CEO Compensation and Corporate Risk: Evidence From a Natural Experiment

This paper examines the two-way relationship between managerial compensation and corporate risk by exploiting an unanticipated change in firms\u27 business risks. The natural experiment provides an opportunity to examine two classic questions related to incentives and risk—how boards adjust incentives in response to firms\u27 risk and how these incentives affect managers\u27 risk-taking. We find that, after left-tail risk increases, boards reduce managers\u27 exposure to stock price movements and that less convexity from options-based pay leads to greater risk-reducing activities. Specifically, managers with less convex payoffs tend to cut leverage and R&D, stockpile cash, and engage in more diversifying acquisitions

Quantitative trait loci associated with different polar metabolites in perennial ryegrass - providing scope for breeding towards increasing certain polar metabolites

peer-reviewedBackground Recent advances in the mapping of biochemical traits have been reported in Lolium perenne. Although the mapped traits, including individual sugars and fatty acids, contribute greatly towards ruminant productivity, organic acids and amino acids have been largely understudied despite their influence on the ruminal microbiome. Results In this study, we used a targeted gas-chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) approach to profile the levels of 25 polar metabolites from different classes (sugars, amino acids, phenolic acids, organic acids and other nitrogen-containing compounds) present in a L. perenne F2 population consisting of 325 individuals. A quantitative trait (QTL) mapping approach was applied and successfully identified QTLs regulating seven of those polar metabolites (L-serine, L-leucine, glucose, fructose, myo-inositol, citric acid and 2, 3-hydroxypropanoic acid).Two QTL mapping approaches were carried out using SNP markers on about half of the population only and an imputation approach using SNP and DArT markers on the entire population. The imputation approach confirmed the four QTLs found in the SNP-only analysis and identified a further seven QTLs. Conclusions These results highlight the potential of utilising molecular assisted breeding in perennial ryegrass to modulate a range of biochemical quality traits with downstream effects in livestock productivity and ruminal digestion.This study was financed through a Research Stimulus Fund Grant by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine (RSF 06–346). AF, CH and DS acknowledge support from The Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division

Maltese teachers’ beliefs concerning the integration of children’s literature in mathematics teaching and learning

This exploratory mixed-methods study set out to explore Maltese primary school teachers’ perceived barriers to, and enablers for, the integration of children’s literature in mathematics teaching. Data were collected by means of an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, and analysed thematically using Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour. The responses given by the participants showed that integration of mathematics and stories was not a common practice. The perceived barriers were categorised as Resource Constraint, Time Constraint, Lack of Pedagogical Knowledge and Confidence, Doubts about Outcome Expectancy, and Inhibiting Social Norms while the three perceived enablers identified were Pedagogical Benefits, Love of Stories, and Enabling Social Norms. Given that the majority of the participating teachers acknowledged the potential benefits of the approach and expressed a wish for training, one key recommendation of the study is for teaching mathematics through stories to be explicitly included in pre-service and in-service professional development programmes

The structural invisibility of outsiders: the role of migrant labour in the meat-processing industry

This article examines the role of migrant workers in meat-processing factories in the UK. Drawing on materials from mixed methods research in a number of case study towns across Wales, we explore the structural and spatial processes that position migrant workers as outsiders. While state policy and immigration controls are often presented as a way of protecting migrant workers from work-based exploitation and ensuring jobs for British workers, our research highlights that the situation ‘on the ground’ is more complex. We argue that ‘self-exploitation’ among the migrant workforce is linked to the strategies of employers and the organisation of work, and that hyper-flexible work patterns have reinforced the spatial and social invisibilities of migrant workers in this sector. While this creates problems for migrant workers, we conclude that it is beneficial to supermarkets looking to supply consumers with the regular supply of cheap food to which they have become accustomed

Unsigned magnetic flux as a proxy for radial-velocity variations in Sun-like stars

We estimate disc-averaged RV variations of the Sun over the last magnetic cycle, from the single Fe I line observed by SDO/HMI, using a physical model for rotationally modulated magnetic activity that was previously validated against HARPS-N solar observations. We estimate the disc-averaged, unsigned magnetic flux and show that a simple linear fit to it reduces the RMS of RV variations by 62%, i.e. a factor of 2.6. We additionally apply the FF' method, which predicts RV variations based on a star's photometric variations. At cycle maximum, we find that additional physical processes must be at play beyond suppression of convective blueshift and velocity imablances resulting from brightness inhomogeneities, in agreement with recent studies of solar RV variations. By modelling RV variations over the magnetic cycle using a linear fit to the unsigned magnetic flux, we recover injected planets at an orbital period of about 300 days with RV semi-amplitudes down to 0.3 m/s. To reach semi-amplitudes of 0.1 m/s, we will need to identify and model additional physical phenomena that are not well traced by the unsigned magnetic flux or FF'. The unsigned magnetic flux is an excellent proxy for rotationally modulated, activity-induced RV variations, and could become a key tool in confirming and characterising Earth analogs orbiting Sun-like stars. The present study motivates ongoing and future efforts to develop observation and analysis techniques to measure the unsigned magnetic flux at high precision in slowly rotating, relatively inactive stars like the Sun.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Ap

'Reaching the hard to reach' - lessons learned from the VCS (voluntary and community Sector). A qualitative study.

Background The notion 'hard to reach' is a contested and ambiguous term that is commonly used within the spheres of social care and health, especially in discourse around health and social inequalities. There is a need to address health inequalities and to engage in services the marginalized and socially excluded sectors of society. Methods This paper describes a pilot study involving interviews with representatives from eight Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations . The purpose of the study was to explore the notion of 'hard to reach' and perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to accessing services for 'hard to reach' groups from a voluntary and community sector perspective. Results The 'hard to reach' may include drug users, people living with HIV, people from sexual minority communities, asylum seekers, refugees, people from black and ethnic minority communities, and homeless people although defining the notion of the 'hard to reach' is not straight forward. It may be that certain groups resist engaging in treatment services and are deemed hard to reach by a particular service or from a societal stance. There are a number of potential barriers for people who may try and access services, including people having bad experiences in the past; location and opening times of services and how services are funded and managed. A number of areas of commonality are found in terms of how access to services for 'hard to reach' individuals and groups could be improved including: respectful treatment of service users, establishing trust with service users, offering service flexibility, partnership working with other organisations and harnessing service user involvement. Conclusions: If health services are to engage with groups that are deemed 'hard to reach' and marginalised from mainstream health services, the experiences and practices for engagement from within the VCS may serve as useful lessons for service improvement for statutory health services

Alternative optical concept for electron cyclotron emission imaging

The implementation of advanced electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) systems on tokamak experiments has revolutionized the diagnosis of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activities and improved our understanding of instabilities, which lead to disruptions. It is therefore desirable to have an ECEI system on the ITER tokamak. However, the large size of optical components in presently used ECEI systems have, up to now, precluded the implementation of an ECEI system on ITER. This paper describes a new optical ECEI concept that employs a single spherical mirror as the only optical component and exploits the astigmatism of such a mirror to produce an image with one-dimensional spatial resolution on the detector. Since this alternative approach would only require a thin slit as the viewing port to the plasma, it would make the implementation of an ECEI system on ITER feasible. The results obtained from proof-of-principle experiments with a 125 GHz microwave system are presented.open0

Estimating magnetic filling factors from simultaneous spectroscopy and photometry : disentangling spots, plage, and network

A.C.C. acknowledges support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) consolidated grant number ST/R000824/1.State-of-the-art radial velocity (RV) exoplanet searches are limited by the effects of stellar magnetic activity. Magnetically active spots, plage, and network regions each have different impacts on the observed spectral lines and therefore on the apparent stellar RV. Differentiating the relative coverage, or filling factors, of these active regions is thus necessary to differentiate between activity-driven RV signatures and Doppler shifts due to planetary orbits. In this work, we develop a technique to estimate feature-specific magnetic filling factors on stellar targets using only spectroscopic and photometric observations. We demonstrate linear and neural network implementations of our technique using observations from the solar telescope at HARPS-N, the HK Project at the Mt. Wilson Observatory, and the Total Irradiance Monitor onboard SORCE. We then compare the results of each technique to direct observations by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Both implementations yield filling factor estimates that are highly correlated with the observed values. Modeling the solar RVs using these filling factors reproduces the expected contributions of the suppression of convective blueshift and rotational imbalance due to brightness inhomogeneities. Both implementations of this technique reduce the overall activity-driven rms RVs from 1.64 to 1.02 m s(-1), corresponding to a 1.28 m s(-1) reduction in the rms variation. The technique provides an additional 0.41 m s(-1) reduction in the rms variation compared to traditional activity indicators.PostprintPeer reviewe

An ultra-short period rocky super-Earth orbiting the G2-star HD 80653

Ultra-short period (USP) planets are a class of exoplanets with periods shorter than one day. The origin of this sub-population of planets is still unclear, with different formation scenarios highly dependent on the composition of the USP planets. A better understanding of this class of exoplanets will, therefore, require an increase in the sample of such planets that have accurate and precise masses and radii, which also includes estimates of the level of irradiation and information about possible companions. Here we report a detailed characterization of a USP planet around the solar-type star HD 80653 $\equiv$ EP 251279430 using the K2 light curve and 108 precise radial velocities obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph, installed on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. From the K2 C16 data, we found one super-Earth planet ($R_{b}=1.613\pm0.071 R_{\oplus}$) transiting the star on a short-period orbit ($P_{\rm b}=0.719573\pm0.000021$ d). From our radial velocity measurements, we constrained the mass of HD 80653 b to $M_{b}=5.60\pm0.43 M_{\oplus}$. We also detected a clear long-term trend in the radial velocity data. We derived the fundamental stellar parameters and determined a radius of $R_{\star}=1.22\pm0.01 R_{\odot}$ and mass of $M_{\star}=1.18\pm0.04 M_{\odot}$, suggesting that HD 80653, has an age of $2.7\pm1.2$ Gyr. The bulk density ($\rho_{b} = 7.4 \pm 1.1$ g cm$^{-3}$) of the planet is consistent with an Earth-like composition of rock and iron with no thick atmosphere. Our analysis of the K2 photometry also suggests hints of a shallow secondary eclipse with a depth of 8.1$\pm$3.7 ppm. Flux variations along the orbital phase are consistent with zero. The most important contribution might come from the day-side thermal emission from the surface of the planet at $T\sim3480$ K.Includes STFC