The newest crop of 2010 Earth and Ocean Science Undergraduate Honours Theses and Reports are now available online on cIRcle, the UBC Library’s Digital Repository.

Below is a list of 2010 submissions.

Waste Solutions for Metro Vancouver
Ho, Anthony; MacDonald, Jessica; Lam, Clement; Dean, Monika; Lai, Joseph; Lu, Nan; Sim, Nari (2010-05-07)

Effects of Triclosan on a Detrital-Based, Aquatic Food Web
Chan, Carita (2010-05-07)

Ecosystem Services of the British Columbia Coast: Modeling the Impacts of Agriculture on the Provision of Shellfish
Solomon, Cody; Thompson, Allison (2010-05-05)

Slope Stability Analysis of Fly Ash Containment Dyke
Brisbin, Aaron (2010-04-27)

Mechanical strength of Anhydrite and its Role in the Seismicity of the Duke River Fault, Yukon Territory
Sampaleanu, Christian (2010-04-22)

Delineation of Groundwater Capture Zone for the Grum Pit, Faro Mine Complex, Yukon Territory
Yungyoo, Thiyapa (2010-04-19)

The Classification and Analysis of 300 Cycling Crashes that Resulted in Visits to Hospital Emergency Departments in Toronto and Vancouver. Frendo, Theresa (2010-04-15)

Sensitivity Analysis of UBCDFLOW and Debris Flow Travel Distance in Mountainous Forested Terrain around the Kootenay, British Columbia Region. Kurylo, John Bohdan (2010-04-13)

Investigation of Liquid Limit of Kamloops Silt by Soft-base Casagrande Apparatus and British Drop-Cone Penetrometer.
Lu, Alan Zhong (2010-04-12)

Identifying Landscapes and their Formation Timescales: Comparing Knowledge and Confidence of Beginner and Advanced Geoscience Undergraduate Students. Jolley, Alison Rae (2010-04-07)

Stability and Seepage Analysis of the Bralorne Gold Mines Tailings Dam Following a Change in Usage from Tailings Dam to Water Reservoir Dam. Lefrancois, Anne-Marie (2010-04-01)

An Assessment of the Greywater and Composting Toilet Tea Leach Field Geochemistry at the C.K. Choi Building, University of British Columbia Vancouver Campus. Larson, Leila (2010-02-17)

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Librarian for Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of British Columbia.

Newsmaker Interview:
Imponderables Complicate Hunt For Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

Dr. Paul Davies a professor at Arizona State University, Tempe discusses his role in the search for intelligent life beyond Earth.

Read the full interview here.

Other articles published by Dr. Davies include Are ALIENS among Us? Davies, Paul, Scientific American, Dec2007, Vol. 297, Issue 6, p62-69.

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Librarian for Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia

In one of the classic understatements of aviation history, Eric Moody turned on the flight intercom of his British Airways 747 and reported to his 248 passengers:

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.

The date was 24 June 1982, and Moody’s 747 was south of Java, en route from Heathrow to Auckland, amidst an ash cloud from Mount Galunggung in Indonesia. At first it looked as if the only hope was to ditch the plane in the ocean. However, the crew was able to glide the plane (let’s all nod now to engineers who managed to create a jumbo jet that descends only one meter for every 15 flown without power) until successfully restarting three of the four engines, but the damage from the cloud made for a harrowing landing over the mountainous terrain around Jakarta. In 1989, another 747 temporarily lost use of all four engines due to a volcanic plume (from Alaska’s Mt. Redoubt).

Not surprisingly, since the British Airways incident, volcanic plumes—previously studied more closely for their climatic effects—have become a preoccupation of weather forecasters. The world meteorological and aviation communities have collaborated on the International Airways Volcano Watch, whose advisories Thursday led to the cancellation of flights across northern Europe due to the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjalla volcano. It will be hard to overstate the consequence of this eruption for travelers around the world; it is already being compared to the no-fly days after 9/11.

For more information, read the full American Meteorological Society Blog Post

The Science and Engineering Library hosts a number of databases that will give you access to the peer-reviewed literature dealing with the effects of volcanic eruptions on climate and weather.

Have a look at

Geobase
MGA
Web of Science

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Librarian for Earth and Ocean Sciences

For a complete list of impact factors, go to the Elsevier Earth Science link.

Earth-Science Reviews

2008 Impact Factor 6.558
2007 Impact Factor 4.310

Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta

2008 Impact Factor 4.235
2007 Impact Factor 3.665

Earth And Planetary Science Letters

2008 Impact Factor 3.955
2007 Impact Factor 3.873

Precambrian Research

2008 Impact Factor 3.736
2007 Impact Factor 3.247

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Librarian for Earth and Ocean Sciences

Relief was the order of the day for Canadian scientists on Thursday as the federal government brought down its fiscal blueprint for 2010-11.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty moved to partially offset scheduled cuts in the budgets of the nation’s three granting councils, though they’ll still take a blow and there’ll be tighter competition for research operating grants.

Read the ScienceInsider news article here.

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom science and engineering liaison librarian

BOULDER—Painting the roofs of buildings white has the potential to significantly cool cities and mitigate some impacts of global warming, a new study indicates. The new NCAR-led research suggests there may be merit to an idea advanced by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu that white roofs can be an important tool to help society adjust to climate change.

Read the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) news release here. The full article published in Geophysical Research Letters can be read here.

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Librarian for Earth and Ocean Sciences

Dr. Vijay Bhargava is moving from his position as Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications to become IEEE Communications Society’s Director of Journals.

Read the full article here.

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Librarian for Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Street Level Forecast (SLF) is an interactive point forecast planning tool that brings customized forecasts to the user. SLF makes weather data accessible and user- friendly. Click on a specific location on an interactive map to receive personal forecasts such as wind and temperature that are provided on an easy-to-read graph.

The computer model that drives the SLF is run twice daily at a one kilometer resolution (a grid of points one kilometer apart across the region) and predicts conditions for the next 19 hours.

This SLF is an experimental prototype that Environment Canada will test during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games period. This version will be live until March 31, 2010.

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Library for Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of British Columbia

With the Winter 2010 Olympics less than 30 days away, the analytic chemists and their rivals are hard at work.

The journal Drug Testing and Analysis has a wide variety of articles looking at performance enhancing drugs and therapies.

Have a look at the article The hunt for gene dopers authored by Mansour, Mai M. H. and Azzazy, Hassan M. E.

Here’s the abstract of the article.
Gene doping, the abuse of gene therapy for illicit athletic enhancement, is perceived as a coming threat and is a prime concern to the anti-doping community. This doping technique represents a significant ethical challenge and there are concerns regarding its safety for athletes. This article presents the basics of gene doping, potential strategies for its detection and the role of promising new technologies in aiding detection efforts. These include the use of lab-on-a-chip techniques as well as nanoparticles to enhance the performance of current analytical methods and to develop new doping detection strategies. Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Medline and Web of Science and two excellent databases to monitor this spy vs spy battle between the IOC, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the performance enhancers.

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Librarian for Chemistry at the University of British Columbia

Every year the Chemical Abstracts Service of the American Chemical Society publishes a wonderful calendar – the Colors of Chemistry. Starting in 2010 this calendar is now available either as a free download or as an online interactive calendar.

Go to 2010 Colors of Chemistry Calendar and choose your option.

Submitted by Kevin Lindstrom Liaison Librarian for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of British Columbia.