Context-aware Opportunistic Routing in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks Incorporating Node Mobility

Opportunistic routing (OR) employs a list of candi- dates to improve reliability of wireless transmission. However, list-based OR features restrict the freedom of opportunism, since only the listed nodes can compete for packet forwarding. Additionally, the list is statically generated based on a single metric prior to data transmission, which is not appropriate for mobile ad-hoc networks. This paper provides a thorough perfor- mance evaluation of a new protocol - Context-aware Opportunistic Routing (COR). The contributions of COR are threefold. First, it uses various types of context information simultaneously such as link quality, geographic progress, and residual energy of nodes to make routing decisions. Second, it allows all qualified nodes to participate in packet forwarding. Third, it exploits the relative mobility of nodes to further improve performance. Simulation results show that COR can provide efficient routing in mobile environments, and it outperforms existing solutions that solely rely on a single metric by nearly 20 - 40 %.

In vitro biomechanical testing of a micro external skeletal fixator

OBJECTIVE To biomechanically test the properties of three different Universal Micro External Fixator (UMEX™) configurations with regard to their use in very small animals (<5kg) and compare the UMEX system to the widely used IMEX External Skeletal Fixation (SK™) system in terms of stiffness, space needed for pin placement and weight. METHODS Three different UMEX configurations (type Ia, type Ib, and type II modified) and one SK configuration type Ia were used to stabilize Delrin plastic rods in a 1 cm fracture gap model. These constructs were tested in axial compression, craniocaudal bending, mediolateral bending, and torsion. Testing was conducted within the elastic range and mean stiffness in each mode was determined from the slope of the linear portion of the load-deformation curve. A Kruskal Wallis one-way analysis of variance on ranks test was utilized to assess differences between constructs (p <0.05). RESULTS The UMEX type II modified configuration was significantly stiffer than the other UMEX configurations and the SK type Ia, except in craniocaudal bending, where the SK type Ia configuration was stiffer than all UMEX constructs. The UMEX type Ia configuration was significantly the weakest of those frames. The UMEX constructs were lighter and smaller than the SK, thus facilitating closer pin placement. CONCLUSIONS Results supported previous reports concerning the superiority of more complex constructs regarding stiffness. The UMEX system appears to be a valid alternative for the treatment of long-bone fractures in very small animals.

Do implicit motives and basic psychological needs interact to predict well-being and flow? Testing a universal hypothesis and a matching hypothesis

Self-Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan in Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Plenum Press, New York, 1985) suggests that certain experiences, such as competence, are equally beneficial to everyone’s well-being (universal hypothesis), whereas Motive Disposition Theory (McClelland in Human motivation. Scott, Foresman, Glenview, IL, 1985) predicts that some people, such as those with a high achievement motive, should benefit particularly from such experiences (matching hypothesis). Existing research on motives as moderators of the relationship between basic need satisfaction and positive outcomes supports both these seemingly inconsistent views. Focusing on the achievement motive, we sought to resolve this inconsistency by considering the specificity of the outcome variables. When predicting domain-specific well-being and flow, the achievement motive should interact with felt competence. However, when it comes to predicting general well-being and flow, felt competence should unfold its effects without being moderated by the achievement motive. Two studies confirmed these assumptions indicating that the universal and matching hypotheses are complementary rather than mutually exclusive.

Spectrum and prevalence of mutations involving BrS1- through BrS12-susceptibility genes in a cohort of unrelated patients referred for Brugada syndrome genetic testing: implications for genetic testing

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to provide the spectrum and prevalence of mutations in the 12 Brugada syndrome (BrS)-susceptibility genes discovered to date in a single large cohort of unrelated BrS patients. BACKGROUND BrS is a potentially lethal heritable arrhythmia syndrome diagnosed electrocardiographically by coved-type ST-segment elevation in the right precordial leads (V1 to V3; type 1 Brugada electrocardiographic [ECG] pattern) and the presence of a personal/family history of cardiac events. METHODS Using polymerase chain reaction, denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography, and DNA sequencing, comprehensive mutational analysis of BrS1- through BrS12-susceptibility genes was performed in 129 unrelated patients with possible/probable BrS (46 with clinically diagnosed BrS [ECG pattern plus personal/family history of a cardiac event] and 83 with a type 1 BrS ECG pattern only). RESULTS Overall, 27 patients (21%) had a putative pathogenic mutation, absent in 1,400 Caucasian reference alleles, including 21 patients with an SCN5A mutation, 2 with a CACNB2B mutation, and 1 each with a KCNJ8 mutation, a KCND3 mutation, an SCN1Bb mutation, and an HCN4 mutation. The overall mutation yield was 23% in the type 1 BrS ECG pattern-only patients versus 17% in the clinically diagnosed BrS patients and was significantly greater among young men<20 years of age with clinically diagnosed BrS and among patients who had a prolonged PQ interval. CONCLUSIONS We identified putative pathogenic mutations in ∼20% of our BrS cohort, with BrS genes 2 through 12 accounting for <5%. Importantly, the yield was similar between patients with only a type 1 BrS ECG pattern and those with clinically established BrS. The yield approaches 40% for SCN5A-mediated BrS (BrS1) when the PQ interval exceeds 200 ms. Calcium channel-mediated BrS is extremely unlikely in the absence of a short QT interval.

Testing for Measurement Equivalence in Surveys: Dimensions of Social Trust across Cultural Contexts

Our study evaluates the dimensionality and equivalence of social trust across cultural contexts, using new data from Switzerland and the World Values Survey 2005–2008. Whereas some scholars assert that trust should be regarded as a coherent concept, others claim that trust is better conceived of as a multidimensional concept. In contrast to the conventional dichotomy of the forms of social trust, we identify three distinct forms of trust, namely, particularized, generalized, and identity-based trust. Moreover, we dispute the view that respondents understand the wording of survey questions regarding social trust differently between different cultural contexts, which would imply that comparative research on trust is a pointless endeavor. Applying multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis to the various constructs of social trust, we conclude that one may study relationships among the three forms of trust and other theoretical constructs as well as compare latent means across cultural contexts. Our analyses therefore provide an optimistic outlook for future comparative analyses that investigate forms of social trust across cultural contexts.

SLA-driven predictive orchestration for distributed cloud-based mobile services

We describe a system for performing SLA-driven management and orchestration of distributed infrastructures composed of services supporting mobile computing use cases. In particular, we focus on a Follow-Me Cloud scenario in which we consider mobile users accessing cloud-enable services. We combine a SLA-driven approach to infrastructure optimization, with forecast-based performance degradation preventive actions and pattern detection for supporting mobile cloud infrastructure management. We present our system's information model and architecture including the algorithmic support and the proposed scenarios for system evaluation.

An OMNeT++ Framework to Evaluate Video Transmission in Mobile Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

The development and evaluation of new algorithms and protocols for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) are usually supported by means of a discrete event network simulator, where OMNeT++ is one of the most important ones. However, experiments involving multimedia transmission, video flows with different characteristics, genres, group of pictures lengths, and coding techniques must be evaluated based also on Quality of Experience (QoE) metrics to reflect the user's perception. Such experiments require the evaluation of video-related information, i.e., frame type, received/lost, delay, jitter, decoding errors, as well as inter and intra-frame dependency of received/distorted videos. However, existing OMNeT++ frameworks for WMSNs do not support video transmissions with QoE-awareness, neither a large set of mobility traces to enable evaluations under different multimedia/mobile situations. In this paper, we propose a Mobile MultiMedia Wireless Sensor Network OMNeT++ framework (M3WSN) to support transmission, control and evaluation of real video sequences in mobile WMSNs.

A Link Quality and Geographical-aware Routing Protocol for Video Transmission in Mobile IoT

Wireless mobile sensor networks are enlarging the Internet of Things (IoT) portfolio with a huge number of multimedia services for smart cities. Safety and environmental monitoring multimedia applications will be part of the Smart IoT systems, which aim to reduce emergency response time, while also predicting hazardous events. In these mobile and dynamic (possible disaster) scenarios, opportunistic routing allows routing decisions in a completely distributed manner, by using a hop- by-hop route decision based on protocol-specific characteristics, and a predefined end-to-end path is not a reliable solution. This enables the transmission of video flows of a monitored area/object with Quality of Experience (QoE) support to users, headquarters or IoT platforms. However, existing approaches rely on a single metric to make the candidate selection rule, including link quality or geographic information, which causes a high packet loss rate, and reduces the video perception from the human standpoint. This article proposes a cross-layer Link quality and Geographical-aware Opportunistic routing protocol (LinGO), which is designed for video dissemination in mobile multimedia IoT environments. LinGO improves routing decisions using multiple metrics, including link quality, geographic loca- tion, and energy. The simulation results show the benefits of LinGO compared with well-known routing solutions for video transmission with QoE support in mobile scenarios.

Mobile Cloud Networking: Mobile Network, Compute, and Storage as One Service On-Demand

The Future Communication Architecture for Mobile Cloud Services: Mobile Cloud Networking (MCN) is a EU FP7 Large-scale Integrating Project (IP) funded by the European Commission. MCN project was launched in November 2012 for the period of 36 month. In total top-tier 19 partners from industry and academia commit to jointly establish the vision of Mobile Cloud Networking, to develop a fully cloud-based mobile communication and application platform.

Testing an alternative search algorithm for compound identification with the 'Wiley Registry of Tandem Mass Spectral Data. MSforID'

A tandem mass spectral database system consists of a library of reference spectra and a search program. State-of-the-art search programs show a high tolerance for variability in compound-specific fragmentation patterns produced by collision-induced decomposition and enable sensitive and specific 'identity search'. In this communication, performance characteristics of two search algorithms combined with the 'Wiley Registry of Tandem Mass Spectral Data, MSforID' (Wiley Registry MSMS, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, USA) were evaluated. The search algorithms tested were the MSMS search algorithm implemented in the NIST MS Search program 2.0g (NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, USA) and the MSforID algorithm (John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, USA). Sample spectra were acquired on different instruments and, thus, covered a broad range of possible experimental conditions or were generated in silico. For each algorithm, more than 30,000 matches were performed. Statistical evaluation of the library search results revealed that principally both search algorithms can be combined with the Wiley Registry MSMS to create a reliable identification tool. It appears, however, that a higher degree of spectral similarity is necessary to obtain a correct match with the NIST MS Search program. This characteristic of the NIST MS Search program has a positive effect on specificity as it helps to avoid false positive matches (type I errors), but reduces sensitivity. Thus, particularly with sample spectra acquired on instruments differing in their Setup from tandem-in-space type fragmentation, a comparably higher number of false negative matches (type II errors) were observed by searching the Wiley Registry MSMS.

Pulmonary Disease due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a Horse: Zoonotic Concerns and Limitations of Antemortem Testing.

A case of pulmonary tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis was diagnosed in a horse. Clinical evaluation performed prior to euthanasia did not suggest tuberculosis, but postmortem examination provided pathological and bacteriological evidence of mycobacteriosis. In the lungs, multiple tuberculoid granulomas communicating with the bronchiolar lumen, pleural effusion, and a granulomatous lymphadenitis involving mediastinal and tracheobronchial lymph nodes were found. Serologic response to M. tuberculosis antigens was detected in the infected horse, but not in the group of 42 potentially exposed animals (18 horses, 14 alpacas, 6 donkeys, and 4 dogs) which showed no signs of disease. Diagnosis of tuberculosis in live horses remains extremely difficult. Four of 20 animal handlers at the farm were positive for tuberculous infection upon follow-up testing by interferon-gamma release assay, indicating a possibility of interspecies transmission of M. tuberculosis.

From big smartphone data to worldwide research: The Mobile Data Challenge

This paper presents an overview of the Mobile Data Challenge (MDC), a large-scale research initiative aimed at generating innovations around smartphone-based research, as well as community-based evaluation of mobile data analysis methodologies. First, we review the Lausanne Data Collection Campaign (LDCC), an initiative to collect unique longitudinal smartphone dataset for the MDC. Then, we introduce the Open and Dedicated Tracks of the MDC, describe the specific datasets used in each of them, discuss the key design and implementation aspects introduced in order to generate privacy-preserving and scientifically relevant mobile data resources for wider use by the research community, and summarize the main research trends found among the 100+ challenge submissions. We finalize by discussing the main lessons learned from the participation of several hundred researchers worldwide in the MDC Tracks.

Privacy Panel: Usable and Quantifiable Mobile Privacy

The ever increasing popularity of apps stems from their ability to provide highly customized services to the user. The flip side is that in order to provide such services, apps need access to very sensitive private information about the user. This leads to malicious apps that collect personal user information in the background and exploit it in various ways. Studies have shown that current app vetting processes which are mainly restricted to install time verification mechanisms are incapable of detecting and preventing such attacks. We argue that the missing fundamental aspect here is a comprehensive and usable mobile privacy solution, one that not only protects the user's location information, but also other equally sensitive user data such as the user's contacts and documents. A solution that is usable by the average user who does not understand or care about the low level technical details. To bridge this gap, we propose privacy metrics that quantify low-level app accesses in terms of privacy impact and transforms them to high-level user understandable ratings. We also provide the design and architecture of our Privacy Panel app that represents the computed ratings in a graphical user-friendly format and allows the user to define policies based on them. Finally, experimental results are given to validate the scalability of the proposed solution.

Sediment core fossils in ancient Lake Ohrid: testing for faunal change since the Last Interglacial

Ancient Lake Ohrid is probably of early Pleistocene or Pliocene origin and amongst the few lakes in the world harbouring an outstanding degree of endemic biodiversity. Although there is a long history of evolutionary research in Lake Ohrid, particularly on molluscs, a mollusc fossil record has been missing up to date. For the first time, gastropod and bivalve fossils are reported from the basal, calcareous part of a 2.6 m long sediment succession (core Co1200) from the north-eastern part of Lake Ohrid. Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of mollusc shells from the same stratigraphic level yielded an age of 130 ± 28 ka. Lithofacies III sediments, i.e. a stratigraphic subdivision comprising the basal succession of core Co1200 between 181.5–263 cm, appeared solid, greyish-white, and consisted almost entirely of silt-sized endogenic calcite (CaCO3>70%) and intact and broken mollusc shells. Here we compare the faunal composition of the thanatocoenosis with recent mollusc associations in Lake Ohrid. A total of 13 mollusc species (9 gastropod and 4 bivalve species) could be identified within Lithofacies III sediments. The value of sediment core fossils for reconstructing palaeoenvironmental settings was evaluated and the agreement between sediment and palaeontological proxies was tested. The study also aims at investigating major faunal changes since the Last Interglacial and searching for signs of extinction events. The combined findings of the ecological study and the sediment characteristics suggest deposition in a shallow water environment during the Last Interglacial. The fossil fauna exclusively included species also found in the present fauna, i.e. no extinction events are evident for this site since the Last Interglacial. The thanatocoenosis showed the highest similarity with recent Intermediate Layer (5–25 m water depth) mollusc assemblages. The demonstrated existence of a mollusc fossil record in Lake Ohrid sediment cores also has great significance for future deep drilling projects. It can be hoped that a more far reaching mollusc fossil record will then be obtained, enabling insight into the early evolutionary history of Lake Ohrid.