GAIML: A New Language for Verbal and Graphical Interaction in Chatbots

Natural and intuitive interaction between users and complex systems is a crucial research topic in human-computer interaction. A major direction is the definition and implementation of systems with natural language understanding capabilities. The interaction in natural language is often performed by means of systems called chatbots. A chatbot is a conversational agent with a proper knowledge base able to interact with users. Chatbots appearance can be very sophisticated with 3D avatars and speech processing modules. However the interaction between the system and the user is only performed through textual areas for inputs and replies. An interaction able to add to natural language also graph…

Body Area Networks and Healthcare

Derived from Wireless Sensor Networks, Body Area Networks, comprise a wide range of typologies with sensor nodes placed on, close to, or implanted in the body that measure physiological signs. The availability of compact mobile computing devices makes it possible to integrate traditional healthcare with new powerful means. New paradigms in public health are arising from these developments, such as e-health and mHealth, and new converging applications can be envisioned. Physiological data acquisition provided by BANs may give care providers a unobtrusive real-time view on patient’s health. On the other hand, the patient may be informed, assisted and even given the proper treatment by care pr…

In silico identification of small molecules as new cdc25 inhibitors through the correlation between chemosensitivity and protein expression pattern

The cell division cycle 25 (Cdc25) protein family plays a crucial role in controlling cell proliferation, making it an excellent target for cancer therapy. In this work, a set of small molecules were identified as Cdc25 modulators by applying a mixed ligand-structure-based approach and taking advantage of the correlation between the chemosensitivity of selected structures and the protein expression pattern of the proposed target. In the first step of the in silico protocol, a set of molecules acting as Cdc25 inhibitors were identified through a new ligand-based protocol and the evaluation of a large database of molecular structures. Subsequently, induced-fit docking (IFD) studies allowed us…

DRUDIT: Web-based DRUgs DIscovery Tools to design small molecules as modulators of biological targets

Abstract Motivation New in silico tools to predict biological affinities for input structures are presented. The tools are implemented in the DRUDIT (DRUgs DIscovery Tools) web service. The DRUDIT biological finder module is based on molecular descriptors that are calculated by the MOLDESTO (MOLecular DEScriptors TOol) software module developed by the same authors, which is able to calculate more than one thousand molecular descriptors. At this stage, DRUDIT includes 250 biological targets, but new external targets can be added. This feature extends the application scope of DRUDIT to several fields. Moreover, two more functions are implemented: the multi- and on/off-target tasks. These tool…

An Ambient Intelligence System for Assisted Living

Nowadays, the population's average age is constantly increasing, and thus the need for specialized home assistance is on the rise. Smart homes especially tailored to meet elderly and disabled people's needs can help them maintaining their autonomy, whilst ensuring their safety and well-being. This paper proposes a complete context-aware system for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), which infers user's actions and context, analyzing its past and current behavior to detect anomalies and prevent possible emergencies. The proposed system exploits Dynamic Bayesian Networks to merge raw data coming from heterogeneous sensors and infer user's behavior and health conditions. A rule-based reasoner is ab…

Identification of biological targets through the correlation between cell line chemosensitivity and protein expression pattern.

Matching biological data sequences is one of the most interesting ways to discover new bioactive compounds. In particular, matching cell chemosensitivity with a protein expression profile can be a useful approach to predict the activity of compounds against definite biological targets. In this review, we discuss this correlation. First, we analyze case studies in which some known drugs, acting on known targets, show a good correlation between their antiproliferative activities and protein expression when a large panel of tumor cells is considered. Then, we highlight how the application of in silico methods based on the correlation between cell line chemosensitivity and gene/protein expressi…

Multi-robot Interacting Through Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper addresses the issue of coordinating the operations of multiple robots in an indoor environment. The framework presented here uses a composite networking architecture, in which a hybrid wireless network, composed by commonly available WiFi devices, and the more recently developed wireless sensor networks. Such architecture grants robots to enhance their perceptive capabilities and to exchange information so as to coordinate actions in order to achieve a global common goal. The proposed framework is described with reference to an experimental setup that extends a previously developed robotic tour guide application in the context of a multi-robot application.

COMPUTER MODEL OF ARTERIAL BIO-MECHANICS.EVALUATION OF RUPTURED ABDOMINAL AORTIC ANEURYSM WALL THROUGH FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

MULTIPLE ECHINOCOCCOSIS OF THE LIVER:EXPERIMENTAL STUDY BY COMPUTER THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELING

An Intelligent System for Decision Support in Bioinformatics

The enormous array of computational techniques and data available due to today's use of high-throughput technologies can be quite overwhelming for researchers investigating biological problems. For any problem, there are many possible models and algorithms giving different results. We present a new Intelligent System that supports the selection, configuration and operation of strategies and tools in the bioinformatics domain. The Institute for High Performance Computing and Networking (ICAR-CNR) and the University of Palermo are developing an intelligent system that supports bioinformatics research. The system guides the researcher in building a data analysis workflow and acts as an interfa…

Interoperable real-time symbolic programming for smart environments

Smart environments demand novel paradigms offering easy configuration, programming and deployment of pervasive applications. To this purpose, different solutions have been proposed ranging from visual paradigms based on mashups to formal languages. However, most of the paradigms proposed in the literature require further external tools to turn application description code into an executable program before the deployment on target devices. Source code generation, runtime upgrades and recovery, and online debugging and inspection are often cumbersome in these programming environments. In this work we describe a methodology for real-time and on-line programming in smart environments that is co…

A Middleware to Develop and Test Vehicular Sensor Network Applications

The Smart city ecosystem is composed of several networked devices that provide services to citizens and improve their quality of life. Basic services, which must be exposed by the underlying software infrastructure, require efficient networking and communication protocols to coordinate and manage all the system components. In particular, Vehicular Sensor Networks (VSNs) are envisioned as key components of smart cities. Verification is crucial in such a highly dynamic scenario to ensure operation correctness and to reduce the development cost of smart applications. However, the rigidity of existing middlewares makes development, reconfiguration, and testing rather difficult. In this work, we…

Clinical Anatomy and information technology.

Urban Air Quality Monitoring Using Vehicular Sensor Networks

The quality of air is a major concern in modern cities as pollutants have been demonstrated to have significant impact on human health. Networks of fixed monitoring stations have been deployed in urban areas to provide authorities with data to define and enforce dynamically policies to reduce pollutants, for instance by issuing traffic regulation measures. However, fixed networks require careful placement of monitoring stations to be effective. Moreover, changes in urban arrangement, activities, or regulations may affect considerably the monitoring model, especially when budget constraints prevent from relocating stations or adding new ones to the network. In this chapter we discuss a diffe…

Designing for Student-Centered Hybrid Learning Environments: A Framework for Programming Languages Course Design

Hybrid learning environments are a means of delivering instructional content in that online educational materials and opportunities for interaction were combined with traditional classroom methods. Hybrid learning environments give students the opportunity to work in an environment enriched with digital learning tools, and to support student-based learning approach. Student-based learning approach promotes engagement to make students active learners via various ways such as interactivity, feedback, etc. Researchers identified feedback as an activity for promoting effective online learning and more so creating the environment for teacher-student teaching and learning interaction. Besides, so…

Formal Description of Web User Interfaces for Automatic Generation

Self-Organizing Architectures for Digital Signal Processing

Verification of Symbolic Distributed Protocols for Networked Embedded Devices

The availability of versatile and interconnected embedded devices makes it possible to build low-cost networks with a large number of nodes running even complex applications and protocols in a distributed manner. Common tools used for modeling and verification, such as simulators, present some limitations as application correctness is checked off-board and only focuses on source code. Execution in the real network is thus excluded from the early stages of design and verification. In this paper, a system for modeling and verification of symbolic distributed protocols running on embedded devices is introduced. The underlying methodology is rooted in a symbolic programming paradigm that makes …

Anatomy of the cervical spine

The vertebral column, or spine, consisting of a coordinated series of 33-34 vertebrae separated from each other by intervertebral disks, is divided in five segments or sections: cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral and coccygeal [1-7]. Not available

Information technology in clinical anatomy

RoBotanic: a Robot Guide for Botanical Gardens. Early steps.

A Fast and Interactive Approach to Application Development on Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks

In Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs) sensor and actuator devices are connected through radio links to perform tasks in many different contexts. Conven- tionally, applications for WSANs are developed using traditional operating systems which application code is linked with at the end of a cross-compilation process. We propose instead an alternative approach for building applications on WSANs that is based on interactivity and does not require time consuming cross-compilation phases. In our development methodology, it is possible to define procedures and services according to the application target, simultaneously test them and reprogram the nodes interactively when needed, even a…

Population and Query Interface for a Content-Based Video Database

In this paper we describe the first full implementation of a content-based indexing and retrieval system for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 videos. We consider a video as a collection of spatiotemporal segments called video objects; each video object is a sequence of video object planes. A set of representative video object planes is used to index each video object. During the database population, the operator, using a semi-automatic outlining tool we developed, manually selects video objects and insert some semantical information. Low-level visual features like color, texture, motion and geometry are automatically computed. The system has been implemented on a commercial relational DBMS and is based on…

A symbolic distributed event detection scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Due to the possibility of extensive and pervasive deployment of many tiny sensor devices in the area of interest, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) result particularly suitable to detect significant events and to react accordingly in industrial and home scenarios. In this context, fuzzy inference systems for event detection in WSNs have proved to be accurate enough in treating imprecise sensory readings to decrease the number of false alarms. Besides reacting to event occurrences, the whole network may infer more information to enrich the event semantics resulting from reasoning processes carried out on the individual nodes. Contextual knowledge, including spatial and temporal relationships, …

A Lightweight Software Architecture for Robot Navigation and Visual Logging through Environmental Landmarks Recognition

A robot architecture with real-time performance in navigation tasks is presented. The system architecture is multi-threaded with shared memory and fast message passing through static signalling. In this paper, we focused on the reactive layer components and its straightforward implementation. The proposed architecture is described with reference to an experimental setup, in which the robot task is visual logging of environmental landmarks detected on the basis of sensor readings. Our experimental results show how the robot is able to identify, make snapshots and log a set of landmarks by matching 2D geometric patterns.

A Decision Support System for Reverse Engineering Gene Regulatory Networks

In this paper we present a knowledge-based system that aims at helping scientists in the reverse engineering process of gene regulatory networks. The main motivation of the proposed approach is to support scientists in the choice of the wide variety of algorithms and methods currently applied in the literature to infer Gene Regulatory Networks starting from gene expression measured using microarray technology. The Decision Support System (DSS) architecture is based on an ontology to model the knowledge base, a logical reasoner that builds the workflow of tasks to be done starting from the user’s request and a set of rules, and, finally, an agenda that runs the algorithms and software schedu…

A computer support system to support diagnosis by imaging and its experimental application to images of patients affected by multiple sclerosis

Application of an intelligent study and research support system for clinical anatomy in a cooperation scenario

Scientific research and teaching are strongly interrelated. A student should be educated both to the fundamentals of a discipline and to the research tasks as the future development of a discipline is entrusted to the students of today. Computer based tutoring systems already showed useful in pursuing the former target while the Intelligent Study and Research Support System developed at DINFO may be used to fulfill both in an integrated manner. This paper introduces the possible application of the ISRSS to training of Clinical Anatomy in a scenario of international cooperation among academic institutions.

Development of an IoT Environmental Monitoring Application with a Novel Middleware for Resource Constrained Devices

In this paper the development of a Mobile Health monitoring system is described. The system combines user location data with air quality information provided by a heterogeneous sensing infrastructure providing users with advises about their daily exposure to air pollutants. The highly dynamic integration of different kind of nodes, mostly characterized by rather constrained resources, of this application is crucial to implement the Internet of Things vision, and requires powerful and effective programming methodologies to abstract implementation of high-level distributed processing from hardware dependencies. We then describe our programming methodology and our novel middleware supporting d…

A software system to support the description and the explanation of medical images based on medical diagnosis criteria

Knowledge-based verification of concatenative programming patterns inspired by natural language for resource-constrained embedded devices

We propose a methodology to verify applications developed following programming patterns inspired by natural language that interact with physical environments and run on resource-constrained interconnected devices. Natural language patterns allow for the reduction of intermediate abstraction layers to map physical domain concepts into executable code avoiding the recourse to ontologies, which would need to be shared, kept up to date, and synchronized across a set of devices. Moreover, the computational paradigm we use for effective distributed execution of symbolic code on resource-constrained devices encourages the adoption of such patterns. The methodology is supported by a rule-based sys…

Slice to Volume Registration

Automatic Generation of Fuzzy Rules and its Applications in Medical Diagnosis

Fuzzy Rule Learner (FURL) is a the- ory revision approach to fuzzy rules learning based on Hierarchical Pri- oritized Structures. Each new level is composed from exceptions to rules from the preceding levels. The new rules are chosen in order to elimi- nate the biggest classification errors found in the training data. FURL may me combined with many tech- niques used to interpret rule bases in fuzzy controllers. In the traditional approaches to fuzzy approximation, the learning of rules has an undesirable effect. When many new rules are added, the interpretation of the rule base tends to one of its extreme values, thus we loose its informational value. In this paper, we suggest and test two …

Three-dimensional computer models in a case of Azygos lobe discovered during adenocarcinoma surgery

A Proposed Knowledge Based Approach for Solving Proteomics Issues

In this paper we present a novel knowledge-based approach that aims at helping scientists to face and resolve a large number of proteomics problem. The system architecture is based on an ontology to model the knowledge base, a reasoner that starting from the user's request and a set of rules builds the workflow of tasks to be done, and an executor that runs the algorithms and software scheduled by the reasoner. The system can interact with the user showing him intermediate results and several options in order to refine the workflow and supporting him to choose among different forks. Thanks to the presence of the knowledge base and the modularity provided by the ontology, the system can be e…

Three-dimensional computer models in a case of azygos lobe discovered durino adenocarcinoma surgery.

A knowledge representation system to support medical diagnostic imaging

Simulation and Test of UAV Tasks With Resource-Constrained Hardware in the Loop

Simulations are indispensable to reduce costs and risks when developing and testing algorithms for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) especially for applications in high risk scenarios like search and rescue (SAR) operations and post-disaster damage assessment. Many UAV applications require real-time tasks for which the timeliness of computations is fundamental. However, standard simulation tools are not guaranteed to run in sync with real-time events, leading to unreliable assessments of the ability of the target hardware to perform specific tasks. In this work we present a simulation and test system able to run UAV tasks on resource-constrained target hardware possibly adopted in these applic…

Programming distributed applications with symbolic reasoning on WSNs

Programming Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a complex task for which existing approaches adopt rigid architectures that are only suitable for specific application fields. In previous papers we introduced a programming methodology and a lightweight middleware based on high-level programming and executable code exchange for distributed processing on WSNs. In this paper, we show how high-level programming can be effectively used on WSNs to implement symbolic reasoning. In order to prove the feasibility of our approach, we present a Fuzzy Logic system where the value updates and the rule evaluations are performed in a distributed way. Through the proposed methodology, we discuss the developm…

Closing the sensing-reasoning-actuating loop in resource-constrained WSANs through distributed symbolic processing

Many issues in creating complex applications for pervasive environments are primarily due to the effort required to integrate perception, reasoning and actuating tasks in an efficient and homogeneous way, especially when the underlying infrastructure consists of wirelessly networked embedded devices. To mitigate the complexity of the actual implementation, satisfactory programming paradigms supporting the integration and coordination among heterogeneous devices are required. In this paper we show how a distributed symbolic processing approach that is particularly suited for resource constrained devices, such as the nodes of a Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network (WSAN), may be apt to the pu…

A mobile application for assessment of air pollution exposure

In this paper the architecture of a mobile air quality monitoring system is introduced. A mobile application will act as a personal assistant, monitoring and giving advices about gas pollutants daily exposure. Currently in development stage as part of a larger air quality monitoring system project, the application will enable users to monitor their daily exposure to gas pollutants by combining user location data and urban air quality information provided by the network of fixed monitoring stations of the city of Palermo.

A Lightweight Middleware Platform for Distributed Computing on Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract The peculiar features of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) suggest to exploit the distributed computing paradigm to perform complex tasks in a collaborative manner, in order to overcome the constraints related to sensor nodes limited capabilities. In this context, we describe a lightweight middleware platform to support the development of distributed applications on WSNs. The platform provides just a minimal general-purpose software layer, while the application components, including communication and processing algorithms, as well as the exchanged data, are described symbolically, with neither preformed syntax nor strict distinction between data and code. Our approach allows for inte…

Distributed Symbolic Network Quality Assessment for Resource-constrained Devices

After a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is deployed it is subject to significant variations of the quality of its radio links during its lifetime. Knowledge of the condition of the wireless links can be useful to optimize power consumption and increase the reliability of the network. However, resource-constrained nodes may not be able to spare the storage space for network monitoring code. Also, reprogramming deployed nodes can be costly or unfeasible. In this work, we show how an approach based on the exchange of symbolic executable code among nodes enables the assessment of the network status in terms of Packet Reception Rate (PRR) with no extra storage requirements on deployed networks. We…

A Context-Aware System for Ambient Assisted Living

In the near future, the world's population will be characterized by an increasing average age, and consequently, the number of people requiring for a special household assistance will dramatically rise. In this scenario, smart homes will significantly help users to increase their quality of life, while maintaining a great level of autonomy. This paper presents a system for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) capable of understanding context and user's behavior by exploiting data gathered by a pervasive sensor network. The knowledge inferred by adopting a Bayesian knowledge extraction approach is exploited to disambiguate the collected observations, making the AAL system able to detect and predict…

Time-Constrained Node Visit Planning for Collaborative UAV-WSN Distributed Applications.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are often studied as tools to perform data collection from Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Path planning is a fundamental aspect of this endeavor. Works in the current literature assume that data are always ready to be retrieved when the UAV passes. This operational model is quite rigid and does not allow for the integration of the UAV as a computational object playing an active role in the network. In fact, the UAV could begin the computation on a first visit and retrieve the data later. Potentially, the UAV could orchestrate the distributed computation to improve its performance, change its parameters, and even upload new applications to the sensor network…

Automatic Generation of User Interfaces using the Set Description Language

We present a paradigm to generate automatically graphical user interfaces from a formal description of the data model following the well-known model-view-control paradigm. This paradigm provide complete separation between data model and interface description, setting the programmer free from the low-level aspects of programming interfaces, letting him take care of higher level aspects. The interface along with the data model is described by means of a formal language, the Set Description Language. We also describe the infrastructure based on this paradigm we implemented to generate graphical user interfaces for generic applications. Moreover, it can adapt the user interface of a program to …

Modeling and Verification of Symbolic Distributed Applications Through an Intelligent Monitoring Agent

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) represent a key component in emerging distributed computing paradigms such as IoT, Ambient Intelligence, and Smart Cities. In these contexts, the difficulty of testing, verifying, and monitoring applications in their intended scenarios ranges from challenging to impractical. Current simulators can only be used to investigate correctness at source code level and with limited accuracy. This paper proposes a system and a methodology to model and verify symbolic distributed applications running on WSNs. The approach allows to complement the distributed application code at a high level of abstraction in order to test and reprogram it, directly, on deployed network…

Towards MKDA: A Knowledge Discovery Assistant for Researches in Medicine

Nowadays doctors are generating a huge amount of raw data. These data, analyzed with data mining techniques, could be sources of new knowledge. Unluckily such tasks need skilled data analysts, and not so much researchers in Medicine are also data mining experts. In this paper we present a web based system for knowledge discovery assistance in Medicine able to advice a medical researcher in this kind of tasks. The user must define only the experiment specifications in a formal language we have defined. The system GUI helps users in their composition. Then the system plans a Knowledge Discovery Process (KDP) on the basis of rules in a knowledge base. Finally the system executes the KDP and pr…

High-level Programming and Symbolic Reasoning on IoT Resource Constrained Devices

While the vision of Internet of Things (IoT) is rather inspiring, its practical implementation remains challenging. Conventional programming approaches prove unsuitable to provide IoT resource constrained devices with the distributed processing capabilities required to implement intelligent, autonomic, and self-organizing behaviors. In our previous work, we had already proposed an alternative programming methodology for such systems that is characterized by high-level programming and symbolic expressions evaluation, and developed a lightweight middleware to support it. Our approach allows for interactive programming of deployed nodes, and it is based on the simple but effective paradigm of …

A Web-based Intelligent Tutoring System for Clinical Anatomy

Symposia

Hardware and Software Platforms for Distributed Computing on Resource Constrained Devices

The basic idea of distributed computing is that it is possible to solve a large problem by using the resources of various computing devices connected in a network. Each device interacts with each other in order to process a part of a problem, contributing to the achievement of a global solution. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are an example of distributed computing on low resources devices. WSNs encountered a considerable success in many application areas. Due to the constraints related to the small sensor nodes capabilities, distributed computing in WSNs allows to perform complex tasks in a collaborative way, reducing power consumption and increasing battery life. Many hardware platforms …

A computer support system to support diagnosis by imaging and its experimental application in Images of patients affected by multiple sclerosis

Three-dimensional geometrical models using TC images in the study of the surgical approach to hydatid cists of the liver.

THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELS OF GASTRIC DISTRIBUTION OF VAGI NERVES IN FULL-TERM FETUSES AND NEWBORNS

AN ADVANCED WEB BASED SYSTEM TO SUPPORT LEARNING OF CLINICAL ANATOMY

A Knowledge Based Decision Support System for Bioinformatics and System Biology

In this paper, we present a new Decision Support System for Bioinformatics and System Biology issues. Our system is based on a Knowledge base, representing the expertise about the application domain, and a Reasoner. The Reasoner, consulting the Knowledge base and according to the user’s request, is able to suggest one or more strategies in order to resolve the selected problem. Moreover, the system can build, at different abstraction layers, a workflow for the current problem on the basis of the user’s choices, freeing the user from implementation details and assisting him in the correct configuration of the algorithms. Two possible application scenarios will be introduced: the analysis of …

Evaluation of ECG: comparison of decision tree and fuzzy rules induction

This paper compares two different approaches to computer-aided analysis of ECG signals. ECG records are preprocessed by the wavelet transform, and the machine learning method of decision trees and fuzzy rules induction are used for classification. The wavelet transform allows good localisation of QRS complexes, P and T waves in time and amplitude. The average accuracy of detection of all events is above 87 per cent. For learning and further classification we use Quinlan's See5 application and FURL (FUzzy Rule Learner). We used the MIT-BIH database for experiments. Diverse settings of the parameters for decision tree generation (tree pruning, attribute selection, class sets) were examined. T…

A Rule-Based System for Hardware Configuration and Programming of IoT Devices

Simplifying programming, deployment, and configuration of heterogeneous networked IoT devices requires networking, hardware, representation of knowledge and concepts, design and programming skills. In fact, IoT applications are mostly built by adopting different existing paradigms and technologies on a case-by-case basis. As a result, programming tools hinder adaptability and interoperability of applications with their rigidity. In this paper, we propose a rule-based system that configures and programs IoT devices automatically. The rule base holds formal specifications about hardware platforms, networking protocols, physical world concepts, and applications. Provided with a high-level appl…

On-board Energy Consumption Assessment for Symbolic Execution Models on Embedded Devices

Internet of Things (IoT) applications operate in several domains while requiring seamless integration among heterogeneous objects. Regardless of the specific platform and context, IoT applications demand high energy efficiency. Adopting resource-constrained embedded devices for IoT applications means ensuring low power consumption, low maintenance costs and possibly longer battery life. Meeting these requirements is particularly arduous as programmers are not able to monitor the energy consumption of their own software during development or when applications are finally deployed. In this paper, we discuss on-board real-time energy evaluation of both hardware and software during the developm…

The liver: three-dimensional geometrical models. About a new stereology.

Computer Model fo arterial bio-mechanics. Evaluation of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm wall through Finite Element Analysis

Towards MKDA: A Knowledge Discovery Assistant For Researches in Medicine

Nowadays doctors are generating a huge amount of raw data. These data, analyzed with data mining techniques, could be sources of new knowledge. Unluckily such tasks need skilled data analysts, and not so much researchers in Medicine are also data mining experts. In this paper we present a web based system for knowledge discovery assistance in Medicine able to advice a medical researcher in this kind of tasks. The user must define only the experiment specifications in a formal language we have defined. The system GUI helps users in their composition. Then the system plans a Knowledge Discovery Process (KDP) on the basis of rules in a knowledge base. Finally the system executes the KDP and pr…

Automatic induction of rules for computer-aided diagnosis in the multiple sclerosis by analysis of brain MR images

Antiproliferative Activity Predictor: A New Reliable In Silico Tool for Drug Response Prediction against NCI60 Panel.

In vitro antiproliferative assays still represent one of the most important tools in the anticancer drug discovery field, especially to gain insights into the mechanisms of action of anticancer small molecules. The NCI-DTP (National Cancer Institute Developmental Therapeutics Program) undoubtedly represents the most famous project aimed at rapidly testing thousands of compounds against multiple tumor cell lines (NCI60). The large amount of biological data stored in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) database and many other databases has led researchers in the fields of computational biology and medicinal chemistry to develop tools to predict the anticancer properties of new agents in advan…

A Lightweight Network Discovery Algorithm for Resource-constrained IoT Devices

Although quite simple, existing protocols for the IoT suffer from the inflexibility of centralized infrastructures and require several configuration stages. The implementation of these protocols is often prohibitive on resource-constrained devices. In this work, we propose a distributed lightweight implementation of network discovery for simple IoT devices. Our approach is based on the exchange of symbolic executable code among nodes. Based on this abstraction, we propose an algorithm that makes even IoT resource-constrained nodes able to construct the network topology graph incrementally and without any a priori information about device positioning and presence. The minimal set of executab…

Content based indexing of MPEG-4 video on relational DBMS

DC4CD

In this article, we present Distributed Computing for Constrained Devices (DC4CD), a novel software architecture that supports symbolic distributed computing on wireless sensor networks. DC4CD integrates the functionalities of a high-level symbolic interpreter, a compiler, and an operating system, and includes networking abstractions to exchange high-level symbolic code among peer devices. Contrarily to other architectures proposed in the literature, DC4CD allows for changes at runtime, even on deployed nodes of both application and system code. Experimental results show that DC4CD is more efficient in terms of memory usage than existing architectures, with which it also compares well in te…

WSN Design and Verification Using On-Board Executable Specifications

The gap between informal functional specifications and the resulting implementation in the chosen programming language is notably a source of errors in embedded systems design. In this paper, we discuss a methodology and a software platform aimed at coping with this issue in programming resource-constrained wireless sensor network nodes (WSNs). Whereas the typical development model for the WSNs is based on cross compilation, the proposed approach supports high-level symbolic coding of abstract models and distributed applications, as well as their test and their execution, directly on the target hardware. As a working example, we discuss the application of our methodology to specify the func…

Wearable Multisensor Ring-Shaped Probe for Assessing Stress and Blood Oxygenation: Design and Preliminary Measurements

The increasing interest in innovative solutions for health and physiological monitoring has recently fostered the development of smaller biomedical devices. These devices are capable of recording an increasingly large number of biosignals simultaneously, while maximizing the user’s comfort. In this study, we have designed and realized a novel wearable multisensor ring-shaped probe that enables synchronous, real-time acquisition of photoplethysmographic (PPG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) signals. The device integrates both the PPG and GSR sensors onto a single probe that can be easily placed on the finger, thereby minimizing the device footprint and overall size. The system enables the e…

An innovative tailored instructional design for computer programming courses in engineering

Industry 4.0 and 5.0 topics are emerging fields and have seen rising demand recently. There is a critical need, on the other hand, for improved methods of instructing programming languages since a growing lack of student motivation during the pandemic has had a deleterious influence on the education of programmers. In this context, online/hybrid computer programming courses must be addressed with innovative solutions to support the field with well-educated professionals. In this paper, we present a case study to propose an innovative tailored instructional design for the online/hybrid learning environments for programming courses in engineering faculties. To develop the instructional design…

Population and query interface for a content-based video database

Tree dimensional computer model in a case of azygos lobe discovered during adenocarcinoma surgery

Lessons learned with CiceRobot, a robot for museum guided tours

A Networking Framework for Multi-Robot Coordination

Autonomous robots operating in real environments need to be able to interact with a dynamic world populated with objects, people, and, in general, other agents. The current generation of autonomous robots, such as the ASIMO robot by Honda or the QRIO by Sony, has showed impressive performances in mechanics and control of movements; moreover, recent literature reports encouraging results about the capability of such robots of representing themselves with respect to a dynamic external world, of planning future actions and of evaluating resulting situations in order to make new plans. However, when multiple robots are supposed to operate together, coordination and communication issues arise; w…