Browsing by Subject "yield"
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Item Dry Versus Wet Aging of Beef: Retail Cutting Yields and Palatability Evaluations of Steaks Using Alternative Cutting Styles(2012-12-05) Smith, Amanda 1987-Boneless ribeye rolls (n = 12) and boneless top sirloin butts (n = 12) were obtained from heavy weight carcasses (mean = 407.8 kg), assigned to one of two aging treatments (dry or wet) and aged for 35 days at a commercial aging facility. Cutting tests were performed at the end of the aging period to determine retail yields. Subprimals were fabricated using the Beef Alternative Merchandising cutting styles, isolating four specific muscles: M. spinalis thoracis, M. longissimus thoracis, M. gluteobiceps, and M. gluteus medius. Retail cutting tests showed wet-aged subprimals had higher (P < 0.0001) total saleable yield percentages with decreased cooler shrink and gross cut loss percentages. This resulted in wet-aged ribeye rolls and top sirloin butts yielding 1.5 times and 1.3 times more saleable product than dry-aged counterparts, respectively. In order to determine palatability characteristics, consumer sensory evaluations and trained panel evaluations were preformed. Palatability related to aging and muscle type resulted in significant differences. From a consumer standpoint, aging treatment influenced OLIKE, FLAV, FLEVEL, and BEEFLIKE but only through the interaction of aging treatment x muscle. Clearly, consumers rated the wet-aged, M. spinalis thoracis highest in each of the previously stated attributes. Aging also affected JUIC, whereas muscle type had a significant (P < 0.0001) effect on FLVBF, TEND, LEVTEND, JUIC, and LEVJUIC. As far as trained sensory attributes were concerned, a more concrete flavor profile of aged beef was obtained. In addition, dry-aged steaks had greater (P < 0.0001) cooking yield percentages when compared to wet-aged steaks.Item Establishing and Implementing an IPM Program for the Redbanded Stink Bug: An Emerging Soybean Pest in the Southern Region(2014-08-04) Vyavhare, SuhasRedbanded stink bug (RBSB), (Piezodorus guildinii Westwood) has recently emerged as an economic pest of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill in the southern US. Having only recently emerged as a pest in the US, little information exists on RBSB in this country. Information on RBSB life history is needed to provide the basis for development of an effective management plan for this Neotropical pentatomid. This dissertation research was undertaken to gather information which will help achieve the long term goal of developing an integrated pest management (IPM) program for RBSB. Soybean field surveys conducted over three years across the Upper Gulf Coast of Texas showed that RBSB has become the most abundant stink bug species attacking soybean in this region, accounting for 65% of the entire population of the stink bug pest complex. Field cage experiments showed that highest yield losses from RBSB occurred when soybeans at R5-R6 stages were infested. Our data also showed that a relatively high RBSB density (8 RBSB adults/0.3 m) during R4-R5 stage soybean triggered development of delayed maturity indicated by green leaf retention. In addition, field experiments conducted to determine if reduced pod load or alteration of sink-source ratio is involved in delayed maturity showed no relationship between reduced pod load and occurrence of soybean delayed maturity. However, RBSB density was found to have a significant positive correlation to the occurrence of soybean delayed maturity. These findings suggest that RBSB-induced soybean delayed maturity may not be solely due to reduced pod load or altered sink-source ratio, but additional mechanisms also may be involved. Finally, results from an insecticide field trial and laboratory bioassays showed that RBSBs are more susceptible to neonicotinic and pyrethroid insecticides than to the widely used organophosphate, acephate. This dissertation research has provided valuable information in regard to RBSB and soybean, which will help develop, and establish an IPM program for this emergent pest of US soybean. Development of an IPM program will reduce dependence on chemical insecticides for RBSB management. Reductions in insecticide use will eventually benefit the environment and human health.Item Impact of Herbicides on Winter Canola (Brassica napus L.) Production and Fatty Acid Composition in South Texas(2013-01-16) Cogdill, Todd JosephCanola is a cool-season, oilseed crop grown throughout Europe, Canada, and the Northern Great Plains region of the United States. The expansion of canola production into new growing regions, such as the Southern Plains region, has resulted in new production challenges. The Southern Plains region cultivates canola as a winter annual compared to a spring annual for the Northern Great Plains and Canada. Given the difference in climate and weed spectrum, region-specific weed management systems need to be developed. Agronomic practices can affect seed oil content, protein content, and fatty acid composition, however the effect of herbicides on these and other characteristic of canola are unknown. Therefore, experiments were conducted in 2010 and 2011 to evaluate a broad spectrum of herbicides for potential use in South Texas canola production with respect to crop injury, effects on canola seed oil content, fatty acid composition, weed control, biomass yield, and forage quality. Visual crop injury at 42 DAE was unacceptable for saflufenacil at both 0.12 and 0.06 kg ai ha-1 and ethalfluralin at 1.05 kg ai ha-1. Trifluralin at 1.12 and 0.56 kg ai ha-1, S-metolachlor at 2.14 and 1.07 kg ai ha-1, pyroxasulfone at 0.24 and 0.12 kg ai ha-1, and pendimethalin at 0.8 kg ai ha-1 had lowest visual injury of all treatments. Fluroxypyr applied EPOST caused severe injury at both 0.21 and 0.11 kg ae ha-1. All other EPOST treatments did not cause any visible injury. Seed oil content was not affected by the herbicides evaluated. Fatty acid composition, specifically stearic acid, oleic acid, linolenic acid, and oleic to linolenic acid ratio, was affected by herbicide treatments. This research found that protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPG oxidase) inhibitor herbicides, such as carfentrazone-ethyl and saflufenacil, negatively affect canola oil quality. Biomass yield was improved for all herbicide treatments except pendimethalin PRE when compared to the untreated plots. Crude protein content of canola forage was not affected by herbicide treatment. Digestible dry matter appeared to be reduced by treatments that included an EPOST application of sethoxydim. The research shows that pendimethalin and S-metolachlor may be suitable for canola production in South Texas based on low crop injury and effective weed control. Neither pendimethalin nor S-metolachlor is currently labeled for use in canola. The herbicides trifluralin, ethalfluralin, quizalofop P-ethyl, ethametsulfuron-methyl, sethoxydim, glyphosate, clethodim, and clopyralid are currently labeled for use in canola and were confirmed suitable for canola production in South Texas. Carfentrazone-ethyl is currently labeled for use in canola but the effects on oil quality should be considered.Item Improving capabilities for dealing with key complexities of water availability modeling(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Olmos Alejo, Hector EliasWater availability has been of great concern in the State of Texas and many other places worldwide. During 1997-2003, pursuant to the 1997 Senate Bill 1, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), its partner agencies, and contractors developed a Water Availability Modeling (WAM) System based on the Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) model, developed at Texas A&M University. WAM has been widely applied in the State of Texas and because of its convenience, applications, and capabilities, it is planned to be implemented in other States and Countries. This thesis addresses different aspects of WAM, including conditional reliability modeling, firm yield analysis following classic and recently developed methodologies, evaluating the impact of different considerations on reliability analyses, simplification of complex WAM datasets and the display of WRAP results into ArcMap. Conditional reliability modeling evaluates short term diversion/storage reliabilities based on an initial storage level. WRAP-CON has been evaluated and improved, in addition a new modeling methodology has been developed, in which probabilities of occurrence for each hydrologic sequence is based on the relationship between storage and future flows. Recently developed WRAP capabilities have been evaluated, providing users new tools and increased flexibility. Some of these improvements are firm yield analysis, cycling and dual simulation. In addition to improved software, guidelines have also been developed, including a set to simplify extremely large WAM datasets, while maintaining the effect of all the other water rights in a basin.Item Innnovative wholesale carcass fabrication and retail cutting to optimize beef value(Texas A&M University, 2006-04-12) Pfeiffer, Kyle DavidThis study evaluated innovations in beef wholesale carcass fabrication that may have potential for improving subprimal yield and overall value of the beef carcass. Thirty beef carcasses, equally representing USDA Choice and Select and USDA yield grade 1 and 2, were selected from a commercial processing facility and transported to Texas A&M University for subsequent fabrication. Beef sides were utilized in comparing a conventional carcass fabrication style to a more innovative method. Innovative forequarter subprimal yields were greater (P < 0.001) for the brisket, ribeye roll, blade meat, and back ribs. The innovative method resulted in greater subprimal yield and less lean trim (P < 0.001) from the forequarter. Innovative hindquarter subprimal yields were greater (P < 0.001) for the tenderloin, top sirloin cap, bottom sirloin tri-tip, and round tip. Hindquarter subprimal yield and lean trim were not affected (P > 0.05). Value was greater for the innovative forequarter (P < 0.001) and hindquarter (P < 0.01); value was increased by more than seven dollars per beef side, thus greater than fourteen dollars per beef carcass. Selected subprimals were evaluated in a retail cutting test. Experienced retail professionals were utilized in fabricating the retail cuts. In general, the innovative retail subprimals performed equally or better than the conventional subprimals. The M. Serratus ventralis fabricated from the innovative side, comprising over 4.5% of the innovative forequarter, generated greater than 57% steak yield and 94% saleable yield. Innovative carcass fabrication techniques resulted in greater subprimal yield and increased the value of the entire beef carcass. These results were verified by retail cutting tests conducted on selected subprimals.Item Modeling, Optimization and Testing for Analog/Mixed-Signal Circuits in Deeply Scaled CMOS Technologies(2011-02-22) Yu, GuoAs CMOS technologies move to sub-100nm regions, the design and verification for analog/mixed-signal circuits become more and more difficult due to the problems including the decrease of transconductance, severe gate leakage and profound mismatches. The increasing manufacturing-induced process variations and their impacts on circuit performances make the already complex circuit design even more sophisticated in the deeply scaled CMOS technologies. Given these barriers, efforts are needed to ensure the circuits are robust and optimized with consideration of parametric variations. This research presents innovative computer-aided design approaches to address three such problems: (1) large analog/mixed-signal performance modeling under process variations, (2) yield-aware optimization for complex analog/mixedsignal systems and (3) on-chip test scheme development to detect and compensate parametric failures. The first problem focus on the efficient circuit performance evaluation with consideration of process variations which serves as the baseline for robust analog circuit design. We propose statistical performance modeling methods for two popular types of complex analog/mixed-signal circuits including Sigma-Delta ADCs and charge-pump PLLs. A more general performance modeling is achieved by employing a geostatistics motivated performance model (Kriging model), which is accurate and efficient for capturing stand-alone analog circuit block performances. Based on the generated block-level performance models, we can solve the more challenging problem of yield-aware system optimization for large analog/mixed-signal systems. Multi-yield pareto fronts are utilized in the hierarchical optimization framework so that the statistical optimal solutions can be achieved efficiently for the systems. We further look into on-chip design-for-test (DFT) circuits in analog systems and solve the problems of linearity test in ADCs and DFT scheme optimization in charge-pump PLLs. Finally a design example of digital intensive PLL is presented to illustrate the practical applications of the modeling, optimization and testing approaches for large analog/mixed-signal systems.Item Multi-Location Evaluation of Agronomic Traits in Maize Hybrids(2012-12-12) McKee, Michael 1982-Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the main crops grown in the United States. Genetic improvement over the last century has seen a shift from using open-pollinated varieties to single cross hybrids. This has resulted in major grain yield gains and improved management methodologies. However, there is still concern about reduced genetic diversity in elite corn germplasm and the potential effects this could have on future maize productivity in the presence of numerous abiotic and biotic pressures. One solution to this issue is the incorporation of exotic germplasm into existing maize improvement programs. This exotic material must be evaluated and characterized because too much or poorly matched exotic material can lead to reduced productivity. The use of multiple environments representative to the target improvement area is the best way to determine the true potential of certain material. The objectives of this research were to: i) estimate the responses of hybrids to aflatoxin and their agronomic performance across a range of environments under inoculation with Aspergillus flavus; ii) identify the hybrids within each group that exhibit the lowest levels of contamination; iii) analyze the relationship between agronomic performance and aflatoxin accumulation; and iv) determine how Genotype x Environment interactions affect these traits. Agronomic data was collected in ten Texas environments in 2005 for hybrids created from yellow, white, and Quality Protein Maize material that was crossed with one of two elite temperate inbred testers, LH195 or LH210. Response to aflatoxin was measured in eight of these environments. U.S. commercial hybrids were used as checks. Significant differences between hybrids were observed at different environments for different traits. Overall the experimental hybrids had lower aflatoxin accumulation than the commercial checks. They also yielded lower and had lower test weights and 1000 kernel weights. However, there were some hybrids that were competitive with the commercial checks for these agronomic traits. The incorporation of this material into established U.S. lines could be beneficial with regards to aflatoxin accumulation and kernel quality, which could ultimately translate to higher yields and crop quality.Item Reliability-yield allocation for semiconductor integrated circuits: modeling and optimization(Texas A&M University, 2005-11-01) Ha, ChunghunThis research develops yield and reliability models for fault-tolerant semiconductor integrated circuits and develops optimization algorithms that can be directly applied to these models. Since defects cause failures in microelectronics systems, accurate yield and reliability models considering these defects as well as optimization techniques determining efficient defect-tolerant schemes are essential in semiconductor manufacturing and nanomanufacturing to ensure manufacturability and productivity. The defect-based yield model considers various types of failures, fault-tolerant schemes such as hierarchical redundancy and error correcting code, and burn-in effects, simultaneously. The reliability model counts on carry-over single-cell failures accompanied by the failure rate of the semiconductor integrated circuits under the assumption of an error correcting code policy. The redundancy allocation problem, which seeks to find an optimal allocation of redundancy that maximizes system reliability, is one of the representative problems in reliability optimization. The problem is typically formulated as a nonconvex integer nonlinear programming problem that is nonseparable and coherent. Two iterative heuristics, tree and scanning heuristics, and variants are studied to obtain local optima and a branch-and-bound algorithm is proposed to find the global optimum for redundancy allocation problems. The proposed algorithms engage a multiple-search paths strategy to accelerate efficiency. Experimental results of these algorithms indicate that they are superior to the existing algorithms in terms of computation time and solution quality. An example of memory semiconductor integrated circuits is presented to show the applicability of both the yield and reliability models and the optimization algorithms to fault-tolerant semiconductor integrated circuits.Item The impacts on broiler performance and yield by removing antibiotic growth promoters and an evaluation of potential alternatives(2009-05-15) Bray, Joey LynnThree experiments were conducted to evaluate the impacts of removing antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) on broiler performance and yield and to evaluate alternative products as potential replacements. In experiment one, approximately 552,000 broilers were reared in four solid-wall, tunnel ventilated houses that were divided into two paired-house facilities, each assigned one of two dietary treatments. The treated group received basal diets containing salinomycin (SAL), roxarsone (ROX) and AGP, while the control group received the same diets without ROX and AGP. Removal of ROX and AGP had no affect on average body weight and feed efficiency, while livability was significantly affected negatively by the removal of ROX and AGP. Tender, wing, drum and percentage of total white meat showed significant improvements in yield during the study, while all other parts were not affected by removal of ROX and AGP. In experiment two, an investigation was conducted to evaluate the effects on performance from feeding Bacillus subtilis spores (Gallipro?, Chr Hansen A/S, Denmark), as a direct-fed microbial additive, to commercial broiler chickens. Birds were divided among two paired-house facilities. The treatment group received basal diets supplemented with B. subtilis spores, while the control group was fed the same basal diets containing an AGP. Feed conversion ratio was significantly lower for the treatment group, while average body weight, coccidiosis lesion scores, and footpad scores were not affected by the treatments. In experiment three, 6,000 broiler chickens were equally divided among four treatment groups and reared to 49 d to determine the effectiveness mannan oligosaccharides (MOS, Bio-Mos?, Alltech, Nicholasville, Kentucky, USA) as an alternative for an AGP program and MOS plus Natustat? (NAT, Alltech, Nicholasville, Kentucky, USA) as an alternative to an enteric health program (AGP+anticoccidial drug). Average body weight for the control (CON) and antibiotic (ANT) groups was significantly different from the MOS+NAT group, but not the MOS group. Carcass front half, carcass hind half, frame and skin yields were improved for all treatments when compared to the MOS+NAT group. Conversely, percent total white meat yield was improved with the inclusion of MOS when compared to the ANT group. The findings of this research suggest that the removal of AGP from the diets of commercial broiler chickens does not affect the performance and yield of the birds over a one year production period. Furthermore, B. subtilis spores and mannan oligosaccharides provide acceptable alternatives to an AGP program.