Why do we like what we like?

Why do we find certain foods more pleasurable than others? Interactions of food components with human biology and with social and eating contexts give rise, in some predictable ways, to relatively stable individual food likes. While sensory and consumer research have traditionally focused on measuring existing likes, a better understanding of their basic determinants can provide ideas and tools to better predict and influence how likes may develop and change. The liking for a particular food or set of foods largely reflects the prevailing cultural environment and personal experiences, which generate variation in the opportunities and likelihood for specific biological predispositions and learning processes to operate with regard to particular foods. These learning processes may be largely influenced by the intrinsic orosensory or nutritional attributes of foods themselves, as well as characteristics of the situational contexts in which foods are experienced. Liking is one factor contributing to the desire to eat a food, and ultimately to food selection. Current knowledge of these processes is briefly reviewed, with suggestions of potential implications for understanding and predicting food acceptance and choice. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry     

To what extent do smokers plan quit attempts?

Design: Face-to-face in depth semi-structured interviews. Participants: 146 smoking and ex-smoking patients within a family medicine practice were recruited by means of screening 700 consecutive patients (14 years of age and older) and inviting eligible patients to participate. To be eligible, patients had to have smoked a minimum of five cigarettes per day for at least six months in their lives and made at least one serious quit attempt that lasted at least 24 hours. There were no refusals. Ex-smokers (n = 67) were defined as those who had not smoked for six months. The remainder were classified as smokers (n = 79). Measurements: Participants were asked to describe, in their own words, their most recent quit attempt and whether they had planned the quit attempt in advance, what were the triggers, and how long they abstained. A quit attempt was defined as planned if smokers set a quit date at some future time point. An unplanned quit attempt was defined as a sudden decision not to smoke any more cigarettes including those that might be remaining in the current pack. Information was also collected on methods used to quit and reasons for quitting. Results: A majority (51.6%) of quit attempts were reported as being unplanned. The figure was higher for ex-smokers than for smokers (67.1% v 36.7%, p < 0.001). Most quit attempts were unaided (64%) and made for reasons of health (64%). Conclusions: The finding that so many quit attempts are unprepared suggests that models of smoking cessation should place greater emphasis on the dynamic nature of motivation to quit. This is an area that requires further investigation.     

Peer reviewed: what course for carbon trading?

Although still without a legislative mandate, a marketplace for carbon trading is beginning to develop.     

How do minimum cigarette price laws affect cigarette prices at the retail level?

Objectives: Half of US states have minimum cigarette price laws that were originally passed to protect small independent retailers from unfair price competition with larger retailers. These laws prohibit cigarettes from being sold below a minimum price that is set by a formula. Many of these laws allow cigarette company promotional incentives offered to retailers, such as buydowns and master-type programmes, to be calculated into the formula. Allowing this provision has the potential to lower the allowable minimum price. This study assesses whether stores in states with minimum price laws have higher cigarette prices and lower rates of retailer participation in cigarette company promotional incentive programmes.

Design: Retail cigarette prices and retailer participation in cigarette company incentive programmes in 2001 were compared in eight states with minimum price laws and seven states without them. New York State had the most stringent minimum price law at the time of the study because it excluded promotional incentive programmes in its price setting formula; cigarette prices in New York were compared to all other states included in the study.

Results: Cigarette prices were not significantly different in our sample of US states with and without cigarette minimum price laws. Cigarette prices were significantly higher in New York stores than in the 14 other states combined.

Conclusions: Most existing minimum cigarette price laws appear to have little impact on the retail price of cigarettes. This may be because they allow the use of promotional programmes, which are used by manufacturers to reduce cigarette prices. New York's strategy to disallow these types of incentive programmes may result in higher minimum cigarette prices, and should also be explored as a potential policy strategy to control cigarette company marketing practices in stores. Strict cigarette minimum price laws may have the potential to reduce cigarette consumption by decreasing demand through increased cigarette prices and reduced promotional activities at retail outlets.

     

石大宇 “自在·At Ease”展

2014年9月26日至10月3日,石大宇在北京751时尚回廊一层举办＂自在·At Ease＂展。从2011年＂知竹＂、2012年＂赞竹＂、到2013年的＂慢工·风茶＂情境空间,清庭设计中心创始人石大宇始终怀着发展＂中国荣誉设计与制造—PDMIC（Proudly Designed And Made In China）＂的初衷,试图在中国这块土地上,找寻属于我们自己文化的材料,发展与其时代精神对应的工艺、技术,更重要的是,解决中国人当下及未来生活中的问题,延续中国人文风骨。     

Stop for tea? Enzyme inhibitors from tea – what good are they?

Tea possesses many bioactive components including polyphenols, theanine and caffeine. Inhibitory effect of these components on the various enzymes involved in some chronic diseases was reviewed in this study. Many studies revealed that anti‐obesity of tea was mainly ascribed to the polyphenols which could inhibit the activity of the enzymes related to diet metabolism such as α‐amylase, α‐glucosidase and lipase. Inhibitory effect of catechins and caffeine against β‐ and γ‐secretase, acetylcholinesterase, protein kinase C and histone deacetylase might be responsible for the prevention from nervous system diseases. Cytochrome P450 enzymes, cytosolic sulfotransferases, cyclooxygenase‐2 and phosphoinositide‐3‐kinase could be efficiently suppressed by catechins, which would decrease the risk of cancer initiation and proliferation; theanine could lower the activity of some anticarcinogen‐activated enzymes and alleviate the adverse effect of cancer cure. Catechins and caffeine exhibited significant inhibition against the matrix metalloproteinases, histidine decarboxylase and many kinases related to inflammation. Thus, catechins, theanine and caffeine might be employed as inhibitors of the enzymes associated with these chronic diseases.     

Vitamins in wine: Which,what for,and how much?

Vitamins are essential compounds to yeasts, and notably in winemaking contexts. Vitamins are involved in numerous yeast metabolic pathways, including those of amino acids, fatty acids, and alcohols, which suggests their notable implication in fermentation courses, as well as in the development of aromatic compounds in wines. Although they are major components in the course of those microbial processes, their significance and impact have not been extensively studied in the context of winemaking and wine products, as most of the studies focusing on the subject in the past decades have relied on relatively insensitive and imprecise analytical methods. Therefore, this review provides an extensive overview of the current knowledge regarding the impacts of vitamins on grape must fermentations, wine-related yeast metabolisms, and requirements, as well as on the profile of wine sensory characteristics. We also highlight the methodologies and techniques developed over time to perform vitamin analysis in wines, and assess the importance of precisely defining the role played by vitamins in winemaking processes, to ensure finer control of the fermentation courses and product characteristics in a highly complex matrix.     

Uncertainty of air pollution cost estimates: to what extent does it matter?

How large is the social cost penalty if one makes the wrong choice because of uncertainties in the estimates of the costs and benefits of environmental policy measures? For discrete choices there is no general rule other than the recommendation to always carefully compare costs and benefits when introducing policies for environmental protection. For continuous choices (e.g., the ceiling for the total emissions of a pollutant by an entire sector or region), it is instructive to look at the cost penalty as a function of the error in the incremental damage cost estimate. Using abatement cost curves for NOx, SO2, dioxins, and CO2, this paper evaluates the cost penalty for errors in the following: national emission ceilings for NOx and SO2 in each of 12 countries of Europe, an emission ceiling for dioxins in the UK, and limits for the emission of CO2 in Europe. The cost penalty turns out to be remarkably insensitive to errors. An error by a factor of 3 due to uncertainties in the damage estimates for NOx and SO2 increases the total social cost by at most 20% and in most cases much less. For dioxins, the total social cost is increased by at most 10%. For CO2, several different possible cost curves are examined: for some the sensitivity to uncertainties is greater than for the other pollutants, but even here the penalty is less than 30% and in most cases much less if the true damage costs are twice as high as the ones estimated. The paper also quantifies the benefit of improving the accuracy of damage cost estimates by further research.