Chemistries for Targeted Delivery of Agrochemicals: Development and Feasibility Testing

"Approximately 55 MMT of the annually applied N-based fertilizer is not assimilated by the crop, wasting quadrillions BTU of embodied energy and leading to 245,000 km2 of eutrophic waters that carry a billion-dollar price tag in terms of damages to the environment, human health, and economies that rely on these water bodies. Further, 4 million tons of pesticides are used annually in global crop production with less than 20% reaching the plant. The inherent toxicity and persistence of many pesticides lead to severe adverse human and ecological impacts. These are just a few facts that demonstrate the need to develop sustainable alternative technologies and approaches to advance agriculture. The sustainable agriculture challenge has been recognized by both the National Academy of Sciences and the United Nations. The proposed research aims to address this challenge through the design and development of terminal surface chemistries that can target specific components of the crop with the goal of more efficient agrochemical delivery. This seeding grant will support the (i) identification of unique target compounds (e.g., in/near the root, leaf surfaces, internal plant cells) and (ii) demonstration of the preferred interaction of candidate terminal functionalities to be pursued through the following objectives: 1. Identify candidate chemistries for selective binding to intended targets that are economically viable for application in the agriculture industry. 2. Quantify binding affinity. 3. Develop model systems to test in simulated agriculture systems. The criteria used in Objective 1 will ensure that promising chemistries that result from Objectives 2 and 3 have significant potential for successful implementation in agriculture. The collective findings from this seeding grant will serve as a foundation for follow-on funding to further develop the delivery of sought from a variety of different sources.

Bodies out of time in place : queerly present in Andy Warhol’s factory and beyond

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, 2009.This dissertation, Bodies Out of Time in Place: Queerly Present in Warhol’s Factory and Beyond, places in conversation sites and forms of artistic production in the post-Abstract Expressionist New York avant-garde (1959–1970) that are often treated separately. Bringing a number of cinematic and multi-media experiments of Warhol and his circle into dialogue with contemporaneous works at the Judson Dance Theatre and other sites of artistic experimentation, I explore how complex interrogations of temporality and artistic authorship in these examples operate as proto-queer and/or proto-feminist interventions immediately preceding the sexual revolution and gay and lesbian liberation. I argue that Warhol and the female and queer male artists working alongside him contested reigning norms of artistic embodiment to create alternative aesthetic possibilities and underground cultural spaces for themselves. Throughout the dissertation, I pursue a methodology that avoids collapsing individualized experiences into marginalized categories of “woman’s issues,” or “gay issues,” and I privilege investigations of how queer feminist concerns overlapped with formal and thematic preoccupations of the post-WWII avant-garde. In chapter 1, I investigate Warhol’s sustained interests with dance throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s and elucidate how his familiarity with this aesthetic form translated into works in popular illustration, traditional painting, and film. I argue these works articulate a queer aesthetic that troubles the simple dichotomy of embodiment/abstraction, and express Warhol’s intimate affinity for the feminized worlds of dance. The second chapter brings into conversation works produced between 1962–64 at Warhol’s Factory and Judson Memorial Church, Andy Warhol’s film series Kiss and Yvonne Rainer’s and Steve Paxton’s dance Word Words. I propose that these examples challenge the ways heteronormative desire for bodies on screen and stage are often channeled and delimited through traditional spatial and temporal conventions of cinema and dance. Chapters 3 and 4 consider how Warhol’s collaborations with two individual women transformed the idea of artistic authorship rooted in a masulinized body that withdraws itself in order to present itself as a persona. In chapter 3, I explore Warhol’s intense working and social relationships with Edie Sedgwick in 1965. I argue that this couple re-articulates the idea of the artist’s body as “in pieces,” rather than as self-contained and whole. The final chapter addresses Warhol’s collaborations with Brigid Berlin in his filmmaking beyond (1965–1969). I demonstrate how their work together contributed to transforming prevailing body-centered notions of artistic and sexual identity into queer models that emerged from the mediating factors of social place, artistic practice, and performed embodiment

Opportunities and challenges for nanotechnology in the agri-tech revolution

International audienc

Evaluating the Use of Alternatives Assessment To Compare Bulk Organic Chemical and Nanomaterial Alternatives to Brominated Flame Retardants

Alternatives assessment (AA) provides a framework for selection of safer substitutes for problematic chemicals. This study assesses alternatives for flame retardants (FR) in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), including two common brominated FR, decabromodiphenyl ether (deca-BDE) and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). Although deca-BDE is restricted in the EU and undergoing phase-out in the US, TBBPA is still widely used. However, concerns about potential hazards are driving a search for halogen-free alternatives. Nonhalogenated organic chemical alternatives (e.g., phosphorus-based FRs) as well as minerals (e.g., montmorillonite) and nanomaterials (e.g., carbon nanotubes) have been proposed, yet it is unclear whether current frameworks can be used to systematically compare such heterogeneous alternatives. This study aims to (i) identify technologically and economically viable alternative FRs and (ii) evaluate each under the current AA frameworks, to (iii) elucidate challenges and shortcomings to adopting proposed alternatives. Uncertainties persist regarding the hazards of both novel nanomaterials and traditional chemicals. Historically, problematic chemicals undergoing restriction have been substituted with another chemical providing, at best, marginally reduced hazard, a problem that AA was, in part, developed to solve. Its successful implementation will depend on our ability to reduce hazard during the design stage, which is currently precluded by the “commercially available and economically viable” emphasis of AA. Methods are needed to bridge AA with sustainable chemical design to prevent it from becoming a tool of only incremental improvement

Salivary blockade protects the lower respiratory tract of mice from lethal influenza virus infection

It is possible to model the progression of influenza virus from the upper respiratory tract to the lower respiratory tract in the mouse using viral inoculum delivered in a restricted manner to the nose. In this model, infection with the A/Udorn/307/72 (Udorn) strain of virus results ultimately in high viral titers in both the trachea and lungs. In contrast, the A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (PR8) strain causes an infection that is almost entirely limited to the nasal passages. The factors that govern the progression of virus down the respiratory tract are not well understood. Here, we show that, while PR8 virus grows to high titers in the nose, an inhibitor present in the saliva blocks further progression of infection to the trachea and lungs and renders an otherwise lethal dose of virus completely asymptomatic. In vitro, the salivary inhibitor was capable of potent neutralization of PR8 virus and an additional 20 strains of type A virus and two type B strains that were tested. The exceptions were Udorn virus and the closely related H3N2 strains A/Port Chalmers/1/73 and A/Victoria/3/75. Characterization of the salivary inhibitor showed it to be independent of sialic acid and other carbohydrates for its function. This and other biochemical properties, together with its virus strain specificity and in vivo function, indicate that the mouse salivary inhibitor is a previously undescribed innate inhibitory molecule that may have evolved to provide pulmonary protection of the species from fatal influenza virus infection

Life Cycle Payback Estimates of Nanosilver Enabled Textiles under Different Silver Loading, Release, And Laundering Scenarios Informed by Literature Review

Silver was utilized throughout history to prevent the growth of bacteria in food and wounds. Recently, nanoscale silver has been applied to consumer textiles (nAg-textiles) to eliminate the prevalence of odor-causing bacteria. In turn, it is proposed that consumers will launder these items less frequently thus, reducing the life cycle impacts. While previous studies report that laundering processes are associated with the greatest environmental impacts of these textiles, there is no data available to support the proposed shift in consumer laundering behavior. Here, the results from a comprehensive literature review of nAg-textile life cycle studies are used to inform a cradle-to-grave life cycle impact assessment. Rather than assuming shifts in consumer behavior, the impact assessment is conducted in such a way that considers all laundering scenarios to elucidate the potential for reduced laundering to enable realization of a net life cycle benefit. In addition to identifying the most impactful stages of the life cycle across nine-midpoint categories, a payback period and uncertainty analysis quantifies the reduction in lifetime launderings required to recover the impacts associated with nanoenabling the textile. Reduction of nAg-textile life cycle impacts is not straightforward and depends on the impact category considered

Life Cycle Impacts and Benefits of a Carbon Nanotube-Enabled Chemical Gas Sensor

As for any emerging technology, it is critical to assess potential life cycle impacts prior to widespread adoption to prevent future unintended consequences. The subject of this life cycle study is a carbon nanotube-enabled chemical gas sensor, which is a highly complex, low nanomaterial-concentration application with the potential to impart significant human health benefits upon implementation. Thus, the net lifecycle trade-offs are quantified using an impact-benefit ratio (IBR) approach proposed herein, where an IBR < 1 indicates that the downstream benefits outweigh the upstream impacts. The cradle-to-gate assessment results indicate that the midpoint impacts associated with producing CNTs are marginal compared with those associated with the other manufacturing stages. The cumulative upstream impacts are further aggregated to units of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) using ReCiPe end point analysis method and quantitatively compared with the potential downstream DALY benefits, as lives saved, during the use phase. The approach presented in this study provides a guiding framework and quantitative method intended to encourage the development of nanoenabled products that have the potential to realize a net environmental, health, or societal benefit

Toward safer multi-walled carbon nanotube design: Establishing a statistical model that relates surface charge and embryonic zebrafish mortality

<p>Given the increased utility and lack of consensus regarding carbon nanotube (CNT) environmental and human health hazards, there is a growing demand for guidelines that inform safer CNT design. In this study, the zebrafish (<i>Danio rerio</i>) model is utilized as a stable, sensitive biological system to evaluate the bioactivity of systematically modified and comprehensively characterized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). MWNTs were treated with strong acid to introduce oxygen functional groups, which were then systematically thermally reduced and removed using an inert temperature treatment. While 25 phenotypic endpoints were evaluated at 24 and 120 hours post-fertilization (hpf), high mortality at 24 hpf prevented further resolution of the mode of toxicity leading to mortality. Advanced multivariate statistical methods are employed to establish a model that identifies those MWNT physicochemical properties that best estimate the probability of observing an adverse outcome. The physicochemical properties considered in this study include surface charge, percent surface oxygen, dispersed aggregate size and morphology and electrochemical activity. Of the five physicochemical properties, surface charge, quantified as the point of zero charge (PZC), was determined as the best predictor of mortality at 24 hpf. From a design perspective, the identification of this property–hazard relationship establishes a foundation for the development of design guidelines for MWNTs with reduced hazard.</p