Interoperating Context Discovery Mechanisms

Context-Aware applications adapt their behaviour to the current situation of the user. This information, for instance user location and user availability, is called context information. Context is delivered by distributed context sources that need to be discovered before they can be used to retrieve context. Currently, multiple context discovery mechanisms exist, exhibiting heterogeneous capabilities (e.g. communication mechanisms, and data formats), which can be available to context-aware applications at arbitrary moments during the ap-plication’s lifespan. In this paper, we discuss a middleware mechanism that en-ables a (mobile) context-aware application to interoperate transparently with different context discovery mechanisms available at run-time. The goal of the proposed mechanism is to hide the heterogeneity and availability of context discovery mechanisms for context-aware applications, thereby facilitating their development

Climate change Social divisions in belief and behaviour

As a global problem, climate change affects everyone. But within Britain opinion is divided. This chapter asks to what extent people in Britain believe humans cause climate change, think it is a problem, and feel that citizens and governments are likely to be able to reduce it. Also, what are the main social divisions in attitudes to climate change, and how much does opinion differ between supporters of different political parties

Results of a field experiment to reduce coffee cup waste

It is estimated that about 2.5bn disposable coffee cups are used in the UK each year. Most of these cups end up in landfill, as the majority of poly-coated paper cups are not recyclable. This creates about 25,000 tonnes of waste each year. The promotion of reusable cups can help to reduce the volume and weight of waste being sent to landfill. However, it may be difficult to persuade consumers to change their behaviour with regard to their daily coffee or tea. Disposable cups are very convenient, and there are multiple other barriers to the uptake of reusable coffee cups. Bewley’s Tea and Coffee UK Ltd and Cardiff University conducted a field experiment to explore how the use of reusable coffee cups could be encouraged through easily implementable measures. This was done in collaboration with four universities and a contract caterer

Is “Culture” a Workable Concept for (Cross-)Cultural Psychology?

In this essay three points are addressed: First, despite repeated findings of limited cross-cultural variation for core areas of study, research in cross-cultural psychology continues to be directed mainly at finding differences in psychological functioning. This often happens at the cost of attention for similarities between groups, or invariance. As a consequence, cross-cultural psychology as a field is feeding into stereotyped views of “them” versus “us”. Second, the notion of culture implies a holistic perspective, in which various aspects of the behavior repertoire within a group tend to be seen as hanging together. Such views tend to contribute to ideas of coherence of observed differences between human groups that are supported insufficiently by empirical findings. Researchers need to avoid overgeneralizations when they interpret their findings and should refrain from construing causal or functional patterns of differences when the available evidence is limited to correlations, which may reflect only coincidental relationships. Third, it has been argued by various authors that the notion of culture escapes unambiguous definition. If this view is correct, researchers can choose their own meaning, which may suit Humpty Dumpty, but is not good for scientific analysis and communication. Giving up the notion of culture in research may facilitate a reorientation in cross-cultural psychology, leading to a better balance in emphasis between what is common to humans and what is unique to some group in distinction of other groups

Food-grade Pickering stabilisation of foams by in situ hydrophobisation of calcium carbonate particles

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of stabilising foam bubbles in water by adsorption of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) particles. Because CaCO 3 is hydrophilic and not surface-active, particles were hydrophobised in situ with several emulsifiers. The used emulsifiers were food-grade and negatively charged at the pH employed. The effect of particle addition on foamability and foam stability of solutions containing either β-lactoglobulin, sodium caseinate, Quillaja, sodium dodecanoate (SD) or sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (SSL) was studied. It was found that the ability of the emulsifiers to induce surface activity such that the particles are able to adsorb to the air-water interface is related to their structure. The structure needs to consist of a well-defined hydrophobic part and a charged part. Large emulsifiers with a complex structure, such as β-lactoglobulin, sodium caseinate and Quillaja, were able to partially hydrophobise the particles but were not able to act synergistically with the particles to increase the foam stability. Low molecular weight emulsifiers, however, consisting of a single tail with one charged group, such as SD and SSL, adsorbed at the particle surface rendering the particles partially hydrophobic such that they adsorb to the air-water interface. In a subsequent investigation, the pH was changed to a value typical for food products (pH 6–7) and the addition of milk salts on the foamability and foam stability was assessed. Based on these results, the use of food-grade CaCO 3 particles hydrophobised in situ with food-grade surfactants (SD or SSL) to prepare ultra-stable aqueous foams is demonstrated

Promoting the use of reusable coffee cups through environmental messaging, the provision of alternatives and financial incentives

It is estimated that 2.5–10 bn disposable coffee cups are used every year in the U.K. Most of these cups end up in landfill or as litter, as the majority of poly-coated paper cups are not recyclable or not recycled. Here, we report on a field experiment that was conducted at twelve university and business sites to examine whether the use of reusable cups can be promoted through easily implementable measures. The study found that both environmental messaging and the provision of alternatives increased the use of reusable cups. While a charge on disposable cups increased their use as well, a discount on reusable cups did not. The effects for the individual measures were modest, but additive, meaning that the greatest behavioural change was achieved with a combination of measures. None of the measures negatively impacted the total number of hot drink sales. One university continued with the charge after the experiment had finished and distributed more reusable cups for free among their students. This boosted the use of reusable cups up to 33.7% across three cafés. This shows that a charge in combination with the provision of alternatives can increase the use of reusable cups substantially in the long ter