The goals of this project were first to investigate farming methods that provided a good standard of living, reasonable financial returns, and a healthy environment and community. The second goal was to identify the organizational barriers to adoption of a sustainable agricultural system. I sought this knowledge in the role of an activist and as a farmer interested in making a quality life. Throughout this research, I spoke with many people who grow food and steward the land for a variety of reasons. I discovered that most people are interested in farming as a lifestyle with a wealth of personal benefits, even if they are not the most financially feasible operations. Farmers displayed a real interest in caring for the land that supports them, and for the quality of their communities. This thesis concludes with a variety of recommendations for both producers as well as the governments who represent them. / May 2009

The goals of this project were first to investigate farming methods that provided a good standard of living, reasonable financial returns, and a healthy environment and community. The second goal was to identify the organizational barriers to adoption of a sustainable agricultural system. I sought this knowledge in the role of an activist and as a farmer interested in making a quality life. Throughout this research, I spoke with many people who grow food and steward the land for a variety of reasons. I discovered that most people are interested in farming as a lifestyle with a wealth of personal benefits, even if they are not the most financially feasible operations. Farmers displayed a real interest in caring for the land that supports them, and for the quality of their communities. This thesis concludes with a variety of recommendations for both producers as well as the governments who represent them.

The goals of this project were first to investigate farming methods that provided a good standard of living, reasonable financial returns, and a healthy environment and community. The second goal was to identify the organizational barriers to adoption of a sustainable agricultural system. I sought this knowledge in the role of an activist and as a farmer interested in making a quality life. Throughout this research, I spoke with many people who grow food and steward the land for a variety of reasons. I discovered that most people are interested in farming as a lifestyle with a wealth of personal benefits, even if they are not the most financially feasible operations. Farmers displayed a real interest in caring for the land that supports them, and for the quality of their communities. This thesis concludes with a variety of recommendations for both producers as well as the governments who represent them.

No description available.

Abstract This is an action research thesis, which documents a reflexive process of change undergone by farmers in making transitions from conventional farming to alternative farming. I achieve this through the process of answering the central research question for this thesis: How can the capacity of farmers be developed in the best way to assist them in making the transition from conventional to alternate farming systems? The original starting point for this study was concerned with addressing the problems of conventional farming. The consequences of which are arguably the continued risks to farmers’ lives and natural resources as witnessed in India. However, as the study progressed I realized that changing from conventional farming to alternative farming like organics, biodynamics, permaculture and natural farming involved more than simply a change in farmers’ practices. It was also closely intertwined with broader issues such as farmers’ epistemological relation to the soil and the ontological construction of theories and concepts based on their values and beliefs that influenced their methodological practices. In order to examine the wider issues around transitions to alternative farming, this study was conducted in two regions. Namely, Australia, as an example of the western world practicing modern agriculture and India, as an example of the developing world utilising indigenous farming practices. The early cycles of my study occurred through immersion. This included my firsthand experience as an extension scientist in India and my direct involvement in a series of events in Australia, which assisted in framing the research question. To document the reflexive process of change undergone by farmers in transitions from conventional farming to alternative farming, I conducted convergent interviews with 20 participants in Australia and 18 participants in India. The results of these interviews elicited six major themes as follows: 1. Enriching soil health through perceptional change 2. Knowledge sharing through networking 3. Diversifying through biophysical and socio-cultural processes 4. Learning through experience 5. Indigenous knowledge built through accumulated experiences 6. Self sufficiency through recycling farm resources. Having identified these six themes, I proceeded to construct a tool for each theme so as to merge theory and practice and to address the fact that there are currently inadequate tools available for practitioners seeking to facilitate the change to alternative farming systems. The tools for the respective themes are as follows: 1. Typology on perception of soil in relation to practice 2. Dynamics of knowledge sharing influencing transition 3. Key components for diversity 4. Conditions that facilitate experiential learning for transition 5. Conceptual tool to capture beliefs and faiths around the practice 6. Farm sufficiency assessment tool. Finally, I develop and present an overarching tool, Assessing transition process based on themes, which combines all six of the themes and aims to deepen our understanding of the barriers present in the transition process on a larger scale. I also present these tools to six key people in Australia, who were able to confirm or refute their application in practice. Among the seven tools developed, the Typology on perception of soil in relation to practice is viewed as the most significant tool by the majority of the key people consulted for the following reasons: • This tool has the features of inquiry and action. This statement was supported by the key people who observed that the tool both informs the group of participants where they sit (inquiry) and allows them to see where they want to be, which makes them think about their actions. • This tool also has high practitioner relevance and is trans-disciplinary. Importantly, key people from different fields of specialization were able to identify the benefits of the tool in common. • Having said that the tool has a common application it may be used for diverse purposes. For instance, the tool may be used by an engineer or an architect to understand the epistemological relation of a land owner to their land and how this will influence their plans for land use. • The heterogeneous and diverse nature of the tool allows it to be used in any culture. • The tool, in itself, is reflexive in nature as it helps the user to reflect on own actions. It also has the capacity to remind the user of their accountability to the land resource being utilized. • The tool helps participants to think about the most appropriate or best actions for producing actionable knowledge. • The tool is transparent in exhibiting the different possible types of perceptions in relation to the soil, thereby providing the user with the opportunity for future action. Finally, this thesis examines and illustrates the transformational learning of farmers through an analysis of their epistemology and a reconstruction of their epistemology through ontology, which will result in continued transition for transitional agriculture.

Organic Photovoltaic devices (OPV) are considered to be attractive candidates for clean and renewable energy source because of their potential for low cost of fabrication, easy processing, and their mechanical flexibility. The device efficiency of OPV cells are limited by several factors. Among them are: (i) donor-acceptor interface, (ii) morphology of the materials, (iii) electrode-organic semiconductor (OSC) interface and (iv) device architecture such as active material thickness and electrode separation. Although, the donor-acceptor interface has been studied in detail, the commonly prevalent vertical OPV device structure does not allow a good understanding of the other key issues as the vertical structure limits one of the electrode to be a transparent electrode as well as introducing inseparable relation between the electrodes separation and the active material thickness. In addition, it is also well known that the charge transport in OSC is anisotropic and the charge mobility is better in lateral direction rather than vertical direction. In order to address some of these issues, we fabricated OPV devices in a planar device structure where cathode and anode of dissimilar metals are in-plane with each other and their photovoltaic behaviors were studied. We used poly(3-hexylthiophene) and [6,6]- pheny1 C61-butyric acid methy1 ester (P3HT:PCBM) blend as an active material. In particular, we present a detailed study about the effects of the structural parameters such as the channel length, the active layer thickness, and the work function of the electrodes on the open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current (Isc), fill factor (FF) and the power conversion efficiency (PCE). In order to determine the suitable anode and cathode for the planar organic photovoltaic (P-OPV) structure, we first fabricated and measured organic field effect transistor (OFET) devices with different contacts and studied the effect of barrier height at the iv P3HT:PCBM/electrode interface on the device output and transport properties. The study showed a clear effect of varying the contact material on the charge injection mechanism and on the carriers mobilities. The results have also shown that Au with high hole mobility and on current in the p-channel can be used as an anode (holes extractor) in the P-OPV device while In, Cr, and Ti that showed a reasonable value of electron mobility can be good candidates for cathode (electron extractor). We also found that, Ag, Al, and Mg showed large barrier which resulted in large threshold voltage in the I-V curve making them undesired cathode materials in the P-OPV device. We then fabricated P-OPV devices with Au as an anode material and varied the cathode material to study the effect of the interface between the P3HT:PCBM layer and the cathode material. When Al, Mg, or Ag used as a cathode material no PV behavior was observed, while PV behavior was observed for In, Cr, and Ti cathode materials. The PV behavior and the characteristic parameters including Voc, Isc, FF and PCE were affected by varying the cathode material. The results have shown that the P-OPV device performance can be affected by the cathode material depending on the properties and the work function of the metal. We have also studied the effect of varying the P3HT:PCBM layer thickness at a fixed channel length for Cr and Ti cathode materials and Au as anode. While Voc and FF values do not change, Isc and PCE increase with increasing the layer thickness due to the increase of the light absorption and charges generation. Moreover, we studied the effect of varying the channel length at a fixed film thickness; and showed that the values of Isc and PCE increase with decreasing channel length while Voc and FF maintain the same value. In this thesis we will also present the results on experimentally defining and testing the illuminated area in the P-OPV device by using different measurement set-ups and different v electrodes patterns. The results prove that the illuminated area in the P-OPV device is the area enclosed between the two electrodes. Lastly, we will present the effect of the P3HT:PCBM ratio on the P-OPV device performance. We show that 1:2 ratio is the optimized ratio for the P-OPV device. The detailed results in this thesis show a potential opportunity to help improving and understanding the design of OPV device by understanding the effects of the device structural parameters.

<p> Filtered final effluent was chlorinated at various doses using calcium and sodium hypochlorite in order to study the effect of chlorination on the soluble organics present in final effluents. The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) was measured over a period of five days and carbon analyses (TOC) were performed during the course of the reaction. Chemical oxygen demand tests (COD) on filtered chlorinated-dechlorinated and unchlorinated sewage at various doses were also performed. It was found that chlorination did not bring about a BOD5 reduction nor rendered the soluble organics bioresistant or toxic to micro-organisms, owing to the presence of ammonia, as there was no significant difference in the extent of carbon degradation. The COD as well as TOC before and after chlorination remained unchanged indicating that there was no loss of organic content due to chlorination.</p> <p> The pure compounds, glutamic acid, alanine, histidine, glycine, ammonia, phenol, n-butylamine, acetic acid and maleic acid were chlorinated at various chlorine doses in the presence and absence of ammonia and with chloramines. Glutamic acid and phenol were chlorinated at various pH levels. The oxidation of glycine by sodium hypochlorite was also studied. It was found that pH influences the rate of reaction considerably and that the presence of ammonia, whether free or combined as chloramines, slowed down the rate and prevented the oxidation of glycine from occurring.</p> <p> The effect of chlorine residuals on the seed micro-organisms was also investigated. Three levels of residuals, 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8 mg/1 available chlorine, were employed. The chlorine demand of the sewage was satisfied prior to the addition of these residuals. The BOD was also monitored over a period of five days. The results indicated that longer lag phases resulted from the application of higher residuals and the lowest BOD was observed to occur at the highest residual. However, some microorganisms survived chlorination as evidenced by the exertion of a BOD at the 0.8 mg/1 available chlorine level.</p> <p> The seeding technique employed by previous workers for measuring the BOD5 of unfiltered chlorinated-dechlorinated sewage was also investigated. It was found that even when the unchlorinated sample was not seeded, it contained a higher microbial concentration as evidenced by plate counts performed on both chlorinated-dechlorinated seeded and unchlorinated unseeded samples at two dilutions commonly employed in BOD5 determinations. Associated with these results was a BOD4 reduction of about 2.2 mg/1/mg/1 Cl absorbed. Seeding of the samples, at best, provides a uniformly mixed microbial population but not necessarily a uniform microbial concentration. These results could possibly explain the BOD5 reductions observed on unfiltered chlorinated effluents.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

Understanding the physical properties as well as the potential for organic material in the Martian near-surface environment can give us a glimpse into the history of the site with regards to water, soil formation processes, as well as the conditions necessary for life. This work is done to support the interpretation of data from the Phoenix Mars Lander as well as other past and future landed missions. The Antarctic Dry Valleys are a hyper-arid cold polar desert that is the most Mars-like place on Earth. Soils from two different soil and climate regimes are analyzed to determine their physical properties such as mineralogy, particle size, shape, color, and specific surface area. These data are used to describe the sample locations in Antarctica and infer properties of Martian soils by comparison to Antarctic sites. I find that the particle size distribution can be used to determine the water history of the site and that the behavior of soluble species in the soil can also be used to trace the movement of water through the soil and could be instructive in understanding how soil organic material is processed by the environment. Continuing with the theme of soil organic matter, we revisit the Viking conclusions with regards to organics on Mars and look at the Phoenix data on the same subject. First, we assume that Mars receives organic material from meteoritic infall. These organics will be processed by chemical oxidants as well as UV light down to 200 nm. Chemical oxidation is predicted to produce molecules such as mellitic acid, which could preserve up to 10% of the original organic mass. Using mellitic acid and other similar organic molecules, we irradiate these molecules with Mars-like ultraviolet light, analyzing the gases that come off as irradiation takes place. We find that organic molecules can survive Mars-like UV conditions as layers of UV-resistant organics build up, shielding the remaining organic material. Additionally, the gas products of irradiation depend on the composition of the original organic molecule, implying that even irradiated molecules will carry some information about the composition of the original molecule. Finally, we take this irradiated organic/soil stimulant mixture and analyze it via pyrolysis, similar to the Viking GC/MS and TEGA instruments that are the only instruments operated on Mars capable of detecting organics. We find that the pyrolysis of mellitic acid (and other similar) molecules primarily produces inorganic fragments but that the reduced carbon fragments released depend on the composition of the original organic. However, the introduction of perchlorate, discovered on Mars by the Phoenix Lander, complicates the issue by creating the conditions for molecular oxidation. The high-oxygen content and high pyrolysis temperatures lead to organic combustion during thermal analysis, meaning that, regardless of the initial composition, most soil organics will be oxidized to CO₂ during the detection process. By assuming that organic material was oxidized to CO₂ in the Phoenix and Viking samples. We show that this assumption gives organic concentrations consistent with meteoritic accumulation rates. This finding reopens the possibility for organic molecules in the near-surface environment at the Viking and Phoenix landing sites.

Nanosized metal particles have become an important class of materials in the field of catalysis, optical, electronic, magnetic and biological devices due to the unique physical and chemical properties. This research deals with the synthesis of structured bimetallic nanoparticles for the dechlorination of toxic organics. Nanoparticle synthesis in aqueous phase for dechlorination studies has been reported. However, in the absence of polymers or surfactants particles can easily aggregate into large particles with wide size distribution. In this study, we report a novel in-situ synthesis method of bimetallic nanoparticles embedded in polyacrylic acid (PAA) functionalized microfiltration membranes by chemical reduction of metal ions bound to the carboxylic acid groups. Membrane-based nanoparticle synthesis offers many advantages: reduction of particle loss, prevention of particle agglomeration, application of convective flow, and recapture of dissolved metal ions. The objective of this research is to synthesize and characterize nanostructured bimetallic particles in membranes, understand and quantify the catalytic hydrodechlorination mechanism, and develop a membrane reactor model to predict and simulate reactions under various conditions. In this study, the PAA functionalization was achieved by filling the porous PVDF membranes with acrylic acid and subsequent in-situ free radical polymerization. Target metal cations (iron in this case) were then introduced into the membranes by ion exchange process. Subsequent reduction resulted in the formation of metal nanoparticles (around 30 nm). Bimetallic nanoparticles can be formed by post deposition of secondary appropriate metal such as Pd or Ni. The membranes and bimetallic nanoparticles were characterized by: SEM, TEM, TGA, and FTIR. A specimen-drift-free X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mapping system was used to determine the two-dimensional element distribution inside the membrane matrix at the nano scale. This high resolution mapping allows for the correlation and understanding the nanoparticle structure, second metal composition in terms of nanoparticle reactivity. Chlorinated aliphatics such as trichloroethylene and conjugated aromatics such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were chosen as the model compounds to investigate the catalytic properties of bimetallic nanoparticles and the reaction mechanism and kinetics. Effects of second metal coating, particle size and structure and temperature were studied on the performance of bimetallic system. In order to predict reaction at different conditions, a two-dimensional steady state model was developed to correlate and simulate mass transfer and reaction in the membrane pores under convective flow mode. The 2-D equations were solved by COMSOL (Femlab). The influence of changing parameters such as reactor geometry (i.e. membrane pore size) and Pd coating composition were evaluated by the model and compared well with the experimental data.

abstract: This research explores microbial chain elongation as a pathway for production of complex organic compounds in soils with implication for the carbon cycle. In chain elongation, simple substrates such as ethanol and short chain carboxylates such as acetate can be converted to longer carbon chain carboxylates under anaerobic conditions through cyclic, reverse β oxidation. This pathway elongates the carboxylate by two carbons. The chain elongation process is overall thermodynamically feasible, and microorganisms gain energy through this process. There have been limited insights into the versatility of chain elongating substrates, understanding the chain elongating microbial community, and its importance in sequestering carbon in the soils. We used ethanol, methanol, butanol, and hydrogen as electron donors and acetate and propionate as electron acceptors to test the occurrence of microbial chain elongation in four soils with different physicochemical properties and microbial communities. Common chain elongation products were the even numbered chains butyrate, caproate, and butanol, the odd numbered carboxylates valerate and heptanoate, along with molecular hydrogen. At a near neutral pH and mesophilic temperature, we observed a stable and sustained production of longer fatty acids along with hydrogen. Microbial community analysis show phylotypes from families such as Clostridiaceae, Bacillaceae, and Ruminococcaceae in all tested conditions. Through chain elongation, the products formed are less biodegradable. They may undergo transformations and end up as organic carbon, decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions, thus, making this process important to study. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Chemical Engineering 2018