Dynamic Assessment of Oligopoly, Oligopsony Power, and Cost Efficiency using the New Empirical Industrial Organization in the U.S. Beef Packing Industry

In this paper, the new empirical industrial organization approach with a dynamic model is simultaneously employed to measure the degree of oligopoly, oligopsony power, and cost efficiency in the U.S. beef packing industry. The oligopsony power is estimated with two effects: cash cattle procurement market power and captive supply market power. The model is estimated by the Generalized Method of Moments using monthly data from 1990 to 2006. The empirical results reveal the presence of market power in both the beef retail market and the cattle procurement market in the sample period. The captive supply is a source of oligopsony market power, but the effect is considerably small. The oligopsony market power is greater and less stable than oligopoly market power for the whole sample period. The cost efficiency effect outweighs the market power effects for the sample period.beef packing industry, captive supply, cost efficiency, industrial concentration, market power, NEIO, Agricultural and Food Policy, Industrial Organization, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Q13,

Dynamic Assessment of Bertrand Oligopsony in the U.S. Cattle Procurement Market

The new empirical industrial organization approach with the Bertrand model is employed to measure the oligopsony market power in the U.S. cattle procurement market. The assumption of price competition (Bertrand model) based on the nature of cattle production such as cattle cycle and seasonality is used and compared to quantity competition (Cournot model). The empirical results show that the oligopsony market power exists in the U.S. cattle procurement market. The cattle cycle and seasonality affect the oligopsony market power and the cattle cycle causes the change of market power. However, concentration has a negative effect on the oligopsony market power.cattle cycle, concentration, market power, NEIO, oligopsony, seasonality, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Industrial Organization, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Q13, L13, L16,

Investigation of tetrahedron elements using automatic meshing in finite element analysis

This investigation examines the quality of finite element analysis (FEA) results based on the use of tetrahedron elements. For some classes of problems analyzed by the finite element method (FEM), the use of various polynomial order tetrahedra is considered quite acceptable. However, in other classes of problems, particularly stress analysis, users have a strong bias against these types of elements. Various case studies are performed, comparing results based on several types of three-dimensional elements

Search Results Enhanced by Lens

When searching the internet on a phone, users are looking for an enhanced experience that allows them to dive deeper and learn more about products and images as they come across various articles and shopping sites. The current experience in some search apps involving a long hold on an image is very limited and may only give the option to save an image. This user interface brings the Lens experience to additional search apps in multiple operating systems. The Lens experience is triggered by an action on an image in the search app, and this helps to provide more of a discoverable proactive experience to the user

The Circular Economy: Take-Back Systems for Textile Recycling

Waste management issues in the textile and clothing industry can be related to either pre-consumer or post-consumer waste. An effective take-back system for post-consumer clothing waste plays a critical role in maximizing reuse and recycling of textile wastes. The purpose of this study was to investigate emerging technologies regarding the development of robust take-back systems as well as further design development and consumer involvement

Three Essays on Market Power in the U.S. Cattle Procurement Market

This study consists of three essays. The first essay tests the causality between captive supply and cash market price in the U.S. cattle procurement market. Three causality tests, the Granger test, the Sims test, and the Modified Wald test, were conducted for four relationships: cash market price-total captive supply, cash market price-marketing agreement, cash market price-forward contract, and cash market price-packer fed cattle. All three tests indicate that cash market price is caused by total captive supply and marketing agreement. The Modified Wald test shows the bidirectional causality between cash market price and forward contract. Also, the Modified Wald test finds no causal relationship between cash market price and packer fed cattle. Overall test results indicate that captive supply causes cash market price, and the results favor the price dependent model over the quantity dependent model.The second essay measures the impacts of concentration and captive supply on oligopoly and oligopsony market power and cost efficiency in the U.S. beef packing industry using both static and dynamic empirical industrial organization models. Two separate sources of oligopsony power are considered: the cash cattle procurement market and the captive supply market. The results show the presence of market powers in both beef retail and cattle procurement markets. The oligopsony market power is greater but more unstable than oligopoly market power throughout the entire sample period. Concentration and captive supply play a role in increasing market power. The cost efficiency effects caused by increasing concentration and captive supply outweigh the market power effects.The third essay uses the new empirical industrial organization approach with the Bertrand model to measure the oligopsony market power in the U.S. cattle procurement market. It tests whether the market power is caused by concentration, cattle cycle, and seasonality. The results show that the oligopsony market power exists in the U.S. cattle procurement market. The cattle cycle and seasonality affect the oligopsony market power and the cattle cycle causes the change in market power. However, concentration has a negative effect on the oligopsony market power.Department of Agricultural Economic

Design, Development and Testing of a Low-cost Sub-Joule μPPT for a PocketQube

Small satellites are unmanned spacecraft with small size and mass weighing less than 500kg. A small satellite called the CubeSat was created by two university professors to help students understand satellite design. The idea of small satellites caught on and they became popular due to their low cost, quick development time and easy deployment. The inexpensive nature of small satellites has helped lower the entry barrier to space and led to a movement called the “democratisation of space”. The popularity of small satellites has also caught the eye of private companies that recognise the potential of commercialising small satellite technologies. Nowadays, small satellites are being considered for more complex and challenging space missions. However for a small satellite to reach its full potential, it needs to be equipped with a proper propulsion system. Governments, space agencies, companies and universities around the world have started to research new innovative miniaturised space propulsion technologies. Nowadays, there are many newly developed miniaturised propulsion technologies available. The new propulsion systems are either sold by the companies and universities at a very high price, or research and development is closely guarded due to the potential commercial value of the propulsion system. Companies and universities have primarily focused on researching and developing top-of-the-line micro-propulsion devices to win lucrative research funds. This has resulted in a lack of research into cheap reliable micropropulsion as there have been no incentives for companies and universities to develop this area. As a result, fund-limited students and individuals have been left behind, defeating the purpose of small satellites. This dissertation focuses on designing and developing a low-cost sub-joule micro-PPT propulsion system for a PocketQube satellite. The first section covers the literature review, which looks at the different space propulsion technologies currently available. The next section covers the micro-PPT propulsion system’s mechanical and electrical design and development process. After the development process, the performance of the prototype is tested using various input parameters, as well as in vacuum conditions and over its lifetime. The test results show that the optimal performance is obtained with an input voltage supply of 5V at a pulse frequency of 0.5Hz, which achieves a minimal impulse bit v of 0.698μNs and thrust range of 0.349~1.071μN. In comparison to the STRaND-1 3U CubeSat’s PPT, performance data show that the developed μPPT propulsion system is a competitive propulsion solution, as it achieves more thrust with similar minimal impulse bit, using only one third of the power consumption. The μPPT propulsion system is able to produce 1980 shots so far, which is far lower relatively than other established PPTs due to the limitations resulting from capacitor failure.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment, and Technology, 202

Genre et réécriture de l’Histoire : du témoignage à l’autobiographie à plusieurs voix

This work shows the conditions of the elaboration, and production, of languages and writings that revisit a subjective and collective memory by rewriting History beyond violence, denial, repression, and censorship. This work analyses the relationship between the autos, the I, the self – inseparable from the bios, life as an experience the body goes through - and the graphein, the act of writing, the written form, at once text, testimony and narrative, by examining the question of how the “mother tongue” is involved in this relationship. Firstly, it concerns the analysis of the testimony The history we rewrite with memory through which “comfort women”, survivors of sexual slavery in South Korea during the Japanese occupation, emerge as a subject of History and writing. This analysis shows how women have begun to write by agitating the idea of the woman in the writing of History. Thanks to the collaboration of a Team of Testimonies, testimonies become life stories, biographies. Then, in the autobiographical text Dictée, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha brings to light another subject of the enunciation, an “embodied voice” addressing the other part of South Korean history, through her own family’s story in a language of exile, a language of the other. Autobiographical writing, an account of an individual’s story, meets the writing of History, yet resists the subsumption of the Woman and thought. In this perspective, this work question the complexity of the “mother tongue” and the shortcomings of autobiography in philosophers’ works such as Arendt, Adorno, Derrida, Todorov, Mizubayashi. The “mother language” reveals itself sometimes as the language of the Nation, of the law, of the other and sometimes as the language of affection, and intimacy, of the genealogical relationship.Ce travail montre les conditions d'élaboration et de production de langues et écritures qui relisent une mémoire subjective et collective, en récrivant l'Histoire par-delà les violences, les dénis, les refoulements et les censures. Il analyse le rapport entre l’autos, je, soi-même, inséparable du bios, la vie comme expérience qui traverse le corps, et la graphie, l’écriture, à la fois texte, témoignage et récit, en examinant comment la question de la « langue maternelle » intervient dans ce rapport. Cela concerne d’abord l'analyse du texte du témoignage L’histoire qu’on réécrit avec la mémoire (2001) à travers lequel émergent en sujet de l'histoire et de l'écriture les « femmes de réconfort » survivantes de l'esclavage sexuel en Corée du Sud pendant l'occupation japonaise. Cette analyse montre comment des femmes viennent à l’écriture en troublant la femme dans l’écriture de l’Histoire. Grâce au dispositif du Team de Témoignages, les témoignages se modulent en écriture de vie, en biographies. Ensuite, dans le texte autobiographique Dictée, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha fait apparaître un autre sujet d'énonciation une « voix peuplée » qui vise l'autre histoire de la Corée du Sud à partir de son histoire familiale dans une langue d'exil, une langue de l’autre. L’écriture autobiographique, qui est une écriture de l’histoire individuelle, croise l’écriture de l’Histoire en résistant à la subsumption de la femme ainsi que de la pensée. Dans cette perspective, ce travail interroge la complexité de la « langue maternelle » et de l'autobiographie chez des philosophes tels qu’Arendt, Adorno, Derrida, Todorov, Mizubayashi. La « langue maternelle » se révèle tantôt comme langue de la Nation, de la loi, de l’autre tantôt comme langue de l’affection et de l’intime, de la relation généalogique

Design, Development and Testing of a Low-cost Sub-Joule μPPT for a PocketQube

Small satellites are unmanned spacecraft with small size and mass weighing less than 500kg. A small satellite called the CubeSat was created by two university professors to help students understand satellite design. The idea of small satellites caught on and they became popular due to their low cost, quick development time and easy deployment. The inexpensive nature of small satellites has helped lower the entry barrier to space and led to a movement called the “democratisation of space”. The popularity of small satellites has also caught the eye of private companies that recognise the potential of commercialising small satellite technologies. Nowadays, small satellites are being considered for more complex and challenging space missions. However for a small satellite to reach its full potential, it needs to be equipped with a proper propulsion system. Governments, space agencies, companies and universities around the world have started to research new innovative miniaturised space propulsion technologies. Nowadays, there are many newly developed miniaturised propulsion technologies available. The new propulsion systems are either sold by the companies and universities at a very high price, or research and development is closely guarded due to the potential commercial value of the propulsion system. Companies and universities have primarily focused on researching and developing top-of-the-line micro-propulsion devices to win lucrative research funds. This has resulted in a lack of research into cheap reliable micropropulsion as there have been no incentives for companies and universities to develop this area. As a result, fund-limited students and individuals have been left behind, defeating the purpose of small satellites. This dissertation focuses on designing and developing a low-cost sub-joule micro-PPT propulsion system for a PocketQube satellite. The first section covers the literature review, which looks at the different space propulsion technologies currently available. The next section covers the micro-PPT propulsion system’s mechanical and electrical design and development process. After the development process, the performance of the prototype is tested using various input parameters, as well as in vacuum conditions and over its lifetime. The test results show that the optimal performance is obtained with an input voltage supply of 5V at a pulse frequency of 0.5Hz, which achieves a minimal impulse bit v of 0.698μNs and thrust range of 0.349~1.071μN. In comparison to the STRaND-1 3U CubeSat’s PPT, performance data show that the developed μPPT propulsion system is a competitive propulsion solution, as it achieves more thrust with similar minimal impulse bit, using only one third of the power consumption. The μPPT propulsion system is able to produce 1980 shots so far, which is far lower relatively than other established PPTs due to the limitations resulting from capacitor failure.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment, and Technology, 202