Characterizing Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii JS and Lactobacillus rhamnosus LC705 as a new probiotic combination: basic properties of JS and pilot in vivo assessment of the combination

Characterizing Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii JS and Lactobacillus rhamnosus LC705 as a new probiotic combination: basic properties of JS and pilot in vivo assessment of the combination Each candidate probiotic strain has to have the documentation for the proper identification with current molecular tools, for the biological properties, for the safety aspects and for the health benefits in human trials if the intention is to apply the strain as health promoting culture in the commercial applications. No generalization based on species properties of an existing probiotic are valid for any novel strain, as strain specific differences appear e.g. in the resistance to GI tract conditions and in health promoting benefits (Madsen, 2006). The strain evaluation based on individual strain specific probiotic characteristics is therefore the first key action for the selection of the new probiotic candidate. The ultimate goal in the selection of the probiotic strain is to provide adequate amounts of active, living cells for the application and to guarantee that the cells are physiologically strong enough to survive and be biologically active in the adverse environmental conditions in the product and in GI tract of the host. The in vivo intervention studies are expensive and time consuming; therefore it is not rational to test all the possible candidates in vivo. Thus, the proper in vitro studies are helping to eliminate strains which are unlikely to perform well in vivo. The aims of this study were to characterize the strains of Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii JS and Lactobacillus rhamnosus LC705, both used for decades as cheese starter cultures, for their technological and possible probiotic functionality applied in a combined culture. The in vitro studies of Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii JS focused on the monitoring of the viability rates during the acid and bile treatments and on the safety aspects such as antibiotic susceptibility and adhesion. The studies with the combination of the strains JS and LC705 administered in fruit juices monitored the survival of the strains JS and LC705 during the GI transit and their effect on gut wellbeing properties measured as relief of constipation. In addition, safety parameters such as side effects and some peripheral immune parameters were assessed. Separately, the combination of P. freudenreichii ssp. shermanii JS and Lactobacillus rhamnosus LC705 was evaluated from the technological point of view as a bioprotective culture in fermented foods and wheat bread applications. In this study, the role ofP. freudenreichii ssp. shermanii JS as a candidate probiotic culture alone and in a combination with L. rhamnosus LC705 was demonstrated. Both strains were transiently recovered in high numbers in fecal samples of healthy adults during the consumption period. The good survival through the GI transit was proven for both strains with a recovery rate from 70 to 80% for the JS strain and from 40 to 60% for the LC705 strain from the daily dose of 10 log10 CFU. The good survival was shown from the consumption of fruit juices which do not provide similar matrix protection for the cells as milk based products. The strain JS did not pose

Development of laboratory exercises for basic nuclear thermal hydraulics measurements

The thesis focuses on light water reactors (pressurized water reactors, boiling water reactors) and measurement techniques for basic thermal hydraulics parameters that are used in a nuclear power plant. The goal of this work is a development of laboratory exercises for basic nuclear thermal hydraulics measurements.

Development of a Technique for Estimating Rain Parameters from Rain Noise Measurements

The measurement of global precipitation is of great importance in climate modeling since the release of latent heat associated with tropical convection is one of the pricipal driving mechanisms of atmospheric circulation.Knowledge of the larger-scale precipitation field also has important potential applications in the generation of initial conditions for numerical weather prediction models Knowledge of the relationship between rainfall intensity and kinetic energy, and its variations in time and space is important for erosion prediction. Vegetation on earth also greatly depends on the total amount of rainfall as well as the drop size distribution (DSD) in rainfall.While methods using visible,infrared, and microwave radiometer data have been shown to yield useful estimates of precipitation, validation of these products for the open ocean has been hampered by the limited amount of surface rainfall measurements available for accurate assessement, especially for the tropical oceans.Surface rain fall measurements(often called the ground truth)are carried out by rain gauges working on various principles like weighing type,tipping bucket,capacitive type and so on.The acoustic technique is yet another promising method of rain parameter measurement that has many advantages. The basic principle of acoustic method is that the droplets falling in water produce underwater sound with distinct features, using which the rainfall parameters can be computed. The acoustic technique can also be used for developing a low cost and accurate device for automatic measurement of rainfall rate and kinetic energy of rain.especially suitable for telemetry applications. This technique can also be utilized to develop a low cost Disdrometer that finds application in rainfall analysis as well as in calibration of nozzles and sprinklers. This thesis is divided into the following 7 chapters, which describes the methodology adopted, the results obtained and the conclusions arrived at.

Influence of Major Operational Parameters on Aerobic Granulation for the Treatment of Wastewater

Effective solids-liquid separation is the basic concept of any wastewater treatment system. Biological treatment methods involve microorganisms for the treatment of wastewater. Conventional activated sludge process (ASP) poses the problem of poor settleability and hence require a large footprint. Biogranulation is an effective biotechnological process which can overcome the drawbacks of conventional ASP to a great extent. Aerobic granulation represents an innovative cell immobilization strategy in biological wastewater treatment. Aerobic granules are selfimmobilized microbial aggregates that are cultivated in sequencing batch reactors (SBRs). Aerobic granules have several advantages over conventional activated sludge flocs such as a dense and compact microbial structure, good settleability and high biomass retention. For cells in a culture to aggregate, a number of conditions have to be satisfied. Hence aerobic granulation is affected by many operating parameters. The organic loading rate (OLR) helps to enrich different bacterial species and to influence the size and settling ability of granules. Hence, OLR was argued as an influencing parameter by helping to enrich different bacterial species and to influence the size and settling ability of granules. Hydrodynamic shear force, caused by aeration and measured as superficial upflow air velocity (SUAV), has a strong influence and hence it is used to control the granulation process. Settling time (ST) and volume exchange ratio (VER) are also two key influencing factors, which can be considered as selection pressures responsible for aerobic granulation based on the concept of minimal settling velocity. Hence, these four parameters - OLR, SUAV, ST and VER- were selected as major influencing parametersfor the present study. Influence of these four parameters on aerobic granulation was investigated in this work

On the time for fold surfaces to order during the crystallization of polyethylene from the melt and its dependence on molecular parameters

New experiments underpin the interpretation of the basic division in crystallization behaviour of polyethylene in terms of whether or not there is time for the fold surface to order before the next molecular layer is added at the growth front. For typical growth rates, in Regime 11, polyethylene lamellae form with disordered {001} fold surfaces then transform, with lamellar thickening and twisting, towards the more-ordered condition found for slower crystallization in Regime 1, in which lamellae form with and retain {201} fold surfaces. Several linear and linear-low-density polyethylenes have been used to show that, for the same polymer crystallized alone or in a blend, the growth rate at which the change in initial lamellar condition occurs is reasonably constant thereby supporting the concept of a specific time for surfaces to attain the ordered {201}) state. This specific time, in the range from milliseconds to seconds, increases with molecular length, and in linear-low-density polymer, for higher branch contents. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of internal partitioning on indoor air quality of rooms with mixing ventilation - basic study

The internal partitioning, which is frequently introduced in open-space planning due to its flexibility, was tested to study its effects on the room air quality as well as ventilation performance. For the study, physical tests using a small model room and numerical modeling using CFD computation were utilized to evaluate different test conditions employing mixing ventilation from the ceiling. The partition parameters, such as its location, height, and the gap underneath, as well as contaminant source location were tested under isothermal conditions. This paper summarizes the results from the study.

Introducing higher moments in the CAPM: some basic ideas

We show how to include in the CAPM moments of any order, extending the mean-variance or mean-variance-skewness versions available until now. Then, we present a simple way to modify the formulae, in order to avoid the appearance of utility parameters. The results can be easily applied to practical portfolio design, with econometric inference and testing based on generalised method of moments procedures. An empirical application to the Brazilian stock market is discussed.

BASIC HYPERGEOMETRIC FUNCTIONS and ORTHOGONAL LAURENT POLYNOMIALS

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Cytochemistry and polarization microscopy of amphibian sperm cell nuclei presumed to differ in basic protein composition

The pattern of availability of free DNA phosphates, and the kind of DNA-protein complex arrangement, both induced by nuclear basic proteins, and the richness in arginine residues in these proteins were investigated cytochemically and cytophysically in spermatozoa of the South-American Hylidae species, Hyla fuscovaria and Hyla biobeba. The aim was to demonstrate differences at the level of sperm histones in two species of Hyla until recently considered to be congeneric. The results indicated differences in the spermatozoal nuclear basic proteins and DNA-protein complexes when the two species were compared. The spermatozoa of Hyla biobeba were assumed to be likely to contain a Bloch's ''type 3'' protein type (intermediate sperm basic protein), similarly to Hyla species of North and Central America. on the other hand, the data obtained for the spermatozoa of Hyla fuscovaria indicated that they contain a protamine or protamine-like protein, differing from Hyla biobeba and Hyla species of North and Central America. It is suggested that the differences reported here may be genus-specific, since Hyla fuscovaria has recently been reclassified as Scinax fuscovaria based on parameters other than sperm histone types. These findings are in agreement with the general view of a wide variability in sperm nuclear proteins in the Anura group.

A disease evolution model with uncertain parameters

In this study we consider the SIS epidemiological model (susceptible-infected-susceptible) in which the transmission and recuperation rates are considered fuzzy sets. The concepts of possibility measures and fuzzy expectancy value are used to obtain the basic reproduction value for infected groups with different viral charge.

Determination of broiler femur parameters at different growth phases

The objective of this experiment was to analyse macroscopically the femur and determine the biochemical values at 8, 22 and 42 days of age, producing basic results that can help to understand the pathogeny of the locomotor problems and the broiler physiologic growth. A total of 60 Cobb male broilers were distributed in three age groups (8, 22 and 42 days of age) of 20 birds. All macroscopic measurements, except the cranial compact layer increased (p<0.05) over the course of the ages. The cranial compact layer presented the biggest measure at 22 days of age. The ash percentage increased (p<0.05) until 22 days of age, but at 42 days of age this values decreased. Calcium and phosphorus percentage in ash increased (p<0.05) until 22 days of age and evidenced constancy from 22 to 42 days of age. The biomechanical adaptation capacity of femur was evidenced by the increase of the macroscopic measures over the course of the ages and the different behavior of cranial compact layer at 22 days of age suggested an adaptation attempt of the immature bone to muscle mass increase. The ash and mineral percentage confirmed that the relative growth occurs with more intensity until 21 days of age. The calcium and phosphorus percentage evidenced the physiologic balance acting on the deposition of these minerals in femur. © Asian Network for Scientific Information, 2011.

Electronic structure calculations of ESR parameters of melanin units

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Probabilistic tomography of atmospheric parameters from GNSS data

The objective of the work is the evaluation of the potential capabilities of navigation satellite signals to retrieve basic atmospheric parameters. A capillary study have been performed on the assumptions more or less explicitly contained in the common processing steps of navigation signals. A probabilistic procedure has been designed for measuring vertical discretised profiles of pressure, temperature and water vapour and their associated errors. Numerical experiments on a synthetic dataset have been performed with the main objective of quantifying the information that could be gained from such approach, using entropy and relative entropy as testing parameters. A simulator of phase delay and bending of a GNSS signal travelling across the atmosphere has been developed to this aim.

Reporting Experiments in Homeopathic Basic Research—Description of the Checklist Development

The objective of this study was to develop a criteria catalogue serving as a guideline for authors to improve quality of reporting experiments in basic research in homeopathy. A Delphi Process was initiated including three rounds of adjusting and phrasing plus two consensus conferences. European researchers who published experimental work within the last 5 years were involved. A checklist for authors provide a catalogue with 23 criteria. The “Introduction” should focus on underlying hypotheses, the homeopathic principle investigated and state if experiments are exploratory or confirmatory. “Materials and methods” should comprise information on object of investigation, experimental setup, parameters, intervention and statistical methods. A more detailed description on the homeopathic substances, for example, manufacture, dilution method, starting point of dilution is required. A further result of the Delphi process is to raise scientists' awareness of reporting blinding, allocation, replication, quality control and system performance controls. The part “Results” should provide the exact number of treated units per setting which were included in each analysis and state missing samples and drop outs. Results presented in tables and figures are as important as appropriate measures of effect size, uncertainty and probability. “Discussion” in a report should depict more than a general interpretation of results in the context of current evidence but also limitations and an appraisal of aptitude for the chosen experimental model. Authors of homeopathic basic research publications are encouraged to apply our checklist when preparing their manuscripts. Feedback is encouraged on applicability, strength and limitations of the list to enable future revisions.

EEG reactivity and EEG activity in never-treated acute schizophrenics, measured with spectral parameters and dimensional complexity

Our approaches to the use of EEG studies for the understanding of the pathogenesis of schizophrenic symptoms are presented. The basic assumptions of a heuristic and multifactorial model of the psychobiological brain mechanisms underlying the organization of normal behavior is described and used in order to formulate and test hypotheses about the pathogenesis of schizophrenic behavior using EEG measures. Results from our studies on EEG activity and EEG reactivity (= EEG components of a memory-driven, adaptive, non-unitary orienting response) as analyzed with spectral parameters and "chaotic" dimensionality (correlation dimension) are summarized. Both analysis procedures showed a deviant brain functional organization in never-treated first-episode schizophrenia which, within the framework of the model, suggests as common denominator for the pathogenesis of the symptoms a deviation of working memory, the nature of which is functional and not structural.