Can a Newly Proposed Mechanism for Allocating Contracts in U.S. Electricity Wholesale Markets Lead to Lower Prices? A Game Theoretic Analysis

This study of the wholesale electricity market compares the cost-minimizing performance of the auction mechanism currently in place in U.S. markets with the performance of a proposed replacement. The current mechanism chooses an allocation of contracts that minimizes a fictional cost calculated using pay-as-offer pricing. Then suppliers are paid the market clearing price. The proposed mechanism uses the market clearing price in the allocation phase as well as in the payment phase. In concentrated markets, the proposed mechanism outperforms the current mechanism even when strategic behavior by suppliers is taken into account. The advantage of the proposed mechanism increases with increased price competition.

Learning What Works: Demonstrating Practice Effectiveness with Children and Families Through Retrospective Investigation

Intensive family preservation services (IFPS), designed to stabilize at-risk families and avert out-of-home care, have been the focus of many randomized, experimental studies. Employing a retrospective “clinical data-mining” (CDM) methodology (Epstein, 2001), this study makes use of available information extracted from client records in one IFPS agency over the course of two years. The primary goal of this descriptive and associational study was to gain a clearer understanding of IFPS service delivery and effectiveness. Interventions provided to families are delineated and assessed for their impact on improved family functioning, their impact on the reduction of family violence, as well as placement prevention. Findings confirm the use of a wide range of services consistent with IFPS program theory. Because the study employs a quasi-experimental, retrospective use of available information, clinical outcomes described cannot be causally attributed to interventions employed as with randomized controlled trials. With regard to service outcomes, findings suggest that family education, empowerment services and advocacy are most influential in placement prevention and in ameliorating unmanageable behaviors in children as well as the incidence of family violence.

Effectiveness of Foliar Fungicides by Timing on Hybrid Corn

Fungicides were rarely used on hybrid corn prior to 2007, however, in the past few years some farmers have made fungicides a regular input in their crop production, particularly as the value of grain has increased. Fungicides are recommended for foliar disease management to protect yield potential. There have also been reports of increased yields in the absence of disease. A number of fungicides are registered for use on corn. The objectives of this project were to evaluate the yield response of hybrid corn to foliar fungicide application at various timings.

Horizontal profiles of longwave and shortwave radiation components over sea ice near Barrow, Alaska during the 2011 melt

An integrated instrument package for measuring and understanding the surface radiation budget of sea ice is presented, along with results from its first deployment. The setup simultaneously measures broadband fluxes of upwelling and downwelling terrestrial and solar radiation (four components separately), spectral fluxes of incident and reflected solar radiation, and supporting data such as air temperature and humidity, surface temperature, and location (GPS), in addition to photographing the sky and observed surface during each measurement. The instruments are mounted on a small sled, allowing measurements of the radiation budget to be made at many locations in the study area to see the effect of small-scale surface processes on the large-scale radiation budget. Such observations have many applications, from calibration and validation of remote sensing products to improving our understanding of surface processes that affect atmosphere-snow-ice interactions and drive feedbacks, ultimately leading to the potential to improve climate modelling of ice-covered regions of the ocean. The photographs, spectral data, and other observations allow for improved analysis of the broadband data. An example of this is shown by using the observations made during a partly cloudy day, which show erratic variations due to passing clouds, and creating a careful estimate of what the radiation budget along the observed line would have been under uniform sky conditions, clear or overcast. Other data from the setup's first deployment, in June 2011 on fast ice near Point Barrow, Alaska, are also shown; these illustrate the rapid changes of the radiation budget during a cold period that led to refreezing and new snow well into the melt season.

Rocks and minerals from the Strakhov Fracture Zone, 4°N Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Geological-geophysical data obtained during Cruises 7, 11, and 12 of R/V Akademic Nikolay Strakhov (1989-1991) within the international project EQUARIDGE in the Strakhov Fracture Zone region (4°N) are presented. The trough of the fracture is interpreted as an open extension joint, a graben produced by stretching along the axis of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Bedrock studies showed that typical mid-ocean tholeiitic basalts occur within the narrow (60 nm wide) axial rift zone, whereas igneous rocks not typical for the ocean were found on the eastern and western flank plateaus. This allows to suppose that a reworked relict continental-type basement of pre-Upper Jurassic age possibly exists beneath the flank plateaus, within the segment under discussion. The above data correspond to the hypothesis of E. Bonatti about nonspreading nature of the basement of Mid-Atlantic Ridge within the equatorial segment and the Strakhov Fracture Zone.

La muerte de Martín Fierro, de Leonardo Castellani : apuntes de genética textual

En 1953, el padre Leonardo Castellani publica La muerte de Martín Fierro, un poema autobiográfico que remeda el estilo y forma del texto de José Hernández. Hemos hallado una copia mecanografiada -presumiblemente la misma que fuera entregada a la imprenta-, con numerosas correcciones autógrafas, algunas de las cuales no han sido incorporadas al texto finalmente editado. Destacamos dos tipos de variantes: aquellas que obedecen a cuestiones estilísticas (imitación del estilo gauchesco, mejoramiento de la métrica, signos de puntuación, etc.), y otras de mayor interés (reescritura y/o supresión de versos y estrofas completas) en las que se revela cierta autocensura ejercida sobre asuntos estrictamente relacionados con su crisis personal luego de haber sido expulsado de la Compañía de Jesús.

¿Preservar o producir? Tensiones en el uso agropecuario de los recursos naturales y el ambiente. Los productores de Lobería (provincia de Buenos Aires) en la primera década del siglo XXI

La instalación desde fines del Siglo XX de un modelo de producción agropecuaria altamente intensivo establece una tensión creciente con la capacidad de sostenimiento de los territorios. La presente investigación se propone indagar en la tensión latente entre, el cuidado de los recursos naturales y el ambiente, y la puesta en producción de la tierra, por parte de productores de perfil familiar del Partido de Lobería (Pcia. Buenos Aires), en el contexto de aumento de la lógica extractiva. Focalizándonos en la tensión entre acción y sistema, esta investigación analiza las decisiones productivas de los agentes, en relación al uso de los recursos naturales que controlan y el ambiente con el que se vinculan. Buscamos, por un lado, comprender qué factores estructurales ? tecnológicos, económicos y simbólicos- inciden, según el tipo de productor, en sus prácticas y elecciones productivas. Al mismo tiempo, analizamos cómo estos factores tensionan saberes y prácticas nuevas y tradicionales, en torno a las formas sustentables de producción. Por otro lado, dentro del margen de acción que los agentes tienen en la estructura, indagamos en las prácticas, rescatando sus posiciones en torno al cuidado de los recursos y el ambiente suelo, agua, aire, biodiversidad-, en relación al uso de la tierra, de los agroquímicos y de la tecnología disponible, con la intención de reconstruir su razonabilidad

¿Preservar o producir? Tensiones en el uso agropecuario de los recursos naturales y el ambiente. Los productores de Lobería (provincia de Buenos Aires) en la primera década del siglo XXI

La instalación desde fines del Siglo XX de un modelo de producción agropecuaria altamente intensivo establece una tensión creciente con la capacidad de sostenimiento de los territorios. La presente investigación se propone indagar en la tensión latente entre, el cuidado de los recursos naturales y el ambiente, y la puesta en producción de la tierra, por parte de productores de perfil familiar del Partido de Lobería (Pcia. Buenos Aires), en el contexto de aumento de la lógica extractiva. Focalizándonos en la tensión entre acción y sistema, esta investigación analiza las decisiones productivas de los agentes, en relación al uso de los recursos naturales que controlan y el ambiente con el que se vinculan. Buscamos, por un lado, comprender qué factores estructurales ? tecnológicos, económicos y simbólicos- inciden, según el tipo de productor, en sus prácticas y elecciones productivas. Al mismo tiempo, analizamos cómo estos factores tensionan saberes y prácticas nuevas y tradicionales, en torno a las formas sustentables de producción. Por otro lado, dentro del margen de acción que los agentes tienen en la estructura, indagamos en las prácticas, rescatando sus posiciones en torno al cuidado de los recursos y el ambiente suelo, agua, aire, biodiversidad-, en relación al uso de la tierra, de los agroquímicos y de la tecnología disponible, con la intención de reconstruir su razonabilidad