A Capsaicin-Based Phytogenic Solution Improves Performance and Thermal Tolerance of Heat-Stressed Growing Pigs.

Exposure to heat stress (HS) detrimentally affects pig performance. This study explored whether a dietary phytogenic solution based on Capsicum spp. (PHY) could enhance the thermal tolerance of heat-stressed growing pigs. Forty-two individually housed pigs were randomly assigned to three treatments: thermoneutral pigs on a control diet (TN-C) and pigs subjected to HS fed the control diet either without (HS-C) or with supplemental PHY (HS-PHY). The TN-C group exhibited increased average daily gain (ADG) and feed intake (FI) compared to both HS-C (p < 0.01) and HS-PHY pigs (p < 0.05) and better feed efficiency compared to HS-C pigs only (p < 0.01). However, the HS-PHY pigs showed significantly higher FI (p < 0.01) and ADG (p < 0.05) compared to HS-C pigs. HS pigs displayed higher body temperatures (BTs) than TN pigs (p < 0.01), yet HS-PHY pigs experienced a lesser increase in BT compared to HS-C pigs (p < 0.05). Supplementation with PHY mitigated some effects of HS, increasing serum superoxide dismutase and catalase activity, reducing HSP90 expression in longissimus dorsi muscle, and elevating jejunal villus height compared to HS-C pigs (p < 0.05), reaching levels akin to TN-C pigs. Additionally, PHY supplementation resulted in lower serum urea levels than HS-C pigs (p < 0.01) and similar myosin gene expression to TN-C pigs (p > 0.1), suggesting enhanced amino acid post-absorptive utilization for lean tissue growth. In conclusion, dietary PHY supplementation partially offset the adverse effects of HS on pig performance by improving thermal tolerance.

Effect of supplementing a Bacillus subtilis-based probiotic on performance, intestinal integrity, and serum antioxidant capacity and metabolites concentrations of heat-stressed growing pigs.

Exposing pigs to heat stress (HS) seems to modify the intestinal microbiota which may compromise the integrity of the small intestine epithelia. Probiotics, live microorganisms, can help pigs to maintain a healthy intestinal environment. Eighty pigs (21.6 ±â€…3.4 kg body weight) exposed to HS or thermal neutral (TN) conditions were used to evaluate the effect of a Bacillus subtilis-based probiotic on performance, body temperature, and intestinal integrity. Treatments were: TN pigs fed a control diet without (TN-C) or with 1 × 106 CFU probiotic/g of feed (TN-P), and HS pigs fed a control without (HS-C) or with probiotic (HS-P). The control diet was formulated with wheat, soybean meal, and free amino acids (AA). Feed and water were freely available during the 21-d study. At completion, samples from duodenum, jejunum, and ileum were collected to analyze epithelial histology and tight junction protein expression; antioxidant activity, and free AA and metabolites in serum. Relative abundance of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus in ileal content was analyzed. Ambient temperature in the TN room ranged from 19 to 25 °C, and in HS room from 30 to 38.5 °C. Intestinal temperature in HS-P pigs was lower than in HS-C pigs. Weight gain and feed intake reduced, but feed:gain and respiration rate increased in HS compared to TN pigs, regardless of diet (P < 0.01). Probiotic increased weight gain and improved feed:gain (P < 0.05) in both TN and HS pigs, but feed intake did not differ. Heat stress decreased villi height in jejunum and villi height:crypt depth in duodenum and jejunum (P < 0.05). Probiotic increased villi height in duodenum and ileum, and villi height:crypt depth in all small intestine segments (P < 0.05). Relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium tended to reduce, and E. coli tended to increase (P < 0.10) in ileal content of HS-C pigs. Ileal relative abundance of Bacillus was higher (P < 0.01) in HS-P pigs than in HS-C and TN-C pigs. Cystathionine, homocysteine, hydroxylysine, α-amino-adipic acid, citrulline, α-amino-n-butyric acid, P-Ser, and taurine were higher in HS than in TN pigs (P < 0.05). These data confirm the negative effect of HS on performance, body temperature, and intestinal integrity of pigs. These data suggest that supplementing 1 × 106 CFU probiotic/g of feed based on Bacillus subtilis DSM 32540 may help to counteract the negative effects of HS on the performance and intestinal integrity of pigs.

High ambient temperature provokes heat stress in animals, and pigs are highly affected showing low performance, and intestinal integrity and microbiota compromised. Probiotics could help pigs to maintain a healthy intestinal environment. We analyzed the effect of a probiotic based on Bacillus subtilis on growth performance, intestinal integrity of small intestine, intestinal microbiota, antioxidant activity, and serum concentration of amino acids in pigs under heat stress (HS) and thermal neutral (TN) conditions. Ambient temperature under TN and HS conditions was 19­25 and 30­38.5 °C, respectively. Weight gain and feed intake reduced in HS pigs compared to TN pigs, but probiotic increased weight gain in both TN and HS pigs. Heat stress decreased villi size in duodenum and jejunum, and probiotic restored them. Relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium reduced and Escherichia coli increased in the small intestine content of HS pigs; probiotic increased the abundance of Bacillus. The activity of antioxidant enzymes increased in HS pigs fed the probiotic diet. Serum concentration of amino acid metabolites was affected by HS. These data suggest that supplementing a Bacillus subtilis-based probiotic may help to counteract the negative effects of HS on the performance and intestinal integrity of pigs.

Effects of dietary supplementation with L-arginine on the endogenous losses of amino acids in growing pigs exposed to heat stress.

Exposing pigs to heat stress (HS) provokes higher death of intestinal cells, resulting in elevated endogenous intestinal losses (EIL) of amino acids (AA) and damage to intestinal epithelia. Arginine (Arg) is precursor for the synthesis of polyamines, which are involved in proliferation of intestinal cells and restoration of the intestinal epithelia. Thus the effect of adding L-Arg to diets for HS pigs on the EIL of AA was analyzed. Twelve pigs (23.1 ± 1.1 kg body weight) implanted with T-type cannulas at the end of ileum were individually housed and allowed 15-days for surgery recovery under thermoneutral (TN) conditions (22 ± 2 °C). Following, the pigs were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: TN pigs fed a semi-purified, corn starch-3% casein basal diet (TN-B); HS pigs with the basal diet (HS-B); HS pigs consuming the basal diet supplemented with 0.20% L-Arg (HS-Arg). The experiment consisted of two 9-day periods; each period included 7-days of adaptation to their respective diet, followed by a 2-day ileal digesta collection period. Digesta was collected during 12 consecutive hours each day. The pigs were fed twice a-day. Ambient temperature (AT) inside the TN and HS rooms ranged from 18.6 to 27.6 °C and from 29.5 to 40.7 °C, respectively. Body temperature followed a pattern similar to that of AT. The daily EIL of indispensable AA increased (P < 0.01) in the HS-B pigs compared to both the TN-B and the HS-Arg pigs, however, there was no EIL difference between the TN-B and the HS-Arg pigs (P > 0.05). Likewise, with the exception of serine, daily losses of endogenous dispensable AA in the HS-B pigs were higher (P < 0.01) in comparison with those of TN-B and HS-Arg pigs. In summary, HS exposure compared to TN conditions increases the loss of endogenous AA, but dietary supplementation with L-Arg helped to counteract the negative HS effect.

Effect of dl-methionine supplementation above requirement on performance; intestinal morphology, antioxidant activity, and gene expression; and serum concentration of amino acids in heat stressed pigs.

The intestinal morphology and function can be compromised in pigs exposed to heat stress (HS), partly due to increased production of reactive-oxygen species. Because methionine (Met) functions as intracellular antioxidant, the requirement of Met may be increased in HS-pigs. The effect of dietary supplementation with dl-Met above requirement on performance, small intestine morphology, antioxidant enzymes activity, amino acid transporters expression, and serum concentration (SC) of free AA in HS-pigs was evaluated. A basal wheat-soybean meal diet was formulated to meet 100% Met requirement with the other indispensable AA exceeding at least 20% their requirement. Sixty individually housed pigs (23.0 ± 2.4 kg BW, 12 pigs per treatment) were randomly assigned to five treatments: TN100, thermal-neutral (22.7 °C) housed pigs fed the basal diet; HS100, HS120, HS140, HS160; HS-pigs (29.6 °C to 39.4 °C) fed the basal diet supplemented with dl-Met to contain 0%, 20%, 40%, and 60% dl-Met above the requirement, respectively. Pigs had free access to feed and water during the 21-d trial. Blood samples were collected on day 18 to analyze the absorptive AA-SC. The effect of ambient temperature (HS100 vs. TN100), as well as the linear and quadratic effects of increasing Met levels in the diets for HS-pigs were analyzed. The HS100 pigs gained less weight than TN100 and HS120 pigs (P < 0.01); gain:feed was also higher in HS120 pigs than in HS100 pigs (P ≤ 0.05). Feed intake of TN100 pigs was higher than that of HS-pigs fed the dl-Met supplemented diets (P < 0.05). Villi height reduced in pigs HS, but Met supplementation quadratically increased it (P < 0.05). Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities, reduced glutathione concentration, and relative expression of B0AT2 in ileum decreased (P < 0.05), but glutathione peroxidase activity increased in HS-pigs. dl-Met supplementation linearly affected catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities, as well as the relative expression of b0,+AT in jejunum (P < 0.05) of HS-pigs. The SC of Ile, Leu, Lys, Phe, and Val were higher in HS100 pigs than in TN100 pigs (P < 0.05). Graded levels of supplemental dl-Met in diets for HS-pigs linearly decreased SC of Ile, Leu, and Val (P < 0.05), tended to decrease His, Lys, and Thr (P < 0.10), and increased Met (P < 0.01). In conclusion, HS had negative effect on weight gain and intestinal morpho-physiology; however, it was ameliorated by adding 20% Met above the requirement in diets for growing pigs.

The exposure of pigs to ambient temperature above their comfort zone affects several functions of the small intestine, especially those related with digestion of feed and absorption of nutrients, which in turn reduces the availability of nutrients for growth. Amino acids such as methionine are involved in multiple functions of intestinal cells. Thus, methionine supplementation may help pigs to overcome the negative impact of their exposure to high ambient temperature. Indeed, methionine supplementation to the diet increased growth rate and feed efficiency of pigs housed under heat stress, which was presumably associated with an improvement in the utilization of the absorbed amino acids.

Apparent and standardised ileal amino acid digestibilities in heat-stressed pigs fed wheat-soybean meal diets supplemented with l-arginine and dl-methionine.

Heat stress (HS) exposure may damage the small intestine epithelia of pigs affecting the digestibility and absorption of amino acids (AA). Arg and Met can enhance antioxidant and intestinal cell proliferation activity, thus supplementing them in diets might alleviate epithelial damage and correct the reduced AA digestibility. The effect of adding extra l-Arg and dl-Met to diets on the apparent (AID) and standardised ileal digestibility (SID) of AA was analysed in a 10-day experiment conducted with 10 ileal-cannulated HS pigs (25.3 ± 2.4 kg body weight). The pigs were divided into two treatments: Control, wheat-soybean meal diet supplemented with l-Lys, l-Thr, dl-Met and l-Trp; and control diet plus 0.20% l-Arg and 0.20% dl-Met (Arg + Met). Following an 8-day diet adaptation period, ileal digesta was continuously collected for 12 h, starting at 0700, on Days 9 and 10. All pigs were daily exposed to 29.6-36.1°C; ileal temperature was continuously monitored at 15-min intervals. Feed was provided twice a day. The ileal temperature ranged from 40.3 to 41.5°C. Daily ileal outflow of His, Ile, Leu, Phe, Thr, Ser and Tyr decreased (p < 0.05), and that of Arg, Val and Pro tended to decrease (p < 0.10) in the Arg + Met pigs. The AID of Arg, His, Met, Thr and Tyr, and the SID of His, Met, and Thr increased in pigs fed the Arg + Met diet (p < 0.05). Thr and Val had the lowest AID values whereas Arg, Met, and Lys had the highest values. Arg (r = 0.64) and Met (r = 0.84) intake were highly correlated with their AID values; Met intake was highly correlated with its SID value (r = 0.72). Valine and Arg had the lowest whereas Arg had the highest SID values. In conclusion, supplementing l-Arg and dl-Met above the requirement decreases the ileal outflow of several AA, and increases the AID and SID of some essential AA in HS pigs.

Short- and Long-Term Exposure to Heat Stress Differently Affect Performance, Blood Parameters, and Integrity of Intestinal Epithelia of Growing Pigs.

The effect of short- and long-term exposure to heat stress (HS) was analyzed on blood components, performance, and intestinal epithelium integrity of pigs. Eighteen pigs (36.0 ± 3.5 kg BW) were assigned to three groups: thermo-neutral (TN); 2 d exposure to HS (2dHS); and 7 d exposure to HS (7dHS). Blood chemistry and hemogram analyses were performed; small intestine samples were analyzed for mRNA expression and histology. Compared to TN, 2dHS and 7dHS pigs reduced weight gain and feed intake; weight gain was higher in 7dHS than in 2dHS pigs (p < 0.05). White blood cells, platelet, and hematocrit were affected in 2dHS and 7dHS compared to TN pigs (p < 0.05). Short- and long-term exposure to HS affected blood concentration of triglycerides, urea, total protein, and albumin (p ≤ 0.05). Villi-height and crypt-depth decreased in HS pigs (p < 0.01). Mucin-producing and apoptotic cell number increased in 7dHS compared to TN pigs (p < 0.05). Expression of tight-junction-proteins decreased in 2dHS pigs compared to TN and 7dHS pigs (p < 0.05). Short-term exposure of pigs to HS dramatically affects performance, blood components, and integrity of the small intestine epithelia; nevertheless, pigs show signs of recovery at 7 d of HS exposure.

Protein potential of Desmodesmus asymmetricus grown in greenhouse as an alternative food source for aquaculture.

During ten months, batch culture of Desmodesmus asymmetricus microalgae was carried out under greenhouse conditions. The inoculation ratio was 1:1 (inoculum:treated water). The cultures were maintained for 5 days with natural light and constant aeration mixed with carbon dioxide. The biomass was concentrated by centrifugation and dried by lyophilization; subsequently, total proteins and amino acid concentration were quantified. A relationship between biomass production and seasonal variation was observed, the lowest dry biomass production was recorded in June (38.8 ± 1.0 mg L-1 day-1) and July (43.3 ± 0.1 mg L-1 day-1); while the highest values ​​were greater than 70 mg L-1 day-1 in March. There was a high positive correlation between wet and dry biomass (r = 0.97, p < 0.001) with a mean conversion of 26%. The mean percentage of protein was 26.1 ± 2.6%, the highest percentage was registered in March (31.03 ± 1.48%) as well as the concentration of amino acids. Regarding amino acids, arginine obtained the highest concentration (4.08 ± 0.43 g 100 g-1), followed by aspartic acid (3.36 ± 0.23 g 100 g-1), while the lowest values were for methionine (0.55 ± 0.21 g 100 g-1), histidine (0.77 ± 0.07 g 100 g-1) and tyrosine (1.01 ± 0.17 g 100 g-1). Finally, according to the essential amino acid index (in fish ≥ 0.90, in crustaceans > 0.80), the biomass of D. asymmetricus has potential as a food supplement for the production of feed in aquaculture.

Event-triggered control optimal tuning through bio-inspired optimization in robotic manipulators.

This paper proposes the tuning approach of the event-triggered controller (ETCTA) for the robotic system stabilization task where the reduction of the stabilization error and the data broadcasting of the control update are simultaneously considered. This approach is stated as a dynamic optimization problem, and the best controller parameters are obtained by using fourteen different bio-inspired optimization algorithms. The statistics results reveal that, among the tested bio-inspired optimization algorithms, the most reliable algorithm in the proposed tuning problem is the differential evolution variant DE/Best/1/Exp. The obtained result is validated both in numerical simulation as well as using a laboratory prototype. The simulation results indicate that the obtained control parameters can also deal with disturbances and reference changes not considered in the ETCTA's optimization problem formulation without significantly worsening the control design objective. Experimental results disclose that the proposed event-triggered control tuning approach provides the best trade-off between the number of control signal updates and the position error among other tuning approaches, decreasing the data broadcasting of the control update by around 86.33% with a non-significant increase in the stabilization error of around 26.53%.

Are All Stent Bearers Equal? Ureteral Stent Symptoms in Kidney Transplant Patients: A Case-Control Prospective Study.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to conduct a prospective, controlled single-center study to determine the prevalence and types of ureteral stent symptoms in kidney transplant (KTx) recipients and compare them with nontransplant subjects. Materials and Methods: From December 2012 to June 2019, a total of 102 patients having undergone a KTx and Double-J stent (DJS) placement and 88 patients having undergone endourological lithotripsy and DJS placement were enrolled. The Ureteral Stent Symptom Questionnaire (USSQ) was administered to patients with a median of 25 (KTx) and 31 (urolithiasis) days after stent placement. USSQ scores were used to compare symptoms between the two groups. Results: Of the 190 patients enrolled, 88 belonged to the lithotripsy group (control group) and 102 to the KTx recipients' group. Mean score for urinary symptoms was 21.42 for KTx patients vs 27.53 for control patients with statistical significance (p < 0.001, CI -7.792 to -4.433). The visual analog scale, overall bother, pain at voiding, flank pain at voiding, and frequency of painkiller use scores were significantly higher for control patients than for KTx patients (p = 0.024, <0.001, <0.001, <0.001, and 0.014, respectively). Frequency of rest, changes in work duration, work domain score, suspicion of urinary tract infection (UTI), and need for professional assistance scores were significantly lower for KTx patients than the control. There were no significant differences in general health and sexual domains between groups. Conclusions: KTx recipients have significantly fewer urinary symptoms, pain, work-related disturbances, suspected UTIs, and hospitalizations associated with stent placement than urolithiasis patients.

Effect of arginine supplementation on the morphology and function of intestinal epithelia and serum concentrations of amino acids in pigs exposed to heat stress.

The exposure of pigs to heat stress (HS) appears to damage their intestinal epithelia, affecting the absorption of amino acids (AAs). Arg is involved in the restoration of intestinal epithelial cells but HS reduces Arg intake. The effect of dietary supplementation with Arg on the morphology of intestinal epithelia, AA transporter gene expression, and serum concentration (SC) of free AAs in HS pigs was analyzed. Twenty pigs (25.3 ± 2.4 kg body weight) were randomly assigned to two dietary treatments: Control (0.81% Arg), wheat-soybean meal diet supplemented with l-Lys, l-Thr, dl-Met, and l-Trp, and the experimental diet where 0.16% free l-Arg was supplemented to a similar Control diet (+Arg). All pigs were individually housed and exposed to HS, fed ad libitum with full access to water. The ambient temperature (AT), recorded at 15-min intervals during the 21-d trial, ranged on average from 29.6 to 39.4 °C within the same day. Blood samples were collected on day 18 at 1600 hours (AT peak); serum was separated by centrifugation. At the end of the trial, five pigs per treatment were sacrificed to collect samples of mucosa scratched from each small intestine segment. The expression of AA transporters in intestinal mucosa and the SC of AAs were analyzed. Villi height (VH) was higher (P < 0.01) in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum but the crypt depth did not differ between the Control and the +Arg pigs. Supplementation of l-Arg increased the mRNA coding for the synthesis of the cationic AA transporter b0,+ (P < 0.01) and the neutral AA transporter B0 (P < 0.05) in the duodenum by approximately 5-fold and 3-fold, respectively, but no effect on mRNA abundance was observed in the jejunum and ileum. The supplementation of l-Arg increased serum Arg, His, Met, Thr, Trp, and urea (P < 0.05) and also tended to increase Val (P < 0.10) but did not affect Ile, Lys, Leu, and Phe. These results indicate that supplementing 0.16% l-Arg to the Control diet may help to improve the function of the small intestine epithelium, by increasing the VH, the abundance of AA transporters, and the SC of most indispensable AAs in pigs exposed to HS conditions. However, the lack of effect of supplemental Arg on both Lys SC and weight gain of pigs suggests that increasing the Lys content in the +Arg diet might be needed to improve the performance of HS pigs.

Melatonin Decreases Circulating Levels of Galectin-3 and Cytokines, Motor Activity, and Anxiety Following Acute Global Cerebral Ischemia in Male Rats.

BACKGROUND: Global cerebral ischemia (GCI) elicits damages to cerebral structures, learning dysfunction, memory impairments, hyperactivity, and anxiety. Circulating levels of galectin-3 (Gal-3) are associated with patient severity and outcome. AIM: To report circulating levels of Gal-3, and cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10) in the initial hours (acute) following GCI in a four-vessel occlusion (4-VO) rat model and the effect of melatonin treatment. METHODS: 4-VO model was used to produce GCI using male Sprague-Dawley rats. Groups were: Sham-Veh, Sham-Mel, Isch-Veh and Isch-Mel. Melatonin was administered 30 min after carotid clamp removal. Gal-3 and cytokines levels were measured at 0, 30 min, 6 h and 24 h after the end of cerebral flow interruption using ELISA kits. Motor activity and anxiety were measured using open-field test. RESULTS: Acute GCI (AGCI) followed by reperfusion decreased serum concentrations of TNF-α and increased IL-6 levels 24 h after ischemia, whereas melatonin reduced significantly the concentrations of these cytokines. In all groups IL-10 was higher 30 min and negligible at other times. Circulating levels of Gal-3 were reduced 30 min after ischemia/reperfusion. In the Isch-Mel group the neuroprotective effect generated a reduction in circulating Gal-3 at 6 and 24 h after AGCI, compared with all the groups. Motor activity was increased due to ischemic reperfusion, but acute melatonin treatment reduced locomotion, similar to the control group. Anxiety was reduced in the melatonin group. CONCLUSIONS: Melatonin treatment following AGCI reduces pro-inflammatory factors, Gal-3, motility, and anxiety, therefore it should be considered as supplementary treatment following ischemic stroke.

Adaptive Controller Tuning Method Based on Online Multiobjective Optimization: A Case Study of the Four-Bar Mechanism.

The efficient speed regulation of four-bar mechanisms is required for many industrial processes. These mechanisms are hard to control due to the highly nonlinear behavior and the presence of uncertainties or disturbances. In this paper, different Pareto-front approximation search approaches in the adaptive controller tuning based on online multiobjective metaheuristic optimization are studied through their application in the four-bar mechanism speed regulation problem. Dominance-based, decomposition-based, metric-driven, and hybrid search approaches included in the algorithms, such as nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II, multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition and differential evolution, S-metric selection evolutionary multiobjective algorithm, and nondominated sorting genetic algorithm III, respectively, are considered in this paper. Also, a proposed metric-driven algorithm based on the differential evolution and the hypervolume indicator (HV-MODE) is incorporated into the analysis. The comparative descriptive and nonparametric statistical evidence presented in this paper shows the effectiveness of the adaptive controller tuning based on online multiobjective metaheuristic optimization and reveals the advantages of the metric-driven search approach.

Evolutionary Optimization of Ensemble Learning to Determine Sentiment Polarity in an Unbalanced Multiclass Corpus.

Sentiment polarity classification in social media is a very important task, as it enables gathering trends on particular subjects given a set of opinions. Currently, a great advance has been made by using deep learning techniques, such as word embeddings, recurrent neural networks, and encoders, such as BERT. Unfortunately, these techniques require large amounts of data, which, in some cases, is not available. In order to model this situation, challenges, such as the Spanish TASS organized by the Spanish Society for Natural Language Processing (SEPLN), have been proposed, which pose particular difficulties: First, an unwieldy balance in the training and the test set, being this latter more than eight times the size of the training set. Another difficulty is the marked unbalance in the distribution of classes, which is also different between both sets. Finally, there are four different labels, which create the need to adapt current classifications methods for multiclass handling. Traditional machine learning methods, such as Naïve Bayes, Logistic Regression, and Support Vector Machines, achieve modest performance in these conditions, but used as an ensemble it is possible to attain competitive execution. Several strategies to build classifier ensembles have been proposed; this paper proposes estimating an optimal weighting scheme using a Differential Evolution algorithm focused on dealing with particular issues that multiclass classification and unbalanced corpora pose. The ensemble with the proposed optimized weighting scheme is able to improve the classification results on the full test set of the TASS challenge (General corpus), achieving state of the art performance when compared with other works on this task, which make no use of NLP techniques.

Lung Ultrasound Findings Compared with Chest X-Ray Findings in Known Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study in Lima, Peru.

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is highly portable and has excellent diagnostic accuracy for pneumonia compared with conventional radiography, but the literature on its use in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is limited. This study characterized LUS lesions in patients with PTB and compared them with chest X-ray (CXR) findings. Adult patients in Lima, Peru, with PTB were recruited within 1 week of starting antituberculosis treatment. Comprehensive LUS was performed in all patients at enrollment and assessed for consolidation, small subpleural consolidation (SPC, hypothesized to be a marker of CXR consolidation), cavity, pleural effusion, pathologic B-lines, and miliary pattern. Patient CXRs were digitized and interpreted by a board-certified radiologist. Fifty-one patients were included in the final analysis. Lung ultrasound detected either consolidation or SPC in 96.1% of participants. No significant difference was found between the LUS detection of a composite of consolidation or SPC, and CXR detection of consolidation (96.1% versus 98%, P > 0.99). The proportion of patients with cavity detected by LUS was significantly lower than that detected by CXR (5.9% versus 51%, P < 0.001). Overall, LUS detection of consolidation or SPC may be a sensitive marker for diagnosis of PTB. Lung ultrasound demonstrated poor ability to detect radiographically identified cavity, although previous studies suggest SPC could add specificity for the diagnosis of PTB. Based on its portability and evidence base for diagnosing other pulmonary diseases, LUS may have a role in screening and diagnosis of PTB in areas without ready access to CXR. Further studies should evaluate its diagnostic accuracy in patients with and without PTB.

Effect of aqueous extracts of Ficus vogeliana Miq and Tieghemella africana Pierre in 7,12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene -induced skin cancer in rats.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality. Tieghemella africana and Ficus vogeliana are used in traditional medicine to treat cancers. AIM OF THE STUDY: Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant, antiangiogenic and anti-tumor activities of these plant extracts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To achieve it, phytochemical screening, antioxidant activity and antiangiogenic activity were assessed. Thereafter, the anti-tumor activity was determined using skin tumorigenesis induced by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene. RESULTS: The phytochemical result analysis showed that both plant extracts were rich in polyphenols, alkaloids and terpene compounds and possessed good antioxidant activity based on DPPH radical scavenging (IC50 = 9.70 µg/mL and 4.60 µg/mL and AAI values of 5.20 and 10.88) and strong total antioxidant capacity (115.44 VtCE (mg)/g of dry plant extract and 87.37 VtCE (mg)/g of dry plant extract, respectively). Additionally, both plant extracts possessed antiangiogenic activities (IC50 = 53.43 µg/mL and 92.68 µg/mL, respectively), which correlated with significant antitumor activities when using 35 mg/kg (65.02% and 77.54%) and 70 mg/kg of extracts (81.07% and 88.18%). CONCLUSIONS: In summary, this study illustrates the promising usage of Tieghemella africana and Ficus vogeliana plant extracts in treating skin cancer. However, further characterization of the extracts must be performed to isolate the most active anticancer compound.

Dietary protein-bound or free amino acids differently affect intestinal morphology, gene expression of amino acid transporters, and serum amino acids of pigs exposed to heat stress.

Pigs exposed to heat stress (HS) increase body temperature in which can damage the intestinal epithelia and affect the absorption and availability of amino acids (AA). Protein digestion and metabolism further increase body temperature. An experiment was conducted with six pairs of pigs (of 47.3 ± 1.3 kg initial body weight) exposed to natural HS to assess the effect of substituting dietary protein-bound AA by free AA on morphology and gene expression of intestinal epithelial and serum concentration (SC) of free AA. Treatments were: high protein, 21.9% crude protein (CP) diet (HShp) and low protein, 13.5% CP diet supplemented with crystalline Lys, Thr, Met, Trp, His, Ile, Leu, Phe, and Val (HSaa). The HShp diet met or exceeded all AA requirements. The HSaa diet was formulated on the basis of ideal protein. Pigs were fed the same amount at 0700 and 1900 hours during the 21-d study. Blood samples were collected at 1700 hours (2.0 h before the evening meal), 2030 hours, and 2130 hours (1.5 and 2.5 h after the evening meal). At the end, all pigs were sacrificed to collect intestinal mucosa and a 5-cm section from each segment of the small intestine from each pig. Villi measures, expression of AA transporters (y+L and B0) in mucosa, and SC of AA were analyzed. Ambient temperature fluctuated daily from 24.5 to 42.6 °C. Weight gain and G.F were not affected by dietary treatment. Villi height tended to be larger (P ≤ 0.10) and the villi height:crypt depth ratio was higher in duodenum and jejunum of pigs fed the HSaa diet (P < 0.05). Gene expression of transporter y+L in jejunum tended to be lower (P < 0.10) and transporter B0 in the ileum was lower (P < 0.05) in HSaa pigs. Preprandial (1700 hours) SC of Arg, His, Ile, Leu, Thr, Trp, and Val was higher (P < 0.05), and Phe tended to be higher (P < 0.10) in HShp pigs. At 2030 hours (1.5 h postprandial), serum Lys, Met, and Thr were higher in the HSaa pigs (P < 0.05). At 2130 hours (2.5 h), Arg, His, Ile, Phe, and Trp were lower (P < 0.05); Met was higher (P < 0.05); and Lys tended to be higher (P < 0.10) in HSaa pigs. In conclusion, feeding HS pigs with low protein diets supplemented with free AA reduces the damage of the intestinal epithelia and seems to improve its absorption capacity, in comparison with HS pigs fed diets containing solely protein-bound AA. This information is useful to formulate diets that correct the reduced AA consumption associated with the decreased voluntary feed intake of pigs under HS.

In-Home Diagnosis of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Using Automatic Video Analysis.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a non-invasive technology based on image processing for the identification of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and its severity at patients' home. METHODS: Observational, prospective, diagnostic accuracy study to evaluate the degree of measure agreement between Sleepwise (SW), in-laboratory attended polysomnography (PSG) and a home sleep apnea test (HSAT). 38 consecutive subjects with suspected OSA referred as outpatients to the sleep unit were recruited from September 2016 to September 2017. All patients underwent in-laboratory attended PSG and image processing with SW simultaneously overnight. Subsequently, a HSAT and image processing with SW were performed simultaneously overnight at patients' home, and the 2 nights after, patients underwent only image processing with SW consecutively. RESULTS: In-laboratory polysomnography and SW had a Lin's concordance correlation coefficient of 0.933 and a κ of 0.930. Between HSAT and SW the Lin's concordance correlation coefficient was 0.842 and a κ of 0.571. Agreement between two consecutive nights with SW recording showed a Lin's concordance correlation coefficient of 0.923 and a κ of 0. 837. CONCLUSIONS: SW was highly accurate for non-invasive and automatic diagnosis of OSA in outpatients compared to standard methods for OSA diagnosis either in-laboratory attended PSG or HSAT. SW proved to be a technique with repeatable and concordant results on different nights for the same patient. We conclude SW is a non-invasive, easy-to-use, portable, effective and highly accurate system for the in-home diagnosis of OSA.

Periodic Event-Triggered Control strategy for a (3,0) mobile robot network.

This work deals with the development of a nonlinear Periodic Event-Triggered Control strategy employed to the consensus of a multi-vehicle autonomous system based on (3,0) mobile robots. First, the existence of the Control Lyapunov Function (CLF) applicable to the consensus problem is proven. This is subsequently used to develop event and feedback functions. The Periodic Event-Triggered Control ensures trajectories boundedness and convergence to consensus while a specific sampling period is provided. Also, the formation problem is addressed as an extension of the presented work. Experimental results show the performance of the proposed control strategy which reduces 99.78% the number of control updates compared to a continuous control law, resulting in energy saving for the information transfer from central control to the mobile robots.

Progesterone treatment in rats after severe global cerebral ischemia promotes hippocampal dentate gyrus neurogenesis and functional recovery.

OBJECTIVE: Rats treated with progesterone (P4) after ischemia show an adequate functional performance despite a significant loss of hippocampal pyramidal neurons, suggesting that P4 could favour a permissive microenvironment for cerebral plasticity mechanisms. The possibility of P4 treatment promoting the survival of newly generated hippocampal neurons, in relation to the performance of ischemic rats in a spatial learning task, was assessed in this study. METHODS: Adult male rats were subjected to a severe global cerebral ischemia episode (30 min) and treated with P4 or its vehicle at 15 min, 2, 6, 24, 48 and 72 h of reperfusion. From day 4 to 8 post-ischemia 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was administered to label proliferating cells. Twenty-one days post-ischemia, the rats were exposed to the Morris water maze to assess behavioral parameters of spatial learning and memory. Subsequently, the brain was perfusion-fixed and immunofluorescence procedures were performed to quantify the number of new mature neurons (BrdU+/NeuN+) in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus. RESULTS: Rats subjected to severe global cerebral ischemia and treated with P4 had a significantly better performance in spatial learning-memory tests, than those treated with vehicle, and a significantly higher number of new mature neurons (BrdU+/NeuN+) in the DG. CONCLUSION: These findings show that post-ischemia P4 treatment, following an episode of severe global cerebral ischemia, promotes the survival of newly generated hippocampal neurons in the DG, which may be one of the mechanisms of cerebral plasticity induced by the hormone, that underlie a successful functional performance in learning and memory tests.

Extra dietary protein-bound or free amino acids differently affect the serum concentrations of free amino acids in heat-stressed pigs1.

Pigs exposed to heat stress (HS) reduce feed intake and consequently the consumption of AA. Adding extra protein-bound or free AA to the diet may correct the reduced AA intake of HS pigs. However, extra protein-bound AA may further increase the body heat load, whereas extra free AA does not affect the heat load of HS pigs. Two experiments were conducted. In Exp. 1, the performance depression because of HS, compared with thermal neutrality, was determined with 30 pigs (31.1 ± 1.2 kg BW) fed diets with AA only as protein or as a mix of protein and free AA. Heat stress pigs consumed 18 to 25% less Lys and Thr than thermal neutral. In Exp. 2, the effect of extra dietary protein-bound or free AA on performance and serum concentration of AA in 25 HS pigs (33.6 ± 0.65 kg BW) was evaluated. Treatments were as follows: CON, wheat-soybean meal-free Lys-Thr-Met diet; xP diet, 26% more protein than the CON diet; xAA diet, 24% or more of each AA than the recommended level. Pigs were fed ad libitum. Blood samples were collected between 1600 and 1700 h, when pigs were exposed to the highest ambient temperature (around 41.3 °C). Body temperature ranged daily from 39.9 to 41.1 °C. The performance data were reported already. Pigs fed the xP diet consumed more of all indispensable AA and dispensable AA than the CON pigs (P < 0.05), and more Arg, Ile, Asp, Glu, Gly, and Ser (P < 0.05) than the xAA pigs. Except for Arg, xAA pigs consumed more indispensable AA than the CON pigs (P < 0.05). Serum Arg, His, Lys, Phe, Thr, Trp, and Val, was higher (P < 0.05) in xP than in CON pigs. Except for Ile serum, indispensable AA were higher in xAA than in CON pigs (P < 0.05). Serum Ile, Leu, Thr, and Val were higher (P < 0.05), and Met tended to be higher (P < 0.10) in xAA than in xP pigs. The difference of Ile, Leu, Met, Thr, and Val between the CON and the xAA pigs was larger than that between the CON and the xP pigs (P < 0.05). Serum Asn and Tyr were higher, and Cys and Glu were lower (P < 0.05) in xP than in CON pigs. Serum Cys tended to be lower in xAA than in CON pigs (P < 0.10). Asp and Glu were higher (P < 0.05) in xAA pigs than in xP pigs. In conclusion, these serum AA results combined with the reported performance data indicate that extra free AA in diets for HS pigs may help to correct the reduced AA availability and performance of HS pigs, although higher levels of specific AA such as Ile and Met might be needed.