Korean Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Domestic versus U.S. and Australian Beef with Alternative Attributes

In 2007, consumer focus groups and online surveys using choice sets were conducted to examine South Korean’s perceptions of and willingness-to-pay for Australian, U.S. and domestic beef. Consumers indicated higher positive perceptions of Australian beef than of U.S. beef, particularly in the area of environmentally friendly, cleanliness, standards and credibility; and thus Korean consumers discount Australian beef less than U.S. beef relative to domestic beef. The U.S. industry could improve perceptions and their country-image by providing Korean consumers with promotional material pointing out that U.S. beef production systems are comparable to competitors’ in terms of “environmental-friendliness” and other quality attributes.Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The year in cardiology: arrhythmias and pacing.

During this last year, there has been much progress with regard to anticoagulant and ablation therapy for atrial fibrillation (AF). Apart from recently issued European Society of Cardiology Guidelines for the management of patients with supraventricular arrhythmias, there has been little progress in research in this field. Ventricular arrhythmias and device therapy have seen modest progress

COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN LABELING OF BEEF PRODUCTS: U.S. CONSUMERS' PERCEPTIONS

In 2002, Chicago and Denver consumers were surveyed and participated in an experimental auction to elicit willingness to pay for country-of-origin labeling (COOL) of beef. Survey results indicate the majority of consumers (73%) were willing to pay an 11% and 24% premium for COOL of steak and hamburger, respectively. In the auction, consumers were willing to pay a 19% premium for steak labeled “"U.S.A. Guaranteed: Born and Raised in the U.S.”" Food-safety concerns, preferences for labeling source and origin information, a strong desire to support U.S. producers, and beliefs that U.S. beef was of higher quality were reasons consumers preferred COOL.Consumer/Household Economics,

Agenator: An open source computer-controlled dry aging system for beef

Dry aging of beef is a process where beef is exposed to a controlled environment with the ultimate goal of drying the beef to improve its quality and value. Comprehensive investigations into the effects of various environmental conditions on dry aging are crucial for understanding and optimizing the process, but the lack of affordable equipment focused on data collection makes it difficult to do so. The Agenator was thus developed as an open source system with a suite of features for investigating dry aging such as: measuring and recording relative humidity, temperature, mass, air velocity, and fan rotational speed; precise control within 1% for relative humidity and 50 rpm for fan rotational speed; robust signal integrity preservation and data recovery features; modular design for easy addition and removal of individual chamber units; and non-permanent fixtures to allow easy adaptation of the system for other applications such as investigating dehydration of food products. The open source system comes with user-friendly computer software for interfacing with the system and creating sophisticated environmental control programs. The Agenator is available to the public at https://osf.io/87nck/

Studies on the Reduction of Radon Plate-Out

The decay of common radioactive gases, such as radon, produces stable isotopes by a sequence of daughter particles with varied half-lives. These daughter particles are a significant source of gamma, neutron, and alpha particle backgrounds that can mimic desired signals in dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay experiments. In the LUMINA Laboratory at Southern Methodist University (SMU), studies of radon plate-out onto copper samples are conducted using one of XIA's first five UltraLo 1800 alpha counters. We present results from investigations into various mitigation approaches. A custom-built copper holder (in either plastic or metal) has been designed and produced to maximize the copper's exposure to 220Rn. The 220Rn source is a collection of camping lantern mantles. We present the current status of control and experimental methods for addressing radon exposure levels.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Conference Proceedings for Low Radioactivity Techniques 201

Neonatal growth of Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) pups in Alaska

The growth rate of Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) pups was studied in southeast Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands during the first six weeks after birth. The Steller sea lion population is currently stable in southeast Alaska but is declining in the Aleutian Islands and parts of the Gulf of Alaska. Male pups (22.6 kg [±2.21 SD]) were significantly heavier than female pups (19.6 kg [±1.80 SD]) at 1−5 days of age, but there were no significant differences among rookeries. Male and female pups grew (in mass, standard length, and axillary girth) at the same rate. Body mass and standard length increased at a faster rate for pups in the Aleutian Islands and the western Gulf of Alaska (0.45−0.48 kg/day and 0.47−0.53 cm/day, respectively) than in southeast Alaska (0.23 kg/day and 0.20 cm/day). Additionally, axillary girth increased at a faster rate for pups in the Aleutian Islands (0.59 cm/ day) than for pups in southeast Alaska v(0.25 cm/day). Our results indicate a greater maternal investment in male pups during gestation, but not during early lactation. Although differences in pup growth rate occurred among rookeries, there was no evidence that female sea lions and their pups were nutritionally stressed in the area of population declin

CONSUMER PREFERENCE FOR DOMESTIC VERSUS INTERNATIONAL BEEF STEAKS

Demand and Price Analysis,

THE VALUE OF BEEF FLAVOR: CONSUMER WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR MARBLING IN BEEF STEAKS

Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

U.S. Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Flavor and Tenderness in Steaks as Determined with an Experimental Auction

In a study of beef quality, consumers tasted steak samples and participated in an experimental auction to determine their willingness to pay. Steaks differed in marbling, tenderness, country of origin, and aging method. Marbling and tenderness had statistically significant impacts on consumers' palatability ratings for steaks. Tenderness significantly impacted consumers' willingness-to pay values. There appear to be threshold levels of marbling and tenderness, below which consumers discount steaks. Steaks from Australia were rated lower for overall acceptability, and bids were lower than for the U.S. steak samples. Dry-aging methods negatively impacted taste panel ratings and bids.beef, country of origin, experimental auctions, marbling, tenderness, Consumer/Household Economics,