Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Radiological Decontamination In The Urban Environment Utilizing An Irreversible Wash-Aid Recovery System, Keith A. Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

The radioactive fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors accident and the ongoing threat of nuclear or radioactive terrorism have forced the need for urban radiological decontamination into the forefront. Many of the established decontamination techniques are not ideally suited for the urban milieu. One of the keys to maximize the effectiveness of long-term remediation and recovery in the urban environment is immediate mitigation within a few days of the incident and before a rain event. The Integrated Wash-Aid, Treatment, and Emergency Reuse System (IWATERS) provides a potentially safe and effective method for early responders and remediation teams to perform …

Variation In Restaurant Sanitary Scores In New York City, Kyle Gregory

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether restaurants that are homogenous in nature would exhibit substantially different hygiene scores based on the underlying consumer learning behaviors present in the neighborhoods in which the restaurants are located.

Effects Of Drift, Selection And Gene Flow On Immune Genes In Prairie Grouse, Zachary Bateson

Theses and Dissertations

Fragmentation of natural habitats is related to population decline in many species. The resulting small and isolated populations are expected to lose genetic variation at a rapid rate, which reduces the ability to adapt to environmental change. One concern is that small populations are more susceptible to emerging pathogens due to the loss of variation at immune genes. My dissertation examined the relative effects of gene flow, genetic drift and selection on immune genes in prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido), a species that has undergone drastic population declines across their range. In the first chapter, I examined how artificial gene flow through …

Proof-Of-Concept Of Environmental Dna Tools For Atlantic Sturgeon Management, Jameson Hinkle

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus, Mitchell) is an anadromous species that spawns in tidal freshwater rivers from Canada to Florida. Overfishing, river sedimentation and alteration of the river bottom have decreased Atlantic Sturgeon populations, and NOAA lists the species as endangered. Ecologists sometimes find it difficult to locate individuals of a species that is rare, endangered or invasive. The need for methods less invasive that can create more resolution of cryptic species presence is necessary. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a non-invasive means of detecting rare, endangered, or invasive species by isolating nuclear or mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the …

Transcending Microbial Source Tracking Techniques Across Geographic Borders: An Examination Of Human And Animal Microbiomes And The Integration Of Molecular Approaches In Pathogen Surveillance In Brazil And The United States, Amber Mae Koskey

Theses and Dissertations

Waterborne illnesses, attributed to the ingestion or contact with contaminated water, present a significant global health concern. Surface water sources can be impacted by wide array of pollution inputs, but fecal pollution generates the most significant and acute threat to human health. Therefore, the detection of fecal bacteria in surface water sources remains an important public health objective. Current surface water monitoring employs the use of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) including E. coli and enterococci as proxies for pathogenic organisms carried in fecal pollution. These traditional indicators, detected by culture-based microbiological methods, do not discriminate fecal sources from another. New …

Complexity And Uncertainty In Human And Ecological Risk Assessment, Matthew Jordan Dellinger

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple interacting stressors in the environment present increasingly complex risks to human health. Too often, however, the data required for traditional risk assessment are either lacking or unavailable at the necessary spatial or temporal scale. In addition, assessment practices and management policies need to move away from single factor approaches in order to accommodate the reality of complex chemical mixtures and environmental stressors. Recent literature suggests that a paradigm shift is under way. This points to a need for the development of new techniques both for rapid data collection and flexible risk assessment strategies that can adapt to make use …

Comparative Analysis Of Two Biological Warfare Air Samplers Using Live Surrogate Agents, James C. Enderby

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force has several high-volume biological air samplers, including the XMX/2L-MIL and the Biocapture 650. Limited information is available on either in terms of its collection of viruses and bacteria. However, previous research on the XMX/2L-MIL has determined that modifications to the secondary flow rate and the use of a virus preserving collection media may provide improved virus collection rates. In this thesis, these modifications were investigated to determine their impact on the collection of viral and bacterial aerosols. Additionally, relative collection rates were compared against those for the Biocapture 650. MS2 bacteriophage was the viral surrogate …