Understanding the adoption of a new waste management system

Vorobeva, D., Scott, I. J., Oliveira, T., & Neto, M. (2023). Leveraging technology for waste sustainability: Understanding the adoption of a new waste management system. Sustainable Environment Research, (33), [12]. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42834-023-00174-x --- The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) Portugal under the project UIDB/0415s2/2020—Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC). Project BEE2WasteCrypto (reference IDT-COP 45933) leading to this work is co-financed by the ERDF – European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalisation COMPETE 2020, the Lisbon Portugal Regional Operational Program – LISBOA 2020 and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT under CMU Portugal Program.Many countries are under escalating pressure to meet legally binding targets in relation to recycling and waste management. This paper explores how innovative tools, including blockchain, economic incentives, and gamification, encourage consumer adoption of a novel household waste management system. We focus on developing a comprehensive framework that combines UTAUT2 (the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2) with novel features in the waste management context and additional behavioral construct, intention to recommend the system to others. We tested the proposed model using the partial least square structural equation modeling approach based on a survey of 400 respondents. The results indicate that in addition to effort expectancy, social influence, and hedonic motivation, trust, a property of blockchain technology, also impacts the respondent’s behavioral intention to use the new system. Furthermore, trust has a significant effect on both the level of system use and intention to recommend waste management system to others. The role of gamification was identified as a moderator between behavioral intention and system use and between trust and system use but not between system use and facilitating conditions. This result demonstrates that gamification can be valuable to increase adoption in users with otherwise low levels of behavioral intention. However, we did not find a strong link between either economic incentives, facilitating conditions, or performance expectancy and behavioral intention. The paper concludes by presenting the application of the proposed framework and the implications for the design of future consumer-facing waste management systems. The introduction of the novel features such as blockchain and gamification is discussed.publishersversionpublishe

The role of financial incentives and pro-environmental behavior

Vorobeva, D., Scott, I. J., Oliveira, T., & Neto, M. (2022). Adoption of new household waste management technologies: The role of financial incentives and pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production, 362(August), 1-10. [132328]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132328 --- Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) Portugal under the project UIDB/0415s2/2020 - Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC) . Project BEE2WasteCrypto (reference IDT-COP 45933) leading to this work is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalisation COMPETE 2020, the Lisbon Portugal Regional Operational Program – LISBOA 2020 and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT under CMU Portugal Program.New technological solutions can encourage lower household waste production and higher levels of waste separation. This paper focuses on analyzing the role of different behavioral factors, such as empowerment and pro-environmental behavior (PEB), have on citizens' intention to use a novel household waste management and separation system and how these interact with the financial incentives typically applied in this area, pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) and save-as-you-throw (SAYT). The proposed model was tested in Portugal using the structural equation modeling approach. Survey data from 400 respondents found that empowerment plays a vital role in adopting an innovative waste management system. The research discerns pro-environmental behavior (PEB) both as an antecedent and a moderator between system use and empowerment, system use and behavioral intention, and also between system use and financial incentives. We discovered that for people with low perceived PEB, PAYT actually reduces the use of the new waste management system, while SAYT can increase the use of the system. Furthermore, increasing the empowerment of users in the system can work exceptionally well at encouraging consumers that already have a high level of PEB. The paper concludes with a discussion section about the developed framework's application and implication in the waste management sector. This study is valuable for understanding how citizens will adopt a new waste management system and essential for encouraging citizens to engage in recycling behavior regularly.publishersversionpublishe

Incremental volumetric and Dual Kriging remapping methods

The transfer of variables between distinct spatial domains is a problem shared by many research fields. Among other applications, it may be required for visualization purposes or for intermediate analysis of a process. In any case, two important factors must be considered: accuracy and computational performance. The accuracy becomes more important when the results have an impact on the subsequent stages of the process' analysis, as it could lead to incorrect results. The computational performance is a permanent requirement due to the ever-increasing complexity of the analysed processes. The aim of this work is to present a new remapping method, based on Dual Kriging interpolation, developed to enable accurate and efficient variable transfer operations between two different domains, discretized with hexahedral finite elements. Two strategies are proposed, which take into account different selections of interpolation points and are based on specific Finite Element Method features. They are compared with the Incremental Volumetric Remapping method in two remapping examples, one of which includes a trimming operation, highlighting their advantages and limitations. The results show that the Dual Kriging remapping method, combined with a 2D selection strategy for the donor points, can contribute to increase the accuracy of the state variables remapping operation, particularly when they present a strong gradient along the stacking direction.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under projects P2020-PTDC/EMS-TEC/0702/2014 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016779) and P2020-PTDC/EMS-TEC/6400/2014 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016876) by UE/FEDER through the program COMPETE 2020. The second author is also grateful to the FCT for the Postdoctoral grant SFRH/BPD/101334/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bioinspired multilayer membranes as potential adhesive patches for skin wound healing

Bioinspired and adhesive multilayer membranes are produced using the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of chitosan (CHT), alginate (ALG) and hyaluronic acid modified with dopamine (HA-DN). Freestanding multilayer membranes without DN are also produced as a control. The success of the synthesis of HA-DN was confirmed using UV-visible spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy images indicate that the surface of the DN-containing membranes is more porous than the control ones; they also present a higher average thickness value for the same number of CHT/ALG/CHT/HA(-DN) tetralayers (n = 100). Also, water uptake, mechanical strength and adhesion are enhanced with the introduction of DN moieties along the nano-layers. Besides, human dermal fibroblast viability, enhanced adhesion and proliferation were confirmed by immunofluorescence assays and by measuring both the metabolic activity and DNA content. Moreover, in vivo assays with such kinds of DN-containing multilayer membranes were performed; the application of these membranes in the treatment of dermal wounds induced in Wistar rats results in the highest decrease of inflammation of rat skin, compared with the control conditions. Overall, this investigation suggests that these mussel-inspired freestanding multilayer membranes may enhance either their mechanical performance or cellular adhesion and proliferation, leading to an improved wound healing process, being a promising material to restore the structural and functional properties of wounded skin.M. P. S. acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for financial support through Grant No. SFRH/BD/97606/2013. This work was supported by the European Research Council grant agreement ERC-2014-ADG-669858 for the ATLAS project. The authors acknowledge Paula Marques (Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal) for providing the mechanical equipment to carry out the tensile tests and the lap shear adhesion tests.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prevalent Leadership Profile: A Research on Management of Innovation in the Military Organization

In this work we investigate prevailing leadership in a military organization. Our study has a multi-disciplinarily nature as it focuses on Organizational Innovation and the profile of a leader as well as a little investigation on history of the development of a military organization Our main objective is to identify the profile of a strategic prevalent leadership at the Firemen Corporation in Porto Velho, Rondonia – Northern Brazil. We propose to describe the process of nomination for someone to exercise the role of a leader used in the military structure. In this context, we make a survey of the prevalent elements considering the profile of leadership in the face of organizational innovation having in mind the expectation of the people involved in the process of research. At the end we conduct a critical analysis comparing the prevalent elements identified in our study with the expectation of innovation revealed by the military structure investigated. We apply the method of content analysis through convenient procedures. As a result, we present the elements which show prevalence for the definition of the leadership profile of the investigated military structure. We hope our research can contribute to the studies in the field of leadership, as we still have few references in the area of knowledge

Reconstructed human pigmented skin/epidermis models achieve epidermal pigmentation through melanocore transfer

Funding: We thank the Electron Microscopy Facility at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, the Pathological Anatomy service in the Instituto Português de Oncologia de Lisboa Francisco Gentil (IPOLFG) and the Histology Facility at CEDOC for technical assistance. This project was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal through FCT Unit iNOVA4Health – UIDB/04462/2020 and UIDP/04462/2020, a programme financially supported by FCT / Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, through national funds, grant PTDC/BIA-CEL/29765/2017, PhD fellowships 2020.08528.BD (SLV), PD/BD/128164/2016, PD/BD/137442/2018 (MVN) and PD/BD/136905/2018 (JC) and the FCT Investigator Program to DCB (IF/00501/2014/CP1252/CT0001).The skin acts as a barrier to environmental insults and provides many vital functions. One of these is to shield DNA from harmful UV radiation, which is achieved by skin pigmentation arising as melanin is produced and dispersed within the epidermal layer. This is a crucial defence against DNA damage, photo-ageing and skin cancer. The mechanisms and regulation of melanogenesis and melanin transfer involve extensive crosstalk between melanocytes and keratinocytes in the epidermis, as well as fibroblasts in the dermal layer. Although the predominant mechanism of melanin transfer continues to be debated and several plausible models have been proposed, we and others previously provided evidence for a coupled exo/phagocytosis model. Herein, we performed histology and immunohistochemistry analyses and demonstrated that a newly developed full-thickness 3D reconstructed human pigmented skin model and an epidermis-only model exhibit dispersed pigment throughout keratinocytes in the epidermis. Transmission electron microscopy revealed melanocores between melanocytes and keratinocytes, suggesting that melanin is transferred through coupled exocytosis/phagocytosis of the melanosome core, or melanocore, similar to our previous observations in human skin biopsies. We therefore present evidence that our in vitro models of pigmented human skin show epidermal pigmentation comparable to human skin. These findings have a high value for studies of skin pigmentation mechanisms and pigmentary disorders, whilst reducing the reliance on animal models and human skin biopsies.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Building a Neural Computer

In the work of [Siegelmann 95] it was showed that Artificial Recursive Neural Networks have the same computing power as Turing machines. A Turing machine can be programmed in a proper high-level language - the language of partial recursive functions. In this paper we present the implementation of a compiler that directly translates high-level Turing machine programs to Artificial Recursive Neural Networks. The application contains a simulator that can be used to test the resulting networks. We also argue that experiments like this compiler may give us clues on procedures for automatic synthesis of Artificial Recursive Neural Networks from high-level description

Diamond/ SiC heterojunctions

Diamond and SiC are wide bandgap (WBG) materials which can be used to fabricate high power devices with improved performance. The combination of these materials into one single device is expected to bring some benefits, like a better thermal management with a corresponding increase in the operating power. Diamond films deposited by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) can be doped with boron, making them p-type semiconductors. Diamond films deposited on foreign substrates are intrinsically polycrystalline, so the quality of the interface, determined by deposition conditions and seeding method, plays a critical role in the heterojunction characteristics, impacting both reverse current and breakdown voltage. This work reports the fabrication and characterization of p-diamond / n-SiC heterojunctions. P-type polycrystalline diamond (PCD) films were deposited directly on the surface on n-type SiC commercial wafers by Hot Filament CVD (HFCVD) using different seeding techniques. I-V characteristics of the obtained heterojunctions were measured at room temperature and the quality and morphology of the diamond films were assessed by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. The influence of the different seeding techniques on the I-V characteristics is discussed

Melanin transferred to keratinocytes resides in non-degradative endocytic compartments

Funding: We thank the staff from the Unit of Imaging and Cytometry of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência for assistance in microscopy and flow cytometry protocol adjustments, the CEDOC Microscopy Facility for assistance in image acquisition and analysis, Dot Bennett for the kind gift of cell lines, and Alistair Hume for the kind gift of anti-Rab5 antibody. This project was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal (PTDC/BIA-BCM/ 111735/2009, EXPL/BEX-BCM/0379/2013), MSC and HM were supported by FCT PhD studentships (SFRH/BD/65381/2009 and PD/BD/114118/2015, respectively), FJCP was supported by an FCT postdoctoral fellowship (SFRH/ BPD/70337/2010), and DCB was supported by the FCT Investigator Program (IF/00501/2014/CP1252/CT0001).Melanin transfer from melanocytes to keratinocytes and subsequent accumulation in the supra-nuclear region is a critical process in skin pigmentation and protection against ultraviolet radiation. We have previously proposed that the main mode of transfer between melanocytes and keratinocytes is through exo/endocytosis of the melanosome core, termed melanocore. In this study, we developed an in vitro uptake assay using melanocores secreted by melanocytes. We show that the uptake of melanocores, but not melanosomes, by keratinocytes is Protease-activated receptor (PAR)-2-dependent. Furthermore, we found that the silencing of the early endocytic regulator Rab5b, but not the late endocytic regulators Rab7a or Rab9a, significantly impairs melanocore uptake by keratinocytes. Following uptake, we observed that melanin accumulates in compartments that are positive for both early and late endocytic markers. We found that melanin does not localize to either highly degradative or acidic organelles, as assessed by LysoTracker and DQ-BSA staining, despite the abundance of these types of organelles within keratinocytes. Therefore, we propose that melanocore uptake leads to storage of melanin within keratinocytes in hybrid endocytic compartments that are not highly acidic or degradative. By avoiding lysosomal degradation, these specialized endosomes may allow melanin to persist within keratinocytes for long periods.publishersversionpublishe

A haplotype information theory method reveals genes of evolutionary interest in European vs. Asian pigs

Asian and European wild boars were independently domesticated ca. 10,000 years ago. Since the 17th century, Chinese breeds have been imported to Europe to improve the genetics of European animals by introgression of favourable alleles, resulting in a complex mosaic of haplotypes. To interrogate the structure of these haplotypes further, we have run a new haplotype segregation analysis based on information theory, namely compression efficiency (CE). We applied the approach to sequence data from individuals from each phylogeographic region (n = 23 from Asia and Europe) including a number of major pig breeds. Our genome-wide CE is able to discriminate the breeds in a manner reflecting phylogeography. Furthermore, 24,956 non-overlapping sliding windows (each comprising 1,000 consecutive SNP) were quantified for extent of haplotype sharing within and between Asia and Europe. The genome-wide distribution of extent of haplotype sharing was quite different between groups. Unlike European pigs, Asian pigs haplotype sharing approximates a normal distribution. In line with this, we found the European breeds possessed a number of genomic windows of dramatically higher haplotype sharing than the Asian breeds. Our CE analysis of sliding windows capture some of the genomic regions reported to contain signatures of selection in domestic pigs. Prominent among these regions, we highlight the role of a gene encoding the mitochondrial enzyme LACTB which has been associated with obesity, and the gene encoding MYOG a fundamental transcriptional regulator of myogenesis. The origin of these regions likely reflects either a population bottleneck in European animals, or selective targets on commercial phenotypes reducing allelic diversity in particular genes and/or regulatory regions