Top Management Team Diversity: A systematic Review

Empirical research investigating the impact of top management team (TMT) diversity on executives’ decision making has produced inconclusive results. To synthesize and aggregate the results on the diversity-performance link, a meta-regression analysis (MRA) is conducted. It integrates more than 200 estimates from 53 empirical studies investigating TMT diversity and its impact on the quality of executives’ decision making as reflected in corporate performance. The analysis contributes to the literature by theoretically discussing and empirically examining the effects of TMT diversity on corporate performance. Our results do not show a link between TMT diversity and performance but provide evidence for publication bias. Thus, the findings raise doubts on the impact of TMT diversity on performance

Photothermal Stability of Various Module Encapsulants and Effects of Superstrate and Substrate Materials Studied for PVMaT Sources

This paper briefs the photothermal reliability studies we conducted on different encapsulation materials for some U.S. PV companies that are subcontractors of the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) program

Effects of Accelerated Exposure Testing (AET) Conditions on Performance Degradation of Solar Cells and Encapsulants

The paper briefly summarizes the results from several accelerated exposure tests (AET) studies. Causes responsible for the photothermal instability of the encapsulated Si solar cells appear to be multiple and complex

Plasma Surface Modification of Polymer Backsheets: Origins of Future Interfacial Barrier/Backsheet Failure

Flexible polymer substrates coated with inorganic oxide moisture barriers are a potential replacement for glass backsheets in thin film PV modules. Silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy) deposited by PECVD on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) represents one potential new backsheet candidate. Barrier deposition runs at NREL have typically included a nitrogen-rich plasma pretreatment prior to actual barrier deposition with the intention of cleaning the PET surface as well as enhancing adhesion of the SiOxNy barrier film to PET; however, test coupons of PET/barrier/EVA/TPE failed after damp heat exposure. PET substrates exposed to plasma conditions similar to those used in pre-treatment were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to reveal new low molecular weight PET fragments are created which are volatile upon heating and water soluble. Failure analysis of the coupons determined that the moisture barrier is, in fact, transferred to the encapsulant side

The on-top pair-correlation density in the homogeneous electron liquid

The ladder theory, in which the Bethe-Goldstone equation for the effective potential between two scattering particles plays a central role, is well known for its satisfactory description of the short-range correlations in the homogeneous electron liquid. By solving exactly the Bethe-Goldstone equation in the limit of large transfer momentum between two scattering particles, we obtain accurate results for the on-top pair-correlation density $g(0)$, in both three dimensions and two dimensions. Furthermore, we prove, in general, the ladder theory satisfies the cusp condition for the pair-correlation density $g(r)$ at zero distance $r=0$.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Hepatic Proprotein Convertases Modulate HDL Metabolism

SummaryThe risk of atherosclerosis is inversely associated with plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). However, HDL metabolism is incompletely understood, and there are few effective approaches to modulate HDL-C levels. Here we show that inhibition in the liver of the classical proprotein convertases (PCs), but not the atypical PCs S1P and PCSK9, decreases plasma HDL-C levels. This metabolic effect of hepatic PCs is critically dependent on expression of endothelial lipase (EL), an enzyme that directly hydrolyzes HDL phospholipids and promotes its catabolism. Hepatic PCs reduce EL function through direct inactivating cleavage of EL as well as through activating cleavage of angiopoietin-like protein 3 (ANGPTL3), an endogenous inhibitor of EL. Thus, inhibition of hepatic PCs results in increased EL activity, leading to reduced HDL-C as well as impaired reverse cholesterol transport. The hepatic PC–ANGPTL3–EL–HDL pathway is therefore a novel mechanism controlling HDL metabolism and cholesterol homeostasis

Long and short paths in uniform random recursive dags

In a uniform random recursive k-dag, there is a root, 0, and each node in turn, from 1 to n, chooses k uniform random parents from among the nodes of smaller index. If S_n is the shortest path distance from node n to the root, then we determine the constant \sigma such that S_n/log(n) tends to \sigma in probability as n tends to infinity. We also show that max_{1 \le i \le n} S_i/log(n) tends to \sigma in probability.Comment: 16 page