A cross-country experimental study on consumers’ subjective understanding and liking on front-of-pack nutrition labels

Different Front-of-Pack (FOP) nutritional labels have been implemented in order to increase consumers’ awareness of food nutritional quality and encourage healthier choices. However, few studies have analysed the effects of FOPLs on consumers’ subjective understanding and liking across different socio-cultural contexts. This study tests the effect that the new enriched informative label NutrInform Battery and the summary label Nutri-Score have on subjective comprehension and liking across 2776 respondents of seven European countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain). Main effects regarding socio-demographic differences are also explored according to extant literature and highlighting significant effects of education and income. This study therefore extends the current research on subjective understanding and liking with a cross-country analysis. Findings suggest that NutrInform Battery can help consumers in understanding information in a relevant way, obtaining the highest performance across countries and showing limited impact of socio-cultural differences

An integrated portable system for single chip simultaneous measurement of multiple disease associated metabolites

Metabolites, the small molecules that underpin life, can act as indicators of the physiological state of the body when their abundance varies, offering routes to diagnosis of many diseases. The ability to assay for multiple metabolites simultaneously will underpin a new generation of precision diagnostic tools. Here, we report the development of a handheld device based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology with multiple isolated micro-well reaction zones and integrated optical sensing allowing simultaneous enzyme-based assays of multiple metabolites (choline, xanthine, sarcosine and cholesterol) associated with multiple diseases. These metabolites were measured in clinically relevant concentration range with minimum concentrations measured: 25 μM for choline, 100 μM for xanthine, 1.25 μM for sarcosine and 50 μM for cholesterol. Linking the device to an Android-based user interface allows for quantification of metabolites in serum and urine within 2 min of applying samples to the device. The quantitative performance of the device was validated by comparison to accredited tests for cholesterol and glucose

Study, design and prototyping of an animal traction cam based press for biomass densification

An animal traction piston press was studied for applications in developing countries, aimed at producing biomass briquettes as alternative household fuel. Experiments were carried out with different biomasses for determining the minimum compaction pressure and the relationship between applied pressure and volume reduction. Two cams were designed for moving the machine mechanisms: their shape was determined with the aim of minimising the applied draft force, considering the experimentally determined biomass behaviour. The machine was prototyped and tested in Senegal, giving satisfactory results

Surface plastic strain in contact problems: prediction by a simplified non-linear kinematic hardening model

A previously published model for plasticity assessment in rolling contact, based on a simplification of the non- linear kinematic and isotropic hardening model of Chaboche and Lemaitre, is discussed, and an update is introduced in order to improve its accuracy in the plastic strain prediction within the region just underneath the contact surface. The update is based on a correction of the yield limit and of the strain rate as a function of the load ratio of the tensile stress in the direction parallel to the contact surface. The effectiveness and the accuracy of the updated model in not too severe conditions are demonstrated through comparisons with results obtained by finite element model (FEM) analyses. An application of the model to some experimental results obtained on rail and railway wheel steels is also carried out, and quite good agreement is found in plastic strain prediction, although some discrepancies are found. The method appears to be a valid tool for practical application, especially for its ability of combining the effects of different phenomena and of simulating a number of cycles of the order of millions in a reasonable time