Exploring the rationale of enlightened shareholder value in the realm of UK company law – the path dependence perspective

Despite conventional beliefs in the predominance of shareholder value, a broader agenda of stakeholder consideration has been advocated in the UK by the recently-introduced ESV principle – the overriding corporate objective in the new company law regime. In this paper, the efficiency of this principle in terms of stakeholder enhancement is challenged through an interdisciplinary analysis. Through a critical review of the ESV principle, it is discovered that stakeholder enhancement practices in the context of the 2006 company law regime are still for the fundamental goal of shareholder value maximisation, and that their enlightened impact has been fairly limited in practice. Furthermore, by revisiting the interrelationships between UK economic, political and cultural factors with the predominance objective of shareholder value maximisation in the Companies Act 2006, it is discovered that the enlightened effect of this new approach in the company law regime is in fact impeded by strong, persistent forces deriving from shareholder-oriented particulars. Providing insight into the future direction of corporate governance practice, the paper concludes the rationale behind the shareholder-oriented ESV principle, and further suggests the continuing predominance of shareholder value in UK corporate governance

ALEA III: The Exotics, November 9, 1989

This is the concert program of ALEA III: The Exotics performance on Thursday, November 9, 1989 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Music for an imaginary ballet by Henry Brant, The Banshee by Henry Cowell, First Concerto for flute and percussion by Lou Harrison, Suite for harp and wind quintet by Chou Wen-Chung, Bacchanale by John Cage, and Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death by George Crumb. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Book Review: Handbook of Professional Development in Education. Linda E. Martin, Sherry Kragler, Diana J. Quatroche, & Kathryn L. Bauserman (Editors). New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 2014. 562 pages.

Book Review: Handbook of Professional Development in Education. Linda E. Martin, Sherry Kragler, Diana J. Quatroche, & Kathryn L. Bauserman (Editors) (2014)

MINLP Optimization Algorithm for the Synthesis of Heat and Work Exchange Networks

This paper introduces a new optimization model for the simultaneous synthesis of heat and work exchange networks. The work integration is performed in the work exchange network (WEN), while the heat integration is carried out in the heat exchanger network (HEN). In the WEN synthesis, streams at high-pressure (HP) and low-pressure (LP) are subjected to pressure manipulation stages, via turbines and compressors running on common shafts and stand-alone equipment. The model allows the use of several units of single-shaft-turbine-compressor (SSTC), as well as helper motors and generators to respond to any shortage and/or excess of energy, respectively, in the SSTC axes. The heat integration of the streams occurs in the HEN between each WEN stage. Thus, as the inlet and outlet streams temperatures in the HEN are dependent of the WEN design, they must be considered as optimization variables. The proposed multi-stage superstructure is formulated in mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP), in order to minimize the total annualized cost composed by capital and operational expenses. A case study is conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed approach. The results indicate that the heat integration between the WEN stages is essential to enhance the work integration, and to reduce the total cost of process due the need of a smaller amount of hot and cold utilities.The financial supports by the Brazilian agency “Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES” (process nº 10758/12-7), and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (under project CTQ2012-37039-C02-02) are gratefully acknowledged

Quantum orders in an exact soluble model

We find all the exact eigenstates and eigenvalues of a spin-1/2 model on square lattice: $H=16g \sum_i S^y_i S^x_{i+x} S^y_{i+x+y} S^x_{i+y}$. We show that the ground states for $g0$ have different quantum orders described by Z2A and Z2B projective symmetry groups. The phase transition at $g=0$ represents a new kind of phase transitions that changes quantum orders but not symmetry. Both the Z2A and Z2B states are described by $Z_2$ lattice gauge theories at low energies. They have robust topologically degenerate ground states and gapless edge excitations.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX4, More materials on topological/quantum orders and quantum computing can be found in http://dao.mit.edu/~we