Sustainability Commons^™

Analysis And Detection Of Hfo-1234ze, Alberni V. Ruiz, Ben R. Miller

STAR Program Research Presentations

Alberni Ruiz

Abstract

Refrigerants have been one of the causes of ozone depletion and the buildup of greenhouse gases in past decades. When the international agreements the Montreal Protocol, which has the goal of eliminating ozone depleting compounds, and the Kyoto protocol which has the goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, where implemented they paved the way to replace past and current refrigerants with alternate compounds that are less detrimental to the atmosphere. New compounds that where green-lit by the EPA for use as refrigerants in 2011 where HFO-1234ze and HFO-1234yf, both of these compounds have a very low Global …

Manufacturer Perspectives On Content Transparency And Material Health In The Us Building Products Industry, Alexandra A. Muller

Open Access Theses

Flawed U.S. federal regulation of chemicals has resulted in a materials market that undervalues human and environmental health in favor of the more traditional attributes of price, performance and aesthetics. In the building products industry, global, dynamic supply chains and proprietary information concerns further complicate the task of assessing the material health of products.

Voluntary material health programs in the green building industry are intended to incentivize the manufacture and selection of safer products by getting companies to gather and assess ingredient, hazard and risk information from their supply chain. Building product manufacturers considered early adopters of the main material …

Enhancing Silymarin Fractionation Via Molecular Modeling Using The Conductor-Like Screening Model For Real Solvents, Emma C. Brace

Open Access Theses

The market for bio-based products from plant sources is on the rise. There is a global challenge to implement environmentally clean practices for the production of fuels and pharmaceuticals from sustainable resources. A significant hurdle for discovery of comparable plant-derived products is the extensive volume of trial-and-error experimentation required. To alleviate the experimental burden, a quantum mechanics based molecular modeling approach known as the COnductor-like Screening Model for Real Solvents (COSMO-RS) was used to predict the best biphasic solvent system to purify silymarins from an aqueous mixture. Silymarins are a class of flavonolignans present in milk thistle ( Silybum marianum …

Enabling A Sustainable Economy Through Energy Systems Modeling: Solar-Centric, Efficient, Integrated And Continuous Process Synthesis And Optimization, Emre Gencer

Open Access Dissertations

The expected increase in food, energy and water demand due to increase in population and change in consumption habits in conjunction with diminishing fossil fuel reserves and increasing greenhouse gas emissions urge the development and implementation of alternative energy conversion techniques using renewable energy for a sustainable economy. Among renewable energy sources, solar energy is prominent due to its abundance. A sustainable economy can be created by producing building blocks foundational to meeting all basic human needs of daily existence. However, intermittencies and limitations on land area dedicated to harness solar energy are the major obstacles on widespread implementation of …

Thermoelectric Half-Heuslers: Synthesis, Processing, And Performance, Joseph Robert Croteau

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Thermoelectric half-Heusler compounds have potential to convert the heat wasted from industrial and transportation processes to useful electricity. Among the highest performing half-Heusler compounds are nano-structured bulk materials which have been arc-melted, pulverized into a nano-powder, and sintered by DC-hot press. High performing n- and p-type half-Heusler compounds with nominal composition of Hf_0.25Zr_0.75NiSn_0.99Sb_0.01 and Nb_0.75Ti_0.25FeSb, respectively, have been provided to us in both dense and powder form by our collaborators at the University of Houston. We consolidate these powders by SPS, refine these powders to improve both particle size …

Reducing Pollen Dispersal Using Forest Windbreaks, Carol Auer, Thomas Meyer, Vernie Sagun

Plant Science Articles

The adoption of genetically engineered (GE) crops has created a demand for practical methods to mitigate pollen dispersal and gene flow. The goal of this project was to measure the ability of a narrow forest windbreak to reduce downwind pollen fluxes from switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a North American grass and model biofuels feedstock. Switchgrass fields were established in two identical plots where one had a forest windbreak and the other was in an open (control) site. Switchgrass reproduction, pollen dispersal, wind speed, and wind direction were measured over two years. Daily release of switchgrass pollen peaked at 11:00-13:30 …

Embers, Char Miller

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

After living in Southern California for nine years, I should be used to fire season—and the fact that there is something called fire season—but I’m not.

My wife and I moved to the Southland in late summer 2007, and within the month we saw some of the region’s most horrific firestorms consume vast stretches of chaparral-cloaked foothills, deep canyons filled with alder and oak and, at higher elevations, thick stands of pine and cedar.

Drougthscape, Summer 2016, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

NDMC adds two employees

Second quarter drought summary: Drought slowly spreading

Second quarter drought impacts: Drought intensifies across US

First comprehensive drought

indices guidebook released

Drought Impact Reporter updates increase usability

Create a custom DIR view

Drought center co-leads MENA region project

McCook, Nebraska, tackles drought resilience

Arizona groups improve public lands drought planning

NDMC founder Don Wilhite retires

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center- July 2016, Natalie Umphlett, Bill Sorensen, Jamie Lahowetz, Crystal J. Stiles

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the interim director........................................1

Staff spotlight...........................1

Research update......................2

Product highlight....................3

Partnership spotlight.............3

AWDN information.................4

Update on regional climate conditions..................................4

Outreach/engagement.........5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

Transdisciplinary Weed Research: New Leverage On Challenging Weed Problems?, N. Jordan, M. Schut, S. Grahan, J. N. Barney, D. Z. Childs, S. Christensen, R. D. Cousens, A. S. Davis, H. Eizenberg, David E. Ervin, C. Fernández-Quintanilla, L. J. Harrison, M. A. Harsch, S. Heijting, M. Liebman, D. Loddo, S. B. Mirsky, M. Riemens, P. Neve, D. A. Peltzer, M. Renton, M. Williams, J. Recasens, M. Sønderskov

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Transdisciplinary weed research (TWR) is a promising path to more effective management of challenging weed problems. We define TWR as an integrated process of inquiry and action that addresses complex weed problems in the context of broader efforts to improve economic, environmental and social aspects of ecosystem sustainability. TWR seeks to integrate scholarly and practical knowledge across many stakeholder groups (e.g. scientists, private sector, farmers and extension officers) and levels (e.g. local, regional and landscape). Furthermore, TWR features democratic and iterative processes of decision-making and collective action that aims to align the interests, viewpoints and agendas of a wide range …

The Influence Of Training On Guides And Their Environmentally Responsible Behaviors And Transformational Leadership Abilities, Nancy Qwynne Lackey

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The ecotourism and interpretive fields were established, in part, to protect natural environments. This goal is achieved by implementing environmentally responsible practices and by providing transformative experiences for visitors. Previous research suggests that ecotour and interpretive guides play a vital role in implementing environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs) and creating transformative visitor experiences. Other researchers have found that guide training yields many benefits for guides and their abilities, but few have explored the influence of training on guides in detail. The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of established training programs on guides and their ERBs and transformational …

Wet Meadow Plant Associations, Double O Unit, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon, John A. Christy

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

This report summarizes vegetation data collected in July 2015 in wet meadow and marshy habitats on the Double O Unit of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR). Because vegetation sampled at the Double O was wetter and more alkaline than wet meadows sampled at the south end of the refuge in 2012 and 2013 (Christy 2014), data from the Double O Unit were analyzed and summarized separately. A total of 83 plots were sampled in 2015, and analysis of the data identified 14 plant associations: Alopecurus aequalis - Juncus balticus, Alopecurus pratensis - Potentilla anserina, Carex praegracilis - Juncus balticus, Cicuta …

One View: Fire Fuels Regeneration In Eastern Sierra, Char Miller

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

Sometimes it’s the small things that can best tell big stories.

Like the Marina Fire, which currently has burned a modest 800 acres to the north of Lee Vining, threatened but did not burn any structures, and whose greatest disruption has been periodically to shut down US 395. It hardly seems worth much attention.

Dead Trees Don’T Mean Catastrophe For California, Char Miller

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

Nature knows what it’s doing. You’d never know that, though, from the panicked reaction to news that 66 million trees in California have died since 2005, including 26 million said to have perished just in the last few months.

Fire Inevitable, Despite Attempts To Tame Chaparral, Char Miller

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

You didn’t need to fly into Ontario International Airport this past week to know that Southern California’s fire season had begun. But the view from 10,000 feet offered a unique perspective on how wildfires impact the region.

Sustainability At U.S. Urban Water Utilities: A Framework To Assess Key Attributes, Matthew Paul Ries

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban water utilities in the United States face challenges due to a combination of external drivers. These include urbanization and population growth, which are stressing a system of aging infrastructure. Compliance with increasing regulations is also a challenge in a fiscally-constrained economic environment. A changing climate threatens infrastructure and past assumptions for water supply and quality. Urban utilities provide clean water and sanitation services to over 80% of the country’s population and its industrial centers. Therefore, the sustainability of these water utilities are crucial to the country’s and the public’s well-being.

New operating models are emerging for a “utility of …

Modeling Of Soybean Under Present And Future Climates In Mozambique, Manuel António Dina Talacuece, Flávio Barbosa Justino, Rafael De Ávila Rodrigues, Milton Edgar Pereira Flores, Jéssica Garcia Nascimento, Eduardo Eduardo Santos

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

This study aims to calibrate and validate the generic crop model (CROPGRO-Soybean) and estimate the soybean yield, considering simulations with different sowing times for the current period (1990–2013) and future climate scenario (2014–2030). The database used came from observed data, nine climate models of CORDEX (Coordinated Regional climate Downscaling Experiment)-Africa framework and MERRA (Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications) reanalysis. The calibration and validation data for the model were acquired in field experiments, carried out in the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 growing seasons in the experimental area of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Angónia, Mozambique. The yield …

Developing A Sustainable Water Supply In The American West: The Case Of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Hubert B. Stroud, Mary K. Kilmer

Suburban Sustainability

Suburban and urban communities in the American West are challenged by rapid population growth combined with limited natural resources. Supporting sustainable development is of great concern in this region and in similar regions throughout the world. This research examines the sustainability of the water supply within a rapidly growing suburban city in the American West. The city, Rio Rancho, New Mexico, began as an interstate land sales operation and rapidly became a “boom” town, in part because of its location near metropolitan Albuquerque.

Because of a very limited water supply and an increasing demand for water associated with population growth, …

Slides: The Colorado And Murray-Darling Panel Discussion, Brad Udall

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Presenter: Brad Udall, Senior Scientist/Scholar, Colorado State University

12 slides

Slides: Learning From Drought Crises In Federations: Principles, Indicators And Lessons Learned, Lucia De Stefano, Dustin Garrick, Daniel Connell

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Presenters:

Lucia De Stefano, Complutense Universidad de Madrid

Dustin Garrick, McMaster University/University of Oxford

Daniel Connell, Australia National University

27 slides