Groundwater : so what's normal?

Groundwater is perhaps unique among geological resources in that it is renewable, and a resource that can be actively managed. Hydrogeologists seek to integrate an understanding of geology and of water’s behaviour in the environment to understand how natural groundwater systems behave

Bending creep of corrugated fibreboard in cycling relative humidity : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Agricultural Engineering at Massey University

Packaging of fresh fruit for export is a major use for corrugated fibreboard manufactured in New Zealand. However the cold and humid conditions used to preserve fruit quality are particularly detrimental to the strength of corrugated packaging. The main objective of this study was to develop a method to measure the performance of corrugated fibreboard in high and cycling relative humidity environments. This method was then used to compare the performance of three corrugated fibre-boards 1 For commercial reasons these will be referred to as 'CB1', 'CB2'and 'CB3' The creep performance of corrugated fibreboard was measured by subjecting samples to four point bending stress under controlled cyclic relative humidity conditions using a computer controlled testing apparatus. A mathematical model by Urbanik (1995) and an empirical exponential model were reviewed before selecting a three term model developed by Pecht (1985) to describe the deflection of the corrugated board. Cyclic relative humidity accelerated the rate of creep compared to a static high humidity environment. The rate of creep in the machine direction was found to be considerably lower than that in the cross machine direction. It was also found that increasing the peak relative humidity from 80% to 90% RH dramatically changed the deflection response. This provides a solution to conflicting data in the literature on relative humidity cycling effects. Isochronous deflection curves were used to compare the creep performance of the corrugated fibreboard samples in an environment cycling between 50% and 90% RH. Corrugated fibreboard sample CB1 had a slightly lower creep stiffness than corrugated boards CB2 (p=0.0580, n=8) and CB3 (p=0.0398, n=8). However a greater number of tests would be required on a wider range of samples to conclusively determine if there were differences in board performance

Hedging Effectiveness around USDA Crop Reports

It is well documented that “unanticipated” information contained in USDA crop reports induces large price reactions in corn and soybean markets. Thus, a natural question that arises from this literature is: To what extent are futures hedges able to remove or reduce increased price risk around report release dates? This paper addresses this question by simulating daily futures returns, daily cash returns and daily hedged returns around report release dates for two storable commodities (corn and soybeans) in two market settings (North Central Illinois and Memphis Tennessee). Various risk measures, including “Value at Risk,” are used to determine hedging effectiveness, and “Analysis of Variance” is used to uncover the underlying factors that contribute to hedging effectiveness.Agribusiness, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

A Survey of Switch-Reference in North America

This paper introduces a new survey of switch-reference in the languages of North America. The survey’s purposes are to provide a broad basis for future analysis of switch-reference (SR), spur further research on the languages included, and help revitalization efforts with a better understanding of what SR looks like and how it works. The survey catalogs 33 facts about SR morphology, semantics, and syntax, organized around central questions in SR research. The paper discusses the major findings based on the survey, some of which have major implications for theories of switch-reference: SR is found in nearly 70 American language varieties, mostly in the western United States and Mexico, often spreading by areal diffusion. Cross-linguistically, SR usually indicates subject co-reference across clauses. It is associated with every type of clause juncture except disjunction and is found throughout the verbal morphology. Morphological homophony with case is not due to a common semantic core

Quantum entanglement and fixed-point bifurcations

How does the classical phase space structure for a composite system relate to the entanglement characteristics of the corresponding quantum system? We demonstrate how the entanglement in nonlinear bipartite systems can be associated with a fixed point bifurcation in the classical dynamics. Using the example of coupled giant spins we show that when a fixed point undergoes a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation, the corresponding quantum state - the ground state - achieves its maximum amount of entanglement near the critical point. We conjecture that this will be a generic feature of systems whose classical limit exhibits such a bifurcation.Comment: v2: Structure of the paper changed for clarity, reduced length, now 9 pages with 6 figure

Hedging Break-Even Biodiesel Production Costs Using Soybean Oil Futures

The effectiveness of hedging volatile input prices for biodiesel producers is examined over one- to eight-week time horizons. Results reveal that hedging break-even soybean costs with soybean oil futures offers significant reductions in input price risk. The degree of risk reduction is dependent upon type of hedge, naïve or risk-minimizing, and upon time horizon. In contrast, cross-hedging break-even poultry fat costs with soybean oil futures failed to reduce input price risk.biodiesel, hedging, poultry fat, soybean oil, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy,