The State of Collective Bargaining and Worker Representation in Germany: The Erosion Continues

This paper investigates trends in collective bargaining and worker representation in Germany from 2000 to 2008. It seeks to update and widen earlier analyses pointing to a decline in collective bargaining, while providing more information on the dual system as a whole. Using data from the IAB Employment Panel and the German Employment Register, we report evidence of a systematic and continuing erosion of the dual system. Not unnaturally the decline is led by developments in western Germany. Arguably, the path of erosion will continue until rough and ready convergence is reached with eastern Germany. Expressed differently, if the process of decentralization underpinning these developments once was ‘regulated’ it no longer appears to be so.erosion of the dual system, collective bargaining/works council coverage, eastern and western Germany, institutional transitions, permanent stayers, newly-founded firms, closing/failing firms

The State of Collective Bargaining and Worker Representation in Germany: The Erosion Continues

This paper investigates trends in collective bargaining and worker representation in the German private sector from 2000 to 2008. It seeks to update and widen earlier analyses pointing to a decline in collective bargaining, while providing more information on the dual system as a whole. Using data from the IAB Employment Panel and the German Employment Register, we report evidence of a systematic and continuing erosion of the dual system. Not unnaturally the decline is led by developments in western Germany. One conjecture is that the path of erosion will continue until rough and ready convergence is reached with eastern Germany in a sharp reversal of other post-unification trends.Trends in collective bargaining and worker representation; Transitions, establishment data.

The Extent of Collective Bargaining and Workplace Representation: Transitions between States and their Determinants. A Comparative Analysis of Germany and Great Britain

Industrial relations are in flux in many nations, perhaps most notably in Germany and Britain. That said, comparatively little is known in any detail of the changing pattern of the institutions of collective bargaining and worker representation in Germany and still less in both countries about firm transitions between these institutions over time. The present paper maps changes in the importance of the key institutions, 1998-2004, and explores the correlates of two-way transitions, using successive waves of the German IAB Establishment Panel and both cross-sectional and panel components of the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey. We identify the workplace correlates of the demise of collective bargaining in Britain and the erosion of sectoral bargaining in Germany, and identify the respective roles of behavioral and compositional change.

The Extent of Collective Bargaining and Workplace Representation: Transitions between States and their Determinants. A Comparative Analysis of Germany and Great Britain

Industrial relations are in flux in many nations, perhaps most notably in Germany and Britain. That said, comparatively little is known in any detail of the changing pattern of the institutions of collective bargaining and worker representation in Germany and still less in both countries about firm transitions between these institutions over time. The present paper maps changes in the importance of the key institutions, 1998-2004, and explores the correlates of two-way transitions, using successive waves of the German IAB Establishment Panel and both cross-sectional and panel components of the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey. We identify the workplace correlates of the demise of collective bargaining in Britain and the erosion of sectoral bargaining in Germany, and identify the respective roles of behavioral and compositional change.union recognition, union coverage, sectoral and firm-level collective bargaining, works councils, joint consultative committees, changes in collective bargaining/worker representation states, bargaining transitions and their determinants

The Extent of Collective Bargaining and Workplace Representation: Transitions between States and their Determinants. A Comparative Analysis of Germany and Great Britain

Industrial relations are in flux in many nations, perhaps most notably in Germany and the Britain. That said, comparatively little is known in any detail of the changing pattern of the institutions of collective bargaining and worker representation in Germany and still less in both countries about firm transitions between these institutions over time. The present paper maps changes in the importance of the key institutions, 1998-2004, and explores the correlates of two-way transitions, using successive waves of the German IAB Establishment Panel and both cross-sectional and panel components of the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey. We identify the workplace correlates of the demise of collective bargaining in Britain and the erosion of sectoral bargaining in Germany, and identify the respective roles of behavioral and compositional change.union recognition, union coverage, sectoral and firm-level collective bargaining, works councils, joint consultative committees, changes in collective bargaining/worker representation states, bargaining transitions and their determinants

Suppression of inflammation by helminths: a role for the gut microbiota?

Multiple recent investigations have highlighted the promise of helminth-based therapies for the treatment of inflammatory disorders of the intestinal tract of humans, including inflammatory bowel disease and coeliac disease. However, the mechanisms by which helminths regulate immune responses, leading to the amelioration of symptoms of chronic inflammation are unknown. Given the pivotal roles of the intestinal microbiota in the pathogenesis of these disorders, it has been hypothesized that helminth-induced modifications of the gut commensal flora may be responsible for the therapeutic properties of gastrointestinal parasites. In this article, we review recent progress in the elucidation of host-parasite-microbiota interactions in both animal models of chronic inflammation and humans, and provide a working hypothesis of the role of the gut microbiota in helminth-induced suppression of inflammation.Funding from the Isaac Newton Trust / Wellcome Trust ISSF / University of Cambridge Joint Research Grants Scheme (C.C.) and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants 1037304, 1020114 (A.L.), 1052938 (C.C.) and 613718 (P.G.) is gratefully acknowledged.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Royal Society Publishing via http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.029

Simulating a Nationally Representative Housing Sample Using EnergyPlus

This report presents a new simulation tool under development at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). This tool uses EnergyPlus to simulate each single-family home in the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), and generates a calibrated, nationally representative set of simulated homes whose energy use is statistically indistinguishable from the energy use of the single-family homes in the RECS sample. This research builds upon earlier work by Ritchard et al. for the Gas Research Institute and Huang et al. for LBNL. A representative national sample allows us to evaluate the variance in energy use between individual homes, regions, or other subsamples; using this tool, we can also evaluate how that variance affects the impacts of potential policies. The RECS contains information regarding the construction and location of each sampled home, as well as its appliances and other energy-using equipment. We combined this data with the home simulation prototypes developed by Huang et al. to simulate homes that match the RECS sample wherever possible. Where data was not available, we used distributions, calibrated using the RECS energy use data. Each home was assigned a best-fit location for the purposes of weather and some construction characteristics. RECS provides some detail on the type and age of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment in each home; we developed EnergyPlus models capable of reproducing the variety of technologies and efficiencies represented in the national sample. This includes electric, gas, and oil furnaces, central and window air conditioners, central heat pumps, and baseboard heaters. We also developed a model of duct system performance, based on in-home measurements, and integrated this with fan performance to capture the energy use of single- and variable-speed furnace fans, as well as the interaction of duct and fan performance with the efficiency of heating and cooling equipment. Comparison with RECS revealed that EnergyPlus did not capture the heating-side behavior of heat pumps particularly accurately, and that our simple oil furnace and boiler models needed significant recalibration to fit with RECS. Simulating the full RECS sample on a single computer would take many hours, so we used the 'cloud computing' services provided by Amazon.com to simulate dozens of homes at once. This enabled us to simulate the full RECS sample, including multiple versions of each home to evaluate the impact of marginal changes, in less than 3 hours. Once the tool was calibrated, we were able to address several policy questions. We made a simple measurement of the heat replacement effect and showed that the net effect of heat replacement on primary energy use is likely to be less than 5%, relative to appliance-only measures of energy savings. Fuel switching could be significant, however. We also evaluated the national and regional impacts of a variety of 'overnight' changes in building characteristics or occupant behavior, including lighting, home insulation and sealing, HVAC system efficiency, and thermostat settings. For example, our model shows that the combination of increased home insulation and better sealed building shells could reduce residential natural gas use by 34.5% and electricity use by 6.5%, and a 1 degree rise in summer thermostat settings could save 2.1% of home electricity use. These results vary by region, and we present results for each U.S. Census division. We conclude by offering proposals for future work to improve the tool. Some proposed future work includes: comparing the simulated energy use data with the monthly RECS bill data; better capturing the variation in behavior between households, especially as it relates to occupancy and schedules; improving the characterization of recent construction and its regional variation; and extending the general framework of this simulation tool to capture multifamily housing units, such as apartment buildings

Computer-Aided Designed/Computer-Aided Manufactured and Conventional Techniques in Maxillofacial Reconstruction with Free Fibula Flaps

We treated 26 patients via vascularized osteocutaneous fibula flaps for maxillofacial osseous reconstruction between September 2012 and October 2015. The CAD/CAM technique was attempted for all patients needing bony maxillofacial reconstructions. The time interval from deciding to use the CAD/CAM technique and receiving the hardware depended on the capacity of the CAD/CAM providing companies. It usually takes between 3 and 4 weeks. Hence, the CAD/CAM technique was not used for patients with rapid tumor growth or pathologic fractures of the mandible. In these urgent cases, surgery could not be delayed and the conventional technique was used. In the abovementioned time period, 11 patients underwent osseous reconstruction using CAD/CAM and 15 patients using the conventional technique. Data were collected and evaluated according to demographics, medical history, number of bone segments, and complications. Time measurements of virtual planning sessions, flap harvesting, flap ischemia, tourniquet inflation, total reconstruction, and overall operating times were additionally recorded