850 research outputs found

    The Executive Pay Drama: From Comedy to Tragedy

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    [Excerpt] Should we rely on legislation to correct problems or should we act collectively to make ethical decisions? After careful thought, it becomes clear that legislation is a seductive copout that makes matters worse and detracts from our obligation to accept accountability for our individual and collective decisions

    A Gauge-Independent Mechanism for Confinement and Mass Gap: Part II -- G=SU(2) and D=3

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    We apply to the case of gauge group G = SU(2) in three dimensions a recently proposed gauge-independent mechanism for confinement that is based on a particular form of the dual spin foam framework for lattice gauge theory. Explicit formulae for interaction factors and their asymptotics are introduced and their behavior in different sectors of the theory are identified and analyzed. We arrive at several elementary properties of the dual theory that represent one scenario by which confinement may be realized at weak coupling. We conclude with an outlook for further development of this approach.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

    ‘My body was no longer a problem’: Electric mountain biking, disability, and the cultural politics of green exercise.

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    Disability is often overlooked in discussions of green exercise. Consequently, we still know little about how ableist ideologies might play out in the context of nature engagement, or the forms of pleasure that disabled people derive from participation in green spaces. In this paper, we address this gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between electric-mountain biking, and disability in England (UK). Adopting the work of Bernard Stiegler (1998; 2013; 2018; 2020), we highlight the superficiality of existing ideologies of nature, analyse the myriad ways that e-mountain bikes can challenge ableist attitudes towards outdoor recreation and explore the freedoms and constraints that accompany the assemblages between e-mountain bikes and ‘disabled’ bodies. In subjecting data from 20 interviews to a dialogic narrative inquiry, we highlight the social contexts and interactions that shape technological choices, adaptations, and outcomes within the disabled e-mountain bike community. Specifically, the analysis reveals that, while e-mountain bikes are stigmatised in green spaces, the enhanced level of social interaction that is afforded by the presence of such technology allows participants to de-emphasise their perceived physical inadequacy and, instead, focus on promoting a more empowering image of the socio-technical disabled body in green space that is active, capable, and self-determined

    Contingent reinforcement in budgeting and performance appraisals / BEBR No. 107

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    Typescript.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 18-21)

    A Gauge-Independent Mechanism for Confinement and Mass Gap: Part I -- The General Framework

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    We propose a gauge-independent mechanism for the area-law behavior of Wilson loop expectation values in terms of worldsheets spanning Wilson loops interacting with the spin foams that contribute to the vacuum partition function. The method uses an exact transformation of lattice-regularized Yang-Mills theory that is valid for all couplings. Within this framework, some natural conjectures can be made as to what physical mechanism enforces the confinement property in the continuum (weak coupling) limit. Details for the SU(2) case in three dimensions are provided in a companion paper.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

    PANEL 4 EVENT-DRIVEN BUSINESS SOLUTIONS: IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCES AND ISSUES

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    Positivity in Lorentzian Barrett-Crane Models of Quantum Gravity

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    The Barrett-Crane models of Lorentzian quantum gravity are a family of spin foam models based on the Lorentz group. We show that for various choices of edge and face amplitudes, including the Perez-Rovelli normalization, the amplitude for every triangulated closed 4-manifold is a non-negative real number. Roughly speaking, this means that if one sums over triangulations, there is no interference between the different triangulations. We prove non-negativity by transforming the model into a ``dual variables'' formulation in which the amplitude for a given triangulation is expressed as an integral over three copies of hyperbolic space for each tetrahedron. Then we prove that, expressed in this way, the integrand is non-negative. In addition to implying that the amplitude is non-negative, the non-negativity of the integrand is highly significant from the point of view of numerical computations, as it allows statistical methods such as the Metropolis algorithm to be used for efficient computation of expectation values of observables.Comment: 13 page

    Studies of discharge mechanisms in high pressure gases-applications to high efficiency high power lasers

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    By measuring the absorption and emission cantinua of various states in the cesium/xenon molecule, the collisional rates critical in populating the alkali/rare gas excimer levels have been estimated. Cs atomic states that are weakly optically connected to ground have been shown to form excimer levels that are attractive as potential dissociation lasers. In particular, the (Cs/7 2S/Xe) excited molecule appears promising as a source of high energy laser radiation due to its large dissociation energy, stimulated emission cross section, and small population inversion densities. Monitoring of the optically pumped Cs2 molecular absorption profile in the presence of xenon shows a drastic change with increasing xenon pressure for the Cs2C band. Dominant absorption at large xenon densities is centered around approximately 6380 A as opposed to 6300 A for lower perturber pressure
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