Quantity Of Products Research Articles

Exploring the Reasons Behind Consumers' Crazy Buying Behavior

The ongoing expansion of the social economy has resulted in an improvement in Chinese inhabitants' living conditions. This has also influenced people's consuming concepts and actions. People are increasingly developing national self-confidence, deepening emotional resonance, and earning public awareness for a variety of national brand enterprises. As a result, these firms are progressively becoming a key factor in China's economic development. The Wahaha Company is depicted in the paper as an exploratory item. The purpose of this article is to look into Wahaha's actions, which may have influenced consumers to buy the product in huge amounts following the death of its inventor, Zong Qinghou. The analysis method is based on the marketing mix theory of 4Rs. This article uses the marketing mix theory of 4Rs to investigate why consumers purchased enormous quantities of products following Zong Qinghou's death, resulting in a significant boost in the company's sales. The study concludes that companies can improve consumer interaction by combining the marketing theory of 4Rs with appropriate emotional marketing, as well as staying current with health trends by developing specialty beverages that are more in line with consumer needs, using AI to provide better human care for the company, and developing closer relationships with consumers.

Wholesale Pricing with Asymmetric Information About the Quality of a Private Label

AbstractThis article derives the optimal wholesale tariff that is proposed by the monopolistic manufacturer of a branded product to a monopolistic retailer if the retailer also sells a private label whose quality is unobserved by the brand manufacturer. The focus is on market-share contracts where the manufacturer controls the quantities of both products. To learn the quality of the private label and diminish the retailer’s information rent, it distorts the quantity of the branded product downwards and that of the private label upwards. The manufacturer can control the quantity of the private label if it combines an excess payment with an end-of-year repayment.

Effects of Cement Dosage, Curing Time, and Water Dosage on the Strength of Cement-Stabilized Aeolian Sand Based on Macroscopic and Microscopic Tests.

Aeolian sand is distributed worldwide, exhibiting poor grading, low cohesion, and loose structure. Infrastructure construction in desert areas sometimes requires stabilization of the sand, with cement as the primary curing agent. This study first employed orthogonal experiments to evaluate critical factors, e.g., curing time, cement dosage, and water dosage, affecting the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the aeolian sand stabilized with cement (ASC). Each of the aforementioned factors were set at five levels, namely curing time (7, 14, 28, 60, and 90 days), cement dosage (3%, 5%, 7%, 9%, and 11%), and water dosage (3%, 6%, 9%, 12%, and 15%), respectively. The water and cement dosages were percentages of the mass of the natural aeolian sand. The results indicated that the sensitivity of the influencing factors on the UCS of ASC was cement dosage, curing time, and water dosage in descending order. The UCS of ASC positively correlated with curing time and cement dosage, while it first increased and then decreased with the water dosage increase. The optimal conditions were 90 days' curing time, 11% cement dosage, and 9% water dosage. The microscopic analyses of ASC using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that hydration products enhanced strength by bonding loose particles and filling pores, thereby improving compaction. The quantity and compactness of hydration products in the aeolian-cement reaction system increased with the increases in cement dosage and curing time, and low water dosage inhibited the hydration reaction. This study can provide insights into the stabilization mechanism of aeolian sand, aiding infrastructure development in desert regions.

Safety assessment of agricultural products and the pesticide regulation trend in China

The sustainable development of Chinese agriculture needs to coordinate the quality and quantity of agricultural products. To verify whether government regulation can promote agricultural development by controlling pesticides, the indices of government regulation, quantity and quality of agricultural products, and pesticide use per area of cropland were calculated, and a comprehensive evaluation index and the coupling degree and coordination degree of agricultural products were analyzed by coupling function. The results showed that the coupling and coordination degree of the quality and quantity of agricultural products and the comprehensive index are improving. The regulation of pesticide use per area of cropland is a key mechanism in promoting the coordinated development of agricultural product safety. The regulation trend of agricultural development in China is to reduce pesticide usage appropriately and expand the production-possibility frontier of agricultural products.Graphical abstract

Internet of things and radio frequency identification based embedded system to reduce shopping time in supermarkets

Doing daily shopping in a Peruvian supermarket means a large investment of time for many people, usually due to inaccurate and faulty scanning of products by barcodes at supermarket checkout counters. For this reason, an embedded system based on internet of things (IoT) and radio frequency identification (RFID) is designed to reduce shopping time in a supermarket. The system uses an ESP32 development board with embedded hardware specialized in IoT projects and firmware development based on C language and real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS) through espressif’s IoT development framework (ESP-IDF). RFID tags were used to scan the products and IoT with message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) communication protocol are implemented to a local database in real time. The system achieves a significant reduction in terms of scanning time compared to self-service checkouts using barcodes, which allows to statistically analyze the reduced time per quantity of products and the linear trend of the 2 samples.

Copper(II) and Zinc(II) Complexes with Bacterial Prodigiosin Are Targeting Site III of Bovine Serum Albumin and Acting as DNA Minor Groove Binders.

The negative environmental and social impacts of food waste accumulation can be mitigated by utilizing bio-refineries' approach where food waste is revalorized into high-value products, such as prodigiosin (PG), using microbial bioprocesses. The diverse biological activities of PG position it as a promising compound, but its high production cost and promiscuous bioactivity hinder its wide application. Metal ions can modulate the electronic properties of organic molecules, leading to novel mechanisms of action and increased target potency, while metal complex formation can improve the stability, solubility and bioavailability of the parent compound. The objectives of this study were optimizing PG production through bacterial fermentation using food waste, allowing good quantities of the pure natural product for further synthesizing and evaluating copper(II) and zinc(II) complexes with it. Their antimicrobial and anticancer activities were assessed, and their binding affinity toward biologically important molecules, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and DNA was investigated by fluorescence emission spectroscopy and molecular docking. The yield of 83.1 mg/L of pure PG was obtained when processed meat waste at 18 g/L was utilized as the sole fermentation substrate. The obtained complexes CuPG and ZnPG showed high binding affinity towards target site III of BSA, and molecular docking simulations highlighted the affinity of the compounds for DNA minor grooves.

Life Cycle Assessment and Net Energy Analysis of an Integrated Hydrothermal Liquefaction-Anaerobic Digestion of Single and Mixed Beverage Waste and Sewage Sludge

The conversion of biomass to bioenergy is one of the approaches to creating a sustainable society. In this study, the life cycle assessment and the net energy analysis of converting mixed sewage sludge and beverage waste into bioenergy via a combined hydrothermal liquefaction-anaerobic digestion (HTL-AD) system was carried out. Primary sludge (PS), winery rose lees (RL), brewery Trub (BT), the mixture of brewery trub and primary sludge (BTPS) and the mixture of winery rose lees and primary sludge (RLPS) were the feedstocks considered. Efficient energy utilization [in form of net energy ratio (NER)], and environmental emissions were evaluated. The NER of BT (2.07) and RL (1.76) increased when mixed with PS (3.18) to produce BTPS (3.20) and RLPS (2.85). Also, the HTL phase of the combined HTL-AD system produced a greater NER than the AD phase in BT, BTPS, and PS and vice-versa in RL and RLPS. Six environmental impact categories were studied namely global warming, terrestrial acidification, ionizing radiation, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity. RL produced the greatest environmental impact while BTPS produced the least impact, thus indicating the advantage of feedstock combination. This study shows that the combination of feedstocks for bioenergy production in an HTL-AD system does not only increase the quality and quantity of products but also increases the overall NER as well as reducting the environmental impacts. The study also proved that an integrated HTL-AD system is an energy efficient system with greater resource utilization and less environmental footprint than the constituent systems.

The Potential Significance of Microwave-Assisted Catalytic Pyrolysis for Valuable Bio-Products Driven from Albizia Tree

The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of Na2CO3 and ZSM-5 as catalysts in the microwave pyrolysis of Albizia branches. An evaluation was conducted to determine the influence of power applied, experimental time, particle size, and catalysis type and ratio on the quality and quantity of pyrolysis products. Established methods such as GC-MS, FTIR, HHV, SEM, EDX, and BET were used to characterize the properties of bio-oil and biochar produced. The results demonstrated that using both catalyst types led to a substantial enhancement in biogas production. The improvement ranged from 5% to 41% with Na2CO3 and reached 45% with ZSM-5. At a lower power level of 300 W, the bio-oil yield augmented from 28% to 40% and 53% when using ZSM-5 and Na2CO3, respectively. The GC-MS analysis revealed that the utilizing of catalysts enhanced the levels of aromatic compounds, esters, and alcohols in bio-oil, along with an increase in the higher heating value (HHV) from 19.5 MJ/kg to 22 MJ/kg and 24.2 MJ/kg using Na2CO3 and ZSM-5, respectively. Moreover, the biochar's surface area and pore volume experienced a considerable rise, going from 0.5512 m2/g and 0.00011 cm3/g to a higher value of 115.2073 m2/g and 0.0774 cm3/g when treated with Na2CO3. The data indicated that both catalyst types enhanced the generation of CH4, and CO2 was lower with ZSM-5. The utilization of catalysts improves the quality of the biofuel produced and promotes the efficiency of the process in terms of energy consumption and processing time.

A REVIEW OF THE CAPE GELIDONYA AND ULUBURUN SHIPWRECKS SHED LIGHT ON CYPRUS MARITIME ACTIVITIES

Cyprus had an important place in the ancient Mediterranean trade thanks to its geostrategic location. The island, drew attention with its copper resources and ceramic products in the Bronze Age. Archaeological remains unearthed in Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks support this situation. The cargo of shipwrecks and the route they followed show both the extent of maritime trade during this period and Cyprus’ position in these commercial activities. The high ratio of Cypriot copper and ceramics to the total amount of goods in the shipwrecks is instructive in terms of understanding the role of Cyprus in the maritime activities. The hypothesis of their potential Cypriot origin is supported by the higher quantity of Cypriot-origin products found on these wrecks compared to others. The fact that Cyprus is an important port on the route followed by merchantships and even the view that it could be the initial departure point of them, makes it worth to consider. Accordingly, in this study, the Cape Gelidonya and Uluburun shipwrecks, and the Cypriot goods they contain are examined, and the active role of Cyprus in the maritime trade of the period is investigated.

In-vitro Regeneration of An Endangered Medicinal Plant Anodendron paniculatum (Apocynaceae)

Objectives: The present study aims to establish a standardized and efficient regeneration protocol for Anodendron paniculatum A. DC. (Apocynaceae) by optimizing the effect of various plant growth regulators as it is categorized globally as an endangered medicinal plant. Methods: MS medium fortified with 3% sucrose (w/v) and different concentrations of cytokinins 6-benzylamino purine (BAP), kinetin, thidiazuron either alone or in combination with auxins, indole 3-acetic acid (IAA), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and GA3. For the in vitro root induction, individual and healthy shoots (3-4 cm in length) were excised in the 7th week and were cultured onto basal and half-strength MS medium supplemented with various concentrations of auxins and incubated in the culture room. Findings: MS medium supplemented with thidiazuron (2.5 𝜇M) in combination with indole 3-acetic acid (2.5 𝜇M) and GA3 (1.25 𝜇M) was most effective, providing multiple shoot regeneration for 79.33% of cotyledonary leaf explants associated with a high number of shoots per explant (20.00 ± 1.15) and length of shoot (2.66 ± 0.08 cm). Whereas, the frequency of response, mean number of shoots, and respective lengths were varied with different concentrations of 6-benzylamino purine when used in combination with IAA or NAA and BAP (5.0 𝜇M) along with IAA (2.5 𝜇M) at the frequency of 47.66%. Whereas, the addition of GA3 (1.25 𝜇M) in combination with BAP (5.0 𝜇M) and IAA (2.5 𝜇M) has shown a maximum number of multiple shoot formation/explant (12.33) with length of shoot (1.53 ± 0.08 cm). MS medium supplemented with 10 𝜇M 6-benzyl amino purine and 2.5 𝜇M naphthalene acetic acid recorded the highest response (53.66%) with more number of the shoot (9.66) and length of the shoot (1.83 ± 0.03 cm) per explant. The maximum percentage of response (84.33%) was recorded at 1 2 strength MS medium with 5.0 𝜇M NAA, whereas the highest number of roots per shoot (6.66 ± 0.33) was induced at MS + 5.0 𝜇M NAA. The highest length of roots (3.66 cm) was recorded at basal MS medium fortified with 5.0 𝜇M NAA and 7.5 𝜇M NAA. Novelty: The standardized protocol method is of first of its kind, a quick and suitable approach for the high quantity production of Anodendron paniculatum with appropriate concentrations of plant growth regulators that meet thecommercial demand of endangered medicinal plants. Keywords: Anodendron paniculatum; Endangered plant; Plant growth regulators; Regeneration; Protocol standardization

Microbial forensics: are we going on right path for management of crops biosecurity in Pakistan?

In any country biological terrorism outbreaks on crops could reduce the quality and quantity of agricultural products, which in turn decreases the consumer’s confidence, nutrition loss, resulting in worse impacts on the nation’s economy, international souks and is subsequently harmful for the environment. Awareness for a crop bioterror incident begins with the start of the threat symptoms, which must lead to the progress of a plan to thwart. However, most of Pakistani scientists and crop producers have not focused on the option of deliberative plant pathogen introduction but instead they use their expertise for the prevention of natural introductions and the improvement of cost-effective strategies for disease management. It is also an interesting fact that under the mask of genetically modified feeds, high yield varieties and hybrids; we are also importing bio terrorism. Are we going on the right path? So, it is time that we should review the global microbial knowledge and should apply it according to our needs. In ongoing topics of present article, we will review the microbial forensics status globally in comparison with Pakistan. We will also suggest how to fill these gaps. Keywords: Biological terrorism; Microbial forensics; Pathogen; Plants; Crops; Biosecurity

Continuous Flow Approach for Benzylic Photo-oxidations Using Compressed Air.

A continuous flow approach for the aerobic photo-oxidation of benzylic substrates to ketone and aldehyde products is presented. The resulting process exploits UV-A LEDs (375 nm) in combination with a Corning AFR reactor that ensures effective gas-liquid mixing and leads to short residence times of 1 min. A variety of benzylic substrates are converted to their corresponding carbonyl products, and scalability is demonstrated to produce multigram quantities of products within a few hours. Overall, this continuous flow approach offers several improvements over alternative oxidation methods due to the combined use of air as an oxidant and SAS (sodium anthraquinone-2 sulfonate) as a water-soluble photocatalyst. The use of greener and safer conditions together with process intensification principles renders this flow approach attractive for further industrial applications.

Potential applicability of calcium phosphate modified portland cement paste for geologic sequestration of CO2

In order to increase the integrity of the wellbore which is used to prevent the leakage of supercritical CO2, it is necessary to develop a concrete that is strongly resistant to carbonation. In an environment where the concentration of CO2 is exceptionally high, Ca2+ concentration in portland cement concrete drops significantly due to the rapid consumption of calcium hydroxide, which decreases the stability of the calcium silicate hydrate. In this work, it is hypothesized that if fairly large quantity of the hydration product becomes more thermodynamically stable than calcite, the damage caused by rapid carbonation will certainly be minimized. For this purpose, portland cement system was modified by monocalcium, dicalcium and tricalcium phosphates to produce hydroxyapatite in portland cement paste. According to the experimental results, addition of calcium phosphate produced hydroxyapatite. Among three different calcium phosphates, monocalcium phosphate showed the most significant impact on hydration. It caused faster stiffening and delayed calcium silicate hydration. Although cement pastes modified by calcium phosphates showed less compressive strength than plain cement paste, they showed an excellent durability after exposure to supercritical CO2. It is clear from the results that the potential applicability of calcium phosphate modification in portland cement for geologic sequestration of CO2 was successfully proven.

Application of Protein Hydrolysate Improved the Productivity of Soybean under Greenhouse Cultivation

Protein hydrolysates are plant biostimulants containing amino acids, oligopeptides, and peptides in their composition. When supplied to plants, protein hydrolysates (HPs) have been identified to improve nitrogen metabolism, enhance the activity of antioxidant enzymes, boost plant defense response to stresses, and positively impact the quantity and quality of products. Soybean is a crucial global commodity, with nitrogen being the primary nutrient for crop development as it directly affects productivity. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of an HP-based biostimulant on the N metabolism in nodulated soybean plants and their productivity. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to test two modes of application of the 0.20% HP-based biostimulant. Soybean plants, growing in pots, were treated with 0.20% HP either via seed treatment or foliar application (at growth stages V3 and V5). Activities of enzymes and compounds related to N metabolism, gene expression, and productivity components were analyzed. It was observed that the mode of application did not significantly influence the results. The application of HPs increased the concentration of nitrate, amino acids, and ureides in soybean leaves. It also positively altered the expression of genes such as nitrate reductase, urease, and asparagine. Additionally, it enhanced productivity, resulting in plants with a greater number and weight of pods and grains. Therefore, it is possible to consider HPs as a stimulator for increasing soybean productivity, even under non-stressing conditions.

Solidification of heavy metal in municipal solid waste incineration fly ash and performance evolution of alkali-activated foam concrete

The heavy metals in municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWIFA) limit its large-scale application. To improve the utilization ratio of MSWIFA, a slag-MSWIFA-fly ash alkali-activated foam concrete (ASFC) was prepared in this study. The influence of MSWIFA content on the performances of ASFC and the solidification effect of heavy metals in MSWIFA by alkali-activated materials were studied. The results show that the performance of ASFC was directly related to the pore structure, which was affected by the fluidity and setting time of the paste, as well as the quantity and type of hydration products. When the MSWIFA substitution rate was 25–50 %, the fluidity of the paste was better, the pore diameter decreased, and the number of closed pores increased. The compressive strength of ASFC at 28 d was 1.72–2.01 MPa, and the thermal conductivity was 0.1305–0.1340 W/(m∙k). The leaching concentrations of the six heavy metal elements in the 28 d hardened paste of ASFC were all lower than 0.04 mg/L, and the solidification efficiencies of Pb and Zn, the two heavy meta elements with higher concentrations in MSWIFA, were both greater than 90 %. This study provides a technical and theoretical reference for applying MSWIFA in alkali-activated foam concrete.

Carbide slag and sodium metasilicate synergistic activation of sludge ash-based alkali-activated materials: Towards a cleaner activation approach

Traditional activators such as sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate are commonly used in the preparation of alkali-activated materials; however, their significant environmental impact, high cost, and operational risks limit their sustainable use in treating solid waste. This study explores the innovative use of carbide slag (CS) and sodium metasilicate (NS) as alternative activators in the production of sewage sludge ash-based alkali-activated materials (SSAM) with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint of the preparation process. The results demonstrate that CS effectively activates the sewage sludge ash, enhancing the compressive strength of the SSAM to 40 MPa after curing for 28 d. When used in conjunction with NS, it synergistically improves the mechanical properties. Furthermore, the microstructure and phase composition of the SSAM are characterized. Increasing the quantities of CS and NS accelerates the dissolution of the precursor materials, promoting the formation of a higher quantity of hydration products. This significantly reduces the number of voids and defects within the samples, further enhancing the densification of the microstructure. Environmental assessments reveal that CS and NS offer substantial sustainability benefits, confirming the feasibility of activating SSAM using these materials. This approach provides a less energy-intensive and more environmentally friendly alternative to conventional activation methods and presents an effective strategy for managing large volumes of sewage sludge ash and CS.

Sosialisasi Konsep Pertanian Berkelanjutan Di Kampung Napua Distrik Napua Kabupaten Jayawijaya

Traditional agriculture implemented in Napua Village, Napua, Jayawijaya indirectly has a negative impact on the environment and the sustainability of food production. Socialization and assistance regarding the concept of sustainable agriculture is important to increase farmers' awareness in implementing more environmentally friendly and sustainable agricultural practices. This service activity aims to provide farmers with an understanding of the concept of sustainable agriculture. The implementation method is socialization in the form of delivering material about sustainable agriculture and assistance to farmer groups in practicing the concept of sustainable agriculture. The results of this socialization activity are the emergence of farmer awareness about the factors causing the decline in the quality and quantity of agricultural products in Napua Village and increased knowledge about the concept of sustainable agriculture as a solution to the problems.

An Industrial Perspective for Sustainable Polypropylene Plastic Waste Management via Catalytic Pyrolysis—A Technical Report

Recycling plastics on an industrial scale is a key approach to the circular economy. This study presents a techno-economic analysis aimed at recycling polypropylene waste, one of the main consumer plastics. Specifically, it evaluates the technical and economic feasibility of achieving a large-scale cracking process that converts polypropylene waste into an alternative fuel. Pyrolysis is considered as a promising technique to convert plastic waste into liquid oil and other value-added products, with a dual benefit of recovering resources and providing a zero-waste solution. This study concerns a fast catalytic pyrolysis in a fluidized bed reactor, with the presence of a fluid catalytic cracking catalyst of low acidity for high heat transmission, for an industrial plant with a capacity of 1 t/h of polypropylene waste provided by the Greek Petroleum Industry. From the international literature, the operational conditions were chosen pyrolysis temperature at 430 °C, pressure at 1atm, heating rate at 5 °C/min, and yields of products to 71, 14, and 15 wt.%, for liquid fuel, gas, solid product, respectively. The plant design includes a series of apparatuses, with the main one to be the pyrolyzer. The catalytic method is selected over the non-catalytic because the presence of catalyst increases the quantity and quality of the liquid product, which is the main product of the plant. The energy loops of recycling pyrolysis gas and char as a low-carbon fuel in the plant were considered. The production cost, annual revenue, for 2023, are anticipated to reach €13.7 million (115 €/t) and €15 million (15 €/t), respectively, with an estimated investment equal to €5.3 million. The Payback Time is estimated to 2.4 years to recover the cost of investment. The endeavor is rather economically sustainable. A critical parameter for large scale systems is securing feedstock with low or negligible price.

Total Synthesis of a Peptide Diatom Sex Pheromone Bearing a Sulfated Aspartic Acid.

The peptide sex-inducing pheromone SIP+ (1) bearing an unusual sulfated aspartic acid residue induces sexual reproduction in diatom populations. Herein, we report the first total synthesis of SIP+ using both a sulfated building block approach and a solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS)-compatible late-stage sulfation strategy to assemble the natural product. The modular approaches provide concise routes to useful quantities of the natural product for future structure activity relationship studies examining the role of SIP+ in diatom biology.

Removal of calcium and magnesium ions from reverse osmosis concentrate using a two-stage precipitation with carbonation process.

The reverse osmosis (RO) technique has been extensively employed in the advanced treatment of industrial water and wastewater. However, this process results in the production of a significant quantity of reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC), which contains high levels of salinity and organic contaminants, thereby posing serious environmental problems. This study reported a two-stage precipitation process utilizing quicklime (CaO) and caustic soda (NaOH) in conjunction with air blowing (carbonation) for the removal of Ca2+ and Mg2+ from real brackish water ROC of factory. In stage I, the CaO precipitation-carbonation process was employed to eliminate the majority of Ca2+ from the ROC, while leaving Mg2+ virtually unaffected, yielding high-purity CaCO3 precipitates. In stage II, the NaOH precipitation method was utilized to eliminate the remaining Ca2+ and Mg2+ from the ROC. It was demonstrated that under optimal conditions, the removal rates of Ca2+ and Mg2+ exceeded 97%. Finally, the characterization of precipitates demonstrated the generation of high-purity CaCO3 precipitates in stage I, as well as the formation of CaCO3 and Mg(OH)2 precipitates in stage II. The results confirmed the feasibility of employing the two-stage precipitation with carbonation process to economically treat ROC and enable its reuse, offering valuable insights for the treatment of industrial wastewater.