Multi-species indices (MSI) are widely used as ecological indicators and instruments to inform environmental policies. Many of these combine species-specific estimates relative population sizes using the geometric mean. Because mean is not defined when values zero occur, usually only commoner species included in MSIs replaced by a small non-zero value. The latter can exhibit an arbitrary influe...

BACKGROUND The addition of sub therapeutic doses of antibiotics to cattle feed for growth promotion is a contributory factor to antibiotic resistance, thus an alternative to antibiotics is needed in animal feed additives. OBJECTIVE To determine the antimicrobial activity of cow's intestinal Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) against enteric commensals. METHOD Escherichia coli, Klebsiella species (s...

Learning to avoid threats in the environment is highly adaptive. However, sometimes a dysregulation of fear memories processing may underlie fear-related disorders. Despite recent advances, a major question of how to effectively attenuate persistent fear memories in a safe manner remains unresolved. Here we show experiments employing a behavioural tool to target a specific time window after tra...

In order to contribute to the description of sourdough LAB composition, MiSeq sequencing and qPCR methods were performed in association with cultural methods. A panel of 16 French organic bakers and farmer-bakers were selected for this work. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) diversity of their organic sourdoughs was investigated quantitatively and qualitatively combining (i) Lactobacillus sanfranc...

this study conducted to provide the status of parasite communities of four sturgeon species viz. acipenser stellatus , a. gueldenstaedtii , a. nudiventris , and huso huso in the southwest of the caspian sea and their histopathological effects on the examined fishes. for this purpose a total of 93 individuals of four sturgeon species were caught in two fisheries regions from the southwest of the...

Introduction and aim. Fever is a common complaint for children addressing the emergency departments (ED). Distinguishing between febrile children with self limited viral infection and those with serious bacterial infection (SBI) may be challenging for practitioners, especially in younger population. Recently, a laboratory score, named the Lab-score, combining Procalcitonin, C-reactive protein a...

Background: Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated originally from sourdough are probably the best candidates as biopreservatives, because they are well adapted to the non-aseptic conditions in sourdough fermentation. The aim of the present study was to study antifungal properties of a dominant endogenous LAB isolated from whole barley sourdough. Methods: Whole barley flour from a mixture of ba...

The past year at the GRASP Lab has been an exciting and productive period. As always, innovation and technical advancement arising from past research has lead to unexpected questions and fertile areas for new research. New robots, new mobile platforms, new sensors and cameras, and new personnel have all contributed to the breathtaking pace of the change. Perhaps the most significant change is t...

This paper presents some results of an ongoing research project in the GRASP Lab in the area of active exploration and perception for the legged locomotion of robots. We propose an active perceptual scheme that is based on the ability of the robot to extract material properties from a surface during locomotion. This ability is provided to the robotic system through a compliant sensing device wh...