Digital Commons Network^™

Into The Depths: Climate Change Part 2, Felicia Bedford

D.U.Quark

No abstract provided.

Towards Conserving Crop Wild Relatives Along The Texas–Mexico Border: The Case Of Manihot Walkerae, Gisel Garza, Crystian Sadel Venegas Barrera, Jon Dale, José Guadalupe Martínez-Ávalos, Teresa Patricia Feria-Arroyo

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Walker’s Manihot, Manihot walkerae, is an endangered species endemic to south Texas and northeastern Mexico and is a Crop Wild Relative (CWR) of the international and economically important crop cassava (M. esculenta). Manihot walkerae is globally endangered (IUCN’s Redlist, Texas list, USA); however, it is not recognized on the Mexican list of endangered species (NOM-059-SEMARNAT). We assessed the status of M. walkerae in Mexico and re-evaluated its global status. According to our analysis, M. walkerae should be considered an endangered species based on the IUCN’s assessment method and a threatened species in Mexico based on the Mexican criteria. Our findings …

Sustainability In Web Development Through Energy Efficiency, Hannah Bebinger

Honors Projects

As global internet usage expands, websites are growing in both size and complexity. Contrary to the common belief that the internet is immaterial and “environmentally friendly”, web pages have significant negative environmental impacts (Frick, 2015). Websites contribute to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and electricity consumption. Considering the current climate crisis, it is crucial that web developers be aware of the impact that their work has on the environment and actively work to improve site energy efficiency. With a lack of regulation and awareness, the environmental impact of websites has remained unchecked despite growing concerns for sustainability. Further research and …

The Effect Of Crude Oil Prices On Personal Consumption Expenditure, Eileen Cooney

Economics Student Scholarship

Eileen Cooney ’23
Majors: Quantitative Economics and Political Science
Minor: Finance
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Fang Dong, Economics

The author used the time series models to analyze how growth of personal consumption expenditure is influenced by financial and economic determinants. Results show that both oil price and consumer sentiment play important roles in influencing consumption growth.

The Connections Between Innovation, Culture, And Expertise In Water Infrastructure Organizations, Alice Brawley-Chesworth

Dissertations and Theses

Infrastructure organizations are notoriously conservative and resistant to change, even when faced with wicked problems that cannot be solved with the same thinking used in the past. In the water sector, this resistance to change has been linked to an industry culture that is based in a single, engineering-oriented knowledge system. Scholars have suggested that diversification of knowledge systems is necessary for implementation of innovations that will move the sector forward to solve wicked problems.

This research used a qualitative case study approach comparing two water sector organizations in Portland, Oregon. One organization included members who shared an engineering knowledge …

Powering A Sustainable Electric Vehicle Future, Harmony Ruth, Jordan Brickman

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Electric vehicle sales account for roughly 20% of total sales world wide and are projected to be 80% by 2050. China's electric vehicle market holds a 13.3% market share. China exported 550,000 electric vehicles in 2021. China represents a 54% share of the world's coal consumption as of 2020. Why study China on this issue? China is a major player in the World Economy.

Promoting Sustainability At Providence College, Victoria Hanlon, Ava Biafore

Health Sciences Student Scholarship

Victoria Hanlon ’23, Major: Health Policy and Management

Ava Biafore ’23, Majors: Management and Health Policy and Management

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Tuba Agartan, Health Policy and Management and Jill Parrett, Environmental Health and Safety

We are both Health Policy and Management majors conducting an independent study with Dr. Agartan with the goal of improving sustainability practices at Providence College. We are working cross functionally with Jill Parret of the Environmental Safety Department and the Student Congress Sustainability Committee to encourage the student body to increase sustainability awareness. These measures include creating a sustainability dashboard on the Providence College website, Canva …

Low-Cost Adsorbent For Disinfection Byproduct Removal From Drinking Water, Savanna Vacek, Suraj Pochampally

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Disinfection byproducts (DBPs) are harmful contaminants that are unintentionally created in disinfected water after chlorination. Activated carbon, often expensive and difficult to acquire in low-income and rural areas, has previously been used to remove DBPs from drinking water. Biochar is made from agricultural waste (i.e. feedstock) and has been identified as a low-cost yet effective adsorbent to remote contaminants from drinking water. This work focuses on the efficacy of biochar and activated carbon to remove DBPs from drinking water for the purpose of treating drinking water after emergency chlorination. This study has the potential to help water distributors and disadvantaged …

Synthesis Of Modified Walnut Shell Biochar And Material Characterization In Ground Water Treatment, Maaike Parajes, Suraj Pochampally

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Biochar (BC) is a carbon-rich material synthesized from the pyrolysis of biomasses and developed to remove soil and wastewater contaminants. The pyrolysis process involves thermally decomposing the organic materials in the absence of oxygen. Biochar has the potential to be an eco-friendly and effective adsorbent for heavy metals and toxic organic compounds. An adsorbent is a material that attracts other substances on its surface, chemically and physically. Walnut shells were chosen for the biochar modification to improve the surface morphology, pore structure, and adsorption capability.

Biochar Hydrophilicity Characterization By A Smartphone-Based Apparatus: Design, Construction, And Measurement Calibration, Emma Letourneau, Suraj Pochampally

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Water contact angles are used to determine hydrophilicity, which is a material's attraction to water. A water contact angle of greater than 90 degrees indicates a hydrophobic material that repels water, whereas a contact angle of less than 90 degrees indicates a hydrophilic material [Fig. 1]. Water contact angles are measured through a goniometer, which can cost between $2000 to $10,000.

Biochar is a porous carbon material created from biological waste products, that is pyrolyzed (i.e. burned) in a low-oxygen, high heat environment. Biochar can be used to remove contaminants from water and remediate soil while reusing waste, making it …

Evaluating Alternative Ebullition Models For Predicting Peatland Methane Emission And Its Pathways Via Data–Model Fusion, Shuang Ma, Lifen Jiang, Rachel M. Wilson, Jeff P. Chanton, Scott Bridgham, Shuli Niu, Colleen M. Iversen, Avni Malhotra, Jiang Jiang, Xingjie Lu, Yuanyuan Huang, Jason Keller, Xiaofeng Xu, Daniel M. Ricciuto, Paul J. Hanson, Yiqi Luo

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Understanding the dynamics of peatland methane (CH4) emissions and quantifying sources of uncertainty in estimating peatland CH4 emissions are critical for mitigating climate change. The relative contributions of CH4 emission pathways through ebullition, plant-mediated transport, and diffusion, together with their different transport rates and vulnerability to oxidation, determine the quantity of CH4 to be oxidized before leaving the soil. Notwithstanding their importance, the relative contributions of the emission pathways are highly uncertain. In particular, the ebullition process is more uncertain and can lead to large uncertainties in modeled CH4 emissions. To improve model simulations of CH4 emission and its pathways, …

Sciadopitys Verticillata (Japanese Umbrella Pine) Id #783, Claire Cavanagh

BIO 140 Arboretum Project

Location: Back of Library, West side of Parking Lot

Oregon’S Place-Based Integrated Water Resources Planning Program: A Participatory Evaluation, Rebecca Mclain, Sadie Boyers, Jess Downey, Emily Jane Davis

National Policy Consensus Center Publications

In 2015, the Oregon Legislature passed ORS 536.220, which directed the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) to develop an integrated water resources strategy and gave it authority to make grants and provide technical assistance to communities seeking to engage in place-based planning integrated water resources planning (hereafter place-based planning). The legislation provided a means by which Oregon communities could coordinate an assessment of the water needs of instream and out-of-stream water interests in their area and reach agreement on how those needs could be met now and in the future. Legislators structured the program to give persons who live, work, …

Sustainability In Industrial Architecture, Katerina Shuble

Honors Projects

The goal of this project is to complete an in-depth study and analysis of sustainable industrial architecture. Currently, sustainable industrial architecture is an emerging topic amongst architects and industry leaders. Topics involve battling with ideologies and company policies to better the sustainability of industrial architecture. This project will help fill the gap between industrial design and sustainability by creating research and project-based examples of how sustainable industrial design can be completed. The project will be a result of a thorough research study of current sustainable industrial design, and a proposal for new efforts that can be implemented. The goal of …

New Multimedia Resources For Ecological Resilience Education In Modern University Classrooms, Katharine F. E. Hogan, Julie A. Fowler, Conor D. Barnes, Alison K. Ludwig, Dominic J. Cristiano, Daniel Morales, Rubi Quiñones, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr, Jenny Dauer

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Solutions to global problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss require educational frameworks and accompanying teaching resources that are theory-based, interdisciplinary, and accessible to broad undergraduate and graduate student audiences. Ecological resilience theory (ERT) is a framework with established interdisciplinary application to complex global problems, but despite an emphasis on the utility of resilience in national higher education frameworks, we found that many current ecology textbooks incorporate multiple definitions and highly variable amounts of discussion on core resilience concepts. To facilitate the use of innovative teaching resources in ERT in universities, this paper describes four free multimedia tools and …

The Ecology And Evolution Of Phenotypic Plasticity: Insights From Amphibians, Rick Relyea

Sustainability Seminar Series

Nearly every species on the planet exhibits traits that are the product of the genes they possess and the environments in which they live. Dr. Relyea will examine the ecological and evolutionary insights from more than two decades of studying amphibians as a model system, including the many different predator, competitor, and contaminant environments that induce changes in behavior, morphology, and life history. He will also explore the phylogenetic patterns in how plastic traits have evolved, including how traits and trait plasticities can exhibit dramatically different evolutionary patterns.

Urban Forests And Their Potential To Combat Food Insecurity: Analyzing Street Trees In Baltimore, Md For Their Edibility, Victoria Bearden

Environment and Sustainability Honors Papers

Food insecure environments, in which residents lack consistent access to nutritious food materials, can occur in urban settings. Literature on urban forests suggests that trees can provide a range of provisioning ecosystem services, including edible uses. We consider this to determine if street trees in Baltimore, Maryland have the potential to provide nutritious food materials to address food insecurity in Healthy Food Priority Areas (HFPA), designated by Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Our analysis utilizes the Plants For a Future database and the geospatial hotspot analysis tool in Esri’s ArcMap to determine the edible quality ratings (EQR) of …

Fighting Food Insecurity In New York City: What Role For Street Trees?, Kristen Cooney

Environment and Sustainability Honors Papers

There is growing recognition that urban forests have the potential to combat food insecurity via their edible parts, namely fruits, berries, and nuts. I researched New York City’s street trees, by locating trees with edible parts within food insecure communities, to analyze this potential.

Present Situation And Prospects Of Tourism Resource Evaluation In Abandoned Mining Areas, Wang Qiuju, Wang Yue, Ma Yuying, Zhang Bo

Coal Geology & Exploration

The identification and evaluation of tourism resources are important basis for tourism planning and development in abandoned mining areas. This paper adopts literature review method and inductive analysis method to comprehensively sort out the domestic and foreign research results on the value evaluation of tourism resources in abandoned mining areas, and systematically analyze the identification, evaluation system construction and evaluation methods of tourism resources in abandoned mining areas. It is found that the current understanding of tourism resources in abandoned mining areas is only at the level of mining relics and mining heritage, lacking emphasis on the natural resources such …

Principle Of A Self-Protective Sealing Device For Mwd And Its Influencing Factors, Wang Yaoming, Ye Genfei, Zhao Yongzhe, Gao Ke, Liu Weiwei, Duan Huijun

Coal Geology & Exploration

For deeper drilling depth and longer service life of MWD, a self-protection sealing device for the MWD instrument is designed given the defects of the combined static sealing structure. The relationship between rubber airbag expansion displacement and air pressure was studied through static expansion numerical simulation. On this basis, the reasons for different results due to different model sizes were analyzed, and the factors causing the different simulation results of the self-protection sealing device were discussed. The four independent variables of airbag diameter, width, wall thickness and inner cavity width were determined and simulated to explore their relationship with the …

A Food-Themed Cross-Disciplinary Faculty-Staff Learning Community Enriches Place-Based Experiential Learning Curricula - (Instructor Resource), Julia L. Angstmann, Grant A. Fore, Francesca A. Williamson, Brandon H. Sorge

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This document contains instructional resources to facilitate an 8-month Faculty-Staff Learning Community (FSLC) focused on learning and discussion to support the creation of campus farmsituated place-based experiential learning (PBEL) lessons that inspire place attachment, sustainability meaning making, environmental science literacy, and civic mindedness. The development of this professional development resource is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. DUE-1609219 and DUE-1915313.

Establishment Of A 3d Solid Model Blasting Rock Mass Based On Intelligent Lithology Identification, Chen Yingxian, Wang Pengfei

Coal Geology & Exploration

With the development and application of intelligent drilling machine, the lithology data of blasting borehole can be obtained accurately. The blast-hole database is established to store and manage the intelligently identified blast-hole data. Taking the rock property data of blast hole as the sample, the inverse distance square method is used to interpolate the solid elements within the blasting area to generate the 3D solid model of blasting rock mass. The 3D solid model of rock mass was cut by using the polygon of blasting area and the triangular network of bench, and then the 3D solid model of blasting …

Establishment And Application Of Four Basic Data Accounts For Coal Mine Water Control, Lyu Yuguang, Li Mingzhen, Hu Falun, Liu Shuang

Coal Geology & Exploration

Mine water inflow, aquifer water level, analysis data of water quality and formation information are closely related to water prevention and control. It takes a long time to collect a large amount of data. The relevant technical specifications clearly require the establishment of an account for data management, but there is no unified and practical account format, and detailed description of its purpose. Microsoft Excel is used to establish four basic data accounts of mine water inflow, aquifer water level, hydrochemistry and information on stratum. The format of the account is standardized, and the methods for data application of each …

Formation Of Permafrost And Its Influence On Natural Gas Hydrate Accumulation In Muli Region, Qinghai Province, Wang Liping, Zhu Yinghao, Li Ning, Xu Shuanhai, Tian Yanzhe, Liu Naifei, Wang Wenli

Coal Geology & Exploration

The characteristics of the existing permafrost and natural gas hydrates were summarized and analyzed by studying the natural gas hydrate formation in Muli Region, Qinghai Province. On the basis of the evidence of the Quaternary climate survey and the available geological exploration data on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, FLAC^3D was used to simulate and calculate the formation of permafrost. The calculation results show that the existing permafrost probably formed during the late Holocene Neoglacial(4 000-3 000 to 1 000 a BP), and a stable boundary at bottom of the permafrost layer formed after about 170 a of cooling at a …

Meeting U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Goals With The International Air Pollution Provision Of The Clean Air Act, Mei Yuan, Alexander R. Barron, Noelle E. Selin, Paul D. Picciano, Lucy E. Metz, John M. Reilly, Henry D. Jacoby

Environmental Science and Policy: Faculty Publications

We explore economic, distributional and health consequences of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions objectives that could be achieved using Section 115 of the Clean Air Act (international air pollution), which has only recently received detailed legal analysis as a potential U.S. climate policy tool. Under it a national emissions target could be allocated among the states. This illustrative analysis considers 45% and 50% reductions of energy and industry-related CO2 emissions by 2030, below 2005 levels, via a model rule. Different approaches (based on legal precedent) for the interstate allocation are considered, along with alternative rates of technology improvement. The detail needed …

Green Transformation Paths Of Closed Coalmine Industrtry In Coal Resources Cities, Zhang Lifeng, Wang Qiuju

Coal Geology & Exploration

With the implementation of China's energy supply-side structural reform and coal production capacity policy, the number of coal mines closed in China is increasing year by year, and how to transform the industry after the closure of coal mines has become an urgent problem. Most of the closed coal mines are concentrated in coal resource-based cities, and the development of closed coal mines is inseparable from the development of coal resource-based cities. The selection of their advantageous industries should be consistent with the direction of industrial transformation of the cities where they are located, so as to to make effective …

Construction And Application Of Gas Resource Estimation And Evaluation Method In Abandoned Coal Mines, Liu Xiaolei, Yan Jiangwei, Liu Cao, Jia Tianrang, Feng Zhendong, Wei Jianping, Wei Guoying

Coal Geology & Exploration

On the basis of on the exploration and development status of gas resources in abandoned coal mines in China, the idea of “resource estimation + preliminary evaluation” was put forward to reasonably evaluate the gas resources in abandoned coal mines. The estimation and evaluation method of gas resources in abandoned coal mines was established, which has the advantages of less required parameters and strong practicability. According to the gas emission characteristics and abandoned time, the types of abandoned coal mines were divided into two categories: stable and unstable. Unstable coal mines were further divided into early, middle and late stages …

Mineral Composition Characteristics And Petroleum Geological Significance Of Tight Sandstone Of Longtan Formation In Weixin Area, Eastern Yunnan, Xing Huitong, Zhang Xiaoli, He Jinxian, Cao Wenjie, Yang Tiantian, Wang Jian, Shi Shuai

Coal Geology & Exploration

Tight gas is an unconventional resource developed in low-porosity and ultra-low permeability sandstone and has rich potential oil and gas reserves. However, due to its tight and low permeability, fracturing is a necessary means for efficient development of tight gas. The reservoir characteristics and material composition of sandstone are of great significance to the preliminary evaluation of resource potential and production capacity of the dense sandstone reservoirs. By using X-ray diffraction, microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and other technical means, ten outcroppings of tight sandstone from coal measures of Permian Longtan Formation in Weixin area of eastern Yunnan Province were qualitatively …

Characteristics Of Coal And Gas Outburst And Controlling Mechanism Of Stress Field In The Hanging Wall Of Normal Faults, Cao Yunxing, Zhang Haiyang, Zhang Zhen, Liu Gaofeng

Coal Geology & Exploration

The fault zone is the main geological unit where coal and gas outbursts occur. Statistics of many coal and gas outbursts show that the number and intensity of the outbursts in the hanging wall are significantly greater than those in the foot wall for normal faults. However, there are few studies on the geological mechanism of this phenomenon, especially the variation of the in-situ stress field in the hanging wall of normal faults before and after mining, and its controlling mechanism of coal and gas outbursts that has not been completely demonstrated. In view of this, the normal fault DF …

Propagation Characteristics Of Flame Wave And Shock Wave During The Gas Explosion In Complex Pipeline Network, Jia Jinzhang, Wang Dongming, Niu Xin, Li Bin, Zhu Jinchao, Wang Fengxiao

Coal Geology & Exploration

For the purpose of further exploring the flame wave propagation characteristics of the gas explosion shock wave, the gas explosion experiment was carried out in a complex pipe network designed and built by ourselves. In the experiment, a high precision pressure sensor and a temperature sensor were used to collect pressure changes and temperature peak data. By using the flame sensor to collect the flame wave signal in the process of explosion, the flame wave propagation velocity was calculated according to the theoretical formula, and the Origin software was used to comprehensively process the experimental data to study the shock …