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"Issued December 1980." ; "Building Economics and Regulatory Technology Division, Center for Building Technology, National Engineering Laboratory, National Bureau of Standards." ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.

It will be important for land managers, ecological researchers and policymakers to understand how predicted climate changes may affect the flora of Illinois. A climate change vulnerability assessment was completed in 2011 for the162 Animal Species in Greatest Need of Conservation using NatureServe’s Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) tool. Here we selected 73plant species found in Illinois and calculated their relative vulnerabilities to predicted climate changes, also using the NatureServe CCVI tool. We selected species from several groups that we felt would be broadly representative of the Illinois flora. These groups included: rare plants, invasive plants, important prairie species, important woodland/savanna species, important forest species, and plants important to society. We compiled and entered data regarding both the species’ exposures to predicted climate changes and their sensitivities to those changes. Exposures were determined by overlapping species range maps for Illinois with maps of temperature and moisture (AET:PET) predictions for the middle of this century. Species sensitivities were determined by interviewing between 4 and 12 experts for each plant species. Experts answered questions found in the CCVI tool regarding the species’ biologies, ecologies and behaviors. Results for each individual survey were averaged for each species. Results fell into one of five vulnerability categories: Extremely Vulnerable, Highly Vulnerable, Moderately Vulnerable, Not Vulnerable/Presumed Stable, and Not Vulnerable/Increase Likely. Results for these 73species in Illinois fell into all 5 vulnerability categories, with the majority (67%) falling into the Presumed Stable category. The species most vulnerable to predicted climate changes were all of conservation concern; most were federal or state listed species. Native species tended to be more vulnerable than non-natives, and plants important to prairies, savannas and forests were equally vulnerable to predicted changes. The four species were ranked as ...

Photosynthetic light-harvesting proceeds by the collection and highly efficient transfer of energy through a network of pigment-protein complexes. Inter-chromophore electronic couplings and interactions between pigments and the surrounding protein determine energy levels of excitonic states and dictate the mechanism of energy flow. The excitonic structure (orientation of excitonic transition dipoles) of pigment-protein complexes is generally deduced indirectly from x-ray crystallography in combination with predictions of transition energies and couplings in the chromophore site basis. Here, we demonstrate that coarse-grained excitonic structural information in the form of projection angles between transition dipole moments can be obtained from polarization-dependent two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of an isotropic sample, particularly when the nonrephasing or free polarization decay signal rather than the photon echo signal is considered. The method provides an experimental link between atomic and electronic structure and accesses dynamical information with femtosecond time resolution. In an investigation of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex from green sulfur bacteria, energy transfer connecting two particular exciton states in the protein is isolated as being the primary contributor to a cross peak in the nonrephasing 2D spectrum at 400 fs under a specific sequence of polarized excitation pulses. The results suggest the possibility of designing experiments using combinations of tailored polarization sequencesto separate and monitor individual relaxation pathways.

The use of heliostats for hot water supply has a wide application in the southern regions of Russia, where there is a sufficient amount of solar radiation. The article presents GOSTs and international standards for the use of solar installations. The amount of solar radiation coming to the surface of the earth in different regions of Russia is described. The purpose of the article is defined. Arguments for the application of solar collector as a source of hot water supply for greenhouses in the Rostov region are presented. The tables also show statistical data on cloud cover and the number of sunny days by month. The main characteristics of the solar collector, the area of application and advantages and disadvantages are presented.

"February 6, 1981." ; "Distribution category UC-63b." ; "This work was performed for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under NASA Contract NAS7100 for the U.S. Department of Energy, Division of Solar Energy. The JPL Low-Cost Solar Array Project is funded by DOE and forms part of the DOE Photovoltaic Conversion Program to initiate a major effort toward the development of low-cost solar arrays." ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Measurements: Rainfall - Total monthly rainfall including all precipitation (snow, rain, mist and fog) captured in a 12.7 cm rain gauge (mm per month); numbers of days with rain (0.2mm or more); the day with the maximum daily rainfall for that month. Sun shine: the total hours of sunshine recorded for the month; the day with most hours of sunshine; days when no sunshine recorded. Air temperature: the average maximum and average minimum air temperature (degrees C) for the month; the warmest day; the coldest day for the month. Frost: Numbers of air or ground frosts. The average refers to the 30-year mean 1981-2010. The summary report is derived from daily data measured at Rothamsted Research. Teses original raw data are available from the e-RA database. Daily data verification includes checks for instrument errors, missing data and outliers. These weather summaries are reported in the local Harpenden press on a monthly basis. Monthly and summaries and annual summary of rainfall, temperature, sun hours and numbers of ground frosts for 2013. Variation noted in comparison to 30-year means 1981-2010. This report consists of the monthly and annual summaries of meteorological data measured at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK, from January 2013 until December 2013. Daily measurements are taken at Rothamsted Meteorological Station. These data are summarised monthly and annually as a report.

2015 Fall. ; Includes illustrations (some color). ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Thin film heterojunction solar cells based on CuSb(S,Se)2 absorbers are investigated for two primary reasons. First, antimony is more abundant and less expensive than elements used in current thin film photovoltaics, In, Ga, and Te, and so, successful integration of Sb based materials offers greater diversification and scalability of solar energy. Second, the CuSb(S,Se)2 ternary is chemically, electronically, and optically similar to the well-known, high efficiency, CuIn(S,Se)2 based materials. It is therefore postulated that the copper antimony ternaries will have similar defect tolerant electronic transport that may allow for similar highly efficient photoconversion. However, CuSb(S,Se)2 forms a layered crystal structure, different from the tetrahedral coordination found in conventional solar absorbers, due to the non-bonding lone pair of electrons on the antimony site. Thus examination of 2D antimony ternaries will lend insight into the role of structure in photoconversion processes. To address these questions, the semiconductors of interest (CuSbS2 & CuSbSe2) were first synthesized on glass by combinatorial methods, to more quickly optimize process condi- tions. Radio-frequency (RF) magnetron co-sputtering from Sb2(S,Se)3 and Cu2(S,Se) targets were used, without rotation, to produce chemical and flux graded libraries which were then subjected to high throughput characterization of structure (XRD), composition (XRF), con- ductivity (4pp), and optical absorption (UV/Vis/NIR). This approach rapidly identified processes that generated phase pure material with tunable carrier concentration by apply- ing excess Sb2(S,Se)3 within a temperature window bound by the volatility of Sb2(S,Se)3 and stability of the ternary phase. The resulting phase pure thin films were then incor- porated into the traditional CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) substrate photovoltaic (PV) architecture, and the resulting device performance was correlated to ...

Approximately 370 million tons of plastic are being produced annually (Plastics Europe, 2020). Only a small portion is recycled due to poor waste management practices. An estimated eight million tons of plastic moves from the land to ocean every year (IUCN, 2018) while rivers transport between 1.15 and 2.41 million tons of debris into the oceans annually (Lebreton et al., 2017). The pervasiveness of microplastics (MP), plastic polymer debris less than 5mm in diameter, in aquatic environments, their ingestion by freshwater fish, and the accumulation of MP through trophic transfer in food webs raise concern for the sustainability of fisheries, food security, and public health (Campbell et al., 2017; Wagner et al., 2019). Fish are excellent indicators of aquatic ecosystem health since they integrate changes in their physical environment (Pinheiro et al., 2017). Assessing MP contamination in fish therefore provides valuable information about MP concentrations in freshwater systems and raises attention to potential risks. My research investigated how fish feeding habitats, trophic position, body size (weight and length), and species variation influence MP ingestion and accumulation in St Lawrence River freshwater fish by collecting samples of pelagic, bentho-pelagic, and benthic fish species. I hypothesized that MP particles would be present in the GI tracts of most fish samples regardless of feeding habitat since MP can be found throughout the water column in most aquatic environments, and that the GI tracts of benthic fish would contain higher concentrations of MP beads and fragments while the GI tracts of pelagic fish would contain higher concentrations of MP fibers. I expected a greater concentration of plastic particles would be found in benthic than pelagic fish because of the prevalence of MPs found in the St Lawrence River sediments (Crew et al., 2020; Castaneda et al., 2014), and the data modeling performed by Lebreton et al. (2018). To address these questions, I collected 73 fish (seven species) from the ...

The use of microalgae culture to convert CO2 from power plant flue gases into biomass that are readily converted into biofuels offers a new frame of opportunities to enhance, compliment or replace fossil-fuel-use. Apart from being renewable, microalgae also have the capacity to utilise materials from a variety of wastewater and the ability to yield both liquid and gaseous biofuels. However, the processes of cultivation, incorporation of a production system for power plant waste flue gas use, algae harvesting, and oil extraction from the biomass have many challenges. Using SimaPro software, Life cycle Assessment (LCA) of the challenges limiting the microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) biofuel production process was performed to study algae-based pathway for producing biofuels. Attention was paid to material use, energy consumed and the environmental burdens associated with the production processes. The goal was to determine the weak spots within the production system and identify changes in particular data-set that can lead to and lower material use, energy consumption and lower environmental impacts than the baseline microalgae biofuel production system. The analysis considered a hypothetical transesterification and Anaerobic Digestion (AD) transformation of algae-to- biofuel process. Life cycle Inventory (LCI) characterisation results of the baseline biodiesel (BD) transesterification scenario indicates that heating to get the biomass to 90% DWB accounts for 64% of the total input energy, while electrical energy and fertilizer obligations represents 19% and 16% respectively. Also, Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) results of the baseline BD production scenario show high proportional contribution of electricity and heat energy obligations for most impact categories considered relative to other resources. This is attributed to the concentration/drying requirement of algae biomass in order to ease downstream processes of lipid extraction and subsequent transesterification of extracted lipids into BD. Thus, four prospective alternative production scenarios were successfully characterised to evaluate the extent of their impact scenarios on the production system with regards to lowering material use, lower energy consumption and lower environmental burdens than the standard algae biofuel production system. A 55.3% reduction in mineral use obligation was evaluated as the most significant impact reduction due to the integration of 100% recycling of production harvest water for the AD production system. Recycling also saw water demand reduced from 3726 kg (freshwater).kgBD- 1 to 591kg (freshwater).kgBD- 1 after accounting for evaporative losses/biomass drying for the BD transesterification production process. Also, the use of wastewater/sea water as alternative growth media for the BD production system, indicated potential savings of: 4.2 MJ (11.8%) in electricity/heat obligation, 10.7% reductions for climate change impact, and 87% offset in mineral use requirement relative to the baseline production system. Likewise, LCIA characterisation comparison results comparing the baseline production scenarios with that of a set-up with co-product economic allocation consideration show very interesting outcomes. Indicating -12 MJ surplus (-33%) reductions for fossil fuels resource use impact category, 52.7% impact reductions for mineral use impact and 56.6% reductions for land use impact categories relative to the baseline BD production process model. These results show the importance of allocation consideration to LCA as a decision support tool. Overall, process improvements that are needed to optimise economic viability also improve the life cycle environmental impacts or sustainability of the production systems. Results obtained have been observed to agree reasonably with Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis, with the production scenario proposing the exploitation of wastewater/sea water to culture algae biomass offering the best result outcome. This study may have implications for additional resources such as production facility and its construction process, feedstock processing logistics and transport infrastructure which are excluded. Future LCA study will require extensive consideration of these additional resources such as: facility size and its construction, better engineering data for water transfer, combined heat and power plant efficiency estimates and the fate of long-term emissions such as organic nitrogen in the AD digestate. Conclusions were drawn and suggestions proffered for further study.

Temperature and salinity are two of the key properties of ocean water masses. The distribution of these two independent but related characteristics reflects the interplay of incoming solar radiation (insolation) and the uneven distribution of heat loss and gain by the ocean, with that of precipitation, evaporation, and the freezing and melting of ice. Temperature and salinity to a large extent, determine the density of a parcel of water. Small differences in temperature and salinity can increase or decrease the density of a water parcel, which can lead to convection. Once removed from the surface of the ocean where 'local' changes in temperature and salinity can occur, the water parcel retains its distinct relationship between (potential) temperature and salinity. We can take advantage of this 'conservative' behavior where changes only occur as a result of mixing processes, to track the movement of water in the deep ocean (Figure 1). The distribution of density in the ocean is directly related to horizontal pressure gradients and thus (geostrophic) ocean currents. During the Quaternary when we have had systematic growth and decay of large land based ice sheets, salinity has had to change. A quick scaling argument following that of Broecker and Peng [1982] is: the modern ocean has a mean salinity of 34.7 psu and is on average 3500m deep. During glacial maxima sea level was on the order of {approx}120m lower than present. Simply scaling the loss of freshwater (3-4%) requires an average increase in salinity a similar percentage or to {approx}35.9psu. Because much of the deep ocean is of similar temperature, small changes in salinity have a large impact on density, yielding a potentially different distribution of water masses and control of the density driven (thermohaline) ocean circulation. It is partly for this reason that reconstructions of past salinity are of interest to paleoceanographers.