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2015

UWRL

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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Long-Term Winter Inversion Properties In A Mountain Valley Of The Western United States And Implications On Air Quality, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Lawrence E. Hipps, Oi-Yu Chung, Robert R. Gillies, Randy S. Martin Dec 2015

Long-Term Winter Inversion Properties In A Mountain Valley Of The Western United States And Implications On Air Quality, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Lawrence E. Hipps, Oi-Yu Chung, Robert R. Gillies, Randy S. Martin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Because of the geography of a narrow valley and surrounding tall mountains, Cache Valley (located in northern Utah and southern Idaho) experiences frequent shallow temperature inversions that are both intense and persistent. Such temperature inversions have resulted in the worst air quality in the nation. In this paper, the historical properties of Cache Valley’s winter inversions are examined by using two meteorological stations with a difference in elevation of approximately 100 m and a horizontal distance apart of ~4.5 km. Differences in daily maximum air temperature between two stations were used to define the frequency and intensity of inversions. Despite …


Dehalococcoides Abundance And Alternate Electron Acceptor Effects On Large, Flow-Through Trichloroethene Dechlorinating Columns, Babur S. Mirza, Darwin L. Sorensen, Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean Nov 2015

Dehalococcoides Abundance And Alternate Electron Acceptor Effects On Large, Flow-Through Trichloroethene Dechlorinating Columns, Babur S. Mirza, Darwin L. Sorensen, Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Trichloroethene (TCE) in groundwater is a major health concern and biostimulation/bioaugmentation-based strategies have been evaluated to achieve complete reductive dechlorination with varying success. Different carbon sources were hypothesized to stimulate different extents of TCE reductive dechlorination. Ecological conditions that developed different dechlorination stages were investigated by quantitating Dehalococcoides 16S rRNA (Dhc) and reductive dehalogenase gene abundance, and by describing biogeochemical properties of laboratory columns in response to this biostimulation. Eight large columns (183 cm × 15.2 cm), packed with aquifer material from Hill AFB, Utah, that were continuously fed TCE for 7.5 years. Duplicate columns were biostimulated with whey or …


Hydroshare: Sharing Diverse Environmental Data Types And Models As Social Objects With Application To The Hydrology Domain, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Mohamed M. Morsy, Anthony M. Castronova, Jonathan L. Goodall, Tian Gan, Hong Yi, Michael J. Stealey, David G. Tarboton Oct 2015

Hydroshare: Sharing Diverse Environmental Data Types And Models As Social Objects With Application To The Hydrology Domain, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Mohamed M. Morsy, Anthony M. Castronova, Jonathan L. Goodall, Tian Gan, Hong Yi, Michael J. Stealey, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The types of data and models used within the hydrologic science community are diverse. New repositories have succeeded in making data and models more accessible, but are, in most cases, limited to particular types or classes of data or models and also lack the type of collaborative and iterative functionality needed to enable shared data collection and modeling workflows. File sharing systems currently used within many scientific communities for private sharing of preliminary and intermediate data and modeling products do not support collaborative data capture, description, visualization, and annotation. In this article, we cast hydrologic datasets and models as “social …


Development Of A Decision-Making Methodology To Design A Water Quality Monitoring Network, J. Keum, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi Jun 2015

Development Of A Decision-Making Methodology To Design A Water Quality Monitoring Network, J. Keum, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The number of water quality monitoring stations in the USA has decreased over the past few decades. Scarcity of observations can easily produce prediction uncertainty due to unreliable model calibration. An effective water quality monitoring network is important not only for model calibration and water quality prediction but also for resources management. Redundant or improperly located monitoring stations may cause increased monitoring costs without improvement to the understanding of water quality in watersheds. In this work, a decision-making methodology is proposed to design a water quality monitoring network by providing an adequate number of monitoring stations and their approximate locations …


Effects Of Pipe Wall Offsets On Differential Pressure Meter Accuracy, Jesse M. Pope, Steven L. Barfuss, Michael C. Johnson, Zachary B. Sharp Jun 2015

Effects Of Pipe Wall Offsets On Differential Pressure Meter Accuracy, Jesse M. Pope, Steven L. Barfuss, Michael C. Johnson, Zachary B. Sharp

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Accurate flow measurement is essential for the management of any type of fluid system. This research investigated the effect on accuracy that five types of 12-in. differential-pressure flow meters have as a result of being installed in pipelines of differing inside diameter. The types of meters chosen for this research were the classical Venturi meter, Halmi Venturi Tube, wedge meter, V-cone meter, and the X-meter. Each meter was tested for accuracy with 10 pipe wall offsets varying from a 0.125-in. sudden contraction to a 0.937-in. sudden expansion of the pipe radius. The meters' reading during each test series was compared …


Biostimulation And Bioaugmentation To Enhance Reductive Dechlorination Of Tce In A Long-Term Flow Through Column Study, Joan E. Mclean, Jared Ervin, Jing Zhou, Darwin L. Sorensen, Ryan Dupont May 2015

Biostimulation And Bioaugmentation To Enhance Reductive Dechlorination Of Tce In A Long-Term Flow Through Column Study, Joan E. Mclean, Jared Ervin, Jing Zhou, Darwin L. Sorensen, Ryan Dupont

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Large laboratory columns (15.2 cm diameter, 183 cm long) were fed with groundwater containing trichloroethylene (TCE), were biostimulated and bioaugmented, and were monitored for over 7.5 years. The objective of the study was to observe how the selection of the carbon and energy source, i.e., whey, Newman Zone® standard surfactant emulsified oil and Newman Zone nonionic surfactant emulsified oil, affected the rate and extent of dechlorination. Column effluent was monitored for TCE and its degradation products, redox indicators (nitrate-N, Fe(II), sulfate), and changes in iron mineralogy. Total bacteria and Dehalococcoides mccartyi strains were quantified using q-PCR. Complete dechlorination was only …


Particulate-Matter Emission Estimates From Agricultural Spring-Tillage Operations Using Lidar And Inverse Modeling, Kori D. Moore, Michael D. Wojcik, Randy S. Martin, Christian C. Marchant, D. S. Jones, W. J. Bradford, G. E. Bingham, R L. Pfeiffer, J. H. Prueger, J. L. Hatfield Mar 2015

Particulate-Matter Emission Estimates From Agricultural Spring-Tillage Operations Using Lidar And Inverse Modeling, Kori D. Moore, Michael D. Wojcik, Randy S. Martin, Christian C. Marchant, D. S. Jones, W. J. Bradford, G. E. Bingham, R L. Pfeiffer, J. H. Prueger, J. L. Hatfield

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Particulate-matter (PM) emissions from a typical spring agricultural tillage sequence and a strip–till conservation tillage sequence in California’s San Joaquin Valley were estimated to calculate the emissions control efficiency (ηη) of the strip–till conservation management practice (CMP). Filter-based PM samplers, PM-calibrated optical particle counters (OPCs), and a PM-calibrated light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system were used to monitored upwind and downwind PM concentrations during May and June 2008. Emission rates were estimated through inverse modeling coupled with the filter and OPC measurements and through applying a mass balance to the PM concentrations derived from LIDAR data. Sampling irregularities and errors …


Assessment Of Surface Soil Moisture Using High-Resolution Multi-Spectral Imagery And Artificial Neural Networks, Leila Hassan-Esfahani, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Austin M. Jensen, Mac Mckee Mar 2015

Assessment Of Surface Soil Moisture Using High-Resolution Multi-Spectral Imagery And Artificial Neural Networks, Leila Hassan-Esfahani, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Austin M. Jensen, Mac Mckee

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Many crop production management decisions can be informed using data from high-resolution aerial images that provide information about crop health as influenced by soil fertility and moisture. Surface soil moisture is a key component of soil water balance, which addresses water and energy exchanges at the surface/atmosphere interface; however, high-resolution remotely sensed data is rarely used to acquire soil moisture values. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to quantify the effectiveness of using spectral images to estimate surface soil moisture. The model produces acceptable estimations of surface soil moisture (root mean square error (RMSE) = …


Can Suspended Fine Sediment Transport In Shallow Lakes Be Predicted Using Mvrvm With Limited Observations?, H. A. Batt Ph.D., David King Stevens Jan 2015

Can Suspended Fine Sediment Transport In Shallow Lakes Be Predicted Using Mvrvm With Limited Observations?, H. A. Batt Ph.D., David King Stevens

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The study of sediment transport in water natural bodies is a challenging task. There have been several attempts to describe sediment mathematically using hydraulic characteristics of water bodies. Most researchers who developed empirical formulas to describe sediment transport performed laboratory experiments with assumptions that did not take into account variations of hydraulic parameters and the fine sediment sizes that are part of this phenomenon. Recently, new approaches for studying sediment transport have been developed involving the use of machine-learning algorithms that have proven accuracy and efficiency in predicting sediment transport. A novel machinelearning method, the Multivariate Relevance Vector Machine (MVRVM), …


Remediation Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Soil Using Hemoglobin-Catalytic Mechanism, Guyoung Kang, Kapsung Park, Jaechang Cho, David King Stevens, Namhyun Chung Jan 2015

Remediation Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Soil Using Hemoglobin-Catalytic Mechanism, Guyoung Kang, Kapsung Park, Jaechang Cho, David King Stevens, Namhyun Chung

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

It is suggested in this paper that recalcitrant organopollutants can be degraded efficiently by a hemoglobin-catalytic reaction in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (i.e., H2O2). The catalytic mechanism was studied with 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) as a compound for oxidation. Various evidence suggests that the catalytic mechanism is very similar to those of horseradish peroxidase and lignin peroxidase. The catalytic intermediates are known to oxidize various chemicals, indicating that the intermediates of hemoglobin can nonspecifically degrade many different types of organopollutants. To prove the hypothesis, an attempt was made to remediate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated field soil. The results showed that …