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Adoption of glyphosate-resistant crops has resulted in increased glyphosate usage and decreased use of residual herbicides thus resulting in weed pressure shifts. Weeds that display multiple-resistance to glyphosate and other herbicide modes of action have become a concern in many parts of the United States. Incorporation of multiple herbicide resistance traits into multiple cropping systems, may facilitate weed resistance to additional herbicides. Furthermore, controlling volunteer crop stands containing multiple herbicide-resistance traits may be problematic in herbicide resistant crops. These volunteer crops will compete with the currently growing crop qualifying them as a weed. Therefore, this research was conducted to determine control options for: failed glyphosate resistant corn stands, and volunteer glyphosate resistant corn stands in glyphosate resistant cotton. Furthermore, research was conducted to determine what densities of glyphosate-resistant corn will cause cotton yield loss and if time of removal of these densities impacts cotton yield loss.

Horseweed has been documented in 70 countries and 40 different crops around the world and is listed as being a problem weed in no-till production systems. Horseweed has developed resistance to many herbicide modes of action including glycine. Field experiments were conducted from 2004 to 2006 in the Mississippi Delta to evaluate the field emergence of horseweed and most effective treatment programs for its control. Field emergence of horseweed was observed occurring primarily in the fall of the year, September through early November, when temperatures were between 15.6 to 23.4 C with later flushes occurring from late January through early April with temperatures ranging from 5.2 to 16 C. Tillage in September followed by herbicide in March gave 100% control of horseweed across all locations. Glyphosate + 2,4-D and glyphosate + dicamba were the best glyphosate-based treatments and provided 90% or better horseweed control 4 WAT both years. Glufosinate-based burndowns provided 81 to 97% horseweed control and soybean yields were generally similar with all glufosinate-based programs.

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The sol-gel process has been employed to generate hybrid inorganic-organic network materials. Unique ceramers were prepared based on an alkoxysilane functionalized soft organic oligomer, poly(propylene oxide) (PPO), and tetramethoxysilane (TMOS). Despite the formation of covalent bonds between the inorganic and organic constituents, the resulting network materials were phase separated, composed of a silicate rich phase embedded in a matrix of the organic oligomer chains. The behavior of such materials was similar to elastomers containing a reinforcing filler. The study focused on the influence of initial oligomer molecular weight, functionality, and tetramethoxysilane, water, and acid catalyst content on the final structure, mechanical and thermal properties. The sol-gel approach has also been exploited to generate thin, transparent, abrasion resistant coatings for metal substrates. These systems were based on alkoxysilane functionazized diethylenetriamine (DETA) with TMOS, which generated hybrid networks with very high crosslink densities. These materials were applied with great success as abrasion resistant coatings to aluminum, copper, brass, and stainless steel. In another study, intercalated polymer-clay nanocomposites were prepared based on various epoxy networks montmorillonite clay. This work explored the influence of incorporated clay on the adhesive properties of the epoxies. The lap shear strength decreased with increasing clay content. This was due to a reduction in the toughness of the epoxy. Also, the delaminated (or exfoliated) nanocomposite structure could not be generated. Instead, all nanocomposite systems possessed an intercalated structure. The final project involved the characterization of a series of metallocene catalyzed linear polyethylenes, produced at Phillips Petroleum. Polyolefins synthesized with such new catalyst systems are becoming widely available. The influence of molecular weight and thermal treatment on the mechanical, rheological, and thermal behavior was probed. Although the behavior of this series of metallocene polyethylenes was not unlike that of traditionally catalyzed materials, this work is one of the first comprehensive studies of these new linear polyethylenes. The main distinction between the metallocene and traditional Ziegler-Natta catalyzed polyethylenes is the narrow molecular weight distributions produced by the former (for this series of materials, 2.3< Mw  Mn <3.6). / Ph. D.

The Army's Fire Resistant Fuel (FRF) program is currently being used to defend against the threat of vehicle fuel fires resulting from unconventional warfare encountered in the Middle East. Fire Resistant Fuels are based upon JP-8, which is now the primary fuel for the Army ground services. The goal of FRF development is to reduce susceptibility to ignition at standard storage conditions while still serving as a fuel for the Army's diesel vehicles. Two preliminary tests were conducted to narrow down a field of candidates developed by Luna Innovations to a final set of five FRF. Dynamometer testing was used to determine peak power of the supplied Yanmar 2V750 engine. Fuel fire resistance characteristics were defined and compared using a rotating disk anti-misting characterization system. Fuels were characterized based upon spray characteristics including velocity and droplet diameter as well as through ignition testing. For these tests, FRF were compared to Diesel and Jet-A results. Results from this testing has shown that two fuels, both JP-8 emulsions, met the basic criteria of a fire resistant fuel. Engine testing trends showed that both fuels surpassed the peak power output of Diesel. Rotary atomization ignition testing resulted in no ignition for both fuels. As a supplementary study, cone calorimetry testing was performed to determine effective heats of combustion. Results from experimentation demonstrated that the energy content of the FRF is not of primary importance to engine performance or flame resistance. All data, analysis and trends are located in the appendices. / Master of Science