Spatial Aggregation and Weather Risk Management

Previous studies identify limited potential efficacy of weather derivatives in hedging agricultural exposures. In contrast to earlier studies which investigate the problem at low levels of aggregation, we find using straight forward temperature contracts that better weather hedging opportunities exist at higher levels of spatial aggregation. Aggregating production exposures reduces idiosyncratic (i.e. localized or region specific) risk, leaving a greater proportion of the total risk in the form of systemic weather risk which can be effectively hedged using weather derivatives. The aggregation effect suggests that the potential for weather derivatives in agriculture may be greater than previously thought, particularly for aggregators of risk such as re/insurers.weather derivatives, spatial aggregation, corn, yield risk, crop insurance, hedging, Risk and Uncertainty,

Cell assembly dynamics of sparsely-connected inhibitory networks: a simple model for the collective activity of striatal projection neurons

Striatal projection neurons form a sparsely-connected inhibitory network, and this arrangement may be essential for the appropriate temporal organization of behavior. Here we show that a simplified, sparse inhibitory network of Leaky-Integrate-and-Fire neurons can reproduce some key features of striatal population activity, as observed in brain slices [Carrillo-Reid et al., J. Neurophysiology 99 (2008) 1435{1450]. In particular we develop a new metric to determine the conditions under which sparse inhibitory networks form anti-correlated cell assemblies with time-varying activity of individual cells. We found that under these conditions the network displays an input-specific sequence of cell assembly switching, that effectively discriminates similar inputs. Our results support the proposal [Ponzi and Wickens, PLoS Comp Biol 9 (2013) e1002954] that GABAergic connections between striatal projection neurons allow stimulus-selective, temporally-extended sequential activation of cell assemblies. Furthermore, we help to show how altered intrastriatal GABAergic signaling may produce aberrant network-level information processing in disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure

Computational screening of magnetocaloric alloys

An exciting development over the past few decades has been the use of high-throughput computational screening as a means of identifying promising candidate materials for a variety of structural or functional properties. Experimentally, it is often found that the highest-performing materials contain substantial atomic site disorder. These are frequently overlooked in high-throughput computational searches however, due to difficulties in dealing with materials that do not possess simple, well-defined crystallographic unit cells. Here we demonstrate that the screening of magnetocaloric materials with the help of the density functional theory-based magnetic deformation proxy can be extended to systems with atomic site disorder. This is accomplished by thermodynamic averaging of the magnetic deformation for ordered supercells across a solid solution. We show that the highly non-monotonic magnetocaloric properties of the disordered solid solutions Mn(Co$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)Ge and (Mn$_{1-x}$Ni$_x$)CoGe are successfully captured using this method.Comment: Main text: 8 pages, 6 figures. Supplemental Material: 2 pages, 2 figure

Portfolio Diversification with Commodity Futures: Properties of Levered Futures

This study extends previous work on the impact of commodity futures on portfolio performance by explicitly incorporating levered futures into the portfolio optimization problem. Using data on nine individual commodity futures and one aggregate index from 1994-2003, we find that collateralized and levered futures strategies perform similarly in an ex-post context. Significant differences between the approaches emerge however when constraints on investment behavior exist. Further, levered futures do not result in a prohibitive number of margin calls. The investment performances of the collateralized and the levered strategies vary little across different rebalancing intervals, and frequent portfolio rebalancing does not necessarily result in superior performance.Marketing,

Utah State University Extension Farm and Ranch Succession Program

The transition process of farms and ranches presents many unique challenges to producers. In response, Utah State University (USU) Extension has leveraged resources developed by other states to form a farm succession team to provide a unique Extension-driven program that offers educational training, tools, and strategies for Utah farm and ranch producers

User Guide for the 4-H Livestock Weight Calculators

This fact sheet is a user\u27s guide for the 4-H livestock weight calculators

Drought Mitigation for Cow/Calf Producers: Depopulation Strategies

Drought is a recurring event faced by many cow/calf producers across the nation. As drought events increase in their severity, it is important for cattle producers to have a management plan to mitigate the economic effects of drought. Two of the most common strategies for mitigating the effects of drought include buying additional feed and depopulating a portion of the herd. This fact sheet reviews strategies that will guide the decision-making process to cull cattle during drought

Utilizing EPDs as a Selection Tool in Beef Cattle

This fact sheet provides the basics of EPDs, how they are generated, EPDs and crossbreeding, and accuracies