El valor de una planta forrajera depende no solo de su productividad sino también de su aceptación y preferencia por los animales. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar el rendimiento forrajero, ...composición química, aceptación y preferencia de tres leguminosas forrajeras (Arachis pintoi, Stylosanthes guianensis y Centrocema macrocarpum) en terneras Girolando en condiciones tropicales. Experimento 1: Producción (KgMS/h) y Valor Nutritivo (%) de las especies a partir de cortes trimestrales y durante un año después de culminada la fase de crecimiento. Experimento 2: Se determinó la aceptabilidad mediante la tasa de ingesta (g/min) de cada especie en seis terneras sin experiencia en el consumo de estas, cuando eran ofrecidas individuamente a los animales durante 5 min diarios por tres días consecutivos. Experimento 3: Se estimó la preferencia a partir del consumo relativo (%) en corrales individuales cuando las tres especies eran ofrecidas por 10 min diarios durante cinco días consecutivos en corrales individuales y separados entre sí por barreras visuales para evitar interacciones entre los animales. El rendimiento y valor nutritivo varió significativamente entre especies (p<0.001): 6019, 4057 y 1236 kg/MS/ha, proteína cruda 14.45, 16.32 y 16.98% y FDN 58.63, 57.51 y 50.79% en S. guianensis, C. macrocarpum y A. pintoi, respectivamente, en tanto que las pruebas de aceptación y preferencia revelaron que A. pintoi (8.18 gMS/min y 45.97%) y S. guianensis (8.14 gMS/min y 33.31%) mostraron una mayor aceptación y preferencia con relación a C. macrocarpum (4.52 gMS/min y 20.72%). En consecuencia, A. pintoi y S. guianensis proveen una oportunidad de abastecer de nitrógeno en menor tiempo a los animales cuando son suplementados en bancos de proteína.
The purpose of this study is to explore emerging markets for imported beef in China by assessing Beijing consumer demand for quality attributes. This study utilizes data from an in-store choice ...experiment to evaluate consumer willingness-to-pay for select food quality attributes (food safety, animal welfare, Green Food and Organic certification) taking into account country-of-origin information. Our results show that Beijing consumers value food safety information the most, and are willing to pay more for Australian beef products than for US or domestic (Chinese) beef. We explore the various relationships between the quality attributes, find evidence of preference heterogeneity and discuss agribusiness and marketing implications of our findings.
•Chinese consumers have high demand for food safety assurance in beef products.•Consumers are willing to pay more for Australian beef products than for US or domestic beef.•Consumers prefer Green Food to Organic certification.•Consumers are currently not willing to pay a high premium for animal welfare information.
•We review concepts, methods and indicators of studies which have mapped demand for different ecosystem services.•A typology of ES demand mapping approaches is presented.•The suitability of different ...methods is assessed for different types of ES.•We investigated ways to advance mapping of ES demand.
Mapping the demand for ecosystem services (ES) has received increased attention in scientific research and is seen as a relevant tool to inform conservation planning, land use planning and management. Yet, there is a varying understanding of the concept of ES demand, which has implications on how and where ES demand is being mapped. In this paper we review the current conceptual understanding of ES demand, indicators to measure demand and the approaches used to quantify and map demand. We identified four distinct “demand types”, which relate to different ecosystem service categories. These demand types include demand expressed in terms of (1) risk reduction, (2) preferences and values, (3) direct use or (4) consumption of goods and services. Each of the demand types was linked to specific methods applied in the reviewed literature. We found that operationalization of ES demand in policy, planning and management requires a more consistent understanding and definition of ES demand, its drivers and its temporal dynamics. Furthermore, the impact of demands for multiple ecosystem services on land use change needs to be investigated. This will allow for the consideration of temporal and cross-level interactions between supply and demand of ecosystem services and its impacts in land use change modelling.
We evaluate user-generated content as a source of customer needs and propose and test a machine-learning approach for identifying customer needs more efficiently.
Firms traditionally rely on ...interviews and focus groups to identify customer needs for marketing strategy and product development. User-generated content (UGC) is a promising alternative source for identifying customer needs. However, established methods are neither efficient nor effective for large UGC corpora because much content is noninformative or repetitive. We propose a machine-learning approach to facilitate qualitative analysis by selecting content for efficient review. We use a convolutional neural network to filter out noninformative content and cluster dense sentence embeddings to avoid sampling repetitive content. We further address two key questions: Are UGC-based customer needs comparable to interview-based customer needs? Do the machine-learning methods improve customer-need identification? These comparisons are enabled by a custom data set of customer needs for oral care products identified by professional analysts using industry-standard experiential interviews. The analysts also coded 12,000 UGC sentences to identify which previously identified customer needs and/or new customer needs were articulated in each sentence. We show that (1) UGC is at least as valuable as a source of customer needs for product development, likely more valuable, compared with conventional methods, and (2) machine-learning methods improve efficiency of identifying customer needs from UGC (unique customer needs per unit of professional services cost).
Data are available at
https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1123
.
The world's largest concentration of cold-water coral (CWC) is found off the Norwegian coast. Most CWC discoveries are recent, posing new challenges for Norwegian coastal and fishery authorities ...regarding the management of deep-sea resources. Scientific knowledge of CWC is limited, and many citizens have not even heard about them. This creates problems for the application of the stated preference methods to capture their economic value, and very few such studies have been conducted. To fill this gap, we designed a discrete choice experiment, which was implemented in a valuation workshop setting in order to derive estimates of participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for increasing the protection of CWC. Despite the fact that marine industries such as oil/gas and fisheries could be adversely affected by CWC protection, this did not reduce the respondents' willingness to pay for further protection. The possibility that CWCs play an important role as habitat for fish was the single most important variable to explain respondents' WTP for CWC protection. The survey revealed a high degree of preference heterogeneity, while we found an average WTP for CWC protection in the range of EUR 274–287.
Fernando González Bernáldez contribuyó decisivamente a abrir el amplio campo de los estudios de estética ambiental, introduciendo modelos de relevancia en la investigación psicológica de la ...percepción del paisaje. En este trabajo se recopilan los principales modelos teóricos de referencia que aún son relevantes en el desarrollo de esta línea de investigación. Se evalúa una colección experimental de 16 paisajes de entornos naturales en una muestra de 302 participantes. Los resultados muestran la relevancia de la presencia de agua y vegetación en la preferencia por un paisaje. Se propone un modelo integrado que describe de la estética de los paisajes naturales. Este modelo incluye las variables de claridad, contenido explícito de la escena, variables sociales y de la experiencia de fascinación.
•More patients valued independence and QOL compared to survival and recurrence.•49% of early stage patients had treatment discordance, preferring the alternative.•Resources are needed to aid ...clinicians during lung cancer treatment discussions.•Understanding patients’ values and is essential to foster shared decision-making.
With advances in treatments among patients with lung cancer, it is increasingly important to understand patients’ values and preferences to facilitate shared decision making.
Prospective, multicenter study of patients with treated stage I lung cancer. At the time of study participation, participants were 4–6 months posttreatment. Value clarification and discrete choice methods were used to elicit participants’ values and treatment preferences regarding stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and surgical resection using only treatment attributes.
Among 114 participants, mean age was 70 years (Standard Deviation = 7.9), 65% were male, 68 (60%) received SBRT and 46 (40%) received surgery. More participants valued independence and quality of life (QOL) as “most important” compared to survival or cancer recurrence. Most participants (83%) were willing to accept lung cancer treatment with a 2% chance of periprocedural death for only one additional year of life. Participants also valued independence more than additional years of life as most (86%) were unwilling to accept either permanent placement in a nursing home or being limited to a bed/chair for four additional years of life. Surprisingly, treatment discordance was common as 49% of participants preferred the alternative lung cancer treatment than what they received.
Among participants with early stage lung cancer, maintaining independence and QOL were more highly valued than survival or cancer recurrence. Participants were willing to accept high periprocedural mortality, but not severe deficits affecting QOL when considering treatment. Treatment discordance was common among participants who received SBRT or surgery. Understanding patients’ values and preferences regarding treatment decisions is essential to foster shared decision making and ensure treatment plans are consistent with patients’ goals. Clinicians need more resources to engage in high quality communication during lung cancer treatment discussions.
This research compares lottery valuation decisions made by individuals with similar decisions made by small groups. There is an extensive social psychology literature addressing group versus ...individual decision making but few studies explore this issue in economic contexts with cash rewards. Willingness-to-pay data elicited from independent samples of individuals and three-person groups in a repeated-measures experimental design reveal that: the variance of risk preferences is generally smaller for groups than individuals and the average group is more risk averse than the average individual in high-risk situations, but groups tend to be less risk averse in low-risk situations.
► Submergence risks and farmers’ preferences should guide breeding for Sub1 rice. ► Socioeconomic and ecological conditions influence preferences for rice cultivars. ► Varying types of flooding ...contribute rice production losses ranging from 10% to 77%. ► Rice varieties with
SUB1 gene survive flooding of two weeks, with varying results. ► Enhancing adoption needs participatory approaches to varietal development.
Rice (
Oryza sativa L.) provides a life support system to millions of resource-poor farmers in rainfed environments; however, yields are very low because of various biotic and abiotic stresses. Submergence caused by typhoons and floods is one of the major reasons for production losses. Because of the complexity of these ecosystems, the breeding framework necessitates adequate feedback and a more in-depth understanding of the ecological and socioeconomic conditions in these flood-prone areas. Within this purview, this study validated the performance in farmers’ fields of lines with the
SUB1 gene that confers tolerance of submergence for up to two weeks. The
SUB1 gene was incorporated through marker-assisted backcrossing, MABC. The evaluation was conducted through participatory approaches to gain understanding of the risks as well as farmers’ preferences for these varieties. A baseline survey of 658 farm households accomplished during 2008, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and adaptability trials were conducted, with focus on farmers commonly affected by submergence in four Southeast Asian countries: the Philippines, Lao PDR, Indonesia, and Southern Viet Nam. The study further examined farmers’ criteria in evaluating new varieties through the participatory varietal selection (PVS) process. Results showed that varying conditions of submergence can influence farmers’ criteria and preferences for rice cultivars. Depending on the timing of flood with respect to growth stage, shorter duration and shallow flashfloods can result in less than 10% production losses while deeper and stagnant water with two weeks’ duration and >100
cm depth can cause damage ranging from 40% to 77%. Major findings of PVS trials and preference analysis indicated that farmers prefer rice cultivars that are tolerant of submergence, have early to medium maturity relative to their commonly grown varieties, are resistant to pests and diseases, and are resistant to lodging, among other traits. To enhance adoption, male and female farmers should be involved in the evaluation process. The results of this study can contribute to enhancing breeding programs to develop appropriate varieties that reduce production losses, improve income, and ultimately reduce poverty incidence in submergence-prone areas.
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