IoT Software Infrastructure for Remote Monitoring of Patients with Chronic Metabolic Disorders

Novel Information and Communication Technologies, such as Internet-of-Things (IoT), middleware and cloud computing, are providing innovative solutions ranging in different contexts. Smart health is one of these scenarios. Indeed, there is a rising interest in developing new healthcare services for remote patient assistance and monitoring. Among all, the main promised benefits consist on improving the patients’ quality of life, speeding up therapeutic interventions and reducing hospitalizations’ costs. This is also known as Telemedicine. In this paper, we present a novel distributed software infrastructure for remote monitoring of patients with chronic metabolic disorders: i) it collects and and makes available information coming from IoT devices, ii) it performs analysis to help medical diagnosis and iii) it promotes a bidirectional communication among the end-users (i.e. medical personnel and patients). In this paper, we also present our experimental results performed in a laboratory test environment to validate the proposed solution

Influence of a Modulated Parameter on Hantavirus Infection

We study the dynamical behavior of a model commonly used to describe the infection of mice due to hantavirus (and, therefore, its possibility of propagation into human populations) when a parameter is changed in time. In particular, we study the situation when the ecological conditions (e.g., climate benignity, food availability, and so on) change periodically in time. We show that the density of infected mice increases abruptly as the parameter crosses a critical value. We correlate such a situation with the observed sudden outbreaks of hantavirus. Finally, we discuss the possibility of preventing a hantavirus epidemic.Fil: Torre, Maria Susana. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones en Física e Ingeniería del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigaciones en Física e Ingeniería del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. - Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigaciones en Física e Ingeniería del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física Arroyo Seco; ArgentinaFil: Acquaviva, Anaïs. Université de la Nouvelle Calédonie; FranciaFil: Boyer, Jean-Marc. Université de la Nouvelle Calédonie; FranciaFil: Tredicce, Jorge Raul. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Up-regulation of prostaglandin biosynthesis by leukotriene C4 in elicited mice peritoneal macrophages activated with lipopolysaccharide/interferon-gamma

Leukotrienes (LT) and prostaglandins (PG) are proinflammatory mediators generated by the conversion of arachidonic acid via 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) and cyclooxygenase (COX) pathways. It has long been proposed that the inhibition of the 5-LO could enhance the COX pathway leading to an increased PG generation. We have found that in in vitro models of inflammation, such as mice-elicited peritoneal macrophages activated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/interferon- γ (IFN-γ), the deletion of the gene encoding for 5-LO or the enzyme activity inhibition corresponded to a negative modulation of the COX pathway. Moreover, exogenously added LTC4, but not LTD4, LTE 4, and LTB4, was able to increase PG production in stimulated cells from 5-LO wild-type and knockout mice. LTC4 was not able to induce COX-2 expression by itself but rather potentiated the action of LPS/IFN-γ through the extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 activation, as demonstrated by the use of a specific mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase inhibitor. The LT-induced increase in PG generation, as well as MAPK activation, was dependent by a specific ligand-receptor interaction, as demonstrated by the use of a cys-LT1 receptor antagonist, although also a direct action of the antagonist used, on PG generation, cannot be excluded. Thus, the balance between COX and 5-LO metabolites could be of great importance in controlling macrophage functions and consequently, inflammation and tumor promotion

A Serious Game Approach for the Electro-Mobility Sector

Serious Games (SGs) represent a new approach to improve learning processes more effectively and economically than traditional methods. This paper aims to present a SG approach for the electro-mobility context, in order to encourage the use of electric light vehicles. The design of the SG is based on the typical elements of the classic "game" with a real gameplay with different purposes. In this work, the proposed SG aims to raise awareness on environmental issues caused by mobility and actively involve users, on improving livability in the city and on real savings using alternative means to traditional vehicles. The objective of the designed tool is to propose elements of fun and entertainment for tourists or users of electric vehicles in the cities, while giving useful information about the benefits of using such vehicles, discovering touristic and interesting places in the city to discover. In this way, the user is stimulated to explore the artistic and historical aspects of the city through an effective learning process: he/she is encouraged to search the origins and the peculiarities of the monuments.Comment: This paper has been presented at 2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC

Antibacterial activity of marine macroalgae against fish pathogenic Vibrio species

Abstract In mariculture, diseases of microbial origin can cause significant economic losses worldwide; the evolution of microorganism resistance to antibiotics has resulted in a growing need for new antibacterial compounds that are effective in veterinary medicine and characterized by limited undesirable side effects. Increased attention has recently been turned to seaweeds as a promising source for metabolites with antimicrobial activity. Vibriosis is a common disease, caused by bacteria of the genus Vibrio, that can result in high mortality in aquaculture. The aim of this study was to identify seaweeds with antibacterial activity against some pathogenic Vibrio species, in order to identify a possible alternative to the commonly used antibiotics in aquaculture. Chloroform/methanol lipidic extracts of six seaweed species (Chaetomorpha linum, Cladophora rupestris, Gracilaria dura, Gracilaria gracilis, Gracilariopsis longissima, Ulva prolifera) were tested for their antibacterial activities against six fish pathogenic Vibrio species using the disc diffusion method. Different susceptibilities to lipidic algal extracts were observed. All six of the seaweed extracts tested demonstrated inhibition of Vibrio ordalii. The best was that from Gracilariopsis longissima, showing activity against Vibrio ordalii, Vibrio salmonicida, Vibrio alginolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus. The results confirmed the potential use of seaweed extracts as a source of antibacterial compounds or as a health-promoting feed for aquaculture

Building energy modelling and monitoring by integration of IoT devices and Building Information Models

In recent years, the research about energy waste and CO2 emission reduction has gained a strong momentum, also pushed by European and national funding initiatives. The main purpose of this large effort is to reduce the effects of greenhouse emission, climate change to head for a sustainable society. In this scenario, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a key role. From one side, advances in physical and environmental information sensing, communication and processing, enabled the monitoring of energy behaviour of buildings in real-time. The access to this information has been made easy and ubiquitous thank to Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and protocols. From the other side, the creation of digital repositories of buildings and districts (i.e. Building Information Models - BIM) enabled the development of complex and rich energy models that can be used for simulation and prediction purposes. As such, an opportunity is emerging of mixing these two information categories to either create better models and to detect unwanted or inefficient energy behaviours. In this paper, we present a software architecture for management and simulation of energy behaviours in buildings that integrates heterogeneous data such as BIM, IoT, GIS (Geographical Information System) and meteorological services. This integration allows: i) (near-) real-time visualisation of energy consumption information in the building context and ii) building performance evaluation through energy modelling and simulation exploiting data from the field and real weather conditions. Finally, we discuss the experimental results obtained in a real-world case-study

Indoor Air-Temperature Forecast for Energy-Efficient Management in Smart Buildings

In the last few years, the reduction of energy consumption and pollution became mandatory. It became also a common goal of many countries. Only in Europe, the building sector is responsible for the total 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 pollution. Therefore, new control policies based on the forecast of buildings energy behaviors can be developed to reduce energy waste (i.e. policies for Demand Response and Demand Side Management). This paper discusses an innovative methodology for smart building indoor air-temperature forecasting. This methodology is based on a Non-linear Autoregressive neural network. This neural network has been trained and validated with a dataset consisting of six years indoor air-temperature values of a building demonstrator. In detail, we have studied three characterizing rooms and the whole building. Experimental results of energy prediction are presented and discussed

Growth Performance of Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819 under an Innovative Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture System (IMTA) in the Mar Grande of Taranto (Mediterranean Sea, Italy)

The cultivation of the Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819, has been tested in an innovative Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture system (IMTA) in the Mar Grande of Taranto, as part of the EU-funded Remedialife project. This farming method could solve several problems including the low growth rate in mesotrophic environments while reducing the environmental impact of fish mariculture. Three productive cycles have been carried out. The first (2018–2019, traditional experiment) was conducted in three long lines around six cages of the fish farm in order to evaluate total mussel production under the innovative IMTA system and quality for human consumption by analyzing the concentration of culturable heterotrophic bacteria, total and fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. in mussel tissues. In addition, 17 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including 16 EPA priority compounds and seven polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are indicators of PCB contamination in the environment, were analyzed using gas chromatography in conjunction with a mass spectrometer. The second cycle (2020–2021, horizontal distance experiment) aimed to test the influence of fish cages on mussel growth by placing mussels near and far from the fish cages. The third cycle (2021–2022, vertical distance experiment) aimed to overcome the phenomenon of “heat waves” that can occur in the Mar Grande of Taranto during summer by testing the growth performance of mussels at two different depths (1 and 12 m). The following parameters were measured: Shell Length, L (mm); Shell Dry Weight, SDW (g); Flesh Dry Weight, FDW (g); Condition Index, IC = FDW/SDW. The results showed that the best growth performance was obtained near the fish cages and at a depth of 12 m. Moreover, the indicators of microbial contamination and concentrations of chemical compounds analyzed in mussel tissues cultured under the innovative IMTA system were in compliance with the reference values of European regulations