Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Influence Of Fan Operation On Fan Assessment Numeration System (Fans) Test Results, Gabriela Munhoz Morello

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The use of velocity traverses to measure in-situ air flow rate of ventilation fans can be subject to significant errors. The Fan Assessment Numeration System (FANS) was developed by the USD-ARS Southern Poultry Research Laboratory and refined at the University of Kentucky to measure air flow of fans in-situ. The procedures for using the FANS unit to test fans in-situ are not completely standardized. This study evaluated the effect of operating fan positions relative to the FANS unit for ten 1.22 m diameter fans in two types of poultry barns, with fans placed immediately next to each other and …

Optimization Of Coagulation And Syneresis Processes In Cheesemaking Using A Light Backscatter Sensor Technology, Tatiana Gravena Ferreira

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Curd syneresis, a critical step in cheesemaking, directly influences the quality of cheese. The syneresis process is empirically controlled in cheese manufacturing plants. A sensor technology for this step would improve process control and enhance cheese quality. A light backscatter sensor with a Large Field of View (LFV) was tested using a central composite design over a broad range of cheese process conditions including milk pH, calcium chloride addition level, milk fat to protein ratio, temperature, and a cutting time factor (β). The research objectives were to determine if the LFV sensor could monitor coagulation and syneresis steps …

Development Of A Semi-Automated Tobacco Stripping Machine Utilizing String Trimmers, Robert George Sperry

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Conventional stripping of burley tobacco is labor intensive and typically requires 50 to 75 worker hours per acre (wkr•hr/ac). The goal of the project was to reduce labor by optimizing leaf removal by string trimmer heads using combinations of strings lengths and motor speeds. In tests conducted on a single grade, all leaves outside the grade were removed by hand. Plants were run through the machine for sting lengths of 5, 7 and 9 inches and associated motor speeds which were monitored and recorded. Stripping efficiencies were calculated for each plant and collectively for each set of four plants. The …

Particulate Organic Carbon Fate And Transport In A Lowland, Temperate Watershed, William Isaac Ford Iii

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Small lowland agricultural systems promote conditions where benthic biological communities can thrive. These biogeochemical processes have significant impacts on terrestrial ecosystem processes including POC flux and fate, nutrient balances, water quality budges, and aquatic biological functioning. Limited information is available on coupled biological and hydrologic processes in fluvial systems. This study investigates the mixture of biological and hydrologic processes in the benthic layer in order to understand POC cycling in the South Elkhorn system. Further, comprehensive modeling of POC flux in lowland systems has not been performed previously and the behavior of potentially controlling variables, such as hydrologic forcing and …

A Computational Tool For Estimating Off-Target Application Areas In Agricultural Fields, Rodrigo S. Zandonadi, Joe D. Luck, Timothy S. Stombaugh, Michael P. Sama, Scott A. Shearer

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

A computational method for estimating off-target application areas based on the machine-controlled section width and the field shape was developed and implemented in software with a graphical user interface written in the MatLab environment. The program, which is called the Field Coverage Analysis Tool (FieldCAT), includes three modules: data import, data preparation, and coverage analysis. Nine field boundaries were evaluated to test the software using controlled section widths from 0.5 to 27 m and various swath orientations. The estimated off-target application area from the widest section width varied from 9% to 24% depending on the shape and size of the …

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 …

Detection And Quantification Of Poliovirus Infection Using Ftir Spectroscopy And Cell Culture, Felipe T. Lee-Montiel, Kelly A. Reynolds, Mark R. Riley

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: In a globalized word, prevention of infectious diseases is a major challenge. Rapid detection of viable virus particles in water and other environmental samples is essential to public health risk assessment, homeland security and environmental protection. Current virus detection methods, especially assessing viral infectivity, are complex and time-consuming, making point-of-care detection a challenge. Faster, more sensitive, highly specific methods are needed to quantify potentially hazardous viral pathogens and to determine if suspected materials contain viable viral particles. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy combined with cellular-based sensing, may offer a precise way to detect specific viruses. This approach utilizes infrared …

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 Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty 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 …

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 Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty 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 Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty 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 …

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 Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty 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 …

Techno-Economic Analysis And Engineering Design Consideration Of Algal Biofuel In Southern Nevada, Jian Ma

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

As the biological and chemical technologies in algae biofuels production, engineering design, siting and resources are playing some dominant role in successfully developing and scaling locally. The southwest region in U.S. has been identified by DoE and the USDA as the most suitable area for developing algal biofuel production due to several merits like the high level of solar radiation, large arid land not good for food production. Among this region, Southern Nevada has unique advantage to grow microalgae biomass, which is the large amount of CO2 emission from about 16 power plants in Clark County to support the world …

Feasibility Of Wastewater Reuse For Fish Production In Small Communities In A Developing World Setting, Joshua James Girard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Eradicating poverty, malnutrition, and the burden of disease have been included as three of the major issues facing the world. The United Nation member countries, having set forth the Millennium Development Goals, have committed themselves to solving these problems. Two major factors which affect solutions to these problems are increasing water stress and implementing improved sanitation. Integration of tilapia aquaculture and reuse of wastewater has been suggested as a solution which addresses both of these factors. The objective of this study is to examine the feasibility, and explore the benefits and drawbacks, to implementing small community wastewater fed (WWF) aquaculture …

Irrigation District Turnouts, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This is meant to be a very quick, roughly written primer on irrigation district turnout selection. It by no means covers all of the details, but it might help out. ITRC offers flow measurement classes, with online registration at www.itrc.org. We have also done testing on quite a few designs over the years, but the work was almost all confidential in nature.

Development Of An Integrated Soil Properties Mapping System, Rajveer S. Dhillon

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

One of the main goals of precision agriculture (PA) is to define spatial variability in soil properties within an agricultural field to make decisions that can maximize profitability and reduce negative environmental impact. Various soil sensor systems have been developed over the years to map soil properties on-the-go. In this study, an Integrated Soil Mapping System (ISMS) was developed to predict soil water content, soil organic matter, and soil mechanical resistance on-the-go using a capacitance moisture sensor, an optical sensor, and a load cell sensor respectively. These sensors were mounted on the ISMS for acquiring three different data layers at …

Long Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment – Model Builder Approach, Cibin Raj

GIS Day

Climate change has significant impact on hydrology and water quality. A simple Long Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment tool has been developed using model builder in ArcGIS 9.3 to simulate hydrology and water quality. The model developed to read precipitation data from netCDF format to simulate runoff. The tool box developed to simulate hydrology based on the widely used USDA Curve Number method and water quality using EMC (event mean concentration) of pollutant. The model in GIS allows easier management of input and output data and allows critical spatial and visual interpretation. The model developed for Wisconsin State, where the precipitation …

Comparison Of Subsurface And Surface Runoff Phosphorus Transport Capacities In Alluvial Floodplains, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Derek M. Heeren, Daniel E. Storm, Garey A. Fox, M. J. White, R. B. Miller

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

There have been numerous studies on phosphorus (P) contributions from surface runoff, but studies comparing the contribution of surface versus subsurface P are limited, as subsurface transport is often considered negligible. Previous work has shown that the transport of P in the gravelly subsurface at two sites in northeast Oklahoma can be significant, especially in preferential flow paths (PFPs), hypothesized to be buried gravel bars. The objective of this project was to quantify subsurface P losses based on field data, and compare with surface runoff P losses derived from Pasture Phosphorus Management Calculator (PPM Plus) simulations. Ozark ecoregion study sites …

Nutrient Transport In Runoff As Affected By Diet, Tillage, And Manure Application Rate, John E. Gilley, Lisa M. Durso, R.A. Eigenberg, David B. Marx, Brian L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Feedlot operators may increase profitability by including distillers grains in finishing diets. However, the nutrients remaining in the by‐product are concentrated by about a factor of three during the distillation process. Manure can be applied to meet single‐ or multiple‐year crop nutrient requirements. The water quality effects of the use of distillers grains in feedlot diets and multiple‐year manure application have not been well quantified. The objectives of this study were to (1) compare the runoff water quality effects resulting from the application of manure derived from corn and distillers grain diets, (2) examine the effects of till and no‐till …

Modernización De Proyectos De Riego, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Un diseño moderno es el resultado de un proceso de reflexión, el cual selecciona la configuración y componentes físicas considerando un programa de operación bien definido y realista basado en el concepto de servicio.

Medición De Gasto En Canales De Riego Y...Otras Cosas, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Nuestra opción preferida para Eiqupos de “flujo crítico ” (vertedor or aforador) son Aforadores Replogle (Garganta Larga)