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The moral microfoundations of institutional complexity: Sustainability implementation as compromise-making at an oil sands company
Research on institutional complexity has overlooked the fact that moral judgements are likely involved when individuals face a plurality of logics within organizations. To analyze the moral microfoundations of institutional complexity, we build on Boltanski and Thévenot’s (2006 [1991]) economies of worth (EW) framework and explore how individuals produce moral judgement in response to the institutional complexity triggered by a major shift in the sustainability strategy within an oil sands company. Fifty-two interviews with employees, managers and executives reveal how actors rely on four types of justification that combine different moral principles and related objects with the aim of either forming (sheltering and solidifying work) or challenging (fragilizing and deconstructing work) a new compromise with regard to sustainability within the organization. Our results show how the EW framework can enrich institutional complexity theory by bringing morality back into the analysis as a core dimension of inhabited institutions while advancing the microanalysis of compromise-making around sustainability in organization studies
USE OF INHALANT ANESTHETICS IN THREE SNAKE SPECIES
Different snake species respond differently to various anesthetic agents. Hence, an anesthetic procedure developed for one species cannot necessarily be safely transferred to another species. The goal of this paper is to summarize our experience using inhalant anesthetics on three snake species, including both procedures that were successful and those we found to be less satisfactory. We found isoflurane delivered with a precision vaporizer to be the best agent to anesthetize black rat snakes (Elaphe o. obsoleta). Sex and mass did not seem to affect induction times in black rat snakes, but larger female rat snakes recovered faster from anesthesia than smaller females. Halothane delivered in the open method provided consistent anesthesia in northern water snakes (Nerodia s. sipedon), although it caused some mortality and should not be used on debilitated patients. Halothane delivered with a precision vaporizer may be used to anesthetize eastern massasauga rattlesnakes (Sistrurus c. catenatus). However, care must be taken to prevent mortality resulting from anesthetic overdose. Sex and mass had no effect on induction and recovery times in the rattlesnakes, but stressed animals require longer induction and recovery times
Peeping at chaos: Nondestructive monitoring of chaotic systems by measuring long-time escape rates
One or more small holes provide non-destructive windows to observe
corresponding closed systems, for example by measuring long time escape rates
of particles as a function of hole sizes and positions. To leading order the
escape rate of chaotic systems is proportional to the hole size and independent
of position. Here we give exact formulas for the subsequent terms, as sums of
correlation functions; these depend on hole size and position, hence yield
information on the closed system dynamics. Conversely, the theory can be
readily applied to experimental design, for example to control escape rates.Comment: Originally 4 pages and 2 eps figures incorporated into the text; v2
has more numerical results and discussion: now 6 pages, 4 figure
Normal-Superfluid Interface Scattering For Polarized Fermion Gases
We argue that, for the recent experiments with imbalanced fermion gases, a
temperature difference may occur between the normal (N) and the gapped
superfluid (SF) phase. Using the mean-field formalism, we study particle
scattering off the N-SF interface from the deep BCS to the unitary regime. We
show that the thermal conductivity across the interface drops exponentially
fast with increasing , where is the chemical potential imbalance.
This implies a blocking of thermal equilibration between the N and the SF
phase. We also provide a possible mechanism for the creation of gap
oscillations (FFLO-like states) as seen in recent studies on these systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
On the resonance eigenstates of an open quantum baker map
We study the resonance eigenstates of a particular quantization of the open
baker map. For any admissible value of Planck's constant, the corresponding
quantum map is a subunitary matrix, and the nonzero component of its spectrum
is contained inside an annulus in the complex plane, . We consider semiclassical sequences of eigenstates, such that the
moduli of their eigenvalues converge to a fixed radius . We prove that, if
the moduli converge to , then the sequence of eigenstates
converges to a fixed phase space measure . The same holds for
sequences with eigenvalue moduli converging to , with a different
limit measure . Both these limiting measures are supported on
fractal sets, which are trapped sets of the classical dynamics. For a general
radius , we identify families of eigenstates with
precise self-similar properties.Comment: 32 pages, 2 figure
Remarks on Renormalization of Black Hole Entropy
We elaborate the renormalization process of entropy of a nonextremal and an
extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole by using the Pauli-Villars
regularization method, in which the regulator fields obey either the
Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac distribution depending on their spin-statistics.
The black hole entropy involves only two renormalization constants. We also
discuss the entropy and temperature of the extremal black hole.Comment: 14 pages, revtex, no figure
Escape Rates and Physically Relevant Measures for Billiards with Small Holes
We study the billiard map corresponding to a periodic Lorentz gas in
2-dimensions in the presence of small holes in the table. We allow holes in the
form of open sets away from the scatterers as well as segments on the
boundaries of the scatterers. For a large class of smooth initial
distributions, we establish the existence of a common escape rate and
normalized limiting distribution. This limiting distribution is conditionally
invariant and is the natural analogue of the SRB measure of a closed system.
Finally, we prove that as the size of the hole tends to zero, the limiting
distribution converges to the smooth invariant measure of the billiard map.Comment: 39 pages, 4 figure
Au-Ag template stripped pattern for scanning probe investigations of DNA arrays produced by Dip Pen Nanolithography
We report on DNA arrays produced by Dip Pen Nanolithography (DPN) on a novel
Au-Ag micro patterned template stripped surface. DNA arrays have been
investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunnelling
microscopy (STM) showing that the patterned template stripped substrate enables
easy retrieval of the DPN-functionalized zone with a standard optical
microscope permitting a multi-instrument and multi-technique local detection
and analysis. Moreover the smooth surface of the Au squares (abput 5-10
angstrom roughness) allows to be sensitive to the hybridization of the
oligonucleotide array with label-free target DNA. Our Au-Ag substrates,
combining the retrieving capabilities of the patterned surface with the
smoothness of the template stripped technique, are candidates for the
investigation of DPN nanostructures and for the development of label free
detection methods for DNA nanoarrays based on the use of scanning probes.Comment: Langmuir (accepted
Majorana spinors and extended Lorentz symmetry in four-dimensional theory
An extended local Lorentz symmetry in four-dimensional (4D) theory is
considered. A source of this symmetry is a group of general linear
transformations of four-component Majorana spinors GL(4,M) which is isomorphic
to GL(4,R) and is the covering of an extended Lorentz group in a 6D Minkowski
space M(3,3) including superluminal and scaling transformations. Physical
space-time is assumed to be a 4D pseudo-Riemannian manifold. To connect the
extended Lorentz symmetry in the M(3,3) space with the physical space-time, a
fiber bundle over the 4D manifold is introduced with M(3,3) as a typical fiber.
The action is constructed which is invariant with respect to both general 4D
coordinate and local GL(4,M) spinor transformations. The components of the
metric on the 6D fiber are expressed in terms of the 4D pseudo-Riemannian
metric and two extra complex fields: 4D vector and scalar ones. These extra
fields describe in the general case massive particles interacting with an extra
U(1) gauge field and weakly interacting with ordinary particles, i.e.
possessing properties of invisible (dark) matter.Comment: 24 page
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