39,646 research outputs found
THE POTENTIAL OF DAIRY FUTURES CONTRACTS AS RISK MANAGEMENT TOOLS
We examine the young dairy futures market as a risk management tool. Using New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) data, we find that the BFP futures market is efficient and may potentially be a useful hedging tool. However, we also find that competition from Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) contracts has significant detrimental effects on the NYBOT dairy futures contracts. As a result NYBOT dairy futures contracts are likely to dry up.Financial Economics, Livestock Production/Industries,
Survival of Fecal Contamination Indicator Organisms in Soil
Soils amended with human or animal waste may result in pathogen contamination of ground and surface water. Because temperature has been shown to affect pathogen survival, two laboratory studies were conducted to evaluate the impact of extremes in temperature on bacterial and viral pathogen indicator die-off in soil. A Captina silt loam was amended with broiler litter (0.1 g/g dry soil), septic tank effluent, or Escherichia coli (ATCC 13706) culture (both at 0.04 and 0.1 mL/g dry soil in the two respective studies), incubated at 5 and 35°C, and analyzed over time to determine the number of fecal coliform, E. coli, and coliphage remaining. Pathogen indicator die-off rate constants (k) for all indicator- temperature-treatment combinations were determined by first-order kinetics. For all three pathogen indicators, die-off was significantly more rapid at 35°C than at 5°C. In both studies, fecal coliform die-off rates were not different from E. coli die-off rates across each temperature-treatment combination. Levels of these bacterial indicators appeared in a ratio of 1:0.94 with 95% confidence intervals at 0.89 and 0.99 in the E. coli- and litter-amended soils. Die-off of the viral indicator was significantly slower than the die-off of the bacterial indicators at 5°C in litter-amended soil. Die-off of the bacterial indicator, E. coli, in soil amended with E. coli culture was not significantly different than die-off in soil amended with broiler litter at 5 or 35°C in the two studies. Because the higher incubation temperature increased die-off rates for all three indicators, it is expected that the potential for contamination of ground and surface water decreases with increasing temperature
Kaon production and propagation at intermediate relativistic energies
We systematically study observables in nucleus-nucleus collisions at
1-2 A GeV within the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) transport model. We
compare our calculations with the KaoS data on the kaon multiplicities and
spectra. In addition, the kaon collective flow is computed and compared with
the FOPI and KaoS data. We show, that the elliptic kaon flow measured recently
by the KaoS Collaboration is best described by using the Brown-Rho
parametrization of the kaon potential ( MeV).Comment: 21 pages, 3 tables, 17 figures; references added; version accepted in
PR
Morphology-dependent trends of galaxy age with environment in Abell 901/902 seen with COMBO-17
We investigate correlations between galaxy age and environment in the Abell
901/2 supercluster for separate morphologies. Using COMBO-17 data, we define a
sample of 530 galaxies, complete at on an area of (Mpc/). We explore several age indicators including an
extinction-corrected residual from the colour-magnitude relation (CMR). As a
result, we find a clear trend of age with density for galaxies of all
morphologies that include a spheroidal component, in the sense that galaxies in
denser environments are older. This trend is not seen among Scd/Irr galaxies
since they all have young ages. However, the trend among the other types is
stronger for fainter galaxies. While we also see an expected age-morphology
relation, we find no evidence for a morphology-density relation at fixed age.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (Letters
Exploring the practical knowledge of eccentric resistance training in high-performance strength and conditioning practitioners
Habitual use of eccentric exercise has been recognised to increase strength and power; however, the current body of knowledge has limited potential to understand the application of such resistance training in athletic populations. In order to develop appropriate applied research, that relates to elite athletic populations, it is vital to appreciate the practical knowledge of strength and conditioning practitioners operating in high-performance environments. This study summarised the questionnaire responses from 100 strength and conditioning practitioners operating in performance sport relating to questions such as the training effects to various eccentric resistance training regimes, the rationale for the use of these techniques and the knowledge supporting its application. The combination of closed and open-ended questions enabled a thematic analysis to be conducted. There was evidence that practitioners employed a variety of eccentric training methodologies; however, there was interest in gaining greater understanding of the training dose to bring about the optimal adaptive changes, and importantly how this might translate to sport-specific performance. In addition, practitioners would welcome recommendations associated with eccentric training, whilst concurrently minimising the issues of excessive fatigue, muscle damage and soreness. The training effects of interest included neural, architectural and morphological adaptations and, importantly, translation to performance of sports-specific skills. Collectively, these responses called for more practically relevant research to be conducted within the high-performance environment, alongside more opportunities for professional development through learning and knowledge-sharing opportunities. The outcomes summarised in this work should inform future applied research projects and educational content relating to eccentric training
Weak lensing with COMBO-17: estimation and removal of intrinsic alignments
We estimate and remove the contamination of weak gravitational lensing
measurements by the intrinsic alignment of close pairs of galaxies. We do this
by investigating both the aperture mass B mode statistic, and the shear
correlations of close and distant pairs of galaxies. We re-analyse the COMBO-17
survey, and study published results from the RCS and the VIRMOS-DESCART survey,
concluding that the intrinsic alignment effect is at the lower end of the range
of theoretical predictions. We also revisit this theoretical issue, and show
that misalignment of baryon and halo angular momenta may be an important effect
which can reduce the intrinsic ellipticity correlations estimated from
numerical simulations to the level that we and the SuperCOSMOS survey observe.
We re-examine the cosmological parameter estimation from the COMBO-17 survey,
now marginalising over the Hubble constant. Assuming no evolution in galaxy
clustering, and marginalising over the intrinsic alignment signal, we find the
mass clustering amplitude is reduced by 0.03 to sigma_8(Omega_m / 0.27)^0.6 =
0.71 +/- 0.11. We consider the forthcoming SNAP wide weak lensing survey, and
the CFHTLS wide synoptic survey, and expect them to be contaminated on scales
>1 arcmin by intrinsic alignments at the level of ~1% and ~2% respectively.
Division of the SNAP survey for lensing tomography significantly increases the
contamination in the lowest redshift bin to ~7% and possibly higher. Removal of
the intrinsic alignment effect by the downweighting of nearby galaxy pairs will
therefore be vital for SNAP, (abridged).Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 15 pages, 18 figure
3-D Models of Embedded High-Mass Stars: Effects of a Clumpy Circumstellar Medium
We use 3-D radiative transfer models to show the effects of clumpy
circumstellar material on the observed infrared colors of high mass stars
embedded in molecular clouds. We highlight differences between 3-D clumpy and
1-D smooth models which can affect the interpretation of data. We discuss
several important properties of the emergent spectral energy distribution
(SED): More near-infrared light (scattered and direct from the central source)
can escape than in smooth 1-D models. The near- and mid-infrared SED of the
same object can vary significantly with viewing angle, depending on the clump
geometry along the sightline. Even the wavelength-integrated flux can vary with
angle by more than a factor of two. Objects with the same average circumstellar
dust distribution can have very different near-and mid-IR SEDs depending on the
clump geometry and the proximity of the most massive clump to the central
source.
Although clumpiness can cause similar objects to have very different SEDs,
there are some observable trends. Near- and mid-infrared colors are sensitive
to the weighted average distance of clumps from the central source and to the
magnitude of clumpy density variations (smooth-to-clumpy ratio). Far-infrared
emission remains a robust measure of the total dust mass. We present simulated
SEDs, colors, and images for 2MASS and Spitzer filters. We compare to
observations of some UCHII regions and find that 3-D clumpy models fit better
than smooth models. In particular, clumpy models with fractal dimensions in the
range 2.3-2.8, smooth to clumpy ratios of <50%, and density distributions with
shallow average radial density profiles fit the SEDs best.Comment: accepted to ApJ; version with full-res figures:
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~ri3e/clumpy3d.pd
Gravitational lens magnification by Abell 1689: Distortion of the background galaxy luminosity function
Gravitational lensing magnifies the luminosity of galaxies behind the lens.
We use this effect to constrain the total mass in the cluster Abell 1689 by
comparing the lensed luminosities of background galaxies with the luminosity
function of an undistorted field. Since galaxies are assumed to be a random
sampling of luminosity space, this method is not limited by clustering noise.
We use photometric redshift information to estimate galaxy distance and
intrinsic luminosity. Knowing the redshift distribution of the background
population allows us to lift the mass/background degeneracy common to lensing
analysis. In this paper we use 9 filters observed over 12 hours with the Calar
Alto 3.5m telescope to determine the redshifts of 1000 galaxies in the field of
Abell 1689. Using a complete sample of 151 background galaxies we measure the
cluster mass profile. We find that the total projected mass interior to
0.25h^(-1)Mpc is (0.48 +/- 0.16) * 10^(15)h^(-1) solar masses, where our error
budget includes uncertainties from the photometric redshift determination, the
uncertainty in the off-set calibration and finite sampling. This result is in
good agreement with that found by number count and shear-based methods and
provides a new and independent method to determine cluster masses.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to MNRAS (10/99); Replacement with 1
page extra text inc. new section, accepted by MNRA
Separation of a tumour specific transplantation-type antigen from the ascitic fluid of mice bearing a syngeneic lymphoma.
- âŠ