International Public Procurement Agreements - Problems of Implemetations in Switzerland

Öffentliche Beschaffung, Reform, Public Choice, Wohlfahrtstheorie, Schweiz, Public Procurement, Welfare economics, Switzerland

Violation of the phase space general covariance as a diffeomorphism anomaly in quantum mechanics

We consider a topological quantum mechanics described by a phase space path integral and study the 1-dimensional analog for the path integral representation of the Kontsevich formula. We see that the naive bosonic integral possesses divergences, that it is even naively non-invariant and thus is ill-defined. We then consider a super-extension of the theory which eliminates the divergences and makes the theory naively invariant. This super-extension is equivalent to the correct choice of measure and was discussed in the literature. We then investigate the behavior of this extended theory under diffeomorphisms of the extended phase space and despite of its naive invariance find out that the theory possesses anomaly under nonlinear diffeomorphisms. We localize the origin of the anomaly and calculate the lowest nontrivial anomalous contribution.Comment: 36 page

An experimental and theoretical analysis of the convected balanced arc

Convected balanced electric arcs in transverse magnetic field

Reconstruction of N=1 supersymmetry from topological symmetry

The scalar and vector topological Yang-Mills symmetries on Calabi-Yau manifolds geometrically define consistent sectors of Yang-Mills D=4,6 N=1 supersymmetry, which fully determine the supersymmetric actions up to twist. For a CY_2 manifold, both N=1,D=4 Wess and Zumino and superYang-Mills theory can be reconstructed in this way. A superpotential can be introduced for the matter sector, as well as the Fayet-Iliopoulos mechanism. For a CY_3 manifold, the N=1, D=6 Yang-Mills theory is also obtained, in a twisted form. Putting these results together with those already known for the D=4,8 N=2 cases, we conclude that all Yang--Mills supersymmetries with 4, 8 and 16 generators are determined from topological symmetry on special manifolds.Comment: 13 page

AdS3_3 vacua and RG flows in three dimensional gauged supergravities

We study $AdS_3$ supersymmetric vacua in N=4 and N=8, three dimensional gauged supergravities, with scalar manifolds $(\frac{SO(4,4)}{SO(4)\times SO(4)})^2$ and $\frac{SO(8,8)}{SO(8)\times SO(8)}$, non-semisimple Chern-Simons gaugings $SO(4)\ltimes {\bf R}^6$ and $(SO(4)\ltimes {\bf R}^6)^2$, respectively. These are in turn equivalent to SO(4) and $SO(4)\times SO(4)$ Yang-Mills theories coupled to supergravity. For the N=4 case, we study renormalization group flows between UV and IR $AdS_3$ vacua with the same amount of supersymmetry: in one case, with (3,1) supersymmetry, we can find an analytic solution whereas in another, with (2,0) supersymmetry, we give a numerical solution. In both cases, the flows turn out to be v.e.v. flows, i.e. they are driven by the expectation value of a relevant operator in the dual $SCFT_2$. These provide examples of v.e.v. flows between two $AdS_3$ vacua within a gauged supergravity framework.Comment: 35 pages in JHEP form, 3 figures, typos corrected, references adde

Alternative Methods for Wetland Restoration in the Rainwater Basin, Nebraska, USA

South-central Nebraska is recognized as a focal point of the mid-continent migratory waterfowl flyway. Substantial wetland alterations led to a critical need for restoration. Managers have restored wetlands by scraping with heavy earthmoving equipment to remove excess organic material and near-monocultures of reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) but managers report high costs and topsoil perturbation. Moderate livestock grazing was tested to compare results with those achieved with mechanical techniques. Advantages of grazing could include low costs and less soil perturbation. During the 2006 and 2007 growing seasons, we compared cover of bare ground and open water and plant species composition in mechanically treated, grazed, and untreated wetlands dominated by reed canarygrass to determine restoration success. Significantly less reed canarygrass and a higher percent composition of desirable species were found in mechanically treated areas as compared to grazed or control treatments. However, waterfowl food plants and marsh species were similar between treatments. Significantly higher percent cover of open water was found at mechanically treated wetlands possibly improving shorebird and waterfowl habitats. Both restoration techniques increased bare ground. Our findings reject the proposition that moderate livestock grazing is an effective technique in restoring reed canarygrass dominated wetlands in Nebraska and suggest additional research be conducted on intense, short-duration grazing in early spring

Noncommutative Logic Systems with Applications in Management and Engineering

Zadeh's (min-max, standard) fuzzy logic and various other logics are commutative, but natural language has nuances suggesting the premises are not equal, with premises contributing to the conclusion according to their prominency. Therefore, we suggest variants of salience-based, noncommutative and non-associative fuzzy logic (prominence logic) that may better model natural language and reasoning when using linguistic variables. Noncommutative fuzzy logics have several theoretical and applicative motivations to be used as models for human inference and decision making processes. Among others, asymmetric relations in economy and management, such as buyer-seller, provider-user, and employer-employee are noncommutative relations and induce noncommutative logic operations between premises or conclusions. A class of noncommutative fuzzy logic operators is introduced and fuzzy logic systems based on the corresponding noncommutative logics are described and analyzed. The prominence of the operators in the noncommutative operations is conventionally assumed to be determined by their precedence. Specific versions of noncommutative logics in the class of the salience-based, noncommutative logics are discussed. We show how fuzzy logic systems may be built based on these types of logics. Compared with classic fuzzy systems, the noncommutative fuzzy logic systems have improved performances in modeling problems, including the modeling of economic and social processes, and offer more flexibility in approximation and control. Applications discussed include management and engineering problems and issues in the field of firms’ ethics or ethics of AI algorithms

Assessment of poststress left ventricular ejection fraction by gated SPECT: comparison with equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography

PURPOSE: We compared left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction obtained by gated SPECT with that obtained by equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography in a large cohort of patients. METHODS: Within 1 week, 514 subjects with suspected or known coronary artery disease underwent same-day stress-rest (99m)Tc-sestamibi gated SPECT and radionuclide angiocardiography. For both studies, data were acquired 30 min after completion of exercise and after 3 h rest. RESULTS: In the overall study population, a good correlation between ejection fraction measured by gated SPECT and by radionuclide angiocardiography was observed at rest (r=0.82, p<0.0001) and after stress (r=0.83, p<0.0001). In Bland-Altman analysis, the mean differences in ejection fraction (radionuclide angiocardiography minus gated SPECT) were -0.6% at rest and 1.7% after stress. In subjects with normal perfusion (n=362), a good correlation between ejection fraction measured by gated SPECT and by radionuclide angiocardiography was observed at rest (r=0.72, p<0.0001) and after stress (r=0.70, p<0.0001) and the mean differences in ejection fraction were -0.9% at rest and 1.4% after stress. Also in patients with abnormal perfusion (n=152), a good correlation between the two techniques was observed both at rest (r=0.89, p<0.0001) and after stress (r=0.90, p<0.0001) and the mean differences in ejection fraction were 0.1% at rest and 2.5% after stress. CONCLUSION: In a large study population, a good agreement was observed in the evaluation of LV ejection fraction between gated SPECT and radionuclide angiocardiography. However, in patients with perfusion abnormalities, a slight underestimation in poststress LV ejection fraction was observed using gated SPECT as compared to equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography

K(E10), Supergravity and Fermions

We study the fermionic extension of the E10/K(E10) coset model and its relation to eleven-dimensional supergravity. Finite-dimensional spinor representations of the compact subgroup K(E10) of E(10,R) are studied and the supergravity equations are rewritten using the resulting algebraic variables. The canonical bosonic and fermionic constraints are also analysed in this way, and the compatibility of supersymmetry with local K(E10) is investigated. We find that all structures involving A9 levels 0,1 and 2 nicely agree with expectations, and provide many non-trivial consistency checks of the existence of a supersymmetric extension of the E10/K(E10) coset model, as well as a new derivation of the `bosonic dictionary' between supergravity and coset variables. However, there are also definite discrepancies in some terms involving level 3, which suggest the need for an extension of the model to infinite-dimensional faithful representations of the fermionic degrees of freedom.Comment: 50 page