12,379 research outputs found
Strategic motivators and expected benefits from e-Commerce in traditional organisations
This paper aims to identify the strategic motivators and expected benefits related to the implementation of e-commerce infrastructures in traditional âbrick and mortarâ organisations. Despite the fact that the clearest benefit from e-commerce might be expected to come from contribution to corporate profits, either from an increase of sales or reduction of costs, but this may not be the case. The literature suggests that there are different ways in which the potential benefits can be assessed. These ways are directly related to the evolution of e-commerce. This research has chosen six representative organisations from different sectors to explore their rationales for their e-commerce strategies. One of the main benefits reported is to increase the focus on the customer and improving internal communications. Additionally, obtaining competitive advantage was found to be a powerful motivator, despite the fact that the recent academic literature suggests that this is very difficult to achieve
Transition matrices for symmetric and quasisymmetric Hall-Littlewood polynomials
We introduce explicit combinatorial interpretations for the coefficients in
some of the transition matrices relating to skew Hall-Littlewood polynomials
P_lambda/mu(x;t) and Hivert's quasisymmetric Hall-Littlewood polynomials
G_gamma(x;t). More specifically, we provide: 1) the G-expansions of the
Hall-Littlewood polynomials P_lambda, the monomial quasisymmetric polynomials
M_alpha, the quasisymmetric Schur polynomials S_alpha, and the peak
quasisymmetric functions K_alpha; 2) an expansion of P_lambda/mu in terms of
the F_alpha's. The F-expansion of P_lambda/mu is facilitated by introducing
starred tableaux.Comment: 28 pages; added brief discussion of the Hall-Littlewood Q', typos
corrected, added references in response to referee suggestion
Correlated enhancement of Hc2 and Jc in carbon nanotube-doped MgB2
The use of MgB2 in superconducting applications still awaits for the
development of a MgB2-based material where both current-carrying performance
and critical magnetic field are optimized simultaneously. We achieved this by
doping MgB2 with double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNT) as a source of carbon in
polycrystalline samples. The optimum nominal DWCNT content for increasing the
critical current density, Jc is in the range 2.5-10%at depending on field and
temperature. Record values of the upper critical field, Hc2(4K) = 41.9 T (with
extrapolated Hc2(0) ~ 44.4 T) are reached in a bulk sample with 10%at DWCNT
content. The measured Hc2 vs T in all samples are successfully described using
a theoretical model for a two-gap superconductor in the dirty limit first
proposed by Gurevich et al.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Conceptual Challenges on the Road to the Multiverse
The current debate about a possible change of paradigm from a single universe to a multiverse scenario could have deep implications on our view of cosmology and of science in general. These implications therefore deserve to be analyzed from a fundamental conceptual level. We briefly review the different multiverse ideas, both historically and within contemporary physics. We then discuss several positions within philosophy of science with regard to scientific progress, and apply these to the multiverse debate. Finally, we construct some key concepts for a physical multiverse scenario and discuss the challenges this scenario has to deal with in order to provide a solid, testable theory
The role of magnetoplasmons in Casimir force calculations
In this paper we review the role of magneto plasmon polaritons in the Casimir
force calculations. By applying an external constant magnetic field a strong
optical anisotropy is induced on two parallel slabs reducing the reflectivity
and thus the Casimir force. As the external magnetic field increases, the
Casimir force decreases. Thus, with an an external magnetic field the Casimir
force can be controlled.The calculations are done in the Voigt configuration
where the magnetic field is parallel to the slabs. In this configuration the
reflection coefficients for TE and TM modes do not show mode conversion.Comment: contribution to QFEXT09, Norman, Oklahoma 200
Convolutional Goppa Codes
We define Convolutional Goppa Codes over algebraic curves and construct their
corresponding dual codes. Examples over the projective line and over elliptic
curves are described, obtaining in particular some Maximum-Distance Separable
(MDS) convolutional codes.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to IEEE Trans. Inform. Theor
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