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Nutrient Removal From Stormwater By Using Green Sorption Media, Fahim Hossain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High nitrogen and phosphorus content in storm water runoff has affected groundwater, springs and surface water by impacting ecosystem integrity and human health. Nitrate may be toxic and can cause human health problem such as methemoglobinemia, liver damage and even cancers. Phosphorus may trigger the eutrophication issues in fresh water bodies, which could result in toxic algae and eventually endanger the source of drinking waters. Sorption media with mixes of some recycled materials, such as sawdust and tire crumb, combined with sand/silt and limestone, becomes appealing for nutrient removal in environmental management. This paper presented is a specific type of …

Removal Of 2, 4-Dinitrophenol By Ferrate, Gianna Cooley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ferrate (molecular formula, FeVIO42-) has been studied increasingly since the 1970s as a disinfectant and coagulant for domestic wastewater and also as an oxidant for industrial wastewaters (Murmann and Roginson, 1974, Gilbert et al., 1978, Kazama, 1994, Jiang et al., 2002, and Sharmaet al., 2005). This research was performed to explore whether ferrate could possibly be used as chemical treatment for industrial wastewaters from plastic, chemical, dye, soap, and wood stain producing plants that contain 2, 4-Dinitrophenol (DNP). DNP is listed on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List (CCL). This list includes compounds which …

The Effectiveness Of Specifically Designed Filter Media To Reduce Nitrate And Orthophosphate In Stormwater Runoff, Mikhal Moberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout Central Florida surface water and ground water are decreasing in quantity and quality in part because of excess Nitrate and Phosphorus nutrients. Stormwater runoff serves as a medium for transport of Nitrate and Phosphorus to surface water and ground water. The goal of this experiment is assess the Nitrate and Phosphorus removal in stormwater using select media. The results of a literature search, batch test experimentation and column test experimentation are used to determine an optimal media blend that may be implemented in detention ponds to reduce Nitrate and Phosphorus. The extensive literature search revealed 32 different media that …

Performance Based Decision System In Determining Post Closure Care (Pcc) Duration In Florida Landfills, Asawari Kulkarni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is an evaluation of Post Closure Care (PCC) duration of landfills using performance based methodology. The post closure care phase begins once the landfill is closed. As required by the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle D, PCC duration for municipal solid waste landfills is 30 years. During the PCC period, the landfill operator/owner is required to conduct monitoring for leachate, landfill gas, and ground-water and maintain the integrity of the cap so that the landfill does not impose a threat to surrounding human health and environment (HH&E). The duration of PCC can be reduced by the director …

Development And Application Study Of Nanoscale Thin Film Materials And Polymer Nanocomposites, Hui Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation demonstrated that the manipulation of substances at the molecular or nanometer level can lead to the discovery and development of new materials with interesting properties and important applications. Chapter 1 describes the development of a nanoscale molecular thin film material for corrosion protection. By using a self-assembled monolayer film with a thickness of only about 1 nanometer as a linkage, a covalent bonding was achieved between a polyurethane top coating and an aluminum alloy substrate. This covalent bonding between polymer top coating and the aluminum alloy substrate significantly improved the corrosion resistance of the substrate. Chapter 2 and …

Information Systems And Business Education, University Of North Dakota

UND Departmental Histories

This departmental history was written on the occasion of the UND Quasquicentennial in 2008.

Entrepreneurial Spirit In Government Managed Enterprises: Evidence From The U.S. General Aviation Airports, Vitaly S. Guzhva, Massoud Bazargan, David A. Byers

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

While a number of studies introduce entrepreneurship in the public sector, there is still a need for empirical research in this field. We use a survey of U.S. general aviation airport managers to investigate the benefits of entrepreneurial spirit in public sector management. The results of logistic regressions suggest that the airport managers’ beliefs in importance of self-sustainability significantly improve the likelihood of general aviation airports to be self-sustaining. On the other hand, the airport specific characteristics, such as a favorable location, county population, and others are not statistically significant in achieving self-sustainability. Our findings support the literature that argue …

Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute Annual Technical Report Fy 2007, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

KWRRI Annual Technical Reports (USGS’s 104b Grant Program)

The 2007 Annual Technical Report for Kentucky consolidates reporting requirements of the Section 104(b) base grant award into a single document that includes: 1) a synopsis of each student research enhancement project conducted during the period, 2) citations for related publications, reports, and presentations, 3) a description of information transfer activities, 4) a summary of student support during the reporting period, and 5) notable awards and achievements during the year.

Functional Data Analysis For Environmental And Biomedical Problems, Chivalai Temiyasathit

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Vast amounts of data are being generated due to the development of sensing technology. Among those, one of the common types of data usually found in various discipline is the functional data. Because the functional data are generally collected in a wide area of interest over a relatively long period, such analyses should take into account both temporal and spatial characteristics. Furthermore, combinations of observations from multiple locations, each with a large number of serially correlated values, lead to a situation that poses a great challenge to analytical and computational capabilities. In contrast, data obtained from medical and biomedical researches …

Nebraska Blueprint - Spring 2008

Nebraska Blueprint (Student Publication)

Table of Contents:

Letter from the Editor
E-Engineering: Environmentalism Tips
Tech Guru: Eye-Fi
E-Engineering by Lt. Col. Jeff Gillen
E-Engineering by Rachel Thorpe
E-Week 2008 - Speaker Jeff Zvolanek
E-Week 2008: Behind the Scenes
E-Week 2008 Responses
E-Week 2008 Awards

Evaluating The Performance Of Animal Shelters: An Application Of Data Envelopment Analysis, Brandy Heyde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this thesis is the application of data envelopment analysis to understand and evaluate the performance of diverse animal welfare organizations across the United States. The results include identification of the most efficient animal welfare organizations, at least among those that post statistics on their operations, and a discussion of various partnerships that may improve the performance of the more inefficient organizations. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that there are 4000 - 6000 independently-run animal shelters across the United States, with an estimated 6-8 million companion animals entering them each year. Unfortunately, more than half …

Defining Risk Assessment Confidence Levels For Use In Project Management Communications, Gary Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A review of the literature regarding risk management and effective risk communications identified that very few researchers have addressed risk assessment confidence levels when using risk scoring methods. The focus of this research is to develop a definition of risk assessment confidence levels for use in internal project management communications and to evaluate its usefulness. This research defines risk assessment confidence level as "The degree of certainty that the likelihood or consequence score (assigned by the risk assessor) reflects reality." A specific level of confidence is defined based on the types of analyses that were conducted to determine the risk …

Sediment Budgets In The Irish Estuarine Environment, Kevin Motherway

Theses

A sediment budget is the quantification of sediment sources and sinks for natural physical systems such as rivers and estuaries.

This thesis has developed estuarine sediment budgets for Cork Harbour, Kinsale Harbour and Youghal Harbour. The thesis includes a literature review of the properties of sediment, river and estuary related sediment transport, sediment management and sediment related legislation and the approaches used to develop a sediment budget for an estuary system.

An extensive study of riverine suspended sediments discharging to the estuaries has been undertaken. Both surface grab samples and depth integrating suspended sediment samples were collected, tested and analysed. …

Container Management And Monitoring Using Sensor Networks, Daniel Rogóz

Theses

The purpose of this project was to develop a functional prototype of a container management and monitoring system, which allows identification and tracking of shipping containers in a port terminal from the moment they enter a port to when they depart for their final destination.

Such system can significantly reduce the labor and time costs associated with organizational mistakes that can occur when containers are being on/off-loaded, moved and stacked in tiers for transfer to the rail or road network. It can be used to streamline the container transport, optimize the order of container on/off-loading and placement, as well as …

Application Of Artificial Neural Networks And Colored Petri Nets On Earthquake Resilient Water Distribution Systems, Nandini Kavanal Balakrishnan

Masters Theses

"Water distribution systems are important lifelines and a critical and complex infrastructure of a country. The performance of this system during unexpected rare events is important as it is one of the lifelines that people directly depend on and other factors indirectly impact the economy of a nation. In this thesis a couple of methods that can be used to predict damage and simulate the restoration process of a water distribution system are presented. Contributing to the effort of applying computational tools to infrastructure systems, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to predict the rate of damage in the pipe …

A Review Of Negation In Clinical Texts, John D. Kelleher, Brian Mac Namee

Reports

Negation is commonly seen in clinical documents [Chapman et al., 2001a] ”In clinical reports the presence of a term does not necessarily indicate the presence of the clinical condition represented by that term. In fact, many of the most frequently described findings and diseases in discharge summaries, radiology reports, history and physical exams, and other transcribed reports are denied in the patient” [Chapman et al., 2001b, page. 301].

Patient-Centred Laboratory Validation Using Software Agents, John Mcgrory, Jane Grimson, Frank Clarke, Peter Gaffney

Conference Papers

Guidelines are self-contained documents which healthcare professionals reference to obtain knowledge about a specific condition or process. They interface with these documents and apply known facts about specific patients to gain useful supportive information to aid in developing a diagnosis or manage a condition. To automate this process a series of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and workflow processes are constructed using the contents of these documents in order to manage the validation flow of a patient sample. These processes decompose the guidelines into workflow plans, which are then called using condition triggers controlled by a centralised management engine. The software …

Volcanic Activity: Processing Of Observation And Remote Sensing Data (Vapor), Mark Wylie

Reports

The World Bank makes a very clear distinction between disasters and natural phenomena. Natural phenomena are events like volcanic eruptions. A disaster only occurs when the ability of the community to cope with natural phenomenon has been surpassed, causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses. By these definitions, volcanic eruptions do not have to lead to disasters. On November 13, 1985, the second most deadly eruption of the twentieth century occurred in Colombia. Within a few hours of the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, 23,000 people were dead because no infrastructure existed to respond to such an …

Software Agents Representing Medical Guidelines, John Mcgrory, Jane Grimson, Frank Clarke, Peter Gaffney

Conference Papers

Guidelines are self-contained documents which healthcare professionals reference to obtain specific disease or medical condition knowledge for a particular population cohort. They view these documents and apply known facts about their patients to access useful supportive information to aid in developing a diagnosis or manage a condition. Traditional CIG models decompose these guidelines into workflow plans, which are then called using certain motivational trigger conditions controlled by a centralised management engine.

Therefore, CIG guidelines are not self-contained documents, which specialise in a particular condition or disease, but are effectively a list of workflow plans, which are called and used when …

Measuring The Value Of Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement Activities, Jennifer R. Walton, Joseph D. Crabtree, Candice Y. Wallace, Jerry G. Pigman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The responsibility for monitoring commercial vehicles on Kentucky’s roadways and enforcing the applicable laws and regulations falls primarily on Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement (KVE). KVE personnel are involved in a variety of activities including commercial vehicle size and weight enforcement, work zone speed enforcement, and general traffic monitoring and enforcement. The objectives of this study were to identify, describe, and (where possible) quantify the benefits associated with the activities of KVE. The primary benefits provided by the activities of KVE are: reductions in crashes, injuries, and fatalities; protection of the revenue streams that replenish Kentucky’s Road Fund; reduced damage to Kentucky’s …

Fabrication Of High Aspect Ratio Metal Nanotips By Nanosecond Pulse Laser Melting, Bo Cui, Lin Wu, Stephen Y. Chou

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The authors have developed an approach to fabricate sharp and high aspect ratio metal tips using nanosecond pulse laser melting. A quartz wafer covered with a thin chromium (Cr) film was placed on top of a second wafer with a sub-micrometer gap between them and the Cr film facing the second wafer. Then an excimer laser pulse (308 nm wavelength, 20 ns pulse duration) was shone from the back of the quartz wafer and melted the Cr film momentarily (several hundred nanoseconds). It is found that the molten Cr films can self-form discrete metal pillars connecting the two wafers. After …

United States Air Force Posture Statement 2008, U.S. Air Force

United States Air Force: Publications

The United States Air Force provides the Nation with a powerful deterrent force in times of peace, and it sets the conditions for Joint and Coalition victory in times of war. For over seventeen years, since Operation DESERT SHIELD, the United States Air Force has been engaged in continuous combat operations. Our Airmen have maintained constant watch, deployed continuously, engaged America’s adversaries directly, responded to human crises around the world, and provided the Global Vigilance, Global Reach, and Global Power to secure our Nation.

Peer Review Report 2008

United States Department of Transportation: Publications

The purpose of this document is to report findings from the research peer reviews held May 1, May 6 and May 14, 2008 for PHMSA’s Pipeline Safety Research and Development Program. The findings and recommendations in this report derive from the scoring and comments collected from the peer review panelists.

Department of Transportation (DOT) Operating Agencies (OA) are required to develop and execute a systematic process for peer reviews and for all influential and highly influential information that the OA plans to disseminate in the foreseeable future.

Through the Information Quality Act, Congress directed the Office of Management and Budget …

Acute Respiratory Health Effects Of Air Pollution On Children With Asthma In Us Inner Cities, George T. O'Connor, Lucas Neas, Benjamin Vaughn, Meyer Kattan, Herman Mitchell, Ellen F. Crain, Richard Evans, Iii, Rebecca Gruchalla, Wayne Morgan, James Stout, G. Kenneth Adams, Morton Lippmann

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Background: Children with asthma in inner-city communities may be particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of air pollution because of their airways disease and exposure to relatively high levels of motor vehicle emissions.

Objective: To investigate the association between fluctuations in outdoor air pollution and asthma morbidity among inner-city children with asthma.

Methods: We analyzed data from 861 children with persistent asthma in 7 US urban communities who performed 2-week periods of twice-daily pulmonary function testing every 6 months for 2 years. Asthma symptom data were collected every 2 months. Daily pollution measurements were obtained from the Aerometric Information Retrieval System. …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 9: Causes, Prevention, And Mitigation Workgroup Report, Paul Berger, Justin Brooks, Terence Evens, Christopher Gobler, Jennifer Graham, James Hyde, Dawn Karner, Dennis (Kevin) O'Shea, Valerie Paul, Hans Paerl, Michael Piehler, Barry Rosen, Mary Santelmann, Pat Tester, Judy Westrick

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are estimated to have evolved 3.5 billion years ago, at which time they began to add oxygen to the existing anaerobic atmosphere, actually changing the chemistry of the planet and allowing new life forms to evolve. These ubiquitous microbes are capable of tolerating desiccation, hypersalinity, hyperthermal conditions, and high ultraviolet radiation, often for extensive periods of time. Recently, cyanobacteria have responded to human alterations of aquatic environments, most notably nutrient-enhanced primary production, or eutrophication. In fact, cyanobacterial blooms are now viewed as widespread indicators of freshwater, brackish and marine eutrophication.

Due to the complex interactions between physical …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 20: Analytical Methods Workgroup Report, Armah De La Cruz, Parke Rublee, James Hungerford, Paul Zimba, Steven Wilhelm, Jussi Meriluoto, Kathy Echols, Michael Meyer, Gerard Stelma, Rosemonde Mandeville, Linda Lawton, Kaarina Sivonen, Ambrose Furey

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

The topic of exposure assessment overlaps with other topic areas of this workshop. It includes considerations of establishment of long term monitoring and event response, sampling protocols, development and standardization of organism and toxin assays, funding mechanisms, and public outreach. The development of a coordinated infrastructure (funding, human resources, and facilities, materials and equipment) is key to successfully addressing the threat posed by CHABs.
The establishment of validated standardized protocols to detect cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins is of considerable importance given the increased occurrence of CHABs worldwide. Standardized methods are needed for studies assessing occurrence, monitoring and toxicity studies which are …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 18: Determining Important Parameters Related To Cyanobacterial Alkaloid Toxin Exposure, Adam Love

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

The United States is faced with having to address critical issues that have not been addressed in the past, as recent security interests have placed new and more pressing demands on the assessment of risk from exposure to potential threats resulting from deliberate contamination. Such assessments are the basis for decisions about future research priorities, actions taken to prevent intentional contaminant releases, and developing detailed plans for response if such an event was to occur. High fidelity assessments are based on robust knowledge of the numerous parameters that can be used to predict the fate, transport, persistence, and toxicity for …

Nitrogen In The Environment: Chapter 10. Nitrogen Effects On Coastal Marine Ecosystems, J.R. Kelly

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Throughout the 20th century, a rapidly growing human population increased the global circulation of nitrogen (N). In the United States and elsewhere, human populations and activities have been disproportionately distributed towards coastlines, leading to markedly increased N inputs to coastal receiving waters. Nitrogen inputs to coastal waters come from the land, from the sea, and from the air; because of these multiple sources and the complexity of the N cycle, confident estimates of total N loading to coastal systems are not routine. Ecological problems from increasing inputs of N to coastal waters are well known and arise from stimulation of …

Generic Simulation Models For Facilitating Stakeholder Involvement In Water Resources Planning And Management: A Comparison, Evaluation, And Identification Of Future Needs, H. Assata, E. Van Beek, C. Borden, P. Gijsbers, A. Jolma, S. Kaden, M. Kaltofen, J.W. Labadie, D.P. Loucks, N.W.T. Quinn, J. Sieber, A. Sulis, W.J. Werick, D.M. Wood

United States Department of Energy: Publications

Water resources planning and management tools have been moving away from a top down (command and control) approach to a bottom up (grass-roots) approach - which emphasizes the involvement of stakeholders, not only specialists, in all stages of planning - from the identification of problems and issues, the selection of potential solutions to project implementation and operation. Ideally, a participatory grassroots planning process should provide a transparent and flexible platform for all stakeholders to collectively: examine the main elements of their shared water system; understand the main issues and problems to be addressed; participate in identifying alternative policies; and select …

The Army Dietetic Mentorship Program: Making The Most Out Of Mentoring, M.A. Worley, M.B. Salgueiro, D.R. Hernandez, C.J. Buck

United States Army: Publications

To describe the Army’s Dietetic Mentorship Program and its effect on personnel and professional development of recent internship graduates.