SUPPLY CHAINS MAY DELIVER SAFER TOMATOES AND STRAWBERRIES

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

HEDGING CLASS I MILK: THE "ACCELERATION" AND "MOVER" EFFECT

A volatile closing basis prevents class I hedgers from locking in a minimum price. The closing basis is composed of an "acceleration" and "mover" effect. The mover effect always works to the producer's advantage unlike the acceleration effect. This research discusses hedging strategies to minimize the acceleration effect.Marketing,

FLORIDA DAIRY MARKETING COOPERATIVES' TRANSFER COST ASSOCIATED WITH NON-UNIFORM DELIVERY SCHEDULES

The economic basis for alternative delivery schedules between Florida Dairy Marketing Cooperatives (FDMCs) and fluid milk processors are analyzed, and the costs and benefits of improved coordination between these two market stages are highlighted. The additional costs incurred by FDMCs were they to switch from a uniform delivery schedule to various non-uniform delivery schedules are discussed. The seven-day uniform delivery schedule with the $0.25 discount scheme on total volume decreases FDMCs'Â’ net revenues by$0.1433 per hundredweight (cwt), compared to a five-day delivery schedule with no price discounts.Agribusiness,

RISK BALANCING STRATEGIES IN THE FLORIDA DAIRY INDUSTRY: AN APPLICATION OF CONDITIONAL VALUE AT RISK

Legislation has prompted changes in milk price volatility. Milk price volatility impacts the producer's exposure to business risk which is compound by the firms financial risk. Financial risk is a function of the firms capital structure. In the short run it is difficult for the producer to significantly change the firms capital structure and therefore balance increased business risk with reduced financial risk. The producer can however reduce financial and business risk by using futures contracts to lock in a price for milk produced. The producer's risk preferences dictate the producer's hedge ratio. Using the return on equity as a profitability measure and the conditional value at risk as a risk measure the optimal hedge ratio is derived for various probabilities of negative returns on equity.Conditional Value at Risk, cVaR, Risk Management, Futures, Dairy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Some mechanisms for a theory of the reticular formation Final report, 15 Nov. 1965 - 14 Nov. 1966

Nonlinear, probabilistic hybrid computer concepts for specifying operational schemata of central nervous system model

A Phone Learning Model for Enhancing Productivity of Visually Impaired Civil Servants

Phone-based learning in civil service is the use of voice technologies to deliver learning and capacity building training services to government employees. The Internet revolution and advancement in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have given rise to online and remote staff training for the purpose of enhancing workers productivity. The need for civil servants in Nigeria to develop capacity that will enhance knowledge is a key requirement to having competitive advantage in the work place. Existing online learning platforms (such as web-based learning, mobile learning, etc) did not consider the plight of the visually impaired. These platforms provide graphical interfaces that require sight to access. The visually impaired civil servants require auditory access to functionalities that exist in learning management system on the Internet. Thus a gap exist between the able-bodied and visually impaired civil servants on accessibility to e-learning platform. The objective of this paper is to provide a personalized telephone learning model and a prototype application that will enhance the productivity of the visually impaired workers in Government establishments in Nigeria. The model was designed using Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram. The prototype application was implemented and evaluated. With the proposed model and application, the visually and mobility impaired worker are able to participate in routine staff training and consequently enhances their productivity just like their able-bodied counterparts. The prototype application also serves as an alternative training platform for the able-bodied workers. Future research direction for this study will include biometric authentication of learners accessing the applicatio

Risks and Prices: The Role of User Sanctions in Marijuana Markets

User sanctions influence the legal risk for participants in illegal drug markets. A change in user sanctions may change retail drug prices, depending on how it changes the legal risk to users, how it changes the legal risk to dealers, and the slope of the supply curve. Using a novel dataset with rich transaction-level information, this paper evaluates the impact of recent changes in user sanctions for marijuana on marijuana prices. The results suggest that lower legal risks for users are associated with higher marijuana prices in the short-run, which ceteris paribus, implies higher profits for drug dealers. Additionally, the findings have important implications for thinking about the slope of the supply curve and interpreting previous research on the effect of drug laws on demand for marijuana.

The effects of zinc addition on the environmental stability of Al-Li alloys

It was found that relatively small addition of Zn can improve the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) resistance of Al-Li alloys. However, the mechanism by which this is accomplished is unclear. The role that Zn plays in altering the behavior of Alloy 8090 is investigated. Early results suggest that Zn additions increase the volume fraction of delta(Al3Li) precipitation and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) on these alloys confirms this. The four alloys studied each had initial compositions lying in the 8090 window and had varying amounts of Zn added to them. Alloy 8090, like other Al-Li alloys, displays a delta' precipitate free zone (PFZ) upon artificial aging along the grain and subgrain boundaries. However Zn additions greatly decreased or eliminated a delta' PFZ after 100 hours at 160 C. This implies that the subgrain boundary precipitation kinetics are being altered and suppressed. Furthermore, there appears to be a window of Zn concentration above which a delta ' PFZ can reappear with the nucleation and growth of a currently unidentified precipitate on the boundaries. Polarization experiments were performed and the results presented. The experiments were performed in deaerated 3.5 w/o NaCl in both as received (T3) condition and at peak aging of 100 hours at 160 C. The aging profile was determined via Vickers Hardness tests

Natural Nutrient Sources in the Cache River Watershed, Arkansas

The growth of the hypoxic ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico in recent years has placed increased focus on potential sources of nutrient pollution, with most of the focus being placed on watersheds where practices, including fertilizer application and land alterations combine to increase non-point source runoff. In this study, nutrient concentrations in surface waters of altered and unaltered areas of the Cache River Watershed, Arkansas, were compared to determine if agricultural land usage was responsible for the majority of nutrient inputs. Results suggest that for dissolved nitrites and orthophosphates, agricultural (altered) sites contribute significantly more than relatively unaltered sites but that for dissolved nitrates, unaltered sites have a large contribution to overall nitrate concentrations, particularly in late summer and fall months