Photobiological hydrogen production -- the use of photosynthesis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen -- presents an opportunity for efficient and large-scale solar biofuel development. One of the major challenges in this area is competition for reductant between the hydrogen-evolving hydrogenase enzyme and other metabolic pathways. In this work...
The dissertation focuses on the engineering of light-matter interaction using plasmonic nanoparticles and metamaterials to achieve enhanced luminescence and based on which to improve the performance of biosensing and light-emitting technologies. We designed and fabricated a spectrum of nanostructures to exhibit particular dispersion relations capable of controlling the spontaneous emission...
In the 21st century, environmental deterioration is now an indisputable fact. Reliable and economically viable electricity systems based on renewable sources are urgently needed to replace the environmentally detrimental fossil fuels. The feasibility of incorporating renewable-but-intermittent solar and wind energy heavily depends on the development of cost-effective and safe technologies,...
Managers of forest and plantation ecosystems are encountering growing problems involving plant pathogens and the expanding geographic ranges of these pathogens. Historically unexposed stands are exceptionally vulnerable when a non-native pathogen is introduced because these pathogens can cause devastating disease in a host population that lacks co-evolved resistance mechanisms. One...
The exchange of carbon dioxide is a key measure of ecosystem metabolism and a critical intersection
between the terrestrial biosphere and the Earth’s climate. Despite the general agreement that
the terrestrial ecosystems in North America provide a sizeable carbon sink, the size and distribution
of the sink remain uncertain. We...
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Xiao, J., Ollinger, S. V., Frolking, S., Hurtt, G. C., Hollinger, D. Y., Davis, K. J., ... &
Suyker, A
The effect of particle shape on the strength, dilatancy, and stress-dilatancy relationship was systematically investigated through a series of drained triaxial compression tests on sands mixed with angular and rounded glass beads of different proportions (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%). A distinct overall regularity parameter was used to define...
Pesticides benefit agriculture by increasing crop yield, quality, and security. However, pesticides may inadvertently harm bees, which are valuable as pollinators. Thus, candidate pesticides in development pipelines must be assessed for toxicity to bees.
Leveraging a data set of 382 molecules with toxicity labels from honey bee exposure experiments, we...
The thesis documents research about combining the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program with the Impact 2002+ methodology to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for wastewater treatment processes. The LCA for the operational phase of a local wastewater treatment plant was performed and the environmental impacts caused...
Copper sulfides (CuxS) are compound semiconductor materials that exhibit considerable variations of optical and electrical properties. Copper sulfide thin films can be used in many applications, such as solar control coatings, solar cells, photothermal conversion of solar energy, electroconductive coatings, and microwave shielding coatings. In this paper, chemical bath deposition...
The effect of cosputtered catalyst on growth and alignment of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) was investigated. Aligned CNTs were observed using a cosputtered catalytic metal deposited directly on boro-aluminosilicate glass. Catalytic metal alloys were sputtered directly onto the substrate using magnetron sputtering. Deposition...
This dissertation's three essays explore the effects of climate change on land use
changes in the U.S., how future land areas in all major land uses change by projecting
land use at the regional scale under two IPCC climate change scenarios. Investigate how
and what role should carbon sequestration plays...
Characterizing the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles can help us understand their fate and transport in the environment, as well as how nanoparticles may interact with biological systems. However, contact angle and partition coefficient have limitations in measuring the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles, thus promising methods to measuring the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles are...
The current study investigates gender differences in behavioral regulation in four societies: the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Directly assessed individual behavioral regulation(Head–Toes–Knees–Shoulders, HTKS), teacher-rated classroom behavioral regulation (Child Behavior Rating Scale, CBRS) and a battery of school readiness assessments (mathematics, vocabulary, and early literacy) were used with...
There is now an increasing demand among consumers for high-quality and safe aquaculture products. However, in becoming an important contributor to the markets for seafood, the aquaculture industry has become increasingly subject to rigid food safety, traceability, and processing requirements (e.g. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), Good Aquaculture...
Many Gram-negative bacteria use a type III secretion system (T3SS) to establish associations with their hosts. The T3SS is a conduit for direct injection of type-III effector proteins into host cells, where they manipulate the host for the benefit of the infecting bacterium. For plant-associated pathogens, the variations in number...
BACKGROUND: Targeted capture of genomic regions reduces sequencing cost while generating higher coverage by
allowing biomedical researchers to focus on specific loci of interest, such as exons. Targeted capture also has the
potential to facilitate the generation of genomic data from DNA collected via saliva or buccal cells. DNA samples...
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Xiaosen Guo9, Qiang Feng9, Yingrui Li9, Xiao Liu9, Peter Parham6, Eileen G Hoal10, Marcus W Feldman11
Mud volcanoes (MVs) are considered as important methane (CH₄) sources for the
atmosphere; gas is not only released from macroseepage, i.e., from craters and visible gas bubbling
manifestations, but also from invisible and pervasive exhalation from the ground, named miniseepage.
CH₄ flux related to miniseepage was measured only in a...
A novel method of copper indium diselenide nanoparticle
(CuInSe₂ NP) synthesis using a two-step, continuous flow,
solar microreactor is reported here. This method allows for
exceedingly fast heating and short reaction times using only
radiative heat transfer from simulated, concentrated solar
radiation. Chalcopyrite and sphalerite CuInSe₂ phases have
both been...
A novel table-top, microreactor-assisted nanomaterial deposition (MAND™) process, which combines the merits of microreaction technology with solution-phase nanomaterial synthesis and film deposition, was used to grow a nanostructured ZnO anti-reflective coating on a textured silicon substrate from aqueous solution. The subwavelength, anti-reflective nanostructures mimicked the structure and performance of the...
Bisphenol A (BPA), a high-volume chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, is a ubiquitous contaminant in environment and human body. To investigate the reproductive effects of long-term exposure to low concentrations of BPA, a two-generation study was conducted using the aquatic model species of zebrafish. Our findings...