Environmental Health Commons^™

Transport Of N-Cd And Pre-Sorbed Pb In Saturated Porous Media, Salahaddin Kamrani, Vahab Amiri, Mosleh Kamrani, Mohammed Baalousha

Faculty Publications

Carbon dots (CDs) are a new type of nanomaterials of the carbon family with unique characteristics, such as their small size (e.g., <10 nm), high water solubility, low toxicity, and high metal affinity. Modification of CDs by Nitrogen functional groups (N-CDs) enhances their metal adsorption capacity. This study investigated the influences of pH (4, 6, and 9), ionic strength (1, 50, and 100 mM), and cation valency (Na⁺ and Ca²⁺) on the competitive adsorption of Pb to quartz and N-CD surfaces, the transport and retention of N-CDs in saturated porous media, and the capacity of N-CDs to mobilize pre-adsorbed Pb in quartz columns. Pb adsorption was higher on N-CDs than on quartz surfaces and decreased with increases in ionic strength (IS) and divalent cations (Ca²⁺) concentration. N-CD mobility in quartz columns was highest at pH of 9- and 1-mM monovalent cations …

Nutrient Concentration For Cyanotoxins At Turnbull (Proposal), Mori Williams

2020 McNair Scholar Collection

The purpose of this study is to analyze the concentration of microcystins from cyanobacteria along with factors that increase the likelihood of microcystins found in water systems at the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (TNWR) near Cheney, Washington. Cyanobacteria are oxygen-producing bacteria that use sunlight as an energy source to convert CO2 into biomass. This bacterium has been around for around 3 billion years. However, in recent years, cyanobacteria have been a major issue in drinking water and aquatic ecosystems due to eutrophication, rising CO2 levels, and global warming (Huisman et al). Due to anthropogenic sources such as agricultural run-off and …

Production And Characterization Of Twelve Different Biochars And Evaluating Their Effects On Soil Health And Plant Growth, Shagufta Gaffar

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biochar has been a topic of growing interest in the scientific community. It is a product derived from carbon rich organic materials through the process of pyrolysis. It has received wide attention as a means to improve soil fertility and crop productivity, absorb pollutants in soil, and sequester carbon to mitigate climate change. Recent research on biochar explores its impacts on the environment with particular focus on use as a soil amendment in agriculture. Biochar produced from different biomass and under different production process effects the environmental and agronomic impacts of its application in different ways. This means biochar can …

Chemically Induced Phytoextraction Of Lead (Pb) Contaminated Soil By Switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum L.), Austin Gilly

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Soils contaminated with lead (Pb) from human activities including industrial byproducts create an environmental and human health risk. Phytoextraction through chemical acquisition of Pb in soils offer a potentially cost effective and ecologically driven approach to remediation. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is known to have a tolerance for a wide range of heavy metals including Pb. Switchgrass is also able to grow in a wide range of climates. Soil chemistry manipulation, using chelates and plant growth promoters could provide an effective field method for phytoremediation using switchgrass. In this study chemically enhanced phytoextraction using the soil-fungicide Infuse (active ingredient …

The Nature Of Genes Expressed Differently After Environmental Drug Exposure, Nicci Siffel

Scholars Week

The Nature of Genes Expressed Differently after Environmental Drug Exposure

N. Siffel, S. Anderson, B. Subedi, D.R. Hammond-Weinberger

Drug use, of prescription or illicit varieties, alter bodily functions in different ways, especially in the nervous system. These drugs are found in sources of drinking water because they are not removed by wastewater treatment facilities. To investigate the effects of these drugs as they appear in mixtures, we exposed groups of zebrafish embryos to cocktails of drugs and screened for genes that were differentially expressed between the experimental and control groups and could thus give more insight into their biological functions. …

A National Approach To Address The Impact Of Land-Based Pollution On Marine Environment In Liberia, Kansualism Berk Kansuah

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Review Of The Financial Value Of Faecal Sludge Reuse In Low-Income Countries, Adrian Mallory, Rochelle Holm, Alison Parker

Faculty Scholarship

Faecal sludge reuse could promote responsible waste management and alleviate resource shortages. However, for this reuse to be carried out at scale, it needs to be financially viable. This paper reviews the financial values of resource recovery from 112 data points from 43 publications from academic and grey literature. The results found 65% of the existing literature is projected rather than being based on observed data from products in practice, with limited studies providing actual experiences of revenue in practice. Some of the estimates of the potential value were ten times those observed in data from operating businesses. Reasons for …

Can Viruses Cause Lupus?, Stephen I. Reeder

Selected Honors Theses

Like so many autoimmune diseases, the exact cause of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remains unknown. Evidence points to both genetics and environment playing roles in the onset of the disease, but neither acts independent of the other. Genetics are the easier of the two to study with recent advances in the field making it easier to isolate genes shared by individuals with the disease. However, genetic studies reveal that there is almost certainly an environmental component to the development of SLE. The underlying pathology and existing research on environmental contributors to the development of SLE suggest that viruses could potentially …

Re-Evaluating The Strength Of Pit-Latrine Faecal Sludge From Dynamic Cone Penetrometer Test Data, Yasmine Shafiq, Stuart Haigh, Rochelle Holm, Alison Parker

Faculty Scholarship

In 2017, 55% of the global population were without safely managed sanitation services. On-site sanitation solutions, such as pit latrines, provide the majority of sanitation coverage across developing countries. Appropriate technologies are required in order to safely empty these latrines without damage to people or the environment. The design of appropriate emptying technologies can be hampered by a lack of knowledge of the mechanical properties of the waste, such as its strength. This paper will develop a calibration for a dynamic cone penetrometer to give accurate measurements of faecal sludge strength against a standard scale, rendering existing data comparable. It …

Identifying Seasonal And Daily Variations In Arg-Containing Bioaerosols Generated During The Wastewater Treatment Process, Mirza Isanovic

Theses and Dissertations

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem with the current global death count topping 700,000. In the United States alone there are 2.8 million antibiotic resistant bacterial (ARB) infections each year and approximately 35,000 deaths. If current trends continue the global ARB death count will reach 10 million surpassing current chronic disease deaths. Wastewater treatment plants play a vital role in protecting both the environment as well as local communities. The WWTP process allows for the removal of chemicals and contaminants from water that eventually makes its way back into the environment as well as into drinking water plants. Despite the …

David S. Miller: Scientist, Mentor, Friend--A Tribute And Thank You, Björn Bauer, J. Larry Renfro, Karl J. Karnaky, Rosalinde Masereeuw, Gert Fricker, Ron E. Cannon, Anika M. S. Hartz

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

David S. Miller was Acting Scientific Director of the Division of Intramural Research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, and Head of the Intracellular Regulation Group in the Laboratory of Toxicology and Pharmacology before he retired in 2016. David received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Maine in 1973. David was a Group Leader at the Michigan Cancer Foundation before joining the NIEHS in 1985. His research covered a wide range from renal excretory transport mechanisms to regulation of transporters at the blood-CSF and blood-brain barriers, from fish, amphibians and birds to …

Obesity Worsens Gulf War Illness Symptom Persistence Pathology By Linking Altered Gut Microbiome Species To Long-Term Gastrointestinal, Hepatic, And Neuronal Inflammation In A Mouse Model, Dipro Bose, Punnag Saha, Ayan Mondal, Brian Fanelli, Ratanesh K. Seth, Patricia Janulewicz, Kimberly Sullivan, Stephen Lasley, Ronnie Horner, Rita R. Colwell, Ashok K. Shetty, Nancy Klimas, Saurabh Chatterjee

Faculty Publications

Persistence of Gulf War illness (GWI) pathology among deployed veterans is a clinical challenge even after almost three decades. Recent studies show a higher prevalence of obesity and metabolic disturbances among Gulf War veterans primarily due to the existence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic fatigue, sedentary lifestyle, and consumption of a high-carbohydrate/high-fat diet. We test the hypothesis that obesity from a Western-style diet alters host gut microbial species and worsens gastrointestinal and neuroinflammatory symptom persistence. We used a 5 month Western diet feeding in mice that received prior Gulf War (GW) chemical exposure to mimic the home phase obese …

Spatiotemporal Patterns Of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-P-Dioxins And Dibenzofurans And Dioxin-Like Polychlorinated Biphenyls In Foodstuffs In Air Quality Regions In Taiwan, Ching-Chang Lee, Wei-Hsiang Chang, Hsin-Tang Lin, Jung-Wei Chang

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

High-fat food intake is the main source of dioxin-like compounds for humans, such as consumption of meat, dairy and eggs, and seafood products. Fruits, vegetables, and cereals have relatively low levels of dioxin-like compounds, but because of high consumption they also contribute to the food-borne intake. It is necessary to clarify dietary dioxin exposure affected by different food contamination levels and dietary habits among different geographic areas. We aimed to evaluate chronic dietary PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs exposure in 725 individual foods in 14 categories in 6 Taiwan air quality regions (AQRs) and a total of 2,441 foods from 2004 and …

Using Cold War-Era Satellite Imagery To Inform Historic Land Cover Classification, Nicholas Hamp-Adams

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Ventilation & Masks: Reducing Airborne Transmission Of Covid-19 In A Classroom, Eric A. Schiff

SyracuseCoE Research Brief Series

We've calculated the number of COVID-19 infections that will be spread from a single COVID-19 "superspreader" to students and teachers in a classroom shared for 4 hours in different ventilation and masking conditions.

The Effects Of Radical Containing Combustion Derived Particulate Matter In Adult Mouse Respiratory System, Jeffrey Harding

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Epidemiological data associates high levels of combustion-derived particulate matter (PM) with deleterious respiratory outcomes, but the mechanism underlying those outcomes remains elusive. It has been acknowledged by the World Health Organization that PM exposure contributes to more than 4.2 million all-cause mortalities worldwide each year. Current literature demonstrates that PM exacerbates respiratory diseases, impairs lung function, results in chronic respiratory illnesses, and is associated with increased mortality. The proposed mechanisms revolve around oxidative stress and inflammation promoting pulmonary physiological remodeling. Our data demonstrate that environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) stabilized on the surface of PM are capable of inducing oxidative …

A Method To Measure The Partitioning Coefficient Of Volatile Organic Compounds In Nanoparticles, Guiying Rao, Jeonghyeon Ahn, Abigail Evans, Michelle Casey, Eric P. Vejerano

Faculty Publications

The partitioning behavior of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into nanoparticles is less studied compared to those of semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) because of the lower concentration of the VOCs that is expected to partition into particles. One challenge in measuring the accurate partition coefficient of VOCs is quantifying their low mass fraction that sorbed on nanoparticles and differentiating them from the high VOC concentrations present in the gas-phase. Systematically characterizing the partitioning coefficient at a specific environmental condition is also difficult when sampling in the field. During field sampling, thermal and non-thermal issues such as sampling artifacts and non-equilibrium conditions …

Tlr Antagonism By Sparstolonin B Alters Microbial Signature And Modulates Gastrointestinal And Neuronal Inflammation In Gulf War Illness Preclinical Model, Dipro Bose, Ayan Mondal, Punnag Saha, Diana Kimono, Sutapa Sarkar, Ratanesh K. Seth, Patricia Janulewicz, Kimberly Sullivan, Ronnie Horner, Nancy Klimas, Mitzi Nagarkatti, Prakash Nagarkatti, Saurabh Chatterjee

Faculty Publications

The 1991 Persian Gulf War veterans presented a myriad of symptoms that ranged from chronic pain, fatigue, gastrointestinal disturbances, and cognitive deficits. Currently, no therapeutic regimen exists to treat the plethora of chronic symptoms though newer pharmacological targets such as microbiome have been identified recently. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) antagonism in systemic inflammatory diseases have been tried before with limited success, but strategies with broad-spectrum TLR4 antagonists and their ability to modulate the host-microbiome have been elusive. Using a mouse model of Gulf War Illness, we show that a nutraceutical, derived from a Chinese herb Sparstolonin B (SsnB) presented a …

Determinants Of The Carbon Footprint Of German Swimmers 2020., Ann-Marie Muehlbauer

Master's Theses

The current climate situation is placing our planet and future generations at risk, which demonstrates the urgency to combat climate change and conduct research to support this effort. Calculating the carbon footprint of active sport participation represents an important opportunity to conduct additional research. This study examined the environmental attitudes and practices of swim club members in Germany. The study had three goals: First, to calculate the total and partial carbon footprint of German swimmers; second, to understand how sport organizations induce participants to engage in pro-environmental behavior; and third, to analyze various factors associated with carbon footprint, such as …

Prevalence Of Anticoagulant Rodenticides In Ferruginous Hawk Nestlings And Evaluation Of A Novel Method To Rapidly Assess Exposure, Ariana Joyce Dickson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) are compounds commonly used to control rodent pests by inhibiting an enzyme critical for synthesis of clotting factors in their blood. Secondary and tertiary poisoning of non-target species frequently occur, especially of predators that consume rodents, including many species of raptors. Although raptor exposure to ARs has been documented on at least three continents, patterns, pathways and the sub-lethal effects of exposure are not well studied. This has created a substantial need to monitor the effects of ARs in free-living populations. I evaluated the prevalence of secondary, non-target exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides experienced by a predatory raptor, …