57 research outputs found
Sensory acceptance of mixed nectar of papaya, passion fruit and acerola.
Nectares are beverages formulated with the juice or pulp of one or more fruits, plus water and sugar in concentrations resulting in a "ready-to-drink" product. Recently, the market for such products has greatly expanded. Fruit mixesent a series of advantages, such as the combination of different aromas and flavores and the sum of their nutritional components. The objective of this work was to develop a nectar based on papaya pulp and passion fruit juice, enriched with the vitamin C present in acerola pulp, optimizing the formulation using sensory consumer tests and a response surface statistical methodology. Eleven formulations were prepared using different concentrations of papaya pulp and passion fruit juice and sucrose, and maintaining the concentration of acerola pulp constant. The sensory tests were carried out with 22 nontrained panelists using a structured 9-point hedonic scale to evaluate overall acceptance. The acceptance means were submitted to regression analysis, by first calculating a polynomial quadratic equation. A predictive model was adjusted considering only those parameters where P[<,=]0.05, and a response surface was generated. The overall acceptance of nectars of different formulations varied from 5 ("neither liked nor disliked") to more than 7 ("liked moderately"), showig that some products can be considered adequate to consumers, like the nectar produced with 37.5% papaya pulp, 7.5% passion fruit juice, and 5.0% acerola pulp, added of 15% sucrose. A quadratic predictive overall acceptance model, with a regression coefficient of 0.97 was obtained. The sensory acceptance of nectares was positively affected by increases in the concentrations of papaya pulp and of sucrose. Thus, some products presented good sensory acceptance suggesting commercial potencial
Marketing de banana: preferĂȘncias do consumidor quanto aos atributos de qualidade dos frutos.
O Brasil produz aproximadamente seis milhĂ”es de toneladas por ano de banana (Musa spp.), com consumo mĂ©dio da ordem de 35 kg/ habitante/ ano. A aceitação da banana deve-se, principalmente, a seus aspectos sensoriais, valor nutricional e conveniĂȘncia. A identificação das necessidades e desejos dos clientes consiste em uma atividade crĂtica do marketing. O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de pesquisar as preferĂȘncias do consumidor de um mercado local (municĂpio de Cruz das Almas - Estado da Bahia) considerando os atributos de qualidade dos frutos frescos de banana madura. A metodologia utilizada foi a da pesquisa descritiva por mĂ©todo estatĂstico. Os dados foram coletados por questionĂĄrio, na forma de entrevista pessoal com 400 pessoas. Os atributos de qualidade (variĂĄveis) questionados e avaliados foram relacionados com a aparĂȘncia, cor, textura, aroma, sabor e vida Ăștil esperada dos frutos de banana. De acordo com a preferĂȘncia dos consumidores entrevistados, o fruto de banana maduro ideal deve apresentar caracterĂsticas como: penca contendo 10 e 12 dedos (frutos), dedos de tamanho mĂ©dio ou grande, diĂąmetro mĂ©dio, quina presente, ausĂȘncia de pintas pretas na casca, cor da polpa amarelo-clara ou mĂ©dia, textura firme, aroma e sabor de intensidade mĂ©dia, mediamente doce e vida Ăștil de 7 a 10 dias em condição ambiente. O sabor, vida Ăștil e aparĂȘncia dos frutos de banana sĂŁo considerados os mais importantes atributos na escolha ou compra da banana, segundo os consumidores entrevistados
The Illusion of Owning a Third Arm
Could it be possible that, in the not-so-distant future, we will be able to reshape the human body so as to have extra limbs? A third arm helping us out with the weekly shopping in the local grocery store, or an extra artificial limb assisting a paralysed person? Here we report a perceptual illusion in which a rubber right hand, placed beside the real hand in full view of the participant, is perceived as a supernumerary limb belonging to the participant's own body. This effect was supported by questionnaire data in conjunction with physiological evidence obtained from skin conductance responses when physically threatening either the rubber hand or the real one. In four well-controlled experiments, we demonstrate the minimal required conditions for the elicitation of this âsupernumerary hand illusionâ. In the fifth, and final experiment, we show that the illusion reported here is qualitatively different from the traditional rubber hand illusion as it is characterised by less disownership of the real hand and a stronger feeling of having two right hands. These results suggest that the artificial hand âborrowsâ some of the multisensory processes that represent the real hand, leading to duplication of touch and ownership of two right arms. This work represents a major advance because it challenges the traditional view of the gross morphology of the human body as a fundamental constraint on what we can come to experience as our physical self, by showing that the body representation can easily be updated to incorporate an additional limb
Correlates of protection against symptomatic and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection
The global supply of COVID-19 vaccines remains limited. An understanding of the immune response that is predictive of protection could facilitate rapid licensure of new vaccines. Data from a randomized efficacy trial of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine in the United Kingdom was analyzed to determine the antibody levels associated with protection against SARS-CoV-2. Binding and neutralizing antibodies at 28 days after the second dose were measured in infected and noninfected vaccine recipients. Higher levels of all immune markers were correlated with a reduced risk of symptomatic infection. A vaccine efficacy of 80% against symptomatic infection with majority Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant of SARS-CoV-2 was achieved with 264 (95% CI: 108, 806) binding antibody units (BAU)/ml: and 506 (95% CI: 135, not computed (beyond data range) (NC)) BAU/ml for anti-spike and anti-RBD antibodies, and 26 (95% CI: NC, NC) international unit (IU)/ml and 247 (95% CI: 101, NC) normalized neutralization titers (NF50) for pseudovirus and live-virus neutralization, respectively. Immune markers were not correlated with asymptomatic infections at the 5% significance level. These data can be used to bridge to new populations using validated assays, and allow extrapolation of efficacy estimates to new COVID-19 vaccines
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