Inspirational Story of Agriculture at Living with The Land Attraction at EPCOT.

Since its debut in 1982, The Land has embodied Walt Disney's vision, capturing the attention of millions of EPCOT guests with venues focusing on agriculture and environmental stewardship and sustainability. The Land pavilion spans over eight acres in the World Nature section of EPCOT at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The pavilion houses three attractions, namely Soarin' Around the World, Awesome Planet, and the Living with The Land boat ride, complemented by a greenhouse walking tour entitled Behind the Seeds and two restaurants. Each attraction derives inspiration from nature and challenges mankind to be responsible stewards of planet earth. This feature article focuses on the Living with The Land boat ride attraction, which traverses greenhouses showcasing agricultural technologies and crops from around the world. The sections below describe both how various show elements are designed to engage guests and how the show is made possible by applying relevant science and technology.

Forensic analysis of anthraquinone, azo, and metal complex acid dyes from nylon fibers by micro-extraction and capillary electrophoresis.

The extraction and separation of dyes present on textile fibers offers the possibility of enhanced discrimination between forensic trace fiber evidence. An automated liquid sample handling workstation was programmed to deliver varying solvent combinations to acid-dyed nylon samples, and the resulting extracts were analyzed by an ultraviolet/visible microplate reader to evaluate extraction efficiencies at different experimental conditions. Combinatorial experiments using three-component mixture designs varied three solvents (water, pyridine, and aqueous ammonia) and were employed at different extraction temperatures for various extraction durations. The extraction efficiency as a function of the three solvents (pyridine/ammonia/water) was modeled and used to define optimum conditions for the extraction of three subclasses of acid dyes (anthraquinone, azo, and metal complex) from nylon fibers. The capillary electrophoresis analysis of acid dye extracts is demonstrated using an electrolyte solution of 15 mM ammonium acetate in acetonitrile/water (40:60, v/v) at pH 9.3. Excellent separations and discriminating diode array spectra are obtained even for dyes of similar color.