Tabulation of Asbestos Related-Terminology

The definition of asbestos often varies depending on the source or publication in which it is used. This report summarizes asbestos-related definitions taken from a variety of academic, industrial, and regulatory sources. This summary is by no means complete but includes the majority of significant definitions currently applied in the discipline. Educational levels: Graduate or professional, Undergraduate upper division

UNH Great Bay Coast Watch Involvement in the New Hampshire Estuaries Project

The Great Bay Coast Watch (GBCW) is a volunteer estuarine monitoring program established in 1989 that includes teachers, students, and local citizens with a diversity of backgrounds. Volunteers participate in a variety of training programs that enable them to monitor water quality parameters in Great Bay and coastal areas, sample for marine phytoplankton along coastal New Hampshire and conduct shoreline surveys and habitat evaluations. Since 1997 the New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) has relied on the ability of GBCW to recruit and train volunteers to assist with the implementation of its plan to protect, restore and manage the state’s estuarine systems. This year GBCW participated in plan implementation by assisting the NH Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) Shellfish Program. Volunteers completed a variety of program work tasks, including mussel collection for toxicity monitoring, water quality sampling and sample transport. Goal

Financing rural America : a conference summary

After a steep recession in the 1980s, many rural places are mounting a strong economic comeback in the 1990s. Reflecting the economic turnaround, more people are moving to rural areas. Notwithstanding the improved rural economic picture, rural leaders remain concerned about rural America's economic future. Chief among these concerns is gaining access to capital to fuel continued growth. ; Many rural communities, especially those traditionally tied to agriculture, are trying to diversify their economic base, and capital is needed to finance new businesses. Housing is in short supply, and many communities are seeking to finance affordable housing. And public infrastructure, such as water and sewer systems, is in need of refurbishment in some communities and expansion in others, pointing to additional capital demands. ; While capital demands mount, questions linger about the adequacy of rural capital markets to meet those demands. To address this concern, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City sponsored a conference entitled "Financing Rural America", in Omaha on December 4-5 1996. In this article, Drabenstott and Meeker review the importance of capital to the rural economy, discuss some apparent shortcomings in the markets, and summarize the options for improving them presented at the Omaha conference.Capital ; Rural areas ; Rural development

Intuitive Hand Teleoperation by Novice Operators Using a Continuous Teleoperation Subspace

Human-in-the-loop manipulation is useful in when autonomous grasping is not able to deal sufficiently well with corner cases or cannot operate fast enough. Using the teleoperator's hand as an input device can provide an intuitive control method but requires mapping between pose spaces which may not be similar. We propose a low-dimensional and continuous teleoperation subspace which can be used as an intermediary for mapping between different hand pose spaces. We present an algorithm to project between pose space and teleoperation subspace. We use a non-anthropomorphic robot to experimentally prove that it is possible for teleoperation subspaces to effectively and intuitively enable teleoperation. In experiments, novice users completed pick and place tasks significantly faster using teleoperation subspace mapping than they did using state of the art teleoperation methods.Comment: ICRA 2018, 7 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

GBCW Support for Shellfish Activities 2003

The Great Bay Coast Watch (GBCW) is a volunteer estuarine monitoring program established in 1989 that includes teachers, students, and local citizens with a diversity of backgrounds. Volunteers participate in a variety of training programs that enable them to monitor water quality parameters in Great Bay and coastal areas, sample for marine phytoplankton blooms and conduct shoreline surveys and habitat evaluations. Since 1997 the New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) has relied on the ability of GBCW to recruit and train volunteers to assist with the implementation of its plan to protect, restore and manage the states estuarine systems. This year GBCW again participated in plan implementation by assisting the NH Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) Shellfish Program. Volunteers completed a variety of work tasks, including mussel collection, sample collection and transport and general field assistance

Strategic options for bankers in rural development

Many agricultural communities in the Midwest have experience protracted job and population loss. With recent strains in agriculture and the potential for further loss looming, many bankers have expressed an interest in initiatives they can undertake to promote local growth and development. This article outlines a community development process to help bankers succeed with their development activities. Within the context of this process, it recounts the community development initiatives of several small rural community banks, examining the management decisions behind them and lessons gleaned from them.Rural areas ; Rural development ; Community development

2004 Support for Shellfish Program and Estuarine Education, Meeker, S & Reid, A

Working within the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Cooperative Extension/Sea Grant Program, the Great Bay Coast Watch (GBCW) is New Hampshire’s most wide ranging program for direct citizen involvement in monitoring estuarine and coastal systems. GBCW has a fifteen year history of educating citizens about the Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire Seacoast, and Gulf of Maine watershed through active participation in monitoring and an accompanying education program. Based in Durham, NH, GBCW coordinates over 100 volunteers drawn from 19 New Hampshire and Southern Maine communities. In 1990, volunteers began monitoring eight sites on a monthly basis April through October. Today, this effort has grown to include 21 sites that are sampled monthly for water quality around the Great Bay estuary, and six coastal sites that are monitored weekly for harmful algae blooms. Volunteers include adults, students, and home schooled families

Community Reinvestment Act lending : is it profitable?

In 1977, Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to encourage federally insured depository institutions to lend in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods and to low- to moderate-income people. Since then, the profitability of the many special lending programs designed to achieve these goals has been questioned on both theoretical and practical grounds. ; The study examines the CRA loan profitability issue in the context of home mortgage lending. We surveyed 97 large institutions to explore profitability differences between their CRA and conventional home mortgage lending. ; Twenty-four percent of those answering the survey said their CRA lending was as profitable as their conventional lending. We found these lenders were more likely to treat their CRA lending like they did their conventional lending. Further, they managed to keep origination and servicing costs for their CRA loans similar to those for their conventional loans. These findings have important implications for lenders, community groups, government enhancement providers, and banking regulators as they seek wider markets for CRA loans.Community Reinvestment Act of 1977