How closely is CEO compensation tied to performance? An examination of the U.S. restaurant industry

The purpose of this research is to assess the elasticity of CEO compensation in the U.S. restaurant industry. Using a sample of 30 restaurant firms for the years 1993 through 2006, we find that a 1% increase in current year firm return yields an increase of approximately .43% for salary, bonus and stock options, .20% for salary and bonus and 2.74% for bonus and options. Mergers do not appear to impact CEO compensation significantly. Our findings are within the range found by many previous researchers

Dietary Supplementation of Hericium erinaceus Increases Mossy Fiber-CA3 Hippocampal Neurotransmission and Recognition Memory in Wild-Type Mice

Hericium erinaceus (Bull.) Pers. is a medicinal mushroom capable of inducing a large number of modulatory effects on human physiology ranging from the strengthening of the immune system to the improvement of cognitive functions. In mice, dietary supplementation with H. erinaceus prevents the impairment of spatial short-term and visual recognition memory in an Alzheimer model. Intriguingly other neurobiological effects have recently been reported like the effect on neurite outgrowth and differentiation in PC12 cells. Until now no investigations have been conducted to assess the impact of this dietary supplementation on brain function in healthy subjects. Therefore, we have faced the problem by considering the effect on cognitive skills and on hippocampal neurotransmission in wild-type mice. In wild-type mice the oral supplementation with H. erinaceus induces, in behaviour test, a significant improvement in the recognition memory and, in hippocampal slices, an increase in spontaneous and evoked excitatory synaptic current in mossy fiber-CA3 synapse. In conclusion, we have produced a series of findings in support of the concept that H. erinaceus induces a boost effect onto neuronal functions also in nonpathological conditions

Mental Health of Parents and Life Satisfaction of Children: A Within-Family Analysis of Intergenerational Transmission of Well-Being

This paper addresses the extent to which there is an intergenerational transmission of mental health and subjective well-being within families. Specifically it asks whether parents’ own mental distress influences their child’s life satisfaction, and vice versa. Whilst the evidence on daily contagion of stress and strain between members of the same family is substantial, the evidence on the transmission between parental distress and children’s well-being over a longer period of time is sparse. We tested this idea by examining the within-family transmission of mental distress from parent to child’s life satisfaction, and vice versa, using rich longitudinal data on 1,175 British youths. Results show that parental distress at year t-1 is an important determinant of child’s life satisfaction in the current year. This is true for boys and girls, although boys do not appear to be affected by maternal distress levels. The results also indicated that the child’s own life satisfaction is related with their father’s distress levels in the following year, regardless of the gender of the child. Finally, we examined whether the underlying transmission correlation is due to shared social environment, empathic reactions, or transmission via parent-child interaction

Clitics in Northern Italian Dialects: Phonology, Syntax and Microvariation

University of Venice Working Papers in Linguistic

A Lifted Bregman Strategy for Training Unfolded Proximal Neural Network Gaussian Denoisers

Unfolded proximal neural networks (PNNs) form a family of methods that combines deep learning and proximal optimization approaches. They consist in designing a neural network for a specific task by unrolling a proximal algorithm for a fixed number of iterations, where linearities can be learned from prior training procedure. PNNs have shown to be more robust than traditional deep learning approaches while reaching at least as good performances, in particular in computational imaging. However, training PNNs still depends on the efficiency of available training algorithms. In this work, we propose a lifted training formulation based on Bregman distances for unfolded PNNs. Leveraging the deterministic mini-batch block-coordinate forward-backward method, we design a bespoke computational strategy beyond traditional back-propagation methods for solving the resulting learning problem efficiently. We assess the behaviour of the proposed training approach for PNNs through numerical simulations on image denoising, considering a denoising PNN whose structure is based on dual proximal-gradient iterations

Measuring the impact and costs of a universal group based parenting programme : protocol and implementation of a trial

Background Sub-optimal parenting is a common risk factor for a wide range of negative health, social and educational outcomes. Most parenting programmes have been developed in the USA in the context of delinquency prevention for targeted or indicated groups and the main theoretical underpinning for these programmes is behaviour management. The Family Links Nurturing Programme (FLNP) focuses on family relationships as well as behaviour management and is offered on a universal basis. As a result it may be better placed to improve health and educational outcomes. Developed in the UK voluntary sector, FLNP is popular with practitioners, has impressed policy makers throughout the UK, has been found to be effective in before/after and qualitative studies, but lacks a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evidence base. Methods/Design A multi-centre, investigator blind, randomised controlled trial of the FLNP with a target sample of 288 south Wales families who have a child aged 2-4 yrs living in or near to Flying Start/Sure Start areas. Changes in parenting, parent child relations and parent and child wellbeing are assessed with validated measures immediately and at 6 months post intervention. Economic components include cost consequences and cost utility analyses based on parental ranking of states of quality of life. Attendance and completion rates and fidelity to the FLNP course delivery are assessed. A nested qualitative study will assess reasons for participation and non-participation and the perceived value of the programme to families. By the end of May 2010, 287 families have been recruited into the trial across four areas of south Wales. Recruitment has not met the planned timescales with barriers including professional anxiety about families entering the control arm of the trial, family concern about video and audio recording, programme facilitator concern about the recording of FLNP sessions for fidelity purposes and delays due to the new UK research governance procedures. Discussion Whilst there are strong theoretical arguments to support universal provision of parenting programmes, few universal programmes have been subjected to randomised controlled trials. In this paper we describe a RCT protocol with quantitative and qualitative outcome measures and an economic evaluation designed to provide clear evidence with regard to effectiveness and costs. We describe challenges implementing the protocol and how we are addressing these

ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter back end electronics

Subm. to Journal of InstrumentationThe Liquid Argon calorimeters play a central role in the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) experiment. The environment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) imposes strong constraints on the detectors readout systems. In order to achieve very high precision measurements, the detector signals are processed at various stages before reaching the Data Acquisition system (DAQ). Signals from the calorimeter cells are received by on-detector Front End Boards (FEB), which sample the incoming pulse every 25ns and digitize it at a trigger rate of up to 75~kHz. Off-detector Read Out Driver (ROD) boards further process the data and send reconstructed quantities to the DAQ while also monitoring the data quality. In this paper, the ATLAS Liquid Argon electronics chain is described first, followed by a detailed description of the off-detector readout system. Finally, the tests performed on the system are summarized

Adjusting payroll with changes in business volumes: An examination of Nevada gaming properties

This dissertation analyzes expense preference behavior by managers of Nevada casinos. Annual aggregate data is obtained from the Nevada Gaming Control Board from 1990 to 2010. Using ordinary least squares regression, three models are run to account for various payroll related expenses. The dependent variable in the first model is number of employees. The second model uses salaries and wages as the dependent variable and the third model uses total payroll. All models include predictor variables of total revenue as an indication of size, a dummy variable for market concentration and a dummy variable for recessionary periods. The finding show that larger casinos spend more in payroll related expenses. Results indicate that for each 1% increase in revenue, number of employees increases 0.84%, salaries and wages increase 0.96% and total payroll increases 0.99%. The significant positive relationship between revenue and payroll related expense may be an indication of expense preference behavior by managers since larger firms typically have more layers of management. The additional layers also cause a separation between owners and managers and the more layers, the more separation. The market share variable is nonsignificant in all three models. The recession variable was significant and negative in all models. During recessionary periods, Nevada casinos decrease number of employees 35.5%, salaries and wages 7.7% and total payroll 5.2%. The negative significant relationship between the recession variable and payroll related expenses may also be an indication of expense preference behavior by Nevada casino managers during non-recessionary periods. Since managers are able to decrease payroll related expense after controlling for the change in business volumes, they are most likely operating inefficiently during non-recessionary periods