Camden County Highway Plan

The Camden County Highway Plan was prepared as an element to the update of the overall Camden County Master Plan. The Highway Plan sets the direction for highway infrastructure -- and particularly its own county route network -- to keep pace with changes expected by 2040. The Master Plan provides the authority for managing the change that will come. Seven significant physical/operational mobility improvement projects, totaling $78 million, were identified along the county route network as specific recommendations to the overall county Master Plan. Of these -- the proposed county-wide interconnected and coordinated traffic signal system ($30 million) is the smartest and farthest reaching. The project was conducted alongside the development of the Land Use Plan element and integrated findings from the Bicycling & Multi-Use Trails Plan and Farmland Preservation Plan elements. The project also delivered a linked GIS-asset management database including updated inventories of county roads, bridges, and traffic signals, and relevant outputs from the planning study

Evolution of Protein Expression: New Genes for a New Diet

SummaryA new study identifies gene duplication of a salivary enzyme as a recent adaptation to changes in diet among human populations, highlighting the diverse ways that gene regulation can evolve

Initial characterization of a highly contaminated high explosives outfall in preparation for in situ bioremediation

In situ bioremediation is a viable, cost-effective treatment for environmental contamination of many kinds. The feasibility of using biological techniques to remediate soils contaminated with high explosives (HE) requires laboratory evaluation before proceeding to a larger scale field operation. Laboratory investigations have been conducted at pilot scale which indicate that an anaerobic process could be successful at reducing levels of HE, primarily HMX, RDX and TNT, in contaminated soils. A field demonstration project has been designed to create an anaerobic environment for the degradation of HE materials. The first step in this project, initial characterization of the test area, was conducted and is the subject of this report. The levels of HE compounds found in the samples from the test area were higher than the EPA Method 8330 was able to extract without subsequent re-precipitation; therefore, a new method was developed using a superior extractant system. The test area sampling design was relatively simple as one might expect in an initial characterization. A total of 60 samples were each removed to a depth of 4 inches using a 1 inch diameter corer. The samples were spaced at relatively even intervals across a 20 foot cross-section through the middle of four 7-foot-long adjacent plots which are designed to be a part of an in situ bioremediation experiment. Duplicate cores were taken from each location for HE extraction and analysis in order to demonstrate and measure the heterogeneity of the contamination. Each soil sample was air dried and ball-milled to provide a homogeneous solid for extraction and analysis. Several samples had large consolidated pieces of what appeared to be solid HE. These were not ball-milled due to safety concerns, but were dissolved and the solutions were analyzed. The new extraction method was superior in that results obtained for several of the contaminants were up to 20 times those obtained with the EPA extraction method. The results obtained from this study showed that the test area contamination is extremely heterogeneous, and that it contains extremely high levels of the three major contaminants, HMX, RDX and TNT. The potential for success of a bioremediation strategy is discussed

The Grizzly, February 27, 2014

Second Ricochet Production Revisits the CIE Questions • New Program Mandates Additional Community Involvement on Campus • Reception to Take Place on Final Week of Brian H. Peterson Exhibit • Woodstock to Present her Research in News Consumption Lecture • Reputation of Bomberger\u27s Heefner Pipe Organ Growing • Jewish Studies Lectures Continue • Ursinus Alumnus Takes on the NFL • Opinion: Great Progress, But We\u27re Not There Yet!; Straight Wealthy White Guys Deserve a Say Too • Winter Olympic Games Come to a Close • Wrestling, Women\u27s Swimming Best in Conferencehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1899/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, April 10, 2014

Greek Week to Wrap up on Sunday • Relay for Life Focuses on Participation This Year • Financial Aid, Interest, Preparedness in Focus as National Decline in Enrollment Continues • At CoSA, 341 Students to Present This Year • Bikeshare Kicks Off New Cycling Season • Taiko Drum and Dance Group to Perform Sold-Out Show • Student Athlete on a Mission • Opinion: Not Black Enough, Not White Enough; Using Study Drugs is Dangerous and Unfair • Northwestern Football Faces Landmark Decision • UC Quarterback Balances Biology and Starting Spot • Tough Weekend for Many UC Teamshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1903/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, March 27, 2014

Bonner Leaders Attend Jamaica Service Trip This Past Spring Break • Google VP Talks This Weekend About Careers in Conjunction with a Liberal Arts Education • Art and Art History Departments Take Students to New York City • Gares Reveals Priorities for his Final Week as President of USGA • Spring Concert Coming in May • Enactus Reaching Out • Watson Winner to Study Black Masculinity Through Art, Culture • Opinion: Feminism Suffers from Misconceptions; Feminism\u27s Shortcomings Alienate Potential Allies • Gymnast Refuses to let Disease Slow Her Down • Early March Madness Games Filled with Surprises • Ursinus Spring Sports Continue to Build Steamhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1901/thumbnail.jp

Assessing harmful algal bloom risk in Puget Sound: a coupled modeling-data analysis approach

The increased frequency, duration and geographic extent of toxic Alexandrium blooms in Puget Sound presents new challenges of how to best allocate resources available for toxin monitoring of shellfish in order to protect human health. Monitoring plans are typically based on shellfish toxicity patterns from the recent past; however, the increasing trend in Alexandrium blooms means that managers are chasing a moving target. With projected future changes in global and regional climate, the risk of toxic Alexandrium blooms is expected to increase. Through funding from NOAA’s Coastal and Ocean Climate Applications Program, we are developing a harmful algal bloom (HAB) risk index that will provide another source of information to the Washington State Department of Health (WDOH) and local health jurisdictions for allocating paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) monitoring resources in the Sound. The HAB risk index is being developed from existing modeling capabilities and six years of year-round PSP toxin data in mussels collected by the WDOH. Climate/meteorological data produced by the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, was used to drive the Puget Sound hydrologic and coastal hydrodynamic models developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Temperature and salinity output from the modeling framework provided input to an Alexandrium growth rate model developed by the Puget Sound Alexandrium Harmful Algal Bloom (PS-AHAB) program. Output from these models was calculated for spatially-explicit WDOH biotoxin closure zones. Statistical correlations between model outputs were examined for trends related to initiation of biotoxin zone closures and changes in shellfish PSP toxin levels. These relationships are being used to develop a risk index that can inform decisions about resource allocation for PSP monitoring in the future at the county, regional, and state level. Changes in risk factors based on a future climate scenario are also being examined. Results of the modeled data and development of the risk index will be presented at the conference

Living God Pandeism: Evidential Support

Pandeism is the belief that God chose to wholly become our Universe, imposing principles at this Becoming that have fostered the lawful evolution of multifarious structures, including life and consciousness. This article describes and defends a particular form of pandeism: living God pandeism (LGP). On LGP, our Universe inherits all of God's unsurpassable attributes—reality, unity, consciousness, knowledge, intelligence, and effectiveness—and includes as much reality, conscious and unconscious, as is possible consistent with retaining those attributes. God and the Universe, together “God-and-Universe,” is also eternal into the future and the past. The article derives testable hypotheses from these claims and shows that the evidence to date confirms some of these while falsifying none. Theism cannot be tested in the same way