Gender differences in willingness to pay to avoid pain and their correlation with risk.

This article presents experimental evidence on forced choices between inferior alternatives. In asking subjects to make trade offs between an experimentally induced cold-pressor pain of different durations and paying money to avoid the administration of pain, we try to shed some light on the questions: (a) are there any gender differences in elicited willingness to pay (WTP) values for pain; (b) when present, is differing WTP across genders better explained by measures of risk-aversion or measures of loss-aversion; and (c) we further investigate whether there are variations in hypothetically elicited WTP values (hypothetical pain and hypothetical money) and WTP values elicited when subjects face real consequences (both real pain and real money). Our results confirmed the hypothesis of significant gender differences in elicited WTP values in both the hypothetical and real groups. We also found some evidence of significant differences due to the treatment. Subjects who experienced the cold-pressor pain only once (hypothetical group) exhibited on average greater WTP compared with subjects who experienced the cold-pressor pain multiple times (real group). Females, however, stated lower WTP in the real treatment while for males the effect was in the opposite direction. Moreover, we found risk attitudes to be significantly associated with WTP while loss-aversion not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental investigation on the compressive strength of cored and molded cement-stabilized rammed earth samples

This research aims to improve the insufficient and inadequate quality control techniques currently available on cement-stabilized rammed earth construction sites. To achieve this goal, the comparison between the compressive strength of cored and molded cylindrical samples have been experimentally investigated. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the additional causes influencing the strength of rammed earth samples, investigations on specimen slenderness, size, shape and capping methods have been also conducted. This study shows that in certain cases the mechanical behavior of concrete and cement-stabilized rammed earth are similar. The obtained results also indicate that the strength of cored specimens is always lower than that of molded specimens. A list of recommendations for the assessment of cement-stabilized rammed earth strength is proposed.     

Correlation of EPS content in activated sludge at different sludge retention times with membrane fouling phenomena

In this study, activated sludge characteristics were studied with regard to membrane fouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for two pilot plants and one full-scale plant treating municipal wastewater. For the full-scale MBR, concentrations of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) bound to sludge flocs were shown to have seasonal variations from as low as 17mgg(-1) dry matter (DM) in summer up to 51mg(gDM)(-1) in winter, which correlated with an increased occurrence of filamentous bacteria in the colder season. Therefore, it was investigated at pilot-scale MBRs with different sludge retention times (SRTs) whether different EPS contents and corresponding sludge properties influence membrane fouling. Activated sludge from the pilot MBR with low SRT (23d) was found to have worse filterability, settleability and dewaterability. Photometric analysis of EPS extracts as well as LC-OCD measurements showed that it contained significantly higher concentrations of floc-bound EPS than sludge at higher SRT (40d) The formation of fouling layers on the membranes, characterised by SEM-EDX as well as photometric analysis of EPS extracts, was more distinct at lower SRT where concentrations of deposited EPS were 40-fold higher for proteins and 5-fold higher for carbohydrates compared with the membrane at higher SRT. Floc-bound EPS and metals were suggested to play a role in the fouling process at the full-scale MBR and this was confirmed by the pilot-scale study. However, despite the different sludge properties, the permeability of membranes was found to be similar.     

Fungi and their secondary metabolites in water-damaged indoors after a major flood event in eastern Croatia

In winter and summer of 2016 and 2017, airborne fungi and house dust were collected in indoors of the village Gunja, which had been flooded, and the control village Gornji Stupnik (Croatia) in order to explore variations of fungal indoor levels, particularly Aspergilli section Nidulantes series Versicolores, as well as fungal metabolites in dust. Levels of airborne Aspergilli (Versicolores) were three times as high in winter and summer in Gunja than in the control village, while dustborne isolates were equally present in both locations. Sequencing of the calmodulin gene region revealed that among Aspergilli (Versicolores), A. jensenii and A. creber were dominant and together with A. puulaauensis, A. tennesseensis and A. venenatus produced sterigmatocystin and 5-methoxysterigmatocystin (HPLC coupled with mass spectrometry); A. amoenus, A. fructus, A. griseoaurantiacus, A. pepii, and A. protuberus produced sterigmatocystin but not 5-methoxysterigmatocystin; A. sydowii did not produce any of these toxins. A total of 75 metabolites related to Penicillium (29), Aspergillus (22), Fusarium (10), Alternaria (5), Stachybotrys (2), and other fungi (7) were detected in dust by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The majority of metabolites including sterigmatocystin and 5-methoxysterigmatocystin exhibited a higher prevalence in winter in Gunja.     

Temporal dynamics of dissolved and particulate organic carbon in the northern Adriatic Sea in relation to the mucilage events

The accumulation of dissolved and particulate organic matter may play an important role in mucilage formation in the northern Adriatic. Distributions of dissolved and particulate organic carbon were therefore investigated during the period June 1999-July 2002, when massive mucilage events occurred: in the summer of 2000 and, to a greater extent, of 2002. The seasonal variations in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were significant, doubling in summer (up to 150 micromol L(-1)) with respect to winter. The particulate organic carbon (POC) variations were also very large, with a less pronounced seasonal pattern compared to DOC, because the POC changes are much more dependent both on river discharges and on phytoplankton blooms. The comparison of the concentrations between the period before (March-May) and after the onset of mucilage events (June-August) showed that DOC, but particularly POC, were higher in the period before the event of 2002, more markedly in the surface waters of low salinity. The POC increased, reaching mean concentrations of up to 36 micromol L(-1) in March 2002 before the outbreak of the massive mucilage formation in June. This suggests that POC may have a more important role in the mucilage formation than DOC. The highest seasonal variations of organic matter concentrations took place in the upper layer of lower salinity, stressing the importance of stratification and pycnoclines for accumulation and aggregation of the organic matter in the northern Adriatic. The POC contribution to the total organic carbon was low in the oligotrophic waters (DOC/POC ratio >15) and increased with the phytoplankton biomass in the productive waters (DOC/POC ratio <10). Particulate organic carbon predominated over the dissolved inside the mucilage aggregate (DOC/POC ratio <1), probably because aggregation processes, in which colloidal organic carbon is involved, are important. The organic carbon within the aggregates reached a concentration of 13.6 mmol L(-1) which was about 100 times more than in the surrounding waters or in the waters when the mucilages were absent. This indicates that distributions of organic carbon in the northern Adriatic can be extremely patchy during mucilage events.     

Active Gas Thrust Bearing With Embedded Digital Valves and Backpressure Sensors

The present article describes a low-cost active aerostatic thrust bearing controlled via an Arduino card and with feedback transducers and valves embedded in it. Efforts were made to design a compact thrust bearing with small overall dimensions, robust behavior, and reduced costs. Two embedded electropneumatic digital valves are controlled with pulse width modulation (PWM) logic and used to modify the thrust bearing supply pressure. The feedback signal for the control comes from two embedded backpressure sensors designed and characterized for this purpose. The test benches required for static and dynamic thrust bearing characterization are described; preliminary experimental tests were carried out in open and closed loop configurations. The closed loop configuration of the system, with a proportional integral (PI) control, shows good behavior and the time needed for the thrust bearing to return to the reference gap value after a force perturbation of 40 N is about 0.1 s.     

TNF-α Blocker Effect of Naringenin-Loaded Sericin Microparticles that Are Potentially Useful in the Treatment of Psoriasis

This study aims to evaluate the effect of combined use of the racemic flavanone Naringenin (NRG) and the protein sericin as TNF-α blockers. Sericin (SMs) and (R/S) NRG-loaded Sericin (SNRGMs) microparticles were prepared by spray-drying, characterized in terms of morphology and particle size distribution, and encapsulation efficiency was determined. Concerning morphology and particle size distribution of microparticles, results indicated that they were not affected by the presence of NRG. The encapsulation efficiency was almost quantitative (93%), thus proving that sericin can be advantageously loaded with (R/S) NRG. Biological evaluation of (R/S) NRG, SMs and SNRGMs was then performed in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMC). SNRGMs resulted cytotoxic at the higher dose used (200 μg/mL) and the effect was greater than (R/S) NRG alone. Moreover, even if sericin alone was not effective in suppressing LPS-induced serum TNF-α levels, SNRGMs loaded with 9.3% of (R/S) NRG were significantly more potent than (R/S) NRG alone. In summary, this study provides the proof of concept that sericin-based microspheres loaded with TNF-α-blockers could contribute to the down regulation of the cytokine and represents the starting point for the development of new topical formulations for the treatment of middle-stage psoriasis.     

Rheological behaviour of some amphiphilic β‐cyclodextrin‐based azo aromatic polyurethanes in N,N‐dimethylformamide solutions

Amphiphilic β‐cyclodextrin‐based azo aromatic poly(ether urethane)s with different soft segment lengths have been synthesized and characterized. Hydrogen bonding in these systems was demonstrated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis (carbonyl stretching region). A rheological study was performed on solutions of the synthesized poly(ether urethane)s in N,N‐dimethylformamide at various concentrations and temperatures by employing parallel plate geometry, and a comparative evaluation of the influence of the structural components on the viscometric responses was performed. The rheological behaviour was found to be strongly dependent on the chemical composition of the synthesized polyurethanes which promotes self‐assembly and structuring in solution. Hard segment content and polymer concentration influence pseudoplastic shear‐thinning flow behaviour. The rheology can be interpreted in terms of hydrophobic associations and chain entanglements and a hydrogen bonding network occurring in solution. The start‐up flow of the polymer solutions is determined by the lifetime of the associative polymer segments. Shear stress plateaux indicative of ‘shear banding’ behaviour explained by the structuring of the polymer solutions at increased temperatures were obtained. The studied amphiphilic polyurethane solutions are thermoresponsive systems exhibiting viscosity increase with increasing temperature contrary to the usual Arrhenius thermo‐thinning behaviour. At constant shear rate viscosity was found to increase with increasing temperature due to thermo‐association. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry