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This work is a clinical study designed with the aim to assess the effects of a packet containing 500 mg of glucosamine sulfate, 400mg of chondroitin sulfate, 100mg of Vitamin C, 2 mg of manganese, 100 mg of curcumina in some patients affected by primary osteoarthritis (OA). Our research was conducted during eighteen months from 2010 to 2011 in some patients affected by primary osteoarthritis of the knee. The study evaluated 300 patients. 150 patients were enrolled and divided into three subgroups. Most patients enrolled were female (60%), with a mean age of 54 years old and weight about 70kg. We assessed the pain, the joint functions adverse events, the joint noise. We measured the pain according to the VAS scale (from 0 to 10). The VAS score reduction was statistically significant after 12 weeks. The pain related to the joint load, also measured according to the VAS score, showed a significant reduction during the fourth week. Improvements in the rigidity and in some difficulties related to the normal physical activities were observed during the ninth week. It was really important the arrangement of the elements constituting the integrator, because they are responsible for the evident improvement of daily physical activities.

Ranking and comparing items is crucial for collecting information about preferences in many areas, from marketing to politics. The Mallows rank model is among the most successful approaches to analyse rank data, but its computational complexity has limited its use to a particular form based on Kendall distance. We develop new computationally tractable methods for Bayesian inference in Mallows models that work with any right-invariant distance. Our method performs inference on the consensus ranking of the items, also when based on partial rankings, such as top-k items or pairwise comparisons. We prove that items that none of the assessors has ranked do not influence the maximum a posteriori consensus ranking, and can therefore be ignored. When assessors are many or heterogeneous, we propose a mixture model for clustering them in homogeneous subgroups, with cluster-specific consensus rankings. We develop approximate stochastic algorithms that allow a fully probabilistic analysis, leading to coherent quantifications of uncertainties. We make probabilistic predictions on the class membership of assessors based on their ranking of just some items, and predict missing individual preferences, as needed in recommendation systems. We test our approach using several experimental and benchmark datasets.

In the paper a budget detection and allocation proposal aimed at reducing the annual number of road fatalities by 40% in the Italian main road network is reported. Road safety measures are divided into two categories: measures for road infrastructure improvements and measures for the control and the repression of infractions. The cost, expressed as equivalent annual cost, and the effectiveness, expressed in terms of reduction of fatalities (1,1 million ECU per fatal injury) and of casualties (0,025 million ECU per casualty) have been evaluated and compared. The effects due to the interaction between several measures have been assessed too, in order to gain information to be used in the choice of different strategies aimed at improving road safety. The cost of all the road infrastructure improvements and all the measures for the control and the repression of infractions is about 3600 million ECU per year and the reduction of fatal injury is between 49 and 54% (the reduction of casualties is between 41 and 45%). Since several combinations of road infrastructure improvements and measures for the control and the repression of infractions assure the required reduction of fatalities of 40%, a benefit-cost analysis may be carried out to evaluate the optimal combination of road safety measures. The combination with the best benefit-cost ratio is characterised by a cost of 450 million ECU per year, divided into 275 million ECU per year for the road infrastructure improvements and 175 million ECU per year for the control and the repression of the infractions. In this way it could be possible to spend 0,82 million ECU for each life saved, with a ratio benefit-cost equal to 2.

Quaderno n°104 del Dipartimento di Ingegneria dei Trasporti della Facoltà di Ingegneria dell’Università di Napoli, anno 2000