Food Location Research Articles

A vision-based dietary survey and assessment system for college students in China

Understanding the current dietary habits of college students is essential due to the pressing issues of unbalanced diets and insufficient nutrition. However, traditional approaches frequently depend on recollection, which can introduce unconscious bias and make them difficult to implement. Herein, we introduce a new computer vision system to evaluate the dietary habits of college students in China. A specialized food dataset comprising RGB-D images, recipes with ingredient masses, and nutrient composition was created using data collected from college canteens. First, object detection models were utilized to identify food categories and locations. Subsequently, we introduced a method for automatically estimating the food volume of nonstandard portions using position and depth information. The final nutrients were derived directly or indirectly through the database. Experimental results demonstrate the applicability of the YOLOv8 object detection model and volume estimation method to our tasks. To support the development of devices for detecting food intake and diet management, we have made our dataset publicly available. The College Canteen Food-100 dataset is publicly available at https://github.com/zichengzichengzi/CC-FOOD-100.

Dietary practices of children and adolescents residing in an area of Chakdaha Block, Nadia district, West Bengal

ABSTRACT Background: Childhood and adolescence are crucial developmental stages during the life course. They develop and establish lifelong dietary and lifestyle habits. Unhealthy food environments that influence the risk of obesity and other nutrition-related NCDs by affecting the dietary patterns. Assessment of dietary patterns and factors affecting them will help to provide targeted interventions to improve the same. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among children aged more than 6 months and adolescents by interviewing their mothers regarding the dietary patterns. A two-stage sampling method was followed for selection of the participants. Results: A total of 325 participants were interviewed. Dietary diversity (DD) was present in 55.4% of the participants. Children of mothers who were educated beyond middle school (aOR = 3.81 (1.87-7.73), P = 0.000) and children who stayed in a joint family (aOR = 1.73 (1.11-2.72) P < 0.05) had higher odds of having dietary diversity in their diet, after adjusting for age and sex. Fast food shop location (aOR = 0.14 (0.05-0.38), P value = 0.000) was found to have a significant association with fast food intake among participants. Conclusion: Children and adolescents residing in the study area have a distinct dietary pattern compared to prevalent dietary practices in India. To improve dietary diversity of children and adolescents, maternal education, family dynamics, and community food environment, which include fast food and market locations, can be points of targeted interventions

Barcode activity in a recurrent network model of the hippocampus enables efficient memory binding.

Forming an episodic memory requires binding together disparate elements that co-occur in a single experience. One model of this process is that neurons representing different components of a memory bind to an "index" - a subset of neurons unique to that memory. Evidence for this model has recently been found in chickadees, which use hippocampal memory to store and recall locations of cached food. Chickadee hippocampus produces sparse, high-dimensional patterns ("barcodes") that uniquely specify each caching event. Unexpectedly, the same neurons that participate in barcodes also exhibit conventional place tuning. It is unknown how barcode activity is generated, and what role it plays in memory formation and retrieval. It is also unclear how a memory index (e.g. barcodes) could function in the same neural population that represents memory content (e.g. place). Here, we design a biologically plausible model that generates barcodes and uses them to bind experiential content. Our model generates barcodes from place inputs through the chaotic dynamics of a recurrent neural network and uses Hebbian plasticity to store barcodes as attractor states. The model matches experimental observations that memory indices (barcodes) and content signals (place tuning) are randomly intermixed in the activity of single neurons. We demonstrate that barcodes reduce memory interference between correlated experiences. We also show that place tuning plays a complementary role to barcodes, enabling flexible, contextually-appropriate memory retrieval. Finally, our model is compatible with previous models of the hippocampus as generating a predictive map. Distinct predictive and indexing functions of the network are achieved via an adjustment of global recurrent gain. Our results suggest how the hippocampus may use barcodes to resolve fundamental tensions between memory specificity (pattern separation) and flexible recall (pattern completion) in general memory systems.

Ants (Lasius niger) deposit more pheromone close to food sources and further from the nest but do not attempt to update erroneous pheromone trails

Many social insects use pheromone trails to recruit workers to resources. Pheromone trails have some limitations, however. Two major limitations are that they evaporate over time, meaning that more distant locations may be more difficult to recruit precisely to, and that they cannot be removed if laid erroneously, or if they become outdated. Here, we ask whether Lasius niger ants can adaptively modulate pheromone deposition to overcome these limitations. Specifically, we first ask whether ants which have followed a pheromone trail to a wrong (unrewarded) location upregulate pheromone deposition to the correct food location to compete with the erroneous trail. They do not. Then, we examine how food distance and proximity to food influence pheromone deposition. We find that ants deposit up to 22 times more pheromone within 10 cm of a food source compared to when they are about to reach the nest. Moreover, they deposit up to four times more pheromone next to a food source placed 100 cm away from the nest as compared to one placed 20 cm away from the nest. Lasius niger ants thus do not display a mechanism for overcoming outdated or erroneously-laid trails by strengthening correct alternatives in our experiment, but do strongly upregulate recruitment to more distant food sources, which are more difficult to locate and recruit to.

A cognitive approach to better understand foraging strategies of the adult domestic hen

Foraging is known to be one of the most important activities in the behavioral budget of chickens. However, how these animals adapt different foraging strategies to diverse environmental variations is currently poorly understood. To gain further insight into this matter, in the present study, hens were submitted to the sloped-tubes task. In this task, the experimenter can manipulate the information that enables the hens to find a food reward (visible or not), placed in one of two hollow tubes. First, 12 hens were tested under free-choice conditions (no penalty for exhaustive searching in both tubes). Under these conditions, the hens adopted a non-random, side-biased strategy when the food location was not directly visible. Then, we divided the hens in two cohorts of equal size to study deeper the hens’ foraging strategy when faced (1) with a different container, or (2) with a restrictive environmental constraint under forced-choice conditions (no food reward if the unbaited tube is visited first). This latter constraint increased the risk of the hen not receiving food. A change in the containers didn’t modify the search behavior of the hens. However, in forced-choice conditions when the location of the food was not directly visible, four out of six hens learned to choose by exclusion. We conclude that hens can selectively adapt their foraging strategy to the point of adopting an exclusion performance, depending on available information and environmental constraints (high or low risk).

Comparative cognition: Free-living birds remember things past

New research suggests that free-living blue and great tits remember foraging, including food type, location, and time since eating, even when event details were not known to be relevant for a subsequent assessment of memory, implicating the use of episodic memory in natural behavior.

What Drives Customer Loyalty in Culinary Businesses

Warunk Upnormal is renowned for its popularity as a favored dining establishment, thanks to its distinctive concept, inviting ambiance, and effective marketing techniques that contribute to its success. Currently, Warunk Upnormal is facing a contrasting situation, characterized by issues such as a decline in tourists, which has resulted in the closure of several of its stores. Hence, the author perceives that this phenomena indicates the presence of a disparity, which may serve as the foundation for this investigation. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of Food Quality, Price, Service Quality, Location, and Environment on Customer Loyalty by means of Customer Satisfaction at Warunk Upnormal. This study employs a survey methodology with a quantitative orientation. The data collection method employs a questionnaire. The Non Probability Sampling Technique was employed to collect samples, specifically using the Judgmental Sampling approach. These samples were disseminated to a total of 240 consumer respondents from Warunk Upnormal. The testing tool employs the SmartPLS software. The research findings indicate that all variables have been deemed valid and trustworthy, and satisfy the criteria for both Inner Model and Outer Model testing. The research findings indicate that Food Quality, Price, and Service Quality positively impact Customer Satisfaction, whereas Location and Environment have little impact on Customer Satisfaction. In addition, Customer Satisfaction has a beneficial impact on Customer Loyalty.

Heterospecific visual cues and trophic facilitation processes used by a solitary bone‐eating vulture

AbstractWhile the influence of public information sharing on foraging strategies is of growing interest, empirical studies exploring intraguild social information use and facilitation roles between individuals with different trophic specializations remain scarce. Heterospecific facilitation should be more common in specialist foragers, for example, the bearded vulture Gypaetus barbatus, a solitary bone‐eating scavenger. We monitored 133 carcasses of different types/sizes in open and shrubland landscapes in the Spanish Pyrenees to explore bearded vulture foraging in relation to social information transfer and adaptive trophic behavior. We hypothesized that they might (1) feed on carcasses after initial heterospecific exploitation; (2) use heterospecifics to locate and/or exploit carcasses; and (3) prefer old carcasses over fresh ones. We recorded bearded vultures scavenging at 44 carcasses; 95.5% had been previously exploited by heterospecifics (93.2% by griffon vultures Gyps fulvus and 2.3% by golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos) while only two small‐sized carcasses were scavenged without previous heterospecific exploitation. Bearded vultures were not observed scavenging at carcasses used only by mammals. Both griffon and bearded vultures took longer to find carcasses in shrublands than in open landscapes. However, bearded vulture arrival times between landscapes after carcass discovery by griffon vultures were similar. Bearded vultures were more likely to discover a carcass the greater the number of griffon vultures exploiting it. Only 10.4% bearded vulture scavenging events occurred after the third week following heterospecific exploitation, suggesting that recently opened carcasses were preferred. Clearly, heterospecifics play an essential role in bearded vultures foraging success, and griffon vultures are fundamental facilitators for specialist foragers, both in providing visual cues to food location and in opening up carcasses to enable access to food.

Development of a method for managing technical systems using a bio-inspired algorithm

Today’s management solutions depend precisely on the successful solution of optimization problems, which are discontinuous, undifferentiated and multimodal. One of the approaches to increase the efficiency of solving optimization problems is bio-inspired algorithms. The object of the study is complex dynamic objects. The subject of the study is the decision-making process in the problems of managing complex dynamic objects. A management method using a bio-inspired algorithm is proposed. The research is based on the goose algorithm – for finding a solution to the state of dynamic objects with a hierarchical structure. Evolving artificial neural networks are used to train goose agents (GA) and an advanced genetic algorithm is used to select the best ones in the combined swarm algorithm. The originality of the proposed method lies in setting GA taking into account the uncertainty of the initial data, improved global and local search procedures. Also, the originality of the study lies in determining GA food locations, which allows choosing the priority of search in a given direction. The next element in the originality of the study is the ability to determine the indicators of guard GA, which allows adjusting the amount of time during which the GA flock will be located. Another original element of the study is the determination of the initial velocity of each GA. This makes it possible to optimize the speed of conducting exploration by each GA in a certain research direction. The method allows increasing the efficiency of data processing at the level of 10–12 % by using additional improved procedures. The proposed method should be used to solve problems of evaluating complex dynamic objects

Spatiotemporal organization of ant foraging from a complex systems perspective

We use complex systems science to explore the emergent behavioral patterns that typify eusocial species, using collective ant foraging as a paradigmatic example. Our particular aim is to provide a methodology to quantify how the collective orchestration of foraging provides functional advantages to ant colonies. For this, we combine (i) a purpose-built experimental arena replicating ant foraging across realistic spatial and temporal scales, and (ii) a set of analytical tools, grounded in information theory and spin-glass approaches, to explore the resulting data. This combined approach yields computational replicas of the colonies; these are high-dimensional models that store the experimental foraging patterns through a training process, and are then able to generate statistically similar patterns, in an analogous way to machine learning tools. These in silico models are then used to explore the colony performance under different resource availability scenarios. Our findings highlight how replicas of the colonies trained under constant and predictable experimental food conditions exhibit heightened foraging efficiencies, manifested in reduced times for food discovery and gathering, and accelerated transmission of information under similar conditions. However, these same replicas demonstrate a lack of resilience when faced with new foraging conditions. Conversely, replicas of colonies trained under fluctuating and uncertain food conditions reveal lower efficiencies at specific environments but increased resilience to shifts in food location.

A View on a PHP-Based Project for A Donation and Waste Food Management System

Food waste is a problem that affects everyone. People are impacted anywhere it is present, including in our homes, schools, restaurants, grocery stores, places of business, and even in transportation. With the help of this software, hotels can give leftover food to those in need while reducing food waste. With the help of this software, users may sign up, log in, see, add, and remove products from their carts, and then log out of the system. Additionally, this software contained a real-time database. Through this app, food donors may enter information about their donations, and NGO volunteers can see the photographs of the food that each donor has contributed. Food waste is a widespread issue in our culture. Management of food waste is essential since it may increase our sustainability both economically and environmentally. We have determined how mobile technology may be used to minimize food waste management, and we have developed an android mobile application that enables restaurants or individual users to share and donate their leftover food with those in need. We intended to complete this project in order to use an Android application to lessen food waste. The visitor may log in and input the kind, quantity, and location of food that is offered in this project. The agent is then sent a brief notice. The agent at that location may log in and get the donor's data after receiving the notice. The software allows the donor to create an account, and he may log in to add the location and food data anytime there is food waste. The agent is also capable of retrieving the data and holding an account. Once the information has been retrieved, the agent may go get food from the donor and provide it to the orphans or other needy people. Food redistribution is an incredibly effective social innovation initiative that addresses food poverty and waste. Because it has a distinct account for every user, the user's information is kept private

Social influence and attention bias in free-ranging domestic pigs: Effects of demonstrator rank and friendship

Pigs, as highly social animals, form stable hierarchies and different relationships to other members of their group. Pigs, mostly of very young ages, have been shown to use social learning to gather information about food locations and even extractive foraging techniques from various types of sources. The present study aims to investigate whether also adult pigs, living in a long-term stable kin-based sounder, use information of their group mates and, more specifically, whether this is based on their mates' rank or their relationship with them. The dominance order of 20 female semi-naturally housed Kune Kune pigs (aged between five to seven years) was established with dyadic hierarchy tests, where two pigs competed against each other over a monopolizable food source. Their affiliative relationships (i.e. friendships) towards each other were assessed based on observations during their daily lives. After finding suitable demonstrator dyads, differing in rank and/or relationship quality to the respective observer, six rounds of two-choice tests were conducted. Prior to each two-choice test, two demonstrators were positioned on each side of the observer and were allowed to feed from a trough with an assigned olfactory cue that provided additional information in the subsequent test. After two minutes, the observer pig was allowed to enter a test room and was given the choice between two food bowls, which were marked with the olfactory cues connected to the respective demonstrators. Results indicate that sows, irrespective of their own rank, preferred to pay attention to the relatively lower-ranking demonstrator during the exposure phase, possibly due to avoidance of the relatively higher-ranking demonstrator. Furthermore, the observers with higher sociability preferred to pay more attention to the demonstrators with whom they had better friendships. In the two-choice test, we found no significant effect of demonstrator rank or friendship. However, a left side bias in more sociable observers may point towards at least some social effects. Overall, the study provided evidence that not only dominance, but also socio-positive relationships between individuals affect the behaviour of domestic pigs.

Tandemly expanded OR17b in Himalaya ghost moth facilitates larval food allocation via olfactory reception of plant-derived tricosane

Herbivorous insects utilize intricate olfactory mechanisms to locate food plants. The chemical communication of insect-plant in primitive lineage offers insights into evolutionary milestones of divergent olfactory modalities. Here, we focus on a system endemic to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to unravel the chemical and molecular basis of food preference in ancestral Lepidoptera. We conducted volatile profiling, neural electrophysiology, and chemotaxis assays with a panel of host plant organs to identify attractants for Himalaya ghost moth Thitarodes xiaojinensis larvae, the primitive host of medicinal Ophiocordyceps sinensis fungus. Using a DREAM approach based on odorant induced transcriptomes and subsequent deorphanization tests, we elucidated the odorant receptors responsible for coding bioactive volatiles. Contrary to allocation signals in most plant-feeding insects, T. xiaojinensis larvae utilize tricosane from the bulbil as the main attractant for locating native host plant. We deorphanized a TxiaOR17b, an indispensable odorant receptor resulting from tandem duplication of OR17, for transducing olfactory signals in response to tricosane. The discovery of this ligand-receptor pair suggests a survival strategy based on food location via olfaction in ancestral Lepidoptera, which synchronizes both plant asexual reproduction and peak hatch periods of insect larvae.

Waves of Food- Food Ordering App: A Descriptive Study

A fantastic new app called "Waves of Food" is revolutionising the way we have our favourite dishes delivered. It makes ordering meals a joy and is quite simple to use. With only a few touches, you may explore a wide variety of culinary options, and the app makes recommendations based on your preferences. You can monitor your order in real time, allowing you to know the exact location of your food at all times. Additionally, the app offers secured payment alternatives so you don't have to worry about losing your money. It also guarantees that your food will taste well and arrive on schedule. Waves of Food is the food delivery industry's super hero, improving and streamlining everything for everyone. "Food ordering App " introduces a game-changing mobile application in the food delivery landscape. This innovative platform redefines convenience and satisfaction, offering users a seamless experience from start to finish. With intuitive navigation and personalized recommendations, users can easily explore a diverse range of cuisines. Real-time order tracking ensures transparency and peace of mind, while secure payment options guarantee financial security. The app optimizes delivery routes for efficiency and freshness, promising timely arrivals of delicious meals. Waves of Food sets a new standard for food delivery, making every dining experience a breeze. The food delivery industry has witnessed a significant transformation in recent years, driven by advancements in mobile technology and changing consumer preferences. This abstract presents a comprehensive overview of a cutting-edge food delivery application designed to revolutionize the way consumers order and receive meals. Keywords—Hyper test markup langage(HTML), Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), Application Programming Interface(API), Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP), Extensible Markup Language(XML).

Fuzzy Logic In The Digital Travel Era: Enhancing Tourist Experience Through Comprehensive Hotel Reviews And Sentiment Analysis

In today's society, social media is becoming a more and more important part of our everyday lives as it continues to evolve. Lot of of users assess and tourist rate attractions daily, and hotels play a significant part in travel. Following reviews can be implicated to fuzzy logic, which will be beneficial for resolving the fame of tourist attractions and hotel reviews. Tourists can choose their accommodation and travel destinations with ease based on the outcome of the fuzzy control system. In this research, fuzzy logic has been used to implement sentiment analysis. To provide precise pass on relating to a few aspects chosen by the end user, the system uses attributes including food quality, service, locations, and ratings. This method enables customers to assess a certain hotel service's quality using a variety of factors. Additionally, a user can compare various hotels in depth. To accomplish this, a membership task that specifies how a smooth value maps to the term on a scale of 0 to 1 is used in the proposed system of fuzzy logic. It essentially outlines "how good" something is and how to produce complex behaviour from a condensed, understandable set of professional guidelines before passing these variables to a fuzzy control system. Using a set of rules, a fuzzy control system connects fuzzy variables. These laws are merely mappings that explain the relationships between one or more fuzzy variables. After specifying the inputs and obtaining the priority of the alternatives, the control system is finally simulated. As food preferences, service quality, and user-specific amounts vary, the system is scaled for each individual user. As a result, the system offers more accurate outcomes and increased classification method accuracy for the supplied review data set. Future research will use the Trapezoidal Fuzzy Number (TpFNs) as an evaluation tool to reflect clearly the variation of an element from 0 to 1 in order to increase the model's accuracy.

Parahippocampal neurons encode task-relevant information for goal-directed navigation

A behavioral strategy crucial to survival is directed navigation to a goal, such as a food or home location. One potential neural substrate for supporting goal-directed navigation is the parahippocampus, which contains neurons that represent an animal’s position, orientation, and movement through the world, and that change their firing activity to encode behaviorally relevant variables such as reward. However, little prior work on the parahippocampus has considered how neurons encode variables during goal-directed navigation in environments that dynamically change. Here, we recorded single units from rat parahippocampal cortex while subjects performed a goal-directed task. The maze dynamically changed goal-locations via a visual cue on a trial-to-trial basis, requiring subjects to use cue-location associations to receive reward. We observed a mismatch-like signal, with elevated neural activity on incorrect trials, leading to rate-remapping. The strength of this remapping correlated with task performance. Recordings during open-field foraging allowed us to functionally define navigational coding for a subset of the neurons recorded in the maze. This approach revealed that head-direction coding units remapped more than other functional-defined units. Taken together, this work thus raises the possibility that during goal-directed navigation, parahippocampal neurons encode error information reflective of an animal’s behavioral performance.

Parahippocampal neurons encode task-relevant information for goal-directed navigation.

A behavioral strategy crucial to survival is directed navigation to a goal, such as a food or home location. One potential neural substrate for supporting goal-directed navigation is the parahippocampus, which contains neurons that represent an animal's position, orientation, and movement through the world, and that change their firing activity to encode behaviorally relevant variables such as reward. However, little prior work on the parahippocampus has considered how neurons encode variables during goal-directed navigation in environments that dynamically change. Here, we recorded single units from rat parahippocampal cortex while subjects performed a goal-directed task. The maze dynamically changed goal-locations via a visual cue on a trial-to-trial basis, requiring subjects to use cue-location associations to receive reward. We observed a mismatch-like signal, with elevated neural activity on incorrect trials, leading to rate-remapping. The strength of this remapping correlated with task performance. Recordings during open-field foraging allowed us to functionally define navigational coding for a subset of the neurons recorded in the maze. This approach revealed that head-direction coding units remapped more than other functional-defined units. Taken together, this work thus raises the possibility that during goal-directed navigation, parahippocampal neurons encode error information reflective of an animal's behavioral performance.

A Content Analysis on TripAdvisor Reviews of Customer Satisfaction in a Buffet Restaurant

This study aimed to assess customer satisfaction through TripAdvisor reviews of a buffet restaurant in Pasay City, focusing on positive and negative feedback from 2022-2023 to enhance future dining experiences and pinpoint areas for improvement. Employing a qualitative, descriptive method, the study analyzed 660 reviews, categorizing them by food quality, service quality, price, and location. The findings indicated a predominance of positive feedback while highlighting specific areas needing improvement.

Places to purchase food in urban and rural areas of Brazil.

To describe the locations of food and beverage acquisition in Brazil, according to the level of food processing and household location (urban/rural). Data from 49,489 households from the Household Budget Survey 2017-2018 were used. Information regarding food and beverages was collected through a collective acquisition booklet over 7 consecutive days. Locations were classified into 10 groups on the basis of similarities in sales structure and mode of food offering, and food and beverages were categorized according to the NOVA classification. The frequency of households acquiring food in each location was estimated, as well as the acquisition frequency according to processing level, considering significance through non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals. Half of the households (51.9%) acquired food in supermarkets, contributing to both the acquisition of fresh and minimally processed foods (92.2% in urban; 90.2% in rural) and ultra-processed foods (78.6% in urban; 74.1% in rural). For the urban area, the Supermarket (55.0%), Bakery (46.5%) and Small markets (43.1%) are among the places with the highest frequency of food acquisition, while for rural areas, it is found that Small Markets (53%), Supermarkets (32.3%) and Home production (31.0%) presented the highest frequencies. The acquisition of food and beverages for household consumption in Brazil differs according to household location (urban/rural), indicating the importance of the community food environment in the consumption patterns of ultra-processed foods.

Class I histone deacetylases inhibition reverses memory impairment induced by acute stress in mice.

While chronic stress induces learning and memory impairments, acute stress may facilitate or prevent memory consolidation depending on whether it occurs during the learning event or before it, respectively. On the other hand, it has been shown that histone acetylation regulates long-term memory formation. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of two inhibitors of class I histone deacetylases (HDACs), 4-phenylbutyrate (PB) and IN14 (100 mg/kg/day, ip for 2 days), on memory performance in mice exposed to a single 15-min forced swimming stress session. Plasma corticosterone levels were determined 30 minutes after acute swim stress in one group of mice. In another experimental series, independent groups of mice were trained in one of three different memory tasks: Object recognition test, Elevated T maze, and Buried food location test. Subsequently, the hippocampi were removed to perform ELISA assays for histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) expression. Acute stress induced an increase in plasma corticosterone levels, as well as hippocampal HDAC2 content, along with an impaired performance in memory tests. Moreover, PB and IN14 treatment prevented memory loss in stressed mice. These findings suggest that HDAC2 is involved in acute stress-induced cognitive impairment. None of the drugs improved memory in non-stressed animals, indicating that HDACs inhibitors are not cognitive boosters, but rather potentially useful drugs for mitigating memory deficits.