Title of Dissertation: ASSESSMENT OF FOODBORNE PATHOGEN SURVIVAL DURING PRODUCTION AND PRE-HARVEST APPLICATION OF COMPOST AND COMPOST TEA David T. Ingram, Ph.D. 2009 Directed By: Sam W. Joseph, Professor (Emeritus), CBMG and Director, Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health Jianghong Meng, Professor, NFSC, and Interim Director of the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition The...

Potato productivity in the northeastern US has been relatively constant for over 50 years, raising questions about what factors are limiting productivity. Research was initiated in 2004 to identify key constraints to potato productivity by evaluating Status Quo (SQ), Soil Conserving (SC), and Soil Improving (SI) cropping systems under both rainfed and irrigated management, and it was found that...

The effects of compost based substrates on growth and nutrition of geranium (Pelargonium zonale cv Lucky Break F2) were investigated. Substrates of manure compost, cotton gin trash compost, municipal solid waste compost and pine bark utilized as potting media for domestic use, produced an underdevelopment of geranium plants with respect to the control. This behaviour is related to the inferior ...

Conventional wastewater treatment generates large amounts of organic matter-rich sludge that requires adequate treatment to avoid public health and environmental problems. The mixture of wastewater sludge and some bulking agents produces a biosolid to be composted at adequate composting facilities. The composting process is chemically and microbiologically complex and requires an adequate aerat...

The practice of composting mixed green wastes from community collection programs has been on the increase as a means to reduce organic debris to landfills. Recent reports of plant injury have appeared and were attributed to residues of the herbicide clopyralid in compost. Phytotoxicity issues with compost have been reported previously to result from other factors, including heavy metal content,...

Masking is a widely used countermeasure against Side-Channel Attacks (SCA), but the implementation of these countermeasures is challenging. Experimental security evaluation requires special equipment, a considerable amount of time and extensive technical knowledge. So, to automate and to speed up this process, a formal verification can be performed to asses the security of a design. Multiple th...

Compost use in landscaping and erosion control applications has become widespread. Various types of composts have been utilized on highway embankments for soil conservation and runoff reduction. Different compost materials could have different erosion control effects. The objective of this study is to investigate the erosion resistance of three commonly used composts and their effects on slope ...

Compost has been shown to have a range of positive impacts on soil quality and can provide an important source of nutrients for plants. While these benefits have been documented for many finished composts, there is presently little understanding of the impact of composting process conditions and the extent of compost decomposition on soil C and N mineralization after compost incorporation. This...

Manure application can lead to excessive soil test P levels in surface soil, which can contribute to increased P concentration in runoff. However, manure application often results in reduced runoff and sediment loss. Research was conducted to determine the residual effects of previously applied compost, plowing of soil with excessive soil test P, and application of additional compost after plow...

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on thermophilic fungi isolated in Korea. Three species of thermophiles were isolated from compost and were identified as Myriococcum thermophilum, Thermoascus aurantiacus, and Thermomyces lanuginosus. They can grow at temperatures above 50℃ and produce high levels of cellulolytic and xylanolytic enzymes at high temperatures. Notably, the co...