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The European Space Agency has funded e2v's development of an image sensor for the visible instrument in the Euclid space telescope. Euclid has been selected for a medium class mission launch opportunity in 2020. The project aims to map the dark universe with two complementary methods; a galaxy red-shift survey and weak gravitational lensing using near infrared and visible instruments. The baseline for the visible instrument was to be the CCD203-82, which has been successfully flown on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. However, to optimise the device for Euclid, e2v have designed and manufactured the CCD273-84. This device has a higher-responsivity lower-noise amplifier, enhanced red response, parallel charge injection structures and narrower registers which improve low signal charge transfer efficiency. Development models for Euclid have been manufactured with a thinner gate dielectric than standard for improved tolerance to ionising radiation. This paper describes the imager sensor in detail and focuses on the novel aspects of the device, package and interface.

International accounting standards, Disclosure, Cost of equity, Analyst following, G38, K22, M41,

We examine the association between institutional ownership and defined benefit (DB) pension decisions. We find that institutional ownership is negatively associated with pension underfunding, opportunistic increases in the expected rate of return assumption in the presence of underfunding, and significant ownership of the firm's own stock in the DB plan portfolio. Furthermore, these relations are stronger when institutional ownership is concentrated, when institutions are nontransient investors, or when institutions are relatively large. These results suggest that institutional investors are monitoring firm pension decisions, particularly those institutions with stronger monitoring incentives or resources.