$4.99 million DOE grant to build domestic supply chain for critical minerals

PENN STATE

 

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AN ACID-MINE SLUDGE POND IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA. A BYPRODUCT OF COAL MINING, SUCH SITES MAY BE RICH WITH CRITICAL MINERALS.

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CREDIT: PROVIDED BY SARMA PISUPATI

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State research team was recently awarded a $4.99 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and assess advanced separation technologies for the extraction and recovery of rare earth elements and other critical materials from coal, coal wastes and coal by-products.

The materials, which are abundant in Earth’s crust but challenging to extract and primarily sourced from overseas, serve a vital function in modern technology, such as smartphones, electric cars, wind turbines and even in defense technologies like missiles and radar systems. The newly funded project will help to establish a 100% domestic supply chain, reducing U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers.

The project, led by Sarma Pisupati, professor of energy and mineral engineering, chemical engineering and director of Penn State’s Center for Critical Minerals, is one of four projects selected in the latest round of $17.5 million funding focused on critical minerals from the DOE. The work builds on a previous DOE-funded project to design, build and test a modular pilot-scale research and development unit intended to recover rare earth elements and other critical minerals from Pennsylvania acid mine drainage streams and other environmental sources.

“Pennsylvania is leading the way to our clean energy future with each new and innovative development,” said U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), who helped secure funding for the previous work through a congressionally directed spending initiative. “Thanks to this nearly $5 million federal investment, Penn State can continue its important work on critical mineral extraction and production from acid mine drainage, cleaning up Pennsylvania’s waterways and helping our nation outcompete China in producing elements that are in increasingly high demand in industries ranging from energy to defense to medicine.”

Rare earths and other critical minerals and materials are key to our nation’s defense and to U.S. manufacturing of clean energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells, Pisupati explained. The United States currently imports more than 80% of its rare earth elements from offshore suppliers.

“The two main goals of this project are to reduce the net import reliance on critical minerals and to help clean up the environment,” Pisupati said. “We want to demonstrate a 100% domestic supply of critical minerals that are essential for the United States’ economy. Thousands of abandoned mines spew out acid mine drainage, and we want to remove the critical minerals from this waste — we are taking waste and turning it into a treasure. This can help reduce the taxpayer money needed for cleanup and help solve a national security problem.”

The project, named Alliance for Critical Mineral Extraction and Production from Coal-Based Resources for Vitality Enhancement in Domestic Supply Chains — or ACME-REVIVE — is a collaborative effort with industry leaders, Rare Earth Salts Separations and Refining, LLC, Aqua Metals, Inc., General Electric Research and an academic partner, the University of Virginia.

“Extracting and recovering rare earth elements and other critical materials from coal, coal wastes and coal by-products has the potential to catalyze regional growth and create jobs,” said Lee Kump, the John Leone Dean in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. “This project will also help remediate long-standing environmental problems and help the country meet its needs for critical minerals for use in an advanced, technology-driven society.”

Specifically, the researchers aim to extract and concentrate high purity, mixed rare earth oxides from domestic coal-based acid mine drainage, or the acidic water flowing from coal mines, and clays. They also plan to separate at least five individual high purity rare earth oxides — or acids — at approximately 90% to 99.99% purity from the drainage. In addition, they aim to purify five individual or binary rare earth metals at a purity of approximately 99.5% to 99.8% and an additional five approximately 90% to 99% pure individual critical minerals and materials as oxides, salts or metals.

“Our robust capabilities in critical mineral technologies make Penn State a trailblazer in the initiative to centralize a domestic supply chain,” said Andrew Read, senior vice president for research at Penn State. “These efforts will ensure more stability in our technology pipeline — critical for positioning the United States as a global leader.”

The team plans to evaluate the properties of these materials for magnet and super alloy applications and produce high-grade lithium carbonate, nickel, cobalt, manganese and titanium.

“We are partnering with U.S. companies and universities to solve the critical minerals problem,” said Mohammad Rezaee, associate professor of energy and mineral engineering and Centennial Early Career Development Professor of Mining Engineering, and co-principal investigator on the project. “With our partners, we will extract these critical minerals from legacy coal mining wastes, separate, purify, make alloys, test for sustainable energy applications and conduct a techno-economic analysis.”

Other Penn State researchers on the project are Barbara Arnold, professor of practice in mining engineering, and Thandazile Moyo, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering.

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, under the purview of DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, will manage the selected projects, including the one led by Penn State researchers.

 

Decarbonizing steel manufacturing

Professors David Mazyck and Daniel Whisler of PSU's School of Engineering Design and Innovation discuss project funded with $1.33 million DOE grant

PENN STATE

 

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RESEARCHERS PROPOSE USING BIOMASS MADE FROM WOOD, SEEN AT LEFT, OR RICE HUSKS, SEEN IN MIDDLE, TO REPLACE THE USE OF COKE IN THE STEEL AND MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. AT RIGHT IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE FINISHED WOOD-BASED BIOCHAR PELLETS THAT WOULD BE USED IN MANUFACTURING. 

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CREDIT: PROVIDED BY DANIEL WHISLER

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — David Mazyck, professor and head of Penn State’s School of Engineering Design and Innovation (SEDI), and Daniel Whisler, associate professor of engineering design, were awarded a three-year, $1.33 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to explore ways to decarbonize the steel and iron manufacturing industry.

The researchers will work to engineer solutions to replace the use of a high carbon material made from coal — called coke — with biomass, which is derived from organic components like plants and wood, in steel and iron manufacturing.

They also plan to develop a microcredential program geared toward steelworkers from underrepresented groups who need certification for advancement within the steel industry. The program will focus on topics such as sustainable manufacturing, bio-based fuel and eco-friendly engineering.

Penn State News spoke with Mazyck and Whisler about the research they will conduct with the grant.   

Q: What is biomass, and how can it be used as an energy substitute for coal?

Mazyck: Biomass, otherwise known as biochar, is a clean renewable organic material from plants, derived from materials like saw dust and rice husks, that are rich in carbon. Similar to coal, biomass has high energy content that is used across the globe for energy generation.

Whisler: At the moment, our focus is on biochar derived from wood because it has the ideal properties necessary for the steel and iron industries. But since biochar can come from a variety of sources, rice husk-based biochar is another example we might encounter and ultimately find a use for either by itself or blended with other materials.

Q: How will substituting biomass for coal result in lower greenhouse gas emissions during the manufacturing process?

Mazyck: Biomass is considered a carbon-neutral energy source because it relies on photosynthesis and consumes carbon dioxide while growing.

Whisler: Another reduction in emissions comes from our biomass source: we plan to utilize the remnants from the lumber and agriculture industries as the primary inputs. When accounting for this upcycling in the full steel lifecycle, we can realize additional carbon reductions.

Q: How will your proposed microcredential program assist steelworkers from underrepresented groups in advancing in the steel industry?

Mazyck: Microcredentials offer short, learned experiences that can fill gaps in the educational journey. For example, microcredentials in communication skills, business and leadership are often skills learned while working. Microcredentials can augment work experience from world-class faculty who have specific expertise in these areas.

Whisler: By meeting their needs and on their schedules, we hope to provide an equitable foundation for steelworkers to get the focused, industry-specific training that balances current practices with emerging trends in carbon reductions. And as they and the industry advance, we look forward to being their lifelong ally with stackable certifications.

Q: How will this project make an impact?

Mazyck: We appreciate the Department of Energy’s support in advancing our understanding of how we can reduce carbon emissions during steel manufacturing. The project has the potential to be commercialized, to create new jobs in Pennsylvania and to benefit steel manufacturing throughout the commonwealth and the U.S.

Q: How is Penn State suited to take on this project?

Whisler: Penn State brings amazing synergy with exceptional faculty, talented researchers and dedicated students who are all tackling some of the biggest challenges facing our world. And reflecting on our state’s storied history in steel and the many who industrialized this nation with it, I am excited to see how we at SEDI will make an impact.

Development of technology for producing bioplastics from agricultural and food byproducts by the World Institute of Kimchi

Identification of a material (malic acid) in cabbage byproducts contributing to the improvement of productivity of biodegradable plastics. Converting agricultural and food waste into high value-added materials: Achievement of carbon neutrality

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY




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SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF CABBAGE WASTE UPCYCLING TECHNOLOGY

CREDIT: THE WORLD INSTITUTE OF KIMCHI

As kimchi has been drawing attention as a global healthy food trend, cabbage is one of the representative vegetables used as a main ingredient for manufacturing kimchi overseas.

The annual global production of cabbage and other Brassica crops is reported to be 72 million tons, and more than 30% of them are estimated to be discarded during the manufacturing and distribution processes, causing environmental pollution as well as considerable waste disposal costs in the industry.

In connection with this problem, Hae Choon Chang, President of the World Institute of Kimchi (WiKim), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, announced on April 22 that the institute has developed a 'bio-refactoring-based upcycling technology' that can convert cabbage byproducts discarded as waste during the food manufacturing process into biodegradable plastics*.
※ Biodegradable plastics: Plastics that can be completely degraded by natural microbial activity under certain conditions

Bio-refactoring refers to a technology for redesigning microorganisms to give new functions other than their existing characteristics.

The research team led by Dr. Jung Eun Yang, a senior researcher of the Fermentation Regulation Technology Research Group at the WiKim, developed microbial strains for the production of biodegradable bioplastics by using bio-refactoring technology, and identified conditions for achieving a sugar conversion rate of up to 90.4% by optimizing the concentrations of enzymes and the substrate used in the saccharification process.

In particular, for the first time in the world, the research team found that malic acid, one of the bioactive materials in cabbage byproducts, can contribute to the productivity improvement of PHA* (Polyhydroxyalkanoate).

※ PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoate): It is a bio-based biodegradable material obtained through microbial fermentation, and is characterized by biodegradability in natural environments.

Front cover of the March 2024 issue of the journal (IMAGE)

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Front cover of the March 2024 issue of the journal

CREDIT

The World Institute of Kimchi

The newly developed technology can be applied to various agricultural and food byproducts such as waste from cabbage and onions used for kimchi production, and is expected to reduce the waste disposal costs for byproducts from the kimchi manufacturing process, which are estimated to be 10 billion won per year.

“The results of this research are significant in terms of having secured an environmentally-friendly technology for converting agricultural and food waste into high value-added materials,” said Dr. Hae Woong Park, director of the Technology Innovation Research Division of the WiKim. He added, “We will continue to develop upcycling technology in the agricultural and food sectors so that the kimchi industry will contribute to the achievement of carbon neutrality.”

Meanwhile, the research team analyzed the components in cabbage byproducts, and systematically categorized various components helpful for microbial growth. Based on these research results, the team plans to develop the core technology to convert agricultural and food waste into various high-value-added materials.

This research has been published as the front cover article in the March 2024 issue of the ‘Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (ACS Publications),’one of the top 10% international scholarly journals in the field of food science and technology.
※ Paper title: Valorization of Cabbage Waste as a Feedstock for Microbial Polyhydroxyalkanoate Production: Optimizing Hydrolysis Conditions and Polyhydroxyalkanoate Production
- Authors: (Corresponding author) Hae Woong Park, PhD (First author) Jung Eun Yang, PhD

JOURNAL

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

DOI

10.1021/acs.jafc.3c07057

ARTICLE TITLE

Valorization of Cabbage Waste as a Feedstock for Microbial Polyhydroxyalkanoate Production: Optimizing Hydrolysis Conditions and Polyhydroxyalkanoate Production

 

Biogeographical evidence shows trickster animal folklore limited by environmental factors

YOKOHAMA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

 

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THE EFFECT OF MEAN ANNUAL TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION ON ANIMAL DISTRIBUTION AND HOW THEIR PRESENCE IS NECESSARY FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF TRICKSTER ANIMAL FOLKLORE.

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CREDIT: YOKOHAMA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Humans have the capacity to imagine civilizations and creatures that have never existed, and our language reflects that ability. It would therefore be understandable if the stories we tell ourselves stretched beyond the bounds of local ecology. However, research has shown that many cultural artifacts and ideas are strongly affected by environmental factors.

Researchers in Japan wanted to know if the biogeography of a region could constrain motifs in animal folklore. To do this, they studied the distribution of animal trickster folklore against the distribution of the animal the folklore was based on, as well as several environmental factors. They “found that the distributions of real animals were restricted by climate conditions and that the presence of real animals restricted the distributions of trickster animals. In other words, climate conditions indirectly restrict the distribution of trickster animals in folklore. These results suggest that ecological factors could restrict the contents of folklore or, more broadly, human culture due to human cognitive biases,” said Shota Shibasaki, a researcher at the Center for Frontier Research, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Shizuoka Japan.

Their research was published on May 8th in the Royal Society Open Science.

The discussion on the links between the environment and cultural ideas has been going on for a long time, but the links between animal folklore and the environment has been understudied. Folklore could conceivably be free of any constraints, except perhaps the limits of human imagination. But what if there are limits on folklore? Biogeographical studies have found that climate conditions are amongst the dominant factors that determine the geographical spread of species. Could this hold true for the animal motifs in folklore?

“We hypothesized that (i) climate conditions regulate animal distribution in folklore as in nature, and (ii) there is an overlap in the distributions of real and trickster animals in folklore,” said Yo Nakawake, a researcher at Department of Social Psychology, Yasuda Women’s University, Asaminami, Hiroshima, Japan.

To test this hypothesis, the Japanese researchers looked at trickster animals using a database of folklore motifs collected from across the globe with geographical coordinates for each story. They also used two other databases that contained the distribution of the real animals and climate conditions for the regions being studied. They then classified the geographical areas into 9 different biomes that were defined by annual mean temperature and annual precipitation. Using these databases, they ran statistical analyses on the distribution of the folklore trickster animals as compared to the distribution of the real animal and the various biomes.

They found that the distribution of real animals was strongly linked to the environmental variables. They looked at the conditional probability of a trickster animal occurring if its real counterpart is present. If there is a high conditional probability found, it means that a native species is necessary for the trickster animal to occur. Of the 16 animals they looked at, 14 showed a high conditional probability, greater than 80%. This is strong evidence that the presence of the native animal is necessary for its trickster counterpart to occur.

“Given that the distributions of real animals are restricted by the annual mean temperature and annual precipitation, these climatic conditions indirectly affected the distribution of trickster animals. Our study, applying biogeographical methods to culture, paves the way to a deeper understanding of the interactions between ecology and culture,” said lecturer Ryosuke Nakadai of the Faculty of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.

When speaking of their future research, Nakadai said, “Human culture deeply relates to nature. Since we have been losing ties to nature for decades, our cultural diversity may decrease as biodiversity does. We want to continue research to understand the feedback between nature and culture, and to conserve both types of diversity.”

This work is supported by the Foundation for the Fusion of Science and Technology to Shota Shibusaki, and The Asahi Glass Foundation to Yo Nakawake, Shota Shibusaki and Ryosuke  Nakadai.

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Yokohama National University (YNU or Yokokoku) is a Japanese national university founded in 1949. YNU provides students with a practical education utilizing the wide expertise of its faculty and facilitates engagement with the global community. YNU’s strength in the academic research of practical application sciences leads to high-impact publications and contributes to international scientific research and the global society. For more information, please see: https://www.ynu.ac.jp/english/

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JOURNAL

Royal Society Open Science

DOI

10.1098/rsos.231577 

ARTICLE TITLE

Biogeographical ‍distributions of trickster animals

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-May-2024

 

Wildfires in old-growth Amazon forest areas rose 152% in 2023, study shows

The increase was confirmed by an analysis of satellite images, contrasting with a drop in deforestation and the total number of fires detected in the Amazon

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

 

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FOREST FIRES RAGED IN BOCA DO ACRE IN 2023

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CREDIT: (PHOTO: DÉBORA DUTRA/CEMADEN)

Although the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell in 2023, the region is faced by another challenge in the shape of fire affecting the native vegetation that has so far been spared destruction. An article published in the journal Global Change Biology warns that wildfires in old-growth forests rose 152% last year compared with 2022, despite a drop of 16% in the total number of fires throughout the Amazon and a 22% drop in deforestation.

In an analysis of satellite images, the authors detected a rise in forest wildfires from 13,477 in 2022 to 34,012 in 2023. The main cause was drought. The region has been experiencing longer and more frequent dry periods. There were prolonged droughts in 2010 and 2015-16, which left the forest more flammable and led to fragmentation of the plant cover. Another severe drought began last year and is still in progress, making the situation still worse. 

According to surveys by the National Space Research Institute (INPE), the number of fires throughout the Amazon in the first three months of 2023 was 7,861, more than in any of the previous eight years and more than half the Brazilian total (followed by the Cerrado, with 25%). Until then, the highest first-quarter number recorded was 8,240 (in 2016).

“It’s important to understand the geographic pattern of these fires. Each of the areas concerned requires a different response. Our analysis pointed to more fires in old-growth forest areas than in previous years, which is alarming not just because of the loss of vegetation, which is invariably followed by deforestation, but also because the carbon stored by the forest becomes carbon emissions when it burns,” said Guilherme Augusto Verola Mataveli, corresponding author of the article and a remote sensing specialist with INPE’s Earth Observation and Geoinformatics Division.

Mataveli is currently a visiting postdoctoral fellow doing research on greenhouse gas emissions from forest fires at the University of East Anglia’s Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research in the United Kingdom, with FAPESP’s support (projects 19/25701-8 and 23/03206-0). 

The ongoing research on which the article was based is also funded by FAPESP via four other projects (20/15230-5, 20/08916-8, 21/04019-4 and 21/07382-2).

Last year some members of the research group published another article showing that wildfires increased along an emerging deforestation frontier in the area of Boca do Acre in the southwest of Amazonas state, North Brazil, between 2003 and 2019 (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/40932). 

“Old-growth forest stores larger amounts of carbon, which becomes greenhouse gas emissions when it burns, contributing to climate change. Another negative effect relates to public health problems. In October 2023, Manaus [the capital of Amazonas state] had the worst air quality of any city in the world bar one,” Mataveli said.

Burnings also increased in other states, including Pará, where the number of old-growth forest fires reached 13,804 in 2023, up from 4,217 in 2022.

The situation in Roraima is one of the worst in the region: over half the fires detected in the Amazon in 2024 have occurred in this state, which has the fifth-largest Indigenous population in Brazil (97,320) and saw 14 of its 15 municipalities declare a state of emergency in March because of fire. Schools were closed because of the smoke, and severe drought left Indigenous communities without access to food and exposed to respiratory disorders, among other problems.

In response to Agência FAPESP, the National Center for Forest Fire Fighting and Prevention (PREVFOGO), an arm of IBAMA, the main federal environmental agency, said it has been working with other institutions since November 2023 to combat and prevent forest fires in Roraima. More than 300 firefighters and four aircraft have been involved in this campaign since January.

“Climate change is a key driver of the increase in forest fires, and El Niño has also added risk owing to its links with the prolonged drought in the region. We stress the importance of the firefighting efforts of state and municipal environmental authorities in collaboration with federal agencies. This partnership is fundamental to assure strategic and effective prevention of forest fires,” the IBAMA/PREVFOGO statement said.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA) responded to our request for a statement by reinforcing the above points.

Resilience

Tree mortality due to fire in primary forest areas often exceeds 50% of the above-ground biomass, so that wildfires can greatly reduce the volume of carbon stored in the Amazon in the long term.

In February, carbon emissions due to fire in Brazil were the highest for 20 years, reaching 4.1 megatons (1 megaton = 1 million metric tons), with Roraima in the lead, according to the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/february-amazon-wildfires-generate-record-emissions). Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union’s space program.

Forest resilience is also weakened by wildfires, affecting the forest’s capacity to create a humid microclimate below the canopy that contains and recycles moisture within the ecosystem.

Another point made by the researchers in the article is that the increase in invasive wildfires due to heightened forest flammability poses a significant challenge to traditional subsistence farmers who normally use controlled fire as a land management strategy. 

According to Luiz Aragão, leader of the research group and last author of the article, “The Amazon is becoming more vulnerable environmentally, socially and economically as time passes without effective solutions to the fire problem”. Although deforestation rates have fallen lately, the area affected continues to expand.

“We predicted this in an article by our group published in 2010 in the journal Science,” Aragão said. “Both deforested areas and areas where the forest is now being destroyed are active sources of fire ignition by humans. Deforestation fragments the landscape, creating more boundaries between forest areas and open areas, and making old-growth forest areas more permeable to fire. The aggregate impact of extreme droughts like the current one, alongside landscape fragmentation, continuous use of fire, more areas of fire-degraded forest, illegal logging and edge effects will make the forest increasingly flammable. Urgent measures are needed to mitigate fires and maintain the Amazon as Brazil’s greatest asset to achieve sustainable national development.”

The article also advocates more command-and-control operations, more numerous and better-equipped fire brigades, and constant improvement of monitoring systems. 

“With the use of artificial intelligence, we can try to develop systems that not only show where fires are occurring but also predict where they’re most likely to break out in future so that we can focus preventive action on specific areas,” Mataveli added.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.

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JOURNAL

Global Change Biology

DOI

10.1111/gcb.17202 

ARTICLE TITLE

Deforestation falls but rise of wildfires continues degrading Brazilian Amazon forests

 

Worker rights are one of the least protected human rights, new research reveals

Data project provides ‘report card’ for countries 

around the world

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

 

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UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG CLEANERS AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING THE PERSISTENT SOLIDARITY FORUM MARCH IN DEMAND OF A FAIR LIVING WAGE FOR THE WORKERS.

 

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CREDIT: "PROTESTERS: 'WORKERS DESERVE A LIVING WAGE'" BY MERAJ CHHAYA IS LICENSED UNDER CC BY 2.0..

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Worker rights are among the least protected human rights in the world, according to new research from faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

The findings are part of a new report published by the CIRIGHTS Data Project, the largest human rights dataset in the world. Since 1981, the project has ranked countries around the world on their respect for human rights, providing an annual “report card” on 25 internationally recognized human rights. The project is co-led by Binghamton University Professor of Political Science David Cingranelli.

According to their latest report, published in Human Rights Quarterly, the five countries with the best overall scores were Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway and Portugal. The five countries with the lowest overall scores were Iran, Syria, North Korea, China and Iraq.

Worker rights, including the right to form a trade union and the right to bargain collectively – are among the least protected human rights. Worker rights are “always violated to some extent,” wrote the researchers.

“Previous research shows that it is unlikely that governments protect the rights to an adequate minimum wage, occupational health and safety, or reasonable limitations on work hours (including voluntary overtime work) unless they allow workers to form independent trade unions and to bargain collectively,” said Cingranelli. “In other words, the right to unionize, bargain, and strike are the gateway rights. If they are protected, all other labor rights are likely to be protected as well. But globally, the gateway rights are in decline.”

Cignarelli said that while democratic and rich countries protect labor rights more than others do, economic inequality has increased almost everywhere.

“Economic globalization has increased competition among nations, which has led governments to favor corporations over workers in conflicts between the two,” said Cignarelli.

In the least economically developed countries, large agricultural, mining and oil extraction companies have their way with workers, said Cignarelli. This also happened during the early stage of industrialization in the United States.

“It is important to remember that companies and workers typically take adversarial positions about how much attention corporate leaders should pay to what workers want concerning the terms and conditions of their work,” he said. “Corporate leaders typically prefer to distribute most of the profit from their activities to shareholders, not workers.”

Stringent labor regulations in one country can cause companies to change their locations. Cignarelli noted that it’s the role of government to make sure that workers have a fair chance to have their concerns heard.

“Without government policies protecting workers, companies can do whatever they want to keep unions out,” Cignarelli said.

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JOURNAL

Human Rights Quarterly

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

CIRIGHTS: Quantifying Respect for All Human Rights

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-May-2024

 

Why so many jobs are boring: New MSU study identifies large interest gaps in US labor market

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

MSU has a satellite uplink/LTN TV studio and Comrex line for radio interviews upon request.

EAST LANSING, Mich. – A recent study out of Michigan State University found large gaps between people’s career interests and U.S. job demands. These gaps indicate that the interest demands of the U.S. labor market differ drastically from the supply of interested people, revealing how many people have unfulfilled interests at work.

The study, published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, is the first to look at labor gaps using career interests instead of skills or knowledge. The study used a national dataset comprising 1.21 million U.S. residents alongside national employment data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

“We know that interest fit predicts higher job performance and satisfaction, so these results show that many people are not able to optimize their productivity and well-being at work,” said Kevin Hoff, lead author of the study and assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Psychology.

The study found that “artistic” was the most popular interest among people, but it is also the least demanded among jobs with only 2% of jobs involving artistic interests. By contrast, the least popular interest among people was “conventional or otherwise described as systematic and detail-oriented work,” but this interest is highly demanded among jobs.

Interest gaps were also larger at lower education levels. This suggests that higher education can provide more opportunities to achieve interest fit at work.

“Interests drive knowledge and skill development, which support the success of the labor force,” added Hoff. “People need to be given more information about labor demands during career assessments so they can explore careers that not only provide a good fit, but also have available jobs.”

To test the robustness of their results against future projections, the study compared job demands in 2014 and 2019 to projections for 2029 and found consistent interest gaps in each of these years. As artificial intelligence continues to impact jobs, the researchers expect to see adjustments happening in the labor market. However, due to the large size of the interest gaps, many jobs will likely remain boring for at least the near future.  

By Shelly DeJong

Read on MSUToday.

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Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 165 years. One of the world’s leading public research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 400 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

For MSU news on the web, go to MSUToday or twitter.com/MSUnews.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Business and Psychology

DOI

10.1007/s10869-024-09945-8 

ARTICLE TITLE

Interest Gaps in the Labor Market: Comparing People’s Vocational Interests with National Job Demands

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-May-2024

 

Scientists unlock key to breeding ‘carbon gobbling’ plants with a major appetite

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

The discovery of how a critical enzyme “hidden in nature’s blueprint” works sheds new light on how cells control key processes in carbon fixation, a process fundamental for life on Earth.

The discovery, made by scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Newcastle (UoN), could help engineer climate resilient crops capable of sucking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere more efficiently, helping to produce more food in the process.

The research, published in Science Advances, demonstrates a previously unknown function of an enzyme called carboxysomal carbonic anhydrase (CsoSCA), which is found in cyanobacteria – also called blue-green algae – to maximise the microorganisms’ ability to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Cyanobacteria are commonly known for their toxic blooms in lakes and rivers. But these little blue-green bugs are widespread, also living in the world’s oceans.

Although they can pose an environmental hazard, the researchers describe them as “tiny carbon superheroes”. Through the process of photosynthesis, they play an important role in capturing about 12 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide each year.

First author and PhD researcher Sacha Pulsford, from ANU, describes how remarkably efficient these microorganisms are at capturing carbon.

“Unlike plants, cyanobacteria have a system called a carbon dioxide concentrating mechanism (CCM), which allows them to fix carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into sugars at a significantly faster rate than standard plants and crop species," Ms Pulsford said.

At the heart of the CCM are large protein compartments call carboxysomes. These structures are responsible for sequestering carbon dioxide, housing CsoSCA and another enzyme called Rubisco.

The enzymes CsoSCA and Rubisco work in unison, demonstrating the highly efficient nature of the CCM. The CsoSCA works to create a high local concentration of carbon dioxide inside the carboxysome that Rubisco can then gobble up and turn into sugars for the cell to eat.

Lead author Dr Ben Long, from UoN, said: “Until now, scientists were unsure how the CsoSCA enzyme is controlled. Our study focused on unravelling this mystery, particularly in a major group of cyanobacteria found across the globe. What we found was completely unexpected.

"The CsoSCA enzyme dances to the tune of another molecule called RuBP, which activates it like a switch.

“Think of photosynthesis like making a sandwich. Carbon dioxide from the air is the filling, but a photosynthetic cell needs to provide the bread. That's RuBP.

“Just like you need bread to make a sandwich, the rate of turning carbon dioxide into sugar depends on how fast RuBP is supplied.

“How fast the CsoSCA enzyme supplies carbon dioxide to Rubisco is dependent on how much RuBP is present. When there’s enough, the enzyme is switched on. But if the cell runs out of RuBP, the enzyme is switched off, making the system highly tuned and efficient.

“Surprisingly, the CsoSCA enzyme has been embedded in nature’s blueprint all along, waiting to be discovered.”

The scientists say engineering crops that are more efficient at capturing and utilising carbon dioxide would provide a huge boost for the agricultural industry by vastly improving crop yield while reducing the demand for nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation systems.

It would also ensure the world’s food systems are more resilient to climate change.

Ms Pulsford said: “Understanding how the CCM works not only enriches our knowledge of natural processes fundamental to Earth’s biogeochemistry but may also guide us in creating sustainable solutions to some of the biggest environmental challenges the world is facing.” 

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells