ML-driven provisioning and management of vertical services in automated cellular networks

One of the main tasks of new-generation cellular networks is the support of the wide range of virtual services that may be requested by vertical industries, while fulfilling their diverse performance requirements. Such task is made even more challenging by the time-varying service and traffic demands, and the need for a fully-automated network orchestration and management to reduce the service operational costs incurred by the network provider. In this paper, we address these issues by proposing a softwarized 5G network architecture that realizes the concept of ML-as-a-Service (MLaaS) in a flexible and efficient manner. The designed MLaaS platform can provide the different entities of a MANO architecture with already-trained ML models, ready to be used for decision making. In particular, we show how our MLaaS platform enables the development of two ML-driven algorithms for, respectively, network slice subnet sharing and run-time service scaling. The proposed approach and solutions are implemented and validated through an experimental testbed in the case of three different services in the automotive domain, while their performance is assessed through simulation in a large-scale, real-world scenario. In-testbed validation shows that the use of the MLaaS platform within the designed architecture and the ML-driven decision-making processes entail a very limited time overhead, while simulation results highlight remarkable savings in operational costs, e.g., up to 40% reduction in CPU consumption and up to 30% reduction in the OPEX.This work was supported by the EU Commission through the 5GROWTH project (Grant Agreement No. 856709), Spanish MINECO 5G-REFINE project (TEC2017-88373-R), and Generalitat de Catalunya 2017 SGR 1195.Publicad

La Missione Archeologica Tuniso-Italiana a Numluli: l’attività di ricerca del 2022

The first excavation campaign of the Tunisian-Italian INP-Uniss Archaeological Mission in Numluli has just ended and we already want to illustrate preliminarily here the research activity carried out last September in the site of the municipium. The excavation areas opened in the forum in front of the Capitolium and in an early Christian basilica on the western edge of the settlement have given remarkable results of which we are proposing here a first synthetic examination, together with the study of the inscriptions of the Roman town which is the other important line of the research.Si è da poco conclusa la prima campagna di scavo della Missione Archeologica Tuniso-Italiana INP-Uniss a Numluli e si vuole già illustrare qui preliminarmente l’attività di ricerca svolta nello scorso mese di settembre nel sito del municipium. Le aree di scavo aperte nella piazza del foro di fronte al Capitolium e in una basilica paleocristiana ai margini occidentali dell’abitato hanno dato notevoli risultati dei quali viene qui proposto un primo sintetico esame, insieme allo studio delle iscrizioni della città romana che costituisce l’altro importante filone della ricerca

Botrytis cinerea cleaves a grapevine chitinase reducing its enzymatic activity and its detrimental effects on fungal growth

Chitin represents the main fibrillary component of the cell wall in filamentous fungi. During plant infection, chitin apposition to the fungal cell wall is counteracted by host chitinases. Following Botrytis cinerea infection, a chitinase IV is highly expressed in grapevine leaves and is also abundantly contained in grapevine berries. The fungus decreases the molecular size of this protein (Favaron et al., 2009, Journal of Plant Pathology, 91, 579-588) by its proteolytic activity (Marcato et al., 2017, Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology, 99, 7-15). The cleavage of the chitinase occurs early during the in vitro fungal growth. The N-terminal sequencing of the cleaved chitinase shows that the fragment removed is the chitin-binding domain (CBD). Without the CBD, the chitinase decreases its activity by about 50%. To investigate the possible effects of the native and cleaved chitinase on B. cinerea, the two purified proteins were administered at 100 \ub5g/ml to the fungal spores providing the proper conditions to avoid the chitinase cleavage. The native chitinase significantly decreased the conidia germination rate and the length of the germination tube while the cleaved chitinase did not. Protease inhibition assays provided evidence that metalloprotease activity is involved in the chitinase cleavage. To ascertain whether the native and cleaved chitinase can differently affect the expression of genes involved in B. cinerea cell wall modeling, we analyzed the expression of five fungal chitin synthase (Chs) and four chitin deacetylase (Cda) genes. By quantitative PCR we observed that only one Chs gene decreased its expression in presence of the native chitinase and three Cda genes were slightly down-regulated by both native and cleaved chitinase. In conclusion, the removal of the CBD by B. cinerea proteases appears as a mechanism preserving fungal growth from plant chitinase activity as highlighted also with other fungi (Jashni et al. 2015, Frontiers of plant science, 6, 1-7). Further experiments will better clarify the type of B. cinerea protease activity capable to disarm the plant chitinases

Aplicação de água residuária de suinocultura em solo cultivado com soja: cobre e zinco no material escoado e no solo Swine wastewater application in soil cultivated with soybean: copper and zinc in the runoff material and in the soil

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a poluição difusa referente ao cobre e ao zinco no solo e no material de escoamento superficial quando da aplicação de água residuária de suinocultura (ARS) em solo cultivado com soja, sob condição de chuva simulada. O experimento foi instalado em Toledo - PR, sendo aplicadas ao solo cinco taxas de ARS (0; 50; 100; 150 e 200 m³ ha-1 no ciclo), em três repetições por tratamento, divididas em seis aplicações ao longo do ciclo da soja. Foram instaladas calhas coletoras do material escoado e fizeram-se seis simulações de chuva durante o experimento, resultando em seis coletas do material escoado. Ao final do ciclo da soja, foram coletadas amostras de solo em cada uma das parcelas experimentais, em três profundidades, para a determinação do pH, da capacidade de troca de cátions, da matéria orgânica, do cobre e do zinco. Observou-se que houve perda de cobre e de zinco via escoamento superficial e que as maiores concentrações de cobre foram verificadas nas profundidades de 20-40 e 40-60 cm, enquanto o zinco apresentou maior concentração na camada de 0-20 cm e, ao final do experimento, aumentou nas demais profundidades.<br>The objective of this work was to evaluate the diffuse pollution regarding to the copper and to the zinc in the soil and in the runoff material due to the application of swine wastewater (ARS) in soil cultivated with soybean, under simulated rain condition. The experiment was installed in Toledo - PR, Brazil, and it was applied to the soil five rates of ARS (0; 50; 100; 150 and 200 m³ ha-1 in the cycle), in three replications for treatment, divided in six applications along the cycle of the soybean. Gutters were installed gutters to collect the runoff material and it was made six rain simulations during the experiment, resulting in six collections of the runoff. At the end of the soybean cycle, soil samples were collected in each one of the experimental plots, at three depths, for pH determination, cation exchangeable capacity, organic matter, copper and zinc. It was observed that there were copper and zinc losses through runoff and the largest copper concentrations were verified at 20-40 and 40-60 cm depths, while the zinc presented larger concentration in the top layer 0-20 cm and it increased in the other depths

A multi-element psychosocial intervention for early psychosis (GET UP PIANO TRIAL) conducted in a catchment area of 10 million inhabitants: study protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial

Multi-element interventions for first-episode psychosis (FEP) are promising, but have mostly been conducted in non-epidemiologically representative samples, thereby raising the risk of underestimating the complexities involved in treating FEP in 'real-world' services