7,668 research outputs found
Pedestrian behaviour in urban area
The pedestrian behavior is influenced by several factors, including: characteristics of the user, numerousness of group, road infrastructures and environmental factors. These factors were studied by means the collection of data carried out in the city of Oristano (Sardinia-Italy) on eleven sidewalks and five crosswalks. The objective was to study the pedestrians behavior, researching the link between independent variables and the dependent variables that, for sidewalks was only the pedestrian speed while for crosswalks were the speed of crossing, the crossing time, the waiting time and the total time. The regression models were constructed by using ten sidewalks and four crosswalks so ignoring one for each. In the construction, were considered more variables that gradually were excluded on the basis of the p-value. The models thus detected were deemed significant according to their coefficient of determination and were validated with data from the sidewalk or crosswalk excluded from the construction of the same.
Both for sidewalks that crosswalks were found some reliable models. The models construction is useful to improve the understanding of the pedestrians behavior and then obtain useful indications to design pedestrian infrastructures with characteristics closer to the real pedestrians behavior.
The present study aims to give greater importance to pedestrians, analyzing how they relate with the urban context in which they live and how it conditions their behavior, so as to design infrastructure in which they feel an integral part and main actors of the urban scene, giving them the respect they deserve and a new sense of belonging to the city in which they live
Dependencies and Simultaneity in Membrane Systems
Membrane system computations proceed in a synchronous fashion: at each step
all the applicable rules are actually applied. Hence each step depends on the
previous one. This coarse view can be refined by looking at the dependencies
among rule occurrences, by recording, for an object, which was the a rule that
produced it and subsequently (in a later step), which was the a rule that
consumed it. In this paper we propose a way to look also at the other main
ingredient in membrane system computations, namely the simultaneity in the rule
applications. This is achieved using zero-safe nets that allows to synchronize
transitions, i.e., rule occurrences. Zero-safe nets can be unfolded into
occurrence nets in a classical way, and to this unfolding an event structure
can be associated. The capability of capturing simultaneity of zero-safe nets
is transferred on the level of event structure by adding a way to express which
events occur simultaneously
Leave-one-out prediction error of systolic arterial pressure time series under paced breathing
In this paper we show that different physiological states and pathological
conditions may be characterized in terms of predictability of time series
signals from the underlying biological system. In particular we consider
systolic arterial pressure time series from healthy subjects and Chronic Heart
Failure patients, undergoing paced respiration. We model time series by the
regularized least squares approach and quantify predictability by the
leave-one-out error. We find that the entrainment mechanism connected to paced
breath, that renders the arterial blood pressure signal more regular, thus more
predictable, is less effective in patients, and this effect correlates with the
seriousness of the heart failure. The leave-one-out error separates controls
from patients and, when all orders of nonlinearity are taken into account,
alive patients from patients for which cardiac death occurred
Studentâs Co-Creation Behavior in a Business and Economic Bachelorâs Degree in Italy: Influence of Perceived Service Quality, Institutional Image, and Loyalty
Universities play a significant role in the economic development of society as they pro- vide knowledge and skills that are essential for social sustainability. In recent years, universities shifted their focus towards student-centered education and need to reconsider their sustainable strategies to become more competitive by encouraging student co-creation behaviors. To create a unique experience, universities aim to involve students in creating and delivering their educational experiences. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the perceived quality of educational service and the institutional image of a university influence studentsâ value co-creation behavior, and the role of loyalty in this process. The study is based on two complementary studies conducted in an Italian public university. The first study involved 720 undergraduate students with one business management bachelorâs degree who completed a questionnaire to collect primary data. The second study used six focus groups to identify which specific studentsâ experiences and university activities stimulated co-creation behaviors. The results show that student loyalty plays an important mediating role between university image, studentsâ quality perception, and co-creation behavior. Additionally, only three dimensions of quality, namely quality non-academy aspects, quality reputation, and quality access have an impact on studentsâ loyalty. Therefore, only two dimensions of brand image, university brand knowledge (UK), and university brand prestige (UPR) have a direct effect on value co-creation behavior. These findings have important implications for higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop managerial strategies that increase studentsâ co-creation behavior. The co-creation process should be considered as part of HEIsâ image-building and quality policy-enhancing strategy. Despite the value co-creation approach being overlooked in studies on HEIs governance, this study highlights its potential as a strategic approach for improving service quality and university image
Romanesque and territory. The construction materials of Sardinian medieval churches: new approaches to the valorization, conservation and restoration
This paper is intended to illustrate a multidisciplinary research project devoted to the study of the constructive materials of the Romanesque churches in Sardinia during the âGiudicatiâ period (11th -13th centuries). The project focuses on the relationship between a selection of monuments and their territory, both from a historical-architectural perspective and from a more modern perspective addressing future restoration works. The methodologies of the traditional art-historical research (study of bibliographic, epigraphic and archival sources, formal reading of artifacts) are flanked by new technologies: digital surveys executed with a 3D laser-scanner, analyses of the materials (stones, mortars, bricks) with different instrumental methods: X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for chemical composition, X-ray diffractometer (XRD) to determine the alteration phases (e.g., soluble salts), optical microscopy and electronic (SEM) to study textures, mineral assemblages and microstructures, termogravimetric/differential scanning, calorimetric analysis (TG/DTA) for the composition of the binder mortars.
This multidisciplinary approach allows the achieving of important results in an archaeometric context: 1) from a historical point of view, with the possible identification of ancient traffics, trade routes, sources of raw materials, construction phases, wall textures; 2) from a conservative point of view, by studying chemical and physical weathering processes of stone materials compatible for replacement in case of future restoration works.
Sardinian Romanesque architectural heritage is particularly remarkable: about 200 churches of different types and sizes, with the almost exclusive use of cut stones. Bi- or poly-chromy, deriving from the use of different building materials, characterizes many of these monuments, becoming also a vehicle for political and cultural meanings. The paper will present some case studies aimed to illustrate the progress of the project and the results achieved
WS15.2 Derivation of normal and cystic fibrosis human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from airway epithelium
Controlling the Er content of porous silicon using the doping current intensity
The results of an investigation on the Er doping of porous silicon are presented. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, optical reflectivity, and spatially resolved energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) coupled to scanning electron microscopy measurements were used to investigate on the transient during the first stages of constant current Er doping. Depending on the applied current intensity, the voltage transient displays two very different behaviors, signature of two different chemical processes. The measurements show that, for equal transferred charge and identical porous silicon (PSi) layers, the applied current intensity also influences the final Er content. An interpretative model is proposed in order to describe the two distinct chemical processes. The results can be useful for a better control over the doping process
Hemothorax caused by rupture of a primitive thoracic leiomyosarcoma of the thoracic aorta: Description of a case and literature review
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Investigation on Self-Admitted Technical Debt in Open-Source Blockchain Projects
Technical debt refers to decisions made during the design and development of software that postpone the resolution of technical problems or the enhancement of the software's features to a later date. If not properly managed, technical debt can put long-term software quality and maintainability at risk. Self-admitted technical debt is defined as the addition of specific comments to source code as a result of conscious and deliberate decisions to accumulate technical debt. In this paper, we will look at the presence of self-admitted technical debt in open-source blockchain projects, which are characterized by the use of a relatively novel technology and the need to generate trust. The self-admitted technical debt was analyzed using NLP techniques for the classification of comments extracted from the source code of ten projects chosen based on capitalization and popularity. The analysis of self-admitted technical debt in blockchain projects was compared with the results of previous non-blockchain open-source project analyses. The findings show that self-admitted design technical debt outnumbers requirement technical debt in blockchain projects. The analysis discovered that some projects had a low percentage of self-admitted technical debt in the comments but a high percentage of source code files with debt. In addition, self-admitted technical debt is on average more prevalent in blockchain projects and more equally distributed than in reference Java projects.If not managed, the relatively high presence of detected technical debt in blockchain projects could represent a threat to the needed trust between the blockchain system and the users. Blockchain projects development teams could benefit from self-admitted technical debt detection for targeted technical debt management
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