Climbing depth-bounded adjacent discrepancy search for solving hybrid flow shop scheduling problems with multiprocessor tasks

This paper considers multiprocessor task scheduling in a multistage hybrid flow-shop environment. The problem even in its simplest form is NP-hard in the strong sense. The great deal of interest for this problem, besides its theoretical complexity, is animated by needs of various manufacturing and computing systems. We propose a new approach based on limited discrepancy search to solve the problem. Our method is tested with reference to a proposed lower bound as well as the best-known solutions in literature. Computational results show that the developed approach is efficient in particular for large-size problems

Human Cellular Immune Response to the Saliva of Phlebotomus papatasi Is Mediated by IL-10-Producing CD8+ T Cells and Th1-Polarized CD4+ Lymphocytes

Cutaneous leishmaniasis affects millions of people worldwide and is caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania. The parasite is transmitted during sand fly bites. While probing the skin for a blood meal, vectors salivate into the host's skin. Sand fly saliva contains several components that increase hemorrhage and interfere with the host's inflammatory response. Data obtained in mice originally indicate that immunization against saliva protected from leishmaniasis supporting possibility that leishmaniasis could be prevented by a vaccine based on sand fly saliva. Herein we investigated the nature and the importance of the cellular immune response developed against sand fly saliva by individuals at risk of cutaneous leishmaniasis due to Leishmania major. We demonstrated that the immunity against saliva is dominated by the activation of lymphocytes producing a suppressive cytokine called IL-10. These data may preclude the protective effect of sand fly saliva pre-exposure in humans. Further experiments revealed that the production of IL-10 masked the presence of a second kind of lymphocytes producing IFN-γ, a rather protective cytokine. The latter finding highlights the importance of the identification of the proteins activating the latter lymphocytes in order to develop vaccines based on selected proteins from the saliva of sand flies

Patients with primary immunodeficiencies are a reservoir of poliovirus and a risk to polio eradication

ABSTARCT: Immunodeficiency-associated vaccine-derived polioviruses (iVDPVs) have been isolated from primary immunodeficiency (PID) patients exposed to oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). Patients may excrete poliovirus strains for months or years; the excreted viruses are frequently highly divergent from the parental OPV and have been shown to be as neurovirulent as wild virus. Thus, these patients represent a potential reservoir for transmission of neurovirulent polioviruses in the post-eradication era. In support of WHO recommendations to better estimate the prevalence of poliovirus excreters among PIDs and characterize genetic evolution of these strains, 635 patients including 570 with primary antibody deficiencies and 65 combined immunodeficiencies were studied from 13 OPV-using countries. Two stool samples were collected over 4 days, tested for enterovirus, and the poliovirus positive samples were sequenced. Thirteen patients (2%) excreted polioviruses, most for less than 2 months following identification of infection. Five (0.8%) were classified as iVDPVs (only in combined immunodeficiencies and mostly poliovirus serotype 2). Non-polio enteroviruses were detected in 30 patients (4.7%). Patients with combined immunodeficiencies had increased risk of delayed poliovirus clearance compared to primary antibody deficiencies. Usually, iVDPV was detected in subjects with combined immunodeficiencies in a short period of time after OPV exposure, most for less than 6 months. Surveillance for poliovirus excretion among PID patients should be reinforced until polio eradication is certified and the use of OPV is stopped. Survival rates among PID patients are improving in lower and middle income countries, and iVDPV excreters are identified more frequently. Antivirals or enhanced immunotherapies presently in development represent the only potential means to manage the treatment of prolonged excreters and the risk they present to the polio endgame. Keywords: Poliovirus eradication, Immunodeficiency-associated vaccine-derived polioviruses, Oral poliovirus vaccine, Humoral immunodeficiency, Combined immunodeficiency, Primary immunodeficienc

Robust Reconstruction of Actuator Faults of an Aerospace Launcher using a Sliding Mode Observer

International audienc

Extracting Electric Power From Human Body For Supplying Neural Recording System

A powerful approach to the characterization of cellular electrical activity is electrical recording from cells or living tissues. The human central and / or peripheral nervous system has been a subject of study and fascination of the neuroscience and biomedical engineering communities for many decades. In this paper, we propose a new approach to feed implantable neural recording system, which based on extracting electrical power from human tissue warmth in order to supply a biomedical neural recording system. The major issue to overcome, in the design of a system that is aimed at being implant into the human body, is having a low power consumption, low noise circuit and small dimension to minimize tissue damage

Prise en charge des abces prostatiques: A propos de 47 observations

No Abstract. African Journal of Urology Vol. 12 (3) 2006: 146-15

Low Power Instrumentation Amplifier for a Fully Implantable Neural Recording System

Recording neural signal from a living human body is a complex task and it is an important research issues for neuroscientists and researchers in biomedical engineering. The major issue to over- come in the design of a system that is aimed at being implant into the human body is having a low power consumption, low noise circuit and small dimension to minimize tissue damage. In this paper, specific issues of the most important part of such a neural acquisition system are presented; in particular, the design of a low-power amplifier, for a fully implantable neural recording system, is described. The amplifier uses a differential pair as input stage. Given that neural amplifiers must include differen- tial input pair to achieve a high common-mode ratio rejection (CMRR).