Mississippi State University

About: Mississippi State University is a education organization based out in Starkville, Mississippi, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catfish. The organization has 14115 authors who have published 28594 publications receiving 700030 citations. The organization is also known as: The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science & Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science.

Managing Forests because Carbon Matters: Integrating Energy, Products, and Land Management Policy

Abstract: The United States needs many different types of forests: some managed for wood products plus other benefits, and some managed for nonconsumptive uses and benefits. The objective of reducing global greenhouse gases (GHG) requires increasing carbon storage in pools other than the atmosphere. Growing more forests and keeping forests as forests are only part of the solution, because focusing solely on the sequestration benefits of the forests misses the important (and substantial) carbon storage and substitution GHG benefits of harvested forest products, as well as other benefits of active forest management. Forests and global climate are closely linked in terms of carbon storage and releases, water fluxes from the soil and into the atmosphere, and solar energy capture. Understanding how carbon dynamics are affected by stand age, density, and management and will evolve with climate change is fundamental to exploiting the capacity for sustainably managed forests to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. For example, even though temperate forests continue to be carbon sinks, in western North America forest fires and tree mortality from insects are converting some forests into net carbon sources. Expanding forest biomass use for biofuels and energy generation will compete with traditional forest products, but it may also produce benefits through competition and market efficiency. Short-rotation woody crops, as well as landowners’ preferences—based on investment-return expectations and environmental considerations, both of which will be affected by energy and environmental policies—have the potential to increase biomass supply. Unlike metals, concrete, and plastic, forest products store atmospheric carbon and have low embodied energy (the amount of energy it takes to make products), so there is a substitution effect when wood is used in place of other building materials. Wood used for energy production also provides substitution benefits by reducing the flow of fossil fuel‐based carbon emissions to the atmosphere. The value of carbon credits generated by forest carbon offset projects differs dramatically, depending on the sets of carbon pools allowed by the protocol and baseline employed. The costs associated with establishing and maintaining offset projects depend largely on the protocols’ specifics. Measurement challenges and relatively high transaction costs needed for forest carbon offsets warrant consideration of other policies that promote climate benefits from forests and forest products but do not require project-specific accounting. Policies can foster changes in forest management and product manufacture that reduce carbon emissions over time while maintaining forests for environmental and societal benefits. US policymakers should take to heart the finding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Fourth Assessment Report when it concluded that “In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre, or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit.” A rational energy and environmental policy framework must be based on the premise that atmospheric greenhouse gas levels are increasing primarily because of the addition of geologic fossil fuel‐based carbon into the carbon cycle. Forest carbon policy that builds on the scientific information summarized in this article can be a significant and important part of a comprehensive energy policy that provides for energy independence and carbon benefits while simultaneously providing clean water, wildlife habitat, recreation, and other uses and values.

Fatigue of Nitinol: The state-of-the-art and ongoing challenges.

Abstract: Nitinol, a nearly equiatomic alloy of nickel and titanium, has been considered for a wide range of applications including medical and dental devices and implants as well as aerospace and automotive components and structures. The realistic loading condition in many of these applications is cyclic; therefore, fatigue is often the main failure mode for such components and structures. The fatigue behavior of Nitinol involves many more complexities compared with traditional metal alloys arising from its uniqueness in material properties such as superelasticity and shape memory effects. In this paper, a review of the present state-of-the-art on the fatigue behavior of superelastic Nitinol is presented. Various aspects of fatigue of Nitinol are discussed and microstructural effects are explained. Effects of material preparation and testing conditions are also reviewed. Finally, several conclusions are made and recommendations for future works are offered.

Reward devaluation: Dot-probe meta-analytic evidence of avoidance of positive information in depressed persons.

Abstract: Cognitive theories of depression and anxiety have traditionally emphasized the role of attentional biases in the processing of negative information. The dot-probe task has been widely used to study this phenomenon. Recent findings suggest that biased processing of positive information might also be an important aspect of developing psychopathological symptoms. However, despite some evidence suggesting persons with symptoms of depression and anxiety may avoid positive information, many dot-probe studies have produced null findings. The present review used conventional and novel meta-analytic methods to evaluate dot-probe attentional biases away from positive information and, for comparison, toward negative information, in depressed and anxious individuals. Results indicated that avoidance of positive information is a real effect exhibiting substantial evidential value among persons experiencing psychopathology, with individuals evidencing primary symptoms of depression clearly demonstrating this effect. Different theoretical explanations for these findings are evaluated, including those positing threat-processing structures, even-handedness, self-regulation, and reward devaluation, with the novel theory of reward devaluation emphasized and expanded. These novel findings and theory suggest that avoidance of prospective reward helps to explain the cause and sustainability of depressed states. Suggestions for future research and methodological advances are discussed.

Induction of Highly Embryogenic Calli and Plant Regeneration in Upland (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and Pima (Gossypium barbadense L.) Cottons

Abstract: To accomplish our objective of broadening the number ofregenerable cotton lines, we developed a protocol capable of producing plants through somatic embryogenesis of diverse cotton species. Callus was initiated from hypocotyl and cotyledon explants on a callus initiation medium [CIM; modified MS with 1 mg L -1 kinetin and 2 mg L -1 naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) 1. Friable embryogenic callus was periodically selected and transferred onto callus selection/maintenance medium (CS/MM) [modified MS with 0.1 mg L -1 kinetin and 0.5 mg L -1 NAA]. The selected callus was then transferred into a liquid embryo initiation medium (EIM) (modified MS medium in which NH 4 NO 3 was removed and KNO 3 amount doubled) followed by transfer to solid embryo maturation media EMMS 2 (0.5 mg L -1 NAA + 0.05 mg L -1 kinetin). The liquid step not only decreased the culturing time but also increased the number of embryos per gram of cultured tissue. Germinating somatic embryos were placed on MS medium with no hormones and plantlets were acclimatized before transfer to the greenhouse. Significant numbers of somatic embryos and their derived plantlets were obtained from a commercial cultivar of G. hirsutum, Deltapine 90 and G. barbadense accession GB-35B126 (PI-528306). The mean embryos per gram for Deltapine 90 on EMMS 2 were higher than those previously reported for Coker 312. Highly significant differences were found between the two genotypes for both embryo and plant production. To our knowledge, this is the first report of regeneration of G. barbadense through somatic embryogenesis.