Technology for evaluating the ability of probiotic strains to accumulate copper ions and using bacteria.

Background And Aim: Microorganisms of the genus comprising probiotics could have an antitoxic effect that is manifested in the active excretion of toxic substances from the body, as well as heavy metals. This study was conducted to assess the effects of copper ions on probiotic strains based on the members of the genus and .

Materials And Methods: The following probiotic preparations were selected for this experiment: "Sporobacterin," "Bactisubtil," and "Vetom-2.

Perception of straightness and parallelism with minimal distance information.

The ability of human observers to judge the straightness and parallelism of extended lines has been a neglected topic of study since von Helmholtz's initial observations 150 years ago. He showed that there were significant misperceptions of the straightness of extended lines seen in the peripheral visual field. The present study focused on the perception of extended lines (spanning 90° visual angle) that were directly fixated in the visual environment of a planetarium where there was only minimal information about the distance to the lines.

The new moon illusion and the role of perspective in the perception of straight and parallel lines.

In the new moon illusion, the sun does not appear to be in a direction perpendicular to the boundary between the lit and dark sides of the moon, and aircraft jet trails appear to follow curved paths across the sky. In both cases, lines that are physically straight and parallel to the horizon appear to be curved. These observations prompted us to investigate the neglected question of how we are able to judge the straightness and parallelism of extended lines.

The absorption spectrum of water near 750 nm by CW-CRDS: contribution to the search of water dimer absorption.

The absorption spectrum of natural water vapour around 750 nm has been recorded with a typical sensitivity of 3 x 10(-10) cm(-1) using a cw cavity ring down spectroscopy set up based on a Ti:sapphire laser. The 13 312.4-13 377.