The three-legged stool of corporate governance reform

In March 1998, the London Stock Exchange issued some proposed changes to its Listing Rules. This document incorporates what has become known as the “combined Code” of corporate governance practices, a project of the Committee on Corporate Governance (“the Hampel Committee”). Article by Jayne W. Barnard (Professor of Law, The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA) published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Mode Transforming Properties of Tapered Single-Mode Fiber Microlenses

The Gaussian approximation that is typically used to estimate single-mode fiber microlens performance is investigated. It is applied to hemispheric lenses on two types of tapered single-mode fiber. Theoretical and experimental results are compared. The first type of taper, which is fabricated by pulling a fiber while it is melted, has a tapered core and a tapered cladding. The second type of taper, which is fabricated by etching the cladding, has a tapered cladding only. For a tapered-core fiber, coupling to the cladding-guided modes and the finite radius of curvature of the wave front before the lens must be considered to predict the lens spot size accurately, whereas the spot size of a tapered-cladding lens can be predicted from the lens diameter alone. Thus the spot size of a lens on a tapered-cladding fiber is easier to predict and control than that of a lens on a tapered-core fiber. It is also shown that the usual theory used to predict the spot size gives accepted values for tapered-cladding lenses but not for tapered-core lenses

Single-Mode Fiber Microlens with Controllable Spot Size

A novel method for fabricating microlenses on tapered single-mode fibers is shown to be able to control the lens spot size. The fiber cladding is first symmetrically tapered by etching it with an evaporating ammonium bifluoride solution. A hemispheric lens is then melted on the taper tip with a CO2 laser. The lens can reduce the fiber mode radius to 40% of its original value. A theoretical calculation of the focused spot size agrees well with experimental results

Evolutionary Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission

Hundreds of critics in the past eighteen months have heaped abuse on the SEC Enforcement Division. How could the Division have missed so much misbehavior on Wall Street? How could the Division\u27s young lawyers have been charmed by Bernie Madoff and thwarted from discovering his terrible crimes? Most critics seem to agree that the Division\u27s most urgent needs include developing substantially more financial sophistication among Division lawyers and investigators; better communications within the Commission and with other federal agencies; and a meaningful system for handling tips and processing information. The SEC\u27s response to its critics has been remarkable. The Commission has enlisted an energetic cadre of former federal prosecutors to lead the Division. They have redeployed comfortable, desk-bound middle managers back into the field to investigate market misconduct. Reversing the Commission\u27s tradition of micromanagement, they have given senior lawyers new authority to issue subpoenas and initiate settlements. A major reorganization plan is already underway. The SEC, in short, is in the midst of the most significant revamp of the division in the last 30 years. This Article begins with the optimistic hope that the current reorganization is successful in meeting the most urgent needs of the Division. It then sketches out six suggestions for further improving the Enforcement Division: a bounty program to compensate informants who come forward with useful information; a victim services unit; a proposal to develop behavioral expertise within the Division; a surveillance and monitoring program for defendants demonstrating a recidivist profile; a sanction policy for individuals that is proportionate, progressive, remedial, and real; and regular publication of meaningful data regarding losses from fraud in the securities markets