Framework Development to Introduce BIM into the Civil Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum at University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Y. Rodríguez-Rodríguez ◽  
Juan L. Dávila-Perez
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
University Of Puerto Rico ◽  
Framework Development

Is it unnatural to genetically engineer plants?

Weed Science ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 647-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Comstock
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Spanish Version ◽  
University Of Puerto Rico ◽  
Weed Science ◽  
Science Society ◽  
Genetically Engineer ◽  
Author Note ◽  
Made In

Author' note: This article is based on remarks made in February 1998 at the annual meeting of the Weed Science Society of America in Chicago. Those remarks were in turn based on an article, to be published in Spanish, titled “Es Antinatural la Manipulación Genética de los Animales?” The Spanish version will appear in the Proceedings of the Segundo Congreso Caribeno de Bioetica, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, March 1998. It addresses the question of the engineering of animals; the focus here is the engineering of plants. Whether one considers flora or fauna, the unnaturalness objection raises the same cluster of concerns. Consequently, an assessment of those concerns need not vary significantly in turning from animals to plants.

scholarly journals Hurricane Maria and its Impact on the Zoological and Botanical Collections of the University of Puerto Rico

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e26014
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Schizas
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Structural Damage ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
University Of Puerto Rico ◽  
Federal Grant ◽  
Research Profile ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The University

With a total of more than 150,000 specimens, the 85-year old collections of insects and terrestrial, freshwater, and marine invertebrates of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM), western Puerto Rico, are among the most significant repositories for these groups in the Caribbean region. Located in Mayagüez and on Magueyes Island, these collections were created by outstanding insect and invertebrate specialists working in Puerto Rico and surrounding islands. Holdings are particularly strong in the Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Collembola, Crustacea, Mollusca, Echinodermata, and Cnidaria. Collecting and curatorial activities, initiated in the 1920s, were maintained throughout the 1980s, resulting in many taxonomically and historically valuable records for the region. From 1990 to 2005, the invertebrate collections were increasingly neglected, with certain parts scattered throughout multiple buildings and rooms, inaccessible, or inadequately stored and at risk of becoming damaged or lost. The support for these collections was not sustained at high levels due to a variety of factors, including changes in the research profile of new academic appointments and the shortsightedness of administrators to fully understand the cultural, educational and scientific value of the museum holdings. With the exception of a federal grant through NSF - DBI (National Science Foundation - Biological Research Collections - PI Frantz - 2007-2010), which initiated a flurry of Museum related activities to improve the deteriorating museum facilities throughout the UPRM campus, the Museum collections are now facing even more challenges, some anthropogenic and very recently, some natural. Major Hurricane Maria (Category 4), delivered a devastating blow to the island of Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017. Both terrestrial and marine ecosystems were heavily impacted. Extensive structural damage to roads, telecommunications, water systems, the energy grid and approximately 60,000 houses/buildings made Hurricane Maria the most damaging Hurricane (estimated cost ~ 90 billion dollars) in the USA after Katrina and Harvey. Flooding caused by the direct impact of Hurricane Maria (5 to 40 inches of rain fell during the first 48 hours in Puerto Rico) and subsequent extensive loss of electricity caused unfavorable conditions for the collections. The University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez closed for approximately 45 days and limited electricity, if any, was available through diesel generators. High levels of humidity and heat can cause further structural damage as well as favor the growth of fungus in enclosed areas of UPRM, including the Museums. Efforts to safeguard the collections will be outlined here to ensure the collections remain a valuable natural asset of the people of Puerto Rico as part of their natural patrimony and as an irreplaceable education tool.

scholarly journals Sugarcane Variety Trials in Puerto Rico, 1951-55

1969 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-160
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Méndez-Roig ◽  
George Samuels
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Sugarcane Variety ◽  
Commercial Variety ◽  
University Of Puerto Rico ◽  
Agricultural Experiment Station ◽  
North Central ◽  
Variety Trials ◽  
Agricultural Experiment ◽  
Entire Island

Sugarcane variety trials performed by the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, P. R., During the period 1951-55, involved 19 separate experiments and 33 crops. The following results are significant: 1. In the production of available 96° sugar per acre B. 37161 was the outstanding variety of East and North Central cane areas of the Island. P.R. 980 was the leading variety in the Northwest, West, South, and Interior of Puerto Rico. 2. B. 40105, B. 37172, B. 41227, H. 328560, and P.R. 975 all were among the leading producers in tons of sugar per acre. 3. The check varieties M. 336, P.O.J. 2878, and P.R. 902, ranked poorly in the trials as compared with the leading varieties in tons of sugar produced per acre. 4. In terms of tons of cane per acre B. 37161 and P.R. 980 were the two leading varieties for the entire Island, with H. 328560, B. 41227, and B. 37172 also showing favorable cane-tonnage figures. All check varieties did poorly in tons of cane per acre as compared to the leading variety. 5. The varieties were also ranked according to their production of sucrose-percent- cane. P.R. 975 and B. 4362 were first and second, respectively. These two varieties also produced higher cane tonnage than the favored commercial variety M. 336, which ranked third. 6. Finally, the varieties were ranked according to the tons of sugar per acre produced per month, and P.R. 980 ranked first. The first eight experimental varieties produced over 0.60 ton of sugar per acre per month as compared with all commercial varieties, except B. 37161, which produced below 0.50 ton of sugar per acre per month. 7. The reluctance of Puerto Rican farmers to adopt the new cane varieties tested and proven superior to the old commercial varieties is very unprofitable to them. Yields are cited which show that if the land now used to grow the older cane varieties were planted to the new leading experimentally tested varieties discussed in this article, the present sugar crop in Puerto Rico could be produced on about two-thirds of the present acreage. This would release over 100,000 acres for other agricultural uses.

A pilot study to determine mercury exposure through vapor and bound to PM10 in a dental school environment

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Gioda ◽  
Gilberto Hanke ◽  
Augusto Elias-Boneta ◽  
Braulio Jiménez-Velez
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Mercury Vapor ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Dental School ◽  
University Of Puerto Rico ◽  
Exposure Limit ◽  
Dental Practitioners ◽  
School Of Dentistry

Mercury (Hg) is widely used in the dental working environment, exposing dental practitioners and assistants to potentially toxic Hg vapors. Concentrations of Hg in vapor and in particulate matter (PM10) were measured in the Dental Simulation Laboratory (DSL) and in the Dental Clinic (DC) at the School of Dentistry, University of Puerto Rico. PM10 samples were collected over a 36-h period and Hg vapor was collected for eight-hour periods. PM10 mass was determined gravimetically and Hg (bound to PM10 and vapor) was extracted and analyzed by atomic absorption. Indoor levels of PM10 in the DSL ranged from 9.2 to 41.6 μg/m3 and 35.0 to 68.2 μg/m3 in the DC. Levels of particle-bound Hg ranged from 0.1 to 1.2 μg/m3 and in vapor 1.1 to 3.3mg/m 3 at the DSL; the DC levels ranged from <0.01 to 0.2 μg/m 3 for particle bound Hg and 13.6 to 102.7 μg/m3 in vapor. PM10 concentrations were below Indoor Air Quality suggested limits for total dust (100 μg/m3). Levels of mercury bound to PM 10 were low; however, mercury vapor was several times higher than the suggested OSHA (permissible exposure limit — 100 μg/m3) in the DSL.

Los amarres de la lengua: Spanish Exiles, Puerto Rican Intellectuals, and the Battle over Spanish, 1942–2016

2019 ◽  
pp. 126-143
Author(s):  
Lena Burgos-Lafuente
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Short Story ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
University Of Puerto Rico ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The University ◽  
Pedro Salinas

The chapter provides a genealogy of the 2016 CILE (Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española), during which the Spanish officialdom celebrated Puerto Rico's linguistic ties to Spain as a 21st-century mercantile ploy. I review the language debates that raged in Puerto Rico in the 1940s, examining Pedro Salinas' 1948 Commencement Speech at the University of Puerto Rico, which would become his famed "Defensa del lenguaje"; revisiting Gov. Luis Muñoz Marín's 1953 speech "La personalidad puertorriqueña en el Estado Libre Asociado"; and ending with a brief coda on Ana Lydia Vega's 1981 short story "Pollito Chicken," to reflect on the positions shared by both Spanish exiles to the Caribbean and local intellectuals regarding language as a self-evident vessel of identity. The main argument is that a rhetoric of defense, crystallized in the 1940s, was redeployed by successive and presumptively opposite segments of the intelligentsia.

Addressing Educational Needs in Spatial Data, Information Science, and Geomatics in the Civil Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum

2003 ◽  
Vol 1848 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne A. Sarasua ◽  
William J. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Clemson University ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis

The technology-driven, rapidly advancing field of spatial data and information science (SDIS) is an integral part of numerous engineering professions. Many college civil engineering programs are struggling to find ways to accommodate this subject in an already crowded undergraduate curriculum. There are several reasons that taking a course in SDIS is desirable for civil engineers entering today’s demanding job market. First, technologies related to surveying, spatial data, and information science are among the fastest developing in the industry, and there is significant demand for skills in the latest technology. Second, spatial data collection and analysis are essential to all civil engineering disciplines; thus, a fundamental understanding of data collection and analysis techniques is desirable. The transportation discipline of civil engineering may face the greatest need for professionals specializing in SDIS. Transportation planning, system design, facilities management, and transportation logistics rely heavily on SDIS technologies, including conventional surveying, geographic information systems, Global Positioning System, remote sensing, and digital terrain modeling. A description is given of a widely transferable and technically up-to-date course in geomatics that expands on traditional surveying by incorporating modern methods of spatial data collection, management, and analysis. Including a course on geomatics early in students’ undergraduate civil engineering curriculum may plant the seed for the development of future SDIS and SDIS for transportation professionals. Lessons learned in developing geomatics courses at Clemson University, Georgia Tech, and The Citadel are presented. Findings and recommendations are summarized with respect to broader application issues affecting the civil engineering curriculum.

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