Ordinary Products Research Articles

Geographical discrimination of Italian carrot (Daucus carota L.) varieties: A comparison between ATR FT-IR fingerprinting and HS-SPME/GC-MS volatile profiling

The Italian carrot varieties cultivated in the Fucino upland (Abruzzo), and Ispica (Sicily), both Protected Geographical Indication specialties, together with an ordinary product grown in the Apulia region, were characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR FT-IR) and headspace solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (HS-SPME/GC-MS). One hundred eighty (180) infrared spectra, collected from either the internal or external side of the carrot root, and 80 volatile profiles, acquired from representative samples of the three varieties, were individually handled by partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) to trace the carrots according to their geographical origin. The PLS-DA model calibrated on 120 infrared spectra acquired on the internal side of the carrot root gave only one misclassification error in the prediction set (consisting of the left 60 spectra); whereas all validation samples were correctly classified when the model was calculated on the signals collected on the external side of the products. Further PLS-DA classification was based on 32 volatile components detected by HS-SPME/GC-MS. This model, built on 52 calibration samples and successively applied to 28 external ones, led to a global prediction accuracy of 82.5%, due to the misclassification of only one sample from Ispica and four Apulian individuals. Variance Importance in Projection (VIP) analysis was eventually conducted to identify the volatile components and vibrational modes contributing the most to the discrimination of the three carrot varieties by the respective PLS-DA models.

Product pricing and green decision-making considering consumers' multiple preferences under chain-to-chain competition

PurposeIt is necessary to implement green supply chains. But green development needs to be gradual and coexist with ordinary products in the market. This paper aims to study the green and ordinary product pricing and green decision-making under chain-to-chain competition.Design/methodology/approachThis paper considers consumers' multiple preferences and takes two competitive supply chains with asymmetric channels as the research object. Through the construction of the game models involving different competitive situations, this paper studies the pricing, green decision-making and the supply chains' profits, and discusses the impact of consumer green preference, channel preference, green investment and competition on the decision-making and performance. Finally, this paper further studies the impact of the decision structure on the environmental and economic benefits of supply chains.FindingsThe results show that consumer green preference has an incentive effect on the green supply chain and also provides an opportunity for the regular supply chain to increase revenue. Specifically, consumers' preference for green online channels improves the product greenness, but its impact on the green retailer and regular supply chain depends on the green investment cost. Moreover, competition not only fosters product sustainability, but also improves supply chain performance. This paper also points out that the decentralization of the regular supply chain is conducive to the environmental attributes of the green product, while the environment-friendly structure of the green supply chain is different under different conditions. In addition, the profit of a supply chain under centralized decision is not always higher than that under decentralized decision.Originality/valueThe novelty of this paper is that it investigates the pricing of two heterogeneous alternative products and green decision-making for the green product under the competition between two supply chains with asymmetric channels, in which the green supply chain adopts dual channels and the regular supply chain adopts a single retail channel.

Pricing and manufacturing strategy of dual-channel green supply chain under common product competition

As consumers' green demand continues to rise, the competition between ordinary products and green products is becoming more and more intense. In order to study the impact of product competition and consumer green demand on product price and product greenness, as well as the optimal manufacturing strategy of dual-channel green supply chain, for a manufacturer and a retailer that can produce common products and green products, a set of The dual-channel supply chain composed of traditional retail channels and online direct sales channels, according to the different production modes of manufacturers, established a dual-channel supply chain game model of traditional production mode, green production mode and mixed production mode, and compared the products under the three production modes Price, greenness, and manufacturer's profit are verified with examples. The results show that: based on the consistent pricing strategy, consumer channel preference directly affects product price and greenness; product competition and consumer green demand sensitivity coefficients both promote product prices and product greenness; the manufacturer's optimal manufacturing strategy For the mixed production mode.

Comparison between 2,000m and 3,000m time trials to estimate the maximal aerobic speed for collegiate runners.

Considered to be a lesser resource burden, 2,000 and 3,000 m time trials (TTs) have been recognized as alternatives to accurately estimate the maximal aerobic speed (MAS) derived from laboratory-graded exercise testing (GXT). Previous studies have commonly used ordinary least squares linear regression and the Bland–Altman method to compare the agreement between MAS and TT performance. The agreement analysis aimed to identify the systematic bias between the results of the two methods, rather than to identify similarities. The model II regression technique (ordinary least product regression) is increasingly favored by researchers in the field of physiology. Thus, we aimed to 1) use the ordinary least product (OLP) and bootstrap methods to determine the agreement between the average speed of 2,000 m TT (S2000) and the average speed of 3,000 m TT (S3000) and 2) determine whether S2000 or S3000 can accurately approximate the GXT-derived MAS. It is used as an alternative to estimate the MAS and prescribe training intensity. Thirty-five Beijing Sport University recreational male runners completed an MAS test in laboratory settings, followed by 2,000 and 3,000 m TTs randomly, with a 7-day interval. OLP regression was used to analyze the agreement between the GXT-derived MAS and S2000 and S3000. The bootstrap method was used to calibrate the equations. Differences between the GXT-derived MAS and S2000 and S3000 were compared using a one-way repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a post hoc analysis (Bonferroni). The significance level was p < 0.05. The results showed that before calibration, the 95% CI of the OLP regression intercept and slope between the GXT-derived MAS and S2000 and S3000 did not include 0 and 1.00, respectively. These values, after calibration, included 0 and 1.00, respectively. Post hoc analysis revealed that S3000 closely approximated the GXT-derived MAS and underestimated 0.46% (0.06 km h−1 and p > 0.05), and S2000 overestimated 5.49% (0.81 km h−1 and p < 0.05) by the MAS. It concluded that the 3,000 m TT performance approximated the GXT-derived MAS compared to the 2,000 m TT performance. There exist fixed bias and proportional bias between the GXT-derived MAS and TT performance. More attention should be applied to calibration when using the TT performance to estimate the MAS.

Predicting maximal lactate steady state from lactate thresholds determined using methods based on an incremental exercise test in beagle dogs: A study using univariate and multivariate approaches

The reliability of four lactate threshold (LT) methods to estimate the maximal lactate steady state (MLSS), defined as the highest intensity that can be maintained without plasma lactate ([La−]) accumulation over time, was determined in Beagle dogs. Six male Beagle dogs performed a standardized incremental exercise test on a treadmill when plasma lactate ([La−]) measurements were performed. The LTs for predicting MLSS, were determined by visual inspection (LTV), using a bi-segmented linear regression model (LTBI), or using a polynomial function on the [La−]/velocity ratio (LTP) by considering the vertices of the curve and calculating the point that yields the maximal distance from a curve representing [La−] as a function of velocity to the line formed by the two endpoints of the curve (LTDMAX method). The agreement was assessed using Bland-Altman plots and ordinary least products (OLP) regression among the velocities corresponding to the LTs identified using different methods (VLTv, VLTBI, VLTP, and VLTDMAX) and the velocity corresponding to the MLSS (VMLSS). A principal component (PC) analysis approach was performed to detect the degree of co-relatedness among the variables. The mean ± SD [La−] at MLSS was 1.03 ± 0.24 mM. VMLSS had a lower mean bias with VLTv, followed by VLTBI. The VLTDMAX underestimated MLSS. VLTv and VLTBI had the lowest limits of agreement with the VMLSS. The VLTP and VLTDMAX showed relatively high limits of agreement with MLSS. VLTv, VLTBI, and VMLSS had more collinearity and were dominantly aligned with the second component (PC2). VLTv and VLTBI can be used as simple methods to objectively determine aerobic fitness in Beagle dogs.

Prevalence of metabolic disorders in the imbalance of selenium in schoolchildren of 13–14 years old

In modern conditions, the need for vital nutrients, in particular, micronutrients, varies depending on age, season, physical activity. The modern diet of ordinary natural products cannot provide a sufficient level of consumption of micronutrients, which play an important role in various metabolic processes of the body. Such an element may be selenium. Seasona l manifestations of selenium deficiency in the body of schoolchildren aged 13–14 in the Leninogorsk district of the Republic of Tatarstan (RT) are associated with insufficient intake of trace elements from the environment, in particular selenium, contribute to metabolic disorders. For this purpose, a seasonal analysis of biomaterials (hair) taken from adolescents (n = 84, 50 % of them boys) aged 13–14 years [median (Me) — 13.5 years] was carried out among schoolchildren for the quantitative content of selenium. Anthropometric studies were carried out, the body composition of the examined schoolchildren was assessed, the frequency of the lack of selenium content among adolescents. The studies revealed concentrations of selenium in the hair of adolescents below the reference values: in boys in 35 % of cases, in girls — in 43 %. This fact correlates with body mass index, fat mass, active cell mass, with musculoskeletal mass, with the basic metabolism. When assessing the actual nutrition among adolescents, a lack of selenium in the diet was revealed in 55 % of boys and 64 % of girls. To correct selenium deficiency in the diet, a seasonal fortification of the school menu is proposed — fortification of food products with selenium and iodine at the same time, since these trace elements are functionally closely interrelated, the creation of accessible laboratory control for the quantitative content of selenium and iodine in local food products.

Design and Production of Visual Image of Print Advertisement Based on Mobile Media

With the rapid development of science and technology, various fields (such as information and multimedia) have been combined with each other into a complete field of print advertising design. The visual image is the main part of showing the expressive power of graphic advertising, which intuitively explains the design creativity of the advertisement. It uses visual expression to attract the audience’s first attention and stimulate consumer emotions. However, with the continuous change of people’s aesthetic art and aesthetic needs, ordinary print advertisements can no longer meet the needs of consumers. The continuous development of science and technology has promoted the spread of mobile media. Mobile media applications not only integrate with people’s daily life but also bring people various mobile media advertisements. It realizes the multimedia and diversification of advertising. To meet the ever-changing visual aesthetic needs of users, it is necessary to use mobile media technology to innovate the visual image of print advertisements and provide consumers with a unique visual experience. Therefore, this paper will study the design and production of print advertisement visual image based on mobile media. This paper takes the design process of mobile media as the research process and summarizes the visual image design method of print advertising that meets the needs of users, conforms to the development of the times and aesthetic trends, and has high cultural information dissemination efficiency. It then tests the proposed theoretical method through the comparison of works and finally realizes the second leap of design theory. Experiments show that the visual image of mobile media advertising is more in line with consumers’ aesthetics and can increase product sales. The highest sales of its products increased by 9.26% compared with ordinary products.

Estimating average annual rainfall by ordinary kriging and TRMM precipitation products in midwestern Brazil

Precipitation data in extensive regions are difficult to acquire, either due to a lack of rain gauges installed in the region, or failures in stations and reading errors. There are numerous difficulties in obtaining continuous data for a long period of time. In Brazil, due to the large territorial extension, the availability of information is often not enough for all regions of interest. Especially, in developing countries, monitoring by gauges is limited in terms of infrastructure, density, and frequency of observations. Hydrological regionalization consists of an alternative for obtaining information on flows from water courses in cases where there is a lack of measured data. The main input in hydrological regionalization models to estimate the flow in water courses is the average annual precipitation. In this context, this study aims to calculate the average annual precipitation in drainage basins in the state of Goiás and the Federal District of Brazil, two important regions regarding the conservation of water resources. Two methods were used for this purpose - ordinary kriging of the data from rain gauges, and the average of remote sensing monthly products from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The average annual precipitation obtained by ordinary kriging and remote sensing showed high agreement. Considering the ordinary kriging as a standard method, the precipitation from satellite products showed a good performance for hydrology approaches and represents an important tool to assist water agencies in the study area for estimating the flow in water courses.

Product line strategy and environmental impact oriented to carbon tax constraints

Under the constraints of the government's carbon tax policy, manufacturers have to consider whether to develop low-carbon product lines or adjust their existing product lines to promote carbon reduction. Therefore, we construct three models to explore the impact of consumer product acceptance on manufacturers' product line strategies under the carbon tax policy. Furthermore, we also investigate the social welfare and environmental impacts of manufacturers' different product line strategies. We find that manufacturers prefer to produce both low-carbon and ordinary products, but they may have worse negative impacts on the environment. We show that social welfare is not always better when manufacturers produce low-carbon products than ordinary products. Interestingly, we find that when carbon taxes are higher, it may be more profitable for manufacturers to produce ordinary products than low-carbon products and that manufacturers producing low-carbon products may lead to worse environmental impacts.

Risk of consuming products with or without precautionary wheat or gluten labelling for persons with coeliac disease

Persons with Coeliac disease (CD) need to keep a lifelong diet without gluten and therefore need to know which foods are safe to eat. The objective of this study was to analyse ordinary foods products without gluten containing ingredients (PWG) with or without the precautionary allergen statement (PAL) “May contain wheat/gluten” or similar wording and use these data to perform a probabilistic risk assessment. Foods with and without PAL were analysed for gluten. Inputs for the risk assessment were analytical results, daily food consumption and data from a 90-days challenge study in coeliac patients (Catassi et al., 2007).20/77 products with PAL and 10/51 without PAL had gluten ≥5 mg/kg 3/77 with PAL and 3/51 without PAL had gluten ≥20 mg/kg. A coconut cookie brand was outlier with 421 mg gluten/kg. The likelihood of developing mucosal damage in the CD population when eating the same PWG for 90 days in addition to certified gluten-free products was low (0.2–3.2%) with little difference between with or without PAL. Including the coconut cookie results increased the risk to 3.8–9.2%.Caution should be taken in connection to foods where there is an obvious chance of contamination.

Teaching Mode of Augmented Reality College English Listening and Speaking Supported by Wearable Technology

With the development of modern technology, wearable technology has become more and more popular in the actual college English listening and speaking teaching mode. Wearable devices, as the name suggests, are smart electronic products that can be worn on the human body, such as smart glasses, smart watches, smart rings and smart clothing. Smart watches and ordinary electronic products are very different from wearable devices. Wearable devices give us a more intelligent and technological experience. Wearable technology has brought new changes and challenges to the realistic college English listening and speaking teaching mode. Wearable technology has become a hot topic and frontier in the field of science and technology. It has been widely used in education, medical, and industrial fields. It provides unprecedented convenience for people to learn, work, and live. Augmented reality technology is a kind of technology that skillfully integrates virtual information with the real world. After the simulation of computer-generated text, images, 3D models, music, video, and other virtual information, it is applied to the real world, and the two kinds of information complement each other, thus realizing the “enhancement” of the real world. This paper gives a brief overview of the definition of wearable technology, the classification, and main features of wearable technology and combines it with college English listening and speaking teaching mode to improve the classroom learning effect. Through the questionnaire survey, we know that wearable technology is a teacher’s teaching, and students’ learning provides great convenience. Wearable technology greatly enhances the learning and listening fun of students.

Subtitusi Mocaf Pada Donat Kentang: Apakah berpengaruh Terhadap Daya Terima Konsumen?

This research purpose to find attributes that influence the selection potato donuts made from mocaf and find out the consumer's attitude towards potato donuts made from mocaf. Total respondents in this research are 30 people who had ever bought and ate potato donuts. The respondents were taken by purposive sampling. The methods used in this research is survey methods. The data analysis in this research is using Fishbein Model, the model applied is “the attitude toward object model”. It’s model were used to identify consumer attitudes towards the attributes potato donuts from mocaf and raw material includes taste, texture, shape, color and price suitability. The results show that the most influential attributes in the selection potato donuts made from mocaf are taste (13,74) and color (15,89). Consumer attitudes towards the overall attributes potato donuts are ordinary product. This study recommends potato donut producers to make improvements to the variables of texture, shape and price suitability from consumer input so that it becomes a potato donut product that is preferred by consumers.

Sensing beyond Senses: An Overview of Outstanding Strides in Architecting Nanopolymer-Enabled Sensors for Biomedical Applications.

Nano-enabled sensing is an expanding interdisciplinary field of emerging science with dynamic multifunctional detecting capabilities, equipped with a wide range of multi-faceted nanomaterial having diverse dimensions and composition. They have proven to be highly robust, sensitive, and useful diagnostic tools ranging from advanced industrial processes to ordinary consumer products. As no single nanomaterial has proved to be unparalleled, recent years has witnessed a large number of nanomaterial-based sensing strategies for rapid detection and quantification of processes and substances with a high degree of reliability. Nano-furnished platforms, because of easy fabrication methods and chemical versatility, can serve as ideal sensing means through different transduction mechanisms. This article, through a unified experimental-theoretical approach, uses literature of recent years to introduce, evaluate, and analyze significant developments in the area of nanotechnology-aided sensors incorporating the various classes of nanomaterial. Addressing the broad interests, the work also summarizes the sensing mechanisms using schematic illustrations, attempts to integrate the performance of different categories of nanomaterials in the design of sensors, knowledge gaps, regulatory aspects, future research directions, and challenges of implementing such techniques in standalone devices. In view of a dependency of analysis and testing on sustained growth of sensor-supported platforms, this article inspires the scientific community for more attention in this field.

ОПТИМІЗАЦІЯ ІНВЕСТИЦІЙ У ПІДГОТОВКУ МОРЯКІВ

Maritime transport provides more than 80 % of the world's international trade, so it is actively developing with the growth of production and economic connections between countries. On the other hand, the work of seafarers is quite difficult, associated with long-term separation from homes and risks, and therefore is not particularly popular among workers in developed countries, where high salaries can be obtained on shore.Thus, it is precisely for the population of developing countries that the labor market of seafarers is quite attractive, since the salaries within these countries are significantly inferior to the salaries of seafarers, in addition, such countries are characterized by a lack of jobs in the domestic labor market.At the same time, it should be noted that the unskilled labor market of seafarers (ordinary) is oversaturated (thanks to Asian countries), while the market for highly skilled labor of seafarers (officers) is scarce, where the salary is much higher, but the appropriate education is required.It is here that the advantages of Ukraine as a country with a fairly high general level of population and certain maritime traditions – and at the same time a low level of employment and especially wages within the country, which creates the attractiveness of maritime work for domestic workers – can be revealed. We can even say that an important export potential of Ukraine is precisely the work of domestic qualified specialists (in particular, seafarers – in connection with the loss of a significant part of the domestic fleet) abroad.In order to implement these advantages, to expand the training of seafarers (officers), it is necessary to develop the maritime education network of Ukraine, to substantiate the corresponding investment projects. The first fundamental feature of the products produced by the higher (qualified specialists) from ordinary products is that the manufacturer of ordinary products disposes of it himself – what part of the manufactured products to sell and at what price. The state, which prepares qualified personnel, does not dispose of its products –specialists themselves decide whether to work in the acquired specialty, depending on the amount of salary, tax rate, etc. (production has its own opinion).The second fundamental feature of products produced by higher education (qualified specialists) from ordinary products is that ordinary products are sold on the market only once (for products of long-term consumption, their resale is possible, but already on another – secondary – market). On the seamen's labor market, specialists offer themselves regularly, the offer is formed not only by newly graduated specialists, but also by graduates of previous years (production accumulates over time), so it is necessary to build a dynamic model.Taking into account these features, dynamic two- and three- factor optimization models of investments in the training of seafarers, taking into account their further behavior on the labor market, were built and analyzed, optimal values of the relevant indicators were found – tuition fees, number of students, educational investments, seafarers' wages.Keywords: features of higher education products, labor market, salary level, tax rate

Oil quality of by- products of marine fish during processing methods

By- products that are not regarded as ordinary saleable products (fillet, round, eviscerated or beheaded fish), but which can be recirculated after treatment. Normally oil is produced from by-products of marine fatty fish species such as cod, anchovy, capelin, sardine, salmon, tuna, mackerel, Norway pout, Atlantic herring, sand eel etc. It is possible to extract oil by different process such as wet reduction, hydrolysis, silage, dry rendering and acid - alkali aid. Fish roe has high concentrations of lipids. Hydrolysis was better than wet rendering method as there was a chance for lipid oxidation in the wet rendering method. High quantity and quality of phospholipids were generated from the lipid fraction in the dry rendering process. To ensure high quality of produced products, it is important to process by-products immediately after production. It is also needed to increase the utilization of marine by- products by increasing knowledge on the chemical composition and stability of the by- products.

Optimization of photonic reservoir computing using short internal cavity laser

With the advent of the high-speed information age and the explosive growth of the information, higher requirements have been placed on the information processing speed. In recent years, the delay-based reservoir computing (RC) systems have been extensively investigated. Meanwhile, the information processing rate is improved mainly around the replacement of nonlinear nodes in the system. Nevertheless, as the most commonly used distributed feedback semiconductor (DFB) laser, many researchers only use ordinary commercial DFB products for research, and they have not noticed the improvement of RC performance caused by changes in internal parameters of laser. With the development of photonic integration technology, the processing technology of DFB turns more mature, so that the size of DFB can be fabricated in a range of 100 μm–1 mm when it still generates laser, and the photon lifetime of the laser will also change. The shorter photon lifetime in the laser leads to a faster dynamic response, which has the potential to process the information at a higher rate in the RC system. According to the laser rate equation (Lang-Kobayashi), changing the internal cavity length will affect the feedback strength, injection strength and other parameters required for the laser to enter into each dynamic state, which in turn affects the parameter space required for the RC system to exhibit high performance. According to this, we study the relationship between the internal cavity length (120 μm–900 μm) and the information processing rate of the RC system. In addition, the influences of different internal cavity lengths on the parameter space of the RC system are analyzed. The results show that when the internal cavity length is in a range from 120 μm to 171 μm, the system can achieve 20-Gbps low-error information processing. It is worth noting that when the internal cavity length decreases from 600 μm to 128 μm, the parameter space with better prediction performance of the RC system is greatly improved. When performing the Santa-Fe chaotic time series prediction task, the normalized mean square error (NMSE) is less than 0.01, and the parameter range of the injection strength is increased by about 22%. The range of parameter with NMSE no more than 0.1 is improved by nearly 40% for the 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; order nonlinear auto-regressive moving average (NARMA-10) task. When the number of virtual nodes is 50, the system can achieve a high-precision prediction for the above two tasks. This is of great significance for the practical development of the system.

Production Strategy Selection and Carbon Emission Reduction with Consumer Heterogeneity under Cap‐and‐Trade Regulation

In literature, the firm’s selection of dual‐product strategy under cap‐and‐trade regulation and the optimal emission reduction decisions are not well studied, especially through an analytical approach. We develop a theoretic model to investigate the firm’s selection on three product strategies in the presence of cap‐and‐trade policy, including two single product strategies and a dual‐product strategy, and identify two types of consumers: consumers with low‐carbon preference and regular consumers. Our analysis shows that, (i) in the absence of cap‐and‐trade policy, it is optimal to adopt dual‐product strategy, but in the presence of this policy, it is optimal to adopt dual‐product strategy or low‐carbon product strategy. (ii) Compared with ordinary product strategy, adopting a low‐carbon product strategy or dual‐product strategy benefits the firm under cap‐and‐trade regulation. (iii) The additional cost of producing low‐carbon product has an impact on the firm’s product strategy selection under cap‐and‐trade regulation. When it falls below a certain threshold, it is optimal to adopt a dual‐product strategy; otherwise, it is optimal to adopt a low‐carbon product strategy. Our research can provide reference for firm’s decision‐making and government’s policy formulation.

Behavioral response of captive marsh deer to an economic and easy-to-install repellent: a potential mitigation solution for conflict?

Deer species can cause serious damages to trees through browsing and antler rubbing, and these impacts can generate significant economic losses. As a tool to minimize damages to trees by deer, repellents based on odor, visual and/or taste stimulus have been developed and tested. Repellents vary greatly in terms of costs, forms of use, duration, and/or the local context. Thus, selection of the most-effective repellent to each situation should consider the local environmental and socioeconomic contexts. Pyrazine analogs have been recognized to induce avoidance and fear-related behaviors in deer. These compounds are also found in ordinary and daily-use products, such as coffee, which can be easily obtained. The marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) is the largest native deer of South America. The southernmost population of this species is found in the lower Delta of the Paraná River in Argentina, a large wetland highly modified due to commercial afforestation of Salicaceae. Local forestry producers usually report damage to plantations attributed to marsh deer, with a minor fraction of these producers perceiving high levels of damage and economic losses. We tested an easy-to-install repellent system based on coffee grounds by conducting trials focused on four captive marsh deer. The trials consisted in offering pellets of grain and fiber to deer, dividing the overall ration into two identical factions separated by 15 meters within the enclosure. In the “repellent site”, a subset of the regular food was placed on the ground and treated with the repellent, whereas the other subset, also located in the ground but not treated, was used as the “control site”. Whereas deer individuals presented alert behavior (50-100% of the times) after approaching the repellent site, this behavior was never observed at the control site. Significant differences were found among individuals probably due to a dominance interaction inside the group. The weight of food remains in the repellent site was significantly higher than in the control site at the end of the study. A repellency system based on coffee grounds could be an economic solution to be used by forestry producers of the Paraná River delta or by anyone interested in diminish damages to particular resources. In addition, it is a biodegradable option with insignificant environmental impact and could be especially useful to be applied at small spatial scales, since it requires domestic materials and a relatively limited installation cost in terms of time spent to set up the system. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09670874.2021.2024619.

The Effect of Green Technology Adoption Strategy on Duopoly Competition

Abstract Given consumers’ trade-offs between conventional economic and environmental attributes of products, we provide a game-theoretic model to explore the role of GTA strategy in duopoly competition by incorporating two salient features: Two product types — The green product produced by a firm with GTA strategy and the ordinary product produced by a firm without GTA strategy, and two consumer segments, i.e., the green consumers who are willing to pay for green products and the ordinary consumers who are willing to pay for ordinary products. Our analysis shows that GTA strategy may either increase or decrease the green firm’s quality provision. The subtle relationship between the green firm’s quality strategy and GTA strategy not only affects its own equilibrium performances but its rival’s. We also find that two consumer segments may be better off in the presence of a lower GTA intensity. Additionally, although the GTA strategy benefits the environment, the GTA investment is not the more the better. Finally, we find that GTA strategy would lead to higher social welfare only when the GTA efficiency is high enough. Our work not only provides an alternative economic explanation why some firms choose to implement GTA strategy and some do not in reality, but gives managerial insights for firms with different GTA strategies as well as policy insights for the social planner.

Green Taxation Promotes the Intelligent Transformation of Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises: Tax Leverage Theory

A key issue that concerns governments is how to formulate optimal technology subsidies and green tax standards to promote the intelligent transformation of manufacturing enterprises. In this work, the Pollutant Emission Indicator Trading Mechanism (PEITM) is proposed, and green taxes are divided into Tax of Pollutant Emissions (TPE) and the Tax of Excess Pollutant Emissions (TEPE). On this basis, we study the impact of green taxes and technology subsidies on the intelligent transformation of enterprises in different manufacturing environments from the government’s perspective and provide the optimal government subsidy scheme under different green tax policies. Although it seems counter-intuitive, enterprises’ usual responses to increases in TPE and TEPE are non-monotonic. Moreover, we find a threshold effect for the government’s green taxation. Blindly increasing or reducing taxes may not promote intelligent transformation, but instead force enterprises towards negative choices. Lastly, an effective measure for the government to promote the intelligent transformation of manufacturing enterprises is proposed: by properly adjusting TPE and TEPE, governments can produce more cost-effective intelligent products than ordinary ones. Consequently, intelligent products will sell better than ordinary products, and manufacturing enterprises will be able to consciously carry out intelligent transformation to remain viable.