4,932 research outputs found
United States, cover of Harrison Forman's book Horizon Hunter
No full textKiddies singing - SherwoodHorizon Hunter was first published in 1940.Forman, H. (1940). Horizon hunter: The adventures of a modern Marco Polo. New York: R.M. McBride & Co.GrayscaleForman Nitrate Negatives, Box 3
R.M. Simmons presentation, Rena Smart book review
No full textR.M. Simmons of the Gospel Music Workshop of America gives a presentation on the African influence in the African American religious experience. He explains how African slaves brought to America their concept of music (utilitarian concept of music). Simmons further discusses the fusion between the utilitarian concept and the Western concept of religion resulting in spirituals. He also describes hymn categories in early forms of formal African American worship experiences. Simmons takes questions from the audience among which is Dr. Riggins Earl Jr. Video concludes with a book review on Christian Theology and Ethics by Rena Smart.The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library acknowledges the generous support of the National Endowment for Humanities - Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Implementation Project Grant in supporting the processing and digitization of a number of its major archival collections as part of the project: Spreading the Word: Expanding Access to African American Religious Archival Collections at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.</em
Air quality study within steel works town in the UK
No full textIn April/May 2012, aerosol filter measurements were carried out in and around the coastal town of Port Talbot in South Wales which has an approximate population of 35,000 and is located on the M4 corridor (51 34' N and 3°46' W). The town sites one of the UK steel manufacturing plants owned by Tata and is the main source affecting air quality in the area (AQEG, 2010). The site covers approximately 28 km2, comprises of ~50km of roads, 100 km of railway, and 25,000 vehicle movements per day. The production capacity is around 5m tonnes per year with the main processes in the steelworks being iron-making (sintering, blast furnace and raw materials), steel-making (basic oxygen steel-making (BOS) and coking) and rolling mills (hot and cold mills) (Moreno et al., 2004; Dall’Osto et al., 2008).
Instruments were deployed at four sites around the perimeter of the steel works (one at a coastal site (Little Warren LW) and the remain in 3 inland sites placed along the length of the works (Fire Station FS, Prince Street PS and Dyffryn School DS) in the study area for a four-week campaign (16th April to 16th May, 2012) (see Figure 1). With a view to measuring elements and water soluble ions within the fine and coarse fraction, our main site was located at FS where we deployed: a micro-orifice uniform deposit impactor (MOUDI) (3 day samples); a Partisol Dichotomous sampler (daily sample); a Streaker sampler (hourly samples); an Aerosol time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry (ATOFMS); a GRIMM particle size spectrometer and an Aethalometer.
Figure 1. Overview of the sampling sites used in
Port Talbot.
Gaseous and meteorological data measured during the period of sampling were also collected from the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) located next to the FS site. This main site was in itself complemented by 3 other sampling sites where we deployed another 3 Partisol samples (24 hr sampling rate). At our coastal site, we ran a second Streaker sampler, which when paired with the FS Streaker, collected data to measures the increment in PM caused by the steel works.
An example the results with huge peaks of Fe and Mn detected in one of the sites nearby the steel works is reported in Figure 2
Given this large data set of elements, ions and chemical species, our aim was to assess the impact of the steel works on the local area and in particular understand the nature of PM episodes detected by ongoing continuous PM measurements within the area which were suspected to be generated by fugitive dusts.
References.
Dall'Osto, M., Booth, A, M.J., Smith, W., Fisher, R., Harrison, R.M., 2008. Study of the size distributions and the chemical characterization of airborne particles in the vicinity of a large integrated steelworks. Aerosol Science and Technology 42, 981–991.
Moreno, T., Jones, T.P., Richards, R.J., (2004), Characterisation of aerosol particulate matter from urban and industrial environments: examples from Cardiff and Port Talbot, South Wales, UK, Science of The Total Environment Volumes 334–335, 1 December 2004, Pages 337–346.
The National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Birmingham, is gratefully acknowledged for funding the fieldwork
Velocity-Gradient Probability Distribution Functions in a Lagrangian Model of Turbulence
No full textThe Recent Fluid Deformation Closure (RFDC) model of lagrangian turbulence is recast in path-integral language within the framework of the Martin-Siggia-Rose functional formalism. In order to derive analytical expressions for the velocity-gradient probability distribution functions (vgPDFs), we carry out noise renormalization in the low-frequency regime and find approximate extrema for the Martin-Siggia-Rose effective action. We verify, with the help of Monte Carlo simulations, that the vgPDFs so obtained yield a close description of the single-point statistical features implied by the original RFDC stochastic differential equations
The hydrogeological aspects of shale gas extraction in the UK
No full textFracking has the potential to extract hydrocarbons from previously inaccessible sources of gas and oil, but do the economic benefits outweigh the environmental costs? Presenting both sides of the debate, this book draws on a wealth of international expertise, from the oil and gas industry to Friends of the Earth, to give researchers in academia and industry, policy makers, environmental science students and the interested layman will gain a balanced view of hydraulic fracturin
Plastics Additives and Human Health: A Case Study of Bisphenol A (BPA)
Get PDFThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from The Royal Society of Chemistry via the DOI in this record.Plastics are useful and versatile materials that bring many societal benefits, but concern has been raised about the potential of additive substances, including chemicals classified to be of concern to human health, to migrate from packaging and enter the human body. Human biomonitoring of global populations has identified exposure to a range of plastic additives, detectable in some cases in the majority of people. Whilst the concentrations involved are frequently within regulatory guidelines for tolerable daily exposure limits, the potential nonetheless exists for chronic, low dose and mixture effects. In this chapter, plastics additives in common use are identified and some of the factors that influence their migration out of plastics are discussed. Using the endocrine disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) as a case study, the routes of exposure and potential for interventions to reduce exposure are discussed. Mechanisms of toxicity, including the possibility for effects mediated by changes in gene expression or epigenetic changes are illustrated using the estrogen related receptor α (ESRRA) as an example.Wellcome TrustNatural Environment Research Council (NERC
Pharmaceutical Residues in Sewage Treatment Works and their Fate in the Receiving Environment
No full textPharmaceuticals are increasingly used in large amounts in human (and veterinary) medicine around the world. They reach the aquatic environment mainly through sewage treatment systems and can reach mg l×1 levels. The continual input of pharmaceuticals to the aquatic environment, via sewage, can also impart a persistent quality to compounds that otherwise possess no inherent environmental stability. While the literature contains increasing numbers of studies detailing fate, effects and behaviour in the environment, the subject is still not fully understood for all the different therapeutic classes. The toxicological significance for non-target (especially aquatic) organisms is poorly understood. The use/release of antibiotics and natural/synthetic steroids to the environment has generated most of the concern to date, but a plethora of other drugs are increasingly attracting attention, as their biological activity alone may support ecotoxicity assessments of those compounds with high production volumes (or toxicity), especially in view of the increasing importance of freshwater resources. Pharmaceuticals display a variety of removal efficiencies during wastewater treatment and their fate and behaviour are not determined by their physicochemical properties alone. Despite the fact that many drugs have high sorption potentials, partitioning to the solid phase was determined to be an unlikely removal pathway for the majority of compounds. The partitioning behaviour of these compounds both in sewage treatment and the aquatic environment is likely to be dictated by a number of physicochemical parameters. Findings also indicate that the costs of using tertiary treatment options (mainly based on drinking water treatment) to remove drugs from wastewater effluent are likely to be prohibitively expensive, and potentially undesirable, due sustainability implications. While adjusting existing treatment parameters may increase the removal efficiencies of pharmaceuticals, any changes to sewage treatment parameters would need to be offset against the economic and environmental costs. Likewise, any regulations on drug use must be balanced against health benefits. If receiving waters are used for potable supplies, the presence of these compounds may (although it is unlikely) represent a potential hazard to human health, especially in areas without advanced water treatment. The focus for future research should therefore be on proper and sufficient science for establishing the occurrence, exposure and effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment, so that sound decisions can be made regarding human and ecological health
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