Presenting the SCL model: adding value to business strategy through UCD principles

This paper presents the Sustainable Consumption Leveraging (SCL) Model and its toolkit, which was developed to help businesses examine their potential for enabling sustainable consumption whilst identifying areas of opportunity to improve their business model and value proposition. The paper begins by establishing the contribution of business towards sustainable consumption and sets out user-centred design (UCD) principles as a valuable approach to leverage sustainable consumption. The relationship between UCD principles and sustainable consumption in a business context was studied through qualitative research. The findings of in-depth interviews with experts, a focus group and a document analysis led to the construction of a theoretical framework, which was used to develop the SCL Model and its toolkit

Radio y cultura: Una propuesta de radio ciudadana en Internet

This article is the result of research project to qualify for a Master's degree "La Peña Cultural: model citizen Internet radio" carried out during 2013 and 2014 for Universidad de Medellin. It explored the Internet radio as a platform with multimedia tools that could strengthen the formation of reflective citizenship through content of cultural promotion. Similarly, it identifies, from a tracking station in Colombia, how these tools -social networks, podcasts, chats, video channels and new ways to communicate- allow the active participation of citizens in their production. Rescuing the use of technologies that facilitate communication, such as Internet radio, to recognize and retrieve the value of their own cultural promotion of a state in order to form a reflective citizenship, it is the approach that was made from the ethnographic and applied research and is now presented in this article. It is the way in which citizens could converge in a medium to produce content that will strengthen their cultural identity or, if you will, their vision of the nation. It is a commitment to establish an alternative to the traditional models, a guide to the community interested in promoting a reflexive citizen of cultural heritage

Imagen espacial proxémica de los niños de 5, 7, 10 y 13-15 años, según sus dibujos

Sin resume

Product renovation and shared ownership: sustainable routes to satisfying the world's growing demand for goods

It has been estimated that by 2030 the number of people who are wealthy enough to be considered as middle class consumers will have tripled. This will have a dramatic impact on the demands for primary materials and energy. Much work has been carried out on sustainable ways of meeting the World’s energy demands and some work has been carried out on the sustainable production and consumption of goods. It has been estimated that with improvements in design and manufacturing it is possible to reduce the primary material requirements by 30% to produce the current demand for goods. Whilst this is a crucial step on the production side, there will still be a doubling of primary material requirements by the end of the century because of an absolute rise in demand for goods and services. It is therefore clear that the consumption of products must also be explored. This is a key areas of research for the UK INDEMAND centre, which is investigating ways of reducing the UK’s industrial energy demand and demand for energy intensive materials. Our ongoing work shows that two strategies would result in considerable reductions in the demand for primary materials: product longevity and using goods more intensively (which may requires increased durability). Product longevity and durability are not new ideas, but ones that can be applied across a raft of goods as methods of reducing the consumption of materials. With long life products there is a potential risk of outdated design and obsolescence, consequently there is a need to ensure upgradability and adaptability are incorporated at the design stage. If products last longer, then the production of new products can be diverted to emerging markets rather than the market for replacement goods. There are many goods which are only used occasionally; these goods do not normally wear out. The total demand for such could be drastically reduced if they were shared with other people. Sharing of goods has traditionally been conducted between friends or by hiring equipment. The use of modern communication systems and social media could enable the development of sharing co-ops and swap spaces that will increase the utilisation of goods and hence reduce the demand for new goods. This could also increase access to a range of goods for those on low incomes. From a series of workshops it has been found that the principal challenges are sociological rather than technological. This paper contains a discussion of these challenges and explores possible futures where these two strategies have been adopted. In addition, the barriers and opportunities that these strategies offer for consumers and businesses are identified, and areas where government policy could be instigated to bring about change are highlighted

The use of ultrasonic echo pulse velocity as an NDT method to predict the concrete strength and uniformity

The ultrasonic approach is one of the non-destructive testing methods that most technologically progressed in past few years. This study aims to validate the accuracy and capabilities of this method in the mechanical characterization of concrete elements, by using an ultrasonic tomography equipment based in echo pulse velocity (S-waves). The elastic modulus and compressive strength of concrete are estimated from the echo pulse velocity. Furthermore, the uniformity of concrete elements is evaluated. The concrete compression strength prediction was performed on cubic specimens and the reached accuracy was over 91% using the analytical approach proposed on this study. The correlation coefficient between the pulse echo velocity and the uniaxial compression strength found in this study was over 97%. Thus, the use of the ultrasonic NDT to evaluate the uniformity of concrete elements proved to be efficient.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A vision of re-distributed manufacturing for the UK’s consumer goods industry

The linear production of consumer goods is characterised by mass manufacture, multinational enterprises and globally dispersed supply chains. Redistributed manufacture (RDM) is an emerging topic, which seeks to enable a transition of the current linear model of production and consumption, by taking advantage of new technologies. This paper aims to explore the challenges, opportunities and further research questions to set a vision of Redistributed manufacturing for the UK’s consumer goods industry. To set this vision, a literature survey was conducted followed by a qualitative enquiry where PESTLE1 aspects of RDM were analysed. This analysis was interpreted through a roadmap. As a result of this roadmap, four RDM characteristics (i.e. customisation, use of digital technologies, local production and the development of new business models) were identified. These characteristics helped to set the future vision of RDM in the UK’s consumer goods sector

Emergencia del paradigma de gobernabilidad en América Latina : aprendizajes de la transición y consolidación democrática para la gobernabilidad en Chile

This study searches for explanations for problems of quality and depth of democracies in Latin America in the configuration of a governance paradigm that has conditioned political models, institutional formulas, and a set of strategic public policies, that have been adopted by political leaders to resolve problems facing their governments. Given this paradigm, however, these leaders have not been capable of meeting the social and political demands of society.The study focuses on Chile which is considered to be the most successful country in Latin America in terms of governance. This dissertation explores the application of the governance paradigm in the Chilean case, and how this paradigm is applied to resolve three interrelated problems: (i) to assure the stability of the civilian democratic regime given the potential to return to authoritarianism, (ii) to confront the centrifugal tendencies of political actors, and (iii) to contain the overflowing of societal demands. The study concludes that the defining elements of the democratic transition in that country played a central role in featuring the process that created the incentives and restrictions on the governance model. The result has been a “transition via transaction” that has established the rules of the political and economic game.LEI Universiteit LeidenPolitical Culture and National Identit

Scalable High-Order UWB Pulse Generation Employing an FBG-Based Photonic Superstructure

In this letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a compact, flexible, and scalable ultrawideband (UWB) generator based on the merge of phase-to-intensity conversion and pulse shaping employing an fiber Bragg Grating-based superstructure. Our approach offers the capacity for generating high-order UWB pulses by means of the combination of various low-order derivatives. Moreover, the scheme permits the implementation of binary and multilevel modulation formats. Experimental measurements of the generated UWB pulses, in both time and frequency domain, are presented revealing efficiency and a proper fit in terms of Federal Communications Commission settled standards.This work was supported in part by the National Project under Grant TEC2010-21303-C04-02, Grant TEC2011-26642, and Grant TEC2014-58048-C2-2-P through the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and in part by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional under Project UPVOV08-3E-008.Moreno, V.; Mora Almerich, J.; Muriel, M.; Capmany Francoy, J. (2015). Scalable High-Order UWB Pulse Generation Employing an FBG-Based Photonic Superstructure. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. 27(20):2146-2149. doi:10.1109/LPT.2015.2454952S21462149272

Effectiveness of a recent topical sialogogue in the management of drug-induced xerostomia

Objectives: Use of certain drugs is the most common aetiology of xerostomia. Systemic sialogogues provide a longer effect than topic ones, but also induce relevant side effects. Topical sialogogues, as malic acid, allow a safe use as they induce no systemic side-effects or pharmacological interactions, being especially interesting in cases of mild hyposalivation and oral dryness, mainly the chronic use of xerostomizing drugs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical effect of 1% malic acid in patients affected by xerostomia due to antihypertensives or antidepressants. Study Design: 10 patients with drug-induced xerostomia were prospectively evaluated before and after using malic acid spray during three weeks. Xerostomia Inventory (XI) was used to evaluate subjective improvement. Unstimulated and stimulated salivary flow rates were determinated. Results: Severity significantly decreased, from 38.22 to 31.00 points (p = 0.011) after using the product. 77.8% of subjects did not complain about xerostomia at the end and 66.6% achieved an improvement > 6 points. Unstimulated flow rate singnificantly increased, from 0.163 to 0.226 mL/min (p = 0.021) at the third week. Conclusions: 1% malic acid spray induces some improvement in the management of mild and reversible xerostomia. Carrying out of randomized controlled trials is justified according to this study