Role of a probiotic (Saccharomyces boulardii) in management and prevention of diarrhoea

AIM: To assess the efficacy and safety of Saccharomyces boulardii (S. boulardii) in acute watery diarrhoea and its role in reducing the frequency of episodes of diarrhoea in subsequent two months.Methods: Children from 2 mo to 12 years of age, with acute diarrhoea were selected according to inclusion criteria and randomised in S. boulardii group (treated with ORS, nutritional support and S. boulardii, 250 mg bid) and in control group (treated with ORS and nutritional support only). Active treatment phase was 5 d and each child was followed for two months afterwards. Frequency and consistency of stools as well as safety of drug was assessed on every visit. A comparison of two groups was done in terms of number of diarrhoeal episode in subsequent two months.Results: There were fifty patients in each group. Baseline characteristics such as mean age and the average frequency of stools were comparable in S. boulardii and control group at the time of inclusion in the trial. By d 3 it reduced to 2.7 and 4.2 stools per d respectively and by d 6 it reduced to 1.6 (S. boulardii Group) and 3.3 (control group). The duration of diarrhoea was 3.6 d in S. boulardii group whereas it was 4.8 d in control group (P = 0.001). In the following two months, S. boulardii group had a significantly lower frequency of 0.54 episodes as compared to 1.08 episodes in control group. The drug was well accepted and tolerated. There were no reports of the side effects during treatment period.Conclusion: S. boulardii significantly reduces the frequency and duration of acute diarrhoea. The consistency of stool also improves. The drug is well-tolerated

Towards a single-chip, implantable RFID system: is a single-cell radio possible?

We present an overview of progress towards single-chip RFID solutions. To date heterogeneous integration has been appropriate for non-biological systems. However, for in-vivo sensors and even drug delivery systems, a small form factor is required. We discuss fundamental limits on the size of the form factor, the effect of the antenna, and propose a unified single-chip RFID solution appropriate for a broad range of biomedical in-vivo device applications, both current and future. Fundamental issues regarding the possibility of single cell RF radios to interface with biological function are discussed

A New Approach for Modelling Gene Regulatory Networks Using Fuzzy Petri Nets

Gene Regulatory Networks are models of genes and gene interactions at the expression level. The advent of microarray technology has challenged computer scientists to develop better algorithms for modeling the underlying regulatory relationship in between the genes. Fuzzy system has an ability to search microarray datasets for activator/repressor regulatory relationship. In this paper, we present a fuzzy reasoning model based on the Fuzzy Petri Net. The model considers the regulatory triplets by means of predicting changes in expression level of the target based on input expression level. This method eliminates possible false predictions from the classical fuzzy model thereby allowing a wider search space for inferring regulatory relationship. Through formalization of fuzzy reasoning, we propose an approach to construct a rule-based reasoning system. The experimental results show the proposed approach is feasible and acceptable to predict changes in expression level of the target gene

An Empirical Validation of Object Oriented Design Quality Metrics

Abstract. This paper describes an integrated single class based metric called Weighted Class Complexity (WCC) for object oriented design. The metric is discussed from measurement theory viewpoint, taking into account the recognized object oriented features which the metrics was intended to measure encapsulation, inheritance, coupling and polymorphism, and the quality factors efficiency, complexity, understandability, reusability and maintainability/testability. Empirical data, collected from eight different application domains, is then analyzed using WCC metric to support this theoretical validation. The result shows that the proposed metric could be used to provide an overall quality assessment of object oriented software system in early stage of development life cycle, which may be helpful to the developer to fix problems, remove irregularities and non-conformance to standards and eliminate unwanted complexities in the early development cycle. Early use of this metric may help to ensure that the analysis and design have favorable internal properties that will lead to the development of quality end product. WCC may significantly help in reducing rework during and after implementation to design effective test plans. However, further studies are needed before these results can be generalized