A process oriented approach to service concepts.

Cet article s’intéresse à l’amélioration de la qualité des services et à leur conception en discutant des concepts classiquement mobilisés dans l’analyse des services, au travers d’une approche orientée processus. Il commence par passer en revue les définitions proposées par quelques chercheurs bien connus, spécialistes des services. Il propose une nouvelle typologie des service basée sur une approche orientée processus, permettant de discuter la portée de certaines caractéristiques généralement associées aux services. Il pointe ensuite les similitudes existant entre la production de biens et celle de services et traite du continuum biens-services. Il s’intéresse enfin au clivage des opérations réalisées en front office et en back office, l’explicitation de la ligne de partage permettant de discuter de la qualité de service du double point de vue du consommateur et du producteur, dans une perspective de conception d’un service.The authors aim to contribute to the research on improvement of service quality and on service design by discussing service concepts through a process oriented approach. They begin by reviewing the service definitions given by some well known researchers working on service. They propose a new process oriented service classification which helps to challenge the validity of some service characteristics. They point out similarities between manufacturing and service production and discuss good-service continuum. They focus on separation of back-office operations from the front-office operations by the line of visibility which may help to discuss service quality from both producer's and customer's perspective in a service design context.Management de la production de services; Définition d'un service; Continuum produits-services; Classification des services; Coproduction;

Reaction of europium and some transition metals deposited as ultrathin films

Formation of rare earth (RE) and transition metal (TM) binary compounds, RExTMy, with different stoichiometry is well known [1]. Such compounds have been extensively studied during the last two or three decades, especially their magnetic properties. These compounds are interesting not only from a basic physics point of view but also from an applications standpoint. Certain important features occur in RExTMy thin films, such as large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, a high Curie temperature, and a high coercive field makes these materials a promising candidate for potential applications in magneto-optical recording and/or permanent magnets used in on-wafer actuators and sensors. The aim of our work was to examine, over a wide range of Eu-TM (TM = Mn, Fe, Cr) concentrations, formation of ordered compounds or alloys in the form of thin films, and to determine their basic physical properties. A Molecular Beam Epitaxy systems equipped with XPS and RHEED, were used to prepare Eu-TM films. A series of 2-30nm thick Eu-TM films have been grown at room temperature by co-deposition or in multilayers form on MgO, GaAs or Si substrates with a 50 nm thick Mo buffer layer. We carried out electronic and crystallographic characterization of their properties using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and diffraction measurements. The magnetic and transport properties were investigated with the help of a SQUID magnetometer and a 4-point probe over a wide temperature range. Relative changes in the Eu 4rf/(Mn, Fe, Cr) 2p photoemission line area ratio, as well as chemical shifts of core levels monitored during the annealing process indicate mixing between europium and transition metals. The intermixing of the layers was also confirmed by the XRR measurements, where a formation of the uniform film from the point of view of electronic density was observed. The diffraction measurements indicate that the mixing of Eu-TM layers was the most efficient for the Eu/Mn system where a new Eu-Mn compound has been formed - EuMn2 exhibiting magnetic ordering at temperatures below 40K. Indication of formation of additional two intermetallic phases was found in the Eu-Mn system. The magnetic properties of Eu-Mn and Eu-Cr systems result mainly from the occurrence of divalent europium in samples, whereas in the case of the Eu-Fe system they are dominated by the presence of iron aggregated probably in nanoparticles

Interview with Orlando Redekopp

Length: 88 minutes Oral history interview of Orlando Redekopp by Balin Pagadal

Arc Schemes in Logarithmic Algebraic Geometry

We develop the theory of log arc schemes of algebraic varieties, building on prior work by Noguchi, Vojta, Dutter, Karu and Staal, and others on log jet schemes. These are analogues to the ordinary arc and jet schemes of a variety, in the category of log schemes in the sense of Kato. In particular we characterise the fine log schemes for which the associated log arc scheme is irreducible, generalising a well-known theorem of Kolchin to the log geometry setting, and develop a theory of integration on log arc schemes generalising the theory of motivic integration on ordinary arc schemes due to Kontsevich, Denef and Loeser, and Batyrev. Prior to this we give an essentially self-contained exposition of the elements of log geometry that we require.PhDMathematicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111507/1/bkflem_1.pd

Perspectives on the Intracellular Bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae in Late-Onset Dementia

Purpose of Review Chronic diseases remain a daunting challenge for clinicians and researchers alike. While difficult to completely understand, most chronic diseases, including late-onset dementias, are thought to arise as an interplay between host genetic factors and environmental insults. One of the most diverse and ubiquitous environmental insults centers on infectious agents. Associations of infectious agents with late-onset dementia have taken on heightened importance, including our investigations of infection by the intracellular respiratory bacterium, Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn), in late-onset dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. Recent Findings Over the last two decades, the relationship of this infection to pathogenesis in late-onset dementia has become much clearer. This clarity has resulted from applying contemporary molecular genetic, biochemical, immunochemical, and cell culture techniques to analysis of human brains, animal models, and relevant in vitro cell culture systems. Data from these studies, taken in aggregate form, now can be applied to evaluation of proof of concept for causation of this infection with late-onset disease. In this evaluation, modifications to the original Koch postulates can be useful for elucidating causation. Summary All such relevant studies are outlined and summarized in this review, and they demonstrate the utility of applying modified Koch postulates to the etiology of late-onset dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. Regardless, it is clear that even with strong observational evidence, in combination with application of modifications of Koch’s postulates, we will not be able to conclusively state that Cpn infection is causative for disease pathogenesis in late-onset dementia. Moreover, this conclusion obtains as well for the putative causation of this condition by other pathogens, including herpes simplex virus type 1, Borrelia burgdorferi, and Porphyromonas gingivalis

Lidar measurements of slant visual range

When converting the lidar equation relative to the extinction coefficient and, correspondingly, the visual range, the instability of the solution at the increase of the optical density of the sounding path is encountered. The search for a stable solution has resulted in the appearance of a set of inversion algorithms differing mainly in the manner of assigning the a priori information on the profile sought. A stable algorithm of inversion is suggested and a comparative analysis and experimental verification of some methods of processing the signals at sounding the optically dense atmospheric formations are given

Boundary Element and Finite Element Coupling for Aeroacoustics Simulations

We consider the scattering of acoustic perturbations in a presence of a flow. We suppose that the space can be split into a zone where the flow is uniform and a zone where the flow is potential. In the first zone, we apply a Prandtl-Glauert transformation to recover the Helmholtz equation. The well-known setting of boundary element method for the Helmholtz equation is available. In the second zone, the flow quantities are space dependent, we have to consider a local resolution, namely the finite element method. Herein, we carry out the coupling of these two methods and present various applications and validation test cases. The source term is given through the decomposition of an incident acoustic field on a section of the computational domain's boundary.Comment: 25 page

A Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methodology Suggestion for Turkey Energy Planning Based Type-2 Fuzzy Sets

Energy as an essential basis for the social development has a vital role for survival and development of humankind as an environmental factor. Energy consumption of Turkey has become an important problem through the exorbitant price increase in the fundamental energy source of the world and rapid development in the economy of Turkey. The necessity to create correct decision-making processes related to future in order to eliminate this problem has appeared as well. For that reason, views of decision-makers upon the relative importance of selection criteria were determined, using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) based upon type-2 fuzzy sets (FSs) that were used in order to list the best energy alternatives

Supergravity Computations without Gravity Complications

The conformal compensator formalism is a convenient and versatile representation of supergravity (SUGRA) obtained by gauge fixing conformal SUGRA. Unfortunately, practical calculations often require cumbersome manipulations of component field terms involving the full gravity multiplet. In this paper, we derive an alternative gauge fixing for conformal SUGRA which decouples these gravity complications from SUGRA computations. This yields a simplified tree-level action for the matter fields in SUGRA which can be expressed compactly in terms of superfields and a modified conformal compensator. Phenomenologically relevant quantities such as the scalar potential and fermion mass matrix are then straightforwardly obtained by expanding the action in superspace.Comment: 10 pages; v2: references update