Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Internet latency: A large-scale study

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the way of living of billions of people in a very short time frame. In this paper, we evaluate the impact on the Internet latency caused by the increased amount of human activities that are carried out on-line. The study focuses on Italy, which experienced significant restrictions imposed by local authorities, but results about Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, and the whole of Europe are also included. The analysis of a large set of measurements shows that the impact on the network can be significant, especially in terms of increased variability of latency. In Italy we observed that the standard deviation of the average additional delay – the additional time with respect to the minimum delay of the paths in the region – during lockdown is ∼3−4 times as much as the value before the pandemic. Similarly, in Italy, packet loss is ∼2−3 times as much as before the pandemic. The impact is not negligible also for the other countries and for the whole of Europe, but with different levels and distinct patterns

Heterogeneity of covid-19 outbreak in italy

An outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) started in December 2019 in China and was declared a pandemic on 11.03.2020 by WHO. Italy is one of the most afflicted Country by this epidemic with 136,110 confirmed cases and 16,654 deaths on 9.4.2020 (at the same date, the Ministry of Health was reporting 143,626 cases). During these few months the National Health Service have made a great effort to cope with the increasing request of intensive care beds and all the elective activities in hospital have been suspended. Data from the different Italian regions shows different patterns of positive and dead for this syndrome. Moreover, striking differences of the observed lethality of the infections among different areas were immediately evident from the epidemic reports. It will be of critical relevance to understand the expected evolution of the first lock-down phase, driving the exhaustion of the Covid-19 outbreak

Prognostic and monitoring value of circulating tumour cells in adrenocortical carcinoma: a preliminary monocentric study.

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), a rare and aggressive neoplasia, presents poor prognosis when metastatic at diagnosis and limited therapies are available. Specific and sensitive markers for early diagnosis and a monitoring system of therapy and tumor evolution are urgently needed. The liquid biopsy represents a source of tumor material within a minimally invasive blood draw that allows the recovery of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). CTCs have been recently shown to be detectable in ACC. In the present paper, we evaluated the prognostic value of CTCs obtained by size-filtration in a small pilot cohort of 19 ACC patients. We found CTCs in 68% of pre-surgery and in 38% of post-surgery blood samples. In addition, CTC clusters (CTMs) and cancer associated macrophages (CAMLs) were detectable in some ACC patients. The median number of CTCs significantly decreased after the mass removal. Finally, stratifying patients in high and low pre-surgery CTC number groups, assuming the 75th percentile CTC value as cut-off, CTCs significantly predicted patients’ overall survival (log rank = 0.005), also in a multivariate analysis adjusted for age and tumor stage. In conclusion, though preliminary and performed in a small cohort of patients, our study suggests that CTC number may represent a promising marker for prognosis and disease monitoring in ACC

Analysis of circulating extracellular vesicle-associated microRNAs in cortisol-producing adrenocortical tumors

PURPOSE: Circulating microRNAs (miRNA) have been described in patients with adrenocortical tumors, but the expression of miRNAs in non-functioning and cortisol-producing tumors has not been yet compared. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the expression of plasma extracellular vesicle (EV)-associated microRNAs in patients with non-functioning adrenocortical adenoma (NFA), cortisol-producing adrenocortical adenoma (CPA) and cortisol-producing adrenocortical carcinoma (CP-ACC). METHODS: Preoperative plasma EV samples of 13 NFAs, 13 CPAs and 9 CP-ACCs were subjected to extracellular vesicle isolation. miRNAs were investigated by targeted quantitative real-time PCR normalized to cel-miR-39 as reference. Five miRNAs have been selected for this analysis based on the previous studies including hsa-miR-22-3p, hsa-miR-27a-3p, hsa-miR-210-3p, hsa-miR-320b and hsa-miR-375. RESULTS: We have observed significant overrepresentation of three miRNAs in both CPA and CP-ACC relative to NFA: hsa-miR-22-3p (p < 0.01 and p < 0.0001, respectively), hsa-miR-27a-3p (p < 0.05 in both comparisons) and hsa-miR-320b (p < 0.05 and p < 0.0001, respectively). Hsa-miR-320b has been significantly overrepresented in CP-ACC relative to CPA (p < 0.01). Hsa-miR-210-3p turned out to be significantly overrepresented only in CP-ACC compared to NFA (p < 0.05). Significant correlation was revealed between circulating miRNA concentrations and urinary free cortisol values for hsa-miR-22-3p, hsa-miR-27a-3p and hsa-miR-320b (p < 0.0001 for all) and cortisol after low-dose dexamethasone test for hsa-miR-22-3p and hsa-miR-320b (p < 0.05). Hsa-miR-27a-3p has been significantly stimulated by low-dose dexamethasone test (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: EV-associated miRNAs are differentially expressed in different non-functioning and cortisol-producing adrenocortical tumors

MECPerf: An Application-Level Tool for Estimating the Network Performance in Edge Computing Environments

Edge computing is an emerging architecture in 5G networks where computing power is provided at the edge of the fixed network, to be as close as possible to the end users. Computation offloading, better communication latency, and reduction of traffic in the core network are just some of the possible benefits. However, the Quality of Experience (QoE) depends significantly on the network performance of the user device towards the edge server vs. cloud server, which is not known a priori and may generally change very fast, especially in heterogeneous, dense, and mobile deployments. Building on the emergence of standard interfaces for the installation and operation of thirdparty edge applications in a mobile network, such as the MultiAccess Edge Computing (MEC) under standardization at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), we propose MECPerf, a tool for user-driven network performance measurements. Bandwidth and latency on different network segments are measured and stored in a central repository, from where they can be analyzed, e.g., by application and service providers without access to the underlying network management services, for run-time resource optimization

Steric control in the metal-ligand electron transfer of iminopyridine-ytterbocene complexes

International audienceA systematic study of reactions between Cp*Yb-2(THF) (Cp* = eta(5)-C5Me5, 1) and iminopyridine ligands (IPy = 2,6-(Pr2C6H3N)-Pr-i=CH(C5H3N-R), R = H (2a), 6-C4H3O (2b), 6-C4H3S (2c), 6-C6H5 (2d)) featuring similar electron accepting properties but variable denticity and steric demand, has provided a new example of steric control on the redox chemistry of ytterbocenes. The reaction of the unsubstituted IPy 2a with 1, either in THF or toluene, gives rise to the paramagnetic species Cp*Yb-2(III)(IPy)(center dot-) (3a) as a result of a formal one-electron oxidation of the Yb-II ion along with IPy reduction to a radical-anionic state. The reactions of 1 with substituted iminopyridines 2b-d, bearing aryl or hetero-aryl dangling arms on the 6 position of the pyridine ring occur in a non-coordinating solvent (toluene) only and afford coordination compounds of a formally divalent ytterbium ion, coordinated by neutral IPy ligands Cp*Yb-2(II)(IPy)(0) (3b-d). The X-ray diffraction studies revealed that 2a-c act as bidentate ligands; while the radical-anionic IPy in 3a chelates the Yb-III ion with both nitrogens, neutral IPy ligands in 3b and 3c participate in the metal coordination sphere through the pyridine nitrogen and O or S atoms from the furan or thiophene moieties, respectively. Finally, in complex 3d the neutral IPy ligand formally adopts a monodentate coordination mode. However, an agostic interaction between the Yb-II ion and an ortho C-H bond of the phenyl ring has been detected. Imino-nitrogens in 3b-d are not involved in the metal coordination. Variable temperature magnetic measurements on 3a are consistent with a multiconfigurational ground state of the Yb ion and suggest that the largest contribution arises from the 4f(13)-radical configuration. For complexes 3b and 3c the data of magnetic measurements are indicative of a Yb-II-closed shell ligand electronic distribution. Complex 3d is characterized by a complex magnetic behavior which does not allow for an unambiguous estimation of its electronic structure. The results are rationalized using DFT and CSSCF calculations. Unlike diazabutadiene analogues, 3a does not undergo a solvent mediated metalligand electron transfer and remains paramagnetic in THF solution. On the other hand, complexes 3b-d readily react with THF to afford 1 and free IPy 2b-d