Why your customers’ social identities matter

The article looks at the role of consumers' social identities in their purchasing decisions, and hence in the creation of effective marketing strategies. It says that people generally belong to multiple social groups, any one of which may have the most salience for them in a given situation. It reports on social psychology research on how a person's connection with a particular social identity can be triggered and discusses the idea in the context of marketing products including the Toyota Prius hybrid-electric automobile, Nescafé instant coffee, and the Jeep all-terrain vehicle. INSET: Lessons of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Circles of support and accountability: criminal justice volunteers as the 'Deliberative public'

This paper provides a review of the role played by volunteers within one particular offender management and reintegration scheme in the United Kingdom. Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) draw on the expertise of volunteer members of the public to create supportive monitoring frameworks around sex offenders following their release from prison. The paper presents evidence as to the motivations of these volunteers, and argues that they play a crucial role in the success of the scheme, as they provide an instrumentally-useful form of reintegrative social contact to a socially-excluded offender population, and perform a symbolically important role as representatives of the wider community in taking ownership of offender management practices on behalf of the wider society. This is particularly significant in grounding those processes in the communicative practices of the social sphere, providing powerful reasons for intervention that reinforce the work that COSA do.

"When I go to bed hungry and sleep, I'm not hungry": children and parents' experiences of food insecurity

Evidence demonstrates food insecurity has a detrimental impact on a range of outcomes for children, but little research has been conducted in the UK, and children have rarely been asked to describe their experiences directly. We examined the experiences of food insecure families living in South London. Our mixed-methods approach comprised a survey of parents (n = 72) and one-to-one semi-structured interviews with children aged 5-11 years (n = 19). The majority of parents (86%) described their food security during the preceding year as very low. Most reported they had often or sometimes had insufficient food, and almost all had worried about running out of food. Two thirds of parents had gone hungry. Most parents reported they had been unable to afford a nutritionally balanced diet for their children, and just under half reported that their children had gone hungry. Four themes emerged from the interviews with children: sources of food; security of food, nutritional quality of food, and experiences of hunger. Children's descriptions of insufficient food being available indicate that parents are not always able to shield them from the impact of food insecurity. The lack of school-meals and after-school clubs serving food made weekends particularly problematic for some children. A notable consequence of food insecurity appears to be reliance on low-cost takeaway food, likely to be nutritionally poor.

Edible oil from Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus L.): mechanical pressing and aqueous enzymatic extraction methods

The tiger nut tuber of the Cyperus esculentus L. plant is an unusual storage system with similar amounts of starch and lipid. The extraction of its oil employing both mechanical pressing and aqueous enzymatic extraction (AEE) methods was investigated and an examination of the resulting products was carried out. The effects of particle size and moisture content of the tuber on the yield of tiger nut oil with pressing were initially studied. Smaller particles were found to enhance oil yields while a range of moisture content was observed to favour higher oil yields. When samples were first subjected to high pressures up to 700 MPa before pressing at 38 MPa there was no increase in the oil yields. Ground samples incubated with a mixture of α- Amylase, Alcalase, and Viscozyme (a mixture of cell wall degrading enzyme) as a pre-treatment, increased oil yield by pressing and 90% of oil was recovered as a result. When aqueous enzymatic extraction was carried out on ground samples, the use of α- Amylase, Alcalase, and Celluclast independently improved extraction oil yields compared to oil extraction without enzymes by 34.5, 23.4 and 14.7% respectively. A mixture of the three enzymes further augmented the oil yield and different operational factors were individually studied for their effects on the process. These include time, total mixed enzyme concentration, linear agitation speed, and solid-liquid ratio. The largest oil yields were obtained with a solid-liquid ratio of 1:6, mixed enzyme concentration of 1% (w/w) and 6 h incubation time although the longer time allowed for the formation of an emulsion. Using stationary samples during incubation surprisingly gave the highest oil yields, and this was observed to be as a result of gravity separation occurring during agitation. Furthermore, the use of high pressure processing up to 300 MPa as a pre-treatment enhanced oil yields but additional pressure increments had a detrimental effect. The quality of oils recovered from both mechanical and aqueous enzymatic extraction based on the percentage free fatty acid (% FFA) and peroxide values (PV) all reflected the good stabilities of the oils with the highest % FFA of 1.8 and PV of 1.7. The fatty acid profiles of all oils also remained unchanged. The level of tocopherols in oils were enhanced with both enzyme aided pressing (EAP) and high pressure processing before AEE. Analysis on the residual meals revealed DP 3 and DP 4 oligosaccharides present in EAP samples but these would require further assessment on their identity and quality.

Can milk proteins be a useful tool in the management of cardiometabolic health? An updated review of human intervention trials

The prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases is a significant public health burden worldwide. Emerging evidence supports the inverse association between greater dairy consumption and reduced risk of cardiometabolic diseases. Dairy proteins may have in important role in the favourable impact of dairy on human health such as blood pressure (BP) control, blood lipid and glucose control. The purpose of this review is to update and critically evaluate the evidence on the impacts of casein and whey protein in relation to metabolic function. Evidence from acute clinical studies assessing postprandial responses to milk protein ingestion suggests benefits on vascular function independent of BP, as well as improvement in glycaemic homeostasis. Chronic interventions have been less conclusive, with some showing benefits and others indicating a lack of improvement in vascular function. During chronic consumption BP appears to be lowered and both dyslipidaemia and hyperglacaemia seems to be controlled. Limited number of trials investigated the effects of dairy proteins on oxidative stress and inflammation. The beneficial changes in cardiometabolic homeostasis are likely mediated through improvements in insulin resistance, however to gain more detailed understanding on the underlying mechanism of milk proteins warrants further research. The incorporation of meals enriched with dairy protein in the habitual diet may result in the beneficial effects on cardiometabolic health. Nevertheless, future well-designed, controlled studies are needed to investigate the relative effects of both casein and whey protein on BP, vascular function, glucose homeostasis and inflammation.

Josephine: desire, ambition, Napoleon

Biography of Josephine Bonaparte. The incredible rise and unbelievable fall of Josephine, a mistress, courtesan and Revolutionary heroine whose energy and ambition has often been overshadowed by Napoleon’s military might. Historian Kate Williams, author of Becoming Queen, tells Josephine’s searing story of sexual obsession, politics and surviving as a woman in a man’s world. Abandoned in Paris by her aristocratic husband, Josephine's future did not look promising. But while her friends and contemporaries were sent to the guillotine during the Terror that followed the Revolution, she survived prison and emerged as the doyenne of a wildly debauched party scene, surprising everybody when she encouraged the advances of a short, marginalised Corsican soldier, six years her junior. Josephine, the fabulous hostess and skilled diplomat, was the perfect consort to the ambitious but obnoxious Napoleon. With her by his side, he became the greatest man in Europe, the Supreme Emperor; and she amassed a jewellery box with more diamonds than Marie Antoinette’s. But as his fame grew, Napoleon became increasingly obsessed with his need for an heir and irritated with Josephine’s extravagant spending. The woman who had enchanted France became desperate and jealous. Until, a divorcee aged forty-seven, she was forced to watch from the sidelines as Napoleon and his young bride produced a child.