A matter of time: Phases of customer co-creation community participation and their impact on customer behavior

Despite the growing relevance of co-creating customer communities only little scientific evidence is available on their impact on transactional behavior of participants. Previous research has mostly used self-reported data or distinguished only between during and pre-community phases obtaining mixed results. However, the author proposes that co-creating community activity takes place in five distinguishable phases and changes in transactional behavior are limited to certain phases. Using 33 months of transactional data of a Dutch online auction provider a study was conducted covering all five phases of the community co-creation process from community planning over community set-up, co-development and co-testing to post-launch. The overall results indicate mixed effects of community participation on the different transactional variables during the co-creation process. Community participation had positive effects on auctions listing behavior at the community set-up, co-development and post-launch phases, whereby the number of auctions listed peaked during the community set-up phase. These results suggest that the impact on transactional behavior differs between co-creation phases and different psychological mechanism limited to certain phases might trigger the respective changes.

Support in decision-making under uncertainty: a project risk assessment tool development and supplementary advances

A foremost dispute that persists on the contemporary world’s agenda is change. The on-going social/technological/economic changes create a competitive and challenging environment for companies to endure. To benefit from these changes, world economies partially depend on emerging Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and their adaptability skills, and subsequently the development of an integrated capability to innovate has become the prime strategy for most of SMEs to subsist and grow. However, innovation and change are always somewhat bonded to an inherent risk development, which subsequently brings on the necessity of a revision of risk management approaches in innovative processes, whose importance SMEs tend to disregard. Additionally, little efforts have been made to improve and create empirical models, metrics and tools to assist SMEs managing latent risks in their innovative projects. This work seeks to present and discuss a solution to support SMEs in engaging on systematic risk management practices, which consists on an integrated risk assessment and response support web-based tool - Spotrisk® - designed for SMEs. On the other hand, an inherent subjectivity is linked with risk management and identification processes, due to uncertainty trait of its nature, for each individual perceives situations according to his own idiosyncrasy, which brings complications in normalizing risk profiles and procedures. This essay aims to bring insights concerning the support in decision-making processes under uncertainty, by addressing issues related with the risk behavior character among individuals. To address such issues, subjects of neuroscience or psychology are explored and models to identify such character are proposed, as well as models to improve presented tool. This work attempts to go beyond the restrictive aim of endeavoring on technical improvement dissertation, and in embraces an exploratory conceptualization concerning micro, small and medium businesses’ traits regarding risk characters and project risk assessment tools.

Fostering e-participation sustainability through a BPM-driven semantic model

According to a recent Eurobarometer survey (2014), 68% of Europeans tend not to trust national governments. As the increasing alienation of citizens from politics endangers democracy and welfare, governments, practitioners and researchers look for innovative means to engage citizens in policy matters. One of the measures intended to overcome the so-called democratic deficit is the promotion of civic participation. Digital media proliferation offers a set of novel characteristics related to interactivity, ubiquitous connectivity, social networking and inclusiveness that enable new forms of societal-wide collaboration with a potential impact on leveraging participative democracy. Following this trend, e-Participation is an emerging research area that consists in the use of Information and Communication Technologies to mediate and transform the relations among citizens and governments towards increasing citizens’ participation in public decision-making. However, despite the widespread efforts to implement e-Participation through research programs, new technologies and projects, exhaustive studies on the achieved outcomes reveal that it has not yet been successfully incorporated in institutional politics. Given the problems underlying e-Participation implementation, the present research suggested that, rather than project-oriented efforts, the cornerstone for successfully implementing e-Participation in public institutions as a sustainable added-value activity is a systematic organisational planning, embodying the principles of open-governance and open-engagement. It further suggested that BPM, as a management discipline, can act as a catalyst to enable the desired transformations towards value creation throughout the policy-making cycle, including political, organisational and, ultimately, citizen value. Following these findings, the primary objective of this research was to provide an instrumental model to foster e-Participation sustainability across Government and Public Administration towards a participatory, inclusive, collaborative and deliberative democracy. The developed artefact, consisting in an e-Participation Organisational Semantic Model (ePOSM) underpinned by a BPM-steered approach, introduces this vision. This approach to e-Participation was modelled through a semi-formal lightweight ontology stack structured in four sub-ontologies, namely e-Participation Strategy, Organisational Units, Functions and Roles. The ePOSM facilitates e-Participation sustainability by: (1) Promoting a common and cross-functional understanding of the concepts underlying e-Participation implementation and of their articulation that bridges the gap between technical and non-technical users; (2) Providing an organisational model which allows a centralised and consistent roll-out of strategy-driven e-Participation initiatives, supported by operational units dedicated to the execution of transformation projects and participatory processes; (3) Providing a standardised organisational structure, goals, functions and roles related to e-Participation processes that enhances process-level interoperability among government agencies; (4) Providing a representation usable in software development for business processes’ automation, which allows advanced querying using a reasoner or inference engine to retrieve concrete and specific information about the e-Participation processes in place. An evaluation of the achieved outcomes, as well a comparative analysis with existent models, suggested that this innovative approach tackling the organisational planning dimension can constitute a stepping stone to harness e-Participation value.

Development of biomimetic microengineered hydrogel fibers for tendon regeneration

Musculoskeletal diseases are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Tendon injuries are responsible for substantial morbidity, pain and disability. Tissue engineering strategies aim at translating tendon structure into biomimetic materials. The main goal of the present study is to develop microengineered hydrogel fibers through the combination of microfabrication and chemical interactions between oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. For this, methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA) and chondroitin sulfate (MeCS) were combined with chitosan (CHT). Hydrogel fibers were obtained by injecting polymer solutions (either MeHA or MeHA/MeCS and CHT) in separate microchannels that join at a y-junction, with the materials interacting upon contact at the interface. To evaluate cell behavior, human tendon derived cells (hTDCs) were isolated from tendon surplus samples during orthopedic surgeries and seeded on top of the fibers. hTDCs adhered to the surface of the fibers, remaining viable, and were found to be expressing CD44, the receptor for hyaluronic acid. The synthesis of hydrogel fibers crosslinkable through both physical and chemical mechanisms combined with microfabrication technology allows the development of biomimetic structures with parallel fibers being formed towards the replication of tendon tissue architecture.

Development of innovative hybrid sandwich panel slabs: Experimental results

The authors appreciate the collaboration of the following labs: Civitest for developing DHCC materials, PIEP for conducting VARTM process (Eng. Luis Oliveira) and Department of Civil Engineering of Minho University to perform the tests (Mr. Antonio Matos and Eng. Marco Jorge).

Potential implications of ketamine anesthesia on zebrafish behavior

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia

Emotional aspects of childhood career development: importance and future agenda

Childhood is a central period for career and social-emotional development. However, the literature covering childhood career development and the role of emotions in careers is scarce. In this article, we advocate for the consideration of emotions in childhood career development. Emotional aspects of children’s career exploration, key-figures and interests, as well as of childhood antecedents of lifelong career processes are presented. Relations between childhood emotion, behavior, functioning and learning are also presented. Conclusions center on a call for focused study of the role of emotion in childhood career development and how such an agenda will advance the literature.

Quality of institutional care and early childhood development

Institutional rearing adversely affects children’s development, but the extent to which specific characteristics of the institutional context and the quality of care provided contribute to problematic development remains unclear. In this study, 72 preschoolers institutionalised for at least 6 months were evaluated by their caregiver using the Child Behavior Checklist and the Disturbances of Attachment Interview. Distal and proximate indices of institutional caregiving quality were assessed using both staff reports and direct observation. Results revealed that greater caregiver sensitivity predicted reduced indiscriminate behaviour and secure-base distortions. A closer relationship with the caregiver predicted reduced inhibited attachment behaviour. Emotional and behavioural problems proved unrelated to caregiving quality. Results are discussed in terms of (non)-shared caregiving factors that influence institutionalised children’s development.

Induced magnetoelectric effect driven by magnetization in BaFe12O19 -/P(VDF-TrFE) composites

Films of BaFe12O19/P(VDF-TrFE) composites with 5, 10 and 20 %wt Barium ferrite content have been fabricated. BaFe12O19 microparticles have the shape of thin hexagonal platelets, the easy direction of magnetization remaining along the c axis, which is perpendicular to the plates. This fact allows for ferrite particles orientation in-plane and out-of-plane within the composite films, as confirmed by measured hysteresis loops. While the in-plane induced magnetoelectric effect (ME) is practically zero, these composite films show a good out-of-plane magnetoelectric effect. with maximum ME coupling coefficient changes of 3, 17 and 2 mV/cm.Oe for the 5, 10 and 20%wt Barium ferrite content films, respectively. We infer that this ME behavior appears as driven by the magnetization process arising when we applied the external magnetic field. We have also measured linear and reversible magnetoelectric effect for low applied bias field, when magnetization process is still reversible.

In vitro mechanical fatigue behavior of poly-ε-caprolactone macroporous scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering: Influence of pore filling by a poly(vinyl alcohol) gel

Polymeric scaffolds used in regenerative therapies are implanted in the damaged tissue and subjected to repeated loading cycles. In the case of articular cartilage engineering, an implanted scaffold is typically subjected to long term dynamic compression. The evolution of the mechanical properties of the scaffold during bioresorption has been deeply studied in the past, but the possibility of failure due to mechanical fatigue has not been properly addressed. Nevertheless, the macroporous scaffold is susceptible to failure after repeated loading-unloading cycles. In this work fatigue studies of polycaprolactone scaffolds were carried by subjecting the scaffold to repeated compression cycles in conditions simulating the scaffold implanted in the articular cartilage. The behaviour of the polycaprolactone sponge with the pores filled with a poly(vinyl alcohol) gel simulating the new formed tissue within the pores was compared with that of the material immersed in water. Results were analyzed with Morrow’s criteria for failure and accurate fittings are obtained just up to 200 loading cycles. It is also shown that the presence of poly(vinyl alcohol) increases the elastic modulus of the scaffolds, the effect being more pronounced with increasing the number of freeze/thawing cycles.

Influence of design parameters on the mechanical behavior and porosity of braided fibrous stents

In spite of all innovations in stent design, commonly used metallic stents present several problems such as corrosion, infection and restenosis, leading to health complications or even death of patients. In this context, the present paper reports a systematic investigation on designing and development of 100% fiber based stents, which can eliminate or minimize the problems with existing metallic stents. For this purpose, braided stents were produced by varying different materials, structural and process parameters such as mono-filament type and diameter, braiding angle and mandrel diameter. The influence of these design parameters on mechanical behavior as well as stent's porosity was thoroughly investigated, and suitable parameters were selected for developing a stentwith mechanical characteristics and porosity matching with the commercial stents. According to the experimental results, the best performance was achieved with a polyester stent designed with 0.27 mm monofilament diameter, braiding angle of 35° and mandrel diameter of 6 mm, providing similar properties to commercial Nitinol stents.

A VEP study in sleeping and awake one-month-old infants and its relation with social behavior

With the present study we aimed to analyze the relationship between infants' behavior and their visual evoked-potential (VEPs) response. Specifically, we want to verify differences regarding the VEP response in sleeping and awake infants and if an association between VEP components, in both groups, with neurobehavioral outcome could be identified. To do so, thirty-two full-term and healthy infants, approximately 1-month of age, were assessed through a VEP unpatterned flashlight stimuli paradigm, offered in two different intensities, and were assessed using a neurobehavioral scale. However, only 18 infants have both assessments, and therefore, these is the total included in both analysis. Infants displayed a mature neurobehavioral outcome, expected for their age. We observed that P2 and N3 components were present in both sleeping and awake infants. Differences between intensities were found regarding the P2 amplitude, but only in awake infants. Regression analysis showed that N3 amplitude predicted an adequate social interactive and internal regulatory behavior in infants who were awake during the stimuli presentation. Taking into account that social orientation and regulatory behaviors are fundamental keys for social-like behavior in 1-month-old infants, this study provides an important approach for assessing physiological biomarkers (VEPs) and its relation with social behavior, very early in postnatal development. Moreover, we evidence the importance of the infant's state when studying differences regarding visual threshold processing and its association with behavioral outcome.

Concrete with triphasic conductive materials for self-monitoring of cracking development subjected to flexure

In this study, the macro steel fiber (SF), carbon fiber (CF) and nano carbon black (NCB) as triphasic conductive materials were added into concrete, in order to improve the conductivity and ductility of concrete. The influence of NCB, SF and CF on the post crack behavior and conductivity of concrete was explored. The effect of the triphasic conductive materials on the self-diagnosing ability to the load–deflection property and crack widening of conductive concrete member subjected to bending were investigated. The relationship between the fractional change in surface impedance (FCR) and the crack opening displacement (COD) of concrete beams with conductive materials has been established. The results illustrated that there is a linear relationship between COD and FCR.

Development of elastin-like recombinamer films with antimicrobial activity

In the present work we explored the ABP-CM4 peptide properties from Bombyx mori for the creation of biopolymers with broad antimicrobial activity. An antimicrobial recombinant protein-based polymer (rPBP) was designed by cloning the DNA sequence coding for ABP-CM4 in frame with the N-terminus of the elastin-like recombinamer consisting of 200 repetitions of the pentamer VPAVG, here named A200. The new rPBP, named CM4-A200, was purified via a simplified nonchromatographic method, making use of the thermoresponsive behavior of the A200 polymer. ABP-CM4 peptide was also purified through the incorporation of a formic acid cleavage site between the peptide and the A200 sequence. In soluble state the antimicrobial activity of both CM4-A200 polymer and ABP-CM4 peptide was poorly effective. However, when the CM4-A200 polymer was processed into free-standing films high antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi was observed. The antimicrobial activity of CM4-A200 was dependent on the physical contact of cells with the film surface. Furthermore, CM4-A200 films did not reveal a cytotoxic effect against both normal human skin fibroblasts and human keratinocytes. Finally, we have developed an optimized ex vivo assay with pig skin demonstrating the antimicrobial properties of the CM4-A200 cast films for skin applications.

Development of auxetic structures from braided composites produced from basalt fiber

In this work, novel auxetic structure has been developed from braided composites produced from basalt fiber. The paper reported the auxetic and tensile behavior of the structures produced from basalt fiber and also compared with structures developed from braided composites having glass fiber as core. The basic design is modified with straight rod to improve the strengthening behavior of structure with structural elements. The Poisson’s ratio of the modified structure are studied. The Poisson’s ratio of the structure made from basalt and glass reinforced BCRs are almost similar but the tensile behavior of basalt based structure is good than glass fiber.