61,085 research outputs found
Forging Ahead: Early Lessons
Outlines outcomes and lessons of the Scale Academy for Microenterprise Development's operational grants, training, and technical support for microenterprise organizations. Examines grantees' progress in and strategies for expanding services sustainably
Polyethylene under tensile load: strain energy storage and breaking of linear and knotted alkanes probed by first-principles molecular dynamics calculations
The mechanical resistance of a polyethylene strand subject to tension and the
way its properties are affected by the presence of a knot is studied using
first-principles molecular dynamics calculations. The distribution of strain
energy for the knotted chains has a well-defined shape that is very different
from the one found in the linear case. The presence of a knot significantly
weakens the chain in which it is tied. Chain rupture invariably occurs just
outside the entrance to the knot, as is the case for a macroscopic rope.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, to appear on J. Chem. Phy
PRICE DISCOVERY FOR STOCKER CATTLE FUTURES AND OPTIONS
Low trading volume in the CME stocker cattle contracts has made hedgers and speculators reluctant to use the contracts. Traders need decision tools to discover prices or to evaluate quoted prices that may not contain all the information in the market. The number of head of stocker weight cattle sold on the spot market has increased in recent years while the practice of cross-hedging stocker weight cattle against the feeder cattle contract remains risky. A model explains the spread between feeder cattle and stocker cattle futures prices as a function of feed prices, live cattle prices, and seasonal factors. The volatility of spot stocker cattle prices is comparable to spot feeder cattle prices, supporting the idea of using feeder cattle implied volatility measures as estimates of stocker cattle futures implied volatility in option pricing models. The model and relations proposed should be useful for traders evaluating observed prices or placing limit orders for stocker futures and options.stocker cattle, cross-hedging, volatility, limit order, thin markets, Marketing,
Classical mappings of the symplectic model and their application to the theory of large-amplitude collective motion
We study the algebra Sp(n,R) of the symplectic model, in particular for the
cases n=1,2,3, in a new way. Starting from the Poisson-bracket realization we
derive a set of partial differential equations for the generators as functions
of classical canonical variables. We obtain a solution to these equations that
represents the classical limit of a boson mapping of the algebra. The
relationship to the collective dynamics is formulated as a theorem that
associates the mapping with an exact solution of the time-dependent Hartree
approximation. This solution determines a decoupled classical symplectic
manifold, thus satisfying the criteria that define an exactly solvable model in
the theory of large amplitude collective motion. The models thus obtained also
provide a test of methods for constructing an approximately decoupled manifold
in fully realistic cases. We show that an algorithm developed in one of our
earlier works reproduces the main results of the theorem.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX using REVTeX 3.
Genetic variation within and among asexual populations of Porphyra umbilicalis KĂĽtzing (Bangiales, Rhodophyta) in the Gulf of Maine, USA
The intertidal marine red alga Porphyra umbilicalis reproduces asexually in the Northwest Atlantic. We looked for population substructure among typical open-coastal and atypical estuarine habitats in seven asexual populations of P. umbilicalis from Maine to New Hampshire using eight expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeats (EST-SSR) or microsatellite loci. Six genotypes were identified, four of which may represent recombinant genotypes from a recombination event that took place locally, or that took place prior to introduction to the Northwest Atlantic. Genotypic diversity was lowest in a population from Wiscasset, Maine, which inhabits an atypical habitat high in the intertidal zone of a bridge piling in an estuarine tidal rapid. Genotypic diversity was highest in the southernmost populations from New Hampshire; we identified two genotypes that were unique to the southernmost populations, and probably represent the most derived genotypes. We looked at genetic distances among populations in similar habitats, and found that populations were more closely related to their closest neighboring population than to a population in a similar habitat. We show that genotypic diversity within P. umbilicalis populations in the Gulf of Maine is relatively high and thus fits a model of high steady-state variation within asexual populations
A study of starting time in great hard X-ray flares
An analysis of the starting time in ten great hard X-ray bursts observed with the X-Ray Burst Spectrometer (HXRBS) is presented. It is shown that the impulsive phase of nine of them is composed of a preflash phase, during which the burst is observed up to an energy limit ranging from some tens of keV to 200 keV, followed ten to some tens of seconds afterwards by a flash phase, where the count rate rises simultaneously in all detector channels. For two events strong gamma-ray line emission is observed and is shown to start close to the onset of the flash phase
Antivortices due to competing orbital and paramagnetic pair-breaking effects
Thermodynamically stable vortex-antivortex structures in a
quasi-two-dimensional superconductor in a tilted magnetic field are predicted.
For this geometry, both orbital and spin pair-breaking effects exist, with
their relative strength depending on the tilt angle \Theta. The spectrum of
possible states contains as limits the ordinary vortex state (for large \Theta)
and the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state (for \Theta=0). The
quasiclassical equations are solved near H_{c2} for arbitrary \Theta and it is
shown that stable states with coexisting vortices and antivortices exist in a
small interval close to \Theta=0. The results are compared with recent
predictions of antivortices in mesoscopic samples.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
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