The growing consciousness of consumers towards buying products that contain mainly natural ingredients and do not harm the health and the environment drives the growth of the natural personal care market. Additionally, men nowadays care more about their image and self-presentation which lead to an increase of the natural personal care products offered for men. As the drug store market in Germany is highly competitive, marketers need to understand the factors influencing men’s purchase decision. The attitude of consumers is an elemental influence factor on purchase intention that could lead to the actual behaviour as it predicts the intention to purchase a product. Therefore, this thesis investigates the factors influencing men’s attitude towards natural personal care products and attitude’s impact on purchase intention, particularly in the German market. This has been done through the development of an own theoretical model whereas the main idea was taken from the TPB model. Afterwards, it was extended by factors that influence attitude which were identified through literature review. To meet the purpose of this study, data were collected through a quantitative online survey which generated 207 valuable responses. In order to analyse the relationships between the different variables, descriptive statistics, factor analyses, Pearson correlation analyses as well as linear and multiple regression analyses were used. The findings of this study provide new insights about the predictors of attitude: German male consumers’ attitude towards natural personal care products is mainly predicted by their consciousness about the environment and subjective norms whereas health consciousness and product knowledge were identified to be no predictors. Moreover, the study confirmed attitude as a strong predictor for intention which is supported by the idea of the TPB model and findings in previous literature. The respondents of this study are environmentally conscious and are influenceable by others. Furthermore, they have an overall positive attitude towards natural personal care products and intent to some extent to purchase these products in the future. The study’s results provide a variety of theoretical and managerial implications as well as opportunities for future research.

El presente proyecto propone un servicio diferenciado de entretenimiento para los adultos mayores que muchas veces son privados de viajes y actividades de placer debido al gran cuidado que necesitan. Las necesidades que hemos identificado son los cuidados especiales para las personas de esta edad frente a viajes cortos y largos, donde puedan ser transportados y atendidos de una forma diferenciada, así mismo actualmente no hay muchas agencias o plataformas que ofrezcan este servicio diferenciado, otorgando promociones u ofertas para este público objetivo. Se han realizado estudios de mercado como encuestas y entrevistas a posibles clientes con la finalidad de conocer los factores determinantes que influyen en la decisión para adquirir un servicio de relajo especializado en el adulto mayor. Por otro lado, se ha logrado identificar que hay un gran número de posibles clientes (jubilados o adultos mayores con tiempo libre) entre los que pueden pagar por el servicio, así como clientes indirectos que pueden pagar este servicio para sus padres principalmente. Este proyecto busca brindar el servicio diferenciado de entretenimiento que incluye viajes y actividades de placer para los adultos mayores, cuidando su salud e integridad mediante un servicio de calidad a lo largo del Perú, por lo que el plan de marketing nos permitirá constituir la empresa, así como diseñar el plan de operaciones, las estrategias y financiación del proyecto. / This project proposes a differentiated entertainment service for the elderly who are often deprived of trips and leisure activities due to the great care they need. The needs we have identified are special care for people of this age compared to short and long trips, where they can be transported and cared for in a differentiated way, likewise currently there are not many agencies or platforms that offer this differentiated service, granting promotions u offers for this target audience. Market studies such as surveys and interviews with potential clients have been carried out with the purpose of knowing the determining factors that influence the decision to acquire a specialized relaxation service in the elderly. On the other hand, it has been possible to identify that there are a large number of potential clients (retired or elderly with free time) among those who can pay for the service, as well as indirect clients who can pay this service for their parents mainly. This project seeks to provide a differentiated entertainment service that includes travel and leisure activities for the elderly, taking care of their health and integrity through a quality service throughout Peru, so the marketing plan will allow us to set up the company, as well as design the operations plan, strategies and financing of the project. / Trabajo de investigación

This study assessed the chemical substances that can be used to investigate fecal contamination of surface waters and how they can be used to indicate and trace fecal contamination in oligotrophic rivers of Northern Sweden. It was found that, from previous studies, several chemicals can be used to trace fecal contamination of surface water, and these include pharmaceuticals, personal care products, sterols, stanols and bile acids. Pharmaceuticals have been successfully used to indicate fecal contamination in many tropical countries and some countries in the cold regions and thus can also be applied to oligotrophic rivers. Sterols, stanols and bile acids make it possible to accurately indicate and trace the different sources of fecal contamination and can also be used to distinguish between the different organisms from which those sterols and bile acids emanate. For these groups of chemicals analytical methods such as chromatography and mass spectrometry are used to decipher the different chemicals in the test samples of water or sediment. Overall, these methods can be used concurrently but the sterols and bile acids have more specificity compared to the pharmaceuticals and personal care products / <p>2021-07-06</p>

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第19984号 / 工博第4228号 / 新制||工||1654(附属図書館) / 33080 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市環境工学専攻 / (主査)教授 田中 宏明, 教授 米田 稔, 講師 山下 尚之 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

This study evaluates soil properties that impact the effectiveness of soil aquifer treatment (SAT) as a polishing step to the remove two classes of ECs from wastewater effluent: pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), and engineering nanomaterials (ENMs). In recent years, it has been determined that elevated levels of emerging contaminants (ECs) are being released into the environment with wastewater effluent. ECs are proven to cause adverse environmental and health effects as a result of long-term exposure. It is important to evaluate sustainable solutions to improve the current methods of wastewater treatment to address these ECs. Soil aquifer treatment (SAT) is a sustainable, cost effect treatment alternative to advanced treatment at a wastewater treatment plant. SAT replenishes local groundwater supplies while allowing for indirect potable reuse, if contaminants of concern such as ECs can be effectively removed from the water. Since wastewater effluent can contain a variety of contaminants with myriad physical and chemical properties, understanding the potential of the aquifer itself to provide EC removal is a key step in establishing SAT as a viable treatment alternative. Peer-reviewed research studies were analyzed to determine the soil properties that affect the fate and transport of ECs in the aquifer environment. The data was complied to produce recommendations for an effective SAT site. Physical and chemical properties of the soil facilitate contaminant removal as the groundwater flows through the aquifer. This study determined that removal of ECs from effluent had a correlation with (1) high clay content, (2) small Darcy Velocity, (3) high soil organic matter content, and (4) low sand content. Based on the 6 peer-reviewed research studies reviewed, the removal of nanomaterials is affected by clay content and sand content, but not soil organic matter content. Conversely, the removal of PPCPs is affected by clay content and soil organic mater content, but not sand content. It can be concluded that two different removal mechanisms facilitate the removal of nanomaterials versus PPCPs; physical removal for nanomaterials and chemical removal (sorption) for PPCPs. Clay facilitates the removal of both contaminants. The small soil diameter of clay forms smaller pores in the soil media. This causes increased pore straining, while also restricting the flow through the soil, which increases the contact time between the soil particle and the ECs. Additionally, clay has a large surface area, which increases surface interactions, such as sorption, of the EC to the surface of the clay particle.

No description available.

There is a worldwide shortage of direct care workers who help older adults in their own homes. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that owners of home health care businesses can use to retain adequate direct care workers for their businesses. Five home care agency owners from Wake County, North Carolina, participated. Each owner had successfully implemented strategies to ensure adequate caregivers to sustain the business. Human relations theory was used to address the business problem. Data collection involved interviewing the 5 owners of home care agency businesses in their offices. Through a process of methodological triangulation, observations and documentary evidence supplemented data collected through semistructured interviews. Deductive and inductive coding were used to arrange and identify 3 emergent themes: company reputation, training and career development, and the role of government. The results of this study may contribute to social change because home care agency owners and other business owners can use the findings to improve on their treatment of low income workers which may help eradicate discrimination to ethnic minorities.

Healthcare facility wastewaters are a potentially important and under characterized source of pharmaceuticals and personal care products to the environment. In this study the composition and magnitude of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) released into a single municipality’s wastewater system from a hospital, a nursing care facility, an assisted living facility and an independent living facility are presented for 54 pharmaceuticals, 8 hormones and 31 Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs). Chemical oxidation using molecular ozone and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) (UV-hydrogen peroxide, Fenton’s Reagent, and Photo – Fenton’s Reagent) were screened and evaluated as potential treatment technologies for removal of APEOs in water and wastewater. In this research, APEOs were found to be dominant PPCP class out of 94 individual analytes measured, accounting for more than 65% of the total mass loading observed leaving the healthcare facility wastewater. Seventy one out of the total measured PPCPs were detected in wastewater from at least one of the facilities. Healthcare facility wastewater are the source of PPCPs to the environment; however, their contribution to the total magnitude of PPCPs in municipal wastewater and the surrounding environment will be determined by the relative flow contribution of wastewater released from the facility to the municipal sewer network. Molecular ozone and advanced oxidation processes were observed to remove APEOs from analyzed water matrices; however, understanding the product formation during the oxidation process is important before concluding a suitable treatment process. Molecular ozone reacted selectively with the double bond in the APEO while AOPs reaction was non selective oxidation. During the AOPs, OH· formation rate and scavenging rate constant of wastewater was found to be the factors governing the oxidation process. Thus, the research carried out informs a risk management decisions concerning the prevalence of PPCPs in the wastewater and use of oxidation systems as a treatment technologies for removal of PPCPs.

La présence avérée de produits pharmaceutiques et de soin personnels (PPSP) dans le milieu aquatique est principalement due à leur élimination incomplète dans les stations d’épuration (STEP). Ces molécules sont susceptibles de générer des effets néfastes sur les organismes vivants du milieu naturel. Une évaluation préalable des risques qui peuvent être engendrés par les PPSP est nécessaire pour qu’ils puissent être gérés correctement et sûrement par les principaux acteurs du cycle de l’eau tels que les pouvoirs publics et les grandes entreprises de l’environnement, dont fait partie Veolia. La démarche d’évaluation des risques nécessite d’avoir accès à des données sur les processus de biodégradation des PPSP dans l’environnement. Actuellement, les données disponibles sont qualitatives ou semi-quantitatives en raison de l’absence d’outils de mesure quantitatifs adéquats. L’objectif de ce travail de thèse a ainsi consisté à développer des outils pour quantifier spécifiquement les processus de biodégradation des PPSP in situ à des concentrations environnementales. Deux outils complémentaires ont été sélectionnés pour être évalués : le fractionnement énantiomérique, dans le but de quantifier la biodégradation des PPSP chiraux, et le fractionnement isotopique, limité à celui du chlore, dans le but de mesurer la biodégradation des PPSP chlorés. Pour évaluer ces outils, des analyses d’occurrence sur le terrain et des études cinétiques et mécanistiques en laboratoire ont été réalisées sur cinq molécules modèles : deux produits pharmaceutiques chiraux (un bêtabloquant, le métoprolol et un antidépresseur, la venlafaxine) et trois PPSP chlorés (deux biocides, le triclocarban et le triclosan, et un anti-inflammatoire non stéroïdien, le diclofénac). Nos travaux ont démontré que l’utilisation du fractionnement isotopique du chlore seul est peu adaptée à l’étude quantitative de la biodégradation des PPSP chlorés. Une approche isotopique multiéléments serait plus propice pour quantifier les processus de biodégradation. Par ailleurs, les expériences réalisées ont permis d’approfondir l’état des connaissances sur les voies et mécanismes de biodégradation des PPSP étudiés. La déchloration du triclosan dans les sédiments en aval des STEP a été mise en évidence pour la première fois. Concernant le triclocarban, cette réaction était déjà connue mais les mécanismes réactionnels de déchloration sous-jacents ont été élucidés en milieux aérobie et anaérobie. Les résultats obtenus sur l’outil énantiomérique sont très encourageants. Ils démontrent, à l’aide du métoprolol, l’existence d’une relation linéaire entre biodégradation et variations énantiomériques à la fois en conditions contrôlées et dans les STEP. Le fractionnement énantiomérique constitue donc un bon outil quantitatif de la biodégradation du métoprolol. Des études supplémentaires sont néanmoins nécessaires pour étendre ces résultats à d’autres molécules. D’autre part, l’analyse des concentrations et de la stéréochimie des produits de transformation du métoprolol a confirmé que ce composé se biodégrade stéréosélectivement en métoprolol acide et un mécanisme réactionnel a été proposé pour expliquer ces observations. Les cinétiques associées aux réactions de dégradation des PPSP étudiés doivent être mesurées in situ pour évaluer la capacité du milieu naturel à éliminer ces composés, d’où l’importance de rendre opérationnels les indicateurs quantitatifs étudiés au cours de la thèse. Croisées avec des données d’écotoxicité, les informations quantitatives sur la biodégradation peuvent aider les pouvoirs publics à cibler les PPSP qui nécessitent d’être régulés en priorité. Elles peuvent également aider les opérateurs privés à orienter leurs stratégies de réduction d’émission à la source et l’optimisation des procédés de traitement des eaux afin que ces derniers éliminent en priorité les micropolluants les plus à risque. / The widespread occurrence of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCP) in surface waters, due to their incomplete removal in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), is of concern since these compounds may be harmful to living organisms. Environmental risks associated with the presence of PPCP in aquatic environment have to be evaluated in order to help the main actors involved in the water cycle such as public authorities and environmental companies, including Veolia, to manage them properly. Quantitative and qualitative assessment of in situ biodegradation of PPCP is a major need in the context of risk assessment. Quantitative information remains scarcely available due the lack of appropriate methods. The objective of this work was then to develop tools able to quantify specifically in situ biodegradation of PPCP at trace levels. Two different tools have been selected to be evaluated, namely enantiomeric fractionation dedicated to chiral compounds and isotopic fractionation limited to chlorine-isotope analysis dedicated to chlorinated PPCP. To evaluate these tools, environmental occurrence studies and in vitro mechanistic and kinetic studies were together performed using five probe compounds : two chiral PPCP (a beta-blocker, the metoprolol and an antidepressant, the venlafaxine) and three chlorinated PPCP (two biocides, the triclocarban and the triclosan, and a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, the diclofenac). These experiments demonstrated that chlorine isotope fractionation can hardly provide quantitative information on in situ biodegradation of chlorinated PPCP. Multi-dimensional isotopic fractionation might be better adapted to quantify biodegradation. Furthermore, through the experiments, new insights on biodegradation pathways and mechanisms of the studied compounds have also been gained. Dechlorination of triclosan within sediment has been evidenced for the first time. Concerning triclocarban, dechlorination of this compound in environment had already been reported in previous studies but aerobic and anaerobic dechlorination mechanisms have been elucidated in the present study. Results obtained on enantiomeric fractionation demonstrated that this tool is very promising. Experiments using metoprolol as probe compound showed existence of a linear relationship between enantiomeric enrichment and the extent of biodegradation both under controlled conditions and within WWTP. Enantiomeric enrichment might then constitute a good indicator of in situ biodegradation of metoprolol. Supplementary studies are needed to extrapolate these results to other micropollutants. In addition, stereoselective degradation of metoprolol in acid metoprolol within WWTP and under controlled conditions has been observed similarly to other studies and one degradation mechanism has been proposed to explain the reaction stereochemistry. In situ kinetics associated with degradation pathways of the studied PPSPs have to be measured to assess the ability of the environment to eliminate these compounds, hence the importance of making operational the quantitative indicators studied in this thesis. Crossed with ecotoxicity data, quantitative information on biodegradation can help public authorities to target PPCPs that need to be regulated first. They can also help private operators to direct their source reduction strategies and their water treatment process optimization so that they eliminate in priority the most risked micropollutants.

5 Abstract Five substances from the group of so-called personal care products, known for their low degradability and regular environmental detection, were tested for toxicity using two fish tissue lines (RTgill-W1 a RTG-2) isolated from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus miykiss). The tested substances were hexadecylpyridinium chloride (HDP), chlorhexidine (CHX), octenidine (OCT), thymol (THM) and triclosan (TCS). A cell viability assay was performed with each of these compounds using Alamar Blue ™ (AB), 5-carboxyfluorescein diacetate acetoxymethyl ester (CFDA-AM) and neutral red (NR) protocols. The results were used to construct dose-response curves along with an EC50 value for each of these substances. The EC50 values ranged from 0,51 (HDP) to 33,75 µg.ml-1 (THM) for RTgill-W1 and from 0,31 (HDP) to 33,37 µg.ml-1 (THM) for RTG-2. The theoretical LC50 estimation was calculated according to Tanneberger et al. (2013). For all substances, cytochrome P450 1A activity was monitored using 7-ethoxyresorufin-o-deethylase (EROD), four out of five tested chemicals were statistically positive for EROD, the highest EROD response was observed for the most toxic compound - HDP. Only TCS did not show statistically significant cytochrome P450 1A activity. In addition, oxidative stress was measured with the fluorescent dye...