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Displaying 18,931 - 18,940 of 65,202 Publications- The influence of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) addition on the performance of cement paste was investigated. Our mechanical tests show an increase in the flexural strength of approximately 30% with only 0.2% volume of CNCs with respect to cement. Isothermal calorimetry (IC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) show that the degree of hydration (DOH) of the cement paste is increased when CNCs are used. The first mechanism that may explain the increased hydration is the steric stabilization, which is the same mechanism by which many water reducing agents (WRAs) disperse the cement particles....AuthorsYizheng Cao, Pablo Zavaterri, Jeff Youngblood, Robert J. Moon, Jason WeissKeywordsSourceCEMENT AND CONCRETE COMPOSITES, Volume 56, 2015; pp. 73-83.Year2015
- This case study presents measurements of radon and moisture infiltration from soil gases into the basement of an unoccupied research house in Madison, Wisconsin, over two full years. The basement floor and exterior walls were constructed with preservative-treated lumber and plywood. In addition to continuous radon monitoring, measurements included building air tightness, indooreoutdoor pressure difference, indoor and outdoor temperature and relative humidity, wood moisture content, and tracer gas decay. A single-zone air infiltration model was calibrated based on tracer gas measurements....AuthorsCharles R. Boardman, Samuel V. GlassKeywordsSourceBuilding and Environment, Volume 85, 2015; pp. 220-232.Year2015
- This study examines the sensitivity of mean and turbulent flow in the planetary boundary layer and roughness sublayer to a low-intensity fire and evaluates whether the sensitivity is dependent on canopy and background atmospheric properties. The ARPS-CANOPY model, a modified version of the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) model with a canopy parameterization, is utilized for this purpose. A series of numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate whether the ability of the fire to alter downstream wind, temperature, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and vertical heat flux differs...AuthorsMichael T. Kiefer, Warren E. E. Heilman, Shiyuan Zhong, Jay J. Charney, Randy BianSourceJournal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. 54(1): 42-57.Year2015
Size-biased distributions in the generalized beta distribution family, with applications to forestry
Size-biased distributions arise in many forestry applications, as well as other environmental, econometric, and biomedical sampling problems. We examine the size-biased versions of the generalized beta of the first kind, generalized beta of the second kind and generalized gamma distributions. These distributions include, as special cases, the Dagum (Burr Type III), Singh-Maddala (Burr Type XII) and Fisk distributions as well as better-studied distributions such as the Weibull, lognormal, beta (of the first and second kind), gamma and exponential. Our results indicate that specification and...AuthorsMark J. Ducey, Jeffrey GoveSourceForestry. 88(1): 143-151.Year2015- Before the discovery of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans, there were no reports of fungal skin infections in bats during hibernation. In 2011, bats with grossly visible fungal skin infections similar in appearance to WNS were reported from multiple sites in Wisconsin, US, a state outside the known range of P. destructans and WNS at that time. Tape impressions or swab samples were collected from affected areas of skin from bats with these fungal infections in 2012 and analyzed by microscopy, culture, or direct DNA amplification and sequencing...AuthorsJeffrey M. Lorch, Andrew M. Minnis, Carol U. Meteyer, Jennifer A. Redell, J. Paul White, Heather M. Kaarakka, Laura K. Muller, Daniel Lindner, Michelle L. Verant, Valerie Shearn-Bochsler, David S. BlehertKeywordsSourceJournal of Wildlife Diseases. 51(1): 36-47.Year2015
- U.S. hardwood sawmill log procurement practices are evolving because of the recent economic recession, market and supply chain shifts, and changing landowner objectives, among other factors. The objective of this study was to characterize the log procurement practices of hardwood sawmills and to characterize the role that log brokers play in supplying the sawmill industry with raw material. To meet this objective, a mail survey on hardwood log procurement practices in the U.S. hardwood sawmill industry was conducted. Survey respondents highlighted several factors that had major effects on...AuthorsAdrienn Andersch, Iris B. Montague, Urs Buehlmann, Jan K. WiedenbeckSourceBioResources. (10)1: 1224-1244.Year2015
- The RNA interference (RNAi) technology has been widely used in insect functional genomics research and provides an alternative approach for insect pest management. To understand whether the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), an invasive and destructive coleopteran insect pest of ash tree (Fraxinus spp.), possesses a strong RNAi machinery that is capable of degrading target mRNA as a response to exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) induction, we identified three RNAi pathway core component genes, Dicer-2, Argonaute-2 and R2D2, from the A. planipennis genome sequence. Characterization...AuthorsChaoyang Zhao, Miguel A. Alvarez Gonzales, Therese M. Poland, Omprakash MittapalliKeywordsSourceJournal of Insect Physiology. 72: 70-78.Year2015
- Development of commercial Eucalyptus plantations has been limited in the United States because of the species’ sensitivity to freezing temperatures. Recently developed genetically engineered clones of a Eucalyptus hybrid, which confer freeze tolerance, could expand the range of commercial plantations. This study explores how freeze-tolerant Eucalyptus might be adopted as a preferred land use based on comparative returns and a real options land-use switching model. Climate factors other than freezing are assumed to limit potential adoption to the southeastern region of the United States....AuthorsDavid N. Wear, Ernest Dixon IV, Robert C. Abt, Navinder SinghSourceForest ScienceYear2015
- Rates of biodiversity loss are higher in freshwater ecosystems than in most terrestrial or marine ecosystems, making freshwater conservation a priority. However, prioritization methods are impeded by insufficient knowledge on the distribution and conservation status of freshwater taxa, particularly invertebrates. We evaluated the extinction risk of the world’s 590 freshwater crayfish species using the IUCN Categories and Criteria and found 32% of all species are threatened with extinction. The level of extinction risk differed between families, with proportionally more threatened species...AuthorsNadia I. Richman, Monika Böhm, Susan B. Adams, Fernando Alvarez, Elizabeth A. Bergey, John J. S. Bunn, Quinton Burnham, Jay Cordeiro, Jason Coughran, Keith A. Crandall, Kathryn L. Dawkins, Robert J. DiStefano, Niall E. Doran, Lennart Edsman, Arnold G. Eversole, Leopold Füreder, James M. Furse, Francesca Gherardi, Premek Hamr, David M. Holdich, Pierre Horwitz, Kerrylyn Johnston, Clive M. Jones, Julia P. G. Jones, Robert L. Jones, Thomas G. Jones, Tadashi Kawai, Susan Lawler, Marilu López-Mejía, Rebecca M. Miller, Carlos Pedraza-Lara, Julian D. Reynolds, Alastair M. M. Richardson, Mark B. Schultz, Guenter A. Schuster, Peter J. Sibley, Catherine Souty-Grosset, Christopher A. Taylor, Roger F. Thoma, Jerry Walls, Todd S. Walsh, Ben CohenSourcePhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 370: 20140060Year2015
- Multi-trophic interactions between pine bark beetles, their host trees, and predators are mediated in part by volatile terpenes in host tree oleoresin that can influence aggregation and/or host finding by both prey and predator species. The southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann, mass-attacks pine trees in response to its aggregation pheromone combined with host resin odors including a-pinene. We investigated discrimination of apinene enantiomers in olfactory responses of D. frontalis, and in behavioral responses of D. frontalis and its major clerid predator, Thanasimus...AuthorsJenny C. Staeben, Brian Sullivan, John T. Nowak, Kamal J.K. GandhiKeywordsSourceChemoecology, published online 25 Oct 2014Year2015