Socioeconomic impacts of seafood sectors in the European Union through a multi-regional input output model.

Fisheries, aquaculture, and seafood transformation sectors are components of the Green Deal roadmap promoting the transformation of the European Union into a resource-efficient, climate-friendly, and competitive economy. Whilst several studies have shown these sectors' socioeconomic national contributions, the method developed in this article aimed at demonstrating their importance at the European level and at showing the interlinkages that exist between countries, at the sub sectorial level. This article presents the development of a seafood European multi-regional input-output model methodology and its potentialities. The seafood sectors were disaggregated for each country from national input-output tables through a double disaggregation algorithm thanks to proxy input-output tables and STECF data, which highlighted the purchase of intermediate products at the STECF subsector level. The resulting disaggregated economic data for the seafood sectors were then linked to the multiregional turnover, gross value added, and jobs multipliers inverted from the FIGARO multiregional input-output table to obtain the indirect and induced socioeconomic impacts of the seafood sectors at the European level. The results showed economic leakages illustrated by the gross value-added multiplier. While shellfish farming, passive gear fishing, and active gear fishing, were the sectors in which the generated economic wealth remained the most in the European Union territory, a third of generated economic wealth by saltwater finfish farming and seafood transformations was captured outside the EU borders. Moreover, although France, the UK, and Spain are the main turnover contributors across sectors (except for micro and small seafood transformation companies), the impacts generated by the seafood industries greatly benefit the German economy that capture more economic wealth than it contributes across all sectors. This method provides a baseline scenario for further studies on the evaluation of socio-economic benefits of changes in practices such as circular economy emphasizing the interdependencies of supply chains at the European level.

A Global Mitigation Hierarchy for Nature Conservation.

Efforts to conserve biodiversity comprise a patchwork of international goals, national-level plans, and local interventions that, overall, are failing. We discuss the potential utility of applying the mitigation hierarchy, widely used during economic development activities, to all negative human impacts on biodiversity. Evaluating all biodiversity losses and gains through the mitigation hierarchy could help prioritize consideration of conservation goals and drive the empirical evaluation of conservation investments through the explicit consideration of counterfactual trends and ecosystem dynamics across scales. We explore the challenges in using this framework to achieve global conservation goals, including operationalization and monitoring and compliance, and we discuss solutions and research priorities. The mitigation hierarchy's conceptual power and ability to clarify thinking could provide the step change needed to integrate the multiple elements of conservation goals and interventions in order to achieve successful biodiversity outcomes.

Improving marine biodiversity offsetting: A proposed methodology for better assessing losses and gains.

Although the limitations of implementing the mitigation hierarchy have been widely discussed in scientific literature, these studies have drawn mainly on feedback concerning terrestrial ecosystems. In the case of development projects in marine and coastal environments, certain issues must be tackled to improve existing practice. This article focuses on the methodologies used to assess both the ecological losses resulting from a development project and the ecological gains generated by an offset measure. The originality of this article is to propose a standardized, operational approach regardless of the development project and the ecosystem impacted that (i) enhances avoidance and reduction efforts and (ii) assesses biodiversity offset needs based on data available in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). The proposed hybrid method combines a multi-criteria analysis of the state of the environment, inspired by the Unified Mitigation Assessment Method (UMAM), and a more accurate assessment at indicator level inspired by Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA). The steps of the method, from the selection of biophysical indicators to offset sizing, are described and are then applied to two EIA case studies: one related to a port extension and the other to an offshore wind farm.

Helping With All Your Heart: Realistic Heart Stimulus and Compliance With an Organ Donation Request.

Pictures and images are important aspects in fundraising advertising and could generate more donations. In two experimental studies, we examined the effect of various pictures of hearts on compliance with a request for organ donations. The solicitor wore a white tee shirt where various forms of hearts were printed: symbolic versus realistic (first experiment), none versus symbolic versus realistic (second experiment). Results showed that more compliance was found in the realistic heart experimental condition whereas the symbolic heart form had no significant effect.

18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic variability in functioning oncocytic parathyroid adenoma with brown tumors.

A 29-year-old female patient exhibited a solitary neck mass, severe hypercalcemia, and multiple skeletal lytic lesions consistent with metastatic neoplastic disease. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology of the neck lesion indicated a follicular thyroid neoplasm. CT-guided bone biopsy was non-diagnostic. Subsequent 18F-FDG PET/CT examination demonstrated avid glucose uptake within the neck mass and diffuse bony lesions of variable metabolic activity. Repeat biopsy utilizing PET/CT guidance produced core tissue with classic histologic features of a brown tumor. Postoperative histology revealed an exclusively oncocytic parathyroid adenoma. Atypical radiotracer uptake of this rare functioning adenoma subtype is illustrated with discussion of improved procedural diagnostic yield utilizing PET/CT.

Similarity facilitates relationships on social networks: a field experiment on facebook.

People interact more readily with someone with whom they think they have something in common, but the effect of an incidental similarity has never been examined on social networks. Facebook users were contacted by a stranger who also possessed a Facebook page and who asked them to become his friend. The request message contained one item of similarity, two items of similarity, or none. Compliance to the request was the dependent variable. Increased compliance to the request was found when comparing the two similarity conditions with the control no-similarity condition. However, no difference was found between the two similarity conditions. Similarity appears to foster relationships on social networks.

When drivers see red: car color frustrators and drivers' aggressiveness.

Research has found that exposition to red is associated with physiological activation and fighting spirit. A field experiment was conducted to explore whether the color of cars is related to an aggressive response. Drivers waiting at a traffic light were blocked by an experimental car. The color of the car varied (blue, red, green, black, and white). The amount of time that elapsed until the drivers responded by honking their horns or beaming their headlights was the dependent variable. It was found that the red car elicited early aggressive response.

Enhanced female attractiveness with use of cosmetics and male tipping behavior in restaurants.

Several studies have found that cosmetics improve female facial attractiveness when judgments are made based on photographs. However, these studies were conducted only in the laboratory, while field studies are scarce in the literature. In fact, only one study has tested the effect of cosmetics on behavior. In this study the effect of cosmetics on tipping behavior and the link between behavior and judgment on the physical attractiveness of waitresses wearing or not wearing cosmetics were tested. A female waitress with or without makeup was instructed to act in her usual way with her patrons. Results showed that the makeup condition was associated with a significant increase in the tipping behavior of male customers. It was also found that the effect of makeup on tipping behavior was mediated by the perception of the physical attractiveness of the waitress, but only when considering male customers.

Sound level of environmental music and drinking behavior: a field experiment with beer drinkers.

OBJECTIVE: It had been found that environmental music was associated with an increase in alcohol consumption. The presence versus absence of music, high versus slow tempo and the different styles of environmental music is associated with different level of alcohol consumption. However, the effect of the level of the environmental music played in a bar still remained in question. METHODS: Forty male beer drinkers were observed in a bar. According to a random distribution, patrons were exposed to the usual level of environmental music played in 2 bars where the experiment was carried out or were exposed to a high level. RESULTS: The results show that high level volume led to increase alcohol consumption and reduced the average amount of time spent by the patrons to drink their glass. CONCLUSIONS: The impact of environmental music on consumption was discussed and the "arousal" hypothesis and the negative effect of loud music on social interaction were used to explain our results.

Regulation of ASIC activity by ASIC4--new insights into ASIC channel function revealed by a yeast two-hybrid assay.

ASIC4 is a member of the acid-sensing ion channel family that is broadly expressed in the mammalian nervous system, but has no known function. We demonstrate here that transfected ASIC4 is targeted to the plasma membrane in CHO-K1 cells, where it associates with ASIC1a and downregulates exogenous ASIC1a expression. This effect could also be observed on endogenous H+-gated currents in TSA-201 cells and ASIC3 currents in CHO-K1 cells, suggesting a physiological role for ASIC4 in regulating ASIC currents involved in pain mechanisms. Using a yeast two-hybrid assay we found that ASICs interact with proteins involved in diverse functions, including cytoskeletal proteins, enzymes, regulators of endocytosis and G-protein-coupled pathways. ASIC4 is the sole member of this ion channel class to interact strongly with polyubiquitin. The distinct functionally related sets of interacting proteins that bind individual ASICs identified in the yeast two-hybrid screen suggest potential roles for ASICs in a variety of cellular functions.

Cartoon music in a candy store: a field experiment.

An experiment on consumers' behavior was carried out in a new field context. According to a random assignment, 60 customers from ages 12 to 14 years who entered a candy store were exposed to Top Forty music which was usually played in this store, music from cartoons (Captain Flame, Candy, Olive & Tom, etc.), or no music. Analysis showed that customers spent significantly more time in the store when cartoon music was played, but the two styles of music were not related to the amount of money spent.

Odd versus even prices and consumers' behavior.

Schindler and Kibarian reported prices ending with a nine were associated with more purchases among customers who were women. To generalize this effect to a new business context, two groups of 200 people were solicited at home and asked to buy pancakes to raise money for a charitable organization. In half of the cases, the price of pancakes was 1.99euro, and in the other half they were proposed at 2.00euro. Analysis showed that the price ending with nine was associated with more subjects agreeing to the request, 118 of 200 vs 91 of 200.

Sound level of background music and alcohol consumption: an empirical evaluation.

The effect of background music on alcohol consumption has been widely researched in the literature, but few studies have tested the effect of sound level on drinking behavior. An experiment was carried out in two bars to test patrons' response to music's loudness. Using random assignment, patrons were exposed to a sound level which was higher than that usually employed in the bars in which the study took place. Analysis showed that a higher sound level than usual was associated with consuming more drinks. An "arousal" hypothesis is used to explain the findings.

Request solicitation and semantic evocation of freedom: an evaluation in a computer-mediated communication context.

The "But you are free of..." technique is a compliance procedure which solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling him that he is free to accept or to refuse the request. This semantic evocation leads to increased compliance with the request. A new evaluation of the generality of this technique was tested in an experiment in which subjects received an anonymous electronic mail which asked them to consult the site of a humanitarian association for children. Analysis showed that, when the semantic evocation of freedom is included in the message, a higher compliance rate was observed than in a situation in which this evocation was omitted.

Solicitation by e-mail and solicitor's status: a field study of social influence on the web.

Personal information is scarce in computer-mediated communication. So when information about the sender is attached with his or her e-mail, this could induce a powerful effect toward the receptor. Two experiments were carried out where males and females were solicited by e-mail to respond to a survey on their foods habits. In the first experiment, students were solicited whereas, in the second experiment, people taken at random in various e-mails lists were solicited. The questionnaire was an HTML form attached with the e-mail. The signature of the solicitor was presented as of a high status (a scientist) or of a mid status (an undergraduate student). Results show that, in both experiments, subjects agreed more favorably to the request when the solicitor was of high status. The importance of social information on computer-mediated communication is used to explain such results.

Social presence reinforcement and computer-mediated communication: the effect of the solicitor's photography on compliance to a survey request made by e-mail.

Personal information is scarce in computer-mediated communication. So when information about the sender is attached with an e-mail, this could induce a positive feeling toward the sender. An experiment was carried out where a male and a female student-solicitor, by way of an e-mail, requested a student-subject to participate in a survey. In half of the cases, a digital photograph of the solicitor appeared at the end of the e-mail. Results show that subjects agreed more readily to the request in the experimental condition than in the control condition where no digital photograph was sent with the e-mail. The importance of social information on computer-mediated communication is used to explain such results.