Attraction of Schistosoma mansoni Sambon, 1907 miracidia to Biomphalaria glabrata (Say, 1818) in the presence of Angiostrongylus costaricensis Morera and Cespedes, 1971 infection

The attraction exerted by Biomphalaria glabrata infected with Angiostrongylus costaricensis on Schistosoma mansoni miracidia of the BH strain was tested, using a glass apparatus composed by two circular chambers connected to a channel. One mollusk or a sample of a snail conditioning water (SCW) was placed in one of the chambers, randomly selected, and the remaining of the apparatus was filled with chlorine-free water. Ten miracidia were placed in the centre of the channel and their behaviour was observed for 15 minutes. Ten replicates were made for each treatment (snail or SCW), using different specimens of mollusks or different samples of SCW. Mollusks infected with A. costaricensis attracted significantly less S. mansoni miracidia than non-infected B. glabrata. In addition, miracidia were also significantly more attracted to SCW from mollusks infected with A. costaricensis.6941101110

Dissecting the impact of information and communication technologies on digital twins as a service

Recent advances on Edge computing, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and 5G are stimulating the interest of the industrial sector to satisfy the stringent and real-time requirements of their applications. Digital Twin is a key piece in the industrial digital transformation and its benefits are very well studied in the literature. However, designing and implementing a Digital Twin system that integrates all the emerging technologies and meets the connectivity requirements (e.g., latency, reliability) is an ambitious task. Therefore, prototyping the system is required to gradually validate and optimize Digital Twin solutions. In this work, an Edge Robotics Digital Twin system is implemented as a prototype that embodies the concept of Digital Twin as a Service (DTaaS). Such system enables real-time applications such as visualization and remote control, requiring low-latency and high reliability. The capability of the system to offer potential savings by means of computation offloading are analyzed in different deployment configurations. Moreover, the impact of different wireless channels (e.g., 5G, 4G and WiFi) to support the data exchange between a physical device and its virtual components are assessed within operational Digital Twins. Results show that potentially 16% of CPU and 34% of MEM savings can be achieved by virtualizing and offloading software components in the Edge. In addition, they show that 5G connectivity enables remote control of 20 ms, appearing as the most promising radio access technology to support the main requirements of Digital Twin systems.This work was supported in part by the H2020 European Union/Taiwan (EU/TW) Joint Action 5G-eDge Intelligence for Vertical Experimentation (DIVE) under Grant 859881, in part by the H2020 5Growth Project under Grant 856709, in part by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) through the Multiannual Agreement with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in the line of Excellence of University Professors under Grant EPUC3M21, and in part by the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Program of Research and Technological Innovation)

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PATHOGENICITY OF SCHISTOSOMA-MANSONI IN MICE AND THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF THE VECTOR MOLLUSK .2. NUMBER OF EGGS IN THE FECES AND NUMBER AND SIZE OF GRANULOMAS IN THE VISCERAS

The influence of the susceptibility of the vector snails of S. mansoni on the development of die pathogenicity of die worm to the host was studied. Off-spring of snails Biomphalaria glabrata and Biomphalaria tenagophila were used, selected with regard to the susceptibility to S. mansoni of the strains BH and SJ trait, respectively. Parenteral, F1, F2, F3 and F4 generation cercariae were used for the infection of Swiss mice, which were killed eight weeks after infection. The number of eggs in the feces and the number of granulomas in the liver, spleen and intestines were counted. The size of the granulomatous reactions was evaluated. The results led to the conclusion that greater susceptibility of B. tenagophila was associated with a larger egg production in the feces and a higher density of granulomas in the liver. There is a clear inverse relationship between the area of hepatic, spleenic and intestinal granulomas and the rate of infection of the snails which served as intermediate hosts for the S. mansoni.27641242

Toward intelligent cyber-physical systems: Digital twin meets artificial intelligence

Industry 4.0 aims to support smarter and autonomous processes while improving agility, cost efficiency, and user experience. To fulfill its promises, properly processing the data of the industrial processes and infrastructures is required. Artificial intelligence (AI) appears as a strong candidate to handle all generated data, and to help in the automation and smartification process. This article overviews the digital twin as a true embodiment of a cyber-physical system (CPS) in Industry 4.0, showing the mission of AI in this concept. It presents the key enabling technologies of the digital twin such as edge, fog, and 5G, where the physical processes are integrated with the computing and network domains. The role of AI in each technology domain is identified by analyzing a set of AI agents at the application and infrastructure levels. Finally, movement prediction is selected and experimentally validated using real data generated by a digital twin for robotic arms with results showcasing its potential.This work has been (partially) funded by the H2020 EU/TW joint action 5G-DIVE (Grant #859881) and the H2020 5Growth project (Grant #856709). It has also been funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (TRUE5G project, PID2019-108713RB-C52/AEI/10.13039/501100011033)

OpenFlowMon: a fully distributed monitoring framework for virtualized environments

Proceedings of: 2021 IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (NFV-SDN), 9 November 2021, Heraklion, Greece.Network monitoring allows a continuous assessment on the health and performance of the network infrastructure. With the significant change on how networks are deployed and operated, mainly due to the advent of virtualization technologies, alternative monitoring approaches are emerging to provide a finer-grained flow monitoring to complement already existing mechanisms and capabilities. In this paper, we proposed and developed an Open-Source Flow Monitoring Framework (OpenFlowMon), a fully distributed monitoring framework implemented solely with open-source solutions. This framework is used to assess the performance and the overhead introduced by two different flow monitoring approaches: (i) switch level and (ii) compute node level monitoring. Results show that monitoring at compute node level not only reduces the overhead but also mitigates a potential complex post-processing in east-to-west traffic.This work has been (partially) funded by H2020 EU/TW 5G-DIVE (Grant 859881) and H2020 5Growth (Grant 856709)

An Intelligent Edge-based Digital Twin for Robotics

This paper has been presented at 2020 IEEE Globecom Workshop on Advanced Technology for 5G Plus.Digital Twin is one of the use cases targeted by the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), which, through the digitalization of the robotic systems, will enable enhanced automation and remote controlling capabilities. Building upon this concept, this work proposes a solution for an Edge-based Digital Twin for robotics, which leverages on the cloud-to-things continuum to offload computation and intelligence from the robots to the network. This imposes stringent requirements over the communication technologies which are fulfilled by relying on 5G. This solution is implemented in an E2E scenario combining the cloud-to-things continuum, 5G connectivity and intelligence capabilities and validated through a set of experimental evaluations. Results show not only that offloading the robot's functions to the edge is feasible when supported by the 5G connectivity, but also the benefits of introducing intelligence and automation.This work has been (partially) funded by H2020 EU/TW 5G-DIVE (Grant 859881) and H2020 5Growth (Grant 856709). It has been also funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (TRUE5G project, PID2019-108713RB-C52PID2019-108713RB-C52 / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033)

FoReCo: a forecast-based recovery mechanism for real-time remote control of robotic manipulators

Wireless communications represent a game changer for future manufacturing plants, enabling flexible production chains as machinery and other components are not restricted to a location by the rigid wired connections on the factory floor. However, the presence of electromagnetic interference in the wireless spectrum may result in packet loss and delay, making it a challenging environment to meet the extreme reliability requirements of industrial applications. In such conditions, achieving real-time remote control, either from the Edge or Cloud, becomes complex. In this paper, we investigate a forecast-based recovery mechanism for real-time remote control of robotic manipulators (FoReCo) that uses Machine Learning (ML) to infer lost commands caused by interference in the wireless channel. FoReCo is evaluated through both simulation and experimentation in interference prone IEEE 802.11 wireless links, and using a commercial research robot that performs pick-and-place tasks. Results show that in case of interference, FoReCo trajectory error is decreased by x18 and x2 times in simulation and experimentation, and that FoReCo is sufficiently lightweight to be deployed in the hardware of already used in existing solutions.This work has been partially funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101015956, and the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the European Union-NextGenerationEU through the UNICO 5G I+D 6GEDGEDT and 6G-DATADRIVE

Obesity of normal weight and abdominal obesity in physical exercise practitioners: "fake lean"?

ABSTRACT Obesity of normal weight and abdominal obesity in physical exercise practitioners: "fake lean"?Introduction: Although body mass index (BMI) eutrophy is desirable for decreasing cardiovascular and metabolic risk, recent research has attributed high risk in BMI eutrophic subjects, but with a high percentage of body fat (normal weight obesity) and abdominal obesity. Aim: to analyze the prevalence of normal weight obesity (NWO) and abdominal obesity (AO) in BMI eutrophic. Materials and methods: 204 volunteers (52.26 ± 14.18 years), 168 women (52.02 ± 14.27 years) and 36 men (53.39 ± 13.90) physical exercise practitioners underwent the following procedures divided in 3 phases: 1) all sample were initially submitted to BMI, percentage of body fat (%BF) and waist-height ratio (WHR) measurements; 2) only the BMI eutrophic subjects (n=83) were evaluated separately to identify the NWO and AO prevalence; 3) In the BMI eutrophic subjects, men and women over 61 and 55 years old, respectively, were excluded, and NWO and AO were repeated in the remaining subjects (n=52). Results: In the general sample, %BF was lower in men than women (18.61 ± 6.05 vs. 28.78 ± 5.24). For age, WHR and BMI, the statistical analysis showed no significant difference. In the BMI eutrophic subjects (N=83), 14.9% of the women presented NWO, representing 13.3% of the total. No man presented NWO. In this same sample, 44.4% of the men and 24.3% of the women had WHR over the optimal, representing 26.5% of the eutrophic subjects. Excluding the eutrophic subjects over 61 (men) and 55 years old (women) (N=52), 14.9% of the women presented NWO, representing 13.5% of the total. Conclusion: In BMI eutrophic subjects, 13 and 26% of the subjects presented NWO and AO, respectively. NWO was observed exclusively in women, whereas AO was more present in men.Introdução: Embora a eutrofia no índice de massa corporal (IMC) seja desejável para diminuição do risco cardiometabólico, pesquisas recentes têm atribuído risco elevado em sujeitos eutróficos no IMC, porém como elevado percentual de gordura corporal (%GC) (obesidade do peso normal) e obesidade abdominal (OA). Objetivo: analisar a prevalência de obesidade do peso normal (OPN) e OA em sujeitos eutróficos no IMC. Materiais e métodos: 204 voluntários (52,26 ± 14,18 anos), sendo 168 mulheres (52,02 ± 14,27 anos) e 36 homens (53,39 ± 13,90) praticantes de exercício físico participaram do estudo, que foi realizado em 3 fases: 1) toda amostra foi inicialmente submetida às avaliações de IMC, %GC e relação cintura-estatura (RCE); 2) somente os sujeitos eutróficos no IMC (n=83) foram avaliados separadamente para identificação da prevalência de OPN e OA; 3) dos sujeitos eutróficos, foram excluídos homens e mulheres com idade acima de 61 e 55 anos, respectivamente, e repetidas as análises de OPN e OA nos sujeitos restantes (n=52). Resultados: Na amostra geral, o %GC foi menor nos homens em relação às mulheres (18,61 ± 6,05 vs. 28,78 ± 5,24). Para idade, RCE e IMC, a análise estatística não revelou diferença significativa entre sexos. Nos sujeitos eutróficos (n=83), 14,9% das mulheres apresentaram OPN, representando 13,3% do total. Nenhum homem apresentou esse quadro. Nesse mesmo recorte amostral, 44,4% dos homens e 24,3% das mulheres apresentaram RCE acima do ideal, representando 26,5% dos eutróficos. Excluindo-se os sujeitos eutróficos acima de 61 (homens) e 55 anos (mulheres) (n=52), 14,9% das mulheres apresentaram OPN, representando 13,5% do total. Conclusão: Em sujeitos eutróficos no IMC, 13 e 26% da amostra apresentaram OPN e OA, respectivamente. A OPN foi observada exclusivamente em mulheres, enquanto a OA foi mais presente em homens.Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Lab Interdisciplinar Doencas Metabol, Grp Estudos Obesidade, Santos, SP, BrazilFac Praia Grande, Fac Educ Fis, Praia Grande, SP, BrazilPrefeitura Municipal Santos, Secretaria Esportes, Secao Avaliacao Fis, Santos, SP, BrazilUniv Santa Cecilia, Fac Educ Fis & Esportes, Santos, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Biociencias, Santos, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Lab Interdisciplinar Doencas Metabol, Grp Estudos Obesidade, Santos, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Biociencias, Santos, SP, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Recent acquisition of Helicobacter pylori by Baka Pygmies

Both anatomically modern humans and the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori originated in Africa, and both species have been associated for at least 100,000 years. Seven geographically distinct H. pylori populations exist, three of which are indigenous to Africa: hpAfrica1, hpAfrica2, and hpNEAfrica. The oldest and most divergent population, hpAfrica2, evolved within San hunter-gatherers, who represent one of the deepest branches of the human population tree. Anticipating the presence of ancient H. pylori lineages within all hunter-gatherer populations, we investigated the prevalence and population structure of H. pylori within Baka Pygmies in Cameroon. Gastric biopsies were obtained by esophagogastroduodenoscopy from 77 Baka from two geographically separated populations, and from 101 non-Baka individuals from neighboring agriculturalist populations, and subsequently cultured for H. pylori. Unexpectedly, Baka Pygmies showed a significantly lower H. pylori infection rate (20.8%) than non-Baka (80.2%). We generated multilocus haplotypes for each H. pylori isolate by DNA sequencing, but were not able to identify Baka-specific lineages, and most isolates in our sample were assigned to hpNEAfrica or hpAfrica1. The population hpNEAfrica, a marker for the expansion of the Nilo-Saharan language family, was divided into East African and Central West African subpopulations. Similarly, a new hpAfrica1 subpopulation, identified mainly among Cameroonians, supports eastern and western expansions of Bantu languages. An age-structured transmission model shows that the low H. pylori prevalence among Baka Pygmies is achievable within the timeframe of a few hundred years and suggests that demographic factors such as small population size and unusually low life expectancy can lead to the eradication of H. pylori from individual human populations. The Baka were thus either H. pylori-free or lost their ancient lineages during past demographic fluctuations. Using coalescent simulations and phylogenetic inference, we show that Baka almost certainly acquired their extant H. pylori through secondary contact with their agriculturalist neighbors