No description available.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Amanor-Boadu, Vincent / Beans play a major role in addressing malnutrition and poverty in Africa. Hence, several studies have been conducted over the last two decades on beans attributes in various African countries, including Zambia. The similarity of these studies is their emphasis on the importance of including consumer preferences in the beans supply chain. This study attempts to contribute to informing the bean supply chain about bean attributes and consumer characteristics influencing beans consumption so that downstream stakeholders can effectively seize the embedded opportunities in the bean supply chain. Data used in this study were obtained from 900 surveyed households in Lusaka, Zambia and analyzed using a logit model. The study evaluated three attributes of beans: gravy quality; cooking time; and grain size. In addition, it assessed the price of beans associated with these attributes. The study sought to determine how these attributes influenced consumer preference for specific color beans. Results show that gravy quality, cooking time and price are important bean attributes influencing consumer preference for purple, mixed yellow and yellow bean while grain size has no statistically significant effect. The study also found that gender, education, and employment status of the household head or person purchasing food for the household, as well as the household’s child dependency ratio, dual household income, residential area and perception of the bean food group’s importance to consumers’ nutritional security were statistically significant in their effect on preference for purple, mixed yellow and yellow beans. The study’s results contribute to downstream stakeholders’ efforts to improve their own decisions in identifying the market segments to engage in. For example, bean breeders, producers, and traders might optimize limited resources available for their activities by investing in products that promise large markets to use volume to overcome any price disadvantage regarding profitability. Similarly, they may also invest in high-value low volume products that could also provide them with acceptable profitability. The option used would depend on their location and their own resource situation.

I studied resource based habitat classification approach on different taxonomical and ecological group of butterflies and moths. I examine whether the RCS strategy of host plant and biotope influenced position of Lepidopteran species in ordination space.

Foram realizados dois experimentos com os objetivos de testar a palatabilidade (avaliada pela aceitação ou refuta dos concentrados experimentais, a primeira ação e primeira escolha, a razão de ingestão e a aplicabilidade deste protocolo de teste em experimentos para equinos) e a digestibilidade aparente dos nutrientes e das frações de carboidratos das dietas, com diferentes níveis de inclusão de polpa cítrica no concentrado (0, 7, 14, 21 e 28%) para equinos. Para o experimento de palatabilidade, foram utilizados 10 equinos, em delineamento inteiramente casualisado, enquanto que para o experimento digestibilidade, foram utilizadas cinco diferentes equinos, dispostas em Quadrado Latino 5x5. Foi observado efeito (p<0,01) da primeira ação, sendo que 80% dos animais consumiram o concentrado assim que tiveram acesso. Para a variável primeira escolha, não foi observada diferença (p>0,01) no consumo dos concentrados, porém o concentrado com 7% de inclusão apresentou maior preferência numérica (36,67%), refletida também na maior razão de ingestão (0,4425), o qual apresentou diferença (p<0,01) quando comparado com os demais e evidenciado por apresentar RI >0,30. Não foi observado efeito (p>0,05) dos níveis de inclusão sobre os coeficientes de digestibilidade dos nutrientes bem como das diferentes frações dos carboidratos das dietas, a exceção do carboidrato solúvel que apresentou diferença (p<0,05). Observou-se alta correlação entre os coeficientes de digestibilidade de matéria seca (CDaMS) e fibra em detergente neutro (CDaFDN), entre fibra em detergente ácido (CDaFDA) e fibra em detergente neutro (CDaFDN), e fibra em detergente ácido (CDaFDA) e proteína bruta (CDaDPB). A polpa cítrica pode ser incluída em concentrados para equinos, em níveis de até 28% de inclusão, sem causar efeito deletério sobre a digestibilidade dos nutrientes da dieta, bem como da fração carboidrato da mesma. Níveis inferiores de inclusão, próximos a 7%, favorecem a palatabilidade de dietas com polpa cítrica e sem adição de palatabilizantes (melaço). São necessários maiores estudos para a padronização dos testes de palatabilidade e digestibilidade aparente das frações dos carboidratos das dietas, bem como o efeito metabólico da inclusão de polpa cítrica a dieta de equinos. / Two experiments were conducted out with the objective to test the palatability (measured by the acceptance or refute of the experimental concentrates, the first action and first choice, the highest level of preference, the ratio of intake and the applicability of this protocol in experiments to test horses), apparent digestibility of nutrients and carbohydrate fractions of diets with different levels of citrus pulp inclusion in the concentrate (0, 7, 14, 21 and 28%) for horses. In the palatability experiment there were 10 mares used in a completely randomized design while for the digestibility experiments there were five different mares used arranged in 5x5 Latin Square design. The effect of inclusion on first action was observed (p<0.01) because 80% of the animals promptly were fed the concentrate. There was no difference (p>0.05) for the first choice variable. However, the concentrate with 7% was the most preferred (36.67%). The concentrate with 7% of citrus pulp inclusion presented the highest intake ratio (0.4425; p<0.01) when compared to the others evidenced by IR>0.30. No effect (p>0.05) was observed for the different levels of citrus pulp on the digestibility of nutrients as well as on the different carbohydrates fractions of the diets, except that the soluble carbohydrate presented difference (p<0.05). There was a high correlation between the digestibility of dry matter (CDDM) and neutral detergent fiber (CDNDF), between CDADF and CDNDF, and CDADF and CDDPB. The citrus pulp can be included in concentrates to horses at levels up to 28% inclusion without deleterious effect on the digestibility of nutrients and the carbohydrate fraction thereof. Lower levels of inclusion (7%) may advantage the palatability of diets with citrus pulp and no added flavors (molasses). Nonetheless, more studies are required to standardize the palatability tests and carbohydrate fractions digestibility and the metabolic effect of the citrus pulp inclusion in the horses diet.

Telehealth provides an alternative delivery form of parent training that allows practitioners to disseminate information and feedback at a distance. Telehealth can be as effective as in-person training (Wacker et al., 2013a; Wacker et al., 2013b; Vismara et al., 2009). Despite most telehealth studies indicating high satisfaction, research on patient satisfaction using telehealth has depended mostly on survey instruments, which limits definitive conclusions and may not translate into actual use or selection (Whitten & Love, 2005). The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate a procedure for identifying parent preference of in-person or telehealth training modalities. Secondary purposes were to evaluate and compare correspondence between preference as measured in a choice format and a social validity measure, determine if the procedures can be used to detect differences in acquisition from each modality, and to evaluate effects of parent training on child appropriate and inappropriate behavior. The results support previous research that telehealth can be as effective as in-person training. Participants overall chose telehealth 40.93% of the time. Parent choice on any particular occasion was jointly influenced by other variables. Reported preference results at the end of the study differed from the choice data, which suggests satisfaction may differ from preference or actual use. Future studies could use this method to evaluate preference on a larger scale, or for different kinds of interventions and training modalities.

No description available.

Abstract The sample consisted of 419 twins, born in 1965–1973, from Northern Finland who had been followed at ten-year intervals, at 2–10 years, 12–20 years and at 22–30 years of age. Data on psychosomatic symptoms, parent-twin and inter-twin relationships were elicited, and twins completed the Children's Depression Inventory modified for age. Middle adolescence appeared to be the most difficult phase of puberty for twins as far as depressive and psychosomatic/somatic symptoms were concerned. When different twin pairs were evaluated separately, the males of opposite-sex twin pairs seemed to be in the most favourable position, particularly in late adolescence, as they reported least depressive symptoms. Depressive and psychosomatic symptoms were evaluated in relation to parental preference among young adult twins. Parental preference was evaluated in two directions: which one of the parents was reported to feel as being closer to the twin – experienced parental preference evaluated by the twin, and which one of the parents the twin felt closer to – twin's own preference. Those males who were equally close to both parents (experienced parental preference) had least total depressiveness, while females in intermediate situation had the highest self-confidence and least anhedonia and nervousness. According to twins' own preference, twins who felt equally close to both parents had least total depressiveness and anhedonia. The intermediate position seems to be the best alternative, as these twins had the least symptoms. Psychosomatic and depressive symptoms were evaluated in relation to co-twin dependence in young adult twins. MZ twins, especially MZ females, reported most often co-twin dependence at all ages. There were no significant differences in depressive symptoms between dependent and independent twins. Twin's subjective experience about co-twin dependence appeared to be important for the twin's mental well-being, as dependence-independence imbalance within twin pair was associated with elevated levels of depressive symptom reporting, especially in twins who perceived themselves as dependent and the co-twin as independent. Dominance-submissiveness between co-twins and its relationship to mental health was assessed in young adulthood. Dominance-submissiveness in the twin relationships was assessed separately in three domains of life: physical and psychological dominance-submissiveness and the role of a spokesperson. Submissiveness in the psychological domain seemed to be associated with increased depressiveness, nervous complaints and psychosomatic symptoms in males of male-female twin pairs. Among females of same-sex twin pairs, submissiveness in the psychological domain was most clearly associated with depressive symptoms. We conclude that being submissive, especially in the psychological domain, to a female twin partner seems to be stressful, whereas it is easier, especially for females, to be submissive to a male twin partner. This was in contrast to co-twin dependency, which was experienced positively when occurring towards a twin sister.

Master of Science / Department of Human Nutrition / Kadri Koppel / Palatability of pet food is an important factor influencing food purchase decision of pet owners. In industry, single- or two-bowl methods are traditionally used to determine food acceptance or preference by pets but shortcomings exist to these methods. The first objective of this study was to propose and develop a preference ranking procedure. Preliminary testing consisted of five phases each lasting five days. Each day twelve beagles were presented 5 treats encased in identical rubber toys (“kongs”). The order of selection was considered as the ranking of preference. The five phases consisted of training, testing lab-baked treats formulations with five varieties of fats, starches and proteins, and commercial foods. The dogs generally ranked 1-2 flavors above others, indicating this procedure could be a more efficient method to determine preference since more samples can be evaluated simultaneously. The second objective was to validate this procedure by following the same process as the preliminary test. The results from phases 2 to 4 showed a similar pattern. For phase 5, various treat formulations were tested by combining the most to least preferred ingredients in each category. The results proved that the ranking of the formulations resembled the preference of the dogs for individual ingredients. Therefore, this procedure was concluded to be reliable. The third objective was to use descriptive sensory analysis to study the sensory characteristics of the treats and gain insights on the drivers of dogs’ preference. Five highly trained panelists profiled the aroma of the treats and the data was analyzed with the preference results collected from the dogs. The external preference maps showed that fish and meaty aromatics tended to be liked by the dogs and grain and musty/dusty aromatics appeared to be disliked. The last objective of this study was to further explore the applications of this procedure by studying the effect of toy/puzzle toy of the treat and ingredient dosage/ratio. With the same dogs, Styrofoam cups (puzzle toy alternative) and kongs were evaluated separately with the same treats. The results collected with Styrofoam cups were similar but less discriminating than kongs. It potentially suggested that the difficulty level of the toy can affect the significance of the dogs’ preferences. No significant preference was observed when testing the treats with different ratio of the most and the least preferred protein sources, although the human descriptive panel was able to provide different profiles for the samples. In conclusion, the preference ranking procedure is a reliable test method but more research is necessary to further explore applications.

One of the most important challenges facing us today is to personalize services based on user preferences. In order to achieve this objective, the design of Recommender Systems (RSs), which are systems designed to aid the users through different decision-making processes by providing recommendations to them, have been an active area of research. RSs may produce personalized and non-personalized recommendations. Non-personalized RSs provide general suggestions to a user, based on the number of times an item has been selected in the past. Personalized RSs, on the other hand, aim to predict the most suitable items for a specific user, based on the user’s preferences and constraints. The latter are the focus of this thesis. While Recommender Systems have been successful in many domains, a number of challenges remain. For example, most implementations consider only single criteria ratings, and consequently are unable to identify why a user prefers an item over others. Many systems classify the user into one single group or cluster which is an unrealistic approach, since in real world users share commonalities in different degrees with diverse types of users. Others require a large amount of previously gathered data about users’ interactions and preferences, in order to be successfully applied. In this study, we introduce a methodology for the creation of Personalized Multi Criteria Context Aware Recommender Systems that aims to overcome these shortcomings. Our methodology incorporates the user’s current context information, and techniques from the Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) field of study to analyze and model the user preferences. To this end, we create a multi criteria user preference model to assess the utility of each item for a specific user, to then recommend the items with the highest utility. The criteria considered when creating the user preference model are the user’s location, mobility level and user profile. The latter is obtained by considering the user specific needs, and generalizing the user data from a large scale demographic database. We present a case study where we applied our methodology into PeRS, a personal Recommender System to recommend events that will take place within the Ottawa/Gatineau Region. Furthermore, we conduct an offline experiment performed to evaluate our methodology, as implemented in our case study. From the experimental results we conclude that our RS is capable to accurately narrow down, and identify, the groups from a demographic database where a user may belong, and subsequently generate highly accurate recommendation lists of items that match with his/her preferences. This means that the system has the ability to understand and typify the user. Moreover, the results show that the obtained system accuracy doesn’t depend on the user profile. Therefore, the system is potentially capable to produce equally accurate recommendations for a wide range of the population.

Plusieurs systématiques se côtoient aujourd'hui : la systématique typologique, d'inspiration linnéenne, qui repose sur l'examen morphologique de types porte-nom. Depuis plusieurs années, une systématique phylogénétique conduit également à la création de taxons nouveaux, de niveau spécifique, infra-spécifique et supra-spécifique. Dans ce travail, nous avons cherché une approche globale, qualifiée de taxonomie intégrative couplant les approches morphologiques traditionnelles, la systématique moléculaire et la geomorphométrie alaire, dans le but d'éclairer la notion d'espèce chez les Culicoides avec ses corollaires épidémiologiques, étant donnée l'importance de ces insectes dans des maladies majeures d'intérêt vétérinaire telles que la fièvre catarrhale ovine (FCO) et la maladie causée par le virus de Schmallenberg (SBV). Cette approche nous a permis de mettre en lumière la complexité systématique des espèces affines (C.clastrieri/C.festivipennis, les groupes Obsoletus, Pulicaris et Vexans). De plus, nous nous sommes intéressés aux préférences trophiques des Culicoides de la région Champagne-Ardenne. / Several systematic coexist today: typological systematic of Linnaean spirit, based on morphological examination of type specimens. For several years, a phylogenetic systematics also led to the creation of new taxa, at specific, sub-specific and supra-specific level.In this study, we have sought a comprehensive approach i.e. an integrative taxonomy that coupling traditional morphological approaches, molecular systematic and wing geometry morphometric in order to clarify the concept of species in the Culicoides with epidemiological corollaries, given the importance of these insects in major diseases of veterinary interest such as bluetongue (BT) and the disease caused by the Schmallenberg virus (SBV). This approach allowed us to highlight the systematic complexity of related species (C.clastrieri / C.festivipennis, the Obsoletus, Pulicaris and Vexans groups). In addition, we investigated the host preference of Culicoides of the Champagne-Ardenne region.