Psi: A Silicon Compiler for Very Fast Protocol Processing

Conventional protocols implementations typically fall short, by a few orders of magnitude, of supporting the speeds afforded by high-speed optical transmission media. This protocol processing bottleneck is a key hurdle in taking advantage of the opportunities presented by high-speed communications. This paper describes PSi, a silicon compiler that transforms formal protocol specifications into efficient VLSI implementations. PSi takes advantage of the parallelisms intrinsic to a given protocol to accomplish very high-speed implementations. Initial application of PSi to the IEEE 802.2 (logical link control) leads to processing rates in the order of 106 packets per second (p/s). The 802.2 was selected as a benchmark of complexity; light-weight protocols can accomplish even higher processing rates, reaching the limits set by chip clock rates (i.e., a packet per cycle). These speeds significantly exceed typical of software implementations (up to a few hundred p/s) or special hardware-assisted implementations (up to a few thousands p/s). More importantly, at these rates when the packet size is 103-4 bits the protocol throughput of 109-10 bits/sec reaches the limiting throughput afforded by memory technology. Thus, the protocol processing bottleneck is pushed to the ultimate bounds set by VLSI technologies

Analytic Characterization of the Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Epidemic in the United States, 1950-2050.

BACKGROUND: We analytically characterized the past, present, and future levels and trends of the national herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) epidemic in the United States. METHODS: A population-level mathematical model was constructed to describe HSV-2 transmission dynamics and was fitted to the data series of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. RESULTS: Over 1950-2050, antibody prevalence (seroprevalence) increased rapidly from 1960, peaking at 19.9% in 1983 in those aged 15-49 years, before reversing course to decline to 13.2% by 2020 and 8.5% by 2050. Incidence rate peaked in 1971 at 11.9 per 1000 person-years, before declining by 59% by 2020 and 70% by 2050. Annual number of new infections peaked at 1 033 000 in 1978, before declining to 667 000 by 2020 and 600 000 by 2050. Women were disproportionately affected, averaging 75% higher seroprevalence, 95% higher incidence rate, and 71% higher annual number of infections. In 2020, 78% of infections were acquired by those 15-34 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemic has undergone a major transition over a century, with the greatest impact in those 15-34 years of age. In addition to 47 million prevalent infections in 2020, high incidence will persist over the next 3 decades, adding >600 000 new infections every year

Improving Project Logistics by using IoT

This Bachelor´s thesis is made on behalf of Wärtsilä Energy Solutions, Project Logistics & Transport Management department whose main task is to coordinate and ensure that materials and products are transported to the right place and on time in Project Logistics. This thesis examines how you could improve Wärtsilä´s Project Logistics by using Internet of Things. By developing IoT, there has been an increased chance to get more information about transports than before and Wärtsilä is currently looking for new solutions to use that could improve their current logistics system. The purpose of this thesis is to review new, and used, solutions on the market, and then see what could work in practice at Wärtsilä. Material to this thesis are gathered from books, web pages and articles that reviewed interesting IoT solutions and which also gave examples on different solutions that are used by other companies in the same business. The Result is two different methods that could improve Wärtsilä´s Project Logistics in different occasions. These results are intended to give tips on how IoT could improve the department´s ways of coordinating and check transports and logistics within a project.Detta examensarbete är gjort i uppdrag av Wärtsilä Energy Solutions, Project logistics & Transport Management avdelningen vars huvuduppgift är att koordinera och se till att material och produkter transporteras till rätt plats i rätt tid inom projekt logistiken. Examensarbetet behandlar hur man kunde förbättra Wärtsiläs projekt logistik genom att använda Internet of Things. Genom att IoT har utvecklats har det uppstått möjligheter att få fram mer information om transporter än tidigare och Wärtsilä söker för tillfället nya lösningar som kunde användas för att förbättra deras nuvarande logistiksystem. Syftet med arbetet är att gå igenom nya, men även redan befintliga, lösningar som används på dagens marknad - för att sedan se vad som kunde fungera i praktiken hos Wärtsilä. Material till arbetet är samlat från böcker, webbsidor och artiklar som gick igenom intressanta IoT lösningar och som också gav exempel på hur olika system fungerar och används av andra företag inom samma bransch. Slutresultatet blev två olika metoder som kunde förbättra Wärtsiläs projekt logistik vid olika tillfällen. Dessa resultat är tänkta för att ge tips på hur IoT kunde förbättra avdelningens sätt hur man koordinerar och granskar transporter och logistiken inom ett projekt

Oxidation of HMGB1 Causes Attenuation of Its Pro-Inflammatory Activity and Occurs during Liver Ischemia and Reperfusion

High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a nuclear transcription factor. Once HMGB1 is released by damaged cells or activated immune cells, it acts as danger molecule and triggers the inflammatory signaling cascade. Currently, evidence is accumulating that posttranslational modifications such as oxidation may modulate the pro-inflammatory potential of danger signals. We hypothesized that oxidation of HMGB1 may reduce its pro-inflammatory potential and could take place during prolonged ischemia and upon reperfusion

Remote ischemic conditioning: from experimental observation to clinical application: report from the 8th Biennial Hatter Cardiovascular Institute Workshop

In 1993, Przyklenk and colleagues made the intriguing experimental observation that 'brief ischemia in one vascular bed also protects remote, virgin myocardium from subsequent sustained coronary artery occlusion' and that this effect '.... may be mediated by factor(s) activated, produced, or transported throughout the heart during brief ischemia/reperfusion'. This seminal study laid the foundation for the discovery of 'remote ischemic conditioning' (RIC), a phenomenon in which the heart is protected from the detrimental effects of acute ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI), by applying cycles of brief ischemia and reperfusion to an organ or tissue remote from the heart. The concept of RIC quickly evolved to extend beyond the heart, encompassing inter-organ protection against acute IRI. The crucial discovery that the protective RIC stimulus could be applied non-invasively, by simply inflating and deflating a blood pressure cuff placed on the upper arm to induce cycles of brief ischemia and reperfusion, has facilitated the translation of RIC into the clinical setting. Despite intensive investigation over the last 20 years, the underlying mechanisms continue to elude researchers. In the 8th Biennial Hatter Cardiovascular Institute Workshop, recent developments in the field of RIC were discussed with a focus on new insights into the underlying mechanisms, the diversity of non-cardiac protection, new clinical applications, and large outcome studies. The scientific advances made in this field of research highlight the journey that RIC has made from being an intriguing experimental observation to a clinical application with patient benefit

Using fMRI connectivity to define a treatment-resistant form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

A mechanistic understanding of the pathology of psychiatric disorders has been hampered by extensive heterogeneity in biology, symptoms, and behavior within diagnostic categories that are defined subjectively. We investigated whether leveraging individual differences in information-processing impairments in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could reveal phenotypes within the disorder. We found that a subgroup of patients with PTSD from two independent cohorts displayed both aberrant functional connectivity within the ventral attention network (VAN) as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neuroimaging and impaired verbal memory on a word list learning task. This combined phenotype was not associated with differences in symptoms or comorbidities, but nonetheless could be used to predict a poor response to psychotherapy, the best-validated treatment for PTSD. Using concurrent focal noninvasive transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography, we then identified alterations in neural signal flow in the VAN that were evoked by direct stimulation of that network. These alterations were associated with individual differences in functional fMRI connectivity within the VAN. Our findings define specific neurobiological mechanisms in a subgroup of patients with PTSD that could contribute to the poor response to psychotherapy.PEV was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant no. MR/K020706/1) and is a Fellow of MQ: Transforming Mental Health (MQF17_24)

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security