An Advanced Home ElderCare Service

With the increase of welfare cost all over the developed world, there is a need to resort to new technologies that could help reduce this enormous cost and provide some quality eldercare services. This paper presents a middleware-level solution that integrates monitoring and emergency detection solutions with networking solutions. The proposed system enables efficient integration between a variety of sensors and actuators deployed at home for emergency detection and provides a framework for creating and managing rescue teams willing to assist elders in case of emergency situations. A prototype of the proposed system was designed and implemented. Results were obtained from both computer simulations and a real-network testbed. These results show that the proposed system can help overcome some of the current problems and help reduce the enormous cost of eldercare service

Context-Aware Group Communication in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Abstract. The widespread availability of both fixed and wireless network con-nectivity and the growing market of portable devices are enabling anytime and anywhere impromptu collaboration. The emergence of Mobile Ad-Hoc Net-works (MANET) further opens up new possibilities for the provisioning of ad-vanced collaborative services, such as civil protection, e-care, and troop car management. However, the design and the deployment of collaborative appli-cations in MANET scenarios raises new group management challenges. In par-ticular, MANET characteristics, e.g., unpredictable and frequent mobility of us-ers/devices, intermittent device connectivity, continuous variations of network topology, make it impossible any a-priori knowledge about group members availability and ask for novel solutions to handle properly the communication about group members. The paper proposes a context-aware communication model to govern communication on the basis of the characteristics of the com-municating parties, such as their location and their profiling information. The model provides communication patterns with different semantics to address both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communication needs. The paper shows the implementation of the proposed model in the AGAPE framework for the design, deployment, and support of collaborative applications in MANET environments and presents the functioning of the AGAPE communication sup-port in the context of a civil protection application scenario.

Peri-operative red blood cell transfusion in neonates and infants: NEonate and Children audiT of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe: A prospective European multicentre observational study

BACKGROUND: Little is known about current clinical practice concerning peri-operative red blood cell transfusion in neonates and small infants. Guidelines suggest transfusions based on haemoglobin thresholds ranging from 8.5 to 12 g dl-1, distinguishing between children from birth to day 7 (week 1), from day 8 to day 14 (week 2) or from day 15 (≥week 3) onwards. OBJECTIVE: To observe peri-operative red blood cell transfusion practice according to guidelines in relation to patient outcome. DESIGN: A multicentre observational study. SETTING: The NEonate-Children sTudy of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe (NECTARINE) trial recruited patients up to 60 weeks' postmenstrual age undergoing anaesthesia for surgical or diagnostic procedures from 165 centres in 31 European countries between March 2016 and January 2017. PATIENTS: The data included 5609 patients undergoing 6542 procedures. Inclusion criteria was a peri-operative red blood cell transfusion. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary endpoint was the haemoglobin level triggering a transfusion for neonates in week 1, week 2 and week 3. Secondary endpoints were transfusion volumes, 'delta haemoglobin' (preprocedure - transfusion-triggering) and 30-day and 90-day morbidity and mortality. RESULTS: Peri-operative red blood cell transfusions were recorded during 447 procedures (6.9%). The median haemoglobin levels triggering a transfusion were 9.6 [IQR 8.7 to 10.9] g dl-1 for neonates in week 1, 9.6 [7.7 to 10.4] g dl-1 in week 2 and 8.0 [7.3 to 9.0] g dl-1 in week 3. The median transfusion volume was 17.1 [11.1 to 26.4] ml kg-1 with a median delta haemoglobin of 1.8 [0.0 to 3.6] g dl-1. Thirty-day morbidity was 47.8% with an overall mortality of 11.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate lower transfusion-triggering haemoglobin thresholds in clinical practice than suggested by current guidelines. The high morbidity and mortality of this NECTARINE sub-cohort calls for investigative action and evidence-based guidelines addressing peri-operative red blood cell transfusions strategies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT02350348

AGAPE: a Location-aware Group Membership Middleware for

The widespread diffusion of mobile computing along with the integration of telecommunication systems and the Internet enables a scenario where the promise of ubiquitous computing is starting to be realised. This scenario calls for novel services the can be deployed on-demand close to the user and customised to not only client needs, but also to the client current location. In particular, group membership management services should exploit the visibility of client location to organize effective solutions for group communication and interoperation and to promote the design and development of advanced collaborative applications, such as traffic management and e-care ones. The paper describes a middleware for group membership management (AGAPE) that exploits both the visibility of users position and the heterogeneous characteristics of the access terminals to facilitate interoperation in a pervasive computing scenario

Grano duro biologico, le migliori varietà nelle prove 2015-2016

I risultati ottenuti nell’annata agraria 2015-16 relativi alle 22 varietà in prova nei 12 dispositivi sperimentali situati nei tre macroareali di coltivazione (Sud e isole, Centro tirrenico e Centro adriatico e Nord), hanno permesso di evidenziare una buona stabilità produttiva della varietà Iride, seguita da Claudio, Normanno e Saragolla, mentre tra le varietà testate da un minor numero di anni sono apparse molto interessanti Odisseo e Monastir

Le varietà di grano duro più vocate al biologico

Nella stagione 2015-2016 sono stati realizzati 12 campi, localizzati in 9 regioni e aggregati in tre macroareali: Sud-Isole (5 campi), versante Tirrenico dell’Italia Centrale (3 campi), versante Adriatico dell’Italia Centrale e Nord (4 campi). In tutti i campi sono state messe a confronto 22 varietà, di cui 1 (Orizzonte) al primo anno di prova, utilizzando uno schema sperimentale a blocchi randomizzati con 3 o 4 ripetizioni. Tutte le cultivar sono state fornite non conciate dalle ditte sementiere (la scheda agronomica delle prove e i principali rilievi eseguiti sono onsultabili all’indirizzo internet riportato in fondo all’articolo)