739 research outputs found
Style and Performance of Agricultural Market Advisory Services
This paper describes the degree of marketing activeness of market advisory programs for corn and soybeans, and analyzes the relationship between activeness degree and pricing performance. The data set employed consists of advisory programs tracked by the AgMAS Project at the University of Illinois between 1995 and 2001. Cluster analysis was conducted to group the programs according to their degree of activeness. Panel data regression models were estimated to evaluate the relationship between activeness degree and pricing performance. In the corn market, point estimates indicate a positive effect of the degree of activeness on pricing performance, but this effect is of small magnitude and statistically insignificant. For soybeans,there is a stronger positive relationship between activeness degree and performance, with an estimated effect of activeness on performance larger in magnitude and statistically significant. This positive relationship suggests that active marketing programs are based on superior information and/or analytical skills.Agribusiness, Marketing,
Photon recycling in Fabry-Perot micro-cavities based on SiN waveguides
We present a numerical analysis and preliminary experimental results on
one-dimensional Fabry-Perot micro-cavities in SiN waveguides. The
Fabry-Perot micro-cavities are formed by two distributed Bragg reflectors
separated by a straight portion of waveguide. The Bragg reflectors are composed
by a few air slits produced within the SiN waveguides. In order to
increase the quality factor of the micro-cavities, we have minimized, with a
multiparametric optimization tool, the insertion loss of the reflectors by
varying the length of their first periods (those facing the cavity). To explain
the simulation results the coupling of the fundamental waveguide mode with
radiative modes in the Fabry-Perot micro-cavities is needed. This effect is
described as a recycling of radiative modes in the waveguide. To support the
modelling, preliminary experimental results of micro-cavities in SiN
waveguides realized with Focused Ion Beam technique are reported.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
PORTFOLIOS OF AGRICULTURAL MARKET ADVISORY SERVICES: HOW MUCH DIVERSIFICATION IS ENOUGH?
Agricultural market advisory services offer specific advice to farmers on how to market their commodities. Farmers can subscribe to one or more of these services and follow their advice as a way of managing price risk. According to portfolio theory, a combination of these services may have risk/return benefits compared to individual services. This report analyzes the potential risk reduction gains from naïve diversification among market advisory services for corn and soybeans. Results show that increasing the number of (equal-weighting) services reduces portfolio expected risk, but the marginal decrease in risk from adding a new service decreases rapidly with portfolio size. The risk reduction benefits of naïve diversification among advisory services is relatively small compared to the results obtained in previous studies for stock portfolios, and this is mainly because advisory prices, on average, are highly correlated. A one service portfolio has only a 20%, 16% and 32% higher expected standard deviation than the minimum risk naïve portfolio for corn, soybeans and 50/50 revenue, respectively. Most risk reduction benefits are achieved with small portfolios. For instance, a four service portfolio has only 5%, 4% and 9% higher expected standard deviation than the minimum risk naïve portfolio for corn, soybeans and 50/50 revenue, respectively. Based on these results, there does not appear to be strong justification for farmers adopting portfolios with a large number of advisory services. Farmers may well choose portfolios with as few as two or three programs, since the relatively high total subscription costs associated with larger portfolios can be avoided while obtaining most of the benefits from diversification.Marketing,
Advisory Service Marketing Profiles for Corn in 2001
Agricultural Finance,
Computational biology tools in design of an agrochemical against Xyllela fastidiosa.
Xylella fastidiosa is a Gram-negative, non-flagellated bacterium that causes CVC in citrus and Pierce?s disease in grapevines. The CVC affects 40% of the 200 million orange trees in São Paulo state. It colonizes the xylem vessels of the plants, blocking the water and nutrient flows. PilT protein is a part of the motility system and very important for Xyllela pathogenicity and our protein target for drug design. Computational biology tools were used to design the compound able to inhibit the formation of the PilT hexamer, leading to loss of Xyllela pathogenicity. This approach could be employed in the development of new inhibitors against different targets belonging to the same protein family of PilT
Computational Biology tools in design of an agrochemical against Xylella fastidiosa.
Since its pathogenicity is related to bacterial motility, the protein PilT from the twitching motility system has been chosen as the host target. Using rational drug design, based on a detailed comprehension of the protein host structure, small molecules were designed in order to block the activity of the protein and provoke the loss of the bacterium pathogenicity.C.016
Il macello come strumento del monitoraggio aziendale
Sono stati considerati
i diversi schemi disponibili
per il monitoraggio al
macello di alcune patologie
ad elevato impatto economico
in suinicoltura, e discussa
l\u2019effettiva applicabilit\ue0
al sistema di produzione
del suino pesante italiano.
Per quanto riguarda
in particolare la malattia respiratoria,
si pu\uf2 considerare
il macello come un ambito
di grande rilevanza per
l\u2019approvvigionamento di dati
oggettivi ed aggiornati.
Tuttavia, solo un veterinario
provvisto delle indispensabili
conoscenze anatomo-
patologiche, e che abbia
svolto un idoneo percorso
formativo, pu\uf2 eseguire
una valutazione corretta
delle diverse fasi evolutive
delle lesioni indotte
da una determinata malattia;
diversamente, \ue8 possibile
che le informazioni raccolte
non siano corrispondenti
alla realt\ue0 d\u2019allevamento,
o addirittura fuorvianti
rispetto al reale stato
sanitario della produzione
ADVISORY SERVICE MARKETING PROFILES FOR CORN OVER 1995-2000
This report presents marketing profiles and loan deficiency payment/marketing loan gain profiles for the advisory services followed by the AgMAS Project for the 1995 through 2000 corn crops. Marketing profiles are constructed by plotting the cumulative net amount priced under each program's set of recommendations throughout a crop year. Loan deficiency payment/marketing loan gain (LDP/MLG) profiles are constructed by plotting the cumulative percentage of the crop on which the LDP/MLG was claimed during the crop year. Marketing profiles provide information to evaluate the style of advisory services in several ways. The percentage of crop priced is a measure of within-crop year price risk. The higher the proportion of a crop priced, the lower the sensitivity of the farmer's position value to crop price changes. For example, when 100% of the crop is priced there is no price sensitivity, which means that changes in price do not affect the value of the farmer's position. On the other hand, when the amount priced is 0%, the value of the farmer's position will vary in the same proportion as the change in price. Marketing profiles, therefore, allow investigating the evolution of price sensitivity under each service's set of recommendations along the marketing window. Marketing profiles also provide other useful information. The number of steps in the profile lines and the location of these steps in the marketing window provide information about timing, frequency and size of recommended transactions. It is also possible to determine from the marketing profile figures how intensely a program uses options markets, since when options positions are open the profile line is irregular. In the same way, LDP/MLG profiles provide information about the size and timing of LDP/MLG claims.Marketing,
ADVISORY SERVICE MARKETING PROFILES FOR SOYBEANS OVER 1995-2000
This report presents marketing profiles and loan deficiency payment/marketing loan gain profiles for the advisory services followed by the AgMAS Project for the 1995 through 2000 soybean crops. Marketing profiles are constructed by plotting the cumulative net amount priced under each program's set of recommendations throughout a crop year. Loan deficiency payment/marketing loan gain (LDP/MLG) profiles are constructed by plotting the cumulative percentage of the crop on which the LDP/MLG was claimed during the crop year. Marketing profiles provide information to evaluate the style of advisory services in several ways. The percentage of crop priced is a measure of within-crop year price risk. The higher the proportion of a crop priced, the lower the sensitivity of the farmer's position value to crop price changes. For example, when 100% of the crop is priced there is no price sensitivity, which means that changes in price do not affect the value of the farmer's position. On the other hand, when the amount priced is 0%, the value of the farmer's position will vary in the same proportion as the change in price. Marketing profiles, therefore, allow investigating the evolution of price sensitivity under each service's set of recommendations along the marketing window. Marketing profiles also provide other useful information. The number of steps in the profile lines and the location of these steps in the marketing window provide information about timing, frequency and size of recommended transactions. It is also possible to determine from the marketing profile figures how intensely a program uses options markets, since when options positions are open the profile line is irregular. In the same way, LDP/MLG profiles provide information about the size and timing of LDP/MLG claims.Marketing,
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