Heavy Quark Asymmetries at LEP

Measurements of b and c quark asymmetries using data collected at LEP 1 are described. The relative merits of each of the individual techniques used is emphasised as is the most profitable way of combining them. Effects of radiative corrections are discussed, together with the impact of these measurements on global electroweak fits used to estimate the expected mass of the Higgs boson

GResilient index to assess the greenness and resilience of the automotive supply chain

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to suggest an Index entitled GResilient Index to assess the greenness and resilience of the automotive companies and corresponding supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: An integrated assessment model is proposed based on Green and Resilient practices. These practices are weighted according to their importance to the automotive supply chain competitiveness. The Delphi technique is used to obtain the weights for the focused supply chain paradigms and corresponding practices. The model is then tested using a case study approach in the automotive supply chain. Findings: The case study results confirmed the applicability of this Index in a real-world supply chain. The results show that the Resilient supply chain management paradigm is the one considered as the one that more contributes for the automotive supply chain competitiveness. Research limitations/implications: The proposed Index was developed in the automotive sector context therefore it could not be adjusted to a different one. Future research could consider other aggregation methods for the Index construction. Practical implications: Supply chain participants will be able to evaluate the performance of their companies or supply chain in terms of Green and Resilient paradigms. Also, the Index can be effectively employed for functional benchmarking among competing companies and supply chains.Green; resilient; supply chain management; index; automotive industry

Report of the Working Group on `W Mass and QCD' (Phenomenology Workshop on LEP2 Physics, Oxford, April 1997)

The W Mass and QCD Working Group discussed a wide variety of topics relating to present and future measurements of M(W) at LEP2, including QCD backgrounds to W+W- production. Particular attention was focused on experimental issues concerning the direct reconstruction and threshold mass measurements, and on theoretical and experimental issues concerning the four jet final state. This report summarises the main conclusions.Comment: 43 pages LaTeX and 15 encapsulated postscript figures. Uses epsfig and ioplppt macros. Full Proceedings to be published in Journal of Physics

Supporting Decisions: Understanding natural resource management assessment techniques

Report to the Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation. This document presents a review of NRM decision support techniques. It draws upon previous studies in the fields of management science, operations research, environmental economics and natural resource management. The objectives of the document are to: Explain the workings of the more significant (representative) methods of NRM decision support (including the latest developments); Discuss how these decision support methods may influence the outcome of NRM decisions; and Provide practicing NRM decision makers with guidance for choosing which methods to apply.Australia;natural resource management;assessment;decision support;

Institutional Forecasting: The Performance of Thin Virtual Stock Markets

We study the performance of Virtual Stock Markets (VSMs) in an institutional forecasting environment. We compare VSMs to the Combined Judgmental Forecast (CJF) and the Key Informant (KI) approach. We find that VSMs can be effectively applied in an environment with a small number of knowledgeable informants, i.e., in thin markets. Our results show that none of the three approaches differ in forecasting accuracy in a low knowledge-heterogeneity environment. However, where there is high knowledge-heterogeneity, the VSM approach outperforms the CJF approach, which in turn outperforms the KI approach. Hence, our results provide useful insight into when each of the three approaches might be most effectively applied.Forecasting;Electronic Markets;Information Markets;Virtual Stock Markets

Measurement and Interpretation of Fermion-Pair Production at LEP energies above the Z Resonance

This paper presents DELPHI measurements and interpretations of cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries, and angular distributions, for the e+e- -> ffbar process for centre-of-mass energies above the Z resonance, from sqrt(s) ~ 130 - 207 GeV at the LEP collider. The measurements are consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model and are used to study a variety of models including the S-Matrix ansatz for e+e- -> ffbar scattering and several models which include physics beyond the Standard Model: the exchange of Z' bosons, contact interactions between fermions, the exchange of gravitons in large extra dimensions and the exchange of sneutrino in R-parity violating supersymmetry.Comment: 79 pages, 16 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

A Precise Measurement of the Tau Lifetime

The tau lepton lifetime has been measured with the e+e- -> tau+tau- events collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP in the years 1991-1995. Three different methods have been exploited, using both one-prong and three-prong tau decay channels. Two measurements have been made using events in which both taus decay to a single charged particle. Combining these measurements gave tau_tau (1 prong) = 291.8 +/- 2.3 (stat) +/- 1.5 (sys) fs. A third measurement using taus which decayed to three charged particles yielded tau_tau (3 prong) = 288.6 +/- 2.4 (stat) +/- 1.3 (sys) fs. These were combined with previous DELPHI results to measure the tau lifetime, using the full LEP1 data sample, to be tau_tau = 290.9 +/- 1.4 (stat) +/- 1.0 (sys) fs.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure

Using the Delphi Method to Identify Hospital-Specific Business Process Management Capabilities in The Netherlands

Business Process Management (BPM) is an important discipline for organisations that are desiring quality improvement. Many models for assessing, comparing and improving the maturity of organisational BPM are found in literature. An effective BPM Maturity Model should contain a validated set of capability areas specific to the application domain. We attempt to fill a gap by providing a model specific to the hospital industry. This paper presents the first phase in the development of such a model. For this we use the Delphi Method, a multi-round technique for collecting rich data and gaining consensus among a panel of experts. Based on the opinions provided by experts in hospitals and academia in The Netherlands, we identify relevant and domain-specific capabilities for improving BPM maturity in the Dutch hospital industry. Hospitals are characterised by complex, multidisciplinary processes. Our findings reflect that capabilities related to people and organisational culture are most important for achieving BPM maturity