Management of e-technology in China

"e" technology is bringing about many challenges for companies, in particular for their managers. This concerns a vast range of business processes in many sectors of the economy and in nearly every country of the world. In rapidly industrializing China, companies and other organizations are actively finding their way by adapting, developing and exploiting new e-technologies. The paper's focus is the identification of the management issues in implementing e-technology in China. The paper reports on research into difficulties of establishing and operating e-business in China. In particular, it discusses management related to e-technology sharing and application. A brief review of literature is followed by the analysis of three recent case studies: an international IT services alliance, a financial services provider and an international manufacturing joint venture. All case companies are applying e-technology in China, but the role of e-technology differs in the three cases: adding a service line to the existing business processes; developing a new business process; and increasing efficiency and effectiveness in business processes. The conclusions present the emerging management issues: cooperation is a key asset in networking; the choice of business models plays an important role; adequate management attention for details such as a training program is require

Dovetail: Stronger Anonymity in Next-Generation Internet Routing

Current low-latency anonymity systems use complex overlay networks to conceal a user's IP address, introducing significant latency and network efficiency penalties compared to normal Internet usage. Rather than obfuscating network identity through higher level protocols, we propose a more direct solution: a routing protocol that allows communication without exposing network identity, providing a strong foundation for Internet privacy, while allowing identity to be defined in those higher level protocols where it adds value. Given current research initiatives advocating "clean slate" Internet designs, an opportunity exists to design an internetwork layer routing protocol that decouples identity from network location and thereby simplifies the anonymity problem. Recently, Hsiao et al. proposed such a protocol (LAP), but it does not protect the user against a local eavesdropper or an untrusted ISP, which will not be acceptable for many users. Thus, we propose Dovetail, a next-generation Internet routing protocol that provides anonymity against an active attacker located at any single point within the network, including the user's ISP. A major design challenge is to provide this protection without including an application-layer proxy in data transmission. We address this challenge in path construction by using a matchmaker node (an end host) to overlap two path segments at a dovetail node (a router). The dovetail then trims away part of the path so that data transmission bypasses the matchmaker. Additional design features include the choice of many different paths through the network and the joining of path segments without requiring a trusted third party. We develop a systematic mechanism to measure the topological anonymity of our designs, and we demonstrate the privacy and efficiency of our proposal by simulation, using a model of the complete Internet at the AS-level

Wave transformation across a macrotidal shore platform under low to moderate energy conditions

We investigate how waves are transformed across a shore platform as this is a central question in rock coast geomorphology. We present results from deployment of three pressure transducers over four days, across a sloping, wide (~200 m) cliff-backed shore platform in a macrotidal setting, in South Wales, United Kingdom. Cross shore variations in wave heights were evident under the predominantly low to moderate (significant wave height < 1.4 m) energy conditions measured. At the outer transducer 50 m from the seaward edge of the platform (163 m from the cliff) high tide water depths were 8+ m meaning that waves crossed the shore platform without breaking. At the mid platform position water depth was 5 m. Water depth at the inner transducer (6 m from the cliff platform junction) at high tide was 1.4 m. This shallow water depth forced wave breaking, thereby limiting wave heights on the inner platform. Maximum wave height at the middle and inner transducers were 2.41 and 2.39 m respectively and significant wave height 1.35 m and 1.34 m respectively. Inner platform high tide wave heights were generally larger where energy was up to 335% greater than near the seaward edge where waves were smaller. Infragravity energy was less than 13% of the total energy spectra with energy in the swell, wind and capillary frequencies accounting for 87% of the total energy. Wave transformation is thus spatially variable and is strongly modulated by platform elevation and the tidal range. While shore platforms in microtidal environments have been shown to be highly dissipative, in this macro-tidal setting up to 90% of the offshore wave energy reached the landward cliff at high tide, so that the shore platform cliff is much more reflective

Constraining the density dependence of the symmetry energy in the nuclear equation of state using heavy ion beams

The density dependence of the symmetry energy in the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter (N/Z $>$ 1) is important for understanding the structure of systems as diverse as the atomic nuclei and neutron stars. Due to a proper lack of understanding of the basic nucleon-nucleon interaction for matters that are highly asymmetric and at non-normal nuclear density, this very important quantity has remained largely unconstrained. Recent studies using beams from the Cyclotron Institute of Texas A&M University, constraining the density dependence of the symmetry energy, is presented. A dependence of the form E$_{sym}(\rho)$ = C($\rho/\rho_{o})^{\gamma}$, where C = 31.6 MeV and $\gamma$ = 0.69, is obtained from the dynamical and statistical model analysis. Their implications to both astrophysical and nuclear physics studies are discussed.Comment: Invited talk, Proceedings of CAARI 2006, Forth Worth, Texas, Aug 20 -25, 200

Singlet-triplet transitions in highly correlated nanowire quantum dots

We consider a quantum dot embedded in a three-dimensional nanowire with tunable aspect ratio a. A configuration interaction theory is developed to calculate the energy spectra of the finite 1D quantum dot systems charged with two electrons in the presence of magnetic fields B along the wire axis. Fruitful singlet-triplet transition behaviors are revealed and explained in terms of the competing exchange interaction, correlation interaction, and spin Zeeman energy. In the high aspect ratio regime, the singlet-triplet transitions are shown designable by tuning the parameters a and B. The transitions also manifest the highly correlated nature of long nanowire quantum dots.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Superconductivity at 11.3 K induced by cobalt doping in CeOFeAs

Pure phases of a new oxyarsenide superconductor of the nominal composition CeOFe0.9Co0.1As was successfully synthesized by solid state reaction in sealed silica ampoules at 1180 C. It crystallizes in the layered tetragonal ZrCuSiAs type structure (sp gp P4/nmm) with lattice parameter of a = 3.9918(5) angstrom and c = 8.603(1) angstrom. A sharp superconducting transition is observed at 11.31 K with an upper critical field of 45.22 T at ambient pressure. The superconducting transition temperature is drastically lowered (~ 4.5, 4.9 K) on increasing the concentration (x = 0.15, 0.2) of cobalt

Resummation of QCD Corrections to the eta_c Decay Rate

We examine the ratio of the decay rate of the eta_c into light hadrons to the decay rate into photons and find that most of the large next-to-leading-order (NLO) correction is associated with running of the strong coupling alpha_s. We resum such contributions by analyzing final-state chains of vacuum-polarization bubbles. We show that the nonperturbative parts of the bubble chains can be absorbed into a color-octet matrix element, once one has used contour deformations of the phase-space integrals to cancel certain contributions. We argue that these contributions are incompatible with the uncertainty principle. We also argue that perturbation theory is reliable only if one carries out the phase-space integrations before the perturbation summation. Our results are in good agreement with experiment and differ considerably from those that one obtains by applying the scale-setting method of Brodsky, Lepage, and Mackenzie to the NLO result.Comment: 41 pages, REVTEX, corrected minor typos in tex

A Nonrelativistic Chiral Soliton in One Dimension

I analyze the one-dimensional, cubic Schr\"odinger equation, with nonlinearity constructed from the current density, rather than, as is usual, from the charge density. A soliton solution is found, where the soliton moves only in one direction. Relation to higher-dimensional Chern--Simons theory is indicated. The theory is quantized and results for the two-body quantum problem agree at weak coupling with those coming from a semiclassical quantization of the soliton.Comment: 11 pages, Latex2

The nucleon's strange electromagnetic and scalar matrix elements

Quenched lattice QCD simulations and quenched chiral perturbation theory are used together for this study of strangeness in the nucleon. Dependences of the matrix elements on strange quark mass, valence quark mass and momentum transfer are discussed in both the lattice and chiral frameworks. The combined results of this study are in good agreement with existing experimental data and predictions are made for upcoming experiments. Possible future refinements of the theoretical method are suggested.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Cell nuclei detection using globally optimal active contours with shape prior

Cell nuclei detection in fluorescent microscopic images is an important and time consuming task for a wide range of biological applications. Blur, clutter, bleed through and partial occlusion of nuclei make this a challenging task for automated detection of individual nuclei using image analysis. This paper proposes a novel and robust detection method based on the active contour framework. The method exploits prior knowledge of the nucleus shape in order to better detect individual nuclei. The method is formulated as the optimization of a convex energy function. The proposed method shows accurate detection results even for clusters of nuclei where state of the art methods fail