The Specialty Coffee Quality Rating as a Measure of Product Differentiation and Price Signal to Growers: an Entropy Analysis of E-Auction Data

Demand and Price Analysis,

Price Determinants in Top Quality E-Auctioned Specialty Coffees

The US specialty coffee industry has grown from $1 billion in 1990 to$11 billion in 2006 and is expected to continue to grow into the foreseeable future. This growth particularly depends on prices coordinating the specialty coffee supply chain through two-way information exchange between roasters and producers. We analyze the determinants of specialty coffee prices by estimating a hedonic price function for specialty Central and South American coffees traded at e-auctions. We hypothesize that since specialty coffee is a differentiated product, prices will be determined by both sensory and reputation attributes. The results show that prices are influenced by the quality rating, which is a sensory variable, and by the quality rankings established in the cupping competition previous to the auction, the country of origin and the coffee variety, which are reputation variables. In addition, the macro variables, harvest year and commodity price were found to be significant.Specialty coffee, hedonic price analysis, differentiated food pricing, sensory attributes, reputation attributes, Demand and Price Analysis,

What Adds Value in Specialty Coffee? Managerial Implications from Hedonic Price Analysis of Central and South American E-Auctions

We analyze price and quality information at the procurement level in the specialty coffee supply chain using data from small and large volume e-auctions. Hedonic price equations reveal that the Cup of Excellence auction is a more differentiated market disclosing more information about coffee values associated with ratings, rankings, quantities available, and country reputations whereas information in the Q auction is more limited and tends to be remunerated to a lesser extent. These results indicate that there are different business models and valuation of product characteristics within the specialty coffee industry. Management implications are drawn for specialty coffee producers and roasters.specialty coffee, e-auctions, hedonic analysis, business models, Demand and Price Analysis,

A survey of infant growth, diet and related factors in Glasgow

Deprivation is often associated with short stature and Glasgow is a city of short stature (Common Services Agency, 1975) and of deprivation (Holterman, 1975). This survey looks at some aspects of nutrition and growth in Glasgow infants. A group of infants from a severely deprived area (Blackhill) was examined at approximately monthly intervals from just after birth until one year. Another group from an area more typical of Glasgow (Carntyne) was similarly examined. A cross sectional group of infants, who provided reference data, was seen, each child at one of five ages: 6 weeks, 3, 6, 9 or 12 months. Data were collected concerning various family and social factors, infant feeding practice, present diet, obstetric factors and hospital admissions, in addition to measuring the children. Children in the two longitudinal groups were assessed developmentally, examined medically and had morbidity records kept. The Blackhill children were smaller at birth than those of the cross section. There were more low birth weight infants and more of short gestation. After birth, they remained shorter and lighter than the cross sectional children, with the differences greatest below the 10th centiles. Thus, whereas the larger Blackhill children approximated those of the cross section and Carntyne, the smaller ones were very much smaller. No dietary deficiences were found, with the exception of vitamins A and D at 12 months. The Blackhill children suffered from more respiratory tract infections than did those from Carntyne and had approximately twice as many episodes of gastroenteritis

Parametric Estimation for Diffusion Processes from Discrete-time and Noisy Observations

Noisy discretely observed diffusion processes with random drift function parameters are considered. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimation methods are extended to this model, respectively the Stochastic Approximation EM and the Gibbs sampler algorithms. They are based on the Euler-Maruyama approximation of the diffusion, achieved using latent auxiliary data introduced to complete the diffusion process between each pair of measurement instants. A tuned hybrid Gibbs algorithm based on conditional Brownian bridges simulations of the unobserved process paths is included in these two algorithms. Their convergence is proved. Errors induced on the likelihood and the posterior distribution by the Euler-Maruyama approximation are bounded as a function of the step size of the approximation. Results of a pharmacokinetic mixed model simulation study illustrate the accuracy of the maximum likelihood estimation method. The analysis of the Theophyllin real dataset illustrates the relevance of the SDE approach relative to the deterministic approach

Theory of magnetic domains in uniaxial thin films

For uniaxial easy axis films, properties of magnetic domains are usually described within the Kittel model, which assumes that domain walls are much thinner than the domains. In this work we present a simple model that includes a proper description of the magnetostatic energy of domains and domain walls and also takes into account the interaction between both surfaces of the film. Our model describes the behavior of domain and wall widths as a function of film thickness, and is especially well suited for the strong stripe phase. We prove the existence of a critical value of magneto-crystalline anisotropy above which stripe domains exist for any film thickness and justify our model by comparison with exact results. The model is in good agreement with experimental data for hcp cobalt.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure