Science leadership for tomorrow: The role of schools of public affairs and universities in meeting needs of public science agencies

Recommendations and requirements for the preparation of personnel with some scientific or technological background to enter fields of public policy and administration are reported. University efforts to provide science administration graduate programs are outlined and increased cooperation between government and university resources is outlined

Sensitivity of LDEF foil analyses using ultra-low background germanium vs. large NaI(Tl) multidimensional spectrometers

Cobalt foils and stainless steel samples were analyzed for induced Co-60 activity with both an ultra-low background germanium gamma-ray spectrometer and with a large NaI(Tl) multidimensional spectrometer, both of which use electronic anticoincidence shielding to reduce background counts resulting from cosmic rays. Aluminum samples were analyzed for Na-22. The results, in addition to the relative sensitivities and precisions afforded by the two methods, are presented

Political Hijacking: What Law Applies in Peace and War

A new breed of hijackers has evolved as a product of international political strife of recent years. In attempts to escape an actual or self-styled oppressive environment, these political hijackers cause irreparable injury and serious danger to travelers, and complicate the operation of many transportation companies. After sketching the problems involved in providing adequate reparations to the injured passengers and corporations, and in implementing adequate punishment of the offenders, Mr. Reeves examines the question of whether a hijacked ship or plane might be retained by the arrival country rather than returned to its foreign owner. The author concludes that such an act is both diplomatically and legally unwise, and would constitute a provocation little short of an act of war

Rocket spectrometer for investigation of the far ultraviolet solar spectrum

A rocket-borne Ebert spectrometer and telescope were used for analysis of the solar spectrum. The instrument was arranged in the high resolution line scanning mode. Selected emission lines between 1170 and 1640 A were scanned, and a complete wavelength scan was made from 1170 A to 1850 A. Accurate measurements were made of the line profiles of the He II lines at 1640 A, C IV lines at 1550 A, Si IV lines at 1400 A, C II lines at 1335 A, the N V lines at 1240 A, and the C III lines at 1175 A. Accurate intensity measurements of the quiet sun spectrum for wavelengths between 1174 A and 3220 A were obtained. Spectral resolution was better than 0.03 A over most of the range and spatial resolution was relatively low so that the observations are averaged over the chromospheric network. Plots of absolute intensity versus wave length were prepared for the full wavelength range of the observations

Subgrade geology beneath railways in Manchester

It is not sufficient to identify fine-grained soils, only, as locations for potential subgrade problems as could be done using a traditional 2D geological map. More information is required about the geological structure, lithological variability, mineralogy, moisture content and geotechnical properties of the soil, much of which can be supplied by modern 3D geospatial databases. These databases can be interrogated at key depths to show the wide variability of geological materials and conditions beneath the ground surface. Geological outcrop and thickness of bedrock an superficial deposits (soils), plus the permeability and water table level are predicted from the Manchester geospatial model that is based on 6500 borehole records. Geological sections along railway routes are modelled and the locations of problem soils such as alluvium, till and glaciolacustrine deposits at outcrop and shallow subcrop are identified. Spatial attribution of geotechnical data and simple methods to recast sections in engineering geological terms are demonstrated

Makes Sense to Me: How Moderate, Targeted Federal Tort Reform Legislation Could Solve the Nation\u27s Asbestos Litigation Crisis

During the three decades he spent working as a machinist for the United States Navy, Henry Plummer suffered continuous exposure to the asbestos used in the insulation, gaskets and pipe coverings of warships. In late 1999, a biopsy confirmed that he had developed mesothelioma, a gruesome type of cancer that kills all those who contract it and is caused only by asbestos. In an effort to combat his cancer, Mr. Plummer embarked on a long, painful course of treatments that included chemotherapy and the removal of his left lung in April 2000. In early 2001, however, Mr. Plummer\u27s doctor informed him that new tumors had emerged, this time in his right lung. He was subsequently placed on a ventilator and died in October 2001. Before his death, Mr. Plummer retained an attorney and filed a lawsuit against more than twenty makers of asbestos products. Several defendants settled before trial, and a jury awarded Mr. Plummer a 3.1 million verdict against one specific defendant, AC&S. Before Mr. Plummer\u27s widow received any money, however, several of the settling defendants, including Owens-Corning and Fibreboard, filed for bankruptcy protection. Faced with the threat that AC&S would do the same, Mrs. Plummer agreed to settle her claim confidentially for an amount substantially less than the trial award. After paying her attorney\u27s thirty-three percent of the award in addition to other expenses associated with the trial and her husband\u27s illness, Mrs. Plummer will be left with less than 1 million?--a substantial sum of money, but certainly not one commensurate with the injury her husband suffered as a result of his exposure to asbestos. Unlike Henry Plummer, James Curry was not continually exposed to asbestos over a period of decades. Instead, his job only called for him to occasionally handle asbestos-containing products. Also unlike Mr. Plummer, Mr. Curry was not so unfortunate as to contract mesothelioma. Instead, Mr. Curry and his co-plaintiffs alleged only that they suffered from mild asbestosis, a nonmalignant (although, in particularly severe cases, fatal) respiratory tract condition caused by inhaling asbestos fibers, and resulting lung abnormalities such as scars, marks, opacities, and other imperfections in the lungs that show up in X-rays. \u27 Rather than losing one lung to asbestos-related cancer and having his other lung infested with tumors that would ultimately claim his life, a 65 year- old Mr. Curry was still able to enjoy a daily three to four mile walk when his suit went to trial. In fact, Mr. Curry\u27s alleged asbestos injuries were so slight that four different doctors testified at trial that he suffered from no asbestos-related condition whatsoever. \u27 These facts, however, did not stop a Mississippi jury from awarding $150 million to Mr. Curry and his five similarly situated co-plaintiffs in October 2001. Ironically, the jury ordered that sixty percent of the award given to Mr. Curry and his co-plaintiffs be paid by AC&S-the same company against which Mrs. Plummer was forced to settle her claim out of fear that the company would file for bankruptcy protection. The jury came to this decision despite the fact that AC&S, which is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, never had offices in Mississippi, never performed contracts at any of the sites where the plaintiffs worked, and sold few asbestos-containing products anywhere. Unfortunately, the cases of Mr. Plummer and Mr. Curry are not aberrations. Instead, they provide a paradigmatic illustration of some of the tremendous shortcomings of the current asbestos claims resolution process. These shortcomings are the result of a tangled web of interrelated problems. Plaintiffs such as Mr. Curry, who have little if any physical impairment, are now responsible for eighty percent or more of all new and pending asbestos claims. The increasing volume of claims filed by unimpaired plaintiffs is clogging the dockets of courts across the country, especially in certain jurisdictions seen as being particularly hospitable to asbestos plaintiffs. In order to deal with these massive numbers of claims, courts are increasingly forced to implement various procedural shortcuts, most notably mass consolidation of asbestos claims. This approach has had the unforeseen and harmful side effect of encouraging more asbestos claims by unimpaired plaintiffs. The result is the creation of a vicious cycle: judges feel forced to turn to aggregation to deal with the overwhelming numbers of claims being filed, particularly by unimpaired plaintiffs, but their willingness to aggregate cases only serves to encourage more filings, often by unimpaired plaintiffs

Mathematical Programming Applications in Agroforestry Planning

Agroforestry as a sustainable production system has been recognized as a land use system with the potential to slow encroachment of agriculture onto forested lands in developing countries. However, the acceptance of nontraditional agroforestry systems has been hampered in some areas due to the risk-averse nature of rural agriculturalists. By explicitly recognizing risk in agroforestry planning, a wider acceptance of agroforestry is possible. This thesis consists of a collection of three papers that explore the potential of modern stock portfolio theory to reduce financial risk in agroforestry planning. The first paper presents a theoretical framework that incorporates modern stock portfolio theory through mathematical programming. This framework allows for the explicit recognition of financial risk by using a knowledge of past net revenue trends and fluctuations for various cropping systems, with the assumption that past trend behavior is indicative of future behavior. The paper demonstrates how financial risk can be reduced by selecting cropping systems with stable and/or negatively correlated net revenues, thereby reducing the variance of future net revenues. Agroforestry systems generally entail growing simultaneously some combination of plant and/or animal species. As a result, interactions between crops usually cause crop yields within systems to deviate from what would be observed under monocultural conditions, thus requiring some means of incorporating these interactions into mathematical models. The second paper presents two approaches to modeling such interactions, depending on the nature of the interaction. The continuous system approach is appropriate under conditions where yield interactions are linear between crops and allows for a continuous range of crop mixtures. The discrete system approach should be used where nonlinear interactions occur. Under this second approach, decision variables are defined as fixed crop mixtures with known yields. In the third paper, the techniques presented above were applied to a case study site in Costa Rica. Using MOTAD programming and a discrete system approach, a set of minimum-risk farm plans were derived for a hypothetical farm. For the region studied, results indicate that reductions in risk require substantial reductions in expected net revenue