Alternative Methods of Marketing South Dakota Wheat

Wheat growers like other fanners speculate every time they plant or store a grain crop. Each year foreign demand, legislation, weather and other price influences cause market fluctuations which further aggravate the speculative situation. This problem is common among producers of hard red spring and winter wheat. Historically, farmers have marketed most of their grain during harvest season. The harvest season usually offers the crop year\u27s low price for wheat.1 Despite this, farmers continue to deliver grain at harvest time. One might question; is this the only time to market grain? There was a time when grain buyers in the Midwest area used the futures market extensively to protect their marketing margin against price changes in the interval before 4elivery to a subsequent buyer. Historical data developed by studies conducted at South Dakota State University Economics Department have revealed that corn oats and soybeans have been hedged successfully on the futures market by some farmers and elevator managers. Futures contracts for the above grains can be sold the year around on the commodity exchanges. Selected examples included: (1) making a preharvest sale before the crop is planted or while the crop is growing; and (2) when harvest is completed hedge the grain in storage while anticipating a storage payment. This thesis is devoted to investigating alternative methods for marketing hard red spring and winter wheat most of which is usually sold or stored during the harvest period. This objective will be pursued by analyzing the cash to future price relationships for the various protein percent levels of wheat traded on the commodity exchanges. Emphasis will be placed on analyzing the use of futures markets to attain a maximum average price for wheat while incurring minimum speculation before the crop is planted, while the crop is growing or held in storage. Further analysis will be devoted to determining the most favorable time periods (if any) to contract and close out a hedge for wheat on the futures market

Segmented strain accumulation in the High Himalaya expressed in river channel steepness

We investigate segmentation of High Himalayan strain by cross-orogen structures separating western and eastern obliquely convergent sectors from a central orthogonally convergent sector, and evaluate the relationship between the size of regions accumulating strain, their proximity to the toe of the thrust wedge, and recurrence of Mw >7 earthquakes. We present a map of river channel steepness (ksn)—a proxy for rock-uplift rate over 105 yr, for the Himalayan arc—and evaluate the strength of its correlation with Main Himalayan thrust (MHT) coupling (–0.6), earthquake density (0.6), topography (0.6), lithotectonic units (0.5), and precipitation (–0.3) along 40 profiles spanning the Himalaya from 78°E to 92°E. We interpret the ksn map to be foremost a function of recent strain accumulation. This reveals prominent offsets of hinterland strain accumulation collocated with cross-orogen strike-slip and extensional fault systems. Clusters of high-ksn rivers are located near the boundary between the strongly and weakly coupled portions of the MHT, where fault behavior changes from seismogenic to sliding at the rheologic brittle-to-plastic transition (BPT). We propose that the rate at which major MHT earthquakes repeat is related to four parameters: convergence rate (nearly uniform); spatial dimensions of the high-ksn cluster (proxy for volume of material accumulating strain); the high ksn clusters distance from the toe of thrust wedge (fault surface area over which static friction must be overcome); and the degree of obliquity between India-Asia convergence and the local trend of the orogen (proxy for the magnitude of strain partitioning)

Segmented strain accumulation in the High Himalaya expressed in river channel steepness

We investigate segmentation of High Himalayan strain by cross-orogen structures separating western and eastern obliquely convergent sectors from a central orthogonally convergent sector, and evaluate the relationship between the size of regions accumulating strain, their proximity to the toe of the thrust wedge, and recurrence of Mw >7 earthquakes. We present a map of river channel steepness (ksn)—a proxy for rock-uplift rate over 105 yr, for the Himalayan arc—and evaluate the strength of its correlation with Main Himalayan thrust (MHT) coupling (–0.6), earthquake density (0.6), topography (0.6), lithotectonic units (0.5), and precipitation (–0.3) along 40 profiles spanning the Himalaya from 78°E to 92°E. We interpret the ksn map to be foremost a function of recent strain accumulation. This reveals prominent offsets of hinterland strain accumulation collocated with cross-orogen strike-slip and extensional fault systems. Clusters of high-ksn rivers are located near the boundary between the strongly and weakly coupled portions of the MHT, where fault behavior changes from seismogenic to sliding at the rheologic brittle-to-plastic transition (BPT). We propose that the rate at which major MHT earthquakes repeat is related to four parameters: convergence rate (nearly uniform); spatial dimensions of the high-ksn cluster (proxy for volume of material accumulating strain); the high ksn clusters distance from the toe of thrust wedge (fault surface area over which static friction must be overcome); and the degree of obliquity between India-Asia convergence and the local trend of the orogen (proxy for the magnitude of strain partitioning)

A Reduction in Serum Cytokine Levels Parallels Healing of Venous Ulcers in Patients Undergoing Compression Therapy

AbstractIntroduction vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) have been specifically implicated in the tissue damage associated with chronic venous disease (CVD). Furthermore, production of both factors is known to be upregulated in vessel wall cells subject to hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine the local venous levels of VEGF and TNFα in limbs with venous ulcers before and after treatment with graduated compression. Patients and methods eight patients with venous ulcers and 8 patients with varicose veins only were included in the study. For ulcer patients, serum samples were taken from the superficial veins in lower limbs and repeated after 4 weeks of treatment with 4-layered graduated compression. Serum from the arms of the same patients served as controls. Determination of the concentrations of VEGF and TNFα proteins were performed with sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results both groups of patients had elevated levels of VEGF and TNFα. In patients with venous ulcers there was a reduction in the levels of both cytokines to below control values with treatment. These changes correlated with healing of the ulcers as determined by reduction in ulcer size. Conclusion these data, for the first time, suggest a central role for both TNFα and VEGF in the pathogenesis of venous ulceration which may constitute a causative link between venous hypertension and tissue pathology

An Empirical Method of Detecting Time-Dependent Confounding: An Observational Study of Next Day Delirium in a Medical ICU

Longitudinal research on older persons in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) is often complicated by the time-dependent confounding of concurrently administered interventions such as medications and intubation. Such temporal confounding can bias the respective longitudinal associations between concurrently administered treatments and a longitudinal outcome such as delirium. Although marginal structural models address time-dependent confounding, their application is non-trivial and preferably justified by empirical evidence. Using data from a longitudinal study of older persons in the MICU, we constructed a plausibility score from 0 - 10 where higher values indicate higher plausibility of time-dependent confounding of the association between a time-varying explanatory variable and an outcome. Based on longitudinal plots, measures of correlation, and longitudinal regression, the plausibility scores were compared to the differences in estimates obtained with non-weighted and marginal structural models of next day delirium. The plausibility scores of the three possible pairings of daily doses of fentanyl, haloperidol, and intubation indicated the following: low plausibility for haloperidol and intubation, moderate plausibility for fentanyl and haloperidol, and high plausibility for fentanyl and intubation. Comparing multivariable models of next day delirium with and without adjustment for time-dependent confounding, only intubation's association changed substantively. In our observational study of older persons in the MICU, the plausibility scores were generally reflective of the observed differences between coefficients estimated from non-weighted and marginal structural models

Rifting along the northern Gondwana margin and the evolution of the Rheic Ocean: A Devonian age for the El Castillo volcanic rocks (Salamanca, Central Iberian Zone)

Exposures of volcanic rocks (El Castillo) in the Central Iberian Zone near Salamanca, Spain, are representative of Paleozoic volcanic activity along the northern Gondwanan passive margin. Alkaline basalts and mafic volcaniclastic rocks of this sequence are structurally preserved in the core of the Variscan–Tamames Syncline. On the basis of the occurrence of graptolite fossils in immediately underlying strata, the El Castillo volcanics traditionally have been regarded as Lower Silurian in age. In contrast, most Paleozoic volcanic units in western Iberia are rift- elated mafic to felsic rocks emplaced during the Late Cambrian–Early Ordovician, and are attributed to the opening of the Rheic Ocean. We present new zircon U–Pb TIMS data from a mafic volcaniclastic rock within the El Castillo unit. These data yield a near-concordant, upper intercept age of 394.7±1.4 Ma that is interpreted to reflect a Middle Devonian (Emsian–Eifelian) age for the magmatism, demonstrating that the El Castillo volcanic rocks are separated from underlying lower Silurian strata by an unconformity. TheU–Pb age is coeval with a widespread extensional event in Iberia preserved in the form of a generalized paraconformity surface described in most of the Iberian Variscan realm. However, in the inner part of the Gondwanan platform, the Cantabrian Zone underwent a major, coeval increase in subsidence and the generation of sedimentary troughs. From this perspective, the eruption age reported here probably represents a discrete phase of incipient rifting along the southern flank of the Rheic Ocean. Paleogeographic reconstructions indicate that this rifting event was coeval with widespread orogeny and ridge subduction along the conjugate northern flank of the Rheic Ocean, the so called Acadian “orogeny”. We speculate that ridge subduction resulted in geodynamic coupling of the northern and southern flanks of the Rheic Ocean, and that the extension along the southern flank of the Rheic Ocean is a manifestation of slab pull along the northern flank. This scenario provides a uniform explanation for many features that form at ca. 395 Ma along the Gondwanan margin and has implications for the origin of the coeval oceanic Devonian mafic rocks currently exposed in the Variscan suture of NW Iberia

The role of epigenetics in cardiovascular health and ageing: A focus on physical activity and nutrition

The cardiovascular system is responsible for transport of blood and nutrients to tissues, and is pivotal to the physiological health and longevity. Epigenetic modification is a natural, age-associated process resulting in highly contextualised gene expression with clear implications for cell differentiation and disease onset. Biological/epigenetic age is independent of chronological age, constituting a highly reflective snapshot of an individual\u27s overall health. Accelerated vascular ageing is of major concern, effectively lowering disease threshold. Age-related chronic illness involves a complex interplay between many biological processes and is modulated by non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors. These alter the static genome by a number of epigenetic mechanisms, which change gene expression in an age and lifestyle dependent manner. This \u27epigenetic drift\u27 impacts health and contributes to the etiology of chronic illness. Lifestyle factors may cause acceleration of this epigenetic "clock", pre-disposing individuals to cardiovascular disease. Nutrition and physical activity are modifiable lifestyle choices, synergistically contributing to cardiovascular health. They represent a powerful potential epigenetic intervention point for effective cardiovascular protective and management strategies. Thus, together with traditional risk factors, monitoring the epigenetic signature of ageing may prove beneficial for tailoring lifestyle to fit biology - supporting the increasingly popular concept of "ageing well"

Limits on Cosmological Variation of Strong Interaction and Quark Masses from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, Cosmic, Laboratory and Oklo Data

Recent data on cosmological variation of the electromagnetic fine structure constant from distant quasar (QSO) absorption spectra have inspired a more general discussion of possible variation of other constants. We discuss variation of strong scale and quark masses. We derive the limits on their relative change from (i) primordial Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN); (ii) Oklo natural nuclear reactor, (iii) quasar absorption spectra, and (iv) laboratory measurements of hyperfine intervals.Comment: 10 pages 2 figurs: second version have several references added and some new comment

Membrane dissolution and division in P

Membrane systems with dividing and dissolving membranes are known to solve PSPACE problems in polynomial time. However, we give a P upperbound on an important restriction of such systems. In particular we examine systems with dissolution, elementary division and where each membrane initially has at most one child membrane. Even though such systems may create exponentially many membranes, each with di erent contents, we show that their power is upperbounded by PJunta de Andalucía TIC-581Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2006-1342

Limited Lifespan of Fragile Regions in Mammalian Evolution

An important question in genome evolution is whether there exist fragile regions (rearrangement hotspots) where chromosomal rearrangements are happening over and over again. Although nearly all recent studies supported the existence of fragile regions in mammalian genomes, the most comprehensive phylogenomic study of mammals (Ma et al. (2006) Genome Research 16, 1557-1565) raised some doubts about their existence. We demonstrate that fragile regions are subject to a "birth and death" process, implying that fragility has limited evolutionary lifespan. This finding implies that fragile regions migrate to different locations in different mammals, explaining why there exist only a few chromosomal breakpoints shared between different lineages. The birth and death of fragile regions phenomenon reinforces the hypothesis that rearrangements are promoted by matching segmental duplications and suggests putative locations of the currently active fragile regions in the human genome