Effect of Pulp Pigmentation Intensity on Consumer Acceptance of New Blood Mandarins: A Cross-Cultural Study in Spain and Italy

One of the current objectives of different citrus breeding programmes is obtaining new pigmented mandarins. This study investigates to what extent consumer preferences, expectations and purchase intention are affected by the appearance of new mandarins, specifically pulp pigmentation intensity. Four hundred consumers from both Italy and Spain (800 in all) participated in the study. In each country, half were informed about the healthy properties of the anthocyanins responsible for red pulp colouration, while the other half were not. Italians more readily accepted new mandarin varieties than Spaniards, which was linked to them being more familiar with blood oranges. In Italy, both slight- and medium-pigmented mandarins were well-accepted. Spanish consumers preferred the slight-pigmented variety. The most intense pigmented varieties were not well-accepted in either country. Health-related information positively affected Spaniards’ consumer response but did not modify that of Italians. A halo effect was detected in Spain, where health-related information positively affected mandarin appearance liking and its expected taste liking. Consumer perception that new varieties were unnatural was identified as a consumption barrier, mainly in Spain. Blood orange familiarity and health claims are revealed as conditioning factors for consumer response to pigmented mandarins. Interventions should be made to inform consumers that these varieties are obtained by conventional breeding and not by transgenic technology. Future studies should evaluate consumer response to other sensory characteristics, such as odour, taste and texture

Smart green charging scheme of centralized electric vehicle stations

This paper presses a smart charging decision-making criterion that significantly contributes in enhancing the scheduling of the electric vehicles (EVs) during the charging process. The proposed criterion aims to optimize the charging time, select the charging methodology either DC constant current constant voltage (DC-CCCV) or DC multi-stage constant currents (DC-MSCC), maximize the charging capacity as well as minimize the queuing delay per EV, especially during peak hours. The decision-making algorithms have been developed by utilizing metaheuristic algorithms including the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Water Cycle Optimization Algorithm (WCOA). The utility of the proposed models has been investigated while considering the Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) as a benchmark. Furthermore, the proposed models are seeded using the Monte Carlo simulation technique by estimating the EVs arriving density to the EVS across the day. WCOA has shown an overall reduction of 13% and 8.5% in the total charging time while referring to MILP and GA respectively

Understanding Blood versus Blond Orange Consumption: A Cross-Cultural Study in Four Countries

Understanding consumer perceptions and attitudes to specific fruit is key information for not only increasing fruit consumption, but also for marketing reasons. It may also give clues to breeders to set quality objectives. This study explores different aspects that help to explain blood vs. blond orange consumption: availability and consumption habit, satisfaction attributes, facilitators and consumption barriers, consumption contexts, expectations and purchase intention. The study was conducted in China, Mexico, Spain and Italy, where citrus fruit consumers were invited to respond an online questionnaire. Our results revealed Italy as the country with the highest availability and consumption of blood oranges, followed by China, Mexico and Spain. "Liking" and "healthy properties" were the most important reasons for consumption irrespectively of orange type, but certain differences among countries were detected in secondary reasons. In all the countries, "juicy" was the most relevant attribute for consumer satisfaction, followed by flavour/taste attributes. "Aromatic" and "unfibrous" were substantial requirements for Italians and Chinese, while Spaniards attached importance to the blood oranges colour. Regarding consumption contexts, "eat with salt or chilly powder" was specific for Mexico, while "to improve health", "as a gift" or "at a restaurant" were contexts mainly cited in China. Despite taste preferences for other fruit being the main consumption barrier in all the countries for both orange types, the relevance of other barriers depended on culture and orange type. Mexican participants seemed to take a more neophobic attitude to blood oranges, while "inconvenient" was reported as a barrier for consuming blond ones in Spain and China. We conclude that blond and blood oranges can co-exist on markets at a high consumption rate, as in Italy. Specific interventions are needed in other countries because consumer attitudes to oranges, mainly blood ones, depend on culture

Amino Acid d15N Can Detect Diet Effects on Pollution Risks for Yellow-Legged Gulls Overlooked by Trophic Position

This study was funded in part by a FundManagement Agreement between the IEO and the Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica (Spain) and by grant number IN607A2018/2 of the Axencia Galega de Innovación (GAIN, Xunta de Galicia, Spain).The use of top-consumers as bioindicators of the health of food webs is hampered by uncertainties in their effective use of resources. In this study, the abundance of stable nitrogen isotopes in amino acids from homogenised eggs of the Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis) allowed to identify variations in trophic resource exploitation between geographically adjacent nesting colonies in the Ria de Vigo (NW Spain) that exhibited marked differences in pollutants. Eggs from nests in the Cíes Islands (located in a National Park) showed a large variability in stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bulk egg content encompassing that of eggs from Vigo city (a major fishing harbour). However, both colonies differed in the relative concentration and abundance of nitrogen isotopes of lysine, an essential amino acid present in marine prey, but also extensively used in feed stocks for poultry and swine. Notwithstanding the similarity in trophic position for both colonies, gulls from Cíes Islands may have acquired a substantial fraction of lysine from garbage dump sites, while those of the urban colony relied on fish discards. This unexpected conclusion is partly supported by the large variability reported for gull's diet in this region and calls for detailed estimations of diet when assessing the conservation status and pollution risks of marine ecosystems.This study was funded in part by a FundManagement Agreement between the IEO and the Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica (Spain) and by grant number IN607A2018/2 of the Axencia Galega de Innovación (GAIN, Xunta de Galicia, Spain).En prens

Opportunity Trajectory Reconstruction Techniques for Evaluation of ATC Systems

This paper describes some key points of a new tool being currently developed by Eurocontrol for the assessment of air traffic control (ATC) multisensor trackers performance. It summarizes the algorithmic foundations of the high-accuracy trajectory reconstruction process used to obtain reference trajectories from recorded measures. These trajectories will serve as a reference for the evaluation of the accuracy of ATC data processing centers. The performance of the system is illustrated with some reconstruction experiments on synthetic and real data

Automatic-dependent surveillance-broadcast experimental deployment using system wide information management

This paper describes an automatic-dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) implementation for air-to-air and ground-based experimental surveillance within a prototype of a fully automated air traffic management (ATM) system, under a trajectory-based-operations paradigm. The system is built using an air-inclusive implementation of system wide information management (SWIM). This work describes the relations between airborne and ground surveillance (SURGND), the prototype surveillance systems, and their algorithms. System's performance is analyzed with simulated and real data. Results show that the proposed ADS-B implementation can fulfill the most demanding surveillance accuracy requirements

Localization of Non-Linearly Modeled Autonomous Mobile Robots Using Out-of-Sequence Measurements

This paper presents a state of the art of the estimation algorithms dealing with Out-of-Sequence (OOS) measurements for non-linearly modeled systems. The state of the art includes a critical analysis of the algorithm properties that takes into account the applicability of these techniques to autonomous mobile robot navigation based on the fusion of the measurements provided, delayed and OOS, by multiple sensors. Besides, it shows a representative example of the use of one of the most computationally efficient approaches in the localization module of the control software of a real robot (which has non-linear dynamics, and linear and non-linear sensors) and compares its performance against other approaches. The simulated results obtained with the selected OOS algorithm shows the computational requirements that each sensor of the robot imposes to it. The real experiments show how the inclusion of the selected OOS algorithm in the control software lets the robot successfully navigate in spite of receiving many OOS measurements. Finally, the comparison highlights that not only is the selected OOS algorithm among the best performing ones of the comparison, but it also has the lowest computational and memory cost

Central nervous system manganese induced lesions and clinical consequences in patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia

Abstract Background Around 47–74% of patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) have hepatic vascular malformations (HVMs); magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the central nervous system (CNS) might show in T1 sequences a hyper-intensity signal in different areas, mainly in the basal ganglia (BG) as consequence of manganese (Mn) deposits as observed in cirrhotic patients. These patients might suffer from different neuropsychiatric disorders (hepatic encephalopathy). In HHT patients, even in the presence of hepatic shunts, hepatocellular function is usually preserved. Additionally, Mn shares iron absorption mechanisms, transferrin and CNS transferrin receptors. In iron deficiency conditions, the Mn may harbor transferrin and access BG. The objectives were to describe frequency of BG Mn deposit-induced lesions (BGMnIL) in HHT patients, its relationship with iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and HVMs. Finally, explore the association between neuropsychological and motor consequences. We performed a cross-sectional study. We determined HHT patients with or without BG-MnIL by the MRI screening of the CNS. We included all patients with lesions and a random sample of those without lesions. All patients underwent standardized and validated neuropsychological assessment to evaluate BG actions. Results were analyzed with multiple logistic regression, adjusting for potential confounders. Results Among 307 participants from a cohort included in the Institutional HHT Registry, 179 patients had MRI performed and Curaçao Criteria ≥3. The prevalence of BG-MnIL was 34.6% (95%CI 27.69-42.09). While neuropsychological symptoms were present in all patients, BG-MnIL patients performed poorly in three of the neuropsychological tests (serial dotting, line tracing time, number connection test A). HVMs frequency in BG-MnIL was 95.1%, versus 71.4% in those without lesions (p < 0.001). IDA frequency was 90.3% versus 54% (p < 0.001). When IDA is present, estimated risk for BG-MnIL is remarkably high (OR 7.73, 95%CI 2.23–26.73). After adjustment for possible confounders (gender, age, presence of HVMs), IDA was still associated with increased risk of BG-MnIL (adjusted OR 6.32, 95% CI 2.32–17.20; p < 0.001). Conclusions Physicians should assess BG-MnIL in HHT patients in CNS-MRI. IDA and HVMs present increased risk of lesions. Patients with BG-MnIL have neuropsychological impairment, and they might benefit from sparing IDA, or undergoing future therapeutic options. Trial registration NCT01761981 . Registered January 3rd 2013

Simulation-driven engineering for the management of harmful algal and cyanobacterial blooms

Harmful Algal and Cyanobacterial Blooms (HABs), occurring in inland and maritime waters, pose threats to natural environments by producing toxins that affect human and animal health. In the past, HABs have been assessed mainly by the manual collection and subsequent analysis of water samples and occasionally by automatic instruments that acquire information from fixed locations. These procedures do not provide data with the desirable spatial and temporal resolution to anticipate the formation of HABs. Hence, new tools and technologies are needed to efficiently detect, characterize and respond to HABs that threaten water quality. It is essential nowadays when the world's water supply is under tremendous pressure because of climate change, overexploitation, and pollution. This paper introduces DEVS-BLOOM, a novel framework for real-time monitoring and management of HABs. Its purpose is to support high-performance hazard detection with Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) infrastructure for dynamic environments