Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Implications Of Microplastic Pollution For The Conservation Of Marine Protected Areas, Estefany D. Carvajal, Amanda Di Perna, Alain Duran

FIU Undergraduate Research Journal

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) function as a tool for the protection and conservation of marine ecosystems. These designated areas should be free of any environmentally harmful pollutants. Microplastics (MPs) are plastic fragments measuring less than 5 mm (about 0.2 in). These fragments are an emerging threat to our oceans, and we are investigating the effectiveness of MPAs against these pollutants. We analyzed data gathered from research conducted on microplastic concentrations in MPAs and non-MPAs around the world. 53 MPAs and 53 non-MPAs around the world were used and the microplastic concentrations were deemed low, medium, or high by using the …

Environmental Chemical Analysis Method Optimization And Application To Northwest Cuban Marine Sediment, Thea R. Bartlett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A method for gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode has been optimized to quantify 250 compounds of a variety of compound classes such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), oxidized PAHs, organochlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, biomarkers (hopanes, steranes, tri-aromatic steroids, and fecal sterols), aliphatic hydrocarbons, and plastic additives. This method was validated based on available QA/QC standards using several environmental samples, both sediment and biota, and standard reference materials. This contaminant-focused method can be used as a forensic geochemistry tool to evaluate oil contamination and other contaminant histories in future research studies. When applied to …

How Akron Affects The Water Quality Of The Cuyahoga River, Allyson Darst

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the city of Akron had negative effects on the Cuyahoga river, and determine if the Cuyahoga River was naturally able to remediate these effects downstream. The pollutants measured in this study include hardness, bromine, residual chlorine, iron, copper, lead, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium chloride, total chlorine, fluoride, carbonate, pH, total alkalinity and cyanuric acid. This study was done using water testing strips (JNW Direct) to test the water at four different locations along the Cuyahoga River downstream (North) of Akron. This study found that the city of Akron does have a negative …

Wind Effects On Near- And Midfield Mixing In Tidally Pulsed River Plumes, Preston Spicer, Kelly L. Cole, Kimberly Huguenard, Daniel G. Macdonald, Michael M. Whitney

Civil Engineering Faculty Scholarship

River plumes transport and mix land-based tracers into the ocean. In tidally pulsed river plumes, wind effects have long been considered negligible in modulating interfacial mixing in the energetic nearfield region. This research tests the influence of variable, realistic winds on mixing in the interior plume. A numerical model of the Merrimack River plume-shelf system is utilized, with an application of the salinity variance approach employed to identify spatial and temporal variation in advection, straining, and dissipation (mixing) of vertical salinity variance (stratification). Results indicate that moderate wind stresses (∼0.5 Pa) with a northward component countering the downcoast rotation of …

Removal Of Arsenic (Iii) And Arsenic (V) From Aqueous Solution Via Common Sunflower Helianthus Annuus By Phytoremediation, Irving A. Vazquez Hurtado

Theses and Dissertations

Phytoremediation provides a cost-effective, non-invasive technique to remove contaminants from the soil and groundwater. Sunflowers are fast growing and have a showed effective at removing various pollutants from soil, including lead and other heavy metals. Health issues related to arsenic are mainly attributed to exposure of arsenite, whereas arsenate is much less toxic. The common sunflower Helianthus annuus was the species used to remove both arsenic (III) and As(V) ions from hydroponics solutions. In the present study sunflower seeds were germinated for a week, placed under the sun for a day and subsequently placed in a nutrient solution to aid …

Utah Wintertime Measurements Of Heavy-Duty Vehicle Nitrogen Oxide Emission Factors, Gary A. Bishop, Molly J. Haugen, Brian C. Mcdonald, Adam M. Boies

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

There have only been a few wintertime studies of heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) NO_x emissions in the U.S., and while they have observed increased emissions, fleet characterization to identify the cause has been lacking. We have collected wintertime measurements of NO_x emission factors from 1,591 HDV at a Utah Port of Entry in December 2020 that includes individual vehicle identification. In general, the NO_x emission factors for 2011 & newer chassis model year HDV are significantly higher than 2017 spring measurements from California. The newest chassis model year HDV (2017 - 2021) NO_x emission factors are similar …

On-Road Vehicle Emission Measurements And Their Use In Evaluating Emission Control Effectiveness {Presentation}, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

The Art Of Poetry And Its Place In The History Of The Coordinating Research Councils Real World Emissions Workshop {Poster}, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Indoor Air Pollutants On Childhood Asthma: African American Parents’ Perspective, Marcia Maureen Haughton Lewis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractIndoor air pollution has been implicated in many chronic health conditions, including childhood asthma, which is more prevalent among African American children. Children are more susceptible than adults to the effects of exposure to indoor air pollution; however, many parents may not be aware of the polluting impacts of products in their homes and are inadvertently placing their families at risk for adverse health outcomes. Understanding parents’ perceptions and experiences is essential for planning and developing educational programs and interventions for improving indoor environment management as part of asthma management in children. This descriptive phenomenological study aimed to explore parents’ …

On-Road Nox Emissions Evaluation Of The Repair Effectiveness For Recalled Volkswagen Group Light-Duty Diesel Vehicles In The United States, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

The admission by the Volkswagen Group in the fall of 2015 that they had duped the United States new vehicle emissions certification testing resulted in perhaps the most expensive violation of U.S. environmental vehicle emission regulations in its history. As part of the subsequent recall of more than 500,000 vehicles in the U.S., owners could sell their vehicles back to the companies or have them repaired. We have used a number of large on-road emission measurement data sets that were routinely collected before and after the recall to evaluate the fuel specific NO_x emissions benefit for the vehicles that …

Distribution And Enrichment Of Pollutants From Underground Gasification Of Bituminous Coal In Huating Mining Area, Zhu Lihui, Feng Beizhan, Hu Yongxing, Wang Mingzhong

Coal Geology & Exploration

In order to study the enrichment and distribution of pollutants from the underground gasification of bituminous coal in Huating Mining Area, and to evaluate the environmental factors of the underground gasification of bituminous coal, with an underground gasification simulation experimental platform system, this paper studies the enrichment of heavy metal pollutants in tar and gasification residues during gasification process by means of different oxygen-rich-water gasification experiments and pyrolysis experiments of coal samples in different sizes. The results show that the pyrolytic tar of bituminous coal tends to increase as its size increases, and the yield increases first and then decreases. …

Redox-Active Coordination Complexes For Small Molecule Activation With Environmental Applications, Hanalei Lewine

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Nitrate and nitrate are harmful pollutants resulting from the overuse of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture. The pyridinediimine ligand scaffold with a hemilabile pendant phosphine shows reactivity towards these species to selectively reduce them to NO on a mononitrosyl iron complex (MNIC). Experimental work is supported by DFT broken symmetry calculations.

On-Road Remote Sensing Of Automobile Emissions In The Fresno, Ca Area: Spring 2021, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Winter Measurements Of Heavy-Duty Vehicles To Characterize The Cold Temperature Effectiveness Of Selective Catalytic Reductions Catalyst In Controlling Oxide Of Nitrogen Emissions, Gary A. Bishop, Molly J. Haugen, Brian C. Mcdonald

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

On-Road Remote Sensing Of Automobile Emissions In The Chicago Area: Fall 2020, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Does California’S Emfac2017 Vehicle Emissions Model Under-Predict California Light-Duty Gasoline Vehicle Nox Emissions?, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

On-road remote sensing measurements of light and medium-duty gasoline vehicles collected within California’s South Coast Air Basin since 1999 generally fall within the range of observed summer ambient molar NO_x/CO measurements collected during morning rush hours. Compared with ambient and on-road emissions, the California Air Resources Board EMFAC model under predicts 2018 gasoline vehicle NO_x emission factors by more than a factor of 2.6. Contributing to these differences is that vehicles older than model year 2006 have NO_x emission deterioration rates that are up to 4 time’s higher on-road than predicted by the EMFAC model. A …

The Future Environmental And Health Impacts Of Coal, Robert B. Finkelman, Amy L. Wolfe, Michael S. Hendryx

Faculty, Staff, and Affiliated Publications--KGS

In the United States, coal consumption in the last 12 years has declined from 1,045,140 million short tons in 2007 to 539,420 million short tons in 2019, a decrease of almost 50%. During that period the number of electric power coal generators has declined from 1,470 to 738 accounting for 21% of capacity. An even more dramatic decrease in coal use has occurred in Western Europe. This significant reduction in coal use and the concomitant closure of coal mines and coal-burning power plants will result in substantially cleaner air, reductions in respiratory problems such as asthma, less heart disease, fewer …

On-Road Remote Sensing Of Automobile Emissions In The Denver Area: Winter 2020, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

On-Road Remote Sensing Of Automobile Emissions In The Tulsa Area: Fall 2019, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Are Electric Vehicles A Panacea For Reducing Ozone Precursor Emissions?, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Vehicle Exhaust Remote Sensing Device Method To Screen Vehicles For Evaporative Running Loss Emissions, Gary A. Bishop, Timothy H. Defries, James A. Sidebottom, James M. Kemper

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

Vehicle hydrocarbon (HC) emissions can be emitted from either tailpipe or non-tailpipe locations and understanding their fleet apportionment is important for successful air pollution policy. Vehicles initially misidentified as having elevated tailpipe HC emissions first indicated that roadside exhaust sensors could detect the presence of evaporative HC emissions as increased noise in the HC/carbon dioxide (CO₂) correlation measurement. The 90^th percentile of the largest residual of the HC/CO₂ correlation is defined as a running loss index (RLI) for each measurement. An RLI that is three standard deviations or greater above the instruments noise indicates possible evaporative …

Inspection And Maintenance Evaluation Using Historical U.S. Remote Sensing Measurements, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Sediment Resuspension In A Microtidal Estuary: Causative Forces And Links With Algal Blooms, Samantha C. Mcgill

OES Theses and Dissertations

After years of efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay, bacterial levels are down and species diversity has increased, however, algal blooms (primarily dinoflagellates) persist, occurring nearly every summer. Dinoflagellates produce resting cysts that accumulate in the bottom sediments and are thought to provide seed populations for future algal blooms when they are resuspended. When estuarine sediments are advected from a bed, other materials, such as pollutants, nutrients, and organic matter are also released into the water column. Thus, resuspended sediments can contribute to the degradation of water quality, habitat, and aquatic life, and impart negative impacts on local ecosystems and …

Environmental Balance Through Optimal Control On Pollutants, Nita H. Shah, Foram A. Thakkar, Moksha H. Satia

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

Pollution, which is a very common term has been divided as primary pollutants and secondary pollutants. Primary pollutants are those who results directly from some process whereas secondary pollutants are caused due to intermixing and reaction of primary pollutants. These pollutants result into acid rain. In this paper, a mathematical model has been developed to study the environmental impact due to acid rain. Pollutants such as primary and secondary pollutants are the causes of acid rain. Control in terms of gases emitted by factories, smog, burning of coal and fossil fuels have been applied on primary pollutants, secondary pollutants and …

On-Road Remote Sensing Of Automobile Emissions In The Chicago Area: Fall 2018, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Measuring Emissions From The On-Road Vehicle Fleet In West Los Angeles, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Three Decades Of On-Road Mobile Source Emissions Reductions In South Los Angeles, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

In May of 2018, the University of Denver repeated on-road optical remote sensing measurements at two locations in Lynwood, CA. Lynwood area vehicle tailpipe emissions were first surveyed in 1989 and 1991 because the area suffered with a large number of carbon monoxide (CO) air quality violations. These new measurements allow for the estimation of fuel specific CO and total hydrocarbon (HC) emissions reductions, changes in the longevity of emission-control components, and the prevalence of high emitters in the current fleet.

Since 1989 CO emissions decreased approximately factors of 10 (120 ± 8 to 12.3 ± 0.2 gCO/kg of fuel) …

Hawai'i Wildlife Fund V. County Of Maui, Lowell J. Chandler

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, the Ninth Circuit held that the plain language of the Clean Water Act provides jurisdiction over indirect discharges of pollutants from a point source into groundwater that is shown to be connected to navigable waters. The court found that studies confirmed pollutants entering the Pacific Ocean were fairly traceable to the County of Maui’s sewage disposal wells. In affirming the district court’s ruling, the Ninth Circuit held that Maui County violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into a navigable water without the required permit. The court also concluded the …

Detection Of Pharmaceuticals And Personal Care Products In The Rio Grande And Their Effects On A Model Aquatic Invertebrate (Rotifera, Monogononta: Plationus Patulus), Enrique David Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rivers, including the Rio Grande, receive discharges from urban, agricultural, and industrial areas. These discharges have potentially harmful contaminants that may affect life span, fecundity, and/or behaviors of aquatic organisms. In this project, water quality was analyzed near a discharge point source and impacts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) on a non-target organism (Plationus patulus) were investigated. Long-term and integrative organic samplers (POCIS) were left in situ for about 1 month near a wastewater treatment plant that discharges effluent into the Rio Grande. Over 40 PPCPs, including carbamazepine (ranging from 17.50 to 584.29 ng/L), erythromycin (ranging from 0.51 …

On-Road Remote Sensing Of Heavy And Medium-Duty Trucks At The Peralta Weigh Station In The South Coast Air Basin: Spring 2017, Molly J. Haugen, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.