USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, volume 1, no. 4

An overview of the developments and direction of the USSR Space Life Sciences Program is given. Highlights of launches, program development, and mission planning are given. Results of ground-based research and space flight studies are summarized. Topics covered include: space medicine and physiology; space biology, and life sciences and technology

Prediction of annual joint rain fade on EHF networks by weighted rain field selection

©2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. We present a computationally efficient method to predict joint rain fade on arbitrary networks of microwave links. Methods based on synthetic rain fields composed of a superposition of rain cells have been shown to produce useful predictions of joint fade, with low computational overhead. Other methods using rain fields derived from radar systems have much higher computational overhead but provide better predictions. The proposed method combines the best features of both methods by using a small number of measured rain fields to produce annual fade predictions. Rain fields are grouped into heavy rain and light rain groups by maximum rain rate. A small selection of rain fields from each group are downscaled and fade predictions generated by pseudointegration of specific attenuation. This paper presents a method to optimize the weights used to combine the heavy rain and light rain fade predictions to yield an estimate of the average annual distribution. The algorithm presented yields estimates of average annual fade distributions with an error small compared to year-to-year variation, using only 0.2% of the annual data set of rain fields

Regeneration experiments below 10K in a regenerative-cycle cryocooler

At temperatures below 10K, regenerative cycle cryocoolers are limited by regeneration losses in the helium working fluid which result from the decreasing heat capacity of the regenerating material and the increasing density of helium. Experiments examining several approaches to improving the low-temperature regeneration in a four-stage regenerative cycle cooler constructed primarily of fiberglass materials are discussed. Using an interchangeable fourth stage, the experiments included configurations with multiple regeneration passages, and a static helium volume for increased heat capacity. Experiments using helium-3 as the working fluid and a Malone stage are planned. Results indicate that, using these techniques, it should be possible to construct a regenerative cycle cooler which will operate below 6K

Expected Payments and Considerations for the New ACRE Program

The 2008 Farm Bill provided an option for receiving commodity program payments through existing programs or a new revenue-based alternative – the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program. ACRE is a state-level revenue program which, if elected, replaces the price-based countercyclical program. Enrollment requires the forfeiture of 20 percent of a producer’s direct payments and reduces loan rates by 30 percent. This article provides estimates of long-term expected ACRE payments for corn, soybean, and wheat acres across a variety of states. Within the cornbelt, expected ACRE payments are similar across regions for each of the crops considered, and will likely exceed the required reduction in direct payments. Outside of the cornbelt, expected ACRE payments vary considerably.Farm Management, Production Economics,

A Spatial Approach to Addressing Weather Derivative Basis Risk: A Drought Insurance Example

Risk and Uncertainty,

Readdressing the Fertilizer Problem

The production literature has shown that inputs such as fertilizer can be defined as risk-increasing. However, farmers also consistently overapply nitrogen. A model of optimal input use under uncertainty is used to address this paradox. Using experimental data, a stochastic production relationship between yield and soil nitrate is estimated. Numerical results show that input uncertainty may cause farmers to overapply nitrogen. Survey data suggest that farmers are risk averse, but prefer small chances of high yields compared to small chances of crop failures when expected yields are equivalent. Furthermore, yield risk and yield variability are not equivalent.corn, nitrogen fertilizer, risk-increasing, yield risk, Crop Production/Industries,

Risk and Incentives: A Not-So-Tenuous Trade-off

Risk and Uncertainty,

An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Marketing Contract Structures for Corn and Soybeans

Contracts serve as coordination mechanisms which allocate value, risk, and decision rightsacross buyers and sellers. The use of marketing contracts in agriculture, specifically for crop production,has been increasing over the past decade. This study investigates the determinants ofagricultural marketing contract design employing data from the USDA’s Agricultural ResourceManagement Survey. Models are estimated to analyze the association between producer and contractorcharacteristics, the decision to produce under contract, and the types of contract structuresobserved in practice, while controlling for the potential for endogenous matching betweencontracting parties. Results indicate that while certain producer characteristics are significantlyassociated with the decision to produce corn or soybeans under contract, there is no significantassociation between those characteristics and specific contract attributes.

What Kind of Confession is the Augsburg Confession?: I Shall Speak of Your Decrees Before Kings, and Shall Not be Put to Shame (Psalm 119:46)

What is the genre of the Augsburg Confession? Knowing this identifies the meaning and use of the document historically and presently. The confession is apocalyptic, despite the disparaging place this genre has held in recent theology. The case comes especially from Martin Luther’s own correspondence of the time and his later recollection of the events given in his 1542 Genesis lectures. In the Genesis lectures Luther connected Augsburg to the conflict Rebecca had come to in the case of primogeniture and Jacob. The first table of the commandments came into strange conflict with the second: the law of authority conflicting with the promissio that makes faith. That is apocalypse, the conflict of the law and gospel. This had happened to him, Luther judged,in the 1518 questioning before Cardinal Cajetan. It happened again for the whole evangelical cause in 153ه at Augsburg, and led the Confessors to take up Psalm 119 as their prescript in its overt apocalyptic language: ”we speak of your decrees before kings, and shall not be put to shame.” The remaining argument uses three of Luther’s letters written from Coburg immediately prior to and following the presentation of the Confession 1530 to Melanchthon (June 29), Spalatin (June 30) and Cordatus (July 6). It is a theological argument made in the letter that speaks of foe Confession as a public sermon used as an instrument of foe Holy Spirit for the creation of true church ex nihilo. Thus the genre of the CA is not only apocalyptic, but also the specific proclamation that distinguishes law and gospel. The CA is a sermon that regards and reckons only faith as righteousness in God’s sight. The proclamation of the Confession meant this divine word became a deed - God’s own cosmic courthouse, thus transferring the Reformation from Luther’s person, to the public when the thing was proclaimed literally to kings and the end - and new beginning - arrived in proclamation

My Sinful Self: The Self as Enemy

“We have met the enemy, and he is us,” said Pogo. The “us” is our sinful self, which can be disposed of only by dying to faith in our own power to believe and rising to faith as the daily gift of Christ. For this, we need a preacher, the bringer of an external word to which we can clin