University of Antwerp

About: University of Antwerp is a education organization based out in Antwerp, Belgium. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 16682 authors who have published 48837 publications receiving 1689748 citations. The organization is also known as: Universiteit Antwerpen & UAntwerp.

IT Governance and Its Mechanisms

Abstract: T governance is a concept that has suddenly emerged and become an important issue in the information technology field. Precisely when this new challenge began surfacing is unknown, but it is now a discussion issue within most organizations. Some corporations and government agencies began with the implementation of IT governance to achieve a fusion between business and IT and to obtain needed IT involvement of senior management. In surveys, CIOs also indicate IT governance as an important management priority. For example, in Gartner’s Top Ten CIO Management Priorities for 2003, “improving IT governance” is included for the first time and is ranked third, and the related issue “providing guidance for the board/executive” is ranked first. This article defines what IT governance is and explains its relationship with enterprise governance. IT governance is defined as the leadership and organizational structures, processes and relational mechanisms that ensure that an organization’s IT sustains and extends its strategy and objectives. The article also provides an IT governance framework containing supporting structures, processes and relational mechanisms. The main objective of this article is to contribute to the understanding of IT governance and how it can be achieved in practice.

Myocardial Contractile Response to Nitric Oxide and cGMP

Abstract: Background Cardiac endothelium releases a number of factors that may modulate performance of underlying cardiac muscle. Nitric oxide (NO), which accounts for the biological activity of the vascular endothelium-derived relaxing factor and relaxes vascular smooth muscle by elevating intracellular cGMP, may be involved in this cardiac modulation. Methods and Results We examined the myocardial contractile effects of the NO-releasing nitrovasodilators sodium nitroprusside (SNP), 3-morpholino-sydnonimine (SIN-1), and S-nitroso-N-acetyl-penicillamine (SNAP); of a cGMP analogue, 8-bromo-cGMP; and of the cGMP-phosphodiesterase inhibitor zaprinast in isolated cat papillary muscle. Modulation of these effects by endocardial endothelium (EE) and by cholinergic and adrenergic stimulation was also investigated. Concentration-response curves with addition of NO-releasing nitrovasodilators (SNP, SIN-1, SNAP) and 8-bromo-cGMP resulted in a biphasic inotropic response. Although administration of low concentrations induced ...

Measurements of properties of the Higgs boson decaying into the four-lepton final state in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV

Abstract: Properties of the Higgs boson are measured in the H → ZZ → 4l (l = e, μ) decay channel. A data sample of proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=13 $ TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{−1}$ is used. The signal strength modifier μ, defined as the ratio of the observed Higgs boson rate in the H → ZZ → 4l decay channel to the standard model expectation, is measured to be μ = 1.05$_{− 0.17}^{+ 0.19}$ at m$_{H}$ = 125.09 GeV, the combined ATLAS and CMS measurement of the Higgs boson mass. The signal strength modifiers for the individual Higgs boson production modes are also measured. The cross section in the fiducial phase space defined by the requirements on lepton kinematics and event topology is measured to be 2. 92$_{− 0.44}^{+ 0.48}$ (stat)$_{− 0.24}^{+ 0.28}$ (syst)fb, which is compatible with the standard model prediction of 2.76 ± 0.14 fb. Differential cross sections are reported as a function of the transverse momentum of the Higgs boson, the number of associated jets, and the transverse momentum of the leading associated jet. The Higgs boson mass is measured to be m$_{H}$ = 125.26 ± 0.21 GeV and the width is constrained using the on-shell invariant mass distribution to be Γ$_{H}$ < 1.10 GeV, at 95% confidence level.

Tuning quantum nonlocal effects in graphene plasmonics

Abstract: The response of electron systems to electrodynamic fields that change rapidly in space is endowed by unique features, including an exquisite spatial nonlocality This can reveal much about the materials’ electronic structure that is invisible in standard probes that use gradually varying fields Here, we use graphene plasmons, propagating at extremely slow velocities close to the electron Fermi velocity, to probe the nonlocal response of the graphene electron liquid The near-field imaging experiments reveal a parameter-free match with the full quantum description of the massless Dirac electron gas, which involves three types of nonlocal quantum effects: single-particle velocity matching, interaction-enhanced Fermi velocity, and interaction-reduced compressibility Our experimental approach can determine the full spatiotemporal response of an electron system