The impact on festival´s loyalty from co-creating festival’s sustainability

Nowadays sustainability plays an important role in consumers’ decision making and this has extended to the events sector. Festivals, face increasing numbers of participants that choose events according to the green commitments. However, greenwashing practices lead to attendees’ scepticism toward the green practices and claims, which then decreases participants’ loyalty. This thesis aims to understand whether co-creation is a successful tool to overcome participants’ green scepticism and therefore increase participants’ loyalty toward the festival. In an experimental study design, 196 participants reported loyalty levels for a green festival. The study analysed different scenarios regarding the development of practices in a festival: green against non green. Further, we analysed if loyalty toward the event differed according to whether the practice was co-created or not. The new feature was presented either as co-created with the festival’s attendees or exclusively by the festival’s organization. Our findings show that the relationship between the event’s sustainability and the participants’ loyalty is mediated both by their trust in the green practices and by their identification with the festival’s organization and festivalgoers’ community. Additionally, we found that co-creation does not moderate the relationship analysed, and therefore our results do not lend support that co-creation represents an efficient way to increase attendees’ trust and identification and consequently their loyalty. These findings contribute to the literature on co-creation in the context of festivals’ sustainability. Ultimately, it draws managerial implications for events’ organizations and how they can drive attendees’ loyalty through eco-friendly commitment and its communication.A sustentabilidade desempenha um papel importante nas decisões dos consumidores no sector dos eventos. Cada vez mais consumidores escolhem os eventos de acordo com os compromissos ecológicos. No entanto, devido às práticas de "greenwashing" os participantes estão a desenvolver um cepticismo em relação às práticas ecológicas, o que diminui a sua lealdade. Esta tese pretende compreender se a co-criação é uma ferramenta de sucesso para superar o cepticismo ecológico dos participantes e, assim, aumentar a sua lealdade. Num estudo experimental, 196 participantes reportaram a sua lealdade para um festival com práticas ecológicas. O estudo analisou dois cenários diferentes: um festival com práticas ecológicas e outro sem práticas ecológicas. Analisámos também se a lealdade para com o evento era diferente consoante a prática fosse co-criada com os participantes do festival ou exclusivamente pela organização do mesmo. Os resultados mostram que a relação entre a sustentabilidade do evento e a lealdade dos participantes é mediada tanto pela sua confiança nas práticas ecológicas como pela sua identificação com a organização e comunidade do festival. Constatamos que a co-criação não modera a relação analisada, pelo que os nossos resultados não apoiam que a co-criação represente uma forma eficiente de aumentar a confiança e identificação dos participantes e a sua lealdade. Estes resultados contribuem para a literatura sobre co-criação no contexto da sustentabilidade dos festivais. Em última análise, pode ter implicações na criar gestão de eventos e para a forma como as organizações podem criar lealdade através de um compromisso sustentável e da sua comunicação

The Empirical Content of Models with Multiple Equilibria

We consider a generic environment with (potentially) multiple equilibria and analyze conditions for identification of the structural parameters. We then study conditions that allow for the estimation of both the structural parameters and the “selected equilibriumâ€. We focus on a “easy to compute†consistent 2-step estimator and use Monte Carlo methods on a model with social interactions to describe its finite sample propertiesmultiple equilibria, identification, structural estimation, montecarlo simulations

Functional characterization of the RNA binding protein RALY

Of 25000 genes encoded from genome, more than 90% are subject to alternative splicing or other post-transcriptional modifications. All these events produce a high number of different proteins that form the basis for the high variety of cells. The RNAbinding proteins (RBPs) play crucial roles in this variability by regulating many steps of biological processes regarding RNA metabolism. The heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) belong to big family of RBPs involved in many aspects of RNA metabolism including RNA stability, intracellular transport and translation. More recently, RALY, a RNA-binding protein associated with the lethal yellow mutation in mouse, has been identified as new member of the hnRNP family even if, its biological function remains still elusive. My PhD project aimed to characterize human RALY and to assess its function in mammalian cells. Initially I dentified the expression pattern of this protein into the cell and I characterized the functional nuclear localization sequence that localizes RALY protein into the nuclear compartment. In order to better understand the role of RALY in the cells, I identified the proteins component of RALY-containing complexes using a new assay named iBioPQ (in vivo-Biotinylation-Pulldown-Quant assay). I also performed polyribosome profiling assay to check the resence of RALY in translating mRNAs. Moreover, a microarray assay was performed in order to identify potential mRNAs whose metabolism appears dependent on RALY expression. Taken together, the results that I obtained suggest that RALY is involved in mRNA metabolism. Unfortunately more studies remain to do before shedding some light on the biological role of RALY in mammal

La Competitividad Exterior de la Economía Española

Las exportaciones han cobrado desde la década de los 90, y especialmente desde el año 2000 una gran importancia en el PIB de la economía española. El trabajo busca analizar el comportamiento seguido por las exportaciones desde el año 2000 al 2012 y entender las causas que han provocado que haya sido de dicha manera. En la primera parte del trabajo se hace un análisis de la oferta exportadora española desde un punto de vista agregado, donde se observa la tasa de crecimiento, la propensión a exportar, la cuota mundial y los mercados de destino. En la segunda parte del trabajo, se establece un análisis desagregado por sectores, para conocer cuales son los que mayor relevancia suponen y en qué está especializada la economía española de cara al exterior. El último apartado del trabajo trata de conclusiones y recomendaciones hechas bajo los resultados que arrojan el trabajo.Departamento de Economía AplicadaGrado en Economí

Multiphysics Finite\u2013Element Modelling of an All\u2013Vanadium Redox Flow Battery for Stationary Energy Storage

All-Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFBs) are emerging as a novel technology for stationary energy storage. Numerical models are useful for exploring the potential performance of such devices, optimizing the structure and operating condition of cell stacks, and studying its interfacing to the electrical grid. A one-dimensional steady-state multiphysics model of a single VRFB, including mass, charge and momentum transport and conservation, and coupled to a kinetic model for electrochemical reactions, is first presented. This model is then extended, including reservoir equations, in order to simulate the VRFB charge and discharge dynamics. These multiphysics models are discretized by the finite element method in a commercial software package (COMSOL). Numerical results of both static and dynamic 1D models are compared to those from 2D models, with the same parameters, showing good agreement. This motivates the use of reduced models for a more efficient system simulation

Development of piezoelectric harvesters with integrated trimming devices

Piezoelectric cantilever harvesters have a large power output at their natural frequency, but in some applications the frequency of ambient vibrations is different fromthe harvester\u2019s frequency and/or ambient vibrations are periodicwith some harmonic components. To copewith these operating conditions harvesters with integrated trimming devices (ITDs) are proposed. Some prototypes are developed with the aid of an analytical model and tested with an impulsive method. Results show that a small trimming device can lower the main resonance frequency of a piezoelectric harvester of the same extent as a larger tip mass and, moreover, it generates at high frequency a second resonance peak. A multi-physics numerical finite element (FE) model is developed for predicting the generated power and for performing a stress-strain analysis of harvesters with ITDs. The numerical model is validated on the basis of the experimental results. Several configurations of ITDs are conceived and studied. Numerical results show that the harvesters with ITDs are able to generate relevant power at two frequencies, owing to the particular shape of the modes of vibration. The stress in the harvesters with ITDs is smaller than the stress in the harvester with a tip mass trimmed to the same frequency

Effect of Hypertension on Outcomes of High-Risk Patients After BCG-Treated Bladder Cancer

Immunotherapy with Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) is the most efficacious treatment for high-risk bladder cancer (BC) (Ta/T1 or carcinoma in situ) to reduce the risk of recurrence. Our aim was to evaluate whether hypertension and diabetes influence the outcome of patients with noninvasive BC treated with BCG instillations. In order to collect homogeneous data, we considered as "hypertensive" only those patients who had previous diagnosed hypertension and a history of taking medical therapy with antihypertensive drugs (AHT), and as "diabetic" only those prescribed oral antidiabetics or insulin (ADT). We analyzed 343 high-risk BC patients undergoing BCG 1995 2010) with a median follow-up of 116 months (range 48-238). The distribution of various kinds of AHT and antidiabetic drugs was homogeneous, with no significant differences (p > 0.05). In both univariate and multivariate analyses, the only statistically significant parameter propostic for recurrence after BCG treatment was AHT. Recurrence-liee survival curves showed a significant correlation with AHT (p = 0.0168, hazards ratio [HR] 1.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0692-1.9619); there was no correlation ( p = 0.9040) with ADT (HR 0.9750, 95% CI 0.6457-1.4721). After stratification of AHT and A.DT according to drug(s) prescribed, there were no significant differences in the BC recurrence rate (p > 0.05). In this study with a very long-term follow-up, hypertension alone (evaluated by AHT) revealed the increased risk of BC recurrence after BCG treatment. Several hypotheses have been formulated to support these findings, but further prospective studies are needed to both evaluate the real influence of hypertension and identify a possible prognostic factor to be used in selecting poor-prognosis BC patients as early candidates for surgical treatment

Kinetic study of oxychlorination of ethylene on copper chloride and cerium oxide catalysts

Estudio cinético dela reacción de oxicloración del etileno para dar lugar a 1.2 dicloroetano o cloruro de vinilo en función de si se usa cloruro de cobre u óxido de cerio respectivamente como catalizadores.Dichloroethane and vinyl chloride are two very useful components in the industry. Those components are used such as solvents or precursors in the case of dichloroethane, and as monomers to produce polymers, in the case of vinyl chloride, PVC. PVC is a useful polymer, used in almost all the applications developed from the human being, such as construction, medicine, feed industry, etc. Several works have been made to produce these compounds. In these works, several catalyst have been tried, such as gold and copper in the case of Juszczyk et al.1 to produce vinyl chloride via dehydrochlorination of dichloroethane, obtaining a vinyl chloride selectivity between 60 and 85 % in case of copper and showing a more propensity to form ethene in case of gold. Other authors, such as Magistro et al.2 developed a method to produce vinyl chloride directly from ethylene using as catalyst iron oxide. In this work, the main objective is to obtain the differences between both catalysts and try to develop a reliable model and compare the main reaction products in the oxychlorination of ethylene using two different catalystus. CuCl2/γ-Al2O3, catalyst which main reaction product is dichloroethane, CuCl2/CeO2, catalyst which main reaction product was ethyl chloride and cerium oxide, catalyst that according to the results of Scharfe et al.3 vinyl chloride is the main reaction product. In the case of cupper chloride, conversions between 5-19 % were achieved with a selectivity of dichloroethane around 90 % and no vinyl chloride was observed. A side product observed during these reactions was ethyl chloride. In the case of cerium oxide, vinyl chloride and 1,2 dichloroethane were the main products obtained, alongside with ethyl chloride and carbon dioxide.Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Tecnología del Medio AmbienteGrado en Ingeniería Químic

Análisis de la enunciación irócica: del tropo a la polifonía

Las primeras teorías pragmáticas que intentan una definición de la ironía se limitan a prolongar la concepción de este fenómeno como un tropo propia de la retórica clásica. Esta continuidad, asumida por Kerbrat-Orecchioni, es sin embargo solapada en otros casos bajo una terminología de nuevo cuño, la cual en realidad también reproduce de manera especular el esquema tropológico. La novedad de un modelo teórico como el análisis polifónico de Ducrot consiste precisamente en que se trata de una verdadera alternativa, una manera original y diferente de entender la ironía articulada en términos puramente discursivos