An on-farm study was conducted with crossbred lactating dairy cows, maintained under market orien... more An on-farm study was conducted with crossbred lactating dairy cows, maintained under market oriented mixed farming system at Kuyu district, in north Shoa zone, Ethiopia to assess the effect of feeding intervention diet (4% urea treated teff straw (4kg of urea, 90 liters of water and 10 kg of molasses per 100 kg of teff straw ensiled for 3 weeks) supplemented with a concentrate mixture (linseed cake 48% as source of escape protein; wheat bran 50% and salt 2%)). The assessment was done on chemical composition, IVOMD, feed intake, milk yield, body weight, body condition, profitability and farmers opinion during the dry season. A total of 15 households having two lactating cows per house hold were selected. 30 cows in early to mid lactation with an average body weight of 286.8±55.05 kg were selected and balanced for their parity, stage of lactation, level of milk yield and body condition and divided in to two groups (15 cows per group). 15 cows were fed urea-treated teff straw ad lib as...
The purpose of this research is to assess the integration, and thus the efficiency of the beef in... more The purpose of this research is to assess the integration, and thus the efficiency of the beef industry. Towards this goal, we tested the presence of long run cointegration between the price series. The price series considered in this analysis are live cattle price, wholesale price and retail price. We tested and estimated both linear and nonlinear (where linearity is rejected) relationships between these price series. Accordingly, the both bivariate and multivariate linear error correction model estimation shows that live cattle price adjusts the positive deviation from equilibrium. This result reflects the structure of the industry where meat slaughters and packers are concentrated. On the other hand, slaughters and packers and retailers prices adjust to each other. Since both Packers and retailers have market power, it is not surprising that this giants work together in collaboration. However, as discussed under conceptual framework in this model prices react to all sort of devia...
Background: Although anthropometric measures of obesity are used as indicators of diabetes risk, ... more Background: Although anthropometric measures of obesity are used as indicators of diabetes risk, the relationship between blood glucose levels and weight status is not always linear, and is modified by age. Methods: Using a sub-sample of 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data for participants (n=2031) aged 20 or older, we sought to investigate the relationship between blood glucose levels (valid 2-hr oral glucose tolerance tests) and body mass index (BMI), as well as waist circumference (WC). A Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines approach was used to select a model to establish the BMI and WC cutoff points associated with increased blood glucose levels while accounting for age. Results: A 1-cm increase in WC above 101cm increases risk for pre-diabetes and undiagnosed diabetes by 1.05 times, and after age 32 the risk of pre-diabetes increases by 1.07 each year. If an individual’s age is greater than 32 and WC is greater than 136, a unit increase in BMI w...
Exposure to the natural environment may improve health behaviors and mental health outcomes such ... more Exposure to the natural environment may improve health behaviors and mental health outcomes such as increased levels of physical activity and lower levels of depression associated with sleep quality. Little is known about the relationship between insufficient sleep and the natural environment. To determine whether exposure to attributes of the natural environment (e.g., greenspace) attenuates the likelihood of reporting insufficient sleep among US adults. Multiple logistic regression models were used to explore the association between self-reported days of insufficient sleep (in the past 30days) and access to the natural environment in a multi-ethnic, nationally representative sample (n=255,171) of US adults ≥18years of age enrolled in the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Using 1-to-6days of insufficient sleep as the referent group for all analyses, lower odds of exposure to natural amenities were observed for individuals reporting 21-to-29days (OR=0.843, 95% Confidence Interval (CI)=0.747, 0.951) of insufficient sleep. In stratified analyses, statistically significant lower odds of exposure to natural amenities was found among men reporting7-to-13-days (OR=0.911, 95% CI=0.857, 0.968), 21-to-29-days (OR=0.838, 95% CI=0.759, 0.924), and 30-days (OR=0.860, 95%CI=0.784, 0.943) of insufficient sleep. Greenspace access was also protective against insufficient sleep for men and individuals aged 65+. In a representative sample of US adults, access to the natural environment attenuated the likelihood of reporting insufficient sleep, particularly among men. Additional studies are needed to examine the impact of natural environment exposure on sleep insufficiency across various socio-demographic groups.
The structure of the dairy processing industry in the European Union has changed enormously in re... more The structure of the dairy processing industry in the European Union has changed enormously in recent decades. In many countries the industry is characterized by a few large companies with a big market share accompanied by many small processors that often produce for niche markets. This paper investigates which factors relate to growth of dairy processing firms.
Journal of Sleep and Sleep Disorders Research; Volume 37 (1088): A382, May 30, 2014
Is there an association between access to natural amenities and sufficient sleep? Results from t... more Is there an association between access to natural amenities and sufficient sleep? Results from the 2010 BRFSS
Grigsby-Toussaint, D.S., Turi, K., Krupa, M., Williams, N.J., Jean-Louis, G.
Introduction: Emerging empirical evidence suggests exposure to natural amenities (e.g., green-space, oceanfront) may improve health behaviors and mental health outcomes such as increased levels of physical activity and lower levels of depression associated with sleep quality. Little is known about the relationship between self-reported sufficient sleep and natural amenities.
Methods: A subsample (n=253,550) of the US 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a randomized survey of risk factors among US adults ≥18 years of age, was used to examine the association between self-reported sleep sufficiency (the number of days individuals indicated as having sufficient sleep in the past month) and access to natural amenities. Participants with geographically referenced data were assigned an amenity score based on an index developed by the United States Department of Agriculture to reflect the natural landscape of counties including varied topography such as lakes, ponds, oceanfront, and climate to encompass all four seasons in the US (i.e., winter, spring, summer, fall). Multiple linear regression was performed in STATA 12 to explore the relationship between subjective sleep sufficiency and natural amenities.
Results: Higher number of days with sufficient sleep were positively associated with higher scores for natural amenities (β=0.112, P=0.05), controlling for age, gender, race, marital status, education, employment status, income level, physical activity, body mass index and asthma. Days with sufficient sleep were negatively associated with Hispanic ethnicity (β= -1.418), increased age (β= -0.081), higher levels of education (β= -0.411) and a propensity to snore (β= -0.388) (all P≤0.00).
Conclusion: In a nationally representative sample of US adults, access to natural amenities was shown to attenuate the risk for insufficient sleep. Additional studies may be needed to determine whether this relationship holds at smaller levels of geography and to disentangle whether specific characteristics of the natural environment may be more likely to improve sleep sufficiency.
Blacks have greater arterial stiffness than non-blacks; yet race-related disparity in the prospec... more Blacks have greater arterial stiffness than non-blacks; yet race-related disparity in the prospective association between arterial stiffness and cognitive decline remains unexplored. We sought to determine if arterial stiffness is associated with cognitive decline in 2,488 communitydwelling older adults from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study and if this association differed between whites and blacks. Arterial stiffness was measured as pulse wave velocity (PWV) and analyzed in race-specific tertiles. Cognitive function, using the Modified Mini Mental State Exam (3MS), was assessed at baseline and repeated across four follow-up visits spanning 9 years. Higher 3MS scores denote better function. Hierarchical linear mixed models with random slopes were fitted to examine the associations between PWV and change in cognitive function over time, adjusted for sociodemographics and traditional cardiovascular risk factors. At the middle tertile, a PWV, race, by age interaction was significant (p-value=0.021) indicating that for middle values of PWV, decline in cognition was significantly higher for blacks than for whites. Over 9 years of followup, whites with the highest and middle PWV tertiles experienced an average decline in 3MS score of 4.5 and 3.6 points, respectively, versus 2.8 points for whites with the lowest PWV tertile. Over 9 years of follow-up, blacks with the highest and middle PWV tertiles experienced an average decline in 3MS score of 4.4 and 6.8 points, respectively, versus 3.5 points for blacks with the lowest PWV tertile. These results suggest that interventions to prevent arterial stiffness may be effective in delaying cognitive decline.
We analyzed the integration retail market of the industrialized tortilla. We used cointegration, ... more We analyzed the integration retail market of the industrialized tortilla. We used cointegration, granger causality test and IRF approach to understand the linkage between the pieces in five cities distributed in Mexico. The result shows that there is integration between spatially dispersed markets. As we have seen from the IRF graph, the effect of shock in one market has permanent effect on the price of the other market. However the magnitude of the effect is small. The integration in the market can be attributed to many factors including the market concentration (especially the white corn flour industry). If most of the production factors are held by few firms the difference of price between the cities should be the transportation cost and retail price markup depending on the location of the factories. In addition, in such situation the possibility of collusion (both for tortilla and flour producers) should not be ruled out. On the positive side, the integration in the Tortilla market can be thought of as the development of the retail market due to entry of giant supermarkets into the Mexican retail markets that transport and distribute the product efficiently. Finally, the data shows that the price rises abruptly in all markets around beginning of 2009. This might show some kind of structural change in level of 2 prices. Future research should address the cause of the structural shift as well as if any difference in the cointegration of the markets before and after this period.
The structure of the dairy processing industry in the European Union has changed enormously in re... more The structure of the dairy processing industry in the European Union has changed enormously in recent decades. In many countries, the industry is characterized by a few large companies with a big market share accompanied by many small processors that often produce for niche markets. This article investigates which factors relate to growth of dairy processing firms. Using a unique 10-year panel data set and recently developed dynamic panel data estimators, the growth process of dairy processors is investigated for six rather diverse European countries. The data structure and the estimation method allow for dealing with endogeneity issues in an appropriate way. Firm size growth measured in total assets is found to be affected by firm size, firm age, and financial variables. Growth in number of employees is only affected by firm age and lagged labor productivity. Implications for these results are given in the final section of the article.
An on-farm study was conducted with crossbred lactating dairy cows, maintained under market orien... more An on-farm study was conducted with crossbred lactating dairy cows, maintained under market oriented mixed farming system at Kuyu district, in north Shoa zone, Ethiopia to assess the effect of feeding intervention diet (4% urea treated teff straw (4kg of urea, 90 liters of water and 10 kg of molasses per 100 kg of teff straw ensiled for 3 weeks) supplemented with a concentrate mixture (linseed cake 48% as source of escape protein; wheat bran 50% and salt 2%)). The assessment was done on chemical composition, IVOMD, feed intake, milk yield, body weight, body condition, profitability and farmers opinion during the dry season. A total of 15 households having two lactating cows per house hold were selected. 30 cows in early to mid lactation with an average body weight of 286.8±55.05 kg were selected and balanced for their parity, stage of lactation, level of milk yield and body condition and divided in to two groups (15 cows per group). 15 cows were fed urea-treated teff straw ad lib as...
The purpose of this research is to assess the integration, and thus the efficiency of the beef in... more The purpose of this research is to assess the integration, and thus the efficiency of the beef industry. Towards this goal, we tested the presence of long run cointegration between the price series. The price series considered in this analysis are live cattle price, wholesale price and retail price. We tested and estimated both linear and nonlinear (where linearity is rejected) relationships between these price series. Accordingly, the both bivariate and multivariate linear error correction model estimation shows that live cattle price adjusts the positive deviation from equilibrium. This result reflects the structure of the industry where meat slaughters and packers are concentrated. On the other hand, slaughters and packers and retailers prices adjust to each other. Since both Packers and retailers have market power, it is not surprising that this giants work together in collaboration. However, as discussed under conceptual framework in this model prices react to all sort of devia...
Background: Although anthropometric measures of obesity are used as indicators of diabetes risk, ... more Background: Although anthropometric measures of obesity are used as indicators of diabetes risk, the relationship between blood glucose levels and weight status is not always linear, and is modified by age. Methods: Using a sub-sample of 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data for participants (n=2031) aged 20 or older, we sought to investigate the relationship between blood glucose levels (valid 2-hr oral glucose tolerance tests) and body mass index (BMI), as well as waist circumference (WC). A Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines approach was used to select a model to establish the BMI and WC cutoff points associated with increased blood glucose levels while accounting for age. Results: A 1-cm increase in WC above 101cm increases risk for pre-diabetes and undiagnosed diabetes by 1.05 times, and after age 32 the risk of pre-diabetes increases by 1.07 each year. If an individual’s age is greater than 32 and WC is greater than 136, a unit increase in BMI w...
Exposure to the natural environment may improve health behaviors and mental health outcomes such ... more Exposure to the natural environment may improve health behaviors and mental health outcomes such as increased levels of physical activity and lower levels of depression associated with sleep quality. Little is known about the relationship between insufficient sleep and the natural environment. To determine whether exposure to attributes of the natural environment (e.g., greenspace) attenuates the likelihood of reporting insufficient sleep among US adults. Multiple logistic regression models were used to explore the association between self-reported days of insufficient sleep (in the past 30days) and access to the natural environment in a multi-ethnic, nationally representative sample (n=255,171) of US adults ≥18years of age enrolled in the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Using 1-to-6days of insufficient sleep as the referent group for all analyses, lower odds of exposure to natural amenities were observed for individuals reporting 21-to-29days (OR=0.843, 95% Confidence Interval (CI)=0.747, 0.951) of insufficient sleep. In stratified analyses, statistically significant lower odds of exposure to natural amenities was found among men reporting7-to-13-days (OR=0.911, 95% CI=0.857, 0.968), 21-to-29-days (OR=0.838, 95% CI=0.759, 0.924), and 30-days (OR=0.860, 95%CI=0.784, 0.943) of insufficient sleep. Greenspace access was also protective against insufficient sleep for men and individuals aged 65+. In a representative sample of US adults, access to the natural environment attenuated the likelihood of reporting insufficient sleep, particularly among men. Additional studies are needed to examine the impact of natural environment exposure on sleep insufficiency across various socio-demographic groups.
The structure of the dairy processing industry in the European Union has changed enormously in re... more The structure of the dairy processing industry in the European Union has changed enormously in recent decades. In many countries the industry is characterized by a few large companies with a big market share accompanied by many small processors that often produce for niche markets. This paper investigates which factors relate to growth of dairy processing firms.
Journal of Sleep and Sleep Disorders Research; Volume 37 (1088): A382, May 30, 2014
Is there an association between access to natural amenities and sufficient sleep? Results from t... more Is there an association between access to natural amenities and sufficient sleep? Results from the 2010 BRFSS
Grigsby-Toussaint, D.S., Turi, K., Krupa, M., Williams, N.J., Jean-Louis, G.
Introduction: Emerging empirical evidence suggests exposure to natural amenities (e.g., green-space, oceanfront) may improve health behaviors and mental health outcomes such as increased levels of physical activity and lower levels of depression associated with sleep quality. Little is known about the relationship between self-reported sufficient sleep and natural amenities.
Methods: A subsample (n=253,550) of the US 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a randomized survey of risk factors among US adults ≥18 years of age, was used to examine the association between self-reported sleep sufficiency (the number of days individuals indicated as having sufficient sleep in the past month) and access to natural amenities. Participants with geographically referenced data were assigned an amenity score based on an index developed by the United States Department of Agriculture to reflect the natural landscape of counties including varied topography such as lakes, ponds, oceanfront, and climate to encompass all four seasons in the US (i.e., winter, spring, summer, fall). Multiple linear regression was performed in STATA 12 to explore the relationship between subjective sleep sufficiency and natural amenities.
Results: Higher number of days with sufficient sleep were positively associated with higher scores for natural amenities (β=0.112, P=0.05), controlling for age, gender, race, marital status, education, employment status, income level, physical activity, body mass index and asthma. Days with sufficient sleep were negatively associated with Hispanic ethnicity (β= -1.418), increased age (β= -0.081), higher levels of education (β= -0.411) and a propensity to snore (β= -0.388) (all P≤0.00).
Conclusion: In a nationally representative sample of US adults, access to natural amenities was shown to attenuate the risk for insufficient sleep. Additional studies may be needed to determine whether this relationship holds at smaller levels of geography and to disentangle whether specific characteristics of the natural environment may be more likely to improve sleep sufficiency.
Blacks have greater arterial stiffness than non-blacks; yet race-related disparity in the prospec... more Blacks have greater arterial stiffness than non-blacks; yet race-related disparity in the prospective association between arterial stiffness and cognitive decline remains unexplored. We sought to determine if arterial stiffness is associated with cognitive decline in 2,488 communitydwelling older adults from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study and if this association differed between whites and blacks. Arterial stiffness was measured as pulse wave velocity (PWV) and analyzed in race-specific tertiles. Cognitive function, using the Modified Mini Mental State Exam (3MS), was assessed at baseline and repeated across four follow-up visits spanning 9 years. Higher 3MS scores denote better function. Hierarchical linear mixed models with random slopes were fitted to examine the associations between PWV and change in cognitive function over time, adjusted for sociodemographics and traditional cardiovascular risk factors. At the middle tertile, a PWV, race, by age interaction was significant (p-value=0.021) indicating that for middle values of PWV, decline in cognition was significantly higher for blacks than for whites. Over 9 years of followup, whites with the highest and middle PWV tertiles experienced an average decline in 3MS score of 4.5 and 3.6 points, respectively, versus 2.8 points for whites with the lowest PWV tertile. Over 9 years of follow-up, blacks with the highest and middle PWV tertiles experienced an average decline in 3MS score of 4.4 and 6.8 points, respectively, versus 3.5 points for blacks with the lowest PWV tertile. These results suggest that interventions to prevent arterial stiffness may be effective in delaying cognitive decline.
We analyzed the integration retail market of the industrialized tortilla. We used cointegration, ... more We analyzed the integration retail market of the industrialized tortilla. We used cointegration, granger causality test and IRF approach to understand the linkage between the pieces in five cities distributed in Mexico. The result shows that there is integration between spatially dispersed markets. As we have seen from the IRF graph, the effect of shock in one market has permanent effect on the price of the other market. However the magnitude of the effect is small. The integration in the market can be attributed to many factors including the market concentration (especially the white corn flour industry). If most of the production factors are held by few firms the difference of price between the cities should be the transportation cost and retail price markup depending on the location of the factories. In addition, in such situation the possibility of collusion (both for tortilla and flour producers) should not be ruled out. On the positive side, the integration in the Tortilla market can be thought of as the development of the retail market due to entry of giant supermarkets into the Mexican retail markets that transport and distribute the product efficiently. Finally, the data shows that the price rises abruptly in all markets around beginning of 2009. This might show some kind of structural change in level of 2 prices. Future research should address the cause of the structural shift as well as if any difference in the cointegration of the markets before and after this period.
The structure of the dairy processing industry in the European Union has changed enormously in re... more The structure of the dairy processing industry in the European Union has changed enormously in recent decades. In many countries, the industry is characterized by a few large companies with a big market share accompanied by many small processors that often produce for niche markets. This article investigates which factors relate to growth of dairy processing firms. Using a unique 10-year panel data set and recently developed dynamic panel data estimators, the growth process of dairy processors is investigated for six rather diverse European countries. The data structure and the estimation method allow for dealing with endogeneity issues in an appropriate way. Firm size growth measured in total assets is found to be affected by firm size, firm age, and financial variables. Growth in number of employees is only affected by firm age and lagged labor productivity. Implications for these results are given in the final section of the article.
Uploads
Papers by Kedir Turi
Grigsby-Toussaint, D.S., Turi, K., Krupa, M., Williams, N.J., Jean-Louis, G.
Introduction: Emerging empirical evidence suggests exposure to natural amenities (e.g., green-space, oceanfront) may improve health behaviors and mental health outcomes such as increased levels of physical activity and lower levels of depression associated with sleep quality. Little is known about the relationship between self-reported sufficient sleep and natural amenities.
Methods: A subsample (n=253,550) of the US 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a randomized survey of risk factors among US adults ≥18 years of age, was used to examine the association between self-reported sleep sufficiency (the number of days individuals indicated as having sufficient sleep in the past month) and access to natural amenities. Participants with geographically referenced data were assigned an amenity score based on an index developed by the United States Department of Agriculture to reflect the natural landscape of counties including varied topography such as lakes, ponds, oceanfront, and climate to encompass all four seasons in the US (i.e., winter, spring, summer, fall). Multiple linear regression was performed in STATA 12 to explore the relationship between subjective sleep sufficiency and natural amenities.
Results: Higher number of days with sufficient sleep were positively associated with higher scores for natural amenities (β=0.112, P=0.05), controlling for age, gender, race, marital status, education, employment status, income level, physical activity, body mass index and asthma. Days with sufficient sleep were negatively associated with Hispanic ethnicity (β= -1.418), increased age (β= -0.081), higher levels of education (β= -0.411) and a propensity to snore (β= -0.388) (all P≤0.00).
Conclusion: In a nationally representative sample of US adults, access to natural amenities was shown to attenuate the risk for insufficient sleep. Additional studies may be needed to determine whether this relationship holds at smaller levels of geography and to disentangle whether specific characteristics of the natural environment may be more likely to improve sleep sufficiency.
Grigsby-Toussaint, D.S., Turi, K., Krupa, M., Williams, N.J., Jean-Louis, G.
Introduction: Emerging empirical evidence suggests exposure to natural amenities (e.g., green-space, oceanfront) may improve health behaviors and mental health outcomes such as increased levels of physical activity and lower levels of depression associated with sleep quality. Little is known about the relationship between self-reported sufficient sleep and natural amenities.
Methods: A subsample (n=253,550) of the US 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a randomized survey of risk factors among US adults ≥18 years of age, was used to examine the association between self-reported sleep sufficiency (the number of days individuals indicated as having sufficient sleep in the past month) and access to natural amenities. Participants with geographically referenced data were assigned an amenity score based on an index developed by the United States Department of Agriculture to reflect the natural landscape of counties including varied topography such as lakes, ponds, oceanfront, and climate to encompass all four seasons in the US (i.e., winter, spring, summer, fall). Multiple linear regression was performed in STATA 12 to explore the relationship between subjective sleep sufficiency and natural amenities.
Results: Higher number of days with sufficient sleep were positively associated with higher scores for natural amenities (β=0.112, P=0.05), controlling for age, gender, race, marital status, education, employment status, income level, physical activity, body mass index and asthma. Days with sufficient sleep were negatively associated with Hispanic ethnicity (β= -1.418), increased age (β= -0.081), higher levels of education (β= -0.411) and a propensity to snore (β= -0.388) (all P≤0.00).
Conclusion: In a nationally representative sample of US adults, access to natural amenities was shown to attenuate the risk for insufficient sleep. Additional studies may be needed to determine whether this relationship holds at smaller levels of geography and to disentangle whether specific characteristics of the natural environment may be more likely to improve sleep sufficiency.