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1	Towards an improved understanding of regional scale climate change in the Nepal Himalayas Shrestha, Rudra Kumar January 2013 (has links) The effects of enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations on Earth’s climate are well understood. However, the impacts of anthropogenic aerosol particles, in particular due to the many aerosol-cloud indirect feedback mechanisms are not fully or even explicitly quantified as yet. This PhD seeks to contribute to improve our knowledge and understanding of aerosol – precipitation interactions over the Nepal Himalayas region and their consequences for precipitation patterns there. The research was carried out using the cloud-resolving Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model through a series of sensitivity studies and supported by literature reviews of satellite and field observations, although the latter are sparse. To complement the modelling studies, from March to December 2011, aerosols and surface meteorology were also continuously measured at Nagarkot (Lat: 27.7°N, Lon: 85.5° E, Alt: 1900m), Nepal, located in the eastern flank of a bowl shaped Kathmandu valley. The location was chosen to provide a representative vertical profile of aerosol and the impact on topographical flows. Our results showed a unique pattern of diurnal pollution circulation within the valley with a morning and evening peak. The evening peak, which is higher than the morning peak is attributed to the light wind blowing through the valley carrying locally generated fresh evening pollution, further enhanced by re-circulations of aged pollutants through suppression of the mixing layers as suggested by a previous study at a different location. The morning peak is caused by calm wind conditions followed by the transitional growth of the nocturnal boundary layer. It is found that the thermally driven mountain – valley wind circulations are responsible for ventilation of pollutants. The WRF simulations showed that a sophisticated double moment bulk microphysics parameterization scheme performed best, which did not show any statistically significant difference compared to the observed data at 80% confidence interval using a Chi-squared goodness of best fit test. A sensitivity analysis of aerosol and temperature perturbations on the monsoon precipitation was conducted. We found that the model represented the first indirect effect reasonably well however, rainfall was not particularly sensitive to the aerosol perturbations used, due to the poorly documented role of the ice phase processes which assume a greater importance in this region due to the influence of topography and diurnal heating cycle. Further model studies focusing on chemical properties of aerosol and sensitivity of Ice Nuclei (IN) to precipitation in this region are recommended. In contrast, the effects of temperature perturbation were found to be significant, more so than the currently modelled aerosol indirect effects, suggesting that reduced frequency but intense rain events are likely over the Himalayas as the climate warms. 551.695496
2	From Macro to Nano : Electrokinetic Transport and Surface Control Pardon, Gaspard January 2014 (has links) Today, the growing and aging population, and the rise of new global threats on human health puts an increasing demand on the healthcare system and calls for preventive actions. To make existing medical treatments more efficient and widely accessible and to prevent the emergence of new threats such as drug-resistant bacteria, improved diagnostic technologies are needed. Potential solutions to address these medical challenges could come from the development of novel lab-on-chip (LoC) for point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics. At the same time, the increasing demand for sustainable energy calls for the development of novel approaches for energy conversion and storage systems (ECS), to which micro- and nanotechnologies could also contribute. This thesis has for objective to contribute to these developments and presents the results of interdisciplinary research at the crossing of three disciplines of physics and engineering: electrokinetic transport in fluids, manufacturing of micro- and nanofluidic systems, and surface control and modification. By combining knowledge from each of these disciplines, novel solutions and functionalities were developed at the macro-, micro- and nanoscale, towards applications in PoC diagnostics and ECS systems. At the macroscale, electrokinetic transport was applied to the development of a novel PoC sampler for the efficient capture of exhaled breath aerosol onto a microfluidic platform. At the microscale, several methods for polymer micromanufacturing and surface modification were developed. Using direct photolithography in off-stoichiometry thiol-ene (OSTE) polymers, a novel manufacturing method for mold-free rapid prototyping of microfluidic devices was developed. An investigation of the photolithography of OSTE polymers revealed that a novel photopatterning mechanism arises from the off-stoichiometric polymer formulation. Using photografting on OSTE surfaces, a novel surface modification method was developed for the photopatterning of the surface energy. Finally, a novel method was developed for single-step microstructuring and micropatterning of surface energy, using a molecular self-alignment process resulting in spontaneous mimicking, in the replica, of the surface energy of the mold. At the nanoscale, several solutions for the study of electrokinetic transport toward selective biofiltration and energy conversion were developed. A novel, comprehensive model was developed for electrostatic gating of the electrokinetic transport in nanofluidics. A novel method for the manufacturing of electrostatically-gated nanofluidic membranes was developed, using atomic layer deposition (ALD) in deep anodic alumina oxide (AAO) nanopores. Finally, a preliminary investigation of the nanopatterning of OSTE polymers was performed for the manufacturing of polymer nanofluidic devices. / <p>QC 20140509</p> / Rappid / NanoGate / Norosensor microsystem nanosystem microfluidic nanofluidic surface modification surface property electrokinetics model simulation material polymer thiol-ene microfabrication nanofabrication micromanufacturing nanomanufacturing breath sampling aerosol precipitation corona discharge electrostatic precipitation grafting chemistry click chemistry nanopore nanoporous membrane photolithography photopatterning photografting microfluidics nanofluidics oste OSTE+ OSTEmer lab-on-chip loc point-of-care poc biocompatibility diagnostics breath analysis fuel cell

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Towards an improved understanding of regional scale climate change in the Nepal Himalayas

From Macro to Nano : Electrokinetic Transport and Surface Control