Probiotics are live bacteria, generally administered in food, conferring beneficial effects to the host because they help to prevent or treat diseases, the majority of which are gastrointestinal. Numerous investigations have verified the beneficial effect of probiotic strains in biofilm form, including increased resistance to temperature, gastric pH and mechanical forces to that of their planktonic counterparts. In addition, the development of new encapsulation technologies, which have exploited the properties of biofilms in the creation of double coated capsules, has given origin to fourth generation probiotics. Up to now, reviews have focused on the detrimental effects of biofilms associated with pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, this work aims to amalgamate information describing the biofilms of Lactobacillus strains which are used as probiotics, particularly L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum, L. reuteri, and L. fermentum. Additionally, we have reviewed the development of probiotics using technology inspired by biofilms.
This paper analyses the effects of sterilised, intraday foreign exchange market operations (non-discretionary and discretionary) on foreign exchange returns and volatility in four inflation targeting economies in Latin America. The distribution of exchange rates during intervention and non-intervention days are first compared, and then event study regressions are used to estimate the impact of intervention (and macro surprises) on exchange rate returns and exchange rate volatility as well as on foreign exchange market turnover (in Colombia). In general, the results suggest that the impact of both non-discretionary and discretionary operations is at times significant but transitory. However, an analysis of Chile's experience suggests that the announcement effects of even non-discretionary programmes may be significant and persistent.
The fauna of cephalopods collected in the crustacean trawl fishery between 1996 and 1999 was analyzed. The study area includes the continental slope off Chile between 21º 34' S and 38º 30' S. A total of five taxa were recorded, being the octopods Opisthoteuthis sp. y Benthoctopus sp. the species with a higher relative importance, while the squids Todarodes filippovae, Gonatus antarcticus and Neorossia sp. were caught less frequently. Higher relative biomass of Opisthoteuthis sp., Benthoctopus sp. and T. filippovae were detected northward of 30º S and G. antarcticus had its higher abundance ground between 33º and 34º S. All species were caught mainly around 400 m depth in the northern study area, showing Benthoctopus sp. and G. antarcticus a decrease in the capture depth towards Central and Southern Chile. The identity of Benthoctopus sp. and the distribution of the cephalopod species found are discussed.
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