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The purpose of this paper is to present an on-line modeling and controlling scheme based on the dynamic recurrent neural network for wastewater treatment system.

A control strategy based on rule adaptive recurrent neural network (RARFNN) is proposed in this paper to control the dissolved oxygen (D_O) concentration and nitrate nitrogen (S_No) concentration. The structure of the RARFNN is self-organized by a rule adaptive algorithm, and the rule adaptive algorithm considers the overall information processing ability of neural network. Furthermore, a stability analysis method is given to prove the convergence of the proposed RARFNN.

By application in the control problem of wastewater treatment process (WWTP), results show that the proposed control method achieves better performance compared to other methods.

The proposed on-line modeling and controlling method uses the RARFNN to model and control the dynamic WWTP. The RARFNN can adjust its structure and parameters according to the changes of biochemical reactions and pollutant concentrations. And, the rule adaptive mechanism considers the overall information processing ability judgment of the neural network, which can ensure that the neural network contains the information of the biochemical reactions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing household food consumption away from home in Beijing by type of food facility and type of meal.

Derived from the Becker's household production and consumption theory, the authors econometrically specified household expenditure function on food away from home. Box‐Cox transformed double‐hurdle models were estimated. The data were collected in 2007 in Beijing China by the authors, using a diary‐based method designed specifically for this study.

Household income, time opportunity cost and other socio‐demographic and economic factors were found to be important determinants of household participation and expenditure decisions for dining out. However, the importance of these factors varied by type of food facility and type of meal. Meanwhile, the estimated elasticities with respect to income were correspondingly higher than those for developed countries, suggesting that the demand for food away from home by Chinese households is still in an upward trend.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to analyze Chinese household food consumption away from home by type of food facility and type of meal. Besides, this study uses an exclusive dataset collected from a seven‐day diary‐based survey. The data include more specific information on food away from home than the Urban Household Income and Expenditure (UHIE) survey data conducted by National Bureau of Statistics of China. The UHIE data were extensively used in previous studies on food consumption in China, but are believed to significantly underestimate food away from home consumption.

Continuing economic growth in emerging markets offers large market opportunities to producers and marketers worldwide; however, market failures due to asymmetric information are often seen when high-quality products enter these “new markets” where recognition rates among consumers are low. The use of “geographical origin” labels as quality signals to overcome asymmetric information problem plays an important role. The purpose of this paper is to compare consumers’ perception and willingness to pay (WTP) for different levels of geographic origin labels to provide insights to the strategic use of origin labels in emerging markets.

A consumer survey on geographic labeling for imported dairy products was carried out in Beijing, China in May 2015. Under the “products of European Union (EU)” range, the authors used “product of Ireland” as a case study for the country-specific origin label. Information on consumer demographic, dairy consumption, safety perceptions, knowledge on Ireland and Irish products, as well as WTP for different geographic labeling and product attributes were collected from 307 face-to-face interviews. WTP was elicited using double-bounded contingent valuation method, and estimated with maximum log-likelihood function.

The authors found that consumers are willing to pay premium prices for both of these geographical origin indicators, but the EU label had slightly higher WTP results. However, the controversial situation is that although the EU label has a better chance than the country-specific label in signaling premium quality to Chinese consumers, EU labeling at its best signals an average quality across the EU counties. For premium products with above average quality, using generic EU labeling has a potential drawback to the establishment of product differentiation.

This study is the first to evaluate Chinese consumers’ WTP for EU generic origin label for dairy products in comparison to country-specific origin label. Findings of the study have immediate policy and marketing implications in emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of dietary transition patterns and a discussion of the food-related health issues in China.

The paper builds on a review of the existing literature on food consumption and diet changes in China, and highlights with specific attention to increasing food consumed away from home, the rising demand for fast and processed foods, and the popularizing of western-style foods in Chinese diets.

China’s food consumption patterns rapidly transitioned from one in which grains and vegetables dominated to one having more animal products and more diversification. More foods are consumed away from home and in the form of fast and processed. Income growth played and will continue to play a critical role in shifting the structure of food consumption. On the other hand, China is on a fast track from a lean population to one in which being overweight or obese. The associations between health outputs and food transitions, however, are inconclusive.

The main findings of this study have implications for better understanding the key trends and driving forces of China’s food demand system. Moreover, the results from this review are essential for food-related policymaking in many emerging economies where coexistence of undernutrition, deficiency of micronutrients and overweight and obesity is a common challenge to the society and individual households.

Previous studies have mainly focused on public opinions regarding genetically modified (GM) technology and GM food. The purpose of this paper is to assess scientists’ attitudes on whether China needs to develop its national agricultural GM technology and their willingness to buy GM food.

A stratified sampling method was used to select and interview 806 scientists from six major agricultural universities and 20 research institutes under two national academies in China in 2013. Based on these data, the authors use both descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analysis to examine scientists’ attitudes toward agricultural GM technology and food, using GM soybean oil as an example of GM foods.

The survey results show that nearly three-quarters of scientists agree that China needs to develop its agricultural GM technology, but their attitudes differ largely. Only 29 percent of scientists are willing to buy GM soybean oil, similar to urban consumers (25 percent) in China. The knowledge of biology is extensive for some scientists but varies significant among scientists and correlates positively with their attitudes toward agricultural GM technology and GM soybean oil. Younger and male scientists with higher professional titles, and those involved in GM research are more in favor of China’s GM technology compared to other scientists. Female scientists, scientists with lower professional titles, those that have never engaged in GM research or are from non-agricultural scientific disciplines are less willing to buy GM soybean oil. Interestingly, their low willingness to buy GM soybean oil is inconsistent with the fact that it is the most common edible oil in China.

This study is the first to examine scientists’ attitudes toward GM technology and food in China. The results of this study contribute to understanding the current debates on GM technology and the relevance of research, based on the willingness to buy GM food, for decision making regarding the commercialization of GM technology.