PRICE DISCOVERY MECHANISMS AND ALTERNATIVES FOR CANADIAN AGRICULTURE; Part I: A Review of Pricing Mechanisms in Agriculture

The purpose of this section is to review pricing mechanisms in agriculture and food. We started by constructing a taxonomy and system of classification for pricing mechanisms that is rooted in economic theory. This framework was applied to 26 pricing mechanisms observed from the following product categories: · Beef · Hogs · Grains and oilseeds · Dairy · Poultry and Eggs · Processed Food and HorticultureDemand and Price Analysis,

No Medal for the Olympics on Labour Rights

The report utilizes the research of four of the companies awarded licenses to produce official Olympic goods and calls on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure all Olympic products are manufactured in conditions aligned with the Olympic Charter

FROM PAPER TO PLASTIC BY 2002: RETAILERS' PERSPECTIVE ON ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFER SYSTEMS FOR FOOD STAMPS

The Food Stamp Program (FSP) is working under the deadline of October 1, 2002, to coordinate a change from the current paper disbursement system of paper food stamps to an electronic transfer system of benefits, known as EBT. The Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been studying the effectiveness of differing vehicles for benefit dispersal since the inception of the FSP in the 1960's. The merits of a direct cash payment have been compared to those of the paper system by the USDA and an array of professional groups and research organizations. The adoption of the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system engenders a new set of questions about the effects of EBT on benefit recipients, retailers and the administering government agencies. Issues surrounding the transition from paper to plastic are still problematic for retailers in spite of the rapidly approaching deadline. National interoperability of EBT as well as fees involved with EBT operation are still points of contention for retailers. Anecdotal evidence from retailers also point to kinks in the institutional operation of EBT. Peak-loading problems with the electronic network system generate a host of undesirable consequences for benefit recipients and retailers. These problems impede the electronic system from taking advantage of the positive network effects that could arise from this new technology.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Marketing, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

An improved method for text summarization using lexical chains

This work is directed toward the creation of a system for automatically sum-marizing documents by extracting selected sentences. Several heuristics including position, cue words, and title words are used in conjunction with lexical chain in-formation to create a salience function that is used to rank sentences for extraction. Compiler technology, including the Flex and Bison tools, is used to create the AutoExtract summarizer that extracts and combines this information from the raw text. The WordNet database is used for the creation of the lexical chains. The AutoExtract summarizer performed better than the Microsoft Word97 AutoSummarize tool and the Sinope commercial summarizer in tests against ideal extracts and in tests judged by humans

Spartan Daily, March 11, 1992

Volume 98, Issue 33https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/8246/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, March 11, 1992

Volume 98, Issue 33https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/8246/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, September 25, 2000

Volume 115, Issue 17https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9584/thumbnail.jp

America’s Biggest Low-wage Industry: Continuity and Change in Retail Jobs

For those concerned with job quality in the United States, the retail industry commands attention. Retail is not only the largest low-wage industry in the country’s economy; it is the largest industry, period. It generates numerous entry level jobs for those with limited formal training. Hourly wages of nonsupervisory workers in retail languish at about three-quarters the national average. Retail is a very important employer of young workers. Its workforce is also disproportionately female. Women are concentrated in particular retail sub-sectors and some minority groups seem to remain employed in retail over time. At the same time, retail jobs—at least, those involving direct interaction with consumers—are geographically anchored, offering a potential leverage point for policies to improve job quality. We place retailers’ business strategies at the center of our analysis and trace the connections between corporate strategy and job quality. We focus on three main dimensions of job quality: compensation; schedule and its impact on the work-life nexus; and hiring and promotion opportunities. We examine the composition of the workforce in retail jobs and the likely implications of changes in job quality for the workforce. We use descriptive statistics from the Current Population Survey and draw on a unique set of retail case studies of food and consumer electronics retailers we conducted during 2005-07. We focus on frontline jobs: cashiers, clerks, and baggers positions

Corporate responsibility champions network: A 'how to' guide

This guide aims to show the what, why, and how of a CR champion and related networks. CR champions are emerging as a powerful tool available for embedding CR philosophy into an organisation, proving critical in the process of embedding CR.They play a strategic role, committed to causing change and to continuing the work in the long-term.A CR champion network takes time and effort to build but the use of champions, as one within a number of tactics to embed CR, has several clear advantages: by working directly with staff on initiatives champions can engage staff and become themselves more committed; champions connect divisions and regions, thus finding and propagating best CR practices and ideas; and they allow for a credible two-way interface between global and local in international companies