Effect of Institutional Trust on Consumers’ Health and Safety Perceptions and Repurchase Intention for Traceable Fresh Food

Numerous food safety incidents have gained public attention and motivated consumers to seek safer and healthier products. Some governments have responded by enacting legislation to regulate the traceability of agricultural products and enhance food safety. To elucidate factors that affect consumers’ health and safety perceptions and repurchase intention for certified traceable fresh food, this study applied institutional trust theory to explore the effects of institutional trust (i.e., trust in government, certification organizations, producers, and retailers) on consumers’ food safety and health perceptions and repurchase intention. This study was conducted in Taiwan and enrolled 393 consumers who purchased certified traceable fresh food as survey participants. Structural equation modeling and multiple and stepwise regression analysis were performed for data analysis. The results indicated that trust in government, certification organizations, food producers, and food retailers was positively related to food safety perception; trust in certification organizations, food producers, and food retailers directly influenced food healthiness perception, whereas trust in government did not have a direct influence. Furthermore, trust in certification organizations and food producers influenced repurchase intention, whereas trust in government and food retailers did not. Based on these results, the current study provides some practical suggestions for traceable fresh food marketers to use institutional trust to improve consumers’ food health and safety perceptions and repurchase intention.

Public Knowledge and Beliefs Regarding Licensure, Certification and Medical Education of Physician Assistants

ABSTRACT Physician assistants (PAs) must pass the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) certification exam to become licensed; and to remain certified, they must earn continuing medical education credits as well as pass an assessment every 10 years. However, there is a dearth of research on public knowledge of and beliefs regarding licensure, certification and medical education of PAs. Thus, we examined public knowledge and beliefs by conducting an online survey in late 2018. When asked if the statement “PAs must pass a national certifying exam as one requirement for obtaining an initial license to practice medicine” was true or false, the majority (75.9%) correctly indicated that the statement is true. Regarding beliefs, most respondents strongly agreed or agreed that PAs should be licensed by state medical boards (87.6%), should continually learn about new medical information (91.7%), should be assessed regularly on their medical knowledge (82.0%), should be held to the same standards of care as physicians (78.6%) and should be well-educated in medicine (77.7%). Evaluation of public knowledge and beliefs about licensure, certification and medical education of PAs is important, as members of the public are vital stakeholders for certification organizations and medical regulatory bodies. Certification organizations and medical regulatory bodies are accountable to the public, and periodic assessment of public perspectives can provide insight and help inform decision-making regarding regulatory and certification changes to meet patient expectations regarding safe, high-quality medical care.

Developing competency-based assessment at vocational high school (VHS) in Bali

This paper aims to resolve the difficulties of implementing competency-based assessment (CBA) in vocational high school while practicing in the workplace. This research was performed employing a qualitative exploratory descriptive (QED) method. The respondents are 109 participants from vocational teachers, industry experts, VHS students, and technical certification organizations. The implementation of CBA generates graduates' competency standards in schools that meet the industry's competency needs. CBA is carried out by creating competency levels, college and workplace learning as students practice doing industrial work. This study's findings suggest aspects of CBA that provide a fair degree of application of the student's business work activities and presents an approach to explaining training that is not limited to learning contexts.

Regulatory support for the organic market (in the world, EAEU countries, Russia)

The article presents international and national documents providing regulatory support for the organic market. Organic agriculture, as a special direction of agricultural production, requires separate legislative regulation due to the specifics of relations arising in the process of production, sale and marketing of products, the availability of internationally recognized standards and certification procedures. Most of the countries of the world community have their own characteristics of the development of the sector of organic agricultural products, its production, marketing and regulation of these processes, regulatory support of the market for organic products. Organic farming in Russia today can rely on a system of legal regulation of organic production, including international and interstate acts on organic agriculture (JFOAM, FiBL, Codex Alimentarius Commission, regulations of the EAEU, EAEU and CIS), Federal law (93) and national state RF standards, regional laws and programs for the development of organic agriculture, certification organizations. Prior to the approval and implementation of the Federal Law on organic products at the regional level, several regions of the Russian Federation developed their own regulatory documents that allowed their producers to produce organic products. The legal impact on the formation of the organic market occurs not only through laws of direct action, but also through general economic laws, regulations, state programs, local regulations (for example, private standards of organizations), etc. The current procedure for passing certification in foreign countries and for Russian producers of organic products. The factors and conditions that allow to stimulate producers to increase the production of organic products, to pass the required and necessary certification of farms and products, making local products more competitive in comparison with other similar products are identified.

Trading Halal: Halal Certification and Intra-Muslim Trade in South Africa

Halal certification introduces a new discursive and material basis for the regulation of Muslim consumption in a world of global trade and complex food technology. Through chemical tests and state of the art supply chain management the halal certification industry aims to replace the necessity of intra-Muslim trade for the practice of halal. This paper presents the approach of two competing halal certification organizations in South Africa in interaction with Muslim businesses. It argues that the aim of the halal certification industry to standardize, trace and trade in halal is limited by the communal practice of halal that emphasizes intra-Muslim trade and exchange. Halal certification is an incomplete recalibration of halal. Attention to Muslim business practices illuminates the limitation of audit cultures to the practice of halal, offering a view of the complexity of halal in practice.

A Modular Experimentation Methodology for 5G Deployments: The 5GENESIS Approach

The high heterogeneity of 5G use cases requires the extension of the traditional per-component testing procedures provided by certification organizations, in order to devise and incorporate methodologies that cover the testing requirements from vertical applications and services. In this paper, we introduce an experimentation methodology that is defined in the context of the 5GENESIS project, which aims at enabling both the testing of network components and validation of E2E KPIs. The most important contributions of this methodology are its modularity and flexibility, as well as the open-source software that was developed for its application, which enable lightweight adoption of the methodology in any 5G testbed. We also demonstrate how the methodology can be used, by executing and analyzing different experiments in a 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) deployment at the University of Malaga. The key findings of the paper are an initial 5G performance assessment and KPI analysis and the detection of under-performance issues at the application level. Those findings highlight the need for reliable testing and validation procedures towards a fair benchmarking of generic 5G services and applications.

Effect of B Corp Certification on Short-Term Growth: European Evidence

This paper investigates the effect of sustainability certification on the short-term growth rates of socially responsible companies. A changing business environment in which stakeholders became more sensitive to the sustainability practices of companies induced a growing popularity of hybrid firms, which use market-based approaches to pursue environmental and social goals. However, stakeholders do not take unsubstantiated claims about companies’ sustainability efforts for granted, creating a potential economic role for independent certification organizations. In addition, the internal processes brought about by the external verification procedure could turn the social mission, which is often creating tension with financial goals, into a strategic advantage. B Lab is one such well-known and rapidly growing organization, granting so-called B Corp certificates across many countries around the world. This paper contributes to the hybrid firm literature by ascertaining the benefit of certification as measured by firm growth. Using a panel dataset of financial data of European firms that obtained B Corp certification between 2012 and 2018 and a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference research design, this paper empirically shows that B Corp certification positively impacts the turnover growth rates one year pre versus one year post certification. No significant effects on employee growth rates or total asset growth rates are found.

A proof-of-concept study on the impact of a chronic pain and physical activity training workshop for exercise professionals

ObjectivesPhysical activity is essential for long-term chronic pain management, yet individuals struggle to participate. Exercise professionals, including fitness instructors, and personal trainers, are preferred delivery agents for education and instruction on chronic pain, physical activity, and strategies to use adherence-promoting behavioral skills. However, exercise professionals receive no relevant training during certification or continuing education opportunities to effectively support their participants living with chronic pain. Based on the ORBIT model for early pre-efficacy phases of development and testing of new behavioral treatments, the present Phase IIa proof-of-concept study was conducted. The purpose was to examine the impacts of a newly developed chronic pain and physical activity training workshop on psychosocial outcomes among exercise professionals. Outcomes included knowledge and attitudes regarding chronic pain, attitudes and beliefs about the relationship between pain and impairment, and self-efficacy to educate and instruct participants with chronic pain.MethodsForty-eight exercise professionals (Mage=44.4±11.0 years) participated in a three-hour, in-person workshop that was offered at one of four different locations. Participants completed pre- and post-workshop outcome assessment surveys.ResultsMixed MANOVA results comparing time (pre- versus post-workshop) by workshop location (sites 1 to 4) illustrated a significant within-subjects time effect (p<0.001). All outcomes significantly improved from pre- to post-workshop (p′s<0.001), demonstrating large effect sizes (partial eta-squared values ranging from 0.45 to 0.59).ConclusionsFindings offer early phase preliminary support for the effectiveness of the chronic pain and physical activity training workshop for exercise professionals. Based on ORBIT model recommendations, findings warrant future phased testing via a pilot randomized clinical trial as well as testing for impacts that trained professionals have on activity adherence among their clients living with chronic pain. Eventual workshop adoption by exercise professional certification organizations would ensure widespread and sustainable access to qualified exercise professionals to help individuals engage in physical activity. By increasing the capacity of available exercise professionals to deliver effective support, active individuals could better manage their chronic pain and live well.

Review of the experience of product conformity assessment organizations in Canada

A review of the international practice of conformity assessment and accreditation organizations allows us to study current trends in this area and use best practices to improve the Russian system for assessing the conformity of products used in the system of main pipeline transportation of oil and petroleum products. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the current experience of conformity assessment and accreditation organizations in Canada. The features of the national system conformity assessment have been analyzed. It was noted that it has a centralized nature, while the federal nonprofit organization – Standards Council of Canada, which has significant authority in the country and is recognized abroad, has the exclusive authority for accreditation. Structure and features of the work of the leading organizations of the system conformity assessment in Canada have been reviewed: Standards Council, Canadian Standards Association, Underwriters Laboratories of Canada, and QPS. It was concluded that that Canada has created a unified State system of conformity assessment, based on both international and national standards, as well as on the documents of certification organizations.

Developing Blockchain-Based System for Tracking the Origin of Chicken Products

Recently, Blockchain-based solutions is being considered by many researchers. Blockchain-based solutions are applied in areas such as finance, banking, education, e-commerce, logistic, agriculture, etc. In Vietnam, many researchers and companies are also interested in applying Blockchain technology. This paper proposed a Blockchain-based system for tracking the origin of chicken products. This system includes components of Blockchain such as nodes, blocks, ledger, consensus, cryptography, transparency, etc. This system was implemented and experimented at the chicken farms, Cho Gao district, in Tien Giang province, Vietnam with many participants such as chicken farms, veterinary business agencies, wholesalers, retailers, veterinary station of Cho Gao district Tien Giang province, food hygiene and safety certification organizations, etc. Initial experimental results are very efficient and positive, a lot of farmers and stakeholders is excited to participate in the experiment