Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Portable Curing Frame, George B. Day V, Larry G. Wells, Timothy D. Smith, Ira J. Ross

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Patents

A portable curing frame is provided particularly adapted for use with an automated tobacco harvester. The curing frame includes a substantially rectangular frame member including a series of slotted tracks, in the form of slotted tubes, specially designed for receiving a notched portion of the plant stalks. The slotted track is substantially continuous and thereby allows infinitely variable spacing between the plants and optimization of ventilation for air curing. Legs are also provided on the portable curing frame. The legs are displaceable between a retracted position allowing storage of the frames and loading of the frames with tobacco plants and …

An Aeration Duct Design Model For Flat Grain Storage, Thomas C. Bridges, Douglas G. Overhults, Samuel G. Mcneill, G. M. White

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Traditionally most grain is stored in circular type bins which provide a convenient means for handling and management. With the excess grain production and government loan programs of the past few years, some producers have used rectangular structures and covered piles to complement their round storages. The recommended management practices used with round bins are still required in those alternative storages and may be more critical in obtaining a quality end product.

One such recommended practice used with round bins is aeration. This practice is used to maintain a uniform temperature in the grain mass, preventing condensation and "hot" spots …

Harvester Guidance Control System, George B. Day V, Timothy D. Smith

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Patents

A guidance control system for a harvester or like machinery includes a steering linkage operatively connected to at least one ground engaging wheel. Harvester steering is controlled through the linkage by either an operator controlled steering wheel or a sensor responsive self-steering mechanism. The sensor responsive self-steering mechanism includes a guide assembly pivotally mounted to the harvester. The guide assembly includes a pair of laterally spaced, cooperating tines that define a path therebetween for plants being harvested. A sensor positioned on each tine senses the position of plants as they are harvested. A control circuit is responsive to the sensors …

Plain Wire Fencing For Pastoral Lands, A Mcr Holm

Bulletins 4000 -

The need to fence for efficient livestock control was recognised early in the history of the pastoral industry in Western Australia. Fence design, materials and layout have all undergone many changes since the 1880s. Modern fences have 4 or 5 strands of high tensile light gauge wires with post spacings up to 50m, and strains up to 4000m. These modern fences contain less material and are faster to erect than traditional fences, yet they provide an equally good, if not superior, barrier. The happy coincidence of strength and cost effectiveness will be apparent through this manual.

How Safe Is Your Drinking Water?, Larry R. Piercy, Joseph L. Taraba

Agricultural Engineering Extension Updates

Water is a basic ingredient of life and a safe water supply is essential for our good health. Adequate supplies of clean drinking water, whether it comes from a well or from a municipal treatment plant should be everyone's concern. The recent drought conditions have forced many people to realize how critical adequate and safe water supplies really are to the well-being of their families and communities.

Temporary Silage Storage, Doug Overhults, Larry Turner, Sam Mcneill, Larry R. Piercy, George Turner

Agricultural Engineering Extension Updates

The following information is intended as a supplement to the attached publication entitled "Temporary Silage Storage Systems" published by the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service.

What Is Your Farm's Potential To Pollute Your Drinking Water Supply, Joseph L. Taraba

Agricultural Engineering Extension Updates

The following list of questions are a useful guide to assess whether farm and/or home activities or the type of well contribute to polluting your private drinking water well. If you answer "yes" for one or more of the questions than you should begin a program of annual well testing. It is recommended that a coliform bacteria test and nitrate test be performed annually. The annual cost for these tests performed by a testing laboratory is $26.00. There is an additional test that is available that determines if there is the presence of organic halides (chlorinated or brominated organics) called …

Rapid Method For Determining Fertilizer Nutrients In Liquid Dairy And Swine Manures, Joseph L. Taraba

Agricultural Engineering Extension Updates

A rapid on-farm determination is needed to assess the fertilizer contents of liquid manure as it is taken from storage. Rapid determination of a tank load for liquid manure will indicate nutrient changes that occur as manure is removed from a storage which cannot be or is not effectively agitated before manure removal. Effective utilization of animal manures as a fertilizer resource requires a farmer to have a knowledge of the amount of nutrients that he is putting onto the soil. If the producer then reduces the commercial fertilizer, he can realize the fertilizer economic value of the manure. Laboratory …

Costs, Construction And Suppliers For High Tensile Wire Fencing, Larry W. Turner, Samuel G. Mcneill

Agricultural Engineering Extension Updates

There is increasing interest in the use of high tensile fencing because of its longer life and lower cost than conventional woven wire fence. Originally introduced to this country from Australia and New Zealand, high tensile fence is proving to be quite adaptable for use in intensive grazing management systems.

Acceptable Paints, Coatings, Sealants And Liners For Potable Water Systems, Joseph L. Taraba

Agricultural Engineering Extension Updates

The maintenance of safe drinking water from an individual domestic water supply requires the use of materials that do not regrade the water by adding contaminants that increase health risk to humans. Paints, coatings, sealants or liners are used in the construction and maintenance of wells, ponds and cistern water supply systems. The accompanying list is provided as an aid to the homeowner in choosing material(s) that will not contaminate the water.

Farm Tractor Safety, Larry R. Piercy

Agricultural Engineering Extension Updates

Tractor accidents are a major contributing factor to the high fatality rates experienced in Kentucky agriculture. Despite the variety of potential hazards on farms, nearly half of all farm fatalities and one out of ten injury accidents involve tractors. The single most common factor in tractor fatalities is an overturn.

Reducing Summer Heat Stress In Dairy Cows, Larry W. Turner, John P. Chastain, William L. Crist

Agricultural Engineering Extension Updates

Potential declines in milk production of as much as 20% or more are the reason we need to be concerned about heat stress in dairy cows. Heat stress can reduce feed intake, milk production and reproductive efficiency. There are several options available to Kentucky dairymen to combat heat stress in cows.

Soil Compaction And Its Effect On Alfalfa In Zone Production Systems, Burl D. Meek, Eric A. Rechel, Lyle M. Carter, William R. Detar

William R DeTar

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) was grown under two zone production systems (no harvest traffic) (i) preplan! compaction and (ii) no preplant compaction and compared to two systems where traffic was applied (i) to 100% of the area during each harvest and (ii) to lanes simulating the traffic a grower would apply during harvest. The experiment was done in a semiarid area under irrigation on a Wasco sandy loam (coarse-loamy, mixed, nonacid, thermic Xeric Torriorthent), which is easily compacted. Without traffic the soil settled to a bulk density of 1.6 to 1.70 Mg m~\ Traffic increased the bulk density to the …

Electrically Erasable Programmable Logic Devices As An Aid For Teaching Digital Electronics, Nelson L. Buck, Kenneth A. Sudduth, Stuart J. Birrell

Stuart J. Birrell

Electrically erasable programmable logic devices (PLDs) are digital circuit components which can be programmed to perform complex logic functions. Agricultural engineering students designed circuits using PLDs and programmed and tested them as part of a class exercise in logic circuit design. The devices were erased at the end of the semester for use by the next class. Because the lab assignment required the students to master several new concepts at once, they experienced some initial difficulties; however, they enjoyed the assignment and learned the material well.

Pressure Interactions In Slotted Eave Inlets, Jay D. Harmon, K. A. Janni, L. D. Jacobson

Jay D. Harmon

Pressure Interactions in Slotted Eave Inlets Pressure Interactions in Slotted Eave Inlets ABSTRACT Afull scale physical model eave opening and baffled slot inlet system for a mechanically ventilated livestock building was tested to determine the effect of pressure differences and attic opening size on air flow rates. Pressure differences were varied between the eave, attic and room of the model. Flow rates through the attic and the room, and corresponding pressure differences were measured to calculate loss coefficients. Closed attic tests that prevented interactions between the inlet and attic were conducted to develop regression equations to predict the coefficient of …

Biological Transformation And Detoxification Of 7,12-Dimethylbenzanthracene In Soil, K. Park, Ronald C. Sims, W. J. Doucette, J. E. Matthews

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Biological transformation and detoxification of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anathracene (DMBA) were studied in a nonacclimated sandy loam soil. Parent 14C DMBA biodegraded extensively (62% to 20%), accompanying an increase of metabolite 14C fraction (4% to 53%). Incorporation of DMBA into non extractable soil residue ,4C increased from 12 to 17%, but the increase was not statistically significant. DMBA was transformed into several metabolic products in the soil system, including 4-hydroxy-, 5-hydroxy-, and 10-hydroxy-DMBA and 7,12-dihydro 12-methyl-7-methylene-benz(a)anthracene-12-ol. High polarity transformation products of DMBA demonstrated a negative mu tagenic response with the Ames mutagenicity assay, strain TA 100, for both low and neutral pH soils. …

Human Health Effects Assays, Ronald C. Sims, J. L. Sims, R. R. Dupont

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Environmental health risk assessments based upon animal study results, epidemiology, quantitative structure activity relationships (QSARs), dose-response relationships, risk perception, and expert systems approaches, and the evaluation of mechanisms of carcinogenesis represent the focus for 1987. The term "biological risk assessment" was discussed by Clayson¹ to describe that part of risk assessment concerned with the relevance of specific animal results to the induction of human cancer. Guidelines for health assessment of suspect developmental toxicants addressed evaluation of data from animal testing studies.² Animal toxicity data on 200 chemicals and epidemiologic data on 30 chemicals was included within a data …

Fate And Transport Of Organics In Soil: Model Predictions And Experimental Results, B. D. Symons, Ronald C. Sims, W. J. Grenney

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Laboratory batch reactors were used to generate quantitative information about the fate of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PNA) compounds in soil systems. First-order degradation rates and equilibrium partition coefficients determined in laboratory studies were used in the Vadose Zone Interactive Processes (VIP) mathematical model to predict the fate and behavior of the PNA compounds as a function of time and soil depth. Predicted model results were compared with independent laboratory soil column studies for model validation. The VIP model provided a good approximation of the degradation and transport of the seven PNA compounds evaluated after 6 months of incubation in soil. …

Computer Simulation Of The Melting Process In Linear Macromolecules, Donald W. Noid, George A. Pfeffer, Stephen Z. D. Cheng, Bernhard Wunderlich

US Department of Energy Publications

Polymer crystal melting kinetics is simulated by using molecular dynamics. A simplified molecular model of polyethylene crystal melting consisting of one extended chain on a polyethylene-like crystal surface is presented. The simulation data indicate that the end-to-end distance (eed) of radius of gyration (rg) has a simple exponential dependence on time. The rate constants for eed and rg are found to be temperature and molecular length dependent. A more detailed analysis of polymer crystal melting will be described

In-Situ Stress Orientation And Magnritjde At The Fenton Geothermal Site, New Mexico, Determined From Wellbore Breakouts, Colleen A. Barton, Mark D. Zoback, Kerry L. Burns

US Department of Energy Publications

The acoustic borehole televiewer provides excellent data for the detection and measurement of stress-induced wellbore breakouts. Analog televiewer data from the Fenton Geothermal well EE-3 in New Mexico were digitized and interactivly processed for detection and analysis of azimuth and shape of stress-induced breakouts occurring in the well at depths of about 2.9 - 3.5 km. A statistical analysis of the measured breakout azimuths yields a well resolved orientation of least horizontal principal stress of 119 °, consistent with least principal stress data from the Rio Grande Rift. As the magnitude of the least horizontal compressive stress, ^Shmin, in …

Interactions Of Antiprotons With Atoms And Molecules, Mitio Inokuti

US Department of Energy Publications

Antiproton beams of relatively low energies (below hundreds of MeV) have recently become available. The present article discusses the significance of those beams in the contexts of radiation physics and of atomic and molecular physics. Studies on individual collisions of antiprotons with atoms and molecules are valuable for a better understanding of collisions of protons or electrons, a subject with many applications. An antiproton is unique as' a stable, negative heavy particle without electronic structure, and it provides an excellent opportunity to study atomic collision theory. Comparison of the stopping powers of a material for an antiproton and a proton …

The Effect Of Small Earth Structures And Channel Improvements On The Flooding Of Agricultural Land In South-Western Australia, J R. Davies, D J. Mcfarlane, R Ferdowsian

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Can We Guarantee The Safety Of Genetically Engineered Organisms In The Environment?, Kathleen H. Keeler, Frances E. Sharples

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Can we guarantee the safety of genetically engineered organisms in the environment? To anticipate my remarks, the answer to the title question is “No, we cannot guarantee the safety of genetically engineered organisms released into the environment.” Indeed, it is a tenet of the scientific method that nothing can be proved, only disproved. Thus, we can never show that a release will be safe. We could only show that it would be unsafe, if that were the case. However, if the question is posed differently, for example, can we safely release genetically engineered organisms into the environment?, the answer is …