University Students’ Purchase Intention and Willingness to Pay for Carbon-Labeled Food Products: A Purchase Decision-Making Experiment

Carbon labeling describes carbon dioxide emissions across food lifecycles, contributing to enhancing consumers’ low-carbon awareness and promoting low-carbon consumption behaviors. In a departure from the existing literature on carbon labeling that heavily relies on interviews or questionnaire surveys, this study forms a hybrid of an auction experiment and a consumption experiment to observe university students’ purchase intention and willingness to pay for a carbon-labeled food product. In this study, students from a university in a city (Chengdu) of China, the largest carbon emitter, are taken as the experimental group, and cow’s milk is selected as the experimental food product. The main findings of this study are summarized as follows: (1) the purchase of carbon-labeled milk products is primarily influenced by price; (2) the willingness to pay for carbon-labeled milk products primarily depends on the premium; and (3) the students are willing to accept a maximum price premium of 3.2%. This study further offers suggestions to promote the formation of China’s carbon product-labeling system and the marketization of carbon-labeled products and consequently facilitate low-carbon consumption in China.

Research on Low Energy Consumption Static Postures of Bionic Feet

By studying the relation of the robot’s postures and its energy consumption, a static analysis-based method to obtain the low-energy postures of the robot is proposed. This method decreases the energy consumption and increases the battery life by adjusting the postures in the horizontal environment. The method takes the low-speed hexapod bionic robot as the research object. First, we obtain the output torque of each joint of the leg through static analysis and establish the energy consumption model of the robot. Considering the flexibility of the robot, we then introduce the performance index of the maximum step length and establish an equilibrium solution based on energy consumption and maximum step size. Finally, we derive the low-energy postures of the robot using MATLAB (MATLAB 2014a, The MathWorks, Natick, Massachusetts State, USA, 2014) simulations. An energy consumption experiment is carried out with a physical prototype to verify the validity of the method.

A premeal snack of raisins decreases mealtime food intake more than grapes in young children

The effect of a premeal snack of grapes, raisins, or a mix of almonds and raisins, compared with a water control, on food intake (FI) was examined in 8- to 11-year-old normal-weight (15th to 85th percentile) children. Children randomly received 1 of 4 ad libitum (Experiment 1: 13 boys, 13 girls) or fixed-calorie (150 kcal; Experiment 2: 13 boys, 13 girls) treatments, followed by an ad libitum pizza meal 30 min later. Appetite was measured throughout the study, and FI was measured at 30 min. The ad libitum consumption (Experiment 1) of raisins reduced pizza intake (p < 0.037), compared with water (26%), grapes (22%), and the mixed snack (15%). Cumulative energy intake (in kcal: snack + pizza) was lower after water and raisins than after either grapes or the mixed snack (p < 0.031). As a fixed-calorie (150 kcal) snack (Experiment 2), raisins reduced pizza intake, compared with water (∼11%, p = 0.005), and resulted in a cumulative intake similar to water; however, both grapes and the mixed snack resulted in higher cumulative intakes (p < 0.015). Appetite was lower after all caloric ad libitum snacks (p < 0.003) and after fixed amounts of grapes and the mixed snack (p < 0.037), compared with water. In conclusion, consumption of a premeal snack of raisins, but not grapes or a mix of raisins and almonds, reduces meal-time energy intake and does not lead to increased cumulative energy intake in children.

A Low-Cost Drinkometer Circuit Suitable for Insects and other Organisms

A low-cost drinkometer circuit suitable for use with insects is described. The circuit is composed of readily available components powered by a battery pack. Schematic diagrams of the circuit and simulations are provided. The operational theory behind the development of the circuit is discussed. The usefulness of the circuit is illustrated by a simple consumption experiment in which the amount of sucrose consumed by honey bees is determined.