A linear programming duality approach to analyzing strictly nonblocking <Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>-ary multilog networks under general crosstalk constraints

When a switching network topology is used for constructing optical cross-connects, as in the circuit switching case, no two routes are allowed to share a link. However, if two routes share too many switching elements, then crosstalk introduced at those switching elements degrades signal quality. Vaez and Lea (IEEE Trans. Commun. 48:(2)316–323, 2000) introduced a parameter c which is the maximum number of distinct switching elements a route can share with other routes in the network. This is called the general crosstalk constraint. This paper presents a new method of analyzing strictly nonblocking multi-log networks under this general crosstalk constraint using linear programming duality.     

New perspectives on the governance of executive compensation: an examination of the role and effect of compensation consultants

We develop a multi-theoretic approach, drawing on economic, institutional, managerial power and social comparison literatures to explain the role of the external compensation consultant in the top management pay setting institutional field. Taking advantage of recent disclosure requirements in the UK, we collect data on compensation consultant use in 232 large companies. We show that consultants are a prevalent part of the CEO pay setting scene, and document evidence of all advisor use. Our econometric results show that consultant use is associated with firm size and the equity pay mix. We also show that CEO pay is positively associated with peer firms that share consultants, with higher board and consultant interlocks, and some evidence that where firms supply other business services to the firm, CEO pay is greater.     

Relationships between bullying,psychosocial work environment and individual stress reactions

It is frequently assumed that a poor psychosocial working environment will create conditions that encourage bullying. However, few studies have examined this assumption while comparing work environment ratings of bullied and non-bullied employees who work in the same organization and/or department. The objectives of this study were therefore, first, to investigate relationships between bullying and other psychosocial work environment factors within a particular organizational setting and, second, to investigate if bullied employees reported higher levels of stress than non-bullied employees. A total of 186 blue-collar employees from a Danish manufacturing company participated in the study (response rate of 93%). Results showed significant differences in bullied and non-bullied employees’ ratings of psychosocial factors such as job control, management style, role clarity, social climate, social contact and work centrality. In order to investigate assumptions that a poor psychosocial work environment creates conditions that encourage bullying, a number of analyses compared the company's manufacturing departments with either high, medium or low levels of bullying. Results showed significant departmental differences. Yet, when bullied employees were removed from the statistical analyses, with regard to the perceived psychosocial environment these same departments could be differentiated only on the basis of rated job demands and management style. The results therefore bring into question the assumption that a generally poor work environment contributes to bullying. None the less, they do suggest that management style may directly or indirectly have contributed to a higher level of bullying. Also, bullied employees reported significantly more symptoms of psychological stress and mental fatigue than non-bullied employees.     

On the distance paired domination of generalized Petersen graphs <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>,1) and <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>,2)

Let G=(V,E) be a graph without an isolated vertex. A set D⊆V(G) is a k -distance paired dominating set of G if D is a k-distance dominating set of G and the induced subgraph 〈D〉 has a perfect matching. The minimum cardinality of a k-distance paired dominating set for graph G is the k -distance paired domination number, denoted by γ _p ^k (G). In this paper, we determine the exact k-distance paired domination number of generalized Petersen graphs P(n,1) and P(n,2) for all k≥1.     

Association of educational level and child sex ratio in rural and urban India

Utilizing data from the Census of India, this study compared child sex ratio in rural and urban regions of India and analyzed whether the child sex ratio was associated with mother’s education level. The child sex ratios in the rural and urban regions throughout India were analyzed using the two-sample and paired Student’s t-test. Further, the Chi-square test for trend in binomial proportions was used to assess the association between child sex ratios and mother’s education levels in rural and urban areas. Analysis of the data showed that there was a significant difference between the child sex ratios in rural areas versus urban areas. In addition, the Chi-square test for trend showed that there was a significant association of the child sex ratio and the educational levels of their mothers. This trend occurred in both rural and urban areas.     

Extreme Copulas and the Comparison of Ordered Lists

We introduce two extreme methods to pairwisely compare ordered lists of the same length, viz. the comonotonic and the countermonotonic comparison method, and show that these methods are, respectively, related to the copula T _M (the minimum operator) and the Ł ukasiewicz copula T _L used to join marginal cumulative distribution functions into bivariate cumulative distribution functions. Given a collection of ordered lists of the same length, we generate by means of T _M and T _L two probabilistic relations Q ^M and Q ^L and identify their type of transitivity. Finally, it is shown that any probabilistic relation with rational elements on a 3-dimensional space of alternatives which possesses one of these types of transitivity, can be generated by three ordered lists and at least one of the two extreme comparison methods.     

Transparency in the European Bond Market

The European bond market is made up of many segments characterised by varying levels of liquidity and of pre- and post-trade transparency. The possibility of extending the transparency provisions envisioned in the Directive 2004/39/EC, disciplining the functioning of markets in financial instruments in Europe (MiFID), from the equity to the bond market is currently being discussed. This poses risks to the status quo through trading fragmentation and strong negotiating power of a few large dealers, particularly with respect to small retail investors. The main conclusion of the paper is that if MiFID transparency rules are to be extended to the bond market, this must be “real” transparency, meaning pre-trade dissemination of real-time executable prices and a transparent order book. Under current provisions, this kind of information is available if not directly to everybody, at least directly to dealers and indirectly to professional and retail clients through business-to-business electronic platforms.     

Online coupon consumption problem

Nowadays, it is popular that the dealer makes profits by selling a kind of discount coupons, which can be used as money to purchase commodities with total cost less than or equal to the face value of the coupon. We can purchase a coupon at a price of 0<s≤1 times its face value and the number of potential purchasable coupons is a given integer l. The customer has the option to buy the goods by cash completely or by a discount coupon. However, each piece of goods can only use one coupon and the coupon used must have enough balance for the goods. The objective is to minimize the total cost for purchasing all the goods. In this paper, we reduce the problem to a special bin packing model. We consider the online problems for all 0<s≤1 and 1≤l≤∞. We present optimal online algorithms for all 0<s≤1 when l=∞ and l=1. For 2≤l<∞, we give both a lower bound and an algorithm, and show the algorithm is optimal for l=2. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in the proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Combinatorics, Algorithms, Probabilistic and Experimental Methodologies, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Y. Jiang supported by Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Y605316). Z. Tan supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (10671177, 60021201).     

Estimating the Relative Success of Local Authorities at Labour-Market Integration of Immigrants

We propose a method for estimating indicators of the success of local authorities at integrating immigrants in the labour-market. The proportion of time in employment of individuals is used to measure labour-market integration, and we correct for differences in characteristics of immigrants and local labour markets using a two-limit Tobit model. This method is applied to a large administrative micro dataset which contains information on all immigrants in Denmark. We compare the estimated indicators of integration to corresponding uncorrected measures, and conclude that the corrections have a significant effect on the ranking of local authorities.