This thesis explores how political parties coordinate competing objectives, such as winning elections and influencing public policy with demands from their legislators whose interests lie principally in re-election and policy distribution. Electoral and legislative institutions affect the prioritizing of these goals and the appropriate strategy by which to achieve them. Utilizing two East Asian democracies, Japan and Taiwan, my dissertation evaluates this argument via the econometric analysis of various aspects of legislative behavior and policy outcomes, such as committee assignments and deliberations, and intergovernmental fiscal transfers. In regard to committee activities, there exists a significant difference between governing and opposition parties in terms of the expected role of their members on legislative committees. In regard to fiscal transfers, governing parties distribute fiscal resources strategically to party strongholds.

This study determined the effects of sucrose and sorbitol as cryoprotectant (CR) on the quality and sensory attributes of bone-in hams (N=90) injected (20% of weight) with following brine treatments (BT): control (2% sucrose; CNT), 2% CR (1% sucrose, 1% sorbitol), 4% CR (2% sucrose, 2% sorbitol). Hams that were frozen and injected with CNT after thawing (FZ I) were used as a negative control. After reaching the designated ST all bone-in hams were thawed under refrigeration (4oC) and FZ I hams were then injected with CNT (n=8). Hams were cooked to 70oC, chilled (7oC), sliced, vacuum packaged and analyzed for lipid oxidation, color, protein solubility and purge at 0, 28, and 56 of refrigerated storage while sensory evaluation and shear force determinations were conducted at 28 d. Color, pH, and lipid oxidation values tended to remain similar or decrease as frozen storage time increased. Water holding capacity (percent bound water) and protein solubility increased as frozen storage increased. The 4% CR BT exhibited the lowest shear force value (4.04 N/g) but was not statistically different than CNT or FZ I on ham knuckle muscles. Trained sensory panelists found hammy and salty were the strongest flavor and basic taste attributes. The results of this study confirm that quality attributes and protein functionality were maintained but not significantly improved by injecting a brine solution with cryoprotectants prior to freezing.

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Thesis (MTech. Degree in Animal Sciences) Tshwane University of Technology 2012. / Poor pork quality as a result of pre-slaughter stress is widespread in the industry and this is of great concern. Although many methods for assessing stress levels, and consequently welfare, exist, these tend to be invasive. Simple, effective, non-invasive and/or minimally invasive ways of assessing the welfare of the pigs before slaughter are critical to identify the stressed pigs enabling specific interventions to mitigate the effects of the stress on the pork. The main objective of the study was therefore, to measure the levels of metabolic substrate in pig saliva and plasma subjected to stressful conditions using rapid diagnostic tests and relate them to meat pH, drip loss and carcass temperature of the meat. It was envisaged that such a relationship if established would enable the identification of stressed pigs likely to produce poor quality pork and enable prophylactic measures to be taken before slaughter to come up with good quality pork.

No description available.

This study analyzes the economic and demographic patterns of at-home pork consumption for representative individuals over 18 years of age in the United States. Three data sets purchased by the National Pork Board (NPB) are mined for this purpose: (1) National Eating Trends (NET) data from National Panel Diary (NPD) on individuals' intake and their demographic characteristics; (2) weekly retail prices for fresh meats and fresh pork cuts from FreshLook; and (3) weekly retail prices for processed pork products from A.C. Nielsen. Heckman sample selection models are used to find demographic, health, and attitudinal/lifestyle patterns of consumption of twelve fresh and processed pork products as well as beef, chicken, and seafood. In the fall, individuals have a higher probability of eating beef, chicken, pork tenderloin, and bacon, but a lower probability of eating fresh seafood, canned ham, and smoked ham relative to the spring. The New England region has the highest likelihood of eating fresh pork, beef, chicken, seafood, pork roasts, pork tenderloin, and pork hotdogs. Blacks, on average, eat more fresh and processed pork, chicken, pork sausage, bacon, and canned ham, but less beef relative to whites. Concern about serving food with fat is negatively related with the likelihood of eating processed pork, lunchmeat, ham, and bacon, but it is positively related with the likelihood of eating pork hotdogs. A three-stage selectivity-adjusted censored LA/AIDS model is developed and estimated to find demand-price relationships for: (1) fresh meats (pork, beef, chicken, and seafood) and (2) nine fresh and processed pork cuts. However, aggregate fresh meats are substitutes for each other in at-home market, but there are substantial complementarities between pork cuts. Pork sausage is the major competitor for the processed products, pork roasts and pork tenderloin, but a major complement for pork ribs. There is relatively week substitutability between pork and beef, and relatively strong substitutability between pork and chicken and between beef and chicken. This could suggest opportunities for some joint marketing efforts between pork and beef commodity interests. This information can be used as a guide for marketing strategists for targeting and promotion as well as for category management of the disaggregated pork products.

No description available.

The pork industry in South Africa is faced with many challenges some of which have been exacerbated with the trend toward globalisation. The success of the individual farmer is dependent upon co-operative agreements, achieving economies of scale, adding value to the commodity product pork and producing the end product efficiently enough to be competitive in the long-term whilst adjusting to the highly volatile market. The objective of this study was to determine whether the use of a marketing consortium was in principle an appropriate means of increasing profitability of individual farming operations. A secondary objective was to determine what the processing companies thought of the proposed selling consortium and how they would react to the concentration of supply that would result from the formation of a marketing consortium. The secondary research was based on a literature survey of current pork journals, articles from South African pork magazines, statistics from industry reports, textbooks on international trade and marketing, the Internet and newspapers. To evaluate the findings of the literature survey, a questionnaire using Likert type scales was devised and empirically tested among selected samples within the pork industry in KwaZulu-Natal. The literature review and the results from the questionnaire established that the formation of a selling consortium or collaborative relationships would have the potential to be mutually beneficial to both pork producers and pork processors. As a result of this it is felt that marketing consortiums have a place in the pork industry. The scope of this research is limited to the requirements of a dissertation that fulfils the partial requirements of a Masters in Business Administration. The sample sizes were small as the research was confined to the KwaZulu-Natal pork industry. In order to facilitate the reading of the dissertation and to simplify referencing of sources from the Internet the term "online" has been used to replace lengthy Internet addresses. The full address, however, is included in the list of references at the end of the dissertation. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Graduation date: 1992

Cette thèse visait à évaluer l’effet d’une alimentation pourvue en graines de lin riches en acide a-linolénique (ALA) et en microalgues riches en acide docosahexaenoïque (DHA) sur le métabolisme des lipides et la qualité de la viande de porc. Les régimes n’ont pas eu d’effet sur les performances de croissance et les critères de qualité de la carcasse mesurés en abattoir. La digestibilité des acides gras polyinsaturés (AGPI) n-3, leurs quantités dans les régimes et les traitements technologiques subis par la graine de lin ont impacté le dépôt d’ALA et de DHA dans les lipides totaux et les fractions neutres et polaires des tissus. La quantité de malonaldéhyde, représentatif de la peroxydation des acides gras, du muscle longissimus dorsi et du tissu adipeux sous cutané dorsal (TAD) a été augmentée avec un apport de microalgues.Une odeur plus prononcée des rôtis issus du régime microalgues a été identifiée par un jury entrainé. Enfin, les activités et l’expression des gènes de la lipogenèse et de la synthèse des AGPI n-3 ont été diminuées au niveau hépatique avec l’apport de microalgues. Un second objectif visait à recenser les facteurs de variation du dépôt des AGPI n-3 dans les tissus porcins pour les intégrer dans un modèle prédictif de ce dépôt. En raison d’une grande variabilité entre individus, seuls des modèles linéaires ont pu être établis en considérant les quantités digestibles d’ALA et de DHA ingérées, le sexe des animaux et l’effet du lot. Enfin, la thèse a permis de proposer des équations de calibration de spectrométrie en proche infra-rouge (SPIR) afin de déterm / Pigs used in this thesis were fed linseed rich in a-linolenic acid (ALA) and microalgae rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to evaluate the effect of diet on lipid metabolism and pork quality. Fatty acid (FA) composition of the diets did not have any effect on pig performances and carcass parameters measured at slaughter. The digestive utilization, the quantity of n-3 polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) in the diet and the technological treatment applied to linseed were identified as modifiers of the deposition of ALA and DHA in total, neutral and polar lipids. They also had an impact on the activity of lipogenesis enzymes and on the gene expression involved in n-3 PUFA synthesis in the liver. The malonaldehyde content, representative of the FA lipoperoxydation, measured in longissimus dorsi muscle and subcutaneous adipose tissue of the back (SCB),significantly increased with the supply of microalgae and with linseed to a lesser extent. Finally, the odor of the meat from pigs fed microalgae was more pronounced than meat from pigs fed linseed or a mix 75%/25% of linseed and microalgae. From results obtained in animal experiments, linear models were built to predict n-3 PUFA deposition in pig tissues from quantities of digestible ALA and DHA ingested by animals. Finally, a last part of the thesis allowed characterizing the FA composition of the SCB by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in order to quickly identify the meat enriched with n-3 PUFA.