Is inflation targeting best-practice monetary policy?

Monetary policy ; Inflation (Finance) ; Federal Open Market Committee

Sweet Potato in the Lower Rio Grande Valley: Evaluating Performance Across Several Cultivars

In Texas’ subtropical, semiarid Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV), citrus and sugarcane cultures have dominated specialty crop production for more than a half-century. However, the future of these high-dollar crops is becoming uncertain with increases in exotic pathogens, intensifying urbanization and the overarching complexities of both climate change and binational governance of Rio Grande Basin waters. For these reasons, the region’s specialty crop sector needs to be ready for alternatives that could benefit both market outlets and reduced input dependencies. Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), commercially grown in various similar climates worldwide with limited water resources, could be one alternative for the LRGV. The study aimed to determine whether this commodity’s production could enlarge the base of specialty crop offerings in the LRGV. To this end, the following objectives were considered: (1) Could differences in sweet potato yield be realized between fertilizer treatments and (2) Could yield performance between sweet potato cultivars be effectively compared. Analysis of data collected over a 2-year (2019, 2021) field trial indicated large differences (20 metric tons/ha) in annual root yields with possible correlation to legacy fertilizer impact and other influences on soil nitrate levels. Our results did not conclusively identify a preferred cultivar or fertilizer treatment but will inform future efforts to establish sweet potato culture within the LRGV’s base of agricultural commodities

Management Buyouts: Creating or Appropriating Shareholder Wealth?

The name of the game in corporate America today is leverage.Whether through leveraged buyouts\u27 or leveraged recapitalizations, many of the United States\u27 largest corporations are rapidly trading equity capital for debt.\u27 This trend began only a few years ago when a small group of financial entrepreneurs, which included Carl Icahn, T.Boone Pickens, Asher Edelman,\u27 Irwin Jacobs, and Ronald Perelman, found that they could finance large stock purchases of major corporations through the use of high-yield ( junk ) bonds\u27 leading to either an acquisition of the target or its forced restructuring. The general goal of these financiers was to force a reconciliation between what they perceived as low stock prices and corporate assets of far greater potential value. Their efforts have been tremendously profitable. The corporate targets of these hostile share acquisitions, however,did not sit idly by and wait to have their shares gobbled up. The defenses they erected are now. famous because of their frequent use and colorful names: the Pac-Man defense, the scorched earth defense, shark repellents and poison pills. \u27 While these defenses proved to be an initial deterrent to hostile acquisitions, more creative financing techniques and other offensive weapons have rendered these defenses something of a Maginot Line. Target managements, searching for away to protect their shareholders, their jobs, or both, increasingly have taken the approach of fighting fire with fire-that is, using leverage and redeployment of assets in an attempt to create for themselves the same profits sought by the hostile bidder. The present-day management buyout developed primarily as a defensive response to the attacks of the financial entrepreneurs and other acquisition hungry companies. Top executives who became the equity holders in the private companies that followed buyouts generally have found this new defense as enormously profitable as the comparable offensive purchases of the financiers who initiated the first round of lever-aged stock acquisitions. Likewise, the leveraged recapitalization can be viewed largely as management\u27s attempt to effect the same reconciliation of values between stock prices and corporate assets by which a hostile bidder seeks to profit, while keeping the company independent with ownership continuing in the hands of the public shareholders.Here too, however, management will often grab a slice of the equity pie as an incentive booster in the course of revamping the corporation\u27s capital structure. It appears that like buyouts, top executives find the leveraged recapitalization quite profitable

Thermal/structural analysis of a transpiration cooled nozzle

The 8-foot High Temperature Tunnel (HTT) at LaRC is a combustion driven, high enthalpy blow down wind tunnel. In Mar. 1991, during check out of the transpiration cooled nozzle, pieces of platelets were found in the tunnel test section. It was determined that incorrect tolerancing between the platelets and the housing was the primary cause of the platelet failure. An analysis was performed to determine the tolerance layout between the platelets and the housing to meet the structural and performance criteria under a range of thermal, pressure, and bolt preload conditions. Three recommendations resulted as a product of this analysis

Environmental and physiological control of stomates in Douglas-fir and other species

This research dealt with the direct environmental influence of atmospheric vapor pressure on stomates of Pseudotsuga menziesii, Picea engelniannii, and Fragaria X ananassa, and the indirect physiological control of stomates by abscisic acid in Pseudotsuga menziesii. Two ventilated porometers (diffusion and steady-state) were compared on four broadleaf and five coniferous species. The diffusion porometer gave consistently lower conductance values for both types of species, reflecting a direct stomatal response to low chamber humidity. At high conductance values, the porometers produced nearly equal response, but the diffusion porometer was less sensitive at low conductance values. This was due to lower wind velocity (20% of the velocity in the steady-state porometer) and water vapor sorption by its acrylic plastic chamber. The rapid response of stomates to changes in atmospheric vapor pressure and its interaction with plant water stress was characterized in the three species above. All of the species showed similar curvilinear response of enhanced conductance at low vapor pressure deficit and depressed conductance at high vapor pressure deficit. The response time ranged from 30 seconds at high VPD to 2 minutes at low VPD. Engelmann spruce was more sensitive than either Douglas-fir or strawberry, which were equally sensitive. Plant water status significantly altered stomatal response to humidity. The relationship of conductance to xylem water potential was linear under ambient conditions (15 mb), but became curvilinear when conductance was measured at a vapor pressure above (20 mb) and below (7 mb) ambient. Between -0.5 MPa and -2.0 MPa, the stomates were sensitive to vapor pressure deficit, but below -2.0 MPa, this sensitivity lessened. This desensitization was attributed to the increase in abscisic acid overriding the influence of atmospheric humidity. The photoisomerization kinetics of the geometric isomers of abscisic acid were studied in solution and in seedlings of Douglas-fir. In vitro, 250-nm light caused photolysis of both isomers. The 350-nm light and sunlight were comparable in isomerizing ABA and 2-trans-ABA with a half-time of about 3 minutes, whereas isomerization under fluorescent light took longer (half-time = 7 minutes). Methylation of the isomers caused the photoisomerization half-time to increase in all of the light sources. The equilibrium concentration of 55% ABA and 45% 2-trans-ABA was consistent for the free acid and the methyl ester under all radiation treatments. The absorption spectra of the isomers provided evidence for the higher concentration of the cis-isomer at photo-equilibrium. In vivo, no significant conversions in ABA, 2-trans-ABA or their saponifiable conjugates were observed in either 350-nm or fluorescent light. However, the presence of 2-trans-ABA and its conjugate in the needle extracts suggests that isomerization occurs, in vivo. The changes in ABA and its metabolites in Douglas-fir needles were followed through two drought cycles and its effect on stomatal conductance was determined. Leaf conductance showed the typical water potential threshold, decreasing abruptly at -2.0 MP. This corresponded to the simultaneous increase in ABA level, from 500 to 850 ng g-1. No adjustment to stress was observed in any of the relationships examined, but stress progressed at a slower rate during the second cycle. Metabolism of ABA was found to differ from previous studies. A linear relationship between ABA arid its conjugate strongly implicated the importance of the interconversion of the two compounds for storage and supply of the free acid. This may have been due to tissue age and water stress preconditioning. Phaseic acid and epi-dihydrophaseic acid were the primary metabolites. Changes in trans-dihydrophaseic acid paralleled ABA providing evidence for concentration-dependent photoisomerization, either of ABA or one of its metabolites

The Web as Dialogue:The Role of Natural Language Generation in Hypertext

A very common metaphor used when discussing the World Wide Web, and hypertextual systems in general, is that of navigation within a space. This is not the only way to think about hypertext, however: an alternative, and potentially richer, metaphor is to view a session with any such system as a dialogue, with the user and the system taking alternate turns in the conversation. This acknowledges the interactive nature of the experience, and may open up new ways of thinking about how the medium can be used. Unfortunately, existing hypertext systems are not up to the task. A true dialogue requires a conversational participant who is able to take account of the content of the dialogue so far, and to respond appropriately in context; existing hypertext systems are, by and large, providers of pre--written, canned material. By using natural language generation techniques, however, we can tailor the system's contributions to take account of the ongoing discourse context. In thi..

The association between characteristics of fathering in infancy and depressive symptoms in adolescence:A UK birth cohort study

AbstractEvidence suggests that the quality of fathers’ parenting has an impact on psychological outcomes during adolescence, but less is known about which aspects of fathering have the strongest effects. This study, using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), considers which paternal attitudes towards and experiences of child care in infancy are most strongly associated with depressive symptoms in adolescence, and whether father effects are independent of maternal influence and other risk factors. Primary exposures were fathers’ attitudes to and experiences of child care at 8 weeks, 8 months and 21 months coded as continuous scores; the primary outcome was self-reported depressive symptoms at 16 years (Short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire score ≥11). Multivariable logistic regression models showed reasonably strong evidence that parental reports indicating potential paternal abuse when children were toddlers were associated with a 22% increased odds of depressive symptoms at age 16 (odds ratio [OR] 1.22 [95% CI 1.11, 1.34] per SD). There was some evidence for an interaction with social class (p=0.04): for children living in higher social class households (professional, managerial and technical classes), an increase in the potential abuse scale increased the odds of depressive symptoms by 31% (OR 1.31 [1.13, 1.53] per SD), whereas there was no effect in the lower social class categories. The potential paternal abuse measure needs to be validated and research is needed on what circumstances predict anger and frustration with child care. Effective interventions are needed to help fathers cope better with parenting stress

Towards Conserving Crop Wild Relatives along the Texas–Mexico Border: The Case of Manihot walkerae

Walker’s Manihot, Manihot walkerae, is an endangered species endemic to south Texas and northeastern Mexico and is a Crop Wild Relative (CWR) of the international and economically important crop cassava (M. esculenta). Manihot walkerae is globally endangered (IUCN’s Redlist, Texas list, USA); however, it is not recognized on the Mexican list of endangered species (NOM-059-SEMARNAT). We assessed the status of M. walkerae in Mexico and re-evaluated its global status. According to our analysis, M. walkerae should be considered an endangered species based on the IUCN’s assessment method and a threatened species in Mexico based on the Mexican criteria. Our findings encourage the establishment of sound conservation plans for M. walkerae along the Texas–Mexico border. View Full-Tex