Identifying and Reducing Overlap in Farm Program Support

The current debate surrounding the 2012 Farm Act stresses cutting costs while maintaining, or even strengthening, farmers’ “safety net.” One way to cut costs is to reduce or eliminate potential overlap of farm program payments. Using simulations, we explore the interaction between the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program and a revenue assurance (RA) crop insurance program for corn, soybean, and wheat farmers in IL, MN, and SD. Additionally, we examine whether receiving benefits from multiple programs (an RA program, the Supplemental Revenue (SURE) program, and an ad hoc disaster assistance program) distorts farmers’ business decisions. We find overlap between ACRE and crop insurance, which could lead to budgetary savings if these two programs were to be integrated. Moreover, despite policymakers explicitly incorporating insurance indemnities into SURE payment calculations, access to both programs can alter behavior. Finally, in a counter-factual analysis, we show that removing ad hoc payments from the SURE would likely alter farm behavior.commodity support, average crop revenue election, Supplemental Revenue Assistance, expected utility, corn, wheat, soybeans, Agricultural and Food Policy, Production Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

PushPush and Push-1 are NP-hard in 2D

We prove that two pushing-blocks puzzles are intractable in 2D. One of our constructions improves an earlier result that established intractability in 3D [OS99] for a puzzle inspired by the game PushPush. The second construction answers a question we raised in [DDO00] for a variant we call Push-1. Both puzzles consist of unit square blocks on an integer lattice; all blocks are movable. An agent may push blocks (but never pull them) in attempting to move between given start and goal positions. In the PushPush version, the agent can only push one block at a time, and moreover when a block is pushed it slides the maximal extent of its free range. In the Push-1 version, the agent can only push one block one square at a time, the minimal extent---one square. Both NP-hardness proofs are by reduction from SAT, and rely on a common construction.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures. Corrects an error in the conference version: Proc. of the 12th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, August 2000, pp. 211-21

PushPush is NP-hard in 2D

We prove that a particular pushing-blocks puzzle is intractable in 2D, improving an earlier result that established intractability in 3D [OS99]. The puzzle, inspired by the game *PushPush*, consists of unit square blocks on an integer lattice. An agent may push blocks (but never pull them) in attempting to move between given start and goal positions. In the PushPush version, the agent can only push one block at a time, and moreover, each block, when pushed, slides the maximal extent of its free range. We prove this version is NP-hard in 2D by reduction from SAT.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Improves cs.CG/991101

Type-Oriented Island Parsing

This thesis addresses the problem of specifying and parsing the syntax of domain-specific languages (DSLs) in a modular, user-friendly way. That is, we want to enable the design of composable DSLs that combine the natural syntax of external DSLs with the easy implementation of internal DSLs. The challenge in parsing composable DSLs is that the composition of several (individually unambiguous) languages is likely to contain ambiguities. In this thesis, we present the design of a system that uses a type-oriented variant of island parsing to efficiently parse the syntax of composable DSLs. In particular, we show that type-oriented island parsing is the first parsing algorithm that is constant time with respect to the number of DSLs imported. We also show how to use our tool to implement DSLs on top of a host language such as Typed Racket

Examples, Counterexamples, and Enumeration Results for Foldings and Unfoldings between Polygons and Polytopes

We investigate how to make the surface of a convex polyhedron (a polytope) by folding up a polygon and gluing its perimeter shut, and the reverse process of cutting open a polytope and unfolding it to a polygon. We explore basic enumeration questions in both directions: Given a polygon, how many foldings are there? Given a polytope, how many unfoldings are there to simple polygons? Throughout we give special attention to convex polygons, and to regular polygons. We show that every convex polygon folds to an infinite number of distinct polytopes, but that their number of combinatorially distinct gluings is polynomial. There are, however, simple polygons with an exponential number of distinct gluings. In the reverse direction, we show that there are polytopes with an exponential number of distinct cuttings that lead to simple unfoldings. We establish necessary conditions for a polytope to have convex unfoldings, implying, for example, that among the Platonic solids, only the tetrahedron has a convex unfolding. We provide an inventory of the polytopes that may unfold to regular polygons, showing that, for n>6, there is essentially only one class of such polytopes.Comment: 54 pages, 33 figure

Enumerating Foldings and Unfoldings between Polygons and Polytopes

We pose and answer several questions concerning the number of ways to fold a polygon to a polytope, and how many polytopes can be obtained from one polygon; and the analogous questions for unfolding polytopes to polygons. Our answers are, roughly: exponentially many, or nondenumerably infinite.Comment: 12 pages; 10 figures; 10 references. Revision of version in Proceedings of the Japan Conference on Discrete and Computational Geometry, Tokyo, Nov. 2000, pp. 9-12. See also cs.CG/000701

Strain-Release Activation of α,β-Unsaturated Amides Towards Conjugate Addition of N, O and S - Nucleophiles

This thesis encompasses a novel methodology enabling the diastereoselective addition of heteroatom-centered nucleophiles to the conjugated double bond of in situ-generated α,β - unsaturated cyclopropenyl amides. The methodology is presented as a means of activating the relatively poorly electrophilic double bond of conjugated amides via release of the ring strain which is inherent to cyclopropenes. Through strain-release activation it was demonstrated that oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen-centered nucleophilic adducts of cyclopropylcarboxamides can be efficiently synthesized. The thesis is divided into three chapters which discuss not only the development and elaboration of our chemistry, but also other methods of activating α,β - unsaturated amides and why our method will benefit the synthetic community. Chapter one is a review of activation methods which are commonly employed to facilitate nucleophilic addition to α,β - unsaturated amides. The utility of directly functionalizing conjugated amides through nucleophilic addition is discussed, as well as why activation is necessary. The discussion is organized as a comparison of the reactivity of unactivated systems to that of activated systems; meanwhile providing an overview of what the synthetic community has done to develop this area of chemistry. Chapter two focuses on the development of the strain-release activation method and addresses the problems and solutions associated with using inherently unstable cyclopropenes. Elaboration of the methodology to include addition of alkoxide, phenoxide and thiolate nucleophiles, both inter- and intramolecularly, to in situ generated, conjugated cyclopropenylcarboxamides is then presented and discussed. Chapter three follows up with discussion of the benefits of nitrogen-centered nucleophilic addition and the challenges we faced in accomplishing this task. Utilization of anilines, carboxamides and sulfonamides as nucleophilic amine-surrogates are presented as a viable means facilitating the addition of nitrogen-centered nucleophiles to conjugated cyclopropenes, thereby accessing biologically interesting β-aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid derivatives

Characterizing the Internal Porous Structure of Equine Proximal Sesamoid Bones Subjected to Race Training Using Fast Fourier Transforms

The equine racing industry is one of the main proponents in Kentucky’s economic infrastructure. In this industry there has come a need to investigate the nature of the proximal sesamoid bone (PSB). Breakdowns involving the PSBs are the leading cause in racehorse deaths in the industry, with still little known about what causes this bone to fracture. This study seeks to shed insight by investigating the internal structure of the PSB. Using microCT scanning, the internal porous structure was captured. From there, noticeable differences in the pores were noticed and quantified using fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis. The dominant peak frequencies in each FFT spectrum hold information about the pore size and pore repeating pattern for each of selected window for the FFT analysis. The dominant peak distribution shape was characterized by a confidence ellipse for each FFT spectrum. The size of the ellipse in the frequency domain holds information that can be converted to the spatial domain to characterize the size and spacing of the porous network within the PSB. The findings of this study show interesting implications for the idea that the PSB is regionally changing the internal nature of the bone which lead to changes in structural integrity. It was observed that there were regional differences in the fracture types that could correspond with their specific fracture. A linear mixed model statistical analysis was used on the data, and it was shown that some biological factors are only shown to be significant in certain areas and not in others, while some factors are also only shown to affect the angle of the bone and not the size of the bone. Looking at the specific differences and biological factor effects, we can pinpoint which regions are experiencing changing due to the specific factors