Do Consumers Trust the National Inspection Exemption Brands? Evidence from Infant Formula in China

Consumers are often uncertain about product quality and have to rely on different information, either given or pursued, to assess quality. Developing countries may lack institutional and technical resources to rigorously monitor and enforce product quality standards and/or to implement market-based instruments where market failures are common. The information-based instruments on product quality may work well in these countries as they reduce information asymmetry between firms and consumers. This study investigates one particular information-based instrument, the National Inspection Exemption (NIE) system in China. China launched the National Inspection Exemption (NIE) System in various industries in 2000 to award firms who are in compliance with the quality standards, to inform consumers of product quality, and to lessen the pressure on regulatory monitoring and enforcement of product quality standards. Once a firm is granted the NIE title by China's National Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), its products are exempted from quality inspections by all governmental agencies at different levels for three years; but it is obligated to report the product quality condition to the local AQSIQ office annually. The NIE titled firms are also allowed to include the title in the product label and to use the status in the advertisement campaign. Based on the theoretical framework, we establish the hypothesis that consumers are more willing to buy the product with the NIE title and the NIE title is likely to increase sales revenue when consumers lack of means to assess quality. The empirical application of China dairy industry supports the theoretical hypothesis. In particular, using the firm-level panel data, we find that the NIE title boots sales revenue and the impact is both statistically and economically significant based on the difference-in-difference estimate and the random-fixed effect estimations. Furthermore, using the survey data collected right after the 2008 China milk scandal regarding the brand choice of infant formula among 1,228 mothers with infants and young children, we find that consumers’ preference for the NIE title still present even the NIE titled firms are involved in a food scare event. The positive NIE preference is particularly strong among highly educated consumers and those who buy domestic brands.brand choice, food safety, product quality, national inspection exemption, quality standards, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

High-level Cryptographic Abstractions

The interfaces exposed by commonly used cryptographic libraries are clumsy, complicated, and assume an understanding of cryptographic algorithms. The challenge is to design high-level abstractions that require minimum knowledge and effort to use while also allowing maximum control when needed. This paper proposes such high-level abstractions consisting of simple cryptographic primitives and full declarative configuration. These abstractions can be implemented on top of any cryptographic library in any language. We have implemented these abstractions in Python, and used them to write a wide variety of well-known security protocols, including Signal, Kerberos, and TLS. We show that programs using our abstractions are much smaller and easier to write than using low-level libraries, where size of security protocols implemented is reduced by about a third on average. We show our implementation incurs a small overhead, less than 5 microseconds for shared key operations and less than 341 microseconds (< 1%) for public key operations. We also show our abstractions are safe against main types of cryptographic misuse reported in the literature

Based on Multi-sensor Information Fusion Algorithm of TPMS Research

AbstractIn the paper are presented algorithms of TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) based on multi-sensor information fusion. A Unified mathematical models of information fusion are constructed and three algorithms are used to deal with, which include algorithm based on Bayesian, algorithm based on the relative distance (an improved algorithm of bayesian theory of evidence), algorithm based on multi-sensor weighted fusion. The calculating results shows that the algorithm based on d-s evidence theory of multisensor fusion method better than the algorithm the based on information fusion method or the bayesian method

Integrating Logic Rules with Everything Else, Seamlessly

This paper presents a language, Alda, that supports all of logic rules, sets, functions, updates, and objects as seamlessly integrated built-ins. The key idea is to support predicates in rules as set-valued variables that can be used and updated in any scope, and support queries using rules as either explicit or implicit automatic calls to an inference function. We have defined a formal semantics of the language, implemented a prototype compiler that builds on an object-oriented language that supports concurrent and distributed programming and on an efficient logic rule system, and successfully used the language and implementation on benchmarks and problems from a wide variety of application domains. We describe the compilation method and results of experimental evaluation.Comment: To be published in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, Special issue for selected papers from 39nd International Conference on Logic Programming. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2205.1520

AZI23'UTR Is a New SLC6A3 Downregulator Associated with an Epistatic Protection Against Substance Use Disorders

Regulated activity of SLC6A3, which encodes the human dopamine transporter (DAT), contributes to diseases such as substance abuse disorders (SUDs); however, the exact transcription mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we used a common genetic variant of the gene, intron 1 DNP1B sequence, as bait to screen and clone a new transcriptional activity, AZI23'UTR, for SLC6A3. AZI23'UTR is a 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of the human 5-Azacytidine Induced 2 gene (AZI2) but appeared to be transcribed independently of AZI2. Found to be present in both human cell nuclei and dopamine neurons, this RNA was shown to downregulate promoter activity through a variant-dependent mechanism in vitro. Both reduced RNA density ratio of AZI23'UTR/AZI2 and increased DAT mRNA levels were found in ethanol-naive alcohol-preferring rats. Secondary analysis of dbGaP GWAS datasets (Genome-Wide Association Studies based on the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes) revealed significant interactions between regions upstream of AZI23'UTR and SLC6A3 in SUDs. Jointly, our data suggest that AZI23'UTR confers variant-dependent transcriptional regulation of SLC6A3, a potential risk factor for SUDs

Topological Atomic Spinwave Lattices by Dissipative Couplings

Recent experimental advance in creating dissipative couplings provides a new route for engineering exotic lattice systems and exploring topological dissipation. Using the spatial lattice of atomic spinwaves in a vacuum vapor cell, where purely dissipative couplings arise from diffusion of atoms, we experimentally realize a dissipative version of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. We construct the dissipation spectra of the topological or trivial lattices via electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT) spectroscopy. The topological dissipation spectrum is found to exhibit edge modes at dissipation rates within a dissipative gap, decoupled from the bulk. We also validate chiral symmetry of the dissipative SSH couplings. This work paves the way for realizing topology-enabled quantum correlations and non-Hermitian topological quantum optics via dissipative couplings.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

From Unbalanced to Perfect: Implementation of Low Energy Stream Ciphers

Low energy is an important aspect of hardware implementation. For energy-limited battery-powered devices, low energy stream ciphers can play an important role. In \texttt{IACR ToSC 2021}, Caforio et al. proposed the Perfect Tree energy model for stream cipher that links the structure of combinational logic circuits with state update functions to energy consumption. In addition, a metric given by the model shows a negative correlation with energy consumption, i.e., the higher the balance of the perfect tree, the lower the energy consumption. However, Caforio et al. didn\u27t give a method that eliminate imbalances of the unrolled strand tree for the existing stream ciphers. In this paper, based on the Perfect Tree energy model, we propose a new redundant design model that improve the balances of the unrolled strand tree for the purpose of reducing energy consumption. In order to obtain the redundant design, we propose a search algorithm for returning the corresponding implementation scheme. For the existing stream ciphers, the proposed model and search method can be used to provide a low-power redundancy design scheme. To verify the effectiveness, we apply our redundant model and search method in the stream ciphers (e.g., \texttt{Trivium} and \texttt{Kreyvium}) and conducted a synthetic test. The results of the energy measurement demonstrate that the proposed model and search method can obtain lower energy consumption

Exploring ecological specialization in pipefish using genomic, morphometric and ecological evidence

AbstractAimTheory predicts that ecological specialization should be rare in marine ecosystems, given that dispersal barriers are less effective in the vastness of the sea compared with those in terrestrial settings. This paradigm, however, hardly fits with classical theories of local adaptation, raising the question of how marine diversity originates in a highly interconnected system. In the present study, we investigated how ecological specialization arises in a widely distributed marine species, the seaweed pipefish Syngnathus schlegeli.LocationChinese coastal waters.MethodsWe integrated morphological (geometric morphometry), genetic (RADseq) and ecological (species distribution models and n‐dimensional hypervolumes) evidence to shed light on population structuring in S. schlegeli.ResultsWe revealed the existence of a north‐to‐south phenotypic gradient in eye size among S. schlegeli populations. This morphological differentiation was paralleled by genetic divergence, with South China Sea populations emerging as relatively independent. We further investigated the ecological differentiation of S. schlegeli populations. We observed high niche differentiation among northern, central and southern populations, resulting from both niche expansion and niche shift processes. Projected habitat suitability onto the Last Glacial Maximum revealed the existence of historical barriers to dispersal between the South and East China seas.Main conclusionsWe showed that the effect of this historical segregation, in concert with niche‐driven ecological differentiation, might lead to the establishment of three distinct clades across the widely distributed marine pipefish. Ultimately, our study demonstrates that even the high connected sea environment maintains the potential for ecological specialization