2,267 research outputs found
Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG enhances intestinal mucus barrier upon Escherichia coli infection
INTRODUCTION: Foodborne infection is a major food safety issue in both developing and developed countries. The use of probiotics has been emerging as a tool for the control of foodborne infections and gastrointestinal disorders such as diarrhea. Our study aims to investigate potential protective effects of probiotics on intestinal epithelial cells against invasion of foodborne pathogens and to elucidate the mechanisms of such effects. We hypothesize that Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) can either be used as prevention against or as an antagonist of foodborne pathogens, and such protective effects can be conferred through the upregulation of mucins in the intestinal epithelial cells …postprin
Lingulodinium machaerophorum expansion over the last centuries in the Caspian Sea reflects global warming
This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.We analysed dinoflagellate cyst assemblages in four short sediment cores, two of them dated by radionuclides, taken in the south basin of the Caspian Sea. The interpretation of the four sequences is supported by a collection of 27 lagoonal or marine surface sediment samples. A sharp increase in the biomass of the dinocyst occurs after 1967, especially owing to Lingulodinium machaerophorum. Considering nine other cores covering parts or the whole of Holocene, this species started to develop in the Caspian Sea only during the last three millennia. By analysing instrumental data and collating existing reconstructions of sea level changes over the last few millennia, we show that the main forcing of the increase of L. machaerophorum percentages and of the recent dinocyst abundance is global climate change, especially sea surface temperature increase. Sea level fluctuations likely have a minor impact. We argue that the Caspian Sea has entered the Anthropocene
Language Model Guided Interpretable Video Action Reasoning
While neural networks have excelled in video action recognition tasks, their
black-box nature often obscures the understanding of their decision-making
processes. Recent approaches used inherently interpretable models to analyze
video actions in a manner akin to human reasoning. These models, however,
usually fall short in performance compared to their black-box counterparts. In
this work, we present a new framework named Language-guided Interpretable
Action Recognition framework (LaIAR). LaIAR leverages knowledge from language
models to enhance both the recognition capabilities and the interpretability of
video models. In essence, we redefine the problem of understanding video model
decisions as a task of aligning video and language models. Using the logical
reasoning captured by the language model, we steer the training of the video
model. This integrated approach not only improves the video model's
adaptability to different domains but also boosts its overall performance.
Extensive experiments on two complex video action datasets, Charades & CAD-120,
validates the improved performance and interpretability of our LaIAR framework.
The code of LaIAR is available at https://github.com/NingWang2049/LaIAR.Comment: Accepted by CVPR 202
Evanescent light-matter Interactions in Atomic Cladding Wave Guides
Alkali vapors, and in particular rubidium, are being used extensively in
several important fields of research such as slow and stored light non-linear
optics3 and quantum computation. Additionally, the technology of alkali vapors
plays a major role in realizing myriad industrial applications including for
example atomic clocks magentometers8 and optical frequency stabilization.
Lately, there is a growing effort towards miniaturizing traditional
centimeter-size alkali vapor cells. Owing to the significant reduction in
device dimensions, light matter interactions are greatly enhanced, enabling new
functionalities due to the low power threshold needed for non-linear
interactions. Here, taking advantage of the mature Complimentary
Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) compatible platform of silicon photonics, we
construct an efficient and flexible platform for tailored light vapor
interactions on a chip. Specifically, we demonstrate light matter interactions
in an atomic cladding wave guide (ACWG), consisting of CMOS compatible silicon
nitride nano wave-guide core with a Rubidium (Rb) vapor cladding. We observe
the highly efficient interaction of the electromagnetic guided mode with the
thermal Rb cladding. The nature of such interactions is explained by a model
which predicts the transmission spectrum of the system taking into account
Doppler and transit time broadening. We show, that due to the high confinement
of the optical mode (with a mode area of 0.3{\lambda}2), the Rb absorption
saturates at powers in the nW regime.Comment: 10 Pages 4 Figures. 1 Supplementar
Libyan cochlear implant programme: achievements, difficulties, and future goals
Cochlear implantation has become established worldwide as a safe and effective method of auditory rehabilitation of selected severely and profound deaf children and adults. Over 100,000 patients have received cochlear implants worldwide with the paediatric population proving to be the main beneficiaries. The Libyan cochlear implant programme was set up in 2004. Data relating to the patients who received cochlear implantation at Tripoli Medical Centre between October 2007 and February 2010 were analysed. Implant operations were performed on 37 patients. All patients received Med-El SONATATI100 devices. Thirty-four (91.9%) of these patients were children, whilst three (8.1%) were adults. Combined, congenital hearing loss (56.8%) and perinatal/neonatal (29.7%) were the two main aetiological factors in children. Seventeen patients (45.9%) had a positive family history of deafness. Sixteen patients (43.2%) were born to blood-related parents. The overall rate of minor and major complications was 16.2%, which is comparable to previous studies
Policy of foreign direct investment liberalisation in India: implications for retail sector
This study has analysed the impact of liberalisation of Indian economy and FDI policy on the retail sector since its implementation in the 1990s. It also further analyses sub-categories by investigating its impact on the unorganised retail sector and the flow of FDI in single-brand retail and multi-brand retail sectors. A comprehensive and critical review of the existing evidence on the subject was carried out, and descriptive statistical analysis of data from 1991 to 2013 was performed which leads to conclude that the policy of FDI liberalisation has proved to provide diversification and sustainable development to the Indian economy and specifically retail sector which is considered to be one of the significant pillars of economy. Furthermore, for continuous growth of the economy, it seems vital to encourage more investment in other sectors by liberalising the restrictive policies
Cardiac CT and MRI guide surgery in impending left ventricular rupture after acute myocardial infarction
We report the case of a 67 year-old patient who presented with worsening chest pain and shortness of breath, four days post acute myocardial infarction. Contrast enhanced computed tomography of the chest ruled out a pulmonary embolus but revealed an unexpected small subepicardial aneurysm (SEA) in the lateral left ventricular wall which was confirmed on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Intraoperative palpation of the left lateral wall was guided by the cardiac MRI and CT findings and confirmed the presence of focally thinned and weakened myocardium, covered by epicardial fat. An aneurysmorrhaphy was subsequently performed in addition to coronary bypass surgery and a mitral valve repair. The patient was discharged home on post operative day eight in good condition and is feeling well 2 years after surgery
Modification of conservative treatment of heterotopic cervical pregnancy by Foley catheter balloon fixation with cerclage sutures at the level of the external cervical os: a case report
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Conservative treatment of a heterotopic cervical pregnancy was performed with a modification of the fixation of a Foley catheter at the level of the external cervical os, followed by the ligature of the descending cervical branches of the uterine arteries and systemic methotrexate application.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 34-year-old Caucasian woman was diagnosed with double gestation after 6 weeks of <it>in vitro </it>fertilization treatment. A gynecological examination and color Doppler ultrasound scan revealed intra-uterine and cervical gestational sacs both containing live fetuses. A Foley catheter balloon was inserted into the cervical canal, inflated and fixed by a cerclage suture at the level of the external cervical os, followed by ligation of the descending cervical branches of the uterine arteries. Systemic methotrexate was applied. Three days after removal of the Foley catheter, an evacuation of the intra-uterine gestational sac was performed. Hemorrhage from the implantation site was controlled immediately and a pregnancy termination was successfully performed. The procedure was uneventful and our patient was discharged with a preserved uterus.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Conservative treatment of cervical pregnancy using a Foley catheter balloon is more efficacious if the Foley catheter balloon is attached in the correct position with a cerclage suture at the level of the external os, followed by ligation of the descending cervical branches of the uterine arteries, thereby exerting maximal pressure on the bleeding vessels.</p
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