Response of municipal water use to weather across the contiguous US

2018 Summer.Municipal water demand exhibits seasonal patterns in response to summer withdrawals for landscape irrigation, particularly in dry regions of the western US. Outdoor water use can account for more than half of annual household water use, and therefore is a critical aspect of urban water planning under scarcity. Water use for landscape irrigation is responsive to local weather changes and drought restriction policies and therefore is targeted by demand management programs. Previous studies estimate the impact of climatic, socio-economic, and landscape factors on residential water use, but commonly focus on a single municipality. This nationwide study identified the response of municipal water use to weather variables (i.e., temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration) using monthly water deliveries for 230 cities in the contiguous US. Using city-level multiple regression and regional-level fixed effects models, we investigated what portion of the variability in municipal water use was explained by weather across cities, and also estimated responses to weather across seasons and climate regions. Our findings indicated that municipal water use was generally well-explained by weather, with median adjusted R2 ranging from 63 to 95% across climate regions. Weather was more predictive of water use in dry climates compared to wet, and temperature had more explanatory power than precipitation or evapotranspiration. Climate regions and seasons were found to have significantly different water use responses to weather. In regional-level models, we found that relative seasonality in water use across regions corresponds to water use responses to changes in temperature. In response to a 1⁰C change in monthly maximum temperature, municipal water use was shown to increase by 1.1 to 3.9% on average, with greater responses in cold, dry regions and during summer. Climate change and population growth amplify the importance of understanding the impact of climate on water demand in the context of urban water supply

In the Betweens:An Exploration of the Interstices

This thesis and its accompanying project are part of a critical exploration of space, identified as the interstices. Space is considered a void, a measure of separation or a counterfoil that accentuates material mass in art. In spite of these traditional associations, my aim is to alter how we think of space not only in art, but as a creative, cross-disciplinary medium. This research project investigates the minutia of space where sound, drawing, animation and poetry form a scholarly framework in conjunction with physiology, physics and philosophy to open interstitial encounters. As a structural tool and a macroscopic example of the organic interstices, the Japanese art of renga runs through this thesis to guide us inside those spaces. Through this interdisciplinary approach, the project shapes an awareness of space as a material of substantive metamorphosis outside of time. By integrating media, this project establishes a new method of bringing things together inside a reworked renga continuum between virtual and physical. Accordingly, a new way of understanding from the inside out has been developed to shatter conventional separations, beginning with those divisions between artist, artwork and audience. As such, the subject-object gap is challenged as a method for knowledge acquisition, creative thinking and doing. This study affirms that in the dissolution of separations antiquated grooves of thinking no longer function and knowledge cannot be limited to a set information point in a moment of time. Rather, their disintegration is a mandatory condition for physical-intellectual knowing within quantum reconfigurations. Understanding then occurs inside the infinite renga circle. The expanded spatial poems developed in this project demonstrate this new way of thinking and being. As a result, a fundamentally different method of looking at things is presented inside the spaces of the interstices and from this materiality an ultimately transferrable research tool has been developed for interdisciplinary knowledge generation

Utilizaçăo de enzimas e soja integral em raçőes para frangos formuladas com ingredientes alternativos com base em aminoácidos digestíveis e totais /

Orientador: Sebastiăo Aparecido BorgesCo-orientador: Alex MaiorkaDissertaçăo (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Cięncias Agrárias, Programa de Pós-Graduaçăo em Cięncias Veterinárias. Defesa: Curitiba, 2006Inclui bibliografiaÁrea de concentraçăo: Produçăo anima

The Merits of Artificial Proprioception, with Applications in Biofeedback Gait Rehabilitation Concepts and Movement Disorder Characterization

Non

Laying Hens Biochar Diet Supplementation—Effect on Performance, Excreta N Content, NH3 and VOCs Emissions, Egg Traits and Egg Consumers Acceptance

Sustainable solutions for intensive poultry production can help farmers, rural communities, consumers, and regulatory agencies. This study assessed supplementation of laying hens diet with beechwood biochar (BC, 1~2%) and BC–aluminosilicates–glycerin mixture (BCM, 1.5~3%) to lower the environmental impact while maintaining egg quality. The effect on feed intake, laying performance, egg quality, the sensory quality of hardboiled eggs, ammonia (NH3) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from excreta, and the excreta composition, were evaluated. A total of 90 hens were distributed into 30 cages and divided into five groups (n=6 replications). BC addition increased daily feed intake, while 1.5% BCM addition reduced it. The influence on egg parameters was positive, with a 6% increase in laying performance, up to 10% and 6% increase in shell resistance to crushing and shell thickness, respectively. The sensory analysis demonstrated no significant differences between all treatments. Excreta total N content was numerically lower due to the treatments (by 4~20%); its pH increased (not significantly), while no effect on ammoniacal N and dry matter content was observed. Most of the investigated treatments had a numerically positive (not statistically significant) effect on NH3 reduction. The reduction of VOC emissions was ambiguous and not statistically significant

Pilot-Scale Testing of Non-Activated Biochar for Swine Manure Treatment and Mitigation of Ammonia, Hydrogen Sulfide, Odorous Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Managing the environmental impacts associated with livestock production is a challenge for farmers, public and regulatory agencies. Sustainable solutions that take into account technical and socioeconomic factors are needed. For example, the comprehensive control of odors, ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from swine production is a critical need. Stored manure is a major source of gaseous emissions. Mitigation technologies based on bio-based products such as biochar are of interest due to the potential benefits of nutrient cycling. The objective of this study was to test non-activated (non-functionalized) biochar for the mitigation of gaseous emissions from stored manure. Specifically, this included testing the effects of: (1) time; and (2) dosage of biochar application to the swine manure surface on gaseous emissions from deep-pit storage. The biochar surface application was tested with three treatments (1.14, 2.28 and 4.57 kg·m−2 manure) over a month. Significant reductions in emissions were observed for NH3 (12.7–22.6% reduction as compared to the control). Concomitantly, significant increases in CH4emissions (22.1–24.5%) were measured. Changes to emissions of other target gases (including CO2, N2O, H2S, dimethyl disulfide/methanethiol, dimethyl trisulfide, n-butyric-, valeric-, and isovaleric acids, p-cresol, indole, and skatole) were not statistically significant. Biochar treatment could be a promising and comparably-priced option for reducing NH3emissions from stored swine manure