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2016

Life Sciences

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Articles 1 - 25 of 25

Full-Text Articles in Environmental Engineering

Bioremediation Of Chlorinated Ethenes: Ph Effects, Novel Dechlorinators And Decision-Making Tools, Yi Yang Dec 2016

Bioremediation Of Chlorinated Ethenes: Ph Effects, Novel Dechlorinators And Decision-Making Tools, Yi Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

Chlorinated solvents have been widely used in different areas of modern society. Usage of these chlorinated solvents was not necessarily accompanied with proper handling and disposal of these hazardous compounds, which caused a variety of environmental problems and continues to affect human health. Remediation of chlorinated ethenes contaminated sites has high priority for state regulators and site owners. Among the available treatment technologies, bioremediation shows great promise as a cost-effective corrective strategy for a variety of environmental pollutants. Prerequisites are that the microbiology involved in contaminant degradation and geochemical factors, such as pH, are understood, so that bioremediation technologies can …

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Pepper Mild Mottle Virus As A Surrogate For Enteric Viruses: Implications For Assessing Water Quality, Erin Michelle Symonds Nov 2016

Pepper Mild Mottle Virus As A Surrogate For Enteric Viruses: Implications For Assessing Water Quality, Erin Michelle Symonds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Less than 10% of the world’s domestic wastewater is disinfected prior to discharge into surface waters; therefore, human exposure to diverse wastewater-related pathogens results in millions of cases of illness each year. Among the enteric pathogens, viruses represent an important group of emerging pathogens and are frequently the cause of food- and water-borne outbreaks of illness. Although the World Health Organization and many government agencies mandate the use of bacterial indicators to identify poor microbial water quality, it is well known that these indicators poorly correlate with fecal pollution contamination events and risk of disease. The field of public health-related …

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Evapotranspiration From Extensive Green Roofs: Influence Of Climatological Conditions, Vegetation Type, And Substrate Depth, Maria Eloisa Sia Sep 2016

Evapotranspiration From Extensive Green Roofs: Influence Of Climatological Conditions, Vegetation Type, And Substrate Depth, Maria Eloisa Sia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Green roofs are gaining popularity worldwide as a low impact development tool to mitigate increasing stormwater runoff within dense urban areas. Evapotranspiration (ET) is the key hydrologic process governing the capacity of a green roof to retain rainfall as it regenerates available water storage space in the green roof substrate (soil) between rainfall events. To date, there are limited data on how the interaction between different climatological conditions and design parameters (e.g., vegetation type, substrate depth) affect ET rates. This currently limits the ability to optimize green roof design for stormwater management. In this field study, the impact of climatological …

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Evaluating The Two-Stage Ditch As A New Best Management Practice, Andi Hodaj Aug 2016

Evaluating The Two-Stage Ditch As A New Best Management Practice, Andi Hodaj

Open Access Dissertations

A two-stage ditch involves modifications of a traditional drainage ditch to resemble more the features of a natural stream. The idea is to create or simulate extended benches on both sides of the ditch that would develop naturally over a period of time in a stream because of geomorphological processes. Previous research in Indiana and Ohio has shown that two-stage ditches offer the potential to reduce sediment load and extend the interaction time between water and vegetation on the benches allowing larger uptake of nutrients from the vegetation on the extended benches, and increasing the denitrification rates in the bench …

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Mapping And Analyzing Energy Use And Efficiency In A Modified Hydroponic Shipping Container, Rachel E. Sparks Aug 2016

Mapping And Analyzing Energy Use And Efficiency In A Modified Hydroponic Shipping Container, Rachel E. Sparks

Open Access Theses

In urban centers today, vertical farming is becoming a popular alternative to conventional agriculture in an effort to increase local food production and improve urban food security by growing crops using hydroponic methods in controlled environment spaces. More specifically, one vertical method involves growing crops inside refurbished shipping containers, or a “farm-in-a-box” concept, which offers a flexible, mobile, and scalable means of year-round food production in a variety of climates. Despite benefits of producing food locally, some of the concerns associated with these vertical farming systems include high energy consumption from climate control and electric lighting systems as well as …

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Development And Assessment Of A Groundwater Sustainability Index In Climatically Diverse Groundwater Irrigated Regions In Nebraska, Maria A. Mulet Jalil Jul 2016

Development And Assessment Of A Groundwater Sustainability Index In Climatically Diverse Groundwater Irrigated Regions In Nebraska, Maria A. Mulet Jalil

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of regional change in ET on groundwater level changes and the assessment and development of a groundwater sustainability index for climatically diverse regions across Nebraska during 2000-2014. Irrigation in the selected regions is predominantly supplied by groundwater. The hypothesis is that groundwater use can become sustainable if the regional evapotranspiration (ET) is managed so that it equals the ET of vegetation that is native to the region. Site locations were Box Butte, Chase, Dundy, Holt LNNRD and York Counties and 3 ecosystems were evaluated: native vegetation, dryland and irrigated cropping …

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Bioaugmentation And Correlating Anaerobic Digester Microbial Community To Process Function, Kaushik Venkiteshwaran Jul 2016

Bioaugmentation And Correlating Anaerobic Digester Microbial Community To Process Function, Kaushik Venkiteshwaran

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation describes two research projects on anaerobic digestion (AD) that investigated the relationship between microbial community structure and digester function. Both archaeal and bacterial communities were characterized using high-throughput (Illumina) sequencing technology with universal 16S rRNA gene primers. In the first project, bioaugmentation using a methanogenic, aerotolerant propionate enrichment culture was investigated as a possible method to increase digester methane production. Nine anaerobic digesters, seeded with different biomass, were operated identically and their quasi steady state function was compared. Before bioaugmentation, different seed biomass resulted in different quasi steady state function, with digesters clustering into high, medium or low …

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High-Throughput Screening Of Clinically Approved Drugs That Prime Polyethylenimine Transfection Reveals Modulation Of Mitochondria Dysfunction Response Improves Gene Transfer Efficiencies, Albert Nguyen, Jared P. Beyersdorf, Jean-Jack Riethoven, Angela K. Pannier Jul 2016

High-Throughput Screening Of Clinically Approved Drugs That Prime Polyethylenimine Transfection Reveals Modulation Of Mitochondria Dysfunction Response Improves Gene Transfer Efficiencies, Albert Nguyen, Jared P. Beyersdorf, Jean-Jack Riethoven, Angela K. Pannier

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Nonviral gene delivery methods are advantageous over viral vectors in terms of safety, cost, and flexibility in design and application, but suffer from lower gene transfer efficiency. In addition to modifications to nucleic acid design and nonviral carriers, new tools are sought to enhance transfection. Priming is the pharmacological modulation of transfection efficiency and transgene expression, and has demonstrated transfection increase in several compounds, for example, chloroquine and glucocorticoids. To develop a library of transfection priming compounds, a highthroughput screen was performed of the NIH Clinical Collection (NCC) to identify clinical compounds that prime polyethylenimine (PEI) transfection. HEK293T cells were …

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Bathymetric Survey For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo, Hispaniola, Michael Piasecki, Mahrokh Moknatian, Fred Moshary, Joseph Cleto, Yolanda Leon, Jorge Gonzalez, Daniel Comarazamy Jun 2016

Bathymetric Survey For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo, Hispaniola, Michael Piasecki, Mahrokh Moknatian, Fred Moshary, Joseph Cleto, Yolanda Leon, Jorge Gonzalez, Daniel Comarazamy

Publications and Research

The two largest lakes on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola, Lake Azuei in Haiti and Lake Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic, have experienced dramatic growth and surface area expansion over the past few years leading to severe flooding and loss of arable land around the lake perimeters. In order to better understand the reasons for this unprecedented rate of expansion and the resulting consequences a multi-disciplinary team comprised of researchers from Haiti, the DR, and the US have embarked on an extensive data collecting and hydrologic and climatological modeling campaign. While the sensor deployment entails stations that measure climatological data …

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Water And Energy Use Of Antimicrobial Interventions In A Mid-Size Beef Packing Plant, Rami M. M. Ziara, Shaobin Li, Bruce I. Dvorak, Jeyamkondan Subbiah Jun 2016

Water And Energy Use Of Antimicrobial Interventions In A Mid-Size Beef Packing Plant, Rami M. M. Ziara, Shaobin Li, Bruce I. Dvorak, Jeyamkondan Subbiah

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Data regarding the water and energy usage of current antimicrobial interventions in beef packing plants is scarce. The objective of this study was to collect representative water and energy usage data in a beef packing plant, with emphasis on antimicrobial interventions, to provide baseline data for comparison of new intervention technologies developed by researchers. Permanent and portable water flow meters were installed on the plant’s plumbing system to collect water flow data from March 2014 to March 2015. A local utility company was hired to meter electricity at the different subsystems using portable data loggers. The natural gas used in …

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A Systems Approach To Modelling The Effects Of Climate Change On Agroforestry: A Case Study In Western Tanzania, Elaine M. Samuel May 2016

A Systems Approach To Modelling The Effects Of Climate Change On Agroforestry: A Case Study In Western Tanzania, Elaine M. Samuel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Climate change is anticipated to have significant effects on agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa as the magnitude of weather events increase in severity. Smallholder farmers in western Tanzania are potentially vulnerable to climate change impact as crops rely on precipitation as the only source of water. It is prudent to evaluate different modes of agricultural adaptations, such as agroforestry, that these farmers can easily adopt to improve their resiliency to the effects of climate change. System dynamics modelling is a cost-effective tool to simulate the long-term behaviour of agroforestry systems under future climate conditions. Water, Nutrient, and Light Capture in …

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Channel Movement, Error Analysis, And Impacts For Neighboring Landowners: A Lower Bear River, Ut Case Study, Russell Babb, Kellie Shawn, Todd Brown, Ayman Alafifi, David Rosenberg Apr 2016

Channel Movement, Error Analysis, And Impacts For Neighboring Landowners: A Lower Bear River, Ut Case Study, Russell Babb, Kellie Shawn, Todd Brown, Ayman Alafifi, David Rosenberg

Spring Runoff Conference

The Bear River Fellows program is a unique learning experience for undergraduate students giving hands-on experience in collecting, synthesizing, and analyzing environmental and ecological data. The Bear River is an important resource that provides water to farms, reservoirs, wetlands, wildlife, and hydropower generation. Because of the river’s value, it is important to understand how the Bear River channel moves and how that affects the surrounding landscape, which is a topic of interest for local land owners but especially conservationists in protecting wetlands and river ecology. We collected hydrological, topologic, and vegetative data from three persisting research sites along an 8 …

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Seasonal Flow Rates Along The Lower Bear River, Ut, Todd Keniry, Dahlia Curiel, Dylan Anderson, Ayman Alafifi, David E. Rosenberg Apr 2016

Seasonal Flow Rates Along The Lower Bear River, Ut, Todd Keniry, Dahlia Curiel, Dylan Anderson, Ayman Alafifi, David E. Rosenberg

Spring Runoff Conference

The goal of this research is to identify how flow on the Bear River in Cache Valley has changed over the last three years and how flow changes seasonally. Identifying flows is important to manage water resources along the Bear River. We collected and processed water pressure data every 30 minutes using HOBO transducers at two sites in Cache Valley (Morton, just downstream of highway 142, and Confluence which is located at the confluence of the Bear and Cub Rivers) south of the Idaho‐Utah border in 2015. We also measured flow and water stage up to three times per year …

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The Role Of Household Antimicrobials In The Proliferation Of Antibiotic Resistance During Anaerobic Digestion, Daniel Elliott Carey Apr 2016

The Role Of Household Antimicrobials In The Proliferation Of Antibiotic Resistance During Anaerobic Digestion, Daniel Elliott Carey

Dissertations (1934 -)

Antimicrobial chemicals in consumer personal care products have been found to increase antibiotic resistance in pure culture studies. Although many studies focus on antibiotic resistance development pertinent to medical scenarios, resistance developed in natural and engineered environments might be significant and has become an emerging concern for human health. This dissertation focuses on the antimicrobial chemicals triclosan and triclocarban. These compounds are distinctly different from antibiotics and are used in products like soaps that are labelled as “antibacterial”. Municipal wastewater treatment plants receive triclocarban and triclosan loads higher than most contaminants of emerging concern because they are frequently used in …

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A Study On The Dissolution Of Autunite Minerals By Facultative Bacteria In Bicarbonate Media, Sandra C. Herrera Landaez Apr 2016

A Study On The Dissolution Of Autunite Minerals By Facultative Bacteria In Bicarbonate Media, Sandra C. Herrera Landaez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Uranium (U) is a key contaminant at the Hanford site. The formation of uranyl-phosphate bearing minerals such as autunite as a result of tripoliphosphate injections has been used as a U immobilization strategy. Bacteria are known as key factors governing the fate and transport of soil contaminants. This research evaluated the interaction of facultative bacteria Shewanella Oneidensis MR-1 with autunite mineral in bicarbonate-amended media solutions. The concentration of several elements such as U, calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P) released as a result of autunite mineral biodissolution were determined as a function of time; changes in cell density and protein assay …

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Pollinator Garden, Paige E. Bradley Mar 2016

Pollinator Garden, Paige E. Bradley

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

The goal of the project is to increase awareness about global climate change and the necessity of environmentally sustainable practice, particularly among the younger citizens of the Lafayette area. The Lyn Greece Boys & Girls Club extended a hand and offered us land to install a pollinator garden on their campus and an opportunity to meet with the kids one-on-one to promote sustainability ideas and help them understand the basics of gardening. The project is as local as possible, using native plants, no pesticides or herbicides, Bennett's Greenhouse (a local business), and the resources on campus to reach out to …

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Novel Approaches For Assessment Of Copper Toxicity: Fast Scan Cyclic Voltammetry And Optical Bioassays, Annette R. Tremonti Jan 2016

Novel Approaches For Assessment Of Copper Toxicity: Fast Scan Cyclic Voltammetry And Optical Bioassays, Annette R. Tremonti

Wayne State University Dissertations

Anthropogenic activities negatively impact fresh water ecosystems through toxic contaminants that are released into the environment. Copper (Cu) is a water contaminant that is fundamentally persistent once introduced into the environment that has the potential for bioaccumulation. Although Cu toxicity has been studied for decades, there is still a continuing problem with new sources and pathways. New approaches are needed to understand distribution and transport of Cu and its potential for complex biological impacts beyond the simple assessment of lethality. Several novel approaches were used in this research project to advance our understanding of Cu toxicity, including fast scan cyclic …

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Long-Term Effects Of Forestry Best Management Practices On Hydrology And Water Chemistry In Three Appalchian Headwater Catchments, Kameryn I. Wright Jan 2016

Long-Term Effects Of Forestry Best Management Practices On Hydrology And Water Chemistry In Three Appalchian Headwater Catchments, Kameryn I. Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

In 1982, a study was initiated in the Field Branch watershed, in the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Forest, to evaluate forestry best management practice (BMP) effectiveness after intensive harvesting. The study utilized a paired watershed approach on three adjacent Field Branch subcatchments. One subcatchment was left as the control, one had BMPs implemented (including a 50-ft undisturbed buffer along the stream), and one was clear-cut to the stream’s banks without the use of BMPs (i.e. logger’s choice). Prior research has shown that logging can negatively impact watershed functions by altering stream hydrology, geomorphology, water quality, and instream habitat. Thus, the …

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Early Life History Of Three Pelagic-Spawning Minnows Macrhybopsis Spp. In The Lower Missouri River, T. A. Starks, M. L. Miller, J. M. Long Jan 2016

Early Life History Of Three Pelagic-Spawning Minnows Macrhybopsis Spp. In The Lower Missouri River, T. A. Starks, M. L. Miller, J. M. Long

US Army Corps of Engineers

Life-history characteristics of age-0 sturgeon chub Macrhybopsis gelida, shoal chub Macrhybopsis hyostoma and sicklefin chub Macrhybopsis meeki were compared using several methods. All Macrhybopsis species consumed mostly midge pupae, but M. meeki had the most general diet (Levins’ index, B=0⋅22) compared with M. hyostoma (B=0⋅02) and M. gelida (B=0⋅09). Morisita’s diet overlap index among species pairs ranged from 0⋅62 to 0⋅97 and was highest between M. hyostoma and M. gelida. Daily ages estimated from lapilli otoliths for each species ranged from 15 to 43 days for M. gelida, 19 to 44 for …

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Assessing Public Health Burden Associated With Exposure To Ambient Black Carbon In The United States, Ying Li, Daven K. Henze, Darby Jack, Barron H. Henderson, Patrick L. Kinney Jan 2016

Assessing Public Health Burden Associated With Exposure To Ambient Black Carbon In The United States, Ying Li, Daven K. Henze, Darby Jack, Barron H. Henderson, Patrick L. Kinney

ETSU Faculty Works

Black carbon (BC) is a significant component of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution, which has been linked to a series of adverse health effects, in particular premature mortality. Recent scientific research indicates that BC also plays an important role in climate change. Therefore, controlling black carbon emissions provides an opportunity for a double dividend. This study quantifies the national burden of mortality and morbidity attributable to exposure to ambient BC in the United States (US). We use GEOS–Chem, a global 3-D model of atmospheric composition to estimate the 2010 annual average BC levels at 0.5 x 0.667° …

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Phytoforensics Tools: The Degradation And Detection Of Chlorinated Solvents In Integrated Systems, Tommy J. Goodwin Jr. Jan 2016

Phytoforensics Tools: The Degradation And Detection Of Chlorinated Solvents In Integrated Systems, Tommy J. Goodwin Jr.

Masters Theses

"Due to decades of mismanaged pollutants entering groundwater, subsurface pollution of various compounds has become a widespread challenge. Chlorinated solvents are the most common groundwater contaminants that persist in aquifers, and remediation of these wide-spread plumes is difficult. Bioremediation, permeable reactive barriers, and phytoremediation are remedial technologies that have been developed and applied to chlorinated solvents in groundwater systems. This study integrates these technologies in different combinations to demonstrate the remediation potential of this approach. Zerovalent iron (ZVI) and bioaugmentation with a Dehalococcoides sp. (DHC) culture were applied separately and in combination for degradation of perchloroethene (PCE). Salix pentandra were …

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Temporal Dynamics Of Maize Plant Growth, Water Use, And Leaf Water Content Using Automated High Throughput Rgb And Hyperspectral Imaging, Yufeng Ge, Geng Bai, Vincent Stoerger, James C. Schnable Jan 2016

Temporal Dynamics Of Maize Plant Growth, Water Use, And Leaf Water Content Using Automated High Throughput Rgb And Hyperspectral Imaging, Yufeng Ge, Geng Bai, Vincent Stoerger, James C. Schnable

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Automated collection of large scale plant phenotype datasets using high throughput imaging systems has the potential to alleviate current bottlenecks in data-driven plant breeding and crop improvement. In this study, we demonstrate the characterization of temporal dynamics of plant growth and water use, and leaf water content of two maize genotypes under two different water treatments. RGB (Red Green Blue) images are processed to estimate projected plant area, which are correlated with destructively measured plant shoot fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW) and leaf area. Estimated plant FW and DW, along with pot weights, are used to derive daily plant …

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Assessing The Impacts Of Climate Change On The Surface Temperature Of Inland Lakes In Michigan, Kaitlin Reinl Jan 2016

Assessing The Impacts Of Climate Change On The Surface Temperature Of Inland Lakes In Michigan, Kaitlin Reinl

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The aim of this study was to validate and apply a lake model for predicting the susceptibility of small inland lakes in Michigan to changes in thermal regime and increased cyanobacteria growth as a result of future climate conditions. The Freshwater Lake Model was selected, tested for sensitivity to various inputs, and validated through comparison to observed conditions. The sensitivity analysis showed that the lake model was most sensitive to solar radiation, air temperature, and air humidity. Comparison of predicted climate data with observed conditions revealed highly variable climate model error. The lake model validation was conducted using 10 lakes …

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Using Zeolite For Soil Moisture Retention And Salinity Control, Mark Torres Jan 2016

Using Zeolite For Soil Moisture Retention And Salinity Control, Mark Torres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

There is a great need in the desert southwest United States for exploring ways to save water in agriculture as it accounts for up to 90 percent of water consumption in many western states (USDA 2016). As surface water reaches critical lows the dependence on ground water has increased leading to the need for deeper wells with higher salt concentrations. The studies conducted for this research included using zeolites from the St Cloud Mining Company in Winston, New Mexico to determine the feasibility of using these zeolites to help and retain moisture in zeolite treated soils. The Volumetric Water Content …

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Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria Community Analysis: Isco/Isb Coupled Remediation, Christopher K. Bartlett Jan 2016

Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria Community Analysis: Isco/Isb Coupled Remediation, Christopher K. Bartlett

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Improved techniques for remediating groundwater systems are required for the more than 500,000 contaminated sites in North America. Many of these sites are the legacy of historical industrial operations, inappropriate disposal practices and accidental releases. The most widely observed contaminant at many of these sites is petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs). Recently, remediation efforts that involve the sequential application of treatment technologies have gained widespread interest. One specific sequential technology application or treatment train employs the aggressive nature of a chemical oxidation followed by bioremediation for polishing. When persulfate is used as the chemical oxidant its natural degradation by-product is sulfate, an …

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