Accelerating solid-fluid interaction using Lattice-Boltzmann and Immersed Boundary coupled simulations on heterogeneous platforms

We propose a numerical approach based on the Lattice-Boltzmann (LBM) and Immersed Boundary (IB) methods to tackle the problem of the interaction of solids with an incompressible fluid flow. The proposed method uses a Cartesian uniform grid that incorporates both the fluid and the solid domain. This is a very optimum and novel method to solve this problem and is a growing research topic in Computational Fluid Dynamics. We explain in detail the parallelization of the whole method on both GPUs and an heterogeneous GPU-Multicore platform and describe different optimizations, focusing on memory management and CPU-GPU communication. Our performance evaluation consists of a series of numerical experiments that simulate situations of industrial and research interest. Based on these tests, we have shown that the baseline LBM implementation achieves satisfactory results on GPUs. Unfortunately, when coupling LBM and IB methods on GPUs, the overheads of IB degrade the overall performance. As an alternative we have explored an heterogeneous implementation that is able to hide such overheads and allows us to exploit both Multicore and GPU resources in a cooperative way

Fast finite difference Poisson solvers on heterogeneous architectures

In this paper we propose and evaluate a set of new strategies for the solution of three dimensional separable elliptic problems on CPU–GPU platforms. The numerical solution of the system of linear equations arising when discretizing those operators often represents the most time consuming part of larger simulation codes tackling a variety of physical situations. Incompressible fluid flows, electromagnetic problems, heat transfer and solid mechanic simulations are just a few examples of application areas that require efficient solution strategies for this class of problems. GPU computing has emerged as an attractive alternative to conventional CPUs for many scientific applications. High speedups over CPU implementations have been reported and this trend is expected to continue in the future with improved programming support and tighter CPU–GPU integration. These speedups by no means imply that CPU performance is no longer critical. The conventional CPU-control–GPU-compute pattern used in many applications wastes much of CPU’s computational power. Our proposed parallel implementation of a classical cyclic reduction algorithm to tackle the large linear systems arising from the discretized form of the elliptic problem at hand, schedules computing on both the GPU and the CPUs in a cooperative way. The experimental result demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach

Indicadores de actividad cultural y potencial creativo en Portugal: estudio regional para NUT 3

The creative economy has been the subject of increasing interest in recent years, both in the area of cultural economics as well as in economic development studies and the analysis of spatial disparities. The underlying notion is to consider creative capital as a production factor linked to talent, technological innovation and initiative, which may shape part of an area or region’s economic flows, replacing merely physical production factors. Clearly, many of the activities to emerge from creative capital are based mainly on culture and cultural activities. Yet, their ultimate goal is not to produce purely artistic artefacts aside from the market but to create marketable prototypes which are differentiated due to their design and innovative nature. This is why, today, creative activities might have a greater impact on economic development than talent, perceived in the conventional sense. Based on these considerations, the current work seeks to explore the territorial distribution of cultural activities and creativity in Portugal and to ascertain the relationship with the level of economic development. This involves defining the cultural and creative sector and its main components, for which purpose we follow the definition of cultural sector from Maheus (2010) and we draw on R. Florida’s (2002) widely embraced factors; talent, technology, and tolerance. The level of territorial disaggregation is NUTS 3. The technique applied is based on multivariate statistical analysis, essentially, factorial analysis to construct synthetic indicators for creativity and development; and cluster analysis to determine homogeneous areas in the resulting distribution. We build partial indicators from the main conceptual branches of the cultural sector and creativity and we also estimate a new global synthetic indicator based on the main components obtained before by factorial analysis. As expected, the most salient preliminary findings to emerge from the study point to a concentration of creative activities mainly in the areas around Lisbon and Oporto, there also being agglomeration factors around university cities and other places whichinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Deep matrix factorization approach for collaborative filtering recommender systems

Providing useful information to the users by recommending highly demanded products and services is a fundamental part of the business of many top tier companies. Recommender Systems make use of many sources of information to provide users with accurate predictions and novel recommendations of items. Here we propose, DeepMF, a novel collaborative filtering method that combines the Deep Learning paradigm with Matrix Factorization (MF) to improve the quality of both predictions and recommendations made to the user. Specifically, DeepMF performs successive refinements of a MF model with a layered architecture that uses the acquired knowledge in a layer as input for subsequent layers. Experimental results showed that the quality of both the predictions and recommendations of DeepMF overcome the baselines.This work has been supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Education and Competitivity (MINECO) and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) under grants TIN2017-85727-C4-3-P (DeepBio)

The inner kiloparsec of the jet in 3C264

We present new multi-frequency EVN, MERLIN and VLA observations of the radio source 3C264, sensitive to linear scales ranging from the parsec to several kiloparsecs. The observations confirm the existence of regions with different properties in the first kiloparsec of the jet. The most remarkable feature is the transition between a well collimated narrow jet at distances from the core below 80 pc, to a conical-shaped wide jet, with an opening angle of 20 degrees. Another change of properties, consisting of an apparent deflection of the jet ridge line and a diminution of the surface brightness, occurs at a distance of 300 pc from the core, coincident with the radius of a ring observed at optical wavelengths. Our observations add new pieces of information on the spectrum of the radio-optical jet of 3C264, with results consistent with a synchrotron emission mechanism and a spectrum break frequency in the infrared. Brightness profiles taken perpendicularly to the jet of 3C264 are consistent with a spine brightened jet at distances below 100 pc from the core, and an edge-brightened jet beyond, which can be interpreted as evidence of a transverse jet velocity structure. Our observations do not allow us to distinguish between the presence of a face--on dust and gas disk at the center of the host galaxy of 3C264, or rather an evacuated bubble. However, the properties of the jet structure, the changes in the polarization angle, and the plausible jet orientation can be naturally brought into agreement in the bubble scenario.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted in A&

El teletrabajo en España : aspectos generales = Teleworking in Spain : general aspects

El teletrabajo tiene sus raíces en los antiguos trabajos artesanales realizados en los domicilios. Actualmente esta modalidad se ha desarrollado como consecuencia del aumento del uso de las tecnologías así como por la preocupación de garantizar la conciliación entre la vida profesional y personal del trabajador. Lo que este permite es desempeñar la actividad laboral en un lugar distinto al centro de trabajo por medio de distintos métodos, ya sea en el domicilio del trabajador, en telecentros, o combinando el trabajo realizado a distancia con el llevado a cabo en la empresa, pretendiendo ajustarse a las necesidades del empleado, y ahorrando costes al empresario. Es una modalidad que se caracteriza por la voluntariedad y la autonomía del trabajador. Si bien es cierto que las condiciones de los teletrabajadores serán iguales a las de los demás trabajadores, existen algunos matices en la relación laboral que la hacen distinta en lo que se refiere a la jornada, a los tiempos de trabajo, al control ejercido por el empresario y a la prevención de riesgos laborales, que en ocasiones chocan con los derechos fundamentales a la intimidad y a la imagen así como al derecho al secreto de las comunicaciones

La pensión de viudedad en el derecho español = Spanish widow's benefit

La pensión de viudedad es una prestación que otorga la Seguridad Social cuyo objetivo no es otro que el de paliar la situación de necesidad en la que se encuentra una persona al sufrir la pérdida de aquella de la que depende económicamente. Para acceder a ella se tendrán en cuenta las contingencias que han dado lugar a la pensión, así como los requisitos que deben cumplir tanto el sujeto causante, que son aquellos relacionados con los periodos de cotización, así como afiliación y alta en la Seguridad Social, como el beneficiario, que varían en función de la situación en que se encuentre, sobre los que existen diversas opiniones y controversias. Si se trata de un ex cónyuge por divorcio o separación se exige haber percibido pensión compensatoria, y si el matrimonio se ha declarado nulo, es necesario que obtenga una indemnización. Para la pareja de hecho y cónyuge beneficiario existen otras exigencias relacionadas con la acreditación. Hay que tener en cuenta que también existen impedimentos que no permiten acceder a dicha pensión. De modo que todo esto determinará si se tiene derecho a ella y en qué cuantí

Technological effects and scientific knowledge

En este ensayo queremos examinar ciertos aspectos del papel ontológico y cognitivo que ejerce la tecnología en la ciencia. Nos interesa resaltar el hecho de que la tecnología es capaz de producir cierta clase de fenómenos donde no siempre es claro si los productos que se obtienen en los experimentos son manifestaciones naturales recién descubiertas o si se trata de un efecto artificial creado en el mundo por la tecnología que se utiliza (Hacking). Al efecto artificial lo llamaremos ‘efecto tecnológico’. Los efectos tecnológicos tienen la peculiaridad de producir fenómenos objetivos, observables, altamente predecibles y reproducibles por el arreglo tecnológico. En este trabajo argumentaremos que la ciencia incorpora los efectos tecnológicos como fenómenos naturales tanto para comprobar la existencia de entidades teóricas, como para fundamentar novedosas teorías científicas. En este ensayo se revisarán ambos casos.In this paper we examine aspects of the ontological and cognitive role of technology in science. We explore the fact that technology is capable of producing phenomena whose nature is unclear, it is not obvious whether the products obtained in the experiments are newly discovered natural manifestations or if it's an artificial effect created in the world by a particular technology (Hacking). We name the artificial effects 'technological effects'. Technological effects are objective, observable, highly predictable and reproducible phenomena. The proposal is that science incorporates them as natural phenomena, both, to prove the existence of theoretical entities, and to support novel scientific theories. In this paper we assess both cases

Short Videos to Communicate Effectively to Engineering Students

[EN] The use of multimedia in education has become a basic tool for educators. As Millennials and Generation Z use technology in their everyday life, the educational model has been shifting towards the use of multimedia and technology to enhance the active learning process. The objective of this project was to design, produce and implement short educational or instructional videos to present content with a more active approach and measure the impact on their understanding and preference. A video with the content of graduation requirements was produced, shared with 240 seniors of Engineering Academic Programs. The results show that 97% of the students liked the video and the way the content was shared and 91.6% of the students find the video format useful. The results show that the learning process was active and effective. The exit poll also shows that 97% of the students think that there should be more educational videos on some other processes. This project included the design, production and implementation of 18 videos. This research describes the approach and impact of using short videos in engineering and transition from a traditional method of sharing content to students to a more active learning environment.The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Writing Lab, Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, in the production of this work.Arrambide-Leal, E.; Lara-Prieto, V.; García-García, R. (2021). Short Videos to Communicate Effectively to Engineering Students. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 509-517. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.13002OCS50951