The aim of this work is to produce X-ray laser source from a plasma produced by focusing a pulsed laser beam on a solid target. Preformed Molybdenum plasma is created by using Nd:YAG laser pulses with a pulse duration 6 ns and pulse intensity 5.09x1011 W/cm2. Detailed simulations of Ni-like Mo X-ray laser media are undertaken using the EHYBRID code which is a hydrodynamic code. X-ray resonance lines between 25 &Aring / and 40 &Aring / emitted from the molybdenum plasma have been obtained and analysed. EHYBRID code also gives an information about the electron temperature, electron density, efficient ionization degree and plasma expansion distance of the Ni-like Mo X-ray laser media. An experimental set-up to produce preformed Mo plasma for x-ray laser has been designed for a future work.

Effects of a magnetic field on the double-probe technique are studied experimentally by means of symmetric floating computer controlled fast double probes in low and intermediate pressure plasmas. In addition, the effects of the magnetic field on the electron temperature, electron density, and electric field have been investigated. As it is expected, when there is no magnetic field, properties of the discharge plasma are best described by Langmuir theory. Whereas, when there&rsquo / s a magnetic field of sufficient strength Schottky&rsquo / s theory of ambipolar diffusion applies.

This thesis deals with a one and two dimensional numerical modeling of a low-pressure DC glow discharge in argon gas. We develop two-component fluid model which uses the diffusion-drift theory for the gas discharge plasma and consists of continuity equations for electrons and ions, as well as Poisson equation for electric field. Numerical method is based on the control volume technique. Calculations are carried out in MATLAB environment. Computed results are compared with the classic theory of glow discharges and available experimental data.

This thesis is about the designing and constructing a microwave ion source. The ions are generated in a thermal and dense hydrogen plasma by microwave induction. The plasma is generated by using a microwave source with a frequency of 2.45 GHz and a power of 700 W. The generated microwave is pulsing with a frequency of 50 Hz. The designed and constructed microwave system generates hydrogen plasma in a pyrex plasma chamber. Moreover, an ion extraction unit is designed and constructed in order to extract the ions from the generated hydrogen plasma. The ion beam extraction is achieved and ion currents are measured. Th e plasma parameters are determined by a double Langmuir probe and the ion current is measured by a Faraday cup. The designed ion extraction unit is simulated by using the dimensions of the designed and constructed ion extraction unit in order to trace out the trajectories of the extracted ions.

This thesis is divided into two parts. The first evaluates the role of the built environment in life-cycle energy consumption, by comparing different neighborhood and city styles. Through a holistic modeling and accounting framework, this work identifies the largest energy-consuming sectors, among residential and commercial buildings, personal vehicles and transit trips, and supporting infrastructure (roads, sidewalks, parking lots, water pipes, street lighting). Life-cycle energy calculations include operational energy use (e.g., gasoline for vehicles, electricity and natural gas for buildings) and embodied energy used to produce materials and construct buildings and infrastructure. Case study neighborhoods in Austin, Texas, and larger-scale regional models suggest that building energy demands comprise around 50% of life-cycle energy demands, while transportation demands (from driving and infrastructure alike) contribute around 40%, across all cases. However, results also suggest that population density and average residential unit size play a major role in defining per-capita energy consumption. Operational demands made up about 90% of life-cycle energy demands, suggesting that v most urban energy savings can be obtained from reduced personal vehicle trips and more efficient vehicles and buildings. Case study comparisons suggest that neighborhoods and regions with greater density and higher share of multi-family housing units tend to reduce operational (and thus life-cycle) energy demands with less travel demand and decreased home and work energy use, per capita. The second part of this modeled plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) emissions impacts in Texas, by considering four possible vehicle adoption scenarios (where PEVs make up 1, 5, 10, and 25% of total passenger vehicles). The analysis anticipates PEV electricity demand and emissions rates, based on current Texas power grid data. Results indicate that PEV emissions depend significantly on which specific power plants are used to power the vehicles, but that PEVs' average per-mile emissions rates for NO[subscript x], PM, and CO₂ are all likely to be lower than today's average passenger car, when today's average mix is used. Power produced from 100% coal plants could produce 14 times as much NO[subscript x], 3,200 times as much SO₂, nearly 10 times as much CO₂ and CO₂eq, 2.5 times as much PM₁₀, and VOCs, and nearly 80 times the NO₂ compared to a grid with 100% natural gas plants. / text

Grasslands comprise the greatest biome by land area, are sensitive to environmental factors affected by climate change, and can impact future climate change through their ability to store and release greenhouse gasses (GHGs). I performed two studies: 1) evaluated the effects of increased temperature and precipitation on slug herbivory/abundance and pasture forage production; 2) quantified different homeowner lawn system effects on soil-to-atmosphere GHG emissions. Climate change will likely affect pasture forage production, with implications for slug herbivory and abundance. I found little evidence that slugs have or will have significant effects on pasture production or plant community. Warming altered the abundance of slugs and modified seasonal trends, increasing slug abundance in spring/winter and reducing it in late-summer/fall, through both direct effects and changes in plant community and forage quality. Home lawns vary in levels of management, influencing the exchange of GHGs. I quantified the effects of three common home lawn systems of central Kentucky on GHG emissions, but found no significant differences in CO2, N2O, and NH3 fluxes. My research suggests that slug herbivory is not a dominant ecological process in Kentucky pastures and that common home lawn systems have similar soil-to-atmosphere GHG emissions.

The aim of this study was to understand the link beween greenhouse gasses emissions (CH4 and N2O) microbial activity and nutrient content in soil from different types of soil in Svalbard. Warming can cause release of large amounts of carbon and nitrogen in form of greenhouse gasses from soil into the atmosphere. This might strengthen the greenhouse effect and thus global climate change. We measured release of greenhouse gases from soil. At the same time, soil sampling was conducted at five different localities in August in the years 2014 and 2015. Soils were found to have low nutrient content and unfavourable C/N ratio to support vegetation growth. Areas were not a significant source of emissions of greenhouse gasses from soil to the atmosphere.

The thesis deals with the partial evaluation of life cycle of the potatoes and its environmental impact during the all phases of the cycle. The cycle consists of the evaluation of emission load in the field production, processing and transportation to processing and end-users. The evaluation compared the emission load variations, such as organic and conventional potatoes, seasonal and stored potatoes, raw potatoes and processed potato products. For calculating the emission load was used software tool SimaPro. The aim of work was to find which forms of cultivation; processing and transport have the lowest environmental impact and propose variants with low environmental impact to school canteens.

This thesis was made in co-operation with international project M00080- EUS-AT-SUKI Sustainable Kitchen, which is focused to make an inquiry of total emissions of carbon dioxide producted by catering estabilishments and finds possibilities of reducing these emissions. The thesis deals with an emission?s contamination of wheat flour and bread. Informations and data about agriculture, processing and transport of chosen commodities were collected from questionaires and scientific literature. The emission?s contamination of equivalent CO2 per kilogram of particular products and commodities was worked out from data and informations of the Ecoinvent database. The comparision between systems of management and regionality (ie. whether products are imported or local) is included. The main aim of this thesis was to prove whether the consumation of products from organic or conventional farming is environmentally more beneficial, the same comparision were made between regional or imported products

Manguezais são ambientes costeiros que proveem diversos recursos para ecossistemas adjacentes devido à alta produtividade decorrente da decomposição de matéria orgânica e principalmente da constante ciclagem de carbono, realizada pelas comunidades microbianas presentes nos sedimentos. Desde a década de 70, com o aumento da liberação de gases pela queima de combustíveis fósseis, diversas anormalidades, como o aumento da temperatura e acidificação dos oceanos, têm sido observadas. Com base na hipótese de que as mudanças climáticas provocam alterações na diversidade microbiana associada à decomposição da matéria orgânica em sedimentos de manguezais, estimulando a liberação de Gases do Efeito Estufa (GEE), o presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a dinâmica da diversidade microbiana sob alteração das condições climáticas durante o processo de decomposição, correlacionando-a com a emissão de GEE. Microcosmos destrutivos contendo material orgânico proveniente das principais espécies vegetais encontradas nos manguezais do Estado de São Paulo (Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa e Avicennia schaueriana) foram incubados em condições simulando as mudanças climáticas (aumento de temperatura e pH). Amostragens do material em decomposição (para sequenciamento da região 16S rRNA e quantificação do gene mcrA) e de gases foram coletadas durante 45 dias. As variações no tempo resultaram em impactos significativos no aumento da α diversidade e na composição da comunidade, inicialmente com maior abundância de Gammaproteobacteria para todas as espécies vegetais independente das variações nas condições climáticas. Análises do tipo PCoA evidenciaram o processo de sucessão em decorrência do tempo na β diversidade, indicando o aumento da incidência de Deltaproteobacteria ao final do processo. As emissões de GEE variaram em função da fonte de material orgânico e observou-se relação entre a emissão de metano (CH4) e a presença do gene mcrA em duas das espécies vegetais estudadas, admitindo-se que o aumento na população de Deltaproteobacteria tenha controlado sua emissão. Apesar da quantidade de estudos relacionados à decomposição de matéria orgânica, à diversidade microbiana e à emissão de gases em manguezais, poucos apresentam uma abordagem como a proposta pelo presente trabalho, que busca compreender melhor a relação entre os três processos, relacionando-os a um quarto evento, as alterações climáticas, que são um problema imanente da atualidade. / Mangrove are coastal environments that provide resources for adjacent ecosystems due to its high productivity that comes from decay of organic matter and carbon cycling, made by microbial communities in sediments. Since the increase of gas release due to fossil fuel burning in the 1970\', many abnormalities have been observed such as temperature and acidification increase. Base on the hypothesis that climate change modifies microbial diversity associate to decay of organic matter in mangrove sediments, changing the emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) rate, the goal of this research is to evaluate the dynamics of microbial diversity under the climate change conditions during de decay process, correlating with the emission of GHG. Destructive microcosms containing organic matter from the main plant species found in mangroves throughout the State of São Paulo, Brazil (Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa e Avicennia schaueriana) were incubate simulating climate changes (increase in temperature and pH). Sampling of decaying material (for sequencing of 16S rRNA region and quantification of the mcrA gene) and of gasses were collected for 45 days. The variation in time resulted in important increases of α diversity impacts and in the community composition, initially with greater abundancy of Gammaproteobacteria for all plant species despite of the climate conditions variations. The PCoA analysis bespeak the chronological sequence in β diversity, indicating the increase of Deltaproteobacteria at the end of the process. The GHG emission varied in function of the organic matter source and the relation between methane (CH4) release and the presence of the mcrA gene in two of the plant species studied, if the increase in the Deltaproteobacteria population controlled its emission. Despite the great number of studies about the decay of organic matter and emission of gases in mangroves, few present an approach like this work, which aims to understand the relation between these three processes and the climate changes, a pressing problem nowadays.