APPLICATIONS OF SENSORY SCIENCE WITHIN THE HOME CARE BUSINESS

Sensory evaluation methods and procedures originally developed for the food and beverage industry are also utilized to conduct evaluations of products for furniture and floor care, laundry care, air care, and insect control. In addition to measuring sensory properties and dealing primarily with “the other senses,” home care product evaluations incorporate assessments of perceived performance as the product interacts with a substrate. Consequently, laboratory evaluations employ a variety of controlled usage conditions — each having specific physical requirements, and evaluations of total performance are conducted under multi-environmental conditions with product users. This presentation examines how traditional sensory methods have been modified and expanded to accommodate the multidimensional aspects of home care products and R&D decisionmaking.     

SHELF-LIFE ESTIMATION OF APPLE-BABY FOOD

The aim of the present work was to study the evolution of the color of an apple‐baby food and to estimate its sensory shelf life. Samples of apple‐baby food stored at 25C were analyzed using trained assessors and a consumer panel. A zero‐order reaction kinetics was found for the evolution of sensory color with storage time. Color was highly correlated with consumers' rejection percentage and overall acceptability, which indicates that consumers consider this attribute when deciding to accept or reject this product and in assigning their acceptability scores. Using this correlation, the sensory cutoff point for color, corresponding to a 25% consumer rejection, was calculated. Sensory shelf life was estimated using consumer data. Sensory shelf life estimated by survival analysis was in agreement with that calculated considering an acceptability limit of 6.0 in a 9‐point hedonic scale.     

MAPPING THE EFFECT OF INFORMATION ABOUT ANIMAL WELFARE ON CONSUMER LIKING AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR YOGURT

Preference mapping identified different groups of consumers on the basis of their disconfirmations (occurring when the product is either better or worse than expected) and assimilations (occurring when actual liking [L] moves toward the expectations). The negative disconfirmation of a group of consumers (Group 1) was based on the information about animal welfare (the products were worse than expected because the information about animal welfare induced high expectations), whereas in Group 2 the sensory properties of the products prevailed in orienting consumer disconfirmation (products were worse than expected because the sensory properties of low-fat yogurt were disliked). The map of assimilation showed that consumers from Group 1 had higher assimilation for plain yogurt associated with high welfare standards as a consequence of the high discrepancy between blind and expected L for these products. A similar behavior was observed for Group 2 (higher discrepancy between blind and expected L corresponding to higher assimilation for low-fat yogurt paired with high welfare standards).

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Consumers based their choices both on sensory properties (plain yogurts were preferred to low-fat yogurts) and on information about animal welfare (products associated with high welfare standards were preferred to the others). Preference mapping was able to identify groups of consumers behaving differently, as compared with the general trend, on the basis of their disconfirmations and assimilations.
Consumer willingness to pay reflected the hedonic behavior, thus validating the auction procedure for food liking evaluation purposes and providing a useful tool to obtain information about the real value (i.e., in monetary terms) consumers give to animal welfare.     

Productivity in Physical and Chemical Science Predicts the Future Economic Growth of Developing Countries Better than Other Popular Indices

Scientific productivity of middle income countries correlates stronger with present and future wealth than indices reflecting its financial, social, economic or technological sophistication. We identify the contribution of the relative productivity of different scientific disciplines in predicting the future economic growth of a nation. Results show that rich and poor countries differ in the relative proportion of their scientific output in the different disciplines: countries with higher relative productivity in basic sciences such as physics and chemistry had the highest economic growth in the following five years compared to countries with a higher relative productivity in applied sciences such as medicine and pharmacy. Results suggest that the economies of middle income countries that focus their academic efforts in selected areas of applied knowledge grow slower than countries which invest in general basic sciences.     

IMPORTANCE OF SENSORY FACTORS IN PROCESSED SEAFOOD: METHODS AND RESULTS1

This paper considers “importance” of sensory attributes from the consumer point of view, with emphasis on processed seafood. There are three key measures of importance. Attitudinal importance measures what consumers think to be important and refers to general opinions about the category. Sensory system importance measures how strongly different sensory inputs (e.g., appearance, aroma, taste, texture) “drive” overall liking, and show the key sensory inputs to which consumers attend. Attribute level importance measures the relation between sensory intensity and overall liking for each attribute. It shows which specific attributes drive liking, how liking varies with the specific sensory attribute, and whether (and at what sensory level) there exists an optimal level.     

Identity economics and the brain: uncovering the mechanisms of social conflict

Social contexts can have dramatic effects on decisions. When individuals recognize each other as coming from the same social group, they can coordinate their actions towards a common goal. Conversely, information about group differences can lead to conflicts both economic and physical. Understanding how social information shapes decision processes is now a core goal both of behavioural economics and neuroeconomics. Here, we describe the foundations for research that combines the theoretical framework from identity economics with the experimental methods of neuroscience. Research at this intersection would fill important gaps in the literature not addressed by current approaches in either of these disciplines, nor within social neuroscience, psychology or other fields. We set forth a simple taxonomy of social contexts based on the information content they provide. And, we highlight the key questions that would be addressed by a new 'identity neuroeconomics'. Such research could serve as an important and novel link between the social and natural sciences.     

Focus: Vaccines: Distorted Human Decision-Making as a Critical Aspect of Pandemic Planning and Preparedness

The United States continues to experience lower than expected vaccination rates against COVID-19 due to a variety of barriers such as lack of trust, lack of planning, cultural perspectives and issues, suboptimal communication, and political/economic conflicts of interest. In this paper issues of human behavior and decision-making are highlighted as integral to understanding the generally poor US response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In particular, the US pandemic response was significantly distorted through a combination of cultural and human behavior issues related to conflicting leadership, cultural individualism, the prevalent idea of the democratization of expertise, and a false epistemological lens for decision-making. Including experts from multiple disciplines reveals how to address the human behavioral side of pandemic planning and operations to increase vaccine coverage rates. Including content experts from psychology and the social sciences allows the explicit recognition and preparation for distorted human behavior in planning for future pandemic response.     

FUZZY MULTIATTRIBUTE DECISION MAKING APPROACH FOR DEVELOPMENT AND COMPARISON OF SOY FORTIFIED PANEER

Soyfortified paneer (SFP) samples prepared from blends containing different proportions of buffalo milk of varying fat content and soy milk (7.5 °B) were evaluated organoleptically for assessing the quality attributes like body and texture, flavor and taste, color and appearance and the overall acceptability. Sensory data were analyzed using fuzzy logic approach, which addresses the problem of data classification in a unified qualitative and quantitative manner. Results of the study indicated that the fuzzy multiattribute decision making approach provide an adequate and reliable system for product formulation and comparison, based on sensory data. The developed fuzzy mathematical model performed remarkably well in the evaluation and ranking of various SFP samples. The SFP sample made from blend of buffalo milk (4.5% fat) and soy milk (7.5 °B) in the proportion of 90:10 was found to be the most acceptable one for different classes of consumers irrespective of their preferences for a particular sensory quality attribute.     

A TEST OF THE CRITICAL ASSUMPTION OF THE SENSORY BIAS MODEL FOR THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE MATING PREFERENCE USING NEURAL NETWORKS

The sensory bias model for the evolution of mating preferences states that mating preferences evolve as correlated responses to selection on nonmating behaviors sharing a common sensory system. The critical assumption is that pleiotropy creates genetic correlations that affect the response to selection. I simulated selection on populations of neural networks to test this. First, I selected for various combinations of foraging and mating preferences. Sensory bias predicts that populations with preferences for like-colored objects (red food and red mates) should evolve more readily than preferences for differently colored objects (red food and blue mates). Here, I found no evidence for sensory bias. The responses to selection on foraging and mating preferences were independent of one another. Second, I selected on foraging preferences alone and asked whether there were correlated responses for increased mating preferences for like-colored mates. Here, I found modest evidence for sensory bias. Selection for a particular foraging preference resulted in increased mating preference for similarly colored mates. However, the correlated responses were small and inconsistent. Selection on foraging preferences alone may affect initial levels of mating preferences, but these correlations did not constrain the joint evolution of foraging and mating preferences in these simulations.     

Hunter-Gatherer/Farmer Exchange

A survey of reported cases of farmer and hunter-gatherer economic exchange indicates that more studies of such interactions might prove fruitful. Careful comparison of two such cases—the Mbuti-Bantu relationship of Africa (Turnbull 1965) and Agta-Palanan exchange on the northeast coast of the Philippines (J. Peterson 1974)—reveal significant theoretical and methodological implications of such studies . [hunter-gatherers, comparative economics, cultural ecology, Southeast Asia, interethnic relations]     

THE ROLE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF COLOR AND BRAND NAME ON THE CONSUMER'S HEDONIC RATINGS OF TOMATO PUREES

The objective of study was to assess the influence of the knowledge of color and brand name on consumer response to tomato purees. From focus group interviews it was found that taste and odor of fresh tomato were the most important drivers of consumer choice. To quantify that information a questionnaire was developed and it was submitted to fifty consumers of tomato puree. The questionnaires answers confirmed those coming from the focus group, although same discrepancies were found with those derived from the consumer test. Results showed that color and brand name seemed to be more important than taste and odor of fresh tomato, in fact those attributes, when consumers were tasting samples, affected not only hedonic judgments but sensory perception as well. Finally physico-chemical parameters derived from instrumental measurements have been compared to sensory data by means of PCA in order to validate the consumers'assessment of sensory attributes of tomato puree.     

Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore genetic contributions to disparities in health

Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore genetic contributions to disparities in health were developed using in-depth qualitative interviews with editorial staff from nineteen genetics journals, focusing on the methodological and conceptual mechanisms required to make race/ethnicity a genetic variable. As such, these analyses explore how and why race/ethnicity comes to be used in the context of genetic research, set against the background of continuing critiques from anthropology and related human sciences that focus on the social construction, structural correlates and limited genetic validity of racial/ethnic categories. The analyses demonstrate how these critiques have failed to engage geneticists, and how geneticists use a range of essentially cultural devices to protect and separate their use of race/ethnicity as a genetic construct from its use as a societal and social science resource. Given its multidisciplinary, biosocial nature and the cultural gaze of its ethnographic methodologies, anthropology is well placed to explore the cultural separation of science and society, and of natural and social science disciplines. Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore disparities in health suggest that moving beyond genetic explanations of innate difference might benefit from a more even-handed critique of how both the natural and social sciences tend to essentialize selective elements of race/ethnicity. Drawing on the example of HIV/AIDS, this paper demonstrates how public health has been undermined by the use of race/ethnicity as an analytical variable, both as a cipher for innate genetic differences in susceptibility and response to treatment, and in its use to identify 'core groups' at greater risk of becoming infected and infecting others. Clearly, a tendency for biological reductionism can place many biomedical issues beyond the scope of public health interventions, while socio-cultural essentialization has tended to stigmatize 'unhealthy behaviours' and the communities where these are more prevalent.     

COMPARISON OF ATTRIBUTE LIKING AND JAR SCALES TO EVALUATE THE ADEQUACY OF SENSORY ATTRIBUTES OF MILK DESSERTS

Just-about-right (JAR) scales and attribute liking questions are usually used to study consumer perception of the sensory characteristics of food products. The aim of the present work was to compare the performance of attribute liking and JAR scales to evaluate consumers' perceived adequacy of flavor and texture of milk puddings. Two groups of consumers were asked to evaluate eight milk desserts using (1) overall liking followed by attribute liking for texture and flavor and (2) overall liking followed by JAR scales for thickness, creaminess, sweetness and vanilla flavor. Overall liking scores were significantly different when JAR scales or attribute liking questions were considered. Texture, flavor and overall liking scores were highly correlated to each other, providing the same information. JAR scales correlated better with the intensity of sensory attributes evaluated by a trained sensory panel, being JAR percentages a reliable tool to study the adequacy of sensory attributes.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Results from the present work showed that consumers might not be able to independently evaluate their liking of different sensory attributes of a product. For this reason, the use of attribute liking questions for studying the adequacy of sensory attributes in complex products would not be recommended. JAR scales were better indicators of the adequacy of sensory attributes. Consumers were able to independently evaluate texture and flavor attributes using JAR scales. However, the influence of JAR scales on overall liking scores should be taken into account when including these scales on consumer studies.     

Herding,social influence and economic decision-making: socio-psychological and neuroscientific analyses

Typically, modern economics has steered away from the analysis of sociological and psychological factors and has focused on narrow behavioural assumptions in which expectations are formed on the basis of mathematical algorithms. Blending together ideas from the social and behavioural sciences, this paper argues that the behavioural approach adopted in most economic analysis, in its neglect of sociological and psychological forces and its simplistically dichotomous categorization of behaviour as either rational or not rational, is too narrow and stark. Behaviour may reflect an interaction of cognitive and emotional factors and this can be captured more effectively using an approach that focuses on the interplay of different decision-making systems. In understanding the mechanisms affecting economic and financial decision-making, an interdisciplinary approach is needed which incorporates ideas from a range of disciplines including sociology, economic psychology, evolutionary biology and neuroeconomics.     

Empiricism and Modeling for Marine Fisheries: Advancing an Interdisciplinary Science

Marine fisheries science is a broad field that is fundamentally concerned with sustainability across ecological, economic, and social dimensions. Ensuring the delivery of food, security, equity, and well-being while sustaining ecosystems in the face of rapid change is, by far, the main challenge facing marine fisheries. A tighter integration of modeling and empiricism is needed to confront this challenge. In particular, improved incorporation of empirically grounded and realistic representation of human behaviors into models will greatly enhance our ability to predict likely outcomes under alternative adaptive strategies. Challenges to this integration certainly exist, but many of these can be overcome via improved professional training that reduces cultural rifts between empiricists and modelers and between natural and social sciences, ideally ending the presumption that there is a divide between empiricism and modeling.     

太湖贡湖湾食物网特征研究

应用稳定性同位素技术(13C和15N)研究了太湖贡湖湾食物网特征, 结果显示由于食物来源变化多样性影响, 导致贡湖的食物网结构和营养级关系变化较为复杂, 贡湖主要生物类群13C、15N值表现出较大的种间差异。消费者13C值从摇蚊幼虫的-32.3到锯齿米虾的-22.1, 其值大小与营养级的关系没有规律性。消费者平均15N值从褶纹冠蚌的10.3到位于顶端间下鳙的19.0, 随营养级位置而升高。群落中所有种类的15N、13C值之间没有相关性(r=0.1835, P0.05), 表明该食物网是非线性食物网。研究结果验证了杂食性生物有机体普遍存在于富营养化的贡湖水域生态系统中, 且13C结果表明, 浮游植物、固着藻类以及沉水植物为贡湖食物网中大多数生物有机体的主要碳源。贡湖食物链长度为4.44营养级。     

SOME ISSUES IN THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF SENSORY DATA: REVISITED

Sensory experimental data whether collected via the consumer or via the laboratory population have many characteristics in common. Among the more important characteristics are that they are relative, skewed, and difficult to replicate. These characteristics result from the use of human beings as instruments to measure multivariate stimuli as opposed to the use of a mechanical instrument. The use of human beings as instruments presents several problems in the design and analysis of sensory/consumer studies. In the clinical/medical applications of sensory evaluation, we have used people both as the experimental unit (panelists/subjects) and as the instrument (judges) to measure panelists’ responses. Thus it is my belief that sensory data are the most difficult scientific data to statistically analyze and interpret. Unfortunately, limited theoretical work has been done to tackle the resulting problems. These problems include the comparison of responses obtained from independent populations (monadic design), sample size estimation with special reference to time-dependent responses, analysis of degree of difference data, the invariance property of rating scales, effect of correlated errors in observations, and the use of laboratory panels to predict results from a consumer panel. Some solutions to these problems have been provided by experience. My purpose here is to discuss each of these problems in greater detail and offer some possible scientific solutions.     

THE ROLE OF AUDITORY CUES IN MODULATING THE PERCEIVED CRISPNESS AND STALENESS OF POTATO CHIPS

We investigated whether the perception of the crispness and staleness of potato chips can be affected by modifying the sounds produced during the biting action. Participants in our study bit into potato chips with their front teeth while rating either their crispness or freshness using a computer‐based visual analog scale. The results demonstrate that the perception of both the crispness and staleness was systematically altered by varying the loudness and/or frequency composition of the auditory feedback elicited during the biting action. The potato chips were perceived as being both crisper and fresher when either the overall sound level was increased, or when just the high frequency sounds (in the range of 2 kHz?20 kHz) were selectively amplified. These results highlight the significant role that auditory cues can play in modulating the perception and evaluation of foodstuffs (despite the fact that consumers are often unaware of the influence of such auditory cues). The paradigm reported here also provides a novel empiric methodology for assessing such multisensory contributions to food perception.