How cool is to be engaged with Drunk Elephant? An analysis of usergenerated content campaigns on Instagram

This study aims to understand the effect of user-generated content (UGC) campaigns on consumers’ perceptions of brand coolness and its influence on consumer brand engagement. The trendy concept of coolness in the beauty industry is studied through UGC, assessing if brands encouraging consumers to post about their experiences leads to consumers perceiving brands as cool and creating a deeper sense of engagement with that brand. This research intends to assess the interactions incited by a UGC campaign led by the prestigious beauty brand Drunk Elephant. Researchers employed a netnography methodology followed by a sentiment analysis technique to conduct that analysis. Data was retrieved from Instagram for one year using a text-mining tool capable of extracting the comments (67,321 interactions) and analysed using Natural Language Processing tools. Results confirm that adopting UGC campaigns can lead to consumers perceiving a brand to be cool and positively influencing consumer brand engagement.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gravity vs radiation model: on the importance of scale and heterogeneity in commuting flows

We test the recently introduced radiation model against the gravity model for the system composed of England and Wales, both for commuting patterns and for public transportation flows. The analysis is performed both at macroscopic scales, i.e. at the national scale, and at microscopic scales, i.e. at the city level. It is shown that the thermodynamic limit assumption for the original radiation model significantly underestimates the commuting flows for large cities. We then generalize the radiation model, introducing the correct normalisation factor for finite systems. We show that even if the gravity model has a better overall performance the parameter-free radiation model gives competitive results, especially for large scales.Comment: in press Phys. Rev. E, 201

Extending the Synoptics of Things (SoT) Framework to Manage ISoS Technology Landscapes

Managing and monitoring the software and hardware artifacts of an industrial organization are fundamental efforts that can often be challenging endeavors to achieve, especially when such technological landscapes are composed of multiple heterogeneous systems. Usually, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are provided by different suppliers and may use different protocols and interfaces. Thus, the integration of these devices results in complex development and maintenance cycles. The Synoptics of Things (SoT) framework can address these problems, in conjunction with the Informatics System of Systems (ISoS) platform by promoting an open market competitive tech nology landscape for organizations. The purpose of the research presented in this paper was to extend the SoT framework in order to manage and monitor the different elements of an ISoS enabled organization, namely the ISystems (Informatics Systems), CES (Cooperation Enabled Services), and Services. We argue that the SoT framework can be essential in a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system in today’s modern web, by adopting the concept of Web Components as a standard to enable the development of custom and reusable components. We present and discuss such issues in the context of the HORUS system, an informatic system responsible for payment enforcement in fueling stations. In this system, several devices must work in coordination, such as video cameras and video recorders, which are fundamental for the retrieving of license plate images and, therefore, be continually monitored to ensure the correct functioning of the HORUS system.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Critical Perspective on 3D Liver Models for Drug Metabolism and Toxicology Studies

The poor predictability of human liver toxicity is still causing high attrition rates of drug candidates in the pharmaceutical industry at the non-clinical, clinical, and post-marketing authorization stages. This is in part caused by animal models that fail to predict various human adverse drug reactions (ADRs), resulting in undetected hepatotoxicity at the non-clinical phase of drug development. In an effort to increase the prediction of human hepatotoxicity, different approaches to enhance the physiological relevance of hepatic in vitro systems are being pursued. Three-dimensional (3D) or microfluidic technologies allow to better recapitulate hepatocyte organization and cell-matrix contacts, to include additional cell types, to incorporate fluid flow and to create gradients of oxygen and nutrients, which have led to improved differentiated cell phenotype and functionality. This comprehensive review addresses the drug-induced hepatotoxicity mechanisms and the currently available 3D liver in vitro models, their characteristics, as well as their advantages and limitations for human hepatotoxicity assessment. In addition, since toxic responses are greatly dependent on the culture model, a comparative analysis of the toxicity studies performed using two-dimensional (2D) and 3D in vitro strategies with recognized hepatotoxic compounds, such as paracetamol, diclofenac, and troglitazone is performed, further highlighting the need for harmonization of the respective characterization methods. Finally, taking a step forward, we propose a roadmap for the assessment of drugs hepatotoxicity based on fully characterized fit-for-purpose in vitro models, taking advantage of the best of each model, which will ultimately contribute to more informed decision-making in the drug development and risk assessment fields.This research has been supported by FCT (Portugal) through the research grants and scholarship PTDC/MED-TOX/29183/2017, UIDB/04138/2020, UIDP/04138/2020, and SFRH/BD/144130/2019 to JR and by the H2020, European Commission, though the MSCA-IF-EF-ST – Standard EF to MC (GA-845147-LIV-AD-ON-A-CHIP). Conflict of Interestinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Secondary Raw Materials from Residual Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composites by An Upgraded Pyrolysis Process

This paper presents a process where carbon fibers and hydrogen can be recovered simultaneously through a two-stage thermal treatment of an epoxy-carbon fiber composite. For this purpose, some pieces of epoxy resin reinforced with carbon fiber fabrics have been fabricated and, after curing, have been pyrolyzed in an installation consisting of two reactors. In the first one, the thermal decomposition of the resin takes place, and in the second one, the gases and vapors coming from the first reactor are thermally treated. Once this process is completed, the solid generated is oxidized with air to eliminate the resin residues and carbonaceous products from the fibers surface. The recovered carbon fiber fabrics have been reused to make new cured parts and their electrical and mechanical properties have been measured. The results show that it is possible to obtain carbon fiber fabrics that can be processed as they leave the recycling process and that retain 80% of the tensile modulus, 70% of the flexural strength, and 50% of the interlaminar shear strength. At the same time, a gaseous stream with more than 66% by volume of hydrogen can be obtained, reaching a maximum of 81.7%.This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Spanish Government through the project with reference PID2019-110770RB-I00 and by the Basque Government through the project with reference KK-2020/00107 (ELKARTEK program). Besides, the Basque Government also contributed to this work by means of the regular funding granted to consolidated research teams (IT993-16) and the researcher training grant awarded to Naia Gastelu

Locke's legacy

A organização de um colóquio em torno da “herança de Locke” foi uma ideia que nasceu no Centro de Estudos Anglísticos da Universidade de Lisboa, no âmbito do núcleo de investigação dedicado aos estudos de cultura inglesa. Vários textos de Locke são regularmente incluídos nos programas de graduação e de pósgraduação em Estudos Anglísticos, além de objecto de estudo especializado no Centro de Estudos Anglísticos. Assim, fazia todo o sentido comemorar, no ano de 2004, a passagem de mais um centenário sobre a morte de Locke, e celebrar a vitalidade da sua obra ao longo de três séculos reunindo especialistas que, publicamente, apresentassem e discutissem aspectos dessa obra que continuam activos no presente. O volume que agora se publica reúne as comunicações apresentadas em Janeiro de 2004. A variedade dos temas abordados e a manifesta relevância de que se revestem para o estudo da modernidade demonstram que a herança de Locke continua a produzir riqueza, e que constitui património cultural a ser herdado por novas gerações.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

A ferrite tuner for the 114 MHz cavity

The use of microwave ferrites for a fast tuner is investigated. High Q values are expected by biasing the ferrite rings transversely to the direction of the RF magnetic field