Assessing the environmental consumer market.

Mode of access: Internet.

Chicken meat consumer profile in northwestern São Paulo State, Brazil

Brazil is the world’s first chicken meat exporter nowadays. The maintenance of this position requires a constant quality attributes evolution. This work evaluated the chicken meat consumer profile in the northwest region of São Paulo state, the most important Brazilian poultry meat consumer market, in order to provide information to the productive sector. The data were collected using 482 interviews and questionnaires that were answered by e-mail. The questionnaires involved questions related to the consumer identification, habits and preferences and their knowledge about food safety, production system, sustainability and animal welfare. Most of the consumers, 62%, were female, with ages ranging from 20 to 50 years. Beef was preferred by the majority of the answerers and chicken and pork meat were together the second choice. Only 2% of the interviewed consumers mentioned not enjoying poultry meat. The main part of consumers, 67%, prefer to buy breast and leg cuts and only 11% are used to buy the whole poultry carcass. More than 60% of the interviewed have already eaten free range chicken meat, but the majority of them, 89%, are used to consume regular industrialized poultry. About 75% of the consumers believe hormones are used to grow the birds. Over 80% of people observe the expiration date before buying the product, but only 55% check if it has the stamp of the official inspection service. Color and appearance of meat are the most important factors that influence the consumer’s choice. The amount of water that drips on the tray is a rejection factor to 88% of answerers. Most of them, 66%, prefer lighter colored meat. Only 27% of them believe that chicken meat causes an environmental impact and 48% do not know the meaning of animal welfare. More than half of the interviewed do not consider animal welfare aspects before consuming any kind of meat. From these results obtained, it is possible to conclude that any effort to improve the product quality, mainly concerned to animal welfare and sustainability aspects, requires prior educational initiatives.

Full Cups, Full Coffers: Tax Strategies and Consumer Culture in the Early Modern German Cities

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the excise taxes (Ungeld) paid by town residents on the consumption of beer, wine, mead and brandy represented the single most important source of civic revenue for many German cities. In a crisis, these taxes could spike to 70-80% of civic income. This paper examines civic budgets and 'behind-the-scenes' deliberations in a sample of towns in southern Germany in order to illuminate how decisions affecting consumer taxes were made. Even during the sobriety movements of the Reformation and post-Reformation period, tax income from drinkers remained attractive to city leaders because the bulk of the excise tax burden could easily be shifted away from privileged members of society and placed on the population at large. At the same time, governments had to maintain a careful balance between what they needed in order to govern and what the consumer market could bear, for high taxes on drinks were also targeted in many popular revolts. This led to nimble politicking by those responsible for tax decisions. Drink taxes were introduced, raised, lowered and otherwise manipulated based not only on shifting fashions and tastes but also on the degree of economic stress faced by the community. Where civic rulers were successful in striking the right balance, the rewards were considerable. The income from drink sales was a major factor in how the cities of the Empire survived the wars and other crises of the early modern period without going into so much debt that they lost their independence.

Full Cups, Full Coffers: Tax Strategies and Consumer Culture in the Early Modern German Cities

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the excise taxes (Ungeld) paid by town residents on the consumption of beer, wine, mead and brandy represented the single most important source of civic revenue for many German cities. In a crisis, these taxes could spike to 70–80% of civic income. This paper examines civic budgets and ‘behind-the-scenes’ deliberations in a sample of towns in southern Germany in order to illuminate how decisions affecting consumer taxes were made. Even during the sobriety movements of the Reformation and post-Reformation period, tax income from drinkers remained attractive to city leaders because the bulk of the excise tax burden could easily be shifted away from privileged members of society and placed on the population at large. At the same time, governments had to maintain a careful balance between what they needed in order to govern and what the consumer market could bear, for high taxes on drinks were also targeted in many popular revolts. This led to nimble politicking by those responsible for tax decisions. Drink taxes were introduced, raised, lowered and otherwise manipulated based not only on shifting fashions and tastes but also on the degree of economic stress faced by the community. Where civic rulers were successful in striking the right balance, the rewards were considerable. The income from drink sales was a major factor in how the cities of the Empire survived the wars and other crises of the early modern period without going into so much debt that they lost their independence.

Innovating a consumer awareness of sweetpotato: industry, research and consumer adoption issues

In Australia, sweetpotato production has grown remarkably (1700%) in the last 16 years. Growers currently market 75 000 t per annum, worth $80-90 million at farm gate. The orange-fleshed cultivars are the most familiar to consumers, but other cultivars with varying flesh colour and properties also have potential for the consumer market. Given that Australian sweetpotato growers desire alternative cultivars to promote market demand, it is important to articulate the characteristics of sweetpotatoes that are most and least desirable for consumers. Research indicates that consumer acceptability of the new cultivar 'Evangeline' may assist sweetpotato growers and marketers in understanding the impact of both sensory properties, such as colour and the importance of flavour and texture of sweetpotatoes, and an awareness of the potential health benefits of sweetpotato consumption. In addition, whilst consumer preferences (regarding size, colour, texture, skin tone) and nutritional knowledge of sweet potato (regarding glycaemic index) is increasing, there is limited research investigating consumers understanding of health messages of sweetpotato attributes. This industry and consumer research review highlights the potential for promoting innovative strategies to improve adoption of new cultivars in the marketplace.

Creative Industries come to China (MATE)

This paper introduces the special issue “China: Internationalizing the Creative Industries”, describing the Australian Research Council funded “MATE” project which provides the conceptual background for the questions the issue explores. The MATE project began with the expectation that as China evolves from its status as a developing country with an emphasis on primary industries and manufacturing, to a mature, market-driven economy benefiting from high levels of international investment, it will become more actively engaged with the global “knowledge economy” and “information society”. In this context, developments in the “creative industries”, which are playing such an important role in developed economies, might reasonably be expected in China. Although China continues to be characterised by strong central-policy settings, as the domestic consumer market matures there is greater scope for consumer-led creative business development. The “MATE” project aimed to capture some of these changes as they began to gain momentum across a range of services: Media, Advertising, Tourism and Education. This special issue continues this theme with papers that explore the theoretical challenges, economic questions and implications, and practical instantiations of creative industries growth in China. All papers contained in this special issue have been peer-reviewed.

Branding "Created in China" : the rise of Chinese fashion designers

This article discusses the importance of aesthetic recognition and branding for Chinese fashion designers as prerequisites for their successful positioning in a globalized marketplace. Fundamental to this process is the communication of their aesthetic in their branding process. In addition, the emergence of fashion designers of Asian-American descent who align their creative vision with a globally mainstream audience has created momentum for the new generation of mainland Chinese designers. Chinese creativity is moving to center stage as the country’s role as a leading consumer market with brands of domestic origin strengthens. Thus the aim of this article is to uncover the tension between what is, on the one hand, the need to embrace a global market, and, on the other, the desire to create the elements of a distinctly Chinese brand through aesthetic references to Chinese culture and iconography. We argue that one core element of branding is reference to heritage and tradition. Therefore to satisfy an increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumer, Chinese designers need to be able to incorporate these elements into a characteristic and well-promoted personal vision.

Lifestyle Journalism

Lifestyle journalism has experienced enormous growth in the media over the past two decades, but scholars in the fields of journalism and communication studies have so far paid relatively little attention to a field that is still sometimes seen as “not real journalism”. There is now an urgent need for in-depth exploration and contextualisation of this field, with its increasing relevance for 21st century consumer cultures. For the first time, this book presents a wide range of studies which have engaged with the field of lifestyle journalism in order to outline the various political, economic, social and cultural tensions within it. Taking a comparative view, the collection includes studies covering four continents, including countries such as Australia, China, Norway, Denmark, Singapore, the UK and the USA. While keeping the broader lifestyle field in mind, the chapters focus on a variety of sub-fields such as travel, music, food, health, fashion and personal technology journalism. This volume provides a fascinating account of the different facets of lifestyle journalism, and charts the way forward for a more sustained analysis of the field. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Practice.

Aspect-based model of user experience

Traditional HCI design and evaluation methods merely focus on functional and usability aspects of a product. Although these aspects are important, they do not guarantee product’s success, especially the consumer product. Many consumer products are now part of user’s everyday activities – that support fun, pleasure, entertainment, etc. Secondly, in today’s consumer market many of the products have become similar in terms of their technology, functionality, price and quality. In response, many companies have started designing products with added emotional and experiential values. This has challenged designer’s to explore and visualize directions in product design field that could evoke intended and desired experiences amongst its users. Subjective product qualities such as fun, pleasure, entertainment, etc. are not the part of a product, but they are better thought of as the outcome of user’s interaction with the product...

Application of meshfree methods to numerically simulate microscale deformations of different plant food materials during drying

Plant food materials have a very high demand in the consumer market and therefore, improved food products and efficient processing techniques are concurrently being researched in food engineering. In this context, numerical modelling and simulation techniques have a very high potential to reveal fundamentals of the underlying mechanisms involved. However, numerical modelling of plant food materials during drying becomes quite challenging, mainly due to the complexity of the multiphase microstructure of the material, which undergoes excessive deformations during drying. In this regard, conventional grid-based modelling techniques have limited applicability due to their inflexible grid-based fundamental limitations. As a result, meshfree methods have recently been developed which offer a more adaptable approach to problem domains of this nature, due to their fundamental grid-free advantages. In this work, a recently developed meshfree based two-dimensional plant tissue model is used for a comparative study of microscale morphological changes of several food materials during drying. The model involves Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) to represent fluid and solid phases of the cellular structure. Simulation are conducted on apple, potato, carrot and grape tissues and the results are qualitatively and quantitatively compared and related with experimental findings obtained from the literature. The study revealed that cellular deformations are highly sensitive to cell dimensions, cell wall physical and mechanical properties, middle lamella properties and turgor pressure. In particular, the meshfree model is well capable of simulating critically dried tissues at lower moisture content and turgor pressure, which lead to cell wall wrinkling. The findings further highlighted the potential applicability of the meshfree approach to model large deformations of the plant tissue microstructure during drying, providing a distinct advantage over the state of the art grid-based approaches.

Numerical investigation of plant tissue porosity and its influence on cellular level shrinkage during drying

Dried plant food products are increasing in demand in the consumer market, leading to continuing research to develop better products and processing techniques. Plant materials are porous structures, which undergo large deformations during drying. For any given food material, porosity and other cellular parameters have a direct influence on the level of shrinkage and deformation characteristics during drying, which involve complex mechanisms. In order to better understand such mechanisms and their interrelationships, numerical modelling can be used as a tool. In contrast to conventional grid-based modelling techniques, it is considered that meshfree methods may have a higher potential for modelling large deformations of multiphase problem domains. This work uses a meshfree based microscale plant tissue drying model, which was recently developed by the authors. Here, the effects of porosity have been newly accounted for in the model with the objective of studying porosity development during drying and its influence on shrinkage at the cellular level. For simplicity, only open pores are modelled and in order to investigate the influence of different cellular parameters, both apple and grape tissues were used in the study. The simulation results indicated that the porosity negatively influences shrinkage during drying and the porosity decreases as the moisture content reduces (when open pores are considered). Also, there is a clear difference in the deformations of cells, tissues and pores, which is mainly influenced by the cell wall contraction effects during drying.

Näkövammaisten tietokoneavusteinen tiedon hankinta

The study examines various uses of computer technology in acquisition of information for visually impaired people. For this study 29 visually impaired persons took part in a survey about their experiences concerning acquisition of infomation and use of computers, especially with a screen magnification program, a speech synthesizer and a braille display. According to the responses, the evolution of computer technology offers an important possibility for visually impaired people to cope with everyday activities and interacting with the environment. Nevertheless, the functionality of assistive technology needs further development to become more usable and versatile. Since the challenges of independent observation of environment were emphasized in the survey, the study led into developing a portable text vision system called Tekstinäkö. Contrary to typical stand-alone applications, Tekstinäkö system was constructed by combining devices and programs that are readily available on consumer market. As the system operates, pictures are taken by a digital camera and instantly transmitted to a text recognition program in a laptop computer that talks out loud the text using a speech synthesizer. Visually impaired test users described that even unsure interpretations of the texts in the environment given by Tekstinäkö system are at least a welcome addition to complete perception of the environment. It became clear that even with a modest development work it is possible to bring new, useful and valuable methods to everyday life of disabled people. Unconventional production process of the system appeared to be efficient as well. Achieved results and the proposed working model offer one suggestion for giving enough attention to easily overlooked needs of the people with special abilities. ACM Computing Classification System (1998): K.4.2 Social Issues: Assistive technologies for persons with disabilities I.4.9 Image processing and computer vision: Applications Keywords: Visually impaired, computer-assisted, information, acquisition, assistive technology, computer, screen magnification program, speech synthesizer, braille display, survey, testing, text recognition, camera, text, perception, picture, environment, trasportation, guidance, independence, vision, disabled, blind, speech, synthesizer, braille, software engineering, programming, program, system, freeware, shareware, open source, Tekstinäkö, text vision, TopOCR, Autohotkey, computer engineering, computer science

Escritas de viagem, escritas da história: estratégias de legitimação de Rocha Pombo no campo intelectual

Analisar a viagem que Rocha Pombo realizou aos estados do norte do Brasil como uma estratégia de legitimação no campo intelectual é o horizonte do presente trabalho. Defende-se que a travessia realizada aos estados do norte do país representou um momento excepcional na trajetória profissional do viajante, influenciando a revisão de sua escrita historiográfica, no movimento de luta por legitimação como autor de livros de História no campo intelectual. Da viagem, o intelectual paranaense trouxe capital simbólico e cultural fundamental para a escrita de seus livros de cunho histórico, consagrando-se como autoridade para falar de temas relacionados à história. A viagem modificou a maneira como o intelectual paranaense passou a escrever seus livros de história, sobretudo no que tange ao lugar dos estados do dito norte do Brasil, bem como, em livros de história regional. A excursão por diferentes estados foi interpretada como uma ação reveladora de redes de sociabilidade, apoio, prestígio, no movimento construído pelo intelectual em busca de projeção, visibilidade e distinção frente aos concorrentes do campo. Se muitos foram os viajantes que percorreram o Brasil, defende-se que uma das singularidades do viajar na experiência de Rocha Pombo foi motivação em relação à ampliação do mercado consumidor e leitor das obras do autor, publicadas por diferentes editores. A excursão de um autor auxilia no entendimento das tensões e competições do mercado editorial no período, com especial atenção ao público escolar. A travessia realizada por Rocha Pombo pelo Brasil afora permite vislumbrar a existência de diferentes experiências de instrução pelo país, evidenciando a circulação de livros didáticos e de práticas e concepções de educação no período, para além da esfera da capital tida como lócus intelectual e vitrine do progresso e da modernidade. A análise do registro e da prática da viagem em Rocha Pombo o circunscreve no movimento coletivo de diferentes sujeitos e debates acerca da necessidade de projetos de educação para o povo, na constituição de um país que se pretendia grande, encontrando na diversidade a constituição enquanto povo e nação.

Análise do processo de formulação de uma proposta de regulamentação de propagandas de alimentos: um estudo de caso

O consumo de alimentos processados tem crescido mundialmente e esse aumento tem sido relacionado em parte, pelas estratégias de marketing utilizadas pelas indústrias alimentícias que tem como objetivo aumentar as vendas e expandir o mercado consumidor. Segundo documento Recomendações da Consulta de Especialistas da Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde sobre a Promoção e a Publicidade de Alimentos e Bebidas Não Alcoólicas para Crianças nas Américas, a publicidade televisiva é a forma mais utilizada de marketing de alimentos para crianças e está associada a maior preferência e aumentos nos pedidos de compra de alimentos e bebidas com elevado teor de gordura, açúcar e sal. No âmbito da discussão mais recente sobre a possível influência da propaganda de alimentos na epidemia mundial de obesidade e doenças crônicas, o governo brasileiro, por meio da Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA), formulou uma proposta de Regulamento Técnico que normatiza os termos das atividades publicitárias e que se concretizou na Resolução da Diretoria Colegiada n 24 de 2010 (RDC24/2010). Logo após sua publicação, grupos de interesse empresarial entraram na justiça e obtiveram diversas liminares que suspenderam a aplicação da RDC 24/2010 com base em parecer contrário da Advocacia Geral da União (AGU). O debate sobre ações regulatórias no campo da alimentação e nutrição como estratégia de controle e prevenção da obesidade envolve diversos atores sociais e opiniões bastante distintas e antagônicas, principalmente quando se trata dos argumentos do grupo de indivíduos que acredita na regulamentação da publicidade como uma forma de promover a saúde versus os argumentos contrários dos setores econômicos ligados ao tema a ser regulado. Neste sentido, este trabalho teve a intenção de descrever como e por que, neste processo, algumas práticas se estabeleceram no cotidiano das instituições e identificar os embates, argumentos e conflitos de interesses que apareceram nas discussões a respeito da formulação da resolução. Para isso, foi feita, primeiramente, análise documental de todo o processo de formulação, através de arquivos institucionais, documentos, pareceres, relatórios, entre outros. Posteriormente, foram identificados e caracterizados os sujeitos que participaram do processo e em seguida, realizadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas com atores chaves. Foram encontradas duas teses centrais no debate em torno da formulação da resolução: a primeira, se o Estado deve estabelecer uma regulamentação sobre publicidade de alimentos e a segunda diz respeito à competência legal da ANVISA em exercer o papel regulador sobre a propaganda de alimentos. As disputas em torno destas duas teses e os argumentos que se apresentaram para defendê-las são evidentemente incomensuráveis entre si, não havendo esperança de acordo entre as partes. O caso descrito elegeu a ANVISA como o território da disputa e a aparente maioria no jogo democrático desta arena mostrou-se ineficaz diante da captura pelo questionamento da pertinência desta Agência para função de regular a publicidade de alimentos.

Present status of harvesting, transportation and marketing of freshwater Small Indigenous Species of Fish (SIS) of Bangladesh

A survey conducted to evaluate the present status of harvesting, transportation and marketing of freshwater SIS of Bangladesh showed that among the 56 to 73 species of small indigenous fish species (SIS), mola (Amblypharyngodon mola), dhela (Osteobrama cotio cotio), puti (Barbodes sarana), tit puti (Puntius ticto), tengra (Mystus vitatus), chapila ( Gudusia chapra), batashi (Pseudotropius atherinoides), buzuri tengra (Mystus tengra), katchki (Corika soborna), gol chanda (Chanda ranga), lamba chanda (Chanda nama), phul chela (Chela phulo) and lata (Channa punctatus) are the most common. But the abundance of the mola, puti, tengra, batashi and chapila are higher than the other SIS species. Puti was at the top of the list in percentage abundance (7-9%), followed by mola (7-8%), tengra 6-7% and chapila 5-6% in all the investigated areas. Three levels of market or marketing systems were observed in the distribution channel of fish trade: primary, secondary/higher secondary and final consuming markets. Primary market is the catching point in the rural area. In secondary market, the collectors bring the fish from primary market to the landing ghats, usually to the nearest thana market or at a place well linked by rivers, road and rail transport. On purchasing the fish from the higher secondary market, the paikars sell the fish to the retailers who take it to the final consumer market. Different types of crafts and gears are used for catching the SIS in Bangladesh. Monofilament gill nets (20%), traps and line nets (25%) and seine nets (25%) are the dominant gears in respect of the total catch followed by lift net (10%) and cast net (20%). A total of 10 types of gear are listed according to their mode of operation which used for catching SIS. The processors in consumer market received higher marketing profit followed by primary market and secondary market, respectively.