The emergence of circular economy: a new framing around prolonging resource productivity

In this article we use Hirsch and Levin’s (1999) notion of ‘umbrella concepts’ as an analytical lens, in order to articulate the valuable catalytic function the circular economy concept could perform in the waste and resource management debate. We realize this goal by anchoring the circular economy concept in this broader debate through a narrative approach. This leads to the insight that while the various resource strategies grouped under circular economy’s banner are not new individually, the concept offers a new framing of these strategies by drawing attention to their capacity of prolonging resource use as well as to the relationship between these strategies. As such, circular economy offers a new perspective on waste and resource management and provides a new cognitive unit and discursive space for debate. We conclude by discussing research opportunities for the IE community relating to the concept’s theoretical development and its implementation. Specifically, we pose that reinvigorating and growing the social science aspects of IE is required for both. After all, it is the wide adoption and collective implementation of an idea that shapes our material future

Mens rea and defences in European criminal law

A commercial edition of this dissertation will be published by Intersentia under ISBN 978-1-78068-104-7 SCHOOL OF HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH SERIES, Volume 5

Building Embodied Conversational Agents:Observations on human nonverbal behaviour as a resource for the development of artificial characters

"Wow this is so cool!" This is what I most probably yelled, back in the 90s, when my first computer program on our MSX computer turned out to do exactly what I wanted it to do. The program contained the following instruction: COLOR 10(1.1) After hitting enter, it would change the screen color from light blue to dark yellow. A few years after that experience, Microsoft Windows was introduced. Windows came with an intuitive graphical user interface that was designed to allow all people, so also those who would not consider themselves to be experienced computer addicts, to interact with the computer. This was a major step forward in human-computer interaction, as from that point forward no complex programming skills were required anymore to perform such actions as adapting the screen color. Changing the background was just a matter of pointing the mouse to the desired color on a color palette. "Wow this is so cool!". This is what I shouted, again, 20 years later. This time my new smartphone successfully skipped to the next song on Spotify because I literally told my smartphone, with my voice, to do so. Being able to operate your smartphone with natural language through voice-control can be extremely handy, for instance when listening to music while showering. Again, the option to handle a computer with voice instructions turned out to be a significant optimization in human-computer interaction. From now on, computers could be instructed without the use of a screen, mouse or keyboard, and instead could operate successfully simply by telling the machine what to do. In other words, I have personally witnessed how, within only a few decades, the way people interact with computers has changed drastically, starting as a rather technical and abstract enterprise to becoming something that was both natural and intuitive, and did not require any advanced computer background. Accordingly, while computers used to be machines that could only be operated by technically-oriented individuals, they had gradually changed into devices that are part of many people’s household, just as much as a television, a vacuum cleaner or a microwave oven. The introduction of voice control is a significant feature of the newer generation of interfaces in the sense that these have become more "antropomorphic" and try to mimic the way people interact in daily life, where indeed the voice is a universally used device that humans exploit in their exchanges with others. The question then arises whether it would be possible to go even one step further, where people, like in science-fiction movies, interact with avatars or humanoid robots, whereby users can have a proper conversation with a computer-simulated human that is indistinguishable from a real human. An interaction with a human-like representation of a computer that behaves, talks and reacts like a real person would imply that the computer is able to not only produce and understand messages transmitted auditorily through the voice, but also could rely on the perception and generation of different forms of body language, such as facial expressions, gestures or body posture. At the time of writing, developments of this next step in human-computer interaction are in full swing, but the type of such interactions is still rather constrained when compared to the way humans have their exchanges with other humans. It is interesting to reflect on how such future humanmachine interactions may look like. When we consider other products that have been created in history, it sometimes is striking to see that some of these have been inspired by things that can be observed in our environment, yet at the same do not have to be exact copies of those phenomena. For instance, an airplane has wings just as birds, yet the wings of an airplane do not make those typical movements a bird would produce to fly. Moreover, an airplane has wheels, whereas a bird has legs. At the same time, an airplane has made it possible for a humans to cover long distances in a fast and smooth manner in a way that was unthinkable before it was invented. The example of the airplane shows how new technologies can have "unnatural" properties, but can nonetheless be very beneficial and impactful for human beings. This dissertation centers on this practical question of how virtual humans can be programmed to act more human-like. The four studies presented in this dissertation all have the equivalent underlying question of how parts of human behavior can be captured, such that computers can use it to become more human-like. Each study differs in method, perspective and specific questions, but they are all aimed to gain insights and directions that would help further push the computer developments of human-like behavior and investigate (the simulation of) human conversational behavior. The rest of this introductory chapter gives a general overview of virtual humans (also known as embodied conversational agents), their potential uses and the engineering challenges, followed by an overview of the four studies

Building Embodied Conversational Agents:Observations on human nonverbal behaviour as a resource for the development of artificial characters

"Wow this is so cool!" This is what I most probably yelled, back in the 90s, when my first computer program on our MSX computer turned out to do exactly what I wanted it to do. The program contained the following instruction: COLOR 10(1.1) After hitting enter, it would change the screen color from light blue to dark yellow. A few years after that experience, Microsoft Windows was introduced. Windows came with an intuitive graphical user interface that was designed to allow all people, so also those who would not consider themselves to be experienced computer addicts, to interact with the computer. This was a major step forward in human-computer interaction, as from that point forward no complex programming skills were required anymore to perform such actions as adapting the screen color. Changing the background was just a matter of pointing the mouse to the desired color on a color palette. "Wow this is so cool!". This is what I shouted, again, 20 years later. This time my new smartphone successfully skipped to the next song on Spotify because I literally told my smartphone, with my voice, to do so. Being able to operate your smartphone with natural language through voice-control can be extremely handy, for instance when listening to music while showering. Again, the option to handle a computer with voice instructions turned out to be a significant optimization in human-computer interaction. From now on, computers could be instructed without the use of a screen, mouse or keyboard, and instead could operate successfully simply by telling the machine what to do. In other words, I have personally witnessed how, within only a few decades, the way people interact with computers has changed drastically, starting as a rather technical and abstract enterprise to becoming something that was both natural and intuitive, and did not require any advanced computer background. Accordingly, while computers used to be machines that could only be operated by technically-oriented individuals, they had gradually changed into devices that are part of many people’s household, just as much as a television, a vacuum cleaner or a microwave oven. The introduction of voice control is a significant feature of the newer generation of interfaces in the sense that these have become more "antropomorphic" and try to mimic the way people interact in daily life, where indeed the voice is a universally used device that humans exploit in their exchanges with others. The question then arises whether it would be possible to go even one step further, where people, like in science-fiction movies, interact with avatars or humanoid robots, whereby users can have a proper conversation with a computer-simulated human that is indistinguishable from a real human. An interaction with a human-like representation of a computer that behaves, talks and reacts like a real person would imply that the computer is able to not only produce and understand messages transmitted auditorily through the voice, but also could rely on the perception and generation of different forms of body language, such as facial expressions, gestures or body posture. At the time of writing, developments of this next step in human-computer interaction are in full swing, but the type of such interactions is still rather constrained when compared to the way humans have their exchanges with other humans. It is interesting to reflect on how such future humanmachine interactions may look like. When we consider other products that have been created in history, it sometimes is striking to see that some of these have been inspired by things that can be observed in our environment, yet at the same do not have to be exact copies of those phenomena. For instance, an airplane has wings just as birds, yet the wings of an airplane do not make those typical movements a bird would produce to fly. Moreover, an airplane has wheels, whereas a bird has legs. At the same time, an airplane has made it possible for a humans to cover long distances in a fast and smooth manner in a way that was unthinkable before it was invented. The example of the airplane shows how new technologies can have "unnatural" properties, but can nonetheless be very beneficial and impactful for human beings. This dissertation centers on this practical question of how virtual humans can be programmed to act more human-like. The four studies presented in this dissertation all have the equivalent underlying question of how parts of human behavior can be captured, such that computers can use it to become more human-like. Each study differs in method, perspective and specific questions, but they are all aimed to gain insights and directions that would help further push the computer developments of human-like behavior and investigate (the simulation of) human conversational behavior. The rest of this introductory chapter gives a general overview of virtual humans (also known as embodied conversational agents), their potential uses and the engineering challenges, followed by an overview of the four studies

Business and production solutions: closing loops and the circular economy

Traditional production frameworks and business models are now being challenged by alternatives that are informed by biology. The alternative paradigm, based on ecosystem models, argues that shifting from linear modes of production to a circular system can address material and energy efficiency by reducing the total volume of raw materials needed when manufacturing consumer products. This chapter introduces frameworks that apply closed-loop models at the product level namely; the Performance Economy, Cradle-to-CradleTM design, The Blue Economy and the Circular Economy. We discuss the historic development of these ideas and their main contributions. Through the use of examples we explore both practical challenges associated with realising circular strategies as well as their business model implications. We conclude by highlighting some of the theoretical challenges associated with adopting closed-loop models advocating for a critical approach to sustainable resource management which includes circular strategies as part of a toolbox of options

Towards a business analytics capability for the circular economy

Digital technologies are growing in importance for accelerating firms’ circular economy transition. However, so far, the focus has primarily been on the technical aspects of implementing these technologies with limited research on the organizational resources and capabilities required for successfully leveraging digital technologies for circular economy. To address this gap, this paper explores the business analytics resources firms should develop and how these should be orchestrated towards a firm-wide capability. The paper proposes a conceptual model highlighting eight business analytics resources that, in combination, build a business analytics capability for the circular economy and how this relates to firms’ circular economy implementation, resource orchestration capability, and competitive performance. The model is based on the results of a thematic analysis of 15 semi-structured expert interviews with key positions in industry. Our approach is informed by and further develops, the theory of the resource-based view and the resource orchestration view. Based on the results, we develop a deeper understanding of the importance of taking a holistic approach to business analytics when leveraging data and analytics towards a more efficient and effective digital-enabled circular economy, the smart circular economy.publishedVersio

n-Heptane hydroconversion over nickel-loaded aluminum- and/or boron-containing BEA zeolites prepared by recrystallization of magadiite varieties

Phase-pure [Al]BEA and [Al,B]BEA zeolites, prepared by solid-state recrystallization of synthetic aluminum-containing magadiites and conventionally synthesized [B]BEA, were tested, after ion exchange with nickel, as bifunctional catalysts for hydroconversion of n-heptane. The reducibility of nickel ions incorporated into BEA zeolites by ion exchange was investigated by temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The acidity of the samples was characterized with strong (pyridine (Py), ammonia (NH3)) and weak (nitrogen) bases. The adsorbed bases were studied by transmission FT-IR (Py), diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier-transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy (N2), and temperature-programmed ammonia evolution (TPAE, NH3). Over Ni/H-[B]BEA the reactants were completely converted via fast hydrogenolysis, whereas this reaction pathway plays only a negligible role in the hydroconversion over Ni/H-[Al]BEA and Ni/H-[Al,B]BEA zeolites. Boron-containing BEA zeolites were less active catalysts than the boron-free catalyst in the principal unimolecular hydroconversion reactions. However, incorporation of boron into the framework of BEA zeolite results in a considerable selectivity shift towards isomerization. Results suggest that the acid strength of bridged hydroxyls, probed with weak (N2) and strong basis (pyridine), was found to be similar in the boron-free and boron-containing BEA samples. The decrease in the isomerization rate and the increase of the apparent activation energy upon incorporation of boron may be attributed to the decrease in the heat of n-heptane adsorption

Niehove 3.0:wat leeft er in Niehove?

In het voorjaar van 2011 heeft het Kenniscentrum Gebiedsontwikkeling NoorderRuimte een onderzoek uitgevoerd naar de leefomgeving van het dorp Niehove. Met behulp van dit onderzoek zal de vereniging Dorpsbelangen in Niehove een doel kunnen opstellen waar ze zich op kunnen gaan richten de komende jaren. Het doel van dit onderzoek is om in kaart te brengen hoe de inwoners van Niehove hun leefomgeving waarderen. Hierbij is een onderzoeksvraag geformuleerd en deze luidt als volgt: Hoe waarderen de inwoners van Niehove hun leefomgeving? Bij deze centrale vraag gaat het om de volgende vier aspecten van de leefomgeving: Woonsituatie Voorzieningen Sociale klimaat Organiserend vermogen 1. De inwoners van Niehove, blijkt uit het onderzoek, vinden hun dorp prettig om in te wonen. De belangrijkste reden om zich te vestigen in Niehove is de rust en de ruimte. Veel Niehoofsters geven aan de rest van hun leven in Niehove te willen blijven wonen. 2. Het begrip voorzieningen betekent in dit onderzoek bijvoorbeeld de winkels, scholen en sport. In Niehove zijn weinig van deze voorzieningen aanwezig. Bij voorzieningen hoort ook het gevoel van veiligheid. De inwoners van Niehove zijn tevreden over de veiligheid in het dorp. De meningen zijn verdeeld over het onderhoud aan de wegen in en naar Niehove. Op dit gebied moeten dus verbeteringen plaatsvinden. 3. Over het sociale klimaat zijn de meeste inwoners het wel eens. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat de respondenten voldoende sociale contacten hebben binnen en buiten het dorp. Bovendien wordt er gesproken van een goede verstandhouding tussen de oude en nieuwe bewoners, een goede relatie met de buren en wordt de sociale controle als prettig ervaren. De inwoners van Niehove geven in de enquête aan graag buurt- of dorpsgenoten te willen helpen. 4. In het dorp Niehove worden veel activiteiten georganiseerd. De populairste activiteiten zijn het paasvuur, de intocht en feest van sinterklaas, de paaswandeling en de sinterklaasbingo. Tevens is de jaarvergadering een belangrijke activiteit volgens de respondenten. Over de activiteiten voor de kinderen vindt 78,5% van de ouders dat er voldoende leuke activiteiten worden georganiseerd. Er zijn inwoners van Niehove die aangeven dat zij graag iets zouden willen beginnen op het gebied van duurzaamheid en het verkopen van streekproducten. Studentonderzoek in het kader van het thema Werklandschappen