1,908 research outputs found
Employment Policy and Corporate Governance: An Empirical Comparison of the Stakeholder versus the Profit-Maximization model
Japan's economic problems over the past decade and a half have triggered far reaching changes in the country's corporate governance system and there have been significant changes in both companies' ownership structures and composition of board members. This paper examines how board and ownership structures affect firms' decision as to how to reduce labor costs when firms face excess employment. Our findings confirm that outside directors are more inclined to implement layoffs and voluntary or early retirement, while insiders are more likely to decrease new hiring and protect incumbent employees. These findings are consistent with the stakeholder view of the firm rather than the neoclassical view of firms as profit-maximizers.corporate governance, employment downsizing, multivariate probit model
Geometric effect and gauge field in nonequilibrium quantum thermostatistics
The concept of work is studied in quantum thermostatistics of a system
surrounded by an environment and driven by an external force. It is found that
there emerges the gauge theoretical structure in a nonequilibrium process, the
field of which is referred to as the work gauge field. The thermodynamic work
as the flux of the work gauge field is considered for a cyclic process in the
space of the external-force parameters. As an example, the system of a spin-1/2
interacting with an external magnetic field is analyzed. This geometric effect
may be observed, for example, in an NMR experiment and can be applied to the
problem of cooling/heating of a small system.Comment: 11 page
Impact of the passive component structure for high efficiency and fast response POL using Power Supply on Chip
Power-SoC, which integrates MCU, power device, control circuits and passive devices on the same chip has been attracted attention. In this paper, we discuss the impact of passive component structure for high efficiency and fast response POL using 3D Power-SoC (Supply on Chip). We propose the optimal structure according to the switching frequency based on simulations
Sub-Arcsecond Near-Infrared Images of Massive Star Formation Region NGC 6334 V
We present high spatial resolution (0\farcs3) polarimetric images in the
and bands and direct images in the and bands of the NGC 6334
V infrared nebulae. The images show complex structures including the
multi-shells and various knots in the nebulae. The appearances and colors of
the eastern and western nebulae differ considerably. Our polarization images
also show differences between the illuminating sources of the nebulae: the
eastern nebula is illuminated by a deeply embedded mid-infrared source, KDJ 4,
and the western nebula by our newly detected near-infrared source, WN-A1. The
degree of polarization of the nebulae is very large, up to 70% at and 60%
at , which is consistent with a single scattering of near-infrared radiation
from each source at the walls of the mass outflows
Multi-scale analysis of the influence of filler shapes on the mechanical performance of resin composites using high resolution nano-CT images
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the criteria for predicting the fracture initiation of resin composites (RCs) at the micro-scale and assess the influence of filler shapes on the flexural properties of RCs by combining nano-CT imaging and in silico multi-scale analysis. Methods: Experimental RCs composed of irregular-shaped (IS) silica filler (31.2 vol%/50.0 wt%) and Bis-GMA/TEGDMA were prepared. The RC specimens were scanned by a nano-CT with 500-nm resolution, and 10 micro-scale models (100 × 100 × 100 μm) were randomly extracted from a scanned region. In silico micro-scale models containing sphere-shaped (SS) fillers with the same volume content as the experimental RC were designed. Each RC model's elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio at the macro-scale were calculated using homogenization analysis. The flexural strength of the RC models were predicted by finite element analysis using the elastic moduli and Poisson's ratio values. Results: Significantly greater elastic modulus values were obtained in the X, Y, and Z directions for RC models containing IS fillers than SS fillers. Similarly, smaller Poisson's ratio values were observed in the Y and Z directions for RC model containing IS fillers than SS fillers (p < 0.05). The flexural strength of RC model containing IS fillers was significantly greater than the RC model containing SS fillers (p < 0.05). Significance: The in silico multi-scale analysis established in this study demonstrated that RC model containing irregular-shaped fillers had greater flexural strength than RC model loaded with SS fillers, suggesting that the mechanical strength of the RC can be improved by optimizing the shape of the silica fillers.Sakai T., Li H., Abe T., et al. Multi-scale analysis of the influence of filler shapes on the mechanical performance of resin composites using high resolution nano-CT images. Dental Materials 37, 168 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dental.2020.10.030
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