Can we get there from here? Ecosystem based governance in the Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Maine region

Decades, even centuries, of resource extraction and exploitation by humans have taken a toll on the Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Maine ecosystems. The very real threats posed by population growth and coastal development, climate change, habitat loss, overharvesting, chemical pollution, nutrient overloading, and invasive species invasions show no sign of abating. Traditional methods of managing the human activities that impact the Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Maine are proving unable to keep pace with the growing threats. The Gulf of Maine Council and others have joined in the chorus calling for a broader, more holistic ecosystem approach to the governance of the human activities that impact the coastal margin. This study uses the framework of the Policy Sciences to suggest a model of Problem Orientation, Social Process, and Decision Process characteristics indicative of an ideal ecosystem-based approach to governance. The model is first used to analyze the governance regime that existed in the Great Lakes Basin during the first two decades under the International Joint Commission\u27s oversight of activities under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The framework model is then used to analyze the current governance regime in the Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy region. Using this analysis, the study concludes that an ecosystem-based approach to governance is not possible in the region as currently configured. The study further concludes that it will not be possible to transition to an ecosystem-based approach without the education and significant outreach necessary to create a knowledgeable and activist public able to understand the issues and threats and willing to press governance for improvement. Further, ecosystem-based governance will require the creation of an overarching and accountable entity that, with significant input from public and stakeholder partnerships can collect reliable ecosystem indicator data from both sides of the border, analyze the data, and direct the implementation of policy solutions, and change course as necessary

The Federal Rules in State Courts: A Survey of State Court Systems of Civil Procedure

In this article we present a new survey of the civil procedures of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. We seek to identify those jurisdictions that have systematically replicated the Federal Rules as the basis for practice before their civil courts. We also seek to identify states whose civil procedures are more loosely modeled on the Federal Rules, paying special attention to each state\u27s procedural disparity from or conformity to the federal model for the pleading of a civil case

Classical and Statistical Thermodynamics of Solid-Liquid Equilibria.

The research discussed in this dissertation has been divided into two parts. The first portion deals with the classical thermodynamics of compounds that are typically used as model compounds for coal liquids. The bulk of the work has been an experimental study of the solid-liquid solubilities (SLE) for a large number of these compounds in various solvents and a smaller study of the vapor-liquid equilibria (VLE) of some of these systems. The second method is the traditional experimental method for obtaining the activity coefficients which represent the liquid phase nonidealities in a system. The first method is an alternative method for obtaining the same information which, though older than the VLE method, has been largely overlooked by chemical engineers. In this portion of the dissertation, it will be shown that solid-liquid solubility data are a viable source for information on liquid phase nonidealities in these types of systems, which have been somewhat ignored in the literature because of the difficulty associated with VLE experimentation on systems with high relative volatilities. The second portion of the dissertation is a discussion of work done to investigate the applicability of statistical mechanics to the prediction of liquid phase nonidealities in complex systems like these. Because the present state-of-the-art has not yet progressed to the level needed, the work presented is concerned mostly with additions to that art (improvements in the tools available). The directions for future research in this area needed to apply these statistical mechanical methods to the type of system studied in part A are discussed

Economic Feasibility of Utilizing Waste-Water Heat from Coal-Fired Electrical Generating Plants in Commercial Greenhouses in North Dakota

This study provides information on the economic feasibility of establishing commercial greenhouses utilizing waste-water heat in North Dakota.Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

PKCα and ERβ Are Associated with Triple-Negative Breast Cancers in African American and Caucasian Patients

Although the incidence of breast cancer in the United States is higher in Caucasian women compared with African American women, African-American patients have more aggressive disease as characterized by a higher percentage of triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs), high-grade tumors, and a higher mortality rate. PKCα is a biomarker associated with endocrine resistance and poor prognosis and ERβ is emerging as a protective biomarker. Immunohistochemical analysis of ERβ and PKCα expression was performed on 198 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary infiltrating ductal carcinomas from 105 African-American and 93 Caucasian patients. PKCα is positively correlated with TNBC in patients of both races and with high tumor grade in African-American patients. Patients with TNBC express less nuclear ERβ compared with all other subtypes. We find no difference in frequency or intensity of PKCα or ERβ expression between African-American and Caucasian patients. PKCα and ERβ are discussed as potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of patients with TNBC

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF THE PERMANENT NEW JERSEY SAFETY SHAPE BARRIER – UPDATE TO NCHRP 350 TEST NO. 4-12 (2214NJ-2)

Based on the proposed changes to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report No. 350 guidelines, NCHRP Project 22-14(2) researchers deemed it appropriate to evaluate permanent safety shape barrier systems prior to finalizing the new crash testing procedures and guidelines. For this effort, the permanent New Jersey Safety Shape barrier was selected for evaluation. One full-scale vehicle crash test was performed on the longitudinal barrier system in accordance with the Test Level 4 (TL-4) requirements presented in the Update to NCHRP Report No. 350. For the permanent barrier testing program, a 10000S single unit truck was used. The permanent safety shape barrier provided an unacceptable safety performance when impacted by the single unit truck, thus failing to meet the proposed TL-4 requirements presented in the Update to NCHRP Report No. 350

DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS FOR PLACEMENT OF STEEL GUARDRAIL POSTS IN ROCK

A steel post W-beam guardrail system was developed for installation in rock-soil foundations. The guardrail system was constructed with a 2.66-mm (12-gauge) thick W-beam rail, 53.34 m in length. The W-beam guardrail was supported by twenty-seven W152x13.4 by 1,346-mm long steel posts, spaced at 1,905 mm on center. The posts were installed in drilled holes in concrete, constructed by drilling three 203-mm diameter holes on 165- mm centers to a depth of 610 mm. The drilled holes were backfilled with compacted ASTM C33 coarse aggregate, size no. 57. One full-scale vehicle crash test, using a 3⁄4-ton pickup truck, was performed on the W-beam guardrail system. The test was conducted and reported in accordance with the requirements specified in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report No. 350, Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features. The safety performance of the W-beam guardrail system with post placed in rock was determined to be acceptable according to the Test Level 3 (TL-3) evaluation criteria specified in NCHRP Report No. 350. Further, guardrail post placement recommendations were also developed for situations where rock is located below the surface. These recommendations were developed through an analysis of bogie testing of posts

Resurrecting a Graeco-Egyptian Purple: Reverse Engineering an Ancient Pigment of Scientific and Cultural Significance

In ancient Graeco­Roman Egypt, funerary portraits painted in the encaustic style often indicated the deceased individual’s socioeconomic status through depicted adornments and clothing. For example, purple clavi ­ such as the clavus in “32.6 The Bearded Man” ­ used their color to distinguish higher social castes from the common population. Traditionally, high­quality purple dye was painstakingly extracted from the Murex sea snail; however, this expensive colorant’s use primarily as a dye rather than a pigment motivated the development of less costly organic dyes for lake pigment production. We explored the processing of several dye precursors accessible to Graeco­Egyptians of antiquity (kermes, lichen, indigo, madder and alkanet roots ­ which can all be color­shifted to purple by a variety of metal and alkali salts) in order to characterize the production of the purple used in “The Bearded Man.” Spectroscopic techniques such as raman, absorption, fluorescence, and XRD offer comparative chemical, physical, and optical analyses of the dyes and pigments that result from the various precursors and the addition of metal and alkali salts. Pigments produced experimentally are compared with a sample from “The Bearded Man” in order to better correlate the processing materials and methods available in ancient Graeco­Roman Egypt