The First Library in Bangor: Letter Written in 1814 Proves Existence of Earliest Known Library in Bangor

This letter written in 1814 by Williams D. Williamson, then postmaster in Bangor, to Rev. Jedediah Morse, preacher, pamphleteer, and geographer, of Charleston, Massachusetts, contains the earliest known reference to a library in Bangor. The library, when opened, was called the Bangor Athenaeum. It was one of six libraries operating in Bangor in various times between 1814 and 1883 which, in the end, all merged into the Bangor Public Library, founded in 1883. In 1814 Bangor was in the District of Maine, a part of the State of Massachusetts. The original letter and its transcription included. Also included in an April 1955 Bangor Daily News article about the Bangor Public Library\u27s recent acquisition of the letter.https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/1339/thumbnail.jp

History of the State of Maine; From Its First Discovery, A. D. 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820, Inclusive

AN authentic History of this State has been long and much desired. Maine is a corner-pillar in the American Republic. Its territory equals one half of New-England,—its natural resources are great and various—its climate is good—its population now considerably exceeds 400,000,—and only two individual States have a greater extent of seaboard or more shipping. Several settlements have existed within its limits, more than two centuries; through which period, as plantations have spread and multiplied, it has been the destiny of successive generations to struggle with wars and difficulties reiterated and uncommon, and to wade through sufferings deep and indescribable. The last age, however, particularly since the American Revolution, has been a period of remarkable prosperity, apparent in the improvements, wealth and numbers of the people. To present, in a general historic view of such a State, the circumstantial details of facts and events, so as to meet with universal acceptance, cannot be anticipated. Approbation, or censure, often springs from the motive of perusal ; nay, what affords entertainment to one, may be more than toil to another. All are never equally pleased with the same repast, for men as often differ in taste and opinion, as in feature and character.—As to parts and arrangement, it is presumed the Introductory Sections need no apology for their length, as they give a history of nature, little less entertaining than that of culture and society. Should any one raise objections to the long Narratives of Indian Wars interspersed, it is believed, he must, on reflection and review, be fully convinced, that any considerable abridgement of them would occasion an unsatisfying void;—so much have the fortune and fate of the country, depended upon the amity or hostilities of the natives. Nor by any means could the early history of this State possess the attribute of perspicuity, without frequent allusions to the annals of Nova Scotia; as the political affairs and current events in that Province, and in the eastern parts of Sagadahock, were for a century, blended too entirely and perpetually, to be kept separate and distinct. The topographical notes upon Towns contain facts which could not with propriety be incorporated with the text, and yet were thought too valuable to, be lost; for descriptions of these municipalities are not only interesting to their respective inhabitants,—they are collectively the local chronicles of the State itself. This production, though it has cost the Compiler many years\u27 unremitting labor, is presented to an enlightened community, with great diffidence : For he is sufficiently aware, that the arrangement, the style and the correctness, are to pass in review before many invidious bystanders, disposed to censure rather than to commend; while the more alloyed parts are to be severely tested in the crucible of the critic. Nor perhaps ought any one in the present age to expect a better destiny, who relates facts for the public eye,—designed for the perusal of all classes, under the responsibility of his name. The Historian, in short, is the devoted recorder of truth ; authentic annals are his stories; and facts monumental as marble are the only materials allowed in his employment. It is a departure from duty and an imposition upon his readers, to give reins to his imagination and freedom to his pen—permitting them to play with figures, flowers and phantoms in the fields of fancy. The Compiler\u27s research for materials has been thorough, in the Libraries of the Capitol at Washington, the Boston Athenaeum, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Massachusetts\u27 Historical Society. He has also made extracts from more than twenty volumes of the Massachusetts\u27 Public Records, and from letters of 150 correspondents, residing in different parts of the State. The works of the oldest and best Authors have been carefully consulted ;—a list of whose names will be submitted.—Availing himself of all these and some other sources of information, he has written, with great care and assiduity, a General History of the State : and the Public, will determine, whether any expression appears, inconsistent with what is chaste and correct in religion, sentiment or fact,— or whether such an amount and variety of matter, distributed through a period of 200 years, could have been judiciously compressed within a narrower compass. The plan chosen may not have been the best; for like surveyors and settlers in all new Countries, he has been obliged to traverse an unexplored region, where the footsteps of no predecessor to any considerable extent could be traced. Should the work possess the humble merit of being a useful compilation, he will not have labored in vain ; for man subserves the purposes of his moral existence, when he does what is a real benefit to his Country

Stellar Activity and its Implications for Exoplanet Detection on GJ 176

We present an in-depth analysis of stellar activity and its effects on radial velocity (RV) for the M2 dwarf GJ 176 based on spectra taken over 10 years from the High Resolution Spectrograph on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. These data are supplemented with spectra from previous observations with the HIRES and HARPS spectrographs, and V- and R-band photometry taken over 6 years at the Dyer and Fairborn observatories. Previous studies of GJ 176 revealed a super-Earth exoplanet in an 8.8-day orbit. However, the velocities of this star are also known to be contaminated by activity, particularly at the 39-day stellar rotation period. We have examined the magnetic activity of GJ 176 using the sodium I D lines, which have been shown to be a sensitive activity tracer in cool stars. In addition to rotational modulation, we see evidence of a long-term trend in our Na I D index, which may be part of a long-period activity cycle. The sodium index is well correlated with our RVs, and we show that this activity trend drives a corresponding slope in RV. Interestingly, the rotation signal remains in phase in photometry, but not in the spectral activity indicators. We interpret this phenomenon as the result of one or more large spot complexes or active regions which dominate the photometric variability, while the spectral indices are driven by the overall magnetic activity across the stellar surface. In light of these results, we discuss the potential for correcting activity signals in the RVs of M dwarfs.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Militia Commission of James Connor

Commission of James Connor appointed as Colonel of the Seventh Regiment of the Infantry in the Second Brigade, and the Second Division of the Maine Militia, by Governor William Williamson on July 24, 1821.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainebicentennial/1109/thumbnail.jp

Deletion of the trpc4 gene and its role in simple and complex strategic learning

The TRPC4 ion channel is expressed extensively in corticolimbic and a subpopulation of midbrain dopamine neurons. While TRPC4 knockout (KO) rats exhibit reduced sociability and social exploration, little is known about the role of TRPC4 in motivation and learning. To identify a function for TRPC4 channels in learning processes  we tested TRPC4 KO and normal wild type (WT) rats. TRPC4 KO and WT rats exhibited no differences in Y-­maze learning or simple discrimination learning. Furthermore, on a more complex serial reversal shift task designed  to assess strategic learning where the reward and non-­reward cues were repeatedly reversed between training sessions both TRPC4 KO and WT rats   performed equally well. Finally, we found no   performance differences when using a conditional reversal shift task where a tone signals the reversal of reward and non-reward cues within sessions. These data suggest that although TRPC4 channels may play a role in social interaction/anxiety  they exert a minimal role in simple and complex strategic learning

2003 Manifesto on the California Electricity Crisis

The authors, an ad-hocgroup of professionals with experience in regulatory and energy economics, share a common concern with the continuing turmoil facing the electricity industry ("the industry") in California. Most ofthe authorsendorsed the first California Electricity Manifesto issued on January 25, 2001. Almost two years have passed since that first Manifesto. While wholesale electric prices have moderated and California no longer faces the risk of blackouts, in many ways the industry is in worse shape now than it was at the start of 2001. As a result, the group of signatories continues to have a deep concern with the conflicting policy directions being pursued for the industry at both the State and Federal levels of government and the impact the uncertainties associated with these conflicting policies will have, long term, on the economy of California. Theauthorshave once again convened under the auspices of the Institute of Management, Innovation and Organization at the University of California, Berkeley, to put forward ourtheir ideas on a basic set of necessary policies to move the industry forward for the benefit of all Californians and the nation. The authors point out that theydo not pretend to be "representative." They do bring, however, a very diverse range of backgrounds and expertise.Technology and Industry, Regulatory Reform

Improved curve fits to summary survival data: application to economic evaluation of health technologies

addresses: Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, Veysey Building, Salmon Pool Lane, Exeter, EX2 4SG, UK. [email protected]: PMCID: PMC3198983types: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't© 2011 Hoyle and Henley; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Mean costs and quality-adjusted-life-years are central to the cost-effectiveness of health technologies. They are often calculated from time to event curves such as for overall survival and progression-free survival. Ideally, estimates should be obtained from fitting an appropriate parametric model to individual patient data. However, such data are usually not available to independent researchers. Instead, it is common to fit curves to summary Kaplan-Meier graphs, either by regression or by least squares. Here, a more accurate method of fitting survival curves to summary survival data is described

Discovery of a Low-Mass Companion to the Solar-Type Star TYC 2534-698-1

Brown dwarfs and low-mass stellar companions are interesting objects to study since they occupy the mass region between deuterium and hydrogen burning. We report here the serendipitous discovery of a low-mass companion in an eccentric orbit around a solar-type main sequence star. The stellar primary, TYC 2534-698-1, is a G2V star that was monitored both spectroscopically and photometrically over the course of several months. Radial velocity observations indicate a minimum mass of 0.037 M_solar and an orbital period of ~103 days for the companion. Photometry outside of the transit window shows the star to be stable to within ~6 millimags. The semi-major axis of the orbit places the companion in the 'brown dwarf desert' and we discuss potential follow-up observations that could constrain the mass of the companion.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Ap