High-grain feeding contributes to endotoxin contamination in dairy milk.

To support milk production and milk quality, ruminant animals like dairy cows are particularly fed using concentrate containing high grain and starch. Nonetheless, this type of regimen feeding could induce subacute rumen acidosis condition. Then, these circumstances cause the lysis of gram-negative bacteria accompanied by endotoxin release in gut. More importantly, gut endotoxin could be translocated to mammary gland, whereby this condition negatively affects to milk safety. The aim of the review is to update and summarize the current knowledge regarding high-grain diet and the occurrence of endotoxin in milk of dairy cows. The data suggest that there is interplay between high-grain feeding for dairy cows to endotoxin contamination in milk.

A 2-year study reveals implications of feeding management and exposure to mycotoxins on udder health, performance, and fertility in dairy herds.

We recently reported the ubiquitous occurrence of mycotoxins and their secondary metabolites in dairy rations and a substantial variation in the feeding management among Austrian dairy farms. The present study aimed to characterize to which extent these factors contribute to the fertility, udder health traits, and performance of dairy herds. During 2019 and 2020, we surveyed 100 dairy farms, visiting each farm 2 times and collecting data and feed samples. Data collection involved information on the main feed ingredients, nutrient composition, and the levels of mycotoxin and other metabolites in the diet. The annual fertility and milk data of the herds were obtained from the national reporting agency. Calving interval was the target criterion for fertility performance, whereas the percentage of primiparous and multiparous cows in the herd with somatic cell counts above 200,000 cells/mL was the criterion for impaired udder health. For each criterion, herds were classified into 3 groups: high/long, mid, and low/short, with the cut-off corresponding to the <25th and >75th percentiles and the rest of the data, respectively. Accordingly, for the calving interval, the cut-offs for the long and short groups were ≥400 and ≤380 d, for the udder health in primiparous cows were ≥20% and ≤8% of the herd, and for the udder health in multiparous cows were ≥35% and ≤20% of the herd, respectively. Quantitative approaches were further performed to define potential risk factors in the herds. The high somatic cell count group had higher dietary exposure to enniatins (2.8 vs. 1.62 mg/cow per d), deoxynivalenol (4.91 vs. 2.3 mg/cow per d), culmorin (9.48 vs. 5.72 mg/cow per d), beauvericin (0.32 vs. 0.18 mg/cow per d), and siccanol (13.3 vs. 5.15 mg/cow per d), and total Fusarium metabolites (42.8 vs. 23.2 mg/cow per d) and used more corn silage in the ration (26.9% vs. 17.3% diet DM) compared with the low counterparts. Beauvericin was the most substantial contributing variable among the Fusarium metabolites, as indicated by logistic regression and modeling analyses. Logistic analysis indicated that herds with high proportions of cows with milk fat-to-protein ratio >1.5 had an increased odds for a longer calving interval, which was found to be significant for primiparous cows (odds ratio = 5.5, 95% confidence interval = 1.65-21.7). As well, herds with high proportions of multiparous cows showing levels of milk urea nitrogen >30 mg/dL had an increased odds for longer calving intervals (odds ratio = 2.96, 95% confidence interval = 1.22-7.87). In conclusion, the present findings suggest that dietary contamination of Fusarium mycotoxins (especially emerging ones), likely due to increased use of corn silage in the diet, seems to be a risk factor for impairing the udder health of primiparous cows. Mismatching dietary energy and protein supply of multiparous cows contributed to reduced herd fertility performance.

Prevalence of Angiostrongylus vasorum, Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Crenosoma vulpis larvae in native slug populations in Germany.

Metastrongyloid parasites represent sparsely studied parasites of dogs and cats in Germany. Recent European surveys indicate that these parasites are spreading in Europe. Actual data on prevalence of Angiostrongylus vasorum in dogs and foxes reveal several endemic foci in Germany. However, actual data on the prevalence of A. vasorum and other metastrongyloid lungworm larvae in a wide range of slug and snail intermediate hosts, such as Arion lusitanicus, are missing for Germany. To fill this gap, we conducted an epidemiological survey on native German slugs in selected regions of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. The focus was on slugs, because in study areas slugs appear to be more abundant than snails. Slugs were collected throughout different seasons of the year in areas that were previously proven to be hyperendemic for A. vasorum fox infections. Overall, a total of 2701 slugs were collected and examined for lungworm larvae via artificial digestion. The number of A. vasorum larvae per slug varied considerably (1-546 larvae per specimen). Some hotspot areas with high A. vasorum prevalence in slugs (up to 19.4%) were identified. The overall A. vasorum prevalence varied with season with largest number of slugs infected in summer (9.1%) and lowest number in winter (0.8%). The current study revealed a total A. vasorum prevalence of 4.7% in slugs based on microscopic analyses. Confirmation of lungworm species was made by specific duplex-real-time PCRs. Hence, these data demonstrate that final hosts are at a permanent risk for A. vasorum infections during all seasons when living in investigated areas. Besides A. vasorum, other lungworm larvae were also detected, such as Crenosoma vulpis (the fox lungworm, 2.3%) and Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (feline lungworm, 0.2%).

Regional report on Angiostrongylus vasorum in Colombia: Genetic similarity to European lineage.

The canine lungworm Angiostrongylus vasorum is considered neglected in South America and was only sporadically reported in dogs and wildlife. Gastropods act as obligatory intermediate hosts for this parasitosis. We here analysed Achatina fulica (African giant snail) populations from 5 regions of Colombia for A. vasorum infections. In total, 609 snails were collected from the departments Antioquia, Valle del Cauca and Putumayo. Angiostrongylus vasorum-infected A. fulica were found in all departments with a total prevalence of 3.9%. Larvae originating from Putumayo were molecularly characterized and identified as the European lineage of A. vasorum. This regional report shows for the first time the presence of A. vasorum in intermediate hosts in Colombia and the European genotype in South America.

Multiobjective optimization-based design of wearable electrocardiogram monitoring systems.

Nowadays, the use of Wearable User Interfaces has been extensively growing in medical monitoring applications. However, production and manufacture of prototypes without automation tools may lead to non viable results since it is often common to find an optimization problem where several variables are in conflict with each other. Thus, it is necessary to design a strategy for balancing the variables and constraints, systematizing the design in order to reduce the risks that are present when it is exclusively guided by the intuition of the developer. This paper proposes a framework for designing wearable ECG monitoring systems using multi-objective optimization. The main contributions of this work are the model to automate the design process, including a mathematical expression relating the principal variables that make up the criteria of functionality and wearability. We also introduce a novel yardstick for deciding the location of electrodes, based on reducing interference from ECG by maximizing the electrode-skin contact.

Very long-term ECG monitoring patch with improved functionality and wearability.

Heart activity monitoring is an important task for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, development of long-term, wearable electrodes remains an open issue. In fact, adhesion ability and energy consumption while preserving aesthetics is one of the major concerns to implement a minimally invasive monitoring system that measures and transmits electrocardiographic signals (ECG) during long-term periods of time. Based on the concepts of functionality, wearability, and resources, we develop a new long-term ECG monitoring system under the wear-and-forget principle. We also propose a system model of the electrode-skin interface that performs real-time measurements with a minimally invasive effect when compared with another competitive and implantable systems. As a result, testing of designed prototype shows that the developed very long-term ECG monitoring patch improves energy consumption and adhesion time up to 40 days.

Wearable and superhydrophobic hardware for ambulatory biopotential acquisition.

Wearable monitoring devices are a promising trend for ambulatory and real time biosignal processing, because they improve access and coverage by means of comfortable sensors, with real-time communication via mobile networks. In this paper, we present a garment for ambulatory electrocardiogram monitoring, a smart t-shirt with a textile electrode that conducts electricity and has a coating designed to preserve the user's hygiene, allowing long-term mobile measurements. Silicon dioxide nanoparticles were applied on the surface of the textile electrodes to preserve conductivity and impart superhydrophobic properties. A model to explain these results is proposed. The best result of this study is obtained when the contact angles between the fluid and the fabric exceeded 150°, while the electrical resistivity remained below 5 Ω·cm, allowing an acquisition of high quality electrocardiograms in moving patients. Thus, this tool represents an interesting alternative for medium and long-term measurements, preserving the textile feeling of clothing and working under motion conditions.

Central electron temperature estimations of TJ-II neutral beam injection heated plasmas based on the soft x ray multi-foil technique.

The core electron temperature (T(e0)) of neutral beam heated plasmas is determined in TJ-II stellarator by using soft x ray detectors with beryllium filters of different thickness, based on the method known as the foil absorption technique. T(e0) estimations are done with the impurity code IONEQ, making use of complementary information from the TJ-II soft x ray tomography and the VUV survey diagnostics. When considering the actual electron density and temperature profile shapes, an acceptable agreement is found with Thomson scattering measurements for 8 different magnetic configurations. The impact of the use of both neutral beam injectors on the T(e0) measurements is addressed. Also, the behaviour of T(e0) during spontaneous profile transitions is presented.

Improvement of ECG signal quality measurement using correlation and diversity-based approaches.

A large proportion of cardiovascular diseases might be preventable, however, majority of this diseases occurs in rural areas where there is a poor presence of cardiologists. To overcome this issue, the use of wearable devices within the telemedicine framework would be of benefit. However, implementation of processing algorithms in smart-phones at mobile environments imposes restrictions ensuring high measurement quality of acquired ECG data, while maintaining low computation burden. This work presents an algorithm for scoring the quality of measured ECG recordings is developed. Particularly, a quality score is provided that takes into account the proportional correlation observed in acceptable signals based on a diversity scheme, and their inverse relation with standard deviation. Testing of proposed algorithm is carried out upon two different databases, the first one is of own production, while the second one is obtained from Physionet. As a result, high values of sensitivity and specificity are achieved.

Toward a full exploitation of the helium beam edge diagnostic.

In this article, extension of the He beam diagnostic, which is routinely applied in fusion devices for the characterization of the edge electronic parameters-ne and Te-and their profile, to the measurement of ion temperature and plasma rotation is proposed. The theoretical background for these new applications is reviewed and examples of their use in TJ-II are provided. Also, the shortcomings and their possible solutions are addressed. Finally, the field of application of the technique to other beam-based diagnostics is discussed.

Suppression of tritium retention in remote areas of ITER by nonperturbative reactive gas injection.

A technique based on reactive gas injection in the afterglow region of the divertor plasma is proposed for the suppression of tritium-carbon codeposits in remote areas of ITER when operated with carbon-based divertor targets. Experiments in a divertor simulator plasma device indicate that a 4 nm/min deposition can be suppressed by addition of 1 Pa·m³ s⁻¹ ammonia flow at 10 cm from the plasma. These results bolster the concept of nonperturbative scavenger injection for tritium inventory control in carbon-based fusion plasma devices, thus paving the way for ITER operation in the active phase under a carbon-dominated, plasma facing component background.

TFR-based feature extraction using PCA approaches for discrimination of heart murmurs.

Discrimination of murmurs in heart sounds is accomplished by means of time-frequency representations (TFR) which help to deal with non-stationarity. Nevertheless, classification with TFR is not straightforward given their large dimension and redundancy. In this paper we compare several methodologies to apply Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to TFR as a dimensional reduction scheme, which differ in the form that features are represented. Besides, we propose a method which maximizes information among TFR preserving information within TFRs. Results show that the methodologies that represent TFRs as matrices improve discrimination of heart murmurs, and that the proposed methodology shrinks variability of the results.

Ion chemistry in cold plasmas of H2 with CH4 and N2.

The distributions of ions and neutrals in low-pressure (approximately 10(-2) mbar) DC discharges of pure hydrogen and hydrogen with small admixtures (5%) of CH(4) and N(2) have been determined by mass spectrometry. Besides the mentioned plasma precursors, appreciable amounts of NH(3) and C(2)H(x) hydrocarbons, probably mostly from wall reactions, are detected in the gas phase. Primary ions, formed by electron impact in the glow region, undergo a series of charge transfer and reactive collisions that determine the ultimate ion distribution in the various plasmas. A comparison of the ion mass spectra for the different mixtures, taking into account the mass spectra of neutrals, provides interesting information on the key reactions among ions. The prevalent ion is H3+ in all cases, and the ion chemistry is dominated by protonation reactions of this ion and some of its derivatives. Besides the purely hydrogenic ions, N(2)H+, NH(4)+, and CH(5)+ are found in significant amounts. The only mixed C/N ion clearly identified is protonated acetonitrile C(2)H(4)N+. The results suggest that very little HCN is formed in the plasmas under study.