Arkansas Soybean Research Studies 2023

The 2023 Arkansas Soybean Research Studies includes research reports on topics pertaining to soybean across several disciplines from breeding to post-harvest processing. Research reports contained in this publication may represent preliminary or only data from a single year or limited results; therefore, these results should not be used as a basis for long-term recommendations. Several research reports in this publication will appear in other University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station publications. This duplication is the result of the overlap in research coverage between disciplines and our effort to inform Arkansas soybean producers of the research being conducted with funds from the Soybean Check-off Program. This publication also contains research funded by industry, federal, and state agencies. Use of products and trade names in any of the research reports does not constitute a guarantee or warranty of the products named and does not signify that these products are approved to the exclusion of comparable products. All authors are either current or former faculty, staff, or students of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, or scientists with the United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service. Extended thanks are given to the staff at the state and County Extension offices, as well as the research centers and stations; producers and cooperators; and industry personnel who assisted with the planning and execution of the programs

Partisan Judges

This article argues that both Republicans and Democrats should look for judges who have intellectual humility and an ability to work with others—even as both parties also look for judges who are generally likely to advance positions favored by them. Part I explores the divergence between the public’s perception that the political views of judges matter and the insistence by most judges that they do not. Ample evidence supports the public’s view, and for judges to be trusted authorities, they should admit this truth. Part II suggests that even after recognizing that political views matter, both political parties (and others choosing judges) should look for judges with intellectual humility. Doing so would help to achieve procedural-justice goals, which are critical to public acceptance of court decisions and perceptions of court legitimacy. Doing so would also provide better substantive judicial decisions by more use of reflective thinking, more cooperative group decision-making, and better judicial administration

Labeling Energy Drinks: Tackling a Monster of a Problem

Energy drinks first rose to popularity in the 1980s after the creation of Red Bull. In addition to high caffeine amounts, energy drinks often contain herbal stimulan

A Novel Approach to Attention-Based Models in Image Completion: Weighted Spatial-Attention Using Radial Distance

Humans infer missing visual information by focusing on spatial relationships in the context of their surroundings. Machine learning aims to replicate this skill through image completion, a fundamental task in current computer vision research. While advances in self-attention layers have recently enhanced generative machine learning models for text, these mechanisms still currently lack the capability to handle sparse image completion efficiently. We introduce a distance-based attention mechanism that uses radial-based weights to efficiently reconstruct an image. We compare this attention mechanism with self-attention and a fully connected network on an image completion task using the MNIST dataset. Our results show that the weighted spatial-attention mechanism outperformed both models, producing more accurate reconstructions with greater efficiency

The Rise of Fitspiration: An Examination of Social Media Influence, Body Image Concerns, and Online Harassment

The fitspiration movement on social media has raised concerns about potential body image satisfaction issues and body standard internalization. The potential negative effects of body image dissatisfaction include disordered eating, excessive exercise, anxiety, depression, and a risk to online harassment victimization. This dissatisfaction from fitspiration is reinforced by pressures from family and friends. Relying on data from 347 respondents, the present study explores the potential relationship between fitspiration content consumption, body image dissatisfaction, social pressures, and experiences of online harassment. Bivariate correlations and regression analysis were employed to examine the connections between the variables. Results indicated that there was a significant, positive correlation between fitspiration and body image dissatisfaction. There was also a significant and positive correlation between body image dissatisfaction and online harassment. This is consistent with previous research, revealing larger, societal implications surrounding social media trends and their influence on thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Future research is needed to determine what avenues could mitigate body image dissatisfaction and the pressures from social media

Conversations with Friends: How Gender and Politics in the 2024 U.S Presidential Election was Perceived by the People and by the Numbers

The 2024 U.S. presidential election were largely unprecedented, with President Joe Biden withdrawing from the race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Nominee mere months before election day. The events that followed were rife with opportunity to explore the intersection of gender and politics, a topic of increasing relevance as women have become more politically active over the past century. Going beyond the traditional gender gap research, which demonstrates the divergent voting patterns of women and men, this research seeks to understand how the gender of the candidate influences vote choice. Using empirical data on the gender gap, this essay confirms that gender played a role in this election quite clearly. Additionally, literature which explores previous elections suggests that a candidate’s gender also plays a role in vote choice. When examining the 2024 presidential election, the literature relies more on personal testimony, case studies, and interviews to support the same claim. This essay takes a similar approach and uses friendship as a research method, which is endorsed by feminist methodologies, to investigate the relationship between Harris’s gender and her loss in this election. It was found that according to much personal testimony, Harris did lose in part due to her gender, among other factors