Right! From the Start: Improving Maternal-Child Health in the Mississippi Delta

Right! From the Start (R!FTS) was created nearly ten years ago as a collaborative effort between Women and Children Health Initiatives, Inc. and the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF). The immediate goal of the initiative was to raise breastfeeding rates for mothers and babies in vulnerable families, especially those with preterm and low weight births. A long-term goal was improvement of maternal and child health outcomes in a region plagued by socioeconomic and racial disparities, the Mississippi Delta. R!FTS has gone through three distinct phases of development, which are detailed in this article

Notes from the Editorial Office (Volume 35, Issue 2)

As the year 2020 draws to a close, we are pleased to share this collection of articles in Volume 35, issue 2 of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences (JRSS). Addressing topics including energy, sustainable agriculture, well-being among aging populations, and survey methods, they showcase the scholarly rural-focused work important for shaping the future

Globalization and Latino labor: Labor advocates' accounts of meatpacking in rural Missouri

Includes bibliographical references.The Latinos in Missouri occasional paper series grew out of the writing experiences of graduate students in Rural Sociology 406: The Sociology of Globalization.This paper presents labor advocates' accounts of the common problems faced by Latino/a workers employed in the Missouri meatpacking industry and the potential strategies they identify for addressing them. Information is drawn from participatory observation, document analysis and qualitative interviews. Placed in the context of globalization of the agrifood system and the increasingly problematic position of wage laborers, these accounts are discussed using a theoretical framework based on Karl Polanyi's concept of fictitious commodities. In this study we investigate what labor advocates have to say about the situation faced by Latino workers employed in Missouri meatpacking plants. In the next section, we present an overview of the global agri-food system with specific attention to the meatpacking industry. This is followed by a discussion of Karl Polanyi's (1944) concept of "fictitious commodities," which we use here as a theoretical framework to provide insight into the situation faced by Latino workers in meatpacking. We then examine, in two sections, the problems expressed by labor advocates in Missouri and the proposals for changes they suggest. To conclude, we return to Polanyi's fictitious commodity framework as a way of understanding these issues more fully. Specifically, this theoretical framework supports the argument we make that Latino labor must be able to organize and unionize to correct unfair labor practices that currently exist in the state and the industry as a whole.Occasional Paper Series Developed with Support from the Cambio Center

Signal Detection by Human Observers

Contains reports on three research projects.United States Air Force (Contract AF19(604)-1728

On the Apparent Orbital Inclination Change of the Extrasolar Transiting Planet TrES-2b

On June 15, 2009 UT the transit of TrES-2b was detected using the University of Arizona's 1.55 meter Kuiper Telescope with 2.0-2.5 millimag RMS accuracy in the I-band. We find a central transit time of $T_c = 2454997.76286 \pm0.00035$ HJD, an orbital period of $P = 2.4706127 \pm 0.0000009$ days, and an inclination angle of $i = 83^{\circ}.92 \pm 0.05$, which is consistent with our re-fit of the original I-band light curve of O'Donovan et al. (2006) where we find $i = 83^{\circ}.84 \pm0.05$. We calculate an insignificant inclination change of $\Delta i = -0^{\circ}.08 \pm 0.07$ over the last 3 years, and as such, our observations rule out, at the $\sim 11 \sigma$ level, the apparent change of orbital inclination to $i_{predicted} = 83^{\circ}.35 \pm0.1$ as predicted by Mislis and Schmitt (2009) and Mislis et al. (2010) for our epoch. Moreover, our analysis of a recently published Kepler Space Telescope light curve (Gilliland et al. 2010) for TrES-2b finds an inclination of $i = 83^{\circ}.91 \pm0.03$ for a similar epoch. These Kepler results definitively rule out change in $i$ as a function of time. Indeed, we detect no significant changes in any of the orbital parameters of TrES-2b.Comment: 19 pages, 1 table, 7 figures. Re-submitted to ApJ, January 14, 201

Galactic S Stars: Investigations of Color, Motion, and Spectral Features

Known bright S stars, recognized as such by their enhanced s-process abundances and C/O ratio, are typically members of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) or the red giant branch (RGB). Few modern digital spectra for these objects have been published, from which intermediate resolution spectral indices and classifications could be derived. For published S stars we find accurate positions using the Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), and use the FAST spectrograph of the Tillinghast reflector on Mt. Hopkins to obtain the spectra of 57 objects. We make available a digital S star spectral atlas consisting of 14 spectra of S stars with diverse spectral features. We define and derive basic spectral indices that can help distinguish S stars from late-type (M) giants and carbon stars. We convolve all our spectra with the SDSS bandpasses, and employ the resulting gri magnitudes together with 2MASS JHK mags to investigate S star colors. S stars have colors similar to carbon and M stars, and are therefore difficult to distinguish by color alone. Using near and mid-infrared colors from IRAS and AKARI, we identify some of the stars as intrinsic (AGB) or extrinsic (with abundances enhanced by past mass-transfer). We also use V band and 2MASS magnitudes to calculate a temperature index for stars in the sample. We analyze the proper motions and parallaxes of our sample stars to determine upper and lower limit absolute magnitudes and distances, and confirm that most are probably giants.Comment: 11 pages. Accepted for publication in ApJS July 19, 2011. Spectra available as http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~pgreen/SStarAtlas.ta

Technology for NASA's Planetary Science Vision 2050.

NASAs Planetary Science Division (PSD) initiated and sponsored a very successful community Workshop held from Feb. 27 to Mar. 1, 2017 at NASA Headquarters. The purpose of the Workshop was to develop a vision of planetary science research and exploration for the next three decades until 2050. This abstract summarizes some of the salient technology needs discussed during the three-day workshop and at a technology panel on the final day. It is not meant to be a final report on technology to achieve the science vision for 2050

Infrared Variability of Two Dusty White Dwarfs

The most heavily polluted white dwarfs often show excess infrared radiation from circumstellar dust disks, which are modeled as a result of tidal disruption of extrasolar minor planets. Interaction of dust, gas, and disintegrating objects can all contribute to the dynamical evolution of these dust disks. Here, we report on two infrared variable dusty white dwarfs, SDSS J1228+1040 and G29-38. For SDSS J1228+1040, compared to the first measurements in 2007, the IRAC [3.6] and [4.5] fluxes decreased by 20% by 2014 to a level also seen in the recent 2018 observations. For G29-38, the infrared flux of the 10 $\mu$m silicate emission feature became 10% stronger between 2004 and 2007, We explore several scenarios that could account for these changes, including tidal disruption events, perturbation from a companion, and runaway accretion. No satisfactory causes are found for the flux drop in SDSS J1228+1040 due to the limited time coverage. Continuous tidal disruption of small planetesimals could increase the mass of small grains and concurrently change the strength of the 10 $\mu$m feature of G29-38. Dust disks around white dwarfs are actively evolving and we speculate that there could be different mechanisms responsible for the temporal changes of these disks.Comment: ApJ, in pres

Systems of Access: A Multidisciplinary Strategy for Assessing the Social Dimensions of Sustainability

The concept of access to natural resources has been a specific concern of economists and ecologists and is a distinct component in recent models of social sustainability. Using a series of conceptual and empirical examples, this article extends the notion of access broadly to social institutions and sociocultural norms. We argue that access may be usefully construed as an analytic tool that has direct applicability to many sustainability issues as it allows for cross-disciplinary and public engagement. Here the concept of access, linked to Amartya Sen’s theory of capabilities, also makes visible the multi-scaled and interconnected social processes that influence the material world and from which certain individuals and communities are excluded. This article examines access as a set of culturally appropriate and equitable engagements that promote social sustainability with a series of four examples: access to actions necessary to reclaim a polluted river; access to restorative natural environments; access to information and research findings; and access to decision-making processes. Insights from these examples are integrated within the wider discourse on sustainability