Consumers' food choice and quality perception.

There is a long tradition of research into consumers’ food choice and quality perception. In the last few years, however, these topics have received even more attention due to the intense debate about such issues as ethical considerations in relation to food production and quality, food scandals and the resulting food scares among consumers, genetic modification of foods, and animal welfare (or, rather, non-welfare), which has made questions regarding food quality and consumers’ supposedly rational or irrational food choices even more urgent. In-creased interest in health and quality stands in stark contrast to a perceived unwillingness to pay the higher prices this implies, and scepticism about industrial food production stands in contrast to busy lifestyles and a resulting demand for convenience. However, while the topics of food quality perception and choice have certainly become more complex, research has also provided new insights into them. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of research carried out on consumers’ food quality perception and choice at the MAPP Centre during the last 10 years, and is part of a major research project at Fødevareøkonomisk Institut (FØI). In this project, the paper will serve as input on quality per-cep-tion from a consumer point of view. The results presented in the paper will give insights into how consumers perceive food quality and why they choose the food products they do, and may thus help in understanding the complicated concept of food quality. Although the starting point of the paper is in research carried out at the MAPP Centre, it will also include results from other sources where needed for a more thorough discussion of a specific topic. The criteria for including additional material are relevance to the topic in question and the extent to which the topic has been researched at MAPP. As a general framework for ana-lysing consumer quality perception and choice of food products, MAPP has developed the Total Food Quality Model, which will be used to structure this overview. We start by presenting the Total Food Quality Model and an overview of the research methods involved. We then describe the various elements of the model in more detail, based on four major quality dimensions – health, taste, process characteristics, convenience.Consumers; quality perception

Udviklingen på afsætningsmarkederne for dansk svinekød.

Danmark er verdens niende største producent af svinekød. Ca. 85% af den danske produktion afsættes i udlandet fordelt på ganske få hovedmarkeder. I Europa er de primære aftagere Tyskland, Storbritanien, Frankrig, Italien, mens Japan er det vigtigste marked uden for Europa, efterfulgt af Rusland, USA og Sydkorea. I denne rapport analyseres udviklingen på hjemmemarkedet og i de nævnte eksportmarkeder for dansk svinekød ud fra et værdiperspektiv, og der identificeres markedskrav og trends af betydning for den danske svinesektors muligheder for at fastholde og styrke sin position på de primære afsætingsmarkeder fremover.Svinekød; produktion; Danmark; afsætning; eksportmarkeder

What's Interesting About Strangeness Production? - An Overview of Recent Results

In this paper I highlight a few selected topics on strange particle production in heavy-ion collisions. By studying the yield and spectra of strange particles we hope to gain understanding of the conditions reached in, and the ensuing dynamics of, the systems produced when ultra-relativistic heavy-ions are collided.Comment: 17 Pages, 18 figures, Hot Quarks 2004 Proceeding

Studies of multiplicity in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

In this talk I'll review the present status of charged particle multiplicity measurements from heavy-ion collisions. The characteristic features of multiplicity distributions obtained in Au+Au collisions will be discussed in terms of collision centrality and energy and compared to those of p+p collisions. Multiplicity measurements of d+Au collisions at 200 GeV nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy will also be discussed. The results will be compared to various theoretical models and simple scaling properties of the data will be identified.Comment: "Focus on Multiplicity" Internationsl Workshop on Particle Multiplicity in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions, Bari, Italy, June 17-19, 2003, 16 pages, 15 figure

Size of Fireballs Created in High Energy Lead-Lead Collisions as Inferred from Coulomb Distortions of Pion Spectra

We compute the Coulomb effects produced by an expanding, highly charged fireball on the momentum distribution of pions. We compare our results to data on Au+Au at 11.6 A GeV from E866 at the BNL AGS and to data on Pb+Pb at 158 A GeV from NA44 at the CERN SPS. We conclude that the distortion of the spectra at low transverse momentum and mid-rapidity can be explained in both experiments by the effect of the large amount of participating charge in the central rapidity region. By adjusting the fireball expansion velocity to match the average transverse momentum of protons, we find a best fit when the fireball radius is about 10 fm, as determined by the moment when the pions undergo their last scattering. This value is common to both the AGS and CERN experiments.Comment: Enlarged discussion, new references added, includes new analysis of pi-/pi+ at AGS energies. 12 pages 5 figures, uses LaTex and epsfi

(Anti)Proton and Pion Source Sizes and Phase Space Densities in Heavy Ion Collisions

NA44 has measured mid-rapidity deuteron spectra from AA collisions at sqrt{s}=18GeV/A at the CERN SPS. Combining these spectra with published proton, antiproton and antideuteron data allows us to calculate, within a coalescence framework, proton and antiproton source sizes and phase space densities. These results are compared to pion source sizes and densities, pA results and to lower energy (AGS) data. The antiproton source is larger than the proton source at sqrt{s}=18GeV/A. The phase space densities of pions and protons are not constant but grow with system size. Both pi+ and proton radii decrease with transverse mass and increase with sqrt{s}. Pions and protons do not freeze-out independently. The nature of their interaction changes as sqrt{s}, and the pion/proton ratio increases.Comment: 4 pages, Latex 2.09, 3 eps figures. Changes for January 2001. The proton source size is now calculated assuming a more realistic Hulthen, rather than Gaussian, wavefunction. A new figure shows the effect of this change which is important for small radii. A second new figure shows the results of RQMD calculations of the proton source size and phase density. Because of correlations between position and momentum coalesence does not show the full proton source size. The paper has been streamlined and readability improve

Ratios of charged antiparticles to particles near mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV

We have measured the ratios of antiparticles to particles for charged pions, kaons and protons near mid-rapidity in central Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV. For protons, we observe pbar/p = 0.60 +/- 0.04 (stat.) +/- 0.06 (syst.) in the transverse momentum range 0.15 < p_T < 1.0 GeV/c. This leads to an estimate of the baryo-chemical potential mu_B of 45 MeV, a factor of 5-6 smaller than in central Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 17.2 GeV.Comment: 4 page

The strange-quark chemical potential as an experimentally accessible "order parameter" of the deconfinement phase transition for finite baryon-density

We consider the change of the strange-quark chemical potential in the phase diagram of nuclear matter, employing the Wilson loop and scalar quark condensate order parameters, mass-scaled partition functions and enforcing flavor conservation. Assuming the region beyond the hadronic phase to be described by massive, correlated and interacting quarks, in the spirit of lattice and effective QCD calculations, we find the strange-quark chemical potential to change sign: from positive in the hadronic phase - to zero upon deconfinement - to negative in the partonic domain. We propose this change in the sign of the strange-quark chemical potential to be an experimentally accessible order parameter and a unique, concise and well-defined indication of the quark-deconfinement phase transition in nuclear matter.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures within text, 2 figures(6,B3) as separate files. To be published in J.Phys.G: Nucl.&Part.Phys. G28 (2002

Centrality and sNNDependenceofthe\sqrt{s_{NN}} Dependence of the dE_{T}/d\etaand and dN_{ch}/d\eta$ in Heavy Ion Collisions at Mid-Rapidity

The PHENIX experiment at RHIC has measured transverse energy and charged particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 19.6, 130, 62.4 and 200 GeV as a function of centrality. The presented results are compared to measurements from other RHIC experiments, and experiments at lower energies. The $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ dependence of $dE_{T}/d\eta$ and $dN_{ch}/d\eta$ per pair of participants is consistent with logarithmic scaling for the most central events. The centrality dependence of $dE_{T}/d\eta$ and $dN_{ch}/d\eta$ is similar at all measured incident energies. At RHIC energies the ratio of transverse energy per charged particle was found independent of centrality and growing slowly with $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$. A survey of comparisons between the data and available theoretical models is also presented.Comment: Proccedings of the Workshop: Focus on Multiplcity at Bari, Italy, June 17-19,2004. To be submitted to the Jornal of Physics, "Conference series". Includes: 20 Pages, 15 figures, 3 Tables, 80 Referencie

Kaon and Pion Production in Central Au+Au Collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}}=62.4 GeV

Invariant pT spectra and rapidity densities covering a large rapidity range(-0.1 < y < 3.5) are presented for $\pi^{\pm}$ and $K^{\pm}$ mesons from central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 62.4 GeV. The mid-rapidity yields of meson particles relative to their anti-particles are found to be close to unity ($\pi^-/\pi^+ \sim 1$, $K^-/K^+ \sim 0.85$) while the anti-proton to proton ratio is $\bar{p}/p \sim 0.49$. The rapidity dependence of the $\pi^-/\pi^+$ ratio is consistent with a small increase towards forward rapidities while the $K^-/K^+$ and $\bar{p}/p$ ratios show a steep decrease to $\sim$ 0.3 for kaons and 0.022 for protons at $y\sim 3$. It is observed that the kaon production relative to its own anti-particle as well as to pion production in wide rapidity and energy ranges shows an apparent universal behavior consistent with the baryo-chemical potential, as deduced from the $\bar{p}/p$ ratio, being the driving parameter.Comment: Submitted to PLB, 6 journal pages, 7 figure