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

Green synthesis of bis-(β-dicarbonyl)-methane derivatives and biological evaluation as putative anticandidial agents

In this work the effectiveness of two different reaction media, an Ionic Liquid (IL) and a Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES), as greener, alternative solvents for the synthesis of bioactive bis-(β-dicarbonyl)-methane derivatives is examined. A domino Knoevenagel-Michael reaction between selected aromatic aldehydes and heterocyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds was successfully accomplished, producing the desired compounds in satisfactory yields. The solvents were recycled and reused three times without noticeable decrease in reaction yields. A putative conformation of compound 4g was determined using NMR spectroscopy and an “anti” orientation of the fused aromatic rings was proposed. Moreover, some of the bis-(β-dicarbonyl)-methane derivatives were tested for their antifungal activity against four Candida albicans strains. Biscoumarin 6 and bisquinolinone 4d exhibited promising anticandidial activity. In parallel, in silico ligand-based similarity calculations provided a putative mechanism of action of the examined compounds through CYP51 inhibition