847 research outputs found
Interview with John Robinson Pierce
No full textAn interview in three sessions in April 1979 with John R. Pierce, often referred to as the father of the communications satellite. A leading applied physicist, Pierce went to work for Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1936 after receiving his PhD in electrical engineering from Caltech. He spent the next thirty-five years there, where he made important contributions to the development of the traveling-wave tube and the reflex klystron, rising to become executive director of Bell's Research-Communications Principles Division. Pierce was also a pioneer in communications satellites, playing a key role in the development of two of the earliest, Echo and Telstar. In this interview he recalls his undergraduate education at Caltech in the late twenties and early thirties, the early years at Bell, radar work during the war, and the beginnings of America's satellite program.
Pierce was also a prolific author of science fiction, sometimes under the pen name J. J. Coupling. In the mid-1960s, he served on the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). He retired from Bell Labs in 1971 and returned to Caltech as a professor in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and he comments on the changes (and the similarities) he found in undergraduate education at Caltech. While at Bell, Pierce developed a lifelong interest in computer-generated music and psychoacoustics, the science of consonance and dissonance; in the latter part of the interview, he discusses his work with Max Mathews on music synthesis. A year after this interview was conducted, he became professor emeritus at Caltech, and in 1983 he joined Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) as a visiting professor. Pierce died on April 2, 2002, in Mountain View, California
Engineering enterprise through intellectual property education - pedagogic approaches
No full textEngineering faculties, despite shrinking resources, are delivering to new enterprise
agendas that must take account of the fuzzying of disciplinary boundaries. Learning and
teaching, curriculum design and research strategies reflect these changes. Driven by changing
expectations of how future graduates will contribute to the economy, academics in
engineering and other innovative disciplines are finding it necessary to re-think undergraduate
curricula to enhance students’ entrepreneurial skills, which includes their awareness and
competence in respect of intellectual property rights [IPRs]. There is no well established
pedagogy for educating engineers, scientists and innovators about intellectual property. This
paper reviews some different approaches to facilitating non-law students’ learning about IP.
Motivated by well designed ‘intended learning outcomes’ and assessment tasks, students can
be encouraged to manage their learning... The skills involved in learning about intellectual
property rights in this way can be applied to learning other key, but not core, subjects. At the
same time, students develop the ability to acquire knowledge, rather than rely on receiving it,
which is an essential competence for a ‘knowledge’ based worker
Multiple Quantum Transitions in Atomic Beam Magnetic Resonance
No full textTitle: Multiple Quantum Transitions in Atomic Beam Magnetic Resonance, Author: Anton R. Pierce, Location: ThodeThe problem of multiple quantum transitions between the magnetic sub-levels of an atomic ground state hyperfine multiplet has
been investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Special
emphasis has been paid to the behaviour of these transitions as the
magnetic sub-levels of the hyperfine multiplet depart from equal
level spacing The experiments performed determine the power dependence
of the multiple quantum transitions of Na23. These experiments led
to the establishment of a technique of determining transition multiplicity. Expressions are also developed which permit the calculation
of transition probabilities for arbitrary values of multiplicity, r . f.
amplitude and degree of inequality of level spacing.ThesisMaster of Science (MS
Professor Bryan Harris Remembered: Volez to a Pierce Law Friend
No full textBryan Harris, MA (Oxon), passed away recently in his beloved native England, after a brief illness. His wife Mary, two sons and a daughter survive him. Bryan Harris had a long and distinguished career as an author, educator, barrister, diplomat, publisher and lobbyist. He was a consultant on European Union policies and laws to commercial and professional firms and associations. For almost three decades he was a Member of the Board of Trustees and Adjunct Professor of European Union Law at Pierce Law. Pierce Law President and Dean, John Hutson summed up what many members of the Pierce Law community expressed to me as I prepared this tribute saying, I think of Bryan mostly in single words ... jovial, cheerful, humble, dignified, diplomatic, caring ... Dean Huston shared that Professor Harris will be recognized during the 2004 Commencement
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New light on John Pierce, Defoe's agent in Scotland
No full textA discussion of the attribution to Daniel Defoe of a pamphlet entitled 'Legion's Humble Address to the Lords'. Argues that there is much evidence to associate one John Pierce with this pamphlet, and he may well have been the author, though it is possible that he and Defoe collaborated on it
On the Wedderburn Theorem
No full textIn [6], Pierce studied the modules over a commutative regular ring R by using the representation of R as the global sections of a sheaf which we call the Pierce sheaf. When the stalks of the Pierce sheaf are regular, Magid gave a Galois theory and some properties for a central separable R-algebra [4, (2.4), (2.5), (2.6) and (2.7)]. When the stalks of the Pierce sheaf are semi-local, DeMeyer presented a Galois theory for a central separable R-algebra [3, sections 2 and 3] and the author characterized the finitely generated and projective modules over a central separable R-algebra in terms of the R-modules in [7] and [8].</jats:p
North Cascades crew portrait, 2004
No full textA group portrait of the smokejumper crew for the North Cascades Smokejumper Base. Front row, kneeling (L-R): Scott Wicklund, Andrew Mattox, Cameron Chambers, Ryan Ebenger. Back row, standing (L-R): Kevin McBride, Jason Ramos, JP Knapp, Mike Noe, Dale Longanecker, Inaki Baraibar, Nan Floyd, Tim Lum, Charlie McCarthy, John Button, Matt Woosley, Ryan Taie, Darren Belsby, Matt Desimone, John Spencer, Butch Hammer, Jesse Gold. Inset photos: Sara Pierce, Kathleen Russell, Simon Friedman, Jordan McKnight.https://dc.ewu.edu/nsa_crewpics/1201/thumbnail.jp
The novel, the implicated reader and Australian literary cultures, 1950-2008
No full textThe Cambridge History of Australian Literature is the most comprehensive volume ever written on Australia's national literature. This authoritative guide spans Australian literary history from colonial origins, encompassing indigenous and migrant literatures, as well as representations of Asia and the Pacific and the role of literary culture in modern Australian society. Bringing together a distinguished line-up of contributors, this volume explores each of the literary modes in an Australian context, including short story, poetry, children's literature, autobiography and fiction. This book is an essential reference for general readers and specialists alike
Optineurin-mediated Autophagy in Environmental Models of Parkinson’s Disease
No full textParkinson’s disease is a complex, progressive neurodegenerative disease that has a poorly understood etiology and no known cure. Epidemiological studies suggest the vast majority of cases are likely due to interactions between genetic susceptibilities and exposure to external factors (e.g. environmental chemicals) synergistically contributing to disease development. Pesticides are the strongest environmental link and have been utilized in vivo and in vitro to robustly replicate behavior, pathology, and cellular and molecular impairments observed in patients. Decades of research has revealed a variety of impaired cellular and molecular mechanisms, though it is still unclear which are the most critical or in what order they occur. Intriguingly, the protein optineurin, which is genetically linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and glaucoma, is known to be involved in many of these impaired mechanisms. Moreover, a recent genome-wide association study found the M98K mutation is a risk factor for development of Parkinson’s disease. Increasing evidence suggests a link between Parkinson’s disease and glaucoma, with Parkinson’s patients exhibiting an increased likelihood of developing glaucoma, thinned retinal nerve fiber layers, and a variety of other visual impairments. Hence, we proposed that optineurin participates in Parkinson’s disease pathology and may exhibit polymorphisms that increase susceptibility of developing the disease. To investigate this, we used a rat rotenone model of Parkinson’s disease and evaluated changes in optineurin activity in various brain regions implicated in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis and considered the contribution of optineurin mutation or depletion to Parkinson’s-like brain pathology. We initially determined that optineurin is expressed in the dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta, and its expression here appears to be more robust than many other regions by qualitative analysis. Then we considered how optineurin expression changes after rotenone exposure. Across all time points considered (24 h, 5 d, or end-stage parkinsonian phenotype), optineurin expression was significantly elevated. We also found optineurin colocalized with LC3, a critical autophagy-related protein, and the number of colocalized puncta was significantly increased after 5 d rotenone exposure. Such an accumulation of mature autophagosomes has been repeatedly observed in Parkinson’s disease models, and is believed to derive from impaired lysosomal fusion. Finally, in our initial investigation we demonstrated a shift in alpha-synuclein expression from a dispersed, cytosolic expression to a more punctate expression and these puncta were colocalized with optineurin. We believe optineurin colocalizes with alpha-synuclein to target aggregates for degradation by autophagy, but this will need to be verified by further investigation. In the third chapter, we proposed autophagic dysfunction occurs ahead of alpha-synuclein aggregation, and expanded our investigation of optineurin and autophagic dysfunction into four other brainstem regions implicated in preclinical Parkinson’s disease: the dorsal motor vagal nucleus, raphe, locus coeruleus, and pontine tegmental nucleus. Again, we measured optineurin and LC3 expression, mean number of puncta per cell, and colocalized puncta. Furthermore, we considered the percent of optineurin and LC3 puncta that were colocalized (i.e. of the total number of optineurin or LC3 puncta, what percent are colocalized). Collectively, these data suggested impaired lysosomal fusion across multiple regions and multiple time points, as well as impaired binding between optineurin and LC3. We found significantly decreased percent of colocalized puncta for both LC3 and optineurin in most regions and time points considered after rotenone exposure when compared to control. Finally, when we considered the mean number of LC3 puncta per cell in control animals across all regions analyzed, our data show significantly fewer puncta in dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta and locus coeruleus. These data suggest autophagic capacity may be another limiting factor for dopaminergic neurons ability to cope with cellular stress. Chapter 4 investigates the potential role of optineurin in Golgi fragmentation, which has been observed as an early event in multiple neurodegenerative diseases. Our data showed presence of Golgi fragmentation after rotenone exposure with optineurin colocalizing to fragments, but quantitative analyses were inconclusive regarding the amount of Golgi fragmentation present. Chapter 5 begins to consider the potential for the E50K optineurin mutation or optineurin knock-out contributing to development of Parkinson’s disease. To address this, we considered the signal intensity of tyrosine hydroxylase in the striatum of optineurin transgenic or wild type mice. These preliminary results show decreased intensity of striatal tyrosine hydroxylase in optineurin transgenic mice when compared to control, suggesting optineurin expression is important for nigral dopaminergic neuron survival. In sum, our data is the first to present optineurin as a potentially important protein in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. Further investigations of optineurin’s role in gene-environment interactions of Parkinson’s disease are warranted and will likely reveal novel mechanisms of pathogenesis and disease progression
North Cascades crew portrait, 2001
No full textA group portrait of the smokejumper crew for the North Cascades Smokejumper Base. Left to right: Neil Campbell, Daren Belsby, Kathleen Russel, Sara Pierce, Nancy Floyd, Inaki Baraibar, Frank Clements, Stuart Hill, Jason Ramos, Captain Stoney, J.P. Knapp, Steve Dickenson, Scott Wicklund, Ryan Taie, Tim Lum, Michael Noe, Connie Sonnichsen, Simon Friedman, Matt Desimone. Inset photos (L-R): John Button, Dale Longanecker, Sam Palmer, Matt Woosley, John Spenser. Pilots: Kevon McBride and Earl Palmer.https://dc.ewu.edu/nsa_crewpics/1198/thumbnail.jp
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