Consumers' Preferences for Apple Production Attributes: Results of a Choice Experiment.

Various food safety and environmental problems in China have raised consumer awareness of food safety issues and negative environmental impacts in various supply chains. This research assessed consumer preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for food safety and ecosystem delivery attributes associated with apples, demonstrated through the application of different traceability systems. Research participants were recruited in Beijing (N = 384) and Shanghai (N = 320). Choice experiment methodology was applied. The data were analyzed using conditional logit, random parameter logit, and latent class models; the results indicated significant consumer preferences for traceability information, including in relation to lower pesticide usage and application of organic fertilizer during primary production. The results also indicated that participants in this research had a significant willingness-to-pay premium for apple products that had production information traceability, had reduced pesticide use, and were grown with organic fertilizers. The models demonstrated heterogeneous preferences among participants such that consumers could be divided into three classes: non-price-sensitive (53.5%), pesticide-sensitive (21.7%), and price-sensitive (24.8%).

Leaf water δ18O reflects water vapour exchange and uptake by C3 and CAM epiphytic bromeliads in Panama.

The distributions of CAM and C3 epiphytic bromeliads across an altitudinal gradient in western Panama were identified from carbon isotope (δ13C) signals, and epiphyte water balance was investigated via oxygen isotopes (δ18O) across wet and dry seasons. There were significant seasonal differences in leaf water (δ18Olw), precipitation, stored 'tank' water and water vapour. Values of δ18Olw were evaporatively enriched at low altitude in the dry season for the C3 epiphytes, associated with low relative humidity (RH) during the day. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) δ18Olw values were relatively depleted, consistent with water vapour uptake during gas exchange under high RH at night. At high altitude, cloudforest locations, C3 δ18Olw also reflected water vapour uptake by day. A mesocosm experiment with Tillandsia fasciculata (CAM) and Werauhia sanguinolenta (C3) was combined with simulations using a non-steady-state oxygen isotope leaf water model. For both C3 and CAM bromeliads, δ18Olw became progressively depleted under saturating water vapour by day and night, although evaporative enrichment was restored in the C3 W. sanguinolenta under low humidity by day. Source water in the overlapping leaf base 'tank' was also modified by evaporative δ18O exchanges. The results demonstrate how stable isotopes in leaf water provide insights for atmospheric water vapour exchanges for both C3 and CAM systems.

Moss stable isotopes (carbon-13, oxygen-18) and testate amoebae reflect environmental inputs and microclimate along a latitudinal gradient on the Antarctic Peninsula.

The stable isotope compositions of moss tissue water (δ(2)H and δ(18)O) and cellulose (δ(13)C and δ(18)O), and testate amoebae populations were sampled from 61 contemporary surface samples along a 600-km latitudinal gradient of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) to provide a spatial record of environmental change. The isotopic composition of moss tissue water represented an annually integrated precipitation signal with the expected isotopic depletion with increasing latitude. There was a weak, but significant, relationship between cellulose δ(18)O and latitude, with predicted source water inputs isotopically enriched compared to measured precipitation. Cellulose δ(13)C values were dependent on moss species and water content, and may reflect site exposure to strong winds. Testate amoebae assemblages were characterised by low concentrations and taxonomic diversity, with Corythion dubium and Microcorycia radiata types the most cosmopolitan taxa. The similarity between the intra- and inter-site ranges measured in all proxies suggests that microclimate and micro-topographical conditions around the moss surface were important determinants of proxy values. Isotope and testate amoebae analyses have proven value as palaeoclimatic, temporal proxies of climate change, whereas this study demonstrates that variations in isotopic and amoeboid proxies between microsites can be beyond the bounds of the current spatial variability in AP climate.

Water vapour isotopic exchange by epiphytic bromeliads in tropical dry forests reflects niche differentiation and climatic signals.

The 18O signals in leaf water (delta18O(lw)) and organic material were dominated by atmospheric water vapour 18O signals (delta18O(vap)) in tank and atmospheric life forms of epiphytic bromeliads with crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), from a seasonally dry forest in Mexico. Under field conditions, the mean delta18O(lw) for all species was constant during the course of the day and systematically increased from wet to dry seasons (from 0 to +6 per thousand), when relative water content (RWC) diminished from 70 to 30%. In the greenhouse, progressive enrichment from base to leaf tip was observed at low night-time humidity; under high humidity, the leaf tip equilibrated faster with delta18O(vap) than the other leaf sections. Laboratory manipulations using an isotopically depleted water source showed that delta18O(vap) was more rapidly incorporated than liquid water. Our data were consistent with a Craig-Gordon (C-G) model as modified by Helliker and Griffiths predicting that the influx and exchange of delta18O(vap) control delta18O(lw) in certain epiphytic life forms, despite progressive tissue water loss. We use delta18O(lw) signals to define water-use strategies for the coexisting species which are consistent with habitat preference under natural conditions and life form. Bulk organic matter (delta18O(org)) is used to predict the deltaO18(vap) signal at the time of leaf expansion.

Geometry of the 2-aminoheterocyclic-carboxylic acid R2(2)(8) graph set: implications for crystal engineering.

The geometry of the R2(2)(8) graph set formed between a 2-aminoheterocyclic ring containing an Nsp2 atom (in the 1-position of the ring) and a carboxylic acid has been studied. Collating data from known co-crystal structures containing five- and six-membered heterocyclic rings from the Cambridge Structural Database revealed unexpected differences between two kinds of non-hydrogen contact distances, and between specific bond distances and angles of the heterocycle. Not only were the interatomic non-hydrogen distances between the N atoms (heterocycle) and O atoms (carboxylate) asymmetric, but also the 2-amino N atom (N21) to the heterocyclic C atom (C2) bond was shorter than the C2 to N1sp2 bond. However, this shortening of the C2-N21 bond was not observed in the examples where N21 was substituted with a non-H atom. For the six-membered rings the data also showed that as the C2-N21 bond shortened the N1-C2-N21 bond angle increased.