André Rossi

Improvement of long-term preservation of isolated arrested rat heart : beneficial effect of the antiischemic agent trimetazidine

Rat hearts, arrested in situ after intracaval injection of a simple mineral cardioplegic solution (St. Thomas), were preserved for 15 h at 4°C either by simple immersion in the cardioplegic solution or low-flow perfusion by the same liquid (0.3 ml/min). Trimetazidine (TMZ) was added to the cardioplegic solution at a concentration of 10-6M in two additional groups corresponding to both preservation conditions. The biochemically determined ventricular ATP content was increased in immersed hearts by TMZ (+ 78%). The [ATP]/[Pi] ratio, as calculated from 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, was significantly increased in both preservation conditions by TMZ: 0.08 ± 0.03 versus 0.04 ± 0.01 in immersed hearts and 0.53 ± 0.13 versus 0.26 ± 0.16 in perfused hearts (mean ± SD). Intracellular pH was increased when TMZ was administered in perfused hearts (7.02 ± 0.14 vs. 6.67 ± 0.14, mean ± SD). Functional recovery, estimated by the pressure developed by the left ventricle (intraventricular isovolumic balloon) when hearts were reperfused with a physiologic solution, was improved by TMZ in both preservation conditions: + 137% in immersed hearts and + 54% in perfused hearts. These results demonstrate that both the bioenergetic status of the myocardial cell and the functional capabilities of isolated, arrested, stored rat heart can be significantly improved by addition of the antiischemic drug TMZ to the preservation solution.

Minimizing setup costs for parallel multi-purpose machines under load-balancing constraint

This article focuses on the minimization of the setup costs of a workshop modeled with parallel multi-purpose machines. Any admissible workshop configuration has to ensure that a load-balanced production plan meeting a given demand exists. This problem is shown to be NP-hard in the strong sense, and is stated as a mixed integer linear program. It is shown that under some hypotheses, it can be stated as a transportation problem and solved in polynomial time. An upper bound and lower bound are proposed, as well as a performance ratio assessment that is reached only when degenerate optimal solutions to the transportation problem exist.

A column generation approach to extend lifetime in wireless sensor networks with coverage and connectivity constraints

This paper addresses the maximum network lifetime problem in wireless sensor networks with connectivity and coverage constraints. In this problem, the purpose is to schedule the activity of a set of wireless sensors, keeping them connected while network lifetime is maximized. Two cases are considered. First, the full coverage of the targets is required, and second only a fraction of the targets has to be covered at any instant of time. An exact approach based on column generation and boosted by GRASP and VNS is proposed to address both of these problems. Finally, a multiphase framework combining these two approaches is built by sequentially using these two heuristics at each iteration of the column generation algorithm. The results show that our proposals are able to tackle the problem efficiently and that combining the two heuristic approaches improves the results significantly.

An exact approach for maximizing the lifetime of sensor networks with adjustable sensing ranges

This paper addresses the problem of target coverage for wireless sensor networks, where the sensing range of sensors can vary, thereby saving energy when only close targets need to be monitored. Two versions of this problem are addressed. In the first version, sensing ranges are supposed to be continuously adjustable (up to the maximum sensing range). In the second version, sensing ranges have to be chosen among a set of predefined values common to all sensors. An exact approach based on a column generation algorithm is proposed for solving these problems. The use of a genetic algorithm within the column generation scheme significantly decreases computation time, which results in an efficient exact approach.

Column generation algorithm for sensor coverage scheduling under bandwidth constraints

This article addresses three problems that arise in coverage scheduling for wireless sensor networks subject to bandwidth constraints. The first problem focuses on minimizing the total breach under a lifetime constraint, where a breach occurs when some targets are not covered by active sensors. The second problem aims at maximizing the network lifetime under a breach constraint. Finally, the problem of computing the possible trade-offs between breach and lifetime offered by the sensor network is also addressed. An exact approach based on a column generation algorithm is proposed for solving these problems, and a heuristic is also derived from it and briefly presented. The use of a genetic algorithm within the column generation scheme appears to significantly decrease computation time.

Glycogen metabolism: a 13C-NMR study on the isolated perfused rat heart

Glycogen synthesis from D‐[1‐13C]glucose was observed in the perfused rat heart by 13C‐NMR spectroscopy at 62.9 MHz. The glycogenogenesis was stimulated by pretreatment of the animals with isoprenaline. Whereas in hearts from control rats the incorporation of D‐[1‐13C]glucose into the glycogen remained below the detection threshold, 5 min proton‐decoupled 13C‐NMR spectra revealed, in hearts from treated rats, a significant labelling of the glycogen within the first minutes of the perfusion and a further linear increase of the glycogen resonance for up to 25 min. This model was used to monitor the appearance of 13C‐labelled lactate during ischemia.

Lifetime maximization in wireless directional sensor network

This paper addresses two versions of a lifetime maximization problem for target coverage with wireless directional sensor networks. The sensors used in these networks have a maximum sensing range and a limited sensing angle. In the first problem version, predefined sensing directions are assumed to be given, whereas sensing directions can be freely devised in the second problem version. In that case, a polynomial-time algorithm is provided for building sensing directions that allow to maximize the network lifetime. A column generation algorithm is proposed for both problem versions, the subproblem being addressed with a hybrid approach based on a genetic algorithm, and an integer linear programming formulation. Numerical results show that addressing the second problem version allows for significant improvements in terms of network lifetime while the computational effort is comparable for both problem versions.

Effects of diltiazem on the energy metabolism of the isolated rat heart submitted to ischaemia: a 31P NMR study.

The possible direct attenuating modification by diltiazem (DZ) 10(-6) M of ischaemia-induced metabolic damage was studied by 31P NMR spectroscopy (at 101.3 MHz) on retrogradely perfused rat hearts submitted to a 24 min, normothermic (37 degrees C), global low-flow ischaemia (1% of the pre-ischaemic spontaneous coronary flow), followed by a 30 min reperfusion. The presence of DZ 10(-6) M altered neither the heart rate and the left intraventricular pressure under normoxic conditions, nor the extent of ATP and CP depletion during ischaemia, whilst the intramyocardial Pi accumulation during ischaemia was significantly reduced (by about 30%). The intracellular acidification induced by ischaemia was initially less in the presence of DZ, but the pH values reached by the end of ischaemia were somewhat lower than in control (albeit not significantly so): 5.85 +/- 0.07 v. 6.00 +/- 0.07 (Means +/- S.E.M.). On reperfusion, DZ-treated hearts exhibited a greater oxidative phosphorylation capacity than did control hearts. Indeed, NMR spectroscopy revealed a prompter, greater and durable rephosphorylation of creatine together with a simultaneous more rapid and furthermore sharp drop in Pi content in DZ-treated hearts. Moreover, although NMR spectroscopy did not reveal any significant difference in ATP alteration on reperfusion in DZ-treated hearts as compared with controls, biochemical measurements indicated slightly higher ATP content at the end of reperfusion and, more particularly, a better recovery of the adenylate charge: 0.81 +/- 0.03 v. 0.72 +/- 0.03, means +/- S.E.M. (Pre-ischaemic value 0.90-0.91). The intracellular pH differed insignificantly from its pre-ischaemic value at the end of reperfusion in DZ-treated hearts (7.08), while remaining below initial values in controls (7.00). From these results, it is inferred that, at relatively low concentration (10(-6) M), DZ exerts a direct beneficial effect on the energy metabolism of the ischaemic heart without preserving high-energy phosphate compounds during ischaemia and, most importantly, without reducing the extent of the concomitant intracellular acidification.

Verification of gate-level arithmetic circuits by function extraction

The paper presents an algebraic approach to functional verification of gate-level, integer arithmetic circuits. It is based on extracting a unique bit-level polynomial function computed by the circuit directly from its gate-level implementation. The method can be used to verify the arithmetic function computed by the circuit against its known specification, or to extract the arithmetic function implemented by the circuit. Experiments were performed on arithmetic circuits synthesized and mapped onto standard cells using ABC system. The results demonstrate scalability of the method to large arithmetic circuits, such as multipliers, multiply-accumulate, and other elements of arithmetic datapaths with up to 512-bit operands and over 2 Million gates. The procedure has linear runtime and memory complexity, measured by the number of logic gates.

An Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for the 0–1 Multidimensional Knapsack Problem

In this paper, we present an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm for the 0-1 Multidimensional Knapsack Problem (MKP_01). The objective of MKP_01 is to find a subset of a given set of n objects in such a way that the total profit of the objects included in the subset is maximized, while a set of knapsack constraints remains satisfied. The ABC algorithm is a new metaheuristic technique based on the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bee swarms. Heuristic-based repair operators and local search are incorporated into our ABC algorithm. Computational results demonstrate that our ABC algorithm not only produces better results but converges very rapidly in comparison with other swarm-based approaches.