365 research outputs found
Middleware Support for Generic Actuation in the Internet of Mobile Things
As the Internet of Things is expanding towards applications in almost any sector of our economy and daily life, so is the demand of employing and integrating devices with actuation capabilities, such as smart bulbs, HVAC,smart locks, industrial machines, robots or drones. Many middleware platforms have been developed in orderto support the development of distributed IoT applications and facilitate the sensors-to-cloud communication andedge processing capabilities, but surprisingly very little has been done to provide middleware-level, support andgeneric mechanisms for discovering the devices and their interfaces, and executing the actuation commands, i.e.transferring them to the device. In this paper, we present a generic support for actuation as an extension ofContextNet, our mobile-cloud middleware for IoMT. We describe the design of the distributed actuation supportand present a proof of working implementation that enables remote control of a Sphero mobile BB-8 toy
Practical Challenges And Pitfalls Of Bluetooth Mesh Data Collection Experiments With Esp-32 Microcontrollers
Testing network algorithms in physical environments using real hardware is an
important step to reduce the gap between theory and practice in the field, and
an interesting way to explore technologies such as Bluetooth Mesh. We
implemented a Bluetooth Mesh data collection strategy and deployed it in indoor
and outdoor settings, using ESP-32 microcontrollers. This data collection
strategy also covers an alternative packet routing strategy based on Bluetooth
Mesh - MAM - already discussed and simulated in previous work using the OMNET++
simulator. We compared the real-world ESP-32 experiments with the past
simulations, and the results differed significantly: the simulations predicted
a +459\% unique message collection compared to the results we obtained with the
ESP-32. Based on those results, we also identified vast room for improvement in
our ESP-32 implementation for future work, including solving an unexpected
packet duplication in the MAM algorithm implementation. Even so, MAM performed
better than Bluetooth Mesh's default relay strategy, with up to +4.06\% more
(unique) data messages collected. We also discuss some challenges we
experienced when implementing, deploying, and running benchmarks using
Bluetooth Mesh and the ESP-32 platform.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures and graph
Tissue Penetration of Antimicrobials in Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Systematic Review—Part I
The challenging severity of some infections, especially in critically ill patients, makes the diffusion of antimicrobial drugs within tissues one of the cornerstones of chemotherapy. The knowledge of how antibacterial agents penetrate tissues may come from different sources: preclin- ical studies in animal models, phase I–III clinical trials and post-registration studies. However, the particular physiopathology of critically ill patients may significantly alter drug pharmacokinetics. Indeed, changes in interstitial volumes (the third space) and/or in glomerular filtration ratio may influence the achievement of bactericidal concentrations in peripheral compartments, while inflam- mation can alter the systemic distribution of some drugs. On the contrary, other antibacterial agents may reach high and effective concentrations thanks to the increased tissue accumulation of macro- phages and neutrophils. Therefore, the present review explores the tissue distribution of beta-lac- tams and other antimicrobials acting on the cell wall and cytoplasmic membrane of bacteria in crit- ically ill patients. A systematic search of articles was performed according to PRISMA guidelines, and tissue/plasma penetration ratios were collected. Results showed a highly variable passage of drugs within tissues, while large interindividual variability may represent a hurdle which must be overcome to achieve therapeutic concentrations in some compartments. To solve that issue, off-label dosing regimens could represent an effective solution in particular conditions
Wireless Connectivity of a Ground-and-Air Sensor Network
This paper shows that, when considering outdoor scenarios and wireless
communications using the IEEE 802.11 protocol with dipole antennas, the ground
reflection is a significant propagation mechanism. This way, the Two-Ray model
for this environment allows predicting, with some accuracy, the received signal
power. This study is relevant for the application in the communication between
overflying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and ground sensors. In the proposed
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) scenario, the UAVs must receive information from
the environment, which is collected by sensors positioned on the ground, and
need to maintain connectivity between them and the base station, in order to
maintain the quality of service, while moving through the environment.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure
The fate of the 2√3 × 2√3R(30°) silicene phase on Ag(111)
Silicon atoms deposited on Ag(111) produce various single layer silicene sheets with different buckling patterns and periodicities. Low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy reveals that one of the silicene sheets, the hypothetical √7 × √7 silicene structure, on 2√3 × 2√3 Ag(111), is inherently highly defective and displays no long-range order. Moreover, Auger and photoelectron spectroscopy measurements reveal its sudden death, to end, in a dynamic fating process at ∼300 °C. This result clarifies the real nature of the 2√3 × 2√3R(30°) silicene phase and thus helps to understand the diversity of the silicene sheets grown on Ag(111)
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