Consumers Valuations and Choice Processes of Food Safety Enhancement Attributes: An International Study of Beef Consumers

Food safety concerns have had dramatic impacts on food and livestock markets in recent years. Here we examine consumer preferences for various beef food safety assurances. In particular, we evaluate the extent to which such preferences are heterogeneous within and across country-of-residence defined groups and examine the distributional nature of these preferences with respect to marginal improvements in food safety. We collected data from over 4,000 U.S., Canada, Japan, and Mexican consumers. Using mixed logit models we find that Japanese and Mexican consumers have WTP preferences that are nonlinear in the level of food safety risk reduction. Conversely, U.S .and Canadian consumers appear to possess linear preferences. These results suggest that optimal food safety investment strategies hinge critically upon consumer perception of actual food safety improvements, the distributional relationship describing the targeted consumer segment's tradeoff function between WTP premiums and risk reduction levels, and the cost structure of these investments.consumer beef preference, food safety, investment decision, mixed logit, willingness-to-pay, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The Role of Consumer Risk Perceptions and Attitudes in Cross Cultural Beef Consumption Changes

Beef food safety events have contributed to considerable market volatility, produced varied consumer reactions, created policy debates, sparked heated trade disputes, and generally contributed to beef industry frustrations. Better understanding of the forces causing observed consumer reactions in light of beef food safety events is critical for policy makers and industry participants. We examine whether consumers altered their beef consumption behavior because of their risk aversion and risk perceptions stemming from information about beef food safety in recent years. We use data from a total of 4,000 consumers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Japan to estimate a two-stage Probit/double-bounded Tobit modeling framework. Results reveal there are stark differences in risk perceptions and risk aversion regarding beef food safety across consumers in the four countries and that these differences are revealed through different beef consumption behavior. An improved understanding of food safety perceptions and attitudes will enable policy makers and agricultural industries to better anticipate consumers changing consumption behavior, if a food safety event occurs. Consumers from the four countries examined exhibited heterogeneous food safety perceptions and attitudes. Results suggest that food safety management strategies should vary across countries because of identified differences in food safety risk attitudes and risk perceptions.Cross-culture, risk attitude, risk perception, food safety, beef, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries,

Ultracompact monolithic integration of balanced, polarization diversity photodetectors for coherent lightwave receivers

The authors have monolithically integrated an optical front-end on InP for balanced, polarization-diversity coherent lightwave reception which is only 1.3-mm long. Low on-chip insertion loss (<4.5 dB) and balanced photoresponse (1.05:1 or better) are achieved at 1.5-μm wavelength using straightforward, regrowth-free fabrication. Low-capacitance photodetectors (≤0.15 pF) are employed for high bandwidth operation

Ultracompact, low-loss directional couplers on InP based on self-imaging by multimode interference

We report extremely compact (494-µm-long 3 dB splitters, including input/output bends), polarization-insensitive, zero-gap directional couplers on InP with a highly multimode interference region that are based on the self-imaging effect. We measured cross-state extinctions better than 28 dB and on-chip insertion losses of 0.5 dB/coupler plus 1 dB/cm guide propagation loss at 1523 nm wavelength

‘What are you going to do, confiscate their passports?’ Professional perspectives on cross-border reproductive travel

Objective: This article reports findings from a UK-based study which explored the phenomenon of overseas travel for fertility treatment. The first phase of this project aimed to explore how infertility clinicians and others professionally involved in fertility treatment understand the nature and consequences of cross-border reproductive travel. Background: There are indications that, for a variety of reasons, people from the UK are increasingly travelling across national borders to access assisted reproductive technologies. While research with patients is growing, little is known about how ‘fertility tourism’ is perceived by health professionals and others with a close association with infertility patients. Methods: Using an interpretivist approach, this exploratory research included focussed discussions with 20 people professionally knowledgeable about patients who had either been abroad or were considering having treatment outside the UK. Semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and subjected to a thematic analysis. Results: Three conceptual categories are developed from the data: ‘the autonomous patient’; ‘cross-border travel as risk’, and ‘professional responsibilities in harm minimisation’. Professionals construct nuanced, complex and sometimes contradictory narratives of the ‘fertility traveller’, as vulnerable and knowledgeable; as engaged in risky behaviour and in its active minimisation. Conclusions: There is little support for the suggestion that states should seek to prevent cross-border treatment. Rather, an argument is made for less direct strategies to safeguard patient interests. Further research is required to assess the impact of professional views and actions on patient choices and patient experiences of treatment, before, during and after travelling abroad

Aging Is Accompanied by a Blunted Muscle Protein Synthetic Response to Protein Ingestion.

Published onlineJournal ArticleThis is the final version of the article. Available from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this record.PURPOSE: Progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass with aging (sarcopenia) forms a global health concern. It has been suggested that an impaired capacity to increase muscle protein synthesis rates in response to protein intake is a key contributor to sarcopenia. We assessed whether differences in post-absorptive and/or post-prandial muscle protein synthesis rates exist between large cohorts of healthy young and older men. PROCEDURES: We performed a cross-sectional, retrospective study comparing in vivo post-absorptive muscle protein synthesis rates determined with stable isotope methodologies between 34 healthy young (22±1 y) and 72 older (75±1 y) men, and post-prandial muscle protein synthesis rates between 35 healthy young (22±1 y) and 40 older (74±1 y) men. FINDINGS: Post-absorptive muscle protein synthesis rates did not differ significantly between the young and older group. Post-prandial muscle protein synthesis rates were 16% lower in the older subjects when compared with the young. Muscle protein synthesis rates were >3 fold more responsive to dietary protein ingestion in the young. Irrespective of age, there was a strong negative correlation between post-absorptive muscle protein synthesis rates and the increase in muscle protein synthesis rate following protein ingestion. CONCLUSIONS: Aging is associated with the development of muscle anabolic inflexibility which represents a key physiological mechanism underpinning sarcopenia