Abstract The cosmetic industry has turned its attention to using vegetable products; the number of different vegetable oils used in the cosmetic industry has risen in the last years. Therefore, there are opportunities for development and innovation for the cosmetic sector keeping in mind the growing concern for personal well-being. Being necessary to develop new, and more accurate measurement methods not only to assure the product quality, also to understand the effect of the molecular interactions in order to develop new products. In this work, the so-called photopyroelectric techniques are used for studying the thermal effusivity and diffusivity of wheat germ, mamey seed, walnut, coconut, and linseed oils. The thermal conductivity was calculated using a mathematical relationship, and density was measured. Therefore, full thermal characterization is achieved. The obtained values for the studied oils are closed to other vegetable oils already reported. This similarity is partially a consequence of the similar chemical structure presented in this type of materials.

Abstract Over the last years extensively research has been carried out on full or partial substitution of supplies resources coming from renewable resources on traditionally non-renewable, in the case of the automobile sector there are progresses in bio-combustibles (biofuel) and synthetic oils coming from vegetable sources. There are strong efforts to find oil additives which can improve oils features in automobile industry, by adding vegetables oils to commercial lubricant oils, is expected to improve oil thermal stability. In the present research, different ratios of castor oil (ricinus comunis)-motor oil blends were obtained and their thermal properties were characterized by using the so-called Back and Front Photopyroelectric (BPPE/FPPE) techniques. Several oil-additives concentrations were measured and thermal diffusivities and effusivities as well as densities are reported, getting full thermal characterization for every concentration.

Abstract Glucose is an important molecule, it is responsible for providing energy to cells in our body, in human glucose appears in blood, excessive glucose levels in the blood are an indicator of diabetes mellitus, therefore it is important to measure it. To test the feasibility of photothermal techniques to measure glucose, thermal properties of glucose in aqueous solution were determined in the 0.7 to 3.2 mg/ml range. Thermal effusivity diminishes as glucose concentration increase. Obtained results show that used setups can measure glucose concentrations up to 600 μg/ml. Full thermal characterization for water-glucose mixtures is presented in this work.

The goal of this work is to study the effects of doping on structural, morphological and optical properties of CdS thin films as a function of Pb²+ concentration. Thus, nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical bath and a thickness decrease of ~575-200 nm range was observed. In Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, all the samples showed a sharp stretching mode observed at ~1384 cm-1 corresponding to the vibration mode of CO3-2. X-ray diffraction studies show that the size of crystallites is in the ~33-12 nm range. The peaks belonging to primary phase are identified at the 2θ = 26.5° and 2θ = 26.00°, corresponding to CdS and PbS respectively. Thus, a shift in maximum intensity peak from 2θ = 26.4° to 28.2° is observed. Likewise peaks at 2θ = 13.57°, 15.91° correspond to lead perchlorate thiourea. The optical, absorption, and transmission properties of the films were determined by UV-vis spectrophotometry, optical energy gap was found to range from 2.1 to 2.4 eV. Raman spectroscopy on doped films showed a shifting of these modes that can be attributed to strain, stress effects, defects, phonon confinement, and variation in phonon relaxation with grain size.

This work shows the benefits of a virtual graphical environment to model soft faults behavior in the resources of typical manufacturing processes applying Fuzzy Filter Time Series. It is shown in this work that using the programming tool called Scheduling Control Language (SLC), it is possible to improve the level of abstraction to introduce non-deterministic characteristics in the structural and functional description for each resource and the whole definition for the model. A graphical representation is proposed to generate an on-line platform as a virtual manufacturing laboratory. This instrument will be useful for academic, research and industrial applications. This tool can be used for validating and evaluating models, simulation of scheduling tasks and verification of control algorithms.

The motion of a falling drop whose mass grows by accretion is studied with Newtonian methods to the point of finding the position as a function of time. The equation of motion applied is the equation of motion of continuum mechanics in its Eulerian or space formulation. We study three examples of laws of accretion: mass growing linearly with time, mass growing linearly with the surface of the drop and mass growing proportionally to the product of surface and velocity. These examples are sometimes left as exercises, without further discussion, asking only for v(z), or the final velocity. We also show that the solutions have the correct limit of a particle of constant mass in free fall and of such a particle with friction linear in the velocity.

Se estudia, mediante métodos Newtonianos, el movimiento de una gota que cae y cuya masa crece por acreción; se encuentra detalladamente la posición como función del tiempo. La ecuación de movimiento aplicada es la ecuación de movimiento de la mecánica de medios contínuos en su forma Euleriana o espacial. Estudiamos tres ejemplos de leyes de acreción: masa incrementándose linealmente con el tiempo, masa incrementándose propocionalmente a la superficie de la gota e incremento de la masa proporcional al producto de la superficie por la velocidad. También mostramos que las soluciones tienen el límite correcto, el de una partícula, con masa constante, en caída libre y el de esa partícula con fricción lineal en la velocidad.

Con el fin de estudiar los factores que afectan el crecimiento pre y post destete de un rebaño de ovejas West African, bajo un sistema de pastoreo restringido en el estado Lara, Venezuela, se analizó información recabada durante 10 años proveniente de 613 nacimientos, 587 destetes y de 443 ovejas a la edad de 6 meses. Los datos fueron analizados mediante un modelo lineal de efectos fijos. Las medias para peso al nacimiento (PN), peso al destete (PD) y ganancia diaria pre-destete (GDPPD) de los corderos fue: 2.8 ± 0.58 y 11.9 ± 3.3 kg y 101 ± 0.03 g/día, respectivamente. El análisis estadístico mostró efecto significativo del sexo en PN (P < .01) y PD (P < .05), con mayor peso para los corderos machos en comparación con las hembras. También se detectó una diferencia significativa (P < .01) en PN entre ovejas primíparas y multíparas, los corderos provenientes de ovejas con varios partos tuvieron mayor peso que los provenientes de ovejas de primer parto. Por otra parte, las crías de parto múltiple mostraron valores significativamente menores (P< 0.01) para las tres variables estudiadas en comparación con los de parto sencillo. Se detectó un efecto significativo (P<0.01) de la interacción año de parto x época de parto en PD y PGDPD. Las medias para peso a los 6 meses (P6M) y ganancia de peso diaria post-destete (APWDG) fueron: 18.0 ± 4.5 kg y 0.69 ± 0.03 kg/día, respectivamente. Se detectó un efecto significativo (P< 0.01) de la interacción año de parto x época de parto en las dos variables post-destete estudiadas. Los resultados muestran que el crecimiento pre y post-destete está influenciado por variables ambientales e individuales. El conocimiento de estos efectos puede ser útil en el diseño de estrategias de producción dirigidas al aumento de los promedios de peso obtenidos.

With the objective of studying the factors affecting pre and post weaning growth of a West African sheep herd in Lara state of Venezuela, 10 years of data on 613 births, 587 weaning and 443 sheep of six months were subjected to analysis under a fixed effects model. Means for birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW) and average pre-weaning daily gain (ADG) of lambs were: 2.8 ± 0.58, 11.9 ± 3.3 kg and 101 ± 0.03 g/day, respectively. Analysis showed a significant effect of sex of lamb on BW (P<.01) and WW (P<.05), male lambs were heavier than female. Significant differences (P<.01) in BW for primiparous and multiparous ewes were found. Lambs from multiparous ewes were heavier than lambs from primiparous ewes. Lambs from multiple births also had significantly (P<.01) lower values than single births lambs for all variables under study. A significant interaction (P<.01) between year of lambing and lambing season was found for WW and ADG. Means for weight at six months (W6M) and average post-weaning daily gain (APWDG) were: 18.04 ± 4.5 kg and 0.69 ± 0.03 kg/day, respectively. The interaction parturition year x season was significant (P<.01) for both post-weaning variables studied. Results showed that growth performance is influenced by environmental and individual factors. Knowledge of these factors could be useful in developing production strategies so overall weight averages can be improved.

RESUMEN Desde que en 1988 Bianco y Colegas presentaron hallazgos sobre el efecto protector de la furosemida en asma inducida por ejercicio, ha habido un interés creciente por la función de este fármaco en la vía aérea. El propósito de esta revisión es reunir datos obtenidos en estudios publicados sobre los potenciales mecanismos por los cuales la furosemida pudiese ejercer un efecto protector en el asma. Se concluye que a pesar de la existencia de diversos mecanismos de la acción potencial de la furosemida sobre la vía respiratoria, no existen datos significativos que permitan aceptar o rechazar cualquier hipótesis al respecto, ya que existen marcadas discrepancias entre varios estudios existentes, por lo que, hasta el momento, no parecen generarse ventajas clínicas relevantes sobre el asma inducida por ejercicio. Es importante establecer que la furosemida no es un agente broncodilatador, por tanto su uso en exacerbaciones agudas de asma no esta justificado.

ABSTRACT Since 1988, when Bianco and Colleagues published findings about the beneficial effect of furosemide in exercise-induced asthma, there has been an increasing interest about the function of this drug over the airway. The purpose of this article is to gather data in prevously published studies about the putative mechanisms for the potential protective role of furosemide in asthma. Even though there are multiple potential mechanisms of action, there is not significant data that could allow us to accept or deny any hypothesis, because there are important discrepancies between existing studies, so that, to the present day, there are not relevant clinical advantages on exercise-induced asthma. It is noteworthy to establish that furosemide is not a bronchodilator agent, so that its use in acute exacerbations of asthma is not justified.

Rabies is a disease caused by neurotropic virus which has the capability to infect a wide range of animals and humans. Antigenic analysis of a wide variety of fixed (vaccine strains) and street viruses with monoclonal antibodies has revealed considerable antigenic variation among the samples of viruses isolated from different host species, or geographical locations. These marked antigenic variations have potentially serious implications for rabies control strategies. We studied the patterns of "street" and "fixed" rabies virus isolates compared with the prototype Challenge Virus Standard (CVS), using the Fuenzalida-Palacios rabies vaccine and anti-rabies serum standard. Six street rabies virus were used. These were detected and isolated in 1985, at the Public Health Institute of Chile. First, suckling mice were inoculated with street rabies virus 85/423, 85/433, 85/684, 85/882, 85/1068, 85/1091. The detection of rabies virus antigen in CNS tissues was performed with the direct immunofluorescence technique. These positive samples were used for the viral passage in mice. Next, brain tissues from mice experimentally infected with street virus were used for the next intracerebral inoculation. This street rabies virus was fixed. We analysed role of Fuenzalidad-Palacios vaccine in induction of protective immune response against a lethal infection in suckling mice with six street rabies virus ( 85/423, 85/433, 85/684, 85/882, 85/1068 and 85/1091), challenge virus standard (CVS) and fixed rabies virus (85/423, 85/433, 85/684, 85/882, 85/1068 and 85/1091). To study the protection of anti-rabies serum, mice were inoculated intracerebrally with preincubated mixtures of anti-rabies serum with virus CVS and anti-rabies serum with fixed rabies virus. The results indicated that the Fuenzalida-Palacios vaccine, experimentally produced only partial protection against a lethal intracerebral challenge with rabies virus. We demostrate that, administration of anti-rabies serum resulted in insufficient protection.

El virus de la rabia presenta diferencias antigénicas que han sido detectadas en diferentes regiones y países, lo que podría acarrear un serio problema en relación a las vacunas antirrábicas empleadas en terreno que no se corresponden con las cepas actuantes pudiendo provocar fracaso del tratamiento vacunal preventivo o post-exposición. Ante la sospecha de la existencia de virus rabia presuntamente atípicos en nuestro país, nos planteamos como objetivo estudiar el comportamiento antigénico de aislados vírales "calle" y "fijo" en relación a la cepa estándar, Challenge Virus Standar, frente a las vacunas antirrábicas veterinaria y de referencia nacional, y el suero antirrábico hiperinmune de referencia nacional. Se estudiaron 6 aislados de virus rábico presuntamente atípicos (5 de murciélagos y 1 de gato) obtenidos en 1985 en el Instituto de Salud Pública y mantenidos a -70&ordm;C en cerebro de ratón lactante. Para ello, primeramente, con la finalidad de lograr la fijación de los aislados a los animales de laboratorio, se procedió a realizar pasajes sucesivos en CRL, confirmando en cada pasaje la causa de muerte a través de la prueba de inmunofluorescencia directa. Para determinar la protección conferida en ratones, por las vacunas tradicionales frente a los aislados presuntamente atípicos, se compararon las respuestas de ratones vacunados y desafiados con los 6 aislados en su forma "calle" y "fija", con las respuestas de los ratones vacunados y desafiados con la cepa de referencia del virus estándar de desafío CVS. Para conocer la capacidad de neutralización del suero de referencia nacional frente a los aislados vírales "fijo", se compararon los resultados de neutralización en ratones, de cada uno de los aislados enfrentados al suero de referencia nacional, con la neutralización de la cepa CVS enfrentada al mismo suero. La fijación se logró en el pasaje N&ordm; 16, para los aislados 85/423, 85/433, 85/684, 85/882, 85/1091, y en el pasaje N&ordm; 14 para el aislado 85/1068. En la protección conferida por las vacunas hubo diferencias significativas (p < 0.00416) entre los ratones vacunados con la vacuna veterinaria para los aislados "calle" 85/423, 85/882, 85/1091 y para los aislados "fijo" 85/684, 85/882 y 85/1068. Con la vacuna antirrábica de referencia nacional sólo hubo diferencias significativas diferentes, en forma decreciente, para los aislado 85/882, 85/423, 85/684, 85/1091, 85/1068 y 85/433. De los 6 aislados nacionales estudiados, en 5 se encuentra un comportamiento antigénico diferente a la cepa CVS, expresado como diferencias en el grado de protección por algunas de las vacunas probadas y/o la neutralización de aislados "fijo" por un suero de referencia, con lo que se podría afirmar que existen aislados atípicos actuando en nuestro país, los cuales, no se comportan en forma semejante a la cepa CVS de referencia