MINNESOTA'S FARMER-LENDER MEDIATION PROGRAM: CASE CHARACTERISTICS AND RESULTS

Agricultural Finance,

FINANCIAL INNOVATIONS: SOLUTIONS TO THE EXTERNAL DEBT PROBLEM IN LATIN AMERICA?

Financial Economics,

A Study of Psychorophilic Bacteria in Frozen Foods

The bacteria examined in this study are facultative psychrohiles, which have their origin in the mesophilic group. Different members of the group have their optimum growth at temperatures slightly below the mesophilic range, but will grow at temperatures ranging from below zero to 25 degrees C. they have become increasingly important with the advent of the frozen food industry. Their presence in frozen foods is often the cause of objectionable flavor, putrid odor, or unnatural appearance. In this respect they are as important to the homemaker to the scientist and industrialist. It was with the hope of adding to the knowledge of this relatively little known group of microorganisms that this study was undertaken. The preservation of foods by freezing goes far back in history. Freezing foods was a common practice in northern Europe in ancient times. Meat and fish were allowed to freeze naturally in order to preserve them. Mechanical refrigeration did not appear until the nineteenth century. Meat packers were using natural ice refrigeration by 1860(12), but it was not until the ideal method. Birdseye and Fitzgerald (6) mention several man who pioneered in mechanical refrigeration devices. In 1861 Piper of Canden, Maine invented a process in which a mixture of salt and ice in metal pans was placed directly over fish which were held in the lower compartment of an insulated container. Davis, in 1869, received a patent for freezing fish in flat metal pans with telescoping metal covers, the fish being packed tightly in pans so there was contact on all sides. The pans were then surrounded with a freezing mixture of salt and ice. Hesketh and Marcet proposed in 1889 to freeze meat or other parishables by direct or indirect immersion in cold brine or other refrigerants. According to Jensen (12), G.H. Hammond in 1875 designed the first refrigerator car. This first car, crude but practical, subsequently enabled Swift to begin carrying dressed meats from Chicago to the east coast. The first frozen beef to be exported from the United States left New York City for England in 1875. (12) Preservation was accomplished by alternating layers of beef with layers of ice in the hold of the ship. The first method of cold storage used large blocks of ice as the cooling agent. These were placed in a room containing the food to be preserved. The ice cooled the air in the room sufficiently to prevent spoilage of the food. Gradually methods of mechanical refrigeration were developed. These were the compression system, the flooded system, and the absorption system. These systems use a variety of refrigerants, including amounts, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and methyl chloride. Each of the refrigerants is adaptable to some particular service. The compression system has the wildest use today. It enables the development of large warehouse near the production centers, where perishable foods can be stored before shipping to markets in other parts of the country. Cold storage, as we know it today, was developed about 1890, at the time when mechanical refrigeration first began to assume a practical importance in the food industry. A decade earlier, ammonia refrigeration machines were used to freeze fish. This same method was slowly expanded to include other foods as well. Eggs were first frozen in 1889. The freezing of fruits was begun in the eastern part of the United States about 1900. Freezing of berries in the Pacific Northwest was begun in 1910. The Birdseye organization started the commercial freezing of vegetables in Oregon in 1929 (30).The rapid freezing of foods has been known for a long time. Early scientists in the nineteenth century developed some theories as to the probable changes caused by freezing, but they never applied their work to practical processes of the industry. According to Tressler and Evers (30) in 1916, Plank Ehrenbaum and Reuter showed the practical advantages of the rapid freezing of meat. Since that time, rapid strides have been made both in the scientific and industrial fields. Today quick-freezing is considered one of the best methods of preserving many different types of food.There are three principle methods of quick-freezing: 1. Freezing by direct immersion in a refrigerating medium, such as low temperature brine; 2. Freezing by indirect contact with a refrigerant, by applying the product to a metal surface which is cooled by freezing brine; 3. Freezing in a blast of cold air. When water is frozen, it is changed to ice crystals. By the time the temperature has reached -3.9 degrees C most of the water is frozen and the ice crystals no longer increase in size. The temperature zone from -.6 C to -3.9 C was shown by Birdseye (4) to be the zone in which maximum growth of crystals occur. Crystals will be smaller if food is passed through this temperature zone quickly. The larger the crystals rupture the walls of the cells, changing the texture of the food and releasing nutrients which encourage bacterial growth

Vibrational signatures for low-energy intermediate-sized Si clusters

We report low-energy locally stable structures for the clusters Si20 and Si21. The structures were obtained by performing geometry optimizations within the local density approximation. Our calculated binding energies for these clusters are larger than any previously reported for this size regime. To aid in the experimental identification of the structures, we have computed the full vibrational spectra of the clusters, along with the Raman and IR activities of the various modes using a recently developed first-principles technique. These represent, to our knowledge, the first calculations of Raman and IR spectra for Si clusters of this size

The Rise of Structural Individualism: Millennial Attitudes toward Welfare and Poverty

This article examines college student attitudes towards social policy by linking how millennials define poverty and welfare to their beliefs about redistribution and policy changes. Using a mixed methodology, we develop a theory to explain why students often use structural definitions of poverty and social policy coupled with a reliance on individualistic solutions for individuals saddled with poverty or in need of social assistance. 450 surveys and 10 interviews were conducted to examine attitudes toward poverty, welfare policy, and people receiving welfare. The results, while not generalizable, shed light on how millennials think about the link between poverty and welfare.Faculty Sponsor: JoEllen Pederso

Harnessing Erasure Coding Using Embedded Archetypes

Many analysts would agree that, had it not been for digital-to-analog converters, the study of the partition table might never have occurred. In this paper, we verify the refinement of object-oriented languages, demonstrates the compelling importance of e-voting technology. We introduce a novel system for the refinement of write-ahead logging, which we call Sinuosity

Background questions for the "enter"/"exit" research

How do languages encode different kinds of movement, and what features do people pay attention to when describing motion events? This document outlines topics concerning the investigation of “enter” and “exit” events. It helps contextualise research tasks that examine this domain (see 'Motion Elicitation' and 'Enter/Exit animation') and gives some pointers about what other questions can be explored

Density-functional-based predictions of Raman and IR spectra for small Si clusters

We have used a density-functional-based approach to study the response of silicon clusters to applied electric fields. For the dynamical response, we have calculated the Raman activities and infrared (IR) intensities for all of the vibrational modes of several clusters (SiN with N=3-8, 10, 13, 20, and 21) using the local density approximation (LDA). For the smaller clusters (N=3-8) our results are in good agreement with previous quantum-chemical calculations and experimental measurements, establishing that LDA-based IR and Raman data can be used in conjunction with measured spectra to determine the structure of clusters observed in experiment. To illustrate the potential of the method for larger clusters, we present calculated IR and Raman data for two low-energy isomers of Si10 and for the lowest-energy structure of Si13 found to date. For the static response, we compare our calculated polarizabilities for N=10, 13, 20, and 21 to recent experimental measurements. The calculated results are in rough agreement with experiment, but show less variation with cluster size than the measurements. Taken together, our results show that LDA calculations can offer a powerful means for establishing the structures of experimentally fabricated clusters and nanoscale systems

The Rise of Structural Individualism: Millennial Attitudes toward Welfare and Poverty

This article examines college student attitudes towards social policy by linking how millennials define poverty and welfare to their beliefs about redistribution and policy changes. Using a mixed methodology, we develop a theory to explain why students often use structural definitions of poverty and social policy coupled with a reliance on individualistic solutions for individuals saddled with poverty or in need of social assistance. 450 surveys and 10 interviews were conducted to examine attitudes toward poverty, welfare policy, and people receiving welfare. The results, while not generalizable, shed light on how millennials think about the link between poverty and welfare

Grand Canyon as a Universally Accessible Virtual Field Trip for Intro Geoscience Classes Using Geo-Referenced Mobile Game Technology

There is a well-documented and nationally reported trend of declining interest, poor preparedness, and lack of diversity within U.S. students pursuing geoscience and other STEM disciplines. We suggest that a primary contributing factor to this problem is that introductory geoscience courses simply fail to inspire (i.e. they are boring). Our experience leads us to believe that the hands-on, contextualized learning of field excursions are often the most impactful component of lower division geoscience classes. However, field trips are becoming increasingly more difficult to run due to logistics and liability, high-enrollments, decreasing financial and administrative support, and exclusivity of the physically disabled. Recent research suggests that virtual field trips can be used to simulate this contextualized physical learning through the use of mobile devices – technology that exists in most students’ hands already. Our overarching goal is to enhance interest in introductory geoscience courses by providing the kinetic and physical learning experience of field trips through geo-referenced educational mobile games and test the hypothesis that these experiences can be effectively simulated through virtual field trips. We are doing this by developing “serious”ù games for mobile devices that deliver introductory geology material in a fun and interactive manner. Our new teaching strategy will enhance undergraduate student learning in the geosciences, be accessible to students of diverse backgrounds and physical abilities, and be easily incorporated into higher education programs and curricula at institutions globally. Our prototype involves students virtually navigating downstream along a scaled down Colorado River through Grand Canyon – physically moving around their campus quad, football field or other real location, using their smart phone or a tablet. As students reach the next designated location, a photo or video in Grand Canyon appears along with a geological question. The students must answer each question correctly in order to proceed to the next location and accrue points in the game and multiple attempts reduce the number of points earned when the correct answer is found. The questions are either multiple choice or involve touch-screen interaction to identify a specific geologic feature. Initial testing of the prototype game in Historical and Physical geology courses at Utah State University indicate that students enjoy the mobile “exploration”ù nature of the game as well as experiencing photographs of geologic features rather than traditional cartoons. Qualitative evaluation using anonymous surveys was conducted to help determine the usability of the game and the potential effectiveness of this technology-based approach. Students were asked about the degree of fun and difficulty of the game, content learned, and their overall response to features they liked/disliked about it. The results of these early assessments are positive, both in regard to the improvement of students’ understanding of key geology concepts and their enjoyment of learning with the technology in a mobile orienteering manner. This is a positive first step in an innovative teaching tool with the power to overcome the pervasive problem of the boring first year STEM course and make world-class field trips accessible to all