439 research outputs found
The Global History of Corporate Governance: An Introduction
This paper presents a synopsis of recent NBER studies of the history of corporate governance in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, the studies underscore the importance of path dependence, often as far back into preindustrial period; legal system origin, though in a more nuanced form than mere statutory shareholder rights; and wealthy families. They also clarify the roles of ideologies, business groups, trust, institutional transplants, and politics in institutional evolution and financial development. Other themes are the universality of business insiders' investments in, entrenchment, and a possible behavioral basis for this.
The end-to-end testbed of the Optical Metrology System on-board LISA Pathfinder
LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstration mission for the Laser
Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). The main experiment on-board LISA
Pathfinder is the so-called LISA Technology Package (LTP) which has the aim to
measure the differential acceleration between two free-falling test masses with
an accuracy of 3x10^(-14) ms^(-2)/sqrt[Hz] between 1 mHz and 30 mHz. This
measurement is performed interferometrically by the Optical Metrology System
(OMS) on-board LISA Pathfinder. In this paper we present the development of an
experimental end-to-end testbed of the entire OMS. It includes the
interferometer and its sub-units, the interferometer back-end which is a
phasemeter and the processing of the phasemeter output data. Furthermore,
3-axes piezo actuated mirrors are used instead of the free-falling test masses
for the characterisation of the dynamic behaviour of the system and some parts
of the Drag-free and Attitude Control System (DFACS) which controls the test
masses and the satellite. The end-to-end testbed includes all parts of the LTP
that can reasonably be tested on earth without free-falling test masses. At its
present status it consists mainly of breadboard components. Some of those have
already been replaced by Engineering Models of the LTP experiment. In the next
steps, further Engineering Models and Flight Models will also be inserted in
this testbed and tested against well characterised breadboard components. The
presented testbed is an important reference for the unit tests and can also be
used for validation of the on-board experiment during the mission
AMS measurements of cosmogenic and supernova-ejected radionuclides in deep-sea sediment cores
Samples of two deep-sea sediment cores from the Indian Ocean are analyzed
with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to search for traces of recent
supernova activity around 2 Myr ago. Here, long-lived radionuclides, which are
synthesized in massive stars and ejected in supernova explosions, namely 26Al,
53Mn and 60Fe, are extracted from the sediment samples. The cosmogenic isotope
10Be, which is mainly produced in the Earths atmosphere, is analyzed for dating
purposes of the marine sediment cores. The first AMS measurement results for
10Be and 26Al are presented, which represent for the first time a detailed
study in the time period of 1.7-3.1 Myr with high time resolution. Our first
results do not support a significant extraterrestrial signal of 26Al above
terrestrial background. However, there is evidence that, like 10Be, 26Al might
be a valuable isotope for dating of deep-sea sediment cores for the past few
million years.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the Heavy Ion Accelerator
Symposium on Fundamental and Applied Science, 2013, will be published by the
EPJ Web of conference
Components for the LISA local interferometry
This article describes some preliminary results on essential components for the LISA interferometry, namely photodiode preamplifiers and voltage references
Analog phase lock between two lasers at LISA power levels
This paper presents the implementation of an analog optical phase-locked-loop with an offset frequency of about 20 MHz between two lasers, where the detected light powers were of the order of 31 pW and 200 mu W. The goal of this setup was the design and characterization of a photodiode transimpedance amplifier for application in LISA. By application of a transimpedance amplifier designed to have low noise and low power consumption, the phase noise between the two lasers was a factor of two above the shot noise limit down to 60 mHz. The achievable phase sensitivity depends ultimately on the available power of the highly attenuated master laser and on the input current noise of the transimpedance amplifier of the photodetector. The limiting noise source below 60 mHz was the analog phase measurement system that was used in this experiment. A digital phase measurement system that is currently under development at the AEI will be used in the near future. Its application should improve the sensitivity
Assessment of the radiological impact of a decommissioning nuclear power plant in Italy
The assessment of the radiological impact of a decommissioning Nuclear Power
Plant is presented here through the results of an environmental monitoring
survey carried out in the area surrounding the Garigliano Power Plant. The
levels of radioactivity in soil, water, air and other environmental matrices
are shown, in which {\alpha}, {\beta} and {\gamma} activity and {\gamma}
equivalent dose rate are measured. Radioactivity levels of the samples from the
Garigliano area are analyzed and then compared to those from a control zone
situated more than 100 km away. Moreover, a comparison is made with a previous
survey held in 2001. The analyses and comparisons show no significant
alteration in the radiological characteristics of the area surroundings the
plant, with an overall radioactivity depending mainly from the global fallout
and natural sources
Assessment of the radiological impact of a decommissioning nuclear power plant in Italy
The assessment of the radiological impact of a decommissioning Nuclear Power
Plant is presented here through the results of an environmental monitoring
survey carried out in the area surrounding the Garigliano Power Plant. The
levels of radioactivity in soil, water, air and other environmental matrices
are shown, in which {\alpha}, {\beta} and {\gamma} activity and {\gamma}
equivalent dose rate are measured. Radioactivity levels of the samples from the
Garigliano area are analyzed and then compared to those from a control zone
situated more than 100 km away. Moreover, a comparison is made with a previous
survey held in 2001. The analyses and comparisons show no significant
alteration in the radiological characteristics of the area surroundings the
plant, with an overall radioactivity depending mainly from the global fallout
and natural sources.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 2 table
New attempts to understand nanodiamond stardust
We report on a concerted effort aimed at understanding the origin and history
of the pre-solar nanodiamonds in meteorites including the astrophysical sources
of the observed isotopic abundance signatures. This includes measurement of
light elements by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), analysis of
additional heavy trace elements by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and
dynamic calculations of r-process nucleosynthesis with updated nuclear
properties. Results obtained indicate: a) there is no evidence for the former
presence of now extinct 26Al and 44Ti in our diamond samples other than what
can be attributed to silicon carbide and other "impurities"; this does not
offer support for a supernova (SN) origin but neither does it negate it; b)
analysis by AMS of platinum in "bulk diamond" yields an overabundance of r-only
198Pt that at face value seems more consistent with the neutron burst than with
the separation model for the origin of heavy trace elements in the diamonds,
although this conclusion is not firm given analytical uncertainties; c) if the
Xe-H pattern was established by an unadulterated r-process, it must have been a
strong variant of the main r-process, which possibly could also account for the
new observations in platinum.Comment: Workshop on Astronomy with Radioactvities VII; Publications of the
Astronomical Society of Australia, accepte
Acute ischaemic hemispheric stroke is associated with impairment of reflex in addition to voluntary cough
Cough function is impaired after stroke; this may be important for protection against chest infection. Reflex cough (RC) intensity indices have not been described after stroke. RC, voluntary cough (VC) and respiratory muscle strength were studied in patients within 2 weeks of hemispheric infarct. The null hypotheses were that patients with cortical hemisphere stroke would show the same results as healthy controls on: 1) objective indices of RC and VC intensity; and 2) respiratory muscle strength tests.Peak cough flow rate (PCFR) and gastric pressure (Pga) were measured during maximum VC and RC. Participants also underwent volitional and nonvolitional respiratory muscle testing. Nonvolitional expiratory muscle strength was assessed by measuring Pga increase after magnetic stimulation over the T10 nerve roots (twitch T10 Pga). Stroke severity was scored using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS; maximum = 31).18 patients (mean±SD age 62±15 yrs and NIHSS score 14±8) and 20 controls (56±16 yrs) participated. VC intensity was impaired in patients (PCFR 287±171 versus 497±122 L·min−1) as was VC Pga (98.5±61.6 versus 208.5±61.3 cmH2O; p<0.001 for both). RC PCFR was reduced in patients (204±111 versus 379±110 L·min−1; p<0.001), but RC Pga was not significantly different from that of controls (179.0±78.0 versus 208.0±77.4 cmH2O; p = 0.266). Patients exhibited impaired volitional respiratory muscle tests, but twitch T10 Pga was normal.VC and RC are both impaired in hemispheric stroke patients, despite preserved expiratory muscle strength. Cough coordination is probably cortically modulated and affected by hemispheric stroke
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