Economic Analysis of Supplemental Deductible Coverage as Recommended in the USDA's 2007 Farm Bill Proposal

A primary change to crop insurance contained in the USDA's Farm Bill Proposal is Supplemental Deductible Coverage (SDC). SDC would allow farmers who purchase individual crop insurance coverage to purchase GRP in the amount of the individual policy deductible. GRP indemnities would be accelerated compared with the current GRP policy. Analysis indicates that SDC provides substantial benefits in terms of certainty equivalent gains. The largest benefits are realized by low risk farmers, compared to others in the county, and farmers whose yields are highly correlated with the county yield. Optimal individual policy coverage levels generally decrease when SDC is taken.

Economic Analysis of Supplemental Deductible Coverage as Recommended in the USDA's 2007 Farm Bill Proposal

A primary change to crop insurance contained in the USDA’s Farm Bill proposal is supplemental deductible coverage (SDC). SDC would allow farmers who purchase individual crop insurance coverage to purchase area-wide coverage in the amount of the individual policy deductible. This supplemental area-wide coverage would be similar to the existing Group Risk Plan policy, but with an accelerated indemnity schedule. Analysis indicates that SDC increases farmer certainty equivalents. The largest benefits are realized by farmers with high yield potential in counties with greater systemic risk. In general, optimal individual policy coverage levels modestly decrease when SDC is taken.crop insurance, area-wide coverage, actual production history (APH), group risk plan (GRP), yield distribution, Risk and Uncertainty,

Ontologies and Standards in Bioscience Research: For Machine or for Human

Ontologies and standards are very important parts of today's bioscience research. With the rapid increase of biological knowledge, they provide mechanisms to better store and represent data in a controlled and structured way, so that scientists can share the data, and utilize a wide variety of software and tools to manage and analyze the data. Most of these standards are initially designed for computers to access large amounts of data that are difficult for human biologists to handle, and it is important to keep in mind that ultimately biologists are going to produce and interpret the data. While ontologies and standards must follow strict semantic rules that may not be familiar to biologists, effort must be spent to lower the learning barrier by involving biologists in the process of development, and by providing software and tool support. A standard will not succeed without support from the wider bioscience research community. Thus, it is crucial that these standards be designed not only for machines to read, but also to be scientifically accurate and intuitive to human biologists

Thermodynamic properties of Mg_2SiO_4 liquid at ultra-high pressures from shock measurements to 200 GPa on forsterite and wadsleyite

Polycrystalline samples of Mg_2SiO_4 forsterite and wadsleyite were synthesized and then dynamically loaded to pressures of 39–200 GPa. Differences in initial density and internal energy between these two phases lead to distinct Hugoniots, each characterized by multiple phase regimes. Transformation to the high-pressure phase assemblage MgO + MgSiO_3 perovksite is complete by 100 GPa for forsterite starting material but incomplete for wadsleyite. The datum for wadsleyite shocked to 136 GPa, however, is consistent with the assemblage MgO + MgSiO_3 post-perovksite. Marked increases in density along the Hugoniots of both phases between ∼130 and 150 GPa are inconsistent with any known solid-solid phase transformation in the Mg_2SiO_4 system but can be explained by melting. Density increases upon melting are consistent with a similar density increase observed in the MgSiO_3 system. This implies that melts with compositions over the entire Mg/Si range likely for the mantle would be negatively or neutrally buoyant at conditions close to the core-mantle boundary, supporting the partial melt hypothesis to explain the occurrence of ultra-low velocity zones at the base of the mantle. From the energetic difference between the high-pressure segments of the two Hugoniots, we estimate a Grüneisen parameter (γ) of 2.6 ± 0.35 for Mg_2SiO_4-liquid between 150 and 200 GPa. Comparison to low-pressure data and fitting of the absolute pressures along the melt Hugoniots both require that γ for the melt increases with increasing density. Similar behavior was recently predicted in MgSiO_3 liquid via molecular dynamics simulations. This result changes estimates of the temperature profile, and hence the dynamics, of a deep terrestrial magma ocean

Polymorphism, superheating, and amorphization of silica upon shock wave loading and release

We present a detailed and quantitative examination of the thermodynamics and phase change mechanisms (including amorphization) that occur upon shock wave loading and unloading of silica. We apply Debye-Grüneisen theory to calculate both the Hugoniot of quartz and isentropic release paths. Quartz converts to stishovite (or a stishovite-like phase) between 15 and 46 GPa, and persistence of the solid phase above its liquidus (i.e., superheating) is confirmed between 77 and 110 GPa. Calculations compare favorably to measurements of shock and post-shock temperatures. For silica, the method of measuring post-shock temperature is insensitive to predicting whether phase transitions actually occur during release. Measurements of release states in pressure-particle velocity space are compared to computed frozen-phase release paths. This comparison suggests transformation of a stishovite-like phase to lower density phases including quartz, liquid, or dense amorphous glass. Transformations to liquid or glass occur upon release from peak pressure of 26 GPa and above. The isentropic release assumption appears to be approximately valid. A shock pressure-temperature scale relating metamorphism of silica in shock-loaded quartz is proposed. Neither recovery of coesite nor substantial quantities of crystalline stishovite-like phases upon shock loading of quartz is predicted. Trace amounts of crystalline stishovite-like phases from shock loading between 15 and 26 GPa are expected

Evaluation of telerobotic systems using an instrumented task board

An instrumented task board was developed at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). An overview of the task board design, and current development status is presented. The task board was originally developed to evaluate operator performance using the Protoflight Manipulator Arm (PFMA) at MSFC. The task board evaluates tasks for Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU), fluid connect and transfers, electrical connect/disconnect, bolt running, and other basic tasks. The instrumented task board measures the 3-D forces and torques placed on the board, determines the robot arm's 3-D position relative to the task board using IR optics, and provides the information in real-time. The PFMA joint input signals can also be measured from a breakout box to evaluate the sensitivity or response of the arm operation to control commands. The data processing system provides the capability for post processing of time-history graphics and plots of the PFMA positions, the operator's actions, and the PFMA servo reactions in addition to real-time force/torque data presentation. The instrumented task board's most promising use is developing benchmarks for NASA centers for comparison and evaluation of telerobotic performance

Cardio-Protection Afforded by Β-Blockade Is Maintained During Resistance Exercise

Objectives Whether or not the cardio-protective effect of β-adrenergic blockade is retained during resistance exercise has not been systematically evaluated. Therefore the purpose of this study was to measure selected cardiorespiratory responses to isometric exercise involving hand-gripping, single-leg extension, or double-leg dead-lift, under placebo (control), β1-selective (atenolol), and non-selective (propranolol) adrenergic blockade conditions. Design Eleven young male adults were evaluated in a randomized, double-blinded, repeated measures study design and performed all three exercise modalities at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction under placebo, atenolol and propranolol conditions. Methods Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, rate-pressure product, oxygen uptake, cardiac output, stroke volume and total peripheral resistance were directly measured or calculated at rest and during the third minute of each of the three exercise modes. Results Irrespective of drug condition, a graded pressor response was observed going from rest to exercise so that rest \u3c handgrip \u3c leg extension \u3c dead-lift for heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, rate-pressure product and oxygen uptake (p \u3c 0.05 for all). Cardiac output only increased with the dead-lift mode of exercise (p \u3c 0.01). Importantly β-adrenergic blockade with either atenolol or propranolol similarly attenuated the rise in heart rate, and systolic blood pressure; thus rate-pressure product demonstrated a mode-of-exercise by drug interaction effect (p \u3c 0.001) with the greatest reductions seen with the dead-lift procedure. Conclusions The findings indicate that cardio-protection afforded by selective or non-selective β-blockade at rest is preserved during isometric exercise and even enhanced once heart rate increases above 100 beats min−1