Big data analytics and sustainable textile manufacturing: decision-making about the applications of biotechnologies in developing countries

This article discusses issues associated with the application Big Data Analytics for decision-making about the introduction of new technologies in the textile industry in the developing world. We use the LMX theoretical framework to consider the nature of the relationships between owners and followers to identify the potential issues that affect decision-making. However, decisions to adopt such environmentally friendly biotechnologies are hampered by the lack of awareness among owners, intergenerational conflict and cultural impediments. The article found that the limited use of this valuable technological resource is linked to several factors, mainly cultural, generational and educational. The article exposes two key new technologies that could help the industry reduce its carbon footprint. The study suggests more awareness raising among plant owners and greater empowerment of new generations in decision-making in the industry. This study, therefore, bears significant implications for environmental sustainability in the developing world where the textile industry is one of the major polluting industries affecting water quality and human health

Bio-based textile processing through the application of enzymes for environmental sustainability

Textile industries contribute significantly to the economy of many developing countries. Every year, these countries export millions of dollars’ worth of textile products to developed countries. However, textile industries use expensive and corrosive chemicals that pose a significant threat to environmental quality and public health. This has led to serious concerns and necessitated the inclusion of safer and environmentally friendly alternatives. Consequently, bio-based processing has created a new approach utilizing biotechnological advances. This article uses evidence from the scientific literature to examine the application of industrial biotechnology in textile-processing industries, which includes enzymes, as a sustainable alternative to the harsh toxic chemicals currently used in textile processing. The article draws on evidence that enzymes offer a competitive advantage over chemicals with less resource requirements (energy and water), reduced emission and less waste. Due to high specificity, enzymes produce minimum byproducts. The implementation of enzymes in textile processing could offer environmental benefits, and improve public health and the sustainability of textiles and apparel. This article contributes to critical awareness by providing succinct information about major enzymes used in textile processes to improve the performance of textile materials, thus contributing to changes in behaviours and attitudes towards textile processing and environmental sustainability. This can assist textile manufacturers and governments in the developing world in campaigns to promote biotechnologies for environmental sustainability

A methodology pruning the search space of six compiler transformations by addressing them together as one problem and by exploiting the hardware architecture details

Today’s compilers have a plethora of optimizations-transformations to choose from, and the correct choice, order as well parameters of transformations have a significant/large impact on performance; choosing the correct order and parameters of optimizations has been a long standing problem in compilation research, which until now remains unsolved; the separate sub-problems optimization gives a different schedule/binary for each sub-problem and these schedules cannot coexist, as by refining one degrades the other. Researchers try to solve this problem by using iterative compilation techniques but the search space is so big that it cannot be searched even by using modern supercomputers. Moreover, compiler transformations do not take into account the hardware architecture details and data reuse in an efficient way. In this paper, a new iterative compilation methodology is presented which reduces the search space of six compiler transformations by addressing the above problems; the search space is reduced by many orders of magnitude and thus an efficient solution is now capable to be found. The transformations are the following: loop tiling (including the number of the levels of tiling), loop unroll, register allocation, scalar replacement, loop interchange and data array layouts. The search space is reduced (a) by addressing the aforementioned transformations together as one problem and not separately, (b) by taking into account the custom hardware architecture details (e.g., cache size and associativity) and algorithm characteristics (e.g., data reuse). The proposed methodology has been evaluated over iterative compilation and gcc/icc compilers, on both embedded and general purpose processors; it achieves significant performance gains at many orders of magnitude lower compilation time

Implementation of the 2017 Berlin Concussion in Sport Group Consensus Statement in contact and collision sports: a joint position statement from 11 national and international sports organisations.

The 2017 Berlin Concussion in Sport Group Consensus Statement provides a global summary of best practice in concussion prevention, diagnosis and management, underpinned by systematic reviews and expert consensus. Due to their different settings and rules, individual sports need to adapt concussion guidelines according to their specific regulatory environment. At the same time, consistent application of the Berlin Consensus Statement's themes across sporting codes is likely to facilitate superior and uniform diagnosis and management, improve concussion education and highlight collaborative research opportunities. This document summarises the approaches discussed by medical representatives from the governing bodies of 10 different contact and collision sports in Dublin, Ireland in July 2017. Those sports are: American football, Australian football, basketball, cricket, equestrian sports, football/soccer, ice hockey, rugby league, rugby union and skiing. This document had been endorsed by 11 sport governing bodies/national federations at the time of being published

Triptans and troponin: a case report

This case report describes for the first time acute coronary syndrome in a 67-year old patient after oral intake of naratriptan for migraine. So far in the literature, only sumatriptan, zolmitriptan and frovatriptan have been described to cause acute coronary syndromes

The use of 2D fingerprint methods to support the assessment of structural similarity in orphan drug legislation.

In the European Union, medicines are authorised for some rare disease only if they are judged to be dissimilar to authorised orphan drugs for that disease. This paper describes the use of 2D fingerprints to show the extent of the relationship between computed levels of structural similarity for pairs of molecules and expert judgments of the similarities of those pairs. The resulting relationship can be used to provide input to the assessment of new active compounds for which orphan drug authorisation is being sought

β1-Syntrophin Modulation by miR-222 in mdx Mice

Background: In mdx mice, the absence of dystrophin leads to the deficiency of other components of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DAPC), making skeletal muscle fibers more susceptible to necrosis. The mechanisms involved in the disappearance of the DAPC are not completely understood. The muscles of mdx mice express normal amounts of mRNA for the DAPC components, thus suggesting post-transcriptional regulation. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the hypothesis that DAPC reduction could be associated with the microRNA system. Among the possible microRNAs (miRs) found to be upregulated in the skeletal muscle tissue of mdx compared to wt mice, we demonstrated that miR-222 specifically binds to the 3′-UTR of β1-syntrophin and participates in the downregulation of β1-syntrophin. In addition, we documented an altered regulation of the 3′-UTR of β1-syntrophin in muscle tissue from dystrophic mice. Conclusion/Significance: These results show the importance of the microRNA system in the regulation of DAPC components in dystrophic muscle, and suggest a potential role of miRs in the pathophysiology of dystrophy. © 2010 De Arcangelis et al

Physiological Costs of Repetitive Courtship Displays in Cockroaches Handicap Locomotor Performance

Courtship displays are typically thought to have evolved via female choice, whereby females select mates based on the characteristics of a display that is expected to honestly reflect some aspect of the male’s quality. Honesty is typically enforced by mechanistic costs and constraints that limit the level at which a display can be performed. It is becoming increasingly apparent that these costs may be energetic costs involved in the production of dynamic, often repetitive displays. A female attending to such a display may thus be assessing the physical fitness of a male as an index of his quality. Such assessment would provide information on his current physical quality as well as his ability to carry out other demanding activities, qualities with which a choosy female should want to provision her offspring. In the current study we use courtship interactions in the Cuban burrowing cockroach, Byrsotria fumigata to directly test whether courtship is associated with a signaler’s performance capacity. Males that had produced courtship displays achieved significantly lower speeds and distances in locomotor trials than non-courting control males. We also found that females mated more readily with males that produced a more vigorous display. Thus, males of this species have developed a strategy where they produce a demanding courtship display, while females choose males based on their ability to produce this display. Courtship displays in many taxa often involve dynamic repetitive actions and as such, signals of stamina in courtship may be more widespread than previously thought

Terrestrial implications for the maritime geoarchaeological resource: A view from the Lower Palaeolithic

Stone tools and faunal remains have been recovered from the English Channel and the North Sea through trawling, dredging for aggregates, channel clearance, and coring. These finds highlight the potential for a maritime Lower Palaeolithic archaeological resource. It is proposed here that any Lower Palaeolithic artefacts, faunal remains, and sediments deposited in the maritime zone during dry, low-stand phases were once (and may still be) contextually similar to their counterparts in the terrestrial Lower Palaeolithic records of north-western Europe. Given these similarities, can interpretive models and analytical frameworks developed for terrestrial archaeology be profitably applied to an assessment of the potential value of any maritime resource? The terrestrial geoarchaeological resource for the Lower Palaeolithic is dominated by artefacts and ecofacts that have been fluvially reworked. The spatio-temporal resolution of these data varies from entire river valleys and marine isotope stages to river channel gravel bar surfaces and decadal timescales, thus supporting a variety of questions and approaches. However, the structure of the terrestrial resource also highlights two fundamental limitations in current maritime knowledge that can restrict the application of terrestrial approaches to any potential maritime resource: (i) how have the repetitive transgressions and regressions of the Middle and Late Pleistocene modified the terrace landforms and sediments associated with the river systems of the English Channel and southern North Sea basins?; and (ii) do the surviving submerged terrace landforms and fluvial sedimentary deposits support robust geochronological models, as is the case with the classical terrestrial terrace sequences? This paper highlights potential approaches to these questions, and concludes that the fluvial palaeogeography, Pleistocene fossils, and potential Lower Palaeolithic artefacts of the maritime geoarchaeological resource can be profitably investigated in future as derived, low-resolution data sets, facilitating questions of colonisation, occupation, demography, and material culture