Obstacle Avoidance Cell Discovery using mm-waves Directive Antennas in 5G Networks

With the advent of next-generation mobile devices, wireless networks must be upgraded to fill the gap between huge user data demands and scarce channel capacity. Mm-waves tech- nologies appear as the key-enabler for the future 5G networks design, exhibiting large bandwidth availability and high data rate. As counterpart, the small wave-length incurs in a harsh signal propagation that limits the transmission range. To overcome this limitation, array of antennas with a relatively high number of small elements are used to exploit beamforming techniques that greatly increase antenna directionality both at base station and user terminal. These very narrow beams are used during data transfer and tracking techniques dynamically adapt the direction according to terminal mobility. During cell discovery when initial synchronization must be acquired, however, directionality can delay the process since the best direction to point the beam is unknown. All space must be scanned using the tradeoff between beam width and transmission range. Some support to speed up the cell search process can come from the new architectures for 5G currently being investigated, where conventional wireless network and mm-waves technologies coexist. In these architecture a functional split between C-plane and U-plane allows to guarantee the continuous availability of a signaling channel through conventional wireless technologies with the opportunity to convey context information from users to network. In this paper, we investigate the use of position information provided by user terminals in order to improve the performance of the cell search process. We analyze mm-wave propagation environment and show how it is possible to take into account of position inaccuracy and reflected rays in presence of obstacle

The Monte Orfano Conglomerate revisited: stratigraphic constraints on Cenozoic tectonic uplift of the Southern Alps (Lombardy, northern Italy)

The Monte Orfano Conglomerate (MOC), exposed in the foothills of the Southern Alps (northern Italy), is one of the few outcrops of sediments documenting the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Alpine retrowedge. Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy allowed us to constrain the upper part of the MOC, formerly attributed to the Early-Middle Miocene in the type-locality, to the earliest Miocene (Neogene part of the NN1 nannofossil zone). A likely latest Oligocene age is therefore suggested for the bulk of the underlying conglomerates, whose base is not exposed. Deposition of the MOC can be framed into the post-collisional tectonic uplift of the Alps, documented in the Lake Como area by the Como Conglomerate (CC) at the base of the Gonfolite Lombarda Group, and supports the correlation with Upper Oligocene clastic sediments cropping out further to the East, in the Lake Garda and in the Veneto-Friuli areas (“molassa”). The remarkable difference in petrographic composition between the western (CC) and eastern (MOC) clastics deposited in the Alpine retro-foreland basin highlights the synchronous tectonic activity of two structural domains involving different crustal levels. Whilst the bulk of the CC, that straddles the Oligocene/Miocene boundary, records the tectonic exhumation of the Alpine axial chain crystalline complexes, the coeval MOC consists of detritus deriving from the Alpine retrowedge superficial crustal section (Triassic to Paleogene sedimentary rocks), and constrains the onset of the post-collisional deformation phase of the Southern Alps as not younger than the latest Oligocene

Transect walks : method sensitivity for on-farm welfare evaluation in turkeys

There is increasing consumer demands for livestock and poultry products that meet minimum animal welfare standards during their production cycle. Additionally, a growing number of farmers are aware about full compliance with the animal welfare standards that could play an important economic role in commercial intensive productions. Indeed, animal welfare assessment protocols have meaningful effects to promote and guarantee the on-farm safeguard animal standards. Transect walks method appeared to provide a practical approach to welfare assessment in broilers farms. Because of the similarities of meat poultry production, this method could be considered a reasonable approach for turkey welfare evaluation in terms of time demands, within costs and feasibility. The aim of this study was to determine the sensitivity of this method at 3 commercial turkey farms with similar facilities (Animal Welfare Indicators project, FP7-KBBE-2010-4). In this study, 10 commercial female-turkey flocks (6 houses with identical management), ranging from 3,212 to 6,000 birds and belonging to the same company were evaluated one week before slaughter. On turkey farms, walking through the house is a routine daily procedure to check the health status of the birds. Two previously trained assessors in performing the transect methodology and properly assessing the selected indicators, evaluated each paired house sequentially and independently within the same day by walking through predefined transect bands (1 to 4) in random order. The animal-based indicators considered were: immobility, lameness, wounds and featherless. The statistical model used was GLM in the GENMOD procedure (SAS V9). The results showed that this welfare assessment method highlights even small variation among houses for the considered variables. In fact, there were significant difference across houses (P=0.0021, P=0.0006, P=0.0081 and P=0.0003) for all the evaluated indicators respectively. Differences across observers were detected for wounds and featherless (P<0.0001). These results may be due to the difficulties in assessing equally these parameters while walking. On the contrary, lameness, probably the most important welfare problem in meat poultry, showed a good concordance between observers (P= 0.361). These preliminary findings suggest that this new approach has potential as a tool for on-farm welfare evaluation, which may be worthwhile to be further developed

Substrate choice by turkeys differing in 3-point gait-scoring system in a mobility test

Assessment of pain in poultry flocks\u2019 production is one of the biggest welfare concerns. The aim of this study was to evaluate the walking ability and preferences for three types of substrates by turkeys with different degrees of lameness, in order to verify if birds with higher gait score experience pain and how their choices differ from healthy birds. An experimental test was conducted with 16 male-turkeys 116-day-old (B.U.T.6). Nine birds (56.25%) were considered normal (score 0) whereas 7 (43.75%) were evaluated as having mild to severe lameness (scores 1 or 2) according to 3-point gait-score assessment. A familiar (A: wet litter) and unfamiliar (B: plastic slat) substrate were distributed into three horizontal lines (L1, L2, and L3; each one measuring 150cm length x 60cm width) separated by three concrete empty areas of the same measures. L1 was divided into 75cm of A substrate and the same dimensions of B; L2 had 100cm of A and 50cm of B, while L3 had 50cm of A and 100cm of B. The turkeys\u2019 motivation to pass through the lines was triggered by the presence of conspecifics located at the end of the experimental area. Data were analyzed using ANOVA. There were no significant differences between normal and lame turkeys to the total time spent on three lines (215.00\ub161.59s), (233.57\ub174.81s);the total time spent on the empty area (385.22\ub183.70s), (557.71\ub1124.04s) and the total time to cross the testing areas (581.3\ub191.72s), (791.2\ub1154.44s),respectively. Substrate A was chosen by 71.4% of lame birds even in L1 as L2, while 55.6% of normal turkeys preferred substrate B in L1 and 77.8% chose substrate A in L2. All birds walked on substrate B in L3. According to these preliminary results, it seems that lame birds have no difference in substrate choice, or on the time spent in each part of the experiment

Welfare assessment protocol App: innovative solutions for on-farm data collection and analyses

THE CHALLENGE: Standardization of data collection within EU countries Reduce assessment time Store and analyse welfare data THE SOLUTION: Digital smartphone/tablet applications for data collection and reporting WP1 AWIN scientists developed apps for turkeys, horses and goat

Awin welfare assessment protocols

What are the AWIN welfare assessment protocol? It is a science-based welfare assessment method, built on animal-based indicators, including pain. What are they for? It is intended to assess welfare of turkeys, sheep, goats, horses and donkeys on farm. Why use a two level approach strategy? The AWIN welfare assessment protocols offer, as a first level, a quick screening, consisting of a selection of robust and feasible animal-based indicators. Depending on the outcome, a second level, consisting of a more comprehensive and in-depth assessment, may be recommended

Off–label long acting injectable antipsychotics in real–world clinical practice: a cross-sectional analysis of prescriptive patterns from the STAR Network DEPOT study

Introduction: Information on the off–label use of Long–Acting Injectable (LAI) antipsychotics in the real world is lacking. In this study, we aimed to identify the sociodemographic and clinical features of patients treated with on– vs off–label LAIs and predictors of off–label First– or Second–Generation Antipsychotic (FGA vs. SGA) LAI choice in everyday clinical practice. Method: In a naturalistic national cohort of 449 patients who initiated LAI treatment in the STAR Network Depot Study, two groups were identified based on off– or on–label prescriptions. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to test several clinically relevant variables and identify those associated with the choice of FGA vs SGA prescription in the off–label group. Results: SGA LAIs were more commonly prescribed in everyday practice, without significant differences in their on– and off–label use. Approximately 1 in 4 patients received an off–label prescription. In the off–label group, the most frequent diagnoses were bipolar disorder (67.5%) or any personality disorder (23.7%). FGA vs SGA LAI choice was significantly associated with BPRS thought disorder (OR = 1.22, CI95% 1.04 to 1.43, p&nbsp;= 0.015) and hostility/suspiciousness (OR = 0.83, CI95% 0.71 to 0.97, p&nbsp;= 0.017) dimensions. The likelihood of receiving an SGA LAI grew steadily with the increase of the BPRS thought disturbance score. Conversely, a preference towards prescribing an FGA was observed with higher scores at the BPRS hostility/suspiciousness subscale. Conclusion: Our study is the first to identify predictors of FGA vs SGA choice in patients treated with off–label LAI antipsychotics. Demographic characteristics, i.e. age, sex, and substance/alcohol use co–morbidities did not appear to influence the choice towards FGAs or SGAs. Despite a lack of evidence, clinicians tend to favour FGA over SGA LAIs in bipolar or personality disorder patients with relevant hostility. Further research is needed to evaluate treatment adherence and clinical effectiveness of these prescriptive patterns

Comparing Long-Acting Antipsychotic Discontinuation Rates Under Ordinary Clinical Circumstances: A Survival Analysis from an Observational, Pragmatic Study

Background: Recent guidelines suggested a wider use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI) than previously, but naturalistic data on the consequences of LAI use in terms of discontinuation rates and associated factors are still sparse, making it hard for clinicians to be informed on plausible treatment courses. Objective: Our objective was to assess, under real-world clinical circumstances, LAI discontinuation rates over a period of 12 months after a first prescription, reasons for discontinuation, and associated factors. Methods: The STAR Network ‘Depot Study’ was a naturalistic, multicentre, observational prospective study that enrolled subjects initiating a LAI without restrictions on diagnosis, clinical severity or setting. Participants from 32 Italian centres were assessed at baseline and at 6 and 12 months of follow-up. Psychopathology, drug attitude and treatment adherence were measured using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Drug Attitude Inventory and the Kemp scale, respectively. Results: The study followed 394 participants for 12 months. The overall discontinuation rate at 12 months was 39.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 34.4–44.3), with paliperidone LAI being the least discontinued LAI (33.9%; 95% CI 25.3–43.5) and olanzapine LAI the most discontinued (62.5%; 95% CI 35.4–84.8). The most frequent reason for discontinuation was onset of adverse events (32.9%; 95% CI 25.6–40.9) followed by participant refusal of the medication (20.6%; 95% CI 14.6–27.9). Medication adherence at baseline was negatively associated with discontinuation risk (hazard ratio [HR] 0.853; 95% CI 0.742–0.981; p&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.026), whereas being prescribed olanzapine LAI was associated with increased discontinuation risk compared with being prescribed paliperidone LAI (HR 2.156; 95% CI 1.003–4.634; p&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.049). Conclusions: Clinicians should be aware that LAI discontinuation is a frequent occurrence. LAI choice should be carefully discussed with the patient, taking into account individual characteristics and possible obstacles related to the practicalities of each formulation

"Delirium Day": A nationwide point prevalence study of delirium in older hospitalized patients using an easy standardized diagnostic tool

Background: To date, delirium prevalence in adult acute hospital populations has been estimated generally from pooled findings of single-center studies and/or among specific patient populations. Furthermore, the number of participants in these studies has not exceeded a few hundred. To overcome these limitations, we have determined, in a multicenter study, the prevalence of delirium over a single day among a large population of patients admitted to acute and rehabilitation hospital wards in Italy. Methods: This is a point prevalence study (called "Delirium Day") including 1867 older patients (aged 65 years or more) across 108 acute and 12 rehabilitation wards in Italian hospitals. Delirium was assessed on the same day in all patients using the 4AT, a validated and briefly administered tool which does not require training. We also collected data regarding motoric subtypes of delirium, functional and nutritional status, dementia, comorbidity, medications, feeding tubes, peripheral venous and urinary catheters, and physical restraints. Results: The mean sample age was 82.0 \ub1 7.5 years (58 % female). Overall, 429 patients (22.9 %) had delirium. Hypoactive was the commonest subtype (132/344 patients, 38.5 %), followed by mixed, hyperactive, and nonmotoric delirium. The prevalence was highest in Neurology (28.5 %) and Geriatrics (24.7 %), lowest in Rehabilitation (14.0 %), and intermediate in Orthopedic (20.6 %) and Internal Medicine wards (21.4 %). In a multivariable logistic regression, age (odds ratio [OR] 1.03, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.05), Activities of Daily Living dependence (OR 1.19, 95 % CI 1.12-1.27), dementia (OR 3.25, 95 % CI 2.41-4.38), malnutrition (OR 2.01, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), and use of antipsychotics (OR 2.03, 95 % CI 1.45-2.82), feeding tubes (OR 2.51, 95 % CI 1.11-5.66), peripheral venous catheters (OR 1.41, 95 % CI 1.06-1.87), urinary catheters (OR 1.73, 95 % CI 1.30-2.29), and physical restraints (OR 1.84, 95 % CI 1.40-2.40) were associated with delirium. Admission to Neurology wards was also associated with delirium (OR 2.00, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), while admission to other settings was not. Conclusions: Delirium occurred in more than one out of five patients in acute and rehabilitation hospital wards. Prevalence was highest in Neurology and lowest in Rehabilitation divisions. The "Delirium Day" project might become a useful method to assess delirium across hospital settings and a benchmarking platform for future surveys