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We develop a general-purpose agent-based simulation and modeling approach to analyze how user–recommender interactions affect recommender systems in the long run. Our explorations show that, over time, user–recommender interactions consistently lead to the longitudinal performance paradox of recommender systems. In particular, users’ reliance on recommendations, while helping users discover relevant items, actually hurts the future diversity of items that are recommended and consumed as well as slows down the system’s learning pace (i.e., the rate of predictive accuracy improvement). We also demonstrate unique benefits of certain hybrid consumption strategies—that is, that take advantage of both popularity- and personalization-based recommendations—in facilitating improvements in consumption relevance over time. Because users’ consumption strategies can significantly influence the longitudinal performance of recommender systems, it is important for designers to analyze the histories of a system’s recommendations and users’ choices to infer and understand users’ consumption strategies. This would enable the system to anticipate users’ consumption behavior and strategically adjust the system’s parameters according to its long-term performance objectives. We develop a general agent-based modeling and computational simulation approach to study the impact of various factors on the temporal dynamics of recommender systems’ performance. The proposed agent-based simulation approach allows for comprehensive analysis of longitudinal recommender systems performance under a variety of diverse conditions, which typically is not feasible with live real-world systems. We specifically focus on exploring the product consumption strategies and show that, over time, user–recommender interactions consistently lead to the longitudinal performance paradox of recommender systems. In particular, users’ reliance on the system’s recommendations to make item choices generally tends to make the recommender system less useful in the long run or, more specifically, negatively impacts the longitudinal dynamics of several important dimensions of recommendation performance. Furthermore, we explore the nuances of the performance paradox via additional explorations of longitudinal dynamics of recommender systems for a variety of user populations and consumption strategies, as well as personalized and nonpersonalized recommendation approaches. One interesting discovery from our exploration is that a certain hybrid consumption strategy—that is, where users rely on a combination of both personalized- and popularity-based recommendations, offers a unique ability to substantially improve consumption relevance over time. In other words, for such hybrid consumption settings, recommendation algorithms facilitate the general “quality-rises-to-the-top” phenomenon, which is not present in the pure popularity-based consumption. In addition to discussing a number of interesting performance patterns, the paper also analyzes and provides insights into the underlying factors that drive such patterns. Our findings have significant implications for the design and implementation of recommender systems.

Increasing income brings about a decline in the relative importance of food consumption, a wider spread of spending patterns, and a demand for higher-quality goods. Using an index-number approach, this article analyzes these three closely-related tendencies. Stripping out the impact of prices from the dispersion of food expenditures gives a volume-based measure of diet diversity that is relevant for nutrition. Using unpublished data from the World Bank's International Comparison Program for 31 items of food in more than 150 countries, we find that diets of rich countries are substantially more diverse than those of the poor; and that volumes are the more appropriate way to measure the inequality of diversity. The quality of the food basket, based on the luxury-necessity distinction of consumption, increases with income, but the elasticity is small. There is a modest tendency for the structure of prices to be regressive since prices of luxuries relative to necessities are lower in richer countries. Additionally, our diversity and quality measures are shown to have implications for demand analysis and well-being.

Research is available on improved coverage and practices from several large-scale maternal nutrition programmes, but not much is known on change in inequalities. This study analyses wealth and education inequality using Erreygers and Concentration indices for four indicators: adequate iron and folic acid (IFA) consumption, women's dietary diversity, and counselling on IFA and dietary diversity. A pre-test-post-test, control group design. Maternal nutrition intervention programmes conducted in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia during 2015-2022. Recently delivered women (RDW) and pregnant women (PW). Statistically significant reductions in education inequality were observed for adequate IFA consumption, counselling on IFA and dietary diversity in intervention areas of Bangladesh and for adequate IFA consumption in intervention areas of Burkina Faso.A significant decrease in wealth inequality was observed for adequate IFA consumption in the intervention areas of Bangladesh, whereas a significant increase was observed in the non-intervention areas for counselling on IFA in Ethiopia and for dietary diversity in Burkina Faso. The results can be attributed to the extensive delivery system at community level in Bangladesh and being predominantly facility-based in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. COVID-19 disruptions (in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia) and indicator choice also had a role in the results.The main takeaways for nutrition programmes are as follows: (a) assessing inequality issues through formative studies during designing, (b) monitoring inequality indicators during implementation, (c) diligently addressing inequality through targeted interventions, setting aside resources and motivating frontline workers to reduce disparities and (d) making inequality analysis a routine part of impact evaluations.

Objective: This paper shows that torbangun leaves (Coleus Amboinicus L) are suitable for nursing mothers in a practical, comfortable, and healthy form according to the standards of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, namely in the form of biscuits. In the Batak ethnic group in Indonesia, it was found that local wisdom in the community that torbangun leaves are believed to improve the quality of breast milk for infants aged 12-24 months. Various studies show that the torbangun leaf contains elements that can increase a baby's height and nutrition.   Method: The research was conducted experimentally to obtain biscuits from torbangun leaves based on the biscuits' aroma, texture, taste, and color. The last method is to intervene in stunting children aged 12-24 months. Children were grouped into children who were given biscuits with torbangun leaves and children who were given biscuits without torbangun leaves for three months every day.   Result and Conclusion: The findings from the organoleptic test showed that the most suitable biscuits to be given to children aged 12-24 months were biscuits with the addition of torbangun leaf flour. There was a significant difference in body length in children who were given biscuits mixed with torbangun leaves and without torbangun leaves.   Research implications: Research related to food consumption diversity comes from traditional knowledge of the Toba Batak ethnicity, which can be modified into healthy food to overcome stunting. From this initial research, the food industry can develop it into biscuits as a supplement for children aged 6-24 months.   Originality/value: The value of this study lies in new findings in the field of supplementary diet and food consumption diversity for nutritional improvement in children aged 6 -24 months. To ensure reliability, the habit of adding food supplements to nursing mothers based on traditional knowledge of one ethnicity was studied through laboratory studies. Furthermore, the raw materials always used by breastfeeding mothers are checked to be modified into biscuits so that they are easy to obtain, easy to use, and low cost.

Land resources are important for millions of rural households in China. With the land tenure system reform and the trend of nonfarm employment, land transfer affects household income and consumption diversity significantly. Utilizing the data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2018, this study investigated the effects of land transfer on Chinese rural households’ consumption diversity, measured by the Simpson index. In order to mitigate the endogeneity problems caused by reverse causality and selection bias between farmers’ household land transfer decisions and consumption behavior, we employed the propensity score matching (PSM) method and instrumental variable (IV) method. Besides, the Shannon index was also used to measure consumption diversity for the robustness test. The results showed that the rural households who have transferred others’ land in would decrease their consumption diversity, while the households who have transferred their land out would increase their consumption diversity. Heterogeneity analysis showed that land transfer had different degrees of impact on rural households with different income groups and was more significant for low-income households. Specifically, compared with higher-income households, both the promotion effect of land transfer out and the inhibitory effect of land transfer on consumption diversity were more obvious for lower-income households.

Owing to persistent challenges of food and nutritional insecurity, recent literature has focused on the role diversity of farm production has on food consumption diversity, particularly for smallholder households. Yet, the relationship between farm production diversity and household food consumption diversity remains complex and empirical evidence is, so far, mixed. The present article assesses this relationship using two districts—Kilosa and Chamwino—with contrasting agro-ecological and market contexts in rural Tanzania. These districts represent the majority of farming systems found in Tanzania as well as in several countries within the region. We used household data and employed descriptive as well as multivariate regression analyses. The results indicated a positive role of farm production diversity for food consumption diversity in the district with relatively harsh climatic and agro-ecological characteristics and poor access to markets. Furthermore, increased farm production diversity was generally associated with seasonal food consumption diversity. However, results suggested a lesser role of farm production diversity in the presence of better agro-ecological and market access characteristics. These findings imply that promoting farm production diversity should consider the existing agro-ecological and market characteristics. In addition, achieving increased food consumption diversity among rural households may require effective market related infrastructure and institutions.

Poverty and food security risks are increasing in resource-reliant African countries such as Nigeria. Resultantly, policymakers have attempted to use agricultural policy reforms to boost productivity and increase income. However, macroeconomic instabilities complicate agricultural transformation. Consequently, farm households try to diversify food production to mitigate shock-induced nutrition losses. However, credit constraints disrupt the planting of different crops required for adequate diets. This study investigates food security performance during Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda. It examines whether credit-constrained households adjust food consumption and production differently from credit-unconstrained families. The aim is to uncover the nutritional implications of the adjustments and evaluate the changes such a linkage has undergone during the commercialization initiative. While credit-unconstrained households diversified food production to mitigate food security risks, credit-constrained households were unable to do so. A policy that improves credit access for farm-input purchases appeared to increase food security. However, macroeconomic shocks disrupt the smooth implementation of the policy. Resultantly, policy decisions on the designation of a financial-support scheme that approves credit to households for operating off-farm enterprises must be considered. The business profits could complement farm income to improve family nutrition. Part of the profits could again be plowed back into farm-input needs to enhance agricultural commercialization.

The reliability of the power grid is a constant problem faced by those who operate, plan and study power systems. An alternative approach to this problem, and others related to the integration of renewable energy sources, is the microgrid. This research seeks to quantify the potential benefits of urban community microgrids, based on the development of planning models with deterministic and stochastic optimization approaches. The models ensure that supply meets demand whilst assuring the minimum cost of investment and operation. To verify their effectiveness, the planning of hundreds of microgrids was set in the city of Santiago de Chile. The most important results highlight the value of community association, such as: a reduction in investment cost of up to 35%, when community microgrids are planned with a desired level of reliability, compared to single residential household microgrids. This reduction is due to the diversity of energy consumption, which can represent around 20%, on average, of cost reduction, and to the Economies of Scale (EoS) present in the aggregation microgrid asset capacity, which can represent close to 15% of the additional reduction in investment costs. The stochastic planning approach also ensures that a community can prepare for different fault scenarios in the power grid. Furthermore, it was found that for approximately 90% of the planned microgrids with reliability requirements, the deterministic solution for the worst three fault scenarios is equivalent to the solution of the stochastic planning problem.

This study examines the nexus among production diversity, market participation, and consumption diversity in smallholder households. It identifies the main factors that influence smallholder farm households’ decision to diversify production and evaluates the effect of production diversity and market participation on consumption diversity. To this end, we use a three-wave panel data of 7110 households in rural Ethiopia. The estimation results from the Mundlak Fixed Effects instrumental method suggest that risk-averse households, households with larger cultivated land, households with larger family size and family labor, and households who participate in community meetings are more likely to diversify their production. The results further reveal that production diversity has a statistically significant and positive effect on the consumption diversity of household members, but not dietary diversity of children and women. We find that market integration is more relevant in improving nutrition than production diversity. These results suggest that policies that merely focus on encouraging smallholder farmers to diversify production would not be that effective unless they are coupled with interventions that aim to integrate smallholder farmers to the market.

Issues related to the standard of living are key aspects of regional policy and social development strategies. The standard of living is synonymous with the terms being, quality of life and well-being. For many years, the basic measure of the standard of living was GDP per capita. In 2012, Eurostat published a new alternative measure standard of living, which is the actual individual consumption per capita, expressed in purchasing power standards. The article presents the standard of living of the population and its spatial variation in the countries of Europe and the European Union. The aim of the study was to show the differences in standards of living, depending on the index used, namely the traditional GDP per capita, and the new AIC per capita.