Finding the jigsaw piece for our jigsaw puzzle with corporate social responsibility: the impact of CSR on prospective applicants’ responses

Purpose – This study aims to examine the influence of different corporate social responsibility (CSR) dimensions on prospective applicants’ responses, namely, organizational attractiveness and intention to apply for a job vacancy (IAJV). Design/methodology/approach – Using an experimental 2 × 3 crossed factorial design (n = 195), the level of engagement of a hypothetical company in socially responsible practices (high vs low) was manipulated concerning three dimensions of CSR (employees, community and environment and economic level). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions and, after reading the corresponding scenario, were asked to evaluate the extent to which the company was considered a good place to work and their IAJV in it. Findings – The level of engagement in socially responsible practices had a positive effect both on the degree to which participants favorably perceived the organization as a place to work and on their IAJV. Furthermore, the level of engagement in practices toward employees and in the economic domain had a stronger effect on participants’ responses than the engagement in practices that benefit community and environment. Research limitations/implications – Data were obtained in a laboratory setting, so the generalization of results to actual job search settings must be made with caution. Practical implications – CSR can be a source of competitive advantage in the recruitment of new employees. Because not all CSR dimensions have the same effect on applicants’ responses, companies should take into account the CSR dimensions in which they are engaged and communicate them to the public. Originality/value – As far as we know, this is the first study to examine the impact of different CSR dimensions both on organizational attractiveness and IAJV

The slope current along the western European margin: A numerical investigation

A three-dimensional hydrodynamic model is used to investigate the poleward flow along the western European slopes. The area of the model domain goes from northwest Africa to Ireland. During a first stage, the currents are driven by climatological density fields. In a second stage the model is also forced by climatological winds, although special attention is paid to spring, when the winds are favourable to the development of an equatorward jet along the Iberian coast. Results show that the climatological density field is able to produce the poleward current along the European continental slope. Winds can modify the flow pattern, mainly in the southern areas off Iberia, specially during the upwelling season. The poleward current obtained is continuous between the Portuguese and French coasts, following the contour depths, with a core of maximum velocity located from 300-1 500 m, depending both on space and time. This core corresponds to the shelfward divergence of isopycnals. Maximum speeds range from 10-20 cm/s. A poleward intensification of the current is also obtained.Un modelo tridimensional hidrodinámico se ha usado para investigar el flujo en dirección hacia el polo a lo largo del talud occidental europeo. El área de dominio del modelo va desde el noroeste de áfrica hasta Irlanda. En un primer estadio, las corrientes son dirigidas por los campos climatológicos de densidad. En un segundo estadio el modelo se fuerza con vientos climatológicos, donde se presta una especial atención a la primavera, cuando los vientos son favorables al desarrollo de un jet en dirección al ecuador a lo largo de la costa ibérica. Los resultados muestran cómo el campo de densidad climatológica es capaz de producir una corriente en dirección al polo a lo largo del talud del continente europeo. Los vientos pueden modificar este esquema de flujo, principalmente en las áreas al sur de la península Ibérica, sobre todo durante la estación de upwelling. La corriente hacia el polo obtenida es continua entre las costas portuguesa y francesa, siguiendo las líneas de profundidad, con una velocidad máxima en el núcleo situada entre 300 m y 1 500 m, dependiendo tanto del espacio como del tiempo. Este núcleo corresponde a la divergencia de las isopicnas hacia la plataforma continental. Las velocidades máximas varían entre 10 y 20 cm/s. También se obtiene una intensificación hacia el polo de la corriente.Instituto Español de Oceanografí

Sustainable hydrophobic terpene-based eutectic solvents for the extraction and separation of metals

Sustainable hydrophobic eutectic solvents, composed of low-priced and biodegradable terpenes and fatty acids, were used for the extraction and separation of Cu(ii) from other transition metals in mildly acidic solutions. Multiple parameters were evaluated for metal extraction and the hydrophobic eutectic solvent was successfully recovered and reused.This work was part of BATRE-ARES project (ERA-MIN/0001/2015) funded by ADEME and FCT and partly developed in the scope of the project CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007679 (FCT Ref. UID/CTM/50011/2013). C. M. S. S. Neves acknowledges FCT for the postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/109057/2015). M. A. R. Martins acknowledges financial support from NORTE 2020 (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER- 000006) and DeepBiorefinery (PTDC/AGRTEC/1191/2014) projects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Critical aspects of membrane-free aqueous battery based on two immiscible neutral electrolytes

Redox Flow Batteries (RFB) stand out as a promising energy storage technology to mitigate the irregular energy generation from renewable sources. However, some hurdles limit their massive implementation including high cost of vanadium and the poor-performance of ion-selective membranes. Recently, we presented a revolutionary Membrane-Free Battery based on organic aqueous/nonaqueous immiscible electrolytes that eludes both separators and vanadium compounds. Here, we demonstrate the feasible application of this archetype in Aqueous Biphasic Systems (ABS) acting as an unprecedented Total Aqueous Membrane-Free Battery. After evaluating several organic molecules, methylviologen (MV) and 2,2,6,6-Tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO) were selected as active species due to their optimum electrochemical behavior and selective partitioning between the phases. When connected electrically, this redox-active ABS becomes a Membrane-Free Battery with an open circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.23 V, high peak power density (23 mWcm−2) and excellent long-cycling performance (99.99% capacity retention over 550 cycles). Moreover, essential aspects of this technology such as the crossover, controlled here by partition coefficients, and the inherent self-discharge phenomena were addressed for the first time. These results point out the potential of this pioneering Total Aqueous Membrane-Free Battery as a new energy storage technology.publishe

Microbiota of Deciduous Endodontic Infections Analyzed by MDA and Checkerboard DNA-DNA Hybridization

Aims To evaluate the microbiota of endodontic infections in deciduous teeth by checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization after uniform amplification of DNA in samples by multiple displacement amplification (MDA). Methodology Forty samples from the root canal system of deciduous teeth exhibiting pulp necrosis with or without radiographically detectable periradicular/interadicular bone resorption were collected and 32 were analyzed, with 3 individuals contributing 2 samples; these were MDA- amplified and analyzed by Checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization for levels of 83 bacterial taxa. Two outcome measures were used: the percentage of teeth colonized by each species; and the mean proportion of each bacterial taxon present across all samples were computed. Results The mean amount of DNA in the samples prior to amplification was 5.2 (± 4.7) ng and 6.1 (± 2.3) μg after MDA. The mean number of species detected per sample was 19 (± 4) (range: 3–66) to the nearest whole number. The most prevalent taxa were Prevotella intermedia (96.9%), Neisseria mucosa (65.6%), Prevotella nigrescens (56.2%) and Tannerella forsythia (56.2%). Aggregatibacter (Haemophilus) aphrophilus and Helicobacter pylori were not detected. P. intermedia (10%), Prevotella tannerae (7%) and Prevotella nigrescens (4.3%) presented the highest mean proportions of the target species averaged across the positive samples. Conclusion Root canals of infected deciduous teeth had a diverse bacterial population. Prevotella sp were commonly found with P. intermedia, Prevotella tannerae and Prevotella nigrescens among the most prominent species detected

Can timber provision from Amazonian production forests be sustainable?

Around 30 Mm3 of sawlogs are extracted annually by selective logging of natural production forests in Amazonia, Earth's most extensive tropical forest. Decisions concerning the management of these production forests will be of major importance for Amazonian forests' fate. To date, no regional assessment of selective logging sustainability supports decision-making. Based on data from 3500 ha of forest inventory plots, our modelling results show that the average periodic harvests of 20 m3 ha−1 will not recover by the end of a standard 30 year cutting cycle. Timber recovery within a cutting cycle is enhanced by commercial acceptance of more species and with the adoption of longer cutting cycles and lower logging intensities. Recovery rates are faster in Western Amazonia than on the Guiana Shield. Our simulations suggest that regardless of cutting cycle duration and logging intensities, selectively logged forests are unlikely to meet timber demands over the long term as timber stocks are predicted to steadily decline. There is thus an urgent need to develop an integrated forest resource management policy that combines active management of production forests with the restoration of degraded and secondary forests for timber production. Without better management, reduced timber harvests and continued timber production declines are unavoidable

Protein-olive oil-in-water nanoemulsions as encapsulation materials for curcumin acting as anticancer agent towards MDA-MB-231 cells

The sustainable cellular delivery of the pleiotropic drug curcumin encounters drawbacks related to its fast autoxidation at the physiological pH, cytotoxicity of delivery vehicles and poor cellular uptake. A biomaterial compatible with curcumin and with the appropriate structure to allow the correct curcumin encapsulation considering its poor solubility in water, while maintaining its stability for a safe release was developed. In this work, the biomaterial developed started by the preparation of an oil-in-water nanoemulsion using with a cytocompatible copolymer (Pluronic F 127) coated with a positively charged protein (gelatin), designed as G-Cur-NE, to mitigate the cytotoxicity issue of curcumin. These G-Cur-NE showed excellent capacity to stabilize curcumin, to increase its bio-accessibility, while allowing to arrest its autoxidation during its successful application as an anticancer agent proved by the disintegration of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells as a proof of concept

Supported ionic liquids as customizable materials to purify immunoglobulin G

Over the past few years, antibodies such as immunoglobulin G, IgG, have increased their market share as alternative therapeutics. However, their production at high purity levels is still costly due to the absence of a cost-effective platform for their recovery and purification from the complex biological media in which they are produced. This work describes, for the first time, that materials modified with ionic liquids (ILs) can be designed for the effective capture and purification of antibodies from complex matrices, allowing both the selective adsorption of IgG or the selective adsorption of other proteins present in the media. The best results correspond to IgG with 59 % of yield and 84 % of purity in the aqueous solution, and IgG with 76 % of yield and 100 % of purity on the surface of one SIL due to the selective adsorption of IgG from human serum. The best conditions and materials were then applied to other IgG-containing matrices, namely rabbit serum and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell culture supernatants, proving the robustness of the developed strategy. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the secondary structure of IgG is preserved during the purification process and that these antibodies remain biologically active. In summary, it is shown that by only changing the IL chemical structure at the material surface it is possible to selectively adsorb IgG or to adsorb other proteins leaving IgG in solution. These findings prove that SILs are customizable materials with future potential to act in the flow-through or bind-andelute modes. Therefore, SILs can be envisioned as potential chromatographic columns capable of substituting the high-cost commercial chromatographic columns based on biological ligands currently used to purify IgG.publishe

Avaliação da resposta do Plasmodium falciparum à cloroquina, quinino e mefloquina

The present study is concerned with the analysis of Plasmodium falciparum strains from the Brazilian Amazon Region, collected at the Malaria Laboratory - SUCENT. "In vitro" sensitivity tests were performed using chloroquine (46 samples), quinine (42 samples) and mefloquine (51 samples). Results have shown "in vitro" resistance to chloroquine in 100% of the tested samples, to quinine in 2.4% and to mefloquine in 3L4%. Seven patients were treated with quinine and nine with the triple combination (mefloquine plus sulfadoxine plus pyrimethamine). No correlation was shown between the therapeutic response and the "in vitro" tests.Nosso estudo envolveu a análise de cepas de Plasmodium falciparum provenientes da Região Amazônica Brasileira, coletadas no Laboratório de Malária da SUCEN. Os estudos "in vitro" foram efetuados com a cloroquina (46 ensaios), quinino (42 ensaios) e mefloquina (51 ensaios). Os resultados mostraram resistência de 100% em relação à cloroquina, 2,4% ao quinino e 31,4% à mefloquina, na análise "in vitro". Sete pacientes foram tratados com quinino isolado e nove com a associação mefloquina + pirimetamina-sulfadoxina, não mostrando correlação com os testes "in vitro"