Dennis Walton\u27s Capital Wars

[Excerpt] If Steven Spielberg were to make a movie on how the building trades are using their pension funds to create work for their members, the film would be called Capital Wars and Dennis Walton would play the part of Han Solo, says Randy Barber, union advisor and director of the Washington-based Center on Economic Organizing. It\u27s been ten years since Barber co-authored with Jeremy Rifkin the eye-opening expose The North Will Rise Again: Pensions, Politics, and Power in the 1980\u27s, which became a best- seller in the labor movement. Since that time, trade unionists have become increasingly aware that if they sit idly by and let others manage the $1.3 trillion of union-negotiated pension funds, unions will in effect be financing their own destruction. Dennis Walton has become one of the most visible proponents in the labor movement of using this pension money as a weapon to further the union cause

IAM District 100 Vs. Eastern and the Banks

The story that follows is a story of how IAM District 100, step by step, escalated a struggle over almost every major issue facing the labor movement today: concessions, control of corporate investment decisions, the power of the financial industry, management- initiated employee involvement schemes, workers\u27 education, joint control over large corporate pension funds, and union leadership style. The Machinists at Eastern would begin this struggle on the shop floor and eventually take it to Eastern\u27s stockholders meetings and to the boardrooms of the world\u27s largest financial institutions. In this bleak period for labor, where unions are battling daily against corporate demands for concessions, IAM District 100 had the harder task of ending concessions that had already been granted

Integration of on-farm biodiesel production with anaerobic digestion to maximise energy yield and greenhouse gas savings from process and farm residues

Anaerobic co-digestion of residues from the cold pressing and trans-esterification of oilseed rape (OSR) with other farm wastes was considered as a means of enhancing the sustainability of on-farm biodiesel production. The study verified the process energy yields using biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests and semi-continuous digestion trials. The results indicated that high proportions of OSR cake in the feedstock led to a decrease in volatile solids destruction and instability of the digestion process. Co-digestion with cattle slurry or with vegetable waste led to acceptable specific and volumetric methane productions, and a digestate low in potentially toxic elements (PTE). The results were used to evaluate energy balances and greenhouse gas emissions of the integrated process compared with biodiesel production alone. Co-digestion was shown to provide energy self-sufficiency and security of supply to farms, with sufficient surplus for export as fuel and electricit

Energetic and environmental benefits of co-digestion of food waste and cattle slurry: a preliminary assessment

The research evaluated the feasibility of centralised pre-processing and pasteurisation of source-separated domestic food waste followed by transport to farms for anaerobic co-digestion with dairy cattle slurry. Data from long-term experiments on the co-digestion of these two substrates was used to predict gross energy yields; net yields were then derived from full system analysis using an energy modelling tool. The ratio of cattle slurry to food waste in the co-digestion was based on the nutrient requirements of the dairy farm and was modelled using both nitrogen and phosphorous as the limiting factor. The model was run for both medium-size and large farms in which the cattle were housed either all year round or for only 50% of the year. The results showed that the addition of food waste improved energy yields per digester unit volume, with a corresponding increased potential for improving farm income by as much as 50%. Data for dairy farms in the county of Hampshire UK, which has a low density of dairy cattle and a large population, was used as a stringent test case to verify the applicability of the concept. In this particular case the nutrient requirements of the larger farms could be satisfied, and further benefits were gained from the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions avoided through improved manure management and fertiliser imports. The results indicated that this approach offered major advantages in terms of resource conservation and pollution abatement when compared to either centralised anaerobic digestion of food waste or energy recovery from thermal treatmen

Twisted supersymmetry and the topology of theory space

We present examples of four dimensional, non-supersymmetric field theories in which ultraviolet supersymmetry breaking effects, such as bose-fermi splittings and the vacuum energy, are suppressed by $(\alpha/4 \pi)^{N}$, where $\alpha$ is a weak coupling factor and $N$ can be made arbitrarily large. The particle content and interactions of these models are conveniently represented by a graph with sites and links, describing the gauge theory space structure. While the theories are supersymmetric ``locally'' in theory space, supersymmetry can be explicitly broken by topological obstructions.Comment: 9 pages, revtex

Bioavailability of Dissolved Organic Matter in the North Inlet Estuary

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an important source of carbon and energy for microbial food webs in estuaries. The export of DOM from estuaries to the coastal ocean influences shelf productivity and biogeochemical cycles. Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is an important component of the DOM pool that absorbs light, and is photoreactive. There are various optical properties of CDOM that can be used to indicate the sources of DOM, such as whether or not it is derived from terrestrial or marine environments. In this study, the sources and bioavailability of DOM were characterized in the North Inlet estuary near Georgetown, South Carolina. Samples were collected from North Inlet for a full tidal cycle during three different times of the year. Water samples were incubated in the dark for a period of 45 to 75 days to determine the bioavailability of DOM. The DOM in the incubations was degraded by bacteria and the rate of degradation was calculated by periodically sampling to incubations for the concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) as well as for optical properties of CDOM. It was found that composition, concentration, and bioavailability of DOM varied considerably on both a daily and seasonal timescale in North Inlet. During periods of ebbing and low tides, there was a higher concentration of DOM and its composition had a larger component that was derived from terrestrial plants. The bioavailability of DOM was highest during low tides when there had not been much precipitation prior to sampling, indicating the DOM was primarily marsh derived. Periods of high runoff from the surrounding forested watershed exported much higher concentrations of DOM into the estuary, but this DOM was less bioavailable than the marsh derived DOM. It was also found 3 that there was a greater abundance of DOM during the summer relative to the fall and it was more terrestrially derived and bioavailable. The bioavailability of DOM in North Inlet was high when compared to other studies of DOM bioavailability in Southeastern United States estuaries and two Danish estuaries. However, the measured rate of degradation in North Inlet indicated that very little DOM is degraded while in the estuary. These findings show that the North Inlet estuary is a major source of DOM to the coastal ocean and other studies indicate the majority of its degradation occurs on the continental shelf

Assessing Potential Shale Gas Impacts on Groundwater Resources: Recommendations for Groundwater Monitoring and Definition of Baseline Conditions

Exploitation of shale gas by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is highly controversial and concerns have been raised regarding induced risks from this extraction technique. The SHEER project, an EU Horizon 2020-funded project, is developing best practice to understand, prevent and mitigate the potential short- and long-term environmental impacts and risks of shale gas exploration and exploitation. Three major potential impacts were identified: groundwater contamination, air pollution and induced seismicity. This presentation will deal with the hydrogeological aspect. As part of the SHEER project, baseline and operational groundwater monitoring was carried out at an extraction site in Wysin, Northern Poland. Baseline monitoring was carried out from December 2015 to June 2016 in four monitoring wells intercepting the main drinking water aquifer located in Quaternary sediments. Fracking operations occurred in two deviated horizontal wells in June and July 2016. Monitoring continued for 1.5 years post-fracking although no significant gas production occurred during this period. Collected data include measurements of groundwater level, electrical conductivity and temperature at 15-min intervals, field measurements of groundwater physico-chemical parameters and frequent sampling for laboratory analyses. Groundwater samples were analysed for a range of constituents including dissolved gases and stable isotopes. This presentation will provide an overview of the monitoring results and the ensuing recommendations for groundwater monitoring in the context of shale gas exploitation. These recommendations relate to: (1) site characterisation prior to any activity, (2) baseline and on-going groundwater monitoring, and (3) relationships between regulators, operators and general public. During the presentation, we will particularly focus on the monitoring methodology and establishing accurate background values for key parameters for baseline monitoring, including suggestions on how to clearly communicate the information to the general public. We will conclude on techniques to identify deviations from baseline values

The State of Solutions for Autonomous Systems Safety

Autonomous Systems are seeing increasing use and increasingly safety-significant application. Consequently, the safety of autonomous systems is an important topic. To reflect this importance the Safety Critical Systems Club (SCSC) has established the Safety of Autonomous Systems Working Group (SASWG). This paper introduces the SASWG and describes (and justifies) the approach it is taking. A running example is used to illustrate challenges, which are organised against three “difficulty horizons”. Potential solutions to some of the challenges are outlined; possible research directions are suggested for other challenges. Some proposed but invalid solutions are also identified. Overall, whilst the SASWG acknowledges the very significant benefits that could accrue from autonomous systems, it believes their development and implementation should be pursued carefully and thoughtfully

A model for predicting dissolved organic carbon distribution in a reservoir water using fluorescence spectroscopy

A number of water treatment works (WTW) in the north of England (UK) have experienced problems in reducing the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) present in the water to a sufficiently low level. The problems are experienced in autumn/ winter when the colour increases and the coagulant dose at the WTW needs to be increased in order to achieve sufficient colour removal. However, the DOC content of the water varies little throughout the year. To investigate this further, the water was fractionated using resin adsorption techniques into its hydrophobic (fulvic and humic acid fractions) and hydrophilic (acid and non-acid fractions) components. The fractionation process yields useful information on the changing concentration of each fraction but is time consuming and labour intensive. Here, a method of rapidly determining fraction concentration was developed using fluorescence spectroscopy. The model created used synchronous spectra of fractionated material compared against bulk water spectra and predicted the fraction concentrations to within 10% for a specific water. The model was unable to predict fraction concentrations for waters from a different watershed