Cost Accounting and Pricing Improvement at Helmond Print: Using Xeikon Digital Colour Printing Equipment: A Case study

Helmond Print B.V., a (fictional) Dutch print provider, is facing competitive problems. The student is expected to step into the role of an independent expert advising Helmond Print''s owner and manager. The first objective is to let the student find out, from a piece of qualitative and quantitative information about Xeikon N.V. machines, that the cost structure is much different than currently assumed. The student should try to improve the cost calculations, which will require linear and both non-linear regression analysis. A second objective is to make the student realize that the incorrect cost calculations affected Helmond Print''s pricing policy and may have lead to the competitive problems faced now. The student should therefore link their investigations to pricing, search for the weak spots in the current pricing policy and make suggestions for improvement. (Note: a solution to the case can be obtained by simple request)management and organization theory ;

Possible explanations for different surface quality in laser cutting with 1 micron and 10 microns beams

In laser　cutting　of　thick　steel　sheets,　quality　difference　is　observed　between　cut　surfaces　obtained　with 1 micron and 10 micron laser beams. This paper investigates physical mechanisms for this interesting and important problem of the wavelength dependence. First, striation generation process is described, based on a 3D structure of melt flow on a kerf front, which was revealed for the first time by our recent experimental observations. Two fundamental processes are suggested to explain the difference in the cut surface quality: destabilization of the melt flow in the central part of the kerf front and downward displacement of discrete melt accumulations along the side parts of the front. Then each of the processes is analyzed using a simplified analytical model. The results show that in both processes, different angular dependence of the absorptivity of the laser beam can result in the quality difference. Finally we propose use of radial polarization to improve the quality with the 1 micron wavelength

Topologically non-trivial quantum layers

Given a complete non-compact surface embedded in R^3, we consider the Dirichlet Laplacian in a layer of constant width about the surface. Using an intrinsic approach to the layer geometry, we generalise the spectral results of an original paper by Duclos et al. to the situation when the surface does not possess poles. This enables us to consider topologically more complicated layers and state new spectral results. In particular, we are interested in layers built over surfaces with handles or several cylindrically symmetric ends. We also discuss more general regions obtained by compact deformations of certain layers.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Meaningful results for Information Retrieval in the MEANING project

The goal of the MEANING project (IST-2001-34460) is to develop tools for the automatic acquisition of lexical knowledge that will help Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD). The acquired lexical knowledge from various sources and various languages is stored in the Multilingual Central Repository (MCR) (Atserias et al 04), which is based on the design of the EuroWordNet database. The MCR holds wordnets in various languages (English, Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Basque), which are interconnected via an Inter-Lingual-Index (ILI). In addition, the MCR holds a number of ontologies and domain labels related to al

Calculations and Competitive Benchmarking: A Case study: Xeikon N.V.

Xeikon N.V. is a young NASDAQ-listed company in the digital colour printing market. First of all, the student is expected to step into the role of an independent expert advising Xeikon''s CEO. Although it is already clear that digital colour printing is competitive mainly at relatively small order quantities, the student is expected to give more specific information about the quantities for which Xeikon equipment is competitive. This will require different kinds of break-even analysis. Furthermore, students should analyse cost data using a learning curve model. In doing so, they should address the limitations of the model, test the usefulness in this situation and recognize that learning is not the right term in this context. The investigations require the use of regression analysis. (Note: a case solution can be obtained by simple request)management and organization theory ;

Recommendations for the Use of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) at CERN

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) have been increasingly used at CERN for several years. In future control solutions, PLCs will initially be considered for the rejuvenation of old and obsolete systems, and then for the control of new equipment to be installed in technical services, accelerators and experiments. Many industrial systems will be installed for the control of equipment during the next 5 to 10 years, particularly for the construction of the LHC project. In order to increase efficiency, to reduce the initial investment and to minimise the long term maintenance costs in terms of money and human resources the Working Group recommends that all CERN equipment control projects, based on PLCs, select or specify PLCs from the product lines of the recommended PLC manufacturers

High NA diffractive array illuminators and application in a multi-spot scanning microscope

Array illuminators generating spots with high NA at high efficiency are presented. They are designed via application of high-NA scalar optics methods, and implemented as periodic binary phase structures. These array illuminators are used in a multi-spot scanning microscope for scanning large sample areas at high resolution with a relatively high resolution

Varicella vaccination in pediatric oncology patients without interruption of chemotherapy

AbstractBackgroundMorbidity and mortality from primary varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection is increased in immunocompromised children. Vaccination of VZV-seronegative cancer patients with live-attenuated varicella vaccine is safe when chemotherapy is interrupted. However, VZV vaccination without interruption of chemotherapy would be preferable.ObjectiveTo vaccinate VZV-seronegative pediatric oncology patients with live-attenuated VZV vaccine without interrupting their chemotherapy.Study-designWe performed a single-center prospective cohort study.ResultsThirty-one patients with either a hematological malignancy (n=24) or a solid tumor (n=7) were vaccinated early during their course of chemotherapy. VZV IgG seroconversion occurred in 14 of the 31 patients (45%) after one vaccination. Only 20 patients were revaccinated after 3 months. These were patients who did not seroconvert (5 patients) and patients who serocoverted (15 patients) to induce or sustain seropositivity. Of these 20 patients the final seroconversion rate was 70%. Seven out of the 31 patients (23%) developed a mild rash of which 5 were treated with antivirals and recovered completely without interrupting chemotherapy, and 2 recovered untreated. Of these 31 immunized patients 26 were available for cellular testing. After one vaccination 20 of 26 patients (77%) tested positive for VZV-specific CD4+ T cells, of which 7 patients had remained VZV-seronegative. After the second vaccination 11 of 11 patients showed VZV-specific CD4+ T cells to sustain positivity, although 4 remained VZV-seronegative.ConclusionsThis study indicates that live-attenuated VZV vaccine can be safely administered to closely monitored pediatric oncology patients without interruption of chemotherapy and adaptive immunity was induced despite incomplete seroconversion

Simulation studies related to the particle identification by the forward and backward RICH detectors at Electron Ion Collider

The Electron-Ion collider (EIC) will be the ultimate facility to study the dynamics played by the colored quarks and gluons to the emergence of the global phenomenology of the nucleons and nuclei as described by Quantum Chromodynamics. The physics programs will greatly rely on efficient particle identification (PID) in both the forward and the backward regions. The forward and the backward RICHes of the EIC have to be able to cover wide acceptance and momentum ranges; in the forward region a dual radiator RICH (dRICH) is foreseen and in the backward region a proximity-focusing RICH can be foreseen to be employed. The geometry and the performance studies of the dRICH have been performed as prescribed in the EIC Yellow Report using the ATHENA software framework. This part of our work reports the effort following the call for EIC detector proposal the studies related to the forward and the backward RICHes performance. In the forward region, dRICH performance showed a pion-kaon separation from around 1 GeV/c to 50 GeV/c at a three sigma level; the proximity focusing RICH (pfRICH) foreseen for the backward region can reach three sigma separation up to 3 GeV/c for e/$\pi$ and up to 10 GeV/c for $\pi$/K mass hypothesis.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figure