala and Dustin Maly (Department of Chemistry, University of Washington) fortheir assistance in further purification of the study drug. The AnimalExperimentation Service (SEA) at the University of Zaragoza is ac-knowledged for providing their facilities to carry out the reproduction programme. Roberto Sánchez Sánchez is supported by a fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (MECD), asa part of the Program of Training of University Teaching Staff (FPU,grant number FPU13/03438). Patricia Vázquez has a Juan de la Cierva-Formación post-doctoral contract (FJCI-2014-20982) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO). Andrew Hemphill is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation grant(No. 310030 165782). This work was supported by the Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (grants R01 AI111341 and R01 HD 080670), the U.S. Department of Agriculture(grant 2014-67015-22106) and the Community of Madrid, Spain(PLATESA, S2013/ABI2906).

Purpose: The CIGMA study investigated a novel human polyclonal antibody preparation (trimodulin) containing ~ 23% immunoglobulin (Ig) M, ~ 21% IgA, and ~ 56% IgG as add-on therapy for patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia (sCAP). Methods: In this double-blind, phase II study (NCT01420744), 160 patients with sCAP requiring invasive mechanical ventilation were randomized (1:1) to trimodulin (42 mg IgM/kg/day) or placebo for five consecutive days. Primary endpoint was ventilator-free days (VFDs). Secondary endpoints included 28-day all-cause and pneumonia-related mortality. Safety and tolerability were monitored. Exploratory post hoc analyses were performed in subsets stratified by baseline C-reactive protein (CRP; ≥ 70 mg/L) and/or IgM (≤ 0.8 g/L). Results: Overall, there was no statistically significant difference in VFDs between trimodulin (mean 11.0, median 11 [n = 81]) and placebo (mean 9.6; median 8 [n = 79]; p = 0.173). Twenty-eight-day all-cause mortality was 22.2% vs. 27.8%, respectively (p = 0.465). Time to discharge from intensive care unit and mean duration of hospitalization were comparable between groups. Adverse-event incidences were comparable. Post hoc subset analyses, which included the majority of patients (58–78%), showed significant reductions in all-cause mortality (trimodulin vs. placebo) in patients with high CRP, low IgM, and high CRP/low IgM at baseline. Conclusions: No significant differences were found in VFDs and mortality between trimodulin and placebo groups. Post hoc analyses supported improved outcome regarding mortality with trimodulin in subsets of patients with elevated CRP, reduced IgM, or both. These findings warrant further investigation. Trial registration: NCT01420744., 0, SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The dynamic signature is a biometric trait widely used and accepted for verifying a person's identity. Current automatic signature-based biometric systems typically require five, ten, or even more specimens of a person's signature to learn intrapersonal variability sufficient to provide an accurate verification of the individual's identity. To mitigate this drawback, this paper proposes a procedure for training with only a single reference signature. Our strategy consists of duplicating the given signature a number of times and training an automatic signature verifier with each of the resulting signatures. The duplication scheme is based on a sigma lognormal decomposition of the reference signature. Two methods are presented to create human-like duplicated signatures: the first varies the strokes' lognormal parameters (stroke-wise) whereas the second modifies their virtual target points (target-wise). A challenging benchmark, assessed with multiple state-of-the-art automatic signature verifiers and multiple databases, proves the robustness of the system. Experimental results suggest that our system, with a single reference signature, is capable of achieving a similar performance to standard verifiers trained with up to five signature specimens.

Deep semen deposition, avoiding retrograde flow, lesions and stress, has proved to be very important in the success of sheep AI. The objective of the present study was to develop a new, suitable anti-retrograde flow device for sheep cervical AI (DARIO) that enables deep deposition of semen into the cervix without any modifications to the procedures currently used, and to compare the fertility, fecundity, and prolificacy rates between DARIO and a traditional catheter. Field tests were performed on 16 farms actively participating in the non-profit National Association of Rasa Aragonesa Breeders´ genetic selection scheme and where sheep management was similar. A total of 242 AI lots were considered, including 1,299 ewes; 126 lots (662 ewes) were inseminated using DARIO, and 116 lots (637 ewes) using a traditional commercially-available catheter (control group). Several factors affecting AI results were included in the model for mean comparison between DARIO and control groups (farm and ram as random factors; catheter, year and photoperiod as fixed effects; catheter × photoperiod interaction). The type of catheter had a significant effect on fertility ( 0.05). Overall, the use of DARIO instead of the traditional commercially-available catheter increased both fertility and fecundity rates; the marginal mean differences were 9.05 pregnant ewes per 100 inseminated and 0.15 lambs per inseminated ewe, respectively.

With the overall aim of improving the synthesis of handwritten signatures, we have studied how muscle activation depends on handwriting style for both text and flourish. Surface electromyographic (EMG) signals from a set of twelve arm and trunk muscles were recorded in synchronization with handwriting produced on a digital Tablet. Correlations between these EMG signals and handwritten trajectory signals were analyzed so as to define the sequence of muscles activated during the different parts of the signature. Our results establish a correlation between the speed of the movement, stroke size, handwriting style and muscle activation. Muscle activity appeared to be clustered as a function of movement speed and handwriting style, a finding which may be used for filter design in a signature synthesizer.

We investigated the distribution of juvenile dispersal distances of a territorial long-lived species with deferred maturity, the Spanish imperial eagle Aquila adalberti. Here we used a reintroduction program as an experimental approach to test predictions of different hypotheses about the distribution of juvenile dispersal distances: competition and wandering behavior. We determined maximal juvenile dispersal distances of 59 young eagles; 1) 30 wild non-manipulated individuals, and 2) 29 tranlocated young under an ad libitum feeding program, released with adults breeding in the area. The competitive displacement hypothesis predicts a leptokurtic distribution of distances in wild non-manipulated young as well as in released young. Under the ‘wandering’ hypothesis, however, a leptokurtic distribution is expected in wild young but a normal distribution would be expected in young released (with adults in the release area), owing to a general improvement in the nutritional status of released young that have been fed ad libitum, as is usual in reintroduction programs. Additionally, a negative relationship between hatching date and dispersal distances is expected in wild young but no relationship in released young under ad libitum feeding. Mean maximum dispersal distances for all the juvenile eagles was 142.8 km. No differences between sexes were found, nor between populations or between wild and reintroduced young. Wild young distances were not normally distributed, being closer to a Poisson distribution. In contrast, released young with adults (under ad libitum feeding) showed a normal distribution. Wild birds showed a significant negative relationship between dispersal distance and hatching date, with young that hatched late in the season dispersing shorter distances. However, released young under ad libitum feeding showed no significant relationship between hatching date and dispersal distance. These results support the ‘wandering’ hypothesis as the main driver of the distribution of dispersal distances., The reintroduction program was supported by GIASA, Fundación Santander, Fundación Migres and Junta de Andalucía.

Novel Stability-based system for early bearing fault detection.Novel use of Dynamic Time Warping and Direct Matching Point techniques.Findings on continuous monitoring of vibration signals with low false alarms for faultsFindings on two publicly available databases under several machining conditions. This paper presents a new and straightforward system for bearing fault detection. The system computes the stability of two vibration signals by using the direct matching points (DMP) of an elastic and non-linear align function. It is able to find discriminant properties in the stability of fault-free and faulty bearing vibration signals from the early and late stages of the fault in critical bearing parts. Because training data constitutes one of the critical challenges in most expert and intelligent systems, one of the novelties of the proposed stability-based system is that it requires neither training nor fine-tuning. A significant impact on the robustness of the system is demonstrated using two publicly available vibration signal databases under several load conditions, with real faults, during multiple machine working states. Experimental results validate the use of the proposed stability-based system for predictive maintenance in bearings.

Method of synthesizing the temporal evolution of handwriting from childhood to adulthood.Synthesis of both online and offline handwriting.Parameters (E, D,t,K) for dealing with synthesized handwriting evolution.Method for comparing temporal evolution of real and synthetic handwriting. New methods for generating synthetic handwriting images for biometric applications have recently been developed. The temporal evolution of handwriting from childhood to adulthood is usually left unexplored in these works. This paper proposes a novel methodology for including temporal evolution in a handwriting synthesizer by means of simplifying the text trajectory plan and handwriting dynamics. This is achieved through a tailored version of the kinematic theory of rapid human movements and the neuromotor inspired handwriting synthesizer. The realism of the proposed method has been evaluated by comparing the temporal evolution of real and synthetic samples both quantitatively and subjectively. The quantitative test is based on a visual perception algorithm that compares the letter variability and the number of strokes in the real and synthetic handwriting produced at different ages. In the subjective test, 30 people are asked to evaluate the perceived realism of the evolution of the synthetic handwriting.

The synthetic generation of static handwritten signatures based on motor equivalence theory has been recently proposed for biometric applications. Motor equivalence divides the human handwriting action into an effector dependent cognitive level and an effector independent motor level. The first level has been suggested by others as an engram, generated through a spatial grid, and the second has been emulated with kinematic filters. Our paper proposes a development of this methodology in which we generate dynamic information and provide a unified comprehensive synthesizer for both static and dynamic signature synthesis. The dynamics are calculated by lognormal sampling of the 8-connected continuous signature trajectory, which includes, as a novelty, the pen-ups. The forgery generation imitates a signature by extracting the most perceptually relevant points of the given genuine signature and interpolating them. The capacity to synthesize both static and dynamic signatures using a unique model is evaluated according to its ability to adapt to the static and dynamic signature inter- and intra-personal variability. Our highly promising results suggest the possibility of using the synthesizer in different areas beyond the generation of unlimited databases for biometric training.

Biometric researchers have historically seen signature duplication as a procedure relevant to improving the performance of automatic signature verifiers. Different approaches have been proposed to duplicate dynamic signatures based on the heuristic affine transformation, nonlinear distortion and the kinematic model of the motor system. The literature on static signature duplication is limited and as far as we know based on heuristic affine transforms and does not seem to consider the recent advances in human behavior modeling of neuroscience. This paper tries to fill this gap by proposing a cognitive inspired algorithm to duplicate off-line signatures. The algorithm is based on a set of nonlinear and linear transformations which simulate the human spatial cognitive map and motor system intra-personal variability during the signing process. The duplicator is evaluated by increasing artificially a training sequence and verifying that the performance of four state-of-the-art off-line signature classifiers using two publicly databases have been improved on average as if we had collected three more real signatures.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical, pathological and immunological changes in lambs infected experimentally with Salmonella enterica subsp. diarizonae serotype 61:k:1,5,(7) (SED) that causes chronic proliferative rhinitis (CPR) in sheep. Eleven four-month-old lambs were infected with 3.2 × 10 8 UFC of SED by nasal route and four lambs with the same age were kept as placebo group. Clinical explorations were carried out monthly and vaginal, nasal swaps and fecal samples were taken for microbiological study during one year. Furthermore, a postmortem investigation was performed. Ventral turbinates of both nostrils and submandibular, parotid and retropharyngeal lymph nodes were sampled for histopathological, immunohistochemical and microbiological studies. Cell mediated immune response was assessed by lymphocyte stimulation test (Con A, PWM, PHA and LPS were used as mitogens), DTH test and by measuring IFN-γ concentration in serum and cultured supernatants. SED was isolated from nasal swabs and fecal samples of all infected lambs virtually throughout the study. No isolations were obtained from control group. At necropsy, no lesions associated with SED were recorded; however, the microorganism was isolated in regional lymph nodes in all infected animals. Moreover, infected lambs showed lower stimulation indices to Con A, PHA and PWM and higher for both LPS ( P 0.001). Besides, DTH response was lower in infected lambs than in the control group, but statistical significant differences were not found ( P > 0.05). Serum levels of IFN-γ during the experiment were higher in infected sheep than in the control group, suggesting an active infection. Furthermore, mitogens stimulated the production of IFN-γ in lymphocyte cultures from infected sheep, and the highest level were obtained with Con A. These results demonstrate that after experimental infection of healthy lambs with S. enterica subsp . diarizonae serotype 61:k:1,5,(7) infection was maintained for at least one year in the upper respiratory tract and that digestive route should be taken into account as a possible way of SED elimination. Moreover, SED infection caused a weak response of the T cells; nevertheless, more studies are needed to understand the mechanisms involved in the immunitary response and pathology of CPR in sheep associated with Salmonella enterica subsp. diarizonae infection.

[Resumen] Este trabajo muestra el diseño, planificación, implementación en el aula y análisis de una experiencia multisensorial dirigida a niños de Infantil en la que se trabajan contenidos científicos. El primer objetivo consiste en educar sensorialmente al alumnado mediante una exploración en la que utilizan los cinco sentidos de manera simultánea a la vez que disfrutan de las sensaciones que ofrece la manipulación de materiales naturales. El segundo objetivo es que los maestros valoren positivamente la educación sensorial en ciencias y reconozcan su insustituible valor didáctico en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Se analiza cómo la actividad permite al alumnado experimentar, sentir, pensar y describir las propiedades de los materiales de su entorno inmediato a través de los cinco sentidos paralelamente. Finalmente, se aporta vocabulario científico para trabajar la educación sensorial con el objetivo de que los niños sean capaces de describir objetos o sensaciones en otros contextos. [Abstract] This work shows the design, planning, classroom implementation and analysis of a multisensory experience where scientific contents are worked with children of Early Childhood Education. The first objective is to educate students by means of an exploration experience in which they use the five senses in a simultaneous way and they enjoy with the sensations offered through the manipulation of natural materials. The second aim is to achieve that teachers value the sensory education in science in a positively way and they recognize its irreplaceable didactic value in the teaching-learning process. This work is analysed studying how the activity allows students to experiment, to feel, to think and to describe the properties of the materials of their immediate environment through the five senses. Finally, a proposal of scientific content is provided to work sensory education, trying to increase the possibilities of exploration and the sensory vocabulary of both, students and teachers, for describing objects and sensations in other contexts. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; EDU2016-76743-P

We thank all participants who have agreed to participate in this study. Authors also thank Maria Dolores Casares, Angeles Molina, Carmen Oloriz for the collection of Spanish samples and Hans Jurgen Hoffmann, Marianne Thomsen, Vibeke Ostergaard Thomsen, Malene Rohr Andersen, Lise Lotte B. Laursen, Helle Jorgensen, Ram Benny Christian Dessau, Niels Steen Krogh, Ulla Vogel, Paal Skytt Andersen, Ivan Brandslund, Steffen Bank, Frederik Trier Moller, Nikolai Toft and Niels Moller Andersen for the participation in collection and purification of Danish samples. We also thank the Danish Departments of Rheumatology for their implication in the collection of clinical data from RA patients included in the DANBIO cohort and the Danish Rheumatologic Biobank. Likewise, we would like to thank Teun van Herwaarden for steroid hormone measurements in serum samples from subjects ascertained through the HFGP initiative. This work was partially supported by intramural funds of GENYO and FIBAO foundation (Granada, Spain); Novo Nordisk Fonden (NNF15OC0016932, VA); and Knud og Edith Eriksens Mindefond (VA) and Gigtforeningen (A2037, A3570, VA). MGN was supported by a Spinoza grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research., All data used in this project have been meticulously cataloged and archived in the BBMRI-NL data infrastructure (https://hfgp.bbmri.nl/) using the MOLGENIS open source platform for scientific data45. This allows flexible data querying and download, including sufficiently rich metadata and interfaces for machine processing (R statistics, REST API) and using FAIR principles to optimize Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability46. Genetic data from the discovery and DANBIO populations can be accessed at ftp.genyo.es and data from the DREAM registry are available at https://www.synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn3280809/wiki/194735 and https://www. synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn3280809/wiki/194736., Supplementary information is available for this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61331-5., This study sought to evaluate the association of 28 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within NFKB and inflammasome pathway genes with the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and response to TNF inhibitors (TNFi). We conducted a case-control study in a European population of 1194 RA patients and 1328 healthy controls. The association of potentially interesting markers was validated with data from the DANBIO (695 RA patients and 978 healthy controls) and DREAM (882 RA patients) registries. The meta-analysis of our data with those from the DANBIO registry confirmed that anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA)-positive subjects carrying the NFKB2rs11574851T allele had a significantly increased risk of developing RA (PMeta_ACPA + = 0.0006) whereas no significant effect was found in ACPA-negative individuals (PMeta_ACPA− = 0.35). An ACPA-stratified haplotype analysis including both cohorts (n = 4210) confirmed that ACPA-positive subjects carrying the NFKB2TT haplotype had an increased risk of RA (OR = 1.39, P = 0.0042) whereas no effect was found in ACPA-negative subjects (OR = 1.04, P = 0.82). The meta-analysis of our data with those from the DANBIO and DREAM registries also revealed a suggestive association of the NFKB2rs1056890 SNP with larger changes in DAS28 (OR = 1.18, P = 0.007). Functional experiments showed that peripheral blood mononuclear cells from carriers of the NFKB2rs1005044C allele (in LD with the rs1056890, r2 = 1.00) showed increased production of IL10 after stimulation with LPS (P = 0.0026). These results provide first evidence of a role of the NFKB2 locus in modulating the risk of RA in an ACPA-dependent manner and suggest its implication in determining the response to TNFi. Additional studies are now warranted to further validate these findings., GENYO, FIBAO foundation (Granada, Spain), Novo Nordisk Foundation NNF15OC0016932, Knud og Edith Eriksens Mindefond A2037 A3570, Gigtforeningen A2037 A3570, Spinoza grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research

We examined several procedures for surgical tail docking, with and without general anaesthesia (GA), including the use of a topical wound gel formulation to provide pain relief (PR) and improve healing after surgery, containing local anaesthetics lignocaine and bupivacaine, with cetrimide and adrenalin. Forty-four lambs were recruited into four equal cohorts: Groups A and C, the tail was excised with a scalpel without anaesthesia or stitches, Groups B and D, the tail was surgically excised and stitched under GA, Groups C and D wounds were immediately sprayed with PR. Behavioural observations identified that Groups A and C displayed significantly less pain-related behaviours than Groups B and D shortly after the procedure, especially if treated with PR. Similarly, the mean of days when animals showed no signs of wound infection was longer in the groups not undergoing stitching. Finally, treatment with PR appeared to reduce the cortisol response and avoided the elevation of serum amyloid A in lambs where the tail was excised without general anaesthesia. In conclusion, surgical tail-docking without GA but where wounds are immediately sprayed with PR, appears as an affordable and more welfare-appropriate method for conducting tail docking in lambs.

The AEFishBIT tri-axial accelerometer was externally attached to the operculum to assess the divergent activity and respiratory patterns of two marine farmed fish, the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) and European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). Analysis of raw data from exercised fish highlighted the large amplitude of operculum aperture and body tail movements in European sea bass, which were overall more stable at low-medium exercise intensity levels. Cosinor analysis in free-swimming fish (on-board data processing) highlighted a pronounced daily rhythmicity of locomotor activity and respiratory frequency in both gilthead sea bream and European sea bass. Acrophases of activity and respiration were coupled in gilthead sea bream, acting feeding time (once daily at 11:00 h) as a main synchronizing factor. By contrast, locomotor activity and respiratory frequency were out of phase in European sea bass with activity acrophase on early morning and respiration acrophase on the afternoon. The daily range of activity and respiration variation was also higher in European sea bass, probably as part of the adaptation of this fish species to act as a fast swimming predator. In any case, lower locomotor activity and enhanced respiration were associated with larger body weight in both fish species. This agrees with the notion that selection for fast growth in farming conditions is accompanied by a lower activity profile, which may favor an efficient feed conversion for growth purposes. Therefore, the use of behavioral monitoring is becoming a reliable and large-scale promising tool for selecting more efficient farmed fish, allowing researchers and farmers to establish stricter criteria of welfare for more sustainable and ethical fish production., European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 652831 (AQUAEXCEL2020, Aquaculture infrastructures for excellence in European fish research towards 2020)., ProID2017010062, from Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (Gobierno de Canarias), co-funded with European Structural and Investment Funds (2014-2020), FICASES, Fish Cage Sensor System (TEC2017-89403-C2-2-R) from Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, co-funded with European Regional Development Funds (2014-2020).

Este artículo contiene 9 páginas, 3 figuras, 1 tabla., The depopulation of rural areas by humans (or rural exodus) in southern Europe, and the associated abandonment of cropland, had marked ecological consequences on wildlife, which became evident approximately fifteen years ago. Shrub and tree encroachment, and the expansion of forest birds and the formerly persecuted mammalian ungulates and carnivores, were highlighted as the major consequences of the rural exodus in Italy. In this report, we provide a more integrative view, and show that a rural exodus also explains other ecological phenomena that are usually treated independently. After reviewing the ecological consequences of the rural exodus that has been affecting a large part of Spain during the last six decades, we suggest that this set of ecological consequences also includes the movement of shy-selected predators and large, big game species out of their former ecological refuges, as well as increased frequencies of individuals with bolder-behaviours in recovering populations. We develop a tentative conceptual model linking the increasing approach of wildlife to anthropogenic habitats and human depopulation of rural areas. These links are created by the increasing difficulty to survive and reproduce in recovering, high-predation wild areas, due to mesopredator release and the loss of fear to humans, among other factors. We acknowledge that the recovery of formerly persecuted wildlife in depopulated landscapes has been helped by conservation policies, but we suggest that policies alone cannot explain the observed changes. Finally, we propose that the processes we analyse on a national scale could be taking place in Europe on a continental scale as well, and will most likely occur in the future in other regions of the world, with the current growth in economies., AMA received funding from Xunta de Galicia (Programa de Investigaci´on Competitiva del Sistema Universitario Gallego, ED431C 2018/57). XF thanks the financial support of Fundaci´o Barcelona Zoo and Ajuntament de Barcelona and MINUARTIA Estudis Ambientals.

Este trabajo presenta el diseño, planificación, implementación en el aula y análisis de una secuencia de ocho sesiones de instalación artística que posibilitan el aprendizaje de contenidos científicos en el alumnado de Educación Infantil (EI). Se analiza desde una perspectiva descriptiva cómo las actividades les permiten experimentar con los objetos que configuran cada instalación para descubrir los procesos científicos que implican sus acciones, verbalizarlos, pensar en lo que ocurre y conocer de este modo la ciencia que hay a nuestro alrededor. This article presents the design, planning, classroom implementation and analysis of a sequence of eight artistic installation sessions that make it possible for early-childhood pupils to learn scientific content. Using a descriptive perspective, the study analyses how the activities allow researchers to experiment with each installation's object to discover the scientific processes involved in their actions, verbalise them, think about what is happening and thus know the science around us.

Power lines are one of the mammals’ mortality factors. There are some records of electrocuted large mammals such as elephants and leopards in India, deer and cougars in the USA. In this paper, we r...

Mining is responsible of releasing trace elements to the environment with potential negative effects on wildlife. Traditionally, wildlife exposure assessment has been developed by analyzing mainly environmental compartments or internal tissues. Nowadays, the use of non-destructive matrices such as hair or feathers has increased. Nevertheless, its use in free-living terrestrial mammals or in birds other than raptors or passerines is less frequent. The main objective of our study was to determine the potential for hair and feathers in a rabbit and bird species to be used as non-invasive proxy tissues for assessing internal metal concentrations at polluted sites from mining. We tested whether hair of European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and feathers of red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) can be used as non-destructive biological monitoring tools of both essential (Cu, Zn) and non-essential (Pb, Cd, As) trace elements in a currently active copper mining site. We found significant different concentrations, particularly in non-essential elements, between reference area and mining site. Non-essential elements Pb and Cd showed higher correlations between tissues and hair/feathers, while few significant patterns were observed for essential elements such as Cu and Zn. Although feathers showed lower levels of correlation with internal tissues than hair, both could be useful as non-destructive biological monitoring tools. Further tissues, and more importantly, hair and feathers allowed discrimination between polluted and reference sites to indicate bioavailability and pollution status. In addition, hair and feathers can be used in monitoring pollution of an active mining site, being specially interesting for biomonitoring a certain period of time in the event of a particular episode of pollution, in addition to the chronic exposure. As occurred with hair in rabbits, feathers seem to be a good compartment to detect differences between a potential polluted area, such the surrounding of an active mine site, and a non-polluted area., This work was supported by funding from Fundación Migres through a collaboration project with Cobre Las Cruces, S.A. We would like to thank technicians from Fundacion Migres for their help during sampling.

Here, we assessed whether 41 SNPs within steroid hormone genes associated with erosive disease. The most relevant finding was the rheumatoid factor (RF)-specific effect of the CYP1B1, CYP2C9, ESR2, FcγR3A, and SHBG SNPs to modulate the risk of bone erosions (P = 0.004, 0.0007, 0.0002, 0.013 and 0.015) that was confirmed through meta-analysis of our data with those from the DREAM registry (P = 0.000081, 0.0022, 0.00074, 0.0067 and 0.0087, respectively). Mechanistically, we also found a gender-specific correlation of the CYP2C9rs1799853T/T genotype with serum vitamin D3 levels (P = 0.00085) and a modest effect on IL1β levels after stimulation of PBMCs or blood with LPS and PHA (P = 0.0057 and P = 0.0058). An overall haplotype analysis also showed an association of 3 ESR1 haplotypes with a reduced risk of erosive arthritis (P = 0.009, P = 0.002, and P = 0.002). Furthermore, we observed that the ESR2, ESR1 and FcγR3A SNPs influenced the immune response after stimulation of PBMCs or macrophages with LPS or Pam3Cys (P = 0.002, 0.0008, 0.0011 and 1.97•10−7). Finally, we found that a model built with steroid hormone-related SNPs significantly improved the prediction of erosive disease in seropositive patients (PRF+ = 2.46•10−8) whereas no prediction was detected in seronegative patients (PRF− = 0.36). Although the predictive ability of the model was substantially lower in the replication population (PRF+ = 0.014), we could confirm that CYP1B1 and CYP2C9 SNPs help to predict erosive disease in seropositive patients. These results are the first to suggest a RF-specific association of steroid hormone-related polymorphisms with erosive disease.

Improving the ability of forgery detection in Automatic Signature Verifiers requires databases with an extensive and realistic set of skilled forgeries. However, collecting skilled professional copies is not always possible in many studies, and most the publicly available databases are limited from that point of view. Recently, the Kinematic Theory of Rapid Movements has been used to improve the skillfulness from a given on-line skilled forgery. This paper proposes a method based on the Kinematic Theory of Rapid Movements to generate both on-line and off-line skilled synthetic forgeries from a single on-line genuine specimen. The method consists of three steps: 1. The genuine on-line signature is decomposed as a sum of overlapped lognormal strokes, 2. The trajectory is modified by distorting the virtual target points and the lognormal parameters, and 3. A new velocity profile is automatically synthetized from the 8-connected modified trajectory. Experiments with multiple on-line and off-line signature verifiers show that this method can generate skilled forgeries harder to detect.

On-line signature verification involves the use of many different features or domains. The most stable domains for a signer are analysed in this paper. For this purpose, stable domains are calculated with the weighted Direct Matching Points (ωDMP), which is a relaxed version of the classical DMP technique. In addition to the direct coupling, ωDMP also considers the information contained in the 1:N couplings from the Dynamic Time Warping algorithm. Using the ωDMP technique, state-of-the-art verification results are obtained, showing the capacity to outperform previous DMP techniques to calculate the local stability model of signers.

Here, we provide evidence that the number of Western European ospreys wintering in the Iberian Peninsula has been increasing over nearly two decades due to a reduction of the migration distances. We compared trends in wintering and breeding populations of ospreys in the Iberian Peninsula and western Europe, respectively, and we provide a detailed description of the present distribution and the numbers of ospreys wintering in the Iberian Peninsula. Observations of the species were collected as a citizen science project in January 2017. Based on the long-term data series from the Andalusian region (2004–2016) and from the Bay of Cadiz site (2000–2016), we estimated temporal trends in the population size of the ospreys wintering in these areas. Trends in the western European breeding population were derived from counts of ospreys migrating over the Strait of Gibraltar conducted by volunteers (1999–2016). All the trends were estimated by fitting a linear regression to the logarithm of the annual counts. For quantifying the origin of ospreys wintering in the Iberian Peninsula, we collected 204 confirmed field sightings of wintering ospreys in Spain and 155 in Portugal. We showed that the number of wintering ospreys has been increasing in southern Spain over the last 16 years. The magnitude of this increase is similar to the rate of change observed in the ospreys breeding across Western Europe. Recoveries of ringed birds in the Iberian Peninsula during winter indicate a reduction in the migration distances of Central and Northern European ospreys, making these birds winter at higher latitudes more than before. According to our results, this reduction in the migration distance was fairly uniform among different breeding populations in western Europe, but it did not affect all age classes equally, with juvenile birds more prone to winter at higher latitudes compared to adult birds. Our results showed that the overall number of ospreys which are shortening their migration distance, now over 3% of the total breeding population estimated for western Europe, is on an upward trend.

BACKGROUND High-volume low-pressure (HVLP) endotracheal tube (ETT) cuffs for critically ill patients often deflate during the course of mechanical ventilation. We performed an in-vitro study to comprehensively assess HVLP cuff deflation dynamics and potential preventive measures. METHODS We evaluated 24-hour deflation of seven HVLP cuffs of cylindrical or tapered shape, and made of polyvinylchloride or polyurethane. Experiments were performed within a thermostated chamber set at 37 °C. In the first stage of experiments, the cuff pilot balloon valve was not manipulated. The cuff internal pressure was assessed hourly for 24 hours, via a linear position sensor which monitored cuff deflation displacements. Then, we re-evaluated cuff deflation of the worst-performing ETT cuffs with the cuff pilot balloon valve sealed. Finally, we inflated ETT cuffs within an artificial trachea to evaluate deflation dynamics during mechanical ventilation. RESULTS Initial tests showed an exponential decrease in cuff internal pressure in five out of seven cuffs. Cuffs of cylindrical shape and made of polyurethane demonstrated the fastest deflation rates (P

In automatic signature verification, questioned specimens are usually compared with reference signatures. In writer-dependent schemes, a number of reference signatures are required to build up the individual signer model while a writer-independent system requires a set of reference signatures from several signers to develop the model of the system. This paper addresses the problem of automatic signature verification when no reference signatures are available. The scenario we explore consists of a set of signatures, which could be signed by the same author or by multiple signers. As such, we discuss three methods which estimate automatically the common authorship of a set of off-line signatures. The first method develops a score similarity matrix, worked out with the assistance of duplicated signatures; the second uses a feature-distance matrix for each pair of signatures; and the last method introduces pre-classification based on the complexity of each signature. Publicly available signatures were used in the experiments, which gave encouraging results. As a baseline for the performance obtained by our approaches, we carried out a visual Turing Test where forensic and non-forensic human volunteers, carrying out the same task, performed less well than the automatic schemes.

BACKGROUND: In patients on mechanical ventilation, lung hyperinflation is often performed to reverse atelectasis and clear retained mucus. We evaluated the effects of manual hyperinflation and ventilator hyperinflation on mucus clearance, gas exchange, pulmonary mechanics, and hemodynamics. METHODS: Six mechanically ventilated pigs with severe Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia randomly received either 12 manual hyperinflation breaths over a period of 2 min (through a gradual manual compression of a resuscitation bag within 4 s to achieve 40 cm H2O of airway pressure), or 12 ventilator hyperinflation over 2 min to achieve the same ventilatory end points as in manual hyperinflation. Mucus clearance rate was measured through fluoroscopic tracking of tracheal markers. Prior to each maneuver and 15 min thereafter, we assessed arterial and mixed gas exchange, pulmonary mechanics, and hemodynamics. RESULTS: Both manual hyperinflation and ventilator hyperinflation significantly decreased inspiratory flow by approximately 16 L/min (P CONCLUSIONS: In an animal model of severe P. aeruginosa pneumonia, neither manual hyperinflation nor ventilator hyperinflation improved mucus clearance. If confirmed in comprehensive clinical experimentations, these findings should promote reappraisal of indications for both manual hyperinflation and ventilator hyperinflation as a therapeutic technique for mucus clearance and atelectasis reversal.

espanolLa «economia colaborativa», economia de plataformas o economia P2P, constituye un modelo de negocio relativamente reciente basado en una utilizacion mas eficiente de recursos economicos infrautilizados –bienes o servicios– a traves de plataformas digitales dotadas de ambientes sociales que incentivan la confianza. A traves de la colaboracion digital entre expertos en la materia, este articulo pretende proporcionar al lector una prevision informada de las posibles lineas de evolucion de la economia colaborativa en diversos sectores economicos. Asimismo, se proponen unas conclusiones para el mejor empleo y comprension de esta nueva familia de modelos de negocio por parte del sector privado y del sector publico. EnglishThe “sharing economy”, platform economy or P2P economy is a recent business model based on a more efficient use of underutilized economic resources –goods or services– through digital platforms with social environments that encourage trust. Through digital collaboration between experts in the field, this article aims to provide the reader with an informed forecast of the possible lines of evolution of the “collaborative economy” in various economic sectors. Likewise, some recommendations are proposed for the best use and understanding of this new family of business models by the private sector and the public sector.

The paper presents an approach to design rapid and fluid movements of an universal robot to perform robot writing mimicking both the human kinematics when signing and the trajectory. To perform the task, on-line human signing standards are created first. Robot writing task is performed using these standards after that and robot signatures are acquired as a result. Next, both human and robot signatures are analyzed and compared, and the degree of signatures correlation is defined. Finally, recommendations of robot motion improvement are given.

At the slaughterhouse, 1465 culled sheep heads were studied in order to identify disorders of the mandibular cheek teeth. Of these, 227 (15.5%) had evidence of osteomyelitis. The lesional profile showed that the mandible was affected in a similar proportion on both sides (46.7% on the right side vs 50.7% on the left side), mainly in the middle region (55.3%) and with most of the lesions closed without fistulisation (89.4%). In addition, swelling was palpable, with an increase in thickness in the area of the affected body (2.65 ± 0.065 cm vs 1.74 ± 0.030 cm). In 78.6% of the animals, the regional lymph nodes were enlarged. Concerning the mandibular cheek teeth, more than half of the animals lacked at least one tooth (57.0%), with the first premolar being the most frequently missing tooth (34.8%) and the third molar the least (8.2%). The impaction of food around the teeth was very common with the posterior molars being more frequently affected. In the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that analyses the prevalence of mandibular molar and premolar disorders in sheep, and these are revealed as an important condition affecting culled sheep.

The biosensor technology has the potential to revolutionize the aquaculture industry, but the selection of tagging method, operational mode (stand-alone vs. wireless systems) and telemetry technology ultimately depends on living species, life stage and research question. In particular, AEFishBIT is a small and stand-alone device composed of a tri-axial accelerometer, a microprocessor, a battery, and a RFID tag that was designed to be externally attached to the operculum. This unique location serves to provide simultaneous measurements of activity patterns (signals of x- and y-axes) and respiratory frequency (z-axis signal) processed by on-board algorithms. The validity of measurements was initially proved in exercised fish in a swim tunnel respirometer, and its use as a reliable tool for the individual monitoring of whole-organism traits in free-swimming gilthead sea bream was tested then in fish facing a wide range of biotic and abiotic stressors. The impact of the tagging method, based on the use of monel piercing fish tags with a flexible heat shrink polyethylene ring, was also evaluated and no signs of growth impairment, operculum damage or gill lamellae haemorrhage were found 10 days post-tagging. The autonomy of the device was 6 hours of continuous recording with re-programmable lag times and recording schedules of 2 min windows at regular intervals along the experimental period (2-8 days). Such procedure underlined a negative linear correlation between fasting weight loss and operculum breaths, becoming respiratory frequency a reliable indicator of basal metabolic rates. Biosensing signals also highlighted the more continuous physical activity and increased respiratory rates of young fish when comparisons were made between one- and three-year old fish. Also, AEFishBIT measurements evidenced a generalized increase of respiratory frequency during severe hypoxia (2-3 ppm), but the individuals classified as proactive fish also shared an increased physical activity for supporting escape reactions in a milieu with low oxygen availability. Likewise, we also observed an overall increase of physical activity with the decrease of tank space availability, which can contribute to establish stricter criteria of welfare in farmed fish. Finally, the reduction of respiratory frequency was a consistent diagnostic marker of the progression of parasitic enteritis in experimentally infected fish with the myxozoan Enteromyxum leei. Altogether, this work constitutes the proof of concept of the use of biosensor technology as a reliable tool for individual fish phenotyping of whole-organism traits in farmed fish, contributing to improve animal welfare and productivity of aquaculture industry., European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 652831 (AQUAEXCEL2020, Aquaculture infrastructures for excellence in European fish research towards 2020)., Ramón y Cajal Postdoctoral Research Fellowship RYC2018-024049-I/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

Background An update of evidence-based guidelines concerning liberation from mechanical ventilation is needed as new evidence has become available. The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) have collaborated to provide recommendations to clinicians concerning liberation from the ventilator. Methods Comprehensive evidence syntheses, including meta-analyses, were performed to summarize all available evidence relevant to the guideline panel's questions. The evidence was appraised using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach, and the results were summarized in evidence profiles. The evidence syntheses were discussed and recommendations developed and approved by a multidisciplinary committee of experts in mechanical ventilation. Results Recommendations for three population, intervention, comparator, outcome (PICO) questions concerning ventilator liberation are presented in this document. The guideline panel considered the balance of desirable (benefits) and undesirable (burdens, adverse effects, costs) consequences, quality of evidence, feasibility, and acceptability of various interventions with respect to the selected questions. Conditional (weak) recommendations were made to use inspiratory pressure augmentation in the initial spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) and to use protocols to minimize sedation for patients ventilated for more than 24 h. A strong recommendation was made to use preventive noninvasive ventilation (NIV) for high-risk patients ventilated for more than 24 h immediately after extubation to improve selected outcomes. The recommendations were limited by the quality of the available evidence. Conclusions The guideline panel provided recommendations for inspiratory pressure augmentation during an initial SBT, protocols minimizing sedation, and preventative NIV, in relation to ventilator liberation.

Background This clinical practice guideline addresses six questions related to liberation from mechanical ventilation in critically ill adults. It is the result of a collaborative effort between the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST). Methods A multidisciplinary panel posed six clinical questions in a population, intervention, comparator, outcomes (PICO) format. A comprehensive literature search and evidence synthesis was performed for each question, which included appraising the quality of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. The Evidence-to-Decision framework was applied to each question, requiring the panel to evaluate and weigh the importance of the problem, confidence in the evidence, certainty about how much the public values the main outcomes, magnitude and balance of desirable and undesirable outcomes, resources and costs associated with the intervention, impact on health disparities, and acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Results Evidence-based recommendations were formulated and graded initially by subcommittees and then modified following full panel discussions. The recommendations were confirmed by confidential electronic voting; approval required that at least 80% of the panel members agree with the recommendation. Conclusions The panel provides recommendations regarding liberation from mechanical ventilation. The details regarding the evidence and rationale for each recommendation are presented in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and CHEST.

Background: Interventions that lead to earlier liberation from mechanical ventilation can improve patient outcomes. This guideline, a collaborative effort between the American Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians, provides evidence-based recommendations to optimize liberation from mechanical ventilation in critically ill adults. Methods: Two methodologists performed evidence syntheses to summarize available evidence relevant to key questions about liberation from mechanical ventilation. The methodologists appraised the certainty in the evidence (i.e., the quality of evidence) using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach and summarized the results in evidence profiles. The guideline panel then formulated recommendations after considering the balance of desirable consequences (benefits) versus undesirable consequences (burdens, adverse effects, and costs), the certaintyintheevidence,andthefeasibilityandacceptabilityofvarious interventions. Recommendations were rated as strong or conditional. Results:Theguidelinepanelmadefourconditionalrecommendations related to rehabilitation protocols, ventilator liberation protocols, and cuff leak tests. The recommendations were for acutely hospitalized adults mechanically ventilated for more than 24 hours to receive protocolized rehabilitation directed toward early mobilization, be managed with a ventilator liberation protocol, be assessed with a cuff leak test if they meet extubation criteria but are deemed high risk for postextubation stridor, and be administered systemic steroids for at least 4 hours before extubation if they fail the cuff leak test. Conclusions: The American Thoracic Society/American College of Chest Physicians recommendations are intended to support healthcare professionals in their decisions related to liberating critically ill adults from mechanical ventilation.

Background: This clinical practice guideline addresses six questions related to liberation from mechanical ventilation in critically ill adults. It is the result of a collaborative effort between the American Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians. Methods: A multidisciplinary panel posed six clinical questions in a Population, Intervention, Comparator, and Outcomes format. A comprehensive literature search and evidence synthesis was performed for each question, which included appraising the certainty in the evidence (i.e., the quality of evidence) using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach. The Evidence-to-Decision framework was applied to each question, requiring the panel to evaluate and weigh the importance of the problem, the confidence in the evidence, the certainty about how much the public values the main outcomes, the magnitude and balance of desirable and undesirable outcomes, the resources and costs associated with the intervention, the impact on health disparities, and the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Results: Evidence-based recommendations were formulated and graded initially by subcommittees and then modified after full-panel discussions. The recommendations were confirmed by confidential electronic voting; approval required that at least 80% of the panel members agree with the recommendation. Conclusions: The panel provides recommendations regarding liberation from mechanical ventilation. The details regarding the evidence and rationale for each recommendation are presented in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and Chest.

Full waveform inversion (FWI) is one of the most challenging procedures to obtain quantitative information of the subsurface. For elastic inversions, when both compressional and shear velocities have to be inverted, the algorithmic issue becomes also a computational challenge due to the high cost related to modelling elastic rather than acoustic waves. This shortcoming has been moderately mitigated by using high-performance computing to accelerate 3D elastic FWI kernels. Nevertheless, there is room in the FWI workflows for obtaining large speedups at the cost of proper grid pre-processing and data decimation techniques. In the present work, we show how by making full use of frequency-adapted grids, composite shot lists and a novel dynamic offset control strategy, we can reduce by several orders of magnitude the compute time while improving the convergence of the method in the studied cases, regardless of the forward and adjoint compute kernels used.

A new framework for liveness detection at the intra class level/user level.Proposed a more realistic database for liveness detection of ocular biometrics.A set of image quality features are proposed for liveness detection in ocular biometrics.To demonstrate the proposed framework, versatile spoofing techniques were explored.The proposed framework is more realistic and efficient compared to the state-of-the-art. In this research a new framework for software-based liveness detection for direct attacks in multimodal ocular biometrics across the visible spectrum is proposed. The framework aims to develop a more realistic method for liveness detection compared to previous frameworks proposed in the literature. To fulfil the above highlighted aims in this framework, intra-class level (i.e. user level) liveness detection is introduced. To detect liveness, a new set of image quality-based features is proposed for multimodal ocular biometrics in the visible spectrum. A variety of transformed domain (focus related) aspect and contrast-related quality features are employed to design the framework. Furthermore a new database is developed for liveness detection of multimodal ocular biometrics, which has the prominent presence of multimodal ocular traits (both sclera and iris). Moreover this database is comprised of a larger variety of fake images; those were prepared by employing versatile forging techniques which can be exhibited by imposters. Therefore the proposed schema has dealt with versatile categories of spoofing methods, which were not considered previously in the literature. The database contains a set of 500 fake and 500 genuine eye images acquired from 50 different eyes. An appreciable liveness detection result is achieved in the experiments. Furthermore, the experimental results conclude that this new framework is more efficient and competitive when compared to previous liveness detection schemes. Display Omitted

Ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA) is a contagious lung cancer of sheep caused by jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV). It is generally accepted that transmission by the respiratory route occurs under natural conditions. However recent studies strongly indicate that JSRV can also be transmitted to lambs perinatally via colostrum and milk (C/M). The aim of this work was to confirm that C/M can transmit JSRV infection to lambs under natural conditions and investigate the initial events associated with this transmission route. We have analyzed the presence of JSRV in C/M samples from 22 naturally infected, asymptomatic ewes throughout a lactation period, and in various tissues collected from a group of 36 of their lambs that were fed naturally. The lambs were euthanized at 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours and at 5 and 10 days after birth. We detected JSRV-provirus by PCR in the somatic C/M cells from 10/22 ewes (45.45%). The virus was also detected in 9/36 lambs (25%). JSRV-infected cells, with lymphoreticular-like morphology, were observed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in situ hybridization (ISH) in Peyer’s patches (PP) from the small intestine of the youngest lambs and in mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) from lambs older than 72 hours. The virus was also detected by PCR in white blood cells (WBC) in 2/36 lambs (5.5%). These results confirm colostral transmission of JSRV to lambs under natural conditions. Infected lymphoreticular cells contained in C/M appear to be involved. These cells can cross the intestinal barrier of newborn lambs, reach the MLN and enter into circulation.

This study introduces a novel method to build up a multi-script off-line signature database aggregating many single-script off-line databases, along with a statistical performance analysis method for a fair comparison between single- and multi-script scenarios. This analysis method is based on merging the single-script databases without increasing the number of users (signers) and selecting the users for merging, based on the probability density functions of the users’ equal error rates. As similar results are achieved when merging single- and multi-script databases, it is concluded that multi-script signature verification is actually a generalisation and interoperability problem. The study also concludes that a statistical performance analysis method that is Bhattacharyya distance could be used for analysing multi-script versus single-script signature verification scenarios. These results have been obtained after experimenting with nine public databases with five different scripts.