Growing concern over adverse health effects from low level lead exposure motivated reassessment of lead occurrence in drinking water, from the perspective of 1) possibly eliminating lead from new brass materials, and 2) performance testing of existing products. During the course of this thesis work, it was discovered that several cases of childhood lead poisoning in North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington D.C. occurred from contaminated potable water. That disconcerting finding prompted additional work into 3) deficiencies in existing lead testing of drinking water samples, and 4) impacts of water treatment steps on lead leaching. Meters, components, and fittings manufactured from non-leaded brass (< 0.25 percent lead content) are increasingly specified for use in water distribution systems and premise plumbing, in response to California's Proposition 65 and the proposed Lead Free Drinking Water Act. An in-depth review of the available literature revealed that non-leaded brass releases minimal amounts of lead and other contaminants of concern to drinking water. There is legitimate concern about the corrosion resistance and longevity of these non-leaded alloys in the range of waters that will be encountered in practice. Nonetheless, when the potential impacts to manufacturers, utilities and consumers are considered, non-leaded brasses appear to be attractive albeit at slightly higher cost. For existing leaded brass products, concerns have been raised over potential limitations of performance standards used to certify the products as "safe" in the marketplace. The ANSI/NSF 61 Section 9 test is the industry standard, and its protocol is critically evaluated from the perspective of the leaching solution chemistry. Testing indicated that the protocol water is reasonably representative of a typical water supply. However, some lower pH and lower alkalinity waters can be much more aggressive than the existing section 9 water, and for potable water with these characteristics, problems with higher than desired lead leaching may occur. It may be desirable to tighten the standard's pass/fail lead criterion in order to account for this problem in practice. Several cases of childhood lead poisoning from water have been recently encountered, which prompted environmental assessments. It was visually obvious that some of the lead particles ingested by these children, present in water from the tap, were not completely dissolving in the standard method with weak acid recommended by the US EPA. A laboratory investigation proved that up to 80% particulate lead in water samples could be "missed" by the standard protocol. Unfortunately, tests with simulated gastric fluid revealed that much of this particulate lead would be bioavailable in the presence of chloride, warmer temperatures and lower pH inside the human stomach. It is recommended that water utilities be alert to this possible problem and that environmental assessments of lead poisoned children use stronger digestions to detect lead in water. Several of the lead poisoning instances occurred after the utility changed both disinfectant chemicals (from chlorine to chloramine) and coagulant types. Although authorities initially thought chloramine was the cause based on experiences in Washington D.C., bench scale studies in this work proved that a change in coagulant from aluminum sulfate to either ferric chloride or polyaluminum chloride was in fact the main reason of the lead spikes. The reduction in sulfate and increase in chloride increased the chloride to sulfate mass ratio of the water supply. A higher chloride to sulfate mass ratio triggered much higher (2.3-40 times more) lead leaching from solder connected to copper pipe. The adverse effects of the increase in the ratio could not be eliminated by adding a corrosion inhibitor. / Master of Science

No description available.

No description available.

Soybean cyst nematode (SCN), a major pathogen of soybean worldwide, causes huge losses in soybean production. Various approaches including cloning of genes to combat this devastating disease help to better understand the cellular function and immune responses of plants. Membrane fusion genes are the important regulatory parts of vesicular transport system, which works through packaging of intracellular compounds and delivering them to apoplast or nematode feeding sites to induce an incompatible reaction. The incompatible nature of membrane fusion proteins such as SNAP25, Munc18, Syntaxin, Synaptobrevin, NSF, Synaptotagmin and alpha-SNAP are conserved in eukaryotes and regulate the intracellular function to combat abiotic and biotic stress in plants. Overexpression of these genes in G. max [Williams 82(PI518671)] which is a susceptible cultivar of soybean to nematodes resulted in a reduction of the SCN population providing further insights of molecular and genetic approaches to solve the SCN problems in agriculture.

As the water industry complies with the new arsenic standard and new treatments are installed, unintended consequences might be expected in relation to corrosion control when sulfate/chloride ratio, pH, phosphate, iron, aluminum, bicarbonate and organic matter levels are altered. In some cases, these changes will be beneficial and in other detrimental. This research project is the first to systematically evaluate the effect of some key changes in the chemistry of the treated water in relation to copper and brass corrosion control. A 1.25 year pipe rig experiment was executed to anticipate effects of arsenic treatment on copper pinholes in 10 representative waters. The control water will mimic a synthesized version of Potomac River that is extremely aggressive to copper. Consistent with prior research that pitting is driven by free chlorine in this water and inhibited by phosphate, substitution of chloramine for chlorine or dosing of phosphate completely eliminated deep pits on tubes for the duration of the experiment. Chlorine caused serious pitting if NOM was less than 0.3 mg/L over a range of Cl:SO4 ratio's. Pitting seemed to occur under deposits of iron or aluminum on the copper surface, and if anything, an equimolar amount of iron caused worse pitting than aluminum. Amendment of the aggressive water with 3 mg/L NOM eliminated growth of deep pits (> 0.05 mm). While brass pipes (containing 0.09% lead, 63% copper and 36% zinc) was attacked non-uniformally by an aggressive water at high pH and with high Cl2 content, no significant pitting occurred at any condition tested, even though pitting did occur for copper exposed to the exact same water. The implication is that zinc in the alloy may help to prevent non-uniform attack on copper and copper alloys. The ban on lead-containing plumbing materials in the Safe Drinking Water Act (1986) and the EPA Lead and Copper Rule (1991) have successfully reduced lead contamination of potable water supplies. This part of the work carefully re-examined the lead contamination concern from the standpoint of existing performance standards for brass. The ANSI/NSF 61, Section 8 standard is relied on to protect the public from in-line brass plumbing products that might leach excessive levels of lead to potable water. Experiments were conducted to look at the practical strictness of these test-standards. In-depth study of the standard revealed serious flaws due from the use of a phosphate buffer and a failure to control carbonate dissolution from the atmosphere in the test waters. In order to help prevent undesirable outcomes in the future, standard's improvements are needed to assurance that brass devices passing this test are safe. / Master of Science

The aim of this thesis is to study state regulation of anti-democratic parties, i.e. party regulation. The term ‘Party regulation’ refers to laws that may regulate the activities and behavior of political parties. This thesis uses a comparative method, conducted on three European countries which regulate anti-democratic parties differently. The cases studied are Germany, Spain and Sweden.The basis for understanding state regulation of anti-democratic parties rests on a historical institutionalist perspective along with theories of democratic tolerance. The analysis reveals that states regulate anti-democratic parties differently as a result of their historical past which has made them adopt different ideas of how political parties should be seen. Further, the analysis shows that there is no connection between the party regulation adopted and the effect it has on the anti-democratic parties.

No description available.

No description available.

The goal of this research was to describe the nature, occurrence and extent to which integration preceded normative and institutional transformation in the SANDF and therefore in its Military Police, thereby demonstrating how in its aftermath, integration has become a recipe for disaster, casting a spell on further transformation within the military. The research also aimed at bringing the reader face-to-face with the daily struggles of Africans in the SANDF, by focusing on one of the smallest divisions of the military, the Military Police Agency (MPA). The research project was limited to all reported interviews and questionnaire responses of eighty five participants of the Southern Military Police Region (S MPR), excluding the S MPR HQ as well as the MPA HQ. A total of eighty five respondents out of a total strength of 172 S MPR composition, took part in the sample. Seventy nine participated in the questionnaire, fifty one in the interview and a total of forty five participated in both. Interviews were used as follow-up sessions to respondents' questionnaire answers. While the questionnaire was structured, the interview was semi-structured, allowing members to comment, object, affirm or question the process of transformation both in the SANDF and in the MPA. In keeping with the qualitative research method, the semi-structured interview enabled the mapping of categories, trends and patterns in the responses. It was found that MK and APLA cadres who integrated into the ex-Naval MPs surpassed their counterparts in the ex-Army MPs, by far. The two groups are incomparable, in rank level, experience, training, attitude and knowledge of the organisation. It was further discovered that most practices that had taken place before 1999 at W CSC and still continued within the MPA, negate SANDF policy and are criminal. Prejudice, racism, obscene language and gender insensitivity were rife, forming part of institutional culture. It is recommended that Weitzer's proposed solution for the transformation of coercive institutions be considered. It is a thoroughgoing transformation of the security apparatus through a legal framework because civil control is not enough to guarantee the pre-eminence of the democratic forces. / Criminology / M.A (Criminology)

The goal of this research was to describe the nature, occurrence and extent to which integration preceded normative and institutional transformation in the SANDF and therefore in its Military Police, thereby demonstrating how in its aftermath, integration has become a recipe for disaster, casting a spell on further transformation within the military. The research also aimed at bringing the reader face-to-face with the daily struggles of Africans in the SANDF, by focusing on one of the smallest divisions of the military, the Military Police Agency (MPA). The research project was limited to all reported interviews and questionnaire responses of eighty five participants of the Southern Military Police Region (S MPR), excluding the S MPR HQ as well as the MPA HQ. A total of eighty five respondents out of a total strength of 172 S MPR composition, took part in the sample. Seventy nine participated in the questionnaire, fifty one in the interview and a total of forty five participated in both. Interviews were used as follow-up sessions to respondents' questionnaire answers. While the questionnaire was structured, the interview was semi-structured, allowing members to comment, object, affirm or question the process of transformation both in the SANDF and in the MPA. In keeping with the qualitative research method, the semi-structured interview enabled the mapping of categories, trends and patterns in the responses. It was found that MK and APLA cadres who integrated into the ex-Naval MPs surpassed their counterparts in the ex-Army MPs, by far. The two groups are incomparable, in rank level, experience, training, attitude and knowledge of the organisation. It was further discovered that most practices that had taken place before 1999 at W CSC and still continued within the MPA, negate SANDF policy and are criminal. Prejudice, racism, obscene language and gender insensitivity were rife, forming part of institutional culture. It is recommended that Weitzer's proposed solution for the transformation of coercive institutions be considered. It is a thoroughgoing transformation of the security apparatus through a legal framework because civil control is not enough to guarantee the pre-eminence of the democratic forces. / Criminology and Security Science / M.A (Criminology)