Discovering location based services: A unified approach for heterogeneous indoor localization systems

The technological solutions and communication capabilities offered by the Internet of Things paradigm, in terms of raising availability of wearable devices, the ubiquitous internet connection, and the presence on the market of service-oriented solutions, have allowed a wide proposal of Location Based Services (LBS). In a close future, we foresee that companies and service providers will have developed reliable solutions to address indoor positioning, as basis for useful location based services. These solutions will be different from each other and they will adopt different hardware and processing techniques. This paper describes the proposal of a unified approach for Indoor Localization Systems that enables the cooperation between heterogeneous solutions and their functional modules. To this end, we designed an integrated architecture that, abstracting its main components, allows a seamless interaction among them. Finally, we present a working prototype of such architecture, which is based on the popular Telegram application for Android, as an integration demonstrator. The integration of the three main phases –namely the discovery phase, the User Agent self-configuration, and the indoor map retrieval/rendering– demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed integrated architectur

A multi-domain ontology on healthy ageing for the characterization of older adults status and behaviour

Ageing is a multi-factorial physiological process and the development of novel IoT systems, tools and devices, specifically targeted to older people, must be based on a holistic framework built on robust scientific knowledge in different health domains. Furthermore, interoperability must be guaranteed using standardized frameworks or approaches. These aspects still largely lack in the specific literature. The main aim of the paper is to develop a new ontology (the NESTORE ontology) to extend the available ontologies provided by universAAL-IoT (uAAL-IoT). The ontology is based on a multidomain healthy ageing holistic model, structuring well-assessed scientific knowledge, specifically targeted to healthy older adults aged between 65 and 75. The tool is intended to support, and standardize heterogeneous data about ageing in compliance with the uAAL-IoT framework. The NESTORE ontology covers all the relevant concepts to represent 3 significant domains of ageing: (1) Physiological Status and Physical Activity Behaviour; (2) Nutrition; and (3) Cognitive and Mental Status and Social Behaviour. In total, 12 sub-ontologies were modelled with more than 60 classes and sub-classes referenced among them by using more than 100 relations and around 20 enumerations. The proposed ontology increases the uAAL collection by 40%. NESTORE ontology provides innovation both in terms of semantic content and technological approach. The thorough use of this ontology can support the development of a decision support system, to promote healthy ageing, with the capacity to do dynamic multi-scale modelling of user-specific data based on the semantic annotations of users’ profile

Per Tullio Seppilli: Un ricordo corale

In memory of Tullio Seppilli (1928-2017).Ricordo di Tullio Seppilli (1928-2017)

Pulsating Heat pipe only for Space (PHOS): Results of the REXUS 18 sounding rocket campaign

Two Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipes (CLPHPs) are tested on board REXUS 18 sounding rocket in order to obtain data over a relatively long microgravity period (approximately 90 s). The CLPHPs are partially filled with FC-72 and have, respectively, an inner tube diameter larger (3 mm) and slightly smaller (1.6 mm) than the critical diameter evaluated in static Earth gravity conditions. On ground, the small diameter CLPHP effectively works as a Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP): the characteristic slug and plug flow pattern forms inside the tube and the heat exchange is triggered by thermally driven self-sustained oscillations of the working fluid. On the other hand, the large diameter CLPHP works as a two- phase thermosyphon in vertical position and doesn't work in horizontal position: in this particular condition, the working fluid stratifies within the device as the surface tension force is no longer able to balance buoyancy. Then, the idea to test the CLPHPs in reduced gravity conditions: as the gravity reduces the buoyancy forces becomes less intense and it is possible to recreate the typical PHP flow pattern also for larger inner tube diameters. This allows to increase the heat transfer rate and, consequently, to decrease the overall thermal resistance. Even though it was not possible to experience low gravity conditions due to a failure in the yoyo de-spin system, the thermal response to the peculiar acceleration field (hyper-gravity) experienced on board are thoroughly described

U-PHOS Project: Development of a Large Diameter Pulsating Heat Pipe Experiment on board REXUS 22

U-PHOS Project aims to analyse and characterise the behaviour of a large diameter Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP) on board REXUS 22 sounding rocket. A PHP is a passive thermal control device consisting of a serpentine capillary tube, evacuated, partially filled with a working fluid and finally sealed. In this configuration, the liquid and vapour phases are randomly distributed in the form of liquid slugs and vapour plugs. The heat is efficiently transported by means of the self-sustained oscillatory fluid motion driven by the phase change phenomena. On ground conditions, a small diameter is required in order to obtain a confined slug flow regime. In milli-gravity conditions, buoyancy forces become less intense and the PHP diameter may be increased still maintaining the slug/plug flow configuration typical of the PHP operation. Consequently, the PHP heat power capability may be increased too. U-PHOS aims at proving that a Large Diameter PHP effectively works in milli-g conditions by characterizing its thermal response during a sounding rocket flight. The actual PHP tube is made of aluminum (3 mm inner diameter, filled with FC-72), heated at the evaporator by a compact electrical resistance, cooled at the condenser by a Phase Change Material (PCM) embedded in a metallic foam. The tube wall temperatures are recorded by means of Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors; the local fluid pressure is acquired by means of a pressure transducer. The present work intends to report the actual status of the project, focusing in particular on the experiment improvements with respect to the previous campaign

First World Consensus Conference on pancreas transplantation: Part II - recommendations.

Funder: Fondazione Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007368Funder: Tuscany Region, Italy; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100009888Funder: Pisa University Hospital, Pisa, ItalyFunder: University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100007514The First World Consensus Conference on Pancreas Transplantation provided 49 jury deliberations regarding the impact of pancreas transplantation on the treatment of diabetic patients, and 110 experts' recommendations for the practice of pancreas transplantation. The main message from this consensus conference is that both simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation (SPK) and pancreas transplantation alone can improve long-term patient survival, and all types of pancreas transplantation dramatically improve the quality of life of recipients. Pancreas transplantation may also improve the course of chronic complications of diabetes, depending on their severity. Therefore, the advantages of pancreas transplantation appear to clearly surpass potential disadvantages. Pancreas after kidney transplantation increases the risk of mortality only in the early period after transplantation, but is associated with improved life expectancy thereafter. Additionally, preemptive SPK, when compared to SPK performed in patients undergoing dialysis, appears to be associated with improved outcomes. Time on dialysis has negative prognostic implications in SPK recipients. Increased long-term survival, improvement in the course of diabetic complications, and amelioration of quality of life justify preferential allocation of kidney grafts to SPK recipients. Audience discussions and live voting are available online at the following URL address: http://mediaeventi.unipi.it/category/1st-world-consensus-conference-of-pancreas-transplantation/246

Indoor Bluetooth Low Energy Dataset for Localization, Tracking, Occupancy, and Social Interaction

Indoor localization has become a mature research area, but further scientific developments are limited due to the lack of open datasets and corresponding frameworks suitable to compare and evaluate specialized localization solutions. Although several competitions provide datasets and environments for comparing different solutions, they hardly consider novel technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which is gaining more and more importance in indoor localization due to its wide availability in personal and environmental devices and to its low costs and flexibility. This paper contributes to cover this gap by: (i) presenting a new indoor BLE dataset; (ii) reviewing several, meaningful use cases in different application scenarios; and (iii) discussing alternative uses of the dataset in the evaluation of different positioning and navigation applications, namely localization, tracking, occupancy and social interaction