Current Research on Industrial Relations Regulation, Bargaining Theory, Progressive Discipline, and Occupational Influences on Unionism

We are pleased to be able to present, in this third volume of the Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations series, some original, important, and in some cases provocative research on industrial relations regulation, bargaining theory, progressive discipline, and occupational influences on unionism. In what follows we will briefly review each of the papers in the volume and pinpoint what we believe to be the major contributions each makes to the advancement of research in industrial relations. Where relevant, we will also mention questions left unresolved by the research at hand and potential directions for future research on the subjects under study

Decision Structures in Franchise Systems of the Plural Form

Many successful franchise chains directly own a positive fraction of stores --- a structure referred to as plural form. We propose that this ownership structure is chosen as a commitment not to expropriate franchisees. The theoretical model is based on an empirical analysis of contract and interview data from the US fast-food sector and well known stylized facts: First, franchisees typically have strong contractual obligations to implement activities selected by the chain. Second, franchisees pay a revenue-based royalty to the chain. Therefore, the chain has incentives to select inefficient activities that yield high revenues but are too costly. If uniform standards require that activities must be the same in company-owned and franchise stores, a substantial fraction of company-owned stores works as a commitment device to select more efficient activities. The theoretical analysis further predicts that a strong contractual commitment to uniform standards is preferable if the fraction of company-owned stores is sufficiently high. This prediction is supported by our data.franchising, plural form, contracts

Decrease in the high energy X-ray flux from Cen XR-2. Search for X-rays from the large and small Magellanic clouds

High energy X ray sky survey data on decreased intensity of Cen XR-2, and X ray energy flux from Magellanic clouds - Mildura, Australia, October 15 and 24, 196

Latitudinal Shear Instabilities during Type I X-ray Bursts

Coherent oscillations have been observed during Type I X-ray bursts from 14 accreting neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries, providing important information about their spin frequencies. However, the origin of the brightness asymmetry on the neutron star surface producing these oscillations is still not understood. We study the stability of a zonal shearing flow on the neutron star surface using a shallow water model. We show that differential rotation of >2% between pole and equator, with the equator spinning faster than the poles, is unstable to hydrodynamic shear instabilities. The unstable eigenmodes have properties well-matched to burst oscillations: low azimuthal wavenumber m, wave speeds 1 or 2% below the equatorial spin rate, and e-folding times close to a second. Instability is related to low frequency buoyantly driven r-modes that have a mode frequency within the range of rotation frequencies in the differentially rotating shell. We discuss the implications for burst oscillations. Growth of shear instabilities may explain the brightness asymmetry in the tail of X-ray bursts, although some fine tuning of the level of differential rotation and a spin frequency near 300 Hz are required in order for the fastest growing mode to have m=1. If shear instabilities are to operate during a burst, temperature contrasts of 30% across the star must be created during ignition and spreading of the flash.Comment: To appear in ApJ (12 pages, 11 figures

Decision Structures in Franchise Systems of the Plural Form

Many successful franchise chains directly own a positive fraction of stores --- a structure referred to as plural form. We propose that this ownership structure is chosen as a commitment not to expropriate franchisees. The theoretical model is based on an empirical analysis of contract and interview data from the US fast-food sector and well known stylized facts: First, franchisees typically have strong contractual obligations to implement activities selected by the chain. Second, franchisees pay a revenue-based royalty to the chain. Therefore, the chain has incentives to select inefficient activities that yield high revenues but are too costly. If uniform standards require that activities must be the same in company-owned and franchise stores, a substantial fraction of company-owned stores works as a commitment device to select more efficient activities. The theoretical analysis further predicts that a strong contractual commitment to uniform standards is preferable if the fraction of company-owned stores is sufficiently high. This prediction is supported by our data

On the Robustness of NK-Kauffman Networks Against Changes in their Connections and Boolean Functions

NK-Kauffman networks {\cal L}^N_K are a subset of the Boolean functions on N Boolean variables to themselves, \Lambda_N = {\xi: \IZ_2^N \to \IZ_2^N}. To each NK-Kauffman network it is possible to assign a unique Boolean function on N variables through the function \Psi: {\cal L}^N_K \to \Lambda_N. The probability {\cal P}_K that \Psi (f) = \Psi (f'), when f' is obtained through f by a change of one of its K-Boolean functions (b_K: \IZ_2^K \to \IZ_2), and/or connections; is calculated. The leading term of the asymptotic expansion of {\cal P}_K, for N \gg 1, turns out to depend on: the probability to extract the tautology and contradiction Boolean functions, and in the average value of the distribution of probability of the Boolean functions; the other terms decay as {\cal O} (1 / N). In order to accomplish this, a classification of the Boolean functions in terms of what I have called their irreducible degree of connectivity is established. The mathematical findings are discussed in the biological context where, \Psi is used to model the genotype-phenotype map.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, Accepted in Journal of Mathematical Physic

Carbon release by selective alloying of transition metal carbides

We have performed first principles density functional theory calculations on TiC alloyed on the Ti sublattice with 3d transition metals ranging from Sc to Zn. The theory is accompanied with experimental investigations, both as regards materials synthesis as well as characterization. Our results show that by dissolving a metal with a weak ability to form carbides, the stability of the alloy is lowered and a driving force for the release of carbon from the carbide is created. During thin film growth of a metal carbide this effect will favor the formation of a nanocomposite with carbide grains in a carbon matrix. The choice of alloying elements as well as their concentrations will affect the relative amount of carbon in the carbide and in the carbon matrix. This can be used to design the structure of nanocomposites and their physical and chemical properties. One example of applications is as low-friction coatings. Of the materials studied, we suggest the late 3d transition metals as the most promising elements for this phenomenon, at least when alloying with TiC.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Electronic structure and chemical bonding of nc-TiC/a-C nanocomposites

The electronic structure of nanocrystalline (nc-) TiC/amorphous C nanocomposites has been investigated by soft x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy. The measured spectra at the Ti 2p and C 1s thresholds of the nanocomposites are compared to those of Ti metal and amorphous C. The corresponding intensities of the electronic states for the valence and conduction bands in the nanocomposites are shown to strongly depend on the TiC carbide grain size. An increased charge-transfer between the Ti 3d-eg states and the C 2p states has been identified as the grain size decreases, causing an increased ionicity of the TiC nanocrystallites. It is suggested that the charge-transfer occurs at the interface between the nanocrystalline TiC and the amorphous C matrix and represents an interface bonding which may be essential for the understanding of the properties of nc-TiC/amorphous C and similar nanocomposites.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.23510

Next-to-leading Log Resummation of Scalar and Pseudoscalar Higgs Boson Differential Cross-Sections at the LHC and Tevatron

The region of small transverse momentum in q qbar- and gg-initiated processes must be studied in the framework of resummation to account for the large, logarithmically-enhanced contributions to physical observables. In this paper, we will calculate the fixed order next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative total and differential cross-sections for both a Standard Model (SM) scalar Higgs boson and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model's (MSSM) pseudoscalar Higgs boson in the Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) where the mass of the top quark is taken to be infinite. Resummation coefficients B^2_g, C^2_gg for the total cross-section resummation for the pseudoscalar case are given, as well as C^1_gg for the differential cross-section.Comment: 18 pages, REVTeX4, 5 eps figures. v2: Typos corrected, references added, a discussion of uncertainties was adde

Proposal for a single-molecule field-effect transistor for phonons

We propose a practical realization of a field-effect transistor for phonons. Our device is based on a single ionic polymeric molecule and it gives modulations as large as -25% in the thermal conductance for feasible temperatures and electric field magnitudes. Such effect can be achieved by reversibly switching the acoustic torsion mode into an optical mode through the coupling of an applied electric field to the dipole moments of the monomers. This device can pave the way to the future development of phononics at the nanoscale or molecular scale