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Season-long management of late blight on potato and tomato in Western Washington
Full text linkLate blight is a historically famous plant disease that can be very serious in western Washington. It affects potatoes and tomatoes and certain nursery plants and weeds in the Solanaceae (potato family). The disease is capable of causing devastating crop losses, primarily because of the region’s mild, marine climate, which often favors rapid spread. Regardless of the crop or production system—potato or tomato; large or small farms either under conventional or organic management; greenhouses, hoop houses or high tunnels; nurseries or home gardens—late blight can be a problem whenever host plants are present. Successful management in western Washington requires comprehensive cultural and sanitation practices throughout the entire year along with regional cooperation, and, often times, applying protectant fungicides during the growing season
Water Electrolysis TEA v1.0
No full textThis spreadsheet is a techno-economic analysis model that estimates the minimum selling price of hydrogen (MSPH) for a water electrolysis facility. It considers three different electrolyzer types: SOE, AWE, and PEM. The model uses ratio factors to estimate operating and maintenance costs (OSBL) and user-selected, location-specific assumptions. Users configure scenarios using drop-down menus and editable input cells. The model then generates MSPH results on the Output tab. Additionally, it calculates the carbon intensity of the hydrogen pathway and allows users to optionally account for incentives within each scenario
Pragmatic assessment of meeting the 2030 U.S. sustainable aviation fuel goal
Full text linkSustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production is essential for decarbonizing the aviation sector in the short and mid-term as well as maintaining the global competitiveness of U.S. airlines, supporting job creation, and ensuring U.S. energy independence. The near-term U.S. SAF target, set by the SAF Grand Challenge, is 11.4 billion liters (3 billion gallons) of domestic SAF production by 2030, with a minimum 50 % reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. In 2024 U S. SAF production was less than 2 % of the stated goal, demonstrating that the remaining production growth is significant. Barriers to scale-up include technological readiness, feedstock availability, and delays in facility development. This study uses a database of U.S. SAF production announcements to assess the feasibility of attaining the 2030 targets by analyzing production potential, construction paradigms, feedstock availability, and CO2 abatement cost. Our analysis indicates that the hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids pathway will dominate U.S. SAF production through 2030, with notable contributions from alcohol to jet and co-processing. However, probable U.S. production of SAF is predicted to fall short of the current goal by 3.6-billion liters although there are scenarios that meet the goal. Existing U.S. policies favor on-road transportation fuels and are insufficient to drive necessary SAF production scale-up. Additional measures, such as non-government scope 3 emission purchases, long-term incentives, a national low-carbon fuel standard, or volume mandates, are options to close the gap. These measures are needed to ensure the profitability of SAF production and competitiveness with renewable diesel.[Display omitted]•U.S. SAF production will be dominated by HEFA through 2030.•SAF production in the U.S. is expected to fall short of the near-term goal of 11.4 billion L/yr.•Further growth of the nascent SAF industry will require additional supportive measures
The Environmental Fate and Effects of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Small Interference RNAs from Genetically Modified Crops
Full text linkRising global populations have amplified food scarcity across the world and accelerated the development of genetically modified crops to overcome these challenges. Cultivation of major crops such as corn and soy has favored genetically modified crops over conventional varieties to meet crop production and resilience needs. Modern genetically modified crops containing small interference RNA molecules and antibiotic resistance genes have become increasingly common in the United States. However, the use of these crops remains controversial due to the uncertainty regarding the unintended release of its genetic material into the environment and possible downstream effects on human and environmental health. DNA or RNA transgenes, which are considered emerging contaminants, may be exuded from crop tissues during cultivation or released during plant decomposition and adsorbed to soils. This can contribute to the persistence and bioavailability in soil or water environment and possible uptake by soil microbial communities and further passing of this information to neighboring bacteria, disrupting microbial ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling and soil fertility. In this dissertation, the fate, transport, and non-target effects of model antibiotic resistance genes and small interference RNAs were explored. The specific objectives of this research were to 1) evaluate the fate of transgenes in soil-saturated environments using lab-scale batch reactors; 2) quantify transgene transport using soil columns and characterize microbe-transgene interactions; and 3) evaluate the influence of potential non-target gene silencing caused by small interference RNAs in common soil bacteria using the GeoChip 5S microarray. This study aims to expand the current state of knowledge on potential environmental consequences posed by these emerging contaminants. This research determined that transgenes can be persistent in soil-saturated environments, which suggests the bioavailability of these genetic constructs for downstream microbial transformations. It was also found that transgenes can be transported across soil columns and interact with the microbial communities in the system. These interactions were then determined to result in an overall decrease in the microbial population in the system and significant variations in the genetic expression of important nutrient-cycling genes
HUMAN-INSPIRED WIRE ARC ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING WITHOUT SHIELDING GAS
Full text linkWire arc additive manufacturing or three-dimensional printing has been utilized in various fully automated welding techniques to reduce the number of parts in complex assemblies and increase fabricator safety. In this investigation the conventional definitions of additive manufacturing are expanded to include self-shielding flux core arc welding. Wire arc additive manufacturing - flux-cored arc welding (WAAM-FCAW) with self-shielded wire E71T1-8 is automated using a Burny-5 fully automatic 3-axis gantry to create a single vee-groove joint in mild carbon steel plate via a novel infill pattern. To achieve a fully automated weldment in 19mm and 25mm carbon steel plates the infill patterns required a flat surface between layers, this innovative infill pattern creates a flat crown thus reducing the time and material required to fabricate a single joint. Three infill patterns are designed using a combination of human inspired type design in both x and y fill path direction. The infill patterns were assessed to AWS D1.1 standards by tensile, bend testing, and macro-imaging. The grain structure of the joints was evaluated with Electron Backscatter Diffraction, a scanning electron microscope technique
Dry Methane Reforming TEA v1.0
No full textThis spreadsheet is a techno-economic analysis model that estimates the minimum selling price of hydrogen (MSPH) for a dry methane reforming facility, using ratio factors to estimate operating and maintenance costs (OSBL)and user-selected, location-specific assumptions. Users configure scenarios using drop-down menus and editable input cells. The model then generates MSPH results on the Output tab. Additionally, it calculates the carbon intensity of the hydrogen pathway and allows users to optionally account for incentives and carbon capture and storage configurations within each scenario