IMPLICIT PRICES OF PRAWN AND SHRIMP ATTRIBUTES IN THE PHILIPPINE DOMESTIC MARKET

Improving quality is a major goal in the global seafood market due to increasing consciousness among buyers, who are becoming "quality consumers" rather than "quantity consumers." This paper uses the hedonic approach to determine the marketable characteristics of prawn and shrimp in a domestic market that prioritizes export of quality products to a more lucrative market. Using price and attribute data for prawn and shrimp purchased from the Philippine domestic market, we estimate a log-linear hedonic price model with combined continuous and dummy explanatory variables. The estimation results show significant implicit prices of attributes, such as: tail length, freshness, product form, species, color, size, ease of preparation, discoloration, protein, and carbohydrate content. Longer tails and banana species are highly valued. Peeling and breading to ease preparation obtain a high premium. Freezing, although commonly practiced, receives the highest discount among forms of preservation. As the characteristics of local consumers and the market in the Philippines are similar to other competing Asian exporters such as Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, the results presented in this paper will be applicable to these exporting countries.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Philip Morris vs. tobacco control: two wins for public health, but uncertainty remains

Two investment treaty claims launched by Philip Morris entities against tobacco control measures implemented by Australia and Uruguay have ended, with Philip Morris losing both disputes. This Perspective highlights these positive results from a public health viewpoint while emphasizing the continued need for reform of the investment regime

A Metamaterial-Inspired Model for Electron Waves in Bulk Semiconductors

Based on an analogy with electromagnetic metamaterials, we develop an effective medium description for the propagation of electron matter waves in bulk semiconductors with a zincblende structure. It is formally demonstrated that even though departing from a different starting point, our theory gives results for the energy stationary states consistent with Bastard's envelope function approximation in the long-wavelength limit. Using the proposed approach, we discuss the time evolution of a wave packet in a bulk semiconductor with a zero-gap and linear energy-momentum dispersion.Comment: 43 pages, 4 figure

A neurocomputational account of reward and novelty processing and effects of psychostimulants in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Computational models of reinforcement learning have helped dissect discrete components of reward-related function and characterize neurocognitive deficits in psychiatric illnesses. Stimulus novelty biases decision-making, even when unrelated to choice outcome, acting as if possessing intrinsic reward value to guide decisions toward uncertain options. Heightened novelty seeking is characteristic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, yet how this influences reward-related decision-making is computationally encoded, or is altered by stimulant medication, is currently uncertain. Here we used an established reinforcement-learning task to model effects of novelty on reward-related behaviour during functional MRI in 30 adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and 30 age-, sex- and IQ-matched control subjects. Each participant was tested on two separate occasions, once ON and once OFF stimulant medication. OFF medication, patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder showed significantly impaired task performance (P = 0.027), and greater selection of novel options (P = 0.004). Moreover, persistence in selecting novel options predicted impaired task performance (P = 0.025). These behavioural deficits were accompanied by a significantly lower learning rate (P = 0.011) and heightened novelty signalling within the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (family-wise error corrected P < 0.05). Compared to effects in controls, stimulant medication improved attention deficit hyperactivity disorder participants' overall task performance (P = 0.011), increased reward-learning rates (P = 0.046) and enhanced their ability to differentiate optimal from non-optimal novel choices (P = 0.032). It also reduced substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area responses to novelty. Preliminary cross-sectional evidence additionally suggested an association between long-term stimulant treatment and a reduction in the rewarding value of novelty. These data suggest that aberrant substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area novelty processing plays an important role in the suboptimal reward-related decision-making characteristic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Compared to effects in controls, abnormalities in novelty processing and reward-related learning were improved by stimulant medication, suggesting that they may be disorder-specific targets for the pharmacological management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms

菲利普·莫里斯与烟草控制：公共健康的两次胜利，但不确定性仍然存在

Two investment treaty claims launched by Philip Morris entities against tobacco control measures implemented by Australia and Uruguay have ended, with Philip Morris losing both disputes. This Perspective highlights these positive results from a public health viewpoint while emphasizing the continued need for reform of the investment regime

Magnetotunnelling in resonant tunnelling structures with spin-orbit interaction

Magnetotunnelling spectroscopy of resonant tunnelling structures provides information on the nature of the two-dimensional electron gas in the well. We describe a model based on nonequilibrium Green's functions that allows for a comprehensive study of the density of states, tunnelling currents and current spin polarization. The investigated effects include the electron-phonon interaction, interface roughness scattering, Zeeman effect and the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. A qualitative agreement with experimental data is found regarding the satellite peaks. The spin polarization is predicted to be larger than ten percent for magnetic fields above 2 Tesla and having a structure even at the satellite peaks. The Rashba effect is confirmed to be observable as a beating pattern in the density of states but found to be too small to affect the tunnelling current.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure

Effects of Different Inoculation Regimes of Torulaspora delbrueckii and Oenococcus oeni on Fermentation Kinetics and Chemical Constituents of Durian Wine

This work evaluated the effects of inoculation time of Oenococcus oeni on the kinetics of fermentation and chemical constituents of durian wine produced using a non-Saccharomyces yeast, Torulaspora delbrueckii.  The growth of T. delbrueckii in mixed-culture fermentations was significantly adversely affected by the presence of O. oeni, and the growth of malolactic bacteria was also affected by the metabolism of yeast during fermentation. The level of ethanol produced in simultaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentation (SIM, 6.93%, v/v) was comparable to that in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae EC-1118 control (6.75%, v/v); both levels were relatively higher than that in the T. delbrueckii Biodiva control (6.39%, v/v) and the other two sequential fermentations (oenococci inoculated after four and seven days of alcoholic fermentation, SEQ 4th, 6.34% and SEQ 7th, 6.33% v/v respectively). The final concentrations of organic acids and esters in the mixed-culture wines were correlated with the inoculation time of O. oeni. SIM produced relatively higher levels of ethyl esters (ethyl esters of hexanoate, octanoate, decanoate and lactate) and acetate esters (ethyl acetate and isoamyl acetate) than those in SEQ 4th, SEQ 7th and the Biodiva control. This suggests that SIM would contribute fruity aroma properties to and modulate the mouthfeel of durian wine. The production of 3-(ethylthio)-1-propanol could compensate for the weak onion-like odour caused by the decrease in initial volatile sulphur compounds. Overall, this research suggests that SIM treatment is an effective way to produce durian wine with higher ester production

Preliminary evidence for human globus pallidus pars interna neurons signaling reward and sensory stimuli.

The globus pallidus pars interna (GPi) is a component of the basal ganglia, a network of subcortical nuclei that process motor, associative, and limbic information. While non-human primate studies have suggested a role for the GPi in non-motor functions, there have been no single-unit studies of non-motor electrophysiological behavior of human GPi neurons. We therefore sought to extend these findings by collecting single-unit recordings from awake patients during functional stereotactic neurosurgery targeting the GPi for deep brain stimulation. To assess cellular responses to non-motor information, patients performed a reward task where virtual money could be won, lost, or neither, depending on their performance while cellular activity was monitored. Changes in the firing rates of isolated GPi neurons after the presentation of reward-related stimuli were compared between different reward contingencies (win, loss, null). We observed neurons that modulated their firing rate significantly to the presentation of reward-related stimuli. We furthermore found neurons that responded to visual-stimuli more broadly. This is the first single-unit evidence of human GPi neurons carrying non-motor information. These results are broadly consistent with previous findings in the animal literature and suggest non-motor information may be represented in the single-unit activity of human GPi neurons.NAH is supported by a Unilever/Lipton Graduate Fellowship in Neuroscience and a University of Toronto Fellowship. WDH is supported by a CIHR operating grant (98006). VV is a Wellcome Trust (WT) intermediate Clinical Fellow (WT093705MA).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.04.02

Quantitative magnetization transfer imaging as a biomarker for effects of systemic inflammation on the brain

BACKGROUND Systemic inflammation impairs brain function and is increasingly implicated in the etiology of common mental illnesses, particularly depression and Alzheimer's disease. Immunotherapies selectively targeting proinflammatory cytokines demonstrate efficacy in a subset of patients with depression. However, efforts to identify patients most vulnerable to the central effects of inflammation are hindered by insensitivity of conventional structural magnetic resonance imaging. METHODS We used quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) imaging, a magnetic resonance imaging technique that enables quantification of changes in brain macromolecular density, together with experimentally induced inflammation to investigate effects of systemic inflammatory challenge on human brain microstructure. Imaging with qMT was performed in 20 healthy participants after typhoid vaccination and saline control injection. An additional 20 participants underwent fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography following the same inflammatory challenge. RESULTS The qMT data demonstrated that inflammation induced a rapid change in brain microstructure, reflected in increased magnetization exchange from free (water) to macromolecular-bound protons, within a discrete region of insular cortex implicated in representing internal physiologic states including inflammation. The functional significance of this change in insular microstructure was demonstrated by correlation with inflammation-induced fatigue and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography imaging, which revealed increased resting glucose metabolism within this region following the same inflammatory challenge. CONCLUSIONS Together these observations highlight a novel structural biomarker of the central physiologic and behavioral effects of mild systemic inflammation. The widespread clinical availability of magnetic resonance imaging supports the viability of qMT imaging as a clinical biomarker in trials of immunotherapeutics, both to identify patients vulnerable to the effects of systemic inflammation and to monitor neurobiological responses

Acute changes in striatal microstructure predict the development of interferon-alpha induced fatigue

BACKGROUND Interferon-alpha (IFN-α) is a key mediator of antiviral immune responses used clinically for hepatitis C treatment. Though effective, IFN-α induces marked behavioral changes that, when severe, can appear indistinguishable from major depression. Curiously, fatigue and motivational impairment evolve rapidly, suggesting acute engagement of immune-brain communicatory pathways, yet mood impairments typically emerge later, after weeks of treatment. Whether this reflects prolonged modulation of motivational processes underpinning fatigue or separate neurobiological mechanisms is currently unclear. METHODS Here, we used quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) imaging, an advanced microstructural neuroimaging technique sensitive to effects of inflammation, in a prospective study design to measure acute brain changes to IFN-α and relate these to later development of discrete behavioral changes. Twenty-three patients initiating IFN-α treatment for hepatitis C underwent qMT imaging and blood sampling at baseline and 4 hours after their first IFN-α injection. Comprehensive behavioral and psychological assessments were completed at both scanning sessions and at treatment weeks 4, 8, 12, and 24. RESULTS IFN-α injection stimulated an acute inflammatory cytokine response and evoked fatigue that peaked between 4 and 12 weeks, preceding mood change by 4 weeks. In the brain, IFN-α induced an acute change in striatal microstructure that additionally predicted development of fatigue but not mood symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Our findings highlight qMT as an in vivo biomarker of central effects of peripheral inflammation. We demonstrate exquisite sensitivity of the striatum to IFN-α, implicate striatal perturbation in IFN-α-induced fatigue, and dissociate this from mechanisms underlying IFN-α-induced mood symptoms, providing empirical support for distinct neural substrates mediating actions on motivation and mood