scholarly journals Sensory Nudges: The Influences of Environmental Contexts on Consumers’ Sensory Perception, Emotional Responses, and Behaviors toward Foods and Beverages

Foods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han-Seok Seo

Food products with highly acceptable flavors are not always successful in the marketplace. Sales of identical food products sold in two different stores often differ. Patrons’ choices of specific menu items vary depending on menu designs at restaurants. Such examples suggest that consumer behavior related to eating, preparing, or purchasing foods and beverages is typically complex, dynamic, and sensitive. There is a growing body of evidence that environmental cues surrounding foods and beverages can modulate consumer perception and behavior in the context of eating and drinking. In light of increasing interest in environmental cues, this Special Issue was designed to introduce recent research that highlights how sensory cues derived from environmental cues can modulate consumer perceptions, emotional responses, and behavior related to foods and beverages. The eleven articles addressed in this Special Issue provide informative and insightful findings that may be applied to a wide range of food-related sites, including grocery stores, retail markets, restaurants, dining facilities, and public dining areas. The findings from these articles also suggest that product developers, sensory professionals, retailers, marketers, and business owners should consider not only sensory aspects of food products, but also sensory cues derived from surrounding contexts to better understand consumer perception, acceptability, and behavior toward their food products.

Sensation and perception refers to different stages in the processing of stimuli that influence consumer behaviors. The five senses involved in sensation and perception—touch, smell, taste, hearing, and vision—have important implications for marketers. Consumers often make inferences about the quality and performance of products on the basis of sensory cues. Product packaging can also be an important cue from which consumers can derive information and make evaluations about the performance of the product. This chapter also discusses non-conscious processing of environmental cues and how unconsciously perceived stimuli affect a variety of consumer behaviors. The research presented in this chapter on sensory cues and unconscious processes can help managers to develop effective sensory marketing strategies.


Author(s):  
Magda Nikolaraizi ◽  
Charikleia Kanari ◽  
Marc Marschark

In recent years, museums of various kinds have broadened their mission and made systematic efforts to develop a dynamic role in learning by offering a wide range of less formal experiences for individuals with diverse characteristics, including individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH). Despite the worthwhile efforts, in the case of DHH individuals, museums frequently neglect to consider their unique communication, cognitive, cultural, and learning characteristics, thus limiting their access and opportunities for fully experiencing what museums have to offer. This chapter examines the potential for creating accessible museum environments and methods that reflect an understanding of the diverse communication, cognitive, cultural, and learning needs of DHH visitors, all of which enhance their access and participation in the museum activities. The role of the physical features of museum spaces for the access and behavior of DHH visitors is emphasized, together with attention to exhibition methods and the communication and cognitive challenges that need to be considered so DHH visitors can get the maximum benefit. The chapter emphasizes the right of individuals who are DHH to nonformal learning and analyzes how museums could become more accessible to DHH individuals by designing, from the beginning, participatory learning experiences that address their diverse needs.


Quaternary ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentí Rull

In the coming years, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) will submit its proposal on the ‘Anthropocene’ to the Subcommission of Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) and the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) for approval. If approved, the proposal will be sent to the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) for ratification. If the proposal is approved and ratified, then the ‘Anthropocene’ will be formalized. Currently, the ‘Anthropocene’ is a broadly used term and concept in a wide range of scientific and non-scientific situations, and, for many, the official acceptance of this term is only a matter of time. However, the AWG proposal, in its present state, seems to not fully meet the requirements for a new chronostratigraphic unit. This essay asks what could happen if the current ‘Anthropocene’ proposal is not formalized by the ICS/IUGS. The possible stratigraphic alternatives are evaluated on the basis of the more recent literature and the personal opinions of distinguished AWG, SQS, and ICS members. The eventual impact on environmental sciences and on non-scientific sectors, where the ‘Anthropocene’ seems already firmly rooted and de facto accepted as a new geological epoch, are also discussed. This essay is intended as the editorial introduction to a Quaternary special issue on the topic.


Author(s):  
Javier Ortuño-Sierra ◽  
Beatriz Lucas-Molina ◽  
Félix Inchausti ◽  
Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero

Psychological problems in children and adolescent populations range from 10% to 20% [...]


2021 ◽  
pp. 074873042098732
Author(s):  
N. Kronfeld-Schor ◽  
T. J. Stevenson ◽  
S. Nickbakhsh ◽  
E. S. Schernhammer ◽  
X. C. Dopico ◽  
...  

Not 1 year has passed since the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Since its emergence, great uncertainty has surrounded the potential for COVID-19 to establish as a seasonally recurrent disease. Many infectious diseases, including endemic human coronaviruses, vary across the year. They show a wide range of seasonal waveforms, timing (phase), and amplitudes, which differ depending on the geographical region. Drivers of such patterns are predominantly studied from an epidemiological perspective with a focus on weather and behavior, but complementary insights emerge from physiological studies of seasonality in animals, including humans. Thus, we take a multidisciplinary approach to integrate knowledge from usually distinct fields. First, we review epidemiological evidence of environmental and behavioral drivers of infectious disease seasonality. Subsequently, we take a chronobiological perspective and discuss within-host changes that may affect susceptibility, morbidity, and mortality from infectious diseases. Based on photoperiodic, circannual, and comparative human data, we not only identify promising future avenues but also highlight the need for further studies in animal models. Our preliminary assessment is that host immune seasonality warrants evaluation alongside weather and human behavior as factors that may contribute to COVID-19 seasonality, and that the relative importance of these drivers requires further investigation. A major challenge to predicting seasonality of infectious diseases are rapid, human-induced changes in the hitherto predictable seasonality of our planet, whose influence we review in a final outlook section. We conclude that a proactive multidisciplinary approach is warranted to predict, mitigate, and prevent seasonal infectious diseases in our complex, changing human-earth system.


Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Eman E. Abdeen ◽  
Walid S. Mousa ◽  
Sarah Y. Abdelsalam ◽  
Hanim S. Heikal ◽  
Reyad R. Shawish ◽  
...  

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains have veterinary and public health importance as they are responsible for a wide range of difficult to treat infections and food poisoning. Two hundred samples (50 samples each of minced meat, beef luncheon, Karish cheese, and human samples (pus swab from open wounds)) were cultured, and MRSA strains were identified using disk diffusion tests and mecA gene-based PCR. A total of 35% (70/200) of the examined samples were confirmed as coagulase-positive S. aureus in minced meat (46%), beef luncheon (44%), Karish cheese (44%), and human samples (22%). The MRSA strains showed resistance to amoxicillin (91.4%), penicillin (97.1%), cefoxitin (85.7%), cephradine (82.9%), tetracycline (57.2%), and erythromycin (52.8%). More than half of the tested S. aureus isolates harbored the mecA gene. The sequence analysis of the mecA gene from the minced meat, Karish cheese, and human samples revealed high genetic similarities between the S. aureus isolates from these sources. In conclusion, our findings indicate a risk for the transmission of the mecA gene of S. aureus across the food chain between humans and animal food products. Further studies should focus on finding additional epidemiological aspects of the MRSA strains in food chain.


Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 881
Author(s):  
Roberta Tolve ◽  
Fernanda Galgano ◽  
Nicola Condelli ◽  
Nazarena Cela ◽  
Luigi Lucini ◽  
...  

The nutritional quality of animal products is strongly related to their fatty acid content and composition. Nowadays, attention is paid to the possibility of producing healthier foods of animal origin by intervening in animal feed. In this field, the use of condensed tannins as dietary supplements in animal nutrition is becoming popular due to their wide range of biological effects related, among others, to their ability to modulate the rumen biohydrogenation and biofortify, through the improvement of the fatty acids profile, the derivate food products. Unfortunately, tannins are characterized by strong astringency and low bioavailability. These disadvantages could be overcome through the microencapsulation in protective matrices. With this in mind, the optimal conditions for microencapsulation of a polyphenolic extract rich in condensed tannins by spray drying using a blend of maltodextrin (MD) and gum Arabic (GA) as shell material were investigated. For this purpose, after the extract characterization, through spectrophotometer assays and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight (UHPLC-QTOF) mass spectrometry, a central composite design (CCD) was employed to investigate the combined effects of core:shell and MD:GA ratio on the microencapsulation process. The results obtained were used to develop second-order polynomial regression models on different responses, namely encapsulation yield, encapsulation efficiency, loading capacity, and tannin content. The formulation characterized by a core:shell ratio of 1.5:5 and MD:GA ratio of 4:6 was selected as the optimized one with a loading capacity of 17.67%, encapsulation efficiency of 76.58%, encapsulation yield of 35.69%, and tannin concentration of 14.46 g/100 g. Moreover, in vitro release under varying pH of the optimized formulation was carried out with results that could improve the use of microencapsulated condensed tannins in animal nutrition for the biofortification of derivates.


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