Fayette County Research Articles

A comparative study of growth management effectiveness and urban sprawl in two thoroughbred landscapes in the U.S.

This study compares sprawl development over a 40-year period in Fayette County (Lexington) Kentucky and Marion County (Ocala) Florida, which are centers of the thoroughbred horse industry in the U.S.A. Both sites rely heavily on the local economic benefits of the thoroughbred industry, and have adopted growth management programs to steer development away from soils well-suited to the equine operations, which are highly sensitive to non-farming land uses. The research operationalizes sprawl through population density, housing unit density, roadway length density, and housing unit density measured against roadway density. Although both sites' new construction seems to have avoided prime areas well suited for thoroughbred farming operations, the analysis shows that Lexington has been able to maintain more compact housing development, and new roadways tend to fill with higher density housing. This may be a result of the locally-based growth management program, or a series of other factors, including political economy.

The employment and income effects of cleaner coal: the case of FutureGen and rural illinois

After a brief discussion of the broad array of issues currently surrounding implementation of lower-carbon power plants utilizing carbon capture and storage, this paper takes an input–output approach to estimating the local economic impacts expected from the FutureGen project. We estimate the economic impacts from the permanent full time jobs created from the operation of the FutureGen project and/or a carbon dioxide (CO2) injection project if it were to be located in Fayette County. Comparing the estimated economic results of local impact to independent secondary data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis showed FutureGen could increase economic activity up to 4 %. This is equivalent to adding a new sector such as mining, construction, or finance and insurance to the rural economy. This type of economic data could help inform communities’ discussions on plans toward cleaner environment and energy.

Dark & Raw

Dark & Raw John Griswold (bio) Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place Scott McClanahan Two Dollar Radio www.twodollarradio.com/ 192 Pages; Print $16.00 Hill William Scott McClanahan Tyrant Books www.nytyrant.com/books.html 200 Pages; Print $11.94 Scott McClanahan grew up in one of those provinces in the American empire where natural resources are removed to the detriment of the land and for the enrichment of somebody else. His West Virginia is the sort of place where old matriarchs apply Vicks VapoRub and ghost stories as medicine, and wild dumbasses—friends, neighbors, relatives—provide comic relief and horror. A chapter in the memoir Crapalachia is called “Crazy Fuckers I Knew,” and McClanahan’s Uncle Nathan, incapacitated by cerebral palsy, asks young Scott to pour a six-pack down his feeding tube directly into his stomach. Crapalachia has many suggestions of region: A hog that bites off a sick cat’s head, a quilt-peddling granny, a mountain graveyard, moonshine shacks, a denied mine pension. But with the exception of an ironic mention of a couple of “accidents of history” (the Sago mine disaster and Buffalo Creek Flood) that kept West Virginia down, this “Biography of a Place” mostly ignores politics, labor, economics, race, ethnicity, and the environment. What it does contain is plenty of tales about people McClanahan says he’s known. These tales are McClanahan’s lights, in two meanings: His big talent lies in finding them, and their quickness on the page moves things along. They could easily be short stories in his earlier collections—a ceremonial dove, meant to represent the soul, won’t fly when released at the funeral, obstinate as dead Grandma Ruby was in life. A guy becomes obsessed with a girl because, “She wasn’t ignoring him like everyone else and that’s all it took;” Uncle Leslie “kick(s) the fuck out of The Toughest Man in Fayette County,” when Leslie is eleven—but here McClanahan strings them together, mostly successfully. One chapter ends with suffering Uncle Nathan looking sad, and McClanahan empathetically imagines, “It was like he was thinking about graveyards again.” The next chapter, titled “Graveyards,” is about a visit to a graveyard with McClanahan, Grandma Ruby, her son Nathan, and yet another uncle. (Ruby had thirteen children. More on that later.) These tales, with their simple syntax and diction, have attracted a growing audience and allowed McClanahan to avoid the trap of regionalism. The prose may be more the product of Internet and pop culture anyway, with its slightly flat, alienated, but good-natured tone that’s more Kurt Vonnegut than Harry Caudill. Characters are preoccupied with the “outside world”—soap operas, movies, pro wrestling, porn—that’s already their own dirty-realist world. Crapalachia, like the story collections, is also laced with comic-book or graphic novel sensibilities, such as typographical onomatopoeia (“Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...”) biff-bam-pow interruptions of story (“BUT STOP!”), and exclamations by the narrator (“SHIT!”) that serve as meta-commentary on the progress of the narrative itself. McClanahan’s smart, scatological jumble may have kept him (so far) out of the hands of corporate publishers, whose editorial and marketing resources he deserves. One is as likely to find in Crapalachia teen lore of a turd left in the principal’s desk drawer by a friend, snickers over crotchless panties, or a joke about the obese, as to find an epigraph by Robert Penn Warren, a possible nod to Joyce, or a phrase such as, “vague family parameters.” In some ways, McClanahan is a manifestation of David Foster Wallace’s prophecy that writers in the new millennium would try to have their po-mo irony and eat it too: “The quilt wasn’t a fucking symbol of anything. It was something [Grandma Ruby] made to keep her children warm. Remember that. Fuck symbols.” The prose can be powerfully affecting. Nathan asks his nephew to shoot him, as assisted suicide: “I giggled but then I stopped. He wasn’t joking.” But it can also be sentimental enough to melt your Hershey bar: “There is enough fire burning inside my secret heart to keep [a list of people] warm for a long...

An Engineering Soil Survey of Fayette County, Kentucky

AGRICULTURAL SOIL SCIENTISTS HAVE DEVELOPED A SYSTEM OF SOIL CLASSIFICATION AND MAPPING THAT HAS BEEN AND IS CONTINUING TO BE OF GREAT VALUE TO THE SOILS ENGINEER IN RECONNAISSANCE AND MAPPING. THIS REPORT COVERS A STATISTICAL METHOD OF CORRELATION USED IN A PILOT STUDY CONDUCTED IN ORDER TO MAKE ENGINEERING SOILS DATA AVAILABLE FROM A PEDOLOGICAL MAP OF FAYETTE COUNTY, KY. ASSUMING THAT THE RELIABILITY OF PEDOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATIONS HOLDS TRUE FOR ENGINEERING PROPERTIES, THE ENGINEERING TEST CONSTANTS FOR A GIVEN HORIZON OF A GIVEN SOIL SHOULD FALL WITHIN A NARROW RANGE, AND THE LIMITS OF THIS RANGE SHOULD BE REASONABLY DETERMINABLE FROM THE RESULTS OF TESTS ON A SMALL NUMBER OF RANDOM SAMPLES. IN THE PRESENT STUDY A RANGE WITH A CONFIDENCE COEFFICIENT OF 0.90 WAS DETERMINED BY THE STATISTICAL METHOD USED. /AUTHOR/

MOON-AAA GCP clinical trial: early lessons from an early interventional trial in patients within 1 week after ACL tear

Posttraumatic Osteoarthritis (PTOA) often results from knee ligament injuries such as to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Patients with ACL injuries are a unique population the initiation event for the development of PTOA is often known. Enrolment of these patients and the prospective collection of “early” information on this population is challenging as the majority in the USwill not be seen by a specialist until severalweeks after injury. We here describe the early lessons learned from the “Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcome Network Early-Anti-inflammatory Treatment in Patients with Acute ACL Tear and Painful Effusions” (MOON-AAA) clinical trial. This is the first US-based multicenter, randomized, good clinical practices (GCP) interventional clinical trial recording biomarker profiles, standardized X-rays as well as patient reported outcomes (PRO’s) in isolated ACL tears seen within 4 days after ACL injury. Methods: This is a GCP multicenter clinical trial enrolling patients with primary isolated ACL tears within 4 days after injury. Inclusion criteria follow the MOON -protocol (Table 1). All patients undergo aspiration of the post-injury effusion within 4 days and 10 days post-injury. Patients receive an injection with 40 mg Kenalog within 4 days, 10 days, both time points or not at all (saline injection control). Permutated block randomization into one of these four groups is done at the time point of the first aspiration. Blinding of patients and investigators is maintained throughout the study. Serum, synovial fluid and urine collection is performed at the first and second aspiration as well as at the time of ACL reconstruction. Synaflexor standardized flexion weightbearing X-rays are obtained on patients pre-operatively. Patient reported outcomes are being collected at 6 time points up to 6months post-ACL reconstruction with a focus on function and symptoms (IKDC, KOOS) activity level (Marx-score), quality of life (KOOS-QOL, SF36) and pain (VAS, KOOSpain, Catastrophizing scale, CSQ). Results: Only data from one cohort are available to date. Our practice performs w 400 ACL reconstructions annually. Pre-study data showed capture of 85.7% of all ACL injuries occurring in Fayette County: 66% of patients were seen within 30 days after ACL injury; 37% were seen by a Surgeon but 73% were seen by a Surgeon or PCP within 1 week of injury; 30% were seenwithin 4 days of injury. A total of 10 patients were eligible for enrollment in a 4 month time period. After this pre-study data changes were made to the study design including development of an “early warning system” through physician extenders in high schools and placement of additional physician extenders in the clinics to help with enrollment. These changes allowed for enrollment of 30 patients in a 7 month time period, a 220% increase in enrollment numbers from the prestudy period. 10–20% of all patients with ACL tears fulfill the inclusion criteria. Screen failures occur at a rate of 25–30% due to either accompanying injuries (n 1⁄4 6) or patient refusal (n 1⁄4 4). No patient withdrew from the study. One patient refused the second knee joint aspiration. No patient was lost to follow-up. No problems were encountered regarding the data collection, specimen storage or patient follow-up. Conclusions: ACL patients can be recruited to a PTOA prevention trial within 4 (þ 4) days after ACL injury if typical patient referral patterns are changed. Even for a highly productive ACL practice it is imperative to involve PCPs, Surgeons and outreach physician providers as stake holders into the study. Early knee joint aspirations are well tolerated and can be performed consecutively without patient withdrawals. Patients report subjectively less pain after the aspirations. Few patients refuse enrollment. Strict inclusion criteria result in a low number of eligible patients (10–20% only). A careful pre-study analysis of referral patterns, patient capture and environment is critical to perform randomized clinical trials in this patient population.

IMPROVING PHOSPHORUS NUTRITION OF COTTON

Crop recovery of applied Phosphorus (P) fertilizer can be low, especially during season of low soil temperature, which decreases plant root growth and nutrient uptake. The H2PO4- or HPO4-2 anions readily react with soil cations such as Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe) and Aluminum (Al) to produce various phosphate compounds of very limited water solubility. Specialty Fertilizer Products (SFP), Leawood, KS, USA has developed and patented a product registered as AVAIL® that is reported to attract and sequester antagonistic cations out of the soil solution leaving more of applied P in available form for plant uptake. To evaluate effectiveness of AVAIL product for cotton production, experiments were conducted in two locations in West Tennessee, Grand Junction (GJ) in Hardeman County and Ames Plantation (AP) located in Fayette County. Treatments consisted of applying Mono-Ammonium Phosphate (MAP, 11-52-0) alone or coated with AVAIL at rates of 34 or 68 kg ha-1 P2O5. A no P check was also included. An additional treatment consisting of AVAIL treated P in combination with Nutrisphere-N®, a Nitrogen (N) stabilizer product offered by SFP, was also included. At GJ site, when averaged over P rates and years, AVAIL treated MAP improved tissue P concentration and increased cotton lint yield by 157 kg ha-1 over untreated MAP. At AP site, when averaged over years and P rates, application of AVAIL treated MAP increased cotton lint yield by 85 kg ha-1 over untreated MAP. In both experiments, 34 kg ha-1 AVAIL treated MAP produced higher tissue P concentrations and greater yields than 68 kg ha-1 without AVAIL. Influencing reactions in the micro-environment around the fertilizer granule has proven to have a significant benefit on the yield and P uptake of cotton. More research is needed to determine P content in the soil and further improve fertility recommendations.

Hillside Fields: A History of Sports in West Virginia by Bob Barnett (review)

Reviewed by: Hillside Fields: A History of Sports in West Virginia by Bob Barnett Mark S. Myers Hillside Fields: A History of Sports in West Virginia. By Bob Barnett. (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2013. Pp. xxv, 429.) In his work Hillside Fields: A History of Sports in West Virginia, sports historian Bob Barnett creates a record of the importance of sports in West Virginia. While preservation of the wins and losses is important, Barnett takes the work to a new level of analysis by arguing that sports were indicative of life in the state. He notes: “[N]ot only were sports influenced by the major events and ideas shaping the nation, but sports in West Virginia were also strongly influenced by the unique geographical, economic, demographic, and political conditions of the state” (xiv). Barnett stresses that many of the issues that were, and still are, important in West Virginia not only shaped the state itself, but also impacted the sports that were important to Mountaineers. Sports, an important aspect of culture and history, can provide important insights into the impact of specific events on the people and society of a region. Barnett does a fine job of establishing this connection in West Virginia. For example, Barnett discusses the importance of baseball in West Virginia. For many years baseball was the most popular and important sport in the state, primarily because it was the first sport to be organized throughout the country. Barnett’s focus is mainly on minor league baseball as well as the great success of the West Liberty State College baseball team in 1964. Culturally, baseball was important in the state’s coalfields because it created a true sense of community for the miners of the region as well as played a part in welfare capitalism. Although the causes for the popularity of baseball are not a significant focus of Barnett’s book, he does an adequate job in discussing the importance of amateur baseball in the state. Barnett’s discussion of the African American high school basketball tournament is another sports’ topic that parallels the general history of the state. [End Page 97] Like many other states, West Virginia had a segregated school system. Barnett’s section on the segregated basketball tournament pointedly demonstrates that, for decades, African American schools were the focal point of the black community. Barnett also does a fine job discussing the impact of the loss of these schools. Many African American coaches found themselves demoted to assistant coach positions or they lost their jobs. Black teachers and administrators fared similarly. For many, the loss of their schools was a blow that the community could never overcome. As Barnett noted: “[F]or both blacks and whites in West Virginia, the small-town high schools and the churches represented the focal points of community life. Segregation tended to tighten that focus for African Americans” (117). Barnett has provided scholars of West Virginia and the greater Appalachian region an invaluable resource for exploring the sports history of the area. A few issues detract from the work, including factual errors, such as, “Alderson-Broaddus College is located in the picturesque town of Philippi, West Virginia, in what was once the coal mining section of Fayette County,” when, in actuality, Philippi is in Barbour County, but such errors do not diminish the usefulness of the book (237). Students and scholars of Appalachian or sport history will benefit immensely from Barnett’s effort. Mark S. Myers The Indiana Academy–Ball State University Copyright © 2014 West Virginia University Press

First Report of Lance Nematode (Hoplolaimus magnistylus) on Corn, Soybean, and Cotton in Tennessee.

The lance nematode Hoplolaimus magnistylus Robbins 1982 (3) was found for the first time in Tennessee in a cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) field (35°19.550' N, 89°24.535' W) in Fayette County in May 2011. In June of the same year, the species was also found in soil samples collected from a corn (Zea mays L.) field (36°15.736' N, 88°51.121' W) and a soybean (Glycine max L.) field (36°15.616' N, 88°51.118' W) in Weakley County, TN. Nematodes were extracted from the soil with a semi-automatic elutriator and further processed by sugar flotation-centrifugation. Population densities were between 30 and 50 individuals per 100 cm3 of soil in areas with noticeable stunting. Helicotylenchus sp. and Pratylenchus sp. were also present at less than 10 individuals per 100 cm3 of soil. Ten soybean seeds, cv. Hutcheson, were planted and inoculated with 50 H. magnistylus per 100 cm3 in steam-sterilized soil, and were maintained in a greenhouse. Forty-five days later, soybean plants exhibited at least one of the following symptoms: stunting and chlorosis, reduced root growth, and localized root lesions. Individual nematodes were handpicked and identified under a compound light microscope as H. magnistylus based on morphological and morphometric characteristics. The main diagnostic character for this species is the size of the stylet. In the populations collected, females had stylets ranging from 49 to 58 μm (mean 56 μm). Males and females were observed with head distinctly set off and massive cephalic framework, stylet long and robust and stylet knobs pointed anteriorly. The lateral field was areolated and had four incisures most of the body length, the excretory pore was prominent and located 190 μm (175 to 200 μm) from anterior end, hemizonid was large and located one or two annules posterior to the excretory pore, phasmids were large, conspicuous, and variable in position, and vulva was prominent and near midbody. This species is most similar to the more commonly reported H. galeatus, but differs from it in the longer stylet. Total DNA was extracted from single adults from each soil sample and the species-specific primers Hoc-1f (5'-AACCTGCTGCTGGATCATTA-3') and HM-3r (5'-AGACTGGACGGCCAAAGTT-3') designed by Bae et al. (1) were used to confirm the identification by amplification of a distinct 340-bp amplicon that differentiates this species from H. columbus, H. galeatus, H. concaudajuvencus, and H. stephanus. H. magnistylus was first described from soil samples taken from a corn and soybean field in Marianna, AR (3), and has been reported in association with soybean and corn in Louisiana and Mississippi (4). Robbins (4) reported that H. magnistylus was not a serious pest of irrigated cotton in Arkansas, but there are no other pathogenicity studies published for soybean, corn, or non-irrigated cotton. Other lance species, mainly H. galeatus and H. columbus, have been reported to cause serious damage to cotton in the Carolinas and Georgia (3). Previously, H. galeatus was reported in Tennessee by Bernard (2). Lance nematodes feed as migratory endo- and ectoparasites and injure the growing points of roots, causing stunting of plants. Because so little is known about the pathogenicity of this nematode, it becomes relevant to add our records of its known distribution in field crops in the United States. To our knowledge, this is the first report of H. magnistylus in Tennessee.

Practical assessment of magnetic methods for corrosion detection in an adjacent precast, prestressed concrete box-beam bridge

Magnetic methods are progressing in the detection of corrosion in prestressing strands in adjacent precast, prestressed concrete box-beam bridges. This study is the first field trial of magnetic strand defect detection systems on an adjacent box-beam bridge. A bridge in Fayette County, Ohio, which was scheduled for demolition, was inspected. Damage to prestressed box-beams is often due to corrosion of the prestressing strands. The corroded strands show discontinuities and a reduced cross-sectional area. These changes, due to corrosion, are reflected in the magnetic signatures of the prestressing steel. Corrosion in the prestressing steel was detected using two magnetic methods, namely the ‘magnetic flux leakage’ (MFL) and the ‘induced magnetic field’. The purpose of these tests was to demonstrate the ability of the magnetic methods to detect hidden corrosion in box-beams in the field and tackle the logistic problem of inspecting box-beams from the bottom. The inspections were validated by dissecting the bottom of the box-beams after the inspections. The results showed that the MFL method can detect hidden corrosion and strand breaks. Both magnetic field methods were also able to estimate corrosion by detecting the effective cross-sectional area of the strand in sections of the beams. Thus, it was shown that the magnetic methods can be used to predict hidden corrosion in prestressing strands of box-beams.

Cemented-Multistage-Sleeve Completion Improves Efficiency of Fracture Stimulation

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 163842, ’Cemented Multistage Sleeve Completion Improves Efficiency of Fracture Stimulation in an Eagle Ford Shale Well,’ Glenn Adcock, Sanchez Oil and Gas, and Ben Wellhoefer, SPE, Said Daher, and Eric Fruge, Halliburton, prepared for the 2013 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, 4-6 February. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The Eagle Ford shale in Zavala County, Texas, is similar to many high-carbonate-content oil-shale formations. As with other shale plays, the industry has preferred using cemented lateral sections as the primary means of fracture-stage isolation, coupled with the plug-and-perforate (PAP) horizontal-completion technique. An alternative completion method, cemented multistage sleeves (CMSSs), recently improved efficiency and reduced completion cycle time. The 16-stage stimulation operation was completed in 24 hours with continuous pumping compared with an average of 3 days for PAP. Introduction This paper highlights the key well (Fig. 1) that successfully implemented the new CMSS completion technique. The key well has been compared to averages from wells using the PAP technique to illustrate how the CMSS technique was able to achieve the completion goals while dramatically increasing completion efficiency. The subject well was drilled to a measured depth (MD) of 11,965 ft, with a lateral length greater than 5,913 ft, and was completed using 16 stages of CMSS technology to fracture stimulate the entire lateral section, which was placed in the Eagle Ford shale. The CMSS technology allowed for 3.80 million lbm of proppant to be placed with 2,901,000 gal of fluid to fracture stimulate the wellbore at an average rate of 54 bbl/min. The 15 stages of stimulation were completed in just 24 hours with continuous pumping operations, compared with an estimated 3 days for a PAP completion and 5 days for previous wells in Fayette County, Texas. Challenge A major challenge in unconventional reservoirs is developing more-efficient integrated completion methods to improve well economics and lower the cost per barrel of oil equivalent (BOE). Wellbores previously completed with the PAP technique in Fayette County took an average of 5 days. These wells contained 15–20 fracture stages using a fracture design similar to that of the subject well. The challenge of reducing the completion cycle time was seen as an opportunity to improve efficiency and well economics. However, production must not be sacrificed. CMSS completion was used to evaluate whether the technique could achieve both goals.

Neighbourhood and consumer food environment is associated with dietary intake among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants in Fayette County, Kentucky.

The aim of the study was to determine the association between dietary outcomes and the neighbourhood food environment (street network distance from home to stores) and consumer food environment (Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey-Stores (NEMS-S) audit). The neighbourhood food environment was captured by creating 0?5-mile and 1-mile network distance (street distance) around each participant’s home and the nearest food venue (convenience store, grocery store, supermarket, farmers’ market and produce stand). The consumer food environment was captured by conducting NEMS-S in all grocery stores/supermarkets within 0?5 and 1 mile of participants’ homes. Fayette County, KY, USA. Supplemental Nutrition Assessment Program (SNAP) participants, n 147. SNAP participants who lived within 0?5 mile of at least one farmers’ market/produce stand had higher odds of consuming one serving or more of vegetables (OR56?92; 95% CI 4?09, 11?69), five servings or more of grains (OR51?76; 95% CI 1?01, 3?05) and one serving or more of milk (OR53?79; 95% CI 2?14, 6?71) on a daily basis. SNAP participants who lived within 0?5 mile of stores receiving a high score on the NEMS-S audit reported higher odds of consuming at least one serving of vegetables daily (OR53?07; 95% CI 1?78, 5?31). Taken together, both the neighbourhood food environment and the consumer food environment are associated with a healthy dietary intake among SNAP participants.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participant?s Proximity to Healthy Food Availability within Convenience Stores and the Association with Dietary Intake, Fayette County, Ky 2010-2011

Background: Food environment has been shown to affect the dietary intake of an individual. It is hypothesized that the type of food available in convenience stores and the proximity of those stores to a consumer may influence the purchasing decisions of those shopping a these food outlets. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was used to assess the dietary intake of SNAP participants in Fayette County, Kentucky, compared to the availability of healthful foods options at convenience stores and gas stations, which were within a close proximity to their homes (ten minute drive time or within 20 miles). Food audits were conducted in 35 gas stations and food marts, a total availability score ranged from 0-16, price was scored based on a similar protocol to NEMS-S. A higher scores will indicate better availability and price of healthy foods. 24-hour dietary recalls were then collected from 147 participants to obtain Healthy Eating Index scores. Results: On average, SNAP participants did not meet the daily dietary recommendations for consuming fruits and vegetables. Stores with more healthful options were an average of nine miles and produced an average HES score for participants of 1.03. Where as stores with low availability of healthful options were only located an average of two miles away and produced an average HES score for participants of 1.06. Among those who live close to gas stations with low availability of healthy food items was associated with lower odds of consuming at least one serving of fruit (OR 0.84 95% CI [0.60, 0.95]), and lower odds of consuming one serving of milk (OR 0.88 95% CI [0.72, 0.96]) compared to those who live farther away. Proximity to convenience stores and pharmacies with low availability of healthy food had lower odds of consuming more than five servings of grains per day (OR 0.87 95% CI [0.78, 0.95]) compared to those who live farther away. Conclusion: The results indicate that there is a significant association between having healthful food available at convenience stores and the dietary intake of those living within close proximity to those stores. This implies that there is a need for further interventions on the community level to make available more healthy food choices at these stores.

Spatially explicit analysis of poaching activity as a conservation management tool

AbstractMost Americans support legal hunting for food or as a population management tool, but there are strong concerns about illegal hunting activities such as poaching. Poaching may negatively impact animal populations by causing local extinctions, reducing genetic variability, reducing trophy size and hunting opportunities, and altering sex ratios and age structures. One approach to help mitigate poaching is to identify patterns of reported poaching activity and to document poaching arrests to help facilitate the efficiency of future surveillance for poachers. Our goal for this manuscript was to analyze temporal, spatial, and environmental patterns associated with poaching activity reported for white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Fayette County, Iowa, USA, based on reports of poaching activity. We analyzed data from 67 reported poaching events from 2000 to 2009 and correlated these events with temporal, spatial, and environmental variables to determine trends in illegal hunting behavior. We found that poachers preferred to be active during the evening in mid‐ to late autumn (primarily Oct–Dec), on days with no precipitation and high visibility, and in areas next to roads, forests, and riparian cover types containing variable topography. We used these results to develop a spatially explicit map depicting hotspots of poaching activity. By identifying patterns of poaching behavior and spatially explicit prediction maps, conservation officers will be able to survey for poaching activity more efficiently. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.

Contested Election Laws: Representation, Elections, and Party Building in Pennsylvania, 1788–1794

In preparation for the 2012 presidential election, members of the Pennsylvania GOP have been considering changing the way the state awards its electoral votes. Under the current system, the candidate who wins the greatest number of votes statewide receives all twenty of the state’s votes in the Electoral College. In recent years, heavy Democratic voting in urban areas such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh has offset Republican victories in rural parts of the state. In order to build on their strength in the less-populated areas, Republicans are considering having Pennsylvania award electors based on a district method. While this approach is technically constitutional, political commentators have been quick to condemn the proposal as unethical and potentially dangerous. This is not, however, the first time a political party has attempted to change election laws to their advantage. The manipulation of election law dates back to the first elections under the Constitution.

Enhanced Surveillance for White-Nose Syndrome in Bats

Enhanced Surveillance for White-Nose Syndrome in Bats

Field Test of Magnetic Methods for Corrosion Detection in Prestressing Strands in Adjacent Box-Beam Bridges

Magnetic methods are progressing in the detection of corrosion in prestressing strands in adjacent precast, prestressed concrete box-beam bridges. This study is the first field trial of magnetic strand defect detection systems on an adjacent box-beam bridge. A bridge in Fayette County, Ohio, that was scheduled for demolition was inspected. The prestressed box beams had significant strand corrosion. The corroded strands showed discontinuities and a reduced cross-sectional area. These changes are reflected in the magnetic signatures of the prestressing steel. Corrosion in the prestressing steel was detected using two magnetic methods; namely, the magnetic flux leakage method and the induced magnetic field method. The purpose of these tests was to demonstrate the ability of the magnetic methods to detect hidden corrosion in box beams in the field and tackle the logistic problem of inspecting box beams from the bottom. The inspections were validated by dissecting the bottom of the box beams after the inspections. The results showed that the magnetic flux leakage method detects hidden corrosion and strand breaks with a sufficient amount of accuracy. Both magnetic field methods were also able to estimate corrosion by detecting the effective cross-sectional area of the strand. Thus, it was shown that the magnetic methods can be used with sufficient reliability to predict hidden corrosion in prestressing strands of box beams. The recommended actions to make magnetic inspection practical are discussed.

Meta-leadership in a Farm to School program: improving childhood nutrition in Kentucky

Aim To utilize meta-leadership in the implementation of the Farm to School model for improving childhood nutrition and for promoting local agriculture in Fayette County, Kentucky.

First Report of Charcoal Rot Caused by Macrophomina phaseolina on Sunflower in Illinois.

In September 2009, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants (cv. Mycogen 8C451) from a University of Illinois field research trial in Fayette County, Illinois exhibited silvery gray girdling lesions on the lower stems and premature death. When lower stems and roots were split open, the pith tissue was compressed into layers. Black microsclerotia (90 to 180 μm) were present on the outside of the lower stem tissue and in the stem vascular tissue. Five pieces (approximately 1 cm long) of symptomatic stem tissue from five different affected plants (25 pieces total) were soaked in a 0.5% solution of NaOCl for 30 s, rinsed with sterile distilled water, and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA; Becton, Dickinson, and Company, Franklin Lakes, NJ). Gray hyphae grew from all of the stem pieces, which subsequently turned black and formed black microsclerotia (75 to 175 μm). On the basis of plant symptoms and size and color of the microsclerotia, the disease was diagnosed as charcoal rot caused by Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid (2). To confirm that the isolated fungus was M. phaseolina, DNA was extracted from the pure culture, and PCR amplification of a subunit rDNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region with primers EF3RCNL and ITS4 was performed (3). The Keck Biotechnology Center at the University of Illinois, Urbana sequenced the PCR product. The resulting nucleotide sequence shared the highest homology (99%) with sequences of M. phaseolina when compared with the subunit rDNA and ITS sequences in the nucleotide database ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ). A greenhouse experiment was conducted to confirm pathogenicity; the greenhouse temperature was approximately 27°C and sunflower plants (cv. Cargill 270) were grown in pots and watered daily to maintain adequate soil moisture for growth. Sterile toothpicks were infested with M. phaseolina and placed through the stems (10 cm above the soil surface) of five 40-day-old sunflower plants that were approximately at growth stage R4 (1,4). Five sterile, noninfested toothpicks were similarly placed through sunflower plants to act as controls. Parafilm was used to hold the toothpick in the stem and seal the stem injury. Thirty-five days after inoculation, the mean lesion length on stems inoculated with M. phaseolina was 595 mm and no lesions developed on the control plants. M. phaseolina-inoculated plants also began to wilt and die. Cultures identical to the original M. phaseolina isolate were reisolated from stem lesions of the M. phaseolina-inoculated plants. This is the first report of charcoal rot on sunflower in Illinois to our knowledge. Sunflower is currently not a major crop grown in Illinois, but on-going research is focused on evaluating sunflower as a potential late-planted crop to follow winter wheat. If sunflower production increases in Illinois, growers may need to take precautions to manage charcoal rot.

Nassau Plantation: The Evolution of a Texas German Slave Plantation (review)

Reviewed by: Nassau Plantation: The Evolution of a Texas German Slave Plantation Lonn Taylor Nassau Plantation: The Evolution of a Texas German Slave Plantation. By James C. Kearney. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2010. Pp. 366. Illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781574412864, $32.95 cloth.) The title of this book is pleasantly misleading. It is far more than the history of one plantation. The author has skillfully used the history of Nassau Farm in Fayette County, Texas, established in 1843 by the Adelsverein, the society of German noblemen that sponsored the emigration of more than 5,000 Germans to Texas in [End Page 450] 1844 and 1845, as a lens through which to examine the dynamics of the emigration society itself and the rivalries and disagreements that encumbered its board of directors and eventually brought about its financial collapse. Kearney probes several inherent contradictions in the ambitious program of the Adelsverein, chief among which was the desire to create an aristocratic and hierarchical colony in an intensely democratic frontier culture. He examines the rift in the Adelsverein's board of directors between those who advocated a chain of small German settlements clustered around slave plantations like Nassau and those who wanted to obtain a large land grant and settle it with farmers, and he speculates on the paradox presented by a group of romantic devotees of freedom owning a slave plantation. He does this by examining the month-to-month history of the plantation's management, including the fatal shootout in October 1847 between two factions of the Adelsverein's Texas administrators, and relating those happenings to the larger events in the Adelsverein's complicated history of mismanagement, indebtedness, and lawsuits, one of which reached the United States Supreme Court. The author also provides a good deal of hitherto unpublished material on two aristocratic Texas-German families that became associated with Nassau, the von Roeders and the von Rosenbergs, both of which played crucial roles in the cultural life of the region in the 1840s and 1850s. He even explores the career of the mysterious scoundrel Frederich Armand Stubberg, who under the alias of Dr. Schubbert became an official of the Adelsverein and the founder of Fredricksburg, Texas. The strength of this book lies in the author's use of the seventy-volume transcript of the Solms-Braunfels Archives at the University of Texas's Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, in his ability to unravel the complicated land transactions recorded in the Fayette County Deed Records, and in his analytical acumen and felicitous writing style. Its weakness, if indeed it is one, is the author's tendency to digress into subjects that are peripheral to his main topic, such as the vicissitudes of Texas Germans during the Civil War. However, this reviewer found these digressions rewarding due to the author's mastery of the literature on this subject, which consists largely of privately-published personal reminiscences and family histories, many in German. The book is charmingly illustrated with pencil sketches by the author depicting incidents described in the text. The last complete history of the Adelsverein and its Texas settlements was Rudolph Biesele's History of the German Settlements in Texas, published in 1930 and written without access to the Solms-Braunfels Archives. James Kearney has a Ph.D. in German, teaches high school German, and manages a family ranch in Colorado County, but he is gifted with the analytical and narrative skills of a seasoned historian. Nassau Plantation is too narrow in scope to completely replace Biesele, but one hopes that Kearney's next book will do just that. [End Page 451] Lonn Taylor Fort Davis, Texas Copyright © 2011 The Texas State Historical Association

A Memoir of the New Left: The Political Autobiography of Charles A. Haynie (review)

Reviewed by: A Memoir of the New Left: The Political Autobiography of Charles A. Haynie John Hennen A Memoir of the New Left: The Political Autobiography of Charles A. Haynie. By Charles A. Haynie and Timothy S. Miller. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2009. Pp ix, 154.) Charles A. Haynie (1935-2001) was trained as a mathematician at Cornell University in the early 1960s. Failing to complete his dissertation, he moved from job to job for several years before landing at SUNY Buffalo, where he taught math for thirty years as a low-paid instructor on year-to-year contracts. He died of cancer at the age of sixty-six. One might assume from [End Page 87] his professional profile that Haynie's life was honorable but one of unrealized potential and frustrated dreams, that of a man of considerable academic ambition who, for whatever reasons, never got where he set out to go. Such an assumption would be wrong. For Haynie, while he endured periods of personal turmoil, self-doubt, and considerable disappointment, did so not in the pursuit of academic tenure but in service to social revolution. His "movement" life, captured here in a series of vignettes covering about thirty years, reflects the crooked line he traversed through resistance struggles involving disarmament, civil rights, the war in Vietnam, and the countercultural rebellions by often discouraged activists like himself in the 1970s. Haynie's purpose was to tell the story of 1960s radicalism from the perspective of "what it was like to be involved in these movements at the local level where the real creativity took place … that vital movements are only created at the grassroots level by small groups of people who feel, perhaps arrogantly, that if they don't do something, nothing will happen, and some major social evil will continue to fester" (2). Born to white upper-class privilege in New York City, Haynie began to question the arrangements of de facto segregation at twelve or thirteen, when he was struck by the material and social distances between his family and that of their black maid. Inspired by a Jewish math teacher who challenged the anti-Semitic pronouncements of his parents, Haynie entered Cornell University in 1959. At Cornell he matriculated with the children of Old Left radicals, working-class activists, and a newly formed Socialist Study Group organized in part to combat anti-communist hysteria. He began to ask questions about the imperial framework of American and Soviet hegemony at the peak of the Cold War and, grounded in a deep faith in rational discourse that he attributed to his math training, became deeply immersed in the Civil Rights Movement. Haynie participated in the second wave of Freedom Rides to Jackson, Mississippi, sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality, in the spring of 1961. In the summers of 1963 and 1964, Haynie and his first wife were encouraged by Anne Braden of the Southern Conference Education Fund to reenergize a suspended SNCC (Southern Non-violent Coordinating Committee) voting rights campaign in Fayette County, Tennessee. His account of this period is the most poignant and educational section of the memoir. His belief in the elemental restructuring of American racial, economic, and imperial institutions is both strengthened and softened in Tennessee by his growing appreciation for the dignity and courage of the local people with whom he worked. He reveals a profound willingness to investigate his [End Page 88] own historical participation in the structures of oppression, and arrives at a pivotal point in his maturation as a radical. He developed a distaste for attempts by some outside white reformers who made a show of trying to dress and talk like poor sharecroppers which, ironically, engendered in Haynie a determination to respect and find true value in each person's experience. "We are who we are," says Haynie. For privileged whites to deny the "huge gap between our lives and those of the sharecroppers," he concluded, was simply a futile attempt to "shed part of one's heritage, one's background." Such pretense revealed inauthentic people, who "are too weak and vulnerable to be of any help to the movement" (56). His willingness to confront not only...