Financial Characteristics of Acquired Firms in the Canadian Food Industry

Mergers and acquisitions represent an important reallocation of resources. In 1998, the value of these transactions jumped to almost $160 billion in Canada. The motives for firms to merge or acquire other firms change for different periods and industries. This study provides a financial profile of Canadian corporations in the food industry that were acquired during the 1996-98 period. Overall, acquired firms did not represent a significant share of the total sales of incorporated Canadian food firms. Firms with balanced (or matched) growth-resources, less liquidity and leverage were more likely to be acquired in 1997 and 1998. Large firms with matched growth resources were also more likely to be taken over.Agribusiness,

Intensive Livestock Farming: Does Farm Size Matter?

Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries,

Which User Interaction for Cross-Language Information Retrieval? Design Issues and Reflections

A novel and complex form of information access is cross-language information retrieval: searching for texts written in foreign languages based on native language queries. Although the underlying technology for achieving such a search is relatively well understood, the appropriate interface design is not. This paper presents three user evaluations undertaken during the iterative design of Clarity, a cross-language retrieval system for rare languages, and shows how the user interaction design evolved depending on the results of usability tests. The first test was instrumental to identify weaknesses in both functionalities and interface; the second was run to determine if query translation should be shown or not; the final was a global assessment and focussed on user satisfaction criteria. Lessons were learned at every stage of the process leading to a much more informed view of what a cross-language retrieval system should offer to users

Primary transit of the planet HD189733b at 3.6 and 5.8 microns

The hot Jupiter HD 189733b was observed during its primary transit using the Infrared Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The transit depths were measured simultaneously at 3.6 and 5.8 microns. Our analysis yields values of 2.356 +- 0.019 % and 2.436 +- 0.020$ % at 3.6 and 5.8 microns respectively, for a uniform source. We estimated the contribution of the limb-darkening and star-spot effects on the final results. We concluded that although the limb darkening increases by ~0.02-0.03 % the transit depths, and the differential effects between the two IRAC bands is even smaller, 0.01 %. Furthermore, the host star is known to be an active spotted K star with observed photometric modulation. If we adopt an extreme model of 20 % coverage with spots 1000K cooler of the star surface, it will make the observed transits shallower by 0.19 and 0.18 %. The difference between the two bands will be only of 0.01 %, in the opposite direction to the limb darkening correction. If the transit depth is affected by limb darkening and spots, the differential effects between the 3.6 and 5.8 microns bands are very small. The differential transit depths at 3.6 and 5.8 microns and the recent one published by Knutson et al.(2007) at 8 microns are in agreement with the presence of water vapour in the upper atmosphere of the planet. This is the companion paper to Tinetti et al. (2007b), where the detailed atmosphere models are presented.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Astrophysical Journal 675. Accepted Nov 21, 20007, to appear on March 10, 200

Distribution and Concentration of Canadian Livestock

Livestock Production/Industries,

Dorothea Mitchell

In the spring of 1929, the Port Arthur Amateur Cinema Society made Canadian history. To a crowded house in the city of Port Arthur, in Ontario’s largest theatre, their first feature-length film, A Race for Ties (1929), premiered. Not only was it one of the few feature-length films made in Canada at the time, but it holds the distinction of being the first amateur feature-length film in Canada, and the first of three that involved the talents of Dorothea Mitchell, a British-born, India-raised women who is best known as Ontario’s first single woman to be granted a homestead in that province’s history

Gate-to-gate life cycle inventory assessment of North American end-of-life vehicle management processes

Life cycle analysis (LCA) will be used to increase the understanding of and consequently improve the end-of-life vehicle (ELV) management process currently employed in North America by: (1) Showing the complete flow in ELV dismantling and shredding systems; (2) Demonstrating the variability in the processes; and (3) Managing this variability so as to close and surmount the gaps in these processes (e.g., improve the recovery and recycling of scrap materials, such as plastics, from pre-shredder ELVs). A literature review and case studies were conducted in cooperation with industrial recycling partners on operating ELV management facilities such as dismantlers, auto wreckers, and shredders. Successful ELV practices, unit operations, and/or technologies were identified and their practical constraints and issues of concern examined. Using the case study information and supplemental data, a life cycle inventory (LCI) of typical ELV management processes has been constructed. The LCA approach is used to examine the efficiencies of the vehicle end-of-life (VEOL) dismantling process. The mass flows of parts and/or materials (types and quantities) that are removed preferentially and directed for reuse, remanufacturing, pre-shredder recycling, and/or disposal, were assessed relative to the amount of vehicles entering the end-of-life phase. Similarly, dismantling process inefficiencies are characterized in terms of the mass flow of leftover ELV hulks and dismantled parts purged from inventory that are shipped for shredding and metals recovery. Shredding process efficiencies and inefficiencies are assessed in terms of both the flow of shredded ferrous and non-ferrous metals products recovered, as well as flow of shredder residue (SR) generated and directed for disposal, relative to the quantity of material directed for shredding. As much as 116.3 kg/tonne (11.6% weight) of the ELVs entering the dismantling process are recovered and directed for either, reuse, remanufacturing or recycling, including the recovered fluids; 5.7% weight of the ELVs processed consisted of parts recovered for reuse. Of the materials directed for shredding - ELV hulks and scrapped-out parts and other oversized, metals-rich scrap - 808 kg/tonne (80.8% weight) are recovered in the shredded ferrous and non-ferrous metals products and 192 kg/tonne (19.2% weight) is accounted for in the shredder residue