Status of ERDA-DOD applications plans

A demonstration program is reported that defines solar terrestrial photovoltaic systems as power sources for DOD applications by developing requirements and implementation plans for each demonstration project. Evaluation criteria emphasize military market potential and military advantages

A Great Escape: The Effect of Negative Public Affiliation on Belongingness to Virtual Communities

In this study, we study negative public affiliation, which we define as discomfort with being publicly linked to a potentially socially stigmatized group or interest. We investigate how users who feel negative public affiliation form feelings of belonging to a virtual community. We also consider the impact that brand congruity (how much a user identifies with an interest or brand) has on feelings of belonging. To investigate negative public affiliation, we drew a sample from members of Twilight-themed virtual communities and evaluated the interrelationship between negative public affiliation, brand congruity, and belongingness (how well users feel they fit in virtual communities). Our results indicate that high negative public affiliation and high brand congruity with Twilight positively impacted feelings of belonging: users who felt Twilight reflected their identity but felt uncomfortable publicly discussing their interest felt a stronger sense of belonging in relation to their virtual communities. Our study offers practical implications for firms seeking to design and maintain virtual communities that support the broadest possible group of users. Of equal importance, our study provides a new direction for information systems research on virtual communities and suggests a need to study users who participate in socially uncomfortable, stigmatized, or unacceptable communities

Design, Construction, and Monitoring of the Ground-Water Resources of a Large Mine-Spoil Area: Star Fire Tract, Eastern Kentucky

By the year 2010, the Star Fire mining operation in Knott, Breathitt, and Perry Counties in eastern Kentucky, which uses mountaintop-removal and hollow-fill mining techniques, will have created approximately 5,000 acres of gently rolling terrain that could support alternative land uses. The present research is centered on approximately 1,000 acres of spoil created since mining began in 1981. An aquifer fed by both ground and surface water will be created within the spoil. Spoil-handling techniques such as cast blasting, dragline placement, end dumping by trucks, and surface grading have created porous coarse-rock zones within the spoil through which ground water can move. A vertical rubble chimney in the spoil has been constructed of durable rock to enhance infiltration to the ground-water reservoir through a surface infiltration basin. Fourteen monitoring wells have been installed along with flumes to gage surface-water discharge and monitor water quantity and quality at the site. Dye-tracing studies have identified ground-water flow paths and flow velocities. A preliminary assessment of the water resources at the site indicates that a stable water table has been created at the mined site. Based on an average saturated thickness of 21 feet for the entire site and an estimated porosity of 20 percent, the spoil stores approximately 4,200 acre-feet (1.37 billion gallons) of water. Dye-tracing data, hydraulic gradients, and water-quality data indicate that ground water moves more slowly in the spoil\u27s interior; from there it flows down into the hollow fills before discharging as springs along the bottom of the spoil. The springs discharge approximately 1 million gallons per day under normal flow conditions, and discharges of approximately 5 million gallons per day have been measured a week after rainfall events

Identifying the depreciation rate of durables from marginal spending responses

This paper presents a novel method to estimate the depreciation rate of durable goods using a combination of identified marginal and average spending shares. We apply our method to Chinese spending responses to disposable income changes induced by monetary policy in 2008-2009. The marginal spending response is 0.40. Durable goods make up about 45% of this marginal spending response. By combining this marginal spending share on durables with an average spending share of 14%, we estimate the annual depreciation rate of durables in China to be 0.16.publishedVersio

Does Professionalism Matter in the IT Workforce? An Empirical Examination of IT Professionals

This paper investigates the role of professionalism in the information technology (IT) workforce. We develop a model that describes how professionalism relates to attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors among IT professionals. Specifically, we hypothesize that dimensions of professionalism influence attitudes (including intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment), perceived job alternatives, job performance, and turnover. We test the research model with data, which includes supervisor evaluations and actual turnover data drawn from 214 IT professionals. Results show that some dimensions of professionalism demonstrate a positive relationship with intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and job performance. Other dimensions have no effect or positively influence awareness of job alternatives, driving turnover intention. As the IT workforce grows increasingly professional, managers may benefit from more satisfied, harder-working IT personnel at the cost of having a workforce more connected to the labor market

Destination Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a prototypical neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons both in the brain and spinal cord. The constantly evolving nature of ALS represents a fundamental dimension of individual differences that underlie this disorder, yet it involves multiple levels of functional entities that alternate in different directions and finally converge functionally to define ALS disease progression. ALS may start from a single entity and gradually becomes multifactorial. However, the functional convergence of these diverse entities in eventually defining ALS progression is poorly understood. Various hypotheses have been proposed without any consensus between the for-and-against schools of thought. The present review aims to capture explanatory hierarchy both in terms of hypotheses and mechanisms to provide better insights on how they functionally connect. We can then integrate them within a common functional frame of reference for a better understanding of ALS and defining future treatments and possible therapeutic strategies. Here, we provide a philosophical understanding of how early leads are crucial to understanding the endpoints in ALS, because invariably, all early symptomatic leads are underpinned by neurodegeneration at the cellular, molecular and genomic levels. Consolidation of these ideas could be applied to other neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) and guide further critical thinking to unveil their roadmap of destination ALS

Destination Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a prototypical neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons both in the brain and spinal cord. The constantly evolving nature of ALS represents a fundamental dimension of individual differences that underlie this disorder, yet it involves multiple levels of functional entities that alternate in different directions and finally converge functionally to define ALS disease progression. ALS may start from a single entity and gradually becomes multifactorial. However, the functional convergence of these diverse entities in eventually defining ALS progression is poorly understood. Various hypotheses have been proposed without any consensus between the for-and-against schools of thought. The present review aims to capture explanatory hierarchy both in terms of hypotheses and mechanisms to provide better insights on how they functionally connect. We can then integrate them within a common functional frame of reference for a better understanding of ALS and defining future treatments and possible therapeutic strategies. Here, we provide a philosophical understanding of how early leads are crucial to understanding the endpoints in ALS, because invariably, all early symptomatic leads are underpinned by neurodegeneration at the cellular, molecular and genomic levels. Consolidation of these ideas could be applied to other neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) and guide further critical thinking to unveil their roadmap of destination ALS

High resolution temporal transcriptomics of mouse embryoid body development reveals complex expression dynamics of coding and noncoding loci.

Cellular responses to stimuli are rapid and continuous and yet the vast majority of investigations of transcriptional responses during developmental transitions typically use long interval time courses; limiting the available interpretive power. Moreover, such experiments typically focus on protein-coding transcripts, ignoring the important impact of long noncoding RNAs. We therefore evaluated coding and noncoding expression dynamics at unprecedented temporal resolution (6-hourly) in differentiating mouse embryonic stem cells and report new insight into molecular processes and genome organization. We present a highly resolved differentiation cascade that exhibits coding and noncoding transcriptional alterations, transcription factor network interactions and alternative splicing events, little of which can be resolved by long-interval developmental time-courses. We describe novel short lived and cycling patterns of gene expression and dissect temporally ordered gene expression changes in response to transcription factors. We elucidate patterns in gene co-expression across the genome, describe asynchronous transcription at bidirectional promoters and functionally annotate known and novel regulatory lncRNAs. These findings highlight the complex and dynamic molecular events underlying mammalian differentiation that can only be observed though a temporally resolved time course

Hydrogeology, Hydrogeochemistry, and Spoil Settlement at a Large Mine-Spoil Area in Eastern Kentucky: Star Fire Tract

An applied research program at the Star Fire surface mine in eastern Kentucky, owned and operated by Cypress-AMAX Coal Co., defined spoil characteristics to develop and monitor water resources, which will help identify a reliable water supply for future property development. Water stored in the mine spoil may provide a usable ground-water supply, and the spoil could also be engineered to provide base flow to surfacewater reservoirs. Ground-water recharge enters the spoil by way of sinking streams, ground-water flow from bedrock in contact with the mine spoil, and a specially designed infiltration basin. Ground water discharges predominantly from springs and seeps along the northwestern outslope of the spoil. A conceptual model of ground-water flow, based on data from monitoring wells, discharge from springs and ponds, dye tracing, hydraulic gradients, and field reconnaissance, indicates that ground water moves slowly in the spoil interior, where it must flow down into the valley fills before discharging out of the spoil. Two saturated zones have been established: the first in the spoil interior, and the second in the valley fills that surround the main spoil body at lower elevations. The saturated zone in the valley fills contains fresher water than the zone in the spoil interior and exhibits more water-level fluctuation because of efficient recharge pathways along the spoil’s periphery at the spoil-highwall contact. The average saturated thickness of the valley fill areas (30.1 ft) is approximately twice the average saturated thickness found in the spoil’s interior (15.4 ft). Spatial water-quality variations are consistent with those predicted in the proposed flow system. Based on an estimated average saturated thickness of 21 ft for the entire site, the saturated spoil stores 4,200 acre-ft (1.4 billion gallons) of water. Hydraulic-conductivity (K) values derived from slug tests range from 2.0 × 10-6 to more than 2.9 × 10-5 ft/sec, and are consistent with hydraulic-conductivity data for other spoil areas where similar mining methods are used. Water samples taken from wells and springs indicate that the ground water is a calcium-magnesium-sulfate type, differing mainly in the total concentration of these constituents at various locations. Mineral saturation indices calculated using the geochemical model PHREEQE indicate that most of the ground water is near equilibrium with gypsum. Nearly all the water samples had pH measurements in a favorable range between 6.0 and 7.0, indicating that the spoil does not produce highly acidic water. Measurements of vertical displacement around the monitoring-well surface casings indicate that differential settlement is occurring within the mine spoil. The most rapid settlement occurs in the most recently placed spoil near the active mining pit