DESIGN OF A STATED RANKING EXPERIMENT TO STUDY INTERACTIVE FREIGHT BEHAVIOUR: AN APPLICATION TO ROME'S LTZ

City logistics policies require an understanding of several issues (e.g. freight distribution context, preferences and relationship among agents) seldom accounted for in current research. Policies run the risk of producing unsatisfactory results because behavioural and contextual aspects are not considered. The acquisition of relevant data is crucial to test hypothesis and forecast agents' reactions to policy changes. Despite recent methodological advances in modelling interactive behaviour the development of apt survey instruments is still lacking to test innovative policies acceptability. This paper expands and innovate the methodological literature by describing a stated ranking experiment to study freight agent interactive behaviour and discusses the experimental design implemented to incorporate agent-specific priors when efficient design techniques are employed.urban freight distribution, group decision making, agent-specific interaction, stated preference, stated ranking experiments

GABAA receptor modulation by the Antisecretory Factor on cerebellar granule cells

The Antisecretory Factor (AF, Mw 41kD) is an endogenous protein, found in all mammalian tissues. AF acts in vivo by counteracting intestinal hypersecretion and various forms of inflammations. The detailed in vitro AF action on the cellular level is unknown. Using an in vitro neuronal model (granular cells from rat small brain) we studied AF action on ionotropic GABAA receptors. A facilitatory activity, due to increased GABAA receptors expression, was demonstrated on the neuronal plasma membrane in response to AF influence. This effect may result in inhibition of intestinal secretomotor cells

Multiscale analysis of masonry vaults coupling shell elements to 3D-Cauchy continuum

This study adopts an enhanced multiscale approach to investigate the effects of the damaging process on the structural behavior of masonry vaults with regular texture, in view of their safety assessment. The model, recently developed by the authors, links two different structural models at macro and microscale, exploiting the advantages of each formulation. At the macroscopic level a homogeneous Mindlin-Reissner shell is modeled and its constitutive response is derived by the detailed analysis of a three-dimensional (3D) masonry Unit Cell (UC) studied at microlevel. The UC is considered as the assembly of elastic bricks and damage-plastic zerothickness interfaces, representative of both mortar and mortar-unit interaction, thus accounting for the actual geometry, arrangement and constitutive response of each constituent material. A Transformation Field Analysis procedure is used to link the two scales, speeding up the numerical simulations. Structural response of a masonry vault under differential settlements is investigated, determining its load-bearing capacity and the damaging path evolving in the structure up to collapse. The reliability of the results is proved by comparison with outcomes derived by detailed micromechanical analysis, interpreting and arguing similarities and differences. © 2023, Association of American Publishers. All rights reserved

Multiscale Finite Element Modeling Linking Shell Elements to 3D Continuum

The present paper investigates the response of masonry structural elements with periodic texture adopting an advanced multiscale finite element model, coupling different formualations at the two selected scales of analysis. At the macroscopic structural level, a homogeneous thick shell is considered and its constitutive response is derived by the detailed analysis of the masonry repetitive Unit Cell (UC), analyzed at the microlevel in the framework of the three-dimensional (3D) Cauchy continuum. The UC is formed by the assembly of elastic bricks and nonlinear mortar joints, modeled as zero-thickness interfaces. The Transformation Field Analysis procedure is invoked to address the nonlinear homogenization problem of the regular masonry. The performance of the model in reproducing various masonry textures is explored by referring to an experimentally tested pointed vault under different profiles of prescribed differential settlements. The structural behavior of the vault is studied in terms of global load-displacement curves and damaging patterns and the numerical results are compared with those recovered by detailed micromechanical analyses and experimental evidences

A superoxide dismutase biosensor for measuring the antioxidant capacity of blueberry based integrators

The antioxidant capacity of capsules containing blueberry based products which are included among the group of integrators owing to their antioxidant capacity and produced by various films was investigated. The results of the investigation are compared to rank these products in order to their antioxidant capacity. In order to measure antioxidant capacity, our laboratory has recently developed a special electrochemical method based on a superoxide dismutase (SOD) biosensor to determine the superoxide radical. The results obtained by applying the SOD biosensor method to various blueberry based integrators were compared with the results obtained with the spectrophotometric (FRAP) method based on N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylendiamine (DMPD-FeCl3) and with those obtained also using the ORAC fluorimetric (TRAP) method. One of the more interesting aspect of the article is the good agreement it evidences of the results of the three methods for measuring antioxidant capacity. The three methods differ among themselves: an Electron Transfer (ET) method, a Hydrogen Atom Trasnfer Metod (HAT) and an electrochemical based biosensor method of the Morning Superoxide Radical (MSR) type. It is also shown how the antioxidant capacity of the fresh vegetable is in any case always greater then of any food supplement obtained from the same type of vegetable

Hyaluronan Hydrogels: Rheology and Stability in Relation to the Type/Level of Biopolymer Chemical Modification

BDDE (1,4-butanediol-diglycidylether)-crosslinked hyaluronan (HA) hydrogels are widely used for dermo-aesthetic purposes. The rheology and stability of the gels under physiological conditions greatly affect their clinical indications and outcomes. To date, no studies investigating how these features are related to the chemistry of the polymeric network have been reported. Here, four available HA-BDDE hydrogels were studied to determine how and to what extent their rheology and stability with respect to enzymatic hydrolysis relate to the type and degree of HA structural modification.1 H-/13 C-NMR analyses were associated for the quantification of the “true” HA chemical derivatization level, discriminating between HA that was effectively crosslinked by BDDE, and branched HA with BDDE that was anchored on one side. The rheology was measured conventionally and during hydration in a physiological medium. Sensitivity to bovine testicular hyaluronidase was quantified. The correlation between NMR data and gel rheology/stability was evaluated. The study indicated that (1) the gels greatly differed in the amounts of branched, crosslinked, and overall modified HA, with most of the HA being branched; (2) unexpectedly, the conventionally measured rheological properties did not correlate with the chemical data; (3) the gels’ ranking in terms of rheology was greatly affected by hydration; (4) the rheology of the hydrated gels was quantitatively correlated with the amount of crosslinked HA, whereas the correlations with the total HA modification level and with the degree of branched HA were less significant; (5) increasing HA derivatization/crosslinking over 9/3 mol% did not enhance the stability with respect to hyaluronidases. These results broaden our knowledge of these gels and provide valuable information for improving their design and characterization