1,355,288 research outputs found
Edge and Fog Computing for the Internet of Things
No full textOver the last years few years, the number of interconnected devices within the context of Internet of Things (IoT) has rapidly grown; some statistics state that the total number of IoT-connected devices in 2023 has reached the groundbreaking number of 17 billion [...
Near field communication and health: turning a mobile phone into an interactive multipurpose assistant in healthcare scenarios
No full textIn this paper we discuss the introduction of the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in the management of the assistance operations in the hospitals. NFC is a new short range communication system based on RFID technology.
NFC systems can work like traditional RFID systems, where a master device reads some information from a slave device, but they can also set up a two-way communication between two items. In particular, NFC devices can be integrated on mobile phones, widely enhancing the intercommunication capabilities of the users.
The introduction of NFC in sanitary environments can help to make safer all the assistance operations. Next to the realization of a NFC electronic case history, we also studied the realization of electronic medical prescription and the use of this technology for the exchange of patient data between doctors and between nurses, in order to avoid errors in the attendance operations.
The final idea is to change a mobile phone into an interactive multipurpose assistant for people working in hospitals or in harness with patients
Description and biogeographical implications of a new species of the genus Podisma Berthold 1827 from Mont Ventoux in South France (Orthoptera: Acrididae)
No full textThe status of the genus Podisma Berthold 1827 is discussed and all its taxa are listed. Endemic taxa within montane orthopteroid insects in southern Europe are considered and new genera recently revised are recorded. In this context Podisma amedegnatoae n. sp. from Mount Ventoux in the South Alps (France) is defined and described. The main distinctive characters of the new species are the relative length of prozona and metazona, the presence of the dotted dorsal pattern (FDDP) in almost 100% of the females, the broadly incised male furcula, the subquadrate dorsal valvae of the penis and the peculiar v-shaped middle incision diving them. The presence of a distinct species on Mount Ventoux allows to suppose the presence of a refuge area in this region during the ice ages. The analysis of the distribution of the FDDP character, distributed from southern France to southeastern Italy, shows a clear interruption in the genetic flow between the western and eastern slopes (French and Italian slopes) in the western Alps. This interruption fits well with the presence of a hybrid zone, recorded in literature for the genus Podisma on the basis of the distribution in this area of two male sex-chromosome forms. On the other hand data concerning the distribution of FDDP suggest a genetic flow coming from Nortwest to South-east. After that the description of P. amedegnatoae is not only a new contribution to the knowledge of the biodiversity in the southern Europeanmountains but adds new data to the study of the colonisation of Europe after the ice ages, by species which have survived in refuge areas. © 2007 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
A review of energy harvesting techniques for low power wide area networks (LPWANs)
No full textThe emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) architectures and applications has been the driver for a rapid growth in wireless technologies for the Machine-to-Machine domain. In this context, a crucial role is being played by the so-called Low PowerWide Area Networks (LPWANs), a bunch of transmission technologies developed to satisfy three main system requirements: low cost, wide transmission range, and low power consumption. This last requirement is especially crucial as IoT infrastructures should operate for long periods on limited quantities of energy: to cope with this limitation, energy harvesting is being applied every day more frequently, and several different techniques are being tested for LPWAN systems. The aim of this survey paper is to provide a detailed overview of the the existing LPWAN systems relying on energy harvesting for their powering. In this context, the different LPWAN technologies and protocols will be discussed and, for each technology, the applied energy harvesting techniques will be described as well as the architecture of the power management units when present
Museum and Near Field Communication – turning a mobile phone into an interactive tourist guide
No full textMadmen's Voices: Discovering Former Psychiatric Hospitals via Mobile Application
No full textThe aim of this paper is to present the realization of a mobile application as a support to the visit to the former psychiatric hospitals in the cities of Siena and Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. Due to the unique nature of the place to be recounted, the design phase of the application has paid special attention to the definition of the multimedia material to be provided to the users: Through the use of oral sources, i.e. interviews with the former hospital employees collected over the last 15 years, the app tries to implement the paradigm of Augmented Cultural Heritage, enriching the visit to a Tangible Cultural Site-The hospital-with additional Intangible Cultural Assets, in this case the narrations made by the people who experienced in first person the life inside a psychiatric hospital
Thermoelectric Generators (TEG) for the Powering of Energy-Hungry LoRaWAN-Based Sensor Nodes in Industrial Applications
No full textThe purpose of this study is to demonstrate the practical application of thermoelectric generators (TEGs) in low-power, energy-hungry wireless sensor systems, with the aim of providing complete energy self-sufficiency to these devices. To this end, an energy-hungry particulate matter (PM) sensor was integrated into a Long-Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN)based sensor node, and tested to evaluate the efficacy of the energy harvesting solution. Energy management was facilitated through the use of a low voltage power management integrated circuit (IC), which regulated both the power extraction from the TEGs and the charging process of a Li-Ion battery that powered the whole system. The architecture of the low-power wireless sensing system, integrating an energy-hungry PM sensor is presented, along with a theoretical analysis of its power consumption and the energy requirements for the implementation of effective energy harvesting using TEGs. The final objective of the work is the optimization of the sensor node life time, balancing the frequency of the achievable sensors samplings and data transmissions with the temperature gradient between the TEG faces. The low voltage power manager IC plays a crucial role in ensuring efficient power extraction and regulation, thereby contributing to optimal performance of the system
Combining LoRaWAN and NB-IoT for Edge-to-Cloud Low Power Connectivity Leveraging on Fog Computing
No full textLow Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) play crucial roles in the implementation of low-power and low-cost wide area distributed systems. Currently, two enabling technologies are the main competitors within the connectivity field for the Internet of Things (IoT), primarily because of their scalability, wide range and low power features: Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). In this paper, a brand new network architecture is presented, which combines both aforementioned technologies. Such a network accounts for sensor nodes, multi-protocol gateways, an a cloud infrastructure. Sensor nodes may be alternatively provided with LoRaWAN or NB-IoT. Multi-protocol gateways can receive and demodulate LoRaWAN packets and upload them to the cloud via the Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol over NB-IoT. The cloud is transparent with respect to the transmission technology, meaning that data are acquired and stored regardless of the exploited technique (i.e., LoRaWAN or NB-IoT). Indeed, sensor nodes using NB-IoT can send data to the cloud and can directly communicate with other NB-IoT nodes setting up a fog computing paradigm on peer-to-peer subnetworks. This approach may be crucial for the development of complex IoT infrastructures while providing high flexibility
An automated payment system for car parks based on Near Field Communication technology
No full textIn this paper we describe an automatic system for car parks payment based on Near Field Communication technology. This system has been projected and developed as part of the SIESTA project, a research project financed by the Tuscany region in Italy, to study innovative services for tourists visiting cities of art. The developed system allows users to use their own mobile phone both as an electronic ticket to enter and exit the parking and as an electronic wallet to pay automatically for it. To fully implement this system, four applicative protocols have been developed: two protocols manage the entrance and the exit operations for close parks, while the other two manage the interaction of the user with the kiosk, enabling respectively the load of the money on the phone and the cash payment. The underlying structure of the system foresees the presence of the corresponding softwares performing the protocol operations and interacting directly with the NFC memory of the phone for the read/write tasks, and of a database collecting all the information concerning the presence and the payment of the users
Can alternative foods availability influence the impact of pesticides on predatory mites?
No full textGeneralist predatory mites belonging to the Phytoseiidae are important biocontrol agents in several perennial cropping
systems. These predatory mites can persist for long periods on plants without prey, feeding on alternative foods included polle
n and fungi. Predatory mite population are often limited by pesticide applications and these effects can be influenced by
environmental factors such as the availability of alternative food sources. On grapevine, predatory mite abundance can be
influenced by the spread of pathogens (e.g., grape downy mildew). Thus different grape downy mildew infection levels induced
by different fungicide strategies can result in significant (indirect) effects on predatory mite populations. These effects can
be stronger than those associated to the intrinsic toxicity of pesticides. On apple, the availability of alternative food sources
(i.e., pollen) can mitigate the impact of insecticides on predatory mites. The provision of uncontaminated fresh pollen is likely to
decrease pesticide exposure, and provides a highly nutritional food source that boosts mites’ fecundity, favoring the resilienc
e of phytoseiid populations on treated plants
- …
