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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Towards A Cybersecurity Testbed For Agricultural Vehicles And Environments, Mark Freyhof, George Grispos, Santosh Pitla, Cody Stolle May 2022

Towards A Cybersecurity Testbed For Agricultural Vehicles And Environments, Mark Freyhof, George Grispos, Santosh Pitla, Cody Stolle

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

In today’s modern farm, an increasing number of agricultural systems and vehicles are connected to the Internet. While the benefits of networked agricultural machinery are attractive, this technological shift is also creating an environment that is conducive to cyberattacks. While previous research has focused on general cybersecurity concerns in the farming and agricultural industries, minimal research has focused on techniques for identifying security vulnerabilities within actual agricultural systems that could be exploited by cybercriminals. Hence, this paper presents STAVE – a Security Testbed for Agricultural Vehicles and Environments – as a potential solution to assist with the identification of cybersecurity …


An Evaluation Of Tractors Tested At The Nebraska Tractor Test Lab And The Effect Of Epa Emission Standards Based Upon Average Pto Horsepower And Fuel Efficiency, Dalton Erickson Mar 2022

An Evaluation Of Tractors Tested At The Nebraska Tractor Test Lab And The Effect Of Epa Emission Standards Based Upon Average Pto Horsepower And Fuel Efficiency, Dalton Erickson

Honors Theses

Newly released tractor models are tested to ensure they meet advertising claims. This thesis utilizes tractor test data to analyze performance trends in tractors based upon their power take off (PTO) horsepower and fuel efficiency and it evaluates how the average fuel efficiency of tractors was affected by the introduction of emission standards by the United States Environmental Protection Agencies. In conclusion, tractors have shown continuous improvement and growth in both fuel efficiency and PTO horsepower, and emission standards have had a small, positive effect on tractors’ average fuel efficiency.


Evaluation Of A Novel Approach For Assessing Biological Activity In Agricultural Soils, Karla Melgar Dec 2021

Evaluation Of A Novel Approach For Assessing Biological Activity In Agricultural Soils, Karla Melgar

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations and Theses

Soil health is a key factor impacting soil resilience and fertility in crop production systems. Favorable soil physical and biological conditions facilitate plant nutrient absorption and nutrient cycling. Demonstrating to farmers the impacts and changes in soil biological activity under different soil management practices has been a challenge due to the limited availability of inexpensive tools for quantifying this component of soil health. The primary goal of this study was to present a simple and readily accessible tool for evaluating soil biological activity to promote the use of organic amendments in crop fields. Research plots were established in two studies …


On-Farm Research And Student Engagement To Assess And Promote The Use Of Organic Amendments To Improve Agricultural Soil Health And Resilience Of Crop Production Systems In Nebraska, Agustin Jose Olivo Jul 2020

On-Farm Research And Student Engagement To Assess And Promote The Use Of Organic Amendments To Improve Agricultural Soil Health And Resilience Of Crop Production Systems In Nebraska, Agustin Jose Olivo

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations and Theses

In nearly every production environment, there are opportunities to capture profits if waste streams can be further processed or enhanced to create “value added” products. On-farm research studies were initiated in 2019 at four locations across Nebraska to assess the impacts of livestock manure, cedar mulch from forestry management and coal char from sugar beet processing, on agricultural cropland. Study treatments included beef cattle manure (CM), beef cattle slurry (CS), coal char (CC), woody biomass (WB) CM+WB, CS+WB, CM+CC and control (CON; no organic amendment). Soil properties and corn yield were evaluated after a single growing season. Results indicate that …


Developing Serious Games In Engineering Education: Innovation At The Nexus Of Food, Energy, And Water Systems, Nathan Rice Nov 2018

Developing Serious Games In Engineering Education: Innovation At The Nexus Of Food, Energy, And Water Systems, Nathan Rice

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations and Theses

At a time when food, energy, and water (FEW) are of the utmost concern to the security and health of the world, an initiative has begun to understand the interactions between these systems. The goal of Innovation at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) is to bring together research fields that typically work in their own silos to solve complex problems increasing the resiliency and sustainability of the FEW system. Stemming from this initiative was a project to produce an educational immersive simulation game to teach youth about how their food is produced, systems thinking, and sustainable …


Impact Of Vegetative Treatment Systems On Multiple Measures Of Antibiotic Resistance In Agricultural Wastewater, Lisa M. Durso, Daniel N. Miller, Christopher G. Henry Jan 2018

Impact Of Vegetative Treatment Systems On Multiple Measures Of Antibiotic Resistance In Agricultural Wastewater, Lisa M. Durso, Daniel N. Miller, Christopher G. Henry

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Wastewater is an important vector of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARB/G). While there is broad agreement that ARB/G from agricultural (ag) wastewaters can be transported through the environment and may contribute to untreatable infectious disease in humans and animals, there remain large knowledge gaps surrounding applied details on the types and amounts of ARB/G associated with different agricultural wastewater treatment options and different ag production systems. This study evaluates a vegetative treatment system (VTS) built to treat the wastewater from a beef cattle feedlot. Samples were collected for three years, and plated on multiple media types to …


Spatial And Temporal Changes In Maize And Soybean Grain Yield, Precipitation Use Efficiency, And Crop Water Productivity In The U.S. Great Plains, Meetpal S. Kukal, S. Irmak Jan 2017

Spatial And Temporal Changes In Maize And Soybean Grain Yield, Precipitation Use Efficiency, And Crop Water Productivity In The U.S. Great Plains, Meetpal S. Kukal, S. Irmak

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Sustainable agricultural utilization of the limited water resources demands improvements in understanding the changes in crop water productivity (CWP) in space and time, which is often presented as a potential solution to relieve the growing pressure on fresh water resources. In addition, crop yield needs to be studied in relation to precipitation received annually and during the growing season for its contribution to reduce irrigation water requirements, which is quantified through precipitation use efficiency (PUE). Hence, systematic quantifications, mapping, and analyses of large-scale CWP and PUE levels are needed. This study aims to quantify long-term (1982-2013) information on grain yield, …


Height And Pressure Test For Improving Spray Application, Anna Siebe, Joe D. Luck Aug 2016

Height And Pressure Test For Improving Spray Application, Anna Siebe, Joe D. Luck

UCARE Research Products

Pesticide application in agricultural fields affects a little over a million acres each year (USDA 2012). Current spray application equipment can automatically adjust nozzle flow rates in reaction to speed changes to maintain consistent application rates across the field. Uniform distribution of pesticides from the spray boom is critical to ensure proper crop care while minimizing negative environmental effects. Boom pressure and height are two primary factors that affect proper spray uniformity; however information on the combined effects of these factors are limited. The goal of this study was to provide end users with quantified data regarding the effects of …


Vulnerability Of Crops And Native Grasses To Summer Drying In The U.S. Southern Great Plains, Naama Raz-Yaseef, Dave P. Billesbach, Marc L. Fischer, Sebastien C. Biraud, Stacey A. Gunter, James A. Bradford, Margaret S. Torn Jan 2015

Vulnerability Of Crops And Native Grasses To Summer Drying In The U.S. Southern Great Plains, Naama Raz-Yaseef, Dave P. Billesbach, Marc L. Fischer, Sebastien C. Biraud, Stacey A. Gunter, James A. Bradford, Margaret S. Torn

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

The Southern Great Plains are characterized by a fine-scale mixture of different land-cover types, predominantly winter-wheat and grazed pasture, with relatively small areas of other crops, native prairie, and switchgrass. Recent droughts and predictions of increased drought in the Southern Great Plains, especially during the summer months, raise concern for these ecosystems. We measured ecosystem carbon and water fluxes with eddy-covariance systems over cultivated cropland for 10 years, and over lightly grazed prairie and new switchgrass fields for 2 years each. Growing-season precipitation showed the strongest control over net carbon uptake for all ecosystems, but with a variable effect: grasses …


A Case Study Of Changing Cropping Diversity And Agricultural Risk In The Doulthabad Mandal Of Telangana State In India, Srikanth Kondabolu Aug 2014

A Case Study Of Changing Cropping Diversity And Agricultural Risk In The Doulthabad Mandal Of Telangana State In India, Srikanth Kondabolu

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Doulthabad[1] Mandal is a hot semi-arid agro-ecological sub-region (Rao et al. 2006) located in Mahbubnagar District on the North Telangana Plateau in the state of Telangana. Agriculture is the main occupation in this region, which is populated mostly with small and marginal farmers. This study uses the time period from 1971 to 2004 to study the variation in cropping pattern diversity and distribution of rainfall during the monsoons and understand the implications on production risk in agriculture. Quantitative methods were used in determining the changes in rainfall while qualitative methods were used to study cropping system changes. The …


Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics In Agriculture: Model Development And Application From Daily To Decadal Timescales, Matthew P. Pelton May 2013

Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics In Agriculture: Model Development And Application From Daily To Decadal Timescales, Matthew P. Pelton

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations and Theses

Soil carbon (C) is the largest terrestrial C pool globally, containing more C than the atmosphere and biosphere. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a source and sink of CO2 emissions to and from the atmosphere, thus influencing future climate change. Understanding SOC dynamics is also important for maintaining C stocks to sustain and improve crop yields. An existing model to estimate changes in SOC due to respiration was modified to operate in three computational platforms: MS Excel, MS Excel with Visual Basic for Applications, and supercomputing. This model was validated against CO2 flux data from a 9-year field …


Agricultural Aircraft Equipment, N. Shafer Jan 1960

Agricultural Aircraft Equipment, N. Shafer

Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station: Historical Circulars

This bulletin gives a detailed account of the installation, operation, and performance of spray dispersal equipment as tested on the Piper PA-18A airplane. Equipment is also applicable to other types of agricultural aircraft now being used. A list of various aircraft equipment and where it can be obtained is included.


Aircraft In Agriculture, N. E. Shafer, J. D. Furrer, J. W. Lomax Sep 1950

Aircraft In Agriculture, N. E. Shafer, J. D. Furrer, J. W. Lomax

Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station: Historical Circulars

Airplanes were first used in agriculture shortly after the close of World War I. They proved valuable for locating mosquito breeding areas, for forest fire patrol work, as an aid in locating outlaw cotton fields in the campaign against pink bollworm, and for surveying damage caused in large forested areas by the spruce budworm.