The impact of external knowledge sourcing on innovation outcomes in rural and urban businesses in the U.S.

This paper examines the relationship between external knowledge sourcing and a diverse set of innovation outcomes in rural and urban establishments in the U.S. Existing studies in the broader knowledge management literature principally examine firms in a single industry, overwhelmingly rely on patent data to proxy for innovation, and cannot account for the innovations of businesses in rural American markets. By addressing these limitations using data from the 2014 Rural Establishment Innovation Survey of the USDA's Economic Research Service, this research provides novel insights into how externally acquired knowledge by American establishments may support innovation. Results of the analysis suggest that external knowledge sourcing may specifically promote product, process, and green innovation in U.S. firms. While collective results when external sources of information are divided by industry orientation fail to show that sources outside of a firm's industry play a dominant role in the innovation processes of American establishments in general, findings provide evidence for an outsized impact of these relationships within rural establishments specifically and suggest that external knowledge sourcing from extra‐industry organizations is most critical for promoting successful innovation in rural firms. Results additionally indicate that knowledge sourcing from non‐local organizations may be more important for supporting innovation in rural compared to urban markets.     

Backshoring and nearshoring: An overview

Increasingly, economies that have traditionally benefited from offshoring are losing some of their strategical advantages, with a consequent increase in backshoring by developed economies. This paper describes the phenomenon and tries to shed light on the current challenges, trends, and debates in the area, and on the main determinants of backshoring. A new phenomenon known as nearshoring is also analysed—this consists of relocating some previously offshored manufacturing activities so that they are now close to previous core locations, but not so close as to suffer from disagglomeration effects. This combines the advantages of offshoring and backshoring.     

Spatial–temporal evolution of the port–hinterland relationship: A case study of the Midstream Yangtze River,China

Most scientific attention on port studies centers on deep sea ports, especially container ports. In this paper, in contrast, attention is focused on the spatial–temporal development of inland waterway ports on the Midstream Yangtze River from 2001 to 2013. The aim of this study is to assess two relevant and complementary questions of the hinterland evolution: its geographical extent and the coordination relationship with the inland port. To conduct the study, it was necessary to first identify the boundaries of the ports' hinterlands within the given timeframe. Then, the coupling coordination degree model was introduced to explore the underlying relationship between the port service and hinterland economy. Furthermore, to better depict the intricate economic characteristics of the hinterland, the development stage theory was applied in the models. The results highlight the emergence of a discontinuous hinterland at Wuhan Port and its reinforcement of primacy with respect to fierce hinterland rivalry. It also demonstrates that an interplay between major ports and their corresponding hinterlands evolves from the transitional stage, characterized by lagging port service, to the multi‐stage, wherein the supply of ports partly outstrips hinterland demand.     

The role of ear environment in postharvest susceptibility of maize to toxigenic Aspergillus flavus

A kernel screening assay (KSA) was used to assess the genetic and environmental effects on the vulnerability of maize to aflatoxin accumulation. Kernels of 26 inbred lines that had been grown in seven environments, and 190 lines of the Intermated B73xMo17 (IBM) population grown in one location in the United States, were inoculated with a toxigenic strain of A. flavus and incubated in the dark at 30°C for 6 days. Percent kernel colonization (PKC), sporulation and aflatoxin were influenced by the maize genotypes (G), the location (“ear environment” or E) and the GxE interactions. Overall, low broad‐sense heritabilities were observed for PKC, sporulation and aflatoxin. PKC was significantly correlated with sporulation in all environments. Aflatoxin was positively correlated with colonization for two and with sporulation for all ear environments. Higher grain sulphur or magnesium in IBM was associated with less colonization or aflatoxin. Postharvest susceptibility of maize to aflatoxin is thus influenced by factors that are modulated by the ear environment. In a KSA, sporulation could be a proxy test for aflatoxin accumulation.     

Development of colchicine‐induced tetraploid St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) lines

St. Augustinegrass is well suited for lawns and commercial landscapes. While many genotypes are cross‐fertile, all cultivars are propagated vegetatively in sod production. To ensure varietal purity, development of sterile triploid hybrids by crossing tetraploid and diploid genotypes has been successfully used in other warm‐season turfgrasses. Applying this model in St. Augustinegrass would be beneficial to sod producers and turf managers who require purity for certification and uniformity for performance, respectively. This study was conducted to develop colchicine‐induced tetraploid lines of St. Augustinegrass. Seeds of cultivar ‘Raleigh’ were treated with four colchicine concentrations at four exposure times. A non‐treated control was included among the treatments. Seedlings that germinated were screened for genome size changes using flow cytometry. Line DSA 13005 and two progeny lines derived through selfing, DSA 16001 and DSA 16016, were corroborated as tetraploids (2n = 4x = 36) through chromosome counts. These lines will be used in future breeding efforts to attempt development of sterile triploid cultivars of St. Augustinegrass.     

Proteomic profiles during adventitious rooting of Eucalyptus species relevant to the cellulose industry

New Forests - Adventitious rooting (AR) is an obligatory step for vegetative propagation of commercial woody species. Paper industries have interest in Eucalyptus globulus Labill and its hybrids...     

Revisiting rice breeding methods – evaluating the use of rapid generation advance (RGA) for routine rice breeding

Rice production needs to increase in the future in order to meet increasing demands. The development of new improved and higher yielding varieties more quickly will be needed to meet this demand. However, most rice breeding programmes in the world have not changed in several decades. In this article, we revisit the evidence in favour of using rapid generation advance (RGA) as a routine breeding method. We describe preliminary activities at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to re-establish RGA on a large scale as the main breeding method for irrigated rice breeding. We also describe experiences from the early adoption at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. Evaluation of RGA breeding lines at IRRI for yield, flowering time and plant height indicated transgressive segregation for all traits. Some RGA lines were also higher yielding than the check varieties. The cost advantages of using RGA compared to the pedigree method were also empirically determined by performing an economic analysis. This indicated that RGA is several times more cost effective and advantages will be realized after 1 year even if facilities need to be built. Based on our experience, and previous independent research empirically testing the RGA method in rice, we recommend that this method should be implemented for routine rice breeding in order to improve breeding efficiency.     

Embodied Resources in Fish and Shrimp Feeds

Global averages were obtained for amounts of energy, land, water, wildfish, nitrogen, and phosphorus embodied in aquaculture feed ingredients. These data allowed amounts of these embodied resources to be calculated for typical feed formulations for channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus; hybrid catfish, I. punctatus♀ × I. furcatus♂; Vietnamese catfish, Pangasius spp.; Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar; rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss; tilapia, Oreochromis spp.; whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei; and black tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon. Embodied resource use per m.t. of feed varied among species: energy, 4.90–12.48 GJ/m.t.; land, 0.082–0.312 ha/m.t.; water, 502–1227 m³/m.t.; wildfish, 0–2880 kg/m.t.; nitrogen, 3.08–8.63 kg/m.t.; phosphorus, 1.16–5.62 kg/m.t. These calculations did not account for variations in site‐specific factors related to embodied resources and feed composition and use. But they suggest that reducing feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 0.1 unit for the seven species (species groups) could potentially reduce feed use by around 1.1 million tonne (Mt) while conserving 9.8 million GJ of energy, 270,000 ha of agricultural land, 1.4 billion m³ of freshwater, and 1.24 Mt of wildfish. Reduction of the FCR is a powerful means of lessening farm‐level production costs and negative impacts of feed production and use.     

Effects of Feeding Frequency on Apparent Energy and Nutrient Digestibility/Availability of Channel Catfish,Ictalurus punctatus,Reared at Optimal and Suboptimal Temperatures

This study examined the effects of feeding frequency (daily versus every other day [EOD]) on nutrient digestibility/availability of channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, reared at optimal (30 C) and suboptimal (24 C) temperatures. A 28% protein practical diet was used as the test diet, and chromic oxide was used at 0.75% of the diet as a maker. Twenty channel catfish of a mean weight of 141 g/fish were stocked into 12 flow‐through aquaria (110 L). Fish were fed daily or EOD to apparent satiation for 7 d before fecal samples were collected by the dissection method. Fish fed EOD to apparent satiation consumed more diet on days fed than those fed daily, and fish reared at 30 C consumed more diet than those reared at 24 C. Neither feeding frequency nor water temperature significantly affected apparent digestibility coefficients for energy and protein and apparent availability coefficients for total amino acids. Results show no advantage by feeding EOD over feeding daily on nutrient digestibility and diet utilization efficiency.