Assessment of an Advanced Oxidation System for the Generation of Oxidative Species and Effectiveness of Treating Synthetic and Real Stormwater

Stormwater (SW) is a type of wastewater that is of current concern for municipalities, especially in urban settings with large amounts of impervious areas. Stormwater contains high concentrations of contaminants that can cause large pollutant loading into receiving water bodies if left untreated. Many Best Management Practices (BMPs) in North America focus on minimizing the flood risk and pollution caused by SW, however, SW capture and beneficial reuse have become of increasing importance in areas and times of water scarcity. Stormwater treatment is usually needed to meet water quality targets required for beneficial reuse and for safe release of SW into receiving environments. Of recent interest are electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Processes (eAOPs) for SW treatment as they are cost effective, easy to operate and maintain, and have shown promise for SW treatment. An industry partner has developed an eAOP for treatment of wastewaters known as the Advanced Oxidation System (AOS) which was the technology used for research conducted in this thesis. In Chapter 2, the AOS was shown to create iodide and chloride oxidative species that were used for operating parameter assessment and improved understanding of the system effectiveness and efficiency. Determining the optimum type and concentration of added salt, in addition to the optimal applied voltage is imperative to achieve the most effective treatment. The oxidative species were collected from the AOS anodes and cathodes and determined using a simple UV-vis spectrophotometric method. Iodate and periodate were determined for experiments using iodide addition and the optimal treatment parameters were 12 V and 10 ppm KI (potassium iodide). Chlorite and chlorate were measured for chloride with 6 V and 5 ppm NaCl (sodium chloride) were the optimal parameters. Iodate and chlorite were the dominant species created within the AOS, with oxidative species generally being created at reactor anodes and destroyed at cathodes. The AOS treatment effectiveness for disinfection and decontamination was assessed for both synthetic (Chapter 2) and real (Chapter 3) stormwaters. Treatments included iodide addition, chloride addition, and no salt addition which were compared to determine the most effective SW treatment condition. Overall, the AOS performed well for the disinfection of Escherichia coli when iodide was used, showing 6 log removal for synthetic SW and 3.5 log removal for real SW. Organics removal was not as effective using the current AOS operation and design parameters. For example, the AOS was able to remove 50% of the chemical oxygen demand using iodide and 70% of the total organic carbon using chloride. For real SW, the pre-treatment of the SW via a coagulation/flocculation process using either alum or ferric chloride achieved reasonable solids removal. Future work using the AOS could include investigating the creation of other oxidative species in the reactor beyond iodide and chloride species; further improvement of the organics removal through assessment of operating parameters; determination of the removal of other contaminants in SW such as heavy metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons; testing different coagulants and pre-treatment technologies; assessing the creation of oxidative by-products in the treated SW effluent; and comparing the toxicity of the raw and treated SW

Forum theatre as performative pedagogy in the teaching and learning of life orientation in primary schools in South Africa

The South African school curriculum recognises the vital importance of life skills acquisition through the learning area, Life Orientation (referred to in the primary school as Life Skills). The Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) Life Skills (Creative Arts) for the Intermediate Phase promotes drama-based instruction in life skills learning. The curriculum links to Forum Theatre techniques which are aimed at the learner’s holistic development through, among others, social game playing, improvised role-play and devising and performing a problem play which includes audience participation mediated by a ‘Joker,’ a facilitator role usually filled by an experienced and trained teacher. Children learn about the self, their peers and society through reality-based exploration and the conflicts that arise due to socialisation and power-based problems. Cognitive behavioural, existential and experiential learning theories and the theatrical theory and practice of Augusto Boal, who invented Forum Theatre as part of the Theatre of the Oppressed, formed the framework for this performative case study inquiry conducted in a South African primary school. A researcher-designed Forum Theatre intervention was implemented by the Grade 6 (Creative Arts) teacher with four Grade 6 classes over eight weeks in Life Skills (Creative Arts) classes, culminating in Forum Theatre performances by the four classes, respectively. Data were gathered through classroom observation in which the researcher assumed the role of observer-participant, conducted individual and focus group interviews with Grade 6 teachers, did interviews with Grade 6 learners, took video recordings of learners’ classroom activities, recorded the Forum Theatre performances, and collected the learners’ written reflections. The findings indicated: the process adjustments required to facilitate Forum Theatre activities in a primary school setting; effectiveness of experiential learning of life skills through game-playing and discovery; performative pedagogy fostered life skill acquisition; performative pedagogy harnessed nonverbal, embodied learning to build social insight; and describes the teacher experience in implementing a Forum Theatre intervention. Recommendations for practice include teacher training for experiential, explorative, and performance-based teaching in line with the CAPS document, which provides for a range of performative teaching and learning activities to promote effective life skills acquisition in primary school learners.Educational StudiesPh. D. (Education

Identical Constitutional Language: What is a State Court to Do? \u3ci\u3eThe Ohio Case of State v. Robinette\u3c/i\u3e

We are in the era of rediscovery of state constitutional law. In Ohio, there has been an official announcement of this in the syllabus of a highly significant case, Arnold v. City of Cleveland. In Ohio, the syllabus is the law of the case. The syllabus of Arnold begins with the simple but dramatic statement, The Ohio Constitution is a document of independent force. It goes on to state, in the remainder of the paragraph, the basic guidepost of federal/state relations in the area of individual rights: In the areas of individual rights and civil liberties, the United States Constitution, where applicable to the states, provides a floor below which state court decisions may not fall. As long as state courts provide at least as much protection as the United States Supreme Court has provided in its interpretation of the federal Bill of Rights, state courts are unrestricted in according greater civil liberties and protections to individuals and groups. This article will analyze the application of these principles in the case of State v. Robinette ( Robinette I

Ohio Joins the New Judicial Federalism Movement: A Little To-ing and a Little Fro-ing

Bettman analyzes Ohio Supreme Court decisions construing the Speech, Press, Search and Seizure, Free Exercise, and Establishment Clause analogues of the Ohio Constitution. Here in Ohio, she concludes, New Judicial Federalism remains in its infancy. The Ohio Supreme Court is still struggling with the fundamentals of state constitutional interpretation. It remains heavily dependant on federal methodology when construing analogous provisions of the state constitution. Bettman gives us the unique perspective of a law professor who previously served as an Ohio appellate court judge. This perspective sensitizes her to the current political make-up of the Ohio Supreme Court. Today\u27s court, she observes, is far more conservative than the 1993 tribunal that proclaimed Ohio\u27s embrace of New Judicial Federalism. Thus, there are strong political reasons to suppose that, at least for the time being, the court will not be taking any long strides toward state constitutional independence

The Determination of the Crystal Structure of Potassium Picrate

The crystal structure of potassium picrate has been determined and refined to a considerable degree of accuracy by means of x-ray diffraction techniques. Most of the refinement was carried out by the use of least squares methods, by making use of about half of the three dimensional data obtainable from copper Kα radiation. The benzene ring of the picrate ion is nearly planar, the deviation from planarity being within experimental error. The para nitro group is twisted 6° out of the plane of the benzene ring, apparently due to ionic attraction of the oxygen atoms to neighboring potassium ions. The ortho nitro groups are twisted 27° out of the plane of the benzene ring due to steric hindrance between the phenol oxygen and its two nearest oxygen neighbors in the ortho nitro groups. Chemical bonds of a given species, such as carbon-carbon bonds, show considerable variations in length. All these variations are quite reasonable in the light of well known principles of structural chemistry. The packing of the structure seems to be largely determined by the ionic attraction between potassium ions and five out of the seven oxygen atoms of each picrate ion. There also exist some rather short van der Waals contacts between neighboring picrate ions.</p