Neural field models with a dendritic dimension

Neural field models (NFMs) describe the spatio-temporal evolution of neuronal populations as a continuous excitable medium. The resulting tissue-level description can be employed to fit data from macroscopic recordings of electrocortical brain ac-tivity like the electroencephalogram (EEG) and local field potentials (LFPs). The standard neural field approach models the cortex as a two-dimensional sheet, ne-glecting the actual cortical depth. Although a small number of studies have con-sidered the anatomical cortical layers to model different connectivity patterns, their mathematical description does not commonly use the cortical depth to determine the model dynamics. Therefore, within the framework of neural field theory, the impact of dendrites on brain activity remains far from being exhaustively explored. In the present work, we extend the geometry of a two-dimensional (2D) NFM to incorporate a dendritic dimension for the excitatory neural populations, repre-senting the cortical depth. Dendritic trees are modelled as linear cables, spatially discretized in multiple subsections (compartments). Spatio-temporal patterns of the new cortical model are studied for systems consisting of either a single or multiple microcolumns. A powerful approximation, extended from the one for the 2D NFM, is introduced to predict the power spectral density of the mean membrane potential from the Jacobian matrix of the linearized system evaluated at a singular point. Our numerical analysis reveals a variety of dynamics, ranging from those characterized by "flat" power spectra without alpha rhythmicity due to signal loss over the tree, up to sharp alpha resonances corresponding to proximity to a Hopf bifurcation. The research focuses on the identification of plausible EEG dynamics, e.g., those exhibit-ing a dominant alpha activity, conceived as the central rhythm of spontaneous EEG. Crucial to this endeavour has been the careful tuning of key dendritic parameters introduced with the three-dimensional (3D) geometry, such as the "synaptic factor" (i.e. synaptic conductance) and the membrane length constant, and wider parameter sweeps using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique. The dynamics are mainly studied for a single microcolumn systems with different dendritic configurations (e.g. varying conductance and length constant) during synchronous and asynchronous synaptic activation in either a single or multiple dendritic domains. Our results explain the impact of key dendritic parameters on the 3D NFM dynamics. Heuristics characterizing these effects can be regarded as representative of the well-known phenomenon of "dendritic democracy", classically indicating the normalisation of post-synaptic somatic potentials compensating for dendritic filtering activity. While several experimental studies have investigated the genesis of this compensation, to date this phenomenon has not be explored concerning a potential interplay with the alpha rhythm. Our findings suggest that physiological conditions enhancing the onset of action potentials in active models also promote alphoid dynamics in our passive neural field models including the dendritic dimension. In particular, synaptic strength has to increase with distance from the soma. We found several parameter configurations giving rise to alpha rhythmicity in the 3D geometry, Dynamical analysis highlights the impact of the key dendritic parameters at different cortical depths on the genesis of alpha rhythm, providing a clearer insight into the dendritic mechanisms and cortical dynamics. Indeed, the model can be used as a valid starting point for NF studies aiming to encompass further dendritic properties, implement more detailed connctivity schemes and incorporate data from depth electrode recordings

Impact of Project RED Discharge Checklist on Readmissions and Adherence to Initial Follow-Up Appointment

Reducing readmissions has become a priority for hospitals across the country in an effort to improve care and to avoid financial penalties. The purpose of this pilot study is (a) to evaluate the impact of Project Re-Engineered discharge checklist on hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge when compared to standard discharge instructions, (b) to evaluate adherence to the initial follow-up appointment with an outpatient provider in the trauma clinic within seven days of hospital discharge for fall patients compared to standard discharge instructions, and (c) to evaluate the impact insurance status, race, education, number of chronic illnesses present on admission, and planned post-discharge living arrangements on adherence to the initial follow-up appointment with an outpatient provider in the trauma clinic within seven days of discharge. Conducted between February 1, 2015 and October 1, 2015, this pilot study used a convenience sample (N = 50) of trauma patients admitted to a level II trauma center located in the Northeast. With respect to results, implementation of the Project Re-Engineered discharge checklist did not reduce readmissions (p = 0.247) or increase adherence to the initial follow-up appointment with an outpatient provider in the trauma clinic (p = 0.248). Demographics variables including age (p = 0.002) and race (p = 0.021) demonstrated statistical significance in reduced 30-day readmissions. Further research is needed to identify which modifications to the Project RED Discharge checklist might provide the greatest benefit to trauma patients in an effort to increase adherence to follow-up care, reduce readmissions and decrease healthcare costs

An ANT+ Protocol Based Health Care System

In remote health care Body Area Networks (BAN) are very popular but demand low energy consumption due to very constrained resources. For it several protocols, such as ZigBee, BlueTooth, WiFi etc, have been proposed but non has delivered the optimum results. These systems also demand vast interoperability among devices. Recently a propriety protocol ANT+ provides such features and strengthens the goals for Internet of Things (IOT). The authors describe a software architecture which flexibly integrates ANT+ protocol enabled sensors to deliver health care services. The approach is validated on a health care application that integrates heart rate, cadence, distance, foot steps and environmental temperature sensors. Described architecture is modular, flexible, scalable and possess several features

Nuovi ritrovamenti di resti di vertebrati nel travertino di Alcamo (TP).

I depositi di travertino di Alcamo (TP) sono noti sin dal 1928 soprattutto per aver restituito resti dell’elefante di piccola taglia Paleoloxodon falconeri. Intorno agli anni ’80 nella cava di Contrada Cappuccini i lavori di coltivazione portarono alla luce una grossa frattura nel travertino. La frattura, riempita di un paleosuolo e chiaramente successiva alla formazione del travertino, conteneva un’associazione fossile caratterizzata dalla presenza di Paleoloxodon mnaidriensis. Il fatto che il paleosuolo contenga tali resti, assenti nel bancone di travertino caratterizzato invece dalla presenza dell’elefante di piccola taglia, costituisce un'inoppugnabile prova stratigrafica sulla successione degli elefanti di taglia ridotta che hanno popolato la Sicilia durante l’ultimo milione di anni. L’altra scoperta che rende unico questo deposito è legata al ritrovamento, per la prima volta in Sicilia, dei resti fossili di una tartaruga gigante terrestre nonché di centinaia di reperti identificati come uova fossili di tartaruga. Date le sue peculiari caratteristiche geologiche e paleontologiche, per tale sito è in atto da parte dell'ARTA (Assessorato Regionale Territorio e Ambiente) Sicilia l’istituzione del Geosito "Travertino della Cava Cappuccini". Le stesse motivazioni hanno portato l’Amministrazione Comunale di Alcamo a effettuare i lavori di riqualificazione della cava dismessa e, nell’ottica di una sua valorizzazione, la realizzazione di un anfiteatro e di una struttura museale al fine di salvaguardare l'area e, più in particolare, il contenuto fossilifero ancora in situ. Data la peculiarità del sito e la necessità di tutelare il patrimonio paleontologico in esso contenuto, l'Amministrazione Comunale di Alcamo, su richiesta dell'ARTA, ha proceduto all'affidamento di un incarico di assistente paleontologo con il compito di collaborare con la Direzione dei lavori in fase di scavo anche per classificare eventuali nuovi reperti e provvedere alla loro corretta conservazione. La presenza del paleontologo di “cantiere” si è rivelata fondamentale in quanto, durante i lavori di rimozione del materiale di risulta, sono stati rinvenuti numerosi nuovi reperti fossili riferibili alla tartaruga gigante terrestre tra cui numerosi “nidi” di uova e, soprattutto, diversi resti scheletrici. Lo studio di tale materiale, che si aggiunge a quello già esistente, potrà meglio chiarire la posizione sistematica di questo taxon e, al contempo, accrescere l’importanza del Geosito di nuova istituzione

A Flexible and Scalable Architecture for Real-Time ANT+ Sensor Data Acquisition and NoSQL Storage

Wireless Personal or Body Area Networks (WPANs or WBANs) are the main mechanisms to develop healthcare systems for an ageing society. Such systems offer monitoring, security, and caring services by measuring physiological body parameters using wearable devices. Wireless sensor networks allow inexpensive, continuous, and real-time updates of the sensor data, to the data repositories via an Internet. A great deal of research is going on with a focus on technical, managerial, economic, and social health issues. The technical obstacles, which we encounter, in general, are better methodologies, architectures, and context data storage. Sensor communication, data processing and interpretation, data interchange format, data transferal, and context data storage are sensitive phases during the whole process of body parameter acquisition until the storage. ANT+ is a proprietary (but open access) low energy protocol, which supports device interoperability by mutually agreeing upon device profile standards. We have implemented a prototype, based upon ANT+ enabled sensors for a real-time scenario. This paper presents a system architecture, with its software organization, for real-time message interpretation, event-driven based real-time bidirectional communication, and schema flexible storage. A computer user uses it to acquire and to transmit the data using a Windows service to the context server

Human Activity Recognition using a Semantic Ontology-Based Framework

In the last years, the extensive use of smart objects embedded in the physical world, in order to monitor and record physical or environmental conditions, has increased rapidly. In this scenario, heterogeneous devices are connected together into a network. Data generated from such system are usually stored in a database, which often shows a lack of semantic information and relationship among devices. Moreover, this set can be incomplete, unreliable, incorrect and noisy. So, it turns out to be important both the integration of information and the interoperability of applications. For this reason, ontologies are becoming widely used to describe the domain and achieve efficient interoperability of information system. An example of the described situation could be represented by Ambient Assisted Living context, which intends to enable older or disabled people to remain living independently longer in their own house. In this contest, human activity recognition plays a main role because it could be considered as starting point to facilitate assistance and care for elderly. Due to the nature of human behavior, it is necessary to manage the time and spatial restrictions. So, we propose a framework that implements a novel methodology based on the integration of an ontology for representing contextual knowledge and a Complex Event Processing engine for supporting timed reasoning. Moreover, it is an infrastructure where knowledge, organized in conceptual spaces (based on its meaning) can be semantically queried, discovered, and shared across applications. In our framework, benefits deriving from the implementation of a domain ontology are exploited into different levels of abstrac- tion. Thereafter, reasoning techniques represent a preprocessing method to prepare data for the final temporal analysis. The results, presented in this paper, have been obtained applying the methodology into AALISABETH, an Ambient Assisted Living project aimed to monitor the lifestyle of old people, not suffering from major chronic diseases or severe disabilities

Analysis and verification of ECA rules in intelligent environments

Intelligent Environments (IEs) are physical spaces where Information Technology (IT) and other pervasive computing technologies are combined in order to achieve specific goals for the users and the environment. IEs have the goal of enriching user experience, increasing awareness of the environment. A number of applications are currently being deployed in domains ranging from smart homes to e-health and autonomous vehicles. Quite often IE support human activities, thus essential requirements to be ensured are correctness, reliability, safety and security. In this paper we present how a set of techniques and tools that have been developed for the verification of software can be employed in the verification of IE described by means of event-condition-action rules. More precisely, we reduce the problem of verifying key properties of these rules to satisfiability and termination problems that can be addressed using state-of-the-art Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT) solvers and program analysers. Our approach has been implemented in a tool called vIRONy. Our approach has been validated on a number of case studies from the literature