This study applies Destler's institutional counterweights to Putnam's two-level analysis, substituting Liberal Institutionalism and Realism for internationalism and isolationism, in a comparative case study of the roles played by the U.S. and the EC in multilateral trade negotiations in agriculture under the aegis of the General Agreement for Tariffs and Trade during the first half of the Uruguay Round. Using game theory as an analytical tool in the process, this present study demonstrates that a clear pattern emerges in which stages of cooperation and deadlock can be easily anticipated in games of Chicken and Prisoners' Dilemma in accordance with various but predictable levels of institutional influence.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Thesis (Masters Diploma in Technology (Public Health)) -- Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 1992 / In order to evaluate a health education programme for food handlers at a meat plant, a bakery/confectionery and a catering premises, changes in hygiene were assessed by the bacteriological analysis of swabs for hygiene indicator organisms from food contact surfaces. In this evaluation three phases were established on the basis of bacteriological assessment prior to, during and after the education programme. The first phase involved the establishment of a base line for hygiene indicator organisms prior to the education programme by taking 5 sets of bacteriological swabs over a two month period at each of the three premises, each swab set consisting of 14 swabs of food contact surfaces making a total of 210 swabs. During this time the food hygiene educational needs of the employees were assessed and on this basis a set of three video taped presentations were produced relating respectively to personal hygiene, environmental hygiene and food handling practices. The second phase consisted of the implementation of a health education programme involving consecutive tutorial sessions at one month intervals during which the video taped programme was presented. At this stage a further 5 sets of bacteriological swabs was taken at each of the premises. The third phase involved the assessment of hygiene shortly after completion of the education programme by taking a final 5 sets of bacteriological swabs of food contact surfaces at each of the premises over a further two month period. Statistically significant reductions in a number of the indicator organisms were observed during the course of the study.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-08T11:27:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Sampaio Antunes.pdf: 1901454 bytes, checksum: 60f0b7e8267ee9401ae21c68efc823c9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-08T11:27:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Sampaio Antunes.pdf: 1901454 bytes, checksum: 60f0b7e8267ee9401ae21c68efc823c9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study aims to understand how the advertising speech develops persuasion as means of propagation, sale, consumption and profit when materiality and immateriality aspects of a product is defined. The study of the advertising speech towards food, from a raw product until a transformed nourishment, that later becomes persuasive, is the main objective of this research. As an empirical object, there were selected food advertisements in a production scale, determined by natural cycles and opposing them with the advertising of those transformed products by the food industry and its persuasion strategies depending on the product configuration. As an epistemological object, there will be carried out a study of the visual syntax appeal supported by verbal and nonverbal language used as persuasive tools. In order to achieve this objective the study will investigate speeches from both raw and transformed products advertisements by the food industry and analyse the established connection between representations and way of life in order to increase sales. The methodological strategy is based on a timeline construction of published advertisements, identify which were iconics and the most used language artifacts, compare verbals and nonverbals resources used, determine how the imagistics interferes on the ways of life constructions, understand how the food industry advertising seduces, creates desires and way of life perceptions, and how political interests may be implied. As for the theoretical foundation there will be used concepts from Gilles Lipovetsky, Milton Santos and Guy Debord to analyze the relation established between the food industry and the organization's logic related to the design concept, along with Benjamin's parlance designations. In order to complement the studies over political and social clusters, there were used concepts and theories developed by Leo Huberman, Octávio Ianni and Warren Dean / A fim de compreender como linguagem publicitária desenvolve a persuasão tendo em vista a divulgação, a venda, o consumo e o lucro quando se definem elementos da materialidade e da imaterialidade do produto, essa pesquisa tem como objetivo principal o estudo da linguagem publicitária da indústria de alimentos gerados pela produção e transformação industrial. Para o estudo do objeto empírico foram selecionados anúncios de alimentos em seu estágio produtivo determinado pelos ciclos naturais, relacionando-os às características publicitárias de produtos transformados pela indústria e, sobretudo, por estratégias persuasivas diretamente ligadas à configuração do produto no momento do contato direto com o receptor. Como objeto epistemológico, será realizado o estudo da sintaxe do apelo visual patrocinado por linguagens verbais e não verbais utilizadas como ferramentas persuasivas da publicidade. Para a consecução desse objetivo procura-se investigar as linguagens usadas em anúncios publicitários de ambos os tipos de produtos trabalhados pela indústria de alimentos e analisar as relações estabelecidas entre modos de vida e as construções imagéticas utilizadas para possibilitar a venda. A estratégia metodológica supõe: discriminar cronologicamente as características dos recortes publicitários, identificar as campanhas que se tornaram ícones de suas épocas e os artifícios de linguagem predominantes, comparar os recursos verbais e não verbais usados, definir como a linguagem imagética persuasiva interfere na construção de modos de vida, verificar como a publicidade da indústria alimentícia seduz e cria desejos e percepções de modos de vida e, por fim, relacionar a linguagem publicitária da indústria alimentícia de produção com a linguagem de transformação para identificar possíveis interesses políticos e econômicos implícitos em determinadas campanhas. Para a construção da fundamentação teórica, utiliza-se conceitos de Gilles Lipovetsky, Milton Santos, Guy Debord para estudar a relação que se estabelece entre a indústria de bens de consumo e a lógica organizacional relacionada ao conceito de design, juntamente com conceitos de Benjamin para o estudo da linguagem. Para complementar o estudo das esferas sociais e políticas, foram trabalhadas teorias desenvolvidas por Leo Huberman, Octávio Ianni e Warren Dean

In this study, the rates of technological change in food processing sectors of U.S. and Mexico are compared through econometric estimation of both the unrestricted (long-run) and restricted (short-run) profit functions with first order autocorrelation correction. Then, the dual rate of productivity growth is computed and decomposed into its sources. The impact of environmental regulations on productivity growth is also analyzed through incorporation of a pollution abatement variable into empirical models. The hypothesis testing results on the existence of short-run equilibrium in capital markets indicated that the restricted profit function framework is the valid specification for the underlying production technologies of U.S. and Mexican food sectors during the sample period, and hence, our conclusions are based on restricted profit function models. Our results suggest that, in U.S., the average annual dual rate of technological change dropped from 0.76% during 1963-73 to 0.67% during 1974-88, increased to 0.72% between 1988-1990, and declined to 0.65% during 1990-93. In Mexico, the dual rate of technological change was sharply declining during most of the years of sample period, and the average annual rate dropped from 1.30% during 1971-74 to 0.01% between 1989-93. The dual rate of technological change was lower in U.S. than in Mexico during 1971-81 period, but the difference (dual technological change gap) was sharply declining. Starting from 1982, the dual rate of technological change became greater in U.S. than in Mexico and the difference was continuously increasing. Moreover, the decomposition of dual productivity growth into its sources reveals that technological change was the main source of productivity growth in both countries, although in Mexico, the effects of changes in output price on productivity growth outweighed the contributions of technological change during several years between 1982-94. The impact of capacity utilization had a minor impact on productivity growth in both countries. The estimated elasticities of input demand and output supply indicated that labor demand is price inelastic, while material demand and output supply are price elastic in both countries. The own price elasticity of material and output was higher in Mexico than in U.S. In both countries, input demands are affected most significantly by output prices, while output supply is most significantly affected by its own price. The estimates for elasticity of substitution between labor and material imply that labor and material are complement of each other in both countries, with the degree of substitution between them is higher in Mexico than in U.S. Finally, the estimated parameters corresponding to pollution abatement variable suggested that pollution abatement costs had no significant impact on the U.S. dual rate of technological change, and in turn, productivity growth rate, and this appears to be consistent with the fact that the share of pollution abatement costs is quite small in U.S. food processing sector. For the Mexico, the estimated parameters were individually significant, implying that one unit increase in pollution abatement variable reduced the dual rate of technological change by around 0.11% points during 1982-94 period. / Graduation date: 1999

Biofuels, including ethanol and biodiesel, are important components of energy policy in the U.S. and abroad. There is a long history of ethanol production from corn (maize) in the United States and from sugarcane in Brazil. However, there has been a push for greater use of next-generation biofuels (including those derived from cellulosic feedstocks) to mitigate many of the environmental and potential food system impacts of large scale biofuel production. Farmer willingness to grow biomass crops and ensuring adequate feedstock supply are two important challenges impeding large scale commercialization of next-generation biofuels. The costs of transporting bulky, low density biomass will be substantial. Consequently, in the near term, the economic success of next-generation biofuels will hinge on the supply of locally available biomass. As such, agricultural contracts are expected to be an important tool in overcoming the feedstock acquisition challenge. The broad objective of this study is to understand the effect of contracting for non-food energy crops (cellulosic feedstocks) on the agricultural landscape via the displacement of commodity (food) crops on productive cropland. We develop an analytical framework for evaluating the design and use of two different contract structures for securing cellulosic feedstock in a representative supply chain with a biorefinery and farmer. We study the dynamics of scarce land and indirect competition from commodity market production on a biorefinery's equilibrium pricing strategy and the resultant supply of cellulosic biomass. And we consider its sensitivity to various production characteristics and market conditions. We develop a method for quantifying the biorefinery's tradeoff between profit margins and competing for land in order to secure the requisite feedstock for biofuel production. And we characterize the loss of efficiency in the decentralized system, relative to a vertically integrated system, that can be attributed to the need to compete for the farmer's scarce land resource versus that which results from the biorefinery's desire to make a profit. Then we extend our framework to consider multi-year contracts for biomass production and evaluate the importance of land quality, yield variability and contract structure on a farmer's willingness to accept a contract to produce cellulosic feedstock as well as the resulting impact on the agricultural landscape through the displacement of commodity crops. Using switchgrass production in Tennessee as a case study, we develop feedstock supply curves for each contract structure considered and evaluate the conditions and contract prices at which land devoted to various field crops would be displaced by switchgrass based on field trials of switchgrass production in Tennessee and recent USDA data on crop prices and production.

Nanotechnology, the scientific study of manipulating matter on an atomic scale (1 to 100 nanometers) that provides new properties in materials and devices had received considerable research attention and public funding support during the last decade in the US. This emerging technology promises to improve the competitiveness of most of the US industrial sectors. Malerba (2004) an innovation system researcher has developed the theoretical framework "Sectoral System of Innovation (SSI)" to study the process by which new technologies and knowledge are produced and transferred to industrial sectors, where actors interact based on an institutional framework to generate innovation processes. In this dissertation I studied the agriculture and food processing sector, which is a key sector of the US economy that has provided with enough food for the US population, but in an unsustainable way that has harmed the environment, natural resources and human health. The US agrifood sector is facing new challenges of increasing food demand, which need to be addressed in a more sustainable way that takes consideration on economic, environment, and social aspects. The main questions that this dissertation research focuses on studying how much attention the public nanotechnology agrifood research agenda has paid to sustainability issues during the last decade in the US and what role has played the system's actors in influencing this research agenda. The analysis of the policy process in which system's actors try to influence the research agenda is framed in the Advocacy Coalition Framework (Sabatier 1993) that complemented the Sectoral System of Innovation approach in studying the formation of advocacy groups to achieve their coalition's policy goals. Three data sources were utilized to achieve my research goals, the CNS-ASU nanotechnology publications dataset 2000-2010(Porter A, Youtie J et al. 2007; De Bellis 2009)which was used to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the agrifood nanotechnology research publications in the US, semi-structured interviews with key actors and their interaction in advocacy coalition groups, and a literature review of several official documents and public hearing with respect to the US nanotechnology system to evaluate the influence of advocacy groups in the policy process. Utilizing Vantage point data mining and Nvivo qualitative analysis software I conducted the data analysis of my research. The results show increasing research attention toward environmental research and food safety issues that can indirectly impact positively on sustainability development, as well as increasing research attention in studying environmental, health and safety issues (EHS) that can reduce potential risks. The analysis of actors' interaction to influence the policy process, two advocacy coalitions was identified. On one side, a coalition that advocate for more research funding oriented to applied research to achieve the potential that this coalition members believe this technology has to revolutionize the way food is produced giving more competitiveness to the US agrifood sector, this coalition is composed by researchers, federal agency managers and industry representatives. On the other side, a rival coalition that raise concerns respect to potential risks associated to this technology that required to be addressed by the public research agenda. This coalition mainly composed by environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other social actors claim for a regulatory framework that guarantee a nanotechnology development environmental friendly that benefit the society. The influence of these two coalitions have succeed in allocating more federal funding resources to research nanotechnology in the agrifood sector, with particular emphasis in EHS research that show the right path to a sustainable development that guarantee enough resources for the future generations.

Manufacturing industries are facing major challenges in terms of improving product quality and increasing throughput while sustaining production costs to acceptable levels. Product-oriented processes, both legacy and new, are poorly monitored and controlled on the basis of distributed loop controllers that are aiming to maintain critical process variables within acceptable bounds. Thus, poor quality product results when such processes are subjected to large disturbances - operational failures, environmental changes, and changes in loading conditions. In this research, product quality modeling and control based on a vision inspection methodology is proposed to improve product quality and increase productivity. The main contributions of this research are twofold. First, this research introduces a product quality modeling methodology that combines both physical-based modeling and data-driven modeling. The quality model is the link between information coming from the inspection of product features and the specification of process control strategies. It is essential to control and optimize the process. Physical-based modeling is used to model the product temperature profile, and data-driven modeling is used to train the mapping from the product temperature profile to each quality metric. The break down of the sub models increase the flexibility of model development and reduce the effort to change the model when the quality metrics change. The second contribution is the development of a novel approach to control product quality based on vision inspection, which is developed as part of a hybrid, hierarchical architecture. The high-level control module involves scheduling of multiple plant processes, diagnostics of the failure condition in the process, and the supervision of the whole process. The mid-level control module, which is the focus of the work presented here, takes advantage of baking product quality indicators and oven parameter measurements to optimize zone temperature and conveyor speed set points so that the best product quality is achieved even in the presence of disturbances. The low-level control module consists of basic control loops. Each of them controls parameters of each operation in the process separately. They are generally simple and easy to implement.

published_or_final_version / History / Master / Master of Philosophy