Distributive Justice and CEO Compensation

This paper develops a framework for studying individuals’ ideas about what constitutes just compensation for chief executive officers (CEOs) and reports estimates of just CEO pay and the principles guiding ideas of justice. The sample consists of students pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Sweden and the United States. The framework, based on justice theory and making use of Rossi’s factorial survey method, enables assessment of ideas of fairness in CEO compensation, including (1) the just CEO compensation, in the eyes of each observer; (2) the principles of microjustice – observers’ ideas about “who should get what” based on characteristics of CEOs and their firms; and (3) principles of macrojustice – ideas about the just level and dispersion in compensation across all CEOs. Our estimates yield the following main results: First, there is broad agreement on the median just CEO compensation but substantial inter-individual variation in the principles of microjustice and the other principles of macrojustice. Second, there is remarkable similarity in the distributions of the principles of microjustice and macrojustice across the MBA groups. Other important results include a pervasive gender attentiveness among MBA students and tolerance for large variability in CEO pay.justice theory, fairness, CEO compensation, factorial survey method, MBA students, gender, inequality, Gini coefficient, Atikinson measure, Theil's inequality measures

Distributive justice and CEO compensation

This paper develops a framework for studying individuals' ideas about what constitutes just compensation for chief executive officers (CEOs) and reports estimates of just CEO pay and the principles guiding ideas of justice. The sample consists of students pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Sweden and the United States. The framework, based on justice theory and making use of Rossi's factorial survey method, enables assessment of ideas of fairness in CEO compensation, including (1) the just CEO compensation, in the eyes of each observer; (2) the principles of microjustice observers' ideas about who should get what based on characteristics of CEOs and their firms; and (3) principles of macrojustice ideas about the just level and dispersion in compensation across all CEOs. Our estimates yield the following main results: First, there is broad agreement on the median just CEO compensation but substantial inter-individual variation in the principles of microjustice and the other principles of macrojustice. Second, there is remarkable similarity in the distributions of the principles of microjustice and macrojustice across the MBA groups. Other important results include a pervasive gender attentiveness among MBA students and tolerance for large variability in CEO pay

Structure and genetic diversity in wild and cultivated populations of Zapote mamey (Pouteria sapota, Sapotaceae) from southeastern Mexico: its putative domestication center

Tropical fruit trees are an important component of the human diet; however, little is known about their genetic diversity levels. Zapote mamey (Pouteria sapota) is a tree native to southeastern Mexico and Central America, and Mexico is the leading producer in the world. Studies of the genetic diversity of Zapote mamey have been based on cultivated materials using morphological and biochemical characterization or dominant molecular markers. To gain a deeper understanding about the conservation status of Zapote mamey in its center of origin and domestication, we collected 188 individuals from eight wild and five cultivated populations in southeastern Mexico and characterized them using eight microsatellite loci. STRUCTURE, 3D-PCoA, and neighbor-joining analyses showed three groups in the wild gene pool and one group in the cultivated gene pool. FST values were significant between wild and cultivated gene pools, among the four groups observed and among the 13 populations collected (0.13, 0.25, and 0.36, respectively). Overall, we found low levels of genetic diversity (A = 2.77, HO = 0.29, HE = 0.39), permutation tests did not show significant differences between wild and cultivated gene pools. The Garza–Williamson index showed low values in both gene pools (wild = 0.16, cultivated = 0.11) and the Bottleneck program indicated a decrease in genetic diversity in both gene pools (wild, P = 0.027; cultivated, P = 0.054); both analyses suggest a potential genetic bottleneck within this species. This study can help to generate adequate sampling techniques and to develop effective management strategies for Zapote mamey of southeastern Mexico

Production of mexican brown macroalgae fucoidan and fucosidases under an integral green technology bioproceses by the biorefinery concept

Marine ecosystem can be considered a rather exploited source of natural substances with enormous bioactive potential. In Mexico macro-algae study remain forgotten for research and economic purposes besides the high amount of this resource along the west and east coast. For that reason the Bioferinery Group of the Autonomous University of Coahuila, have been studying the biorefinery concept in order to recover high value byproducts of Mexican brown macro-algae including polysaccharides and enzymes to be applied in food, pharmaceutical and energy industry. Brown macroalgae are an important source of fucoidan, alginate and laminarin which comprise a complex group of macromolecules with a wide range of important biological properties such as anticoagulant, antioxidant, antitumoral and antiviral and also as rich source of fermentable sugars for enzymes production. Additionally, specific enzymes able to degrade algae matrix (fucosidases, sulfatases, aliginases, etc) are important tools to establish structural characteristics and biological functions of these polysaccharides. The aims of the present work were the integral study of bioprocess for macroalgae biomass exploitation by the use of green technologies as hydrothermal extraction and solid state fermentation in order to produce polysaccharides and enzymes (fucoidan and fucoidan hydrolytic enzymes). This work comprises the use of the different bioprocess phases in order to produce high value products with lower time and wastes

Enhancement and modeling of enzymatic hydrolysis on cellulose from Agave bagasse hydrothermally pretreated in a horizontal bioreactor

One of the major challenges in biofuels production from lignocellulosic biomass is the generation of high glucose titers from cellulose in the enzymatic hydrolysis stage of pretreated biomass to guarantee a cost-effective process. Therefore, the enzymatic saccharification on cellulose at high solid loading is an alternative. In this work, the agave bagasse was hydrothermally pretreated and optimized at 194°C/30min, obtaining a pretreated solid rich in cellulose content (>46.46%), and subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis at high solid levels. A horizontal bioreactor was designed for enzyme saccharification at high solid loadings [25% (w/v)]. The bioreactor improved mixing efficiency, with cellulose conversions up to 98% (195.6g/L at 72h). Moreover, mathematical modeling of cellulase deactivation demonstrated that cellulases lose most of their initial activity in the first hours of the reaction. Also, cellulose was characterized by X-ray diffraction, and the pretreated solids were visualized using scanning electron microscopy.This project was funded by the Secretary of Public Education of Mexico - Mexican Science and Technology Council (SEP-CONACYT) with the Basic Science Project-2015-01 (Ref. 254808). Marcela Sofía Pino also thanks the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT, Mexico) for her Master Fellowship support (grant number: 611312/452636), and Dr. Michele Michelin thanks the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for her postdoctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/100786/2014).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterization and evaluation of antifungal activity in vitro of Aloe vera fractions against postharvest fungi

Aloe vera leaves can be separated in a liquid fraction (exudate) and a mucilaginous pulp (gel). Recently, the antifungal activity of their components has been reported. The common technique for gel extraction from A. vera leaves are the traditional manual (in this case the liquid fraction is not separated) and a mechanical methods. Moreover, as a result of its processing the bagasse is obtained. The aim of this work was to recover and characterize the fractions of A. vera and to identify the fraction with highest antifungal activity against phytopathogen postharvest fungi (Botrytis cinerea and Penicillium spp.). A simple and inexpensive extraction method was used to obtain A. vera fractions from 50 kg leaves by means of a designed laboratory roll processor. The yields of extraction were as follows: 15.76% ± 4.0, 51.20% ± 5.20, and 33.02% ± 5.0 for gel, liquid fraction and bagasse, respectively. The three fractions were physico-chemically characterized (protein, monosaccharide composition, ashes, lipids) and resulted to be mainly composed by glucose and mannose in all the cases. Results showed the effectiveness of A. vera fractions in the growth control of phytopathogen postharvest fungi, with visible reduction of fungal growth

Fungal growth on coffee husks and spent ground under solidstatecultivation conditions

The processing of coffee generates significant amounts of agricultural wastes. Coffee husks, comprised of dry outer skin, pulp and parchment, are probably the major residues from the handling and processing of coffee (1). Coffee spent ground is the main coffee industry residue obtained during the processing of raw coffee powder to prepare instant coffee. Coffee husks and spent ground are generated in more than two millions tons yearly (2), and the major problem encountered by the industries is the disposal of these residues, since they contain some amount of caffeine, polyphenols and tannins, which makes them toxic in nature (3). Filamentous fungi are microorganisms able to growth over complex substrates behind minimal conditions, and play an important role in the generation of natural compounds with high commercial interest. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to evaluate the ability of some fungal strains to growth on coffee husks (basically the parchment skin the hull that surrounds the coffee bean), and spent grounds, as an alternative to add value to these toxic residues. Strains from the genus Aspergillus, Penicillium, Mucor and Neurospora were used. Microbial growth was carried out in Petri plates containing 30% of coffee husks or spent ground and 70% of CzapekDox saline media, pH 5.0. The plates were inoculated with a suspension containing 5´106 spores/g dry residue, and maintained at 28ºC for 5 days. The spore suspension was prepared by scrap down the spores from PDA plates with a sterilized solution of 0.2% Tween 80, and counted in a Neubauer chamber. Cultivations were done in duplicate to each fungal in each different substrate. Radial growth rate (Ur, mm/h) was monitored kinetically measuring colony diameters every 12h. All the evaluated fungal strains showed mycelium presence over both residues. For almost all the strains, the invasion capacity was higher in coffee spent ground than in coffee husks. Highest growth rates were obtained with Neurospora crassa, with values of 0.99 and 0.76 mm/h for spent ground and husks, respectively. It was thus concluded that coffee husks and spent grounds can be successfully used as substrate for fungal strains growth. Among the evaluated strains Neurospora crassa gave the best results and could be thus evaluated in solidstate fermentation processes for the obtainment of compounds with commercial interest from these two agroindustrial residues