From Cold War to Microchips: Stepping From the Past into Our Future

Malcolm Steve Forbes Jr., editor-in-chief of FORBES Magazine, looks often to history to explain the present and to predict the future. In an address to the 21st annual Governor\u27s Economic Development Conference at the University of Maine last fall, Forbes identified two important trends, one grounded in the past (the Cold War), and one symbolic of the rapid change experienced at present (the microchip), in suggesting that the economic future for Maine and the nation is only limited by our willingness to give in to our fears about what that future holds. This article is an edited version of Forbes’ remarks to the Governor\u27s Conference

From Cold War to Microchips: Stepping From the Past into Our Future

Malcolm Steve Forbes Jr., editor-in-chief of FORBES Magazine, looks often to history to explain the present and to predict the future. In an address to the 21st annual Governor\u27s Economic Development Conference at the University of Maine last fall, Forbes identified two important trends, one grounded in the past (the Cold War), and one symbolic of the rapid change experienced at present (the microchip), in suggesting that the economic future for Maine and the nation is only limited by our willingness to give in to our fears about what that future holds. This article is an edited version of Forbes’ remarks to the Governor\u27s Conference

“O, she’s warm!”: The taking of hands … and bears … and time’s … in The Winter’s Tale

Shakespeare wrote words and plays. Words might well be considered to be the ‘life blood’ of a play. But plays are more than words. Plays have characters, movement, costumes and props. Words inhabit and animate, give rhyme and reason to an actor being on a stage, performing for an audience. But between the words, the play still exists. This thesis is an exploration of those ‘moments’ that are played out in silence and are watched rather than heard. To tell the story of The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare was faced with some specific problems. There are essentially two tales to be told in the space of one play. The first requires for an all consuming jealousy to be played out. He solved this with a simple and understandable wordless action. Then to conclude this first tragic section, the story demanded that a helpless baby be abandoned - lost. Here he used an old trick in a new and surprising way, to be played quickly and, with his unerring sense of staging, for a laugh. The second tale then had to begin, and the baby had to become a woman. For this he used a convention - unconventionally. Finally, at the end of the play, he decided to change the story. To conclude his tale, the tale he was telling, with an image of redemption, reconciliation and hope. Of all the moments, this is the one that is the quietest, slowest and most beautifully painted. This thesis is an exploration of those moments. A discussion about how Shakespeare, who has probably added more words into the lexicon that any other person, was also essentially a visual artist. That he ‘drew and painted and sculpted’ - creating stage pictures

Investigation of Liquid‐Phase Inhomogeneity on the Nanometer Scale Using Spin‐Polarized Paramagnetic Probes

The concept, basic physics, and experimental details of time‐resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) spectroscopy for the study of spin‐correlated radical pairs (SCRPs) in heterogeneous media are presented and discussed. The delicate interplay between electron spin wave function evolution (governed by magnetic interactions such as the isotropic electron spin‐spin exchange interaction and the electron‐nuclear hyperfine interaction) and diffusion (governed by the size and microviscosity of the medium) provides a mechanism for assessing molecular mobility in confined spaces on the nanoscale (e.g., micelles, vesicles, and microemulsions). Experimental examples from micellar SCRPs are used to highlight the dominant features of the TREPR under different degrees of confinement and microviscosity, and spectral simulation methods are described to show how molecular mobility can be quantified

Ex-post service contract performance management

This paper highlights how contract incompleteness can threaten the performance of public procurement facilities management contracts during their implementation stages, based on a multiple case study comprising five public procurement services contracts. The paper takes a principle-agent view and with the unit of analysis being the contract itself. The paper shows that contract contingencies are almost inevitable and may stem from the written contract or from the participating organisations. Written and unwritten contract management mechanisms were used in practice to deal with contingencies as they arose in the services case studies examined. The paper found that written contracts do not always provide satisfactory remedies for unexpected contingencies. Ex post mechanisms were used to manage the contract including incentives, information systems and signals. Time, resource or position signals were used in all five cases and provided an effective mechanism to manage unexpected contingencies in written contracts that proved to be incomplete

The use of social media as a 'leadership behaviour' in medicine

In this dissertation, I examined how seed dispersal relationships are modified by the presence of multiple introduced species on the islands of Tahiti and Moorea in the Society archipelago of French Polynesia. Additionally, I evaluated the risks associated with one of my research methods; the use of mist nets to capture wild birds. I first evaluated how the local abundance of the invasive Miconia calvescens modifies seed dispersal relationships between birds and plants. The species is an invasive fruit-bearing tree that currently covers much of the island of Tahiti and is present at much lower densities on Moorea. I found that while the overall size of networks was similar across sites, networks on the highly invaded island of Tahiti were less diverse and less even because birds concentrated a greater proportion of their foraging on Miconia calvescens. There were fewer links between birds and native plants at highly invaded sites where birds switched their diets away from a broader range of fruit and insects. The endemic Grey-green Fruit Dove ( Ptilinopus purpuratus) consumed native fruit in larger quantities and more total species than two introduced frugivores. This study demonstrates that the impacts of invasive fruit-bearing plants on seed dispersal networks depends in part on their abundance, and are likely to increase as a species becomes increasingly dominant in a community. Additionally, the dispersal of native plants continues to depend heavily on the single extant native fruit dove on these islands despite the presence of multiple introduced frugivores. The impact of invasive plants on seed dispersal networks is the result of the cumulative effects of foraging decisions by birds. The available evidence suggests that birds choose which fruit to consume based on the complementarity between fruit traits and their own preferences as well as the relative abundance of fruit in a community. I used fruit choice experiments with captive Red-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus cafer) to uncouple fruit preferences from the effects of abundance to determine which operates more strongly on foraging decisions in birds. Birds showed both reliable and consistent preferences for some fruits over others and a strong response to abundance. However, when included simultaneously in the same experiment, the patterns of preference remained intact while the effect of abundance disappeared. Data suggest that foraging decisions are highly context-dependent, and neutral models that consider only the relative abundance of fruit in the community are unlikely to provide reliable predictions about how seed dispersal networks will change in response to invasion. In the final study of my thesis, I evaluated the risks associated with one of my primary research methods; the use of mist nets to capture birds. Mist nets are used widely for monitoring avian populations. While the method is assumed to be safe, very few studies have addressed how frequently injuries and mortalities occur, and no large-scale comprehensive evaluation has been conducted to determine the associated risks. In collaboration with several banding organizations, I quantified the rates of mortality and injury at 22 banding organizations in the United States and Canada and used capture data from five organizations to determine what kinds of incidents occur most frequently. I compiled a dataset including nearly 350,000 records of capture over a 22 year period and evaluated what makes birds most at risk to incident. I found that the risks varied among species and factors such as body mass and the number of previous captures were related to the probability of an incident. Additionally, I found that birds that were released back into the wild after an injury were recaptured at similar rates compared to birds that were released without an injury, indicating that injured birds survived in similar numbers as those released uninjured. This study fills a gap by providing the first comprehensive evaluation of the risks associated with mist netting and concludes that while overall risks are low, species and traits can predict a bird's susceptibility to incident. These results can be useful for organizations that use mist netting, and should be incorporated into protocols aimed at minimizing injury and mortality. Finally, I emphasize that projects using mist nets should monitor their performance and compare their results to those of other organizations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.

Formation of tungsten oxide nanostructures by laser pyrolysis: stars, fibres and spheres

In this letter, the production of multi-phase WO3 and WO3-x (where x could vary between 0.1 and 0.3) nanostructures synthesized by CO2-laser pyrolysis technique at varying laser wavelengths (9.22-10.82 mm) and power densities (17-110 W/cm2) is reported. The average spherical particle sizes for the wavelength variation samples ranged between 113 and 560 nm, and the average spherical particle sizes for power density variation samples ranged between 108 and 205 nm. Synthesis of W18O49 (= WO2.72) stars by this method is reported for the first time at a power density and wavelength of 2.2 kW/cm2 and 10.6 μm, respectively. It was found that more concentrated starting precursors result in the growth of hierarchical structures such as stars, whereas dilute starting precursors result in the growth of simpler structures such as wires

Summer 1973

What Happens to Herbicides in the Environmen? (page 3) Agricultural Chelates--What They Are, What They Do (6) Turfgrass Cultivars (9) Vandalism on the Golf Course (13) Massachusetts Seed laws (20