Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Studies On The Occurrence Of Fluoride In Some Food Samples, Taghreed Ali Abdullah Al-Habshi

Theses

In recent years, the amount of fluoride in biological samples, drinking water and in fluoride containing food or feedstuffs has generated considerable interest. Hence the determination of fluoride is becoming increasingly important due to its implications for environmental health. Fluoride is considered to be amongst the most phytotoxic of the more common pollutants. In response to that extensive research has been made to improve the determination of trace amounts of fluoride through developing different analytical methods. The application of these various analytical methods for fluoride ion determination in water and food samples has gained an enormous interest.

Chapter I of …

Supercritical Fluid Extraction (Sfe) And High Performance Liquid Chromotography (Hplc) Analysis Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (Pah) Contaminated Soil, Marie Renee Gargas

Theses

Methods for the extraction and analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from contaminated soil were evaluated for use in a treatability study. Candidate procedures were selected from EPA SW-846 (Third Edition) methods. Soxhlet extraction (3540B) was selected to determine initial PAH concentrations. Supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide (SFE: 3561) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC: 8310) were evaluated for use as the extraction and analysis methods. Experimental soil was obtained from a petroleum product refinery site; a Certified Reference Material (CRM) was also studied.

Experiments focused on determining concentrations of anthracene, chrysene, fluoranthene, phenanthrene, and pyrene in untreated experimental …

Competition Of Copper, Lead, And Cadmium Adsorption To Goethite, Chris A. Christophi

Theses

Competition of copper, lead, and cadmium adsorption on goethite depends on metal ion and oxide surface characteristics. Goethite was characterized via X-ray diffraction, potentiometric titrations, site density determination, particle size analysis, and optical microscopy. In this thesis, a hypothesis was tested that electronegativity is the most important factor in metal affinities and adsorption competition to goethite.

Metal affinity and site density for the goethite surface were assessed by performing adsorption edges and isotherms. Based on the results of these experiments, competition studies were designed to observe adsorption and displacement of the competing metals by limiting the number of available sites …

Requirement Elicitation And Knowledge Management Utilizing Relational Database, Client Server And Internet Technologies, Umang J. Dave

Theses

The first step in any project is a statement of requirements. Requirements specification is an inevitable part of any successful project. However, the "rush" to convert concepts to products often proves as a big hindrance in the development process of any requirements set. This, in turn, hampers the ability to produce the concept and manage knowledge as originally envisioned.

The goal of the thesis is to foster understanding among the different communities affected by the development of the given system. The thesis is based on the principle that the requirements elicitation process for complex system is fundamentally a conversation among …

Process Modeling Using Proslcse On Web-Enabled Platform, Orcan Ali Enunlu

Theses

Process modeling is a relatively complex task that needs to be addressed from a different point of view. The classical approach would be to design the model, to send it for evaluation, then to return feedback to the developing team, and to reevaluate the model with the feedback received from the parties involved.

However, it is our understanding that the steps taken during the process modeling could benefit from the advantages that the Internet offers. To demonstrate the usefulness of Internet in process modeling, I have taken an existing tool, ProSLCSE, and implemented it with Java so that it can …

Determination Of Electron Donors In The Reductive Dechlorination Of Tetrachloroethene, Samantha L. Marasigan-Bernal

Theses

Several substrates, namely fatty acids and alcohols, were used to enhance the reductive microbial dechlorination of PCE to ethene. All of the microcosms amended with the volatile fatty acids (butyrate, succinate, lactate, formate, butyrate/formate mixture and butyrate/succinate mixture) demonstrated complete reductive dechlorination of PCE to ethane. The cultures amended with the butyrate/succinate mixture was the quickest to completely dechlorinate PCE to ethene (49 days). Those amended with butyrate, succinate, formate and the butyrate/formate mixture exhibited complete reductive, dechlorination at 77 days. Microcosms amended with lactate exhibited complete reductive dechlorination at 160 days.

The microcosms amended with the alcohols (ethanol, propanol, …

Development And Field Testing Of Pulse Introduction Membrane Extraction (Pime) For Measurement Of Ground Water Contamination, Anthony San Juan

Theses

VOCs are a class of aromatic and aliphatic compounds with a variety of functional groups, and are in general detrimental to human health even at trace levels. Conventional analysis of VOCs in groundwater usually involves sampling at site followed by laboratory analysis. This results in long turn around times, high cost and also errors associated with sample preservation during transportation and storage. In order to address these problems, a field portable instrument referred to as Pulse Introduction Membrane Extraction (PIME) has been developed for monitoring trace level halogenated organic contaminants in ground water. A membrane extraction approach has been used, …

The Feasibility Of Transferring Clean Technology From The United States To China : A Case Study From The Paper Industry, He Ning

Theses

In their pursuit of economic development, many developing countries are causing pollution at an alarming rate. One solution to the problem is the use of clean technology. Some developed countries have created various manufacture technologies which result in pollution prevention. There is a need for the transfer of clean technology from the developed countries to developing countries. It is beneficial to study the feasibility of such transfer.

The manufacturing processes of the paper industry are selected for this study. An investigation and comparison was conducted in order to evaluate the feasibility of clean technology transfer from the United States to …

Utilization Of The Meteorological Data In The Prediction Of The Potential Of The Renewable Energy Resources In The United Arab Emirates, Nasser A.N. Albaloushi

Theses

There has been an increasing world interest in clean renewable energies ( mainly radiation and wind energies ) due to the minimal environmental problems resulting from their use. The continuous depletion of conventional energy resources and the growing world concern about the environment have lead to extensive research and development efforts in order to improve the energy conversion efficiencies and economics of devices utilizing solar energy. However, it is important to identify first the potential of available energy resources in the site where renewable energy is to be utilized.

Meteorological information are critical to the assessment of the energy resources …

The Importance Of Liability For The Redevelopment Of Brownfields : The Developers View, Daniel F. Chachakis

Theses

The thousands of former industrial properties lying vacant in New Jersey are an economic challenge for all areas of government. If these properties are, or are perceived to be, contaminated then they are labeled Brownfields. An important question is whether the threat of liability for contamination by prior owners is a current cause behind the failure of developers to acquire and redevelop Brownfields in the State of New Jersey.

The goal of this work was to discover if there is a link between liability and the developer's decision making process. How important is the liability factor? Fifty-seven variables were examined …

Incentive Factors That Affect The Redevelopment Of Brownfield Sites In New Jersey, Edison L. Hammond

Theses

This thesis sought to addressthree main questions:

· Are brownfieldsa significant problem in New Jersey and its municipalities?

· What factors havecontributed to brownfields' continued existence?

· What factors aremost important for correcting brownfields in the state?

The study involved surveyingFederal and state agencies, NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) andmunicipalities that work with brownfields. It involved a survey questionnaire,followed by a detailed telephone interview to determine municipalities'satisfaction with actions and policies taken by state agencies on brownfieldredevelopment.

Eight Federal and state agenciesand NGOs participated, along with ten municipalities from around thestate. The major findings were: brownfields are a significant problemat all levels; …

In Vitro Cytotoxicity Study Of Glutaraldehyde And No-React Treated Bioprosthetic Heart Valves And The Aortic Wall, Roger Ongosi

Theses

Valvular failure due to calcification and leaflet disruption of artificial bioprostheses is still a major concern in valve replacement surgery. Previous studies have shown that Glutaraldehyde, a chemical used in the treatment of artificial valves promotes calcification. In this investigation glutaraldehyde and No-React® treated tissue samples of pericardium, cusp and the aortic wall were tested for cytocompatibility using live mouse fibroblast cultures. The samples were cut into 3 X 3 mm2 washed in phosphate buffered saline solution, transferred into cell culture flask containing cells that had been cultured for 24 hours and incubated at 37 "C in 5 % CO2. …

A Microcosm Study In The Reductive Dechlorination Of Tetrachloroethylene Using Fermentation Acids And Alcohols As Electron Donors, Anthony Siccard Iii

Theses

Anaerobic microcosms of Arthur Kill (New Jersey) sediment were used to investigate the effects of several electron donors on tetrachloroethylene (PCE) dechlorination activity. The substates tested were methanol, butanol, butyrate, lactate and succinate both by themselves and in various combinations. Different levels of PCE dehalogenation were noticed in all of the microcosms regardless of the electron donor used. Vinyl chloride was the major dehalogenation product detected in the majority of the microcosms. The causitive organism or group that carried our the reductive dehalogenation was not identified. Only the microcosms admended with a mixture of butanol/methanol were able to fully reduce …

Catalyctic Reduction Of Nitric Oxide By Carbon Monoxide And Copper Loaded Granular Activated Carbon In The Presence Of Oxygen, Kaiwen Ma

Theses

The reduction reaction of nitric oxide (NO) by carbon monoxide (CO), and granular activated carbon (GAC) in the presence and absence of oxygen was studied in a fixed bed catalytic reactor. The conversion of NO as a function of reaction temperature was evaluated for various reductant to NO ratios and space velocities. The results show that oxygen enhanced the NO+CO reaction over copper (Cu) ion exchanged ZSM-5. About 60% NO conversion to nitrogen (N₂) was obtained at 400°C and 2,000 v/v/hr. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that CO is an intermediate in the soot-NO reaction. The …

A Meeting Of Minds : Coalitions, Representations And American Non-Governmental Organizations In The Brazilian Amazon, Lise Fernanda Sedrez

Theses

American environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have created and spread in the last decade a particular representation of the Amazon rainforest among the public and policy-makers. This new representation contrasts with earlier American representations of the Amazon in that it has been more responsive to local (Amazon) concerns and agendas. This greater responsiveness is a direct result of strategic coalitions with Brazilian NGOs by must US NGOs. US NGOs may avoid charges of "environmental imperialism" and obtain larger legitimacy in their action in the Amazon by opting for the coalition strategy. However, this option also stresses the differences between two environmental …

Implementation Of A Geometric Hashing Technique And It's Application To 3d Molecular Structure Search, Jennifer Lynn Cerequas

Theses

This paper proposes the application of a geometric hash technique to the searching of 3D chemical structures. Chemical structures are represented in global XYZ coordinate format. An algorithm is applied to the substructures within the existing chemical structures to hash them into hash tables on disk. A query substructure is then hashed to find matches (hits) of the existing hash tables. The entries in the matching hash tables are compared to the query substructure to find the existing substructures that are an "approximate" match.

The result is a technique which allows existing substructures to be compared to a (new) query …

Application Of The Internet Technology And Client/Server Paradigm For The Implementation Of Repi, Chetankumar G. Patel

Theses

There are many problems associated with Requirements Engineering such as defining the system scope, developing understanding among the communities involved in the system to be built, volatility of requirements etc. These problems may lead to poor requirements and therefore cancellation of the system development, or else the development of a system that is unsatisfactory, has high maintenance cost or is unacceptable. By improving Requirements Elicitation, the Requirements Engineering can be improved, leading to a better requirements specification and eventually a better product.

Requirements Elicitation requires effective communication among the team members, as communication is the key factor. Easing communications between …

Effects Of Shore-Parallel Structures On Meiofauna In The Intertidal Foreshore Of A Sandy Estuarine Beach, Raritan Bay, New Jersey, Usa, Valerie L. Spalding

Theses

Field investigations conducted at three sites on the intertidal sandy foreshore at Cliffwood Beach and Keyport Harbor, Raritan Bay, New Jersey reveal the relationship between meiofaunal density, wave and beach characteristics at sites where bulkheads and seawalls are present and at an adjacent site where they are not.

Wave characteristics were gathered at 2 hz over the tidal cycle with a pressure transducer. Three replicate core samples, to a depth of 0. 10 m, were gathered at four sampling stations across the foreshore at low tide to determine meiofaunal density. A fourth core sample was used to determine grain size, …

Assessment Of Recreation Space Along The Hudson River Waterfront In Jersey City, Nj, Darren M. Davidowich

Theses

For the past decade Jersey City, New Jersey has worked to redevelop its waterfront. The once highly industrialized waterfront is now the location of residential and commercial uses and more projects are slated for the future. Although many improvements to the physical and built environment occurred along the waterfront, many question whether enough emphasis was placed on outdoor recreation. Site assessments, field observations, and surveys of waterfront users in Jersey City, NJ were conducted to determine what uses are possible, and in the greatest demand on the waterfront. A total of (950) field observations were made of waterfront users. This …

Protocols For Packet Switched Communication And Reliable Multicasting In Fully-Dynamic Multi-Hop Wireless Networks, James Pelech

Theses

Designing protocols for a fully dynamic wireless packet switched networks pose unique challenges due to the constantly changing topology of the network. A set of protocols is presented that are capable of handling a fully dynamic wireless network in which switching centers and base stations are mobile as well as the end users. The protocols provide basic message delivery, network routing information updates, and support for reliable multicasting.

There are four contributions of this work: (i) a hierarchical architecture for a fully dynamic wireless network, (ii) improved routing and update protocols with reduced control traffic, (iii) a method to provide …

Bootstrapping Tsmars Models, Liangzhong Chen

Theses

We investigate bootstrap inference methods for nonlinear time series models obtained using Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines for Time Series (TSMARS), for which theoretical properties are not currently known. We use two different methods of bootstrapping to obtain confidence intervals for the underlying nonlinear function and prediction intervals for future values, based on estimated TSMARS models for the bootstrapped data. We also explore the method of Bootstrap AGGregatING (Bagging), due to Breiman (1996), to investigate whether the residual and prediction mean squared errors from a fitted TSMARS model can be reduced by averaging across the values obtained from each of the …

Control Of Nox In Alkaline Media With Tertiary Butyl Hydroperoxide, David R. Edwards

Theses

Alkaline solutions of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) selectively remove NO from simulated flue gasses. The investigation was conducted in a bubbling scrubber. NO removal efficiency of the scrubbing solutions was evaluated as a function of various operating parameters such as pH, oxidant concentration, oxidant to base mole ratio, residence time, temperature and flue gas compositions.

Alkaline solutions of TBHP show promise of being an economical choice for the selective removal of NO from flue gas. Solutions containing 0.2 M TBHP, 0.03 M NaOH (pH 12.5), and 1 minute NO residence time remove NO to below detectable levels at 53°C. The source, …

Development Of A Framework For Internet Based Education System, Srinivas Lanka

Theses

Development of a framework for Internet based education has demonstrated the use of Oracle tools for the use of delivery of education on the World Wide Web. This also has proved that for an efficient dynamic education scenario, the use of a database-based system with a proper retrieval system is required.

We have designed the system on an Oracle backend system with Designer/2000. Developer/2000 helped us with the design and development of the system. Oracle Web Server 2.1 helped us with the retrieval of the web pages.

The entire design of the system and the reasoning behind the system has …

Polarographic And Voltammetric Behavior Of Chloropyrifos And Its Determination In Some Water And Plant Samples, Ali Saeed Rashed Al-Maqbali

Theses

Chlorpyrifos is a member of the organophosphorus class of insecticides. This class of insecticides has become one of the most widely under groups of pest control chemicals. Early organophosphorus compounds that were found to be efficacious for insect control and thus brought into widespread use, e.g. Chlorpyrifos, Parathion and Malathion. The broad-spectrum insecticidal properties of Chlorpyrifos indicated that it possessed substantial commercial potential to use against a wide variety of important arthropod pest via a number of commercialized products. Therefore, it is employed in a wide variety of agricultural and specially pest control scenarious and other arthropod pests threatening production …

A Study On The Uptake And Voltammetric Determination Of Trace Heavy Metals In The Treated Wastewater In Abu-Dhabi Area, Salem Rashed Salem Al-Hassani

Theses

Wastewater reuse has a positive and negative environmental impacts and possibly it can have an important role to play in water resources management, as a substituent for freshwater in irrigation. However, the presence of the toxic heavy metals in domestic sewage and in industrial effluents discharge to sewers, wastewater can create unacceptable health and environmental risks. Therefore, the present work includes the determination of the toxic heavy metals in some treated wastewater samples collected from Abu-Dhabi area using polarographic and voltammetric techniques. Differential pulse polarography and anodic stripping voltammetry are well established techniques for trace determination of heavy metals content …

Applications Of Internet Technology For Requirements Elicitation, Deepak Pandit

Theses

During the Requirements Elicitation part of a project various stakeholders need to be able to communicate their requirements to the developers, and the developers need to be able communicate their understanding back to the stakeholders. Communication between the various members of the project is the key factor during the Requirements Elicitation part of a project. Easing communications between stakeholders and developers makes the process of eliciting requirement easier, leading to better requirements specification and eventually a better product.

The Requirements Elicitation Process through Internet (REPI) web site has been designed and implemented to explore this idea. The prototype version of …

A Simple Neural Agent Communicating Through Sets, James P. Stanski

Theses

Networked agents of the simplest kind offer the power of cooperative problem solving through parallel operation along with tight packaging potential. Such agents are self-contained analog machines capable of only a few primitive intelligent operations. In this thesis, a design will be developed for a simple agent capable of sending, receiving, and processing information in a environment where agents are coupled together. This environment imposes unorchestrated simultaneous input while expecting a useful timely response. Successful collaboration in these conditions is accomplished through sets encoded within pulse ensembles. The simplicity of the set definition is an inviting candidate for message communication …

Thermodynamic Properties Of Chlorocarbons And Kinetic Analysis For A- And B -Addition Of Oh+C2h3cl, Li Zhu

Theses

Thermodynamic properties, ΔHf°₂₉₈, S°₂₉₈ and Cp(T) 300≤T/K≤1500, for C₁, C₂ chlorocarbons are calculated by AM1 and PM3 in MOPAC6, then compared with the literature data. AM1- and PM3-derived S°298 and Cp(T) (300≤T/K≤1500) are found to be consistent with the literature (Rd ≤ ± 5%). ΔHf°₂₉₈ of CH₂Cl₂, CH₂ClCH₂Cl, CH₂ClCHCl₂, CHCl₂CHCl₂, and C₂Cl₄ and C₂Cl₂ calculated by PM3 as well as ΔHf°₂₉₈ of CCl₄, C₂HCl₃, …

Energy Requirements For Certified Organic Farms In New Jersey : A Survey And Analysis Of Tomato Production, Cecilia Kelnhofer-Feeley

Theses

The focus of this thesis is to document the fossil fuel and electrical energy consumption required to grow certified organic tomatoes in the State of New Jersey. First, in order to evaluate the energy requirement for agriculture, a literature review of energy changes during the twentieth century is discussed. Secondly, an in-depth look at energy requirements for all farming types is evaluated. Third, previous studies of the energy requirements in agriculture are examined; this includes both analyzing organic and conventional farming practices. A survey was generated from the information gathered. The survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews. When all the …

Composition And Environmental Assessment Of Soils From United Arab Emirates, Torfa Alsheba Khames Alsheriani

Theses

The study focuses on the mineral and chemical composition, the textural characters and environmental assessment of some soils from the UAE. About forty soil samples were collected from AI Ain District and the Eastern Mountain District. Soils in AI Ain and its suburb are strongly influenced by the aeolian sedimentation, while those of the Eastern Mountain are formed in narrow valleys strikingly close to ophiolitic hinterland.

The studied soils· are remarkably impoverished in clay size fraction and clay minerals as well. This is due to the impeded chemical weathering under the prevailing arid climate. Corroborative techniques including X-ray diffraction, infrared …