Labour regulation in the on-demand economy: an ‘uberfication’ of the status quo?

Uber has reached rock-star status in the world of 'gigs’, 'rabbits’ and 'rides’ known as the 'on-demand economy’. Uber is but one in a sea of online platforms that seek to link clients with workers offering traditional services like transport, cleaning, repairs or running errands. These platforms act as a mediator between clients and workers and often set minimum quality standards, manage the payment process as well as the supply of work. However, as these platforms gain prevalence in today’s labour market, the question of worker protection comes rushing to the fore. On the one hand, these platforms are praised for having reduced the barriers to income for individuals who might not readily be able to enter the traditional labour market. On the other hand, critics of the on-demand economy argue that companies, like Uber, shift risks to their employees by misclassifying them as independent contractors, thereby weakening labour protections and driving down wages and in favour of their own profit margins. The question of whether Uber drivers are employees or independent contractors has sparked debate in the US. This study seeks to engage in this debate albeit in the South African context. In the absence of a definitive pronouncement from a South African decision maker as to the status of Uber drivers, the core research question posed by this study is whether Uber drivers are employees under South African law. The objective of the study is to determine whether existing labour laws in South Africa offer adequate protection to workers, like Uber drivers, in the on-demand economy. It will be argued that Uber drivers do not neatly fall within the definition of employee in section 213 of the LRA. However, Uber drivers do not neatly fit the category of independent contractor either. The fact that the aspects of the 'uberfied’ work relationship do not seem to speak to the factors enumerated in the South African tests of employment suggests that perhaps these factors are outdated in the context of the on-demand economy. But, this is not a new problem. It will be argued that the problems faced by 'gig’ workers in the on-demand economy should be viewed as an extension of a broader trend towards the casualisation of labour. In this sense, it can be said that the type of work relationship created by companies like Uber, is simply an 'uberfication’ of the status quo. In other words, companies like Uber have done no more than give the non-standard employee a smart phone application with which to earn an income

Sound exposure level as a metric for analyzing and managing underwater soundscapes

The auditory frequency weighted daily sound exposure level (SEL) is used in many jurisdictions to assess possible injury to the hearing of marine life. Therefore, using daily SEL to describe soundscapes would provide baseline information about the environment using the same tools used to measure injury. Here, the daily SEL from 12 recordings with durations of 18-97days are analyzed to: (1) identify natural soundscapes versus environments affected by human activity, (2) demonstrate how SEL accumulates from different types of sources, (3) show the effects of recorder duty cycling on daily SEL, (4) make recommendations on collecting data for daily SEL analysis, and (5) discuss the use of the daily SEL as an indicator of cumulative effects. The autocorrelation of the one-minute sound exposure is used to help identify soundscapes not affected by human activity. Human sound sources reduce the autocorrelation and add low-frequency energy to the soundscapes. To measure the daily SEL for all marine mammal auditory frequency weighting groups, data should be sampled at 64kHz or higher, for at least 1min out of every 30min. The daily autocorrelation of the one-minute SEL provides a confidence interval for the daily SEL computed with duty-cycled data. (C) 2019 Acoustical Society of America

Geologic Disposal Safety Assessment (GDSA) Biosphere Model Development

The Spent Fuel and Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) Campaign of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE), Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition is conducting research and development (R&D) on geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW). This work includes the Geologic Disposal Safety Assessment (GDSA) program which is charged with development of generic deep geologic repository concepts and system performance assessment models. One part of the GDSA framework is the development of a biosphere model capable of assessing dose to potential receptors exposed to radionuclides released via groundwater from geologic disposal sites. This work includes the development of a biosphere model capable of estimating doses to potential receptors living in the biosphere and exposed to radionuclides released from a hypothetical geologic disposal site. The GDSA biosphere model is being developed so that it is compatible with the GDSA framework including PFLOTRAN, the massively parallel subsurface flow and reactive transport code. PFLOTRAN is a subsurface flow and reactive transport code that solves a system of partial differential equations for multiphase flow and transport of components in porous materials such as shale formation. PFLOTRAN simultaneously simulates energy and mass flow with fluid properties as function of pressure and temperature through equations of state. PFLOTRAN also solves the mass conservation and transport equations of multicomponent formulations of aqueous chemical species, gases, and minerals reactive transport. It contains a waste form process model that simulates the radionuclide inventory under potential failures in a geological repository. PFLOTRAN can thus calculate the source term of radionuclides in ground water which can then be used as the GDSA biosphere model input.Comment: American Nuclear Society 2022 International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (https://www.ans.org/meetings/wm2022/session/view-1537/

Language Growth in Children with Mild to Severe Hearing Loss who Received Early Intervention by 3 Months or 6 Months of Age

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of hearing screening, diagnosis, and early intervention (EI) by 3 months or 6 months of age on language growth trajectories for children with hearing loss (HL) relative to children with normal hearing (NH). Method: We recruited 133 children with mild to severe HL through universal newborn hearing screening records and referrals from audiologists in the United States; 116 children with NH who served as a comparison group. Examiners administered a battery of developmentally appropriate language measures between 12 months and 8 years of age. We constructed latent growth curve models of global language, grammar, and vocabulary using Bayesian statistics. Results: Children with HL demonstrated no significant differences in initial language skills compared to children with NH. Children in the 1-3-6 group also showed no difference in language growth compared to children with NH. The slope for the 1-2-3 group was significantly steeper than children with NH for global language and grammar. Conclusions: This study documents the positive impact of EI on language outcomes in children with congenital HL. It is among the first to provide evidence to support the potential effects of very early intervention by 3 months of age

Do Complexity Measures of Frontal EEG Distinguish Loss of Consciousness in Geriatric Patients Under Anesthesia?

While geriatric patients have a high likelihood of requiring anesthesia, they carry an increased risk for adverse cognitive outcomes from its use. Previous work suggests this could be mitigated by better intraoperative monitoring using indexes defined by several processed electroencephalogram (EEG) measures. Unfortunately, inconsistencies between patients and anesthetic agents in current analysis techniques have limited the adoption of EEG as standard of care. In attempts to identify new analyses that discriminate clinically-relevant anesthesia timepoints, we tested 1/f frequency scaling as well as measures of complexity from nonlinear dynamics. Specifically, we tested whether analyses that characterize time-delayed embeddings, correlation dimension (CD), phase-space geometric analysis, and multiscale entropy (MSE) capture loss-of-consciousness changes in EEG activity. We performed these analyses on EEG activity collected from a traditionally hard-to-monitor patient population: geriatric patients on beta-adrenergic blockade who were anesthetized using a combination of fentanyl and propofol. We compared these analyses to traditional frequency-derived measures to test how well they discriminated EEG states before and after loss of response to verbal stimuli. We found spectral changes similar to those reported previously during loss of response. We also found significant changes in 1/f frequency scaling. Additionally, we found that our phase-space geometric characterization of time-delayed embeddings showed significant differences before and after loss of response, as did measures of MSE. Our results suggest that our new spectral and complexity measures are capable of capturing subtle differences in EEG activity with anesthesia administration-differences which future work may reveal to improve geriatric patient monitoring

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Mortality variability after endovascular versus open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair in a large tertiary vascular center using a Medicare-derived risk prediction model

ObjectivePrevious reports have documented better outcomes after open abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair in tertiary centers compared with lower-volume hospitals, but outcome variability for endovascular AAA repair (EVAR) vs open AAA repairs in a large tertiary center using a Medicare-derived mortality risk prediction model has not been previously reported. In the current study, we compared the observed vs predicted mortality after EVAR and open AAA repair in a single large tertiary vascular center.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed all patients who underwent repair of a nonruptured infrarenal AAA in our center from 2003 to 2012. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression were used to evaluate 30-day mortality. Patients were stratified into low-risk, medium-risk, and high-risk groups, and mortality was predicted for each patient based on demographics and comorbidities according to the Medicare risk prediction model.ResultsWe analyzed 297 patients (EVAR, 72%; open AAA repair, 28%; symptomatic, 25%). Most of our patients were of high and moderate risk (48% and 28%, respectively). The observed 30-day mortality was 1.9% after EVAR vs 2.4% after open repair (odds ratio [OR], 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.14-4.29; P = .67). There was no difference in mortality with EVAR vs open repair after adjusting for predefined patient characteristics (OR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.16-7.43; P = .93); only preoperative renal disease was predictive of 30-day mortality after AAA repair in our cohort (OR, 8.39; 95% CI, 1.41-67.0). The observed mortality within our study was significantly lower than the Medicare-derived expected mortality for each treatment group within patients stratified as high risk or medium risk (P ≤ .0002 for all).ConclusionsDespite treating patients with high preoperative risk status, we report a 10-fold decrease in operative mortality for EVAR and open AAA repair in a tertiary vascular center compared with national Medicare-derived predictions. High-risk patients should be considered for aneurysm management in dedicated aortic centers, regardless of approach

Hemispheric Conversations Urban Art Project

Hemispheric Conversations Urban Art Project (HCUAP, pronounced “Hiccup”), is a public art platform that draws on the urban arts as a framework through which we can map the aesthetic, historical and cultural connections between Pittsburgh and similar post-industrial cities. HCUAP promotes urban art (graffiti, street art, and mural production) as a tool for education and dialogue about cultural expression, conscious redevelopment, and the preservation and celebration of diverse cultural identities. HCUAP partners University of Pittsburgh staff, faculty and students with arts and education organizations in the Pittsburgh area and artists and scholars from national and international institutions. We create shared opportunities for youth and adult arts education; public conversations about art, activism and social justice; mentorship and networking opportunities for underrepresented artists; and site-specific murals across the city. We offer three-pronged and synthetic programming: youth workshops, mural production, and public conversations to use dialogue about the arts as a prism for addressing larger community needs. HCUAP was founded in 2016 as a partnership between Caitlin Bruce (Associate Professor of Communication); Oreen Cohen (artist, educator, and community programmer); Shane Pilster (artist, graphic designer, curator and programmer); and Max Gonzales (artist, community organizer, curator and organizer). Since 2016 HCUAP has maintained a partnership with Rivers of Steel for its mural series, since Pilster runs the Graffiti Art Tours program; and has also partnered with Assemble, Carnegie Libraries Pittsburgh-Hazelwood, Pittsburgh Learning Commons, and Millvale Community Library for Youth Street Art workshops since its founding. For our artist residency program we connect visiting artists to studio hubs and centers for networking like Radiant Hall and Artist Image Resource. We worked with the South Side Community Council in 2017 to inaugurate their Fox Way Mural Corridor and offer evidence of the value of permission graffiti (changing their approach from erasure to collaboration). Our model is to work with established local organizations that work in the area of afterschool arts programming, artist development, and education contributing a focus on urban art and public space by generating curricula, mentoring teaching artists, producing murals, and creating larger conversations about just urban governance. HCUAP was formed because of a shared need for hemispheric conversations around urban art. Urban art is an important form of public visual art that is often ill-understood and stigmatized, and yet it historically has been a tremendous resource for critical and aesthetic voice in international contexts. Pittsburgh, in particular, has limited spaces for sanctioned expression. Currently, there are only two permission spaces in the entire city. Though we are in a moment where graffiti and street art is becoming more formally supported, it is done in a fragmented way, often without connecting art practice to larger conversations

Aging and bone health in individuals with developmental disabilities,”

Low bone mass density (BMD), a classical age-related health issue and a known health concern for fair skinned, thin, postmenopausal Caucasian women, is found to be common among individuals with developmental/intellectual disabilities (D/IDs). It is the consensus that BMD is decreased in both men and women with D/ID. Maintaining good bone health is important for this population as fractures could potentially go undetected in nonverbal individuals, leading to increased morbidity and a further loss of independence. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of bone health of adults with D/ID, their risk of fractures, and how this compares to the general aging population. We will specifically focus on the bone health of two common developmental disabilities, Down syndrome (DS) and cerebral palsy (CP), and will discuss BMD and fracture rates in these complex populations. Gaining a greater understanding of how bone health is affected in individuals with D/ID could lead to better customized treatments for these specific populations