Probiotics as alternatives to antibiotics in treating post-weaning diarrhoea in pigs: Review paper

The use of antibiotics to prevent post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD) in pigs has faced a setback owing to the associated antibiotic resistance in pigs and in the human populace that consumes the pork. In fact, antibiotic resistance that originates from the food chain is estimated to cause around 700,000 deaths globally each year. Consequently, scientists and researchers have suggested possible alternatives to antibiotics in pig diets. The chief of these has been the use of probiotics. The authors reviewed the literature on the use of probiotics as an alternative to antibiotics in treating PWD in pigs. It is clear that because of pathogenic Escherichia coli PWD continues to be a challenge to profitable swine production. The vast number of studies that was reviewed, point to the beneficial effects of probiotic supplementation on reducing the severity and incidence of PWD. However, some studies report inconsistencies to the general hypothesis. The majority of the microorganisms used as probiotics in the studies belong to the genera Lactobacilli, Bacillus, Bifidobacterium, Enterococcus, probiotic Escherichia coli, and Saccharomyces. The review also revealed that the bacterial strains that are used as probiotics are given individually or as combinations of multiple strains, and at various dosages, yielding varied results in each case. Interestingly, the authors observed wide disparities in the onset of probiotic supplementation and duration of the treatment to attain the results. Hence there is a need to standardize supplementation strategies, including dosage, onset and duration of treatment for probiotics. Furthermore, many of the in vivo studies that revealed positive effects of probiotics on diarrhoea and other production parameters were carried out in more controlled environments. The authors therefore suggest that more field studies in more natural and commercial farm settings should be conducted to augment the literature in relation to the use of probiotics as alternatives to antibiotics in treating PWD.Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, directly-fed microorganisms, post-weaning diarrhoea, swine diet

A Detailed Monte-Carlo Simulation for the Belle TOF System

We have developed a detailed Monte Carlo simulation program for the Belle TOF system. Based on GEANT simulation, it takes account of all physics processes in the TOF scintillation counters and readout electronics. The simulation reproduces very well the performance of the Belle TOF system, including the dE/dx response, the time walk effect, the time resolution, and the hit efficiency due to beam background. In this report, we will describe the Belle TOF simulation program in detail.Comment: To be submitted to NI

Clinical effect of IRT-5 probiotics on immune modulation of autoimmunity or alloimmunity in the eye

Background: Although the relation of the gut microbiota to a development of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases has been investigated in various animal models, there are limited studies that evaluate the effect of probiotics in the autoimmune eye disease. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of IRT-5 probiotics consisting of Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus reuteri, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Streptococcus thermophilus on the autoimmunity of uveitis and dry eye and alloimmunity of corneal transplantation. Methods: Experimental autoimmune uveitis was induced by subcutaneous immunization with interphotoreceptor-binding protein and intraperitoneal injection of pertussis toxin in C57BL/6 (B6) mice. For an autoimmune dry eye model, 12-weeks-old NOD.B10.H2b mice were used. Donor cornea of B6 mice was transplanted into BALB/C mice. IRT-5 probiotics or phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were administered for three weeks immediately after induction of uveitis or transplantation. The inflammation score of the retinal tissues, dry eye manifestations (corneal staining and tear secretion), and graft survival were measured in each model. The changes of T cells were evaluated in drainage lymph nodes using fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Results: Retinal histology score in IRT-5 group of uveitis was lower than that in PBS group (p = 0.045). Ocular staining score was lower (p < 0.0001) and tear secretion was higher (p < 0.0001) in the IRT-5 group of NOD.B10.H2b mice than that in the PBS group. However, the graft survival in the IRT-5 group was not different from those of PBS group. The percentage of regulatory T cells was increased in the IRT-5-treated dry eye models (p = 0.032). The percentage of CD8+IL-17hi (p = 0.027) and CD8+ interferon gamma (IFN��)hi cells (p = 0.022) were significantly decreased in the IRT-5-treated uveitis models and the percentage of CD8+IFN��hi cells was markedly reduced (p = 0.036) in IRT-5-treated dry eye model. Conclusion: Our results suggest that administration of IRT-5 probiotics may modulate clinical manifestations of autoimmunity in the eye, but not on alloimmunity of corneal transplantation. ? 2017 by the authors.112Nsciescopu

Self-organization of stack-up block copolymers into polymeric supramolecules

Polyethylene oxide –b– polypropylene oxide -b- polyethylene oxide (EO106PO70EO106) block copolymer self-organizes into polymeric supramolecules, characterized by NMR as phase transition from the isotropic stack-up block structure to the ordered cubic polymeric supramolecular structure. Its dependence on both temperature and copolymer concentration is clearly shown by the changes in line shape and chemical shift of the PO70blockβ,γresonances

Resistance distance, information centrality, node vulnerability and vibrations in complex networks

We discuss three seemingly unrelated quantities that have been introduced in different fields of science for complex networks. The three quantities are the resistance distance, the information centrality and the node displacement. We first prove various relations among them. Then we focus on the node displacement, showing its usefulness as an index of node vulnerability.We argue that the node displacement has a better resolution as a measure of node vulnerability than the degree and the information centrality

Molecular pathogenesis of spondylocheirodysplastic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome caused by mutant ZIP13 proteins.

The zinc transporter protein ZIP13 plays critical roles in bone, tooth, and connective tissue development, and its dysfunction is responsible for the spondylocheirodysplastic form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (SCD-EDS, OMIM 612350). Here, we report the molecular pathogenic mechanism of SCD-EDS caused by two different mutant ZIP13 proteins found in human patients: ZIP13(G64D), in which Gly at amino acid position 64 is replaced by Asp, and ZIP13(ΔFLA), which contains a deletion of Phe-Leu-Ala. We demonstrated that both the ZIP13(G64D) and ZIP13(ΔFLA) protein levels are decreased by degradation via the valosin-containing protein (VCP)-linked ubiquitin proteasome pathway. The inhibition of degradation pathways rescued the protein expression levels, resulting in improved intracellular Zn homeostasis. Our findings uncover the pathogenic mechanisms elicited by mutant ZIP13 proteins. Further elucidation of these degradation processes may lead to novel therapeutic targets for SCD-EDS

Low energy fast events from radon progenies at the surface of a CsI(Tl) scintillator

In searches for rare phenomena such as elastic scattering of dark matter particles or neutrinoless double beta decay, alpha decays of Rn222 progenies attached to the surfaces of the detection material have been identified as a serious source of background. In measurements with CsI(Tl) scintillator crystals, we demonstrate that alpha decays of surface contaminants produce fast signals with a characteristic mean-time distribution that is distinct from those of neutron- and gamma-induced events.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

What Coexists with the Ferromagnetic Metallic Phase in Manganites?

Colossal magnetoresistance, whereby the application of a magnetic field reduces the resistivity of a manganite by orders of magnitude, is generally believed to occur because of coexisting phases. Development of a complete theory to explain the phenomenon requires that the exact nature of these phases be known. We used resonant elastic soft x-ray scattering to examine the superlattice order that exists in La{sub 0.35}Pr{sub 0.275}Ca{sub 0.375}MnO{sub 3} above and below the Curie temperature. By measuring the resonance profile of the scattered x-rays at different values of q, we disentangle the contributions of orbital order and antiferromagnetism to the scattering signal above the Curie temperature. Below the Curie temperature, we see no signal from orbital order, and only antiferromagnetism coexists with the dominant ferromagnetic metallic phase

Study of charmonia in four-meson final states produced in two-photon collisions

We report measurements of charmonia produced in two-photon collisions and decaying to four-meson final states, where the meson is either a charged pion or a charged kaon. The analysis is based on a 395fb^{-1} data sample accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB electron-positron collider. We observe signals for the three C-even charmonia eta_c(1S), chi_{c0}(1P) and chi_{c2}(1P) in the pi^+pi^-pi^+pi^-, K^+K^-pi^+pi^- and K^+K^-K^+K^- decay modes. No clear signals for eta_c(2S) production are found in these decay modes. We have also studied resonant structures in charmonium decays to two-body intermediate meson resonances. We report the products of the two-photon decay width and the branching fractions, Gamma_{gamma gamma}B, for each of the charmonium decay modes.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure

Search for Resonant B±→K±h→K±γγB^{\pm}\to K^{\pm} h \to K^{\pm} \gamma \gamma Decays at Belle

We report measurements and searches for resonant $B^{\pm} \to K^{\pm} h \to K^{\pm} \gamma \gamma$ decays where $h$ is a $\eta,\eta^{\prime},\eta_{c},\eta_{c}(2S),\chi_{c0},\chi_{c2},J/\psi$ meson or the X(3872) particle.Comment: accepted by Physics Letters