Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Cellulose Liquid Crystal Motor: A Steam Engine Of The Second Kind, Yong Geng, Pedro Lucio Almeida, Cheng Cheng, Peter Palffy-Muhoray, Maria Helena Godinho, Susete Nogueira Fernandes

Peter Palffy-Muhoray

The salient feature of liquid crystal elastomers and networks is strong coupling between orientational order and mechanical strain. Orientational order can be changed by a wide variety of stimuli, including the presence of moisture. Changes in the orientation of constituents give rise to stresses and strains, which result in changes in sample shape. We have utilized this effect to build soft cellulose-based motor driven by humidity. The motor consists of a circular loop of cellulose film, which passes over two wheels. When humid air is present near one of the wheels on one side of the film, with drier air …

Optical Characterization Of The Nematic Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystals: Light Absorption, Birefringence, And Scalar Order Parameter, Yuriy A. Nastishin, H. Liu, T. Schneider, V. G. Nazarenko, Sergij V. Shiyanovskii, Oleg Lavrentovich

Oleg Lavrentovich

We report on the optical properties of the nematic (N) phase formed by lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) in well aligned planar samples. LCLCs belong to a broad class of materials formed by one-dimensional molecular self-assembly and are similar to other systems such as “living polymers” and “wormlike micelles.” We study three water soluble LCLC forming materials: disodium chromoglycate, a derivative of indanthrone called Blue 27, and a derivative of perylene called Violet 20. The individual molecules have a planklike shape and assemble into rodlike aggregates that form the N phase once the concentration exceeds about 0.1M. The uniform surface …

Agenda: Water, Oil And Gas: Nuts And Bolts Of Oil And Gas Leases, Surface Use Agreements, And Water Rights For Non-Oil And Gas Attorneys, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute (Denver, Colo.), Colorado Bar Association. Natural Resources & Energy Section

Water, Oil and Gas: Nuts and Bolts of Oil and Gas Leases, Surface Use Agreements, and Water Rights for Non-Oil and Gas Attorneys (September 26)

This third program in the Water, Oil, and Gas 101 series was designed to provide those who don’t practice in the area with essential information regarding leases, surface use agreements, siting considerations for oil and gas facilities, the resolution of disputes before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), the ins and outs of nontributary and produced nontributary ground water, and water rights as an asset.

Program topics include:

• Oil and Gas Leases
• Surface Use Agreements (SUAs)
• Government’s Role in Authorizing Locations for Oil and Gas Development
• Technical Aspects of Nontributary and Produced Nontributary Ground Water
• Produced Nontributary Ground …

Inverse Method For Simultaneous Determination Of Soil Water Flux Density And Thermal Properties With A Penta-Needle Heat Pulse Probe, Changbing Yang, Masaru Sakai, Scott B. Jones

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

An accurate method for determination of in situ soil water flux density continues to be the most sought after and yet elusive hydrologic measurement. The penta-needle heat pulse probe (PHPP) employs a central heater needle surrounded by an orthogonal arrangement of four thermistor needles for two-component water flux density estimation. An analytical solution and inverse fitting method are presented for simultaneous estimation of thermal properties and soil water flux density using PHPP measurements. The approach yields estimates of both components of the flux in a plane normal to the axis of the PHPP needles. The method was evaluated using data …

Just Add Water: Colonisation, Water Governance, And The Australian Inland, Leah M. Gibbs

Leah Maree Gibbs

Water has played a key role in the development of the Australian inland and the nation. For European colonists, the dry and variable landscape challenged ideas about nature imported from northern temperate regions. I argue first, that colonists brought with them ideas for ordering nature and tools for transforming landscapes that led to inappropriate and destructive water management and the silencing of local voices and knowledge systems. Secondly, colonial patterns of ordering and transforming landscapes are ongoing, but new ways of governing water, which challenge colonialism, are emerging. In the first section of the paper I discuss colonial relationships with …

Issue Brief: Auditing Your Town's Development Code For Barriers To Sustainable Water Management, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This issue brief is intended for town officials who want to understand how development regulations in their community affect local water resources. Municipal development codes – the set of regulations that control the built environment – can have a great influence on the availability of clean and healthy water for drinking, recreation, and commercial uses. This in turn affects the community’s social, environmental, and economic vitality.

Comprehensive plans, zoning codes, and building standards are just a few examples of regulations that intentionally or unintentionally regulate the way water is transported, collected and absorbed. Regulations that produce dispersed development or large …

Direct Observation Of Self-Assembled Chain-Like Water Structures In A Nanoscopic Water Meniscus, Byung I. Kim, Ryan D. Boehm, Jeremy R. Bonander

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sawtooth-like oscillatory forces generated by water molecules confined between two oxidized silicon surfaces were observed using a cantilever-based optical interfacial force microscope when the two surfaces approached each other in ambient environments. The humidity-dependent oscillatory amplitude and periodicity were 3-12 nN and 3-4 water diameters, respectively. Half of each period was matched with a freely jointed chain model, possibly suggesting that the confined water behaved like a bundle of water chains. The analysis also indicated that water molecules self-assembled to form chain-like structures in a nanoscopic meniscus between two hydrophilic surfaces in air. From the friction force data measured simultaneously, …

Evaluation Of Water Sanitation Options For Poultry Production, Pramir Maharjan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An evaluation of poultry farm water supplies was conducted to determine the value and impact of water system sanitation practices in commercial broiler houses on microbial levels. Water line cleaning between flocks using concentrated disinfectant solution before placing chicks reduced biofilms retained in the lines to a safe level. Occasional microbial surges were noticed during different points of flock grow-out period even when daily water sanitation was present indicating water is highly susceptible to microbial contamination. However, the daily water sanitation practice controlled the occasional microbial surges in water from sustaining and kept drinking water to a microbiologically acceptable level. …

Massive Star Forming Cores And Outflows Found By Analysis Of Astronomical Data, Hontas Farmer

Hontas F Farmer

Like gems hidden in mountains of sand, I have sifted through vast amounts of data which have been gathered by surveys covering wide areas of the sky at particular wavelengths, and found likely star forming cores, hints of circumstellar disk and outflows in regions of massive star formation. The procedural lesson from my masters thesis is that there are discoveries waiting to be made by comparing data sets gathered at different frequencies, and by conducting coordinated multi-spectral surveys of massive star forming regions.

Agriculture In A Water Scarce World, Allison Roberts, Amjad Assi, Bassel Daher, Men Li

Student Papers in Public Policy

According to the McKinsey report (2009), the world is facing a water scarcity challenge where agriculture is its predominant consumer. It accounts for approximately 3100 billion m³, or 71 percent of global water withdrawals today, and is expected to increase to 4500 billion m³ by 2030. This increase is due to a number of factors: growing population and the ever growing necessity to cater for its food needs, economic growth, the variability of precipitation trends and increase in global temperatures. In addition to the increase in water scarcity, the agricultural sector faces an enormous challenge of producing …

Slides: What Does Climate Change Mean For Cold Water Fisheries, Stan Bradshaw

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

1 page "Abstract" and 8 slides

Slides: Is There A Dust Bowl In Our Future?: Projections For The Eastern Rockies And Central Great Plains, Dennis Ojima

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

Presenter: Dennis Ojima, Senior Research Scientist, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University (NREL/CSU)

30 slides

Slides: Future Water Availability In The West: Will There Be Enough?, Michael Dettinger

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

Presenter: Michael Dettinger, USGS, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA

30 slides

"with contributions from Julio Betancourt, Dan Cayan, & others"

Slides: A History Of Climate Variability And Change In The American West, Kelly T. Redmond

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

Presenter: Kelly T. Redmond, Regional Climatologist, Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC), Desert Research Institute

65 slides

Impact Of Hydraulic Fracturing On Ground And Surface Water Resources, Reyna Schenck

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

The following study examines hydraulic fracturing operations in the United States in relation to groundwater contamination, withdrawals of freshwater resources, and jurisdictional authority over the activity with the purpose of producing objective analysis of research findings. With a growing population and increasing energy needs, hydraulic fracturing is expanding across the nation, as is public concern over the risks to freshwater resources. Because of the difficulty in identifying non-point sources of water pollution, a lack of legitimate water samples representing baseline conditions, and incomplete lists of chemical additives used, study results are often inconclusive as to the correlation between hydraulic fracturing …

Oxygen Exchange During The Reaction Of Pocl3 And Water, Robert Clark, Robert Morrison, Andrew Thomas, Rebeca Alvarez, Paul Milham

Robert Clark

To investigate O exchange during the reaction of POCl3 and water, natural abundance POCl3 was reacted with water highly enriched in 18O, and the resulting H3PO4 was isolated as KH2PO4. This reaction was conducted with and without tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a solvent, and was controlled in THF and violent in its absence. Approximately 5 x 10-4M aqueous solutions of the KH2PO4 were analyzed using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, to estimate the proportions of the mass-clumped 16,17,18O isotope analogues of [H2PO4] -. During analysis, ~29% of [H2PO4] - dehydrated to [PO3]-, for which the proportions of the O isotope analogues were …

The Consciousness Of Water: Narrative Flows, Environmental Change, And The Voice Of Yemen, Tricia Nellessen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Icebergs are melting in the Arctic. The Gulf of Mexico is warming and producing hurricanes such as Katrina. The delta of the southern United States is drying. And, Yemen will be the first country in modern history to experience a lack of accessible ground water, as soon as 2017 possibly. Yemen's situation has been tracked by scholars and governments since the 1960s. Despite this fact, cities have expanded in Yemen and the population has increased its use of water while little has been invested in desalination or infrastructure to offset growth. Climate change has affected humans for thousands of years; …

A Cradle To Farm Gate Life Cycle Analysis Of Water Use In U.S. Pork Production, Eric Boles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this study was to analyze water use across a range of regions, scales and practices of the U.S. pork industry. A Life Cycle Assessment of water use within the pork supply chain was performed. Cumulative water use was the environmental impact category used in the LCA to evaluate the impacts of pork production processes throughout the pork supply chain. The functional unit for the analysis was the volume of water required to produce one kilogram of swine (live weight) at the farm gate.

A comprehensive literature review was used to design and propagate algorithms for the National …

Measuring And Improving Sustainable Resource Management At Byron Region Community College, Jeremy Betterley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study is to measure and report on progress made by Byron Region community College in relation to sustainable resource management as well as to observe, identify, and address and areas for improvement by developing recommendations in the categories of energy, waste and water. The college is dedicated in its vision to promote sustainability out of a sense of responsibility to the environment and future generations as well as a desire to train and prepare people for addressing 21st century problems such as climate change, drought, and peak oil. Energy, waste, and water make up a significant …

Catalytic Solar Water Splitting Inspired By Photosynthesis. Homogeneous Catalysts With A Mechanical ("Machine-Like") Action, Gerhard F. Swiegers, G Charles Dismukes, Leone Spiccia, Robin Brimblecombe, Annette Koo, Jun Chen, Gordon G. Wallace

Gordon Wallace

Chemical reactions may be controlled by either: the minimum threshold energy that must be overcome during collisions between reactant molecules / atoms (the Activation Energy, Ea), or: the rate at which reactant collisions occur (the Collision Frequency, A) (for reactions with low Ea). Reactions of type (2) are governed by the physical, mechanical interaction of the reactants. Such mechanical processes are unusual, but not unknown in molecular catalysts. We examine the catalytic action and macroscopic properties of several abiological mechanical catalysts and show that they display distinct similarities to enzymes in general. An abiological model of the Photosystem II Water …

Conducting Polymers With Fibrillar Morphology Synthesized In A Biphasic Ionic Liquid/Water System, J.M. Pringle, Orawan Ngamna, Carol M. Lynam, Gordon G. Wallace, Maria Forsyth, Douglas Macfarlane

Gordon Wallace

The synthesis of poly(pyrrole), poly(terthiophene), and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) with unusual fibrillar morphologies has been achieved by chemical polymerization in a biphasic ionic liquid/water system. Use of aqueous gold chloride as the oxidant, with the monomers dissolved in a hydrophobic ionic liquid, allows the polymerization to occur at the ionic liquid/water interface. The resultant conducting polymer fibrils are, on average, 50−100 nm wide and can be thousands of nanometers long. The polymers produced in this ionic liquid system are compared to those synthesized in a biphasic chloroform/water system.

Carbon Capture And Storage: Protecting Freshwater Resources, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet on the importance of protecting water resources during carbon capture and storage (CCS). Outlines suggested regulatory framework and touches on U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) measures to avoid unforeseen risks in the future.

Synthesis, Properties And Water Permeability Of Swnt Buckypapers, L J. Sweetman, L Nghiem, I Chironi, G Triani, Marc In Het Panhuis, St F. Ralph

Long D Nghiem

The ability of macrocyclic ligands to facilitate formation of dispersions of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) was investigated using a combination of absorption spectrophotometry and optical microscopy. Vacuum filtration of aqueous dispersions containing SWNTs and various macrocyclic ligands (derivatised porphyrin, phthalocyanine, cyclodextrin and calixarene) afforded self-supporting membranes known as buckypapers. Microanalytical data and energy dispersive X-ray spectra were obtained for these buckypapers and provided evidence for retention of the macrocyclic ligands within the structure of the membranes. The electrical conductivities of the membranes varied between 30 ± 20 and 220 ± 60 S cm−1, while contact angle analysis revealed they all …

A Spatial Analysis Of Variance Applied To Soil-Water Infiltration, C Gotway, Noel A. Cressie

Professor Noel Cressie

A spatial analysis of variance uses the spatial dependence among the observations to modify the usual interference procedures associated with a statistical linear model. When spatial correlation is present, the usual tests for presence of treatment effects may no longer be valid, and erroneous conclusions may result from assuming that the usual F ratios are F distributed. This is demonstrated using a spatial analysis of soil-water infiltration data. Emphasis is placed on modeling the spatial dependence structure with geostatistical techniques, and this spatial dependence structure is then used to test hypotheses about fixed effects using a nested linear model. -Authors

A Robust-Resistant Spatial Analysis Of Soil Water Infiltration., Noel A. Cressie, R Horton

Professor Noel Cressie

Concentrates on estimating the spatial correlations between soil water infiltration observations, with special emphasis on resistant methods to remove nonstationarity. After this removal, robust semivariogram estimators are used to examine the spatial dependencies for various tillage treatments. There is some indication that infiltration characteristics inherit different types of spatial dependency, depending on the tillage treatment applied.-from Authors

Determination Of Arsenic In Water By Potentially Portable Methodology, Chengbei Li

Open Access Dissertations

Arsenic contamination in groundwater is a worldwide problem. The existing portable field test kits can not provide accurate results when the arsenic concentration is around 10 μg L-1 or lower. This research first was focused on the development and validation of methods in which portable instrumentation, such as electrochemistry instruments or quartz crystal microbalances, could be used to accurately determine arsenic concentrations in water even when the concentration is below 10 μg L-1. A modified anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) and cathodic stripping voltammetry (CSV) method with measurement at a microarray electrode manufactured by TraceDetect Inc. was developed. When the ASV …

Effects Of Molecular Structure Of The Oxidation Products Of Reactive Atmospheric Hydrocarbons On The Formation Of Secondary Organic Particulate Matter, Including The Effects Of Water, Negar Niakan

Dissertations and Theses

Organic aerosols have significant effects on human health, air quality and climate. Secondary organic aerosols (SOA) are produced by the oxidation of primary-volatile organic compounds (VOC). For example, α-pinene reacts with oxidants such as hydroxyl radical (OH), ozone (O₃), and nitrate radical (NO₃), accounting for a significant portion of total organic aerosol in the atmosphere. Experimental studies have shown that the oxidation process between α-pinene and ozone has the most significant impact in the formation of SOA (Hoffmann et al., 1997). Most of the models used to predict SOA formation, however, are limited in that they …

Fy 2013 Umass Amherst Water & Steam Data By Building, Ezra Small

Campus Data

Each year, UMass Amherst Utilities publishes this spreadsheet which has the monthly and annual building water and steam consumption of each metered building on campus.

Determination Of Inorganic Arsenic In Water By A Quartz Crystal Microbalance, C Li, A. E. Basaran, Julian Tyson

Chemistry Department Faculty Publication Series

No abstract provided.

A Highly Efficient Tio2-Xcx Nano-Heterojunction Photocatalyst For Visible-Light Induced Antibacterial Applications, Vinodkumar Etacheri, Michael Seery, Stephen Hinder, Georg Michlits, Suresh Pillai

Articles

Visible-light-induced antibacterial activity of carbon-doped anatase-brookite titania nano-heterojunction photocatalysts are reported for the first time. These heterostructures were prepared using a novel low temperature (100 °C) non-hydrothermal low power microwave (300 W) assisted method. Formation of interband C 2p states was found to be responsible for the band gap narrowing of the carbon doped heterojunctions. The most active photocatalyst obtained after 60 minutes of microwave irradiation exhibits a 2-fold higher visible-light induced photocatalytic activity in contrast to the standard commercial photocatalyst Evonik-Degussa P-25. Staphylococcus aureus inactivation rate constant for carbon-doped nano-heterojunctions and the standard photocatalyst was 0.0023 and -0.0081 min …