Digital platforms: mapping the territory of new technologies to fight food waste

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (5) ◽  
pp. 1647-1669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Cane ◽  
Carmen Parra

PurposeThe reduction of food waste is still a pending issue that governments have still not resolved. In response to this problem mobile platforms are emerging that follow food ecology and the responsible consumption of food, and self-management of their access to allow the communication between people and their use of food. In this paper, the authors will analyze the main digital platforms that deal with solving this problem, especially those that fulfill a social commitment through the distribution and reduction of waste.Design/methodology/approachTo provide solutions, the authors will address the importance of new technologies in the fight against waste, using digital platforms to manage food and to eliminate the loss in surplus products. To do this, the authors will first analyze from a theoretical point of view the concepts of “loss”, “waste” and “surplus product”, incorporating data of their impact between Spain and Italy. Next, the authors will analyze the influence of new technologies in the detection and distribution of products destined to become food waste. To carry out this qualitative research, the authors will apply the research strategy of theory building from multiple case studies (particularly 16 different digital platforms against food waste were analyzed), which is a methodological approach that uses cases as the basis to develop theory inductively.FindingsThe authors must make the public aware of the importance of being responsible consumers. To this end, the authors must disclose the problems associated with food waste and surplus product, presenting alternatives and new consumption habits. For this, it is necessary to collaborate and build synergies with organizations of different origins (consumers, producers and activists) involved in sustainable agrifood models. In this sense, digital platforms are essential tools to fight against food waste, preventing certain products from being considered unfit for human consumption. In this study, the authors suggest that, based on the review of the literature and the analysis of apps and blogs, the authors look for solutions to surplus and food waste both from the environment of the entrepreneur and the consumer and all using the new technologies.Research limitations/implicationsThe research has raised different limitations. On the one hand, it is a subject that has not been analyzed from a doctrinal point of view, so it is not easy to find bibliographic references. On the other hand, digital platforms that act on food waste are not cataloged. This has made it difficult to search for elements of analysis to obtain results in the work. Finally, the sample can vary in a short period of time since the digital platforms are in a boom, which means that they constantly change.Practical implicationsThis work allows a theoretical approach to the concepts of “loss”, “wastage” and “surplus product”, incorporating data on its impact in Spain and Italy, comparing it with the rest of Europe while providing figures and data on their impact. On the other hand, it allows us to know how new technologies can help the detection and distribution of products destined to become food waste. Finally, there are examples of platforms that are offering service in different areas, incorporating a novel classification that allows us to know the differences depending on their origin and destination.Originality/valueThe originality of the work can be summarized in the following points: There are no doctrinal works that analyze in a combined way the food waste with the new technologies; The relationship with the 2030 Agenda in which responsible consumption is one of the achievements pursued by the United Nations, and the authors position the study’s research as an evidence of platforms that are currently working in the interest of reducing food waste. Furthermore, the authors provide an early classification of platforms based on their usability and objectives of reducing, reusing and recycling food.

Author(s):  
Roberto Luquín Guerra

Apart from his political and educational work, and from his controversial autobiography, José Vasconcelos is known for his Ibero-Americanist thought. The Cosmic Race, Indology and Bolivarism and Monroeism gather all the ideas that are attributed to his theoretical point of view. His philosophy is what we know less of and what is most criticized. Nonetheless, is there a connection between his philosophical thought and his Ibero-Americanist ideas? Abelardo Villegas says that Vasconcelos’s philosophy is the product of a racial and cultural message. Therefore, according to Villegas, his philosophy is subordinated to his Ibero-Americanist ideas. Patrick Romanell, on the other hand, states that the Ibero-Americanist ideas make up the popular and illusory side and, hence, must be separated from the philosophical thought. The aim of this paper is to elucidate this problem. In order to clarify it, we will follow Villegas viewpoint to the bitter end. His reasoning invites us to look closely at the history of Ibero-American thought as well as at Vasconcelos’s first works. Precisely by analyzing these two aspects and the point where they meet, we might be able to find an answer.


Author(s):  
Diego Liberati

In many fields of research, as well as in everyday life, it often turns out that one has to face a huge amount of data, without an immediate grasp of an underlying simple structure, often existing. A typical example is the growing field of bio-informatics, where new technologies, like the so-called Micro-arrays, provide thousands of gene expressions data on a single cell in a simple and fast integrated way. On the other hand, the everyday consumer is involved in a process not so different from a logical point of view, when the data associated to his fidelity badge contribute to the large data base of many customers, whose underlying consuming trends are of interest to the distribution market. After collecting so many variables (say gene expressions, or goods) for so many records (say patients, or customers), possibly with the help of wrapping or warehousing approaches, in order to mediate among different repositories, the problem arise of reconstructing a synthetic mathematical model capturing the most important relations between variables. To this purpose, two critical problems must be solved: 1 To select the most salient variables, in order to reduce the dimensionality of the problem, thus simplifying the understanding of the solution 2 To extract underlying rules implying conjunctions and/or disjunctions between such variables, in order to have a first idea of their even non linear relations, as a first step to design a representative model, whose variables will be the selected ones When the candidate variables are selected, a mathematical model of the dynamics of the underlying generating framework is still to be produced. A first hypothesis of linearity may be investigated, usually being only a very rough approximation when the values of the variables are not close to the functioning point around which the linear approximation is computed. On the other hand, to build a non linear model is far from being easy: the structure of the non linearity needs to be a priori known, which is not usually the case. A typical approach consists in exploiting a priori knowledge to define a tentative structure, and then to refine and modify it on the training subset of data, finally retaining the structure that best fits a cross-validation on the testing subset of data. The problem is even more complex when the collected data exhibit hybrid dynamics, i.e. their evolution in time is a sequence of smooth behaviors and abrupt changes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 590-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Furley ◽  
Geoffrey Schweizer

The goal of the present paper was to investigate whether soccer referees’ nonverbal behavior (NVB) differed based on the difficulty of their decisions and whether perceivers could detect these systematic variations. On the one hand, communicating confidence via NVB is emphasized in referee training. On the other hand, it seems feasible from a theoretical point of view that particularly following relatively difficult decisions referees have problems controlling their NVB. We conducted three experiments to investigate this question. Experiment 1 (N = 40) and Experiment 2 (N = 60) provided evidence that perceivers regard referees’ NVB as less confident following ambiguous decisions as compared with following unambiguous decisions. Experiment 3 (N = 58) suggested that perceivers were more likely to debate with the referee when referees nonverbally communicated less confidence. We discuss consequences for referee training.


Author(s):  
BARTOLOMIEJ SKOWRON ◽  

From an ontological point of view, virtuality is generally considered a simulation: i.e. not a case of true being, and never more than an illusory copy, referring in each instance to its real original. It is treated as something imagined — and, phenomenologically speaking, as an intentional object. It is also often characterized as fictive. On the other hand, the virtual world itself is extremely rich, and thanks to new technologies is growing with unbelievable speed, so that it now influences the real world in quite unexpected ways. Thus, it is also sometimes considered real. In this paper, against those who would regard virtuality as fictional or as real, I claim that the virtual world straddles the boundary between these two ways of existence: that it becomes real. I appeal to Roman Ingarden’s existential ontology to show that virtual objects become existentially autonomous, and so can be attributed a form of actuality and causal efficaciousness. I conclude that the existential autonomy and actuality of virtual objects makes them count as real objects, but also means that they undergo a change in their mode of existence.


2011 ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
Rajna Dragicevic

This paper explores a theoretical point of view that the collocability is determined by the meaning of a lexeme and also represents its consequence. Our main goal is to show that these two factors may contribute with different intensity, and that context may have greater or lesser effect on the meaning of a lexeme. The analysis proves that the context has a lesser effect on more frequent lexemes and does not have a permanent effect on their meaning, but on the other hand, context has a greater effect on infrequent lexemes and has a greater effect on their semantic content. This even applies in a case of a lexeme used separately. Even analysis of two unrelated languages (Serbian and German) shows that the most frequent associations on infrequent adjectives are the nouns frequently used with them, which means that frequently used collocations produce an effect on them even out of context. Furthermore, there are examples in lexicography that infrequent adjectives are defined by collocations peculiar for infrequent lexemes. On the other hand, the most frequent verbal associations of Serbian and German respondents on very frequent adjectives are not the nouns usually found in their collocations, but their antonyms, thus it is possible to conclude that the context has no any effect. The conclusion is that collocability is determined by the meaning of a lexeme and it also represents its consequence, and at the same time the collocation effect on a lexeme is greater if the lexeme is less frequent.


FRANCISOLA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
HASSANA HASSANA

 RÉSUMÉ. Ce travail étudie, du point de vue lexico-sémantique, les mots et les expressions sur les timbres-poste. De manière spécifique, il s’agit d’appréhender l’histoire véhiculée par les mots gravés sur les productions philatéliques en circulation au Cameroun pendant la domination allemande, anglaise et française. Sur le plan théorique, cette étude s’inscrit dans le champ de la lexicologie et de la sémantique. L’approche lexicale décrit la structure et la formation des mots en langue allemande, anglaise et française. La démarche sémantique par contre questionne le sens des mots et des discours idéologiques. Sur le plan méthodologique, nous nous appuyons sur un corpus constitué des productions philatéliques. Par le biais de ce corpus, nous focalisons notre attention sur l’interprétation des mots ou des expressions sur les timbres, en mettant en exergue les grandes séquences de l’histoire coloniale au Cameroun. L’intérêt de ce travail est d’interroger l’histoire coloniale sous le prisme des expressions reproduites sur les timbres-poste.Mots-clés : cameroun, colonisation, histoire, lexicologie, philatélie, timbres-poste, sémantique. ABSTRACT. This work studies, from lexico-semantic point of view, the words and expressions on postage stamps. Specifically, it is a question of apprehending the history conveyed by the words engraved on the philatelic productions circulating in Cameroon during the German, English and French domination. From a theoretical point of view, this study falls within the field of lexicology and semantics. The lexical approach describes the structure and formation of words in German, English and French. The semantic approach, on the other hand, questions the meaning of words and ideological discourses. On the methodological level, we rely on a corpus of philatelic productions. Through this corpus, we focus our attention on the interpretation of words or expressions on stamps, highlighting the great sequences of colonial history in Cameroon. The interest of this work is to question the colonial history under the prism of the expressions reproduced on the postage stamps.Keywords: Cameroon, colonization, history, lexicology, philately, postage stamps, semantics. 


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nour El houda Chaher ◽  
Abdallah Nassour ◽  
Michael Nelles ◽  
Moktar Hamdi

Abstract Nowadays, Tunisia faces challenging environmental and energic issues which concern mainly the implementation of an appropriate solid waste management system dealing with the high production of biowaste in one hand and the increased need for water and energy resources in the other hand. Therefore, the current study intended to develop a technical concept on closed cycle ‘biowaste to bioenergy’, treating mainly food waste (FW) through combined biological processes. In this approach, FW anaerobic digestion (AD) residue was destined to feed FW in vessel-composting as a valuable input material. To this end, the produced digestates from amended and unamended anaerobic reactors were entirely examined to select later the most appropriate AD-effluent. Therefore, the identification of the convenient digestate was achieved based on technical criteria ; moisture content (MC), C : N ratio and heavy metals concentrations. The findings showed that the digestate obtained from different digesters was characterized by a high moisture content which inspired its utilization as an unconventional moisturizing agent (MA) reducing the fresh water consumption during the composting process. Because of the high C : N ratio, relatively significant rate of the needed macro and micro-nutrients, the exploitation of biochar-rich digestate was recomended to be used as an unconventional MA in one hand and an aerobic co-substrate booster in the other hand. Results showed that D3 addition promoted the composting process performance comparing to the blank test (A1). Indeed, the thermophilic phase of the amended reactor (A2) lasted 15 days and reached higher temperatures of about 67 °C, while the unamended one (A1) was characterized by a thermophilic temperature of around 63 °C indicating that the end-products were of a pathogen-free compost. When it comes to the physico-chemical factors examined demonstrating that the biological conditions were sufficiently developed. The findings showed overall decreasing profiles during the composting period for moisture, C : N ratio as well as nitrification index (NI). From the quality-point of view, it was found that heavy metal concentrations had lower limits than those values set by German standards. Moreover, all the compost samples appeared to be stable and classified as class IV and V end-product.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 1460423
Author(s):  
RINALDO BALDINI FERROLI ◽  
SIMONE PACETTI

During the last three lustra nucleon form factors experiments have lived a golden age, full of interesting results, that likely will continue and culminate when new data will come from BESIII, SND, CMD3 and PANDA, in the time-like region and, Jefferson Lab and A1 in the space-like region. On the other hand, from theoretical point of view, mainly concerning the possibility of descriptions in all kinematical regions, no great breakthrough has been made.


1983 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 13-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideo Tamura

The present paper is a continuation of [6] and [7] in which the principle of limiting absorption has been verified for symmetric systems of first order with long-range perturbations, but the operators considered there are of constant rank. On the other hand, operators with non-constant rank are also important in application as well as from a purely theoretical point of view. In this paper, we consider the linearized equation of magnetogasdynamics with long-range perturbation as an important example of such operators.


2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reimer Kornmann

Summary: My comment is basically restricted to the situation in which less-able students find themselves and refers only to literature in German. From this point of view I am basically able to confirm Marsh's results. It must, however, be said that with less-able pupils the opposite effect can be found: Levels of self-esteem in these pupils are raised, at least temporarily, by separate instruction, academic performance however drops; combined instruction, on the other hand, leads to improved academic performance, while levels of self-esteem drop. Apparently, the positive self-image of less-able pupils who receive separate instruction does not bring about the potential enhancement of academic performance one might expect from high-ability pupils receiving separate instruction. To resolve the dilemma, it is proposed that individual progress in learning be accentuated, and that comparisons with others be dispensed with. This fosters a self-image that can in equal measure be realistic and optimistic.


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