BACKGROUND Lactic acid has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) and is commonly used in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and food industries. Applications of lactic acid have also emerged in the plastics industry. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), such as Leuconostoc and Lactobacillus, are widely used as lactic acid producers for food-rela...

We studied the interactions between the entire cecal flora of hamsters and the pathogens Clostridium difficile and Escherichia coli in gnotobiotic mice and in a continuous-flow (CF) culture system in which the growth medium consisted of an extract of fecal pellets from germfree mice. CF cultures and germfree mice were colonized first with C. difficile and E. coli and then with the cecal flora o...

Women with bacterial vaginosis (BV) display reduced vaginal acidity, which make them susceptible to associated infections such as HIV. In the current study, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) nanocarrier-based degradable hydrogels were developed for the controlled release of lactic acid in the vagina of BV-infected women. PEG-lactic acid (PEG-LA) nanocarriers were prepared by covalently attaching lact...

This position paper is an attempt to enumerate and substantiate a number of key features, which, we believe, should be part of an expressive rule-based language to support the Semantic Web. This list of desiderata is based on our experience with the implementation and use of the FLORA-2 system [11, 31] as well as on our work on the languages for Semantic Web Services as part of the SWSL (http:/...

We assessed changes in phylogenetic diversity of angiosperm flora on six oceanic islands located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, by comparing flora from two periods: the pre-European colonization of islands and current times. We hypothesize that, in the time between these periods, extinction of local plant species and addition of exotic plants modified phylogenetic-α-diversity at different l...

A study was performed to identify epidemiological factors such as age, race, sex, and time of culture that might influence the ability of the normal pharyngeal flora to interfere with growth of group A streptococci. From March 1974 through February 1975, throat swabs were obtained from 952 individuals. Cultures were assayed by an agar overlay procedure for the presence of bacteria capable of in...

The normal bacterial flora contains antibiotic resistance genes to various degrees, even in individuals with no history of exposure to commercially prepared antibiotics. Several factors seem to increase the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in feces. One important factor is the exposure of the intestinal flora to antibacterial drugs. Antibiotics used as feed additives seem to play an impo...

BACKGROUND Lactic acid is the building block of poly-lactic acid (PLA), a biopolymer that could be set to replace petroleum-based plastics. To make lactic acid production cost-effective, the production process should be carried out at low pH, in low-nutrient media, and with a low-cost carbon source. Yeasts have been engineered to produce high levels of lactic acid at low pH from glucose but not...