Using comprehensive primary dataset collected from 400 respondents from all four major provinces of Pakistan, this study assesses consumers' knowledge, awareness, and perception regarding the use of functional foods. The empirical findings show that the majority of the consumers do not have information and knowledge about the functional foods in Pakistan. Hence, the frequency of consumption of functional food was low especially in rural areas. The result revealed that consumers with ill health were more eager to consume functional foods compared to healthier people. Besides health, the level of education and gender  of the respondent also play significant role in the acceptability and consumption of the functional foods in Pakistan. Geographically the people in the cities were more aware and willing to pay more for the functional foods as compared to people living in the villages. Majority of the consumers think that consumption of functional foods can help them to maintain good health, hence the policy makers' needs to create more awareness. The concept of functional food was first time used and introduced in Japan during the 1980s . FunctioOver the years, the consumption pattern of consumers is evolving . Number Globally the consumers require food that is healthy and protects them from different disease , 15. A cThe demand for functional food is ever growing which is driven by concern about health and increase in life expectancy. Consumers are more and more anxious about their health and foster extra care to their lifestyle and the healthiness of their diet . The surge in demand for functional foods may be due to the increasing cost of healthcare, increase in life expectancy, and the longing to increase the quality of life . Hence, Consumers display favourable attitudes and strengthen their willingness to buy functional food when it is projected as healthy and have advantageous nutritional facts . RegardlThe consumption of functional foods are likely to decrease the risk of the chronic diseases . In the past, studies have established that the awareness about functional foods plays a vital role in their choice and acceptance of functional food , 22. NowFor low-income household and individuals, the price may be a barrier to the consumption of healthy food  like functional food. Given the significance of quality food, consumers are willing to pay premium price for foods, which contributes to better health . The wilAlthough it is essential to estimate the future demand for functional food before supplying such foods to the market, it is difficult to assess the potential demand due to innovative character of functional food and hence the nonavailability of actual market data. Therefore, hypothetical and non-market valuations of unique functional foods by consumers are frequently used to acquire the needed information for pricing and estimating the market , 27.A significant section of the population search for functional food that offers larger benefit, reduces the risk of diseases, and supports good health. The presence of fiber in the food, high protein content, the presence of protein and minerals, and fortified food with calcium contents are regarded as the essential components of functional food. A large number of consumers place greater importance to sustainably produced food such as organic food. The consumer preference for functional food and willingness to pay for it arise from the fact that it contains local herbs and ingredients. Consumers with inadequate or small disposable income also desire to buy such food products that aid in meeting crucial nutritional requirements and are very appealing .In most developed countries, the markets for functional foods have been increasing at great speed over the last two decades . As the functional food provides health benefit along with providing basic nutrition, the market's share of functional foods in European countries was less than 1 percent in 2000 and it is expected to rise up to US$ 190 million in 2020 . Similarly, the functional food is becoming more common in all the states of America with the passage of time. This growing use of functional foods is because consumers are becoming aware of the correlation between health and food that one eats. In addition to the awareness, the developments in the functional foods market combined with advances in food technology and nutritional sciences are playing an important role in fueling the functional foods .In the past most of the studies on functional foods have been carried out in the developed world, i.e., Gilbert ; Frewer For the current study, detailed data set was collected through field survey. Comprehensive questionnaire was used for the data collection. Information on a number of aspects was collected, specifically knowledge about functional foods, willingness to pay for the functional foods, and consumers' perception regarding health benefits of the functional foods. The data was collected from all the four major provinces of Pakistan, i.e., Punjab, Sindh, KPK, and Balochistan. In total data was collected from 400 respondents from both the urban and rural areas . A team of well-trained enumerators carried out the survey during July-September, 2017. Before the start of the survey, the permission of the respondents was sought to participate in the survey. The selection of the respondents was made at random. The distribution of the respondent by province wise and rural and urban categories wise is summarized in The average household income was about 29,364 Pakistani rupees per month. Majority of the respondents were doing job, i.e., 71 percent; mostly the respondents in the urban areas were engaged in wage employment while the respondents in the rural areas were engaged in the agricultural activities including off farm labour work. Majority of the household owned television, i.e., 82%, about 69% of the respondent owned the house, and only 27% of the respondents owned the car. Majority of the respondents, i.e., 88 %, reported they were in good health.In the questionnaire also information regarding the constraints in the functional foods was collected. About 73 percent of the respondents reported that price is a barrier in the purchase of the functional food while 36 percent of the respondents think that taste is the barrier in the use of the functional food. Majority of the respondents, i.e., 82 percent, have access to Internet facility (Through Internet the consumers can get information about various foods.).The detailed information about knowledge and perception of the functional foods is presented in The consumers' frequency of the consumption of the functional foods is presented in The details about the source of the information are presented in The individual sources of the functional foods are presented in Number of factors including social and cultural factors , 38 affeThe age coefficient was negative and nonsignificant indicating that age does not really matter regarding the awareness and demand for the functional food. The gender was included as dummy variable  and the coefficient was negative and significant indicating that females were likely to have higher level of awareness and knowledge about functional foods and are also likely to consume more functional foods. This is in line with the fact that females mostly are more concerned about their health. The gender results are inline with the previous studies as in the past a number of studies have found that females were more aware about the functional foods and also were willing to pay more for the function foods –42.The marital status was included as dummy variable  and the coefficient is positive and nonsignificant. The family size coefficient was positive for awareness and demand of the functional foods, but it was significant only for awareness of functional food. As the larger family size provides more social network which increases the chances of awareness, the dependency ratio, i.e., number of children in the household coefficient, was negative but significant only for demand of functional food indicating that more dependency ratio leads to lower demand for functional food.The coefficient of years of education of respondent was positive and highly significant indicating that educated respondents were more aware and were willing to consume more functional foods. The wage coefficient was positive and significant regrading awareness of the functional food while negative and significant regarding demand of the functional food. The coefficient of respondent's income was also positive and highly significant for both awareness and demand for functional food, which indicates that wealthy households were more aware about the functional foods. Similarly, the house ownership and television ownership were positive and significant on awareness and demand for functional food. Hence, we can conclude that richer individuals and families were more aware about functional food and also consume more as compared to poor individuals.If the respondents perceive that they are in good health, they are less likely to be aware of the functional food, which is obvious as healthy individuals do not search or explore for healthy foods . However, healthy person seems to consume more of functional food. The price of functional food increases its level of awareness because consumers perceive high priced commodity as the high quality product. However, the demand and price of the functional foods are inversely related. The taste of the functional food is positively associated with the demand for it.The coefficient of location dummy variable  was positive and significant indicating that respondents from the urban areas were more aware about the functional food and were also more likely to demand more functional food as compared to respondents of the rural areas.The determinants of the factors influencing the number of functional foods  consumed per week are presented in The higher the income, the greater the number of functional foods consumed because income level indicates the affordability. Wage employed people were also likely to consume more number of functional foods compared to those employed in agriculture. Those respondents with television ownership were also consuming more number of functional foods because it brings about the awareness about the functional food. From this analysis, we can confirm that wealth/income positively influences the number of functional foods consumed per week.The coefficient of the dummy of good health is negative and significant highlighting the fact that healthy individuals consume less number of functional foods. The urban dummy is positive and significant at 1% level of significance signifying that respondents from the urban area were more likely to consume more number of functional foods compared to the rural respondents.In Pakistan beside fruits and vegetables the condiments were also the preferred sources of the functional foods. For the consumers' preferred sources of functional food, multivariate probit model was estimated and the results are presented in The age of the household head was positive and significant for condiments indicating that aged people prefer condiments as the functional food. The gender coefficient was negative and significant indicating that female respondent prefers more of fruits, vegetables, and condiments as functional foods as compared to males while male respondents prefer more of other functional foods, i.e., cereal and pulses, etc. Women acceptance of the functional foods is inline with the previous studies, e.g., Monneuse et al.  and BoguThe coefficient of years of education was positive and significant for all types of functional food except for others indicating that educated respondents prefer more of fruits, vegetables, and condiments as functional food as compared to less educated respondents. The positive association of preferred functional food and education has been confirmed by the previous studies, e.g., Jong et al. .The coefficient of the household income is positive and significant for all types of functional food , which shows the positive role of the income on preference and consumption of the functional food. Similarly, the household assets particularly television and house ownership was positive and significant indicating that wealthy households mostly use the functional food. Previous studies show that wealthy individual prefers and consumes more of the functional foods as compared to poor individuals .The health status dummy was positive and significant for vegetables and condiments indicating that respondents in good health mostly use the functional foods such as vegetables and condiments while it was negative and significant for fruits.The price coefficient was negative and significant for price of fruits indicating that higher prices lead to less use of fruits while it was positive and significant for vegetables and condiments (this contradicts to economic theory but mostly the prices of vegetables and condiments are stable as compared to fruits). The taste was positive but significant only for condiments indicating good taste of condiments positively influences the consumption of condiments. Higher access to Internet tends to lead to more preference of functional food and vice versa. The location coefficient was positive and significant indicating that the respondents living in urban areas mostly consume the functional foods as compared to respondents living in the rural areas.The LR chi square (≤0.001) is highly significant at 1 percent level of significance indicating robustness of variables included in the model.The censored least absolute deviation (CLAD) model was estimated regarding consumers' willingness to pay for the functional food and the results are presented in The age coefficient was negative and significant indicating that mostly the young respondents were willing to pay for the functional foods compared to the older respondents. Younger respondents were willing to pay more for functional food as compared to aged respondents as they were more aware of the value of functional food on health. The gender dummy  was negative and significant which implies that females were more willing to pay for the functional food compared to male respondents. Previous studies have shown that females have greater knowledge as well as the intention to use functional food , 46. TheThe year of schooling was positive and highly significant, which is as expected because with the increase in the level of education individuals were more aware of the importance of functional food on health. The positive association between education and willingness to pay for the functional food arises from the fact that respondent with higher education has more knowledge and intention to pay for the function food. The results are in line with Siro et al.  and HillThe income, wage employment, and household assets coefficients  were positive and significant implying that the wealthy households were more willing to pay for the functional foods. The respondents' health status is negative and significant, hence indicating that respondents with good health were more willing to pay for the functional foods. The coefficients for the price, taste, and Internet were all positive and nonsignificant. The location coefficient was positive and significant indicating that respondents in the cities were more using functional.The LR chi-square (≤0.001) was positive and highly significant at 1 percent level of significance indicating the robustness of variables included in the model. The initial number of observations was 400, and the final number of observations was 316.Consumer's perception on the impact of functional food has been estimated by employing the propensity score matching estimates. In case of PSM two different matching algorithms, i.e., Radius matching (RM) and Splene matching (SM), were employed. The respondents perception was estimated on overall health status. The results are presented in The empirical results show that respondent's perception on the overall health status was positive and significant indicating that respondents consider functional good for human health.The past studies have shown that consumers perceived benefits of the functional foods were very important factors regrading consumers acceptance of the functional foods , 48, 49.The consumers in Pakistan mostly lack information and awareness about the functional foods. However the consumers living in urban areas were more awared as compared to consumers living in rural areas. The consumers wealth status, education level, and gender play a significant role regarding acceptability of functional foods in Pakistan. The educated respondents have more knowledge and were prepared to pay more for the functional foods. The gender is another important indicator; i.e., females were more prepared to accept the functional foods as compared to males.The propensity score matching estimates indicated that the respondents using functional foods have less diseases and have good health. However the lack of awareness is the main issue regrading promotion of the functional foods. The sick people were willing to pay more for the functional food as compared to healthy people.The consumers' willingness to pay analysis indicated that wealthy consumers having higher assets ownership were more willing to pay for the functional foods. Similarly the respondents in cities were more willing to pay for the functional foods as compared to living in rural areas. The policy implications suggest that more awareness needs to be created through media campaign.


Audit and feedback is regarded as the cornerstone of clinical teaching to guarantee good practice and to correct poor performance. Feedback given to health professionals assists in narrowing the gap between the actual and the desired information. The findings of the research study on perceptions of midwives on audit and feedback highlighted aspects that needed improvement to address challenges on the use and documentation of the partogram.The objectives of this article were to explore and describe the perceptions of midwives on auditing of the partogram by health professionals and to explore and describe the perceptions of midwives on the feedback that was given after audit was done.A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study was conducted to answer the two research objectives. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 17 midwives who were working in the labour wards of three hospitals. Eight steps of qualitative data analysis as indicated by Tesch were used to analyse the data.The findings revealed that auditing and feedback is sometimes done by midwives themselves, midwives’ managers and district managers. Audit is done monthly or on a daily basis and sometimes inconsistently because of shortage of staff. Challenges indicated were lack of knowledge on the use of the partogram and lack of encouragement and praise when documentation was done correctly and that emphasis was mostly placed on negative aspects.The findings revealed that auditing and feedback and in-service education is done at the three hospitals, although challenges such as inconsistency in auditing because of shortage of staff, lack of knowledge on partogram use and on principles of giving feedback were highlighted. Approximately 99% of 216 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births in developing countries were reported by World Health Organization (WHO), which were mostly because of obstructed and prolonged labour WHO . The incA standard for the use of the partogram is available in the Guidelines for Maternity Care in South Africa: a manual for clinics, community health centres and district hospitals  eight steps of qualitative data analysis as described in Creswell :154–155 Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University of South Africa. The chief executive officers of the three hospitals and the Limpopo Provincial Government granted written permission to conduct the research. In order to ensure privacy, the interviews were conducted in private rooms. Witten consent was obtained from the midwives after thorough explanation of the nature and purpose of the research. Participants were informed that they can withdraw from the research study at any time if they wish to do so without any consequence. Codes instead of names were used on interview transcripts to protect the respondents’ identity.The study was conducted in the maternity wards of the three hospitals found at Vhembe District in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The researcher selected the hospitals based on the fact that one was a regional  hospital and two were district hospitals. Pregnant women visit the hospitals directly or as referrals from communities. Midwives and doctors are expected to use the partogram when attending to all women who are in labour.The researcher had good background knowledge in midwifery, nursing education and research methodology, which ensured that the research process was followed and relevant aspects in midwifery were considered ‘Every morning when I come on duty, after taking report and there are women in labour, I  it’s demoralising.’ ‘We need positive feedback because is not only the mistakes that we do, if you can deliver ten woman and their babies are all alive, and you receive no pat on your back, but if one child dies or you have FSB [‘We don’t get positive feedback, all we get is those feedback of saying we got attitude.’ In Kenyan hospitals, Nzinga et al. :1 conducThe study was conducted at three selected hospitals in the district and the results cannot be generalised to other hospitals. Perceptions of other health professionals on using the partogram such as district managers, doctors and clinic midwives were not explored.Midwives indicated lack of consistency in auditing visits. It is recommended that planning on auditing and regular feedback be done and implemented to improve the use of the partogram.Gaps in auditor’s knowledge on partogram and auditing and especially on giving feedback were highlighted. It is recommended that all supervisors and midwives be given in-service training on partogram use and on auditing and feedback in a way that will be most useful to the members.The findings highlighted lack of time to conduct audit and feedback because of shortage of midwives. More staff in labour wards are needed in order to afford midwives ample time to perform self-assessment and provide feedback to each other. Adequate staffing would be helpful in ensuring that the partogram is used and plotted according to set standards.Further research on auditing and comparing different ways of providing feedback in midwifery practice needs to be conducted.Auditing and feedback are viewed as important practices of improving the use of the partogram. It can be concluded that auditing of the partogram, giving feedback and in-service education is done at the selected hospitals. However, there is a need for consistency in auditing, planned periodic in-service education on the use of the partogram, training on strategies that are useful in giving feedback in clinical practice and provisioning more staff in the labour wards.


The field of translation regulation and neuronal plasticity started with a remarkably simple observation, made by Aplysia (What is less well known is that the field of localized translation in axons preceded the wide-spread recognition that dendritic translation control is involved in synaptic plasticity . One of Aplysia  to mice Aplysia  to humanAplysia .Neurobiology of Pain contains several review articles that give a comprehensive viewpoint on what we currently know about translation regulation and pain, how this knowledge can be used to develop completely new kinds of pain therapeutics and where the field might be headed. This special issue also contains two primary research articles that give new insight into how translation regulation is involved in pain sensitization in the peripheral and central nervous systems. I am grateful to all of the authors who committed to share their deep knowledge of the subject through this special issue on Translation Regulation and Pain.This special issue of Neurobiology of Pain. It is fitting that translation regulation is the topic of the first special issue of this journal because it can be persuasively argued that this subfield of pain research began in the laboratory of the Editor in Chief and Founder of Neurobiology of Pain, Fernando Cervero. When I was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Cervero’s lab working on those first studies in this area of research (This is the first special issue of research , I doubtThe authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.


The welfare of farmed animals is of major concern for society and food production –3. Of inNawroth et al. reports on the existing research on cognitive abilities of ungulate livestock species, focusing on a distinct set of cognitive capacities in the physical and social domain. They conclude that while research on livestock species is still underrepresented, the current findings indicate that ungulate livestock possess sophisticated mental capacities. They emphasized the importance of gaining a better understanding of how livestock species interact with their physical and social environments, as this information can be applied to improve housing and management conditions and to evaluate the use and treatment of animals in farming systems. From an ethical perspective, they also discuss whether animal cognition and the connection to animal welfare matters from the perspective of the animal.Three review articles summarize our present knowledge of different aspects of learning and cognition in farm animals and critically discuss their interpretation and potential for implementation. Rørvang et al. critically evaluated the evidence for social learning in horses and the learning mechanisms involved. They conclude that many reported findings for social learning can be explained by relatively simple mechanisms such as social facilitation or stimulus and local enhancement, rather than by more complex phenomena such as emulation or true imitation  and the cognitive evaluation of the environment in terms of predictability and controllability by an animal and used it in a case study to determine welfare outcomes of new technologies, here virtual fencing.Finally, In conclusion, the contributions in this Research Topic will increase our understanding of how farm animals use their cognitive abilities to interact with their environment and aim to pave the way for new cross-disciplinary endeavors.All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


Concerns have been raised that the transplants performed in the local context at the time of procedures reported in this article  may haveDetails as to the donor sources were not reported in , and theIn addition, the ethics statement in the article notes that the transplant procedures were approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of West China Hospital but the authors did not report whether this specific study was reviewed and approved by a research ethics committee, and they did not provide ethics approval documentation when requested by the journal.The authors confirmed that the underlying data and laboratory records are not available to support results reported in the article.PLOS ONE Editors retract this article.Owing to the lack of documentation to demonstrate that this study had prospective ethical approval, insufficient reporting, unresolved concerns around the source of transplanted organs, lack of data and supporting documentation for the study, and in compliance with international ethical standards for organ/tissue donation and transplantation, the The corresponding author apologized and requested withdrawal of the article when they notified the journal office of the unavailable data and laboratory records, but the authors did not respond to the retraction decision.