A LINKED ANNUAL AND MONTHLY MODEL FOR FORECASTING ALFALFA HAY PRICES

This article develops a model to forecast monthly alfalfa hay prices before the first harvest. This is done by linking an annual model, which forecasts the initial May price, with a system of monthly equations that track the monthly seasonal price pattern, given the forecasted May price.Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,

A METHOD FOR DETERMINING RANCH PROFIT PROBABILITIES WHEN LIVESTOCK YIELDS ARE NORMALLY DISTRIBUTED

Data on net turnoff for small, medium-sized and large cow-calf and small and large size yearling ranches were tested for normality using the Shapiro - Wilk test. The yield data examined were accepted as normally distributed at the alpha = .10 level. The probability of profit for each type of ranch was assessed using normal curve techniques for nine different cost-price alternatives and weather conditions. Yearling cattle ranchers had higher profit probabilities than cow-calf ranchers. Prices received had more influence on profit probabilities than weather conditions.Livestock Production/Industries,

The Adequacy of Investment Choices Offered By 401K Plans

Defined-contribution plans represent a major organizational form for investors’ retirement savings. Today more than one third of all workers are enrolled in 401K plans. In a 401K plan, participants select assets from a set of choices designated by an employer. For over half of 401K-plan participants, retirement savings represent their sole financial asset. Yet to date there has been no study of the adequacy of the choices offered by 401K plans. This paper analyzes the adequacy and characteristics of the choices offered to 401K-plan participants for over 400 plans. We find that, for 62% of the plans, the types of choices offered are inadequate, and that over a 20-year period this makes a difference in terminal wealth of over 300%. We find that funds included in the plans are riskier than the general population of funds in the same categories. We study the characteristics of plans that are associated with adequate investment choices, including an analysis of the use of company stock, plan size, and the use of outside consultants. When we examine one category of investment choices, S&P 500 index funds, we find that the index funds chosen by 401K-plan administrators are on average inferior to the S&P 500 index funds selected by the aggregate of all investors

Marginal Stockholder Tax Effects and Ex-Dividend Day Behavior-Thirty-Two Years Later

In 1970 Elton and Gruber (hereafter E&G) started an industry by studying the impact of taxes on investor decisions using the behavior of share prices around the ex-dividend date. E&G showed that if taxes enter investors’ decisions, then the fall in price on the ex-dividend day should reflect the post-tax value of the dividend relative to the post-tax value of capital gains on that day. Because dividends in most time periods are taxed more heavily than capital gains, the theory suggests that if taxes affect investor’s choices, the fall in stock price should in general be less than the dividend

TEXES Observations of Pure Rotational H_2 Emission from AB Aurigae

We present observations of pure rotational molecular hydrogen emission from the Herbig Ae star, AB Aur. Our observations were made using the Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES) at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility and the Gemini North Observatory. We searched for H_2 emission in the S(1), S(2), and S(4) lines at high spectral resolution and detected all three. By fitting a simple model for the emission in the three transitions, we derive T = 670 ± 40 K and M = 0.52 ± 0.15 M_⊙ for the emitting gas. On the basis of the 8.5 km s^(-1) FWHM of the S(2) line, assuming the emission comes from the circumstellar disk, and with an inclination estimate of the AB Aur system taken from the literature, we place the location for the emission near 18 AU. Comparison of our derived temperature to a disk structure model suggests that UV and X-ray heating are important in heating the disk atmosphere

Generic theory of colloidal transport

We discuss the motion of colloidal particles relative to a two component fluid consisting of solvent and solute. Particle motion can result from (i) net body forces on the particle due to external fields such as gravity; (ii) slip velocities on the particle surface due to surface dissipative phenomena. The perturbations of the hydrodynamic flow field exhibits characteristic differences in cases (i) and (ii) which reflect different patterns of momentum flux corresponding to the existence of net forces, force dipoles or force quadrupoles. In the absence of external fields, gradients of concentration or pressure do not generate net forces on a colloidal particle. Such gradients can nevertheless induce relative motion between particle and fluid. We present a generic description of surface dissipative phenomena based on the linear response of surface fluxes driven by conjugate surface forces. In this framework we discuss different transport scenarios including self-propulsion via surface slip that is induced by active processes on the particle surface. We clarify the nature of force balances in such situations.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur

Biomass burning emission inventory with daily resolution: Application to aircraft observations of Asian outflow

Asian outflo

Structural aspects of MOF-based energy materials research at Diamond

Large-scale central facilities such as Diamond Light Source fulfil an increasingly pivotal role in many large-scale scientific research programmes. We illustrate these developments by reference to energy-centred projects at the University of Nottingham, the progress of which depends crucially on access to these facilities. Continuing access to beamtime has now become a major priority for those who direct such programme

The glycosyltransferase GnT-III activates Notch signaling and drives stem cell expansion to promote the growth and invasion of ovarian cancer

Glycosylation changes associated with cellular transformation can facilitate the growth and progression of tumors. Previously we discovered that the gene Mgat3 encoding the glycosyltransferase GnT-III is elevated in epithelial ovarian carcinomas (EOCs) and leads to the production of abnormal truncated N-linked glycan structures instead of the typical bisected forms. In this study, we are interested in discovering how these abnormal glycans impact the growth and progression of ovarian cancer. We have discovered using stable shRNA gene suppression that GnT-III expression controls the expansion of side-population cells, also known as cancer stem cells. More specifically, we found that GnT-III expression regulates the levels and activation of the heavily glycosylated Notch receptor involved in normal and malignant development. Suppression of GnT-III in EOC cell lines and primary tumor-derived cells resulted in an inhibition of Notch signaling that was more potent than phar-macologic blockage of Notch activation via γ-secretase inhibition. The inhibition resulted from the redirection of the Notch receptor to the lysosome, a novel mechanism. These findings demonstrate a new role for bisecting glycosylation in the control of Notch transport and demonstrate the therapeutic potential of inhibiting GnT-III as a treatment for controlling EOC growth and recurrence