Taylorism, targets and the pursuit of quantity and quality by call centre management

The paper locates the rise of the call centre within the context of the development of Taylorist methods and technological change in office work in general. Managerial utilisation of targets to impose and measure employees' quantitative and qualitative performance is analysed in four case-study organisations. The paper concludes that call centre work reflects a pardigmic re-configuration of customer servicing operations, and that the continuing application of Taylorist methods appears likely

N, P and K budgets for crop rotations on nine organic farms in the UK

On organic farms, where the importation of materials to build/maintain soil fertility is restricted, it is important that a balance between inputs and outputs of nutrients is achieved to ensure both short-term productivity and long-term sustainability. This paper considers different approaches to nutrient budgeting on organic farms and evaluates the sources of bias in the measurements and/or estimates of the nutrient inputs and outputs. The paper collates 88 nutrient budgets compiled at the farm scale in 9 temperate countries. All the nitrogen (N) budgets showed an N surplus (average 83.2 kg N ha-1 year-1). The efficiency of N use, defined as outputs/inputs, was highest (0.9) and lowest (0.2) in arable and beef systems respectively. The phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) budgets showed both surpluses and deficits (average 3.6 kg P ha-1 year-1, 14.2 kg K ha-1 year-1) with horticultural systems showing large surpluses resulting from purchased manure. The estimation of N fixation and quantities of nutrients in purchased manures may introduce significant errors in nutrient budgets. Overall, the data illustrate the diversity of management systems in place on organic farms, and suggest that used together with soil analysis, nutrient budgets are a useful tool for improving the long-term sustainability of organic systems

On the behaviour of a rumour process with random stifling

We propose a realistic generalization of the Maki-Thompson rumour model by assuming that each spreader ceases to propagate the rumour right after being involved in a random number of stifling experiences. We consider the process with a general initial configuration and establish the asymptotic behaviour (and its fluctuation) of the ultimate proportion of ignorants as the population size grows to $\infty$. Our approach leads to explicit formulas so that the limiting proportion of ignorants and its variance can be computed.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in Environmental Modelling & Softwar

Fixing the conformal window in QCD

A physical characterization of Landau singularities is emphasized, which should trace the lower boundary N_f^* of the conformal window in QCD and supersymmetric QCD. A natural way to disentangle ``perturbative'' from ``non-perturbative'' contributions to amplitudes below N_f^* is suggested. Assuming an infrared fixed point persists in the perturbative part of the QCD coupling even below N_f^* leads to the condition \gamma(N_f^*)=1, where \gamma is the critical exponent. Using the Banks-Zaks expansion, one gets 4<N_f^*<6. This result is incompatible with the existence of an analogue of Seiberg duality in QCD. The presence of a negative ultraviolet fixed point is required both in QCD and in supersymmetric QCD to preserve causality within the conformal window. Evidence for the existence of such a fixed point in QCD is provided.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, extended version of a talk given at the QCDNET2000 meeting, Paris, September 11-14 2000; main new material added is evidence for negative ultraviolet fixed point in QC

Exact Fourier expansion in cylindrical coordinates for the three-dimensional Helmholtz Green function

A new method is presented for Fourier decomposition of the Helmholtz Green Function in cylindrical coordinates, which is equivalent to obtaining the solution of the Helmholtz equation for a general ring source. The Fourier coefficients of the Helmholtz Green function are split into their half advanced+half retarded and half advanced-half retarded components. Closed form solutions are given for these components in terms of a Horn function and a Kampe de Feriet function, respectively. The systems of partial differential equations associated with these two-dimensional hypergeometric functions are used to construct a fourth-order ordinary differential equation which both components satisfy. A second fourth-order ordinary differential equation for the general Fourier coefficent is derived from an integral representation of the coefficient, and both differential equations are shown to be equivalent. Series solutions for the various Fourier coefficients are also given, mostly in terms of Legendre functions and Bessel/Hankel functions. These are derived from the closed form hypergeometric solutions or an integral representation, or both. Numerical calculations comparing different methods of calculating the Fourier coefficients are presented

From CoNFLict to Confidence: Solving a Diagnostic Dilemma Using Neurofilament Light – A Case Report

Distinguishing neurodegenerative from primary psychiatric conditions is often challenging for clinicians, particularly when assessing older people presenting with neuropsychiatric symptoms. Measurement of fluid biomarkers of neurodegeneration is an emerging approach offering improved diagnostic accuracy. This report explores the use of emerging fluid biomarkers to address diagnostic challenges, framed around a case where the diagnosis of delirium with dementia was revised based on biomarker analysis, enabling treatment of a primary mood disorder with disabling psychiatric symptoms

Making a Move in Exercise Referral: Co-Development of a Physical Activity Referral Scheme

Item does not contain fulltextBackground: Translational research is required to ensure exercise referral schemes (ERSs) are evidence-based and reflect local needs. This article reports process data from the co-development phase of an ERS, providing an insight into (i) factors that must be considered when translating evidence to practice in an ERS setting, and (ii) challenges and facilitators of conducting participatory research involving multiple stakeholders. Methods: An ERS was iteratively co-developed by a multidisciplinary stakeholder group (commissioners, managers, practitioners, patients and academics) via five participatory meetings and an online survey. Audio data (e.g. group discussions) and visual data (e.g. whiteboard notes) were recorded and analysed using NVivo-10 electronic software. Results: Factors to consider when translating evidence to practice in an ERS setting included (i) current ERS culture; (ii) skills, safety and accountability; and (iii) resources and capacity. The co-development process was facilitated by needs-analysis, open questions, multidisciplinary debate and reflective practice. Challenges included contrasting views, irregular attendance and (mis)perceptions of evaluation. Conclusion: The multidisciplinary co-development process highlighted cultural and pragmatic issues related to exercise referral provision, resulting in an evidence-based intervention framework designed to be implemented within existing infrastructures. Further work is required to establish the feasibility and effectiveness of the co-developed intervention in practice

Looking Beyond Inflationary Cosmology

In spite of the phenomenological successes of the inflationary universe scenario, the current realizations of inflation making use of scalar fields lead to serious conceptual problems which are reviewed in this lecture. String theory may provide an avenue towards addressing these problems. One particular approach to combining string theory and cosmology is String Gas Cosmology. The basic principles of this approach are summarized.Comment: invited talk at "Theory Canada 1" (Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, June 2 - 4, 2005) (references updated

Tunneling and propagation of vacuum bubbles on dynamical backgrounds

In the context of bubble universes produced by a first-order phase transition with large nucleation rates compared to the inverse dynamical time scale of the parent bubble, we extend the usual analysis to non-vacuum backgrounds. In particular, we provide semi-analytic and numerical results for the modified nucleation rate in FLRW backgrounds, as well as a parameter study of bubble walls propagating into inhomogeneous (LTB) or FLRW spacetimes, both in the thin-wall approximation. We show that in our model, matter in the background often prevents bubbles from successful expansion and forces them to collapse. For cases where they do expand, we give arguments why the effects on the interior spacetime are small for a wide range of reasonable parameters and discuss the limitations of the employed approximations.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, matches published versio

Noncolliding Squared Bessel Processes

We consider a particle system of the squared Bessel processes with index $\nu > -1$ conditioned never to collide with each other, in which if $-1 < \nu < 0$ the origin is assumed to be reflecting. When the number of particles is finite, we prove for any fixed initial configuration that this noncolliding diffusion process is determinantal in the sense that any multitime correlation function is given by a determinant with a continuous kernel called the correlation kernel. When the number of particles is infinite, we give sufficient conditions for initial configurations so that the system is well defined. There the process with an infinite number of particles is determinantal and the correlation kernel is expressed using an entire function represented by the Weierstrass canonical product, whose zeros on the positive part of the real axis are given by the particle-positions in the initial configuration. From the class of infinite-particle initial configurations satisfying our conditions, we report one example in detail, which is a fixed configuration such that every point of the square of positive zero of the Bessel function $J_{\nu}$ is occupied by one particle. The process starting from this initial configuration shows a relaxation phenomenon converging to the stationary process, which is determinantal with the extended Bessel kernel, in the long-term limit.Comment: v3: LaTeX2e, 26 pages, no figure, corrections made for publication in J. Stat. Phy