SimulCity: Planning Communications in Smart Cities

[EN] Communication networks have become a critical element in the development of smart cities. The information flows generated by thousands of sensors and systems must be managed to assure the adequate guarantees of quality, availability, and security. This paper introduces the SimulCity tool, which assists in the design of a smart city's communications convergent network. SimulCity allows a flexible simulation of different scenarios where multiple heterogeneous sources of human type communications (HTCs) and machine type communications (MTCs) compete for limited bandwidth resources. SimulCity evaluates the impact of new services on the performance of a municipal communications network and, consequently, assists the modification of network values to optimize bandwidth and reduce costs. Several network characteristics can be easily configured in SimulCity, such as the definition of traffic sources, the parametrization of different network mechanisms, access admission control, quality of service (QoS), and traffic in the multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network. SimulCity was used to simulate different projects in the smart city of Valencia (Spain). Specifically, SimulCity was used to study the impact on the Valencia City Council's communications network of several new services: the solid waste collection supervision, the street lighting management, the control of regulated parking areas, and the upgrade of voice and video communications systems of the city government buildings. The results obtained have allowed the analysis of the impact that these new services have on the existing network and to perform an adequate dimensioning of the future municipal communications network.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Government under Project TIN2013-47272-C2-1-R and Project TEC2015-71932-REDT, and in part by the ITACA Institute Ayudas 2019Rodríguez-Hernández, MA.; Gomez-Sacristan, Á.; Gomez-Cuadrado, D. (2019). SimulCity: Planning Communications in Smart Cities. IEEE Access. 7:46870-46884. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2909322S4687046884

Intelligent Municipal Heritage Management Service in a Smart City: Telecommunication Traffic Characterizationand Quality of Service

[EN] The monitoring of cultural heritage is becoming common in cities to provide heritage preservation and prevent vandalism. Using sensors and video cameras for this task implies the need to transmit information. In this paper, the teletraffic that cameras and sensors generate is characterized and the transmissions¿ influence on the municipal communications network is evaluated. Then, we propose models for telecommunication traffic sources in an intelligent municipal heritage management service inside a smart sustainable city. The sources were simulated in a smart city scenario to find the proper quality of service (QoS) parameters for the communication network, using Valencia City as background. Specific sensors for intelligent municipal heritage management were selected and four telecommunication traffic sources were modelled according to real-life requirements and sensors datasheet. Different simulations were performed to find the proper CIR (Committed Information Rate) and PIR (Peak Information Rate) values and to study the effects of limited bandwidth networks. Packet loss, throughput, delay, and jitter were used to evaluate the network¿s performance. Consequently, the result was the selection of the minimum values for PIR and CIR that ensured QoS and thus optimized the traffic telecommunication costs associated with an intelligent municipal heritage management service.This work was partially supported by Spanish Government Projects TIN2013-47272-C2-1-R and TEC2015-71932-REDTRodríguez-Hernández, MA.; Jiang, Z.; Gomez-Sacristan, Á.; Pla, V. (2019). Intelligent Municipal Heritage Management Service in a Smart City: Telecommunication Traffic Characterizationand Quality of Service. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (Online). 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/8412542S11

Comunicaciones para Teleservicios Sanitarios en una Ciudad Inteligente

[EN] A Smart City is characterized by being a desirable place to live and that encourages initiatives that affect the wellbeing of citizens, anticipating their needs in an efficient, flexible and sustainable way. This work describes a scenario of improvement in the quality of care of the citizens in a Smart City environment through the intensive use of communications, devices and specific applications. For the evaluation of benefits of this hypothetical scenario, a tool developed on the OMNET ++ simulation environment called "SimulCity" will be used, that will allow evaluating the quality of service offered to users. Finally, results of this scenario will be shown.[ES] Una Ciudad Inteligente está caracterizada por ser un lugar deseable para vivir y que fomenta iniciativas que inciden en el bienestar de los ciudadanos adelantándose a sus necesidades de una manera eficiente, flexible y sostenible. Este trabajo describe un escenario de mejora en la calidad asistencial de la ciudadanía en un entorno de Ciudad Inteligente mediante el uso intensivo de comunicaciones, dispositivos y aplicaciones específicas. Para la evaluación de prestaciones de este escenario hipotético se utilizará una herramienta denominada ¿SimulCity¿ desarrollada sobre el entorno de simulación OMNET++ que permitirá evaluar la calidad de servicio ofrecida a los usuarios. Por último, se mostrarán resultados de este escenario.This work was supported by Spanish Government Projects TIN2013-47272-C2-1-R and TEC2015-71932-REDT.Gomez-Sacristan, Á.; Rodríguez-Hernández, MA. (2018). Communications for Sanitary Teleservices in a Smart City. IEEE. 188-191. https://doi.org/10.1109/GMEPE-PAHCE.2018.840077118819

Simulación de las Comunicaciones Asociadas a un Banco Nacional de Dosis a Pacientes

[EN] This work presents a simulator for the communications system associated with a National RadiationDose Databank for the radiological protection of Spanish public health patients. The work shows a communications simulator developed over OMNET++ that allows radiological centers in specific points of the country with different types of radiological equipment. In addition, the simulator allows different configurations of the communications systems. The work also shows the results of the traffic generated by this new service in different parts of the country and with several types of radiation dosimetry information sent to the National Radiation-Dose Databank.[ES] Este trabajo presenta un simulador del sistema de comunicaciones asociado a un Banco Nacional de Dosis a Pacientes para la protección radiológica de los pacientes de la sanidad pública española. El trabajo presenta un simulador de comunicaciones realizado sobre OMNET++ que permite definir centros radiológicos en distintos puntos del país con diferentes tipos de equipamientos radiológicos. Además el simulador admite diferentes configuraciones sobre sus sistemas de comunicaciones. El trabajo presenta también los resultados en cuanto al tráfico que generaría este nuevo servicio en diferentes puntos del país y con distintos tipos de información dosimétrica enviada al Banco Nacional de Dosis a Pacientes.This work was supported by Spanish Government Projects TIN2013-47272-C2-1-R and TEC2015-71932-REDT.Rodríguez-Hernández, MA.; Gomez Sacristan, A.; Jiménez-Peralta, FG. (2018). Simulation of the Communications System for a National Radiation-Dose Databank. IEEE. 184-187. https://doi.org/10.1109/GMEPE-PAHCE.2018.840077018418

Evaluation of Quality of Service in Smart-Hospital Communications

The concept of Smart-Hospital is generally associated with a comprehensive care model capable of responding to the needs of health institutions, companies and patients in an optimum way in terms of economic, operative and environmental aspects aiming the improvement of care quality and sustainable use of resources. In this context, a Smart-Hospital is a technological and hyper-connected hospital in terms of telecommunications. Ahuge range of systems and devices generate information of a heterogeneous nature. In many cases, for reasons of efficiency and availability, this information is stored and processed in architectures external to the hospital itself. Centralized services housed in Cloud architectures or telemedicine / tele-assistance services are proof of this. Guaranteeing an adequate level of quality of service is a complex task when approached from an analytical point of view due to the large number of sources and their heterogeneous nature. The use of simulation tools allows this task to be undertaken and using different hypotheses in less time and at a reasonable cost. This article presents the results obtained, in terms of quality of communications, for a Smart-Hospital with an arbitrary collection of heterogeneous services connected by Metro-Ethernet access. The results obtained: loss of information, delays and jitter will be used to outline the capacities to be contracted from the telecommunications supplier.This work was supported by Spanish Government MEC Project TIN2013-47272-C2-1-R and by ITACA (Universitat Politecnica de Valencia).Gomez Sacristan, Á.; Rodríguez-Hernández, MA.; Sempere Paya, VM. (2015). Evaluation of Quality of Service in Smart-Hospital Communications. Journal of Medical Imaging and Health Informatics. 5(8):1864-1869. https://doi.org/10.1166/jmihi.2015.1660S186418695

Cost-effectiveness analysis of pemetrexed versus docetaxel in the second-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer in Spain: results for the non-squamous histology population

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to conduct a cost-effectiveness evaluation of pemetrexed compared to docetaxel in the treatment of advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for patients with predominantly non-squamous histology in the Spanish healthcare setting.MethodsA Markov model was designed consisting of stable, responsive, progressive disease and death states. Patients could also experience adverse events as long as they received chemotherapy. Clinical inputs were based on an analysis of a phase III clinical trial that identified a statistically significant improvement in overall survival for non-squamous patients treated with pemetrexed compared with docetaxel. Costs were collected from the Spanish healthcare perspective.ResultsOutcomes of the model included total costs, total quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), total life years gained (LYG) and total progression-free survival (PFS). Mean survival was 1.03 years for the pemetrexed arm and 0.89 years in the docetaxel arm; QALYs were 0.52 compared to 0.42. Per-patient lifetime costs were € 34677 and € 32343, respectively. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were € 23967 per QALY gained and € 17225 per LYG.ConclusionsPemetrexed as a second-line treatment option for patients with a predominantly non-squamous histology in NSCLC is a cost-effective alternative to docetaxel according to the € 30000/QALY threshold commonly accepted in Spain

Subjective response to antipsychotic treatment and compliance in schizophrenia. A naturalistic study comparing olanzapine, risperidone and haloperidol (EFESO Study)

BACKGROUND: In order to compare the effectiveness of different antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia it is very important to evaluate subjective response and compliance in patient cohorts treated according to routine clinical practice. METHOD: Outpatients with schizophrenia entered this prospective, naturalistic study when they received a new prescription for an antipsychotic drug. Treatment assignment was based on purely clinical criteria, as the study did not include any experimental intervention. Patients treated with olanzapine, risperidone or haloperidol were included in the analysis. Subjective response was measured using the 10-item version of the Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI-10), and treatment compliance was measured using a physician-rated 4 point categorical scale. RESULTS: A total of 2128 patients initiated treatment (as monotherapy) with olanzapine, 417 with risperidone, and 112 with haloperidol. Olanzapine-treated patients had significantly higher DAI-10 scores and significantly better treatment compliance compared to both risperidone- and haloperidol-treated patients. Risperidone-treated patients had a significantly higher DAI-10 score compared to haloperidol-treated patients. CONCLUSION: Subjective response and compliance were superior in olanzapine-treated patients, compared to patients treated with risperidone and haloperidol, in routine clinical practice. Differences in subjective response were explained largely, but not completely, by differences in incidence of EPS

One Is Enough: In Vivo Effective Population Size Is Dose-Dependent for a Plant RNA Virus

Effective population size (Ne) determines the strength of genetic drift and the frequency of co-infection by multiple genotypes, making it a key factor in viral evolution. Experimental estimates of Ne for different plant viruses have, however, rendered diverging results. The independent action hypothesis (IAH) states that each virion has a probability of infection, and that virions act independent of one another during the infection process. A corollary of IAH is that Ne must be dose dependent. A test of IAH for a plant virus has not been reported yet. Here we perform a test of an IAH infection model using a plant RNA virus, Tobacco etch virus (TEV) variants carrying GFP or mCherry fluorescent markers, in Nicotiana tabacum and Capsicum annuum plants. The number of primary infection foci increased linearly with dose, and was similar to a Poisson distribution. At high doses, primary infection foci containing both genotypes were found at a low frequency (<2%). The probability that a genotype that infected the inoculated leaf would systemically infect that plant was near 1, although in a few rare cases genotypes could be trapped in the inoculated leaf by being physically surrounded by the other genotype. The frequency of mixed-genotype infection could be predicted from the mean number of primary infection foci using the independent-action model. Independent action appears to hold for TEV, and Ne is therefore dose-dependent for this plant RNA virus. The mean number of virions causing systemic infection can be very small, and approaches 1 at low doses. Dose-dependency in TEV suggests that comparison of Ne estimates for different viruses are not very meaningful unless dose effects are taken into consideration

Pancreatic cancer and autoimmune diseases: An association sustained by computational and epidemiological case-control approaches

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Gomez‐Rubio, P. , Piñero, J. , Molina‐Montes, E. , Gutiérrez‐Sacristán, A. , Marquez, M. , Rava, M. , Michalski, C. W., Farré, A. , Molero, X. , Löhr, M. , Perea, J. , Greenhalf, W. , O'Rorke, M. , Tardón, A. , Gress, T. , Barberá, V. M., Crnogorac‐Jurcevic, T. , Muñoz‐Bellvís, L. , Domínguez‐Muñoz, E. , Balsells, J. , Costello, E. , Yu, J. , Iglesias, M. , Ilzarbe, L. , Kleeff, J. , Kong, B. , Mora, J. , Murray, L. , O'Driscoll, D. , Poves, I. , Lawlor, R. T., Ye, W. , Hidalgo, M. , Scarpa, A. , Sharp, L. , Carrato, A. , Real, F. X., Furlong, L. I., Malats, N. and , (2019), Pancreatic cancer and autoimmune diseases: An association sustained by computational and epidemiological case–control approaches. Int. J. Cancer. doi:10.1002/ijc.31866, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.31866. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.Acción Especial de Genómica, Spain. Grant Number: #GEN2001‐4748‐c05‐03 Swedish ALF. Grant Number: #SLL20130022 Cancer Focus Northern Ireland and Department for Employment and Learning EU H2020 Programme 2014‐2020. Grant Number: 634143 MedBioinformatics676559 Elixir‐Excelerate EU‐6FP Integrated Project. Grant Number: #018771‐MOLDIAG‐PACA EU‐FP7‐HEALTH. Grant Number: #256974‐EPC‐TM‐Net#259737‐CANCERALIA#602783‐ Cam‐Pac Italian Foundation for Cancer Research (FIRC) Italian Ministry of Health. Grant Number: FIMPCUP_J33G13000210001 Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer, Spain. Grant Number: #RD12/0036/0050#RD12/0036/ 0073(#RD12/0036/0034 The work was partially supported by Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS), Instituto de Salud Carlos III‐FEDER, Spain. Grant Number: #PI0902102#PI11/01542#PI12/ 00815#PI12/01635#PI13/ 00082CP10/00524PI15/01573 World Cancer Research Fund. Grant Number: WCR #15‐039

A systems approach identifies time-dependent associations of multimorbidities with pancreatic cancer risk

Background Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is usually diagnosed in late adulthood; therefore, many patients suffer or have suffered from other diseases. Identifying disease patterns associated with PDAC risk may enable a better characterization of high-risk patients. Methods Multimorbidity patterns (MPs) were assessed from 17 self-reported conditions using hierarchical clustering, principal component, and factor analyses in 1705 PDAC cases and 1084 controls from a European population. Their association with PDAC was evaluated using adjusted logistic regression models. Time since diagnosis of morbidities to PDAC diagnosis/recruitment was stratified into recent (<3 years) and long term (≥3 years). The MPs and PDAC genetic networks were explored with DisGeNET bioinformatics-tool which focuses on gene-diseases associations available in curated databases. Results Three MPs were observed: gastric (heartburn, acid regurgitation, Helicobacter pylori infection, and ulcer), metabolic syndrome (obesity, type-2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension), and atopic (nasal allergies, skin allergies, and asthma). Strong associations with PDAC were observed for ≥2 recently diagnosed gastric conditions [odds ratio (OR), 6.13; 95% confidence interval CI 3.01–12.5)] and for ≥3 recently diagnosed metabolic syndrome conditions (OR, 1.61; 95% CI 1.11–2.35). Atopic conditions were negatively associated with PDAC (high adherence score OR for tertile III, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.36–0.55). Combining type-2 diabetes with gastric MP resulted in higher PDAC risk for recent (OR, 7.89; 95% CI 3.9–16.1) and long-term diagnosed conditions (OR, 1.86; 95% CI 1.29–2.67). A common genetic basis between MPs and PDAC was observed in the bioinformatics analysis. Conclusions Specific multimorbidities aggregate and associate with PDAC in a time-dependent manner. A better characterization of a high-risk population for PDAC may help in the early diagnosis of this cancer. The common genetic basis between MP and PDAC points to a mechanistic link between these conditions