Consumer Willingness-to-Pay for Fresh Pork Attributes

A survey was used to gauge consumer preferences toward four fresh pork attributes: juiciness, tenderness, marbling, and leanness. The survey elicited consumer willingness-to-pay a premium for an improvement in these attributes. Approximately one-half of the respondents were willing to pay some premium for the attributes of juiciness, leanness, and tenderness. The average premium size ranged from $0.20/lb. for marbling to$0.37/lb. for tenderness. Neither the choice of a certifying agency nor the use of a cheap talk script influenced premium levels.pork attributes, pork markets, willingness to pay, Agribusiness, Marketing,

Plasma etching a ceramic composite

Plasma etching is found to be a superior metallographic technique for evaluating the microstructure of a ceramic matrix composite. The ceramic composite studied is composed of silicon carbide whiskers (SiC(sub W)) in a matrix of silicon nitride (Si3N4), glass, and pores. All four constituents are important in evaluating the microstructure of the composite. Conventionally prepared samples, both as-polished or polished and etched with molten salt, do not allow all four constituents to be observed in one specimen. As-polished specimens allow examination of the glass phase and porosity, while molten salt etching reveals the Si3N4 grain size by removing the glass phase. However, the latter obscures the porosity. Neither technique allows the SiC(sub W) to be distinguished from the Si3N4. Plasma etching with CF4 + 4 percent O2 selectively attacks the Si3N4 grains, leaving SiC(sub W) and glass in relief, while not disturbing the pores. An artifact of the plasma etching reaction is the deposition of a thin layer of carbon on Si3N4, allowing Si3N4 grains to be distinguished from SiC(sub W) by back scattered electron imaging

Rainmaking, gender and power in Ihanzu, Tanzania, 1885-1995.

This thesis is about rainmaking amongst the Ihanzu (or Isanzu), a 30,000-strong matrilineal, Bantu-speaking agricultural group of north-central Tanzania. By examining rain rituals and their cosmological underpinnings as locally envisaged, I suggest that central to the Ihanzu cultural imagination lies the notion of gender complementarity. In a number of contexts, but particularly in the context of rainmaking, I show how masculine and feminine principles of a gendered universe, when combined, are seen as a site of cosmic and divine powers. To join the genders is to transform, to create, to rejuvenate. Using oral and archival sources, the first section examines the nature of the Ihanzu dual monarchy between 1885 and 1976. In spite of the radical political, economic and social changes that took place throughout this period, the dual leadership-with one male and one female-and people's understandings of royal power and legitimacy remained constant: control over rains is control over reigns. Section two examines annual rainmaking rites as they occur today. The point is to show the extent to which gender complementarity pervades these rites, and the local logic as to why this must be so. An indigenously grounded, gendered model of transformation is developed that applies equally to making children as to making rain. Power, in Ihanzu eyes, comes in gendered pairs. Section three discusses measures taken when annual rain rites fail to bring rain, and how the gendered model of transformation applies to these remedial rites. The penultimate chapter, on rain-witchcraft, suggests that gendered witches are a cosmological inversion of gendered rulers, yet for both duos their powers are based on gender complementarity. In the conclusion it is argued that the notion of gendered complementarity as developed in the thesis might be equally useful in explaining rain rites elsewhere in Africa

The Effectiveness of the Learning to BREATHE Program on Adolescent Emotion Regulation

This study assessed the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based program, Learning to BREATHE, on adolescent emotion regulation. Participants included 216 regular education public high school students with pretest and posttest data participating in the program or instruction-as-usual comparison condition. Program participants reported statistically lower levels of perceived stress and psychosomatic complaints and higher levels of efficacy in affective regulation. Program participants also evidenced statistically larger gains in emotion regulation skills including emotional awareness, access to regulation strategies, and emotional clarity. These findings provide promising evidence of the effectiveness of Learning to BREATHE on the development of key social-emotional learning skills