Where have all the packing plants gone? : the new meat geography in rural America

The meat industry is an economic powerhouse for rural America---accounting for roughly one of every 16 rural manufacturing jobs. Moreover, this rural powerhouse is adding jobs at a fast clip, with recent growth of 8.5 percent a year versus just 1.2 percent a year for all rural manufacturing industries. Finally, rural America has captured a commanding 52 percent of all meat industry jobs, far above the level of a decade ago.> While all these figures are welcome news to rural areas eager to expand employment, geographic shifts under way in the industry raise fresh doubts over which rural communities will land new meat plants. Once concentrated in midwestern urban centers like Chicago, the meat industry is now most often found in rural towns and hamlets---and often far from the Midwest. Poultry-processing has moved to the Southeast. Beef packing plants have moved to the Great Plains. And pork packing plants have begun moving out of the Corn Belt to the Southeast and Great Plains, but where they go next is highly uncertain, with the future location of hog production itself very much in question.> What geographic shifts lie ahead for the meat-processing industry? And what do the shifts in this powerhouse industry mean for the future of the rural economy? Drabenstott, Henry, and Mitchell review some critical trends in the meat industry by examining for the first time a special database on the industry, the Longitudinal Research Database (LRD) maintained by the Bureau of the Census. They conclude that the meat industry is likely to concentrate geographically even more in the future, promising a new source of economic growth for some rural communities while leaving many others behind. Yet even in areas where the industry does locate, a sharp drop in industry wages raises new questions about its local economic impact.Meat industry and trade ; Rural development

Communication and re-use of chemical information in bioscience.

The current methods of publishing chemical information in bioscience articles are analysed. Using 3 papers as use-cases, it is shown that conventional methods using human procedures, including cut-and-paste are time-consuming and introduce errors. The meaning of chemical terms and the identity of compounds is often ambiguous. valuable experimental data such as spectra and computational results are almost always omitted. We describe an Open XML architecture at proof-of-concept which addresses these concerns. Compounds are identified through explicit connection tables or links to persistent Open resources such as PubChem. It is argued that if publishers adopt these tools and protocols, then the quality and quantity of chemical information available to bioscientists will increase and the authors, publishers and readers will find the process cost-effective.An article submitted to BiomedCentral Bioinformatics, created on request with their Publicon system. The transformed manuscript is archived as PDF. Although it has been through the publishers system this is purely automatic and the contents are those of a pre-refereed preprint. The formatting is provided by the system and tables and figures appear at the end. An accommpanying submission, http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/34580, describes the rationale and cultural aspects of publishing , abstracting and aggregating chemical information. BMC is an Open Access publisher and we emphasize that all content is re-usable under Creative Commons Licens

Socially Responsible Investment in Japanese Pensions

As the level of retirement-related assets has grown, so too has public and private interest in so-called "Socially Responsible Investment" (SRI), an investment strategy that employs criteria other than the usual financial risk and return factors when selecting firms in which to invest. This study evaluates whether SRI indexes would alter portfolio risk and return patterns for the new defined contribution pension plans currently on offer in Japan. We conclude that SRI funds can be included as an option, albeit with some cost; consequently, mandatory investment in SRI portfolios cannot reasonably be justified.

Chemistry in Bioinformatics

A preprint of an invited submission to BioMedCentral Bioinformatics. This short manuscript is an overview or the current problems and opportunities in publishing chemical information. Full details of technology are given in the sibling manuscript http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/34579 The manuscript is the authors' preprint although it has been automatically transformed into this archived PDF by the submission system. The authors are not responsible for the formattingChemical information is now seen as critical for most areas of life sciences. But unlike Bioinformatics, where data is Openly available and freely re−usable, most chemical information is closed and cannot be re−distributed without permission. This has led to a failure to adopt modern informatics and software techniques and therefore paucity of chemistry in bioinformatics. New technology, however, offers the hope of making chemical data (compounds and properties) Free during the authoring process. We argue that the technology is already available; we require a collective agreement to enhance publication protocols

Chimera States and Seizures in a Mouse Neuronal Model

Chimera states—the coexistence of synchrony and asynchrony in a nonlocally-coupled network of identical oscillators—are often sought as a model for epileptic seizures. This work investigates that connection, seeking chimera states in a network of modified Hindmarsh-Rose neurons connected in the graph of the mesoscale mouse connectome. After an overview of chimera states for neurologists, and an overview of neurology for mathematicians, previous connections between chimera states and seizures are reviewed in the current scientific literature. The model was found to be of sufficient quality to produce superficially epileptiform activity. The limitations of the model were investigated, depending on the strength of connections between subcortices within a cortex and between cortices. A wide swath of parameter space revealed persistent chimera states

An economic evaluation of selected hay drying methods and dry matter losses from harvesting in Middle Tennessee

Economic feasibility was determined for the 32-bale, solar-heated, forced air drying facility at the Middle Tennessee Experiment Station during the 1994 hay season. The third and fourth hay crops of alfalfa (medicago sativa) were used in experiments comparing nutrient content and value of artificially and field dried hay. Under the nearly ideal harvest conditions of these experiments, with current costs, and an expected 20 year life of the facility, the dryer is not economically feasible if used only to dry hay. The value added to the hay by artificially drying was not sufficient to overcome the cost of drying, the difference being $13.42 per ton of hay. Analyses were done for hay harvested at the proper stage of maturity and for hay harvested at late maturity, as would occur if the producer waited for a period of no rain to prevent hay fi-om being damaged. For mature hay, the excess cost over value added was calculated to be$12.17 per ton. The facility was designed for multiple use. If 15 percent of the capital costs are allotted to grain drying, and 38 percent to machinery storage, the excess of cost over value added to hay by artificially drying was calculated to be $7.31 per ton. However, this figure does not account for the value added to the grain or to machine life when stored under shelter. Value added by artificially drying in this experiment was below expectations. Previous experiments have shown greater value added. Bales were removed from the dryer in this experiment when the mean moisture content of the wettest bale was below 19 percent. Bales were removed from the dryer in previous experiments only when no heat generation occurred in any bale during an overnight period with the dryer inoperative. This procedure, in effect, assured that even wet pockets within a bale were dry, which was not assured by a mean bale moisture content below 19 percent. Dry matter losses from mowing-conditioning, raking, baling, drying and storage were measured to determine if differences exist when hay is baled at high moisture content and artificially dried rather than being allowed to dry in the field. All collected losses were analyzed for nutritional content. These measurements showed notable differences in dry matter losses between the two preservation methods from harvest through storage. The main differences resulted from raking and drying practices. Total digestible nutrients and crude protein were used to assign a value in dollars per ton of hay. After four to six months of storage there was no (P \u3e .05) difference in the value per ton of hay baled at high moisture and artificially dried and that field dried and baled at low moisture content. Opportunity benefits of the dryer (the ability to harvest hay during periods of less than ideal weather conditions) were not considered in the cost/ benefit analysis conducted, but should be included in further work

Letters, To and From Henry Z. Mitchell [1856-1857]

Transcriptions of letters to and from Henry Z. Mitchell, 1856-1857. Mitchell wrote and received letters wife Elizabeth, son Jib, daughter Mary, N. B. Berlin, and B.R. Palmerhttps://repository.stcloudstate.edu/jswiss-letters/1000/thumbnail.jp

Mitchell Family Photograph Album

Part of the Mitchell Family Papers, this undated photo album features extended Mitchell family members, including Jane Grey Swisshelm. A transcription of names that are part of this photo album is available as an additional file. There are likely mistakes and/or misidentifications in the index.https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/mitchell-family-papers/1000/thumbnail.jp