ACCURACY OF GRID PRICING: AN EVALUATION USING WHOLESALE VALUES OF FED CATTLE

Grid pricing is one of the beef industry's answers to improving value coordination in fed cattle transactions. This paper constructs individual carcass-level grid and wholesale beef values. These values are used to evaluate the level of value communication that occurs between wholesale and grid values of beef. Furthermore, the values are used to estimate grid premiums/discounts that improve value communication. Results indicate that value coordination could be improved by modifying grid premiums/discounts.Marketing,

U.S. Meat Demand: Household Dynamics and Media Information Impacts

This article uses national, quarterly data to examine U.S. meat demand using the Rotterdam model. We investigate the effect of multiple information indices linking different health concerns with diet, changes in household dynamics, and meat recall information. Medical journal articles linking iron, zinc, and protein with health and diet increase beef and poultry demand, whereas articles dealing with fat, cholesterol, and diet concerns reduce beef demand. Increasing consumption of food away from home enhances pork and poultry demand while reducing beef demand. Combined, these results provide a more complete and current understanding of the impact of multiple information factors faced by U.S. consumers.Atkins diet, female workforce, food away from home, food safety, health concerns, meat recalls, U.S. meat demand, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries,

Chromosomal in situ suppression hybridization of human gonosomes and autosomes and its use in clinical cytogenetics

DNA libraries from sorted human gonosomes were used selectively to stain the X and Y chromosomes in normal and aberrant cultured human cells by chromosomal in situ suppression (CISS-) hybridization. The entire X chromosome was stained in metaphase spreads. Interphase chromosome domains of both the active and inactive X were clearly delineated. CISS-hybridization of the Y chromosome resulted in the specific decoration of the euchromatic part (Ypter-q11), whereas the heterochromatic part (Yq12) remained unlabeled. The stained part of the Y chromosome formed a compact domain in interphase nuclei. This approach was applied to amniotic fluid cells containing a ring chromosome of unknown origin (47,XY; +r). The ring chromosome was not stained by library probes from the gonosomes, thereby suggesting its autosomal origin. The sensitivity of CISS-hybridization was demonstrated by the detection of small translocations and fragments in human lymphocyte metaphase spreads after irradiation with 60Co-gamma-rays. Lymphocyte cultures from two XX-males were investigated by CISS-hybridization with Y-library probes. In both cases, metaphase spreads demonstrated a translocation of Yp-material to the short arm of an X chromosome. The translocated Y-material could also be demonstrated directly in interphase nuclei. CISS-hybridization of autosomes 7 and 13 was used for prenatal diagnosis in a case with a known balanced translocation t(7;13) in the father. The same translocation was observed in amniotic fluid cells from the fetus. Specific staining of the chromosomes involved in such translocations will be particularly important, in the future, in cases that cannot be solved reliably by conventional chromosome banding alone

Time--Evolving Statistics of Chaotic Orbits of Conservative Maps in the Context of the Central Limit Theorem

We study chaotic orbits of conservative low--dimensional maps and present numerical results showing that the probability density functions (pdfs) of the sum of $N$ iterates in the large $N$ limit exhibit very interesting time-evolving statistics. In some cases where the chaotic layers are thin and the (positive) maximal Lyapunov exponent is small, long--lasting quasi--stationary states (QSS) are found, whose pdfs appear to converge to $q$--Gaussians associated with nonextensive statistical mechanics. More generally, however, as $N$ increases, the pdfs describe a sequence of QSS that pass from a $q$--Gaussian to an exponential shape and ultimately tend to a true Gaussian, as orbits diffuse to larger chaotic domains and the phase space dynamics becomes more uniformly ergodic.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication as a Regular Paper in the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, on Jun 21, 201

Consumers Valuations and Choice Processes of Food Safety Enhancement Attributes: An International Study of Beef Consumers

Food safety concerns have had dramatic impacts on food and livestock markets in recent years. Here we examine consumer preferences for various beef food safety assurances. In particular, we evaluate the extent to which such preferences are heterogeneous within and across country-of-residence defined groups and examine the distributional nature of these preferences with respect to marginal improvements in food safety. We collected data from over 4,000 U.S., Canada, Japan, and Mexican consumers. Using mixed logit models we find that Japanese and Mexican consumers have WTP preferences that are nonlinear in the level of food safety risk reduction. Conversely, U.S .and Canadian consumers appear to possess linear preferences. These results suggest that optimal food safety investment strategies hinge critically upon consumer perception of actual food safety improvements, the distributional relationship describing the targeted consumer segment's tradeoff function between WTP premiums and risk reduction levels, and the cost structure of these investments.consumer beef preference, food safety, investment decision, mixed logit, willingness-to-pay, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

European Preferences for Beef Steak Attributes

A choice experiment is used to evaluate how consumers in London, Frankfurt, and Paris value beef steaks with attributes such as: "hormone-free," "GM-free," farm-specific source verification, and domestic origin. The effect of various consumer characteristics on steak selection is also evaluated. Results suggest that European consumers are significantly heterogeneous in their preferences for beef steak attributes. French and German consumers have a higher willingness to pay to avoid genetically modified feed use than British consumers, while German and British consumers would pay more for growth hormone-free beef. French and German consumers are willing to pay for farm-specific source verification.beef, choice experiment, country of origin, genetically modified, hormones, preference heterogeneity, random parameters, source verification, Consumer/Household Economics,

Magnetic Field Uniformity Across the GF 9-2 YSO, L1082C Dense Core, and GF 9 Filamentary Dark Cloud

The orientation of the magnetic field (B-field) in the filamentary dark cloud GF 9 was traced from the periphery of the cloud into the L1082C dense core that contains the low-mass, low-luminosity Class 0 young stellar object (YSO) GF 9-2 (IRAS 20503+6006). This was done using SOFIA HAWC+ dust thermal emission polarimetry (TEP) at 216 um in combination with Mimir near-infrared background starlight polarimetry (BSP) conducted at H-band (1.6 um) and K-band (2.2 um). These observations were augmented with published I-band (0.77 um) BSP and Planck 850 um TEP to probe B-field orientations with offset from the YSO in a range spanning 6000 AU to 3 pc. No strong B-field orientation change with offset was found, indicating remarkable uniformity of the B-field from the cloud edge to the YSO environs. This finding disagrees with weak-field models of cloud core and YSO formation. The continuity of inferred B-field orientations for both TEP and BSP probes is strong evidence that both are sampling a common B-field that uniformly threads the cloud, core, and YSO region. Bayesian analysis of Gaia DR2 stars matched to the Mimir BSP stars finds a distance to GF 9 of 270 +/- 10 pc. No strong wavelength dependence of B-field orientation angle was found, contrary to previous claims.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures ApJ, accepte

The Role of Consumer Risk Perceptions and Attitudes in Cross Cultural Beef Consumption Changes

Beef food safety events have contributed to considerable market volatility, produced varied consumer reactions, created policy debates, sparked heated trade disputes, and generally contributed to beef industry frustrations. Better understanding of the forces causing observed consumer reactions in light of beef food safety events is critical for policy makers and industry participants. We examine whether consumers altered their beef consumption behavior because of their risk aversion and risk perceptions stemming from information about beef food safety in recent years. We use data from a total of 4,000 consumers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Japan to estimate a two-stage Probit/double-bounded Tobit modeling framework. Results reveal there are stark differences in risk perceptions and risk aversion regarding beef food safety across consumers in the four countries and that these differences are revealed through different beef consumption behavior. An improved understanding of food safety perceptions and attitudes will enable policy makers and agricultural industries to better anticipate consumers changing consumption behavior, if a food safety event occurs. Consumers from the four countries examined exhibited heterogeneous food safety perceptions and attitudes. Results suggest that food safety management strategies should vary across countries because of identified differences in food safety risk attitudes and risk perceptions.Cross-culture, risk attitude, risk perception, food safety, beef, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries,