Living in Interesting Times: President Obama and the Rebirth of the Labor Movement

Legislation has been introduced in the United States that will allow workers to form unions without secret ballot voting among prospective members. This legislation, in its current form, is the most radical change in Federal law governing union recognition in its history. While passage of the legislation is far from certain, it has generated much discussion and argument, most of it polemical. This article examines the issue from a more academic perspective, reviewing the history of organizing and how management practices have developed that effectively use the current election process as a tool to resist organizing efforts, and the effect the legislation might have upon those practices

Happy at Work: How the Science of Positive Psychology Will Revolutionize the Workplace

This capstone is a draft of a proposed book on positive psychology in the workplace, aimed at a popular audience. It contains a detailed table of contents and reference sources, as well as several complete or partially- complete chapters. It also includes an extended section on lawyers that will form the basis of a separate academic article. The book’s working title is Happy at Work: How the Science of Positive Psychology will Revolutionize the Workplace. Its thesis is that most modern human resources practices are misguided with an overreliance on process and metrics. Humans are treated as capital, and firms focus on their failings and weaknesses rather than their strengths. In a post-crash world such approaches are unsustainable, and positive psychology provides a new way of managing that will revolutionize the workplace. Unlike what many would believe, it is OK to be happy at work; in fact, we should be happy at work. High corporate performance requires happy employees, and the book links the science of positive psychology with its practical application to show how any company can increase happiness at work

A spatially distributed model for the dynamic prediction of sediment erosion and transport in mountainous forested watersheds

Erosion and sediment transport in a temperate forested watershed are predicted with a new sediment model that represents the main sources of sediment generation in forested environments (mass wasting, hillslope erosion, and road surface erosion) within the distributed hydrology-soil-vegetation model (DHSVM) environment. The model produces slope failures on the basis of a factor-of-safety analysis with the infinite slope model through use of stochastically generated soil and vegetation parameters. Failed material is routed downslope with a rule-based scheme that determines sediment delivery to streams. Sediment from hillslopes and road surfaces is also transported to the channel network. A simple channel routing scheme is implemented to predict basin sediment yield. We demonstrate through an initial application of this model to the Rainy Creek catchment, a tributary of the Wenatchee River, which drains the east slopes of the Cascade Mountains, that the model produces plausible sediment yield and ratios of landsliding and surface erosion when compared to published rates for similar catchments in the Pacific Northwest. A road removal scenario and a basin-wide fire scenario are both evaluated with the model

Improving C2 Effectiveness Based on Robust Connectivity

This chapter describes an approach to develop an improved metric for network effectiveness through the use of Cares\u27 (2005) Information Age Combat Model (IACM) as a context for combat (or competition) between networked forces. The IACM highlights the inadequacy of commonly used quantifiable metrics with regards to comparing networks that differ only by the placement of a few links. An agent-based simulation is used to investigate the potential value of the Perron-Frobenius Eigenvalue (λPFE) as an indicator of network effectiveness. The results validate this assumption. Another measurement is proven to be equally important, namely the robustness of a configuration. Potential applications from the domain of ballistic missile defense are included to show operational relevance

Agreement between methods of measurement with multiple observations per individual

Limits of agreement provide a straightforward and intuitive approach to agreement between different methods for measuring the same quantity. When pairs of observations using the two methods are independent, i.e., on different subjects, the calculations are very simple and straightforward. Some authors collect repeated data, either as repeated pairs of measurements on the same subject, whose true value of the measured quantity may be changing, or more than one measurement by one or both methods of an unchanging underlying quantity. In this paper we describe methods for analysing such clustered observations, both when the underlying quantity is assumed to be changing and when it is not

Neurologic Issues in Patients Receiving Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Support

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a well-established therapy for patients experiencing acute severe cardiac and/or respiratory failure. Unfortunately, despite noteworthy improvements in patient selection, technology, and multidisciplinary team management, significant complications are still common. The most dramatic and potentially severe complications are neurologic. However, the incidence of neurologic complications (i.e. embolic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, seizures, and anoxic injuries) has not been completely defined. Unfortunately, brain death and neurologic injuries are significant causes of morbidity and mortality for patients requiring an ECMO support. Critical to the management of patients requiring ECMO is a broader understanding of neurologic monitoring along with the clinical assessment and management of neurologic events. It is important to evaluate and potentially intervene early in the event of a neurologic problem to minimize its clinical significance. Hopefully, with a better understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnostic and therapeutic tools, and prevention strategies, the true incidence of neurologic complications can be understood and minimized