"Pricing of Non-ferrous Metals Futures on the London Metal Exchange"

The London Metal Exchange (LME) is the most important centre for spot and futures trading in the main industrially-used non-ferrous metals. In this paper, data on 3-month futures contracts for aluminium, aluminium alloy, copper, lead, nickel, tin and zinc are analysed. The risk premium hypothesis and the cost-of-carry model are the standard theoretical models for pricing futures contracts, but these two models have rarely been estimated within a unified framework for metals futures. Single equation versions of the risk premium hypothesis and the cost-of-carry model are nested within a more general model. If the spot price, futures price, interest rate and stock level variables contain stochastic trends, long run versions of the general model can be estimated within a cointegration framework. Various long run pricing models are estimated using daily LME price data for the period 1 February 1986 to 30 September 1998. Likelihood ratio tests are used to test restrictions on the general model to examine the validity of alternative nested specifications.

Spatial and Temporal Distributions of Young-Of-Year Fish in Carite Reservoir, Puerto Rico

Information regarding spatiotemporal trends in young-of-year (YOY) fish distributions gives managers insight into recruitment and ultimately adult population variability. In Puerto Rico, limited research has been conducted on YOY distributions with no studies addressing reservoir systems. A comparison of the efficacy of two sampling gears and an assessment of spatiotemporal distributions of YOY fish communities in a tropical reservoir were conducted. Diversity of catch between push nets and offshore light traps were similar, though species composition of catch was different between gears. Inshore light traps collected greater total numbers and diversities of the YOY fish community than offshore traps in spring and summer seasons. Catch per unit effort was greater in the spring for inshore traps whereas CPUE was greater in offshore traps in the fall. These results will allow managers to coordinate YOY fish sampling efforts for specific species with periods of peak abundance and preferred habitat

Together Let Our Hearts Agree

From my earliest memories I have used drawing as a way to deepen my experiences of the things I encountered: movie monsters, comic book heroes, baseball and church. In time this practice became a ritual, and the resulting objects, artifacts of my own comprehension.This approach is an important part of my current work and is the impetus for this series. Some of my most meaningful personal experiences have come from involvement on a team or with a group as we endeavored toward a common goal. The communities I have been a part of offer a transient history described by communal hopes and important personal relationships. In retrospect, these relationships and shared desires define my sense of self. In the thesis exhibition titled Together Let Our Hearts Agree I reinvent the world to reflect my current understanding and desires, searching for spirituality in relationships and personal connections

Responses to terrorism scenarios: Event features, individual characteristics, and subjective evaluations

The extensive research into responses to terrorism has focused on the effects of individual characteristics on reactions to past terrorism events. This literature has largely omitted two issues: the impact of terrorism event features, and reactions to possible future terrorism events. The first purpose of this dissertation was to account for the effects of event features as well as subjective evaluations on responses to terrorism events. The second purpose of this dissertation was to compare reactions to past and future terrorism scenarios. A series of actual and hypothetical written scenarios were presented to undergraduate psychology students, and various responses measured. A number of individual characteristics were also measured. Studies 1 and 2 served to identify type of weapon, number of victims, type of target, and level of disruption as specific features of terrorism events or threats that are salient to observers. Study 3 through 5 manipulated these features to examine their impact on responses. Study 3 found that weapon independently affected some responses to terrorism, and affected others in conjunction with the type of target. Study 3 also found that some individual characteristics were important after controlling for event features. Study 4 found that type of weapon interacted with the presence of an actual attack to impact responses to terrorism. Study 5 incorporated a series of subjective evaluations of each scenario, and found that these evaluations were not related to responses after accounting for event features and individual characteristics. Differences between Studies 3 and 5 also suggest differing responses to threats and attacks. This dissertation reviews the relevant literature for responses to terrorism and perceptions of risk. Also, the results are discussed in relation to previous research, and several implications are outlined for emergency preparedness and response agencies. Implications for future studies and empirical extensions of this work are also discussed

Water Transfers: Can They Protect and Enhance Rural Economies?

16 pages

Stimulus-responsive delivery systems for enabling the oral delivery of protein therapeutics exhibiting high isoelectric point

textProtein therapeutics offer numerous advantages over small molecule drugs and are rapidly becoming one of the most prominent classes of therapeutics. Unfortunately, they are delivered almost exclusively by injection due to biological obstacles preventing high bioavailability via the oral route. In this work, numerous approaches to overcoming these barriers are explored. PH-Responsive poly(itaconic acid-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone) (P(IA-co-NVP)) hydrogels were synthesized, and the effects of monomer ratios, crosslinking density, microparticle size, protein size, and loading conditions were systematically evaluated using in vitro tests. P(IA-co-NVP) hydrogels demonstrated up to 69% greater equilibrium swelling at neutral conditions than previously-studied poly(methacrylic acid-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone) hydrogels and a 10-fold improvement in time-sensitive swelling experiments. Furthermore, P(IA-co-NVP) hydrogel microparticles demonstrated up to a 2.7-fold improvement in delivery of salmon calcitonin (sCT) compared to methacrylic acid-based systems, with a formulation comprised of a 1:2 ratio of itaconic acid to N-vinylpyrrolidone demonstrating the greatest delivery capability. Vast improvement in delivery capability was achieved using reduced ionic strength conditions during drug loading. Use of a 1.50 mM PBS buffer during loading yielded an 83-fold improvement in delivery of sCT compared to a standard 150 mM buffer. With this improvement, a daily dose of sCT could be provided using P(IA-co-NVP) microparticles in one standard-sized gel capsule. P(IA-co-NVP) was also tested with larger proteins urokinase and Rituxan. Crosslinking density provided a facile method for tuning hydrogels to accommodate a wide range of protein sizes. The effects of protein PEGylation were also explored. PEGylated sCT displayed lower release from P(IA-co-NVP) microparticles, but displayed increased apparent permeability across a Caco-2 monolayer by two orders of magnitude. Therefore, PEG-containing systems could yield high bioavailability of orally delivered proteins. Finally, a modified SELEX protocol for cellular selection of transcellular transport-initiating aptamers was developed and used to identify aptamer sequences showing enhanced intestinal perfusion. Over three selection cycles, the selected aptamer library showed significant increases in absorption, and from an initial library of 1.1 trillion sequences, 5-10 sequences were selected that demonstrated up to 10-fold amplification compared to the naïve library. These sequences could provide a means of overcoming the significant final barrier of intestinal absorption.Chemical Engineerin

Becoming a Novice Smoker: Initial Smoking Behaviours among Jor danian Psychiatric Nurses

A better understanding of how male Jordanian psychiatric nurses become smokers and continue the habit mainly at work is necessary if smoking reduction and cessation programs are to help them better manage their smoking behaviours. Here we use a grounded theory approach to describe the factors that influenced the eight nurses in our sample to take up smoking. We use five categories derived from open coding to explain the initial stage in the smoking histories of the nurses. We situate our account of becoming a novice smoker within the contextualizing smoking behaviours over time theory we developed from our study. Finally, we relate the substantive findings we report here to the theoretical perspectives of symbolic interactionism and transtheoretical theory

Evaluating the Efficacy of Ultrasound-Guided Percutaneous Tenotomy Procedure for the Treatment of Elbow Tendinosis (poster)

This study will investigate the efficacy of treating elbow tendinosis with ultrasound-guided percutaneous tenotomy (Tenex) procedure

Santiago extends the range of burr medics

The release of Santiago follows an extensive Department of Agriculture testing programme conducted primarily in the 325 to 425 mm rainfall zone. Santiago substantially outperformed both Serena and Circle Valley and was the best amongst the large number of non-commercial medic varieties tested. About 500J000 ha were sown to burr medic between 1983 and 1988 and the Department of Agriculture expects that the release of Santiago will result in additional new plantings fro