DIRECTIONS OF CHANGE IN THE POLISH TWO-TIER BOARD MODEL

Purpose: This paper is devoted to the eff ectiveness of corporate boards. Its aim is to present the board models found in European companies and to propose changes that would lead to better performance of Polish corporate boards.Approach: The article presents an analysis of European corporate board models, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Based on this analysis, the author pointed out possible directions of change in the Polish two-tier board model.Implications: The author suggests that the introduction of an optional model, whereby the shareholders can choose between the one-tier board model (board of directors) and the two-tier board model (supervisory board and management board), would enable better use of the social and intellectual capital present in the corporate boards of Polish companies

Good approximate quantum LDPC codes from spacetime circuit Hamiltonians

We study approximate quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes, which are approximate quantum error-correcting codes specified as the ground space of a frustration-free local Hamiltonian, whose terms do not necessarily commute. Such codes generalize stabilizer QLDPC codes, which are exact quantum error-correcting codes with sparse, low-weight stabilizer generators (i.e. each stabilizer generator acts on a few qubits, and each qubit participates in a few stabilizer generators). Our investigation is motivated by an important question in Hamiltonian complexity and quantum coding theory: do stabilizer QLDPC codes with constant rate, linear distance, and constant-weight stabilizers exist? We show that obtaining such optimal scaling of parameters (modulo polylogarithmic corrections) is possible if we go beyond stabilizer codes: we prove the existence of a family of $[[N,k,d,\varepsilon]]$ approximate QLDPC codes that encode $k = \widetilde{\Omega}(N)$ logical qubits into $N$ physical qubits with distance $d = \widetilde{\Omega}(N)$ and approximation infidelity $\varepsilon = \mathcal{O}(1/\textrm{polylog}(N))$. The code space is stabilized by a set of 10-local noncommuting projectors, with each physical qubit only participating in $\mathcal{O}(\textrm{polylog} N)$ projectors. We prove the existence of an efficient encoding map, and we show that arbitrary Pauli errors can be locally detected by circuits of polylogarithmic depth. Finally, we show that the spectral gap of the code Hamiltonian is $\widetilde{\Omega}(N^{-3.09})$ by analyzing a spacetime circuit-to-Hamiltonian construction for a bitonic sorting network architecture that is spatially local in $\textrm{polylog}(N)$ dimensions.Comment: 51 pages, 13 figure

Point and Line to Plane

"Point and Line to Plane" is an 18-minute short film which depicts the psychosis that can arise when an individual attempts to extract meaning from an intense loss. Stemming from Joan Didion and Sigmund Freuds theories of "magical thinking", the film investigates the phenomenon of mental free association and irrationality endured when grieving a loved one. In 2018, I was suspended in a deep state of shock after the passing of a long-time friend and collaborator named Giacomo Grisanzio. "Point and Line to Plane" is a communion of my own journey to process, heal and document my own period of mourning and my experience of magical thinking

Regulation of the gender composition of company boards in Europe: Experience and prospects

First paragraph: The desire to increase the share of women on corporate boards in Europe has led to the incorporation of voluntary targets into corporate governance codes of best practice in some European countries and the introduction of board gender quota laws in others. Taking affirmative action by imposing a quota can create a critical mass of women on boards that is sufficient to sustain greater numerical equality once the quota is removed (Kogut et al., 2014). A quota law for company boards, set at 40% for each gender, was first proposed in Norway in 2002, to the surprise of many (Bøhren and Staubo, 2016). At the time women held only 9% of board seats (Ahern and Dittmar, 2012). Passed by the Norwegian Parliament one year later, the quota became mandatory in 2008 and sparked public debate in other countries about the possibility of using quotas to increase the representation of women on corporate boards. The European Commission, with the support of the European Parliament and a number of Member States, decided in 2012 that legislative action was necessary to improve gender balance on corporate boards and put forward the proposal for a Directive that sets a 40% target for the presence of the underrepresented gender among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges by 2020

Corporate Governance and the Growing Role of Women in the Boardroom

First paragraph: The presence of women on corporate boards and their impact on board effectiveness is now one of the most contentious issues in corporate governance. This arises from the relatively low, though increasing, number of female directors on boards around the world, despite an increasing number of well-qualified women in the labour force. Although gender discrimination is unlawful, there is a perception that many women still encounter invisible barriers to promotion, in effect facing a ‘glass ceiling’ where they can see, but not reach, high-level corporate positions. Companies that do not appoint women to their boards run the risk of suffering inferior performance as they fail to make use of the intellectual and social capital that women offer

The growth and differentiation of aortal smooth muscle cells after calcitriol treatment are associated with microtubule reorganisation - an in vitro study

The smooth muscle cells (SMCs) of the arterial media play a predominant role in functional and structural alterations of the arterial wall. The transition from the “contractile” to the “synthetic” phenotype appears to be an early critical event in the development of atherosclerotic disease. A number of observations suggest that 1,25(OH)2D3 (calcitriol) is of importance in maintaining normal cardiovascular function through its receptors in cardiac myocytes or aortal SMCs. The present study has focused on the microtubular (MT) network reorganisation after exposure to calcitriol. SMCs isolated by enzymatic digestion from the aortal media of neonatal rats were cultured on glass cover slips. 1 μM of 1,25(OH)2D3 was added to the culture medium every second day. The cytoskeletal features of SMCs after calcitriol were visualised by the immunofluorescence staining of α-tubulin. The alterations in α-tubulin expression and the distribution of microtubules related to the activities of the vascular smooth muscle cells, namely adhesion, migration, multilayer formation and cell division, were observed. A spindle shape, decreased cell adhesion, low expression of α-tubulin and a longitudinally arranged microtubular network manifested the high rate of SMC differentiation in the calcitriol-treated culture. A flat stellate morphology, high expression of α-tubulin and a radially distributed three-dimensional microtubular network were observed in the SMCs of the control culture. Destructive changes in the microtubular architecture which altered the cellular shape were evident in SMCs undergoing apoptosis. Cells with apoptotic features were more frequent in calcitriol-exposed culture. In contrast to the regular SMC divisions observed in the control culture, some of the mitotic cells exposed to calcitriol contained broader bipolar, multipolar or disordered spindles. These alterations in the SMCs’ microtubular cytoskeleton after calcitriol treatment were concomitant with changes in cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis, and may suggest a similarity to atherosclerotic plaque formation

A scanning electron microscopic study of phenotypic plasticity and surface structural changes of aortal smooth muscle cells in primary culture

Phenotypic modulation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) from a contractile to a synthetic state characterised by active proliferation appears to be an early event in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. A similar transition occurs when SMCs are established in culture. In this study the phenotypic plasticity and surface structural changes of aortal smooth muscle cells during the transition from the contractile to the synthetic state and during maturation have been structurally assessed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The experiments were performed on SMCs obtained from aorta of neonatal rats after enzymatic digestion and then cultured on glass cover slips. SEM observations revealed a three-dimensional appearance characteristic for different stages of SMCs. Intensively proliferating cells from monolayer region were large, polygonal in shape with lamellipodia and well spread. Long, uniform in diameter, finger-like microvilli were densely arranged on the surface of these cells. In the thickened region of culture, the cells were rather small, generally spindle-shaped, not well spread, with low density of short, bubble-like microvilli on the surface. Numerous plasma membrane structural alterations in apoptotic cells were observed by SEM: loss of cellular adhesion, smoothing, shrinkage and outpouching of membrane segments have been recognised as markers associated with the cell injury and death. It was concluded that scanning microscopy observations would allow a more complete understanding of SMCs and their changes in culture and atherosclerotic disease