The Value of Deregulating Over-The-Counter Options

Hedgers located far from organized commodity exchanges suffer the mismatch between their local prices and exchange prices. Futures and options traded on the exchange may still be valuable to distant hedgers but only to the extent that basis risk is small. Forward contracting allows hedgers to manage risk using a local delivery price, but the CFTC has long banned the sale off-exchange options, limiting the opportunities available to hedgers. Recently, Agricultural Trade Options (ATOs) have been introduced as over-the-counter option products designed specifically for hedgers. To date, ATOs have found little interest from potential sellers, but the potential demand for these options may be substantial. This paper describes and quantifies the demand for corn ATOs by dairy farms in Southeastern Pennsylvania and estimates the value these farms might place on options contracts offered locally.Marketing,

Core measures of inflation as predictors of total inflation

Two rationales offered for policymakers' focus on core measures of inflation as a guide to underlying inflation are that core inflation omits food and energy prices, which are thought to be more volatile than other components, and that core inflation is thought to be a better predictor of total inflation over time horizons of import to policymakers. The authors' investigation finds little support for either rationale. They find that food and energy prices are not the most volatile components of inflation and that depending on which inflation measure is used, core inflation is not necessarily the best predictor of total inflation. However, they do find that combining CPI and PCE inflation measures can lead to statistically significant more accurate forecasts of each inflation measure, suggesting that each measure includes independent information that can be exploited to yield better forecasts.Inflation (Finance)

Core measures of inflation as predictors of total inflation

Policymakers tend to focus on core inflation measures because they are thought to be better predictors of total inflation over time horizons of import to policymakers. The authors find little support for this assumption. While some measures of core inflation are less volatile than total inflation, core inflation is not necessarily the best predictor of total inflation. The relative forecasting performance of models using core inflation and those using only total inflation depends on the inflation measure and time horizon of the forecast. Unlike previous studies, the authors provide a measure of the statistical significance of the difference in forecast errors. ; Supersedes Working Paper 08-9.Inflation (Finance)

DesignCon 2008 Impact of PCB Laminate Parameters on Suppressing Modal Resonances

Abstract Power planes are capacitive at low frequencies, then develop resonances according to their cavity dimensions. By reducing the plane thickness, the downward impedance slope is pushed to lower values and at the same time the modal resonances get gradually suppressed. The Q of these resonances is related to the effective loss of the composite material of dielectric and metallization. In this paper, we show how the total area and aspect ratio, together with laminate thickness, impact the high frequency impedance profile. Simulated results will be correlated to test structure measurements. Authors Biography Jason Miller is a senior staff engineer at Sun Microsystems where he works on ASIC development, ASIC packaging, interconnect modeling and characterization, and system simulation. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Columbia University. He has authored or coauthored over 30 technical articles on the topics such as high-speed modeling and simulation. Gustavo Blando is a staff engineer with over 10 years of experience in the industry. Currently at Sun Microsystems, he is responsible for the development of new processes and methodologies in the areas of broadband measurement, high speed modeling and system simulations. He received his M.S. from Northeastern University. Istvan Novak is a principle engineer at Sun Microsystems. Besides signal integrity design of high-speed serial and parallel buses, he is engaged in the design and characterization of power-distribution networks and packages for mid-range servers. He creates simulation models, and develops measurement techniques for power distribution. Istvan has twenty plus years of experience with high-speed digital, RF, and analog circuit and system design. He is a Fellow of IEEE for his contributions to signal-integrity and RF measurement and simulation methodologies

Genetic and Computational Identification of a Conserved Bacterial Metabolic Module

We have experimentally and computationally defined a set of genes that form a conserved metabolic module in the α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus and used this module to illustrate a schema for the propagation of pathway-level annotation across bacterial genera. Applying comprehensive forward and reverse genetic methods and genome-wide transcriptional analysis, we (1) confirmed the presence of genes involved in catabolism of the abundant environmental sugar myo-inositol, (2) defined an operon encoding an ABC-family myo-inositol transmembrane transporter, and (3) identified a novel myo-inositol regulator protein and cis-acting regulatory motif that control expression of genes in this metabolic module. Despite being encoded from non-contiguous loci on the C. crescentus chromosome, these myo-inositol catabolic enzymes and transporter proteins form a tightly linked functional group in a computationally inferred network of protein associations. Primary sequence comparison was not sufficient to confidently extend annotation of all components of this novel metabolic module to related bacterial genera. Consequently, we implemented the Graemlin multiple-network alignment algorithm to generate cross-species predictions of genes involved in myo-inositol transport and catabolism in other α-proteobacteria. Although the chromosomal organization of genes in this functional module varied between species, the upstream regions of genes in this aligned network were enriched for the same palindromic cis-regulatory motif identified experimentally in C. crescentus. Transposon disruption of the operon encoding the computationally predicted ABC myo-inositol transporter of Sinorhizobium meliloti abolished growth on myo-inositol as the sole carbon source, confirming our cross-genera functional prediction. Thus, we have defined regulatory, transport, and catabolic genes and a cis-acting regulatory sequence that form a conserved module required for myo-inositol metabolism in select α-proteobacteria. Moreover, this study describes a forward validation of gene-network alignment, and illustrates a strategy for reliably transferring pathway-level annotation across bacterial species.</p

The first two community ID programs in the Midwest : organizing, evaluation, and community health in Johnson County, IA and Washtenaw County, mi

The post-9/11 sociopolitical climate has led to an increase in anti-immigrant policies and practices, including the federal REAL ID Act of 2005, which established standards requiring proof of "legal presence" for state identification cards (IDs) and driver's licenses to be used for federal purposes such as air travel. This has led several states to revise their ID eligibility requirements, and undocumented immigrants cannot access state IDs or driver's licenses in any Midwestern state except Illinois (Mathema, 2015; Park, 2015). Lack of photo ID limits access to important resources including bank and check-cashing services, pharmacies, libraries, housing, and police services (Lagunes, Levin, and Ditlmann, 2012). Undocumented parents face additional challenges as IDs may be required to volunteer at children's schools or pick them up from childcare (de Graauw, 2014). In 2015 two Midwestern counties (Washtenaw County, Michigan and Johnson County, Iowa) became the eighth and ninth U.S. localities to issue ID cards regardless of immigration status. These grassroots initiatives, the first local government-issued ID programs in the Midwest, were spearheaded by local activists and advocates who had witnessed -- or experienced firsthand -- the challenges of living without locally accepted IDs. The Washtenaw ID Project and the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa each worked with community members, county officials, and law enforcement with the goal of developing IDs that were accessible, secure from fraud, and widely accepted by area businesses, service providers, and law enforcement. These programs are well suited to the 2016 Cambio de Colores theme, "Building Bridges." Local IDs were designed to serve not only undocumented immigrants but also others that face challenges in accessing ID: the elderly, transgender individuals, individuals with chronic mental illness, residentially unstable individuals, and those displaced by natural disaster or domestic violence. This panel included several perspectives on these innovative programs. Representatives from the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa and the Washtenaw ID Project shared lessons from years of organizing, advocacy, and policy development. They discussed each county's process of identifying the need for local IDs, organizing to promote local ID policies, and implement the ID policies. Both groups worked to promote local IDs widely, including to those with state-issued IDs, so that local IDs were not stigmatized as substandard forms of identification. Researchers from University of Michigan School of Public Health and Social Work and University of Iowa College of Public Health shared findings from a multi-site, mixed-methods longitudinal evaluation of these programs. The objective was to evaluate whether community IDs increased access to community resources. Researchers partnered with the community agencies above to develop and administer surveys to ID applicants on the day they applied for ID (n=407). In Washtenaw County, qualitative interviews on the day of ID application (n=18) provided richer data about applicants' day-to-day experiences prior to accessing ID. Researchers presented preliminary findings about changes in participants' day-to-day experiences and access to resources since being issued ID. The panelists concluded with recommendations for designing local ID policies in other communities, including eligibility criteria, administration process and community engagement

Foot pressure distribution during walking in young and old adults

BACKGROUND: Measurement of foot pressure distribution (FPD) is clinically useful for evaluation of foot and gait pathologies. The effects of healthy aging on FPD during walking are not well known. This study evaluated FPD during normal walking in healthy young and elderly subjects. METHODS: We studied 9 young (30 ± 5.2 years), and 6 elderly subjects (68.7 ± 4.8 years). FPD was measured during normal walking speed using shoe insoles with 99 capacitive sensors. Measured parameters included gait phase characteristics, mean and maximum pressure and force, and relative load. Time-series measurements of each variable for all sensors were grouped into 9 anatomical masks. RESULTS: Elderly subjects had lower normalized maximum pressure for the medial and lateral calcaneal masks, and for all medial masks combined. In the medial calcaneus mask, the elderly group also had a lower absolute maximum and lower mean and normalized mean pressures and forces, compared to young subjects. Elderly subjects had lower maximum force and normalized maximum force and lower mean force and normalized mean forces in the medial masks as well. CONCLUSION: FPD differences between the young and elderly groups were confined to the calcaneus and hallux regions and to the medial side of the foot. In elderly subjects, weight bearing on the lateral side of the foot during heel touch and toe-off phases may affect stability during walking

Temporal Controls of the Asymmetric Cell Division Cycle in Caulobacter crescentus

The asymmetric cell division cycle of Caulobacter crescentus is orchestrated by an elaborate gene-protein regulatory network, centered on three major control proteins, DnaA, GcrA and CtrA. The regulatory network is cast into a quantitative computational model to investigate in a systematic fashion how these three proteins control the relevant genetic, biochemical and physiological properties of proliferating bacteria. Different controls for both swarmer and stalked cell cycles are represented in the mathematical scheme. The model is validated against observed phenotypes of wild-type cells and relevant mutants, and it predicts the phenotypes of novel mutants and of known mutants under novel experimental conditions. Because the cell cycle control proteins of Caulobacter are conserved across many species of alpha-proteobacteria, the model we are proposing here may be applicable to other genera of importance to agriculture and medicine (e.g., Rhizobium, Brucella)

Characterization, deployment, and in-flight performance of the BLAST-TNG cryogenic receiver

The Next Generation Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST-TNG) is a submillimeter polarimeter designed to map interstellar dust and galactic foregrounds at 250, 350, and 500 microns during a 24-day Antarctic flight. The BLAST-TNG detector arrays are comprised of 918, 469, and 272 MKID pixels, respectively. The pixels are formed from two orthogonally oriented, crossed, linear-polarization sensitive MKID antennae. The arrays are cooled to sub 300mK temperatures and stabilized via a closed cycle $^3$He sorption fridge in combination with a $^4$He vacuum pot. The detectors are read out through a combination of the second-generation Reconfigurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware (ROACH2) and custom RF electronics designed for BLAST-TNG. The firmware and software designed to readout and characterize these detectors was built from scratch by the BLAST team around these detectors, and has been adapted for use by other MKID instruments such as TolTEC and OLIMPO. We present an overview of these systems as well as in-depth methodology of the ground-based characterization and the measured in-flight performance.Comment: Presented at SPIE Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy X, December 13-18, 202

The Balloon-Borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope Observatory

The BLAST Observatory is a proposed superpressure balloon-borne polarimeter designed for a future ultra-long duration balloon campaign from Wanaka, New Zealand. To maximize scientific output while staying within the stringent superpressure weight envelope, BLAST will feature new 1.8m off-axis optical system contained within a lightweight monocoque structure gondola. The payload will incorporate a 300L $^4$He cryogenic receiver which will cool 8,274 microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) to 100mK through the use of an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) in combination with a $^3$He sorption refrigerator all backed by a liquid helium pumped pot operating at 2K. The detector readout utilizes a new Xilinx RFSOC-based system which will run the next-generation of the BLAST-TNG KIDPy software. With this instrument we aim to answer outstanding questions about dust dynamics as well as provide community access to the polarized submillimeter sky made possible by high-altitude observing unrestricted by atmospheric transmission. The BLAST Observatory is designed for a minimum 31-day flight of which 70$\%$ will be dedicated to observations for BLAST scientific goals and the remaining 30$\%$ will be open to proposals from the wider astronomical community through a shared-risk proposals program.Comment: Presented at SPIE Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VIII, December 13-18, 202