Evaluation of preferences of consumers towards extra-virgin olive oil - A multiperspective approach

Olive oil is one of the leading products for Southern Europe economy and it is an important products for consumers as well: in fact, it has an important role in determining the healthiness of diets. In light of those elements it is important to explain what is valued by consumers in order to focus the development of the product toward what the consumer appreciates. In this work what we underlined is the importance of quality in the different dimensions as determined by the consumer. The work investigates the issue in different perspectives and dimensions. At first a meta-analysis shows the state of the art of the literature. Furthermore the complete view is achieved with a further elaboration of the existent data. Then it follows with a study based upon a hedonic price model applied to extra-virgin olive oil considering also sensory attributes as determined by a trained panel to allow for some policy considerations. Subsequently, a further hedonic price model has been applied to a big dataset of retail scanner data to analyze the implicit price of attributes of products weighted by sales values. In the end, another paper analyzes how visual elements of the packaging can influence healthiness perception in the case of two products: olive oil and butter combined with olive oil. Here it has been possible to shift the focus on the subjective perspective of the consumer, considering more deeply the influence of the environment and the personal traits in the evaluation of products. Those studies allowed to have a complete understanding about the preferences of consumers, in terms of attributes of the products and of salient elements of the packaging. Furthermore, a discrepancy is found about how the consumers conceive extra-virgin olive oil quality compared to what is desired by European policy. To solve this conflict some efforts aimed at educating the consumers are needed

Healthier Food Choices Made Easy: a Nudging Experiment in a Restaurant Targeting Millennials

The current food environment exposes individuals to continuous unhealthy signals. The present study investigates the effectiveness of a default option nudge - framed as a Dish of the Day - in guiding healthier food choices of Millennials (aged between 19 and 30 years old), a demographic particularly vulnerable to unhealthy eating. A between-subjects field experiment with two opposite treatments (i.e.: healthy and unhealthy default option) and a control group (no default) was performed on a random, convenience sample (N=341). Results show a limited impact of the healthy default option (3.9%) and suggest that this nudging intervention has a stronger influence on individuals who already prioritize health in their everyday lifestyle. Similarly, the default option is more effective on subjects who do not believe that health and taste are conflicting

What attributes of extra virgin olive oil are really important for consumers: a meta-analysis of consumers’ stated preferences

The literature on food economics has extensively analyzed consumer preferences for extra-virgin olive oil attributes. In order to summarize and systematize the information gained in recent years, it seems appropriate to make a critique of the existing literature. First, we carry out a narrative systematic review of the literature on the topic. Subsequently, using only the empirical contributions which provide estimates of consumer willingness to pay for quality attributes including a measure of the goodness of the estimation (20 papers with 78 estimates), a meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the empirical results obtained

Insetti per l’alimentazione umana: barriere e drivers per l’accettazione da parte dei consumatori

As the overall demand for food increases, there is an urgent need of sustainable proteins. To what extent European consumers are willing to accept innovative ingredients in their diet is the main research question we address. Interviews are conducted on a sample of 45 Italian consumers and results are analysed through the laddering method with the aim to understand how consumers express their personal values. The paper intends to contribute to the ongoing debate on global food security addressing potential drivers of, and barriers to, Western consumer acceptance of insects-based ingredients in the food supply chain. Results show that a combination of socio-cultural barriers and fear is assumed to contribute to the lower acceptability of insects-as-food in Western societies

2011: the immune hallmarks of cancer

Ten years after the publication of the position paper “The hallmarks of cancer” (Hanahan and Weinberg Cell 100:57–70, 2000), it has become increasingly clear that mutated cells on their way to giving rise to a tumor have also to learn how to thrive in a chronically inflamed microenvironment, evade immune recognition, and suppress immune reactivity. Genetic and molecular definition of these three immune hallmarks of cancer offers the opportunity to learn how to deploy specific countermeasures to reverse the situation in favor of the immune system and, eventually, the patient. This new information could be channeled to address what seem to be the three major hallmarks for the immune control of cancer progression: effective procedures to activate immune reactivity; characterization of not-disposable oncoantigens; and counteraction of immune suppression

Anticipatory action planning in blind and sighted individuals

Several studies on visually guided reach-to-grasp movements have documented that how objects are grasped differs depending on the actions one intends to perform subsequently. However, no previous study has examined whether this differential grasping may also occur without visual input. In this study, we used motion capture technology to investigate the influence of visual feedback and prior visual experience on the modulation of kinematics by intention in sighted (in both full-vision and no-vision conditions), early-blind and late-blind participants. Results provide evidence of modulation of kinematics by intention to a similar degree under both full-vision and no-vision conditions. Moreover, they demonstrate that prior visual experience has little impact on the tailoring of grasping movements to intention. This suggests that sequential action planning does not depend on visual input, and may instead be ascribed to the function of multisensory-motor cortical network that operates and develops not only in light, but also in darkness

Analisis Percepatan terhadap Waktu Proyek (Study Kasus : Kantor Dinas SKPD Gedung B3 di Tenayan Raya)

Project implementation have always refers to the construction assumption and forecast while time plans and schedule were made, Therefore, the contruction problem will arise if there is a discrepancy between plan and assumptions comparing to the actual project. Delays of project implementation is generally always lead to adverse consequences both for the owner and contractor. The project the (SKPD) Unit City Government of Pekanbaru in Riau is having a delay of 75 days. The Best construction time acceleration is 45 days. Construction acceleration can be conducted by 3 alternatives solutions such as: overtime alternative, equipment and workers addition alternative, and shift system alternative. The analysis started from the critical path. Network project the analysis, was obtained from the cost due to delay stands at Rp. 4.761.786.975,00. Cost of construction acceleration caused by overtime alternative is Rp. 2.152.360.596,00 with a total 11.136 hours of extra work for workers, cost of construction acceleration by the workers and equipments additionionally for alternative result Rp. 2.434.965.492,00 with a total 14 new workers, with additional of 2 new equipment units. Cost of construction acceleration from shift alternative is Rp. 2.434.965.492,00 with a total of 14 new workers, a total 2 of equipment units. In conclusion, the most effective construction acceleration method is overtime alternative, obtained the minimum financial loss and recommended to use for the construction acceleration

RNAs competing for microRNAs mutually influence their fluctuations in a highly non-linear microRNA-dependent manner in single cells

We used an experimental design based on two bidirectional plasmids and flow cytometry measurements of cotransfected mammalian cells. We validated a stochastic gene interaction model that describes how mRNAs can influence each other’s fluctuations in a miRNA-dependent manner in single cells. We show that miRNA–target correlations eventually lead to either bimodal cell population distributions with high and low target expression states, or correlated fluctuations across targets when the pool of unbound targets and miRNAs are in near-equimolar concentration. We found that there is an optimal range of conditions for the onset of cross-regulation, which is compatible with 10–1000 copies of targets per cell