Building Indian Country’s Future through Food, Agriculture,Infrastructure, and Economic Development in the 2018 FarmBill

With the potential of approximately $1 trillion in spending over 10 years in rural America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs authorized by the Farm Bill have the ability to build and support thriving economies in rural America. Nowhere is this potential greater, or needed, than in rural Tribal communities. This paper will examine why the unique circumstances of Tribal governments, individual Native American food producers, and Tribal citizens necessitate changes in several USDA programs to serve Indian Country. Further, it will review several policy changes in various titles of the next Farm Bill reauthorization that will help empower Tribal governments and individual Native food producers to utilize the full breadth of opportunities the Farm Bill offers and allow USDA to invest in Indian Country. This includes the ability to develop and expand Tribal infrastructure, utilities, broadband, water systems, and community buildings like hospitals and fire stations; provide the means for Native agriculture businesses to thrive; and continue to address and improve the health of American Indians and Alaska Natives supporting he already great work happening in Natives communities surrounding food and agriculture. Finally, this paper will discuss how improving the Farm Bill programs for Indian Country will help bolster our work to achieve the truest form of sovereignty: feeding ourselves in our own foods systems with our own foods

Barriers and Bridges: An Action Plan for Overcoming Obstacles and Unlocking Opportunities for African American Men in Pittsburgh

Among the region's residents, Pittsburgh's African American men have historically and disproportionately faced unprecedented barriers to economic opportunities. This study, supported by The Heinz Endowments, focuses on structural barriers that contribute to persistent racial disparities in the Pittsburgh region. Structural barriers are obstacles that collectively affect a group disproportionately and perpetuate or maintain stark disparities in outcomes. Structural barriers can be policies, practices, and other norms that favor an advantaged group while systematically disadvantaging a marginalized group. A community touched by racebased structural barriers can be identified by the racial and economic stratification of its residents; Pittsburgh, like many large cities in the United States, fits that description

A framework for P2P application development

Although Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing has become increasingly popular over recent years, there still exist only a very small number of application domains that have exploited it on a large scale. This can be attributed to a number of reasons including the rapid evolution of P2P technologies, coupled with their often-complex nature. This paper describes an implemented abstraction framework that seeks to aid developers in building P2P applications. A selection of example P2P applications that have been developed using this framework are also presented

Today's Children, Tomorrow's America: Six Experts Face the Facts

Compiles essays about trends in family structure; how federal, state, and local budget deficits and projected cuts affect child poverty rates and health; and their long-term implications of reduced investment in children. Includes policy recommendations

Radical political unionism reassessed

Defections from European social-democratic parties and a resurgence of union militancy have prompted some to diagnose a new left-wing trade unionism across Europe. This comment on the article by Connolly and Darlington scrutinizes trends in France and Germany but primarily analyses recent developments in Britain. While there are some instances of disaffiliation from the Labour Party, support for electoral alternatives, growth in political militancy and emphasis on new forms of internationalism, these have been limited. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that we are witnessing the making of a new radical collectivism

Morphology and biomechanics of the nests of the Common Blackbird Turdus merula

Capsule Common blackbirds select different materials, with varying biomechanical properties, to construct different parts of their nest. Aims This study tested the hypothesis that outer components of a nest have a more structural role and so are stronger than materials used to line the cup. Methods Blackbird nests were measured prior to being dismantled to isolate structural components which were tested for mechanical strength and rigidity. Results Outer nest wall materials were significantly thicker, stronger and more rigid than materials in the inner structural wall or the cup lining. In the vertical plane materials used in the structural wall did not differ. By contrast, lining materials from the bottom of the nest cup were significantly thicker, stronger and more rigid than materials from the top of the cup. Conclusion Blackbirds use different materials in nest construction roles suited to their properties and so may be able to recognise the structural properties of these materials. Materials on the outside of the nest may have a key structural role during construction

Analysis of the effectiveness of ground-based VLF wave observations for predicting or nowcasting relativistic electron flux at geostationary orbit

Post-storm relativistic electron flux enhancement at geosynchronous orbit has shown correlation with very low frequency (VLF) waves measured by satellite in situ. However, our previous study found little correlation between electron flux and VLF measured by a ground-based instrument at Halley, Antarctica. Here we explore several possible explanations for this low correlation. Using 220 storms (1992–2002), our previous work developed a predictive model of the post-storm flux at geosynchronous orbit based on explanatory variables measured a day or two before the flux increase. In a nowcast model, we use averages of variables from the time period when flux is rising during the recovery phase of geomagnetic storms, and limit the VLF (1.0 kHz) measure to the dawn period at Halley (9–12 UT). This improves the simple correlation of VLF wave intensity with flux, although the VLF effect in an overall multiple regression is still much less than that of other factors. When analyses are performed separately for season and IMF Bz orientation, VLF outweighs the influence of other factors only during winter months when IMF Bz is in an average northward orientation

Analytical and experimental investigations of the behavior of thermal neutrons in lattices of uranium metal rods in heavy water

Statement of responsibility on title-page reads: R. Simms, I. Kaplan, T. J. Thompson, D. D. Lanning"October 11, 1963.""NYO-10211."Also issued by the first author as a Ph. D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1964Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-199)Measurements of the intracellular distribution of the activation of foils by neutrons were made in lattices of 1/4-inch diameter, 1.03% U-235, uranium rods moderated by heavy water, with bare and cadmium-covered foils of gold, depleted uranium, lutetium, europium and copper. The measurements were made in the M.I.T. Heavy Water Lattice Facility with source neutrons from the M.I.T. Reactor. Two lattices were studied in detail in this work. The more closely packed lattice had a triangular spacing of 1.25 inches, and the less closely packed lattice had a triangular spacing of 2.5 inches. The results of the experiments were compared to one-dimensional, 30-energy group, THERMOS calculations based on the available energy exchange kernels. The comparison indicated that the approximation that the hexagonal cell may be replaced by an equivalent circular cell (the Wigner-Seitz approximation) can lead to serious discrepancies in closely packed lattices moderated b! y heavy water.A modified one-dimensional, and a two-dimensional, calculation were shown to predict the intracellular activation distribution in the closely packed lattice. An analytical treatment of the problem of the flux perturbation in a foil was developed and compared to the experimental results obtained by using gold foils of four different thicknesses in the lattice cell; the method was shown to be adequate. An analytical method to treat the effect of leakage from an exponential assembly was formulated; the results indicated that only in small exponential assemblies would leakage be a significant problem in intracellular flux measurements. A method was developed to predict the cadmium ratio of the foils used in the lattice cell; comparison with available measurements with gold foils indicated good agreement between theory and experiment, except for a lattice having very large ratios of moderator volume, to fuel volume, e.g., 100:1.Calculations of the fuel disadvantage factor by the method of successive generations for gold, lutetium and europium detector foils were compared to the results of THERMOS calculations, because THERMOS was shown to predict the experimental distributions. The comparison indicated that the method of successive generations is a good alternative to the THERMOS calculation, if all that is required is 17 and the thermal utilization.U.S. Atomic Energy Commission contract AT(30-1)234

Trade unions and the challenge of fostering solidarities in an era of financialisation

This articles re-examines evidence that trade unions in the UK have struggled to renew themselves despite considerable investment of time and effort. It argues that financialisation in the realms of capital accumulation, organisational decision making and everyday life has introduced new barriers to building the solidarities within and between groups of workers that would be necessary to develop a stronger response to the catastrophic effects on labour of financialisation in general, and the financial crisis specifically. The crisis highlighted the weaknesses of trade unions as institutions of economic and industrial democracy, but has also given some opportunities to establish narratives of solidarity in spaces and platforms created within a financialised context

Empirical predictive models of daily relativistic electron flux at geostationary orbit: Multiple regression analysis

The daily maximum relativistic electron flux at geostationary orbit can be predicted well with a set of daily averaged predictor variables including previous day's flux, seed electron flux, solar wind velocity and number density, AE index, IMF Bz, Dst, and ULF and VLF wave power. As predictor variables are intercorrelated, we used multiple regression analyses to determine which are the most predictive of flux when other variables are controlled. Empirical models produced from regressions of flux on measured predictors from 1 day previous were reasonably effective at predicting novel observations. Adding previous flux to the parameter set improves the prediction of the peak of the increases but delays its anticipation of an event. Previous day's solar wind number density and velocity, AE index, and ULF wave activity are the most significant explanatory variables; however, the AE index, measuring substorm processes, shows a negative correlation with flux when other parameters are controlled. This may be due to the triggering of electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves by substorms that cause electron precipitation. VLF waves show lower, but significant, influence. The combined effect of ULF and VLF waves shows a synergistic interaction, where each increases the influence of the other on flux enhancement. Correlations between observations and predictions for this 1 day lag model ranged from 0.71 to 0.89 (average: 0.78). A path analysis of correlations between predictors suggests that solar wind and IMF parameters affect flux through intermediate processes such as ring current (Dst), AE, and wave activity