Adapting Corporate Governance for Sustainable Peace

In previous work, we argued that there is a link between corporate governance and the reduction of violence. In this manuscript, we further explore that link with a focus on how corporations can work toward the goal of reduction of violence in the societies in which they operate. Here, we pose the question of how well suited various corporate governance regimes are to face these complexities, and how they can do so in ways that are consistent with their fundamental principles. We focus on the corporate governance regimes of the United States, Germany and Japan. A common denominator of the political entities addressed is a commitment to a political regime of democracy. Section I outlines our thesis that corporations are in a position to make contributions to peace in society because of shifting political balances of power. It elaborates with the idea that our contemporary world has shifted from traditional balance of power conceptions in terms of the near universal embrace of parliamentary democracy requiring some reformulated description of the optimal relations among democracy, peace, and globalization. This section establishes the general parameters of the argument that democracy and peace are linked and that there are serious charges that globalization works against democracy and thereby threatens the sustainability of peace. Section II analyzes comparative models of corporate governance and considers the extent to which contemporary corporate governance models look to peace and workplace security as aims they should achieve. Concluding remarks follow in Section III.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39917/3/wp532.pd

ECOLOGY AND VIOLENCE: THE ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSIONS OF WAR

Research reported by Thomas Homer-Dixon characterizes five social effects that can significantly increase the likelihood of violence in the emerging world, effects that are far deeper than can be controlled by security forces: (1) constrained agricultural production, often in ecologically marginal regions; (2) constrained economic productivity, mainly affecting people who are highly dependent on environmental resources and who are ecologically and economically marginal; (3) migration of these affected people in search of better lives; (4) greater segmentation of society, usually along existing ethnic cleavages; and (5) disruption of institutions, especially the state.1 These kinds of social effects create tensions that can erupt in violent expression. It is difficult to envision how additional security forces will solve the embedded social problems that link violence with economic, social, ethnic, and even religious frustrations. This manuscript seeks to address these concerns. Part I elaborates ways in which these issues of violence manifest themselves in a globalized economy. Part II discusses the business implications of these tensions and suggests a way in which business can be a mediating actor to lessen these tensions. Part III concludes with a suggestion for a recharacterization of the corporation in a way to sensitize it to the ecological-mindedness necessary to address the potential issues of violence in societies. We propose sustainable peace as an aim to which businesses should orient their actions both for reasons of the good of avoiding the activities that contribute to the spilling of blood as well as for the good of sustainable economic enterprises, which are fostered by stable, peaceful relationships. Thus, business must do what it does best and address economic development, even in terms of the extraction of natural resources. But it must also be attentive to the rights of others, to the development of community and meaning, and to stop violence when it is likely. Given the dangers ecological stresses pose for the planet, it is hard to think of a more compelling reason to reorient business behavior.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40084/3/wp698.pd

Dipolar interaction and incoherent quantum tunneling: a Monte Carlo study of magnetic relaxation

We study the magnetic relaxation of a system of localized spins interacting through weak dipole interactions, at a temperature large with respect to the ordering temperature but low with respect to the crystal field level splitting. The relaxation results from quantum spin tunneling but is only allowed on sites where the dipole field is very small. At low times, the magnetization decrease is proportional to $\sqrt{t}$ as predicted by Prokofiev and Stamp, and at long times the relaxation can be described as an extension of a relaxed zone. The results can be directly compared with very recent experimental data on Fe_8 molecular clusters.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication on Eur. Phys. J.

Adapting Corporate Governance for Sustainable Peace

In previous work, we argued that there is a link between corporate governance and the reduction of violence. In this manuscript, we further explore that link with a focus on how corporations can work toward the goal of reduction of violence in the societies in which they operate. Here, we pose the question of how well suited various corporate governance regimes are to face these complexities, and how they can do so in ways that are consistent with their fundamental principles. We focus on the corporate governance regimes of the United States, Germany and Japan. A common denominator of the political entities addressed is a commitment to a political regime of democracy. Section I outlines our thesis that corporations are in a position to make contributions to peace in society because of shifting political balances of power. It elaborates with the idea that our contemporary world has shifted from traditional balance of power conceptions in terms of the near universal embrace of parliamentary democracy requiring some reformulated description of the optimal relations among democracy, peace, and globalization. This section establishes the general parameters of the argument that democracy and peace are linked and that there are serious charges that globalization works against democracy and thereby threatens the sustainability of peace. Section II analyzes comparative models of corporate governance and considers the extent to which contemporary corporate governance models look to peace and workplace security as aims they should achieve. Concluding remarks follow in Section III.corporate governance, comparative law, business ethics, peace, democracy, globalization

Collective excitations of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a 1D optical lattice

We study low-lying collective modes of a horizontally elongated 87Rb condensate produced in a 3D magnetic harmonic trap with the addition of a 1D periodic potential which is provided by a laser standing-wave along the horizontal axis. While the transverse breathing mode results unperturbed, quadrupole and dipole oscillations along the optical lattice are strongly modified. Precise measurements of the collective mode frequencies at different height of the optical barriers provide a stringent test of the theoretical model recently introduced [M.Kraemer et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 180404 (2002)].Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Test of Information Theory on the Boltzmann Equation

We examine information theory using the steady-state Boltzmann equation. In a nonequilibrium steady-state system under steady heat conduction, the thermodynamic quantities from information theory are calculated and compared with those from the steady-state Boltzmann equation. We have found that information theory is inconsistent with the steady-state Boltzmann equation.Comment: 12 page

The SDSS Damped Lya Survey: Data Release 1

We present the results from an automated search for damped Lya (DLA) systems in the quasar spectra of Data Release 1 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-DR1). At z~2.5, this homogeneous dataset has greater statistical significance than the previous two decades of research. We derive a statistical sample of 71 damped Lya systems (>50 previously unpublished) at z>2.1 and measure HI column densities directly from the SDSS spectra. The number of DLA systems per unit redshift is consistent with previous measurements and we expect our survey has >95% completeness. We examine the cosmological baryonic mass density of neutral gas Omega_g inferred from the damped Lya systems from the SDSS-DR1 survey and a combined sample drawn from the literature. Contrary to previous results, the Omega_g values do not require a significant correction from Lyman limit systems at any redshift. We also find that the Omega_g values for the SDSS-DR1 sample do not decline at high redshift and the combined sample shows a (statistically insignificant) decrease only at z>4. Future data releases from SDSS will provide the definitive survey of DLA systems at z~2.5 and will significantly reduce the uncertainty in Omega_g at higher redshift.Comment: 12 pages, includes color figures. Accepted to PASP, April 20 200

Connecting dissipation and phase slips in a Josephson junction between fermionic superfluids

We study the emergence of dissipation in an atomic Josephson junction between weakly-coupled superfluid Fermi gases. We find that vortex-induced phase slippage is the dominant microscopic source of dissipation across the BEC-BCS crossover. We explore different dynamical regimes by tuning the bias chemical potential between the two superfluid reservoirs. For small excitations, we observe dissipation and phase coherence to coexist, with a resistive current followed by well-defined Josephson oscillations. We link the junction transport properties to the phase-slippage mechanism, finding that vortex nucleation is primarily responsible for the observed trends of conductance and critical current. For large excitations, we observe the irreversible loss of coherence between the two superfluids, and transport cannot be described only within an uncorrelated phase-slip picture. Our findings open new directions for investigating the interplay between dissipative and superfluid transport in strongly correlated Fermi systems, and general concepts in out-of-equlibrium quantum systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures + Supplemental Materia

How to stretch system reliability exploiting mission constraints: A practical roadmap for industries

Reliability analysis can be committed to companies by customers willing to verify whether their products comply with the major international standards or simply to verify the design prior of market deployment. Nevertheless, these analyses may be required at the very preliminary stages of design or when the design is already in progress due to low organizational capabilities or simple delay in the project implementation process. The results sometime maybe be far from the market or customer target with a subsequent need to redesign the whole asset. Of course, not all the cases fall in the worst scenario and maybe with some additional consideration on mission definition it is possible to comply with the proposed reliability targets. In this paper the author will provide an overview on the approach which could be followed to achieve the reliability target even when the project is still on-going providing a practical case study