2,929 research outputs found
ENHANCING THE FINANCIAL AND MARKETING PERFORMANCE OF FIRMS IN THE SMOKED AND PROCESSED MEAT INDUSTRY
Small smoked and processed meat manufacturers constitute a unique cottage industry in Texas. This paper assesses ways for such firms to improve their financial performance through better marketing strategies. The results indicate that, on average, small firms tend to be the most profitable. This is true whether size is measured in terms of dollars, pounds, or number of employees. The more profitable firms tend to be those that are located in rural areas or in shopping centers; those that make the majority of their sales at their own stores; those that do less of their own distribution; and those that emphasize fresh meat sales and de-emphasize jerky sales.Agribusiness,
ASSESSING THE ECONOMICS OF FOOD SAFETY ACTIVITIES: STUDIES OF BEEF SLAUGHTER AND MEAT PROCESSING
Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,
ENHANCING THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF SMALL MEAT PROCESSORS
The small firms examined produce meats in the State of Texas and emphasize such products as sausage, jerky, brisket, and fresh meats. The authors test hypotheses with the intent to identify operational factors associated with firm financial success. A quartile model and an econometric model are both used for this purpose. Results generally suggest important factors for firms to be profitable include product selection, pricing strategies, special equipment, and location.Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance,
X-ray properties of the Parkes sample of flat-spectrum radio sources: dust in radio-loud quasars?
We investigate the X-ray properties of the Parkes sample of flat-spectrum
radio sources using data from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and archival pointed
PSPC observations. In total, 163 of the 323 sources are detected. For the
remaining 160 sources 2 sigma upper limits to the X-ray flux are derived. We
present power-law photon indices for 115 sources, which were either determined
with a hardness ratio technique or from direct fits to pointed PSPC data. For
quasars, the soft X-ray photon index is correlated with redshift and with radio
spectral index. Webster et al. (1995) discovered many sources with unusually
red optical continua among the quasars of this sample and interpreted this
result in terms of extinction by dust. Although the X-ray spectra in general do
not show excess absorption, we find that low-redshift optically red quasars
have significantly lower soft X-ray luminosities on average than objects with
blue optical continua. The difference disappears for higher redshifts, as is
expected for intrinsic absorption by cold gas associated with the dust.
Alternative explanations are briefly discussed. We conclude, however, that dust
does play an important role in some of the radio-loud quasars with red optical
continua.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, to appear in MNRA
Detection of x-rays from galaxy groups associated with the gravitationally lensed systems PG 1115+080 and B1422+231
Gravitational lenses that produce multiple images of background quasars can
be an invaluable cosmological tool. Deriving cosmological parameters, however,
requires modeling the potential of the lens itself. It has been estimated that
up to a quarter of lensing galaxies are associated with a group or cluster
which perturbs the gravitational potential. Detection of X-ray emission from
the group or cluster can be used to better model the lens. We report on the
first detection in X-rays of the group associated with the lensing system PG
1115+080 and the first X-ray image of the group associated with the system
B1422+231. We find a temperature and rest-frame luminosity of 0.8 +/- 0.1 keV
and 7 +/- 2 x 10^{42} ergs/s for PG 1115+080 and 1.0 +infty/-0.3 keV and 8 +/-
3 x 10^{42} ergs/s for B1422+231. We compare the spatial and spectral
characteristics of the X-ray emission to the properties of the group galaxies,
to lens models, and to the general properties of groups at lower redshift.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes
to tex
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