Company financial performance: Does board size matter? Case of the EUROSTOXX50 index

[EN] This study analyzes the relationship between board size and economic-financial performance in a sample of European firms that constitute the EUROSTOXX50 Index. Based on previous literature, resource dependency and agency theories, and considering regulation developed by the OECD and European Union on the normative of corporate governance for each country in the sample, the authors propose the hypotheses of both positive linear and quadratic relationships between the researched parameters. Using ROA as a benchmark of financial performance and the number of members of the board as measurement of the board size, two OLS estimations are performed. To confirm the robustness of the results the empirical study is tested with two other similar financial ratios, ROE and Tobin s Q. Due to the absence of significant results, an additional factor, firm size, is employed in order to check if it affects firm performance. Delving further into the nature of this relationship, it is revealed that there exists a strong and negative relation between firm size and financial performance. Consequently, it can be asseverated that the generic recommendation one size fits all cannot be applied in this case; which conforms to the Recommendations of the European Union that dissuade using generic models for all countries.

The tunable negative refractive index in granular composite

The effective refractive index of a kind of granular composite, which consists of granular metallic and magnetic inclusions with different radius embedded in a host medium, is theoretically investigated. Results show that for certain volume fractions of these two inclusions, the negative permittivity peak shifts to low frequency and the peak value increases with increasing radius ratio of the radius of magnetic granulae to that of metallic granulae. Simultaneously, peak value of permeability decreases with the radius ratio, and value peak shifts to high frequency with increasing volume fraction of magnetic inclusion. Therefore, the radius ratio can affect the effective refractive index considerably, and it is found that by adjusting the radius ratio, the refractive index may change between negative and positive values for certain volume fractions of the two inclusions. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Electric and magnetic losses and gains in determining the sign of refractive index

Within the framework of classic electromagnetic theories, we have studied the sign of refractive index of optical medias with the emphases on the roles of the electric and magnetic losses and gains. Starting from the Maxwell equations for an isotropic and homogeneous media, we have derived the general form of the complex refractive index and its relation with the complex electric permittivity and magnetic permeability, i.e. n = root epsilon mu, in which the intrinsic electric and magnetic losses and gains are included as the imaginary parts of the complex permittivity and permeability, respectively, as epsilon = epsilon(r) + i(epsilon i) and mu = mu(r) + i mu(i). The electric and magnetic losses are present in all passive materials, which correspond, respectively, to the positive imaginary permittivity and permeability epsilon(i) > 0 and mu(i) > 0. The electric and magnetic gains are present in materials where external pumping sources enable the light to be amplified instead of attenuated, which correspond, respectively, to the negative imaginary permittivity and permeability epsilon(i) < 0 and mu(i) < 0. We have analyzed and determined uniquely the sign of the refractive index, for all possible combinations of the four parameters epsilon(r), mu(r), epsilon(i), and mu(i), in light of the relativistic causality. A causal solution requires that the wave impedance be positive Re {Z} > 0. We illustrate the results for all cases in tables of the sign of refractive index. One of the most important messages from the sign tables is that, apart from the well-known case where simultaneously epsilon < 0 and mu < 0, there are other possibilities for the refractive index to be negative n < 0, for example, for epsilon(r) < 0, mu(r) > 0, epsilon(i) > 0, and mu(i) > 0, the refractive index is negative n < 0 provided mu(i)/epsilon(i) > mu(r)/vertical bar epsilon(r)vertical bar. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Donati Artis Grammaticae Index et Concordantia

615 p.

Beam collimation of high-power laser diode array with graded-index fiber lens array

Graded-index (GRIN) fiber lens arrays are fabricated from commercial GRIN fibers to collimate a high-power laser diode array. The beam divergence angles are reduced to 4.2 and 14.7 mrad in the fast and slow axes, respectively. The influences of smile and fluctuation in fiber length are discussed. Using an aspherical focal lens system, about 74% power can be launched into a fiber with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.22 and a core diameter of 400 mu m. (c) 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

High Er3+ concentration low refractive index fluorophosphate glass for evanescent wave optical amplifiers

This is about the first reported laser glass with very low no, high Er3+ concentration and no quenching. In this work, a series of high Er3+ concentration (10.6-12.2 x 10(20) ions/cm(3)), low refractive index (n(1550) < 1.47) and relatively high fluorescence lifetime (6.8-12.6 ms) fluorophosphate glasses were made. A cw-pumping evanescent wave optical amplifier experiment was performed with it, and a relative gain of around 2dB at 1550 nm wavelength was achieved while the noise level was almost unchanged. To our knowledge, this is the first successful relative gain in evanescent wave optical amplifiers (EWOA) demonstrated with cw pumping. It is a valuable study of specially designed fluorophosphate glass suitable for EWOA communication experiment. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Valence state change and refractive index change induced by femtosecond laser irradiation in Sm3+ doped fluoroaluminate glass

We report femtosecond laser induced valence state and refractive index change in transparent Sin(3+)-doped fluoroaluminate glass. The effect of annealing on the induced changes was studied and the thermal stability of these changes was discussed. The results show that the femtosecond laser induced valence state change is more stable than the induced refractive index change. The observed phenomenon could be applied to design the thermally erasable or stable storage medium. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Temperature dependence of femtosecond laser induced refractive index change in Nd3+-doped phosphate glass

We report refractive index change in a femtosecond laser irradiated Nd3+-doped phosphate glass. The effects of annealing temperature on the refractive index change of the glass have been investigated. Absorption spectra of the glass sample before and after femtosecond laser irradiation and subsequent annealing were measured. The results indicate that multiphoton absorption can undertake although there are intrinsic absorption for the glass in irradiation wavelength. The results may be useful for fabrication of three-dimensional integrated optics devices and waveguide laser devices in this glass. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Graded index 532HR/1064HT filter by glancing angle deposition

Glancing angle deposition is a novel method to prepare graded index coatings. By using this method and physical vapour deposition, ZrO2 is used to engineer graded index filter on BK7 glass substrate. Controlling the deposition rate and the periodic oscillation of oblique angle of deposited material, a 10-period graded index ZrO2 filter with high reflection near 532 nm and high transmittance at wavelength 1064 nm is fabricated. The causes of difference between the theoretical and experimental results are discussed in detail. The material properties and electron gun nonlinearity are possibly the main origins of the difference, which result in the variations in both thickness control and deposition rate of the Elm material.

High refractive index TiO2 film deposited by electron beam evaporation

The well known 'crystal seed' theory is first applied in this work to prepare TiO2 film: a high refractive index rutile TiO2 film is grown by electron beam evaporation on the rutile seed formed by 1100 degrees C annealing. The average n is larger than 2.4, by far the highest in all the authors' TiO2 films. The films are characterised by optical properties, microstructure and surface morphologies. It is found that the refractive index shows positive relation with the crystal structure, grain size, and packing density and roughness of the film. The film has lower density of granularity and nodule defects on the surface than those of the film deposited by magnetron sputtering. The result shows attractive application in complex filter and laser coatings.

A Novel Scheduling Index Rule Proposal for QoE Maximization in Wireless Networks

This paper deals with the resource allocation problem aimed at maximizing users' perception of quality in wireless channels with time-varying capacity. First of all, we model the subjective quality-aware scheduling problem in the framework of Markovian decision processes. Then, given that the obtaining of the optimal solution of this model is unachievable, we propose a simple scheduling index rule with closed-form expression by using a methodology based on Whittle approach. Finally, we analyze the performance of the achieved scheduling proposal in several relevant scenarios, concluding that it outperforms the most popular existing resource allocation strategies.