OPTIMAL USES OF BIOMASS RESOURCES IN DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS

Biomass production is spatially distributed resulting in high transportation costs when moving dedicated biomass crops and crop residues. A multifaceted approach was taken to address this issue as the low bulk and energy density of biomass limits transportation efficiency. Two systems were analyzed for the conversion of biomass into a denser feedstock applicable to on-farm use. Pelletization was able to densify the material into a solid fuel. Using a pilot scale flat ring pellet mill, the density of the material was able to be increased to at least 4.4 times that of uncompressed material. Pellet durability was found to be strongly related to the moisture content of the material entering the mill. Unlike with ring roller pellet mills, a higher durability was typically seen forbiomass materials with a preconditioned moisture content of 20% (w.b.). From a liquid fuel standpoint, the conversion of lignocellulosic material into biobutanol on-farm was the second method investigated. For the pretreatment of biomass, alkaline hydrogen peroxide spray was demonstrated to be an effective enhancer of saccharification. The viability of on-farm biobutanol preprocessing bunker facilities within Kentucky was analyzed using Geographic Information systems (GIS) to specifically address transportation related factors. The spatial variability of corn field production, size, and location were resolved by utilizing ModelBuilder to combine the various forms of data and their attributes. Centralized and Distributed preprocessing with Centralized refining (DC) transportation systems were compared. Centralized was defined as transport of corn stover directly from the field to a refinery. Distributed-Centralized was specified as going from the field to the biobutanol bunker with corn stover and from the bunker to the refinery with a dewatered crude biobutanol solution. For the DC design, the location of the field and refinery were fixed with the biobutanol bunker location being variable and dependent upon differing maximum transportation (8-80 km) cutoffs for biomass transport from the field to biobutanol bunkers. The DC designs demonstrated a lower (38 - 59%) total transportation cost with a reduced fuel use and CO2 emissions compared to the centralized system

Update on Hay Making Equipment and Technology

Precision agriculture has focused on optimizing efficiency. For crop production, yields can be obtained from the combine and integrated with soil nutrient data to characterize the response to changes in management strategies (spraying, harvesting, nutrient application, irrigation, etc). Currently the highest resolution for yield, for the majority of farms raising alfalfa in Kentucky, is based upon the field level of data. Specifically, most farmers could specify the bales per field. From this and a dry matter (DM) analysis, we can derive the following: bales per acre, tons per acre, total tons of DM, and nutrients removed. Soil characteristics can be assessed in an alfalfa field; while, site specific yield within a field cannot. As a farmer, difference in the potential of some areas of the field can be observed qualitatively but not quantified

Deconstructing Superconductivity

We present a dimensionally deconstructed model of an s-wave holographic superconductor. The 2+1 dimensional model includes multiple charged Cooper pair fields and neutral exciton fields that have interactions governed by hidden local symmetries. We derive AdS/CFT-like relations for the current and charge density in the model, and we analyze properties of the Cooper pair condensates and the complex conductivity.Comment: 24 pages, 10 eps figures. v2: Sign conventions clarified, references adde

Personality Measurement and Assessment in Large Panel Surveys

Personality tests are being added to large panel studies with increasing regularity, such as the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). To facilitate the inclusion and interpretation of these tests, we provide some general background on personality psychology, personality assessment, and the validity of personality tests. In this review, we provide background on definitions of personality, the strengths and weaknesses of the self-report approaches to personality testing typically used in large panel studies, and the validity of personality tests for three outcomes: genetics, income, and health. We conclude with recommendations on how to improve personality assessment in future panel studies

Creating a Field-Wide Forage Canopy Model Using UAVs and Photogrammetry Processing

Alfalfa canopy structure reveals useful information for managing this forage crop, but manual measurements are impractical at field-scale. Photogrammetry processing with images from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can create a field-wide three-dimensional model of the crop canopy. The goal of this study was to determine the appropriate flight parameters for the UAV that would enable reliable generation of canopy models at all stages of alfalfa growth. Flights were conducted over two separate fields on four different dates using three different flight parameters. This provided a total of 24 flights. The flight parameters considered were the following: 30 m altitude with 90° camera gimbal angle, 50 m altitude with 90° camera gimbal angle, and 50 m altitude with 75° camera gimbal angle. A total of 32 three-dimensional canopy models were created using photogrammetry. Images from each of the 24 flights were used to create 24 separate models and images from multiple flights were combined to create an additional eight models. The models were analyzed based on Model Ground Sampling Distance (GSD), Model Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and camera calibration difference. Of the 32 attempted models, 30 or 94% were judged acceptable. The models were then used to estimate alfalfa yield and the best yield estimates occurred with flights at a 50 m altitude with a 75° camera gimbal angle; therefore, these flight parameters are suggested for the most consistent results

Assessment of neighborhood poverty, cognitive function, and prefrontal and hippocampal volumes in children

Importance: The association between poverty and unfavorable cognitive outcomes is robust, but most research has focused on individual household socioeconomic status (SES). There is increasing evidence that neighborhood context explains unique variance not accounted for by household SES. Objective: To evaluate whether neighborhood poverty (NP) is associated with cognitive function and prefrontal and hippocampal brain structure in ways that are dissociable from household SES. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study used a baseline sample of the ongoing longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. The ABCD Study will follow participants for assessments each year for 10 years. Data were collected at 21 US sites, mostly within urban and suburban areas, between September 2019 and October 2018. School-based recruitment was used to create a participant sample reflecting the US population. Data analysis was conducted from March to June 2019. Main Outcomes and Measures: NP and household SES were included as factors potentially associated with National Institutes of Health Toolbox Cognitive Battery subtests and hippocampal and prefrontal (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC], dorsomedial PFC [DMPFC], superior frontal gyrus [SFG]) volumes. Independent variables were first considered individually and then together in mixed-effects models with age, sex, and intracranial volume as covariates. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess shared variance in NP to brain structure and cognitive task associations. The tested hypotheses were formulated after data collection. Results: A total of 11 875 children aged 9 and 10 years (5678 [47.8%] girls) were analyzed. Greater NP was associated with lower scores across all cognitive domains (eg, total composite: β = -0.18; 95% CI, -0.21 to -0.15; P \u3c .001) and with decreased brain volume in the DLPFC (eg, right DLPFC: β = -0.09; 95% CI, -0.12 to -0.07; P \u3c .001), DMPFC (eg, right DMPC: β = -0.07; 95% CI, -0.09 to -0.05; P \u3c .001), SFG (eg, right SFG: β = -0.05; 95% CI, -0.08 to -0.03; P \u3c .001), and right hippocampus (β = -0.04; 95% CI, -0.06 to -0.01; P = .01), even when accounting for household income. Greater household income was associated with higher scores across all cognitive domains (eg, total composite: β = 0.30; 95% CI, 0.28 to 0.33; P \u3c .001) and larger volume in all prefrontal and hippocampal brain regions (eg, right hippocampus: β = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.07; P \u3c .001) even when accounting for NP. The SEM model was a good fit across all cognitive domains, with prefrontal regions being associated with NP relations to language (picture vocabulary: estimate [SE], -0.03 [0.01]; P \u3c .001; oral reading: estimate [SE], -0.02 [0.01]; P \u3c .001), episodic memory (picture sequence: estimate [SE], -0.02 [0.01]; P = .008), and working memory (dimensional card sort: estimate [SE], -0.02 [0.01]; P = .001; flanker inhibitory control: estimate [SE], -0.01 [0.01]; P = .01; list sorting: estimate [SE], -0.03 [0.01]; P \u3c .001) and hippocampal regions being associated with NP associations with language (picture vocabulary: estimate [SE], -0.01 [0.004]; P \u3c .001) and episodic memory (picture sequence: estimate [SE], -0.01 [0.004]; P \u3c 0.001). Conclusions and Relevance: In this study, NP accounted for unique variance in cognitive function and prefrontal and right hippocampal brain volume. These findings demonstrate the importance of including broader environmental influences when conceptualizing early life adversity

Activist Directors and Agency Costs: What Happens When an Activist Director Goes on the Board?

We develop and apply a new and more rigorous methodology by which to measure and understand both insider trading and the agency costs of hedge fund activism. We use quantitative data to show a systematic relationship between the appointment of a hedge fund nominated director to a corporate board and an increase in informed trading in that corporation’s stock (with the relationship being most pronounced when the fund’s slate of directors includes a hedge fund employee). This finding is important from two different perspectives. First, from a governance perspective, activist hedge funds represent a new and potent force in corporate governance. A robust debate continues as to whether activist funds reduce the agency costs of corporate governance, but this is the first attempt to investigate whether the activist hedge fund also imposes new agency costs through widened bid/ask spreads and informed trading. Second, although insider trading is almost universally condemned, it has only been studied in individual cases. Using instead a quantitative approach, we develop a tool that enables regulators (civil and criminal) to identify suspicious trading patterns: Both to demonstrate such a pattern and to map these new agency costs, we assembled a data set of 475 settlement agreements, between target companies and activists funds relating to the appointment of fund nominated directors, from 2000 and 2015, in order to focus on what happens once such a fund-nominated director goes on the board. Among our principal findings are: Prevalence of Hedge Fund Employees on Slate. Approximately 70% of fund-nominated director slates include a hedge fund employee. Increase in Information Leakage. Once a fund-nominated director goes on the board, an abrupt increase in “information leakage” follows, with the result that the target corporation’s stock price begins to anticipate future public disclosures. Specifically, we examine some 635,450 Form 8-K’s filed by 7,799 public traded companies over the period of January 1, 2000 to September 30, 2016, and we construct a control group for each of the corporations subject to an activist intervention. We find that firms appointing an activist nominee or nominees experience a difference-in-differences increase in leakage of 25-27 percentage points. Hedge Funds versus Other Activists. We next consider whether post-appointment increases in leakage depend on the identity of the activist investors (i.e., hedge fund versus other activist investors). We find that the leakage effect is clearly driven by hedge fund activists (and no other type of activist). Leakage and Hedge Fund Employees. We investigate whether leakage increases depend on the identity of the director appointed to target firm’s board, distinguishing between hedge fund employees and non-hedge fund employees. We find that the increase in leakage is driven by the appointment of activist fund employees to the corporate board (and not by the appointment of other persons, such as industry professionals). Leakage and Confidentiality Provisions. We consider whether post-settlement increases in leakage are associated with confidentiality provisions restricting information sharing in the settlement agreements. The majority of settlement agreements have no confidentiality provisions, and information leakage is concentrated in these cases. Market Response to Settlement Agreements. We next examine whether the stock market’s response to settlement agreements depends on (a) whether a hedge fund employee is on the director slate, and (b) whether the settlement agreement contains or refers to a confidentiality provision. We find that the 5-day CAR is more than twice as high (4.2% vs. 1.97%) for settlements with only non-employee directors and also significantly higher (2.02% vs. 0.42%) for settlements with an explicit restriction on information sharing. Effect on Bid-Ask Spread. Bid-ask spreads increase by statistically meaningful amounts in our treatment group after an activist director gains access to the boardroom. Bid-ask spreads do not widen for the control groups. Further, we find that the increase in bid-ask spreads is concentrated in those cases in which (i) a hedge fund employee is appointed to the board, or (ii) no confidentiality provision is referenced in the settlement agreement. Options Trading. We find that options trading increases significantly after the appointment of an activist director and in a manner consistent with informed trading. Consistent with earlier research on informed trading, we find that options traders exploit unscheduled Form 8-K filings. Implications. The foregoing pattern is most plausibly explained as the product of informed trading. Material, non-public information appears to travel on a conduit from the hedge fund’s employee-director to others, whose trades move the market price prior to public disclosure. We reach no conclusions about who is trading or its legality in any individual case. Yet, the widened bid-ask spread strongly suggests that the market expects such trading, and the much more positive market response to director slates without a hedge fund employee (or with a confidentiality provision) suggests that the market suspects that informed trading is closely associated with the appointment of a hedge fund employee to the board. Hypothesis. Our data suggests that the ability to engage in informed trading is a significant subsidy that may inflate the rate of hedge fund activism (producing more engagements than if stronger controls on information sharing were imposed) and may encourage activists to pursue inefficient engagements. Further, information sharing may be the cement that holds together a “wolf-pack” of activists that would otherwise logically be unstable. Reforms. We consider and evaluate a variety of possible reforms that are consistent with an energetic role for hedge fund activism, but that remove (to various degrees) the subsidy of informed trading

Summer-Long Grazing of High vs. Low Endophyte (\u3cem\u3eNeotyphodium coenophialum\u3c/em\u3e)-Infected Tall Fescue by Growing Beef Steers Results in Distinct Temporal Blood Analyte Response Patterns, with Poor Correlation to Serum Prolactin Levels

Previously, we reported the effects of fescue toxicosis on developing Angus-cross steer growth, carcass, hepatic mRNA, and protein expression profiles of selected serum proteins, and blood clinical and chemical profiles, after summer-long grazing (85 days) of high endophyte (HE)- vs. low endophyte (LE)-infected fescue pastures. We now report the temporal development of acute, intermediate, and chronic responses of biochemical and clinical blood analytes determined at specified time intervals (period 1, day 0–36; period 2, day 37–58; and period 3, day 59–85). Throughout the trial, the alkaloid concentrations of the HE forage was consistently 19–25 times greater (P ≤ 0.002) than the concentration in the LE forage, and HE vs. LE steers had continuously lower (P ≤ 0.049) serum prolactin (85%), cholesterol (27%), and albumin (5%), but greater red blood cells (7%). The HE steers had decreased (P = 0.003) ADG only during period 1 (−0.05 vs. 0.4 kg/day). For period 1, HE steers had reduced (P ≤ 0.090) numbers of eosinophils (55%) and lymphocytes (18%), serum triglyceride (27%), and an albumin/globulin ratio (9%), but an increased bilirubin concentration (20%). During period 2, serum LDH activities were 18% lower (P = 0.022) for HE vs. LE steers. During period 3, serum levels of ALP (32%), ALT (16%), AST (15%), creatine kinase (35%), glucose (10%), and LDH (23%) were lower (P ≤ 0.040) for HE steers. Correlation analysis of serum prolactin and other blood analytes revealed that triglycerides (P = 0.042) and creatinine (P = 0.021) were moderately correlated (r ≤ 0.433) with HE serum prolactin. In conclusion, three HE-induced blood analyte response patterns were identified: continually altered, initially altered, and subsequently “recovered,” or altered only after long-term exposure. Blood analytes affected by length of grazing HE vs. LE forages were either not or poorly correlated with serum prolactin. These data reveal important, temporal, data about how young cattle respond to the challenge of consuming HE pasture

Excitability and irritability in preschoolers predicts later psychopathology: The importance of positive and negative emotion dysregulation

Emotion dysregulation is a risk factor for the development of a variety of psychopathologic outcomes. In children, irritability, or dysregulated negative affect, has been the primary focus, as it predicts later negative outcomes even in very young children. However, dysregulation of positive emotion is increasingly recognized as a contributor to psychopathology. Here we used an exploratory factor analysis and defined four factors of emotion dysregulation: irritability, excitability, sadness, and anhedonia, in the preschool-age psychiatric assessment collected in a sample of 302 children ages 3-5 years enriched for early onset depression. The irritability and excitability factor scores defined in preschoolers predicted later diagnosis of mood and externalizing disorders when controlling for other factor scores, social adversity, maternal history of mood disorders, and externalizing diagnoses at baseline. The preschool excitability factor score predicted emotion lability in late childhood and early adolescence when controlling for other factor scores, social adversity, and maternal history. Both excitability and irritability factor scores in preschoolers predicted global functioning into the teen years and early adolescence, respectively. These findings underscore the importance of positive, as well as negative, affect dysregulation as early as the preschool years in predicting later psychopathology, which deserves both further study and clinical consideration

The Bispectrum as a Signature of Gravitational Instability in Redshift-Space

The bispectrum provides a characteristic signature of gravitational instability that can be used to probe the Gaussianity of the initial conditions and the bias of the galaxy distribution. We study how this signature is affected by redshift distortions using perturbation theory and high-resolution numerical simulations. We obtain perturbative results for the multipole expansion of the redshift-space bispectrum which provide a natural way to break the degeneracy between bias and $\Omega$ present in measurements of the redshift-space power spectrum. We propose a phenomenological model that incorporates the perturbative results and also describes the bispectrum in the transition to the non-linear regime. We stress the importance of non-linear effects and show that inaccurate treatment of these can lead to significant discrepancies in the determination of bias from galaxy redshift surveys. At small scales we find that the bispectrum monopole exhibits a strong configuration dependence that reflects the velocity dispersion of clusters. Therefore, the hierarchical model for the three-point function does not hold in redshift-space.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Revised version accepted for publication in Ap