Conditional entropy of glueball states

The conditional entropy of glueball states is calculated using a holographic description. Glueball states are represented by a supergravity dual picture, consisting of a 5-dimensional graviton-dilaton action of a dynamical holographic AdS/QCD model. The conditional entropy is studied as a function of the glueball spin and of the mass, providing information about the stability of the glueball states.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Determining arterial blood velocity using MAUI software from recorded doppler ultrasound videos

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the repeatability and reproducibility of a new software, developed to provide measurements of arterial blood velocity from recorded Doppler ultrasound videos. Methods: The “Measurements from Arterial Ultrasound Imaging” (MAUI) software (Hedgehog Medical Inc.), developed for the measurement of arterial dimensions, has been expanded to measure the blood velocity from ultrasound videos. MAUI uses an adaptive based segmentation and intelligent outlier removal image analysis method to determine the instantaneous peak velocity in the positive and negative directions and the intensity weighted mean of the signal. Three recorded videos of popliteal arterial velocity were used to evaluate the reproducibility and repeatability of MAUI. For this assessment, two investigators (E1 and E2) each performed 10 measurements of the three test videos using MAUI. Results: MAUI provided blood velocity measurements (cm/s) for each frame of each video. The ten measurements made by E1 and E2 were averaged and are listed below (mean ± SD).Video # Velocity Measure E1 E21 Positive Envelope 27.84 ± 0.15 27.31 ± 0.28 Negative Envelope -13.99 ± 0.28 -13.68 ± 0.19 Mean Signal 13.80 ± 0.24 13.81 ± 0.102 Positive Envelope 42.30 ± 0.13 42.34 ± 0.33 Negative Envelope -11.51 ± 0.28 -11.53 ± 0.24 Mean Signal 29.69 ± 0.02 29.08 ± 0.363 Positive Envelope 53.48 ± 0.11 53.54 ± 0.20 Negative Envelope -13.66 ± 0.10 -13.40 ± 0.21 Mean Signal 38.60 ± 0.12 38.47 ± 0.17Conclusion: Preliminary assessments suggest that MAUI is a viable method for the measurement of blood velocity from recorded Doppler ultrasound video with high repeatability and low interrater variability. In future, measurements of velocity may be combined with existing continuous measurements of arterial diameter for the calculation of blood flow and assessments of vascular health and disease.<br/

k-deformed Poincare algebras and quantum Clifford-Hopf algebras

The Minkowski spacetime quantum Clifford algebra structure associated with the conformal group and the Clifford-Hopf alternative k-deformed quantum Poincare algebra is investigated in the Atiyah-Bott-Shapiro mod 8 theorem context. The resulting algebra is equivalent to the deformed anti-de Sitter algebra U_q(so(3,2)), when the associated Clifford-Hopf algebra is taken into account, together with the associated quantum Clifford algebra and a (not braided) deformation of the periodicity Atiyah-Bott-Shapiro theorem.Comment: 10 pages, RevTeX, one Section and references added, improved content

Um modelo de qualidade gerencial para o processo de prestação de serviços entre plataformas de seguros e corretores de seguros

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção.O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um modelo de qualidade gerencial para o processo de prestação de serviços entre plataformas de seguros e corretores de seguros, centrando a atenção no atendimento que os corretores de seguros passam a ter quando vinculados a uma plataforma de seguros, com base na análise de uma pesquisa realizada para este fim. Esta pesquisa buscou, entre os corretores de seguros atendidos pela plataforma de seguros, verificar os aspectos físicos, a agilidade e a qualidade dos serviços prestados pela plataforma. O trabalho foi iniciado com uma pesquisa bibliográfica para fundamentar teoricamente a dissertação dentro de conceitos de qualidade, serviços, atendimento ao cliente e a função da plataforma de seguros. Com o intuito de verificar o grau de importância atribuído aos aspectos relacionados ao atendimento e prestação de serviços realizados pela plataforma, foi realizada a pesquisa qualitativa com consumidores desta modalidade de atendimento securitário em duas etapas, utilizando-se de questionário com perguntas abertas e fechadas, que foi respondido pelos consumidores com perfil pré-estipulado. Para ter condições de avaliar o padrão esperado (opinião dos consumidores) e o padrão real (opinião dos corretores), este mesmo questionário, com poucas alterações, foi respondido também pela plataforma de seguros. Desta forma, com a análise dos resultados, foi possível estruturar um modelo de qualidade gerencial para o processo de prestação de serviços entre plataformas de seguros e corretores de seguros, o qual apresenta um conjunto de ações que estão focadas em aproximar o padrão real do padrão esperado. Este modelo propõe que a plataforma de seguros deve adotar no momento do atendimento e manutenção de seus corretores e das características gerais da empresa, cujo objetivo é a melhoria na qualidade do atendimento ao consumidor

A prescriptive cost model for demand shaping: an application for target costing

Costing tools and traditional cost models are used primarily to calculate costs. However, these models would be more relevant if used as decision-making support tools. That is, they should allow ex-ante rather than ex-post analyses. Nevertheless, cost models tend to follow a linear logic of resources-activities-products (e.g. as it is the case of Activity Based Costing) when uncertainty, variability and dynamics of the current market demand cost models that help decision makers to define which resources are needed to satisfy market needs (e.g. as it is the case of Target Costing), i.e. in a reverse logic. Such models can be designated prescriptive cost models and require significant computational resources to attend the complexity of the problems for which they can be applied. The prescriptive analysis intends to recommend actions based on specified or desired results and it is the most evolved stage of business analytics, far beyond descriptive and predictive approaches. This paper presents and discusses a prescriptive cost model applied in the context of Target Costing. The relevance and validity of this approach are discussed and several opportunities for further work are presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio