Studio preliminare aeromeccanico di una configurazione UAV

Il lavoro di tesi svolto si basa su una valutazione preliminare di configurazione di un Unmanned Aerial Vehicle con assegnata forma di fusoliera, configurazione, allungamento alare, autonomia oraria, velocità massima, tipo di impiego (militare),tipo di motorizzazione, decollo / atterraggio assistito. E' stato sviluppato uno studio di tipo aeromeccanico, in quanto si sono valutate le prestazioni, i pesi e quindi il baricentro del velivolo, i diagrammi di raffica e manovra, le derivate aeromeccaniche longitudinali e latero direzionali, la controllabilità e la manovrabilità, la distribuzione di portanza e le caratteristiche necessarie da soddisfare per velivoli che usufruiscono di una catapulta o di una rampa di lancio per decollare. E' stata poi effettuata una analisi CFD con il software STAR-CCM+ in modo da poter fornire, anche se in prima approssimazione, valori di portanza e resistenza dell' ala isolata e del velivolo completo. Si è poi ipotizzata una variazione di geometria della fusoliera in modo da cercare di diminuirne la resistenza, confrontando i dati ottenuti con quelli del velivolo non modificato

Beyond topological persistence: Starting from networks

Persistent homology enables fast and computable comparison of topological objects. However, it is naturally limited to the analysis of topological spaces. We extend the theory of persistence, by guaranteeing robustness and computability to significant data types as simple graphs and quivers. We focus on categorical persistence functions that allow us to study in full generality strong kinds of connectedness such as clique communities, $k$-vertex and $k$-edge connectedness directly on simple graphs and monic coherent categories.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1707.0967

Patients' perception of dignity in an Italian general hospital: a cross-sectional analysis

Background: Dignity is related to a patient’s respect, privacy, information and autonomy. Maintaining dignity is defined as ethical goal of care. Although the importance of dignity has been widely recognized, there is limited research that investigates if dignity is really maintained in clinical practice and few studies have been conducted in acute hospital settings with adults across the age range. The aim of the study was to explore inpatients’ perception of dignity in an hospital setting. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 10 medical and surgical wards of a General Hospital in Modena (Italy). We collected a purposive sample of 100 patients by selecting 10 participants from each ward who met following criteria: hospitalized for more than three days, at least 18 years old, not mentally ill, willing to participate and able to speak Italian. We developed a 15-item anonymous questionnaire divided into three sections: “physical privacy”, “information and autonomy”, “nurse-patients respectful interaction”. Results: The percentages of positive (preserved dignity perception) were more frequent than negative (not preserved dignity perception) and no answers with a statistically significantly difference among the three sections (Pearson chi2 = 150.41, p < 0.0001). The frequency of positive or negative answers was statistically significantly related to the preservation of dignity according to the following questions (p < 0.005, multivariate logistic regression): “privacy to use the bathroom” and “respectful interaction”, as protective factors and “maintaining of body privacy”, “involvement in the care process”, “correct communication” as risk factors. Conclusions: Dignity was quite but not completely maintained according to the standards expected by patients. According to patients’ views, privacy of the body during medical procedures and respectful nurse-patient interactions were preserved more than information and verbal communication. Listening to patients’ views on the specific factors they consider useful to maintaining their dignity can help in this process. Recognizing and focusing on these factors will help professionals to establish practical measures for preserving and promoting patients' dignity and providing more dignified care. Dignity should be extensively and systematically pursued as other important clinical goals

Workplace violence in different settings and among various health professionals in an Italian general hospital: a cross-sectional study

Background: Workplace violence (WPV) against health professionals is a global problem with an increasing incidence. The aims of this study were as follows: 1) to examine the frequency and characteristics of WPV in different settings and professionals of a general hospital and 2) to identify the clinical and organizational factors related to this phenomenon. Methods: The study was cross-sectional. In a 1-month period, we administered the “Violent Incident Form” to 745 professionals (physicians, head nurses, nurses, nursing assistants), who worked in 15 wards of a general hospital in northern Italy. Results: With a response rate of 56%, 45% of professionals reported WPV. The most frequently assaulted were nurses (67%), followed by nursing assistants (18%) and physicians (12%). The first two categories were correlated, in a statistically significant way, with the risk of WPV (P=0.005, P=0.004, multiple logistic regression). The violent incidents more frequently occurred in psychiatry department (86%), emergency department (71%), and in geriatric wards (57%). The assailants more frequently were males whereas assaulted professionals more often were females. Men committed physical violence more frequently than women, in a statistically significant way (P=0.034, chi-squared test). Verbal violence (51%) was often committed by people in a lucid and normal state of consciousness; physical violence (49%) was most often perpetrated by assailants affected by dementia, mental retardation, drug and substance abuse, or other psychiatric disorders. The variables positively related to WPV were “calling for help during the attack” and “physical injuries suffered in violent attack” (P=0.02, P=0.03, multiple logistic regression). Conclusion: This study suggests that violence is a significant phenomenon and that all health workers, especially nurses, are at risk of suffering aggressive assaults. WPV presented specific characteristics related to the health care settings, where the aggression occurred. Prevention programs tailored to the different care needs are necessary to promote professional awareness for violence risk

Aortic arch rupture after multiple multilayer stent treatment of a thoracoabdominal aneurysm

Despite the improvement in diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, the treatment of thoracoabdominal aneurysms is still burdened with a high incidence of peri/postoperative morbidity and mortality. The multilayer flow modulator is a new and promising technique for the treatment of such disease; however, some limits are still evident. We report the case of a 76-year-old woman affected by a symptomatic thoracoabdominal aneurysm treated with multiple Cardiatis multilayer flow modulators complicated by aortic arch rupture on the fifth postoperative day, with subsequent patient death

A retrospective analysis focusing on a group of patients with dual diagnosis treated by both mental health and substance use services

OBJECTIVE: To highlight which demographic, familial, premorbid, clinical, therapeutic, rehabilitative, and assistance factors were related to dual diagnosis, which, in psychiatry, means the co-occurrence of both mental disorder and substance use in the same patient. METHODS: Our sample (N=145) was chosen from all outpatients with a dual diagnosis treated from January 1, 2012 to July 31, 2012 by both the Mental Health Service and the Substance Use Service of Modena and Castelfranco Emilia, Italy. Patients who dropped out during the study period were excluded. Demographic data and variables related to familial and premorbid history, clinical course, rehabilitative programs, social support and nursing care, and outcome complications were collected. The patients' clinical and functioning conditions during the study period were evaluated. RESULTS: Our patients were mostly men suffering from a cluster B personality disorder. Substance use was significantly more likely to precede psychiatric disease (P<0.001), and 60% of the sample presented a positive familial history for psychiatric or addiction disease or premorbid traumatic factors. The onset age of substance use was related to the period of psychiatric treatment follow-up (P<0.001) and the time spent in rehabilitative facilities (P<0.05), which, in turn, was correlated with personality disorder diagnosis (P<0.05). Complications, which presented in 67% of patients, were related to the high number of psychiatric hospitalizations (P<0.05) and professionals involved in each patient's treatment (P<0.05). Males more frequently presented familial, health, and social complications, whereas females more frequently presented self-threatening behavior (P<0.005). CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the course of dual diagnosis may be chronic, severe, and disabling, requiring many long-term therapeutic and rehabilitative programs to manage various disabilities

Risk factors for long-stay in an Italian acute psychiatric ward: a 7-year retrospective analysis

Background: In West during the last decades, the phenomenon of "bed blockers" has been more frequently investigated, probably because of increasing economic constraints in the management of public health. According to most authors, the lack of rehabilitation facilities, organizational problems within the hospital, the long wait for medical consultations and diagnostic procedures would be the main causes of "delayed discharge". Early studies were carried out in long-term care, rehabilitation and post-acute geriatric wards. In Psychiatry, the few studies on this topic highlighted a wide range of causes, including both patient conditions and organizational health system problems. In Italy, the problem of psychiatric delayed discharges has become more pressing after the 180 Law, which established the closure of all psychiatric hospitals and implemented psychiatric wards inside General Hospitals to admit only 15 acute patients for a very short period. Purposes: To highlight the phenomenon of long-stay in an acute psychiatric ward and to relate it to demographic, clinical and organizational variables. Methods: The survey was conducted in the 15-bed public psychiatric ward of Modena (Italy). All admissions were retrospectively collected from the database of the Department from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2011 (3981 hospitalizations with an average stay of 12.49 days). Demographic data, clinical variables, inpatient care problems, discharge programs were statistically related to the duration of admissions (survival analysis: log-rank test, Kaplan-Meier curves). The 3981 hospitalizations were divided into two groups according to the 90° percentile of duration: < 27 days (n=3575) and ≥ 27 days (n=406) and the variables of the two groups were compared (multiple logistic regression). Secondary analysis was conducted on the subgroup of the longest hospitalizations further divided into two groups according to the 90° (from 27 days to < 36 days) and 95° percentile (≥36 days), in order to find out variables related (survival analysis: log-rank test; multiple logistic regression test). Results: The longest hospitalizations (≥27 days) represent 11% of all admissions during the observation period. When all variables are compared to the duration of hospitalizations, most of them are statistically significantly related to the length of hospitalizations, but, when statistical analysis was focused on the comparison between the two groups of the longest hospitalizations, a smaller number of variables (“gender”, “age”, “rehabilitative programs”, “extra-psychiatric clinical activities”, “pharmacotherapy” and “aggressiveness of patient”) were identified by survival analysis as statistically significant correlates of long-stay (log-rank test), whereas only “female gender” and aggressiveness pf patient” were the variables statistically significantly related to the length of hospitalizations evidenced by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Conclusions: Our results suggest that a wide range of factors may be responsible for the delayed discharges in psychiatry as most previous studies have already shown. However, only few factors were related to the longest duration of hospitalization and, among these, aggressiveness was the only one statistically significant correlate to long-stay in all statistic tests. This data confirms the clinical observation that aggressive behaviour can be sufficient by itself to explain the difficulty of discharging