Search

Roots, tubers and cooking bananas are bulky and highly perishable. In Africa, except for yams, their consumption is mainly after transport, peeling and cooking in the form of boiled pieces or dough, a few days after harvest. To stabilize and better preserve the products and, in the case of cassava, release toxic cyanogenic glucosides, a range of intermediate products have been developed, mainly for cassava, related to fermentation and drying after numerous processing operations. This review highlights, for the first time, the impact of genotypes on labour requirements, productivity and the associated drudgery in processing operations primarily carried out by women processors. Peeling, soaking/grinding/fermentation, dewatering, sieving and toasting steps were evaluated on a wide range of new hybrids and traditional landraces. The review highlights case studies of gari production from cassava. The results show that, depending on the genotypes used, women's required labour can be more than doubled and even the sum of the weights transported along the process can be up to four times higher for the same quantity of end product. Productivity and loads carried between each processing operation are highly influenced by root shape, ease of peeling, dry matter content and/or fiber content. Productivity and the often related experienced drudgery are key factors to be considered for a better acceptance of new genotypes by actors in the value‐addition chain, leading to enhanced adoption and ultimately to improved livelihoods for women processors. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cultivated plant species have been classified scientifically and named using binomial nomenclature. However, the current level of understanding by primary school teachers on classification and binomial nomenclature of cultivated plants as well as the extents of inclusion of the plants in the school's curriculum have not yet been explored. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess how well primary school teachers understand the classification and binomial nomenclature of cultivated plants, as well as how many of these kinds of plants are available in Nekemte marketing segments and included in the curriculum of primary schools. Materials and Methods: To gather data concerning teachers' knowledge on classification, binomial nomenclature, and species lists, an exploratory sequential descriptive type design was implemented. A total of 44 teachers from 11 primary schools who were selected at random using the lottery method were participants in the study. Three market segments, few gardens, volumes of Flora books and primary school textbooks were also purposely referred to as data sources. The design followed was exploratory sequential descriptive type in which qualitative data were collected first followed by gathering quantitative data. Results: The total species reviewed from Flora, market survey, previous and pilot student textbooks were 112, 99, 50 and 43 respectively. The 99 surveyed plant species were identified under 79 genera, 36 families, 26 orders and two classes. Comparison of mean differences obtained from analysis of variance were found significance at F 0.05 (2, 15) and P = 0.029 as well as at F 0.05 (3, 172) and P = 6.4 x 10-24 for the measured variables. Conclusion: The study indicated that the sampled participants' knowledge gaps were wide. Only one out of four of them had the necessary knowledge on the topic. Statistical tests proved this finding to be significant at α = 0.05. The results imply that actions need to be taken right away by curriculum developers, policy makers, teacher educators and other concerned bodies to reduce the indicated wide knowledge gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses users with different lifestyles and consumer behaviour, and then segments wooden door users with different consumer preferences, to inspire wooden door companies in their product design and further research on wooden doors. In this paper, a wooden door user research questionnaire was created based on Lifestyle Theory and Consumer Behaviour Theory, and data collection was completed at Nanjing Forestry University. The collected data were analysed using cluster analysis, factor analysis, cross-over analysis, and other analysis methods. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to simplify the analysis model and process the data, and finally the wooden door users were divided into four categories. The categories were trendy home users, budget-conscious sensible users, basic needs users, and impulsive enjoyable users. Male users were found to be more likely to be "trendy home users" and "impulsive enjoyable users," while female users were more likely to be "budget-conscious sensible users" and "trendy home users." For the number of users, the "trendy home users" were the most numerous, followed by the "budget-conscious sensible users." The age of wooden door users in this study was mainly distributed between 21 to 30 years old, of which "freelancers" accounted for the highest percentage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in complexity of real problems, more and more, the decision makers are involved remarkably in the decision-making processes. It is required more efficient technique or tool to give reliable outcomes. This paper proposes a new dissimilarity measure on picture fuzzy sets. A multi-criteria decision-making problem is utilized to apply this new measure to select the optimal alternative. Finally, an example uses the proposed measure to evaluate and select the optimal market segment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research used a survey of 995 US households to explore how dairy milk and plant-based beverage substitutes were consumed. Long-term trends of declining beverage milk consumption have been exacerbated in recent years by increasing consumption of plant-based beverages. Although beverage milk consumption has been declining, total dairy consumption in the United States continues to increase, driven by growth in sales of cheese, butter, and yogurt. Using k -means cluster analysis, 3 consumption clusters for US households were identified. The largest cluster, consisting of 61.6% of households, consumed dairy milk with some regularity and consumed little or no plant-based beverages. A second cluster, flexitarian households, consisting of 15.6% of respondent households, frequently consumed both dairy milk and plant-based beverages. The third cluster, plant-based consumers, consisting of 22.8% of households, consumed almost exclusively plant-based beverages. Examining differences in demographics between clusters, flexitarian households were larger, more likely to include young children, more likely to include a vegetarian or vegan, and more liberal than traditional dairy-consuming households. Plant-based households had many similarities to flexitarian households. The flexitarian and plant-based clusters were willing to substitute plant-based beverages for dairy milk for almost all consumption uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries have main pipeline systems that deliver hydrocarbon deposits from fields to their places of consumption and for export. Pipelines during operation require constant maintenance, industrial safety monitoring, repair, and protection. An accident there entails significant loss of product, additional financial costs, tangible environmental damage, and, in some cases, loss of life. To prevent it, it is necessary to use various types of monitoring, including aerospace. In addition to existing control methods, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) of a helicopter type with a long flight range can become a modern high-tech tool for solving problems of monitoring main pipelines. For a helicopter manufacturing enterprise, this is a new perspective area in diversifying its production and commercial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) problem is an effective tool for translating the customer's voice into product characteristics, which reduces production costs and improves customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a new similarity measure based on the concept of interval neutrosophic sets and propose a novel decision making model that combines QFD and similarity measure to evaluate and select market segments. The interval neutrosophic set is used to express the importance of criteria WHATs, technical characteristics HOWs, correlations of WHATs and HOWs and the aggregated rating of each market segment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the report is to presents a model for profit optimization and management, which takes into account both the quantity of sales, prices, costs and other factors, as well as new factors related to market and competitors - market share, prices, quality and marketing costs of competitors and others. There are listed features, limitations and advantages of the model. For more clarity, the presentation of the model is accompanied by two main types of tasks related to optimal prices, strategies and costs for the industrial enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of the target market plays vital role in promoting the marketing strategies of companies. We presented is a method for target market selection. We introduce some novel similarity measures between intuitionistic fuzzy sets and the novel similarity measures between interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets. They are constructed by combining exponential and other functions. Finally, we introduce a multi-criteria decision making model to select target market by using the novel similarity measure of interval intuitionistic fuzzy sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of buyer's market, making pricing decision of closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) from consumers' perspective and analyzing the effect of market changes on pricing decision can provide guidance for supply chain members to timely response to market changes and enrich the research on CLSC pricing decision-making. Considering ordinary and green consumers have different willingness to pay for new, remanufactured and second-hand products, and then market could be divided into different segments based on consumers' preference for remanufactured and second-hand products. Under different market segments, a CLSC pricing model was established, and effects of changes in the consumer market structure and consumers' preference for remanufactured and second-hand products on CLSC were investigated. This study shows that:as the proportion of green consumers increases, the prices of new and remanufactured products will remain unchanged or increase, and the second-hand product's price will remain unchanged or decrease; as ordinary consumers' preference for the remanufactured product increases, the prices of new and second-hand products will remain unchanged or decrease, and the remanufactured product's price will remain unchanged or increase; as ordinary consumers' preference for the second-hand product increases, the new product's price will decrease, the second-hand product's price will increase, and the remanufactured product's price will remain unchanged or decrease. Increasing the ratio of green consumers or raising ordinary consumers' preference for the remanufactured product can promote the recycling of low quality wastes and the profit of CLSC. Increasing consumers' preference for the second-hand product can promote the recycling of high quality wastes, but it would have an adverse impact on the CLCS's profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Users of autonomous taxi market are investigated. • Latent class analysis is employed to identify three heterogeneous classes. • Socio-demographic and household characteristics as well as current travel behavior contribute to the prediction of class membership. • Users' perceptions of the benefits and risks of autonomous driving vary across different latent classes. Autonomous vehicle (AV) is considered a promising mode of transport that has been tested and deployed in various cities worldwide. However, research on how AVs will transform the field of transportation has been hindered by the heavy reliance on attitude measurements and the need for responses from the public who can better represent the future. This study investigates the autonomous taxi market in Huangpu District, Guangzhou, China, where paid and publicly available autonomous taxi service has been in operation for more than a year. This study analyzes 1,158 responses from pioneering and prospective users of autonomous taxi service. Latent class analysis is used to segment autonomous taxi users into classes to reveal the differences in their views on the potential uses of AVs. This study identifies three latent classes: neutral and diverse travelers , conservative and strict travelers , and open and enjoying traveler s. Results show that sociodemographic characteristics, household characteristics, and current travel behavior affect the class membership in various means. In addition, users' perceptions of the benefits and risks of autonomous driving vary across different latent classes. Findings from this study will help improve the quality of autonomous taxi service by enabling customized service based on mobility propensities. This study will also provide insights to help with future vehicle design and transportation policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Korean Wave, better known as Hallyu, has taken advantage of the current globalization to expand itself all over the world. This Korean entertainment products fever has K-Pop --Korean pop music-- as one of its pillars. Undoubtedly, K-Pop is charming thousands of music lovers all around the world due to its high quality, versatility, freshness and outstanding production. Mexican music lovers have also felt in love with K-Pop, in spite of the long distance and language difference between both countries. In this regard, throughout this research, the emergence of a particular market segment identified with K-Pop in Mexico shall be analyzed in depth. This based on statistical evidence obtained through an ad hoc survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the website modernization strategy: its design, number of areas for selling pages, presence of drop- menu and prompts, design of selling pages, their colors, brightness, etc. The main aim of research is to develop methods for evaluating the effectiveness of different strategies for upgrading the website to increase sales and simulation of conversion control systems. Set of critical parameters that affect the sales growth is defined. To keep the interest of customers website design is periodically updated and modernized (new services in the form of «hot» keys, tips and on-line consultations are added). Selecting the modernization strategy should be carried out for efficiency reasons, optimizing the ratio «upgrade costs — increasing the number of sales». Modernization strategies for different segments of potential customers and the different product groups differ. This article discusses the most popular site modernization strategy: change in the number of areas for selling pages, change the color and size of areas for selling pages, add drop- menu. The developed method allows predicting the change in the level of Internet shop sales for each of the three proposed strategies for upgrading the website. The authors estimated weighting factors of influence of changes in various areas to increase the conversion; analyzed the effectiveness of demand management systems, presented additional profit-capital ratio for improving the selling pages. The research results can be used by developers involved in the field of web design, as well as in the design of demand management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Most travel behaviour studies that seek to promote cycling define market segments based on socio-demographics, travel mode use or attitudes. They do not address the stages of change process in travel behaviour, whereas this information can be instrumental in influencing travel behaviour change. This paper adopts the stages of change model to identify potential cycling market segments and to analyse and profile each of the market segments based on socio-economic factors, current travel behaviour, attitudes, perceptions and motivations. A survey was conducted among 620 individual regular commuters in the city of Dar-es-Salaam. On the basis of cycling behaviour attitudinal-variable statements, as developed from the stages of change model, the survey data were classified in six different segments: pre-contemplation, contemplation, prepared for action, action, maintenance and relapse. The study revealed that the different segments have different needs and are motivated by different factors suggesting that they need to be treated in different ways. These market segments can have important implications for designing cycling policies and promotional strategies that best serve the needs of each segment. The results indicate that urban policies and marketing strategies which aim to promote bicycle use may first target the contemplation, prepared for action and action segments that are most motivated to change and willing to cycle. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The safety of 15-passenger vans had become a concern of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration when a review of crash data indicated the vehicle had an increase in the probability of fatal rollover based on an increase in number of passengers. By 2001 the first of a series of advisories and consumer warnings had been issued. The reaction of various market segments was swift with some states passing legislation prohibiting the transportation of school-aged children in 15-passenger vans, and some university systems eliminating the vehicles from their fleets. Other market segments, such as vanpoolers and rural transit providers, reacted differently to these advisories. These market segments based their response to the advisories on the safety records of their agencies, which indicated their experienced drivers had few if any incidences with 15-passenger vans. A case study of the Tennessee Vans Program is presented to illustrate one organizational response to the vehicle rollover issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Social marketing uses marketing principles and techniques to induce a target audience to voluntary accept, reject, change or abandon a behaviour for the benefit of individuals, groups, or society as a whole. Thus, individual or societal gain is the primary goal of social marketing. This kind of marketing is frequently used in the United States or in Canada in several fields such as healthcare, social work, or the environment. In 2008, we introduced these strategies and techniques in the field of blood donation in France. This article describes what has been achieved in the last three years and outlines the main steps in the social marketing planning process: analyzing the social marketing environment, defining target audiences and objectives, building and implementing strategies and action plans, evaluating and monitoring. On the way to self-sufficiency, while respecting donors, social marketing is additional to the work done by the blood collection staffs, communication teams, and volunteers. Social marketing is a complementary tool to the work done by the blood collection staff, communication teams and blood donation organizations and can help to meet the challenge of self-sufficiency while still allowing for the privacy and rights of donors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this empirical study is to identify the underlying dimensions of exhibition attendance motivations from the perspective of exhibition attendees. Using delineated motivational factors, this study then compares attendees' perceptions of motivational factors in two major market segments: trade and public shows. A total of 302 attendee responses were collected at various exhibitions held in Hong Kong. The results of this empirical research indicate that there are five motivational factors in exhibition attendance, of which information search and market investigation are the two most important motivators. A market segment comparison shows that trade show attendees' motivations are significantly greater than those of public show attendees across all five factors. The managerial implications for exhibition organizers and exhibitors are discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing literature supports the view that there is a connection between tourism and gastronomy. However, there is little empirical evidence, to show for example, whether or not there is a gastronomy-tourism market segment. Or, does destination's gastronomy contribute to the tourists' quality of experiences while visiting, the destination? And, do tourists return to the destination to resample its cuisine? This study was undertaken in Hong Kong which, according to some is a city-destination that offers unique and diverse gastronomy. The results of the study provide evidence, suggesting that motivation to travel for gastronomy reasons is a reasonably valid construct for use for market segmentation purposes. Also, the results of the data analysis reveal that gastronomy plays a major role in the way tourists experience the destination, and indicate that some travellers would return to the same destination to savour its unique gastronomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the market segmentation of international distribution centers based on shippers’ service requirements. The paper’s findings suggest that cargo safety was perceived as the most important service attribute, followed by cargo tracing service, inland transportation, and customs clearance. These service attributes were used to classify users of international distribution centers into three segments, namely, consolidation and storage services oriented firms, cargo related services oriented firms, and support services oriented firms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]