Ottica geometrica e ondulatoria, e applicazioni astrofisiche

L’ottica è rivolta allo studio delle proprietà della luce e della sua propagazione attraverso i mezzi materiali. Le applicazioni tradizionali dell’ottica includono le lenti correttive per la vista e la formazione delle immagini nei telescopi e nei microscopi. Le applicazioni moderne comprendono l’immagazzinamento ed il recupero delle informazioni, come nei riproduttori di compact disc, nei lettori di codici a barre in uso nelle casse dei supermercati, o nella trasmissione di segnali attraverso cavi a fibre ottiche, che possono trasportare una maggior quantità di informazioni dei fili in rame. Nel primo capitolo si considereranno casi nei quali la luce viaggia in linea retta e incontra ostacoli la cui dimensione è molto maggiore della lunghezza d’onda della luce. Questo è il dominio dell’ottica geometrica, che include lo studio delle proprietà degli specchi e delle lenti. Il passaggio della luce attraverso fessure molto sottili o attorno a barriere molto strette, le cui dimensioni siano confrontabili con la lunghezza d’onda della luce (a conferma della natura ondulatoria della luce) fa parte dell’ottica fisica o anche detta ottica ondulatoria, di cui si parlerà nel secondo capitolo. Nel terzo capitolo, infine, verranno trattati due metodi che sono stati adoperati nel passato per misurare la maggior peculiarità che possiede la “particella” principe dell’ottica: la velocità della luce

Artificial intelligence and model checking methods for in silico clinical trials

Model-based approaches to safety and efficacy assessment of pharmacological treatments (In Silico Clinical Trials, ISCT) hold the promise to decrease time and cost for the needed experimentations, reduce the need for animal and human testing, and enable personalised medicine, where treatments tailored for each single patient can be designed before being actually administered. Research in Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is harvesting such promise by developing quantitative mechanistic models of patient physiology and drugs. Depending on many parameters, such models define physiological differences among different individuals and different reactions to drug administrations. Value assignments to model parameters can be regarded as Virtual Patients (VPs). Thus, as in vivo clinical trials test relevant drugs against suitable candidate patients, ISCT simulate effect of relevant drugs against VPs covering possible behaviours that might occur in vivo. Having a population of VPs representative of the whole spectrum of human patient behaviours is a key enabler of ISCT. However, VPH models of practical relevance are typically too complex to be solved analytically or to be formally analysed. Thus, they are usually solved numerically within simulators. In this setting, Artificial Intelligence and Model Checking methods are typically devised. Indeed, a VP coupled together with a pharmacological treatment represents a closed-loop model where the VP plays the role of a physical subsystem and the treatment strategy plays the role of the control software. Systems with this structure are known as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). Thus, simulation-based methodologies for CPSs can be employed within personalised medicine in order to compute representative VP populations and to conduct ISCT. In this thesis, we advance the state of the art of simulation-based Artificial Intelligence and Model Checking methods for ISCT in the following directions. First, we present a Statistical Model Checking (SMC) methodology based on hypothesis testing that, given a VPH model as input, computes a population of VPs which is representative (i.e., large enough to represent all relevant phenotypes, with a given degree of statistical confidence) and stratified (i.e., organised as a multi-layer hierarchy of homogeneous sub-groups). Stratification allows ISCT to adaptively focus on specific phenotypes, also supporting prioritisation of patient sub-groups in follow-up in vivo clinical trials. Second, resting on a representative VP population, we design an ISCT aiming at optimising a complex treatment for a patient digital twin, that is the virtual counterpart of that patient physiology defined by means of a set of VPs. Our ISCT employs an intelligent search driving a VPH model simulator to seek the lightest but still effective treatment for the input patient digital twin. Third, to enable interoperability among VPH models defined with different modelling and simulation environments and to increase efficiency of our ISCT, we also design an optimised simulator driver to speed-up backtracking-based search algorithms driving simulators. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of our presented methodologies on state-of-the-art use cases and validate our results on retrospective clinical data

Again on “Heraios” being Kujula and some related problems

The question of the identity of the issuer of the so-called “Heraios”coinage is analysed, and it is proposed that these series be ascribed to Kujula Kadphises, as already suggested by some scholars. In this regard, the circulation of these coins and the connections established by their imagery are focused upon. Some possible inferences on the original location of Kujula Kadphises are discussed in the concluding part, hypothesizing a southern context different from the northern one commonly ascribed to the founder of the Kushan dynasty

Ballistic fire barriers - Part II

With new threats endangering the safety of substations, critical infrastructure protection in substations has come to include sniper fire, ballistics and blast protection. Safe by Design approach allows that all types of design safety and performance criteria – fire, blast, impact, wind – cross over from safety to security. In this article Critical Infrastructure Protection innovations and strategy options are discussed, with a focus on ballistic fire barriers that provide both safety and security at critical facilities

Entre permanecer en el jardín y el primerito: sentidos y prácticas de la educación infantil

En este artículo presentamos los avances que venimos realizando en el marco de una investigación colectiva que aborda los nuevos “usos” de la diversidad, centralmente en espacios escolares. Basándonos en el trabajo de campo en una institución de Nivel Inicial de la zona sur de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires y partiendo de un enfoque socioantropológico/etnográfco analizamos, por un lado, los sentidos entorno de lo que docentes y directivos de la institución bajo estudio -refriéndose al pasaje de los niños del nivel Inicial a la Primaria- denominan “articulación”, “permanencia” y “primerito”. Por otro lado, documentamos las prácticas que se despliegan intentando dirimir tensiones que en ciertos casos presenta el “permanecer” o el pasar de nivel. Sosteniendo como hipótesis que la obligatoriedad de la sala de cinco años genera un fuerte movimiento que afecta la estructuración del trabajo docente e impacta en la vida cotidiana de los jardines, analizamos cómo esta obligatoriedad dispuesta y una resolución del Consejo Federal de Educación se insertan en la trama institucional particular, desde la cual se las procesa. Complementariamente, sostenemos que las prácticas de los sujetos no son respuestas mecánicas a sentidos construidos con anterioridad ni van necesariamente en línea con la intencionalidad de las políticas sino que están contextuadas, atravesadas por huellas del pasado y pueden expresar, además, nuevos “usos” de la diversidad.In this paper we present the advances of a collective research that is focused on the new “uses” of diversity, centrally in school spaces. Te feld work takes place in an institution of Initial Level of the south area of Buenos Aires City and is done from an socio-anthropological/ethnographic approach. We analyze the senses constructed by teachers and Head teachers that refer to the passage of the children of the Initial Level to Primary School, called by them “articulación”, “permanencia” y “primerito”. Along this line, we documented the practices trying to resolve tensions unfold that in certain cases and disposes the stay or the move to the next Level. Holding the hypothesis that the obligatoriness school, for fve years old children, generated a strong movement that afects the structuring of the teaching work and has correlate in the daily life of kindergarten; we analyze how this obligatoriness and the resolution of the Consejo Federal de Educación are inserted into the particular institutional framework. According to this, we proposed that the practices deployed on everyday life are not mechanistic responses to senses built before, or necessarily in line with the intent of policies. Tey are situated, contextualized and defned by traces of the past, expressing, in addition, new “uses” of diversity.Fil: Sinisi, Liliana Dora. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofia y Letras. Departamento de Ciencias Antropologicas; ArgentinaFil: Petrelli, Lucia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofia y Letras. Departamento de Ciencias Antropologicas; Argentin