Probiotics for Preventing Cognitive Impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease that results in gradual cognitive impairment and eventually leads to dementia. However, despite AD being one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases in aging societies, no clinically successful therapeutic strategies for its treatment or prevention have been reported to date. Studies have indicated that gut microbial alterations are linked to AD. Probiotics are living microorganisms that are known to confer health benefits to the host when ingested in adequate amounts. Certain strains of probiotics appear to influence the central nervous system (CNS) and behavior via the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Increasing evidence from preclinical and clinical studies has demonstrated that probiotics possess preventive as well as therapeutic potential for AD. It is speculated that probiotics could ameliorate the progression of AD by modulating the inflammatory process, counteracting oxidative stress, and other possible mechanisms, although further studies are needed to understand the details. In this chapter, we will highlight the current understandings of the effects as well as the possible mechanisms of action of probiotics for preventing cognitive impairment in AD

Evaluation of mixing and mixing rate in a multiple spouted bed by image processing technique

Mixing efficiency is one of the most significant factors, affecting both performance and scale-up of a gas-solid reactor system. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the particle mixing in a multiple spouted bed. Image processing technique was used to extract the real-time information concerning the distribution of particle components (bed materials and tracer particles). A more accurate definition of the tracer concentration was developed to calculate the mixing index. According to the visual observation and image analysis, the mixing mechanism was revealed and the mixing rate was evaluated. Based on these results, the effects of operation parameters on the mixing rate were discussed in terms of the flow patterns. It is found that the detection of the pixel distribution of each component in RGB images is not affected by the interference of air void, thus maintaining good measurement accuracy. Convective transportation controls the particle mixing in the internal jet and spout, while shear dominants the particle mixing in the dense moving region. Global mixing takes place only when the path from one spout cell to the other is open. This path can be formed either by the bubbles or particle circulation flows. The mixing rate is linked to the bubble motion and particle circulation. Provided that there are interactions between the spout cells, any parameters promoting the bubble motion and circulation can increase the mixing rate. Finally, a mixing pattern diagram was constructed to establish the connection between the flow structure and mixing intensity

Rotation and alignment of high-jj orbitals in transfermium nuclei

The structure of nuclei with $Z\sim100$ is investigated systematically by the Cranked Shell Model (CSM) with pairing correlations treated by a Particle-Number Conserving (PNC) method. In the PNC method, the particle number is conserved and the Pauli blocking effects are taken into account exactly. By fitting the experimental single-particle spectra in these nuclei, a new set of Nilsson parameters ($\kappa$ and $\mu$) is proposed. The experimental kinematic moments of inertia and the band-head energies are reproduced quite well by the PNC-CSM calculations. The band crossing, the effects of high-$j$ intruder orbitals and deformation are discussed in detail.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC2013), June 2-7, 2013, Florence, Ital

N-[2-(2-Hy­droxy­eth­oxy)pheneth­yl]phthalimide

The title compound, C18H17NO4, was obtained accidentally through acid-catalysed aromatization of a phthalimide-substituted 2-(1-hy­droxy­eth­yl)cyclo­hex-2-enone. It exhibits an intra­molecular O—H⋯Oc (c = carbonyl) hydrogen bond and forms a three-dimensional network structure via π–π stacking inter­actions between adjacent benzene rings (phthalimide-to-phenyl­ene and phthalimide-to-phthalimide), with centroid–centroid distances of 3.8262 (6) and 3.6245 (5) Å