Causality, Input Price Variability, and Structural Changes in the U.S. Livestock- Meat Industry

Industrial Organization, Livestock Production/Industries,

Ambient literature as an act of faith in the York medieval mystery cycle

This paper seeks to correct a conceptual amnesia by using the vocabulary of ambient literature to discuss the medieval production of the Corpus Christi mystery cycle at York – with particular emphasis on the Crucifixion pageant. In its technological and narrative elements, the 14th-16th century dramaturgy will serve as a critical framework to judge the survivability of literary ambience beyond the temporal social and material realities of an ‘everyday shared world.’ Case-studies of modern reproductions of the medieval mystery play will show how a situated literary ambience resists anachronistic manipulation

Another Thorn in the Semantic Briar Patch of the Hanging Paragraph: Is Negative Equity a Purchase Money Security Interest?

Non

Bootstrapping multivariate UU-quantiles and related statistics

AbstractThe asymptotic consistency of the bootstrap approximation of the vector of the marginal generalized quantiles of U-statistic structure (multivariate U-quantiles for short) is established. The asymptotic accuracy of the bootstrap approximation is also obtained. Extensions to smooth functions of marginal generalized quantiles are given and some specific examples, such as the vector of marginal sample quantiles and the vector of marginal Hodges-Lehmann location estimators, are discussed

Attention and Saliency on the Internet: Evidence from an online recommendation system

Using high-frequency transaction-level data from an online retail store, we examine whether consumer choices on the internet are consistent with models of limited attention. We test whether consumers are more likely to buy products that receive a saliency shock when they are recommended by new products. To identify the saliency effect, we rely on i) the timing of new product arrivals, ii) the fact that new products are per se highly salient upon arrival, drawing more attention and iii) regional variation in the composition of recommendation sets. We find a sharp and robust 6% increase in the aggregate sales of existing products after they are recommended by a new product. To structurally disentangle the effect of saliency on a consumer's consideration and choice decision, we use data on individual transactions to estimate a probabilistic choice set model. We find that the saliency effect is driven largely by an expansion of consumers' consideration sets

An Edgeworth expansion for finite population L-statistics

In this paper, we consider the one-term Edgeworth expansion for finite population L-statistics. We provide an explicit formula for the Edgeworth correction term and give sufficient conditions for the validity of the expansion which are expressed in terms of the weight function that defines the statistics and moment conditions.Comment: 14 pages. Minor revisions. Some explanatory comments and a numerical example were added. Lith. Math. J. (to appear

HyperImage – Image-Oriented e-Science Networks

Images are an important source of scientific knowledge in many disciplines. E.g. you want to analyse satellite photographs or x-ray images of human livers or symbols of death in Dutch baroque paintings. You study the relevant images closely and compare details of one image with details of another. When you want to share your knowledge you will necessarily also communicate about image details. Using paper images, you can just mark up details of interest with a pencil. But with digital images you either have to make marks by employing an image manipulation software, which is not as widespread and easy to use as current text processing software is. Or you have to describe your findings verbally, such as "... above left is an interesting dark spot in picture No. 1 ... now compare it to picture No. 2 where a similar dark spot can be found nearly in the centre of the picture ..." and so on. Neither the employment of a complex image manipulation software package nor the time consuming and not very precise verbal description is satisfactory and appropriate for everyday use in science. Additionally, any technical solution to the lack of easy-to-use technology has to be Web-based in order to support collaborative research on images. The HyperImage project is concerned with the currently unsolved technical problem of establishing links between image details. Our goal is to develop a Web-based workspace that will enable scientists in any image-oriented discipline to create simple and precise links between images and image details, in a fashion similar to that which until now has been the privilege of text. The HyperImage editor permits scientists to mark details of pictures and create links between images and image details of any scale. It is programmed as a platform independent Java application and is open source (GNU Lesser General Public Licence). Any work in progress can be stored within the Hyper- Image system by an author or group of authors, or it can be exported as XML for further usage outside the HyperImage system. Currently we are testing our software prototype with our HyperImage partners from the faculties of Art History and Biology

Patent Litigation in Europe

We compare patent litigation cases across four European jurisdictions—Germany, the UK (England and Wales), France, The Netherlands—using case-level data gathered from cases filed in the four jurisdictions during the period 2000–2008. Overall, we find substantial differences across jurisdictions in terms of caseloads—notably, courts in Germany hear by far the largest number of cases, not only in absolute terms, but also when taking macro-economic indicators into account—and we further find important cross-country variances in terms of case outcomes. Moreover, we show empirically that a considerable number of patents are litigated across multiple European jurisdictions; and further, that in the majority of these cases divergent case outcomes are reached across the different jurisdictions, suggesting that the long-suspected problem of inconsistency of decision-making in European patent litigation is in fact real. Finally, we note that the coming into force of the Unified Patent Court in Europe may, in the long term, help to alleviate this inconsistency problem

Energy use in pig production: An examination of current Iowa Systems

This paper compares energy use for different pig production systems in Iowa, a leader in US swine production. Pig production systems include not only the growth and performance of the pigs, but also the supporting infrastructure of pig production. This supporting infrastructure includes swine housing, facility management, feedstuff provision, swine diets, and manure management. Six different facility type × diet formulation × cropping sequence scenarios were modeled and compared. The baseline system examined produces 15,600 pigs annually using confinement facilities and a corn-soybean cropping sequence. Diet formulations for the baseline system were corn-soybean meal diets that included the synthetic AA L-lysine and exogenous phytase. The baseline system represents the majority of current US pork production in the Upper Midwest, where most US swine are produced. This system was found to require 744.6 MJ per 136-kg market pig. An alternative system that uses bedded hoop barns for grow-finish pigs and gestating sows would require 3% less (720.8 MJ) energy per 136-kg market pig. When swine production systems were assessed, diet type and feed ingredient processing were the major influences on energy use, accounting for 61 and 79% of total energy in conventional and hoop barn-based systems, respectively. Improving feed efficiency and better matching the diet formulation with the thermal environment and genetic potential are thus key aspects of reducing energy use by pig production, particularly in a hoop barn-based system. The most energy-intensive aspect of provisioning pig feed is the production of synthetic N for crop production; thus, effectively recycling manure nutrients to cropland is another important avenue for future research. Almost 25% of energy use by a conventional farrow-to-finish pig production system is attributable to operation of the swine buildings. Developing strategies to minimize energy use for heating and ventilation of swine buildings while maintaining pig comfort and performance is a third critical area for future research. The hoop barn-based alternative uses 64% less energy to operate buildings but requires bedding and 2.4% more feed. Current Iowa pig production systems use energy differently but result in similar total energy use. Compared with 1975, current farrow-to-finish systems in Iowa require 80% less energy to produce live market pigs

Nonsolar energy use and one-hundred-year global warming potential of Iowa swine feedstuffs and feeding strategies

Demand for nonsolar energy and concern about the implications of fossil fuel combustion have encouraged examination of energy use associated with agriculture. The United States is a global leader in pig production, and the United States swine industry is centered in Iowa. Feed is the largest individual input in pig production, but the energy consumption of the Iowa swine feed production chain has yet to be critically examined. This analysis examines nonsolar energy use and resulting 100-yr global warming potential (GWP) associated with the swine feed production chain, beginning with cultivation of crops and concluding with diet formulation. The nonsolar energy use and accompanying 100-yr GWP associated with production of 13 common swine feed ingredients are estimated. Two diet formulation strategies are considered for 4 crop sequence × ingredient choice combinations to generate 8 crop sequence × diet formulation scenarios. The first formulation strategy (simple) does not include synthetic AA or phytase. The second strategy (complex) reduces CP content of the diet by using L-lysine to meet standardized ileal digestibility lysine requirements of pigs and includes the exogenous enzyme phytase. Regardless of crop sequence × diet formulation scenario, including the enzyme phytase is energetically favorable and reduces the potential excretion of P by reducing or removing inorganic P from the complete diet. Including L-lysine reduces the CP content of the diet and requires less nonsolar energy to deliver adequate standardized ileal digestible lysine than simply feeding soybean meal. Replacing soybean meal with full-fat soybeans is not energetically beneficial under Iowa conditions. Swine diets including dried distillers grains with solubles and crude glycerol require approximately 50% more nonsolar energy inputs than corn-soybean meal diets or corn-soybean meal diets including oats. This study provides essential information on cultivation, processing, and manufacture of swine feed ingredients in Iowa that can be coupled with other models to estimate the nonsolar energy use and 100-yr GWP of pig production