Consumer Preferences for Locally Made Specialty Food Products Across Northern New England

Does willingness to pay a premium for local specialty food products differ between consumers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont? Two food categories are investigated: low-end ($5) and high-end ($20) products. Premia estimates are compared across states and across base prices within states using dichotomous choice contingent valuation methods. Results suggest that the three states of northern New England have many similarities, including comparable price premia for the lower-priced good. However, there is some evidence that the premium for the higher-priced good is greater for the pooled Vermont and Maine treatment than for the New Hampshire treatment. Vermont and New Hampshire residents are willing to pay a higher premium for a $20 than for a$5 food item, while the evidence suggests that Maine residents are not.local specialty foods, willingness to pay, contingent valuation, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Precarious hope and reframing risk behavior from the ground up: insight from ethnographic research with Rwandan urban refugees in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

BackgroundTheoretical and methodological research on risk-taking practices often frames risk as an individual choice. While risk does occur at individual level, it is determined by aspirations which are connected to others and society. For many displaced women globally, these aspirations are often linked to the well-being of their children and other household members. This article explores the links between aspirations for the future, gendered household dynamics, and health risk-taking behavior among the Rwandan urban refugee community.MethodsThis analysis drew from participant observation, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews with 49 male and 42 female household members from 36 Rwandan refugee households in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The fieldwork was conducted over 12 months between May-August 2016, May-August 2017, and February-August 2018.ResultsWe observed that while there was considerable convergence among household members in aspirations, there was considerable difference in risk-taking practices engaged to achieve them with women often assuming the greatest risks. These gendered realities of risk were not only related to structural concerns including access to different forms of capital, but also to socio-cultural gendered expectations of women, how risks were defined and justified, and household dynamics that drove the gendered reality of observed risk-behavior.ConclusionsHumanitarian programs and policies are distinctly finite in nature; focused on the short-term needs of persons affected by conflict. However, many humanitarian situations in the world are protracted. In the midst of these challenges, themes of future-orientation, possibilities, and shared aspirations for a better future emerge. These aspirations and the practices, including risk-taking practices that stem from them are central to understand if we are to ensure a just peace and stability in displaced communities throughout the developing world. Our analysis highlights the need to examine sociocultural dimensions related to hopes for the future, gender, and household dynamics as a way to understand risk behavior. We propose this can be done through a framework of precarious hope which we put forward in this paper, in which hope, agency, sociocultural and political economic contexts situate risk as a gendered practice of hope amidst constraint

Developing measures on the perceptions of the built environment for physical activity: a confirmatory analysis

Abstract Background Minimal validity evidence exists for scales assessing the built environment for physical activity. The purpose of this study was to assess the test-retest reliability and invariance of a three-factor model (Neighborhood Characteristics, Safety/Crime, and Access to Physical Activity Facilities) across gender, race, geographic location, and level of physical activity. Methods To assess measurement invariance, a random sample of 1,534 adults living in North Carolina or Mississippi completed a computer assisted telephone interview that included items examining perceptions of the neighborhood for physical activity. Construct level test-retest reliability data were collected from a purposeful sample of 106 participants who were administered the questionnaire twice, approximately two weeks apart. Fit indices, Cronbach's alpha, Mokken H and Spearman correlation coefficients (SCC) were used to evaluate configural and co/variance invarianc,e and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to assess reliability. Results Construct test-retest reliability was strong (ICC 0.90 to 0.93). SCC for Neighborhood Characteristics and Crime/Safety were weak with Access (0.21 and 0.25), but strong between Crime/Safety and Neighborhood Characteristics (0.62). Acceptable fit and evidence of measurement invariance was found for gender, race (African American and White), geographic location, and level of physical activity. Fit indices consistently approached or were greater than 0.90 for goodness of fit index, normed fit index, and comparative fit index which is evidence of configural invariance. There was weak support of variance and covariance invariance for all groups that was indicative of factorial validity. Conclusions Support of the validity and reliability of the three-factor model across groups expands the possibilities for analysis to include latent variable modeling, and suggests these built environment constructs may be used in other settings and populations

Spirituality as a Life Line: Women Living With HIV/AIDS and the Role of Spirituality in Their Support System

For many women living with HIV/AIDS, incorporating spirituality into their lives helps them organize their experience, empower self-reconstruction, and manage stigma. (Stanley, 1999). Because of the potential relationship of spirituality and social support, the specific aim of this study is to examine the role of spirituality in the support experiences of women living with HIV or AIDS. In this case, spirituality or a connection to God, offered the women an opportunity to develop meaning and perspective taking, to have a source of support, to provide control through a more powerful being, and to offer a path to community

Ecophysiology of coral reef primary producers across an upwelling gradient in the tropical central Pacific

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Johnson, M. D., Fox, M. D., Kelly, E. L. A., Zgliczynski, B. J., Sandin, S. A., & Smith, J. E. Ecophysiology of coral reef primary producers across an upwelling gradient in the tropical central Pacific. Plos One, 15(2), (2020): e0228448, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0228448.Upwelling is an important source of inorganic nutrients in marine systems, yet little is known about how gradients in upwelling affect primary producers on coral reefs. The Southern Line Islands span a natural gradient of inorganic nutrient concentrations across the equatorial upwelling region in the central Pacific. We used this gradient to test the hypothesis that benthic autotroph ecophysiology is enhanced on nutrient-enriched reefs. We measured metabolism and photophysiology of common benthic taxa, including the algae Porolithon, Avrainvillea, and Halimeda, and the corals Pocillopora and Montipora. We found that temperature (27.2–28.7°C) was inversely related to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (0.46–4.63 μM) and surface chlorophyll a concentrations (0.108–0.147 mg m-3), which increased near the equator. Contrary to our prediction, ecophysiology did not consistently track these patterns in all taxa. Though metabolic rates were generally variable, Porolithon and Avrainvillea photosynthesis was highest at the most productive and equatorial island (northernmost). Porolithon photosynthetic rates also generally increased with proximity to the equator. Photophysiology (maximum quantum yield) increased near the equator and was highest at northern islands in all taxa. Photosynthetic pigments also were variable, but chlorophyll a and carotenoids in Avrainvillea and Montipora were highest at the northern islands. Phycobilin pigments of Porolithon responded most consistently across the upwelling gradient, with higher phycoerythrin concentrations closer to the equator. Our findings demonstrate that the effects of in situ nutrient enrichment on benthic autotrophs may be more complex than laboratory experiments indicate. While upwelling is an important feature in some reef ecosystems, ancillary factors may regulate the associated consequences of nutrient enrichment on benthic reef organisms.This work was supported by funding from the Moore Family Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Scripps family, and anonymous donors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, or preparation of the manuscript

Exposure to Food Advertising On Television: Associations With Children’s Fast Food and Soft Drink Consumption and Obesity

There is insufficient research on the direct effects of food advertising on children's diet and diet-related health, particularly in non-experimental settings. We employ a nationally-representative sample from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) and the Nielsen Company data on spot television advertising of cereals, fast food restaurants and soft drinks to children across the top 55 designated-market areas to estimate the relation between exposure to food advertising on television and children's food consumption and body weight. Our results suggest that soft drink and fast food television advertising is associated with increased consumption of soft drinks and fast food among elementary school children (Grade 5). Exposure to 100 incremental TV ads for sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drinks during 2002-2004 was associated with a 9.4% rise in children's consumption of soft drinks in 2004. The same increase in exposure to fast food advertising was associated with a 1.1% rise in children's consumption of fast food. There was no detectable link between advertising exposure and average body weight, but fast food advertising was significantly associated with body mass index for overweight and obese children (>=85th BMI percentile), revealing detectable effects for a vulnerable group of children. Exposure to advertising for calorie-dense nutrient-poor foods may increase overall consumption of unhealthy food categories.

Muscle Activation in Individuals Who are Status-Post a Stroke during Over Ground, Treadmill, and Body Weight Supported Gait: A Comparative Study

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate individuals who are status post stroke during ambulation over ground, on a treadmill without support, and on a treadmill with partial body weight support (PBWS) to determine if there are any differences in muscle activation of major muscle groups in the lower extremity. Subjects: Two subjects were recruited for this study. Subjects were included if they were over the age of 50 years, could fulfill a two-hour time commitment, and walk independently with or without the use of an assistive device. Subjects were excluded if they have had surgery or an existing orthopedic involvement of the lower extremities. Instrumentation: Sensor surface electrodes were used to pick up electromyography (EMG) activity. EMG activity was collected and final data is presented as percent of normalized EMG activity as an average of four to five gait cycles for each of the support trials. Procedure: Consent forms were reviewed and signed by each participant. Electrodes and a heel switch were placed on the involved lower extremity. Subjects performed two trial walks over level ground. Subjects also performed three treadmill ambulation conditions in random order: ambulation on the treadmill without a harness (trm), ambulation on the treadmill with a harness and no body weight support (trmh), and ambulation on the treadmill with a harness and PBWS of 15% (trms). Subjects ambulated for two minutes and EMG activity was recorded for 30 seconds at the end of each minute during each trial condition. Data Analysis: The mean EMG activity of the second trial for all ambulation conditions was calculated for both stance and swing phases of each subject. Descriptive statistics were then used to compare muscle activation across conditions, as well as rank EMG mean muscle activity for each trial condition from highest to lowest. Results: EMG rankings were inconsistent across conditions, but both subjects had the least gastrocnemius activity during the trms condition. Conclusion and Clinical Implication: There were no major findings or trends to suggest differences or similarities in muscle activation between any of the conditions for either subject. Therefore, further research is needed

Evaluating Social Support and T2D Risk Factors Among Members of Rural-Dwelling Grandparent-Headed Households

Purpose: This study examines the associations of social support and type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk factors among members of rural-dwelling, grandparent-headed households (GHH). Methods: Prospective data were collected from rural-dwelling members of GHH with no known diagnosis of T2D. Data collected on family characteristics, T2D clinical risk factors, and social support were assessed. Results: Sixty-six grandparents and 72 grandchildren participated in the study. The average age and HbA1Cs were 59.4 years and 6.2% ± 1.4 for grandparents and 11.8 years and 4.9% ± 0.6 for grandchildren. Most grandparents were found to have prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes. The number of people living in GHHs was associated with grandparents’ triglycerides, HDL, and BMI. Average social support scores among grandparents suggested moderately high perceived social support (79 ± 3.4). For grandchildren, social support from grandparents was associated with diastolic blood pressure and HbA1C, whereas support from teachers, classmates, and close friends was associated with HbA1C and BMI in grandchildren. Implications: This study shows that grandparent caregivers are at an increased risk for T2D. Perceived social support between grandparents and grandchildren influences T2D risk factors. However, social support provided by peers, teachers, and close friends is also associated with T2D risk factors in grandchildren. These findings support the use of family-based diabetes prevention programming, peer support, and school settings as mechanisms for interventions to reduce T2D in adolescents, particularly those within GHHs

Consumer insights and the importance of competitiveness Factors for mature and developing destinations

This article aims to understand the importance of various destination attributes to the competitiveness of tourism destinations from a consumer perspective, while at the same time contrasting these in a mature versus developing destination. A sample of Australian-based domestic tourists were surveyed to assess the relative importance of tourism destination competitiveness (TDC) attributes in the context of developing and mature destinations. This research firstly appears to verify that the importance of many TDC elements, highlighted by consumers, is not dissimilar from other stakeholder-based TDC studies. Furthermore, this research effort established that in terms of attribute performance, relative destination immaturity may well constrain a developing destination’s ability to satisfy the needs of consumers