Track finding in gamma conversions in CMS

A track finding algorithm has been developed for reconstruction of e+e- pairs. It combines the information of the electromagnetic calorimeter with the information provided by the Tracker. Results on reconstruction efficiency of converted photons, as well as on fake rate are shown for single isolated photons and for photons from H->gamma gamma events with pile-up events at 10^33 cm^-2 s^-1 LHC luminosity.Comment: Presented at the 10th International Conference on Advanced Technology and Particle Physics (ICATPP 07), 6 pages, 4 figure

The stochastic goodwill problem

Stochastic control problems related to optimal advertising under uncertainty are considered. In particular, we determine the optimal strategies for the problem of maximizing the utility of goodwill at launch time and minimizing the disutility of a stream of advertising costs that extends until the launch time for some classes of stochastic perturbations of the classical Nerlove-Arrow dynamics. We also consider some generalizations such as problems with constrained budget and with discretionary launching

Jiang Zemin's discourse on intellectuals: the political use of formalised language and the conundrum of stability

This article focuses on the specific forms of power that are embodied in the properties and functions of formalised language, as it was used by Jiang Zemin in crucial political documents on the Party’s policy towards intellectuals. This inquiry illuminates various possibilities for the normalisation and inculcation of formalised language in the understudied decade of the 1990s, when the mantra “without stability, nothing can be achieved” became a tautology. The internal constitution of the selected texts is examined with an eye to the dialogic interaction with the production and reception of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping’s political discourses on intellectuals (Mao 1942; Deng 1978). The analysis of language practices and discursive formations in a comparative per-spective sheds light on the respective socio-political and historical contexts. It also reveals the extreme involution-devolution of formalised language in the Jiang Zemin era, when “preserving stability” was reaffirmed as a crucial concern of the Party leadership with the ultimate aim of preserving its monopoly of power

Persistence of outstanding performance and shareholder value among diversified firms: The impact of past performance, efficient internal capital market, and relatedness of business segments

The research domain that attempts to study the relationship between diversification and performance has not yet reached definitive and interpretable findings, and recent studies challenge the existence of a "diversification discount" and explain it partially by a data artefact. None of these studies centred their research on the question: does there exist a specific performance pattern among diversified firms? This research aims to identify persistence in performance heterogeneity by measuring the shareholder value creation of diversified firms using alternative indicators other than the excess value methodology. It also aims to measure the impact on the performance according to the degree of efficiency of the internal capital market and the degree of relatedness among business segments. A sample of 164 diversified firms with turnover higher than 1$ billion during the period 1999-2006 is examined. Because of the presence of the firm's specific effect and the length of the time series, the persistence performance is tested through the instrumental variables (IV) system generalized method of moments (GMM) dynamic panel data and the persistence of shareholder value creation and destruction is estimated according to different estimators from top tercile and lower tercile portfolios of diversified firms. Some diversified firms persistently create value as well as beat the market index while others persistently underperform. Finally, if the efficiency of the internal capital market gives certain explanatory power of the performance pattern, but limited compared to the past performance, important insights might be drawn from the findings that diversified firms with segments in many unrelated industries perform better than others in few industries or with a high number of segments; hence the inverted-U curvilinear relationship between diversification and performance is here not confirmed.diversification; performance persistence; internal capital market; relatedness obusiness segments;