A New Player in the Boardroom: The Emergence of the Independent Directors\u27 Counsel

Over the last thirty years, the independent directors have occasionally been represented by independent counsel. Instances include: special litigation committees reviewing derivative suits; independent committees in parent subsidiary mergers and MBOs; and internal investigations of misconduct. We predict that, with the additional legal requirements imposed on independent directors by the Sarbanes Oxley Act and related changes to SEC rules and Stock Exchange listing requirements, the independent directors, especially those on the Audit Committee, increasingly will be represented on a continuing basis by independent legal counsel. Out of this will emerge a new figure in the board room: the Independent Directors\u27 Counsel. We examine the advantages and disadvantages of adding this new actor in the boardroom, and consider issues posed and implications for corporate law and legal ethics

Acquisition of weak signals in multi-constellation frequency domain receivers.

New positioning applications’ availability requirements demand receivers with higher sensitivities and ability to process multiple GNSS signals. Possible applications include acquiring one signal per GNSS constellation in the same frequency band and combining them for increased sensitivity or predicting acquisition of other signals. Frequency domain processing can be used for this purpose, since it benefits from parallel processing capabilities of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), which can be efficiently implemented in software receivers. On the other hand, long coherent integration times are mainly limited due to large FFT size in receivers using frequency domain techniques. A new method is proposed to address the problems in frequency domain receivers without compromising the resources and execution time. A pre-correlation accumulation (PCA) is proposed to partition the received samples into one-code-period blocks, and to sum them together. As a result, the noise is averaged out and the correlation results will gain more power, provided that the relative phase between the data segments is compensated for. In addition to simplicity, the proposed PCA method enables the use of one-size FFT for all integration times. A post-correlation peak combination is also proposed to remove the need for double buffering. The proposed methods are implemented in a configurable Simulink model, developed for acquiring recorded GNSS signals. For weak signal scenarios, a Spirent GPS simulator is used as a source. Acquisition results for GPS L1 C/A and GLONASS L1OF are shown and the performance of the proposed technique is discussed. The proposed techniques target GNSS receivers using frequency domain processing aiming at accommodating all the GNSS signals, while minimizing resource usage. They also apply to weak signal acquisition in frequency domain to answer the availability demand of today’s GNSS positioning applications

Post-Norris Ambiguities: Unanswered Questions For Women and the Pension Industry

On April 25, 1978, the United States Supreme Court decided Los Angeles Department of Water and Power v. Manhart in a way that was bound to have a profound effect on the pension industry. The division of opinion in the Manhart Court was indicative of the difficulty of the question presented. In Part I, this article examines the Court\u27s findings in Manhart, as well as its conclusions in a more recent case, Arizona Governing Committee v. Norris, in which the Supreme Court extended its Manhart holding in a way bound to have an equally significant impact on pension programs. In Parts II and III, this article addresses two issues concerning the future of the pension industry which the Court has left unanswered: whether the relief granted to compensate for past sex discrimination in pension programs is to be retroactive or prospective only; and whether the size of these awards is to be determined by topping up, i.e., by requiring that benefits payable to the formerly disadvantaged sex be raised to the level now payable to the favored sex, or by the adoption of unisex actuarial tables which average the mortality experience of the sexes and provide mid-level benefits to all employees. In Part IV, this article contemplates the cost and Economic Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) consequences which could accrue from possible solutions to the problem of remedying past sex discrimination in pension programs. Finally, Part V of this article deals with other practical ramifications likely to result from the Manhart and Norris decisions

A New Player in the Boardroom: The Emergence of the Independent Directors\u27 Counsel

Over the last thirty years, the independent directors have occasionally been represented by independent counsel. Instances include: special litigation committees reviewing derivative suits; independent committees in parent subsidiary mergers and MBOs; and internal investigations of misconduct. We predict that, with the additional legal requirements imposed on independent directors by the Sarbanes Oxley Act and related changes to SEC rules and Stock Exchange listing requirements, the independent directors, especially those on the Audit Committee, increasingly will be represented on a continuing basis by independent legal counsel. Out of this will emerge a new figure in the board room: the Independent Directors\u27 Counsel. We examine the advantages and disadvantages of adding this new actor in the boardroom, and consider issues posed and implications for corporate law and legal ethics

Reduced growth and proliferation dynamics of nasal epithelial stem/progenitor cells in nasal polyps in vitro

10.1038/srep04619Scientific Reports4

Interview with Samuel Saye Williams, Jr. - OH 551

In his May 16, 2017 interview with Alex Windham, Samuel Saye Williams, Jr. detailed his thoughts and memories of his time at the Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Company referred to locals as the Bleachery. Williams spoke of the time period of the 1960s through the 1970s. His discussions touched on the follow topics: Segregation; integration; race relations; plant management; day to day job responsibilities and actions; technology changes; worker attitudes; and his time as a mechanic at South Carolina Department of Transportation;https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/oralhistoryprogram/1628/thumbnail.jp

Fast Benchtop Fabrication of Laminar Flow Chambers for Advanced Microscopy Techniques

Background: Fluid handling technology is acquiring an ever more prominent place in laboratory science whether it is in simple buffer exchange systems, perfusion chambers, or advanced microfluidic devices. Many of these applications remain the providence of laboratories at large institutions with a great deal of expertise and specialized equipment. Even with the expansion of these techniques, limitations remain that frequently prevent the coupling of controlled fluid flow with other technologies, such as coupling microfluidics and high-resolution position and force measurements by optical trapping microscopy. Method: Here we present a method for fabrication of multiple-input laminar flow devices that are optically clear [glass] on each face, chemically inert, reusable, inexpensive, and can be fabricated on the benchtop in approximately one hour. Further these devices are designed to allow flow regulation by a simple gravity method thus requiring no specialized equipment to drive flow. Here we use these devices to perform total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy measurements as well as position sensitive optical trapping experiments. Significance: Flow chamber technology needs to be more accessible to the general scientific community. The method presented here is versatile and robust. These devices use standard slides and coverslips making them compatible with nearly all types and models of light microscopes. These devices meet the needs of groups doing advanced optical trapping experiments, but could also be adapted by nearly any lab that has a function for solution flow coupled with microscopy

An Evaluation of the Roll-Rate Stabilization System of the Sidewinder Missile at Mach Numbers from 0.9 to 2.3

A linear stability analysis and flight-test investigation has been performed on a rolleron-type roll-rate stabilization system for a canard-type missile configuration through a Mach number range from 0.9 to 2.3. This type damper provides roll damping by the action of gyro-actuated uncoupled wing-tip ailerons. A dynamic roll instability predicted by the analysis was confirmed by flight testing and was subsequently eliminated by the introduction of control-surface damping about the rolleron hinge line. The control-surface damping was provided by an orifice-type damper contained within the control surface. Steady-state rolling velocities were at all times less than 1 radian per second between the Mach numbers of 0.9 to 2.3 on the configurations tested. No adverse longitudinal effects were experienced in flight because of the tendency of the free-floating rollerons to couple into the pitching motion at the low angles of attack and disturbance levels investigated herein after the introduction of control-surface damping