Term Structure of Volatility and Price Jumps in Agricultural Markets - Evidence from Option Data

Empirical evidence suggests that agricultural futures price movements have fat-tailed distributions and exhibit sudden and unexpected price jumps. There is also evidence that the volatility of futures prices contains a term structure depending on both calendar-time and time to maturity. This paper extends Bates (1991) jump-diffusion option pricing model by including both seasonal and maturity effects in volatility. An in-sample fit to market option prices on wheat futures shows that our model outperforms previous models considered in the literature. A numerical example illustrates the economic significance of our results for option valuation.Option pricing, Futures, Term structure of volatility, Jump-diffusion, Agricultural markets, Demand and Price Analysis,

Redox and pH-Induced Switching in Solution and on Surfaces:from spiropyrans to manganese oxidation catalysts

The study of fundamental properties of single layers of molecules on gold under various conditions, mainly the influence of pH and electrode potential, is the focus of this thesis. We have demonstrated the first instance of redox switching of spiropyrans, both in solution as well as the first steps towards surface-confined redox switching. In the last chapter, we have made a side-step into the field of inorganic catalysis to explain the role of protons in the mechanism of activation of a manganese oxidation catalyst

Clustering properties of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and the search for their astrophysical sources

The arrival directions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) may show anisotropies on all scales, from just above the experimental angular resolution up to medium scales and dipole anisotropies. We find that a global comparison of the two-point auto-correlation function of the data with the one of catalogues of potential sources is a powerful diagnostic tool. In particular, this method is far less sensitive to unknown deflections in magnetic fields than cross-correlation studies while keeping a strong discrimination power among source candidates. We illustrate these advantages by considering ordinary galaxies, gamma ray bursts and active galactic nuclei as possible sources. Already the sparse publicly available data suggest that the sources of UHECRs may be a strongly clustered sub-sample of galaxies or of active galactic nuclei. We present forecasts for various cases of source distributions which can be checked soon by the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables; minor changes, matches published versio

Program Deactivations at the University at Albany

In 1962 Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of the State of New York, symbolically removed a shovelful of earth from the ground of what had been the Albany Country Club, to mark the beginning of construction of a new campus for the State University of New York at Albany (now the University at Albany). That institution, which was to be one of the four university centers of the State University of New York, formerly had been the New York State College for Teachers, with roots going back to 1844. Although its primary mission was to train teachers, the college had a long history of excellence in the liberal arts, and it provided an outstanding general education to thousands of New Yorkers, especially those who could not afford to attend the state’s costly private institutions. Like the rest of the State University of New York, the Albany campus grew and prospered under Governor Rockefeller. For the most part, though, his successors have shown less enthusiasm for the university he essentially created. Over the years, tuition has increased, albeit erratically, and the proportion of operating funds appropriated by the state legislature has declined. At the University at Albany, inadequate funding has resulted in a decline in the proportion of full-time, tenure-track faculty, an increase in part-time and non-tenure-track faculty, and an increase in the size of classes

Relationship of film optical density to yield indicators

Relationship between preharvest yield indicators and film densities of aerial infrared film in microexperiment

Sterile neutrinos in the Milky Way: Observational constraints

We consider the possibility of constraining decaying dark matter by looking out through the Milky Way halo. Specifically we use Chandra blank sky observations to constrain the parameter space of sterile neutrinos. We find that a broad band in parameter space is still open, leaving the sterile neutrino as an excellent dark matter candidate.Comment: Submitted to ApJL, 4 pages, 4 figure