Chinese consumers’ risk mitigating strategies against food fraud

Food fraud is prevalent in China and the increasing number of reported cases undermined the credibility of food safety authorities and the agri-food industry. Food scandals have caused Chinese consumers to be anxious and distrustful of local food products. Urban consumers have resorted to domestic risk mitigating strategies to identify fraudulent food products. This study aims to investigate the risk mitigating strategies against food fraud adopted by urban and rural consumers. Semi-structured interviews (n = 31) were conducted to collect data from urban and rural consumers in Beijing and Hebei, China. Three thematic domains and nine sub-themes were identified from the data set. There was a general sense of insecurity, anxiety and disapproval about the state of food products in the country. This has driven distrust in the food system, hence Chinese consumers have developed risk mitigating strategies against purchasing and consuming fraudulent food products. The three main coping approaches include purchasing decision making, information searching & sharing and daily self-preservation strategies. This is the first study to provide new empirical findings on rural consumers’ experiences in dealing with fraudulent products and their risk mitigating strategies against food fraud

FIELD APPLICATION OF THE PM LEADERSHIP THEORY ON THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL MASTERS OF SHANDONG PROVINCE IN CHINA

The teaching level of senior high school education is closely related to the management model and the leadership ability of the principal. This paper is an empirical study on the leadership behavior of the senior high school masters in Shandong Province using a modified from of the PM scale for leadership behavior assessment according to the characteristics of China’s educational system. The result of our research shows that the PM leadership behavior in the senior high school has these characteristics： The two functions of senior high school masters in “P” and “M” leadership behavior factors have significant differences when contrasted with the other organizations. Evaluations of teachers and managerial staff with regard to leadership behavior indicate a significant difference in the P leadership behavior factor. On the other hand, evaluations of teachers and the managerial staff indicate no significant difference in M leadership behavior factor. With regard to the values of working situation factors in schools, the teacher group and the managerial staff group indicate no significant difference in stimulation, satisfaction degree toward treatment and performance criteria, but indicate a distinctive difference in information communication. And, based on the present managerial situation of China’s senior high schools and the PM theory of leadership, some advice is presented on how to improve the management behavior of principals. Key words: leadership behaviour, P factor, M facto

Steam reforming of toluene as biomass tar model compound in a gliding arc discharge reactor

Non-thermal plasma is considered a promising and attractive approach for the removal of tars from biomass gasification to deliver a clean and high quality syngas (a mixture of H2 and CO). In this study, an AC gliding arc discharge (GAD) reactor has been developed for the conversion of toluene as a tar model compound using nitrogen as a carrier gas. The presence of steam in the plasma reaction produces OH radicals which open a new reaction route for the conversion of toluene through a stepwise oxidation of toluene and intermediates, resulting in a significant enhancement in both the conversion of toluene and the energy efficiency of the plasma process. The effects of steam-to-carbon (S/C) molar ratio, toluene feed rate and specific energy input (SEI) on the performance of the plasma steam reforming of toluene have been investigated. The optimal S/C molar ratio was found to be between 2 and 3 for high toluene conversion and energy efficiency. The maximum toluene conversion of 51.8% was achieved at an optimal S/C molar ratio of 2, a toluene feed flow rate of 4.8 ml/h and a SEI of 0.3 kWh/m3, while the energy efficiency of the plasma process reached a maximum (∼46.3 g/kWh) at a toluene feed flow rate of 9.6 ml/h and a SEI of 0.19 kWh/m3. H2, CO and C2H2 were identified as the major gas products with a maximum syngas yield of 73.9% (34.9% for H2 and 39% for CO). Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) has been used to understand the role of steam on the formation of reactive species in the plasma conversion of toluene. The possible reaction pathways in the plasma conversion of toluene have also been proposed by combined means of the analysis of gas and liquid samples and OES diagnostics

Mitochondrial Function Assessed by 31P MRS and BOLD MRI in Non-Obese Type 2 Diabetic Rats

The study aims to characterize age-associated changes in skeletal muscle bioenergetics by evaluating the response to ischemia-reperfusion in the skeletal muscle of the Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats, a rat model of non-obese type 2 diabetes (T2D). 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) MRI was performed on the hindlimb of young (12 weeks) and adult (20 weeks) GK and Wistar (control) rats. 31P-MRS and BOLD-MRI data were acquired continuously during an ischemia and reperfusion protocol to quantify changes in phosphate metabolites and muscle oxygenation. The time constant of phosphocreatine recovery, an index of mitochondrial oxidative capacity, was not statistically different between GK rats (60.8 ± 13.9 sec in young group, 83.7 ± 13.0 sec in adult group) and their age-matched controls (62.4 ± 11.6 sec in young group, 77.5 ± 7.1 sec in adult group). During ischemia, baseline-normalized BOLD-MRI signal was significantly lower in GK rats than in their age-matched controls. These results suggest that insulin resistance leads to alterations in tissue metabolism without impaired mitochondrial oxidative capacity in GK rats. © 2016 The Authors

U(1) × U(1) symmetry-protected topological order in Gutzwiller wave functions

Gutzwiller projection is a way to construct many-body wave functions that could carry topological order or symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order. However, an important issue is to determine whether or not a given Gutzwiller-projected wave function (GWF) carries a nontrivial SPT order, and which SPT order is carried by the wave function. In this paper, we numerically study the SPT order in a spin S = 1 GWF on the kagome lattice. Using the standard Monte Carlo method, we directly confirm that the GWF has (1) gapped bulk with short-range correlations, (2) a trivial topological order via a nondegenerate ground state, and zero topological entanglement entropy, (3) a nontrivial U(1) × U(1) SPT order via the Hall conductances of the protecting U(1) × U(1) symmetry, and (4) a symmetry-protected gapless boundary. This represents numerical evidence of continuous symmetry-protected topological order in two-dimensional bosonic lattice systems.Perimeter Institute for Theoretical PhysicsNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DMR-1005541)National Natural Science Foundation (China) (Grant 11274192)Templeton Foundation (Grant 39901

(2′-Amino-4,4′-bi-1,3-thia­zol-2-aminium-κ2 N,N′)aqua­[citrato(4−)-κ3 O,O′,O′′)chromium(III) dihydrate

In the title compound, [Cr(C6H7N4S2)(C6H4O7)(H2O)]·2H2O, the CrIII atom is in a distorted octa­hedral environment, coordinated by one water mol­ecule, two N atoms from a protonated diamino­bithia­zole ligand and three O atoms from a citrate(4−) anion. The complex is zwitterionic, with the H atom from the uncoordinated carboxyl­ate group of the citrate anion transferred to one amino group of the diamino­bithia­zole ligand. O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the complexes into layers including the two uncoordinated water mol­ecules

[(E)-But-2-enoato-κO]chlorido(2,2′-diamino-4,4′-bi-1,3-thia­zole-κ2 N 3,N 3′)zinc(II) monohydrate

In the title compound, [Zn(C4H5O2)Cl(C6H6N4S2)]·H2O, the ZnII cation is coordinated by a bidentate diamino­bithia­zole (DABT) ligand, a but-2-enoate anion and a Cl− anion in a distorted tetra­hedral geometry. Within the DABT ligand, the two thia­zole rings are twisted to each other at a dihedral angle of 4.38 (10)°. An intra­molecular N—H⋯O inter­action occurs. The centroid–centroid distance of 3.6650 (17) Å and partially overlapped arrangement between nearly parallel thia­zole rings of adjacent complexes indicate the existence of π–π stacking in the crystal structure. Extensive O—H⋯Cl, O—H⋯O, N—H⋯Cl and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonding helps to stabilize the crystal structure