Developing a Consumer Right to Invoke the Boycott Exception to the Insurance Company Exemption from Federal Antitrust Laws

The McCarran-Ferguson Act provides that the business of insurance shall be subject to the laws of the several states which relate to the regulation or taxation of such business. The Act further provides that the business of insurance shall be exempt from federal antitrust laws if state regulation exists. However, an exception to this exemption exists in section 3(b) of the McCarran Act. Section 3(b) provides that nothing within the McCarran Act shall render the Sherman Act inapplicable to any agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or any act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation. Despite the seemingly clear statutory language of section 3(b), the trend of judicial construction of this statute until recently had been to narrow substantially this exception to the federal antitrust exemption. Note examines the legislative history of section 3(b) of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, the authorities which provided the traditional narrow interpretation of the boycott exception, and the effects of the Barry and Proctor decisions on insurance companies and consumers

Developing a Consumer Right to Invoke the Boycott Exception to the Insurance Company Exemption from Federal Antitrust Laws

The McCarran-Ferguson Act provides that the business of insurance shall be subject to the laws of the several states which relate to the regulation or taxation of such business. The Act further provides that the business of insurance shall be exempt from federal antitrust laws if state regulation exists. However, an exception to this exemption exists in section 3(b) of the McCarran Act. Section 3(b) provides that nothing within the McCarran Act shall render the Sherman Act inapplicable to any agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or any act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation. Despite the seemingly clear statutory language of section 3(b), the trend of judicial construction of this statute until recently had been to narrow substantially this exception to the federal antitrust exemption. Note examines the legislative history of section 3(b) of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, the authorities which provided the traditional narrow interpretation of the boycott exception, and the effects of the Barry and Proctor decisions on insurance companies and consumers

Organizational Stress in Social Care

The aim of this research project was to develop a model of understanding, coping with and preventing work-related stress in social care organizations. The research was framed conceptually in a model of organizational stress developed and adapted from Beehr’s (1998) integrative model of organizational stress. The first two stages of the research project explored by interview and survey staff and management perceptions of stress in their organizations. It was found that both acute and chronic stressors occurred and were seen to have increased; organizational stressors were also likely to be more persistent and chronic when they occurred. Interviewees wereconcerned particularly with the psychological and social effects of stress responses; these were seen as often having destructive effects on the work team and the quality of its work. Labour turnover was considered to be less of a problem in the sector than heretofore and stress-related sickness absence was seen as a possible outcome of stress but depended on prevailing attitudes in the specific organization towards taking sick leave.A survey of a wide range of staff and managers indicated that there was considerable consensus as to what the main stressors were. Client-related situations where violent, abusive behaviour and suicide attempts occur in emotionally-charged atmospheres were seen by all respondents as very stressful. Difficulties relating to teamwork and staff relationships were seen as a serious source of stress. These difficulties interfere with the teamwork and close interaction required by this kind of work. The final stage of the research used an action-oriented research approach in which a set of workshops was conducted in one of the participating organizations. An in-depth analysis was developed of staff and management perceptions of coping, positive andnegative moderators of the stress process, and team and organizational issues. The model of organizational stress was found to be accessible to staff and managers and to be applicable to a range of situations. Understanding and awareness of work stress was enhanced through an emphasis on the organizational aspects of stress. Participants perceived clearly the links between stressors, stress responses and individual andorganizational outcomes. They highlighted the importance of stress awarenessemphasising the recognition of stress in one’s colleagues; supervision was seen as an important vehicle for learning about stress and for enhancing coping strategies. Thedevelopment of an appropriate level of hardiness was considered an important coping resource which comprised both problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies. Social support was seen as an important coping resource and positive moderator of the stressprocess; counselling as a support was seen to be under-used and participants thought that it needed to be more accessible. In this respect further investigation of the role of counselling in stress prevention would be useful for social care organizations.A practical outcome was the identification and planning of preventive measures. The most important interventions for the overall prevention of stress were considered to be team-building, the focused use of supervision, and organizational support for personal development and learning. The importance of including temporary staff in team-buildingand the need to develop supervision skills to an advanced level in the organization were emphasised by the participants. Interventions were conceptualised within the preventive stress management framework of Quick et al (1997) and seen as having implications for primary and secondary prevention. Thus the main thrust of the interventions selected wastowards medium and longer-term change as part of an ongoing stress prevention plan. Such interventions can be seen as useful recommendations to many social care organizations although the mechanisms by which they might be integrated and enacted would vary from setting to setting. The issue of integration of stress prevention interventions into organizational processes and the maintenance of commitment to them represent a challenge to all organizations in the sector. A systematic monitoring of these processes would be a useful development of this study; it would contribute to learning at an organizational level and would be beneficial to many social care organizations. The type of action-oriented programme conducted in the final stage of this project would seem to offer a useful method of collecting feedback on the practice of stress prevention management. The model of organizational stress developed in this research can provide a framework within which further research inquiries can be pursued with consequent benefits for thesocial care sector

Prediction of inter packet arrival times for enhanced NR-V2X sidelink scheduling

A significant limitation of the LTE-V2X and NR-V2X sidelink scheduling mechanisms is their difficulty coping with variations in inter packet arrival times, also known as aperiodic packets. This conflicts with the fundamental characteristics of most V2X services which are triggered based on an event. e.g. ETSI Cooperative Awareness Messages (CAMs) - vehicle kinematics, Cooperative Perception Messages (CPMs) - object sensing and Decentralised Event Notification Messages (DENMs) - event occurrences. Furthermore, network management techniques such as congestion control mechanisms can result in varied inter packet arrival times. To combat this, NR-V2X introduced a dynamic grant mechanism, which we show is ineffective unless there is background periodic traffic to stabilise the sensing history upon which the scheduler makes it decisions. The characteristics of V2X services make it implausible that such periodic application traffic will exist. To overcome this significant drawback, we demonstrate that the standardised scheduling algorithms can be made effective if the event triggered arrival rate of packets can be accurately predicted. These predictions can be used to tune the Resource Reservation Interval (RRI) parameter of the MAC scheduler to negate the negative impact of aperiodicity. Such an approach allows the scheduler to achieve comparable performance to a scenario where packets arrive periodically. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, an ML model has been devised for the prediction of cooperative awareness messages, but the same principle can be abstracted to other V2X service types.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Forest Decline and Tree Mortality in a Southeastern Ohio Oak-Hickory Forest

Author Institution: Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio UniversityMany forests throughout the central Appalachians have been suspected, or observed, to be in declining health. Few studies have examined the vitality of southeastern Ohio's forests. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the health of a representative southeastern Ohio oak-hickory forest. Thirty-two 0.1 ha plots were sampled in August 1995 on the 550 ha Waterloo Wildlife Experiment Station (ODNR) in Athens County, OH. Data were collected for all living and dead stems with a DBH >10 cm (1,891 stems sampled). For living trees, a decline index (DI) was determined to evaluate the percentage of branch dieback, undersized leaves, and chlorosis. Dead trees were identified and categorized by mortality class (log vs. snag). Quercus spp. and Carya spp. accounted for 68% of all stems sampled (83% living). Among the live trees, only three species (Juglans nigra, Sassafras albidum, and Cornus florida) exhibited nonhealthy DI values. All other species were observed to be healthy or exhibiting only trace symptoms of decline. In contrast to decline, high mortality was observed for S. albidum (29.1%), Liriodendron tulipifera (21.7%), and Prunus serotina (21.6%). Quercus spp. (17.0%), and Carya spp. (16.2%) exhibited moderate mortality. Acer spp. had the highest vitality among the dominant species. Most of the observed patterns can be explained by successional dynamics and known pathogenic processes. Various incongruities emphasize the need for long-term studies of forest dynamics and forest health monitoring

Server-based and server-less BYOD solutions to support electronic learning

Over the past 10 years, bring your own device has become an emerging practice across the commercial landscape and has empowered employees to conduct work-related business from the comfort of their own phone, tablet, or other personal electronic device. Currently in the Department of Defense, and specifically the Department of the Navy, no viable solution exists for the delivery of eLearning content to a service member's personal device that satisfy existing policies. The purpose of this thesis is to explore two potential solutions: a server-based method and a server-less method, both of which would allow Marines and Sailors to access eLearning course material by way of their personal devices. This thesis will test the feasibility and functionality of our server-based and server-less solutions by implementing a basic proof of concept for each. The intent is to provide a baseline from which further research and development can be conducted, and to demonstrate how these solutions present a low-risk environment that preserves government network security while still serving as a professional military education force multiplier. Both solutions, while demonstrated with limited prototypes, have the potential to finally introduce bring your own device into the Department of the Navy's eLearning realm.http://archive.org/details/serverbasedndser1094549343Captain, United States Marine CorpsCaptain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Past and Present Forest Composition and Natural History of Deep Woods, Hocking County, Ohio

Author Institution: Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio UniversityDeep Woods, a 114-ha private preserve in Hocking County, OH, is the site of an all taxa biotic inventory (ATBI) coordinated by the Ohio Biological Survey. Here we describe the forest vegetation and natural history of the site and evaluate the role of human disturbance in structuring the regional landscape. Due to various abiotic factors, the area offers a diversity of habitats and species. The bedrock geology consists of sedimentary rock from the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian formations with alluvial deposits along a riparian corridor. At least three soil orders are represented: alfisols, inceptisols, and ultisols. As is typical of most of unglaciated Ohio, the forests here have been subjected to a long history of anthropogenic disturbance. The first inhabitants of the area were ancient moundbuilders (ca. 2500 YBP). During the 1700s, Shawnee and Delaware groups resided throughout the county. Anglo settlers drove all Native American groups out of the area by the early 1800s. The original land survey data (1801) suggested that the dominant vegetation at Deep Woods was composed of Quercus alba, Q. velutina, Carya spp., and Cornus florida (relative importance value, RIV = 34, 13, 12, 11%, respectively). Tax records show that Anglo-ownership of the property dates from the mid-1830s. County death records indicate occupations of 19th century landowners primarily as farmers. Dominant vegetation types include: hydric floodplain, mesic upland, and xeric ridgetop. Betula nigra, Carpinus caroliniana, Ulmus americana, andLiriodendron tulipifera (RIV = 16, 11, 11, 10%) dominate the floodplain. Whereas L. tulipifera, Acer saccharum, andB. alleghaniensis (RIV = 21, 15, 11%) and A rubrum, Q. prinus, and Q. alba (RIV= 27, 13, 9%) dominate the upland and ridgetop, respectively. Several other minor habitats also exist such as pasture fields, hemlock ravines, sandstone outcrops, and rockhouse formations. We conclude that the present species composition resembles the 1801 land survey, even though the post settlement disturbances were different than Native American disturbance regimes