Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2022-02-01"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 20
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Food system resilience thinking: from digital to integralPublication . Brassesco, Maria Emilia; Pintado, Manuela; Coscueta, Ezequiel R.The current food system is directly influenced by the increase in environmental problems and nutritional inequality globally. Financial and political collapses, health crises, excessive urbanization, and rapid industrialization are some of the principal factors threatening the food supply's security. The food system needs a profound transformation to avoid ecosystem destabilization and a global food crisis. Concerning this transformation, we are certain that the first step for a successful food system change is global resilience thinking. To reach an integrated food system, we proposed introducing the resilient concept linked with other known concepts, such as circular economy and sustainability. A resilient food system can recover over time, ensuring the supply of sustainable and quality food and access to all. This would mean redesigning the value chains in the food system, re-educating consumers to implement a healthier diet, and introducing technology such as digital innovation. Re-evaluating these relevant points, redesigning the focus of the food system, not only for economic efficiency but also including significant trade-offs, or valuing other services in the food system, are essential to reaching the desired resilience.
- An exploratory study on the effectiveness of virtual reality analgesia for children and adolescents with kidney diseases undergoing venipuncturePublication . Atzori, Barbara; Vagnoli, Laura; Graziani, Daniela; Hoffman, Hunter G.; Sampaio, Mariana; Alhalabi, Wadee; Messeri, Andrea; Lauro-Grotto, RosapiaThe current study evaluated the effectiveness of VR analgesia among pediatric and adolescent patients with kidney disease undergoing venipuncture. Patients at an Italian Children’s hospital (N = 82, age range 7–17 years) undergoing venipuncture were randomly assigned to a No VR group (non-medical conversation) vs. a Yes VR group (VR analgesia). After the procedure, patients gave 0–10 Verbal Numeric Pain Scale ratings. Compared with patients in the No VR Group, patients in the Yes VR group reported significantly lower “Pain intensity”(No VR mean = 2.74, SD = 2.76 vs. Yes VR mean = 1.56, SD = 1.83) and the VR group also rated “Pain unpleasantness” significantly lower than the No VR group (No VR mean = 2.41, SD = 0.94 vs. Yes VR mean = 1.17, SD = 1.80). Patients distracted with VR also reported having significantly more fun during the venipuncture procedure. No side effects emerged. In addition to reducing pain intensity, VR has the potential to make venipuncture a more fun and less unpleasant experience for children with CKD, as measured in the present study for the first time. Finally, in exploratory analyses, children aged 7–11 in the VR group reported 55% lower worst pain than control subjects in the same age range, whereas children aged 12 to 17 in the VR group only reported 35% lower worst pain than control subjects. Additional research and development using more immersive VR is recommended.
- Chip-based spectrofluorimetric determination of iodine in a multi-syringe flow platform with and without in-line digestion — application to salt, pharmaceuticals, and algae samplesPublication . Miranda, Joana L. A.; Mesquita, Raquel B. R.; Palacio, Edwin; Estela, José M.; Cerdà, Víctor; Rangel, António O. S. S.In this work, a flow-based spectrofluorimetric method for iodine determination was developed. The system consisted of a miniaturized chip-based flow manifold for solutions handling and with integrated spectrofluorimetric detection. A multi-syringe module was used as a liquid driver. Iodide was quantified from its catalytic effect on the redox reaction between Ce(IV) and As(III), based on the Sandell–Kolthoff reaction. The method was applied for the determination of iodine in salt, pharmaceuticals, supplement pills, and seaweed samples without off-line pre-treatment. An in-line oxidation process, aided by UV radiation, was implemented to analyse some samples (supplement pills and seaweed samples) to eliminate interferences and release iodine from organo-iodine compounds. This feature, combined with the fluorometric reaction, makes this method simpler, faster, and more sensitive than the classic approach of the Sandell–Kolthoff reaction. The method allowed iodine to be determined within a range of 0.20–4.0 µmol L−1, with or without the in-line UV digestion, with a limit of detection of 0.028 µmol L−1 and 0.025 µmol L−1, respectively.
- The power of sight : the impact of AR Smart Glasses on the smartphone industryPublication . Santos, Beatriz Marina Costa dos; Rajsingh, PeterThe smartphone industry has experienced a phenomenal growth in the last 15 years of its existence, but it has begun to plateau. This dissertation evaluates the likelihood of an emerging Smart Wearable (SW), the AR Smart Glasses, significantly impacting the smartphone industry. This research used qualitative and quantitative methods, including 14 expert interviews, to better understand the workings of AR and future potential of AR Smart Glasses, as well as a survey with 196 respondents to determine what consumers think about AR Smart Glasses. Experts believe that AR Smart Glasses will have a significant impact on the smartphone industry, and even take its place in the future, but there is a lack of confidence regarding the time period in which may occur. Experts believe the biggest threats to its success are its affordability, AR's complex technology, and the lack of consumer education on the issue. The success of AR Smart Glasses was viewed with skepticism by respondents. They are more interested in its capacity to improve engagement with reality than in having another platform to consume content, and were primarily worried about how it would affect their comfort and interfere with reality. They prefer to check time, notifications, weather, use GPS, voice assistant and take pictures on AR Smart Glasses, but given that the majority of respondents consider themselves unfamiliar with AR and AR Smart Glasses, their preferences may shift to AR Smart Glasses once they gain a better understanding of the device's potential.
- Why phishing attacks remain a threat for organizations with a robust cyber securityPublication . Wahl, Axel Rynjus; Rajsingh, PeterOver the last decade, there has been a substantial rise in the number of phishing attacks that harm organizations and individuals. Organizations are investing heavily in cyber security to minimize the risk of becoming a victim of a cyberattack, such as phishing attacks. Paradoxically, with cyber security budgets of organizations continuously increasing each year, the number of attacks that are successful is also increasing. In this thesis, we investigate how organizations with cyber security become victims of phishing attacks, drawing upon academic literature and empirical data collection. We examine the critical factors for why phishing attacks are effective. We then look into how organizations can reduce the risks of becoming a victim of these attacks. We suggest that current measures used to educate employees on cyber security and phishing emails may lack efficacy, since current training and education often fail to adapt to individual variabilities. This implies the need for more adapted training initiatives to increase the effectiveness of measures and hence reduce the probability of loss events. The other factor that leads to organizations and their employees failing to protect themselves from phishing attacks may be the human proclivity towards making unintentional mistakes. However, we argue that organizations need to be careful simply to blame human error as the root cause for phishing attacks becoming a larger threat.
- Self-licensing in recycling behavior : investigating the effects of economic incentives on resource consumptionPublication . Marangoz, Deniz; Scott, IanAccepted as a negative spillover in behavioral research, the concept of self-licensing states that performing good behavior tends to make individuals feel better or less guilty about themselves, which decreases the likelihood of engagement in subsequent good acts. Self-licensing is also observed in recycling behavior. Performing recycling might have environmentally undesired outcomes like increasing subsequent consumption due to positive feeling enhancement or guilt reduction. However, although real-life waste-management policies often financially reward or penalize households for their recycling behavior, no studies in the recycling behavior literature investigate potential licensing effects of economic incentives. To reduce this gap in literature, an experimental setting to test the effects of recycling incentives on the licensing relationship was created via an online survey, where participants were randomly assigned to two groups. In order to capture the licensing effects created by recycling incentives, income and substitution effects (another impact of economic incentives on consumption) were controlled in the model. Following previous self-licensing studies, “donations” was also included as an alternative dependent measure, to see whether recycling incentives lead to self-licensing in different behavioral domains. Furthermore, the moderating roles of environmental self-identity, different cultural dimensions and the difficulty of the recycling task were checked to see if they alleviated or exacerbated the licensing effect. Results revealed significant positive indirect effects between recycling rewards and both of the dependent measures (consumption and donations), via positive feelings. This means that although recycling incentives may increase consumption by enhancing positive feelings, they might also have pro-social outcomes (i.e., increase in donations). These mixed results indicate that more empirical studies on the licensing effects of economic incentives are needed, in order to give better insights for future waste-management policies.
- Multifunctionality of rapeseed meal protein isolates prepared by sequential isoelectric precipitationPublication . Georgiev, Radoslav; Kalaydzhiev, Hristo; Ivanova, Petya; Silva, Cristina L. M.; Chalova, Vesela I.Rapeseed meal is a by-product of the oil-producing industry with a currently underesti-mated application. Two protein isolates, PI2.5–8.5 or PI10.5–2.5, were obtained from industrial rapeseed meal after treatment with an aqueous ethanol solution. The alkaline-extracted proteins were sequen-tially precipitated by two different modes, from pH 10.5 to 2.5, and vice versa, from 2.5 to 8.5, with a step of 1 pH unit. The preparation approach influenced both the functional and antioxidant properties of the isolates. The PI10.5–2.5 exhibited higher water and oil absorption capacities than PI2.5–8.5, reaching 2.68 g H2O/g sample and 2.36 g oil/g sample, respectively. The emulsion stability of the PI2.5–8.5, evaluated after heating at 80 °C, was either 100% or close to 100% for all pH values studied (from 2 to 10), except for pH 6 where it reached 93.87%. For the PI10.5–2.5, decreases in the emulsion stability were observed at pH 8 (85.71%) and pH 10 (53.15%). In the entire concentration range, the PI10.5–2.5 exhibited a higher scavenging ability on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) and hydroxyl radicals than PI2.5–8.5 as evaluated by DPPH and 2-deoxyribose assays, respectively. At the highest concentration studied, 1.0%, the neutralization of DPPH radicals by PI10.5–2 reached half of that exhibited by synthetic antioxidant butylhydroxytoluene (82.65%). At the same concentration, the inhibition of hydroxyl radicals by PI10.5–2 (71.25%) was close to that achieved by mannitol (75.62%), which was used as a positive control. Established antioxidant capacities add value to the protein isolates that can thus be used as both emulsifiers and antioxidants.
- How carbon neutrality imperatives are changing the aluminum industry?Publication . Teixeira, António Joaquim Azevedo Lima; Rajsingh, PeterThe Aluminum Industry is facing high pressure from society and governments in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, since it is a high CO2 emission industry. This study aims to determine how the imperatives of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 will affect the aluminum industry. I will examine how theories and other studies regarding decarbonisation of the industry frame themselves in reality. Are companies really trying to make efforts to decarbonize the industry or it is all for the show, what are going to be the biggest changes in the industry, and what strategies companies can adopt in order to achieve this goal. To explore how decarbonization imperatives will change the aluminum industry, various research efforts were undertaken. First, the literature review framed the problem and information helped better understand the problem that the industry is facing. Further, various interviews were conducted with experts. The results showed that companies, some more than others, are in fact putting in practice different strategies to achieve carbon neutrality, even though they are still in the early stages of the deployment. These results suggest that enterprises are in fact aware of the facts and are taking action. However, the industry is still very profit driven, even though the companies claim not to be as such as I will mention in the course of this paper
- Da opinião à representação : o Islão no discurso dos jornais em Portugal : 2010-2020 : Público, Correio da Manhã, Diário de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias e ObservadorPublication . Ventura, Helena Sofia Lourenço Cruz; Arêas, Camila CabralOs media são elementos fundamentais na construção de significados, representações e agenda da actualidade. O seu poder é inegável na representação de eventos, fenómenos, pessoas ou grupos, também étnicos ou religiosos. Este poder estende-se aos opinion makers e à sua produção, que se pressupõe como legítima e credível, servindo como barómetro para a opinião pública. Islão e muçulmanos, segundo a literatura científica, tendem a ser representados pelos media ditos “ocidentais” de uma forma negativa, sendo associados a temas como conflito, terrorismo, intolerância e extremismo. Mais ainda, são frequentemente representados como uma massa homogénea e tratados com alteridade. A produção científica indica que os produtores de opinião que escrevem sobre o Islão em Portugal não são especialistas no tema. Igualmente, indica que o Islão português é praticamente invisível nos media e que existe a ideia não-fundamentada cientificamente de que está “bem integrado”. Esta dissertação analisa a forma como Islão e muçulmanos são tratados pelo jornalismo de opinião em Portugal, durante dez anos (2010-2020), nas versões online dos jornais portugueses o Público, o Correio da Manhã, o Diário de Notícias e o Jornal de Notícias e no jornal electrónico Observador. Por meio de uma metodologia mista, que combina análise de conteúdo com análise crítica de discurso, são analisados o tratamento temático e discursivo desta cobertura jornalística que engloba 494 artigos de opinião. Identifica, ainda, os mais frequentes opinion makers sobre o tema do Islão em Portugal, chegando à conclusão de que não são, na sua maioria, especialistas no assunto. O estudo demonstra que as representações do Islão e dos muçulmanos são redutoras e maioritariamente associadas ao terrorismo e às diferenças de valores, partindo sempre de uma lógica de alteridade, e sendo quase nula aquela feita sobre o Islão português. Mais, os artigos revelam existir a pressuposição de uma identidade cristã/católica nacional.
- Phenylethyl isothiocyanate: a bioactive agent for gastrointestinal healthPublication . Coscueta, Ezequiel R.; Sousa, Ana Sofia; Reis, Celso A.; Pintado, Maria ManuelaThe incidence of gastrointestinal pathologies (cancer in particular) has increased progressively, with considerable morbidity and mortality, and a high economic impact on the healthcare system. The dietary intake of natural phytochemicals with certain bioactive properties has shown therapeutic and preventive effects on these pathologies. This includes the cruciferous vegetable derivative phenylethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a bioactive compound present in some vegetables, such as watercress. Notably, PEITC has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, bactericidal, and anticarcinogenic properties. This review summarized the current knowledge on the role of PEITC as a potential natural nutraceutical or an adjuvant against oxidative/inflammatory-related disorders in the gastrointestinal tract. We also discussed the safe and recommended dose of PEITC. In addition, we established a framework to guide the research and development of sustainable methodologies for obtaining and stabilizing this natural molecule for industrial use. With PEITC, there is great potential to develop a viable strategy for preventing cancer and other associated diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. However, this topic still needs more scientific studies to help develop new PEITC products for the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, or food industries.