Bridging the gap between business processes and IoT

© 2020 ACM. This paper discusses a novel way of making business processes and Internet of Things (IoT) work together. Indeed each suffers from many limitations that the other could help address them and vice versa. On the one hand, business processes are known for capturing organizations\u27 best practices when satisfying users\u27 demands but do not have the capabilities of controlling the physical surrounding that comprises millions of devices/things. On the other hand, IoT is known for provisioning contextualized services to users thanks to millions of devices/things but does not have the capabilities of making these devices/things collaborate. The paper presents a framework to support the collaboration of business processes and IoT. This collaboration is exemplified with 2 types of processes referred as thing-Aware processes (TaP) and process-of-Things (PoT). A system illustrating the development of PoT is presented in the paper as well

The Shape and Figure Rotation of NGC 2915's Dark Halo

NGC 2915 is a blue compact dwarf galaxy with a very extended HI disk showing a short central bar and extended spiral arms, both reaching far beyond the optical component. We use Tremaine & Weinberg (1984) method to measure the pattern speed of the bar from HI radio synthesis data. Our measurements yield a pattern speed of 0.21+/-0.06 km/s/arcsec (8.0+/-2.4 km/s/kpc for D=5.3 Mpc), in disagreement with the general view that corotation in barred disks lies just outside the end of the bar, but consistent with recent models of barred galaxies with dense dark matter halos. Our adopted bar semi-length puts corotation at more than 1.7 bar radii. The existence of the pattern is also problematic. Because NGC 2915 is isolated, interactions cannot account for the structure observed in the HI disk. We also demonstrate that the low observed disk surface density and the location of the pseudo-rings make it unlikely that swing amplification or bar-driven spiral arms could explain the bar and spiral pattern. Based on the similarity of the dark matter and HI surface density profiles, we discuss the possibility of dark matter distributed in a disk and following closely the HI distribution. The disk then becomes unstable and can naturally form a bar and spiral pattern. However, this explanation is hard to reconcile with some properties of NGC 2915. We also consider the effect of a massive and extended triaxial dark matter halo with a rotating figure. The existence of such halos is supported by CDM simulations showing strongly triaxial dark halos with slow figure rotation. The observed structure of the HI disk can then arise through forcing by the rotating triaxial figure. We associate the measured pattern speed in NGC 2915 with the figure rotation of its dark halo.Comment: 37 pages, including 8 figures and 2 tables (AASTeX, aaspp4.sty). Fig.1 and 2 available as jpg. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. Online manuscript with PostScript figures available at: http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~bureau/pub_list.htm

Refining and testing the diagnostic accuracy of an assessment tool (PAT-POPS) to predict admission and discharge of children and young people who attend an emergency department : protocol for an observational study

Background: Increasing attendances by children (aged 0–16 years) to United Kingdom Emergency Departments (EDs) challenges patient safety within the National Health Service (NHS) with health professionals required to make complex judgements on whether children attending urgent and emergency care services can be sent home safely or require admission. Health regulation bodies have recommended that an early identification systems should be developed to recognise children developing critical illnesses. The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Paediatric Observation Priority Score (PAT-POPS) was developed as an ED-specific tool for this purpose. This study aims to revise and improve the existing tool and determine its utility in determining safe admission and discharge decision making. Methods/design: An observational study to improve diagnostic accuracy using data from children and young people attending the ED and Urgent Care Centre (UCC) at three hospitals over a 12 month period. The data being collected is part of routine practice; therefore opt-out methods of consent will be used. The reference standard is admission or discharge. A revised PAT-POPs scoring tool will be developed using clinically guided logistic regression models to explore which components best predict hospital admission and safe discharge. Suitable cut-points for safe admission and discharge will be established using sensitivity and specificity as judged by an expert consensus meeting. The diagnostic accuracy of the revised tool will be assessed, and it will be compared to the former version of PAT-POPS using ROC analysis. Discussion: This new predictive tool will aid discharge and admission decision-making in relation to children and young people in hospital urgent and emergency care facilities. Trial registration: NIHR RfPB Grant: PB-PG-0815-20034. ClinicalTrials.gov: 213469. Retrospectively registered on 11 April 2018. Keywords: Paediatric, Emergency department, Diagnostic accuracy, Early identification systems, screening tool, Observational, Early warning score, Early warning system, hospital admission

Signatures of immune selection in intact and defective proviruses distinguish HIV-1 elite controllers

Increasing evidence suggests that durable drug-free control of HIV-1 replication is enabled by effective cellular immune responses that may induce an attenuated viral reservoir configuration with a weaker ability to drive viral rebound. Here, we comprehensively tracked effects of antiviral immune responses on intact and defective proviral sequences from elite controllers (ECs), analyzing both classical escape mutations and HIV-1 chromosomal integration sites as biomarkers of antiviral immune selection pressure. We observed that, within ECs, defective proviruses were commonly located in permissive genic euchromatin positions, which represented an apparent contrast to autologous intact proviruses that were frequently located in heterochromatin regions; this suggests differential immune selection pressure on intact versus defective proviruses in ECs. In comparison to individuals receiving antiretroviral therapy, intact and defective proviruses from ECs showed reduced frequencies of escape mutations in cytotoxic T cell epitopes and antibody contact regions, possibly due to the small and poorly inducible reservoir that may be insufficient to drive effective viral escape in ECs. About 15% of ECs harbored nef deletions in intact proviruses, consistent with increased viral vulnerability to host immunity in the setting of nef dysfunction. Together, these results suggest a distinct signature of immune footprints in proviral sequences from ECs.This work is supported by NIH grants HL134539 (to X.G.Y.), AI155171 (to X.G.Y.), AI116228 (to X.G.Y.), AI078799 (to X.G.Y.), DA047034 (to X.G.Y.), AI150396 (to X.G.Y.), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-002703) (to X.G.Y.), AI114235 (to M.L.), AI117841 (to M.L.), AI120008 (to M.L.), AI130005 (to M.L.), DK120387 (to M.L.), AI152979 (to M.L.), AI135940 (to M.L.), AI155233 (to M.L.), and the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR#110181) (to M.L.). X.G.Y. and M.L. are members of the DARE Collaboratory (UM1AI126611) and the BEAT-HIV Martin Delaney Collaboratory (UM1 AI126620). E.R.-M. was supported by Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and by grant PI19/01127, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondos FEDER, and Consejeria de Transformacion Economica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades Junta de Andalucia (P20_01276). Support was also provided by the Harvard University and University of California at San Francisco (UCSF)/Gladstone Institute for HIV Cure Research Centers for AIDS Research (P30 AI060354 and P30 AI027763, respectively), which are supported by the following institutes and centers co-funded by and participating with the U.S. National Institutes of Health: NIAID, NCI, NICHD, NHLBI, NIDA, NIMH, NIA, FIC, and OAR. Additional support for the SCOPE cohort was provided by the Delaney AIDS Research Enterprise (DARE; AI096109 and A127966) and the amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research (amfAR 109301). The International HIV Controller Cohort is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1066973), the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, the NIH (R37 AI067073 to B.D.W.), and the Mark and Lisa Schwartz Family Foundation. This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, under contract no. HHSN261200800001E. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government. This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, Frederick National Lab, Center for Cancer Research

Social meanings and understandings in patient-nurse interaction in the community practice setting: a grounded theory study

Provisional: Background: The patient-nurse relationship is a traditional concern of healthcare research. However, patient-nurse interaction is under examined from a social perspective. Current research focuses mostly on specific contexts of care delivery and experience related to medical condition or illness, or to nurses' speciality. Consequentially, this paper is about the social meanings and understandings at play within situated patient-nurse interaction in the community practice setting in a transforming healthcare service. Methods: Grounded theory methodology was used and the research process was characterised by principles of theoretical sensitivity and constant comparative analysis. The field of study was four health centres in the community. The participants were patients and nurses representative of those attending or working in the health centres and meeting there by scheduled appointment. Data collection methods were observations, informal interviews and semi-structured interviews. Results: Key properties of 'Being a good patient, being a good nurse', 'Institutional experiences' and 'Expectations about healthcare' were associated with the construction of a category entitled 'Experience'. Those key properties captured that in an evolving healthcare environment individuals continually re-constructed their reality of being a patient or nurse as they endeavoured to perform appropriately; articulation of past and present healthcare experiences was important in that process. Modus operandi in role as patient was influenced by past experiences in healthcare and by those in non-healthcare institutions in terms of engagement and involvement (or not) in interaction. Patients' expectations about interaction in healthcare included some uncertainly as they strived to make sense of the changing roles and expertise of nurses and, differentiating between the roles and expertise of nurses and doctors. Conclusions: The importance of social meanings and understandings in patient-nurse interaction is not fully apparent to nurses, but important in the patient experience. Seeking understanding from a social perspective makes a contribution to enhancing knowledge about patient-nurse interaction with subsequent impact on practice, in particular the development of the patient-nurse relationship. The implications are that the meanings and understandings patients and nurses generate from experiences beyond and within their situated interaction are pivotal to the development of their relationship in the transforming community healthcare environment

A Possible Sterilizing Cure of HIV-1 Infection Without Stem Cell Transplantation

Background: A sterilizing cure of HIV-1 infection has been reported in 2 persons living with HIV-1 who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantations from donors who were homozygous for the CCR5D32 gene polymorphism. However, this has been considered elusive during natural infection. Objective: To evaluate persistent HIV-1 reservoir cells in an elite controller with undetectable HIV-1 viremia for more than 8 years in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. Design: Detailed investigation of virologic and immunologic characteristics. Setting: Tertiary care centers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Boston, Massachusetts. Patient: A patient with HIV-1 infection and durable drug-free suppression of HIV-1 replication. Measurements: Analysis of genome-intact and replication-competent HIV-1 using near-full-length individual proviral sequencing and viral outgrowth assays, respectively; analysis of HIV-1 plasma RNA by ultrasensitive HIV-1 viral load testing. Results: No genome-intact HIV-1 proviruses were detected in analysis of a total of 1.188 billion peripheral blood mononuclear cells and 503 million mononuclear cells from placental tissues. Seven defective proviruses, some of them derived from clonally expanded cells, were detected. A viral outgrowth assay failed to retrieve replication-competent HIV-1 from 150 million resting CD4+ T cells. No HIV-1 RNA was detected in 4.5 mL of plasma. Limitations: Absence of evidence for intact HIV-1 proviruses in large numbers of cells is not evidence of absence of intact HIV-1 proviruses. A sterilizing cure of HIV-1 can never be empirically proved. Conclusion: Genome-intact and replication-competent HIV-1 were not detected in an elite controller despite analysis of massive numbers of cells from blood and tissues, suggesting that this patient may have naturally achieved a sterilizing cure of HIV-1 infection. These observations raise the possibility that a sterilizing cure may be an extremely rare but possible outcome of HIV-1 infection.Fil: Turk, Gabriela Julia Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida; ArgentinaFil: Seiger, Kyra. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Lian, Xiaodong. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Sun, Weiwei. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Parsons, Elizabeth M.. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Gao, Ce. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Rassadkina, Yelizaveta. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Polo, Maria Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida; ArgentinaFil: Czernikier, Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida; ArgentinaFil: Ghiglione, Yanina Alexandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida; ArgentinaFil: Vellicce, Alejandra Fabiana. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Hospital de Clínicas General San Martín; ArgentinaFil: Varriale, Joseph. No especifíca;Fil: Lai, Jun. No especifíca;Fil: Yuki, Yuko. No especifíca;Fil: Martin, Maureen. No especifíca;Fil: Rhodes, Ajantha. University of Melbourne; AustraliaFil: Lewin, Sharon R.. University of Melbourne; Australia. Monash University; AustraliaFil: Walker, Bruce D.. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Carrington, Mary. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Siliciano, Robert. No especifíca;Fil: Siliciano, Janet. No especifíca;Fil: Lichterfeld, Mathias. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Laufer, Natalia Lorna. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida; ArgentinaFil: Yu, Xu G.. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados Unido

A Feedback-Based Adaptive Service-Oriented Paradigm for the Internet of Things

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018. With integrating physical devices into digital world, Internet of Things (IoT) have presented tremendous potential in various different application domains such as smart cities, intelligent transportation, smart home, healthcare and industrial automation. However, current IoT solutions and usage scenarios are still very limited because of the difficulty in sensing the context in continuously changing environments and adaptation to the changes accordingly. The complex dynamic interactions between system components and physical environments are a bit challenging especially when there are other concerns such as scalability and heterogeneity. To solve this problem, a novel adaptive service-oriented paradigm is proposed to support IoT from a low-level viewpoint. The paradigm can overcome some disadvantages of REST (Representational State Transfer) architecture style in the IoT. Two classical examples are illustrated using the proposed paradigm by adding an extra constraint based on REST to improve system states verification and enhance the functionality in modelling physical processes

Toward an Adaptive Enterprise Modelling Platform

For the past three decades, enterprise modelling (EM) has been emerging as a significant yet complex paradigm to tackle holistic systematic enterprise analysis and design. With a high fluctuation in the global economy, industrial stability and technology shift, the necessity of such paradigms becomes crucial in determining the decisions that an enterprise can make for surviving in such a highly dynamic business ecosystem. EM practices have focused for a long time, on the design-time of enterprise systems. Recently, there has been a rapid development in data analytics, machine learning and intelligent systems from which an EM platform can benefit. EM needs to cope with the new changes in both business and technology; it should also help architects to determine optimum decisions and reduce complexity in technical infrastructure. In this paper, the author discusses several challenges facing enterprise modelling practices and offers an architectural notion for future development focusing on the requirements of a platform that can be called intelligent and adaptive

Selective Deletion of PTEN in Dopamine Neurons Leads to Trophic Effects and Adaptation of Striatal Medium Spiny Projecting Neurons

The widespread distribution of the tumor suppressor PTEN in the nervous system suggests a role in a broad range of brain functions. PTEN negatively regulates the signaling pathways initiated by protein kinase B (Akt) thereby regulating signals for growth, proliferation and cell survival. Pten deletion in the mouse brain has revealed its role in controlling cell size and number. In this study, we used Cre-loxP technology to specifically inactivate Pten in dopamine (DA) neurons (Pten KO mice). The resulting mutant mice showed neuronal hypertrophy, and an increased number of dopaminergic neurons and fibers in the ventral mesencephalon. Interestingly, quantitative microdialysis studies in Pten KO mice revealed no alterations in basal DA extracellular levels or evoked DA release in the dorsal striatum, despite a significant increase in total DA tissue levels. Striatal dopamine receptor D1 (DRD1) and prodynorphin (PDyn) mRNA levels were significantly elevated in KO animals, suggesting an enhancement in neuronal activity associated with the striatonigral projection pathway, while dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) and preproenkephalin (PPE) mRNA levels remained unchanged. In addition, PTEN inactivation protected DA neurons and significantly enhanced DA-dependent behavioral functions in KO mice after a progressive 6OHDA lesion. These results provide further evidence about the role of PTEN in the brain and suggest that manipulation of the PTEN/Akt signaling pathway during development may alter the basal state of dopaminergic neurotransmission and could provide a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders

Perinatal asphyxia: current status and approaches towards neuroprotective strategies, with focus on sentinel proteins

Delivery is a stressful and risky event menacing the newborn. The mother-dependent respiration has to be replaced by autonomous pulmonary breathing immediately after delivery. If delayed, it may lead to deficient oxygen supply compromising survival and development of the central nervous system. Lack of oxygen availability gives rise to depletion of NAD+ tissue stores, decrease of ATP formation, weakening of the electron transport pump and anaerobic metabolism and acidosis, leading necessarily to death if oxygenation is not promptly re-established. Re-oxygenation triggers a cascade of compensatory biochemical events to restore function, which may be accompanied by improper homeostasis and oxidative stress. Consequences may be incomplete recovery, or excess reactions that worsen the biological outcome by disturbed metabolism and/or imbalance produced by over-expression of alternative metabolic pathways. Perinatal asphyxia has been associated with severe neurological and psychiatric sequelae with delayed clinical onset. No specific treatments have yet been established. In the clinical setting, after resuscitation of an infant with birth asphyxia, the emphasis is on supportive therapy. Several interventions have been proposed to attenuate secondary neuronal injuries elicited by asphyxia, including hypothermia. Although promising, the clinical efficacy of hypothermia has not been fully demonstrated. It is evident that new approaches are warranted. The purpose of this review is to discuss the concept of sentinel proteins as targets for neuroprotection. Several sentinel proteins have been described to protect the integrity of the genome (e.g. PARP-1; XRCC1; DNA ligase IIIα; DNA polymerase β, ERCC2, DNA-dependent protein kinases). They act by eliciting metabolic cascades leading to (i) activation of cell survival and neurotrophic pathways; (ii) early and delayed programmed cell death, and (iii) promotion of cell proliferation, differentiation, neuritogenesis and synaptogenesis. It is proposed that sentinel proteins can be used as markers for characterising long-term effects of perinatal asphyxia, and as targets for novel therapeutic development and innovative strategies for neonatal care