Frustrated Demand for Unionisation: the Case of the United States and Canada Revisited

In this paper we demonstrate that there is a substantial union representation gap in the United States. We arrive at this conclusion by comparing Canadian and American worker responses to questions relating to desired union representation. We find that a majority of the gap in union density between Canada and the US is a function of greater frustrated demand on the part of American workers. We then estimate potential union density rates for the United States and Canada and find that, given current levels of union membership in both countries, if effective demand for unionisation among non-union workers were realised, then this would imply equivalently higher rates of unionisation (37 and 36 percent in the US and Canada respectively). These results cast some doubt on the view that even minor reforms to labour legislation in the US, to bring them in line with those in most Canadian jurisdictions, would do nothing to improve the rate of organising success in the United States. The results also have implications for countries such as Britain who have recently moved closer to a Wagner-Act model of statutory recognition.Frustrated Demand for Unionisation: the Case of the United States and Canada Revisited

Reward Enhances Pain Discrimination in Humans

The notion that reward inhibits pain is a well-supported observation in both humans and animals, allowing suppression of pain reflexes to acquired rewarding stimuli. However, a blanket inhibition of pain by reward would also impair pain discrimination. In contrast, early counterconditioning experiments implied that reward might actually spare pain discrimination. To test this hypothesis, we investigated whether discriminative performance was enhanced or inhibited by reward. We found in adult human volunteers (N = 25) that pain-based discriminative ability is actually enhanced by reward, especially when reward is directly contingent on discriminative performance. Drift-diffusion modeling shows that this relates to an augmentation of the underlying sensory signal strength and is not merely an effect of decision bias. This enhancement of sensory-discriminative pain-information processing suggests that whereas reward can promote reward-acquiring behavior by inhibition of pain in some circumstances, it can also facilitate important discriminative information of the sensory input when necessary

Enquiry Pull Research: An Ethnomethodological Approach to Lean Construction Research or a Lean Approach to Ethnomethodological Research

This paper assembles some principals from three strands of thought: lean theory; ethnomethodology; and Wittgensteinian philosophy. These are considered with a view to their impact on research design and used here as a basis for an initial exploration of a candidate research topic, in order to illustrate this impact. Principles of Lean Theory are considered, along with those from Wittgensteinian social enquiry and Ethnomethodology, in order to suggest a strategy for Lean Research. These are applied to the intial consideration of a candidate research topic, in order to illustrate the argument

Health, wealth and party in inter-war London

ABSTRACTThis article examines public health spending, health outcomes and political complexion in London's 28 Metropolitan Borough Councils (MBCs) in the inter-war period. It describes the place of the MBCs in the governance of the capital and demonstrates the variety of experience across the different boroughs in terms of wealth, politics and mortality. Searching for potential causes of differences in outcomes, it discovers some positive statistical relationships between the extent of Labour party presence on the councils, local spending and health outcomes. Our tentative conclusion is that local democratic processes could lead to distinctive and beneficial public health policies, albeit within the context of other local and structural determining factors.</jats:p

Tools for decoding ubiquitin signaling in DNA repair

The maintenance of genome stability requires dedicated DNA repair processes and pathways that are essential for the faithful duplication and propagation of chromosomes. These DNA repair mechanisms counteract the potentially deleterious impact of the frequent genotoxic challenges faced by cells from both exogenous and endogenous agents. Intrinsic to these mechanisms, cells have an arsenal of protein factors that can be utilised to promote repair processes in response to DNA lesions. Orchestration of the protein factors within the various cellular DNA repair pathways is performed, in part, by post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, ubiquitin, SUMO and other ubiquitin-like modifiers (UBLs). In this review, we firstly explore recent advances in the tools for identifying factors involved in both DNA repair and ubiquitin signaling pathways. We then expand on this by evaluating the growing repertoire of proteomic, biochemical and structural techniques available to further understand the mechanistic basis by which these complex modifications regulate DNA repair. Together, we provide a snapshot of the range of methods now available to investigate and decode how ubiquitin signaling can promote DNA repair and maintain genome stability in mammalian cells

Producing pulses in the southern agricultural region

The development of pulses in Western Australia has undergone tremendous advances over the past 12 years. From a tiny industry in the early 1990’s where the knowledge of both scientists and farmers was very limited, we now have a robust industry with production packages and improved varieties for all the grain legumes species that are well suited to our environment. This book, which is both comprehensive and practical, collates much of the information gathered through pulse research and commercial experience over the past 10 years and will be valuable to all pulse growers, agronomists, students and industry advisors alike. The knowledge presented in this book has resulted from the dedicated efforts of scientists and industry specialists in Western Australia, working hand-in-hand with leading farmers, together with generous funding from the State Government and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1154/thumbnail.jp

Producing pulses in the northern agricultural region

Pulses, like most other temperate crops, are ideally suited to environments with mild temperatures, adequate rainfall and free draining soils that have a deep uniform profile, a medium to fine texture and slightly acid to neutral pH (6.5-7.5). Pulses when grown on these soils and in these environments produce reliable yields, are relatively easy to manage and achieve good returns on investment. Pulses can be grown very successfully in less ideal situations, but must then be managed carefully to ensure reliable yields. The different pulse species, and even different varieties of the same species, vary in how tolerant they are of less than ideal conditions. Understanding how pulses respond to soil and environment will make it easier to successfully manage crops in the range of situations occurring in the northern agricultural region.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1157/thumbnail.jp