Strategic Implications of Retail Pricing in the U.S. Fluid Milk Market

We explore brand level strategic interactions between skim/low fat and whole milk brands by estimating detailed price elasticity matrix using quadratic almost ideal demand system for eight major U.S. cities. Results of our analysis suggest that the market and demand behavior of skim/low fat and whole milk brands are different. Demand for skim/low fat milk is more elastic than in the case of whole milk. Highly inelastic demand for large number of Private label whole milk brands suggests 'loss leader' pricing strategy by the retailers. Such pricing strategy does not seem to be the norm in skim/low fat milk market.Agribusiness,

Effect of phonon-phonon interactions on localization

We study the heat current J in a classical one-dimensional disordered chain with on-site pinning and with ends connected to stochastic thermal reservoirs at different temperatures. In the absence of anharmonicity all modes are localized and there is a gap in the spectrum. Consequently J decays exponentially with system size N. Using simulations we find that even a small amount of anharmonicity leads to a J~1/N dependence, implying diffusive transport of energy.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Published versio

Disorderless quasi-localization of polar gases in one-dimensional lattices

One-dimensional polar gases in deep optical lattices present a severely constrained dynamics due to the interplay between dipolar interactions, energy conservation, and finite bandwidth. The appearance of dynamically-bound nearest-neighbor dimers enhances the role of the $1/r^3$ dipolar tail, resulting, in the absence of external disorder, in quasi-localization via dimer clustering for very low densities and moderate dipole strengths. Furthermore, even weak dipoles allow for the formation of self-bound superfluid lattice droplets with a finite doping of mobile, but confined, holons. Our results, which can be extrapolated to other power-law interactions, are directly relevant for current and future lattice experiments with magnetic atoms and polar molecules.Comment: 5 + 2 Page

Effect of Noise on Patterns Formed by Growing Sandpiles

We consider patterns generated by adding large number of sand grains at a single site in an abelian sandpile model with a periodic initial configuration, and relaxing. The patterns show proportionate growth. We study the robustness of these patterns against different types of noise, \textit{viz.}, randomness in the point of addition, disorder in the initial periodic configuration, and disorder in the connectivity of the underlying lattice. We find that the patterns show a varying degree of robustness to addition of a small amount of noise in each case. However, introducing stochasticity in the toppling rules seems to destroy the asymptotic patterns completely, even for a weak noise. We also discuss a variational formulation of the pattern selection problem in growing abelian sandpiles.Comment: 15 pages,16 figure

Heat conduction in disordered harmonic lattices with energy conserving noise

We study heat conduction in a harmonic crystal whose bulk dynamics is supplemented by random reversals (flips) of the velocity of each particle at a rate $\lambda$. The system is maintained in a nonequilibrium stationary state(NESS) by contacts with Langevin reservoirs at different temperatures. We show that the one-body and pair correlations in this system are the same (after an appropriate mapping of parameters) as those obtained for a model with self-consistent reservoirs. This is true both for the case of equal and random(quenched) masses. While the heat conductivity in the NESS of the ordered system is known explicitly, much less is known about the random mass case. Here we investigate the random system, with velocity flips. We improve the bounds on the Green-Kubo conductivity obtained by C.Bernardin. The conductivity of the 1D system is then studied both numerically and analytically. This sheds some light on the effect of noise on the transport properties of systems with localized states caused by quenched disorder.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

Cost of Cultivation and Economic Returns Analysis of Cashewnut in West Garo Hills of Meghalaya

Adoption of new technology and sustainable utilization of resources can help cashewnut growers in minimizing the cost of production. New paradigm and challenges are needed for cashewnut growers of Meghalaya in solving the problem like recurrent price fluctuation, high inputs costs, marketing, storage and transportation cost, non-availability of adequate storage facilities, post harvest losses and lack of competitive marketing system. Cashewnut production plays a pivot role in fostering and sustaining the tempo of rural development in the study area. Meghalaya has become very popular in organic farming which gives very good returns from the Garo Hills region as well as export market. As the low input intensity of agriculture in Meghalaya and makes cashewnut ideally suited for organic produce is expected to boost up in near future due to the steps initiated under National Horticulture Mission for doubling the farm incomes. The study signifies and confirms the economics of cashewnut production for sustainable resource management, enhanced income generations and enlarged employment opportunities on a long term prospective

Spin glasses in the limit of an infinite number of spin components

We consider the spin glass model in which the number of spin components, m, is infinite. In the formulation of the problem appropriate for numerical calculations proposed by several authors, we show that the order parameter defined by the long-distance limit of the correlation functions is actually zero and there is only "quasi long range order" below the transition temperature. We also show that the spin glass transition temperature is zero in three dimensions.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure

Sampling rare fluctuations of height in the Oslo ricepile model

We have studied large deviations of the height of the pile from its mean value in the Oslo ricepile model. We sampled these very rare events with probabilities of order $10^{-100}$ by Monte Carlo simulations using importance sampling. These simulations check our qualitative arguement [Phys. Rev. E, {\bf 73}, 021303, 2006] that in steady state of the Oslo ricepile model, the probability of large negative height fluctuations $\Delta h=-\alpha L$ about the mean varies as $\exp(-\kappa {\alpha}^4 L^3)$ as $L \to \infty$ with $\alpha$ held fixed, and $\kappa > 0$.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Restricted equilibrium ensembles: Exact equation of state of a model glass

We investigate the thermodynamic properties of a toy model of glasses: a hard-core lattice gas with nearest neighbor interaction in one dimension. The time-evolution is Markovian, with nearest-neighbor and next-nearest neighbor hoppings, and the transition rates are assumed to satisfy detailed balance condition, but the system is non-ergodic below a glass temperature. Below this temperature, the system is in restricted thermal equilibrium, where both the number of sectors, and the number of accessible states within a sector grow exponentially with the size of the system. Using partition functions that sum only over dynamically accessible states within a sector, and then taking a quenched average over the sectors, we determine the exact equation of state of this system.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Reply to comment on "Simple one-dimensional model of heat conduction which obeys Fourier's law"

In this reply we answer the comment by A. Dhar (cond-mat/0203077) on our Letter "Simple one dimensional model of heat conduction which obeys Fourier's law" (Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5486 (2001), cond-mat/0104453)Comment: 1 pag., 1 fi