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Inverse source problems for eddy current equations
No full textWe study the inverse source problem for the eddy current approximation of Maxwell equations. As for the full system of Maxwell equations, we show that a volume current source cannot be uniquely identified by the knowledge of the tangential components of the electromagnetic fields on the boundary, and we characterize the space of non-radiating sources. On the other hand, we prove that the inverse source problem has a unique solution if the source is supported on the boundary of a subdomain or if it is the sum of a finite number of dipoles. We address the applicability of this result for the localization of brain activity from electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography measurements
Conciliare la responsabilità medica: il modello "generalista" italiano a confronto col modello "specializzato" francese = Mediation & Medical liability: The Italian “General Approach” Compared to the Specialized Model Applied in France
No full textL’analisi condotta nel presente studio si prefigge l’obiettivo di rilevare, in una prospettiva comparatistica che accosta in chiave critica l’esperienza italiana a quella francese, i problemi e i possibili sviluppi della mediazione finalizzata alla conciliazione di cui al D.lgs. n. 28/2010 nel particolare ambito della responsabilità medica. Il lavoro si articola in due parti. La prima è dedicata interamente all’analisi dei recenti sviluppi giurisprudenziali in tema di malpractice. Dopo aver evidenziato i motivi che, dalla fine degli anni Settanta, hanno portato all’aumento esponenziale del contenzioso avente ad oggetto presunti errori medici, viene dato ampio conto del “diritto vivente” che, in una prospettiva chiaramente “vittimofila”, ha finito per determinare una sempre maggiore severità dei giudizi dei tribunali nei confronti delle strutture sanitarie e degli esercenti la professione medica. La parte prima si conclude con la presentazione di una serie di dati statistici tesi a far risaltare la tipologia e la frequenza delle segnalazioni che si riferiscono a presunti errori medici occorsi in determinate branche specialistiche e che, ogni anno, sfociano in contenziosi tra sanitari e pazienti danneggiati o comunque insoddisfatti. La seconda parte del presente studio si ripropone, invece, di valutare l’opportunità di definire la responsabilità medica fuori dal processo. A fronte dell’incremento esasperato del contenzioso medico, ci si domanda se il ricorso a forme di risoluzione stragiudiziale delle liti (ADR) possa costituire, in questo ambito, una valida alternativa al giudizio ordinario. Si sono così lumeggiate le soluzioni innovative adottate dal legislatore francese in modo da poter analizzare con maggiore criticità le scelte effettuate dal nostro legislatore mediante il D. lgs. n. 28/2010 e, ancor prima, mediante le proposte di legge formulate per (tentare di) “risolvere” il contenzioso in tema di responsabilità medica, nonché le iniziative di conciliazione promosse a livello di diritto regionale. L’analisi si conclude formulando considerazioni di sintesi che utilizzano i risultati della comparazione per prospettare una chiave di lettura critica del recente intervento voluto dal legislatore italiano, che in ultima analisi ha mancato di considerare la decisa specificità che caratterizza lo scenario dell’ADR nel campo della responsabilità civile medica, per preferire l’adozione di una ricetta generalista che ben difficilmente soddisferà gli auspici legislativi che l’hanno propiziata. ENGLISH ABSTRACT The goal of this paper is to compare the Italian and French approaches to the use of mediation and more generally of ADR systems in the field of medical malpractice, analyzing in the framework of this comparison the pros and the cons of the Italian generalist model of mediation, as conceived to be applied in a host of heterogeneous fields of litigation following the enactment of the D.lgs. n. 28/2010. The evaluation is carried on considering how this model will score when implemented in the reality of medical malpratice litigation, itself a very broad label under which one can single out different highly specific hypothesis of claims with peculiar rules and different degrees of evidentiary problems. The work is divided into two parts. The first analyzes the important case law developments which in the last three decades have transformed the law of medical malpractice in Italy. Highlighted are the factors which, since the end of the Seventies, have slowly and steadily increased the quantity of civil claims and criminal actions brought against heath care professionals and public and private hospitals. In this process courts have developed what has been defined a a set of rules defined as “living law”, which, endorsing a victim’s friendly approach, has eased this dynamic, pushing more claims to be brought as outcomes were becoming more and more sympathetic to perspective claimants. This part ends by showing a set of statistical data detecting the type and frequency of reports regarding presumed medical errors occurred in given specialities each year, leading patients injured or unsatisfied to have their day in court against health care providers. The second part of the paper evaluates the benefits conventionally associated with the idea of settling the medical liability disputes outside the courts. Against this theoretical backdrop it is first analysed the French model, as defined by a set of legislative reforms applied in the first years of the third millennium which have endorsed a host of innovative solutions, developed considering holistically the medical malpratice phenomenon, and designing, along with the ADR system, a detailed institutional mechanism providing, among the others, tools for a no fault compensation scheme conceived in order to address the so-called “alea therapeutique”. Turning to the Italian situation, in this chapter I have critically assessed the past Italian unsuccessful attempts to develop ADR schemes in medical malpractice both at the national and at the regional level. The final part of the paper analyzes in the detail the 2010 Italian generalist model of mediation as it will find application in the specific field of medical malpractice. Several factors accounts for the weakness of such a model when confronted with the specific evidentiary problems peculiar of medical malpractice, and with the vital need of a quick, impartial and highly technical expert assessment of the facts underlying the claim, whose assesment is not free of substantial costs. It is very unlikely that this conditions will be aptly addressed by a very informal model of mediation, whose costs are entirely shifted on the parties of the procedure, with no assurance as to the professional competence of the experts who will be selected for evaluating the scientific merit of the plaintiff’s claim. Questo paper © Copyright 2011 by Susanna Guerrini è pubblicato con Creative Commons Attribuzione-Non commerciale-Non opere derivate 2.5 Italia License. Maggiori informazioni circa la licenza all’URL: <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/it/
Gaussian Estimates on Networks with Applications to Optimal Control
No full textWe study a class of reaction-diffusion type equations on a finite network with continuity assumptions and a kind of non-local, stationary Kirchhoff’s conditions at the nodes. A multiplicative random Gaussian perturbation acting along the edges is also included. For such a problem we prove Gaussian estimates for the semigroup generated by the evolution operator, hence generalizing similar results previously obtained in [21]. In particular our main goal is to extend known results on Gaussian upper bounds for heat equations on networks with local boundary conditions to those with non-local ones. We conclude showing how our results can be used to apply techniques developed in [13] to solve a class of Stochastic Optimal Control Problems inspired by neurological dynamics
Optimization of the Directivity of a Monopulse Antenna with a Subarray Weighting by an Hybrid Differential Evolution Method
No full textThe optimization of the directivity of the difference patterns in monopulse array antennas is considered. A subarrayconfiguration is used in order to avoid the need for the implementation of two separate feed networks. An hybrid differential evolution method is applied to contemporarily determinate the weights of the subarrays and the group membership of the elements. Some numerical results are provided together with a validation comparison with data previously published in the literature. 2006 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works
On the Synthesis of Sub-arrayed Planar Array Antennas for Tracking Radar Applications
No full textThe synthesis of compromise sum and difference patterns of large planar arrays is addressed in this letter by means of a suitable implementation of the Contiguous Partition Method (CPM). By exploiting some properties of the solution space, the generation of compromise sum-difference patterns is recast as the searching of the optimal path in a graph that codes the admissible solution space. Some numerical experiments are provided in order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed method. (c) 2008 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works
Optimal sub-arraying of compromise planar arrays through an innovative ACO-weighted procedure
No full textIn this paper, the synthesis of sub-arrayed monopulse planar arrays providing an optimal sum pattern and best compromise difference patterns is addressed by means of an innovative clustering approach based on the Ant Colony Optimizer. Exploiting the similarity properties of optimal and independent sum and difference excitation sets, the problem is reformulated into a combinatorial one where the definition of the sub-array configuration is obtained through the search of a path within a weighted graph. Such a weighting strategy allows one to effectively sample the solution space avoiding bias towards sub-optimal solutions. The sub-array weight coefficients are then determined in an optimal way by exploiting the convexity of the problem at hand by means of a convex programming procedure. Representative results are reported to assess the effectiveness of the weighted global optimization and its advantages over previous implementations. (c) The Electromagnetics Academy - The final version of this article is available at the url of the journal PIER (Progress In Electromagnetics Research): http://www.jpier.org/PIER/pier.php?paper=1009200
Time modulated planar arrays: Analysis and optimization of the sideband radiations
No full textIn this study, the minimisation of the power losses because of undesired sideband radiations in time-modulated planar arrays is dealt with. A closed-form expression for evaluating the total power wasted in the sideband radiations is obtained and exploited to design a new procedure based on a particle swarm optimiser for the synthesis of the pulse sequences devoted to control the array time modulation. A set of representative results is reported and analysed to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach. "This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at IET Digital Library"
Adaptive nulling in time-modulated linear arrays with minimum power losses
No full textThe synthesis of adaptive time-modulated linear arrays is dealt with by means of an innovative strategy, in which a particle swarm optimiser is used to reconfigure the pulse sequence controlling the static element excitations, as well as the least significant bits of digital phase shifters to maximise the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio at the receiver. The reduction of the power content of sideband radiation generated by the periodic on-off commutation of switches is addressed by customising to non-isotropic sources a very effective analytic relationship. A set of selected results is reported and discussed to show the advantages and limitations of the proposed approach. Comparisons with previously published results are also presented. "This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at IET Digital Library: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5697293
Synthesis of Multi-Beam Sub-Arrayed Antennas Through an Excitation Matching Strategy
No full textAn innovative synthesis procedure to design sub-arrayed antennas affording multiple patterns is presented in this paper. The approach is based on an excitation matching procedure aimed at generating one optimal pattern and multiple compromises close as much as possible to user-defined reference beams. A suitable modification of the K-means clustering algorithm integrated into a customized version of the contiguous partition method is used to efficiently sample the solution space looking for the best compromise excitations. A set of representative numerical results is reported to give some indications on the reliability, potentialities, and limitations of the proposed approach. “(c) 2011 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.
Social Media for Social Innovation: towards a multi-layered analytic framework
No full textThis paper proposes some ideas to ground a multi-layered analytic framework for the study of how social media (i.e., a class of specific Internet-based communication tools) can be strategically employed to promote social innovation (i.e., the actual consolidation of norms guiding democratic and participated policy-making processes). We propose to account simultaneously for a) the type of users; b) the type of Internet-enabled communication; c) the different facets of political processes; d) the multi-level nature of contemporary politics