Cascaded WLAN-FWA Networking and Computing Architecture for Pervasive In-Home Healthcare

Pervasive healthcare is a promising assisted-living solution for chronic patients. However, current cutting-edge communication technologies are not able to strictly meet the requirements of these applications, especially in the case of life-threatening events. To bridge this gap, this paper proposes a new architecture to support indoor healthcare monitoring, with a focus on epileptic patients. Several novel elements are introduced. The first element is the cascading of a WLAN and a cellular network, where IEEE 802.11ax is used for the wireless local area network to collect physiological and environmental data in-home and 5G-enabled Fixed Wireless Access links transfer them to a remote hospital. The second element is the extension of the network slicing concept to the WLAN, and the introduction of two new slice types to support both regular monitoring and emergency handling. Moreover, the inclusion of local computing capabilities at the WLAN router, together with a mobile edge computing resource, represents a further architectural enhancement. Local computation is required to trigger not only health-related alarms, but also the network slicing change in case of emergency: in fact, proper radio resource scheduling is necessary for the cascaded networks to handle healthcare traffic together with other promiscuous everyday communication services. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach while highlighting the performance gain achieved with respect to baseline solutions

Direct Contact - Sorptive Tape Extraction coupled with Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry to reveal volatile topographical dynamics of lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) upon herbivory by Spodoptera littoralis Boisd

BACKGROUND: The dynamics of plant volatile (PV) emission, and the relationship between damaged area and biosynthesis of bioactive molecules in plant-insect interactions, remain open questions. Direct Contact-Sorptive Tape Extraction (DC-STE) is a sorption sampling technique employing non adhesive polydimethylsiloxane tapes, which are placed in direct contact with a biologically-active surface. DC-STE coupled to Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is a non-destructive, high concentration-capacity sampling technique able to detect and allow identification of PVs involved in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Here we investigated the leaf topographical dynamics of herbivory-induced PV (HIPV) produced by Phaseolus lunatus L. (lima bean) in response to herbivory by larvae of the Mediterranean climbing cutworm (Spodoptera littoralis Boisd.) and mechanical wounding by DC-STE-GC-MS. RESULTS: Time-course experiments on herbivory wounding caused by larvae (HW), mechanical damage by a pattern wheel (MD), and MD combined with the larvae oral secretions (OS) showed that green leaf volatiles (GLVs) [(E)-2-hexenal, (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, 1-octen-3-ol, (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, (Z)-3-hexenyl butyrate] were associated with both MD and HW, whereas monoterpenoids [(E)-β-ocimene], sesquiterpenoids [(E)-nerolidol] and homoterpenes (DMNT and TMTT) were specifically associated with HW. Up-regulation of genes coding for HIPV-related enzymes (Farnesyl Pyrophosphate Synthase, Lipoxygenase, Ocimene Synthase and Terpene Synthase 2) was consistent with HIPV results. GLVs and sesquiterpenoids were produced locally and found to influence their own gene expression in distant tissues, whereas (E)-β-ocimene, TMTT, and DMNT gene expression was limited to wounded areas. CONCLUSIONS: DC-STE-GC-MS was found to be a reliable method for the topographical evaluation of plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, by revealing the differential distribution of different classes of HIPVs. The main advantages of this technique include: a) in vivo sampling; b) reproducible sampling; c) ease of execution; d) simultaneous assays of different leaf portions, and e) preservation of plant material for further “omic” studies. DC-STE-GC-MS is also a low-impact innovative method for in situ PV detection that finds potential applications in sustainable crop management. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-015-0487-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Monitoring of the lipid oxidation of dehydrated by-products coming from tuna processing

The increase in waste generated by the fish supply chain has a significant impact on environment and moreover it represents a big economic problem; in addition, it is necessary to consider the loss, within fish leftovers and their processing by-products [1], of precious compounds with high nutraceutical interest, with a view of a \u201czero waste economy\u201d. University of Genoa is one of the 34 partners in EcoeFISHent, a European Union\u2019s Horizon project (H2020-LC-GD-2020-3, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101036428/it) implementing systemic solutions through multilevel circular value chains for an eco-sustainable valorization of fishing and fish industries side-streams. By-products coming from canned tuna processing, made up of fillets scraps, fishbones, heads, once separated from viscera, have been dehydrated by a patented process in order to stabilize this highly perishable biomass and obtaining a powdered material with a residual humidity of about 5%. The bromatological analysis of the biomass before and after the dehydration step have been performed (humidity, protein, lipid, ash, and carbohydrates contents). Since lipid oxidation [2] may be considered one of the most dangerous modification in such an unsaturated food matrix, its monitoring seems mandatory in order to evaluate the possibility of further valorize these by-products. As far as fish oils are concerned, the analytical determinations suggested by Codex Alimentarius [3] are the Peroxide value (PV) and the Anisidine value (AV) to evaluate primary and secondary oxidation products respectively and combining them in the Total oxidation value (ToTox). Looking for greener and more rapid approaches exploitable for the lipid oxidation monitoring of tuna byproducts, the following determinations have been proposed: - the Hara-Radin method to extract the lipid fraction has been proposed to replace the Folch method in order to avoid the use of halogenated solvents ; - the spectrophotometric analyisis of the conjugated dienes was performed alternatively to PV test for the primary oxidation products evaluation ; - the TBARS (Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances) test [4] directly applied on the food samples, avoiding the lipid extraction step, has been proposed to evaluate the secondary oxidation products