  A possibility to realize isotropic artificial backward-wave materials is
theoretically analyzed. An improved mixing rule for the effective permittivity
of a composite material consisting of two sets of resonant dielectric spheres
in a homogeneous background is presented. The equations are validated using the
Mie theory and numerical simulations. The effect of a statistical distribution
of sphere sizes on the increasing of losses in the operating frequency band is
discussed and some examples are shown.
