Science (Universidade Europeia)
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Id.Med - An inclusive system to identify medical drugs
No full textThe use of medical drugs is common and transversal. In order to improve the quality of life, a large number of people daily take some sort of medication. However, the information contained in lots of drugs packages, does not allow either the easy identification or the function of the drug contained. This problem is more common on groups that, due to their clinical condition (such as colorblind), education level (illiterate) or even age (elderly), have greater difficulty in distinguishing. Thus, it is desired that the packages have an effective and direct form of communication, allowing those who use them, to have an easy and immediate comprehension, in order to avoid errors in its intake and consequently diseases or side effects caused by these accidents. The current investigation, based on quantitative and qualitative methodologies, aims the creation of a duly sustained and proven system, either with the existing theory and the analysis of questionnaires and tests directed to the target audience, thus assuring its concept and form of construction. The Id.Med, suggests a medical drug identification system all-inclusive to the entire population. A code of symbols is set on drug packaging, that through three identifying elements - pictograms, acronyms and colours - is easily understood by its users. This investigation contributes to the knowledge of Design in health areas. A theme that is poorly explored, since design in health areas is seen as a secondary aspect of its process. However, it’s important to keep in mind that design can also contribute to the well-being of the population
Representation between waves of change: A visual analysis of the advertisement of female surfers
No full textThis paper is concerned with the way in which females who surf are displayed in mainstream media channels and are experiencing issues of gender, sexuality and objectification. In particular, the article is based on the analyses of an advertisement video released by ROXY, the first brand in the industry to design specifically and only for women, in 2013. The video was chosen due to the remarkable number of responses it caused throughout the online female surfing communities and other media channels. The analysis was established with knowledge from visual culture, image analysis and feminist issues and is based on qualitative aspects taking into consideration the technical and visual grammar of moving images. The methods used are based on specialized literature on film and image analysis. It was found that the video, which advertises a surf competition for women by depicting Stephanie Gilmore, seven times world surfing champion, showed strong heteronormative bias in the visual narrative construction as well as in the depiction of the surfer. Considering the cultural background of surfing, this result is not surprising yet highly relevant. Women make up about half of the clientele at surf schools and are a particularly pronounced factor in the growth of the sport, also concerning consumption and visibility worldwide these days. However, since the original “surf- hype” swept across the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, the culture has been shaped by heteronormative and sexist narratives of gender and sexuality, with the strong image of the male surfer underlining the patriarchal American masculinity. By the 1980s, occurrences of sexism began to develop into a widespread cultural stance against women in the surf. By denying female surfers subjectivities through sexual objectification, and the ‘symbolic annihilation’ of women as active surfers, women were positioned as “objects” and “subjects” within the surfing culture. The topic has since remained unsettled and ambivalent, complicated by the trajectories of modern rationality, postmodernity and commodification. The topic remains relevant as an example of a new “lifestyle” sport, which will soon be part of the Olympic games and possibly continue grow exponentially. This long paper demonstrates, that gender related power relations in surfing remain contradicting and impugned. It therefore encourages a radical dialogue regarding the role that visual representation plays in addressing this societal issue of gender portrayal in sports, particularly in surfing, and demands a powerful and potentially feminist way of re-interpreting the female surfer
Mapping the socially responsible consumption gap research: Review and future research agenda
No full textThis paper provides a wide-ranging
view of the literature that is relevant to study the
gaps in socially responsible consumption (SRC). The research design follows a three-stage
analytical procedure. First, we critically review the main concepts and vocabularies
used in the field and propose a framework that organizes existing studies into
four major types according to their approaches and focus: gap prediction, willingness
‘to go responsible’, gap understanding and barriers to SRC. Second, a qualitative content
analysis provided a set of words and semantic categories for text searches in bibliographic
databases. Findings showed that the Anglo-Saxon
countries lead the field,
and that patterns are changing, such as the rise of China as a contributor. Finally, a
bibliometric analysis of 3,367 articles, retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science
databases, identified the intellectual structure of the SRC gap literature, top contributors
(countries, publications and authors), mature and emerging themes and the main
barriers to SRC adoption. The 25 top journals published almost 50% of the articles
and citations. The International Journal of Consumer Studies (IJCS) stands out as the
only journal focused on consumer behaviour among the most prolific publications in
the SRC gap literature. This finding makes the IJCS the benchmark for researchers in
the field. The SRC gap research addresses five domains: clean energy, biodiversity,
public safety, food-related
issues and consumer marketing research. These domains
share six reasons for the SRC gaps: economic and financial factors, information and
knowledge barriers, sense of effort, lack of feelings of responsibility, contextual and
social factors and supply aspects. Overall, this study provides clarity into the relevant
literature that helps the SRC gaps’ understanding and identifies directions for future
research
Should technology be [just] delightful?
No full textOur world has been steadily populated by a growing number of artificially “a-live” objects and smart devices, over the last decades, with varying degrees of autonomy, and seeming to become better at guessing and responding to our needs, offering pleasurable or delightful experiences, and making us more willing to trust them. Nevertheless, such development and understanding of ubiquitous smart technologies are not without criticism and challenges. The more users regard technology in magical terms, the more they ignore the complexities of the underlying infrastructure enabling their devices. However, these come with vulnerabilities that expose users to various undesirable situations, threatening their privacy and forcing them to deal with complications, with potential unforeseen social and economic consequences. This is an important reason why Human-Centered Design needs more than being empathic towards the user; it needs to assume a clear ethical stance. Designers should learn to say “no” and ask “why” while examining the role technology plays in our lives and asking what types of new relations we want to establish with it, and ultimately be equipped to ask about our human project for the future and the role a humanistic design approach should play in it. So, Should technology be [just] Delightful? This introductory chapter addresses this fundamental question while commenting on the contributions of the other chapters selected for this Design for Interaction section of the book
Regional differences in the quality of maternal and neonatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal: Results from the IMAgiNE EURO study
No full textObjective: To compare women's perspectives on the quality of maternal and newborn care (QMNC) around the time of childbirth across Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 2 (NUTS-II) regions in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Women participating in the cross-sectional IMAgiNE EURO study who gave birth in Portugal from March 1, 2020, to October 28, 2021, completed a structured questionnaire with 40 key WHO standards-based quality measures. Four domains of QMNC were assessed: (1) provision of care; (2) experience of care; (3) availability of human and physical resources; and (4) reorganizational changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Frequencies for each quality measure within each QMNC domain were computed overall and by region.
Results: Out of 1845 participants, one-third (33.7%) had a cesarean. Examples of high-quality care included: low frequencies of lack of early breastfeeding and rooming-in (8.0% and 7.7%, respectively) and informal payment (0.7%); adequate staff professionalism (94.6%); adequate room comfort and equipment (95.2%). However, substandard practices with large heterogeneity across regions were also reported. Among women who experienced labor, the percentage of instrumental vaginal births ranged from 22.3% in the Algarve to 33.5% in Center; among these, fundal pressure ranged from 34.8% in Lisbon to 66.7% in Center. Episiotomy was performed in 39.3% of noninstrumental vaginal births with variations between 31.8% in the North to 59.8% in Center.
One in four women reported inadequate breastfeeding support (26.1%, ranging from 19.4% in Algarve to 31.5% in Lisbon). One in five reported no exclusive breastfeeding at discharge (22.1%; 19.5% in Lisbon to 28.2% in Algarve).
Conclusion: Urgent actions are needed to harmonize QMNC and reduce inequities across regions in Portugal
Preventing single-use of plastic packaging. Design strategies for circular business models: Refill, reuse and recycle
No full textThe analysis of the plastic packaging value chain is fundamental to understand how to avoid the “end-of-life”, excess of recycles plastic, the logistics and new services among the supply chain, supported by the new technologies (e.g. IoT, AI, big data). Recognizing Earth as a limited source of resources and energy and look at the waste and pollution as a potential and not as a defeat, are the foundations of the circular economy philosophy. Product design in particular, as well as business in general, are feeling an increasing pressure on moving from a linear to a circular approach to help reduce our global sustainability pressures [5]. Designers, innovators, and decision-makers in businesses, aim to become active actors on the necessary shift from an industry relying on fossil resources (Bakker, C. (2019). Products That Last: Product Design for Circular Business Models. Laurence King Publishing.). To give insights in the current product design and circular business model strategies able to promote the shift from a linear to a circular economy, preliminary interviews are presented as the first confrontation to a collapsible plastic bottle. The goal is to develop knowledge to support the framework to a more detailed research
Rising against LGBT taboos through communication and social marketing strategies: Using web TV series to challenge discriminatory behavior
No full textThis chapter builds on how social marketing and its techniques, working on interdisciplinary solutions such as new television formats and narratives, such as web series and transmedia content, become relevant in the fight against LGBT prejudice, stereotypes, and taboos. Hence, the purpose of this chapter is to present the results of a research project aimed at exploring the potential of a web series with LGBT characters, using digital content and fictional narratives with persuasive messages, to alter consumers' attitudes and behaviors in desirable ways and minimize this social problem. The study contributes the literature on social marketing, addressing LGBT taboos and prejudices, a theme that has been scarcely explored in the area. Furthermore, a connection is made between the theme of entertainment-education content and the potential of digital platforms as social marketing tools
Public administration and new information: Increasing utility
No full textThe utility (in the economic perspective of the utilitarianism) generated for the populations from the available public resources is likely to be increased due to
the systematic incorporation of new information in the decision-making and working processes of the public administration. This paper proposes to highlight, theoretically, the relationship described above, addressing the importance of Information Systems/Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in guaranteeing a real impact (increasing efficiency) on the quality of public work provided to citizens
Online service failure: How consumers from emerging countries react and complain
No full textPurpose – E-commerce has experienced huge growth in emerging countries, but analysis of service failure/recovery for online retailers has been
limited in this context. Hence, this study aims to investigate customers’ reactions to service failures in e-commerce and the influence of cultural
dimensions on complaint intentions.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted with 553 customers from Brazil, India and China. A model was proposed and tested
using structural equation modeling.
Findings – Results indicate that satisfaction with service recovery (SSR) increases repurchase intentions and reduces third-party complaints and
negative word-of-mouth. This study also shows that the reactions of consumers to service failures in online situations are influenced by their cultural
orientation (i.e. individualism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance) and contingent factors (i.e. relationship level, switching costs and the
severity of the failure).
Originality/value – This study shows that the extent to which consumers from emerging countries complain after a service failure in online
purchases will depend on their cultural orientation, previous experiences with the retailer, switching costs and the severity of the failure
A character-based model for interactive storytelling in games
No full textIn this paper, we present a novel character-based model for interactive storytelling in games, which combines multi-Agent planning with a drama management strategy based on production rules to guide the narrative generation process. The underlying proposed method is capable of generating and controlling the enactment of character-based narratives in highly interactive game worlds. After describing the model, the paper proceeds to assess its applicability and performance. A fully implemented prototype game is used to demonstrate how the model works in practice