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 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

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

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

Editorial Group: a Long-term Rehabilitation Approach Developed at SC Psichiatria, Maggiore Della Carita Hospital in Novara

Introduction Our Psychiatry Ward offers several group activities to both inpatients and outpatients. Among these, the Editorial Group involves only outpatients (who had been previously admitted to the Psychiatry Ward as inpatients) in fair psychopathological compensation, carefully selected for this long-term rehabilitation approach. Aims To describe the Editorial Group activity. Methods The Editorial Group meets once a week at the Psychiatry Ward. It involves patients, nurses and a group leader who is a Psychiatrist. The psychiatrists' and nurses' role is to facilitate the group process and the exploration of the topics discussed. Members are encouraged to discuss their opinions about tales, movies and books; to share poems, paintings, photographs. The aim of this process is to eventually develop a Ward magazine which is published quarterly. Results Members' commitment is extended beyond the weekly meeting hour of the group; indeed, we have observed that patients in their free time spontaneously decide to spend time collecting material to share and drawing up the articles, which are assigned according to patients' aptitudes and preferences. A continued commitment to share daily life experiences and to express creativity, helps patients get involved in the Group, and eventually leads to something concrete and valuable to share with others, also beyond the Group. Both the leader and the other equipe members help patients listening to each others' opinions, ideas and personal experiences. Conclusions The Editorial Group helps patients improving emotional and relational skills, and stimulates cognitive resources. Moreover, it enhances creativity, promotes collaboration and stimulates curiosity

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

Middleware orientado a serviços para redes de sensores sem fio

There is a wide range of applications for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with different needs. The WSN infrastructure and protocols change according to the application needs. To achieve the best performance of the WSN, its operation should be adapted to the application needs. We propose a middleware for WSNs that provides a layer between applications and the network. The middleware offers a standard mechanism for representing user queries, sensor tasks and data. It also provides an automatic choice of the best network configuration and data dissemination strategy. Users are able to access the WSN without worrying about the underlying infrastructure and software. From the WSN perspective, the system provides the best match between communication protocols and application requirements.Há uma ampla gama de aplicações para redes de sensores sem fio (RSSF)s, com diferentes necessidades. A infraestrutura e o protocolo de disseminação de dados da rede variam de acordo com a aplicação. Para o melhor desempenho quanto ao consumo de energia e à qualidade do serviço fornecido pela rede, seu funcionamento deve ser adaptado às necessidades da aplicação. Este trabalho propõe um middleware que oferece uma camada entre aplicações e a rede de sensores e oferece um mecanismo padrão para representar consultas, tarefas e dados. Além disso, fornece a escolha automatizada da configuração da rede e da estratégia de disseminação de dados usada, permitindo ao usuário acessar a rede sem tomar conhecimento de infraestrutura e software subjacentes. Do ponto de vista da rede, o sistema visa obter a melhor combinação entre protocolos de comunicação e requisitos da aplicação

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

Feeling Through the Body: Alexithymia and Eating Disorders

INTRODUCTION Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying and communicating feelings, and problems differentiating between feelings and bodily sensations; its concrete cognitive style focused on the external environment is typical of psychosomatic patients. Patients with eating disorders (EDs) have high levels of alexithymia, particularly difficulties identifying and describing their feelings. OBJECTIVE The aims of our study are (1) to assess the alexythimia, emotional empathy, facial emotion identification skills and social inference abilities in a sample of ED patients; (2) to compare these variables between ED patients and healthy controls (HC); and (3) to correlate levels of alexithymia with the severity of the ED as measured by the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 (EDI-3) EDRC score in the ED group. METHODS ED (N=42) and HC (N=42) were tested with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI-3), Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT), The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). RESULTS Data collection is being completed and the results’ analysis is ongoing. We expect the ED sample to show greater alexythimia and a poorer performance at FEIT and TASIT than HCs. We expect to find a linear correlation between the TAS-20 and EDRC score. CONCLUSION A better understanding of the role of alexithymia in ED etiology and maintenance might allow the development of targeted treatment approaches to help patients improve their skills in identifying and expressing emotions