The rise and fall of nuclear power in the United States and the limits of regulation

This paper documents the rapid growth of nuclear power in the United States and its subsequent decline in the late 1970s. It demonstrates that the increase in numbers of new orders for nuclear plants created pressures for additional licensing complexity to insure safety and provide public intervenors with opportunities to participate in the regulatory process. The resulting protraction of the licensing process combined with increasing political opposition to nuclear power caused construction delays and bureaucratic bottlenecks at a time when soaring interest rates and double-digit inflation have pushed the cost of building new facilities out of the reach of the financially battered utility industry. Together with a downturn in demand for electricity and increasing uncertainty over nuclear power, no reactor orders have been placed since late 1978. It is argued that renewed growth of nuclear power in the United States is unlikely, especially in a regulatory environment which fosters increased costs of electricity to consumers and a simultaneous abrogation of the economies of scale. The consequences of the impending atrophication of the nuclear industry in America and its effects on future energy mixes and long-term national interests must be considered in future nuclear policies and reforms.     

Patent evolution in relation to public/private R&D investment and corporate profitability: Evidence from the United States

Summary In this paper we analyze the (historical) co-evolution of technological development and economic progress (by relating public and private R&D investment, patenting, and corporate profitability). We relate to the work ofSchmookler(1966),Griliches(1990),Pakes&Griliches(1980) andPakes(1986) who all have studied the techno-economic interplay by considering patents as in indicator of technological performance. We use United States industry and government data over the period 1953-1998 (45 years). Co-evolution analysis over this period reveals a strong interdependency among the variables. Patent evolution is strongly related to the development of private R&D and corporate profitability; the levels of public and private R&D expenditure in combination with the level of technological output (i.e. patents) have a strong predictive and explanatory power towards corporate profitability (R² value of 94.9%). Causality tests reveal a joint determination between R&D investment and corporate profitability (L=2; p<0.01).     

The impact of warfare on the rate of invention: A time series analysis of United States patent activity

The outbreak of war is generally thought to shift the fields in which research is conducted. As a result, military conflict has historically been credited with being the catalyst which has caused decisive technological advances. It is also generally suggested that warfare has a systematic impact on the intensity of inventive activity. Most scholars have claimed that wars increase inventiveness, although a few argue that conflict is a hinderance to research. This question has not received extensive empirical examination. Using United States data, we show that a basic pattern is repeatedly observed. Immediately after the outbreak of a war, there is a significant decline in inventiveness, which is followed by a marked surge. The average net result is a virtual negation of the two trends.     

Cultural assumptions and productivity: the United States and China

Based on the premise that the study of another culture is a useful tool for learning about one's own environment, the author compares and contrasts major cultural characteristics of the U.S. and China. Although he guards against the idea of blindly adopting major Chinese cultural assumptions, the author feels that the U.S. may benefit economically by looking toward China to find new insights and fresh approaches to help the U.S. better cope with prevalent economic ills--low productivity and lack of innovation in the work force.     

Engineering education and registration in the United States

Membership of an engineering institution is not as closely controlled in the USA as in the UK, so that membership is not considered a professional qualification. Engineering registration is the responsibility of an appointed board in each state. The requirements for registration include the equivalent of a university degree accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, a private association composed of representatives from the engineering societies and institutions. This article describes the registration procedure in the USA with an emphasis on the American engineering education system     

Pedestrian safety in the United States: Some recent trends

Although the state laws requiring motor vehicles to give way to pedestrians on crosswalks and at intersections are quite uniform from state to state, the degree of enforcement of these laws varies enormously. Driver behavior seems to reflect the level of enforcement rather than the text of the law. There is a tendency at all levels of government toward lax enforcement.     

University-Based Engineering Research in the United States

This paper reports results from an NSF-supported survey of a national probability sample of U.S. engineering faculty on the nature and organization of their research activities. We analyze how engineering faculty spend their time, the types of research faculty conduct, characteristics of that research, how that research has changed over time, and the involvement of students in engineering research, based upon the engineering discipline, institutional research intensiveness and age of the respondents. These data and results represent a perspective on university-based engineering research activities from the point of view of active researchers across most of the engineering schools in the United States.     

Rapid Access Methods in the United States

The current status of rapid access photography in the United States is reviewed, with emphasis on available equipment for rapid processing, and image recording and display with minimum delay. Such equipment includes machines using deep tanks, roller applicators, other special applicators, jet sprays, viscous layers and webs. A brief account is given of recent laboratory work reported in U.S. technical journals, and other developments in the chemistry of rapid processing. In a review of electrophotography, reference is made to some recent developments which could lead to a wider use of this technique in rapid-access applications.     

Hydrogen Hubs Arise in the United States

July 2024 saw the first\"hydrogen hub\"(H2Hub)officially launched in the United States[1].Centered in the state of California,the hub is one of a group of seven such H2-focused infrastructure projects across the country(Table 1)selected to share 7 billion USD in funding allocated by the Biden-Harris Administration in October 2023[2].The aim for the investment is to accelerate the country's production and use of H2 as a fuel and feedstock chemical;H2 combustion releases only water,and many believe that the gas could help to reduce climate-changing CO2 emissions by replacing fossil fuels in transportation,the chemicals industry,and other economic sectors.     

Recycling of plastic packaging in the United States

The manner in which recycling of plastic packaging is developing in the USA is outlined and the probable changes in the next decade are discussed. Suggestions as to how packaging professions should deal with the subject are made.     

Performance measures for the socio-economic impact of government spending on R&D

Summary The aims of this paper are to summarize Canadian government programs pertaining to research and development (R&D) and R&D support programs, and to propose a method for analyzing their socio-economic impact. The programs under investigation include: • Canada Research Chairs • Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation • Canada Foundation for Innovation • Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) • Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) • Canada Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) • Canadian Institute of Advanced Research (CIAR) • Pre-Competitive Advanced Research Networks (PRECARN) • Networks of Centres of Excellence     

Short and long nightly hemodialysis in the United States

When hemodialysis first started in the United States in the 1960s, a large percentage of patients performed their treatments at home. However, because of reimbursement issues, home hemodialysis (HHD) gradually succumbed to an in-center approach and eventually a mindset. Since the introduction of nightly HHD by Uldall and Pierratos in 1993, there has been a resurgence of interest in HHD. This paper describes the different types of home hemodialysis being performed as of December 31, 2007 in this country. Because neither the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) nor the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Networks break down home dialysis into the different modalities, a provider questionnaire was sent out to 2 major providers, a number of mid-level providers and other providers known to do HHD. In addition, a questionnaire was sent out to 3 machine providers to obtain the number of patients using their machine for HHD as of December 31, 2007. The results showed that 91.7% of patients are dialyzing in-center, 7.3% are doing peritoneal dialysis, and 0.7% are doing HHD. Currently about 1% of ESRD patients in the United States are doing home hemodialysis. NxStage, however, has started 1000 patients in the past year on short-daily home hemodialysis. Patients are beginning to understand that there are better options than 3 times a week in-center dialysis. And as a result of the "HEMO Study," nephrologists now believe that longer and more frequent dialysis is a better therapy for ESRD patients. Therefore, promotion of HHD should become a priority for the renal community in the future.     

Stop versus yield on pedestrian-involved fatal crashes in the United States

In an effort to improve pedestrian safety, several states in the United States changed their pedestrian laws by changing the requirement that drivers yield to pedestrians in crosswalks to a requirement that drivers stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. This study examined whether this change had an effect on pedestrian safety in the United States, with its focus on low-speed roads. To examine the association between changes in pedestrian laws and changes in pedestrian-involved fatal crashes, three approaches were employed: before–after analysis, time-series analysis, and cross-sectional analysis. Pedestrian-involved fatal traffic crashes on low-speed roads were extracted from the U.S. national fatal crash database, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), from 1980 through 2005. This study found no statistically significant reduction in pedestrian-involved fatal crashes attributable to changes in the laws, yet this finding is not definitive because of study limitations such as the omission of relevant exposure data.