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The use of smart biosensors during a food safety incident: consumers’ cognitive-behavioural responses and willingness to pay
No full textIntelligent and active packaging could allow consumers to control cognitive reactions linked to the risk of consuming food products contaminated by microbiological pathogens and thus mitigating negative consequences of food safety incidents. However, despite advances in technology, consumers’ reactions and willingness to pay for active and intelligent packaging in the absence and presence of food safety incidents remain somewhat unexplored.
To fill such a gap this study incorporates protection motivation theory (PMT) within a contingent valuation survey conducted in the UK to explore consumers’ behavioural responses to risk communication in the absence and presence of a food safety incident. These responses were moderated by the possibility of buying hypothetical meat products marketed with biosensors informing consumers of the presence of bacteria post-purchase. A singular approach was developed to identify the following four behavioural responses of the PMT’s cognitive mediating process: no response, fear, low response and danger control.
Results indicate that the theoretical components of PMT play a different role in the absence and presence of food safety incidents. Respondents who receive risk information are willing to pay more than other participants to adopt precautionary behaviour and that purchasing behaviour varied across these four cognitive-behavioural responses. Governmental institutions, the food industry and retailers should consider working together to reassure consumers by investing in technology that may help consumers to mitigate fear during a food safety incident, but also to develop appropriate risk communication strategies that should focus more on the cognitive-behavioural outcomes analysed in this study
Sustainability of insect-based feed and consumer willingness to pay for novel food: A stated preference study
No full textIn recent years, numerous studies have highlighted insects as a promising protein source for poultry feed, offering environmental benefits and improved animal welfare. However, insects are still considered unconventional in Western diets, limiting their acceptance among consumers. This study examines to what extent information on animal welfare and environmental benefits of insect-based feed can counteract factors like neophobia and established food habits, hence enhancing consumer acceptability of novel poultry products from animals fed with insect-based feed. A contingent valuation survey involving 512 Italian consumers divided into four groups was conducted: a control group with no information, an animal welfare information group, an environmental information group, and a group receiving both sets of information. Results indicate that providing information about the advantages of insect-based feed can reduce consumer reluctance towards the innovative product. Moreover, information on environmental benefits affects consumer preferences more than information on animal welfare
Eliciting beekeepers’ preferences for the small hive beetle control policy in Italy: a contingent valuation survey approach
No full textAbstract Aethina tumida, commonly known as the small hive beetle (SHB), is a parasite of social bee colonies. In 2014, when the beetle was first detected in the Italian Region of Calabria, the Italian Ministry of Health started an SHB control strategy. Over time, dissatisfaction with the control measures has grown among beekeepers and eroded compliance with the reporting obligations. Our study analyzes Southern Italian beekeepers’ preferences toward alternative SHB control policy. We use a contingent valuation survey to elicit beekeepers' preferences for five alternative control strategies. We find the ex-post biosecurity measure in place reflects in the lowest reporting rate. Our results suggest that implementing the destruction of infested hives only (selective destruction) can be a first, effective step toward enhancing compliance with the reporting obligations. Our findings also suggest that training and extension can be a winning strategy to improve beekeepers’ collaboration with the passive SHB surveillance system
I “mali futuri” e non solo: possibili riprese tucididee in Dexippo e Eliodoro
No full textThe reception of the work of Thucydides in late antique authors constitutes a huge chapter of allusions and reworkings, on methodological, structural, lexical levels and more. A fortiori, certain particularly famous passages by the historian are well suited for a study of their reception, above all where key terms or rare expressions are concentrated. The case of the adjective ἀλγεινός, a poeticism declined twice in the epitaphios of Pericles (2.39 and 2.43) offers interesting material of this kind in the work of Dexippus, the Athenian historian of the third century A.D., and in the romance author Heliodorus. Alongside a secure reference to 2.39 in Dexippus (F28 Martin = F34 Mecella), already identified by Stein, it is possible to identify a further reuse in another fragment, probably extracted from a demegoria (F26b Martin = F32b Mecella). In the light of these examples, it becomes more likely that we can see a reminiscence of Thucydides also in a passage of Heliodorus of Emesa (5.29), already proposed by van Krevelen but omitted from the repertory of citations present in the Aethiopica prepared by Feuillâtre
The knowledge-stream model: A comprehensive model for knowledge circulation in communities of knowledgeable practitioners
No full textIn this paper we present an original position on how knowledge is created and shared in organizational domains. We propose a metaphor of diffusion, borrowed from genetics, and a four phase model, which aims to be as simple as the SECI model proposed within the OKCT, but also more comprehensive and sociologically-informed. Our model takes into account the individual, social and cultural dimensions of knowledge (what we denote as co-knowledge) to account for the various ways knowledge is "circulated" among people (i.e., members of any social structure); we also propose ancillary concepts like that of "Knowing Community" and "Knowledge Artifact", as analytical constructs to represent, respectively, the environment hosting such a circulation and the technological driver that either enables or supports it
Searching for Linguistic Standards in 2 Maccabees
No full textThis chapter assesses the linguistic and stylistic features of 2 Macc., a Septuagint book that has attracted attention since Late Antiquity for its peculiar language. Recent studies (Doran 2012; Le Moigne 2012; Shaw 2016) have appropriately emphasized its multifaceted style, inferring a date of composition in the first century BCE or slightly later (Domazakis 2018).
Considering the number of theories about 2 Macc.’s chronology and its JewishHellenistic context, it is worth asking again whether and how this book, usually labeled Asianic (Gil 1958), can be placed within the dispute about the ancient origins of grammatical Atticism. Three prominent features of the text will be briefly examined: phonetics, morphology, and, most importantly, lexicon. Indeed, 2 Macc., which summarizes the historical work of Jason of Cyrene, contains a lexical inventory rich in poetic language that is not otherwise attested in the Septuagint.
The overall impression is that the author, while observing various standards (e.g., Greek literary prose, high Koine, Hellenistic rhetorical devices), pursues μεταβολή without selecting a single authoritative model. Although written in an Asianic manner, 2 Macc. displays a quest for grammatical correctness that at times anticipates Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ style
The Knowledge-stream Model - A Comprehensive Model for Knowledge Circulation in Communities of Knowledgeable Practitioners
No full textIn this paper we present an original position on how knowledge is created and shared in organizational domains. We propose a metaphor of diffusion, borrowed from genetics, and a four phase model, which aims to be as simple as the SECI model proposed within the OKCT, but also more comprehensive and sociologically-informed. Our model takes into account the individual, social and cultural dimensions of knowledge (what we denote as co-knowledge) to account for the various ways knowledge is “circulated” among people (i.e., members of any social structure); we also propose ancillary concepts like that of “Knowing Community” and “Knowledge Artifact”, as analytical constructs to represent, respectively, the environment hosting such a circulation and the technological driver that either enables or supports it
Intent-based management and orchestration of heterogeneous openflow/IoT SDN domains
No full textOne of the main challenges in delivering end-toend service chains across multiple Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) domains is to achieve unified management and orchestration functions. A very critical aspect is the definition of an open, vendoragnostic, and interoperable northbound interface (NBI) that should be as abstracted as possible from domain-specific data and control plane technologies. In this paper we propose a reference architecture and an intent-based NBI for end-to-end service orchestration across multiple technological domains. In particular, we consider the use case of an Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure deployment and the corresponding cloudbased data collection, processing, and publishing services with quality differentiation.We also report the experimental validation of the proposed architecture over a heterogeneous OpenFlow/IoT SDN test bed
Intent-Based Management and Orchestration of Heterogeneous OpenFlow/IoT SDN Domains
No full textOne of the main challenges in delivering end-toend service chains across multiple Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) domains is to achieve unified management and orchestration functions. A very critical aspect is the definition of an open, vendoragnostic, and interoperable northbound interface (NBI) that should be as abstracted as possible from domain-specific data and control plane technologies. In this paper we propose a reference architecture and an intent-based NBI for end-to-end service orchestration across multiple technological domains. In particular, we consider the use case of an Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure deployment and the corresponding cloudbased data collection, processing, and publishing services with quality differentiation.We also report the experimental validation of the proposed architecture over a heterogeneous OpenFlow/IoT SDN test bed
Dermoscopic and histopathologic diagnosis of equivocal melanocytic skin lesions - An interdisciplinary study on 107 cases - Author reply
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