An integrated approach to supply chain risk analysis

Despite the increasing attention that supply chain risk management is receiving by both researchers and practitioners, companies still lack a risk culture. Moreover, risk management approaches are either too general or require pieces of information not regularly recorded by organisations. This work develops a risk identification and analysis methodology that integrates widely adopted supply chain and risk management tools. In particular, process analysis is performed by means of the standard framework provided by the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model, the risk identification and analysis tasks are accomplished by applying the Risk Breakdown Structure and the Risk Breakdown Matrix, and the effects of risk occurrence on activities are assessed by indicators that are already measured by companies in order to monitor their performances. In such a way, the framework contributes to increase companies' awareness and communication about risk, which are essential components of the management of modern supply chains. A base case has been developed by applying the proposed approach to a hypothetical manufacturing supply chain. An in-depth validation will be carried out to improve the methodology and further demonstrate its benefits and limitations. Future research will extend the framework to include the understanding of the multiple effects of risky events on different processe

The Electroweak Phase Transition on Orbifolds with Gauge-Higgs Unification

The dynamics of five dimensional Wilson line phases at finite temperature is studied in the one-loop approximation. We show that at temperatures of order T \sim 1/L, where L is the length of the compact space, the gauge symmetry is always restored and the electroweak phase transition appears to be of first order. Particular attention is devoted to the study of a recently proposed five dimensional orbifold model (on S1/Z2) where the Wilson line phase is identified with the Higgs field (gauge-Higgs unification). Interestingly enough, an estimate of the leading higher-loop ``daisy'' (or ``ring'') diagram contributions to the effective potential in a simple five dimensional model, seems to suggest that the electroweak phase transition can be studied in perturbation theory even for Higgs masses above the current experimental limit of 114 GeV. The transition is still of first order for such values of the Higgs mass. If large localized gauge kinetic terms are present, the transition might be strong enough to give baryogenesis at the electroweak transition.Comment: 35 pages, 34 figures; v2: discussion on higher loop contributions improved, two figures added, minor correction

Experimental Study of rho -> pi0 pi0 gamma and omega -> pi0 pi0 gamma Decays

The e+e- -> pi0 pi0 gamma process was studied in the SND experiment at VEPP-2M e+e- collider in the energy region 0.60-0.97 GeV. From the analysis of the energy dependence of measured cross section the branching ratios B(omega -> pi0 pi0 gamma)= (6.6 +1.4-0.8(stat) +-0.6(syst))x10^-5 and B(rho -> pi0 pi0 gamma)=(4.1 +1.0-0.9(stat) +-0.3(syst))x10^-5 were obtained.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Towards a global analysis of polarized parton distributions

We present a technique for implementing in a fast way, and without any approximations, higher-order calculations of partonic cross sections into global analyses of parton distribution functions. The approach, which is set up in Mellin-moment space, is particularly suited for analyses of future data from polarized proton-proton collisions, but not limited to this case. The usefulness and practicability of this method is demonstrated for the semi-inclusive production of hadrons in deep-inelastic scattering and the transverse momentum distribution of ``prompt'' photons in pp collisions, and a case study for a future global analysis of polarized parton densities is presented.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, 6 eps figures, final version to appear in PRD (minor changes

Disorder Induced Phase Transition in a Random Quantum Antiferromagnet

A two-dimensional Heisenberg model with random antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor exchange is studied using quantum Monte Carlo techniques. As the strength of the randomness is increased, the system undergoes a transition from an antiferromagnetically ordered ground state to a gapless disordered state. The finite-size scaling of the staggered structure factor and susceptibility is consistent with a dynamic exponent $z = 2$.Comment: Revtex 3.0, 10 pages + 5 postscript figures available upon request, UCSBTH-94-1

A mechanical analysis of variable angle-tow composite plates through variable kinematics models based on Carrera’s unified formulation

Variable Angle-Tow (VAT) laminates offer a promising alternative to straight fiber composites. By varying fibers orientation within the structure plane, ambitious design and performance goals can be achieved. However, the wider design space results in a more complex problem with more parameters to consider. Carrera’s Unified Formulation (CUF) has been used in previous works performing buckling, vibrational and stress analyses of VAT plates. Usually, one-dimensional (1D) CUF beam models are used, while two-dimensional (2D) plate models are obtained as a particular case of shells by considering a null curvature. In most cases, a linear law is considered to describe the variation of fibers orientation in the main plane of the structure. The purpose of this article is to extend the CUF 2D plate finite elements family to the mechanical analysis of composite laminated plate structures with curvilinear fibers. The main contribute consists in the development of a CUF FE model within the Reissner’s Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT) context for an improved calculation of the out-of-plane stress components. Results show that RMVT can predict in-plane stresses and satisfy the though-the-thickness transverse stresses continuity due to inter-layer equilibrium. The accuracy of RMVT-based models is also investigated using two different approximation points distributions along the plates thickness

Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at s=2.76\sqrt{s} = 2.76 TeV

The $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections of the prompt (B feed-down subtracted) charmed mesons D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ in the rapidity range $|y|<0.5$, and for transverse momentum $1< p_{\rm T} <12$ GeV/$c$, were measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploited the hadronic decays D$^0 \rightarrow$K$\pi$, D$^+ \rightarrow$K$\pi\pi$, D$^{*+} \rightarrow$D$^0\pi$, and their charge conjugates, and was performed on a $L_{\rm int} = 1.1$ nb$^{-1}$ event sample collected in 2011 with a minimum-bias trigger. The total charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and at 7 TeV was evaluated by extrapolating to the full phase space the $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and our previous measurements at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The results were compared to existing measurements and to perturbative-QCD calculations. The fraction of cdbar D mesons produced in a vector state was also determined.Comment: 20 pages, 5 captioned figures, 4 tables, authors from page 15, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/307

A new SPS programme

A new experiemntal program to study hadron production in hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN SPS has been recently proposed by the NA49-future collaboration. The physics goals of the program are: (i) search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter and a study of the properties of the onset of deconfinemnt in nucleus-nucleus collisions, (ii) measurements of correlations, fluctuations and hadron spectra at high transverse momentum in proton-nucleus collisions needed as for better understanding of nucleus-nucleus results, (iii) measurements of hadron production in hadron-nucleus interactions needed for neutrino (T2K) and cosmic-ray (Pierre Auger Observatory and KASCADE) expriments. The physics of the nucleus-nucleus program is reviewed in this presentation

Particle-yield modification in jet-like azimuthal di-hadron correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The yield of charged particles associated with high-$p_{\rm T}$ trigger particles ($8 < p_{\rm T} < 15$ GeV/$c$) is measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV relative to proton-proton collisions at the same energy. The conditional per-trigger yields are extracted from the narrow jet-like correlation peaks in azimuthal di-hadron correlations. In the 5% most central collisions, we observe that the yield of associated charged particles with transverse momenta $p_{\rm T}> 3$ GeV/$c$ on the away-side drops to about 60% of that observed in pp collisions, while on the near-side a moderate enhancement of 20-30% is found.Comment: 15 pages, 2 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 10, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/350