Institute for applied mathematics "Mauro Picone" (IAC)

Focus

Refitting: ship design review after building. An example of application of an optimization algorithm for continuous constrained optimization to naval design

2016
Production of a ship is a very complex task, representing the synthesis of an intense design activity: all the relevant parameters affecting the mission of the ship are considered in this phase. However, some of these parameters are changing in time, i.e. the payload may increase or reduce due to the different market demands: if the variations are not negligible, a review of the project could be economically advantageous after some years, identifying a modification of the hull able to produce an ...

Graphs, diamonds and words Recognizing diamond-free balanced graphs via Dyck words.

2016
Sometimes, under certain circumstances, we know that problems that are in general hard to solve become easy for certain input instances. Of course, we have to be able to recognize such "lucky instances"and therefore we have to be able to characterize their "lucky properties" and exploit the characterization to devise efficient recognition algorithms. In other words we have to be able to answer the following question efficiently: "Is this instance a lucky one"; if the answer is yes then we are ...

Computational multi-scale modeling

2015
One of the greatest challenges in biomedicine is to get a unified view of observations made from the molecular (microscopic) to the cellular (mesoscopic) up to the organism (macroscopic) scale. Towards this goal, multiscale models have been highly instrumental in contexts such as the cardiovascular field, angiogenesis, neurosciences and tumour biology. More recently, such models are becoming an increasingly important resource to address immunological questions as well. Multiscale modelling aims ...

Numerical validation of the conjecture of a subglacial lake at Amundsenisen, Svalbard

2015
The melting of glaciers coming with climate change threatens the heritage of the last glaciation of Europe likely contained in subglacial lakes in Greenland and Svalbard. This aspect urges specialists to focus their studies (theoretical, numerical and on- field) on such fascinating objects. Along this line, beneath Amundsenisen Plateau (Svalbard) the research groups, led by Jacek Jania (Dept. Earth Science, Univ. of Silesia) and Piotr Glowacki (Inst. Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, ...

P53, un numero antitumorale

2014
La proteina p53 è stata identificata nel 1979 da Arnold Levine della Princeton University (USA) e da David Lane, dell'Imperial Cancer Research Fund (Regno Unito), ma solo dopo dieci anni si è scoperta la sua importante funzione di gene soppressore tumorale indicandola una delle più interessanti nell'elaborazione delle terapie anticancro. Si attiva infatti ogni volta che le nostre cellule subiscono un alterazione, fermando la divisione delle cellule e consentendo la riparazione del Dna. Se il ...

L'effetto gregge esiste

2011
I pedoni in gruppo e le folle si comportano come pecore, quando non sanno dove andare, e si possono controllare: una scoperta, a cui ha contribuito l'Iac-Cnr, che con un'opportuna guida 'nascosta' potrebbe consentire di gestire in modo ottimale situazioni quali i flussi dei pellegrini al prossimo Giubileo. L'esperimento è apparso su arXiv In situazioni di confusione, i gruppi umani si comportano esattamente come le greggi: tendono a seguire le persone davanti a loro, in particolare se sembrano ...

Methodologies for a computer aided monitoring of cultural heritage degradation

2003
In order to supply support to Cultural Heritage experts in their work of objective diagnosis of the degradation of historical buildings, in the past decade various specific methodologies were proposed and developed at the IAC. The activities are partially financed by the national project SIINDA and contracts with the Region of Val d'Aosta. In order to overcome traditional investigation protocols, the research is focussed on the optimization of the attainment of environmental information, ...

Extended Boltzmann Kinetic Equation for Turbulent Flows

2003
The prestigious Science magazine reports about ahighly innovative mathematical method which sheds new light into the dynamics of turbulent flows. The method has been developed by a US-italian team, including researchers from the Istituto Applicazioni Calcolo "Mauro Picone", National Research Council, in Rome, Italy. Turbulent processes play an important role in many engineering applications, for example, in the flow of air around cars or aircraft. Even though the basic equations governing the ...

MATHEMATICS MEETS SATELLITES

2002
"Satellites are invading our skies". At a first sight this sentence could represent only a common sense; actually it summarizes a powerful reality that permeates (sometimes in an inquietant way) everyday life of each person and that involves both strongly industrialized countries and those that hope to become such. The main reason is that satellite is the cheapest tool able to "photograph" or "inform" the whole terrestrial globe (including oceans, isolated areas, poles and everything most ...

Optmization of Treasury securities issuances

2002
For a few years the Institute has had a research group in quantitative methods for finance and economics. Most of the group's research activity is, at this time, concentrated on a collaboration with the Italian Ministry for Economic Affairs for the optimization of the management of the Public Debt in Italy, an issue of paramount importance for the Italian society. There are a number of possible fixed income securities issued by the Italian Treasury ("zero coupon", called BOT, and bonds with ...