AN ECONOMETRIC DECOMPOSITION OF AGGREGATE DATA: APPLICATION TO THE EU-15 AVERAGE CATTLE SLAUGHTER WEIGHT

Decomposition method was developed to disaggregate EU cattle slaughter weight. Model has good fit, no correlation, significant coefficients, consistent signs, and desirable Theil-validation statistics. Estimates for calves, cows, and other cattle are very close to reported weights. Application for New Zealand, Mexico, sheep sector, and dairy-beef calving rates were also successful.Livestock Production/Industries, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Measuring the impacts of credit restrictions on the trade performance of debtor nations

The interdependence of the developed world economy and that of the third world has been increasingly evident since the debt crisis of the eighties. International trade declined with the consequence of global economic stagnation. One major contributor to the cumulative and self reinforcing nature of the crisis is the trade impacts of the restrictive capital flows. Trade models applied to extract the debt-to-trade linkages have generally over looked the micro economic behavior that lead to the observed macroeconomic performance. Micro economic models abound that examine the theoretical concerns of this issue. This study re-examines the theoretical considerations, especially as they apply to limited capital availability and the consequences in consumption and investment behavior. Such decisions, made under limited borrowing ability, are linked to the conventional trade model via the national income and balance of payments account identities. The observed consumption and investments are modelled as deviating from the optimal, with no limits on borrowing, and a model is developed to measure this adjustment in total absorption. Import decisions arise from the consumption and investment demands so determined. Export production is dependent on the capacity to import. Thus the trade performance is linked to the consumption and investment decisions and is affected by the capital constraints. The adjustment factor thus obtained, in combination with the traditional elasticity measures enables constructing export and import elasticities with respect to constraining capital. The model estimates were made on a pooled data of eighteen countries that face debt problems. The model estimates confirm the linkages. However, the sensitivity of trade to credit limits appear too low, possibly due to the degree of heterogeneity in the pooled data

The Effects of Soybean Protein Changes on Major Agricultural Markets

What are the likely impacts of biogenetically increasing the protein content of soybeans? In this study, the linkages among the associated sectors are identified and quantified for probable impacts by sectors. The authors also illustrate appropriate procedures for assessing potential technological improvements. They determine that U.S. crop producers benefit, but corn producers gain more than soybean producers

User Manual for CPEP: The Corn Product Evaluation Program, a Macro Program in Lotus 1-2-3

This manual documents the first release of the the Corn Product Evaluation Program (CPEP) program. The CPEP is a Lotus 1-2-3 macro program that is intended to facilitate benefit/cost evaluation of alternative corn products. The program is fully menu-driven. The user is guided through the program via typical 1-2-3 menus, from which the user makes selections. A working knowledge of Lotus 1-2-3 is all that is required to use CPEP. A proficient Lotus macro programmer, however, can further modify or customize the program to meet more specialized needs

An Econometric Decomposition of Aggregate Data: Application to the EU-15 Average Cattle Slaughter Weight

The level of aggregation of reported data has limited the proper accounting of live animals in many livestock models, making the consistency of their underlying biologics suspect. The authors suggest an econometric methodology to decompose a wide range of aggregate data, and they apply this method to estimate a disaggregated average cattle slaughter weight for calves, cows, and other cattle from total beef production data in the European Union

Production of fish pickle from abundantly available popular Batticaloa lagoon fishes

A study was carried out to select the most suitable lagoon fish for the production of fish pickle. The abundantly available popular Batticaloa lagoon fishes were selected based on the data collected from a questionnaire survey. Accordingly fish pickles were prepared using Tilapia, Etroplus and Catfish. Nutritional assessment and sensory evaluation were performed to select a suitable lagoon fish to prepare the fish pickle. The tilapia fish pickle was found to be superior in nutritional composition. It had high amount of soft flesh, protein and ash and moderate amount of fat The tilapia fish pickle was chosen as superior by the sensory panelists. It expressed higher scores for flavour, texture, taste and over all eating quality compared to the others. Cat fish pickle had the amount of fat but this fish is not suitable for the preparation of pickle due to its small amount of flesh, fishy odour, low amount of protein and ash, and lowest scores for flavor, texture, taste and overall eating quality. Etroplus gave moderate nutritional values and sensory scores. Therefore, tilapia was selected as the most suitable fish founding in the Batticaloa lagoon for the preservation as fish pickle

Nutritional status of pre-school children in Manmunai South West (Paddipalai) divisional secretariat area of Batticaloa

This study was conducted with the aim of assessing nutritional status of pre-school children at Paddipalai Divisional Secretariat area of Batticaloa District which is one of the war affected area in Sri Lanka. A sample of 150 subjects was selected from preschools through multi stage sampling techniques. Anthropometric measurements of Weight, Height, Mid Upper Arm Circumference, Hip and Waist were performed using standardized procedure on the preschool children. From those measurements anthropometric indices of Height-for-age, Weight-for-height, and Weight-for-age were generated. Information on socio-economic characteristic of household and dietary pattern of children was gathered by an interview using food frequency questionnaire. Study revealed that, nearly 70% of children's families receiving food aids or food stamps from government. Most of their parent's income level was under the poverty level of Rs.3000 per month. About 72.2% of the parent's education level was below the G.C.E (O/L) and rate of literacy of them around 27%. The student's meat intake frequency was monthly basis and they consume egg, milk and fruit at fortnight basis. Children showed a considerable risk for being stunted (65%), wasting (61%) and underweight (80%). It is also found that, girls had higher nutritional risk than boys. It is concluded that, the nutritional status of pre-school children in the Paddipalai Divisional Secretariat in Batticaloa district is very poor and civil unrest, unfavorable climatic changes are associated with malnutrition of children

Measurement-free error correction with coherent ancillas

We show that coherent error correction with redundant syndrome extraction is feasible even when realistic error models for the ancilla qubits are used. This is done by means of a fault-tolerant circuit that has a favorable error threshold for a conservative error model. It is optimal when Toffoli gates are available, as they are in many implementations. The possibility of coherent error correction is important for those quantum computing platforms in which measurements in the course of the computation are undesirable.Comment: 3 figure