Pregnancy and Hiring Discrimination

The employer looks over the application on his desk. The applicant has the right educational requirements; her references are impressive; she has experience which would greatly benefit her in the position. She looks like a good prospect. The employer buzzes his secretary and requests that the applicant be shown to his office for an interview. As the applicant enters the room he rises to meet her. Half way out of his chair he stops. Printed on the front of the woman\u27s shirt are the letters B-A-B-Y with an arrow pointing down to the slight bulge at the woman\u27s stomach. Politely introducing himself, the employer tells the woman that there are no positions available for her at this time. He ushers her out the door, promising to call her if something should open up for which she is qualified. Is this discrimination? The answer is a qualified yes. In the past decade, the courts have been active in the area of gender-based discrimination. Using the protections afforded by the Constitution, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other statutes, the courts have increased the number of actions considered discriminatory while limiting the acceptable reasons for not hiring women. In this context, the courts have occasionally reviewed allegations of pregnancy discrimination. However, the area has proved more troublesome to the courts than non-pregnancy discrimination because pregnant women who work have traditionally been regarded as endangering their lives and the lives of their babies. Further, the uniqueness of pregnancy causes problems for the courts; pregnancy only affects women; it is a disability without being an illness; it has an aspect of voluntariness that other disabilities do not. In some cases, the charges have been that women were fired or lost benefits because they became pregnant. In others, women claimed they were not hired solely because they were women. Only a few cases have been brought in which a woman claimed she was not hired because she was pregnant. As more and more women choose to have both a career and a family, it seems probable that failure to hire due to pregnancy cases will become common. This note will explore the rights of both the potential employer and the pregnant applicant. Initially, the prohibitions against discrimination and the defenses available to the employer will be examined. Next, the cases involving pregnancy discrimination will be reviewed in depth. Although none of these cases involve the hiring of pregnant women, the courts\u27 attitudes toward pregnancy can be determined. Finally, the holdings from these cases will be compared to holdings from hiring discrimination cases to see if some guidelines can be developed for the employer who is faced with a pregnant applicant

Solid propellant rocket motor

The characteristics of a solid propellant rocket engine with a controlled rate of thrust buildup to a desired thrust level are discussed. The engine uses a regressive burning controlled flow solid propellant igniter and a progressive burning main solid propellant charge. The igniter is capable of operating in a vacuum and sustains the burning of the propellant below its normal combustion limit until the burning propellant surface and combustion chamber pressure have increased sufficiently to provide a stable chamber pressure

Greater than the sum of the parts? unpacking ethics of care within a community supported agriculture scheme

Book synopsis: Reconnecting so-called alternative food geographies back to the mainstream food system - especially in light of the discursive and material 'transgressions' currently happening between alternative and conventional food networks, this volume critically interrogates and evaluates what stands for 'food politics' in these spaces of transgression now and in the near future and addresses questions such as: What constitutes 'alternative' food politics specifically and food politics more generally when organic and other 'quality' foods have become mainstreamed? What has been the contribution so far of an 'alternative food movement' and its potential to leverage further progressive change and/or make further inroads into conventional systems? What are the empirical and theoretical bases for understanding the established and growing 'transgressions' between conventional and alternative food networks? Offering a better understanding of the evolving position of the corporate food system vis a vis alternative food networks, this book considers the prospects for economic, social, cultural and material transformations led by an increasingly powerful and legitimated alternative food network

An historical inquiry into the political and cultural context for the emergence of a television aesthetic in the nineteen-fifties

This inquiry is concerned with the examination of an aesthetic discourse of television as it emerged in the early nineteen-fifties. The set of critical texts analyzed are considered as evidence of a shared disposition constitutive of a coherent discourse that regarded television as an aesthetic medium, or, at minimum, to embody aesthetic potentials. The inquiry seeks to discern the cultural and historical conditions whereby an aesthetic analysis of television could be undertaken. This involves retracing genealogically the origins of the aesthetic of television through the analysis of critical discourses of popular media and aesthetics which emerged at the turn of the century in the United States, placing the development of a television aesthetic within the historical context of discourses that sought to legitimize aesthetic criticism of popular culture. The television aesthetic is seen to arise neither ex nihilo, nor as the simple outcome of the reapplication of a coherent "tradition" of criticism of popular culture that preceded it: it is both the product of historically antecedent discussion of the popular, and a product of the specific juncture within which it emerges. Also addressed is the set of relations which obtain between this formation and other discursive formations, between those favourably disposed toward popular culture, and those espousing negative dispositions, focusing on the question of the conditions which allow the term aesthetic to be applied to popular media. This revolves around the question of the nominative capacities of intellectual and cultural formations with regard to all media: the capacity to determine what can or cannot be called art. The discourses engaging with the popular are examined in relationship to other discourses and domains which held a different, and competing, definition of social and cultural space. This leads to assessing the set of relations which governed attitudes toward culture and authenticity, and why this discursive formation was unable to establish the legitimacy of television as an aesthetic mediu

Gasifiable carbon-graphite fibers

Fine, carbon-graphite fibers do not combust during the combustion of a composite and are expelled into the air as fine conductive particles. Coating of the fibers with a salt of a metal having a work function below 4.2 eV such as an alkaline earth metal salt, e.g., calcium acetate, catalytically enhances combustion of the fibers at temperatures below 1000.degree. C. such that the fibers self-support combustion and burn to produce a non-conductive ash. Fire-polishing the fibers before application of the coating is desirable to remove sizing to expose the carbon surface to the catalyst

What can secondary data tell us about household food insecurity in a high-income country context?

In the absence of routinely collected household food insecurity data, this study investigated what could be determined about the nature and prevalence of household food insecurity in Scotland from secondary data. Secondary analysis of the Living Costs and Food Survey (2007–2012) was conducted to calculate weekly food expenditure and its ratio to equivalised income for households below average income (HBAI) and above average income (non-HBAI). Diet Quality Index (DQI) scores were calculated for this survey and the Scottish Health Survey (SHeS, 2008 and 2012). Secondary data provided a partial picture of food insecurity prevalence in Scotland, and a limited picture of differences in diet quality. In 2012, HBAI spent significantly less in absolute terms per week on food and non-alcoholic drinks (£53.85) compared to non-HBAI (£86.73), but proportionately more of their income (29% and 15% respectively). Poorer households were less likely to achieve recommended fruit and vegetable intakes than were more affluent households. The mean DQI score (SHeS data) of HBAI fell between 2008 and 2012, and was significantly lower than the mean score for non-HBAI in 2012. Secondary data are insufficient to generate the robust and comprehensive picture needed to monitor the incidence and prevalence of food insecurity in Scotland.</p

Coating for gasifiable carbon-graphite fibers

A thin, uniform, firmly adherent coating of metal gasification catalyst is applied to a carbon-graphite fiber by first coating the fiber with a film-forming polymer containing functional moieties capable of reaction with the catalytic metal ions. Multivalent metal cations such as calcium cross-link the polymer such as a polyacrylic acid to insolubilize the film by forming catalytic metal macro-salt links between adjacent polymer chains. The coated fibers are used as reinforcement for resin composites and will gasify upon combustion without evolving conductive airborne fragments

Linear programming can help identify practical solutions to improve the nutritional quality of food aid.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the nutritional quality of food aid delivered by food banks in France and to identify practical modifications to improve it. DESIGN: National-level data were collected for all food aid distributed by French food banks in 2004, and its nutrient content per 2000 kcal was estimated and compared with French recommendations for adults. Starting with the actual donation and allowing new foods into the food aid donation, linear programming was used to identify the minimum changes required in the actual donation to achieve the French recommendations. RESULTS: French food-bank-delivered food aid does not achieve the French recommendations for dietary fibre, ascorbic acid, vitamin D, folate, magnesium, docosahexaenoic acid, alpha-linolenic acid and the percentage of energy from saturated fatty acids. Linear programming analysis showed that these recommendations are achievable if more fruits, vegetables, legumes and fish were collected and less cheese, refined cereals and foods rich in fat, sugar and/or salt. In addition, new foods not previously collected are needed, particularly nuts, wholemeal bread and rapeseed oil. These changes increased the total edible weight (42%) and economic value (55%) of the food aid donation, with one-third of its edible weight coming from fruits and vegetables, one-third from staples, one-quarter from dairy products and approximately a tenth from meat/fish/eggs. CONCLUSIONS: Important changes in the types and amounts of food collected will improve the nutritional quality of food-bank-delivered food aid in France. Such changes are recommended to improve the diets of deprived French populations

"A Lot of People Are Struggling Privately. They Don’t Know Where to Go or They’re Not Sure of What to Do” : Frontline Service Provider Perspectives of the Nature of Household Food Insecurity in Scotland

Funding: This research was funded by NHS Health Scotland with additional funding support provided for Flora Douglas’ and Stephen Whybrow’s time from the Scottish Government’s RESAS programme. Core support to HERU from the Chief Scientist Office Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates and the University of Aberdeen is gratefully acknowledged. Acknowledgments: We would like to acknowledge Bill Gray and Dionne MacKinnon (BG NHS Health Scotland and DMcK, formerly of NHS Health Scotland) for their professional review and support during the project and our study participants for their time and expertise. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of our paper for their time and extremely helpful contributions to this work.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Access to healthy foods: Part I. Barriers to accessing healthy foods: Differentials by gender, social class, income and mode of transport

This paper examines the issues of access to food and the influences people face when shopping for a healthy food basket. It uses data from the Health Edu cation Authority's 1993 Health and Lifestyles Survey to examine the barriers people face in accessing a healthy diet. The main findings are that access to food is primarily determined by income, and this is in turn closely related to physical resources available to access healthy food. There is an associated class bias over access to sources of healthy food. The poor have less access to a car, find it harder to get to out-of-town shopping centres and thus are less able to carry and transport food in bulk. The majority of people shop in supermarkets as they report that local shops do not provide the services people demand and that food choice and quality are limited. In tackling food poverty and pro moting healthy eating, health promotion practice needs to address these struc tural issues as opposed to relying on psycho-social models of education based on the provision of information and choice