1,559 research outputs found
From the boardroom to the bedside and back:A study on the relationship between hospital governance, quality management and the quality of care
Wagner, C. [Promotor]Klazinga, N.S. [Promotor]Plochg, T. [Copromotor
Error Estimates on Parton Density Distributions
Error estimates on parton density distributions are presently based on the
traditional method of least squares minimisation and linear error propagation
in global QCD fits. We review the underlying assumptions and the various
mathematical representations of the method and address some technical issues
encountered in such a global analysis. Parton distribution sets which contain
error information are described.Comment: Latex, 12 pages, 5 figures. Needs iopart.cls and iopart12.clo.
Presented at New Trends in HERA Physics 2001, Ringberg Castle, Tegernsee,
Germany, June 17-22, 200
Multivariate Fitting and the Error Matrix in Global Analysis of Data
When a large body of data from diverse experiments is analyzed using a
theoretical model with many parameters, the standard error matrix method and
the general tools for evaluating errors may become inadequate. We present an
iterative method that significantly improves the reliability of the error
matrix calculation. To obtain even better estimates of the uncertainties on
predictions of physical observables, we also present a Lagrange multiplier
method that explores the entire parameter space and avoids the linear
approximations assumed in conventional error propagation calculations. These
methods are illustrated by an example from the global analysis of parton
distribution functions.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, Latex; minor clarifications, fortran program
made available; Normalization of Hessian matrix changed to HEP standar
The t-tbar cross-section at 1.8 and 1.96 TeV: a study of the systematics due to parton densities and scale dependence
We update the theoretical predictions for the t-tbar production cross-section
at the Tevatron, taking into account the most recent determinations of
systematic uncertainties in the extraction of the proton parton densities.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, Late
The involvement of medical doctors in hospital governance and implications for quality management: a quick scan in 19 and an in depth study in 7 OECD countries.
BACKGROUND: Hospital governance is broadening its orientation from cost and production controls towards 'improving performance on clinical outcomes'. Given this new focus one might assume that doctors are drawn into hospital management across OECD countries. Hospital performance in terms of patient health, quality of care and efficiency outcomes is supposed to benefit from their involvement. However, international comparative evidence supporting this idea is limited. Just a few studies indicate that there may be a positive relationship between medical doctors being part of hospital boards, and overall hospital performance. More importantly, the assumed relationship between these so-called doctor managers and hospital performance has remained a 'black-box' thus far. However, there is an increasing literature on the implementation of quality management systems in hospitals and their relation with improved performance. It seems therefore fair to assume that the relation between the involvement of doctors in hospital management and improved hospital performance is partly mediated via quality management systems. The threefold aim of this paper is to 1) perform a quick scan of the current situation with regard to doctor managers in hospital management in 19 OECD countries, 2) explore the phenomenon of doctor managers in depth in 7 OECD countries, and 3) investigate whether doctor involvement in hospital management is associated with more advanced implementation of quality management systems. METHODS: This study draws both on a quick scan amongst country coordinators in OECD's Health Care Quality Indicator program, and on the DUQuE project which focused on the implementation of quality management systems in European hospitals. RESULTS: This paper reports two main findings. First, medical doctors fulfil a broad scope of managerial roles at departmental and hospital level but only partly accompanied by formal decision making responsibilities. Second, doctor managers having more formal decision making responsibilities in strategic hospital management areas is positively associated with the level of implementation of quality management systems. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that doctors are increasingly involved in hospital management in OECD countries, and that this may lead to better implemented quality management systems, when doctors take up managerial roles and are involved in strategic management decision making
Unpolarized fragmentation function for the pion and kaon via the nonlocal chiral-quark model
In this talk we present our recent studies for the unpolarized fragmentation
functions for the pion and kaon, employing the nonlocal chiral quark model,
which manifests the nonlocal interaction between the quarks and pseudoscalar
mesons, in the light-cone frame. It turns out that the nonlocal interaction
produces considerable differences in comparison to typical local-interaction
models.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Talk given at the international conference The
Fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Systems in Physics 2011 (APFB2011),
Seoul, Republic of Korea, 22-26 August 201
Uncertainties on parton distribution functions from the ZEUS NLO QCD fit to data on deep inelastic scattering
An NLO QCD analysis of the ZEUS data on deep inelastic scattering
together with fixed-target data has been performed from which the gluon and
quark densities of the proton and the value of the strong coupling parameter,
, have been extracted. The study includes a full treatment of
the experimental systematic uncertainties, including point-to-point
correlations. Different ways of incorporating correlated systematic
uncertainties into the fit are discussed and compared.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Invited talk at the Conference on Advanced
Statistical Techniques in Particle Physics, March 18-22 2002, Durham, U
NNLO Logarithmic Expansions and Precise Determinations of the Neutral Currents near the Z Resonance at the LHC: The Drell-Yan case
We present a comparative study of the invariant mass and rapidity
distributions in Drell-Yan lepton pair production, with particular emphasis on
the role played by the QCD evolution. We focus our study around the Z resonance
( GeV) and perform a general analysis of the
factorization/renormalization scale dependence of the cross sections, with the
two scales included both in the evolution and in the hard scatterings. We also
present the variations of the cross sections due to the errors on the parton
distributions (pdf's) and an analysis of the corresponding -factors.
Predictions from several sets of pdf's, evolved by MRST and Alekhin are
compared with those generated using \textsc{Candia}, a NNLO evolution program
that implements the theory of the logarithmic expansions, developed in a
previous work. These expansions allow to select truncated solutions of varying
accuracy using the method of the -space iterates. The evolved parton
distributions are in good agreement with other approaches. The study can be
generalized for high precision searches of extra neutral gauge interactions at
the LHC.Comment: 75 pages,30 figures, 30 table
Determination of polarized parton distribution functions and their uncertainties
We investigate the polarized parton distribution functions (PDFs) and their
uncertainties by using the world data on the spin asymmetry A_1. The
uncertainties of the polarized PDFs are estimated by the Hessian method. The up
and down valence-quark distributions are determined well. However, the
antiquark distributions have large uncertainties at this stage, and it is
particularly difficult to fix the gluon distribution. The \chi^2 analysis
produces a positively polarized gluon distribution, but even \Delta g(x)=0
could be allowed according to our uncertainty estimation. In comparison with
the previous AAC (Asymmetry Analysis Collaboration) parameterization in 2000,
accurate SLAC-E155 proton data are added to the analysis. We find that the E155
data improve the determination of the polarized PDFs, especially the polarized
antiquark distributions. In addition, the gluon-distribution uncertainties are
reduced due to the correlation with the antiquark distributions. We also show
the global analysis results with the condition \Delta g(x)=0 at the initial
scale, Q^2=1 GeV^2, for clarifying the error correlation effects with the gluon
distribution.Comment: 9 pages, 15 eps figures, REVTeX, FORTRAN package is available at the
web site http://www-hs.phys.saga-u.ac.jp/aac.html. Replaced 3 eps figures in
Fig.
Charge dependent azimuthal correlations in Pb--Pb collisions at TeV
Separation of charges along the extreme magnetic field created in non-central
relativistic heavy--ion collisions is predicted to be a signature of local
parity violation in strong interactions. We report on results for charge
dependent two particle azimuthal correlations with respect to the reaction
plane for Pb--Pb collisions at TeV recorded in 2010 with
ALICE at the LHC. The results are compared with measurements at RHIC energies
and against currently available model predictions for LHC. Systematic studies
of possible background effects including comparison with conventional
(parity-even) correlations simulated with Monte Carlo event generators of
heavy--ion collisions are also presented.Comment: Published in the proceedings of "Quark Matter 2011", Annecy-Franc
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