Whisper: Fast Flooding for Low-Power Wireless Networks

This paper presents Whisper, a fast and reliable protocol to flood small amounts of data into a multi-hop network. Whisper relies on three main cornerstones. First, it embeds the message to be flooded into a signaling packet that is composed of multiple packlets. A packlet is a portion of the message payload that mimics the structure of an actual packet. A node must intercept only one of the packlets to know that there is an ongoing transmission. Second, Whisper exploits the structure of the signaling packet to reduce idle listening and, thus, to reduce the radio-on time of the nodes. Third, it relies on synchronous transmissions to quickly flood the signaling packet through the network. Our evaluation on the Flocklab testbed shows that Whisper achieves comparable reliability but significantly lower radio-on time than Glossy -- a state-of-the-art flooding algorithm. Specifically, Whisper can disseminate data in FlockLab twice as fast as Glossy with no loss in reliability. Further, Whisper spends 30% less time in channel sampling compared to Glossy when no data traffic must be disseminated

Seismic reliability of the Abruzzo hospital system and upgrading strategies

SUMMARY A model for the regional hospitals system behavior in case of a seismic event is developed. The aim is the evaluation of the vulnerability of the system as well as the selection of the best intervention strategy for the retrofitting of the hospitals so as to minimize the cost benefit ratio and to evaluate the effect of different post-earthquake emergency measures like the use of camp hospitals. The efficiency of the system is measured in terms of mean distance to be cured for persons injured by the earthquake. In a previous work by the authors [Nuti and Vanzi, 1998c] a common fragility law had been assumed for all the hospitals in Abruzzo because of lack of information. This information is now available, since the vulnerabilities of the Italian hospitals have been computed and presente

Incorporating 2D tree-ring data in 3D laser scans of coarse-root systems

In times of global change biomass calculations and the carbon cycle is gaining in importance. Forests act as carbon sinks and hence, play a crucial role in worlds and forests carbon budgets. Unfortunately, growth models and biomass calculations existing so far mainly concentrate on the above-ground part of trees. For this reason, the aim of the present study is to develop an annually resolved 3D growth model for tree roots, which allows for reliable biomass calculations and can later be combined with above-ground models. A FARO scan arm was used to measure the surface of a tree-root segment. In addition, ring-width measurements were performed manually on sampled cross sections using WinDENDRO. The main goal of this study is to model root growth on an annual scale by combining these data sets. In particular, a laser scan arm was tested as a device for the realistic reproduction of tree-root architecture, although the first evaluation has been performed for a root segment rather than for an entire root system. Deviations in volume calculations differed between 5% and 7% from the actual volume and varied depending on the used modeling technique. The model with the smallest deviations represented the structure of the root segment in a realistic way and distances and diameter of cross sections were acceptable approximations of the real values. However, the volume calculations varied depending on object complexity, modeling technique and order of modeling steps. In addition, it was possible to merge tree-ring borders as coordinates into the surface model and receive age information in connection with the spatial allocation. The scan arm was evaluated as an innovative and applicable device with high potential for root modeling. Nevertheless, there are still many problems connected with the scanning technique which have an influence on the accuracy of the model but are expected to improve with technical progres

A tool to model 3D coarse-root development with annual resolution

Dynamic root-development models are indispensable for biomechanical and biomass allocation studies, and also play an important role in understanding slope stability. There are few root-development models in the literature, and there is a specific lack of dynamic models. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a 3D growth-development model for coarse roots, which is species independent, as long as annual rings are formed. In order to implement this model, the objectives are (I) to interpolate annual growth layers, and (II) to evaluate the interpolations and annual volume computations. The model developed is a combination of 3D laser scans and 2D tree-ring data. A FARO laser ScanArm is used to acquire the coarse-root structure. A MATLAB program then integrates the ring-width measurements into the 3D model. A weighted interpolation algorithm is used to compute cross sections at any point within the model to obtain growth layers. The algorithm considers both the root structure and the ring-width data. The model reconstructed ring profiles with a mean absolute error for mean ring chronologies of <9% and for single radii of <20%. The interpolation accuracy was dependent on the number of input sections and root curvature. Total volume computations deviated by 3.5-6.6% from the reference model. A new robust root-modelling tool was developed which allows for annual volume computations and sophisticated root-development analyse

Ketogenic Diet and Weight Loss: Is There an Effect on Energy Expenditure?

A dysregulation between energy intake (EI) and energy expenditure (EE), the two components of the energy balance equation, is one of the mechanisms responsible for the development of obesity. Conservation of energy equilibrium is deemed a dynamic process and alterations of one component (energy intake or energy expenditure) lead to biological and/or behavioral compensatory changes in the counterpart. The interplay between energy demand and caloric intake appears designed to guarantee an adequate fuel supply in variable life contexts. In the past decades, researchers focused their attention on finding efficient strategies to fight the obesity pandemic. The ketogenic or "keto" diet (KD) gained substantial consideration as a potential weight-loss strategy, whereby the concentration of blood ketones (acetoacetate, 3-beta-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone) increases as a result of increased fatty acid breakdown and the activity of ketogenic enzymes. It has been hypothesized that during the first phase of KDs when glucose utilization is still prevalent, an increase in EE may occur, due to increased hepatic oxygen consumption for gluconeogenesis and for triglyceride-fatty acid recycling. Later, a decrease in 24-h EE may ensue due to the slowing of gluconeogenesis and increase in fatty acid oxidation, with a reduction of the respiratory quotient and possibly the direct action of additional hormonal signals

BiHeartS: Bilateral Heart Rate from multiple devices and body positions for Sleep measurement Dataset

Sleep is the primary mean of recovery from accumulated fatigue and thus plays a crucial role in fostering people's mental and physical well-being. Sleep quality monitoring systems are often implemented using wearables that leverage their sensing capabilities to provide sleep behaviour insights and recommendations to users. Building models to estimate sleep quality from sensor data is a challenging task, due to the variability of both physiological data, perception of sleep quality, and the daily routine across users. This challenge gauges the need for a comprehensive dataset that includes information about the daily behaviour of users, physiological signals as well as the perceived sleep quality. In this paper, we try to narrow this gap by proposing Bilateral Heart rate from multiple devices and body positions for Sleep measurement (BiHeartS) dataset. The dataset is collected in the wild from 10 participants for 30 consecutive nights. Both research-grade and commercial wearable devices are included in the data collection campaign. Also, comprehensive self-reports are collected about the sleep quality and the daily routine.Comment: 5 page

How the Availability of Wi-Fi Connections Influences the Use of Mobile Devices

Abstract Several aspects might influence the way users operate their mobile devices in a mobile context. In this work, we show how the presence or absence of a Wi-Fi connection influences the amount of data traffic generated by mobile devices. Our results show that the probability of users to generate data traffic while connected to Wi-Fi is twice as high as when a cellular connection only is available. Furthermore, we observe that an almost constant amount of data traffic is generated over a day, although it slightly increases in the late afternoon. Last but not least, we observe that fair-use policies do not seem to influence the behavior of mobile users with respect to the amount of traffic they generate over different weeks of a month. We ground our analysis on the Device Analyzers data set, which contains detailed records of mobile phone usage of more than 17,000 users from all over the world. Building upon these preliminary quantitative results, we outline how the availability of data for mobile users can be improved by combining mobility and phone usage prediction with knowledge about the temporal and spatial availability of Wi-Fi connections

Characterization of the lncRNA transcriptome in mESC-derived motor neurons: Implications for FUS-ALS

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are currently recognized as crucial players in nervous system development, function and pathology. In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), identification of causative mutations in FUS and TDP-43 or hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9ORF72 point to the essential role of aberrant RNA metabolism in neurodegeneration. In this study, by taking advantage of an in vitro differentiation system generating mouse motor neurons (MNs) from embryonic stem cells, we identified and characterized the long non-coding transcriptome of MNs. Moreover, by using mutant mouse MNs carrying the equivalent of one of the most severe ALS-associated FUS alleles (P517L), we identified lncRNAs affected by this mutation. Comparative analysis with humanMNs derived in vitro frominduced pluripotent stemcells indicated that candidate lncRNAs are conserved between mouse and human. Our work provides a global view of the long non-coding transcriptome of MN, as a prerequisite toward the comprehension of the still poorly characterized non-coding side ofMNphysiopatholog

Connecting Wireless Sensor Networks to the Robot Operating System

AbstractRobot systems largely depend on embedded systems to operate. The interfaces of those embedded systems, e.g. motor controllers or laser scanners, are often vendor-specific and therefore require a component that translates from/to the Robot Operating System (ROS) Middleware interface. In this work we present an implementation and evaluation of a ROS Middleware client based on the Contiki operating systems, which is suitable for constrained embedded devices, like wireless sensor nodes. We show that in-buffer processing of ROS messages without relying on dynamic memory allocation is possible. That message contents can be accessed conveniently via well-known concepts of the C language (structs) with negligible processing overhead compared to a C++-based client. And that the message-passing middle- ware concept of ROS fits nicely in Contiki's event-based nature. Furthermore, in order for an environment enriched with wireless sensor network to help robots in navigating, understanding and manipulating environments a direct integration is mandatory

A Regulatory Circuitry Between Gria2, miR-409, and miR-495 Is Affected by ALS FUS Mutation in ESC-Derived Motor Neurons

Mutations in fused in sarcoma (FUS) cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). FUS is a multifunctional protein involved in the biogenesis and activity of several types of RNAs, and its role in the pathogenesis of ALS may involve both direct effects of disease-associated mutations through gain- and loss-of-function mechanisms and indirect effects due to the cross talk between different classes of FUS-dependent RNAs. To explore how FUS mutations impinge on motor neuron-specific RNA-based circuitries, we performed transcriptome profiling of small and long RNAs of motor neurons (MNs) derived from mouse embryonic stem cells carrying a FUS-P517L knock-in mutation, which is equivalent to human FUS-P525L, associated with a severe and juvenile-onset form of ALS. Combining ontological, predictive and molecular analyses, we found an inverse correlation between several classes of deregulated miRNAs and their corresponding mRNA targets in both homozygous and heterozygous P517L MNs. We validated a circuitry in which the upregulation of miR-409-3p and miR-495-3p, belonging to a brainspecific miRNA subcluster implicated in several neurodevelopmental disorders, produced the downregulation of Gria2, a subunit of the glutamate α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptor with a significant role in excitatory neurotransmission. Moreover, we found that FUS was involved in mediating such miRNA repression. Gria2 alteration has been proposed to be implicated in MN degeneration, through disturbance of Ca2+ homeostasis, which triggers a cascade of damaging “excitotoxic” events. The molecular cross talk identified highlights a role for FUS in excitotoxicity and in miRNA-dependent regulation of Gria2. This circuitry also proved to be deregulated in heterozygosity, which matches the human condition perfectly