Application-Aware Network Traffic Management in MEC-Integrated Industrial Environments

The industrial Internet of things (IIoT) has radically modified industrial environments, not only enabling novel industrial applications but also significantly increasing the amount of generated network traffic. Nowadays, a major concern is to support network-intensive industrial applications while ensuring the prompt and reliable delivery of mission-critical traffic flows concurrently traversing the industrial network. To this end, we propose application-aware network traffic management. The goal is to satisfy the requirements of industrial applications through a form of traffic management, the decision making of which is also based on what is carried within packet payloads (application data) in an efficient and flexible way. Our proposed solution targets multi-access edge computing (MEC)-integrated industrial environments, where on-premises and off-premises edge computing resources are used in a coordinated way, as it is expected to be in future Internet scenarios. The technical pillars of our solution are edge-powered in-network processing (eINP) and software-defined networking (SDN). The concept of eINP differs from INP because the latter is directly performed on network devices (NDs), whereas the former is performed on edge nodes connected via high-speed links to NDs. The rationale of eINP is to provide the network with additional capabilities for packet payload inspection and processing through edge computing, either on-premises or in the MEC-enabled cellular network. The reported in-the-field experimental results show the proposal feasibility and its primary tradeoffs in terms of performance and confidentiality

Co-occurrence of autoimmune thyroid disease in a multiple sclerosis cohort

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS), Hashimoto's disease and Graves' disease are autoimmune diseases that may share similar pathogenic mechanisms. The co-occurrence rates and demographic characteristics of Graves' disease and Hashimoto's disease (HT) in our MS population are compared with the general population. METHODS: The prevalence of thyroid disease in our MS patients was determined by chart review and survey. Previous diagnosis of thyroid disease, age at diagnosis, treatment used, and about the use of disease modifying medications used to treat their MS were asked. Chart reviews were used to estimate the population prevalence of Graves' disease and Hashimoto's disease and to estimate the demographics of patients with thyroid disease. RESULTS: A significant co-occurrence of Graves' disease with MS (p = 0.002), and a non-significant co-occurrence of Hashimoto's disease were noted (p = 0.097). No difference in the age of onset or gender of thyroid disease in MS patients compared to the general population was found. CONCLUSION: There is a significant co-occurrence in patients with MS and Graves' disease, and a trend to co-occurrence in patients with MS and Hashimoto's disease. There are no differences in the demographics of patients with thyroid disease in our MS patients compared to the general population

Seaweed supplementation failed to affect fecal microbiota and metabolome as well as fecal iga and apparent nutrient digestibility in adult dogs

The present study investigated in dogs the dietary effects of intact seaweeds on some fecal bacterial populations and metabolites, fecal IgA and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD). Ten healthy adult dogs were enrolled in a 5 × 5 replicated Latin square design to evaluate five dietary treatments: control diet (CD); CD + Ascophyllum nodosum; CD + Undaria pinnatifida; CD + Saccharina japonica; CD + Palmaria palmata (n replicates per treatment = 10). Seaweeds were added to food at a daily dose of 15 g/kg. The CD contained silica as a digestion marker. Each feeding period lasted 28 d, with a 7 d wash-out in between. Feces were collected at days 21 and 28 of each period for chemical and microbiological analyses. Fecal samples were collected during the last five days of each period for ATTD assessment. Dogs showed good health conditions throughout the study. The fecal chemical parameters, fecal IgA and nutrient ATTD were not influenced by algal supplementation. Similarly, microbiological analyses did not reveal any effect by seaweed ingestion. In conclusion, algal supplementation at a dose of 15 g/kg of diet failed to exert noticeable effects on the canine fecal parameters evaluated in the present study

A Framework for QoS- Enabled Semantic Routing in Industrial Networks: Overall Architecture and Primary Protocols

The manufacturing sector represents a notable use case of the Industry 4.0 revolution, heavily stressing the capability of plants to ensure the desired QoS. Currently, manufacturing plants are characterized by an increasing amount of non-mission-critical traffic, in addition to traditional mission-critical safety-related traffic, which is negligible in comparison. Since computing and networking capabilities are no longer as abundant as in the past, there is the need to properly manage available resources. To ensure challenging QoS requirements, we propose a novel protocol suite specifically designed for our QoS-enabled semantic routing framework. Such a framework adopts an architecture that fits the characteristics of modern manufacturing environments and exploits an overlay networking solution providing a semantic routing substrate that operates both at the application and network layers

Evidence-based careflow management systems: the case of post-stroke rehabilitation

AbstractThe activities of a care providers’ team need to be coordinated within a process properly designed on the basis of available best practice medical knowledge. It requires a rethinking of the management of care processes within health care organizations. The current workflow technology seems to offer the most convenient solution to build such cooperative systems. However, some of its present weaknesses still require an intense research effort to find solutions allowing its exploitation in real medical practice. This paper presents an approach to design and build evidence-based careflow management systems, which can be viewed as components of a knowledge management infrastructure each health care organization should be provided with to increase its performance in delivering high quality care by efficiently exploiting the available knowledge resources. The post-stroke rehabilitation process has been taken as a challenging care problem to assess our methodology for designing and developing careflow management systems. Then a system was co-developed with a team of rehabilitation professionals who will be committed to use it in their daily work. The system’s main goal is to deliver a full array of rehabilitation services provided by an interdisciplinary team. They are related to identify which patients are most likely to benefit from rehabilitation, manage a rehabilitation treatment plan, and monitor progress both during rehabilitation and after return to a community residence. A model of the rehabilitation process was derived from an international guideline and adapted to the local organization of work. It involves different organizational units, such as wards, rehabilitation units, clinical laboratories, and imaging services. Several organizational agents work within them and play one or more roles. Each role is defined by the goals’ set that she/he must fulfill. Special effort has been given to the design and development of a knowledge-based system for managing exceptions, which may occur in daily medical work as any deviation from the normal flow of activities. It allows either avoiding or recovering automatically from expected exceptions. When they are not expected, organizational agents, with enough power to do that, are allowed to modify the scheduled flow of activities for an individual patient under the only constraint of justifying their decision. After an intensive testing in a research laboratory, the system is now in the process of being transferred in a real working setting with the full support of its future users

Activation of Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase by a Glutamate- and Magnesium-Sensitive Protein Phosphatase in the Islet β-Cell

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) catalyzes the formation of malonyl-CoA, a precursor in the biosynthesis of long-chain fatty acids, which have been implicated in physiological insulin secretion. The catalytic function of ACC is regulated by phosphorylation (inactive)−dephosphorylation (active). In this study we investigated whether similar regulatory mechanisms exist for ACC in the pancreatic islet β-cell. ACC was quantitated in normal rat islets, human islets, and clonal β-cells (HIT-15 or INS-1) using a [ 14 C]bicarbonate fixation assay. In the β-cell lysates, ACC was stimulated by magnesium in a concentration-dependent manner. Of all the dicarboxylic acids tested, only glutamate, albeit ineffective by itself, significantly potentiated magnesium-activated ACC in a concentration-dependent manner. ACC stimulation by glutamate and magnesium was maximally demonstrable in the cytosolic fraction; it was markedly reduced by okadaic acid (OKA) in concentrations

Anthropometric comparison between young Estonian and Chinese swimmers

Due to the progressive lowering of the age of peak performance among swimmers, it became important to better understand the factors influencing performance in prepuberal boys and girls. Aim of this study is to compare two different racial/ethnic groups of young swimmers, one from Nord-Europe, Estonia (Tartuma Region), and the other from China (Shanghai District) in order to assess existing differences in respect to body dimension, body fat, technical parameters of swimming performance and maximum lactate production. 26 Estonian and 7 Chinese female and 25 Estonian and 10 Chinese male, from two swimming schools, took part in the study. Anthropometric parameters were measured in accord with ISAK guidelines. BMI, Stroke Index, Stroke Length, mean velocity on a 200 m freestyle all out, and blood lactate after three minutes were measured. Significant differences exist in anthropometry between Nord-European and Asian young swimmers. These differences are more pronounced in female, with higher fat tissue in Nordic girls. Leg lengths are different between Chinese and Estonian girls having the Estonian longer legs. Hands lengths are different both in male and in female subjects. Being the Chinese groups of higher level of performance (higher mean velocity in the 200 m freestyle, such differences seems not to be as major determinants of the performance, also if they are often indicated as determinants of buoyancy and stroke efficiency

Sensor-embedded face masks for detection of volatiles in breath: a proof of concept study

The correlation between breath volatilome and health is prompting a growing interest in the development of sensors optimized for breath analysis. On the other hand, the outbreak of COVID-19 evidenced that breath is a vehicle of infection; thus, the introduction of low-cost and disposable devices is becoming urgent for a clinical implementation of breath analysis. In this paper, a proof of concept about the functionalization of face masks is provided. Porphyrin-based sensors are among the most performant devices for breath analysis, but since porphyrins are scarcely conductive, they make use of costly and bulky mass or optical transducers. To overcome this drawback, we introduce here a hybrid material made of conducting polymer and porphyrins. The resulting material can be easily deposited on the internal surface of standard FFP face masks producing resistive sensors that retain the chemical sensitivity of porphyrins implementing their combinatorial selectivity for the identification of volatile compounds and the classification of complex samples. The sensitivity of sensors has been tested with respect to a set of seven volatile compounds representative of diverse chemical families. Sensors react to all compounds but with a different sensitivity pattern. Functionalized face masks have been tested in a proof-of-concept test aimed at identifying changes of breath due to the ingestion of beverages (coffee and wine) and solid food (banana- and mint-flavored candies). Results indicate that sensors can detect volatile compounds against the background of normal breath VOCs, suggesting the possibility to embed sensors in face masks for extensive breath analysis

Metodologie magneto-gradiometriche applicate ad indagini marine di tipo ambientale all’interno del Mar Piccolo (Taranto)

La caratteristica fondamentale dei metodi di potenziale, è quella di aver il pregio di fornire una risposta relativamente rapida e non invasiva dell’oggetto in studio, che siano strutture geologiche (studi di tipo tettonico o minerario) o isolati corpi suscettivi sepolti (studi prettamente ambientali – relitti, discariche sottomarine, fusti metallici sepolti ecc..). Nei rilievi magnetici marini relativi a quest’ultimo caso, per ottenere dei risultati soddisfacenti, sono di fondamentale importanza alcuni requisiti quali un accurato sistema di posizionamento GPS, l’utilizzo di vettori navali amagnetici, una elevata sensibilità della strumentazione impiegata, e la corretta rimozione degli effetti temporali legati alle variazioni del Campo Magnetico terrestre. Quest’ultimo aspetto è assai delicato perché comporta la necessità di avere un osservatorio fisso coerente in misura durante l’esecuzione del rilievo. Per superare questo problema sono assai efficaci metodologie di tipo gradiometrico, che si basano sullo studio del gradiente orizzontale del Campo Magnetico terrestre, che si ottiene mediante l’acquisizione contemporanea di due misure (due sensori) poste ad una determinata distanza tra loro. I principali vantaggi introdotti dall’utilizzo di queste tecniche consistono principalmente in una significativa attenuazione dei contributi derivanti dalle sorgenti più profonde, la non necessità delle correzioni temporali ed in una maggiore rapidità nelle procedure di elaborazione dei dati. In questa ottica è stato condotto uno studio applicando questo tipo di metodologia in un contesto prettamente ambientale ovvero l’individuazione di corpi metallici in un’area ad elevato noise ambientale. L’area del rilievo è situata all’interno del Mar Piccolo di Taranto, a ridosso delle strutture portuali e si estende per circa 3 X 1,5 Km. I rilievi sono stati condotti utilizzando una piccola imbarcazione (idrobarca in GRP - Glass Renforced Plastic) trainante l’apparato di misura filato ad una distanza tale da non risentire del disturbo elettromagnetico generato dai motori e dalle apparecchiature di bordo. Problematiche relative ai bassi fondali dell’area rilevata (da 4 a 13 metri di battente d’acqua) hanno comportato la progettazione di un apposito catamarano in vetroresina (completamente amagnetico) a cui è stata fissata la sensoristica, così da poter navigare poco sotto il pelo dell’acqua; per motivi di navigabilità sono stati pianificate rotte principali in direzione Est-Ovest e traverse di controllo nelle aree con segnali ‘interessanti’. La strumentazione magnetometrica utilizzata (fig. 1) è costituita da due sensori a vapori di Cesio che sfruttano la tecnica del pompaggio ottico. La misura della frequenza viene effettuata con 10 letture al secondo, l’operatività è garantita in un range tra 20.000 – 100.000 nT e l’accuracy assoluta dipende da diversi fattori quali: l’orientazione del sensore, lo shift della luce interna e il tempo del frequency counter. L’errore dovuto all’orientazione risulta comunque compreso entro 1 nT. L’operatività viene garantita in un range da –35° e +50° di orientazione dei sensori. la sensibilità è di 0.02 nT con un intervallo di campionamento di 10 misure al secondo. Nonostante l’elevato noise ambientale causato dalla presenza di navi, bacini e altre sorgenti di noise legate alle attività portuali, sono stati evidenziati 9 punti anomali di interesse nella mappa del segnale gradiometrico (fig. 2). Le successive ispezioni dirette, hanno rilevato la presenza di evidenze (vari materiali di tipo ferroso e spezzoni di battelli) correlate alle anomalie di 7 punti tra quelli individuati a seguito dell’elaborazione dei dati