The impact of environmental cues on customers' quality perception and willingness to pay and the moderating role of consumer mood and motives

The literature shows that shopping environment has an impact on various consumer behaviors, and that an elegant environment is associated with higher customer’ quality perception and willingness to pay. I investigated and found that this is true only when consumers are in a positive mood. When they are in a negative mood, consumers infer higher quality from a discount-looking shop. A between-design experimental survey has been conducted to analyze the impact of shopping environment, mood and shopping motivation on customers’ perception of quality and willingness to pay. Two mood conditions (positive/negative) have been created and induced to respondents at the beginning of the survey, along with two shopping environment conditions (upscale-looking/discount-looking) based on design, scent and sales personnel factors. Results show that shopping environment does not impact significantly the dependent variables but it interacts significantly with mood to determine quality perception; shopping motivation impacts significantly both quality perception and willingness to pay.A literatura existente mostra que o ambiente do local onde se realizam compras impactua o comportamento do consumidor e que certos elementos favoráveis presentes neste local, estão associados a uma maior perceção de qualidade e uma maior disposição para comprar por parte dos consumidores. A autora investigou e descobriu que esta afirmação apenas se confirma quando os consumidores estão com bom-humor. Se em contrapartida, os consumidores estiverem com mau-humor, são os próprios que inferem uma maior qualidade aos produtos que sejam comprados numa loja de descontos. Realizou-se um questionário experimental para analisar o impacto do ambiente do local de compras, humor e motivação na perceção de qualidade e na disposição para comprar dos consumidores. Duas condições de humor (positivas / negativas) foram criadas e induzidas aos inquiridos no início do questionário, juntamente com duas condições de ambiente de compras (de alto nível / com desconto) baseadas em fatores como o design do espaço, o aroma e os empregados do local. Os resultados mostram que o ambiente do local de compras não afeta significativamente as variáveis dependentes, mas interage significativamente com o humor para determinar a perceção de qualidade dos produtos por parte dos consumidores. Por outro lado, a motivação para comprar afeta claramente tanto a perceção quanto a disposição para comprar

Is there a price influence and personal characteristics in the potato purchase decision? A descriptive study

World potato production in 2017 was over 388.2 million tons, being the fourth largest in volume in the world, where the highest world producers are China, India, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States. Brazil occupies the 21st position in the ranking of the largest potato producers in the world, with a production volume of 3.6 million tons, with the main producers being the states of Minas Gerais, Paraná, and São Paulo, which together produce the equivalent of 75 % of the Brazilian total. Knowledge about the positioning of the consumer is important for stakeholders in the potato production chain, aiming at the identification of personal factors that influence potato consumption, as well as the recognition of opportunities, seeking to meet the wishes and needs of consumers. Also, it is relevant to check consumer sensitivity to fluctuations in retail prices. Few studies show which personal aspects influence consumers' decision to purchase potatoes, as well as they react to changes in price. Thus, this study sought to identify which personal aspects influence the purchase of potatoes and how the consumer positions himself concerning changes in prices, through the analysis of primary data answered by 170 people in 38 cities of the state of São Paulo. The collected information was processed using electronic spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel software and the analyzes developing using Multiple Linear Regression with Heteroscedasticity (MLR), with the aid of the Stata 15 software. Families with children, with more than two adults in the composition, and age are the personal aspects that influence the acquisition of potatoes. As the potato is a popular product, with easy access and relatively low prices, the levels of education and income do not interfere with consumption, since at times when prices are small the quantity consumed remains unchanged

Climate change effects on POPs' environmental behaviour: a scientific perspective for future regulatory actions

Abstract Since the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, international efforts were aimed at limiting global change, and at managing and reducing its inevitable impacts. The growing concern on climate change related issues lead to create international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol, and to establish the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change aimed at studying climate evolution and at defining common actions through the adoption of joint climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. From the time when international Task Forces, projects and programs were shared in order to deal with the reduction of environmental exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), international organisations have also been committed to estimate how climate change may affect POPs' environmental behaviour and distribution. In this review paper, we report the track of POPs' regulation efforts driven towards decreasing POPs' environmental concentrations through reducing or banning POP emissions in the environment. We also report scientific studies on climate change related effects on POPs' environmental behaviour in order to feature how climate change is influencing POPs' fate and transport. Our final aim is to identify how POPs–related regulations may take into account climate change in managing current or future POPs sources. We find in several case studies on this topic that climate change is considered to contribute to enhance POPs' long–range transport and that remote areas are considered likely to be the most impacted by POPs' pollution under a climate change perspective. Our findings also consider that continuous monitoring programs oriented towards the observation of secondary POP sources and the enhancement of inventories reporting primary and secondary POP emissions are useful in dealing with POPs' exposure under climate change scenarios. We also suggest how communication between science and regulation should be driven towards considering climate change effects into chemicals' legislation

The influence of a surfactant, linear alkylbenzene sulfonate, on the estrogenic response to a mixture of (xeno)estrogens in vitro and in vivo

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Aquatic Toxicology. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.The effect of the presence of a surfactant on the activity of a mixture of environmental estrogens was assessed. In their natural habitat, fish are subject not only to exposure to mixtures of estrogenic compounds, as has been addressed in previous publications, but also to other confounding factors (chemical, physical and biological), which may, in theory, affect their responses to such compounds. To assess the potential for such interference, the commonly occurring surfactant, linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), was applied to the yeast estrogen screen at various concentrations, independently and together with a mixture of estrogens at constant concentrations. LAS enhanced the estrogenic activity of the mixture, an effect which became less pronounced over the course of time. This information was used to design an in vivo study to assess induction of vitellogenin in fathead minnows exposed to the same mixture of estrogens plus LAS. A similar trend was observed, that is, the response was enhanced, but the effect became less pronounced as the study progressed. However, the enhanced response in vivo occurred only at the highest concentration of LAS tested (362 μg/L), and was transient because it was no longer apparent by the end of the study. Although LAS is a significant contaminant in terms of both concentration and frequency of detection in the aquatic environment, these data do not suggest that it will have a significant impact on the response of fish to environmental estrogens

Hypoxia does not influence the response of fish to a mixture of estrogenic chemicals

The official published version can be obtained from the link below - Copyright @ 2009 American Chemical SocietyChemical risk assessment procedures assign a major role to standardized toxicity tests, in which the response of a particular organism to a single test substance is determined under otherwise constant and favorable conditions in the laboratory. This approach fails to consider the potential for chemical interactions, as well as failing to consider how the toxicological response varies, depending on the conditions of exposure. As yet, the issue of confounding factors on chemically mediated effects in wildlife has received little attention, despite the fact that a range of physicochemical parameters, including temperature, water quality, and pH, are known to modify chemical toxicity. Here, we consider how the estrogenic response of fish varies with regard to hypoxia. Fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) were exposed to a mixture of estrogenic chemicals under hypoxic or normoxic conditions. Their estrogenic response was characterized using an in vivo assay, involving the analysis of the egg yolk protein, vitellogenin (VTG). The results revealed that there was no effect of hypoxia on the VTG response in either treatment group at the end of the exposure period. This suggests that this end point is robust and relatively insensitive to the effects of any physiological changes that arise as a result of hypoxia. The implications of these negative findings are discussed in terms of their relevance with regard to the development of risk assessment policy.This work was funded by a grant from the Natural Environment Research Council(NE/D00389X/1)

Truck Axle Detection with Convolutional Neural Networks

Axle count in trucks is important to the classification of vehicles and to the operation of road systems, and is used in the determination of service fees and the impact on the pavement. Although axle count can be achieved with traditional methods, such as manual labor, it is increasingly possible to count axles using deep learning and computer vision methods. This paper aims to compare three deep learning object detection algorithms, YOLO, Faster R-CNN and SSD, for the detection of truck axles. A dataset was built to provide training and testing examples for the neural networks. Training was done on different base models, to increase training time efficiency and to compare results. We evaluated results based on three metrics: mAP, F1-score, and FPS count. Results indicate that YOLO and SSD have similar accuracy and performance, with more than 96% mAP for both models. Dataset and codes are publicly available for download.Comment: Code and dataset available for donwload, links provide

Organic and conventional public food procurement for youth in Italy

Political organisation and policies about school catering and public organic procurement in Italy. The report is produced within the project ―innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth‖, iPOPY, and will be updated and revised during the project period (2007-2010)

Evidence of estrogenic mixture effects on the reproductive performance of fish

The official published version can be obtained from the link below - Copyright @ 2007 American Chemical SocietyRecent research into the effects of mixtures of estrogenic chemicals has revealed the capacity for similarly acting chemicals to act in combination, according to the principles of concentration addition. This means that, collectively, they may pose a significant environmental risk, even when each component is present at a low and individually ineffective concentration. The aim of this study was to investigate the ecological significance of mixture effects at low-effect concentrations by assessing the combined effect of estrogenic chemicals on the reproductive performance of fish. Pairs of fathead minnows were exposed to five estrogenic chemicals. Endpoints analyzed included fecundity, the expression of male secondary sexual characteristics, somatic indices, and vitellogenin induction. In the first phase of the study, a concentration-response analysis was performed to investigate the relative sensitivity of these endpoints. In the second phase, mixture effects at low-effect concentrations were explored by exposing fish to each of the mixture components, individually and in combination. Data from these experiments provide evidence of mixture effects on fitness and fecundity, demonstrating the capacity for chemicals to act together to affect reproductive performance, even when each component is present belowthe threshold of detectable effects. This has important implications for hazard assessment and contributes to our understanding of mixture effects at increasing levels of biological complexity.This work was funded by the European Commission, under contract EVK1-2001-00091

The effect of telomeric repeats on double-strand break processing and repair

Multiple pathways regulate the repair of double-strand breaks (DSBs) to suppress potentially dangerous ectopic recombination. Both sequence and chromatin context are thought to influence pathway choice between non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) and homology-driven recombination. To test the effect of repetitive sequences on break processing, we have inserted TG-rich repeats on one side of an inducible DSB at the budding yeast MAT locus on chromosome III. Five clustered Rap1 sites within a break-proximal TG repeat are sufficient to block Mre11-Rad50-Xrs2 recruitment, impair resection, and favor elongation by telomerase. The two sides of the break lose end-to-end tethering and show enhanced, uncoordinated movement. Only the TG-free side is resected and shifts to the nuclear periphery. In contrast to persistent DSBs without TG repeats that are repaired by imprecise NHEJ, nearly all survivors of repeat-proximal DSBs repair the break by a homology-driven, non-reciprocal translocation from ChrIII-R to ChrVII-L. This suppression of imprecise NHEJ at TG-repeat-flanked DSBs requires the Uls1 translocase activity

Zoning of coastal erosion in Santa Clara del Mar, Buenos Aires province

La zona de estudio comprende el área costera de la localidad de Santa Clara del Mar, ubicada en el sector sudeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires, en el partido de Mar Chiquita. El entorno natural del área de estudio ha sufrido modificaciones, producto principalmente del rápido crecimiento urbanístico y turístico, incrementando la erosión de playa y el retroceso de los acantilados de manera considerable. El objetivo del presente trabajo radica en analizar la morfodinámica y el retroceso costero entre 1958 y 1975 cuando la costa mostraba condiciones naturales, y las variaciones morfológicas registradas luego de la implementación de estructuras de protección entre los años 1975 y 2009. Las tasas de retroceso natural obtenidas entre los años 1958 y 1975, para la localidad de Santa Clara del Mar, variaron desde 1,7 m/año en el sector sur hasta 5,8 m/año en el norte. El análisis histórico de vulnerabilidad a la erosión permitió diferenciar a la costa de Santa Clara en tres sectores con distinta magnitud: alta, media y baja, correspondientes a un sector norte, central y sur, respectivamente. La tasa de acumulación de arena en la playa entre 1958 y 2009 fue de 0,9 m/año promedio para toda la costa. Entre los principales factores que modificaron las condiciones hidrodinámicas del sistema litoral en la ciudad de Santa Clara del Mar se destacan: la destrucción y degradación del campo de dunas colgado, la canalización del Arroyo Los Patos, la instalación de paredones verticales y la construcción de una serie de espigones en ´J´ a partir de la década de 1950. Por otro lado, las estructuras de protección costera ubicadas en Mar del Plata han influenciado indirectamente en la subsaturación de la deriva litoral, incrementando la erosión costera hacia el sur.The studied region includes the coastal zone of Santa Clara del Mar town, situated in the southeast of Buenos Aires province, in Mar Chiquita district. The natural environment of this area has been modified, mainly because of the fast growth of urbanization and tourism, increasing the erosion on the beach and the cliffs´s regression seriously. The aim of this paper is to analyze the morphodynamics and the coastal erosion during 1958 and 1975 when the coast showed natural conditions, and the morphological changes registered after the implementation of coastal protection structures between 1975 and 2009. The natural regression rates obtained between 1958 and 1975 in Santa Clara del Mar varied from 1,7 m/year in the south to 5,8 m/year in the north. The historical vulnerability to erosion analysis allowed us to divide Santa Clara del Mar´s coast into three sectors with different magnitude: high, moderate and low, corresponding to northern, central and southern sectors, respectively. The accumulation rate of sand in the beach between 1958 and 2009 was about 0,9 m/year for all the coast. The main factors that modified the hydrodynamic conditions of the coastal system of Santa Clara del Mar are: the destruction and degradation of perched dunes field, the channeling of Los Patos stream, the setting up of seawalls and the building of a group of breakwaters in ´J´ since 1950s. On the other hand, the coastal protection structures located in Mar del Plata have indirectly influenced on the longshore drift undersaturation, increasing the coastal erosion to the south.Fil: Bunicontro, Maria Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Marcomini, Silvia Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: López, Rubén Alvaro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; Argentin