1,428 research outputs found
Whitehall and the control of prices and profits in a major war, 1919-1939
For much of the interwar period there was discussion in Whitehall of the policy to control prices and profits in any future major war. Opinion was divided between those who believed that the control of prices and profits would be necessary in return for controlling labour in the light of the experience of the First World War, and those who focused on the financial aspects of the issue, in which the control of prices and profits was seen to play little positive role. This second strand of thinking, rooted in the treasury, predominated, particularly once rearmament began: the co-operation of business and labour, it was argued, was best achieved by maintaining the status quo. As a result, once war did break out, legislation had to be enacted very rapidly to meet popular demands. More generally, this study throws light on the nature of interwar government in Britain and its attitude towards intervention
Multinational enterprise and government controls on outward foreign direct investment in the US and UK in the 1960's
The 1960s have been seen as critical in the development of multinational enterprise by social scientists. Business historians have provided a context to these developments but are only now beginning to consider the 1960s in the light of access to archival material. This article analyses the nature and extent of the tension between multinational enterprise and U.S. and U.K. national governments in the 1960s caused by the tightening of controls on FDI introduced to resolve balance of payments problems. A comparative approach is adopted to illustrate that these tensions were not restricted to the US. The tension revolved around different conceptions of business investment decision-making and of the contribution of multinationals to the national economy. It is also suggested that the impact of these measures was at the micro-level and this highlights the value of business history approaches
Substrate-induced band gap opening in epitaxial graphene
Graphene has shown great application potentials as the host material for next
generation electronic devices. However, despite its intriguing properties, one
of the biggest hurdles for graphene to be useful as an electronic material is
its lacking of an energy gap in the electronic spectra. This, for example,
prevents the use of graphene in making transistors. Although several proposals
have been made to open a gap in graphene's electronic spectra, they all require
complex engineering of the graphene layer. Here we show that when graphene is
epitaxially grown on the SiC substrate, a gap of ~ 0.26 is produced. This gap
decreases as the sample thickness increases and eventually approaches zero when
the number of layers exceeds four. We propose that the origin of this gap is
the breaking of sublattice symmetry owing to the graphene-substrate
interaction. We believe our results highlight a promising direction for band
gap engineering of graphene.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; updated reference
Game theory for computer games design
Designing and developing computer games can be a complex activity that may involve professionals from a variety of disciplines. In this article, we examine the use of game theory for supporting the design of game play within the different sections of a computer game, and demonstrate its application in practice via adapted high-level decision trees for modelling the flow in game play and payoff matrices for modelling skill or challenge levels
Observation of an Excited Bc+ State
Using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.5 fb-1 recorded by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of s=7, 8, and 13 TeV, the observation of an excited Bc+ state in the Bc+Ï+Ï- invariant-mass spectrum is reported. The observed peak has a mass of 6841.2±0.6(stat)±0.1(syst)±0.8(Bc+) MeV/c2, where the last uncertainty is due to the limited knowledge of the Bc+ mass. It is consistent with expectations of the Bcâ(2S31)+ state reconstructed without the low-energy photon from the Bcâ(1S31)+âBc+Îł decay following Bcâ(2S31)+âBcâ(1S31)+Ï+Ï-. A second state is seen with a global (local) statistical significance of 2.2Ï (3.2Ï) and a mass of 6872.1±1.3(stat)±0.1(syst)±0.8(Bc+) MeV/c2, and is consistent with the Bc(2S10)+ state. These mass measurements are the most precise to date
Bose-Einstein correlations of same-sign charged pions in the forward region in pp collisions at âs=7 TeV
Bose-Einstein correlations of same-sign charged pions, produced in protonproton collisions at a 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy, are studied using a data sample collected
by the LHCb experiment. The signature for Bose-Einstein correlations is observed in the
form of an enhancement of pairs of like-sign charged pions with small four-momentum
difference squared. The charged-particle multiplicity dependence of the Bose-Einstein correlation parameters describing the correlation strength and the size of the emitting source
is investigated, determining both the correlation radius and the chaoticity parameter. The
measured correlation radius is found to increase as a function of increasing charged-particle
multiplicity, while the chaoticity parameter is seen to decreas
Study of J /Ï production in Jets
The production of J/Ï mesons in jets is studied in the forward region of proton-proton collisions using data collected with the LHCb detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The fraction of the jet transverse momentum carried by the J/Ï meson, z(J/Ï)âĄpT(J/Ï)/pT(jet), is measured using jets with pT(jet)>20 GeV in the pseudorapidity range 2.5<η(jet)<4.0. The observed z(J/Ï)distribution for J/Ï mesons produced in b-hadron decays is consistent with expectations. However, the results for prompt J/Ï production do not agree with predictions based on fixed-order nonrelativistic QCD. This is the first measurement of the pT fraction carried by prompt J/Ï mesons in jets at any experiment
Measurement of the inelastic pp cross-section at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV
The cross-section for inelastic proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV is measured with the LHCb detector. The fiducial cross-section for inelastic interactions producing at least one prompt long-lived charged particle with momentum p > 2 GeV/c in the pseudorapidity range 2 < η < 5 is determined to be Ï acc = 62:2 ± 0:2 ± 2:5mb. The first uncertainty is the intrinsic systematic uncertainty of the measurement, the second is due to the uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The statistical uncertainty is negligible. Extrapolation to full phase space yields the total inelastic proton-proton cross-section Ï inel = 75:4 ± 3:0 ± 4:5mb, where the first uncertainty is experimental and the second due to the extrapolation. An updated value of the inelastic cross-section at a centre-of-mass energy of 7TeV is also reported
Study of charmonium production in b -hadron decays and first evidence for the decay Bs0
Using decays to Ï-meson pairs, the inclusive production of charmonium states in b-hadron decays is studied with pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fbâ1, collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. Denoting byBC ⥠B(b â C X) Ă B(C â ÏÏ) the inclusive branching fraction of a b hadron to a charmonium state C that decays into a pair of Ï mesons, ratios RC1C2 ⥠BC1 /BC2 are determined as RÏc0ηc(1S) = 0.147 ± 0.023 ± 0.011, RÏc1ηc(1S) =0.073 ± 0.016 ± 0.006, RÏc2ηc(1S) = 0.081 ± 0.013 ± 0.005,RÏc1 Ïc0 = 0.50 ± 0.11 ± 0.01, RÏc2 Ïc0 = 0.56 ± 0.10 ± 0.01and Rηc(2S)ηc(1S) = 0.040 ± 0.011 ± 0.004. Here and below the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic.Upper limits at 90% confidence level for the inclusive production of X(3872), X(3915) and Ïc2(2P) states are obtained as RX(3872)Ïc1 < 0.34, RX(3915)Ïc0 < 0.12 andRÏc2(2P)Ïc2 < 0.16. Differential cross-sections as a function of transverse momentum are measured for the ηc(1S) andÏc states. The branching fraction of the decay B0s â ÏÏÏ is measured for the first time, B(B0s â ÏÏÏ) = (2.15±0.54±0.28±0.21B)Ă10â6. Here the third uncertainty is due to the branching fraction of the decay B0s â ÏÏ, which is used for normalization. No evidence for intermediate resonances is seen. A preferentially transverse Ï polarization is observed.The measurements allow the determination of the ratio of the branching fractions for the ηc(1S) decays to ÏÏ and p p asB(ηc(1S)â ÏÏ)/B(ηc(1S)â p p) = 1.79 ± 0.14 ± 0.32
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