Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Modeling Intake Of Grazing Cows Fed Complementary Feeds, D R. Buckmaster, L A. Holden, L D. Muller, R H. Mohtar

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

A model suitable for predicting intake for grazing or non-grazing dairy cows is presented. The model integrates the potentially intake limiting factors of physical fill, physiological energy demand, wet mass, herbage availability, herbage cover, and grazing time. Integration of these factors with a simple set of linear ration balancing constraints yields a model suitable for predicting supplemental feed requirements as well as potential animal production from a grazed land. The model is semi-theoretical, being descriptive in structure, but containing empirical relationships.

Modeling The Biomass Production Of Grasslands Of Wallonia According To Their Functional Type, U. Kokah Essomandan, D. Knoden, B. Dumont, J. Bindelle

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Permanent grasslands are complex ecosystems which respond with a great variability - in terms of specific richness - to soil type and management strategies. Modelling is a valuable tool to explore these relationships. Our work consisted in adapting the Moorepark St Gilles grass growth model (MoSt GG) designed to model Lolium perenne plant functional type (PFT) pastures (PFT A) to a different PFT (Dactylis glomerata, PFT B) through literature-based parametrization. The model was evaluated under Walloon (Belgium) conditions using growth trials from 2014 to 2018 in two sites with contrasting pedo-climatic conditions. Three to five cuts were performed …

Modelling Basal Area Of Perennial Grasses In Australian Semi-Arid Wooded Grasslands, S. G. Marsden, K. C. Hodgkinson

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

In many semi-arid pastoral systems, landscape processes easily become dysfunctional. Shifts to less functional states may be irreversible, and have long-term consequences for pastoral profitability and social viability of rural communities. Typically, shifts to lower functional states involve a decline in perennial grasses (Hodgkinson, 1994). Here we develop a conceptual basis for modelling the basal area of perennial grasses in a semi-arid grassland and validate the model using data from a 10-year grazing study.

Modeling Overdraft-Driven Nitrate Transport In Shallow Wells For Mitigation And Scenario Planning, Jonathan Cronk

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In Nebraska, average nitrate concentrations in groundwater have doubled since 1974, making water quality management more important than ever. As droughts, heat waves, and floods become more common climate events, understanding their impacts will be necessary to make informed management decisions. Emerging literature describes that drought correlates to an increase in the concentration of nitrate-N at domestic and irrigation wells, however the relative contributions of the mechanisms thought to be responsible is currently unknown.

This research assessed the impact of recharge and pumping rate changes as two mechanisms affecting nitrate-N concentration during drought, assessed the relationship between well depth and …

Intrusion Detection: Machine Learning Techniques For Software Defined Networks, Jacob S. Rodriguez

Masters Theses

In recent years, software defined networking (SDN) has gained popularity as a novel approach towards network management and architecture. Compared to traditional network architectures, this software-based approach offers greater flexibility, programmability, and automation. However, despite the advantages of this system, there still remains the possibility that it could be compromised. As we continue to explore new approaches to network management, we must also develop new ways of protecting those systems from threats. Throughout this paper, I will describe and test a network intrusion detection system (NIDS), and how it can be implemented within a software defined network. This system will …

Groundwater Flow Across The Coyote Wash Fault And Cedar Mesa Anticline Near St. Johns, Arizona, Stephanie Lynn Latour

Theses and Dissertations

As the demand for water increases across the southwestern United States, the region's utilization of and dependence on water stored in groundwater aquifers has risen in kind. The Coconino Aquifer (C-aquifer) underlies much of the southwestern Colorado Plateau and is a primary source of groundwater in northeastern Arizona. One of the largest commercial users of water from the C-aquifer in Apache County, Arizona, is Springerville Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant owned and operated by Tucson Electric Power. The area surrounding the power plant, located between the cities of Springerville and St. Johns, Arizona (the Springerville-St. Johns area), is geologically …

A Systems Approach To Assessing The Viability Of Grazing Legume Systems Across Europe, C. F. E. Topp, C. J. Smith, L. Wu, G. Molle

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Forage legumes are important in grassland farming throughout much of the world because of their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, and hence they are expected to play an increasingly prominent role in low- input grazing farming systems in Europe. Nevertheless, the socio-economic impact of the adoption of the "new" legume based grazing technologies have been poorly researched (Rochon et al., 2004). Thus a methodology has been developed to:

* Assess the on-farm costs and benefits of including different legume crops for animal production;
* Determine the types of management systems and environmental conditions under which forage legumes may play …

Modelling Tiller Density Dynamics In A Grass Sward, Masahiko Hirata

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Simulation models are useful tools for grassland management. Among many quantitative and qualitative attributes describing vegetation of grasslands, density of plant population is important because of its close relationship with persistence of grasslands (Hirata, 2004), which in turn is crucial for sustainable agricultural production and/or conservation of the environment, wildlife and recreational resource. Although various models have described grassland vegetation, relatively few models have dealt with plant population density. This paper presents a model describing dynamics in tiller population density in a grass sward.

Modelling Winter Grass Growth And Senescence, D. Hennessy, S. Laidlaw, M. O'Donovan, P. French

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

In temperate climates, because net grass growth in winter is low, most grass growth models deal with the main growing season (Mar-Oct in the N Hemisphere), with little emphasis on grass growth in winter (Nov-Feb). However, grass tissue turns over continuously (Hennessy et al., 2004) and the fate of herbage entering the winter is important in extended grazing season systems. This study aimed to model winter grass growth for the period 15 Oct 2001 to 28 Jan 2002 for a range of autumn closing dates (1 Sep, 20 Sep and 10 Oct) by modifying an existing model, so that …

Grasscheck: Monitoring And Predicting Grass Production In Northern Ireland, P. D. Barrett, A. S. Laidlaw

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Grass budgeting is a key management practice on dairy farms to balance grass supply on paddocks with grass demand by the grazing herd. Grass budgets must be pre-emptive to be effective. The uncertainty of grass production and the difficulty in quantifying both current and forecasted rates of growth hamper effective budgeting and paddock management. Grass growth rates are highly variable both in time and space. Therefore, they vary greatly between locations at any given time and also across the season at any given location. Figure 1 shows the pattern of growth rates recorded at the Agricultural Research Institute of Northern …

A Simple Theoretical Model For Calculating Agricultural Value Of Grasslands, G. Nagy

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

In spite of the emerging new social demands for non-material grassland products and services (nature reservation, environmental protection, landscape and amenity), the productivity of grasslands is going to remain in the mainstream of overall grassland use in many regions and countries of the world. Strategic planning of future grassland use in a region needs reliable information on the agricultural value of grasslands. The purpose of our research programme was to find a model for calculating the agricultural value of grasslands, in order to assist the classification of grassland productivity for a given area.

Decision Support System For Grassland-Based Sheep Production In The Chilean Patagonia, R. R. Vera, S. Morales, C. Aguilar

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Temporal decision-making in sheep production systems of the Chilean Patagonia is influenced by forage availability in existing paddocks, which in turn is determined by previous use, localisation, climate and soil. Also, production strategies are evolving, with a trend towards fat lamb production, introduction of new breeds and a reduction in the importance of wool production. The objective of this study was to develop an initial version of a spatial empirical simulation model based on extremely limited information, to predict forage growth and sheep production so that decision-makers can assess alternative production strategies.

The Time-Dependent Ionospheric Model Using A Tec-Driven Servo: An Investigation Of The Capabilities And Limitations, Jenny Rebecca Whiteley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The ionosphere is a region of the atmosphere with a high density of electrons. These electrons affect the behavior of any electromagnetic wave that passes through the ionosphere. Communication and geolocation systems, such as traditional radio and Global Positioning Systems, depend on emitted electromagnetic signals being picked up by a receiver. The presence of the ionosphere affects the behavior of the signal and the quality of the service. Hence, the interactions between electromagnetic waves and the ionosphere provide a major motivation to understand, research, and successfully model and predict the ionosphere and its physical phenomena. This study focused on determining …

Comparison Of Methodological Tools In Tropical Soil Carbon Sequestration Field Research, Bram Van Putten, M. C. Amézquita

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Models play a crucial role in studying complex systems like soil Carbon sequestration processes (Hanson et al., 2001). A Carbon sequestration research project is currently under way in pasture and silvopastoral systems of four Tropical American ecosystems. A main research question is the identification of Land Management Systems (LMS) that exhibit optimal soil Carbon sequestration capacity (identification question). Another main issue is the extrapolation of data in space and time (extrapolation question).

A One-Dimensional Analysis Of A Microbial Fuel Cell For Efficient Acetate Removal And Power Density Output, David Rouhani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are electrochemical devices that utilize microorganisms to convert organic matter into electrical energy. MFCs have been discussed to have potential application for sustainable wastewater treatment due to their ability to generate electricity while simultaneously treating contaminated water. To optimize MFC performance, numerical models can be used to understand the complex electrochemical and biological processes occurring in the system. In this study, a numerical model was developed to simulate the performance of MFCs under varying operating conditions and to investigate the performance of a MFC for treating wastewater fuel. More specifically, the MFC was modeled to oxidize …

Mapping Past Land Use Changes And Modeling Future Urbanization Patterns In A Mid-Sized American City, Duncan P. Mccurry

Masters Theses

On a global scale, humans have been moving from rural to urban areas at an increasingly fast rate in a process called urbanization. It is crucial to understand and predict the impacts of urbanization because city expansion encroaches on farmland and woodland, reducing regional ecosystem services. Therefore, urbanization must be well planned in a forecasting manner. The objective of this study is to map the land use change in Knox County, Tennessee, from 2001-2019 to identify the urbanization trends and understand the dynamic geospatial relationships between the urban and rural areas. The geospatial mapping was done using USGS land use …

Beyond Machine Learning: An Fmri Domain Adaptation Model For Multi-Study Integration, Lauryn Michelle Burleigh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Traditional machine learning analyses are challenging with functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) data, not only because of the amount of data that needs to be
collected, adding a particular challenge for human fMRI research, but also due to the change in
hypothesis being addressed with various analytical techniques. Domain adaptation is a type of
transfer learning, a step beyond machine learning which allows for multiple related, but not
identical, data to contribute to a model, can be beneficial to overcome the limitation of data
needed but may address different hypothesis questions than anticipated given the analysis
computation. This dissertation assesses …

Modelling Winter Grass Growth And Senescence, D. Hennessy, S. Laidlaw, M. O'Donovan, P. French

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

In temperate climates, because net grass growth in winter is low, most grass growth models deal with the main growing season (Mar-Oct in the N Hemisphere), with little emphasis on grass growth in winter (Nov-Feb). However, grass tissue turns over continuously (Hennessy et al., 2004) and the fate of herbage entering the winter is important in extended grazing season systems. This study aimed to model winter grass growth for the period 15 Oct 2001 to 28 Jan 2002 for a range of autumn closing dates (1 Sep, 20 Sep and 10 Oct) by modifying an existing model, so that …

A New Agro-Meteorological Simulation Model For Predicting Daily Grass Growth Rates Across Ireland, R. P. O. Schulte

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Grass growth rates and herbage yields depend on weather conditions, soil characteristics and grassland management and differ from year to year and from site to site. In the past, grass growth has been predicted using both mechanistic and statistical models. The accuracy of mechanistic models is commonly insufficient for practical application, while statistical models generally apply to one test site only (e.g. Han et al., 2003). In this paper a semi-empirical grass growth model is presented which is numerically accurate, but which can be applied to contrasting sites across Ireland at the same time.

Grasscheck: Monitoring And Predicting Grass Production In Northern Ireland, P. D. Barrett, A. S. Laidlaw

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

No abstract provided.

Modelling Of Herbage Intake And Milk Production By Grazing Dairy Cows, Rémy Delagarde, M. O'Donovan

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Key-points

1. Models predicting intake and performance of grazing ruminants from animal, sward, grazing and supplements characteristics are rare, but they are now included in several decision support systems (DSS).

2. An evaluation of the performance and accuracy of published models are rarely undertaken by their authors, but this is proposed in this paper.

3. There is still a need for experimental research but also for the development of generic and dynamic models to predict intake and performance over a wide range of grazing conditions.

Data Curation For Modeling Tall Fescue Biomass Dynamics With Dssat-Csm, M. B. Hanson, P. D. Alderman, T. J. Butler, A. Caldeira Rocateli

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

While models for predicting forage production are available to aid management decisions for some forage crops, there is limited research for a yield model designed specifically for tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus). Therefore, our objective was to adapt an existing perennial forage model, the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer Cropping Systems Model (DSSAT-CSM) for predicting forage biomass of tall fescue in the southern Great Plains. To evaluate model performance, there must first be a high level of data manipulation and cleaning. In this project, a cohesive dataset combining biomass, weather, soil, and management data were structured into DSSAT …

Defining County-Level Terrestrial Rabies Freedom Using The Us National Rabies Surveillance System: Surveillance Data Analysis, Amber Kunkel, Gabriella Veytsel, Sarah C. Bonaparte, Haillie Meek, Xiaoyue Ma, Amy J. Davis, Jesse Bonwitt, Ryan M. Wallace

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background: Rabies is a deadly zoonotic disease with nearly 100% fatality rate. In the United States, rabies virus persists in wildlife reservoirs, with occasional spillover into humans and domestic animals. The distribution of reservoir hosts in US counties plays an important role in public health decision-making, including the recommendation of lifesaving postexposure prophylaxis upon suspected rabies exposures. Furthermore, in surveillance data, it is difficult to discern whether counties have no cases reported because rabies was not present or because counties have an unreported rabies presence. These epizootics are monitored by the National Rabies Surveillance System (NRSS), to which approximately 130 …

Comparing Voting Strategies In Blood On The Clocktower, Marty Graham

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project models a social deduction game called “Blood on the Clocktower.” Simulated players act according to two different algorithms, and the results are recorded across four different variables. The results show that the two algorithms, while constrained to affecting one specific mechanic within the game, produce statistically different results. This model has the potential to be used in simulating group dynamics and modeling the efficacy of certain game strategies.

Dataset: A Numerical Simulation Of The Ocean, Sea Ice And Ice Shelves In The Amundsen Sea (Antarctica) Over The Period 2006-2022 And Its Associated Code And Input Files, Pierre St-Laurent

Data

A three-dimensional numerical model of the Amundsen Sea (Antarctica) was used to simulate the period Jan.2006-Mar.2022 under consistent atmospheric/oceanic forcings, bathymetry/ice shelf topography, and model equations/parameters. The model is an implementation of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS, https://www.myroms.org/) with extensions for sea ice (Budgell 2005) and ice shelves (Dinniman et al. 2011). It simulates the ocean hydrography and circulation, sea ice thermodynamics and dynamics, and the basal melt of the ice shelves, with a uniform horizontal mesh of 1.5km and 20 topography-following vertical levels. Forcings include the ERA5 reanalysis (3-hourly), 10 tidal constituents from CATS 2008, and ocean/sea ice …

Building A Deep Model For Multi-Class Coral Species Discrimination, Hyeong Gyu Jang

Culminating Experience Projects

The goal of this qualitative research project is to develop and optimize a multi-class discrimination model to identify different species of coral based on their digital images. Currently, there are artificial intelligence (AI) models that can distinguish between coral and other undersea objects such as sand or rocks, but to our knowledge the problem of multi-species classification has not yet been addressed. Given that coral reefs are a good indicator of overall ocean health, it is important to develop models that can classify the presence of different species in underwater images as a way to monitor the effects of climate …

Estimating Sewage Flow Rate In Jefferson County, Kentucky, Using Machine Learning For Wastewater-Based Epidemiology Applications, Dhiraj Kanneganti, Lauren E. Reinersman, Rochelle H. Holm, Ted Smith

Faculty Scholarship

Direct measurement of the flow rate in sanitary sewer lines is not always feasible and is an important parameter for the normalization of data used in wastewater-based epidemiology applications. Machine learning to estimate past wastewater influent flow rates supporting public health applications has not been studied. The aim of this study was to assess wastewater treatment plant influent flow rates when compared with weather data and to retrospectively estimate flow rates in Louisville, Kentucky (USA), based on other data types using machine learning. A random forest model was trained using a range of variables, such as feces-related indicators, weather data …

Simulation And Experiment Of An Intelligent Control Model For The Cleaning Of A Rice-Wheat Combine Harvester, Qing Jiang, Rujing Wang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Modeling and simulation of cleaning intelligent control according to the changes of cleaning loss rate and trash content rate is the focus of research and hot issues of intelligent control of rice-wheat combine harvester. A method for acquiring knowledge of the experts' experience and knowledge is constructed based on the flow chart of cleaning control, and a cleaning intelligent control knowledge base for the intelligent control of the field operation environment based on the production rule is proposed. Based on the principle of human-simulating intelligent control, a knowledge inference algorithm for adaptive selection of cleaning regulation strategy is …

Estimating Nitrogen Fixation By Pastures On A Regional Or Continental Scale, Murray Unkovich

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

With fertiliser N inputs dramatically increasing in Australia in recent years (Angus, 2001), regional and continental scale estimates of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) are now required for assessing the risks of terrestrial and surface water eutrophication, groundwater contamination, and gaseous N emissions.

Wind Power Primary Frequency Regulation Simulation Based On Wind Speed Prediction Model, Zhenyu Zhao, Xu Ma, Geriletu Bao

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To furtherly improve the accuracy of wind speed prediction, considering the coupled comprehensive features of data internal structure external influencing factors, and the characteristics of wind turbines power, a BP-ARIMA combined prediction model is constructed and the wind speed of wind farms is simulated. Compared with the actual data, the high prediction accuracy of the model is verified. Bases on the curve of typical power characteristic of wind turbine, the optimal configuration of energy storage device capacity and the stability of wind turbine are considered, and the MATLAB-SIMULINK platform is applied to simulate the primary frequency regulation of …