CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR NON-CONVENTIONALLY GROWN PRODUCE

This study examines the potential for marketing fresh fruits and vegetables with labels indicating enhanced food and/or environmental safety attributes as compared to conventional produce. Four labels were investigated: Organic, Certified Organic, Certified Pesticide Residue-Free, and Grown with IPM. Results confirm findings of other surveys relating to concerns about pesticide residues. Seventy-one percent (71%) of respondents stated they believed that pesticide residues in food present a serious or moderate health hazard to consumers. In addition, 74% believed that pesticides pose a serious or moderate hazard to the environment, and 64% felt there was a serious or moderate hazard to farm workers. Results indicate there is a positive information effect for likelihood of purchasing for all of the labels, and this effect is statistically significant for all of the labels except for Certified Pesticide Residue-Free. The magnitude of the information effect for the Grown with IPM label was considerably higher than for the other labels, suggesting that there might be substantial payoffs for informing consumers about this label.Consumer/Household Economics,

ANCSA and 1991: A Framework for Analysis

We study the geometrical corrections to the simple Proximity Force Approximation (PFA) for the non-retarded Casimir force. We extend traditional PFA in two ways: We take the whole surfaces of the objects facing each other into account, not just the curvatures at the point of closest distance; we take the thickness of the coating of coated objects into account in the formalism. We present analytical and numerical results for a sphere above a substrate, for a spherical shell above a substrate, and for two interacting spheres. We compare the results to those from a multi-polar expansion method, a method based on a more solid foundation.Original Publication: Bo E. Sernelius and C.E. Roman-Velazquez, Test of the proximity force approximation, 2009, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, (161), 012016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/161/1/012016 Copyright: Institute of Physics http://journals.iop.org/</p

THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF THE MEXICAN MARKET FOR U.S. COTTON: IMPACT OF THE ELIMINATION OF TEXTILE AND CLOTHING QUOTAS

Accounting for about 20% of U.S. total cotton exports in recent years, the Mexican market has become a key destination for U.S. cotton production. Simultaneously, the U.S. market is critical for the Mexican textile/clothing sector absorbing almost 50% of its total output. This strong North American integration process, in part a result of NAFTA, might be jeopardized by the approaching implementation of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) in 2005. This paper presents the results of an econometric and simulation model that allows for the assessment of potential implications of the ATCÂ’s quota elimination on MexicoÂ’s cotton consumption and U.S. cotton exports to Mexico. It incorporates the growing interdependence between the U.S. and MexicoÂ’s cotton and textile industries and summarizes some plausible scenarios for the impact of the 2005 textile and clothing final quota elimination on U.S. markets.International Relations/Trade,

Spectral properties of near-Earth and Mars-crossing asteroids using Sloan photometry

The nature and origin of the asteroids orbiting in near-Earth space, including those on a potentially hazardous trajectory, is of both scientific interest and practical importance. We aim here at determining the taxonomy of a large sample of near-Earth (NEA) and Mars-crosser (MC) asteroids and analyze the distribution of these classes with orbit. We use this distribution to identify their source regions and to study the strength of planetary encounters to refresh asteroid surfaces. We measure the photometry of these asteroids over four filters at visible wavelengths on images taken by the SDSS. These colors are used to classify the asteroids into a taxonomy consistent with the widely used Bus-DeMeo taxonomy based on spectroscopy. We report here on the taxonomic classification of 206 NEAs and 776 MCs determined from SDSS photometry, representing an increase of 40% and 663% of known taxonomy classifications in these populations. Using the source region mapper by Greenstreet et al. (2012), we compare the taxonomic distribution among NEAs and main-belt asteroids of similar diameters. Both distributions agree at the few percent level for the inner part of the Main Belt and we confirm this region as a main source of near-Earth objects. The effect of planetary encounters on asteroid surfaces are also studied by developing a simple model of forces acting on a surface grain during planetary encounter, which provides the minimum distance at which a close approach should occur to trigger resurfacing events. By integrating numerically the orbit of the 519 S-type and 46 Q-type asteroids back in time and monitoring their encounter distance with planets, we seek to understand the conditions for resurfacing events. The population of Q-type is found to present statistically more encounters with Venus and the Earth than S-types, although both types present the same amount of encounters with Mars.Comment: Accepted for publication in Icarus. 45 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, 2 tables in appendix (supplementary material

Descriptors for terpene esters from chromatographic and partition measurements: Estimation of human odor detection thresholds

We have used gas chromatographic retention data together with other data to obtain Abraham descriptors for 30 terpene esters. These include the air-water partition coefficient, as log Kw, for which no experimental values are available for any terpene ester. The other descriptors are the ester dipolarity, S, the hydrogen bond basicity, B, (the ester hydrogen bond acidity is zero for the esters studied), and L the logarithm of the air-hexadecane partition coefficient. Both S and B are larger than those for simple aliphatic esters, as expected from the terpene ester structures that include ring systems and ethylenic double bonds. These descriptors can then be used to obtain a large number of physicochemical and environmental properties of terpene esters. We have analyzed experimental results on human odor detection thresholds and have constructed another equation for the calculation of these thresholds, to go with a previous equation that we have reported. Then the descriptors for terpene esters can be used to estimate the important odor detection thresholds

Precautionary Demand for Foreign Assets in Sudden Stop Economies: An Assessment of the New Merchantilism

Financial globalization was off to a rocky start in emerging economies hit by Sudden Stops since the mid 1990s. Foreign reserves grew very rapidly during this period, and hence it is often argued that we live in the era of a New Merchantilism in which large stocks of reserves are a war-chest for defense against Sudden Stops. We conduct a quantitative assessment of this argument using a stochastic intertemporal equilibrium framework with incomplete asset markets in which precautionary saving affects foreign assets via three mechanisms: business cycle volatility, financial globalization, and Sudden Stop risk. In this framework, Sudden Stops are an equilibrium outcome produced by an endogenous credit constraint that triggers Irving Fisher's debt-deflation mechanism. Our results show that financial globalization and Sudden Stop risk are plausible explanations of the observed surge in reserves but business cycle volatility is not. In fact, business cycle volatility has declined in the post-globalization period. These results hold whether we use the formulation of intertemporal preferences of the Bewley-Aiyagari-Hugget class of precautionary savings models or the Uzawa-Epstein setup with endogenous time preference.

Development of Head Space Sorptive Extraction Method for the Determination of Volatile Compounds in Beer and Comparison with Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction

A headspace sorptive extraction method coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HSSE-GC-MS) was developed for the determination of 37 volatile compounds in beer. After optimization of the extraction conditions, the best conditions for the analysis were stirring at 1000 rpm for 180 min, using an 8-mL sample with 25% NaCl. The analytical method provided excellent linearity values (R-2 > 0.99) for the calibration of all the compounds studied, with the detection and quantification limits obtained being low enough for the determination of the compounds in the beers studied. When studying the repeatability of the method, it proved to be quite accurate, since RSD% values lower than 20% were obtained for all the compounds. On the other hand, the recovery study was successfully concluded, resulting in acceptable values for most of the compounds (80-120%). The optimised method was successfully applied to real beer samples of different types (ale, lager, stout and wheat). Finally, an analytical comparison of the optimised HSSE method, with a previously developed and validated stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) method was performed, obtaining similar concentration values by both methods for most compounds