Methods to assess lactic acid bacteria diversity and compatibility in food

Food microflora is a complex and mutable ecosystem where the effects of microbial culture addition are still not entirely foreseeable due to microbial diversity. Starter, probiotic, and adjunct microorganisms are widely selected and used in food to improve quality and safety; they may be formulated as monostrain or multistrain cultures. Lactic acid bacteria are included among the main groups deemed useful for these aims. Compatibility tests can constitute an effective way to assess interactions among lactic acid bacteria. Food microflora composition is generally examined using both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. The existing limits of each method can be overcome by combining them, so that they give more information on microbial complexity. Since mixed cultures of starter, probiotic, or adjunct lactic acid bacteria provide more beneficial effects than single cultures, future research should be guided by compatibility tests to show the most suitable and beneficial mixed cultures

Critical Excitation Spectrum of Quantum Chain With A Local 3-Spin Coupling

This article reports a measurement of the low-energy excitation spectrum along the critical line for a quantum spin chain having a local interaction between three Ising spins and longitudinal and transverse magnetic fields. The measured excitation spectrum agrees with that predicted by the (D$_4$, A$_4$) conformal minimal model under a nontrivial correspondence between translations at the critical line and discrete lattice translations. Under this correspondence, the measurements confirm a prediction that the critical line of this quantum spin chain and the critical point of the 2D 3-state Potts model are in the same universality class.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Resonance absorption enhancement in laser-generated plasma ablating Cu treated surfaces

AbstractResonant absorption effects for 1.064 µm infrared laser pulse radiations are investigated by using different techniques producing micrometric surface structures with dimensions comparable to the wavelength value. The laser absorption is controlled through measurement of the Cu ion acceleration using time-of-flight approach. Surface treatments include low energy laser etching in air, deposition of microspheres obtained ablating Cu targets in water, pulse laser deposition of microstructures precursor of thin homogeneous film, chemical etching with HNO3 acid, Ar+ ion sputtering and rolling burnishing surface of thin Cu foils. Results indicate that the best resonance effect is obtained with the rolling burnishing, ion sputtering and microsphere deposition processes which enhance the Cu ion energy and the yield emission

Form factors of descendant operators in the massive Lee-Yang model

The form factors of the descendant operators in the massive Lee-Yang model are determined up to level 7. This is first done by exploiting the conserved quantities of the integrable theory to generate the solutions for the descendants starting from the lowest non-trivial solutions in each operator family. We then show that the operator space generated in this way, which is isomorphic to the conformal one, coincides, level by level, with that implied by the $S$-matrix through the form factor bootstrap. The solutions we determine satisfy asymptotic conditions carrying the information about the level that we conjecture to hold for all the operators of the model.Comment: 23 page

Cervical Radiculopathy: A Review

Abstract Backgroun

A Tenon's capsule/bulbar conjunctiva interface biomimetic to model fibrosis and local drug delivery

Glaucoma filtration surgery is one of the most effective methods for lowering intraocular pressure in glaucoma. The surgery efficiently reduces intra-ocular pressure but the most common cause of failure is scarring at the incision site. This occurs in the conjunctiva/Tenon's capsule layer overlying the scleral coat of the eye. Currently used antimetabolite treatments to prevent post-surgical scarring are non-selective and are associated with potentially blinding side effects. Developing new treatments to target scarring requires both a better understanding of wound healing and scarring in the conjunctiva, and new means of delivering anti-scarring drugs locally and sustainably. By combining plastic compression of collagen gels with a soft collagen-based layer, we have developed a physiologically relevant model of the sub-epithelial bulbar conjunctiva/Tenon's capsule interface, which allows a more holistic approach to the understanding of subconjunctival tissue behaviour and local drug delivery. The biomimetic tissue hosts both primary human conjunctival fibroblasts and an immune component in the form of macrophages, morphologically and structurally mimicking the mechanical proprieties and contraction kinetics of ex vivo porcine conjunctiva. We show that our model is suitable for the screening of drugs targeting scarring and/or inflammation, and amenable to the study of local drug delivery devices that can be inserted in between the two layers of the biomimetic. We propose that this multicellular-bilayer engineered tissue will be useful to study complex biological aspects of scarring and fibrosis, including the role of inflammation, with potentially significant implications for the management of scarring following glaucoma filtration surgery and other anterior ocular segment scarring conditions. Crucially, it uniquely allows the evaluation of new means of local drug delivery within a physiologically relevant tissue mimetic, mimicking intraoperative drug delivery in vivo

Minimal Unitary Models and The Closed SU(2)-q Invariant Spin Chain

We consider the Hamiltonian of the closed $SU(2)_{q}$ invariant chain. We project a particular class of statistical models belonging to the unitary minimal series. A particular model corresponds to a particular value of the coupling constant. The operator content is derived. This class of models has charge-dependent boundary conditions. In simple cases (Ising, 3-state Potts) corresponding Hamiltonians are constructed. These are non-local as the original spin chain.Comment: 19 pages, latex, no figure

Chemical and physical modifications of polyethylene containing nanostructures

The polyethylene is an interesting polymer with a good mechanical strength, ductility, biocompatibility and chemical inertia. It founds several applications in many fields, such as chemistry, engineering, bio-medicine and micro-electronics. The polyethylene chemical and physical properties can be modified embedding different nanostructures in its bulk. Carbon nanotubes, metallic oxides, coloured pigments and other species can be inserted at different concentrations in the polymer material during the preparation phase of thin films and sheets. Mechanical, optical, thermal and chemical properties can be modified significantly depending on the filler concentration. The absorption coefficient at different radiations can be controlled by the amount of doping structure. In the visible region, for example, the high transparency of pure polyethylene can be strongly reduced by low concentrations of carbon nanotubes. The colour, the mechanical resistance, the wet ability of the polyethylene and other parameters can be changed by the doping species in order to prepare special devices useful for many applications