Search Results (650)

The stroboscopic effect and phantom array effect caused by temporal light modulation (TLM) in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting are important temporal light artifacts (TLAs) that can influence visual perception, task performance, and visual comfort. This review systematically analyzes 40 studies published between 1998 and 2024 to provide a comprehensive overview of the current understanding of both effects. The reviewed literature covers visibility thresholds, influencing parameters, experimental methodologies, and assessment metrics. The analysis shows that reported visibility thresholds for the stroboscopic effect typically range from 550 to 1000 Hz, whereas thresholds for the phantom array effect may extend to 10–15 kHz, suggesting substantial differences in the underlying perceptual mechanisms. In addition to modulation frequency, modulation depth, waveform, duty cycle, luminance, retinal image motion, and observer factors have been identified as important determinants of visibility. The review further highlights significant methodological differences among studies, including variations in experimental design, stimulus generation, participant characteristics, and psychophysical procedures. Although the stroboscopic visibility measure (SVM) provides a standardized framework for evaluating the stroboscopic effect, no comparably validated metric is currently available for the phantom array effect. The review identifies major knowledge gaps regarding the interaction of influencing parameters and the lack of standardized assessment methods. Future research should focus on establishing unified experimental protocols and developing robust metrics for the phantom array effect to support comprehensive lighting standards that protect visual comfort, well-being, and consumer health. Full article

Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being) aims to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages’. Therefore, in today’s world, shaping children’s sustainable and healthy eating choices is crucial in terms of directly impacting their long-term health, supporting environmental sustainability, and strengthening social and economic development. In this manner, the purpose of the present study was to examine whether greenhouse-based education improves students’ sustainable and healthy eating choices. An educational design-based research model was followed in the current study. The research was conducted with 20 third-grade students from a private school in Istanbul, Türkiye. Greenhouse-based education that includes activities focused on sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition was implemented for 6 weeks. The data were collected with semi-structured interviews before and after instruction. In the data analysis, the content analysis was used. The findings revealed that greenhouse-based instruction developed students’ sustainable and healthy eating choices. After greenhouse-based education, the majority of students have started to adopt healthier eating habits like consuming environmentally friendly foods, such as more fresh/seasonal fruits and vegetables, whole grain products, local organic foods, nutrient-dense foods, foods that are good for their health, reusing food waste, etc. Therefore, the results showed that greenhouse-based instruction can have the potential to transform eating choices, instill lifelong healthy habits, and cultivate a generation that is both nutritionally conscious and environmentally responsible. Full article

Introduction: Dietary habits adopted during young adulthood play a critical role in physical, emotional, and cognitive health. University students represent a particularly vulnerable group due to academic stress, lifestyle transitions, and increased autonomy, factors that may influence eating behaviors, body weight perception, and psychological well-being. This study aims to examine dietary habits among students and their associations with self-perceived body weight, lifestyle characteristics, and psychological factors within a biopsychosocial framework. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted using a structured, self-administered online questionnaire distributed to university students aged 18–30 years in Romania. The questionnaire assessed dietary habits, nutritional knowledge, lifestyle behaviors, and psychological variables, including perceived stress and body weight perception. Body mass index was calculated based on self-reported anthropometric data. Results: The findings indicated substantial variability in dietary behaviors, with a high prevalence of irregular meal patterns, frequent snacking, and engagement in weight-control practices. Irregular meal patterns were reported by approximately 62% of participants, while 47% had engaged in at least one weight-loss diet. Discrepancies between self-reported BMI and perceived body weight were observed in roughly 38% of cases, and 83% of respondents reported at least one psychological symptom (stress, anxiety, or low mood) related to eating behaviors. A positive correlation was observed between sleep duration and perceived rest quality (r = 0.364, p < 0.001). High frequencies of caffeinated beverage consumption were also observed. Additionally, 204 participants reported no alcohol consumption, while the variety of alcoholic beverages consumed was strongly correlated with alcohol intake frequency (r = 0.734, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Dietary habits among university students are closely interconnected with body weight perception, lifestyle behaviors, and psychological well-being. These findings emphasize the need for integrative health promotion strategies that address nutrition, emotional regulation, and lifestyle balance to support mental and cognitive health during young adulthood. Full article

Background: Hospital-generated digital health content (HGC) represents an emerging psychosocial influence on young adults’ internalizing trajectories. This study examined how perceived HGC variables may associate with psychological well-being (PWB) through cognitive-behavioral and affective mediators, with neuroticism (NEU) moderating these associations. Methods: In a cross-sectional online survey, 248 Indonesian respondents (born 1997–2012) who regularly consumed HGC completed validated and adapted instruments. The data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Results: Perceptions of HGC function as key social-cognitive correlates of PWB in emerging adults. Perceived scientific reliability (PSR) and peace of mind (PEM) are positively associated with digital health literacy (DHL), cyberchondria resilience (CYR), and emotional regulation strategies (ERS). Conversely, humanizing value (HMV) is linked with a potential “comfort-without-competence” trajectory. The CYR construct emerged as the primary mediating mechanism for PWB, whereas NEU was found to weaken the positive association between DHL and PWB. Conclusion: These results suggest that HGC is associated with enhanced PWB by facilitating information competence, reducing compulsive health-seeking, and supporting emotional regulation, though emotionally warm formats may be linked with lower literacy development. The personality trait NEU selectively moderates cognitive pathways while leaving affective and behavioral pathways intact, suggesting a need for risk-stratified approaches. By providing clinically screened content that integrates cognitive-behavioral scaffolding, healthcare institutions can support early psychological prevention and self-regulation. Full article

Digital technologies are reshaping how tourists and hospitality consumers search for, personalize, interpret, and share experiences. This study examines customer value co-creation (VCC) as a mechanism linking digital-age participation with consumer outcomes in tourism and hospitality. A PRISMA 2020-guided meta-analysis was conducted using Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and Hospitality & Tourism Complete. Forty peer-reviewed studies met the eligibility criteria. Random-effects models synthesized unadjusted correlations between VCC and its main antecedents and outcomes. VCC was positively associated with customer engagement, perceived innovation, and sustainability/CSR-related perceptions. On the outcome side, the strongest and most mature associations were observed for satisfaction (r = 0.64), loyalty (r = 0.61), and perceived value (r = 0.52). Extended outcomes, including experience evaluations, well-being, image, and equity-related indicators, were also positive on average but less empirically mature. High heterogeneity and wide prediction intervals show that VCC is better understood as a context-dependent mechanism rather than a universally strong predictor. Exploratory evidence suggests that digitally intensive service environments may strengthen the VCC–loyalty association. Although the evidence base is not cultural-tourism-specific, the findings are relevant to cultural and heritage settings where digital touchpoints can support interpretation, perceived authenticity, symbolic meaning, and post-visit advocacy. Full article

Ensuring global food security is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and meat production is a critical source for protein; however, there are many critical issues facing the industry. This study focused on consumer perceptions of four key issues facing the meat industry: (1) the public perception of the animal industry, (2) environmental sustainability, (3) animal health and well-being, and (4) ensuring human health and well-being (e.g., food safety, nutrition). Analyzing the data from an importance and urgency perspective, the results indicated most respondents tended to perceive ensuring human health and well-being as most important and urgent relative to the other items. However, after calculating the criticality index (a measure of within-person concordance), environmental sustainability had the highest observed mean criticality score, followed by public perception. Lastly, a cluster analysis was undertaken. Four distinct clusters emerged: (1) Health-Focused/Environment-Skeptic, (2) High Engagement, (3) Low Engagement, and (4) Important But Not Urgent. Overall, results indicate a range of consumer perspectives regarding critical issues facing the meat industry; however, human health and well-being was consistently identified as the most important and urgent issue from a consumer perspective which can help inform more targeted communication strategies and effective policy development. Full article

Nutritional supplement use has emerged as an important health-related consumption behavior in digitalized environments, with implications for both public health and individual well-being. While prior research has largely focused on general populations, limited attention has been paid to how occupational pressures and digital information contexts jointly shape supplement-related decision-making among highly educated professionals. Addressing this gap, this study examines the behavioral determinants of nutritional supplement use among academics within an intention–behavior framework. Using survey data collected from academic professionals, the proposed model was tested through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that health motivation and academic work stress significantly predict supplement use intention, which, in turn, strongly influences actual consumption behavior. In contrast, digital health literacy and digital marketing exposure do not exert significant direct effects on usage intention. These results provide theoretical insight into the boundary conditions of informational determinants in consumer behavior models, suggesting that intrinsic motivation and contextual stressors may play a more dominant role than digital influences among highly educated consumers. From a practical perspective, the findings highlight the importance of addressing stress-related health coping mechanisms and motivation-driven behaviors in promoting informed supplement use. Full article

The main target of street and road lighting is to ensure the safety and the well-being of pedestrians and drivers. Regulations and standards on lighting installations establish minimum photometric requirements to achieve it. Thus, the main parameters concern the average luminance or illuminance, overall uniformity, longitudinal uniformity, threshold increment, edge illuminance ratio, and minimum energy efficiency or its equivalent. Although they have well-defined minimum and maximum values, their compliance, especially in urban and peri-urban environments, strongly depends on the heterogeneous characteristics of the street and its surroundings, depends on human physiological and psychological aspects, and/or faces remarkable uncertainties and problems of definition. The coefficient of utilization, C_u, and energy efficiency, ε, are key quantifiers taking account of the installation capability to provide luminous flux on the visual work plane with respect to the flux emitted and the power consumed by the light sources, respectively. However, contradictions between accurate values of these coefficients and the real visual performance of people or the rational use of energy are frequent. This is a problem because the binomial safety–sustainability requires consideration of these parameters in the design to enhance pedestrian and driver safety, as well as energy efficiency for sustainability. This work highlights the uncertainties and limitations of C_u and ε, redefines them through a human-centered approach that opens new perspectives on other parameters and quantities involved in lighting, and optimizes the binomial safety–sustainability. Full article

This study investigates whether consumers’ hedonic and eudaimonic well-being orientations predict symbolic gift preferences in an online gift-choice setting. Building on evidence that hedonic and eudaimonic motives are distinct yet can co-occur, the framework predicts that congruent orientation–gift links will be stronger than cross-domain spillovers when both orientations are modeled simultaneously. Data were collected via a cross-sectional online survey with an embedded simulated online store task in which participants evaluated ten pretested gift options (five relatively hedonic; five relatively eudaimonic) as potential gifts for a close other (n = 574). Stimuli were calibrated in a pilot pretest (n = 100) to ensure separation on a hedonic–eudaimonic continuum. Hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM with reflective measures for orientations and composite/formative outcomes for gift preferences, using nonparametric bootstrapping (5000 resamples) for inference. Results support congruent effects: eudaimonic orientation predicts eudaimonic gift preference and hedonic orientation predicts hedonic gift preference, whereas cross-domain paths are weak. Comparative tests indicate a robust hedonic congruence advantage, whereas the eudaimonic congruence advantage is directionally consistent but not statistically stable under bootstrap resampling. Gender shows a strong main effect on hedonic gift preference, while income exhibits a small positive association with hedonic gift preference. Implications for digital gift discovery and recommendation interfaces are discussed. Full article

Background: The use of food supplements (FS) is rapidly increasing, particularly in Italy, which leads the European market. This trend is driven by various factors, including the pursuit of physical well-being, the influence of advertising, and concerns about disease prevention. This exploratory pilot descriptive study aimed to characterize FS use among patients attending general practitioner (GP) offices and examine potential patterns with psychophysical well-being. Methods: Two questionnaires were administered to participants: one on FS use and another on physical and mental health (SF-12 questionnaire). General information and anthropometric characteristics were also collected. Results: 230 questionnaires on FS use and 192 on psychophysical well-being were analyzed. The majority of participants (73.5%) reported using FS, primarily for general well-being (21.0%), immune system support (12.2%), and increased energy (11.4%). The most commonly consumed FS were vitamins (19.4%), minerals (16.9%), and probiotics (15.7%). Only 57.4% of patients reported informing their doctor about FS use, while 66.3% engaged in self-prescription. The SF-12 questionnaire revealed lower mental health scores (mood, energy, anxiety, and depression) in the studied population, while physical health remained unaffected. Importantly, no significant associations were observed between FS use and either physical or mental health scores, suggesting these patterns are independent of supplement consumption. Conclusions: FS use is prevalent among patients attending GP offices. The observed decrease in mental health scores may indicate psychological distress though this pattern was not associated with FS consumption. Given the exploratory nature of this study, findings should be interpreted with caution. This study highlights the need for improved health education and professional training to promote safer and more informed FS use. Further research is required to expand upon these initial findings. Full article

The WELL Building Standard (WELL) is a certification system designed to enhance occupant health and well-being in indoor environments. Conventional building energy-saving strategies typically rely on fixed temperature setpoint adjustments, which may conflict with WELL thermal comfort requirements. However, achieving high energy efficiency remains essential. This study uses a quantitative evaluation framework with TRNSYSs to examine the effectiveness of integrating load reset control (LRC) into simultaneous heating and cooling (SHC) systems. It compares LRC with conventional fixed setpoint (SP) and predicted mean vote (PMV) control strategies, based on WELL’s thermal comfort criteria (maintaining the PMV between −0.5 and +0.5). Six simulation cases were analyzed, considering radiant (RAD) and convection (CONV) terminals. The results indicate that radiant terminals provide more stable PMV performance while consuming less energy than convection terminals, demonstrating better compliance with WELL objectives. Although PMV control achieves the highest thermal comfort, it substantially increases energy consumption. In contrast, LRC emerges as an optimal strategy, effectively balancing the energy efficiency of SP control with the comfort of PMV control. The RAD-LRC configuration delivers the best overall performance. It achieves higher thermal comfort than SP, with comparable energy consumption, making it a highly practical approach for modern building energy management. Full article

Fermented foods hold a significant position in global culinary traditions, particularly within ethnic and traditional diets. They are widely consumed for their distinctive flavors, textures, and health-promoting attributes. Although extensive research exists on fermentation processes, comprehensive insights into the nutraceutical potential and mechanistic health benefits of these foods remain limited. This review highlights key fermented products traditionally consumed in the north-eastern region of India including Hawaijar, Soibum, Ngari, alongside global counterparts such as Natto, Chongkukjang, Miso, Kefir, Tempeh, Kimchi, Kombucha, and Sauerkraut. These foods are rich in bioactive compounds (phenolics, peptides, organic acids, and exopolysaccharides), probiotic microorganisms, and essential nutrients that collectively contribute to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, and cardioprotective effects. Recent in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate that regular consumption of such foods may support the prevention and management of chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, gastrointestinal disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. However, mechanistic studies remain insufficient to fully elucidate the synergistic interactions between microbial metabolites, host metabolism, and gut microbiota modulation. The review therefore emphasizes the biochemical and therapeutic mechanisms underlying ethnic fermented foods, advocating for advanced metabolomic and molecular approaches to validate their health-promoting efficacy. This review provides a timely and integrative perspective by critically evaluating preclinical and clinical evidence, highlighting mechanistic insights, translational gaps, and future research priorities. These insights will support the development of functional food formulations and reinforce the integration of traditional fermented foods into modern dietary strategies for disease prevention and overall well-being. Full article

As the integrated energy market evolves toward a multi-stakeholder coexistence model, balancing economic efficiency, user well-being, and system-level sustainability among interacting stakeholders has become a key challenge, particularly in the rapidly developing regional integrated energy markets in China. Thus, to satisfy user comfort and energy substitution requirements while achieving cost-effective electricity and heating supply, this study proposes a Stackelberg game-based market trading framework involving an integrated energy producer (IEP), an integrated energy operator (IEO), and a load aggregator (LA). First, the integrated energy market framework and transaction modes are established, and the profit models of IEP and IEO are formulated. Considering users’ energy substitution behavior, user comfort is quantified to explicitly reflect user welfare in market decision making, and a consumer surplus model is developed for LA participating in market transactions. Second, a Stackelberg game framework is constructed to coordinate the strategies of all participants by incorporating source–load energy flows, and the equilibrium solution is proven to be unique and solvable using quadratic programming. Finally, a case study based on historical data from Hebei Province, China, is conducted to validate the proposed strategy. The results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively coordinates the interests of all stakeholders, enhances demand response capability without reducing user comfort, and improves economic benefits for both supply and demand sides in regional integrated energy markets. Full article

While previous studies have established the positive effects of minimalism on well-being, the issue of how minimalism shapes satisfaction within specific consumption contexts remains underexplored. This study investigates the relationships among minimalism, satisfaction with collaborative consumption (CC), and life satisfaction, examining the moderating role of corporate service sincerity. Drawing on goal satisfaction theory, we conceptualize minimalism as an intrinsic goal orientation that drives psychological fulfillment through value-congruent consumption. Survey data from 430 Japanese consumers with recent CC experience were analyzed using the SPSS PROCESS macro. Results indicate that minimalism positively predicts both satisfaction with CC and life satisfaction, and that these effects are amplified when the CC service is perceived as sincere. However, contrary to theoretical expectations, satisfaction with CC was negatively associated with life satisfaction, suggesting that domain-specific satisfaction in access-based consumption may not spill over to global well-being under certain conditions. We propose that this paradox reflects a boundary condition of goal satisfaction theory: when CC participation is constraint-driven rather than autonomously chosen, satisfaction may coexist with unfulfilled ownership aspirations. These findings advance the minimalist consumption literature by specifying mechanisms linking lifestyle values to consumption outcomes and offer practical guidance for sharing economy platforms seeking to engage value-driven consumers through authentic brand communication. Full article

The unique aroma of ginseng is linked to its recognized mood-enhancing properties. However, the specific aromatic compounds responsible for this effect, as well as the underlying mechanisms across different processed ginseng products, remain unclear. Here, the characteristic pleasant aroma compounds and their potential associations in five preparations—fresh ginseng, white ginseng, Dali ginseng, red ginseng, and black ginseng—were analyzed using flavoromics, bioinformatics, and computational modeling. The aroma evolved from “green” to “roasted-medicinal” notes, with pleasantness peaking in red ginseng, highlighting moderate processing as a key factor. Eight key pleasant aroma compounds were identified (including octanal and β-selinene), which were found to be potentially associated with olfactory- and emotion-related pathways involving IGF1 and OR6A2. Molecular interaction analysis revealed that these compounds may synergistically modulate pleasantness through hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Furthermore, aroma harmony proved more decisive than aroma intensity in determining consumer preference, suggesting correlational evidence linking molecular interactions to sensory perception. Dynamic simulations further demonstrated stable interactions between β-selinene, octanal, and IGF1/OR6A2. This research offers new insights into the mood-modulating properties of ginseng aroma and may inform future studies exploring the development of specialized ginseng products for emotional well-being applications. Full article