Digital Commons Network^™

A Farm Newspaper Capitulates To Advertiser Pressure: Determinants Of Readers’ Attitudes Toward The Firing Of An Editorial Cartoonist, Lulu Rodriguez, Supathida Kulpavaropas

Journal of Applied Communications

On April 2016, the weekly Farm News cut its ties with veteran freelancer Rick Friday who drew a cartoon that called attention to how much the CEOs of large agricultural corporations are paid. This study examines the determinants of people’s attitudes toward Mr. Friday’s firing. Using data gathered from a national online survey of newspaper readers, this study traced the antecedents of these attitudes. While the incident drew strong negative reactions, we found that public attitudes were strongly mediated by readers’ attitudes toward Big Ag advertisers. That is, those who saw Big Ag in a positive light were more inclined …

Why Websites Work: An Examination Of Interdisciplinary Agricultural Center Websites, Ashley N. Mcleod, Valerie Mckee, Savannah Woodall, Brandon Mckee, Joy Rumble

Journal of Applied Communications

This study examined the online content of interdisciplinary agricultural center webpages. Content modification dates, mission statements, and content were determined through a content analysis. Many of the websites did not mention a modification date for the content, while many websites had outdated content mostly older than six months. More than two-thirds of the websites provided PDFs that visitor could download to learn more about topics, by many of the websites lacked any media element that was being coded. Additionally, many websites did not use multiple forms of media. More than half of the websites were coded as lacking any social …

Collegiate Millennials' Perceptions Of Locally Produced Beef, Shelby Oesterreicher, Lisa K. Lundy, Joy N. Rumble, Ricky W. Telg

Journal of Applied Communications

Millennial consumers are stepping into important roles as decision makers and consumers. A knowledge and communication gap exists between cattle producers and consumers this knowledge seeking generation. This study focused on collegiate millennials’ perceptions of locally produced beef. The research design was qualitative in nature using focus groups. Participants associated the beef industry and beef products with the environment, management practices, treatment of animals, human health concerns, retail, experience with the beef industry, experience with beef, and transparency. Results of this study showed participants had minimal knowledge of the industry and relatively negative perceptions of the industry and beef products. …

Analyzing Media Coverage Of Agricultural Health And Safety Issues, Lisa K. Lundy, Tiffany M. Rogers-Randolph, Angela B. Lindsey, Clay Hurdle, Heather Ryan, Ricky W. Telg, Tracy Irani

Journal of Applied Communications

Farming, by the very nature of the occupation, is riddled with uncertainty. The risks associated with the agriculture industry are just as diverse as the industry itself. For all risks, one challenge is the development and dissemination of safety communication materials tailored for diverse audiences. Valkenburg, Semetko, and Vreese (1999) examined common frames used in news media. Their analysis pointed to four commonly used news frames: conflict, human interest, responsibility and economic consequences. The purpose of this study was to describe the agricultural and health safety issues discussed in Florida news media during the year 2016, discussing the prominence of …

A Sentiment And Content Analysis Of Twitter Content Regarding The Use Of Antibiotics In Livestock, Garrett M. Steede, Courtney Meyers, Nan Li, Erica Irlbeck, Sherice Gearhart

Journal of Applied Communications

On January 1, 2017, the final rule of the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) was put into place requiring antibiotics approved for both humans and animals to be discontinued for growth promotion. This change was brought on by the role growth promoters in livestock production play in the development of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance increases the costs associated with human health care by increasing the length of stays in the hospital and requiring more intensive medical care for patients. The purpose of this study was to explore sentiment and characteristics of social media content and the characteristics of the key influencers …

Comparison Of Extension Personnel And Supervisor Perceptions Of Communications Activities, Brittany Bowman, Quisto Settle, Elizabeth Gregory North, Keri Collins Lewis

Journal of Applied Communications

Extension is often called the “best-kept secret” having low awareness with the public but high satisfaction with clientele. Extension services nationwide have faced budget cuts, creating a need for the organization to re-evaluate its activities, including how it communicates with its stakeholders. While Extension personnel are the ones who will do most of the communicating, their supervisors impact the personnel’s actions, which means it is important to assess both groups. A survey was conducted with Extension personnel and their supervisors in Mississippi assessing engagement in communications activities and perceptions of those activities, as well as personnel’s preference of professional development …

Perceptions And Attitudes: Analyzing Opinion Leaders In Relation To Genetically Modified Foods, Levy G. Randolph Ii, Joy N. Rumble, Hannah S. Carter

Journal of Applied Communications

Controversial issues in agriculture arise, and it falls on opinion leaders to disseminate information to their networks and the public. Agriculturalists are often blamed for not taken consumers’ concerns into consideration. This study sought to add to previous research by identifying the current perceptions of Florida agricultural leaders toward GM food, what percentage of them identify as opinion leaders with respect to GM food, and what they identify as sources of information regarding GM food. Through an online survey, the trust and attitudes towards GM foods and science, of agricultural leaders who participated in the Wedgworth Leadership Institute, were measured …

Front Matter - Volume 102, Issue 4, David L. Doerfert

Journal of Applied Communications

Lists JAC Editorial Board, ACE leadership, and information related to each.

Ace And Jac: An Essential Partnership, Elizabeth North

Journal of Applied Communications

ACE President Elizabeth Gregory North speaks to the history of JAC as well as its importance to ACE's future.

Genetic Modification, Factory Farms, And Alf: A Focus Group Study Of The Netflix Original Film Okja, Garrett M. Steede, Kelsi Opat, Leah S. Curren, Erica Irlbeck

Journal of Applied Communications

Okja is a fictional Netflix original film that was released in 2017. Okja features a “super pig” that is owned by the large, agricultural company Mirando Corporation. Okja is raised by a young girl, Mija, and her grandfather in the South Korean mountains. The film climaxes when Mija and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) narrowly save Okja and a smuggled piglet from the slaughter process. The purpose of this study was to understand how college students responded to the film. The viewers of this film included students who were majoring in a field within the agricultural college (COA) at Texas …

Blue Bell's Facebook Posts And Responses During The 2015 Listeria Crisis: A Case Study, Kelsi Opat, Haley Magness, Erica Irlbeck

Journal of Applied Communications

Blue Bell Creameries faced an unprecedented situation when it pulled all of its products during a Listeria outbreak in 2015. Despite a very public crisis that resulted in three deaths, Blue Bell survived the disaster and maintained a large and loyal customer base. A content analysis of the Blue Bell Ice Cream Facebook page was conducted to evaluate Blue Bell’s public communications, and its followers’ public reactions to the Facebook communication during the crisis. Results indicated that Blue Bell primarily posted messages that included recall and restocking information, thankfulness to stakeholders, and details about improvements to food safety during the …

The Communication Effectiveness Of Scientist-Stakeholder Partnerships Addressing Agriculture And Natural Resources Issues: An Analysis Of The Media Attention And Media Framing Of The Florida Water And Climate Alliance, Shuyang Qu, Tracy Irani

Journal of Applied Communications

Scientist-stakeholder partnerships are formed by scientists from academic institutions and industry representatives in an effort to address contingent science issues such as climate change, inform the public and influence public policies. Such organizations often lack expertise in communicating to the public and conducting outreach which are crucial components to building a good reputation. This study selected Florida Water and Climate Alliance [FWCA] as an example of such an organization, exploring its media attention and media framing to assess the visibility and reputation of [FWCA]. Results showed very limited media attention had been devoted to [FWCA]. The framing analysis results indicated …

Defining Homelessness In The Rural United States, Amelia Yousey, Rhucha Samudra

Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy

Rural homelessness in the United States is an understudied phenomenon. Among those studies which do address the issue, there exists no uniform or consistent definition for rural homelessness. In this review of the literature, we look at rural homelessness and consolidate the literature into four main groups based on the definitions currently in use. We recommend a comprehensive definition for rural homelessness that looks at this phenomenon on a spectrum of needs, populations, and periodicity. We further recommend that current homeless count methodology be improved by using a more detailed survey of homeless situations, not only in the rural United …

Multi-Grid Acceleration Scheme For Neutron Transport Calculations Using Optimally Diffusive Cmfd Method, Lakshay Jain, Ramamoorthy Karthikeyan, Umasankari Kannan

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Method of characteristics (MOC) is one of the most efficient deterministic techniques for high fidelity neutronic analysis of complex and heterogeneous reactor problems. However, the conventional MOC inner-outer iteration scheme suffers from poor convergence speeds for problems with large scattering to transport cross-section ratio and/or large dominance ratio. This creates a serious hindrance for its effective application to realistic reactor problems. A High Order – Low Order (HO-LO) multi-grid scheme using optimally diffusive coarse mesh finite difference (odCMFD) method has been introduced for improving the performance of code DIAMOND, an assembly level neutronic analysis code based on MOC and unstructured …

Review Of Fuel Management Practices At Various Stages Of Nuclear Fuel Cycle In Phwrs In View Of Environmental Effects, Ravi Kumar Bansal, H. S. Sharma Dr, R. K. Singh Dr, P. N. Prasad

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Nuclear Power is emerging as a promising source of environmentally benign energy source alternate from both pollution free environment as well as solution to global warming because of minimal carbon footprint. However, release of radiation and radioactive contamination during fuel cycle operations comprising the optimum fuel utilization in Nuclear Reactors, still remains a challenge to contain the sources of radiation and contamination away from public domain. This review article envisages qualitatively the environmental effects w.r.t. radiation during flow of Natural Uranium fuel used in Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (IPHWRs) at various stages of mining, fabrication, transportation, operation in nuclear …

Xenon Dynamics Of Ahwr, Arindam Chakraborty, Baltej Singh

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Large core reactors where the core dimension is significantly large compared to the migration length of neutron are more susceptible to xenon instability due to local perturbations. Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is being designed for on-power refueling. Therefore, refueling or movement of control devices in AHWR causes local perturbation. Preliminary modal analysis of AHWR equilibrium core also showed that the eigenvalue separation between fundamental mode and 1st azimuthal mode is small indicating its susceptibility to xenon oscillation in azimuthal plane. Therefore, xenon dynamic studies for AHWR with explicit xenon calculations were carried out using diffusion theory based computer code …

Transient Simulation Of Lbe Cooled Chtr Under Natural Circulation With 3d Multi-Physics Code Arch-Th, D. K. Dwivedi, Anurag Gupta, Umasankari Kannan

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

India is developing a 100kWth Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR) to facilitate demonstration of technologies for high temperature process heat applications. CHTR is being designed as thorium based TRISO fueled and beryllium oxide moderated prismatic block type vertical core cooled with lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) under natural circulation for 1000°C outlet. The new concept of high temperature core requires multi-physics multi-scale modeling based tools for investigating the normal operational behavior as well as anticipated transients of CHTR. In view of that, 3D multi-physics code ARCH-TH is being indigenously developed and validated for coupled neutronics-thermal hydraulic benchmarks. The multi-group diffusion based neutron …

Flow And Thermal Effects Of Blockages In A Nano-Fluid Cooled Nuclear Fuel Subassembly, Shubham Mandot, N. Govindha Rasu

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Nanofluids have a great impact on heat transfer characteristics due to increased thermal conductivity and heat transfer coefficient. In this study, Titanium nanoparticles mixed in liquid sodium has been chosen for analyzing the effect of Nanofluid coolant for a Nuclear Sub- assembly. This study is conducted to observe the effect of nanoparticles on the flow properties and heat transfer characteristics such as velocity, heat transfer coefficient, clad temperature, coolant temperature etc. These effects have been observed for varying nanoparticle concentration and different flow blockage sizes. For this study, 7-pin fuel bundle with and without blockage has been modeled and analyzed …

Transient Analysis Of Primary Feed Pump Trip For 700 Mwe Iphwr, S. Phani Krishna, S. Pahari, S. Hajela, M. Singhal

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

700 MWe Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR) is a horizontal channel type reactor with two loops of Primary Heat Transport (PHTS) system. Three (two operating and one stand by) main boiler feed water pumps (BFP) supply feed water to Steam Generators (SGs). In the event of one of the running BFP trip, standby comes on line on auto. Transient analysis for this event is performed using in- house computer code ATMIKA.T .The transient has been initiated by tripping one of the pumps.

Two cases are postulated:

1: BFP Trip and Standby BFP available on auto
2: BFP Trip and …

Heavy Water Concentration Measurement In Air, A. Gupta, D. V. Uduapa, A. Topkar, A. K. Mohanty

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

The heavy water in PHWRs flows at high temperature and pressure, hence leaks in the heat transport system are not uncommon. The loss of heavy water due to such leaks can lead to spreading of radioactivity and it also contributes to operating cost of the nuclear reactor. It is advantageous to detect small leaks, because if remains undetected, they may develop into a severe leak, which may lead to reactor shutdown. None of the sensors which are currently in use can meet all the requirement of high sensitivity, and real time measurement which is free from interference from other gamma …

Thermal Stratification In Liquid Metal Pools Under Cold Transients, Brendan Ward, Hitesh Bindra

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Experimental results are presented for understanding the thermal stratification or mixing in a low Prandtl number, Pr, pool due to the injection of a colder (higher density) jet at the bottom of the pool. In liquid metals (Pr<<1), the higher volumetric thermal expansion enhances buoyant forces, aiding in thermal stratification while the low Pr extends the thermal boundary layer. Rayleigh backscattering with swept wavelength interferometry is used to generate the high fidelity distributed temperature data. The high spatial and temporal resolution of the sensors are required to capture the temperature gradient and fluctuations of temperature allowing more …

Non-Optical Imaging Of Flow, Boiling, And Salt Deposition In A Simulated Debris Bed, Molly Ross, Alan Cebula, Steven Eckels, D. S. Mcgregor, Hitesh Bindra

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Determining flow and heat transfer characteristics in a debris bed or a packed bed is difficult due to the lack of optical access. Non-optical imaging methods, such as x-ray or neutron imaging, can be used to observe flow characteristics and particle deposition, as well as boiling in a packed bed. An amorphous Silicon detector based digital radiography camera can be used to image with either x-rays or neutrons at up to 100 frames per second. The digital radiography camera, coupled with digital image analysis techniques was used to characterize fluid fraction and flow rates in a simulated debris bed. A …

Enhancements To The Discrete Generalized Multigroup Method, R. L. Reed, J. A. Roberts

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

This work seeks to improve the practicality of the discrete generalized multigroup (DGM) method. The DGM method divides a fine-group energy domain into a set of coarse groups. Fine-group fluxes within each coarse group are expanded in an orthogonal basis, and cross section moments are defined to preserve the reaction rates of the fine-group solution. Previous implementations of DGM suffered from large memory requirements, so this work work explores options to reduce the memory footprint by (a) homogenizing cross-section moments over coarse regions and (b) representing discrete-angle dependence through truncated Legendre expansions. Tests were performed using a 1-D, discrete ordinates …

Matryoshka Inspired Statistical Surrogate For Turbulent Mixing, Abhinav Gairola, Hitesh Bindra

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Thermalhydraulics of reactor plena is often the most challenging problem due to turbulent mixing, role of jets and stratified flows. Due to which, the safety analysis of the overall reactor vessel or reactor system become complex. Inability of the system level analysis codes to accurately model the role of tur- bulent mixing in scalar transport leads to a major source of uncertainties. The computational cost of accurate CFD models renders the sensitivity studies using those for reactor safety ineffective. Reduced order models are needed which can effectively capture the effects of turbulent mixing and can be used for parametric studies …

Numerical Evaluation Of Micro-Pocket Fission Detectors, Wenkai Fu, Daniel M. Nichols, Douglas S. Mcgregor, Jeremy A. Roberts

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Micro-pocket fission detectors (MPFDs) are miniature fission chambers suitable for in-core neutron measurement that have been under development at Kansas State University for over one decade. Current-generation devices have been used at a number of university reactors (Kansas State, Wisconsin, and MIT) and as part of the first experiments performed during the recent restart of TREAT. Ongoing research aims to improve understanding of the existing MPFDs and to optimize designs for future deployment. To aid in this development, the dynamic response of a prototypic MPFD was evaluated using Garfield++, Elmer, Gmsh, and Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM). …

Cfd Simulation Of Hydrodynamics And Scrubbing Behaviour Of Iodine Vapors In A Self-Priming Venturi Scrubber, Paridhi Goel, A. K. Nayak

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

In a severe accident scenario, the inadequate heat removal in a nuclear reactor can lead to over pressurization of the containment thus challenging its integrity. If not controlled, this can lead to release of radionuclides and high pressure steam in the environment. To ensure that the containment building remains intact and the reactor depressurizes, the vent line from the reactor is directed to a scrubber tank consisting of multiple venturi scrubbers, metal fiber filter and demister pad (known as Filtered Containment Venting System (FCVS)). This is a passive safety measure suggested for installation in advanced and existing nuclear reactors post …

Critical Heat Flux And Power Transients At Low-Pressure Low-Flow Conditions In Vertical Flow Boiling, S. R.G. Vadlamudi, A. K. Nayak

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

In the advanced boiling water reactor concepts such as AHWR and ESBWR, the recirculation pumps are eliminated in order to simplify the design. During the start-up of such reactors, to establish the natural circulation, the primary coolant has to be heated up slowly in steady steps; it is quite important to determine the characteristics of boiling and critical heat flux (CHF) values in order to establish operational limits. Flow boiling experiments were conducted in an annular channel at very low flow rates and atmospheric pressure varying the inlet subcooling from 20 to 400 C. CHF occurred during the oscillatory flow …

Experimental Evaluation Of Critical Heat Flux In Downward-Facing Boiling On Flat Plate Relevant To In-Vessel Retention In Indian Phwrs, Sumit V. Prasad, A. K. Nayak

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Retention of corium inside the CV and cool it by calandria vault water is essential to mitigate severe accidents in PHWRs. The thermal failure of CV can be prevented by effective decay heat removal on the outer surface of CV using vault water, which depends on the heat transfer behaviour from the outer surface of CV to the vault water. Determination of limiting heat removal capability of vault water through outer surface of calandria vessel is very important. Since, the calandria vessel has a very large diameter and length, the bottom most part of the calandria vessel almost behaves as …

A Review Of Core Catchers For Advanced Reactors, Samyak Munot, A. K. Nayak

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

In order to address the challenges of severe accident and to ensure safety of people and environment, a core retention device called as “core catcher” has been incorporated in the present and future reactor designs. The concept of core catcher came into existence as early as in early nineties. It is the system which is placed inside the reactor in such a manner that even in the severe accidental scenario, it will retain the corium, quench it and then sustain the coolability of the debris formed due to corium water interactions. From then various approaches to development of core catchers …

Preliminary Assessment Of Steady-State And Transient Reaction-Rate Measurements At The University Of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor, J. A. Roberts, T. R. Ochs, D. M. Nichols, W. Fu, Y. Cheng, J. C. Boyington, D. S. Mcgregor, P. P.H. Wilson, R. J. Agasie, C. S. Edwards, Y-H. Park

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Recently, a number of reactor-physics experiments were conducted at the University of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor (UWNR) using a set of 7 micro-pocket fission detector (MPFD) probes and 3 resistance temperature detector (RTD) probes. The UWNR core is a TRIGA-fueled, MTR conversion using 2x2 fuel bundles separated by coolant channels. Each MPFD probe contained 4 detectors, and each RTD probe contained 6 detectors, all arranged uniformly along the active fuel height. These probes were placed in four different configurations to measure fluxes and temperatures in every accessible coolant channel for a variety of steady-state and transient operations. Relative fluxes can be …