Pittsburgh's Failed Industry Targeting Strategy of the 1960s

In the 1960's and early 1970's, public and private leaders made a substantial effort to promote Pittsburgh's existing transportation industry as a center for the emerging urban transportation market. The selection of the rapid transit industry for targeting in the 1960's purportedly addressed two issues. Despite national acclaim for its Renaissance redevelopment since World War II, the metropolitan region still needed an effective mass transportation system. Moreover, industrial development efforts had not substantially diversified the region's manufacturing base that still specialized in primary metals. Operating in the region's Renaissance tradition of a public and private partnership, corporate executives and public officials pursued a three-pronged strategy: build an innovative rapid transportation system for Allegheny County, use it as a showcase for testing and marketing rapid transit hardware of regional corporations, and promote the city as a center of the rapid transportation industry. They settled on Westinghouse's automated, rubber-tired vehicle running on a separate cement guideway, known locally as "Skybus," for the demonstration project and the region's mass transit solution. The mass transit plan and industry targeting strategy foundered by the early 1970's because leadership weakened in both poles of the partnership. The Westinghouse technology divided the corporate community, while populist political sentiment diminished the ability of the Democratic party's political machine to deliver key public decisions. The Pittsburgh case suggests that a successful industry targeting strategy may depend more on effective leadership and local politics than on the quality of the selection process and vigorous pursuit of traditional economic development programs in support of the targeted industry

Predicting the Mechanical Properties of Nanocomposites Reinforced with 1-D, 2-D and 3-D Nanomaterials

Materials with features at the nanoscale can provide unique mechanical properties and increased functionality when included as part of a nanocomposite. This dissertation utilizes computational methods at multiple scales, including molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theory (DFT), and the coupled atomistic and discrete dislocation multiscale method (CADD), to predict the mechanical properties of nanocomposites possessing nanomaterials that are either 1-D (carbyne chains), 2-D (graphene sheets), or 3-D (Al/amorphous-Si core-shell nanorod). The MD method is used to model Ni-graphene nanocomposites. The strength of a Ni-graphene nanocomposite is found to improve by increasing the gap between the graphene sheet and a crack embedded in the Ni matrix. Ni-graphene nanocomposites also show substantially greater strength than pure Ni, depending on the loading direction and crack orientation relative to the graphene sheet. Moreover, polycrystalline graphene may serve as a better reinforce in Ni-graphene nanocomposites due to its improved interfacial shear stress with the Ni matrix compared to pristine graphene. This work develops a patchwork quilt method for generating polycrystalline graphene sheets for use in MD models. Carbyne-based nanocomposites are modeled from first principles using DFT. This research finds that carbyne can only serve as an effective reinforcement in Ni-based nanocomposites when it is dielectrically screened from the Ni matrix, otherwise the carbyne structure is lost. When graphene is used as a dielectric screen, the local stiffness of the nanocomposite improves with the number of carbyne chains present. Specific stiffness is introduced as an alternative to elastic stiffness for characterizing low-dimensional materials because it is not dependent on volume when derived using an energy vs. strain relation. A two-material formulation of CADD is developed to model Al/a-Si core-shell nanorods under indentation/retraction. The structural deformation behavior is found to be dependent on the geometry of both core and shell. When present, the a-Si shell protects the Al core by delocalizing forces produced by the indenter. It is also found that substrate deformation becomes important for core-shell structures with sufficiently small cores. This work can help guide experimental and computational work related to the discussed 1-D, 2-D and 3-D nanomaterials and aid in future nanocomposite design

Petrogenetic study of the Porcupine Lake mafic intrusive complex, Trinity terrane, northern California

The Early Devonian (404 +/- 3 Ma) Porcupine Lake mafic intrusive complex of the Trinity terrane consists primarily of ultramafic-mafic plutonic and dike lithologies. The plutonic rock forms steep intrusive contacts with adjacent Ordovician peridotite, and consists of basal layered peridotite, cumulate clinopyroxenite, and isotropic gabbro. East-west trending mafic-to-felsic aphanitic dikes intrude the plutonic rocks, with high dike concentrations (\u3e80%) in the southern portion of the complex; Gabbro and mafic dikes display subduction-related enrichment of light-ion lithophile elements and high degrees of depletion of high-field strength elements (Nb, Ta ≅ 0.1 NMORB). Trace element mixing models indicate gabbro and mafic dikes are derived from a residual mantle source with enrichment by small amounts of slab-derived aqueous fluids and pelagic sediments. Mafic dikes are also enriched by fertile MORB (asthenospheric) mantle. Subduction zone enrichment of a depleted mantle source suggests the Porcupine Lake mafic intrusive complex formed in a forearc tectonic setting

Consequences of Voluntary and Mandatory Fair Value Accounting: Evidence Surrounding IFRS Adoption in the EU Real Estate Industry

We examine the causes and consequences of European real estate firms' decisions to provide investment property fair values prior to the required disclosure of this information under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We find evidence that investor demand for fair value information-reflected in more dispersed ownership-and a firm's commitment to transparency increase the likelihood of providing fair values prior to their required provision under International Accounting Standard 40 - Investment Property. We also find that firms not providing these fair values face higher information asymmetry. However, we fail to find that the relatively higher information asymmetry was reduced following mandatory adoption of IFRS. Rather, we find that differences in information asymmetry largely remain. Taken together, this evidence suggests that common adoption of fair value accounting due to the mandatory adoption of IFRS does not necessarily level the informational playing field.Fair value, disclosure, IFRS, information asymmetry

Synthesis and Characterization of Bismuth Telluride Nanoparticles for Use in Flexible Polymer-Nanoparticle Hybrid Thermoelectric Devices

Polymer-based thermoelectric materials, which can have readily-tuned properties through simple control of their chemistry, offer the promise of providing flexible, lightweight, and low-cost modules for the environmentally-friendly conversion of waste heat to electricity without the need for moving parts. As such, they have started to be explored in applications ranging from improved building efficiency to increased mileage in automobiles. However, widespread implementation of these materials is limited due to their low performance relative to their mechanically-rigid, heavy inorganic material-based counterparts. Therefore, a critical need exists to design polymer-nanoparticle composite materials to increase the energy conversion of thin film thermoelectric devices. Specifically, bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) nanoparticles embedded in a conducting polymer matrix of poly(ethylene dioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) have provided promising initial results. Here, we aim to improve upon this system through a combination of designer chemistry and interfacial engineering. Specifically, Bi2Te3 nanoparticles were synthesized in an aqueous solution at a low temperature in the presence of PEDOT:PSS. This allowed the conducting polymer to coat the surface of the nanoparticle, which should improve the device performance. The purified polymer-coated nanoparticles were cast into thin films, and the thermoelectric properties of the composite materials were evaluated. Importantly, the performance of the polymer-nanoparticle composite thin films increased by a factor of 2 with increased Bi2Te3 loading while still retaining the mechanical integrity associated with polymer-based materials. We anticipate that, with systematic device optimization, this class of materials will provide a solid launching point for the implementation of polymer-based thermoelectric modules

Modeling sampling duration in decisions from experience

Cognitive models of choice almost universally implicate se-quential evidence accumulation as a fundamental element ofthe mechanism by which preferences are formed. When to stop evidence accumulation is an important question that suchmodels do not currently try to answer. We present the first cog-nitive model that accurately predicts stopping decisions in in-dividual economic decisions-from-experience trials, using anonline learning model. Analysis of stopping decisions acrossthree different datasets reveals three useful predictors of sam-pling duration - relative evidence strength, how long it takesparticipants to see all rewards, and a novel indicator of con-vergence of an underlying learning process, which we call pre-dictive volatility. We quantify the relative strengths of thesefactors in predicting observers’ stopping points, finding thatpredictive volatility consistently dominates relative evidencestrength in stopping decisions

Book Reviews

The article contains reviews and notation of the following books: Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, Lincoln\u27s First Vice President by H. Draper Hunt; Two Decades of Organized Labor and Labor Politics in Maine, 1880-1900 by Charles A. Scontras; The Senator from Maine: Margaret Chase Smith by Alice Fleming; Canada Preserved: The Journal of Captain Thomas Ainslie by Sheldon S. Cohen; Aids to the Teaching of Maine in the Public Schools by Elizabeth Ring; An Illustrated History of Bangor, Maine by James B. Vickery; History of Parkman: Mainstream Democracy in Parkman, Maine 1794-1969 by Roger C. Storms; Camden-Rockport Bicentennial: 1769-1969; Maine: A Guide to the Vacation State by Ray Bears