h-multigrid agglomeration based solution strategies for discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of incompressible flow problems

In this work we exploit agglomeration based $h$-multigrid preconditioners to speed-up the iterative solution of discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of the Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations. As a distinctive feature $h$-coarsened mesh sequences are generated by recursive agglomeration of a fine grid, admitting arbitrarily unstructured grids of complex domains, and agglomeration based discontinuous Galerkin discretizations are employed to deal with agglomerated elements of coarse levels. Both the expense of building coarse grid operators and the performance of the resulting multigrid iteration are investigated. For the sake of efficiency coarse grid operators are inherited through element-by-element $L^2$ projections, avoiding the cost of numerical integration over agglomerated elements. Specific care is devoted to the projection of viscous terms discretized by means of the BR2 dG method. We demonstrate that enforcing the correct amount of stabilization on coarse grids levels is mandatory for achieving uniform convergence with respect to the number of levels. The numerical solution of steady and unsteady, linear and non-linear problems is considered tackling challenging 2D test cases and 3D real life computations on parallel architectures. Significant execution time gains are documented.Comment: 78 pages, 7 figure

Proposed methodology for verification and validation of medical electrical equipment

Orientador: Vera Lúcia da Silveira Nantes ButtonDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de ComputaçãoResumo: Hoje boa parte dos equipamentos eletromedicos (EEM) possui algum tipo de controle realizado por software; esse controle pode ser restrito a um ou mais subsistemas do equipamento, ou ainda ser total. A partir do momento em que o software representa papel fundamental no controle de EEM ele deixa de ser um risco intrinseco do equipamento e deve ser analisado com o mesmo rigor e criterio da analise do hardware do equipamento. A analise rigorosa dos equipamentos e concentrada no funcionamento do hardware em si e nao esta associada aos sistemas de controle, que sao feitos por softwares de controle. Uma quantidade significativa de software critico e desenvolvida por pequenas empresas, principalmente na industria de dispositivos medicos. Esse trabalho teve como objetivo primario apresentar uma proposta de metodologia para organizar o processo de teste do software de controle dos EEM, bem como definir toda a documentacao necessaria para a gerencia desse processo de teste tomando como base a norma IEEE 829:2008. Essa metodologia, que prioriza a realizacao de testes sistematicos, podera ser empregada para a verificacao e validacao dos softwares de controle de qualquer tipo de EEM, e esta dividida em duas partes fundamentais: Processo de Teste e Geracao de Documentos. Essa metodologia foi aplicada em um monitor cardiaco hospitalar comercial a fim de valida-lo e, como isso, pode garantir que o equipamento atendeu os requisitos do fabricante e principalmente da norma ao qual ele esta sujeito, e dessa forma considerou o equipamento seguro para uso clinico do ponto de vista da seguranca do software. A obtencao de todo o conteudo necessario para o processo de teste foi feita atraves do manual de utilizacao do EEM, das especificacoes tecnicas apontadas pelo fabricante e das especificacoes definidas na norma especifica do EEM que estao sujeitos a certificacao compulsoria prevista na Resolucao no. 32 da ANVISA. Como resultado dessa pesquisa foi gerado um conjunto de documentos, baseados na IEEE 829:2008, que foram utilizados desde o planejamento dos testes ate o registro dos resultados. Esses documentos sao: 1) Plano de Teste, que e uma modelagem detalhada do fluxo de trabalho durante o processo de teste; 2) Especificacao do Projeto de Teste, que refina a abordagem apresentada no Plano de Teste e identifica as funcionalidades e caracteristicas que foram testadas pelo projeto e por seus testes associados; 3) Especificacao dos Casos de Teste, que definiu os casos de teste, incluindo dados de entrada, resultados esperados, acoes e condicoes gerais para a execucao do teste; 4)Especificacao do Procedimento de Teste, que especificou os passos para executar um conjunto de casos de teste; 5) Diario de Teste, apresentou os registros cronologicos dos detalhes relevantes relacionados a execucao dos testes; 6) Relatorio de Incidente de Teste, documentou os eventos que ocorreram durante a atividade de teste e que precisaram de uma analise posterior; e 7) Relatorio resumo de Teste, apresentou, de forma resumida, os resultados das atividades de teste associadas com uma ou mais especificacoes de projeto de teste e realizou as avaliacoes baseadas nesses resultados. Dessa forma, como objetivos secundarios, foram apresentados os processos e os agentes envolvidos na certificacao de EEM no Brasil e no mundo. Na literatura foram encontrados diversos problemas com os EEM devidos, principalmente, a erros encontrados em seu software de controle. A partir dessas observacoes foram apresentados os reguladores de EEM no Brasil e como e feito o processo de certificacao, comercializacao e vigilancia pos-venda destes produtos. Para apontar os problemas que sao encontrados e documentados referentes aos EEM foi apresentado o conceito de recall e tambem como esse processo ocorre no Brasil e no mundo. A partir desta problematica foram apresentadas as normas aplicadas ao desenvolvimento de software englobando desde o processo de qualidade ate o processo final de teste onde o software de fato sera validado a fim de garantir que novos problemas relacionados aos equipamentos nao voltem a ocorrer. Como resultado primario deste trabalho teve-se a geracao dos documentos que serviram como base para o processo de teste, desde seu planejamento ate a execucao e o registro das atividades de teste. Essa documentacao consistiu em um modelo macro que podera ser aplicado em qualquer EEM. A partir da documentacao proposta pode-se realizar sua aplicacao em um monitor cardiaco hospitalar para sua verificacao (estudo de caso). Os testes funcionais aplicados aos sistemas embarcados do monitor cardiaco puderam ser considerados eficazes em diversas condicoes de uso simuladas, normais e tambem criticas ou que poderiam apresentar algum risco aos usuarios dos equipamentos. Esse estudo resultou em uma importante contribuicao para a organizacao do processo de verificacao e validacao de software de controle de EEM. A aplicacao desta proposta no monitor cardiaco sob teste pode realizar sua verificacao e validacao do ponto de vista de qualidade do software de controle, uma vez que nao apresentou defeitos, apenas um tipo uma falha considerada leve o que qualifica tal monitor cardiaco como apto para utilizacao seguraAbstract: Today a great part of electromedical equipments (EME) have some kind of control performed by software. This control can be restrict to one or more subsystems of the equipment or yet be total. Since software became a key factor in the EME control it represents an intrinsic risk and must be analyzed with the same accuracy and criterion of the equipment's hardware analysis. The rigorous analysis of the equipments is concentrated in the functioning of the hardware itself and is not associated to the software control systems. A significant amount of critical software is developed by small enterprises mainly in the EME industry. This study had as main goal to present a methodology proposal to organize the process of EME control software test as well as to define all necessary documentation for the management of this test process using the standard IEEE 829:2008. As a secondary goal of this work, the processes and agents involved in the EME certification in Brazil and in the world were reported. Several EME malfunctioning problems especially due to mistakes found in their control software were found in literature. Brazilian EME regulators and how the process of certification, commercialization and post-market surveillance of the medical products are done, were also reported. To point the problems found and documented regarding EME, the concept of recall was presented and also how this process occurs in Brazil and in the world. The proposed methodology, which prioritizes the achievement of systematic tests, can be used for verification and validation of any kind of EME control software and was divided in two fundamental parts: test process and generation of documents. The methodology was applied to a commercial hospital heart monitor in order to validate it and therefore to guarantee that the equipment has complied with the manufacture's requirements and with the standard it is subjected to. This way the equipment can be considered safe for clinical use from the software's security point of view. Some characteristics data and technical specifications, necessary for the test process, were obtained through the EME user manual and pointed by the manufacturer and EME standard specification, which are subject to compulsory certification provided by the ANVISA Brazilian resolution number 32. As a result of this research a set of documents was produced, based on the IEEE 829:2008 standard and were used from the test planning until the results record. Those documents are: 1) Test plan - detailed modeling of workflow during the test process. 2) Specification of test project - refines the approach presented in the test plan and identifies the functionalities and characteristics tested by project and associated tests. 3) Specification of test cases - specified steps to execute a set of test cases. 5) Test board - presented the chronological records of relevant details related to test execution. 6) Test incident report - documents the events occurred during the test activity that needed later analysis and 7) Test summary report - resumes briefly the results of test activities associated to one or more test project specifications and performed evaluations based on these results. As a primary result of this work there was the production of documents that were the basis for the testing process, from planning to execution and recording of test activities. This documentation consisted of a macro model that can be applied to any EME and it was used to test a hospital heart monitor. The functional tests applied to the heart monitor embedded systems were considered effective in various simulated situations, normal and critical or that could represent a risk to users of the equipment. This study resulted in an important contribution to the organization of the process of verification and validation of EME control software. The implementation of the proposed methodology on the heart monitor test was able to perform verification and validation from the point of view of control software and it was considered safe to be used since only a light kind of failure was observedMestradoEngenharia BiomedicaMestre em Engenharia Elétrica e de Computaçã

Massimo Pistacchi (a cura di), Vive Voci. L’intervista come fonte di documentazione

Vive voci è la raccolta degli interventi discussi in occasione del convegno, svoltosi dal 5 al 7 maggio 2009 presso la Biblioteca nazionale di Roma, dedicato a L’intervista come «fonte» di documentazione. Curatore di questa raccolta di saggi è Massimo Pistacchi, direttore dell’Istituto centrale per i beni sonori ed audiovisivi. Alla base della realizzazione di queste giornate di studio vi era la volontà di riflettere sulla tematica delle fonti orali, della loro raccolta e della loro trattazio..

Flowable Mixtures of Treated Soils for Repairing Damage Caused by Burrowing Animals

The adoption of flowable mixtures of treated soils is suggested as a sustainable solution for repairing the damage caused by burrowing animals in the Po River embankments. Soil from damaged sites is proposed to be mixed with lime or cement, other additives, and water in order to obtain mixtures with an adequate compromise between viscosity—which is crucial for flowing the mixture into the hole with site machines—and shrinkage that might occur over time according to the hole boundary conditions. Injections of soil-treated mixtures must guarantee hydraulic and mechanical continuity with the existing embankment and reduce shrinkage phenomena that frequently occur with cement–bentonite grout, which is commonly used for this purpose. This study presents an interdisciplinary experimental programme in the search for the best formulation among several recipes of mixtures of soils, collected from four embankments of Po River or its tributaries and treated with lime or cement, different percentages of water, and other additives. The mixtures, after soil classification and viscosity determinations, were then used to create samples for which shrinkage and erosion susceptibility were estimated, respectively, through a non-standard volume measurement procedure and crumb tests. An abacus will be then proposed in order to give, as a first estimation, applicative indications on the best recipe among the investigated mixtures

Failure in reflective functioning as a key factor in the association between problematic social networking sites use, attachment and childhood maltreatment: A network analysis approach on gender differences

Following a network analysis approach, the present study aims to explore the pattern of mutual relationships between failure in reflective functioning (RF) - defined as hypomentalization - problematic social networking sites use (PSNSU), attachment anxiety and avoidance, and childhood maltreatment among emerging adults, with a focus on gender differences. The study sample comprises N = 1,614 emerging adults (Mage = 23.84; SD = 3.21; 50% identified themselves as women) who completed online self-assessment measures. Results showed significantly greater PSNSU, hypomentalization, childhood emotional abuse, and both attachment avoidance and anxiety among women. Indeed, within the network analysis, performed separately for men and women, network-specific associative patterns were observed; yet also similarities have emerged. Within the women's network, differently from males, attachment avoidance connects, through attachment anxiety, to emotional abuse, mood modification related to PSNSU, and hypomentalization. Nonetheless, hypomentalization was central in both networks, functioning as a hub between attachment anxiety, the PSNSU cluster, and the childhood maltreatment cluster. These results shed light on the use of social network sites as a potential maladaptive emotion regulation strategy, particularly among women. In this regard, the role of RF should be considered as a key treatment target to reduce PSNSU and support the use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies

Rasch Model for Assessing Propensity to Entomophagy

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations supports the production of edible insects as a promising and sustainable source of nutrients to meet the increasing demand for animal-derived products by the growing world population. Even if insects are part of the diet of more than two billion people worldwide, the practice of eating insects (entomophagy) raises challenging questions for Western countries where this is not a habit. The research applied the Rasch models and showed that, in the case of hunger or need, 70.8% of the sample declared that they would be willing to eat insects. The willingness to habitually consume and pay for insect food is very low, but the percentages are higher than people who had actually had insect tasting experiences. This demonstrates that a communication process is necessary that aims to overcome psychological/cultural barriers. Only in this way will it be possible to increase the propensity to consume insects

"If not, why not?". I fattori umani nella pratica medico-chirurgica

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Nota introduttiva n. 33 – marzo 2018

Guerra e pace Declinazioni politiche, sociali e culturali del conflitto in età contemporanea I saggi presentati nel numero 33 di Diacronie sono legati fra loro dal tema della transizione dal tempo di guerra al tempo di pace, che attraversa ricerche molto differenti fra loro per ambito geografico e cronologico. Nel primo di questi contributi, Fabio Milazzo analizza l’internamento dei militari nei manicomi agli inizi del Novecento, soffermandosi in particolar modo sulla figura del simulatore. T..