Université catholique de Louvain

About: Université catholique de Louvain is a education organization based out in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 25319 authors who have published 57360 publications receiving 2172080 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Louvain & UCLouvain.

Prebiotics: the concept revisited.

Abstract: A prebiotic is "a selectively fermented ingredient that allows specific changes, both in the composition and/or activity in the gastrointestinal microflora that confers benefits upon host well-being and health." Today, only 2 dietary nondigestible oligosaccharides fulfill all the criteria for prebiotic classification. The daily dose of the prebiotic is not a determinant of the prebiotic effect, which is mainly influenced by the number of bifidobacteria/g in feces before supplementation of the diet with the prebiotic begins. The ingested prebiotic stimulates the whole indigenous population of bifidobacteria to growth, and the larger that population, the larger is the number of new bacterial cells appearing in feces. The "dose argument" is thus not supported by the scientific data: it is misleading for consumers and should not be allowed. A prebiotic index is proposed, defined as "the increase in the absolute number of bifidobacteria expressed divided by the daily dose of prebiotic ingested."

Health literacy in Europe: comparative results of the European health literacy survey (HLS-EU)

Abstract: Background : Health literacy concerns the capacities of people to meet the complex demands of health in modern society. In spite of the growing attention for the concept among European health policymakers, researchers and practitioners, information about the status of health literacy in Europe remains scarce. This article presents selected findings from the first European comparative survey on health literacy in populations. M ethods : The European health literacy survey (HLS-EU) was conducted in eight countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain ( n = 1000 per country, n = 8000 total sample). Data collection was based on Eurobarometer standards and the implementation of the HLS-EU-Q (questionnaire) in computer-assisted or paper-assisted personal interviews. R esults : The HLS-EU-Q constructed four levels of health literacy: insufficient, problematic, sufficient and excellent. At least 1 in 10 (12%) respondents showed insufficient health literacy and almost 1 in 2 (47%) had limited (insufficient or problematic) health literacy. However, the distribution of levels differed substantially across countries (29–62%). Subgroups within the population, defined by financial deprivation, low social status, low education or old age, had higher proportions of people with limited health literacy, suggesting the presence of a social gradient which was also confirmed by raw bivariate correlations and a multivariate linear regression model. Discussion : Limited health literacy represents an important challenge for health policies and practices across Europe, but to a different degree for different countries. The social gradient in health literacy must be taken into account when developing public health strategies to improve health equity in Europe.

Handbook of Categorical Algebra

Abstract: The Handbook of Categorical Algebra is intended to give, in three volumes, a rather detailed account of what, ideally, everybody working in category theory should know, whatever the specific topic of research they have chosen. The book is planned also to serve as a reference book for both specialists in the field and all those using category theory as a tool. Volume 3 begins with the essential aspects of the theory of locales, proceeding to a study in chapter 2 of the sheaves on a locale and on a topological space, in their various equivalent presentations: functors, etale maps or W-sets. Next, this situation is generalized to the case of sheaves on a site and the corresponding notion of Grothendieck topos is introduced. Chapter 4 relates the theory of Grothendieck toposes with that of accessible categories and sketches, by proving the existence of a classifying topos for all coherent theories.