Vitiligo after Diphencyprone for Alopecia Areata

The topical immunotherapy is used to treat alopecia areata and recalcitrant warts since the 1970s. Diphencyprone is a contact sensitizer used to treat dermatological conditions resulting from as altered immunological state, such as extensive alopecia areata, being partially effective and safe. Side effects include local eczema with blistering, regional lymphadenopathy and contact urticaria. Rare adverse effects include an erythema multiforme-like reaction, hyperpigmenttion, hypopigmentation, and vitiligo. We report a 30-year-old, Brazilian male who developed vitiligo lesions following DPCP therapy for alopecia areata

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

Assessment of iron and nitrates concentration in drinking water, in the district of Bragança, Portugal between 2012 and 2013

Water is an essential resource for life. It is a crucial factor for all living beings’ survival thus, it is necessary to promote means to obtain drinking water for human consumption.1 The water intended for human consumption, according to the World Health Organization (WHO),is quality water as soon as it does not cause a significant threat to human health during its consumption.2 The diseases related to the contamination of water for human consumption constitute a very high responsibility and importance to the Public Health. The nitrates have a high solubility and may reach the groundwater in the deep layers of the soil by processes as leaching, particularly in areas with intensive farming and livestock. High concentrations of nitrates can be very harmful to human health since they can be easily converted into nitrites which concentrations cannot exceed the parametric value of 50 mg/L in water for human consumption (Dec. Law n.º 306/2007). The greater effect of nitrite in human health is your involvement in the oxidation of hemoglobin (Hb) to methemoglobin (MetHb). High concentrations of nitrates cause severe methaemoglobinemia in infants and adults. The methemoglobinemia is a rare condition caused by excessive conversion of hemoglobin (Hb) in methemoglobin (MetHb), being unable to bind and transport oxygen.3The iron exists in low concentrations in natural waters and usually its presence results of processes such as leaching of soils or industrial pollution. The presence of iron in the water can consequently cause the corrosion of metal pipes or the use of iron salts as agents of coagulation/flocculation in water treatment and the parametric value of iron is 200μg/L (Dec. Law n.º 306/2007) in water for human consumption.The objective of this study was to evaluate the concentration of nitrate and iron in drinking water in the district of Bragança in order to identify the sampling point that keeps concentrations of these ions above the parametric values.The collection of drinking water samples in the district of Bragança occurred between the years of 2012 and 2013, with subsequent spectrophotometric determination of nitrate and iron concentration, in the Public Health Laboratory of Bragança (PHLB).Samples with concentrations above the parametric values were identified: above 200 μg/L to iron and above 50 mg/L to nitrates (Dec, Law n.º 306/2007). The collected data was statistically treated in program Microsoft Office - Excel and the analysis of the data was carried out using the normal distribution with levels of confidence of 95 %. In the year 2012 were collected 624 samples and 8.8% of these were outside the parametric values with 8.7% corresponding to samples with values of increased iron and 0.1% corresponding to increased nitrate’s values. In the year 2013 it was collected 1208 samples in which 8.9% were above the parametric values stipulated, from which 8.6% corresponded to samples with increased concentrations of iron and 0.3% corresponded to samples with nitrate levels above the parametric values. Two regions exhibited a greater number of samples with concentrations above the established limits for the parameters studied in this work. One of the regions had 15.9% of the samples above the established limits and the other had 12.6%.Individuals that consumed this water with high levels of iron and nitrates may be associated with several potential health threat

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

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

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

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

Assessment of iron and nitrates concentration in drinking water, in the district of Bragança, Portugal between 2012 and 2013

Water is an essential resource for life. It is a crucial factor for all living beings’ survival thus, it is necessary to promote means to obtain drinking water for human consumption.1 The water intended for human consumption, according to the World Health Organization (WHO),is quality water as soon as it does not cause a significant threat to human health during its consumption.2 The diseases related to the contamination of water for human consumption constitute a very high responsibility and importance to the Public Health. The nitrates have a high solubility and may reach the groundwater in the deep layers of the soil by processes as leaching, particularly in areas with intensive farming and livestock. High concentrations of nitrates can be very harmful to human health since they can be easily converted into nitrites which concentrations cannot exceed the parametric value of 50 mg/L in water for human consumption (Dec. Law n.º 306/2007). The greater effect of nitrite in human health is your involvement in the oxidation of hemoglobin (Hb) to methemoglobin (MetHb). High concentrations of nitrates cause severe methaemoglobinemia in infants and adults. The methemoglobinemia is a rare condition caused by excessive conversion of hemoglobin (Hb) in methemoglobin (MetHb), being unable to bind and transport oxygen.3The iron exists in low concentrations in natural waters and usually its presence results of processes such as leaching of soils or industrial pollution. The presence of iron in the water can consequently cause the corrosion of metal pipes or the use of iron salts as agents of coagulation/flocculation in water treatment and the parametric value of iron is 200μg/L (Dec. Law n.º 306/2007) in water for human consumption