An exploratory study on the links between individual upcycling, product attachment and product longevity

Product attachment, the emotional bond experienced with a product, is an emerging concept for sustainable production and consumption. The logic behind it is that when people are attached to any product, they are more likely to handle the product with care and to postpone its replacement or disposal. Some types of product have been studied regarding product attachment in past research but the focus has been on the perspectives of professional designers and manufacturers rather than on consumers’ ‘everyday creativity’ activities such as ‘individual upcycling’. Individual upcycling, creation out of used materials resulting in a higher quality or value product than the compositional elements, is particularly relevant to product attachment. This is because upcycling, as a creative, participatory user activity, may offer the experiences of self-expression, group affiliation, special memories and pleasure, all of which are possible product attachment determinants

Individual upcycling practice: exploring the possible determinants of upcycling based on a literature review

Individual upcycling – the creation or creative modification of any product out of used materials in an attempt to generate a product of higher quality or value than the compositional elements – has recently been advocated by many as a means to reduce waste, yet is still marginal. Considering the implied benefit to sustainable production and consumption, the most relevant question at this point may be how to scale up this marginal practice into mainstream practice to make a bigger impact in society and environment. In order to generate effective scaling-up strategies for change, it is essential to understand the determinants of upcycling (i.e. what drives and facilitates it). This paper reviews relevant contemporary literature and identifies a set of determinants. The synthesized result, despite its partiality, shows possible examples of design and policy implications for scaling-up, and leads to future research suggestions

An exploratory study on the consequences of individual upcycling: is it worth making people feel attached to their upcycled products?

Product attachment, the emotional bond experienced with a product, is an emerging concept for sustainable production and consumption. The logic behind it is that when people are attached to any product, they are more likely to postpone its replacement or disposal. Some types of product have been studied regarding product attachment in past research but the focus has been on manufacturers ’ perspectives rather than on consumers’ ‘everyday creativity’ activities such as ‘individual upcycling’. Individual upcycling, creation or modification out of used materials resulting in a higher quality or value product than the composition al elements, is particularly relevant to product attachment. This is because upcycling, as a creative, engaging user activity, may offer the experiences of self-expression, group affiliation, special memories and pleasure, all of which are possible product attachment determinants. In the meantime, recent evidence suggests that the number of people who upcycle things has increased, possibly as a response to the contemporary ‘Maker Movement’ and aided by physical and digital resources. Despite this growth, individual upcycling has not been investigated extensively, especially its relation to product attachment and product longevity. Acknowledging this, this study investigated the consequences of individual upcycling with respect to product attachment and the product longevity of upcycled products, and compared the results with mass-produced products with the same functions through an exploratory questionnaire with 23 UK-based upcycling practitioners. The results demonstrated that the attachment to upcycled products is positively correlated with irreplaceability, and irreplaceability with product care and expected product longevity. The results also showed that the expected product lifetime years of the upcycled product with attachment are longer than the estimated average product lifetime years of the mass-produced products with the same functions

Observational Constraints on the Averaged Universe

Averaging in general relativity is a complicated operation, due to the general covariance of the theory and the non-linearity of Einstein's equations. The latter of these ensures that smoothing spacetime over cosmological scales does not yield the same result as solving Einstein's equations with a smooth matter distribution, and that the smooth models we fit to observations need not be simply related to the actual geometry of spacetime. One specific consequence of this is a decoupling of the geometrical spatial curvature term in the metric from the dynamical spatial curvature in the Friedmann equation. Here we investigate the consequences of this decoupling by fitting to a combination of HST, CMB, SNIa and BAO data sets. We find that only the geometrical spatial curvature is tightly constrained, and that our ability to constrain dark energy dynamics will be severely impaired until we gain a thorough understanding of the averaging problem in cosmology.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Microstructure and superconducting properties of hot isostatically pressed MgB2

Bulk samples of MgB2 have been formed by hot isostatic pressing (HIPping) of commercial powder at 100MPa and 950=B0C. The resulting material is 100% dense with a sharp superconducting transition at 37.5K. Microstructural studies have indicated the presence of small amounts of second phases within the material, namely MgO and B rich compositions, probably MgB4. Magnetisation measurements performed at 20K have revealed values of Jc=1.3 x 106A/cm2 at zero field, and 9.3 x 105A/cm2 at 1T. Magneto optical (MO) studies have shown direct evidence for the superconducting homogeneity and strong intergranular current flow in the material.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures, text updated, new references included and discussed. Submitted to Superconductor Science and Technolog