Academic literature on the topic 'Mandala Art Therapy'

Mandalas (in Sanskrit refers to “circle” or “discoid object”) have been exclusively a part of the Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism and Shintoism, for hundreds of years. They represent the different aspects of the universe. They are also used as sacred meditation tools as well as consecrated symbols of prayer, most notably in China, Japan, and Tibet. Only in recent years that mandalas have been found to promote the mental as well as physical well-being or wellness, especially for those who are experiencing stress, anxiety and depression (also known as SAD syndrome). They are eventually incorporated into art as therapy and counseling as part of the repertoire of intervention tools. Generally, mandala art therapy can be divided into three different forms: (i) mandala meditation, (ii) mandala drawing, and (iii) mandala coloring. Each of these forms is a therapeutic tool that serves to help a person to relax and be at peace with oneself. According to Jungian concept of a mandala, it refers to the psychological expression of the totality of the self, and hence, mandala art therapy in whichever of its three forms can help to establish the positive wholesomeness of self. In this paper, the authors have chosen to focus on mandala coloring as a therapeutic tool and introduced the simple five-step procedure to implement it.

Primary dysmenorrhea is painful menstruation due to uterine functional origin without any other gynecologic diseases such as endometriosis or adenomyosis. The pain of primary dysmenorrhea is from hyper contraction or high sensitivity to pain. The primary dysmenorrhea has been treated by NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) or oral contraceptives from the past. However, primary dysmenorrhea is not controlled in all patients by these treatments. Some patients need more supportive treatment. The many supportive treatment have tried to this condition. The art therapy can also tried for this supportive treatment, so we studied mandala art therapy for primary dysmenorrhea. The purpose of this study is observing the usefulness of art therapy for supportive therapy of primary dysmenorrhea.We estimate the degree of pain by VAS (Visual Analog Scale), and statistically compares the change of pain before and after mandala therapy by χ-square with Fisher’s exact test. We did mandala therapy 2 times/week from menstruation to next menstruation, and we compare the change of pain before and after mandala therapy by VAS score. The result of this study is as follows. We observed the pain change in 10 patients. The four of 10 patients felt no change in pain after therapy, but the 2 of 10 patients felt no pain after therapy. The four of 10 patients felt decreased pain after therapy although not disappear completely. Therefore, the six of 10 patients can be felt decreased pain after mandala therapy (P<0.05). The mandala art therapy can be useful for supportive therapy of primary dysmenorrhea. However, a study of the bigger population is needed to confirm this effect for primary dysmenorrhea

Dementia is a disorder of cognitive function in eldery. It is as one sign of an aging process, where there is a metabolic decline in the brain. Non-pharmacalogical theraphy with art theraphy, Mandala Therapy, believed to improved the cognitive function of older adult with dementia.This study aims to determain the effect of Mandala Therapy to improving cogntive function in elderly. Mandala Colouring Theraphy,which is expected to be able to help elderly to increase focus, concentration, reduce anxiety and can be an inherent process of meditation. The research design in this study used quasy experimental with the sample as 37 elderly. The measurement of cognitive function was carried out using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) instrument which was carried out before and after the Mandala color therapy. The results found not significant difference between before and after Mandala colouring therapy (p = 0.324) with a mean decline of 0.69 points, but there were significant differences based on the severity of cognitive function disorders. Coloring therapy needs to be done routinely and continuously in order to provide meaningful results.

L’antropologia filosofica, le neuroscienze e la fisica quantistica concordano nel definire l’essere umano come un essere intrinsecamente sociale, naturalmente volto alla relazione e alla condivisione delle proprie emozioni. Talvolta, però, questa dimensione socio-emotiva tipicamente umana sembra essere fortemente compromessa, come nel caso dei soggetti con disturbi dello spettro autistico (ASD), i quali faticano a stabilire relazioni e un contatto visivo con le altre persone. Baron-Cohen descrive il cervello autistico come un Systematic brain, caratterizzato da una scarsa o assente familiarità con emozioni ed empatia, a differenza del cervello Empatico delle persone a sviluppo tipico (TD). Alcuni autori, tra cui il neuroscienziato Antonio Damasio, individuano un nesso fondamentale tra emozioni e coscienza, definendo quest’ultima come l’apice di un processo di progressiva emergenza di un senso del Sé compiuto (o autobiografico) dall’inconscio. Le emozioni e i sentimenti costituiscono due stadi intermedi fondamentali di questo processo e, quindi, una chiave di accesso privilegiata al pieno risveglio della propria coscienza emotiva. Da tale punto di vista, lo storytelling si rivela essere uno strumento terapeutico, in quanto capace di attuare nei partecipanti un processo di progressivo risveglio interiore. A conclusione della prima parte di questa ricerca, a carattere teorico, si propone un confronto tra le varie forme, già sperimentate, di storytelling educativo per bambini autistici in età scolare, tra cui: storie a computer (Emotiplay, di Baron-Cohen), Storie Sociali e conversazioni a fumetti. La seconda parte, invece, a carattere empirico, presenta un progetto di storytelling sperimentale personalmente ideato e attuato per due fratelli gemelli autistici nel corso di due anni scolastici successivi (quarta e quinta elementare), in un contesto classe inclusivo. Il progetto vantava un obiettivo euristico, di accrescimento delle conoscenze nell’ambito dello storytelling terapeutico, e un obiettivo educativo, consistente nel fornire a tutti i partecipanti gli strumenti necessari per maturare una buona consapevolezza emotiva e imparare a riconoscere e verbalizzare emozioni e sentimenti personali. Si è scelto di adottare un metodo fenomenologico, sospendendo quindi il giudizio sulle persone autistiche come soggetti incapaci di provare emozioni, e un approccio dialogico, che ha permesso ai partecipanti di lasciare emergere il loro sapere implicito sulle emozioni e alcune esperienze emotive significative registrate a livello inconscio. Nella prima fase del progetto, i due bambini ASD sono stati coinvolti in un ciclo di sei incontri, incentrati sull’esplorazione delle loro emozioni a partire dalle rispettive manifestazioni esteriori (approccio occidentale). Ciascun incontro rispettava la medesima sequenza di attività: lettura di un episodio della storia scritta dalla ricercatrice per i bambini (Il mulino dei colori di Leo e Cloe), conversazioni socratiche o conversazioni a fumetti, produzione di un racconto autobiografico da parte di ciascun bambino. La seconda fase del progetto (cinque incontri) è stata concepita per aiutare i bambini a riconoscere i sentimenti generatori delle proprie emozioni e ad acquisire così una maggiore capacità introspettiva (approccio orientale). A tal fine, le attività di storytelling, incentrate sulla lettura di Raffi l’aquila bianca, sono state accompagnate da attività di Mandala Art Therapy. L’analisi qualitativa di tutti gli elaborati ha permesso di corroborare la tesi secondo cui il deficit emotivo tipicamente autistico si configura non tanto come una mancanza di emozioni, quanto piuttosto come una mancanza, peraltro riducibile, di consapevolezza dei propri vissuti emotivi.
Philosophical anthropology, neuroscience and quantum physics agree that human being is characterized by an innate predisposition to socialize and share emotions with other persons. Despite that, some people seem to lack this social and emotive competence. This is the case of children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). They generally find it very difficult to interact with other persons and even to look them in the eyes. The British neuroscientist Simon Baron-Cohen defines their brain as a Systematic brain, characterized by extremely poor familiarity with emotions, empathy and social interactions, at odds with typical development (TD) persons’ Empathetic brain. Some important authors, such as the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and the psychiatrist Francesca Erica Poli underline a fundamental link between our emotions and our awareness, which they define as the summit of a process of gradual emergency of a complete and autobiographical Sense of Self from our subconscious. Emotions and feelings represent two fundamental levels of this process and, therefore, a preferential key of access to the full awakening of our own emotional consciousness. In the light of this, storytelling can be consider as a therapeutic instrument, that means an instrument able to activate a process of gradual inner transformation and awakening in the participants. In the first part of this research, developed on the theoretical grounded, I compare different type of educative storytelling for autistic school-age children, most of all computer-based stories, such as Emotiplay, by Baron-Cohen, Social Stories and comic conversation by Carol Gray. By contrast, the second part is an empirical one and describes a project of experimental storytelling personally implemented with two autistic twin brothers, aged nine, for two consecutive school years (fourth and fifth grade). The project was meant to achieve two objectives: an euristic one, which was defining the fundamental characteristics of a therapeutic storytelling specific for autistic children, and an educational objective, which was promoting the growth of a self-emotive consciousness in all the participants, autistic and non, and educating them to verbalize their emotions and feelings. I used a phenomenological method, to investigate autism spectrum disorders suspending the judgment about autistic people (children in particular) as persons with poor social skills (especially empathy) not able to feel complex emotions, and I adopted a dialogical-socratic approach, which let all the participants’ emotional experiences naturally emerge from their subconscious. In the first phase of the project, the autistic children and their TD classmates were involved in a series of six sessions focused on exploring their own emotions starting with their exterior manifestations (occidental approach). Each session consisted in three moments: reading an episode of the story that I specifically wrote for the children (Leo and Cloe’s mill of colours); conversing in circle (Socratic method) or drawing comic conversations and writing a personal emotional experience (autobiographical account). The second phase of the project was articulated in five sessions aimed to lead children to recognize the sentimental cause of their emotion and to develop a greater introspective faculty (oriental approach). For this purpose, storytelling activities, focused on the story Raffi l’aquila bianca, were combined with those of Mandala Art Therapy. The qualitative analysis of all children’s works allowed me to corroborate the thesis according to which autistic emotional deficit doesn’t consist in an irretrievable lack of emotions, but in a correctable/reducible lack of emotional consciousness.

This research examines the effects of a daily, ritualistic, intentional practice of Sufi meditation Tamarzok, Sufi Zikr and art making in the life of a female art therapist graduate student, in a transitional professional and developmental stage of life. The general psychology and art therapy literature were examined to look at contemporary understanding in the integration of spirituality and art in mental health. A lack of information in the art therapy literature prompted the interest in the development of this study to respond to this inquiry. This art-centered research informed by a heuristic, phenomenological, dialectical inquiry of self-examination, encompassed the practice of Sufi Zikr and Sufi meditation Tamarkoz as understood from the perspective of the Sufi Order Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism, followed by art making as a way of documenting and contextualizing the qualities of the internal and external emotional landscapes to uncover themes and broaden self-knowledge in the support and enhancement of growth and well-being. The data was analyzed by looking at emergent themes. Conclusions drawn aligned the combined practices of art making and spirituality to that of a relational home where the Self and all parts of the psyche can coexist and contextualized for meanings to emerge and healing to take place. The findings of this inquiry were in overall alignment with the reviewed art therapy literature; gaps in the reviewed literature were noted in the exploration of the somatic component of the practice of art making as it relates to healing. Further research is warranted to expand and explore the data and the uncovered areas.

碩士
臺北市立大學
競技運動訓練研究所
104
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to understand the change in self-realization scores between pre- and post-tests in experimental and control groups following Mandala art therapy in collegiate martial arts athletes. Methods: Subjects were divided into experimental and control groups; the experimental group participated in art therapy courses for 2 hours a week for 6 weeks. The 6-week courses were designed by an art therapist. The control group did not participate in the course. All subjects in both groups were examined before and after the 6-week course using a "Self-realization Scale.” Results: 1. The mean score of the “creative expression” subscale was significantly higher after Mandala art therapy intervention. 2. No difference in mean scores of the following subscales were observed: “self-acceptance”, “devotion to others”, “acceptance and respect of others”, and “self-actualization and independence”. 3. No difference could be observed overall within or between both groups following the intervention. Conclusion: Creative expression of competitive martial arts athletes could be effectively enhanced by Mandala art therapy, leading to improved performance routines and development of style. These improvements may then improve athletic performance.

This qualitative thesis deals self-knowledge in art expression. The work examines how the creator understands to his or her art product, what happens in the dialogue over the product and this understanding impacts to self-knowledge and self-transformation. The work represents the principle of expression and expressiveness as a phenomenon and mandala as a specific instrument of art expression, which is set in professional framework through its origin and tradition of use in therapeutic practice. The work is dedicated to process in which the meaning is explored and constitutes three stages, the first one is expression, second one is reflection and the third is analysis. Theory of expression, dynamic art therapy and hermeneutic approach are presented as three basic theoretical approaches in this work. The work describes three case reports in a dynamic process and interprets them through formal and thematic analysis, respectively which strategies are used to find meaning in picture and what is the character of the main topics. Keywords: Art expression, mandalas, self-knowledge, early adulthood, theory of expression, dynamic art therapy, hermeneutics.

Narrative therapy can be understood as part of a narrative continuum where generative story threads are interwoven into a mandala of transformational practices. Individual and social transformation is elicited by narrative practices that reinforce narrative coherency. Through engagement with narrative methods, phases of narrative practice and inquiry are analyzed, revealing the emergence of narrative concrescence within an integrated narrative framework. Autoethnography, narrative therapy, narrative mediation, narrative conflict resolution, and transformational learning using “transformagram portfolios” can be understood as connected storying practices contained in mediatorship. This holistic approach to narrative methods creates linkages that further the generative potential of narrative practices as illustrated in case studies. By reinforcing narrative coherency in the noosphere, “narrative truth” can be generated and used as a guiding force in a post-truth era.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the most common causes of severe visual loss in middle and old-age population, and often leads to serious deterioration in quality of life. Currently, the first-line treatment for neovascular AMD (nAMD) are intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) medications, including bevacizumab, ranibizumab, and aflibercept and also latest commercially available drug, brolucizumab. During initial examination and imaging and treatment follow-up for patients with nAMD, optical coherence tomography (OCT) is used to predict and assess the therapeutic response and guide the treatment. Several OCT-based biomarkers, including the central subfoveal thickness (CSFT), the presence of intraretinal cysts (IRCs) or subretinal fluid (SRF), and the presence of pigment epithelial detachment (PED), were found to influence baseline visual acuity or visual improvements. Recent analyses of large randomized control trials (RCTs) summarized the usefulness of these OCT-based biomarkers. However, many of these early studies relied on time-domain OCT to evaluate the retinal structures thus providing less precise evaluation of the retinal details. After introduction of spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) which provided high resolution images, recent studies offered new insights in specific morphological changes and their different impact on visual function in nAMD. For example, these advancement in resolution offered new classification of IRCs into degenerative and exudative which impacts treatment strategy and final outcome in the treatment of nAMD. Moreover, the recent data disclose a substantial difference between RCTs and real-world studies regarding the response to anti-VEGF therapy. In conclusions, IRCs and PED are associated with poor visual improvement in nAMD in a realworld setting. Both IRCs and SRF responded better than PED to anti-VEGF therapy. These observations mandate large longitudinal studies focusing on the usefulness of these high resolution SD-OCT biomarkers in real-world situations.

Parenting coordination is a dispute resolution process generally occurring after a parenting plan has been established, to assist parents in chronic high conflict coparenting. Mental health professionals and family law professionals provide parenting coordination to assist coparents to implement their previously agreed to or court-ordered parenting plan in a child-focused and expeditious manner to minimize parental conflict, thereby reducing risk to children. This chapter summarizes the parenting coordinator’s mandate (education, conflict resolution, case management, decision-making), identifies risks and benefits, and addresses considerations when intimate partner violence (IPV) is a factor. The parenting coordination process from start to finish is discussed—managing referrals, screening for IPV, risk factors, and suitability; conducting the informed consent process; intake and information gathering; consensus-building phase (conflict management, resolution, and negotiation) and decision-making (arbitration). Parenting coordination is not a panacea for all high conflict coparenting situations. Inappropriate cases are identified and guidelines, professional standards, and training requirements are summarized.

The role of autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) in armed conflict has sparked heated debate. The resulting controversy has obscured the benefits of autonomy and AI for compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL). Compliance with IHL often hinges on situational awareness: information about a possible target's behavior, nearby protected persons and objects, and conditions that might compromise the planner's own perception or judgment. This chapter argues that AI can assist in developing situational awareness technology (SAT) that will make target selection and collateral damage estimation more accurate, thereby reducing harm to civilians. SAT complements familiar precautionary measures such as taking additional time and consulting with more senior officers. These familiar precautions are subject to three limiting factors: contingency, imperfect information, and confirmation bias. This chapter breaks down SAT into three roles. Gatekeeper SAT ensures that operators have the information they need. In each of the three contexts, SAT can help fulfill IHL's mandate of “constant care” in the avoidance of harm to civilian persons and objects.

Shared decision-making (SDM) is the accepted standard of care paradigm for medical decision making between patient or surrogate and clinician. In its Choosing Wisely campaign, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) recommended SDM prior to the initiation of dialysis. Evidence suggests that SDM enhances patients’ understanding of their illness and satisfaction with the decision-making process, but at present SDM is poorly integrated into dialysis decision-making. Dialysis patients often describe a passive role in the decision to start dialysis, reinforcing the need for implementation of SDM in decision-making with patients with kidney disease. The hallmark feature of SDM is collaboration between the clinician and the patient or surrogate whereby the patient’s expertise in the realm of values and priorities is elicited while the clinician’s medical expertise is shared. The ultimate treatment decision results from the integration of their respective expertise. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality SHARE Approach outlines the components of SDM, and frameworks such as the Serious Illness Conversation Guide, REMAP, and SPIRES are roadmaps for those components. Communication tools and mnemonics also facilitate SDM conversations. With knowledge and application of these frameworks and tools, the nephrology community will be better positioned to fulfill the mandate embodied in the ASN Choosing Wisely campaign to employ the SDM process in renal replacement therapy decisions.

This chapter assesses the compliance of AU Member States with the recommendations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) under the individual complaints system provided in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter). There is no direct reference in the African Charter authorizing the Commission to issue recommendations upon finding a state party in violation of the provisions of the Charter. The Commission has developed its mandate in a progressive manner by relying on the ‘implied powers doctrine’; to adopt recommendations upon having found a state party in violation of the Charter. Currently, it appears that some States still view the implementation of recommendations on Communications as voluntary because the Commission is viewed as a quasi-judicial organ. The chapter then argues that there are factors, both permanent and variable to the system, which if focused on could harvest positive results, in as far as securing improved state compliance to the African Commission’s recommendations and thereby contributing to the realization of human and peoples’ rights on the continent.

Abstract Computed tomography (CT) is an important tool to characterize rock samples allowing quantification of physical properties in 3D and 4D. The accuracy of a property delineated from CT data is strongly correlated with the CT image quality. In general, high-quality, lower noise CT Images mandate greater exposure times. With increasing exposure time, however, more wear is put on the X-Ray tube and longer cooldown periods are required, inevitably limiting the temporal resolution of the particular phenomena under investigation. In this work, we propose a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) based approach to improve the quality of images collected during reduced exposure time scans. First, we convolve long exposure time images from medical CT scanner with a blur kernel to mimic the degradation caused because of reduced exposure time scanning. Subsequently, utilizing the high- and low-quality scan stacks, we train a DCNN. The trained network enables us to restore any low-quality scan for which high-quality reference is not available. Furthermore, we investigate several factors affecting the DCNN performance such as the number of training images, transfer learning strategies, and loss functions. The results indicate that the number of training images is an important factor since the predictive capability of the DCNN improves as the number of training images increases. We illustrate, however, that the requirement for a large training dataset can be reduced by exploiting transfer learning. In addition, training the DCNN on mean squared error (MSE) as a loss function outperforms both mean absolute error (MAE) and Peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) loss functions with respect to image quality metrics. The presented approach enables the prediction of high-quality images from low exposure CT images. Consequently, this allows for continued scanning without the need for X-Ray tube to cool down, thereby maximizing the temporal resolution. This is of particular value for any core flood experiment seeking to capture the underlying dynamics.

Abstract Depleted well monitoring is a crucial task to ensure continuous production without facing substantial issues that withhold the production, such as liquid loading. Utilizing an integrated digital production system and custom intelligence alarms functionality can help identify and analyze this bottleneck using physics-based model estimations that can help users take preventive actions, leading to saving cost, time, and effort. This paper demonstrates the identification of the liquid loading using custom intelligence alarms and an automated framework. Initially, a representative compositional well model is added to the digital twin solution enabling the automated well analysis workflow. Subsequently, custom intelligence alarms guidelines are configured to keep the well's performance and production rates under supervision with a notification capability when parameters violate the guidelines. Along with various well performance parameters being analyzed, two critical parameters for liquid loading debottlenecking, critical unloading velocity and the In-situ velocity, are investigated in the system for each well as the function of depth along well's completion. Moreover, advanced dashboards report the analysis output in an informative manner, guide users’ engineering judgment to take preventive decisions. As a result of the custom intelligence alarm, gas condensate wells suffering from liquid loading were predicted and identified. Based on the production parameter and target monitoring, these wells were unable to produce their expected mandate resulting in violating the set of production parameters guidelines. Identified wells were run through production gas rate sensitivity analysis using the analytical tool, and in conclusion, the optimal production rate was calculated. Producing the well below this critical rate causes the In-situ velocity to drop below critical unloading velocity. Additionally, using the tuned and calibrated network model, the operating choke was identified to maintain the stable flow in the well and avoid further liquid loading. This choke size was provided to field operation for implementation and saved the cost and man-hour spent during the flowing gradient surveys. The case study demonstrates significant production improvements observed for these wells, thereby significantly reducing cost and time. Using the integration of the latest production optimization platforms and custom intelligence alarm provides tools to identify wells that are currently experiencing liquid loading challenges and healthy wells that might come under the liquid loading category in the course of production, thus helping in taking proactive remedial action. Furthermore, the integrated framework provides erosional velocity-related data, which acts as a guideline while optimizing gas production.

Microalgae is currently receiving strong consideration as a potential biofuel feedstock to help meet the advanced biofuels mandate of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act because of its theoretically high yield (gallons/acre/year) in comparison to current terrestrial feedstocks. Microalgae lipids can be converted into a variety of biofuels including fatty acid methyl esters (e.g. biodiesel), renewable diesel, renewable gasoline or synthetic paraffinic aviation kerosene. For algal methyl ester biodiesel, fuel properties will be directly related to the fatty acid composition of the lipids produced by the given microalgae strain. Several microalgae species under consideration for wide scale cultivation, such as Nannochloropsis, produce lipids with fatty acid compositions containing substantially higher quantities of long chain-polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) in comparison to terrestrial feedstocks. It is expected that increased levels of LC-PUFA will be problematic in terms of meeting all of the current ASTM specifications for biodiesel. For example, it is well known that oxidative stability decreases with increasing levels of LC-PUFA. However, these same LC-PUFA fatty acids, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA: C20:5) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA: C22:6) are known to have high nutritional value thereby making separation of these compounds economically attractive. Given the uncertainty in the future value of these LC-PUFA compounds and the economic viability of the separation process, the goal of this study was to examine the oxidative stability of algal methyl esters with varying levels of EPA and DHA. Tests were conducted using a Metrohm 743 Rancimat with automatic induction period determination following ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 standards, which call for induction periods of at least 3 hours and 6 hours, respectively. Tests were conducted at a temperature of 110°C and airflow of 10 L/h with model algal methyl ester compounds synthesized from various sources to match the fatty acid compositions of several algae strains subjected to varying removal amounts of roughly 0 to 100 percent LC-PUFA. In addition, tests were also conducted with real algal methyl esters produced from multiple sources. The bis-allylic position equivalent (BAPE) was calculated for each fuel sample to quantify the level of unsaturation. The induction period was then plotted as a function of BAPE, which showed that the oxidative stability varied exponentially with the amount of LC-PUFA. The results suggest that removal of 45 to 65 percent of the LC-PUFA from Nannochloropsis-based algal methyl esters would be sufficient for meeting existing ASTM specifications for oxidative stability.

Concerns over rising fuel prices, national security, and the environment have led to the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, which established a mandate for the production of at least 36 billion gallons of biofuels in 2022, up to 15 billion gallons of which can come from traditional first-generation biofuels sources such as corn starch-based ethanol. One consequence of ramped-up biofuels production is the risk of additional soil runoff. This runoff, potentially laden with nitrogen and phosphorus compounds from fertilizers, can detrimentally impact water quality. Consequently, the water treatment sector might require additional energy to remove increased quantities of sediment and run-off from nutrients and pesticides in degraded water bodies downstream of agricultural land. At the same time, the cumulative effects of increased eutrophication in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya River Basins have already negatively impacted much of the aquatic life in the Louisiana-Texas continental shelf. A recent report by U.S. Geological Survey measured nitrogen loading in the Mississippi River basin as high as 7,761 metric tons per day, the highest recorded loading in the past three decades, 52% of which is attributed to loading from corn and soybean crops. Massive algae blooms that thrive in nutrient-rich water deplete the water of oxygen when they die, creating a hypoxic region. This hypoxic region, which currently covers a region the size of New Jersey, is considered to be the second-largest dead zone in the world as of 2007. As a result, the Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan of 2008 was established to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous loading by 45% in order to shrink the hypoxic region to 5,000 square kilometers. Thus, at a time when water quality priorities aim to decrease nitrogen and phosphorous loading in waterways, legislative targets are seeking to increase corn starch-based ethanol production to 15 billion gallons a year, and thereby potentially increase nitrogen loading in this region by 10–34% due to runoff. Consequently, the energy intensity for water treatment may have a two-fold challenge. Because water and wastewater treatment is already responsible for 4% of the nation’s electricity consumption, putting more stringent demands on this sector could put upward pressure on energy consumption. This analysis quantifies the impact that the mandated increase in ethanol production might have on the energy required for water treatment in the United States. It reports results from a first-order top-level analysis of the energy impacts of ethanol. The results indicate that the increased production corn-starch based ethanol in the United States is not likely to increase the energy consumed during surface water treatment, but might cause significant increases in the energy consumed during groundwater treatment.