On a Formal and User-friendly Linguistic Approach to Access Control of Electronic Health Data

The importance of the exchange of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) between hospitals has been recognized by governments and institutions. Due to the sensitivity of data exchanged, only mature standards and implementations can be chosen to operate. This exchange process is of course under the control of the patient, who decides who has the rights to access her personal healthcare data and who has not, by giving her personal privacy consent. Patients’ privacy consent is regulated by local legislations, which can vary frequently from region to region. The technology implementing such privacy aspects must be highly adaptable, often resulting in complex security scenarios that cannot be easily managed by patients and software designers. To overcome such security problems, we advocate the use of a linguistic approach that relies on languages for expressing policies with solid mathematical foundations. Our approach bases on FACPL, a policy language we have intentionally designed by taking inspiration from OASIS XACML, the de-facto standard used in all projects covering secure EHRs transmission protected by patients’ privacy consent. FACPL can express policies similar to those expressible by XACML but, differently from XACML, it has an intuitive syntax, a formal semantics and easy to use software tools supporting policy development and enforcement. In this paper, we present the potentialities of our approach and outline ongoing work

Medical Waste Regulation: Recommendations for Cleaning Up the Mess

In many applications, design or analysis is performed over a finite frequency range of interest. The importance of the H2/robust H2 norm highlights the necessity of computing this norm accordingly. This paper provides different methods for computing upper bounds on the robust finite-frequency H2 norm for systems with structured uncertainties. An application of the robust finite-frequency H2 norm for a comfort analysis problem of an aero-elastic model of an aircraft is also presented

La accesibilidad universitaria : Tensión entre los derechos y la ideología de la normalidad

Partiendo de la idea de que el entorno social, las instituciones educativas, las condiciones de vida y las características de algunos sujetos pueden condicionar las posibilidades de habitar, participar y convivir en los espacios sociales, sostenemos que no son las barreras legales o los límites físicos los que delimitan la falta de accesibilidad a diferentes lugares e instituciones. Existe una construcción de la limitación-déficit-discapacidad que se plasma en el orden de lo simbólico, a través de prácticas y discursos que entran en tensión con los avances de la normativas existentes y ponen en riesgo la plena vigencia de los derechos de un número significativo de sujetos “portadores” de sordera, ceguera o alguna otra discapacidad que los ubica en el lado opuesto de lo normal, al lado de otros grupos cuya portación pasa por la pobreza, la homosexualidad, la diferencia cultural; demás está decir que la combinación de ellas pueden tener resultados desvastadores para los sujetos. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen)Mesa 37: Sociología política de la educación. Políticas educativas, Gestión institucional y el escenario de la educación como derechoFacultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Eddy-resolving simulations of the flow around a vertical tail plane

Enhancing the ability to predict airflow around the Vertical Tail Plane (VTP) of an aircraft is vital in the aviation industry. The size of the VTP is driven by a particular flight condition - loss of an engine during take-off and low speed climb. Nowadays, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is the main tool used by engineers to assess VTP flows. However, due to uncertainties in the prediction of VTP effectiveness, aircraft designers keep to a conservative approach, which risks oversizing of the tail plane, adding more drag. Uncertainties emerge from difficulties in predicting the massive separation that occurs on the swept tail when it is approached by a flow at high incidence. Furthermore, the deployment of the control surface (the rudder) over the tail plane and the skewed flow along the span increase the CFD challenges. Improved predictive capabilities of the flow around VTPs would enable a more optimal design approach with potential drag saving. The correct prediction of flow separation is the essence of this study. Currently, the industry uses steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations to analyse VTPs flow. In order to assess RANS performance, the study of airflow detaching from a backward rounded ramp is performed and the results are compared to Large-Eddy Simulations (LES). The analysis shows that, even though RANS may predict the onset of flow separation correctly, they completely miss the location of flow reattachment over the ramp, and this affects the whole flow solution. Moreover, the flow features a strong anisotropy at the onset of separation, difficult to be captured by RANS. The analysis shows that RANS cannot predict production of turbulent kinetic energy in the detached flow region correctly, discouraging flow mixing, and delaying flow reattachment. A hybrid RANS/LES carried out on the same test case shows the benefits of using eddy-resolving simulations for detached flows. The prediction of the locations of the separation and reattachment points differs by only 1% from the highly-resolved simulation. The VTP investigation carried out in this thesis uses a wind tunnel model tested at Airbus. The study starts with steady RANS approaches for different turbulence models. RANS simulations produce acceptable results for the flow at low incidence levels. On the contrary, at high incidence, when flow separation occurs, RANS methods fail. The second step of the research consists of using unsteady RANS (URANS) simulations for VTP flows at high sideslip angles. The introduction of time-accuracy brings important benefits. Nevertheless, the results still show some inaccuracies (around 20% error). Finally, restarting from the flow solutions obtained by URANS simulations, higher fidelity hybrid RANS/LES techniques in the form of Delayed Detached-Eddy Simulations (DDES) are used to assess the characteristics of the separated flow around the tail plane. Results show a remarkable improvement of the flow solution. The pressure distribution matches experimental results favourably, and this translates into an improved prediction of the aerodynamic loads over the VTP. This leads towards a new strategy for the assessment of the flow over aircraft VTPs, amounting to an important contribution to the design of future aircraft.AIRBUS 7th Framework Programme Marie-Curie Fundin

The Italian Guidelines on Risk Classification and Management of Bridges: Applications and Remarks on Large Scale Risk Assessments

Bridges are essential for guaranteeing the functioning of transportation systems since their failure can cause serious threats to the safety, well-being and economy of modern communities, especially in emergency conditions. Following recent bridge failures, among which include the Morandi bridge in 2018, specific guidelines on risk classification and management, safety assessment and monitoring of existing bridges have been issued in Italy by the Minister of Infrastructure as a mandatory code. They pay particular attention to the evaluation of the residual life span of critical transportation infrastructure dating back to the 1950s and 1960s of the last century. Being a newly issued tool, the Guidelines need to be applied and tested in order to find possible drawbacks and to point out the main factors influencing their results. Therefore, in this study, after a short description of the Italian Guidelines, pointing out some differences with other approaches adopted worldwide, some advantages and disadvantages are discussed by an application to a bridge stock located in the Basilicata region (Italy). Data needed to apply the Guidelines are gathered by a purposely set up procedure that exploits existing databases on road infrastructure (OpenStreetMap) complemented by additional data retrieved by means of public image repositories (Google Street View). By accounting for the qualitative nature of the risk classification results obtained by applying the lower analysis levels of the Guidelines, a prioritization method is proposed for ranking bridges for higher assessment levels and possible interventions, as well as consequent funds allocation. The application shows that the Guidelines' approach tends to provide conservative results. In fact, even in case of bridges with low degradation levels, the final risk classification induces actions undertaken for preliminary or detailed assessment; thus, normal operation (with periodic inspections) would not be possible anymore