A comparison of the efficacy of chef knife-cleaning methods

Improperly cleaned and sanitized chef knives present a potential contamination risk and a source for foodborne illness. This study compared the efficacies of two cleaning methods (three-compartment manual dishwashing and sanitizer wiping) at removing food soils from contaminated chef knives. Knife-washing procedures were standardized after observing knife-cleaning behavior in a kitchen. Adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence was used to measure levels of organic soils. Results indicated that the three-compartment manual dishwashing was more effective at removing food soils from knife surfaces than the sanitizer wiping (P < .0001). This study also assessed the influence of other factors on the soil removal efficacies.     

Health inspection reports as predictors of specific training needs

This study examined the impact of inspector and operation type on restaurant inspection scores and estimated the probability of each violation found by each inspector and operation type. General linear models and a logistic regression model were employed to analyze 1,067 regular routine inspection results. The results of this study showed that inspector and operation type significantly impacted inspection scores, explaining 28.07% of the variation in scores. A significant difference was found in the prediction of the probability of each violation found by inspector and operation type. The estimated probability of each violation being found by inspector during a specific inspection of operation ranged from 0% to 47.9%. The probability of each violation occurrence by inspector and operation type was considered as specific training needs for inspectors and restaurant managers. Possible implications are suggested for training programs for inspectors and restaurant managers to improve standardized results of inspection.     

Role of corporate governance in mitigating the selective disclosure of executive stock option information

We examine the nature and extent of statutory executive stock option disclosures by Australian listed companies over the 2001–2004 period, and the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on these disclosures. Our results show a progressive increase in overall compliance from 2001 to 2004. However, despite the improved compliance, the results reveal managements’ continued reluctance to disclose more sensitive executive stock option information. Factors associated with good internal governance, including board independence, audit committee independence and effectiveness, and compensation committee independence and effectiveness are found to contribute to improved compliance. Similarly, certain external governance factors are associated with improved disclosure, including external auditor quality, shareholder activism (as proxied by companies identified as poor performers by the Australian Shareholders’ Association) and regulatory intervention.     

An archaeological examination of ethnic differences in body care rituals

Body care rituals as expressions of cultural heritage passed intergenerationally through childhood socialization were expected to show variation across income matched groups from two ethnic origins (Anglos and Mexican-Americans). The contents of 1595 collections of household refuse were coded to determine level of usage of products used in body care rituals by two income groups of Hispanics and two income-matched groups of Anglos. Findings regarding group differences in patterns of usage of personal cleansers, household cleansers, oral hygiene products, odor fighters, hair care products, skin care products, cosmetics, feminine protection products, over-the-counter drugs, and aspirin are reported. These findings are interpreted using several alternative theoretical perspectives including body cathexis, status, and role theory, attempts to capture the ‘Good Life,’ pride in the body, and cultural heritage. Propositions for future research are suggested.     

The market ethic: Moral dilemmas and microeconomics

Brief cases written as multiple choice questions can provide the basis for a classroom game based on business ethics. This teaching note describes the organization of such a game and provides five sample cases.Julianne Nelson is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business of New York University. She has also taught at the Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Tours, France. Her publications have appeared in theInternational Economic Review, Economics Letters, theJournal of Regulatory Economics, theJournal of Business Ethics, andJapan and the World Economy.I would like to thank my students for their suggestions and support of this project. This research was supported by a grant from the Rundin Foundation.     

Soil Carbon Sequestration Strategies with Alternative Tillage and Nitrogen Sources under Risk

This study examines the economic potential of using either no-tillage or conventional tillage with either commercial nitrogen or cattle manure to sequester soil in continuous corn production. This research uses stochastic efficiency with respect to a function to determine the preferred production systems under various risk preferences and utility-weighted certainty equivalent risk premiums to determine the carbon credit values needed to motivate adoption of systems, which sequester higher levels of carbon. The results indicate that no-tillage and cattle manure increase carbon sequestration. Carbon credits or government program incentives are not required to entice risk-averse managers to use no-tillage, but are required to encourage manure use as a means of sequestering additional carbon even at historically high nitrogen prices. New environmental rules for confined animal feeding operations may increase the demand for land to apply manure as a primary nutrient source and participation in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Security Program, and a carbon credit market to obtain payments to offset some or all of the costs of manure application.     

Tariff quota administration in China's grain markets: An empirical assessment

In 2016, the U.S. launched a trade dispute against China at the World Trade Organization, arguing that China has been restricting its grain imports via tariff quota administration. Despite sharp criticisms by the U.S., the extent to which the grain imports were restricted in China remains largely unknown, primarily due to that China's grain import behaviors are still under-researched. The U.S. grain export sector might actually gain little from China's grain trade liberalization in the short run, since China has become less import dependent on the U.S. through the pursuit of import diversification. In this context, this article aims to quantify impacts of the tariff quota administration on China's grain imports from its trading partners. We calculate ad valorem tariff equivalents of the tariff quota administration and then estimate import demand elasticities using a source differentiated import demand model. We find that the tariff quota administration might have reduced China's quota fill rates for the grain commodities by 10–35% during 2013–2017. In particular, the U.S. wheat exports to China were largely negatively affected. We also find that the tariff quota administration in China acts like a variable import levy—its import restrictiveness varies negatively with world prices, leading to lower import demand elasticities.     

Experience with using the Box-Cox transformation when forecasting economic time series

Experience using twenty-one actual economic series suggests that using the Box-Cox transform does not consistently produce superior forecasts. The procedure used was to consider transformations $\text{x}{}^{\mathrm{(\lambda )}}\text{=}\text{(x}{}^{\mathrm{\lambda }}\text{?1)}\text{λ}$, where λ is chosen by maximum likelihood, a linear ARIMA model fitted to x^(λ) and forecasts produced, and finally forecasts constructed for the original series. A main problem found was that no value of λ appeared to produce normally distributed data and so the maximum likelihood procedure was inappropriate.