The Impact of Private Public Utility Tax-Exempt Bond Issuance

This work presents the current status of Maine’s investor-owned electric utilities. In utilizing current financial data, interviewing with individuals from Bangor Hydro Electric, and through research conducted, it was concluded that it should be in society’s economic best interest to allow privately-owned electric utilities to issue tax-exempt securities in specific scenarios. In the long-term, this assessment may be useful in the determination of the most efficient methods for public utility capital taxation. Infrastructure development is critical to the success and sustainability of a developed nation. Through sensitivity and scenario analysis conducted in MS Excel, I concluded that the issuance of tax-exempt bonds by investor-owned utilities will be ideal for those that are poorly structured and overleveraged on a case-by-case basis

H.E.A.R.T.

Healthy parenting and family resilience in early childhood has been shown to be an important factor in building emotional resilience for the children: it illustrates that when parents have higher emotional resilience, their children tend to have higher emotional resilience as well. However, the tools that available in the market right now only teach people what emotional resilience rather than how to practice it in daily life. This report describes our project to create a virtual reality tool that can not only teach the importance of emotional resilience, but also help the parents develop personal resilience. The system is based on the VR Empathy Training Tool created by a former senior design project in which the user can interact with a crying child and learn how to handle stress under certain circumstances. The new system will add new features so that it can inform users about their stress level and allow the users to track their progress

Food Deserts

A food desert is a community, particularly a low-income area, in which the residents lack access to affordable and healthy food. There may be no supermarket or large grocery store within one mile if in an urban area or within ten miles if in a rural area, there is a lack of affordable vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and other nutritious foods, or there is a prevalence of fast food restaurants and convenience stores in the area.https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/public_health_posters/1005/thumbnail.jp

John F. Day Correspondence

Entries include transcripts of typed letters of correspondence from the Maine State Library

Resistance to antibiotics of clinical relevance in the fecal microbiota of Mexican wildlife.

There are a growing number of reports of antibiotic resistance (ATBR) in bacteria living in wildlife. This is a cause for concern as ATBR in wildlife represents a potential public health threat. However, little is known about the factors that might determine the presence, abundance and dispersion of ATBR bacteria in wildlife. Here, we used culture and molecular methods to assess ATBR in bacteria in fecal samples from howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata), spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi), tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) and felids (jaguars, Panthera onca; pumas, Puma concolor; jaguarundis, Puma yagouaroundi; and ocelots, Leopardus pardalis) living freely in two regions of the Mexican state of Veracruz under different degrees of human influence. Overall, our study shows that ATBR is commonplace in bacteria isolated from wildlife in southeast Mexico. Most of the resistances were towards old and naturally occurring antibiotics, but we also observed resistances of potential clinical significance. We found that proximity to humans positively affected the presence of ATBR and that ATBR was higher in terrestrial than arboreal species. We also found evidence suggesting different terrestrial and aerial routes for the transmission of ATBR between humans and wildlife. The prevalence and potential ATBR transfer mechanisms between humans and wildlife observed in this study highlight the need for further studies to identify the factors that might determine ATBR presence, abundance and distribution.The authors acknowledge the National Council of Science of Technology (CONACYT) in Mexico and the Veracruz State Government for providing partial financial support to JCA (Grant Number 108990). JCD was supported by grants from the Isaac Newton Trust and The Cambridge Humanities Research Grant Scheme. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.This is the final published version. It originally appeared in PLOS One at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0107719

Enhancing the Connectedness Between Undergraduate Students, Faculty, and the DPT Program Within the Same Institution

Background Minimal data exists on optimizing the retention of undergraduate students to the DPT program within the same academic institution. Many DPT programs provide information and resources for applicants to explain admission requirements and overview the program curriculum. Purpose Identify and understand undergraduate student and faculty member’s knowledge, perceptions and resources regarding the DPT program within the same institution. Develop resources and tools to enhance the connectedness within the undergraduate and graduate DPT program in the same institution and fill identified gaps. Participants 41 undergraduate Science and Kinesiology students 6 Kinesiology faculty members 5 Science faculty members 4 active DPT students who attended CSP as undergraduates 18 active DPT students Methods Qualitative data collection via surveys and focus groups Triangulation of data, coding and development of themes Action research strategies used to create tangible products and resources Results Majority of undergraduate students choose their major in high school or freshman year of college. Undergraduate students expressed a lack of resources and understanding of the DPT program within their institution (Figure 1). Undergraduate students expressed desire for admission requirements, informational meetings and mentorship (Figure 2). Faculty echoed lack of resources and provided ideas for potential products. Conclusion Themes emerged that students and faculty were provided with little information regarding the DPT program within their home institution. Analysis of student and staff focus groups, questionnaires, and interviews, determined the need for a variety of products including: Program resource guide, Mentorship program, Social media (Facebook & Instagram), On campus marketing, and informational events. Implications Designing and implementing products may help bridge the gap between the undergraduate and graduate populations in the same institution. Future research will examine the impact of products and to also determine if graduate applications within institution increased. Future phases may include admissions, undergraduate student advisors and other CSP undergraduate departments

Low-metallicity globular clusters in the low-mass isolated spiral galaxy NGC 2403

The globular cluster (GC) systems of low-mass late-type galaxies, such as NGC 2403, have been poorly studied to date. As a low mass galaxy (M∗ = 7 × 109 Mz.ast;), cosmological simulations predict NGC 2403 to contain few, if any, accreted GCs. It is also isolated, with a remarkably undisturbed HI disc. Based on candidates from the literature, Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Hyper Suprime-Cam imaging, we selected several GCs for follow-up spectroscopy using the Keck Cosmic Web Imager. From their radial velocities and other properties, we identify eight bona-fide GCs associated with either the inner halo or the disc of this bulgeless galaxy. A stellar population analysis suggests a wide range of GC ages from shortly after the big bang until the present day. We find all of the old GCs to be metal-poor with [Fe/H] ≤ -1. The age-metallicity relation for the observed GCs suggests that they were formed over many Gyr from gas with a low effective yield, similar to that observed in the SMC. Outflows of enriched material may have contributed to the low yield. With a total system of ∼50 GCs expected, our study is the first step in fully mapping the star cluster history of NGC 2403 in both space and time

Initial Design of a W-Band Superconducting Kinetic Inductance Qubit

Superconducting qubits are widely used in quantum computing research and industry. We describe a superconducting kinetic inductance qubit (and introduce the term Kineticon to describe it) operating at W-band frequencies with a nonlinear nanowire section that provides the anharmonicity required for two distinct quantum energy states. Operating the qubits at higher frequencies may relax the dilution refrigerator temperature requirements for these devices and paves the path for multiplexing a large number of qubits. Millimeter-wave operation requires superconductors with relatively high T_c, which implies high gap frequency, 2 Δ/h , beyond which photons break Cooper pairs. For example, NbTiN with T_c = 15K has a gap frequency near 1.4 THz, which is much higher than that of aluminum (90 GHz), allowing for operation throughout the millimeter-wave band. Here we describe a design and simulation of a W-band Kineticon qubit embedded in a 3-D cavity. We perform classical electromagnetic calculations of the resulting field distributions

Role of oxido incorporation and ligand lability in expanding redox accessibility of structurally related Mn4 clusters

Photosystem II supports four manganese centers through nine oxidation states from manganese(II) during assembly through to the most oxidized state before O_2 formation and release. The protein-based carboxylate and imidazole ligands allow for significant changes of the coordination environment during the incorporation of hydroxido and oxido ligands upon oxidation of the metal centers. We report the synthesis and characterization of a series of tetramanganese complexes in four of the six oxidation states from Mn^(II)_(3)Mn^III to Mn^(III)_(2)Mn^(IV)_2 with the same ligand framework (L) by incorporating four oxido ligands. A 1,3,5-triarylbenzene framework appended with six pyridyl and three alkoxy groups was utilized along with three acetate anions to access tetramanganese complexes, Mn_(4)O_x, with x = 1, 2, 3, and 4. Alongside two previously reported complexes, four new clusters in various states were isolated and characterized by crystallography, and four were observed electrochemically, thus accessing the eight oxidation states from Mn^(II)_4 to Mn^(III)Mn^(IV)_3. This structurally related series of compounds was characterized by EXAFS, XANES, EPR, magnetism, and cyclic voltammetry. Similar to the ligands in the active site of the protein, the ancillary ligand (L) is preserved throughout the series and changes its binding mode between the low and high oxido-content clusters. Implications for the rational assembly and properties of high oxidation state metal–oxido clusters are presented