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Inter symbol interference (ISI) caused by dispersion in optical fibers is the major limiting factor on the achievable data rate or transmission distance in high-speed fiber-optic interconnects¹. Compared with optical-domain and other electrical-domain dispersion compensation methods, duobinary coding technology is used due to its higher spectral efficiency. In this paper, a monolithically integrated duobinary optical transmitter has be designed and fabricated in standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology. This transmitter consists of a duobinary encoder and a VCSEL driver. The master-slave D flip-flop structure is used to generate the wideband one bit delay which is important for the realization of duobinary signal. An open drain structure is used in VCSEL driver design to provide the higher current output in low supply voltage condition. This duobinary transmitter can operate up to 5 Gb/s with 20 mA current output. The current consumption is only 50 mA under 1.8 V supply voltage.

Based on Monte Carlo simulation, the magnetic properties of a mixed spin-1 and spin-3/2 Ising superlattice with alternate layers are studied. The effects of interlayer coupling and external magnetic field on the compensation behavior and hysteresis properties for the ferrimagnetic superlattice are investigated. The occurrence of a compensation point is found to be greatly affected by the interlayer coupling. In particular, various multiple hysteresis loops can be observed under certain system parameters. The calculated results agree well with available experimental and theoretical works.

In this paper, the effects of the longitudinal $D_z$ and the transverse $D_x$ crystal fields on the mixed spin-$(\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{2})$ Ising–Heisenberg model have been studied. The thermodynamic properties of the model are obtained by using a new approach of the mean field approximation (MFA). The thermal variations of the order-parameters and the total magnetic susceptibility of the model are carefully investigated to obtain the phase diagrams on the $(D_x/J,k_{B}T/J)$ planes for $z=3$ and on the $(D_z/J,k_{B}T/J)$ planes for $z=3,4$ and 6. The existence of compensation temperatures between the sublattice magnetizations, $T_{\mathrm{\text{comp}},M}$, and the two components of the quadrupole moments, $T_{\mathrm{\text{comp}},Q}$, are observed. Our results are compared with other existing works in the literature and reliable agreements are found.

Conventional frequency response compensation methods for three-stage amplifier are not appropriate for fast transient response viewpoint. Therefore, herein, we have utilized the minimum settling time (MST) approach to compensate the crossed feed-forward reversed nested Miller compensation (CFRNMC) amplifier which was previously compensated by the conventional frequency response methods. Compensation rules for the considered amplifier are proposed based on time-domain parameters. The three-stage amplifier is designed in a 90 nm CMOS technology with the power supply of 1 V. The amplifier drives the capacitor load of 100 pF and its closed-loop time response to a unit-step input has a settling time less than 34 ns with 1% settling error.

In this paper concepts for goal-oriented reasoning within the blackboard development environment QBB are presented. The architecture of QBB supports the selection of problem solving actions with respect to the achivement of quality goals. Furthermore, interactions of goals are explicitly taken into account in action selection.

The features of QBB to support goal-oriented reasoning are presented. Especially, it is described how mutual influence of actions with respect to goal achievement can explicitly modeled as relationships between actions, the so-called compensation relations. The usefullness of compensation relations has been tested by goal-oriented modeling of the travelling salesman problem.

Until recently, human resource management has been considered inappropriate and too costly for small businesses and consequently research in this direction has been at a relatively minimum level. It is also evident that the effectiveness and competitiveness of SMEs can be increased through the application of sound HRM practices. In order to establish how SMEs can successfully apply HRM, the objective of this study is to establish, in an exploratory manner, the applicability of HRM in a small business in order to ensure its effective operation and consequent competitiveness. The research method applied is an interpretive and qualitative approach by means of a single case study of a photographic equipment store. The owner-manager perceives that personnel problems pose a major barrier to the success of the business; however, he also believes that outside aid in HRM would not resolve the problems. The HRM process of the SME growth model adds value in the sense that it also illustrates the relationship between the owner-manager's personal characteristics, external market conditions, nature of the work environment, and the business structure. Given the small business-specific problems that were identified, the information obtained in this study paves the way for a quantitative study of a number of SMEs and comparative research.

Leading paradigms to develop, deploy, and operate applications such as continuous delivery, configuration management, and the merge of development and operations (DevOps) are the foundation for various techniques and tools to implement automated deployment. To make such applications available for users and customers, these approaches are typically used in conjunction with Cloud computing to automatically provision and manage underlying resources such as storage and virtual servers. A major class of these automation approaches follow the idea of converging toward a desired state of a resource (e.g. a middleware component deployed on a virtual machine). This is achieved by repeatedly executing idempotent scripts to reach the desired state. Because of major drawbacks of this approach, we discuss an alternative deployment automation approach based on compensation and fine-grained snapshots using container virtualization. We perform an evaluation comparing both approaches in terms of difficulties at design time and performance at runtime. Moreover, we discuss concepts, strategies, and implementations to effectively combine different deployment automation approaches.

Scanning the Future of Medical Imaging

Putting Numbers into Biology: The Combination of Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy

and Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Abyss Processing – Exploring the Deep in Medical Images

This research separates out the incentive and entrenchment effects of executive pay and uses it to test if the agency cost is that of underinvestment or overinvestment. I find that investments increase with dollar value of stock and options owned by the CEO but decrease with percentage of shares owned by the CEO. These results are robust to alternate measures of investments such as R&D, acquisitions, and change in assets. It appears that the positive relationship between investment and percentage of stocks owned by the CEO, as observed in the literature, is because of the omitted variable of dollar value of stock and options. I also find that the increases in dollar value of stock and options owned by the CEO reduces agency costs; while increases in percentage of stocks owned by the CEO increases entrenchment. These results are robust to endogeniety and a battery of relevant tests. This research concludes that, for the average firm, the agency cost is that of underinvestment, while the concerns about overinvestment are overstated.

This paper analyzes the current state of non-executive employee stock option (ESO) issuance in Japan. First, I find that the main determinant of ESO issuance for individual firms is the extent of their corporate flexibility, although other hypotheses may be applicable depending on the industrial sector; second, the impact on the macro-economy is still quite small at the aggregate level. However, taking account of the fair cost of issuing ESOs could have a substantial effect on the profits of individual firms. Furthermore, I find that issuing ESOs tends to have a somewhat negative effect on stock prices.

Upon interaction with amine and alcohol guests, Zn-Zn and Zn-2H ethane-bridged bis-porphyrin hosts undergo dramatic conformational switching from a syn to an anti form. The thermodynamic parameters obtained exhibit excellent linear enthalpy-entropy correlations, which are distinctly different for amines and alcohols but essentially independent of the host structure. Analyses of the compensation plots reveal a more rigid complex structure and more extensive desolvation upon complexation with amines than for alcohols, which may be ascribed to the different nucleophilicity, binding strength, solvation and geometry.

Because CEO turnover events provide the board of directors with a unique opportunity to potentially completely restructure CEO compensation packages, changes to CEO compensation following a turnover event could prove to inform the ongoing debate regarding CEO compensation. This paper investigates what happens to CEO compensation when a turnover event occurs. Specifically, I examine CEO compensation levels and pay-performance sensitivity for incoming and outgoing CEOs involved in turnover events at public companies in the United States. My main findings are as follows: (1) incoming CEOs are paid as much as or more than those they replace, (2) outsider replacements are paid more than their predecessors even after controlling for education and skills, and (3) CEOs who are forced out are not paid differently from those who replace them, while CEOs who leave voluntarily are paid significantly less than their replacements. Further analysis reveals that proxies for managerial power including CEO tenure, CEO centrality, founder status, and high CEO ownership cannot explain these results. Overall, these findings are difficult to reconcile with the view that managerial power is the primary determinant of CEO compensation.

If risk-averse agents prefer to be wealthier both in absolute terms and relative to their peers (relative wealth concerns), then (1) they prefer positive correlation, and (2) they are averse to negative correlation between their payoffs. A laboratory experiment shows that subjects prefer positively correlated payoffs. Subjects interested in relative payoffs display stronger aversion to negatively correlated payoffs. This novel evidence has implications that motivate firms' extensive use of broad-based incentive plans and firms' scarce use of Relative Performance Evaluation (RPE) contracts.

This paper demonstrates the alternative measures to generate the Steep wave impulse by using Impulse Voltage Generator (IVG) for high voltage testing of porcelain insulators. The modification of IVG by incorporating compensation of resistor, inductor, and capacitor has been achieved and further performance of the modified system has been analyzed by applying the generated lightning impulse and analyzing the electrical characteristics of impulse waves under standard lightning and fast rise multiple lightning waveform to determine the effect to improve rise time. The advantageous results have been received and being reported such as increase in overshoot compensation, increase in capacitive and inductive load ranges. Such further reduces the duration of oscillations of standard impulse voltages. The reduction in oscillation duration of steep front impulse voltages may be utilized in up gradation of Impulse Voltage Generator System. Stray capacitance could further be added in order to get the minimized difference of measurement between simulation and the field establishment.

This paper summarises research on the mechanisms used by banks to align the interests of their workers with the goal of long-term profit maximization. Banking was characterised by moral hazard, and the monitoring technology of the period was far from perfect. The banks incentivized the workers by establishing well-defined career structures within internal labour markets, by strongly tying salary to tenure and attaching large salary increases to promotion. A worker who quit or was dismissed was punished with a considerable loss of lifetime earnings. Conversely, one who exceeded the norms was rewarded by substantial earnings growth associated with seniority and promotion.

The magnetic properties and phase diagrams of a ferrimagnetic cylindrical Ising nanotube with spin-1/2 core and spin-3/2 shell are studied using mean-field approximation and Monte Carlo simulation. The effects of shell and core-shell interface exchange couplings and crystal field on the magnetic properties of the system are examined. For some physical parameters, the critical and compensation behaviors are highlighted and first-order phase transitions are observed in the ferrimagnetic ordered region at low temperatures. A comparison between the two methods was performed.

Using Monte Carlo simulation and mean field approximation, we studied the magnetic properties of spin-3/2 chain with hexagonal spin-1/2 shell and negative core-shell exchange coupling. The obtained results show that the spins 3/2 in the core have an important influence on the magnetic behavior of the system such as the appearance of compensation temperatures as well as first- and second-order phase transitions. Moreover, we investigated the effects of exchange interactions and anisotropy on the phase diagrams of the system.

A ferrimagnetic hexagonal Ising nanotube with spin-1/2 core and spin-5/2 shell is investigated using the mean field approximation (MFA) and the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). More exactly, we have examined the effects of the exchange interactions and crystal field on the magnetic properties of the system. Our phase diagrams show the appearance of critical and compensation behaviors, as well as first-order phase transitions terminating at isolated critical end-points in the ferrimagnetic phase region at low temperatures. Furthermore, we have made a comparison with other studies of similar nanosystems.

Background: Traumatic loss of an index finger is offered twice the amount of compensation as compared to a loss of little finger. However, the little finger plays a pivotal role in power grip thus is underestimated in its importance. Our aim was to test our hypothesis that loss of the little finger will result in greater or equal loss of grip strength compared to loss of the index finger.

Methods: Grip strength in the power grip position was measured in 12 healthy volunteers using a JAMAR hand dynamometer. Grip strength of their dominant hand was recorded as a mean kg force of three attempts in three grip configurations 1) using all fingers 2) excluding the index finger and 3) excluding the little finger. Grip strength percentage compared to the full hand was calculated and statistical significance was investigated with a two-tailed T-test.

Results: Participants’ age varied from 19–64 years, with 4 males and 8 females. Mean full hand grip strength was 28.3 kg force; grip strength with index finger excluded was 65.8% and with little finger excluded was 66.2%. There was no significant difference in grip strength percentage when comparing index or little finger exclusion (p = 0.92).

Conclusions: We did not find a difference in power grip using a simulated model of index or little finger loss in a healthy volunteer cohort. This should be taken into account in traumatic loss and work compensation.

This paper explores the relationship between banks’ “reward culture” and banks’ performance and risk during the 2007–2008 financial crisis. Reward culture is defined as a result-oriented culture influenced through the incentives structure. Reward culture reflects three dimensions: (i) Chief Executive Officer incentives; (ii) Vice Presidents’ incentives; and (iii) employee incentives. A reward culture score represents the common factor in incentives across all employee levels. I find strong evidence of a nonlinear relationship between reward culture and bank returns and risk. Classifying banks into high, average, and low reward culture groups in the pre-crisis year 2006, I find that during the crisis period, banks within both the high and low reward culture groups performed worse, and were more risky than banks within the average reward culture group. The findings are consistent with the problems of adverse selection and moral hazard associated with incentive misalignment when incentives are too low or too high.