Understanding primary-school, high-school and university students sustainable behaviours: An approach based on the theory of planned behaviour

Doctoral thesis (2015)

Developing a more thorough understanding of what motivates young people to adopt sustainable behaviours is an important area of concern that has practical implications for creating sound educational ... [more ▼]

Developing a more thorough understanding of what motivates young people to adopt sustainable behaviours is an important area of concern that has practical implications for creating sound educational interventions and ensuring a sustainable future. The overall purpose of this thesis was to assess and understand primary- and high-school students’ environmentally sustainable behaviours in order to inform educational interventions. Moreover, it aimed at analysing one particular socially sustainable behavioural intention among university students, notably their intention to buy fair trade products. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used as the basic theoretical framework to examine these behaviours. We first conducted a pilot study for each behaviour, with the aim to identify salient beliefs of the target populations with regard to the behaviour investigated. Open-ended questionnaires were administered to a sample of 116 primary-school students, 92 high-school students, and 17 voluntary participants at the university level. A content analysis of the participants’ responses allowed the determination of the most salient beliefs, which were used as the basis for the quantitative measures of beliefs in the main studies. The first and second main studies investigated the beliefs of 812 primary-school students and 602 high-school students regarding the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours using a longitudinal approach. The gist of our results seems to be that for both age groups, educational interventions should target control beliefs especially. For instance, students insist on tools that would facilitate pro-environmental behaviours (e.g., having duplex printers or recycling bins at school and at home). However, behavioural and normative beliefs should not be neglected. The last study examined mainly differences in male and female university students’ intentions to consume fair trade products. The results indicate that for women, more emphasis should be placed on perceived behavioural control (e.g., factors that facilitate the ii purchase of fair trade products), while for men, more emphasis should be placed on attitudes towards buying fair trade products (i.e., the advantages of adopting this behaviour). Our results confirm the usefulness of the TPB as a framework for understanding young people’s sustainable intentions and behaviours, with perceived control and attitudes having considerable impacts on sustainable intentions and perceived social pressure having a rather low weight. In addition, perceived control and intentions contributed significantly to the explained variance in primary- and high-school students’ eco-friendly behaviours. This thesis makes a number of important contributions to the literature. From a practical point of view, primary- and high-school students are important populations because sustainability-related habits might be established early in life. Moreover, in their roles as potentially important future decision makers in our society (e.g., future company leaders, politicians, global citizens), university students should be sensitized to the unequal power relationships often involved in conventional trading. Offering fair trade products and encouraging their consumption should be considered a small, but important, step in universities’ duty to create awareness. Despite the positive input for interventions inspired by this thesis, some limitations have to be considered, for instance, our reliance on self-report questionnaires and the possibility that participants may have overestimated the extent to which they perform environmentally and socially desirable behaviours related to sustainability. Last, further research is needed to test the effectiveness of interventions based on the present results. [less ▲]

Understanding quaternary compound Cu2ZnSnSe4 synthesis by microscopic scale analyses at an identical location

in Journal of Materials Chemistry C (2016), 4

Understanding Structure and Bonding of Multilayered Metal-Organic Nanostructures

in Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Nanomaterials and interfaces (2013), 117(6), 3055-3061

For organic and hybrid electronic devices, the physicochemical properties of the contained interfaces play a dominant role. To disentangle the various interactions occurring at such heterointerfaces we ... [more ▼]

For organic and hybrid electronic devices, the physicochemical properties of the contained interfaces play a dominant role. To disentangle the various interactions occurring at such heterointerfaces we here model a complex, yet prototypical, three-component system consisting of a Cu-phthalocyanine (CuPc) film on a 3,4,9,10-perylene-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride (PTCDA) monolayer adsorbed on Ag(111). The two encountered interfaces are similar, as in both cases there would be no bonding without van der Waals interactions. Still they are also distinctly different, as only at the Ag-(111) PTCDA interface do massive charge-rearrangements occur. Using recently developed theoretical tools, we show that it has become possible to provide atomistic insight into the physical and chemical processes in this comparatively complex nanostructure distinguishing between interactions involving local rearrangements of the charge density and long-range van der Waals attraction. [less ▲]

Understanding the Association Between the National School Lunch Program, SES, and Reading Among Grade 8 Students in NAEP

Scientific Conference (2010, April)

Understanding the differences between how novice and experienced designers approach design tasks

in Research in Engineering Design (2003), 14(1), 1-11

Research was undertaken to understand how to provide the most appropriate support for novice designers in engineering design. However, how designers apply their experience and knowledge is not understood ... [more ▼]

Research was undertaken to understand how to provide the most appropriate support for novice designers in engineering design. However, how designers apply their experience and knowledge is not understood and further research in this area is required. This paper describes an observational study to understand how novice and experienced designers approach design tasks. [less ▲]

Understanding the evolution of a scientific field by clustering and visualizing knowledge graphs

in Journal of Information Science (2022), 48(1), 71--89

Understanding the evolution of coopetition among SMEs in a wine cluster: A social capital approach

in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business (2017), 31(1), 67-84

Research on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has done little to explore the drivers of coopetition. However, this issue is crucial for practitioners in charge of implementing the coopetition ... [more ▼]

Research on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has done little to explore the drivers of coopetition. However, this issue is crucial for practitioners in charge of implementing the coopetition process. We address this gap by exploring the drivers of coopetition among SMEs through a longitudinal case study based on 34 interviews along with informal conversations in the French wine cluster of Pic Saint-Loup. We find that the coopetition process (1) occurs in stages driven by specific environmental factors and (2) is facilitated by the social capital of cluster members, particularly the central member (owner-manager), which is key to the success of each coopetition stage. Our results provide a better understanding of wine cluster development and the inducement of SME coopetition. [less ▲]

Understanding the functional neuroanatomy of acquired prosopagnosia

in NeuroImage (2007), 35(2), 836-852

One of the most remarkable disorders following brain damage is prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces. While a number of cases of prosopagnosia have been described at the behavioral level, the ... [more ▼]

One of the most remarkable disorders following brain damage is prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces. While a number of cases of prosopagnosia have been described at the behavioral level, the functional neuroanatomy of this face recognition impairment, and thus the brain regions critically involved in normal face recognition, has never been specified in great detail. Here, we used anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to present the detailed functional neuroanatomy of a single case of acquired prosopagnosia (PS; Rossion, B., Caldara, R., Seghier, M., Schuller, A.-M., Lazeyras, F., Mayer, E., 2003a. A network of occipito-temporal face-sensitive areas besides the right middle fusiform gyrus is necessary for normal face processing. Brain 126, 2381-95; Rossion, B., Joyce, C.A., Cottrell, G.W., Tarr, M.J., 2003b. Early lateralization and orientation tuning for face, word, and object processing in the visual cortex. Neuroimage 20, 1609-24) with normal object recognition. First, we clarify the exact anatomical location and extent of PS' lesions in relation to (a) retinotopic cortex, (b) face-preferring regions, and (c) other classical visual regions. PS' main lesion - most likely causing her prosopagnosia - is localized in the posterior part of the right ventral occipitotemporal cortex. This lesion causes a left superior paracentral scotoma, as frequently observed in cases of prosopagnosia. While the borders of the early visual areas in the left hemisphere could be delineated well, the extensive posterior right-sided lesion hampered a full specification of the cortical representation of the left visual field. Using multiple scanning runs, face-preferring activation was detected within the right middle fusiform gyrus (MFG) in the so-called 'fusiform face area' ('FFA'), but also in the left inferior occipital gyrus (left 'OFA'), and in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). The dorsal part of the lateral occipital complex (LOC) and the human middle temporal cortex (hMT+/V5) were localized bilaterally. The color-preferring region V4/V8 was localized only in the left hemisphere. In the right hemisphere, the posterior lesion spared the ventral part of LOC, a region that may be critical for the preserved object recognition abilities of the patient, and the restriction of her deficit to the category of faces. The presumptive functions of both structurally damaged and preserved regions are discussed and new hypotheses regarding the impaired and preserved abilities of the patient during face and non-face object processing are derived. Fine-grained neurofunctional analyses of brain-damaged single cases with isolated recognition deficits may considerably improve our knowledge of the brain regions critically involved in specific visual functions, such as face recognition. [less ▲]

Understanding the internationalization of higher education as a policy process. The case of Romania

Doctoral thesis (2016)

This doctoral thesis analyzes internationalization of higher education in Romania as a both an international norm diffusion process and as a discrete policy process, in a wider context of post-communist ... [more ▼]

This doctoral thesis analyzes internationalization of higher education in Romania as a both an international norm diffusion process and as a discrete policy process, in a wider context of post-communist transition. It is conceived as a study of policy for policy, with the explicit aim of contributing to better decision-making at the national and institutional levels. As such, it is intended to facilitate a strategic pursuit of internationalization strategies in Romania, which may further inform our understanding of other similar (post-communist transition) national cases. The research objective is to understand the internationalization of higher education as a distinct policy process at the national and university level, by using a five-point star model of the policy field, which highlights the multiplicity of actors involved and acts as a ‘cat’s cradle’. A multi-theory approach for higher education governance is used for unpacking the complexity of this policy field. Stakeholder and resource dependency theories are employed for understanding the articulation of the interests, capacities and interactions between the actors, while discursive institutionalism is used to look at the role of ideas (norms) mobilized by actors to influence policy change and to construct policy frames. In terms of scope, the thesis addresses the rationales, drivers and impacts of internationalization of higher education, as well as its strategic use by relevant actors. The conclusion yields that internationalization in Romania, especially at the national level, is more a fruit of the existing context – the overall globalization trends, the Bologna Process and the EU pre- and post-accession policy processes – than a deliberate strategic pursuit based on either foresight or long term planning. Political and economic rationales are predominant, to the detriment of those linked to social and cultural considerations, given the competing pressures linked to the demographic downturn, reduced public funding to universities, the perceived need to ‘catch-up with Europe’ and the global competitiveness imperative. Another finding is that internationalization of higher education has never reached the stage of policy formulation at the national level and in most Romanian universities; it was used as a legitimating discourse within higher education reform, but a genuine commitment to comprehensive internationalization policies was lacking, leading to an over-reliance on European programs and a narrow focus on mobility and research partnerships. When looking at the agents of change, it can be inferred that success in pursuing internationalization activities was mostly influenced by policy entrepreneurs and leadership commitment and continuity, regardless of the institutional profile. At the same time, Romania has proven to be an exceptional laboratory for understanding internationalization as a distinctive public policy process within the higher education sector. This is due to the double centralization legacy of the higher education system (caused by its Napoleonic model of higher education system and the communist influence) and the over-sized influence of international actors in policy reform (e.g. UNESCO CEPES and the World Bank). A number of the overall conclusions, mainly aimed at improving decision-making at the national level, are also potentially relevant for a wider regional audience: the need to minimize the over-reliance on international funds and technical assistance of international organizations; limiting over-regulation based on international norms; and improving the national role in the global discussions on internationalization and fighting double discourse. This latter aspect points to the difficulties of replicating policy concepts across borders in a non-contextualized form, especially when domestic contexts differ significantly from the pioneering setting of a given policy. [less ▲]

Understanding the role of colorectal cancer-associated bacteria in colorectal cancer

Doctoral thesis (2021)

Mounting evidence from 16S rRNA-based or metagenomic analyses suggests that dysbiosis, a state of pathological microbial imbalance, is prevalent in the gut of patients with CRC. Numerous microbial taxa ... [more ▼]

Mounting evidence from 16S rRNA-based or metagenomic analyses suggests that dysbiosis, a state of pathological microbial imbalance, is prevalent in the gut of patients with CRC. Numerous microbial taxa have been identified of which representative isolate cultures can interact with cancer cells, further triggering distinct disease pathways in animal models. Nevertheless, how these complex interrelationships of a dysbiotic microbiota may be involved in the pathogenesis of CRC remains a fundamental question and requires multifaceted mechanistic studies. This thesis moves beyond observational studies, it integrates novel experimental approaches for the study of the gut microbiome in colorectal cancer. It incorporates current knowledge in the field as well as interdisciplinary approaches. My work aims at contributing to an ecosystem-level mechanistic understanding of the CRC-associated microbiome in the initiation and progression of the disease. In detail, the objective of my work comprised an integrative approach of microbiome-CRC interaction studies. We revised current knowledge on, and studied the CRC-associated bacteria, in particular Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn) and Gemella morbillorum (Gm). We assessed their direct and indirect effects on CRC cells, their interactions with immune cells, as well as their tumor-modulating potential in vitro, in silico, and in vivo. The results presented in this thesis comprise new findings on human microbial cross-talk of Fn with CRC. We identified formate as a potential fusobacterial oncometabolite, which enhanced cancer incidence and progression via increased cancer stemness signaling. Furthermore, we discovered immune-suppressive functions of Gm in the context of CRC. With my work in collaboration projects, I contributed to the development of two novel approaches in anti-cancer therapy: First, to the establishment of a personalized in vitro model (iHuMiX) for the study of microbe-host-immune interactions in anti-cancer therapy, and second, to the validation of an in silico workflow that uses metabolic rewiring strategies for network-based drug target predictions for CRC therapy. Taken together, this thesis work broadened the mechanistic understanding of CRC-associated microbes and it contributed to potential strategies for the development of an improved CRC therapy. [less ▲]