The olfactory sensitivity of five male CD-1 mice (Mus musculus) for six amino acids was determined using an operant conditioning paradigm. All animals significantly distinguished dilutions as low as 0.01 mM L-cysteine, 3.3 mM L-methionine, 10 mM L-proline, 0.03 mM D-cysteine, 0.3 mM D-methionine and 10 mM D-proline from the odorless solvent, with individual animals displaying even lower detection thresholds. Among the three different L-forms of the amino acids the mice were most sensitive for cysteine and least sensitive for proline, and among the three D-forms the animals displayed a lower sensitivity for D-proline compared to D-cysteine and D-methionine. A comparison between the present data and results obtained with other species showed that the CD-1 mice displayed a higher sensitivity than human subjects and spider monkeys with three (L-Cysteine, D-cysteine and L-proline) of the six amino acids. Results from this report support the idea that the number of functional olfactory receptor genes is not suitable to predict a species’ olfactory sensitivity.

The main aim of this study was to investigate biological hydrogen production from sucrose and molasses by purple non-sulphur bacteria (PNS). The hydrogen production capacities of four different PNS bacteria (Rhodobacter capsulatus (DSM 1710), Rhodobacter capsulatus YO3 (Hup-), Rhodopseudomonas palustris (DSM 127) and Rhodobacter sphaeroides O.U.001 (DSM 5864)) were tested on sucrose and molasses. The photobiological hydrogen production were performed in 50 ml and 150 ml small scale photobioreactors, in batch mode. The produced hydrogen quantities, bacterial growth profiles and pH of the media were recorded through the photobiological hydrogen production processes. Organic acids and sucrose consumption rates were determined by HPLC during the experiments. The maximum hydrogen productivitiy of 0.78 (mmol/lc.h) and 0.55 (mmol/lc.h) was obtained by R. palustris (DSM 127) on sucrose and molasses, respectively. Secondly, co-cultivation of these bacterial strains was studied. The maximum hydrogen productivity by co-cultivation of R. sphaeroides O.U.001 (DSM 5864) and R. palustris (DSM 127) was found as 1.0 (mmol/lc.h).

Air pollution by sulfur dioxide is of great concern due to its harmful effects on environment, human beings, fauna and flora. Fossil-fuel-fired power plants are one of the major sources of SO2 emissions. Typically the concentration of SO2 in the flue gases of these plants is in the range of 2000 to 20000 ppm. Flue gas desulfurisation is one of the widely practiced strategies to control SO2 emissions. Aqueous phase oxidation of sulfur dioxide catalysed by carbonaceous particles is an attractive alternative to the conventional processes for flue gas desulfurisation because, amongst other reasons, sulfuric acid, the product of aqueous phase oxidation, finds extensive application in industry. In the literature it has been reported that sulfuric acid affects the solubility of sulfur dioxide and that activated carbon catalyses aqueous phase oxidation. However there is hardly any report on the systematic evaluation of the mechanism of the heterogeneous aqueous phase oxidation of sulfur dioxide which takes into account among other factors, the effect of sulfuric acid on the solubility of SO2 (particularly, at low levels of SO2 and sulfuric acid concentrations). Therefore the objective of the present work is to evaluate systematically the aqueous phase oxidation of SO2 in ppm levels with activated carbon as catalyst in a three-phase agitated slurry reactor and to model rigorously the solubility of SO2 in ppm levels in dilute sulfuric acid solutions and to estimate the concerned parameters experimentally. Strong effect of dilute concentrations of sulfuric acid on the solubility of SO2 is analyzed in terms of the influence of the acid on the equilibrium concentrations of the ionic species (HSO3¯ and SO4¯2 formed from the hydrolysis of SO2 (aq) and the dissociation of H2SO4 respectively) in SO2 - dil. H2SO4 systems. The analysis leads to a general expression relating the partial pressure of SO2 in the gas phase to the concentration of total dissolved SO2 and the concentration of sulfuric acid in the solution. Simple equations are obtained from the general expression for the cases of zero and high concentrations of sulfuric acid in the system, which in turn lead to direct experimental determination of the parameters, Henry's law constant and the equilibrium constant of hydrolysis of SO2 (aq). The developed model predicts the present experimental data as well as the data reported in the literature very closely. The dissolution of SO2, the hydrolysis of SO2 (aq) and the dissociation of H2SO4 are found to be instantaneous. From the dependency of the parameters on temperature, the heat of dissolution of SO2 is determined to be -31.47 kJ mol"1 and the heat of hydrolysis to be 15.69 kJ mol"1. The overall heat of solubility of sulfur dioxide is therefore -15.78 kJ mol"1. Preliminary reaction experiments have clearly indicated that SO2 (aq) does not react and HSO3¯ is the only reactant for aqueous phase oxidation of sulfur dioxide catalysed by activated carbon. The non-reactant SO2 (aq) deactivates the oxidation reaction by competing with HSO3¯ for adsorption on the active sites of the catalyst particles. However the catalyst particles become saturated with SO2 (aq) beyond a certain value of its concentration (saturation limit), which depends on temperature. A mechanism is proposed based on these observations to develop a rate model. The rate model also takes into account the effect of the concentration of the product sulfuric acid on the solubility of sulfur dioxide. The model predicts first order in HSO3¯ , half order in dissolved oxygen and a linear deactivation effect of 5O2(ag). The oxidation reaction is evaluated experimentally at various levels of the operating variables such as temperature and the concentrations of sulfur dioxide and oxygen in the inlet gas. In all experiments a pseudo steady-state region is observed where the gas phase concentration of SO2 reaches a steady value but the concentrations of HSO3¯ and total S (VI) in the liquid phase continue to change. Pseudo steady-state considerations lead to the determination of the initial estimates of the parameters of the rate model namely, the rate constant and the deactivation constant. These parameters are estimated from the transient profiles of the product (sulfuric acid) by solving the model equations by Runge-Kutta method along with Marquardt's non-linear parameter estimation algorithm. The predictions of the model with the estimated parameters match very well with the experimentally observed concentration profiles of S(VI) and HSO3 in the liquid phase and SO2 in the gas phase. The deactivation constant in the saturation range is independent of temperature and is 0.27, which indicates that the intrinsic rate constant is about four times greater than the observed rate constant. From Arrhenius equation-type dependency of the parameters on temperature, the activation energy for the oxidation reaction is determined to be 93.55 kJ mol"1 and for deactivation to be 21.4 kJ mol"1. The low value of activation energy for deactivation suggests a weak dependency of the deactivation on temperature, which perhaps is due to the weak nature of the chemisorption of SO2 (aq) on carbon.

No description available.

<p>Catalytic combustion is an environmentally friendlytechnique to combust fuels in e.g. gas turbines. Introducing acatalyst into the combustion chamber of a gas turbine allowscombustion outside the normal flammability limits. Hence, theadiabatic flame temperature may be lowered below the thresholdtemperature for thermal NO_Xformation while maintaining a stable combustion.However, several challenges are connected to the application ofcatalytic combustion in gas turbines. The first part of thisthesis reviews the use of catalytic combustion in gas turbines.The influence of the fuel has been studied and compared overdifferent catalyst materials.</p><p>The material section is divided into two parts. The firstconcerns bimetallic palladium catalysts. These catalysts showeda more stable activity compared to their pure palladiumcounterparts for methane combustion. This was verified both byusing an annular reactor at ambient pressure and a pilot-scalereactor at elevated pressures and flows closely resembling theones found in a gas turbine combustor.</p><p>The second part concerns high-temperature materials, whichmay be used either as active or washcoat materials. A novelgroup of materials for catalysis, i.e. garnets, has beensynthesised and tested in combustion of methane, a low-heatingvalue gas and diesel fuel. The garnets showed some interestingabilities especially for combustion of low-heating value, LHV,gas. Two other materials were also studied, i.e. spinels andhexaaluminates, both showed very promising thermal stabilityand the substituted hexaaluminates also showed a good catalyticactivity.</p><p>Finally, deactivation of the catalyst materials was studied.In this part the sulphur poisoning of palladium, platinum andthe above-mentioned complex metal oxides has been studied forcombustion of a LHV gas. Platinum and surprisingly the garnetwere least deactivated. Palladium was severely affected formethane combustion while the other washcoat materials were mostaffected for carbon monoxide and hydrogen.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>catalytic combustion, catalyst materials,palladium, platinum, bimetallic, garnet, spinel, hexaaluminate,deactivation, sulphur, poisoning, diesel, methane,hydrocarbons</p>

Community Stepping Stones is an art education program whose objective is to “provide education, mentor children and adolescents, enhance the community economics, and enrich the quality of life in the community” (Community Steppping Stones [CSS], 2009a). Community art education programs, particularly for youth, have become increasingly popular as a way to address and prevent delinquent behavior. However, art education programs have proven challenging to evaluate and sustain. The goal of my thesis was to explore how Community Stepping Stones implemented and evaluated a community-based youth arts education program compared to other, similar programs and how the organization could make the program more effective and more sustainable long-term. As part of an internship with Community Stepping Stones, I conducted participant observation, document review, and interviews with individuals affiliated with Community Stepping Stones and other art education programs in the community. Data was collected between February 2009 and September 2010.Community Stepping Stones has grown significantly during my involvement with the organization, expanding funding, programming, and staff. Current efforts to reinforce evaluation measures and secure additional funding sources will help make the program more sustainable in the future. Additional efforts towards collaboration with other community and government organizations, increased community involvement, and better program organization will also be beneficial towards sustainability efforts. At this time, published evaluations of community-based youth art education programs and organizational impact on youth and community are limited. Although not a comprehensive assessment, I hope my research can help bolster the literature in this area.

"Food desert" commonly describes food insecure areas with few fresh food outlets. Though used in a number of sources, the definition of "food desert" remains largely undeveloped and research is often deficit oriented, failing to account for community assets that may exist within food deserts but are underutilized or under-supported. Using an assets-based, ethnographic approach, this study combines GIS and survey methodology with participant observation and qualitative interviews to assess the potential positive effect of urban agriculture on food accessibility in Sulphur Springs, a USDA identified urban food desert in Tampa, Florida. Ethnographic data suggest that within this neighborhood, residents are largely dissatisfied with the quality of goods and services provided by local food retailers and, in response, seek alternatives to local retail food options. GIS and food store survey results from this study suggest that urban agriculture has the potential to increase fresh food accessibility and availability. Qualitative interview data suggest that the most appropriate way to improve food accessibility in this particular community is through Community Supported Agriculture that fosters social connections, while increasing access to healthful, quality foods, and circulating money within the community.

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

There are numerous ways in which cultural heritage can be preserved, such as: physical museums, virtual museums, tours of historic homes, and community meetings. For this project, I participated in and observed heritage preservation activities in two very different communities--- Sulphur Springs and Seminole Heights in Tampa, Florida. My internship appointment was with OSHNA (Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association) under the direction of Dr. Steve Gluckman. My primary focus was assisting heritage preservation committee members in each of the two communities with heritage preservation projects specific to their community needs and interests. One project is the development of a heritage center (physical and/or virtual) that will be used to exhibit the community's cultural and material artifacts. The goal of the heritage center is to educate residents (especially the younger generation and newcomers) about current cultural traditions, achievements, and struggles of residents over time while instilling a sense of identity and belonging in residents by incorporating a diversity of perspectives in the preservation and presentation of the community's history. I was specifically involved in oral history collection; archival data collection and analysis (such as census data and city directory data); and National historic landmark designation analysis and preparation. The internship began in May 2007 and ended in August 2007.

The reaction of sulfate with six podzolic horizons of the Southern Laurentians (Quebec) was investigated using batch reaction techniques. It was demonstrated that sulfate sorption increased with decreasing solution pH to a maximum sorption capacity at around pH 4.0; below this pH retention decreased. This drop in sorption capacity was related to the partial dissolution of Al surface coatings. Indeed, the amount of native sulfate and the maximum sorption during the experiment were positively correlated (R$ sp2$ = 0.982, 0.800) with the oxalate extractable Al content of these forested soils. In all six horizons, the increase in sulfate sorption as a function of equilibrium sulfate concentration was best described by the Gunary equation. Kinetic experiments showed the presence of two major stages in both sorption and desorption reactions with an initial quick change (first 6 h) in solution concentration being followed by a second step where the reactions between sulfate and the soil matrix were much slower. The time-dependence of these reactions emphasized the appropriateness of kinetic equation in describing field situations. Moreover, kinetics studies performed under highly acidic conditions demonstrated that the amount of sulfate sorbed decreased with time after an initial sorption step due to the partial dissolution of Al surface materials. Thermodynamic calculations further suggested the subsequent precipitation of jurbanite. It was then concluded that surface dissolution and mineral formation should be considered in the interpretation of results obtained from experiments aimed at determining the effect of pH on sulfate retention.