Association of maternal Vitamin D status with glucose tolerance and caesarean section in a multi-ethnic Asian cohort: the growing up in Singapore towards healthy outcomes study

10.1371/journal.pone.0142239PLoS ONE10111-16GUSTO (Growing up towards Healthy Outcomes

Salt tolerance in the halophyte salicornia dolichostachya moss : growth, morphology and physiology

Salinization of agricultural land is an increasing problem. Because of their high tolerance to salinity, Salicornia spp. could become models to study salt tolerance; they also represent promising saline crops. The salinity-growth response curve for Salicornia dolichostachya Moss was evaluated at 12 salt concentrations in a hydroponic study in a greenhouse and at 5 different seawater dilutions in an outside setting. Salt concentrations ranged between 0 mM and 500 mM NaCl (≈seawater salinity). Plants were grown for six weeks and morphological and physiological adaptations in different tissues were evaluated

Development of a proxy forpast surface UV-B irradiation: A thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation py-GC/MS method for the analysis of pollen and spores.

A method was developed for the analysis of the UV-absorbing sporopollenin monomers p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid in very low numbers of pollen. This enables the analysis of pollen or spores from cultured plants, from herbarium collections, and from sediment, soil, and peat cores. The method involves thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation using tetramethylammonium hydroxide combined with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Pyrolysis, gas chromatographic, and mass spectrometric conditions were optimized for the analysis of minimal amounts of pollen. The method has a detection limit of approximately 60 fresh pollen of Alnus glutinosa and a relative standard deviation of approximately 10% between 100 and 600 pollen

A Resource Utilization Score for Software Energy Consumption

Software as the true consumer of power and its potential contribution to reach sustainability goals is increasingly being acknowledged. Studies so far have presented successful results and methods to address the energy consumption of the software, indicating that different stakeholders striving for green software have different information needs with respect to their goals. However, currently there is no uniform manner to communicate measurements to the different stakeholders such that key findings are clearly identifiable and easy to understand, which is likely to hamper green software practices. In this paper we propose a metric that expresses a score for the resource utilization, such as power consumption, of a software product. The metric is designed to be a single score and is flexible to encompass those aspects that a stakeholder considers relevant in the context of software energy consumption. The metric was applied on two applications and allowed for objective comparison of application configurations and versions. Also the behavior of these applications across different hardware configurations could be analyzed. In addition to the metric we investigate means to visualize measurements which enhances communication and helped with highlighting the key findings

A Resource Utilization Score for Software Energy Consumption

Software as the true consumer of power and its potential contribution to reach sustainability goals is increasingly being acknowledged. Studies so far have presented successful results and methods to address the energy consumption of the software, indicating that different stakeholders striving for green software have different information needs with respect to their goals. However, currently there is no uniform manner to communicate measurements to the different stakeholders such that key findings are clearly identifiable and easy to understand, which is likely to hamper green software practices. In this paper we propose a metric that expresses a score for the resource utilization, such as power consumption, of a software product. The metric is designed to be a single score and is flexible to encompass those aspects that a stakeholder considers relevant in the context of software energy consumption. The metric was applied on two applications and allowed for objective comparison of application configurations and versions. Also the behavior of these applications across different hardware configurations could be analyzed. In addition to the metric we investigate means to visualize measurements which enhances communication and helped with highlighting the key findings

Awakening awareness on energy consumption in software engineering

Software producing organizations have the ability to address the energy impact of their ICT solutions during the development process. However, while industry is convinced of the energy impact of hardware, the role of software has mostly been acknowledged by researchers in software engineering. Strengthened by the limited practical knowledge to reduce the energy consumption, organizations have less control over the energy impact of their products and lose the contribution of software towards energy related strategies. Consequently, industry risks not being able to meet customer requirements or even fulfillcorporate sustainability goals. In this paper we perform an exploratory case study on how to create and maintain awareness on an energy consumption perspective for software among stakeholders involved with the development of software products. During the study, we followed the development process of two commercial software products and provided direct feedback to the stakeholders on the effects of their development efforts, specifically concerning energy consumption and performance, using an energy dashboard. Multiple awareness measurements allowed us to keep track of changes over time on specific aspects affecting software development. Our results show that, despite a mixed sentiment towards the dashboard, changed awareness has triggered discussion on the energy consumption of software

Treatment of hepatitis C monoinfection in adults - Dutch national guidelines

In this new Dutch guideline for hepatitis C virus infection we provide recommendations for the management of hepatitis C infection. Until 2012 the standard for treatment consisted of pegylated interferon alpha (peg-IFN alpha) and ribavirin. The advent of first-generation direct antiviral agents such as boceprevir and telaprevir has changed the concept of treatment of adult chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 infected patients. There are three benefits of boceprevir and telaprevir. They increase the likelihood of cure in 1) naive genotype 1 patients and 2) in patients who did not respond to earlier treatment with peg-IFN alpha and ribavirin, while 3) allowing shortening of treatment duration from 48 weeks to 24 or 28 weeks, which is possible in 40-60% of non-cirrhotic naive (boceprevir and telaprevir) and relapsing patients (telaprevir). The use of boceprevir and telaprevir is associated with multiple side effects and awareness of these side effects is needed to guide the patient through the treatment process. This guideline, formulated on behalf of The Netherlands Association of Hepato-gastroenterologists, The Netherlands Association of Internal Medicine, and The Dutch Association for the Study of Liver Disease, serves as a manual for physicians for the management and treatment of acute and chronic hepatitis C virus monoinfect