Do Ethical Firms Bridge the Gender Gap in CEO Compensation?

Concern about the gender gap in employee compensation is an important social and business issue. Effective corporate social responsibility requires fair treatment of all employees, regardless of gender. Using a sample of firms that have been noted for their ethical behavior, this study examines whether ethical firms compensate female CEOs comparably to male CEOs. Our sample of ethical firms includes companies listed as one of the “100 Best Corporate Citizens” by Corporate Responsibility (formerly Business Ethics) magazine and with data available in Compustat, CRSP, and ExecuComp for fiscal years 1998-2009. We hypothesize that ethical firms, relative to non-list firms, close (or at least narrow) the gender gap in CEO compensation. Our findings indicate that female CEOs of ethical companies are not penalized for their gender (that is, they do not earn less than their male counterparts)

VAST Challenge 2016: Streaming Visual Analytics

The 2016 VAST Challenge returns to the (fictional) island of Kronos to pose three Mini-Challenges. In Mini-Challenge 1, participants must design an innovative interactive visual interface that enables security investigators from the Euybia Island Resort and Conference Center to conduct real-time analysis of streaming data. In Mini-Challenge 2, the GAStech Corporation returns from the 2014 kidnapping disaster more committed than ever to tighten up operations at its new headquarters in Abila. Using data from stationary and mobile sensors of multiple types, participants must help the company to understand both operational issues as well as security issues. In Mini-Challenge 3, participants are asked to try their hand at the most complex VAST Challenge scenario to date: 2.5 days of live, streaming operational data. The VAST Challenge 2016 received 29 submissions and had participation from 72 reviewers

The hybrid spectral problem and Robin boundary conditions

The hybrid spectral problem where the field satisfies Dirichlet conditions (D) on part of the boundary of the relevant domain and Neumann (N) on the remainder is discussed in simple terms. A conjecture for the C_1 coefficient is presented and the conformal determinant on a 2-disc, where the D and N regions are semi-circles, is derived. Comments on higher coefficients are made. A hemisphere hybrid problem is introduced that involves Robin boundary conditions and leads to logarithmic terms in the heat--kernel expansion which are evaluated explicitly.Comment: 24 pages. Typos and a few factors corrected. Minor comments added. Substantial Robin additions. Substantial revisio

Evidence for the Role of Proton Shell Closure in Quasifission Reactions from X-Ray Fluorescence of Mass-Identified Fragments

The atomic numbers and the masses of fragments formed in quasifission reactions are simultaneously measured at scission in Ti48+U238 reactions at a laboratory energy of 286 MeV. The atomic numbers are determined from measured characteristic fluorescence x rays, whereas the masses are obtained from the emission angles and times of flight of the two emerging fragments. For the first time, thanks to this full identification of the quasifission fragments on a broad angular range, the important role of the proton shell closure at Z=82 is evidenced by the associated maximum production yield, a maximum predicted by time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations. This new experimental approach gives now access to precise studies of the time dependence of the N/Z (neutron over proton ratios of the fragments) evolution in quasifission reactions.The authors acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council through Discovery Grants No. FL110100098, No. FT120100760, No. DP130101569, No. DE140100784, No. DP160 101254, and No. DP170102318. Support for accelerator operations through the NCRIS program is acknowledged. Two of us (C. S. and M. A.) acknowledge support from the Scientific Mobility Program of the Embassy of France in Australia. This research was undertaken with the assistance of resources from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government

Mechanisms Suppressing Superheavy Element Yields in Cold Fusion Reactions

Superheavy elements are formed in fusion reactions which are hindered by fast nonequilibrium processes. To quantify these, mass-angle distributions and cross sections have been measured, at beam energies from below-barrier to 25% above, for the reactions of 48Ca,50Ti, and 54Cr with 208 Pb. Moving from 48Ca to 54Cr leads to a drastic fall in the symmetric fission yield, which is reflected in the measured mass-angle distribution by the presence of competing fast nonequilibrium deep inelastic and quasifission processes. These are responsible for reduction of the compound nucleus formation probablity PCN (as measured by the symmetric-peaked fission cross section), by a factor of 2.5 for 50Ti and 15 for 54Cr in comparison to 48 Ca. The energy dependence of PCN indicates that cold fusion reactions (involving 208Pb) are not driven by a diffusion process.The authors acknowledge the Australian Research Council for support through Discovery Grants No. DP140101337, No. DP160101254, No. DP170102318, No. FL110100098, and No. DE140100784. Financial support from the NCRIS HIA capability for operation of the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility is acknowledged. The authors acknowledge the support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) via funds of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Investigating inherent functional differences between human cardiac fibroblasts cultured from nondiabetic and Type 2 diabetic donors.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) promotes adverse myocardial remodeling and increased risk of heart failure; effects that can occur independently of hypertension or coronary artery disease. As cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) are key effectors of myocardial remodeling, we investigated whether inherent phenotypic differences exist in CF derived from T2DM donors compared with cells from nondiabetic (ND) donors

Enterovirus D68 outbreak detection through a syndromic disease epidemiology network

BACKGROUND: In 2014, enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) was responsible for an outbreak of severe respiratory illness in children, with 1,153 EV-D68 cases reported across 49 states. Despite this, there is no commercial assay for its detection in routine clinical care. BioFire® Syndromic Trends (Trend) is an epidemiological network that collects, in near real-time, deidentified. BioFire test results worldwide, including data from the BioFire® Respiratory Panel (RP). OBJECTIVES: Using the RP version 1.7 (which was not explicitly designed to differentiate EV-D68 from other picornaviruses), we formulate a model, Pathogen Extended Resolution (PER), to distinguish EV-D68 from other human rhinoviruses/enteroviruses (RV/EV) tested for in the panel. Using PER in conjunction with Trend, we survey for historical evidence of EVD68 positivity and demonstrate a method for prospective real-time outbreak monitoring within the network. STUDY DESIGN: PER incorporates real-time polymerase chain reaction metrics from the RPRV/EV assays. Six institutions in the United States and Europe contributed to the model creation, providing data from 1,619 samples spanning two years, confirmed by EV-D68 gold-standard molecular methods. We estimate outbreak periods by applying PER to over 600,000 historical Trend RP tests since 2014. Additionally, we used PER as a prospective monitoring tool during the 2018 outbreak. RESULTS: The final PER algorithm demonstrated an overall sensitivity and specificity of 87.1% and 86.1%, respectively, among the gold-standard dataset. During the 2018 outbreak monitoring period, PER alerted the research network of EV-D68 emergence in July. One of the first sites to experience a significant increase, Nationwide Children's Hospital, confirmed the outbreak and implemented EV-D68 testing at the institution in response. Applying PER to the historical Trend dataset to determine rates among RP tests, we find three potential outbreaks with predicted regional EV-D68 rates as high as 37% in 2014, 16% in 2016, and 29% in 2018. CONCLUSIONS: Using PER within the Trend network was shown to both accurately predict outbreaks of EV-D68 and to provide timely notifications of its circulation to participating clinical laboratories

Methods for specifying the target difference in a randomised controlled trial : the Difference ELicitation in TriAls (DELTA) systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD