524 research outputs found
Benchmarking best manufacturing practices: a study into four sectors of Turkish industry
Reports on a benchmarking study conducted to quantify how well companies operating in various sectors of Turkish industry match up to best practice, both in the practices they adopt and in the operational outcomes that result, and to test the hypothesis that the closer a company is to best practice, the more likely it is for that company to achieve higher business performance. The survey conducted in 1997 and 1998 included 82 companies from the Turkish electronics, cement, automotive sectors and part and component suppliers to the appliance industry. For data gathering. employs the Competitive Strategies and Best Practices Benchmarking Questionnaire, supported ly, some follow-up interviews and one-day site visits. Classifies two small groups of companies as leaders and laggers, depending on how close they were to best practice. Shows that the leaders have performed better than the laggers in adopting best manufacturing practices and in the achievement of high performance La,els. The leaders also have achieved substantially higher business performance than the laggers. Furthermore, observes that large-sized companies outperform the rest both in terms of their success in implementing best manufacturing practices and in achieving high operational outcomes and that there is no appreciable difference between industrial sectors in implementing best manufacturing practices and in achieving high operational outcomes
noise in variable range hopping conduction
A mechanism of noise due to traps formed by impurities which have no
neighbors with close energies in their vicinity is studied. Such traps slowly
exchange electrons with the rest of conducting media. The concentration of
traps and proportional to it noise exponentially grow with decreasing
temperature in the variable range hopping regime. This theory provides smooth
transition to the nearest neighbor hopping case where it predicts a very weak
temperature dependence
1/f Noise in Electron Glasses
We show that 1/f noise is produced in a 3D electron glass by charge
fluctuations due to electrons hopping between isolated sites and a percolating
network at low temperatures. The low frequency noise spectrum goes as
\omega^{-\alpha} with \alpha slightly larger than 1. This result together with
the temperature dependence of \alpha and the noise amplitude are in good
agreement with the recent experiments. These results hold true both with a
flat, noninteracting density of states and with a density of states that
includes Coulomb interactions. In the latter case, the density of states has a
Coulomb gap that fills in with increasing temperature. For a large Coulomb gap
width, this density of states gives a dc conductivity with a hopping exponent
of approximately 0.75 which has been observed in recent experiments. For a
small Coulomb gap width, the hopping exponent approximately 0.5.Comment: 8 pages, Latex, 6 encapsulated postscript figures, to be published in
Phys. Rev.
Occurrence of yeast bloodstream infections between 1987 and 1995 in five Dutch university hospitals
The aim of this study was to identify retrospectively trends in fungal bloodstream infections in The Netherlands in the period from 1987 to 1995. Results of over 395,000 blood cultures from five Dutch university hospitals were evaluated. Overall, there were more than 12 million patient days of care during the nine-year study period. The rate of candidemia doubled in the study period, reaching an incidence of 0.71 episodes per 10,000 patient days in 1995. The general increase in candidemia was paralleled by an increase in non-Candida albicans bloodstream infections, mainly due toCandida glabrata. However, more than 60% of the infections were caused byCandida albicans. Fluconazoleresistant species such asCandida krusei did not emerge during the study period. The increasing rate of candidemia found in Dutch university hospitals is similar to the trend observed in the USA, but the rate is lower and the increase is less pronounced
Global QCD Analysis and the CTEQ Parton Distributions
The CTEQ program for the determination of parton distributions through a
global QCD analysis of data for various hard scattering processes is fully
described. A new set of distributions, CTEQ3, incorporating several new types
of data is reported and compared to the two previous sets of CTEQ
distributions. Comparison with current data is discussed in some detail. The
remaining uncertainties in the parton distributions and methods to further
reduce them are assessed. Comparisons with the results of other global analyses
are also presented.Comment: (Change in Latex style only: 2up style removed since many don't have
it.) 35 pages, 23 figures separately submitted as uuencoded compressed
ps-file; Michigan State Report # MSU-HEP/41024 and CTEQ 40
Calsequestrin as a risk factor in Graves’ hyperthyroidism and Graves’ ophthalmopathy patients
Background: The pathogenesis of Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO), Graves’ hyperthyroidism (GH) and the mechanisms for its link to thyroid autoimmunity are poorly understood. Our research focuses on the role of the skeletal muscle calcium binding protein calsequestrin (CASQ1) in thyroid. We measured the concentration of the CASQ1 protein correlating levels with parameters of the eye signs, CASQ1 antibody levels and CASQ1 gene polymorphism rs3838284. Methods: CASQ1 protein was measured by quantitative Western Blotting. The protein concentrations were expressed as pmol/mg total protein by reference to CASQ1 standards. Results: Western blot analysis showed the presence of two forms of CASQ1 in the thyroid. The mean concentration of CASQ1 protein was significantly reduced in patients with Graves’ disease, compared to thyroid from control subjects with multi-nodular goitre or thyroid cancer. Although in patients with GO it was lower than that, compared with patients with GH this difference was not significant. Reduced CASQ1 in Graves’ thyroid correlated with the homozygous genotype of the rs3838284 CASQ1 polymorphism. Conclusions: Decreased CASQ1 in the thyroid of patients with Graves’ disease compared to thyroid from control subjects is not explained but may reflect consumption of the protein during an autoimmune reaction against CASQ1 in the thyroid
Measurement of the partial widths of the Z into up- and down-type quarks
Using the entire OPAL LEP1 on-peak Z hadronic decay sample, Z -> qbarq gamma
decays were selected by tagging hadronic final states with isolated photon
candidates in the electromagnetic calorimeter. Combining the measured rates of
Z -> qbarq gamma decays with the total rate of hadronic Z decays permits the
simultaneous determination of the widths of the Z into up- and down-type
quarks. The values obtained, with total errors, were Gamma u = 300 ^{+19}_{-18}
MeV and Gamma d = 381 ^{+12}_{-12} MeV. The results are in good agreement with
the Standard Model expectation.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.
Search for R-Parity Violating Decays of Scalar Fermions at LEP
A search for pair-produced scalar fermions under the assumption that R-parity
is not conserved has been performed using data collected with the OPAL detector
at LEP. The data samples analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of
about 610 pb-1 collected at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) 189-209 GeV. An
important consequence of R-parity violation is that the lightest supersymmetric
particle is expected to be unstable. Searches of R-parity violating decays of
charged sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks have been performed under the
assumptions that the lightest supersymmetric particle decays promptly and that
only one of the R-parity violating couplings is dominant for each of the decay
modes considered. Such processes would yield final states consisting of
leptons, jets, or both with or without missing energy. No significant
single-like excess of events has been observed with respect to the Standard
Model expectations. Limits on the production cross- section of scalar fermions
in R-parity violating scenarios are obtained. Constraints on the supersymmetric
particle masses are also presented in an R-parity violating framework analogous
to the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.Comment: 51 pages, 24 figures, Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.
Measurement of the Hadronic Photon Structure Function F_2^gamma at LEP2
The hadronic structure function of the photon F_2^gamma is measured as a
function of Bjorken x and of the factorisation scale Q^2 using data taken by
the OPAL detector at LEP. Previous OPAL measurements of the x dependence of
F_2^gamma are extended to an average Q^2 of 767 GeV^2. The Q^2 evolution of
F_2^gamma is studied for average Q^2 between 11.9 and 1051 GeV^2. As predicted
by QCD, the data show positive scaling violations in F_2^gamma. Several
parameterisations of F_2^gamma are in agreement with the measurements whereas
the quark-parton model prediction fails to describe the data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of Photon 2001,
Ascona, Switzerlan
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