A multiple inflated negative binomial hurdle regression model: analysis of the Italians' tourism behaviour during the Great Recession

We analyse tourism behaviour of Italian residents in the period covering the 2008 Great Recession. Using the Trips of Italian Residents in Italy and Abroad quarterly survey, carried out by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, we investigate whether and how the economic recession has affected the total number of overnight stays. The response variable is the result of a two-stage decision process: first we choose to take a holiday, then for how long. Moreover, since the number of overnight stays is typically concentrated on specific lengths (week-end, week, fortnight) we observe multiple peculiar spikes in its distribution. To take into account these two distinctive characteristics, we generalise the usual hurdle regression model by specifying a multiple inflated truncated negative binomial distribution for the positive responses. Results show that the economic recession impacted negatively on both components of the decision process and that, by controlling for the inflated nature of the response variable's distribution, the proposed formulation provides a better representation of the Italians' tourism behaviour in comparison with non-inflated hurdle models. Given this, we believe that our model can be a useful tool for policy makers who are trying to forecast the effects of new targeted policies to support tourism economy

Retrofit of Existing Reinforced Concrete (RC) Buildings: Steel vs. RC Exoskeletons

The existing building stock is largely made up of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, constructed between the post-World War II period and 1981, and mostly consists of buildings constructed very quickly to meet the great housing demand of this period, and buildings that do not adhere to anti-seismic and energy regulations. Today, after more than fifty years, these buildings have reached the end of their useful life cycle and their maintenance is not sustainable, presenting a series of structural, energy and architectural problems and criticalities. The myriad of possible retrofit interventions currently available for these RC structures drastically reduces when the main requirement for interventions is to avoid operational interruptions to buildings. In this case, an additive structure, operating exclusively from the outside as an exoskeleton, is typically used for achieving appropriate retrofit. In this paper, two solutions are proposed and addressed for the retrofit of an existing RC building in Italy, one through the application of a steel exoskeleton and the other through the application of an RC exoskeleton system. A set of push-over (PO) analyses is carried out to define the performance point of both the original and combined systems. The comparative results of these solutions are then discussed

The management of non-culprit coronary lesions in patients with acute coronary syndrome

About 50% of patients diagnosed with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction have multivessel disease on coronary angiography. Recent evidence has shown that a staged percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) strategy of non-culprit lesions, achieving complete revascularization, significantly reduces the rate of recurrent cardiovascular events compared with a PCI strategy limited to culprit lesion. Although functional evaluation of intermediate coronary stenoses by functional flow reserve (FFR) or instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) is widely used to detect residual myocardial ischaemia, the reliability of the study of non-culprit lesions in the acute phase of heart attack is controversial. On the other hand, the excess of new events in patients with acute coronary syndrome in whom PCI was deferred on the basis of FFR/iFR compared to patients with stable CAD could be due to both an inadequate functional evaluation and an intrinsic higher risk, related to the presence of untreated vulnerable plaques. In this context, intra-coronary imaging has shown that the presence of vulnerability features in non-culprit plaques is associated with an increased rate of ischaemic recurrence

INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL AND THE UNIVERSITY THIRD MISSION: AN EVALUATION FRAMEWORK

The purpose of this work is to understand the new role of universities in the development of the knowledge economy via an intellectual capital perspective. Indeed, from being entities for knowledge creation and dissemination, universities are now asked to play an increasingly entrepreneurial role, involving networking and collaboration, as well as sustainability and social engagement. This consideration is in line with the 4th stage intellectual capital perspective, which focuses on knowledge creation with an ecosystem focus. The work is based on the following steps: first a literature review on the new role of universities and on the Third Mission approach; then, an analysis of the evaluation of Third Mission activities, by including several international ranking systems and research projects; finally, an analysis on the exploitation of IC as an assessment tool. Despite the academic and institutional efforts, there is little agreement on a set of indicators to evaluate quality in Third Missions activities. Several models have been implemented in order to identify IC in universities, but they need further applications and evaluations. Through this methodology, we will try to systematise the theoretical contributions, which are currently fragmented and lack a systemic vision

development and testing of a platform aimed at pervasive monitoring of indoor environment and building energy

Abstract The interest of the building energy sector is leaning towards the measurement of building actual performance, as regards both indoor environment quality and energy consumption. Sensors and central elaboration units aimed at monitoring indoor environment and HVAC system parameters can also provide the basic infrastructure for further applications such as predictive and neuro-fuzzy controls. However, the cost of such systems is high, so they are mainly used in large buildings. This paper describes the main features and expected applications for a low-budget monitoring platform currently under development and tuning. In particular, the monitoring system was developed based on electronic prototyping platform Arduino and on sensors and devices usually available in the retail market of electronics. The monitoring platform has been designed with the following characteristics in mind: replicability, full remote control, portability, versatility, reliability and affordability

Ambient vibration testing and structural identification of a cable-stayed bridge

This paper presents the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation on the Pietratagliata cable-stayed bridge (Udine, Italy). Ambient vibration tests were performed in order to estimate the dynamic characteristics of the lower vibration modes of the bridge. Structural identification is carried out by means of a manual tuning procedure based on finite element models of increasingly accuracy. The analysis allows to improve the description of boundary conditions and mechanical interaction between the bridge components. Results from local dynamic testing are used to estimate the traction on the cables and to assess the integrity of the suspending system of the bridge

Organogel Coupled with Microstructured Electrospun Polymeric Nonwovens for the Effective Cleaning of Sensitive Surfaces

Hydrogels and organogels are widely used as cleaning materials, especially when a controlled solvent release is necessary to prevent substrate damage. This situation is often encountered in the personal care and electronic components fields and represents a challenge in restoration, where the removal of a thin layer of aged varnish from a painting may compromise the integrity of the painting itself. There is an urgent need for new and effective cleaning materials capable of controlling and limiting the use of solvents, achieving at the same time high cleaning efficacy. In this paper, new sandwich-like composites that fully address these requirements are developed by using an organogel (poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) + \u3b3-valerolactone) in the core and two external layers of electrospun nonwovens made of continuous submicrometric fibers produced by electrospinning (either poly(vinyl alcohol) or polyamide 6,6). The new composite materials exhibit an extremely efficient cleaning action that results in the complete elimination of the varnish layer with a minimal amount of solvent adsorbed by the painting layer after the treatment. This demonstrates that the combined materials exert a superficial action that is of utmost importance to safeguard the painting. Moreover, we found that the electrospun nonwoven layers act as mechanically reinforcement components, greatly improving the bending resistance of organogels and their handling. The characterization of these innovative cleaning materials allowed us to propose a mechanism to explain their action: electrospun fibers play the leading role by slowing down the diffusion of the solvent and by conferring to the entire composite a microstructured rough superficial morphology, enabling to achieve outstanding cleaning performance