Health consultation : E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. County Road X-23 site, Lee County, Iowa EPA facility ID: IAD980685804 (2007)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is completing a third five-year review of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., County Road X-23 Superfund site in Lee County, Iowa. The site is also known as the Baier and McCarl subsites. The EPA is inviting public comment on whether the current site remedy continues to be protective of public health and the environment. The Iowa Department of Public Health in cooperation with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) prepared this health consultation to review the current status of the Baier and McCarl subsites and to provide an evaluation of the public health status of these subsites. The information in this health consultation was current at the time of writing. Data that emerges later could alter this docum ent’s conclusions and recommendations.

Letter health consultation : foundry slag used for road rock, Washington County, Iowa (2008)

A resident within one of the counties in your region has expressed some concern regarding potential adverse health effects from dust and material that may be found within foundry slag that has been used as a replacement for road rock. This consultation includes a comparison of nuisance issues from dust generated from a road constructed of foundry slag and dust generated from a road constructed from typical road rock. This consultation also includes a discussion of the potential health effects of exposure of heavy metals from incidental ingestion of foundry slag.

Estimating soybean crop areas using spectral-temporal surfaces derived from MODIS images in Mato Grosso, Brazil

The objective of this work was to evaluate the application of the spectral-temporal response surface (STRS) classification method on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS, 250 m) sensor images in order to estimate soybean areas in Mato Grosso state, Brazil. The classification was carried out using the maximum likelihood algorithm (MLA) adapted to the STRS method. Thirty segments of 30x30 km were chosen along the main agricultural regions of Mato Grosso state, using data from the summer season of 2005/2006 (from October to March), and were mapped based on fieldwork data, TM/Landsat-5 and CCD/CBERS-2 images. Five thematic classes were considered: Soybean, Forest, Cerrado, Pasture and Bare Soil. The classification by the STRS method was done over an area intersected with a subset of 30x30-km segments. In regions with soybean predominance, STRS classification overestimated in 21.31% of the reference values. In regions where soybean fields were less prevalent, the classifier overestimated 132.37% in the acreage of the reference. The overall classification accuracy was 80%. MODIS sensor images and the STRS algorithm showed to be promising for the classification of soybean areas in regions with the predominance of large farms. However, the results for fragmented areas and smaller farms were less efficient, overestimating soybean areas.

U.S. 61 From Memorial Park Road in Burlington North to 1 Mile North of IA 78 in Louisa County. Des Moines & Louisa County, Iowa NHS-061-2(50) - 19-58, 2015

Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) has re-initiated planning and preliminary design studies to improve U.S. 61 from Memorial Park Road in Burlington north to 1-mile north of IA 78 in Louisa County. The proposed project consists of improving approximately 18 miles of roadway from 2-lanes to 4-lanes and evaluating a potential bypass around Mediapolis.

Quantitative Guidelines for Thin Maintenance Surfaces, TR-435, 2003

What follows are the refined guidelines from the Thin Maintenance Surface: Phase II Report. For that report, test sections were created and monitored along with some existing test sections. From the monitoring and evaluation of these test sections, literature reviews, and the experience and knowledge of the authors, the following guidelines were created. More information about thin maintenance surfaces and their uses can be found in the above-mentioned report.

Ammonium Phosphate/Fly Ash Road Base Construction, HR-294, Construction Report, 1987

The objective of this research project was to evaluate the construction and service performance of ammonium phosphate/fly ash (APFA) treated base courses of crushed fines and/or unprocessed sand. Specific test results related to construction of the test sections were included in the 1987 construction report by Iowa State University. The performance of the experimental sections is dealt with in this final report. This 1986 project demonstrated that in all cases the control sections utilizing a Type B base experienced dramatically less cracking in the surface than the APFA treated base sections. The cost per mix and subsequent surface maintenance costs for the APFA base sections, especially those having a substantial amount of limestone, were higher than the Type B base control sections. This type of construction may prove to be economical only when petroleum product costs escalate.

Scheduling forest road maintenance using the analytic hierarchy process and heuristics

Abstract

Real-time Imaging and Mosaicking of Planar Surfaces

Laajojen pintojen kuvaaminen rajoitetussa työskentelytilassa riittävällä kuvatarkkuudella voi olla vaikeaa. Kuvaaminen on suoritettava osissa ja osat koottava saumattomaksi kokonaisnäkymäksi eli mosaiikkikuvaksi. Kuvauslaitetta käsin siirtelevän käyttäjän on saatava välitöntä palautetta, jotta mosaiikkiin ei jäisi aukkoja ja työ olisi nopeaa. Työn tarkoituksena oli rakentaa pieni, kannettava ja tarkka kuvauslaite paperi- ja painoteollisuuden tarpeisiin sekä kehittää palautteen antamiseen menetelmä, joka koostaaja esittää karkeaa mosaiikkikuvaa tosiajassa. Työssä rakennettiin kaksi kuvauslaitetta: ensimmäinen kuluttajille ja toinen teollisuuteen tarkoitetuista osista. Kuvamateriaali käsiteltiin tavallisella pöytätietokoneella. Videokuvien välinen liike laskettiin yksinkertaisella seurantamenetelmällä ja mosaiikkikuvaa koottiin kameroiden kuvanopeudella. Laskennallista valaistuksenkorjausta tutkittiin ja kehitetty menetelmä otettiin käyttöön. Ensimmäisessä kuvauslaitteessa on ongelmia valaistuksen ja linssivääristymien kanssa tuottaen huonolaatuisia mosaiikkikuvia. Toisessa kuvauslaitteessa nämä ongelmat on korjattu. Seurantamenetelmä toimii hyvin ottaen huomioon sen yksinkertaisuuden ja siihen ehdotetaan monia parannuksia. Työn tulokset osoittavat, että tosiaikainen mosaiikkikuvan koostaminen megapikselin kuvamateriaalista on mahdollista kuluttajille tarkoitetulla tietokonelaitteistolla.

Poisoning effect of s on pd surfaces

In this study we observe the poisoning effect of S to the adsorption and dissociation of 02 molecule on Pd surfaces. To perform this study we used Viennaab initio Simulation Package (VASP) and Spanish Initiative for Electronic structure with thousands of Atoms (SIESTA) ab initio softwares. To describe all Pd surfaces we selected the (100), and (211) surfaces, because we need very reactive and simple surfaces. Before studying the poison¬ing effect of S we had to study the dissociation of 02 on the surfaces. We discovered that on the (100) surface the hollow site is the most reactive site, but at room temperature the steric hinderace effect occurs very easily. If the molecule has enough vibrational energyit will dissociate. On the (211) surface the (100) micro facet's hollow site is the most reactive site and the molecule dissociates in the site without any barrier, and the molecule drifts from the terrace to this site. An S atom sticks on the Pd (100) surface in the hollow site. It affects the d-band density of states of the nearests Pd atoms; It moves the center of the d-band downin energy, when the bond between the Pd atom and the 0 atom is more antibonding. In the hollow site the S atom also blocks the dissociation site of the molecule. On the Pd(211) surface the energetically favourable site of the S atom is the(100) microfacet's hollow site. There it blocks the most reactive site, but its effect to the Pd atoms next to it is not significant.

Distance Transforms on Gray-Level Surfaces

This thesis studies gray-level distance transforms, particularly the Distance Transform on Curved Space (DTOCS). The transform is produced by calculating distances on a gray-level surface. The DTOCS is improved by definingmore accurate local distances, and developing a faster transformation algorithm. The Optimal DTOCS enhances the locally Euclidean Weighted DTOCS (WDTOCS) with local distance coefficients, which minimize the maximum error from the Euclideandistance in the image plane, and produce more accurate global distance values.Convergence properties of the traditional mask operation, or sequential localtransformation, and the ordered propagation approach are analyzed, and compared to the new efficient priority pixel queue algorithm. The Route DTOCS algorithmdeveloped in this work can be used to find and visualize shortest routes between two points, or two point sets, along a varying height surface. In a digital image, there can be several paths sharing the same minimal length, and the Route DTOCS visualizes them all. A single optimal path can be extracted from the route set using a simple backtracking algorithm. A new extension of the priority pixel queue algorithm produces the nearest neighbor transform, or Voronoi or Dirichlet tessellation, simultaneously with the distance map. The transformation divides the image into regions so that each pixel belongs to the region surrounding the reference point, which is nearest according to the distance definition used. Applications and application ideas for the DTOCS and its extensions are presented, including obstacle avoidance, image compression and surface roughness evaluation.

Characterisation of the LMS200 laser beam under the influence of blockage surfaces. Influence on 3D scanning of tree orchards

The geometric characterisation of tree orchards is a high-precision activity comprising the accurate measurement and knowledge of the geometry and structure of the trees. Different types of sensors can be used to perform this characterisation. In this work a terrestrial LIDAR sensor (SICK LMS200) whose emission source was a 905-nm pulsed laser diode was used. Given the known dimensions of the laser beam cross-section (with diameters ranging from 12 mm at the point of emission to 47.2 mm at a distance of 8 m), and the known dimensions of the elements that make up the crops under study (flowers, leaves, fruits, branches, trunks), it was anticipated that, for much of the time, the laser beam would only partially hit a foreground target/object, with the consequent problem of mixed pixels or edge effects. Understanding what happens in such situations was the principal objective of this work. With this in mind, a series of tests were set up to determine the geometry of the emitted beam and to determine the response of the sensor to different beam blockage scenarios. The main conclusions that were drawn from the results obtained were: (i) in a partial beam blockage scenario, the distance value given by the sensor depends more on the blocked radiant power than on the blocked surface area; (ii) there is an area that influences the measurements obtained that is dependent on the percentage of blockage and which ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 m with respect to the foreground target/object. If the laser beam impacts on a second target/object located within this range, this will affect the measurement given by the sensor. To interpret the information obtained from the point clouds provided by the LIDAR sensors, such as the volume occupied and the enclosing area, it is necessary to know the resolution and the process for obtaining this mesh of points and also to be aware of the problem associated with mixed pixels.