Digital Commons Network^™

Reflective Optics Cpv Panels Enabling Large Scale, Reliable Generation Of Solar Energy Cost Competitive With Fossil Fuels, S. Horne, M. Mcdonald, N. Hartsoch, K. Desy

Publications (E)

The objective of this 18 month subcontract was the improvement of reflective optics CPV panels to enable the large-scale, reliable production of solar electricity to meet SAI-established LCOE targets, and ultimately provide a path to solar power at parity with or better than the cost of energy generated utilizing fossil fuels. To this end, SolFocus has completed this subcontract with great success as evidenced by the end results of a CPV panel with conversion efficiencies greater than the targeted 22% and manufacturing capabilities with a run rate capacity far exceeding the milestone benchmark >3MW.

Incomplete Concerted Evolution In The Non-Hybrid Diploid Clematic Fremontii S. Watston (Rananculaceae), Meredith C. Montgomery

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Clematis fremontii S. Wats. (Ranunculaceae) is a diploid perennial forb with strict habitat requirements that occurs in isolated populations in the cedar glades of Missouri and the mixed-grass prairies of Kansas and Nebraska. Based on geographical isolation and morphological differences, this species was formerly subdivided into two varieties, the autonymic prairie variety and the glade variety, C. fremontii var. riehlii Erickson. Interestingly, two disjunct populations of C. fremontii inhabit cedar glades have been recently located in Rome, GA and Chattanooga, TN. Initially, the focus of my research was to gain insight into whether the two eastern populations are recent introductions …

Water Current, Volume 41, No. 4, Fall 2009

Water Current Newsletter

Meet the Faculty, Sara Michaels and Ron Yoder
Water Tour to North and South Platte Basins
Dvorak Named Interim Director
Featured Partner: Nebraska Well Drillers Association
Irrigation and Water Photos From Nebraska’s Past
Emerging Contaminants in a Flat World
River City Roundup Features Nebraska Water Issues
Platte River BasinScience and Resource Management Symposium, Oct. 14-15, Kearney
New UNL Spreadsheet Helps Irrigators Evaluate Efficiency
Water Center Events
Our Water Supply, Down the Drain
WRAP Ranks Priorities, Spurs Proposal Development

White River Forum Ii: Second Annual Meeting Of The White River Forum, John Havel, Kenneth Steele

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

This second annual meeting of the White River Forum is proof of widespread interest in the water quality of the Upper White River watershed. The participation of numerous elected officials, state and federal agencies, universities, businesses, and local citizens indicates that interest in understanding policy issues crosses political boundaries and occupations.

Acid Rain: The Effects, Torrey Mortimer

Social Sciences

In a world experiencing increasing population, urbanization, and developing nations looking to compete on a global market with post-industrial nations, the effects of acid precipitation require greater consideration. As the world’s energy demand rises, and with the cheapest and most abundant source of energy being coal, the occurrence of acid precipitation is on the rise.

The goal of my project is to research and report on the effects of acid deposition on humans, animals and the environment that surrounds them. When I have completed my project, I hope to be able to explain the impacts that acid deposition has on …

Strategies For The Fusion Of Satellite Fire Radiative Power With Burned Area Data For Fire Radiative Energy Derivation, Luigi Boschetti, David P. Roy

GSCE Faculty Publications

Instantaneous estimates of the power released by a fire (Fire Radiative Power, FRP) are available with satellite active fire detection products. Integrating FRP in time provides an estimate of the total energy released (Fire Radiative Energy, FRE), which can be converted into burned biomass estimates needed by the atmospheric emissions modeling community. While straightforward in theory, the integration of FRP in time and space is affected by temporal and spatial undersampling imposed by the satellite sensing and orbit geometry, clouds, and active fire product omission errors. Combination of active fire FRP estimates with independently derived burned area maps provides the …

Environmental Conscience And Comportment Of Youth In Dakar, Elizabeth Van Brocklin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The natural environment is in a state of crisis in Dakar, in Senegal, in Africa and throughout the world. Humans are the primary contributors to environmental degradation, as their activities place stress on natural ecosystems, and this stress is often most acute in the urban setting. Dakar is one major West African city where inhabitants are particularly neglectful and disrespectful of their communal environment, illustrated by the oppressive presence of mismanaged waste that pollutes the public streets. Based on the hypothesis that the general population was either unaware or misinformed of the actual state of the environment, I aimed to …

Droughtscape, Fall 2009, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

DroughtScape, Fall 2009

Linking Waste And Material Flows On The Island Of Oahu, Hawai’I: The Search For Sustainable Solutions, Matthew Eckelman, Marian Chertow

Yale School of the Environment Publications Series

No abstract provided.

Sustainability And Land Use Planning: Greening State And Local Land Use Plans And Regulations To Address Climate Change Challenges And Preserve Resources For Future Generations, Patricia E. Salkin

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Phenotopic Plasticity Of Leaf Shape Along A Temperature Gradient In Acer Rubrum, Dana L. Royer, Laura A. Meyerson, Kevin M. Robertson, Jonathan M. Adams

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Both phenotypic plasticity and genetic determination can be important for understanding how plants respond to environmental change. However, little is known about the plastic response of leaf teeth and leaf dissection to temperature. This gap is critical because these leaf traits are commonly used to reconstruct paleoclimate from fossils, and such studies tacitly assume that traits measured from fossils reflect the environment at the time of their deposition, even during periods of rapid climate change. We measured leaf size and shape in Acer rubrum derived from four seed sources with a broad temperature range and grown for two years in …

Creating A Category V: Conservation Perceptions And Cultural Changes In The Anjozorobe-Angavo Forest Corridor, Kate Wright

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Local communities have long played an integral role in the realization of conservation goals and the success of protected areas in Madagascar. Since the appearance of human civilizations approximately 2,000 years ago (Brown 1995), the physical landscape of the island has undergone processes of adaptation to the practices of Malagasy people, while Malagasy cultures have in turn molded to fit their surroundings. The coevolution of nature and culture has produced a delicate environmental situation where human practices exploit but also conserve important natural resources, a situation that has been historically misinterpreted as intentional environmental destruction on the part of local …

Use Of The Chambira Palm (Astrocaryum Chambira) In Rainforest Communities Of The Peruvian Amazon, Anel Guel, Jim Penn

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

We proposed to research the use of chambira palm fibers and the sale of chambira crafts in four communities located about 100 miles from the city of Iquitos, Peru. In this part of the Peruvian Amazon, women are organized into groups that work to obtain the fibers and sell their products in a sustainable way, and at the same time promote the cultivation of the palm trees in their family gardens. As is the case with so many products from tropical forests, there is great geographic variation in the abundance of the resource (chambira) and variation in the amount of …

Retrieval Of Foliar Information About Plant Pigment Systems From High Resolution Spectroscopy, Susan L. Ustin, Anatoly A. Gitelson, Stéphane Jacquemoud, Michael Schaepman, Gregory P. Asner, John A. Gamon, Pablo Zarco-Tejada

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Life on Earth depends on photosynthesis. Photosynthetic systems evolved early in Earth history and have been stable for 2.5 billion years, providing prima facie evidence for the significance of pigments in plant functions. Photosynthetic pigments fill multiple roles from increasing the range of energy captured for photosynthesis to protective functions. Given the importance of pigments to leaf functioning, greater effort is needed to determine whether individual pigments can be identified and quantified in vivo using high fidelity spectroscopy. We review recent advances in detecting plant pigments at the leaf level and discuss successes and reasons why challenges remain for robust …

School Of Natural Resources Comprehensive Five-Year Review

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Multiproxy Lake Sediment Records At The Northern And Southern Boundaries Of The Aspen Parkland Region Of Manitoba, Canada, Rebecca Teed, Charles Umbanhower, Philip Camill

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Aspen parkland in central Canada may change substantially with increased warming and aridity as prairies replace forests, fire return intervals decrease and lake levels decline. We examined the relationships among vegetation, climate, fire and lake-ecosystem properties using lake sediment cores from the current northern and southern boundaries of the aspen parkland in southwestern Manitoba. We analyzed pollen, charcoal, sediment magnetics, biogenic silica, phosphorus, grain size and LOI, and dated the cores using ²¹⁰Pb and ¹⁴C (AMS, calibrated). The Jones Lake record, from the southern edge of the parkland, began considerably earlier (~11 000 cal. BP) than the Mallard …

Proposal For Evaluation Of The Feasibility Of Erecting Regional Wind Energy System Within The East Bay Of Rhode Island, Eapc Wind Energy Services, Llc

East Bay Energy Consortium Documents

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of Drought Impacts And Mitigation Planning In Kentucky, Crystal Jane Bergman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Drought is a well-known and costly climate-related natural hazard. Unlike other climate-related natural hazards, droughts are usually long in duration and may cover a large region, the physical boundaries of areas affected by drought are sometimes arbitrary, and the impacts are sometimes difficult to identify. Climate records since 1895 show that drought has occurred periodically in Kentucky. The drought of 2007 was the most recent drought to affect Kentucky and is the primary focus of this research. The purpose of this research is to identify impacts of drought and potential vulnerabilities to various drought impact sectors in Kentucky so that …

Near-Surface Atmospheric Response To Simulated Changes In Land-Cover Vegetation Fraction, And Soil Moisture Over Western Kentucky, Ronnie Leeper

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A series of land-use-land-cover-change (LULCC) based sensitivity experiments, including changes in vegetation type, fractional vegetation (FV), and soil moisture (SM), over Western Kentucky were conducted to investigate atmospheric response to land-use. The choice of land-use for this study was chosen in the context of Western Kentucky’s historical LULCC. For this study, vegetation types considered were grassland, forest, and bare soil with further variations in FV for grassland and forest at 25, 50, 75, and 100 % and systematic increases and decreases in volumetric SM of 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15 m3 m-3. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first assessment …

An Oral History Of The American Chestnut In Southern Appalachia, Bethany N. Baxter

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This oral history research explored and examined the experences and memories of people who lived in the Southern Appalachian region during the years preceding and following the chestnut blight pandemic. The project examined experiences from an environmental history perspective, addressing the economic and cultural significance of chestnut pre and post blight, and attitudes and feelings concerning American chestnut restoration efforts. The American Chestnut Oral History Collection includes forty-five interviews, recorded between May and December 2008. Twenty-seven of them were recorded with people who have memories of the importance of American chestnut in southern Appalachia. These interviews were conducted across Kentucky, …

The Very Basics Of Sustainability - An Alternative Viewpoint (Slides With Audio) (Large File! To Speed Up Download, Right-Click On "Download" Link To Save To Own Pc.), Jim Mcgovern

Other resources

This presentation sets out the very basics of ‘sustainability’, although a definition of sustainability is not attempted. Some of the very basics are the context in which the Earth and humankind exist in space and time, the Earth’s climate, the Earth’s population and humankind’s options and choices. The author advocates keeping an open mind on all available options, including the use of oil, gas, coal, tar sands, carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear power etc., as well as the technologies that are more widely considered ‘green’. The author also argues that, in addressing the challenges that humankind faces, globally concerted effort …

Modeling Stormwater Pollutant Transport In A Karst Region--Bowling Green, Kentucky, Allison H. Ross

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The management of stormwater runoff is a particular challenge for communities in karst regions. Most guidelines for compliance with regulations for stormwater monitoring and mapping pertain to non-karst environments. It can be argued that effective stormwater management is even more essential to karst regions because stormwater receives little or no natural filtration as it is transferred through conduits in the subsurface and the buildup of pollutants underneath can be detrimental to community and environmental health if not effectively mitigated. Because of the limited resources available to determine how stormwater runoff carries potential pollutants across the surface before being transferred to …

Agenda: Western Water Law, Policy And Management: Ripples, Currents, And New Channels For Inquiry, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, Western Water Policy Program

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

In many pockets of the American West, stresses and demands on water resources are overwhelming our capacity to effectively manage change and accommodate the diversity of interests and values associated with our limited water resources.

This event will offer an opportunity for lawyers, policymakers, and water professionals to engage the experts on the challenges and emerging solutions to the most pressing water policy and management issues of the day.

Slides: Agricultural Resilience And Urban Growth: A Closer Look, William R. Travis

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: William R. Travis, Department of Geography, Center for Science & Technology Policy Research, CIRES, University of Colorado at Boulder

30 slides

The Burden Of Fetching Water: Using Caloric Expenditure As An Indicator Of Access To Safe Drinking Water—A Case Study From Xieng Khouang Province, Lao Pdr, Jeff La Frenierre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Millennium Development Goals measure ‘access to improved drinking water’ using an indicator that defines access as the presence of an improved water source within 1 kilometer of a person’s dwelling. This purely linear measurement has significant shortcomings, including a lack of consideration for the difficulty of the terrain being traversed and the weight of the loads being carried. This paper examines in detail the human energy costs associated with fetching water, first using two Lao villages as case studies, then applying a predictive energy expenditure model to measure the potential caloric effect of variations in the age and gender …

Status Of Western Gray Whales Off Northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia, In 2008, Alexander M. Burdin, Grigory A. Tsidulko, Maxim Sidorenko, Amanda L. Bradford, David W. Weller, Robert L. Brownell Jr.

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

A collaborative Russia-U.S. research program on western gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) summering off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia, has been ongoing since 1995 and has produced important information on the present day conservation status of this critically endangered population. This paper reviews findings from 2008 research activities and combines such with data from previous years, in some cases ranging back to an opportunistic survey in 1994. Photo-identification research conducted off Sakhalin Island in 2008 resulted in the identification of 45 whales, including three calves. No previously unidentified non-calves were observed. When combined with data from 1994-2007, a catalog of …

Birth-Intervals And Sex Composition Of Western Gray Whales Summering Off Sakhalin Island, Russia, David W. Weller, Amanda L. Bradford, Aimée R. Lang, Robert L. Brownell Jr., Alexander M. Burdin

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Determining the birth-interval at which reproductive females produce calves is an indispensable component of studies on the population biology of large whales. In theory, shorter birth-intervals will result in a faster rate of population increase. Therefore, estimating this reproductive parameter is particularly important for modeling exercises designed to project the potential growth of a given population and, in the case of endangered populations, their ability to recover from a depleted state (e.g. Cooke et al., 2008). While a number of inherent biases exist with respect to determination of birth-intervals for baleen whales (Barlow and Clapham, 1997), dedicated sampling efforts and …

Lectures On China’S Environment, Xuhui Lee

Yale School of the Environment Publications Series

No abstract provided.

Center Of Ecological Studies Feasibility Project, Suzanne Williams, Jill Leonard

Grant

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 84, No. 52, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Belcher, Ashley. Local Hispanic Crime Rates Lower Than U.S. Average
• Hale, Marianne. Faculty, Staff Prepare for Stimulus Money – American Recovery & Reinvestment Act
• Moore, Josh. Gone Green – Sustainability
• Sanchez, Armando. A Thousand Words – Curtis Frost
• Hale, Marianne. Changes Expected in Loan Programs – Student Financial Aid , Federal Family Education Loan Program
• Hale, Marianne. Richard Kirchmeyer to Retire September 30 – Information Technology
• Marsupial Awards
• Erskine, Anne. Editorial Cartoon: Koala Climbing Pearce-Ford Tower
• Bryan, Kendrick. Student Government Association Is Your Organization
• Ulber, Emily. Students Lobby …