STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Determinants of merger and acquisition activity in the food industry are analyzed using logit regression analysis. Factors affecting the food processing, food retailing and food service sectors are considered. Results indicate merger and acquisition activity in all three sectors are significantly influenced by antitrust activity, profitability and real gross domestic product.Industrial Organization,

Noncontact lateral-force gradient measurement on Si(111)-7×7 surface with small-amplitude off-resonance atomic force microscopy

In this work, the authors report on a quantitative investigation of lateral-force gradient and lateral force between a tungsten tip and Si(111)-(7×7) surface using combined noncontact lateral-force microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy. Simultaneous lateral-force gradient and scanning tunneling microscopy images of single and multiatomic step are obtained. In our measurement, tunnel current is used as feedback. The lateral-stiffness contrast has been observed to be 2.5 N/m at a single atomic step, in contrast to 13 N/m at a multiatomic step on Si (111) surface. They also carried out a series of lateral stiffness-distance spectroscopy, which show a sharp increase in tip-surface interaction stiffness as the sample is approached toward the surface

Optical measurement of propeller blade deflections in a spin facility

A nonintrusive optical system for measuring propeller blade deflections has been used in the NASA Lewis dynamic spin facility. Deflection of points at the leading and trailing edges of a blade section can be obtained with a narrow light beam from a low power helium-neon laser. A system used to measure these deflections at three spanwise locations is described. Modifications required to operate the lasers in a near-vacuum environment are also discussed

Some production traits of indigenous Hair goats bred under extensive conditions in Turkey. 1st communication: reproduction, milk yield and hair production traits of does

This study was conducted to investigate the reproductive performance, milk yield, hair production, fleece characteristics and body weight after shearing of Hair goats (Anatolian Black Goats), bred under extensive conditions in Turkey. The material of the study was formed a total data of 456 Flair goats, which were between 2 and 7 years of age bred in the period of two years. Conception rate, infertility Fate, abortion rate, kidding rate, single birth Fate, twin birth rate, the percentage of kids born according to mated does and litter size were 97.81%, 2.19%. 3.59%, 94.30%. 97.91%., 2.09%, 96.27% and 1.02, respectively. Lactation length, milk yield in lactation period milking period and milk yield in milking period of goats were determined as 232.29 days, 100.92 kg, 132,09 days and 43.14 kg, respectively. Hair production, fibre diameter and staple length of Hair goats in the study were determined as 381.00 g, 76.70 micrones and 13.63 cm, respectively. It was found that the effects of production year and farm on the reproductive traits given by percentage weren't statistically significant. whereas the difference among production years for litter size was significant. It was found that the effect of production year oil milk production traits except for lactation length and on the hair production; the effect of farm factor on the hair production, staple length and live weigth after shearing, the effect of age on the milk production traits, hair production traits and live weight after shearing the effect of live weight on the hair production were statistically significant (p<0.05)

High sensitivity and multifunctional micro-Hall sensors fabricated using InAlSb/InAsSb/InAlSb heterostructures

Further diversification of Hall sensor technology requires development of materials with high electron mobility and an ultrathin conducting layer very close to the material's surface. Here, we describe the magnetoresistive properties of micro-Hall devices fabricated using InAlSb/InAsSb/InAlSb heterostructures where electrical conduction was confined to a 30 nm-InAsSb two-dimensional electron gas layer. The 300 K electron mobility and sheet carrier concentration were 36 500 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) and 2.5 x 10(11) cm(-2), respectively. The maximum current-related sensitivity was 2 750 V A(-1) T-1, which was about an order of magnitude greater than AlGaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic heterostructures devices. Photolithography was used to fabricate 1 mu m x 1 mu m Hall probes, which were installed into a scanning Hall probe microscope and used to image the surface of a hard disk

High-Throughput Computing on High-Performance Platforms: A Case Study

The computing systems used by LHC experiments has historically consisted of the federation of hundreds to thousands of distributed resources, ranging from small to mid-size resource. In spite of the impressive scale of the existing distributed computing solutions, the federation of small to mid-size resources will be insufficient to meet projected future demands. This paper is a case study of how the ATLAS experiment has embraced Titan---a DOE leadership facility in conjunction with traditional distributed high- throughput computing to reach sustained production scales of approximately 52M core-hours a years. The three main contributions of this paper are: (i) a critical evaluation of design and operational considerations to support the sustained, scalable and production usage of Titan; (ii) a preliminary characterization of a next generation executor for PanDA to support new workloads and advanced execution modes; and (iii) early lessons for how current and future experimental and observational systems can be integrated with production supercomputers and other platforms in a general and extensible manner

Room temperature magnetic imaging of magnetic storage media and garnet epilayers in the presence of external magnetic fields using a sub-micron GaAs SHPM

Cataloged from PDF version of article.A multipurpose room temperature scanning Hall probe microscope (RT-SHPM) system incorporating an ultra-high sensitive sub-micron GaAs Hall probe (active area of similar to0.8 x 0.8 mum(2) room temperature Hall coefficient of 0.3 Ohm /G) exhibiting extremely high magnetic field sensitivity (0.04G/root Hz) was used for the direct, non-invasive and quantitative imaging of magnetic field fluctuations in very close proximity to the surfaces of thin film magnetic storage media, Bi substituted iron garnet epilayers and demagnetized Sr-ferrite permanent magnets placed in external magnetic fields. A scanning tunnelling microscope tip integrated adjacent to the Hall probe was used for precise vertical positioning of the probe. RT-SHPM images of 1.4 MB written floppy disks clearly showed well-defined magnetic transitions to coalesce into small island-like structures under external perpendicular fields greater than 1300 Oe. The RT-SHPM is demonstrated to be a versatile means of quantitatively monitoring micron-sized magnetic domain structures in the presence of external magnetic fields at: room temperature. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Room temperature scanning Hall probe microscopy of localized magnetic field fluctuations on the surfaces of magnetic recording media, permanent magnets and crystalline garnet films in external bias fields

Cataloged from PDF version of article.A sub-micron room temperature scanning Hall probe microscope (RT-SHPM) was used for real-time imaging of surface magnetic domains of floppy disks, Sr ferrite magnets and Bi-substituted iron garnets placed in large external bias fields. Domain wall nucleation was observed in the garnets where bubble lattices expanded, collapsed and transformed into stripe domains in cyclic bias fields. Evolution of RT-SHPM images was compared with conventional vibrating sample magnetometer measurements. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved