Alien Registration- Mccrum, Ella (Calais, Washington County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/2190/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Mccrum, Mabel (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21474/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Mccrum, Mabel (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21474/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Mccrum, Mabel (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21474/thumbnail.jp

Evaluation of Pinyon-Juniper Biochar as a Media Amendment for Stormwater Treatment

Stormwater runoff affects the water quality of lakes, rivers and streams around the world, but many stormwater best management practices (BMPs) do not achieve adequate pollutant reductions, especially when receiving waters are very clean. Biochar, a product of controlled combustion under low oxygen conditions, has been used in agriculture for the improvement of soil fertility, water-holding capacity and nutrient retention. Recently, the Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF) has developed a biochar product from forest clearing and thinning of pinyon-juniper (P-J) landscapes. That biochar has been used on a trial basis to improve soil moisture-holding capacity of rain-garden soils in the Tahoe Basin, and its physicochemical characteristics suggests that it may also improve the sequestration of nutrients from stormwater runoff. This study evaluated nutrient adsorption characteristics of NDF biochar using batch equilibrium tests and column experiments with mixtures of Washoe washed sand (WWS) and the P-J biochar. Results showed that biochar adsorption of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus was most effective with the smaller size classes (125–250 microns) versus larger size classes (500–4000 µm). Batch equilibrium tests demonstrated significant improvements in phosphorus and nitrate removal with P-J biochar compared to WWS, and modest adsorption of ammonium relative to WWS, but also some leaching of phosphorus from biochar. Subsequent column adsorption-desorption experiments using a 30% biochar mixture in WWS with simulated stormwater showed a net retention of 11% for ammonium-N, 1.5% for orthophosphate-P, and negligible nitrate-N retention. Many studies on adsorptive media simply conduct batch adsorption tests on the media of interest, but we found that column adsorption-desorption experiments improved our interpretation of results and yielded better estimates of net nutrient retention. The 30% P-J biochar with WWS mixture retained 7.6 g m-3 dissolved inorganic phosphorus and 43 g m-3 of dissolved inorganic nitrogen. Subsequent batch equilibrium tests with iron-amended P-J biochar showed a much higher capacity for P adsorption than with P-J biochar, but also some potential ammonium leaching

Evaluation of creative problem solving abilities in undergraduate structural engineers through interdisciplinary problem based learning

For a structural engineer, effective communication and interaction with architects cannot be underestimated as a key skill to success throughout their professional career. Structural engineers and architects have to share a common language and understanding of each other in order to achieve the most desirable architectural and structural designs. This interaction and engagement develops during their professional career but needs to be nurtured during their undergraduate studies. The objective of this paper is to present the strategies employed to engage higher order thinking in structural engineering students in order to help them solve complex problem-based learning (PBL) design scenarios presented by architecture students. The strategies employed were applied in the experimental setting of an undergraduate module in structural engineering at Queen’s University Belfast in the UK. The strategies employed were active learning to engage with content knowledge, the use of physical conceptual structural models to reinforce key concepts and finally, reinforcing the need for hand sketching of ideas to promote higher order problem-solving. The strategies employed were evaluated through student survey, student feedback and module facilitator (this author) reflection. The strategies were qualitatively perceived by the tutor and quantitatively evaluated by students in a cross-sectional study to help interaction with the architecture students, aid interdisciplinary learning and help students creatively solve problems (through higher order thinking). The students clearly enjoyed this module and in particular interacting with structural engineering tutors and students from another disciplin