Analysing B2B electronic procurement benefits – Information systems perspective

This paper presents electronic procurement benefits identified in four case companies. The benefits achieved in the case companies were classified according to taxonomies from the Information Systems discipline. Existing taxonomies were combined into a new taxonomy which allows evaluation of the complex e-procurement impact. Traditional financial-based methods failed to capture the nature of e-procurement benefits. In the new taxonomy, eprocurement benefits are classified using scorecard dimensions (strategic, tactical and operational), which allows the identification of areas of e-procurement impact, in addition the benefits characteristic is captured (tangible, intangible, financial and non-financial)

Information systems evaluation in context–impact of the corporate level

The paper presents the results of a doctoral research related to Information Systems evaluation in context. The authors propose changes in the context, the new level of contextual analysis was added: the system context located between the internal and external context. The system context reflects the fact that the case companies are business units and parts of the corporations and IS evaluation is influenced by the corporation, Three levels of context analysis can be used in case of IS evaluation in complex structures, such as corporations or supply chain

The post-war settlement in Central Europe: Legal aspects of frontiers and citizenship

The year 1945 saw the creation of a new territorial regime in central Europe. The UK, USA, USSR and France had assumed supreme authority over Germany, including the right to decide its status and frontiers. Germany was not annexed; it continued to exist. The Potsdam Agreement of 2 August decreed that Poland, which had lost territories in the east to the USSR, should be accorded the right of "administration" over German territories to the east of the Oder and Western Neisse Rivers (including Stettin/Szczecin) plus the southern part of East Prussia. These areas were not treated as occupied territories. The final delimitation of the western frontier of Poland was to take place at the peace settlement with Germany. Such a settlement remains outstanding. Germany became progressively more divided in the years 1945-1949. The States occupying the western zones of Germany (the UK, USA and France) gradually established greater unity within their zones and in Berlin (which was treated separately), while the USSR, occupying the eastern zone, set up a separate system. In 1949, this culminated in the creation of two States, the ERG in the west and the GBR in the east. Each at first claimed to act in the name of Germany, to the exclusion of the other, though neither was ever identical with Germany or entitled to act in its name. Due to the division of Germany, the German Reich, which still existed, ceased actively to function. No peace settlement has been concluded; thus the western frontier of Poland has not, formally, been finally delimited, as provided for in the Potsdam Agreement. This lack of formal delimitation has resulted in great controversy between Poland and the ERG with regard to the status of the relevant territories and the quality of Poland's tenure. No such disagreement exists between Poland and the GDR; in 1950 they concluded a treaty recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German frontier. Shifting perceptions of the geopolitical situation in Europe eventually resulted in previously hostile States concluding bilateral treaties which have regulated, for the parties, hitherto contentious issues. Particularly significant are the Ostpolitik treaties of the ERG - with the USSR, Poland, the GDR and Czechoslovakia. The treaty with Poland contained acceptance by the ERG of the Oder-Neisse line as the western State frontier of Poland: the ERG could no longer question Poland's tenure of these territories. The ratification dispute in the ERG with regard to this treaty, which apparently raised substantive questions about Poland's rights, has, actually, no legal effect on the relationship between the parties under international law, but is, nevertheless, important in understanding West German perceptions of the issue. Germany continues to exist, at least according to the UK. The Soviet position seems to deny the existence of Germany, but is highly ambiguous. The USSR, however, does acknowledge the existence of joint rights and responsibilities with regard to Germany as a whole. The Four Powers responsible for Germany are not bound by the Poland-ERG treaty; their rights and obligations are not affected by it. Thus they are not obliged, as yet, to confirm the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German frontier at a peace settlement. However, a combination of political and legal factors would probably cause them to do so. The formal bar which seems to exist at present to Poland's unreserved tenure could be removed, without a peace settlement, by four Power agreement. The failure to do so is due to a lack of collective political will (let sleeping Germans lie), rather than deficient legal capacity. The rules of State succession indicate that a reunified Germany would be bound by the treaties of the ERG and the GDR to accept the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German frontier. Neither the ERG nor the GDR is identical with Germany; the State which they create by unification would also lack such identity. Thus the Germany for which the Four Powers are responsible would not immediately be bound by these treaties. However, unification could only take place with the approval of the Four Powers, and it must be assumed that, during the process of unification, they would make provision for the application of their own competence (which is the sole manifestation of the still-existing German State) to the new Germany. The FRG-GDR frontier is a direct result of the unusual status of Germany. For the two States it is an inter-State frontier - this they have themselves confirmed in the 1972 Treaty on the basis of their mutual relations. For the Four Powers, acting in their capacity as States having residual responsibility for Germany as a whole, the frontier resembles, legally, an internal frontier, despite the physical barriers. from the territories to t>e administered by Poland. The legality of the transfer has been questionned, particularly in the ERG, hut was probably lawful, though the manner of execution may not have been. Problems relating to citizenship have arisen, particularly with regard to Germans in the ERG. The citizenship law of that State is an amended version of the 1913 Reich citizenship law and, as such, its ambit covers citizens of the GDR. This has caused legal and political dispute between these States. Another consequence is that ERG citizenship may apply also to certain Polish citizens. Because Germany continues to exist, citizens of the ERG and the GDR, who come within the terms of the 1913 citizenship law as at 1949, probably possess German citizenship in addition to their ERG and GDR citizenships. This would not be accepted by Soviet-bloc States, which anyway do not recognize dual citizenship. Thus, the citizenship status of Polish citizens formerly resident in eastern Poland (that part which became part of the USSR) has been regulated on a bilateral basis. The citizenship status of the Germans is a consequence of the status of Germany; outstanding issues may exist until a final settlement is achieved

Measurement of the electric dipole moments for transitions to rubidium Rydberg states via Autler-Townes splitting

We present the direct measurements of electric-dipole moments for $5P_{3/2}\to nD_{5/2}$ transitions with $20<n<48$ for Rubidium atoms. The measurements were performed in an ultracold sample via observation of the Autler-Townes splitting in a three-level ladder scheme, commonly used for 2-photon excitation of Rydberg states. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic measurement of the electric dipole moments for transitions from low excited states of rubidium to Rydberg states. Due to its simplicity and versatility, this method can be easily extended to other transitions and other atomic species with little constraints. Good agreement of the experimental results with theory proves the reliability of the measurement method.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; figure 6 replaced with correct versio

Quantum-enhanced protocols with mixed states using cold atoms in dipole traps

We discuss the use of cold atoms in dipole traps to demonstrate experimentally a particular class of protocols for computation and metrology based on mixed states. Modelling of the system shows that, for a specific class of problems (tracing, phase estimation), a quantum advantage can be achieved over classical algorithms for very realistic conditions and strong decoherence. We discuss the results of the models and the experimental implementation

A cold-atoms based processor for deterministic quantum computation with one qubit in intractably large Hilbert spaces

We propose the use of Rydberg interactions and ensembles of cold atoms in mixed state for the implementation of a protocol for deterministic quantum computation with one quantum bit that can be readily operated in high dimensional Hilbert spaces. We propose an experimental test for the scalability of the protocol and to study the physics of discord. Furthermore, we explore the possibility of extending to non-trivial unitaries, such as those associated to many-body physics. Finally develop a scheme to add control to cold atom unitaries in order to facilitate their implementation in our proposal

Ozone observations and a model of marine boundary layer photochemistry during SAGA 3

A major purpose of the third joint Soviet‐American Gases and Aerosols (SAGA 3) oceanographic cruise was to examine remote tropical marine O3 and photochemical cycles in detail. On leg 1, which took place between Hilo, Hawaii, and Pago‐Pago, American Samoa, in February and March 1990, shipboard measurements were made of O3, CO, CH4, nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHC), NO, dimethyl sulfide (DMS), H2S, H2O2, organic peroxides, and total column O3. Postcruise analysis was performed for alkyl nitrates and a second set of nonmethane hydrocarbons. A latitudinal gradient in O3 was observed on SAGA 3, with O3 north of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) at 15–20 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) and less than 12 ppbv south of the ITCZ but never ≤3 ppbv as observed on some previous equatorial Pacific cruises (Piotrowicz et al., 1986; Johnson et al., 1990). Total column O3 (230–250 Dobson units (DU)) measured from the Akademik Korolev was within 8% of the corresponding total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) satellite observations and confirmed the equatorial Pacific as a low O3 region. In terms of number of constituents measured, SAGA 3 may be the most photochemically complete at‐sea experiment to date. A one‐dimensional photochemical model gives a self‐consistent picture of O3‐NO‐CO‐hydrocarbon interactions taking place during SAGA 3. At typical equatorial conditions, mean O3 is 10 ppbv with a 10–15% diurnal variation and maximum near sunrise. Measurements of O3, CO, CH4, NMHC, and H2O constrain model‐calculated OH to 9 × 105 cm−3 for 10 ppbv O3 at the equator. For DMS (300–400 parts per trillion by volume (pptv)) this OH abundance requires a sea‐to‐air flux of 6–8 × 109 cm−2 s−1, which is within the uncertainty range of the flux deduced from SAGA 3 measurements of DMS in seawater (Bates et al., this issue). The concentrations of alkyl nitrates on SAGA 3 (5–15 pptv total alkyl nitrates) were up to 6 times higher than expected from currently accepted kinetics, suggesting a largely continental source for these species. However, maxima in isopropyl nitrate and bromoform near the equator (Atlas et al., this issue) as well as for nitric oxide (Torres and Thompson, this issue) may signify photochemical and biological sources of these species

Genealogies of Slavery

This chapter addresses the concept of slavery, exploring its character and significance as a dark page in history, but also as a specifically criminological and zemiological problem, in the context of international law and human rights. By tracing the ambiguities of slavery in international law and international development, the harms associated with slavery are considered. Harms include both those statutorily proscribed, and those that are not, but that can still be regarded as socially destructive. Traditionally, antislavery has been considered within the parameters of abolition and criminalization. In this context recently, anti-trafficking has emerged as a key issue in contemporary anti-slavery work. While valuable, anti-trafficking is shown to have significant limitations. It advances criminalization and stigmatization of the most vulnerable and further perpetuates harm. At the same time, it identifies structural conditions like poverty, vulnerability, and “unfreedom” of movement only to put them aside. Linked to exploitation, violence and zemia, the chapter brings to the fore some crucial questions concerning the prospects of systemic theory in the investigation of slavery, that highlight the root causes of slavery, primarily poverty and inequality. Therefore, the chapter counterposes an alternative approach in which the orienting target is not abolition of slavery but advancing structural changes against social harm