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    The Scoop on SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast): Exploring Consumer Behaviours towards a Novel Ice Cream
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2023-09) Mehta A; Serventi L; Kumar L; Torrico DD; Cox DN
    With the growing demand for sustainable practises, the food industry is increasingly adopting circular economy approaches. One example is recycling the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) used in kombucha fermentation to create value-added products. However, consumer acceptance of such novel products remains unclear. To address this, the present study examined consumer attitudes towards ice cream made with SCOBY as an ingredient and how this affected their intention to consume it. Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and additional constructs such as emotions and food neophobia, an online survey was conducted with New Zealand consumers (N = 170). Results showed that the TPB constructs significantly predicted the intention to consume SCOBY ice cream. Moreover, by adding emotions to the constructs, the model's explanatory power was enhanced. Attitudes, subjective norms, and emotions were the main predictors of intention, which in turn was found to be the main predictor of behaviour. Participants' beliefs about the safety and taste of SCOBY ice cream were significantly correlated with their intention and behaviour, as were the opinions of nutritionists/dietitians, friends, and family. The model accounted for 21.7% of the variance in behaviour and 57.4% of the variance in intention. These findings can be used to plan marketing strategies related to waste-to-value-added products such as SCOBY ice cream.
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    Self-Reported Emotions and Facial Expressions on Consumer Acceptability: A Study Using Energy Drinks
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-02) Mehta A; Sharma C; Kanala M; Thakur M; Harrison R; Torrico DD; Byrne DV
    Emotional responses elicited by foods are of great interest for new product developers and marketing professionals, as consumer acceptance proved to be linked to the emotions generated by the product in the consumers. An emotional measurement is generally considered an appropriate tool to differentiate between the products of similar nutritional value, flavour, liking and packaging. Novel methods used to measure emotions include self-reporting verbal and visual measurements, and facial expression techniques. This study aimed to evaluate the explicit and implicit emotional response elicited during the tasting of two different brands (A and B) of energy drinks. The explicit response of consumers was assessed using liking (nine-point hedonic scale), and emotions (EsSense Profile®-Check-All-That-Apply questionnaire), and implicit emotional responses were evaluated by studying facial expressions using the Affectiva Affdex® software. The familiarity of the product and purchase intent were also assessed during the study. The hedonic rating shows a significant difference in liking between the two brands of energy drink during the tasting session. For the explicit emotional responses, participants elicited more positive emotions than the negative emotions for both energy drinks. However, participants expressed "happy", "active" and "eager" emotions more frequently for energy drink A. On the other hand, the implicit emotional responses through facial expressions indicated a high level of involvement of the participants with energy drink B as compared to energy drink A. The study showed that overall liking and the explicit and implicit emotional measurements are weakly to moderately correlated.
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    Developing a distance-based doctoral supervisory model: Inquiry over disrupted trajectories
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-04-24) Qi GY; Skyrme G; White CJ
    This paper proposes a distance-based doctoral supervisory model to support students in the process of navigating self, agency, and emotions over their doctoral journey. The model emerged through our examination of the lived experiences of three Chinese female doctoral students who, though enrolled as internal students in our New Zealand university, were prevented by the pandemic from returning from their Spring Festival sojourn to China, and continued their study by distance. We employed narrative analysis to deeply engage with their stories shared in diaries and one-on-one interviews, alongside social media interactions. These revealed a strong commitment to study emanating from answerability toward their research projects, already underway, and agentive actions to maintain peer-to-peer academic and emotional support, enabling resilience and reflexivity about personal values and needs. Learning from this experience, we emphasize in our model the need to nurture important bonds between students, their peers and their supervisors in online environments.
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    How Does Being Solo in Nature Affect Well-Being? Evidence from Norway, Germany and New Zealand
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-08) Petersen E; Bischoff A; Liedtke G; Martin AJ
    Background: Solo—being intentionally solitary in nature—is receiving growing attention as a valuable outdoor education program component. Its practice and history have been researched in the context of experiential learning, but few studies have explicitly examined how solo experiences can affect dimensions of well-being. This study investigated a broad range of well-being pathways provided by being solo, based on data from Norway, Germany, and New Zealand. Methods: Using qualitative content analysis (QCA), the solo debrief responses of 40 participants (26 females, age: 19–64 years) were analysed, applying the PERMA-V framework (emotions, engagement, relationship, meaning, achievement, and vitality). Variations in the reports were explored as a function of the national sample, gender, age, prior solo experiences and expectations. Results: The study suggests that hedonic and eudemonic well-being pathways, represented by the six PERMA-V pillars, interrelate strongly. The experience of a range of positive emotions and connecting process during solo highlights two of the most frequent findings related to well-being pathways. The secondary findings suggest minor variations in the well-being pathways for the different national samples, gender and age. Expectations and prior experiences with solo were identified as context factors with minor impact. Further, the data-driven analysis identified specific physical activities, landscape features, sense-activation, perception of time and ‘good’ weather as relevant to the specific experience. Conclusions: Solo experiences provide for well-being-related pathways in a multitude of ways, which highlights the well-being potential of solo implementation across practical fields beyond outdoor education, such as wilderness therapy, and environmental and planetary health initiatives. Future studies should continue to explore solo’s well-being potential in different settings, especially in the context of non-Western samples.
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    Children's knowledge, cognitions and emotions surrounding natural disasters: An investigation of Year 5 students, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) King TA; Tarrant RAC
    New Zealand schools have a responsibility to ensure that children are informed about potential natural disasters, and are prepared with protective strategies. The present study aimed to investigate children’s knowledge, cognitions, and emotions concerning natural disasters, with a particular focus on earthquakes and tsunami. Thirty Year-5 school students (aged 9-10 years) from the Wellington region of New Zealand participated in researcher-led focus groups. The children were generally well informed, demonstrating an understanding of causes, characteristics, and potential consequences of earthquakes and tsunami. Thoughts and expectations regarding natural hazards, earthquakes in particular, centred on the unpredictability of natural disasters and on the expectation that there would be significant earthquakes in their region in the future. However, the children demonstrated assurance that the school and family were prepared with emergency supplies, and that they themselves and their families knew strategies for keeping safe in a disaster event. The children discussed these reassurances as a factor in reducing their fear of disasters, fear being the predominant negative emotion discussed by the children. The children indicated that learning at school had contributed to discussions with friends and family, this finding suggesting that disaster education at school is a critical component of children’s education and that this education has a flow-on effect at home and in the wider community.