ROLLOVER HEDGING

Both market advisors and researchers have often suggested rollover hedging as a way of increasing producer returns. This study tests whether rollover hedging can increase expected returns for producers. For rollover hedging to increase expected returns, futures prices must follow a mean-reverting process. Using both the return predictability test based on long-horizon regression and the variance ratio test, we find that mean reversion does not exist in futures prices for corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean oil and soybean meal. The findings are consistent with the weak form of market efficiency. The results of the study imply that rollover hedging should not be seriously considered as a marketing alternative. As long as the commodity markets are efficient, the efforts of producers to improve returns through market timing strategies will meet limited success over time.Rollover hedging, mean reversion, market efficiency, Marketing,

MARKET INVERSION IN COMMODITY FUTURES PRICES

As opposed to a normal market, an inverted market has a negative price of storage or spread. Market inversions in nearby spreads rarely occur during early months of the crop year since stocks are usually abundant after harvest. However, market inversions frequently occur when the spreads are observed across crop years near the end of the crop year. The regressions of spreads on the logarithm of U.S. quarterly stocks show that there exists a positive relationship between the spread and the level of stocks, and further implies that when stocks are scarce, markets will be inverted. Simulations are conducted to determine whether a market inversion is a signal to sell the stocks. The results of the paired-difference tests reveal that as the crop cycle advances towards the end of the crop year, market inversions clearly reflect the market's signal to release stocks in anticipation of new crop supplies. The regressions of actual returns to storage on predicted returns to storage clearly show that a market inversion is a signal to sell. The results support the behavioral finance hypothesis that producers are choosing to hold excess stocks because of some type of biased expectations.Demand and Price Analysis,

Scalar Non-Luminous Matter in Galaxies

As a candidate for dark matter in galaxies, we study an SU(3) triplet of complex scalar fields which are non-minimally coupled to gravity. In the spherically symmetric static spacetime where the flat rotational velocity curves of stars in galaxies can be explained, we find simple solutions of scalar fields with SU(3) global symmetry broken to U(1) X U(1), in an exponential scalar potential, which will be useful in a quintessence model of the late-time acceleration of the Universe.Comment: 6 pages, no figure, LaTex. Submitted to IJMP

VALUE OF INCREASING KERNEL UNIFORMITY

Kernel size uniformity is an important physical quality attribute in terms of processing efficiency, quality control, and milling yield. This study developed optimal grain sorting strategies for elevators to use to increase kernel size uniformity and determined the size of potential benefits from sorting. Cluster analysis and global optimization were used to sort grain loads to increase kernel size uniformity. Cluster analysis and global optimization increased the percent flour yield relative to no sorting by 0.13% and 0.32% respectively. Cluster analysis and global optimization increased the daily milling income relative to no sorting by 105 dollars (5%) and 266 dollars (13%) respectively.Crop Production/Industries,

VALUE OF INCREASING KERNEL UNIFORMITY

Kernel uniformity is an important quality attribute that can now be measured at low cost. This study analyzes the profitability of sorting to increase wheat kernel uniformity. Nonlinear programming is used to sort grain loads to maximize flour yield by increasing uniformity of kernel size and kernel hardness. Results of this analysis suggest increases in flour yield due to higher kernel uniformity are not enough to outweigh the costs of sorting.Crop Production/Industries,

Separation of Topographic Features from Magnetic Force Images Using Capacitive Coupling Effect

Separation of topographic features from magnetic images has been an issue for the past two decades in magnetic force microscopy (MFM). The frequent pickups of the topographic features are interpreted as transitions of the tip between bistable states of the tip-sample assembly in the noncontact and tapping regions. MFM using electrostatic force modulation demonstrates the separation of the topographic features from the magnetic images by removing the tapping state from the bistable states through the introduction of a capacitive coupling

Regge phenomenology of pion photoproduction off the nucleon at forward angles

We present a Regge model for pion photoproduction which is basically free of parameters within the framework of the s-channel helicity amplitude. We use coupling constants of all exchanged mesons determined from empirical decay widths or from the SU(3) relations together with consistency check with existing estimates that are widely accepted in other reaction processes. Cross sections and spin polarization asymmetries at various photon energies are analyzed and results are obtained in better agreement with experimental data without referring to any fitting procedure.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figures, two column, revtex

Hidden Local Symmetry and Infinite Tower of Vector Mesons for Baryons

In an effort to access dense baryonic matter relevant for compact stars in a unified framework that handles both single baryon and multibaryon systems on the same footing, we first address a holographic dual action for a single baryon focusing on the role of the infinite tower of vector mesons deconstructed from five dimensions. To leading order in 't Hooft coupling $\lambda=N_c g_{\rm YM}^2$, one has the Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) Skyrmion that results when the warping of the bulk background and the Chern-Simons term in the Sakai-Sugimoto D4/D8-${\bar{\rm D8}}$ model are ignored. The infinite tower was found by Sutcliffe to induce flow to a conformal theory, i.e., the BPS. We compare this structure to that of the SS model consisting of a 5D Yang-Mills action in warped space and the Chern-Simons term in which higher vector mesons are integrated out while preserving hidden local symmetry and valid to $O(\lambda^0)$ and $O(p^4)$ in the chiral counting. We point out the surprisingly important role of the $\omega$ meson that figures in the Chern-Simons term that encodes chiral anomaly in the baryon structure and that may be closely tied to short-range repulsion in nuclear interactions.Comment: 9 pages, REVTeX, to be published in Phys. Rev.