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When a consumer is finished using an electronic device (End-of- First-Use), they might recycle, resell, donate/give away, trade-in or throw it in the trash. There are security threats if a hostile party obtains the device and extracts data. Data wiping at End- of-First-Use is thus an important security behavior, one that has received scant analytical attention. To explore consumer behavior and reasoning behind data wiping practices, we undertake a survey of the U.S. population. One key result is that 31% of the population did not wipe data when dispositioning a device. When asked why not, 44% replied that they did not find data wiping important or that it did not occur to them. 33% replied the device was broken and data could not be wiped, 12% reported difficulty in wiping and 11% could not find a way to wipe. The 44% who thought data wiping was not important showed lower awareness of the security threat, 23% had heard that data can be recovered from discarded devices, versus 44% for the general population. The most prevalent device types for which data wiping was reported as unimportant are smart TVs, kitchen appliances, streaming, and gaming devices, suggesting that consumers may not be aware that private information is being stored on these devices. To inform future interventions that aim to raise awareness, we queried respondents where they obtained security knowledge. 47% replied that they learned about security threats from a single venue; social media was this single venue 43% of the time. This suggests that social media is a key channel for security education 

The goal of this study is to find patterns in how consumers disposition electronic devices at End-of-First-Use, i.e. store, recycle, resell, trade in, donate/give or and throw in the trash. K-means clustering was used on survey data from 3,747 U.S. respondents across 10 device categories to divide the population into three clusters of consumers based on stated attitudes and knowledge of data privacy, environmental benefits, convenience and other aspects of End-of-First-Use options. We then measure the reported intended disposition of devices for each cluster and compare with the general population. Cluster 1 has higher data security concerns when recycling, reselling or donating, and less knowledge and trust in End-of-First-Use options overall. The intended behavior of cluster 1 shows higher than average uncertainty in what to do at End-of-First-Use and more intent to store (lower values for other options - recycling, reselling and donating). Cluster 2 shows higher knowledge and trust in recycling, reselling, and donation, and slightly higher than average concern about data security of these options. The intended behavior of cluster 2 shows higher intent to resell, trade-in or donate, and lower levels of being uncertain of what to do and of storing. Cluster 3 expresses much less concern about data security, and lower utility of a stored device. Their intended behavior shows less storage and higher levels of other End-of- First-Use" options. While cluster analysis does not yield causal connections, the groups show consistent trends in stated knowledge and attitudes towards different End-of-First-Use options and corresponding planned behaviors. These results indicate there are subgroups of the general population with similar reported attitudes, knowledge and behaviors. The three subgroups do not have distinct demographic characteristics, i.e. knowledge and attitudes regarding disposition of electronics does not depend strongly on age, education level, income and similar factors. Understanding segmentation is useful to investigate more effective interventions to influence behavior for better sustainability outcomes. 

Multimaterial heterostructures have led to characteristics surpassing the individual components. Nature controls the architecture and placement of multiple materials through biomineralization of nanoparticles (NPs); however, synthetic heterostructure formation remains limited and generally departs from the elegance of self-assembly. Here, a class of block polymer structure-directing agents (SDAs) are developed containing repeat units capable of persistent (covalent) NP interactions that enable the direct fabrication of nanoscale porous heterostructures, where a single material is localized at the pore surface as a continuous layer. This SDA binding motif (design rule 1) enables sequence-controlled heterostructures, where the composition profile and interfaces correspond to the synthetic addition order. This approach is generalized with 5 material sequences using an SDA with only persistent SDA-NP interactions (“P-NP1−NP2”; NPi = TiO2, Nb2O5, ZrO2). Expanding these polymer SDA design guidelines, it is shown that the combination of both persistent and dynamic (noncovalent) SDA-NP interactions (“PD-NP1−NP2”) improves the production of uniform interconnected porosity (design rule 2). The resulting competitive binding between two segments of the SDA (P- vs D-) requires additional time for the first NP type (NP1) to reach and covalently attach to the SDA (design rule 3). The combination of these three design rules enables the direct self-assembly of heterostructures that localize a single material at the pore surface while preserving continuous porosity. 

Micelle sizes are critical for a range of applications where the simple ability to adjust and lock in specific stable sizes has remained largely elusive. While micelle swelling agents are well-known, their dynamic re-equilibration in solution implies limited stability. Here, a non-equilibrium processing sequence is studied where supersaturated homopolymer swelling is combined with glassy-core (‘‘persistent’’) micelles. This path-dependent process was found to sensitively depend on unimer concentration as revealed by DLS, SAXS, and TEM analysis. Here, lower-selectivity solvent combinations led to the formation of unimer-homopolymer aggregates and eventual precipitation, reminiscent of anomalous micellization. In contrast, higher-selectivity solvents enabled supersaturated homopolymer loadings favored by rapid homopolymer insertion. The demonstrated B40–130 nm core-size tuning exceeded prior equilibrium demonstrations and subsequent core-vitrification enabled size persistence beyond 6 months. Lastly, the linear change in micelle diameter with homopolymer addition was found to correlate with a plateau in the interfacial area per copolymer chain. 

As office workers shift to telework, office building space requirements should decrease, but this relationship has not been empirically studied. We construct a dataset describing historical office building space, number of office workers, and number of teleworkers from 2003-2019 in the US, and use linear regression to estimate the effect of telework on office building space. The results show that the average office building space required for an additional office worker and teleworker is 32 and 18 square meters (340 and 191 square feet), respectively, suggesting an average 44% reduction in office building space when an office worker transitions to telework. 

Kinetically trapped (“persistent”) micelles enable emerging applications requiring a constant core diameter. Preserving a χN barrier to chain exchange with low- N requires a commensurately higher χ core–solvent for micelle persistence. Low- N , high- χ micelles containing fluorophobic interactions were studied using poly(ethylene oxide- b -perfluorooctyl acrylate)s (O 45 F X , x = 8, 11) in methanolic solutions. DLS analysis of micelles revealed chain exchange only for O 45 F 8 while SAXS analysis suggested elongated core block conformations commensurate with the contour lengths. Micelle chain exchange from solution perturbations were examined by characterizing their behavior as templates for inorganic materials via SAXS and SEM. In contrast to the F 8 analog, the larger χN barrier for the O 45 F 11 enabled persistent micelle behavior in both thin films and bulk samples despite the low T g micelle core. Careful measures of micelle core diameters and pore sizes revealed that the nanoparticle distribution extended through the corona and 0.52 ± 0.15 nm into the core–corona interface, highlighting thermodynamics favoring both locations simultaneously.