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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Evaluation Of Ndot’S Sediment Barrier Practices Using Performance Data, Michael A. Perez, Wesley N. Donald, J. Blake Whitman, Brian G. Roche Mar 2024

Evaluation Of Ndot’S Sediment Barrier Practices Using Performance Data, Michael A. Perez, Wesley N. Donald, J. Blake Whitman, Brian G. Roche

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

To protect waterways adjacent to construction projects with disturbed land, a 50 ft (15 m) vegetated buffer or equivalent sediment controls are required. However, there is little guidance on the effectiveness of vegetated buffers in removing sediment or how sediment barriers can aid shorter buffers or replace buffers. A modeling methodology was developed and used to determine the performance of 11,664 50 ft (15 m) vegetated buffer configurations with Nebraska conditions; sediment capture averaged 92.6% and ranged from 18.5% to 99.5%. To determine the performance of Nebraska Department of Transportation standard and modified sediment barrier installations, a large-scale testing methodology …


Establishment Of Wildflower Islands To Enhance Roadside Health, Ecological Value, And Aesthetics Phase Ii, Jackson Ebbers, Heidi L. Hillhouse, John A. Guretsky, Thomas J. Weissling Mar 2023

Establishment Of Wildflower Islands To Enhance Roadside Health, Ecological Value, And Aesthetics Phase Ii, Jackson Ebbers, Heidi L. Hillhouse, John A. Guretsky, Thomas J. Weissling

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.


Hu Aquaponics Monitoring And Control System : European Annual Edunet Conference 2020, Rachel L. Fogle, Glenn P. Williams, Josh R. Krug Oct 2020

Hu Aquaponics Monitoring And Control System : European Annual Edunet Conference 2020, Rachel L. Fogle, Glenn P. Williams, Josh R. Krug

Presidential Research Grants

The functional purpose of the HU Aquaponics Monitoring and Control System Project is to develop an environmental and plant monitoring and control system for the HU Aquaponics Lab, located in the Student Union. The project involves the design and implementation of technology that will regularly take measurements from the environment (e.g., air temperature, water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, etc). PLCnext Technology will systematically collect, store, and web-publish the measurement data for HU researchers and the public to use for scientific research.


Establishment Of Wildflower Islands To Enhance Roadside Health And Aesthetics, Walter Schacht, Judy Wu-Smart Dec 2019

Establishment Of Wildflower Islands To Enhance Roadside Health And Aesthetics, Walter Schacht, Judy Wu-Smart

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Wildflowers are crucial in the ecological function of the low-input roadside plant communities in terms of water andnutrient cycling, nutrient inputs such as nitrogen, total plant canopy cover, stand longevity, and provision of habitat for numerous small animals. Further, wildflowers provide critical foraging and nesting resources for birds, insects, and other wildlife. Unfortunately, habitat loss from agricultural and urban development has led to rapid population declines in wild bees and other pollinators across the US, thereby jeopardizing not only food production but also the sustainability of our natural landscapes (Kearns & Inouye, 1997). One way to mitigate wild bee decline …


Introduction To Sorghum Paper Production, Zachary Christman May 2019

Introduction To Sorghum Paper Production, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sorghum is a tall grass used for many commercial products such as fodder and syrup. The 10 to 15 feet stalk of the plant has lower lignin than wood and provides a fiber length of 2.31 mm in the outer covering and 1.38 mm for the leaf. Sorghum fiber makes a high quality, strong paper suitable for printing, packaging and paperboard.


Primitive Palms: A Density Study On The Impacts Of Harvesting Natural Materials For Construction Purposes On Sumak Allpa Of The Amazon Rainforest, Zachary Bull Apr 2019

Primitive Palms: A Density Study On The Impacts Of Harvesting Natural Materials For Construction Purposes On Sumak Allpa Of The Amazon Rainforest, Zachary Bull

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In an effort to better understand how rural construction techniques affect a surrounding environment, this study combines a density test of the natural building materials used in the construction of a school on Sumak Allpa island of the Orellana Province in the Amazon basin of Ecuador. The focus of the study measures the density of the bamboo species Guadua angustifolia and the Panama hat plant Carludovica palmata on the island while noting a comprehensive compilation of the techniques and materials used in the building process. Using a mix of plots and transects, a comparison of harvested material to remaining material …


Nitrogen And Weed Management In Transplanted Tomato In The Nigerian Forest-Savanna Transition Zone, J. A. Adigun, O. S. Daramola, O. R. Adeyemi, P. M. Olorunmaiye, O. A. Osipitan May 2018

Nitrogen And Weed Management In Transplanted Tomato In The Nigerian Forest-Savanna Transition Zone, J. A. Adigun, O. S. Daramola, O. R. Adeyemi, P. M. Olorunmaiye, O. A. Osipitan

Haskell Agricultural Laboratory (Northeast Research and Extension Center)

Weed infestation and inherent low soil fertility are among primary reasons for low yields of tomato in Nigeria. Field trials were carried out during the wet season of 2015 and 2016 to evaluate yield response of tomato to nitrogen (N) application and weed control methods in the forest-savanna transition zone of Abeokuta, Nigeria. Positive relationship exists between growth of weed species and increase in N application. Across the years of study, increase in N up to 90 kg/ha increased weed density by 11–25%, however, the increased N gave the transplanted tomato competitive advantage and thus enhanced weed smothering. Pre-transplant application …


Optimizing The Use Of A Liquid Handling Robot To Conduct A High Throughput Forward Chemical Genetics Screen Of Arabidopsis Thaliana, B. Kirtley Amos, Victoria G. Pook, Seth Debolt Apr 2018

Optimizing The Use Of A Liquid Handling Robot To Conduct A High Throughput Forward Chemical Genetics Screen Of Arabidopsis Thaliana, B. Kirtley Amos, Victoria G. Pook, Seth Debolt

Horticulture Faculty Publications

Chemical genetics is increasingly being employed to decode traits in plants that may be recalcitrant to traditional genetics due to gene redundancy or lethality. However, the probability of a synthetic small molecule being bioactive is low; therefore, thousands of molecules must be tested in order to find those of interest. Liquid handling robotics systems are designed to handle large numbers of samples, increasing the speed with which a chemical library can be screened in addition to minimizing/standardizing error. To achieve a high-throughput forward chemical genetics screen of a library of 50,000 small molecules on Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis), protocols using a …


Effects Of Nitrogen And Phosphorus Fertilizer And Topsoil Amendment On Native Plant Cover In Roadside Revegetation Projects, Heidi L. Hillhouse, Walter H. Schacht, Jonathan M. Soper, Carol E. Wienhold Oct 2017

Effects Of Nitrogen And Phosphorus Fertilizer And Topsoil Amendment On Native Plant Cover In Roadside Revegetation Projects, Heidi L. Hillhouse, Walter H. Schacht, Jonathan M. Soper, Carol E. Wienhold

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Establishing vegetation on roadsides following construction can be challenging, especially for relatively slow growing native species. Topsoil is generally removed during construction, and the surface soil following construction (“cut-slope soils”) is often compacted and low in nutrients, providing poor growing conditions for vegetation. Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) protocols have historically called for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilization when planting roadside vegetation following construction, but these recommendations were developed for cool-season grass plantings and most current plantings use slower-establishing, native warmseason grasses that may benefit less than expected from current planting protocols. We evaluated the effects of nitrogen and …


Improving Wildflower Longevity In Roadside Seeding Areas, Walter Schacht, Jonathan M. Soper, Carol Wienhold Aug 2017

Improving Wildflower Longevity In Roadside Seeding Areas, Walter Schacht, Jonathan M. Soper, Carol Wienhold

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Re-vegetation efforts on bare roadsides of newly-constructed highways are primarily focused on the stabilization of soil to reduce rates of erosion. The Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) seeds roadsides with a diverse mixture of grasses and wildflowers for site stabilization as well as to enhance the visual quality of roadsides. Although grasses dominate roadside plantings in terms of cover and density, wildflowers are largely responsible for the visual enhancement of recently-seeded roadsides. In addition to the visual component, wildflowers provide essential ecological functions on roadsides. Wildflowers improve water and nutrient cycling in the compacted roadside soils by increasing water infiltration …


2013 Annual Report Of Uvm Extension And The Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, Uvm Extension And Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station Feb 2014

2013 Annual Report Of Uvm Extension And The Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, Uvm Extension And Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station

Annual Reports

2013 Annual report of outreach and research from UVM Extension and Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station.


Evaluating Satellite Products For Precipitation Estimation In Mountain Regions: A Case Study For Nepal, Nir Y. Krakauer, Soni M. Pradhanang, Tarendra Lakhankar, Ajay K. Jha Aug 2013

Evaluating Satellite Products For Precipitation Estimation In Mountain Regions: A Case Study For Nepal, Nir Y. Krakauer, Soni M. Pradhanang, Tarendra Lakhankar, Ajay K. Jha

Publications and Research

Precipitation in mountain regions is often highly variable and poorly observed, limiting abilities to manage water resource challenges. Here, we evaluate remote sensing and ground station-based gridded precipitation products over Nepal against weather station precipitation observations on a monthly timescale. We find that the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B-43 precipitation product exhibits little mean bias and reasonable skill in giving precipitation over Nepal. Compared to station observations, the TRMM precipitation product showed an overall Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.49, which is similar to the skill of the gridded station-based product Asian Precipitation-Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water …


An Investigation Of Reflective Mulches For Use Over Capillary Mat Systems For Winter-Time Greenhouse Strawberry Production, George E. Meyer, Ellen T. Paparozzi, Elizabeth Walter-Shea, Erin E. Blankenship, Stacy A. Adams Jan 2012

An Investigation Of Reflective Mulches For Use Over Capillary Mat Systems For Winter-Time Greenhouse Strawberry Production, George E. Meyer, Ellen T. Paparozzi, Elizabeth Walter-Shea, Erin E. Blankenship, Stacy A. Adams

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Photosynthethically active radiation (PAR) is a principle environmental variable used by horticultural specialists, agronomists and ecosystem modelers to characterize the quantity and quality of light conducive to plant growth and development. Spatial distribution of PAR in a greenhouse can be quite variable and diffuse throughout the day time photoperiod, especially at low sun angles in northern regions of the United States. Four colors of reflective plastic mulches (white, red, olive, and black) were evaluated for winter-time strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) production based on their reflectance and transmittance properties in a double-polyethylene, plastic-glazed Quonset greenhouse inNebraska. The spectral properties …


Simulated Effects Of Dynamic Row Spacing On Energy And Water Conservation In Semi-Arid Central California Greenhouses, A. Moya, T. Mehlitz, Ilhami Yildiz, S. F. Kelly, C. Hardin Jan 2008

Simulated Effects Of Dynamic Row Spacing On Energy And Water Conservation In Semi-Arid Central California Greenhouses, A. Moya, T. Mehlitz, Ilhami Yildiz, S. F. Kelly, C. Hardin

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Considerable effort is expended to conserve energy and water in current greenhouse systems, and look for alternative energy sources, especially passive heating and cooling strategies. Proper environmental management systems can significantly change the energy and moisture dynamics of greenhouse production systems. In this study, specifically, influences of dynamic row spacing on energy and water conservation were investigated. A dynamic computer simulation model was used to compare different row spacings, plant heights, and leaf dimensions to draw a conclusion about energy and water conservation. The results showed that using smaller spacings between cucumber crop rows (for instance, 0.5 m instead of …


Simulated Performance Of A Renewable Energy Technology – Heat Pump Systems In Semi-Arid California Greenhouses, C. Hardin, T. Mehlitz, Ilhami Yildiz, S. F. Kelly Jan 2008

Simulated Performance Of A Renewable Energy Technology – Heat Pump Systems In Semi-Arid California Greenhouses, C. Hardin, T. Mehlitz, Ilhami Yildiz, S. F. Kelly

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

In addition to the labor, energy and water consumption are the two main cost drivers in current greenhouse systems. Consequently, considerable effort is expended to conserve energy and water, and look for alternative energy sources, especially environmentally friendly renewable energy sources and technologies. Greenhouses in hot and arid regions also require large quantities of water for irrigation. Using proper technologies and environmental management systems can significantly change the energy and moisture dynamics of greenhouse production systems. This study aims to focus on reducing natural gas, electricity, and water consumption in semi-arid California greenhouses introducing renewable energy heat pump technologies to …


Simulated Effects Of Reflective Mulch On Energy And Water Conservation In Semi-Arid Central California Greenhouses, T. Mehlitz, Ilhami Yildiz, S. Rahman, C. Hardin Jan 2008

Simulated Effects Of Reflective Mulch On Energy And Water Conservation In Semi-Arid Central California Greenhouses, T. Mehlitz, Ilhami Yildiz, S. Rahman, C. Hardin

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

In addition to the labor, energy and water consumption are the two main cost drivers in current greenhouse systems. Consequently, considerable effort is expended to conserve energy and water, and look for alternative energy sources. Greenhouses in hot and arid regions also require large quantities of water for irrigation. Proper environmental management systems can significantly change the energy and moisture dynamics of greenhouse production systems. This study aims to focus on reducing energy and water consumption in semi-arid California greenhouses. Influences of mulch (having different reflectivities) on energy and water conservation were investigated. The reflectivity of mulch used as a …


Design And Evaluation Of A Greenhouse Interface For Climate Control Programming And Networking, G. Diaz, S. F. Kelly, Ilhami Yildiz Jan 2008

Design And Evaluation Of A Greenhouse Interface For Climate Control Programming And Networking, G. Diaz, S. F. Kelly, Ilhami Yildiz

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

At Cal Poly the motto is “Learn by Doing”. In the College of Agriculture, this is especially true and many of the labs provide an opportunity for students to implement this philosophy. Updated climate controls were installed in a series of greenhouses on the top floor of the Agricultural Science building that are used for student and faculty research projects. A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) was installed to actuate the various vents, shading, heating, cooling and irrigation. A control program was developed to control and log temperatures and other operating parameters to monitor the greenhouse. An easy to use computer …


Simulated Effects Of Various Environmental Management Practices On Water Consumption In Open And Confined Greenhouse Systems, Ilhami Yildiz, D. P. Stombaugh Jan 2008

Simulated Effects Of Various Environmental Management Practices On Water Consumption In Open And Confined Greenhouse Systems, Ilhami Yildiz, D. P. Stombaugh

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of relative humidity, light management, minimum ventilation rates, CO2 enrichment and canopy size on water consumption in three different greenhouse systems (conventional, open heat pump, and confined heat pump) in winter, spring, and summer months. Using different relative humidity set points resulted in almost the same relative humidity regimes within the confined greenhouse system, resulting in similar transpiration rates. No difference was observed in transpiration rates in the open system in winter either, because the inside relative humidity levels never reached the 70% and 80% set points. Some differences …


Spatial Distributions Of Heating, Cooling, And Industrial Degree-Days In Turkey, Ilhami Yildiz, B. Sosaoglu Nov 2007

Spatial Distributions Of Heating, Cooling, And Industrial Degree-Days In Turkey, Ilhami Yildiz, B. Sosaoglu

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The degree-day method is commonly used to estimate energy consumption for heating and cooling in residential, commercial and industrial buildings, as well as in greenhouses, livestock facilities, storage facilities and warehouses. This article presents monthly and yearly averages and spatial distributions of heating, cooling, and industrial degree-days at the base temperatures of 18 °C and 20 °C, 18 °C and 24 °C, and 7 °C and 13 °C, respectively; as well as the corresponding number of days in Turkey. The findings presented here will facilitate the estimation of heating and cooling energy consumption for any residential, commercial and industrial buildings …


Dynamic Modeling Of Microclimate And Environmental Control Strategies In A Greenhouse Coupled With A Heat Pump System, Ilhami Yildiz, D. P. Stombaugh Jan 2006

Dynamic Modeling Of Microclimate And Environmental Control Strategies In A Greenhouse Coupled With A Heat Pump System, Ilhami Yildiz, D. P. Stombaugh

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a dynamic simulation model to be employed in accurate prediction of microclimate in a greenhouse as a function of dynamic environmental factors. The model has options to evaluate the effects of location, time of the year, orientation, single and double polyethylene glazings, conventional and heat pump heating and cooling systems, open and confined greenhouse systems, CO2 enrichment, variable shading, and the use of night curtains. Conventional gas furnace and evaporative cooling, respectively, provided heating and cooling in the conventional system. In the heat pump systems, gas-fired heat pump units …


Simulated Performances Of A Heat Pump System For Energy And Water Conservation In Open And Confined Greenhouse Systems, Ilhami Yildiz, D. P. Stombaugh Jan 2006

Simulated Performances Of A Heat Pump System For Energy And Water Conservation In Open And Confined Greenhouse Systems, Ilhami Yildiz, D. P. Stombaugh

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the performances of conventional and heat pump systems for energy and water conservation in open and confined greenhouse systems. Conventional gas furnaces and evaporative cooling, respectively, provided heating and cooling in the conventional system. In the heat pump systems, gas-fired heat pump units provided both heating and cooling. The greenhouse with heat pump units also had an option to be operated as a completely confined system, using one of the heat pump units as a dehumidifier. Average energy consumption in winter was 56.9, 23.5, and 11.3 MJ/day.m² in the conventional, …