Ultra-cold mechanical resonators coupled to atoms in an optical lattice

We propose an experiment utilizing an array of cooled micro-cantilevers coupled to a sample of ultra-cold atoms trapped near a micro-fabricated surface. The cantilevers allow individual lattice site addressing for atomic state control and readout, and potentially may be useful in optical lattice quantum computation schemes. Assuming resonators can be cooled to their vibrational ground state, the implementation of a two-qubit controlled-NOT gate with atomic internal states and the motional states of the resonator is described. We also consider a protocol for entangling two or more cantilevers on the atom chip with different resonance frequencies, using the trapped atoms as an intermediary. Although similar experiments could be carried out with magnetic microchip traps, the optical confinement scheme we consider may exhibit reduced near-field magnetic noise and decoherence. Prospects for using this novel system for tests of quantum mechanics at macroscopic scales or quantum information processing are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Procurement and supplier diversity in the 2012 Olympics

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Contesting effectuation theory : why it does not explain new venture creation

We evaluate whether the theory of effectuation provides – or could provide – a powerful causal explanation of the process of new venture creation. We do this by conducting an analysis of the principal concepts introduced by effectuation theory. Effectuation theory has become a highly influential cognitive science-based approach to understanding how nascent entrepreneurs start businesses under conditions of uncertainty. But by reducing the process of venture creation to a decision-making logic, effectuation theory pays insufficient regard to the substantial, pervasive and enduring influence of social-structural and cultural contexts on venture creation. Powerful explanations should conceive of venture creation as a sociohistorical process emergent from the interaction of structural, cultural and agential causal powers and must be able to theorise, fallibly, how nascent entrepreneurs form particular firms in particular times and places. We conclude that effectuation’s contribution to entrepreneurship scholarship is more limited than its advocates claim because it can offer only an under-socialised, ahistorical account of venture creation. Failure to theorise adequately the influence of structural and cultural contexts on venture creation implicitly grants nascent entrepreneurs excessive powers of agency

Regulating small firm safety via the supply chain: Implications of the Australian Work Health and Safety Act

The impact of the Work Health and Safety Act (WHS Act) highlights subcontractor working practices. By motivating contractors to influence subcontractor working practices, regulation influences the latter’s health and safety performance. Indirect routes of regulatory influence, working via supply chains, might prove to be a more effective means of improving small firm health and safety than placing obligations upon subcontractors directly, and limit contractor exposure to their new liability for subcontractor breach