A Case Report of a Woman Affected with Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder I and Methabolic Syndrome Improved with Aripiprazole Monotherapy

Introduction We present the case of a 51-years-old Caucasian woman with Bipolar Disorder I (BDI), treated for a long time with typical antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. She referred to our outpatient service because she wished to revise her precriptions, which had caused several side-effects, including metabolic syndrome, gain of body weight, sedation, cognitive impairments, and extrapiramidal symptoms. Moreover, treatment was poorly effective, the patient's compliance was lacking and she experienced frequent relapses. Aims We started treating the patient with aripiprazole at a daily dose of 15 mg. Our aim is to describe the substantial clinical and metabolic improvements of a patient who poorly responded to previous prescriptions. Methods Psychometric measures for the assessment of mood and social functioning were administered at baseline and at the follow-up interviews. Body Mass Index was monitored and blood tests were performed to evaluate the lipid profile (LDL, HDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides), blood glucose, and glycated haemoglobin. Results In the last two years the patient has regularly taken her therapies and attended to follow-up visits. Her social functioning and tolerance to stressful situations have improved, as well as her metabolic profile. Noteworthy, she had not needed further hospitalizations. Conclusions Our clinical observations support the efficacy of aripiprazole in the treatment of BDI. Switching to aripiprazole should be considered in cases similar to the one we have described, characterized by poor compliance, obesity or metabolic syndrome, sensitivity to manifest extrapiramidal syndrome (especially tardive dyskinesia) and other side effects such as sedation and cognitive impairments

The psychopathology of body image in orthorexia nervosa

The human body has a complex meaning and role in everybody\u2019s life and experience. Body image has two main components: body percept (the internal visual image of body shape and size) and body concept (the level of satisfaction with one\u2019s body), whose specific alterations may lead to different conditions, such as overestimation of one\u2019s own body dimensions, negative feelings and thoughts towards the body, body avoidance and body checking behavior. Moreover, body dissatisfaction can be associated with a variety of other mental health and psychosocial conditions, but only a few studies have explored the body image construct in orthorexia nervosa (ON). ON is a condition characterized by concern and fixation about healthy eating, with mixed results available in the literature about the presence of body image disorders. The aim of this manuscript is to present the main findings from the literature about the psychopathology of body image in ON. Summarizing, while theoretically the presence of body image disturbances should help clinicians to differentiate ON from eating disorders, further research is needed to confirm this finding. It is not clear whether the body image disorder in ON depends on an altered body percept or body concept, and the relationship between the disordered eating behavior and body image disorder still needs to be disentangled. Further studies regarding the relationship between ON and body image could be helpful to better understand the relevance of body image as a transdiagnostic factor and its potential value as target for treatment intervention

Exploiting web technologies to build autonomic wireless sensor networks

Most of the current wireless sensor networks are built for specific applications, with a tight coupling between them and the underlying communication protocols. We present a more flexible architectural approach for building WSNs, in which application-specific features are decoupled from the underlying communication infrastructure, although affecting the network behavior. We propose a framework based on Web technologies that provides a standard interface for accessing the network and configurable service components tailored to meet different application requirements, while optimizing the network scarce resources. Also, a set of ontologies is defined as part of the framework for representing shared knowledge of the WSN domain.8th IFIP/IEEE International conference on Mobile and Wireless CommunicationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Data-Centric Edge Federation: A Multi-Edge Architecture for Data Stream Processing of IoT Applications

Emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications demand data stream processing with low latency and high processing power. Although the cloud naturally provides huge processing capacity, high latency to move data to the datacenter is prohibitive. Edge computing is a recent paradigm where part of computing and storage resources are pushed from the cloud to the edge of the network. In edge computing, edge providers manage their resources near to IoT devices to meet low latency application requirements and reduce the network core bandwidth. To reach the maximum potential of edge computing, a big challenge is to promote the cooperation between edge providers. Currently, edge computing architectures are severely limited for providing cooperation mechanisms between distinct edge providers. In this paper, we propose a edge federation to leverage the cooperation between different edge providers. The edge federation uses interest information propagated in data streams that travel between edge providers to allow an stakeholder to react to inefficient resource allocation and service provision. The main objective of the federation is to create a consortium of edge providers to provide cooperation mechanisms and define and standardize the application interests. The proposed edge federation is (i) data-centric, since edge providers can share common interests and data and, thus, establish cooperation to increase the capacity to provide services for applications; (ii) distributed, since no assumption is made concerning the geo-location of the edge providers and their logical connections; (iii) opportunistic, because an edge provider can react dynamically to the environment change ; (iv) scalable, since the edge provider has the ability to analyze a data flow passing by its infrastructure and make decisions to increase network performance locally, which impacts the global performanc

Data-Centric Resource Management in Edge-Cloud Systems for the IoT

A major challenge in emergent scenarios such as the Cloud-assisted Internet of Things is efficiently managing the resources involved in the system while meeting requirements of applications. From the acquisition of physical data to its transformation into valuable services or information, several steps must be performed, involving the various players in such a complex ecosystem. Support for decentralized data processing on IoT devices and other devices near the edge of the network, in combination with the benefits of cloud technologies has been identified as a promising approach to reduce communication overhead, thus reducing delay for time sensitive IoT applications. The interplay of IoT, edge and cloud to achieve the final goal of producing useful information and value-added services to end user gives rise to a management problem that needs to be wisely tackled. The goal of this work is to propose a novel resource management framework for edge-cloud systems that supports heterogeneity of both devices and application requirements. The framework aims to promote the efficient usage of the system resources while leveraging the Edge Computing features, to meet the low latency requirements of emergent IoT applications. The proposed framework encompasses (i) a lightweight and data-centric virtualization model for edge devices, (ii) a set of components responsible for the resource management and the provisioning of services from the virtualized edge-cloud resources

Autonomic Wireless Sensor Networks: A Systematic Literature Review

Autonomic computing (AC) is a promising approach to meet basic requirements in the design of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), and its principles can be applied to efficiently manage nodes operation and optimize network resources. Middleware for WSNs supports the implementation and basic operation of such networks. In this systematic literature review (SLR) we aim to provide an overview of existing WSN middleware systems that address autonomic properties. The main goal is to identify which development approaches of AC are used for designing WSN middleware system, which allow the self-management of WSN. Another goal is finding out which interactions and behavior can be automated in WSN components. We drew the following main conclusions from the SLR results: (i) the selected studies address WSN concerns according to the self-* properties of AC, namely, self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimization, and self-protection; (ii) the selected studies use different approaches for managing the dynamic behavior of middleware systems for WSN, such as policy-based reasoning, context-based reasoning, feedback control loops, mobile agents, model transformations, and code generation. Finally, we identified a lack of comprehensive system architecture designs that support the autonomy of sensor networking

SATYA: A Reputation-based Approach for Service Discovery and Selection in Service Oriented Architectures

ABSTRACT We present SATYA, a system that computes a reputation value for Web service providers in order to enhance the service discovery and selection process increasing reliability in SOA transactions. In this work, objective values of service evaluations supplied by monitoring entities are used along with subjective evaluations supplied by service consumers. The objective and subjective values are compared in order to: (i) validate subjective evaluations; (ii) minimize the degree of subjectivity of computed reputation values; and (iii) discover consumers' preferences in terms of QoS metrics. By assigning Web services a trustable reputation value, SATYA enhances the service descriptions provided by registries with additional information to be used during the service discovery phase

Exploiting web technologies to build autonomic wireless sensor networks

Most of the current wireless sensor networks are built for specific applications, with a tight coupling between them and the underlying communication protocols. We present a more flexible architectural approach for building WSNs, in which application-specific features are decoupled from the underlying communication infrastructure, although affecting the network behavior. We propose a framework based on Web technologies that provides a standard interface for accessing the network and configurable service components tailored to meet different application requirements, while optimizing the network scarce resources. Also, a set of ontologies is defined as part of the framework for representing shared knowledge of the WSN domain.8th IFIP/IEEE International conference on Mobile and Wireless CommunicationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Early Rehabilitation in a Psychiatric Ward for Acute Patients: the Experience of the S.C. Psichiatria, Aou Maggiore Della Carit\ue0, Novara, Italy

Introduction Our Psychiatry Ward (SC Psichiatria, Maggiore della Carit\ue0 Hospital, Novara) has a longstanding tradition in the training of clinicians (psychiatrists, but also non-psychiatrists) about the importance of the approach in helping relationships. This tradition reflects itself in the organization of the assistance to the acute psychiatric inpatients admitted to the Ward. In addition to treatment as usual, patients have the opportunity of being involved in several group activities. The activities are proposed to them, with an approach that varies according to the patient's lifetime diagnosis, current conditions, relational difficulties, etc. In other words, different activities may be proposed to different patients, in different ways. Aims To describe the integrated treatment approach we use in our Psychiatry Ward. Methods Group activities are guided by a group leader who is supported by one or two assistants whose role is to facilitate discussion. Activities include: Newspaper Reading (everyday in the morning, 1 hour); Music Listening Group (once a week; 1 hour); Cinema Group (once a week; 2 hours and a half); Fairytale Group (on alternating days in the evening, 1 hour). Results More details will be supplied regarding the theoretical background for the group, the group features/implementation, and its specific objectives. Conclusions All the group activities integrate themselves in an early rehabilitation project tailored to each patients' characteristics and needs. Briefly, their main objectives include: 1) to help patients endorse their cognitive, emotional and relational skills; 2) to offer support to the crisis they are experiencing, which led them to admission to the Ward