The Forgotten Man on the Welfare Roll: A Study of Public Subsidies for Strikers

Among the most important weapons given by the law to employees is the provision of subsidies from the public coffer for the duration of labor disputes which result in cessation of employment. By increasing the economic power of employees during strikes, the government exerts a significant influence on modem labor-management relations; yet the practical and legal consequences of subsidies to strikers have been little studied or discussed. The three major sources of public aid to strikers are welfare benefits, unemployment compensation, and food stamps

Rotation and Macroturbulence in Metal-poor Field Red Giant and Red Horizontal Branch Stars

We report the results for rotational velocities, Vrot sin i, and macroturbulence dispersion, zeta(RT), for 12 metal-poor field red giant branch stars and 7 metal-poor field red horizontal branch stars. The results are based on Fourier transform analyses of absorption line profiles from high-resolution (R ~ 120,000), high-S/N (~ 215 per pixel) spectra obtained with the Gecko spectrograph at CFHT. We find that the zeta(RT) values for the metal-poor RGB stars are very similar to those for metal-rich disk giants studied earlier by Gray and his collaborators. Six of the RGB stars have small rotational values, less than 2.0 km/sec, while five show significant rotation, over 3 km/sec. The fraction of rapidly rotating RHB stars is somewhat lower than found among BHB stars. We devise two empirical methods to translate the line-broadening results obtained by Carney et al. (2003, 2008) into Vrot sin i for all the RGB and RHB stars they studied. Binning the RGB stars by luminosity, we find that most metal-poor field RGB stars show no detectable sign, on average, of rotation. However, the most luminous stars, with M(V) <= -1.5, do show net rotation, with mean values of 2 to 4 km/sec, depending on the algorithm employed, and these stars also show signs of radial velocity jitter and mass loss.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Learning (and Teaching) On The Job: Developing and Extending the Skills Needed to Deliver Information Literacy Workshops

This article aims to bolster confidence in early career librarians or other information professionals who may be new to delivering presentations to student groups. By sharing their experiences, three librarians discuss the skills needed and show that these skills can be developed. Tom Guest, who joined the library as an early career professional in 2015; Katherine Turner, a mid-career professional who has been with the organisation ten years and only took on teaching responsibilities four years ago; Karen Carney, who joined Leeds Beckett’s Academic Support Team in 2012 soon after ending a previous career in the Civil Service

Can NFL Players Obtain Judicial Review of Arbitration Decisions on the Merits when a Typical Hourly Union Worker Cannot Obtain This Unusual Court Access?

Several recent court cases, brought on behalf of National Football League (NFL) players by their union, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), have increased media and public attention to the challenges of labor arbitrator decisions in federal courts. The Supreme Court has established a body of federal common law that places a high premium on deferring to labor arbitrator decisions and counseling against judges deciding the merits of disputes covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). A recent trend suggests federal judges have ignored this body of law and analyzed the merits of labor arbitration decisions in the NFL setting. NFL employees, as millionaires, are able to use a significant war chest, given to their union, to hire very prominent attorneys to argue their cases in federal courts after the union has lost the dispute in final and binding arbitration. Unlike a typical hourly union worker, who has very limited legal options after an arbitration award has been rendered, millionaire professional football players and their union appear to be successfully challenging labor arbitrator decisions on the merits in federal district courts. Their prominent attorneys, from major corporate law firms that tend to represent employers in workplace disputes, appear to add value in resources and skills on behalf of their rich, professional football employee clients. Do these rich financial and legal resources suggest an unusual access to judges who may be more willing to hear their novel legal arguments outside of the typical standards established by the Supreme Court’s federal arbitration jurisprudence? This Article explores the recent access to court that NFL players have been able to obtain in challenging decisions made pursuant to a CBA. The Article argues that the financial resources of these unique union employees have led to the unusual access and consideration by federal trial judges in reviewing the merits of decisions that typically would not be considered under federal labor arbitration law. Overall, however, the record also suggests that the immediate appellate courts have responded to overturn this unusual consideration of the merits of labor arbitration decisions by reversing those initial court opinions. This Article concludes that, because of the strong public interest in labor arbitration decisions involving the NFLPA, the federal courts must normally defer to the arbitrator’s decision regardless of the merits. Otherwise, a typical union worker challenging a labor arbitrator’s decision will be left with the wrong perception about access to justice and believe that one must be rich to have a federal judge consider the merits of a labor dispute

Modelling Electronic Circuit Failures using a Xilinx FPGA System

FPGAs are a ubiquitous electronic component utilised in a wide range of electronic systems across many industries. Almost all modern FPGAs employ SRAM based configuration memory elements which are susceptible to radiation induced soft errors. In high altitude and space applications, as well as in the nuclear and defence industries, such circuits must operate reliably in radiation-rich environments. A range of soft error mitigation techniques have been proposed but testing and qualification of new fault tolerant circuits can be an expensive and time consuming process. A novel method for simulating radiation-induced soft errors is presented that operates entirely within a laboratory environment and requires no hazardous exposure to radiation or expensive airborne test rigs. A system utilising modular redundancy is then implemented and tested under the new method. The test system is further demonstrated in conjunction with a software flight simulator to test single electronic modules in the context of active service on board a passenger aircraft and the effects of failure under radiation induced soft errors are observed. Our research proposes a test regime in which design strategies for self-healing circuits can be compared and demonstrated to work