Board structures around the world: An experimental investigation

We model and experimentally examine the board structure-performance relationship. We examine single-tiered boards, two-tiered boards, insider-controlled boards, and outsider-controlled boards. We find that even insider-controlled boards frequently adopt institutionally preferred rather than self-interested policies. Two-tiered boards adopt institutionally preferred policies more frequently, but tend to destroy value by being too conservative, frequently rejecting good projects. Outsidercontrolled single-tiered boards, both when they have multiple insiders and only a single insider, adopt institutionally preferred policies most frequently. In those board designs where the efficient Nash equilibrium produces strictly higher payoffs to all agents than the coalition-proof equilibria, agents tend to select the efficient Nash equilibria.

Corporate board composition, protocols, and voting behavior: experimental evidence

We model experimentally the governance of an institution. The optimal management of this institution depends on the information possessed by insiders. However, insiders, whose interests are not aligned with the interests of the institution, may choose to use their information to further personal rather than institutional ends. Researchers (e.g., Palfrey 1990) and the business press have both argued that multiagent mechanisms, which inject trustworthy but uninformed “watchdog” agents into the governance process and impose penalties for conflicting recommendations, can implement institutionally preferred outcomes. Our laboratory experiments strongly support this conclusion. In the experimental treatments in which watchdog agents were included, the intuitionally preferred allocation was implemented in the vast majority of cases. Surprisingly, implementation occurred even in the absence of penalties for conflicting recommendations.Corporations - Finance ; Game theory

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace vehicle Design (IPAD). Volume 2: The design process

The extent to which IPAD is to support the design process is identified. Case studies of representative aerospace products were developed as models to characterize the design process and to provide design requirements for the IPAD computing system

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace vehicle Design (IPAD). Volume 3: Support of the design process

The user requirements for computer support of the IPAD design process are identified. The user-system interface, language, equipment, and computational requirements are considered

Design and Validation of an Autonomous Mission Manager towards Coordinated Multi-Spacecraft Missions

For ambitious upcoming aerospace missions, autonomy will play a crucial role in achieving complex mission goals and reducing the burden for ground operations. Standalone spacecraft can leverage autonomy concepts to optimize data collection and ensure robust operation. For spacecraft clusters, autonomy can additionally provide a feasible method of ensuring coordination through onboard peer-to-peer scheduling. However, in exchange for providing flexible mission capabilities and operational convenience, autonomy introduces additional uncertainty and software complexity, which complicates the mission assurance process. This research presents a framework for designing and testing schedules consisting of heavily constrained tasks. The core of this framework, the Schedule Manager (SM), manages tasks by associating constraints with each task including time windows, task priority, conflict categories, and resource requirements, which assures that tasks will only run when capable. This increased control over individual tasks also improves the modularity of the overall mission plan, and provides a built-in fail-safe in the event of unexpected task failure through the loading of predefined contingency schedules. The SM can use estimated task durations and resource requirements to simulate schedules ahead of time, which can be used on the ground for schedule validation and onboard as a method of prognostics and to calculate resource availability windows. The ability to predict availability windows onboard and dynamically adjust depending upon currently scheduled tasks enables peer-to-peer tasking and scheduling. For example, a spacecraft can schedule a coordinated action by broadcasting the task requirements in an availability window request to all applicable spacecraft. Then, based upon the availability windows received from each spacecraft, the coordinating spacecraft can then issue a final task scheduling command with a much lower probability of conflict. The SM has been integrated with the core Flight System (cFS) from NASA, which has flight heritage on previous successful large-scale missions such as the Lunar and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE). This integration is in the form of a cFS application called the cFS Schedule Manager (CSM), which will manage the operations for the Space Test Program Houston 7 Configurable and Autonomous Sensor Processing Research (STP-H7-CASPR) experiment that is planned for launch on SpaceX-24 to the International SpaceStation (ISS) in December 2021. Software validation was achieved with cFS unit tests, functional tests, and code analysis tools. Demonstrations were built using the COSMOS ground station and the 42 spacecraft simulator, and these were tested with a cluster of development boards in the loop as representative flight hardware

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace vehicle Design (IPAD). Volume 5: Catalog of IPAD technical program elements

The catalog is presented of technical program elements which are required to support the design activities for a subsonic and supersonic commercial transport. Information for each element consists of usage and storage information, ownership, status and an abstract describing the purpose of the element

Establishment of restoration monitoring at Tārerekautuku Yarrs Lagoon: Conservation Biology (ECOL609) project reports

Ninety percent of New Zealand’s wetlands have been lost along with the endemic plants, fish, birds, and invertebrates. Those that remain are threatened by choking weeds, suffocating sediment, pollution from livestock and continued drainage and clearance (Hansford, 2010). Therefore, all remaining wetlands, regardless of their ecological state, are precious and need to be restored and managed to maximise the biodiversity within. Tārerekautuku Yarrs Lagoon is a 76.9 ha reserve located along the Ararira/LII River between Lincoln and Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere. Tārerekautuku is administered by the Selwyn District Council (SDC) who have recognised the wetland’s intrinsic value. The lagoon area was known as a significant mahinga kai (food gathering) site for Ngāi Tahu, and particularly the local hapū of Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki based at Taumutu. Mahinga kai species being gathered at this site include tuna (eel), koareare (the edible rhizome of raupō/bullrush), koukoupara (bullies), mawehe (kōaro), pārera (grey duck), pūtakitaki (paradise duck), pākura (pukeko), whio (blue duck), kaaha (shag) and aruhe (bracken fern root) (Taiaroa 1880). The cultural and biodiversity values of Tārerekautuku are significant and ecological restoration of the lagoon has a huge potential to enhance these (Boffa Miskell, 2017). Selwyn District Council, with the support of the Department of Conservation (mainly Robin Smith), received approximately $800,000 from Ministry for the Environment ‘Freshwater Improvement Fund’ towards achieving five objectives: 1. To control willows and other weeds across approximately 87 ha in the Tārerekautuku Yarrs Lagoon Wetland. 2. To undertake predator control within the wetland and surrounding catchment to target mustelids, rats, and possums 3. To reduce sediment loads through instream works (up to five sediment traps or equivalent) and waterways re-battering work (approximately 2,000 m), including installing two bridges for site access. 4. To plant at least 12,516 native plants and trees across eight ha of Tārerekautuku wetland and connecting waterways. 5. To establish a monitoring programme at the Tārerekautuku wetland for Mātauranga Māori to measure ecological change over time. With Lincoln University’s proximity and MOU (pending) between them and SDC, this project provides a win-win scenario for students to help monitor ecological changes over time (objective 5). The project summaries that follow are an integral part of the ECOL609 (Conservation Biology) course that is undertaken in the first semester of 2022 where students chose a conservation area to monitor. Vegetation quadrat monitoring intended to replicate Stammer (2010); however, access to the site was deemed unsafe to proceed. This work has been added as an Appendix in this report to allow future comparisons

Corporate board composition, protocols, and voting behavior: experimental evidence

We model experimentally the governance of an institution. The optimal management of this institution depends on the information possessed by insiders. However, insiders, whose interests are not aligned with the interests of the institution, may choose to use their information to further personal rather than institutional ends. Researchers (e.g., Palfrey 1990) and the business press have both argued that multiagent mechanisms, which inject trustworthy but uninformed "watchdog" agents into the governance process and impose penalties for conflicting recommendations, can implement institutionally preferred outcomes. Our laboratory experiments strongly support this conclusion. In the experimental treatments in which watchdog agents were included, the intuitionally preferred allocation was implemented in the vast majority of cases. Surprisingly, implementation occurred even in the absence of penalties for conflicting recommendations

Harsh Parenting and Food Insecurity in Adolescence: The Association with Emerging Adult Obesity

In the U.S., as of 2012, more than one in three youth were overweight or obese [1]. This is a critical health issue, as being overweight or obese (OW/OB) during adolescence increases the risk of adulthood diseases, including but not limited to cardiovascular and heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and osteoarthritis [2]. Understanding the pathways to obesity is critical for implementation of successful prevention and intervention programs. One of the pathways leading to OW/OB is through social and economic experiences within the family