Farm Income Stabilization and Risk Management: Some Lessons from AgriStability Program in Canada

This paper analyzes the effectiveness and efficiency of farm income stabilization program such as AgiStability in Canada. This program intends to mitigate farm income fluctuations, which is seemingly more neutral to the farming decision than the payments that are countercyclical with price or revenue, or that are commodity specific. However reduction of income variability generate responses in farmers’ risk management strategies, and most often generate crowding out effects of other strategies such as insurance or diversification. Stochastic analysis of risks and payments is combined with a micro economic model of endogenous risk management decision under uncertainty to explore the interactions between them. The part of the program that is triggered with small margin reductions of 15-30% (frequent normal risk) is found to have the strongest crowding out effects; the most catastrophic part of the payments (when margins are negative) is paid too late for being an effective disaster assistance; the middle range part of the program enters in competition with AgriInsurance, the subsidized insurance program. In all, this program is a socially more acceptable form of supporting farmers, rather than an efficient risk management tool.Agricultural Finance, Risk and Uncertainty,

中国における貸借市場を通じた農地配分の効率性と生産性への効果

公共政策プログラム / Public Policy Program政策研究大学院大学 / National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies論文審査委員: 大塚 啓二郎（主査）, 山野 峰, 畠中 薫里, Kaliappa Kalirajan, 大山 達雄, 神門 善久（明治学院大学経済学部

Overview of research on tuna thermo-physiology using electric tags

The behavioral physiology of bigeye tuna was investigated using acoustic tags in the 1990s. They spend most of the daylight hours below the thermocline but make regular brief excursions into the mixed layer. In doing so, they reduce the efficacy of their vascular countercurrent heat exchangers while gaining heat from the warmer environment and then increase it again when they return below the thermocline. Recently, archival tags have been used on a range of tuna species including bluefin. This tag, recovered when the tuna is harvested, yields time-series data over longer periods than acoustic tags. Although immature Pacific bluefin spend most of their time at the surface, they often dive below the thermocline, maintaining a peritoneal temperature. This might be due either to heat conservation or high heat production. Further, while giant Atlantic bluefin show an ability to maintain their temperature above the ambient, there are occasions in cold water when some physiological process is clearly limiting their dive time. Solution of the growth conundrum that their warm body temperature may pose an ecological problem as they grow in body mass, should be clarified by using tag data. This will lead to investigation of their adaptation mechanisms to their habitats

Dehydration of main-chain amides in the final folding step of single-chain monellin revealed by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy

Kinetic IR spectroscopy was used to reveal β-sheet formation and water expulsion in the folding of single-chain monellin (SMN) composed of a five-stranded β-sheet and an α-helix. The time-resolved IR spectra between 100 μs and 10 s were analyzed based on two consecutive intermediates, I1 and I2, appearing within 100 μs and with a time constant of ≈100 ms, respectively. The initial unfolded state showed broad amide I′ corresponded to a fluctuating conformation. In contrast, I1 possessed a feature at 1,636 cm−1 for solvated helix and weak features assignable to turns, demonstrating the rapid formation of helix and turns. I2 possessed a line for solvated helix at 1,637 cm−1 and major and minor lines for β-sheet at 1,625 and 1,680 cm−1, respectively. The splitting of the major and minor lines is smaller than that of the native state, implying an incomplete formation of the β-sheet. Furthermore, both major and minor lines demonstrated a low-frequency shift compared to those of the native state, which was interpreted to be caused by hydration of the C=O group in the β-sheet. Together with the identification of solvated helix, the core domain of I2 was interpreted as being hydrated. Finally, slow conversion of the water-penetrated core of I2 to the dehydrated core of the native state was observed. We propose that both the expulsion of water, hydrogen-bonded to main-chain amides, and the completion of the secondary structure formation contribute to the energetic barrier of the rate-limiting step in SMN folding

Observation of Electronic Structure Modification in the Hidden Order Phase of CeCoSi

CeCoSi with no local inversion symmetric crystal structure ($P4/nmm$) exhibits a phase transition of unknown origin (Hidden Order: HO) at about 12 K ($T_0$) above the antiferromagnetic transition temperature ($T_{\rm N}=9.4$ K). The electronic structure change across $T_0$ was investigated with high-precision optical reflection spectroscopy. The optical spectrum changed from a typical metallic behavior above $T_0$ to a gap-like structure at around 15 meV below $T_0$. The gap-like structure was unchanged across $T_{\rm N}$ except for the narrowing of the Drude component of carriers due to the suppression of magnetic fluctuations. This result suggests a slight change from the typical metallic electronic structure above $T_0$ to that with an energy gap near the Fermi level in the HO phase. The change in electronic structure in the HO phase was concluded to be due to electron/valence instability.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Ground-state properties of neutron-rich Mg isotopes

We analyze recently-measured total reaction cross sections for 24-38Mg isotopes incident on 12C targets at 240 MeV/nucleon by using the folding model and antisymmetrized molecular dynamics(AMD). The folding model well reproduces the measured reaction cross sections, when the projectile densities are evaluated by the deformed Woods-Saxon (def-WS) model with AMD deformation. Matter radii of 24-38Mg are then deduced from the measured reaction cross sections by fine-tuning the parameters of the def-WS model. The deduced matter radii are largely enhanced by nuclear deformation. Fully-microscopic AMD calculations with no free parameter well reproduce the deduced matter radii for 24-36Mg, but still considerably underestimate them for 37,38Mg. The large matter radii suggest that 37,38Mg are candidates for deformed halo nucleus. AMD also reproduces other existing measured ground-state properties (spin-parity, total binding energy, and one-neutron separation energy) of Mg isotopes. Neutron-number (N) dependence of deformation parameter is predicted by AMD. Large deformation is seen from 31Mg with N = 19 to a drip-line nucleus 40Mg with N = 28, indicating that both the N = 20 and 28 magicities disappear. N dependence of neutron skin thickness is also predicted by AMD.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

New 60-cm Radio Survey Telescope with the Sideband-Separating SIS Receiver for the 200 GHz Band

We have upgraded the 60-cm radio survey telescope located in Nobeyama, Japan. We developed a new waveguide-type sideband-separating SIS mixer for the telescope, which enables the simultaneous detection of distinct molecular emission lines both in the upper and lower sidebands. Over the RF frequency range of 205-240 GHz, the single-sideband receiver noise temperatures of the new mixer are 40-100 K for the 4.0-8.0 GHz IF frequency band. The image rejection ratios are greater than 10 dB over the same range. For the dual IF signals obtained by the receiver, we have developed two sets of acousto-optical spectrometers and a telescope control system. Using the new telescope system, we successfully detected the 12CO (J=2-1) and 13CO (J=2-1) emission lines simultaneously toward Orion KL in 2005 March. Using the waveguide-type sideband-separating SIS mixer for the 200 GHz band, we have initiated the first simultaneous 12CO (J=2-1) and 13CO (J=2-1) survey of the galactic plane as well as large-scale mapping observations of nearby molecular clouds.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in PASJ, version with high resolution figures is available via http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/~nakajima/vst1_2sb.pd

Diving patterns and performance of Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus orientalis) as recorded by archival tags

Archival tagged immature Pacific bluefin tuna were released off Tsushima Island in the East China Sea. Time-series data on swimming depth, ambient temperature, internal body temperature, and light intensity were recorded every 128s to evaluate : 1) their vertical swimming patterns to depths below the thermocline and 2) the development of their diving performance with growth. In summer, the tuna spent most of their time at the surface, but occasionally dove to depths below the thermocline during the daytime, and at dawn and dusk. In addition, bluefin dove at increasing descent rates and surfaced more slowly when they made excursions to deeper depths. Larger-sized bluefin dove to much deeper depths than smaller individuals, suggesting that the diving performance of bluefin is related to their body size and larger size enables them to expand their vertical movement range