Case study beef industry in China

"The beef industry provides a window on food safety issues in China's rapidly developing economy. This industry provides particularly useful insights because the government has targeted it for development and because it is dominated by household slaughtering and wet markets, making food safety concerns pervasive. " from TextFood safety ,food security ,Public health ,

The Integration of Rural Households into Ruminant Livestock Industries in China

A major determinant of rural development in China is the way by which rural households integrate with rural industries. Three forms of integration market integration, vertical integration and integration through local groups are investigated. Policy measures that may facilitate household integration, household specialisation and market segmentation are identified. Findings for the ruminant livestock sector are widely applicable to other agricultural industries in China.China, rural development, livestock, markets, vertical integration, Livestock Production/Industries, Q13, Q18, L1,

A heterogeneous-agent model with district-level constraints: an application to livestock development in Gansu, China

This paper develops a heterogeneous-agent model to assess the impacts of removing lucerne growing subsidies, increasing livestock numbers and including district-level equilibrium conditions on optimal farm plans in the Qingyang district of Gansu Province, China. The model is a five-year dynamic linear program that solves across 96 farm households whilst incorporating district-level constraints. The approach used allows us to observe seasonal variations in incomes, infer the distribution of a policy shock among households and highlight trade patterns at the district level. The results suggest that without lucerne growing subsidies the total area of lucerne grown by all modelled households falls by 18%. Increasing livestock numbers by 25% reduces net household incomes by 17% as changes to labour allocations reduce off-farm employment opportunities. When external trade in forages is included in the model, total livestock numbers held by all 96 households rise from 502 to 838, this highlights the benefits of integrated feed markets. Shadow prices for crop production rise when livestock numbers increase, implying that benefits exist to improving crop yields.Heterogeneous-agent model, district-level constraints, livestock, China., Farm Management,

Building economic decision-making capabilities of Chinese wool textile mills

Agribusiness,

Improving the Economic Decision-Making Capability and Viability of Chinese Wool Textile Mills

The successful restructuring of Chinese industries is of immense importance not only for the continued development of China but also to the stability of the world economy. The transformation of the Chinese wool textile industry illustrates well the many problems and pressures currently facing most Chinese industries. The Chinese wool textile industry has undergone major upheaval and restructuring in its drive to modernize and take advantage of developments in world textile markets. Macro level ownership and administrative reforms are well advanced as is the uptake of new technology and equipment. However, the changing market and institutional environment also demands an increasing level of sophistication in mill management decisions including product selection, input procurement, product pricing, investment appraisal, cost analysis and proactive identification of new market and growth opportunities. This paper outlines a series of analyses that have been integrated into a decision-making model designed to assist mill managers with these decisions. Features of the model include a whole-of-mill approach, a design based on existing mill structures and information systems, and the capacity for the model to be tailored to individual mills. All of these features facilitate the adoption of the model by time and resource constrained managers seeking to maintain the viability of their enterprises in the face of extremely dynamic market conditions.China, wool textile mills, industry transition, decision-making models, Agribusiness, Livestock Production/Industries,

Adaptation to Changing Institutional, Market and Bio-Physical Environments: The Case of China’s Grasslands

In the modern world, small pastoral herder households living on grasslands in countries such as China face major challenges in adapting to changes in their institutional, market and bio-physical environments. In China, these changes have been profound over the last 30 years. Herders, their communities and others dependent on the grasslands have responded to these developments but not always as might be expected. In this paper, the sources of the macro-forces in China that have created the pressure for change at the grass roots are outlined and the micro-adjustments made by herders and others in response to these pressures are analysed. A longitudinal multidisciplinary perspective is employed to distil insights from studying the dynamics of these adjustments over the last three decades. The major finding is that macro reforms can create enormous pressure for micro adaptive initiatives by herders and others dependent on the grasslands. Most importantly, the responses of these actors are not always as predicted and may pose major threats to the future sustainability of pastoralism based on the grasslands

Design of an Agile Unmanned Combat Vehicle - A Product of the DARPA UGCV Program

The unmanned ground combat vehicle (UGCV) design evolved by the SAIC team on the DARPA UGCV Program is summarized in this paper. This UGCV design provides exceptional performance against all of the program metrics and incorporates key attributes essential for high performance robotic combat vehicles. This performance includes protection against 7.62 mm threats, C130 and CH47 transportability, and the ability to accept several relevant weapons payloads, as well as advanced sensors and perception algorithms evolving from the PerceptOR program. The UGCV design incorporates a combination of technologies and design features, carefully selected through detailed trade studies, which provide optimum performance against mobility, payload, and endurance goals without sacrificing transportability, survivability, or life cycle cost. The design was optimized to maximize performance against all Category I metrics. In each case, the performance of this design was validated with detailed simulations, indicating that the vehicle exceeded the Category I metrics. Mobility metrics were analyzed using high fidelity VisualNastran vehicle models, which incorporate the suspension control algorithms and controller cycles times. DADS/Easy 5 3-D models and ADAMS simulations were also used to validate vehicle dynamics and control algorithms during obstacle negotiation

An Introduction to the Chandra Carina Complex Project

The Great Nebula in Carina provides an exceptional view into the violent massive star formation and feedback that typifies giant HII regions and starburst galaxies. We have mapped the Carina star-forming complex in X-rays, using archival Chandra data and a mosaic of 20 new 60ks pointings using the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer, as a testbed for understanding recent and ongoing star formation and to probe Carina's regions of bright diffuse X-ray emission. This study has yielded a catalog of properties of >14,000 X-ray point sources; >9800 of them have multiwavelength counterparts. Using Chandra's unsurpassed X-ray spatial resolution, we have separated these point sources from the extensive, spatially-complex diffuse emission that pervades the region; X-ray properties of this diffuse emission suggest that it traces feedback from Carina's massive stars. In this introductory paper, we motivate the survey design, describe the Chandra observations, and present some simple results, providing a foundation for the 15 papers that follow in this Special Issue and that present detailed catalogs, methods, and science results.Comment: Accepted for the ApJS Special Issue on the Chandra Carina Complex Project (CCCP), scheduled for publication in May 2011. All 16 CCCP Special Issue papers are available at http://cochise.astro.psu.edu/Carina_public/special_issue.html through 2011 at least. 43 pages; 18 figure

Transoral resection of pharyngeal cancer: Summary of a National Cancer Institute Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee Clinical Trials Planning Meeting, November 6–7, 2011, Arlington, Virginia

Recent advances now permit resection of many pharyngeal tumors through the open mouth, an approach that can greatly reduce the morbidity of surgical exposure. These transoral techniques are being rapidly adopted by the surgical community and hold considerable promise. On November 6–7, 2011, the National Cancer Institute sponsored a Clinical Trials Planning Meeting to address how to further investigate the use of transoral surgery, both in the good prognosis human papillomavirus (HPV)–initiated oropharyngeal cancers, and in those with HPV‐unrelated disease. The proceedings of this meeting are summarized. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2012Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94490/1/23136_ftp.pd