Effect of Branding and Familiarity of Soy Sauces on Valence and Arousal as Determined by Facial Expressions, Physiological Measures, Emojis, and Ratings

Food experiences can be summarized along two main dimensions: valence and arousal, which can be measured explicitly with subjective ratings or implicitly with physiological and behavioral measures. Food experiences are not only driven by the food's intrinsic properties, such as its taste, texture, and aroma, but also by extrinsic properties such as brand information and the consumers' previous experiences with the foods. In this study, valence and arousal to intrinsic and extrinsic properties of soy sauce were measured in consumers that varied in their previous experience with soy sauce, using a combination of explicit (scores and emojis), implicit (heart rate and skin conductance), and behavioral measures (facial expressions). Forty participants, high- and low-frequency users, were presented with samples of rice and three commercial soy sauces without and with brand information that either matched or non-matched the taste of the soy sauce. In general, skin conductance and facial expressions showed relatively low arousal during exposure to the brand name and again lowest arousal during tasting. Heart rate was lowest during exposure to the brand name and increased during tasting probably resulting from the motor activity during chewing. Furthermore, the results showed that explicit liking and arousal scores were primarily affected by the taste of the specific soy sauce and by the participants' previous experience with soy sauces. These scores were not affected by branding information. In contrast, facial expressions, skin conductance, and heart rate were primarily affected by (1) the participants' level of experience with soy sauce, (2) whether or not branding information was provided, and (3) whether or not the branding information matched with the taste. In conclusion, this study suggests that liking scores may be most sensitive to the food's intrinsic taste properties, whereas implicit measures and facial expressions may be most sensitive to extrinsic properties such as brand information. All measures were affected by the consumers' previous food experiences.

Value Conservatism and its Challenge to Consequentialism

G. A. Cohen's value conservatism entails that we ought to preserve some existing sources of value in lieu of more valuable replacements, thereby repudiating maximizing consequentialism. Cohen motivates value conservatism through illustrative cases. The consequentialist, however, can explain many Cohen-style cases by taking extrinsic properties, such as historical significance, to be sources of final value. Nevertheless, it may be intuitive that there's stronger reason to preserve than to promote certain sources of value, especially historically significant things. This motivates an argument that the weights of our reasons to preserve such things are especially strong relative to the amounts of value they bear. The value conservative can then explain these intuitions in non-consequentialist terms. There may be reason to preserve historically significant things as a matter of recognition respect for a cultural and historical heritage, or because it is virtuous to cultivate the right kind of connection with such a heritage.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Modes

I offer in this article an account of the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic properties based on the ontology of modes. Modes are particular properties that directly depend for their identity on their “bearers”. In Section 1, I shall introduce the ontology of modes. In Section 2, I shall examine the problem of distinguishing between intrinsic and extrinsic properties by considering another, related problem: that of distinguishing between internal and external relations. In Section 3, I shall present my own account and I shall also single out different degrees of intrinsicality and extrinsicality. In Section 4, I shall deal with missing-relatum modes, namely, with modes that lack specific relata, such as Othello’s loving someone. I shall introduce three different theories to deal with them. Finally, in Section 5, I shall solve some problems affecting the intrinsic/extrinsic distinction from the standpoint of my account.

Consumer Response to Cake with Apple Pomace as a Sustainable Source of Fibre

The use of apple pomace flour (APF) as a fibre enrichment strategy was investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate consumers’ response to intrinsic and extrinsic properties of a bakery premix product when using APF. Apple pomace, a by-product from the juice industry, was dried and ground. APF is high in carbohydrates (47.47%) and fibre (38.48%), and it was used to partially substitute wheat flour and sugar in a cake premix. Acceptability, health, and nutrition questions were evaluated with and without information in terms of regular and fibre-enriched cake. The regular cake score was not affected by information, while the enriched cake’s score increased with information. Three clusters were identified. Cluster 1 (29%) showed high liking scores for regular cake, cluster 2 (31%) for the fibre-enriched cake, and cluster 3 (40%) showed similar liking for both. Consumers described the samples and ideal cake using a check-all-that-apply (CATA) questionnaire. Penalty analyses explained differences in acceptability among consumers. Healthiness, tastiness, and fibre content were the main reasons to buy the enriched cake for cluster 2; taste for consumers in cluster 1; and healthiness and taste for consumers in cluster 3. APF as a functional ingredient may be a consumers’ choice as a sustainable use of apple pomace.

Correction: Comparative study of the extrinsic properties of poly(lactic acid)-based biocomposites filled with talc versus sustainable biocarbon

Correction for ‘Comparative study of the extrinsic properties of poly(lactic acid)-based biocomposites filled with talc versus sustainable biocarbon’ by Michael R. Snowdon et al., RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 6752–6761, DOI: 10.1039/C9RA00034H.

Intrinsicality, Independence and Grounding

This paper investigates the plausibility of Witmer, Butchard and Trogdon’s proposal to distinguish intrinsic properties from extrinsic ones in terms of independence from accompaniment and grounding. I argue that the proposed criterion is not adequate to determine intrinsicality, since according to it some intuitively extrinsic properties turn out to be intrinsic. I suggest and evaluate two responses: first, one could characterize a conception of independence which is specific to the individual instantiating the property; and second, one could justify two assumptions about properties which entail that counterexample properties of the kinds I present do not exist, most importantly that there are no fundamental properties which are instantiated in an intrinsic fashion by some individuals and an extrinsic fashion by others. Although the latter seems prima facie plausible, I present some potential counterexamples to it from current physical theory. I conclude that the grounding- and independence-based criterion of intrinsicality can be defended from my objections, although the cost of doing so might make it more attractive to characterize intrinsicality in terms of independence, or in terms of grounding, alone.

Impact of test parameters on the water vapor permeability of textiles

PurposeUnlike other materials, textiles associate with aesthetic and mechanical properties such as flexibility and removability that allow them to be deployed or folded as required and which make them good candidates for clothing and furnishing but also, eventually, for other applications such as building. Actually, the clothing should ensure appropriate heat and mass transfers between the human body and its environment in order to maintain the thermo-physiological comfort. For that, it is important to determine water vapor permeability (WVP) of textile. Several normalized procedures with variants depending on the nature of the tested material exist to measure the WVP. One of the methods used is the “dish method” described by the British Standard (BS 7209). The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of the test parameters on the WVP measurements.Design/methodology/approachConsequently, WVP of different textiles was measured while varying several parameters like: nature of fabrics, air layer thickness, vapor pressure gradient and air velocity.FindingsA decrease in the WVP values was observed with an increase in the air layer thickness and the number of textile layers. On the other side, an increase in the water pressure gradient induces an increase in the WVP value. Finally, it was also observed that air velocity has an impact on the WVP measurements.Originality/valueIn addition to intrinsic properties of fabrics, i.e., nature of fiber, woven structure, the influence of the several extrinsic properties, i.e., the influence of the air layer thickness, the number of textile layers, the vapor pressure gradient and the air velocity, on the WVP were investigated. Some researchers have already investigated the impact of these parameters on the WVP measurement separately. However, this study presents a difference from other studies that it takes into account the influence of the both intrinsic and extrinsic properties on WVP. In addition to these, this work combine several extrinsic properties which are presented separately during other studies. The first time, in this study the influence of the air velocity on WVP was investigated. Results on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic fabrics showed a great variation in the results when varying the location of the cups inside the climatic chamber. This is the reason why future studies look at studying more deeply the effect of air velocity on the WVP properties on different types of fabrics by connecting WVP values with air velocity values. It is also planned to make tests with the rotation device and by fixing the value of the temperature and RH. The objective will be to obtain reliable values that do not take into account the effect of air velocity.