A LINKED ANNUAL AND MONTHLY MODEL FOR FORECASTING ALFALFA HAY PRICES

This article develops a model to forecast monthly alfalfa hay prices before the first harvest. This is done by linking an annual model, which forecasts the initial May price, with a system of monthly equations that track the monthly seasonal price pattern, given the forecasted May price.Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,

A METHOD FOR DETERMINING RANCH PROFIT PROBABILITIES WHEN LIVESTOCK YIELDS ARE NORMALLY DISTRIBUTED

Data on net turnoff for small, medium-sized and large cow-calf and small and large size yearling ranches were tested for normality using the Shapiro - Wilk test. The yield data examined were accepted as normally distributed at the alpha = .10 level. The probability of profit for each type of ranch was assessed using normal curve techniques for nine different cost-price alternatives and weather conditions. Yearling cattle ranchers had higher profit probabilities than cow-calf ranchers. Prices received had more influence on profit probabilities than weather conditions.Livestock Production/Industries,

The Adequacy of Investment Choices Offered By 401K Plans

Defined-contribution plans represent a major organizational form for investors’ retirement savings. Today more than one third of all workers are enrolled in 401K plans. In a 401K plan, participants select assets from a set of choices designated by an employer. For over half of 401K-plan participants, retirement savings represent their sole financial asset. Yet to date there has been no study of the adequacy of the choices offered by 401K plans. This paper analyzes the adequacy and characteristics of the choices offered to 401K-plan participants for over 400 plans. We find that, for 62% of the plans, the types of choices offered are inadequate, and that over a 20-year period this makes a difference in terminal wealth of over 300%. We find that funds included in the plans are riskier than the general population of funds in the same categories. We study the characteristics of plans that are associated with adequate investment choices, including an analysis of the use of company stock, plan size, and the use of outside consultants. When we examine one category of investment choices, S&P 500 index funds, we find that the index funds chosen by 401K-plan administrators are on average inferior to the S&P 500 index funds selected by the aggregate of all investors

Marginal Stockholder Tax Effects and Ex-Dividend Day Behavior-Thirty-Two Years Later

In 1970 Elton and Gruber (hereafter E&G) started an industry by studying the impact of taxes on investor decisions using the behavior of share prices around the ex-dividend date. E&G showed that if taxes enter investors’ decisions, then the fall in price on the ex-dividend day should reflect the post-tax value of the dividend relative to the post-tax value of capital gains on that day. Because dividends in most time periods are taxed more heavily than capital gains, the theory suggests that if taxes affect investor’s choices, the fall in stock price should in general be less than the dividend

TEXES Observations of Pure Rotational H_2 Emission from AB Aurigae

We present observations of pure rotational molecular hydrogen emission from the Herbig Ae star, AB Aur. Our observations were made using the Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES) at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility and the Gemini North Observatory. We searched for H_2 emission in the S(1), S(2), and S(4) lines at high spectral resolution and detected all three. By fitting a simple model for the emission in the three transitions, we derive T = 670 ± 40 K and M = 0.52 ± 0.15 M_⊙ for the emitting gas. On the basis of the 8.5 km s^(-1) FWHM of the S(2) line, assuming the emission comes from the circumstellar disk, and with an inclination estimate of the AB Aur system taken from the literature, we place the location for the emission near 18 AU. Comparison of our derived temperature to a disk structure model suggests that UV and X-ray heating are important in heating the disk atmosphere

Generic theory of colloidal transport

We discuss the motion of colloidal particles relative to a two component fluid consisting of solvent and solute. Particle motion can result from (i) net body forces on the particle due to external fields such as gravity; (ii) slip velocities on the particle surface due to surface dissipative phenomena. The perturbations of the hydrodynamic flow field exhibits characteristic differences in cases (i) and (ii) which reflect different patterns of momentum flux corresponding to the existence of net forces, force dipoles or force quadrupoles. In the absence of external fields, gradients of concentration or pressure do not generate net forces on a colloidal particle. Such gradients can nevertheless induce relative motion between particle and fluid. We present a generic description of surface dissipative phenomena based on the linear response of surface fluxes driven by conjugate surface forces. In this framework we discuss different transport scenarios including self-propulsion via surface slip that is induced by active processes on the particle surface. We clarify the nature of force balances in such situations.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur

Biomass burning emission inventory with daily resolution: Application to aircraft observations of Asian outflow

Asian outflo

Structural aspects of MOF-based energy materials research at Diamond

Large-scale central facilities such as Diamond Light Source fulfil an increasingly pivotal role in many large-scale scientific research programmes. We illustrate these developments by reference to energy-centred projects at the University of Nottingham, the progress of which depends crucially on access to these facilities. Continuing access to beamtime has now become a major priority for those who direct such programme

Coordination chemistry of nitrile-functionalized mixed thia-aza macrocycles [9]aneN2S and [9]aneNS2 towards silver(I)

The coordination chemistry towards silver(I) of the small-ring macrocycles [9]aneN2S (1-thia-4,7-di¬aza-cyclo¬nona¬ne) and [9]aneNS2 (1,4-di¬thia-7-aza¬cyclo¬nona¬ne) incorporating nitrile-functionalized pendant arms is considered both in the presence and the absence of exogenous bridging ligands. The aim is to understand the influence of the number and length of the pendant arms on the nuclearity and dimensionality of the resulting com¬plexes. The X-ray crystal structures of the com¬plexes bis¬[4,7-bis-(cyano¬meth¬yl)-1-thia-4,7-di¬aza¬cyclo¬non¬ane-κ3N,N′,S]silver(I) tetra¬fluorido¬borate, [Ag(C10H16N4S)2]BF4 or [Ag(L1)2]BF4, [4,7-bis¬(2-cyano¬eth¬yl)-1-thia-4,7-di¬aza¬cyclo¬nonane-κ3N,N′,S](thio¬cyanato-κS)silver(I), [Ag(C12H20N4S)(NCS)] or [Ag(L2)(SCN)], and μ-thio¬cyanato-κ2S:S-bis¬{[7-(2-cyano¬eth¬yl)-1,4-di¬thia-7-aza-cyclo¬nonane-κ3N,S,S′]silver(I)} tetra¬fluor¬ido¬borate, [Ag2(C9H16N2S2)2(SCN)]BF4 or [Ag2(L3)2(μ-SCN)]BF4, are discus¬sed in relation to analogous com¬pounds in the literature