Choice experiment

The stated preference method is a direct approach and is used in order to value both use values and non-use values by using a hypothetical market. The choice experiment (CE) and the contingent valuation (CV) methods are the two most common examples of stated preference methods. In the CE method the respondents are asked to choose a level of environmental quality from a set of varying environmental qualities, called choice set. In the CV method the respondent is asked to imagine an environmental market situation and is then asked how she would act in that given situation. CE and CV attempts to find the WTP for a good or service by asking individuals direct questions about their preferences. Alternatively, researchers can ask the respondents for their WTA. 

Traditionally, French fishermen have used the male sex attractant of the sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus. They bait a trap with an adult male and catch numerous females at night. Land-locked sea lamprey such as those in the Great Lakes of North America spawn in streams. Males arrive before the females and build nests. In laboratory choice experiments, ovulating females selected water from spermiating males and increased their searching behavior there. In a natural stream, females responded to male odors from as far as 65 m. The active... 

The secretions of toad tadpoles affect the behavior of predators. Largemouth bass, Micropterus salmonides, even when starved for 1 day, almost totally reject tadpoles of Bufo americanus (Fig. 10.6) and Bufo woodhousei. However, the himgrier they become, the more tadpoles they will eat. With increasing experience with these tadpoles, the bass take fewer into their mouths and spit more out. In choice experiments, they prefer tadpoles of the spring peeper, Hyla crucifer, to those of Bufo spp. (Kruse and Stone, 1984). 

J. P. Vigier, EPR version of Wheeler s delayed choice experiment, in Microphysical Reality and Quantum Formalism, ISBN 9-02-772686-8, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1988. 

Making a simple silver-chloride salt print begins with the selection and preparation of the paper. Arches Hot Press Watercolor and Crane s Kid Finish AS 8111 are two good choices. Experiment with any good quality 100% cotton paper. 

Butman, C.A., and Grassle, J.P. (1992) Active habitat selection by Capitella-sp. I. larvae. Two-choice experiments in still water and flume flows. J. Mar. Res. 50, 669-715. 

These are two different bioassays, each revealing different information. In a choice experiment, the insects are given the option to choose between two different treatments, either the control or the extract (or pure compound), or between two different compounds. Information obtained via this type of bioassay shows that one of the treatments is preferred to the other. Or in case of the difference between control and compound, that if the control is preferred, the compound could be an antifeedant. 

A second example of an activated chemical defense concerns the Indo Pacific sponge Aplysinella rhax, in which tissue damage results in the rapid enzymatic transformation of psammaplin A sulfate 63 into psammaplin A 64 exposure of 63 to tissue from other sponges does not result in any conversion. Compound 63 deters feeding by reef fish, but when offered a choice between psammaplin A and its sulfate, both foods were avoided. In aquarium assays with C. solandri, extracts of damaged tissue were more deterrent than extracts from intact tissue, but both treatments were less palatable than control foods. In choice experiments, C. solandri preferred food treated with 63 over 64.104... 

Beaver picking up experimental sticks in a food choice experiment. The animal will transport the sticks through the water to the lodge. There one or more beavers will consume the bark. The peeled sticks will be released into the water and can be found floating or stranded in the dam... 

Herbivores such as deer, bovids, rodents, or marsupials encounter a great diversity of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs). These PSMs greatly affect the food choices these animals make. In turn, herbivores affect plants by stimulating induced defenses as a consequence of browsing. For food choice experiments in the wild we need animals that can be found predictably in certain places at certain times. The beaver (Castor canadensis or C. fiber) is such a species. Beavers stay year-round near their lodges and readily accept food provisions. 

In this cafeteria-style food choice experiment, we will provide beavers with a range of woody plants, determine their choices, and interpret the results in terms of palatability, determined by chemical plant defenses and nutrient content. 

We will perform the Leaf disk test, also known as leaf disk assay or leaf disk choice test, the second of two bioassays of tannins in the diet of insects in this book. In this often used bioassay, leaf sections of a standard size are treated with the compound(s) in question. Several circular leaf sections ( leaf disks ) (Ali et al. 1999, Filho and Mazzafera 2000, Shields et al. 2008, Wheeler and Isman 2000) or cellulose membrane filters (Hollister and Mullin 1999, Larocque et al. 1999) are presented to a caterpillar in a choice experiment. We measure how much chow the caterpillar has consumed and whether any feeding inhibition is concentration dependent. Regardless of what compounds are being tested, leaf disk tests serve as an important tool in bioassaying feeding inhibitors and stimulants in insects. The cited references are examples of such studies. (In the first tannic acid experiment - Chap. 18 - the tannic acid was mixed into diet in varying concentrations.)... 

A further modification addresses a remote loophole for local realism in which the polarization detectors might somehow be able to signal one another at subluminal speed. Aspect designed an experiment in which mirrors switched at high speed could direct the two photons to different detectors, after they were already inflight. It was verified in this "delayed choice experiment that Bell s inequality is still violated, in what is currently considered the most conclusive test of nonlocality. 

Garrod, G.D., Scarpa, R., and WiUis, K.G., 2002, Estimating the Benefits of Traffic Calming on Through Routes A Choice Experiment Approach, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 36(2) 211—231. 

A similar odor-choice experiment was conducted by Dawley (1986, 1987), who examined female responses to air-borne chemical signals in large Eastern Plethodon... 

Manning, C. J., Potts W. K., Wakeland, E. K., and Dewsbury, D.A., 1992a, What s wrong with MHC nrate choice experiments , in Chemical Signals in Vertebrates VI, R. L. Doty and D. MOIIer-Schwarze, eds.. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 229-235. 

An overall preference (water or treatment) for each individual was then assigned as the side of the dish that was occupied for at least 11 of the 21 observations. Since red-backed salamanders are relatively inactive, their responses to choice experiments tend to be bi-modally distributed (Madison et al., 1999a Sullivan et al., 2003), precluding the use of parametric analysis. A chi-square goodness-of-fit test was therefore used to... 

Johnson FR, Lancsar E, Marshall D, Kilambi V, Miihlbacher A, Regier DA, et al. Constructing exp>eriinental designs for discrete-choice experiments Report of the ISPOR conjoint analysis experimental design good research practices task force. Value Health 2013 January 16(1) 3-13. 

Ryan M, Bate A, Eastmond CJ, Ludbrook A. Use of discrete choice experiments to elicit preference. Quality in Health Care September 2001 10 155-160. 

Ryan M, Gerard K, Amaya-Amaya M. Using Discrete Choice Experiments to Value Health and Health Care. Dordrecht, the Netherlands Springer, 2008. 

In two-choice experiments with urine odors of adult individuals as test subjects we used a total of 18 male M. spicilegus (collected in different localities of Ukraine and Moldova), 14 male M. m. musculus (collected in the same area), 25 male M. m. musculus (collected in Moscow), and 12 male M. macedonicus (generation FI from mice collected in Bulgaria). As stimuli we used 15 male and 14 female M spicilegus (collected in Ukraine and Moldova), 15 male and 10 female M. m. musculus (same area), 10 female M. m. musculus (collected in Moscow) and 5 female M. macedonicus (generation FI from mice collected in Bulgaria). 

In the two-choice experiment with urine of pups 12 male and 11 female M. m. musculus (collected in Moscow) and 6 male and 4 female M spicilegus (collected in Kishinev region, Moldova) were used as recipients. Donors of urine were two litters (4 and 2 pups) of M. m. musculus and two litters (6 and 5 pups) of M. spicilegus. The number of individuals of M. m. musculus and M. spicilegus used in the sexual activation experiment are presented in Table 5. 

Nonparametrical statistical test (Wilcoxon matched pairs test) were applied for two-choice experiments because data were characterized by a high level of variability. The sexual activation experiment was analyzed by Student s test. 

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