1,354,074 research outputs found
EUDroid: a formal language specifying the behaviour of IoT devices
No full textRecent technologies are offering today many possibilities to end users, which ask for continuous support in a variety of situations. Internet of things (IoTs) and the proliferation of smart devices are offering many opportunities that raise the need to standardise protocols for their interoperability and interaction languages for their management. This study proposes EUDroid, a system composed of a mobile application and an IoT device used as a pill reminder to allow the patients to correctly take their prescribed drugs. A web server stores and manages the therapies that can be defined by the end users. The web server also manages the communication between the app and the device. In order to validate the management of the therapies, a formal language has been proposed. It describes the behaviour of different components of the IoT device, such as LEDs or buzzers, and defines when, with which delay, and for how long time a given event will last, to manage technical concepts related to smart devices for supporting them in following therapies more accurately.Recent technologies are offering today many possibilities to end users, which ask for continuous support in a variety of situations. Internet of things (IoTs) and the proliferation of smart devices are offering many opportunities that raise the need to standardise protocols for their interoperability and interaction languages for their management. This study proposes EUDroid, a system composed of a mobile application and an IoT device used as a pill reminder to allow the patients to correctly take their prescribed drugs. A web server stores and manages the therapies that can be defined by the end users. The web server also manages the communication between the app and the device. In order to validate the management of the therapies, a formal language has been proposed. It describes the behaviour of different components of the IoT device, such as LEDs or buzzers, and defines when, with which delay, and for how long time a given event will last, to manage technical concepts related to smart devices for supporting them in following therapies more accurately
Focolaio di Mal Rossino in un allevamento di fagiani
No full textErysipelotrix rhusiopathiae is the etiologic agent of erysipelas in animals. It is a worldwide diffused disease which affects swine and avian species. Erysipelas in avian is mostly reported in turkey and chicken, although its prevalence is probably underestimated. Even more rarely the disease is reported in wild species, but they could play an important role in disseminating the pathogen. Here we report an unusual focus of erysipelas in a pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) farm.
Ten 8-month old birds were brought to our facilities following a history of malaise, sensory impairment and mortality in a pheasant farm. At necropsy, we observed wide alopecic areas, with correspondent thickness of skin. Diffused hemorrhages were evident mainly along the muscles of chest, liver, spleen and epicardium. Catarrhal hemorrhages were also evident in the distal part of gut. Histological observations evidenced necrotic phlogistic foci characterized by fibrotic suppuration from gut and proventricula samples. Thrombotic areas were evident in kidney and spleen samples. In each case, microscopy observations showed bacterial cells and aggregate, also found in the blood. Bacteriological analyses let us isolate and identify E. rhusiopathiae. Following identification, a therapy with -lactamic antimicrobial agents was administered, quick resolving the case.
This report confirms the E. rhusiopathiae may circulate in wild birds, such as pheasant. We hypothesize that overcrowding could have promoted the epidemic-like burden of the disease in the farm. Further studies should be carried out to verify the possibility that wild avian species such as pheasant could act as a reservoir for E. rhusiopathia
A Homemade Pill Dispenser Prototype Supporting Elderly
No full textPeople, and mainly elderly people, need a continuous support for different reasons. Recent technologies are offering many possibilities that was not possible to conceive in the past. In particular, the proliferation of IoT devices raise the need to standardize protocols and interaction languages. The aim of this work is to create a device for the management of pills according to the user’s therapy, with Internet of things (IoT) devices and by allowing users to manage the pill dispenser by themselves. The work falls into two main areas of current research: the End-user development (EUD) and the Internet of things (IoT). The main issue we cope with such device is to allow the different therapies for each person and for each drug. We propose the EUDroid system, which provides the end user with the possibility to easily activate LEDs and buzzer related to pills from the users’ smartphone. The user chooses the type of pill to be associated to each LED, the day and time of activation and some other property. A formal language to configure the device has been adopted in order to allow users to build complex conditions for remind to follow the therapy
RT-PCR based strategy to identify Rabbit Haemorragic Disease Virus (Italy)
No full textRabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV) and European Brown Hare Syndrome Virus (EBHSV) are two virus belonging to the Lagovirus genus. They cause a hemorrhagic disease in rabbits and hare, respectively. The high mortality (up to 100%), and the great contagious potential of the viruses make them very dangerous for both wild and domestic animals. The viruses have a number of variants, and recently a new RHDV variant has been widely circulating among rabbits, mainly in France. The variability of viruses may cause some problem in the molecular diagnosis. We set up a RT-PCR based method which could widen the efficacy of the existing molecular techniques, as it could detect simultaneously the variants of RHDV, including the French variants, and the EBHSV, furthermore discriminating the two viral species
A Visual Analytic Approach to Analyze Highway Vehicular Traffic
No full textThe Italian National Police started a research on vehicular traffic to improve road safety and reduce the number of theft victims. In order to support the discovery of anomalous behavior, this paper proposes a method for data analysis to automatically detect relevant hypotheses, a data mining technique to extract relevant information and a visualization technique. Traffic flow analysis is a challenging and complex task, due to the huge size of the data involved, thus falling in the realm of Big Data. Visual Analytics tools reduce and improve the search by representing a large amount of data in a small space through smart visualizations
A Visual Analytics Technique to Compare the Performance of Predictive Models
No full textDecisions that people make every day are affected by the information available in a given moment. Predictive models are used to estimate future values. For a given set of data and an analysis goal, the results of the models can vary, so it is important to select the most accurate model for the set of data. This paper proposes a Visual Analytics technique for comparing the performance of predictive models. It consists of four main components that support the tasks of the Keim’s Visual Analytics Mantra: “analyze first, show the important, zoom, filter and analyze further, details on demand”. The first component, analyze data, by building predictive models using various machine learning algorithms; the other three components are interactive visualizations that show the important results found by the models, zoom and filter on results of interest and finally, further analyze the selected results by showing details on the data
Genetics basis of antimicrobial resistance strains of Salmonella typhimurium, southern Italy
No full textPsittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD)-like illness in Gouldian finches (Chloebia gouldiae)
No full textBeak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV) is a member of the genus Circovirus and causes the Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) in Psittaciformes. PBFD is a severe disease generally characterized by immunodeficiency and beak and feather disorders. Although Circovirus spp. has been detected in several nonpsittacine species, little is known about the symptoms and the disease associated with this infection in birds other than Psittaciformes. In this study, we reported the identification of Circovirus infection in a flock of Gouldian finches showing beak and feather disorders. Sequence analyses on the rep gene of the virus highlighted a strong similarity at nucleotide and amino acid level with the corresponding regions of BFDV from psittacine species. By contrast, it was more distant to circoviruses identified in finch and canar
An Experience on Cooperative Development of Interactive Visualizations for the Analysis of Urban Data
No full textDigital technologies and social networks offer several possibilities for improving the quality of life in Smart Cities. Citizens are willing to contribute to the efficiency of services that Smart Cities offer by reporting through different channels, such as phone/fax, front office, website, mobile app, sensors, several problems they observe in the city. This paper contributes to the advancement of the practice of HCI by describing an experience carried out with the employees of a municipality about the identification and implementation of interactive visualizations, in order to support them in the management of urban issues reported by citizens. The performed experience was inspired by the Cooperative Method Development (CMD), that emphasizes a strong collaboration between IT researchers and experts in a work practice, working side by side and being focused on the practitioners’ problems, in order to identify critical aspects and possible improvements that lead to the design and development of new software artifacts. The municipality employees greatly appreciated their active involvement in the overall CMD process, as well as the improvements on data analysis, thanks to the developed interactive visualizations that enable them to detect trends, anomalies and significant facts in the management of urban issues
SALMONELLA SER. TYPHIMURIUM ISOLATED FROM RABBIT FARMS: CHARACTERIZATION AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
No full textSalmonella enterica infections are not common in rabbits, but, whenever they occur, they induce high morbidity and mortality and they also raise concern in terms of public health impact. Moreover, the worldwide spread of multidrug resistant strains complicates the treatment of infection in both rabbits and humans. Despite those premises, knowledge about salmonelloses in rabbits is still poor. In this study four S. Typhimurium strains were isolated from as many rabbit farms, and they were characterized for antimicrobial susceptibility, resistance genes, class 1 integrons and Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE). The results showed that a group of strains were circulating in Basilicata, and that it was indistinguishable from human isolates for PFGE profile, multidrug resistance pattern and genetic features, as they harbored the Salmonella Genomic Island 1 (SGI1) which characterized the S. Typhimurium strains which are widespread among humans all over the world. Our data suggest that molecular characterization is a useful tool to promptly recognize Salmonella strains which are potentially harmful to rabbits or humans
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