Beyond Reality: Exploring the effect of different virtual reality environments on visual assessment of cakes.

Visual assessment triggers physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses in consumer behavior. This confluence of signals can be influenced by context, which plays a crucial role in eating behavior. The strategies used to evoke scenarios that enhance ecological validity in sensory experiences have evolved in the last years to include immersive technologies and virtual reality (VR) to simulate the complexity of the real world and predict consumer preferences. This study explored VR's effect on visual liking and hedonic responses of five virtual cakes in two virtual contexts designed with advanced 3D modeling and photogrammetry techniques to ensure high realism and immersion. Although the virtual contexts themselves did not impact liking ratings, the variables "context-cake," "age," and "subjective hunger" had a significant effect on the visual liking of cakes. A Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) questionnaire showed significant differences in responses for various terms related to the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of the five cakes. Finally, the internal preference map separated two consumer patterns of visual liking: traditional versus innovative.

Role of Visual Assessment of High-Quality Cakes in Emotional Response of Consumers.

Thinking of the present gastronomic trends is inevitable when talking about innovation in haute pastry. Launching a successful product that meets consumers' high expectations despite the rising demand for new creations is increasingly complex. For this reason, sensory analysis studies are more and more interested in studying the emotional response evoked by these products to better understand and improve user experiences. The main goal of this work was to conduct a study to analyze the emotional arousal of consumers after the visualization of five haute patisserie cakes. An online questionnaire with the EsSense Profile® scale and CATA methodology were used for data collection. The EsSense Profile® is a predefined and validated scale that measures food-related emotions, which includes 39 terms. When analyzing the emotions expressed by all the participants, 22 were statistically significant, of which 14 were classified as positive, 6 as neutral, and only 2 were negative. By analyzing the responses by gender, we observed differences in the number of elicited emotional terms: females showed significant differences between cakes for 18 emotion terms compared to 8 terms for males. The results obtained support the importance of the emotional profile to understand consumers' expectations and behavior.

Mathematical models based on transfer functions to estimate tissue temperature during RF cardiac ablation in real time.

Radiofrequency cardiac ablation (RFCA) has been used to treat certain types of cardiac arrhythmias by producing a thermal lesion. Even though a tissue temperature higher than 50ºC is required to destroy the target, thermal mapping is not currently used during RFCA. Our aim was thus to develop mathematical models capable of estimating tissue temperature from tissue characteristics acquired or estimated at the beginning of the procedure (electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, specific heat and density) and the applied voltage at any time. Biological tissue was considered as a system with an input (applied voltage) and output (tissue temperature), and so the mathematical models were based on transfer functions relating these variables. We used theoretical models based on finite element method to verify the mathematical models. Firstly, we solved finite element models to identify the transfer functions between the temperature at a depth of 4 mm and a constant applied voltage using a 7Fr and 4 mm electrode. The results showed that the relationships can be expressed as first-order transfer functions. Changes in electrical conductivity only affected the static gain of the system, while specific heat variations produced a change in the dynamic system response. In contrast, variations in thermal conductivity modified both the static gain and the dynamic system response. Finally, to assess the performance of the transfer functions obtained, we conducted a new set of computer simulations using a controlled temperature protocol and considering the temperature dependence of the thermal and electrical conductivities, i.e. conditions closer to those found in clinical use. The results showed that the difference between the values estimated from transfer functions and the temperatures obtained from finite element models was less than 4ºC, which suggests that the proposed method could be used to estimate tissue temperature in real time.

Could it be advantageous to tune the temperature controller during radiofrequency ablation? A feasibility study using theoretical models.

PURPOSE: To assess whether tailoring the Kp and Ki values of a proportional-integral (PI) controller during radiofrequency (RF) cardiac ablation could be advantageous from the point of view of the dynamic behaviour of the controller, in particular, whether control action could be speeded up and larger lesions obtained. METHODS: Theoretical models were built and solved by the finite element method. RF cardiac ablations were simulated with temperature controlled at 55°C. Specific PI controllers were implemented with Kp and Ki parameters adapted to cases with different tissue values (specific heat, thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity) electrode-tissue contact characteristics (insertion depth, cooling effect of circulating blood) and electrode characteristics (size, location and arrangement of the temperature sensor in the electrode). RESULTS: The lesion dimensions and T(max) remained almost unchanged when the specific PI controller was used instead of one tuned for the standard case: T(max) varied less than 1.9°C, lesion width less than 0.2 mm, and lesion depth less than 0.3 mm. As expected, we did observe a direct logical relationship between the response time of each controller and the transient value of electrode temperature. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that a PI controller designed for a standard case (such as that described in this study), could offer benefits under different tissue conditions, electrode-tissue contact, and electrode characteristics.