Consumer attitudes and preference exploration towards fresh-cut salads using best–worst scaling and latent class analysis

This research explored the preferences and buying habits of a sample of 620 consumers of fresh-cut, ready-to-eat salads. A best–worst scaling approach was used to measure the level of preference stated by individuals regarding 12 attributes for quality (intrinsic, extrinsic and credence) of fresh-cut salads. The experiment was carried out through direct interviews at several large-scale retail outlets in the Turin metropolitan area (north-west of Italy). Out of the total number of questioned consumers, 35% said they did not consume fresh-cut salads. On the contrary, the rest of the involved sample expressed the highest degree of preference towards the freshness/appearance attribute, followed by the expiration date and the brand. On the contrary, attributes such as price, organic certification and food safety did not emerge as discriminating factors in consumer choices. Additionally, five clusters of consumers were identified, whose preferences are related both to purchasing styles and socio-demographic variables. In conclusion, this research has highlighted the positive attitude of consumers towards quality products backed by a brand, providing ideas for companies to improve within this sector and implement strategies to answer the needs of a new segment of consumers, by determining market opportunities that aim to strengthen local brands

More than Just Friends? School Peers and Adult Interracial Relationships

This paper investigates the impact of individuals' school peers on their adult romantic relationships. In particular, we consider the effect of quasi-random variation in the share of black students within an individual's cohort on the percentage of adults' cohabiting partners that are black. We find that more black peers leads to more relationships with blacks later in life. The results are similar whether relationships begun near or far from school, suggesting that the racial mix of schools has an important and persistent impact on racial attitudes

Food sustainability perception at universities: Education and demographic features effects

The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations merged in 17 goals the strong need to change the pattern of human life on the planet in a path of strengthening sustainability especially in an era that is widely defined as Anthropocene. The Global Action Program (GAP) on Education and Sustainable Development was adopted based on the power of education and knowledge with the idea of 'green universities' aimed at improving the perception of sustainability for future policy decisions. Based on a Best-Worst (BW) scaling methodological approach, in this study we quantified the preferences of generation Y at University of Turin as they relate to issues explicitly connected to the ordinary consumption of food and the relationship between this and the perception of a sustainable approach. Data show that sustainability definitions belonging to the environmental and policy dimensions were the most closely related to the sustainability concept by the students interviewed while the economic and socio-cultural spheres were the least appreciated. In relation to food issues, students generally don't attribute high value to the assessment of local production. Few but significant differences were found in some specific topics between male and female groups with women perceiving sustainability consistently linked to the concept of local/territory and to the protection of the environment

Novel anti-inflammatory and chondroprotective effects of the human melanocortin MC1 receptor agonist BMS-470539 dihydrochloride and human melanocortin MC3 receptor agonist PG-990 on lipopolysaccharide activated chondrocytes

Human melanocortin MC1 and MC3 receptors expressed on C-20/A4 chondrocytes exhibit chondroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects when activated by melanocortin peptides. Nearly 9 million people in the UK suffer from osteoarthritis, and bacterial infections play a role in its development. Here, we evaluate the effect of a panel of melanocortin peptides with different selectivity for human melanocortin MC1 (alpha-MSH, BMS-470539 dihydrochloride) and MC3 receptors ([DTrp8]-g-MSH, PG-990) and C-terminal peptide alpha-MSH11-13(KPV), on inhibiting LPS-induced chondrocyte death, pro-inflammatory mediators and induction of anti-inflammatory proteins. C-20/A4 chondrocytes were treated with a panel of melanocortin peptides prophylactically and therapeutically in presence of LPS (0.1 ug/ml). The chondroprotective properties of these peptides determined by cell viability assay, RT-PCR, ELISA for detection of changes in inflammatory markers (IL-6, IL-8 and MMP-1, -3 and -13) and western blotting for expression of the anti-inflammatory protein heme-oxygenase-1. C-20/A4 expressed human melanocortin MC1 and MC3 receptors and melanocortin peptides elevated cAMP. LPS stimulation caused a reduction in C-20/A4 viability, attenuated by the human melanocortin MC1 receptor agonist BMS-470539 dihydrochloride, and MC3 receptor agonists PG-990 and [DTrp8]-g-MSH. Prophylactic and therapeutic regimes of [DTrp8]-g-MSH significantly inhibited LPS-induced modulation of cartilage-damaging IL-6, IL-8, MMPs -1,-3 and -13 mediators both prophylactically and therapeutically, whilst human melanocortin MC1 and MC3 receptor agonists promoted an increase in HO-1 production. In the presence of LPS, activation of human melanocortin MC1 and MC3 receptors provided potent chondroprotection, upregulation of anti-inflammatory proteins and downregulation of inflammatory and proteolytic mediators involved in cartilage degradation, suggesting a new avenue for osteoarthritis treatment

Which factors affect the Italian consumer's intention to insect-eating? An application of an integrated attitude-intention-eating model

This research explored the role of key socio-psychological dimensions on individuals' intention to eat insectbased foods (IEIBF). In particular, the theoretical framework included biospheric values and social norms, whose impact on pro-environmental choices has been largely evidenced, but also those factors related to animal welfare and neophobia/neophilia attitudes. An online survey was carried out in different Italian regions intercepting 1402 individuals to verify the relationships predicted by our proposed model, i.e. the Integrated Sustainable Neophilic Insect-based Eating Model (ISNIEM), for predicting IEIBF. Participants completed a survey containing measures of IEIBF, biospheric values, general pro-environmental beliefs, attitude toward sustainability, food neophilia, concern for insect welfare, and social norms (both injunctive and descriptive). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique was used for testing the ISNIEM. The main findings show that individuals having higher concern about environmental and ethical sustainability are more open to eating insects, especially if the latter are treated ethically. Overall, these results suggest that a typical consumer of insect foods is likely to be driven to their consumption from one side by curiosity (related to the neophilia dimension), and from the other side either by the sense of responsibility towards the environment or by the concern for ethical issues (i.e., animal welfare). The integrated attitude-food-intention model used to explore intention to eat insect foods (IEIBF) with a visual scheme represents an innovative approach in the study of consumer behaviour

Sex-differences in factors and outcomes associated with adherence to statin therapy in primary care: need for customisation strategies

Despite the invaluable efficacy of statins, adherence to therapy is extremely poor in clinical practice. Improvement interventions should be as personalized as possible, but it is necessary to know factors that most influence adherence, and sex seems to be a key determinant. Thus, we aimed at exploring potential areas of sex-differences in statin adherence in a real-world population. For this purpose, we assessed adherence (as proportion of days covered) on a wide cohort of new statin users aged >40 years, and we evaluated its association with several covariates through sex-stratified log-binomial regression models. In addition, to compare also the benefits of optimal statin adherence in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease between men and women, we implemented sex-stratified Cox proportional hazard models. Our study showed that women are more likely to stop or be less adherent to statin treatment than men. Moreover, we observed significant sex-differences on effect size of several factors associated with adherence that should be taken into consideration for the management of patients. Finally, we observed no significant difference between men and women regarding statin efficacy in terms of reduction of incident hospitalization for ischemic heart disease and/or non-haemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease. These results invoke the responsibility of physicians to a prompt and personalized intervention. Physicians should consider routine screening for non-adherence in their clinical practice, target patients at higher risk of non-adherence, and improved motivation and communication

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation into italian of the self-administered FLARE-RA questionnaire for rheumatoid arthritis

The aim was to provide a translation into Italian with cross-cultural adaptation of the French FLARE-Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) questionnaire, and to test its acceptability, feasibility, reliability and construct validity in a single-centre cohort study. The French version of the FLARE-RA questionnaire was cross-culturally adapted and translated into Italian following an established forward\u2013backward translation procedure, with independent translations and backtranslations. To validate the Italian version we tested the internal validity with Cronbach\u2019s alpha, test-retest reliability with the intraclass correlation coefficient, agreement between assessments with Bland-Altman plots and construct validity with Spearman\u2019s correlation coefficients. The questionnaire was tested on 283 consecutive RA outpatients (mean age 56.1\ub1}13.9 years, 226/283 females, median disease duration 12.6 years ranging from 0.2 to 70.6). For the global score (11 items) the Cronbach\u2019s alpha coefficient was 0.94. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.76-0.96). The correlation of FLARE-RA global score was 0.59 (95% CI, 0.50-0.66) with the Disease Activity Score on 28 joints, 0.63 (95% CI, 0.55-0.71) with the Simplified Disease Activity Index, 0.77 (95% CI, 0.71-0.83) with the RA Impact of Disease and 0.67 (95% CI, 0.59-0.73) with the Health Assessment Questionnaire. The Italian version of the FLARE-RA is feasible, brief and easy to administer. The translated and cross-cultural adapted showed accordingly to be valid and reliable. This questionnaire has some practical advantages, such as clarity, comprehensiveness, simplicity, and a minimum filling time. The development of cross-cultural adapted questionnaires in different languages is of pivotal importance to obtain standardized and comparable data across countries

Architecture of collaborating frameworks: simulation, visualisation, user interface and analysis

The Anaphe project is an ongoing effort to provide an Object Oriented software environment for data analysis in HENP experiments. A range of commercial and public domain libraries is used to cover basic functionalities; on top of these libraries a set of HENP-specific C++ class libraries for histogram management, fitting, plotting and ntuple-like data analysis has been developed. In order to comply with the user requirements for a command-line driven tool, we have chosen to use a scripting language (Python) as the front-end for a data analysis tool. The loose coupling provided by the consequent use of (AIDA compliant) Abstract Interfaces for each component in combination with the use of shared libraries for their implementation provides an easy integration of existing libraries into modern scripting languages thus allowing for rapid application development. This integration is simplified even further using a specialised toolkit (SWIG) to create "shadow classes" for the Python language, which map the definitions of the Abstract Interfaces almost at a one-to-one level. This paper will give an overview of the architecture and design choices and will present the current status and future developments of the project