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With the aim of assess the pollutant load from the Volturno River into the Mediterranean Sea, the amount of some heavy metals (As, Hg, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) was determined in water dissolved phase (DP), suspended particulate matter (SPM) and sediment samples. Total heavy metal concentrations were in the range 0.20–65.67 μg L−1 (mean value of 12.95 μg L−1) for DP, 1.37–601.77 μg L−1 (mean value of 105.39 μg L−1) for SPM and 14.62–157.33 mg kg−1 (mean value of 55.24 mg kg−1) for sediments. The total heavy metals input are evaluated in about 620.39 kg year−1, suggesting that the river could be an important source of heavy metals in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The ecological risk characterisation was assessed based on the National Water Quality Criteria, by comparison with criterion concentration for chronic and acute toxicity (CCC and CMC), and sediment quality guidelines. Hg and Cd showed higher values than CMC and CCC for most water samples. The Index of Geoaccumulation (I geo), Contamination Factor, Contamination degree, Pollution Load Index (PLI) and Potential Ecological Risk Index were evaluated. According to I geo and PLI, the Volturno River was uncontaminated or moderately polluted by heavy metals.

Corporate social responsibility linked to consumer's behavior is a topic increasingly felt during the last years. By administering a questionnaire to consumers, the aim of the present research is to study impacts of responsible initiatives on consumers' purchasing behavior and, besides, possible willingness to pay higher prices for good practice foods. The investigation was conducted through a choice experiment, considering a representative sample of more than 1,660 families, selected on a functional relation to the objectives of the research in the major Italian cities. So the main goal is to explore consumers' preferences linked to business responsible initiatives: Data were analyzed performing a logistic regression analysis and, in order to perform the segmentation of choice, an analysis based on the chi‐squared automatic interaction detector procedure was carried out, using variables explained in the logistic regression. The conclusions are very significant and can be considered also a matter for further discussion.

Purpose: To investigate a therapeutic protocol for erectile dysfunction (ED) based on the combination of low-intensity extracorpo-real shock wave therapy (Li-ESWT), tadalafil, and L-arginine. Materials and Methods: Recruited patients completed the International Index of Erectile Function erectile function domain (IIEF-EF) and the Erection Hardness Score (EHS) questionnaires at baseline and were randomly assigned in two groups: A (treatment group) and B (control group). Men in both groups received six weekly applications of Li-ESWT. Group A was prescribed adjuvant oral therapy with tadalafil 5 mg and L-arginine 2,500 mg. Follow-up visits were scheduled 1, 6, and 12 months after the last Li-ES-WT application. At each follow-up visit, the IIEF-EF and EHS questionnaires were administered again. The main outcome measures were the changes from baseline to every follow-up visit in IIEF-EF and EHS scores. Results: The mean IIEF-EF score in group A was 16.0±4.0, 24.8±3.4, 23.3±4.6, and 21.6±5.5 at baseline, 1, 6, and 12 months of follow-up, respectively, whereas in group B the mean IIEF-EF score was 16.5±4.1, 22.7±4.2, 21.5±4.5, and 19.5±4.9, respectively. We reported an increase in the mean EHS score in group A from 2.07±0.72 at baseline to 3.39±0.59, 3.17±0.67, and 2.98±0.72 at 1, 6, and 12 months, respectively, and in group B from 2.12±0.80 at baseline to 3.07±0.78 and 2.95±0.76 at 1 and 6 months, respec-tively. Conclusions: Adjuvant daily therapy with L-arginine 2,500 mg and tadalafil 5 mg was safe and effective in increasing the efficacy and the duration of benefits of Li-ESWT.

The use of mobile phones while driving is one of the main causes of road accidents and it is a phenomenon in continuous growth. The key aim of this study is to analyse simultaneously knowledge, attitudes, and behavior toward the use of mobile phones while driving in one of the largest and populous metropolitan areas of Italy, Naples. The data acquired from 774 questionnaires - administered to subjects evenly divided by gender and with an average age of 39 years - revealed that 69 % have used their mobile phone while driving at least once in their lifetime. Among those who used the phone, 63.6 % use it to make phone calls while 75.2 % only to answer them; 49.1 % read messages and only 33.3 % write them. It is also notable that 34.1 % do not stop to answer a call and only 10 % do not value the use of headsets while driving as fundamental. The results indicate that cell phone usage while driving is common in the study population, despite many having university-level education and satisfactory risks awareness. The multiple linear regression analysis shows how knowledge is not correlated to the behavior held. On the contrary, attitudes are strongly correlated to knowledge and behavior, meaning that good attitudes bring forth positive behavior. According to the collected data and statistical analysis, it is possible to identify factors that can greatly affect the use of mobile phone while driving and establish targeted prevention programs.

In literature several methods have been proposed for the service quality assessment. A large number of models have been proposed to evaluate Service Quality (Servqual, Normed Quality, Servperf etc.). Starting from the SERVPERF paradigm, in this paper we propose to use Odds Ratio analysis to evaluate Customer Satisfaction. In particular the data has been collected in three-way contingency tables in which the crossed variables are perception evaluations, importance evaluations and dimensions. For each slice we computed the Odds Ratio. Thus a weighted version of log-Odds Ratio Analysis for three-way is proposed and analyzed by the Parafac/Candecomp algorithm. A case study on Patient Satisfaction (PS) survey that was carried out at a Neapolitan government hospital is presented in the last part of the paper in order to show the proposed methods.

Non-symmetric correspondence analysis (NSCA) is a useful technique for analysing a two-way contingency table. Frequently, the predictor variables are more than one; in this paper, we consider two categorical variables as predictor variables and one response variable. Interaction represents the joint effects of predictor variables on the response variable. When interaction is present, the interpretation of the main effects is incomplete or misleading. To separate the main effects and the interaction term, we introduce a method that, starting from the coordinates of multiple NSCA and using a two-way analysis of variance without interaction, allows a better interpretation of the impact of the predictor variable on the response variable. The proposed method has been applied on a well-known three-way contingency table proposed by Bockenholt and Bockenholt in which they cross-classify subjects by person's attitude towards abortion, number of years of education and religion. We analyse the case where the variables education and religion influence a person's attitude towards abortion.

Mercury levels in hair of a general population, 237 adults aged between 35–45, in Naples, Italy, were assessed. The subjects were asked to fill in a questionnaire about age, gender, body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), fish consumption, number, surface and area of dental amalgam fillings. Total mercury (THg) concentrations in human hair ranged from 0.221 to 3.402 μg/g and the mean value for the subjects under study was 0.638 μg/g. Study participants were divided into three groups in accordance with fish consumption and dental amalgam: ANF (amalgam and no fish); NAF (no amalgam but with fish) and AAF (amalgam and fish). Significant differences in THg were found in the three groups (p

Categorical analysis of variance (CATANOVA) is a statistical method designed to analyse variability between treatments of interest to the researcher. There are well-established links between CATANOVA and the τ statistic of Goodman and Kruskal which, for the purpose of the graphical identification of this variation, is partitioned using singular value decomposition for Non-Symmetrical Correspondence Analysis (NSCA) (D’Ambra & Lauro, 1989). The aim of this paper is to show a decomposition of the Between Sum of Squares (BSS), measured both in CATANOVA framework and in the statistic τ, into location, dispersion and higher order components. This decomposition has been developed using Emerson's orthogonal polynomials. Starting from this decomposition, a statistical test and a confidence circle have been calculated for each component and for each modality in which the BSS was decomposed, respectively. A Customer Satisfaction study has been considered to explain the methodology.