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INTRODUCTION: Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) have been reported with great variability and without standardization. In hospitalized patients, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of GI symptoms, factors associated with their occurrence, and variation at 1 month. METHODS: The GI-COVID-19 is a prospective, multicenter, controlled study. Patients with and without COVID-19 diagnosis were recruited at hospital admission and asked for GI symptoms at admission and after 1 month, using the validated Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale questionnaire. RESULTS: The study included 2036 hospitalized patients. A total of 871 patients (575 COVID+ and 296 COVID-) were included for the primary analysis. GI symptoms occurred more frequently in patients with COVID-19 (59.7%; 343/575 patients) than in the control group (43.2%; 128/296 patients) (P < 0.001). Patients with COVID-19 complained of higher presence or intensity of nausea, diarrhea, loose stools, and urgency as compared with controls. At a 1-month follow-up, a reduction in the presence or intensity of GI symptoms was found in COVID-19 patients with GI symptoms at hospital admission. Nausea remained increased over controls. Factors significantly associated with nausea persistence in COVID-19 were female sex, high body mass index, the presence of dyspnea, and increased C-reactive protein levels. DISCUSSION: The prevalence of GI symptoms in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is higher than previously reported. Systemic and respiratory symptoms are often associated with GI complaints. Nausea may persist after the resolution of COVID-19 infection., Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna; Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research; Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna [SC1-BHC-01-2019]; European Grant H2020, DISCOvERIE [SC1-BHC-01-2019]; Italian Ministry of Health [Ricerca Finalizzata GR-2018-12367062], G.B. contribution to this research was permitted in part by funding from Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna; the ItalianMinistry of Education, University and Research; and Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna and European Grant H2020, DISCOvERIE, SC1-BHC-01-2019. M.R.B. is a recipient of a grant from the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Finalizzata GR-2018-12367062). None of the funding organizations have had any role in the design and conduct of the study; in the collection, management, and analysis of the data; or in the preparation, review, and approval of the article.

The Aeolian wall lizard Podarcis raffonei is an island endemic that survives only on three tiny islets, and on the Capo Grosso peninsula of the Vulcano island, thus is among the European vertebrates with the smallest range and one of the most threatened by extinction. This species is declining due to competition and hybridization with the non-native lizard Podarcis siculus, but a regular monitoring program is lacking. Here we assessed the size and status of the Capo Grosso population of P. raffonei on Vulcano. In September 2015 we captured 30 individuals showing the typical brown phenotype of P. raffonei, while one single male showed a green phenotype, apparently intermediate between P. raffonei and the non-native Podarcis siculus. In May 2017, only 47% of 131 individuals showed the typical brown phenotype (P. raffonei-like) and 53% showed the green phenotype (P. siculus-like). Based on N-mixture models and removal sampling the estimated size of the Capo Grosso population was of 800-1300 individuals in 2017, being similar to 2015; available data suggest that the total range of the species could be as small as 2 ha. The frequency of individuals with the typical P. raffonei phenotype dramatically dropped between two samplings with a parallel increase of individuals displaying the green phenotype. Observation on outdoor captive-bred individuals demonstrates plasticity for colouration in P. raffonei individuals from Capo Grosso, with several individuals showing the typical brown pattern in September 2017 and a green pattern in March 2021. Non-exclusive hypotheses, including hybridization with P. siculus and plasticity in colour pattern of P. raffonei, are discussed to explain the phenotypic shifts of the P. raffonei population of Capo Grosso. While genomic evidence is required to reach conclusions and investigate eventual hybridization, it is urgent to undertake a programme for the monitoring and management of this lizard.

Climatic conditions changing over time and space shape the evolution of organisms at multiple levels, including temperate lizards in the family Lacertidae. Here we reconstruct a dated phylogenetic tree of 262 lacertid species based on a supermatrix relying on novel phylogenomic datasets and fossil calibrations. Diversification of lacertids was accompanied by an increasing disparity among occupied bioclimatic niches, especially in the last 10 Ma, during a period of progressive global cooling. Temperate species also underwent a genome-wide slowdown in molecular substitution rates compared to tropical and desert-adapted lacertids. Evaporative water loss and preferred temperature are correlated with bioclimatic parameters, indicating physiological adaptations to climate. Tropical, but also some populations of cool-adapted species experience maximum temperatures close to their preferred temperatures. We hypothesize these species-specific physiological preferences may constitute a handicap to prevail under rapid global warming, and contribute to explaining local lizard extinctions in cool and humid climates. © 2019, The Author(s).

The amphibian micronucleus test has been widely used during the last 30 years to test the genotoxic properties of several chemicals and as a tool for ecogenotoxic monitoring. The vast majority of these studies were performed on peripheral blood of urodelan larvae and anuran tadpoles and to a lesser extent adults were also used. In this study, we developed protocols for measuring micronuclei in adult shed skin cells and larval gill cells of the Italian crested newt (Triturus carnifex). Amphibians were collected from ponds in two protected areas in Italy that differed in their radon content. Twenty-three adult newts and 31 larvae were captured from the radon-rich pond, while 20 adults and 27 larvae were taken from the radon-free site. The animals were brought to the laboratory and the micronucleus test was performed on peripheral blood and shed skins taken from the adults and on larval gills. Samples from the radon-rich site showed micronucleus frequencies higher than those from the radon-free site and the difference was statistically significant in gill cells (P < 0.00001). Moreover, the larval gills seem to be more sensitive than the adult tissues. This method represents an easy (and noninvasive in the case of the shed skin) application of the micronucleus assay that can be useful for environmental studies in situ. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 56:412-417, 2015. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cystic adrenal neoplasms are uncommon and may be incidentally discovered during radiologic procedure not directly performed for the evaluation of adrenal disease. Cystic pheochromocytomas are uncommon neoplasms that originate from the adrenal medulla, clinically differing from the more frequent solid pheochromocytomas. Here, we report a case of 72 year-old woman affected by asymptomatic pseudocystic pheochromocytoma (70x50mm), incidentally discovered, with a false negative 123I-monoiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) scintigraphy. Histopathological examination led to diagnosis of pseudocystic pheochromocytoma with typical architecture. The screening for germline mutation of succinate dehydrogenase complex subunits (SDHB, SDHC), Von Hipple-Lindau syndrome (VHL) and multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (RET) genes were negative, finding only some polymorphisms for RET and SDHB. We emphasize the relevance of an accurate pre-operative diagnosis, especially in rare diseases, and the requirement of experience and multidisciplinary management in these rare pathologies.

In the context of the European project DYNAMAP, a campaign of acoustic monitoring of road traffic noise was realized in the entire area of the city of Milan. The operations involve the collection of temporal trends of noise levels in order to create a statistically significant sample for post-processing analysis. The monitoring activities encompass the following steps: - collection and selection of previous noise data concerning the road sources; - identification and selection of monitoring sites based on specific criteria such as road geometric characteristics, the functional road classification (A, D, E, F), the type of traffic, the absence of other noise sources, etc.; - acquisition of the acoustic data by weekday using various types of units for the long-term noise monitoring; - correlation of acoustic data with weather data and deletion of data when levels of rainfall and wind speed exceeding threshold values; - identification and removal of abnormal events through sonogram analysis; - acquisition of series of equivalent sound levels, measured on different time intervals: 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 60 minutes; - acquisition of traffic flow data related to road stretches, via statistical modeling or on-site measurements. All acquired data are stored in a geodatabase useful for further processing, such as cluster analysis and the development of an acoustic model for the city of Milan. The acquisition of noise data will also provide useful indications to size a monitoring network of low-cost sensors, one of the main target of the DYNAMAP project.

Recent phylogeographical studies have re-evaluated the role of refugia in central and northern Europe for glacial persistence and postglacial assembly of temperate biota. Yet, on a regional scale within Mediterranean peninsulas, putative ‘northern’ refugia’s contribution to the current structure of biodiversity still needs to be fully appreciated. To this end, we investigated the phylogeographical structure and the evolutionary history of the Italian smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris meridionalis, through phylogeographical, molecular dating and historical demographic analyses. We found ten differentiated mitochondrial lineages with a clear geographical association, mainly distributed in northern Italy. The most ancient divergence among these lineages was estimated at the Early Pleistocene and was followed by a series of splits throughout the Middle Pleistocene. No haplogroup turned out to be derived from another one, each one occupying terminal positions within the phylogenetic network topologies. These results suggest an unprecedented scenario involving long-term survival of distinct evolutionary lineages in multiple northern Mediterranean refugia. This scenario mirrors on a smaller geographical scale what has been previously observed in the literature concerning northern European environments; it also sheds more light on how northern Italy has contributed to temperate species’ long-term survival and to the assembly of regional biota.

For planning practical measures aimed at biodiversity protection, conservation priorities must be identified at a local scale. Unfortunately, identifying local conservation priorities requires high-resolution data on species distribution, and these are often unavailable. Atlases of species distribution provide data for several groups of organisms in many different areas but are often too coarse in resolution to provide valuable information. We explored the possibility of cross-scale modelling species distributions and we clarified, for the first time, its effect on prioritization exercises. We used different modelling techniques for scaling down atlas data for Sardinian reptiles, validated the outcomes with detailed, field-sampled data, and compared conservation priorities deriving from atlas maps and downscaled models. Doing this, we obtained as a further result the identification of priority species and areas for future conservation strategies. Our results encourage us to experiment further with this approach. Through the downscaling procedure, we obtain high-resolution models with strong variations in predictive performances, although most of the models show satisfactory/excellent scores. This testifies that low-resolution data can be downscaled maintaining low rates of omission and commission errors. Increasing the resolution of distribution maps used for prioritization influences the spatial patterns of priority but does not modify the evaluation of species representation. Overall, we show that atlases can meet the large demand for distribution data by decision makers if appropriate downscaling procedures are adopted. In addition, we provide practical instruments for the conservation of reptiles in Sardinia by identifying priority species and areas that require strict management.

""Understanding the role of the developmental pathways in shaping phenotypic diversity allows appreciating in full the processes influencing and constraining morphological change. Podarcis lizards demonstrate extraordinary morphological variability that likely originated in short evolutionary time. Using geometric morphometrics and a broad suite of statistical tests, we explored the role of developmental mechanisms such as growth rate change, ontogenetic divergence ⁄ convergence ⁄ parallelism as well as morphological expression of heterochronic processes in mediating the formation of their phenotypic diversity during the post-natal ontogeny. We identified hypermorphosis – the prolongation of growth along the same trajectory – as the process responsible for both intersexual and interspecific morphological differentiation. Albeit the common allometric pattern observed in both sexes of any species constrains and canalizes their cephalic scales variation in a fixed portion of the phenotypic space, the extended growth experienced by males and some species allows them to achieve peramorphic morphologies. Conversely, the intrasexual phenotypic diversity is accounted for by nonallometric processes that drive the extensive morphological dispersion throughout their ontogenetic trajectories. This study suggests a model of how simple heterochronic perturbations can produce phenotypic variation, and thus potential for further evolutionary change, even within a strictly constrained developmental pathway.""

Algyroides fitzingeri is a Corso-Sardinian endemic lizard belonging to a relictual genus within the Lacertini radiation. In recent phylogeographic studies of Corso-Sardinian endemic lizards incongruent patterns are emerging. We investigated the mitochondrial genetic variation of A. fitzingeri across Corsica and Sardinia to obtain a preliminary portrait of its phylogeographic history. This species showed some polymorphism, but with low genetic differentiation between populations, that probably originated during the Pleistocene. Corsican populations are closely related to those from North Sardinia and are likely to have originated from them, given the higher diversity and deeper phylogeographic structure observed in Sardinia than in Corsica. While the phylogeographic structure of A. fitzingeri in Corsica is surprisingly shallow when compared with other co-distributed lizards, in Sardinia a common pattern apparently emerges. Further research is needed to confirm the hypotheses here presented and to provide a conclusive assessment of the phylogeography of this species

Archaeolacerta bedriagae is a rock lizard endemic to Corsica and Sardinia. Four subspecies have been recozied to date on the basis of morphological traits. Previous allozyme investigations revealed high genetic differentiation among populations of the species. Based on these results some authors hypothesized that more than one species of Archaeolacerta may occur on Corsica and Sardinia. In this paper we investigated allozyme variation at 19 gene loci in 5 populations belonging to all subspecies of A. bedriagae in order to study genetic differentiation among populations from Corsica and Sardinia, and to compare our results with those obtained in previous studies carried out on allozyme variation and taxonomy of the species. Low levels of genetic differentiation (average Nei's D = 0.026) and heterogeneity (mean F ST = 0.147) were found comparing the A. bedriagae populations, and there was no evidence of interruption or restriction of gene flow. This is in agreement with the available molecular and morphometric data, while it is not in accordance with allozyme data reported in the previous studies. Our data do not support the hypothesis of an unrecognized criptic species of Archaeolacerta in Corsica and Sardinia, and indicate that the definitive assessment of the taxonomic status of the A. bedriagae populations requires further investigation.

Hypotheses: After the effect of phylogeny is statistically removed, cranial structures that are employed solely for mastication should covary the most with hypsodonty (high-crowned cheek teeth are termed ‘hypsodont’). Such structures should also be the least phylogenetically constrained. A corollary: structures that are highly influenced by shared ancestry will exhibit greater morphological integration than those that are affected less. Organisms: All extant rhinoceroses and a number of extinct, European, Plio-Pleistocene species. Analytical methods: Using two-dimensional geometric morphometrics, we studied skull shape in the dorsal and lateral views, mandible shape in the lateral view, and the upper tooth row shape in the occlusal view. To reflect feeding habits, we used a surrogate variable, the hypsodonty index. Using phylogenetically independent contrasts and variation partitioning, we separated shape variation into function, phylogeny, and size components. We tested morphological integration with Escoufier’s RV coefficient. Results: The mandible and the upper tooth row have the highest covariance with hypsodonty and the least with phylogeny. Skull morphology shows the reverse; it has the smallest covariance with hypsodonty and the highest with phylogeny. The degree of morphological integration between the upper tooth row and the other structures is relatively low, indicating that the former component is the least phylogenetically constrained. In keeping with our predictions, the cranial region associated with chewing is constrained by function and not as much by phylogeny, whereas others show stronger phylogenetic constraint.

Many techniques for predicting species potential distribution were recently developed. Despite the international interest for these procedures, applications of predictive approaches to the study of Italian fauna distribution are exceptionally rare. This paper aimed at: (a) detecting climatic exigencies of A. bedriagae in Sardinia; (b) predicting the Archaeolacerta bedriagae Sardinian potential distribution; (c) identifying the most vulnerable Italian populations of the species. Literature and field data were utilized as presence records. Six modelling procedures (BIOCLIM, DOMAIN, ENFA, GAM, GLM, and MAXENT) were adopted. The species climatic requirements were defined using the WorldClim databank for deriving the environmental predictors. AUC and Kappa values were calculated for models validation. AUC values were compared by using Anova Monte Carlo. The best four models were combined through the weighted average consensus method for producing a univocal output. GAM and MAXENT had the best performances (respectively: AUC = 0.93 ± 0.03, Kappa = 0.77 ± 0.08; AUC = 0.93 ± 0.03, Kappa = 0.78 ± 0.07). Good results were also obtained by GLM and DOMAIN (respectively: AUC = 0.89 ± 0.04, Kappa = 0.72 ± 0.05; AUC = 0.88 ± 0.04, Kappa = 0.69 ± 0.07). BIOCLIM and ENFA gained relatively low performances (respectively: AUC = 0.78 ± 0.07, Kappa = 0.57 ± 0.14; AUC = 0.75 ± 0.06; Kappa = 0.49 ± 0.10). In Sardinia A. bedriagae is mainly influenced by seasonality, which causes the evidenced range fragmentation. Moreover, the general importance of multi-methods approaches and consensus techniques in predicting species distribution was highlighted.

Archaeolacerta bedriagae is a rock lizard endemic to Corsica and Sardinia. Four subspecies have been recozied to date on the basis of morphological traits. Previous allozyme investigations revealed high genetic differentiation among populations of the species. Based on these results some authors hypothesized that more than one species of Archaeolacerta may occur on Corsica and Sardinia. In this paper we investigated allozyme variation at 19 gene loci in 5 populations belonging to all subspecies of A. bedriagae in order to study genetic differentiation among populations from Corsica and Sardinia, and to compare our results with those obtained in previous studies carried out on allozyme variation and taxonomy of the species. Low levels of genetic differentiation (average Nei’s D = 0.026) and heterogeneity (mean FST = 0.147) were found comparing the A. bedriagae populations, and there was no evidence of interruption or restriction of gene flow. This is in agreement with the available molecular and morphometric data, while it is not in accordance with allozyme data reported in the previous studies. Our data do not support the hypothesis of an unrecognized criptic species of Archaeolacerta in Corsica and Sardinia, and indicate that the definitive assessment of the taxonomic status of the A. bedriagae populations requires further investigation.

The peculiar bioclimatic and geographic features of Corso-Sardinian islands may provide an ideal scenario for investigating microevolutionary processes, given their large heterogeneity of environments, which could affect dispersal and gene flow among populations, as well as processes of local adaptation. The genetic variation and differentiation among populations of the endemic lizard Archaeolacerta bedriagae were studied by allozyme electrophoresis at 20 presumptive loci. The genetic structure of this species is characterized by relatively high levels of polymorphism and low differentiation among populations. The pattern of genetic differentiation cannot be explained by genetic drift as a function of geographic distance. Genetic distance data show that genetic variation is distributed into three geographically coherent population groups and suggest a recent (Late Pleistocene) origin for the observed geographic fragmentation. The analysis of environmental correlates of allozymic variation indicates a strong correlation of the Idh-1 locus with climatic variables. The frequency of the Idh-1106 allele is negatively correlated with annual temperature, and positively correlated with annual precipitation. In addition, the observed heterozygosity at this locus decreases towards more arid climatic regimes. The results obtained support the assumption of differential selection acting on Idh-1 allozymes under diverse climates. An association between Idh-1 allozymes and local bioclimatic regimes was also observed for the sympatric lizard Podarcis tiliguerta, suggesting a key role for such selective agents on Idh-1 polymorphism in these two Corso-Sardinian lacertids

Biological invasions are a challenge to conservation and constitute a threat to biodiversity worldwide. The Italian wall lizard Podarcis sicula has been widely introduced, and seems capable of adapting to most of the regions where it is established and to impact on native biota. Here we construct a phylogenetic framework to assess the origin of the introduced populations in the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey comparing cytochrome-b gene sequences of lizards from five locations to published sequences from the native range and other non-native locations. The results support an origin from central Italy for the United Kingdom population, from the Adriatic region for the Greek population and from Calabria for the population from Turkey. These results emphasise the multiple-source pattern of introduction of this species identified in previous studies. The improvement in the knowledge of the origin and pathways by which invaders arrive in new areas, as well as the monitoring of their populations, are crucial for successful strategies to deal with exotic species. © Firenze University Press.

Necrotic disorder of freesia (Freesia refracta hyb., Family Iridaceae) was first described in The Netherlands before 1970. In following years, the disorder was widely reported in other European countries including Northern Italy. Very recently, the same necrotic disease was also detected in Virginia (United States), New Zealand, Bulgaria and South Korea. Presence of the Ophiovirus Freesia sneak virus (FreSV) has been widely associated with the necrotic disease in every case but some uncertainty remains. The freesia leaf necrosis complex has been shown to be soil-borne, transmitted by Olpidium brassicae, but other infectious agents could be naturally transmitted by the same vector, thickening the plot about the disease causal agent. Freesia plants showing necrotic disease, collected in Northern Italy during the 2011-2012 growing season were used for virus purification procedures. The product obtained was used for total RNA extraction and for TEM visualization. Several differently shaped virus particles were visualized in the mixture and total RNA has been used for sequence-independent amplification for the identification of known and unknown RNA viruses infecting diseased freesia. Some significant results will be discussed.

We present a system that produces sentential descriptions of video: who did what to whom, and where and how they did it. Action class is rendered as a verb, participant objects as noun phrases, properties of those objects as adjectival modifiers in those noun phrases, spatial relations between those participants as prepositional phrases, and characteristics of the event as prepositional-phrase adjuncts and adverbial modifiers. Extracting the information needed to render these linguistic entities requires an approach to event recognition that recovers object tracks, the trackto-role assignments, and changing body posture., Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI2012)

Latonia nigriventer, Mediterranean painted frogs (genus Discoglossus Otth, 1837) are distributed across western Europe, North Africa and some Mediterranean islands. Previous studies have focused on their phylogenetic relationships, but the taxonomic position of the Iberian taxa (D. galganoi and D. jeanneae) is still under debate. By using microsatellites, patterns and rates of admixture can be quantified. We report the characterisation of eighteen novel polymorphic microsatellite loci in Iberian painted frogs. These loci were also tested in all other species of Discoglossus and in the recently rediscovered and highly endangered relative Latonia nigriventer. Two to eleven loci amplified in these species, and the number of polymorphic loci ranged from zero (in Latonia) to eight (in D. scovazzi). The new markers will be useful in addressing questions related to the evolutionary history, population structure, and conservation of Iberian Discoglossus. They also have potential for use in the North African species D. scovazzi and D. pictus, the latter of which is an invasive species rapidly expanding its range in southeast France and northeast Spain., This research was funded by grants CGL2008-04271-C02-01/BOS and CGL2011-28300 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain, and FEDER) and PPII10-0097- 4200 (Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha and FEDER) No IMS. JGR is supported by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas of Spain (CSIC) and the European Social Fund (ESF) (JAE-pre PhD fellowship); IMS is funded by Project >Biodiversidad y, Ecology and Global Change> co-financed by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme 2007/2013 (ON.2-O Novo Norte), under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and DS is supported by a post-doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/66592/2009) funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) under the Programa Operacional Potencial Humano - Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional funds from the European Social Fund and Portuguese Ministério da Educação e Ciência.

The goal of universAAL is defining and implementing a reference architecture and platform for AAL applications that becomes widely accepted in the whole AAL community, and to define and realize on such platform a number of services that prove its validity and open business opportunities. To do that, it is essential that the universAAL architecture, platform, and services are supported by communities of different stakeholders (ranging from developers to industries, service providers, end users, etc.) that guarantee a development of universAAL even after the end of the project. For this reason universAAL implements tasks that realize specific community building strategies for different sets of stakeholders (such as tasks 8.1, 8.2, and 8.4). The EvAAL competition (Evaluating AAL Systems through Competitive Benchmarking), which is implemented in Task 8.5 and described in this deliverable, supports the community building activities. In fact, EvAAL has the role of expanding the community and attracting stakeholders around the universAAL architecture and platform. The evaluation and comparison of complex AAL systems is still far from being a reality, this implies that, at the present, the universAAL architecture and platform can hardly be compared with other solutions, and thus even the impact of new solutions and strategies to be adopted in the universAAL development can hardly be evaluated. EvAAL aims at advancing the state of the art in the evaluation and comparison of AAL platforms and architectures. In particular, one of the goals of the EvAAL competition is to generate an environment in which the researchers, students, and even industries can compare their solutions and exchange ideas on which such comparisons may become feasible. For this reason, EvAAL adopts a step by step approach, by dividing the problem into smaller pieces. First, it promotes competitions on specific topics in order to create a large data set and to create benchmarks and evaluation methodologies, then EvAAL will be able to evaluate and compare more complex (and even complete) AAL solutions. From the point of view of WP 2, 3, and 4, (development work package of universAAL) the creation of data sets, benchmarks, and evaluation methodologies, achieved by EvAAL, will become the mean to evaluate the quality of their findings, thus EvAAL results are also inputs for the validation work package (WP5). Moreover, EvAAL will also promote the use of the universAAL platform since it will base the benchmarking and evaluation of competing artefacts on the tools and platform developed in WP2 and WP3.

As Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) emerges as a need for our ageing societies, many barriers are still in place against its wide adop- tion. One of the main issues related to the creation of an AAL market is the lack of consensus around well established technologies which should e ectively cover real needs of the population. EvAAL (Evaluating AAL Systems Through Competitive Benchmarking) is a newborn initiative aimed at evaluating solutions related to Ambient Assisted Living by or- ganizing annual international competitions. Its main objectives are the creation of a community of stakeholders around AAL and the creation of metrics and benchmarks for both innovative prototypes and commer- cial solutions. EvAAL focuses not only on comparison of algorithms or speci c hardware issues, but also of user acceptance, deployment and installation e ort, integrability, etc. In its rst versions, the competition is focusing on speci c technical aspects of AAL but aims, in the near future, at joining heterogeneous "ambient" technologies in a common evaluation framework. In July 2011, the rst EvAAL competition took place in Valencia, Spain, on Indoor Localization and Tracking for AAL. This paper describes how EvAAL is designed, its principles and how it is internally organized, and goes though an evaluation of this structure though the experience gained during the first competition.

As Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) emerges as a need for our ageing societies, many barriers are still in place against its wide adop- tion. One of the main issues related to the creation of an AAL market is the lack of consensus around well established technologies which should e ectively cover real needs of the population. EvAAL (Evaluating AAL Systems Through Competitive Benchmarking) is a newborn initiative aimed at evaluating solutions related to Ambient Assisted Living by or- ganizing annual international competitions. Its main objectives are the creation of a community of stakeholders around AAL and the creation of metrics and benchmarks for both innovative prototypes and commer- cial solutions. EvAAL focuses not only on comparison of algorithms or speci c hardware issues, but also of user acceptance, deployment and installation e ort, integrability, etc. In its rst versions, the competition is focusing on speci c technical aspects of AAL but aims, in the near future, at joining heterogeneous "ambient" technologies in a common evaluation framework. In July 2011, the rst EvAAL competition took place in Valencia, Spain, on Indoor Localization and Tracking for AAL. This paper describes how EvAAL is designed, its principles and how it is internally organized, and goes though an evaluation of this structure though the experience gained during the rst competition.

"Evaluating Ambient Assisted Living Systems through Competitive Benchmarking" (EvAAL) is an annual international competition that addresses the "grand" challenge of evaluation and comparison of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) systems and plat- forms, with the final goal to assess the autonomy, in- dependent living and quality of life that AAL systems may grant to their end users. The EvAAL event is a live competition and this year edition is focused on two pillars of AAL: Indoor localization and activity recognition.

Necrotic disorder of freesia (Freesia refracta hyb., family Iridaceae) was first described in The Netherlands before 1970. In following years, the disorder was widely reported in other European countries including Northern Italy (Vaira & Milne 2008). Very recently, the same necrotic disease was also detected in Virginia, United States (Vaira et al. 2009) and New Zealand (Pearson et al. 2009). Presence of the Ophiovirus Freesia sneak virus (FreSV) has been widely associated with the necrotic disease in Europe, the United States and New Zealand but some uncertainty remains (Brandvagt et al. 2008). The freesia leaf necrosis complex has been shown to be soilborne, transmitted by Olpidium brassicae, but other infectious agents (e.g. the Varicosavirus tentatively named Freesia leaf necrosis virus) could be naturally transmitted by the same vector, thickening the plot about the disease causal agent. In 2002 Dr. Morikawa was able to differentiate a Mild mottle mosaic- and Streaking disease in tulips: the first was linked to the Tulip mild mottle mosaic virus (TMMMV, genus Ophiovirus) infection and the second to an unknown Tulip streaking associated agent, with unstable infectivity (Morikawa 2002). He also showed that development of both diseases was suppressed by fungicidal treatments of the soil, suggesting soil-borne transmission for both agents. In 2005 the same team preliminarily described Tulip streak virus, a novel virus strictly associated with tulip streak disease. This new viral agent, morphologically resembling Tenuiviruses or supercoiled Ophioviruses, has a coat protein of c. 30kDa sharing some homology with Phlebovirus (Bunyaviridae) (Morikawa et al. 2005). Freesia plants showing necrotic disease were collected in Liguria (Northern Italy) during the 2011-2012 growing season. About 40-50% of the plants were affected by typical leaf necrosis and were assayed for FreSV infection by electron microscopy (TEM) and RT-PCR tests. FreSV was detected using FreSV-specific primers in all six samples obtained by pooling several Freesia plants from different areas of the parcel, and elongated supercoiled virus particles were detected in freesia crude sap by TEM. Freesia tissue was purified using Ophiovirus procedure and the product obtained was used for total RNA extraction and for TEM visualization. Several differently shaped virus particles were visualized in the mixture and total RNA has been used for sequence-independent amplification (SIA) for the identification of RNA virus, following a published procedure (Agindotan 2010). Results of virus detection in infected freesia tissue are reported.

This document reports the structure and organization of AAL competition (hereafter called EvAAL, that stands for Evaluating AAL Systems through Competitive Benchmarking). It first summarizes the purpose of EvAAL with respect to both the other deliverables of the community building and to the architecture, platform and services of universAAL. Then, this document discusses the background of EvAAL, in particular how EvAAL fits the community building strategy and its purpose from a technical point of view. Then it discuss the organization and structure of EvAAL, summarizing the structure of the committees and their roles, the financial aspects, specifying how to drive the future competitions, and the modalities of marketing of EvAAL. Lastly it explains how the first EvAAL competition has been organized, specifying the location chosen, the organization of the web-site, the call for competition, the evaluation criteria, and the dataset we produced. Finally, the roadmap to the next competition is given.

As a sub-part of the deliverable D1.3, this document is dedicated to the presentation of the latest state of developments towards a Reference Model for AAL. The agreed definition for a reference model in universAAL is: "A reference model is an abstract framework for understanding significant relationships among the entities of some environment. It enables the development of specific reference or concrete architectures using consistent standards or specifications supporting that environment. A reference model consists of a minimal set of unifying concepts, axioms and relationships within a particular problem domain, and is independent of specific standards, technologies, implementations, or other concrete details." [1] In this document, the consolidated reference model for AAL is summarized in terms of a set of seven concept maps, of which one is serving as a root map, which provides a top-level understanding of AAL systems, and the other six analyze further related aspects at a second level of details. These are about a basic understating of the term service, the domain-specific context of AAL services, the connection between AAL and Ambient Intelligence and the role of channels for "breaking out of the virtual realm into the physical world"[3], as well as the most important technical stakeholders along with an analysis of the terms platform, middleware and AAL applications. It can be helpful to have read Part I, which provides a process view on how these results has been achieved, for a better understanding of what is being presented here. In the following sub-parts of D1.3, one can see how the insights captured by these concept maps are conducting the development process within universAAL.

Owing to the complexity of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) systems and platforms, the evaluation of AAL solutions is a complex task that will challenge researchers for years to come. However, the analysis and comparison of proposed solutions is paramount to enable us to assess research results in this area. We have thus organized an international contest called EvAAL: Evaluating AAL Systems Through Competitive Benchmarking. Its aims are to raise interest within the research and developer communities in the multidisciplinary research fields enabling AAL, and to create benchmarks for the evaluation and comparison of AAL systems.

Specification of the Reference Architecture. Text, reference figures, UML diagrams. Rules about how to interpret the specification. Includes universAAL protocol specifications, API specifications and ontology.

In the present global society, information has to be exchangeable in open and dynamic environments, where interacting peers do not necessarily share a common understanding of the world at hand, and do not have a complete picture of the context where the interaction occurs. In this paper, we present the Esteem approach and the related peer architecture for emergent semantics in dynamic and multi-knowledge environments. In Esteem, semantic communities are built around declared interests in the form of manifesto ontologies, and their autonomous nature is preserved by allowing a shared semantics to naturally emerge from peer interactions.