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As biometric authentication has been increasingly integrated into cutting-edge technology, it is interesting to study how its level of trust and interoperability across multiple devices can be increased. They can actually be enhanced through decentralization, particularly by using blockchain technology. Since transaction data on the blockchain are open and readable by all parties, a high level of user trust is achieved, enhancing transparency and interoperability across the network. The software we propose bridges the gap between the security of biometric information and the transparency of blockchain and decentralized technologies. Specifically, the software is a decentralized application (dApp), based on the Ethereum blockchain, which relies on a smart contract to manage its logic. The logic of the smart contract employs the fuzzy commitment scheme (FCS) to securely hash biometric templates, while always maintaining fault tolerance thanks to error correction codes (ECC). This mechanism ensures data integrity within a transparent, decentralized framework. The proposed dApp enhances biometric authentication by supporting both the enrollment and authentication processes. Its smart contract enables managing access control within this decentralized infrastructure. In practical applications, the proposed system can demonstrate its potential as a secure and decentralized alternative to traditional centralized systems.

Abstract It is well known that some harmful objects in the Tanner graph of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have a negative impact on their error correction performance under iterative message-passing decoding. Depending on the channel and the decoding algorithm, these harmful objects are different in nature and can be stopping sets, trapping sets, absorbing sets, or pseudocodewords. Differently from LDPC block codes, the design of spatially coupled LDPC codes must take into account the semi-infinite nature of the code, while still reducing the number of harmful objects as much as possible. We propose a general procedure, based on edge spreading, enabling the design of good quasi-cyclic spatially coupled LDPC (QC-SC-LDPC) codes. These codes are derived from quasi-cyclic LDPC (QC-LDPC) block codes and contain a considerably reduced number of harmful objects with respect to the original QC-LDPC block codes. We use an efficient way of enumerating harmful objects in QC-SC-LDPCCs to obtain a fast algorithm that spans the search space of potential candidates to select those minimizing the multiplicity of the target harmful objects. We validate the effectiveness of our method via numerical simulations, showing that the newly designed codes achieve better error rate performance than codes presented in previous literature.

Este artículo explora los posibles vínculos entre el realismo mágico y las nuevas narrativas latinoamericanas, así como el diseño contemporáneo de productos basado en la cultura local de Argentina y Brasil. El realismo mágico surge como una consecuencia natural de los procesos sociales, económicos, culturales y políticos que atraviesan los diferentes pueblos y ciudades de Latinoamérica. Escritores como Gabriel García Márquez, Alejo Carpentier, Juan Rulfo, Jorge Amado, entre otros, impregnaron sus producciones con referencias locales; experimentaron con formas escritas y reconstruyeron un lenguaje latinoamericano. El diseño de producto y mobiliario en Argentina y Brasil también experimentó un proceso similar, con la exploración de materias prima autóctonas, procesos tradicionales y la inclusión de relatos, conceptos y símbolos locales. En este sentido, se analizan los posibles vínculos entre el realismo mágico y la producción de diseñadores que han trabajado con materiales inusuales y técnicas de producción tradicionales para crear piezas de mobiliario con una fuerte identidad latinoamericana. La producción de estos diseñadores refleja la influencia de la cultura y el folclore de su territorio, así como la combinación de lo antiguo y lo moderno, en un proceso similar al de estos escritores latinoamericanos. Esta reflexión contribuye a un mayor entendimiento del papel de la cultura y la identidad en la producción cultural contemporánea en Latinoamérica.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on hospitals' activity and organization has imposed a vast change in standard neurosurgical oncology practice to accommodate for shifting resources. Aims: This investigation aims to analyse the nationwide capability in reorganizing the surgical neuro-oncological activity during the COVID-19 pandemic to evaluate whether COVID-19-pandemic influenced the surgical management in these patients. Method: A web-based dataset model organized by the Italian Neurosurgical Society (SINCh) was sent to all the Italian neurosurgical departments in May 2021, requesting to report the types and numbers of surgical procedures performed in the pre-pandemic period (from March 9th 2019 to March 9th 2020) compared to the pandemic period (from March 10th 2020 to March 10th 2021). Results: This multicentre investigation included the surgical activity of 35 Italian Neurosurgical Departments in a pre-pandemic year versus a pandemic year. During the COVID period, 699 fewer neuro-oncological patients were operated on than in the pre-COVID period. We noted a slight increase in urgency and a more severe decrease in elective and benign pathology. None of these differences was statistically significant. Surgically treated patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were 36, of which 11 died. Death was found to be COVID-related only in 2 cases. Conclusion: The reorganization of the Italian Neurosurgical Departments was able to guarantee a redistribution of the CNS tumors during the inter-pandemic periods, demonstrating that patients even in the pandemic era could be treated without compromising the efficacy and safety of the surgical procedure.

BackgroundResting-state functional-MRI studies identified several cortical gray matter functional networks (GMNs) and white matter functional networks (WMNs) with precise anatomical localization. Here, we aimed at describing the relationships between brain’s functional topological organization and glioblastoma (GBM) location. Furthermore, we assessed whether GBM distribution across these networks was associated with overall survival (OS).Materials and methodsWe included patients with histopathological diagnosis of IDH-wildtype GBM, presurgical MRI and survival data. For each patient, we recorded clinical-prognostic variables. GBM core and edema were segmented and normalized to a standard space. Pre-existing functional connectivity-based atlases were used to define network parcellations: 17 GMNs and 12 WMNs were considered in particular. We computed the percentage of lesion overlap with GMNs and WMNs, both for core and edema. Differences between overlap percentages were assessed through descriptive statistics, ANOVA, post-hoc tests, Pearson’s correlation tests and canonical correlations. Multiple linear and non-linear regression tests were employed to explore relationships with OS.Results99 patients were included (70 males, mean age 62 years). The most involved GMNs included ventral somatomotor, salient ventral attention and default-mode networks; the most involved WMNs were ventral frontoparietal tracts, deep frontal white matter, and superior longitudinal fasciculus system. Superior longitudinal fasciculus system and dorsal frontoparietal tracts were significantly more included in the edema (p

Introduction and Objectives: Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a severe clinical entity with organ failures and high short-term mortality. To Date, few ACLF reports have been published in Latin America. This study aimed to characterize patients with ACLF, identifying triggers, organ failure, and survival at 30, 90, and 180 days compared to patients with decompensated cirrhosis without ACLF. Materials and Methods: Retrospective study of decompensated cirrhotic patients hospitalized (between 2017-2019) in three centers in Chile. We evaluated transplant-free survival using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox-regression. Results: 398 patients were included, a median age of 65.3±11.7-year-old, 50.5% female, 91 (22.9%) presented ACLF (8% ACLF-1, 6.3% ACLF-2, 8.6% ACLF-3); 6.6% underwent liver transplantation. ACLF patients were younger (63.6 vs. 66.0 years; p=0.045), had higher MELD-Na scores (27 [23-32] vs. 17 [13-23]; p

Glioblastomas with multiple foci at presentation (mGBMs) account for 2–35% of all GBMs. mGBMs have limited existing data and no standardized treatment. This study aims to determine their incidence, demographic and clinical features, outcome, and prognostic factors in terms of overall survival. We performed a monocentric retrospective study, reviewing patients treated at the Istituto Oncologico Veneto. Inclusion criteria were: new diagnosis of GBM and presence of multiple lesions on pre-treatment MRI. ECOG PS was used to evaluate clinical condition, RANO criteria for radiological assessment, and CTCAE v5.0 for treatment-related adverse events. The incidence of newly diagnosed mGBM was 7.2% and the study population consisted of 98 patients. Median age was 63 years, M:F ratio of 1.8:1, and a surgical approach was undertaken in 73 patients (mostly partial resection). MGMT was methylated in 47.5%, and 82 patients received active oncological treatment (65.9% radiotherapy plus temozolomide (RT + TMZ)). The disease control rate with RT + TMZ was 63%. Median OS of the entire study population was 10.2 months (95% CI 6.6–13.8), and median PFS was 4.2 months (95% CI 3.2–5.2). The ECOG PS, the extent of resection, and the RT + TMZ were significant prognostic factors in the univariate analysis for OS, but only the RT + TMZ was a significant independent OS predictor in the multivariate analysis (HR = 3.1, 95% IC 1.3–7.7, p = 0.014). The incidence of mGBM is not rare. RT + TMZ is confirmed to be an independent prognostic factor for survival and a safe and effective treatment. When feasible, RT + TMZ should be considered as a possible first-line treatment. The role of the extent of resection is still unclear.

The assessment of cyber risk plays a crucial role for cybersecurity management, and has become a compulsory task for certain types of companies and organizations. This makes the demand for reliable cyber risk assessment tools continuously increasing, especially concerning quantitative tools based on statistical approaches. Probabilistic cyber risk assessment methods, however, follow the general paradigm of probabilistic risk assessment, which requires the magnitude and the likelihood of incidents as inputs. Unfortunately, for cyber incidents, the likelihood of occurrence is hard to estimate based on historical and publicly available data; so, expert evaluations are commonly used, which however leave space to subjectivity. In this paper, we propose a novel probabilistic model, called MAGIC (Method for AssessinG cyber Incidents oCcurrence), to compute the likelihood of occurrence of a cyber incident, based on the evaluation of the cyber posture of the target organization. This allows deriving tailor-made inputs for probabilistic risk assessment methods, like HTMA (How To Measure Anything in cybersecurity risk), FAIR (Factor Analysis of Information Risk) and others, thus considerably reducing the margin of subjectivity in the assessment of cyber risk. We corroborate our approach through a qualitative and a quantitative comparison with several existing methods.

Abstract The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, followed by all national and international space agencies, has updated the Telecommand Coding and Synchronization sublayer to introduce new powerful low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. Their large coding gains significantly improve the system performance and allow new Telecommand services and profiles with higher bit rates and volumes. In this paper, we focus on the Telecommand transmitter implementation in the Ground Station baseband segment. First, we discuss the most important blocks and we focus on the most critical one, i.e., the LDPC encoder. We present and analyze two techniques, one based on a Shift Register Adder Accumulator and the other on Winograd convolution both exploiting the block circulant nature of the LDPC matrix. We show that these techniques provide a significant complexity reduction with respect to the usual encoder mapping, thus allowing to obtain high uplink bit rates. We then discuss the choice of a proper hardware or software platform, and we show that a Central Processing Unit-based software solution is able to achieve the high bit rates requested by the new Telecommand applications. Finally, we present the results of a set of tests on the real-time software implementation of the new system, comparing the performance achievable with the different encoding options.

Long COVID-19-related changes in physiology includes alterations in performing muscle work as fatigue. Data available do not allow us to define the usefulness of physical activity to attenuate long COVID-19 functional modifications. The present observational study investigates the effects of physical activity on the perception of fatigue, maximum power output, sleep, and cognitive modifications in subjects affected by long COVID-19, distinguishing between active and sedentary subjects. The data demonstrated the following: the perception of fatigue 1 year after the end of virus positivity was significantly reduced with respect to that observed after 6 months by more than 50% more in active subjects compared to sedentary ones; 6 months after the end of virus positivity, the force developed by active subjects was reduced (RM factor: p < 0.001, η2p = 0.527, post hoc: p < 0.001), but the reduction was more pronounced in sedentary ones (mean difference = 38.499 W); poor sleep quality and mild cognitive impairment were assessed in both active and sedentary subjects. In conclusion, the study suggests that the long COVID-19 fatigue was lower in active subjects respect to sedentary ones. A comparative analysis performed due to the overlap of functional alterations between long COVID-19 and ME/CFS showed that in a small percentage of the enrolled subjects (8%), the symptomatology reflected that of ME/CFS and was independent of the individual physical capacities.

This work describes an efficient implementation of the iterative decoder that is the main part of the decryption stage in the LEDAcrypt cryptosystem, recently proposed for post-quantum cryptography based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. The implementation we present exploits the structure of the variables in order to accelerate the decoding process while keeping the area bounded. In particular, our focus is on the design of an efficient multiplier, the latter being a fundamental component also in view of considering different values of the cryptosystem’s parameters, as it might be required in future applications. We aim to provide an architecture suitable for low cost implementation on both Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) implementations. As for the FPGA, the total execution time is 0.6 ms on the Artix-7 200 platform, employing at most 30% of the total available memory, 15% of the total available Look-up Tables and 3% of the Flip-Flops. The ASIC synthesis has been performed for both STM FDSOI 28 nm and UMC CMOS 65 nm technologies. After logic synthesis with the STM FDSOI 28 nm, the proposed decoder achieves a total latency of 0.15 ms and an area occupation of 0.09 mm2. The post-Place&Route implementation results for the UMC 65 nm show a total execution time of 0.3 ms, with an area occupation of 0.42 mm2 and a power consumption of at most 10.5 mW.

Abstract Background and Aim Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a highly effective therapy for recurrent or refractory Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI). Despite inclusion in society guidelines, the uptake of FMT therapy has been variable. Physician and patient attitudes may be a barrier to evidence‐based uptake of therapies; however, data assessing attitudes regarding FMT for rCDI are limited. Methods The South Australian FMT for CDI database prospectively recorded patient outcomes of FMT for CDI from August 2013 to January 2019. A total of 93 consecutive patients who underwent FMT for rCDI in South Australia were invited to participate in a 20‐question survey regarding the patient experience of FMT. All gastroenterologists and infectious disease physicians practicing in South Australia were invited to participate in an online survey comprised of 22 questions that addressed referral experience, indications for referral, perceived risks, and regulation and funding. Results Fifty‐four patients (54/93, 58%) returned the survey, of whom 52 (96%) would recommend FMT to others, and 51 (94%) were satisfied with treatment outcome. Fifty physicians returned the online survey (50/100, 50%), of whom 23 (46%) were concerned about disease transmission risk, and 15 (30%) believed that the risk of FMT would outweigh the benefit. Infectious diseases physicians and advanced trainees had significantly greater concern regarding the potential alteration of the microbiome than gastroenterology physicians and advanced trainees (8/17 (47%) vs 6/33 (18%); P = 0.047). Conclusion Despite high levels of patient‐reported satisfaction following FMT, physician‐reported reservations exist and may present a barrier to uptake of this therapy.

Since the publication of the Solanaceae treatment in “Flora Argentina” in 2013 exploration in the country and resolution of outstanding nomenclatural and circumscription issues has resulted in a number of changes to the species of the Morelloid clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae) for Argentina. Here we describe three new species: Solanum hunzikeri Chiarini & Cantero, sp. nov., from wet high elevation areas in Argentina (Catamarca, Salta and Tucumán) and Bolivia (Chuquisaca and Tarija), S. marmoratum Barboza & S. Knapp, sp. nov., from central Argentina in Catamarca, La Pampa, La Rioja, San Juan and San Luis, and S. tiinae Barboza & S. Knapp, sp. nov., from the mountains of Jujuy, La Rioja, Salta and Tucumán. We provide descriptions, illustrations and distribution maps for all new taxa. A table of nomenclatural changes and additional taxa now known to occur in Argentina summarizes additions and changes since the “Flora Argentina”. We also provide an updated key, including all new taxa for the country, to facilitate identification and further exploration.

This review summarizes and discusses the knowledge of cytogenetics in Solanaceae, the tomato family, its current applications, and prospects for making progress in fundamental systematic botany and plant evolution. We compile information on basic chromosome features (number, size, morphology) and molecular cytogenetics (chromosome banding and rDNA patterns). These data were mapped onto the Solanaceae family tree to better visualize the changes in chromosome features and evaluate them in a phylogenetic context. We conclude that chromosomal features are important in understanding the evolution of the family, especially in delimiting clades, and therefore it is necessary to continue producing this type of data. The potential for future applications in plant biology is outlined. Finally, we provide insights into understanding the mechanisms underlying Solanaceae’s diversification that could substantially contribute to developing new approaches for future research.

Background: Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a serious clinical entity, with no previous reports in Chile. Aim: To characterize patients with ACLF in a Chilean University Hospital, identifying triggers, organ failure and survival at 30, 90, 180 days, compared to patients with decompensated cirrhosis without ACLF. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of decompensated cirrhotic patients hospitalized in a chilean University Hospital between 2017-2019. Results: 334 patients were included, 73 (22%) presented ACLF (33% ACLF-1, 30% ACLF-2, 37% ACLF-3); 16.4% underwent liver transplantation. Patients with ACLF were younger, and had higher MELD-Na and APACHE II on admission. The most common triggers in both groups were infections (42.4%), gastrointestinal bleeding (23.2%) and alcohol intake (31.3%). The main organ failures were kidney (60.2%) and brain (49.3%). All organ failures were more frequent in ACLF-3, except renal failure (greater in ACLF-1). Survival at 180 days was 74% in patients without ACLF and 58.3% in ACLF (p=0.004). Mortality was significantly higher in ACLF-2 and ACLF-3, when compared with patients without ACLF (HR 2.3 and 2.99, respectively; p

Introducción y objetivos: Solanum elaeagnifolium, morfológicamente variable, se multiplica sexual- y asexualmente y es invasora en distintas partes del mundo. Se desconoce su rango de origen y como se propagó fuera de él. En Argentina existen poblaciones naturales diploides, tetraploides y hexaploides. Presenta tres linajes genéticos claramente distanciados, dos en Sudamérica con poblaciones poliploides y un tercero solo con diploides en América del Norte y áreas invadidas. Nuestro objetivo es detectar relaciones entre nivel de ploidía, linaje y procedencia con características morfológicas de las plantas y variables climáticas. M&M: Se realizaron preparados cromosómicos y mediciones de caracteres de epidermis, flor y semilla, en individuos 2x, 4x y 6x de diferente linaje y origen geográfico. Se compararon los valores medios obtenidos mediantes tests estadísticos y la similitud global se evaluó mediante análisis multivariados. Resultados: Únicamente número de estomas y masa de semillas resultaron significativamente diferentes entre niveles de ploidía: el citotipo tetraploide, presenta menor número de estomas y semillas más pesadas. Las restantes variables morfoanatómicas contribuyen a la diferenciación global de los citotipos, aunque no se comprobó que las medias variaran proporcionalmente con el aumento de ploidía. La precipitación media anual contribuye a la discriminación entre citotipos, coincidiendo la distribución occidental de los tetraploides con la diagonal árida en Argentina. Conclusiones: Las diferencias en el tetraploide no pueden atribuirse a un efecto de la poliploidización. El patrón global de datos podría explicarse por múltiples orígenes independientes de la poliploidía, plasticidad fenotípica y presiones del ambiente (temperatura, precipitaciones, distintos ensambles de polinizadores).

In order to maintain a state of well-being, the cell needs a functional control center that allows it to respond to changes in the internal and surrounding environments and, at the same time, carry out the necessary metabolic functions. In this review, we identify the mitochondrion as such an “agora”, in which three main messengers are able to collaborate and activate adaptive response mechanisms. Such response generators, which we have identified as H2O2, Ca2+, and Zn2+, are capable of “reading” the environment and talking to each other in cooperation with the mitochondrion. In this manner, these messengers exchange information and generate a holistic response of the whole cell, dependent on its functional state. In this review, to corroborate this claim, we analyzed the role these actors, which in the review we call “sensors”, play in the regulation of skeletal muscle contractile capacities chosen as a model of crosstalk between Ca2+, Zn2+, and H2O2.

In this contribution, new data concerning bryophytes, fungi, and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes new records and confirmations for the bryophyte genera Barbula, Fissidens, Gymnostomum, Jungermannia, Riccia, and Scapania, the fungal genera Hyalopsora and Urocystis and the lichen genera Arthothelium, Chaenotheca, Lepraria, Lobaria, Miriquidica, Parmelia, Rinodina, Solenopsora, Thelopsis and Xanthoparmelia.

Copyright of E-Gnosis is the property of Universidad de Guadalajara, Coordinacion General Academica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of E-Gnosis is the property of Universidad de Guadalajara, Coordinacion General Academica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Solanum elaeagnifolium clade (Elaeagnifolium clade) contains five species of small, often rhizomatous, shrubs from deserts and dry forests in North and South America. Members of the clade were previously classified in sections Leprophora, Nycterium and Lathyrocarpum, and were not thought to be closely related. The group is sister to the species-rich monophyletic Old World clade of spiny solanums. The species of the group have an amphitropical distribution, with three species in Mexico and the southwestern United States and three species in Argentina. Solanum elaeagnifolium occurs in both North and South America, and is a noxious invasive weed in dry areas worldwide. Members of the group are highly variable morphologically, and this variability has led to much synonymy, particularly in the widespread S. elaeagnifolium. We here review the taxonomic history, morphology, relationships and ecology of these species and provide keys for their identification, descriptions, full synonymy (including designations of lectotypes) and nomenclatural notes. Illustrations, distribution maps and preliminary conservation assessments are provided for all species.

La gestión de procesos de negocio y sus modelos de madurez están recibiendo especial interés académico como herramienta para evaluar procesos, reconocer dónde y cómo avanzar y mejorar el uso de recursos. En un ambiente complejo como el actual, las PYME Argentinas pueden recurrir a elevar la madurez de sus sistemas de gestión de procesos como medio para apoyar su desarrollo empresarial y confrontar la inestabilidad del contexto. El modelo de madurez de procesos de negocios propuesto por Fisher proporciona un balance entre una representación simple y un suficiente grado de detalle para ser usado en PYME. En la presente investigación se utiliza dicho modelo para obtener un diagnóstico en tres casos de estudio PYME y confirmar la hipótesis planteada donde se afirma que las organizaciones certificadas bajo Norma ISO 9001:2015 obtienen mayores niveles de madurez en su sistema de gestión de proceso de negocios. La prueba estadística de comparación de medias comprobó que existe diferencia significativa entre las organizaciones, confirmando la hipótesis. Se concluye que los factores de éxito de la gestión por procesos establecida y el uso de modelos de madurez de procesos de negocios integrados a sistemas de gestión bajo normas de calidad son beneficiosos.

Possible methodologies for teaching the concepts of processor heterogeneity and its impact on speedup and efficiency in a parallel system are discussed, as well as energy efficiency of parallel algorithms based on processor power. CMRE (Concurrent Multi Robot Environment) is expanded to be able to consider different virtual clocks in each robot (processor), as well as the cost – both in relation to time and energy consumption – of the operations carried out by the robots (Move, Put Down / Pick Up / Message / Inform). In this paper, we analyze some examples to show how concepts are introduced to students.

Production of fluent speech in humans is based on a precise and coordinated articulation of sounds. A speech articulation network (SAN) has been observed in multiple brain studies typically using either neuroimaging or direct electrical stimulation (DES), thus giving limited knowledge about the whole brain structural and functional organization of this network. In this study, seven right-handed patients underwent awake surgery resection of low-grade gliomas (4) and cavernous angiomas. We combined pre-surgical resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) and diffusion MRI together with speech arrest sites obtained intra-operatively with DES to address the following goals: (i) determine the cortical areas contributing to the intrinsic functional SAN using the speech arrest sites as functional seeds for rs-fMRI; (ii) evaluate the relative contribution of gray matter terminations from the two major language dorsal stream bundles, the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF III) and the arcuate fasciculus (AF); and (iii) evaluate the possible pre-surgical prediction of SAN with rs-fMRI. In all these right-handed patients the intrinsic functional SAN included frontal, inferior parietal, temporal, and insular regions symmetrically and bilaterally distributed across the two hemispheres regardless of the side (four right) of speech arrest evocation. The SLF III provided a much higher density of terminations in the cortical regions of SAN in respect to AF. Pre-surgical rs-fMRI data demonstrated moderate ability to predict the SAN. The set of functional and structural data provided in this multimodal study characterized, at a whole-brain level, a distributed and bi-hemispherical network subserving speech articulation.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterised by a progressive loss of pulmonary function. Often patients do not adhere to inhaled therapies and this leads clinicians to switch treatments in order to improve control of the symptoms. Narrative medicine is a useful approach that helps healthcare professionals to think over the doctor–patient relationship and how patients live with their disease. The aim of this training project was to teach pulmonologists the basics of narrative medicine: to carefully listen to patients and to practice reflective writing in their relationship with them. Training on narrative medicine and parallel charts was provided through a webinar and a weekly newsletter. Across 362 narratives, written by 74 Italian pulmonologists, 92% of patients had activity limitations at their first visit. The main factor influencing the effectiveness and adherence to therapy was a positive doctor–patient relationship; indeed, if such relationship is difficult, only 21% of patients are able to resume all their activities. After learning the narrative approach, clinicians became aware of the need to spend more time listening to patients, to reflect through writing and to understand more deeply the motivations that lead people towards adherence to new therapies.

The use of a UWB system for sensing breathing activity of astronauts must account for many critical issues specific to the space environment. The aim of this paper is twofold. The first concerns the definition of design constraints about the pulse amplitude and waveform to transmit, as well as the immunity requirements of the receiver. The second issue concerns the assessment of the procedures and the characteristics of the algorithms to use for signal processing to retrieve the breathing frequency and respiration waveform. The algorithm has to work correctly in the presence of surrounding electromagnetic noise due to other sources in the environment. The highly reflecting walls increase the difficulty of the problem and the hostile scenario has to be accurately characterized. Examples of signal processing techniques able to recover breathing frequency in significant and realistic situations are shown and discussed.

Se decribe la flora y la vegetación de pasiajes basálticos de la Sierra de Los Cóndores, Córdoba, Argentina. La vegetación se estudió según criterios de la escuela de Braun-Blanquet; la matriz de 98 inventarios × 272 spp. fue clasificada a través del método ISOPAM. El análisis discrimina tres comunidades correspondientes respectivamente a las tres geoformas relevadas en estos paisajes: Islas rocosas (inselbergs), la Matriz Natural que rodea a las Islas y la Matriz Agrícola que circunda al complejo de paisajes basálticos. Las tres comunidades difieren en su composición florística: las Islas rocosas son los sitios menos perturbados, más ricos en especies, con mayor diversidad, mayor número de especies endémicas y su fisonomía está dominada por formas arbustivas. En el otro extremo, la Matriz Agrícola es la más pobre en especies, la de menor diversidad y endemicidad, y predominan las hierbas perennes y anuales. Las Islas rocosas y la Matriz Natural registran bajos números de especies exóticas en su composición, mientras cerca del 50% de la flora de la matriz agrícola se compone de especies adventicias. Los resultados de este estudio revelan la importancia de las islas rocosas basálticas para la conservación del patrimonio natural de la provincia de Córdoba.

PURPOSE:To develop and validate a tool aiming to support ophthalmologists in identifying, during routine ophthalmologic visits, patients at higher risk of falling in the following year. METHODS:A group of 141 subjects (age: 73.2 ± 11.4 years), recruited at our Eye Clinic, underwent a baseline ophthalmic examination and a standardized questionnaire, including lifestyles, general health, social engagement and eyesight problems. Moreover, visual disability was assessed by the Activity of Daily Vision Scale (ADVS). The subjects were followed up for 12 months in order to record prospective falls. A subject who reported at least one fall within one year from the baseline assessment was considered as faller, otherwise as non-faller. Different tree-based algorithms (i.e., C4.5, AdaBoost and Random Forests) were used to develop automatic classifiers and their performances were evaluated by the cross-validation approach. RESULTS:Over the follow-up, 25 falls were referred by 13 patients. The logistic regression analysis showed the following variables as significant predictors of prospective falls: pseudophakia and use of prescribed eyeglasses as protective factors, recent worsening of visual acuity as risk factor. Random Forest ranked best corrected visual acuity, number of sleeping hours and job type as the most important features. Finally, AdaBoost enabled the identification of subjects at higher risk of falling in the following 12 months with a sensitivity rate of 69.2% and a specificity rate of 76.6%. CONCLUSIONS:The current study proposes a novel method, based on classification trees applied to self-reported factors and health information assessed by a standardized questionnaire during ophthalmological visits, to identify ophthalmic patients at higher risk of falling in the following 12 months. The findings of the current study pave the way to the validation of the proposed novel tool for fall risk screening on a larger cohort of patients with visual impairment referred to eye clinics.

Decoding of random linear block codes has been long exploited as a computationally hard problem on which it is possible to build secure asymmetric cryptosystems. In particular, both correcting an error-affected codeword, and deriving the error vector corresponding to a given syndrome were proven to be equally difficult tasks. Since the pioneering work of Eugene Prange in the early 1960s, a significant research effort has been put into finding more efficient methods to solve the random code decoding problem through a family of algorithms known as information set decoding. The obtained improvements effectively reduce the overall complexity, which was shown to decrease asymptotically at each optimization, while remaining substantially exponential in the number of errors to be either found or corrected. In this work, we provide a comprehensive survey of the information set decoding techniques, providing finite regime temporal and spatial complexities for them. We exploit these formulas to assess the effectiveness of the asymptotic speedups obtained by the improved information set decoding techniques when working with code parameters relevant for cryptographic purposes. We also delineate computational complexities taking into account the achievable speedup via quantum computers and similarly assess such speedups in the finite regime. To provide practical grounding to the choice of cryptographically relevant parameters, we employ as our validation suite the ones chosen by cryptosystems admitted to the second round of the ongoing standardization initiative promoted by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.

A new species of Solanum belonging to section Acanthophora (subgenus Leptostemonum) from Argentina and Brazil is described. Solanum neei Chiarini & L.A.Mentz, sp. nov. is found in clearings of semideciduous forests and in secondary formations, from the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina in Brazil to the Misiones province in Argentina. It is morphologically similar to S. incarceratum Ruiz & Pav. from Peru, Bolivia and Western-Central Brazil, differing mainly by its pedunculate inflorescences. A key to related species is provided, as well a photograph of the holotype, a distribution map and illustration.

Multiple Serially-Concatenated Multiple-Parity-Check (M-SC-MPC) codes are a class of structured Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes, characterized by very simple encoding, that we have recently introduced. This paper evidences how the design of M-SC-MPC codes can be optimized for their usage in wireless applications. For such purpose, we consider some Quasi-Cyclic LDPC codes included in the mobile WiMax standard, and compare their performance with that of M-SCMPC codes having the same parameters. We also present a simple modification of the inner structure of M-SC-MPC codes that can help to improve their error correction performance by introducing irregularity in the parity-check matrix and increasing the length of local cycles in the associated Tanner graph. Our results show that regular and irregular M-SC-MPC codes, so obtained, can achieve very good performance and compare favorably with standard codes.

The convergence speed of an asynchronous point-to-point version of the push-sum algorithm in sensor networks is investigated both through numerical simulations and theoretical arguments. The main contribution of the paper consists in studying the application of such algorithm in realistic scenarios, represented by non fully-meshed networks. Simulations show that, in this case, convergence may be strongly dependent on the adopted share factor, whose value should be optimized as a function of the connectivity level of the network. Optimum shares are derived for some common topologies, like the ring and the random geometric graph. The effect of possible link failures is also investigated.

Binary cyclic codes achieve good error correction performance and allow the implementation of very simpleencoder and decoder circuits. Among them, BCH codesrepresent a very important class of t-error correcting codes, with known structural properties and error correction capability. Decoding of binary cyclic codes is often accomplished through hard-decision decoders, although it is recognized that softdecision decoding algorithms can produce significant coding gain with respect to hard-decision techniques. Several approaches have been proposed to implement iterative soft-decision decoding of binary cyclic codes. We study the technique based on “extended parity-check matrices”, and show that such method is not suitable for high rates or long codes. We propose a new approach, based on “reduced parity-check matrices” and “spread parity-check matrices”, that can achieve better correction performance in many practical cases, without increasing the complexity.

Gossip is a well-known technique for distributed computing in an arbitrarily connected network, that can be adopted effectively in wireless sensor networks. Gossip algorithms have been widely studied in previous literature, but mostly from a theoretical point of view. The aim of this paper isto verify the behavior of the gossip approach in practicalscenarios, through the analysis and interpretation of simulated results. So, we investigate the impact of optimizing the neighbor selection probabilities, the effect of multiple link failures and that of limited transmission radius. The possibility to use broadcast-like algorithms to increase the rate of convergence in averaging problems is also discussed and its advantage estimated.

The TTIGHa model has been developed to model and predict the performance of parallel applications run over heterogeneous architectures. In addition, the task assignment algorithm was implemented to MATEHa processors based on the TTIGHa model. This paper analyzes the assignment algorithm robustness before different variations which the model parameters may undergo (basically, communication and processing times).

The fruits of 11 species of Solanum subgen. Leptostemonum were studied. Cross and/or longitudinal microtome sections, stained mostly with astra blue/basic fuchsin, were prepared for microscopic examination. The fruits, notably heterogeneous, were classified into three categories. Three different kinds of cells were found of the epidermis, immediately below which a hypodermis, consisting in any of five types of structures, was always found. The mesocarp presented two histologically differentiated zones, an external one (formed by normal or spongy parenchyma, depending on the species), and an internal one, commonly juicy, and with proliferations among the seeds. This morpho-anatomical information was used to distinguish between non-capsular dehiscent fruits and the berry traditionally described for Solanum. The relationship between structure and function, and the probable dispersal syndromes are also discussed.

El presente artículo tiene por objeto dar a conocer novedades en dos géneros de Solanaceae: Solanum y Salpichroa. En Solanum se aclara la identidad y sinonimia de dos especies del subgen. Leptostemonum (S. bonariense y S. guaraniticum), y se reporta por primera vez la presencia de S. julocrotonoides (sect. Brevantherum) para Argentina. Para Salpichroa se documenta la presencia de este género para la flora de Chile, con 3 taxones (S. origanifolia, S. scandens y S. tristis var. lehmannii). Todas las especies son descriptas e ilustradas.The present article reports novelties in two genera of Solanaceae: Solanum and Salpichroa. In Solanum, the identity and the synonymy of two species belonging to subgen. Leptostemonum (S. bonariense and S. guaraniticum) are clarified, and the presence of S. julocrotonoides (sect. Brevantherum) is reported for the first time from Argentina. The genus Salpichroa is documentated for flora of Chile, with three taxa (S. origanifolia, S. scandens and S. tristis var. lehmannii). All the species are described and illustrated.

This paper discusses the feasibility of High Definition H.264/AVC video coding in the Baseline profile, for real time applications like videoconferencing. By means of suited SKIP strategies and exploiting the higher resolution, redundancyand visual information amount of the High Definition formats,with respect to Standard Definition, it is possible to speed upsignificantly the Mode Decision procedure, without affecting thefinal perceived quality.