Aquaculture production and use of insects for feed: a consumer perspective

Worldwide, aquaculture is assuming ever more importance in diminishing the pressure on wild stocks in the seas. Prices of feed used in farming fish are increasing, due the rise in demand. Research on sustainable sources of feed was recently intensified and insects as meal to substitute soybean and fish meals and oils seems a promising field. Consequently we explored future consumer attitude toward the consumption of fish farmed on insect meals, as a mean of enhancing the sustainability of the farming system in aquaculture. We focused our attention on Italian consumers of fish and the results show a sensitive consumer, willing to try an innovative product, interested in research to improve the safe-guarding of marine resources

Aquaculture production and use of insects for feed: a consumer perspective

Worldwide, aquaculture is assuming ever more importance in diminishing the pressure on wild stocks in the seas. Prices of feed used in farming fish are increasing, due the rise in demand. Research on sustainable sources of feed was recently intensified and insects as meal to substitute soybean and fish meals and oils seems a promising field. Consequently we explored future consumer attitude toward the consumption of fish farmed on insect meals, as a mean of enhancing the sustainability of the farming system in aquaculture. We focused our attention on Italian consumers of fish and the results show a sensitive consumer, willing to try an innovative product, interested in research to improve the safe-guarding of marine resources

Glass reflow on 3-dimensional micro-apertures for electrophysiological measurements on-chip

We propose a new method to fabricate micro-apertures for on-chip electrophysiological measurements of living cells. Thermal reflow of phosphosilicate glass (PSG) is applied to funnel- or nozzle-type microstructures to generate very smooth surfaces on the finalized chip. Such 3-dimensional microstructures show close similarities to fire-polished glass pipette tips. Immobilized cells fit perfectly to these structures offering a large contact area for sealing between the cell membrane and the oxide surface. A tight cell/chip-aperture seal is an important requirement for the present application. We demonstrate the formation of stable gigaseals with Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells for both types of microstructures without the need of any post-fabrication surface treatment. By adjusting the PSG reflow parameters, the shape of the apertures can be modified and diameters down to the sub-micrometer range may be achieved. The application of PSG reflow to MEMS fabrication is an interesting new option to create unconventional microstructure

LEDAkem: a post-quantum key encapsulation mechanism based on QC-LDPC codes

This work presents a new code-based key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) called LEDAkem. It is built on the Niederreiter cryptosystem and relies on quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check codes as secret codes, providing high decoding speeds and compact keypairs. LEDAkem uses ephemeral keys to foil known statistical attacks, and takes advantage of a new decoding algorithm that provides faster decoding than the classical bit-flipping decoder commonly adopted in this kind of systems. The main attacks against LEDAkem are investigated, taking into account quantum speedups. Some instances of LEDAkem are designed to achieve different security levels against classical and quantum computers. Some performance figures obtained through an efficient C99 implementation of LEDAkem are provided.Comment: 21 pages, 3 table

On the Correlation Between Tactile Stimulation and Pleasantness

: several studies in the affective haptics research field showed the potential of using haptic technology to convey emotions in remote communications. In this context, it is of interest to simplify the haptic feedback without altering the informative content of the stimulus, with a two-fold advantage. on one side, it would allow the development of affective haptic devices whose technological complexity is limited, hence more compatible with wearability and portability requirements. On the other side, having a simplified set of stimuli would decrease the amount of data to be transmitted, thus improving the overall quality of remote haptic interactions. In this work, we investigated the correlation between the parameters regulating a caress-like stimulation and the perceived pleasantness. This was done by means of two experiments, in which we asked subjects to adjust the temperature and the motion velocity of a set of stimuli in order to find the most pleasant combination. results indicated that subjects preferred different values of temperature and velocity of the stimulus depending on the proposed tactile stimulation. a small difference in the pleasantness ratings was observed between caresses provided with linear movements and those given as discrete sequences of taps. In particular, participants preferred linear movements set at 34.5 °C and 3.4 cms-1. As regards caress-like stimuli provided with discrete sequences of taps, the preferred temperature and velocity were 33.2 °C and 2.9 cms-1, respectively. the presence of vibration had a little effect on the perceived pleasantness

Consumer Interest, Attitude and Behavior toward a Sustainable Tomato

The steady increase in the consumption of fresh and processed tomatoes is threatening environmental sustainability, as water and fertilizers, two crucial production inputs, are becoming less accessible. To this purpose, the research project TomRes funded by the European Commission H2020 research and innovation programme, is currently undergoing to develop an environmentally sustainable fresh tomato. It is thus of paramount importance to understand if final consumers are willing to accept such a potential sustainable tomato and, may be more importantly, if consumers’ interests and positive attitude towards this product will lead to the decision to purchase.Hence, in this study, we exploit a sample of Italian consumers who responded to a web-survey to analyze the existence of the interest-attitude-behavior gap as well as its main determinants.Our results confirm the existence of this gap in line with other sustainable consumption products

Comparison of fluorescence polarization assay with Rose Bengal (RB) test and complement fixation tests for the diagnosis of buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) brucellosis in a high-prevalence area

The fluorescence polarisation assay (FPA) was evaluated for the serological diagnosis of bovine brucellosis in buffalo (Bubalus Bubalis) in southern Italy. This assay uses O-polysaccharide prepared from Brucella Abortus lipopolysaccharide conjugated with fluorescein isothiocyanate as a tracer. It has many methodological advantages over older, more established tests and can be performed in short time. To measure the fluorescence polarization, a Tecan GENios Pro (Prionics) fluorescence-polarization analyzer was used with the procedure described by Nielsen et al. 1996. A cut-off value of 117 millipolarization (mP) units was used for testing 912 buffalo sera from Campania Region (526 positive sera and 386 negative sera according to the complement fixation test; CFT). All samples were tested with the Rose Bengal plate (RB). Sensitivity and specificity (Sn) for RB were 84.0% and 87.8% and for FPA were 92.6% and 88.9 percent. The FPA gave a kappa coefficient of agreement with respect to CFT of 0.755, while RB (relative to the CFT) gave coefficients of 0,715. Finally, ROC analysis suggested a cut-off value which did not agree with the one recommended in the test procedure for cow

How does consumers’ care for origin shape their behavioural gap for environmentally friendly products?

Climate change is threatening worldwide crop yields and varieties, and the desertification of Southern Europe and Mediterranean areas is endangering the cultivation of tomato, not only one of the most important cultivated crops, but also one of the main pillars of the global food industry. To minimize its environmental impact, current research efforts in Europe are selecting resilient tomato genotypes with reduced use of water and fertilizers. Still, its commercial acceptance depends on consumers’ reaction in terms of interests, attitudes, and willingness to buy and pay for this hypothetical resilient tomato. In our setting, a behavioural gap exists whenever despite an interest for the product, and regardless of a positive attitude towards it, consumers are not willing to pay a premium price for this tomato. This paper focuses on Italians, among the largest tomato consumers across the world, and for whom origin emerges as a relevant consumption driver. We carried out a web-survey, totalling 932 responses. We ran three different ordinal regressions, one for each level of involvement in the purchasing process, identifying the factors affecting consumers’ interest, attitude, and behaviour towards this hypothetical tomato. We prove the existence of a behavioural gap for Italian tomato consumers and observe that this gap widens as consumers’ preferences for origin increase. Hence, policies developing environmentally sustainable products should not forget how consumer preferences for non-strictly environmental attributes might ultimately affect their propensity to buy and pay

An empirical study on consumer acceptance of farmed fish fed on insect meals : the Italian case

Aquaculture is assuming ever more importance in diminishing the pressure on wild stocks in the seas and to satisfy the demand of fish worldwide. Prices of feed used in farming fish are increasing, due to the rise in demand. Research on sustainable sources of feed was recently intensified, and insects as meal to substitute soybean and fish meals and fish oils seems a promising field. In particular, only very few papers have explored consumer interest in fish feed. The objective of this study is to explore the attitude and behavior of Northern-Italian consumers of farmed fish fed on insects considering the different phases of the purchasing process: from a general claim to interest in sustainability about the use of marine resources to the attitude in to eating finfish products if fed on insect meals and finally to the decision to purchase. In particular, the study utilizes a quantitative research methodology to explore factors affecting the gap between consumer intention and consumer behavior. Results indicate almost 90 % of consumers have a positive attitude to insect meal as feed and most of the respondents intend to purchase and eat farmed fish even though fed with insect meals. Moreover, interest is mainly affected by socioeconomic variables, knowledge of the issue and the interest attributed to origin and certification. Positive attitude is mainly influenced by interest in this issue and variables linked to appearance and price, whereas the willingness to buy fish fed on insect meals is closely linked to the importance of price and expected price for this kind of fish