Corticotropin-releasing hormone interacts with interleukin-1 to regulate prostaglandin H synthase-2 expression in human myometrium during pregnancy and labor

Context: The onset of labor appears to involve the activation of myometrial inflammatory pathways, and transcription factors such as nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) control expression of the contraction-associated proteins required to induce a procontractile phenotype. These responses might involve CRH, which integrates immune and neuroendocrine systems. Objectives: In human myometrium we investigated cyclooxygenase 2 (PGHS2) expression and regulation by CRH and the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β before and after labor. Design: Myometrial tissues obtained from pregnant women at term before (n = 12) or during labor (n = 10) and pathological cases of choriamnionitis-associated term labor (n = 5) were used to isolate primary myocytes and investigate in vitro, CRH effects on basal and IL-1β regulated p65 activation and PGHS2 expression. Results: In nonlaboring myometrial cells, CRH was unable to induce NF-κB nuclear translocation; however, it altered the temporal dynamics of IL-1β-driven NF-κB nuclear entry by initially delaying entry and subsequently prolonging retention. These CRH-R1-driven effects were associated with a modest inhibitory action in the early phase (within 2 hours) of IL-1β stimulated PGHS2 mRNA expression, whereas prolonged stimulation for 6–18 hours augmented the IL-1β effects. The early-phase effect required intact protein kinase A activity and was diminished after the onset of labor. The presence of chorioamnionitis led to exaggerated PGHS2 mRNA responses to IL-1β but diminished effects of CRH. Conclusions: CRH is involved in the inflammatory regulation of PGHS2 expression before and during labor; these actions might be important in priming and preparing the myometrium for labor and cellular adaptive responses to inflammatory mediator

Achieving Optimal Throughput and Near-Optimal Asymptotic Delay Performance in Multi-Channel Wireless Networks with Low Complexity: A Practical Greedy Scheduling Policy

In this paper, we focus on the scheduling problem in multi-channel wireless networks, e.g., the downlink of a single cell in fourth generation (4G) OFDM-based cellular networks. Our goal is to design practical scheduling policies that can achieve provably good performance in terms of both throughput and delay, at a low complexity. While a class of $O(n^{2.5} \log n)$-complexity hybrid scheduling policies are recently developed to guarantee both rate-function delay optimality (in the many-channel many-user asymptotic regime) and throughput optimality (in the general non-asymptotic setting), their practical complexity is typically high. To address this issue, we develop a simple greedy policy called Delay-based Server-Side-Greedy (D-SSG) with a \lower complexity $2n^2+2n$, and rigorously prove that D-SSG not only achieves throughput optimality, but also guarantees near-optimal asymptotic delay performance. Specifically, we show that the rate-function attained by D-SSG for any delay-violation threshold $b$, is no smaller than the maximum achievable rate-function by any scheduling policy for threshold $b-1$. Thus, we are able to achieve a reduction in complexity (from $O(n^{2.5} \log n)$ of the hybrid policies to $2n^2 + 2n$) with a minimal drop in the delay performance. More importantly, in practice, D-SSG generally has a substantially lower complexity than the hybrid policies that typically have a large constant factor hidden in the $O(\cdot)$ notation. Finally, we conduct numerical simulations to validate our theoretical results in various scenarios. The simulation results show that D-SSG not only guarantees a near-optimal rate-function, but also empirically is virtually indistinguishable from delay-optimal policies.Comment: Accepted for publication by the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, February 2014. A preliminary version of this work was presented at IEEE INFOCOM 2013, Turin, Italy, April 201

From GRID to gridlock: the relationship between scientific biomedical breakthroughs and HIV/AIDS policy in the US Congress

Introduction: From the travel ban on people living with HIV (PLHIV) to resistance to needle exchange programmes, there are many examples where policy responses to HIV/AIDS in the United States seem divorced from behavioural, public health and sociological evidence. At its root, however, the unknowns about HIV/AIDS lie at biomedical science, and scientific researchers have made tremendous progress over the past 30 years of the epidemic by using antiretroviral therapy to increase the life expectancy of PLHIV almost to the same level as non-infected individuals; but a relationship between biomedical science discoveries and congressional responses to HIV/AIDS has not been studied. Using quantitative approaches, we directly examine the hypothesis that progress in HIV/AIDS biomedical science discoveries would have a correlative relationship with congressional response to HIV/AIDS from 1981 to 2010. Methods: This study used original data on every bill introduced, hearing held and law passed by the US Congress relating to HIV/AIDS over 30 years (1981–2010). We combined congressional data with the most cited and impactful biomedical research scientific publications over the same time period as a metric of biomedical science breakthroughs. Correlations between congressional policy and biomedical research were then analyzed at the aggregate and individual levels. Results: Biomedical research advancements helped shape both the level and content of bill sponsorship on HIV/AIDS, but they had no effect on other stages of the legislative process. Examination of the content of bills and biomedical research indicated that science helped transform HIV/AIDS bill sponsorship from a niche concern of liberal Democrats to a bipartisan coalition when Republicans became the majority party. The trade-off for that expansion has been an emphasis on the global epidemic to the detriment of domestic policies and programmes. Conclusions: Breakthroughs in biomedical science did associate with the number and types of HIV/AIDS bills introduced in Congress, but that relationship did not extend to the passage of laws or to hearings. When science matters, it cannot be separated from political considerations. An important implication of our work has been the depoliticizing role that science can play. Scientific breakthroughs helped to transform HIV/AIDS policy from a niche of liberal Democrats into bipartisan support for the global fight against the disease

Anaerobic and hydrogen peroxide decolourisation of azo dyes: a comparative evaluation

Efficient decolourisation of azo dyes by anaerobic biological process and chemical oxidation (ozone, Fenton and R!O) process has been chaimed by both the methods. A comparative evaluation of chemical oxidation (H202 and Fenton's reagent) and anaerobic process for their efficacy for azo dye decolourisation has been done. Azo dyes namely, Orange-II (C.I. Acid Orange 7), Reactive Blue-HR (C.I. Reactive Blue 13), Reactive Red-HE7B (CJ.Reactive Red 141) and Reactive Black-3HN (CI.Reactive Black 8) were selected for the study. Anaerobic decolourisation experiments were conducted for a period of more than 50 days with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 10 days and at ambient temperatures. Oxidative decolourisation studies were conducted with varying peroxide dosage of 1.5 to 50 mM H202 concentrations. Decolourisation efficiencies achieved during anaerobic process was more than 99% for all the dyes evaluated. In case of hydrogen peroxide (SO mM H202 cone.) treated dye solutions, decolourisation efficiencies observed were 37, 12, 5 and 10% for orange, blue, red and black dye respectively. Fenton's reagent (Fe(II) + 50 mM H20) achieved 99 % decolourisation for dyes Orange-II and Reactive BlueH3R. Therefore it seems that anaerobic process would be economical for decolourisation of azo dyes m comparison to chemical oxidation processess

PENERAPAN METODE LOGIKA FUZZY DALAM PERHITUNGAN STATUS GIZI DAN POLA KONSUMSI IBU HAMIL PADA SMARTPHONE ANDROID

Status gizi adalah suatu keadaan yang diakibatkan oleh status keseimbangan antara antara jumlah asupan gizi dan jumlah yang dibutuhkan oleh tubuh untuk berbagai fungsi biologis seperti pertumbuhan fisik, perkembangan, aktivitas, pemeliharan kesehatan, dan lainnya. Agar memudahkan ibu hamil memantau status gizi dan pola konsumsi maka perlu adanya suatu sistem yang dapat memudahkan ibu hamil untuk menggunakan maka sistem dibuat pada smartphone android. Hasil uji program dilakukan selama 20 pengujian untuk status gizi, dimana pengujian tersebut menggunakan metode logika fuzzy, sembilan belas diantaranya sesuai dengan perhitungan rumus Indeks Massa Tubuh dengan nilai validasi = 95%. Hasil uji program dilakukan selama 15 pengujian untuk pola konsumsi, dimana pengujian tersebut menggunakan metode logika fuzzy, 8 diantaranya sesuai dengan perhitungan rumus Angka Kecukupan Gizi Individu dengan nilai validasi = 53%. Sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa system dapat digunakan untuk perhitungan status gizi, sedangkan untuk perhitungan pola konsumsi ibu hamil sistem belum layak digunakan

Trawl Selectivity in the Barents Sea Demersal Fishery

This chapter provides a general overview of the Barents Sea demersal trawl fishery. First, it reviews historical catch levels and current biomass status of four commercially important demersal species (cod, haddock, Greenland halibut, and redfish) and includes an overview of their management plan that has been carried out by the Joint Norwegian–Russian commission. Then, it presents the evolution of the technical regulations for improving size selectivity in this fishery and describes current challenges in gear selectivity. Later, this chapter describes the concept of size selectivity, introduces the selective parameters that define a selection curve, and progressively introduces different parametric models that describe the selection process. The most common experimental methods and gear used to collect selectivity data are described, and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Finally, this chapter describes an alternative, or a complementary method, to the conventional estimation of trawl selectivity—the FISHSELECT method. This method is based on morphology measurements and fish penetration models to estimate the selective properties of different mesh shapes and sizes at different mesh openings, which are later used to provide simulation-based prediction of size selectivity. FISHSELECT has already been applied to four important species of the Barents Sea Demersal Fishery, and the results have in all cases showed to be coherent with the results obtained from sea trial results

Growth Of Brown Algae, Padina australis, In The Coastal waters of Serei Village, West Likupang District, North Minahasa Regency

Marine algae is one resource that has important economic value because it has cagar, carrageen and alginate ontent (Indriani and Sumiarsih, 1999). In the world of science, the word algae comes from the Greek , algor which means cold (Nontji, 2002). Padina australis is a species of marine algae belong to Phaeophyta Division (brown algae) which is commonly found in marine waters, from shallow to deep waters. This algae has a wide transparent brown sheet or filament shape. This study was aimed to observe the growth of algae P. australis by using case study method where samples of Padina algae taken from nature were placed into basket as container for culturing. While the technique used is cultivation using basket; in order to determine the growth, algae was analyzed further by measuring the maximum weight of P. australis living without substrate. Some environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, depth and tides were recorded to see their impact on the growth of P. australis. Serei village is the location of the research on the growth of this P. australis. The result also records that P. australis can only live about three weeks and after that die. The growth of P. australis was greatest in the 8th container weighing 23 gr.Keywords: Growth, Padina australis, Desa Serei ABSTRAKAlga laut adalah salah satu sumberdaya yang mempunyai nilai ekonomis penting karena memiliki kandungan agar, karaginan dan alginat (Indriani dan Sumiarsih, 1999). Dalam dunia ilmu pengetahuan, alga berasal dari bahasa Yunani yaitu Algor yang berarti dingin (Nontji, 2002). Padina australis merupakan spesies alga laut dari Divisi Phaeophyta (alga cokelat) yang pada umumnya tersebar di perairan laut, mulai perairan laut dangkal hingga perairan dalam. Alga ini memiliki bentuk lembaran atau filamen yang lebar yang berwarna cokelat transparan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengamati pertumbuhan alga Padina australis lewat metode studi kasus dimana sampel alga Padina yang diambil dari alam  kemudian ditempatkan ke dalam keranjang sebagai wadah budidaya alga Padina australis. Sedangkan teknik yang digunakan adalah teknik budidaya dengan menggunakan keranjang. Pertumbuhan dianalisis berdasrakan pertambahan berat malsimum P. australis yang hidup tanpa substrat. Beberapa factor lingkungan antara lain suhu, salinitas, kedalaman dan pasang surut diukur untuk melihat dampaknya terhadap pertumbuhan P. australis. Desa Serei merupakan lokasi dilakukannya penelitian pertumbuhan alga P. australis ini. Setelah dilakukan pengamatan P. australis hanya bisa hidup sekitar tiga minggu dan setelah itu mati dan hancur. Pertumbuhan P. australis paling besar terjadi pada wadah ke-8 dengan berat 23 gr.                                                                                                                   Kata kunci : Pertumbuhan, Padina australis, Desa Sere

Automated tight Lyapunov analysis for first-order methods

We present a methodology for establishing the existence of quadratic Lyapunov inequalities for a wide range of first-order methods used to solve convex optimization problems. In particular, we consider i) classes of optimization problems of finite-sum form with (possibly strongly) convex and possibly smooth functional components, ii) first-order methods that can be written as a linear system on state-space form in feedback interconnection with the subdifferentials of the functional components of the objective function, and iii) quadratic Lyapunov inequalities that can be used to draw convergence conclusions. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a quadratic Lyapunov inequality that amounts to solving a small-sized semidefinite program. We showcase our methodology on several first-order methods that fit the framework. Most notably, our methodology allows us to significantly extend the region of parameter choices that allow for duality gap convergence in the Chambolle-Pock method when the linear operator is the identity mapping