Il mondo scritto dei sensi di Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino lasciò incompiuto, al momento della sua morte, un libro dedicato ai cinque sensi. Di questo progetto interrotto rimangono alcuni racconti, pubblicati in un opera postuma intitolata Sotto il sole giaguaro. Questo articolo, partendo dai racconti ritrovati, vuole essere una riflessione sulle possibili motivazioni che hanno spinto lo scrittore ligure, negli ultimi anni della sua vita, a scrivere un testo sulla tematica sensoriale.When Italo Calvino died he left unfinished a book about the five senses. Of this interrupted project remain some stories, which have been published in a posthumous work under the title Sotto il sole giaguaro. This article, based on the stories found, contemplates the possible reasons that pushed the writer from Liguria to dedicate a book regarding the sensorial world during his last years.Italo Calvino lasciò incompiuto, al momento della sua morte, un libro dedicato ai cinque sensi. Di questo progetto interrotto rimangono alcuni racconti, pubblicati in un opera postuma intitolata Sotto il sole giaguaro. Questo articolo, partendo dai racconti ritrovati, vuole essere una riflessione sulle possibili motivazioni che hanno spinto lo scrittore ligure, negli ultimi anni della sua vita, a scrivere un testo sulla tematica sensoriale

Analysis of the Communication Traffic for Blockchain Synchronization of IoT Devices

Blockchain is a technology uniquely suited to support massive number of transactions and smart contracts within the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, thanks to the decentralized accounting mechanism. In a blockchain network, the states of the accounts are stored and updated by the validator nodes, interconnected in a peer-to-peer fashion. IoT devices are characterized by relatively low computing capabilities and low power consumption, as well as sporadic and low-bandwidth wireless connectivity. An IoT device connects to one or more validator nodes to observe or modify the state of the accounts. In order to interact with the most recent state of accounts, a device needs to be synchronized with the blockchain copy stored by the validator nodes. In this work, we describe general architectures and synchronization protocols that enable synchronization of the IoT endpoints to the blockchain, with different communication costs and security levels. We model and analytically characterize the traffic generated by the synchronization protocols, and also investigate the power consumption and synchronization trade-off via numerical simulations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that rigorously models the role of wireless connectivity in blockchain-powered IoT systems.Comment: Paper accepted at IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 201

Obstructing left sided colorectal cancer. A retrospective single center study.

Background: In recent years, with population aging, there has been an increased number of colorectal cancer cases in elderly patients with severe occlusion symptoms. About 75% of obstructions due to malignant colorectal cancer (10-30%) occur distal to splenic flexure. Methods: The authors evaluated the best surgical therapeutic strategy to be used in cases of left-sided colorectal carcinoma in patients over 65 years old, especially considering the emergency condition, age of patients and efficacy in terms of postoperative morbidity, mortality and 5 years survival rate. Results: The management of left-sided obstructing colorectal carcinoma is controversial. Hartmann’s procedure is the best therapeutic choice in elderly patients. However, resection with intraoperative colonic wash-out and primary anastomosis has favorable outcome in low risk patients. Conclusions: A review of the literature reveals that primary resection and anastomosis for left-sided obstructing CRC is the correct therapeutic strategy in low risk patients with localized, resectable carcinoma, without peritonitis; Hartmann’s procedure should be adopted in doubtful cases and in high risk patients

On the Impact of Wireless Jamming on the Distributed Secondary Microgrid Control

The secondary control in direct current microgrids (MGs) is used to restore the voltage deviations caused by the primary droop control, where the latter is implemented locally in each distributed generator and reacts to load variations. Numerous recent works propose to implement the secondary control in a distributed fashion, relying on a communication system to achieve consensus among MG units. This paper shows that, if the system is not designed to cope with adversary communication impairments, then a malicious attacker can apply a simple jamming of a few units of the MG and thus compromise the secondary MG control. Compared to other denial-of-service attacks that are oriented against the tertiary control, such as economic dispatch, the attack on the secondary control presented here can be more severe, as it disrupts the basic functionality of the MG

Tailored treatment of intestinal angiodysplasia in elderly

Background: Angiodysplasia of the gastrointestinal tract is an uncommon, but not rare, cause of bleeding and severe anemia in elderly. Different treatments exist for this kind of pathology. Methods: The aim of this work was to study 40 patients treated for intestinal angiodysplasia with two different kind of endoscopic treatments: argon plasma coagulation (APC) and bipolar electrocoagulation (BEC). Results: Age of patients was similar in both groups (76,2 ± 10.8 years vs 74,8 ± 8,7 years, P = 0,005). Angiodysplasia treated were located in small bowel, right colon, left colon, transverse colon and cecum. We analysed number of treatment, recurrence, hospital discharge, needs of blood transfusions before and after endoscopic treatment. Number of treatment was the same in both groups (1,2 ± 0,2 vs 1,1 ± 0,1, P < 0,001). We had more recurrence in patients treated with BEC (4/20 vs 2/20, P < 0,001). Hospital discharge was comparable in both groups (5,3 ± 3,1 days vs 5,4 ± 2,8 years, P < 0.001) Conclusions: Treatment of angiodysplasia in elderly is not easy. Different kinds of treatment could be adopted. APC and BEC are both safe and effective. The choice of a treatment should consider several factors: age, comorbidity, source of bleeding. In conclusion we think that treatment of bleeding for angiodysplasia in elder population should be a tailored treatment. © 2015 Rita Compagna et al., published by De Gruyter Open

Surgical mistake causing an high recto-vaginal fistula. A case report with combined surgical and endoscopic approach: therapeutic considerations

BACKGROUND: Rectovaginal fistulas (RVFs) have multiple causes, size and location on which the surgical treatment depends. DESCRIPTION: The Authors consider different approaches to RVFs and describe a clinical case of recurrent high RVF. CONCLUSIONS: Most RVFs can be successfully repaired, although many interventions may be necessary. A colostomy with delayed repair may improve RVFs outcome. Moreover, several authors indicate Mucosal Advancement Flap and Babcock-Bacon technique as the treatments of choice respectively for low and high RVFs (complex and recurrent) and emphasize the placement of endoscopic prothesis in cases of difficult healing of the anastomosis