Local Gas Station Research Articles

Predictors of rural driver self-reported passing behaviors when interacting with farm equipment on the roadway

BackgroundCrashes involving farm equipment (FE) are a major safety concern for farmers as well as all other users of the public road system in both rural and urban areas. These crashes often involve passenger vehicle drivers striking the farm equipment from behind or attempting to pass, but little is known about drivers’ perceived norms and self-reported passing behaviors. The objective of this study is to examine factors influencing drivers' farm equipment passing frequencies and their perceptions about the passing behaviors of other drivers. MethodsData were collected via intercept surveys with adult drivers at local gas stations in two small rural towns in Iowa. The survey asked drivers about their demographic information, frequency of passing farm equipment, and perceptions of other drivers' passing behavior in their community and state when approaching farm equipment (proximal and distal descriptive norms). A multinomial logistic regression model was used to estimate the relationship between descriptive norms and self-reported passing behavior. ResultsSurvey data from 201 adult drivers showed that only 10% of respondents considered farm equipment crashes to be a top road safety concern. Respondents who perceived others passing farm equipment frequently in their community were more likely to report that they also frequently pass farm equipment. The results also showed interactions between gender and experience operating farm equipment in terms of self-reported passing behavior. Conclusions/implicationsResults from this study suggest local and state-level norms and perceptions of those norms may be important targets for intervention to improve individual driving behaviors around farm equipment.

Hoarders by Kate Durbin

Reviewed by: Hoarders by Kate Durbin Ginger Danto (bio) hoarders Kate Durbin Wave Books https://www.wavepoetry.com/products/hoarders 184 Pages; Print, $18.00 Their names are Jim, Hannah, Dorothy, Marlena, Maggie, Chuck, Linda, Craig and Ronnie, among others. They hail from such disparate corners of the country as Topanga Canyon, California; Warren, Michigan; Greenville, South Carolina; Ogden, Utah; and Las Vegas, Nevada. They come from all walks of life—economic, social, political—but have seemingly ended up in the same place: in a home so subsumed by accumulated stuff that much of it has passed its expiration date, emitting rank odors, mold, mildew, and other multifarious bacteria growing where it should not. Part oblivious to the deterioration of their hard-earned living quarters, the above-named men and women make up the hapless, has-been population of Kate Durbin's commentary on contemporary culture in the form of a third book of poetry titled Hoarders. Overtaking their property and by extension their psyches, the morass of material stagnating around Durbin's subjects even compromises their physical movement. For example, self-described avid reader and aspiring writer Allie of Chicago, Illinois, wife of teacher and fellow bibliophile Noah, preside over a library that is "filling the house so there are only narrow crevices to worm through; windows black with paperbacks so no natural light comes in; floors buckling under the weight of overstuffed bookshelves." Because it now takes "a little bit of dexterity to get to the stove," says Noah, and that the kitchen "is not a kitchen anymore," the couple subsist on pre-prepared, emergency ration dry food. Despite such hardship, their carefully inventoried, cherished volumes provide an existential comfort. A reason for being. A rationale for how they ended up here in the first place. A place called hoarding. All the more reason not to let anything, not any thing—go. Of a similar mindset, Greg of Melbourne, Florida. declares dubiously "Got a winner" toward the end of his namesake chapter—a first-person narrative [End Page 36] that has him rifling through local gas station garbage for beer cans and lotto tickets. His sentence concludes with the non-italicized "cockroach on a crumb." Melbourne Greg apparently sees fit to get rid of neither—the discarded ticket or the attendant bug of a species known to be an opportunistic denizen of neglected spaces. They go together, roach and refuse, partners in the personal detritus that defines Greg's now derelict life. True to his ilk, i.e., hoarders, Greg harbors quite a lot of "wildlife" in his cobwebbed milieu, including but not limited to water rats, frogs, crickets, fish—dead or alive. "My house right now looks like a cluttered-up junk yard," he notes in a moment of lucidity or resignation, or both. Followed by "bedroom door face down in the kitchen." Contextualizing his observations, Greg recounts a downward spiral of events, beginning with a near-death riding accident that sent him into a coma. He calls himself a survivor. But of what? A sense of crisis still hovers around him, along with mountains of miscellaneous matter. As it does with all of Durbin's hoarders, whose back stories tell of abandonment, abuse, petty arguments, and poor choices, with always the balm of acquisition as an antidote to suffering. "Retail therapy" may be championed on the twenty-four-hour shopping channels to which some are addicted, but the fallout is less than therapeutic. An acknowledged shopaholic, Cathy of Centralia, Illinois. admits her life "is kind of dedicated to shopping." She segues, by way of illustration, with "David's Bridal halter wedding gown with a blusher veil." This list is brief compared with the paragraph-long tally of designer garb, complete with discount prices, that follows her avowal: "I collect lots of things but especially clothes." But ultimately, Cathy's self-awareness devolves into desperation: "I am constantly ordering off(TV)," she writes. "I like the satisfaction of having something new" "I've wasted a lot of money" and finally, "I have a sickness." Cathy completes each of these comments with a detailed list of bought-off-TV-brand-name items with which she has filled her...

Combined Application of Ozone and Hydrogen Peroxide to Degrade Diesel Contaminants in Soil and Groundwater

Environmental pollution has been a major concern in recent times, and soil and groundwater pollution are areas which have received particular focus. This has led to the development of various remediation techniques such as excavation, soil vapor extraction, bioremediation, chemical oxidation, and so on. Among all remediation techniques, chemical oxidation has been proven to be the most effective and feasible technique around the world. In this study, various combinations of ozone and hydrogen peroxide were used to treat diesel-contaminated soil and groundwater in an experimental setup. Experimental soil and groundwater were prepared with properties similar to the contaminated soil. An ozone generator and a pump injection system were deployed for combining ozone and hydrogen peroxide. Five different experiment batches were prepared based on the hydrogen peroxide concentration and its ratio to the soil. The diesel concentration in the water dropped from 300 mg/L to 7 mg/L in the first hour of treatment, which dropped below the detection limit (0.01 mg/L) thereafter. Similarly, 63.9% degradation was achieved with the combined sparging of ozone and hydrogen peroxide in the soil. Ozone combined with 7% hydrogen peroxide was the most promising combination for removing the contaminants. In addition, this research explored the hydroxyl radical conversion rate of ozone and the perozone, the difference in order of magnitude is greater than one which shows that the perozone has better oxidation capacity than ozone only. The findings of this study show that combining ozone with hydrogen peroxide is a competent and feasible onsite remediation method for diesel contaminants in soil and groundwater. Thus, this method can be applied in local gas stations, accidental spillage sites, and small-scale refineries for onsite treatment in a cost-effective and technically sound way within a short time span.

Alternative View of Unemployment Issue among Saudi Citizens - Automatization of Local Gas Stations as a Case Study

The primary objective of this paper is to propose an alternative solution for unemployment among Saudi youth. This paper seeks to address the problem of unemployment in Saudi Arabia from a different perspective: productivity aspect. Substantially, this paper proposes solutions for the Saudi youth unemployment problem by increasing the non-oil private sector's productivity. It evaluates the macroeconomic gains of the proposed solutions, such as the number of new jobs for Saudi citizens and additional value-added. The research's main hypothesis is that increasing the non-oil private sector's productivity would significantly reduce unemployment among Saudi citizens. There are two methodologies for evaluating the expected economic benefits of increasing productivity in local economic activities. The first methodology, which is the Saudization of local gas stations by transforming the local gas stations into self-service ones (with one cashier every 8 hours for each gas station), finds that there would be more than 28,000 new jobs with reasonable salaries (at least SAR 3000 instead of SAR 1000 for at least 5 low-skilled foreign laborers) for unemployed Saudi citizens, which are socially accepted and at no additional cost to the government. The second methodology uses Leontief’s IO model to estimate the macroeconomic effects of increasing productivity in the non-oil private sector. It finds that the Saudi gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to record an additional growth rate of around 2.7 percentage points (Note 1) and to create more than 96,000 sustainable jobs for Saudi citizens within the period from 2021 to 2025.

1721. An Outbreak of Botulism Associated With Nacho Cheese Sauce From a Gas Station in California

BackgroundFoodborne botulism is rare with 0–6 cases reported annually in California. During April 24–28, 2017, 4 hospitalized patients with suspect foodborne botulism were reported to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) from 2 adjacent California counties. In collaboration with local public and environmental health, CDPH conducted an investigation to determine the magnitude of the outbreak, identify potential sources, and implement control measures.MethodsA case was defined as clinical botulism in a visitor to or resident of Sacramento County with illness onset during April 20 to May 5, 2017. Case-patients or their proxies were interviewed. Patient specimens and suspect food items were tested for the presence of botulinum toxin and toxin-producing Clostridium botulinum; C. botulinum isolates underwent whole genome sequencing (WGS) at the CDPH laboratory.ResultsIn April–May 2017, a total of 10 patients were hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed botulism. Median age was 34 years (range 16–57); 7 were male, and 8 were Latino. All patients required intensive care, 7 required ventilator support, and 1 died. Nine patients confirmed visiting Gas Station A in the week before illness onset; 8 reported consuming nacho cheese sauce served from a dispenser there. Inspection of Gas Station A on May 5 indicated that the cheese in the dispenser had a best by date of April 11; the dispenser was removed that day, before all patients were identified. The remaining pouch of nacho cheese sauce was laboratory confirmed to have botulinum toxin type A and toxin-producing C. botulinum. C. botulinum isolates from 3 patients clustered with the cheese isolate by WGS.ConclusionContaminated nacho cheese sauce served at a local gas station was the source of the largest outbreak of foodborne botulism reported to date in California. No other botulism cases associated with this commercial cheese sauce were identified elsewhere in the United States; although the mechanism of contamination is unclear, the cheese was likely contaminated locally. Intensive public health investigation and intervention, before all cases were identified and C. botulinum toxin was detected in the product, likely prevented additional cases and possible deathsDisclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

GDI fuel sprays of light naphtha, PRF95 and gasoline using a piezoelectric injector under different ambient pressures

This study investigates fuel sprays of light naphtha (LN), primary reference fuel (PRF) and gasoline under different ambient pressures with an outwardly opening piezo gasoline direct injection (GDI) fuel injector. The tested gasoline fuel (regular grade with up to 10% ethanol, E10) was obtained by mixing fuels with AKI (the average of the research octane number (RON) and the motor octane number (MON)) of 87 from three local gas stations. Primary reference fuel (PRF) is commonly used as gasoline surrogate fuel and is blended by iso-octane and n-heptane. PRF95 is the blend of 95% iso-octane and 5% n-heptane by volume. LN fuel was provided by Saudi Aramco Oil Company. Five different ambient pressure conditions varied from 1 bar to 10 bar were tested. The spray was visualized by applying a Mie-scattering technique and a high-speed camera was employed to capture the spray images. The spray structure, spray angle, spray penetration length and spray front fluctuation were analyzed and compared among three fuels. Spray images show that a clear filamentary hollow-cone spray structure is formed for all three fuels at atmospheric conditions, and toroidal recirculation vortexes are observed at the downstream spray edges. A higher ambient pressure leads to a stronger vortex located closer to the injector outlet. Generally speaking, larger spray angles are found under higher ambient pressure conditions for all three fuels. Gasoline fuel always has the largest spray angle for each ambient pressure, while PRF95 has the smallest at most time. For each fuel, the spray front penetration length and spray front penetration velocity decrease with increasing ambient pressure. LN, PRF95 and gasoline show similar penetration length and velocity under the tested conditions. A two-stage spray front fluctuation pattern is observed for all three fuels. Stage one begins from the start of the injection and ends at 450–500 μs after the start of the injection trigger (ASOIT) with a slow fluctuation increase for all ambient conditions. After Stage one, the spray front fluctuation increases rapidly to a certain level and then becomes stable in Stage two.

The Effects of Higher Oil Prices on the Level of Consumer Prices in Jamaica: An Estimation of the Pass-Through Effect for the Period 2001 to 2016

Oil prices on the world market over the last four decades have been viewed with serious macroeconomic concerns in oil-importing countries. In Jamaica, questions have been raised about the extent to which higher oil prices has pushed up the rate of inflation. Over the review period (January 2001 to April 2016), oil price (Petrojam billing price) to the pumps increased by approximately 325 per cent, while inflation rose by 309 per cent, with multiple peaks and troughs within. These increases, together with a high volatility in oil price, have serious implications for macroeconomic policy objectives given Jamaica’s high oil intensity ratio. This paper seeks to assess the inflationary effect of higher oil prices using the pass-through mechanism for the period 2001 to 2016, using monthly data.Results derived from this study show that a one-time 10 percentage points’ increase in oil price, denominated in the domestic currency, would push inflation up by 0.021, 0.020 and 0.014 percentage points during the first three months, respectively, after the initial change in oil price. Using oil prices to the local gas stations, an increase in the price of unleaded gasoline 87, unleaded gasoline 90 and diesel by 10 percentage points show that inflation increased in the following month by 0.02 percentage points, increases similar to that related to higher world prices.

Forensic characterization of mid-range petroleum distillates using light biomarkers

ABSTRACTDue to oil refining, commonly used higher boiling biomarkers for oil-source correlation are absent from mid-range petroleum distillates, while lighter biomarkers are concentrated in such products. This study evaluated 63 diagnostic ratios of light biomarkers such as bicyclic sesquiterpanes, diamondoids, and lighter aromatic compounds using 70 diesel oil samples obtained from three Swedish refineries and local gas stations, mostly over a six-month period in 2015. On the basis of their diagnostic power and partial correlation coefficients, a set of 24 ratios is suggested for oil-source correlation of lighter products. The frequency of false positives for this set was determined to be approximately 0.1%. It should be emphasized that in the event of an oil spill, diesel oils are rapidly influenced by weathering and many of the ratios will be affected.

Interview with John R. Wunder

Interview with John R. Wunder Jon K. Lauck (bio) In May 2014 the historian John R. Wunder, who spent the largest part of his career at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, took time out from his current projects to discuss his career in general, and more particularly, his interest in regional history, including the history of the Plains and the Midwest. Wunder, born in Iowa, earned his ba and law degrees at the University of Iowa before earning his PhD in history under the guidance of Vernon Carstensen at the University of Washington. John taught at several universities around the United States—in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the southern Great Plains, and the Deep South. Eventually, Wunder became the director of the Center for Great Plains Studies and a professor of history at the University of Nebraska. He also served as associate dean of the University of Nebraska’s College of Arts and Sciences and president of the Western History Association and the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society. He is the author or editor of nineteen books and over fifty academic articles. Wunder retired from the University of Nebraska in August 2011. He still lives in Lincoln, where he continues his research and writing. Where were you born? I was born in a hospital in Vinton, Iowa, a small county seat town in east central Iowa on January 7, 1945, to Mary (Remley) Wunder and Arnold Wunder. My middle name was my mother’s maiden name. I spent the first eighteen years of my life in Dysart, Iowa, which is a town of eight hundred about fifteen miles west of Vinton. What did your parents do for a living? My mother graduated from the University of Iowa and was a high school social studies teacher. She taught in several Iowa communities before she married my father, but her career was interrupted by my birth and then shortly thereafter by her contracting the awful disease multiple sclerosis which eventually [End Page 289] paralyzed her. My father graduated from Dysart High School; he worked first as a mechanic in a local gas station and then he had his own business supplying fuel oil and petroleum products to farmers and local businesses and homes. Where did you go to college and what did you study? I went to Iowa as a major in mathematics. We had had a wonderful high school math teacher who was a spinster and tough as nails. She taught us algebra, and trigonometry, geometry, and advanced algebra, but at Iowa I soon learned in my geometry class I just didn’t have a theoretical mathematics brain. At the end of my first semester and the beginning of the second, I first changed my major to accounting. That lasted one week. Instead I became a history major because my Western Civilization classes both semesters convinced me that history was to be my life’s work. I majored in history and political science graduating with a ba in 1967. I was captivated by the history of the American West classes (two courses for an entire academic year) taught by Professor Malcolm Rohrbough. I then took a fellowship to study the American West with Professor Rohrbough’s major professor, who was then at the University of Washington, Professor Vernon Carstensen.1 Rohrbough joked he was sending a son to study with his grandfather. [In 1974, after earning my PhD, I] received a position as a visiting assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University. There I taught the American survey, American West, and American legal history. If I recall correctly, you also encountered Christopher Lasch during your time at Iowa.2 Is that correct? Yes, he often would entertain an informal group of students at the student union. I remember once (probably spring of 1968) when tension was very high on campus with Vietnam demonstrations, I sat on the ballroom floor along with a hundred students as Lasch, also sitting on the floor, talked at length about historic American wars and compared them to Vietnam. He was quite inspirational. At some point, his departure that year from Iowa was not a happy one for him or the history department. It has been noted...

The Taking by Kimberly Derting (review)

Reviewed by: The Taking by Kimberly Derting Kate Quealy-Gainer Derting, Kimberly. The Taking. HarperTeen/HarperCollins, 2014. [368p]. Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-229360-2 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-229362-6 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys M Gr. 7-10. A fight with her father leads sixteen-year-old Kyra to get out of the car and walk home along a deserted rural road in her small Washington town. A flash of light and one serious headache later, Kyra wakes up behind a local gas station—and discovers that five years have passed. Her parents are now divorced and her mother has another kid, her boyfriend is in college and dating Kyra’s best friend, and her dad is now a conspiracy theorist dedicated to finding the source of the light that he believes was responsible for Kyra’s five-year absence. Tyler, the formerly annoying but now totally hot younger brother of her boyfriend, is the only one that treats Kyra with any sense of normalcy, but when agents from the National Security Agency show up asking questions about Kyra’s new freakish abilities to see in the dark and heal herself instantaneously, Kyra’s pretty sure any hope of a normal life is out the window. Despite the appeal of the Rip Van Winkle–like premise, the book gets off to an agonizingly slow start, one that underscores both Kyra’s penchant for navel-gazing whininess and the illogicality behind several of the character’s actions: [End Page 510] neither of Kyra’s parents, for example, seems concerned with figuring out where she has been for five years. The pace picks up when the NSA men in black show up and the mystery behind Kyra’s abilities deepens, but the slog to an ending that only promises another installment makes this ultimately unsatisfying to readers who would be better served by Castellucci’s First Day on Earth (BCCB 11/11). Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Osmolal Gap without Anion Gap in a 43-Year-Old Man

A 43-year-old man presented to the emergency department (ED)3 2 h after ingesting 10 oz of antifreeze mixed with Gatorade in a suicide attempt. The antifreeze was green, of an unknown brand, and purchased at a local gas station. He subsequently confessed to his wife, who brought him to a community hospital ED. He denied abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, urinary symptoms, or visual changes. Initial laboratory tests (Table 1) were clinically relevant for the following: arterial whole-blood pH, 7.34; P co2, 33 mmHg (4.4 kPa); serum bicarbonate, 18 mmol/L; serum ethanol, 10 mg/dL (2.17 mmol/L); and serum anion gap, 18 mmol/L. The serum osmolal gap (75 mOsm/kg) was calculated as follows: Osmolal gap = freezing-point depression osmometer value − (2 × [Na+] + [glucose]/18 + [blood urea nitrogen]/2.8 + [ethanol]/4.6), where the Na+ concentration is in millimoles per liter and the glucose, blood urea nitrogen, and ethanol concentrations are in milligrams per deciliter. View this table: Table 1. The patient's laboratory results on presentation, after transfer to the tertiary care center, and on hospital day 2 after hemodialysis.a With the advice of the local Poison Control Center, the patient was given 15 mg/kg fomepizole intravenously. He was placed on suicide precautions and transferred to a tertiary care center for further evaluation and treatment. On arrival at the tertiary care ED 8 h after ingestion and 3 h after fomepizole administration, the patient had a normal mental status and normal vital signs. Thiamine (100 mg), folic acid (50 mg), and pyridoxine (50 mg) were administered intravenously as cofactors for secondary metabolic pathways. At that time, laboratory test results (Table 1) were clinically relevant for the following: arterial whole-blood pH, 7.39; P co2, 28 mmHg (3.7 kPa); serum bicarbonate, 18 mmol/L; creatinine, 1.1 mg/dL (97.2 μmol/L); lactate, 5.3 mmol/L; anion gap, 14 mmol/L; and osmolal gap, 72 mOsm/kg. No crystals were visible in the urine. ### QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER 1. What are the major …

Competição entre postos de gasolina em pequenos municípios brasileiros: uma análise a partir de um modelo de entrada empírico

Usa-se um tradicional modelo empírico de entrada para investigar o grau de competição em mercados locais de postos de gasolina no Brasil. Mostra-se como o número de firmas nos mercados varia com mudanças na demanda e na competição com dados para 2.590 municípios considerados mercados isolados. Os resultados mostram alteração na conduta competitiva com o aumento no número de postos, sobretudo até a entrada do quinto posto. O modelo utilizado não requer dados de preços e, a partir de características dos mercados, tais como população e número de firmas, pode indicar se há um padrão geral de conduta anticompetitiva no varejo de combustíveis em pequenos municípios brasileiros.

Classification and determination of alcohol in gasoline using NIR spectroscopy and the successive projections algorithm for variable selection

A methodology for the classification and determination of alcohol (methanol/ethanol) in gasoline using near-infrared reflectance spectrometry and variable selection was proposed. Methanol gasoline and ethanol gasoline were prepared in the laboratory and gasoline (93#) was acquired from a local gas station. Partial least squares (PLS) multivariate calibrations were used to predict methanol/ethanol content. Principal component analysis was used for spectrum classification, obtaining a desirable classification accuracy. Using this strategy, it was feasible to classify alcohol gasoline rapidly. Concerning the multivariate calibration models, the results show that PLS, successive projections algorithm (SPA)-PLS and genetic algorithm (GA)-PLS models are good for predicting methanol and ethanol contents in gasoline; the respective root-mean-square errors of prediction were 0.216 (PLS), 0.163 (SPA-PLS) and 0.210 v/v% (GA-PLS) for methanol gasoline, corresponding to 0.348, 0.235 and 0.203 for ethanol gasoline. The results obtained in this investigation suggest that the proposed methodology is a promising alternative for the determination of alcohol content in gasoline.

Simultaneous determination of Cu and Pb in fuel ethanol by graphite furnace AAS using tungsten permanent modifier with co-injection of Ir

A method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of Cu and Pb in ethanol fuel by GF AAS using a transversely heated graphite atomizer (THGA) with W permanent modifier and co-injection of Ir. Pyrolysis and atomization temperature curves were established in fuel ethanol medium (1+1; v/v) containing 1.0% (v/v) HNO3 and spiked with 20μgL−1 Cu and Pb. For 20μL of diluted sample (10μL ethanol+10μL of 2.0 % (v/v) HNO3) dispensed into the graphite tube, analytical curves in the 5.0–25μgL−1 Cu and 10–50μgL−1 Pb ranges were established. The calculated characteristic masses were 18pg for Cu and 36pg for Pb. The limits of detection (LOD) based on integrated absorbance were 0.086μgL−1 and 2.47μgL−1 for Cu and Pb, respectively. The recoveries of the spiked samples varied from 93–103% (Cu) and 96–110% (Pb). The relative standard derivations (n=12) were ⩽0.5 Cu and ⩽0.7 Pb. Accuracy was checked for Cu and Pb determination in 10 samples purchased at local gas stations in Brazil. The found concentrations varied from 8.0 to 47μgL−1 Cu. All the analyzed samples presented Pb contents below the limit of detection of this method. These amounts are considered acceptable for the Brazilian regulatory agency for hydrated fuel ethanol.

The Road to Fourth Amendment Erosion is Paved with Good Intentions: Examining Why Florida Should Limit the Community Caretaker Exception

If a well-intentioned police officer is performing acts unrelated to criminal activity, should he be allowed to enter your home without a warrant? The setting is the small town of Mayberry, North Carolina, and the time is 6:30 in the evening. Sheriff Andy Griffith has just stepped into the police station when he receives a call from Main Street Elementary School stating that local gas station attendant, Gomer Pyle, never picked up his son. Because the school is unable to contact Mr. Pyle, Sheriff Griffith proceeds to drive the six-year-old child home. In the past, Griffith, a well-meaning and affable officer, has been known to perform many duties within the town that are completely removed from his role as a crime-fighter. At the moment, he seeks to perform yet another task unrelated to combating criminal activity by reuniting a child with his absent-minded father. Even though the Pyle residence appears to be empty, and there are no signs of an emergency, Sheriff Griffith enters the home. Once inside, the sheriff discovers drugs and arrests Mr. Pyle when he returns home slightly thereafter. Was Andy Griffith’s entrance into the home a search that would ordinarily be illegal under the Fourth Amendment? If so, should his actions be excused based on our society’s need to have police officers involved in protective actions that go beyond traditional notions of law enforcement duties? Fundamental to our system of government is the idea that freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures is an enumerated protection guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. At the essence of this

Methanol-Based Transesterification Optimization of Waste Used Cooking Oil over Potassium Hydroxide Catalyst

Problem statement: Waste used Cooking Oil (WCO) harmfully affected to environment and human’s health can be a feedstock for producing biodiesel. Approach: The conversion of Fatty Acid and Free Fatty Acid (FFA) of WCO with 15.0% w/w FFA content to biodiesel was studied through transesterification reactions. This work investigated the effects of alcohol and catalyst quantity, reaction time and temperature on the FFA conversion and biodiesel production and also determines the optimum condition. Results: The optimum use of 5% w/w potassium hydroxide (KOH) catalyst at 70°C for 2 h yielded 88.20% FFA conversion and 50% biodiesel recovery of WCO. For the reaction rate analysis, based on Arrhenius equation, the activation energy of 47.07 kJ.mo1-1 and the pre-exponential factor of 7.58×1010 min-1 were obtained using pseudo first-order model. In addition, the produced biodiesel was blended with diesel in the volumetric proportions of 5:95 (ExB5), 20:80 (ExB20) and 50:50 (ExB50) and characterized by FT-IR, in order to compare to biodiesel blend sold in local gas station (B5). It was observed that the ExB5 has exhibited the same functional group as of the B5. Conclusion: The produced biodiesel may be used in diesel engines if other properties are tested for compatibility. This provides one more choice for alternative energy and commercialization.

Doctors without borders in British Columbia

It was Christmas Day, 2008. My wife, Mary Nishi-Lince, and I were standing in line to pay for our dinner of microwaved samosas, taquitos and soup at the 7-11 store beside the local gas station. It was evening in Northern British Columbia and as far as we knew, all the restaurants were closed for

Direct Analysis of Automotive Fuels for Bioethanol Content Using Radiocarbon Analysis

Exploratory work was performed to investigate the feasibility of using a simplified radiometric analytical approach for determining the bioethanol content of US automotive fuels. The method involves mixing fuel samples directly with a suitable fluor. Sample preparation is extremely rapid since all conventional sample preparation steps are essentially eliminated. Results are based on the background-corrected DPM values obtained when using 10 mL of sample mixed with 10 mL of Permafluor E+. Results are also reported in terms of conventional pMC for some of the samples. Bioethanol from a dry-mill ethanol plant served as the analytical reference sample that represented a 100% bioethanol content. Using current-day bioethanol as a reference sample eliminates the need to correct for “bomb carbon.” For 1:1 mixtures of sample and fluor, the background-corrected DPM showed a linear relationship with the bioethanol concentration, indicating that the quench correction approach was effective for the variable-quench samples. Based on the analysis of E0 (pure gasoline), E10, and “E85” from local gas stations, it appears that the method has good potential for determining the bioethanol content in commercial ethanol/gasoline blends. However, a variety of potential sources of error still require investigation in order to refine the method.

Petroleum Geophysics—The Heavy Future

The world is thirsty for oil. The mounting demand is apparent to anyone who follows escalating world crude oil prices or the cost of automobile fuel at the local gas station. Demand has never been higher; total worldwide consumption is approaching 100 million barrels per day, causing world prices to surpass US$ 130 per barrel. As the industry strives to meet this demand conventionally, the predictions of M. King Hubbert—that global oil production will peak sometime between 2010 and 2020—come to mind.

Identification and Kinetic Characteristics of an Indigenous Diesel-degrading Gordonia alkanivorans Strain

An indigenous strain Gordonia alkanivorans CC-JG39 was isolated from oil-contaminated sludge of a local gas station located in central Taiwan. The bacterial isolate was able to grow on diesel-containing Bushnell–Haas medium and also tolerate various chemical additives frequently used in petroleum products (e.g. BETX, methyl-tert-butyl ether, and naphthalene). Kinetics of diesel-limited cell growth and biodegradation of diesel followed a Monod-type model. The kinetic constants for cell growth (μmax and KS,G) were 0.158 h−1 and 3196 mg/l, respectively, while those for biodegradation of diesel (vmax, diesel and KS,D) were 3.59 mg/h/mg cell and 2874 mg/l, respectively. G. alkanivorans CC-JG39 produced extracellular surface-active material, leading to a low surface tension of nearly 33 mN/m. The CC-JG39 strain also possessed the ability to float towards the oil/water interface. These features might play some roles in enhancing the mass transfer efficiency between oil substrate and the bacterial cells. Therefore, G. alkanivorans CC-JG39 may have potential applications in bioremediation of oil pollution sites.