Absence Of Consumers Research Articles

A critical review of research into mental health consumers' perspectives on their physical health: Is there an absence of consumers in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of this research?

We conducted a critical review, using systematic methods, of the literature examining mental health consumer perspectives on their physical and mental health in academic research published between 2005 and 2021. This review examined the inclusion, extent, type and centrality of consumer perspectives regarding their mental and physical health. The search produced 1,865 papers from which 116 met the inclusion criteria. Studies predominantly focused on consumers' individual experiences of their physical and mental health, including but not limited to their understandings and experiences of medication and associated risk factors. They also captured some social aspects of mental health consumers' physical health, including factors that impacted individual agency, stigma, and social and interpersonal factors. Structural factors affecting physical and mental health, such as accessibility of services and financial constraints, were also identified. The review revealed that in comparison to clinician perspectives, the direct representation of consumer perspectives was lacking. Similarly, while clinician and carer perspectives on structural factors were investigated, the consumer perspective in this area was missing. The review also found few genuine codesigned or coproduced research studies. To better identify and respond to the health needs as prioritized by consumers, this paper argues it is imperative that future studies prioritize codesigned and coproduced research. It is argued that a focus on "services as provided" rather than "services as received" has contributed to a lack of progress in addressing the life expectancy gap for consumers. It is recommended that journals, ethics committees and research policy organizations develop guidelines and standards to inform best practice in research on consumer perspectives and experience and to support the implementation of codesigned and/or coproduced approaches in future research. Respecting and including consumers as equal partners in the research process will lead to more meaningful insights to inform policy and practice and reduce the life expectancy gap for people living with mental health concerns.

Dynamic monopoly and consumers profiling accuracy

AbstractUsing a Markov‐perfect equilibrium model, we show that the use of customer data to practice intertemporal price discrimination will improve monopoly profit if and only if information precision is higher than a certain threshold level. This U‐shaped relationship lends support to a popular view that knowledge is good only if it is sufficiently refined. When information accuracy can only be achieved through costly investment, we find that investing in profiling is profitable only if this allows to reach a high enough level of information precision. Consumers expected surplus being a hump‐shaped function of information accuracy, we show that consumers have an incentive to lobby for privacy protection legislation which raises the cost of monopoly's investment in information accuracy. However, this cost should not dissuade firms to collect some information on customers' tastes, as the absence of consumers' profiling is actually detrimental to consumers.

Dynamic Monopoly and Consumers Profiling Accuracy

Using a Markov-perfect equilibrium model, we show that the use of customer data to practice intertemporal price discrimination will improve monopoly profit if and only if information precision is higher than a certain threshold level. This U-shaped relationship lends support to a popular view that knowledge is good only if it is sufficiently refined. When information accuracy can only be achieved through costly investment, we find that investing in profiling is profitable only if this allows to reach a high enough level of information precision. Consumers expected surplus being a hump-shaped function of information accuracy, we show that consumers have an incentive to lobby for privacy protection legislation which raises the cost of monopoly’s investment in information accuracy. However, this cost should not dissuade firms to collect some information on customers’ tastes, as the absence of consumers’ profiling is actually detrimental to consumers.

IMPLEMENTASI PASAL 8 UNDANG-UNDANG NOMOR 8 TAHUN 1999 TENTANG PERLINDUNGAN KONSUMEN DALAM UPAYA PENCEGAHAN BEREDARNYA TABUNG GAS LPG 3 KG RUSAK ATAU BOCOR OLEH PIHAK PANGKALAN DI PINOH KOTA

Conversion of kerosene to gas has a positive impact, because switching from kitchen fuel to gas or LPG causes an increase in demand for 3 kg LPG for households or small and medium enterprises. The magnitude of demand, has an impact on the emergence of 3 Kg LPG gas bases that sell gas directly to consumers. However, the base has responsibility in preventing the circulation of 3 kg broken / leaked LPG tubes before being sold to consumer consumers. The purpose of this study is to find out and examine the implementation of Article 8 of Act Number 8 of 1999 concerning Consumer Protection in an effort to prevent the circulation of LPG 3 gas cylinders kg was damaged / leaked by Pangkalan in Pinoh City of Melawi Regency and to find out the efforts made by the base in preventing the circulation of damaged / leaked 3 kg LPG gas cylinders to consumers in Pinoh Kota. The results of the study revealed that the implementation of Article 8 of Act Number 8 of 1999 concerning Consumer Protection in an effort to prevent the circulation of damaged / leaked 3 Kg LPG gas cylinders by Pangkalan in Pinoh Kota Melawi Regency was properly implemented and in line with the mandate of the law. . It is evident from the absence of consumers who have bought or exchanged tubes in damaged / leaky conditions, meaning that the protection of consumers using 3 kg LPG in Pinoh City Melawi Regency has been carried out by the LPG 3 Kg base properly and responsibly. Thus, the 3 Kg LPG base has tried to prevent the circulation of damaged / leaked 3 kg LPG gas cylinders before arriving at consumers in Pinoh, Melawi Regency. This is evidenced by the examination effort every time there is a distribution of tubes from agents to the base before being marketed at the consumer level, the findings of damaged / leaked tubes are stored in special storage warehouses and not sold to consumers with the intention of providing security and safety for consumers user of 3 kg LPG in Pinoh, Melawi Regency. Keywords: Prevention, Consumers, Base, 3Kg LPG Damaged / Leaked.

Prey diversity effects on ecosystem functioning depend on consumer identity and prey composition.

Consumer diversity effects on ecosystem functioning are highly context dependent and are determined by consumer specialization and other consumer and prey specific traits such as growth and grazing rates. Despite complex reciprocal interactions between consumers and their prey, few experimental studies have focused on prey diversity effects on consumer dynamics and trophic transfer. In microbial microcosms, we investigated effects of algal prey diversity (one, two and four species) on the production, evenness and grazing rates of 4 ciliate consumers, differing in grazing preferences and rates. Prey diversity increased prey biovolume in the absence of consumers and had opposing effects on different consumers, depending on their specialization and their preferred prey. Consumers profited from prey mixtures compared to monocultures of non-preferred prey, but responded negatively if preferred prey species were offered together with other species. Prey diversity increased consumer evenness by preventing dominance of specific consumers, demonstrating that the loss of prey species may have cascading effects resulting in reduced consumer diversity. Our study emphasizes that not only the degree of specialization but also the selectivity for certain prey species within the dietary niche may alter the consequences of changing prey diversity in a food web context.

Energy Meter Monitoring with Automatic Tariff Calculation

Energy meter monitoring with automatic tariff calculation is a project that can produce the output from energy meter to prepare a bill of electricity. Energy meter is a device that measure the amount of electric energy consumed. In Malaysia, the meter of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) travels for a long distance and take the reading manually to prepare the bill by visiting inside each of consumer house. This is high dependent on human forces. Sometimes the absence of consumer during billing process visiting make difficult to the meter reader to get the reader. Moreover many consumers are not satisfied with the estimate bills which are calculated based on average consumption. Soaring bill by estimate bills of electricity which consumer have to pay extra for the electricity billing. By using microcontroller and radio frequency transmitter for remote monitoring, the meter reader do not have to travel anymore. Global System for Mobile (GSM) uses to transmit and receive data from energy meter. The output which is calculated bill will be shown at Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) after apply the program coding in the microcontroller.

Abundance- and functional-based mechanisms of plant diversity loss with fertilization in the presence and absence of herbivores.

Nutrient supply and herbivores can regulate plant species composition, biodiversity and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Nutrient enrichment frequently increases plant productivity and decreases diversity while herbivores tend to maintain plant diversity in productive systems. However, the mechanisms by which nutrient enrichment and herbivores regulate plant diversity remain unclear. Abundance-based mechanisms propose that fertilization leads to the extinction of rare species due to random loss of individuals of all species. In contrast, functional-based mechanisms propose that species exclusion is based on functional traits which are disadvantageous under fertilized conditions. We tested mechanistic links between fertilization and diversity loss in the presence or absence of consumers using data from a 4-year fertilization and fencing experiment in an alpine meadow. We found that both abundance- and functional-based mechanisms simultaneously affected species loss in the absence of herbivores while only abundance-based mechanisms affected species loss in the presence of herbivores. Our results indicate that an abundance-based mechanism may consistently play a role in the loss of plant diversity with fertilization, and that diversity decline is driven primarily by the loss of rare species regardless of a plant's functional traits and whether or not herbivores are present. Increasing efforts to conserve rare species in the context of ecosystem eutrophication is a central challenge for grazed grassland ecosystems.

A Commensal Consumer-Induced Mediation Effects on Resource–Consumer Interactions

A general view of resource–consumer interactions is that resource intake by the consumers reduces the growth rate of resource population but it leads to an increase of consumer population. This view is proficiently interpreted with the classic Lotka–Volterra model that successfully describes the effects of changes in consumption rates due to changes in resource and consumer population densities. These effects are resulted in perpetual oscillatory dynamics of both the population densities, and the extent of the effects for given initial densities is measured by the oscillating frequency determined by the model parameters. But in many ecosystems, it has often observed a steep decline and delayed recovery in resource population that cannot be explained by the traditional Lotka–Volterra model. Foraging habits and behaviors of a consumer population may facilitate others, those usually do not affect them directly, to feed on the same resource and then to reproduce successfully. Such commensal consumers (facilitated population) can heavily influence the rate of resource exploitation and thereby affect the usual resource–consumer cycles. While involving such commensal consumer-induced effects, called here commensal mediation, into the Lotka–Volterra type models, it shows that the commensal mediation can have stabilizing or destabilizing effects on resource dynamics depending on the strength of interactions and the conditions in which the interactions occur. In the natural ecosystems where the growth rate of resource population depends on its own density even in absence of consumers, the commensal mediation provides a destabilizing effect on resource dynamics; increasing commensal population density increases the amplitude of resource fluctuations and the time laps from one peak to the next. On the other hand, in the managed ecosystems where the growth rate of resource population is expected to be maintained at a constant level in absence of consumers, the commensal mediation provides stabilizing effect at a certain condition; with a given restriction on the consumer population, decreasing mortality of the commensal population can stabilize the resource population dynamics at a stable, steady-state. Moreover, while the resource population experiences saturation effect, resource–consumer interactions with the commensal mediation exhibit a range of dynamical behaviours starting from stable equilibrium, then damped oscillation, to limit cycles as the resource carrying capacity increases from a critical level. In addition, commensal mediations with both controlling facilitator consumer population and resource harvesting are analyzed separately and the results are discussed for some exemplified managed and natural ecosystems.

Temperature mean and variance alter phytoplankton biomass and biodiversity in a long‐term microcosm experiment

Global predictions of increasing mean temperature and its variance result in concerns about the fate of biodiversity under future climatic conditions. On the local scale of interacting species, the response of diversity to warming will depend much on the change in interspecific interactions such as competition or predation. Using a phytoplankton model community, we conducted a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial long‐term microcosm experiment (16 months) with an underlying seasonal temperature profile. We manipulated the mean temperature (Tmean), the temperature variance (Tvar), and the presence of consumers (ciliates) and monitored treatment effects on algal biomass, species composition and species richness. Temperature effects on algal biomass depended on the seasonal development and consumer presence. Algal biomass decreased with increasing Tmean at consumer absence, but increased at consumer presence. Overall, algal biomass decreased with increasing Tvar. Consumer presence reduced algal biomass from summer to winter, but then ciliates and the consumer effect disappeared. Almost all treatment combinations collapsed to monocultures after 16 months, but extinction occurred faster at higher Tmean (especially at consumer absence) and slower at consumer presence (especially at higher Tmean). Contrasting our predictions, increasing Tvar reduced richness and increased extinction rate. The treatment effects on biomass and richness were not independent, as algal species richness and biomass were positively correlated. Moreover, accelerated loss of species was consistently correlated to higher temporal variability in biomass. In conclusion, altered temperature regimes strongly affected algal biomass and diversity by interdependently altering competitive and consumer interactions.

Dynamics of species interaction strength in space, time and with developmental stage.

Quantifying species interaction strengths enhances prediction of community dynamics, but variability in the strength of species interactions in space and time complicates accurate prediction. Interaction strengths can vary in response to density, indirect effects, priority effects or a changing environment, but the mechanism(s) causing direction and magnitudes of change are often unclear. We designed an experiment to characterize how environmental factors influence the direction and the strength of priority effects between sessile species. We estimated per capita non-trophic effects of barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides) on newly settled germlings of the fucoid, Ascophyllum nodosum, in the presence and absence of consumers in experiments on rocky shores throughout the Gulf of Maine, USA. Per capita effects on germlings varied among environments and barnacle life stages, and these interaction strengths were largely unaltered by changing consumer abundance. Whereas previous evidence shows adult barnacles facilitate fucoids, here, we show that recent settlers and established juveniles initially compete with germlings. As barnacles mature, they switch to become facilitators of fucoids. Consumers caused variable mortality of germlings through time comparable to that from competition. Temporally variable effects of interactors (e.g. S. balanoides), or spatial variation in their population structure, in different regions differentially affect target populations (e.g. A. nodosum). This may affect abundance of critical stages and the resilience of target species to environmental change in different geographical regions.

Partitioning the effects of algal species identity and richness on benthic marine primary production

Influential research in terrestrial habitats indicates that several ecosystem processes are related to plant biodiversity, yet these links remain poorly studied in marine ecosystems. We conducted one field and one mesocosm experiment to quantify the relative effects of macroalgal species identity and richness on primary production in coral reef macroalgal communities off the north coast of Jamaica. We measured production as the net accumulation of algal biomass in the absence of consumers and as photosynthetic rate using oxygen probes in sealed aquaria. We used two recently developed techniques to attribute deviations in expected relative yield to components associated with species identity or diversity and then to further partition diversity effects into mechanistic components based on dominance, trait‐dependent complementarity, and trait‐independent complementarity. Our results indicate that algal identity had far greater effects on absolute net growth and photosynthesis than richness. The most diverse mixture of macroalgae did not outperform the most productive monoculture or the average monoculture in either measure of primary production (i.e. we did not find evidence of either transgressive or non‐transgressive overyielding). Trait‐independent complementarity effects were positive but dominance and trait‐dependent complementarity were both negative and became stronger when richness was increased. Thus the potentially positive influence of species interactions and niche partitioning on production were negated by dominance and other negative selection effects. These results demonstrate that the counteracting influence of component effects can diminish the net richness effects on production. This could explain frequently observed weak net richness effects in other aquatic and terrestrial systems and suggests that life history tradeoffs greatly reduce the potential for ecologically relevant plant biodiversity effects on ecosystem properties.

CONSUMER-CONTROLLED COMMUNITY STATES ON GULF OF MAINE ROCKY SHORES

Mussel beds and algal canopies on Gulf of Maine (USA) rocky shores have been hypothesized to represent stochastically determined community states, but we recently found that they were highly deterministic, consumer-controlled states in a tidal river. Mussel beds dominated high-flow habitats with high larval delivery and low consumer pressure, whereas algal canopies dominated low-flow habitats with high consumer pressure. In this paper we examine the alternative-community-state hypothesis on rocky shores on the open coast of Maine. We hypothesized that community states would be less deterministic due to reduced consumer pressure and more stochastic flow patterns. At 10 mussel-bed and 10 seaweed-canopy sites on the open coast of central Maine, we created 9-m2 and 1-m2 clearings and an unmanipulated control area, each containing control (no caging), caged, and cage-control quadrats. Independent of disturbance patch size, mussel beds and seaweed canopies rapidly began to return to their original community type in the absence of consumers (crabs and snails). With consumers present, recovery of the original communities did occur, but at a much slower pace. Our results suggest that mussel beds and algal canopies in the Gulf of Maine are deterministic consumer-controlled states, rather than being stochastically determined. If stochastic alternative community states exist in this system, they occur in a very restricted subset of habitats where the strong consumer control and determinism we have found in both tidal river and open coast habitats are relaxed.

Do Alternate Stable Community States Exist in the Gulf of Maine Rocky Intertidal Zone?

It has recently been hypothesized that intertidal mussel beds and seaweed canopies in the Gulf of Maine are alternate community stable states or disturbance patch mosaics dominated by either seaweed or mussel communities. The community that occurs in a given site is proposed to be stochastic and dependent on the size of the original disturbance and subsequent recruit availability. Large disturbances are postulated to be dominated by mussel beds and barnacles with widely dispersed larvae, whereas smaller disturbances are dominated by seaweeds, with limited dispersal. Positive feedbacks are proposed to maintain these two communities. We tested this hypothesis in a tidal estuary in central Maine. At eight mussel bed and eight seaweed canopy sites, we created 9-m2 and 1-m2 clearings and an unmanipulated control area, and in each plot established control, caged, and cage control quadrats. After three years of monitoring, our results do not support the alternate stable state hypothesis. Instead, they suggest that the occurrence of mussel beds and seaweed canopies is highly deterministic. Seaweed canopies dominate habitats with relatively little water movement, whereas mussel beds dominate habitats with high flows; and largely independent of disturbance size, mussel beds and seaweed canopies rapidly returned to their original community type, but only in the absence of consumers (crabs and snails). With consumers present, neither community showed significant signs of recovery, even after three years. In the presence of consumers, community recovery appears to be dependent on cracks and crevices providing refuges from consumers to seaweed and mussel recruits. The idea that natural communities may represent stochastically determined alternate stable states has important implications for understanding and managing natural ecosystems, but the very existence of alternate stable states in nature has been difficult to establish. Our results suggest that intertidal seaweed canopies and mussel beds in tidal rivers in the Gulf of Maine are highly deterministic alternative community states under consumer control. More generally, since all proposed examples of alternate community stable states are based on indirect, inferential evidence, our results imply that stochastically determined alternate community stable states might be an interesting theoretical idea without a definitive empirical example.

DO ALTERNATE STABLE COMMUNITY STATES EXIST IN THE GULF OF MAINE ROCKY INTERTIDAL ZONE?

It has recently been hypothesized that intertidal mussel beds and seaweed canopies in the Gulf of Maine are alternate community stable states or disturbance patch mosaics dominated by either seaweed or mussel communities. The community that occurs in a given site is proposed to be stochastic and dependent on the size of the original disturbance and subsequent recruit availability. Large disturbances are postulated to be dominated by mussel beds and barnacles with widely dispersed larvae, whereas smaller disturbances are dominated by seaweeds, with limited dispersal. Positive feedbacks are proposed to maintain these two communities. We tested this hypothesis in a tidal estuary in central Maine. At eight mussel bed and eight seaweed canopy sites, we created 9-m 2 and 1-m 2 clearings and an unmanipulated control area, and in each plot established control, caged, and cage control quadrats. After three years of monitoring, our results do not support the alternate stable state hypothesis. Instead, they suggest that the occurrence of mussel beds and seaweed canopies is highly deterministic. Seaweed canopies dominate habitats with relatively little water movement, whereas mussel beds dominate habitats with high flows; and largely independent of dis- turbance size, mussel beds and seaweed canopies rapidly returned to their original com- munity type, but only in the absence of consumers (crabs and snails). With consumers present, neither community showed significant signs of recovery, even after three years. In the presence of consumers, community recovery appears to be dependent on cracks and crevices providing refuges from consumers to seaweed and mussel recruits. The idea that natural communities may represent stochastically determined alternate stable states has important implications for understanding and managing natural ecosystems, but the very existence of alternate stable states in nature has been difficult to establish. Our results suggest that intertidal seaweed canopies and mussel beds in tidal rivers in the Gulf of Maine are highly deterministic alternative community states under consumer control. More generally, since all proposed examples of alternate community stable states are based on indirect, inferential evidence, our results imply that stochastically determined alternate community stable states might be an interesting theoretical idea without a definitive em- pirical example.

Variation in per capita interaction strength: thresholds due to nonlinear dynamics and nonequilibrium conditions.

I measured the strength of interaction between a marine herbivore and its growing resource over a realistic range of absolute and relative abundances. The herbivores (hermit crabs: Pagurus spp.) have slow and/or weak functional and numerical responses to epiphytic diatoms (Isthmia nervosa), which show logistic growth in the absence of consumers. By isolating this interaction in containers in the field, I mimicked many of the physical and biological variables characteristic of the intertidal while controlling the densities of focal species. The per capita effects of consumers on the population dynamics of their resource (i.e., interaction strength) were defined by using the relationship between hermit crab density and proportional change in the resource. When this relationship is fit by a Weibull function, a single parameter distinguishes constant interaction strength from one that varies as a function of density. Constant interaction strength causes the proportion of diatoms to fall linearly or proportionally as hermit crab density increases whereas per capita effects that increase with density cause an accelerating decline. Although many mathematical models of species interactions assume linear dynamics and invariant parameters, at least near equilibrium, the per capita effects of hermit crabs on diatoms varied substantially, apparently crossing a threshold from weak to strong when consumption exceeded resource production. This threshold separates a domain of coexistence from one of local extinction of the resource. Such thresholds may help explain trophic cascades, resource compensation, and context-dependent interaction strengths, while indicating a way to predict trophic effects, despite nonlinearities, as a function of vital rates.

Measuring Selectivity from Multiple Choice Feeding-Preference Experiments

SUMMARY A selection index that has been used in the past for the analysis of multiple choice feedingpreference experiments with discrete items of food is extended for use with experiments where amounts of food are measured on a continuous scale and time changes may occur even in the absence of consumers. Estimation equations with approximate variances and covariances are provided. Confidence intervals and a test for significant selection are briefly discussed. There are many examples in the biological literature of the use of multiple choice feeding experiments that involve consumers being simultaneously offered the choice of two or more types of food, and then a comparison being made between the amounts of different foods consumed. With these experiments there are two situations that need to be considered separately as far as the analysis of data is concerned, depending upon whether the abundance of foods is determined by counting discrete units (e.g., individual items of prey) or by measuring continuous amounts (e.g., weighing seaweed). With discrete units, methods that are reviewed by Manly (1985, Chapter 5) can be used to test for significant selection and to estimate selection indices. Generally, analyses are well developed for this situation, which will not be discussed further here. Instead, the present note concentrates on experiments with measured food consumption. An important factor that is taken into account is the fact that in many experiments the amounts of different types of food are subject to autogenic changes (i.e., natural changes that occur in the absence of consumers). For this reason it is necessary to run control trials at the same time as trials with consumers. Differences between the results for the consumer and the control trials can then be used to estimate true consumption (Peterson and Renaud, 1989). In an important paper, Roa (1992) discussed the problem of testing for selection using the results from consumer and control trials. He noted the importance of allowing for possible correlation between the results for different foods within one trial due to there being different environmental conditions for each trial and (for consumer trials) due to the fact that if a large amount of one food is taken then there is likely to be less of other foods taken, even when there is no selection taking place. He also proposed a test for selection that is based on Hotelling's T2 statistic, which he claimed allows for correlation. Subsequently, Manly (1993) pointed out certain problems with Roa's test and suggested an alternative one that uses Yao's (1965) degrees-of-freedom approximation for comparing the means of two samples from multivariate normal distributions with different covariance matrices.

Ourselves Alone: Household Work Strategies in a Deprived Community

This paper is concerned with examining the nature of household work strategies in a low income estate in Belfast. It is based on a survey of one in four households within the estate and interviews with one hundred and twenty two school pupils from the area. The paper is divided into three parts. The first section assesses the extent to which male unemployment leads to a renegotiation of the domestic division of labour within the household. The second part of the paper relates to the presence or absence of consumer durables within the household and assesses whether this is connected to the employment status of household members. It examines whether the presence of consumer durables influences the time spent on household labour. The final part of the paper focuses on male involvement in non-routine household tasks.