Performance in the Food Retailing Segment of the Agri-Food Chain

This paper sets out to measure the performance of the food-retailing sector of the Canadian economy for the period 1990 to 1998. This study was undertaken to provide a baseline study for the sector due to the major changes that took place after 1998. A second driver was to provide recent information on the sector as the last study of this type was conducted in the 1970s. The paper uses profitability as a measure of performance. The measure was chosen because most firms make business decisions based on their profitability, and profitability provides an indication on the direction of employment, investment, and growth of a sector. We find that that food retailing performed better than both non-food retailers and the general economy over the 1990s. While large retailers performed twice as well as small and medium retailers the latter categories performed better than their non-food counterparts over the period.Agribusiness,

TRADE REMEDY LAWS AND NAFTA AGRICULTURAL TRADE

Trade remedy law is viewed as a major vehicle for protection in U.S. agriculture. The objective of this paper is to summarize the use of trade remedy law by U.S. agriculture and to highlight examples of where the use of these laws conflicts with free trade agreements such as NAFTA. Empirical evidence is presented of the effects of U.S. trade remedy laws on agricultural imports. We find evidence that is consistent with trade diversion on positive rulings and an "investigation effect" on negative rulings.International Relations/Trade,

Integration of Administrative Data With Survey and Census Data

Statistical systems are a consequence of evolution and the level of data integration that is achieved is often an indication of the degree of system development. Almost all national statistical agencies in the world integrate administrative data with their survey and census information to some degree in order to complement, supplement or replace survey information or to assist with frame maintenance. This paper reconstructs the development and evolution of the Canadian agricultural statistical system as it relates to the expanding and increasingly important role of administrative data. The degree to which administrative data are integrated depends on a number of factors, the most important being: (1) the degree of maturity of the country's statistical system, (2) the quality and the amount of information available from the government's administrative and regulatory programs, (3) well-trained and experienced staff, (4) funding, and (5) co-operation among government agencies. Most countries appear to have gone through an evolutionary process in establishing their agricultural statistical system and most systems are developed with an internal capacity for renewal and adjustment. This allows them to respond to changing conditions and needs and to remain relevant. The actual route that is followed, however, is highly dependent on the amount of resources available for the program, the availability of experienced professionals to develop and maintain the system and the statistical toolbox that they are able to use.Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Compound Cryogenic Distribution Line for the LHC: Status and Prospects

After a pre-series phase qualifying the design of three European firms, CERN adjudicated end of 2001 one contract for the manufacturing and installation of the cryogenic distribution line (QRL) for the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). Each of the eight ~3.2 km QRL sectors is feeding helium at different temperatures and pressures to the local cooling loops of the strings of superconducting magnets operating in superfluid helium below 2 K. With an overall length of 25.8 km the QRL has a very critical cost to performance ratio. We present a project overview describing all phases, status and schedule

Maxwell's Fishpond

Most of us will have at some time thrown a pebble into water, and watched the ripples spread outwards and fade away. But now there is a way to reverse the process, and make those ripples turn around and reconverge again, ... and again, and again. To do this we have designed the Maxwell's Fishpond, a water wave or "Transformation Aquatics" version of the Maxwell's Fisheye lens [Tyc et al. 2011, Luneberg 1964] that is now well-known from transformation optics. These are transformation devices where wave propagation on the surface of a sphere is not modelled on an actual sphere, but in a flat device with carefully designed spatially varying properties. And just as for rays from a point source on a sphere, a wave disturbance in a Maxwell's Fisheye or Fishpond spreads out at first, but then reforms itself at its opposing point in the device. Here we show how such a device can be made for water waves, partly in friendly competition with comparable electromagnetic devices [Ma et al. 2011] and partly as an accessible and fun demonstration of the power of transformation mechanics. To the eye, our Maxwell's Fishpond was capable of reforming a disturbance up to five times, although such a feat required taking considerable care, close observation, and a little luck. What can you see in the video at http://www.qols.ph.ic.ac.uk/~kinsle/files/MFishpond/ ?Comment: 9 pages (v2 add links, improve fig.3, minor corrections, v3 add journal info

TRADE REMEDY LAWS AND NAFTA AGRICULTURAL TRADE

Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Results from the Qualification of the three Pre-series Test Cells for the LHC Cryogenic Distribution Line

Three pre-series test cells of the LHC cryogenic distribution line, manufactured by three European industrial companies, have been tested in the years 2000 and 2001 to qualify the design proposed and to verify the thermal and mechanical performances. The pre-series test cell, about 112 m long, consisted of a standard cell (about 107 m long) and an additional service module needed for test purposes. This paper summarises and compares the main results of the qualification tests to the requirements of the technical specification. Technical considerations on the measurement stability and corresponding overall error are also presented

The Cryogenic Distribution Line for the LHC: Functional Specification and Conceptual Design

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) currently under construction at CERN will make use of superconducting magnets operating in superfluid helium below 2 K. The cryogenic distribution scheme for each of the eight sectors, individually served by a refrigeration plant, is based on a separate Cryogenic Distribution Line (QRL) feeding helium at different temperatures and pressures to the elementary cooling loops. The QRL comprises two supply headers and three return headers including a sub-atmospheric one. Low heat inleak to all temperature levels is essential for the overall LHC cryogenic performance. With an overall length of 25.6 km the QRL has a very critical cost-to-performance ratio. Therefore, following an in-house feasibility study, CERN adjudicated in autumn 1998 three industrial contracts in parallel for the supply of Pre-Series Test Cells (~ 112 m) of the QRL, which will be tested at CERN in 2000. Installation of the QRL for LHC is scheduled from 2002 to mid 2004. This paper will present the general layout, the functional requirements as well as some aspects of the in-house conceptual design

Effect of Urbanization on the Adoption of Environmental Management Systems in Canadian Agriculture

This study examines the extent to which farming practices have adjusted to the presence of urbanization in Canada. In particular, we compare the adoption rates for environmental management systems (EMSs) by farmers close to urbanized areas versus those in more rural, isolated regions. Using information from a national survey of 16,053 farmers, eight EMSs are considered. We find that farmers operating close to the urban milieu demonstrate strategic behavior by selecting more environmentally-friendly farm management practices to overcome social and regulatory pressures from such communities compared to those farmers that operate in rural communities.Farm Management,

Semiconductor manufacturing simulation design and analysis with limited data

This paper discusses simulation design and analysis for Silicon Carbide (SiC) manufacturing operations management at New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium (PEMC) facility. Prior work has addressed the development of manufacturing system simulation as the decision support to solve the strategic equipment portfolio selection problem for the SiC fab design [1]. As we move into the phase of collecting data from the equipment purchased for the PEMC facility, we discuss how to redesign our manufacturing simulations and analyze their outputs to overcome the challenges that naturally arise in the presence of limited fab data. We conclude with insights on how an approach aimed to reflect learning from data can enable our discrete-event stochastic simulation to accurately estimate the performance measures for SiC manufacturing at the PEMC facility