A Novel Architecture of Parking Management for Smart Cities

AbstractParking is becoming an expensive resource in almost any major city in the world. Current technically advanced solutions for parking management are concerned with the application of secured wireless network and sensor communication for parking reservation. Moreover new rules concerning financial transactions in mobile payment allow the definition of new intelligent frameworks that enable a convenient management of public parking in urban area. The paper discusses the conceptual architecture of IPA (Intelligent Parking Assistant) which aims at overcoming current parking management solutions and thereby becoming a leading paradigm for the so called “smart cities”

Exploring the factors affecting bike-sharing demand: evidence from student perceptions, usage patterns and adoption barriers

Abstract Shared mobility is an innovative transportation strategy defined as the shared use of a vehicle, bicycle or other mode which enables users to gain short-term access to transportation modes on an as-needed basis. Bike-sharing systems have rapidly expanded around the world with important implications for urban areas. Considering the benefits regarding cycling and implications deriving from bike-sharing services implementation, this paper presents an in-depth analysis to investigate a variety of determinants, barriers and motivation that can influence the willingness to cycling and join bike-sharing. The study focuses on a specific target group represented by university students and their preferences have been collected through a structured questionnaire in applying the Likert Scale. A statistical analysis has been realized based on a chi-squared test, deriving the difference between expected and observed frequencies for several combinations of the analyzed attributes. First results highlight the differences between the impact of economic, environmental and social factors for students cycling and provide useful suggestion to define the way for a well-thought-out design of a bike-sharing transport service

Spatial distribution and characterization of consumers of E-grocery services in sicily: Insights for sustainable urban logistics

The present research aims to provide new insights into e-commerce patterns. The study investigates the correlations between variables related to demographics, residence and online food and beverage purchasing habits. Data was acquired through the administration of an online questionnaire in 2022. The results helped identify the location of the city most affected by the analyzed phenomenon. The novelty of the research focused on the analyzed area of island type characterized by the strong food and wine traditions and the need to want to analyze what possible effects the growth in demand for e-grocery may have on certain parts of the city. The results laid the foundations for more profound studies on demand for e-grocery relative to an island context. Moreover, the findings make it possible to investigate in subsequent steps different types of correlations between socio-demographic and spatial variables connected to the dislocation of homes and the main poles of attraction for the purchase of physical and virtual food and drink markets

University propensity assessment to car sharing services using mixed survey data: the Italian case study of Enna city

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Cycling traffic at turbo roundabouts: some considerations related to cyclist mobility and safety

Abstract The growing need for sustainable mobility has led the transport policy-makers as well as population to use more of soft mobility solutions such as pedestrian and cycling traffic. Several European countries are implementing policies for total mobility with less motorization in order to reduce the negative environmental effects generated by industries and transport. In the same time new unconventional types of intersections are developed in order to ensure safer conditions not only for motorized traffic but also for pedestrians and cyclist. One of those is turbo roundabout, at-grade two-lane roundabout, introduced also in urban areas where heterogeneous traffic users are expected and on which traffic safety should be considered carefully. This article aims to analyze the safety of cyclists in different traffic conditions at turbo roundabout with and without separated traffic lanes for cyclists. Through the evaluation of level of service and surrogate safety parameters, the advantages and critical aspects linked to turbo roundabout are highlighted. The research will be conducted on theoretical turbo roundabout with substantial variation in traffic flow. Comparison of the results will allow a better understanding of functionality (level of service, traffic safety) of turbo roundabout in the presence of pedestrians and cyclists of different age. The aim of this article is to present possible solutions to enable safer introduction of cycling traffic at turbo-roundabouts and help defining conditions (number of vehicles, number of cyclist, and number of pedestrians) in which safety of cyclist is questionable and there is need for different solution

Comparison of red-light running (RLR) and yellow-light running (YLR) traffic violations in the cities of Enna and Thessaloniki

Abstract This paper investigates the characteristics of Red-Light Running (RLR) and Yellow-Light Running (YLR) traffic violations at three signalized intersections which are located in the city of Enna, Italy, and four signalized intersections which are located in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. The trigger for this particular research is that there are cases in the literature in which the driving styles, as far as compliance with the Highway Code regulations is concerned, change from city to city and from country to country. Two sets of counts were used in the framework of this paper in order to investigate this phenomenon. The first one concerns the year 2018 in Enna and the second one the year 2015 in Thessaloniki. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in order to analyze the collected data and more specifically to investigate the correlation between the violations at signalized intersections in both cities. One of the most important findings of the specific research is that private cars are the responsible for the vast majority of the violations at the signalized intersections. In addition, it was found that traffic lane plays a significant role in the under study traffic violations

Parthenolide induces caspase-independent and AIF-mediated cell death in human osteosarcoma and melanoma cells.

The mechanism of the cytotoxic effect exerted by parthenolide on tumor cells is not clearly defined today. This article shows that parthenolide stimulates in human osteosarcoma MG63 and melanoma SK-MEL-28 cells a mechanism of cell death, which is not prevented by z-VAD-fmk and other caspase inhibitors. In particular treatment with parthenolide rapidly stimulated (1-2 h) reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by inducing activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK 1/2) and NADPH oxidase. This event caused depletion of thiol groups and glutathione, NF-κB inhibition, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, cell detachment from the matrix, and cellular shrinkage. The increase of ROS generation together with the mitochondrial accumulation of Ca(2+) also favored dissipation of Δψm, which seemed primarily determined by permeability transition pore opening, since Δψm loss was partially prevented by the inhibitor cyclosporin A. Staining with Hoechst 33342 revealed in most cells, at 3-5 h of treatment, chromatin condensation, and fragmentation, while only few cells were propidium iodide (PI)-positive. In addition, at this stage apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) translocated to the nucleus and co-localized with areas of condensed chromatin. Prolonging the treatment (5-15 h) ATP content declined while PI-positive cells strongly augmented, denouncing the increase of necrotic effects. All these effects were prevented by N-acetylcysteine, while caspase inhibitors were ineffective. We suggest that AIF exerts a crucial role in parthenolide action. In accordance, down-regulation of AIF markedly inhibited parthenolide effect on the production of cells with apoptotic or necrotic signs. Taken together our results demonstrate that parthenolide causes in the two cell lines a caspase-independent cell death, which is mediated by AIF

Parthenolide induces superoxide anion production by stimulating EGF receptor in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells.

The sesquiterpene lactone parthenolide (PN) has recently attracted considerable attention because of its anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects. However, the mechanism of its cytotoxic action on tumor cells remains scarcely defined. We recently provided evidence that the effect exerted by PN in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells was mediated by the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The present study shows that PN promoted the phosphorylation of EGF receptor (phospho-EGFR) at Tyr1173, an event which was observed already at 1  h of incubation with 25  µM PN and reached a peak at 8-16  h. This effect seemed to be a consequence of ROS production, because N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a powerful ROS scavenger, prevented the increment of phospho-EGFR levels. In addition fluorescence analyses performed using dihydroethidium demonstrated that PN stimulated the production of superoxide anion already at 2-3  h of incubation and the effect further increased prolonging the time of treatment, reaching a peak at 8-16  h. Superoxide anion production was markedly hampered by apocynin, a well known NADPH oxidase (NOX) inhibitor, suggesting that the effect was dependent on NOX activity. The finding that AG1478, an EGFR kinase inhibitor, substantially blocked both EGFR phosphorylation and superoxide anion production strongly suggested that phosphorylation of EGFR can be responsible for the activation of NOX with the consequent production of superoxide anion. Therefore, EGFR phosphorylation can exert a key role in the production of superoxide anion and ROS induced by PN in MDA-MB-231 cells

Parthenolide prevents resistance of MDA-MB231 cells to doxorubicin and mitoxantrone: the role of Nrf2

Triple-negative breast cancer is a group of aggressive cancers with poor prognosis owing to chemoresistance, recurrence and metastasis. New strategies are required that could reduce chemoresistance and increases the effectiveness of chemotherapy. The results presented in this paper, showing that parthenolide (PN) prevents drug resistance in MDA-MB231 cells, represent a contribution to one of these possible strategies. MDA-MB231 cells, the most studied line of TNBC cells, were submitted to selection treatment with mitoxantrone (Mitox) and doxorubicin (DOX). The presence of resistant cells was confirmed through the measurement of the resistance index. Cells submitted to this treatment exhibited a remarkable increment of NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) level, which was accompanied by upregulation of catalase, MnSOD, HSP70, Bcl-2 and P-glycoprotein. Moreover, as a consequence of overexpression of Nrf2 and correlated proteins, drug-treated cells exhibited a much lower ability than parental cells to generate ROS in response to a suitable stimulation. The addition of PN (2.0 μM) to Mitox and DOX, over the total selection time, prevented both the induction of resistance and the overexpression of Nrf2 and correlated proteins, whereas the cells showed a good ability to generate ROS in response to adequate stimulation. To demonstrate that Nrf2 exerted a crucial role in the induction of resistance, the cells were transiently transfected with a specific small interfering RNA for Nrf2. Similarly to the effects induced by PN, downregulation of Nrf2 was accompanied by reductions in the levels of catalase, MnSOD, HSP70 and Bcl-2, prevention of chemoresistance and increased ability to generate ROS under stimulation. In conclusion, our results show that PN inhibited the development of the resistance toward Mitox and DOX, and suggest that these effects were correlated with the prevention of the overexpression of Nrf2 and its target proteins, which occurred in the cells submitted to drug treatment