Are fund managers incentivised to ignore stock market jumps?

In this paper, we show that the way in which fund managers are compensated can, under plausible conditions, lead them to act in a way that does not maximise the wellbeing of their clients. Due to performance bonuses in fund managers' rewards, there is a highly non-linear relationship between the wealth of the client and the fees that the manager receives. We demonstrate that jumps in equity returns can lead to a conflict of interest between the investor and the manager in such a setting. Specifically, the managers' option-type payment structure can incentivise them to not account for the downside risk induced by jumps, especially if the fund manager is only in post for a few years; thus managers may pursue a more aggressive asset allocation strategy than their clients desire. Our key policy recommendation is that regulators should consider imposing a negative fund fee in times of very poor absolute fund performance to mitigate against suboptimal fund management asset allocation decisions

In vivo imaging of cellular proliferation in colorectal cancer using positron emission tomography

Background and aims: Positron emission tomography (PET) using 18F labelled 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18FDG) is an established imaging tool, although the recent development of a biologically stable thymidine analogue [18F] 3'-deoxy-3-fluorothymidine (18FLT) has allowed PET to image cellular proliferation by utilising the salvage pathway of DNA synthesis. In this study, we have compared uptake of 18FLT and 18FDG with MIB-1 immunohistochemistry to evaluate the role of PET in quantifying in vivo cellular proliferation in colorectal cancer (CRC). Patients and methods: Patients with resectable, primary, or recurrent CRC were prospectively studied. Thirteen lesions from 10 patients (five males, five females), median age 68 years (range 54–87), were evaluated. Patients underwent 18FDG and 18FLT PET scanning. Tracer uptake within lesions was quantified using standardised uptake values (SUVs). Histopathological examination and MIB-1 immunohistochemistry were performed on all lesions, and proliferation quantified by calculating a labelling index (% of MIB-1 positively stained nuclei within 1500 tumour cells). Results: Histology confirmed adenocarcinoma in 12 of 13 lesions; the remaining lesion was reactive. All eight extrahepatic lesions were visualised using both 18FLT and 18FDG. Three of the five resected liver metastases were also avid for 18FLT and showed high proliferation, while the remaining two lesions which demonstrated no uptake of 18FLT had correspondingly very low proliferation. There was a statistically significant positive correlation (r =0.8, p<0.01) between SUVs of the tumours visualised with 18FLT and the corresponding MIB-1 labelling indices. No such correlation was demonstrated with 18FDG avid lesions (r =0.4). Conclusions: 18FLT PET correlates with cellular proliferation markers in both primary and metastatic CRC. This technique could provide a mechanism for in vivo grading of malignancy and early prediction of response to adjuvant chemotherapy

Role of Coulomb correlation on magnetic and transport properties of doped manganites: La0.5Sr0.5MnO3 and LaSr2Mn2O7

Results of LSDA and LSDA+U calculations of the electronic structure and magnetic configurations of the 50% hole-doped pseudocubic perovskite La0.5Sr0.5MnO3 and double layered LaSr2Mn2O7 are presented. We demonstrate that the on-site Coulomb correlation (U) of Mn d electrons has a very different influence on the (i) band formations, (ii) magnetic ground states, (iii) interlayer exchange interactions, and (iv) anisotropy of the electrical transport in these two manganites. A possible reason why the LSDA failures in predicting observed magnetic and transport properties of the double layered compound - in contrast to the doped perovskite manganite - is considered on the basis of a p-d hybridization analysis.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Scalable design of tailored soft pulses for coherent control

We present a scalable scheme to design optimized soft pulses and pulse sequences for coherent control of interacting quantum many-body systems. The scheme is based on the cluster expansion and the time dependent perturbation theory implemented numerically. This approach offers a dramatic advantage in numerical efficiency, and it is also more convenient than the commonly used Magnus expansion, especially when dealing with higher order terms. We illustrate the scheme by designing 2nd-order pi-pulses and a 6th-order 8-pulse refocusing sequence for a chain of qubits with nearest-neighbor couplings. We also discuss the performance of soft-pulse refocusing sequences in suppressing decoherence due to low-frequency environment.Comment: 4 pages, 2 tables. (modified first table, references added, minor text changes

Long-term impact on healthcare resource utilization of statin treatment, and its cost effectiveness in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: a record linkage study

Aims: To assess the impact on healthcare resource utilization, costs, and quality of life over 15 years from 5 years of statin use in men without a history of myocardial infarction in the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods: Six thousand five hundred and ninety-five participants aged 45–54 years were randomized to 5 years treatment with pravastatin (40 mg) or placebo. Linkage to routinely collected health records extended follow-up for secondary healthcare resource utilization to 15 years. The following new results are reported: cause-specific first and recurrent cardiovascular hospital admissions including myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, coronary revascularization and angiography; non-cardiovascular hospitalization; days in hospital; quality-adjusted life years (QALYs); costs of pravastatin treatment, treatment safety monitoring, and hospital admissions.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Results: Five years treatment of 1000 patients with pravastatin (40 mg/day) saved the NHS £710 000 (P &#60; 0.001), including the cost of pravastatin and lipid and safety monitoring, and gained 136 QALYs (P = 0.017) over the 15-year period. Benefits per 1000 subjects, attributable to prevention of cardiovascular events, included 163 fewer admissions and a saving of 1836 days in hospital, with fewer admissions for myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure and coronary revascularization. There was no excess in non-cardiovascular admissions or costs (or in admissions associated with diabetes or its complications) and no evidence of heterogeneity of effect over sub-groups defined by baseline cardiovascular risk.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusion: Five years' primary prevention treatment of middle-aged men with a statin significantly reduces healthcare resource utilization, is cost saving, and increases QALYs. Treatment of even younger, lower risk individuals is likely to be cost-effective.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

Analog of Magnetoelectric Effect in High-Tc Granular Superconductors

We propose the existence of an electric-field induced nonlinear magnetization in a weakly coupled granular superconductor due to time-parity violation. As the field increases the induced magnetization passes from para- to dia-magnetic behavior. We discuss conditions under which this effect could be experimentally measured in high-temperature superconductors.Comment: REVTEX (epsf style), 1 PS figure; to appear in Europhysics Letter

Gas and Dust Emission from the Nuclear Region of the Circinus Galaxy

Simultaneous modeling of the line and continuum emission from the nuclear region of the Circinus galaxy is presented. Composite models which include the combined effect of shocks and photoionization from the active center and from the circumnuclear star forming region are considered. The effects of dust reradiation, bremsstrahlung from the gas and synchrotron radiation are treated consistently. The proposed model accounts for two important observational features. First, the high obscuration of Circinus central source is produced by high velocity and dense clouds with characteristic high dust-to-gas ratios. Their large velocities, up to 1500 km\s, place them very close to the active center. Second, the derived size of the line emitting region is well in agreement with the observed limits for the coronal and narrow line region of Circinus.Comment: 36 pages, LaTex (including 4 Tables and 9 figures), $$ removed from Abstract To appear in "The Astrophysical Journal

Electric field induced strong localization of electrons on solid hydrogen surface: possible applications to quantum computing

Two-dimensional electron system on the liquid helium surface is one of the leading candidates for constructing large analog quantum computers (P.M. Platzman and M.I. Dykman, Science 284, 1967 (1999)). Similar electron systems on the surfaces of solid hydrogen or solid neon may have some important advantages with respect to electrons on liquid helium in quantum computing applications, such as larger state separation $\Delta E$, absence of propagating capillary waves (or ripplons), smaller vapor pressure, etc. As a result, it may operate at higher temperatures. Surface roughness is the main hurdle to overcome in building a realistic quantum computer using these states. Electric field induced strong localization of surface electrons is shown to be a convenient tool to characterize surface roughness.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Nature of non-magnetic strongly-correlated state in delta-plutonium

Ab-initio relativistic dynamical mean-field theory is applied to resolve the long-standing controversy between theory and experiment in the "simple" face-centered cubic phase of plutonium called delta-Pu. In agreement with experiment, neither static nor dynamical magnetic moments are predicted. In addition, the quasiparticle density of states reproduces not only the peak close to the Fermi level, which explains the large coefficient of electronic specific heat, but also main 5f features observed in photoelectron spectroscopy.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

The Ethics of Corporate Governance

How should corporate directors determine what is the right decision? For at least the past 30 years the debate has raged as to whether shareholder value should take precedence over corporate social responsibility when crucial decisions arise. Directors face pressure, not least from ethical investors, to do the good thing when they seek to make the right choice. Corporate governance theory has tended to look to agency theory and the need of boards to curb excessive executive power to guide directors' decisions. While useful for those purposes, agency theory provides only limited guidance. Supplementing it with the alternatives - stakeholder theory and stewardship theory - tends to put directors in conflict with their legal obligations to work in the interests of shareholders. This paper seeks to reframe the discussion about corporate governance in terms of the ethical debate between consequential, teleological approaches to ethics and idealist, deontological ones, suggesting that directors are - for good reason - more inclined toward utilitarian judgments like those underpinning shareholder value. But the problems with shareholder value have become so great that a different framework is needed: strategic value, with an emphasis on long-term value creation judged from a decidedly utilitarian standpoint