Search Results (11)

Food deprivation activates forkhead box O (FOXO), a transcription factor downstream of insulin receptors. In the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis, insulin signaling and food deprivation improve memory consolidation following conditioned taste aversion (CTA) learning. We investigated the subcellular localization of FOXO in Lymnaea and changes in its expression levels following food deprivation, CTA learning, and insulin administration. Immunohistochemistry revealed that Lymnaea FOXO (LymFOXO) was located in the central nervous system (CNS) neuronal cytoplasm in food-satiated snails but was mainly in neuronal nuclei in food-deprived snails. Following CTA acquisition, LymFOXO translocated to the nuclei in food-satiated snails and remained in the nuclei in food-deprived snails. Contrary to our expectations, insulin administered to the CNS did not induce LymFOXO translocation into the nuclei in food-satiated snails. Real-time PCR was used to quantify LymFOXO mRNA levels, its target genes, and insulin signaling pathway genes and revealed that LymFOXO mRNA was upregulated in food-deprived snails compared to food-satiated snails. Insulin applied to isolated CNSs from food-satiated snails increased LymFOXO compared to vehicle-treated samples. Food deprivation prepares FOXO to function in the nucleus and enhances CTA learning in snails. Insulin application did not directly affect LymFOXO protein localization. Thus, insulin administration may stimulate pathways other than the LymFOXO cascade. Full article

Pecan is one of the top five most widely consumed tree nuts, and pecan nut quality is a major factor for consideration in breeding better pecan cultivars for use by producers. However, the pecan industry faces a hurdle to evaluate its nutmeat taste, and there has so far been limited evaluation of consumer attitudes toward pecan nutmeat. This study aimed to investigate the consumer (n = 198) hedonic rating, diagnostic sensory attribute intensity, and emotional response for 14 pecan samples, consisting of native/seedling and improved varieties. The results showed all kernels received positive hedonic scores (>5, 9-point hedonic scale) for overall acceptance and the acceptability of size, interior color, typical-pecan flavor, and raw-nut flavor. The primary sensory attributes (intensities > 5.0, 0–10 line scale) were typical-pecan and raw-nut flavors, followed by buttery flavor, sweetness, and astringency. Kernel off-flavors were not perceived in general. For 20 emotion-associated terms, the intensity of the satiating effect was medium, while the energizing effect was lower. The major emotional responses were healthy, satisfied, and comfort, followed by calm, interested, premium, and relaxed. Kernel variety difference was significant (p ≤ 0.05) for all these measured variables. Consumer overall acceptance toward pecan kernels was driven by the acceptability of flavor and interior color, flavor intensities, no off-flavors, and positive emotional responses; kernel size was not an impactful factor. The six most preferred varieties were 86TX2-1.5, Pawnee, Barton, 1997-09-0012, 1991-01-0026, and Harris Super. This study is the first to use consumer input to assess nut quality and consumption preference and will be foundational to ongoing breeding programs to develop new pecan cultivars that will better meet consumer preferences and expectations, and therefore will be accepted by the processing industry and growers. Full article

Sandwiches are the most common “casual-food” consumed by all age groups in Spain. Due to the importance of visual appearance to promote unplanned or impulse buying, foodservice and hospitality companies focus on improving the visual impression of their food menus to create an expectation that satisfies both sensory and hedonic consumer experiences. To provide a list of attributes about the visual appearance of sandwiches, 25 students were recruited from a university and were invited to participate in two nominal group technique (NGT) sessions. To understand whether a sandwiches’ appearance can influence the expectation of consumers, 259 participants completed an online survey specially designed from the results of the NGT sessions. Data were analyzed using conjoint, internal preference mapping and cluster analysis; the interaction effect by gender was also studied. The conjoint results indicate that visual perception about the filling (vegetal or pork based) plays the most key role overall in consumer expectation. When consumers choose vegetables as the filling, the consumers’ perceived sandwiches as healthier, but the pork filling was perceived as more attractive and satiating. Interaction effect by gender was observed in filling when females perceived pork filling as less healthy than vegetable. By acceptance, consumers were segmented into three groups. The first cluster (n = 80) selected the pork filling. The smaller group (cluster 3, n = 36) prioritized the vegetal filling, and the most numerous cluster 2 (n = 140) liked sandwiches with multigrain bread. These results may help companies to build tailor-made marketing strategies to satisfy consumer segments. Full article

The study of human–animal interactions has provided insights into the welfare of many species. To date, however, research has largely focused on human relationships with captive mammals, with relatively little exploration of interactions between humans and other vertebrates, despite non-mammals constituting the vast majority of animals currently living under human management. With this study, we aimed to address this gap in knowledge by investigating human–fish interactions at a community garden/aquaponics learning-center that is home to approximately 150 goldfish (Carassius auratus) and seven adult and two juvenile koi (Cyprinus rubrofuscus). After a habituation period (July–September 2019) during which time the fish were regularly provided with the opportunity to engage with the researcher’s submerged hand, but were not forced to interact with the researcher, we collected video data on 10 non-consecutive study days during the month of October. This procedure produced 18~20-min interaction sessions, 10 during T1 (when the experimenter first arrived and the fish had not been fed) and eight during T2 (20–30 min after the fish had been fed to satiation; two sessions of which were lost due equipment malfunction). Interactions between the researcher and the seven adult koi were coded from video based on location (within reach, on the periphery, or out of reach from the researcher) and instances of physical, tactile interaction. Analyses revealed that overall, koi spent more time than expected within reach of the researcher during both T1 (p < 0.02) and T2 (p < 0.03). There were also substantial differences between individuals’ overall propensity for being within-reach and engaging in physical interaction. These results show that koi will voluntarily interact with humans and that individual koi display unique and consistent patterns of interaction. By providing quantitative data to support anecdotal claims that such relationships exist around the world, this research contributes to the ongoing discoveries highlighting the profound dissonance between how humans think about and treat fish and who fish actually are, thereby emphasizing the necessity of stronger moral and legal protections for fishes. Full article

A ready-to-eat meal is a prepared meal within a container or package that requires little preparation or heating before consumption. Despite ready-to-eat meals being widely consumed, to date, little information is available on the consumers’ perceptions of such products in comparison to a homemade meal. Thus, three groups of eighty participants took part in the present study; each group evaluated five ready-to-eat meals (Pasta, Meatballs, Salad, Beans, and a Sandwich) using one of the following conditions: (i) observation of the packaging, (ii) observation of the meal on a plate (photographs), and (iii) tasting the ready-to-eat product with the packaging being presented alongside the meal. Consumers were asked about their liking, satiety, and healthiness perception. The results showed that both the ready-to-eat pack and sensory quality of the product highly impact liking and healthiness perceptions. Being a ready-to-eat meal in a pack has a negative impact on liking expectations of the meal; however, the sensory quality can either counteract these effects or increase them. Expected satiety of meals depends on the type of meal and varies slightly according to the evaluation condition. Full article

A simple mathematical model capable of reproducing formation of small-scale spatial structures in prey–predator system is presented. The migration activity of predators is assumed to be determined by the degree of their satiation. The hungrier individual predators migrate more frequently, randomly changing their spatial position. It has previously been demonstrated that such an individual response to local feeding conditions leads to prey–taxis and emergence of complex spatiotemporal dynamics at population level, including periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic regimes. The proposed taxis–diffusion–reaction model is applied to describe the trophic interactions in system consisting of benthic diatom microalgae and harpacticoid copepods. The analytical condition for the oscillatory instability of the homogeneous stationary state of species coexistence is given. The model parameters are identified on the basis of field observation data and knowledge on the species ecology in order to explain micro-scale spatial patterns of these organisms, which still remain obscure, and to reproduce in numerical simulations characteristic size and the expected lifetime of density patches. Full article

As competition on super market shelves is higher than ever, the importance of product concepts, communicated through labels, can dictate a product’s success or failure. However, it is possible for labels to affect a consumer’s experience, changing the overall response to the product. In this study, we tested samples of vanilla yogurt with one of four commonly used labeling concepts (high-protein, low-fat, made with stevia and all-natural) on sensory perception, consumer liking, expected consumption amount, and willingness to pay (WTP) in a consumer test (n = 108). Each participant evaluated five samples of the same vanilla yogurt identified with one of the labels, or an unlabeled control. Results showed panelists liked the samples labeled with low-fat and high-protein to the greatest degree, with all-natural scoring the lowest. Those more concerned with protein content found the samples less satiating, dependent on sex. Sweetness was also perceived more highly in younger panelists, with panelists WTP dependent on their liking of the labels. Results highlight the importance of labeling as an extrinsic cue affecting liking ratings, with potential ramification for ultimate product success. Understanding consumers’ response to labels, as well as their attitudes, has broad implications for food marketing, as well as public health and the study of eating habits. Full article

No study has been conducted linking Chinese migrants’ subjective well-being (SWB) with urban inequality. This paper presents the effects of income and inequality on their SWB using a total of 128,000 answers to a survey question about “happiness”. We find evidence for a satiation point above which higher income is no longer associated with greater well-being. Income inequality is detrimental to well-being. Migrants report lower SWB levels where income inequality is higher, even after controlling for personal income, a large set of individual characteristics, and province dummies. We also find striking differences across socio-economic and geographic groups. The positive effect of income is more pronounced for rural and western migrants, and is shown to be significantly correlated with the poor’s SWB but not for the well-being of more affluent respondents. Interestingly, high-income earners are more hurt by income inequality than low-income respondents. Moreover, compared with migrants in other regions, those in less developed Western China are found to be more averse to income inequality. Our results are quite robust to different specifications. We provide novel explanations for these findings by delving into psychological channels, including egalitarian preferences, social comparison concerns, expectations, perceived fairness concerns and perceived social mobility. Full article

Background/Goals: The gut hormone peptide YY (PYY) secreted from intestinal L-cells has been implicated in the mechanisms of satiation via Y2-receptor (Y2R) signaling in the brain and periphery and is a major candidate for mediating the beneficial effects of bariatric surgery on appetite and body weight. Methods: Here we assessed the role of Y2R signaling in the response to low- and high-fat diets and its role in the effects of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery on body weight, body composition, food intake, energy expenditure and glucose handling, in global Y2R-deficient (Y2RKO) and wildtype (WT) mice made obese on high-fat diet. Results: Both male and female Y2RKO mice responded normally to low- and high-fat diet in terms of body weight, body composition, fasting levels of glucose and insulin, as well as glucose and insulin tolerance for up to 30 weeks of age. Contrary to expectations, obese Y2RKO mice also responded similarly to RYGB compared to WT mice for up to 20 weeks after surgery, with initial hypophagia, sustained body weight loss, and significant improvements in fasting insulin, glucose tolerance, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and liver weight compared to sham-operated mice. Furthermore, non-surgical Y2RKO mice weight-matched to RYGB showed the same improvements in glycemic control as Y2RKO mice with RYGB that were similar to WT mice. Conclusions: PYY signaling through Y2R is not required for the normal appetite-suppressing and body weight-lowering effects of RYGB in this global knockout mouse model. Potential compensatory adaptations of PYY signaling through other receptor subtypes or other gut satiety hormones such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) remain to be investigated. Full article

Laboratory studies have demonstrated that experimental manipulations of oral processing can have a marked effect on energy intake. Here, we explored whether variations in oral processing across a range of unmodified everyday meals could affect post-meal fullness and meal size. In Study 1, female participants (N = 12) attended the laboratory over 20 lunchtime sessions to consume a 400-kcal portion of a different commercially available pre-packaged meal. Prior to consumption, expected satiation was assessed. During each meal, oral processing was characterised using: (i) video-recordings of the mouth and (ii) real-time measures of plate weight. Hunger and fullness ratings were elicited pre- and post-consumption, and for a further three hours. Foods that were eaten slowly had higher expected satiation and delivered more satiation and satiety. Building on these findings, in Study 2 we selected two meals (identical energy density) from Study 1 that were equally liked but maximised differences in oral processing. On separate days, male and female participants (N = 24) consumed a 400-kcal portion of either the “fast” or “slow” meal followed by an ad libitum meal (either the same food or a dessert). When continuing with the same food, participants consumed less of the slow meal. Further, differences in food intake during the ad libitum meal were not compensated at a subsequent snacking opportunity an hour later. Together, these findings suggest that variations in oral processing across a range of unmodified everyday meals can affect fullness after consuming a fixed portion and can also impact meal size. Modifying food form to encourage increased oral processing (albeit to a lesser extent than in experimental manipulations) might represent a viable target for food manufacturers to help to nudge consumers to manage their weight. Full article

Expectations about a food’s satiating capacity predict self-selected portion size, food intake and food choice. However, two individuals might have a similar expectation, but one might be extremely confident while the other might be guessing. It is unclear whether confidence about an expectation affects adjustments in energy intake at a subsequent meal. In a randomized cross-over design, 24 subjects participated in three separate breakfast sessions, and were served a low-energy-dense preload (53 kcal/100 g), a high-energy-dense preload (94 kcal/100 g), or no preload. Subjects received ambiguous information about the preload’s satiating capacity and rated how confident they were about their expected satiation before consuming the preload in its entirety. They were served an ad libitum test meal 30 min later. Confidence ratings were negatively associated with energy compensation after consuming the high-energy-dense preload (r = −0.61; p = 0.001). The same relationship was evident after consuming the low-energy-dense preload, but only after controlling for dietary restraint, hunger prior to, and liking of the test meal (p = 0.03). Our results suggest that confidence modifies short-term controls of food intake by affecting energy compensation. These results merit consideration because imprecise caloric compensation has been identified as a potential risk factor for a positive energy balance and weight gain. Full article