Presence Of Label Research Articles

Beyond borders: A cross‐cultural analysis of consumption and purchase behaviour of sweeteners in yoghurts

AbstractThe study explored the sociocultural influences on sugar consumption in three distinct countries: New Zealand, France, and Singapore. It employed the theory of planned behavior (TPB) alongside consumer perception and acceptance factors, such as sugar consciousness, product labeling, sugar substitution with sweeteners, and perceived flavor, to investigate participants’ behaviors regarding various yogurt types. Data was gathered through web surveys in each country, analyzed through partial least squares (PLS)–confirmatory factor analysis to create country‐specific conceptual frameworks, and then validated using PLS‐path modeling to assess the correlations between TPB and consumer perception constructs. The results indicated that perceived behavioral control positively influenced intentions to reduce sugar intake in participants from New Zealand and Singapore. Sugar consciousness exhibited a positive correlation with behavioral intentions across all three countries, suggesting heightened awareness of sugar intake motivates individuals to cut back. Notably, the presence of labels and claims showed negative correlation with perceived flavor, among the participants from New Zealand and France, suggesting that food researchers must navigate a delicate balance between labels and flavor to successfully design and market sugar‐reduced products. Further analysis, PLS‐multigroup analysis revealed significant difference in the impact of subjective norms on attitude between participants from different countries. Singaporeans placed stronger value on others’ approval for consuming less sugar‐sweetened yogurt, whereas French and New Zealand participants had a more neutral stance. This study's novelty lies in its comprehensive exploration of sociocultural factors, integration of TPB with consumer perception constructs, and tailoring of analysis to each country's cultural context, thereby enhancing our understanding of multicultural sugar consumption patterns.

Person‐first language and addiction literature: The presence of labeling and emotional language in counseling articles

Person‐first language and addiction literature: The presence of labeling and emotional language in counseling articles

Instilling label confidence in the minds of consumers: The role of sustainability skepticism

AbstractDrawing from the persuasion knowledge model, the present research demonstrates how providing comparable sustainability labels (i.e., labels with numeric sustainability level information) can help consumers make more sustainable choices at the point of purchase for consumer packaged goods. We provide empirical evidence from a field experiment and an online experiment to show how the presence and source of sustainability labeling affect consumer perceptions. Notably, we show that highly skeptical consumers are influenced by the source of labeling, whereas less skeptical consumers are less affected by the source but strongly influenced by the presence of labeling. We also demonstrate both the boundary condition and underlying mechanism in the sustainability labeling process. Our findings provide insights for practitioners and policymakers interested in presenting sustainability information at the retail shelf to inform and influence consumer decisions.

Unexpected obstacles in mechanical recycling of polypropylene labels: Are ambitious recycling targets achievable?

Recycling initiatives like the ‘Green Deal’, aspire to achieve complete recyclability for packaging materials and previously overlooked recycling fractions, but they might face practical challenges. We investigated the mechanical, processing, and toxicological properties of polypropylene labels during mechanical recycling to gain insight into dealing with as yet unutilized recycling fractions. Possible challenges during recycling include label pigments shifting infrared spectra bands and promoting β-spherulite nucleation, which can cause homopolymer melting peaks to resemble copolymers or multilayered structures. Label blends also do not conform to the straightforward rules of linear mixing. This means that predicting mold and machine parameters for blends of virgin and recycled material becomes challenging. The elongation at break of these blends is also influenced by the presence of labels, with noticeable deterioration effects even at label concentrations as low as 20 wt.%. Moreover, labels contain substances classified as Cramer Class III, with DNA-reactive mutagenicity responses present in processed and unprocessed labels. Despite labels ultimately being recyclable and potentially repurposable for extrusion or injection molding applications, their complex processing requirements, safety concerns, and limited economic viability may make them more valuable indirectly, on a systemic level, providing useful information for consumers including on the disposal and recyclability of packaging.

Perilacunar bone tissue exhibits sub-micrometer modulus gradation which depends on the recency of osteocyte bone formation in both young adult and early-old-age female C57Bl/6 mice.

Osteocytes resorb and replace bone local to the lacunar-canalicular system (LCS). However, whether osteocyte remodeling impacts bone quality adjacent to the LCS is not understood. Further, while aging is well-established to decrease osteocyte viability and truncate LCS geometry, it is unclear if aging also decreases perilacunar bone quality. To address these questions, we employed atomic force microscopy (AFM) to generate nanoscale-resolution modulus maps for cortical femur osteocyte lacunae from young (5-month) and early-old-age (22-month) female C57Bl/6 mice. AFM-mapped lacunae were also imaged with confocal laser scanning microscopy to determine which osteocytes recently deposited bone as determined by the presence of fluorochrome labels administered 2d and 8d before euthanasia. Modulus gradation with distance from the lacunar wall was compared for labeled (i.e., bone forming) and non-labeled lacunae in both young and aged mice. All mapped lacunae showed sub-microscale modulus gradation, with peak modulus values 200-400nm from the lacunar wall. Perilacunar modulus gradations depended on the recency of osteocyte bone formation (i.e., the presence of labels). For both ages, 2d-labeled perilacunar bone had lower peak and bulk modulus compared to non-labeled perilacunar bone. Lacunar length reduced with age, but lacunar shape and size were not strong predictors of modulus gradation. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that osteocyte perilacunar remodeling impacts bone tissue modulus, one contributor to bone quality. Given the immense scale of the LCS, differences in perilacunar modulus resulting from osteocyte remodeling activity may affect the quality of a substantial amount of bone tissue.

Deciphering the Voynich manuscript: propositions to unlock research

The Voynich Manuscript is a medieval book, whose text has continuously resisted decoding efforts for more than a century. First, propositions are made to insure a good overall quality of research about this manuscript. Next, two common assumptions, correspondingly about the manuscript writing system and the presence of labels, are questioned. As a result, a certain number of irregular forms of letters are pointed out and tentatively explained; and labels are found to be sometimes widespread words or refer to different objects (plants, stars…). Theoretical implications of such empirical findings are discussed, and call into question the validity of natural language hypothesis.

Determination of the composition and properties of PET bottles: Evidence of the empirical approach from Perm, Russia.

Efficient collection systems and information about the characteristics and quality of collected secondary plastic waste flows are of fundamental importance for the development of circular economies. In order to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of separate collection systems for plastic packaging, especially polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, characteristic of the collected PET bottles in street mesh containers were studied in the city of Perm, Russia. The share of extraneous fractions was assessed and differentiation was carried out by volume, type of product, label presence, shape, content of solid and liquid impurities and colour. These results indicate that PET composition in different seasons is very similar, despite the assumption that the consumption of PET bottles in the spring and autumn seasons varies. In the mesh containers, up to 34% of the items were foreign objects, considering that only PET bottles should be collected. In each dimensional flow of PET bottles, the proportion of transparent bottles prevailed; it ranged from 31% to 70%. Based on the results of the experiment, almost all PET bottle categories had a standard shape, except packaging for food products and household chemicals, in which 26-27% of PET bottles had a non-standard shape. The results about charactersitic of source-separated PET bottles are fundamental for goal-oriented design and implementation of collection, recycling technologies, secondary separation facilities, the economics of recycling intitatives and reverse vending machines for collecting materials.

Competitive and welfare effects of private label presence in differentiated food markets

ABSTRACT Private labels (PLs), originally introduced by food retailers as low-priced alternatives to national brands, have expanded in recent years in premium market segments. This article examines how the presence of different types of PLs affect prices, competition, and overall welfare. Using estimates from a random coefficients logit demand model and retail scanner data of yogurt sales from 17 regions in Italy, we simulate counterfactual scenarios where different types of PLs – namely 1) horizontally differentiated; 2) vertically differentiated; and 3) both types – are no longer in the market. The empirical results show that PLs are social-welfare enhancing, playing a pro-competitive role that benefits consumers. Also, in both a relative and an absolute sense, the welfare-increasing effect of PLs presence is more significant for horizontally differentiated PLs than for vertically differentiated ones.

Real-time discriminant analysis in the presence of label and measurement noise

Quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) is a widely used classification technique. Based on a training dataset, each class in the data is characterized by an estimate of its center and shape, which can then be used to assign unseen observations to one of the classes. The traditional QDA rule relies on the empirical mean and covariance matrix. Unfortunately, these estimators are sensitive to label and measurement noise which often impairs the model’s predictive ability. Robust estimators of location and scatter are resistant to this type of contamination. However, they have a prohibitive computational cost for large scale industrial experiments. We present a novel QDA method based on a recent real-time robust algorithm. We additionally integrate an anomaly detection step to classify the most atypical observations into a separate class of outliers. Finally, we introduce the label bias plot, a graphical display to identify label and measurement noise in the training data. The performance of the proposed approach is illustrated in a simulation study with huge datasets, and on real datasets about diabetes and fruit.

Impact of Graphic Warning Labels on Cigarette Packs in Changing Smokers' Views and Habits: An Opinion Survey.

BackgroundSmoking has become a major issue worldwide. With the advancement in technology, more vulnerable populations, such as teenagers, are also being harmed. One deterrent is the presence of graphic labels on cigarette packs. With this rationale in mind, the objective of our study is to assess the impact of these warning labels on the habits and opinions of smokers.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing a validated paper-based questionnaire. The sample size was calculated to be 200 using statistical software. The study targeted students of Islamabad, Pakistan, who were studying in twelfth grade and were smokers. The sampling method used was ‘snowball sampling’.Findings128 (64%) males and 72 (36%) females participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 17.59 ± 0.51 years. 40 participants reported choosing local brands for cigarettes due to cigarette ‘freshness’, regardless of presence or absence of a graphic label, which was a new concept. 94% of participants believed that presence of a visual label helped with understanding the harm and 78% believed that the side effects were accurately portrayed. Participants who were more than 17 years of age believed that the graphic label provided a clear description of the consequences of smoking. Similar results were seen in the female participants of the study.ConclusionThere is a general consensus on graphic labels altering the opinions of smokers. The presence of these labels is, however, targeting only a specific type of audience and hence, should be expanded for a larger audience.

Мотиви трагічності та комічності в сучасному політичному дискурсі України.

In article it is analyzed notions of style and genre of political discourse, substantiated expediency of researching these concepts in modern political science. The author outlines main features of genre and style of political speeches of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, which were given 2014–2017 on Independence Day of Ukraine. It is revealed that they have signs of conflictive political language. Also, analysis of speeches of P. Poroshenko has shown following features of style of President: presence of metaphors; using of symbols that have a positive connotation and play a role of a benchmark for state’s development (freedom, independence, etc.); historical categories are used in order to create political mythology; presence of religious metaphors (collective sin, the sin of elites to redeem people, etc.); intertextuality (or quoting); using of slogans; presence of labels, which are called to discredit opponents; using of cultural codes (Ukrainian family, etc.). In article there are described features of tragedy as a genre and an author’s stylistic choice, also are indicated criteria of tragedy and described its possible influences on political audience. The author considered mechanisms of heroization as an element of tragedy in political discourse. The motives of comicality in political discourse are described in view of development of democracy. In article, there is expressed and substantiated an assertion that in conditions of democracy, conservatives or representatives of government use mechanisms of ridicule to discredit a competitor. There is also made an assumption that effect of comedy is used in order to relieve influence of certain ideas, since it is impossible to treat seriously ideas what you are laughing at, while effect of tragedy is used when it is necessary to provoke an active political reaction from audience.

Disentangling the Modes of Variation in Unlabelled Data.

Statistical methods are of paramount importance in discovering the modes of variation in visual data. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is probably the most prominent method for extracting a single mode of variation in the data. However, in practice, several factors contribute to the appearance of visual objects including pose, illumination, and deformation, to mention a few. To extract these modes of variations from visual data, several supervised methods, such as the TensorFaces relying on multilinear (tensor) decomposition have been developed. The main drawbacks of such methods is that they require both labels regarding the modes of variations and the same number of samples under all modes of variations (e.g., the same face under different expressions, poses etc.). Therefore, their applicability is limited to well-organised data, usually captured in well-controlled conditions. In this paper, we propose a novel general multilinear matrix decomposition method that discovers the multilinear structure of possibly incomplete sets of visual data in unsupervised setting (i.e., without the presence of labels). We also propose extensions of the method with sparsity and low-rank constraints in order to handle noisy data, captured in unconstrained conditions. Besides that, a graph-regularised variant of the method is also developed in order to exploit available geometric or label information for some modes of variations. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method in several computer vision tasks, including Shape from Shading (SfS) (in the wild and with occlusion removal), expression transfer, and estimation of surface normals from images captured in the wild.

The impact of interpretive and reductive front-of-pack labels on food choice and willingness to pay

BackgroundThis study examined how front-of-pack labels and product healthfulness affect choice and willingness to pay across a range of foods. It was hypothesized that: (i) product choice and (ii) willingness to pay would be more aligned with product healthfulness when healthfulness was expressed through the Health Star Rating, followed by the Multiple Traffic Light, then the Daily Intake Guide, and (iii) the Nutrition Facts Panel would be viewed infrequently.MethodsAdults and children aged 10+ years (n = 2069) completed an online discrete choice task involving mock food packages. A 4 food type (cookies, corn flakes, pizza, yoghurt) × 2 front-of-pack label presence (present, absent) × 3 front-of-pack label type (Daily Intake Guide, Multiple Traffic Light, Health Star Rating) × 3 price (cheap, moderate, expensive) × 3 healthfulness (less healthy, moderately healthy, healthier) design was used. A 30 s time limit was imposed for each choice.ResultsOf the three front-of-pack labels tested, the Health Star Rating produced the largest differences in choices, with 40% (95% CIs: 38%-42%) of respondents selecting the healthier variant, 33% selecting the moderately healthy variant (95% CIs: 31%-35%), and 23% (95% CIs: 21%-24%) selecting the less healthy variant of the four products included in the study. The Multiple Traffic Light led to significant differences in choices between healthier (35%, 95% CIs: 33%-37%) and less healthy products (29%, 95% CIs: 27%-31%), but not moderately healthy products (32%, 95% CIs: 30%-34%). No significant differences in choices were observed by product healthfulness when the Daily Intake Guide was present. Only the Health Star Rating resulted in a significantly greater willingness to pay for healthier versus less healthy products. The Nutrition Facts Panel was viewed for only 7% of all mock packages.ConclusionsFront-of-pack labels that are more interpretive, such as the Health Star Rating, can be more effective at directing consumers towards healthier choices than reductive front-of-pack labels such as the Daily Intake Guide. The study results provide policy makers with clear guidance on the types of front-of-pack labels that are most likely to achieve positive health outcomes at a population level.

Consumer preference for labels in the purchase decisions of air conditioners in India

Appliance labels provide consumers with information on energy usage of appliances and mandatory labeling is an important policy tool for promoting the adoption of efficient appliances. Following global practice, standards and labeling programs have been adopted in India for various appliances since 2006. This paper provides empirical support for this approach, by estimating the value placed by consumers in India on energy labels. The estimates of willingness to pay (WTP) for energy labels and higher efficiency as indicated on labels are obtained using a discrete choice experiment in purchase decisions of air conditioners. A mixed logit model is specified to estimate the parameters for chosen attributes of air conditioners. The results show that consumers place a positive value on the presence of labels. The preference for star rating levels is heterogeneous in the sample. The WTP for higher star rating is estimated which is a useful input in designing other energy efficiency programs in conjunction with the labeling program.

Tandem mass spectrometry of fucoidan-derived fragments, labeled with heavy-oxygen

A procedure for the partial depolymerization of sulfated fucans and selective labeling with 18O was developed. A tandem electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS/MS) was applied for the direct analysis of mixtures of structurally-different oligosaccharides, derived from the fucoidans of known structure. The presence of label allowed unambiguous distinguishing between the fragment ions of 0,2X0-type at m/z 287 and 2,4A-type at m/z 285, since 18O at the reducing end gave +2 mass shifting. Thus, ESI MS/MS was able to detect (1,2)-type of linkage in disaccharides from the fucoidan of brown alga S. cichorioides for the first time. It was also discovered that 2,4A-type fragments in 4-linked disaccharides that were incorrectly assigned to 0,2X-type previously, suggested, probably, substitution at C-4 in mono- and disaccharide fragments, derived from the fucoidan of the brown alga F. evanescens.

Semi-Supervised Affinity Propagation with Soft Instance-Level Constraints.

Soft-constraint semi-supervised affinity propagation (SCSSAP) adds supervision to the affinity propagation (AP) clustering algorithm without strictly enforcing instance-level constraints. Constraint violations lead to an adjustment of the AP similarity matrix at every iteration of the proposed algorithm and to addition of a penalty to the objective function. This formulation is particularly advantageous in the presence of noisy labels or noisy constraints since the penalty parameter of SCSSAP can be tuned to express our confidence in instance-level constraints. When the constraints are noiseless, SCSSAP outperforms unsupervised AP and performs at least as well as the previously proposed semi-supervised AP and constrained expectation maximization. In the presence of label and constraint noise, SCSSAP results in a more accurate clustering than either of the aforementioned established algorithms. Finally, we present an extension of SCSSAP which incorporates metric learning in the optimization objective and can further improve the performance of clustering.

Timing matters: The impact of label synchrony on infant categorisation

The impact of labelling on infant visual categorisation has yielded contradictory outcomes. Some findings indicate a beneficial role while others point to interference effects in the presence of labels. The locus of these divergent outcomes is largely unclear. We explore the hypothesis that the timing of the label is of crucial importance, proposing that synchronous presentation of words and objects induces a higher processing load than asynchronous presentation (image onset before labelling). A novelty preference experiment with 12-month-olds reveals that synchronous presentation leads to a diminished preference for a novel object on test in comparison to asynchronous labelling, suggesting a detrimental impact on category learning. However, analyses of infants’ gaze patterns to object parts reveal that even synchronous labels do not hinder learning completely. We conclude that synchronous labels interfere with the familiarisation process, but this process involves shifts in familiarity vs. novelty preference rather than overshadowing of visual learning. Besides offering detailed insight into the effects of labelling on infants’ visual attention, these findings offer the potential to reconcile previous contradictory results.

Customer Responses to Mandatory Menu Labeling at Full-Service Restaurants

In 2010, Philadelphia enacted a menu-labeling law requiring full-service restaurant chains to list values for calories, sodium, fat, and carbohydrates for each item on all printed menus. The goal of the study was to determine whether purchase decisions at full-service restaurants varied depending on the presence of labeling. In August 2011, this cross-sectional study collected 648 customer surveys and transaction receipts at seven restaurant outlets of one large full-service restaurant chain. Two outlets had menu labeling (case sites); five outlets did not (control sites). Outcomes included differences in calories and nutrients purchased and customers' reported use of nutrition information when ordering. Data were analyzed in 2012. Mean age was 37 years; 60% were female; 50% were black/African-American and reported incomes ≥$60,000. Customers purchased food with approximately 1600 kcal (food plus beverage, 1800 kcal); 3200 mg sodium; and 35 g saturated fat. After adjustment for confounders, customers at labeled restaurants purchased food with 151 fewer kilocalories (95% CI=-270, -33); 224 mg less sodium (95% CI=-457, +8); and 3.7 g less saturated fat (95% CI=-7.4, -0.1) compared to customers at unlabeled restaurants (or 155 less kilocalories from food plus beverage, 95% CI=-284, -27). Those reporting that nutrition information affected their order purchased 400 fewer food calories, 370 mg less sodium, and 10 g less saturated fat. Mandatory menu labeling was associated with better food choices among a segment of the public dining at full-service restaurants. Consumer education on the availability and use of nutrition information may extend the impact of menu labeling.

Tabaco de liar: una prioridad de salud pública y consumo

ObjectivesTo study whether fine-cut tobacco poses a problem for public health and consumer affairs. MethodsWe analyzed up to 70% of the fine-cut tobacco market in Spain. Regarding public health, the contents of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide were analyzed and compared with levels in conventional cigarettes. Concerning consumer affairs, the labeling of samples was checked. ResultsThe contents of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide reached values of 70%, 85% and 84%, respectively. These values are higher than those allowed in conventional cigarettes. A total of 67% of the samples analyzed did not show nicotine and tar contents on the labeling. None of the labels showed carbon monoxide contents. The presence of labeling per se did not guarantee sufficient information for consumers. ConclusionsFine-cut tobacco is a problem in both public health and consumer affairs. Solutions are required to resolve both problems.

The Impact of Information on the Willingness-to-Pay for Labeled Organic Food Products

Organic labels potentially play an important role in shaping consumer preferences for organic food products. Information implied by the presence of labels can be used by consumers to facilitate their consumption decisions. Therefore, we investigate the influence of the provision of objective information on the willingness-to-pay of consumers for labeled organic apples in Flanders (Belgium). Initially, we find that Flemish consumers are willing to pay a positive price premium of approximately 33 eurocent per kilogram for labeled organic apples. After the provision of information on the actual environmental and health effects of organic apple production, this price premium becomes even more pronounced and amounts to approximately 56 eurocent per kilogram.