Conceptualising personal and historical nostalgia

The purpose of this research was to extend the knowledge on two distinct types of nostalgia; Personal and Historical. Previous empirical research has studied nostalgia only as a unified concept. Two scales were developed and validated to measure these responses independently of each other. Hypotheses were developed based on extant literature which postulated significant changes in cognitive, emotional, attitudinal, and intention responses as a result of the response type. A model incorporating these consumer reactions was extended and tested. Finally, the effects of varying intensities of the two response types were explored independently of each other.An experimental research design was used with a sound methodology developed though previous studies. A variety of statistical techniques deemed appropriate for each step of the analysis was used. These included both qualitative and quantitative techniques including structural equation modelling and multivariate analyses.Results show significant differences in the consumer behaviour responses examined as a result of the type of nostalgic response being elicited. The examined responses of cognition, emotions, attitudes, and intention are of high significance to academics and managers alike. In terms of comparing Personal and Historical Nostalgia to one another, Personal Nostalgia had a tendency to be more beneficial in the majority of consumer reactions. A model of these reactions was successfully extended and shown to differ between the conditions illustrating the need to explore these reactions independently. Varying levels of intensity of each specific nostalgic response type were shown to have significant effects on the examined consumer behaviour responses also. As a very general statement of the findings, it was found to be worthwhile to raise the levels of Personal or Historical Nostalgia to as high a level as possible to significantly positively alter emotions, attitudes, and intention. However, although significant cognitive changes were seen between low and mid levels of each nostalgic reaction, moving to a high level was found to have no significant impact on cognitive reactions.The most significant contributions of the research are the development of the two specific scales independently of each other through seven studies, and substantiating the hypothesised differences between the two responses with empirical evidence. These findings bridge many important gaps in the literature. Personal and Historical Nostalgia had previously only been conceptually discussed, with little to no empirical data, despite evidence of both types in the market place. The varying costs and benefits of evoking the two nostalgic responses, or varying levels of either, were unknown until now. This research results in several conceptual, methodological, and managerial implications especially valuable to academics, strategists, and industry policy makers. It also provides a solid foundation for numerous future studies

Vegetable Oils as Fuels in Diesel Engine. Engine Performance and Emissions

AbstractThe EU new energy strategy represents a challenge and a boost for industries and researchers pushing them to find new solutions to supply the energy demand complying with new environmental requests. The transport sector is one of the most addicted to oil product and then pollutant. A new bio-fuels generation is being studied, but the use of the ones already available should be increased. The use of vegetable oils (VO) and waste cooking oils (WCO) could represent interesting alternative fuels for Diesel engines in some specific applications (i.e., public transportation, hybrid or marine propulsion, etc.). Moreover, VO can be produced almost everywhere in the world in relatively small plants, and WCO would represent the use of a waste material which otherwise should be disposed. However, operating a Diesel engine (DE) with a different fuel might results in some problems. Indeed VO and WCO have different characteristics compared to Diesel fuel (i.e, a smaller heating value, a larger density and viscosity), and this can affect the operation of a DE. In particular the DE is expected to have some problem at the injection system and power loss.In this work different vegetable oils (both straight and waste) are used to fuel a DE in automotive configuration and study its behavior. Tests are performed using a turbocharged, four stroke, four cylinders, water cooled, common-rail multijet DE. The influence of fuel used on engine power, specific consumption, efficiency, and exhaust opacity, are compared with those obtained fuelling with Diesel fuel

Internal combustion engine sensor network analysis using graph modeling

In recent years there has been a rapid development in technologies for smart monitoring applied to many different areas (e.g. building automation, photovoltaic systems, etc.). An intelligent monitoring system employs multiple sensors distributed within a network to extract useful information for decision-making. The management and the analysis of the raw data derived from the sensor network includes a number of specific challenges still unresolved, related to the different communication standards, the heterogeneous structure and the huge volume of data. In this paper we propose to apply a method based on complex network theory, to evaluate the performance of an Internal Combustion Engine. Data are gathered from the OBD sensor subset and from the emission analyzer. The method provides for the graph modeling of the sensor network, where the nodes are represented by the sensors and the edge are evaluated with non-linear statistical correlation functions applied to the time series pairs. The resulting functional graph is then analyzed with the topological metrics of the network, to define characteristic proprieties representing useful indicator for the maintenance and diagnosis

Spontaneous symmetry breaking induced thermospin effect in superconducting tunnel junctions

We discuss the charge and the spin tunneling currents between two Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superconductors, where one density of states is spin-split by the proximity of a ferromagnetic insulator. In the presence of a large temperature bias across the junction, we predict the generation of a spin-polarized thermoelectric current. This thermospin effect is the result of a spontaneous particle-hole symmetry breaking in the absence of any polarizing tunnel barrier. The two spin components, which move in opposite directions, generate a spin current larger than the purely polarized case when the thermoactive component dominates over the dissipative one

Steering the multipotent mesenchymal cells towards an anti-inflammatory and osteogenic bias via photobiomodulation therapy: How to kill two birds with one stone

The bone marrow-derived multipotent mesenchymal cells (MSCs) have captured scientific interest due to their multi-purpose features and clinical applications. The operational dimension of MSCs is not limited to the bone marrow reservoir, which exerts bone-building and niche anabolic tasks; they also meet the needs of quenching inflammation and restoring inflamed tissues. Thus, the range of MSC activities extends to conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases, immune disorders and various forms of osteopenia. Steering these cells towards becoming an effective therapeutic tool has become mandatory. Many laboratories have employed distinct strategies to improve the plasticity and secretome of MSCs. We aimed to present how photobiomodulation therapy (PBM-t) can manipulate MSCs to render them an extraordinary anti-inflammatory and osteogenic instrument. Moreover, we discuss the outcomes of different PBM-t protocols on MSCs, concluding with some perplexities and complexities of PBM-t in vivo but encouraging and feasible in vitro solutions