Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Assessing The Impact Of Spatial Resolution Of Uas-Based Remote Sensing And Spectral Resolution Of Proximal Sensing On Crop Nitrogen Retrieval Accuracy, Kianoosh Hassani, Hamed Gholizadeh, Saleh Taghvaeian, Victoria Natalie, Jonathan Carpenter, Jamey Jacob

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Foliar nitrogen (N) plays a central role in photosynthetic machinery of plants, regulating their growth rates. However, field-based methods for monitoring plant N concentration are costly and limited in their ability to cover large spatial extents. In this study, we had two objectives: (1) assess the capability of unoccupied aerial system (UAS) and non-imaging spectroscopic data in estimating sorghum and corn N concentration and (2) determine the impact of spatial and spectral resolution of reflectance data on estimating sorghum and corn N concentration. We used a UAS and an ASD spectroradiometer to collect canopy- and leaf-level spectral data from sorghum …

Exploring The Determinants Of Organic Matter Bioavailability Through Substrate-Explicit Thermodynamic Modeling, Firnaaz Ahamed, Yaqi You, Amy Burgin, James C. Stegen, Timothy D. Scheibe, Hyun-Seob Song

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Microbial decomposition of organic matter (OM) in river corridors is a major driver of nutrient and energy cycles in natural ecosystems. Recent advances in omics technologies enabled high-throughput generation of molecular data that could be used to inform biogeochemical models. With ultrahigh-resolution OM data becoming more readily available, in particular, the substrate-explicit thermodynamic modeling (SXTM) has emerged as a promising approach due to its ability to predict OM degradation and respiration rates from chemical formulae of compounds. This model implicitly assumes that all detected organic compounds are bioavailable, and that aerobic respiration is driven solely by thermodynamics. Despite promising demonstrations …

Improving Decision Support Systems With Machine Learning: Identifying Barriers To Adoption, Skye Brugler, Maaz Gardezi, Ali Dadkhah, Donna M. Rizzo, Asim Zia, Sharon A. Clay

Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science Faculty Publications

Precision agriculture (PA) has been defined as a “management strategy that gathers, processes and analyzes temporal, spatial and individual data and combines it with other information to support management decisions according to estimated variability for improved resource use efficiency, productivity, quality, profitability and sustainability of agricultural production.” This definition suggests that because PA should simultaneously increase food production and reduce the environmental footprint, the barriers to adoption of PA should be explored. These barriers include: 1) the financial constraints associated with adopting DSS, 2) the hesitancy of farmers to change from their trusted advisor to a computer program often behaves …

Aeroponic System Optimization For Butterhead Lettuce Growth And Future Sustainability Using Flow Blurring Atomization, Taylor J. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The global population has grown by 6 billion people over the last century and is trending toward 9.7 billion people by the year 2050. Agriculture accounts for 70% of global fresh water usage. Technology must be developed to accommodate the increase of food production demanded by the growing global population and the subsequent increase in water usage. Aeroponic technology is a water-efficient vertical farming technology that can reduce water usage by 90% by suspending plant roots in air within a controlled chamber and supplying atomized droplets of a water-nutrient solution directly to the roots.

This study simultaneously tests six droplet …

A Robotic System For In-Situ Measurement Of Soil Total Carbon And Nitrogen, Husein Harun

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

Surges in the cost of fertilizer in recent times coupled with the environmental effects of their over-application have driven the need for farmers to optimize the amount of fertilizer they apply on the farm. One of the key steps in determining the right amount of fertilizer to apply in a given field is measuring the amount of nutrients present in the soil. To ascertain nutrient deficiencies, most farmers perform wet chemistry analysis of soil samples which requires a lot of time and is expensive. In this research project, a robotic system was designed and developed that could autonomously move to …

Development Of A Scalable Edge-Cloud Computing Based Variable Rate Irrigation Scheduling Framework, Eric J. Wilkening, Derek M. Heeren, Yeyin Shi, Abia Katimbo, Precious N. Amori, Guillermo R. Balboa, Laila A. Puntel, Kuan Zhang, Daran R. Rudnick

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

Currently, variable-rate precision irrigation (VRI) scheduling methods require large amounts of data and processing time to accurately determine crop water demands and spatially process those demands into an irrigation prescription. Unfortunately, irrigated crops continue to develop additional water stress when the previously collected data is being processed. Machine learning is a helpful tool, but handling and transmitting large datasets can be problematic; more rural areas may not have access to necessary wireless data transmission infrastructure to support cloud interaction. The introduction of “edge-cloud” processing to agricultural applications has shown to be effective at increasing data processing speed and reducing the …

Peer Review Of Teaching: Et Theory, Deficit Irrigation And Consumptive Use, Derek M. Heeren, Saleh Taghvaeian

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

A BSE Peer Review of Teaching was carried out for a graduate level course on Advanced Irrigation Management. This course has been offered for several years; each time improvements are made, but there is always a need for additional improvement. In particular, ET theory, deficit irrigation, and consumptive use are topics that the students struggle to grasp. These topics involve a relatively high level of math for an MS-level (800-level) Agricultural Systems Technology course, and the available materials on these topics either were not well developed or were not a good fit for this class. The primary objective was to …

Maize Nitrogen Uptake, Grain Nitrogen Concentration And Root-Zone Residual Nitrate Nitrogen Response Under Center Pivot, Subsurface Drip And Surface (Furrow) Irrigation, Suat Irmak, Ali T. Mohammed, Matthew Drudik

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

While the impact(s) of irrigation and nitrogen (N) levels on crop yields have been investigated separately, research lacks about how different irrigation methods coupled with different N application timing strategies under full and limited irrigation levels effect yield, soil nitrate nitrogen (NO₃-N) residual and stover N uptake. Knowledge of these dynamics can help to establish effective water and N management guidelines for the same crop under different irrigation methods and irrigation levels. This research investigated maize (Zea mays L.) residual soil NO₃-N concentration and stover and grain N uptake response to water under different irrigation …

Sample Article, Sample Author

Teknotan: Jurnal Industri Teknologi Pertanian

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Sample Article, Sample Author

Teknotan: Jurnal Industri Teknologi Pertanian

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Sample Article, Sample Author

Teknotan: Jurnal Industri Teknologi Pertanian

Abstract here.

Finite Element Analysis Of A Coconut (Cocos Nucifera L.) Climbing Mechanism, Arjay O. Afan, Omar F. Zubia, Adrian A. Borja, Ralph Kristoffer B. Gallegos

The Philippine Agricultural Scientist

A coconut climber mechanism was subjected to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to improve its overall design and analyze its strength characteristics. The von Mises stress, total deformation, and factor of safety were evaluated using static structural analysis for the seat and pedal assemblies of the mechanism. The design has a minimum yielding factor of safety of 7.03 for the seat assembly and 12.09 for the pedal assembly. If aluminum is used as an alternative to steel, the prototype's weight can be reduced to at least 64.56% without compromising its strength properties. The weight reduction by using aluminum is expected to …

The Optimization Of Ɣ-Al2o3 Production From Aluminium Foil Waste By Precipitation, Nessren Farrag, Yousef Amin

Chemical Engineering

The objective of this work encompasses the application of aluminium foil waste for preparing alumina (Al2O3), by precipitation. The response surface approach is developed for the produced ɣ-Al2O3 phase. Experiments were performed according to a 32 factorial design to evaluate the effects of hydrochloric acid (HCl) concentration, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) that was used as precipitation agent, as well as the calcination temperatures on the purity and yield. The effect of the two independent variables on the response variables was studied by response surface plots and contour plots generated by the Design-Expert software. The desirability function was used to optimize the …

Engineering A Multicompartment In Vitro Model For Dorsal Root Ganglia Phenotypic Assessment, Sydney M. Caparaso, Adan Redwine, Rebecca A. Wachs

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Despite the significant global prevalence of chronic pain, current methods to identify pain therapeutics often fail translation to the clinic. Phenotypic screening platforms rely on modeling and assessing key pathologies relevant to chronic pain, improving predictive capability. Patients with chronic pain often present with sensitization of primary sensory neurons (that extend from dorsal root ganglia [DRG]). During neuronal sensitization, painful nociceptors display lowered stimulation thresholds. To model neuronal excitability, it is necessary to maintain three key anatomical features of DRGs to have a physiologically relevant platform: (1) isolation between DRG cell bodies and neurons, (2) 3D platform to preserve cell–cell …

Post-Processed Data And Graphical Tools For A Conus-Wide Eddy Flux Evapotranspiration Dataset, J. M. Volk, J. L. Huntington, F. Melton, B. Minor, T. Wang, S. Anapalli, R. G. Anderson, S. Evett, A. French, R. Jasoni, N. Bambach, W. P. Kustas, J. Alfieri, J. Prueger, L. Hipps, L. Mckee, S. J. Castro, M. M. Alsina, A. J. Mcelrone, M. Reba, B. Runkle, M. Saber, C. Sanchez, E. Tajfar, R. Allen, M. Anderson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Large sample datasets of in situ evapotranspiration (ET) measurements with well documented data provenance and quality assurance are critical for water management and many fields of earth science research. We present a post-processed ET oriented dataset at daily and monthly timesteps, from 161 stations, including 148 eddy covariance flux towers, that were chosen based on their data quality from nearly 350 stations across the contiguous United States. In addition to ET, the data includes energy and heat fluxes, meteorological measurements, and reference ET downloaded from grid- MET for each flux station. Data processing techniques were conducted in a reproducible manner …

Soybean Crop Coefficients Under Different Seeding Rates And Full And Limited Irrigation And Rainfed Management, Suat Irmak, Rupinder Sandhu

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The effects of soybean seeding rates on evapotranspiration (ET_c) and grassand alfalfa-reference crop coefficients (K_co and K_cr) were investigated under five seeding rates (185,250, 247,000, 308,750, 370,500 and 432,250 seeds ha^-1) (62, 82, 103, 124 and 144% of the recommended seeding rate of 300,000 seeds ha^-1 in the experimental region) and different irrigation strategies (i.e. full irrigation treatment [FIT], limited irrigation of 75% FIT and 50% FIT and rainfed treatment). K_co and K_cr values were developed for each soybean growth stage. The seasonal ET_c ranged from 460 mm for …

Streambank Erosion Phenomena And Understanding: Current Research And Future Directions, Celso Castro-Bolinaga, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Kyle Mankin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Streams are in dynamic equilibrium with their environments, and as that environment is altered by human development and changing climate, streambank erosion is a common, but little understood, result. This article highlights the contributions of the special collection “Streambank Erosion, Sediment Dynamics, and Restoration (SER),” which assembled six studies that represent key advances in streambank erosion research, highlight current research in the field, and identify directions for future research. The studies in this special collection were grouped into three central themes: (1) streambank erosion monitoring, (2) streambank erodibility characterization, and (3) streambank erosion loading. In this article, key findings within …

Toward Automated Irrigation Management With Integrated Crop Water Stress Index And Spatial Soil Water Balance, Sandeep Bhatti, Derek M. Heeren, Susan A. O’Shaughnessy, Christopher M. U. Neale, Jacob Larue, Steve Melvin, Eric Wilkening, Geng Bai

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Decision support systems intended for precision irrigation aim at reducing irrigation applications while optimizing crop yield to achieve maximum crop water productivity (CWP). These systems incorporate on-site sensor data, remote sensing inputs, and advanced algorithms with spatial and temporal characteristics to compute precise crop water needs. The availability of variable rate irrigation (VRI) systems enables irrigation applications at a sub-field scale. The combination of an appropriate VRI system along with a precise decision support system would be ideal for improved CWP. The objective of this study was to compare and evaluate two decision support systems in terms of seasonal applied …

Toward Automated Irrigation Management With Integrated Crop Water Stress Index And Spatial Soil Water Balance, Sandeep Bhatti, Derek M. Heeren, Susan A. O’Shaughnessy, Christopher M. U. Neale, Jacob Larue, Steve Melvin, Eric Wilkening, Geng Bai

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Decision support systems intended for precision irrigation aim at reducing irrigation applications while optimizing crop yield to achieve maximum crop water productivity (CWP). These systems incorporate on-site sensor data, remote sensing inputs, and advanced algorithms with spatial and temporal characteristics to compute precise crop water needs. The availability of variable rate irrigation (VRI) systems enables irrigation applications at a sub-field scale. The combination of an appropriate VRI system along with a precise decision support system would be ideal for improved CWP. The objective of this study was to compare and evaluate two decision support systems in terms of seasonal applied …

High-Throughput Phenotyping Of Plant Leaf Morphological, Physiological, And Biochemical Traits On Multiple Scales Using Optical Sensing, Huichun Zhang, Lu Wang, Xiuliang Jin, Liming Bian, Yufeng Ge

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Acquisition of plant phenotypic information facilitates plant breeding, sheds light on gene action, and can be applied to optimize the quality of agricultural and forestry products. Because leaves often show the fastest responses to external environmental stimuli, leaf phenotypic traits are indicators of plant growth, health, and stress levels. Combination of new imaging sensors, image processing, and data analytics permits measurement over the full life span of plants at high temporal resolution and at several organizational levels from organs to individual plants to field populations of plants. We review the optical sensors and associated data analytics used for measuring morphological, …