A New Emphasis in Strategies for Developing Lignin-Based Plastics

1990 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunil Dutta ◽  
Simo Sarkanen

ABSTRACTLignins, a truly abundant group of biopolymers exhibiting some significant diversity, are usually thought to be constituted by a random proportionate distribution of ten different linkages between p-hydroxphenylpropane units. Over 20 million tons of kraft lignin derivatives are produced annually in the United States by the pulping industry, but 99.9% of these aromatic polymeric materials are consumed as fuel. Such industrial byproducts are generally viewed as being almost hopelessly complicated mixtures of partially degraded and condensed chemical species. However, a very different picture has begun to emerge from a more coherent understanding of the physicochemical behavior exhibited by kraft lignin preparations. Noncovalent interactions between the individual molecular components under a variety of solution conditions orchestrate pronounced associative processes that are characterized by a remarkable degree of specificity. Their consequences may be readily observed both size-exclusion chromatographically and electron microscopically, and are reflected in an anomalous variation of glass transition temperature, Tg, with molecular weight of paucidisperse kraft lignin fractions. How these effects may influence the mechanical properties of lignin-based polymeric materials is presently being scrutinized at the University of Minnesota.

2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-183
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor

John Rae, a Scottish antiquarian collector and spirit merchant, played a highly prominent role in the local natural history societies and exhibitions of nineteenth-century Aberdeen. While he modestly described his collection of archaeological lithics and other artefacts, principally drawn from Aberdeenshire but including some items from as far afield as the United States, as a mere ‘routh o’ auld nick-nackets' (abundance of old knick-knacks), a contemporary singled it out as ‘the best known in private hands' (Daily Free Press 4/5/91). After Rae's death, Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland, the University of Aberdeen Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, as well as numerous individual private collectors, purchased items from the collection. Making use of historical and archive materials to explore the individual biography of Rae and his collection, this article examines how Rae's collecting and other antiquarian activities represent and mirror wider developments in both the ‘amateur’ antiquarianism carried out by Rae and his fellow collectors for reasons of self-improvement and moral education, and the ‘professional’ antiquarianism of the museums which purchased his artefacts. Considered in its wider nineteenth-century context, this is a representative case study of the early development of archaeology in the wider intellectual, scientific and social context of the era.


Author(s):  
Md. Razib Alam ◽  
Bonwoo Koo ◽  
Brian Paul Cozzarin

Abstract Our objective is to study Canada’s patenting activity over time in aggregate terms by destination country, by assignee and destination country, and by diversification by country of destination. We collect bibliographic patent data from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We identify 19,957 matched Canada–US patents, 34,032 Canada-only patents, and 43,656 US-only patents from 1980 to 2014. Telecommunications dominates in terms of International Patent Classification technologies for US-only and Canada–US patents. At the firm level, the greatest number of matched Canada–US patents were granted in the field of telecommunications, at the university level in pharmaceuticals, at the government level in control and instrumentation technology, and at the individual level in civil engineering. We use entropy to quantify technological diversification and find that diversification indices decline over time for Canada and the USA; however, all US indices decline at a faster rate.


2018 ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Kreitzer ◽  
Louise Delagran ◽  
Andrea Uptmor

Wellbeing goes beyond the management of disease or illness; it is a larger concept that is characterized by a general contentment in life and the way things are. This chapter uses the framework of the University of Minnesota Wellbeing Model to explore the evidence-based factors that influence wellbeing, including health, relationships, security, purpose, environment, and community. Mindfulness, a way of being that provides another core component of wellbeing, is defined and its evidence based discussed. Exemplars of wellbeing at the individual, organizational, and society level are described. Some applications of similar models in towns such as Albert Lea, Minnesota, Austin, Texas, and Santa Monica, California, are discussed, as well as initiatives in Canada and the UK.


2008 ◽  
Vol 90 (8) ◽  
pp. 272-274
Author(s):  
Matt Freudmann ◽  
Lucy Wales

As a final-year trainee in vascular surgery, I was working at the West London Renal and Transplant Centre for Professor Nadey Hakim and Vassilios Papalois. I am very grateful to both of them for encouraging me to apply for a visiting fellowship to the United States, enabling me to experience some of the benefits of surgical training abroad and to broaden my perspectives in transplantation. I was awarded a visiting fellowship to the University of Minnesota Transplant Center by Professor David Sutherland, head of the division of transplant surgery.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 186-190
Author(s):  
Helga Bragadóttir ◽  
Teddie Potter

Given the rapid pace of change and globalization, leaders in healthcare must be educated to think globally even if they only act locally. This short article discusses the experience of a collaborative online international learning (COIL) project between the University of Iceland (UI) and the University of Minnesota (UMN) in the United States. The project was embedded into graduate courses in nursing administration and leadership. COIL courses require substantial collaboration but, when done well, COIL transforms teaching so that global awareness of students and faculty is enhanced and widens their horizons as well as their cultural sensitivity.


2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 537-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Agel ◽  
J. Chris Coetzee ◽  
Bruce J. Sangeorzan ◽  
Matthew M. Roberts ◽  
Sigvard T. Hansen

Background: Arthritis and other rheumatic conditions are the leading causes of disability among adults in the United States. The purpose of this report was to describe the self-reported functional limitations of a group of patients with end-stage ankle arthrosis. Method: Patients who presented for operative management of end-stage ankle arthrosis at the University of Minnesota and Harborview Medical Center completed a Musculoskeletal Functional Assessment (MFA) as part of their preoperative clinical evaluation. Data from patients evaluated during the time period April, 1995, through May, 2004, were used for this project. Results: Four hundred and twenty-six patients with the diagnosis of end-stage ankle arthrosis completed baseline questionnaires. Six of the 426 patients received care on both ankles during the time of this project. The average age of patients at the time of completion of the questionnaire was 56.7 years. There were 241 men and 185 women. The primary underlying causes identified by the treating surgeon at the time of surgery were primary osteoarthritis with no known prior trauma (66), previous trauma (tibial fracture, foot fractures, or ankle ligamentous disruption) (296), rheumatoid arthritis (24), no known cause (21), and a variety of diseases or infections (19). In all domains, the patients with end-stage ankle arthrosis showed statistically significant differences from a general population sample. Conclusions: The effects of ankle arthritis as demonstrated by this data are severe. Most of these patients were severely limited in function. Without a data-driven understanding of the limitations the patients have, it is difficult to make an effective argument for focused research to solve the problems. Without understanding the patients' needs, it is impossible to assess the effect of treatment. The information in this paper provides a baseline understanding of effect of the current functional limitations of patients with end-stage ankle arthrosis.


1946 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-201

This bibliography was prepared by a committee of the National Council on Radio Journalism, with the aid of a number of specialists. Cooperating in the work were Miss Gertrude G. Broderick, of the United States Office of Education; Mitchell V. Charnley, of the University of Minnesota; Fred S. Siebert and Frank Schooley, of the University of Illinois; Kenneth Bardett, of Syracuse University; Karl Krauskopf and Paul Wagner, of Ohio University; Floyd Baskette, of Emory University; Paul White, of the Columbia Broadcasting System; Arthur M. Barnes and Wilbur Schramm, of the University of Iowa. Dr. Schramm was chairman of the committee.


1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 299-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Sorokin

Sorokin, Pitirim Alexandrovich, born January 21,1889, in the small village of Turia in Russia [died 1968]. Student at the Teachers' Seminary in the province of Kostroma in Russia (1903–6), at the evening school in St. Petersburg (1907–9), at the Psycho- Neurological Institute in St. Petersburg (1910–14); Magistrant of Criminal Law (1915); Ph.D in Sociology (1922); Privatdozent at the Psycho-Neurological Institute (1914–16), at the University of St. Petersburg (1916–17); Professor of Sociology at the same university (1919–22); Professor of Sociology at the Agricultural Academy (1919–22), at the University of Minnesota (1924–30); Chairman of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University from 1930. Member of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Peasant's Soviet (1917); Secretary to the Prime Minister [ Kerensky ] (1917); member of the Russian Constitutional Assembly (1918); sentenced to death and finally exiled by the communist administration (1922); emigrated to the United States (1923), naturalized (1930). Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Sociological Association; honorary member of the International Institute of Sociology of the Czechoslovakian Academy for Agriculture, of the German Sociological Society, and of the Ukrainian Sociological Society; President of the International Institute for Sociology (1936–37). Member of the Greek-Orthodox Church.


Author(s):  
Justin Schell ◽  
Jennie M. Burroughs ◽  
Deborah Boudewyns ◽  
Cecily Marcus ◽  
Scott Spicer

Academic libraries around the United States have been responding to an emerging style of research, the digital humanities, that promises to expand and revolutionize the humanities. Libraries are finding themselves to be generative sites of innovative partnerships and projects. Seeing a new opportunity to showcase cutting edge research and demonstrate value in an era of competitive demands for financial resources, there is significant incentive for libraries to quickly anticipate scholarly needs. Yet how do academic libraries best support a field of practice that is still developing? To address these issues, the University of Minnesota Libraries conducted a multi-year assessment of scholarly trends and practices, infrastructure needs, and roles of digital humanities centers and academic libraries, the University of Minnesota Libraries have designed and are in the process of implementing a service model as part of its Digital Arts Sciences + Humanities (DASH) program.


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