3,876 research outputs found
Arbitrator Decision Making: When Are Final Offers Important?
Central to understanding the effect of arbitration schemes on the process of collective bargaining is understanding the process by which arbitrators make decisions. A model of arbitrator behavior inconventional arbitration is developed that allows the arbitration award to be a function of both the offers of the parties and the(exogenous) facts of the case. The weight that the arbitrator puts on the facts relative to the offers is hypothesized to be a function of the quality of the offers as measured by the difference between the offers. Two special cases of this model are derived: 1) the arbitrator bases the award strictly on the offers of the parties(split-the-difference) and 2) the arbitrator bases the award strictly on the facts of the case.The model is implemented empirically using data gathered from practicing arbitrators regarding their decisions in twenty-five hypothetical cases. These data have the advantage that they allow causal inference regarding the effect on the arbitration award of the facts relative to the offers. On the basis of the estimates, both of the special case models are strongly rejected. The arbitration awards are found to be influenced by both the offers of the parties and the facts of the case. In addition, the weight put on the facts of the case relative to the offers is found to vary significantly with the quality of the offers. When the offers are of low quality (far apart)the arbitrator weights the facts more heavily and the offers less heavily.These results suggest that the naive split-the difference view of arbitrator behavior, which is the basis of the critique of conventional arbitration that has led to the adoption of final-offer arbitration, is no correct in its extreme view. On the other hand,the awards are affected by the offers so that the parties can manipulate the outcome to some extent by manipulating their offers. However, the scope for this sort of influence is limited by the finding that the offers are weighted less heavily as their quality deteriorates.
Divergent Expectations as a Cause of Disagreement in Bargaining: Evidence from a Comparison of Arbitration Schemes."
One prominent explanation for disagreement in bargaining is that the parties have divergent and relatively optimistic expectations regarding the ultimate outcome if they fail to agree. The fact that settlement rates are much higher where final-offer arbitration is the dispute settlement procedure than where conventional arbitration is the dispute settlement procedure is used as the basis of a test of the role of divergent expectations in causing disagreement in negotiations. Calculations of identical-expectations contract zones using existing estimates of models of arbitrator behavior yield larger identical-expectations contract zones in conventional arbitration than in final-offer arbitration. This evidence clearly suggests that divergent expectations alone are not an adequate explanation of disagreement in labor-management negotiations. A number of alternative explanations for disagreement are suggested and evaluated.
The General Basis of Arbitrator Behavior: An Empirical Analysis of Conventional and Final-Offer Arbitration
A general model of arbitrator behavior in conventional and final-offer arbitration is developed that is based on an underlying notion of an appropriate award in a particular case. This appropriate award is defined as a function of the facts of the case independently of the offers of the parties. In conventional arbitration the arbitration award is argued to be a function of both the offers of the parties and the appropriate award. The weight that the arbitrator puts on the appropriate award relative to the offers is hypothesized to be a function of the quality of the offers as measured by the difference between the offers. In final-offer arbitration itis argued that the arbitrator chooses the offer that is closest to the appropriate award.The model is implemented empirically using data gathered from practicing arbitrators regarding their decisions in twenty-five hypothetical cases. The estimates of the general model strongly support the characterizations of arbitrator behavior in the two schemes. No substantial differences were found in the determination of the appropriate award implicit in the conventional arbitration decisions and the determination of the appropriate award implicitin the final-offer decisions.
A comparison of arbitration procedures for risk averse disputants
We propose an arbitration model framework that generalizes many previous quantitative models of final offer arbitration, conventional arbitration, and some proposed alternatives to them. Our model allows the two disputants to be risk averse and assumes that the issue(s) in dispute can be summarized by a single quantifiable value. We compare the performance of the different arbitration procedures by analyzing the gap between the disputants' equilibrium offers and the width of the contract zone that these offers imply. Our results suggest that final offer arbitration should give results superior to those of conventional arbitration.Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Gran
Supersymmetry, homology with twisted coefficients and n-dimensional knots
Let be any natural number. Let be any -dimensional knot in
. We define a supersymmetric quantum system for with the following
properties. We firstly construct a set of functional spaces (spaces of
fermionic \{resp. bosonic\} states) and a set of operators (supersymmetric
infinitesimal transformations) in an explicit way. Thus we obtain a set of the
Witten indexes for . Our Witten indexes are topological invariants for
-dimensional knots. Our Witten indexes are not zero in general. If is
equivalent to the trivial knot, all of our Witten indexes are zero. Our Witten
indexes restrict the Alexander polynomials of -knots. If one of our Witten
indexes for an -knot is nonzero, then one of the Alexander polynomials
of is nontrivial. Our Witten indexes are connected with homology with
twisted coefficients. Roughly speaking, our Witten indexes have path integral
representation by using a usual manner of supersymmetric theory.Comment: 10pages, no figure
Atomic structure of dislocation kinks in silicon
We investigate the physics of the core reconstruction and associated
structural excitations (reconstruction defects and kinks) of dislocations in
silicon, using a linear-scaling density-matrix technique. The two predominant
dislocations (the 90-degree and 30-degree partials) are examined, focusing for
the 90-degree case on the single-period core reconstruction. In both cases, we
observe strongly reconstructed bonds at the dislocation cores, as suggested in
previous studies. As a consequence, relatively low formation energies and high
migration barriers are generally associated with reconstructed
(dangling-bond-free) kinks. Complexes formed of a kink plus a reconstruction
defect are found to be strongly bound in the 30-degree partial, while the
opposite is true in the case of 90-degree partial, where such complexes are
found to be only marginally stable at zero temperature with very low
dissociation barriers. For the 30-degree partial, our calculated formation
energies and migration barriers of kinks are seen to compare favorably with
experiment. Our results for the kink energies on the 90-degree partial are
consistent with a recently proposed alternative double-period structure for the
core of this dislocation.Comment: 12 pages, two-column style with 8 postscript figures embedded. Uses
REVTEX and epsf macros. Also available at
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#rn_di
SD-208, a novel protein kinase D inhibitor, blocks prostate cancer cell proliferation and tumor Growth in Vivo by inducing G2/M cell cycle arrest
Protein kinase D (PKD) has been implicated in many aspects of tumorigenesis and progression, and is an emerging molecular target for the development of anticancer therapy. Despite recent advancement in the development of potent and selective PKD small molecule inhibitors, the availability of in vivo active PKD inhibitors remains sparse. In this study, we describe the discovery of a novel PKD small molecule inhibitor, SD-208, from a targeted kinase inhibitor library screen, and the synthesis of a series of analogs to probe the structure-activity relationship (SAR) vs. PKD1. SD-208 displayed a narrow SAR profile, was an ATP-competitive pan-PKD inhibitor with low nanomolar potency and was cell active. Targeted inhibition of PKD by SD-208 resulted in potent inhibition of cell proliferation, an effect that could be reversed by overexpressed PKD1 or PKD3. SD-208 also blocked prostate cancer cell survival and invasion, and arrested cells in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. Mechanistically, SD-208-induced G2/M arrest was accompanied by an increase in levels of p21 in DU145 and PC3 cells as well as elevated phosphorylation of Cdc2 and Cdc25C in DU145 cells. Most importantly, SD-208 given orally for 24 days significantly abrogated the growth of PC3 subcutaneous tumor xenografts in nude mice, which was accompanied by reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis and decreased expression of PKD biomarkers including survivin and Bcl-xL. Our study has identified SD-208 as a novel efficacious PKD small molecule inhibitor, demonstrating the therapeutic potential of targeted inhibition of PKD for prostate cancer treatment
'I-I' and 'I-me' : Transposing Buber's interpersonal attitudes to the intrapersonal plane
Hermans' polyphonic model of the self proposes that dialogical relationships can be established between multiple I-positions1 (e.g., Hermans, 2001a). There have been few attempts, however, to explicitly characterize the forms that these intrapersonal relationships may take. Drawing on Buber's (1958) distinction between the 'I-Thou' and 'I-It' attitude, it is proposed that intrapersonal relationships can take one of two forms: an 'I-I' form, in which one I-position encounters and confirms another I-position in its uniqueness and wholeness; and an 'I-Me' form, in which one I-position experiences another I-position in a detached and objectifying way. This article argues that this I-Me form of intrapersonal relating is associated with psychological distress, and that this is so for a number of reasons: Most notably, because an individual who objectifies and subjugates certain I-position cannot reconnect with more central I-positions when dominance reversal (Hermans, 2001a) takes place. On this basis, it is suggested that a key role of the therapeutic process is to help clients become more able to experience moments of I-I intrapersonal encounter, and it is argued that this requires the therapist to confirm the client both as a whole and in terms of each of his or her different voices
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