Factors Affecting Farmers’ Utilization of Agricultural Risk Management Tools: The Case of Crop Insurance, Forward Contracting, and Spreading Sales

Factors affecting the adoption of crop insurance, forward contracting, and spreading sales are analyzed using multivariate and multinomial probit approaches that account for simultaneous adoption and/or correlation among the three risk management adoption decisions. Our empirical results suggest that the decision to adopt crop insurance, forward contracting, and/or spreading sales are correlated. Richer insights can be drawn from our multivariate and multinomial probit analysis than from separate, single-equation probit estimation that assumes independence of adoption decisions. Some factors significantly affecting the adoption of the risk management tools analyzed are proportion of owned acres, off-farm income, education, age, and level of business risks.adoption decisions, crop insurance, forward contracting, multinomial probit, multivariate probit, risk management, spreading sales, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Risk and Uncertainty, G22, Q12, Q18,

Operational results with fast automatic beam-based LHC collimator alignment

The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest and highest-energy particle accelerator ever built. It is designed to collide particles at a centre-of-mass energy of 14 TeV to explore the fundamental forces and constituents of matter. Due to the potentially destructive high-energy particle beams, with a total design energy of 362 MJ, the collider is equipped with a series of machine protection systems. The beam cleaning or collimation system is designed to passively intercept and absorb particles at large amplitudes. The cleaning efficiency depends heavily on the accurate positioning of the jaws with respect to the beam trajectory. Beam-based collimator alignment is currently the only feasible technique that can be used to determine the beam centre and beam size at the collimator locations. If the alignment is performed without any automation, it can require up to 30 hours to complete for all collimators. This reduces the beam time available for physics experiments. This article provides a brief recap of the algorithms and software developed to automate and speed up the alignment procedure, and presents the operational results achieved with fast automatic beam-based alignment in the 2011-2013 LHC runs.peer-reviewe

Some new techniques for pattern recognition research and lung sound signal analysis

This thesis describes the results of a collaborative research programme between the Department of Electronics & Electrical Engineering, University of Glasgow, and the Centre for Respiratory Investigation, Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The research was initially aimed at studying lung sound using signal processing and pattern recognition techniques. The use of pattern recogntion techniques was largely confined to exploratory data analysis which led to an interest in the methods themselves. A study was carried out to apply recent research in computational geometry to clustering Two geometric structures, the Gabriel graph and the relative neighbourhood graph, are both defined by a region of influence. A generalization of these graphs is used to find the conditions under which graphs defined by a region of influence are connected and planar. The Gabriel graph may be considered to be just planar and the relative neighbourhood graph to be just connected. From this two variable regions of influence were defined that were aimed at producing disconnected graphs and hence a partitioning of the data set, A hierarchic clustering based on relative distance may be generated by varying the size of the region of influence. The value of the clustering method is examined in terms of admissibility criteria and by a case study. An interactive display to complement the graph theoretical clustering was also developed. This display allows a partition in the clustering to be examined. The relationship between clusters in the partition may be studied by using the partition to define a contracted graph which is then displayed. Subgraphs of the original graph may be used to provide displays of individual clusterso This display should provide additional information about a partition and hence allow the user to understand the data better. The remainder of the work in this thesis concerns the application of pattern recogntition techniques to the analysis of lung sound signals. Breath sound was analysed using frequency domain methods since it is basically a continuous signal. Initially, a rather ad hoc method was used for feature extraction which was based on a piecewise constant approximation to the amplitude spectrum. While this method provided a useful set of features, it is clear that more systematic methods are required. These methods were used to study lung sound in four groups of patients: (1) normal patients, (2) patients with asbestosis, (3) patients with cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis (CFA) and (4) patients with interstitial pulmonary oedema. The data sets were analysed using principal components analysis and the new graph theroretical clustering method (this data was used as a case study for the clustering method). Three groups of patients could be identified from the data;- (a) normal subjects, (b) patients with fibrosis of the lungs (asbestosis & CFA) and (c) patients with pulmonary oedema. These results suggest that lung sound may be able to make a useful contribution to non-invasive diagnosis. However more extensive studies are required before the real value of lung sound in diagnosis is established

Coarse Graining RNA Nanostructures for Molecular Dynamics Simulations

A series of coarse-grained models have been developed for the study of the molecular dynamics of RNA nanostructures. The models in the series have one to three beads per nucleotide and include different amounts of detailed structural information. Such a treatment allows us to reach, for the systems of thousands of nucleotides, a time scale of microseconds (i.e. by three orders of magnitude longer than in the full atomistic modelling) and thus to enable simulations of large RNA polymers in the context of bionanotechnology. We find that the 3-beads-per-nucleotide models, described by a set of just a few universal parameters, are able to describe different RNA conformations and are comparable in structural precision to the models where detailed values of the backbone P-C4' dihedrals taken from a reference structure are included. These findings are discussed in the context of the RNA conformation classes

Political Participation of Ethnic Minorities in the 1980s

Currently political participation, especially voter registration and turnout, varies substantially with ethnicity. Blacks and non-Hispanic whites participate at roughly equal rates, while Latinos and Asian-Americans are substantially less active, this variation may reflect cultural factors, or it may be the spurious product of differences in the distribution of non-ethnic determinants of participation, including socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, variables reflecting immigration history, including citizenship, and measures of group identification. Using data collected in 1984 on samples of California's black, Latino, Asian-American, and non-Hispanic white populations, we conclude that these other variables fully account for lower Latino participation rates. Even with such controls, however, Asian-Americans remain less likely to vote. Although non-citizens participate less than citizens, they do engage in non-electoral activities, Finally, we speculate on the future political impact of Latinos and Asian-Americans, by projecting participation rates under several scenarios

Ethnicity and Electoral Choice: Mexican-American Voting Behavior in the California 30th Congressional District

The 1982 election in California offers a unique natural experiment in ethnic and racial block voting. The race in the 30th Congressional District matched a well-financed Anglo Republican, John Rousselot, against an incumbent Hispanic, Marty Martinez, in a predominantly Hispanic seat. On the ballot with Martinez and Rousselot were the successful Republican candidates for Governor and the U. S. Senate, George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson, and the losing Democratic candidates, Tom Bradley (who is Black) and Jerry Brown. These variations in the race and ethnicity of the candidates on the ballot in 1982 can be used to estimate the impact of ethnic and racial consideration in voting decisions. The data for this study were gathered in two surveys of the 30th Congressional District of California. The first was a telephone survey of 455 respondents administered during the third week of October, 1982. The second was a poll of 409 voters as they left the voting booth on election day

Legume based plant mixtures for delivery of multiple ecosystem services: An overview of benefits

As costs for mineral fertilizers rise, legume-based leys are recognised as a potential alternative nitrogen source for crops. Here we demonstrate that including species-rich legume-based leys in the rotation helps to maximize synergies between agricultural productivity and other ecosystem services. By using functionally diverse plant species mixtures these services can be optimised and fine-tuned to regional and farm-specific needs. Field experiments run over three years at multiple locations showed that the stability of ley performance was greater in multi-species mixtures than in legume monocultures. In addition, mixing different legume species in the ley helps to suppress both early and late weeds. Further, combining complementary phenologies of different legume species extended forage availability for key pollinator species. Finally, widening the range of legume species increases opportunities to build short term leys into rotations on conventional farms via cover cropping or undersowing

Phosphorylation of the Mdm2 oncoprotein by the c-Abl tyrosine kinase regulates p53 tumor suppression and the radiosensitivity of mice

The p53 tumor suppressor acts as a guardian of the genome by preventing the propagation of DNA damage-induced breaks and mutations to subsequent generations of cells. We have previously shown that phosphorylation of the Mdm2 oncoprotein at Ser394 by the ATM kinase is required for robust p53 stabilization and activation in cells treated with ionizing radiation, and that loss of Mdm2 Ser394 phosphorylation leads to spontaneous tumorigenesis and radioresistance in Mdm2S394A mice. Previous in vitro data indicate that the c-Abl kinase phosphorylates Mdm2 at the neighboring residue (Tyr393) in response to DNA damage to regulate p53-dependent apoptosis. In this present study, we have generated an Mdm2 mutant mouse (Mdm2Y393F) to determine whether c-Abl phosphorylation of Mdm2 regulates the p53-mediated DNA damage response or p53 tumor suppression in vivo. The Mdm2Y393F mice develop accelerated spontaneous and oncogene-induced tumors, yet display no defects in p53 stabilization and activity following acute genotoxic stress. Although apoptosis is unaltered in these mice, they recover more rapidly from radiation-induced bone marrow ablation and are more resistant to whole-body radiation-induced lethality. These data reveal an in vivo role for c-Abl phosphorylation of Mdm2 in regulation of p53 tumor suppression and bone marrow failure. However, c-Abl phosphorylation of Mdm2 Tyr393 appears to play a lesser role in governing Mdm2-p53 signaling than ATM phosphorylation of Mdm2 Ser394. Furthermore, the effects of these phosphorylation events on p53 regulation are not additive, as Mdm2Y393F/S394A mice and Mdm2S394A mice display similar phenotypes