All Employment Is Local: Examining the Impact of the American Recovery and Revitalization (ARRA) Act on Two Missouri Counties (as Well as an Analysis of Missouri Tax Credit Programs)

Employment is explored in the aftermath of the most recent “Great Recession”—the lingering effects are still being felt. Employment growth largely depends on what happens locally. This article examines the American Recovery and Revitalization Act (ARRA) often thought of as the Economic Stimulus Plan of the Obama Administration and its impact on two adjacent Missouri counties (Ste. Genevieve and Perry). County particulars are examined which impact how to understand employment in both counties. Furthermore, the issue of jobs created versus jobs retained is examined, as well as the difficulties of measuring the multiplier effect. Finally, Missouri tax credit programs are explored, again demonstrating the difficulties of measuring the multiplier effect as well as the cost effectiveness of these state government programs. Census data from the “County Business Patterns” are used to analyze local employment situations. Small Business issues related to local situations are addressed since they are essential to “jump starting” local economies

The Dilemma for American Business Regarding Health Care Reform

Businesses of all sizes will have to work together to adequately address controlling their health care costs. At the present time, large corporations have options available to them to control their health care costs, but these options will not be sufficient in the long-term. Since smaller businesses are increasingly declining to provide health insurance to their employees, the result is the growth of the working uninsured who will become a problem that cannot easily be contained and will affect the ability of large corporations to address their health care costs. The dilemma that American business faces is the need to develop strategies to work together to address the costs of health care, something that runs against the grain of individual companies that believe they can solve their own health care costs and do so in ways that will help them and will not adversely affect others

A two-circle powder diffractometer for synchrotron radiation on Station 2.3 at the SRS

The two-circle powder diffractometer on Station 8.3 at the SRS has recently been relocated to station 2.3, some half the distance from a dipole radiation source with the same nominal 1.2T field. The purpose of this paper is to detail the changes and modifications to the diffractometer operation

Removing multiple outliers and single-crystal artefacts from X-ray diffraction computed tomography data

This paper reports a simple but effective filtering approach to deal with single-crystal artefacts in X-ray diffraction computed tomography (XRD-CT). In XRD-CT, large crystallites can produce spots on top of the powder diffraction rings, which, after azimuthal integration and tomographic reconstruction, lead to line/streak artefacts in the tomograms. In the simple approach presented here, the polar transform is taken of collected two-dimensional diffraction patterns followed by directional median/mean filtering prior to integration. Reconstruction of one-dimensional diffraction projection data sets treated in such a way leads to a very significant improvement in reconstructed image quality for systems that exhibit powder spottiness arising from large crystallites. This approach is not computationally heavy which is an important consideration with big data sets such as is the case with XRD-CT. The method should have application to two-dimensional X-ray diffraction data in general where such spottiness arises

Interlaced X-ray diffraction computed tomography

An X-ray diffraction computed tomography data-collection strategy that allows, post experiment, a choice between temporal and spatial resolution is reported. This strategy enables time-resolved studies on comparatively short timescales, or alternatively allows for improved spatial resolution if the system under study, or components within it, appear to be unchanging. The application of the method for studying an Mn–Na–W/SiO2 fixed-bed reactor in situ is demonstrated. Additionally, the opportunities to improve the data-collection strategy further, enabling post-collection tuning between statistical, temporal and spatial resolutions, are discussed. In principle, the interlaced scanning approach can also be applied to other pencil-beam tomographic techniques, like X-ray fluorescence computed tomography, X-ray absorption fine structure computed tomography, pair distribution function computed tomography and tomographic scanning transmission X-ray microscopy

In situ X-ray Diffraction Computed Tomography studies examining the thermal and chemical stabilities of working Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ membranes during oxidative coupling of methane

In this study we present the results from two in situ X-ray diffraction computed tomography experiments of catalytic membrane reactors (CMRs) using Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF) hollow fibre membranes and Na-Mn-W/SiO2 catalyst during the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) reaction. The negative impact of CO2, when added to the inlet gas stream, is seen to be mainly related to the C2+ yield, while no evidence of carbonate phase(s) formation is found during the OCM experiments. The main degradation mechanism of the CMR is suggested to be primarily associated with the solid-state evolution of the BSCF phase rather than the presence of CO2. Specifically, in situ XRD-CT and post-mortem SEM/EDX measurements revealed a collapse of the cubic BSCF phase, formation of secondary phases, which include needle-like structures and hexagonal Ba6Co4O12, and formation of a BaWO4 layer, the latter being a result of chemical interaction between the membrane and catalyst materials at high temperatures