Role of labels referring to quality and country of origin in food consumers’ decisions

Within a survey made of Hungarian awareness of, attitudes towards, and preferences for food labels and pricing, this study focused on consumers’ reactions to quality and country of origin labels. Data were collected with a standard questionnaire, face-to-face interviews (1000 participants) in the respondents’ home. It became obvious that consumers were looking for information about quality (rating its importance at 4.04) on packages, but information about origin (3.94) and production (3.89) was also important to them. The capability of respondents to spontaneously recall country of origin and quality labels was very limited: 35.5% of all respondents could not name any such labels. The best known label was “Hungarian Product” (30.5%), which was recognized by up to 90% of the respondents after they were shown it. Many consumers were ready to pay premium for products bearing this label (31.7%). According to our results, information about quality is important to consumers, but they do not look for it deliberately, and only a few consumers ascribe a higher value to products with labels bearing this information. There is a pressing need to increase consumers’ confidence for trademarks through dissemination of reliable information

Towards a new strategy for organic milk marketing in Hungary

In Hungary, organic food market has both demand and supply oriented aspects: several times not necessary products are distributed, while the selection and volume of certain products are not satisfactory. Thus, our aim was to develop a coordinated benchmark strategy to increase the trade of organic products. To get more details on the Hungarian organic milk market, we conducted professional deep interviews and simultaneously applied the “mystery shopping” method. Nowadays, the market of organic milk and dairy products is slowly increasing in Hungary, however, there is no available statistical data. In the selection there are mostly Hungarian originated products, but some yoghurt, milk, and butter assortments are imported. Partial responsibility belongs to small sale shops’ habit of risk-avoidance. Without a proper selection of products, stores are unable to satisfy consumers’ needs; thus they focus on pushing certain products to increase demand. According to our results, ‘low price category’, ‘local/regional product’, and ‘prestige product’ strategies with attached in-store marketing elements are able to reverse the effects of an unfavourable marketing process

Advanced Technologies for Oral Controlled Release: Cyclodextrins for oral controlled release

Cyclodextrins (CDs) are used in oral pharmaceutical formulations, by means of inclusion complexes formation, with the following advantages for the drugs: (1) solubility, dissolution rate, stability and bioavailability enhancement; (2) to modify the drug release site and/or time profile; and (3) to reduce or prevent gastrointestinal side effects and unpleasant smell or taste, to prevent drug-drug or drug-additive interactions, or even to convert oil and liquid drugs into microcrystalline or amorphous powders. A more recent trend focuses on the use of CDs as nanocarriers, a strategy that aims to design versatile delivery systems that can encapsulate drugs with better physicochemical properties for oral delivery. Thus, the aim of this work was to review the applications of the CDs and their hydrophilic derivatives on the solubility enhancement of poorly water soluble drugs in order to increase their dissolution rate and get immediate release, as well as their ability to control (to prolong or to delay) the release of drugs from solid dosage forms, either as complexes with the hydrophilic (e.g. as osmotic pumps) and/ or hydrophobic CDs. New controlled delivery systems based on nanotechonology carriers (nanoparticles and conjugates) have also been reviewed

Engineering of cyclodextrin glucanotransferases and the impact for biotechnological applications

Cyclodextrin glucanotransferases (CGTases) are industrially important enzymes that produce cyclic α-(1,4)-linked oligosaccharides (cyclodextrins) from starch. Cyclodextrin glucanotransferases are also applied as catalysts in the synthesis of glycosylated molecules and can act as antistaling agents in the baking industry. To improve the performance of CGTases in these various applications, protein engineers are screening for CGTase variants with higher product yields, improved CD size specificity, etc. In this review, we focus on the strategies employed in obtaining CGTases with new or enhanced enzymatic capabilities by searching for new enzymes and improving existing enzymatic activities via protein engineering

Narcissism and the strategic pursuit of short-term mating : universal links across 11 world regions of the International Sexuality Description Project-2.

Previous studies have documented links between sub-clinical narcissism and the active pursuit of short-term mating strategies (e.g., unrestricted sociosexuality, marital infidelity, mate poaching). Nearly all of these investigations have relied solely on samples from Western cultures. In the current study, responses from a cross-cultural survey of 30,470 people across 53 nations spanning 11 world regions (North America, Central/South America, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and East Asia) were used to evaluate whether narcissism (as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory; NPI) was universally associated with short-term mating. Results revealed narcissism scores (including two broad factors and seven traditional facets as measured by the NPI) were functionally equivalent across cultures, reliably associating with key sexual outcomes (e.g., more active pursuit of short-term mating, intimate partner violence, and sexual aggression) and sex-related personality traits (e.g., higher extraversion and openness to experience). Whereas some features of personality (e.g., subjective well-being) were universally associated with socially adaptive facets of Narcissism (e.g., self-sufficiency), most indicators of short-term mating (e.g., unrestricted sociosexuality and marital infidelity) were universally associated with the socially maladaptive facets of narcissism (e.g., exploitativeness). Discussion addresses limitations of these cross-culturally universal findings and presents suggestions for future research into revealing the precise psychological features of narcissism that facilitate the strategic pursuit of short-term mating

A silicified Early Triassic marine assemblage from Svalbard

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