Docker experience at INFN-Pisa Grid Data Center

Clouds and virtualization offer typical answers to the needs of large-scale computing centers to satisfy diverse sets of user communities in terms of architecture, OS, etc. On the other hand, solutions like Docker seems to emerge as a way to rely on Linux kernel capabilities to package only the applications and the development environment needed by the users, thus solving several resource management issues related to cloud-like solutions. In this paper, we present an exploratory (though well advanced) test done at a major Italian Tier2, at INFN-Pisa, where a considerable fraction of the resources and services has been moved to Docker. The results obtained are definitely encouraging, and Pisa is transitioning all of its Worker Nodes and services to Docker containers. Work is currently being expanded into the preparation of suitable images for a completely virtualized Tier2, with no dependency on local configurations

Impatto dello Sviluppo della Potenza di Calcolo sul progetto aerodinamico: prospettive e problematiche dell’uso dei processori GPU in ANSYS-FLUENT.

Today graphics processors (GPUs) are becoming increasingly programmable, offering the potential for dramatic speedups in the computation of general purpose applications. Indeed, the cost, speed and bandwidth characteristics of these devices make them a special candidate as computing platform for such applications. The increase in performance appears particularly interesting in the aerodynamics field, because the high computational time required to solve the mathematical problem. The object of the work is to accelerate Ansys-Fluent applications, in order to obtain a significant reduction in the time to obtain the solution. The tests are carried out with a single computing node (two Nvidia K40 GPUs) and with a cluster configuration (eight Nvidia K20 GPUs with an Infiniband network between GPUs in different cluster nodes). In this report our experience with using GPUs as fast parallel co-processors are descrive, and examples of capabilities and problems are reported, both for to aeronautical and vehicles aerodynamics

GPUs parallel computing exploitation for neuroimaging

Dedicated computing environments are becoming increasingly important in neuroimaging applications. Indeed we are experiencing a fast development of non-invasive technologies that progress the research on human brain. These advanced techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and electroencephalography (EEG), give us the possibility to visualize and analyse brain function and structure in exceptional detail, but they have led to the necessity of storing and processing very large amounts of data. Moreover, the growth in the complexity of algorithms developed to analyse brain images, has involved an augmenting demand of high-performance resources for data storage and management, and computing systems for image processing and quantitative analysis, e.g. Graphics Processing Units (GPU). The main motivations for using GPU in neuroimaging are the time saving and the possibility to apply advanced algorithms instead of simple ones. The aim of this study is to describe the issues related to the development of a computing environment for neuroimaging applications. The dedicated farm we built, consisting at the moment of a computing node and a storage unit, has been implemented in the Pisa INFN computing centre. It has been designed to guarantee the secure data handling, storage and the access to fast cloud-based computational resources

You Are Not Alone: the Health Promoting Hospital care program for liver transplantation

Background: Current clinical practice is based on the principles of effi cacy, appropriateness, effi ciency, quality and safety. Compliance with these tenets requires experienced medical and nurse staff, and active participation of patients and their families to the planned therapeutic program. In order to match patients’ expectations on quality and safety of care and spur active participation to the transplant care process, we set up an integrated, multiphase, multidisciplinary care program compliant with the HPH initiative and devoted to liver transplant (LT) candidates, engrafted patients, and their families: the “Non Sei Solo” care program (You Are Not Alone). Materials and methods: The basic principle of the care program was that, in order to provide effi cient and effective education to their patients, health care professionals need to learn how to teach and what to teach, acquire successful communication skills and monitor the process of education. Results: The methodology encompassed fi ve distinct phases: phase 1 consisted of exploration of patients’ needs, by means of a questionnaire devoted to waitlisted and engrafted patients and their care givers, phase 2 consisted of creation of 16 patient-oriented educational brochures directed to patients and their families. Once created, the educational brochures were presented, discussed and amended during a consensus meeting involving all transplant nurses and physicians (phase 3). In order to acquire the necessary skills and ease communication with patients, the transplant nurses, physicians, surgeons and anesthesiologists attended a six-month counseling course under the tutorship of an expert counselor phase 4. Finally, in June 2007 the program started offi cially with monthly meetings with patients and their families, guided hospital tours on patients’ request, and activation of a toll-free phone number to provide support to patients and answer their questions (Phase 5). Conclusions: Given the complexity of the LT care process, patients are often in demand of thorough medical information, as well as psychological support, in order to be prepared to tackle the criticalities related to the transplant procedure. There is public awareness that such an approach proves useful in meeting patients demands on quality and safety of care and might also improve adherence to the therapeutic plan, with a favorable impact on both patients’ and graft outcome

The "You Are Not Alone" care program for liver transplantation

Current clinical practice is based on the principles of efficacy, appropriateness, efficiency, quality, and safety. Compliance with these tenets requires experienced medical and nursing staff, and active participation of patients and their families in the planned therapeutic program. To match patients' expectations on quality and safety of care and spur active participation in the transplant care process, we set up an integrated, multiphase, multidisciplinary care program devoted to liver transplantation (LT) candidates, engrafted patients, and their families: the "Non Sei Solo" care program (You Are Not Alone). The basic principle of the care program was that, to provide efficient and effective education to their patients, health care professionals need to learn how to teach and what to teach, cquire successful communication skills, and monitor the process of education. The methodology encompassed 5 distinct phases: phase 1, exploration of patients' needs, by means of a questionnaire devoted to waitlisted and engrafted patients and their care givers; and phase 2, creation of 16 patient-oriented educational brochures directed to patients and their families. Once created, the educational brochures were presented, discussed, and amended during a consensus meeting involving all transplantation nurses and physicians (phase 3). To acquire the necessary skills and ease communication with patients, the transplantation nurses, physicians, surgeons, and anesthesiologists attended a 6-month counseling course under the tutorial of an expert counselor (phase 4). Finally, in June 2007 the program started officially with monthly meetings with patients and their families, guided hospital tours on patient request, and activation of a toll-free phone number to provide support to patients and answer their questions.Current clinical practice is based on the principles of efficacy, appropriateness, efficiency, quality, and safety. Compliance with these tenets requires experienced medical and nursing staff, and active participation of patients and their families in the planned therapeutic program. To match patients' expectations on quality and safety of care and spur active participation in the transplant care process, we set up an integrated, multiphase, multidisciplinary care program devoted to liver transplantation (LT) candidates, engrafted patients, and their families: the "Non Sei Solo" care program (You Are Not Alone). The basic principle of the care program was that, to provide efficient and effective education to their patients, health care professionals need to learn how to teach and what to teach, acquire successful communication skills, and monitor the process of education. The methodology encompassed 5 distinct phases: phase 1, exploration of patients' needs, by means of a questionnaire devoted to waitlisted and engrafted patients and their care givers; and phase 2, creation of 16 patient-oriented educational brochures directed to patients and their families. Once created, the educational brochures were presented, discussed, and amended during a consensus meeting involving all transplantation nurses and physicians (phase 3). To acquire the necessary skills and ease communication with patients, the transplantation nurses, physicians, surgeons, and anesthesiologists attended a 6-month counseling course under the tutorial of an expert counselor (phase 4). Finally, in June 2007 the program started officially with monthly meetings with patients and their families, guided hospital tours on patient request, and activation of a toll-free phone number to provide support to patients and answer their question

Prefabricated steel structures for low-rise buildings in seismic areas (Precasteel)

Low-rise buildings are used for industrial and commercial activities. Most of these buildings are built by prefabricated-concrete elements characterised by low efficiency of connections and a lower ductility performance when subjected to earthquake loading. The proposal aim is defining prefabricated steel solutions for single-storey and low-rise buildings in earthquake-prone areas for industrial and commercial activities. The selection of structural solutions is performed via statistical analyses in different European countries about solutions requested by the market. Industrial and commercial solutions are optimised in terms of structural performance and of construction costs and two of those (technologically advance and high-performing) are experimentally tested. The solution selected for commercial activities is a dissipative device working in series with prefabricated RC-Wall and pendulum steel-structure. The solution selected for industrial activities is a warehousing system using cold-formed profiles acting compositely with ribbed steel sheeting as girder web. Automated integrated design software with cost-effectiveness analysis module is realised to favour the use of proposed solutions into practice. Solutions proposed by the software are optimised to meet three ‘criteria’: (1) Prefabrication — structural members and connection types selected in order to reduce on-site operations; (2) Pre-designed — structural solutions pre-designed and inserted in a database correlating member/structure with its maximum structural performance; structural configuration for industrial/commercial buildings are assembled according to the design inputs; (3) Standardised — members and structural systems have static schemes suitable for defining simplified designing procedures (transformed in technical tables — Precasteel Software): database (catalogue) of solutions/members may be enlarged enclosing more recent developments