Endowments, expectations, and the value of food safety certification: experimental evidence from fish markets in Nigeria

We study the impact of endowments and expectations on reference point formation and measure the value of food safety certification in the context of fish trading on real markets in Nigeria. In our field experiment, consumers can trade a known food item for a novel food item that is superior in terms of food safety--or vice versa. Endowments matter for reference point formation, but we also document a reverse endowment effect for a subsample of respondents. The effect of expectations about future ownership is weak and mixed. While expectations seem to affect bidding behavior for subjects "trading up" to obtain the certified food product (a marginally significant effect), it does not affect bids for subjects "trading down" to give up this novel food item. Finally, willingness to pay for safety certified food is large for our respondents-our estimate of the premium is bounded between 37 and 53% of the price of conventional, uncertified food

A Case of Amlodipine Overdose: Role of High Dose Insulin Therapy

Introduction: High dose insulin (HDI) therapy, defined as \u3e 0.5 units/kg/hour, has been postulated to improve hemodynamics in both calcium channel blocker (CCB) and beta-blocker overdose. Proposed benefits of HDI include coronary and systemic vasodilation due to enhancement of nitric oxide synthase activity leading to improved contractility and decreased systemic vascular resistance, respectively. HDI also directly improves cardiac contractility by increasing glucose uptake and improving calcium handling within cardiac cells. We present a case of a patient with amlodipine overdose and her response to HDI therapy. Case presentation: A 52 year old female presented with amlodipine overdose after suicide attempt leading to shock. She received continuous intravenous infusion of regular insulin at a rate of 2 units/kg/hour and epinephrine titrated up to 80 mcg/hour to maintain mean arterial pressure above 65. After several hours, there was concern for worsening hypokalemia so insulin was suspended. Patient subsequently became more hypotensive, requiring further uptitration of epinephrine. When continuous insulin was later restarted, there was an observed immediate improvement in blood pressure. Patient was eventually weaned off of vasopressors, followed by insulin, by day 3. She was downgraded from the ICU on day 5. Conclusion: In patients with CCB overdose, initial management should include fluid resuscitation, calcium supplementation, and early consideration of vasopressors and HDI therapy. Although there are currently no controlled human studies to evaluate the benefits of HDI therapy, this case revealed worsening hypotension upon cessation of therapy followed by rapid improvement in blood pressure when restarting insulin. Based on this observation, HDI therapy may have a prominent role in management of CCB overdose

PENGARUH THERAPY SUPPORTIF KONSEP DIRI TERHADAP KONSEP DIRI ANAK SEKOLAH DASAR

The problem of delinquency in school-age children that often occurs is truancy, violating school rules, smoking, mixing, and bullying. This is because when the child's self-concept development experiences confusion in identity, to depersonalization. To prevent that, we need a preventive action, one of them is by doing supportive therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Supportive Therapy on Self-Concept and child development, with a quasi-experimental method of pre-post test with control group and using a self-concept questionnaire. Samples amounted to 80, 40 intervention groups and 40 controls, using random sampling techniques. The results of the study, found that there is a significant relationship in supportive therapy to development and supportive therapy in selfconcept, with the average value of the development variables before being given supportive therapy in the intervention group 72.78 or 77.45% and the mean value after supportive therapy 83 or 88.32% of the value there was an increase in development of 10.22 (10.87%) which means that Therappy Supportive has a significant influence on children's development, while for the value of self-concept variables before supportive therapy in the intervention group 68.28 or 72, 63%, after supportive therapy, the mean value is 83.87 or 89.22%. From this value, it can be analyzed that there is an increase of 15.59 or 22.84%, which means that therapeutic support has a significant influence on the child's self-concep

Experimental and survey-based data on willingness to pay for seafood safety and environmental sustainability certification in Nigeria

Aquatic foods, including fish, are a substantial component of animal source foods globally, and make a critical nutritional contribution to diets in many contexts. In the global North, concern among consumers and regulators over the safety and environmental sustainability of seafood, particularly in developed nations, has led to the development of increasingly stringent seafood safety standards. While such standards may constitute regularity, logistical, and economic barriers to participation in export markets by small-scale producers, they have in other contexts catalysed upgrades to production and post-harvest handling practices within value chains associated with both capture fisheries and aquaculture. The health burden of foodborne illnesses is a major concern in developing countries. As incomes rise, consumers in developing countries are increasingly willing to pay a premium for safer and environmentally sustainable foods. However, there is little empirical evidence on consumers' willingness to pay for seafood safety in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Data on demand for seafood safety and environmental sustainability certification in African countries are largely unavailable in the public domain. In this paper, we describe data collected in Lagos State, Nigeria in October and November 2019. Experiments in the form of Becker-DeGroote-Marschak (BDM) auction mechanism, and post experiment surveys were conducted with 200 fish consumers in fish markets. These data can be used to assess whether consumers' demand for safe and healthy seafood from local markets can be harnessed to generate positive economic returns to producers. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc

Evaluating Student Attitudes: Perceptions of Interprofessional Experiences Following Participation in a Student-Run Free Clinic

Abstract It is increasingly evident that patient health outcomes are improved when they are treated by an effective interdisciplinary healthcare team. Many also endorse that learning to function collaboratively in interdisciplinary settings should start at the onset of one's medical education. Student-run free clinics, such as the University of Central Florida College of Medicine's (UCF COM) KNIGHTS (Keeping Neighbors In Good Health Through Service) Clinic, provide opportunities for students to work in concert with other healthcare professionals. This study aimed to discern whether volunteering in this setting had a positive impact on medical students' perception of working within an interdisciplinary team. A single survey was distributed via Qualtrics to all first and second-year medical students (N = 248) at the UCF COM. The items of interest examined in this study were part of a larger study described elsewhere. The mean responses on a 5-point Likert-like scale to these survey items were recorded and compared between two cohorts: KNIGHTS volunteers and non-volunteers. One hundred twenty-three (49.6%) students responded to the survey and most items showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p-value > 0.05). However, there were a few items of interest that did show a significant difference. These included KNIGHTS volunteers being much more likely to have worked with other healthcare professionals (p < 0.001) as well as believing themselves to have a better understanding of the role of medicine within an interprofessional team (p = 0.016). Additionally, KNIGHTS volunteers were more likely to feel like they understood the role of patient education (p = 0.031) and pharmacy (p = 0.040) within an interprofessional team. Interestingly, KNIGHTS volunteers were also more likely to believe that problem-solving skills should be learned with students within their own discipline (p = 0.009) as well as that there is little overlap between the roles of medical students and students from other healthcare disciplines (p = 0.044). Still, overall results showed that both volunteers and non-volunteers had an overall positive perception of interdisciplinary teams and working with other healthcare professionals

Are consumers in developing countries willing to pay for aquaculture food safety certification? Evidence from a field experiment in Nigeria

Many developing countries face challenges in managing food safety risks associated with consumption of animalsource foods. Efforts to address these challenges increasingly recognize the role of certification in agri-food systems governance. Understanding consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for food safety certification is fundamental to determining the appropriate design and implementation of programs to reduce the burden of foodborne illnesses in developing countries. To address this need, we implemented a framed field experiment with consumers of eight farm-raised African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) products varying in certification status (safety certified versus uncertified) and product forms (live versus smoked) to examine their WTP for food safety certification in Nigeria. We applied a mixed-effects model to account for the hierarchical structure of the data with one participant entering multiple bids, and estimated a model with participant fixed effects as a robustness check. We found that consumers were willing to pay between 3.1% and 18.8% more for fish certified as safe compared to uncertified fish. Furthermore, there was an asymmetry in food safety certification valuation, with consumers paying significant premiums for high-value larger-sized certified live and smoked catfish, but not smaller-sized certified live and smoked catfish. The results are robust to a specification in which consumer fixed effects are included. Our findings suggest there exists consumer demand for certification programs to upgrade the food safety standards of higher-value fish products in Nigeria's domestic markets. Lower-value fish products typically consumed by lower-income consumers show less potential for certification. Alternative safety regulation is needed to ensure safety practices for low-end fish products

Low-volatility compounds contribute significantly to isoprene secondary organic aerosol (SOA) under high-NO_x conditions

Recent advances in our knowledge of the gas-phase oxidation of isoprene, the impact of chamber walls on secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mass yields, and aerosol measurement analysis techniques warrant reevaluating SOA yields from isoprene. In particular, SOA from isoprene oxidation under high-NOx conditions forms via two major pathways: (1) low-volatility nitrates and dinitrates (LV pathway) and (2) hydroxymethyl-methyl-α-lactone (HMML) reaction on a surface or the condensed phase of particles to form 2-methyl glyceric acid and its oligomers (2MGA pathway). These SOA production pathways respond differently to reaction conditions. Past chamber experiments generated SOA with varying contributions from these two unique pathways, leading to results that are difficult to interpret. This study examines the SOA yields from these two pathways independently, which improves the interpretation of previous results and provides further understanding of the relevance of chamber SOA yields to the atmosphere and regional or global modeling. Results suggest that low-volatility nitrates and dinitrates produce significantly more aerosol than previously thought; the experimentally measured SOA mass yield from the LV pathway is ∼0.15. Sufficient seed surface area at the start of the reaction is needed to limit the effects of vapor wall losses of low-volatility compounds and accurately measure the complete SOA mass yield. Under dry conditions, substantial amounts of SOA are formed from HMML ring-opening reactions with inorganic ions and HMML organic oligomerization processes. However, the lactone organic oligomerization reactions are suppressed under more atmospherically relevant humidity levels, where hydration of the lactone is more competitive. This limits the SOA formation potential from the 2MGA pathway to HMML ring-opening reactions with water or inorganic ions under typical atmospheric conditions. The isoprene SOA mass yield from the LV pathway measured in this work is significantly higher than previous studies have reported, suggesting that low-volatility compounds such as organic nitrates and dinitrates may contribute to isoprene SOA under high-NOx conditions significantly more than previously thought and thus deserve continued study

Gas Phase Production and Loss of Isoprene Epoxydiols

Isoprene epoxydiols (IEPOX) form in high yields from the OH-initiated oxidation of isoprene under low-NO conditions. These compounds contribute significantly to secondary organic aerosol formation. Their gas-phase chemistry has, however, remained largely unexplored. In this study, we characterize the formation of IEPOX isomers from the oxidation of isoprene by OH. We find that cis-β- and trans-β-IEPOX are the dominant isomers produced, and that they are created in an approximate ratio of 1:2 from the low-NO oxidation of isoprene. Three isomers of IEPOX, including cis-β- and trans-β, were synthesized and oxidized by OH in environmental chambers under high- and low-NO conditions. We find that IEPOX reacts with OH at 299 K with rate coefficients of (0.84 ± 0.07) × 10^(–11), (1.52 ± 0.07) × 10^(–11), and (0.98 ± 0.05) × 10^(–11) cm^3 molecule^(–1) s^(–1) for the δ1, cis-β, and trans-β isomers. Finally, yields of the first-generation products of IEPOX + OH oxidation were measured, and a new mechanism of IEPOX oxidation is proposed here to account for the observed products. The substantial yield of glyoxal and methylglyoxal from IEPOX oxidation may help explain elevated levels of those compounds observed in low-NO environments with high isoprene emissions

Mechanism of the hydroxyl radical oxidation of methacryloyl peroxynitrate (MPAN) and its pathway toward secondary organic aerosol formation in the atmosphere

Methacryloyl peroxynitrate (MPAN), the acyl peroxynitrate of methacrolein, has been suggested to be an important secondary organic aerosol (SOA) precursor from isoprene oxidation. Yet, the mechanism by which MPAN produces SOA through reaction with the hydroxyl radical (OH) is unclear. We systematically evaluate three proposed mechanisms in controlled chamber experiments and provide the first experimental support for the theoretically-predicted lactone formation pathway from the MPAN + OH reaction, producing hydroxymethyl-methyl-α-lactone (HMML). The decomposition of the MPAN–OH adduct yields HMML + NO_3 ( 75%) and hydroxyacetone + CO + NO_3 ( 25%), out-competing its reaction with atmospheric oxygen. The production of other proposed SOA precursors, e.g., methacrylic acid epoxide (MAE), from MPAN and methacrolein are negligible (<2%). Furthermore, we show that the beta-alkenyl moiety of MPAN is critical for lactone formation. Alkyl radicals formed cold via H-abstraction by OH do not decompose to HMML, even if they are structurally identical to the MPAN–OH adduct. The SOA formation from HMML, from polyaddition of the lactone to organic compounds at the particle interface or in the condensed phase, is close to unity under dry conditions. However, the SOA yield is sensitive to particle liquid water and solvated ions. In hydrated inorganic particles, HMML reacts primarily with H¬_2O to produce the monomeric 2-methylglyceric acid (2MGA) or with aqueous sulfate and nitrate to produce the associated organosulfate and organonitrate, respectively. 2MGA, a tracer for isoprene SOA, is semivolatile and its accommodation in aerosol water decreases with decreasing pH. Conditions that enhance the production of neutral 2MGA suppress SOA mass from the HMML channel. Considering the liquid water content and pH ranges of ambient particles, 2MGA will exist largely as a gaseous compound in some parts of the atmosphere