Comparison of Four Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Assays for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Respiratory Samples from Tunja, Boyacá, Colombia.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. In Colombia, many commercial methods are now available to perform the RT-qPCR assays, and laboratories must evaluate their diagnostic accuracy to ensure reliable results for patients suspected of being positive for COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to compare four commercial RT-qPCR assays with respect to their ability to detect the SARS-CoV2 virus from nasopharyngeal swab samples referred to Laboratorio Carvajal IPS, SAS in Tunja, Boyacá, Colombia.

Dry Needling Produces Mild Injuries Irrespective to Muscle Stiffness and Tension in Ex Vivo Mice Muscles.

Numerous studies have suggested that the myofascial trigger points are responsible for most of the myofascial pain syndrome, so it seems reasonable that its destruction is a good therapeutic solution. The effectiveness of dry needling (DN) has been confirmed in muscles with myofascial trigger points, hypertonicity, and spasticity. The objective of this study is to analyze the need of repetitive punctures on muscles in different situations.

Fuzzy dynamic parameter adaptation in the bird swarm algorithm for neural network optimization.

Fuzzy dynamic parameter adaptation has proven to be of great help when it is implemented in bio-inspired algorithms for optimization in different application areas, such as control, mathematical functions, classification, among others. One of the main contributions of this work is the proposed improvement of the Bird Swarm algorithm using a Fuzzy System approach, and we called this improvement the Fuzzy Bird Swarm Algorithm. Furthermore, we use a set of complex Benchmark Functions of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation Competition 2017 to compare the results between the original algorithm and the proposed improvement of the algorithm.

Breast milk excretion Kinetic of b-HCH, pp'DDE and pp'DDT.

Breast milk is considered the most important route in the elimination of deposited organochlorine pesticides in a mother’s body. The equilibrium of organochlorine pesticides in the human body considers the elements of internal transport processes, the equilibrium pattern between pesticides and tissue fat contents, and the mobilization of lipids and lipoproteins among body parts. The aim of this study was to determine organochlorine pesticide levels in breast milk samples from the 4th to the 30th day of lactation and the trend in their concentration time so as to forecast the time tendency of residue levels and the pesticide excretion pattern.