Effect of a prebiotic mixture on intestinal comfort and general wellbeing in health

Specific carbohydrates, i.e. prebiotics such as fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS), are not digested in the small intestine but fermented in the colon. Besides beneficial health effects of an enhanced bifidobacteria population, intestinal gas production resulting from fermentation can induce abdominal symptoms. Partial replacement with slowly fermented acacia gum may attenuate side effects. The aim was to compare the effects of FOS with those of a prebiotic mixture (50% FOS and 50% acacia gum; BLEND) and a rapidly absorbed carbohydrate (maltodextrin) on general intestinal wellbeing, abdominal comfort and anorectal sensory function. Twenty volunteers (eight male and twelve female; age 20-37 years) completed this double-blind, randomised study with two cycles of a 2-week run-in phase (10g maltodextrin) followed by 5 weeks of 10g FOS or BLEND once daily, separated by a 4-week wash-out interval. Abdominal symptoms and general wellbeing were documented by telephone interview or Internet twice weekly. Rectal sensations were assessed by a visual analogue scale during a rectal barostat test after FOS and BLEND treatment. Both FOS and BLEND induced more side effects than maltodextrin. Belching was more pronounced under FOS compared with BLEND (P=0·09 for females; P=0·01 for males), and for self-reported general wellbeing strong sex differences were reported (P=0·002). Urgency scores during rectal barostat were higher with FOS than BLEND (P=0·01). Faced with a growing range of supplemented food products, consumers may benefit from prebiotic mixtures which cause fewer abdominal side effects. Sex differences must be taken in consideration when food supplements are use

Extending cervicoplastic surgery: an alternative technique to overcome the limitation of office hysteroscopy

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SM evaluation of frequency response variation rate for H∞ identification

Set membership (SM) H∞ identification for discrete time systems is aimed to estimate a low order approximating model and its identification error. A choice of the grid-ding in frequency is presented, based on a set-membership estimation of the rate of variation of the system frequency response. © 1998 AACC

MED14 [Conference Reports]

The 22nd Mediterranean Control Conference (MED14) took place in Palermo, Italy, on July 16?19, 2014. MED14 was another success for this series of conferences, which are organized under the auspices of the Mediterranean Control Association (MCA) with technical co-sponsorship of the IEEE Control System Society (CSS) and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS). A total of 38 members of the International Program Committee contributed to the evaluation of the papers, collecting about 1000 reviews. Three plenary speakers opened each day of the technical program, with talks on economics, networks, and system biology. Two tutorial sessions were dedicated to systems biology and smart grid, and five invited sessions were organized and presented: two on marine robotics, one on aerospace systems, and two on assistive technologies