A study to improve the mechanical properties of silicon carbide ribbon fibers

Preliminary deposition studies of SiC ribbon on a carbon ribbon substrate showed that the dominant strength limiting flaws were at the substrate surface. Procedures for making the carbon ribbon substrate from polyimide film were improved, providing lengths up to 450 meters (1,500 ft.) of flat carbon ribbon substrate 1,900 microns (75 mils) wide by 25 microns (1 mil) thick. The flaws on the carbon ribbon were smaller and less frequent than on carbon ribbon used earlier. SiC ribbon made using the improved substrate, including a layer of pyrolytic graphite to reduce further the severity of substrate surface flaws, showed strength levels up to the 2,068 MPa (300 Ksi) target of the program, with average strength levels over 1,700 MPa (250 Ksi) with coefficient of variation as low as 10% for some runs

Releasing Authority Chairs: A Comparative Snapshot Across Three Decades

This report provides a comparative analysis of releasing authority chairs' views of the issues and challenges confronting them at two points in time: 1988 and 2015. Drawing from two surveys, one conducted during the tenure of an ACA Parole Task Force that functioned from 1986-1988, and the other a survey published in 2016 by the Robina Institute called The Continuing Leverage of Releasing Authorities: Findings from a National Survey, this new publication highlights both change and constancy relative to a wide range of comparative markers including, but not limited to, structured decision tools, prison crowding and risk aversion, and the myriad factors considered in granting or denying parole

The Continuing Leverage of Releasing Authorities: Findings from a National Survey

The Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice launched a national survey of releasing authorities in March 2015 to each state, and the U.S. Parole Commission. The importance of the survey was underscored by an endorsement from the Association of Paroling Authorities International (APAI). We are pleased to present the results from this important survey here. This is the first comprehensive survey of parole boards completed in nearly 10 years. Its findings provide a rich database for better understanding the policy and practice of paroling authorities. The last survey to be conducted of paroling authorities was in 2007/2008.The current report offers an expansion and update of previous surveys. The results summarized throughout the report offer a timely resource for paroling authorities, correctional policy-makers and practitioners, legislators, and those with a public policy interest in sentencing and criminal justice operations. It is our hope that the document and its findings provide key justice system and other stakeholders with an incisive snapshot of the work of paroling authorities across the country in a manner that contributes to a larger conversation about sound and effective parole release and revocation practices.The completion of this comprehensive survey and the reporting of its findings offers a timely and invaluable resource for releasing authorities. It provides them and other key justice system stakeholders with a comparative understanding of their colleagues' work across the nation, and contributes to a larger conversation pertaining to effective parole release and revocation practices

Pascalammetry with operando microbattery probes: Sensing high stress in solid-state batteries.

Energy storage science calls for techniques to elucidate ion transport over a range of conditions and scales. We introduce a new technique, pascalammetry, in which stress is applied to a solid-state electrochemical device and induced faradaic current transients are measured and analyzed. Stress-step pascalammetry measurements are performed on operando microbattery probes (Li2O/Li/W) and Si cathodes, revealing stress-assisted Li+ diffusion. We show how non-Cottrellian lithium diffusional kinetics indicates stress, a prelude to battery degradation. An analytical solution to a diffusion/activation equation describes this stress signature, with spatiotemporal characteristics distinct from Cottrell's classic solution for unstressed systems. These findings create an unprecedented opportunity for quantitative detection of stress in solid-state batteries through the current signature. Generally, pascalammetry offers a powerful new approach to study stress-related phenomena in any solid-state electrochemical system

Panel 7 Target Journals for Information Systems Research: Current Practices and Controversies

This panel examines the practice of identifying target journals for IS research. As participants in a scholarly community, individual researchers and their institutions may benefit from guidance on the choice of journals for submission of scholarly work. Official “target journal” lists have begun to appear within departments, where they play a role in evaluating the contributions of individual faculty. The panel examines this practice from three distinct angles. First, research that evaluates the relative standing of scholarly journals in the IS field will be described. The results of a 1998 survey and two earlier surveys (Hardgrave and Walstrom 1997; Walstrom Hardgrave, and Wilson 1995) will be presented. Second, the current practices of two leading IS departments in North American business schools will be described. The actual lists, the controversies surrounding their development and maintenance, and their use and consequences will be described. Third, the practice of identifying target journals will be challenged, and the controversies surrounding the use of such lists will be examined

The Impact of Title I Program Funding Through a Comparison of Schoolwide Assistance and Targeted Assistance on Fifth Grade Reading Achievement Scores in Illinois: Implications for Leadership in Public Education

The ability to read with proficiency and comprehension is one of the basic goals of our educational system. Adequacy of funding these goals, particularly for lower income students, continues to be a challenge. Despite the efforts of a variety of educational reforms many students, particularly the economically disadvantaged, continue to struggle with basic reading skills. The intent of this study is to help school leaders in identifying whether schoolwide or targeted assistance programs funded through Title I schools are associated with higher reading achievement. The study measured reading achievement for fifth grade students in Illinois using data from the Illinois Scholastic Achievement Test from 2006 to 2007 and compared the results of selected schools in the 40% to 90% low income range with populations of 200 to 1000 students in Northern Cook County and Lake County, Illinois. Schools used for this study were split between those using schoolwide assistance and those using targeted assistance. The study provides information that indicates the impact of Title I funding on reading achievement by comparing the use of schoolwide and targeted assistance. The outcome of this study is important to school leaders in determining the general direction to take with school programs when receiving federal funding through Title I

COMMENTARY: The Use of Focus Groups for Design and Implementation of Collaborative Environmental Administrative Programs: A Comparison of Two State-Level Processes in Ohio

Development and implementation of administrative programs are important steps in the process of change through public law and policy. These programs set the specific mechanisms that will be used to carry out the intent of the law or policy as best an agency can determine. Administrative personnel may involve the general public and stakeholders in program development and implementation in order to improve program design, increasingly used as part of collaborative environmental management strategies. This article examines the use of focus groups as a stakeholder participation method in collaborative program development and implementation processes in two different environmentally-oriented agency programs at the state level in Ohio—the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund of the Ohio Department of Development, and the Ohio Coastal Resources Management Training Program of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, NOAA, and the Ohio Sea Grant Program. The comparison confirms three categories of benefits in using focus groups: better program development and implementation through more in-depth and nuanced information from stakeholders, an enhanced administrative and civic capacity through development of a shared knowledge base, and an enhanced sense of legitimacy for the program among future program beneficiaries. The comparison also identified some constraints and challenges for using focus groups, including the importance of skilled facilitators with substantive knowledge of the environmental context of the program development process and the skills to resolve contentious stakeholder interactions when the processes are distributive in nature

Predicting the safety and efficacy of butter therapy to raise tumour pHe: an integrative modelling study

Background: Clinical positron emission tomography imaging has demonstrated the vast majority of human cancers exhibit significantly increased glucose metabolism when compared with adjacent normal tissue, resulting in an acidic tumour microenvironment. Recent studies demonstrated reducing this acidity through systemic buffers significantly inhibits development and growth of metastases in mouse xenografts.\ud \ud Methods: We apply and extend a previously developed mathematical model of blood and tumour buffering to examine the impact of oral administration of bicarbonate buffer in mice, and the potential impact in humans. We recapitulate the experimentally observed tumour pHe effect of buffer therapy, testing a model prediction in vivo in mice. We parameterise the model to humans to determine the translational safety and efficacy, and predict patient subgroups who could have enhanced treatment response, and the most promising combination or alternative buffer therapies.\ud \ud Results: The model predicts a previously unseen potentially dangerous elevation in blood pHe resulting from bicarbonate therapy in mice, which is confirmed by our in vivo experiments. Simulations predict limited efficacy of bicarbonate, especially in humans with more aggressive cancers. We predict buffer therapy would be most effectual: in elderly patients or individuals with renal impairments; in combination with proton production inhibitors (such as dichloroacetate), renal glomular filtration rate inhibitors (such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors), or with an alternative buffer reagent possessing an optimal pK of 7.1–7.2.\ud \ud Conclusion: Our mathematical model confirms bicarbonate acts as an effective agent to raise tumour pHe, but potentially induces metabolic alkalosis at the high doses necessary for tumour pHe normalisation. We predict use in elderly patients or in combination with proton production inhibitors or buffers with a pK of 7.1–7.2 is most promising