Community Preferences Research Articles

Do Neighbors Affect People's Demand for the Biodiversity Conservation Project in the U Minh Ha Peat Swamp Forest of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam?

Despite incentives and measures taken to improve forest conservation, deforestation in Vietnam continues to increase. Seeking community participation in this activity is considered one of the most effective measures in developing countries. This research, therefore, applies the contingent valuation method (CVM) approach to estimate the residents' demand or willingness to pay for the U Minh Ha forest conservation project in Vietnam. The results indicated that respondents were willing to contribute about 4.3 kg of rice per month to the project. The results also indicated that respondents who knew neighbors' participation in the conservation project and thought that forest ecotourism had benefits for their families were more likely to contribute to the conservation project. We then conclude that forest sustainability in developing countries significantly depends on the community's preferences and is robust by neighbor participation.

Accentual arrangement of BBC news programs in the light of affective syllabics

This article examines the peculiarity of the position and means of creating the effect of accentuation in the modern English language. The research material leans on the speech of the leading BBC news programs, which is being processed in accordance with the principles of cognitive syllabics. The author also applies the methods of auditory analysis of the original sounding text and its pragmaphonetic modeling, determining the instances of accentuation that goes beyond the scope of neutral English phonation and is implemented via affective syllabics. The relevance of the research is defined by the need to pinpoint the attention upon the shift in communicative priorities that is taking place in the English language and broaden the prosodic and rhetorical arsenal used by those who learn English for creating the accentuation effect. The scientific novelty lies in the application of categorical approach towards the phenomenon of accentuation in the genres of intellective communication that are important for philological education. The article introduces the category of markedness/ unmarkedness of accentuation, which is supplemented by the so-called borderline or intermediate instances of accentuation, which are revealed only after thorough cognitive processing of the material, and determined primarily by the ethical aspect of modern English speech. The acquired results allow describing the phenomenon of syllabic and verbal accentuation in the dynamics and evolution, as well as the use of the means of affective syllabics for imparting timbral coloring to speech that meets expectations and preferences of the modern English-speaking community.

Nature futures for the urban century: Integrating multiple values into urban management

There is an emerging consensus that the health of the planet depends on the coexistence between rapidly growing cities and the natural world. One strategy for guiding cities towards sustainability is to facilitate a planning process based on positive visions for urban systems among actors and stakeholders. This paper presents the Urban Nature Futures Framework (UNFF), a framework for scenario building for cities that is based on three Nature Futures perspectives: Nature for Nature, Nature for Society, and Nature as Culture. Our framework engages stakeholders with envisioning the three Nature Futures perspectives through four components using participatory methods and quantitative models: identification of the socio-ecological feedbacks in cities, assessment of indirect impacts of cities on biodiversity, development of multi-scale indicators, and development of scenarios. Stakeholders in cities may use this framework to explore different options for integrating nature in its various manifestations within urban areas and to assess how different community preferences result in various cityscapes and distribution of associated benefits from nature among urban dwellers across multiple scales.

Impact of Content Marketing on Brands Health

Abstract: The advent of Web 2.0 has ushered in a new era in business operations, allowing for dual communication between businesses and their customers. Today, corporate professionals often hire social media platforms to raise awareness about the product and sell their products to customers. However, the main aim of communicating information via online plateforms specially the social media is to inspire the consumers to interact with the business. At the moment, brand health is the is the testing of products and brands by digital viewers. It checks product and brand awareness over the long term, leading to improved product and brand equity. Site time, recurring visitors, community preferences, subscriptions, and jump rate are just a few steps used to assess product health. Keywords: content marketing, consumer engagement, brand , social networks , social media marketing .

Is Tailoring of PrEP Programs Needed to Overcome Racial Disparities in PrEP Uptake in Local Health Departments? A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of PrEP Implementation in Virginia.

African American and Hispanic adults share a disproportionate burden of HIV infections in the United States but continue to experience suboptimal uptake of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Increasing PrEP accessibility in nontraditional care settings is a potential strategy to increase PrEP uptake in these high-risk groups. PrEP implementation in local health departments (LHDs) is not well characterized. To evaluate HIV PrEP implementation for African American and Hispanic adults receiving medical care in Virginia's LHDs. We conducted a retrospective, mixed-methods evaluation of PrEP services implementation at LHDs completing their first PrEP program year between June 1, 2016, and June 30, 2019. Using pharmacy records, we estimated PrEP coverage and adherence using PrEP to need ratios (PnRs) and medication possession ratios (MPRs), respectively. Thematic analysis was used to identify barriers to PrEP delivery in interviews with 6 multidisciplinary LHD workers. Of the 433 PrEP clients receiving an emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (Truvada) prescription in year 1, 52.0% self-identified as African American and 8.9% self-identified as Hispanic. PnRs were greater for White adults in 50.0% of clinics. The average MPR (0.79) was consistent with protective medication adherence levels; however, 25.0% of clients filled only one prescription in the program year. Qualitative findings suggest incompatibilities between health PrEP services delivery and community preferences for African American and Hispanic adults; however, LHDs in one health region were able to link communities of color to PrEP at similar rates as Whites. Incorporating a metric sensitive to racial/ethnic differences in the burden of HIV infection improved recognition of PrEP disparities; however, population-specific targets are needed to enhance use of the PnR for program evaluation. Tailoring of PrEP services to communities with the greatest local PrEP burden may be needed to optimize the effectiveness of PrEP programs in LHDs.

Governance of forest resource use in western Nepal: Current state and community preferences.

Improved governance of natural resource use is critical to the sustainability and maintenance of environmental quality. In western Nepal, unsustainable resource extraction is seen by the local community as a major threat to forest sustainability. While most respondents to a survey of 243 households inside and outside a protected area (PA) thought the laws for managing resource use were adequate and appropriate, a far smaller proportion thought they were achieving their objectives. Disenchantment with the existing governance regime was strongest outside the PA, probably because there was greater investment in community engagement within the PA. The most likely reason for this failure is the deeply embedded corruption within the forest governance system. Devolution of power to local communities by increasing governance participation is one of the most likely means of containing corruption. It was therefore not surprising that governance participation was rated as the most important governance principle by respondents in a best-worst scaling experiment. Respondents also regarded effectiveness, accountability and transparency as important governance principle to improve management of forest resource extraction from red panda habitat.

Beliefs, barriers, and acceptance associated with COVID-19 vaccination among Taif University students in Saudi Arabia.

Background:COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency of global concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 30, 2020. Vaccination is one of the most effective methods for halting the pandemic and preventing complications. Vaccine hesitancy is a possible threat to global public health. Understanding the key determinants that influence the community's preferences and demands for a future vaccine may aid in the development of strategies to improve the global vaccination program. The aim of this study was to assess the beliefs, barriers, and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among Taif University students in Saudi Arabia.Materials and Method:This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, based study in Taif University, Saudi Arabia. Data was collected using a designed self-administered questionnaire that was shared as a link through social media. 332 students were considered eligible to participate voluntarily. Data were analyzed using the (SPSS) program version 25.Results:Out of 332 participants, 278 (83.7%) were accepting to take the covid vaccine, while 54 (16.3%) refused. Believes in vaccine safety and effectiveness and trust in the ability of the vaccine to prevent the complication, were all associated with high acceptance rate. Fear about side effects is considered a major factor for vaccination refusal.Conclusion:Most of the participants have the willingness to be vaccinated. The majority of students who agreed to take the vaccine were in the medical field, and that is mostly due to their high knowledge exposure. This indicates the importance of raising the awareness of the non-medical students.

A community-based approach to mainstream human-nature interactions into coastal risk governance: A case of Katrenikona, India

Coastal rural communities, being intricately associated with their ecological settings, are often highly vulnerable to climate change. Amongst the many approaches of reducing the coastal vulnerabilities and achieving climate change adaptation, a potential solution is to improve risk governance through integrated coastal zone management. The coastal risk governance signifies not only the actions of the state but also of other stakeholders, especially the local communities. Community-based approaches have also for long been advocated for effective adaptation and mitigation against climate adversities. While human-nature interactions can significantly influence disaster risks, this research makes an attempt to understand various decisions and choices that a coastal rural community makes based on such interactions to mitigate and manage the climate-induced adversities. Through structured interviews, this research first identifies the significant domains that reflect on the prevailing human-nature interactions, after which the choice modelling technique is utilized to comprehend the community priorities for better climate risk governance, with a specific focus on coastal rural settlements of Katrenikona (Andhra Pradesh, India). The application of this methodology resulted in the formulation of a baseline for local coastal governance, which can be useful for informing various levels within local governments. The baseline consists of an assessment of the different community resilience domains derived based on the prevailing interactions of local communities with their surrounding ecological elements and measured by indicators of local coastal governance. The concept and method for measuring coastal risk governance based on community preferences are potentially replicable, and it can help to track the progress towards longer-term coastal management and local climate adaptation goals. At the same time, it can be turned into a self-evaluation tool to assist the local governments in reflecting on pertinent pathways involving community actions for effectively managing various climate risks and ecological impacts.

ESCOLHA DE SABERES A ENSINAR NA ESCOLA INDÍGENA: DOIS CASOS GUARANI EM SÃO PAULO

Abstract What social processes determine the choice of the knowledge that circulates in indigenous schools? This question may shed light on the modalities of power that contribute to forging collective meanings of education in local communities. The article presents research aimed to answer this question. We made direct observation of two schools in Guarani territories in SP and conducted interviews and informal conversations with their teachers and leaders. The results describe the influence of governmental conduct, teaching conceptions, and community preferences on the conformation of school work. The performance of indigenous teachers stands out, who produce circumscribed practices of autonomy that, in the small-scale perspective of the logic of educational innovation, overcome the colonialist norm which historically shaped schools for indigenous people.

Managed Residential Electric Vehicle Charging Minimizes Electricity Bills While Meeting Driver and Community Preferences

Managed Residential Electric Vehicle Charging Minimizes Electricity Bills While Meeting Driver and Community Preferences

Toward Land Consolidation for Slum Upgrading: Community Preferences on Land Tenure in the Fishers’ Settlement of Tegalsari, Indonesia

Toward Land Consolidation for Slum Upgrading: Community Preferences on Land Tenure in the Fishers’ Settlement of Tegalsari, Indonesia

Community Tree Species Preferences in Zambales, Philippines

Reforestation and reforestation efforts are generally dependent on the species recommended by the government. In the Philippines, most reforestation activities use Gmelina arborea, Acacia mangium, and Swietenia macrophylla due to their usual economic returns. Thus, the use of native species is less favored over exotic species. This paper considered the species preferences of the local community as involved in reforestation activities in Zambales. Assessment of the stakeholders’ preferences was based on a listing of species given by the respondents and community perceived benefits or uses. Familiarity of the respondents with the species presented to them was also considered in the analysis.

Preventive drugs for Huntington's disease: A choice-based conjoint survey of patient preferences.

This research examined the perspective of the Huntington's disease (HD) community regarding the use of predictive biomarkers as endpoints for regulatory approval of therapeutics to prevent or delay the onset of clinical HD in asymptomatic mutation carriers. An online, choice-based conjoint survey was shared with HD community members including untested at-risk individuals, presymptomatic mutation carriers, and symptomatic individuals. Across 15 scenarios, participants chose among two proposed therapies with differing degrees of biomarker improvement and side effects or a third option of no treatment. Two hundred and thirty-eight responses were received. Attributes reflecting biomarker efficacy (e.g., prevention of brain atrophy on magnetic resonance imaging, reduced mutant huntingtin, or reduced inflammation biomarkers) had 3- to 7-fold greater importance than attributes representing side effects (e.g., increased risk of heart disease, cancer, and stroke over 20 years) and were more influential in directing choice of treatments. Reduction in mutant huntingtin protein was the most valued attribute overall. Multinomial logit model simulations based on survey responses demonstrated high interest among respondents (87-99% of the population) for drugs that might prevent or delay HD solely based upon biomarker evidence, even at the risk of serious side effects. These results indicate a strong desire among members of the HD community for preventive therapeutics and a willingness to accept significant side effects, even before the drug has been shown to definitively delay disease onset if the drug improves biomarker evidence of HD progression. Preferences of the HD community should inform regulatory policies for approving preventive therapies.

Community Preferences for Participating in Ecotourism: A Case Study in a Coastal Lagoon from Colombia

Community Preferences for Participating in Ecotourism: A Case Study in a Coastal Lagoon from Colombia

Vector control strategies in Brazil: a qualitative investigation into community knowledge, attitudes and perceptions following the 2015–2016 Zika virus epidemic

ObjectiveThe World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern following the rapid emergence of neonatal microcephaly in Brazil during the 2015–2016 Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic. In response,...

IoT based Advanced Smart Shopping Cart using Arduino and RFID

India is one of the world’s most rapidly growing economies and is aiming to develop into a $5 trillion economy. E-commerce has certainly spread and a great deal of progress has taken place. The working class and the majority of our community prefer to go to shopping centres or supermarkets. Even if E Commerce has grown exponentially in recent years, retail sales still account for about 85% of total sales. One of the difficulties facing customers is a line-up that follows the payment process in a queue.The advanced era of technology in which the majority of customers have to wait for their shopping in the supermarket, because it takes very long time. Due to the barcode-based billing method, a significant throng on the supermarket during discount bids or weekends finds themselves in long lineups.Instead of waiting long time in a queue, the proposed method is to let the client process products directly and charge them in the trolley. After a quick scan in the carriage, customers need to add the product and when they are finished, the amount is shown in the carriage. In addition, the client can log in to the app that shows the list and amount of all the added products. The customer can pay digitally via the application once done. Thus the time spent elsewhere in long queues is reduced and they are relieved of the tediosity with bar codes scanned.

Upward and downward accountability in local government: the decentralisation of agricultural extension services in Tanzania

A key assumption behind decentralisation in developing countries is that it enhances the accountability of local government and results in policies that reflect the preferences of the local community. However, previous research shows that local politicians and administrators in many developing countries to a large extent behave as if they were primarily accountable to central government, not local communities. The literature suggests various explanatory factors but does not provide insight into their relative weight and into how different factors interact. This paper combines comparative case-study research with in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with local government politicians and officials involved in the delivery of agricultural extension services in Tanzania. It shows that limited administrative and political decentralisation and centralistic human resources management restrict downward accountability to the community. Downward accountability is also constrained by the social rules that local politicians and administrators observe. For downward accountability to materialise, formal systems of public administration need to introduce incentives to that effect.

Changes in forest structure drive temperature preferences of boreal understorey plant communities

Abstract The local climate in forest understories can deviate substantially from ambient conditions. Moreover, forest microclimates are often characterized by cyclic changes driven by management activities such as clear‐cutting and subsequent planting. To understand how and why understorey plant communities change, both ambient climate change and temporal variation in forest structure have to be considered. We used inventories from 11,436 productive forest sites in Sweden repeated every 10th year 1993–2017 to examine how variation in forest structure influences changes in the average value of minimum and maximum temperature preferences of all species in a community, that is, community temperature indices (CTIs). We then evaluated to what extent these changes were driven by local extinctions and colonizations, respectively, and to what extent the difference in CTI value between two inventories was related to changes in forest density and in macroclimate. Lastly, we tested whether effects on CTI change by these two drivers were modified by topography, soil moisture and tree species composition. CTI values of the understorey plant communities increased after clear‐cutting, and decreased during periods when the forest grew denser. During the period immediately after clear‐cutting, changes were predominately driven by colonizations of species with a preference for higher temperatures. During the forest regeneration phase, both colonizations by species preferring lower temperatures and local extinctions of species preferring higher temperatures increased. The change in understorey CTI over 10‐year periods was explained more by changes in forest density, than by changes in macroclimate. Soil moisture, topography and forest tree species composition modified to some extent the effects of changes in forest density and in macroclimate on understorey CTI values. Synthesis. Via stand manipulation, forest management impacts the effects of regional climate on understorey plant communities. This implies that forest management by creating denser stands locally even can counterbalance the effects of regional changes in climate. Consequently, interpretations of changes in the mean temperature preference of species in forest understorey communities should take forest management regimes into account.

Tinjauan Filosofis Egoisme dalam Komunikasi Politik di Era Pandemi Covid-19: Tantangan Kampanye Daring Pilkada Serentak Tahun 2020 di Indonesia

Indonesia has held simultaneous regional elections on 9th December 2020. In contrast to previous years, when the campaign became a moment for citizens to gather with their prospective leaders, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the limitation of face-to-face meetings in order to implement Covid-19 health protocols. The government through the General Elections Commission (KPU) has issued General Election Commission Regulation (PKPU) 13/2020 which has explicitly encouraged candidate to use digital media in political campaigns. This is an effort to encourage candidates to take advantage of the digital space in campaigning. Currently, the candidates already have social media, but its use has not become the main information channel in political communication. During this campaign period, the candidates have used social media as a channel of political communication, but the social media used is limited to conveying invitations or information that the candidate has attended an activity, so social media has not become the main information channel in campaigning. The lack of organizing an online campaign by this candidate viewed from a philosophical perspective of egoism, based on the idea that the public or prospective voters are more focused on themselves. Participating in a online campaign for prospective voters requires extra sacrifices such as paying for internet quota fees, it is more troublesome because prospective voters have to learn to operate a online video application, and there are no direct benefits. The challenges faced in implementing an online campaign include, firstly, because it is preferred by the community, it is believed that the community prefers to meet face-to-face with the prospective leader directly because it provides direct benefits to the community, secondly, it is right on target because an online election campaign will not attract people, new voters because it will only be followed by voters who firmly support the candidate. Thirdly, because of the lack of creativity from the campaign team due to the lack of innovation from the candidates for not building a team that campaigns boldly, in addition to innovation, infrastructure problems that the evaluation of signal interference and the uneven distribution of digital infrastructure in the regions have hampered the implementation of bold campaigns.

Willingness to Pay for Irrigation Services in the Cold Winter Deserts of Uzbekistan

Irrigation facilities in the cold winter deserts (CWDs) of Uzbekistan are very traditional and poorly managed, resulting in low water use efficiency and low productivity. Improving the irrigation facilities in these deserts is a key priority for the country. This study intended to contribute towards the development of the irrigation systems through identification and quantification of the relative implicit values smallholder farmers confer to the key characteristics of irrigation facilities. We elicited preferences with discrete choice experiments, estimated willingness to pay for these attributes using random parameters logit models, and analyzed heuristics in the choice process using a series of latent class models. Our results show that farmers have clear preferences for higher watering frequency and no interest in sharing irrigation water with downstream users. We also observed that there are distinct groups of farmers with comparable but different levels of preference. The development of irrigation facilities in the water-scarce parts of Uzbekistan would benefit from careful consideration of the preferences of the target communities and targeting of the schemes based on the broad heterogeneities within the communities. This will aid in the maintenance of irrigation systems and, as a result, increase agricultural production and productivity.