National Hockey League guaranteed contracts: A principal agent problem impacting on performance

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate, through the lens of the principal–agent problem, the relationship between payment of National Hockey League (NHL) salaries and player performance during the period of 2005-2011 and explore the inherent issues within the NHL player compensation and incentive structure. Design/methodology/approach – The research adopts a pragmatic philosophy with deductive reasoning. This paper focuses on the NHL season 2005-2011 and undertake analysis of historical player contracts and performance data of 670 players across 29 clubs to undertake liner regression analysis. Findings – This paper quantifies potential inefficiencies of NHL league contracts and defines the parameters of the principal–agent problem. It is identifies that player performance generally increases with salary, is higher in the first year of a contract and despite decreasing over the life of the contract, will usually peak again in the final year of the contract. Research limitations/implications – The research is based around figures from 2005-2011 and secondary statistical data. The study captures quantitative data but does not allow for an exploration of the qualitative perspective to the problem. Practical implications – Entry-level or first contracts are good for all teams and players because they provide incentive to perform and a reduction of risk to the team should a player not perform to expectations. The same can be said for players at the other end of the spectrum. Although not typically used much, performance bonuses for players over the age of 35 allow clubs to “take a chance” on a player and the player can benefit by reaching attainable bonuses. These findings therefore provide contributions to the practicing managers and coaches of NHL teams who can consider the results to help shape their approach to management of players and the planning of teams and succession planning for talent. Originality/value – The paper presents a comprehensive and current perspective of the principal–agent problem in NHL and extends the work of Purcell (2009) and Gannon (2009) in understanding player performance enhancement

Confrontation and Retreat: The Rhetoric of Persona in the Writings of C.S. Lewis

Throughout his writings C.S. Lewis moves between directly between confrontation and the refuge of imaginary expression. This paper explores the use of this rhetorical habit in his poetry

God in the Details: The Cleansing of the Temple in Four Jesus Films

An effective technique for teaching religion/theology students the virtues of close reading of films and the various techniques by which filmmakers communicate meaning to their audiences involves the comparison of the same biblical scene in different filmed versions of the life of Jesus. Students can learn to appreciate the significance of the various theological and aesthetic choices a particular Jesus film represents by becoming aware of the very different choices made by the makers of other Jesus films. The scene used to illustrate this technique in this paper is the cleansing of the Temple, and the films whose portrayal of this scene are analyzed are The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The King of Kings (1927), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), and Jesus of Montreal (1989)

Data-driven covariance estimation for the iterative closest point algorithm

Les nuages de points en trois dimensions sont un format de données très commun en robotique mobile. Ils sont souvent produits par des capteurs spécialisés de type lidar. Les nuages de points générés par ces capteurs sont utilisés dans des tâches impliquant de l’estimation d’état, telles que la cartographie ou la localisation. Les algorithmes de recalage de nuages de points, notamment l’algorithme ICP (Iterative Closest Point), nous permettent de prendre des mesures d’égo-motion nécessaires à ces tâches. La fusion des recalages dans des chaînes existantes d’estimation d’état dépend d’une évaluation précise de leur incertitude. Cependant, les méthodes existantes d’estimation de l’incertitude se prêtent mal aux données en trois dimensions. Ce mémoire vise à estimer l’incertitude de recalages 3D issus d’Iterative Closest Point (ICP). Premièrement, il pose des fondations théoriques desquelles nous pouvons articuler une estimation de la covariance. Notamment, il révise l’algorithme ICP, avec une attention spéciale sur les parties qui sont importantes pour l’estimation de la covariance. Ensuite, un article scientifique inséré présente CELLO-3D, notre algorithme d’estimation de la covariance d’ICP. L’article inséré contient une validation expérimentale complète du nouvel algorithme. Il montre que notre algorithme performe mieux que les méthodes existantes dans une grande variété d’environnements. Finalement, ce mémoire est conclu par des expérimentations supplémentaires, qui sont complémentaires à l’article.Three-dimensional point clouds are an ubiquitous data format in robotics. They are produced by specialized sensors such as lidars or depth cameras. The point clouds generated by those sensors are used for state estimation tasks like mapping and localization. Point cloud registration algorithms, such as Iterative Closest Point (ICP), allow us to make ego-motion measurements necessary to those tasks. The fusion of ICP registrations in existing state estimation frameworks relies on an accurate estimation of their uncertainty. Unfortunately, existing covariance estimation methods often scale poorly to the 3D case. This thesis aims to estimate the uncertainty of ICP registrations for 3D point clouds. First, it poses theoretical foundations from which we can articulate a covariance estimation method. It reviews the ICP algorithm, with a special focus on the parts of it that are pertinent to covariance estimation. Then, an inserted article introduces CELLO-3D, our data-driven covariance estimation method for ICP. The article contains a thorough experimental validation of the new algorithm. The latter is shown to perform better than existing covariance estimation techniques in a wide variety of environments. Finally, this thesis comprises supplementary experiments, which complement the article

The role of daily routines in adolescents diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Researchers consistently report both immediate and long-term benefits of establishing daily routines during childhood (e.g., increased physical health, medical treatment adherence, homework completion, and family communication). Increasing routines is also an essential component of evidence-based treatment programs for childhood externalizing problems (i.e., impulsivity, hyperactivity, and noncompliance). Research indicates that ADHD children respond particularly well to the regularity and predictability offered by daily routines. However, relatively few studies have examined the role that routines play on the adjustment and development of adolescents. In part, this is due to the lack of assessment tools available that specifically measure adolescent routines. The Adolescent Routines Questionnaire: Parent and Self-Report (ARQ:P/S) is the first measure designed to assess adolescent routines specifically, and initial studies evaluate the ARQ as psychometrically sound. The present study aimed to both replicate and extend preliminary research conducted on the ARQ and adolescent daily routines by demonstrating the clinical utility of the measure in a sample of ADHD vs. non-ADHD adolescents and their parents. Daily routines were examined across groups to compare rates of endorsement. Mean comparisons indicated ADHD adolescents and their parents endorsed significantly fewer daily routines, as well as significantly greater levels of parent-adolescent conflict, than a non-ADHD comparison group. Discriminant function analyses revealed significant group classification rates using ARQ score as the independent factor. Regression analyses indicated daily routines, as assessed by the ARQ, significantly predicted the severity of ADHD symptoms in adolescents. Benefits of assessing adolescents’ daily routines and implications relative to treatment outcome research are discussed

Flow in the therapy setting : an examination of optimal experience in clinical social work practice

This study\u27s purpose was to understand how licensed clinical social workers described their optimal experience when they are engaged in clinical practice. The specific focus of this study was to conduct interviews to obtain subjective narrative descriptions of these experiences. The question was based on the theoretical model of flow, a state of mind where one is wholly absorbed in the moment. Data reflected that the social connection between the therapist and client was the strongest indicator of optimal experience. Data from this study showed evidence that participating licensed clinical social workers described their optimal experience in practice within the same language framework that Csikszentmihalyi (1988) and contemporaries used to define and explain flow. The data adds to existing qualitative studies in which optimal human experiences are described using the language framework of flow theory. Therapeutic applications of flow through mindfulness and visualization practices are explored in the discussion section of this paper

Chandra Measurements of a Complete Sample of X-ray Luminous Galaxy Clusters: the Gas Mass Fraction

We present Chandra X-ray measurements of the gas mass fraction out to r500 for a complete sample of the 35 most luminous clusters from the Brightest Cluster Sample and the Extended Brightest Cluster Sample at redshift z=0.15-0.30. The sample includes relaxed and unrelaxed clusters, and the data were analysed independently using two pipelines and two different models for the gas density and temperature. We measure an average of fgas(r500) = 0.163 +/- 0.032, which is in agreement with the cosmic baryon fraction (Omega_b / Omega_M = 0.167 +/- 0.006) at the 1-sigma level, after adding the stellar baryon fraction. Earlier studies reported gas mass fractions significantly lower than the cosmic baryon fraction at r500, and in some cases higher values that are consistent with the cosmic baryon fraction towards the virial radius.In this paper we show that the most X-ray luminous clusters in the redshift range z=0.15-0.30 have a gas mass fraction that is consistent with the cosmic value at r500.Comment: MNRAS submitted, comments welcome; 23 pages, 57 figure

Scaling the semidefinite program solver SDPB

We present enhancements to SDPB, an open source, parallelized, arbitrary precision semidefinite program solver designed for the conformal bootstrap. The main enhancement is significantly improved performance and scalability using the Elemental library and MPI. The result is a new version of SDPB that runs on multiple nodes with hundreds of cores with excellent scaling, making it practical to solve larger problems. We demonstrate performance on a moderate-size problem in the 3d Ising CFT and a much larger problem in the $O(2)$ Model.Comment: 13 pages plus references, 2 figure