Design and analysis of cross vaults along history

The history of cross vaults began almost 2,000 years ago with a widespread use during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, becoming nowadays one of the most diffused and fascinating structural typologies of the European building cultural heritage. However, conversely to the undeniable excellence achieved by the ancient masons, the structural behavior of these elements is still at the center of the scientific debate. In this regard, with the aim of reviewing the knowledge on this subject as a concise and valuable support for researchers involved in conservation of historical buildings, with a focus on design rules and structural analysis, the present study firstly introduces the cross vaults from a historical perspective, by describing the evolution of the main geometrical shapes together with basic practical rules used to size them. Then, the article deals with the subsequent advancements in structural analysis methods of vaults, until the development of modern limit analysis.This work was partially carried out under the program "Dipartimento di Protezione Civile - Consorzio RELUIS", signed on 2013-12-27.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Simulation of the Dynamics of Nonplayer Characters' Emotions and Social Relations in Games

International audienc

Dans quelle mesure les simulations informatiques de l’activité humaine sont-elles réalistes ?

Cet article s’intéresse à la notion de réalisme des simulations informatiques de l’activité humaine. Nous proposons une liste de propriétés de l’activité humaine basée sur l’ergonomie comme base pour qualifier le réalisme de ces simulations. Nous proposons une critique des approches informatiques de simulation de l’activité humaine à partir de ces propriétés. Nous proposons d’étudier ces propriétés sous le prisme des données afin d’identifier celles qui contribuent au réalisme de la simulation de l’activité humaine. Enfin, nous proposons un début d’approche hybride prenant en compte des facteurs impactant l’activité humaine, permettant de dépasser les limites des autres approches de l’état de l’art

Dans quelle mesure les simulations informatiques de l’activité humaine sont-elles réalistes ?

Cet article s’intéresse à la notion de réalisme des simulations informatiques de l’activité humaine. Nous proposons une liste de propriétés de l’activité humaine basée sur l’ergonomie comme base pour qualifier le réalisme de ces simulations. Nous proposons une critique des approches informatiques de simulation de l’activité humaine à partir de ces propriétés. Nous proposons d’étudier ces propriétés sous le prisme des données afin d’identifier celles qui contribuent au réalisme de la simulation de l’activité humaine. Enfin, nous proposons un début d’approche hybride prenant en compte des facteurs impactant l’activité humaine, permettant de dépasser les limites des autres approches de l’état de l’art

VICTEAMS: a virtual environment to train medical team leaders to interact with virtual subordinates

International audienceHealth care delivery in military conflict, in peacekeeping missionsor in the aftermath of disaster, implies high stress environmentswith danger exposures, life-threatening events and high levels ofwork demand. Crisis and emergency risk communication remainsa real challenge. The rapid response of emergency medical teamshas an important role to play in preventing serious adverse events.During critical events, medical errors can be related to human or systemfactors, including ineffective team leadership, non-standardizedteam communication, a lack of global situation awareness, pooruse of resources and inappropriate triage and prioritization. TheVICTEAMS project aims at building a virtual environment for trainingrescue team leaders to non-technical skills. Depending on theleader abilities, the virtual characters playing the subordinates (e.g.nurses) reproduce a variety of behaviors like erroneous actions,followership attitudes or stress-based behaviors. A pedagogical directortailors the difficulty according to the dynamic profile of thelearner

Extended, standard or De-escalation antiplatelet therapy for patients with CAD undergoing PCI? A trial-sequential, bivariate, influential and network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The relative safety and efficacy of de-escalation, extended duration (ED) (\u3e12-months) and standard dual antiplatelet therapy for 12-months (DAPT-12) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains controversial. METHODS: Online databases were queried to identify relevant randomized control trials (RCTs). ED-DAPT, high-potency (HP) DAPT, shorter duration (SD) DAPT and low-dose (LD) DAPT were compared with DAPT-12. A trial sequential, bivariate, influential and frequentist network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed to determine the pooled estimates. RESULTS: A total of 30 RCTs comprising 81 208 (40 839 experimental, 40 369 control arm) patients with CAD were included in the quantitative analysis. On NMA, compared with DAPT-12, all types of de-escalation, HP-DAPT-12 and ED-DAPT strategies had a statistically non-significant difference in the incidence of MACE at a median follow-up of 1-year. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the incidence of stroke, stent thrombosis, target lesion revascularization (TLR), target vessel revascularization (TVR) and all-cause mortality between DAPT-12 and all other strategies. The network estimates showed a significantly lower incidence of major bleeding with DAPT for 3-months followed by P2Y12-inhibitor monotherapy (RR 0.62, 95% CI 0.45-0.84), while a higher risk of bleeding with HP-DAPT for 12 months (RR 1.55, 95% CI 1.16-2.06). The net clinical benefit and rankograms also favored DAPT-3 (P2Y12) and discouraged the use of HP-DAPT-12 and ED-DAPT. A subgroup analysis of 19 RCTs restricted to patients who presented with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) mirrored the findings of pooled analysis. A sensitivity analysis revealed no influence of any individual study or individual strategy on net ischemic estimates. The trial sequential analysis (TSA) illustrated a consistently non-significant difference at the interim analysis of trials, reaching the futility area for MACE, while the cumulative Z-values line surpassed the monitoring boundary as well as the required information size for major bleeding favoring de-escalation strategy. CONCLUSION: DAPT for 3 months followed by ticagrelor-only and use of aspirin + clopidogrel after a short period of high potency DAPT appears to be a safe strategy for treating post-PCI patients. However, given the methodological limitations and inclusion of a small number of trials in novel de-escalation strategies, these findings need validation by future large scale RCTs