Search Results (1,648)

This preliminary study uses a quantitative, cross-sectional, and exploratory design to examine the association between self-reported familiarity with ESG and six selected self-reported sustainable consumer practices among students, focusing on the prevalence and profiles of the familiarity-behaviour gap. Data were collected using computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) from a non-probability convenience sample of 528 students enrolled at all higher education institutions operating in the Lubuskie Voivodeship, Poland. Self-reported familiarity with ESG was assessed with a single four-point item, while an author-developed six-item composite measure focused mainly on product selection and purchasing (Cronbach’s α = 0.837). Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, non-parametric analyses, and supplementary correspondence analysis were applied. The analyses did not provide statistically significant evidence of an association between self-reported familiarity with ESG and the composite practice score (χ²(2) = 5.386, p = 0.068, V = 0.101); complementary analyses yielded the same substantive conclusion. The familiarity-behaviour gap—good or very good self-reported familiarity with ESG without a high composite practice score—occurred in 18.8% of the total sample and 58.9% of the higher-familiarity subgroup. Conversely, 26.1% obtained a high composite practice score despite reporting no or poor self-reported familiarity with ESG. Employment status was the only socio-demographic characteristic that remained significantly associated with the prevalence of the gap after the Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple testing. These findings indicate that familiarity with ESG terminology is not consistently aligned with the selected self-reported practices. They should be interpreted cautiously, within the regional student sample and the limits of the measurement instruments used. Full article

Organic vegetable consumption is associated with a range of behavioural, attitudinal, and economic factors. This study examines organic vegetable consumption among consumers in Olt County, Romania, with particular emphasis on consumer orientation, price perception, willingness to pay, and awareness of European Union initiatives. A quantitative survey was conducted among 340 respondents, and an Organic Vegetable Consumer Orientation Index (OVCI) was developed by integrating behavioural and attitudinal indicators. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, chi-square tests, and one-way ANOVA with post hoc comparisons were applied. The OVCI had an overall mean score of 0.610, with attitudinal dimensions scoring higher than behavioural dimensions. Gender and age were significantly associated with OVCI scores, whereas education, household income, household size, and residence were not. Price was frequently perceived as a barrier, although price perception was not significantly associated with OVCI. Willingness to pay a higher price premium and awareness of EU initiatives were significantly associated with higher OVCI scores. The findings reinforce the multidimensional nature of organic vegetable consumption and demonstrate the potential of the OVCI as an exploratory measure of consumer orientation. Further research should validate the index using larger, probability-based, and comparative samples and incorporate observed purchasing behaviour. Full article

Translational toxicology faces a persistent model selection dilemma, as no single organism can serve as a universal surrogate. Within the holistic One Health paradigm, this review evaluates the common carp (Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758) as a versatile comparative model. A comparative evaluation of its somatic, ecological, and genomic attributes alongside benchmark teleosts like zebrafish, Danio rerio (Hamilton, 1822), highlights how the carp’s cosmopolitan distribution, benthivorous sediment-dwelling behaviour, and allotetraploid genome (Cs4R/4R-WGD) enable its survival in severely impacted aquatic environments precluded to less tolerant species, permitting continuous biomonitoring of environmental pollutants—among them heavy metals and emerging contaminants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). A curated narrative synthesis reveals that while C. carpio is thoroughly established as an in situ environmental bioindicator (Sentinel Model) and an aquaculture cornerstone linking pollution to human dietary hazards (Consumer Link), its utility as a translational surrogate (Biomedical Surrogate) remains an emerging frontier. Grounded in evolutionary homology, its large somatic mass eliminates tissue pooling, enabling multi-organ pathobiological profiling and establishing multi-compartment systems, such as the kidney, as multipurpose biomarker organs. Ultimately, C. carpio offers unexploited potential to bridge laboratory mechanistic toxicology and planetary risk assessment. Full article

Background/Objectives: Despite promising evidence for the influence of in-store supermarket initiatives to improve the healthiness of retail food environments, both retailer and consumer perspectives have not been examined simultaneously. The objectives of this research were to examine evidence-based initiatives through (1) measuring retailer perspectives on factors likely to influence uptake; (2) collecting consumer perspectives on which are most likely to promote healthier purchasing behaviour; and (3) synthesising findings to identify ‘win-win-win’ strategies across evidence, and stakeholder perspectives. Methods: Initiatives were drawn from scientific evidence across five overarching strategies: pricing, proximity, prompting, promotion, and healthy default picks. Retailers additionally assessed a sixth category, ‘promotion plus’, comprising multi-component initiatives that combine promotion with another strategy; this category was not assessed by consumers. Data for Part 1 used an online survey to capture perspectives of supermarket retail decision-makers (n = 5; treated as exploratory) on effectiveness, feasibility, scalability and sustainability of initiatives. Part 2 used a computer-assisted telephone survey of South Australian adults sampled through a population health survey (‘consumers’; n = 2877) to capture consumer perspectives on a subset of eight of these initiatives, adapted for the consumer shopping context. Consumers rated the perceived likelihood that each initiative would encourage healthier purchasing. In Part 3, data were triangulated into a matrix representing best cases across evidence and stakeholder groups. Results: Pricing and proximity were rated most favourably (69% to 87%, and 71% to 75%, respectively) across retailer and consumer perspectives and represent possible targets for voluntary retailer adoption. Prompting, promotion, and healthy default picks were rated more favourably by consumers (68% to 71%) than by retailers (50% to 60%). The retailer-only promotion plus category had the most promising evidence base but the lowest retailer rating (49%). Conclusions: Pricing and proximity strategies appear to offer the strongest ‘win-win-win’ opportunities to improve the healthiness of consumer purchasing behaviour, though retailer findings should be interpreted as exploratory given the small retailer sample. The alignment between evidence/retailer/consumer perspectives can guide researchers, policymakers, and retailers in prioritising initiatives with real-world potential. Full article

We formalise aircraft stand pre-assignment as a constrained Markov decision process whose hard operational predicates (stand validity, size compatibility, buffered temporal non-overlap and adjacency exclusion) define a feasible action mask; we prove that any scoring policy composed with this mask assigns only feasible stands, and we derive in closed form the expected conflict minutes (ECM) accumulated by a schedule when occupancy durations follow calibrated piecewise-linear predictive distributions. In a preregistered one-shot replay of all 516 test days at San Francisco International Airport, a greedy policy that consumes this risk model cuts model-based expected conflict under the calibrated occupancy-risk model from 1175.5 to 615.9 min per 100 reservations relative to the strongest rule baseline: a 48% reduction (Holm-corrected $p=3.0\times {10}^{-13}$), with zero constraint violations and no deferrals. Three further preregistered hypotheses are reported not confirmed: graph-embedding and blended rankers reverse significantly, and masked discrete conservative Q-learning beats behaviour cloning but not the rule. Full article

Glitter is an intentionally manufactured microplastic widely used in consumer products and industrial applications, yet public awareness of its environmental implications remains poorly investigated. This study assessed public awareness, perceptions of environmental impact, and consumer behaviour through a 14-question online survey completed by 610 respondents. A study-specific Glitter Awareness Score (GAS; theoretical range: 0–7) combined prior awareness of glitter as a microplastic with knowledge of its applications across six industrial sectors. Overall, 59.3% of respondents recognised conventional glitter as a microplastic, and the mean GAS was 5.37 ± 1.55. Despite this awareness, 90.2% of respondents providing a classifiable response reported not checking the type of material used for glitter before purchase. Most respondents perceived glitter as having a moderate or significant environmental impact, and GAS was weakly positively associated with perceived environmental impact. Age was independently associated with GAS, with respondents aged >40 years showing lower odds of being in a higher GAS category than those aged 15–20 years. Furthermore, 89.6% reported a self-perceived informational benefit from completing the questionnaire. These findings suggest that environmental awareness does not necessarily correspond to more environmentally informed self-reported purchasing behaviour, highlighting the need for improved consumer information on glitter composition and environmental implications. Full article

This study aimed to identify and evaluate physicians‘ perceptions of the key barriers that limit the consumption of dairy products, as well as the information sources and measures that could be implemented in marketing and educational practices to increase dairy product consumption. The study is based on a survey conducted among Polish doctors. Data were analysed using measures of central tendency and variability, rank analysis, and the principal component method. According to the surveyed physicians, the most important barriers were lack of proper eating habits and insufficient knowledge of the health benefits of dairy products, followed by concerns related to food adulteration and information about potential health risks for certain consumer groups. Based on principal component analysis of the surveyed physicians’ assessments, the perceived barriers to dairy product consumption were grouped into three dimensions: educational and cultural barriers, ethical and environmental barriers, and pragmatic and health-related barriers. According to respondents, doctors and recommendations from family members and friends are important sources of information about dairy products. In the physicians’ view, digital communication channels are perceived to have a greater influence on consumer attitudes and behaviours than traditional media. The surveyed doctors suggested several measures that could increase consumer interest in dairy products, including disseminating expert-endorsed messages, running social campaigns to raise awareness among children and parents, publicising recommendations issued by scientific institutions on the benefits of consuming dairy products and educating consumers about quality certification labels. This study addresses a research gap by providing an integrated assessment of dairy consumption barriers, information sources, and promotional and educational activities from the perspective of Polish physicians, thereby complementing previous consumer-focused research with a professional medical perspective. The study’s results also enable the identification of measures to increase demand for dairy products by leveraging doctors’ influence on consumer opinions in the marketing communication process. Full article

Organic food consumption has attracted increasing attention as consumers become more concerned about health, sustainability, product quality, and the reliability of food information. However, positive attitudes toward organic food do not necessarily translate into regular purchasing behaviour. This study investigates the factors associated with organic food purchase intention and self-reported adoption among consumers in Türkiye. Data were collected through an online survey from 893 consumers and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The model considers health concerns, personal image motivation, sustainable consumption orientation, content and naturalness expectations, packaging informativeness, and social media engagement as potential determinants of purchase intention and adoption. The findings support H1: all six antecedents were positively associated with purchase intention, with health concerns showing the strongest association (β = 0.225), followed by sustainable consumption orientation (β = 0.199). H2 was also supported: purchase intention was the strongest predictor of self-reported organic food adoption (β = 0.578), while personal image motivation and social media engagement showed significant direct associations. The mediation analysis further indicated that health concerns, sustainability orientation, content and naturalness expectations, and packaging informativeness were associated with adoption through purchase intention. These findings indicate that organic food adoption in Türkiye is associated with health and sustainability motives, product information, symbolic motivations, and digital engagement. Full article

Student engagement within Learning Management Systems (LMSs) provides valuable behavioural data for understanding and predicting learning outcomes. However, predicting students’ forum consumption behaviour remains challenging because LMS datasets may contain redundant engagement indicators that increase model complexity. This study proposes a hybrid predictive modelling framework that integrates Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) with three ensemble regression algorithms—Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting (GB), and Stacking—to predict forum consumption behaviour using LMS-derived engagement indicators. Guided by Educational Data Mining (EDM) and Social Learning Theory (SLT), behavioural, cognitive, and social engagement dimensions were operationalised using LMS indicators, with Freq_Forum_Consume serving as the target variable. ACO was employed as a wrapper-based feature-selection technique to identify informative predictors before model training. The performance of the ACO–ensemble models was compared with corresponding baseline models using the coefficient of determination (R²), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). The results show that ACO reduced the predictor space from nine to six variables for GB and to seven variables for both Stacking and RF, while maintaining or improving predictive performance. ACO-GB achieved the strongest overall performance (R² = 0.8332, MAE = 55.3173, RMSE = 71.4150). Consistent results across multiple ACO parameter configurations further demonstrated parameter consistency within the tested search settings. The selected predictors represented behavioural, cognitive, and social engagement dimensions, highlighting their complementary contribution to predicting forum consumption behaviour. The proposed framework provides a more parsimonious and interpretable approach to LMS-based learning analytics while retaining predictive performance. Full article

The domestic dog is the most morphologically diverse domesticated mammalian species. That diversity has arisen from deliberate, sustained artificial selection over the most recent 1% of the domestic dog’s evolutionary history. However, artificial selection has pushed many individual breeds so far from the ancestral canine form that many dogs within these breeds can no longer perform the critical biological functions their bodies evolved to serve. Indeed, much of the popularity of many dog breeds is predicated on them no longer being functional dogs; rather, they are representations or caricatures of human aesthetic desires. The result is breeds in which the teleonome of individual dogs, i.e., the integrated biological system by which they maintain viability has been structurally dismantled in the pursuit of appearance. This article applies teleonomic and allostatic load theory to a multi-domain analysis of extreme brachycephaly as a primary case study, drawing on representative examples from other extreme phenotypes to examine their welfare costs across conformational disorder, innate health, allostatic load, and veterinary costs. A detailed Five Domains analysis of extreme brachycephalic morphotypes, where the epidemiological evidence is most complete, reveals that every major welfare domain is simultaneously compromised from birth because artificial selection has structurally compromised teleonomic function across morphological, physiological, physical, and behavioural traits. Allostatic load theory then provides the mechanistic explanation for the resulting shorter lifespans. The article concludes by addressing the veterinarian’s emerging role as arbiter of animals’ fitness for purpose under consumer and welfare laws, making the case for an Innate Health Assessment to become a standardised functional assessment framework grounded in teleonomic principles. Full article

Waste prevention begins upstream, in decisions made long before a product becomes waste. This article examines product lifetime management as an upstream environmental strategy and asks when longer product use can reduce waste generation, resource consumption and environmental impacts across the life cycle. An integrative literature review combined exploratory searches in Google Scholar and citation tracking with a structured search of Scopus. Records were screened by title, abstract and keywords. Publications in English were considered without a date limit and selected according to their relevance to product lifetime, premature replacement, repair and lifetime extension, consumer and business decisions, regulation, waste prevention and life cycle assessment. The selected studies were supplemented with relevant legal, regulatory, institutional and standardisation documents, producing a final reference base of 240 sources. The review shows that actual product lifetime is shaped not only by technical durability, but also by repairability, access to spare parts and information, continued software and service support, opportunities for upgrading and reuse, business incentives and consumer behaviour. Extending product use can reduce waste and resource demand, but environmental benefits are not automatic. They depend on product characteristics, energy consumption, technological progress and, above all, whether prolonged use genuinely replaces the production and purchase of new products. Product lifetime management should therefore be understood as a coordinated upstream strategy linking design, repair, reuse, business models, regulation and consumption with environmental assessment across the life cycle. Full article

Buying online has become ordinary behaviour for European consumers, yet selling online remains a minority practice among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study asks whether the two have developed in step within countries. Using Eurostat household and enterprise ICT survey data for the EU-27 from 2015 to 2024 (268 complete country-years), we measure their alignment as a within-year standardised difference. The measure captures relative cross-country positioning between two adoption indicators; it does not quantify unmet demand or transaction volumes. Cross-country dispersion in consumer adoption fell steeply and significantly (SD trend −0.91 per year, R² = 0.96; country-clustered bootstrap 95% CI [−1.25, −0.51]), while dispersion in SME participation drifted upward only slightly and not significantly, and the annual correlation between the two edged down from 0.539 to 0.415 without reaching significance under the same bootstrap. SME-leading and consumer-leading observations retained their category in roughly 90% of year-to-year transitions (Cohen’s κ = 0.74), whereas the aligned category showed lower retention. Consistent with this, the within-country association between the two series is small and statistically non-significant in both the two-way fixed-effects specification (β = 0.116, p = 0.112, N = 268) and the first-difference specification (β = 0.091, p = 0.055, N = 239), and it remains weak across nine robustness specifications and under wild cluster bootstrap and equivalence testing. It is, however, stronger when member states are weighted by economic size; this changes the estimand and does not establish heterogeneity by economy size. Consumer adoption is therefore an incomplete indicator of national e-commerce development, and the two dimensions warrant separate monitoring. Full article

Background: People living with multiple sclerosis (MS) are increasingly turning to the Internet for information about their condition and its treatment. However, online health information varies widely in quality, and patients often lack the eHealth literacy needed to distinguish reliable from unreliable sources. Objective: This study examined how people with MS in the United Kingdom seek, evaluate, and judge the quality of online health information, with particular attention to information about medicines, and explored the features that they would value in a curated, quality-assessed information resource. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was distributed via the MS Trust to adults with MS or their carers in the United Kingdom. The 55-item instrument, adapted from a previously validated questionnaire, captured demographic characteristics, Internet use, eHealth confidence, perceived quality indicators, assessment difficulties, and preferences for a curated information resource. Descriptive statistics summarised the sample, and Spearman’s rank-order correlation tested associations between confidence, perceived importance of quality, and information-checking behaviours. Results: One hundred and fifty-two participants completed the survey. Because the number of individuals reached through the MS Trust’s distribution channels was not recorded, a true response rate could not be calculated; the achieved sample represented approximately 38–40% of the a priori target of 400. Almost all participants (99%) used the Internet to find MS-related information, and 84% sought information about their medicines online. Recommendation by a healthcare professional was the strongest indicator of perceived information quality (17.8%), and MS specialists were the most trusted source overall (32.9%). However, 54.4% of participants expressed concerns about online information quality, and only 47.9% believed that search engines reliably returned high-quality websites. Confidence in evaluating online medicine information correlated strongly and positively with the perceived importance of information quality (ρ = 0.869, p < 0.001, n = 73) and with active checking behaviour (ρ = 0.677, p < 0.001, n = 73). Eighty-eight percent of participants endorsed the development of a single, quality-assessed website for MS-related medicine information, and 80% wished for visible details of how each source had been assessed. Conclusions: Despite high engagement with online information, people with MS remain uncertain about its quality and find independent assessment time-consuming and complex. A curated, transparently assessed information resource, ideally with clinician endorsement and visible quality indicators, was endorsed by the subset of participants who reached these items and represents a candidate direction for future digital health interventions in MS care. Because several preference items were answered by small subgroups (n = 35–79) drawn from an engaged charity membership, these findings are exploratory and require confirmation in more representative samples. Full article

Food-related, environmental, informational, experiential, and decision-related dimensions may be configured differently across tourist-consumers, yet less attention has been paid to their joint configuration within broader tourist-consumer profiles and to the roles of food-related and sustainability dimensions within these configurations. This study addresses this gap by examining these dimensions jointly within a single exploratory, profile-oriented framework, with particular attention on how food-related and sustainability dimensions are positioned within the resulting multidimensional configurations. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among 656 adult Italian consumers recruited in Campania. Principal Component Analysis was used for data reduction, and the resulting component scores were analysed using K-means Cluster Analysis. The analysis identified thirteen components explaining 64.204% of the variance and four sample-specific tourist-consumer profiles. Food-related dimensions varied across the profiles; in one profile, gastronomy was associated mainly with cultural and territorial experience rather than with specifically food-related destination-choice criteria. Pro-environmental beliefs, environmental attitudes, and food safety and sustainability behaviour were not fully aligned. The findings support an exploratory and multidimensional interpretation of tourist-consumer heterogeneity and the role of food in tourism. Food-related dimensions should not be treated as interchangeable, and the profiles should be understood as sample-specific configurations rather than stable categories. The results provide preliminary indications for differentiated tourism communication, destination management, and policy initiatives. Full article