B840: Firm Formation, Firm Failure, and Competitiveness: An Overview of Maine\u27s Entrepreneurial Economy

The purpose of this paper is to establish a basic understanding of Maine\u27s entrepreneurial economy. The competitiveness of Maine\u27s small businesses, reflected in rates of firm formation and firm failure, is important to future economic growth and policy development. Previous research has pointed to the high proportion of small businesses operating in Maine, but questions concerning their entrepreneurial dynamism remain unanswered. Developing a useful policy response for future economic growth dictates that the following questions be fully explored: (1) What is the current state of Maine\u27s entrepreneurial base and how does this base compare with other states in the New England region? (2) How is this base changing with respect to firm formation and business failures, and are there sectors of emerging strength and competitiveness? (3) Are there rural/urban differences that form a potential basis for policy differentiation? (4) What are the crucial elements of entrepreneurship and associated policy development for economic growth in Maine?https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1018/thumbnail.jp

B845: The Cost of Doing Business and Economic Performance in Maine: A Regional Comparison

This study attempts to address the need for better understanding of those business climate factors that have a direct and measurable impact upon statewide economic performance by comparing several key costs faced by businesses in each of the New England states, and by examining how those costs relate to general economic conditions in each state.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1007/thumbnail.jp

B804: The Growth and Change of High Technology Industries in the State of Maine: Implications for State and Local Development Policy

To shed light on Maine’s high-tech industries, employment and production data were gathered for 11O firms including 20 three-digit SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) categories. The time periods covered were 1970, 1976, and 1981. This data base was provided by the Bureau of Employment Security and the Bureau of Labor Standards of the Maine Department of Labor. The research was guided by the following questions: How are firms distributed among specific high technology industries and has this distribution changed over time? What is the geographic distribution of high technology firms within the state and how is this distribution changing? How dynamic have Maine\u27s high technology industries been with respect to plant openings, closings, and acquisitions? How is employment generation distributed by size, age, SIC, and type of firm? Does Maine show a potential comparative advantage for specific high technology SIC\u27s? and What implications can be drawn from the Maine data for rural communities seeking high technology development?https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1057/thumbnail.jp

The Role of FRMD7 in Idiopathic Infantile Nystagmus

Idiopathic infantile nystagmus (IIN) is an inherited disorder in which the nystagmus arises independently of any other symptoms, leading to the speculation that the disorder represents a primary defect in the area of the brain responsible for ocular motor control. The inheritance patterns are heterogeneous, however the most common form is X-linked. FRMD7 resides at Xq26-27 and approximately 50% of X-linked IIN families map to this region. Currently 45 mutations within FRMD7 have been associated with IIN, confirming the importance of FRMD7 in the pathogenesis of the disease. Although mutations in FRMD7 are known to cause IIN, very little is known about the function of the protein. FRMD7 contains a conserved N-terminal FERM domain suggesting that it may provide a link between the plasma membrane and actin cytoskeleton. Limited studies together with the knowledge of the function of other FERM domain containing proteins, suggest that FRMD7 may play a role in membrane extension during neuronal development through remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton

Intrinsic ELMing in ASDEX Upgrade and global control system-plasma self-entrainment

It is well established that edge localized modes can be entrained to the frequency of applied global magnetic perturbations. These perturbations are delivered to the plasma using the vertical control system field coil currents. These field coils are part of an active control system that is required to maintain the plasma in a steady state. We perform time domain timeseries analysis of natural ELMing when there are no applied perturbations in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. We find that the plasma can transition into a state in which the control system field coil currents continually oscillate and are synchronized with oscillations in characteristic plasma parameters such as plasma edge position and total MHD energy. These synchronous oscillations have a one-to-one correlation with the naturally occurring ELMs; the ELMs all occur when the control system coil current is around a specific temporal phase. Large and small ELMs may be distinguished by the amplitude of inward movement of the edge following an ELM. Large ELMs are then found to occur preferentially around a specific temporal phase of the vertical position control coil current. Small ELMs are most likely in antiphase to this. The large and small natural ELMs occur at the opposite extrema of the oscillations in the control system vertical position control coil current. The control system coil current phase may thus provide a useful parameter to order the observed ELM dynamics. We have identified a class of natural ELMing which is a self-entrained state, in which there is a continual non-linear feedback between the global plasma dynamics and the active control system that is intrinsic to the cyclic dynamics of naturally occurring ELMs. Control system-plasma feedback thus becomes an essential component for integration into future models of natural ELM dynamics

First-principles calculation of intrinsic defect formation volumes in silicon

We present an extensive first-principles study of the pressure dependence of the formation enthalpies of all the know vacancy and self-interstitial configurations in silicon, in each charge state from -2 through +2. The neutral vacancy is found to have a formation volume that varies markedly with pressure, leading to a remarkably large negative value (-0.68 atomic volumes) for the zero-pressure formation volume of a Frenkel pair (V + I). The interaction of volume and charge was examined, leading to pressure--Fermi level stability diagrams of the defects. Finally, we quantify the anisotropic nature of the lattice relaxation around the neutral defects.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Effect of pancreatic and/or renal transplantation on diabetic autonomic neuropathy

Thirty-nine Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients were studied prospectively after simultaneous pancreas and kidney (n=26) and kidney grafting alone (n=13) by measuring heart rate variation during various manoeuvers and answering a standardized questionnaire every 6 to 12 months post-transplant. While age, duration of diabetes, and serum creatinine (168.1±35.4 vs 132.7±17.7 mgrmol/l) were comparable, haemoglobin A1 levels were significantly lower (6.6±0.2 vs 8.5±0.3%; p<0.01) and the mean observation time longer (35±2 vs 25±3 months; p<0.05) in the pancreas recipients when compared with kidney transplanted patients. Heart rate variation during deep breathing, lying/standing and Valsalva manoeuver were very similar in both groups initially and did not improve during follow-up. However, there was a significant reduction in heart rate in the pancreas recipient group. Autonomic symptoms of the gastrointestinal and thermoregulatory system improved more in the pancreas grafted subjects, while hypoglycaemia unawareness deteriorated in the kidney recipients. This study suggests that long-term normoglycaemia by successful pancreatic grafting is able to halt the progression of autonomic dysfunction

Effects of a prolonged standardized diet on normalizing the human metabolome

Background: Although the effects of acute dietary interventions on the human metabolome have been studied, the extent to which the metabolome can be normalized by extended dietary standardization has not yet been examined