In 2023, Princeton University Press published Richard Langlois’s The Corporation and the Twentieth Century: The History of American Business Enterprise. It is a book of comparable mass to Alfred Chandler’s 1977 The Visible Hand and equally ambitious.1 The erudition is vast. (The bibliography alone runs 78 closely-printed pages. There are 122 pages of equally closely-printed footnotes to the 522-page main text whose own font is not large.) A production such as this seemed worth more than the usual traditional-form reviews, and in the September following its publication, the Penn Economic History Forum put on a symposium to discuss it. Interest was widespread: attendance in the room was agreeably substantial and came from far beyond the seminar’s usual catchment area, and there were requests for the Zoom link to the proceedings from around the world. (The expense was not vast and the ratio of impact to expense was almost certainly favorable relative to ordinary seminars. The economic history community might not suffer from putting on more such events when suitable occasions arise.)

Three joint space algorithms slow the Cartesian path motion when it appears that joint motion is approaching a joint, speed, or acceleration limit. All three algorithms use quadratic curve fitting to predict where the joint motion is heading, followed by a prediction as to how much time would elapse until a limit is reached.

If a joint motion limit is encountered in the time-to-stop the Cartesian motion, these algorithms reduce the Cartesian speed using pulsed speed settings so that the robot or machine tool will have the necessary time to come to a complete stop. The joint space velocity and acceleration control algorithms set the override Cartesian speed to either full or some reduced speed, several times a second. This allows the joints to reach, but not exceed, their maximum velocity and accelerations limit, while remaining within the physical joint limits.

Motivated by the occurrence of a moderately nearby supernova near the beginning of the Pleistocene, possibly as part of a long-term series beginning in the Miocene, we investigated whether nitrate rainout resulting from the atmospheric ionization of enhanced cosmic ray flux could have, through its fertilizer effect, initiated carbon dioxide drawdown. Such a drawdown could possibly reduce the greenhouse effect and induce the climate change that led to the Pleistocene glaciations. We estimate that the nitrogen flux enhancement onto the surface from an event at 50 pc would be of order 10%, probably too small for dramatic changes. We estimate deposition of iron (another potential fertilizer) and find it is also too small to be significant. There are also competing effects of opposite sign, including muon irradiation and reduction in photosynthetic yield caused by UV increase from stratospheric ozone layer depletion, leading to an ambiguous result. However, if the atmospheric ionization induces a large increase in the frequency of lightning, as argued elsewhere, the amount of nitrate synthesis should be much larger, dominate over the other effects and induce the climate change. More work needs to be done to clarify the effects on lightning frequency.

Designing materials for performance in high-radiation fields can be accelerated through a carefully chosen combination of advanced multiscale modeling paired with appropriate experimental validation. The studies reported in this work, the combined efforts of six universities working together as the Consortium on Cladding and Structural Materials, use that approach to focus on improving the scientific basis for the response of ferritic–martensitic steels to irradiation. A combination of modern modeling techniques with controlled experimentation has specifically focused on improving the understanding of radiation-induced segregation, precipitate formation and growth under radiation, the stability of oxide nanoclusters, and the development of dislocation networks under radiation. Experimental studies use both model and commercial alloys, irradiated with both ion beams and neutrons. Transmission electron microscopy and atom probe are combined with both first-principles and rate theory approaches to advance the understanding of ferritic–martensitic steels.

Trypanosomatids represent the causative agents of major diseases in humans, livestock and plants, with inevitable suffering and economic hardship as a result. They are also evolutionarily highly divergent organisms, and the many unique aspects of trypanosome biology provide opportunities in terms of identification of drug targets, the challenge of exploiting these putative targets and, at the same time, significant scope for exploration of novel and divergent cell biology. We can estimate from genome sequences that the degree of divergence of trypanosomes from animals and fungi is extreme, with perhaps one third to one half of predicted trypanosome proteins having no known function based on homology or recognizable protein domains/architecture. Two highly important aspects of trypanosome biology are the flagellar pocket and the nuclear envelope, where in silico analysis clearly suggests great potential divergence in the proteome. The flagellar pocket is the sole site of endo- and exocytosis in trypanosomes and plays important roles in immune evasion via variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) trafficking and providing a location for sequestration of various invariant receptors. The trypanosome nuclear envelope has been largely unexplored but, by analogy with higher eukaryotes, roles in the regulation of chromatin and most significantly, in controlling VSG gene expression are expected. Here we discuss recent successful proteomics-based approaches towards characterization of the nuclear envelope and the endocytic apparatus, the identification of conserved and novel trypanosomatid-specific features, and the implications of these findings.

Deuterium has a special place in cosmology, nuclear astrophysics, and galactic chemical evolution, because of its unique property that it is only created in the big bang nucleosynthesis while all other processes result in its net destruction. For this reason, among other things, deuterium abundance measurements in the interstellar medium (ISM) allow us to determine the fraction of interstellar gas that has been cycled through stars, and set constraints and learn about different Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) models. However, recent indications that deuterium might be preferentially depleted onto dust grains complicate our understanding about the meaning of measured ISM deuterium abundances. For this reason, recent estimates by Linsky et al. (2006) have yielded a lower bound to the “true”, undepleted, ISM deuterium abundance that is very close to the primordial abundance, indicating a small deuterium astration factor contrary to the demands of many GCE models. To avoid any prejudice about deuterium dust depletion along different lines of sight that are used to determine the “true” D abundance, we propose a model-independent, statistical Bayesian method to address this issue and determine in a model-independent manner the undepleted ISM D abundance. We find the best estimate for the gas-phase ISM deuterium abundance to be (D/H)ISM ≥ (2.0 ± 0.1) × 10−5. Presented are the results of Prodanović et al. (2009).

Mothers who scored zero on the Beck Depression Inventory (N = 25) were compared to “depressed” mothers (high scores on the Beck) (N = 39) and nondepressed mothers (N = 98) during face-to-face interactions with their 5-month-old infants. The interaction videotapes were rated on the Interaction Rating Scales and were coded second-by-second for attentive/affective behavior states. The zero Beck mothers and their infants received lower ratings and were in less positive behavior states (alone or together) than the high scoring Beck “depressed” mother/infant dyads and even more frequently than the nondepressed mother/infant dyads. The lower activity levels, lesser expressivity, and less frequent vocalizing were suggestive of “depressed” behavior in both the mothers and their infants. In addition, the infants of the zero Beck mothers had lower vagal tone and lower growth percentiles (weight, length, and head circumference) than the infants of nondepressed mothers, although they did not differ from the infants of depressed mothers on these measures. These data suggest that mothers who report no depressive symptoms may present as much, if not greater risk, for their infants than mothers who do report depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory.

This paper is one of the four interrelated action agenda papers resulting from the National Summit on Public Health Legal Preparedness (Summit) convened in June 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and multi-disciplinary partners. Each of the action agenda papers deals with one of the four core elements of legal preparedness: laws and legal authorities; competency in using those laws; coordination of law-based public health actions; and information. Options presented in this paper are for consideration by policymakers and practitioners — in all jurisdictions and all relevant sectors and disciplines — with responsibilities for all-hazards emergency preparedness.

One expert's framing of the mission of public health may help improve understanding of the range of hazards for which to be legally prepared. These hazards include urgent realities — such as chronic disease, injury, disabilities, conventional communicable diseases, and an aging and obese population — and urgent threats, such as pandemic influenza, natural disasters, and terrorism.

A new method of depositing epitaxial ZnO nanocolumns on sputter-coated ZnO substrates is described that utilizes supersaturated zincate species in sodium hydroxide solutions and requires no complexing agents. Uniform arrays of columns are grown reproducibly over entire substrates in 10 to 50 min. Columns are 50 to 2000 nm long and 50 to 100 nm wide. Strict substrate cleaning and/or preparations are not necessary with this method, in contrast to many other techniques. Films grow only on substrates pre-coated with ZnO, not on bare glass or ITOor SnO2-coated glass. Factors affecting the column growth are elucidated and experimental observations are correlated with crystal growth theory.