Two-Site Quantum Random Walk

We study the measure theory of a two-site quantum random walk. The truncated decoherence functional defines a quantum measure $\mu_n$ on the space of $n$-paths, and the $\mu_n$ in turn induce a quantum measure $\mu$ on the cylinder sets within the space $\Omega$ of untruncated paths. Although $\mu$ cannot be extended to a continuous quantum measure on the full $\sigma$-algebra generated by the cylinder sets, an important question is whether it can be extended to sufficiently many physically relevant subsets of $\Omega$ in a systematic way. We begin an investigation of this problem by showing that $\mu$ can be extended to a quantum measure on a "quadratic algebra" of subsets of $\Omega$ that properly contains the cylinder sets. We also present a new characterization of the quantum integral on the $n$-path space.Comment: 28 page

A new paradigm for virtual knowledge sharing in product development based on emergent social software platforms

The UK Government considers its Aerospace Industry a remarkable success story, enjoying a global market share of 17% in 2015. The capture, management and sharing of employee knowledge is seen as vital if the industry is to remain highly innovative and retain its pre-eminent position internationally. Aerospace manufacturers, such as BAE Systems, often have to re-engineer business processes routinely to ensure their survival. Knowledge sharing in the industry is seen as challenging due to the dispersed nature of its operations and multi-tier supply chains. This article, through a 5-year participant-observation study at the World’s second largest aerospace and defence organisation, BAE Systems, proposes a new paradigm for virtual knowledge sharing in dispersed aerospace product development based on emergent social software platforms such as Enterprise 2.0 technologies. The developed framework and methodologies are applied to the bespoke BAE Systems’ engineering lifecycle process to validate its effectiveness with results indicating that Enterprise 2.0 technologies offer a more openly innovative environment in which employees may share and interact with knowledge more effectively and easily across geographical and functional boundaries, compared with conventional engineering information systems

Using Web 2.0-Based Groupware to Facilitate Collaborative Design in Engineering Education Scheme Projects

Employee collaboration is vital for manufacturing organisations wishing to be successful in an ever-changing global market place; it is commonly referred to as the joining of people and interests to meet a common goal via visual or oral interaction, information and knowledge sharing and the coordination of tasks; product development teams operating within the aerospace and defence industry rely extensively on this. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of a validation study carried out during an Engineering Education Scheme (EES) project initiated by a leading aerospace and defence manufacturing organisation, to confirm the benefits of using bespoke Web 2.0-based groupware to improve employee collaboration between dispersed teams. The results of a cross-sectional survey concluded that employees in the collaborating organisations would welcome greater usage of Web 2.0-based technologies. The study confirmed that groupware offers the potential to deliver a more effective collaborative environment with additional communication channels on offer to end users

Integrating social knowledge and collaboration tools into dispersed product development

Employee collaboration and knowledge sharing is vital for manufacturing organisations wishing to be successful in an ever-changing global market place; Product Development (PD) teams, in particular, rely heavily on these activities to generate innovative designs and enhancements to existing product ranges. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of a validation study carried out during an Engineering Education Scheme project to confirm the benefits of using bespoke Web 2.0-based groupware to improve collaboration and knowledge sharing between dispersed PD teams. The results of a cross-sectional survey concluded that employees would welcome greater usage of social computing technologies. The study confirmed that groupware offers the potential to deliver a more effective collaborative and knowledge sharing environment with additional communication channels on offer. Furthermore, a series of recommended guidelines are presented to show how PD teams, operating in globally-dispersed organisations, may use Web 2.0 tools to improve employee collaboration and knowledge sharing

An Investigation into the Potential Use of Social Media Technologies to improve the Product Development Functions within the Aerospace and Defence Industry

Competition in global markets has resulted in increased demands for improvements in manufacturing processes. Enterprises have to re-engineer work practices and have shown that the effective communication of knowledge is fundamental to Product Development (PD). It is vital that cross-functional internal and external collaboration is optimised within PD processes and this should be facilitated through early, frequent and effective communication of information and knowledge. Social Media sites represent a new stage in the evolution of the Internet. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter, offer users the ability to stay connected online with friends and colleagues around the world in real-time; similarly, they offer the ability to locate expertise, knowledge and solutions to problems. The results of an industrial investigation, carried out within a leading aerospace and defence organisation, are commented upon and an interactive groupware solution is introduced, which aims to facilitate collaboration between dispersed product development teams

A domain of spacetime intervals in general relativity

Beginning from only a countable dense set of events and the causality relation, it is possible to reconstruct a globally hyperbolic spacetime in a purely order theoretic manner. The ultimate reason for this is that globally hyperbolic spacetimes belong to a category that is equivalent to a special category of domains called interval domains.Comment: 25 page

An Investigation into Collaboration and Knowledge Management during Product Development in the Aerospace and Defence Industry

Organisations need to overcome a number of challenges, including improving knowledge management, to ensure competitiveness in today’s global business environment. Product development and engineering design decisions are typically based on the knowledge available within enterprises. An ability to quickly discover and capture this knowledge and communicate with colleagues is required to enable effective outputs. An in-depth industry investigation, conducted within a leading manufacturing organisation in the Aerospace and Defence Industry (ADI), confirmed that knowledge management is only average. Employees would welcome the introduction of new technology to improve knowledge sharing and feel competent to use Web 2.0 and social media technologies. Based on the investigation, an interactive groupware prototype employing collaborative Web 2.0 technologies has been proposed. The prototype will be introduced as a case study to engineers within the collaborating company during product development projects with benefits in productivity and collaborative practices being assessed

Demand-point constrained EMS vehicle allocation problems for regions with both urban and rural areas

Governments deal with increasing health care demand and costs, while budgets are tightened. At the same time, ambulance providers are expected to deliver high-quality service at affordable cost. Maximum reliability and minimal availability models guarantee a minimal performance level at each demand point, in contrast to the majority of facility location and allocation methods that guarantee a minimal

The quantitative soil pit method for measuring belowground carbon and nitrogen stocks

Many important questions in ecosystem science require estimates of stocks of soil C and nutrients. Quantitative soil pits provide direct measurements of total soil mass and elemental content in depth-based samples representative of large volumes, bypassing potential errors associated with independently measuring soil bulk density, rock volume, and elemental concentrations. The method also allows relatively unbiased sampling of other belowground C and nutrient stocks, including roots, coarse organic fragments, and rocks. We present a comprehensive methodology for sampling these pools with quantitative pits and assess their accuracy, precision, effort, and sampling intensity as compared to other methods. At 14 forested sites in New Hampshire, nonsoil belowground pools (which other methods may omit, double-count, or undercount) accounted for upward of 25% of total belowground C and N stocks: coarse material accounted for 4 and 1% of C and N in the O horizon; roots were 11 and 4% of C and N in the O horizon and 10 and 3% of C and N in the B horizon; and soil adhering to rocks represented 5% of total B-horizon C and N. The top 50 cm of the C horizon contained the equivalent of 17% of B-horizon carbon and N. Sampling procedures should be carefully designed to avoid treating these important pools inconsistently. Quantitative soil pits have fewer sources of systematic error than coring methods; the main disadvantage is that because they are time-consuming and create a larger zone of disturbance, fewer observations can be made than with cores