Introducing Importance-Performance-Impact Analysis (IPIA): A method to strategically prioritize resources allocation

The importance–performance analysis (IPA) model has been widely used as a strategic resource allocation tool for improving customer satisfaction. There are several shortcomings associated with IPA which could lead to incorrect decisions. In this paper, we propose a novel analytical framework, the “Importance-Performance-Impact Analysis” (IPIA) to overcome those shortcomings so as to provide managers with a powerful decision making tool. The IPIA takes advantage of several advanced analytical techniques, such as Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytic Network Process (ANP). We illustrate IPIA using the case of an airline company in China. Two primary data sources were used: A passenger survey to obtain the attribute importance and performance, and an expert panel survey to obtain attribute impact. Resources allocation recommendations for improving passenger satisfaction were then derived from the IPIA. We discuss limitations and provide recommendations for future research

Phase dynamics of inductively coupled intrinsic Josephson junctions and terahertz electromagnetic radiation

The Josephson effects associated with quantum tunneling of Cooper pairs manifest as nonlinear relations between the superconductivity phase difference and the bias current and voltage. Many novel phenomena appear, such as Shapiro steps in dc cuurent-voltage (IV) characteristics of a Josephson junction under microwave shining, which can be used as a voltage standard. Inversely, the Josephson effects provide a unique way to generate high-frequency electromagnetic (EM) radiation by dc bias voltage. The discovery of cuprate high-Tc superconductors accelerated the effort to develop novel source of EM waves based on a stack of atomically dense-packed intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs), since the large superconductivity gap covers the whole terahertz frequency band. Very recently, strong and coherent terahertz radiations have been successfully generated from a mesa structure of $\rm{Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}}$ single crystal which works both as the source of energy gain and as the cavity for resonance. It is then found theoretically that, due to huge inductive coupling of IJJs produced by the nanometer junction separation and the large London penetration depth of order of $\rm{\mu m}$ of the material, a novel dynamic state is stabilized in the coupled sine-Gordon system, in which $\pm \pi$ kinks in phase differences are developed responding to the standing wave of Josephson plasma and are stacked alternatively in the c-axis. This novel solution of the inductively coupled sine-Gordon equations captures the important features of experimental observations. The theory predicts an optimal radiation power larger than the one available to date by orders of magnitude, and thus suggests the technological relevance of the phenomena.Comment: review article (69 pages, 30 figures

Entanglement entropy with localized and extended interface defects

The quantum Ising chain of length, L, which is separated into two parts by localized or extended defects is considered at the critical point where scaling of the interface magnetization is non-universal. We measure the entanglement entropy between the two halves of the system in equilibrium, as well as after a quench, when the interaction at the interface is changed for time t>0. For the localized defect the increase of the entropy with log(L) or with log(t) involves the same effective central charge, which is a continuous function of the strength of the defect. On the contrary for the extended defect the equilibrium entropy is saturated, but the non-equilibrium entropy has a logarithmic time-dependence the prefactor of which depends on the strength of the defect.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Verification of gyrokinetic particle simulation of current-driven instability in fusion plasmas. I. Internal kink mode

The gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) capability has been extended for simulating internal kink instability with kinetic effects in toroidal geometry. The global simulation domain covers the magnetic axis, which is necessary for simulating current-driven instabilities. GTC simulation in the fluid limit of the kink modes in cylindrical geometry is verified by benchmarking with a magnetohydrodynamic eigenvalue code. Gyrokinetic simulations of the kink modes in the toroidal geometry find that ion kinetic effects significantly reduce the growth rate even when the banana orbit width is much smaller than the radial width of the perturbed current layer at the mode rational surface

Solution heat treatment, forming and in-die quenching of a commercial sheet magnesium alloy into a complex-shaped component: experimentation and FE analysis

Interest in lightweight materials, particularly magnesium alloys, has increased significantly with rising efficiency requirements in the automotive sector. Magnesium is the lightest available structural metal, with a density approximately 35% lower than that of aluminium. The potential is great for magnesium to become a primary material used in future low carbon vehicle structures; however, there are significant obstacles, namely low ductility and formability, particularly at room temperature. The aim of this work is to present the feasibility of using the solution Heat treatment, Forming, and in-die Quenching (HFQ) process to produce complex shapes from a sheet magnesium alloy, and to use the results to verify a simulation of the process developed using commercial FE software. Uniaxial tensile tests were initially conducted to establish the optimum parameters for forming the part. Stamping trials were then carried out using these parameters, and a simulation set up modelling the forming operation. It was shown that the HFQ process could be used to form a successful component from this alloy, and that a good match was achieved between the results of the forming experiments and the simulation.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the EPSRC (Grant Ref: EP/I038616/1) for TARF-LCV: Towards Affordable, Closed-Loop Recyclable Future Low Carbon Vehicle Structures

Joint beamforming design for secure RIS-assisted IoT networks

This paper studies secure communication in an internet-of-things (IoT) network, where the confidential signal is sent by an active refracting reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-based transmitter, and a passive reflective RIS is utilized to improve the secrecy performance of users in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. Specifically, we aim to maximize the weighted sum secrecy rate by jointly designing the power allocation, transmit beamforming (BF) of the refracting RIS, and the phase shifts of the reflective RIS. To solve the non-convex optimization problem, we propose a linearization method to approximate the objective function into a linear form. Then, an alternating optimization (AO) scheme is proposed to jointly optimize the power allocation factors, BF vector and phase shifts, where the first one is found using the Lagrange dual method, while the latter two are obtained by utilizing the penalty dual decomposition method. Moreover, considering the demands of green and secure communications, by applying the Dinkelbach’s method, we extend our proposed scheme to solving a secrecy energy maximization problem. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design

Ferromagnetism without flat bands in thin armchair nanoribbons

Describing by a Hubbard type of model a thin armchair graphene ribbon in the armchair hexagon chain limit, one shows in exact terms, that even if the system does not have flat bands at all, at low concentration a mesoscopic sample can have ferromagnetic ground state, being metallic in the same time. The mechanism is connected to a common effect of correlations and confinement.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures, in press at Eur. Phys. Jour.