Review of Applied Spatial Data Analysis with R</i> by R. S. Bivand, E. J. Pebesma, and V. Gomez-Rubio

Most authors struggle to pick a title that adequately conveys all of the material covered in a book. When I first saw Applied Spatial Data Analysis with R, I expected a review of spatial statistical models and their applications in packages (libraries) from the CRAN site of R. The authors’ title is not misleading, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how deep the word “applied” is here. The first half of the book essentially covers how R handles spatial data. To some statisticians this may be boring. Do you want, or need, to know the difference between S3 and S4 classes, how spatial objects in R are organized, and how various methods work on the spatial objects? A few years ago I would have said “no,” especially to the “want” part. Just let me slap my EXCEL spreadsheet into R and run some spatial functions on it. Unfortunately, the world is not so simple, and ultimately we want to minimize effort to get all of our spatial analyses accomplished. The first half of this book certainly convinced me that some extra effort in organizing my data into certain spatial class structures makes the analysis easier and less subject to mistakes. I also admit that I found it very interesting and I learned a lot.

Co-Product Prices May Be Nearing Seasonal Low

The supply of corn milling co-products from ethanol production has increased rapidly over the last several years. Based on United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) projections of corn ground for ethanol production, approximately 38 million tons of distillers grains would have been produced in the 2009-10 marketing year, with 40 million tons projected for the 2010-11 marketing year. While supply has grown, so too has demand from both domestic and international users. Cattle feeders in particular have found wet distillers grains plus solubles (WDGS), modified wet distillers grains plus solubles (MWDGS) and dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS) to be excellent feedstuffs that can lower cost of gain through performance efficiencies and lower ingredient costs. United States swine and poultry producers have also increasingly adopted DDGS in rations in response to higher corn prices, while international shipments of DDGS have also grown.

The Probe, Issue 210 – May/June 2000

NADCA Election in Progress Berryman Institute Announces 1999 Awards New Probe Editor to be Appointed: Larry Sullivan Ken Garner Retires Book Review: "Master Land Snaring: Canine and Coon Techniques, Effective in All Terrains." by Newt Sterling as told to Bob Noonan. 1999. 58 pages, illustrated. NPCA Gets New Name Lobster Plates: PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is fighting to prevent the return of the lobster to Maine's automobile license plates. Active Antis in the Northwest Animal Rights Violence on Increase Abstracts from the 6th Annual Conference of The Wildlife Society: Monitoring of Sin Nombre Hantavirus in deer mice of the Southwest, USA -- Robinson, Rhonda /., Kathryn D. Bennett, James R. Biggs, Timothy K. Haarmann, David C. Keller, and Mary E. Salisbury Predators in the classroom: A prickly paradigm for educators -- Rollins, Dale Trends in bat rabies in the U.S.: Shaping public health policy -- Rupprecht, Charles E., Sharon B. Messenger, and Jean S. Smith