Cross-Shareholdings, Outside Directors, and Managerial Turnover: The Case of Japan

We have analyzed the monitoring role of outside directors in Japan. A detailed classification of each outside director into (1)former bankers; (2)former shareholders; (3)former cross-shareholders; and(4)pure outside directors reveals that only pure outside directors increase the turnover-performance sensitivity of inside directors. That is, we found that the background of each outside director is crucial for his or her role as a monitor.

Hubble Selection of the Weak Scale from QCD Quantum Phase Transition

If the strange quark were lighter, QCD phase transition could have been first order. Is this near-criticality just a coincidence? We show that this can explain the weak scale criticality through cosmological selection. We first explore quantum critical points of $N_f=3$ QCD, parameterized by the Higgs vev $v_h$ at $T=0$, and show that they can be attractors for the quantum-dominated evolution of $v_h$ during eternal inflation -- Hubble selection. This results in the sharply localized weak scale which is critical, not to the cross-over at zero, but to the quantum transition at ${\sim}\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$. It presents a wishful account of scale hierarchies, using quantum cosmology and near-criticality of SM.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Do Japanese CEOs Matter?

In a country where individualism is not valued, we ask whether the CEO (shacho) of a Japanese corporation affects corporate behavior. To answer this question, we construct a shacho-firm matched panel data set in the period 1990 through 2002 of all listed 1,419 Japanese manufacturing firms and their 3,520 shachos. We utilize three distinct empirical methodologies to detect a shacho effect. First, we attempt to separate a firm-fixed effect from a shacho-fixed effect. We are unable to disentangle a shacho-fixed effect. Second, we examine whether the year of or the year after a shacho change was a turning point in the firm's 1990 to 2002 history of performance and policies. Our answer is generally no, even when the shacho change is non-routine. Third, we employ a classic event study to check whether the market thinks a shacho change is value-relevant. We do find a significant positive price response on the day a shacho change is announced, especially when the shacho change is non-routine. We are thus left to conclude that shachos do not matter in the Japanese corporation in this decade of a stagnant economy, though the market remains optimistic.

QoE-based transmission strategies for multi-user wireless information and power transfer

AbstractOne solution to the problem of supplying energy to wireless networks is wireless power transfer. One such technology–electromagnetic radiation enabled wireless power transfer–will change traditional wireless networks. In this paper, we investigate a transmission strategy for multi-user wireless information and power transfer. We consider a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel that includes one base station (BS) and two user terminals (UT) consisting of one energy harvesting (EH) receiver and one information decoding (ID) receiver. Our system provides transmission strategies that can be executed and implemented in practical scenarios. The paper then analyzes the rate–energy (R–E) pair of our strategies and compares them to those of the theoretical optimal strategy. We furthermore propose a QoE-based mode selection algorithm by mapping the R–E pair to the utility functions

Giant thermal hysteresis in Verwey transition of single domain Fe3O4 nanoparticles

Most interesting phenomena of condensed matter physics originate from interactions among different degrees of freedom, making it a very intriguing yet challenging question how certain ground states emerge from only a limited number of atoms in assembly. This is especially the case for strongly correlated electron systems with overwhelming complexity. The Verwey transition of Fe3O4 is a classic example of this category, of which the origin is still elusive 80 years after the first report. Here we report, for the first time, that the Verwey transition of Fe3O4 nanoparticles exhibits size-dependent thermal hysteresis in magnetization, 57Fe NMR, and XRD measurements. The hysteresis width passes a maximum of 11 K when the size is 120 nm while dropping to only 1 K for the bulk sample. This behavior is very similar to that of magnetic coercivity and the critical sizes of the hysteresis and the magnetic single domain are identical. We interpret it as a manifestation of charge ordering and spin ordering correlation in a single domain. This work paves a new way of undertaking researches in the vibrant field of strongly correlated electron physics combined with nanoscience.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure