Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Evaluating Algal Growth At Different Temperatures, Keelin Owen Cassidy

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

In recent years, there has been a concern for the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and how it will be captured. One way to capture carbon dioxide is with algae. In this study, algae's growth was measured at different temperatures. The first part of the study was to grow Scenedesmus and Chlorella with M8 or urea growth media at a temperature of 25, 30 or 35ºC. It was found that 30ºC had the best growth rates for both algae. The second part studied Scenedesmus growth with urea, more in-depth, and found the optimum growth temperature to be …

Mathematical Modeling Of Clostridium Thermocellum’S Metabolic Responses To Environmental Perturbation, Bless Adotey

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Clostridium thermocellum is a thermophilic anaerobe that is capable of producing ethanol directly from lignocellulosic compounds, however this organism suffers from low ethanol tolerance and low ethanol yields. In vivo mathematical modeling studies based on steady state traditional metabolic flux analysis, metabolic control analysis, transient and steady states’ flux spectrum analysis (FSA) were conducted on C. thermocellum’s central metabolism. The models were developed in Matrix Laboratory software ( MATLAB^® (The Language of Technical Computing), R2008b, Version 7.7.0.471)) based on known stoichiometry from C. thermocellum pathway and known physical constraints. Growth on cellobiose from Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) and Metabolic …

Magnetite Nanoparticles For Medical Mr Imaging, Zachary R. Stephen, Forrest M. Kievit, Miqin Zhang

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become one of the most widely used and powerful tools for non-invasive clinical diagnosis due to its high soft tissue contrast, spatial resolution, and penetration depth1. In addition, images are acquired without the use of ionizing radiation or radiotracers that would cause unwanted harmful side-effects. A considerable amount of research in medical MR imaging is focused on the development of contrast agents that can provide better delineation between healthy and diseased tissue. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are a major class of nanoscale material currently under extensive development for improved diagnosis of a wide range of diseases, …

Identification Of Holocarboxylase Synthetase Chromatin Binding Sites In Human Mammary Cell Lines Using The Damid Technology, Dipika Singh, Angela K. Pannier, Janos Zempleni

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Holocarboxylase synthetase (HCS) is a chromatin protein that is essential for mediating the covalent binding of biotin to histones. Biotinylation of histones plays crucial roles in the repression of genes and repeats in the human genome. We tested the feasibility of DNA adenine methyltransferase identification (DamID) technology to map HCS binding sites in human mammary cell lines. Full-length HCS was fused to Dam for subsequent transfection into breast cancer (MCF-7) and normal breast (MCF-10A) cells. HCS docking sites in chromatin were identified by using the unique adenine methylation sites established by Dam in the fusion construct; docking sites were unambiguously …

Development Of An Angular Scanning System For Sensing Vertical Profiles Of Soil Electrical Conductivity, Viacheslav Adamchuk, Ahmad S. Mat Su, Roger A. Eigenberg, Richard B. Ferguson

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Apparent soil electrical conductivity (EC_a) is typically mapped to define soil spatial variability within an agricultural field. Knowledge of the vertical variability of EC_a is desired to define the site‐specific behavior of the soil profile. A pneumatic angular scanning system (PASS) was developed to sense horizontal and vertical changes of EC_a on‐the‐go with an electromagnetic induction (EMI) instrument using an angular scanning method. This sensor system consists of a sled with a rotating mechanism, an EMI sensor, an inclinometer, and a pneumatic actuator. The system was evaluated at the University of Nebraska‐Lincoln Agricultural Research and Development …

Biological Approaches For Addressing The Grand Challenge Of Providing Access To Clean Drinking Water, Mark R. Riley, Charles P. Gerba, Menachem Elimelech

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

The U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) recently published a document presenting “Grand Challenges for Engineering”. This list was proposed by leading engineers and scientists from around the world at the request of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Fourteen topics were selected for these grand challenges, and at least seven can be addressed using the tools and methods of biological engineering. Here we describe how biological engineers can address the challenge of providing access to clean drinking water. This issue must be addressed in part by removing or inactivating microbial and chemical contaminants in order to properly deliver water …

Microarray Analysis Of Gene Expression Profiles In Cells Transfected With Nonviral Vectors, Sarah A. Plautz, Gina Boanca, Jean-Jack M. Riethoven, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Inefficient gene delivery is a critical factor limiting the use of nonviral methods in therapeutic applications including gene therapy and tissue engineering. There have been few efforts to understand or engineer the molecular signaling pathways that dictate the efficacy of gene transfer. Microarray analysis was used to determine endogenous gene expression profiles modulated during nonviral gene transfer. Nonviral DNA lipoplexes were delivered to HEK 293T cells. Flow cytometry was used to isolate a population of transfected cells. Expression patterns were compared between transfected and nontransfected samples, which revealed three genes that were significantly upregulated in transfected cells, including RAP1A, …

Flocculation Of Wall-Deficient Cells Of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii Mutant Cw15 By Calcium And Methanol, Matt Scholz, Takanori Hoshino, Mark R. Riley, Joel Cuello

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Flocculation is a common and inexpensive method for harvesting algae from solution. After nitrogen starvation, it was shown that 83 + 3% of the wall-deficient cells of the cw 15 mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii flocculated from 12 mL samples within 15 min after the addition of 15 mM calcium chloride at pH 8.4. Only 24 2% of the wildtype strain flocculated under these conditions, thus demonstrating how a simple mutation might facilitate process design. The data suggested that algae grown in waters with similar calcium concentrations (e.g. certain wastewaters) might be harvested through simple pH adjustment. It was also discovered …

Irrigation Efficiency And Uniformity, And Crop Water Use Efficiency, Suat Irmak, Lameck O. Odhiambo, William L. Kranz, Dean E. Eisenhauer

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

This Extension Circular describes various irrigation efficiency, crop water use efficiency, and irrigation uniformity evaluation terms that are relevant to irrigation systems and management practices currently used in Nebraska, in other states, and around the world. The definitions and equations described can be used by crop consultants, irrigation district personnel, and university, state, and federal agency personnel to evaluate how efficiently irrigation water is applied and/or used by the crop, and can help to promote better or improved use of water resources in agriculture.

As available water resources become scarcer, more emphasis is given to efficient use of irrigation water …

A Case Study Concerning The Effects Of Controller Response And Turning Movements On Application Rate Uniformity With A Self-Propelled Sprayer, Joe D. Luck, A. Sharda, Santosh Pitla, J. P. Fulton, S. A. Shearer

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

The use of precision agriculture technologies such as automatic boom section control allows producers to reduce off-target application when applying herbicides. While automatic boom section control provides benefits, pressure differences across the spray boom resulting from boom section actuation may lead to off-rate application errors. Off-rate errors may also result from spray rate controller compensation for ground speed changes or velocity variation across the spray boom during turning movements. This project focused on characterizing application rate variation for three fields located in central Kentucky. GPS coordinates, boom control status, and nozzle pressure data (at 15 nozzle locations) were recorded as …

Improved Soil Mixing And Delivery System For A Storm Runoff Simulator, William C. Alms, Thomas G. Franti, David P. Shelton

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

An earlier version of a storm runoff simulator to test conservation buffers reproduced target hydrographs and sedigraphs using uniform, fine sand; however, it was unable to uniformly mix and deliver native sediment. The objectives of this work reported were to create a method to process native agricultural sediment, mix a uniform sediment slurry at a target concentration, and create a control system that will deliver the slurry in varying flow rates corresponding to a target sedigraph. Eroded silty clay (14% sand) was scraped, dried, and processed with a hammer mill. A sand (93% sand) and loam (44% sand) were dried …

Cellular Arrays For Large-Scale Analysis Of Transcription Factor Activity, Abigail D. Bellis, Beatriz Peňalver-Bernabé, Michael S. Weiss, Michael E. Yarrington, Maria V. Barbolina, Angela K. Pannier, Jacqueline S. Jeruss, Linda J. Broadbelt, Lonnie D. Shea

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Identifying molecular mechanisms or therapeutic targets is typically based on large-scale cellular analysis that measures the abundance of mRNA or protein; however, abundance does not necessarily correlate with activity. We report a method for direct large-scale quantification of active pathways that employs a cellular array with parallel gene delivery of constructs that report pathway activity. The reporter constructs encode luciferase, whose expression is influenced by binding of transcription factors (TFs), which are the downstream targets of signaling pathways. Luciferase levels are quantified by bioluminescence imaging (BLI), which allows for rapid, noninvasive measurements. Activity profiles by BLI of 32 TFs were …

Design Of A Smart System For Monitoring Concrete Curing And Structural Health, William Quinn

Theses

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a rapidly growing sector of the construction industry. Automated monitoring methods arc mainly limited to global monitoring and the application of local monitoring methods has not gained widespread application due to the fact that currently technology requires that the systems are wired to data acquisition devices. This thesis presents a fully embeddable wireless sensor node for the local monitoring of structural concrete. It presents the first reported wireless embedded system implementation of the electromechanical impedance method using both resonant and antiresonant sensors for this purpose.

The first section of this thesis examines the feasibility of …

A Novel Biodiesel And Glycerol Carbonate, Yasar Demirel, N. Nguyen

YASAR DEMIREL

Crude glycerol is the byproduct of biodiesel production plant and the economic value of glycerol may affect the profitability of the biodiesel production plant. As the production rate of bioglycerol increases, its market values drop considerably. Therefore, conversion of bioglycerol into value-added products can reduce the overall cost, hence, leading to a more economical biodiesel production plant. In a direct carboxylation reaction, CO2 reacts with glycerol to produce glycerol carbonate and water. This study presents a direct comparison of the economic analysis of the conventional biodiesel production plant and the possible next generation biodiesel-glycerol carbonate production plant. At the end …

Applications Of Homotopy Perturbation Transform Method For Solving Time-Dependent Functional Differential Equations, Habibolla Latifizadeh

H. L. Zadeh

No abstract provided.