Distributional concerns in managers’ compensation schemes for heterogeneous workers: experimental evidence

We present results from three-player experiments aimed at studying distributional concerns in how ownermanagers compensate themselves and workers of different productivities and effort costs, as well as their relations to various equity principles. We are also interested in how owner-managers decisions’ are affected by pay secrecy. We use a game in which workers first exert effort and owner-managers then decide on bonuses for themselves and workers. Our design includes four treatments: 1) different productivities of workers with complete information; 2) different productivities of workers with pay secrecy among workers; 3) different effort cost of workers with complete information; and 4) different effort cost of workers with pay secrecy among workers. The equity principles we focus on are ‘production-equity’, higher production leads to higher wage, and ‘effort-cost equity’, higher effort-cost leads to higher wage. Our results show that, on average, managers do not pay relative wages in accordance to relative production levels, but also take effort-cost into account. Pay secrecy affects compensation differences among workers in a limited way. Across all treatments about 50% of all manager choices are compatible both with ‘production equity’ and with ‘effort- cost equity’, about 20% only with production equity and about 15% only with effort-cost equity

Peat-forming plants in the Maastrichtian coals of the Eastern Pyrenees

The Lower Maastrichtian of Fumanya and neighbouring localities of the Vallcebre syncline (Eastern Pyrenees, Catalonia) provide the first taphonomic evidence for the hypothesis that cheirolepidiacean conifers were significant precursors of Maastrichtian Pyrenean coal. Most Frenelopsis-rich lignite beds do not bear rootlet marks, suggesting that the original peat was detrital. Sedimentological and taphonomic evidence indicates deposition in the margins of a lagoon after the transport of the cheirolepidiacean remains by flotation. The same parautochtonous assemblage includes complete impressions Sabalites longirhachis leaves and large impressions of logs attributed to the same palm trees. Other parautochthonous or allochthonous plant megaremains include extremely rare cycadalean and monocot leaves and abundant minute angiosperm seeds. Rootlet marks associated with thin lignite beds occur at the top of some charophyte limestones. The charophyte association, dominated by in situ accumulation of Peckichara and Microchara gyrogonites, suggests that these limestones were deposited in shallow, freshwater lakes and that the corresponding peat mires were limnic rather than paralic in nature. The botanical affinity of plant remains associated with these root-bearing lignites is uncertain. Palynological analysis showed abundant bisaccates, with less abundant fern spores and freshwater algal oospores. Locally, the abundant rootlet marks were associated with large brush-like rooting structures attributed to Sabalites longirhachis palms. Our results show that, at the beginning of the Maasrichtian, cheirolepidiacean conifers were still significant peat-producing plants, although, unlike analogous Lower Cretaceous ones, they shared this role with rare angiosperms, such as palms

CoCoA+: an advanced congestion control mechanism for CoAP

The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) has been designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Due to the limited radio channel capacities and hardware resources of such devices, congestion can be a serious problem. CoAP addresses this important issue with a basic congestion control mechanism. CoCoA, an Internet-Draft proposal, introduced alternative congestion control mechanisms for CoAP. Yet, there has been limited evaluation of these congestion control mechanisms in the literature. In this paper, we assess the methods applied in CoCoA in detail and propose improvements to address the shortcomings observed in the congestion control mechanisms. We carry out simulations to compare the congestion control performance for default CoAP, CoCoA, and our new proposal, CoCoA+, in a variety of network topologies and use cases. The results show that CoCoA+ outperforms default CoAP and achieves better results than CoCoA in the majority of considered cases.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Using two point correlation functions to understand the assembly histories of Milky Way-like galaxies

The two point correlation function (2PCF) is a powerful statistical tool to measure galaxy clustering. Although 2PCF has also been used to study the clustering of stars on parsec and sub-parsec scales, its physical implication is not clear on such non-linear scales. In this study, we use the Illustris-TNG50 simulation to study the connection between the 2PCF signals of accreted halo stars and the assembly histories of Milky Way-mass galaxies. We find, in general, the 2PCF signal increases with the increase in galactocentric radii, $r$, and with the decrease in the pair separations. Galaxies which assemble late on average have stronger 2PCF signals. With $z_{1/4}$, $z_{1/2}$ and $z_{3/4}$ defined as the redshifts when galaxies accreted one-fourth, half and three-fourths of their ex-situ stellar mass at today, we find all of them show the strongest correlations with the 2PCF signals at $r\sim0.2R_{200}$. $z_{3/4}$ shows the strongest correlations at all radii than those of $z_{1/4}$ or $z_{1/2}$, as later accreted stars preserve better clusterings. However, the correlations between the 2PCF signals at different radii and the galaxy formation times all have large scatters. The 2PCFs in velocity space show weaker correlations with the galaxy formation times within $0.38R_{200}$ than real space 2PCFs, and the scatter is considerably large. Both the real and velocity space 2PCFs correlate with the assembly histories of the host dark matter halos as well. Within $0.38R_{200}$, the real space 2PCF shows stronger correlations with the galaxy formation histories than with the halo formation histories, while the velocity space 2PCFs do not show large differences. We conclude that it is difficult to use 2PCF alone to precisely predict the formation times or assembly histories of galaxies.Comment: accepted by Ap

TCP in the Internet of Things: from ostracism to prominence

TCP has traditionally been neglected as a transport-layer protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT). However, recent trends and industry needs are favouring TCP presence in IoT environments. In this paper, we first motivate and describe the main IoT scenarios where TCP will be used. We then analyze the historically claimed issues of TCP in the IoT context. We argue that, in contrast to generally accepted wisdom, most of those possible issues fall in one of the following categories: i) are also found in well accepted IoT end-to-end reliability mechanisms, ii) can be solved, or iii) are not actual issues. Considering the future prominent role of TCP in the IoT, we provide recommendations for lightweight TCP implementation and suitable operation in such scenarios, based on our IETF standardization work on the topic.Carles Gomez has been funded in part by the Spanish Government and by the ERDF through the Jose Castillejo grant CAS15/00336, and through project TEC2016-79988-P. His contribution to this work has been carried out in part during his stay as a visiting scholar at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. Andrés Arcia- Moret has been funded by the project Network as a Service (EP/K031724/2)

Drug Exposure During Pregnancy: A Case-Control Study from a Primary Care Database

Abortion; Case-control studies; Drug-induced abnormalitiesAborto; Estudios de casos y controles; Anomalías inducidas por fármacosAvortament; Estudis de casos i controls; Anormalitats induïdes per fàrmacsObjective: Drug exposure during pregnancy is frequent, even more during first trimester as pregnant women might not be aware of their condition. We used available electronic health records (EHRs) to describe the use of medications during the first trimester in pregnant women and to compare drug exposure between those women who had an abortion (either elective or spontaneous) compared to those who had live births. Materials and Methods: Case-control study of abortions, either elective or spontaneous (cases), and live birth pregnancies (controls) in Sistema d'Informació per al Desenvolupament de la Investigació en Atenció Primària (Catalan Primary Health electronic health records) from 2012 to 2020. Exposure to drugs during first trimester of pregnancy was considered to estimate the association with abortion by conditional logistic regression and adjusted by health conditions and other drugs exposure. Results: Sixty thousand three hundred fifty episodes of abortions were matched to 118,085 live birth pregnancy episodes. Cases had higher rates of alcohol intake (9.9% vs. 7.2%, p < 0.001), smoking (4.5% vs. 3.6%, p < 0.001), and previous abortions (9.9% vs. 7.8%, p < 0.001). Anxiety (30.3% and 25.1%, p < 0.001), respiratory diseases (10.6% and 9.2%, p < 0.001), and migraine (8.2% and 7.3%, p < 0.001), for cases and controls, respectively, were the most frequent baseline conditions. Cases had lower rate of drug exposure, 40,148 (66.5%) versus 80,449 (68.1%), p < 0.001. Association with abortion was found for systemic antihistamines (adjusted odds ratio [ORadj] 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.19–1.27), antidepressants (ORadj 1.11, 95% CI 1.06–1.17), anxiolytics (ORadj 1.31, 95% CI 1.26–1.73), and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ORadj 1. 63, 95% CI 1.59–1.67). Conclusions: These high rates of drug exposures during the first trimester of pregnancy highlights the relevance of informed prescription to women with childbearing potential.This study received funding from the 8th call for SIDIAP grants, 2018–2019, and from Health Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya, in the call corresponding to 2021 for the granting of funding of the Strategic Plan for Research and Innovation in Health PERIS) 2021–2024, modality Research Projects in Primary Care, expedient number SLT/21/000068

Rodent Animal Models of Endometriosis-Associated Pain: Unmet Needs and Resources Available for Improving Translational Research in Endometriosis

Chronic pain induced by endometriosis is a maladaptive pain experienced by half of women with this disease. The lack of pharmacological treatments suitable for the long-term relief of endometriosis-associated pain, without an impact on fertility, remains an urgent unmet need. Progress has been slowed by the absence of a reproducible rodent endometriosis model that fully replicates human physiopathological characteristics, including pain symptoms. Although pain assessment in rodents is a complicated task requiring qualified researchers, the choice of the behavioral test is no less important, since selecting inappropriate tests can cause erroneous data. Pain is usually measured with reflex tests in which hypersensitivity is evaluated by applying a noxious stimulus, yet this ignores the associated emotional component that could be evaluated via non-reflex tests. We conducted a systematic review of endometriosis models used in rodents and the number of them that studied pain. The type of behavioral test used was also analyzed and classified according to reflex and non-reflex tests. Finally, we determined the most used reflex tests for the study of endometriosis-induced pain and the main non-reflex behavioral tests utilized in visceral pain that can be extrapolated to the study of endometriosis and complement traditional reflex tests

Minerales de Mn-Co-Ni en las lateritas De Cuba oriental: resultados preliminares

En los yacimientos de lateritas niquelíferas, el Ni y Co pueden ser incorporados en óxidos e hidróxido s de Mn, donde han precipitados mediante reacciones redox (Elias et al., 1981). Además de asbolanas (ricas en Ni y ricas en Co), otros minerales que contienen Co son heterogenita y litioforita (Chukhrov et al., 1 983; Manceau et al., 1987; Llorca y Monchoux, 1991)

Treatment of hypertension during pregnancy: a cohort of pregnancy episodes from the SIDIAP database, Catalonia, Spain

IntroductionHypertension during pregnancy is one of the most frequent causes of maternal and fetal morbimortality. Perinatal and maternal death and disability rates have decreased by 30%, but hypertension during pregnancy has increased by approximately 10% in the last 30 years. This research aimed to describe the pharmacological treatment and pregnancy outcomes of pregnancies with hypertension.MethodsWe carried out an observational cohort study from the Information System for the Development of Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) database. Pregnancy episodes with hypertension (ICD-10 codes for hypertension, I10–I15 and O10–O16) were identified. Antihypertensives were classified according to the ATC WHO classification: β-blocking agents (BBs), calcium channel blockers (CCBs), agents acting on the renin‐angiotensin system (RAS agents), diuretics, and antiadrenergic agents. Exposure was defined for hypertension in pregnancies with ≥2 prescriptions during the pregnancy episode. Descriptive statistics for diagnoses and treatments were calculated.ResultsIn total, 4,839 pregnancies with hypertension diagnosis formed the study cohort. There were 1,944 (40.2%) pregnancies exposed to an antihypertensive medication. There were differences in mother’s age, BMI, and alcohol intake between pregnancies exposed to antihypertensive medications and those not exposed. BBs were the most used (n = 1,160 pregnancy episodes; 59.7%), followed by RAS agents (n = 825, 42.4%), and CCBs were the least used (n = 347, 17.8%).DiscussionPregnancies involving hypertension were exposed to antihypertensive medications, mostly BBs. We conduct a study focused on RAS agent use during pregnancy and its outcomes in the offspring