Business to business online revenue management.

With the emergence of the Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce), revenue management and especially applications that combine both are becoming increasingly an area of innovation for service industries. E-commerce has introduced efficiencies across the service chain and it has allowed improvements to take place within and across organizations. Revenue management when combined with ecommerce and done online not only improves resource management but it can be used as a strategic tool to gain competitive advantage. This chapter examines the current approaches and future trends in these very exciting and promising areas

Electron-Hole Generation and Recombination Rates for Coulomb Scattering in Graphene

We calculate electron-hole generation and recombination rates for Coulomb scattering (Auger recombination and impact ionization) in Graphene. The conduction and valence band dispersion relation in Graphene together with energy and momentum conservation requirements restrict the phase space for Coulomb scattering so that electron-hole recombination times can be much longer than 1 ps for electron-hole densities smaller than $10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Cloud Security Engineering: Theory, Practice and Future Research

The eleven papers in this special issue address security and privacy concerns associated with cloud computing. This special issue is dedicated to the identification of techniques that enable security mechanisms to be engineered and implemented in cloud services and cloud systems. A key focus is on the integration of theoretical foundations with practical deployment of security strategies that make cloud systems more secure for both end users and providers – enabling end users to increase the level of trust they have in cloud service providers – and conversely for cloud service providers to provide greater guarantees to end users about the security of their services and data

Biosensing platform combining label-free and labelled analysis using Bloch surface waves

Bloch surface waves (BSW) propagating at the boundary of truncated photonic crystals (1D-PC) have emerged as an attractive approach for label-free sensing in plasmon-like sensor configurations. Due to the very low losses in such dielectric thin film stacks, BSW feature very low angular resonance widths compared to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) case. Besides label-free operation, the large field enhancement and the absence of quenching allow utilizing BSW coupled fluorescence detection to additionally sense the presence of fluorescent labels. This approach can be adapted to the case of angularly resolved resonance detection, thus giving rise to a combined label-free / labelled biosensor platform. It features a parallel analysis of multiple spots arranged as a one-dimensional array inside a microfluidic channel of a disposable chip. Application of such a combined biosensing approach to the detection of the Angiopoietin-2 cancer biomarker in buffer solutions is reported

Ultrafast Carrier Recombination and Generation Rates for Plasmon Emission and Absorption in Graphene

Electron-hole generation and recombination rates for plasmon emission and absorption in Graphene are presented. The recombination times of carriers due to plasmon emission have been found to be in the tens of femtoseconds to hundreds of picoseconds range. The recombination times depend sensitively on the carrier energy, carrier density, temperature, and the plasmon dispersion. Carriers near the Dirac point are found to have much longer lifetimes compared to carriers at higher energies. Plasmons in a Graphene layer on a polar substrate hybridize with the surface optical phonons and this hybridization modifies the plasmon dispersion. We also present generation and recombination rates of carriers due to plasmon emission and absorption in Graphene layers on polar substrates.Comment: 7 Pages, 11 Figures, To appear in Phys. Rev. B (2011

Strong lensing systems and galaxy cluster observations as probe to the cosmic distance duality relation

In this paper, we use large scale structure observations to test the cosmic distance duality relation (CDDR), $D_{\rm L}(1+z)^{-2}/D_{\rm A}=\eta=1$, with $D_{\rm L}$ and $D_{\rm A}$, being the luminosity and angular diameter distances, respectively. In order to perform the test, the following data set are considered: strong lensing systems and galaxy cluster measurements (gas mass fractions). No specific cosmological model is adopted, only a flat universe is assumed. By considering two $\eta(z)$ parametrizations, we obtained the validity of the CDDR within $1.5\sigma$ which is in full agreement with other recent tests involving cosmological data. It is worth to comment that our results are independent of the baryon budget of galaxy clusters.Comment: 6 pages, two figs, one tabl

NNLO QCD×EW corrections to Z production in the q q channel

We present the first results for the O(ααs) corrections to the total partonic cross section of the process qq→Z+X, with the complete set of contributions, that include photonic and massive weak gauge boson effects. The results are relevant for the precise determination of the hadronic Z boson production cross section. Virtual and real corrections are calculated analytically using the reduction to the master integrals and their evaluation through differential equations. Real corrections are dealt with using the reverse-unitarity method. They require the evaluation of a new set of two-loop master integrals, with up to three internal massive lines. In particular, three of them are expressed in terms of elliptic integrals. We verify the absence, at this perturbative order, of initial-state mass singularities proportional to a weak massive virtual correction to the quark-gluon splitting

Ultrafast Optical-Pump Terahertz-Probe Spectroscopy of the Carrier Relaxation and Recombination Dynamics in Epitaxial Graphene

The ultrafast relaxation and recombination dynamics of photogenerated electrons and holes in epitaxial graphene are studied using optical-pump Terahertz-probe spectroscopy. The conductivity in graphene at Terahertz frequencies depends on the carrier concentration as well as the carrier distribution in energy. Time-resolved studies of the conductivity can therefore be used to probe the dynamics associated with carrier intraband relaxation and interband recombination. We report the electron-hole recombination times in epitaxial graphene for the first time. Our results show that carrier cooling occurs on sub-picosecond time scales and that interband recombination times are carrier density dependent.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Effect of feed cycling on specific growth rate, condition factor and RNA/DNA ratio of Labeo rohita

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of feed cycling on specific growth rate, condition factor and RNA/DNA ratio of Labeo rohita. Fingerling L. rohita were randomly collected from Qadria Fish Farm and Hatchery, Multan, Pakistan and divided into control, 5 days and 10 days feed cycling groups. Specific growth rate (% g day-1), body composition, condition factor, and RNA/DNA ratio of individual fish and of each group were calculated. There was a highly significant (