ANTICIPATORY HEDGING WITH TREASURY BILLS: THE CASE OF A BANK FOR COOPERATIVES

Agricultural cooperatives find it difficult to forecast their interest costs and net income. If input and output prices are fixed, anticipatory hedging of future interest costs is appropriate. Banks for Cooperatives obtain funds in maturities longer than the three months of Treasury bills. Hence, anticipatory hedging of interest rates may require selling a "strip" of more than one Treasury bill futures contract. Adapting Peck's model of hedges against forecast error, hedge ratios generally exceed one-for-one, "naïve" hedging, with effectiveness generally above 95 percent. Hedges closed out just before a delivery date have the highest effectiveness.Agribusiness, Financial Economics,

Measure for Measure: Measuring Morality for a Contemporary Context

This paper presents written support material for Severn Thompsons ninety-minute adaptation of Shakespeares Measure for Measure for Shakespeare in High Parks thirty-seventh season. The concept and script edit for the production were based on a number of factors outlined in the following chapters, from historical context, source material, past productions, and contemporary relevancies. Also investigated are the challenges inherent in the script, which have led Measure for Measure to be commonly categorized as one of Shakespeares problem plays. Identifying and embracing the plays ambiguities and contradictions become part of the conceptual approach, while setting the production in an alternative now highlights the issues with which our society continues to wrestle, such as extreme morality, political corruption, gender politics, justice, and mercy. Finally, the paper reflects on the accomplishments as well as the areas for improvement in the production of this complex dark comedy, presented in a unique outdoor venue

Engineering aspects of photogrammetric plate measurements: Including the development of a novel interferometer

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Two different factors involved in the measurement of photogrammetric plates have been studied. A novel interferometer designed to monitor the position of a microscope stage, to be used to measure photogrammetric plates, has been built. The prototype instrument is able to give the position of the stage with a maximum error of less than 200nm. An algorithm has been developed for a motor driven x-y microscope that is able to search a photographic plate automatically for targets, and record their positions. In a trial survey this system was able to measure the positions of the targets on the plates with an uncertainty of approximately 2gm. This result is comparable with the precision that a human operator could achieve using the same equipment, but without the fatigue effect associated with visual observation. Virtually no human interaction is necessary for the system to function.This work was jointly funded by The Science and Engineering Council and The National Physical Laboratory

Our God is Sovereign

...But one thing that we\u27re learning, and we ought to know in the reality of history, is that our God is sovereign. Our God is moving history to his conclusion, and even the wrath of man praises him

FPGA controlled reconfigurable antenna

At the present time, the advantages of reconfigurable antennas are numerous but limited by the method of controlling their configuration. This thesis proposes to utilize the advantages of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to overcome this dilemma. Two experimental antennas are designed. The first reconfigurable antenna consists of two patches connected by two diodes. The second reconfigurable antenna has sixteen possible combinations and is designed with four perimeter patches also connected via diodes. The electromagnetic modelling software HFSS is utilized to predict the resulting radiation patterns and resonances of the possible configurations. A computer program is created to interface a user with the FPGA controlling the antenna. A module for receiving instructions and asserting biasing signals is programmed onto the FPGA. Finally, a prototype antenna is fabricated using a mechanical etching machine. Experimental results are examined using a network analyzer. The FPGA system is connected to the reconfigurable antenna. Both experimental and theoretical results show that configurable tuning is achieved

Migration and Opera Old and New : Repertoire Revivals and Eva Noer Kondrup’s Den Rejsende

This article uses Eva Noer Kondrup’s chamber opera Den Rejsende (Copenhagen 2018) to examine the challenges and opportunities provoked by the operatic form when attempting to create socially responsible theatre. Focusing on how opera reflects and contributes to contemporary discourse on migration, it examines how opera’s unusual performance and reception demands differentiate it from, for example, spoken verbatim theatre. The article first considers the most common way opera companies today engage with migration – through productions of existing operas – in which socially responsible decisions are primarily in the hands of directors and designers and relate mostly to interpretation, and it explores some of the risks and opportunities of engaging with migration in recent revivals of repertoire works. It then analyses how questions of social responsibility in new operas extend to structural issues that are the field of the composer and librettist. The article examines Kondrup’s decisions as librettist-composer of Den Rejsende, demonstrating the potential for opera to use non-realist operatic techniques to engage with some of the issues with which spoken verbatim theatre has wrestled, including questions of authority, authenticity and authorship, and of empathy, engagement, and identification. The production, performed by two Swedish singers from non-refugee backgrounds in multiple roles, favoured distanciation techniques over “authenticity effects” and avoided tensions between giving voice to and speaking for contemporary refugees that can arise in spoken verbatim theatre. While the libretto contained found text, this was from historical refugee situations, and from the words of Inger Støjberg in her role as Danish Minister for Immigration, Integration and Housing. By throwing a spotlight on the words of an elected representative, Den Rejsende indicated an area in which audience members of what is often thought of as an affective theatrical form might have some influence in effecting practical change

Las primeras revistas de moda españolas para las mujeres como catalizadores del afrancesamiento y la subordinación femenina

Este trabajo comenta el doble efecto del afrancesamiento en la sociedad española a través de dos revistas de moda españolas para mujeres—el ‘Periódico de las Damas’y ‘Correo de las Damas’. El afrancesamiento fue un fenómeno altamente perjudicial y peligroso para la identidad nacional española, pero también una herramienta beneficiosa para la preservación del ideal de domesticidad y el papel limitado de la mujer. En el artículo discutimos cómo la moda francesa, propagada a través de estas revistas, creó una apariencia de progreso y emancipación para las mujeres españolas, al tiempo que hacía aún más difícil su posición social y doméstica: además de la expectativa de ser madres perfectas y los ángeles del hogar, se esperaba que las mujeres fueran epítomes de elegancia y nobleza, como sus modelos franceses, cuando asistían a eventos públicos con sus esposos. Con tales ideales, imposibles de satisfacer, la emancipación femenina real estaba condenada al fracaso.This article comments on the double effect of afrancesamiento on Spanish society through two Spanish fashion journals for women—the ‘Periódico de las Damas’and ‘Correo de las Damas’. Afrancesamiento was a highly deteriorating and perilous phenomenon for Spanish national identity, but also a beneficial tool for the preservation of domesticity and alimited role forwomen. We discuss how French fashion, propagated through these journals, created an appearance of progress and emancipation for Spanish women, while making their social and domestic position even harder: besides the expectation of being perfect mothers and ‘ángeles del hogar’, women were expected to be the epitomes of elegance and ladyhood, just like their French models, when attending public eventswith their husbands. Laboring under impossible expectations, real female emancipation was doomed

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF FEDERAL EQUITY RULE 75 (B) AS TO RESTATEMENT OF TESTIMONY IN NARRATIVE FORM

During the twenty-four years since the adoption of the narrative form for records on appeal in the federal courts under Equity Rule 75 (b), there have been some printed comments and criticisms of the rule as well as informal and unrecorded discussion by the bench and bar. The more recent comments on the working out of the rule vary little from the prophecies made soon after its adoption. There is not much of value that can be added to the theoretical discussions of the rule either by its proponents or its opponents. But there remain certain highly important practical questions: How has the rule actually worked? If there are advantages to be derived from this practice, have they outweighed the accompanying disadvantages? The answers to these questions should be found in the experiences of thousands of lawyers who have prepared records on appeal under Equity Rule 75 (b) and under similar rules in the state courts; in the reactions of the judges who have examined these records; and in the pages of the records themselves