Lactic Acid Bacteria in the Gut

From all bacterial groups, the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are probably the group of bacteria that is most associated with human lifestyle. The term LAB mainly refers to the ability of these organisms to convert sugars to lactic acid. The LAB comprise non-sporing, aerotolerant, coccus or rod-shaped, gram-positive, polyphyletic bacteria. The vast majority of the LAB belong to the phylum Firmicutes, a very diverse group of bacteria with a low (50 mol%) G+C genomic content and has a different mode of sugar fermentation compared with the LAB genera in the Firmicutes phylum, and will therefore not be discussed in this chapte

Analysis of Dynamical and Thermal Processes Driving Fog and Quasi-Fog Life Cycles Using the 2010-2013 ParisFog Dataset

International audienceThe data from suite of in situ sensors, passive and active remote sensing instruments dedicated to document simultaneously radiative and thermo-dynamical processes driving the fog life cycle at the SIRTA Observatory (instrumented site for atmospheric remote sensing research) near Paris during two periods of 6 months are analysed. The study focuses on the analysis of the relative role of key physical processes and their interactions during fog formation, development and dissipation phases. This work presents, from analysis of detailed observations, the range of values that critical parameters have to take for fog and quasi-fog formation. In our study, we consider fog (horizontal visibility lower than 1 km, a dataset of 300 h) and quasi-fog (horizontal visibility ranging from 1 to 2 km, a dataset of 400 h) events induced by radiative cooling (53 events) and stratus lowering (64 events). For the radiative fog events, (with radiative cooling during prefog conditions), we note that the longwave net radiative flux (around -60 ± 5 W/m2) induces a cooling of the surface layer. The vertical structure of this cooling is controlled by dynamics, that is, wind shear and horizontal and vertical velocities. In case of very low mixing (wind speed below 0.6 m/s), the thermal stability is very strong with a temperature inversion around 3.5 °C for 10 m and a humidity gradient reaching 10 % preventing vertical development of the fog layer. For stratus-lowering fog events, the altitude of the stratus layer, the vertical mixing and the absolute value of humidity are driving parameters of the fog formation. Our statistical analysis shows that a stratus cloud with a cloud base around 170 m and with a small cloud-base subsidence rate of 50 m/h leads to fog, whereas a stratus cloud with a base around 800 m agl, with a larger cloud-base subsidence rate of 190 m/h conducts to quasi-fog situations with an important increase of the stratus liquid water path

Lactic Acid Bacteria in the Gut

From all bacterial groups, the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are probably the group of bacteria that is most associated with human lifestyle. The term LAB mainly refers to the ability of these organisms to convert sugars to lactic acid. The LAB comprise non-sporing, aerotolerant, coccus or rod-shaped, gram-positive, polyphyletic bacteria. The vast majority of the LAB belong to the phylum Firmicutes, a very diverse group of bacteria with a low (50 mol%) G+C genomic content and has a different mode of sugar fermentation compared with the LAB genera in the Firmicutes phylum, and will therefore not be discussed in this chapte

Activation of EpRE-mediated gene transcription by quercetin glucuronides depends on their deconjugation

Quercetin is a flavonoid reported to have health-promoting properties. Due to its extensive metabolism to glucuronides in vivo, questions were raised if studies conducted with quercetin aglycone, stating its health-promoting activity, are of actual relevance. Here we show that glucuronides of quercetin, and its methylated forms isorhamnetin and tamarixetin, can induce EpRE-mediated gene expression up to 5-fold. Furthermore, evidence is presented that EpRE-mediated gene induction by these glucuronides involves their deglucuronidation. This indicates that although quercetin-derived glucuronides are the major metabolites present in the systemic circulation, deglucuronidated derivatives are the active compounds responsible for their beneficial EpRE-mediated gene expression effects

Influence of aerosols on the life cycle of a radiation fog event. A numerical and observational study

International audienceDespite the knowledge gained on the physical processes dominating the formation, development and dissipation of radiation fog events, uncertainties still exist about the role of the microphysical processes related to aerosol characteristics. The objective of this work is to analyze the sensitivity of fog to aerosols through their impacts on the fog droplets. A radiation fog event that formed on 15/11/2011 at the SIRTA Observatory near Paris in the context of the 2011-2012 ParisFog field campaign is the basis of this study. The selected case is one that initially forms a few hundred meters above the surface and within half an hour lowers down to the surface. A combination of SIRTA's sophisticated observations and 1D numerical simulations is employed with the aim of better understanding the influence of thermodynamics and microphysics on the life-cycle of the fog event and the degree to which aerosol characteristics such as concentration of potentially activated aerosols, size and solubility affect its characteristics. It results that the model simulates fairly well the fog life cycle, with only one half hour advance in the onset and one hour in the dissipation at the surface. The quality of the reference simulation is evaluated against several in-situ and remote sensing measurements. A numerical sensitivity analysis shows that the fog characteristics are strongly influenced by the aerosols. Doubling (halving) the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number translates into a 160% increase (65% decrease) in the production of fog droplets, and a 60% increase (40% decrease) of the liquid water path (LWP). The aerosols influence up to 10% the fog geometrical thickness. The necessity for more detailed local forcings that will produce better thermohygrometric conditions in the upper levels above the formed fog layer is underlined, as well as the addition of microphysical measurements in the vertical that will allow to improve two-moment microphysics schemes