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...

It is well known that AIC and BIC have different properties in model selection. BIC is consistent in the sense that if the true model is among the candidates, the probability of selecting the true model approaches 1. On the other hand, AIC is minimax-rate optimal for both parametric and nonparametric cases for estimating the regression function. There are several successful results on construct...

MicroRNAs are a class of small RNAs that are increasingly being recognized as important regulators of gene expression. Although hundreds of microRNAs are present in the mammalian genome, genetic studies addressing their physiological roles are at an early stage. We have shown that mice deficient for bic/microRNA-155 are immunodeficient and display increased lung airway remodeling. We demonstrat...