MONITORING THE IMPACT OF CONSOLIDATION IN THE FOOD SYSTEM ON THE CONSUMER IN 1996

Very little research has been done on the impact of mergers, divestitures, and leveraged buyouts on the American consumer. The U.S. food marketing system had nearly 400 mergers and leveraged buyouts in 1996, bringing the 15-year total to about 6,400. In 1996, all indicators show that consumers were not adversely affected by this level of activity, although profitability and owners' equity continue to skyrocket. This presentation examines the consumer's welfare indirectly by looking at key economic indicators of the food marketing system in 1996-such as retail food prices, advertising expenditures, new product introductions, research and development, profitability, and equity appreciation.Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics,

The Food Marketing System in 1996

New food product introductions fell sharply in 1996. The number of new plants, consumer advertising expenditures, and common stock prices reached new highs in 1996, as did the number of mergers in the foodservice industry. Profitability from food manufacturing and retailing was higher due to strong sales, wage and producer price stability, and streamlining of operations.food marketing, food processors, wholesalers, retailers, foodservice, advertising, profitability, trade, Agribusiness, Marketing,

AGGREGATE PROFITABILITY IN U.S. FOOD MANUFACTURING

Agribusiness,

ARE THERE TOO MANY NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTIONS IN U.S. FOOD MARKETING?

New food product introductions have risen sharply in recent years, but the net number of products on retail shelves has remained about the same. Most new product introductions are extensions of existing products, and innovation has fallen sharply in recent years.Marketing,

FOOD PROCESSING ASSETS

U.S. food processing sector assets are valued at about $360 billion, or about 12 percent of all manufacturing assets. Profit and sales returns on assets in food processing are among the highest in the U.S. economy. Foreign holdings comprise a significant portion of food processors' assets.Agribusiness,

CONSOLIDATION IN THE U.S. FOOD MARKETING SYSTEM

Marketing,

FOOD PROCESSING PROFITS DURING ECONOMIC STAGNATION

Agribusiness,

PROFILE OF THE U.S. FOOD DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM GOING INTO THE 1990S

Agribusiness,

Removing krypton from xenon by cryogenic distillation to the ppq level

The XENON1T experiment aims for the direct detection of dark matter in a cryostat filled with 3.3 tons of liquid xenon. In order to achieve the desired sensitivity, the background induced by radioactive decays inside the detector has to be sufficiently low. One major contributor is the $\beta$-emitter $^{85}$Kr which is an intrinsic contamination of the xenon. For the XENON1T experiment a concentration of natural krypton in xenon $\rm{^{nat}}$Kr/Xe < 200 ppq (parts per quadrillion, 1 ppq = 10$^{-15}$ mol/mol) is required. In this work, the design of a novel cryogenic distillation column using the common McCabe-Thiele approach is described. The system demonstrated a krypton reduction factor of 6.4$\cdot$10$^5$ with thermodynamic stability at process speeds above 3 kg/h. The resulting concentration of $\rm{^{nat}}$Kr/Xe < 26 ppq is the lowest ever achieved, almost one order of magnitude below the requirements for XENON1T and even sufficient for future dark matter experiments using liquid xenon, such as XENONnT and DARWIN

Search for Two-Neutrino Double Electron Capture of 124^{124}Xe with XENON100

Two-neutrino double electron capture is a rare nuclear decay where two electrons are simultaneously captured from the atomic shell. For $^{124}$Xe this process has not yet been observed and its detection would provide a new reference for nuclear matrix element calculations. We have conducted a search for two-neutrino double electron capture from the K-shell of $^{124}$Xe using 7636 kg$\cdot$d of data from the XENON100 dark matter detector. Using a Bayesian analysis we observed no significant excess above background, leading to a lower 90 % credibility limit on the half-life $T_{1/2}>6.5\times10^{20}$ yr. We also evaluated the sensitivity of the XENON1T experiment, which is currently being commissioned, and find a sensitivity of $T_{1/2}>6.1\times10^{22}$ yr after an exposure of 2 t$\cdot$yr.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure