No / A sinusoidal grating can be viewed as a series of light and dark bars. Here we measure the contrast discrimination thresholds for light and dark bars individually, and find that the contrast discrimination thresholds for the whole sinusoid can be explained as ideal summation of the light and dark bar thresholds. We propose a model for light bar, dark bar, and sinusoidal contrast discrimination which involves local light adaptation and multiplicative noise. The model accounts for the data very well, and also accounts for contrast discrimination of light and dark edges.

A cluster of buildings does not a campus make. Places of learning have long sought-out cohesive spaces that foster a sense of community and encourage an immersive life of academia. The suburban campus model, with a centric configuration, has been a successful model that has withstood the test of time. Urban campuses knitted into the urban fabric have also had success in fostering the same sense of community, but more so as part of the larger city, and using the urban context as a lab for teaching. But what makes the campuses we love successful? And how can we apply those principles to set up younger campuses for future success? This thesis tackles these questions, and attempts to understand what differentiates a mere collection of buildings from a true campus. Applied to the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center, these borrowed ideas can start to inform the design of a new campus that bridges the gap between traditional suburban campuses and organic urban campuses. Rather than providing a series of definitive answers, the thesis establishes a series of principles on how to create a cohesive design that doesn't compromise the true nature of an urban campus. The proposed design is but one of many possible solutions. As humans, we seem to have a desire to classify the world into categories. Oftentimes, however, the most beautiful things come from the tension of the unclassified. They come from the gray areas between typologies. The process of this thesis became inherently contradictory at times. It was developed in a way in which the particular conditions of the existing buildings on the site, and their character in the urban setting, were allowed to contaminate the clarity of the suburban campus typology, and as such, become in many ways an oxymoron. / Master of Architecture / This thesis examines urban campuses, and explores the design principles that make them successful. By comparing the layouts and designs of suburban campus models with those of school in urban conditions, one can begin to learn what ideas from either typology can be used to create a successful campus within an urban or semi-urban condition, like Old Town Alexandria. By using the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center as an example, the project develops a design proposal that would grow the current campus from a couple of buildings to a real successful urban campus, that has the potential to grow beyond its confined singular city block.

This dissertation examines equilibria in epidemics and introduces novel approaches to epidemic modeling, consisting of two separate but closely related chapters. In Chapter 2, we develop an optimizing epidemic model within a dynamic urn-SIR framework, accommodating generic offspring distributions, and derive a trajectory convergence theorem. We study the mean-field equilibrium through numerical simulations. Our findings reveal two key features often overlooked in existing literature: substantial variation in epidemic outcomes despite homogeneous individual behavior, and the potential for resurgence in the number of infections. We demonstrate that the offspring distribution of infections significantly impacts epidemic dynamics, with negative binomial distributions leading to more dispersed outcomes and higher probabilities of minor outbreaks compared to geometric distributions. These results highlight the importance of stochastic modeling in epidemic forecasting and public health policy. Chapter 3 proposes and examines static and dynamic urn-SIR models, a novel approach to epidemic modeling that addresses key limitations of traditional stochastic SIR models. We focus on the critical issue of heterogeneity in individual infectiousness, which is not adequately captured by the geometric offspring distribution inherent in the continuous-time Markov chain SIR models. Our urn-SIR models accommodates generic offspring distributions, including the empirically supported negative binomial distribution. We formally formulate the static and dynamic urn-SIR models. The static model focuses on the end of the epidemic, where primary variables are the epidemic size and the total number of contacts, while the dynamic model captures the dynamic process of the disease progression. The cornerstone of our work is a proven threshold limit theorem, characterizing the asymptotic behavior of the epidemic size as the population approaches infinity. This theorem extends beyond early-stage branching process approximations in the existing literature that considers generic offspring distribution. Moreover, we also show that in the dynamic model, the trajectories of epidemic processes converges in probability to a corresponding deterministic system, allowing comprehensive analysis of entire epidemic courses. Our work bridges crucial gaps in existing literature, providing a more realistic representation of disease spread while maintaining analytical tractability. The findings have significant implications for epidemiology, public health, and related fields, informing more effective strategies for disease control and prevention.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o potencial de desenvolvimento do contrato futuro de soja no Brasil, por meio da atração de hedgers brasileiros e argentinos. Para tanto, faz-se necessário conhecer os padrões das conexões dos preços entre as regiões analisadas. Nesse sentido, o Capítulo 2 investigou a integração espacial do mercado físico de soja no Brasil (região de Sorriso, no Mato Grosso) e na Argentina (região de Rosário, na província de Santa Fé) e comparou ao grau de integração com os Estados Unidos. Foram empregados modelos autorregressivos com threshold (TAR e M-TAR) e modelos vetoriais de correção de erros, lineares e com threshold (VECM e TVECM), visando captar os efeitos dos custos de transação sobre a integração espacial entre essas regiões. Os resultados apontaram que o mercado de soja brasileiro, argentino e norte-americano são integrados, mesmo considerando-se os efeitos dos custos de transação sobre as decisões de arbitragem espacial. Consequentemente, os preços da soja no mercado internacional tendem a refletir o comportamento dos principais países produtores. Apesar disso, o tempo de transmissão de choques de preços mostrou-se, em geral, menor entre Brasil e Argentina, refletindo a proximidade geográfica. Apontou-se também o comportamento assimétrico da transmissão desses choques, uma vez que choques positivos sobre a relação de longo prazo tendem a ser mais persistentes que os negativos. Se o contrato futuro reflete o comportamento de preços de um único mercado físico integrado, deve-se então esperar que o risco de base seja menor para este mercado e, portanto, que a eficiência do hedge seja maior. No Capítulo 3, o objetivo se constituiu em verificar se há maior eficiência no hedge realizado com os contratos com vencimento em março na CME em relação à BM&FBOVESPA, considerando-se as relações de longo prazo entre os preços à vista e futuros, bem como a dinâmica na estrutura de covariâncias condicionais, por meio de modelos de correção de erros (VECM) e modelos de heterocedasticidade condicional generalizados com correlação condicional dinâmica (DCC-GARCH). Os resultados mostraram que, em geral, a introdução da dinâmica nos segundos momentos das distribuições dos erros tende a aumentar a eficiência da estratégia de hedge. Além disso, foi observado que os produtores de Sorriso tendem a obter melhores condições de hedge na CME, embora haja redução da variância ao se operar na BM&FBOVESPA. Por outro lado, a eficiência do hedge para os produtores de Rosário foi significativamente maior na BM&FBOVESPA do que na CME, o que indica o mercado potencial de hedgers argentinos para negociar o contrato futuro de soja local no Brasil. / This work aims to analyze the potential for development of soybean futures contract in Brazil, through the attraction of Brazil and Argentina hedgers. Therefore, it is necessary to know the patterns of price connections between these regions. Chapter 2 investigated the spatial integration of the spot market for soybeans in Brazil (Sorriso in Mato Grosso State) and Argentina (Rosario in Santa Fe Province) and compared the degree of integration with the United States. They were employed autoregressive models with threshold (TAR and M-TAR) and vector error correction models, linear and threshold (VECM and TVECM), to capture the effects of transaction costs on the spatial integration of these regions. The results indicate that the soybeans market in Brazil, Argentina and United States are integrated, even considering the effects of transaction costs on the spatial arbitration decisions. Consequently, soybean prices in the international market tend to reflect the behavior of the main producing countries. Nevertheless, the timing of the price shocks transmission proved to be generally lower between Argentina and Brazil, reflecting the geographical proximity. It was pointed out also the asymmetric behavior of the shocks transmissions, since positive shocks on the long-term relationships tend to be more persistent than the negatives. If the futures contract reflects the behavior of prices from a single integrated physical market, one should then expect lower basis risk and therefore greater hedge efficiency. In Chapter 3, the goal was check for greater hedging efficiency using March contracts in CME compared to BM&FBOVESPA, considering the long-term relationships between spot prices and futures, as well as the dynamics in the structure of conditional covariance, using error correction model (ECM) and models of conditional heteroscedasticity widespread with dynamic conditional correlation (DCC-GARCH). The results showed that, in general, the introduction of the dynamic second moments of distributions of errors tends to increase the hedging efficiency. Moreover, Sorriso producers tend to get better hedge conditions in CME, although there is variance reduction when operating at BM&FBOVESPA. On the other hand, the hedge efficiency for Rosario producers was significantly higher on the BM&FBOVESPA than in CME, which indicates the potential market of Argentine hedgers to trade the futures contract local soybeans in Brazil.

Tendo em vista o crescente investimento em atividades economicamente importantes nas zonas costeiras, tal como a produção petrolífera brasileira e o crescimento na atividade portuária e esforço de pesca, a compreensão adequada dos fenômenos oceanográficos e meteorológicos sobre tais zonas é de grande valia para as operações desses setores. Os ventos representam um importante parâmetro para análise nesse sentido, sendo a principal fonte de energia para a geração de ondas de gravidade nos oceanos, e determinantes na caracterização de condições severas tempo. Uma série de estudos foram desenvolvidos nos últimos anos envolvendo a análise do comportamento dos extremos de ondas sobre a região do Oceano Atlântico Sul, de acordo com o crescimento da demanda por tais informações pelo setor industrial. No entanto, há poucos registros de estudos que caracterizem os extremos de intensidade de vento sobre essa região. E, em nenhum desses trabalhos, a separação direcional do vento extremo e seus fenômenos causadores foram levados em consideração. Dessa forma, o presente trabalho visa atender diretamente a necessidade por trabalhos nesse sentido para a região do Oceano Atlântico Sul, buscando oferecer uma análise dos campos de ventos extremos direcionalmente segregados, através de dados do projeto de reanálise \\textit{NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis I} e de resultados de uma simulação numérica com o modelo BRAMS. A tais conjuntos de dados foi aplicada a metodologia de análise de extremos \\textit{Peaks Over Threshold} (POT), que trata do ajuste dos excessos acima de um limiar estabelecido a uma distribuição conhecida, a Distribuição Generalizada de Pareto (Generalized Pareto Distribution - GPD). E, a partir disso, construir mapas com os valores extremos de retorno para longos períodos. Tais parâmetros são muito importantes na predição de eventos extremos e no refinamento de simulações de longo período. Os extremos relacionados aos fenômenos em larga escala, dados pelos campos do NCEP, em conjunto com o maior detalhamento em mesoescala, dado pelo BRAMS, refletiram diretamente no comportamento dos valores extremos de retorno. Para todas as direções do vento analisadas, observaram-se feições mais refinadas dos extremos de retorno para os resultados com a simulação do BRAMS, principalmente nas zonas costeiras. Essas feições, principalmente àquelas ao sul e sudeste do Oceano Atlântico Sul, tiveram seus valores potencializados em zonas já conhecidas na bibliografia pela grande incidência de eventos altamente energéticos. / Given the growing investment in important economic activities in coastal areas, such as oil and gas exploitation, harbor activities and increasing fishing effort, the proper understanding of oceanographic and meteorological phenomena over such areas has great value to the operations of such sectors. The winds are an important parameter for analysis in this context, being the main source of energy for gravity waves generation in the ocean, and determining the characterization of severe weather conditions. A number of studies have been developed in recent years involving the behavior of extreme waves over the South Atlantic Ocean region, given the rowing demand for such information by industrial sectors. However, there are few records of studies that characterize the extremes of wind speed fields over this region. And, in none of these works, the direction of the extreme wind and meteorological phenomenon associated were considered. Thus, this paper aims to address directly the need for work in this context for the South Atlantic Ocean region, seeking to offer an analysis of extreme wind fields directionally separated, through data from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis 1 and results from a numerical simulation with BRAMS. The Peaks Over Threshold (POT), which deals with the adjustment of the excesses above a threshold to the Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD), was applied to both datasets. And from that, maps with the extreme return values have been developed for long return periods. These parameters are very important in predicting extreme events and refinement of long-period simulations. Extreme winds related to the large scale phenomena, represented by NCEP fields, in conjunction with the greater mesoscale detail, given by the BRAMS simulation, directly reflected in the behavior of extreme return values. For all wind directions analyzed, there were more refined features of the extremes return levels given by the BRAMS simulation, especially in coastal areas. These features, notably those in the south and southeast of the South Atlantic Ocean, values were strengthened in areas already known in the literature for the high incidence of energetic events.

In the purpose of this study we examine the long run relationship between the flower wholesale markets in Taiwan by the theory of Park (2007). The market integration is analyzed from the viewpoint of the Law of One Price (LOP). The LOP means that the products flow from the lower price markets to the higher price ones without transaction cost utill everywhere have the same price. However, in a situation that the transaction cost exists, the assumption of LOP is questionable. When the price difference between two markets exceeds the transaction cost, there is an arbitrage opportunity. This study examine the relationship between the flower wholesale markets in Taiwan by threshold cointegration theory. The result is that there indeed exists long run relationship and threshold effects. In addition, we consider a time-varing threshold cointegration model in Park (2007), to see whether there are different arbitrage behavious depending on the season between the flower wholesale markets. Finally, we have a result that the same price gap between markets in different season will be in different regime because of the change of the value of threshold. And it causes the seasonal arbitrage behavious.

The dissertation investigates the problems of welded joints resistance to fracture, affected by high-cycle load. The object of research is mechanical state of welded joints, formed in construction elements, in which the fracture process begins because of high-cycle load. Examination of fracture mechanism is important to ensure the design and running durability of large-size elements. Detailed analysis and interpretation allows to choose better calculation methodology for welded joints. The main aim of dissertation – to investigate the process of fracture in butted welded joints, which are loaded high-cyclically, to improve calculating methodology according to consistent patterns of crack formation, propagation, stop and complete fracture, defined by experimental analytical researches. The dissertation consists of an introduction, five chapters, summary of results, references and list of author’s publications on dissertation subject. The introduction reveals the investigated problem, the topicality of the issue, the object of research, describes the aim and tasks of the paper, research methodology, scientific novelty, the practical significance of the results examined in the paper and defended propositions. The introduction ends in presenting the author’s publications on dissertation subject and reports in conferences. The first chapter covers the literature review. It reviews the research works closely related to the dissertation topic and presents the topicality and problems... [to full text] / Disertacijoje nagrinėjamos suvirintųjų jungčių atsparumo irimui problemos, veikiant daugiacikliam apkrovimui. Tyrimo objektas yra suvirintųjų jungčių mechaninis būvis, susidarantis konstrukcijos elementuose, kuriuose dėl apkrovos daugiacikliškumo prasideda irimo procesas. Suirimo mechanizmo nagrinėjimas yra svarbus didelių gabaritų detalių projektiniam ir eksploataciniam ilgalaikiškumui užtikrinti. Detali analizė ir interpretacija leidžia parinkti tinkamesnę suvirintųjų jungčių skaičiavimo metodiką. Pagrindinis disertacijos tikslas – ištirti irimo procesus suvirintuose sandūriniuose sujungimuose, apkrautuose daugiacikliškai, patobulinti skaičiavimo metodiką pagal plyšio susidarymo, plitimo, sustojimo ir visiško suirimo dėsningumus, nustatytus eksperimentiniais analitiniais tyrimais. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, penki skyriai, rezultatų apibendrinimas, naudotos literatūros ir autoriaus publikacijų disertacijos tema sąrašai. Įvade aptariama tiriamoji problema, darbo aktualumas, aprašomas tyrimų objektas, formuluojamas darbo tikslas bei uždaviniai, aprašoma tyrimų metodika, darbo mokslinis naujumas, darbo rezultatų praktinė reikšmė, ginamieji teiginiai. Įvado pabaigoje pristatomos disertacijos tema autoriaus paskelbtos publikacijos ir pranešimai konferencijose bei disertacijos struktūra. Pirmasis skyrius skirtas literatūros analizei. Jame apžvelgiami moksliniai darbai, glaudžiai susiję su disertacijos tematika, pateikiama daugiaciklio stiprumo suvirintuose komponentuose aktualijos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Designers of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are always striving to improve the speed of their designs. The propagation delay of FPGA interconnection networks is a major challenge and continues to grow with newer technologies. FPGAs interconnection networks are implemented using NMOS pass transistor based multiplexers followed by buffers. The threshold voltage drop across an NMOS device degrades the high logic value, and results in unbalanced rising and falling edges, static power consumption due to the crowbar currents, and reduced noise margins. In this work, circuit design techniques to construct interconnection circuit with capacitive boosting are proposed. By using capacitive boosting in FPGAs interconnection networks, the signal transitions are accelerated and the crowbar currents of downstream buffers are reduced. In addition, buffers can be non-skewed or slightly skewed to improve noise immunity of the interconnection network. Results indicate that by using the presented circuit design technique, the propagation delay can be reduced by at least 10% versus prior art at the expense of a slight increase in silicon area. In addition, in a bid to reduce power consumption in reconfigurable arrays, operation in weak inversion region has been suggested. Current programmable interconnections cannot be directly used in this region due to a very poor propagation delay and sensitivity to Process-Voltage-Temperature (PVT) variations. This work also focuses on designing a common structure for FPGAs interconnection networks that can operate in both strong and weak inversion. We propose to use capacitive boosting together with a new circuit design technique, called Twins transmission gates in implementing FPGA interconnect multiplexers. We also propose to use capacitive boosting in designing buffers. This way, the operation region of the interconnection circuitry is shifted away from weak inversion toward strong inversion resulting in improved speed and enhanced tolerance to PVT variations. Simulation results indicate using capacitive boosting to implement the interconnection network can have a significant influence on delay and tolerance to variations. The interconnection network with capacitive boosting is at least 34% faster than prior art in weak inversion. / Graduate

Blodlaktatkurvan används inom uthållighetsidrotten för att styra träningen samt för att utvärdera och förutsäga prestation. För att ytterligare beskriva denna kurva används ett flertal laktattröskelkoncept. Det starka sambandet mellan prestation och olika laktattröskelkoncept har gjort att det finns ett stort intresse för så kallad tröskelträning. Begreppet är dock omdiskuterat och uppfattningen att träning på tröskelintensitet skulle vara optimal är ifrågasatt. Samtidigt har tidigare studier gjort det svårt att dra tydliga slutsatser pga. brist i metoder, stor variation i använda tröskelkoncept och att träningen styrts på annat sätt än utifrån uppmätta blodlaktattrösklar. Många studier är dessutom baserade på mindre tränade deltagare vilket gör att resultaten inte nödvändigtvis är överförbara på mer vältränade individer. Syftet var därför att genom en litteraturstudie undersöka tröskelträning för mer vältränade individer där träningen helt eller delvis styrts utifrån ett laktattröskelkoncept. Frågeställningarna var (1) vad är tröskelintensitet och (2) vilka effekter har sådan träning. I resultatet inkluderades totalt åtta studier, tre observationsstudier och fem experimentella studier. Dessa studier använde ett flertal olika tröskelkoncept och således även flera olika sätt att kategorisera och ange intensitet. De inkluderade studierna varierade också stort i utformning, rapportering av genomförd träning och vilka parametrar som mättes. Utryckt i förhållande till procent av maximalt syreupptag (VO2max) var det ingen studie som visade på en förbättring av den anaeroba tröskeln. För övriga här rapporterade parametrar var resultaten motstridiga. Uppsatsen visade att det inte tycks finnas någon enskild intensitet som är optimal, varken med avseende på att förbättra laktattröskeln, testlopp, VO2max, arbetsekonomi, critical power eller hastigheten på VO2max. Vidare framkom ingen tydlig definition av tröskelintensitet. För att bättre förstå effekterna av och samspelet mellan intensitet, volym och frekvens behövs det fler studier som är väl kontrollerade utifrån en individuellt uppmätt laktattröskel. / The blood lactate curve is used in endurance sports for analysis and prediction of performance as well as to prescribe exercise. To further describe this curve, multiple lactate threshold concepts are being used. A strong correlation between these concepts and performance has led to a large interest in how to train to improve the lactate threshold. Training at threshold intensity has been suggested to be optimal but this statement has been questioned. At the same time, previous research makes it hard to draw firm conclusion because of the methods being used. Thus, the aim of this paper was to review the scientific literature to find out (1) what is threshold intensity and (2) what are the effects of this training. A total number of eight studies were included, three observational studies and five experimental studies. Since these studies varied in the threshold concepts being used, the categorization and prescription of intensity varied as well. The studies also varied in prescribed training, reporting of conducted training and measures being used. Expressed as percentage of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), no study reported an improvement of the anaerobic lactate threshold.    There seems to be no optimal intensity to improve the lactate threshold, time trial performance, VO2max, work efficiency, critical power nor the speed at VO2max. Also, no clear definition of threshold intensity was found in the literature. To further understand the effects of and interplay between intensity, volume and frequency more studies using the individual lactate threshold need to be conducted.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o potencial de desenvolvimento do contrato futuro de soja no Brasil, por meio da atração de hedgers brasileiros e argentinos. Para tanto, faz-se necessário conhecer os padrões das conexões dos preços entre as regiões analisadas. Nesse sentido, o Capítulo 2 investigou a integração espacial do mercado físico de soja no Brasil (região de Sorriso, no Mato Grosso) e na Argentina (região de Rosário, na província de Santa Fé) e comparou ao grau de integração com os Estados Unidos. Foram empregados modelos autorregressivos com threshold (TAR e M-TAR) e modelos vetoriais de correção de erros, lineares e com threshold (VECM e TVECM), visando captar os efeitos dos custos de transação sobre a integração espacial entre essas regiões. Os resultados apontaram que o mercado de soja brasileiro, argentino e norte-americano são integrados, mesmo considerando-se os efeitos dos custos de transação sobre as decisões de arbitragem espacial. Consequentemente, os preços da soja no mercado internacional tendem a refletir o comportamento dos principais países produtores. Apesar disso, o tempo de transmissão de choques de preços mostrou-se, em geral, menor entre Brasil e Argentina, refletindo a proximidade geográfica. Apontou-se também o comportamento assimétrico da transmissão desses choques, uma vez que choques positivos sobre a relação de longo prazo tendem a ser mais persistentes que os negativos. Se o contrato futuro reflete o comportamento de preços de um único mercado físico integrado, deve-se então esperar que o risco de base seja menor para este mercado e, portanto, que a eficiência do hedge seja maior. No Capítulo 3, o objetivo se constituiu em verificar se há maior eficiência no hedge realizado com os contratos com vencimento em março na CME em relação à BM&FBOVESPA, considerando-se as relações de longo prazo entre os preços à vista e futuros, bem como a dinâmica na estrutura de covariâncias condicionais, por meio de modelos de correção de erros (VECM) e modelos de heterocedasticidade condicional generalizados com correlação condicional dinâmica (DCC-GARCH). Os resultados mostraram que, em geral, a introdução da dinâmica nos segundos momentos das distribuições dos erros tende a aumentar a eficiência da estratégia de hedge. Além disso, foi observado que os produtores de Sorriso tendem a obter melhores condições de hedge na CME, embora haja redução da variância ao se operar na BM&FBOVESPA. Por outro lado, a eficiência do hedge para os produtores de Rosário foi significativamente maior na BM&FBOVESPA do que na CME, o que indica o mercado potencial de hedgers argentinos para negociar o contrato futuro de soja local no Brasil. / This work aims to analyze the potential for development of soybean futures contract in Brazil, through the attraction of Brazil and Argentina hedgers. Therefore, it is necessary to know the patterns of price connections between these regions. Chapter 2 investigated the spatial integration of the spot market for soybeans in Brazil (Sorriso in Mato Grosso State) and Argentina (Rosario in Santa Fe Province) and compared the degree of integration with the United States. They were employed autoregressive models with threshold (TAR and M-TAR) and vector error correction models, linear and threshold (VECM and TVECM), to capture the effects of transaction costs on the spatial integration of these regions. The results indicate that the soybeans market in Brazil, Argentina and United States are integrated, even considering the effects of transaction costs on the spatial arbitration decisions. Consequently, soybean prices in the international market tend to reflect the behavior of the main producing countries. Nevertheless, the timing of the price shocks transmission proved to be generally lower between Argentina and Brazil, reflecting the geographical proximity. It was pointed out also the asymmetric behavior of the shocks transmissions, since positive shocks on the long-term relationships tend to be more persistent than the negatives. If the futures contract reflects the behavior of prices from a single integrated physical market, one should then expect lower basis risk and therefore greater hedge efficiency. In Chapter 3, the goal was check for greater hedging efficiency using March contracts in CME compared to BM&FBOVESPA, considering the long-term relationships between spot prices and futures, as well as the dynamics in the structure of conditional covariance, using error correction model (ECM) and models of conditional heteroscedasticity widespread with dynamic conditional correlation (DCC-GARCH). The results showed that, in general, the introduction of the dynamic second moments of distributions of errors tends to increase the hedging efficiency. Moreover, Sorriso producers tend to get better hedge conditions in CME, although there is variance reduction when operating at BM&FBOVESPA. On the other hand, the hedge efficiency for Rosario producers was significantly higher on the BM&FBOVESPA than in CME, which indicates the potential market of Argentine hedgers to trade the futures contract local soybeans in Brazil.