Immune response induced by a Streptococcus suis multi-serotype autogenous vaccine used in sows to protect post-weaned piglets.

Streptococcus suis is a bacterial pathogen that causes important economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. Since there are no current commercial vaccines, the use of autogenous vaccines applied to gilts/sows to enhance transfer of passive immunity is an attractive alternative to protect weaned piglets. However, there is no universal standardization in the production of autogenous vaccines and the vaccine formulation may be highly different among licenced manufacturing laboratories. In the present study, an autogenous vaccine that included S. suis serotypes 2, 1/2, 5, 7 and 14 was prepared by a licensed laboratory and administrated to gilts using a three-dose program prior to farrowing. The antibody response in gilts as well as the passive transfer of antibodies to piglets was then evaluated. In divergence with previously published data with an autogenous vaccine produced by a different company, the increased response seen in gilts was sufficient to improve maternal antibody transfer to piglets up to 5 weeks of age. However, piglets would still remain susceptible to S. suis disease which often appears during the second part of the nursery period. Vaccination did not affect the shedding of S. suis (as well as that of the specific S. suis serotypes included in the vaccine) by either gilts or piglets. Although all antibiotic treatments were absent during the trial, the clinical protective effect of the vaccination program with the autogenous vaccine could not be evaluated, since limited S. suis cases were present during the trial, confirming the need for a complete evaluation of the clinical protection that must include laboratory confirmation of the aetiological agent involved in the presence of S. suis-associated clinical signs. Further studies to evaluate the usefulness of gilt/sow vaccination with autogenous vaccines to protect nursery piglets should be done.

Diversity of Profiles and Coping Among Adolescent Girl Victims of Sexual Dating Violence.

Sexual dating violence (DV) is common among female adolescents, and victims may experience other forms of DV (physical, psychological, and cyberviolence) and report a history of child sexual abuse (CSA). Heterogeneity of these victimization experiences could influence how adolescent girls' cope. We aimed to identify distinct profiles of victimization experiences among adolescent girls who reported sexual DV and to explore if these profiles were associated to their coping strategies. Of an initial sample of 1,300 female adolescents who completed online questionnaires, 835 (Mage = 16.8 years) reported at least one experience of sexual DV and were included in the analyses. Hierarchical classification with the Two Step analysis revealed four distinct profiles of victimization. A first cluster named Moderate CSA & Cyber-sexual DV (21.4%) is characterized by moderate percentage of all forms of victimization. The second cluster CSA & DV excluding cyber-sexual DV (34.4%) included victims of traditional DV, moderate rates of CSA and no experience of cyber-sexual DV. A third cluster CSA & DV Co-occurrence (20.6%) regrouped victims who have experienced different forms of DV in co-occurrence and CSA. Finally, the fourth cluster, named No CSA & DV Co-occurrence (23.6%) involved victims who have experienced different forms of DV in co-occurrence, but did not report a history of CSA. Analyses revealed significant differences between the profiles on the use of avoidance coping, in their perceived social support, and on help-seeking strategies deployed toward a partner and a health professional. These findings offer cues for prevention and intervention efforts for victimized female adolescents.

Photoinduced charge and energy transfer in molecular wires.

Exploring charge and energy transport in donor-bridge-acceptor systems is an important research field which is essential for the fundamental knowledge necessary to develop future applications. These studies help creating valuable knowledge to respond to today's challenges to develop functionalized molecular systems for artificial photosynthesis, photovoltaics or molecular scale electronics. This tutorial review focuses on photo-induced charge/energy transfer in covalently linked donor-bridge-acceptor (D-B-A) systems. Of utmost importance in such systems is to understand how to control signal transmission, i.e. how fast electrons or excitation energy could be transferred between the donor and acceptor and the role played by the bridge (the "molecular wire"). After a brief description of the electron and energy transfer theory, we aim to give a simple yet accurate picture of the complex role played by the bridge to sustain donor-acceptor electronic communication. Special emphasis is put on understanding bridge energetics and conformational dynamics effects on the distance dependence of the donor-acceptor electronic coupling and transfer rates. Several examples of donor-bridge-acceptor systems from the literature are described as a support to the discussion. Finally, porphyrin-based molecular wires are introduced, and the relationship between their electronic structure and photophysical properties is outlined. In strongly conjugated porphyrin systems, limitations of the existing electron transfer theory to interpret the distance dependence of the transfer rates are also discussed.