Strengthening Concept Development through the Inquiry Method

The purpose of this study was (1) to review the literature on concepts and concept development through inquiry; (2) to present guidelines for inquiry within the classroom; (3) to develop classroom lessons about contemporary Soviet life using the concept of inquiry and thirty-five millimeter slides; (4) to summarize and to offer recommendations for the use of inquiry in the classroom

Interview with Larry Wolford and Lee Buzz Ickes

Larry Wolford and Lee Buzz Ickes talk about owning the Howard Hiltonhttps://digital.kenyon.edu/ps_interviews/1042/thumbnail.jp

Defeat of George W. Norris in the 1942 Nebraska Senatorial Election

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Remote Sensing of Soils for Environmental Assessment and Management.

The next generation of imaging systems integrated with complex analytical methods will revolutionize the way we inventory and manage soil resources across a wide range of scientific disciplines and application domains. This special issue highlights those systems and methods for the direct benefit of environmental professionals and students who employ imaging and geospatial information for improved understanding, management, and monitoring of soil resources

Effect of regional precursor emission controls on long-range ozone transport – Part 1: Short-term changes in ozone air quality

Observations and models demonstrate that ozone and its precursors can be transported between continents and across oceans. We model the influences of 10% reductions in anthropogenic nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from each of nine world regions on surface ozone air quality in that region and all other regions. In doing so, we quantify the relative importance of long-range transport between all source-receptor pairs, for direct short-term ozone changes. We find that for population-weighted concentrations during the three-month "ozone-season", the strongest inter-regional influences are from Europe to the Former Soviet Union, East Asia to Southeast Asia, and Europe to Africa. The largest influences per unit of NOx reduced, however, are seen for source regions in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere, which we attribute mainly to greater sensitivity to changes in NOx in the lower troposphere, and secondarily to increased vertical convection to the free troposphere in tropical regions, allowing pollutants to be transported further. Results show, for example, that NOx reductions in North America are ~20% as effective per unit NOx in reducing ozone in Europe during summer, as NOx reductions from Europe itself. Reducing anthropogenic emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO) by 10% in selected regions, can have as large an impact on long-range ozone transport as NOx reductions, depending on the source region. We find that for many source-receptor pairs, the season of greatest long-range influence does not coincide with the season when ozone is highest in the receptor region. Reducing NOx emissions in most source regions causes a larger decrease in export of ozone from the source region than in ozone production outside of the source region

Effect of regional precursor emission controls on long-range ozone transport – Part 2: Steady-state changes in ozone air quality and impacts on human mortality

Large-scale changes in ozone precursor emissions affect ozone directly in the short term, and also affect methane, which in turn causes long-term changes in ozone that affect surface ozone air quality. Here we assess the effects of changes in ozone precursor emissions on the long-term change in surface ozone via methane, as a function of the emission region, by modeling 10% reductions in anthropogenic nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from each of nine world regions. Reductions in NOx emissions from all world regions increase methane and long-term surface ozone. While this long-term increase is small compared to the intra-regional short-term ozone decrease, it is comparable to or larger than the short-term inter-continental ozone decrease for some source-receptor pairs. The increase in methane and long-term surface ozone per ton of NOx reduced is greatest in tropical and Southern Hemisphere regions, exceeding that from temperate Northern Hemisphere regions by roughly a factor of ten. We also assess changes in premature ozone-related human mortality associated with regional precursor reductions and long-range transport, showing that for 10% regional NOx reductions, the strongest inter-regional influence is for emissions from Europe affecting mortalities in Africa. Reductions of NOx in North America, Europe, the Former Soviet Union, and Australia are shown to reduce more mortalities outside of the source regions than within. Among world regions, NOx reductions in India cause the greatest number of avoided mortalities per ton, mainly in India itself. Finally, by increasing global methane, NOx reductions in one hemisphere tend to cause long-term increases in ozone concentration and mortalities in the opposite hemisphere. Reducing emissions of methane, and to a lesser extent carbon monoxide and non-methane volatile organic compounds, alongside NOx reductions would avoid this disbenefit

Impact of meteorology and emissions on methane trends, 1990–2004

Over the past century, atmospheric methane (CH4) rose dramatically before leveling off in the late 1990s. The processes controlling this trend are poorly understood, limiting confidence in projections of future CH4. The MOZART-2 global tropospheric chemistry model qualitatively captures the observed CH4 trend (increasing in the early 1990s and then leveling off) with constant emissions. From 1991–1995 to 2000–2004, the CH4 lifetime versus tropospheric OH decreases by 1.6%, reflecting increases in OH and temperature. The rise in OH stems from an increase in lightning NOx as parameterized in the model. A simulation including annually varying anthropogenic and wetland CH4 emissions, as well as the changes in meteorology, best reproduces the observed CH4 distribution, trend, and seasonal cycles. Projections of future CH4 abundances should consider climate-driven changes in CH4 sources and sinks

Use of a Nitrogen Leaching Model as a Design Criterion for Land Application of Waste Water

Proceedings of the 1991 Georgia Water Resources Conference, March 19-20, 1991, Athens, Georgia.Land application is a viable alternative to conventional waste treatment plants for environmentally safe disposal of liquid wastes. To ensure protection of the state's water resources, guidelines have been established specifying variables that should be considered in design of land application systems. These guidelines also specify maximum levels of hydraulic loading, heavy metals in the soil, and N concentration in water percolating through the soil (Georgia EPD, 1986). Any of these three factors may limit the annual amount of waste applied to a site. For hydrologic loading, the design criteria are based on monthly net precipitation (precipitation - potential evapotranspiration) and soil properties that influence the hydrology of the soil. The maximum monthly rate of waste application is determined by the month in which net precipitation plus monthly waste addition is maximal. Total net precipitation plus waste additions during this month cannot exceed the soil's capacity to transmit the liquid without ponding and runoff. If nitrogen content of the waste is such that limits on soil percolate N concentration will be exceeded with application rates which meet hydrologic loading criteria, size of spray field area is determined based on an annual rather than monthly N balance. The major sink for N considered in design of land application systems is plant uptake. Rather than being uniform throughout the year as suggested by the current practice of using annual values in the system design, crop growth and associated N uptake is cyclic, and depending on the crop or crops growing, periods of plant dormancy or reduced growth may occur when little or none of applied N is being removed from the soil. Thus, during these periods N applied may move quickly through the soil profile and potentially to shallow ground water. This may be especially true in Georgia where warm temperatures promote rapid nitrification and the retentive capacity of the soils for ammonium is low. Models to predict nitrate leaching through soils under different climatic and management regimes are currently available and improved versions are steadily being released. These models simulate N uptake by crops, N transformations such as nitrification, denitrification, and volatilization, and water and nitrate movement through the soil, and offer the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of N removal by land treatment under various management, climatic, and soil conditions. The objective of this study was to use a N leaching model to evaluate the soil N balance under different soil and management conditions for a hypothetical land application system sized by current design criteria.Sponsored by U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Georgia Institute of Technology.This book was published by the Institute of Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 with partial funding provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, through the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1984 (P.L. 98242). The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia or the U.S. Geological Survey or the conference sponsors