Release of petroleum products, in particular gasoline, at underground storage tank facilities is a significant source of groundwater contaminants. These products are highly complex and variable mixtures of organic compounds. This makes their residue analysis in environmental samples and evaluation of their solubility behavior difficult. Research efforts described in this work addressed development of a rapid analytical method for petroleum product residues in water and evaluation of gasoline aqueous solubility behavior. Analytical method development focussed on capillary GC/FID and GC/MS with direct aqueous injection (DAI). Excellent chromatographic performance for C1 to C4 alcohols, C6 to C9 monoaromatics, phenols and other compounds was achieved. Calibration curves were linear over a wide dynamic range and analytical limits of detection of key analytes like benzene and toluene, while higher than LOD's obtained with other methods, were below established Maximum Contaminant Levels. The method was found to be simple, rapid, comprehensive and sufficiently sensitive for monitoring drinking water quality. With this method, the water solubility behavior of four gasolines spanning a wide range in composition was investigated. Highly water soluble gasoline constituents (alcohols, phenols, methyl tert-butyl ether) were found to have effective dissolution velocities which were greater than common aromatic compounds like benzene and toluene. It was also found that fuel-water partition coefficients of various gasoline constituents could be approximated by assuming ideal Raoult's Law behavior without making appreciable errors in estimates in solute concentrations. Deviation from the ideal was relatively small even with a product containing 85 percent (v/v) methanol. Finally, successive batch equilibrations of the products with water showed that alcohols, phenols, MTBE and other gasoline constituents which have water solubility are leached rapidly from the product phase. As a result, any cosolvent effects on petroleum hydrocarbon solubility will be attenuated rapidly following a product release and the onset of leaching of contaminated soil.

The effects of a single aerial application of diflubenzuron (Dimilin$\sp\circler$ over Warwick State Forest, MA, on nontarget aquatic macroinvertebrates of vernal pools and a stream was studied. Vernal pool populations which significantly decreased after the treatment were mosquito (Culicidae) pupae and Cyclops. No impact was demonstrated for the other abundant taxa in these vernal pools (mosquito larvae, water mites (Hydrarchanidae), tardigrades and springtails (Collembola)). The stream nontarget populations which significantly decreased after the treatment include 3 taxa of black flies (Prosimulium mixtum/fuscum, Simulium vernum & S. vittatum; Diptera: Simuliidae). No impact was demonstrated for the other abundant taxa (Amphinemora, Leuctra, Ostrocerca (Plecoptera); Siphlonurus (Ephemeroptera); Rhyacophila, Ironoquia, Lepidostoma, Neophylax (Trichoptera): Chironomidae (Diptera)) nor for a particular size class of these taxa. The timing of population growth and development, and pesticide exposure by filter-feeding are the reasons used to explain these results. A laboratory acute toxicity study of diflubenzuron with mosquito larvae (Aedes aegypti; Culicidae) under different water acidities was conducted. Low pH treatments (pH = 4.5) resulted in 100 fold higher mortality of 4-day-old larvae (LC$\sb{50} = 5\ {\rm n}M$) compared with less acid water (pH = 6.6; LC$\sb{50} = 500\ {\rm n}M$). The synergist action of diflubenzuron with lowered pH has implications for prediction of nontarget impact in habitats exposed to acid rain. A diflubenzuron biochemical mode-of-action study was conducted to determine if: (1) dolichol is present in the chitin-synthesizing plasma membrane of Chironomus tentans cell line, (2) dithiocarbanilates (i.e. nucleoside-transport inhibitors that affect membrane characteristics) inhibit chitin synthesis as does diflubenzuron in C. tentans, and, (3) diflubenzuron has a binding affinity for dolichol pyrophosphate N-acetylglucosamine (Dol-PP-GlcNAc). Plasma membrane was isolated from C. tentans by the method of Chaney & Jacobson (1983). No dolichol was found in this preparation, however, the preparation was never characterized as plasma membrane. Low cell culture growth prevented further study. Dol-PP-GlcNAc was produced from rat liver enzymes, however, diflubenzuron quantification limits (HPLC, ELISA) were too low to conduct a binding affinity study.

Perpetuation of economic growth and social well-being will continue to require energy to power our economic and technological infrastructures. Continuing to meet these energy demands as we do today is constrained by the existence of a finite resource stock and the ability of the local and global environments to assimilate the emissions of the current energy sources. A transition to renewable energy sources provides a means to sustain economic and social well-being by eliminating the resource and environmental constraints of conventional energy sources. The term sustainability has been broadly adopted to evoke the idea of providing future generations with a society which is at least no worse off than our own. Literature in this field is reviewed and includes contributions from a broad spectrum of disciplines with economic, technical, ethical, and philosophical affirmations. Energy policy in the United States was recently addressed in the National Energy Strategy under the Bush Administration. The policy fails short of confronting resource or environmental sustainability issues and is focused on short term solutions without preparing for long term needs. Alternative models and policy proposals have surfaced as a reaction to the government study. An economic and policy model is developed in this dissertation which addresses specific characteristics of a long term national energy transition to renewable energy sources. The Energy and Environmental Economic Transition (E$\sp3$T) model is built on traditional economic analyses to integrate the conventional and renewable energy supply and demand sectors. The renewable energy sector is characterized by technical parameters and endogenous treatment of technological change and market penetration. Policy variables are employed to evaluate resource stock, tax, subsidy, pollution abatement, market structure, and other policies. The E$\sp3$T model is a simulation tool which produces paths of conventional and renewable energy supply and price levels over a sufficient time frame. Other evaluation output variables are developed to address issues of economic cost and sustainability. Although the input database and model details are insufficient to apply the simulation results directly to policy formulation, results are presented to illustrate the model's capabilities and distinctions relative to other energy policy models.

This dissertation, through the utilization of inferential statistical analysis, analyzes the perceptions of administrators, faculty and students from selected regional vocational education facilities regarding the effect of environment on a student's ability to learn. Surveys were used to gather the perceptions of the administrators, faculty and students of the selected schools. The information gathered was then processed, tabulated and analyzed to ascertain whether or not the perceptions of the three groups differed significantly. The five target schools identified were regional vocational technical high schools in the greater Boston area.

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