Chronic prostatitis in a dog infected with a smooth strain of Brucella spp.

Dogs may be occasionally infected by smooth strains of Brucella spp. The infection is usually associated with the ingestion of contaminated material from parturition or abortion, or other tissues from infected farm animals, particularly cattle and pigs. A 6-year-old, male mixed breed dog from a rural area was admitted at a veterinary clinic for clinical examination. The dog had bilateral perineal hernia with dysuria and dyschezia, as well as small firm testicles with scrotal adhesions. Serological tests, including buffered plate antigen, serum agglutination test, and 2-mercaptoethanol test, were positive for smooth Brucella spp. strains, whereas a rapid slide agglutination test was negative for B. canis. Blood and prostate tissue samples yielded no bacterial isolates. Histopathology demonstrated interstitial lymphoplasmacytic and histiocytic infiltration of the prostate gland, with fibrosis and occasional disruption of glandular architecture. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated abundant Brucella spp. antigens in the cytoplasm of macrophages. This report supports the notion that not only B. canis, but also smooth Brucella spp. must be considered in the differential diagnosis of prostatitis in dogs.

Detection of brucellosis in cattle and evaluation of risk factors associated with the disease in workers slaughterhouse

Brucellosis is anthropozoonosis caused by Brucella spp. Among the zoonotic species, B. abortus is the main species affecting cattle and can easily be transmitted to humans. The purpose of this study was to investigate, through epidemiological inquiry and serological analysis, animal and human health as related to smooth strain Brucella spp. in a slaughterhouse located in the southern region of the state of Bahia. For this purpose, blood samples were collected from workers and animals at a slaughterhouse together with the State Inspection Service. Then, the Buffered Acidified Plate Antigen test was performed for animals and humans, the Slow Agglutination Test was performed for humans only; and the Complement Fixation Test and the 2-Mercaptoethanol Brucella Agglutination test (2ME) were performed for animals only. In addition, an epidemiological inquiry was applied to workers in order to assess risk factors for the disease. After data analysis, it was concluded that infection by smooth strains of Brucella spp. was detected in 14.0% of the cattle. Additionally, one worker out 41 tested reactive to the disease.

Application of Noise Filtering Techniques for the Quantification of Uncertainty in Dent Strain Calculations

The integrity assessment of dents in pipelines is primarily driven by the dent depths as per the stipulations in current codes and standards. There is a provision for strain-based analysis to quantify the severity of dents based on their shapes in the ASME B31.8 non-mandatory Appendix R. In recent years, the pipeline industry has also started leveraging more advanced techniques such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for dent assessment. These assessments require the detailed deformation profile of dents, which are available from In-line Inspection (ILI) tools. The ILI tools use caliper arms that roll along the inside of the pipeline and scan the inner profile. The measurements recorded by each caliper arm are susceptible to noise due to the vibration of the ILI tool, and as a result, the dent shapes obtained from ILI are not smooth. Strain assessments of dents typically require the calculation of radius of curvature in the longitudinal and circumferential directions. This becomes a complex problem while the ILI data contains noise, particularly for relatively shallow dents, when the dent depth approaches the magnitude of the noise in the data. In these cases, the radius of curvature estimation can become highly inaccurate. Furthermore, the amount of noise in the data can vary between dents, and so the accuracy of the estimation varies as well. This paper presents several methods to resolve the above-mentioned issues. To address the issue of data noise itself, a combination of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Gaussian filtering is used to produce a smooth profile that can be used to calculate the maximum radius of curvature of the dent. The smoothed profile also results in a better estimation of dent depth. To estimate the amount of uncertainty in the data, we apply many independent iterations of random noise to the smoothed curve. Characteristics required for further reliability analysis, such as dent depth or radius of curvature, are calculated for each iteration. This forms a distribution for each characteristic, and the properties of each distribution are used to quantify the uncertainty in the ILI data.

First isolation and characterization of Brucella suis from yak

Brucella spp., facultative intracellular pathogens that can persistently colonize animal host cells and cause zoonosis, affect public health and safety. A Brucella strain was isolated from yak in Qinghai Province. To detect whether this isolate could cause an outbreak of brucellosis and to reveal its genetic characteristics, several typing and whole-genome sequencing methods were applied to identify its species and genetic characteristics. Phylogenetic analysis based on MLVA and whole-genome sequencing revealed the genetic characteristics of the isolated strain. The results showed that the isolated strain is a B. suis biovar 1 smooth strain, and this isolate was named B. suis QH05. The results of comparative genomics and MLVA showed that B. suis QH05 is not a vaccine strain. Comparison with other B. suis strains isolated from humans and animals indicated that B. suis QH05 may be linked to specific animal and human sources. In conclusion, B. suis QH05 does not belong to the Brucella epidemic species in China, and as the first isolation of B. suis from yak, this strain expands the host range of B. suis.

Numerical Study of the Influence of Surface Regular Asperities Prepared in Previous Treatment by Embossing Process on the Object Surface Layer State after Burnishing

Generally advantages of superficial plastic processes are well-known (smooth, strain hardening of surface, the low unite price and large repeatability of product quality), but industrial application it procures many difficulties. The lack of suitable methods of preparation surface, unequivocally guidelines concerning on preparations of surface under processing and data about choice of technological parameters are the basic problems. In aim of enlargement the product's quality not only enlargement of burnished product accuracy, but also enlargement of surface preparation accuracy about regular geometrical structure after previous treatment are needed. The paper concerns on the suitable semi-finished product surface preparation under finishing burnishing rolling. New method of surface preparations under burnishing rolling consisted in embossing of surface regular asperities. The physical, mathematical and computer model of the process was elaborated with the assumption geometrical and physical nonlinearities. The application in ANSYS/LS-DYNA program enabling the investigation of influence: friction conditions in tool-workpiece contact zone, the value and type of material hardening on the displacement, strain and stress state in object was elaborated. The results of computer simulations can be used to forecasting quality of the parts optimization.

Characterization of Outer Membrane Vesicles fromBrucella melitensisand Protection Induced in Mice

The outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) from smoothB. melitensis16 M and a derived rough mutant, VTRM1 strain, were purified and characterized with respect to protein content and induction of immune responses in mice. Proteomic analysis showed 29 proteins present in OMVs fromB. melitensis16 M; some of them are well-knownBrucellaimmunogens such as SOD, GroES, Omp31, Omp25, Omp19, bp26, and Omp16. OMVs from a rough VTRM1 induced significantly higher expression of IL-12, TNFα, and IFNγ genes in bone marrow dendritic cells than OMVs from smooth strain 16 M. Relative to saline control group, mice immunized intramuscularly with rough and smooth OMVs were protected from challenge with virulent strainB. melitensis16 M just as well as the group immunized with live strainB. melitensisRev1 (P<0.005). Additionally, the levels of serum IgG2a increased in mice vaccinated with OMVs from rough strain VTRM1 consistent with the induction of cell-mediated immunity.