This study was conducted to assess the current impact of natural gas appliances on air quality in California homes. Data were collected via telephone interviews and measurements inside and outside of 352 homes. Passive samplers measured time-resolved CO and time-integrated NOX , NO2 , formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde over ~6-day periods in November 2011 - April 2012 and October 2012 - March 2013....

Flashover is a phenomenon describing a room fire changed from the growth stage to the development stage. There is a rapid increase in size and intensity. The radiant heat flux back to the fuel surface and the floor of the room is known to be one of the key parameters leading to flashover. Indeed, a heat flux (largely due to radiation) of 20 kW/m to the room floor is often taken to be the condit...

STOCHASTIC AND DETERMINISTIC DYNAMICS INVESTIGATION OF THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF GRANULAR MATERIALS by Vishagan Ratnaswamy Granular materials are ubiquitous in one's daily life. They can be found in the cereal you eat, the sugar you put in your coffee or the sand you walk on in the beach. The study of granular materials has a rich history dating back to the 17 th century where Kepler studied the pa...

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused serious radiocesium ((137)Cs) contamination of forest ecosystems located in mountainous and hilly regions with steep terrain. To understand topographic effects on the redistribution and accumulation of (137)Cs on forest floor, we investigated the distribution of Fukushima-derived (137)Cs in forest-floor litter layers on a steep hi...

Continuous measurements of ammonia and greenhouses gases were achieved on exhaust air from two fattening rooms differing by the type of floor (totally slatted floor vs. partially slatted floor) and the ambient temperature. Temperature was regulated at 18°C in the room with partially slatted floor (room PSF18) and 24°C in the room with fully slatted floor (FSF24). Pigs were fed ad libitum. Daily...

The floor plate is one of the major organizers of the developing nervous system through its secretion of sonic hedgehog (Shh). Although the floor plate is located within the neural tube, the derivation of the floor plate during development is still debatable and some studies suggest that floor plate cells are specified by Shh in a temporarily restricted window different to neuroepithelial cells...