Shackling the Secretary\u27s Hands: Limits to Authorizing Whistle-Blower Settlements under Section 210 of the Energy Reorganization Act - Macktal v. Secretary of Labor

In seeking to encourage nuclear industry employees to report safety concerns, Section 210 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (ERA) acts to protect such whistle-blowers in the event they are terminated or discriminated against because of their whistle-blowing activities.2 When an employee and an employer negotiate a Section 210 whistle-blower complaint and subsequently submit the settlement for approval, the Secretary of Labor faces certain encumbrances when reviewing the agreement . This limitation on review arises when certain provisions may be in violation of public policy.4 In Macktal v. Secretary of Labor, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit compared the Secretary\u27s Section 210 powers to those held by any judge considering civil suit settlements and held that the Secretary may either accept the entire negotiated settlement, reject it, or modify the settlement subject to input from the original parties.5 This Note compares the Section 210 powers of the Secretary to review whistle-blower settlements with similar powers found in the judiciary. This Note also examines the lack of guidance other circuits offer when deciding similar cases in light of a silent United States Supreme Court

Negotiating in Good Faith: Management\u27s Obligation to Maintain the Status Quo during Collective Bargaining under the Railway Labor Act - International Ass\u27n of Machinists & Aerospace Workers v. Transportes Aereos Mercantiles Pan Americandos, S.A.

When an employer and employee-representative union engage in collective bargaining negotiations, their negotiating activities are covered under the auspices of the Railway Labor Act.2 The Act, particularly applicable today in the tumultuous airline industry, established a rather elaborate mechanism for negotiation, mediation, voluntary arbitration, and conciliation to avoid interruptions to interstate commerce, to protect employees\u27 freedom of association with respect to labor unions, and to provide prompt and orderly dispute settlements. 3 Indispensable to this scheme, Section 152, First of the Act imposes a statutory obligation upon the parties to such negotiations to bargain in good faith.4 In International Ass \u27n of Machinists & Aerospace Workers v. Transportes Aereos Mercantiles Pan Americandos, S.A., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit determined that the RLA precluded the airline from making unilateral changes in working conditions at the outset of collective bargaining negotiations in that to hold otherwise would be to allow the airline an unbargained-for advantage against its counterpart union.5 This Note examines to what extent the duty imposed by Section 2, First affects the relative positions of the negotiating parties and how the goals of the Act were affected by the court\u27s holding

Pengobatan Alternatif Penyakit Tulang Studi Kasus Kearifan Lokal Para Terapis Penyakit Tulang di Wilayah Jawa Barat

Penelitian tentang pengobatan alternatif penyakit tulang ini dilakukan dengan tujuan, pertama, untuk mengungkap faktor-faktor yang menjadi alasan pengobatan alternatif penyakit tulang masih sangat diminati oleh masyarakat; kedua, menjelaskan kearifan lokal yang digunakan oleh para terapis penyakit tulang dalam praktik pengobatan. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif-kualitatif yang bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan kearifan lokal para terapis penyakit tulang di wilayah Jawa Barat. Pengumpulan datanya dilakukan melalui studi lapangan, wawancara, dan studi pustaka. Hasil yang diperoleh dari penelitian lapangan adalah terungkapnya alasan masyarakat masih menggunakan jasa pengobatan tradisional. Alasan itu meliputi alasan praktis, ekonomis, berdaya guna, dan berhasil guna. Selain itu, terungkap juga kearifan lokal yang diwujudkan dalam cara penanganan pasien. Simpulannya adalah pengobatan alternatif penyakit tulang bukan lagi sebagai alternatif tetapi menjadi pilihan utama dan pertama. Oleh karena itu, kearifan lokal yang berkait dengan hal itu perlu diwariskan kepada generasi berikutnya dan sekaligus disistematisasi secara metodologis.This research aims to study why alternative medicine for bone disease is still in great demand by the public and to explain the local wisdom used by therapists for bone disease in West Java. This study uses a descriptive-qualitative method. Data collection is carried out through field studies, interviews, and literature studies. The results show that efficaciousness of its treatment are the reasons why the appeal for alternative medicine for bone disease aren\u27t declining, besides it having practical and economic advantages. In addition, local wisdom in handling patients plays an important part in its success. The conclusion is that alternative treatments for bone disease are no longer an alternative but they are becoming the first and foremost choice. Therefore, its local wisdom needs to be passed on to the next generation and at the same time methodologically systematized

Biological, physical and morphological factors for the programming of a novel microbial hygromorphic material

The urgency for energy efficient, responsive architectures has propelled smart material development to the forefront of scientific and architectural research. This paper explores biological, physical, and morphological factors influencing the programming of a novel microbial-based smart hybrid material which is responsive to changes in environmental humidity. Hygromorphs respond passively, without energy input, by expanding in high humidity and contracting in low humidity.Bacillus subtilisdevelops environmentally robust, hygromorphic spores which may be harnessed within a bilayer to generate a deflection response with potential for programmability. The bacterial spore-based hygromorph biocomposites (HBCs) were developed and aggregated to enable them to open and close apertures and demonstrate programmable responses to changes in environmental humidity. This study spans many fields including microbiology, materials science, design, fabrication and architectural technology, working at multiple scales from single cells to \u27bench-top\u27 prototype.Exploration of biological factors at cellular and ultracellular levels enabled optimisation of growth and sporulation conditions to biologically preprogramme optimum spore hygromorphic response and yield. Material explorations revealed physical factors influencing biomechanics, preprogramming shape and response complexity through fabrication and inert substrate interactions, to produce a palette of HBCs. Morphological aggregation was designed to harness and scale-up the HBC palette into programmable humidity responsive aperture openings. This culminated in pilot performance testing of a humidity-responsive ventilation panel fabricated with aggregatedBacillusHBCs as a bench-top prototype and suggests potential for this novel biotechnology to be further developed

KOMODIFIKASI TARI BADAYA DALAM UPACARA ADAT MAPAG PANGANTEN SUNDA

ABSTRAKBadaya merupakan sebuah jabatan di dalam pertunjukan Wayang yang merujuk kepada emban geulis yang bertugas untuk mempersipkan segala kebutuhan Keraton sekaligus menari di hadapan Raja dan petinggi Keraton. Di awal perkembangannya, tari Badaya ini digunakan sebagai tari bubuka dalam pertunjukan Wayang Wong, yang kini telah beralih fungsi menjadi sebuah tari komoditi yang digunakan sebagai materi pokok dalam rangkaian Upacara Adat Mapag Panganten Sunda. Perubahan yang terjadi tidak hanya secara tekstual pada bentuk seninya, melainkan terhadap masyarakat itu sendiri sebagai pelaku dalam sektor ekonomi, industri, politik, dan pariwisata. Tulisan ini berupaya untuk menjelaskan bagaimana proses terjadinya tari Badaya menjadi sebuah tari komoditi dalam Upacara Adat Mapag Panganten melalui pemikiran Raymond Williams dan Theodor W. Adorno. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan secara etnografi dan historical analysis. Kajian ini memperoleh hasil bahwa komodifikasi tari Badaya memiliki standarisasi yang menggiring kemasan dengan pemadatan koreografi, durasi penampilan yang singkat, busana yang glamour dan mewah, rias sederhana, serta aksesibilitas instrumen pengiringnya.ABSTRACKBadaya is a position in the Wayang performance that refers to the Emban Geulis whose job is to prepare all the needs of the palace as well as dance in front of the king and other palace officials. At the beginning of its development, this Badaya dance was used as a powder dance in the Wayang Wong performance, which has now changed its function into a commodity dance which is used as the main material in a series of Sundanese Mapag Panganten Traditional Ceremonies. Changes that occur are not only textual in the form of art, but also to the community itself as an actor in the economic, industrial, political, and tourism sectors. This paper attempts to explain how the process of the Badaya dance becoming a commodity dance in the Mapag Panganten Traditional Ceremony through the thoughts of Raymond Williams and Theodor W. Adorno. The method used is a qualitative method with an ethnographic approach and historical analysis. This study finds that the commodification of Badaya dance has standardization that leads to packaging with compaction of choreography, short duration of performance, glamorous and luxurious clothing, simple make-up, and accessibility of accompanying instruments

Frobenius groups of automorphisms and their fixed points

Suppose that a finite group $G$ admits a Frobenius group of automorphisms $FH$ with kernel $F$ and complement $H$ such that the fixed-point subgroup of $F$ is trivial: $C_G(F)=1$. In this situation various properties of $G$ are shown to be close to the corresponding properties of $C_G(H)$. By using Clifford's theorem it is proved that the order $|G|$ is bounded in terms of $|H|$ and $|C_G(H)|$, the rank of $G$ is bounded in terms of $|H|$ and the rank of $C_G(H)$, and that $G$ is nilpotent if $C_G(H)$ is nilpotent. Lie ring methods are used for bounding the exponent and the nilpotency class of $G$ in the case of metacyclic $FH$. The exponent of $G$ is bounded in terms of $|FH|$ and the exponent of $C_G(H)$ by using Lazard's Lie algebra associated with the Jennings--Zassenhaus filtration and its connection with powerful subgroups. The nilpotency class of $G$ is bounded in terms of $|H|$ and the nilpotency class of $C_G(H)$ by considering Lie rings with a finite cyclic grading satisfying a certain `selective nilpotency' condition. The latter technique also yields similar results bounding the nilpotency class of Lie rings and algebras with a metacyclic Frobenius group of automorphisms, with corollaries for connected Lie groups and torsion-free locally nilpotent groups with such groups of automorphisms. Examples show that such nilpotency results are no longer true for non-metacyclic Frobenius groups of automorphisms.Comment: 31 page

Effect of (in)organic additives on microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation

\ua9 The Author(s) 2023. Aim: This study aimed to understand the morphological effects of (in)organic additives on microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP). Methods and results: MICP was monitored in real time in the presence of (in)organic additives: bovine serum albumin (BSA), biofilm surface layer protein A (BslA), magnesium chloride (MgCl2), and poly-L-lysine. This monitoring was carried out using confocal microscopy to observe the formation of CaCO3 from the point of nucleation, in comparison to conditions without additives. Complementary methodologies, namely scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, were employed to assess the visual morphology, elemental composition, and crystalline structures of CaCO3, respectively, following the crystals’ formation. The results demonstrated that in the presence of additives, more CaCO3 crystals were produced at 100 min compared to the reaction without additives. The inclusion of BslA resulted in larger crystals than reactions containing other additives, including MgCl2. BSA induced a significant number of crystals from the early stages of the reaction (20 min) but did not have a substantial impact on crystal size compared to conditions without additives. All additives led to a higher content of calcite compared to vaterite after a 24-h reaction, with the exception of MgCl2, which produced a substantial quantity of magnesium calcite. Conclusions: The work demonstrates the effect of several (in)organic additives on MICP and sets the stage for further research to understand additive effects on MICP to achieve controlled CaCO3 precipitation

Prevalence of Snail Vectors of Schistosomiasis in the Kpong Head Pond, Ghana

Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease caused by the blood fluke Schistosoma sp. became a serious public health problem in Ghana after the Volta River was dammed in Akosombo in 1964. The formation of the Kpong head pond, about 25 km below the Akosombo dam, as a result of a second dam built at Kpong became an active schistosomiasis transmission site. The Volta River Authority (VRA) recently began an initiative of combining manual clearing of aquatic vegetation with chemotherapy as a way of managing the disease. However, no scientific monitoring of the effect of aquatic weed clearing on the vector population is being conducted. The study was initiated in the Kpong head pond to provide baseline data for subsequent monitoring and impact assessment of the initiative. It involved sampling of the banks of the head pond for aquatic snails at six different sampling sites of 1 m2 each, chosen at 100 m interval along the shoreline. Physicochemical factors which affect aquatic snail population were also determined. Aquatic snails sampled were Bulinus truncatus, Bulinus globosus, Biomphalaria pfeifferi, Melanoides spp, Physa waterlotti and Pila sp. where the first three are intermediate host of the schistosoma parasite. The study revealed B. truncates as the most frequent occurring vector (71.0%), followed by Biomphalaria (12.0%) and B. globosus (6.1%) The mean numbers of vector snails sampled per m2 were B. Truncates 61/m2, B. globosus 5/m2, and B. pfeifferi 11/m2. The presence of aquatic weeds and favourable physicochemical conditions of the water were found to provide a conducive environment for the vectors to thrive and hence sustain schistosomiasis transmission in the head pond. It is, therefore, recommended that a 5-year period of studies be undertaken to assess the impact of manual clearing of aquatic weeds on the snail population

Atmospheres of digital technology: wireless spectres and ghosts outside the machine

This paper examines the atmospheres of invisible technologies in the built environment. Starting with the, often cited, notion of technologies of disappearance, this paper suggest that, in the absence of physically tangible infrastructure, we understand and frame technologies through myths and historic forms of interpretation. Using the specific example of Wi-Fi networks the paper draws parallels between the operation and interpretation of modern wireless infrastructure and the spiritualism of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, it shows how through creative exploration, using a visualisation device and a photographic method developed by the authors, perceptions of these invisible infrastructures and the spaces they occupy can be played with. The work acts as an extension and critique of the way wireless infrastructure is currently described and perceived and through playful exploration may lead to new types of technology and spatial design

Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity

Renewable energy production is necessary to halt climate change and reverse associated biodiversity losses. However, generating the required technologies and infrastructure will drive an increase in the production of many metals, creating new mining threats for biodiversity. Here, we map mining areas and assess their spatial coincidence with biodiversity conservation sites and priorities. Mining potentially influences 50 million km2 of Earth’s land surface, with 8% coinciding with Protected Areas, 7% with Key Biodiversity Areas, and 16% with Remaining Wilderness. Most mining areas (82%) target materials needed for renewable energy production, and areas that overlap with Protected Areas and Remaining Wilderness contain a greater density of mines (our indicator of threat severity) compared to the overlapping mining areas that target other materials. Mining threats to biodiversity will increase as more mines target materials for renewable energy production and, without strategic planning, these new threats to biodiversity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation