Measuring the Efficiency product output: An Application to Food Industry in Canada

Industrial Organization,

Analyzing the Impact of Visitors on Page Views with Google Analytics

This paper develops a flexible methodology to analyze the effectiveness of different variables on various dependent variables which all are times series and especially shows how to use a time series regression on one of the most important and primary index (page views per visit) on Google analytic and in conjunction it shows how to use the most suitable data to gain a more accurate result. Search engine visitors have a variety of impact on page views which cannot be described by single regression. On one hand referral visitors are well-fitted on linear regression with low impact. On the other hand, direct visitors made a huge impact on page views. The higher connection speed does not simply imply higher impact on page views and the content of web page and the territory of visitors can help connection speed to describe user behavior. Returning visitors have some similarities with direct visitors.Comment: 32 pages,16 table, 10 figur

Meat Processing in North America: Successes, Failures and Opportunities

This paper analyzes historical successes and failures in meat processing using a case study methodology, especially as it relates to possible changes in Canadian market access. Cases include: IPB and economies of size; Canada Packers labor failures; and Tyson and Certified Angus branding strategies.Agribusiness,

The Effects of Fair Trade on Coffee Growers

Two and a half billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world annually making coffee the second-most traded commodity after oil and the caffeine contained in it the most widely consumed psychoactive drug. Coffee is produced in more than 60 countries and provides a livelihood for some 25 million coffeegrowing families around the world. Coffee consumption has been increasing over the past 50 years, but this increase has, for the most part, not been accompanied by increases in raw coffee prices and improvements of coffee growers?lives. After the International Coffee Association (ICA) dissolved in 1989, coffee production increased substantially (mainly due to mass production by Brazil and the entry of new coffee producers in Asia and Africa), and the world coffee prices fell by 50%. While farm-gate prices have been declining during most of the past 25 years, the prices in consuming countries have been soaring, and so have the profits of middlemen ?i.e., intermediaries, processors, exporters, and large international corporations ?who have been retaining the lion\u27s share of the economic surplus generated in the coffee supply channels. These trends have reduced producer welfare and have pushed many coffee growers into poverty

Dynamic modelling of hardness changes of aluminium nanostructure during mechanical ball milling process

In this research, the feasibility of using mathematical modelling in the ball milling process has been evaluated to verify the hardness changes of an aluminium nanostructure. Considering the model of normal force displacement (NFD), the radius of elastic-plastic and normal displacement of two balls were computed by applying analytical modelling and coding in MATLAB. Properties of balls and aluminium powder were entered into the software as input data. The impact radius and then the hardness of powder were calculated accordingly. The changes of aluminium powder hardness resulting from the collision of two spherical balls during the synthesis of an aluminium nanostructure were analytically derived and compared with experimental data obtained from the literature. Calculation of results accuracy shows the model has a better agreement with the experimental data at the beginning than the results from Maurice et al. (R2= 0.68 in this model).This research innovation is to combine the NFD model with hardness formulation to calculate final hardness

An innovative method to assess clinical reasoning skills: Clinical reasoning tests in the second national medical science Olympiad in Iran

BACKGROUND: Clinical reasoning plays a major role in the ability of doctors to make a diagnosis and reach treatment decisions. This paper describes the use of four clinical reasoning tests in the second National Medical Science Olympiad in Iran: key features (KF), script concordance (SCT), clinical reasoning problems (CRP) and comprehensive integrative puzzles (CIP). The purpose of the study was to design a multi instrument for multiple roles approach in clinical reasoning field based on the theoretical framework, KF was used to measure data gathering, CRP was used to measure hypothesis formation, SCT and CIP were used to measure hypothesis evaluation and investigating the combined use of these tests in the Olympiad. A bank of clinical reasoning test items was developed for emergency medicine by a scientific expert committee representing all the medical schools in the country. These items were pretested by a reference group and the results were analyzed to select items that could be omitted. Then 135 top-ranked medical students from 45 medical universities in Iran participated in the clinical domain of the Olympiad. The reliability of each test was calculated by Cronbach's alpha. Item difficulty and the correlation between each item and the total score were measured. The correlation between the students' final grade and each of the clinical reasoning tests was calculated, as was the correlation between final grades and another measure of knowledge, i.e., the students' grade point average. RESULTS: The combined reliability for all four clinical reasoning tests was 0.91. Of the four clinical reasoning tests we compared, reliability was highest for CIP (0.91). The reliability was 0.83 for KF, 0.78 for SCT and 0.71 for CRP. Most of the tests had an acceptable item difficulty level between 0.2 and 0.8. The correlation between the score for each item and the total test score for each of the four tests was positive. The correlations between scores for each test and total score were highest for KF and CIP. The correlation between scores for each test and grade point average was low to intermediate for all four of the tests. CONCLUSION: The combination of these four clinical reasoning tests is a reliable evaluation tool that can be implemented to assess clinical reasoning skills in talented undergraduate medical students, however these data may not generalizable to whole medical students population. The CIP and KF tests showed the greatest potential to measure clinical reasoning skills. Grade point averages did not necessarily predict performance in the clinical domain of the national competitive examination for medical school students

Factors Associated With Unhealthy Snacks Consumption Among Adolescents in Iran’s Schools

Background: Well-informed interventions are needed if school-based health promotion is to be effective. Among other aims, the Iranian Health Promoting School (IHPS) program that was launched in 2011, has an important aim of promoting dietary behaviors of adolescents. The present study, therefore, aimed to investigate the factors affecting unhealthy snacking of adolescents and provide evidence for a more effective IHPS program. Methods: In a cross-sectional study design, 1320 students from 40 schools in Kerman city were selected using a proportional stratified random sampling method. A modified qualitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) was used to gather data about unhealthy snacking behavior. Data about intrapersonal and environmental factors were obtained using a validated and reliable questionnaire. A mixed-effects negative-binomial regression model was used to analyze the data. Results: Taste and sensory perception (prevalence rate ratio [PRR]=1.18; 95% CI: 1.09-1.27), being a male (PRR=1.20; 95% CI: 1.05-1.38) and lower nutritional knowledge (PRR=0.96; 95% CI: 0.91-0.99) were associated with higher weekly unhealthy snaking. Perceived self-efficacy (PRR=0.95; 95% CI: 0.91-1.00) negatively influenced the frequency of unhealthy snaking, with this approaching significance (P<.06). In case of environmental factors, high socio-economic status (SES) level (PRR=1.45; 95% CI: 1.26-1.67), single-parent family (PRR=1.14; 95% CI: 1.01-1.30), more social norms pressure (PRR=1.08; 95% CI: 1.01-1.17), pocket money allowance (PRR=1.21; 95% CI: 1.09-1.34), easy accessibility (PRR=1.06; 95% CI:1.01-1.11), and less perceived parental control (PRR=0.96; 95% CI: 0.92-0.99) all had a role in higher consumption of unhealthy snacks. Interestingly, larger school size was associated with less unhealthy snacking (PRR=0.79; 95% CI: 0.68-0.92). Conclusion: Unhealthy snacking behavior is influenced by individual, socio-cultural and physical-environmental influences, namely by factors relating to poor parenting practices, high SES level, family characteristics, improper social norms pressure, and less knowledge and self-efficacy of students. This evidence can be used to inform a more evidencebased IHPS program through focusing on supportive strategies at the home, school, and local community level

De novo assembly and phasing of dikaryotic genomes from two isolates of puccinia coronata f. Sp. avenae, the causal agent of oat crown rust

Oat crown rust, caused by the fungus Pucinnia coronata f. sp. avenae, is a devastating disease that impacts worldwide oat production. For much of its life cycle, P. coronata f. sp. avenae is dikaryotic, with two separate haploid nuclei that may vary in virulence genotype, highlighting the importance of understanding haplotype diversity in this species. We generated highly contiguous de novo genome assemblies of two P. coronata f. sp. avenae isolates, 12SD80 and 12NC29, from long-read sequences. In total, we assembled 603 primary contigs for 12SD80, for a total assembly length of 99.16 Mbp, and 777 primary contigs for 12NC29, for a total length of 105.25 Mbp; approximately 52% of each genome was assembled into alternate haplotypes. This revealed structural variation between haplotypes in each isolate equivalent to more than 2% of the genome size, in addition to about 260,000 and 380,000 heterozygous single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 12SD80 and 12NC29, respectively. Transcript-based annotation identified 26,796 and 28,801 coding sequences for isolates 12SD80 and 12NC29, respectively, including about 7,000 allele pairs in haplotype-phased regions. Furthermore, expression profiling revealed clusters of coexpressed secreted effector candidates, and the majority of orthologous effectors between isolates showed conservation of expression patterns. However, a small subset of orthologs showed divergence in expression, which may contribute to differences in virulence between 12SD80 and 12NC29. This study provides the first haplotype-phased reference genome for a dikaryotic rust fungus as a foundation for future studies into virulence mechanisms in P. coronata f. sp. avenae.This work was funded by the USDA-ARS and the University of Minnesota Standard Cooperative Agreement (grant 3002-11031-00053115 shared by S.F.K. and M.F.), the University of Minnesota Experimental Station USDA-NIFA Hatch/Figueroa project MIN22-058, and an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Fellowship to M.F. M.E.M. was partially supported by a USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (2017-67012-26117). J.S. was supported by an OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship. R.F.P. receives funding from the Australian Grains Research Development Corporation (grant US00067). J.M.P. was supported by the Northern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service

Characterization of MSP1 Promoter and Identification of Transcription Factors Involved in Regulation of Abscisic Acid- and Ethylene-Responsive Gene Expression in Oil Palm

The 1,053-bp promoter of the oil palm metallothionein gene (so-called MSP1) and its 5´ deletions were analyzed in transiently transformed oil palm tissues. The full length promoter showed 7-fold higher activity in the mesocarp than in leaves and 1.5-fold more activity than the CaMV35S promoter in the mesocarp. Two positive regulatory regions at nucleotides (nt) -953 to -619 and -420 to -256 regions and a negative regulatory region at -619 to -420 nt region were identified within the promoter sequence. Fine-tune deletion analysis of the -619 to -420 nt region led to the identification of a novel negative regulatory AGTTAGG core-sequence, responsible for controlling the fruit-specific activity of the MSP1promoter. Abscisic acid (ABA) and copper (Cu2+) induced the activity of the promoter and its 5´ deletions more effectively than methyl jasmonate (MJ) and ethylene. Regulatory DNA motifs responsive to ABA, copper, MJ, and ethylene were identified within the promoter sequence. These results suggest that the MSP1 promoter and its regulatory regions are potentially useful for engineering fruit-specific and inducible gene expression in oil palm. ABF family of transcription factors (TFs) play important regulatory roles in plant response to abiotic stresses as well as plant growth and development. Two ABA-responsive cDNA clones, named EABF and EABF1 were isolated from oil palm fruits using yeast one-hybrid system. EABF had a conserved AP2/EREBP DNA-binding domain (DNA-BD) and a potential nuclear localization sequence (NLS). No previously known DNA-BD was identified from the EABF1 sequence. EABF and EABF1 proteins were classified as DREB/CBF and bZIP family members based on the multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis. Both proteins showed ABRE-binding and transcriptional activation properties in yeast. Furthermore, both proteins were able to trans-activate the down-stream expression of the LacZ reporter gene in yeast. EABF was induced in response to ABA in oil palm fruits and leaves, but not in roots, while expression of EABF1 was constitutively induced in all tissues. The expression of both genes were strongly induced in fruits in response to ABA, ethylene, MJ, drought, cold and high-salinity treatments, indicating that EABF and EABF1 might act as connectors among different signal transduction pathways. Our current results suggest that EABF and EABF1 are involved in abiotic stress response and ABA signaling in oil palm. AP2/ERF family of TFs are involved in plant response to various biotic and abiotic stresses and also regulate many aspects of plant growth and development, such as flowering control and fruit ripening. Two ethylene-responsive cDNA clones designated EgEREBP and EgAP2-1were isolated from oil palm fruits. EgEREBP had a conserved AP2/EREBP DNA-BD and a potential NLS and was similar to DREB/CBF subfamily of AP2/ERFs. EgAP2-1 contained two AP2/EREBP domains and classified as AP2 subfamily member of AP2/ERFs. Both proteins showed ERE binding, transcriptional activation, and transactivation properties in yeast and in vitro. EgEREBP had a very basal expression in fruits, leaves and roots, while the expression of EgAP2-1 was found to be developmentally-regulated in ripening fruits, but not in leaves and roots. EgEREBP was induced in response to a range of hormone treatments and abiotic stresses, while EgAP2-1 was only induced in response to ethylene and ABA, but not other hormones and not to abiotic stresses as well. These observations imply the regulatory function of EgEREBP in plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses, while EgAP2-1 is involved in ethylene and/or ABA signaling pathways and perhaps might have a regulatory function more towards fruit-ripening control rather than the stress response in plant. Taken together, our studies have provided valuable information on the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms in oil palm for specific and inducible expression in fruits and stress responses involving specific interaction of transcription factors and regulatory motifs which are essential for future genetic improvement efforts