Two-action Compound Decision Problems Technical Report No. 87

Asymptotically optimal methods for two-action compound decision problem

The Coddling of the American Worker\u27s Mind: The Anti-Free Speech Nature of Popular Labor Law Reforms

As the nation enters an era in which a new presidential administration will likely push such labor law reforms, it is worth considering whether transparently anti-free speech reform measures make sense for the future of labor policy and law. This Article argues that they do not. Because employee free choice is furthered, not diminished, by hearing both sides of an issue, American workers should have the opportunity to hear and evaluate employer speech in the course of union campaigns. Only then can employees make an informed decision about their workplace future. In the end, freedom of speech furthers employee freedom of choice—the NLRA’s statutory goal in union elections. For these reasons, many labor law reform proposals should be rejected and seen for what they are: an attempt to suppress a particular viewpoint in furtherance of unionization, without regard for employee freedom of choice or a free and fair debate. This abstract has been taken from the author\u27s introduction

New Forms of Employer-Worker Relationships in Australian Universities

This paper aims to investigate if the 'high-performance paradigm' and a Unitary Strategic HRM approach of WorkChoices has brought about new forms of employer-worker relationships within Australian universities. In the context of these developments, this paper will first set out to examine the literature to help explain the transition of Australiaâs industrial relations system. The paper will then proceed to outline the qualitative research design before reporting and discussing the results gathered through the undertaking of semi-structured interviews with Human Resource Managers/Directors and/or representatives from Australian universities as well as acclaimed academics within the field. The results highlight that whilst WorkChoices did bring forth a new form of work practice, the new practice did not necessarily promote innovative HRM practices nor did it encourage or cultivate new forms of employer-worker relationships within Australian universitie

Experimentally investigating annealed glazing response to long-duration blast

This paper examines the response of annealed glazing panels when subject to long-duration blast loading. In particular, it quantifies glazing response metrics while varying glazing thickness, glazing area, aspect ratio, and edge conditions. With positive phases exceeding 100 ms long-duration blasts result in significant specific impulse and dynamic pressures. The transient dynamic response of annealed glazing during these events is a complex function of structural arrangement, material properties, and explosive proximity. Twelve full-scale air blast trials using a heavily armored test structure subjected 24 glazing panels to approximately 14-kPa free-field overpressure and approximately 110-ms positive-phase duration. Results are reported where it is shown that elastic-edge supports can prevent glazing breakage better than rigidly clamped arrangements when suitable panel dimensions are employed. Fragmentation modes are also demonstrated to be a function of edge conditions, with elastically supported panels producing large, angular fragments. In contrast, rigid arrangements are shown to induce localized impulsive stress transmission at clamped edges, leading to significant cracking and small fragments. Substantially different fragment masses and geometries demonstrate the need to accurately quantify edge supports when appraising fragment hazard. Quantification of peak panel deflection, breakage time, and applied breakage impulse is then presented, with results showing the influence of edge supports and aspect ratio on glazing response to be dependent on proximity to the threshold area for a particular thickness

The influence of structural arrangement on long-duration blast response of annealed glazing

This paper investigates the influence of structural arrangement on long-duration blast loaded annealed glazing via variable thickness, area, aspect ratio and edge support conditions. Initially, the findings of eighteen full-scale air-blast trials employing 33 annealed glazing panels are reported where it is demonstrated that fracture mode and fragmentation are a strong function of edge supports. Rigidly clamped edges are shown to induce localised stress transmission, producing significant cracking and small fragments. In contrast, elastic edges are shown to produce large, angular fragments, demonstrating the importance of accurately modelling edge conditions when analysing fragment hazard. Quantification of peak centre panel deflection and breakage time is then presented where variable results indicate the influence of edge supports and aspect ratio to be dependent on proximity to the threshold area as a function of glazing thickness. An initial Applied Element Method (AEM) analysis is then employed to model the influence of structural arrangement on long-duration blast-loaded annealed glazing. AEM models are shown to reasonably predict glazing fragmentation behaviour, breakage time and peak panel deflection at the moment of breakage. Thus indicating AEM's potential suitability to provide a predictive capacity for annealed glazing response during long-duration blast

Chemical spots in the absence of magnetic field in the binary HgMn star 66 Eridani

According to our current understanding, a subclass of the upper main sequence chemically peculiar stars, called mercury-manganese (HgMn), is non-magnetic. Nevertheless, chemical inhomogeneities were recently discovered on their surfaces. At the same time, no global magnetic fields stronger than 1-100 G are detected by modern studies. The goals of our study are to search for magnetic field in the HgMn binary system 66 Eri and to investigate chemical spots on the stellar surfaces of both components. Our analysis is based on high quality spectropolarimetric time-series observations obtained during 10 consecutive nights with the HARPSpol instrument at the ESO 3.6-m telescope. To increase the sensitivity of the magnetic field search we employed a least-squares deconvolution (LSD). We used spectral disentangling to measure radial velocities and study line profile variability. Chemical spot geometry was reconstructed using multi-line Doppler imaging. We report a non-detection of magnetic field in 66 Eri, with error bars 10-24 G for the longitudinal field. Circular polarization profiles also do not indicate any signatures of complex surface magnetic fields. For a simple dipolar field configuration we estimated an upper limit of the polar field strength to be 60-70 G. For the HgMn component we found variability in spectral lines of Ti, Ba, Y, and Sr with the rotational period equal to the orbital one. The surface maps of these elements reconstructed with the Doppler imaging technique, show relative underabundance on the hemisphere facing the secondary component. The contrast of chemical inhomogeneities ranges from 0.4 for Ti to 0.8 for Ba.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figure

What's so Hot about Electrons in Metal Nanoparticles?

Metal nanoparticles are excellent light absorbers. The absorption processes create highly excited electron-hole pairs and recently there has been interest in harnessing these hot charge carriers for photocatalysis and solar energy conversion applications. The goal of this Perspectives article is to describe the dynamics and energy distribution of the charge carriers produced by photon absorption, and the implications for the photocatalysis mechanism. We will also discuss how spectroscopy can be used to provide insight into the coupling between plasmons and molecular resonances. In particular, the analysis shows that the choice of material and shape of the nanocrystal can play a crucial role in hot electron generation and coupling between plasmons and molecular transitions. The detection and even calculation of many-body hot-electron processes in the plasmonic systems with continuous spectra of electrons and short lifetimes are challenging, but at the same time very interesting from the point of view of both potential applications and fundamental physics. We propose that developing an understanding of these processes will provide a pathway for improving the efficiency of plasmon-induced photocatalysis.Comment: To be published in ACS Energy. 41 pages and 8 figures, including Supplementary Informatio