Factors Affecting Participation of Italian Farmers in Rural Development Policy

In this paper a (micro)econometric approach is developed by considering the farmer likelihood to participate in different policy programs as linked to the objective of farmer to maximize their welfare. In this way we model farmers participation in policy support scheme by using a new institutional economics approach and conceptualizing the decision to entry as a contractual choice between two rural development types of policy. Different discrete choice modelling approaches are used to analyze the complementarity/ substitutability of different policy programs such as environmental-related measures and farm investment supports policy schemes and the main driving factors behind them. We use an extensive cross-sectional database related to the Italian FADN 2006. Results indicate that social capital and institutional factors should be taken much more into account in order to understand farmers likelihood to entry in policy support schemes. Location and farm(er) socio-economic features are also relevant factors. Moreover complementarity has been found between different policy schemes

Assessing parental preferences regarding a plant-based game for educating children about more sustainable and healthier diets

Environmental damage or health concerns related to diet are some alarming consequences of our behaviour in the near future. Consumers can make a difference depending on their eating behaviour and conscientiousness about minimizing environmental damage. One way to make children more aware of the environment and induce them to eat healthier food in the future might be educational games where they could learn the importance of the environment and the effect of the food they eat on their health status. In this study, we investigated parental behaviour when feeding their children and their willingness to pay for a game product with educational and eating functions. The sample consisted of 300 parents of children aged from 4 to 12. A hypothetical choice experiment has been used and a latent class model estimated the parents’ preferences for a plant-based product game carrying two attributes, namely, the price and narrative context of the game The results indicated that parents were willing to pay more for a product with a storybook related to healthy eating habits or recycling than one with no storybook. Moreover, two dominant feeding styles in households were found: indulgent parents and uninvolved parents. This alternative approach is oriented toward educating people from the early stages of their lives, creating a favourable environment for the development of preferences for healthier food. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

The impact of body image on the WTP values for reduced-fat and low-salt content potato chips among obese and non-obese consumers

The aim of this study is to assess the influence of body image on consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for potato chips carrying nutritional claims among obese and non-obese people. About 309 and grouped in: (i) non-obese with good body image; (ii) non-obese with body image dissatisfaction; and grouped in: (i) non-obese with good body image; (ii) non-obese with body image dissatisfaction; (iii) obese with good body image; (iv) obese with body image dissatisfaction. Results indicate differences in consumers’ willingness to pay among consumer groups. Body image dissatisfaction of normal people did not influence the WTP for healthier chips. Obese people with body image dissatisfaction were willing to pay more for healthier chips (i.e., low-salt content potato chips) than normal ones with body image dissatisfaction. Examining the role of knowledge in the light of how this could impact on body image is relevant to improve the health status of individuals and their diet. Knowledge about nutrition could improve the body image of obese people

Visual odometry with depth-wise separable convolution and quaternion neural networks

Monocular visual odometry is a fundamental problem in computer vision and it was extensively studied in literature. The vast majority of visual odometry algorithms are based on a standard pipeline consisting in feature detection, feature matching, motion estimation and local optimization. Only recently, deep learning approaches have shown cutting-edge performance, replacing the standard pipeline with an end-to-end solution. One of the main advantages of deep learning approaches over the standard methods is the reduced inference time, that is an important requirement for the application of visual odometry in real-time. Less emphasis, however, has been placed on memory requirements and training efficiency. The memory footprint, in particular, is important for real world applications such as robot navigation or autonomous driving, where the devices have limited memory resources. In this paper we tackle both aspects introducing novel architectures based on Depth-Wise Separable Convolutional Neural Network and deep Quaternion Recurrent Convolutional Neural Network. In particular, we obtain equal or better accuracy with respect to the other state-of-the-art methods on the KITTI VO dataset with a reduction of the number of parameters and a speed-up in the inference time

A clinical study of motor evoked potentials using a triple stimulation technique

Amplitudes of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) are usually much smaller than those of motor responses to maximal peripheral nerve stimulation, and show marked variation between normal subjects and from one stimulus to another. Consequently, amplitude measurements have low sensitivity to detect central motor conduction failures due to the broad range of normal values. Since these characteristics are mostly due to varying desynchronization of the descending action potentials, causing different degrees of phase cancellation, we applied the recently developed triple stimulation technique (TST) to study corticospinal conduction to 489 abductor digiti minimi muscles of 271 unselected patients referred for possible corticospinal dysfunction. The TST allows resynchronization of the MEP, and thereby a quantification of the proportion of motor units activated by the transcranial stimulus. TST results were compared with those of conventional MEPs. In 212 of 489 sides, abnormal TST responses suggested conduction failure of various degrees. By contrast, conventional MEPs detected conduction failures in only 77 of 489 sides. The TST was therefore 2.75 times more sensitive than conventional MEPs in disclosing corticospinal conduction failures. When the results of the TST and conventional MEPs were combined, 225 sides were abnormal: 145 sides showed central conduction failure, 13 sides central conduction slowing and 67 sides both conduction failure and slowing. It is concluded that the TST is a valuable addition to the study of MEPs, since it improves detection and gives quantitative information on central conduction failure, an abnormality which appears to be much more frequent than conduction slowing. This new technique will be useful in following the natural course and the benefit of treatments in disorders affecting central motor conductio

Prevalencia de las declaraciones nutricionales en la prevención de la obesidad en el mercado Español

Introduction: Although previous studies have provided relevant information regarding the progress in the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 of the European Union. So far it not determined the prevalence of relevant nutrition claims in preventing obesity in the Spanish market. Objective: To determine the prevalence of relevant nutritional claims related to prevent the obesity in the Spanish market. Material and methods: A database with 9 food product categories and it nutritional claims was created. Three supermarket chains were included because they represent the 40% of market share. Only the nutritional claims that mention nutrients related obesity was considered. Results: A total of 4, 568 products were examined and a total of 900 nutrition claims were found in 20% of the products found. The most frequent nutrients referred in the nutritional claims were fat (42%), sugar (32%), dietary fibre (20%) and salt (6%). Conclusions: In accordance with previous studies, findings reported a low prevalence of nutritional claims indicating that agrifood sector should include more nutritional claims to help consumers making better food choices

Information bias condemning radical food innovators? The case of insect-based products in the Netherlands

In this paper we analyze whether information bias is affecting consumers' WTP for radical food innovations. We collect data in the Netherlands on consumers' WTP for insect-based products. We used product attributes directly affected by information and EU legislation such as the visualization of insects on the products, the use of logo and health claims, different information treatments on positive environmental and social effects of eating insects as meat-substitutes. Results indicate that visualization negatively influenced consumers' WTP while information treatments do not mitigate this effect. We derive that EU legislators need to move fast in clarifying the status of insect-based foods

Testing the effectiveness of oath script in reducing hypothetical bias in Contingent Valuation Method

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