IMMIGRATION, MEAT PACKING, AND TRADE: IMPLICATIONS FOR IOWA

The paper examines changes in employment and wage patterns, industrial restructuring, and foreign competition that affect opportunities of recent immigrants to the non-metropolitan Midwest, especially to Iowa. The focus is on food and kindred products where meat and poultry packing and processing are major components. Although total employment in this industry declined between 1980 and 1990, a significant increase in employment of Hispanic- and Asian- origin persons occurred in Iowa. As unions weakened and the real wage rate declined sharply during 1980-85 in meat and poultry packing and processing, new job opportunities for recent immigrants became available. These jobs provided full-time year-round work at significantly above the minimum wage and made regular schooling for their children and frequently home ownership possible. Note: Tables are not included in the PDF file--contact the authors for more information.

Studies on Encephalomyocarditis Virus-Induced Diabetes in Mice

The D-variant of encephalomyocarditis (EMC-D) virus was given to SJUJ mice by the artificial, intraperitoneal (ip) route of infection, or by the natural routes of infection per os (po) or intranasal (i.n .), in comparable concentrations. The po route of infection was found to be ineffective. Mice given virus by either the ip or i.n. routes of infection became diabetic. Mice were more resistant to the infectious and diabetogenic properties of the virus when given by the i.n. than when given by the ip route. Glycosuria in mice given virus i.n. usually lagged one day behind that in mice given virus ip. Measurement of glucose in mouse urine by use of Diastix® reagent strips was found to be a reliable indicator of diabetes. This test was easily and quickly accomplished without harm or pain to the mice. Crude virus preparations were compared to purified virus preparations for their diabetogenic and infectious properties in mice. No statistically significant differences in either parameter were observed. Virus prepared by a single passage in BHK-21 cells was fully diabetogenic, contrary to a previously published report. Male SJUJ mice were infected with a diabetogenic dose of EMC-D virus by the i.n. route. Relative times of development of virus infection and mouse resistance parameters were compared to the time of development of signs of diabetes in the mice. A rapid decrease of plasma interferon titer corresponded to the time of development of signs of diabetes in the infected mice. Whether this was coincidental or has some significance in development of diabetes is unknown. Tissue sections from pancreas, spleen , kidney, liver, lung , heart, and thymus were studied by immunohistochemical staining techniques for the presence of virus antigen, insulin, and the three types of mouse interferon (α, β, and γ). Glucose was excreted in the saliva of mice with glycosuria. Previous reports of this excretion in diabetic mice have not been found in the literature. Mice without glycosuria did not excrete measurable (by Clinistix® or Diastix®) glucose in saliva. Some mice were able to control the polyuria, polydipsia, and polyphagia normally seen in diabetes mellitus. These mice eventually reverted from having signs of diabetes to a normal state of plasma glucose and urine devoid of glucose. The mechanisms by which the mice were able to do this are unknown at this time

CONSUMER HOME-USE EVALUATION OF A DEVELOPED LEAN GROUND BEEF PRODUCT

This study reports findings on the acceptance of a new lean ground beef product. Tested products involved 1) a Developed Lean product (less than 10% fat plus quality enhancers), 2) a Lean product (less than 10% fat without quality enhancers), and 3) a Market product (slightly more than 20% fat). These products were home delivered on a rotating basis to a random sample of 91 households, one product each week for three weeks. Product traits were evaluated by the household meal preparer at three stages of home use: preparing (5 traits), cooking (3 traits), and eating (4 traits), and by other household members at the final consumption stage of eating. More favorable ratings were observed for both Developed Lean and Lean products over the Market product at the preparing and cooking stages. Ratings at the eating stage were similar between the Developed Lean and the Market products indicating a favorable response to the Developed Lean product.Consumer/Household Economics,

An Economic Analysis of Expenditures on Agricultural Experiment Station Research

Experiment station research expenditures are responsive to economic and institutional forces. A four-equation model of resources allocation to state agricultural experiment station research, consisting of demand and supply equations for research, an equation allocating state governmental revenues to station research, and an expenditure identity, is presented. A reduced-form expenditure equation, derived from this model, is fitted to cross-sectional data for forty-eight U.S. states, pooled together for 1960, 1965,and 1970. A large share of the variance in per capita expenditures of state agricultural experiment stations is explained by the variables included in the model

HEAVY-TAILED DISTRIBUTIONS AND THE CANADIAN STOCK MARKET RETURNS

Many of financial engineering theories are based on so-called “complete markets” and on the use of the Black-Scholes formula. The formula relies on the assumption that asset prices follow a log-normal distribution, or in other words, the daily fluctuations in prices viewed as percentage changes follow a Gaussian distribution. On the contrary, studies of actual asset prices show that they do not follow a log-normal distribution. In this paper, we investigate several widely-used heavy-tailed distributions. Our results indicate that the Skewed t distribution has the best empirical performance in fitting the Canadian stock market returns. We claim the results are valuable for market participants and the financial industry

Dynamic Corn Supply Functions: A Model with Explicit Optimization

Both static and dynamic models have been used to estimate aggregate supply elasticities for annual crops. The early studies relied on static single-equation models in a few variables, assumed static price expectations (e.g., Kohls and Paarlberg), and produced very small estimates of own-price supply elasticities (e.g., 0.07 for corn), Nerlove (1956, 1958a) and Nerlove and Addison showed that models of agricultural supply that incorporated adap tive price expectations and (or) dynamic resource adjustment produced larger estimates of supply elasticities for corn and other agricultural commodities. Additionally, they showed that supply elasticities obtained from static models need not be bounded by the short-run and long-run supply elasticities of dynamic models. These simple, single-equation, Nerlovian-type models have been adapted to a wide range of agricultural supply problems, e.g., see Askari and Cummings; Nerlove (1979)