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Sci-athon 2019: Home
Graduate student event on food and water security
About This Guide
This guide will help you find library resources for your Sci-Athon and includes links to databases, journals, ebooks, several websites of UNC institutes & research centers, the library search box and other information. Please reach out to your science librarians for additional help.
The evaluation rubric for the presentations (10 min presentation, 10 min questions) will be as follows:
Innovativeness
Feasibility and literature support
Integration of disciplines
Compelling presentation
UNC Catalog Search
Databases
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SciFindern Information from the Chemical Abstracts Service databasesTool for chemists, contains information on chemical reactions, substances and referencesInformation on organic and inorganic substances and sequencesBroad range of scientific disciplines, including biomedical sciences, chemistry, engineering, materials science, and agricultural science Note: Users must first register with their UNC email accounts before accessing this resource. Register: https://login.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://scifinder.cas.org/registration/index.html?corpKey=22CACA07X86F35055X223F8A761E25479081
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Scopus A large citation and abstracting database providing comprehensive coverage of the peer-reviewed journal and conference literature, with links to full-text where available through the library; includes scientific, technical, medical, social science and arts and humanities disciplines and indexes over 20,500 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers including over 340 book series. Like Web of Science, Scopus allows researchers to perform citation searches to see how many times a work has been cited, by whom, and to rank searches by times cited, for the period 1996 -present, as well as its curated index of over 375 scientific web pages and over 24 million patents.
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Environment Complete Journals on topics including agriculture, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, urban planning, and more.
Books
SCIENCE
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Advances in Photocatalytic Disinfection
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This book presents the latest results related to photocatalytic inactivation/killing of microorganisms, which is a promising alternative disinfection method that produces less or even no disinfection byproduct. The book is divided into 13 chapters, which introduce readers to the latest developments in the photocatalytic disinfection of microorganisms, examine essential photocatalytic (PC) and photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) disinfection studies, and forecast and make recommendations for the further development of PC and PEC disinfection. Bringing together contributions by various leading research groups worldwide, it offers a valuable resource for researchers and the industry alike, as well as the general public. Taicheng An, PhD, is Chair Professor and Director at the Institute of Environmental Health and Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China. Huijun Zhao, PhD, is Chair Professor and Director at the Centre for Clean Environment and Energy & Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Australia. Po Keung Wong, PhD, is a Professor at the School of Life Sciences, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
ISBN: 9783662534960Publication Date: 2016-11-26 -
The Chemistry of Bio-Based Polymers
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An exhaustive and timely overview of renewable polymers from a respected chemist and successful author The recent explosion of interdisciplinary research has fragmented the knowledge base surrounding renewable polymers. The Chemistry of Bio-based Polymers brings together, in one volume, the research and work of Professor Johannes Fink, focusing on biopolymers that can be synthesized from renewable polymers. After introducing general aspects of the field, the book's subsequent chapters examine the chemistry of biodegradable polymeric types sorted by their chemical compounds, including the synthesis of low molecular compounds. Various categories of biopolymers are detailed including vinyl-based polymers, acid and lactone polymers, ester and amide polymers, carbohydrate-related polymers and others. Procedures for the preparation of biopolymers and biodegradable nanocomposites are arranged by chemical methods and in vitro biological methods, with discussion of the issue of "plastics from bacteria." The factors influencing the degradation and biodegradation of polymers used in food packaging, exposed to various environments, are detailed at length. The book covers the medical applications of bio-based polymers, concentrating on controlled drug delivery, temporary prostheses, and scaffolds for tissue engineering. Professor Fink also addresses renewable resources for fabricating biofuels and argues for localized biorefineries, as biomass feedstocks are more efficiently handled locally. Audience The Chemistry of Bio-based Polymers will be read by chemists, polymer and materials scientists, chemical, bio-based, and biomedical engineers, agricultural and environmental faculty and all those who work in the bioeconomy area. This book will be critical for engineers in a number of industries including food packaging, medical devices, personal care, fuels, auto, and construction.
ISBN: 9781118837214Publication Date: 2014-02-24 -
Plastics and the Environment
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Plastic has become a ubiquitous part of modern life. A cheap, lightweight material, it is used in everything from food packaging to consumer electronics and microbeads in cosmetic products. However, we are becoming increasingly aware of the problems our reliance on plastic is causing in the environment. For example, recent campaigns have highlighted the build-up of microbeads in the marine environment and the damage this is doing to wildlife, and the problem of marine litter, often in very remote locations. There are also concerns over exposure to plasticisers and their possible consequences for health. The plastics industry is under increasing pressure, not only from the government and environmental groups, but also from consumers, to improve the environmental impact of their products. This book presents an introduction to the uses of plastics and an overview of how they interact with the environment. It is a valuable resource for students studying environmental science as well as researchers working in the plastics industry, and policy makers and regulators concerned with waste disposal and environmental planning and conservation.
ISBN: 9781788013314Publication Date: 2018-11-19
INNOVATION - available at Kenan Science Library reserve shelf.
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Creativity on Demand
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Business consultants everywhere preach the benefits of innovation--and promise to help businesses reap them. A trendy industry, this type of consulting generates courses, workshops, books, and conferences that all claim to hold the secrets of success. But what promises does the notion of innovation entail? What is it about the ideology and practice of business innovation that has made these firms so successful at selling their services to everyone from small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies? And most important, what does business innovation actually mean for work and our economy today? In Creativity on Demand, cultural anthropologist Eitan Wilf seeks to answer these questions by returning to the fundamental and pervasive expectation of continual innovation. Wilf focuses a keen eye on how our obsession with ceaseless innovation stems from the long-standing value of acceleration in capitalist society. Based on ethnographic work with innovation consultants in the United States, he reveals, among other surprises, how routine the culture of innovation actually is. Procedures and strategies are repeated in a formulaic way, and imagination is harnessed as a new professional ethos, not always to generate genuinely new thinking, but to produce predictable signs of continual change. A masterful look at the contradictions of our capitalist age, Creativity on Demand is a model for the anthropological study of our cultures of work.
ISBN: 9780226606835Publication Date: 2019-02-04 -
Loonshots
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*Wall Street Journal bestseller *Next Big Idea Club selection--chosen by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Dan Pink, and Adam Grant as one of the "two most groundbreaking new nonfiction reads of the season" *Washington Post's "10 Leadership Books to Watch for in 2019" *Inc.com's "10 Business Books You Need to Read in 2019" *Business Insider's "14 Books Everyone Will Be Reading in 2019" "This book has everything: new ideas, bold insights, entertaining history and convincing analysis. Not to be missed by anyone who wants to understand how ideas change the world." --Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? What can we learn about human nature and world history from a glass of water? In Loonshots, physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bahcall reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs. Drawing on the science of phase transitions, Bahcall shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice. Mountains of print have been written about culture. Loonshots identifies the small shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature controls the change from water to ice. Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how this new kind of science helps us understand the behavior of companies and the fate of empires. Loonshots distills these insights into lessons for creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries everywhere. Over the past decade, researchers have been applying the tools and techniques of phase transitions to understand how birds flock, fish swim, brains work, people vote, criminals behave, ideas spread, diseases erupt, and ecosystems collapse. If twentieth-century science was shaped by the search for fundamental laws, like quantum mechanics and gravity, the twenty-first will be shaped by this new kind of science. Loonshots is the first to apply these tools to help all of us unlock our potential to create and nurture the crazy ideas that change the world.
ISBN: 9781250185969Publication Date: 2019-03-19
Institutes and Research Centers
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UNC Water InstituteThe Water Institute’s activities are centered around a core collection of focus areas, selected to represent major, under-addressed challenges justified by problem definition, opportunity characterization, and impact potential.
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UNC Institute for the EnvironmentIE fosters and conducts collaborations with faculty, students and staff across the university to identify and solve the world’s environmental challenges and sustain and improve the environment.
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Center for Climate, Energy, Environment and Economics - ResourcesThe center is expanding opportunities for Carolina Law students to develop a deep understanding of the critical energy and environmental challenges of the day and informing public policy and private sector decision-making at the state and federal levels though non-partisan, objective analysis.
Science Librarian
Therese Triumph
she/her/hers
orcid.org/0000-0001-5494-4574About the Science Librarians
The Science Librarians are located on the second floor of Davis Library. They can be contacted by email.