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The Conservation Biology And Ecology Of The African Leopard Panthera Pardus Pardus, Ross Tyzack Pitman

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The African leopard Panthera pardus pardus is an apex predator, and a reliable indicator of a healthy ecosystem. Currently assessed as ‗near threatened‘ by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, leopards are exposed to a range of threats that include: habitat loss and/or degradation, depletion of natural prey, conflict with people, consumptive- and non-consumptive practices, and the illegal trade of leopard products. Leopards have disappeared from 37% of their historical range, and are continuing to decline. Leopards have been extirpated across many areas of Africa, especially where people are densely populated, which has left patchily distributed leopard populations throughout …

Application Of Microbial Fuel Cells In A Forested Wetland, Jianing Dai

All Theses

ABSTRACT
Electricity can be generated from forest residues, especially the organic matter from litter fall, in freshwater forested wetland environments with a microbial fuel cell (MFC) system. Electricity generation efficiency was examined for cypress, tupelo, and pine litter extracts, using dual-chamber reactors. The maximum power density generated with cypress extracts was on the level of 320 mW/m2, higher than tupelo (230 mW/m2), and pine (210 mW/m2). The efficacy of cypress extracts was also higher than tupelo and
pine, demonstrating that organic matter from cypress litter is a preferred substrate for electricity generation with MFCs. Meanwhile, low aromaticity of the substrate …

Science And Society: The Role Of Long-Term Studies In Environmental Stewardship, Charles T. Driscoll, Kathleen F. Lambert, F. Stuart Chapin, David J. Nowake, Thomas A. Spies, Frederick J. Swanson, David B. Kittredge, Clarisse M. Hart

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

Long-term research should play a crucial role in addressing grand challenges in environmental stewardship. We examine the efforts of five Long Term Ecological Research Network sites to enhance policy, management, and conservation decisions for forest ecosystems. In these case studies, we explore the approaches used to inform policy on atmospheric deposition, public land management, land conservation, and urban forestry, including decisionmaker engagement and integration of local knowledge, application of models to analyze the potential consequences of policy and management decisions, and adaptive management to generate new knowledge and incorporate it into decisionmaking. Efforts to enhance the role of long-term research …

Biogeochemical Cycling And Nutrient Control Strategies For Groundwater At Stormwater Infiltration Basins, Andrew M. O'Reilly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Elevated concentrations of nutrients, particularly nitrate, in groundwater and springs in Florida are a growing resource management concern. Stormwater infiltration basins, which are a common stormwater management practice in the well-drained karst terrain areas of Florida, are a potentially important source of nutrients to the groundwater system because stormwater exits the basin by only evaporation or infiltration. To better understand the biogeochemical processes integrating stormwater infiltration impacts on groundwater resources in a field-scale setting, a combination of hydrologic, soil chemistry, water chemistry, dissolved and soil gas, isotope, and microbiological data was collected from 2007 through 2010 at two stormwater infiltration …

Biochemical Conversions Of Lignocellulosic Biomass For Sustainable Fuel-Ethanol Production In The Upper Midwest, Michael James Brodeur-Campbell

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Biofuels are an increasingly important component of worldwide energy supply. This research aims to understand the pathways and impacts of biofuels production, and to improve these processes to make them more efficient. In Chapter 2, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is presented for cellulosic ethanol production from five potential feedstocks of regional importance to the upper Midwest - hybrid poplar, hybrid willow, switchgrass, diverse prairie grasses, and logging residues - according to the requirements of Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Direct land use change emissions are included for the conversion of abandoned agricultural land to feedstock production, and computer models of …

Bias Correction And Downscaling Of Climate Model Outputs Required For Impact Assessments Of Climate Change In The U.S. Northeast, Kazi F. Ahmed

Master's Theses

Global Climate Models (GCMs) are the typical sources of future climate data required for impact assessments of climate change. However, GCM outputs are related to model-related uncertainties and involve a great deal of biases. Bias correction of model outputs is, therefore, necessary before their use in impact studies. The coarse resolution of GCM simulations is another hindrance to their direct use in fine-scale impact analysis of climate change. Although downscaling of GCM outputs can be performed by dynamical downscaling using Regional Climate Models (RCMs), it requires large computational capacity. When daily climate data from multiple GCMs are required to be …

Planned Tournament Selection, Douglas Mccorkle, Daniel Ashlock, Steven Corns, Kenneth Mark Bryden

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Tournament selection is a versatile method of selection and replacement used in evolutionary computation. Normally tournaments are chosen uniformly at random. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of planning tournaments in advance to control information flow within a population being evolved for optimization. Tests are performed on a variety of evolutionary test problems, finding that different planned tournament schemes yield significant differences in performance. the correct type of planned tournament is found to be problem dependent. in addition to a linear-function scheme for planning tournaments, this study also introduces a technique called multi-deme planned tournaments selection which permits simpler cases of …

Cladophora, Mass Transport, And The Nearshore Phosphorus Shunt , Aaron I. Dayton

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Excessive Cladophora growth in the Great Lakes has led to beach fouling and the temporary closure of nuclear power plants and has been associated with avian botulism and the persistence of human pathogens. As the growth-limiting nutrient for Cladophora, phosphorus is the appropriate target for management efforts. Dreissenids (zebra and quagga mussels) have the ability to capture particulate phase phosphorus (otherwise unavailable to Cladophora) and release it in a soluble, available form. The significance of this potential nutrient source is, in part, influenced by the interplay between phosphorus flux from the mussel bed and turbulent mixing in establishing …

Spatio-Temporal Variations In Soil Moisture And Physicochemical Properties Of A Typical Semiarid Sand-Meadow-Desert Landscape As Influenced By Land Use, L. Duan, T. Liu, X. Wang, G. Wang, L. Ma, Y. Luo

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A good understanding of the interrelations between land cover alteration and changes in hydrologic conditions (e.g., soil moisture) as well as soil physicochemical properties (e.g., fine soil particles and nutrients) is crucial for maintaining the fragile hydrologic and environmental conditions of semiarid land, such as the Horqin Sandy Land in China, but is lacking in existing literature. The objectives of this study were to examine: (1) spatio-temporal variations of soil moisture and physicochemical properties in semiarid land; and (2) how those variations are influenced by land cover alteration. Using the data collected in a 9.71 km2 well-instrumented area of the …

Implementation Of Risk Management In The Medical Device Industry, Rachelo Dumbrique

Master's Theses

This study looks at the implementation and effectiveness of risk management (RM) activities in the medical device industry. An online survey was distributed to medical device professionals who were asked to identify RM-related activities performed during the device life cycle. RM activities and techniques included Establishing Risk Acceptance Criteria, Hazard Identification, Human Factors/Usability, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA), Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA), Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), Risk Benefit Analysis, and Risk Assessment of Customer Complaint. Devices were identified by type (therapeutic, surgical/clinical tools, …

Estimating Water Application Efficiency For Drip Irrigation Emitter Patterns On Banana, Alisson Jadavi Pereira Da Silva, Eugênio Ferreira Coelho, Jarbas Honorio De Miranda, Stephen Ray Workman

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The objective of this work was to evaluate root and water distribution in irrigated banana (Musa sp.), in order to determine the water application efficiency for different drip irrigation emitter patterns. Three drip emitter patterns were studied: two 4-L h^-1 emitters per plant (T1), four 4-L h^-1 emitters per plant (T2), and five 4-L h^-1 emitters per plant (T3). The emitters were placed in a lateral line. In the treatment T3, the emitters formed a continuous strip. The cultivated area used was planted with banana cultivar BRS Tropical, with a 3-m spacing between rows and a …

Reverse Transcription Of 16s Rrna To Monitor Ribosome-Synthesizing Bacterial Populations In The Environment, Ting Lu, Peter George Stroot, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Identification and quantification of phylogenetically defined bacterial populations in the environment are often performed using molecular tools targeting 16S rRNA. Fluorescence in situ hybridization has been used to monitor the expression and processing of rRNA by targeting the 3' tail of precursor 16S rRNA. To expand this approach, we employed reverse transcription of total RNA using primer S-D-Bact-0338-a-A-18. Length heterogeneity detected by slab gel analysis, denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) was used to differentiate the 5' tail of the precursor from mature 16S rRNA, and the relative abundance of the precursor compared to the abundance of mature 16S rRNA was …

Environmental Remediation Full-Scale Implementation: Back To Simple Microbial Massive Culture Approaches, Agung Dhamar Syakti, Mohamad Yani

Makara Journal of Technology

Using bioaugmentation and biostimulation approach for contaminated soil bioremediation were investigated and implemented on field scale. We combine those approaches by culturing massively the petrophilic indigenous microorganisms from chronically contaminated soil enriched by mixed manure. Through these methods, bioremediation performance revealed promising results in removing the petroleum hydrocarbons comparatively using metabolite by product such as biosurfactant, specific enzymes and other extra-cellular product which are considered as a difficult task and will impact on cost increase.

Catchment Modelling Tools And Pathways Review, Zeinab Bedri, Michael Bruen

Reports

No abstract provided.

Visualization Of An Approach To Data Clustering, Marisabel Guevara

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Using visualization and clustering goals as guidelines, this thesis explores a graphic implementation of a data clustering technique that repositions vertices by applying physical laws of charges and springs to the components of the graph. The resulting visualizations are evidence of the success of the approach as well as of the data sets that lend themselves to a clustering routine. Due to the visual product of the implementation, the algorithm is most useful as an aid in understanding the grouping pattern of a data set. Either for a rapid analysis or to assist in presentation, the visual result of the …

Storm Water Export Of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, And Carbon From Developing Catchments In The Upper Piedmont Physiographic Province, Laura Reid

All Theses

Impacts on water quality caused by land use change from forests and pastures to housing subdivisions were evaluated in catchments undergoing active development in the upper Piedmont physiographic province of South Carolina. Specific attention was focused on the export of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon from these catchments during storm events. Three catchments with varying stages of development were compared to categorize the effects of land disturbance. Storm events occurring within a four year period of 2004 through 2007 were studied for changes in water quality within catchment streams. Due to the potential large input of surface runoff to streams following …

Effect Of Shear On Performance And Microbial Ecology Of Continuously Stirred Anaerobic Digesters Treating Animal Manure, Rebecca A. Hoffmann, Marcelo L. Garcia, Mehul Veskivar, Khursheed Karim, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan, Largus T. Angenent

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We Determined the Effect of Different Mixing Intensities on the Performance, Methanogenic Population Dynamics, and Juxtaposition of Syntrophic Microbes in Anaerobic Digesters Treating Cow Manure from a Dairy Farm. Computer Automated Radioactive Particle Tracking in Conjunction with Computational Fluid Dynamics Was Performed to Quantify the Shear Levels Locally. Four Continuously Stirred Anaerobic Digesters Were Operated at Different Mixing Intensities of 1,500, 500, 250, and 50 Revolutions Per Min (RPM) over a 260-Day Period at a Temperature of 34 ± 1°C. Animal Manure at a Volatile Solids (VS) Concentration of 50 G/L Was Fed into the Digesters Daily at Five Different …

Linkage Of The Us National Health Interview Survey To Air Monitoring Data: An Evaluation Of Different Strategies, Jennifer D. Parker, Tracey Woodruff, Lara J. Akinbami, Natalyia Kravets

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

The goal of this study is to describe linkages between the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air monitoring data, specifically how the linkage method affects characteristics and exposure estimates of study samples and estimated associations between exposure and health. In the USA, nationally representative health data are collected in the NHIS and annual air quality data are collected by the EPA. The linkage of these data for research is not straightforward and the choices made may introduce bias into results. The 2000–2003 NHIS and air quality data for six air pollutants were linked by residential …

Individual-Based Artificial Ecosystems For Design And Optimization, Shivakar Vulli

Masters Theses

"Individual-based modeling has gained popularity over the last decade, mainly due to the paradigm's proven ability to address a variety of problems seen in many disciplines, including modeling complex systems from bottom-up, providing relationship between component level and system level parameters, and discovering the emergence of system-level behaviors from simple component level interactions. Availability of computational power to run simulation models with thousands to millions of agents is another driving force in the widespread adoption of individual-based modeling. This thesis proposes an individual-based modeling approach for solving engineering design and optimization problems using artificial ecosystems"--Abstract, page iii.

Response Of Phlebotomine Sand Flies To Light-Emitting Diode-Modified Light Traps In Southern Egypt, D. F. Hoel, Emad Y. Fawaz, J.E Butler, N. Watany, S. S. El-Hossary, J. Villinski

United States Navy: Publications

Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light traps were modified for use with light-emitting diodes (LED) and compared against a control trap (incandescent light) to determine the effectiveness of blue, green, and red lights against standard incandescent light routinely used for sand fly surveillance. Light traps were baited with dry ice and rotated through a 4 x 4 Latin square design during May, June, and July, 2006. Trapping over 12 trap nights yielded a total of 2,298 sand flies in the village of Bahrif, 6 km north of Aswan on the east bank of the Nile River in southern …

Impact Of Phlebotomine Sand Flies On U.S. Military Operations At Tallil Air Base, Iraq: 3. Evaluation Of Surveillance Devices For The Collection Of Adult Sand Flies, Douglas A. Burkett, Ronald Knight, James A. Dennett, Van Sherwood, Edgar Rowton, Russell E. Coleman

United States Air Force: Publications

We evaluated the effectiveness of commercially available light traps and sticky traps baited with chemical light sticks for the collection of phlebotomine sand flies. Evaluations were conducted at Tallil Air Base, Iraq, in 2003. In an initial study, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-style trap with UV bulb collected significantly more sand flies than did an up-draft CDC trap, a standard down-draft CDC trap (STD-CDC), or a sticky strap with a green chemical light stick. In a subsequent study, we found that the addition of chemical light sticks to sticky traps resulted in a significant increase in the …

Acl Injuries: Do We Know The Mechanisms?, Antonie J. Van Den Bogert, Scott G. Mclean

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Injuries of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) remain a frequent occurrence in many sports activities. Recent research has identified risk factors, and prevention strategies are being developed based on these findings. There is, however, still a limited understanding of the actual injury mechanisms. In this presentation we will review the current knowledge on ACL injury mechanisms, and identify needs and opportunities for further research.

Implementation Of The Biological Opinion For The Missouri River Mainstem System, Missouri River Bank Stabilization And Navigation Project, And Kansas River Reservoir System

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires that the Corps of Engineers (Corps), in coordination with the appropriate resource agencies, will ensure that any action authorized, funded or carried out is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any federally listed threatened or endangered species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat. On November 30, 2000, formal consultation between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Corps under Section 7 of the ESA culminated with the "Biological Opinion on the Operation of the Missouri River Main Stem System, Operation and Maintenance of the Missouri …

Perchlorate Toxicity And Risk Assessment, David R. Mattie, Joan Strawson, Jay Zhao

United States Air Force: Publications

Ammonium perchlorate is the oxidizer ingredient in solid propellant mixtures for rockets, missiles and munitions such as Titan, Minuteman, Peacekeeper, Hawk, Polaris and the Space Shuttle. Perchlorate salts may also be used in medicine, matches, munitions and pyrotechnics (illuminating and signaling flares, colored and white smoke generators, tracers, incendiary delays, fuses, photo-flash compounds and fireworks). Perchlorate is also found in lubricating oils, finished leather, fabric fixer, dyes, electroplating, aluminum refining, manufacture of rubber, paint and enamel production, as an additive in cattle feed, in magnesium batteries and as a component of automobile air bag inflators.'

Creep Of Granular Ice With And Without Dispersed Particles, Min Song, David M. Cole, Ian Baker

Dartmouth Scholarship

The effects of silt-sized particles (average diameter of 50 m m) on the compressive creep of polycrystalline ice have been studied at stress levels from 0.1 to 1.45MPa and temperatures of –12 8 C and –10 8 C. Dislocation densities during creep have been estimated using a dislocation-based model of anelasticity. The results indicate that at low concentrations (up to 4wt.% % ), particles increase the minimum creep rate. Power-law behavior with an exponent of 3 was observed for both particle-free ice and ice with 1 wt.% % particles when the stress was >0.3 MPa. In contrast, linear behavior was …

Relationship Of Stream Flow Regime In The Western Lake Superior Basin To Watershed Type Characteristics, N. E. Detenbeck, V. J. Brady, D. L. Taylor, V. M. Snarski, S. L. Batterman

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

To test a conceptual model of non-linear response of hydrologic regimes to watershed characteristics, we selected 48 secondand third-order study sites on the North and South Shores of western Lake Superior, MN(USA) using a random-stratified design based on hydrogeomorphic region, fraction mature forest, and fraction watershed storage (lakeCwetland area/watershed area). We calculated several commonly used hydrologic indices from discharge and velocity estimates, including daily flow indices, overall flood indices, low flow variables, and ratios or ranges of flow percentiles reflecting the nature of cumulative frequency distributions. Four principal components (PCs) explained 85.9 and 88.6% of the variation of flow metrics …

Perchlorate: Sources, Uses, And Occurrences In The Environment, Clayton W. Trumpolt, Michael Crain, Geoffrey D. Cullison, Susan J. P. Flanagan, Lenny Siegel, Stephen Lathrop

United States Navy: Publications

Perchlorate contamination of groundwater and soil continues to be a hot topic in many sectors, including industry, the federal Departments of Defense and Energy, regulators, and the general public. This article presents information on what is currently known regarding perchlorate uses, known and suspected naturally occurring versus anthropogenic perchlorate sources, and past and present manufacturing locations. It provides the reader with a baseline as well as background information to facilitate an understanding of perchlorate in the environment for the ultimate purpose of remediation. The article is based on research conducted by the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council for a forthcoming, more …

The Ecology Of Interorganizational Information Sharing, Jane Fedorowicz, Janis L. Gogan, Amy W. Ray

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Increasingly, companies use interorganizational information systems to support business process partnerships, such as automatic replenishment systems and other supply chain initiatives, invoicing and payments, and insurance claims processing. Inter-firm networking in turn can increase the visibility of information generated and used by business partners. These business partners may experience intended and unintended impacts from the changes in the partnering relationship, in effect altering the ecology of the organization. Yet IT researchers rarely study an organization’s ecology, focusing instead on impacts upon internal processes. Our goal in this paper is to propose a definition of interorganizational information ecology, to provide IT …

Detecting Malfunction In Wireless Sensor Networks, Pablito C. Lake

Theses

The objective of this thesis is to detect malfunctioning sensors in wireless sensor networks. The ability to detect abnormality is critical to the security of any sensor network. However, the ability to detect a faulty wireless sensor is not trivial. Controlled repeatable experiments are difficult in wireless channels. A Redhat Linux. 7.0 Wireless Emulation Dynamic Switch software was used to solve this problem.

Six nodes were configured with a node acting as a base station. The nodes were all part of a cell. This means that every node could communicate with all other nodes. A client-server program simulated the background …

Implementation Of The Biological Opinion For The Missouri River Mainstem System, Missouri River Bank Stabilization And Navigation Project, And Kansas River Reservoir System

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires that the Corps of Engineers (Corps), in coordination with the appropriate resource agencies, will ensure that any action authorized, funded, or carried out is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any federally listed threatened or endangered species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat. On November 30, 2000, formal consultation between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Corps under Section 7 of the ESA culminated with the "Biological Opinion on the Operation of the Missouri River Main Stem System, Operation and Maintenance ofthe Missouri River …