Sanitation and hygiene, Bangladesh's action

Sanitation and hygiene, Bangladesh's actio

Household rainwater harvesting - Thailand

Household rainwater harvesting - Thailan

Endemic chronic arsenic poisoning - China

Chronic arsenic poisoning in China caused by intake of high arsenic in drinking water and in dried local staple foods affects millions of inhabitants in vast rural areas resulting in endemic arsenicosis since 1950’s with tens of thousands of confirmed arsenicosis patients. The Chinese government adopts a twofold approach to eliminate sources of arsenic intake. These are: - early detection and prevention; and provision of alternative arsenic-safe water supply and improved stoves to affected areas and families. Follow up studies indicate that consumption of arsenic-safe water could gradually improve symptoms of arsenicosis after 6 and 18 months. However, long term continuous cancerization of organs in arsenicosis patients requires close follow-up and research studies need urgently to be carried out

GPU-based Approaches for Multiobjective Local Search Algorithms. A Case Study: the Flowshop Scheduling Problem

International audienceMultiobjective local search algorithms are efficient methods to solve complex problems in science and industry. Even if these heuristics allow to significantly reduce the computational time of the solution search space exploration, this latter cost remains exorbitant when very large problem instances are to be solved. As a result, the use of GPU computing has been recently revealed as an efficient way to accelerate the search process. This paper presents a new methodology to design and implement efficiently GPU-based multiobjective local search algorithms. The experimental results show that the approach is promising especially for large problem instances

Impaired LXRa phosphorylation attenuates progression of fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a very common indication for liver transplantation. How fat-rich diets promote progression from fatty liver to more damaging inflammatory and fibrotic stages is poorly understood. Here, we show that disrupting phosphorylation at Ser196 (S196A) in the liver X receptor alpha (LXRα, NR1H3) retards NAFLD progression in mice on a high-fat-high-cholesterol diet. Mechanistically, this is explained by key histone acetylation (H3K27) and transcriptional changes in pro-fibrotic and pro-inflammatory genes. Furthermore, S196A-LXRα expression reveals the regulation of novel diet-specific LXRα-responsive genes, including the induction of Ces1f, implicated in the breakdown of hepatic lipids. This involves induced H3K27 acetylation and altered LXR and TBLR1 cofactor occupancy at the Ces1f gene in S196A fatty livers. Overall, impaired Ser196-LXRα phosphorylation acts as a novel nutritional molecular sensor that profoundly alters the hepatic H3K27 acetylome and transcriptome during NAFLD progression placing LXRα phosphorylation as an alternative anti-inflammatory or anti-fibrotic therapeutic target

Universal sanitation - Thailand experiences

Thailand has achieved a remarkable success on the coverage of safe drinking water and sanitary means of excreta disposal in the rural areas. By 1999, 91.94 % rural population has access to safe drinking water supply and 98.11% rural families have built and use sanitary latrines after more than five decades’ endeavour with support from WHO, UNICEF, UNDP and USAID in the early years. The success in providing safe drinking water and improved environmental sanitation is greatly attributed to the farsightedness and determination of the Thai Government for sustainable development of rural areas and the protection of environment. Strong political will and commitment of government functionaries at all levels to implement the rural water supply and environmental sanitation programmes strengthened with intensive health education for behaviour change added momentum in achieving the universal sanitation before the dawn of the 21st century. This paper presents the strategy and lessons learnt in Thailand for Universal Sanitation and Health for All

Towards self-management - water and sanitation

Towards self-management - water and sanitatio

GPU-based Multi-start Local Search Algorithms

In practice, combinatorial optimization problems are complex and computationally time-intensive. Local search algorithms are powerful heuristics which allow to significantly reduce the computation time cost of the solution exploration space. In these algorithms, the multistart model may improve the quality and the robustness of the obtained solutions. However, solving large size and time-intensive optimization problems with this model requires a large amount of computational resources. GPU computing is recently revealed as apowerful way to harness these resources. In this paper, the focus is on the multi-start model for local search algorithms on GPU. We address its re-design, implementation and associated issues related to the GPU execution context. The preliminary results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches and their capabilities to exploit the GPU architecture