Community-Based Green Infrastructure, A Rutgers Cooperative Extension Urban Extension Initiative

A successful urban Cooperative Extension (Extension) program has been developed by the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program around green infrastructure in New Jersey. The program has gained the trust of the regulators at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the nonprofit community, state groups, elected officials, and consultants. This paper discusses the development process of an urban Extension program to work with communities to address their combined sewer overflow issues, including educational programs, partnerships, and funding. Additionally, the paper discusses the implementation of the program in Camden City, New Jersey, and the impacts associated with the program’s implementation. Finally, the paper provides a vision for regional collaboration among Land-Grant Universities around green infrastructure

Building an Onsite Wastewater Treatment System Management Database for Your Municipality

In an attempt to protect groundwater and surface water quality in the face of rapid residential development, a New Jersey municipality established an Onsite Wastewater Disposal Management District. After 15 years of having the program in place, the municipality asked Rutgers Cooperative Research & Extension to update the management program database. The newly developed database is automated to generate form letters, invoices, late notices, and license renewals, and it is linked to the municipality\u27s geographic information system. The database has increased productivity, improved tracking abilities, and has resulted in faster identification of systems needing inspection for the municipality

Rainwater Harvesting at the Department of Public Works

As part of an urban Extension initiative that focuses on reducing storm water runoff from impervious surfaces, Rutgers Cooperative Extension installed 5,000-gal cisterns at the Department of Public Works (DPW) facilities in Clark Township and the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, to harvest rainwater from the rooftops of the garages at these facilities. This project intercepts rooftop runoff before it can carry nonpoint source pollutants from the land surrounding the DPW garages. The harvested rainwater is used to fill street sweepers, wash municipal vehicles, and supply water for a green car wash to support volunteer groups

The Demonstration Rain Garden

The process of developing a successful, demonstration-based rain garden education program for a specific county is presented. A series of demonstration rain garden projects were conducted by Extension personnel and Master Gardeners to provide in-the-ground tools to help teach local homeowners to become better stormwater stewards on their own property. The demonstration sites were constructed based on the idea that Extension programming to the public can be enhanced by conducting programs at the sites. At the same time, the eight demonstration sites are contributing to treating and infiltrating approximately 200,000 gallons of stormwater runoff annually

Low Spring Index NiTi Coil Actuators for Use in Active Compression Garments

This paper describes the modeling, development, and testing of low spring index nickel titanium (NiTi) coil actuators designed for use in wearable compression garments, and presents a prototype tourniquet system using these actuators. NiTi coil actuators produce both large forces (>1 N) and large recoverable displacements (>100% length) that are well suited for compression garment design. Thermomechanical coil models are presented that describe temperature and force as a function of nondimensionalized coil geometry, extensional strain, and applied voltage. These models suggest that low spring index coils maximize activation force, and an analytical model is presented to predict garment counter-pressure based on actuator architecture. Several low spring index (C = 3.08) coils were manufactured, annealed, and tested to assess their detwinning and activation characteristics. Results suggest both annealing and applied stress affect activation thresholds. Actuator force increases both with extensional strain and applied voltage up to 7.24 N. A first-generation compression tourniquet system using integrated actuators with direct voltage control of applied pressure is presented, demonstrating >70% increase in applied pressure during activation. This approach enables new, dynamic garments with controllable activation and low effort donning and doffing, with applications ranging from healthcare solutions to advanced space suit design

Frequency analysis of urban runoff quality in an urbanizing catchment of Shenzhen, China

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Hydrology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Hydrology Vol. 496 (2013), DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.04.053This paper investigates the frequency distribution of urban runoff quality indicators using a long-term continuous simulation approach and evaluates the impacts of proposed runoff control schemes on runoff quality in an urbanizing catchment in Shenzhen, China. Four different indicators are considered to provide a comprehensive assessment of the potential impacts: total runoff depth, event pollutant load, Event Mean Concentration, and peak concentration during a rainfall event. The results obtained indicate that urban runoff quantity and quality in the catchment have significant variations in rainfall events and a very high rate of non-compliance with surface water quality regulations. Three runoff control schemes with the capacity to intercept an initial runoff depth of 5 mm, 10 mm, and 15 mm are evaluated, respectively, and diminishing marginal benefits are found with increasing interception levels in terms of water quality improvement. The effects of seasonal variation in rainfall events are investigated to provide a better understanding of the performance of the runoff control schemes. The pre-flood season has higher risk of poor water quality than other seasons after runoff control. This study demonstrates that frequency analysis of urban runoff quantity and quality provides a probabilistic evaluation of pollution control measures, and thus helps frame a risk-based decision making for urban runoff quality management in an urbanizing catchment.Open Research Fund Program of State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and EngineeringNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Water Pollution Control and Management Technology Major Project

On the deformation of human skin for mechanical counter pressure space suit development

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2015.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-141).Exploration of planetary bodies requires space suits that do not inhibit astronaut mobility. Gas pressurized suits are typically bulky and stiff to operate or require unnatural human motion. Development of mechanical counter pressure (MCP) space suits can change the current space suit design paradigm. The primary goal of this thesis is to develop methodology to quantify strain and deformation of human skin to inform how to make a MCP space suit, or second skin, that maximizes mobility and minimizes human energy expenditure. Specific emphasis was placed on joint mobility, therefore, the Lines of Non-Extension (LoNE) was investigated in detail throughout the deformation of the human elbow joint. This goal was driven by three research objectives: develop a system to measure human skin deformation and strain, develop a rigorous method to compute LoNE, and examine the variation of skin strain between multiple subjects. The contributions of this thesis are the development of a multi-camera system to measure skin deformation at 1 mm², a streamline approach for calculating LoNE, strain data at the elbow joint and a methodology moving forward to measure more sections of the human body. The results from the six subjects showed that skin deformation can be similar in magnitude between subjects of varying anthropometrics, but the principal strain directions and LoNE maps can vary. The elbow data was flattened to 2D and normalized by anthropometrics to allow comparisons between subjects. This skin deformation data informs material selection, material placement, and suit patterning. This data is relevant to any compression garment or device that interacts with human skin.by Edward William Obropta Jr.S.M