Determinants of Food Industry Performance – Empirical Evidence Based on a Survey

This paper empirically investigates the determinants of firms’ performance in the agri-food sector by using recent survey data for Denmark. Treating sales per employee as a proxy for value addition we estimate several bootstrapped regression models to draw conclusions on the marginal effects of potential performance determinants such as the form and nature of ownership, stage of the food chain and commodity sector, new product development, staff quality, firms’ competitive stance, and elements of firms’ strategy. To draw robust inferences we apply, besides the ordinary heteroscedasticity corrected Tobit ML-estimator, a nonparametric least absolute deviations estimator (LAD/CLAD) based on a quantile regression procedure. The results indicate that we cannot reject the hypothesis of no influence of dominant orientation on value added. Rather, firms’ focus on human capital, stage and commodity sector better explains their value addition. We can reject the hypothesis that regional networks have no influence on value added. Differences in location, emphasis on human capital and the negative influence of outsourcing on value added all provide supporting evidence. We reject the hypothesis of no influence of FDI, and moreover propose that FDI has targeted the domestic Danish market as a source of value added.value added, innovation, organizational type, Agribusiness, Q13, O31, O33,

DETERMINANTS OF FOOD INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE – SURVEY DATA AND REGRESSIONS FOR DENMARK

This paper investigates empirically the determinants of firms’ performance in the agrifood sector by using recent survey data for Denmark. Treating sales per employee as a proxy for value added we estimate several bootstrapped regression models to draw conclusions on the marginal effects of potential performance determinants such as the form and nature of ownership, stage of the food chain and commodity sector, new product development, staff quality, firms’ competitive stance, and elements of firms’ strategy. To draw robust inferences we apply, besides the ordinary heteroscedasticity corrected Tobit ML-estimator, a nonparametric least absolute deviations estimator (LAD/CLAD) based on a quantile regression procedure. The results indicate that we cannot reject the hypothesis of no influence of dominant orientation on value added. Rather, firms’ focus on human capital, stage and commodity sector better explains their value addition. We reject the hypothesis that regional networks have no influence on value added. Location in Århus, emphasis on human capital and the negative influence of outsourcing on value added all provide supporting evidence. We reject the hypothesis of no influence of FDI, and moreover propose that FDI has targeted the domestic Danish market as a source of value added.value added, innovation, organizational type, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q13, O31, O33,

Rent Seeking and the Common Agricultural Policy: Do member countries free ride on lobbying?

The Common Agricultural Policy is modelled as a club good providing the European Union (EU) farmer with financial benefits. We build an economic model which explains how much farmers in individual EU countries invest in rent-seeking activities in order to test for free-riding behaviour on lobbying costs. For our investigation we group the EU member countries by farm structure, and the type of benefit received. We explain the fees paid by farmers for lobbying by other countries fees, political variables, and country and regional agricultural characteristics. The model shows that some member countries free ride on others. This suggests a form of policy path dependency and leads to a suboptimal investment on lobbying of 7.5%.free-riding, rent-seeking, Common Agricultural Policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, Political Economy, D72, Q18,

RENT SEEKING AND THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY: DO MEMBER COUNTRIES FREE RIDE ON LOBBYING?

The Common Agricultural Policy is modelled as a club good providing the European Union (EU) farmer with financial benefits. We build an economic model which explains how much farmers in individual EU countries invest in rent-seeking activities in order to test for free-riding behaviour on lobbying costs. For our investigation we group the EU member countries by farm structure, and the type of benefit received. We explain the fees paid by farmers for lobbying by other countries fees, political variables, and country and regional agricultural characteristics. The model shows that some member countries free ride on others. This suggests a form of policy path dependency and leads to a suboptimal investment on lobbying of 7.5%.Free-riding, rent-seeking, Common Agricultural Policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

ASME Human Powered Vehicle Competition Team

Developing sustainable transportation is one of the greatest challenges of this century. While developed nations suffer from pollution and over-crowded urban transit, developing nations struggle to provide their citizens with cost-effective and non-infrastructure intensive transportation methods. The ASME Human Powered Vehicle Competition provides teams from all over the world an opportunity to design, fabricate and test vehicles that help develop solutions to these issues. The University of San Diego Human Powered Vehicle Team strives to design, innovate, and fabricate a human powered vehicle to the specifications outlined in the ASME-HPVC Rules 2019 in order to balance performance, efficiency, and cost. The vehicle will have the ability to traverse the varied terrain in the endurance competition as well as support speed with high acceleration. The design is based around a Tadpole-style recumbent tricycle with two steered wheels in the front and a single wheel in the rear which will drive the vehicle. Each of the three wheels will have a disc brake system which will allow the vehicle to stop quickly and maneuver precisely through sharp turns and negative slopes. The drivetrain will be manually shifted for different speeds and will accommodate multiple rider sizes by including an adjustable bottom bracket. The safety of the vehicle will be increased with the addition of a rollover protection system with a roll bar and safety harness. The University of San Diego Human Powered Vehicle Team will provide a capable and reliable vehicle with the ability to compete at a high level

Effect of sparsity and exposure on total variation regularized X-ray tomography from few projections

We address effects of exposure and image gradient sparsity for total variation-regularized reconstruction: is it better to collect many low-quality or few high-quality projections, and can gradient sparsity predict how many projections are necessary? Preliminary results suggest collecting many low-quality projections is favorable, and that a link may exist between gradient sparsity level and successful reconstruction

An efficient and economic asymmetric synthesis of (+)-nootkatone, tetrahydronootkatone, and derivatives

Image Persented A facile route to enantiomerically pure (+)-nootkatone and derivatives has been established through conjunctive stereoselective Grignard/anionic oxy-Cope (AOC) reactions. © 2009 American Chemical Society

Conformational control of selectivity in the dienone-phenol rearrangement

We have explored the dienone-phenol rearrangement of substrates where: only the p-cresol pathway is possible and relative migratory aptitudes should play no role in determining the regiochemistry of the reaction. For these substrates the selectivity of the rearrangement was found to depend on the stereochemistry of the spirocyclic intermediate formed during the course of the rearrangement. Rearrangement of one of these substrates gave-surprisingly-a single regioisomeric product. Selectivity in this case can be correlated with the relative stability of cationic intermediates, which lie on the pathway between spirocycle and final product. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Iron cycling in Arctic methane seeps

Anoxic marine sediments contribute a significant amount of dissolved iron (Fe2+) to the ocean which is crucial for the global carbon cycle. Here, we investigate iron cycling in four Arctic cold seeps where sediments are anoxic and sulfidic due to the high rates of methane-fueled sulfate reduction. We estimated Fe2+ diffusive fluxes towards the oxic sediment layer to be in the range of 0.8 to 138.7 μmole/m2/day and Fe2+ fluxes across the sediment-water interface to be in the range of 0.3 to 102.2 μmole/m2/day. Such variable fluxes cannot be explained by Fe2+ production from organic matter–coupled dissimilatory reduction alone. We propose that the reduction of dissolved and complexed Fe3+ as well as the rapid formation of iron sulfide minerals are the most important reactions regulating the fluxes of Fe2+ in these cold seeps. By comparing seafloor visual observations with subsurface pore fluid composition, we demonstrate how the joint cycling of iron and sulfur determines the distribution of chemosynthesis-based biota

A screen for kinase inhibitors identifies antimicrobial imidazopyridine aminofurazans as specific inhibitors of the Listeria monocytogenes PASTA kinase PrkA

Bacterial signaling systems such as protein kinases and quorum sensing have become increasingly attractive targets for the development of novel antimicrobial agents in a time of rising antibiotic resistance. The family of bacterial Penicillin-binding-protein And Serine/Threonine kinase-Associated (PASTA) kinases is of particular interest due to the role of these kinases in regulating resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. As such, small-molecule kinase inhibitors that target PASTA kinases may prove beneficial as treatments adjunctive to β-lactam therapy. Despite this interest, only limited progress has been made in identifying functional inhibitors of the PASTA kinases that have both activity against the intact microbe and high kinase specificity. Here, we report the results of a small-molecule screen that identified GSK690693, an imidazopyridine aminofurazan-type kinase inhibitor that increases the sensitivity of the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes to various β-lactams by inhibiting the PASTA kinase PrkA. GSK690693 potently inhibited PrkA kinase activity biochemically and exhibited significant selectivity for PrkA relative to the Staphylococcus aureus PASTA kinase Stk1. Furthermore, other imidazopyridine aminofurazans could effectively inhibit PrkA and potentiate β-lactam antibiotic activity to varying degrees. The presence of the 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol (alkynol) moiety was important for both biochemical and antimicrobial activity. Finally, mutagenesis studies demonstrated residues in the back pocket of the active site are important for GSK690693 selectivity. These data suggest that targeted screens can successfully identify PASTA kinase inhibitors with both biochemical and antimicrobial specificity. Moreover, the imidazopyridine aminofurazans represent a family of PASTA kinase inhibitors that have the potential to be optimized for selective PASTA kinase inhibition