Limited Product Availability Research Articles

Entomopathogens and their role in insect pest management

Agricultural production faces significant challenges due to the loss of crop yields, highlighting the need for improvements in pest management methods to enhance productivity. Crop growers are increasingly pressured to minimize the use of chemical pesticides without compromising yields. However, managing pests has become more challenging due to pesticide resistance and limited product availability. Consequently, there is an urgent requirement for alternative approaches. Entomopathogens such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes emerge as promising alternatives to broad-spectrum chemical insecticides. They have been widely employed to control insect pests in cultivated crops, employing successful strategies such as augmentation and classical biological control. These methods involve applying or introducing bacteria, baculoviruses, fungi, and nematodes. Utilizing entomopathogens offers numerous benefits beyond their effectiveness. These advantages encompass the capacity to treat expansive areas with a sole application, ensuring safety for both humans and non-target organisms. Additionally, their use leads to decreased pesticide residues in food, the conservation of natural enemies, and a boost in biodiversity within managed ecosystems. Entomopathogens present a viable solution by offering effective pest control while addressing environmental, human health, and ecosystem sustainability concerns. The primary emphasis of this review is on the present condition of bio-formulations, the pathogenicity associated with entomopathogens, their mode of action, and the possible implementation of diverse microbial formulations aimed at achieving sustainable pest management.

Pasa Ateh Traders' Strategies for Increasing Sales Amidst the Rise of Online Shops

This research discusses the strategies of market traders in increasing sales amidst the rise of online shops. The aim of this research is to explain the obstacles faced by PasaAteh traders amidst the proliferation of online shops as well as the strategies of PasaAteh traders in increasing their sales amidst the current proliferation of online shops. The research method used is qualitative research. Data collected through field observations, interviews and documentation. The theory used is Modernization Theory by Walt Rostow. The findings of this research are that market traders experience obstacles in increasing their business amidst the current rise of online shops. Online shops have had an impact on sales in the market. Technological advances have brought major changes in the marketing realm which has resulted in people preferring to shop online with all the convenience it offers, thus making market traders face obstacles in the form of intense competition, lack of promotion and marketing, changes in consumer habits, limited product availability and product variations. Therefore, market traders must maintain their business and create strategies by updating business models, loyalty and discount programs, improving customer service and increasing products and product variations.

Enabling the foodservice industry to transition consumers toward plant-based meat alternatives: A behavioral reasoning perspective

Recognizing that animal food product consumption is the main driver of climate change, it is necessary to promote current and future consumer dietary transitioning towards plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs). Applying Behavioral Reasoning Theory, this study encompassed both positive and negative reasoning variables to understand how they affect PBMA purchase decision-making. Ascribed responsibility was tested for the moderating role in improving consumer attitudes. Using 320 responses obtained from Korean foodservice consumers aged 19 and older, this study revealed that environmental and health benefits were the main reasons for PBMA consumption while limited product availability and perceived unnaturalness were the significant components of ‘reasons against.’ As consumers’ ascribed responsibility increased, health benefits became more effective for improving attitudes toward PBMAs while the negative impact of ‘low product availability’ on attitudes were insignificant. This study provides distinctive insights into explanations for observed differences in PBMA purchase decision-making processes for foodservice academics and practitioners.

Factors Affecting Consumer Purchasing Decisions for Green Rattan Craft Products

The current consumer trend is shifting toward green products along with increasing customer environmental concerns. Nevertheless, producers of green rattan craft products must understand how to prioritize the factors driving and inhibiting consumer purchasing decisions in order for their firm to develop in an era of increased competition. As a result, the purposes of this study were to determine the importance of the fostering and inhibiting factors and to measure how they influence the purchasing decision of green rattan craft products. The research is located in Banjarbaru City, South Kalimantan Province. The sample size was 200 and was chosen using the accidental sampling method. Data were obtained through questionnaires, literature reviews, and relevant institutions. The results showed that the rank of important factors fostering the decision to purchase green rattan craft products were environmental sustainability awareness, environmental sustainability, supporting local producers, the better quality of green products, green product safety more guaranteed, and the experience of consuming green products is more valuable. Meanwhile, factors that inhibit purchasing decisions for green rattan crafts respectively were the relatively higher price of green products, the less diversified and appealing product look, income, limited product availability, and knowledge of green products.

Analysis of Strategic Management for Local Layer Agribusiness Development in North Sulawesi

The strategy for developing local layer agribusiness in North Sulawesi addresses the gap between growing consumption needs and limited product availability. The purpose of this research is to conduct a business feasibility study and formulate a strategy for local layer business development in North Sulawesi. The result of the research states that the development strategy priorities include partnership patterns, fostering human resources (HR) breeders in an integrated manner, encouraging investment growth, increasing the productivity of local layer businesses in rural areas, improving genetic quality, developing culinary businesses, creating production facilities, encouraging the rise of local layer SMEs in the countryside, encouraging the development of science technology and digitization of local layer cultivation in rural areas, vaccination programs, and utilizing unused land for the development of intensification of chicken farming in rural areas.

Patient Perspectives Surrounding Intraarticular Injections for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Qualitative Study.

Intraarticular (IA) injections are used frequently for knee osteoarthritis (OA), but little is known about patients' attitudes toward these therapies. We aimed to better understand patients' perceptions of the facilitators of and barriers to IA injections for knee OA. We conducted a qualitative, descriptive, exploratory study and held focus groups and individual interviews with participants with knee OA, including some who had and some who had not received IA injections. We conducted a thematic analysis to identify themes describing the factors that participants found influential when deciding whether to try an IA injection. We held 3 focus groups with 12 participants and conducted 3 individual interviews (15 participants total). We identified the following 4 themes that shaped participants' decisions to receive a specific injection: 1) the impact of OA on participants' lives; 2) participants' attitudes and concerns, including desire to avoid surgery, willingness to accept uncertain outcomes, and concerns about side effects and dependence; 3) the way participants gathered and processed information from physicians, peers, and the internet; and 4) the availability of injectable products. Participants weighed the desire to regain function and delay surgery with concerns about side effects, uncertain efficacy, and costs. Participants were concerned about the effectiveness, toxicity, availability, and cost of injectable products. They balanced disparate sources of information, uncertain outcomes, limited product availability, and other injection-related concerns with a desire to decrease pain. These findings can provide clinicians, investigators, and public health professionals with insights into challenges that patients face when making injection decisions.

Electrification in the Transportation, Buildings, and Industrial Sectors: a Review of Opportunities, Barriers, and Policies

Interest in electrifying vehicles, buildings, and industrial processes is growing as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the electric grid becomes less carbon-intensive. This review briefly summarizes the largest opportunities and discusses barriers to electrification and policy experience to date. Recent developments include new rate structures for electric vehicle chargers, growing programs to target electric vehicles for disadvantaged communities and to promote heat pumps for buildings, and interest in mandates including zero emission vehicle sales-share requirements and prohibiting use of natural gas in new building construction. The opportunity for carbon reductions and increased electricity sales from electrification is highest in the transportation sector. Electrification challenges include economics, consumer acceptance, electric grid impacts, and limited product availability and dealer/contractor acceptance for some market segments. Current policies to promote electrification emphasize incentives and mandates. In the transportation sector, evaluations find that a combination of policies working together can have a substantial impact on EV sales. In the residential sector, upstream incentives paid to wholesalers and midstream incentives paid to contractors have worked well. Emerging policy areas for the next few years are discussed.

Here today, gone tomorrow: The organization of temporary retailscapes and the creation of frenzy shopping

The aim of this paper is to explore, conceptualize, and critically discuss how the temporary retail site of the pop-up store works towards inciting consumers to buy products which have previously been discarded. Drawing on, and developing, the concept of the retailscape, we use empirical material from an ethnographic study to show how the temporal retailscape of the pop-up store is assembled, and how it shapes shopping practice. The spatial organization of these stores, their ephemeral nature, the limited product availability, and the unconventional spatial organization enable what we term frenzy shopping – a distinct mode of emotionally-intensive shopping whereby previously established shopping norms and rules of conduct are temporarily suspended.

Implications of data sampling resolution on water use simulation, end-use disaggregation, and demand management

Understanding the tradeoff between the information of high-resolution water use data and the costs of smart meters to collect data with sub-minute resolution is crucial to inform smart meter networks. To explore this tradeoff, we first present STREaM, a STochastic Residential water End-use Model that generates synthetic water end-use time series with 10-s and progressively coarser sampling resolutions. Second, we apply a comparative framework to STREaM output and assess the impact of data sampling resolution on end-use disaggregation, post meter leak detection, peak demand estimation, data storage, and meter availability. Our findings show that increased sampling resolution allows more accurate end-use disaggregation, prompt water leakage detection, and accurate and timely estimates of peak demand. Simultaneously, data storage requirements and limited product availability mean most large-scale, commercial smart metering deployments sense data with hourly, daily, or coarser sampling frequencies. Overall, this work provides insights for further research and commercial deployment of smart water meters.

Impact assessment of WHO TobReg proposals for mandated lowering of selected mainstream cigarette smoke toxicants

The WHO Tobacco Product Regulation Study Group (TobReg) has proposed three regulatory models for cigarettes, each creating mandatory limits for emissions of nine smoke toxicants. One approach proposes country-specific limits, using median or 1.25× median toxicant/nicotine emission ratios. A second model provides fixed toxicant-ratio limits. The third model limits were three times the lowest toxicant emission on a market. Currently, the practical implications of these models are largely unknown.An impact assessment was conducted using cigarette data from 79 countries to identify four diverse test markets. We sampled all products from each market but limited product availability led to incomplete (80–97%) sourcing. Analysis showed that the country-specific model led to diverse (up to threefold) toxicant limits across the four markets. 70%–80% of products were non-compliant, rising to 100% in some countries with the second and the third models. With each regulatory model the main drivers of non-compliance were the tobacco-specific nitrosamines, the simultaneous application of limits for nine poorly correlated smoke toxicants, and analytical variability. Use of nicotine ratios led to compliance of some high toxicant emission products due to high nicotine emissions.Our findings suggest that these proposals would have greater impact on global markets than TobReg's stated aims.

‘Female condoms give women greater control’: A qualitative assessment of the experiences of commercial sex workers in Swaziland

ABSTRACTObjectives To explore commercial sex workers’ experiences with the female condom in Swaziland.Methods This is a qualitative study that draws on two focus group discussions and ten individual in-depth interviews with female commercial sex workers in Lavumisa, Swaziland.Results The findings suggest that the majority of female sex workers prefer to use the female condom with their clients because it offers them greater control over the sexual encounter. Other factors that facilitate its use include the absence of side effects, the enhancement of sexual pleasure and protection against the risk of STIs (including HIV). In addition, the women reported that the female condom is stronger and more resistant to breakage than the male condom. Moreover, the female condoms can be inserted well in advance of sexual intercourse. Difficulties of insertion, partner objection and limited product availability were some of the barriers to the use of the device. There was also a tendency to reuse the female condoms because of lack of product availability and privacy to insert it.Conclusion Although female condom use involves negotiation with clients, the fact that it offers sex workers an independent method of protection gives them more power and also, increases their ability to control their sexual and reproductive health.

The Effectiveness of Two Online Persuasion Claims: Limited Product Availability and Product Popularity

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of two online persuasion claims: limited product availability (e.g., only 3 items left) and product popularity (e.g., 94% of consumers bought this product after viewing this site). The popularity claim appeared to enhance quality perception, particularly among highly risk-averse consumers, and purchase intention. We attribute these findings to the quality signaling effect and the bandwagon effect of the claim. On the other hand, the limited availability claim exerted no influence: low message credibility and the lack of psychological reactance are deemed to be possible reasons for the insignificant effect of the claim.

Biases in demand analysis due to variation in retail distribution

Aggregate demand models typically assume that consumers choose between all available products. Since consumers may be unwilling to search across every store in a given market for a particular item, this assumption is problematic when product assortments vary across stores. Using supermarket scanner data for five product categories we demonstrate that approximately one third of products have limited retail distribution, which account for one fourth of dollar sales. Monte Carlo analysis demonstrates that the level of limited product availability observed in the data can significantly bias the results of aggregate demand models that incorrectly assume all consumers in a given market face the same choice set.

Biases in Demand Analysis Due to Variation in Retail Distribution

Aggregate demand models typically assume that consumers choose between all available products. Since consumers may be unwilling to search across every store in a given market for a particular item, this assumption is problematic when product assortments vary across stores. Using supermarket scanner data for five product categories we demonstrate that approximately one third of products have limited retail distribution, which account for one fourth of dollar sales. Monte Carlo analysis demonstrates that the level of limited product availability observed in the data can significantly bias the results of aggregate demand models that incorrectly assume all consumers in a given market face the same choice set.

Optimal normative policies for marketing of products with limited availability

We develop optimal normative policies for pricing and advertising of products with limited availability by including the traditional product diffusion parameters (Bass, 1969)–innovation and imitation, and the scarcity effects generated due to limited product availability (Swami and Khairnar, 2003). Using optimal control methodology, our pricing policy results suggest that a profit-maximizing firm gradually increases the price as the sales approach the product availability. The optimal normative advertising policy recommends gradually decreasing the expenditure on the awareness advertising and increasing the expenditure on the availability advertising as the product diffusion progresses. These results are illustrated with suitable numerical examples.