Why doorstepping can increase household waste recycling

AbstractIn this study we report on a doorstepping intervention which produced a 12.5%, statistically significant, increase in the recycling capture rate. More importantly, we investigate why doorstepping caused the increase, through focus groups, structured interviews and questionnaires. By analyzing the findings with respect to a pragmatic set of eleven clusters of determinants of behaviour change, we find that social norms and emotion were important, with prompts as a more minor determinant. We can now plan further doorstepping knowing an emphasis on these is useful. Knowledge, skills, belief of consequences, belief of capability, action planning, role clarification, feedback, and motivation were determinant clusters found not to be important in this case.Recycling behaviour change interventions often do not generally produce transferable learning because they are usually presented as case studies and not broken down into key elements. Our analytical approach of breaking down a poorly defined activity – doorstepping – into elements which influence different clusters of determinants, and then exploring their separate impacts, allows some predictive planning and optimization for other interventions. The specific context here was residential food waste recycling in apartment blocks of communities in Shanghai, China

Information strategy failure:personal interaction success, in urban residential food waste segregation

AbstractDirect measurements were taken of residential food waste sorting in a sample from over 5000 communities (5 million households) assigned to a pilot program delivered by government branches in Shanghai which relied on an information strategy for implementation. The results are compared to a population of N = 36 similar communities (36,000 households) assigned to a different program which involved considerable personal interaction. The results show that the information–based program communities did not noticeably sort their waste, whereas those given personal interaction approaches were very successful, with purity rates of 95%(8) and extra costs of about 50 RMB (8 USD) per household. This is a rare direct comparison of two different programs at such large scales, 6–36 months after launch, and suggests that personal interaction approaches should be considered by policy makers. Qualitative key informant interviews yielded data on each program's activities, which provide suggestions for further studies of the underlying behaviour change determinants involved

Novel D-hordein-like HMW glutenin sequences isolated from Psathyrostachys juncea by thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR

New high-molecular-weight glutenin (HMW glutenin) sequences isolated from six Psathyrostachys juncea accessions by thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR differ from previous sequences from this species. They showed novel modifications in all of the structural domains, with unique C-terminal residues, and their N-terminal lengths were the longest among the HMW glutenins reported to date. In their repetitive domains, there were three repeatable motif units: 13-residue [GYWH(/I/Y)YT(/Q)S(/T)VTSPQQ], hexapeptide (PGQGQQ), and tetrapeptide (ITVS). The 13-residue repeats were restricted to the current sequences, while the tetrapeptides were only shared by D-hordein and the current sequences. However, these sequences were not expressed as normal HMW glutenin proteins because an in-frame stop codon located in the C-termini interrupted the intact open reading frames. A phylogenetic analysis supported different origins of the P. juncea HMW glutenin sequences than that revealed by a previous study. The current sequences showed a close relationship with D-hordein but appeared to be more primitive

Characterization of a novel 4.0-kb y-type HMW-GS from Eremopyrum distans

A novel 4.0-kb Fy was sequenced and bacterially expressed. This gene, the largest y-type HMW-GS currently reported, is 4,032-bp long and encodes a mature protein with 1,321 amino acid (AA) residues. The 4.0-kb Fy shows novel modifications in all domains. In the N-terminal, it contains only 67 AA residues, as three short peptides are absent. In the repetitive domain, the undecapeptide RYYPSVTSPQQ is completely lost and the dodecapeptide GSYYPGQTSPQQ is partially absent. A novel motif unit, PGQQ, is present in addition to the two standard motif units PGQGQQ and GYYPTSPQQ. Besides, an extra cysteine residue also occurs in the middle of this domain. The large molecular mass of the 4.0-kb Fy is mainly due to the presence of an extra-long repetitive domain with 1,279 AA residues. The novel 4.0-kb Fy gene is of interest in HMW-GS gene evolution as well as to wheat quality improvement with regard to its longest repetitive domain length and extra cysteines residues

Modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation in a dual-wavelength dispersion-managed soliton fiber ring laser

We report on the observation of modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation in a dual-wavelength operation dispersion-managed soliton fiber ring laser with net negative cavity dispersion. The passively mode-locked operation is achieved by using nonlinear polarization rotation technique. A new type of dual-wavelength operation, where one is femtosecond pulse and the other is picosecond pulse operation, is obtained by properly rotating the polarization controllers. When the dual-wavelength pulses are simultaneously circulating in the laser ring cavity, a series of stable modulation sidebands appears in the picosecond pulse spectrum at longer wavelength with lower peak power due to modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation between the two lasing wavelengths. Moreover, the intensities and wavelength shifts of the modulation sidebands can be tuned by varying the power of the femtosecond pulse or the lasing central wavelengths of the dual-wavelength pulses. The theoretical analysis of the modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation in our fiber laser is also presented.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure

Direct Measurements of the Branching Fractions for D0→K−e+νeD^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e and D0→π−e+νeD^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e and Determinations of the Form Factors f+K(0)f_{+}^{K}(0) and f+π(0)f^{\pi}_{+}(0)

The absolute branching fractions for the decays $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ are determined using $7584\pm 198 \pm 341$ singly tagged $\bar D^0$ sample from the data collected around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC. In the system recoiling against the singly tagged $\bar D^0$ meson, $104.0\pm 10.9$ events for $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $9.0 \pm 3.6$ events for $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ decays are observed. Those yield the absolute branching fractions to be $BF(D^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e)=(3.82 \pm 0.40\pm 0.27)$ and $BF(D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e)=(0.33 \pm 0.13\pm 0.03)$. The vector form factors are determined to be $|f^K_+(0)| = 0.78 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.03$ and $|f^{\pi}_+(0)| = 0.73 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.06$. The ratio of the two form factors is measured to be $|f^{\pi}_+(0)/f^K_+(0)|= 0.93 \pm 0.19 \pm 0.07$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Measurements of J/psi Decays into 2(pi+pi-)eta and 3(pi+pi-)eta

Based on a sample of 5.8X 10^7 J/psi events taken with the BESII detector, the branching fractions of J/psi--> 2(pi+pi-)eta and J/psi-->3(pi+pi-)eta are measured for the first time to be (2.26+-0.08+-0.27)X10^{-3} and (7.24+-0.96+-1.11)X10^{-4}, respectively.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

BESII Detector Simulation

A Monte Carlo program based on Geant3 has been developed for BESII detector simulation. The organization of the program is outlined, and the digitization procedure for simulating the response of various sub-detectors is described. Comparisons with data show that the performance of the program is generally satisfactory.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, uses elsart.cls, to be submitted to NIM

Measurement of branching fractions for the inclusive Cabibbo-favored ~K*0(892) and Cabibbo-suppressed K*0(892) decays of neutral and charged D mesons

The branching fractions for the inclusive Cabibbo-favored ~K*0 and Cabibbo-suppressed K*0 decays of D mesons are measured based on a data sample of 33 pb-1 collected at and around the center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider. The branching fractions for the decays D+(0) -> ~K*0(892)X and D0 -> K*0(892)X are determined to be BF(D0 -> \~K*0X) = (8.7 +/- 4.0 +/- 1.2)%, BF(D+ -> ~K*0X) = (23.2 +/- 4.5 +/- 3.0)% and BF(D0 -> K*0X) = (2.8 +/- 1.2 +/- 0.4)%. An upper limit on the branching fraction at 90% C.L. for the decay D+ -> K*0(892)X is set to be BF(D+ -> K*0X) < 6.6%

The σ\sigma pole in J/ψ→ωπ+π−J/\psi \to \omega \pi^+ \pi^-

Using a sample of 58 million $J/\psi$ events recorded in the BESII detector, the decay $J/\psi \to \omega \pi^+ \pi^-$ is studied. There are conspicuous $\omega f_2(1270)$ and $b_1(1235)\pi$ signals. At low $\pi \pi$ mass, a large broad peak due to the $\sigma$ is observed, and its pole position is determined to be $(541 \pm 39)$ - $i$ $(252 \pm 42)$ MeV from the mean of six analyses. The errors are dominated by the systematic errors.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PL