Applying Transaction Cost Economics: A Note on Biomass Supply Chains

Agricultural supply chains, especially those from producer to first handler, are relatively mature institutions. While agricultural economists often observe the evolution of marketing structures in developing nations, it is a rare opportunity to research a developing market within North America. The emerging bioenergy industry—which relies on non-food crops such as straw—provides the potential to research and potentially impact the development of new supply chains. Here, we briefly review the literature related to biomass supply chains, pose a transaction cost approach to studying their development, and then discuss the procurement strategies of an industry leader: the Iogen Corporation.biomass supply chains, organization, transaction cost, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Production Economics,

Cross-Hedging Fishmeal: Exploring Corn and Soybean Meal Futures Contracts

During 2006 the fishmeal price nearly doubled from $500MT to over$900MT. The objective of this research is to determine the optimal cross-hedge ratio between fishmeal and soybean meal and corn, and corresponding hedging weight between corn and soybean. Results indicate all hedging weight should be placed on the corn futures contract. This is an interesting result since prior fishmeal cross-hedging research has not analyzed the corn futures contract as a risk management mechanism.Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Global blue carbon accumulation in tidal wetlands increases with climate change

Coastal tidal wetlands produce and accumulate significant amounts of organic carbon (C) that help to mitigate climate change. However, previous data limitations have prevented a robust evaluation of the global rates and mechanisms driving C accumulation. Here, we go beyond recent soil C stock estimates to reveal global tidal wetland C accumulation and predict changes under relative sea level rise, temperature and precipitation. We use data from literature study sites and our new observations spanning wide latitudinal gradients and 20 countries. Globally, tidal wetlands accumulate 53.65 (95%CI: 48.52–59.01) Tg C yr−1, which is∼30% of the organic C buried on the ocean floor. Modeling based on current climatic drivers and under projected emissions scenarios revealed a net increase in the global C accumulation by 2100. This rapid increase is driven by sea level rise in tidal marshes, and higher temperature and precipitation in mangroves. Countries with large areas of coastal wetlands, like Indonesia and Mexico, are more susceptible to tidal wetland C losses under climate change, while regions such as Australia, Brazil, the USA and China will experience a significant C accumulation increase under all projected scenarios

Fission and cluster decay of 76^{76}Sr nucleus in the ground-state and formed in heavy-ion reactions

Calculations for fission and cluster decay of $^{76}Sr$ are presented for this nucleus to be in its ground-state or formed as an excited compound system in heavy-ion reactions. The predicted mass distribution, for the dynamical collective mass transfer process assumed for fission of $^{76}Sr$, is clearly asymmetric, favouring $\alpha$-nuclei. Cluster decay is studied within a preformed cluster model, both for ground-state to ground-state decays and from excited compound system to the ground-state(s) or excited states(s) of the fragments.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX, 5 Figures available upon request Submitted to Phys. Rev.

A CD3-Specific Antibody Reduces Cytokine Production and Alters Phosphoprotein Profiles in Intestinal Tissues From Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Gastroenterology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in GASTROENTEROLOGY, 10.1053/j.gastro.2014.03.04

Infrared problem for the Nelson model on static space-times

We consider the Nelson model with variable coefficients and investigate the problem of existence of a ground state and the removal of the ultraviolet cutoff. Nelson models with variable coefficients arise when one replaces in the usual Nelson model the flat Minkowski metric by a static metric, allowing also the boson mass to depend on position. A physical example is obtained by quantizing the Klein-Gordon equation on a static space-time coupled with a non-relativistic particle. We investigate the existence of a ground state of the Hamiltonian in the presence of the infrared problem, i.e. assuming that the boson mass tends to 0 at infinity

The velocity dispersion and mass function of the outer halo globular cluster Palomar 4

We obtained precise line-of-sight radial velocities of 23 member stars of the remote halo globular cluster Palomar 4 (Pal 4) using the High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph (HIRES) at the Keck I telescope. We also measured the mass function of the cluster down to a limiting magnitude of V~28 mag using archival HST/WFPC2 imaging. We derived the cluster's surface brightness profile based on the WFPC2 data and on broad-band imaging with the Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) at the Keck II telescope. We find a mean cluster velocity of 72.55+/-0.22 km/s and a velocity dispersion of 0.87+/-0.18 km/s. The global mass function of the cluster, in the mass range 0.55<=M<=0.85 M_solar, is shallower than a Kroupa mass function and the cluster is significantly depleted in low-mass stars in its center compared to its outskirts. Since the relaxation time of Pal 4 is of the order of a Hubble time, this points to primordial mass segregation in this cluster. Extrapolating the measured mass function towards lower-mass stars and including the contribution of compact remnants, we derive a total cluster mass of 29800 M_solar. For this mass, the measured velocity dispersion is consistent with the expectations of Newtonian dynamics and below the prediction of Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). Pal 4 adds to the growing body of evidence that the dynamics of star clusters in the outer Galactic halo can hardly be explained by MOND.Comment: 17 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS; Fig. 8 surface brightness/density data at github.com/matthiasjfrank/pal4_surface_brightnes

Resolution of the type material of the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758 (Proboscidea, Elephantidae)

The understanding of Earth’s biodiversity depends critically on the accurate identification and nomenclature of species. Many species were described centuries ago, and in a surprising number of cases their nomenclature or type material remain unclear or inconsistent. A prime example is provided by Elephas maximus, one of the most iconic and well-known mammalian species, described and named by Linnaeus (1758) and today designating the Asian elephant. We used morphological, ancient DNA (aDNA), and high-throughput ancient proteomic analyses to demonstrate that a widely discussed syntype specimen of E. maximus, a complete foetus preserved in ethanol, is actually an African elephant, genus Loxodonta. We further discovered that an additional E. maximus syntype, mentioned in a description by John Ray (1693) cited by Linnaeus, has been preserved as an almost complete skeleton at the Natural History Museum of the University of Florence. Having confirmed its identity as an Asian elephant through both morphological and ancient DNA analyses, we designate this specimen as the lectotype of E. maximus

Quark Gluon Plasma an Color Glass Condensate at RHIC? The perspective from the BRAHMS experiment

We review the main results obtained by the BRAHMS collaboration on the properties of hot and dense hadronic and partonic matter produced in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC. A particular focus of this paper is to discuss to what extent the results collected so far by BRAHMS, and by the other three experiments at RHIC, can be taken as evidence for the formation of a state of deconfined partonic matter, the so called quark-gluon-plasma (QGP). We also discuss evidence for a possible precursor state to the QGP, i.e. the proposed Color Glass Condensate.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figure