THE ECONOMICS OF CLEANING WINTER WHEAT FOR EXPORT: AN EVALUATION OF PROPOSED FEDERAL "CLEAN GRAIN" STANDARDS

Buyer complaints about poor quality U.S. wheat have led to proposals to enforce minimum dockage standards for exports. An economic-engineering approach is used to evaluate costs and benefits of cleaning wheat in order to meet these standards for 13 possible cleaning configurations. These results are used in an optimization framework to estimate costs and benefits of cleaning all U.S. export wheat. The estimates indicate that cleaning U.S. export winter wheat to .35% dockage would cost an average of 1 cent/bu., requiring an initial capital investment of $28 million. Value of wheat lost in cleaning is a significant cost that previously has been overlooked.Agricultural and Food Policy,

The momentum flux probability distribution function for ion-temperature-gradient turbulence

There has been overwhelming evidence that coherent structures play a critical role in determining the overall transport in a variety of systems. We compute the probability distribution function (PDF) tails of momentum flux and heat flux in ion-temperature-gradient turbulence, by taking into account the interaction among modons, which are assumed to be coherent structures responsible for bursty and intermittent events, contributing to the PDF tails. The tail of PDF of momentum flux R = 〈vxvy〉 is shown to be exponential with the form exp{−ξR3/2}, which is broader than a Gaussian, similar to what was found in the previous local studies. An analogous expression with the same functional dependence is found for the PDF tails of heat flux. Furthermore, we present a detailed numerical study of the dependence of the PDF tail on the temperature and density scale lengths and other physical parameters through the coefficient ξ

Nonlocal effects in high energy charged particle beams

Within the framework of the thermal wave model, an investigation is made of the longitudinal dynamics of high energy charged particle beams. The model includes the self-consistent interaction between the beam and its surroundings in terms of a nonlinear coupling impedance, and when resistive as well as reactive parts are included, the evolution equation becomes a generalised nonlinear Schroedinger equation including a nonlocal nonlinear term. The consequences of the resistive part on the propagation of particle bunches are examined using analytical as well as numerical methods.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, uses RevTeX

Stochastically modeled weakly reversible reaction networks with a single linkage class

It has been known for nearly a decade that deterministically modeled reaction networks that are weakly reversible and consist of a single linkage class have trajectories that are bounded from both above and below by positive constants (so long as the initial condition has strictly positive components). It is conjectured that the stochastically modeled analogs of these systems are positive recurrent. We prove this conjecture in the affirmative under the following additional assumptions: (i) the system is binary, and (ii) for each species, there is a complex (vertex in the associated reaction diagram) that is a multiple of that species. To show this result, a new proof technique is developed in which we study the recurrence properties of the n-step embedded discrete-time Markov chain

Effects of morphology on phonons of nanoscopic silver grains

The morphology of nanoscopic Ag grains significantly affects the phonons. Atomistic simulations show that realistic nanograin models display complex vibrational properties. (1) Single-crystalline grains. Nearly-pure torsional and radial phonons appear at low frequencies. For low-energy, faceted models, the breathing mode and acoustic gap (lowest frequency) are about 10% lower than predicted by elasticity theory (ET) for a continuum sphere of the same volume. The sharp edges and the atomic lattice split the ET-acoustic-gap quintet into a doublet and triplet. The surface protrusions associated with nearly spherical, high-energy models produce a smaller acoustic gap and a higher vibrational density of states (DOS) at frequencies \nu<2 THz. (2) Twined icosahedra. In contrast to the single-crystal case, the inherent strain produce a larger acoustic gap, while the core atoms yield a DOS tail extending beyond the highest frequency of single-crystalline grains. (3) Mark's decahedra, in contrast to (1) and (2), do not have a breathing mode; although twined and strained, do not exhibit a high-frequency tail in the DOS. (4) Irregular nanograins. Grain boundaries and surface disorder yield non-degenerate phonon frequencies, and significantly smaller acoustic gap. Only these nanograins exhibit a low-frequency \nu^2 DOS in the interval 1-2 THz.Comment: Version published in Phys. Rev.

Tier structure of strongly endotactic reaction networks

Reaction networks are mainly used to model the time-evolution of molecules of interacting chemical species. Stochastic models are typically used when the counts of the molecules are low, whereas deterministic models are often used when the counts are in high abundance. The mathematical study of reaction networks has increased dramatically over the last two decades as these models are now routinely used to investigate cellular behavior. In 2011, the notion of “tiers” was introduced to study the long time behavior of deterministically modeled reaction networks that are weakly reversible and have a single linkage class. This “tier” based argument was analytical in nature. Later, in 2014, the notion of a strongly endotactic network was introduced in order to generalize the previous results from weakly reversible networks with a single linkage class to this wider family of networks. The point of view of this later work was more geometric and algebraic in nature. The notion of strongly endotactic networks was later used in 2018 to prove a large deviation principle for a class of stochastically modeled reaction networks. In the current paper we provide an analytical characterization of strongly endotactic networks in terms of tier structures. By doing so, we not only shed light on the connection between the two points of view, but also make available a new proof technique for the study of strongly endotactic networks. We show the power of this new technique in two distinct ways. First, we demonstrate how the main previous results related to strongly endotactic networks, both for the deterministic and stochastic modeling choices, can be quickly obtained from our characterization. Second, we demonstrate how new results can be obtained by proving that a sub-class of strongly endotactic networks, when modeled stochastically, is positive recurrent. Finally, and similarly to recent independent work by Agazzi and Mattingly, we provide an example which closes a conjecture in the negative by showing that stochastically modeled strongly endotactic networks can be transient (and even explosive)

Multi--hump soliton--like structures in interactions of lasers and Bose--Einstein condensates

An investigation is made of multi-hump and periodic solutions of the semi-classical coupled equations describing laser radiation copropagating with a Bose-Einstein condensate. Solutions reminiscent of optical vector solitons have been found and have been used to gain understanding of the dynamics observed in the numerical simulations, in particular to shed light on the phenomenon of jet emission from a condensate interacting with a laser.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; submitted to European Physics Letter

Chandra Multiwavelength Project: Normal Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift

(abridged) We have investigated 136 Chandra extragalactic sources without broad optical emission lines, including 93 galaxies with narrow emission lines (NELG) and 43 with only absorption lines (ALG). Based on fx/fo, Lx, X-ray spectral hardness and optical emission line diagnostics, we have conservatively classified 36 normal galaxies (20 spirals and 16 ellipticals) and 71 AGNs. We found no statistically significant evolution in Lx/LB, within the limited z range. We have built log(N)-log(S), after correcting for completeness based on a series of simulations. The best-fit slope is -1.5 for both S and B energy bands, which is considerably steeper than that of the AGN-dominated cosmic background sources, but slightly flatter than the previous estimate, indicating normal galaxies will not exceed the AGN population until fx ~ 2 x 10-18 erg s-1 cm-2 (a factor of ~5 lower than the previous estimate). A group of NELGs appear to be heavily obscured in X-rays, i.e., a typical type 2 AGN. After correcting for intrinsic absorption, their X-ray luminosities could be Lx > 10^44 erg s-1, making them type 2 quasar candidates. While most X-ray luminous ALGs (XBONG - X-ray bright, optically normal galaxy candidates) do not appear to be significantly absorbed, we found two heavily obscured objects, which could be as luminous as an unobscured broad-line quasar. Among 43 ALGs, we found two E+A galaxy candidates with strong Balmer absorption lines, but no [OII] line. The X-ray spectra of both galaxies are soft and one of them has a nearby close companion galaxy, supporting the merger/interaction scenario rather than the dusty starburst hypothesis.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ (20 June 2006, v644), replaced with minor correction