CEO Turnover, Equity-Based Compensation And Firms Investment Decisions

This paper examines the impact of the newly appointed CEOs on firms future investment decisions and whether the relation is affected by the equity-based compensation, corporate governance provisions and other CEO characteristics. Using CEO turnover data from 1992-2004, the results show that new CEOs with high options-based compensation, following forced turnover and with shorter organization tenure, are associated with high R&D and advertisement investments. These results are consistent with the managerial incentive effect and the dismissal effect

Training Database Automation System

The purpose of this paper is to propose a system that will improve record management of the training records in companies. PHILIPS LUMILEDS LIGHTING COMPANY is chosen as a background of research and studies which have shown lack of proper maintenance and management of their training records system. Consequently the problems affect the accuracy and completeness of training records for the purpose of auditing and other related operations. The proposed Training Database Automation System enables the storage of all training records into a single database system which helps in reducing human error. With the higher accuracy and completeness of data, Training Database Automation System has also equipped with flexible criteria searching modules which aid users for report retrieval for various criteria and requirement. Moreover, the system facilitate user in enrolling participant by generating the suggestion list for training for each of employees. Training Database Automation System delivers latest and accurate data management and efficient records retrieval and support flexible reports production for auditing purpose and evidently has shown significant time reduction for training record retrieval

Fall Reduction with Nursing Interventions

The aim of the project is to reduce the patient’s fall rate in the medical surgical unit at an acute care hospital through improving the fall precaution process. The unit consists of 37 bed with a population of stroke, medical, and surgical patients. The focus of the nursing staff education using handouts, brochures, and poster will be based on the results from pre and post intervention audits. The goal of this fall reduction project is to have the nursing staff learn, review, and apply fall prevention interventions for fall risk patients in order to help reduce fall rate by 50 percent within a six month period, from October 2015 through March 2016. The CALNOC (Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes) and NDNQI (The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators) data on fall rate will be compared before and after the intervention. Results indicate that as staff knowledge and implementation of fall prevention interventions increase, the patient fall rate will decrease

Non-Euclidean cloaking for light waves

Non-Euclidean geometry combined with transformation optics has recently led to the proposal of an invisibility cloak that avoids optical singularities and therefore can work, in principle, in a broad band of the spectrum [U. Leonhardt and T. Tyc, Science 323, 110 (2009)]. Such a cloak is perfect in the limit of geometrical optics, but not in wave optics. Here we analyze, both analytically and numerically, full wave propagation in non-Euclidean cloaking. We show that the cloaking device performs remarkably well even in a regime beyond geometrical optics where the device is comparable in size with the wavelength. In particular, the cloak is nearly perfect for a spectrum of frequencies that are related to spherical harmonics. We also show that for increasing wavenumber the device works increasingly better, approaching perfect behavior in the limit of geometrical optics

The Streptococcus pneumoniae pezAT toxin-antitoxin system reduces β-Lactam resistance and genetic competence

13 p.-6 fig.Chromosomally encoded Type II Toxin-Antitoxin operons are ubiquitous in bacteria and archaea. Antitoxins neutralize the toxic effect of cognate Toxins by protein-protein interactions and sequestering the active residues of the Toxin. Toxins target essential bacterial processes, mostly translation and replication. However, one class apart is constituted by the PezAT pair because the PezT toxin target cell wall biosynthesis. Here, we have examined the role of the pezAT toxin-antitoxin genes in its natural host, the pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. The pezAT operon on Pneumococcal Pathogenicity Island 1 was deleted from strain R6 and its phenotypic traits were compared with those of the wild type. The mutant cells formed shorter chains during exponential phase, leading to increased colony-forming units. At stationary phase, the mutant was more resilient to lysis. Importantly, the mutant exhibited higher resistance to antibiotics targeting cell walls (β-lactams), but not to antibiotics acting at other levels. In addition, the mutants also showed enhanced genetic competence. We suggest that PezAT participates in a subtle equilibrium between loss of functions (resistance to β-lactams and genetic competence) and gain of other traits (virulence).Work supported by Grants CSD2008/00013 and BIO2015-69085-REDC from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.Peer reviewe

Plant-Made Oral Vaccines Against Human Infectious Diseases—Are we There yet?

Although the plant-made vaccine field started three decades ago with the promise of developing low-cost vaccines to prevent infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics around the globe, this goal has not yet been achieved. Plants offer several major advantages in vaccine generation, including low-cost production by eliminating expensive fermentation and purification systems, sterile delivery and cold storage/transportation. Most importantly, oral vaccination using plant-made antigens confers both mucosal (IgA) and systemic (IgG) immunity. Studies in the past 5 years have made significant progress in expressing vaccine antigens in edible leaves (especially lettuce), processing leaves or seeds through lyophilization and achieving antigen stability and efficacy after prolonged storage at ambient temperatures. Bioencapsulation of antigens in plant cells protects them from the digestive system; the fusion of antigens to transmucosal carriers enhances efficiency of their delivery to the immune system and facilitates successful development of plant vaccines as oral boosters. However, the lack of oral priming approaches diminishes these advantages because purified antigens, cold storage/transportation and limited shelf life are still major challenges for priming with adjuvants and for antigen delivery by injection. Yet another challenge is the risk of inducing tolerance without priming the host immune system. Therefore, mechanistic aspects of these two opposing processes (antibody production or suppression) are discussed in this review. In addition, we summarize recent progress made in oral delivery of vaccine antigens expressed in plant cells via the chloroplast or nuclear genomes and potential challenges in achieving immunity against infectious diseases using cold-chain-free vaccine delivery approaches

A joint venture in distance education program between Hong Kong and Australia

This article examines how the use of information technology overcomes some of the difficulties in delivering vocational education at a distance. It then discusses how the collaboration of an overseas institution with a local academic partner can offer an enhanced distance education program. In addition to the reflections of the academic and administrative staff, feedback from the students is collected through a questionnaire survey. The students’ general course satisfaction and their opinions to the enhanced form of distance education are investigated. The findings of this case study provide a useful reference for distance education providers to enhance their competitiveness when operating in other countries