The study was conducted during the years 2005-07 on a private farm located in Ksiezy Dwor near Dzialdowo, Province of Warmia and Mazury (NE Poland). The experimental materials comprised 368 Holstein-Friesian cows. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of inter-calving interval (ICI) duration in two consecutive lactations on milk yield and composition. Milk yield in the second lactation reached 7769 kg (305-day lactation) and 8317 kg (full lactation), and was higher than in the first lactation by 1218 kg and 959 kg respectively. Value-corrected milk (VCM) yield was substantially higher, i.e. 8744 kg and 9450 kg. The yield of fat, protein, lactose and dry matter was also higher in the 2nd lactation. Cows with the longest ICI were characterized by the highest yield of milk and milk components. It was found that milk yield in the 1st lactation and ICI duration may provide a basis for selecting high-performance cows. The high coefficients of simple correlation between ICI duration and milk yield and composition, observed in this study, are indicative of a strong relationship between ICI and cow productivity. The highest values of correlation coefficients were noted with respect to the yield of dry matter (r = 0.993), protein (r = 0.973), VCM (r = 0.968) and fat (r = 0.942). The ICI duration x lactation interaction had a significant effect on the yield of milk, VCM, fat, protein, lactose and dry matter as well as on the content of fat and protein

Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA) is a useful tool for sensory professionals to analyze sensory data, especially those from free choice profiling. Over a decade ago, Wakeling introduced a permutation test for determining if the GPA consensus is significant. However, Wakeling's permutation test lacks specification of an explicit null hypothesis, resulting in different interpretations of what a “significant consensus” signifies. In this paper, a new GPA permutation test analogous to the well established ANOVA permutation procedure is proposed. The proposed approach emphasizes that the null hypothesis dictates how data are permuted to test specific null hypotheses within GPA (e.g., product effect, assessor effect and interaction effect). The only assumption behind permutation testing is exchangeability, which is discussed. Applications of the proposed GPA permutation test are provided using three datasets (two actual datasets and one random dataset).

We consider an experiment where a panel of assessors are asked to assess the quality of a product at different intervals of time by means of sensory evaluation. The aim is to study the dynamic of degradation and assess the shelf lives of the products. The assessment of the panellists consists in the rating of the products on the basis of a categorical scaling. We propose to use hidden Markov chains (HMC) to model the decay of the products in the course of time. In comparison to a previous model based on Markov chains [Ledauphin, S., Pommeret, D., & Qannari, E. M. (2006). A Markovian model to study products shelf lives. Food Quality and Preference, 17(7-8), 598-603], this model makes it possible to take account of the assessors' variability. Hidden Markov models (HMM) are based on the estimation of a transition matrix which states the probability that the assessment of a product changes from one category to another. They also include conditional probabilities that reflect random errors in the assessment. The parameters of the HMM are estimated by means of EM algorithm (expectation and maximisation) and the outcomes are used in conjunction with correspondence analysis in order to compare the evolution of the decay of several products. The approach is mainly meant to be descriptive as it makes it possible to depict and compare the evolution of the decay of various products. However, it is possible to predict the future states of decay for a product by using the Markovian model. The efficiency of the general approach is demonstrated on the basis of a real data set.

Meta-evaluation can be seen as a quality control measure of policies or programs. For that purpose, a formal methodology is used when assessing the quality of an evaluation work. The presented meta-evaluation is based on an adapted version of the evaluation standards used by DEGEVAL (German evaluation society). The well-balanced design of the DEGEVAL standards makes them widely applicable and useful also for conducting meta-evaluations. This paper presents the results of a meta-evaluation undertaken on the evaluation of the German Federal Organic Farming Scheme. Concerning most sections the quality of the underlying study is excellent.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the growth rate and selected carcass and meat quality parameters in bulls fed a high-grain diet and to compare the results with those obtained in bulls fed a diet based on preserved roughage. The trial included 18 Czech-Pied bulls fed a diet with a high proportion of concentrated feed and 18 Czech-Pied bulls fed a diet based on maize silage, used as a control group. The trial was launched after the weaning of calves. During the fattening period, live weight and average daily weight gain were monitored. The bulls were slaughtered at the live weight of 550-600 kg, the mean age at slaughter was 473 days for the high-grain diet group and 474 days for the control group. The carcasses were classified to SEUROP quality grades, and carcass gain and dressing percentage were calculated. Samples of m. longissimus pars thoracis were taken from five bulls in each group to examine selected meat quality parameters. In the period from weaning to slaughter the high-grain diet bulls and the control bulls achieved the average daily weight gain of 1.29 kg and 1.21 kg, respectively. Differences between the groups were not significant. The high-grain diet group showed higher average carcass weight and higher carcass weight gain, differences between the groups were not significant, either. As to meat quality parameters under study, a significant difference was found only in meat lightness (L*), with the mean value in the high-grain diet group being significantly (P ≤ 0.01) lower than in the control group. The other meat quality parameters did not show any significant differences between the groups. In this study, the high-grain diet gave similar performance as the maize silage-based diet in fattening bulls. The high-grain diet group and control group showed comparable average daily weight gain and selected carcass and meat quality parameters.

This paper highlights selected laboratory analyses that are currently used to evaluate sperm, and describes why results from these assays do not consistently correlate with sperm fertility. Reasons for the disconnect between the two are due in part to the definition and reliability of the fertility data collected, to the complexity of the spermatozoon itself, to imprecision of some measurements, and. to uncontrollable factors not associated to either the laboratory analysis or the sperm sample. Each sperm must possess a number of different attributes to fertilize an oocyte, and individual laboratory assays measure only one or a few of these attributes. Current and past data, correlating laboratory assay data with sperm fertility are presented in an effort to determine which types of assays are important to conduct and when to conduct them. Even though laboratory assay results do not allow accurate evaluation of the fertilizing potential of a semen sample, these assays are important to enable culling of poor quality samples.

This paper highlights selected laboratory analyses that are currently used to evaluate sperm, and describes why results from these assays do not consistently correlate with sperm fertility. Reasons for the disconnect between the two are due in part to the definition and reliability of the fertility data collected, to the complexity of the spermatozoon itself, to imprecision of some measurements, and to uncontrollable factors not associated to either the laboratory analysis or the sperm sample. Each sperm must possess a number of different attributes to fertilize an oocyte, and individual laboratory assays measure only one or a few of these attributes. Current and past data, correlating laboratory assay data with sperm fertility are presented in an effort to determine which types of assays are important to conduct and when to conduct them. Even though laboratory assay results do not allow accurate evaluation of the fertilizing potential of a semen sample, these assays are important to enable culling of poor quality samples.

Bacteriological quality of 60 poulfry carcasses selected from a meat processing plant located at Kochi in Kerala was assessed during fhe present investigation. The sample consisted of 30 carcasses each randomly collected after the removal of head and fore feet (AR HF) and after evisceration (AE) to evaluate the bacterial quality as well as isolation and identification of salmonella .The samples were collected and brought to the laboratory in thermocool containers and processed immediately. The samples had an overall mean Coliform count, Escherichia coli count, Total viable count and Faecal streptococcal count of 3.81 ± 0.09 , 0.89 ± 0.23, 5.88 ± 0.13 and 3.89 ± 0.06, 0.89 logo cfu/ cm2 respectively in samples collected from ARHF and 3.92 ± 0.12, 2.15 X ± 0.24, 4.44 X ± 0.10, 3.97 ± 0.071og,o cfu/cm2 respectively in AE samples. The salmonella was isolated from ten per cent carcasses from ARHF and positive isolates belonged to S. enteritidis

This paper concentrates on the problems of marketing materials quality evaluation and their formal aspect and also customers’ marketing materials evaluation. This area has not been concentrated on very much and nor in the literature is described. The paper presents the results of our own research which queries how the customers subjectively perceive and evaluate the marketing materials. The emphasis was put on the materials quality i.e. on what materials are considered as quality materials by the customers and which attributes mainly influence the quality. The results were aggregated on the basis of customers’ responses an also on the basis of practical examples evaluation which included intentional mistakes. The subjects of the evaluation were marketing materials quality as a general feature, the attributes influencing the quality and marketing materials quality and company quality relation. Also the exam­ples including mistakes were evaluated. According to the questioning results, the respondents’ answers vary much. It is not possible to find unambiguously right or wrong marketing materials eva­lua­tion. This area will be developed in further research which will be concentrated mainly on the typographical aspects.The aim of this paper is to delimit and to define the present situation through the research result exa­mi­na­tion, to define ‘quality’ and to describe the way how marketing materials are perceived by the customers.

By the methods of expert evaluation and rank correlation comparative evaluation of fixing systems for arbitrary and arranged fixation of goat milking installations was carried out. A general evaluation criteria - Working process quality- was formulated for the purpose. It was found that the method of fixation has significant influence on the working process quality of fixing system. Both of the evaluated fixing systems variants for arranged fixation gave better experimental results compared to the variant of arbitrary fixing system. The constructive decision with fixing panel of the arranged fixation system allows better working quality compared to that with fixing arm.