Vehicle emissions and roadside air quality

Individual carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions were monitored from passing vehicles using the Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test at four survey sites (Bounds Green Road, Haringey (site A); Dixons Bank, Middlesborough (site B); Abbey Street, Southwark (site C); Uppingham Road, Leicester (site D)}. The remotely measured emissions data is described in terms of fleet emissions, model year emissions and model year contribution to fleet emissions. It was found that there were a large majority of low emitting vehicles contributing little to fleet emissions and a small minority of high emitting vehicles contributing significant proportions to fleet emissions. Model year analysis suggested a low association between vehicle age and mean emissions prior to 1983 but a much improved relationship after 1983. Analysis of model year contributions to fleet emissions shows new gross polluters to be the largest contributors and older vehicles playing only a minor role. The concentrations of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides in air were monitored, in conjunction with the FEAT measurement, at various distances from the road (roadside (on the kerb), kerbside (3 metres from the road), 7.5 metres and 15 metres from the road). A decrease of carbon monoxide and nitric oxide concentrations with distance from the road was noted for all sites with the exception of site D where meteorological parameters exerted a greater influence upon air quality than did distance from the road. The expected increase of NO2 concentration with distance from the road, as NO is oxidised to NO2, did not occur. Moreover, NO2 concentrations decreased with distance from the road. However, the production of NO2 by oxidation of NO can be inferred in two ways. Firstly, a much more gradual decline in concentrations with distance from the road was noted for NO2 compared to CO and NO, possibly due to NO2 production counteracting the reduction in concentration caused by dispersion. Secondly, an analysis of the change of ratios between nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide with distance from the road reveals a relative increase of NO2 with distance. The air quality data were compared with the remotely measured vehicle emissions data, wind speed and wind direction. A statistical examination of the data was undertaken on a halfhourly and five minute basis (no wind data was available on a five minute basis). The halfhourly analyses for both CO and NOx produced positive correlations between vehicle emissions data and air quality, and predominantly negative correlations between wind speed and air quality. Both positive and negative correlations were observed between wind direction and CO/NOx air quality . Regression analyses were undertaken where the results were statistically significant at a 0.1 level. This reduced the sample size for CO to data collected on eight individual sampling days and to only two days for NOx• All the analysed CO sampling days recorded r2 values of greater than 0.5, such that for each sampling day at least half the variation in CO air quality is explained by the variation in on-road vehicle emissions, wind speed and wind direction. The two analysed NOx sampling days recorded r values of approximately 0.8. The five minute analyses produced were less statistically significant giving only a low degree of correlation between CO and NOx air quality and on-road vehicle emissions. Regression analyses were undertaken for only two days for CO and only one day for NOx

Teaching Queer Trauma: Applying Meditation as a Pedagogy of Compassion

Mindfulness practices can help greatly when teaching potentially triggering courses on queerness and trauma. Meditation allows students to learn how to manage triggers, enhancing their distress tolerance and their ability to fully engage with course material. It also has practical benefits for applied courses, as students will learn how mindfulness practices can help when working with queer and traumatized clients in, for example, a social services setting. This original teaching activity describes a course I taught called \u27Queer Trauma and Resilience: Canadian Perspectives,\u27 and outlines several meditations that were taught progressively throughout the course. Debriefing methods are included as well as reflective assessments used in the course

'Six Foote of Shop Roome': women as subjects in the records of the Royal Exchange in the 1690s

Dissertation for MA in Historical Research, supervised by Professor Vanessa Harding

Supporting Adjunct Faculty within the Academy: From Road Scholars to Retired Sages, One Size Does Not Fit All

Thesis advisor: Philip AltbachAs the number of part-time faculty in higher education rises, colleges and universities have begun to offer additional services and support to their part-time faculty in an attempt to attract and retain instructors who contribute to the institution. However, few institutions consider that the needs of their part-time faculty may differ; most seem to anticipate that the programming and services they offer will be equally desirable to all adjuncts. This study surveyed a sample of part-time faculty in Massachusetts to determine if faculty with differing backgrounds and motivations for teaching might desire different types of support and services from the college or university where they taught. A survey instrument was created using questions from the National Survey of Post-Secondary Faculty and included questions about interest in specific institutional services and support. An analysis of the results indicates that the faculty in this study fit into a modified form of the typology proposed by Gappa and Leslie in 1993. The relationship between these "types" and interest in the supports and services was analyzed using standard statistical techniques. Results of the study indicate significant difference in the interests of these faculty based on their faculty type. Reasons for these differences are proposed and suggestions for how colleges and universities might act on this knowledge are offered.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education

Factors affecting the body burden of organic contaminants in freshwater mussels from Lake St. Clair, Ontario, Canada.

Dept. of Biological Sciences. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1987 .M853. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, page: . Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1987

On a computational approach for the approximate dynamics of averaged variables in nonlinear ODE systems: toward the derivation of constitutive laws of the rate type

A non-perturbative approach to the time-averaging of nonlinear, autonomous ODE systems is developed based on invariant manifold methodology. The method is implemented computationally and applied to model problems arising in the mechanics of solids.Comment: 34 pages PD

Effects of cortisol on female-to-male sex change in a wrasse

Sex change occurs as a usual part of the life cycle for many teleost fish and the modifications involved (behavioural, gonadal, morphological) are well studied. However, the mechanism that transduces environmental cues into the molecular cascade that underlies this transformation remains unknown. Cortisol, the main stress hormone in fish, is hypothesised to be a key factor linking environmental stimuli with sex change by initiating gene expression changes that shift steroidogenesis from oestrogens to androgens but this notion remains to be rigorously tested. Therefore, this study aimed to experimentally test the role of cortisol as an initiator of sex change in a protogynous (female-to-male) hermaphrodite, the New Zealand spotty wrasse (Notolabrus celidotus). We also sought to identify potential key regulatory factors within the head kidney that may contribute to the initiation and progression of gonadal sex change. Cortisol pellets were implanted into female spotty wrasses under inhibitory conditions (presence of a male), and outside of the optimal season for natural sex change. Histological analysis of the gonads and sex hormone analyses found no evidence of sex change after 71 days of cortisol treatment. However, expression analyses of sex and stress-associated genes in gonad and head kidney suggested that cortisol administration did have a physiological effect. In the gonad, this included upregulation of amh, a potent masculinising factor, and nr3c1, a glucocorticoid receptor. In the head kidney, hsd11b2, which converts cortisol to inactive cortisone to maintain cortisol balance, was upregulated. Overall, our results suggest cortisol administration outside of the optimal sex change window is unable to initiate gonadal restructuring. However, our expression data imply key sex and stress genes are sensitive to cortisol. This includes genes expressed in both gonad and head kidney that have been previously implicated in early sex change in several sex-changing species