Panax ginseng Modulates Cytokines in Bone Marrow Toxicity and Myelopoiesis: Ginsenoside Rg1 Partially Supports Myelopoiesis

In this study, we have demonstrated that Korean Panax ginseng (KG) significantly enhances myelopoiesis in vitro and reconstitutes bone marrow after 5-flurouracil-induced (5FU) myelosuppression in mice. KG promoted total white blood cell, lymphocyte, neutrophil and platelet counts and improved body weight, spleen weight, and thymus weight. The number of CFU-GM in bone marrow cells of mice and serum levels of IL-3 and GM-CSF were significantly improved after KG treatment. KG induced significant c-Kit, SCF and IL-1 mRNA expression in spleen. Moreover, treatment with KG led to marked improvements in 5FU-induced histopathological changes in bone marrow and spleen, and partial suppression of thymus damage. The levels of IL-3 and GM-CSF in cultured bone marrow cells after 24 h stimulation with KG were considerably increased. The mechanism underlying promotion of myelopoiesis by KG was assessed by monitoring gene expression at two time-points of 4 and 8 h. Treatment with Rg1 (0.5, 1 and 1.5 µmol) specifically enhanced c-Kit, IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA expression in cultured bone marrow cells. Our results collectively suggest that the anti-myelotoxicity activity and promotion of myelopoiesis by KG are mediated through cytokines. Moreover, the ginsenoside, Rg1, supports the role of KG in myelopoiesis to some extent

State -space tool: Understanding concurrent programs through state -space

We investigate the use of state-transition diagrams to facilitate understanding of the behavioral aspects of concurrent programs. The approach consists of developing an interactive tool to process Java source code with guidances from a user and displaying the subgraphs of state-space with corresponding source code and details on the selected states and transitions. Based on examples processed in our prototype State-Space Tool, we demonstrate that it is possible to overcome the program scalability and state-transition graph size, which have been a primary reason why state-transition diagrams have not been used in the past as means of understandability analysis. The tool makes it natural to answer functionality questions through investigation using respective reachability paths. The methodology consists of the following four stages. In the first stage, the State-Space Tool processes Java program files and locates all candidate events and predicate expressions containing the events. The interactive GUI tool helps user reduce data domain for state variables in the predicate expressions and respective operations. In the second stage, the tool generates state-machines from the reduced source code per each active thread. Based on the program simplification, unnecessary details such as non state variables are eliminated altogether. In the third stage, the tool constructs a state-space by exploring all possible interleaving of the designated events. We present an algorithm to capture Java concurrency and synchronization in a static data structure. Finally, the tool user composes queries and interactively submits them through GUI, and the state-space subgraphs are visualized. Using the proposed query language (SIL) the user defines groups of nodes and edges that reflect his interest. The user eliminates infeasible paths by inspecting those edges which are not resolved in the previous stages. The novelty of this research lies in: (i) providing methodology to process concurrent Java programs to construct state-space which exposes the temporal properties under analysis, (ii) providing intuitive state-space retrieval language to visualize subgraphs to enhance understanding of concurrent software through visualizing event interleaving, deadlocks, etc. To our knowledge, these have not been attained to date. We consider this research to be important to the concurrent program life cycle

State -space tool: Understanding concurrent programs through state -space

We investigate the use of state-transition diagrams to facilitate understanding of the behavioral aspects of concurrent programs. The approach consists of developing an interactive tool to process Java source code with guidances from a user and displaying the subgraphs of state-space with corresponding source code and details on the selected states and transitions. Based on examples processed in our prototype State-Space Tool, we demonstrate that it is possible to overcome the program scalability and state-transition graph size, which have been a primary reason why state-transition diagrams have not been used in the past as means of understandability analysis. The tool makes it natural to answer functionality questions through investigation using respective reachability paths. The methodology consists of the following four stages. In the first stage, the State-Space Tool processes Java program files and locates all candidate events and predicate expressions containing the events. The interactive GUI tool helps user reduce data domain for state variables in the predicate expressions and respective operations. In the second stage, the tool generates state-machines from the reduced source code per each active thread. Based on the program simplification, unnecessary details such as non state variables are eliminated altogether. In the third stage, the tool constructs a state-space by exploring all possible interleaving of the designated events. We present an algorithm to capture Java concurrency and synchronization in a static data structure. Finally, the tool user composes queries and interactively submits them through GUI, and the state-space subgraphs are visualized. Using the proposed query language (SIL) the user defines groups of nodes and edges that reflect his interest. The user eliminates infeasible paths by inspecting those edges which are not resolved in the previous stages. The novelty of this research lies in: (i) providing methodology to process concurrent Java programs to construct state-space which exposes the temporal properties under analysis, (ii) providing intuitive state-space retrieval language to visualize subgraphs to enhance understanding of concurrent software through visualizing event interleaving, deadlocks, etc. To our knowledge, these have not been attained to date. We consider this research to be important to the concurrent program life cycle

Monitoring, Checking, and Steering of Real-Time Systems

The MaC system has been developed to provide assurance that a target program is running correctly with respect to formal requirements speci cation. This is achieved by monitoring and checking the execution of the target program at run-time. MaC bridges the gap between formal veri cation, which ensures the correctness of a design rather than an implementation, and testing, which only partially validates an implementation. One weakness of the MaC system is that it can detect property violations but cannot provide any feedback to the running system. To remedy this weakness, the MaC system has been extended with a feedback capability. The resulting system is called MaCS (Monitoring and Checking with Steering). The feedback component uses the information collected during monitoring and checking to steer the application back to a safe state after an error occurs. We present a case study where MaCS is used in a control system that keeps an inverted pendulum upright. MaCS detects faults in controllers and performs dynamic recon guration of the control system using steering

Long-term enrichment of anaerobic propionate-oxidizing consortia: Syntrophic culture development and growth optimization

Propionate is a quantitatively important methanogenic intermediate in anaerobic digesters and only limited number of microbes can utilize it under syntrophic association with methanogens. The syntrophic propionate oxidizing bacterias are known to be slow growers due to the low energy yield. Thus, propionate get accumulated frequently in anaerobic digesters and it negatively affect digester performance. In this study, propionate degrading consortia from four different seeding sources were enriched in sequential bath mode in two phases; first adaption phase with 1 g/L of propionate concentration and later, high-strength phase with 3 g/L. From 16s rRNA gene based metagenomics analysis of the former phase, four syntrophic microbial groups, Syntrophaceae, Syntrophomonadaceae, Methanobacterium and Methanosaeta were found to be dominant with complete degradation of propionate. The substrate accelerated microbial shifts were observed at high-strength phase with significant decrease of Syntrophaceae up to 26.9 %. Using Response Surface Methodology, pH 6.8-6.9 and temperature 34.5-34.9 C-omicron were found to be optimum growth conditions for the propionate degradation culture. Observed results could be useful to improve degradation efficiencies and obtained enriched culture can be used to recover propionate-accumulated digesters by bio-augmentation.11Nscopu