Concomitant turkey herpesvirus-infectious bursal disease vector vaccine and oil-adjuvanted inactivated Newcastle disease vaccine administration: consequences for vaccine intake and protection.

Hatchery vaccination protocols in day-old chicks are designed to provide early priming and protection against several poultry diseases including, but not limited to, Marek's disease (MD), infectious bursal disease (IBD), and Newcastle disease (ND). The constraint of concomitant administration of live MD and IBD vaccines plus ND inactivated oil-adjuvanted vaccines (IOAVs) requires improvements in vaccine technology. Single-needle concomitant subcutaneous (SC) application of IBD/MDV and killed NDV vaccine and the use of viral vectors for expression of immunogenic proteins are a current trend in the industry. The objective of this work was to assess the compatibility of a turkey herpesvirus (HVT)-infectious bursal disease (vHVT-IBD) vector vaccine applied simultaneously with IOAV and to evaluate the consequences for vaccine intake, the need for additional immunizations with the respective vaccines, and protection. Five separate trials were performed using double- and/or single-needle injectors. The levels and persistence of vaccine intake, serologic response, vHVT-IBD virus combination with the MD Rispens strain, and/or live NDV vaccination were also assessed. Histopathology and PCR at injection sites showed adequate vaccine intake detected up to 44 days postvaccination. Serologic evidence of vaccine priming was observed, and all vaccinated groups differed (P < 0.05) from the control at different time points. MD, NDV, and IBD protection results after concomitant double-shot single-needle vaccination were near 85%, 95%, and 100%, respectively. Taken together the results indicate no deleterious effects on the efficacy of the vHVT-IBD vaccine monitored by vaccine intake, serologic and challenge results, and combinations after concomitant live/killed vaccination, suggesting the suitability of its use in hatchery vaccination. All types of injectors used as well as injection techniques, vaccines injected separately or together, gave the same results.

X-ray line polarization of He-like Si satellite spectra in plasmas driven by high-intensity ultrashort pulsed lasers.

We present a modeling study of x-ray line polarization in plasmas driven by high-intensity, ultrashort duration pulsed lasers. Electron kinetics simulations of these transient and nonequilibrium plasmas predict non-Maxwellian and anisotropic electron distribution functions. Under these conditions, the magnetic sublevels within fine structure levels can be unequally populated which leads to the emission of polarized lines. We have developed a time-dependent, collisional-radiative atomic kinetics model of magnetic sublevels to understand the underlying processes and mechanisms leading to the formation of polarized x-ray line emission in plasmas with anisotropic electron distribution functions. The electron distribution function consists of a thermal component extracted from hydrodynamic calculations and a beam component determined by PIC simulations of the laser-plasma interaction. We focus on the polarization properties of the He-like Si satellites of the L y(alpha) line, discuss the time evolution of polarized satellite spectra, and identify suitable polarization markers that are sensitive to the anisotropy of the electron distribution function and can be used for diagnostic applications.

High-order harmonic generation by nonlinear reflection of an intense high-contrast laser pulse on a plasma.

We demonstrate the use of a plasma mirror to obtain 60-fs 10-TW laser pulses with a temporal contrast of 10(8) on a nanosecond time scale and 10(6) on a picosecond time scale, and we use these high-contrast pulses to generate high harmonics by nonlinear reflection on a plasma with a steep electronic density gradient. Well-collimated harmonics up to 20th order are observed for a laser intensity of approximately equal to 3 x 10(17) W/cm2, whereas no harmonics are obtained without the plasma mirror.