More Reasons Why Farmers Have So Little Interest in Futures Markets

The use by farmers of futures contracts and other hedging instruments has been observed to be low in many situations, and this has sometimes seemed to be considered surprising or even mysterious. We propose that it is, in fact, readily understandable and consistent with rational decision making. Standard models of the decision about optimal hedging show that it is negatively related to basis risk, to quantity risk, and to transaction costs. Farmers who have less uncertainty about prices have a lower optimal level of hedging. If a farmer has optimistic price expectations relative to the futures market, the incentive to hedge can be greatly reduced. And finally, farmers who have low levels of risk aversion have little to gain from hedging in terms of risk reduction, in that the certainty equivalent payoff at their optimal hedge may be little different to the certainty equivalent under zero hedging. These reasons are additional to the argument of Simmons (2002) who showed that, if capital markets are efficient, farmers can manage their risk exposure through adjusting their leverage, obviating the need for hedging instruments.hedging, risk, risk aversion, flat payoff functions, Agricultural Finance,

Diabetes case finding in the emergency department, using HbA1c : an opportunity to improve diabetes detection, prevention, and care

Objective: We assessed the efficacy of routine glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) testing to detect undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes in an urban Australian public hospital emergency department (ED) located in an area of high diabetes prevalence. Methods: Over 6 weeks, all patients undergoing blood sampling in the ED had their random blood glucose measured. If ≥5.5 mmol/L (99 mg/dL), HbA1c was measured on the same sample. HbA1c levels ≥6.5% (48 mmol/mol) and 5.7-6.4% (39-46 mmol/mol) were diagnostic of diabetes and prediabetes, respectively. Hospital records were reviewed to identify patients with previously diagnosed diabetes. Results: Among 4580 presentations, 2652 had blood sampled of which 1267 samples had HbA1c measured. Of these, 487 (38.4%) had diabetes (either HbA1c≥6.5% or a prior diagnosis), and a further 347 (27.4%) had prediabetes. Among those with diabetes, 32.2% were previously undiagnosed. Conclusions: Routine HbA1c testing in the ED identifies a large number of people with undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes, and provides an opportunity to improve their care

Dataset associated with "Seeking congruity for agentic women: a longitudinal examination of college women's persistence in STEM"

Those interested in using these data are encouraged to contact Dr. Paul Hernandez ([email protected]) and Dr. Emily Fischer ([email protected]) for more information. Data Contacts: Paul R. Hernandez (primary), [email protected], 979-464-9229 Emily V. Fischer, [email protected], 970-491-8587.Survey data were collected via the online Qualtrics survey system twice yearly in the fall and spring semesters from fall 2015 through spring 2019. This repository contains the data file associated with all surveys utilized in the analyses presented in this research article.Format of Data Files: Data files are in .csv format. Files can be opened by most software (e.g., Notepad, WordPad, Excel) – anything that can read a comma delimited ASCII text file. Here, the file name is "Dataset." In addition, a codebook accompanies the data file. The codebook contains the variable names, variable labels, and value labels for all variables contained within the "Dataset.csv" file.An abundance of literature has examined barriers to women's equal representation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, with many studies showing that STEM fields are not perceived to afford communal goals, a key component of women's interest in future careers. Using Goal Congruity Theory as a framework, we tested the longitudinal impact of perceptions of STEM career goal affordances, communal and agentic goals, and their congruity on persistence in science from the second through fourth years of college among women in STEM majors. We found that women's intent to persist in science were highest in fall of their second year, that persistence intentions exhibited a sharp decline, and that eventually leveled off by their fourth year of college. This pattern was moderated by perceptions of agentic affordances in STEM, such that women with higher perceptions of agentic affordances experienced smaller declines. Similar to prior research, we found that higher perceptions of communal goal affordances in STEM consistently predicted higher persistence intentions. Finally, we found an agentic goal-affordance congruity interaction, such that higher perceptions of agentic affordances in STEM predicted higher persistence intentions; however, the positive relationship was stronger for women with higher agentic goals. We conclude that because STEM fields are stereotyped as affording agentic goals, women who identify interest in a STEM major during their first year of college may be drawn to these fields for this reason, and may benefit from perceptions that STEM affords both communal and agentic goals.Funding for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation through grant number DUE- 1431795, DUE-1431823, and DUE-1460229

Role modeling is a viable retention strategy for undergraduate women in the geosciences

Gender diversity leads to better science; however, a number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, including many geoscience subdisciplines, show a persistent gender gap. PROmoting Geo- science Research, Education, and SuccesS (PROGRESS) is a theory-driven role modeling and mentoring program aimed at supporting undergraduate women interested in geoscience-related degree and career pathways. This study is unique because it is being conducted in a long-term applied setting, rather than as a laboratory exercise. We compare female STEM majors in PROGRESS to a matched control group (N = 380) using a longitudinal prospec- tive multisite quasi-experimental design. College women in PROGRESS par- ticipated in a mentoring and role-modeling weekend workshop with follow- up support, while women in the control group participated in neither the workshop nor the follow-up support. PROGRESS members identified more female STEM career role models than controls (60% versus 42%, respectively), suggesting that deliberate interventions can develop the networks of under- graduate women. Undergraduate women that participate in PROGRESS have higher rates of persistence in geoscience-related majors (95% versus 73%), although the rates of switching into a geoscience-related major did not differ across groups. More strikingly, we also find that the persistence of undergrad- uate women in geoscience-related majors is related to the number of female STEM career role models they identify, as their odds of persisting approxi- mately doubles for each role model they identify. We conclude that our ability to retain undergraduate women in the geosciences will depend, in part, on helping them to identify same-gender career role models. Further, the suc- cess of PROGRESS points to steps universities and departments can take to sustain their students’ interest and persistence, such as hosting interactive panels with diverse female scientists to promote the attainability and social relevance of geoscience careers

Loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta density and abundance in Chesapeake Bay and the temperate ocean waters of the southern portion of the Mid-Atlantic Bight

Funding was provided by the NOAA Species Recovery Grants to States program (Award #NA 47200033) issued to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries which contracted with the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center Foundation. Additional funding for tags and turtle capture was also provided by US Fleet Forces Command as well as the Virginia Aquarium Batten Collaborative Research Fund and Batten Professional Development Fund.We conducted aerial surveys of sea turtles in 2011 and 2012, incorporating corrections for perception and availability bias in Chesapeake Bay and near-shore continental shelf waters of the Mid-Atlantic Bight off the US states of Virginia and Maryland. Results of these surveys and ancillary research to determine surface times for loggerhead turtles provide us with a new baseline population estimate for turtles in the region. Prior surveys were conducted in Chesapeake Bay in the mid-1980s and early 2000s, and in ocean waters in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although comparison of density estimates not corrected for availability between prior surveys and this effort suggests that the population of sea turtles, especially loggerhead turtles, is higher than previous estimates, differences between surveys may be the result of survey methodologies and cannot be assumed to be true changes in density. Surface time for availability corrections was calculated using dive summaries from satellite telemetry on 27 loggerhead turtles tracked between 2011 and 2015. We calculated stratified seasonal availability corrections for bay and ocean waters based on assumed differences in turtle behavior and water clarity between the 2 habitats. For each habitat, we provided seasonal corrections for 3 detection depth bins (shallow, moderate, and deep) to account for differences in sub-surface detection ranges. Differences and trends toward differences among availability corrections underscore the need to better understand the many variables that affect surface time for sea turtles in temperate waters, and the effect that availability has on abundance and density estimates.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Protein-coding variants implicate novel genes related to lipid homeostasis contributing to body-fat distribution.

Body-fat distribution is a risk factor for adverse cardiovascular health consequences. We analyzed the association of body-fat distribution, assessed by waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index, with 228,985 predicted coding and splice site variants available on exome arrays in up to 344,369 individuals from five major ancestries (discovery) and 132,177 European-ancestry individuals (validation). We identified 15 common (minor allele frequency, MAF ≥5%) and nine low-frequency or rare (MAF <5%) coding novel variants. Pathway/gene set enrichment analyses identified lipid particle, adiponectin, abnormal white adipose tissue physiology and bone development and morphology as important contributors to fat distribution, while cross-trait associations highlight cardiometabolic traits. In functional follow-up analyses, specifically in Drosophila RNAi-knockdowns, we observed a significant increase in the total body triglyceride levels for two genes (DNAH10 and PLXND1). We implicate novel genes in fat distribution, stressing the importance of interrogating low-frequency and protein-coding variants

Cafeteria Diet Is a Robust Model of Human Metabolic Syndrome With Liver and Adipose Inflammation: Comparison to High-Fat Diet

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions worldwide and reports estimate that American children consume up to 25% of calories from snacks. Several animal models of obesity exist, but studies are lacking that compare high-fat diets (HFD) traditionally used in rodent models of diet-induced obesity (DIO) to diets consisting of food regularly consumed by humans, including high-salt, high-fat, low-fiber, energy dense foods such as cookies, chips, and processed meats. To investigate the obesogenic and inflammatory consequences of a cafeteria diet (CAF) compared to a lard-based 45% HFD in rodent models, male Wistar rats were fed HFD, CAF or chow control diets for 15 weeks. Body weight increased dramatically and remained significantly elevated in CAF-fed rats compared to all other diets. Glucose- and insulin-tolerance tests revealed that hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, and glucose intolerance were exaggerated in the CAF-fed rats compared to controls and HFD-fed rats. It is well-established that macrophages infiltrate metabolic tissues at the onset of weight gain and directly contribute to inflammation, insulin resistance, and obesity. Although both high fat diets resulted in increased adiposity and hepatosteatosis, CAF-fed rats displayed remarkable inflammation in white fat, brown fat and liver compared to HFD and controls. In sum, the CAF provided a robust model of human metabolic syndrome compared to traditional lard-based HFD, creating a phenotype of exaggerated obesity with glucose intolerance and inflammation. This model provides a unique platform to study the biochemical, genomic and physiological mechanisms of obesity and obesity-related disease states that are pandemic in western civilization today