The compensation of CEO’s has been at the forefront of the public’s mind for the past few years. During the recession, one could not go a day without hearing about the atrocious salaries and bonuses that executives were being paid. Although it only recently became an explosive topic, academics have been researching all aspects of compensation for many years. One of the earliest looked at the idea of pay for performance (Jensen and Murphy 1990), and the field has taken off from there. Many studies have been done on the determinants of compensation, and I was interested in how age relates to compensation. I created a model for determining compensation, but also took it one step further and looked at the compensation structure across different industries as well. I found that age did indeed influence compensation levels, but that it only had some effect on pay structure and only in certain industries.

This thesis examines firm performance through the dot-com bubble through the lens of executive compensation. Hypotheses based on the theoretical literature of Bolton, Scheinkman and Xiong (2006) as well as Bertrand and Mullainathan (2001) in regards to management compensation in a speculative bubble motivate three regression models with differing market-cap-growth based dependent variables and specific compensation variables. Regression analyses test the models using public compensation and security data from S&P's Execucomp and Compustat databases. Synthesizing regression results show that stock option vesting schedules and executives' status on the board of directors may significantly affect firm performance through the dot-com bubble, but more analysis, using more robust data, is necessary to verify either claim.

This thesis focuses on the design of a foveated stereo video compression algorithm for visual telepresence applications. In a typical telepresence application, a user at the local site views real-time stereo video recorded and transmitted from a robotic camera platform located at a remote site. The robotic camera platform tracks the user's head motion producing the sensation of being present at the remote site. The design of the stereo video compression algorithm revolved around a fast spatio-temporal block-based motion estimation algorithm, with a foveated SPIHT algorithm used to compress and foveate the independent frames and error residues. Also, the redundancy between the left and right video streams was exploited by disparity compensation. Finally, position feedback from the robotic camera platform was used to perform global motion compensation, increasing the compression performance without raising computation requirements. The algorithm was analysed by introducing the above mentioned components separately. It was found that each component increased the compression rate significantly, producing compressed video with similar compression and quality as MPEG2. The implementation of the algorithm did not meet the real-time requirements on the experiment computers. However, the algorithm does not contain any intrinsic delays. Therefore, given faster processors or optimized software implementation, the design should be able to run in real-time.

Previous research in organizational theory, labor market economics, and nonprofit studies are applied to churches and their clergy leadership in advancing a theory of clergy executive compensation. The data for this study come from the end of year reports from approximately 800 local churches of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for the years 2007-2008 and a survey administered in order to glean the personal characteristics of the clergy. The investigation employs a clergy compensation framework and finds that clergy salaries are influenced in part by personal characteristics, human capital, organizational elements, labor market factors, and clergy performance. The results regarding the role of credentialing in stratified labor markets have implications for policy. The present research adds to the nonprofit executive compensation literature by suggesting that denominational churches are analogous to nonprofit franchises and by empirically testing for "dual agency", labor market stratification, and managerial scope.

This project will create a navigation system based on dead reckoning using anaccelerometer and a magnetometer. There have previously been several studiesmade on navigation with accelerometers, magnetometers (electronic compass) andgyros. With these three components it is possible to do positioning and differentkinds of movement analyses. There are several methods for detection of movementand calculation of position. To achieve greater accuracy in these applications,gyros are often used. Compared to magnetometers and accelerometer gyrosconsumes a lot of power. In an embedded system with limited power suppliesfrom a battery this may be unacceptable. In this project a positioning system without a gyro have been developedand evaluated. Is this possible to do, and what accuracy is possible to achieve arequestions asked.Algorithms have been developed and tested in MATLAB. The project is based ona device called a BeeBadge, part of the project will be to transfer the developedalgorithms from MATLAB to C-code. Optimizations of the code will be performeddue to the constraints in the memory and speed of the microcontroller on theBeeBadge.

This thesis focuses on the design of a foveated stereo video compression algorithm for visual telepresence applications. In a typical telepresence application, a user at the local site views real-time stereo video recorded and transmitted from a robotic camera platform located at a remote site. The robotic camera platform tracks the user's head motion producing the sensation of being present at the remote site. The design of the stereo video compression algorithm revolved around a fast spatio-temporal block-based motion estimation algorithm, with a foveated SPIHT algorithm used to compress and foveate the independent frames and error residues. Also, the redundancy between the left and right video streams was exploited by disparity compensation. Finally, position feedback from the robotic camera platform was used to perform global motion compensation, increasing the compression performance without raising computation requirements. The algorithm was analysed by introducing the above mentioned components separately. It was found that each component increased the compression rate significantly, producing compressed video with similar compression and quality as MPEG2. The implementation of the algorithm did not meet the real-time requirements on the experiment computers. However, the algorithm does not contain any intrinsic delays. Therefore, given faster processors or optimized software implementation, the design should be able to run in real-time.

It is a trend that more and more Taiwan businessmen to invest in Mainland China for the reason of the low-pay labor force and open policy from the China government. The degree of perception of compensation system and the leadership style to the China employees working in the Taiwan enterprises in China has great influence to the enhancement of the retention rate and the morale of the well performed employees in a company, and the increment of the quality of the performance. This research is based on the 327 copies of the questionnaires collected from the Taiwan enterprises, focused on the variables of the perception of the ¡§Compensation System¡¨ and the ¡§Leadership Style¡¨, and did the statistical analysis to get the result from the enpirical study. The following are the summary of the research: 1.The employees with different generics will have significant difference in each dimension of the perception of the ¡§Compensation System¡¨ , ¡§Leadership Style¡¨ and the ¡§Organizational Commitment¡¨. 2.It has significantly affect to the ¡§Organizational Commitment¡¨ in different degree of each dimension of the perception of the ¡§Compensation System¡¨. 3.Different ¡§ Perception of Leadership Style¡¨ has the significantly affect to the degree of ¡§Organizational Commitment¡¨. 4.The variable of different background of the employee has the significantly affect in the ¡§Perception of Compensation System¡¨ and the ¡§Perception of Leadership Style¡¨ to the degree of ¡§Organizational Commitment¡¨. Based on the above result, the researcher has the following suggestions to ABC Company: 1.Pay close attention to the degree of the perception of the compensation system that the employees have, and design the complete compensation system. 2.Set up fair and reasonable promotion system that should be evaluated by dynamic performance evaluation . 3.Provide the reasonable reward to the employees through performance evaluation system in addition of reasonable compensation system, and build up the correct concept to the employees that the more effort the more gain. 4.Motive management to adjust leadership style based on different missions and work environment. 5.Set up retention plan and the career plan for the employees. 6.As to the high-educated employees, the design of their jobs should be more challenging, flexible and self-decisive. 7.Set up the education and training plan for the purpose of reinforcing the team cohesiveness and awareness. 8.The Taiwan staff should be positively to get involved in the daily life of the China colleagues, for the purpose of maintaining the healthy organizational atmosphere. In general, they need to enhance the degree of China employees¡¦ organizational commitment, in order to get the best management effectiveness and achieve the goal of the business management.

Previous research in organizational theory, labor market economics, and nonprofit studies are applied to churches and their clergy leadership in advancing a theory of clergy executive compensation. The data for this study come from the end of year reports from approximately 800 local churches of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for the years 2007-2008 and a survey administered in order to glean the personal characteristics of the clergy. The investigation employs a clergy compensation framework and finds that clergy salaries are influenced in part by personal characteristics, human capital, organizational elements, labor market factors, and clergy performance. The results regarding the role of credentialing in stratified labor markets have implications for policy. The present research adds to the nonprofit executive compensation literature by suggesting that denominational churches are analogous to nonprofit franchises and by empirically testing for "dual agency", labor market stratification, and managerial scope.

Teacher compensation reforms have been on the rise in recent years, yet research has yet to fully demonstrate how teachers interpret these policies and how they may influence their instructional practices and professional decisions. This qualitative study of a performance pay program in an urban district in Texas drew on cognitive approaches to policy implementation and theories of sensemaking to examine and explicate these issues. Teachers’ experiences in two schools were examined through interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. The experiences of school principals and district policymakers acting as sensegivers to teachers about the program’s goals, purposes, and theory of action were also examined. District policymakers’ understandings of the program varied, and were informed by their positions in the system and their own interests in the program. These differences resulted in a complex program with an array of objectives for teachers to implement in schools and classrooms, as well as varying expectations for teachers’ work, which were not always understood by teachers. With few clear and consistent messages from policymakers, teachers and principals interpreted the program according to their own ideas about important outcomes, and then shaped it to fit their situations. Although accepting of the program, teachers and principals were not always able to focus on it in ways expected by policymakers given other demands on them, particularly those emanating from the accountability system. Some evidence of goal distortion in terms of teachers’ attention to student assignments and mobility was also found. These findings hold implications for cognitive theories of policy implementation, suggesting that teachers’ responses to policies are influenced by the amount of attention they are able to give them, as well as direct sensegiving about policy goals and expectations on the part of policymakers. The findings also suggest that performance pay programs can be expected to be adapted, co-opted, and selectively attended to in order to fit within the contexts in which they are implemented. Thus, policymakers should consider other demands in the policy environment that may compete with performance incentives, as well as the organizational contexts of schools in which they will be implemented. / text

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences