Requirements for an ubiquitous computing infrastructure

Ubiquitous computing is an emerging paradigm for interactions between people and computers. Its aim is to break away from the desktop computing to provide computational services to a user when and where required. In this paper we present the design criteria for an infrastructure platform for ubiquitous computing applications. The motivation for building such infrastructure is to formalize a common design methodology for developing application based on the notion of Interactive Environment.Вездесущие компьютерные технологии это образец взаимодействия между людьми и компьютерами. Их цель дать возможность пользоваться услугами компьютерных систем там, где этого пожелает пользователь. В статье представлены принципы разработки основы инфраструктуры для применения вездесущих компьютерных технологий. Причиной создания подобной инфраструктуры является формализация общей методологии разработки прикладных программ, основанных на представлении об интерактивной среде.Всюдисущі комп'ютерні технології це зразок взаємодії між людьми і комп'ютерами. Їх мета дати можливість користуватися послугами комп'ютерних систем там, де цього побажає користувач. У статті представлені принципи розробки основи інфраструктури для застосування всюдисущих комп'ютерних технологій. Причиною створення подібної інфраструктури є формалізація загальної методології розробки прикладних програм, заснованих на уявленні про інтерактивну середу

Sex and gender optometry: from retinal design to stereopsis

Scientific research in optometry aims to increase the ability to predict optical effects induced by lens fitting, allowing us to understand how geometrical concepts and physical phenomena translate into perceptual responses. It is possible, for instance, to investigate how differential perspective affects three-dimensional perception, indeed the ocular parallax error, that occurs as the eyes are separated horizontally by a certain distance (DAV), allows for the depth interval between two object points to be appreciated and transferred to the retina. In a study conducted at the University of Turin, the DAVs measured on a group of students were compared with the students’ stereo acuity values, with the aim of highlighting whether female subjects, whose DAVs are smaller than those of men, actually have less sense of depth. The measurement protocol and the results obtained will be explained. The research perspective is the parameterization of optometric tests to take into account differences due to gender, in order to detect any abnormalities more accurately

SparkSeq: fast, scalable and cloud-ready tool for the interactive genomic data analysis with nucleotide precision

Many time-consuming analyses of next -: generation sequencing data can be addressed with modern cloud computing. The Apache Hadoop-based solutions have become popular in genomics BECAUSE OF: their scalability in a cloud infrastructure. So far, most of these tools have been used for batch data processing rather than interactive data querying. The SparkSeq software has been created to take advantage of a new MapReduce framework, Apache Spark, for next-generation sequencing data. SparkSeq is a general-purpose, flexible and easily extendable library for genomic cloud computing. It can be used to build genomic analysis pipelines in Scala and run them in an interactive way. SparkSeq opens up the possibility of customized ad hoc secondary analyses and iterative machine learning algorithms. This article demonstrates its scalability and overall fast performance by running the analyses of sequencing datasets. Tests of SparkSeq also prove that the use of cache and HDFS block size can be tuned for the optimal performance on multiple worker node

Three-Dimensional Human iPSC-Derived Artificial Skeletal Muscles Model Muscular Dystrophies and Enable Multilineage Tissue Engineering

Summary: Generating human skeletal muscle models is instrumental for investigating muscle pathology and therapy. Here, we report the generation of three-dimensional (3D) artificial skeletal muscle tissue from human pluripotent stem cells, including induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with Duchenne, limb-girdle, and congenital muscular dystrophies. 3D skeletal myogenic differentiation of pluripotent cells was induced within hydrogels under tension to provide myofiber alignment. Artificial muscles recapitulated characteristics of human skeletal muscle tissue and could be implanted into immunodeficient mice. Pathological cellular hallmarks of incurable forms of severe muscular dystrophy could be modeled with high fidelity using this 3D platform. Finally, we show generation of fully human iPSC-derived, complex, multilineage muscle models containing key isogenic cellular constituents of skeletal muscle, including vascular endothelial cells, pericytes, and motor neurons. These results lay the foundation for a human skeletal muscle organoid-like platform for disease modeling, regenerative medicine, and therapy development. : Maffioletti et al. generate human 3D artificial skeletal muscles from healthy donors and patient-specific pluripotent stem cells. These human artificial muscles accurately model severe genetic muscle diseases. They can be engineered to include other cell types present in skeletal muscle, such as vascular cells and motor neurons. Keywords: skeletal muscle, pluripotent stem cells, iPS cells, myogenic differentiation, tissue engineering, disease modeling, muscular dystrophy, organoid

Efficient derivation and inducible differentiation of expandable skeletal myogenic cells from human ES and patient-specific iPS cells.

Skeletal muscle is the most abundant human tissue; therefore, an unlimited availability of myogenic cells has applications in regenerative medicine and drug development. Here we detail a protocol to derive myogenic cells from human embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, and we also provide evidence for its extension to human iPS cells cultured without feeder cells. The procedure, which does not require the generation of embryoid bodies or prospective cell isolation, entails four stages with different culture densities, media and surface coating. Pluripotent stem cells are disaggregated to single cells and then differentiated into expandable cells resembling human mesoangioblasts. Subsequently, transient Myod1 induction efficiently drives myogenic differentiation into multinucleated myotubes. Cells derived from patients with muscular dystrophy and differentiated using this protocol have been genetically corrected, and they were proven to have therapeutic potential in dystrophic mice. Thus, this platform has been demonstrated to be amenable to gene and cell therapy, and it could be extended to muscle tissue engineering and disease modeling

An analysis of decision making in cord blood donation through a participatory approach

We analysed knowledge, comprehension, opinions, attitudes and choices related to cord blood donation in seven heterogeneous focus groups including pregnant women, future parents, cord blood donors, midwives and obstetricians/gynaecologists. Comparative evaluations focused on attitudes before versus after delivery and preferences of public versus private banking. The study outlined large support to altruistic cord blood donation and need for better health professionals education in this field. Collected information was presented in a public conference and used to develop an informative brochure which was tested for readability and clearliness in four workshops and finally distributed to 26 regional delivery suites. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserve

Three-Dimensional Human iPSC-Derived Artificial Skeletal Muscles Model Muscular Dystrophies and Enable Multilineage Tissue Engineering

Generating human skeletal muscle models is instrumental for investigating muscle pathology and therapy. Here, we report the generation of three-dimensional (3D) artificial skeletal muscle tissue from human pluripotent stem cells, including induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with Duchenne, limb-girdle, and congenital muscular dystrophies. 3D skeletal myogenic differentiation of pluripotent cells was induced within hydrogels under tension to provide myofiber alignment. Artificial muscles recapitulated characteristics of human skeletal muscle tissue and could be implanted into immunodeficient mice. Pathological cellular hallmarks of incurable forms of severe muscular dystrophy could be modeled with high fidelity using this 3D platform. Finally, we show generation of fully human iPSC-derived, complex, multilineage muscle models containing key isogenic cellular constituents of skeletal muscle, including vascular endothelial cells, pericytes, and motor neurons. These results lay the foundation for a human skeletal muscle organoid-like platform for disease modeling, regenerative medicine, and therapy development. Maffioletti et al. generate human 3D artificial skeletal muscles from healthy donors and patient-specific pluripotent stem cells. These human artificial muscles accurately model severe genetic muscle diseases. They can be engineered to include other cell types present in skeletal muscle, such as vascular cells and motor neurons