0000000000026277
AUTHOR
P. Gallo
Wireless software and hardware platforms for flexible and Unified Radio and Network Control (WiSHFUL)
In the last years, we have assisted to an impressive evolution of wireless technologies for short distance communication (like IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.4. Bluetooth Low Energy, etc.) due to the need of coping with the heterogeneous requirements of emerging applications, such as Internet of things, the Industry 4.0, the Tactile Internet, the ambient assistant living, and so on. Indeed, for optimizing the technology performance in these scenarios, it is often required to support some forms of protocol adaptation, by allowing the dynamic reconfiguration of protocol parameters and the dynamic activation of optional mechanisms, or some targeted protocol extensions.In both cases, prototyping, tes…
Wireless card virtualization: from virtual NICs to virtual MAC machines
Virtualization has been a hot topic in computer science this last 10 years, and a key enabler to the recent advances. By technically enabling the Cloud paradigm, virtualization is becoming an inspiring source for the whole IT industry. At the same moment the virtualization of commodity PC was envisioned, Software Defined Radio started as a huge promise of efficient wireless transmission hardware. Unfortunately, the pace of innovation has still to reach the one of the PC virtualization. Yet, there is a another option. The current state of the art of hardware and software of wireless adapter in standard PC reveals interesting capabilities in terms of unused wireless capacity, processing power…
Acute myeloid leukemia in Italian patients with multiple sclerosis treated with mitoxantrone
none 25 no Abstract OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the incidence and dose-dependency of mitoxantrone (MTX)-associated acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) in the network of Italian multiple sclerosis (MS) clinics. METHODS: We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients treated with MTX in MS centers under the Italian national health care system between 1998 and 2008. Demographic, disease, treatment, and follow-up information were collected using hospital records. RESULTS: Data were available for 3,220 patients (63% women) from 40 Italian centers. Follow-up (mean ± SD) was 49 ± 29 months (range 12-140 months). We observed 30 cases of AML (incidence 0.93% [95% confidence interval 0.60%…
Multiple sclerosis in twins from continental Italy and Sardinia: a nationwide study.
Knowledge about the balance between heritable and nonheritable risk in multiple sclerosis (MS) is based on twin studies in high-prevalence areas. In a study that avoided ascertainment limitations and directly compared continental Italy (medium-prevalence) and Sardinia (high-prevalence), we ascertained 216 pairs from 34,549 patients. This gives a twinning rate of 0.62% among MS patients, significantly less than that of the general population. In continental Italy, probandwise concordance was 14.5% (95% confidence interval, 5.1-23.8) for monozygotic and 4.0% (95% confidence interval, 0.8-7.1) for dizygotic twins. Results in Sardinia resemble those in northern populations but in limited number…
Quality of life, depression and fatigue in mildly disabled patients with relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis receiving subcutaneous interferon beta-1a: 3-year results from the COGIMUS (COGnitive Impairment in MUltiple Sclerosis) study
Background: The precise relationships among quality of life, depression, fatigue and cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) are complex and poorly understood. Objective: To assess the effects of subcutaneous interferon beta-1a on quality of life, depression and fatigue over 3 years in the COGIMUS study, and to examine the relationship between these outcomes and baseline cognitive status. Methods: COGIMUS was an observational 3-year trial assessing cognitive function in 459 patients with relapsing–remitting MS treated with subcutaneous interferon beta-1a. Results: In total, 331 patients completed the study (168 received interferon beta-1a, 44 µg subcutaneously three times weekly, a…
Flexible and Modular Support for Multicast Rate Adaptation in WLANs
The flexibility and virtualization capabilities provided by wireless cards have received significant attention as a means to reduce development costs. In this paper we present a modular architecture that exploits the features provided by emerging PHY and MAC implementations to rapidly develop new rate adaptation algorithms for multicast trans- mission in wireless LANs. We validate our solution by developing three rate adapta- tion algorithms that use an innovative sensing mechanism to evaluate the frame recep- tion correlation of the members of the multicast group. The experimental results obtained on a real-life testbed show that our solutions permit to increase the performance of multicas…
Mortality rate and risk factors for gastrointestinal bleeding in elderly patients
Abstract Background Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) is burdened by high mortality rate that increases with aging. Elderly patients may be exposed to multiple risk factors for GIB. We aimed at defining the impact of GIB in elderly patients. Methods Since 2008, samples of elderly patients (age ≥ 65 years) with multimorbidity admitted to 101 internal medicine wards across Italy have been prospectively enrolled and followed-up (REPOSI registry). Diagnoses of GIB, length of stay (LOS), mortality rate, and possible risk factors, including drugs, index of comorbidity (Cumulative Illness Rating Scale [CIRS]), polypharmacy, and chronic diseases were assessed. Adjusted multivariate logistic regressio…
Prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism in elderly patients with multimorbidity
none 327 si Pharmacological thromboprophylaxis (TP) is known to reduce venous thromboembolism (VTE) in medical inpatients, but the criteria for risk-driven prescription, safety and impact on mortality are still debated. We analyze data on elderly patients with multimorbidities admitted in the year 2010 to the Italian internal medicine wards participating in the REPOSI registry to investigate the rate of TP during the hospital stay, and analyze the factors that are related to its prescription. Multivariate logistic regression, area under the ROC curve and CART analysis were performed to look for independent predictors of TP prescription. Association between TP and VTE, bleeding and death in …
Changes in magnetic resonance imaging disease measures over 3 years in mildly disabled patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis receiving interferon β-1a in the COGnitive Impairment in MUltiple Sclerosis (COGIMUS) study.
Abstract Background Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has improved the diagnosis and monitoring of multiple sclerosis (MS). In clinical trials, MRI has been found to detect treatment effects with greater sensitivity than clinical measures; however, clinical and MRI outcomes tend to correlate poorly. Methods In this observational study, patients (n = 550; 18-50 years; relapsing-remitting MS [Expanded Disability Status Scale score ≤4.0]) receiving interferon (IFN) β-1a therapy (44 or 22 µg subcutaneously [sc] three times weekly [tiw]) underwent standardized MRI, neuropsychological and quality-of-life (QoL) assessments over 3 years. In this post hoc analysis, MRI outcomes and corre…
On the Flexibility of the IEEE 802.11 Technology: Challenges and Directions
The original 802.11 standard, which is the de-facto standard for contention-based wireless data networks, has shown to give poor performance or to be scarcely suitable for dealing with new PHY-layer technologies, networking scenarios, or service contexts, thus boosting the proliferation of projects, technical solutions and dedicated task groups for extending the basic protocol operations. In this paper, starting from the evolution analysis of current 802.11 standard and de- vices, we propose an architectural solution for making the medium access protocol programmable. Our basic idea, pursued within the FP7 EU Project FLAVIA [1], started in July 2010, is changing the role of the wireless net…
Need for Deprescribing in Hospital Elderly Patients Discharged with a Limited Life Expectancy: The REPOSI Study
<b><i>Objective:</i></b> Older people approaching the end of life are at a high risk for adverse drug reactions. Approaching the end of life should change the therapeutic aims, triggering a reduction in the number of drugs.<b><i></i></b>The main aim of this study is to describe the preventive and symptomatic drug treatments prescribed to patients discharged with a limited life expectancy from internal medicine and geriatric wards. The secondary aim was to describe the potentially severe drug-drug interactions (DDI). <b><i>Materials and Methods:</i></b> We analyzed Registry of Polytherapies Societa Italiana di Medicina I…
Unified Radio and Network Control Across Heterogeneous Hardware Platforms
Experimentation is an important step in the investigation of techniques for handling spectrum scarcity or the development of new waveforms in future wireless networks. However, it is impractical and not cost effective to construct custom platforms for each future network scenario to be investigated. This problem is addressed by defining Unified Programming Interfaces that allow common access to several platforms for experimentation-based prototyping, research, and development purposes. The design of these interfaces is driven by a diverse set of scenarios that capture the functionality relevant to future network implementations while trying to keep them as generic as possible. Herein, the d…
Effects of immunomodulatory treatment with subcutaneous interferon beta-1a on cognitive decline in mildly disabled patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
The objective of this study was to assess the effects of subcutaneous (sc) interferon beta-1a (IFNβ-1a) on cognition in mildly disabled patients with relapsing—remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Patients aged 18—50 years with RRMS (McDonald criteria; Expanded Disability Status Scale score ≤4.0) were assigned IFNβ therapy at the physician’s discretion and underwent standardized magnetic resonance imaging, neurological examination and neuropsychological testing at the baseline and regular intervals for up to three years. This analysis included 459 patients who received sc IFNβ-1a (44 mcg: n = 236; 22 mcg: n = 223; three-year follow up was available for 318 patients). The hazard ratio for c…
Experimental Tests
This chapter presents the outcomes of the experimental implementation of the architecture described in Chap. 4 running a hardware testbed for the emulation of domestic electrical load profiles. Besides it shows how this experimental scenario integrates both with the legacy metering architecture and with the blockchain platform. Finally, the integrated use with an Energy Management System designed on purpose is also described with the aim of ensuring intervention and automating the end user’s response to a DR event.
Multiclass HCV resistance to direct-acting antiviral failure in real-life patients advocates for tailored second-line therapies
Background & Aims: Despite the excellent efficacy of direct-acting antivirals (DAA) reported in clinical trials, virological failures can occur, often associated with the development of resistance-associated substitutions (RASs). This study aimed to characterize the presence of clinically relevant RASs to all classes in real-life DAA failures. Methods: Of the 200 virological failures that were analyzed in 197 DAA-treated patients, 89 with pegylated-interferon+ribavirin (PegIFN+RBV) and 111 without (HCV-1a/1b/1g/2/3/4=58/83/1/6/24/25; 56.8% treatment experienced; 65.5% cirrhotic) were observed. Sanger sequencing of NS3/NS5A/NS5B was performed by home-made protocols, at failure (N= 200) and w…