Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter, December 2015, University Of Northern Iowa. Iowa Waste Reduction Center.

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter

Inside this Issue:

--- Happy Holidays
--- 2016-2017 Recordkeeping Compliance Calendar for Dry Cleaners
--- 2016-2017 Compliance Calendar/Logbook for Bulk Gasoline Plants
--- Food Waste Reduction Assistance Available
--- Industry News

Strontium Monoxide Measurements In Methane-Air Flames, Bobby J. Wimberly

Masters Theses

The spectroscopy of alkaline earth metal compounds has been an area of active research for several decades. This is at least in part stimulated by the application of these compounds to practical areas ranging from technology to medicine. The use of these compounds in the field of pyrotechnics was the motivation for a series of flame emission spectroscopy (FES) experiments with strontium containing compounds. Specifically, strontium monoxide (SrO) is studied as a candidate radiator for the diagnostic of methane-air flames.

SrO emissions have been observed in flames with temperatures in the range of 1200-1600-K for two compounds: strontium hydroxide and …

Disaggregating The Effect Of Drought And Heat Stress During Flowering On Spikelet Fertility In Rice, Lisa Straussberger

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to rice’s wide geographic distribution, extending from 50°N to 35°S, rice is

forecasted to be the most vulnerable crop to warming global climates. Previous studies have

predicted lower rice yields and increasing rice yield variability due to higher frequencies of heat

stress events, and a higher variability in precipitation patterns due to global warming. As such,

understanding the effects of drought and heat stress intensity and frequency on rice yields is of

upmost importance to feeding the growing global population.

Given that drought and high-temperature stress often occur together, it is essential to

disaggregate the two individual stressors and …

Applications Of Cultural Theory And Empirical Analysis Of Sustainable Energy Policy Preferences In Arkansas, John Henry Kester Iii

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The local policy arena is ripe for research on policy elite decisionmaking because where policy diffusion is concerned, previous studies focus on state-to-state and city-to-city dynamics. Therefore, there is a significant opportunity to expand understanding about the adoption of policies and policy diffusion at the local level. Identification of individual level determinants that signify policy adoption is a cornerstone to fostering this knowledge. This study examines such preference indicators found among policy elites in select Arkansas cities. For this research, the primary theoretical perspective for evaluating individual determinants is cultural theory, which has shown strong correlation to individual policy preference …

Exploring, Exploiting And Evolving Diversity Of Aquatic Ecosystem Models: A Community Perspective, Annette B.G. Janssen, George B. Arhonditsis, Arthur Beusen, Karsten Bolding, Louise Bruce, Jorn Bruggeman, Raoul-Marie Couture, Andrea S. Downing, J. Alex Elliott, Marieke A. Frassl, Gideon Gal, Daan J. Gerla, Matthew R. Hipsey, Fenjuan Hu, Stephen C. Ives, Jan H. Janse, Erik Jeppesen, Klaus D. Jöhnk, David Kneis, Xiangzhen Kong, Jan J. Kuiper, Moritz K. Lehmann, Carsten Lemmen, Deniz Özkundakci, Thomas Petzoldt, Karsten Rinke, Barbara J. Robson, René Sachse, Sebastiaan A. Schep, Martin Schmid, Huub Scholten, Sven Teurlincx, Dennis Trolle, Tineke A. Troost, Anne A. Van Dam, Luuk P.A. Van Gerven, Mariska Weijerman, Scott A. Wells, Wolf M. Mooij

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Here, we present a community perspective on how to explore, exploit and evolve the diversity in aquatic ecosystem models. These models play an important role in understanding the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, filling in observation gaps and developing effective strategies for water quality management. In this spirit, numerous models have been developed since the 1970s. We set off to explore model diversity by making an inventory among 42 aquatic ecosystem modellers, by categorizing the resulting set of models and by analysing them for diversity. We then focus on how to exploit model diversity by comparing and combining different aspects of …

Mixed-Criticality Job Models: A Comparison, Sanjoy K. Baruah, Zhishan Guo

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Vestal model in widely used in the real-time scheduling community for representing mixed-criticality real-time workloads. This model requires that multiple WCET estimates -- one for each criticality level in a system -- be obtained for each task. Burns suggests that being required to obtain too many WCET estimates may place an undue burden on system developers, and proposes a simplification to the Vestal model that makes do with just two WCET estimates per task. Burns makes a convincing case in favor of adopting this simplified model; here, we report on our attempts at comparing the two models -- Vestal’s …

Intent Classification Of Short-Text On Social Media, Hemant Purohit, Guozhu Dong, Valerie L. Shalin, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Social media platforms facilitate the emergence of citizen communities that discuss real-world events. Their content reflects a variety of intent ranging from social good (e.g., volunteering to help) to commercial interest (e.g., criticizing product features). Hence, mining intent from social data can aid in filtering social media to support organizations, such as an emergency management unit for resource planning. However, effective intent mining is inherently challenging due to ambiguity in interpretation, and sparsity of relevant behaviors in social data. In this paper, we address the problem of multiclass classification of intent with a use-case of social data generated during crisis …

How Does The Connectivity Of Open-Framework Conglomerates Within Multi-Scale Hierarchical Fluvial Architecture Affect Oil-Sweep Efficiency In Waterflooding?, Naum I. Gershenzon, Mohamad Reza Soltanian, Robert W. Ritzi, David F. Dominic, Don Keefer, Eric Shaffer, Brynne Storsved

Physics Faculty Publications

Understanding multi-phase fluid flow and transport processes within aquifers, candidate reservoirs for CO2 sequestration, and petroleum reservoirs requires understanding a diverse set of geologic properties of the aquifer or reservoir, over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. We focus on multiphase flow dynamics with wetting (e.g., water) and non-wetting (e.g., gas or oil) fluids, with one invading another.

To Hydrate Or Chlorinate: A Regression Analysis Of The Levels Of Chlorine In The Public Water Supply, Drew A. Doyle

HIM 1990-2015

Public water supplies contain disease-causing microorganisms in the water or distribution ducts. In order to kill off these pathogens, a disinfectant, such as chlorine, is added to the water. Chlorine is the most widely used disinfectant in all U.S. water treatment facilities. Chlorine is known to be one of the most powerful disinfectants to restrict harmful pathogens from reaching the consumer. In the interest of obtaining a better understanding of what variables affect the levels of chlorine in the water, this thesis will analyze a particular set of water samples randomly collected from locations in Orange County, Florida. Thirty water …

Terahertz Radiation From High-Temperature Superconducting Bscco Mesas Of Various Geometries, Daniel P. Cerkoney

HIM 1990-2015

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the radiation from high-temperature superconducting mesas of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+ (BSCCO). This is motivated by the need for coherent sources of continuous wave terahertz (THz) emission capable of radiating practically in the THz frequency band. As BSCCO has been shown to be tunable from 0.5–2.4 THz (i.e., through the entire socalled terahertz gap centered about 1 THz), and has a higher peak operating temperature near 1 THz than most alternative sources, it is a good candidate for imaging and spectroscopy device applications [1]. When a static DC voltage is applied to a BSCCO mesa, …

Time-Resolved, Near Atomic Resolution Structural Studies At The Free Electron Laser, Jason James Tenboer

Theses and Dissertations

Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX) employs X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) to provide X-ray pulses of femtosecond (fs) duration with 1012 photons per pulse. These XFELs are more than a billion times more brilliant than 3rd generation synchrotron X-ray sources. For structure determination, protein crystals on the micrometer length scale (microcrystals) are injected into the X-ray beam and the resulting diffraction patterns are recorded on fast-readout pixel detectors. Although these intense pulses deposit enough energy to ultimately destroy the protein, the processes that lead to diffraction occur before the crystal is destroyed. This so-called diffraction-before-destruction principle overcomes radiation damage, which …

Porphyrin As A Spectroscopic Probe Of Net Electric Fields In Heme Proteins, Hannah Elizabeth Wagie

Theses and Dissertations

Heme proteins have diverse functions as well as varied structures but share the same organic, conjugated cofactor. Similarly varied approaches have been taken to deduce how heme can take on different roles based on its protein environment. A unique approach is to view the protein matrix as a constellation of point charges that generates a defined, reproducible, net internal electric field that has influence over the electronic properties of the heme cofactor. This work considers how porphyrins, the basic chromophore building block of heme, can be used as a native spectroscopic sensor of internal electric field at the active site …

Development Of Dual-Cure Hybrid Polybenzoxazine Thermosets, Jananee Narayanan Sivakami

Dissertations

Polybenzoxazines are potential high performance thermoset replacements for traditional phenolic resins that can undergo an autocatalytic, thermally initiated ring - opening polymerization, and possess superior processing advantages including excellent shelf-life stability, zero volatile loss and limited volumetric shrinkage. The simplistic monomer synthesis and availability of a wide variety of inexpensive starting materials allows enormous molecular design flexibility for accessing a wide range of tailorable material properties for targeted applications. Despite the fact, once fully cured, benzoxazines are difficult to handle due to their inherent brittleness, leaving a very little scope for any modifications. The motivation of this dissertation is directed …

Addressing Potential Risks And Challenges Of Co2 Geologic Sequestration, Ethan Guyant

Theses and Dissertations

Carbon Capture and Geologic Storage is a viable technology to reduce the concentration of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere, however there remains challenges and risks associated with implementing this technology. One of the challenges, and the focus of Chapter 2, is maintaining the injectivity of the reservoir throughout the entire injection period of a project. While potential risks include the pressurization of the reservoir and the leakage of CO2 and/or brine out of the storage reservoir which is the focus of Chapter 3. A consequence of injecting dry-supercritical CO2 is that it results in salt precipitation in the near well …

Field And Laboratory Study Of The Flàajökull Glacier, Iceland, William Russell Jacobson, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The increased surface melting of the outlet glaciers of the Vatnajökull Ice Cap has a profound affect on the dynamics of the ice-bed couple and landform genesis. Soft-bedded glaciers are largely inaccessible, which creates a problem. One challenge is to understand the complex interactions of the glacier bed and its resultant depositional and deformational landform systems. This study investigates an outlet glacier from the Vatnajökull Ice Cap, described herein as the Fláajökull glacier system. To circumvent some of these problems, three separate projects were conducted in this dissertation: (1) magnetic fabric study of effective pressure (difference between the ice-overburden pressure …

Relative Divergence, Subgroup Distortion, And Geodesic Divergence, Hung Cong Tran

Theses and Dissertations

In the first part of this dissertation, we generalize the concept of divergence of finitely generated groups by introducing the upper and lower relative divergence of a finitely generated group with respect to a subgroup. Upper relative divergence generalizes Gersten's notion of divergence, and lower relative divergence generalizes a definition of Cooper-Mihalik. While the lower divergence of Cooper-Mihalik can only be linear or exponential, relative lower divergence can be any polynomial or exponential function. In this dissertation, we examine the relative divergence (both upper and lower) of a group with respect to a normal subgroup or a cyclic subgroup. We …

Part I. The Development Of Non-Secosteroidal Vitamin D Receptor Modulators Part Ii. The Development Of A Universal Gtp-Ase Assay, Kelly Ann Teske

Theses and Dissertations

The vitamin D receptor is a nuclear hormone receptor that regulates cell proliferation, cell differentiation, calcium homeostasis and immunomodulation. The receptor is activated by the vitamin D metabolite, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, which induces a cascade of events including the recruitment of coactivators that activate transcription of specific VDR target genes. Thousands of VDR agonists have been synthesized based on the secosteroid scaffold of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. However, most of these ligands are metabolically unstable, have sub-optimal drug-like properties, and induce hypercalcemia in vivo. The limited numbers of VDR antagonists reported bear the same secosteroid scaffold and thus exhibit similar problems encountered by …

The Great Lakes' Regional Climate Regimes, Noriyuki Sugiyama

Theses and Dissertations

For the last couple of decades, the Great Lakes have undergone rapid surface warming. In particular, the magnitude of the summer surface-warming trends of the Great Lakes have been much greater than those of surrounding land (Austin and Colman, 2007). Among the Great Lakes, the deepest Lake Superior exhibited the strongest warming trend in its annual, as well as summer surface water temperature. We find that many aspects of this behavior can be explained in terms of the tendency of deep lakes to exhibit multiple regimes characterized, under the same seasonally varying forcing, by the warmer and colder seasonal cycles …

The Vascular Flora Of Wayne County, Mississippi, Daniel M. Mcnair

Master's Theses

The vascular flora of Wayne County, Mississippi, was surveyed from 2013–2015, and the species of native and naturalized plants are listed. In total, 1,135 species were identified from field collections, previously collected herbarium specimens, and field observations. These belong to 556 genera and 165 families. Four of these species represent first recorded occurrences in the state of Mississippi: Blyxa aubertii Rich., Gomphrena serrata Pav. ex Moq., Isoetes valida (Engelm.) Clute, and Polypogon interruptus Kunth. GPS coordinates are given for important collection sites representing the diversity of plant communities in the county. All voucher specimens from the survey are deposited in …

Design And Synthesis Of New Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs With Anti-Cancer Activity On Colon Rectal Cancer Cell Lines Hct-116 And Caco-2, Wanda Ivette Rodríguez Rivera

Dissertations

Colon rectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and is the third leading cause of cancer related deaths among western countries. Current chemotherapy treatments are highly toxic and mostly result in only a low percentage of tumor reduction; therefore an effective treatment with low toxicity is needed.

In this study, different innovative new COX-2 inhibitors were synthesized using the frame of biologically active chalcones to which active COX-2 pharmacophores SO₂CH₃, SO₂NH₂, SO₂NHCOCH₃ were added. Additionally, the effect of different alkyl chain lengths and the effect …

Sports Broadcasting News Analysis [Career Paper], Jefferson Sanders

Undergraduate Research Award

No abstract provided.

Capstone Revival, Mary Mesele, Ruochen Lu, Quilin Jiang

School of Professional Studies

The capstone project is a culminating experience whereby students choose to research a topic that is relevant in their field of study and have been highly regarded as important learning activities. The capstone allows students to use research, analytical, problem solving and evaluation skills they have learned in the course of the graduate program. McGill indicates the benefit of the completion of a capstone project not only in gaining knowledge in capstone but also in learning how to apply the knowledge gained in other courses in the major (McGill, 2012). Currently, COPACE (College of Professional and Continuing Education) has three …

Fluvial Deposition, El Nino And Landscape Construction In Northern Coastal Peru, Paul M. Pluta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The El Nino global climate anomaly is a major cause of weather variation that can have far-reaching effects on human populations around the world. Northern coastal Peru is an area of historically major impacts where strong El Nino events have resulted in catastrophic flooding and mass wasting, leading to significant social disruption. There is a growing body of literature on the prehistoric chronology of El Nino and how it affected human populations of the past, but more work is needed. In order to address the timing and characteristics of past El Nino events I investigated the alluvial sedimentary sequences at …

Hemodynamic Analysis Of Fast And Slow Aneurysm Occlusions By Flow Diversion In Rabbits, Bong Jae Chung, Fernando Mut, Ramanathan Kadirvel, Ravi Lingineni, David F. Kallmes, Juan R. Cebral

Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose: To assess hemodynamic differences between aneurysms that occlude rapidly and those occluding in delayed fashion after flow diversion in rabbits. Methods: Thirty-six elastase-induced aneurysms in rabbits were treated with flow diverting devices. Aneurysm occlusion was assessed angiographically immediately before they were sacrificed at 1 (n=6), 2 (n=4), 4 (n=8) or 8 weeks (n=18) after treatment. The aneurysms were classified into a fast occlusion group if they were completely or near completely occluded at 4 weeks or earlier and a slow occlusion group if they remained incompletely occluded at 8 weeks. The immediate post-treatment flow conditions in aneurysms of each …

Integrability And Regularity Of Rational Functions, Greg Knese

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Motivated by recent work in the mathematics and engineering literature, we study integrability and non-tangential regularity on the two-torus for rational functions that are holomorphic on the bidisk. One way to study such rational functions is to fix the denominator and look at the ideal of polynomials in the numerator such that the rational function is square integrable. A concrete list of generators is given for this ideal as well as a precise count of the dimension of the subspace of numerators with a specified bound on bidegree. The dimension count is accomplished by constructing a natural pair of commuting …

The Solenoid And Warsawanoid Are Sharkovskii Spaces, Tyler Willes Hills

Theses and Dissertations

We extend Sharkovskii's theorem concerning orbit lengths of endomorphisms of the real line to endomorphisms of a path component of the solenoid and certain subspaces of the Warsawanoid. In particular, Sharkovskii showed that if there exists an orbit of length 3 then there exist orbits of all lengths. The solenoid is the inverse limit of double covers over the circle, and the Warsawanoid is the inverse limit of double covers over the Warsaw circle. We show Sharkovskii's result is true for path components of the solenoid and certain subspaces of the Warsawanoid.

High Flow Air Sampler For Rapid Analysis Of Volatile And Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds, Xiaofeng Xie

Theses and Dissertations

Volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds are ubiquitous, and some of them are hazardous. The ability to rapidly detect and identify trace levels of them in air has become increasingly important. The conventional device used today for sampling and concentrating them in air is thermal desorption tubes filled with specific sorbents, which can only collect air samples at flow rates of 100-200 mL/min. In order to detect low concentration (ppt level) VOC compounds, long sampling time (>2 h) and sensitive detection are required. At the same time, portable instrumentation for on-site analysis has been developing rapidly. The somewhat lower performance …

Cooling Before Super-Eruption: No Role For Rejuvenation In The Cottonwood Wash Tuff Magma Body, Southern Great Basin Ignimbrite Province, Utah And Nevada, Keryn Tobler Ross

Theses and Dissertations

The model of rejuvenation of a near-solidus crystal mush to produce large volumes of crystal-rich magma is tested here by analyzing the mineralogical, chemical, modal, and physical characteristics of the 31.1 Ma super-eruptive (2000 km3) Cottonwood Wash Tuff. It is the oldest in a series of three so-called "monotonous intermediate" ignimbrites from the Indian Peak-Caliente volcanic field in southern Utah and Nevada. A crystal-rich (~50% Pl > Qz ≈ Hbl ≈ Bt > Mag ≈ Ilm > Cpx + Zrn + Ap+ Po) dacite (62 - 69 wt% SiO2), the Cottonwood Wash Tuff is similar in age, volume, mineralogy, crystallinity, and elemental composition …

Analysis Of An Electrospun Nanofiber Device Applicable To Limb Salvage: Mass Loss, Morphological Changes, And Quantification Of Antibiotic Release, Caitlin Quinn

Honors Theses

The creation of an electrospun nanofiber embedded with two antibiotics that will be used to prevent infection while also stimulating bone regeneration will be explored. The nanofiber will contain an aminoglycoside and a glycopeptide, and it is sought to deliver a sustained release of antibiotics for up to 12 weeks. To determine release rate, nanofiber samples are immersed in 10.0 mL of MiliQ water (MQ), incubated at 37°C, assayed at specific time intervals, and then analyzed using ultra performance liquid chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry. A hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) method utilizing ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) in tandem …

A Manipulation Study: The Effect Of Predation Risk On The Space Use Of The Chilean Rodent, Octodon Degus, Erin D. Myers

Honors Theses

Predation has significant effects on animal behavior and space use across species. In small mammals, the home range areas are shown to be influenced by predation risk. This project incorporates trapping data to analyze how predation risk influences the space use of Octodon degus, a social rodent endemic to Chile. We compared range size of degus living in four predator exclusion enclosures versus four control, non-predator exclusion enclosures in Parque Nacional Bosque de Fray Jorge, Chile through grid trapping methods. For each enclosure (NP and P) 95% MCP, 95% Kernal, 95% Distance Interval, and average captures was measured. There were …