How packaging affects the product preferences of children and the buyer behaviour of their parents in the food industry

Purpose – Health is becoming an increasingly important issue in the UK as well as the rest of Europe. Emphasis on the importance of healthy eating is ongoing for many reasons, including the growing concern about childhood obesity resulting in the ban of advertising of unhealthy foods to children in the UK in April 2007. However, although legislation has been placed upon the advertising of unhealthy food products, no such restrictions have been placed on the packaging of children's foods despite the influence of packaging on consumer buyer decisions. This paper aims to investigate the effect of packaging on children's product preferences and its ability to influence parents' buyer decision in-store. Design/methodology/approach – The study was approached from the parents' rather than the children's perspective. A quantitative approach was adopted in data collection, using a 28 item Likert scaled questionnaire administered to 150 parents, with over 95 percent response rate. Findings – The study shows that packaging does affect the product preferences of children. Also, children are particularly interested in influencing the purchase of unhealthy foods. However, parents within the study claimed that they did not succumb to their children's requests for the purchase of unhealthy food, which contradicts evidence from previous findings. Research limitations/implications – The claim by parents that they did not succumb to their children's requests for unhealthy food contradicts findings from previous research. This therefore leads to a recommendation for further studies as social desirability bias may have influenced the outcomes of the findings. Practical implications – Findings from this study can be applied within the retail and service marketing sector to provide the practitioner with information relevant to decision making on children's influence on parents buyer behavior in-store. Outcomes of the study are also important when considering the future of children's food marketing and tackling the issue of childhood obesity. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates that there is a relationship between packaging and children product preferences and children's influence on parents' buyer decision in-store

Preserving, Protecting, and Expanding Affordable Housing: A Policy Toolkit for Public Health

Resurgent interest in urban living is helping to revive neighborhoods in numerous American cities, stabilizing populations and sometimes beginning to reverse previous declines. One consequence of the influx of residents is new public and private investment in amenities such as parks, bike paths and grocery and other stores. However, new demand and investment can also drive up housing costs. That's particularly true in areas that have traditionally been affordable to low- and moderate-income individuals and families, notes a report by ChangeLab Solutions. With support from Kresge's Health Program, the nonprofit ChangeLab Solutions developed a guide to help practitioners and community advocates preserve and expand the number of affordable rental housing options in high-demand neighborhoods. The guide is aimed at practitioners who work at the intersection of housing and health, an area of increasing emphasis for Kresge's Health Program.The ChangeLab team has produced a policy toolkit with information on housing market trends and research on the links between rising housing costs and poor health outcomes. The toolkit identifies strategies to help ensure that households of all incomes have housing options in the areas where they want to live. It covers six policy areas: preservation, protection, inclusion, revenue generation, incentives and property acquisition

Conveying troublesome concepts : using an open-space learning activity to teach mixed-methods research in the health sciences

In the past decade, there has been a groundswell of interest in the use of mixed-methods approaches to conduct research in the health sciences. However, there remains a paucity of diverse teaching materials, curricula and activities to support the continued expansion of education and innovation in mixed-methods research. Here, we report the development and evaluation of an open-space learning activity and tool to aid teaching the concept of synthesis in mixed-methods research. We detail the iterations of the teaching activity and tool as they were developed, we report student feedback, and we discuss the utility of the activity and tool for introducing the concept of synthesis in mixed-methods research within health science and related fields

The use of job aids for visual inspection in manufacturing and maintenance

Visual inspection is a task regularly seen in manufacturing applications and is still primarily carried out by human operators. This study explored the use of job aids (anything used to assist the operator with the task, such as lists, check sheets or pictures) to assist with visual inspection within a manufacturing facility that inspects used parts. Job aids in the form of inspection manuals were used regularly during the inspection process, and how accurately they were followed was dependent on a number of factors such as size of part, experience of the operator, and accuracy of the inspection manuals. If the job aids were well structured, well written and accessible, then the inspectors were seen to follow them, however for certain jobs inspectors were seen to change the inspection order making inspection more efficient. The findings of the study suggest that prior experience can help in designing efficient, easy to use job aids and that a collaborative approach to design as well as using pictorial examples for comparison purposes would improve the inspection process

BiH in Black and White: Photo-Diary of My Adventure Learning How NGO’s Anti-Trafficking Prevention Programs Work in Small Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

From the very beginning of my immersion in the Balkans, the issue of Trafficking of Human Beings has found a nook in my mind of righteousness, and ever since, the interest of learning how this crime is being prevented has festered. In the one-month period of time I had for my research, I spent 5 days in Modriča, 8 days in Ključ, 5 days in Mostar, 7 days in Sarajevo, and 2 days in Dubrovnik. The goal of my travels was to see first hand the actual and physical actions that NGO’s in small towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter BiH) are developing and implementing in order to stop the trafficking of children and women within BiH. Definition of Trafficking: (a) ‘Trafficking in persons’ shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs; (b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used

Land Grant Application- Johnson, Jasper (Pownal)

Land grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office on behalf of Jasper Johnson for service in the Revolutionary War, by their widow Rebecca.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_me_land_office/1501/thumbnail.jp

Land Grant Application- Johnson, Jasper (Pownal)

Land grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office on behalf of Jasper Johnson for service in the Revolutionary War, by their widow Rebecca.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_me_land_office/1501/thumbnail.jp