AN EVALUATION OF PRICING PERFORMANCE AND HEDGING EFFECTIVENESS OF THE BARLEY FUTURES MARKET

This paper investigates the pricing efficiency and hedging effectiveness of the Winnipeg barley futures market, using the Chicago corn futures market as a norm. Several tests of pricing efficiency were conducted and the stability of the basis was studied. The barley futures market operates in a heavily regulated economic environment and this is shown to impact on both price behavior and hedging opportunities.Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,

Paired and interacting galaxies: Conference summary

The author gives a summary of the conference proceedings. The conference began with the presentation of the basic data sets on pairs, groups, and interacting galaxies with the latter being further discussed with respect to both global properties and properties of the galactic nuclei. Then followed the theory, modelling and interpretation using analytic techniques, simulations and general modelling for spirals and ellipticals, starbursts and active galactic nuclei. Before the conference the author wrote down the three questions concerning pairs, groups and interacting galaxies that he hoped would be answered at the meeting: (1) How do they form, including the role of initial conditions, the importance of subclustering, the evolution of groups to compact groups, and the fate of compact groups; (2) How do they evolve, including issues such as relevant timescales, the role of halos and the problem of overmerging, the triggering and enhancement of star formation and activity in the galactic nuclei, and the relative importance of dwarf versus giant encounters; and (3) Are they important, including the frequency of pairs and interactions, whether merging and interactions are very important aspects of the life of a normal galaxy at formation, during its evolution, in forming bars, shells, rings, bulges, etc., and in the formation and evolution of active galaxies? Where possible he focuses on these three central issues in the summary

Evidence to Suggest that Copulatory Vocalizations in Women Are Not a Reflexive Consequence of Orgasm

The current studies were conducted in order to investigate the phenomenon of copulatory vocalizations and their relationship to orgasm in women. Data were collected from 71 sexually active heterosexual women (M age = 21.68 years ± .52) recruited from the local community through opportunity sampling. The studies revealed that orgasm was most frequently reported by women following self-manipulation of the clitoris, manipulation by the partner, oral sex delivered to the woman by a man, and least frequently during vaginal penetration. More detailed examination of responses during intercourse revealed that, while female orgasms were most commonly experienced during foreplay, copulatory vocalizations were reported to be made most often before and simultaneously with male ejaculation. These data together clearly demonstrate a dissociation of the timing of women experiencing orgasm and making copulatory vocalizations and indicate that there is at least an element of these responses that are under conscious control, providing women with an opportunity to manipulate male behavior to their advantage

A satellite data terminal for land mobile use

Telesat Mobile Incorporated (TMI) has recently introduced the Mobile Data Service (MDS) into Canada. This paper outlines the system design and some key aspects of the detailed design of the Mobile Earth Terminal (MET) developed by Canadian Aeronautics Limited (CAL) for use with the MDS. The technical requirements for the MET are outlined and the equipment architecture is described. The major design considerations for each functional module are then addressed. Environmental conditions unique to the land mobile service are highlighted, along with the measures taken to ensure satisfactory operation and survival of the MET. Finally, the probable direction of future developments is indicated

Categorical Data

A very brief survey of regression for categorical data. Categorical outcome (or discrete outcome or qualitative response) regression models are models for a discrete dependent variable recording in which of two or more categories an outcome of interest lies. For binary data (two categories) probit and logit models or semiparametric methods are used. For multinomial data (more than two categories) that are unordered, common models are multinomial and conditional logit, nested logit, multinomial probit, and random parameters logit. The last two models are estimated using simulation or Bayesian methods. For ordered data, standard multinomial models are ordered logit and probit, or count models are used if ordered discrete data are actually a count.binary data, multinomial, logit, probit, count data

Dynamical behavior of a complex fluid near an out-of-equilibrium transition: approaching simple rheological chaos

We report here an extensive study of sustained oscillations of the viscosity of a complex fluid near an out-of-equilibrium transition. Using well defined protocols, we perform rheological measurements of the onion texture near a layering transition in a Couette flow. This complex fluid exhibits sustained oscillations of the viscosity, on a large time scale (500s) at controlled stress. These oscillations are directly correlated to an oscillating microstrutural change of the texture of the fluid. We observe a great diversity of dynamical behavior and we show that there is a coupling with spatial effects in the gradient v direction. This is in agreement with a carefull analysis of the temporal series of the viscosity with the dynamical system theory. This analysis indicates that the observed dynamical responses do not strictly correspond to 3-dimensional chaotic states, probably because some spatio-temporal effects are present and are likely to play an important role.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

Equilibrium currents in quantum double ring system: A non-trivial role of system-reservoir coupling

Amperes law states that the magnetic moment of a ring is given by current times the area enclosed. Also from equilibrium statistical mechanics it is known that magnetic moment is the derivative of free energy with respect to magnetic field. In this work we analyze a quantum double ring system interacting with a reservoir. A simple S-Matrix model is used for system-reservoir coupling. We see complete agreement between the aforesaid two definitions when coupling between system and reservoir is weak, increasing the strength of coupling parameter however leads to disagreement between the two. Thereby signifying the important role played by the coupling parameter in mesoscopic systems.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure