Role Ambiguity and conflicts: A study of company secretaries and two-tier boards in the Netherlands

Recent research suggests that company secretaries are increasingly involved in governance responsibilities in addition to traditional administrative tasks. Little is known in the literature, however, about company secretaries' changing governance role, and their daily challenges in liaising with boards and other stakeholders. In addition, few studies have been able to gain access to learn firsthand how company secretaries operate. This exploratory study fills this void by gaining access to the opinions of about one hundred company secretaries in the Netherlands who operate in the two-tier board system. Our findings indicate that company secretaries significantly influence an organisation's governance framework, while they face a number of practical challenges with directors, employees and management in fulfilling their diverse roles and responsibilities.

How two-tier boards can be more effective

Purpose: This study explores how non-executive directors address governance problems on Dutch two-tier boards. Within this board model, challenges might be particularly difficult to address due to the formal separation of management boards’ decision-management from supervisory boards’ decision-control roles. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire among non-executive directors provide unique insights into three major challenges in the boardrooms of two-tier boards in the Netherlands. Findings: The study indicates that non-executive directors mainly experience challenges in three areas: the ability to ask management critical questions, information asymmetries between the management and supervisory boards and the management of the relationship between individual executive and non-executive directors. The qualitative in-depth analysis reveals the complexity of the contributing factors to problems in the boardroom and the range of process and social interventions non-executive directors use to address boardroom issues with management and the organization of the board. Practical implications: While policy makers have been largely occupied with the ‘right’ board composition, the results highlight the importance of adequately addressing operational challenges in the boardroom. The results emphasize the importance of a better understanding of board processes and the need of non-executive directors to carefully manage relationships in and around the boardroom. Originality/value: Whereas most studies have focussed on regulatory initiatives to improve the functioning of boards (e.g., the independence of the board), this study explores how non-executive directors attempt to enhance the effectiveness of boards on which they serve.

A two-tier model of polymyxin B resistance in Burkholderia cenocepacia

P>Burkholderia cenocepacia is an environmental bacterium causing serious human opportunistic infections and is extremely resistant to multiple antibiotics including antimicrobial peptides, such as polymyxin B (PmB). Extreme antibiotic resistance is attributed to outer membrane impermeability ('intrinsic' resistance). Previous work showed that production of full-length lipopolysaccharide (LPS) prevents surface binding of PmB. We hypothesized that two tiers of resistance mechanisms rendering different thresholds of PmB resistance exist in B. cenocepacia. To test this notion, candidate genes were mutated in two isogenic strains expressing full-length LPS or truncated LPS devoid of heptose ('heptoseless LPS') respectively. We uncovered various proteins required for PmB resistance only in the strain with heptoseless LPS. These proteins are not involved in preventing PmB binding to whole cells or permeabilization of the outer membrane. Our results support a two-tier model of PmB resistance in B. cenocepacia. One tier sets a very high threshold mediated by the LPS and the outer membrane permeability barrier. The second tier sets a lower threshold that may play a role in PmB resistance only when outer membrane permeability is compromised. This model may be of general applicability to understanding the high antimicrobial peptide resistance of environmental opportunistic pathogens.

A two-compartment mechanochemical model of the roles of transforming growth factor-beta and tissue tension in dermal wound healing

The repair of dermal tissue is a complex process of interconnected phenomena, where cellular, chemical and mechanical aspects all play a role, both in an autocrine and in a paracrine fashion. Recent experimental results have shown that transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and tissue mechanics play roles in regulating cell proliferation, differentiation and the production of extracellular materials. We have developed a 1D mathematical model that considers the interaction between the cellular, chemical and mechanical phenomena, allowing the combination of TGF-beta and tissue stress to inform the activation of fibroblasts to myofibroblasts. Additionally, our model incorporates the observed feature of residual stress by considering the changing zero-stress state in the formulation for effective strain. Using this model, we predict that the continued presence of TGF-beta in dermal wounds will produce contractures due to the persistence of myofibroblasts; in contrast, early elimination of TGF-beta significantly reduces the myofibroblast numbers resulting in an increase in wound size. Similar results were obtained by varying the rate at which fibroblasts differentiate to myofibroblasts and by changing the myofibroblast apoptotic rate. Taken together, the implication is that elevated levels of myofibroblasts is the key factor behind wounds healing with excessive contraction, suggesting that clinical strategies which aim to reduce the myofibroblast density may reduce the appearance of contractures.

A two-stage decision model for information filtering

Information mismatch and overload are two fundamental issues influencing the effectiveness of information filtering systems. Even though both term-based and pattern-based approaches have been proposed to address the issues, neither of these approaches alone can provide a satisfactory decision for determining the relevant information. This paper presents a novel two-stage decision model for solving the issues. The first stage is a novel rough analysis model to address the overload problem. The second stage is a pattern taxonomy mining model to address the mismatch problem. The experimental results on RCV1 and TREC filtering topics show that the proposed model significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art filtering systems.

Testing approximate theories of first-order phase transitions on the two-dimensional Potts model

The two-dimensional,q-state (q>4) Potts model is used as a testing ground for approximate theories of first-order phase transitions. In particular, the predictions of a theory analogous to the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff theory of freezing are compared with those of ordinary mean-field (Curie-Wiess) theory. It is found that the Curie-Weiss theory is a better approximation than the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff theory, even though the former neglects all fluctuations. It is shown that the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff theory overestimates the effects of fluctuations in this system. The reasons behind the failure of the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff approximation and the suitability of using the two-dimensional Potts model as a testing ground for these theories are discussed.

Thermodynamic scaling theory for the two-impurity Anderson model

We present results of a study of the two-impurity Anderson model using a thermodynamic scaling theory developed recently. The model is characterized by the Coulomb energy U, the orbital energy epsilond, the d-level width Gamma, and the separation between impurities R. If Gamma<<−epsilond<~Gamma. Here we find that the single-impurity physics dominates the low-temperature behavior, and impurity-impurity interactions are perturbative. The qualitative features of the temperature-dependent susceptibility are discussed. Journal of Applied Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.

Two-Phase Thermodynamic Model for Efficient and Accurate Absolute Entropy of Water from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Presented here is the two-phase thermodynamic (2PT) model for the calculation of energy and entropy of molecular fluids from the trajectory of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In this method, the density of state (DoS) functions (including the normal modes of translation, rotation, and intramolecular vibration motions) are determined from the Fourier transform of the corresponding velocity autocorrelation functions. A fluidicity parameter (f), extracted from the thermodynamic state of the system derived from the same MD, is used to partition the translation and rotation modes into a diffusive, gas-like component (with 3Nf degrees of freedom) and a nondiffusive, solid-like component. The thermodynamic properties, including the absolute value of entropy, are then obtained by applying quantum statistics to the solid component and applying hard sphere/rigid rotor thermodynamics to the gas component. The 2PT method produces exact thermodynamic properties of the system in two limiting states: the nondiffusive solid state (where the fluidicity is zero) and the ideal gas state (where the fluidicity becomes unity). We examine the 2PT entropy for various water models (F3C, SPC, SPC/E, TIP3P, and TIP4P-Ew) at ambient conditions and find good agreement with literature results obtained based on other simulation techniques. We also validate the entropy of water in the liquid and vapor phases along the vapor-liquid equilibrium curve from the triple point to the critical point. We show that this method produces converged liquid phase entropy in tens of picoseconds, making it an efficient means for extracting thermodynamic properties from MD simulations.

Two-Fermi liquid model for high Tc superconductivity involving suppression of tunnelling by decoherence

We consider a model system of two interacting Fermi-liquids, one of which is light and the other much heavier. In the normal state the lighter component provides a quantum mechanical bath coupled 'ohmically' to the heavier component in the sense of Caldeira and Leggett, suppressing thereby the band (tunnelling) matrix elements of the heavier component. Thus we lose the energy of delocalization. On the other hand, a superconducting ordering stiffens the bath spectral function at low energies and so restores the tunnelling. The resulting regain of the delocalization energy bootstraps so as to stabilize the superconducting order that caused it. It is conceivable that the motions parallel to the easy ab-plane and along the hard c-axis may also effectively correspond to the light and the heavy Fermi-liquids, respectively.

Theory of the non-Fermi-liquid transition point in the two-impurity Kondo model

We present an explicit solution of the problem of two coupled spin-1/2 impurities, interacting with a band of conduction electrons. We obtain an exact effective bosonized Hamiltonian, which is then treated by two different methods (low-energy theory and mean-field approach). Scale invariance is explicitly shown at the quantum critical point. The staggered susceptibility behaves like ln(T(K)/T) at low T, whereas the magnetic susceptibility and [S1.S2] are well behaved at the transition. The divergence of C(T)/T when approaching the transition point is also studied. The non-Fermi-liquid (actually marginal-Fermi-liquid) critical point is shown to arise because of the existence of anomalous correlations, which lead to degeneracies between bosonic and fermionic states of the system. The methods developed in this paper are of interest for studying more physically relevant models, for instance, for high-T(c) cuprates.

Graphical method to determine the parameters of the two-parameter fracture model for concrete

To evaluate the parameters in the two-parameter fracture model, i.e. the critical stress intensity factor and critical crack tip opening displacement for the fracture of plain concrete in Mode 1 for the given test configuration and geometry, considerable computational effort is necessary. A simple graphical method has been proposed using normalized fracture parameters for the three-point bend (3PB) notched specimen and the double-edged notched (DEN) specimen. A similar graphical method is proposed to compute the maximum load carrying capacity of a specimen, using the critical fracture parameters both for 3PB and DEN configurations.

Absolute Entropy and Energy of Carbon Dioxide Using the Two-Phase Thermodynamic Model

The two-phase thermodynamic (2PT) model is used to determine the absolute entropy and energy of carbon dioxide over a wide range of conditions from molecular dynamics trajectories. The 2PT method determines the thermodynamic properties by applying the proper statistical mechanical partition function to the normal modes of a fluid. The vibrational density of state (DoS), obtained from the Fourier transform of the velocity autocorrelation function, converges quickly, allowing the free energy, entropy, and other thermodynamic properties to be determined from short 20-ps MD trajectories. The anharmonic effects in the vibrations are accounted for by the broadening of the normal modes into bands from sampling the velocities over the trajectory. The low frequency diffusive modes, which lead to finite DoS at zero frequency, are accounted for by considering the DoS as a superposition of gas-phase and solid-phase components (two phases). The analytical decomposition of the DoS allows for an evaluation of properties contributed by different types of molecular motions. We show that this 2PT analysis leads to accurate predictions of entropy and energy of CO2 over a wide range of conditions (from the triple point to the critical point of both the vapor and the liquid phases along the saturation line). This allows the equation of state of CO2 to be determined, which is limited only by the accuracy of the force field. We also validated that the 2PT entropy agrees with that determined from thermodynamic integration, but 2PT requires only a fraction of the time. A complication for CO2 is that its equilibrium configuration is linear, which would have only two rotational modes, but during the dynamics it is never exactly linear, so that there is a third mode from rotational about the axis. In this work, we show how to treat such linear molecules in the 2PT framework.

Phase diagram of a two-species lattice model with a linear instability

We discuss the properties of a one-dimensional lattice model of a driven system with two species of particles in which the mobility of one species depends on the density of the other. This model was introduced by Lahiri and Ramaswamy (Phys. Rev. Lett., 79, 1150 (1997)) in the context of sedimenting colloidal crystals, and its continuum version was shown to exhibit an instability arising from linear gradient couplings. In this paper we review recent progress in understanding the full phase diagram of the model. There are three phases. In the first, the steady state can be determined exactly along a representative locus using the condition of detailed balance. The system shows phase separation of an exceptionally robust sort, termed strong phase separation, which survives at all temperatures. The second phase arises in the threshold case where the first species evolves independently of the second, but the fluctuations of the first influence the evolution of the second, as in the passive scalar problem. The second species then shows phase separation of a delicate sort, in which long-range order coexists with fluctuations which do not damp down in the large-size limit. This fluctuation-dominated phase ordering is associated with power law decays in cluster size distributions and a breakdown of the Porod law. The third phase is one with a uniform overall density, and along a representative locus the steady state is shown to have product measure form. Density fluctuations are transported by two kinematic waves, each involving both species and coupled at the nonlinear level. Their dissipation properties are governed by the symmetries of these couplings, which depend on the overall densities. In the most interesting case,, the dissipation of the two modes is characterized by different critical exponents, despite the nonlinear coupling.

Quantum fidelity for one-dimensional Dirac fermions and two-dimensional Kitaev model in the thermodynamic limit

We study the scaling behavior of the fidelity (F) in the thermodynamic limit using the examples of a system of Dirac fermions in one dimension and the Kitaev model on a honeycomb lattice. We show that the thermodynamic fidelity inside the gapless as well as gapped phases follow power-law scalings, with the power given by some of the critical exponents of the system. The generic scaling forms of F for an anisotropic quantum critical point for both the thermodynamic and nonthermodynamic limits have been derived and verified for the Kitaev model. The interesting scaling behavior of F inside the gapless phase of the Kitaev model is also discussed. Finally, we consider a rotation of each spin in the Kitaev model around the z axis and calculate F through the overlap between the ground states for the angle of rotation eta and eta + d eta, respectively. We thereby show that the associated geometric phase vanishes. We have supplemented our analytical calculations with numerical simulations wherever necessary.

Quantum fidelity for one-dimensional Dirac fermions and two-dimensional Kitaev model in the thermodynamic limit

We study the scaling behavior of the fidelity (F) in the thermodynamic limit using the examples of a system of Dirac fermions in one dimension and the Kitaev model on a honeycomb lattice.We show that the thermodynamic fidelity inside the gapless as well as gapped phases follow power-law scalings, with the power given by some of the critical exponents of the system. The generic scaling forms of F for an anisotropic quantum critical point for both the thermodynamic and nonthermodynamic limits have been derived and verified for the Kitaev model. The interesting scaling behavior of F inside the gapless phase of the Kitaev model is also discussed. Finally, we consider a rotation of each spin in the Kitaev model around the z axis and calculate F through the overlap between the ground states for the angle of rotation η and η + dη, respectively. We thereby show that the associated geometric phase vanishes. We have supplemented our analytical calculations with numerical simulations wherever necessary