An Edge-Based Architecture to Support Efficient Applications for Healthcare Industry 4.0

Edge computing paradigm has attracted many interests in the last few years as a valid alternative to the standard cloud-based approaches to reduce the interaction timing and the huge amount of data coming from Internet of Things (IoT) devices toward the Internet. In the next future, Edge-based approaches will be essential to support time-dependent applications in the Industry 4.0 context; thus, the paper proposes BodyEdge, a novel architecture well suited for human-centric applications, in the context of the emerging healthcare industry. It consists of a tiny mobile client module and a performing edge gateway supporting multiradio and multitechnology communication to collect and locally process data coming from different scenarios; moreover, it also exploits the facilities made available from both private and public cloud platforms to guarantee a high flexibility, robustness, and adaptive service level. The advantages of the designed software platform have been evaluated in terms of reduced transmitted data and processing time through a real implementation on different hardware platforms. The conducted study also highlighted the network conditions (data load and processing delay) in which BodyEdge is a valid and inexpensive solution for healthcare application scenarios

European consensus conference on faecal microbiota transplantation in clinical practice

Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an important therapeutic option for Clostridium difficile infection. Promising findings suggest that FMT may play a role also in the management of other disorders associated with the alteration of gut microbiota. Although the health community is assessing FMT with renewed interest and patients are becoming more aware, there are technical and logistical issues in establishing such a non-standardised treatment into the clinical practice with safety and proper governance. In view of this, an evidence-based recommendation is needed to drive the practical implementation of FMT. In this European Consensus Conference, 28 experts from 10 countries collaborated, in separate working groups and through an evidence-based process, to provide statements on the following key issues: FMT indications; donor selection; preparation of faecal material; clinical management and faecal delivery and basic requirements for implementing an FMT centre. Statements developed by each working group were evaluated and voted by all members, first through an electronic Delphi process, and then in a plenary consensus conference. The recommendations were released according to best available evidence, in order to act as guidance for physicians who plan to implement FMT, aiming at supporting the broad availability of the procedure, discussing other issues relevant to FMT and promoting future clinical research in the area of gut microbiota manipulation. This consensus report strongly recommends the implementation of FMT centres for the treatment of C. difficile infection as well as traces the guidelines of technicality, regulatory, administrative and laboratory requirements.Peer reviewe

Design and performance evaluation of algorithms for wireless self-organizing systems

Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria dei Sistemi e Informatica, Ciclo XXVII, a.a. 2014The work done during the PhD course involves the study of the Self- Organization of wireless sensors, robots and UAV networks. In particular, this thesis investigates how each node composing the system can take advantage from the Self-Organization and from mobility, in a way to optimize some networks parameters as coverage and energy consumption. Self-Organization is a process in which pattern at the global level of a system emerges solely from numerous interactions among the lower-level components of a system. The rules specifying interactions among the systems components are executed using only local information, without reference to the global pattern [1]. Mobility, although still for some types of systems is not considered a primitive of the network: in recent years has been the subject of many studies just as useful feature to achieve certain objectives, not least the energy consumption in transmission. The network issues has been addressed using different approaches from the theoretical studies aimed at finding the maximum achievable performance benchmarks, through the introduction of appropriate optimization models, the proposal of distributed heuristics and more realistic communication protocols, and the use of biology-inspired mechanisms, such as genetic algorithms (GA) and neural networks (NN). The purpose of this type of approach is to move in the direction of networks that are able to self-organize by adapting to different environmental conditions and dynamic as well as hard scenarios (i.e. environment disasters). The rest of the thesis is organized as follows: in Chapter 1 background on Self-Organizing Systems is given. In Chapter 2 we investigate on the impact of the Propagation Environment on Controlled Mobility Algorithms; distributed heuristics to Film Sport Events with Flying Robots in Chapter 3 and Bio- Inspired approaches in Chapter 4. Finally, a new communications protocol for WSN called Decentralized Time-Synchronized Channel Swapping is analyzed in Chapter 5.Università della Calabri

Lightweight Reinforcement Learning for Energy Efficient Communications in Wireless Sensor Networks

High-density communications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) demand for new approaches to meet stringent energy and spectrum requirements. We turn to reinforcement learning, a prominent method in artificial intelligence, to design an energy-preserving MAC protocol, with the aim to extend the network lifetime. Our QL-MAC protocol is derived from Q-learning, which iteratively tweaks the MAC parameters through a trial-and-error process to converge to a low energy state. This has a dual benefit of 1) solving this minimization problem without the need of predetermining the system model and 2) providing a self-adaptive protocol to topological and other external changes. QL-MAC self-adjusts the WSN node duty-cycle, reducing energy consumption without detrimental effects on the other network parameters. This is achieved by adjusting the radio sleeping and active periods based on traffic predictions and transmission state of neighboring nodes. Our findings are corroborated by an extensive set of experiments carried out on off-the-shelf devices, alongside large-scale simulations. INDEX TERMS Wireless sensor network, artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, energy-efficient network, medium access control

Is Fecal Calprotectin a Useful Marker for Small Bowel Crohn's Disease?

Objectives: The identification of reliable non-invasive biomarkers of Crohn disease (CD) activity is crucial. Fecal calprotectin (FC) is the most promising one. We aimed to define whether its performance for isolated ileal CD could be as useful as for colonic and ileocolonic disease.Methods: Retrospective observational study of all pediatric patients affected with CD with FC and inflammatory blood markers performed within one week from an ileocolonoscopy or magnetic resonance enterography. The sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, positive predictive value and accuracy of FC >50 mcg/g were evaluated for isolated ileal CD (L1), colonic CD (L2) and ilecolonic CD (L3) using ilecolonoscopy and magnetic resonance enterography as the reference standard. The best FC cut-off for each disease location was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves.Results: One-hundred seventy-six FC measurements from a total of 98 patients were collected (14.3% L1, 10.2% L2, 75.5% L3). The sensitivity and specificity of FC for Ll CD were 36% and 91%, respectively, compared to 93% and 75% for L2 and 70% and 95% for L3. An FC of 95 mg/kg was identified as the best cut off for identification of active isolated ileal disease, with a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of 56% [area under the curve (confidence interval [CI] 0.56- 0.97) 0.77, P = 0.02].Conclusions: With a sensitivity of 36%, FC alone does not accurately reflect isolated Ll disease activity. A significantly lower threshold should be applied for increasing its performance for isolated small bowel CD monitoring

The SENSE-ME platform: Infrastructure-less smartphone connectivity and decentralized sensing for emergency management

In emergency scenarios, network coverage constitutes a fundamental requirement for both crisis management and rescue operations. However, coverage might not be sufficient to avoid chaotic crowd behaviours that could possibly occur when there is lack of accurate sensing data, and of distributed coordination among the main actors. In this paper, we investigate the role that Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) smartphones can play in emergency scenarios. Modern smartphones hide a great potential for emergency monitoring and management: (i) they are truly pervasive, (ii) they can establish peer-to-peer wireless links using short-range communication technologies, thus guaranteeing coverage even when fixed infrastructures are unavailable, and finally (iii) they can sense the environment through several embedded sensors. In order to maximally exploit such capabilities, we propose the SENSE-ME framework, which enables the creation of a spontaneous phone-sensing platform, by providing integrated functionalities of opportunistic networking, mobile sensing, and distributed information processing. Moreover, we introduce a realistic usage scenario (building evacuation), characterized by the presence of Android devices deployed over a two-dimensional space. Through SENSE-ME, each smartphone is able to quantify its level of danger by analysing its sensor data, to share such metrics with the surrounding devices via Wi-Fi Direct links, and finally to detect an emergency event, and compute a safe path, by applying a consensus-based algorithm to the received observations. In this scenario, we present a modular evaluation of the SENSE-ME networking/sensing/information processing components, clearly highlighting the strengths of a multi-layer approach for emergency monitoring and management

The SENSE-ME platform: Infrastructure-less smartphone connectivity and decentralized sensing for emergency management

In emergency scenarios, network coverage constitutes a fundamental requirement for both crisis management and rescue operations. However, coverage might not be sufficient to avoid chaotic crowd behaviours that could possibly occur when there is lack of accurate sensing data, and of distributed coordination among the main actors. In this paper, we investigate the role that Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) smartphones can play in emergency scenarios. Modern smartphones hide a great potential for emergency monitoring and management: (i) they are truly pervasive, (ii) they can establish peer-to-peer wireless links using short-range communication technologies, thus guaranteeing coverage even when fixed infrastructures are unavailable, and finally (iii) they can sense the environment through several embedded sensors. In order to maximally exploit such capabilities, we propose the SENSE-ME framework, which enables the creation of a spontaneous phone-sensing platform, by providing integrated functionalities of opportunistic networking, mobile sensing, and distributed information processing. Moreover, we introduce a realistic usage scenario (building evacuation), characterized by the presence of Android devices deployed over a two-dimensional space. Through SENSE-ME, each smartphone is able to quantify its level of danger by analysing its sensor data, to share such metrics with the surrounding devices via Wi-Fi Direct links, and finally to detect an emergency event, and compute a safe path, by applying a consensus-based algorithm to the received observations. In this scenario, we present a modular evaluation of the SENSE-ME networking/sensing/information processing components, clearly highlighting the strengths of a multi-layer approach for emergency monitoring and management

A Utility-Oriented Routing Scheme for Interest-Driven Community-Based Opportunistic Networks

Opportunistic networks, as representative networks evolved from social networks and Ad-hoc networks, have been on cutting edges in recent years. Many research efforts have focused on realistic mobility models and cost-effective routing schemes. The concept of "community", as one of the most inherent attributes of opportunistic networks, has been proved to be very helpful in simulating mobility traces of human society and selecting suitable message forwarders. This paper proposes an interest-driven community-based mobility model by considering location preference and time variance in human behavior patterns. Based on this enhanced mobility model, a novel two-layer routing algorithm, named InterCom, is presented by jointly considering utilities generated by users' activity degree and social relationships. The results, obtained throughout an intensive simulation analysis, show that the proposed routing scheme is able to improve delivery ratio while keeping the routing overhead and transmission delay within a reasonable range with respect to well-known routing schemes for opportunistic networks