An Evaluation of the New York State Workers’ Compensation Pilot Program for Alternative Dispute Resolution

In 1995, the State 0f New York enacted legislation authorizing the establishment of a workers\u27 compensation alternative dispute resolution pilot program for the unionized sector of the construction industry. Collective bargaining agreements could establish an alternative dispute resolution process for resolving claims (including but not limited to mediation and arbitration), use of an agreed managed care organization or list of authorized providers for medical treatment that constitutes the exclusive source of all medical and related treatment, supplemental benefits, return-to-work programs, and vocational rehabilitation programs. The legislation also directed the School ofIndustrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University (ILR) to evaluate compliance with state and federal due process requirements provided in the collective bargaining agreements authorized by this act, and the use, costs and merits of the alternative dispute resolution system established pursuant to this act. In response to this legislative mandate, ILR reviewed the research previously conducted on alternative dispute resolution (ADR), generally, and in workers\u27 compensation. This included examining the purported advantages and disadvantages of ADR, the prevalence of ADR, and published statistical or anecdotal evidence regarding the impact of ADR. ILR created a research design for claimant-level and project-level analyses, and developed data collection instruments for these analyses that included an injured worker survey for ADR claimants and claimants in the traditional (statutory)workers\u27 compensation system, an Ombudsman\u27s log, a manual of data elements pertaining to ADR and comparison group claimants, and interview questions for ADR signatories and other officials. The findings in this report draw upon a comparison of claimant-level, descriptive statistics (averages) for injured workers in the ADR and traditional (statutory) workers\u27 compensation system; the results of more sophisticated, statistical analyses of claimant-level data; and project-level information (including, but not limited to, interviews with ADR signatories and dispute resolution officials)

Correlating the Energetics and Atomic Motions of the Metal-Insulator Transition of M1 Vanadium Dioxide

Materials that undergo reversible metal-insulator transitions are obvious candidates for new generations of devices. For such potential to be realised, the underlying microscopic mechanisms of such transitions must be fully determined. In this work we probe the correlation between the energy landscape and electronic structure of the metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide and the atomic motions occurring using first principles calculations and high resolution X-ray diffraction. Calculations find an energy barrier between the high and low temperature phases corresponding to contraction followed by expansion of the distances between vanadium atoms on neighbouring sub-lattices. X-ray diffraction reveals anisotropic strain broadening in the low temperature structure's crystal planes, however only for those with spacings affected by this compression/expansion. GW calculations reveal that traversing this barrier destabilises the bonding/anti-bonding splitting of the low temperature phase. This precise atomic description of the origin of the energy barrier separating the two structures will facilitate more precise control over the transition characteristics for new applications and devices.Comment: 11 Pages, 8 Figure

Site amplification estimates in the Garigliano valley, central Italy, based on dense array measurements of ambient noise

A frequency-domain formulation of the Aki (1957, 1965) autocorrelation method has been applied to seismic noise recorded by a 100-m wide circular array deployed on soft Holocene sediments in the Garigliano river valley, where a large amplification of ground motion during earthquakes was experienced (Rovelli et al., 1988). The application of this method to ambient noise recordings demonstrates that microtremors in the valley are dispersive and dominated by surface waves. By assuming that the vertical component reflects Rayleigh wave motion, we obtain a dispersion curve that is interpreted in terms of a layered shear-wave velocity structure. Layer thicknesses are constrained by the stratigraphic information provided by a deep hole drilled in the area, and shear velocities are estimated by means of a trial-and-error approach to achieve a satisfactory fit of the ambient noise dispersion. The best-fit velocity model is used to compute a theoretical transfer function, which is then compared with an average spectral ratio obtained from earthquake weak ground motions recorded at two stations, one in the valley and the other on a limestone reference site. An overall agreement is found between the theoretical curve and the observed spectral ratios. The discrepancies that do exist may be ascribed to the assumption of 1-D inhomogeneity which considerably simplifies the theoretical transfer function. Our results show that the spatial-correlation method can be useful to infer velocity structure down to depths of hundreds of meters, when generalized geological informations are available, and can thus provide useful constraints for theoretical methodologies for the prediction of site response

Surface ruptures on cross-faults in the 24 November 1987 Superstition Hills, California, earthquake sequence

Left-lateral slip occurred on individual surface breaks along northeast-trending faults associated with the 24 November 1987 earthquake sequence in the Superstition Hills, Imperial Valley, California. This sequence included the M_s = 6.2 event on a left-lateral, northeast-trending “cross-fault” between the Superstition Hills fault (SHF) and Brawley seismic zone, which was spatially associated with the left-lateral surface breaks. Six distinct subparallel cross-faults broke at the surface, with rupture lengths ranging from about Formula to 10 km and maximum displacements ranging from 30 to 130 mm. About half a day after the M_s = 6.2 event, an M_s = 6.6 earthquake nucleated near the intersection of the cross-faults with the SHF, and rupture propagated southeast along the SHF. Whereas right-lateral slip on the SHF occurred dominantly on a single trace in a narrow zone, the cross-fault surface slip was distributed over several stands across a 10-km-wide zone. Also, whereas afterslip accounted for a large proportion of total slip on the SHF, there is no evidence for afterslip on the cross-faults. We present documentation of these surface ruptures. A simple mechanical model of faulting illustrates how the foreshock sequence may have triggered the main rupture. Displacement on other cross-faults could trigger an event on the southern San Andreas fault by a similar mechanism in the future

New apparatus for DTA at 2000 bar: thermodynamic studies on Au, Ag, Al and HTSC oxides

A new DTA (Differential Thermal Analysis) device was designed and installed in a Hot Isostatic Pressure (HIP) furnace in order to perform high-pressure thermodynamic investigations up to 2 kbar and 1200C. Thermal analysis can be carried out in inert or oxidising atmosphere up to p(O2) = 400 bar. The calibration of the DTA apparatus under pressure was successfully performed using the melting temperature (Tm) of pure metals (Au, Ag and Al) as standard calibration references. The thermal properties of these metals have been studied under pressure. The values of DV (volume variation between liquid and solid at Tm), ROsm (density of the solid at Tm) and ALPHAm (linear thermal expansion coefficient at Tm) have been extracted. A very good agreement was found with the existing literature and new data were added. This HP-DTA apparatus is very useful for studying the thermodynamics of those systems where one or more volatile elements are present, such as high TC superconducting oxides. DTA measurements have been performed on Bi,Pb(2223) tapes up to 2 kbar under reduced oxygen partial pressure (p(O2) = 0.07 bar). The reaction leading to the formation of the 2223 phase was found to occur at higher temperatures when applying pressure: the reaction DTA peak shifted by 49C at 2 kbar compared to the reaction at 1 bar. This temperature shift is due to the higher stability of the Pb-rich precursor phases under pressure, as the high isostatic pressure prevents Pb from evaporating.Comment: 6 figures, 3 tables, Thermodynamics, Thermal property, Bi-2223, fundamental valu

Quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on low-dimensional frustrated lattices

Using a lattice-gas description of the low-energy degrees of freedom of the quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the frustrated two-leg ladder and bilayer lattices we examine the magnetization process at low temperatures for these spin models. In both cases the emergent discrete degrees of freedom implicate a close relation of the frustrated quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet to the classical lattice gas with finite nearest-neighbor repulsion or, equivalently, to the Ising antiferromagnet in a uniform magnetic field. Using this relation we obtain analytical results for thermodynamically large systems in the one-dimensional case. In the two-dimensional case we perform classical Monte Carlo simulations for systems of up to $100 \times 100$ sites.Comment: Submitted to Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika (special issue dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Professor Sergei Vladimirovich Tyablikov

Boson gas in a periodic array of tubes

We report the thermodynamic properties of an ideal boson gas confined in an infinite periodic array of channels modeled by two, mutually perpendicular, Kronig-Penney delta-potentials. The particle's motion is hindered in the x-y directions, allowing tunneling of particles through the walls, while no confinement along the z direction is considered. It is shown that there exists a finite Bose- Einstein condensation (BEC) critical temperature Tc that decreases monotonically from the 3D ideal boson gas (IBG) value $T_{0}$ as the strength of confinement $P_{0}$ is increased while keeping the channel's cross section, $a_{x}a_{y}$ constant. In contrast, Tc is a non-monotonic function of the cross-section area for fixed $P_{0}$. In addition to the BEC cusp, the specific heat exhibits a set of maxima and minima. The minimum located at the highest temperature is a clear signal of the confinement effect which occurs when the boson wavelength is twice the cross-section side size. This confinement is amplified when the wall strength is increased until a dimensional crossover from 3D to 1D is produced. Some of these features in the specific heat obtained from this simple model can be related, qualitatively, to at least two different experimental situations: $^4$He adsorbed within the interstitial channels of a bundle of carbon nanotubes and superconductor-multistrand-wires Nb$_{3}$Sn.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, submitte

In search of lost hybridity: the French Daniel Deronda

Starting from a set of examples of borrowings from French in George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, I explore the various ways in which the characters’ and narrator’s use of mixed English–French utterances generates inferences which make the transcending of their mono-cultural self possible. I go on to argue that in Jumeau’s recent French translation of the novel, the reader is not given access to those inferences, resulting in the erasing of an Anglo-European, cosmopolitan identity

Comparison of the benefits of cochlear implantation versus contra-lateral routing of signal hearing aids in adult patients with single-sided deafness: study protocol for a prospective within-subject longitudinal trial

Background Individuals with a unilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss, or single-sided deafness, report difficulty with listening in many everyday situations despite having access to well-preserved acoustic hearing in one ear. The standard of care for single-sided deafness available on the UK National Health Service is a contra-lateral routing of signals hearing aid which transfers sounds from the impaired ear to the non-impaired ear. This hearing aid has been found to improve speech understanding in noise when the signal-to-noise ratio is more favourable at the impaired ear than the non-impaired ear. However, the indiscriminate routing of signals to a single ear can have detrimental effects when interfering sounds are located on the side of the impaired ear. Recent published evidence has suggested that cochlear implantation in individuals with a single-sided deafness can restore access to the binaural cues which underpin the ability to localise sounds and segregate speech from other interfering sounds. Methods/Design The current trial was designed to assess the efficacy of cochlear implantation compared to a contra-lateral routing of signals hearing aid in restoring binaural hearing in adults with acquired single-sided deafness. Patients are assessed at baseline and after receiving a contra-lateral routing of signals hearing aid. A cochlear implant is then provided to those patients who do not receive sufficient benefit from the hearing aid. This within-subject longitudinal design reflects the expected care pathway should cochlear implantation be provided for single-sided deafness on the UK National Health Service. The primary endpoints are measures of binaural hearing at baseline, after provision of a contra-lateral routing of signals hearing aid, and after cochlear implantation. Binaural hearing is assessed in terms of the accuracy with which sounds are localised and speech is perceived in background noise. The trial is also designed to measure the impact of the interventions on hearing- and health-related quality of life. Discussion This multi-centre trial was designed to provide evidence for the efficacy of cochlear implantation compared to the contra-lateral routing of signals. A purpose-built sound presentation system and established measurement techniques will provide reliable and precise measures of binaural hearing. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN33301739 (05/JUL/2013