Market opportunities for animal-friendly milk in different consumer segments

Consumers have increasing, but highly variable, interest in sustainability attributes of food, including ethical aspects, such as animal welfare. We explored market opportunities for animal-friendly cow’s milk based on segmentation (cluster) analysis. Flemish survey participants (n = 787) were clustered (n = 6) based on their intention to purchase (IP) animal-friendly milk, and their evaluation of cows’ welfare state (EV). Three market opportunity segments were derived from clusters and labelled as “high”, “moderate” and “limited”. Only 8% of the participants belong to the “high market opportunities” segment, characterized by a high IP and a low EV. The “limited” segment (44%) indicated a neutral to low IP and a positive EV. The “moderate” segment (48%) had a moderately positive IP and positive/negative EV. Reported willingness to pay, interest in information about the state of animal welfare and importance of the product attribute “animal welfare” differed among segments and were strongly related to IP. Most promising selling propositions about animal-friendly milk were related to pasture access. The high degree of differentiation within the Flemish milk market reveals market opportunities for animal-friendly milk, but for an effective market share increase supply of animal-friendly products needs to get more aligned with the heterogeneous demand

Webcam technology on neonatal wards—examining the objective and subjective workload of nurses: a combined observational and survey study

BackgroundThis study was conducted to estimate the additional objective and perceived workload of nurses resulting from the use of webcams. The successful implementation of webcam technology into routine care requires an analysis to prevent adverse events of increased nursing workload.MethodsThe study took place on three neonatal wards in two University Hospitals in Germany. In the first Hospital, the study was conducted from February to July 2021; in the second one it was conducted between June and November 2021. Data were collected using a combined approach of a standardised diary questionnaire study and passive observations. The participants were accompanied in their daily work and their activities were recorded 65 nurses participated.Results2,031 h were observed in 1,630 observation blocks. In 14.74% of the observation blocks webcam activities were detected. The extent to which the nurses had webcam-related additional workloads was rated as no additional workload in 82.16% of the daily questionnaires (n = 1,026).ConclusionThe observed low workload due to the webcams is in line with the nurses’ perception. The observational data revealed, on a number of different analysis levels, that a limited additional workload was generated. There was no decrease in activity performance observed and no clear indication for interruptions due to the webcam-related activities for the nurses. However, it is important to raise awareness about the individual workload levels for the successful implementation. Additional education programs can be provided for nurses.Trial registrationThe Neo-CamCare study is registered at the German Clinical Trials Register. DRKS-ID: DRKS00017755

Evading open science: The black box of student data collection

While Open Science has arguably initiated positive changes at some stages of the research process (e.g., increasing transparency through preregistration), problematic behaviors during data collection are still almost impossible to detect and pose a great risk to the validity and integrity of psychological research—especially, when researchers use data collected by others (e.g., students). Exploring students’ and supervisors’ perspectives, the present registered report enlightens this “black box” of student data collection, focusing on questionable research practices and research misconduct (QRP/M). The majority of students did not report having engaged in any problematic behaviors during data collection, but some QRP/M—ranging from somewhat questionable to highly fraudulent—seem quite common (e.g., telling participants the hypothesis beforehand, participating in one’s own survey). We provide an overview of students’ reported and supervisors’ suspected data collection QRP/M, explore potential drivers for these behaviors based on the fraud triangle model (including pressures, opportunities, and rationalizations), and report how students and supervisors perceive the eligibility of student data for further uses (e.g., scientific publications). Moreover, we explore the role of the student-supervisor relationship (e.g., communication and expectations) and Open Science practices in student projects. In summary, our findings suggest the potential scientific value of data from student projects. Fostering transparent communication regarding expectations, experiences, and intentions between supervisors and students might further contribute to strengthening this prospect

Stationsprüfung von Herkünften für die ökologische Hühnermast

According to the EU regulation for organic agriculture minimum slaughter age for broiler is 81 days unless slow growing strains are used. Aim of the study was to compare broiler strains of different growing intensities with regard to performance, animal health and animal welfare. 7 broiler strains were compared (20 – 65 g daily gain). First results show a decrease of health parameters and behavioural activities with increasing growing intensity

BimodalGaze:Seamlessly Refined Pointing with Gaze and Filtered Gestural Head Movement

Eye gaze is a fast and ergonomic modality for pointing but limited in precision and accuracy. In this work, we introduce BimodalGaze, a novel technique for seamless head-based refinement of a gaze cursor. The technique leverages eye-head coordination insights to separate natural from gestural head movement. This allows users to quickly shift their gaze to targets over larger fields of view with naturally combined eye-head movement, and to refine the cursor position with gestural head movement. In contrast to an existing baseline, head refinement is invoked automatically, and only if a target is not already acquired by the initial gaze shift. Study results show that users reliably achieve fine-grained target selection, but we observed a higher rate of initial selection errors affecting overall performance. An in-depth analysis of user performance provides insight into the classification of natural versus gestural head movement, for improvement of BimodalGaze and other potential applications

Rolle oxidativer Stress-assoziierter AGEs (Advanced Glycation Endproducts) für die neuronale Replikation bei der Alzheimerschen Erkrankung

Bei der AD stellt auch der Wiedereintritt der Neurone in den Zellzyklus einen Pathomechanismus dar. Mithilfe des ApoE-defizienten Mausmodells sollte der Mechanismus aufgeklärt werden, wie es über die AGE-Akkumulation zur DNA-Replikation kommt. Es wurde nachgewiesen, dass erhöhter oxidativer Stress vermehrte AGE-Ablagerungen, begleitet von einer Aktivierung der MAPK-Kaskade über RAGE, in den Neuronen verursacht. Diese Kaskade induziert die Expression von Cyclin D1 und darüber die DNA-Replikation. Die Behandlung mit LA wirkt diesem Pathomechanismus entgegen

Analysis of the overall resource consumption of a Flemish dairy farm using Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment

To deal with environmental challenges such as pollution and resource depletion, the potential environmental impact of agricultural products is commonly evaluated using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. For livestock systems, emission-related impacts such as global warming have been frequently studied in this way. During the past decades, intensifi-cation of agricultural systems to improve yields coincided with an increased material and energy throughput. Therefore, we focus on resource consumption in this paper. We applied an exergy-based approach to quantify total resource use and to calculate resource efficien-cies, both at system level and at life cycle level. We have performed a case study of an in-tensive confinement-based dairy farm in Flanders to illustrate our approach

Hyperlipidemic Conditions Impact Force-Induced Inflammatory Response of Human Periodontal Ligament Fibroblasts Concomitantly Challenged with P. gingivalis -LPS

In obese patients, enhanced serum levels of free fatty acids (FFA), such as palmitate (PA) or oleate (OA), are associated with an increase in systemic inflammatory markers. Bacterial infection during periodontal disease also promotes local and systemic low-grade inflammation. How both conditions concomitantly impact tooth movement is largely unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to address the changes in cytokine expression and the secretion of human periodontal ligament fibroblasts (HPdLF) due to hyperlipidemic conditions, when additionally stressed by bacterial and mechanical stimuli. To investigate the impact of obesity-related hyperlipidemic FFA levels on HPdLF, cells were treated with 200 µM PA or OA prior to the application of 2 g/cm(2) compressive force. To further determine the additive impact of bacterial infection, HPdLF were stimulated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) obtained from Porphyromonas gingivalis. In mechanically compressed HPdLF, PA enhanced COX2 expression and PGE2 secretion. When mechanically stressed HPdLF were additionally stimulated with LPS, the PGE2 and IL6 secretion, as well as monocyte adhesion, were further increased in PA-treated cultures. Our data emphasize that a hyperlipidemic condition enhances the susceptibility of HPdLF to an excessive inflammatory response to compressive forces, when cells are concomitantly exposed to bacterial components