Personality traits and beliefs about peers\u2019 on-road behaviors as predictors of adolescents\u2019 moped-riding profiles.

Several efforts aimed at discriminating between different degrees of on-road risky attitudes have been devoted to the identification of personality profiles among young drivers. However, the results are often inconsistent because of the limits of selfreport measures. To overcome these limits, we tried to identify different profiles based on our study participants\u2019 driving performances in a virtual environment and to look for psychological predictors of inclusion in one of three profiles. One-hundred and fourteen inexperienced adolescents were involved in this study, which included two experimental sessions. During the first, before riding along five virtual courses on a moped simulator, participants\u2019 sensation seeking, locus of control, aggressiveness and beliefs about their peers\u2019 on-road behaviors were measured by means of self-report tools. During the second session, the participants drove the simulator along six courses that were different from those faced in the first session. A cluster analysis was run on a wide number of indexes extracted from the participants\u2019 performances to detect different riding profiles. Three profiles emerged (Imprudent, Prudent and Insecure), with specific riding patterns. The profiles also differed in terms of riding safety, assessed by means of the scores automatically given by the simulator to the participants\u2019 performances. Reporting an external locus of control, underestimating peers\u2019 on-road risky behaviors and showing less concern for fate among the possible causes of crashes are predictors that increase the risk of being included in the Imprudent profile. Low levels of dangerous thrill seeking predict inclusion in the Prudent profile, whereas high rates of self-reported anger play a role in discriminating the Insecure riders from the other profiles. The study indicates that it is possible to identify riding profiles with different degrees of on-road safety among inexperienced adolescents by means of simulated road environments. Moreover, inclusion in these profiles is predicted by different patterns of personality variables and beliefs. Further research is needed to verify the validity of these conclusions in real road conditions

A First Step toward the Understanding of Implicit Learning of Hazard Anticipation in Inexperienced Road Users Through a Moped-Riding Simulator

Hazard perception is considered one of the most important abilities in road safety. Several efforts have been devoted to investigating how it improves with experience and can be trained. Recently, research has focused on the implicit aspects of hazard detection, reaction, and anticipation. In the present study, we attempted to understand how the ability to anticipate hazards develops during training with a moped-riding simulator: the Honda Riding Trainer (HRT). Several studies have already validated the HRT as a tool to enhance adolescents\u2019 hazard perception and riding abilities. In the present study, as an index of hazard anticipation, we used skin conductance response (SCR), which has been demonstrated to be linked to affective/implicit appraisal of risk. We administered to a group of inexperienced road users five road courses two times a week apart. In each course, participants had to deal with eight hazard scenes (except one course that included only seven hazard scenes). Participants had to ride along the HRT courses, facing the potentially hazardous situations, following traffic rules, and trying to avoid accidents. During the task, we measured SCR and monitored driving performance. The main results show that learning to ride the simulator leads to both a reduction in the number of accidents and anticipation of the somatic response related to hazard detection, as proven by the reduction of SCR onset recorded in the second session. The finding that the SCR signaling the impending hazard appears earlier when the already encountered hazard situations are faced anew suggests that training with the simulator acts on the somatic activation associated with the experience of risky situations, improving its effectiveness in detecting hazards in advance so as to avoid accidents. This represents the starting point for future investigations into the process of generalization of learning acquired in new virtual situations and in real-road situations

Architetture rappresentative di un'identita nazionale: San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini, Santa Caterina da Siena dei Senesi e Santa Croce e San Bonaventura dei Lucchesi

La presente tesi di Dottorato, relativa alle chiese di San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini, di Santa Caterina da Siena dei Senesi e di Santa Croce e San Bonaventura dei Lucchesi a Roma, ha preso avvio dalla volontà di offrire una trattazione comparativa sulla tematica delle chiese nazionali. La scelta di studiare le summenzionate architetture religiose trova ragione nell’essere chiese nazionali rappresentative di comunità toscane. Da una verifica preliminare condotta sull’esistente patrimonio bibliografico e archivistico, è emerso come nel periodo compreso tra il 1450 e il 1650 il fenomeno della nascita e della diffusione delle chiese nazionali abbia vissuto nell’Urbe stagioni differenti: prolifica, nel biennio 1518-1520, quando presero avvio le vicende storico-costruttive di San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini (1519) e di Santa Caterina da Siena dei Senesi (1520); ormai compiuta negli anni Trenta del secolo XVII, quando la chiesa di San Bonaventura nel rione Trevi, anticamente dedicata a San Nicola, fu consacrata alla Santa Croce dei Lucchesi (1631). Questo lavoro si pone la duplice finalità di individuare sia le modalità con cui i Fiorentini, i Senesi e i Lucchesi manifestarono e interpretarono, attraverso le loro chiese, la propria identità nazionale sia i possibili elementi di analogia, di specificità e di contaminazione tra i summenzionati edifici cultuali, in modo da fare luce sui motivi e sui criteri che hanno determinato – sempre nell’ottica di una strategia identitaria – precise scelte urbanistiche, architettoniche e artistiche

Sensation seeking, non-contextual decision making, and driving abilities as measured through a moped simulator.

The general aim of the present study was to explore the relations between driving style (assessed through a moped riding simulator) and psychological variables such as sensation seeking and decision making. Because the influences of sensation seeking and decision making on driving styles have been studied separately in the literature, we have tried to investigate their mutual relations so as to include them in a more integrated framework. Participants rode the Honda Riding Trainer (HRT) simulator, filled in the Sensation Seeking Scale V (SSS V), and performed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). A cluster analysis of the HRT riding indexes identified three groups: Prudent, Imprudent, and Insecure riders. First, the results showed that Insecure males seek thrills and adventure less than both Prudent males and Insecure females, whereas Prudent females are less disinhibited than both Prudent males and Insecure females. Moreover, concerning the relations among SSS, decision making as measured by the IGT, and riding performance, high thrill and adventure seekers performed worse in the simulator only if they were also bad decision makers, indicating that these two traits jointly contribute to the quality of riding performance. From an applied perspective, these results also provide useful information for the development of protocols for assessing driving abilities among novice road users. Indeed, the relation between risk proneness and riding style may allow for the identification of road-user populations who require specific training

L'interleuchina 17 e le malattie autoimmuni

L'interleuchina 17 e le malattie autoimmun

How can on-road hazard perception and anticipation be improved? Evidence from the body

The present research is aimed at investigating processes associated with learning how to drive safely. We were particularly interested in implicit mechanisms related to the automatic processing system involved in decision making in risky situations (Slovic et al., 2007). The operation of this system is directly linked to experiential and emotional reactions and can be monitored by measuring psychophysiological variables, such as skin conductance responses (SCRs). We focused specifically on the generalization of previously acquired skills to new and never before encountered road scenarios. To that end, we compared the SCRs of two groups of participants engaged, respectively, in two distinctive modes of moped-riding training. The active group proceeded actively, via moped, through several simulated courses, whereas the passive group watched video of the courses performed by the former group and identified hazards. Results indicate that the active group not only demonstrated improved performance in the second session, which involved the same simulated courses, but also showed generalization to new scenes in the third session. Moreover, SCRs to risky scenes, although present in both groups, were detectable in a higher proportion in the active group, paralleling the degree of risk confronted as the training progressed. Finally, the anticipatory ability demonstrated previously (and replicated in the present study), which was evident in the repeated performance of a given scenario, did not seem to generalize to the new scenarios confronted in the last session

Fusion beat in patients with heart failure treated with left ventricular pacing: may ECG morphology relate to mechanical synchrony? A pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Electrical fusion between left ventricular pacing and spontaneous right ventricular activation is considered the key to resynchronisation in sinus rhythm patients treated with single-site left ventricular pacing.</p> <p>Aim</p> <p>Use of QRS morphology to optimize device programming in patients with heart failure (HF), sinus rhythm (SR), left bundle branch block (LBBB), treated with single-site left ventricular pacing.</p> <p>Methods and Results</p> <p>We defined the "fusion band" (FB) as the range of AV intervals within which surface ECG showed an intermediate morphology between the native LBBB and the fully paced right bundle branch block patterns.</p> <p>Twenty-four patients were enrolled. Echo-derived parameters were collected in the FB and compared with the basal LBBB condition. Velocity time integral and ejection time did not improve significantly. Diastolic filling time, ejection fraction and myocardial performance index showed a statistically significant improvement in the FB. Interventricular delay and mitral regurgitation progressively and significantly decreased as AV delay shortened in the FB. The tissue Doppler asynchrony index (Ts-SD-12-ejection) showed a non significant decreasing trend in the FB. The indications provided by the tested parameters were mostly concordant in that part of the FB corresponding to the shortest AV intervals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Using ECG criteria based on the FB may constitute an attractive option for a safe, simple and rapid optimization of resynchronization therapy in patients with HF, SR and LBBB.</p