A novel selective medium for isolation of Limosilactobacillus reuteri from dietary supplements.

Limosilactobacillus reuteri is a probiotic bacterium known for its numerous beneficial effects on human health and is commonly utilized in various dietary supplements. Previously, we encountered difficulties in isolating L. reuteri from retail dietary supplements containing complex probiotic compositions by using non-selective media such as de Man, Rogosa, and Sharpe (MRS) agar.

Distribution of antibiotic resistance genes among Staphylococcus species isolated from ready-to-eat foods.

We investigated antibiotic resistance of staphylococci isolated from 1128 samples of high-circulating RTE foods in Taiwan. A total of 111 Staphylococcus aureus and 709 coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) comprising 23 species were isolated. The prevalence of S.

All-optical frequency conversion using nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers.

When a semiconductor laser is subject to optical injection, it can enter the period-one dynamics through Hopf bifurcation. Under such nonlinear dynamics, equally and oppositely frequency-shifted optical signals from the injection emerge and are utilized for frequency conversion. Only a typical semiconductor laser is required as the conversion unit, where no pump or probe laser is necessary.

Improved exact confidence intervals for the odds ratio in two independent binomial samples.

For two independent binomial samples, the usual exact confidence interval for the odds ratio based on the conditional approach can be very conservative. Recently, Agresti and Min (2002) showed that the unconditional intervals are preferable to conditional intervals with small sample sizes. We use the unconditional approach to obtain a modified interval, which has shorter length, and its coverage probability is closer to and at least the nominal confidence coefficient.