Union Wage Determination: Policy Implications and Outlook

macroeconomics, wage determination, inflation, unions

Measuring, Monitoring and Managing Legal Complexity

The American legal system is often accused of being “too complex.” For example, most Americans believe the Tax Code is too complex. But what does that mean, and how would one prove the Tax Code is too complex? Both the descriptive claim that an element of law is complex and the normative claim that it is too complex should be empirically testable hypotheses. Yet, in fact, very little is known about how to measure legal complexity, much less how to monitor and manage it. Legal scholars have begun to employ the science of complex adaptive systems, also known as complexity science, to probe these kinds of descriptive and normative questions about the legal system. This body of work has focused primarily on developing theories of legal complexity and positing reasons for, and ways of, managing it. Legal scholars thus have skipped the hard part—developing quantitative metrics and methods for measuring and monitoring law’s complexity. But the theory of legal complexity will remain stuck in theory until it moves to the empirical phase of study. Thinking about ways of managing legal complexity is pointless if there is no yardstick for deciding how complex the law should be. In short, the theory of legal complexity cannot be put to work without more robust empirical tools for identifying and tracking complexity in legal systems. This Article explores legal complexity at a depth not previously undertaken in legal scholarship. First, the Article orients the discussion by briefly reviewing complexity science scholarship to develop descriptive, prescriptive, and ethical theories of legal complexity. The Article then shifts to the empirical front, identifying potentially useful metrics and methods for studying legal complexity. It draws from complexity science to develop methods that have been or might be applied to measure different features of legal complexity. Next, the Article proposes methods for monitoring legal complexity over time, in particular by conceptualizing what we call Legal Maps—a multi-layered, active representation of the legal system network at work. Finally, the Article concludes with a preliminary examination of how the measurement and monitoring techniques could inform interventions designed to manage legal complexity by using currently available machine learning and user interface design technologies

Measuring, Monitoring and Managing Legal Complexity

The American legal system is often accused of being “too complex.” For example, most Americans believe the Tax Code is too complex. But what does that mean, and how would one prove the Tax Code is too complex? Both the descriptive claim that an element of law is complex and the normative claim that it is too complex should be empirically testable hypotheses. Yet, in fact, very little is known about how to measure legal complexity, much less how to monitor and manage it. Legal scholars have begun to employ the science of complex adaptive systems, also known as complexity science, to probe these kinds of descriptive and normative questions about the legal system. This body of work has focused primarily on developing theories of legal complexity and positing reasons for, and ways of, managing it. Legal scholars thus have skipped the hard part—developing quantitative metrics and methods for measuring and monitoring law’s complexity. But the theory of legal complexity will remain stuck in theory until it moves to the empirical phase of study. Thinking about ways of managing legal complexity is pointless if there is no yardstick for deciding how complex the law should be. In short, the theory of legal complexity cannot be put to work without more robust empirical tools for identifying and tracking complexity in legal systems. This Article explores legal complexity at a depth not previously undertaken in legal scholarship. First, the Article orients the discussion by briefly reviewing complexity science scholarship to develop descriptive, prescriptive, and ethical theories of legal complexity. The Article then shifts to the empirical front, identifying potentially useful metrics and methods for studying legal complexity. It draws from complexity science to develop methods that have been or might be applied to measure different features of legal complexity. Next, the Article proposes methods for monitoring legal complexity over time, in particular by conceptualizing what we call Legal Maps—a multi-layered, active representation of the legal system network at work. Finally, the Article concludes with a preliminary examination of how the measurement and monitoring techniques could inform interventions designed to manage legal complexity by using currently available machine learning and user interface design technologies

Cellulose is degraded during phloem necrosis of Hevea brasiliensis

La nécrose du phloème d'Hévéa est une grave maladie répandue dans les plantations ouest-africaines. A l'échelle ultrastructurale, l'altération des parois cellulaires est la modification la plus fréquemment observée. Une étude cytochimique a été entreprise dans le but de mieux comprendre les mécanismes de la dégradation de la cellulose des parois. Les observations microscopiques ont également montré la présence de vésicules paramurales et de dépôts le long des parois dans les espaces périplasmiques, suggérant la participation directe, ou indirecte, de microorganismes à la nécrose du phloème d'Hévéa. (D'après résumé d'auteur

From Fake Supergravity to Superstars

The fake supergravity method is applied to 5-dimensional asymptotically AdS spacetimes containing gravity coupled to a real scalar and an abelian gauge field. The motivation is to obtain bulk solutions with R x S^3 symmetry in order to explore the AdS/CFT correspondence when the boundary gauge theory is on R x S^3. A fake supergravity action, invariant under local supersymmetry through linear order in fermion fields, is obtained. The gauge field makes things more restrictive than in previous applications of fake supergravity which allowed quite general scalar potentials. Here the superpotential must take the form W(\phi) ~ exp(-k\phi) + c exp(2\phi/(3k)), and the only freedom is the choice of the constant k. The fermion transformation rules of fake supergravity lead to fake Killing spinor equations. From their integrability conditions, we obtain first order differential equations which we solve analytically to find singular electrically charged solutions of the Lagrangian field equations. A Schwarzschild mass term can be added to produce a horizon which shields the singularity. The solutions, which include "superstars", turn out to be known in the literature. We compute their holographic parameters.Comment: 42 pages, 3 figure

Quasiparticle spectrum of d-wave superconductors in the mixed state: a large Fermi-velocity anisotropy study

The quasiparticle spectrum of a two-dimensional d-wave superconductor in the mixed state, H_c1 << H << H_c2, is studied for large values of the ``anisotropy ratio'' alpha_D = v_F/v_Delta. For a square vortex lattice rotated by 45 degrees from the quasiparticle anisotropy axes (and the usual choice of Franz--Tesanovic singular gauge transformation) we determine essential features of the band structure asymptotically for large alpha_D, using an effective one-dimensional model, and compare them to numerical calculations. We find that several features of the band structure decay to zero exponentially fast for large alpha_D. Using a different choice of singular gauge transformation, we obtain a different band structure, but still find qualitative agreement between the 1D and full 2D calculations. Finally, we distort the square lattice into a non-Bravais lattice. Both the one- and two-dimensional numerical calculations of the energy spectra show a gap around zero-energy, with our gauge choice, and the two excitation spectra agree reasonably well.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, revte

A new strategy to maximize organic matter valorization in municipalities: combination of urban wastewater with kitchen food waste and its treatment with AnMBR technology

[EN] The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of treating the kitchen food waste (FW) jointly with urban wastewater (WW) in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) by anaerobic membrane technology (AnMBR). The experience was carried out in six different periods in an AnMBR pilot-plant for a total of 536 days, varying the SRT, HRT and the food waste penetration factor (PF) of food waste disposers. The results showed increased methane production of up to 190% at 70 days SRT, 24 hours HRT and 80% PF, compared with WW treatment only. FW COD and biodegradability were higher than in WW, so that the incorporation of FW into the treatment increases the organic load and the methane production and reduces sludge production (0.142 vs 0.614 kg VSSkg removed COD-1, at 70 days SRT, 24 hours HRT and 80% PF, as compared to WW treatment only).This research work was possible thanks to financial support from Generalitat Valenciana (project PROMETE0/2012/029) which is gratefully acknowledged. Besides, support from FCC Aqualia participation in INNPRONTA 2011 IISIS IPT-20111023 project (partially funded by The Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) and from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) is gratefully acknowledged.Moñino Amorós, P.; Aguado García, D.; Barat, R.; Jiménez, E.; Giménez, J.; Seco, A.; Ferrer, J. (2017). A new strategy to maximize organic matter valorization in municipalities: combination of urban wastewater with kitchen food waste and its treatment with AnMBR technology. Waste Management. 62:274-289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.02.006S2742896

Ac Stark Effects and Harmonic Generation in Periodic Potentials

The ac Stark effect can shift initially nonresonant minibands in semiconductor superlattices into multiphoton resonances. This effect can result in strongly enhanced generation of a particular desired harmonic of the driving laser frequency, at isolated values of the amplitude.Comment: RevTeX, 10 pages (4 figures available on request), Preprint UCSBTH-93-2