INFLUENCE OF SELECTED MARKETING FACTORS ON CONSUMER RESPONSE TO RESTRUCTURED BEEF STEAKS: A CONJOINT ANALYSIS1

Restructured beef steaks, formulated with different beef particle sizes, fat content and binder levels, were evaluated with selected marketing factors by 30 consumers. Conjoint analysis was applied to consumers’hedonic scores and statement of purchase intent for raw and cooked steaks. Product preference, packaging and brand had significant (P < 0.05) impacts on hedonic scores for raw products. Price was an additional important factor in purchase intent. Parcooked products, only product preference was important for both hedonic rating and purchase intent. When products were not present, conjoint measurement indicated that nutritional information, price and brand influenced (P < 0.05) hedonic responses.     

The Effects of Temperature on 86Rb Uptake by Two Species of Chlamydomonas (Chlorophyta, Chlorophyceae)

⁸⁶Rb uptake was examined in two species of unicellular greenalgae, Chlamydomonas nivalis isolated from snow, and a cellwall-less mutant of the temperate freshwater Chlamydomonas reinhardii.In C. reinhardii cells grown at 20°C and cooled rapidlyto 0°C, ⁸⁶Rb uptake was abolished. Cells cooled rapidlyto –5°C in the absence of ice accumulated ⁸⁶Rb veryrapidly but the time course of this uptake suggested non-selectiveaccumulation through a damaged plasmalemma. Cells grown at 8°Cwere viable, able to divide and motile; they showed no signsof cold-shock and ⁸⁶Rb uptake, albeit slow, was measurable at–5°C in the absence of extracellular ice. Cells ofC. nivalis grown at 20°C were damaged at sub-zero temperaturesalthough they did show an enhanced ⁸⁶Rb uptake at 0°C. Cellsgrown at 5°C were able to accumulate ⁸⁶Rb from media undercooledto -5°C in the absence of extracellular ice, and again showedenhanced uptake at 0°C. The process of acclimation to lowtemperature appears to differ in the two species. Key words: Chlamydomonas, temperature, ⁸⁶Rb uptake, membrane     

Inorganic ions and the hatching of Heterodera spp

Of various inorganic ions tested for their ability to stimulate hatching of eggs of the cyst nematodes of cereals (Heterodera avenae Woll), carrot (H. carotae Jones), cabbage (H. cruciferae Franklin), soybean (H. glycines Ichinohe), pea (H. goettingiana Liebs.), potato (H. rostochiensis Woll.), beet (H. schachtii Schm.), tobacco (H. tabacum Lownsbery & Lownsbery) and clover (H. trifolii Goffart), some were active. Zn²⁺ hatched many eggs of seven species and some of H. goettingiana, but inhibited hatch of H. avenae to below that in water. Zinc salts are the first recorded very active hatching stimulants for H. glycines in vitro. Many other metal ions stimulated hatching of H. schachtii eggs to varying extents; these also hatched some but not all of the other species. Vanadate ions were particularly effective for H. rostochiensis, more so than Zn²⁺. No ion increased the hatch of H. avenae to above that in water. The most active ions were not those most abundant in soil. The behaviour of different ions with different species did not suggest any obvious affinities between species, but the differences between the hatching of H. tabacum and H. rostochiensis add weight to the view that, despite morphological similarities and overlapping host ranges, they are distinct species rather than pathotypes of a single species. Ions and other hatching agents may be absorbed by materials within the egg or larva and alter the structure and function of these materials. The lack of correlation between the hatching of H. schachtii by ions and the known stability sequences of various biological metal-binding systems suggests that there may be several sites of action that differ in their response.     

Interannual variability of algal populations and their influence on lake metabolism

• 1 An input-output phosphorus budget is given for Windermere and its two basins based on data available for the late 1980s. The annual areal total phosphorus loading for the whole lake was 1.04 g P m^-2 yr^-1 and for the North and South Basins were 1.08 and 1.70 g P m^-2 yr^-1, respectively. For the whole lake and its South Basin the values were similar to the upper range of critical loads calculated according to the equation of Vollenweider (1976) for the transition between oligotrophy and eutrophy while that for the North Basin (1.08 g P m^-2 yr^-1) was within this range of critical loadings but towards its lower end.
• 2 Changes in the quality of summer phytoplankton are described for Windermere, particularly its South Basin, between 1978 and 1989 in relation to the utilization of nitrate-nitrogen (NO³-N) in the epilimnion, deoxygenarion of the hypolimnion and the ratio of epilimnetic volume to hypolimnetic volume, E_v/H_v The two basins of Windermere with values of E_v/H_v of 0.79 (South Basin) and 0.50 (North Basin) have contrasting conditions of summer deoxygenarion. The shallower South Basin shows marked interannual variability in the development of hypolimnetic anoxia. Years with large hypolimnetic anoxia during autumn are correlated with the production during summer of large populations of the poorly grazed blue-green alga Oscillatoria bourrellyi and exhaustion of NO₃-N in the upper layers. During years when anoxia does not develop the summer phytoplankton consists of small easily grazed algae or larger ones subject to parasitic epidemics. The deeper North Basin never becomes anoxic even though it can contain similar sized populations of O. bourrellyi to the South Basin.
• 3 A possible explanation of the between basin and, for the South Basin, between year variation of utilization of NO₃-N and level of hypolimnetic deoxygenarion is that algal quality can determine lake metabolism dependent upon lake or basin morphology. Poorly grazed large forms such as O. bourrellyi act as sinks for NO₃-N. On sedimentation such populations act as a ‘short circuit’ mechanism descending into deeper layers in sufficient quantities to cause anoxia. Other species subject to crustacean or microbial grazing are mineralized in the epilimnion with little sedimentation to the deeper waters. Subsequent recycling of nitrogen as NH₄-N takes place in the upper layers or thermocline which is more readily taken up by subsequent production. The influence of such ‘short circuit’ mechanisms is reduced in deep lakes and exacerbated in shallow ones.
• 4 The success of species such as O. bourrellyi is dependent upon a sufficient inoculum, an adequate supply of nutrients and the depth of intermittent mixing. The importance of these factors in regulating presence and timing of summer populations is illustrated and discussed.

     

Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure

Abstract In the early 1980s, a strategy for graphical representation of multivariate (multi-species) abundance data was introduced into marine ecology by, among others, Field, et al. (1982). A decade on, it is instructive to: (i) identify which elements of this often-quoted strategy have proved most useful in practical assessment of community change resulting from pollution impact; and (ii) ask to what extent evolution of techniques in the intervening years has added self-consistency and comprehensiveness to the approach. The pivotal concept has proved to be that of a biologically-relevant definition of similarity of two samples, and its utilization mainly in simple rank form, for example ‘sample A is more similar to sample B than it is to sample C’. Statistical assumptions about the data are thus minimized and the resulting non-parametric techniques will be of very general applicability. From such a starting point, a unified framework needs to encompass: (i) the display of community patterns through clustering and ordination of samples; (ii) identification of species principally responsible for determining sample groupings; (iii) statistical tests for differences in space and time (multivariate analogues of analysis of variance, based on rank similarities); and (iv) the linking of community differences to patterns in the physical and chemical environment (the latter also dictated by rank similarities between samples). Techniques are described that bring such a framework into place, and areas in which problems remain are identified. Accumulated practical experience with these methods is discussed, in particular applications to marine benthos, and it is concluded that they have much to offer practitioners of environmental impact studies on communities.