393 research outputs found
TLR ligand-induced keratitis is partially reconstituted in TLR-/- chimeric mice by donor TLR+ bone marrow-derived cells in the corneal stroma
Relationship between executive pay and company financial performance in South African state-owned entities
ORIENTATION : Executive pay has been increasing; however, company performance has not been
increasing proportionally. This could be due to an agency problem, resulting in executive pay
not aligning with the shareholders’ desired company performance.
RESEARCH PURPOSE : The purpose of this research was to establish if there was a relationship
between the total pay of the chief executive officer and their company’s financial performance
in South African Schedule 2 state-owned entities (SOEs).
MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDE : A review of literature revealed conflicting views regarding the
relationship between executive pay and company financial performance. There were limited
studies conducted in South Africa, especially considering SOEs.
RESERACH APPROACH/DESIGN AND METHOD : This research was a quantitative, archival study
using 8 years of secondary data from South African Schedule 2 SOEs. Spearman’s rank-order
correlation was used to evaluate the relationship.
MAIN FINDINGS : One significant weak positive relationship was observed when considering the
net profit or loss metric of financial performance. Hence, there was no conclusive relationship
between executive pay and company financial performance, which supported the proposition
that there is an agency problem in South African SOEs.
PRACTICAL/MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS : There is a distinct need for an all-encompassing SOE
legislation framework to standardise pay structure and reporting requirements. Additionally, accurate measures of performance are necessary to overcome the agency problem.
CONTRIBUTION/VALUE-ADD : This research adds to the limited knowledge base regarding the
relationship between executive pay and company financial performance in South African
SOEs. It also identified the need to incorporate non-financial metrics to influence executive
pay.http://www.sajhrm.co.zaam2021Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS
Generalized uncertainty principle in Bianchi type I quantum cosmology
We study a quantum Bianchi type I model in which the dynamical variables of
the corresponding minisuperspace obey the generalized Heisenberg algebra. Such
a generalized uncertainty principle has its origin in the existence of a
minimal length suggested by quantum gravity and sting theory. We present
approximate analytical solutions to the corresponding Wheeler-DeWitt equation
in the limit where the scale factor of the universe is small and compare the
results with the standard commutative and noncommutative quantum cosmology.
Similarities and differences of these solutions are also discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in PL
Ferromagnetism in the Two-Dimensional Periodic Anderson Model
Using the constrained-path Monte Carlo method, we studied the magnetic
properties of the two-dimensional periodic Anderson model for electron fillings
between 1/4 and 1/2. We also derived two effective low energy theories to
assist in interpreting the numerical results. For 1/4 filling we found that the
system can be a Mott or a charge transfer insulator, depending on the relative
values of the Coulomb interaction and the charge transfer gap between the two
non-interacting bands. The insulator may be a paramagnet or antiferromagnet. We
concentrated on the effect of electron doping on these insulating phases. Upon
doping we obtained a partially saturated ferromagnetic phase for low
concentrations of conduction electrons. If the system were a charge transfer
insulator, we would find that the ferromagnetism is induced by the well-known
RKKY interaction. However, we found a novel correlated hopping mechanism
inducing the ferromagnetism in the region where the non-doped system is a Mott
insulator. Our regions of ferromagnetism spanned a much smaller doping range
than suggested by recent slave boson and dynamical mean field theory
calculations, but they were consistent with that obtained by density matrix
renormalization group calculations of the one-dimensional periodic Anderson
model
Testing spatial noncommutativiy via the Aharonov-Bohm effect
The possibility of detecting noncommutative space relics is analyzed using
the Aharonov-Bohm effect. We show that, if space is noncommutative, the
holonomy receives non-trivial kinematical corrections that will produce a
diffraction pattern even when the magnetic flux is quantized. The scattering
problem is also formulated, and the differential cross section is calculated.
Our results can be extrapolated to high energy physics and the bound is found. If this bound holds, then noncommutative
effects could be explored in scattering experiments measuring differential
cross sections for small angles. The bound state Aharonov- Bohm effect is also
discussed.Comment: 16 pp, Revtex 4, 2 fig, new references added. To appear in PR
Low-mass pre--main-sequence stars in the Magellanic Clouds
[Abridged] The stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) suggests that sub-solar
stars form in very large numbers. Most attractive places for catching low-mass
star formation in the act are young stellar clusters and associations, still
(half-)embedded in star-forming regions. The low-mass stars in such regions are
still in their pre--main-sequence (PMS) evolutionary phase. The peculiar nature
of these objects and the contamination of their samples by the evolved
populations of the Galactic disk impose demanding observational techniques for
the detection of complete numbers of PMS stars in the Milky Way. The Magellanic
Clouds, the companion galaxies to our own, demonstrate an exceptional star
formation activity. The low extinction and stellar field contamination in
star-forming regions of these galaxies imply a more efficient detection of
low-mass PMS stars than in the Milky Way, but their distance from us make the
application of special detection techniques unfeasible. Nonetheless, imaging
with the Hubble Space Telescope yield the discovery of solar and sub-solar PMS
stars in the Magellanic Clouds from photometry alone. Unprecedented numbers of
such objects are identified as the low-mass stellar content of their
star-forming regions, changing completely our picture of young stellar systems
outside the Milky Way, and extending the extragalactic stellar IMF below the
persisting threshold of a few solar masses. This review presents the recent
developments in the investigation of PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds, with
special focus on the limitations by single-epoch photometry that can only be
circumvented by the detailed study of the observable behavior of these stars in
the color-magnitude diagram. The achieved characterization of the low-mass PMS
stars in the Magellanic Clouds allowed thus a more comprehensive understanding
of the star formation process in our neighboring galaxies.Comment: Review paper, 26 pages (in LaTeX style for Springer journals), 4
figures. Accepted for publication in Space Science Review
Effective Lagrangian Approach to the Theory of Eta Photoproduction in the Region
We investigate eta photoproduction in the resonance region
within the effective Lagrangian approach (ELA), wherein leading contributions
to the amplitude at the tree level are taken into account. These include the
nucleon Born terms and the leading -channel vector meson exchanges as the
non-resonant pieces. In addition, we consider five resonance contributions in
the - and - channel; besides the dominant , these are:
and . The amplitudes for the
and the photoproduction near threshold have significant
differences, even as they share common contributions, such as those of the
nucleon Born terms. Among these differences, the contribution to the
photoproduction of the -channel excitation of the is the most
significant. We find the off-shell properties of the spin-3/2 resonances to be
important in determining the background contributions. Fitting our effective
amplitude to the available data base allows us to extract the quantity
, characteristic of the
photoexcitation of the resonance and its decay into the
-nucleon channel, of interest to precise tests of hadron models. At the
photon point, we determine it to be from
the old data base, and from a
combination of old data base and new Bates data. We obtain the helicity
amplitude for to be from the old data base, and from the combination of the old data base and new Bates
data, compared with the results of the analysis of pion photoproduction
yielding , in the same units.Comment: 43 pages, RevTeX, 9 figures available upon request, to appear in
Phys. Rev.
The HERschel inventory of the agents of galaxy evolution in the Magellanic clouds, a HERschel open time key program
We present an overview of the HERschel Inventory of The Agents of Galaxy Evolution (HERITAGE) in the Magellanic Clouds project, which is a Herschel Space Observatory open time key program. We mapped the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) at 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 μm with the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) and Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) instruments on board Herschel using the SPIRE/PACS parallel mode. The overriding science goal of HERITAGE is to study the life cycle of matter as traced by dust in the LMC and SMC. The far-infrared and submillimeter emission is an effective tracer of the interstellar medium (ISM) dust, the most deeply embedded young stellar objects (YSOs), and the dust ejected by the most massive stars. We describe in detail the data processing, particularly for the PACS data, which required some custom steps because of the large angular extent of a single observational unit and overall the large amount of data to be processed as an ensemble. We report total global fluxes for the LMC and SMC and demonstrate their agreement with measurements by prior missions. The HERITAGE maps of the LMC and SMC are dominated by the ISM dust emission and bear most resemblance to the tracers of ISM gas rather than the stellar content of the galaxies. We describe the point source extraction processing and the criteria used to establish a catalog for each waveband for the HERITAGE program. The 250 μm band is the most sensitive and the source catalogs for this band have ∼25,000 objects for the LMC and ∼5500 objects for the SMC. These data enable studies of ISM dust properties, submillimeter excess dust emission, dust-to-gas ratio, Class 0 YSO candidates, dusty massive evolved stars, supernova remnants (including SN1987A), H II regions, and dust evolution in the LMC and SMC. All images and catalogs are delivered to the Herschel Science Center as part of the community support aspects of the project. These HERITAGE images and catalogs provide an excellent basis for future research and follow up with other facilities. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved
Surveying the agents of galaxy evolution in the tidally stripped, low metallicity Small Magellanic Cloud (SAGE-SMC). I. overview
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) provides a unique laboratory for the study of the lifecycle of dust given its low metallicity (1/5 solar) and relative proximity (∼60kpc). This motivated the SAGE-SMC (Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution in the Tidally Stripped, Low Metallicity Small Magellanic Cloud) Spitzer Legacy program with the specific goals of studying the amount and type of dust in the present interstellar medium, the sources of dust in the winds of evolved stars, and how much dust is consumed in star formation. This program mapped the full SMC (30 deg2) including the body, wing, and tail in seven bands from 3.6 to 160 μm using IRAC and MIPS on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The data were reduced and mosaicked, and the point sources were measured using customized routines specific for large surveys. We have made the resulting mosaics and point-source catalogs available to the community. The infrared colors of the SMC are compared to those of other nearby galaxies and the 8 μm/24 μm ratio is somewhat lower than the average and the 70 μm/160 μm ratio is somewhat higher than the average. The global infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) shows that the SMC has approximately 1/3 the aromatic emission/polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon abundance of most nearby galaxies. Infrared color-magnitude diagrams are given illustrating the distribution of different asymptotic giant branch stars and the locations of young stellar objects. Finally, the average SED of H II/star formation regions is compared to the equivalent Large Magellanic Cloud average H II/star formation region SED. These preliminary results will be expanded in detail in subsequent papers. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved
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