Coverage and Deployment Analysis of Narrowband Internet of Things in the Wild

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is gaining momentum as a promising technology for massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC). Given that its deployment is rapidly progressing worldwide, measurement campaigns and performance analyses are needed to better understand the system and move toward its enhancement. With this aim, this paper presents a large scale measurement campaign and empirical analysis of NB-IoT on operational networks, and discloses valuable insights in terms of deployment strategies and radio coverage performance. The reported results also serve as examples showing the potential usage of the collected dataset, which we make open-source along with a lightweight data visualization platform.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Communications Magazine (Internet of Things and Sensor Networks Series

Advanced Label-Free Optical Methods for Spermatozoa Quality Assessment and Selection

Current in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques require a severe selection of sperm, generally based on concentration, morphology, motility, and DNA integrity. Since routinely separation methods may damage the viability of the sperm cell, there is a growing interest in providing a method for noninvasively analyzing spermatozoa taking into account all those parameters. This chapter first reviews the state-of-the-art of label-free sperm cell imaging for IVF, highlighting the limitations of the used techniques. Then, our innovative approach combining Raman spectroscopy and digital holography will be described and its advantages detailed. These include the ability to perform a simultaneous and correlative morphological and biochemical analysis of sperm cells, without labeling, in a fast and reliable way. Finally, the difficulty in reaching clinical use will be discussed, as well as the possible solutions offered by new technological improvements

Chapter Digital Twin. Experimenting drawings (di-SEGNI) between science and technology in teaching

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

Multi-Level Information Processing Systems in the Digital Twin Era

The most challenging aspect of the scientific panorama linked to technological innovation is the search for possible connections between Representation, Man and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the complex ecosystem that defines a Digital Twin. Man plays a crucial role in facilitating communication processes both for the dissemination of knowledge and the accessibility and usability of content and for his ability to become a “sensor” and communicate information, feelings, emotions. The contribution proposes a cross-section of applications that link and decline Augmented Reality and AI differently according to a gradual scale shift from the artefact contained in a building overlooking an urban context of interest. The result is a multi-level information processing system derived from the three-dimensional matrix that links data collection, representation and visualisation techniques and tools with the cultural heritage – city, building, artefact – according to specific use cases

Architetture per l'apprendimento

Lo spazio mediatore per i processi di costruzione della conoscenza: stiamo assistendo in Italia ad una ristrutturazione degli spazi educativi, sia dal punto di vista spaziale che temporale, per meglio rispondere alle caratteristiche dei meccanismi di apprendimento intesi come processo distribuito e localmente situato in un insieme integrato di aspetti cognitivi. Ricostruendo le principali tappe della ricerca, l’articolo vuole ripercorrere la storia dell’attuale visione pedagogica ed architettonica di impostazione costruttivista per evidenziare, nel contesto internazionale, la via italiana alle tecnologie dell’apprendimento ed in particolare le attuali sperimentazioni e sviluppi ad opera di Indire. Assistiamo dunque, da una parte, al superamento della rigidità dell’aula scolastica con soluzioni flessibili e polifunzionali, dall’altro ad aule di specializzazione disciplinare collegate a tecnologie sempre più avanzate : Space is a mediator for the processes of construction of knowledge: we are witnessing in Italy a restructuring of educational spaces, from a spatial and temporal point of view, to better respond to the characteristics of the learning mechanisms as a distributed and locally located process in an integrated set of cognitive aspects. Reconstructing the main stages of the research, the article aims to retrace the history of the current pedagogical and architectural vision of a constructivist approach to highlight, in the international context, the Italian way and, in particular, the current experiments and developments by Indire. We are therefore witnessing, on the one hand, the overcoming of the rigidity of the school classroom with flexible and multifunctional solutions, on the other hand, disciplinary specialization classrooms connected to increasingly advanced technologies

Architetture per l'apprendimento

Lo spazio mediatore per i processi di costruzione della conoscenza: stiamo assistendo in Italia ad una ristrutturazione degli spazi educativi, sia dal punto di vista spaziale che temporale, per meglio rispondere alle caratteristiche dei meccanismi di apprendimento intesi come processo distribuito e localmente situato in un insieme integrato di aspetti cognitivi. Ricostruendo le principali tappe della ricerca, l’articolo vuole ripercorrere la storia dell’attuale visione pedagogica ed architettonica di impostazione costruttivista per evidenziare, nel contesto internazionale, la via italiana alle tecnologie dell’apprendimento ed in particolare le attuali sperimentazioni e sviluppi ad opera di Indire. Assistiamo dunque, da una parte, al superamento della rigidità dell’aula scolastica con soluzioni flessibili e polifunzionali, dall’altro ad aule di specializzazione disciplinare collegate a tecnologie sempre più avanzat

Assessment of Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase1 (PARP1) expression and activity in cells purified from blood and milk of dairy cattle

Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation (PAR) is a post-translational protein modification catalysed by enzyme member of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) family. The activation of several PARPs is triggered by DNA strand breakage and the main PARP enzyme involved in this process is PARP1. Besides its involvement in DNA repair, PARP1 is involved in several cellular processes including transcription, epigenetics, chromatin re-modelling as well as in the maintenance of genomic stability. Moreover, several studies in human and animal models showed PARP1 activation in various inflammatory disorders. The aims of the study were (1) to characterize PARP1 expression in bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and (2) to evaluate PAR levels as a potential inflammatory marker in cells isolated from blood and milk samples following different types of infection, including mastitis. Our results show that (i) bovine PBMC express PARP1; (ii) lymphocytes exhibit higher expression of PARP1 than monocytes; (iii) PARP1 and PAR levels were higher in circulating PBMCs of infected cows; (iv) PAR levels were higher in cells isolated from milk with higher Somatic Cell Counts (SCC > 100,000 cells/mL) than in cells from milk with low SCCs. In conclusion, these findings suggest that PARP1 is activated during mastitis, which may prove to be a useful biomarker of mastitis

Do People Perceive Alexa as Gendered? A Cross-Cultural Study of People’s Perceptions, Expectations, and Desires of Alexa

Mainly, the scholarly debate on Alexa has focused on sexist/anti-woman gender representations in the everyday life of many families, on a cluster of themes such as privacy, insecurity, and trust, and on the world of education and health. This paper takes another stance and explores via online survey methodology how university student respondents in two countries (the United States, n = 333; and Italy, n = 322) perceive Alexa’s image and gender, what they expect from this voice-based assistant, and how they would like Alexa to be. Results of a free association exercise showed that Alexa’s image was scarcely embodied or explicitly gendered. Rather, Alexa was associated with a distinct category of being—the VBA, virtual assistant, or digital helper—with which one talks, and which possesses praiseworthy technical and social traits. Expectations of Alexa and desires regarding Alexa’s ideal performance are presented and compared across the two country samples

Critical requirement for cell cycle inhibitors in sustaining nonproliferative states

In adult vertebrates, most cells are not in the cell cycle at any one time. Physiological nonproliferation states encompass reversible quiescence and permanent postmitotic conditions such as terminal differentiation and replicative senescence. Although these states appear to be attained and maintained quite differently, they might share a core proliferation-restricting mechanism. Unexpectedly, we found that all sorts of nonproliferating cells can be mitotically reactivated by the sole suppression of histotype-specific cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitors (CKIs) in the absence of exogenous mitogens. RNA interference–mediated suppression of appropriate CKIs efficiently triggered DNA synthesis and mitosis in established and primary terminally differentiated skeletal muscle cells (myotubes), quiescent human fibroblasts, and senescent human embryo kidney cells. In serum-starved fibroblasts and myotubes alike, cell cycle reactivation was critically mediated by the derepression of cyclin D–cdk4/6 complexes. Thus, both temporary and permanent growth arrest must be actively maintained by the constant expression of CKIs, whereas the cell cycle–driving cyclins are always present or can be readily elicited. In principle, our findings could find wide application in biotechnology and tissue repair whenever cell proliferation is limiting

Numerical investigation of the performance of Contra-Rotating Propellers for a Remotely Piloted Aerial Vehicle

Abstract The present work aims at the numerical prediction of the performance of a Contra-Rotating Propellers (CRP) system for a Remotely Piloted Aerial Vehicles (RPAV). The CRP system was compared with an equivalent counter-rotating propellers configuration which was set by considering two eccentric propellers which were rotating at the same speed. Each contra-rotating test case was built by varying the pitch angle of blades of the rear propeller, while the front propeller preserved the original reconstructed geometry. Several pitch configurations and angular velocities of the rear propeller was simulated. Comparisons showed an improvement of the propulsive efficiency of the contra-rotating configuration in case of larger pitch angles combined with slower angular velocities of the rear propeller