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Overweight and obesity have become global concerns in developed and developing countries due to their rise in recent years and their association with the prevalence of non-communicable diseases including diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. In fact, it is estimated that roughly 39% of adults worldwide are overweight and 13% are obese. Ecuador is an example of a developing country concerned with the overweight and obesity problem, where it is estimated that 30% of children, 26% of teenagers and 63% of adults are either overweight or obese and where 1 in 4 deaths are attributed to chronic diseases. To address the overweight and obesity problem via the promotion of healthy eating habits, in 2013 the country approved technical regulation for the labelling of packed processed food products. The regulation included a mandatory traffic-light (TL) supplemental nutritional information labelling system to be displayed on the package of all processed foods for sale in the country. This new labelling system displays a traffic light panel for the product content of sugar, fat and salt in addition to the traditional nutrient declaration label. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effect of the TL supplemental nutritional information on consumers’ buying behavior in Ecuador. More specifically, we concentrated on the purchasing behavior of carbonated soft drinks. For our analysis, we used monthly aggregated purchase data (total expenditures, quantities and average prices) of carbonated soft drinks from January 2013 to December 2015 obtained from Kantar World Panel—Ecuador. We estimated a non-linear Almost Ideal Demand System where we model the demand for high sugar and low sugar carbonated soft drinks. We found that the introduction of the traffic light supplemental nutrition labelling did not have the expected effect of reducing purchases of carbonated soft drinks during its first year of implementation, especially those high in sugar. Additionally, we found that lower income-status households tend to spend more on and consume more calories from CSD than households with higher socio-economic status. Finally, we identified that over time purchases of high sugar soft drinks decreased while purchases of low and no sugar soft drinks increased. Beyond our contribution of evaluating the effect of the traffic light on the purchases of carbonated soft drinks, we also estimated price and income elasticities of carbonated soft drinks which can be useful in the evaluation of fiscal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environments of poverty, marginalization, overcrowding, lack of resources and opportunities are influential factors in the behavior of individuals. The externalities, evaluated from the context and their influence on criminal behavior, are the object of study of the legal sciences. This research process leads the authors to determine dimensions and indicators in order to assess the effectiveness of the legal system, from sources manifested in material reality. Poverty is a contingent phenomenon, built on social inequality that affects the actions of the individual and that the law cannot ignore given its connotation and conditioning capacity and in particular because the phenomenon of poverty constitutes a fundamental factor in the criminal behavior of citizens. For this reason, the objective of this paper is to analyze the criminal behavior achieved in Quevedo, Ecuador, based on the use of spatial econometric techniques and the use of Neutrosophy, which are useful for the evaluation of the impact of the indicators of greater incidence on the criminal behavior achieved in the aforementioned region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the development and baseline data of a vignettes-based measure of gender equality. Methods: Vignettes were developed through 3-day long focus groups. After piloting in 13 sites and repiloting a revised version in 6 countries, responses were categorized by the construct tapped and a scoring system developed. Finalized vignettes were then tested in DR Congo, Ecuador and China. Results: Young adolescents can successfully respond to vignettes; and can differentiate self from hypothetical protagonists of same and opposite sex. Response differences by sex of respondent and protagonist were statistically significant across a range of scenarios and settings. Conclusion: This is the first vignettes-based measure for young adolescents assessing young adolescent perceptions of relationships differentiated by sex of the protagonist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ectoparasitic otopheidomenid sphingid or hawk moth mite, Prasadiseius cocytes (Prasad, 1970) (Acari: Otopheidomenidae) described over 40 years ago from museum-preserved moths, was recently re-collected from several moths by the author. Of these, one moth, Manduca rustica (Fab.) (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), collected in neotropical rainforest habitat of Ecuador, unusually showed very heavy infestation with several hundred mites on the dorsal side of the body, including wings. It had eggs, larvae, nymphs, and adults. This kind of infestation in the sphingid moths has not been recorded before and is reported in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]