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Popularity of infill development is increasing because of the environmental benefits and cost saving potential it provides, which relate to the possibility to use existing infrastructure and services. However, the impact of infill development on value of existing properties has not been studied to a sufficient extent. Therefore, the aim of our study is to analyse whether infill development affects the prices of existing apartments. We carried out statistical analysis based on data from seven case neighbourhoods, and prices of more than 6000 housing transactions from one decade. The results of our analysis do not support the hypothesis of infill development affecting positively existing housing prices, but neither did the study show a significant negative effect. Both amenity effect and negative externalities may provide explanations as to why property values do not change due to infill development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For older populations, improved ready-made meal packaging may potentially contribute to adequate nutritional intakes, and in turn facilitate maintenance of independent living. Consequently, a deeper understanding of the features of ready-made meal packages important for older people is a step towards this goal. Features of ready-made meal packaging appreciated by ‘current’ (aged 65 ≥ years) and ‘future’ (aged 55–64 years) seniors were studied as an internet survey in Finland (n = 764) and in the Netherlands (n = 457). Only minor significant differences were found between these two senior groups. The four packaging features most valued by both the Finnish and Dutch consumers were: easy readability, easy disposability and recyclability, visibility of the contents, and easy opening. These features were basically the same regardless of age group, gender or country. Older people did not show interest either in multi-packages or in eating meals directly from the package. Future senior men frequently using ready-made meals were identified as a promising target segment for the development and marketing of novel ready-made meals. More generally, special attention should be paid in package design to age-relevant features, such as easy opening and easy-to-read information, and the impact of culture-specific translation of the features into packaging design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the chapter is to explore the relation between women's healthy eating intention and food attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and barriers with a focus on the effect of women's income differences. Methodology/approach: The research applies the Theory of Planned Behavior, including attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived barriers, and ability opportunity resources. Close-ended survey responses of 704 women between ages 25 and 65 years, affluent and at-risk-of-poverty women in three EU-member countries were analyzed. Findings: Women are mostly positively inclined towards healthy eating, and income does not differentiate women's inclination. Influencing factors are perceived behavioral control, attitudes towards healthy eating, subjective norms, and level of knowledge regarding healthy food. Barriers, when present, are similar for lower or higher income women and relate to routinized family habits and food affordability and availability. Research limitations/implications: Future research should thoroughly investigate family network and structure features, with a focus on family food preferences and habits. Social and practical implications: Encouraging women's healthy behavior also impacts children and men, and vice-versa. There is need to target all family components with enjoyable, self-rewarding, emotionally gratifying, and pleasant tasting food. Originality/value: Income is an overestimated driver in healthy food choices. Women are strongly influenced by personal and environmental factors, mainly personal control, feelings, and family habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Massively Multiplayer Online Games create concerns for the health and well-being of young adults. The purpose of the article is to give a deeper insight into online game players' ethical thinking and how playing online games affects their daily lives and relationships with others in the real world. Method: Data are collected from ten qualitative research interviews in Norway. The article contributes with two philosophical interpretations of the young people's stories: the fundamental ethics of Emmanuel Levinas and Pragmatic Aesthetics. Findings: Online gaming can be a momentary aesthetic escape from reality, but players can become morally constrained when their behaviour affects those close to them. Constant conflict due to excessive gaming can cause them to retreat further into the game as an escape from real-world pressures. Conclusion: Moral responsibility is not only the young person's concern. The diversity of moral concerns needs to be acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In recent years, a growing number of consumers in Finland have started to show interest in the origin of the foods they eat. Although the concept of local food has been launched to describe food produced near the consumer, it is not yet well-defined and consumers may understand it in different ways. The aim of the study was to establish the personal values, meanings and specific benefits consumers relate to local food products by comparing two different qualitative interview techniques: laddering and word association methods. Product names, presented as cards for participants, were used as stimulus material. In the word association (n =25), four product categories (general term, fresh pork meat, marinated pork slices, and pork sausage) and of four types of production method or production location (locally, organically, conventionally and intensively produced) were presented. In laddering (n =30), the production methods were the same as in the word association method, with the exception that there were only two product categories, instead of four. The content analysis of the participants’ responses resulted in very similar categories in both studies, such as “quality”, “locality”, “vitality of rural areas”, “short transportation distances”, “freshness”, and “animal well-being”. Only the laddering study, however, revealed cognitive structures, i.e., links between such constructs as “short transport” and “animal welfare”. Word association was found to be an efficient and rapid method for gathering information on consumer perceptions of local foods. Laddering interviews, which were time-consuming and required laborious analysis, provided us with important information on the relationship between perceived attributes and the reasons for choices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

D- and z-values for a mixture of four Listeria monocytogenes strains originating from the roe of different fish species were determined in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) roe. The D60- and D63-values obtained were 1.60 and 0.44 min, respectively, and the z-value was 5.36°C accordingly. In pilot-scale experiments, rainbow trout roe (100 g) was vacuum packaged into glass jars and pasteurized both at 62 and 65°C for 10 min. These treatments were enough to destroy 108 CFU/ g of L. monocytogenes cells, which was the highest possible Listeria cell count to grow in roe. On the basis of the determined z-value and calculation of pasteurization values, these experimental pasteurizations were found to theoretically destroy at least 45 log units of L. monocytogenes cells in rainbow trout roe. In addition, these pasteurization treatments did not significantly affect the sensory quality of the roe. The sensory quality of pasteurized vacuum-packaged rainbow trout roe stored at 3°C was evaluated as good after 6 months of storage and not statistically different from the control that was frozen from the same roe lot as the pasteurized roe samples. Pasteurization of rainbow trout roe was proven to be an appropriate method for ensuring product safety with regard to L. monocytogenes and to stabilizing the sensory and microbial quality of roe. However, the safety risk caused by spore-forming bacteria still exists in pasteurized roe. Therefore, it has to be stored below 3°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in retail roe, as well as the microbiological and sensory qualities of the roe, were studied for three fish species under three different storage conditions. A total of 147 Finnish rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus), vendace (Coregonus albula), and burbot (Lota lota) roe samples were bought fresh, frozen, or frozen-thawed from Finnish retail markets. The overall prevalence of L. monocytogenes was 5%; however, the prevalence of the pathogen in fresh roe was 18%. Fresh-bought roe tested positive for Listeria spp. and for L. monocytogenes, respectively, 5 and 20 times as often as did frozen and frozen-thawed roe products combined. The microbiological quality (analyzed as total aerobic heterotrophic bacteria and coliform bacteria) of 78% of the roe samples was unacceptable. Frozen roe samples were found to have the best microbiological quality. According to the results of a sensory evaluation, at least one sensory attribute (appearance, odor freshness, texture, and freshness of taste) was unacceptable for 29% of the roe samples studied. The sensory quality of roe samples bought fresh was better than that of roe samples bought frozen or frozen-thawed. From the results of this study, it is concluded that both the microbiological and the sensory qualities of roe at the retail level need to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the effect of three different cooling methods on the sensory and microbiological quality of Baltic herring. Use of the conventional, ice and pre-cooled sea water mix and ice and pre-cooled sodium chloride mix methods; Analysis of fish skin swab samples to obtain microbiological quality; Evaluation of sensory qualities by eight member panel; Use of hierarchical analyses of variance to determine quality.

Food irradiation technologies offer benefits in relation to food safety and quality, but consumers hold adverse associations of the irradiation technologies with nuclear energy and radioactivity. Two independent studies (Study 1: N = 600, Study 2: N = 600) were carried out, each involving Finnish, German and Spanish consumers, with the aim of analysing if information on irradiation technologies (Study 1) and the different benefits of low-energy electron beam (LEEB) irradiation technology (Study 2) delivered through a product label affects consumer acceptance of irradiated blueberries. Results from Study 1 show that consumer acceptance is highest with those products which exclude explicit irradiation information on the product label. Results from Study 2 show that the acceptance of products with some benefit of LEEB technology on the product label is higher than those products with no benefit at all. Overall, both studies suggest that consumer acceptance of irradiated foods can be improved through careful introduction of food irradiation information on product labels. • Acceptance of irradiated blueberries was studied in Finland, Germany and Spain. • Products without an explicit irradiation message were the most accepted. • Information about irradiation benefits increases consumer acceptance. • Spanish were most positive and Germans most sceptical toward irradiated products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose At a European level, Italy experiences one of the highest percentages of population at risk of poverty (AROP). However, studies on this consumer segment are scarce. The paper aims at investigating the food behaviours of Italian female consumers, distinguishing similarities and differences due to age and level of income. Design/methodology/approach The investigation adopted an inductive approach in order to analyse and confirm the determinants of food behaviours. Data were collected through four focus groups. Data elaboration included content analyses with term frequency–inverse document frequency index and multidimensional scaling technique.Findings The food behaviours of Italian female consumers are based on a common set of semantic categories and theoretical dimensions that are coherent with those applied by previous studies. The age of consumers impacts the relevance attributed to the categories and income contributes to the explanation of the conceptual relations among the categories that determine food behaviours. The approach to food of younger and mature consumers AROP is strongly driven by constraints such as price and time. The study did not confirm a link between a poor health attitude and low socio-economic status.Research limitations/implications The outcomes achieved can be strengthened by quantitative analyses to characterise the relations occurring among the factors and dimensions that influence the food behaviours of consumers AROP.Originality/value The study increases knowledge about Italian female consumers and provides an initial contribution to the analysis of the food behaviour of the population AROP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The number of units and especially the number of different HLA haplotypes present in a cord blood (CB) bank is a crucial determinant of its usefulness. We generated data relevant to the development of our national CB in Finland. The HLA haplotype distribution was examined between specific populations. We developed graphical ways of data presentation that enable easy visualization of differences. First, we estimated the optimal size of a CB bank for Finland and found that approximately 1700units are needed to provide a 5/6 HLA-matched donor for 80% of Finnish patients. Secondly, we evaluated HLA haplotype distributions between four locations, Finland, Japan, Sweden and Belgium. Our results showed that the Japanese Tokyo Cord Blood Bank differs in both the frequency and distribution of haplotypes from the European banks. The European banks (Finnish Cord Blood Registry, The Swedish National Cord Blood Bank, and Marrow Donor Program-Belgium) have similar frequencies of common haplotypes, but 26% of the haplotypes in the Finnish CB bank are unique, which justifies the existence of a national bank. The tendency to a homogenous HLA haplotype distribution in banks underlines the need for targeting recruitment at the poorly represented minority populations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

European consumers, in general, have negative attitudes towards the use of gene technology in food production. The objective of this study was to examine whether taste and health benefits influence the acceptability of genetically modified (gm) products when they are presented as real product alternatives. Consumers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden (n=738) assessed two cheeses: one was labelled as genetically modified (preferred in an earlier product test) and the other as conventional (neutral in an earlier product test). A smaller control group received two cheeses with blind codes. Labelling decreased consumers'' intentions to buy the originally preferred gm-labelled cheese, but still the intentions were at the same level with the conventionally labelled option. Participants chose two gm cheeses out of five possible when given the option to take cheese home after tasting. Intentions to buy gm cheese could best be explained by respondents'' attitudes towards gene technology and perceived taste benefits. General health interest was also a reinforcer of intentions for gm cheese with reduced fat content. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]