Using Group Management to Tame Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

International audienceMobile ad hoc networks (MANET) offer a convenient basis towards pervasive computing, due to inherent support for anytime, anywhere network access for mobile users. However, the development of applications over MANET still raises numerous challenges. One such challenge relates to accommodating the high dynamics of the network's topology. Group management appears as a promising paradigm to ease the development of distributed applications over dynamic, mobile networks. Specifically, group management takes care of assembling mobile nodes that together allow to meet target functional and nonfunctional properties, and of further making transparent failures due to the mobility of nodes. Various solutions towards group management over MANET have been investigated over the last couple of years, each targeting specific applications. Building upon such an effort, this paper introduces the design and implementation of a group service for MANET, which is generic with respect to the various attributes of relevance. Generic group management allows supporting various applications, as illustrated through groups dedicated to mobile collaborative data sharing

Making Middleware Communication Architecture Reconfigurable

To deal with emerging network technologies and services, as well as with varying application requirements and dynamic environmental conditions, middleware has to be reconfigurable. This requirement highly affects the middleware communication architecture, which comprises inherent middleware communication mechanisms and the underlying network architecture. In this report, we introduce an architectural model for reconfigurable middleware communication architecture. Towards this objective, our model re-applies application layer semantics to the middleware communication architecture. It specifies a complete interaction and addressing mechanism for middleware communication architecture objects. Further, an incorporated reflection architecture enables dynamic reconfiguration

A three round authenticated group key agreement protocol for ad hoc networks

International audienceGroup Key Agreement (GKA) protocols enable the participants to derive a key based on each one's contribution over a public network without any central authority. They also provide efficient ways to change the key when the participants change. While some of the proposed GKA protocols are too resource consuming for the constraint devices often present in ad hoc networks, others lack a formal security analysis. In this paper, we propose a simple, efficient and secure GKA protocol well-suited to ad hoc networks and present results of our implementation of the same in a prototype application

Diabete Tipo 1, Tipo 2 e Tipo X

Il muro concettuale secondo il quale il diabete in età pediatrica ha preferibilmente una patogenesi autoimmune sta ormai definitivamente crollando. Il diabete in età infantile e adolescenziale è molto più eterogeneo dal punto di vista eziopatogenetico di quanto si pensasse. In presenza di una qualsiasi iperglicemia è ormai diventato importantissimo chiedersi la patogenesi di questo sintomo utilizzando tutti gli strumenti che abbiamo oggi a disposizione

Glucokinase Gene Mutations: Structural and Genotype-Phenotype Analyses in MODY Children from South Italy

BACKGROUND: Maturity onset diabetes of the young type 2 (or GCK MODY) is a genetic form of diabetes mellitus provoked by mutations in the glucokinase gene (GCK). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We screened the GCK gene by direct sequencing in 30 patients from South Italy with suspected MODY. The mutation-induced structural alterations in the protein were analyzed by molecular modeling. The patients' biochemical, clinical and anamnestic data were obtained. Mutations were detected in 16/30 patients (53%); 9 of the 12 mutations identified were novel (p.Glu70Asp, p.Phe123Leu, p.Asp132Asn, p.His137Asp, p.Gly162Asp, p.Thr168Ala, p.Arg392Ser, p.Glu290X, p.Gln106_Met107delinsLeu) and are in regions involved in structural rearrangements required for catalysis. The prevalence of mutation sites was higher in the small domain (7/12: approximately 59%) than in the large (4/12: 33%) domain or in the connection (1/12: 8%) region of the protein. Mild diabetic phenotypes were detected in almost all patients [mean (SD) OGTT = 7.8 mMol/L (1.8)] and mean triglyceride levels were lower in mutated than in unmutated GCK patients (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of GCK MODY is high in southern Italy, and the GCK small domain is a hot spot for MODY mutations. Both the severity of the GCK mutation and the genetic background seem to play a relevant role in the GCK MODY phenotype. Indeed, a partial genotype-phenotype correlation was identified in related patients (3 pairs of siblings) but not in two unrelated children bearing the same mutation. Thus, the molecular approach allows the physician to confirm the diagnosis and to predict severity of the mutation

Social cognition in people with schizophrenia: A cluster-analytic approach

Background The study aimed to subtype patients with schizophrenia on the basis of social cognition (SC), and to identify cut-offs that best discriminate among subtypes in 809 out-patients recruited in the context of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses. Method A two-step cluster analysis of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), the Facial Emotion Identification Test and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores was performed. Classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify the cut-offs of variables that best discriminated among clusters. Results We identified three clusters, characterized by unimpaired (42%), impaired (50.4%) and very impaired (7.5%) SC. Three theory-of-mind domains were more important for the cluster definition as compared with emotion perception and emotional intelligence. Patients more able to understand simple sarcasm (14 for TASIT-SS) were very likely to belong to the unimpaired SC cluster. Compared with patients in the impaired SC cluster, those in the very impaired SC cluster performed significantly worse in lie scenes (TASIT-LI <10), but not in simple sarcasm. Moreover, functioning, neurocognition, disorganization and SC had a linear relationship across the three clusters, while positive symptoms were significantly lower in patients with unimpaired SC as compared with patients with impaired and very impaired SC. On the other hand, negative symptoms were highest in patients with impaired levels of SC. Conclusions If replicated, the identification of such subtypes in clinical practice may help in tailoring rehabilitation efforts to the person's strengths to gain more benefit to the person

Making Middleware Communication Architecture Reconfigurable

The`me 1-- Re&apos;seaux et syste`me

Enabling Ambient Intelligence via the Web

National audienceEnabling the ambient i n telligence vision means that consumers will be provided with universal and immediate access to available content and services, together with way of e ectively exploiting them. Concentrating on the software system development aspect, this means that the actual implementation of any a m bient intelligence application requested by a user can only be resolved at runtime according to the user's speci c situation. This paper introduces a base declarative language and associated core middleware, which supports the abstract speci cation of ambient i n telligence applications together with their dynamic composition according to the environment. The proposed solution builds on the Web Services Architecture, whose pervasiveness enables both service availability in most environments, and speci cation of applications supporting automated retrieval and composition