Earnings distribution, corporate governance and CEO pay

We investigate the relationship between earnings differentials and the pay of CEOs of 190 British companies between 1970 and 1990. We find that (i) changes in the differential between the 90th and 50th weekly earnings percentiles for non-manual adult male workers [90:50] explain changes in the level of real CEO salary and bonus in our sample of companies; (ii) changes in this differential also account for changes in the elasticity of CEO pay to firm size; (iii) a broader measure of earnings inequality does far worse than 90:50 at explaining changes in both the level and the firm size elasticity of CEO pay; (iv) fitting the model on data for 1970-1983 and predicting pay levels for the period starting with the widespread adoption of executive share option schemes in 1984, we find a structural break in the relationship between lower management pay differentials and the pay of the CEO. We conclude first that top executive pay prior to 1984 was a stable function of both firm size and earnings differentials lower on the administrative ladder, consistent with a hypothesis advanced by Herbert Simon in 1957; and second that the use of share options from 1984 onward represents not simply a change in the mode of top executive compensation, but a de -linking of the pay of top executives and that of their subordinates

Imaging in population science: cardiovascular magnetic resonance in 100,000 participants of UK Biobank - rationale, challenges and approaches

PMCID: PMC3668194SEP was directly funded by the National Institute for Health Research Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit at Barts. SN acknowledges support from the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and from the Oxford British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence. SP and PL are funded by a BHF Senior Clinical Research fellowship. RC is supported by a BHF Research Chair and acknowledges the support of the Oxford BHF Centre for Research Excellence and the MRC and Wellcome Trust. PMM gratefully acknowledges training fellowships supporting his laboratory from the Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline and the Medical Research Council

Quasi-normal frequencies: Key analytic results

The study of exact quasi-normal modes [QNMs], and their associated quasi-normal frequencies [QNFs], has had a long and convoluted history - replete with many rediscoveries of previously known results. In this article we shall collect and survey a number of known analytic results, and develop several new analytic results - specifically we shall provide several new QNF results and estimates, in a form amenable for comparison with the extant literature. Apart from their intrinsic interest, these exact and approximate results serve as a backdrop and a consistency check on ongoing efforts to find general model-independent estimates for QNFs, and general model-independent bounds on transmission probabilities. Our calculations also provide yet another physics application of the Lambert W function. These ideas have relevance to fields as diverse as black hole physics, (where they are related to the damped oscillations of astrophysical black holes, to greybody factors for the Hawking radiation, and to more speculative state-counting models for the Bekenstein entropy), to quantum field theory (where they are related to Casimir energies in unbounded systems), through to condensed matter physics, (where one may literally be interested in an electron tunelling through a physical barrier).Comment: V1: 29 pages; V2: Reformatted, 31 pages. Title changed to reflect major additions and revisions. Now describes exact QNFs for the double-delta potential in terms of the Lambert W function. V3: Minor edits for clarity. Four references added. No physics changes. Still 31 page

Fluoroquinolone resistance during 2000–2005 : An observational study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Moxifloxacin is a respiratory fluoroquinolone with a community acquired pneumonia indication. Unlike other fluoroquinolones used in our healthcare system, moxifloxacin's urinary excretion is low and thus we hypothesized that increased use of moxifloxacin is associated with an increase in fluoroquinolone resistance amongst gram negative uropathogens.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>All antibiograms for Gram negative bacteria were obtained for 2000 to 2005. The defined daily dose (DDD) for each fluoroquinolone was computed according to World Health Organization criteria. To account for fluctuation in patient volume, DDD/1000 bed days was computed for each year of study. Association between DDD/1000 bed days for each fluoroquinolone and the susceptibility of Gram negative bacteria to ciprofloxacin was assessed using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, r.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During the study period, there were 48,261 antibiograms, 347,931 DDD of fluoroquinolones, and 1,943,338 bed days. Use of fluoroquinolones among inpatients decreased from 237.2 DDD/1000 bed days in 2000 to 115.2 DDD/1000 bed days in 2005. With the exception of <it>Enterobacter aerogenes</it>, moxifloxacin use was negatively correlated with sensitivity among all 13 Gram negative species evaluated (r = -0.07 to -0.97). When the sensitivities of all Gram negative organisms were aggregated, all fluoroquinolones except moxifloxacin were associated with increased sensitivity (r = 0.486 to 1.000) while moxifloxacin was associated with decreased sensitivity (r = -0.464).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Moxifloxacin, while indicated for empiric treatment of community acquired pneumonia, may have important negative influence on local antibiotic sensitivities amongst Gram negative organisms. This effect was not shared by other commonly used members of the fluoroquinolone class.</p

Electronic patient self-assessment and management (SAM): a novel framework for cancer survivorship

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We propose a novel framework for management of cancer survivorship: electronic patient Self-Assessment and Management (SAM). SAM is a framework for transfer of information to and from patients in such a way as to increase both the patient's and the health care provider's understanding of the patient's progress, and to help ensure that patient care follows best practice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients who participate in the SAM system are contacted by email at regular intervals and asked to complete validated questionnaires online. Patient responses on these questionnaires are then analyzed in order to provide patients with real-time, online information about their progress and to provide them with tailored and standardized medical advice. Patient-level data from the questionnaires are ported in real time to the patient's health care provider to be uploaded to clinic notes. An initial version of SAM has been developed at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for aiding the clinical management of patients after surgery for prostate cancer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Pilot testing at MSKCC and UCSF suggests that implementation of SAM systems are feasible, with no major problems with compliance (> 70% response rate) or security.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>SAM is a conceptually simple framework for passing information to and from patients in such a way as to increase both the patient's and the health care provider's understanding of the patient's progress, and to help ensure that patient care follows best practice.</p

High-performance hybrid oxide catalyst of manganese and cobalt for low-pressure methanol synthesis

Carbon dioxide capture and use as a carbon feedstock presents both environmental and industrial benefits. Here we report the discovery of a hybrid oxide catalyst comprising manganese oxide nanoparticles supported on mesoporous spinel cobalt oxide, which catalyses the conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol at high yields. In addition, carboncarbon bond formation is observed through the production of ethylene. We document the existence of an active interface between cobalt oxide surface layers and manganese oxide nanoparticles by using X-ray absorption spectroscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscopy mode. Through control experiments, we find that the catalyst&apos;s chemical nature and architecture are the key factors in enabling the enhanced methanol synthesis and ethylene production. To demonstrate the industrial applicability, the catalyst is also run under high conversion regimes, showing its potential as a substitute for current methanol synthesis technologies.open2

Does training with amplitude modulated tones affect tone-vocoded speech perception?

Temporal-envelope cues are essential for successful speech perception. We asked here whether training on stimuli containing temporal-envelope cues without speech content can improve the perception of spectrally-degraded (vocoded) speech in which the temporal-envelope (but not the temporal fine structure) is mainly preserved. Two groups of listeners were trained on different amplitude-modulation (AM) based tasks, either AM detection or AM-rate discrimination (21 blocks of 60 trials during two days, 1260 trials; frequency range: 4Hz, 8Hz, and 16Hz), while an additional control group did not undertake any training. Consonant identification in vocoded vowel-consonant-vowel stimuli was tested before and after training on the AM tasks (or at an equivalent time interval for the control group). Following training, only the trained groups showed a significant improvement in the perception of vocoded speech, but the improvement did not significantly differ from that observed for controls. Thus, we do not find convincing evidence that this amount of training with temporal-envelope cues without speech content provide significant benefit for vocoded speech intelligibility. Alternative training regimens using vocoded speech along the linguistic hierarchy should be explored

Self-reported health status and access to health services in a sample of prisoners in Italy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Self-reported health status in underserved population of prisoners has not been extensively explored. The purposes of this cross-sectional study were to assess self-reported health, quality of life, and access to health services in a sample of male prisoners of Italy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 908 prisoners received a self-administered anonymous questionnaire pertaining on demographic and detention characteristics, self-reported health status and quality of life, access to health services, lifestyles, and participation to preventive, social, and rehabilitation programs. A total of 650 prisoners agreed to participate in the study and returned the questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Respectively, 31.6% and 43.5% of prisoners reported a poor perceived health status and a poor quality of life, and 60% admitted that their health was worsened or greatly worsened during the prison stay. Older age, lower education, psychiatric disorders, self-reported health problems on prison entry, and suicide attempts within prison were significantly associated with a perceived worse health status. At the time of the questionnaire delivery, 30% of the prisoners self-reported a health problem present on prison entry and 82% present at the time of the survey. Most frequently reported health problems included dental health problems, arthritis or joint pain, eye problems, gastrointestinal diseases, emotional problems, and high blood pressure. On average, prisoners encountered general practitioners six times during the previous year, and the frequency of medical encounters was significantly associated with older age, sentenced prisoners, psychiatric disorders, and self-reported health problems on prison entry.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings suggest that prisoners have a perceived poor health status, specific care needs and health promotion programs are seldom offered. Programs for correction of risk behaviour and prevention of long-term effects of incarceration on prisoners' health are strongly needed.</p

A pilot Internet "Value of Health" Panel: recruitment, participation and compliance

Objectives To pilot using a panel of members of the public to provide preference data via the Internet Methods A stratified random sample of members of the general public was recruited and familiarised with the standard gamble procedure using an Internet based tool. Health states were perdiodically presented in "sets" corresponding to different conditions, during the study. The following were described: Recruitment (proportion of people approached who were trained); Participation (a) the proportion of people trained who provided any preferences and (b) the proportion of panel members who contributed to each "set" of values; and Compliance (the proportion, per participant, of preference tasks which were completed). The influence of covariates on these outcomes was investigated using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results A panel of 112 people was recruited. 23% of those approached (n = 5,320) responded to the invitation, and 24% of respondents (n = 1,215) were willing to participate (net = 5.5%). However, eventual recruitment rates, following training, were low (2.1% of those approached). Recruitment from areas of high socioeconomic deprivation and among ethnic minority communities was low. Eighteen sets of health state descriptions were considered over 14 months. 74% of panel members carried out at least one valuation task. People from areas of higher socioeconomic deprivation and unmarried people were less likely to participate. An average of 41% of panel members expressed preferences on each set of descriptions. Compliance ranged from 3% to 100%. Conclusion It is feasible to establish a panel of members of the general public to express preferences on a wide range of health state descriptions using the Internet, although differential recruitment and attrition are important challenges. Particular attention to recruitment and retention in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation and among ethnic minority communities is necessary. Nevertheless, the panel approach to preference measurement using the Internet offers the potential to provide specific utility data in a responsive manner for use in economic evaluations and to address some of the outstanding methodological uncertainties in this field

A formally verified compiler back-end

This article describes the development and formal verification (proof of semantic preservation) of a compiler back-end from Cminor (a simple imperative intermediate language) to PowerPC assembly code, using the Coq proof assistant both for programming the compiler and for proving its correctness. Such a verified compiler is useful in the context of formal methods applied to the certification of critical software: the verification of the compiler guarantees that the safety properties proved on the source code hold for the executable compiled code as well