Little is known about how liking for different foods develops from birth to adulthood. Although there are both cultural and sensory aspects to the development of food preferences, the focus of this study is on the sensory aspects of food preference development, in particular, preferences for meat. Two main aims are addressed : 1/. To develop a robust methodology that can be used to determine pre-literate and recently literate children's liking for different foods and the determinants of that liking. 2/. To investigate the effects of early experience with foods on later food preferences.Several tests were conducted and results noted. Overall the results of this thesis show that it is possible to gather reliable hedonic data from young, even pre-school children, and that it is possible that very early feeding experience has some influence on adults' food preferences. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The experiments reported in this thesis attempted to examine the influence of thirst on the extinction of taste aversions in rats. Differences in the amount of stimulus exposure and deprivation state between groups were controlled for. The first experiment presented two novel flavours twelve times to rats when either thirsty or sated. A preference for the flavour presented when thirsty was established. The next three experiments examined whether this preference would accelerate the extinction of a taste aversion, by first pairing a novel flavour with lithium and then presenting the conditioned flavour when rats were either sated or thirsty. No evidence of accelerated extinction was found. The final two experiments examined whether the associatively-activated representation of sucrose could function to extinguish a taste-aversion to that sucrose without presenting sucrose itself. No evidence of representation-mediated extinction was found despite evidence that the context was associated with sucrose. The results indicate that the extinction of conditioned taste aversions is not influenced by counter-conditioning due to thirst relief, and extinction of such aversions appears to be due to similar processes as other forms of conditioning.

The experiments reported in this thesis attempted to examine the influence of thirst on the extinction of taste aversions in rats. Differences in the amount of stimulus exposure and deprivation state between groups were controlled for. The first experiment presented two novel flavours twelve times to rats when either thirsty or sated. A preference for the flavour presented when thirsty was established. The next three experiments examined whether this preference would accelerate the extinction of a taste aversion, by first pairing a novel flavour with lithium and then presenting the conditioned flavour when rats were either sated or thirsty. No evidence of accelerated extinction was found. The final two experiments examined whether the associatively-activated representation of sucrose could function to extinguish a taste-aversion to that sucrose without presenting sucrose itself. No evidence of representation-mediated extinction was found despite evidence that the context was associated with sucrose. The results indicate that the extinction of conditioned taste aversions is not influenced by counter-conditioning due to thirst relief, and extinction of such aversions appears to be due to similar processes as other forms of conditioning.

This problem was undertaken to determine the potentialities of chlorine dioxide as an algaecide and as an agent for the removal of tastes and odors from fresh water.

From 2006 to 2009, Taiwan's " Performance Workshop" staged the modern Chinese drama ¡¨ Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land¡¨ in various parts of China, and the tickets sold very well. In comparison, China's local performing groups, and even Chinese drama of little theater, but only a few people watch. What¡¦re the reasons for that? And why there are not just a few large-scale performances attract a huge audience, although it¡¦s ticket price significantly higher than general average fare as price reduce everywhere ? This study focused on the success factors of Taiwan¡¦s Modern Troupes in China, and take Taiwan's " Performance Workshop" for example as the case analysis to analyze the reason, why it can have the great box-office. And hope that the domestic and foreign performing groups can know the mainland China people's cultural consumption demands, help them enter the Chinese market of the performing arts. The results found that "income" and "consumer preference" is the most important factor; In addition, the Performance Workshop's drama¡¨ Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land¡¨ can be success is due to the combine of the ¡§high culture" and "mass culture" and use local well-known actors to create promo topic. In script, it performs the different custom of the cross-strait masses by drama. It makes the Chinese people feel curious and fresh, and because word-of-mouth and the reason of endogenisation of tastes, led to the great box-office.

In addition to the contribution of lipids to food texture and aroma, the effect of lipids on taste perception is now commonly studied. It has been found that lipids may affect taste perception through lipid composition (i.e., cis-polyunsaturated fatty acids). This study assessed the effect of lipid composition on the recognition thresholds of the basic tastes (i.e., sour, umami, bitter, salty, sweet) in emulsion model systems as well as taste intensities perceived at low suprathreshold concentrations. Taste thresholds and intensities in corresponding aqueous systems were determined for comparison. To evaluate the effect of lipid chemical composition on tastant detection, 20% oil emulsions were formulated with either anhydrous milk fat, soybean oil, or a blend comprised of a 1:1 ratio (by weight) of milk fat and soybean oil. Prior to taste testing, emulsions were deemed to have the necessary physicochemical characteristics (i.e., stability, pH, droplet size, viscosity) for use in taste experiments. Thresholds were determined according to the ASTM forced-choice ascending concentration series method using 11 trained panelists. Taste intensities were rated on a numerical scale of zero to 15 by 10 trained panelists. As expected, aqueous thresholds were generally lower than those of respective emulsions; however, these differences were not always found to be significant. Though lipid composition affected emulsion thresholds slightly for all tastes except bitter, a significant relationship between thresholds and fat composition was not established. Taste intensity appears to increase proportionally to increases in tastant concentration at suprathreshold concentrations near recognition threshold. Some results from taste intensity experiments indicate that fatty acid composition may be influencing results, but the implications are unclear based upon these experiments. These results suggest that the role of lipids in taste perception is more complex than simply correlating with an increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids in general.

The main objective of this thesis is to develop a martingale-type solution to optimal consumption--investment choice problems ([Merton, 1969] and [Merton, 1971]) under time-varying incomplete preferences driven by externalities such as patience, socialization effects, and market volatility. The market is composed of multiple risky assets and multiple consumption goods, while in addition there are multiple fluctuating preference parameters with inexact values connected to imprecise tastes. Utility maximization becomes a multi-criteria problem with possibly function-valued criteria. To come up with a complete characterization of the solutions, first we motivate and introduce a set-valued stochastic process for the dynamics of multi-utility indices and formulate the optimization problem in a topological vector space. Then, we modify a classical scalarization method allowing for infiniteness and randomness in dimensions and prove results of equivalence to the original problem. Illustrative examples are given to demonstrate practical interests and method applicability progressively. The link between the original problem and a dual problem is also discussed, relatively briefly. Finally, by using Malliavin calculus with stochastic geometry, we find optimal investment policies to be generally set-valued, each of whose selectors admits a four-way decomposition involving an additional indecisiveness risk-hedging portfolio. Our results touch on new directions for optimal consumption--investment choices in the presence of incomparability and time inconsistency, also signaling potentially testable assumptions on the variability of asset prices. Simulation techniques for set-valued processes are studied for how solved optimal policies can be computed in practice. / 2025-05-12T00:00:00Z

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In this study I explore boundary work processes that older adults do which influences friendships among residents of a progressive care retirement community. Accounts of boundary work as mechanisms for including some and excluding other residents as potential friends were collected by using a combination of quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews from residents (age 65+) of a progressive care retirement community in the United States. First, a survey explored symbolic boundaries related to cultural capital, defined as music and leisure interest and participation, as well as structural and social aspects of friendships among residents (N=66). Second, in-depth interviews of a sub-sample of residents of an assisted living facility within the community (N=15), were conducted to examine older adults' narratives of how they use cultural capital as a mechanism of symbolic boundary work that influences their friendships with others in the retirement community. The administrator of the assisted living facility (N=1) was also interviewed. Findings from this study suggested that cultural capital was associated with sociability which offers some support for the relational "tool kit" model of the theory. However, findings from in-depth interviews suggested that while music and leisure interests and participation may be important, valuations of bodies were more likely to influence "othering" of residents, although the two are related. This study enriches our understanding of how symbolic boundary use varies by group and context, as well as makes theoretical contributions to the literature on symbolic boundaries by exploring the ways in which aging may alter the use of boundaries. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Richard Sweeney / In the first chapter of this dissertation, I study the relative advantages of investment (upfront) and output (production-based) subsidies for rooftop solar Photovoltaic (PV) adoption. While investment subsidies can be cost-effective due to adopters’ inter-temporal discounting (impatience), output subsidies are better targeted to site quality. Using data from the California Solar Initiative, I estimate a dynamic discrete choice model of solar adoption, then simulate counterfactual subsidy policies to find an optimal balance of investment and output subsidy rates. The model estimates adopters’ discounting factor and distribution of tastes, and hinges critically on the observed distribution of site quality as data. Considerable variation in personal taste (taste to be green) implies that the output subsidy can play a helpful role in incentivizing otherwise hesitant property owners with high production potential, while not overpaying eager adopters with lower potential. The intertemporal discount factor, reflecting consumers’ impatience, is a critical element in many models of consumer demand behavior. However, the discount factor must usually be calibrated (assumed) rather than estimated, and if calibrated incorrectly, may yield serious miscalculations in empirical results and policy implications. Therefore, in the second chapter of this dissertation, I estimate distinct values of the discount factor for commercial and residential adopters of solar. In showing that commercial adopters are only about one third as impatient as residential adopters, this paper offers useful context for researchers seeking to make informed calibrations of the discount factor in related settings. In the setting of rooftop PV solar adoption, the difference in discount factors implies that the most cost-effective combination of investment and output subsidies involves relatively higher output subsidy rates for commercial properties, and relatively higher investment subsidy rates for residential properties. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.