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While the Massachusetts cranberry industry is in many ways a quintessential "agricultural treadmill," recent decades have seen a shift in the industry toward adopting environmental concerns, beginning roughly with Rachel Carson and other influential scientists critical of unfettered chemical use in cranberry production. Sixty years after the publication of Silent Spring is an opportune moment to assess the impact of environmentalist pressures on the messaging of powerful organizational actors in the cranberry industry, especially the influential UMass Cranberry Station, an outreach program of UMass Extension. Using a mixed methods approach, we examine their Newsletter to evaluate its treatment of environmental topics and non-chemical growing methods over time. Additionally, we gathered survey data from over 90 growers and in-depth interview data from 17 of them to better understand how growers experience the agricultural treadmill, especially regarding synthetic agrichemical use. Newsletter data reveal that while Extension, in the area of cranberry production, has indeed increased its environmentally friendly discourse, statistical analysis of survey data shows that agrichemical use continues to expand, thus supporting the treadmill theory. In-depth interview data further document the cranberry industry as suffering from overproduction and reflecting a treadmill of both chemicals and pollination problems. We conclude that if the cranberry industry is to move away from agricultural treadmill tendencies, the UMass Extension Cranberry Station must provide stronger direction for growers seeking to create less input-dependent and more ecologically integrated cranberry systems. Given the chemical-intensive nature of the cranberry agricultural treadmill, however, this will likely be an uphill battle. • Analyze: 1) Extension newsletters; 2) semi-structured interviews with cranberry growers; 3) survey data of chemical use. • Due to environmentalist pressures Extension has augmented its usage of discourse to support the environment over time. • Growers experience the treadmill through overproduction, problems with chemical inputs, and the pollination treadmill. • Surveys suggest that agri-chemical usage has nonetheless increased despite increases in environmental discourse. • Extension should offer the socio-ecological expertise necessary to achieve meaningful agri-chemical use reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ni/Al 2 O 3 catalysts (noted as Ni/Al-350, Ni/Al-500, and Ni/Al-700, respectively) were synthesized by a facile solution combustion method but at different combustion temperatures (350 °C, 500 °C, and 700 °C, respectively). For comparison, Ni/Al 2 O 3 (noted as Ni/Al-100) was also prepared by the impregnation method and applied in the methanation reaction. The Ni/Al 2 O 3 synthesized at the combustion temperature of 350 °C showed better performance than the others at higher combustion temperatures, and the activity for CO 2 methanation followed an order of Ni/Al-350 > Ni/Al-500 > Ni/Al-700 > Ni/Al-100. The increase in the combustion temperature decreased active sites for the H 2 and CO 2 adsorption, which could be associated with the reduced Ni dispersion and basic sites, thus lowering its activity and increasing its carbon deposition rate. [Display omitted] • Combustion temperature affects the interaction between Ni and support. • Combustion temperature rising leads to the nickel agglomeration. • Combustion temperature rising decrease the surface oxygen vacancy concentration. • 350 °C was the proper combustion temperature for Ni/Al 2 O 3 for CO 2 methanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a stellated carbon filler (S-filler) through passivation of the surfaces of carbon nanotubes and carbon black (CNTs/CB) was fabricated, and the corresponding thermal conductive composites of polypropylene (blended with alumina) (PP/Al 2 O 3 ) incorporated with S-filler were fabricated. When adding 15 wt% S-filler, the composite shows an DC electrical resistivity as high as 8.34 × 10 11 Ω cm and high thermal conductivity about 0.68 W/m·k. The composite using the new carbon filler as hybrid part shows a higher thermal conductivity and electric insulation. The rheological test also shows that the percolation network is not formed by the S-filler. This work offers a novel route for the design of thermally conductive, but electrically insulative composites with polymer as a matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient air pollution, in the form of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), poses serious population health risks. We estimate cross-national longitudinal models to test whether the negative relationship between life expectancy and PM 2.5 concentration is larger in nations with higher levels of income inequality. The dependent variable is average life expectancy at birth, and the focal predictor variables include PM 2.5 concentration, income inequality, and the two-way interaction between them. We also estimate the average marginal effects of PM 2.5 concentration from low to high values of income inequality, and the predicted values of life expectancy from low to high values of PM 2.5 concentration and income inequality. Results indicate that the negative relationship between life expectancy and PM 2.5 concentration is larger in nations with higher levels of income inequality, and the reductions in predicted life expectancy are substantial when both PM 2.5 concentration and income inequality are high. We suggest that the theoretical principles of Power, Proximity, and Physiology help explain our findings. This study underscores the importance in considering the multiplicative impacts of environmental conditions and socioeconomic factors in the modeling of population health. Unlabelled Image • PM 2.5 poses serious population health risks throughout the world. • We estimate longitudinal models of life expectancy for 136 nations. • Average life expectancy is negatively associated with PM 2.5 concentration. • Income inequality amplifies the negative association between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]