Search Results (189)

The Next-Generation IoT integrates diverse technological enablers, allowing the creation of advanced systems with increasingly complex requirements and maximizing the use of available IoT–edge–cloud resources. This paper introduces an orchestrator architecture for dynamic IoT scenarios, inspired by ETSI NFV MANO and Cloud Native principles, where distributed computing nodes often have unfixed and changing networking configurations. Unlike traditional approaches, this architecture also focuses on managing services across massively distributed mobile nodes, as demonstrated in the automotive use case presented. Apart from working as MANO framework, the proposed solution efficiently handles service lifecycle management in large fleets of vehicles without relying on public or static IP addresses for connectivity. Its modular, microservices-based approach ensures adaptability to emerging trends like Edge Native, WebAssembly and RISC-V, positioning it as a forward-looking innovation for IoT ecosystems. Full article

(1) Background: Prostate cancer treatment efficacy is significantly influenced by androgen receptor (AR) signaling pathways. SLC22A3, a membrane transporter, has been linked to SNP rs9364554 risk loci for drug efficacy in prostate cancer. (2) Methods: We examined the location of SNP rs9364554 in the genome and utilized TCGA and other publicly available datasets to analyze the association of this SNP with SLC22A3 transcription levels. We verified onco-mining findings in prostate cancer cell lines using quantitative PCR and Western blots. Additionally, we employed electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) to detect the binding affinity of transcription factors to this SNP. The ChIP-Seq was used to analyze the enrichment of H3K27ac on the SLC22A3 promoter. (3) Results: In this study, we revealed that SNP rs9364554 resides in the SLC22A3 gene and affects its transcription. The downregulation of SLC22A3 is associated with drug resistance. More importantly, we found that this SNP has different binding affinities with transcription factors, specifically FOXA1 and AR, which significantly affects their regulation of SLC22A3 transcription. (4) Conclusions: Our findings highlight the potential of using this SNP as a biomarker for predicting chemotherapeutic outcomes and uncover possible mechanisms underlying drug resistance in advanced prostate cancers. More importantly, it provides a clinical foundation for targeting FOXA1 to enhance drug efficacy in prostate cancer patients. Full article

Recently, there has been an explosive growth in wireless devices capable of connecting to the Internet and utilizing various services anytime, anywhere, often while on the move. In the realm of the Internet, such devices are called mobile nodes. When these devices are in motion or traverse different domains while communicating, effective mobility management becomes essential to ensure the continuity of their services. Software-defined networking (SDN), a new paradigm in networking, offers numerous possibilities for addressing the challenges of mobility management. By decoupling the control and data planes, SDN enables greater flexibility and adaptability, making them a powerful framework for solving mobility-related issues. However, communication can still be momentarily disrupted due to frequent changes in IP addresses, a drop in radio signals, or configuration issues associated with gateways. Therefore, this paper introduces Routage Inter-domains in SDN (RI-SDN), a novel anchor-based routing method designed for inter-domain mobility in SDN architectures. The method identifies a suitable anchor domain, a critical intermediary domain that contributes to reducing delays during data transfer because it is the closest domain (i.e., node) to the destination. Once the anchor domain is identified, the best routing path is determined as the route with the smallest metric, incorporating elements such as bandwidth, flow operations, and the number of domain hops. Simulation results demonstrate significant improvements in data transfer delay and handover latency compared to existing methods. By leveraging SDN’s potential, RI-SDN presents a robust and innovative solution for real-world scenarios requiring reliable mobility management. Full article

COSMOS-France is the French part of the COSMOS project, an international prospective cohort study that investigates whether the use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies is associated with health effects and symptoms (cancers, cardiovascular diseases, neurologic pathologies, tinnitus, headaches, or sleep and mood disturbances). Here, we provide the first descriptive results of COSMOS-France, a cohort nested in the general population-based cohort of adults named Constances. Methods: A total of 39,284 Constances volunteers were invited to participate in the COSMOS-France study during the pilot (2017) and main recruitment phase (2019). Participants were asked to complete detailed questionnaires on their mobile phone use, health conditions, and personal characteristics. We examined the association between mobile phone use, including usage for calls and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), cordless phone use, and Wi-Fi usage with age, sex, education, smoking status, body mass index (BMI), and handedness. Results: The participation rate was 48.4%, resulting in 18,502 questionnaires in the analyzed dataset. Mobile phone use was reported by 96.1% (N = 17,782). Users reported typically calling 5–29 min per week (37.1%, N = 6600), making one to four calls per day (52.9%, N = 9408), using one phone (83.9%, N = 14,921) and not sharing it (80.4% N = 14,295), mostly using the phone on the side of the head of their dominant hand (59.1%, N = 10,300), not using loudspeakers or hands-free kits, and not using VoIP (84.9% N = 15,088). Individuals’ age and sex modified this picture, sometimes markedly. Education and smoking status were associated with ever use and call duration, but neither BMI nor handedness was. Cordless phone use was reported by 66.0% of the population, and Wi-Fi use was reported by 88.4%. Conclusion: In this cross-sectional presentation of contemporary mobile phone usage in France, age and sex were important determinants of use patterns. Full article

Lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) models have proven effective in recognizing common pest species, yet challenges remain in enhancing their nonlinear learning capacity and reducing overfitting. This study introduces a grouped dropout strategy and modifies the CNN architecture to improve the accuracy of multi-class insect recognition. Specifically, we optimized the base model by selecting appropriate optimizers, fine-tuning the dropout probability, and adjusting the learning rate decay strategy. Additionally, we replaced ReLU with PReLU and added BatchNorm layers after each Inception layer, enhancing the model’s nonlinear expression and training stability. Leveraging the Inception module’s branching structure and the adaptive grouping properties of the WeDIV clustering algorithm, we developed two grouped dropout models, the iGDnet-IP and GDnet-IP. Experimental results on a dataset containing 20 insect species (15 pests and five beneficial insects) demonstrated an increase in cross-validation accuracy from 84.68% to 92.12%, with notable improvements in the recognition rates for difficult-to-classify species, such as Parnara guttatus Bremer and Grey (PGBG) and Papilio xuthus Linnaeus (PXLL), increasing from 38% and 47% to 62% and 93%, respectively. Furthermore, these models showed significant accuracy advantages over standard dropout methods on test sets, with faster training times compared to four conventional CNN models, highlighting their suitability for mobile applications. Theoretical analyses of model gradients and Fisher information provide further insight into the grouped dropout strategy’s role in improving CNN interpretability for insect recognition tasks. Full article

In modern Internet-based communication, especially mobile systems, a mobile node (MN) will commonly have more than one possibility for Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity. For example, an MN such as a smartphone may be associated with an IEEE 802.11 network at a site while also connected to a cellular base station for 5G. In such a scenario, the smartphone might only be able to utilise the IEEE 802.11 network, not making use of the cellular connectivity simultaneously. Currently, IP does not allow applications and devices to easily utilise multiple IP connectivity opportunities—multihoming for the MN—without implementing special mechanisms to manage them. We demonstrate how the use of the Identifier Locator Network Protocol (ILNP), realised as an extension to IPv6, can enable mobility with multihoming using a duality mechanism that treats mobility and multihoming as the same logical concept. We present a network layer solution that does not require any modification to transport protocols, can be implemented using existing application programming interfaces (APIs), and can work for any application. We have evaluated our approach using an implementation in Linux and a testbed. The testbed consisted of commercial equipment to demonstrate that our approach can be used over existing network infrastructure requiring only normal unicast routing for IPv6. Full article

Background/Objectives: Human brain aging is a complex process that affects various aspects of brain function and structure, increasing susceptibility to neurological and psychiatric disorders. A number of nongenetic (e.g., environmental and lifestyle) and genetic risk factors are found to contribute to the varying rates at which the brain ages among individuals. Methods: In this paper, we conducted both an exposome-wide association study (XWAS) and a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on white matter brain aging in the UK Biobank, revealing the multifactorial nature of brain aging. We applied a machine learning algorithm and leveraged fractional anisotropy tract measurements from diffusion tensor imaging data to predict the white matter brain age gap (BAG) and treated it as the marker of brain aging. For XWAS, we included 107 variables encompassing five major categories of modifiable exposures that potentially impact brain aging and performed both univariate and multivariate analysis to select the final set of nongenetic risk factors. Results: We found current tobacco smoking, dietary habits including oily fish, beef, lamb, cereal, and coffee intake, length of mobile phone use, use of UV protection, and frequency of solarium/sunlamp use were associated with the BAG. In genetic analysis, we identified several SNPs on chromosome 3 mapped to genes IP6K1, GMNC, OSTN, and SLC25A20 significantly associated with the BAG, showing the high heritability and polygenic architecture of human brain aging. Conclusions: The critical nongenetic and genetic risk factors identified in our study provide insights into the causal relationship between white matter brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Full article

The aim of this research has been to enable the management of trustworthy relationships between stakeholders, service providers, and physical assets, which are required in critical energy and mobility cyber–physical systems (CPS) applications. The achieved novel contribution is the concept of trustworthy communities with respective experimental solutions, which are developed by relying on verifiable credentials, smart contracts, trust over IP, and an Ethereum-based distributed ledger. The provided trustworthy community solutions are validated by executing them in two practical use cases, which are called energy flexibility and hunting safety. The energy flexibility case validation considered the execution of the solutions with one simulated and two real buildings with the energy flexibility aggregation platform, which was able to trade the flexibilities in an energy flexibility marketplace. The provided solutions were executed with a hunting safety smartphone application for a hunter and the smartwatch of a person moving around in the forest. The evaluations indicate that conceptual solutions for trustworthy communities fulfill the purpose and contribute toward making energy flexibility trading and hunting safety possible and trustworthy enough for participants. A trustworthy community solution is required to make value sharing and usage of critical energy resources and their flexibilities feasible and secure enough for their owners as part of the energy flexibility community. Sharing the presence and location in mobile conditions requires a trustworthy community solution because of security and privacy reasons, but it can also save lives in real-life elk hunting cases. During the evaluations, the need for further studies related to performance, scalability, community applications, verifiable credentials with wallets, sharing of values and incentives, authorized trust networks, dynamic trust situations, time-sensitive behavior, autonomous operations with smart contracts through security assessment, and applicability have been detected. Full article

Cancer cachexia (CC) continues to challenge clinicians by massively impairing patients’ prognosis, mobility, and quality of life through skeletal muscle wasting. CC also includes cardiac cachexia as characterized by atrophy, compromised metabolism, innervation and function of the myocardium through factors awaiting clarification for therapeutic targeting. Because monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) is a myocardial source of H₂O₂ and implicated in myofibrillar protein catabolism and heart failure, we presently studied myocardial MAO-A expression, inflammatory cells, and capillarization together with transcripts of pro-inflammatory, -angiogenic, -apoptotic, and -proteolytic signals (by qRT-PCR) in a 3x-transgenic (LSL-Kras^G12D/+; LSL-TrP53^R172H/+; Pdx1-Cre) mouse model of orthotopic pancreatic ductal adenoarcinoma (PDAC) compared to wild-type (WT) mice. Moreover, we evaluated the effect of MAO-A inhibition by application of harmine hydrochloride (HH, 8 weeks, i.p., no sham control) on PDAC-related myocardial alterations. Myocardial MAO-A protein content was significantly increased (1.69-fold) in PDAC compared to WT mice. PDAC was associated with an increased percentage of atrogin-1+ (p < 0.001), IL-1β+ (p < 0.01), COX2+ (p < 0.001), and CD68+ (p > 0.05) cells and enhanced transcripts of pro-inflammatory IL-1β (2.47-fold), COX2 (1.53-fold), TNF (1.87-fold), and SOCS3 (1.64-fold). Moreover, PDAC was associated with a reduction in capillary density (−17%, p < 0.05) and transcripts of KDR (0.46-fold) but not of VEGFA, Notch1, or Notch3. Importantly, HH treatment largely reversed the PDAC-related increases in atrogin-1+, IL-1β+, and TNF+ cell fraction as well as in COX2, IL-1β, TNF, and SOCS3 transcripts, whereas capillary density and KDR transcripts failed to improve. In mice with PDAC, increased myocardial pro-atrophic/-inflammatory signals are attributable to increased expression of MAO-A, because they are significantly improved with MAO-A inhibition as a potential novel therapeutic option. The PDAC-related loss in myocardial capillary density may be due to other mechanisms awaiting evaluation with consideration of cardiomyocyte size, cardiac function and physical activity. Full article

Phosphate fertilizers are applied to the soil surface, especially in vineyards in production in subtropical regions. Nowadays, phosphorus (P) is not incorporated into the soil to avoid mechanical damage to the root system in orchards. However, over the years, successive surface P applications can increase the P content only in the topsoil, maintaining low P levels in the subsurface, which can reduce its use by grapevines. For this reason, there is a need to propose strategies to increase the P content in the soil profile of established orchards. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of management strategies to (i) increase the P content in the soil profile; (ii) enhance the grape production; and (iii) maintain the grape must composition. An experiment on the ‘Pinot Noir’ grape in full production was carried out over three crop seasons. The treatments were without P application (C), P on the soil surface without incorporation (SP), P incorporated at 20 cm (IP20), P incorporated at 40 cm (IP40), and twice the P dose incorporated at 40 cm (2IP40). The P concentration in leaves at flowering and veraison, P content in the soil, grape production and its components, and chemical parameters of the grape must (total soluble solids, total polyphenols, total titratable acidity, total anthocyanins, and pH) were evaluated. The P concentration in leaves did not differ among the P application modes. The application of P associated with soil mobilization, especially at 20 cm depth, increased grape production. The P application modes did not affect the values of the chemical parameters of the grape must except for the total anthocyanins, which had the highest values when the vines were subjected to 2IP40. Finally, the P application and incorporation into the soil profile was an efficient strategy for increasing the grape production in full production vineyards. Full article

To enhance agricultural productivity through the accurate detection of pests under the constrained resources of mobile devices, we introduce LP-YOLO, a bespoke lightweight object detection framework optimized for mobile-based insect pest identification. Initially, we devise lightweight components, namely LP_Unit and LP_DownSample, to serve as direct substitutes for the majority of modules within YOLOv8. Subsequently, we develop an innovative attention mechanism, denoted as ECSA (Efficient Channel and Spatial Attention), which is integrated into the network to forge LP-YOLO(l). Moreover, assessing the trade-offs between parameter reduction and computational efficiency, considering both the backbone and head components of the network, we use structured pruning methods for the pruning process, culminating in the creation of LP-YOLO(s). Through a comprehensive series of evaluations on the IP102 dataset, the efficacy of LP-YOLO as a lightweight object detection model is validated. By incorporating fine-tuning techniques during training, LP-YOLO(s)n demonstrates a marginal mAP decrease of only 0.8% compared to YOLOv8n. However, it achieves a significant reduction in parameter count by 70.2% and a remarkable 40.7% increase in FPS, underscoring its efficiency and performance. Full article

The airborne electromagnetic system MobileMT exploits natural fields in a broadband frequency range with offset measurements of magnetic and electric field variations. It was introduced in 2018 and has since been developed in various configurations, each tailored to meet the demands of different exploration tasks, varied terrains, and geoelectrical conditions and support time-domain data with controlled primary field sources. There are four distinct airborne systems: the original MobileMT; the lighter configuration, MobileMTm; the configuration for a drone carrier, MobileMTd; and the innovative time-domain AFMAG hybrid, TargetEM. The paper describes the technical features of each system, their differences and inherent strengths, the optimal usage conditions, and insights into their applications under different conditions across various exploration tasks. Several field case studies are provided to support the natural field electromagnetics capabilities of recovering geological structures in a wide depth range, beginning from the near surface, and address the impact of parasitic IP effects on time-domain data. Full article

Significant sums are spent every year to find effective treatments to control inflammation and speed up the repair of damaged skin. This study investigated the main mechanisms involved in the skin wound cure. Consequently, it offered guidance to develop new therapies to control OxInflammation and infection and decrease functional loss and cost issues. This systematic review was conducted using the PRISMA guidelines, with a structured search in the MEDLINE (PubMed), Scopus, and Web of Science databases, analyzing 23 original studies. Bias analysis and study quality were assessed using the SYRCLE tool (Prospero number is CRD262 936). Our results highlight the activation of membrane receptors (IFN-δ, TNF-α, toll-like) in phagocytes, especially macrophages, during early wound healing. The STAT1, IP3, and NF-kβ pathways are positively regulated, while Ca²⁺ mobilization correlates with ROS production and NLRP3 inflammasome activation. This pathway activation leads to the proteolytic cleavage of caspase-1, releasing IL-1β and IL-18, which are responsible for immune modulation and vasodilation. Mediators such as IL-1, iNOS, TNF-α, and TGF-β are released, influencing pro- and anti-inflammatory cascades, increasing ROS levels, and inducing the oxidation of lipids, proteins, and DNA. During healing, the respiratory burst depletes antioxidant defenses (SOD, CAT, GST), creating a pro-oxidative environment. The IFN-δ pathway, ROS production, and inflammatory markers establish a positive feedback loop, recruiting more polymorphonuclear cells and reinforcing the positive interaction between oxidative stress and inflammation. This process is crucial because, in the immune system, the vicious positive cycle between ROS, the oxidative environment, and, above all, the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome inappropriately triggers hypoxia, increases ROS levels, activates pro-inflammatory cytokines and inhibits the antioxidant action and resolution of anti-inflammatory cytokines, contributing to the evolution of chronic inflammation and tissue damage. Full article

Aminoglycosides (AGs) represent a prominent class of antibiotics widely employed for the treatment of various bacterial infections. Their widespread use has led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, highlighting the need for analytical methods that allow the simple and reliable determination of these drugs in pharmaceutical formulations and biological samples. In this study, a simple, robust and easy-to-use analytical method for the simultaneous determination of five common aminoglycosides was developed with the aim to be widely applicable in routine laboratories. With this purpose, different approaches based on liquid chromatography with direct UV spectrophotometric detection methods were investigated: on the one hand, the use of stationary phases based on hydrophilic interactions (HILIC); on the other hand, the use of reversed-phases in the presence of an ion-pairing reagent (IP-LC). The results obtained by HILIC did not allow for an effective separation of aminoglycosides suitable for subsequent spectrophotometric UV detection. However, the use of IP-LC with a C18 stationary phase and a mobile phase based on tetraborate buffer at pH 9.0 in the presence of octanesulfonate, as an ion-pair reagent, provided adequate separation for all five aminoglycosides while facilitating the use of UV spectrophotometric detection. The method thus developed, IP-LC-UV, was optimized and applied to the quality control of pharmaceutical formulations with two or more aminoglycosides. Furthermore, it is demonstrated here that this methodology is also suitable for more complex matrices, such as serum, which expands its field of application to therapeutic drug monitoring, which is crucial for aminoglycosides, with a therapeutic index ca. 50%. Full article

The lockdown imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic produced a historic fall in air pollution in cities like Barcelona. This exceptional situation offered a unique context in which to examine the effects of air pollutants on human health. The present study aims to determine and compare the oxidative stress biomarkers Th1/Th2 and inflammatory-related cytokines in healthy individuals first during lockdown and then six months after the easing of the restrictions on mobility. A prospective study of a representative sample of 58 healthy, non-smoking adults was carried out. During lockdown and six months post-easing of restrictions, blood samples were drawn to measure the percentage of eosinophils, levels of Th1/Th2 and inflammatory-related cytokines assessed by a multiplex assay (BioRad Laboratories S.A., Marnes-la-Coquette, France), and levels of 8-isoprostane, glutathione peroxidase activity, and myeloperoxidase (Cayman Chemical Co., Ann Arbor, MI, USA), to assess their value as biomarkers of oxidative stress. Six months after easing mobility restrictions, increases in the levels of 8-isoprostane (p < 0.0001), IL-1β (p = 0.0013), IL-1ra (p = 0.0110), IL-4 (p < 0.0001), IL-13 (p < 0.0001), G-CSF (p = 0.0007), and CCL3 (p < 0.0001) were recorded, along with reductions in glutathione peroxidase (p < 0.0001), IFN-γ (p = 0.0145), TNFα (p < 0.0001), IP-10 (p < 0.0001), IL-2 (p < 0.0001), IL-7 (p < 0.0001), basic FGF (p < 0.0001), CCL4 (p < 0.0001), and CCL5 (p < 0.0001). No significant differences were observed in the rest of the biomarkers analyzed. The reduction in environmental pollution during the COVID-19 lockdown significantly lowered the levels of oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, and Th2-related cytokines in healthy people. Full article