BACKGROUND Bovine immunoglobulin concentrate (BIC)-Clostridium difficile is prepared from the colostrum of cows immunised against C difficile toxins and contains high concentrations of neutralising IgG antitoxin. AIMS To determine the proportion of BIC-C difficile which survives passage through the human stomach and small intestine. METHODS Six volunteers with an end ileostomy took 5 g of B...

OBJECTIVE To assess the in vivo peritoneal inflammatory reaction in rats dialyzed with neutral, bicarbonate-lactate-buffered dialysis fluid. METHODS Chronic peritoneal dialysis was performed for 4 weeks in Wistar rats with two solutions: (1) 40 mmol/L lactate-buffered fluid, pH 5.2, with a glucose concentration of 2.27 g/dL (Lac); and, (2) 15 mmol/L lactate and 25 mmol/L bicarbonate-buffered ...

Research prior to 2001 indicated that athletes experienced better body image than non-athletes, with no differences among sport types. Since then, female athletes have become increasingly sexually objectified in the media, and the sociocultural beauty ideal has shifted to emphasize appearing both athletic and thin. Part I of this paper explores the literature describing these changes. Part II p...

Coordination between multiple autonomous agents is a major issue for open multi-agent systems. This paper proposes the notion of Behavioural Implicit Communication (BIC) originally devised in human and animal societies as a new and critical coordination mechanism also for artificial agents. BIC is a parasitical form of communication that exploits both some environmental properties and the agent...

PURPOSE Current literature has revealed that surface etching of endosseous implants can improve bone-implant contact. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in bone-implant contact (BIC) between sandblasted/acid-etched and machined-surface implants. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty-two Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study. Two implant surfaces, Ecotek (sandblasted/ acid-etch...

Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) appear to possess abnormalities in the way they observe and discriminate visual information. A pre-occupation with perceived defects in appearance has been attributed to a local visual processing bias. We studied the nature of visual bias in individuals who may be at risk of developing BDD - those with high body image concerns (BICs) - by using in...

OBJECTIVES In this study, we investigated whether a high-fat diet (HFD) affected the bone implant connection (BIC) in peri-implant bone. MATERIALS AND METHODS Four male rabbits were used in this study. Dental implant surgery was introduced into each tibia, and four implants were integrated into each animal. In both the normal diet (ND) group (n=2) and HFD group (n=2), 8 implants were integrat...

This study was carried out in Muzaffarabad (Pakistan) to identify the significant risk factors that predispose to myocardial infarction (MI). Risk factors were MI, age, blood pressure, cholesterol level, smoking, blood sugar, obesity, family history and deaths in young in family (DYF). Bivariate analysis and Logistic regression was applied along with different goodness of fit tests such as odds...

Given a paremetric model, the task of statistical learning consists of a parameter learning part for determining unknown parameters and a model selection part for selecting an appropriate scale for a model that accommodates these parameters. Typically, the two tasks are implemented in a twophase procedure. First, a number of models of a same architecture but in different scales are enumerated, ...