The Supreme Court Takes One Step Forward and the NLRB Takes One Step Backward: Redefining Constructive Concerted Activities

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act) governs the relationship between employers and employees in the United States. Specifically, section 7 of the Act 3 defines the basic rights of employees and section 8(a)4 defines employer unfair labor practices. Section 8(a)(1) generally proscribes employers from interfering with employees in the exercise of section 7 rights.\u27 Thus,many unfair labor practice cases turn on whether section 7 of the Act protects the employee activity. Section 7 protects concerted activities engaged in for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. \u27 Courts frequently struggle to determine whether given employee activities with which an employer has interfered are concerted activities. \u27 This determination is particularly difficult when one employee acts alone instead of with other employees. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board)formally announced the doctrine of constructive concerted activities in 1966 in Interboro Contractors, Inc. Under this doctrine an individual employee\u27s attempt to enforce a provision of a collective bargaining agreement is concerted activity even if the attempt does not contemplate group action. During the years since the Board promulgated the Interboro doctrine, the circuit courts split on the issue of whether and in what circumstances individual activity could constitute concerted activity. The Supreme Court recently resolved the conflict by approving the Interboro doctrine in NLRB v. City Disposal Systems, Inc. Although the Interboro doctrine is theoretically inapplicable in a nonunion context, the Board established a collateral doctrine in 1975 in Alleluia Cushion Co. In Alleluia Cushion the Board held that individual activity seeking to enforce statutory occupational safety rights was concerted activity absent a showing that other employees disavowed the activity.16 No circuit court ever approved the Alleluia Cushion doctrine and the Board recently overruled it in Meyers Industries. This Recent Development examines the doctrine of constructive concerted activities in union and nonunion contexts in light of both the Supreme Court\u27s approval of the Interboro doctrine and the NLRB\u27s rejection of Alleluia Cushion. Part II traces the history of NLRB and circuit court application of the constructive concerted activities doctrine in union and nonunion contexts. Part III discusses the City Disposal and Meyers Industries decisions. Part IV analyzes these decisions individually and conjuctively and examines the ramifications of the current definition of individual concerted activities. Finally, part IV of this Recent Development argues that the two decisions together result in an inconsistent application of section 7 protection to individual concerted activities and suggests a consolidated City Disposal-Alleluia Cushion analysis for constructive concerted activities issues in both union and nonunion settings

An Efficient Bayesian Inference Framework for Coalescent-Based Nonparametric Phylodynamics

Phylodynamics focuses on the problem of reconstructing past population size dynamics from current genetic samples taken from the population of interest. This technique has been extensively used in many areas of biology, but is particularly useful for studying the spread of quickly evolving infectious diseases agents, e.g.,\ influenza virus. Phylodynamics inference uses a coalescent model that defines a probability density for the genealogy of randomly sampled individuals from the population. When we assume that such a genealogy is known, the coalescent model, equipped with a Gaussian process prior on population size trajectory, allows for nonparametric Bayesian estimation of population size dynamics. While this approach is quite powerful, large data sets collected during infectious disease surveillance challenge the state-of-the-art of Bayesian phylodynamics and demand computationally more efficient inference framework. To satisfy this demand, we provide a computationally efficient Bayesian inference framework based on Hamiltonian Monte Carlo for coalescent process models. Moreover, we show that by splitting the Hamiltonian function we can further improve the efficiency of this approach. Using several simulated and real datasets, we show that our method provides accurate estimates of population size dynamics and is substantially faster than alternative methods based on elliptical slice sampler and Metropolis-adjusted Langevin algorithm

Interfacial energy during the emulsification of water-in-heavy crude oil emulsions

The aim of this study was to investigate the interfacial energy involved in the production of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions composed of water and a Brazilian heavy crude oil. For such purpose an experimental set-up was developed to measure the different energy terms involved in the emulsification process. W/O emulsions containing different water volume fractions (0.1, 0.25 and 0.4) were prepared in a batch calorimeter by using a high-shear rotating homogenizer at two distinct rotation speeds (14000 and 22000 rpm). The results showed that the energy dissipated as heat represented around 80% of the energy transferred to the emulsion, while around 20% contributed to the internal energy. Only a very small fraction of the energy (0.02 - 0.06%) was stored in the water-oil interface. The results demonstrated that the high energy dissipation contributes to the kinetic stability of the W/O emulsions321127137CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESThe authors are grateful to PETROBRAS S.A. and FINEP, Brazil, for the financial support to this study. We also acknowledge the grants conceded by CAPES and CNPq, Brazi

Generalized multifractality at metal-insulator transitions and in metallic phases of 2D disordered systems

We study generalized multifractality characterizing fluctuations and correlations of eigenstates in disordered systems of symmetry classes AII, D, and DIII. Both metallic phases and Andersonlocalization transitions are considered. By using the non-linear sigma-model approach, we construct pure-scaling eigenfunction observables. The construction is verified by numerical simulations of appropriate microscopic models, which also yield numerical values of the corresponding exponents. In the metallic phases, the numerically obtained exponents satisfy Weyl symmetry relations as well as generalized parabolicity (proportionality to eigenvalues of the quadratic Casimir operator). At the same time, the generalized parabolicity is strongly violated at critical points of metal-insulator transitions, signalling violation of local conformal invariance. Moreover, in classes D and DIII, even the Weyl symmetry breaks down at critical points of metal-insulator transitions. This last feature is related with a peculiarity of the sigma-model manifolds in these symmetry classes: they consist of two disjoint components. Domain walls associated with these additional degrees of freedom are crucial for ensuring Anderson localization and, at the same time, lead to the violation of the Weyl symmetry.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figure

Metal-insulator transition in a 2D system of chiral unitary class

We perform a numerical investigation of Anderson metal-insulator transition (MIT) in a twodimensional system of chiral symmetry class AIII by combining finite-size scaling, transport, density of states, and multifractality studies. The results are in agreement with the sigma-model renormalization-group theory, where MIT is driven by proliferation of vortices. We determine the phase diagram and find an apparent non-universality of several parameters on the critical line of MIT, which is consistent with the analytically predicted slow renormalization towards the ultimate fixed point of the MIT. The localization-length exponent $\nu$ is estimated as $\nu = 1.55 \pm 0.10$.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure

State Legislative Update

As the use of collaborative law increases, the need for uniform laws to help facilitate this process across state lines grew. In February 2007, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) began drafting an act to address this need. At the July 2009 meeting, the Uniform Collaborative Law Act (UCLA) was unanimously approved by the Commission and was subsequently submitted to the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates for approval. In March 2010, the house approved the amended act after the ULC made a few small changes per the house\u27s recommendation. Since receiving ABA approval, the UCLA has been passed in eight states, most recently Alabama, and introduced this year in five more

Shade Effects on Athletic Field Playing Characteristics of Overseeded and Non-Overseeded Bermudagrass

In many athletic stadiums around the world, reduced light levels from the stadium structure can significantly reduce turfgrass quality and playing characteristics. In most warm-weather stadiums, the primary surface is bermudagrass which is commonly overseeded with perennial ryegrass to provide a winter and spring playing surface. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of four shade levels on turfgrass quality and playing characteristics of overseeded and non-overseeded bermudagrass (cv. Riviera). Shade levels included a non-shaded control and shade treatments which blocked 30%, 60%, and 90% of ambient light. These shade levels resulted in average daily PAR loads of 45.1, 29.6, 16.7, and 4.7 mol PAR / m2 / day, respectively. Data collection included both quality and playability characteristics. The effects of shading became obvious as the study continued into early summer, with the 90% shade plots losing almost all cover and the 60% shade plots losing up to 40% of coverage through mid-summer. The 30% shade plots had a slight decline in turfgrass coverage, although, still retained close to 90% coverage. Based on these results, a minimum daily light load of approximately 30 mol PAR / m2 / day is needed to sustain Riviera bermudagrass at or near 100% coverage. In the overseeded plots, the only shade treatment that caused a significant reduction in turfgrass coverage was the 90% shade treatment (4.7 mol PAR / m2 / day). There was a significant decrease in the amount of bermudagrass present in the overseeded plots in mid-summer, suggesting that increased shading was causing a shift in population from the warm-season bermudagrass to the cool-season perennial ryegrass. In both overseeded and non-overseeded plots, rotational resistance (traction) decreased even with modest levels of shade , which is likely correlated to a decrease in turfgrass densit