Executive Pay in Japan: The Role of Bank-Appointed Monitors and the Main Bank Relationship

The tournament model has the feature that executive compensation depends on the wages paid to workers at lower levels of the corporate hierarchy. The agency model shows that compensation based on firm performance is a means by which incentives can be provided to executives once a promotion tournament has been resolved. In this paper, we combine aspects of both models and show that the existence of an outsider who monitors the firm's activities will lower the sensitivity of pay to firm performance for top executives and reduce the importance of tournament-based incentives. Using panel data for 56 Japanese electronics firms, we find support for the notion that bank-appointed Board members help monitor top executives and that tournament considerations are a particularly important feature of executive compensation in Japan.Executive pay, tournaments, agency, monitoring, main bank relationship

Temporal Variation of the Activity of Intermediate and Deep Focus Earthquakes

The temporal variation of the activity of intermediate and deep focus earthquakes for the period from 1904 to 1974 is investigated on the basis of a uniform body-wave magnitude scale. The m_b scale has been traditionally used for intermediate and deep focus earthquakes. However, the period of seismic waves and the Q function used for the magnitude determination have changed as a function of time, so that uniform evaluation of the activity is difficult. In this study, we used a body-wave magnitude m_B determined from the maximum amplitude of body waves recorded by broad-band or long-period instruments to investigate the temporal variation. For the period from 1904 to 1952, m_b values were calculated from the unpublished material of Gutenberg and Richter. For 1953 to 1958, m_B values were calculated from the amplitude and the period data in Gutenberg's unpublished file. For the period from 1959 to 1974, seismological bulletins from various stations were used to determine m_B. Consistency between the values of m_B calculated from these different sources was carefully checked. The temporal variation of the number of intermediate-deep events with m_B ≥ 7 is remarkably similar to that of shallow earthquakes with M_s ≥ 7. The temporal variation of the energy release in intermediate-deep earthquakes shows a maximum around 1910. The sum of the energy release curve of intermediate-deep and shallow earthquakes shows a good correlation with the amplitude of the Chandler wobble. The energy release becomes maximum at the depth of 350 and 600 km

Reevaluation of the turn-of-the-century seismicity peak

According to currently available seismicity catalogues, seismicity (for example, the number of events with M_s ≥ 8) around the turn of the century, from 1897 to 1906, was significantly higher than in recent years. However, the magnitudes of the earthquakes which occurred during this period were determined by Gutenberg, who used the records obtained by the undamped Milne seismograph with the assumption that the effective magnification is 5. Because of saturation of the Milne seismogram for very large events used by Gutenberg for calibration, the gain (=5) used by Gutenberg could have been underestimated, and therefore the magnitude overestimated. Because of the lack of damping, the magnification of this instrument needs to be calibrated carefully. In order to calibrate the instrument response, a Milne seismograph was constructed and has been in operation side by side with damped seismographs at Pasadena. Eleven events have been recorded since February 1977. On the basis of (1) comparison of the amplitudes measured on the Milne seismograms with those of the standard seismograms, (2) numerical experiments simulating the response of the Milne seismographs to surface waves, and (3) examination of Gutenberg's original materials used for the calibration, we conclude that the average effective gain is as large as 20 for very large earthquakes, resulting in systematic reduction of the magnitude of up to 0.6. This reduction is large enough to suggest that the turn-of-the-century seismicity peak is of marginal significance

The large normal‐faulting Mariana Earthquake of April 5, 1990 in uncoupled subduction zone

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94629/1/grl5949.pd

Addenda and corrections to "Magnitude of great shallow earthquakes from 1904 to 1952"

Since the paper by Geller and Kanamori (1977) was published, we have found additional data which enabled us to fill the blank columns left in Table 1 of Geller and Kanamori (1977). Table 1 of this paper lists the values obtained since then, and also two corrections (footnote b). The quantities in this table are described in the original paper

Influence of oxygen in inflation gas during lung ischemia on ischemia-reperfusion injury

AbstractObjectives: Previous studies have reported that hyperinflation during lung ischemia improves pulmonary function after reperfusion. However, it has not been clarified whether hyperinflation itself or oxygen in inflation gas causes good pulmonary function. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of oxygen in pulmonary inflation gas during lung ischemia on ischemia-reperfusion injury. Methods: Twenty-one mongrel dogs were randomly divided into three groups: the lung during a 90-minute period of warm ischemia was inflated to 30 cm H2O with 100% oxygen in group A and 100% nitrogen in group B; it was not inflated in group C. Pulmonary function and hemodynamics were measured before ischemia and 1,2, and 3 hours after reperfusion. Total protein and phosphorous of phospholipid in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were measured 210 minutes after reperfusion. Results: No significant differences in pulmonary function and hemodynamics were noted between group A and group B, but these two groups had significantly better pulmonary function and hemodynamics than group C. No significant differences were detected in the concentrations of total protein and phosphorus of phospholipids in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and in adenine nucleotide levels of lung tissue after reperfusion among the three groups. Conclusions: The results indicate that pulmonary inflation during warm ischemia improves pulmonary function and hemodynamics after reperfusion in this model. The effect is caused by inflation itself and is not due to oxygen as a metabolic substrate during warm ischemia. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1997;114: 332-8

Tsunami field survey of the 1992 Nicaragua earthquake

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95368/1/eost9614.pd

Use of FDG-PET in Radiation Treatment Planning for Thoracic Cancers

Radiotherapy plays an important role in the treatment for thoracic cancers. Accurate diagnosis is essential to correctly perform curative radiotherapy. Tumor delineation is also important to prevent geographic misses in radiotherapy planning. Currently, planning is based on computed tomography (CT) imaging when radiation oncologists manually contour the tumor, and this practice often induces interobserver variability. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) has been reported to enable accurate staging and detect tumor extension in several thoracic cancers, such as lung cancer and esophageal cancer. FDG-PET imaging has many potential advantages in radiotherapy planning for these cancers, because it can add biological information to conventional anatomical images and decrease the inter-observer variability. FDG-PET improves radiotherapy volume and enables dose escalation without causing severe side effects, especially in lung cancer patients. The main advantage of FDG-PET for esophageal cancer patients is the detection of unrecognized lymph node or distal metastases. However, automatic delineation by FDG-PET is still controversial in these tumors, despite the initial expectations. We will review the role of FDG-PET in radiotherapy for thoracic cancers, including lung cancer and esophageal cancer