Chanchal Narain, Alistair Paterson, John R. Piggott, Manisha Dhawan and Ewan Reid
As a basis for development of new, and rationalisation of existing products, consumer preferences in commercial filter coffees were examined in a quantitative approach with…
Abstract
As a basis for development of new, and rationalisation of existing products, consumer preferences in commercial filter coffees were examined in a quantitative approach with multivariate mapping. Coffees were brewed from 12 ground bean blends and served to 150 consumers as drunk normally – black, whitened and/or sweetened. In a complete block design with two sessions of six coffees, employing randomisation to reduce order effects, hedonic data on a five‐point scale were collected then processed using Q‐mode principal component analysis yielding preference maps for each presentation. Conventional descriptive profiling provided information on blend characters allowing soft modelling to determine sensory attributes driving preference scoring. From univariate data analyses, gender was a significant factor for presentation style: addition of milk increased preference scores for blends in males and sugar reduced preference ratings for females. The outcome was a series of consumer segmentations for different coffee presentations.
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Abdulmnem A. Elamir, Richard F. Tester, Farage H. Al‐Ghazzewi, Hakim Y. Kaal, Amna A. Ghalbon, Najat A. Elmegrahai and John R. Piggott
The aim of this study is to determine the effects of depolymerised mannans and specifically konjac glucomannan hydrolysates (GMH) on the colonic microflora of mice. Blood glucose…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to determine the effects of depolymerised mannans and specifically konjac glucomannan hydrolysates (GMH) on the colonic microflora of mice. Blood glucose and cholesterol were also measured.
Design/methodology/approach
Two groups (n = 20) of 12‐week old Wister mice were used for a period of 14 weeks. One group (treatment group) were fed diets containing 5 per cent konjac GMH dissolved in drinking water in addition to the control (group) standard diet. Faecal microflora, feed consumption, body weight, blood glucose and cholesterol were determined.
Findings
The GMH promoted the growth of anaerobes and lactobacilli in the treatment group where this was statistically, highly significant (P < 0.001). Also, the hydrolysate was able to reduce highly significantly (P < 0.001) faecal Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli counts. A significant increase in average daily feed consumption (P < 0.05) and weekly body weight (P < 0.001) was found for the treatment group. The mean ± SD (mmol/l) of blood glucose and cholesterol was lower in the treatment group.
Originality/value
In addition to modulating the gut microflora, GMH seems to lower the blood glucose and cholesterol in mice. Although this needs to be verified by further studies, GMH could also be a candidate for possible treatment of subjects with high cholesterol and for diabetics.
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Natasha Ann Ginnivan, Rafal Chomik, Ye In (Jane) Hwang, John Piggott, Tony Butler and Adrienne Withall
The Australian prisoner population has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of older inmates over the past decade, consistent with the greying of the prisoner population…
Abstract
Purpose
The Australian prisoner population has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of older inmates over the past decade, consistent with the greying of the prisoner population that is being observed worldwide. Reviews suggest the need for further evidence and practice outside of the USA. This paper aims to review and discuss the cost and social implications of the rising health-care needs of this population in Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of international research and policies is presented, as well as the results of basic economic modelling relating to the expected rise in health-care costs of the ageing prisoner population in Australia.
Findings
Taking into consideration the continued rise in incarceration rates, the calculations show that the health costs of prisoners could increase by anywhere between 17% and 90% depending on whether the increase of older prisoners continues as it has in the past decade. These trends are likely to continue over the next decade and will result in higher health costs of prisons under a number of different imprisonment scenarios. Policy responses in Australia have been slow so far, with most initiatives being undertaken in the USA with promising results.
Practical implications
The authors suggest that in the absence of a coordinated policy response, covering a range of interventions, costs will continue to increase, particularly as this population continues to age more rapidly than the general population due to an accumulation of risk factors. Well-conceived interventions would be a worthwhile investment from both financial and social perspectives.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first commentary to acknowledge this rising public health issue and to both review and model its implications for the future.
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The use of boron compounds or other preservatives of the nature of drugs in cream is alleged to be necessary mainly for two reasons, namely, long distance transit leading to a…
Abstract
The use of boron compounds or other preservatives of the nature of drugs in cream is alleged to be necessary mainly for two reasons, namely, long distance transit leading to a considerable lapse of time between despatch and consumption, and the uncertainty attaching to the disposal of consignments of perishable and valuable material in a fresh or apparently fresh condition.
AS J. L. Hobbs shows so clearly in his recent book, the interest in local history is growing enormously at present. The universities, training colleges and schools, as well as the…
Abstract
AS J. L. Hobbs shows so clearly in his recent book, the interest in local history is growing enormously at present. The universities, training colleges and schools, as well as the institutions of further education, are all making more use of local studies—geographical, economic, social and historical—in their regular courses, in their advanced work, and in their publications.
THE following list of contracts placed 1 y the Air Ministry during July has been extracted from the August issue of The Ministry of Labour Gazette:—
Veronica I. K. Lam and Leonardo (Don) A. N. Dioko
Destination brand personality has been considered as an emotional relationship between a branded destination and its visitors (Ekinci, 2003). Previous studies exclusively focused…
Abstract
Destination brand personality has been considered as an emotional relationship between a branded destination and its visitors (Ekinci, 2003). Previous studies exclusively focused on the match between visitor’s personality and destination personality (Sirgy & Su, 2000; Usakli & Baloglu, 2011). However, there is a lack of investigation centered on tourism industry professionals (TIPs). This chapter is to assess the congruity between TIPs’ self-assessed personality, their perceived brand personality of Macau as a destination as well as the brand personality of their tourism/hospitality-related organizations. Findings of this study reveal that TIPs’ perceived Big Five dimensions of self, Macau, and organization tend to match with each other in certain dimensions. Neither their own nor their organizations’ Big Five dimensions “Openness” and “Conscientiousness” matches their perceived brand personality of Macau. This chapter provides empirical evidence which may suggest to Macau policy makers to further develop branding strategies through strengthening its brand personalities.
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LIBRARIES have come impressively into the public picture in the past year or two, and seldom with more effect than when Their Majesties the King and Queen opened the new Central…
Abstract
LIBRARIES have come impressively into the public picture in the past year or two, and seldom with more effect than when Their Majesties the King and Queen opened the new Central Reference Library at Manchester on July 17th. In a time, which is nearly the end of a great depression, that the city which probably felt the depression more than any in the Kingdom should have proceeded with the building of a vast store‐house of learning is a fact of great social significance and a happy augury for libraries as a whole. His Majesty the King has been most felicitous in providing what we may call “slogans” for libraries. It will be remembered that in connection with the opening of the National Central Library, he suggested that it was a “University which all may join and which none need ever leave” —words which should be written in imperishable letters upon that library and be printed upon its stationery for ever. As Mr. J. D. Stewart said at the annual meeting of the National Central Library, it was a slogan which every public library would like to appropriate. At Manchester, His Majesty gave us another. He said: “To our urban population open libraries are as essential to health of mind, as open spaces to health of body.” This will be at the disposal of all of us for use. It is a wonderful thing that Manchester in these times has been able to provide a building costing £450,000 embodying all that is modern and all that is attractive in the design of libraries. The architect, Mr. Vincent Harris, and the successive librarians, Mr. Jast and Mr. Nowell, are to be congratulated upon the crown of their work.
IDEAL methods of Library service; this, in simple translation is the purpose before the Library Association Conference at Manchester this year. The first thing that strikes any…
Abstract
IDEAL methods of Library service; this, in simple translation is the purpose before the Library Association Conference at Manchester this year. The first thing that strikes any observer is the great variety of current library work. There was a day, so recent that fairly young men can remember it, when a Library Association Conference could focus its attention upon such matters as public library charging systems, open access versus the indicator, the annotated versus the title‐a‐line catalogue, the imposition of fines and penalties; in short, on those details of working which are now settled in the main and do not admit of general discussion. All of them, too, it will be observed, are problems of the public library. When those of other libraries came into view in those days they were seen only on the horizon. It was believed that there was no nexus of interest in libraries other than the municipal variety. Each of the others was a law unto itself, and its problems concerned no one else. The provision of books for villages, it is true, was always before the public librarian; he knew the problem. In this journal James Duff Brown wrote frequently concerning it; before the Library Assistants' Association, Mr. Harry Farr, then Deputy Librarian of Cardiff, wrote an admirable plea for its development. Wyndham Hulme once addressed an annual dinner suggesting it as the problem for the younger librarians. Carnegie money made the scheme possible. But contemporaneously with the development of the Rural Library system, which now calls itself the County Library system as an earnest of its ultimate intentions, there has been a coming together of the librarians of research and similar libraries. We have a section for them in the Library Association.