The impact of brand activism on brand image : the mediating role of perceived brand authenticity and the effect of celebrity and non-celebrity endorsements

Nowadays, consumers expect brands to be more involved in social matters, which has led in recent years to several global brands taking stands on major socio-political issues. Brand Activism is an increasingly popular topic that has become a part of brands’ marketing strategies. Due to the highly controversial nature of social problems, however, there are long-term consequences that need to be evaluated. This study intends to assess the impact that engaging in social activism has on a brand’s image and how authentic consumers perceive brands’ activism efforts to be. First, a pre-survey was used to select in an unbiased way the social cause and celebrity to be represented in the main study. Afterward, a survey was applied in order to expose the respondents to one of the five different stimuli: Male Celebrity Endorsement; Male Non Celebrity Endorsement; Female Celebrity Endorserment; Female Non-Celebrity Endorsemnt; No Endorsement nor Activism. Main findings suggest that Brand Activism positively impacts the Brand Image, and that Perceived Brand Authenticity fully mediates this effect. Furthermore, Celebrity Endorsed Brand Activism has a higher impact on Brand Image than Non-Celebrity Endorsed Brand Activism, while both Endorsement strategies have the same effect on Perceived Brand Authenticity. This study recommends that brands should only take a stand when there is a congruence between the social cause supported and the companies’ values. Further research should investigate other forms of activism and assess whether the same results apply.Atualmente, os consumidores esperam que as marcas estejam envolvidas nas questões sociais, o que levou nos últimos anos a marcas globais posicionarem-se sobre grandes questões sociopolíticas. O Ativismo de Marca é um tópico cada vez mais popular que se tem tornado parte das estratégias de marketing das marcas. Devido à natureza controversa dos problemas sociais, no entanto, há consequências que devem ser avaliadas. Este estudo pretende avaliar o impacto que o ativismo social tem na imagem de marca e quão autênticos os consumidores percecionam os esforços de ativismo. Primeiramente, um pré-questionário foi usado para selecionar de formar imparcial a causa social e celebridade a serem representadas no estudo principal. Em seguida, foi aplicado um questionário para expor os respondentes a um dos diferentes estímulos: Endorsement com Celebridade Masculina; Endorsement com Não-Celebridade Masculina; Endorsement com Celebridade Feminina; Endorsement com Não-Celebridade Feminina; Não Endorsement nem Ativismo. Os resultados sugerem que o Ativismo de Marca impacta positivamente a Imagem de Marca e que a autenticidade de marca percecionada media esse efeito. Além disso, o Ativismo de Marca com endorsement de celebridades tem um impacto maior na Imagem de Marca do que o Ativismo de Marca com endorsement por não-celebridades. Ambas estas estratégias de endorsement têm o mesmo efeito na autenticidade de marca percecionada. Este estudo recomenda que as marcas apenas se posicionem quando houver congruência entre a causa social apoiada e os valores das empresas. Pesquisas futuras devem investigar outras formas de ativismo e avaliar se os mesmos resultados se aplicam

Following Darwin’s footsteps: Evaluating the impact of an activity designed for elementary school students to link historically important evolution key concepts on their understanding of natural selection

While several researchers have suggested that evolution should be explored from the initial years of schooling, little information is available on effective resources to enhance elementary school students’ level of understanding of evolution by natural selection (LUENS). For the present study, we designed, implemented, and evaluated an educational activity planned for fourth graders (9 to 10 years old) to explore concepts and conceptual fields that were historically important for the discovery of natural selection. Observation field notes and students’ productions were used to analyze how the students explored the proposed activity. Additionally, an evaluation framework consisting of a test, the evaluation criteria, and the scoring process was applied in two fourth-grade classes (N = 44) to estimate elementary school students’ LUENS before and after engaging in the activity. Our results show that our activity allowed students to link the key concepts, resulting in a significant increase of their understanding of natural selection. They also reveal that additional activities and minor fine-tuning of the present activity are required to further support students’ learning about the concept of differential reproduction.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Blocos de solo-cimento: uma alternativa sustentável para o reaproveitamento de resíduos sólidos industriais

Objetivou-se, com o presente estudo, analisar potenciais resíduos sólidos industriais que possam ser adicionados a blocos de solo-cimento. Foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica narrativa por meio da base acadêmica Scopus, utilizando-se como critérios de busca palavras-chave ligadas ao tema, como: solo-cimento, materiais de construção, blocos de solo-cimento, tijolos solocimento, propriedades físicas e mecânicas, resíduos sólidos, análise de ciclo de vida e construção civil. Observou-se a versatilidade de resíduos sólidos industriais que podem ser incorporados em blocos de solo-cimento, como resíduos de rochas ornamentais, lodo de estações de tratamento de água, serragem de madeira, fibras de politereftalato de etileno, fibras vegetais de bucha, fibras de cânhamo, cascas de arroz, capim braquiária, cascas de ovos aviários, bagaço de cana-de-açúcar, palha de trigo e cevada, escória de soldagem, areia de fundição, rejeitos de mineração de quartzito, de construção e demolição, tornearia mecânica, grãos de indústria de celulose e coprodutos siderúrgicos. Entre os resíduos incorporados que contribuíram para a melhoria nas propriedades físicas e mecânicas dos blocos de solo-cimento estiveram: grãos da indústria de celulose, casca de arroz, capim braquiária, subprodutos siderúrgicos com blocos de solo-cimento granulado e escória de alto forno. Os resíduos sem resultados satisfatórios foram lodo de estação de tratamento de água, bagaço de cana-de-açúcar e bucha vegetal. Por meio desta pesquisa foi possível verificar que o comportamento dos blocos de solo-cimento é influenciado por diversos fatores em sua fabricação, principalmente no que diz respeito ao tipo e ao percentual de resíduos incorporados. Entretanto, é importante a preocupação com a sua aplicação de modo a não potencializar os impactos ambientais em longo prazo.This study aimed to analyze potential industrial solid waste that can be added to soil-cement blocks. A narrative literature review was conducted in the Scopus academic database, using as the search criteria keywords related to the topic, such as soil-cement, building materials, soil-cement blocks, soil-cement bricks, physical and mechanical properties, solid waste, life cycle analysis, and civil construction. A variety of industrial solid waste that can be incorporated into soil-cement blocks was observed, such as waste rock, sludge from water treatment plants, wood sawdust, polyethylene terephthalate fibers (PET), vegetable fibers from loofah, hemp fibers, rice husks, brachiaria grass, poultry eggshells, sugar cane bagasse, wheat and barley straw, welding slag, foundry sand, waste from quartzite mining, construction, and demolition, mechanical turning, pulp industry grains, and steel mill co-products. Among the investigated wastes, those that improved the physical and mechanical properties of the soil-cement blocks were grains from the cellulose industry, rice husks, Brachiaria grass, steel by-products with granulated soil-cement blocks and blast furnace slag. The waste that produced no satisfactory results was sludge from a water treatment plant, sugarcane bagasse, and vegetable loofah. Through this research, it was possible to verify that the behavior of soil-cement blocks is influenced by several factors in their manufacture, mainly regarding the type and percentage of incorporated waste. However, it is important to be concerned with its application in waste blocks so as not to increase the environmental impacts in the long term

Sinais e sintomas, manifestação clínica e diagnóstico do miocárdio não compactado: uma revisão sistemática

O objetivo desta revisão bibliográfica foi relatar o conhecimento atual sobre o miocárdio não compactado e fornecer uma análise crítica sobre as manifestações e os métodos diagnósticos.   Para o desenvolvimento dessa pesquisa foi elaborada uma questão norteadora:  ‘’Quais são os principais sinais e sintomas da  Não Compactação do Ventrículo Esquerdo (NCVE), bem como quais são os métodos utilizados no diagnóstico e qual recurso terapêutico é utilizado na prática clínica? As buscas foram realizadas na base de dados PubMed Central (PMC) . Foram utilizados 5 descritores em combinação com o termo booleano “AND”: Isolated Noncompaction of the Ventricular Myocardium , Thrombosis, Signs and Symptoms, Pathological Conditions e Cardiomyopathies. Dessa forma, encontrados um total de 32 artigos, e que após a aplicação dos critérios de inclusão e exclusão foram selecionados 9 estudos para compor o estudo. A NCVE é caracterizada por insuficiência cardíaca, arritmias e alto risco de eventos embólicos. A prevalência de fibrilação atrial e taquiarritmias ventriculares é notável. O diagnóstico depende de critérios morfológicos específicos, sendo a ecocardiografia transtorácica e a ressonância magnética cardíaca as ferramentas diagnósticas principais. Há variações na identificação da NCVE entre os critérios ecocardiográficos, sugerindo a necessidade de um consenso diagnóstico mais padronizado. A identificação correta da NCVE é essencial para o manejo apropriado dos pacientes, visando reduzir complicações e melhorar a qualidade de vida

MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL : A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in P ortugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with 26% of all species being includedin the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associatedwith habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mam-mals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion formarine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems func-tionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is cru-cial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS INPORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublishedgeoreferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mam-mals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira thatincludes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occur-ring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live obser-vations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%),bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent lessthan 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrowsjsoil moundsjtunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animaljhairjskullsjjaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8),observation in shelters, (9) photo trappingjvideo, (10) predators dietjpelletsjpine cones/nuts, (11) scatjtrackjditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalizationjecholocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followedby Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496),Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data setincludes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened(e.g.,Oryctolagus cuniculus[n=12,159],Monachus monachus[n=1,512],andLynx pardinus[n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate thepublication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contrib-ute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting onthe development of more accurate and tailored conservation managementstrategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite thisdata paper when the data are used in publications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mammals in Portugal: a data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ~26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n =31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,857), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n = 12,159], Monachus monachus [n = 1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n = 197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications

Rainwater major and trace element contents in Southeastern Brazil: an assessment of a sugar cane region in dry and wet period

The purpose of this study was to assess the composition of the rainwater in Araraquara City, Brazil, a region strongly influenced by pre-harvest burning of sugar cane crops. Chemical and mineralogical variables were measured in rainwater collected during the harvest, dry period of 2009 and the non-harvest, wet period of 2010. Ca2+ and NH4+ were responsible for 55% of cations and NO3- for 45% of anions in rainwater. Al and Fe along with K were the most abundant among trace elements in both soluble and insoluble fractions. High volume weighted mean concentration (VWM) for most of the analyzed species were observed in the harvest, dry period, mainly due to agricultural activities and meteorological conditions. The chemistry of the Araraquara rainwater and principal component analysis (PCA) quantification clearly indicate the concurrence of a diversity of sources from natural to anthropogenic especially related to agricultural activities.O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a composição das águas de chuva da cidade de Araraquara, Brasil, uma região influenciada pela queima da palha da cana-de-açúcar. Variáveis químicas e mineralógicas foram analisadas em águas de chuva coletadas durante o período de safra, período seco de 2009 e entressafra, período úmido de 2010. Ca2+ e NH4+ foram responsáveis por 55% dos cátions e NO3- por 45% dos ânions presentes nas águas de chuva. Al, Fe e K foram os elementos traço mais abundantes nas frações solúvel e insolúvel. Elevada concentração média ponderada pelo volume (MPV) foi observada para a maioria das espécies analisadas em amostras do período de safra, principalmente devido às atividades agrícolas e condições meteorológicas. A química das águas de chuva de Araraquara e a análise de componentes principais (ACP) indicaram que fontes naturais e antrópicas, principalmente as relacionadas às atividades agrícolas, são responsáveis pelas emissões para a atmosfera.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Atmospheric pollutants in São Paulo state, Brazil and effects on human health – a review

Human exposure to atmospheric pollutants has been investigated in Brazil in relation to the air quality national standards. Air pollution originates from many different sources, such as industries, vehicles and even windblown dust and biomass burning. São Paulo State is an important industrial and agricultural center located in Southeastern Brazil. In São Paulo city and metropolitan area, vehicular traffic contributes to up to 89% of the pollution, being that some gases, such as sulfur dioxide (SO2 ) and nitrogen oxides (NOx ) play an important role in particulate formation. Periodical cane straw burning in the countryside is also responsible for emissions of particulate matter (PM) and gaseous compounds. Some pollutants at least double their concentrations during burning seasons, contributing up to 60% of fine inhaled particulate matter (PM2.5). According to the Technology and Environmental Company of São Paulo (CETESB) data, as well as other data from an academy and hospitals, the levels of air pollutants are increasingly affecting the population of São Paulo State in both urban and rural areas.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP