A Mighty Wind: the Turbulent Times of America\u27s First Offshore Wind Farm and the Inverse of Environmental Justice

In 2001, Cape Wind Associates announced its proposal to construct America’s first offshore wind farm in the federal waters of Nantucket Sound. This declaration touched off a storm of law suits, fund raising, and protests in the press that still rages to this day. Political pundits and environmental groups of every stripe have taken some surprising positions, based solely on the location of the renewable energy source. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, posing as an environmental concern, has risen as the archrival to the wind farm. Interestingly, a closer look under the surface of this group reveals a financial juggernaut of fossil fuel funding, and instead of trying to preserve Nantucket Sound, the real issue that arises is classic NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). A timeline, starting from the announcement in 2001 and spanning to the selection of construction contractors in 2012, summarizes the astounding scope of litigation, politics and electrical utility contracts. Together with analysis of the major cases intended to block Cape Wind, is a look at the history of the Environmental Justice (EJ) movement. With the late entrance of Native American Tribes into the fray, the significance of EJ in current state and federal policy is now being used in reverse as a weapon to strike against Cape Wind, for the benefit of Cape Cod’s well-heeled residents

Effects of control automation on operator attention and risk probability in high speed trains

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63).Helias John Marinakos.M.S

Mono-dispersed Functional Polymeric Nanocapsules with Multi-lacuna via Soapless Microemulsion Polymerization with Spindle-like α-Fe2O3Nanoparticles as Templates

The mono-dispersed crosslinked polymeric multi-lacuna nanocapsules (CP(St–OA) nanocapsules) about 40 nm with carboxylic groups on their inner and outer surfaces were fabricated in the present work. The small conglomerations of the oleic acid modified spindle-like α-Fe2O3nanoparticles (OA–Fe2O3) were encapsulated in the facile microemulsion polymerization with styrene (St) as monomer and divinyl benzene (DVB) as crosslinker. Then the templates, small conglomerations of OA–Fe2O3, were etched with HCl in tetrahydrofuran (THF). The surface carboxylic groups of the crosslinked polymeric multi-lacuna nanocapsules were validated by the Zeta potential analysis

Near-Bulk Conductivity of Gold Nanowires as Nanoscale Interconnects and the Role of Atomically Smooth Interface

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77445/1/2338_ftp.pd

Plasmonic Nanostructures for Nano-Scale Bio-Sensing

The optical properties of various nanostructures have been widely adopted for biological detection, from DNA sequencing to nano-scale single molecule biological function measurements. In particular, by employing localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), we can expect distinguished sensing performance with high sensitivity and resolution. This indicates that nano-scale detections can be realized by using the shift of resonance wavelength of LSPR in response to the refractive index change. In this paper, we overview various plasmonic nanostructures as potential sensing components. The qualitative descriptions of plasmonic nanostructures are supported by the physical phenomena such as plasmonic hybridization and Fano resonance. We present guidelines for designing specific nanostructures with regard to wavelength range and target sensing materials

Shape-dependent plasmon resonances of gold nanoparticles

Localized surface plasmon resonances in noble metal nanoparticles cause enhanced optical absorption and scattering that is tunable through the visible and near-infrared. Furthermore, these resonances create large local electric field enhancements at the nanoparticle surfaces, essentially focussing light at the nanometer scale. These properties suggest a range of applications, including biomedical imaging, therapeutics, and molecular sensing. Here we review some recent advances regarding shape-dependent optical properties of two specific nanoparticle geometries: gold nanorods and branched gold nanoparticles