RISK MANAGEMENT FOR LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS: HEDGING AND CONTRACT PRODUCTION

Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Quasi-chemical theory with a soft cutoff

In view of the wide success of molecular quasi-chemical theory of liquids, this paper develops the soft-cutoff version of that theory. This development has important practical consequences in the common cases that the packing contribution dominates the solvation free energy of realistically-modeled molecules because treatment of hard-core interactions usually requires special purpose simulation methods. In contrast, treatment of smooth repulsive interactions is typically straightforward on the basis of widely available software. This development also shows how fluids composed of molecules with smooth repulsive interactions can be treated analogously to the molecular-field theory of the hard-sphere fluid. In the treatment of liquid water, quasi-chemical theory with soft-cutoff conditioning doesn't change the fundamental convergence characteristics of the theory using hard-cutoff conditioning. In fact, hard cutoffs are found here to work better than softer ones.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Integrated photonic building blocks for next-generation astronomical instrumentation II: the multimode to single mode transition

There are numerous advantages to exploiting diffraction-limited instrumentation at astronomical observatories, which include smaller footprints, less mechanical and thermal instabilities and high levels of performance. To realize such instrumentation it is imperative to convert the atmospheric seeing-limited signal that is captured by the telescope into a diffraction-limited signal. This process can be achieved photonically by using a mode reformatting device known as a photonic lantern that performs a multimode to single-mode transition. With the aim of developing an optimized integrated photonic lantern, we undertook a systematic parameter scan of devices fabricated by the femtosecond laser direct-write technique. The devices were designed for operation around 1.55 {\mu}m. The devices showed (coupling and transition) losses of less than 5% for F/# $\geq$ 12 injection and the total device throughput (including substrate absorption) as high as 75-80%. Such devices show great promise for future use in astronomy.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Hunting the Scalar Glueball: Prospects for BES III

The search for the ground state scalar glueball G_0 is reviewed. Spin zero glueballs will have unique dynamical properties if the amplitude is suppressed by chiral symmetry, as it is to all orders in perturbation theory: for instance, mixing of G_0 with \bar qq mesons would be suppressed, radiative J/psi decay would be a filter for new physics in the spin zero channel, and the decay G_0 \to \bar KK could be enhanced relative to G_0 \to \pi \pi. These properties are consistent with the identification of f_0(1710) as the largely unmixed ground state scalar glueball, while recent BES data implies that f_0(1500) does not contain the dominant glueball admixture. Three hypotheses are discussed: that G_0 is 1) predominantly f_0(1500) or 2) predominantly f_0(1710) or 3) is strongly mixed between f_0(1500) and f_0(1710).Comment: 10 pages, talk presented at CHARM 2006, Beijing IHEP, June 5-7, 2006, to be published in the proceeding

Multiband processing of multimode light: combining 3D photonic lanterns with waveguide Bragg gratings

The first demonstration of narrowband spectral filtering of multimode light on a 3D integrated photonic chip using photonic lanterns and waveguide Bragg gratings is reported. The photonic lanterns with multi-notch waveguide Bragg gratings were fabricated using the femtosecond direct-write technique in boro-aluminosilicate glass (Corning, Eagle 2000). Transmission dips of up to 5 dB were measured in both photonic lanterns and reference single-mode waveguides with 10.4-mm-long gratings. The result demonstrates efficient and symmetrical performance of each of the gratings in the photonic lantern. Such devices will be beneficial to space-division multiplexed communication systems as well as for units for astronomical instrumentation for suppression of the atmospheric telluric emission from OH lines.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Laser & Photonics Review

Geometry and Destiny

The recognition that the cosmological constant may be non-zero forces us to re-evaluate standard notions about the connection between geometry and the fate of our Universe. An open Universe can recollapse, and a closed Universe can expand forever. As a corollary, we point out that there is no set of cosmological observations we can perform that will unambiguously allow us to determine what the ultimate destiny of the Universe will be.Comment: 7 pages, Gravity Research Foundation Essa