Daniel Martín

This research presents a novel approach to automating the disassembly process of personal computers (PCs) as a critical step toward circular manufacturing of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). By integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, we aim to optimize resource recovery and minimize environmental impact. The study focuses on developing a system that accurately identifies and localizes key PC components, such as motherboards, processors, cooling fans, and screws, using modern computer vision techniques. YOLO object detection algorithm is employed for 2D image analysis, while morphological computer vision is utilized to transform 2D coordinates into 3D locations. A collaborative robot is then tasked with unmounting the identified components based on the generated 3D locations. This research contributes to the Horizon Europe’s Circular TwAIn project by demonstrating the potential of AI and robotics to revolutionize WEEE management and promote a more sustainable electronic waste lifecycle in Europe.

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) is considered a syndrome of impaired health and performance due to low energy availability (LEA) relative to energy needs in physical activity. Although REDs has been studied from physiological and psychological perspectives, currently, there is little research from a sociological or socio-cultural perspective. The current study sought to address that gap, by investigating the embodied experiences of REDs, specifically in relation to sporting identity and identity work, from the perspective of 20 UK-based endurance athletes who self-identified as having experienced REDs. Twelve participants took part in semi-structured interviews designed to explore their experiences of REDs, and eight completed personal wellbeing diaries. Our findings cohere around three key elements in identity work, drawing on micro-sociological interactionist perspectives that highlight the importance of: materialistic, associative, and vocabularic forms of identification. The findings offer novel insights into what can be a highly distressing experience, corporeally and psychologically, by focusing on how identity-related issues can contribute to REDs.

There is little debate regarding the acceptability of providing medical care to restore physical or mental health that has deteriorated below what is considered typical due to disease or disorder (i.e., providing “treatment”—for example, administering psychostimulant medication to sustain attention in the case of attention deficit disorder). When asked whether a healthy individual may undergo the same intervention for the purpose of enhancing their capacities (i.e., “enhancement”—for example, use of a psychostimulant as a “study drug”), people often express greater hesitation. Building on prior research in moral philosophy and cognitive science, in this work, we ask why people draw a moral distinction between treatment and enhancement. In two experiments, we provide evidence that the accessibility of health-related interventions determines their perceived descriptive or statistical normality (Experiment 1), and that gains in descriptive normality for such interventions weaken the moral distinction between treatment and enhancement (Experiment 2). In short, our findings suggest that the tendency to draw a moral distinction between treatment and enhancement is driven, in part, by assumptions about descriptive abnormality; and raise the possibility that normalizing novel biomedical interventions by promoting access could undermine people’s selective opposition toward enhancement, rendering it morally comparable to treatment.