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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of the impact hierarchy and the optimization model to determine the optimal intervention strategy for a road link composed of multiple objects. The paper focusses on the results of a case study of intervention project on A20 road link in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The study was a case study research. It describes briefly the impact hierarchy and its link to the optimization model, and then focussed on analyzing the results obtained from running the model. In order to understand the influence of various factors affecting the results of optimization, sensitivity analysis was performed.

The proposed hierarchy is suitable to be used to support the determination of optimal intervention strategies (OISs) for public road. From the case study, it was also realized that optimal intervention strategy can be changed due to not only intervention costs incurred by the owner, but also due to the setup of traffic configuration during the execution of interventions since the impacts incurred to users, directly affected public, and indirectly affected public are significantly different from one traffic configuration to the others. The optimal intervention strategy also depends greatly on the factors of deterioration during the operation of the infrastructure objects.

In the impact hierarchy, some impact factors are difficult to be quantified, e.g., the long-term economic impacts on the region where having intervention projects. The use of only exponential function for impacts could be oversimplified the actual behavior of the impacts. Other functional form should be investigated to be used within the framework of the optimization model.

The proposed hierarchy and the optimization model could be used in practical situation for determination of OISs for multiple objects within a road link.

This paper contributes to the body of knowledge of stakeholder analysis in the field of infrastructure asset management. It also gives a guideline and tool for infrastructure administrators to select the OISs for their infrastructure network.

This paper aims to investigate the link between accounting, religion and art to understand the managerial approach of the Confraternity of Corpus Domini of Urbino and the phenomenon of art commissioning between 1465 and 1513.

This study is based on the interpretive historical method used to understand, through accounting, the managerial role of confraternities within the economic activity of art commissioning. To this purpose, the present analysis is based on a primary source, represented by the book of revenues and expenses, named B1 (1465–1513).

The analysis has provided evidence of the role of Urbino’s Confraternity in supporting art commissioning and its capacity to invest significant resources in favor of the social, religious and institutional environment of the time. Results show the connection between Urbino’s Confraternity and painters based on their commissioning agreements, the relation between painters and the Ducal Court and, finally, the role of the Duke of Urbino in funding the Confraternity’s initiatives for painters. Thus, this study highlights the major role played by Urbino’s Confraternity in art commissioning, an instrumental part of the Confraternity’s mission.

This paper presents a unique case study that brings out the managerial approach in art commissioning through accounting documents which make activities and links visible.

The founders of modern economic thought in Italy are Francesco Ferrara (1810–1900), Luigi Cossa (1831–1896) and Angelo Messedaglia (1820–1901).

The paper is aimed at assessing the safety of the Giotto's Bell Tower, with special attention to its foundation system, i.e. the foundation works and soil. The tower, well known all over the world, has a squared plan, with sides of 14.45 m each, and a total height equal to 84.7 m. The structural response of the tower is assessed with reference to the gravitational load and to the expected seismic action, quantified according to the seismic hazard of the site and the foundation soil.

A simplified analysis has been performed to check the safety level of the tower to seismic actions. Special attention has been paid to quantify the horizontal actions representing the seismic loads. Such quantification, indeed, has been made both through the elastic spectrum of the tower and by performing a site response analysis on the foundation soil, represented as a one-dimensional stratification of soil layers, described on the basis of experimental investigations. After defining the loading actions, a simplified assessment of the foundation safety has been made by considering the action over foundation, the geotechnical data and the safety factor.

The findings of the paper concern the assessment of the safety of the tower's foundation system. A lot of experimental data on the foundation soil, provided by various geological investigations, have been provided and used for the assessment. Moreover, the mechanical properties of the materials used for the structure have been collected and shown in the paper.

The paper collects a lot of technical information regarding the Giotto's Bell Tower, both regarding its foundation soil and the constituting materials. On the basis of the collected information, a structural analysis has been made to assess the seismic safety of the tower, and the results of such assessment are provided and discussed.

I have been asked to explore how James Buchanan’s work on public finance and constitutional political economy might have emerged out of themes present in Frank Knight’s oeuvre, especially his Risk Uncertainty, and Profit. Buchanan’s body of work has inspired the development of a style of political economy sometimes described as Virginia or Constitutional Political Economy to distinguish it from the Chicago Political Economy with which George Stigler is associated, and with Stigler and Buchanan both being students of Knight. While Buchanan, unlike Stigler, did not write his dissertation under Knight’s supervision, this is a minor distinction because Buchanan regarded Knight as his de facto supervisor even though Roy Blough was his de jure supervisor. The author explains how Knight’s scholarly oeuvre can in large measure be detected in Buchanan’s effort to fashion an alternative approach to public finance and to articulate the field of study now called constitutional political economy.