Foodies in the UK: A Sense of Self, Connection and Belonging Beyond the Passion?

The global rise of the Foodie movement has attracted some research attention as well as critique in the food industry trend followers, but little research attention in marketing research. The present study looks at the ‘Foodie’ phenomenon in the UK and aims to extend how the notion has been coined in literature through a qualitative investigation of a sample of self-professed Foodies. The objective is to provide an in-depth understanding of what it means to be a Foodie at the individual and group levels, probing attitudes, motivations and self-awareness. Results indicate that the term Foodie cannot be used as an implicit definition of someone ‘simply interested in food’; the capacity of the Foodie may be dependent on individual involvement and the level of importance along the five emerging themes; these being: Learning and discovery; Pleasure and enjoyment; Inspirational influences; Quality; and Experiencing food as an individual and in connection with others. Findings imply that there might be different levels of Foodies, leading to a start on developing a Foodie Typology. The study poses implications for food marketers and researchers that can assist in more effective segmentation, efficient targeting and tailored positioning, as well as opportunities for future research.

O efeito da música na relação entre marca e consumidor

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Publicidade e Marketing.

Visitors' engagement and authenticity: Japanese heritage consumption

Understanding the sense of authenticity of heritage attractions is important for tourism management and marketing because presentation, interpretation and verification has a direct bearing on motivations to visit and engage with heritage tourism sites. This paper establishes relationships among the concepts of culturally specific motivation, perception of authenticity, engagement and attendant behavioral consequences based on domestic visitors' experiences at Japanese heritage sites. It further extends Kolar and Zabkar's (2010) model of authenticity by including concepts of serious leisure, heritage related behaviors, self-connection and their effects over engagement using Partial Least Square, whereby both formative and reflective scales are included. The structural model is tested with a sample of 768 visitors in a culturally specific setting of Japanese heritage sites. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports the research hypotheses. These findings contribute to a better understanding of visitors' perceptions and valuation of authenticity in Japanese tourist attractions. Several implications can be drawn from the study findings and interesting directions for future research are provided.

Moral masochism: on the connection between guilt and self-punishment.

Do people sometimes seek to atone for their transgressions by harming themselves physically? The current results suggest that they do. People who wrote about a past guilt-inducing event inflicted more intense electric shocks on themselves than did those who wrote about feeling sad or about a neutral event. Moreover, the stronger the shocks that guilty participants administered to themselves, the more their feelings of guilt were alleviated. We discuss how this method of atonement relates to other methods examined in previous research.

Learner strategies and self-efficacy: making the connection

This article reports on part of a larger study of the impact of strategy training in listening on learners of French, aged 16 to 17. One aim of the project was to investigate whether such training might have a positive effect on the self-efficacy of learners, by helping them see the relationship between the strategies they employed and what they achieved. One group of learners, as well as receiving strategy training, also received detailed feedback on their listening strategy use and on the reflective diaries they were asked to keep, in order to draw their attention to the relationship between strategies and learning outcomes. Another group received strategy training without feedback or reflective diaries, while a comparison group received neither strategy training nor feedback. As a result of the training, there was some evidence that students who had received feedback had made the biggest gains in certain aspects of self-efficacy for listening; although their gains as compared to the non-feedback group were not as great as had been anticipated. Reasons for this are discussed. The article concludes by suggesting changes in how teachers approach listening comprehension that may improve learners' view of themselves as listeners.

Self-gifting guilt : an examination of self-gifting motivations and post-purchase regret

Purpose Self-gifting is a performative process in which consumers purchase products for themselves. The literature to date remains silent on a determination and connection between the extents of post-purchase regret resulting from self-gifting behavior. The purpose of this paper is to examine identification and connection of self-gifting antecedents, self-gifting and the effect on post purchase regret. Design/methodology/approach This study claims the two antecedents of hedonistic shopping and indulgence drive self-gifting behaviors and the attendant regret. A total of 307 shoppers responded to a series of statements concerning the relationships between antecedents of self-gifting behavior and the effect on post-purchase regret. Self-gifting is a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of therapeutic, celebratory, reward and hedonistic imports. Confirmatory factor analysis and AMOS path modeling enabled examination of relationships between the consumer traits of hedonistic shopping and indulgence and the four self-gifting concepts. Findings Hedonic and indulgent shoppers engage in self-gifting for different reasons. A strong and positive relationship was identified between hedonic shoppers and reward, hedonic, therapeutic and celebratory self-gift motivations. hedonic shoppers aligned with indulgent shoppers who also engaged the four self-gifting concepts. The only regret concerning purchase of self-gifts was evident in the therapeutic and celebratory self-gift motivations. Research limitations/implications A major limitation was the age range specification of 18 to 45 years which meant the omission of older generations of regular and experienced shoppers. This study emphasizes the importance of variations in self-gift behaviors and of post-purchase consumer regret. Originality/value This research is the first examination of an hedonic attitude to shopping and indulgent antecedents to self-gift purchasing, the concepts of self-gift motivations and their effect on post-purchase regret.

Independent learning skills, self-determination theory and psychological well-being : strategies for supporting the first year university experience

The purpose of this article is to explain why the first year in higher education experience of Australian tertiary students can be improved through the explicit teaching of independent learning skills. Becoming an independent learner has many benefits, but the focus of this piece is upon the connection between independent learning and the improvement of student psychological well-being. High psychological distress levels appear to start in the first year of university education. We argue that explicitly teaching students independent learning skills is an important curriculum-based strategy that will contribute to the significant task of addressing this issue.

The production of self-organized carbon connections between Ag nanoparticles using atmospheric microplasma synthesis

The formation of long self-organized carbon connections (where the length is much greater than the diameter) between Ag nanoparticles on a Si(1 0 0) surface in atmospheric pressure Ar + CH4 microplasmas is demonstrated. A growth scenario explaining the connection nucleation and growth is proposed, and this is supported by numerical simulations which reveal that the electric field pattern around the growing connections affects the surface diffusion of carbon adatoms, the main driving force for the observed self-organization. Results suggest that the microplasma-generated surface charges can be used as effective controls for the self-organized formation of complex carbon-based nano-networks for integrated nanodevices.

The Threshold Learning Outcome on self-management for the Bachelor of Laws degree : a proposed focus for teaching strategies in the first year law curriculum

The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Discipline Scholars for Law, Professors Sally Kift and Mark Israel, articulated six Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for the Bachelor of Laws degree as part of the ALTC’s 2010 project on Learning and Teaching Academic Standards. One of these TLOs promotes the learning, teaching and assessment of self-management skills in Australian law schools. This paper explores the concept of self-management and how it can be relevantly applied in the first year of legal education. Recent literature from the United States (US) and Australia provides insights into the types of issues facing law students, as well as potential antidotes to these problems. Based on these findings, I argue that designing a pedagogical framework for the first year law curriculum that promotes students’ connection with their intrinsic interests, values, motivations and purposes will facilitate student success in terms of their personal well-being, ethical dispositions and academic engagement.

Impressive Gelation in Organic Solvents by Synthetic, Low Molecular Mass, Self-Organizing Urethane Amides of L-Phenylalanine

Synthetic routes leading to 12 L-phenylalanine based mono- and bipolar derivatives (1-12) and an in-depth study of their structure-property relationship with respect to gelation have been presented. These include monopolar systems such as N-[(benzyloxy)carbonyl]-L-phenylalanine-N-alkylamides and the corresponding bipolar derivatives with flexible and rigid spacers such as with 1,12-diaminododecane and 4,4'-diaminodiphenylmethane, respectively. The two ends of the latter have been functionalized with N-[(benzyloxy)carbonyl]-L-phenylalanine units via amide connection. Another bipolar molecule was synthesized in which the middle portion of the hydrocarbon segment contained polymerizable diacetylene unit. To ascertain the role of the presence of urethane linkages in the gelator molecule protected L-phenylalanine derivatives were also synthesized in which the (benzyloxy)carbonyl group has been replaced with (tert-butyloxy)carbonyl, acetyl, and benzoyl groups, respectively. Upon completion of the synthesis and adequate characterization of the newly described molecules, we examined the aggregation and gelation properties of each of them in a number of solvents and their mixtures. Optical microscopy and electron microscopy further characterized the systems that formed gels. Few representative systems, which showed excellent gelation behavior was, further examined by FT-IR, calorimetric, and powder X-ray diffraction studies. To explain the possible reasons for gelation, the results of molecular modeling and energy-minimization studies were also included. Taken together these results demonstrate the importance of the presence of (benzyloxy)carbonyl unit, urethane and secondary amide linkages, chiral purities of the headgroup and the length of the alkyl chain of the hydrophobic segment as critical determinants toward effective gelation.

Self-love and self-liking in the moral and political philosophy of Bernard Mandeville and David Hume

This work offers a novel interpretation of David Hume’s (1711–1776) conception of the conjectural development of civil society and artificial moral institutions. It focuses on the social elements of Hume’s Treatise of human nature (1739–40) and the necessary connection between science of man and politeness, civilised monarchies, social distance and hierarchical structure of civil society. The study incorporates aspects of intellectual history, history of philosophy and book history. In order to understand David Hume’s thinking, the intellectual development of Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) needs to be accounted for. When put into a historical perspective, the moral, political and social components of Treatise of human nature can be read in the context of a philosophical tradition, in which Mandeville plays a pivotal role. A distinctive character of Mandeville and Hume’s account of human nature and moral institutions was the introduction of a simple distinction between self-love and self-liking. The symmetric passions of self-interest and pride can only be controlled by the corresponding moral institutions. This is also the way in which we can say that moral institutions are drawn from human nature. In the case of self-love or self-interest, the corresponding moral institution is justice. Respectively, concerning self-liking or pride the moral institution is politeness. There is an explicit analogy between these moral institutions. If we do not understand this analogy, we do not understand the nature of either justice or politeness. The present work is divided into two parts. In the first part, ‘Intellectual development of Bernard Mandeville’, it is argued that the relevance of the paradigmatic change in Mandeville’s thinking has been missed. It draws a picture of Mandeville turning from the Hobbism of The Fable of the Bees to an original theory of civil society put forward in his later works. In order to make this change more apparent, Mandeville’s career and the publishing history of The Fable of the Bees are examined comprehensively. This interpretation, based partly on previously unknown sources, challenges F. B. Kaye’s influential decision to publish the two parts of The Fable of the Bees as a uniform work of two volumes. The main relevance, however, of the ‘Intellectual development of Mandeville’ is to function as the context for the young Hume. The second part of the work, ‘David Hume and Greatness of mind’, explores in philosophical detail the social theory of the Treatise and politics and the science of man in his Essays. This part will also reveal the relevance of Greatness of mind as a general concept for David Hume’s moral and political philosophy.

Unravelling the self-assembly of hydrogen bonded NDI semiconductors in 2D and 3D

Supramolecular ordering of organic semiconductors is the key factor defining their electrical characteristics. Yet, it is extremely difficult to control, particularly at the interface with metal and dielectric surfaces in semiconducting devices. We have explored the growth of n-type semiconducting films based on hydrogen-bonded monoalkylnaphthalenediimide (NDI-R) from solution and through vapor deposition on both conductive and insulating surfaces. We combined scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopies with X-ray diffraction analysis to characterize, at the submolecular level, the evolution of the NDI-R molecular packing in going from monolayers to thin films. On a conducting (graphite) surface, the first monolayer of NDI-R molecules adsorbs in a flat-lying (face-on) geometry, whereas in subsequent layers the molecules pack edge-on in islands (Stranski–Krastanov-like growth). On SiO2, the NDI-R molecules form into islands comprising edge-on packed molecules (Volmer–Weber mode). Under all the explored conditions, self-complementary H bonding of the imide groups dictates the molecular assembly. The measured electron mobility of the resulting films is similar to that of dialkylated NDI molecules without H bonding. The work emphasizes the importance of H bonding interactions for controlling the ordering of organic semiconductors, and demonstrates a connection between on-surface self-assembly and the structural parameters of thin films used in electronic devices.

Scaling relationships in indentation of power-law creep solids using self-similar indenters

We use dimensional analysis to derive scaling relationships for self-similar indenters indenting solids that exhibit power-law creep. We identify the parameter that represents the indentation strain rate. The scaling relationships are applied to several types of indentation creep experiment with constant displacement rate, constant loading rate or constant ratio of loading rate over load. The predictions compare favourably with experimental observations reported in the literature. Finally, a connection is found between creep and 'indentation-size effect' (i.e. changing hardness with indentation depth or load).

Beyond Watson and Crick : programming the self-assembly and reconfiguration of DNA nanostructures based on stacking interactions

Life is the result of the execution of molecular programs: like how an embryo is fated to become a human or a whale, or how a person’s appearance is inherited from their parents, many biological phenomena are governed by genetic programs written in DNA molecules. At the core of such programs is the highly reliable base pairing interaction between nucleic acids. DNA nanotechnology exploits the programming power of DNA to build artificial nanostructures, molecular computers, and nanomachines. In particular, DNA origami—which is a simple yet versatile technique that allows one to create various nanoscale shapes and patterns—is at the heart of the technology. In this thesis, I describe the development of programmable self-assembly and reconfiguration of DNA origami nanostructures based on a unique strategy: rather than relying on Watson-Crick base pairing, we developed programmable bonds via the geometric arrangement of stacking interactions, which we termed stacking bonds. We further demonstrated that such bonds can be dynamically reconfigurable.

The first part of this thesis describes the design and implementation of stacking bonds. Our work addresses the fundamental question of whether one can create diverse bond types out of a single kind of attractive interaction—a question first posed implicitly by Francis Crick while seeking a deeper understanding of the origin of life and primitive genetic code. For the creation of multiple specific bonds, we used two different approaches: binary coding and shape coding of geometric arrangement of stacking interaction units, which are called blunt ends. To construct a bond space for each approach, we performed a systematic search using a computer algorithm. We used orthogonal bonds to experimentally implement the connection of five distinct DNA origami nanostructures. We also programmed the bonds to control cis/trans configuration between asymmetric nanostructures.

The second part of this thesis describes the large-scale self-assembly of DNA origami into two-dimensional checkerboard-pattern crystals via surface diffusion. We developed a protocol where the diffusion of DNA origami occurs on a substrate and is dynamically controlled by changing the cationic condition of the system. We used stacking interactions to mediate connections between the origami, because of their potential for reconfiguring during the assembly process. Assembling DNA nanostructures directly on substrate surfaces can benefit nano/microfabrication processes by eliminating a pattern transfer step. At the same time, the use of DNA origami allows high complexity and unique addressability with six-nanometer resolution within each structural unit.

The third part of this thesis describes the use of stacking bonds as dynamically breakable bonds. To break the bonds, we used biological machinery called the ParMRC system extracted from bacteria. The system ensures that, when a cell divides, each daughter cell gets one copy of the cell’s DNA by actively pushing each copy to the opposite poles of the cell. We demonstrate dynamically expandable nanostructures, which makes stacking bonds a promising candidate for reconfigurable connectors for nanoscale machine parts.

Towards soft self-reconfigurable robots

Modular self-reconfigurable robots have previously demonstrated that automatic control of their own body shapes enriches their behavioural functions. However, having predefined rigid modules technically limits real-world systems from being hyper-redundant and compliant. Encouraged by recent progress using elastically deformable material for robots, we propose the concept of soft self-reconfigurable robots which may become hyper-flexible during interaction with the environment. As the first attempt towards this goal, the paper proposes a novel approach using viscoelastic material Hot-Melt Adhesives (HMAs): for physical connection and disconnection control between bodies that are not necessarily predefined rigid modules. We present a model that characterizes the temperature dependency of the strength of HMA bonds, which is then validated and used in a feedback controller for automatic connection and disconnection. Using a minimalistic robot platform that is equipped with two devices handling HMAs, the performance of this method is evaluated in a pick-and-place experiment with aluminium and wooden parts. © 2012 IEEE.