Fetal and early neonatal interleukin-6 response

In 1998, a systemic fetal cytokine response, defined as a plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) value above 11 pg/mL, was reported to be a major independent risk factor for the subsequent development of neonatal morbid events even after adjustments for gestational age and other confounders. Since then, the body of literature investigating the use of blood concentrations of IL-6 as a hallmark of the fetal inflammatory response syndrome (FIRS), a diagnostic marker of early-onset neonatal sepsis (EONS) and a risk predictor of white matter injury (WMI), has grown rapidly. In this article, we critically review: IL-6 biological functions; current evidence on the association between IL-6, preterm birth, FIRS and EONS; IL-6 reference intervals and dynamics in the early neonatal period; IL-6 response during the immediate postnatal period and perinatal confounders; accuracy and completeness of IL-6 diagnostic studies for EONS (according to the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy statement); and recent breakthroughs in the association between fetal blood IL-6, EONS, and WMI

Lying Your Way to Better Traffic Engineering

To optimize the flow of traffic in IP networks, operators do traffic engineering (TE), i.e., tune routing-protocol parameters in response to traffic demands. TE in IP networks typically involves configuring static link weights and splitting traffic between the resulting shortest-paths via the Equal-Cost-MultiPath (ECMP) mechanism. Unfortunately, ECMP is a notoriously cumbersome and indirect means for optimizing traffic flow, often leading to poor network performance. Also, obtaining accurate knowledge of traffic demands as the input to TE is elusive, and traffic conditions can be highly variable, further complicating TE. We leverage recently proposed schemes for increasing ECMP's expressiveness via carefully disseminated bogus information ("lies") to design COYOTE, a readily deployable TE scheme for robust and efficient network utilization. COYOTE leverages new algorithmic ideas to configure (static) traffic splitting ratios that are optimized with respect to all (even adversarially chosen) traffic scenarios within the operator's "uncertainty bounds". Our experimental analyses show that COYOTE significantly outperforms today's prevalent TE schemes in a manner that is robust to traffic uncertainty and variation. We discuss experiments with a prototype implementation of COYOTE

Deep intrauterine insemination in sow: results of a field trial

RiassuntoTraditional insemination techniques in pigs depose a high number of spermatozoa (2 to 3x109 spermatozoa) in a large volume of liquid (80-100 ml) into the cervix channel. The dose can be reduced markedly deposing it directly into the uterine horn. Previous studies showed that fertility rate and litter size were not significantly different with 5 or 15x107 spermatozoa in 10 ml into the uterus. The goal of this study was to determine the on-farm application and the reproductive performance of the deep intrauterine insemination (Firflex® probe, MAGAPOR, Spain) in sows. Experiments were conducted under field conditions in 4 commercial pig farms in the North of Italy (September 2003 and March 2004). A total of 166 crossbred multiparous sows were randomly selected after weaning and assigned to one of the following groups: Group 1 – traditional insemination with 3x109 sperm./dose, two insemination per oestrus (n=94) and Group 2 – deep intrauterine insemination with 15x107 sperm./dose, one insemination pe..

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