Sustainable cycle-tourism for society: Integrating multi-criteria decision-making and land use approaches for route selection

Cycle tourism is a sustainable active vacation, which is quickly growing in recent years. Although it has several benefits for society and users (e.g., social connections, amusement, and physical and mental health), cycle tourism requires an adequate route network to enjoy destinations with historical and landscape peculiarities. Past literature mainly investigated motivations and preferences for cycle tourists and proposed optimisation methods in planning routes. However, applying assessment methods for prioritising cycle-tourist routes is a seldom-explored topic. This study aims to address this gap by applying an integrated method for evaluating and prioritising cycle routes, searching for a compromise between route characteristics, service provided to users, and natural and building contexts crossed. It jointly includes Multi-Criteria Decision Methods (MCDMs) and a land use approach: AHP determines the weights of criteria and parameters describing cycle routes; GIS elaborates spatial analysis of parameters; ELECTRE I and VIKOR help find a compromise solution amongst different cycle routes. The integrated method involved a panel of experts to collect data, and it is applied to the wide-study area of Franciacorta (Italy). Some comparisons with other MCDMs are made to justify the results. The findings could support multi-institutions prioritising cycle route alternatives in deciding their building

Usefulness of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation in addition to mesalazine in maintaining remission in pediatric Crohn's disease: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study.

AIM: To assess the value of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (FAs) supplementation in addition to amino-salicylic-acid (5-ASA) in pediatric patients with Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS: Thirty-eight patients (20 males and 18 females, mean age 10.13 years, range 5-16 years) with CD in remission were randomized into two groups and treated for 12 mo. Group I (18 patients) received 5-ASA (50 mg/kg/d)+ omega-3 FAs as triglycerides in gastro-resistant capsules, 3 g/d (eicosapentanoic acid, EPA, 400 mg/g, docosahexaenoic acid, DHA, 200 mg/g). Group II (20 patients) received 5-ASA (50 mg/kg/d)+ olive oil placebo capsules. Patients were evaluated for fatty acid incorporation in red blood cell membranes by gas chromatography at baseline 6 and 12 mo after the treatment. RESULTS: The number of patients who relapsed at 1 year was significantly lower in group I than in group II (P < 0.001). Patients in group I had a significant increase in the incorporation of EPA and DHA (P < 0.001) and a decrease in the presence of arachidonic acids. CONCLUSION: Enteric-coated omega-3 FAs in addition to treatment with 5-ASA are effective in maintaining remission of pediatric CD

A comparative cycling path selection for sustainable tourism in Franciacorta. An integrated AHP-ELECTRE method

Cycle tourism is a form of sustainable itinerant tourism expanding in Italy and the rest of the world, with prospects for growth in coming years. Europe and North America have already developed a wide range of cycling infrastructures tied to tourism experiences. Benefits induced are generally recognised: first, it is a sustainable solution that increases local economics while conserving the environment; second, it guarantees advantages on social connections, amusement, and physical and mental health. However, it requires an adequate network to enjoy destinations as historical and landscape peculiarities. Currently, literature provides some methods for planning itineraries dedicated to cycle tourism. Despite that, there is less attention on how evaluating existing or already planned tourist itineraries. This study covers this gap, by applying an integrated method to assess bicycle connections for tourism experiences within municipalities. Since this evaluation may contain many conflicting criteria (e.g., preferences of public administrator, technical and economic viability) and possible alternatives, this study frames the method as a multi-criteria decision-making problem (MCDM). Specifically, at first, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is adopted to calculate weights for each criterium; next, the ELimination Et Choix Traduisant la REalitè (ELECTRE) method is applied to provide a (possible) priority ranking of cycling tourist paths among alternatives, by computing indices of discordance and concordance between pairs of alternatives. The framework is applied to the Franciacorta area (North-East Italy), a national and international tourist relevance territory encompassing 22 municipalities. This study may be useful for public administrators to rationalise and prioritise cycling routes

A new methodology for accidents analysis: The case of the state road 36 in Italy

6noEvery year more than 1.35 million people die for road accidents and several million suffer serious injuries, which force them to live with compromised health conditions. Over the last decades, road safety research has focused on improving modelling techniques. However, due to the lack of expertise and statistical skills, such approaches might not be used by local authorities and road managers for road safety evaluation purposes. This paper proposes an operational methodology to analyze road accidents with the aim of increasing road safety. More specifically, the methodology enables to identify the most critical road segments to prioritize economic resources allocation accordingly. By using the data collected by the Road Police Department of Lombardy Region (in Italy) from 2014 to 2018, this methodology has been successfully applied to State Road 36, which is recognized as one of the busiest roads in Italy with a very high number of accidents occurring every year. The proposed methodology may support public administrations and road managers - involved in the definition and implementation of safety measures - to reduce the number of road accidents identifying and implementing prioritized interventions. Moreover, the methodology is general enough to be applied to each segment of a generic road infrastructure.openopenBorghetti F.; Marchionni G.; De Bianchi M.; Barabino B.; Bonera M.; Caballini C.Borghetti, F.; Marchionni, G.; De Bianchi, M.; Barabino, B.; Bonera, M.; Caballini, C

Exploring Response to Immunotherapy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Using Delta-Radiomics

Delta-radiomics is a branch of radiomics in which features are confronted after time or after introducing an external factor (such as treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy) to extrapolate prognostic data or to monitor a certain condition. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are currently revolutionizing the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); however, there are still many issues in defining the response to therapy. Contrast-enhanced CT scans of 33 NSCLC patients treated with ICIs were analyzed; altogether, 43 lung lesions were considered. The radiomic features of the lung lesions were extracted from CT scans at baseline and at first reassessment, and their variation (delta, 06) was calculated by means of the absolute difference and relative reduction. This variation was related to the final response of each lesion to evaluate the predictive ability of the variation itself. Twenty-seven delta features have been identified that are able to discriminate radiologic response to ICIs with statistically significant accuracy. Furthermore, the variation of nine features significantly correlates with pseudo-progression

The use of ciclosporin in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease: an Italian experience

Aim: To asses the efficacy and safety of ciclosporin in a paediatric population with inflammatory bowel disease. Patients and methods: Twenty-three Italian children treated with ciclosporin were studied retrospectively. The indications for treatment were severe unresponsive colitis, chronic active colitis or severe fistulizing Crohn's disease. The treatment duration, follow-up and causes of drug discontinuation were assessed. Results: Sixteen patients were treated intravenously for a mean time of 10 +/- 7 days (1-24 days) and 19 orally for a mean time of 133 days (17-660 days). The mean follow-up of all patients was 13.2 months. Ciclosporin was totally ineffective, being discontinued for surgery, in nine of 23 patients (39%); it was discontinued for partial response in three patients (13%). During treatment, clinical remission was achieved in eight children (35%) and maintained after drug withdrawal in four (17%). In severe unresponsive colitis, urgent colectomy was avoided in 12 (85%) of 14 patients who tolerated the drug. Side-effects appeared in six of 23 patients (26%), and three (13%) required ciclosporin to be discontinued due to neurotoxicity. Conclusions: Ciclosporin shows disappointing long-term results in the treatment of refractory inflammatory bowel disease, but can play an important role in preventing urgent surgery in unresponsive severe colitis. Severe side-effects can occur

Chronic graft vs. host disease and hypogammaglobulinemia predict a lower immunological response to the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Due to the high mortality rate of COVID-19, the assessment of BNT162b2 SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) efficacy in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients is mandatory

Research on the Stability of a Rabbit Dry Eye Model Induced by Topical Application of the Preservative Benzalkonium Chloride

Dry eye is a common disease worldwide, and animal models are critical for the study of it. At present, there is no research about the stability of the extant animal models, which may have negative implications for previous dry eye studies. In this study, we observed the stability of a rabbit dry eye model induced by the topical benzalkonium chloride (BAC) and determined the valid time of this model.). Decreased levels of mucin-5 subtype AC (MUC5AC), along with histopathological and ultrastructural disorders of the cornea and conjunctiva could be observed in Group BAC-W4 and particularly in Group BAC-W5 until day 21.A stable rabbit dry eye model was induced by topical 0.1% BAC for 5 weeks, and after BAC removal, the signs of dry eye were sustained for 2 weeks (for the mixed type of dry eye) or for at least 3 weeks (for mucin-deficient dry eye)