Poster: Real-time message scheduling with multiple sinks

A smart factory in Industry 4.0 requires the exchange of sensing and control messages over a wireless sensor network. Communication typically has real-time constraints and the nodes are densely deployed. Thus, multiple sink nodes are necessary in order to ensure schedulability. This paper deals with the multiple sink scheduling problem, requiring an allocation policy for messages over the sinks, as well as per-sink message scheduling. The objective of the optimization is to jointly minimize the number of the required sinks while respecting the limitations of the underlying protocols and scheduling the real-time message set. We present a heuristic algorithm and preliminary results that demonstrate its efficacy

S3: School Zone Safety System Based on Wireless Sensor Network

School zones are areas near schools that have lower speed limits and where illegally parked vehicles pose a threat to school children by obstructing them from the view of drivers. However, these laws are regularly flouted. Thus, we propose a novel wireless sensor network application called School zone Safety System (S3) to help regulate the speed limit and to prevent illegal parking in school zones. S3 detects illegally parked vehicles, and warns the driver and records the license plate number. To reduce the traveling speed of vehicles in a school zone, S3 measures the speed of vehicles and displays the speed to the driver via an LED display, and also captures the image of the speeding vehicle with a speed camera. We developed a state machine based vehicle detection algorithm for S3. From extensive experiments in our testbeds and data from a real school zone, it is shown that the system can detect all kinds of vehicles, and has an accuracy of over 95% for speed measurement. We modeled the battery life time of a sensor node and validated the model with a downscaled measurement; we estimate the battery life time to be over 2 years. We have deployed S3 in 15 school zones in 2007, and we have demonstrated the robustness of S3 by operating them for over 1 year

SoEasy: A Software Framework for Easy Hardware Control Programming for Diverse IoT Platforms

Many Internet of Things (IoT) applications are emerging and evolving rapidly thanks to widespread open-source hardware platforms. Most of the high-end open-source IoT platforms include built-in peripherals, such as the universal asynchronous receiver and transmitter (UART), pulse width modulation (PWM), general purpose input output (GPIO) ports and timers, and have enough computation power to run embedded operating systems such as Linux. However, each IoT platform has its own way of configuring peripherals, and it is difficult for programmers or users to configure the same peripheral on a different platform. Although diverse open-source IoT platforms are widespread, the difficulty in programming those platforms hinders the growth of IoT applications. Therefore, we propose an easy and convenient way to program and configure the operation of each peripheral using a user-friendly Web-based software framework. Through the implementation of the software framework and the real mobile robot application development along with it, we show the feasibility of the proposed software framework, named SoEasy

Data-driven risk assessment of the incursion of African swine fever virus via pig products brought illegally into South Korea by travelers based on the temporal relationship between outbreaks in China

Since 2018, Asian countries have been affected by the African swine fever (ASF) virus, with major socioeconomic consequences. Moreover, the number of people traveling in Asian countries has been increasing, leading to an inevitable increase in the risk of ASF spread through livestock products carried by travelers. China and South Korea have close geo-economic ties and numerous international travelers. After the ASF outbreak in China in 2018, many illegally imported pig products (IIPPs) that were confiscated from travelers from China at the port of entry in South Korea tested positive for ASF. The detection of ASF virus (ASFV)-positive IIPPs highlights the need to further assess the risk of incursion by travelers and review the existing prevention strategies. Here, we investigated the temporal relationship between ASF outbreaks in China and the detection of ASFV-positive IIPPs in randomly confiscated samples from all ports of entry, such as flights and ships to South Korea, from 2018 to 2019 using a cross-correlation analysis. Based on the significantly correlated temporal lags between the bivariate time-series data, a risk assessment model, using the Bayesian framework, was built to estimate the distribution of the parameters for the risk assessment model and the monthly probability of ASF being introduced via IIPPs from China to South Korea. ASF outbreaks in China were significantly associated with the detection of ASFV-positive IIPPs in South Korea 5 months later. Hence, the monthly probability of ASFV-infected pig products imported from China via a traveler to South Korea was estimated to be 2.00 × 10−5, corresponding to a 0.98 mean monthly probability of at least one ASF-infected pig product arriving at ports of entry via travelers, from 2018 to 2019. To our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to estimate the risk of ASF introduction via pig products carried by international travelers to all ports from neighboring countries in the Asian region using commonly exchanged observed data. The data presented in this study can be used to refine the intervention strategies to combat the spread of transboundary animal diseases

Efficacy and Safety of Sipjeondaebo-Tang for Anorexia in Patients with Cancer: A Pilot, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Background. Anorexia occurs in about half of cancer patients and is associated with high mortality rate. However, safe and long-term use of anorexia treatment is still an unmet need. Objective. The purpose of the present study was to examine the feasibility of Sipjeondaebo-tang (Juzen-taiho-to, Shi-Quan-Da-Bu-Tang) for cancer-related anorexia. Methods. A total of 32 participants with cancer anorexia were randomized to either Sipjeondaebo-tang group or placebo group. Participants were given 3 g of Sipjeondaebo-tang or placebo 3 times a day for 4 weeks. The primary outcome was a change in the Anorexia/Cachexia Subscale of Functional Assessment of Anorexia/Cachexia Therapy (FAACT). The secondary outcomes included Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of anorexia, FAACT scale, and laboratory tests. Results. Anorexia and quality of life measured by FAACT and VAS were improved after 4 weeks of Sipjeondaebo-tang treatment. However, there was no significant difference between changes of Sipjeondaebo-tang group and placebo group. Conclusions. Sipjeondaebo-tang appears to have potential benefit for anorexia management in patients with cancer. Further large-scale studies are needed to ensure the efficacy. Trial Registration. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02468141

Traditional Herbal Formula Banhasasim-tang

Banhasasim-tang (BHSST) is a Korean traditional herbal formula comprising eight medicinal herbs. The aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of BHSST using macrophage and keratinocyte cell lines. First, we evaluated the effects of BHSST on inflammatory mediator and cytokine production in lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. BHSST markedly inhibited the production of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and interleukin- (IL-) 6. BHSST significantly suppressed the protein expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and phosphorylated nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) p65 in RAW 264.7 cells. Second, we examined whether BHSST influences the production of chemokines and STAT1 phosphorylation in tumor necrosis factor-α/interferon-γ TI-stimulated HaCaT keratinocytes. BHSST significantly suppressed the production of RANTES/CCL5, TARC/CCL17, MDC/CCL22, and IL-8 in TI-stimulated HaCaT cells. BHSST also suppressed TI-induced phosphorylation of STAT1 in HaCaT cells. These results suggest that BHSST may be useful as an anti-inflammatory agent, especially for inflammatory skin diseases