Open Platforms for Connected Vehicles

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Global Epidemiology of Tuberculosis

AbstractTuberculosis (TB) was the underlying cause of 1.3 million deaths among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative people in 2016, exceeding the global number of HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) deaths. In addition, TB was a contributing cause of 374,000 HIV deaths. Despite the success of chemotherapy over the past seven decades, TB is the top infectious killer globally. In 2016, 10.4 million new cases arose, a number that has remained stable since the beginning of the 21th century, frustrating public health experts tasked to design and implement interventions to reduce the burden of TB disease worldwide. Ambitious targets for reductions in the epidemiological burden of TB have been set within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the End TB Strategy. Achieving these targets is the focus of national and international efforts, and demonstrating whether or not they are achieved is of major importance to guide future and sustainable investments. This article reviews epidemiological facts about TB, trends in the magnitude of the burden of TB and factors contributing to it, and the effectiveness of the public health response

Rational use of anti-tuberculosis drugs in the EU: better patient care and less drug resistance

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Demo: Open source testbed for vehicular communication

The challenge of enabling the communications between the vehicle and its surroundings is being faced by the entire automotive industry, while the main standardization bod- ies are undergoing a huge effort to propose new solutions and improve the existing ones. The lack of open source solu- tions for vehicular communications penalizes the technology advances, and for this reason we present an open source plat- form based on PC Engines’ boards and Unex’s WNICs for the testing of V2X (vehicle-to-everything) applications. Our platform enables the connectivity over a 802.11p channel between two boards that can be deployed as wireless don- gles, so it can be used to extend the network capabilities of any kind of computing system. The testbed has been setup to work with several applications: from video streaming, to online gaming, to a containerized version of a latency tester, called LaTe

Domestic and donor fi nancing for tuberculosis care and control in low-income and middle-income countries: an analysis of trends, 2002–11, and requirements to meet 2015 targets

Background Progress in tuberculosis control worldwide, including achievement of 2015 global targets, requires adequate fi nancing sustained for many years. WHO began yearly monitoring of tuberculosis funding in 2002. We used data reported to WHO to analyse tuberculosis funding from governments and international donors (in real terms, constant 2011 US$) and associated progress in tuberculosis control in low-income and middle-income countries between 2002 and 2011. We then assessed funding needed to 2015 and how this funding could be mobilised. Methods We included low-income and middle-income countries that reported data about fi nancing for tuberculosis to WHO and had at least three observations between 2002 and 2011. When data were missing for specifi c country–year combinations, we imputed the missing data. We aggregated country-specifi c results for eight country groups defi ned according to income level, political and economic profi le, geography, and tuberculosis burden. We compared absolute changes in total funding with those in the total number of patients successfully treated and did cross-country comparisons of cost per successfully treated patient relative to gross domestic product. We estimated funding needs for tuberculosis care and control for all low-income and middle-income countries to 2015, and compared these needs with domestic funding that could be mobilised. Findings Total funding grew from$1·7 billion in 2002 to $4·4 billion in 2011. It was mostly spent on diagnosis and treatment of drug-susceptible tuberculosis. 43 million patients were successfully treated, usually for$100–500 per person in countries with high burdens of tuberculosis. Domestic funding rose from $1·5 billion to$3·9 billion per year, mostly in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS), which collectively account for 45% of global cases, where national contributions accounted for more than 95% of yearly funding. Donor funding increased from $0·2 billion in 2002 to$0·5 billion in 2011, and accounted for a mean of 39% of funding in the 17 countries with the highest burdens (excluding BRICS) and a mean of 67% in low-income countries by 2011. BRICS and upper middleincome countries could mobilise almost all of their funding needs to 2015 from domestic sources. A full response to the tuberculosis epidemic to 2015, including investments to tackle multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, will require international donor funding of $1·6–2·3 billion each year. Interpretation Funding for tuberculosis control increased substantially between 2002 and 2011, resulting in impressive and cost-eff ective gains. The increasing self-suffi ciency of many countries, including BRICS, which account for almost half the world’s tuberculosis cases, is a success story for control of tuberculosis. Nonetheless, international donor funding remains crucial in many countries and more is needed to achieve 2015 targets

Precision medicine and public health interventions: tuberculosis as a model?

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Studio del comportamento materno nel cane

L’interesse di questa ricerca è stato quello di studiare, analizzare e quantificare le cure materne che 10 femmine di diverse razze canine forniscono ai loro cuccioli, nonché il comportamento dei cuccioli nei confronti della propria madre, durante i primi 21 giorni di vita. A tale scopo, le dieci cucciolate prese in esame sono state videoriprese nel periodo neonatale e di transizione, e per l'analisi dei comportamenti è stato utilizzano l’etogramma di Rheingold H.L. (1963). I risultati sono stati analizzati attraverso l'uso di una statistica di tipo parametrica e non parametrica, prendendo in considerazione tre giorni in particolare (giorno 1- giorno 10- giorno 19) allo scopo di ottenere un andamento dei comportamenti materni durante le prime tre settimane di vita dei cuccioli. I risultati ottenuti indicano che in generale, la maggior parte delle differenze nei comportamenti materni tra cucciolate riguardano la terza settimana post-partum, facendo riscontrare una relazione temporale. Nel confronto tra cucciolate emergono delle differenze in alcuni comportamenti della madre che sembrerebbero indicare cure materne più intense nelle cucciolate meno numerose e nelle madri primipare e interessanti differenze di razza. Le cure materne hanno un effetto significativo sullo sviluppo comportamentale dei cuccioli e tale studio mette in luce l'importanza dell' approfondimento di questo tema all'interno della specie canina. STUDY OF MATERNAL BEHAVIOR IN DOGS The interest of this research was to study, analyze and quantify the maternal care that 10 dams of different dog breeds provided to their offspring, as well as the behavior of the pups towards their mother, during the first 21 days of life. For this purpose, the ten litters examined were videotaped in the neonatal and transitional period, and for the analysis of behavior it has been used the ethogram of Rheingold H.L. (1963). The results were analyzed using parametric and non-parametric statistics, applying the following test to three specific days (day 1, day 10 and day 19) to obtain a trend of maternal behaviors during the first three weeks of life of the pups. The results showed that, generally, most of the differences in maternal behavior between litters concerned the third postpartum week, showing “time” as a key factor. While comparing the litters differences emerged in some dams’ behaviors which would seem to indicate that maternal care is more intense in small litters and in primiparous dams, with interesting differences among breeds Maternal care has a significant effect on the behavioral development of the offspring and this study reveals the relevance of the investigation of this issue within the canine species

Regimens to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis:past, present and future perspectives

Over the past few decades, treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR)/ extensively drugresistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) has been challenging because of its prolonged duration (up to 2024 months), toxicity, costs and sub-optimal outcomes. After over 40 years of neglect, two new drugs (bedaquiline and delamanid) have been made available to manage difficult-to-treat MDR-/XDR-TB cases. World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines published in March 2019 endorsed the possibility of treating MDR-TB patients with a full oral regimen, following previous guidelines published in 2016 which launched a shorter regimen lasting 9-10 months.The objectives of this article are to review the main achievements in MDR-TB treatment through the description of the existing WHO strategies, to discuss the main ongoing trials and to shed light on potential future scenarios and revised definitions necessary to manage drug-resistant TB.</p

Characterization and performance evaluation of 802.11p NICs

The automotive industry is scrambling to equip high- and middle-segment vehicles with communication capabilities that will enable the commercialization of connected vehicles in the near future. Although both IEEE and 3GPP are devel- oping new solutions, it is likely that IEEE 802.11p will be the protocol of choice. In this paper, we develop an open-source testing framework for IEEE 802.11p cards and character- ize the performance of Unex DHXA-222 cards in terms of throughput and packet loss, especially when different traffic classes, hence access categories, are selected