“But why paint a dinosaur blue?”: Envisioning the Cretaceous— A vitalizing, multidisciplinary project in a university museum

ABSTRACT In 2017–2018, two fine arts undergraduate students, Todd Rowan and Moesha Wright, conceived and created a mural for the Dunn-Seiler Museum at Mississippi State University, Mississippi, USA, under the supervision of art professor emeritus Brent Funderburk. Students researched, conceptualized, and painted Mississippi Cretaceous Panorama, which interpreted the Late Cretaceous landscape that once surrounded the university and the momentous extinction event that brought the Mesozoic Era to its close. The project necessitated creativity to address several chal lenges, including funding, space constraints, and a local population with Young Earth views. The completed mural engages museum visitors with a mosasaur, ceratopsian dinosaur, and a meteorite impact—illustrating the local, terminal Mesozoic geologic history in a nonthreatening venue that can improve community geoliteracy.

Economic Impacts of Horticulture Research and Extension at MSU Coastal Research and Extension Center

This paper summarizes the estimates of the total changes in sales, expenses, and income of participants of the horticulture research and extension programs at the Mississippi State University—Coastal Research and Extension Center for the past five years. Major items outline the estimation procedures for the past five years. The average annual values were used in estimating the total economic impacts of added gross sales, expenses, and incomes of participants in horticulture events. The cumulative total impacts reach USD 8.7 million in sales, 76 jobs, USD 1.4 million in labor income, USD 2.4 million in value-added, and USD 0.4 million in local, state, and federal taxes. In addition, the total willingness to pay for the horticulture program by the adult participants reached USD 1.8 million. In comparison, the annual public spending on the horticulture program averaged USD 1.4 million, creating additional substantial economic impacts to the region.

Quantitative Assessment of the Economic Impacts of Horticulture Research and Extension at MSU Coastal Research and Extension Center

This paper summarizes the estimates of the total changes in sales, expenses, and income of participants of the horticulture research and extension programs at the Mississippi State University - Coastal Research and Extension Center for the past five years. Major items outline the estimation procedures for the past five years. The average annual values were used in estimating the total economic impacts of added gross sales, expenses, and incomes of participants in horticulture events. The cumulative total impacts reach $8.7 million in sales, 76 jobs, $1.4 million in labor income, $2.4 million in value-added, and $0.4 million in local, state, and federal taxes. In addition, the total willingness to pay for the horticulture program by the adult participants reached $1.8 million. In comparison, the annual public spending on the horticulture program averaged $1.4 million, creating additional substantial economic impacts to the region.

Book Review: Moser, K., & Zelaya, K. (Eds.). (2020). The Metaphor of the Monster: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understanding the Monstrous Other in Literature. Bloomsbury Publishing USA

This engrossing interdisciplinary collection, edited by French studies Professor Keith Moser and Central American literary scholar Karina Zelaya of Mississippi State University, explores numerous iterations- historical, literary, ecological, sexual- of the monstrous ‘other’. As such, the collection would be of interest and relevance to scholars from a host of disciplines: from international relations and security studies to environmental ethics and postcolonial studies. The work is divided into four parts, each featuring essays that correspond to a particular sub-discipline within monster studies: Part I (Ecological perspectives), Part II (Transgressive, Monstrous gender and Corporality), Part III (Teaching monstrosity in the (Post-)Modern World), and Part IV (Monstrosity in World Literature). This structure is particularly useful in helping the reader discern the unique contributions offered by each field to the analysis of monster metaphors.

Sensory and Nutritional Characteristics of Concept Frozen Desserts Made from Underutilized Sweetpotato Roots

A traditional dairy-based frozen dessert (ice cream) was developed with three levels of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) puree [20%, 30%, and 40% (by weight)] to determine the impact of sweetpotato content on product functionality, nutritional content, and sensory characteristics. Increased sweetpotato puree resulted in increased orange color, flavor intensity, and sweetpotato flavor, but 40% puree proved difficult to incorporate into the mixture. Additionally, nondairy frozen desserts containing 30% sweetpotato puree were compared with a milk-based control in which all ingredients were the same except that milk was replaced with soy (Glycine max) and almond (Prunus dulcis) milk. Consumer acceptability tests were conducted with panelists at Mississippi State University (n = 101) and in Pontotoc, MS (n = 43). Panelists in Pontotoc rated the overall acceptability of all three frozen desserts the same, but they preferred the appearance of the milk-based frozen dessert over that of soy- and almond-based milk alternatives. According to the panelists at Mississippi State, the milk-based frozen dessert had greater overall acceptability and aroma than the almond-based dessert and a preferential texture and appearance compared with the soy- and almond-based desserts. Milk-, soy-, and almond-based frozen desserts were rated as “slightly liked” or better by 92%, 80%, and 69% of the panelists, respectively.

Scientometric Analysis of Research on Socioemotional Wealth

Scientometric studies have become very important within the scientific environment in general, and in the family firm area in particular. This study aims at conducting a bibliometric analysis of socioemotional wealth within family firms. To this end, a background search of the terms family firm and socioemotional wealth has been carried out in the Web of Science, specifically in specialized journals published between 1975 and 2019 in the Science Citation Index. The resulting scientometric analyses are of the number of papers and citations, the main authors and journals, the WoS categories, the institutions, the countries and the word co-occurrence. One of the main conclusions of this paper is the abundance of studies that have been conducted on socioemotional wealth in family firms, which is reflected in the number of publications (501) and of citations of these studies (12,090). Another significant revelation is the copious number of authors, with Gómez-Mejía being the most relevant one and De Massis the one with the highest number of publications. Also noteworthy are the many USA-based institutions, with the Mississippi State University and the University of North Carolina being the two most prominent. In addition, studies have been carried out about family firms’ focus, mainly, on performance and ownership.

Non-Destructive Lumber and Engineered Pine Products Research in the Gulf South U.S. 2005–2020

This review primarily describes nondestructive evaluation (NDE) work at Mississippi State University during the 2005–2020 time interval. Overall, NDE is becoming increasingly important as a means of maximizing and optimizing the value (economic, engineering, utilitarian, etc.) of every tree that comes from the forest. For the most part, it focuses on southern pine structural lumber, but other species such as red pine, spruce, Douglas fir, red oak, and white oak and other products such as engineered composites, mass timber, non-structural lumber, and others are included where appropriate. Much of the work has been completed in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory as well as the Agricultural Research Service with the overall intent of improving lumber and wood products standards and valuation. To increase the future impacts and adoption of this NDE-related work, wherever possible graduate students have contributed to the research. As such, a stream of trained professionals is a secondary output of these works though it is not specifically detailed herein.

Qualitative Assessment of the Economic Impacts of Horticulture Research and Extension at MSU Coastal Research and Extension Center

This paper summarizes opinions on the economic impacts of horticulture research and extension at the Mississippi State University, Coastal Research and Extension Center. More than 8400 horticulture producers, master gardeners, research and extension staff, and nonprofit organizations participated in horticulture events during the last five years. Qualitative assessments of horticulture research and extension performed by the faculty and staff were solicited during voluntary surveys.

Reducing Grain Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) Injury From Postemergence Application of Mesotrione With Dicamba

Weed management in grain sorghum is limited by the number of herbicide options. A two-year (2017-2018) field study was conducted at the Mississippi State University Delta Research and Extension Center, in Stoneville, MS to evaluate the response of grain sorghum to mesotrione application alone or when tank-mixed with dicamba at the two-leaf and four-leaf growth stage of sorghum. Mesotrione was applied at 0.07 and 0.105 kg ai ha-1 alone or was tank-mixed with dicamba at 0.28 kg ae ha-1. Significant injury to grain sorghum from all herbicide treatments was observed compared with the untreated check. Increase in mesotrione application rate increased injury to grain sorghum from 14 to 19% at two-leaf and from 10 to 24% at the four-leaf stage by 4 weeks after application (WAA) in 2017. Adding dicamba to mesotrione reduced grain sorghum injury in both years. At 4-leaf sorghum application stage, mesotrione applied at 0.07 kg ha-1 resulted in greater grain yield than all other herbicide treatments, except mesotrione (0.105 kg ha-1) + NIS in 2017. Our results indicate that adding dicamba to mesotrione safes grain sorghum from injury caused by mesotrione alone.