FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF REFRIGERATED FOOD PRODUCTS TRUCKING FIRMS IN THE U.S.

This study provides an overview of the financial characteristics of U. S. refrigerated food products trucking firms as a group and by regions. The analytical tools used for evaluating the financial assessment of the industry were several commonly used liquidity, profitability, and solvency ratios. One of the results reveals that the pre-tax income-to-gross revenue ratio, a measure of profitability, for the firms as a group averaged 0.01. This value means that one-cent of every dollar earned in services ("sales") was available to pay taxes and distribute profits.Agribusiness,

Scalable squeezed light source for continuous variable quantum sampling

We propose a novel squeezed light source capable of meeting the stringent requirements of continuous variable quantum sampling. Using the effective $\chi_2$ interaction induced by a strong driving beam in the presence of the $\chi_3$ response in an integrated microresonator, our device is compatible with established nanophotonic fabrication platforms. With typical realistic parameters, squeezed states with a mean photon number of 10 or higher can be generated in a single consistent temporal mode at repetition rates in excess of 100MHz. Over 15dB of squeezing is achievable in existing ultra-low loss platforms

Nucleon scattering on actinides using a dispersive optical model with extended couplings

Tamura coupling model has been extended to consider the coupling of additional low-lying rotational bands to the ground state band. Rotational bands are built on vibrational bandheads (even-even targets) or single particle bandheads (odd-$A$ targets) including both axial and non-axial deformations. These additional excitations are introduced as a perturbation to the underlying axially-symmetric rigid rotor structure of the ground state rotational band. Coupling matrix elements of the generalized optical model are derived for extended multi-band transitions in even-even and odd-$A$ nuclei. Isospin symmetric formulation of the optical model is employed. A coupled-channels optical model potential (OMP) containing a dispersive contribution is used to fit simultaneously all available optical experimental databases including neutron strength functions for nucleon scattering on $^{232}$Th, $^{233,235,238}$U and $^{239}$Pu nuclei and quasi-elastic ($p$,$n$) scattering data on $^{232}$Th and $^{238}$U. Lane consistent OMP is derived for all actinides if corresponding multi-band coupling schemes are defined. Calculations using the derived OMP potential reproduce measured total cross-section differences between several actinide pairs within experimental uncertainty for incident neutron energies from 50 keV up to 150MeV. Multi-band coupling is stronger in even-even targets due to the collective nature of the coupling; the impact of extended coupling on predicted compound-nucleus formation cross section reaches 5% below 3 MeV of incident neutron energy. Coupling of ground-state rotational band levels in odd-$A$ nuclei is sufficient for a good description of the compound-nucleus formation cross sections as long as the coupling is saturated (a minimum of 7 coupled levels are typically needed).Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, 8 tables, 3 appendice

Predicting the optical observables for nucleon scattering on even-even actinides

Previously derived Lane consistent dispersive coupled-channel optical model for nucleon scattering on $^{232}$Th and $^{238}$U nuclei is extended to describe scattering on even-even actinides with $Z=$90--98. A soft-rotator-model (SRM) description of the low-lying nuclear structure is used, where SRM Hamiltonian parameters are adjusted to the observed collective levels of the target nucleus. SRM nuclear wave functions (mixed in $K$ quantum number) have been used to calculate coupling matrix elements of the generalized optical model. The "effective" deformations that define inter-band couplings are derived from SRM Hamiltonian parameters. Conservation of nuclear volume is enforced by introducing a dynamic monopolar term to the deformed potential leading to additional couplings between rotational bands. Fitted static deformation parameters are in very good agreement with those derived by Wang and collaborators using the Weizs\"acker-Skyrme global mass model (WS4), allowing to use the latter to predict cross section for nuclei without experimental data. A good description of scarce "optical" experimental database is achieved. SRM couplings and volume conservation allow a precise calculation of the compound-nucleus formation cross sections, which is significantly different from the one calculated with rigid-rotor potentials coupling the ground-state rotational band. Derived parameters can be used to describe both neutron and proton induced reactions.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 5 table

Surface magnetism in ZnO/Co3O4 mixtures

We recently reported the observation of room temperature ferromagnetism in mixtures of ZnO and Co3O4 despite the diamagnetic and antiferromagnetic character of these oxides respectively. Here we present a detailed study on the electronic structure of this material in order to account for this unexpected ferromagnetism. Electrostatic interactions between both oxides lead to a dispersion of Co3O4 particles over the surface of ZnO larger ones. As a consequence, the reduction of Co+3 to Co2+ at the particle surface takes place as evidenced by XAS measurements and optical spectrocopy. This reduction allows to xplain the observed ferromagnetic signal within the well established theories of magnetism.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Applied Physic

Insights into the room temperature magnetism of ZnO/Co3O4 mixtures

The origin of room temperature (RT) ferromagneticlike behavior in ZnO-based diluted magnetic semiconductors is still an unclear topic. The present work concentrates on the appearance of RT magnetic moments in just mixed ZnO/Co3O4 mixtures without thermal treatment. In this study, it is shown that the magnetism seems to be related to surface reduction of the Co3O4 nanoparticles, in which, an antiferromagnetic Co3O4 nanoparticle (core) is surrounded by a CoO-like shell. This singular superficial magnetism has also been found in other mixtures with semiconductors such as TiO2 and insulators such as Al2O3