For Any Reason or No Reason at All: Reconciling Employment-at-Will With the Rights of Texas Workers after Mission Petroleum Carriers Inc. v. Solomon.

Since its inception, Texas has been a favored destination for both up-start entrepreneurs and established corporations. One of the less heralded, but nonetheless significant factors that makes Texas so attractive to businesses is its long-standing devotion to the doctrine of at-will employment. The doctrine generally states that any employment relationship not governed by contract or a statutory provision is terminable at any time by either the employer or the employee for any reason or no reason at all. At-will employment has been praised by courts and commentators for the flexibility it offers both parties in decision making. Nevertheless, the at-will doctrine is not without its detractors. At-will employment has been widely criticized for the sweeping power it grants employers over employees. In a time when employee rights are already compromised by the at-will doctrine, random drug testing erodes privacy interests and further widens the power chasm between employer and worker to alarming levels. Mission Petroleum Carriers, Inc. v. Solomon, highlights the danger this inequality poses to workers who submit to drug screening. The Texas Supreme Court held that an employer administering a drug test mandated by the Department of Transportation (DOT) did not owe a duty of reasonable care to his employee, despite the fact that the test, as conducted by the supervisor, violated a number of DOT regulations. The at-will doctrine shielded the employer from having to exercise any level of care when conducting the test, thus protecting the employer from any consequences arising from negligence. This adherence to at-will principles may protect the interests of Texas businesses, but in this case, it also imposed significant harm on the employee, who is now unable to find employment in his chosen line of work and has no legal recourse, despite the errors committed by the employer in administering the test

For Any Reason or No Reason at All: Reconciling Employment-at-Will With the Rights of Texas Workers after Mission Petroleum Carriers Inc. v. Solomon.

Since its inception, Texas has been a favored destination for both up-start entrepreneurs and established corporations. One of the less heralded, but nonetheless significant factors that makes Texas so attractive to businesses is its long-standing devotion to the doctrine of at-will employment. The doctrine generally states that any employment relationship not governed by contract or a statutory provision is terminable at any time by either the employer or the employee for any reason or no reason at all. At-will employment has been praised by courts and commentators for the flexibility it offers both parties in decision making. Nevertheless, the at-will doctrine is not without its detractors. At-will employment has been widely criticized for the sweeping power it grants employers over employees. In a time when employee rights are already compromised by the at-will doctrine, random drug testing erodes privacy interests and further widens the power chasm between employer and worker to alarming levels. Mission Petroleum Carriers, Inc. v. Solomon, highlights the danger this inequality poses to workers who submit to drug screening. The Texas Supreme Court held that an employer administering a drug test mandated by the Department of Transportation (DOT) did not owe a duty of reasonable care to his employee, despite the fact that the test, as conducted by the supervisor, violated a number of DOT regulations. The at-will doctrine shielded the employer from having to exercise any level of care when conducting the test, thus protecting the employer from any consequences arising from negligence. This adherence to at-will principles may protect the interests of Texas businesses, but in this case, it also imposed significant harm on the employee, who is now unable to find employment in his chosen line of work and has no legal recourse, despite the errors committed by the employer in administering the test

Hamilton's principle: why is the integrated difference of kinetic and potential energy minimized?

I present an intuitive answer to an often asked question: why is the integrated difference K-U between the kinetic and potential energy the quantity to be minimized in Hamilton's principle? Using elementary arguments, I map the problem of finding the path of a moving particle connecting two points to that of finding the minimum potential energy of a static string. The mapping implies that the configuration of a non--stretchable string of variable tension corresponds to the spatial path dictated by the Principle of Least Action; that of a stretchable string in space-time is the one dictated by Hamilton's principle. This correspondence provides the answer to the question above: while a downward force curves the trajectory of a particle in the (x,t) plane downward, an upward force of the same magnitude stretches the string to the same configuration x(t).Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to the American Journal of Physic

Acoustic Microscopy Using Amplitude and Phase Measurements

We have built a low-frequency scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) that measures both amplitude and phase. The majority of SAMs simply measure the amplitude of the reflected signal. Measuring the phase gives a great deal more information. For one thing, the phase is very sensitive to height variations. Measuring the phase also gives us the ability to do signal processing on the resulting images, such as removing the effects of surface features from defocused images of subsurface defects

Hiring Criteria in Biology Departments of Academic Institutions

We surveyed faculty in the biology departments of US institutions of higher education to compare the experience and training valued by faculty at hiring institutions with the experience and training most graduate students receive. Our data show that associate, baccalaureate, and master\u27s institutions value teaching experience and skills more highly than research skills. In contrast, doctoral institutions place a higher value on the ability to publish research and obtain outside funding. These findings provide quantitative and qualitative insight into discrepancies between the values of those who train graduate students in biology and the expectations of the institutions likely to hire these individuals

ThYme: a database for thioester-active enzymes

The ThYme (Thioester-active enzYme; http://www.enzyme.cbirc.iastate.edu) database has been constructed to bring together amino acid sequences and 3D (tertiary) structures of all the enzymes constituting the fatty acid synthesis and polyketide synthesis cycles. These enzymes are active on thioester-containing substrates, specifically those that are parts of the acyl-CoA synthase, acyl-CoA carboxylase, acyl transferase, ketoacyl synthase, ketoacyl reductase, hydroxyacyl dehydratase, enoyl reductase and thioesterase enzyme groups. These groups have been classified into families, members of which are similar in sequences, tertiary structures and catalytic mechanisms, implying common protein ancestry. ThYme is continually updated as sequences and tertiary structures become available

The precautionary principle in environmental science.

Environmental scientists play a key role in society's responses to environmental problems, and many of the studies they perform are intended ultimately to affect policy. The precautionary principle, proposed as a new guideline in environmental decision making, has four central components: taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty; shifting the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity; exploring a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions; and increasing public participation in decision making. In this paper we examine the implications of the precautionary principle for environmental scientists, whose work often involves studying highly complex, poorly understood systems, while at the same time facing conflicting pressures from those who seek to balance economic growth and environmental protection. In this complicated and contested terrain, it is useful to examine the methodologies of science and to consider ways that, without compromising integrity and objectivity, research can be more or less helpful to those who would act with precaution. We argue that a shift to more precautionary policies creates opportunities and challenges for scientists to think differently about the ways they conduct studies and communicate results. There is a complicated feedback relation between the discoveries of science and the setting of policy. While maintaining their objectivity and focus on understanding the world, environmental scientists should be aware of the policy uses of their work and of their social responsibility to do science that protects human health and the environment. The precautionary principle highlights this tight, challenging linkage between science and policy

Teleology and Realism in Leibniz's Philosophy of Science

This paper argues for an interpretation of Leibniz’s claim that physics requires both mechanical and teleological principles as a view regarding the interpretation of physical theories. Granting that Leibniz’s fundamental ontology remains non-physical, or mentalistic, it argues that teleological principles nevertheless ground a realist commitment about mechanical descriptions of phenomena. The empirical results of the new sciences, according to Leibniz, have genuine truth conditions: there is a fact of the matter about the regularities observed in experience. Taking this stance, however, requires bringing non-empirical reasons to bear upon mechanical causal claims. This paper first evaluates extant interpretations of Leibniz’s thesis that there are two realms in physics as describing parallel, self-sufficient sets of laws. It then examines Leibniz’s use of teleological principles to interpret scientific results in the context of his interventions in debates in seventeenth-century kinematic theory, and in the teaching of Copernicanism. Leibniz’s use of the principle of continuity and the principle of simplicity, for instance, reveal an underlying commitment to the truth-aptness, or approximate truth-aptness, of the new natural sciences. The paper concludes with a brief remark on the relation between metaphysics, theology, and physics in Leibniz

San Francisco Delta Risk Assessment Year 1 Report Appendices

The Relative Contributions of Contaminants to Environmental Risk in the Upper San Francisco Estuary: Progress Report Year 1: Appendices Prepared for: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Prepared by: Wayne G. Landis, Steven R. Eikenbary, Ethan A. Brown, Colter P. Lemons, Emma E. Sharpe, and April J. Markiewicz Institute of Environmental Toxicology, Huxley College of the Environment Western Washington University Bellingham, WA 98225 June 30, 202