An analysis of household beef consumption of Japanese expatriates in U.S.: implications for future beef consumption in Japan

This paper uses a novel approach to investigate how food consumption in Japan may change as Japanese consumers become more westernised in their tastes and preferences for food. It is widely believed that as food prices in Japan fall to international levels and as Japanese consumers become more westernised in their taste and preferences for food, their meat consumption patterns, in particular, will approach those of western countries. The approach undertaken in this paper involves a comprehensive survey of Japanese expatriates in Los Angeles, California, regarding their food consumption habits. The findings are interesting as they shed some light on the changing nature of food consumption of accultured Japanese faced with competitive food prices. The results indicate that although household meat consumption of Japanese expatriates have changed, it remains debatable, however, that their food consumption habits will approach those of western consumers in the foreseeable future. The findings have important implications for food marketeers in Japan and elsewhere, particularly as further liberalisation of food import in that country gains momentum.

Geometry of compensatory feeding and water consumption in Drosophila melanogaster

Feeding behaviour is an expression of an animal’s underlying nutritional strategy. The study of feeding decisions can hence delineate nutritional strategies. Studies of Drosophila melanogaster feeding behaviour have yielded conflicting accounts, and little is known about how nutrients affect feeding patterns in this important model species. Here, we conducted two experiments to characterize nutrient prioritization and regulation. In a choice experiment, we allowed female flies to self-regulate their intake of yeast, sucrose and water by supplying individual flies with three microcapillary tubes: one containing only yeast of varying concentrations, another with just sucrose of varying concentrations, and the last with just water. Flies tightly regulated yeast and sucrose to a constant ratio at the expense of excess water intake, indicating that flies prioritize macronutrient regulation over excess water consumption. To determine the relative importance of yeast and sucrose, in a no-choice experiment, we provided flies with two microcapillary tubes: the first with one of the 28 diets varying in yeast and sucrose content and the other with only water. Flies increased total water intake in relation to yeast consumption but not sucrose consumption. Additionally, flies increased diet intake as diet concentration decreased and as the ratio of sugar to yeast equalized. Using a geometric scaling approach, we found that the patterns of diet intake can be explained by flies prioritizing protein and carbohydrates equally and by the lack of substitutability between the nutrients. We conclude by illustrating how our results harmonize conflicting results in the literature once viewed in a two-dimensional diet landscape.

Effect of plant density on Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni water consumption

Stevia rebaudiana is a traditional crop of Latin America, now rising to international interest thanks to its specific glycosides that are very sweet and still poor of calories making its potential interesting for dietary recommendations. Its short growing cycle makes this species possible as an annual crop also in non tropical areas, including the Mediterranean Basin and parts of Italy, where rainfall or irrigation is available during late spring and summer. One of the main concerns is the quantity of water necessary for the crop and the ideal number of plants per hectare in order to maximize water use efficiency. The present research was carried out in central Italy to compare yields and water consumption in plots with three plant densities (50, 25, 16 plants per square metre). The results show that the most dense plots can give the best results in the area of the trial.

Human and embodied energy analysis applied to water source protection and household water treatment interventions used in Mali, West Africa

As water quality interventions are scaled up to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water by 2015 there has been much discussion on the merits of household- and source-level interventions. This study furthers the discussion by examining specific interventions through the use of embodied human and material energy. Embodied energy quantifies the total energy required to produce and use an intervention, including all upstream energy transactions. This model uses material quantities and prices to calculate embodied energy using national economic input/output-based models from China, the United States and Mali. Embodied energy is a measure of aggregate environmental impacts of the interventions. Human energy quantifies the caloric expenditure associated with the installation and operation of an intervention is calculated using the physical activity ratios (PARs) and basal metabolic rates (BMRs). Human energy is a measure of aggregate social impacts of an intervention. A total of four household treatment interventions – biosand filtration, chlorination, ceramic filtration and boiling – and four water source-level interventions – an improved well, a rope pump, a hand pump and a solar pump – are evaluated in the context of Mali, West Africa. Source-level interventions slightly out-perform household-level interventions in terms of having less total embodied energy. Human energy, typically assumed to be a negligible portion of total embodied energy, is shown to be significant to all eight interventions, and contributing over half of total embodied energy in four of the interventions. Traditional gender roles in Mali dictate the types of work performed by men and women. When the human energy is disaggregated by gender, it is seen that women perform over 99% of the work associated with seven of the eight interventions. This has profound implications for gender equality in the context of water quality interventions, and may justify investment in interventions that reduce human energy burdens.

Domestic hot water consumption vs. solar thermal energy storage: the optimum size of the storage tank

Many efforts have been made in order to adequate the production of a solar thermal collector field to the consumption of domestic hot water of the inhabitants of a building. In that sense, much has been achieved in different domains: research agencies, government policies and manufacturers. However, most of the design rules of the solar plants are based on steady state models, whereas solar irradiance, consumption and thermal accumulation are inherently transient processes. As a result of this lack of physical accuracy, thermal storage tanks are sometimes left to be as large as the designer decides without any aforementioned precise recommendation. This can be a problem if solar thermal systems are meant to be implemented in nowadays buildings, where there is a shortage of space. In addition to that, an excessive storage volume could not result more efficient in many residential applications, but costly, extreme in space consumption and in some cases too heavy. A proprietary transient simulation program has been developed and validated with a detailed measurement campaign in an experimental facility. In situ environmental data have been obtained through a whole year of operation. They have been gathered at intervals of 10 min for a solar plant of 50 m2 with a storage tank of 3 m3, including the equipment for domestic hot water production of a typical apartment building. This program has been used to obtain the design and dimensioning criteria of DHW solar plants under daily transient conditions throughout a year and more specifically the size of the storage tank for a multi storey apartment building. Comparison of the simulation results with the current Spanish regulation applicable, “Código Técnico de la Edificación” (CTE 2006), offers fruitful details and establishes solar facilities dimensioning criteria.

Household Final Consumption in the EU: The key driver for a sustainable recovery? ECRI Commentary No. 18, 4 December 2015

This commentary finds that after four to five years of poor performance, final consumption of households is expected to recover significantly in 2015 and 2016. This is all the more important since final consumption of households was the main driver of economic growth during the 12 years preceding the financial crisis. Some obstacles still stand in the way, however, preventing a sustainable recovery in private consumption.

Rural hydraulics : a practical treatise on rural household water supply. Giving a full description of springs and wells, of pumps and hydraulic ram, with instructions in cistern building, laying of pipes, &c. /

Mode of access: Internet.

Household food consumption patterns in the United States /

Issued Jan. 1979.

Household food consumption and expenditure : annual report of the National Food Survey Committee.

Vols. for 1965- include provisional estimates for the following year.

The Effect of Water Consumption on Schoolchildren's Fine Motor Skills, Cognitive Function and Mood

Previous research has suggested that dehydration may have a negative effect on some aspects of mood, cognitive performance and motor skills (Benton, 2011). Furthermore, a large proportion of children arrive at school in a dehydrated state (Baron, Courbebaisse, Lepicard, & Friedlander, 2015). The present work investigated whether supplementing children with water may, as a consequence of reducing dehydration, improve their cognitive performance and motor skills. In studies 1, 2, 3 and 5, it was found that tasks that predominantly tested motor skills, were improved in children who had a drink, compared to those who did not. Furthermore, study 3 showed that this effect was moderated by hydration status. One theoretical explanation for the poorer performance of dehydrated children is that they may lack the neurological resources to sustain their effort and thus performance does not improve over time. In support of this, these studies showed that, when re-hydrated, performance on these tasks improves to the level of non-dehydrated children. Study 2 showed that the number of errors increased in a StopSignal task in children that had high self-rated levels of thirst, compared to low levels: and hydration status did not moderate this effect. A possible explanation for the increased number of errors in children with high self-rated thirst is that the thirst sensation diverts attention away from the task, causing task performance to deteriorate. In study 4, it was observed that there was a large variation in intra-individual and inter-individual hydration scores throughout the day, which was not related to volume drank or levels of thirst. Further studies should use imaging techniques to study brain activity during dehydration and rehydration, and during periods of high thirst, to help to further elucidate the mechanism underlying the negative effect of dehydration on motor performance, and the effect of self-rated thirst on attention.

From Smart Meters To Smart Decisions: Web-Based Support For The Water Efficient Household

Smart water metering technologies for residential buildings offer, in principle, great opportunities for sustainable urban water management. However, much of this potential is as yet unrealized. Despite that several ICT solutions have already been deployed aiming at optimum operations on the water utilities side (e.g. real time control for water networks, dynamic pump scheduling etc.), little work has been done to date on the consumer side. This paper presents a web-based platform targeting primarily the household end user. The platform enables consumers to monitor, on a real-time basis, the water demand of their household, providing feedback not only on the total water consumption and relevant costs but also on the efficiency (or otherwise) of specific indoor and outdoor uses. Targeting the reduction of consumption, the provided feedback is combined with notifications about possible leakages\bursts, and customised suggestions to improve the efficiency of existing household uses. It also enables various comparisons, with past consumption or even with that of similar households, aiming to motivate further the householder to become an active player in the water efficiency challenge. The issue of enhancing the platform’s functionality with energy timeseries is also discussed in view of recent advances in smart metering and the concept of “smart cities”. The paper presents a prototype of this web-based application and critically discusses first testing results and insights. It also presents the way in which the platform communicates with central databases, at the water utility level. It is suggested that such developments are closing the gap between technology availability and usefulness to end users and could help both the uptake of smart metering and awareness raising leading, potentially, to significant reductions of urban water consumption. The work has received funding from the European Union FP7 Programme through the iWIDGET Project, under grant agreement no318272.

Water end use consumption analysis study into Gold Coast dual reticulated households : pilot study

Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the world and persisting droughts have triggered a move toward sensible and sustainable water consumption. Understanding how and where water is consumed in households enables streamlined development of demand management programs and efficient engineering of water infrastructure. End use water consumption analysis is required to gain necessary empirical data of how and where water is consumed. Several end use water consumption studies have been conducted within Australia and around the world with varying results produced. This pilot study paper provides preliminary data from the Gold Coast Watersaver End Use Project which is currently underway. Specifically, the paper includes water end use category volumetric and percentage break downs for 18 single and 32 dual reticulated homes on the Gold Coast (i.e. 50 in total). Moreover, a comparitive analysis between each of the individual households water end use levels is discussed along with other national studies previously completed. The paper finishes with an overview of the greater 200 home end use study conducted on the Gold Coast and its key deliverables and research outcomes.