MIFaaS: A Mobile-IoT-Federation-as-a-Service Model for dynamic cooperation of IoT Cloud Providers

In the Internet of Things (IoT) arena, a constant evolution is observed towards the deployment of integrated environments, wherein heterogeneous devices pool their capacities to match wide-ranging user requirements. Solutions for efficient and synergistic cooperation among objects are, therefore, required. This paper suggests a novel paradigm to support dynamic cooperation among private/public local clouds of IoT devices. Differently from . device-oriented approaches typical of Mobile Cloud Computing, the proposed paradigm envisages an . IoT Cloud Provider (ICP)-oriented cooperation, which allows all devices belonging to the same private/public owner to participate in the federation process. Expected result from dynamic federations among ICPs is a remarkable increase in the amount of service requests being satisfied. Different from the Fog Computing vision, the network edge provides only management support and supervision to the proposed Mobile-IoT-Federation-as-a-Service (MIFaaS), thus reducing the deployment cost of peripheral micro data centers. The paper proposes a coalition formation game to account for the interest of rational cooperative ICPs in their own payoff. A proof-of-concept performance evaluation confirms that obtained coalition structures not only guarantee the satisfaction of the players' requirements according to their utility function, but also these introduce significant benefits for the cooperating ICPs in terms of number of tasks being successfully assigned

Freeze-drying of Beauveria bassiana suspended in Hydroxyethyl cellulose based hydrogel as possible method for storage: Evaluation of survival, growth and stability of conidial concentration before and after processing

Beauveria bassiana (Bb) is an entomopathogenic fungus considered as a valid alternative to chemical pesticides. However, Bb use is still limited due to short storage period and persistence in field conditions. Storage can be extended by reducing water content in products but an excessive drying can cause damage during rehydration. Persistence is promoted by using conidia into pellets or granules formulation. Integration of these two aspects can be challenging and costly. In this work, we present how utilizing a hydrogel containing Bb as growth substrate could potentially overcome both issues

One-Pot Regiodirected Annulations for the Rapid Synthesis of Ï-Extended Oligomers

We demonstrate the broad applicability of the annulation protocol combining, in one pot, a direct arylation and cross aldol condensation for the straightforward synthesis at gram-scale of Ï-extended thiophene-based scaffolds. The regiospecific direct arylation drives the subsequent cross-aldol condensation proceed under the same basic conditions, and the overall protocol has broad applicability in the synthesis of extended aromatics wherein the thiophene ring is annulated with furans, pyridines, indoles, benzothiophenes, and benzofurans. These scaffolds can be further elaborated into Ï-extended, highly fluorescent oligomers with a central deficient benzothiadiazole unit with up to nine aromatic rings through coupling reactions

The Power of Brane-Induced Gravity

We study the role of the brane-induced graviton kinetic term in theories with large extra dimensions. In five dimensions we construct a model with a TeV-scale fundamental Planck mass and a {\it flat} extra dimension the size of which can be astronomically large. 4D gravity on the brane is mediated by a massless zero-mode, whereas the couplings of the heavy Kaluza-Klein modes to ordinary matter are suppressed. The model can manifest itself through the predicted deviations from Einstein theory in long distance precision measurements of the planetary orbits. The bulk states can be a rather exotic form of dark matter, which at sub-solar distances interact via strong 5D gravitational force. We show that the induced term changes dramatically the phenomenology of sub-millimeter extra dimensions. For instance, high-energy constraints from star cooling or cosmology can be substantially relaxed.Comment: 24 pages, 4 eps figures; v2 typos corrected; v3 1 ref. added; PRD versio

Esterase Cleavable 2D Assemblies of Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanocubes: Exploiting Enzymatic Polymer Disassembling to Improve Magnetic Hyperthermia Heat Losses

Here, we report a nanoplatform based on iron oxide nanocubes (IONCs) coated with a bioresorbable polymer that, upon exposure to lytic enzymes can be disassembled increasing the heat performances in comparison with the initial clusters. We have developed bi-dimensional (2D) clusters by exploiting benchmark iron oxide nanocubes as heat mediators for magnetic hyperthermia and a polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) copolymer, a biodegradable polymer produced by bacteria that can be digested by intracellular esterase enzymes. The comparison of magnetic heat performance of the 2D assemblies with 3D centro-symmetrical assemblies or single iron oxide nanocubes emphasize the benefit of the 2D assembly. On one hand, the heat losses of 2D assemblies dispersed in water are better than the 3D assemblies, but worse than for single nanocubes. On the other hand, when the bi-dimensional magnetic beads (2D-MNBs) are incubated with the esterase enzyme at a physiological temperature, their magnetic heat performances began to progressively increase. After 2 hours of incubation, specific absorption rate values of the 2D assembly double the ones of individually coated nanocubes. Such an increase can be mainly correlated to the splitting of the 2D-MNBs into smaller size clusters with a chain- like configuration containing few nanocubes. Moreover, 2D-MNBs exhibited non-variable-heat performances even after intentionally inducing their aggregation. Magnetophoresis measurements indicate a comparable response of 3D and 2D clusters to external magnets (0.3T) that is by far faster than that of single nanocubes. This feature is crucial for a physical accumulation of magnetic materials in the presence of magnetic field gradients. This system is the first example of a nanoplatform that, upon exposure to lytic enzymes, such as those present in a tumor environment, can be disassembled from the initial 2D-MNB organization to chain-like assemblies with clear improvement of the heat magnetic losses resulting in better heat dissipation performances. The potential application of 2D nano-assemblies based on the cleavable PHAs for preserving their magnetic losses inside cells will benefit hyperthermia therapies mediated by magnetic nanoparticles under alternating magnetic fields

The influence of D-branes' backreaction upon gravitational interactions between open strings

We argue that gravitational interactions between open strings ending on D3-branes are largely shaped by the D3-branes' backreaction. To this end we consider classical open strings coupled to general relativity in Poincare AdS5 backgrounds. We compute the linear gravitational backreaction of a static string extending up to the Poincare horizon, and deduce the potential energy between two such strings. If spacetime is non-compact, we find that the gravitational potential energy between parallel open strings is independent of the strings' inertial masses and goes like 1/r at large distance r. If the space transverse to the D3-branes is suitably compactified, a collective mode of the graviton propagates usual four-dimensional gravity. In that case the backreaction of the D3-branes induces a correction to the Newtonian potential energy that violates the equivalence principle. The observed enhancement of the gravitational attraction is specific to string theory; there is no similar effect for point-particles.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures. Typos corrected, minor addition

Holography and Thermodynamics of 5D Dilaton-gravity

The asymptotically-logarithmically-AdS black-hole solutions of 5D dilaton gravity with a monotonic dilaton potential are analyzed in detail. Such theories are holographically very close to pure Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. The existence and uniqueness of black-hole solutions is shown. It is also shown that a Hawking-Page transition exists at finite temperature if and only if the potential corresponds to a confining theory. The physics of the transition matches in detail with that of deconfinement of the Yang-Mills theory. The high-temperature phase asymptotes to a free gluon gas at high temperature matching the expected behavior from asymptotic freedom. The thermal gluon condensate is calculated and shown to be crucial for the existence of a non-trivial deconfining transition. The condensate of the topological charge is shown to vanish in the deconfined phase.Comment: LaTeX, 61 pages (main body) + 58 pages (appendix), 25 eps figures. Revised version, published in JHEP. Two equations added in Section 7.4; typos corrected; references adde

Employing an orthotopic model to study the role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in bladder cancer metastasis.

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been implicated in the progression of bladder cancer. To study its contribution to bladder cancer metastasis, we established new xenograft models derived from human bladder cancer cell lines utilizing an orthotopic "recycling" technique that allowed us to isolate and examine the primary tumor and its corresponding circulating tumor cells (CTC's) and metastatic lesions. Using whole genome mRNA expression profiling, we found that a reversible epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) characterized by TGFβ pathway activation and SNAIL expression was associated with the accumulation of CTCs. Finally, we observed that conditional silencing of SNAIL completely blocked CTC production and regional/distant metastasis. Using this unique bladder cancer xenograft model, we conclude that metastasis is dependent on a reversible EMT mediated by SNAIL

A functional biological network centered on XRCC3: a new possible marker of chemoradiotherapy resistance in rectal cancer patients

Preoperative chemoradiotherapy is widely used to improve local control of disease, sphincter preservation and to improve survival in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. Patients enrolled in the present study underwent preoperative chemoradiotherapy, followed by surgical excision. Response to chemoradiotherapy was evaluated according to Mandard's Tumor Regression Grade (TRG). TRG 3, 4 and 5 were considered as partial or no response while TRG 1 and 2 as complete response. From pretherapeutic biopsies of 84 locally advanced rectal carcinomas available for the analysis, only 42 of them showed 70% cancer cellularity at least. By determining gene expression profiles, responders and non-responders showed significantly different expression levels for 19 genes (P < 0.001). We fitted a logistic model selected with a stepwise procedure optimizing the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and then validated by means of leave one out cross validation (LOOCV, accuracy = 95%). Four genes were retained in the achieved model: ZNF160, XRCC3, HFM1 and ASXL2. Real time PCR confirmed that XRCC3 is overexpressed in responders group and HFM1 and ASXL2 showed a positive trend. In vitro test on colon cancer resistant/susceptible to chemoradioterapy cells, finally prove that XRCC3 deregulation is extensively involved in the chemoresistance mechanisms. Protein-protein interactions (PPI) analysis involving the predictive classifier revealed a network of 45 interacting nodes (proteins) with TRAF6 gene playing a keystone role in the network. The present study confirmed the possibility that gene expression profiling combined with integrative computational biology is useful to predict complete responses to preoperative chemoradiotherapy in patients with advanced rectal cance