Metal Concentrations in Grape Spirits

Metals are a necessity for human health as they play significant roles in biological systems. However,contamination of food and beverages by heavy metals such as lead (Pb), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), cadmium(Cd), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), Nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn) is a major public health problem in developingcountries. In this study we evaluated the levels of Li, Be, B, Al, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sr,Mo, Cd, Sb, Ba, Hg and Pb in grape spirits, including pot still spirit, neutral wine spirit and commercialbrandies. Interesting variations in the levels of metals was observed. Factors such as origin and type ofspirits influenced levels of metals in spirits. These differences in some metal levels such as copper canbe used to determine possible adulteration and in authenticity assessments of brandies. Surprisingly thecommercial brandies had higher metal concentrations when compared to pot still spirit and neutral winespirit. Unmatured pot still spirit had the highest copper levels. Our study shows that generally the metallevels in most of the commercial brandies were within permissible limits

Stormwater Management for Greenwood Hills Bible Camp

The stormwater team addresses flooding and erosion issues. In the spring of 2022, the team analyzed erosion problems for Greenwood Hills Bible Camp near Chambersburg PA and designed a system to capture and divert the runoff that is causing erosion. The design includes collection of the runoff with French drains and rock channels and conveyance of the water through a culvert with discharge down-gradient of affected houses. The system should lessen the erosion affecting the camp road and fix nuisance flooding and erosion at the residences. In the fall of 2021, the team partnered with the City of Harrisburg and Capital Region Water to address flooding in the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg Pennsylvania and designed a plan to mitigate this problem for neighborhood residents. Funding for this work provided by The Collaboratory for Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2022/1018/thumbnail.jp

Show-Me Resilience: Assessing And Reconciling Rural Leaders’ Perceptions Of Climate Resilience In Missouri

Rural areas of the United States play a vital role in coping with, adapting to and mitigating climate change, yet they often lag urban areas in climate planning and action. Rural leaders—e.g., policymakers, state/federal agency professionals, non-profit organization leadership, and scholars – are pivotal for driving the programs and policies that support resilient practices, but our understanding of their perspectives on climate resilience writ large is limited. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 rural leaders in Missouri to elucidate their conceptualizations of climate resilience and identify catalysts and constraints for climate adaptation planning and action across rural landscapes. We investigated participants\u27 perceptions of the major vulnerabilities of rural communities and landscapes, threats to rural areas, and potential steps for making rural Missouri more resilient in the face of climate change. We found that most rural leaders conceptualized climate resilience as responding to hazardous events rather than anticipating or planning for hazardous trends. The predominant threats identified were flooding and drought, which aligns with climate projections for the Midwest. Participants proposed a wide variety of specific steps to enhance resilience but had the highest agreement about the utility of expanding existing programs. The most comprehensive suite of solutions was offered by participants who conceptualized resilience as involving social, ecological, and economic systems, underscoring the importance of broad thinking for developing more holistic solutions to climate-associated threats and the potential impact of greater collaboration across domains. We highlight and discuss a Missouri-based levee setback project that was identified by participants as a showcase of collaborative resilience-building

CNC Feed Drive Control

This document serves as the Final Design Report (FDR) for a senior project developed by our team: four senior Mechanical Engineering students and one computer engineering student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). While the project was completed for, and sponsored by, Professor Simon Xing of Cal Poly, the remainder of the university’s controls professors will be indirectly benefited from this project. Our goal was to design and implement a functional CNC Feed Drive to be used for educational demonstrations and data collection. This document discusses our early product research and benchmark goals, which established constraints for our product design, as well as identifies our design process and conclusions. Through this evaluation of the feed drive form and function, we determined optimal system components - including a DC motor with rotary encoders, a ballscrew, linear bearings, and a load table with screws for fixturing. This FDR also discusses our design progression, beginning with the structural prototype and followed by a description of the final design. This will include the manufacturing steps taken, the front-end and back-end code generated and used to control the system, and the associated user’s manual. Lastly, this report will discuss the test procedures that we derived from the design verification requirements and include an overview of our test results. We conclude with our final acknowledgments, and we wanted to mention that we are extremely grateful to have worked on this project. The team has learned so much throughout the year, and we look forward to handing the prototype over to Professor Xing

Land Development - Tree 4 Hope

The Land Development Team has partnered with Tree 4 Hope and Hope Academy in Santa Lucía Milpas Altas, Guatemala to improve the outdoor facilities of the school. Jenn and David Hope-Tringali are the client/partner representatives of the school for this project. The goal of the project is to provide design and construction drawings for three main elements of the proposed land development: (1) a parking lot for buses and school vehicles that enter the site, (2) a single sports court that can accommodate basketball and soccer, and (3) a playground that is directed towards themes associated with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math). The team has completed project drawings to allow construction by local personnel, or by student or church mission teams when travel is allowed to resume post-pandemic.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2021/1007/thumbnail.jp

Atmospheric autoxidation is increasingly important in urban and suburban North America

Gas-phase autoxidation—regenerative peroxy radical formation following intramolecular hydrogen shifts—is known to be important in the combustion of organic materials. The relevance of this chemistry in the oxidation of organics in the atmosphere has received less attention due, in part, to the lack of kinetic data at relevant temperatures. Here, we combine computational and experimental approaches to investigate the rate of autoxidation for organic peroxy radicals (RO_2) produced in the oxidation of a prototypical atmospheric pollutant, n-hexane. We find that the reaction rate depends critically on the molecular configuration of the RO_2 radical undergoing hydrogen transfer (H-shift). RO_2 H-shift rate coefficients via transition states involving six- and seven-membered rings (1,5 and 1,6 H-shifts, respectively) of α-OH hydrogens (HOC-H) formed in this system are of order 0.1 s^(−1) at 296 K, while the 1,4 H-shift is calculated to be orders of magnitude slower. Consistent with H-shift reactions over a substantial energetic barrier, we find that the rate coefficients of these reactions increase rapidly with temperature and exhibit a large, primary, kinetic isotope effect. The observed H-shift rate coefficients are sufficiently fast that, as a result of ongoing NO_x emission reductions, autoxidation is now competing with bimolecular chemistry even in the most polluted North American cities, particularly during summer afternoons when NO levels are low and temperatures are elevated

RAST MICELIJA I PROIZVODNJA SKLEROCIJE PLEUROTUS TUBER-REGIUM (FRIES) SINGER NA ČETIRI VRSTE PILJEVINE U TRI INTERVALA KOMPOSTIRANJA

Mushrooms are consumed for their flavor, aroma, nutritive and medicinal values. The basis of this study is to boost protein production for human consumption. Studies were conducted to investigate the growth and yield of Pleurotus tuber-regium (Fr) Singer on four sawdust types derived from mango, cassia, neem and their mixed bed. The treatments consisted of factorial combination in complete randomized design at three different weeks of composting intervals (WCI) of 4, 8 and 12 in three replicates. A progressive increment in the growth and yield parameters was observed. The data taken were sclerotia weight (SW), biological efficiency (BE), production efficiency (PE), mycelia extension and average extension per day. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and the means were separated by Duncan’s multiple range test. The results obtained revealed that while cassia sawdust substrate produced was best in terms of SW, BE and PE (35.34 g, 33.66% and 13.51% respectively) at 8WCI, mango sawdust produced the highest SW (37.44 g), BE (35.66%) and PE (18.28%) at 12 WCI. While the mixed bed produced the least SW at both 4 and 8 WCI in comparison with others, neem produced the least SW at 12 WCI. However, the longest mycelia extensions and extension per day were obtained in neem at the 4 and 8 WCI. As the composting intervals increased, there was a significant increment in the yield from mango sawdust thus making it the best among all the sawdusts investigated in this study.Gljive se jedu zbog svog okusa i arome te hranjive i zdravstvene vrijednosti. Temelj ovog rada je potaknuti proizvodnju bjelančevina za ljudsku upotrebu. Provedena su istraživanja rasta i prinosa Pleurotusa tuber-regium (Fr) Singer na četiri vrste piljevine, od manga, kasije, nima i njihove mješavine. Postupci su se sastojali od faktorske kombinacije u potpunom randomiziranom dizajnu u tri različita tjedna razdoblja kompostiranja (TRK), 4, 8 i 12 u tri ponavljanja. Primijećeno je progresivno povećanje parametara rasta i prinosa. Zabilježeni su podaci o težini sklerocije, biološkoj djelotvornosti, proizvodnoj djelotvornosti, rastu micelija i prosječnom rastu po danu. Prikupljeni podaci podvrgnuti su analizi varijance, a srednje vrijednosti su odvojene pomoću Duncanovog multiple range testa. Dobiveni su rezultati pokazali da dok je supstrat piljevine najbolji u smislu težine sklericije (ST), biološke djelotvornosti (BD), proizvodne djelotvornosti (PD) (35,34 g, 33,66% i 13,51%) u 8 TRK mango piljevina proizvela je najviši TS (37,44 g), BD (35,66%) i PD (18,28%) u 12 TRK. Dok je smjesa od miješavine proizvela najmanje TS u 4 i 8 TRK u usporedbi s drugima, na supstratu nima proizvedeno je najmanje TS u 12 TRK.Međutim, najdulje proširenje micelija i proširenje po danu dobiveni su u smjesi od nima u 4 i 8 TRK. S povećanjem intervala kompostiranja došlo je do znatnog povećanja prinosa na piljevini manga, što ga čini najboljim od svih piljevina proučavanih u ovom rad

Radical Surgery in the Treatment of Localized Carcinoma of the Prostate

New methods of early detection combined with recent advances in surgical techniques have resulted in more patients undergoing radical surgery for treatment of localized carcinoma of the prostate. Over 350 radical prostatectomies have been performed by our group since January 1987. We review the role of radical prostatectomy in the treatment of prostate cancer and our experience with 100 patients undergoing radical retropubic prostatectomy since the advent of nerve-sparing techniques to preserve potency

The potential of trading activity income to fund third sector organisations operating in deprived areas

In the United Kingdom, as in other countries, Third Sector Organisations (TSOs) have been drawn towards income sources associated with trading activities (Teasdale, 2010), but many remain reliant on grant funding to support such activities (Chell, 2007). Using a multivariate analysis approach and data from the National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises (NSCSE), it is found that trading activities are used relatively commonly in deprived areas. These organisations are also more likely to attempt to access public sector funds. This suggests policy-makers need to consider the impact of funding cuts on TSOs in the most deprived areas as TSOs are unlikely achieve their objectives without continuing support