A project for polarimetric observations in single dish with Medicina and Noto 32 m antennas

A project with multidisciplinary characteristics, aimed to implement the possibility of polarimetric measurements in single dish at the VLBI stations of Medicina and Noto, is presented. The project will open a new window on many astrophysical items that may be approached using the already existing instrumentation and facilities of the two Italian radioastronomical stations. We report here some scientific backgrounds, together with some technical evaluations, on which the feasibility of the project is based

The First Very Long Baseline Interferometric SETI Experiment

The first Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) conducted with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is presented. By consideration of the basic principles of interferometry, we show that VLBI is efficient at discriminating between SETI signals and human generated radio frequency interference (RFI). The target for this study was the star Gliese 581, thought to have two planets within its habitable zone. On 2007 June 19, Gliese 581 was observed for 8 hours at 1230-1544 with the Australian Long Baseline Array. The dataset was searched for signals appearing on all interferometer baselines above five times the noise limit. A total of 222 potential SETI signals were detected and by using automated data analysis techniques, were ruled out as originating from the Gliese 581 system. From our results we place an upper limit of 7 MW/Hz on the power output of any isotropic emitter located in the Gliese 581 system, within this frequency range. This study shows that VLBI is ideal for targeted SETI, including follow-up observations. The techniques presented are equally applicable to next-generation interferometers, such as the long baselines of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).Comment: 34 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted on 25/05/2012 for publication in The Astronomical Journa

A Multicloud Observability Support Based on ElasticSearch for Cloud-native Smart Cities Services

Effective communication and information sharing among different districts and cities are crucial for the management of utility flows, traffic, and emergencies in smart cities. In this scenario, a smart city requires cloud-native solutions to collect and analyze data from various sources, including traffic sensors and public transport vehicles. Thus, a multicloud observability approach is proposed to aggregate data from different localities. The solution aims to provide a complete suite for observability capable of collecting data across layers of a multicloud and integrating already existing open-source projects. Like what you’re reading

Yan Thomas, Jacques Chiffoleau, L’istituzione della natura

At the beginning of Woody Allen’s Love and Death, just before being executed, the protagonist remembers his boyhood at the summer house where, among many other characters, were “Old Gregor and his son Young Gregor. Oddly enough, Young Gregor was older than Old Gregor. Nobody could figure out how that happened”. Such an inversion, which belongs in the first place to the sphere of logic and its paradoxes, represents, if transferred in the context of the history of law and of its use of the conc..

La psicosi della forma. Note sul «Leonardo» di Freud e «Il rituale del serpente di Warburg»

The aim of this article is to outline the contours of a theoretical configuration that emerges from the comparison between Freud’s essay Leonardo da Vinci and A Memory of His Childhood and Warburg’s Images from the Region of the Pueblo Indians of North America: the psychosis of form. This expression describes the hallucinatory fixation of something that at the same time insists on the analytical discourse on the representation of the image, disrupting both.L’articolo si propone di delineare i contorni di una configurazione teorica che emerge dal confronto tra il saggio di Freud, Un ricordo d’infanzia di Leonardo da Vinci e Il rituale del serpente di Warburg: la psicosi della forma. Con questa locuzione si indica la fissazione allucinatoria di qualcosa che insiste insieme sul discorso analitico e sulla rappresentazione dell’immagine, scompaginando l’ordine di entrambe

6. Book Reviews

Reviews of Muzzarelli (ed.), Riferire all’autorità. Denuncia e delazione tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna, Viella 2020; Thomas & Chiffoleau, L’istituzione della natura, ed. by M. Spanò, Quodlibet 2020; Wolfe, La philosophie de la biologie avant la biologie. Une histoire du vitalisme, Classiques Garnier 2019; Omodeo, Amerigo Vespucci: The Historical Context of His Explorations and Scientific Contribution, Edizioni Ca’ Foscari 2020

Energy consumption of parallel algorithms for solving linear systems on HPC architecture

Modern High-Performance Computing HPC systems are gradually increasing in size and complexity due to the correspondent demand of larger simulations requiring more complicated tasks and higher accuracy. However, as side effects of the Dennard’s scaling approaching its ultimate power limit, the efficiency of software plays also an important role in increasing the overall performance of a computation. Tools to measure application performance in these increasingly complex environments provide insights into the intricate ways in which software and hardware interact. The monitoring of the power consumption in order to save energy is possible through processors interfaces like Intel Running Average Power Limit RAPL. Given the low level of these interfaces, they are often paired with an application-level tool like Performance Application Programming Interface PAPI. Since several problems in many heterogeneous fields can be represented as a complex linear system, an optimized and scalable linear system solver algorithm can decrease significantly the time spent to compute its resolution. One of the most widely used algorithms deployed for the resolution of large simulation is the Gaussian Elimination, which has its most popular implementation for HPC systems in the Scalable Linear Algebra PACKage ScaLAPACK library. However, another relevant algorithm, which is increasing in popularity in the academic field, is the Inhibition Method. This thesis compares the energy consumption of the Inhibition Method and Gaussian Elimination from ScaLAPACK to profile their execution during the resolution of linear systems above the HPC architecture offered by CINECA. Moreover, it also collates the energy and power values for different ranks, nodes, and sockets configurations. The monitoring tools employed to track the energy consumption of these algorithms are PAPI and RAPL, that will be integrated with the parallel execution of the algorithms managed with the Message Passing Interface MPI

Clinical use of parnaparin in major and minor orthopedic sugery: a review

Patients undergoing arthroplasty or other orthopedic surgery show a high risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), involving mortality, morbidity, and social costs; however, the risk for VTE in minor orthopedic surgery should not be underestimated and antithrombotic prophylaxis may be required. According to the literature, low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWHs) are more effective in preventing VTE than unfractionated heparins (UFHs) or vitamin K antagonists, and have a lower hemorrhagic risk. By comparing different prophylactic regimens, it has been shown that starting the prophylaxis near the time of the operation is the most critical point for efficacy, whether or not the first dose is administered pre- or post-operatively. Moreover, most thromboembolic complications are observed after discharge and, therefore, many clinicians advocate continuing prophylaxis for longer times (6–8 weeks) in order to further reduce the rate for VTE. The literature on parnaparin, a new LMWH, in VTE prophylaxis was reviewed. Parnaparin is equally effective as UFH, but it offers the advantages of a once-daily administration and improved tolerability, thus allowing the home management of patients with no need for laboratory coagulation tests