The Challenge – Bringing the Philosophy of IWRP Into Practice

Non

HEDGING WITH FUTURES AND OPTIONS UNDER A TRUNCATED CASH PRICE DISTRIBUTION

Many agricultural producers face cash price distributions that are effectively truncated at a lower limit through participation in farm programs designed to support farm prices and incomes. For example, the 1996 Federal Agricultural Improvement Act (FAIR) makes many producers eligible to obtain marketing loans which truncate their cash price realization at the loan rate, while allowing market prices to freely equilibrate supply and demand. This paper studies the effects of truncated cash price distributions on the optimal use of futures and options. The results show that truncation in the cash price distribution facing an individual producer provides incentives to trade options as well as futures. We derive optimal futures and options trading rules under options as well as futures. We derive optimal futures and options trading rules under a range of different truncation scenarios. Empirical results highlights the impacts of basis risk and yield risk on the optimal futures and options portfolio.farm programs, futures, hedging, options, truncation, Marketing,

Willingness to Pay for a Potential Insurance Policy: Case Study of Trout Aquaculture

Using trout producer survey data and the contingent valuation method, we estimate willing-ness to pay for a potential insurance policy. The survey was conducted in 2005 across the United States; 268 producers completed the survey instrument, resulting in a response rate of 81 percent. Design of the contingent valuation method takes into account two coverage levels and four premium rates. Using standard willingness-to-pay techniques, we assess the premium rate that producers with varying practices and regions are willing to pay for two different cov-erage levels of insurance. In general, trout producers appear willing to pay premium rates of 2 to 11 percent for these coverage levels.willingness to pay, subjective elicitation and survey data, aquaculture trout insurance, Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Waste heat generation: A comprehensive review

A comprehensive review of heat generation in various types of wastes and of the thermal regime of waste containment facilities is provided in this paper. Municipal solid waste (MSW), MSW incineration ash, and mining wastes were included in the analysis. Spatial and temporal variations of waste temperatures, thermal gradients, thermal properties of wastes, average temperature differentials, and heat generation values are provided. Heat generation was influenced by climatic conditions, mean annual earth temperatures, waste temperatures at the time of placement, cover conditions, and inherent heat generation potential of the specific wastes. Time to onset of heat generation varied between months and years, whereas timelines for overall duration of heat generation varied between years and decades. For MSW, measured waste temperatures were as high as 60–90 °C and as low as −6 °C. MSW incinerator ash temperatures varied between 5 and 87 °C. Mining waste temperatures were in the range of −25 to 65 °C. In the wastes analyzed, upward heat flow toward the surface was more prominent than downward heat flow toward the subsurface. Thermal gradients generally were higher for MSW and incinerator ash and lower for mining waste. Based on thermal properties, MSW had insulative qualities (low thermal conductivity), while mining wastes typically were relatively conductive (high thermal conductivity) with ash having intermediate qualities. Heat generation values ranged from −8.6 to 83.1 MJ/m3 and from 0.6 to 72.6 MJ/m3 for MSW and mining waste, respectively and was 72.6 MJ/m3 for ash waste. Conductive thermal losses were determined to range from 13 to 1111 MJ/m3 yr. The data and analysis provided in this review paper can be used in the investigation of heat generation and thermal regime of a wide range of wastes and waste containment facilities located in different climatic regions

The physiological basis for genetic variation in water use efficiency and carbon isotope composition in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Ecologists and physiologists have documented extensive variation in water use efficiency (WUE) in Arabidopsis thaliana, as well as association of WUE with climatic variation. Here, we demonstrate correlations of whole-plant transpiration efficiency and carbon isotope composition (δ(13)C) among life history classes of A. thaliana. We also use a whole-plant cuvette to examine patterns of co-variation in component traits of WUE and δ(13)C. We find that stomatal conductance (g s) explains more variation in WUE than does A. Overall, there was a strong genetic correlation between A and g s, consistent with selection acting on the ratio of these traits. At a more detailed level, genetic variation in A was due to underlying variation in both maximal rate of carboxylation (V cmax) and maximum electron transport rate (Jmax). We also found strong effects of leaf anatomy, where lines with lower WUE had higher leaf water content (LWC) and specific leaf area (SLA), suggesting a role for mesophyll conductance (g m) in variation of WUE. We hypothesize that this is due to an effect through g m, and test this hypothesis using the abi4 mutant. We show that mutants of ABI4 have higher SLA, LWC, and g m than wild-type, consistent with variation in leaf anatomy causing variation in g m and δ(13)C. These functional data also add further support to the central, integrative role of ABI4 in simultaneously altering ABA sensitivity, sugar signaling, and CO2 assimilation. Together our results highlight the need for a more holistic approach in functional studies, both for more accurate annotation of gene function and to understand co-limitations to plant growth and productivity

The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence

The catastrophic impact of fishing pressure on species such as cod and herring is well documented. However, the antiquity of their intensive exploitation has not been established. Systematic catch statistics are only available for ca. 100 years, but large-scale fishing industries existed in medieval Europe and the expansion of cod fishing from the fourteenth century (first in Iceland, then in Newfoundland) played an important role in the European colonization of the Northwest Atlantic. History has demonstrated the scale of these late medieval and post-medieval fisheries, but only archaeology can illuminate earlier practices. Zooarchaeological evidence shows that the clearest changes in marine fishing in England between AD 600 and 1600 occurred rapidly around AD 1000 and involved large increases in catches of herring and cod. Surprisingly, this revolution predated the documented post-medieval expansion of England's sea fisheries and coincided with the Medieval Warm Period-when natural herring and cod productivity was probably low in the North Sea. This counterintuitive discovery can be explained by the concurrent rise of urbanism and human impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The search for 'pristine' baselines regarding marine ecosystems will thus need to employ medieval palaeoecological proxies in addition to recent fisheries data and early modern historical records

Risk of sexual recidivism as a function of age and actuarial risk

The study of risk for sexual recidivism has undergone substantial development in recent years. The foundation for advances in this area has been the use of actuarial measures to identify subgroups of offenders with different observed rates of sexual re-offending over time. An unresolved issue within this research area has been the moderating function of age in the assessment of risk. The current study examined sexual re-offending as a function of age and actuarial risk in a large sample of sexual offenders released from prison between 1990 and 2004. There was an overall decrease in the rate of sexual re-offending over the age of 50. However, a small group of offenders from the higher actuarial risk categories of the older age groups continued to re-offend at higher rates than their lower-risk peers. <br /

Agricultural Water Management in the Missippi Delta Region of Arkansas

Agriculture is the largest use of soil and water resources in eastern Arkansas. This bulletin summarized the recent historical use of soil and water by agriculture and the impact of irrigation on yields of rice, soybeans and cotton. The experiments conducted in the field to quantitatively schedule irrigations of crops are summarized. The results show the close relationship between the irrigation of crops and the extraction of water from the Alluvial Aquifer. The implications of this relationaship for the future are discussed