Pharmabiotic Manipulation of the Microbiota in Gastrointestinal Disorders: A Clinical Perspective

( Fanny Giron ),( Eamonn M M Quigley ) 대한소화기기능성질환·운동학회(구 대한소화관운동학회) 2018 Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (JNM Vol.24 No.3

The advent and widespread availability of high-throughput technology has revolutionized the assessment of the communities of microorganisms that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract--the gut microbiota. As our understanding of the role of the microbiota in health and human disease increases, so also do efforts to prevent and treat disease through the modulation of the microbiota. Several strategies are available to us and range from time honored approaches, such as antibiotics and probiotics, to changes in diet, the administration of prebiotics as food supplements, and fecal microbiota transplantation. Of these, diet is perhaps the most pervasive but often ignored modulator of the microbiota, and a failure to recognize its impact complicates the interpretation of many microbiota studies. The impacts of antibiotics on the microbiota are more complex than originally thought and, though antibiotics can be life-saving, their effects on commensal bacterial populations can be clinically significant. Though there have been many studies of, and even more claims made for, probiotics, the majority of available studies suffer from significant deficits in study design and execution and many claims remain to be substantiated. Though holding much promise, the study of prebiotics in human disease is still in its infancy. Possibilities other than the administration of live organisms have been identified through efforts to mine the microbiota for novel therapeutics and include: dead organisms, bacterial components, small molecules elaborated by bacteria, and even bacterial DNA. Accordingly, the term pharmabiotic has been introduced to encompass the full range of therapeutic possibilities that the microbiota offers. (J Neurogastroenterol Motil 2018;24:355-366)

The Impact of Music Pedagogy Education on Early Childhood Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Teaching Music: The Study of a Music Teacher Education Program in Hong Kong

Dr. Fanny M. Y. Chung The Pacific Early Childhood Education Research Ass 2021 Asia-Pacific journal of research in early childhoo Vol.15 No.2

Previous studies have suggested that teacher education plays a crucial role in developing pedagogical knowledge and enthusiasm in teaching music. Based on Bandura’s (1977) self-efficacy framework, this study sought to investigate the impact of music teacher education program on self-perceived confidence and competence of 32 in-service early childhood teachers. Adopting a mixed methods approach, the Music Teaching Self-Efficacy Survey (MTSES) was the main source of quantitative data, whereas focus group interviews elicited the qualitative data. The results showed a significant increase in the participants’ self-efficacy after completing a music pedagogy program which had strong emphasis on applied music. Aligning with Bandura’s social cognitive theory, each of the four sources of self-efficacy contributed to changes in self-efficacy perception. Mastery experience was the most significant source, as exemplified by prior relevant experiences, peer teaching, and practice in music classrooms. Vicarious experiences included observations of music specialists and peers. Verbal persuasion included feedback and encouragement from the course instructor and peers. Lastly, physiological and affective states included anxiety in musical performance as well as stress and fatigue. The findings of this study may inspire the policymakers and universities for the future development of music teacher education programs in Hong Kong and beyond.

Selective T-Type calcium channel block in thalamic neurons reveals channel redundancy and physiological impact of ITwindow.

Dreyfus, Fanny M,Tscherter, Anne,Errington, Adam C,Renger, John J,Shin, Hee-Sup,Uebele, Victor N,Crunelli, Vincenzo,Lambert, Ré,gis C,Leresche, Nathalie The Society 2010 The Journal of neuroscience Vol.30 No.1

<P>Although it is well established that low-voltage-activated T-type Ca(2+) channels play a key role in many neurophysiological functions and pathological states, the lack of selective and potent antagonists has so far hampered a detailed analysis of the full impact these channels might have on single-cell and neuronal network excitability as well as on Ca(2+) homeostasis. Recently, a novel series of piperidine-based molecules has been shown to selectively block recombinant T-type but not high-voltage-activated (HVA) Ca(2+) channels and to affect a number of physiological and pathological T-type channel-dependent behaviors. Here we directly show that one of these compounds, 3,5-dichloro-N-[1-(2,2-dimethyl-tetrahydro-pyran-4-ylmethyl)-4-fluoro-piperidin-4-ylmethyl]-benzamide (TTA-P2), exerts a specific, potent (IC(50) = 22 nm), and reversible inhibition of T-type Ca(2+) currents of thalamocortical and reticular thalamic neurons, without any action on HVA Ca(2+) currents, Na(+) currents, action potentials, and glutamatergic and GABAergic synaptic currents. Thus, under current-clamp conditions, the low-threshold Ca(2+) potential (LTCP)-dependent high-frequency burst firing of thalamic neurons is abolished by TTA-P2, whereas tonic firing remains unaltered. Using TTA-P2, we provide the first direct demonstration of the presence of a window component of Ca(2+) channels in neurons and its contribution to the resting membrane potential of thalamic neurons and to the Up state of their intrinsically generated slow (<1 Hz) oscillation. Moreover, we demonstrate that activation of only a small fraction of the T-type channel population is required to generate robust LTCPs, suggesting that LTCP-driven bursts of action potentials can be evoked at depolarized potentials where the vast majority of T-type channels are inactivated.</P>

Volcanic aerosol layers observed with multiwavelength Raman lidar over central Europe in 2008-2009

Mattis, Ina,Siefert, Patric,Mü,ller, Detlef,Tesche, Matthias,Hiebsch, Anja,Kanitz, Thomas,Schmidt, Jö,rg,Finger, Fanny,Wandinger, Ulla,Ansmann, Albert American Geophysical Union 2010 Journal of Geophysical Research Vol.115 No.d2

<P>In the framework of regular European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) observations, aerosol layers have been monitored with a multiwavelength aerosol Raman lidar in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over Leipzig (51.4 degrees N, 12.4 degrees E), Germany, since the summer of 2008. The origins of these layers are eruptions of different volcanoes on the Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka, Alaska, and on the Kuril Islands. FLEXPART transport simulations show that the volcanic aerosol is advected from Alaska to central Europe within about 7 days. The aerosol layers typically occurred in the upper troposphere above 5 km height and in the lower stratosphere below 25 km height. The optical depths of the volcanic aerosol layers are mostly between 0.004 and 0.025 at 532 nm. The wavelength dependence of the backscatter coefficients and extinction coefficients indicate Angstrom exponents from 1.0-2.0. Lidar ratios in the stratosphere are found in the range from 30-60 sr (355 nm) and 30-45 sr (532 nm). The estimation of the effective radius, surface-area, and mass concentrations of a volcanic aerosol layer, observed well within the stratosphere at end of August 2009, reveals values of 0.1-0.2 mu m, 5-10 mu m(2) cm(-3), and 0.3-0.5 mu g m(-3), respectively.</P>

Dynamic Modeling and Inverse Optimal PID with Feed-forward Control in H∞ Framework for a Novel 3D Pantograph Manipulator

Manar Lashin,Mohamed Fanni,Abdelfatah M. Mohamed,Tomoyuki Miyashita 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2018 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.16 No.1

This paper affords dynamic modeling and control for a new 3D pantograph manipulator. The new manipulatorpossesses pure decoupled translational motions and it is characterized by large workspace to size ratio,high speed, rigidity, and accuracy. Euler-Lagrange first type method is used to get the dynamic model. However,the resulted dynamic model is too complex to be used in model-based control techniques. Therefore, a simplifiednominal plant is proposed. It allows the inverse dynamic solution efficiently. However, an explicit form of thenominal Coriolis and centrifugal matrix cannot be obtained due to the complicated kinematic terms. Consideringthese dynamic characteristics as well as the required robust trajectory tracking performance of the manipulator, anew controller is proposed. The new controller is called inverse optimal PID with Feed-Forward Control which isdesigned in H∞ framework. The new controller has the following merits; robustness, optimality, simple implementation,and efficient execution without the need of explicit forms of dynamic matrices. The extended disturbance inthe proposed controller is smaller than that in the inverse optimal PID control (IPID) and contains one type of errorcontrary to the nonlinear robust motion controller (NRIC). The performance of the proposed controller is comparedwith those of IPID and NRIC controllers for different trajectories and payloads. The dynamic simulation resultsvia co-simulation of MSC-ADAMS R ⃝ and MATLAB R ⃝ /Simulink software prove the robustness of the proposedcontroller against speed/payload variations. The proposed controller is found to have higher performance comparedwith IPID and NRIC controllers. These results assure the feasibility of the 3D pantograph manipulator with theproposed controller for pure translational tracking applications.

Design and Workspace Analysis of a New Endoscopic Parallel Manipulator

Khalil Ibrahim,Ahmed Ramadan,M. Fanni,Yo Kobayashi,A. A. Abo-Ismail,Masakatus G. Fujie 제어로봇시스템학회 2012 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2012 No.10

This paper describes the development of a dexterous endoscopic parallel manipulator for laparoscopic surgery using rigid mechanism. Based on the concept of virtual chain and screw theory, previous endoscopic parallel manipulators are deeply investigated to put their synthesis in a systematic rigorous procedure that helps in proposing the new 4-DOF endoscopic parallel manipulator. The inverse and forward kinematics solutions are derived analytically and numerically respectively. The known problem of limited bending angles was solved in the proposed manipulator as it can reach ± 90o in any direction. The proposed manipulator consists of four legs; two legs are 2-PUU (each leg consists of one active prismatic joint and two passive hook joints); the other two legs are 2-PUS (each leg consists of one active prismatic join, one passive hook joint and one passive spherical joint). Four linear motors are used to drive the mechanism. The performance is investigated through simulation by ADAMS software. Dexterous workspace is obtained and this validates the advantageous bending capability of the new proposed manipulator compared to previous ones.