Comparing Canadian and U.S. Cattle Feeding Pricing Practices and Perceptions of Pricing Issues

Competition among beef packing firms, use of so-called captive supply, and methods of price discovery have been prolonged, contentious issues in the U.S. beef industry for two decades or more. While of lesser apparent concern in Canada for many years, these same matters rose to the forefront of beef industry issues after the Canada–U.S. border closure that resulted from Canada’s first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in May 2003.Marketing,

Assessing Gendered Climate Related Vulnerabilities in Community Based Conservation Areas of Southern Sub-Saharan Africa

In Sub-Saharan Africa, rural households are exposed to extreme climate events, which threaten the natural resources and agricultural yields that help support livelihoods. Literature supports that vulnerability is compounded in rural female-headed households, which demonstrate less indicators of adaptive capacity when compared to male-headed counterparts. The presented research investigates if gender-based differences in vulnerability persist in community-based conservation areas (CBC&rsquo;s), which seek to support human livelihoods while preserving environmental and natural resources. The Kavango Zambezi Vulnerability and Adaption Project (KAZAVA) team conducted 720 household livelihood surveys in Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia to evaluate information related to income, material wealth, agriculture, natural resource use, and socio-demographic information. Using this data, I have compiled a Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) to encapsulate the many dimensions of climate vulnerability. Significant differences between female and male headed households were assessed by applying a Welch&rsquo;s t-test, analysis of variance, and Tukey honestly significant difference (HSD) tests to LVI scores. The results of this study indicate that while some expected disparities persist within the study area, others do not. I explore these results in relationship to the potential role of CBC&rsquo;s in reducing disparities through generation of additional employment. This study aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between gendered vulnerabilities and climate, to identify vulnerable populations within our studied communities, and to provide insight on how policy and employment opportunity can be used to promote climate justice in rural areas.</p

LSE-IMF joint workshop social protection in a changing world

This is a summary report of 'Social Protection in a Changing World' - a workshop jointly sponsored by the LSE and IMF and held at the London School of Economics in November 2018. As part of its strategic focus, the LSE is putting a high priority on research related to the contours of new welfare provision. At the same time, the IMF is re-assessing the nature and extent of its engagement on social spending policies. In Spring 2019, the IMF will present a paper setting out a new strategic framework for engaging on these issues with its member countries to its Executive Board. This is being guided by a growing awareness that social spending is important for inclusive and sustainable economic growth and financial stability, the key focus of the IMF. Reflecting this convergence of interests, LSE and IMF jointly sponsored a workshop on 'Social Protection in a Changing World'. The workshop convened leading academics working in the field together with representatives from the IMF and the World Bank. The agenda for the day included discussions on emerging challenges, the role and design of social assistance and social insurance, the balance between universalism and targeting, and financing social protection

A neuroscientific method for assessing effectiveness of digital vs. print ads: using biometric techniques to measure cross-media ad experience and recall

Marketers can choose among various media to convey advertising, ranging from printed advertising on paper to websites through the Internet and mobile through smartphones and tablets. Which medium is the most effective in terms of information memory or reading behavior is not clear, however. In this study, advertisements from an Italian newspaper were presented in three media formats: website (through the Internet with a desktop PC), paper, and a PDF version displayed on a tablet device. Responses to the same news and advertising were measured with eye tracker, electroencephalography brain scanner, and memory test

An Oosterhoff Analysis of the Galactic Bulge Field RR Lyrae stars: Implications On Their Absolute Magnitudes

We present an analysis of the period-$V$-amplitude plane for RR0 Lyrae stars (fundamental mode pulsators) with "normal" light curves in the bulge using the MACHO bulge fields. Although bulge globular clusters have RR Lyraes that divide into two reasonable distinct groups according to the average period of the RR0 Lyraes (Oosterhoff 1939), there is no evidence of a gap between Oosterhoff I and II stars in the bulge field star sample. The majority of the bulge RR0 Lyrae field star population have a difference in period compared to the Oosterhoff I cluster M3 (Delta log P) that is shifted by about 0.02 days with regard to the Milky Way Oosterhoff I population, and the sample includes stars with Delta log P > 0.06 days, a characteristic hardly seen in Milky Way globular clusters. The metal-rich RR0 Lyrae stars in the Galactic bulge sample have Delta log P values on the other side of the spectrum as those in the metal-rich globular clusters NGC 6388 and NGC 6441. We find that the $V$-amplitude for a given period is a function of Delta log P, and not of metal abundance, similar to the result found by Clement & Shelton (1999) for RR Lyrae stars in Milky Way globular clusters. A comparative study of the bulge field stars with similar metallicities but different Oosterhoff types is carried out. Bulge field RR0 Lyrae variables with Delta log P values similar to Oosterhoff II clusters are about 0.2 mag brighter than RR0 Lyrae variables with Delta log P similar to Oosterhoff I clusters. Reliance upon a single absolute magnitude-[Fe/H] relation may be inappropriate when considering populations with different Delta log P.Comment: accepted to AJ, 9 figure

The Determination Of Reddening From Intrinsic VR Colors Of RR Lyrae Stars

New R-band observations of 21 local field RR Lyrae variable stars are used to explore the reliability of minimum light (V-R) colors as a tool for measuring interstellar reddening. For each star, R-band intensity mean magnitudes and light amplitudes are presented. Corresponding V-band light curves from the literature are supplemented with the new photometry, and (V-R) colors at minimum light are determined for a subset of these stars as well as for other stars in the literature. Two different definitions of minimum light color are examined, one which uses a Fourier decomposition to the V and R light curves to find (V-R) at minimum V-band light, (V-R)_{min}^F, and the other which uses the average color between the phase interval 0.5-0.8, (V-R)_{min}^{\phi(0.5-0.8)}. From 31 stars with a wide range of metallicities and pulsation periods, the mean dereddened RR Lyrae color at minimum light is (V-R)_{min,0}^F = 0.28 pm 0.02 mag and (V-R)_{min,0}^{\phi(0.5-0.8)} = 0.27 pm 0.02 mag. As was found by Guldenschuh et al. (2005) using (V-I) colors, any dependence of the star's minimum light color on metallicity or pulsation amplitude is too weak to be formally detected. We find that the intrinsic (V-R) of Galactic bulge RR Lyrae stars are similar to those found by their local counterparts and hence that Bulge RR0 Lyrae stars do not have anomalous colors as compared to the local RR Lyrae stars.Comment: accepted by A

PIV data clustering of a buoyant jet in a stratified environment

Three spatial clustering approaches of a high-Reynolds number transient buoyant jet in a linearly stratified environment are applied along with proper orthogonal decomposition to identify similar/consistent regions in the domain of interest. The velocity fields analyzed are obtained from an experimental test with large scale, time-resolved, particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. Clustering is performed by the k-means method considering: (a) crosssection velocity profiles, (b) point-wise energy spectra, and (c) point-wise Reynolds stress tensor components. Three metrics are used for the assessment of clustering approaches, namely: (a) within-cluster sum of squares, (b) average silhouette, and (c) within-cluster number of POD modes required to resolve prescribed levels of total variance/energy. Results are promising and lay the foundation for an in depth analysis of local features of complex flows as well as the formulation of efficient reduced order models

Diagnostic applications of next generation sequencing: working towards quality standards

Over the past 6 years, next generation sequencing (NGS) has been established as a valuable high-throughput method for research in molecular genetics and has successfully been employed in the identification of rare and common genetic variations. All major NGS technology companies providing commercially available instruments (Roche 454, Illumina, Life Technologies) have recently marketed bench top sequencing instruments with lower throughput and shorter run times, thereby broadening the applications of NGS and opening the technology to the potential use for clinical diagnostics. Although the high expectations regarding the discovery of new diagnostic targets and an overall reduction of cost have been achieved, technological challenges in instrument handling, robustness of the chemistry and data analysis need to be overcome. To facilitate the implementation of NGS as a routine method in molecular diagnostics, consistent quality standards need to be developed. Here the authors give an overview of the current standards in protocols and workflows and discuss possible approaches to define quality criteria for NGS in molecular genetic diagnostics