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This article aims to provide in-depth insight into how consumers perceive recycled materials in comparison with natural raw materials at both the perceptual and attitudinal levels. To this end, we combined classic self-reported measures of sensory aspects, preferences, environmental attitudes, and consumption habits together with physiological measures of cognitive-emotional processing. Three different materials-two recycled materials, M2 and M3, and one raw material, M1-were chosen for inspection through three different sensory conditions, which we refer to as channels -visual, tactile, and visuo-tactile. The assignation of materials to sensory channels was counterbalanced so that each participant evaluated only one of the materials per channel. Although participants in general were not very accurate in discriminating between the materials, self-reported sensory evaluations showed that M3 (a recycled material that is made to look non-recycled), was clearly less liked. Meanwhile, the psychophysiological analyses revealed higher levels of electrodermal activity for the tactile evaluations of both recycled materials (M2 and M3). Finally, the results from the attitudes and habits evaluations indicate that the participants had positive environmental attitudes yet poor consumption habits. Altogether, these results suggest that some sensorial properties differ between recycled materials and natural raw materials and that there is a chance to improve and implement new consumption habits. The implications of these results are further discussed both in terms of suggestions for designers and methodological recommendations for researchers.

The improvement of the reliability of the contact between the osseous tissues and the implant materials has been tested by recovering the metallic implants with ceramic materials, usually calcium phosphates. In our study, the calcium phosphate recovering layers were deposited by means of a pulsed-laser deposition technique. Our aim was to to evaluate the tissue interactions established between cortical bone and titanium implants covered by five different layers, ranging from amorphous calcium phosphate to crystalline hydroxyapatite, obtained by altering the parameters of the laser ablation process. The surgical protocol of the study consisted in the simultaneous implantation of the five types of implants in both the tibial dyaphisis of three Beagle dogs, sacrificed respectively one, two and three months after the last surgical procedures. After the sacrifice, the samples were submitted to a scheduled procedure of embedding in plastic polymers without prior decalcification, in order to perform the ultrastructural studies: scanning microscopy with secondary and backscattered electrons (BS-SEM). Our observations show that both in terms of the calcified tissues appearing as a response to the presence of the different coatings and of time of recovering, the implants coated with crystalline calcium phosphate layers by laser ablation present a better result than the amorphous-calcium-phosphate-coated implants. Moreover, the constant presence of chondroid tissue, related with the mechanical induction by forces applied on the recovering area, strongly suggests that the mechanisms implied in osteointegration are related to endomembranous, rather than endochondral ossification processes.