Bank performance and executive pay: tournament or teamwork

We investigate the relationship between the dispersion of executive pay and bank performance/valuation by examining two competing theories, the tournament theory (hierarchical wage structure) and the equity fairness theory (compressed wage structure). The key variable of executive pay dispersion is measured using a hand-collected dataset composed of 63 banks from OECD countries and 29 banks from developing countries. The dataset covers the period 2004 to 2012. By combining and modifying a translog profit function and a pay-dispersion model, we are able to address the potential problems of relying on reduced-form estimation. In our subsample of developed and civil law countries, where bank performance is measured by either Tobin’s Q or by the price-to-book ratio, the overall impact of executive pay dispersion is mostly negative, and we find supporting evidence for the equity fairness theory, except for very high levels of dispersion. There is a non-linear effect, as banks perform best when there is either very low or very high executive pay dispersion. For developing country sample banks, greater executive pay dispersion has a negative impact on bank profit. In our subsample of common law countries, however, we find no evidence of a significant impact of executive pay dispersion on bank performance. We conclude that lower executive pay dispersion, a proxy for teamwork, is mostly effective in enhancing bank performance in a significant section of sample banks, i.e., civil law and developing countries

Evaluation and comparison of urolithiasis scoring systems used in percutaneous kidney stone surgery

PURPOSE: Contemporary predictive tools for percutaneous nephrolithotomy outcomes include the Guy stone score, S.T.O.N.E. nephrolithometry and the CROES nephrolithometric nomogram. We compared each scoring system in the same cohort to determine which was most predictive of surgical outcomes. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients who underwent percutaneous nephrolithotomy between 2009 and 2012 at a total of 3 academic institutions. We calculated the Guy stone score, the S.T.O.N.E. nephrolithometry score and the CROES nephrolithometric nomogram score based on preoperative computerized tomography images. A single observer at each institution reviewed all images and assigned scores. Univariate and multivariate analysis was done to determine the most predictive scoring system. RESULTS: We enrolled 246 patients in study. In stone-free patients vs those with residual stones the mean Guy score was 2.2 vs 2.7, the mean S.T.O.N.E. score was 8.3 vs 9.5 and the mean CROES nomogram score was 222 vs 187 (each

Ring inserts as a useful strategy to prepare tip-loaded microneedles for long-acting drug delivery with application in HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis

The role of microneedle array patches (MAPs) and, in particular, dissolving MAPs in transdermal drug delivery has increased exponentially over the last decade. MAPs are able to form drug depots in the viable skin from where poorly soluble drugs dissolve in a long-acting fashion, showing promise in the management of multiple diseases. The manufacture of these systems can present some challenges, including the presence of bubbles in the baseplates and consequent lack of uniformity in microneedle formation and drug content. Here, we present a simple method based on ring inserts to produce tip-loaded MAPs using the antiretroviral drug cabotegravir sodium (CAB). The obtained MAPs presented a high uniformity in terms of microneedle formation, and a suitable insertion capability, as per the mechanical characterisation performed. An optimisation based on design of experiments revealed that centrifugation parameters had a significant impact on the skin deposition of the MAPs in excised neonatal porcine skin using Franz cells, with values ranging from 62.24 ± 47.13 µg to 174.13 ± 41.10 µg of CAB. Pharmacokinetic studies carried out in rats evidenced the capacity of the MAPs to maintain therapeutic plasma levels of CAB for 14 days, with Tmax values reached between 5 and 8 days