Chemosensory analysis of emotional wines: Merging of explicit and implicit methods to measure emotions aroused by red wines.

Wine is a cultural product capable of arousing emotions. Measuring emotions and figuring out how much they could influence preferences or purchase decisions of consumers is a new trend in sensory and consumer research. However, the complexity of feelings makes the measure of emotions extremely challenging. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of emotions related to sensory stimuli in wine tasting is still missing. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the emotional power of tasting red wines using a multidisciplinary approach, combining sensory analysis performed by trained panelists, implicit and explicit measurements of emotions and chemical analysis of the wines tasted. Various red wines, renowned for their high polyphenol content and expected to exhibit rich texture, mouthfeel, and aging potential, have been utilized to this extent. The results obtained showed that the emotions measured were well-correlated with quantitative and hedonic attributes obtained using classic sensory analysis. Some aromatic molecules can be identified as markers capable of eliciting positive and negative emotional reactions. While increasing literature in the topic is recently available, our study appears to be the first highlighting the presence of autonomic nervous system (ANS) differences verified by means of electrocardiogram (ECG) features, related to explicit and complete sensory patterns, in response to sensory stimuli related to emotional wine, with higher sympathetic values at extrema and vagal increase in the presence of neutral sensory compounds.

Neighborhood safety perception and depressive symptoms in China: a moderated mediation relationship.

PURPOSE: Despite rich data on neighborhood safety perception's role in shaping depressive symptoms, a comprehensive view of this dynamic interplay remains a frontier. This study seeks to unravel the intricate interplay of neighborhood safety perception and depressive symptoms, utilizing the lens of social safety theory. METHODS: Employing the 2016 and 2020 waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study utilized ordered logistic regression (ologit) for statistical analysis. The approach encompassed descriptive analysis of variables, Spearman's correlation analyses to explore associations between variables, and a moderated mediation analysis. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted to affirm the robustness of findings against model assumptions and data processing techniques. RESULTS: The study uncovered a significant negative correlation between neighborhood safety perception and depressive symptoms (Direct effect = - 0.338, Z = - 2.564, p = 0.010). A key finding was the steeper slope of the relationship between neighborhood safety perception and neighborhood relation perception among individuals with a higher perception of neighborhood environment quality. As neighborhood environment quality perception increases, the strength of the mediated negative impact on depressive symptoms intensifies (- 0.102 > - 0.132 > - 0.162). CONCLUSION: This study offers a comprehensive moderated mediation model that establishes a novel connection between neighborhood safety perception and depressive symptoms. It integrates the complexities of social safety theory and social information processes, revealing key strategies such as enhancing perceived neighborhood environment quality and neighborhood relationship quality.

The Effects of Patient-Centered Communication on Patient Engagement, Health-Related Quality of Life, Service Quality Perception and Patient Satisfaction in Patients with Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study in Türkiye.

INTRODUCTION: Patient-centered communication is a type of communication that takes place between the provider and the patient. OBJECTIVES: It is aimed to reveal the effects of patient-centered communication on patient engagement, health-related quality of life, perception of service quality and patient satisfaction. METHOD: The study was conducted by applying multiple regression analysis to the data obtained from 312 patients with cancer treated in a training and research hospital affiliated to the Ministry of Health in Diyarbakir, Türkiye. RESULTS: More than half of the patients were female and had stage 4 cancer. Different types of cancer were detected (breast cancer, cancer of the digestive organs, lymphatic and hematopoietic cancer, cancer of the genital organs, cancer of the respiratory organs, etc.). It can be stated that the average values obtained by patients from patient-centered communication and its sub-dimensions are high. There are positive, moderate and low and significant relationships between the overall patient-centered communication and patient engagement, patient satisfaction, service quality perception and quality of life. It was statistically revealed that patient-centered communication positively affected patient engagement, health-related quality of life, service quality perception, and patient satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Patient-centered communication positively affects various short and medium-term health outcomes and this study offers suggestions for improving patient-provider communication.

The Perception of the Quality of Professional Healthcare Assistance for the Management of Endometriosis: Findings from a National Survey in Italy.

(1) Background: endometriosis is included in the list of chronic and disabling pathologies. This study aimed to examine patients' points of view about the quality of care for endometriosis during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Methods: we conducted a survey on knowledge about endometriosis, management of endometriosis, perceived mental and physical well-being, and perceived changes in the quality of care during the pandemic; (3) Results: out of 1065 participants, 875 were included in the analysis, with an average age of 34. Overall, patients had positive perceptions of care accessibility and cleanliness (95%), but less satisfaction with visit hours (86%). Those with better physical and psychological health were more satisfied with service hours, while those treated at specialised centres were more content with cleanliness. Satisfaction with clarity was linked to specialist treatment, and perceived availability to listen correlated with age, complications, and overall health status; (4) Conclusions: patients' perspectives are crucial for patient education and advocate for specialised interdisciplinary networks to support endometriosis management and patients' well-being. These findings highlight the importance of considering patient viewpoints, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on healthcare systems and suggest a need for further research from the patient's perspective.

The educational quality perception, professional interest, and career choices among hospitality postgraduate students.

Brain drain has become an important issue throughout the health service sector, with gender imbalance and employment discrimination leading to an increasing number of master's graduates opting to leave the profession. To explore this issue, the study examines the impact of both internal and external factors on the employment choices of postgraduate students, which starting from the core factor of the quality of higher education and combined with the professional interest as personal factor. The study adopts the questionnaire survey method to collect questionnaire data from 338 hospitality postgraduate students in China's institutions of higher education. The study adopts Multiple Linear Regression analysis to draw the following conclusions: 1) there is a significant influence of educational quality perception on career choice, the higher the level of educational quality perception, the stronger the students' willingness to choose this field for career development; 2) there is a significant effect of professional interest on career choice, the higher the student's level of interest in the major, the greater the willingness to choose this field for career development. 3) Identity mediates the relationship between educational quality perception (and professional interest) and career choice, which means that educational quality perception and professional interest can contribute to career decisions by promoting students' identity; 4) Future work self positively moderates the relationship between identity and career choice. The clearer the students' goals for their future job development, the stronger the effect of professional identity on career choice. The research conclusions have positive implications for higher education and career guidance for postgraduate students in hospitality management.

A scale to measure the perceived quality of mHealth by elderly patients with hypertension in China.

BACKGROUND: The elderly population in China is growing, with hypertension being the most prevalent chronic disease in older adults. Despite the rapid penetration and efficient management effect of mobile health on hypertension healthcare, elderly patients are often less adopted and continue to use mobile health services. Quality perception significantly affects an individual's satisfaction and continued intention to use mobile health services. The evaluation of the significant factors affecting mobile health quality perception by elderly individuals remains largely unexplored. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an evaluation scale to measure the perceived quality of mobile health applications for hypertension and determine the underlying influencing factors. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between November 2018 and October 2019. A quality evaluation scale with three factors and seven indicators was developed based on the Information Systems Success model. Data was analyzed using structural equations modelling (SEM) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). All tests were two-sided and statistically significant at P < 0.05. RESULTS: The proposed mobile health application quality evaluation scale from the perspective of the elderly was shown to be a hierarchical, multidimensional construct with valid reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity, which consists of three factors and seven indicators. The SEM results suggested that information quality and service quality had a significant impact on the satisfaction of elderly individual's with mobile health applications for hypertension management. The results also suggest that the elderly individuals had a low evaluation of mobile medical service quality(4.06 ± 0.70), while the score of information quality was the highest, with an average score of 4.36(SD 0.83) out of 5. Male patients were shown to more readily accept mobile health applications, with their perception of system quality being 0.27 higher than female ones (95% CI 0.00 ~ 0.52; P < .05). Patients with 1-5 years hypertension histories assessed the system (95% CI 0.03 ~ 0.63; P < .05), information (95% CI 0.11 ~ 0.65; P < .05), and service quality (95% CI 0.00 ~ 0.47; P < .05) higher than those with hypertension histories > 10 years. Elderly patients who regularly visited primary hospitals assessed the information quality 0.13 higher (95% CI -0.08 ~ 0.34; P < .05) than those visited tertiary hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: These findings have significant implications for theoretical and practical research on mobile health application quality evaluation, which will be helpful for policymakers and mobile health providers in improving the context and utilisation of mobile health to include elderly users. More mobile health applications attributes, such as timely information and interactive services that meet the characteristics of elderly patients with different mental and health demands need to be considered. Deeply embedding mobile health into primary health services is recommended to help increase the perceived quality of mobile health, and ensure the continuous use.

Are air quality perception and PM2.5 exposure differently associated with cardiovascular and respiratory disease mortality in Brussels? Findings from a census-based study.

BACKGROUND: There is ample evidence that air pollution increases mortality risk, but most studies are based on modelled estimates of air pollution, while the subjective perception of air quality is scarcely assessed. We aimed to compare the effects of objective and subjective exposure to air pollution on cardiorespiratory mortality in Brussels, Belgium. METHODS: Data consisted of the 2001 Belgian census linked to registry-based mortality data for the follow-up period 2001-2014. We included individuals aged >30 years of age residing in Brussels at baseline (2001). Air pollution exposure was assessed with objective (modelled annual mean concentrations of PM2.5 in micrograms per cubic metre, µg/m3) and subjective indicators (poor self-reported air quality perception in the census). We used Cox Proportional Hazard models with age as the underlying time scale to evaluate associations with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and respiratory disease mortality, and separately, ischaemic heart disease (IHD), cerebrovascular disease, and COPD excluding asthma mortality. We specified single- and two-exposure models and evaluated effect modification by neighbourhood unemployment rate. RESULTS: 437,340 individuals were included at baseline. During follow-up (2001-2014), 22,821 (5%) individuals had died from CVDs and 8572 (2%) from respiratory diseases. In single-exposure models, PM2.5 was significantly associated with an increased risk in CVD and IHD mortality (e.g. for IHD, per 5 µg/m3 increase: Hazard Ratio, HR:1.22, 95%CI:1.08-1.37), and poor air quality perception with COPD excluding asthma mortality (HR:1.23, 95%CI:1.15-1.33). Associations remained significant in the two-exposure models, and additionally, perception was associated with respiratory disease mortality. Associations became gradually stronger with increasing neighbourhood unemployment rate [e.g. in the highest, Q3: PM2.5 and cerebrovascular disease mortality (HR:1.53, 95%CI:1.04-2.24)]. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that objective and subjective exposure to air pollution increased the risk of dying from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases respectively in Brussels. These results encourage policies reducing pollution load in Brussels whilst considering socio-economic inequalities.

Can new healthy luxury food products accelerate short food supply chain formation via social media marketing in high-income countries?

Social media marketing is a promising tool for successful product placement of new healthy luxury food products, a subcategory of superfoods. Despite its growing popularity, no studies have investigated how social media marketing affects consumers' quality perception process for such superfoods and whether this provides opportunities for farmers to gain a competitive advantage in direct marketing channels. Therefore, we integrate media richness theory into the food quality guidance model, compile a data set of 697 German fruit consumers from May to June 2020, and analyze this sample via partial least square analysis. Results show that social media marketing is a viable tool for new healthy luxury food products if media content is highly experience providing. Furthermore, it offers opportunities for the formation of shorter food supply chains as farmers could, through the provision of engaging social media marketing content, sell new healthy luxury food products directly to the final consumer. This research provides implications to farmers, retailers and policy makers to exploit the social media marketing potential of new healthy luxury food products.

Environmentally related gender health risks: findings from citizen science cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Public engagement in the research of environmental epidemiological problems is becoming an important measure to empower citizens to identify the local environmental and health problems and to explain different environmental exposures affect estimates for males and females. This HORIZON2020 CitieS-Health Kaunas Pilot study examines the relationship between urban built and social environment, health behaviors, and health in men and women. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 1086 18-74-year-old participants residing in 11 districts of Kaunas city, Lithuania. Using GIS, we measured traffic flow, noise, NO2, PM2.5, PM10, and greenness NDVI for the participants' home addresses, determined participants' perceptions of environmental quality, linked this information with personal sociodemographic data, and used multivariate logistic regression to assess the associations with health issues (physician-diagnosed chronic disease and self-rated general health) in men and women. RESULTS: Men and women similar rated the quality of the neighborhood environment, except for air pollution and satisfaction with the public transport in the district. The traffic-related health associations were stronger for women than for men. The prevalence of poor health increased with the increasing age of men and women, yet no significant differences between gender health risks were found in the total sample. Perceived air pollution, irregular visits to green space, and chronic diseases were consistently associated with poor health risks in men and women, yet part-time jobs and low income had a higher impact on women's poor health. CONCLUSIONS: Quality of the built neighborhood, air pollution, irregular visits to the green space, and chronic disease had a joint effect on the magnitude of the prevalence of poor health in men and women. Our results suggest that decreasing air pollution and improving the urban built neighborhood supporting citizens' physical activity in green spaces, might reduce health risks for all.

Fear of COVID-19, emotional exhaustion, and care quality experience in nursing home staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Nursing home staff have been adversely impacted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, facing difficulties in providing patient care. The aim of this study was to explore health workers' perception regarding their own care quality experience in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the second wave of the pandemic, we investigated the relationships between fear of COVID-19 and care quality experiences in nursing homes with emotional exhaustion (EE) as a mediating role. We hypothesized that EE is associated with fear of COVID-19 and care quality experience among nursing home staff. Furthermore, we predicted that EE would mediate the relationships between fear of COVID-19 and care quality experience. METHODS: During the second wave of COVID-19 (October to December 2020), we administered surveys to a large sample of 129 French nursing home staff with a mean age of 38.47 ± 10.31 who were directly and repeatedly exposed to COVID-19. We assessed their emotional exhaustion (EE) and care quality experience in the workplace via subjective indicators using self-reported scales. RESULTS: In the context of COVID-19, low to severe emotional exhaustion levels were found among nursing home staff, and these levels were associated with care quality experience as well as fear of COVID-19. The groups with low and severe levels of EE reported the highest levels of fear of COVID-19. The groups with moderate and severe levels of EE reported the lowest levels of care quality experience. Lastly, the relationships between fear of COVID-19 and care quality experience were mediated by EE. CONCLUSIONS: The findings made by the present study focused on the role of emotional coping responses to COVID-19. EE was associated positively with fear of COVID-19 and negatively with care quality experience. Furthermore, EE was found to mediate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and care quality experience. We discuss these findings as they relate to palliative care issues in nursing homes and the manner in which emotional exhaustion ought to be addressed among nursing home staff.

Percepción del paciente ante el acto anestésico: desarrollo de una encuesta breve en español para medir satisfacción / Patient perception of the anesthetic act: development of a brief survey in Spanish to measure satisfaction

Resumen: Introducción: El desarrollo de encuestas representa un proceso complejo que requiere la verificación de su utilidad antes de su aplicación. A nivel internacional existen pocos instrumentos para medir la percepción de la atención anestésica en cirugías electivas, sin olvidar que, en su mayoría, se crearon en inglés; por lo que el propósito de este estudio fue desarrollar una encuesta breve sobre la atención anestésica como un indicador de calidad en la población mexicana. Material y métodos: Se trata de un estudio cualitativo que implica la fase de la construcción de una encuesta en la que se realizó una revisión de la literatura internacional y local de los instrumentos para medir satisfacción en anestesiología. Posteriormente, se realizaron entrevistas informales aleatorias a 82 pacientes sobre temas asociados al acto anestésico para la construcción de ítems. Resultados: La propuesta incluye 16 ítems divididos en tres secciones correspondientes a las tres valoraciones anestésicas básicas en una cirugía electiva y que exploran seis dominios: trato adecuado, comunicación, autonomía, atención oportuna, efectos secundarios y satisfacción. Conclusiones: La propuesta presentada es un potencial instrumento que podría reflejar la calidad percibida de la atención anestésica en nuestra población, por lo que, para fortalecer este proceso, se requerirá continuar con sus respectivas validaciones.

Abstract: Introduction: Survey development represents a complex process that requires verification of its usefulness before its application. At an international level, there are few instruments to measure the perception of anaesthetic care in elective surgeries, without forgetting that most of them were created in English; therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a brief survey on anaesthetic care as an indicator of quality in the Mexican population. Material and methods: This is a qualitative study that involves the construction phase of a survey in which a review of the international and local literature of the instruments to measure satisfaction in anesthesiology was carried out. Subsequently, informal random interviews were conducted with 82 patients on the most sensitive issues associated with the anaesthetic act for the construction of items. Results: The proposal consists of 16 items divided into three sections corresponding to the three basic anaesthetic evaluations in elective surgery and that explore five domains: communication, autonomy, timely care, adequate treatment, and satisfaction. Conclusions: The proposal made in this project is a potential instrument that could reflect the perceived quality of anaesthetic care in our population, so to strengthen this process it will be necessary to continue with their respective validations.

Pedestrianization Impacts on Air Quality Perceptions and Environment Satisfaction: The Case of Regenerated Streets in Downtown Seoul.

Previous studies have investigated the increased volume of pedestrians to establish success rates of the pedestrian-friendly policy after a street redesign intervention. However, few studies have focused on the effect of street regeneration on air quality perception and user satisfaction. The influence of the physical environment on street vitality may vary, depending on area context and regional factors. A comprehensive understanding of effective interventions could increase pedestrians' satisfaction with their walking environment. This study examines the effect of pedestrianization on individuals' air quality perception and satisfaction, based on three regenerated streets in Seoul, Korea. We analyzed data from 672 questionnaires administered after the pedestrianization project. We used a subset of variables in a binary logistic regression model to understand general determinants of user satisfaction toward their walking environment. Our case study contributes to the verification of pedestrianization effects on air quality perceptions. Results show that overall satisfaction could be acquired through positive perceptions of air quality, as achieved through pedestrianization of streets. Moreover, pedestrian satisfaction varies according to the purpose, activities and health-related behaviors and attitudes. The interrelationships between environmental health, activity, satisfaction and quality of life provide design insights to consider when implementing pedestrianization projects in the future.

Effects of Environmental Quality Perception on Depression: Subjective Social Class as a Mediator.

Although the relationship between environment and public depression has aroused heated debate, the empirical research on the relationship between environmental quality perception and public depression is still relatively insufficient. This paper aims to explore the influence of environmental quality perception on public depression and the mediating role of subjective social class between environmental quality perception and public depression. Using the China Family Panel Studies data of 2016 for empirical analysis, this study's results show that environmental quality perception has a significant effect on public depression and subjective social class also has a significant effect on public depression. In addition, we found that subjective social class can play a partial mediating role between environmental quality perception and public depression, and the intermediary effect only comes from the contribution of the perception of living environmental quality, not the perception of overall environmental quality. That is to say, the perception of living environment quality deeply affects the subjective social class, and then induces public depression. In order to alleviate the relationship between environmental quality and public depression, it is recommended that the state environmental protection department and civil affairs department strengthen the improvement of public living environment so as to promote individual subjective social class and reduce the risk of public depression. Moreover, it is suggested that research with longitudinal design and comprehensive indicators be undertaken in the future.

Research investigating individual device preference and e-learning quality perception: can a one-solution-fits-all e-learning solution work?

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 caused a paradigm shift for educators, and raised many questions about the future of technology in the delivery of educational content. Literature highlights numerous benefits of using e-learning solutions, yet many still consider 'online learning' as the cheap/'low-quality' alternative to traditional 'face-to-face' models. In this research we ask two questions that are critical to the effective development of future e-learning solutions: Do students prefer face-to-face (traditional) learning methods or e-learning technology enabled solutions? Does perception of e-learning, and/or device preference, vary between individuals? METHODS: A three part, quantitative questionnaire was developed, based on previously used questionnaire items, which collected: demographic data, student preference concerning learning, and individual variance - via use of the Cultural Value (CV) Scale dimension test. Data was collected from 518 participants using convenience sampling from a range of universities in Pakistan. EFA and CFA showed that questions and factor loading was good. CV Scale results show clear loading and model fit at the individual level, allowing application of results beyond Pakistan. RESULTS: By considering the CV Scale dimensions, our results highlighted three distinct technology preference clusters: i) students, with a high-power distance score, who prefer traditional face-to-face teaching methods; ii) students with low power distance and high uncertainty avoidance scores, who prefer use of e-learning on their mobile devices, and iii) students with low power distance and low uncertainty avoidance scored, who prefer to use laptop devices. CONCLUSIONS: This paper highlights that the majority of students are happy to engage with online blended learning solutions, however a one-solution fits all approach to technology use in education fail to satisfy the interaction preferences need of all student groups. Only by embracing flexible and mixed blend delivery models, supporting interaction across a range of pervasive devices, can we maximize student perception towards education service provision.

Exploring barriers to consuming suboptimal foods: A consumer perspective.

Food suboptimality is one of the major driving factors of food waste at the consumer level. Consumer decision to purchase a suboptimal food strongly depends on the associations raised by the suboptimality. In this context, the aim of the current study was to study the influence of different types of suboptimality on consumer associations, emotional reactions, perceived quality dimensions, and purchase intention. An online study with 600 Uruguayan participants was conducted. Results showed that the presence of a suboptimality triggered associations about quality issues and negative emotional reactions. The effect of suboptimality varied with categories and type of suboptimality. Regarding perceived quality, a significant reduction in perceived quality and purchase intention was found for products with damaged packages and defective fresh produce. At the aggregate level, consumers showed a slightly higher intention to purchase the products when a 50% discount was considered. In summary, results from the present work suggest that communication strategies aimed at increasing the perceived quality of suboptimal foods and pricing tactics could contribute to reduce food waste at the store level.

Investigating the roles of age, sex, depression, and anxiety for valence and arousal ratings of words: a population-based study.

BACKGROUND: The perception of the affective quality of stimuli with regard to valence and arousal has mostly been studied in laboratory experiments. Population-based research may complement such studies by accessing larger, older, better balanced, and more heterogeneous samples. Several characteristics, among them age, sex, depression, or anxiety, were found to be associated with affective quality perception. Here, we intended to transfer valence and arousal rating methods from experimental to population-based research. Our aim was to assess the feasibility of obtaining and determining the structure of valence and arousal ratings in the setting of the large observational BiDirect Study. Moreover, we explored the roles of age, sex, depression, and anxiety for valence and arousal ratings of words. METHODS: 704 participants provided valence and arousal ratings for 12 written nouns pre-categorized as unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant. Predictors of valence and arousal ratings (i.e. age, sex, depression, and anxiety) were analyzed for six outcomes that emerge by combining two affective dimensions with three words categories. Data were modeled with multiple linear regression. Relative predictor importance was quantified by model-explained variance decomposition. RESULTS: Overall, average population-based ratings replicated those found in laboratory settings. The model did not reach statistical significance in the valence dimension. In the arousal dimension, the model explained 5.4% (unpleasant), 4.6% (neutral), and 3.5% (pleasant) of the variance. (Trend) effects of sex on arousal ratings were found in all word categories (unpleasant: increased arousal in women; neutral, pleasant: decreased arousal in women). Effects of age and anxiety (increased arousal) were restricted to the neutral words. CONCLUSIONS: We report results of valence and arousal ratings of words in the setting of a large, observational, population-based study. Method transfer yielded acceptable data quality. The analyses demonstrated small effects of the selected predictors in the arousal dimension.

Game Meat Consumption-Conscious Choice or Just a Game?

Game meat is constantly present on the European meat market, but a limited number of consumers are interested in its consumption. Considering the unique features of wild animal meat, we should explore what pushes consumers to include it in their diet. To identify the motives determining the choice of game meat, a quantitative survey based on the computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) method was conducted among 450 participants. The statistical analysis based on the logistic regression model allowed us to assess the significance of emotional motives leading to game eating and to investigate the importance of the rational motives related to the quality attributes of game for consumers. It was shown that rational motives influence the consumers' choice more than emotional factors, while the most important motives are connected with healthcare issues. Consumers, for whom the crucial attributes of quality are taste, nutritional value, and low fat content, constitute a group that might more often include game in their diet in the future. Among the emotional motives, the familiarity, described as a feeling of knowing the product, also has a statistically significant impact on the consumers' choice. The results obtained may be useful for academic theoreticians and market experts as well.

Interobserver variability in quality assessment of magnetic resonance images.

BACKGROUND: The perceptual quality of magnetic resonance (MR) images influences diagnosis and may compromise the treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how the image quality changes influence the interobserver variability of their assessment. METHODS: For the variability evaluation, a dataset containing distorted MRI images was prepared and then assessed by 31 experienced medical professionals (radiologists). Differences between observers were analyzed using the Fleiss' kappa. However, since the kappa evaluates the agreement among radiologists taking into account aggregated decisions, a typically employed criterion of the image quality assessment (IQA) performance was used to provide a more thorough analysis. The IQA performance of radiologists was evaluated by comparing the Spearman correlation coefficients, ρ, between individual scores with the mean opinion scores (MOS) composed of the subjective opinions of the remaining professionals. RESULTS: The experiments show that there is a significant agreement among radiologists (κ=0.12; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.118, 0.121; P<0.001) on the quality of the assessed images. The resulted κ is strongly affected by the subjectivity of the assigned scores, separately presenting close scores. Therefore, the ρ was used to identify poor performance cases and to confirm the consistency of the majority of collected scores (ρmean = 0.5706). The results for interns (ρmean = 0.6868) supports the finding that the quality assessment of MR images can be successfully taught. CONCLUSIONS: The agreement observed among radiologists from different imaging centers confirms the subjectivity of the perception of MR images. It was shown that the image content and severity of distortions affect the IQA. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of the psychosomatic condition of the observers and their attitude.

Evaluation of an Alimentary Education Intervention on School Canteen Waste at a Primary School in Bari, Italy.

The "Love Food, Not Waste" project was conducted to train students on good food choices and evaluate food waste in school canteens. Teachers, parents and students were surveyed before and after training. Weights of both the served and wasted food were recorded for one week both before the educational intervention in February 2019 and after the educational intervention in March 2019, using the same menu. Students completed a food satisfaction questionnaire on the days the data were collected. For the first dish, the mean wastes per school were 1199 g before training and 1054 g after training. For the second dish, the mean wastes per school were 246 g before training and 220 g after training. For the side course, the means wastes per school were 663 g before training and 747 g after training. The results did not significantly differ among weeks or schools. Less food was wasted when boys judged the food's general aspects like smell, taste and appearance as positive; more food was wasted when girls judged these factors as negative. Food waste monitoring is mandatory but does not always occur. Analyzing food waste relative to students' food perceptions can help determine whether educational interventions can help reduce waste. Students' satisfaction must also be considered.

Out of sight, out of mind: participatory sensing for monitoring indoor air quality.

In southern Chile, epidemiological studies have linked high levels of air pollution produced by the use of wood-burning stoves with the incidence of numerous diseases. Using a quasi-experimental design, this study explores the potential of participatory sensing strategies to transform experiences, perceptions, attitudes, and daily routine activities in 15 households equipped with wood-burning stoves in the city of Temuco, Chile. The results suggest that the experience of using a low-cost sensor improves household members' awareness levels of air pollution. However, the information provided by the sensors does not seem to improve the participants' self-efficacy to control air quality and protect themselves from pollution. The high degree of involvement with the participatory sensing experience indicates that the distribution of low-cost sensors could be a key element in the risk communication policies.