Low-quality Products Research Articles

Community Member Perceptions of Dollar Stores in Baltimore City, Maryland: "They are Not Progressive for the Communities".

Dollar stores are the fastest-growing type of food retailer in the United States, prompting policy action across the country related to their perceived negative impact on the communities they serve. However, there is little existing research that explores community member perceptions of dollar stores, which is critical to inform new, equitable policies. To address this gap in Baltimore City, Maryland, where dollar store density is high, we aimed to describe community member perceptions of dollar stores in terms of their role in the broader community. We used thematic analysis to construct themes from community member in-depth interviews (n = 16) and one community member workshop (n = 21) to understand how dollar stores are viewed in the context of the broader Baltimore City community. Six key themes were generated: (1) dollar stores contribute to neighborhood "blight," (2) better retail is needed, (3) dollar stores meet certain community needs, (4) dollar stores do not invest enough in the community, (5) dollar stores vary in location and stock depending on race-based neighborhood qualities, and (6) product quality is low. Overall, participants acknowledged that dollar stores meet certain needs in communities in which there are few alternative retail options, but many did not view them as a benefit and desired to have other retailers instead. Participants also discussed the lack of dollar store investment in the communities they serve, and the low quality of food and non-food products offered. Future policy development should include community member perspectives to understand local context and align policies with community priorities.

Effect of biochar on the co-conversion of carbon-nitrogen and humification of kitchen waste composting process

Composting was an effective technique to treat kitchen waste into high-quality fertilizer or soil amendment. During the composting process of kitchen waste, different degradation rates of carbon and nitrogen resulted in carbon loss, nitrogen emission and low product quality. Consequently, the aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms and effects of biochar (5%, 10% and 15%) on synergistic conversion of nitrogen and carbon and humification processes in kitchen waste composting. The findings revealed that the addition of 10% and 15% biochar prolonged the thermophilic phase (>55°C) by a minimum of three days compared to CK. Additionally, the final NH4+-N concentration in the 10% and 15% treatment groups exhibited a 66.7% reduction in comparison to the control. Besides, the 15% addition proved more efficacious in reducing the NH4+-N content. The increase in biochar facilitates the adsorption of ammonia nitrogen and influences the structure of the microbial community, especially Bacteroides and Pseudoxanthomonas, thus promoting nitrogen mineralisation and humification, which provides energy and carbon for the survival and metabolism of more microorganisms. The compost with 15% biochar exhibited higher levels of SBR1031, resulting in a 73.8% increase in the conversion of nitrogen to NO3--N compared to the control. The aforementioned behaviour facilitates a synergistic conversion of nitrogen and carbon. Therefore, the addition of biochar promotes synergistic carbon and nitrogen transformations in terms of nitrogen conservation, organic matter decomposition, microbial species and their interactions, which is essential for the production of value-added compost fertilizers.

Process swing adsorption with selective purge gas recirculation (PSA-SPUR): Adsorption process technology optimised for separation of heavy component from a gas mixture and its design for CO2 capture through Equilibrium Theory analysis

PSA-SPUR (Pressure Swing Adsorption with Selective Purge Gas Recirculation) has been developed aimed at separating the most strongly adsorbing component from a gas mixture at high product purity and recovery. The innovative strategy for designing a Pressure Swing Adsorption system features recycling its purge gas stream exiting the column and mixing it back into the feed. This operation enriches the mixed feed with an elevated fraction of the heavy component during the adsorption step, thus enhancing the PSA’s performance greatly. Reusing the purge gas helps significantly increase the product recovery compared to conventional methods where purge gas is simply discarded or taken as a low-quality product. For theoretical analysis of a PSA-SPUR system, a bespoke Equilibrium Theory model was developed and solved successfully, providing valuable insights into the performance of the PSA-SPUR system designed for capturing CO2 from a flue gas. The study revealed that there exists an optimum extent of purging that maximises the heavy component mole fraction in the mixed feed, leading to the best possible feed throughput of the adsorption system. Furthermore, the effects of the desorption pressure and feed composition on the PSA-SPUR system’s performance were investigated. The results indicate that the CO2 capture PSA-SPUR system using commercial zeolite 13X has excellent potential to achieve very high product purity and recovery, being allowed to operate at moderate vacuum pressures without having to compress the flue gas feed, even when the gas feed contains less than 10 mol% CO2.

CFD-guided scaling of Pseudomonas putida fermentation

This study evaluated the scale-up of Pseudomonas putida fed-batch fermentation from a 2 L benchtop-scale stirred bioreactor to a 200 L pilot-scale tank by using a validated computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model. One of the major concerns in this fermentation process is the potential reduction in mixing quality with increasing scale, leading to lower yield or product quality. For a low-risk scale-up, a multiphase Euler-Euler CFD model was developed that simulated the hydrodynamics of the fed-batch system at various filling volumes, representing different stages of the fermentation process. The model was validated using experimental data of mixing time and mass transfer coefficient. The hydrodynamic model was then coupled with a Monod kinetic model of P. putida ‘s fermentation. Response surface methodology was used to generate a performance map of the pilot bioreactor at various aeration, agitation, and bioreactor filling volumes. The study considered different established scale-up approaches, such as constant tip speed and aeration rate across scales, constant kLa, as well as constant power to unit of liquid volume (P/V). The performance of the bioreactor was assessed, and the optimum operating ranges of the input parameters were obtained at different stages of the fermentation. Using performance map the possibility of substrate and oxygen gradient formation, and the gradient severity inside the pilot bioreactor at different working volumes were evaluated.

Information sharing decision of retail platform: platform's risk aversion and competing suppliers

An increasing number of retail platforms are adopting blockchain technology to mitigate information asymmetries and share data with upstream suppliers, thereby reducing demand uncertainty. However, these platforms often engage with multiple upstream suppliers of varying product quality. This study constructs a game-theoretic model within a supply chain framework, featuring a risk-averse retail platform and two upstream suppliers of different quality levels. As the core leader of the game, the retail platform decides whether to share demand information with the two competing suppliers after implementing the technology. Using mean-variance theory, this study addresses a key question: Which types of suppliers should be included in information sharing on a retail platform? The results show that when the unit cost of information sharing is low, allowing both suppliers to share demand information is most beneficial. Conversely, when the unit cost is high, only high-quality suppliers should be included. Notably, as the unit cost of information sharing and the intensity of competition between high-quality and low-quality products increase, low-quality suppliers are excluded from information sharing. Additionally, the model indicates that the greatest social welfare can be achieved whether both high-quality and low-quality suppliers are authorized to join the information sharing network, or only high-quality suppliers are included.

Kalibrasi Wire Feeder Flux Core Arc Welding (FCAW) Mengacu Pada Standar British Standard (BS) 7570:2000 Dan British Standard (BS) European Standard (EN) 50504:2008

In the fabrication industry, the welding process plays a crucial role in both engineering and repair production processes. Continuous use of welding machines can lead to a decline in their effectiveness. Suboptimal machines may produce low-quality products. A common issue encountered is the poor quality of welds, even when each step has been aligned with the Welding Procedure Specification (WPS). One source of this problem is the welding equipment itself. The objective of this study is to calibrate arc welding equipment to ensure it remains within machine standards. Calibration is performed in accordance with BS EN 50504:2008 and BS 7570:2000. The calibration focuses on measuring constant voltage and wire feed speed (WFS). The measurement results for WFS variation indicate that it does not exceed a 10% error margin. This suggests that the WFS complies with the established standards. Consequently, the Lincoln LN-25X wire feeder speed is ready for use in fabrication and production processes.

СИСТЕМНІСТЬ РІШЕНЬ РОЗШИРЕННЯ ВИРОБНИЦТВА ВИСОКОЯКІСНОЇ ПРОДУКЦІЇ ЕКСПОРТООРІЄНТОВАНИМ МЕТАЛУРГІЙНИМ ПІДПРИЄМСТВОМ

The study outlines the approaches toward the rationalization of the technological process of pellet production by combining iron ore extraction in the quarry, its milling, concentrate enrichment, pellet firing. The practice of system implementation of modern technology of flotation processing of iron content into the concentrate as a strategic task of improving the quality of pellets is described. The peculiarities of involving a significant percentage of "low-grade" ores in production in case of necessity are revealed. It was concluded that the implementation and successful functioning of the quality management system are affected by engineering mistakes, poor cooperation with suppliers, the return of low-quality products to the enterprise, additional transportation expenses. The sequence of development of the fundamental documents of the quality management system regarding the implementation of the policy in the field of expansion of export supplies of pellets and improvement of the organizational structure of the company's management is covered. The iron content in pellets was predicted using the auto regression model. An improved structure of management of foreign economic activity in case of the implementation of the project on additional production of high-quality pellets is proposed. The costs for increasing the volume of production of iron ore raw materials for the project for the successful functioning of the automated management system for the entire technological process of charge preparation, pelletizing and firing of pellets are systematically defined. A risk assessment was carried out in conditions of implementation of the model for calculating the capital assets of the complex of equipment for the production of high-quality pellets of a well-known global company. Decisions regarding the positioning of the plant's pellets on the world market with determination of the pricing strategy are justified.

Chloride-salt separation type nanofiltration membranes for efficient crude salt refinement

Application of unrefined crude salt not only leads to a serious equipment scaling and a low product quality, but also increases operational risks and poses health hazards. Therefore, it is essential to refine crude salt prior to its use. However, traditional methods of crude salt refinement are energy-intensive and probably produce additional chemical by-products. In this work, membrane technology was used to accomplish the refinement of crude salt due to its unique characteristics, such as environmentally friendly and lower energy consumption. To improve the separation performance, the membranes were fabricated by simply adjusting the aqueous monomer concentration. For single-salt feed, the membrane (M10) prepared with a high ratio of 10 exhibited excellent salt rejection due to the formation of a thicker and denser PA layer. And it owned a superior MgCl2/NaCl selectivity of ∼22.0, demonstrating that the membrane can achieve outstanding selectivity for mono-/divalent ions. The selectivity of Mg2+/Na+ increased to ∼23.5 for bi-salt feed and further improved to 66.2 for multi-salt feed due to the stronger charge shielding effect. Most importantly, the membrane was also successfully applied in the refinement of crude salt. When using crude salt (NaCl 30 g/L, purity 0.90) as feed, the M10 exhibited both excellent retention of bivalent ions and permeation of univalent ions, resulting in the corresponding Mg2+/Na+ selectivity up to ∼251.6 and the tremendous enhancement in the Na + purity of ∼0.997. This work offers a feasible strategy for crude salt refinement, and could expand to some other potential applications such as resource utilization in the salinization industry and zero-liquid discharge of industrial wastewater.

Issues of classification and examination of lemons in the course of forensic commodity expertise

Identification and examination of export-import goods, in particular lemons, plays a significant role in facilitating the detection of customs violations and crimes, as well as in ensuring preventive measures to eliminate them. The article analyses the peculiarities of examination of citrus fruits, in particular lemons, with a view to their classification under classifier of goods Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity. The methodological approaches to the classification of citrus fruits within the framework of commodity expertise are considered. The main diagnostic tasks to be solved by a forensic expert in the course of lemon examination are identified: determination of product quality, chemical analysis, phytopathological analysis, toxicological analysis, organoleptic analysis, microbiological analysis, identification of origin, assessment of storage and transportation conditions. Modern analytical methods allow to conduct a comprehensive study of lemons at various levels – molecular, chemical and morphological – to obtain objective data on their quality, safety and other important characteristics. This data can be useful in legal proceedings to determine the origin, compliance with quality standards and dispute resolution. The article summarises information on the typical defects of lemons, namely: mechanical damage, diseases and lesions, growth and development defects, skin defects, parasites and pests, physiological defects, chemical defects (these defects are of natural origin). Defects inherent in low-quality products with signs of deterioration include mechanical damage, rot and mould, discolouration, wrinkling, shape defects, pests, disease damage, additional chemical treatment, loss of aroma and taste, improper storage and transportation, black spots, and skin tears. The mechanism for conducting a forensic examination of lemons is described in detail.

The factors that affect halal certification among small and medium enterprise food entrepreneurs in Ngawi

A halal lifestyle using halal-certified products is a vital necessity for Muslims. It allows Indonesia to become the world's largest producer and servicer of halal products. However, many uncertified halal products are circulating in the community, and the number of certified halal items tends to be small. Several factors influence the low quality of halal certification products. This Research aimed to identify factors influencing halal certification: education, knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and awareness. The Type of research was crossectional research. The research was conducted in the Ngawi district by comparing entrepreneurs with halal certification and entrepreneurs who still need to have halal certification, with the number of each sample of 26 entrepreneurs. The technique of sampling was purposive sampling. These research variables are factors associated with halal certification, including the level of education, knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and awareness of the entrepreneur acquired through interviews using validated questionnaires and the reliability of the questionnaire. The education, knowledge, and attitude data were analyzed using a chi-square test. The behavior and halal awareness were analyzed using the Fisher test. The statistical test results showed a p-value of < 0.001 on the variables of knowledge, education, attitude, and behavior, so it can be said that knowledge, education, behavior, and attitude positively affect halal certification. However, based on the statistical test on the halal awareness variable, the relationship test results of p-value > 0.05, so it can be said that halal awareness does not positively affect halal certification. This research concludes that education, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior influence legal certification. Awareness of halal behavior does not affect halal certification. Keywords: Attitude, Behavior, Education, Halal awareness, Halal certification knowledge

Overcoming the pitfalls of economies-of-scale in shared accommodation: How can effective multi-listing management enhance the sustainability of homestay businesses?

Economies-of-scale have always been a significant concern, but previous theoretical studies have primarily focused on the traditional manufacturing industry. Consequently, their findings are not directly applicable to the tertiary sector, particularly the hospitality service industry. The hospitality service operates in a high-risk environment and is susceptible to market exits. Therefore, it becomes even more crucial to effectively leverage economies of scale for improving survival rates and long-term operations. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of economies of scale theory in the hospitality industry by examining how sharing accommodation’s economies-of-scale impact personalized and professionalized homestay businesses’ survival. To achieve this objective, we analyze a panel dataset comprising 551,605 properties located in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin using panel survival analysis techniques such as the Cox model and the exponential model. The findings indicate that economies-of-scale can confer short-term survival advantages to professional homestay businesses in comparison with personalized ones. However, in the long run, the social benefits of personalized homestay businesses surpass the impacts of economies-of-scale, thereby enabling them to achieve better sustainability than professional homestay businesses. The likelihood of survival for professional homestay businesses increases with a greater number of listings in operation, referred to as the advantage of economies-of-scale on professionalization; conversely, this is not true for personalized homestay businesses. Moreover, effective host–guest communication both facilitates the attainment of benefits for personalized businesses and amplifies its impact on professionalized enterprises; high-quality products offered by personalized hosts can derive more advantages from scales compared to low-quality products, while superhost-certified professionalized hosts experience less business benefit than uncertificated hosts. This study is one of the pioneering efforts to investigate how economies-of-scale can contribute to the professionalization and personalization of homestay properties, thereby enhancing their business survival. It significantly contributes to the existing literature on hospitality business survival and expands upon the economies-of-scale theory by elucidating its advantages and potential pitfalls in relation to homestay businesses.

EXPRESS: From Stars to Dogs – Identifying “Out-Of-Favor” Products on E-Commerce Platforms? Data Analytic Approach to System Design

Online retail platforms are increasingly challenged by the proliferation of low-quality products, which may damage their reputation and sales. To address this problem, we propose a system architecture to proactively identify products that are likely to go "out of favor". Our approach uses historical data to extract useful information from customer ratings and textual reviews. Available data are fed into a state-of-the-art deep learning sequence model to forecast future ratings. We then analyze rating trends, extracting hyperparameters that a binary classifier uses to label products as "out of favor" or not. We tested this system on an Amazon dataset comprising nearly 800,000 observations across 2,826 electronics products. Our results show that the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model excels in forecasting future product ratings compared to other benchmarks. Ablation analysis shows sentiment-related features significantly improve rating forecasts by up to 40%, with review topics adding 10% and other review characteristics 4%. Counterintuitively, topic extraction from reviews does not provide substantial benefits, despite the heavy computational resources it requires. Finally, the two-stage classification process, which leverages time-series data and rating trends, offers a more stable and robust performance than conventional single-stage methods. We provide considerations for system architecture development through robustness checks ensuring its resilience to stressors. Our experiments indicate that rating trends can change in subtle ways over time, leading a promising “star” product to turn into a liability (“dog”). E-commerce platforms can use the proposed system architecture proactively to identify and remove potentially dubious products instead of waiting to take reactive action.

Electronic Marketing and Customer Retention in the Fast Foods Industry in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State

Fast food businesses are known to be affected by some existential problems. This economic sector faces problems ranging from insufficient capital, lack of efficient manpower, inefficient management, fraud, and inability to analyse and capture market opportunities. Other problems also include marketing problems, research inefficiencies and production problems such as poor standardisation and low-quality products to mention but a few. In a quest to find lasting solutions to these problems, governments in Bayelsa State both at the state and local levels have been embarking on programs geared towards the development of businesses in the state especially the fast food sector which is very popular in the state. Authors have argued that the adoption of e-marketing has been found to improve firm performance. E-marketing is gradually gaining prominence as a tool for gaining competitive advantage and this has implications for marketing practice in Nigeria. The primary objective of this paper, therefore, is to review the current situation of e-marketing in Fast food restaurants in Nigeria and will also digress to understand its effect on customer retention, given that there are different levels of development of e-marketing in all countries. In line with the foregoing, the study used a cross-sectional survey design method based on an array of information collected from the population. The study target Sample size for the study was 138 customers drawn from the five selected fast food restaurants in Yenegoa. After an extensive analysis of the data gathered from administering structured questionnaires, the study revealed, among others, that Social media marketing has a significant influence on customer retention among customers of fast foods in Yenegoa, Bayelsa state. From the analysis of the hypothesised variables, the study concluded that there is a positive relationship between the independent variables (social media marketing, email marketing and online advertising) and the dependent variable (customer retention). Thus, on the basis of the findings and conclusion of the study, the researcher recommended, among others, that Fast food restaurants should pay strong attention to social media tools like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc to reach both potential and current customers to enhance retention.

Sustainable Paddy Farming in Edirne: Evaluating the Impacts of Excessive Fertilizer and Pesticide Use

This study examines the environmental and economic impacts of chemical fertilizer and pesticide use in paddy fields in Edirne Province, Türkiye. Chemical fertilizers, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, are crucial for boosting paddy yield and ensuring food security. However, recent trends indicate significant potassium deficiency and excessive pesticide use, leading to environmental degradation and higher production costs. Incorrect fertilization techniques and pesticide usage can lower product quality and yield, adversely affecting farmers’ incomes and the national economy. Surveying 139 paddy farmers, the research found that farmers apply the herbicidal active ingredients Tefuryltrione, Clomazone, Tembotrione, and Quinclorac at rates of 129.35%, 34.27%, 18.06%, and 155.29% above the recommended levels, respectively. The excessive use of pesticides costs each farmer an additional USD 925.67, totaling USD 5.32 million for Edirne. The majority of farmers (69.2%) do not conduct soil analysis, indicating a potential gap in adopting the best practices for soil management and fertilization. Farmers use 84% less potassium than recommended while applying nitrogen and phosphorus 13% and 14% above the recommended levels, respectively. The extra cost of fertilizer use in Edirne is calculated as USD 833,135.49. This situation harms the economy and may have adverse effects on the environment and potential health effects on consumers.

Upcycling of recycled polyethylene for rotomolding applications via dicumyl peroxide crosslinking

AbstractPolyethylene (PE), including high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) and low‐density polyethylene (LDPE), makes up a significant part of post‐consumer plastics in municipal solid waste, presenting challenges for traditional recycling methods due to a wide range of melt flow properties and poor interfacial adhesion between the different resin, which often leads to low quality products (downcycling). In this study, a method is proposed to modify the molecular structure of post‐consumer PE (rHDPE and rLDPE) and their blends by using a straightforward organic peroxide crosslinking technique with 1 phr of dicumyl peroxide (DCP). Different rHDPE/rLDPE blend weight ratios (0/100, 20/80, 40/60, 50/50, 60/40, 80/20, and 100/0) were prepared using a combination of co‐rotating twin‐screw extrusion and pulverization. The final parts were produced via rotomolding where both the forming and crosslinking processes occurred concurrently. Subsequently, the materials were characterized in terms of chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties. It was found that the tensile strength (228%), tensile modulus (345%), flexural strength (145%), and flexural modulus (251%) increased by crosslinking the 80% wt. rHDPE (x‐rHDPE). Conversely, the gel content increased by 17%, thermal resistance by 37.2%, and the impact strength by 93% with 80% wt. rLDPE (x‐rLDPE). It can be concluded that a balance between the properties occurs as the addition of DCP improved both the interfacial adhesion and melt properties of rHDPE/rLDPE blends. This innovative approach represents a simple and straightforward method to upcycle mixed plastics (PE) streams, especially for rotomolding applications. It also offers promising avenues for sustainable waste management and material reuse.

Методика определения кратности, прочности и адгезии защитного покрытия, выполненного на основе сформированного пенококса

Today, the production volumes of intumescent paints comprise a significant part of the entire fire-protection production. At the same time, both uncertified and low-quality products can be often offered within the segment. The main implicit factors of the violation of the intumescent coating quality are the thickness of the layer and the degree of dilution of ready-to-use paint immediately before use. These factors affect the quality of coked foam, i.e., its layer thickness and its density; however, these cannot be detected during the external examination of the paint layer, measuring its thickness and conditional adhesion in accordance with modern standards. The reliability of the results of intumescent coating fire-retardant properties evaluation can only be ensured considering the evaluation of additional parameters of coked foam (strength and homogeneity) applied to protected structures measured in conditions close to real fire conditions. A methodology of express analysis of intumescent coatings on steel structures has been considered; the analysis aims to determine the expansion rate, strength, and adhesion of protective coating produced based on formed coked foam. The methodology is based on the theoretical studies of the effects of intumescent paint parameters (layer thickness, degree of dilution) on coked foam parameters and contains non-standard methods of intumescent fire-protection parameters. The intumescent coating spot heating method at sampling sites has been developed; the efficiency of the penetromety method to determine the coked foam strength has been proved. These methods are simple and do not require using any expensive equipment. The methodology can be applied to evaluate the fire-retardant coating directly at a construction site by the following parameters: coked foam intumescence, homogeneity of its structure, ultimate strength in compression, and shear-breakout. It has been established that high values of the intumescence coefficient do not guarantee the reliability of fire protection. The higher the intumescence coefficient is, the lower the thickness and strength of the coked foam. Considering this interdependence of parameters, it is reasonable to establish, on a regulatory basis, the ultimate values of the coked foam intumescence coefficient.

Критерии потребительского выбора пищевой продукции в контексте анализа рисков для здоровья

Provision of food quality and safety is among national priorities. The strategy aimed at improving quality of food products in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 highlights a relevant issue as regards Russians consuming low-quality food products. The aim of this study is to identify criteria that determine consumer choice of food products and its influence on health risks. The empirical data used in the study are represented by the results of national social surveys (Russian Public Opinion Research Center, NAFI Research Center, Public Opinion Fund, 2020–2023) and materials obtained by focus interviews with Russian megacity residents (n = 26, spring 2024). Price is the top criterion that determines consumer choices in Russia. We identified three behavioral strategies based on subjective perception of food quality and price: 1) quality is priority regardless of a price (the strategy is typical for middle-aged consumers with higher incomes); 2) a balance between quality and price (including orientation at discounts and special promotion campaigns at points-of-sail); 3) refusal from subjectively more qualitative food products in favor of less qualitative but cheaper ones (the strategy is typical for consumers from senior age groups). Consumer orientation at product price leads to changes in diets in case population incomes are dropping or market prices are growing; in particular, it means a decline in fruit, meat and fish consumption. Significance a consumer places on food taste as a selection criterion results in choosing food products with low ‘objective’ consumer value but a higher ‘subjective’ one, for example, chips, sweetened carbonated beverages, and products with high saturated fat contents. Risky consumer choice is also determined by low interest in healthy diets and absence of any faith in possibility to get objective information. A conclusion is made that it is necessary to make food products, which are subjectively perceived by consumers as more qualitative, more affordable in money terms; to intensify educational activities and to create suitable conditions for making consumers refuse from buying products with low nutrition value.

Criteria that determine consumer choice of food products within health risk analysis

Provision of food quality and safety is among national priorities. The strategy aimed at improving quality of food products in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 highlights a relevant issue as regards Russians consuming low-quality food products. The aim of this study is to identify criteria that determine consumer choice of food products and its influence on health risks. The empirical data used in the study are represented by the results of national social surveys (Russian Public Opinion Research Center, NAFI Research Center, Public Opinion Fund, 2020–2023) and materials obtained by focus interviews with Russian megacity residents (n = 26, spring 2024). Price is the top criterion that determines consumer choices in Russia. We identified three behavioral strategies based on subjective perception of food quality and price: 1) quality is priority regardless of a price (the strategy is typical for middle-aged consumers with higher incomes); 2) a balance between quality and price (including orientation at discounts and special promotion campaigns at points-of-sail); 3) refusal from subjectively more qualitative food products in favor of less qualitative but cheaper ones (the strategy is typical for consumers from senior age groups). Consumer orientation at product price leads to changes in diets in case population incomes are dropping or market prices are growing; in particular, it means a decline in fruit, meat and fish consumption. Significance a consumer places on food taste as a selection criterion results in choosing food products with low ‘objective’ consumer value but a higher ‘subjective’ one, for example, chips, sweetened carbonated beverages, and products with high saturated fat contents. Risky consumer choice is also determined by low interest in healthy diets and absence of any faith in possibility to get objective information. A conclusion is made that it is necessary to make food products, which are subjectively perceived by consumers as more qualitative, more affordable in money terms; to intensify educational activities and to create suitable conditions for making consumers refuse from buying products with low nutrition value.

(Invited) Empowering Clean Energy Manufacturers with Low-Temperature Plasma: A Novel Approach to Real-Time Thin Film Metrology

Thin films, or micro- and nano-scale materials with unique functional properties, enable many clean energy industries, such as lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, and carbon conversion. Minimal-waste manufacturing of high-performance thin films will be vital for achieving society’s net-zero carbon emission goals. Because existing thin film sensors cannot operate within most sections of manufacturing lines, manufacturers often complete hundreds of processing steps before they can test (a small portion of) their products and detect problems. Current thin-film manufacturing thus often yields many low-quality products, or off-spec products that must be discarded. A real-time, in-situ metrology strategy can create unprecedented opportunities for implementation of smart manufacturing practices and advanced process control solutions to realize higher thin film throughput and performance.SirenOpt has developed a real-time low-temperature plasma-based thin film metrology sensor. The sensor is compact, can be integrated within existing manufacturing lines, and can collect multiple thin film property measurements (such as thickness with a precision of 1/10th of a nanometer, density, resistivity, chemical composition, and contaminate identification) in parallel and in real-time, thus allowing for the collection of critical manufacturing data that is otherwise unobtainable. SirenOpt is currently applying the sensor to industrial thin film coating processes such as Lithium-ion battery electrodes, where this flexible sensor can be used to accelerate R&D and process optimization, improve quality control, and enable real-time process control.

Wall Street and Product Quality: The Duality of Analysts

ABSTRACT We investigate the role of financial analysts in product quality failures. Relying on information about product recalls, we first show that analyst coverage on average reduces product quality, particularly when managers face greater short-term pressure from institutional investors. However, after identifying a subgroup of analysts who raise questions on product-related issues in earnings conference calls, we find that coverage by these “product analysts” enhances rather than compromises product quality. Firms with greater product analyst coverage are also more likely to retire low-quality products. Additional analysis demonstrates that product analysts help safeguard product quality by further probing into product-related matters and issuing more timely recommendation downgrades after firms announce product deficiencies. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: G24; G34; G38; L15.