Effect of Water on Esterification Conversion Efficiency of Triglycerides to Fatty Acid Methyl Esters

Undergraduate Basi

Intracavity Dye-Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (IDLAS) for application to planetary molecules

Time-resolved, quasi-continuous wave, intracavity dye-laser absorption spectroscopy is applied to the investigation of absolute absorption coefficients for vibrational-rotational overtone bands of water at visible wavelengths. Emphasis is placed on critical factors affecting detection sensitivity and data analysis. Typical generation-time dependent absorption spectra are given

Individual Learning About Consumption

The standard approach to modelling consumption/saving problems is to assume that the decisionmaker is solving a dynamic stochastic optimization problem However under realistic descriptions of utility and uncertainty the optimal consumption/saving decision is so difficult that only recently economists have managed to find solutions using numerical methods that require previously infeasible amounts of computation Yet empirical evidence suggests that household behavior conforms fairly well with the prescriptions of the optimal solution raising the question of how average households can solve problems that economists until recently could not This paper examines whether consumers might be able to find a reasonably good ’rule-of-thumb?approximation to optimal behavior by trial-and-error methods as Friedman (1953) proposed long ago We find that such individual learning methods can reliably identify reasonably good rules of thumb only if the consumer is able to spend absurdly large amounts of time searching for a good rule

Extraction and Quantification of Atrazine

Undergraduate Basi

HPLC Analysis of Amino Acids in Algae

Undergraduate Basi

IDENTIFICATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE IN CALIFORNIA THROUGH REMOTE SENSING

Ground truthing actual crop types in an area can be expensive and time-consuming. The California Department of Water Resources attempts to ground truth land use in each county in California every five years. However, this is limited by budgetary constraints and often results in infrequent (more than every ten years) surveying of many counties. An accurate accounting of crops growing in a region is important for a variety of purposes including farm production estimates, groundwater and surface water modeling, evapotranspiration estimation, water planning, research applications, etc. Agricultural land use is continually changing due to development and environmental factors. Currently, USDA NASS provides georeferenced land use maps of regions throughout the U.S. While these are beneficial, the accuracy is not very high for California due to the wide variety of crops grown throughout the state. California has an increasingly complex agricultural system which includes multi-crops changing on an annual and even semiannual basis, long growing seasons, and complex and flexible irrigation schedules. Remotely sensed data from available satellites are used to more accurately classify crop types within the Madera and Merced Counties of California’s Central Valley. An initial classification approach utilizing a simplified decision tree for a data subset of the area considered is presented. In order to accommodate the larger dataset at hand, a computer based approach is applied using the Nearest Neighbor classification algorithm in the computer program eCognition. Iterative analyses were performed to consider a range of scenarios with varying spectral inputs. The results show the methods presented can be beneficial in discriminating 24 of the major crop types from multi-temporal spectral data

Characterizing the Afghanistan aerosol environment using size- and time- resolved aerosol chemical composition measurements

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012The exposure to aerosols is one danger U.S. soldiers face in Afghanistan that may go unseen. Using the Davis Rotating-drum Universal-size-cut Monitoring (DRUM) cascade impactor, size- and time- resolved aerosol chemical concentrations from Bagram, Afghanistan were collected. These aerosol concentrations were combined with a meteorological analysis and Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model meteorological backward trajectories to establish source sectors. These sectors, along with time of year, were then used as a predictive tool for the chemical composition and relative concentration of aerosols in Afghanistan. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to determined potential source types. PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ were compared to military exposure guidelines and U.S. national ambient air quality standards. Results reveal aerosol concentrations in Afghanistan were at levels for which adverse health effects could be anticipated.1. Introduction -- 1.1. Definition and formation of aerosols -- 1.2. Thesis goals -- 1.3. Climatology of the Afghanistan region -- 1.3.1. Wind patterns -- 1.3.2. Diurnal cycles -- 1.4. Elemental sources and uses -- 1.5. Aerosol chemistry and seasonality -- 1.5.1. Geological dust -- 1.5.2. Anthropogenic aerosols -- 1.5.2.1. Pakistan -- 1.5.2.2. Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan -- 1.5.3. Biomass burning -- 1.5.4. Aerosols over seas and oceans -- 1.6. Health concerns and standards -- 2. Experimental methods -- 2.1. Wind roses -- 2.2. DRUM aerosol impactors -- 2.3. HYSPLIT and sector analysis -- 2.4. Principla components analysis -- 2.4.1. PCA procedure -- 2.4.2. Eigenvector loadings -- 2.4.3. PCA on aerosol samples -- 2.5. Chemical mass balance (CMB) model -- 3. Results and discussion -- 3.1. Wind roses -- 3.2. Elemental concentrations -- 3.2.1. Geological dust -- 3.2.2. Heavy metal events -- 3.3. PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ concentrations and comparison to health safety standards -- 3.4. Sector analysis -- 3.5. PCA -- 3.6. CMB model -- 4. Conclusions -- 5. Future work -- References

Population dynamics and management of potato leafhopper and other insect pests in forage systems

The potato leafhopper, Empoasca fabae (Harris) (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) is a major insect pest of alfalfa in the north central and northeastern United States. Studies were conducted from 1994 through 1996 to better understand the population dynamics of potato leafhopper in Iowa, as well as improve sampling and management of this and other alfalfa pests. The specific objectives of this dissertation were to (1) understand the population dynamics and diurnal activity of potato leafhopper in Iowa forage systems; (2) determine the effect of alfalfa-forage grass intercrops on potato leafhopper, as well as other alfalfa insect pests and predators; (3) assess the impact of intercropping on forage growth characteristics for determining the feasibility of intercropping as a management tactics; and (4) develop grower-oriented sampling techniques and a management program for potato leafhopper in alfalfa. These studies improved the sampling and management of potato leafhopper and other insect pests in alfalfa. We found that (1) potato leafhopper populations can reach economic levels in any of the three alfalfa crops; (2) there are differences in the number of potato leafhoppers captured at different times of the day; (3) alfalfa-forage grass intercrops reduce insect pest populations compared to monocultures; and (4) the sticky trap sampling technique seems the most promising technique for use in a management program

A Comparison of Remote Monitoring and Direct Observations on the Implementation of a Motivational System to Improve Independent Living Skills for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

An increasing number of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have opportunities to live in apartments and homes in the community with assistance from other people. The purpose of this research was to examine whether a remote video monitoring system with cameras linked to an off-site facility, in conjunction with a token system, could be used to maintain a high level of cleanliness of three apartments. Two people with intellectual and developmental disabilities lived in each apartment. Data were recorded daily in the apartments using the video monitoring system as well as in-vivo observations. The token system was implemented in each of the homes within a multiple baseline design. Results indicated that the motivational system was effective with some of the participants. Additionally, the video monitoring system provided an estimate of the cleanliness of the apartments, but a more accurate measure of the cleanliness was obtained through in-vivo observations. Video monitoring systems may aid in the implementation of some interventions, but certain behaviors may require in-vivo observations to ensure precise and valid measurement