Correlations and the ridge in the Color Glass Condensate beyond the glasma graph approximation

We consider two-gluon production in dilute-dense collisions within the Color Glass Condensate framework, applicable to both proton-nucleus and heavy-light ion collisions. We go beyond the glasma graph approximation which is valid in the dilute-dilute limit and show the correspondence between the glasma graphs and the kT-factorized approach that we use in our calculation. We then identify the classical uncorrelated, and the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) and Bose enhancement correlated contributions, with the Bose enhancement contribution being suppressed by the number of degrees of freedom with respect to the uncorrelated piece. We show that both the HBT and the Bose enhancement pieces survive the inclusion of higher order contributions in density and that they stem from the quadrupole piece of the two-gluon inclusive cross section. Finally, we illustrate the results using a toy model that allows a simple numerical implementation.The work of TA is supported by Grant No. 2017/26/M/ST2/01074 of the National Science Centre, Poland. The work of NA and DEW were supported by the European Research Council grant HotLHC ERC-2011-StG-279579, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci on of Spain under project FPA2014-58293-C2-1-P and Unidad de Excelencia Mar a de Maetzu under project MDM-2016-0692, Xunta de Galicia (Conseller a de Educaci on) within the Strategic Unit AGRUP2015/11, and FEDER. This work has been performed in the framework of COST Action CA15213 \Theory of hot matter and relativistic heavy-ion collisions" (THOR).S

Prompt Optical Detection of GRB 050401 with ROTSE-IIIa

The ROTSE-IIIa telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, detected prompt optical emission from Swift GRB 050401. In this letter, we present observations of the early optical afterglow, first detected by the ROTSE-IIIa telescope 33 s after the start of gamma-ray emission, contemporaneous with the brightest peak of this emission. This GRB was neither exceptionally long nor bright. This is the first prompt optical detection of a GRB of typical duration and luminosity. We find that the early afterglow decay does not deviate significantly from the power-law decay observable at later times, and is uncorrelated with the prompt gamma-ray emission. We compare this detection with the other two GRBs with prompt observations, GRB 990123 and GRB 041219a. All three bursts exhibit quite different behavior at early times.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Boosting expensive synchronizing heuristics

For automata, synchronization, the problem of bringing an automaton to a particular state regardless of its initial state, is important. It has several applications in practice and is related to a fifty-year-old conjecture on the length of the shortest synchronizing word. Although using shorter words increases the effectiveness in practice, finding a shortest one (which is not necessarily unique) is NP-hard. For this reason, there exist various heuristics in the literature. However, high-quality heuristics such as SynchroP producing relatively shorter sequences are very expensive and can take hours when the automaton has tens of thousands of states. The SynchroP heuristic has been frequently used as a benchmark to evaluate the performance of the new heuristics. In this work, we first improve the runtime of SynchroP and its variants by using algorithmic techniques. We then focus on adapting SynchroP for many-core architectures, and overall, we obtain more than 1000× speedup on GPUs compared to naive sequential implementation that has been frequently used as a benchmark to evaluate new heuristics in the literature. We also propose two SynchroP variants and evaluate their performance

The impact of the EU on Turkey: Toward streamlining Europeanisation as a research programme

This article provides a reassessment of the literature on the transformative impact of the EU on Turkey through the lens of the Europeanisation research programme. It relies on systematic examination of a sample of the literature based on substantive findings, research design and methods. It suggests that this sample displays limitations characteristic of the Europeanisation research programme and proposes to remedy these limitations by applying the research design and methods used therein for generating empirically based comparative research on Turkey. © 2010 European Consortium for Political Research

Improving the Surface Quality and Mechanical Properties of Selective Laser Sintered PA2200 Components by the Vibratory Surface Finishing Process

This paper attempts to improve the physical and mechanical properties of selective laser sintered polyamide PA2200 components through a vibratory surface finishing process by inducing severe plastic deformation at the outer surface layers. The industrial target of additive manufacturing components is to obtain structures having surface roughness, hardness, and other mechanical properties equivalent to or better than those produced conventionally. Compared to the as-built SLS PA2200 samples, vibratory surface finishing treated specimens exhibited a smooth surface microstructure and more favorable roughness, hardness, and tensile strength. Also, the duration of the vibratory surface finishing process showed a further improvement in the surface roughness and hardness of the SLS samples. Compared to the asbuilt state, the roughness and hardness of the surface-treated samples improved by almost 90% and 15%, respectively. Consequently, microstructural analysis indicates that lower surface roughness and enhanced surface hardness is a crucial factor in influencing the overall tensile strength of SLS-PA2200 components. We consider that the combination of VSF and SLS processes can successfully handle a wide range of potential applications. This study also highlights the efficiency and applicability of the vibratory surface finishing process to other additive manufacturing processes and materials

Real options approach for valuation of enterprise resource planning systems

Günümüzde tüm dünya genelindeki sağlık kurumları, hizmet kalitelerini iyileştirmeyi ve maliyetleri düşürmeyi amaçlayan bilişim teknolojileri yatırımlarının önemini kavramışlardır. Sağlık sektörünün sürekli yükselen standartları ve sigorta sistemlerinin artan gereksinimleri karar vericileri, hastanelerde Kurumsal Kaynak Planlama (KKP) sistemlerinin sağlık sektörünün gerek ve ihtiyaçlarına göre uyarlanmış ve geliştirilmiş hali olan Hastane Bilgi Sistemi (HBS) yatırım uygulamalarını dikkate almalarını zorunlu kılmaktadır. Bu tür yatırımların ekonomik değerlemesi karmaşık yapıları nedeniyle her zaman zor olmuştur. Bununla beraber bu yatırımların, bünyelerinde barındırdığı ve firmalara rekabet ortamında avantajlar sağlayan birçok faydası da mevcuttur. Geleneksel iskontolanmış nakit akışı yöntemleri, bu sistemlerin içinde varolan ve yatırım kararını haklı çıkartacak, yönetsel ve stratejik esnekliklerin değerini dikkate almamaktadır. Reel opsiyon yaklaşımı karar vericilere, geleneksel değerleme yöntemlerindeki bu yetersizliklerin üstesinden gelme olanağını sunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, reel opsiyonları temel alan bir yaklaşımla, birden fazla opsiyonun birarada yer aldığı bir KKP sistemi yatırımının değerlemesine imkan tanıyan bir model önerilmektedir. Binom ağacı modelini temel alarak geliştirilen değerleme modelinin yapısı KKP yatırım fırsatının bünyesindeki birleşik opsiyonları değerlemeye imkan tanıyacak şekilde genişletilmiş ve dolayısıyla karar vericilere yeni bir katma değer sunulmuştur. Geliştirilen modelin potansiyel uygulaması gerçek bir HBS yatırımı değerlemesiyle gösterilmektedir. Yapılan uygulama geleneksel değerleme yöntemlerince kabul edilir görülmeyen yatırımların bile, bünyelerinde barındırdıkları stratejik ve yönetsel unsurlar sayesinde ve gelecekte oluşması muhtemel koşullar dahilinde kabul edilebilir bir hal alabileceğini ortaya koymaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: KKP yatırımlarının değerlemesi, reel opsiyonlar, birleşik opsiyonlar, opsiyon değerleme modelleri.Nowadays in order to improve the quality of care delivery and reduce costs, healthcare organizations globally recognize the importance of investing in information technologies (IT). The key drivers of healthcare sector like continuous improvement of healthcare standards and insurance systems have introduced new requirements for hospitals, which in return provided a solid ground for decision-makers to consider implementing hospital information system investment. Hospital information systems (HIS) are the customized and improved versions of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, designed according to the needs and the requirements of healthcare sector. It has been always difficult to value such investments in monetary terms due to their complex nature. This type of investments also has many inherent benefits that can provide significant competitive advantages. These inherent benefits can only be viable for decision support if strategic and managerial flexibilities can be utilized. However, traditional capital budgeting techniques, such as net present value (NPV), do not enable decision-makers to consider these flexibilities. Due to its idle valuation approach, NPV only considers a static scenario that ignores the possible dynamic changes in the market affecting future cash flows and interest rates. NPV's passive commitment strategy also forces the decision-makers pre-committing today to a "go" or "no-go" decision considering information only available today. Thus, it is clear that the traditional NPV methods ignore the value of managerial and strategic flexibility inherent in the investments which undermines a company's strategic opportunities. Investment science experts agreed that it is a must to integrate financial and strategic issues and study them together for making an investment decision. Recognizing the shortcomings of traditional NPV methods, real options (RO) technique has been suggested as an alternative approach. RO whose methodology is based upon financial options theory enable the decisions makers to analyze the true value of a real life investment opportunity through better modeling of the uncertainty within the investment. RO method does not only value the managerial flexibility through the investment horizon, it also supports and expands the firm's strategic frame. It gives a road map to the managers to optimize the medium and long-term strategies according to the expectations. RO can be categorized to six main managerial options according to the flexibility they have: option to defer, option to stage, option to expand/contract, option to abandon, option to switch and growth option. In a real-life investment scenario it is usually viable to have more than one real option concurrently. The first applications of real options are about mining and operating natural resource investments. Besides, the new application areas for RO are growing rapidly. Regardless of an industry, it can be used in many cases like entering a new market, deciding the initial scale of an investment, scaling up or down in the future according to the needs, managing multi-staged complex projects, and freezing up or completely ending an investment. Developing with dynamic market conditions due to the continuous improvements, IT investments are also an appropriate application area for RO. This study introduces a RO based methodology that enables decision-makers to value an ERP system investment incorporating multiple options. The option valuation model developed in this study extends the binomial lattice framework to model an ERP investment opportunity with compound options. The potential application of the proposed model is presented to evaluate an HIS implementation project of a Turkish health care organization. For this purpose, considering the ever changing dynamics of the market affecting possible cash flows, a computer-based decision support framework is developed to provide a flexible and efficient solution to decision-makers. In this manner, for simulating various possible future market conditions, different scenarios are generated via triggering conditional changes in model variables and parameters. Results are interpreted with tables and graphs for submitting a thorough road map to decision-makers that can be utilized as a managerial asset for understanding the interactions between model parameters. Further investigations have shown that even an investment that is not approved to be undertaken with traditional valuation methods, can be valuable for a firm considering the strategic and managerial flexibilities inherent in the investment, with the effect of the possible market conditions in the future. Thus, it is also emphasized that real options approach generally presents a new point of view for valuing IT investment projects. Keywords: Evaluation of ERP investments, real options, compound options, option valuation models

Mitochondrial DAMPs Increase Endothelial Permeability through Neutrophil Dependent and Independent Pathways

Trauma and sepsis can cause acute lung injury (ALI) and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in part by triggering neutrophil (PMN)-mediated increases in endothelial cell (EC) permeability. We had shown that mitochondrial (mt) damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) appear in the blood after injury or shock and activate human PMN. So we now hypothesized that mitochondrial DAMPs (MTD) like mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and peptides might play a role in increased EC permeability during systemic inflammation and proceeded to evaluate the underlying mechanisms. MtDNA induced changes in EC permeability occurred in two phases: a brief, PMN-independent ‘spike’ in permeability was followed by a prolonged PMN-dependent increase in permeability. Fragmented mitochondria (MTD) caused PMN-independent increase in EC permeability that were abolished with protease treatment. Exposure to mtDNA caused PMN-EC adherence by activating expression of adherence molecule expression in both cell types. Cellular activation was manifested as an increase in PMN calcium flux and EC MAPK phosphorylation. Permeability and PMN adherence were attenuated by endosomal TLR inhibitors. EC lacked formyl peptide receptors but were nonetheless activated by mt-proteins, showing that non-formylated mt-protein DAMPs can activate EC. Mitochondrial DAMPs can be released into the circulation by many processes that cause cell injury and lead to pathologic endothelial permeability. We show here that mitochondria contain multiple DAMP motifs that can act on EC and/or PMN via multiple pathways. This can enhance PMN adherence to EC, activate PMN-EC interactions and subsequently increase systemic endothelial permeability. Mitochondrial DAMPs may be important therapeutic targets in conditions where inflammation pathologically increases endothelial permeability