Evaluating Government Technology Transfer

The national laboratories are a reservoir of scientific and technological talent that can help America to compete in international markets.… Spurred in the past decade by new legislation and enlightened policies, the national laboratories have greatly expanded efforts to transfer federally-funded inventions and technology to private industry.
Alan Schriesheim (Director, Argonne National Laboratory), "Toward a Golden Age for Technology Transfer," Issues in Science and Technology, Winter, 1990–91, p. 52.
Although Congress adopted several laws in the 1980s to encourage the commercialization of federal laboratory technology and to promote technology transfer from the federal laboratories to the private sector, collaboration between laboratories and industrial firms has been modest at best.
Erich Bloch, Toward A U.S. Technology Strategy, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, February, 1991, p. 22.     

Faecal Coliform Levels in Mountain Streams of Winter Recreation Zones in the Cairngorms National Park,Scotland

This study aims to establish the spatial distribution of stream water faecal coliform (FC) concentrations in specific winter recreation areas in the Northern Corries of the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland. A total of 207 water samples were collected from 10 sites during two winter seasons (2007–2008 and 2008–2009) and analysed by Colilert^® 24 for the presence of FC, specifically Escherichia coli (E. coli). E. coli was not detected at Sites 1–7, above 635?m. Sites 8, 9 and 10 (below 635?m) had positive detection rates for E. coli, these being 32%, 35% and 31%, respectively. Results provide important data on the level of faecal bacteria in selected Scottish mountain streams, whilst also providing comparative benchmark data for similar studies proposed in other UK upland recreational hotspots.     

Inferring Human Behaviors from Isotopic Analyses of Rat Diet: a Critical Review and Historical Application

Rat (Rattus spp.) bone collagen stable isotope values are often assumed to reflect an average of food stuffs that were available to archaeological populations. This paper considers the feasibility of using stable isotope evidence from rat remains as a source of proxy information for human food-related social, economic, and sensorial behaviors. First, a literature review of archaeological and modern ecological rat isotope work reveals that, while rat dietary signatures are often a reasonable proxy for human food waste, they will not always record an unbiased average of foods which are available in a given environment. Second, an overview of ethological, biological, and environmental factors that can influence rat diets is given from the perspective of archaeological bone chemistry, to help identify factors that require explicit and critical consideration when rat stable isotope data is taken as a proxy for human food-related behaviors. Finally, rat stable isotope values are considered to provide new evidence about the social and economic responses of an important historical English fishing community at Ferryland (CgAf-02) to conflict and political turmoil at the turn of the eighteenth century. These results also highlight how information on rat diets can provide a counterpoint to other common faunal isotope approaches that focus on dogs and pigs as a proxy for human dietary behaviors.