No description available.

The purpose of this research was to examine food security for people with prediabetes participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), focusing on their food choice decisions and coping strategies over a 30-day benefit cycle that potentially increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes. A cross-sectional, quantitative design based on food choice process model constructs was used. SNAP participants (n = 36) with prediabetes, aged 21-70 years, were recruited as outpatients from Bronx Lebanon Hospital and completed self-reported questionnaires on demographics and health, food security, and food frequency. Descriptive statistics, Pearson chi square tests, and regression analysis were performed using SPSS. Also, independent t test, and Levene's test were used for ad hoc analysis to assess variation of food choice decisions over 30 days. Of the sample, 5% had low and 95% very low food secure status. Food security status did not predict coping strategies (p = .724); however, food security status and type of coping strategy had a moderate relationship (p < 0.01; r =.60). Food choices of 11 food categories changed over a 30-day cycle with greatest variation for Week 1, compared to Weeks 2-4 (p < .005). Use of coping strategies to minimize hunger was limited. Very low food security associated with certain coping strategies disrupted eating patterns. Disrupted eating patterns affect food variation over time, increasing the intake of non-nutrient-dense foods and the risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The implications for positive social change include the potential to change SNAP's benefit allotments, make nutrition education mandatory, and create a nutrition package, thereby lowering food insecurity and the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Research has shown that long-term volunteer retention is critical for sustaining the viability of youth mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS). Data from recent studies have indicated that volunteers must continue their service for at least 1 year in to have a sustainable effect on the mentee. Results from prior studies have indicated that the support provided by the agency to the volunteer can predict volunteer retention. However, a gap in current literature exists regarding the effect of support communication on volunteer retention. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the relationship between organizational support, communication, and retention of volunteers in the BBBS agency. The VPM was developed to explain the life cycle of volunteerism and was the theoretical framework for this study. The primary research question examined how well the variables related to organizational support communication predict the likelihood of volunteer retention. This study used secondary data collected by BBBS as part of the support communication process they provide to their volunteers. Results from a logistic regression analysis revealed that the amount of face-to-face contact and the number of match support specialists positively predicted volunteer retention of at least 1 year. Results from this study can contribute to social change by informing best practices on the types of support communication for long-term volunteer retention. Specifically, leaders and managers of volunteer agencies should develop policies and procedures that maximize the amount of face-to-face communication provided to volunteers from the agency.

Affärsanalys är en ökande trend som många organisationer idag använder på grund av potentialen att fastställa värdefulla insikter, ökad lönsamhet och förbättrad operativ effektivitet. Något som visat sig vara problematiskt då det önskade resultatet inte alltid är en självklarhet. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur modeföretag kan använda datadriven affärsanalys för att generera positiva insikter genom värdeskapande mekanismer. Utifrån semistrukturerade intervjuer med anställda på ett modeföretag har vi, med utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning, kartlagt hur datadriven affärsanalys brukas för att skapa värde genom att applicera en processmodell på verksamheten. Empirin resulterade i tre värdefulla insikter (1) Det studerade företaget använder affärsanalys för ökad lönsamhet (2) Företagets data tillgångar är tillräckliga för att utvinna värdefulla insikter (3) Vidare såg vi att företaget arbetar med influencers vilket är en ny affärsanalys-funktion som inte definierats i tidigare forskning. / Business analysis is an increasingly popular trend that many organisations use because of its potential to establish valuable insights, increased profitability and improved operational efficiency. Something that has proved to be rather problematic as the desired results rarely is a certainty. The purpose of the study is to examine how fashion retailers can use business analytics to generate positive insights through value-creating mechanisms by applying a process model. Based on semi-structured interviews with the employees of a fashion company and a starting point in previous research, we have mapped how business analysis can be used to obtain value. The empirical study resulted in three valuable insights (1) The examined organisation uses business analysis to increase profitability. (2) The data assets of the organisation are enough to acquire valuable insights. (3) Further we discovered that the organisation uses influencers as a valuable asset and can be categorised as a business analysis capability, previously undefined in preceding research.

No description available.

No description available.

There exists many companies which wish to transition toward a more digital workflow. However, many of these companies lack the technical expertise required to undertake such an endeavor. To assist companies in this area, a digitization process model could be used as a stepping-stone toward successful digitization. Currently, however, there exists no such digitization process model. The purpose of this thesis is to suggest such a digitization process model. The goal is to help companies in digitizing their documents and their workflow. The research question used to reach this goal pertains to how a digitization process model should be structured. Due to the lack of currently existing digitization process models, different process models within the field of software engineering where analyzed as a basis. The research was qualitative and explorative in its nature, and it followed design science as its research paradigm. An extensive literature study was conducted before development of the model began. The model was evaluated using interviews together with action research. These interviews focused on evaluating the model based on five criteria which had been defined: (1) interviewee credibility, (2) semantic correctness, (3) syntactic correctness, (4) usefulness, and (5) process flexibility. The results of this thesis is the company document digitization process model (CODED), which, as the name suggests, is a proposed process model for document digitization. This model has been based on information gathered by, partly the literature study, and partly the interviews. The literature study proved the model to be unique, since no similar model existed prior to this thesis. While the interviews proved the model to be valid, since it accomplished all evaluation criteria which had been defined. / Det är många företag som vill gå mot att digitalisera sitt arbetsflöde. Många av dessa företag har däremot en avsaknad av den tekniska expertis som krävs. För att assistera företag i detta skulle en processmodell kunna användas som ett redskap för framgångsrik dokumentdigitalisering. Problemet är att det just nu inte existerar någon sådan processmodell för dokumentdigitalisering. Syftet med denna avhandling är att föreslå en processmodell för digitalisering. Målet är att hjälpa företag i att digitalisera både deras dokument och deras arbetsflöde. Hur en sådan processmodell skulle kunna struktureras är denna rapports forskningsfråga. Det fanns ingen existerande modell att utgå ifrån. Därför användes andra modeller inom området för programvaruteknik som en bas under forskningen. Forskningen var kvantitative och explorativ, och den använde designvetenskap som ett forskningsparadigm. En omfattande litteraturstudie genomfördes innan utvecklingen av processmodellen påbörjades. Modellen evaluerades utifrån intervjuer tillsammans med aktionsforskning. Där intervjuerna har fokuserat på att evaluera modellen utifrån fem kriterier: (1) trovärdighet, (2) semantisk korrekthet, (3) syntaktisk korrekthet, (4) användbarhet, och (5) flexibilitet. Resultatet av denna avhandling är ett förslag till en processmodell för att digitalisera dokument, vid namnet CODED (company document digitization process model). Den föreslagna modellen har baserat både på information som samlats från litteraturstudien, och information från intervjuerna. Litteraturstudien visade att processmodellen är unik, då det ej existerade någon likartad modell tidigare. Intervjuerna visade att modellen är valid, då den uppfyllde de definierade evalueringskriterierna.

[pt] A colaboração entre stakeholders em operações humanitárias e de desastres é relevante pela sua capacidade de reduzir custos e aumentar a velocidade das operações de resposta que minimizam o impacto e sofrimento da população. Assim, a tese visa propor um framework integrado para discutir estratégias de colaboração na resposta a desastres, o qual é composto pela identificação dos principais stakeholders, seus desejos e necessidades, e os processos de resposta a desastres. O primeiro modelo se refere à representação dos 10 principais stakeholders, a saber: governo, militar, legislativo e regulatório, setor privado, fornecedor direto, mídia, rede de ajuda local, doador, rede de ajuda internacional, e beneficiário. O segundo resultado se refere ao detalhamento das satisfações desses stakeholders, além das satisfações partilhadas por grande parte deles. O terceiro modelo se refere aos processos de resposta a desastres detalhados em 10 processos de nível 1 e 74 processos de nível 2. O framework integrado combina as sínteses de cada uma das três revisões sistemáticas da literatura anteriores, tendo a dimensão de estratégia como central para a discussão da colaboração, e utilizado como referência em um estudo de caso a fim de conferir validade externa ao framework. O estudo de caso toma a perspectiva do stakeholder militar, comparando o referencial teórico com a resposta aos deslizamentos da Região Serrana do Rio de Janeiro em 2011 e com a situação atual de resposta a desastres de um simulado realizado em 2017. Os resultados contribuem com a classificação da literatura existente, sínteses e proposição de modelos, e uma agenda de pesquisa. Por fim, sugere-se como pesquisas futuras a extensão da pesquisa para os estágios de mitigação, preparação e recuperação, e a ampliação da validade externa do framework. / [en] The collaboration between stakeholders in disaster and humanitarian operations is relevant due to their ability to reduce costs and increase the speed of response operations that minimize the impact and suffering of the population. Thus, the thesis aims to propose an integrated framework to discuss strategies of collaboration in the disaster response, which is composed of the identification of the main stakeholders, their wants and needs, and the disaster response processes. The first model refers to the representation of the 10 main stakeholders, namely: government, military, legislative and regulatory, private sector, direct supplier, media, local aid network, donor, international aid network, and beneficiary. The second result refers to the detailing the satisfaction of these stakeholders, as well as the satisfactions shared by most them. The third model refers to disaster response processes detailed in 10 processes of level 1 and 74 processes of level 2. The integrated framework combines the three syntheses from each of the previous systematic literature reviews, having the strategy as central dimension for the discussion of collaboration, and used as reference in a case study in order to give external validity to the framework. The case study takes the perspective of the Military stakeholder, comparing the theoretical reference with the response to the landslides of the Mountain Region of Rio de Janeiro state in 2011 and the current situation of response to disasters from a simulation carried out in 2017. The results contribute to the classification of existing literature, synthesis and proposition of models, and a research agenda. Finally, it is suggested as future research the extension to the stages of mitigation, preparation and recovery, and the extension of the external validity of the framework.

The agricultural sector is one of the largest consumers of fresh water. With the ever-increasing problem of water scarcity, urbanization, over-population, and climate change, fresh water resources used by agriculture could be put to better use by redirecting it for drinking water purposes. In this context, many countries reuse treated urban waste water for irrigation, to overcome this problem. While this is a sustainable practice, the reuse of urban wastewater could facilitate the spread of pathogenic bacteria (or antibiotic resistant bacteria) in the subsoil region and consequently the groundwater. Since groundwater is one of the main sources of drinking water, the contaminants could pose a risk to human health. Furthermore, obtaining scientific data for emerging contaminants during water reuse is the need of the hour. The objective of this work is to build a mechanistic model that can aid in the development of large-scale risk assessment models; thus facilitating the setup of water reuse regulations for the relevant pathogenic organisms. In the present study, process based models were developed and evaluated using lab scale results. Then, the relative time scales of the processes are compared, and the relative importance of the various process studies are assessed. When assessing time scales of the processes, it is kept in mind that processes with relatively fast time scales can be approximated using equilibrium models, relatively slow processes can be neglected, and only the rate limiting processes can neither be neglected or further simplified in further model development. Therefore, an idea of the rate limiting processes assessed in lab scale can serve as important tools facilitating model simplification when evaluating larger scale models. A combined experimental and modelling approach has been used to study relevant transport and reactive processes during bacteria transport through sandy sediments. The mechanistic model contained transport processes which were implemented using the advective dispersive equation. An additional straining process was added using non-linear rate law. The biological processes of decay, respiration, attachment, and growth were expressed using linear rate laws. This mechanistic model was verified using data from fully water saturated, sediment packed lab-scale column experiments. Continuous injection of tracer, microspheres, and Enterococci (in water environments with and without dissolved oxygen and nutrients) was performed. The experiment was verified for three flow velocities (0.13, 0.08 and 0.02 cm/min), and the parameter values were compared for these flow velocities using dimensionless numbers. The linear rate coefficients were converted to a dimensionless form (Peclet and Damkoehler numbers respectively) to facilitate the comparison of processes across the various flow velocities. The results indicate that the processes of attachment and growth are flow dependent. Furthermore, in the presence of dissolved oxygen, attachment of bacteria to sediment was the most influential process. Sensitivity analysis showed that the parameters representing growth and respiration were influential, and care must be taken when using the results for field-scale experiments or models. These processes and parameters add new knowledge on the impact of urban wastewater reuse on the spread of pathogenic bacteria (especially resilient species like Enterococci), and emphasizes the importance of research in this area. Future work could focus on obtaining data from culture independent methods and extension of the model framework, and include (where necessary) non-linear rate laws. This will provide a critical pathway to developing a decision support framework for use by regulatory frameworks, policy makers, stakeholders, local and global environmental agencies, World Health Organization, or the United Nations.:List of Figures vii List of Tables xi List of Abbreviations xiii List of Symbols xv Summary xvii Zussamenfassung xix 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Broad Scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Hypotheses and Research objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.3 Outline of the work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 Concepts, terminologies, and methodology 7 2.1 Concepts and terminologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.1.2 The vadose zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.1.3 Porosity and pore models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.1.4 Darcy’s law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.2 Bacteria strain used and Processes Studied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.2.1 Enterococcus faecalis JH2-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.2.2 Advection and Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.2.3 Straining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2.2.4 Microbial Decay and Respiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2.2.5 Microbial Attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.2.6 Microbial Growth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.2.7 Dimensionless numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.3 Experimental design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.4 Model setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3 Reactive-transport modelling of Enterococcus faecalis JH2-2 passage through water saturated sediment columns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.2.1 Experimental study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.2.2 Modeling and data analysis procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 3.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 3.3.1 Determination of hydraulic and non-reactive transport parameters (experiments E1 and E2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 3.3.2 Determination of parameters related to the bacteria transport (E3 series) . . . 45 3.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.4.1 Physical processes (E1 and E2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.4.2 Biological Processes (E3 series) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.5 Conclusions and Outlook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 3.6 Supplementary material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4 Determining the impact of flow velocities on reactive processes associated with Enterococcus faecalis JH2-2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 4.2.1 Experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 4.2.2 Model Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.3 Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4.3.1 Tracer and microsphere experiments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4.3.2 Bacteria experiments - comparison of processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4.4 Conclusions and Future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 4.5 Supplementary material 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 4.6 Supplementary Material 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 5 Synthesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.1 Discussion and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.2 Critical review, pathways towards future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Note on the commencement of the doctoral procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Übereinstimmungserklärung. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 List of Publications and conference presentations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 / Der Agrarsektor ist einer der größten Verbraucher von Süßwasser. Angesichts der zunehmenden Wasserknappheit, der Verstädterung, der Überbevölkerung und des Klimawandels könnten die von der Landwirtschaft genutzten Süßwasserressourcen besser genutzt werden, indem sie für Trinkwasserzwecke umgewidmet werden. In diesem Zusammenhang verwenden viele Länder aufbereitetes kommunales Abwasser für die Bewässerung, um dieses Problem zu lösen. Dies ist zwar eine nachhaltige Praxis, aber die Wiederverwendung von kommunalem Abwasser könnte die Ausbreitung pathogener Bakterien (oder antibiotikaresistenter Bakterien) im Untergrund und damit im Grundwasser fördern. Da das Grundwasser eine der Hauptquellen für Trinkwasser ist, könnten diese Schadstoffe eine Gefahr für die menschliche Gesundheit darstellen. Darüber hinaus ist es ein Gebot der Stunde, wissenschaftliche Daten über neu auftretende Verunreinigungen bei der Wasserwiederverwendung zu gewinnen. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein mechanistisches Modell zu erstellen, das bei der Entwicklung groß angelegter Risikobewertungsmodelle behilflich sein kann und somit die Aufstellung von Vorschriften für die Wiederverwendung von Wasser für die relevanten pathogenen Organismen erleichtert. In der vorliegenden Studie wurden prozessbasierte Modelle entwickelt und anhand von Ergebnissen im Labormaßstab bewertet. Anschließend werden die relativen Zeitskalen der Prozesse verglichen und die relative Bedeutung der verschiedenen Prozessstudien bewertet. Bei der Bewertung der Zeitskalen der Prozesse wird berücksichtigt, dass Prozesse mit relativ schnellen Zeitskalen durch Gleichgewichtsmodelle angenähert werden können, relativ langsame Prozesse können vernachlässigt werden, und nur die ratenbegrenzenden Prozesse dürfen in der weiteren Modellentwicklung weder vernachlässigt noch vereinfacht werden. Daher kann eine Vorstellung von den ratenbegrenzenden Prozessen, die im Labormaßstab bewertet werden, als wichtiges Instrument zur Vereinfachung des Modells bei der Bewertung von Modellen in größerem Maßstab dienen. Ein kombinierter experimenteller und modellierender Ansatz wurde verwendet, um relevante Transport- und reaktive Prozesse während des Bakterientransports durch sandige Sedimente zu untersuchen. Das mechanistische Modell enthielt Transportprozesse, die mit Hilfe der Advektions-Dispersions-Gleichung implementiert wurden. Ein zusätzlicher Filtrationsprozess ('straining') wurde mit Hilfe nichtlinearer Ratengesetze hinzugefügt. Die biologischen Prozesse des Zerfalls, der Atmung, der Anhaftung und des Wachstums wurden durch lineare Ratengesetze ausgedrückt. Dieses mechanistische Modell wurde anhand von Daten aus vollständig wassergesättigten, sedimentgefüllten Säulenexperimenten im Labormaßstab verifiziert. Kontinuierliche Injektion von Tracer, Mikrosphären und Enterokokken (in Wasserumgebungen mit und ohne gelösten Sauerstoff und Nährstoffe) wurde durchgeführt. Das Experiment wurde für drei Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten (0,13, 0,08 und 0,02 cm/min) verifiziert, und die Parameterwerte wurden für diese Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten anhand dimensionsloser Zahlen verglichen. Die linearen Ratengesetze wurden in eine dimensionslose Form umgewandelt (Peclet- bzw. Damköhler-Zahlen), um den Vergleich der Prozesse bei den verschiedenen Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten zu erleichtern. Die Konzentrationen wurden in regelmäßigen Abständen sowohl am Einlass als auch am Auslass der Kolonnen gemessen. Die überprüften Prozesse waren Advektion, Dispersion, Filtration, Zerfall, Atmung, Wachstum und Anhaftung. Der Versuch wurde für drei Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten (0,13, 0,08 und 0,02 cm/min) wiederholt, und die verifizierten Parameterwerte wurden für diese Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Prozesse der Anhaftung und des Wachstums strömungsabhängig sind. Darüber hinaus war bei Vorhandensein von gelöstem Sauerstoff die Anhaftung der Bakterien an das Sediment der einflussreichste Prozess. Die Sensitivitätsanalyse zeigte, dass die Parameter, die das Wachstum und die Atmung repräsentieren, einflussreich sind, so dass bei der Verwendung der Ergebnisse für Experimente oder Modelle im Feldmaßstab Vorsicht geboten ist. Diese Prozesse und Parameter liefern neue Erkenntnisse über die Auswirkungen der Wiederverwendung von kommunalem Abwasser auf die Ausbreitung pathogener Bakterien (insbesondere widerstandsfähiger Arten wie Enterokokken) und unterstreichen die Bedeutung der Forschung in diesem Bereich. Zukünftige Arbeiten könnten sich auf die Gewinnung von Daten aus kulturunabhängigen Methoden und die Erweiterung des Modellrahmens konzentrieren und (wo nötig) nichtlineare Parameter einbeziehen. Dies wird einen entscheidenden Weg zur Entwicklung eines Rahmens für die Entscheidungsfindung darstellen, der von Regulierungsbehörden, politischen Entscheidungsträgern, Interessengruppen sowie lokalen und globalen Umweltbehörden, der Weltgesundheitsorganisation oder den Vereinten Nationen genutzt werden kann.:List of Figures vii List of Tables xi List of Abbreviations xiii List of Symbols xv Summary xvii Zussamenfassung xix 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Broad Scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Hypotheses and Research objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.3 Outline of the work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 Concepts, terminologies, and methodology 7 2.1 Concepts and terminologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.1.2 The vadose zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.1.3 Porosity and pore models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.1.4 Darcy’s law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.2 Bacteria strain used and Processes Studied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.2.1 Enterococcus faecalis JH2-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.2.2 Advection and Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.2.3 Straining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2.2.4 Microbial Decay and Respiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2.2.5 Microbial Attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.2.6 Microbial Growth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.2.7 Dimensionless numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.3 Experimental design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.4 Model setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3 Reactive-transport modelling of Enterococcus faecalis JH2-2 passage through water saturated sediment columns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.2.1 Experimental study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.2.2 Modeling and data analysis procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 3.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 3.3.1 Determination of hydraulic and non-reactive transport parameters (experiments E1 and E2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 3.3.2 Determination of parameters related to the bacteria transport (E3 series) . . . 45 3.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.4.1 Physical processes (E1 and E2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.4.2 Biological Processes (E3 series) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.5 Conclusions and Outlook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 3.6 Supplementary material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4 Determining the impact of flow velocities on reactive processes associated with Enterococcus faecalis JH2-2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 4.2.1 Experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 4.2.2 Model Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.3 Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4.3.1 Tracer and microsphere experiments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4.3.2 Bacteria experiments - comparison of processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4.4 Conclusions and Future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 4.5 Supplementary material 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 4.6 Supplementary Material 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 5 Synthesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.1 Discussion and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.2 Critical review, pathways towards future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Note on the commencement of the doctoral procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Übereinstimmungserklärung. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 List of Publications and conference presentations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

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