Equine infectious anemia on Marajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon river

Abstract: Equine infectious anemia (EIA) is a transmissible and incurable disease caused by a lentivirus, the equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV). There are no reports in the literature of this infection in Equidae on Marajo Island. The objective of this study was to diagnose the disease in the municipalities of Cachoeira do Arari, Salvaterra, Santa Cruz do Arari and Soure, on Marajó Island, state of Pará, Brazil. For serological survey samples were collected from 294 horses, over 5-month-old, males and females of puruca and marajoara breeds and from some half-breeds, which were tested by immunodiffusion in Agar gel (AGID). A prevalence of 46.26% (136/294) positive cases was found. EIA is considered endemic in the municipalities studied, due to the ecology of the region with a high numbered population of bloodsucking insect vectors and the absence of official measures for the control of the disease.

Design and testing of an armature-reaction-compensated permanent magnet synchronous generator for island operation

At present, permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSGs) are of great interest. Since they do not have electrical excitation losses, the highly efficient, lightweight and compact PMSGs equipped with damper windings work perfectly when connected to a network. However, in island operation, the generator (or parallel generators) alone is responsible for the building up of the network and maintaining its voltage and reactive power level. Thus, in island operation, a PMSG faces very tight constraints, which are difficult to meet, because the flux produced by the permanent magnets (PMs) is constant and the voltage of the generator cannot be controlled. Traditional electrically excited synchronous generators (EESGs) can easily meet these constraints, because the field winding current is controllable. The main drawback of the conventional EESG is the relatively high excitation loss. This doctoral thesis presents a study of an alternative solution termed as a hybrid excitation synchronous generator (HESG). HESGs are a special class of electrical machines, where the total rotor current linkage is produced by the simultaneous action of two different excitation sources: the electrical and permanent magnet (PM) excitation. An overview of the existing HESGs is given. Several HESGs are introduced and compared with the conventional EESG from technical and economic points of view. In the study, the armature-reaction-compensated permanent magnet synchronous generator with alternated current linkages (ARC-PMSG with ACL) showed a better performance than the other options. Therefore, this machine type is studied in more detail. An electromagnetic design and a thermal analysis are presented. To verify the operation principle and the electromagnetic design, a down-sized prototype of 69 kVA apparent power was built. The experimental results are demonstrated and compared with the predicted ones. A prerequisite for an ARC-PMSG with ACL is an even number of pole pairs (p = 2, 4, 6, …) in the machine. Naturally, the HESG technology is not limited to even-pole-pair machines. However, the analysis of machines with p = 3, 5, 7, … becomes more complicated, especially if analytical tools are used, and is outside the scope of this thesis. The contribution of this study is to propose a solution where an ARC-PMSG replaces an EESG in electrical power generation while meeting all the requirements set for generators given for instance by ship classification societies, particularly as regards island operation. The maximum power level when applying the technology studied here is mainly limited by the economy of the machine. The larger the machine is, the smaller is the efficiency benefit. However, it seems that machines up to ten megawatts of power could benefit from the technology. However, in low-power applications, for instance in the 500 kW range, the efficiency increase can be significant.

Communication Solutions for LVDC Island Networks

Production and generation of electrical power is evolving to more environmental friendly technologies and schemes. Pushed by the increasing cost of fossil fuels, the operational costs of producing electrical power with fossil fuels and the effect in the environment, like pollution and global warming, renewable energy sources gain con-stant impulse into the global energy economy. In consequence, the introduction of distributed energy sources has brought a new complexity to the electrical networks. In the new concept of smart grids and decen-tralized power generation; control, protection and measurement are also distributed and requiring, among other things, a new scheme of communication to operate with each other in balance and improve performance. In this research, an analysis of different communication technologies (power line communication, Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair (UTP), optic fiber, Wi-Fi, Wi-MAX, and Long Term Evolution) and their respective characteristics will be carried out. With the objective of pointing out strengths and weaknesses from different points of view (technical, economical, deployment, etc.) to establish a richer context on which a decision for communication approach can be done depending on the specific application scenario of a new smart grid deployment. As a result, a description of possible optimal deployment solutions for communication will be shown considering different options for technologies, and a mention of different important considerations to be taken into account will be made for some of the possible network implementation scenarios.

Forest cover and its change in Unguja Island, Zanzibar

Tropical forests are sources of many ecosystem services, but these forests are vanishing rapidly. The situation is severe in Sub-Saharan Africa and especially in Tanzania. The causes of change are multidimensional and strongly interdependent, and only understanding them comprehensively helps to change the ongoing unsustainable trends of forest decline. Ongoing forest changes, their spatiality and connection to humans and environment can be studied with the methods of Land Change Science. The knowledge produced with these methods helps to make arguments about the actors, actions and causes that are behind the forest decline. In this study of Unguja Island in Zanzibar the focus is in the current forest cover and its changes between 1996 and 2009. The cover and changes are measured with often used remote sensing methods of automated land cover classification and post-classification comparison from medium resolution satellite images. Kernel Density Estimation is used to determine the clusters of change, sub-area –analysis provides information about the differences between regions, while distance and regression analyses connect changes to environmental factors. These analyses do not only explain the happened changes, but also allow building quantitative and spatial future scenarios. Similar study has not been made for Unguja and therefore it provides new information, which is beneficial for the whole society. The results show that 572 km2 of Unguja is still forested, but 0,82–1,19% of these forests are disappearing annually. Besides deforestation also vertical degradation and spatial changes are significant problems. Deforestation is most severe in the communal indigenous forests, but also agroforests are decreasing. Spatially deforestation concentrates to the areas close to the coastline, population and Zanzibar Town. Biophysical factors on the other hand do not seem to influence the ongoing deforestation process. If the current trend continues there should be approximately 485 km2 of forests remaining in 2025. Solutions to these deforestation problems should be looked from sustainable land use management, surveying and protection of the forests in risk areas and spatially targeted self-sustainable tree planting schemes.

A chart of the southern part of South America : with the track of the centurion from the island of St. Catherines to the island of Juan Fernandes in which is inserted the variation and soundings observ'd on board her, together with her deviation from her estimated course in passing round Cap Horn, occasiond by the force of the currents / R. W. Seale sculp

Nimeketiedot nimiönkehyksissä

Characteristics of urban heat island (UHI) in a high latitude coastal city - a case study of Turku, SW Finland

The term urban heat island (UHI) refers to the common situation in which the city is warmer than its rural surroundings. In this dissertation, the local climate, and especially the UHI, of the coastal city of Turku (182,000 inh.), SW Finland, was studied in different spatial and temporal scales. The crucial aim was to sort out the urban, topographical and water body impact on temperatures at different seasons and times of the day. In addition, the impact of weather on spatiotemporal temperature differences was studied. The relative importance of environmental factors was estimated with different modelling approaches and a large number of explanatory variables with various spatial scales. The city centre is the warmest place in the Turku area. Temperature excess relative to the coldest sites, i.e. rural areas about 10 kilometers to the NE from the centre, is on average 2 °C. Occasionally, the UHI intensity can be even 10 °C. The UHI does not prevail continuously in the Turku area, but occasionally the city centre can be colder than its surroundings. Then the term urban cool island or urban cold island (UCI) is used. The UCI is most common in daytime in spring and in summer, whereas during winter the UHI prevails throughout the day. On average, the spatial temperature differences are largest in summer, whereas the single extreme values are often observed in winter. The seasonally varying sea temperature causes the shift of relatively warm areas towards the coast in autumn and inland in spring. In the long term, urban land use was concluded to be the most important factor causing spatial temperature differences in the Turku area. The impact was mainly a warming one. The impact of water bodies was emphasised in spring and autumn, when the water temperature was relatively cold and warm, respectively. The impact of topography was on average the weakest, and was seen mainly in proneness of relatively low-lying places for cold air drainage during night-time. During inversions, however, the impact of topography was emphasised, occasionally outperforming those of urban land use and water bodies.

Immunization against the colonization factor antigen I of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli by administration of a bivalent Salmonella typhimurium aroA strain

An expression plasmid (pCFA-1) carrying the cfaB gene that codes for the enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) fimbrial adhesin colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I) subunit was constructed and used to transform a derivative of the attenuated Salmonella typhimurium aroA vaccine strain SL3261 carrying an F'lacIq. Treatment of the transformed strain with isopropyl-ß-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) resulted in elevated in vitro expression of the CFA/I subunit. Although flagellar function and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) synthesis were similar in both the parental and the recombinant strains, spleen colonization was reduced in the recombinant strain. All BALB/c mice parenterally inoculated with the recombinant strain developed significant anti-CFA/I and anti-LPS serum antibody titers (P<0.05). Moreover, 2 of 5 mice orally inoculated with the engineered Salmonella strain developed anti-CFA/I intestinal IgA (P>0.05) while 4/5 of the same mice developed anti-LPS IgA (P<0.05). The results indicate that the vaccine strain elicited an antibody response against the bacterial host both after oral and intravenous immunization while the response against the CFA/I antigen was significant only after inoculation by the intravenous route

A geological sketch map of the island of Yesso, Japan

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan

Nasopharyngeal colonization by pathogenic bacteria: effect of polymorphisms in innate immune genes of young children

Nasopharyngeal bacteria can asymptomatically colonize the nasopharynx of infants and young children but are also associated with the development of respiratory infections and diseases. Such nasopharyngeal bacteria include Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Haemophilus influenzae and Staphylococcus aureus. The host defense against invading pathogens is largely relies germline-encoded pattern recognition receptors (PRR), which are expressed on the cells of innate immunity, and different cytokines. These include toll-like receptors (TLR), mannose-binding lectin (MBL) and different cytokines such as IL-17A. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in these receptors and cytokines have been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate genetic polymorphisms in the genes for TLR2, 3 and 4, MBL as well as for IL-17A and their associations with nasopharyngeal pathogenic bacterial colonization during a two-year follow-up. The study revealed that polymorphisms in TLRs, MBL2 and IL17A are associated with the nasopharyngeal bacterial colonization in young children. Healthy young (2.6 months of age) children with variant types of MBL2, TLR2 R753Q or TLR4 D299G had an increased risk to be colonized by S. pneumonia, S. aureus or M. catarrhalis, respectively. Moreover, variant types of MBL2 in healthy children with might facilitate human rhinovirus (HRV)-induced S. pneumoniae colonization at 2.6 months of age. The polymorphism of TLR4 D299G was shown to be associated with M. catarrhalis colonization throughout the whole two-year follow-up (2.6, 13 and 24 months of age) and also with the bacterial load of this pathogen. Also, the polymorphism of IL17A G152A was shown to be associated with increased risk to be colonized by S. pneumoniae at 13 and 24 months of age. Furthermore, the results suggest that IL17A G152A has an effect on production of serum IL-17A already at young age. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that polymorphisms in the key PRRs and IL17A seem to play an important role to colonization of S. pneumoniae, M. catarrhalis, and S. aureus in healthy young Finnish children. The nasopharyngeal colonization by these pathogenic bacteria may further promote the development of respiratory infections and may be related to development of asthma and allergy in the later life of children. These findings offer a possible explanation why some children have more respiratory infections than other children and provide a rational basis for future studies in this field.

Assessment of techno-economic use cases for small-scale island grids

The main objective of the study was to define the methodology for assessing the limits for application island grids instead of interconnecting with existing grid infrastructure. The model for simulation of grid extension distance and levelised cost of electricity has been developed and validated by the case study in Finland. Thereafter, sensitivities of the application limits were examined with the respect to operational environment, load conditions, supply security and geographical location. Finally, recommendations for the small-scale rural electrification projects in the market economy environment have been proposed.

Hospital strain colonization by Staphylococcus epidermidis

The skin and mucous membranes of healthy subjects are colonized by strains of Staphylococcus epidermidis showing a high diversity of genomic DNA polymorphisms. Prolonged hospitalization and the use of invasive procedures promote changes in the microbiota with subsequent colonization by hospital strains. We report here a patient with prolonged hospitalization due to chronic pancreatitis who was treated with multiple antibiotics, invasive procedures and abdominal surgery. We studied the dynamics of skin colonization by S. epidermidis leading to the development of catheter-related infections and compared the genotypic profile of clinical and microbiota strains by pulsed field gel electrophoresis. During hospitalization, the normal S. epidermidis skin microbiota exhibiting a polymorphic genomic DNA profile was replaced with a hospital-acquired biofilm-producer S. epidermidis strain that subsequently caused repetitive catheter-related infections.

Evidence for the endophytic colonization of Phaseolus vulgaris(common bean) roots by the diazotroph Herbaspirillum seropedicae

Herbaspirillum seropedicae is an endophytic diazotrophic bacterium, which associates with important agricultural plants. In the present study, we have investigated the attachment to and internal colonization of Phaseolus vulgaris roots by the H. seropedicae wild-type strain SMR1 and by a strain of H. seropedicae expressing a red fluorescent protein (DsRed) to track the bacterium in the plant tissues. Two-day-old P. vulgaris roots were incubated at 30°C for 15 min with 6 x 10(8) CFU/mL H. seropedicae SMR1 or RAM4. Three days after inoculation, 4 x 10(4) cells of endophytic H. seropedicae SMR1 were recovered per gram of fresh root, and 9 days after inoculation the number of endophytes increased to 4 x 10(6) CFU/g. The identity of the recovered bacteria was confirmed by amplification and sequencing of the 16SrRNA gene. Furthermore, confocal microscopy of P. vulgaris roots inoculated with H. seropedicae RAM4 showed that the bacterial cells were attached to the root surface 15 min after inoculation; fluorescent bacteria were visible in the internal tissues after 24 h and were found in the central cylinder after 72 h, showing that H. seropedicae RAM4 is capable of colonizing the roots of the dicotyledon P. vulgaris. Determination of dry weight of common bean inoculated with H. seropedicae SMR1 suggested that this bacterium has a negative effect on the growth of P. vulgaris.

Clinical impact of Achromobacter xylosoxidans colonization/infection in patients with cystic fibrosis

The rate of diagnosis of colonization/infection of the airways with Achromobacter xylosoxidans has increased in cystic fibrosis patients, but its clinical significance is still controversial. This retrospective, case-control study aimed to evaluate the clinical impact of A. xylosoxidans colonization/infection in cystic fibrosis patients. Individuals who were chronically colonized/infected (n=10), intermittently colonized/infected (n=15), and never colonized/infected with A. xylosoxidans (n=18) were retrospectively evaluated during two periods that were 2 years apart. Demographic characteristics, clinical data, lung function, and chronic bacterial co-colonization data were evaluated. Of the total study population, 87% were pediatric patients and 65.1% were female. Individuals chronically colonized/infected with A. xylosoxidans had decreased forced expiratory volume in 1 s (51.7% in the chronic colonization/infection group vs 82.7% in the intermittent colonization/infection group vs 76% in the never colonized/infected group). Compared with the other two groups, the rate of co-colonization with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was higher in individuals chronically colonized/infected with A. xylosoxidans (P=0.002). Changes in lung function over 2 years in the three groups were not significant, although a trend toward a greater decrease in lung function was observed in the chronically colonized/infected group. Compared with the other two groups, there was a greater number of annual hospitalizations in patients chronically colonized/infected with A. xylosoxidans (P=0.033). In cystic fibrosis patients, there was an increased frequency of A. xylosoxidans colonization/infection in children, and lung function was reduced in patients who were chronically colonized/infected with A. xylosoxidans. Additionally, there were no differences in clinical outcomes during the 2-year period, except for an increased number of hospitalizations in patients with A. xylosoxidans.

Ocurrence of Vibrio spp., positive coagulase staphylococci and enteric bacteria in oysters (Crassostrea gigas) harvested in the south bay of Santa Catarina island, Brazil

The aim of this study was to assess the contamination of oysters (Crassostrea gigas), harvested in six different regions of the South Bay of Santa Catarina Island, with Coliforms at 45 ºC, Escherichia coli, Vibrio spp., positive coagulase staphylococci, and Salmonella sp. over a period of one year. One hundred eighty oyster samples were collected directly from their culture sites and analyzed. Each sample consisted of a pool of 12 oysters. All of the samples analyzed showed absence of Salmonella, 18 (10%) samples showed presence of Escherichia coli, 15 (8.3%) samples were positive for V. alginolyticus, and Vibriocholerae was detected in 4 samples (2.2%). The counts of positive-coagulase staphylococci varied from <10 to 1.9 x 102 CFU.g-1, whereas the counts of Coliforms at 45 ºC and E. coli ranged from <3 to 1.5 x 102 MPN.g-1 and <3 and 4.3 x 10 MPN.g-1, respectively. Counts of V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus ranged between <3 and 7 MPN.g-1, for both microorganisms. This suggests the need for monitoring these Vibrios contamination in oysters. Based on the results of the microbiological assays, the samples analyzed showed acceptable bacteriological quality, i.e., they were within the parameters established by Brazilian Legislation.