SMART-M3 v.0.9: A semantic event processing engine supporting information level interoperability in ambient intelligence

This tutorial is addressed to all students in Electronic Engineering and Information Engineering at the Scuola di Ingegneria e Architettura of the University of Bologna attending the following courses: Laboratory of Interoperability of Embedded Systems, "Calcolatori Elettronici M" and "Attività Progettuale di Calcolatori Elettronici M". This tutorial includes the guidelines to build distributed applications where clients may interact with physical space. Inter-client interaction occurs through a semantic event processing engine. Information interoperability is based on a shared knowledge representation model named ontology. This tutorial is focused on client design and on the SPARQL primitives that provide the means for client-event processing engine interaction

Fibromyalgia and Skin Disorders: A Systematic Review

Background: Fibromyalgia is a complex multifaceted syndrome primarily characterised by chronic musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and functional symptoms. Although FM is known to be associated with several comorbidities, the aim of this systematic review was to comprehensively examine the available evidence regarding the relationship between FM and dermatological manifestations. Methods: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and MedLine and Web of Science (WOS) databases were searched up to June 2023. After removing duplicate records, 21 articles were deemed eligible for inclusion in the qualitative synthesis. Results: Overall, the included studies revealed an increased frequency of FM among patients with cutaneous diseases, including psoriasis, chronic urticaria, contact allergy, acneiform disorders, hidradenitis suppurativa, and vitiligo. Additionally, the presence of comorbid FM may intensify skin conditions, which has a negative impact on quality of life and vice versa. Conclusions: Although the causal mechanisms of FM are still far from being understood, this systematic review suggests a relationship between FM and skin disorders. However, further research is encouraged in this area

Operando SXRD study of the structure and growth process of Cu2S ultra-thin films

International audienceElectrochemical Atomic Layer Deposition (E-ALD) technique has demonstrated to be a suitable process for growing compound semiconductors, by alternating the under-potential deposition (UPD) of the metallic element with the UPD of the non-metallic element. The cycle can be repeated several times to build up films with sub-micrometric thickness. We show that it is possible to grow, by E-ALD, Cu2S ultra-thin films on Ag(111) with high structural quality. They show a well ordered layered crystal structure made on alternating pseudohexagonal layers in lower coordination. As reported in literature for minerals in the Cu-S compositional field, these are based on CuS3 triangular groups, with layers occupied by highly mobile Cu ions. This structural model is closely related to the one of the low chalcocite. The domain size of such films is more than 1000 angstrom in lateral size and extends with a high crystallinity in the vertical growth direction up to more than 10 nm. E-ALD process results in the growth of highly ordered and almost unstrained ultra-thin films. This growth can lead to the design of semiconductors with optimal transport proprieties by an appropriate doping of the intra metallic layer. The present study enables E-ALD as an efficient synthetic route for the growth of semiconducting heterostructures with tailored propertie

RedSib: A smart-M3 semantic information broker implementation

Smart-M3 is an open source middleware solution originally released by Nokia as a prototype reference infrastructure to support context-aware ontology-driven smart applications. This paper proposes a renewedSmart-M3 Semantic Information Broker implementation with increased performance and usability levels. In the proposed solution many features have been added or modified, preserving compatibility with the previous release. The major changes are related to the subscription mechanism, the RDF store and the supported encodings for information representation and query. SPARQL query language replaces Wilbur. This paper enlightens the analysis carried out on the original implementation and discusses the choices made to increase its maturity level. The work done is a step forward towards a stable and efficient open interoperability platform for the emerging market of smart space based services

A web of things approach for indoor position monitoring of elderly and impaired people

Helping, assisting and taking care of the elderly and of impaired people is one of the greatest challenges in our society. Within this paper, we propose a new approach for indoor position monitoring of people, aiming to identify in real time dangerous situations. In order to boost interoperability and continuous adaptation of the devices used, a Web Of Things based solution will be proposed and evaluated. Our contribution, in particular, consists of a portable and user friendly Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) reader exploiting monopulse radar and beam-steering capabilities. Such hardware, exploiting a set of software modules, will be located in an environment easily accessible and extensible to a growing number of devices. The application will be the result of the cooperation between software and hardware, eventually outlining a real and completely flexible Web Of Things environment

Development of collaborative editing applications through semantic publish-subscribe platforms

Cloud computing revolutionized the way resources (i.e. services and data) are accessed and used. Among the many changes in data processing and service provision paradigms, Software as a Service (SaaS) and collaborative editing are two of the most significant. This paper presents an approach based on semantic publish/subscribe paradigm to the development of collaborative editing applications. The main aim of this research work consists in exploiting emerging technologies (i.e. semantic web data representation formalisms, publish-subscribe platforms) in order to (1) overcome limitations coming from the traditional paradigm of single-author workflows, (2) enhance the editing capabilities of the users, (3) ease the development and maintainment of applications and (4) provide a shared high- level abstraction of the documents that fosters information-level interoperability and reusability. The proposed approach is then validated through an ad-hoc vector graphics application, SCEd (Semantic Collaborative Editor) built upon a SPARQL Event Processing Architecture derived from the Smart-M3 semantic publish-subscribe platform

Are periodontitis and psoriasis associated? A pre-clinical murine model

AIM: To investigate the bidirectional influence between periodontitis and psoriasis, using the respective experimental models of ligature- and imiquimod-induced diseases on murine models. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-two C57/BL6J mice were randomly allocated to four experimental groups: control (P- Pso-), ligature-induced periodontitis (P+ Pso-), imiquimod-induced psoriasis (P- Pso+) and periodontitis and psoriasis (P+ Pso+). Samples (maxilla, dorsal skin and blood) were harvested immediately after death. Measures of periodontitis (distance between the cemento-enamel junction and alveolar bone crest [CEJ-ABC] and the number of osteoclasts) and psoriasis (epidermal thickness and infiltrate cell [/0.03mm2]) severity as well as systemic inflammation (IL-6, IL-17A, TNF-α) were collected. RESULTS: The P+ Pso+ group exhibited the most severe experimental periodontitis and psoriasis, with the highest values of CEJ-ABC, number of osteoclasts, epidermal thickness and infiltrate cells in the dorsal skin, as well as the highest blood cytokine concentration. The P+ Pso- group presented with higher cell infiltrate (/0.03mm2) compared to the control group (p <.05), while the P- Pso+ group showed substantially higher alveolar bone loss (CEJ-ABC) than the control group (p <.05). CONCLUSIONS: Experimental periodontitis may initiate and maintain psoriasiform skin inflammation and, vice versa, experimental psoriasis may contribute to the onset of periodontitis. In a combined model of the diseases, we propose a bidirectional association between periodontitis and psoriasis via systemic inflammation