Application of the penalty coupling method for the analysis of blood vessels

Due to the significant health and economic impact of blood vessel diseases on modern society, its analysis is becoming of increasing importance for the medical sciences. The complexity of the vascular system, its dynamics and material characteristics all make it an ideal candidate for analysis through fluid structure interaction (FSI) simulations. FSI is a relatively new approach in numerical analysis and enables the multi-physical analysis of problems, yielding a higher accuracy of results than could be possible when using a single physics code to analyse the same category of problems. This paper introduces the concepts behind the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulation using the penalty coupling method. It moves on to present a validation case and compares it to available simulation results from the literature using a different FSI method. Results were found to correspond well to the comparison case as well as basic theory

'Can you be a doctor, even if you faint?' The tacit lessons of cadaveric dissection

Background: The undergraduate Medicine course at the University of Cambridge has included cadaveric dissection as part of its anatomy teaching for over three centuries. In recent years, medical schools in the UK and the US have debated whether cadaveric dissection is a useful and efficient way of teaching anatomy. Existing research on this subject has focused narrowly on the knowledge-acquisition for medical students afforded through dissection, and thus we have broadened the scope of such considerations to include the emotional responses of medical students to the dissection process. Subjects and methods: The basis for this paper is a phenomenological analysis of response data gathered from 56 first year medical students at the University of Cambridge through written questionnaires and discussion groups before and after their first experiences of cadaveric dissection. Results: Our research suggests that there are in fact many more lessons taught and acquired through studying in the dissection room: they are tacit, emotional, experiential and dispositional. Conclusions: When this wider picture of the value of dissection is considered, a much stronger case for the continued inclusion of cadaveric dissection in the medical curriculum can be made, as it is a valuable and unique educational experience

Removing the mask -- reconstructing a scalar field on the sphere from a masked field

The paper analyses a spectral approach to reconstructing %the image of a scalar field on the sphere, given only information about a masked version of the field together with precise information about the (smooth) mask. The theory is developed for a general mask, and later specialized to the case of an axially symmetric mask. Numerical experiments are given for the case of an axial mask motivated by the cosmic microwave background, assuming that the underlying field is a realization of a Gaussian random field with an artificial angular power spectrum of moderate degree ($\ell \le 100$). The recovery is highly satisfactory in the absence of noise and even in the presence of moderate noise

Quasi-Monte Carlo for Highly Structured Generalised Response Models

Highly structured generalised response models, such as generalised linear mixed models and generalised linear models for time series regression, have become an indispensable vehicle for data analysis and inference in many areas of application. However, their use in practice is hindered by high-dimensional intractable integrals. Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) is a dynamic research area in the general problem of high-dimensional numerical integration, although its potential for statistical applications is yet to be fully explored. We survey recent research in QMC, particularly lattice rules, and report on its application to highly structured generalised response models. New challenges for QMC are identified and new methodologies are developed. QMC methods are seen to provide significant improvements compared with ordinary Monte Carlo methods