Determinants of consumers’ willingness to accept GM foods

This paper investigates Willingness to Accept (WTA) Genetic Modification (GM) foods based on experimental auctions carried out in the USA, UK and France. It explores perceptions of risk and benefits, moral concerns and their antecedents, attitudes to the environment and technology and trust in various sources using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Trust in information provided by industry proved to be the most important determinant of risk/benefit perceptions and WTA followed by general attitudes to the environment and technology. Education and age are also enhance perceived benefits and lower perceived risks of GM. Perception of risk/benefit and moral concerns all have significant effects on consumers' WTA but the perceived benefits are most important. The research suggests that trust-building by industry would be the most effective in enhancing GM acceptance.

Attitudes of landscape professionals towards naturalistic versus formal urban landscapes in the UK

The last 30 years have seen a tide of interest sweeping across Europe in the development of nature in cities, and an increasing amount of landscape development in urban areas has involved the use of 'naturalistic' styles. This is an increasing attempt to find ways for urbanism and nature to co-exist. However, there have been considerable discussions among professionals regarding the advantages and disadvantages of 'naturalistic' styles in urban areas. This research examines professional attitudes to 'naturalistic' landscape styles in Britain, in contrast to more traditional, formal landscape styles, and aims to find out whether the interest in natural landscapes is really a fashion among landscape professionals. A self-administered postal survey was carried out using both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analysis. The survey included 500 professionals from parks and recreation departments of local authorities, private landscape practices and conservation trusts, and resulted in a satisfactory response rate of 53 %. The results of this study suggested that professionals recognise most of the values attached to naturalistic landscapes in urban areas. However, possible benefits that natural areas may have for urban people are not attached to naturalistic landscapes alone. The study also revealed that the naturalistic style is highly popular among conservation trusts but is less so among professionals from local authorities and private landscape practices who seem to appreciate both styles and believe that these styles are not separable from each other and should co-exist in an urban environment. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Modern approaches to floristics and their impact on the region of SW Asia

Attitudes to floristics have changed considerably during the past few decades as a result of increasing and often more focused consumer demands, heightened awareness of the threats to biodiversity, information flow and overload, and the application of electronic and web-based techniques to information handling and processing. This paper will examine these concerns in relation to our floristic knowledge and needs in the region of SW Asia. Particular reference will be made to the experience gained from the Euro+Med PlantBase project for the preparation of an electronic plant-information system for Europe and the Mediterranean, with a single core list of accepted plant names and synonyms, based on consensus taxonomy agreed by a specialist network. The many challenges Ð scientific, technical and organisational Ð that it has presented will be discussed as well as the problems of handling nontaxonomic information from fields such as conservation, karyology, biosystematics and mapping. The question of regional cooperation and the sharing of efforts and resources will also be raised and attention drawn to the recent planning workshop held in Rabat (May 2002) for establishing a technical cooperation network for taxonomic capacity building in North Africa as a possible model for the SW Asia region.

A systematic review of the routine monitoring of growth in children of primary school age to identify growth-related conditions

Objectives: To clarify the role of growth monitoring in primary school children, including obesity, and to examine issues that might impact on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of such programmes. Data sources: Electronic databases were searched up to July 2005. Experts in the field were also consulted. Review methods: Data extraction and quality assessment were performed on studies meeting the review's inclusion criteria. The performance of growth monitoring to detect disorders of stature and obesity was evaluated against National Screening Committee (NSC) criteria. Results: In the 31 studies that were included in the review, there were no controlled trials of the impact of growth monitoring and no studies of the diagnostic accuracy of different methods for growth monitoring. Analysis of the studies that presented a 'diagnostic yield' of growth monitoring suggested that one-off screening might identify between 1: 545 and 1: 1793 new cases of potentially treatable conditions. Economic modelling suggested that growth monitoring is associated with health improvements [ incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) of pound 9500] and indicated that monitoring was cost-effective 100% of the time over the given probability distributions for a willingness to pay threshold of pound 30,000 per QALY. Studies of obesity focused on the performance of body mass index against measures of body fat. A number of issues relating to human resources required for growth monitoring were identified, but data on attitudes to growth monitoring were extremely sparse. Preliminary findings from economic modelling suggested that primary prevention may be the most cost-effective approach to obesity management, but the model incorporated a great deal of uncertainty. Conclusions: This review has indicated the potential utility and cost-effectiveness of growth monitoring in terms of increased detection of stature-related disorders. It has also pointed strongly to the need for further research. Growth monitoring does not currently meet all NSC criteria. However, it is questionable whether some of these criteria can be meaningfully applied to growth monitoring given that short stature is not a disease in itself, but is used as a marker for a range of pathologies and as an indicator of general health status. Identification of effective interventions for the treatment of obesity is likely to be considered a prerequisite to any move from monitoring to a screening programme designed to identify individual overweight and obese children. Similarly, further long-term studies of the predictors of obesity-related co-morbidities in adulthood are warranted. A cluster randomised trial comparing growth monitoring strategies with no growth monitoring in the general population would most reliably determine the clinical effectiveness of growth monitoring. Studies of diagnostic accuracy, alongside evidence of effective treatment strategies, could provide an alternative approach. In this context, careful consideration would need to be given to target conditions and intervention thresholds. Diagnostic accuracy studies would require long-term follow-up of both short and normal children to determine sensitivity and specificity of growth monitoring.

Farmers’ willingness to pay for a tuberculosis cattle vaccine

We use contingent valuation (CV) and choice experiment (CE) methods to assess cattle farmers’ attitudes to and willingness to pay (WTP) for a bovine tuberculosis (bTB) cattle vaccine, to help inform vaccine development and policy. A survey questionnaire was administered by means of telephone interviews to a stratified sample of 300 cattle farmers in annually bTB-tested areas in England and Wales. Farmers felt that bTB was a major risk for the cattle industry and that there was a high risk of their cattle getting the disease. The CE estimate produced a mean WTP of £35 per animal per single dose for a vaccine that is 90% effective at reducing the risk of a bTB breakdown and an estimated £55 for such a vaccine backed by 100% insurance of loss if a breakdown should occur. The CV estimate produced a mean WTP of nearly £17 per dose/per animal/per year for a vaccine (including 100% insurance) which, given the average lifespan of cattle, is comparable to the CE estimate. These WTP estimates are substantially higher than the expected cost of a vaccine which suggests that farmers in high risk bTB ‘hotspot’ areas perceive a substantial net benefit from buying the vaccine.

An overview of domestic energy models and a new approach with agent based modelling

Government targets for CO2 reductions are being progressively tightened, the Climate Change Act set the UK target as an 80% reduction by 2050 on 1990 figures. The residential sector accounts for about 30% of emissions. This paper discusses current modelling techniques in the residential sector: principally top-down and bottom-up. Top-down models work on a macro-economic basis and can be used to consider large scale economic changes; bottom-up models are detail rich to model technological changes. Bottom-up models demonstrate what is technically possible. However, there are differences between the technical potential and what is likely given the limited economic rationality of the typical householder. This paper recommends research to better understand individuals’ behaviour. Such research needs to include actual choices, stated preferences and opinion research to allow a detailed understanding of the individual end user. This increased understanding can then be used in an agent based model (ABM). In an ABM, agents are used to model real world actors and can be given a rule set intended to emulate the actions and behaviours of real people. This can help in understanding how new technologies diffuse. In this way a degree of micro-economic realism can be added to domestic carbon modelling. Such a model should then be of use for both forward projections of CO2 and to analyse the cost effectiveness of various policy measures.

The legitimacy of foreign investors: individual attitudes toward the impact of multinational enterprises

Purpose – This article aims to analyze individual attitudes toward the impact of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on local businesses. These individual attitudes are important in understanding voters' preferences, which studies show to affect governmental policies. MNEs' market entry location decisions are conditioned by the host's political environment. Moreover, MNEs' attempts to attain legitimacy in their host contexts ultimately affect their bottom line, so how the public perceive MNEs matters. Design/methodology/approach – Using a large-scale data set, the paper carefully delineates between a set of potential mechanisms influencing individual attitudes to globalization in the context of individuals' attitudes toward the impact of MNEs on local businesses. Findings – The article demonstrates that there is remarkable heterogeneity and complexity in individual attitudes toward the impact of MNEs on local businesses and that these attitudes differ across regions and across countries. It is found that better educated individuals, those employed in the private sector, and those who do not have nationalistic tendencies are more likely to consider that MNEs are not harming local firms, while the opposite holds for those who are employed in “less skilled” occupations, such as those working in plants or in elementary occupations. The article also provides evidence that individuals' attitudes are determined by more than the labor market calculations these individuals might have. In fact, the socializing influence of education and the socializing impact of the individuals' type/sector of occupation also significantly determine the individual attitudes under study. Originality/value – This area of research remains substantially under-developed in the literature that analyzes individual attitudes toward globalization, which focuses on individual attitudes toward trade and immigration. Thus, the article not only aims to broaden the work on individual attitudes toward globalization, but it also aims to facilitate further discussion on the specific topic of individual attitudes toward MNEs.

Management compensation systems in MNCs and domestic firms. Cross-national empirical evidence

• This is a study of the relationship between institutional settings and managerial compensation systems, based on extensive cross-national survey evidence. • We compare differences in practices between Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms across a range of capitalist archetypes. • We find that MNCs are more likely to promote compensation systems that incentivise managers in line with organisational performance compared to domestic firms. Our findings also reveal persistent diversity reflecting firm type and institutional setting. We find that the gap between MNCs and domestic firms in terms of the usage of incentive-related compensation is less pronounced in Liberal Market Economies than in other settings. This suggests that it is a combination of being an MNC and the specific home locale that moulds approaches to managerial compensation. This reflects considerable hybridisation of practices within and between settings.

What is outside? The early years foundation stage in England: outdoor facilities, organisation and staff attitudes

The purpose of this paper is to report on the facilities available, organisation of, and staff attitudes to early years outdoor education from schools within the south east of England, focusing on provision for children aged three to five. One component of the successful education of the child involves providing an ‘environment for learning’, including the facilities, layout and routines. This paper presents findings concerning the type and variety of facilities available outside; the various styles of organisation of the space; staff attitudes about: their roles, their aims for the environment, children’s behaviour and learning, and perceived drawbacks to practice. This paper draws on empirical data collected from schools within the University of Reading partnership. The findings suggest that although all early years settings must adhere to the statutory framework there are a range of facilities available, and there are a number of ways this environment is organised. Further there appears to be uncertainty about the adult role outside and the aims for activities. The conclusions drawn indicate that staff do not appear to be linking their aims for outdoor education to the facilities provided or to their actions outside. This means there is not a clear link between what staff provide outside and the declared ambitions for learning. This study is important as all educators need to be certain about their aims for education to ensure best outcomes for children. The implications of these findings for early years teachers are that they need to be able to articulate their aims for outdoor education and to provide the correct facilities to achieve these aims. Finally this study was undertaken to raise debate, posit questions and to ascertain the parameters for further research about the early years outdoor environment.

Overgeneral autobiological memory in women: association with childhood abuse and history of depression in a community sample

Objective. Numerous studies have reported elevated levels of overgeneral autobiographical memory among depressed patients and also among those previously exposed to a traumatic event. No previous study has examined their joint association with overgeneral memory in a community sample, nor examined whether the associations are with both juvenile- and adult-onset depression. Methods. The current study examined the relative importance of exposure to childhood abuse and neglect in overgeneral memory of women with and without a history of major depressive disorder (MDD). Autobiographical memory test together with standardized interviews of childhood experiences and MDD were assessed in a risk-stratified community sample of 103 women aged 25–37. Results. Overgenerality in memory was associated with recalled childhood sexual abuse (CSA) but not other adversities. A history of CSA was predictive of overgeneral memory bias even in the absence of MDD. Our analyses indicated no significant association between a history of MDD and overgeneral memory in women who reported no CSA. However, overgeneral memory was increased in women who reported CSA and MDD with a significant difference found in relation to positive cues, the highest scores being seen among those with adult rather than juvenile-onset depression. Conclusions. The findings highlight the significance of CSA in predicting overgeneral memory, differential response in relation to positive and negative cue memories, and point to a specific role in the development of depression for overgeneral memory following CSA.

Farmer attitudes and livestock disease: exploring citizenship behaviour and peer monitoring across two BVD control schemes in the UK

The eradication of BVD in the UK is technically possible but appears to be socially untenable. The following study explored farmer attitudes to BVD control schemes in relation to advice networks and information sharing, shared aims and goals, motivation and benefits of membership, notions of BVD as a priority disease and attitudes toward regulation. Two concepts from the organisational management literature framed the study: citizenship behaviour where actions of individuals support the collective good (but are not explicitly recognised as such) and peer to peer monitoring (where individuals evaluate other’s behaviour). Farmers from two BVD control schemes in the UK participated in the study: Orkney Livestock Association BVD Eradication Scheme and Norfolk and Suffolk Cattle Breeders Association BVD Eradication Scheme. In total 162 farmers participated in the research (109 in-scheme and 53 out of scheme). The findings revealed that group helping and information sharing among scheme members was low with a positive BVD status subject to social censure. Peer monitoring in the form of gossip with regard to the animal health status of other farms was high. Interestingly, farmers across both schemes supported greater regulation with regard to animal health, largely due to the mistrust of fellow farmers following voluntary disease control measures. While group cohesiveness varied across the two schemes, without continued financial inducements, longer-term sustainability is questionable

Existential issues in surgical care : Nurses’ experiences and attitudes in caring for patients with cancer

The overall aim of this thesis was to explore surgical nurses’ experiences of being confronted with patients’ existential issues when caring for patients with cancer, and to examine whether an educational intervention may support nurses in addressing existential needs when caring for patients with cancer. Previously recorded discussions from supervision sessions with eight healthcare professionals were analysed (I), written descriptions of critical incidents were collected from 10 nurses, and interviews with open questions were conducted (II). An educational intervention on existential issues was pilot tested and is presented in Studies III and IV. The intervention was the basis of a pilot study with the purpose of testing whether the whole design of the educational intervention, including measurements instruments, is appropriate. In Study III and IV interviews with 11 nurses were conducted and 42 nurses were included in the quantitative measurements of four questionnaires, which were distributed and collected. Data was analysed using qualitative secondary analysis (I), hermeneutical analysis (II), and mixed methods using qualitative content analysis and statistical analyses (III-IV). Results in all studies show that existential issues are part of caring at surgical wards. However, although the nurses were aware of them, they found it difficult to acknowledge these issues owing to for example insecurity (I-III), a strict medical focus (II) and/or lacking strategies (I-III) for communicating on these issues. Modest results from the pilot study are reported and suggest beneficial influences of a support in communication on existential issues (III). The results indicate that the educational intervention may enhance nurses’ understanding for the patient’s situation (IV), help them deal with own insecurity and powerlessness in communication (III), and increase the value of caring for severely ill and dying patients (III) in addition to reducing work-related stress (IV). An outcome of all the studies in this thesis was that surgical nurses consider it crucial to have time and opportunity to reflect on caring situations together with colleagues. In addition, descriptions in Studies III and IV show the value of relating reflection to a theory or philosophy in order for attitudes to be brought to awareness and for new strategies to be developed.

Effective measures to decrease air contaminants through risk and control visualization : a study of the effective use of QR codes to facilitate safety training

Woodworking industries still consists of wood dust problems. Young workers are especially vulnerable to safety risks. To reduce risks, it is important to change attitudes and increase knowledge about safety. Safety training have shown to establish positive attitudes towards safety among employees. The aim of current study is to analyze the effect of QR codes that link to Picture Mix EXposure (PIMEX) videos by analyzing attitudes to this safety training method and safety in student responses. Safety training videos were used in upper secondary school handicraft programs to demonstrate wood dust risks and methods to decrease exposure to wood dust. A preliminary study was conducted to investigate improvement of safety training in two schools in preparation for the main study that investigated a safety training method in three schools. In the preliminary study the PIMEX method was first used in which students were filmed while wood dust exposure was measured and subsequently displayed on a computer screen in real time. Before and after the filming, teachers, students, and researchers together analyzed wood dust risks and effective measures to reduce exposure to them. For the main study, QR codes linked to PIMEX videos were attached at wood processing machines. Subsequent interviews showed that this safety training method enables students in an early stage of their life to learn about risks and safety measures to control wood dust exposure. The new combination of methods can create awareness, change attitudes and motivation among students to work more frequently to reduce wood dust. 

The reinstatement of amphetamine-induced place preference is long-lasting and related to decreased expression of AMPA receptors in the nucleus accumbens

A great deal of effort has been devoted to elucidating the psychopharmacology underlying addiction and relapse. Long-term neuroadaptations in glutamate transmission seem to be of great relevance for relapse to stimulant abuse. In this study, we investigated amphetamine-induced conditioned place preference during adolescence and the reinstatement of the conditioned behavior following a priming injection of the drug 1 day (adolescence), 30 days (early adulthood) and 60 days (adulthood) after the extinction test. The nucleus accumbens was dissected immediately after the reinstatement test to examine alterations in GluR1 and NR1 subunits of glutamatergic receptors. Our results showed that a priming injection of amphetamine was able to reinstate the CPP 1 and 30 days after extinction. However, it failed to reinstate the conditioned response after 60 days. GluR1 levels were decreased on days 1 and 30 but not on day 60 while NR1 levels were unaltered in the reinstatement test. Using a relapse model we found that reinstatement of amphetamine-induced conditioning place preference during adolescence is long lasting and persists through early adulthood. Decreased levels of GluR1 in the nucleus accumbens might be related to the reinstatement of amphetamine-induced conditioning place preference. (C) 2008 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Occurrence of traumatic dental injury in cases of domestic violence

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and types of traumatic dental injuries in situations of domestic violence. A coross-sectional study was conducted and data were collected from the police occurrence records to domestic physical aggression between 2001 and 2005. Of the 1,844 subjects who underwent medical evaluation, 15 had information pertaining to traumatic dental injuries. From the medical records, the forensic medical reports completed by the forensic medical experts who examined the victims after the aggression were reviewed and data of individuals with dental injuries (e.g., fractures, luxation and avulsion) were collected. In the selected sample, there was a predominance of individuals with injuries to the head and neck region (38.7%), and the frequency of traumatic dental injuries among all injuries to the head and neck region was 2.0%. The most frequently injured teeth were the maxillary incisors (31.8%), followed by the mandibular incisors (27.3%) and the maxillary canines (9.1%). In 31.8% of the injured teeth, the forensic experts did not specify the nomenclature. Of the dental trauma cases, 59.1% were fractures, 27.2% were luxations and 13.7% were avulsions. In conclusion, domestic violence was an important etiologic factor of traumatic dental injury. The aggression in all cases occurred in the form of punches and slaps. Fracture was the most common type of traumatic dental injury, and the most frequently injured teeth were the incisors.