Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Controlled Release Chemical Oxidation: Sodium Persulfate Encapsulated In Pvac Polymer, Mosarrat Samiha Kabir

Theses

In this study, sodium persulfate was encapsulated in polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) polymer to investigate the potential of activated persulfate to remediate total coliform and E. coli bacteria from contaminated water through a control release system. Controlled release structures were produced with the polymer and persulfate melted to form pellets at two different baking times. CRP structures containing 60 weight % sodium persulfates blended with 40 weight % polyvinyl acetate (PS- PVAc) were baked for 4 minutes and 10 minutes at 120ºC. The kinetics release of sodium persulfate was studied in a water system and in sand columns. Experimental results showed …

A Novel Approach Towards Investigating The Performance Of Different Pvt Configurations Integrated On Test Cells: An Experimental Study, Vivek Tomar, Brian Norton, G. N. Tiwari

Articles

This study elaborates the theoretical and experimental analysis for the effectiveness of different photovoltaic thermal (PVT) configurations along with their building implications. An experiment was performed on especially designed four identical prototype test cells emphasise the building integration photovoltaic thermal (BiPVT) systems. A comparative analysis of four different possible PVT configurations integrated on identical test cells namely; Case 1: Glass-to-glass PV with duct integrated on a test cell, Case 2: Glass-to -glass PV without duct integrated on a test cell, Case 3: Glass to tedlar PV with duct integrated on a test cell and Case 4: Glass to tedlar PV …

Separation Of Unburned Carbon From Coal Conversion Ash: Development And Assessment Of A Dry Method, Charlotte J. Badenhorst, Nicola J. Wagner, Bruno R.V. Valentim, Karel S. Viljoen, Ana C. Santos, Alexandra Guedes

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Unburned carbon found in coal conversion ash has the potential to be used in a variety of value-added applications. However, it is first necessary to separate the unburned carbon from the rest of the ash phases. This poses challenges due to the relatively low starting carbon-in-ash values (0.4 to 7.8 wt% reported for South African sources), and the high carbon grades (ideally ∼90 wt% carbon) and recoveries that need to be achieved. In this study a dry method for the separation of unburned carbon from coal ash was developed and assessed using fly, bottom, and gasification ash samples obtained from …

Ce 5500: Stochastic Hydrology, University Of Virginia, Julianne Quinn

All ECSTATIC Materials

This document is the syllabus for CE 5500: Stochastic Hydrology by instructor Julianne D. Quinn at the University of Virginia. The course is an elective class, open to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.

Nebraska Water Center Annual Report 2017-2018, The Nebraska Water Center

Nebraska Water Center: Administrative Materials

Contents

Introduction: Foreword • Director’s Letter by Chittaranjan Ray • Nebraska Water Center Overview and Timeline • Nebraska’s Top 10 Water Challenges

Research: Water Sciences Laboratory Overview • Nebraska Vadose Zone Program • Novel Nitrate Leaching Reduction • Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project (OWCAP) • Nebraska Water Productivity Report • USDA-NIFA Water End-User Grant • U.S. Geological Survey 104b Projects

Extension & Outreach: Bazile Groundwater Management Area • Platte River Basin Ecosystem Symposium • Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) • 2018 National Institutes for Water Resources Regional Symposium • Water Quality + Citizen Science • Nebraska Water and Natural Resources …

Timescales Of Global Tidal Flooding, Maria Bower

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Millions of people in low-lying areas are already affected by flooding, and the number will increase substantially in the future. Tidal flooding, the form of flooding caused by a combination of high tides and sea level rise to overcome protection levels, can cause damage and inconveniences such as road closures, overwhelmed drainage systems, and infrastructure deterioration from water damage. Tidal flooding already occurs annually in cities along the U.S. east coast, most notably Miami. However, the time it will take for other regions globally to begin to experience tidal flooding has not yet been assessed. Therefore, there is a limited …

Free Polyethylenimine Enhances Substrate-Mediated Gene Delivery On Titanium Substrates Modified With Rgd-Functionalized Poly(Acrylic Acid) Brushes, Amy Mantz, Alice Rosenthal, Eric Farris, Tyler Kozisek, Eva Bittrich, Saghar Nazari, Eva Schubert, Mathias Schubert, Manfred Stamm, Petra Uhlmann, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Substrate mediated gene delivery (SMD) is a method of immobilizing DNA complexes to a substrate via covalent attachment or nonspecific adsorption, which allows for increased transgene expression with less DNA compared to traditional bolus delivery. It may also increase cells receptivity to transfection via cell-material interactions. Substrate modifications with poly(acrylic) acid (PAA) brushes may improve SMD by enhancing substrate interactions with DNA complexes via tailored surface chemistry and increasing cellular adhesion via moieties covalently bound to the brushes. Previously, we described a simple method to graft PAA brushes to Ti and further demonstrated conjugation of cell adhesion peptides (i.e., RGD) …

The Development Of The Infews-Er: A Virtual Resource Center For Transdisciplinary Graduate Student Training At The Nexus Of Food, Energy, And Water, Luis F. Rodriguez, Anna-Maria Marshall, Dan Cotton, Richard K. Koelsch, Jacek Koziel, Deanne Meyer, Dan Steward, Jill Heemstra, Anand Padmanabahn, John Classen, Nathan J. Meyer, Benjamin L. Ruddell, Sean M. Ryan, Ximing Cai, Emad Habib, Peter D. Saundry

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Problems at the nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (FEWS) are among the most complex challenges we face. Spanning simple to complex temporal, geographic, social, and political framings, the questions raised at this nexus require multidisciplinary if not transdisciplinary approaches. Answers to these questions must draw from engineering, the physical and biological sciences, and the social sciences. Practical solutions depend upon a wide community of stakeholders, including industry, policymakers, and the general public. Yet there are many obstacles to working in a transdisciplinary environment: unfamiliar concepts, specialized terminology, and countless “blind” spots. Graduate education occurs in disciplinary ‘silos’, often …

Narrow Grass Hedge Effects On Microbial Transport Following Variable Applications Of Beef Cattle Manure, Lisa M. Durso, John E. Gilley, Dave B. Marx, Brian L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The effectiveness of a 1.4 m wide grass hedge in reducing microbial transport following manure application was examined in this study. Beef cattle manure was applied to 0.75 m wide by 4.0 m long plots established on an Aksarben silty clay loam located in southeast Nebraska. Manure was added at rates required to meet none or the 1-, 2-, or 4-year nitrogen requirements for corn. The transport of phages, total coliforms, E. coli, and enterococci was measured for three 30 min simulated rainfall events, which were separated by approximately 24 h intervals. The narrow grass hedge reduced total counts of …

Minimal Interspecies Interaction Adjustment (Miia): Inference Of Neighbor-Dependent Interactions In Microbial Communities, Hyun-Seob Song, Joon-Yong Lee, Shin Haruta, William C. Nelson, Dong-Yup Lee, Stephen R. Lindemann, Jim K. Fredrickson, Hans C. Bernstein

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

An intriguing aspect in microbial communities is that pairwise interactions can be influenced by neighboring species. This creates context dependencies for microbial interactions that are based on the functional composition of the community. Context dependent interactions are ecologically important and clearly present in nature, yet firmly established theoretical methods are lacking from many modern computational investigations. Here, we propose a novel network inference method that enables predictions for interspecies interactions affected by shifts in community composition and species populations. Our approach first identifies interspecies interactions in binary communities, which is subsequently used as a basis to infer modulation in more …

A Machine Learning Approach For Improving Near-Real-Time Satellite-Based Rainfall Estimates By Integrating Soil Moisture, Ashish Kumar, Raaj Ramsankaran, Luca Brocca, Francisco Munoz-Arriola

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Near-real-time (NRT) satellite-based rainfall estimates (SREs) are a viable option for flood/drought monitoring. However, SREs have often been associated with complex and nonlinear errors. One way to enhance the quality of SREs is to use soil moisture information. Few studies have indicated that soil moisture information can be used to improve the quality of SREs. Nowadays, satellite-based soil moisture products are becoming available at desired spatial and temporal resolutions on an NRT basis. Hence, this study proposes an integrated approach to improve NRT SRE accuracy by combining it with NRT soil moisture through a nonlinear support vector machine-based regression (SVR) …

High-Speed, High-Frequency Ultrasound, In Utero Vector-Flow Imaging Of Mouse Embryos, Jeffrey A. Ketterling, Orlando Aristizabal, Billy Y. S. Yiu, Daniel H. Turnbull, Colin K. L. Phoon, Alfred C. H. Yu, Ronald H. Silverman

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Real-time imaging of the embryonic murine cardiovascular system is challenging due to the small size of the mouse embryo and rapid heart rate. High-frequency, linear-array ultrasound systems designed for small-animal imaging provide high-frame-rate and Doppler modes but are limited in regards to the field of view that can be imaged at fine-temporal and -spatial resolution. Here, a plane-wave imaging method was used to obtain high-speed image data from in utero mouse embryos and multi-angle, vector-flow algorithms were applied to the data to provide information on blood flow patterns in major organs. An 18-MHz linear array was used to acquire plane-wave …

Factors Related To Intra-Tendinous Morphology Of Achilles Tendon In Runners, Kai-Yu Ho, Ari Baquet, Yu-Jen Chang, Lung-Chang Chien, Michelle Harty, Gregory Bashford, Kornelia Kulig

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to determine and explore factors (age, sex, anthropometry, running and injury/pain history, tendon gross morphology, neovascularization, ankle range of motion, and ankle plantarflexor muscle endurance) related to intra-tendinous morphological alterations of the Achilles tendon in runners. An intra-tendinous morphological change was defined as collagen fiber disorganization detected by a low peak spatial frequency radius (PSFR) obtained from spatial frequency analysis (SFA) techniques in sonography. Ninety-one runners (53 males and 38 females; 37.9 ± 11.6 years) with 8.8 ± 7.3 years of running experience participated. Height, weight, and waist and hip circumferences were recorded. Participants …

A Role For Nanoparticles In Treating Traumatic Brain Injury, Badrul Alam Bony, Forrest M. Kievit

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the main causes of disability in children and young adults, as well as a significant concern for elderly individuals. Depending on the severity, TBI can have a long-term impact on the quality of life for survivors of all ages. The primary brain injury can result in severe disability or fatality, and secondary brain damage can increase the complexities in cellular, inflammatory, neurochemical, and metabolic changes in the brain, which can last decades post-injury. Thus, survival from a TBI is often accompanied by lifelong disabilities. Despite the significant morbidity, mortality, and economic loss, there …

Rapeseed Seedling Stand Counting And Seeding Performance Evaluation At Two Early Growth Stages Based On Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery, Biquan Zhao, Jian Zhang, Chenghai Yang, Guangsheng Zhou, Youchun Ding, Yeyin Shi, Dongyan Zhang, Jing Xie, Qingxi Liao

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and image processing algorithms for field-based phenotyping offers a non-invasive and effective technology to obtain plant growth traits such as canopy cover and plant height in fields. Crop seedling stand count in early growth stages is important not only for determining plant emergence, but also for planning other related agronomic practices. The main objective of this research was to develop practical and rapid remote sensing methods for early growth stage stand counting to evaluate mechanically seeded rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) seedlings. Rapeseed was seeded in a field by three different seeding devices. A …

Time-Domain And Frequency-Domain Reflectometry Type Soil Moisture Sensor Performance And Soil Temperature Effects In Fine- And Coarse-Textured Soils, Y. Zhu, S. Irmak, A. J. Jhala, M. C. Vuran, A. Diotto

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The performances of six time-domain reflectometry (TDR) and frequency-domain reflectometry (FDR) type soil moisture sensors were investigated for measuring volumetric soil-water content (θ_v) in two different soil types. Soil-specific calibration equations were developed for each sensor using calibrated neutron probe-measured θ_v. Sensors were also investigated for their performance response in measuring θ_v to changes in soil temperature. The performance of all sensors was significantly different (P<0.05) than the neutron probe-measured θ_v, with the same sensor also exhibiting variation between soils. In the silt loam soil, the 5TE sensor had the lowest root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.041 …

Metabolic Compounds Within The Porcine Uterine Environment Are Unique To The Type Of Conceptus Present During The Early Stages Of Blastocyst Elongation, Sophie C. Walsh, Jeremy R. Miles, Linxing Yao, Corey D. Broeckling, Lea A. Rempel, Elane C. Wright-Johnson, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to identify metabolites within the porcine uterine milieu during the early stages of blastocyst elongation. At Days 9, 10, or 11 of gestation, reproductive tracts of White cross‐bred gilts (n = 38) were collected immediately following harvest and flushed with Roswell Park Memorial Institute‐1640 medium. Conceptus morphologies were assessed from each pregnancy and corresponding uterine flushings were assigned to one of five treatment groups based on these morphologies: (a) uniform spherical (n = 8); (b) heterogeneous spherical and ovoid (n = 8); (c) uniform ovoid (n = 8); (d) heterogeneous …

Optimization Of Process Parameters And Fermentation Strategy For Xylanase Production In A Stirred Tank Reactor Using A Mutant Aspergillus Nidulans Strain, Asmaa Abdella, Fernando Segato, Mark R. Wilkins

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The present work studied the optimization of aeration rate, agitation rate and oxygen transfer and the use of various batch fermentation strategies for xylanase production from a recombinant Aspergillus nidulans strain in a 3 L stirred tank reactor. Maximum xylanase production of 1250 U/mL with productivity of 313 U/mL/day was obtained under an aeration rate of 2 vvm and an agitation rate of 400 rpm using batch fermentation. The optimum volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient (kLa) for efficient xylanase production was found to be 38.6 h1. Fed batch mode and repeated batch fermentation was also performed with kLa was 38.6 h1. …

System And Method For Monitoring Pleural Fluid, Dimitrios Miserlis, Kim Cluff, Abby M. Kelly, Suzanne J. Higgins, Max H. Twedt

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The disclosure is directed to intrapleural air leak detection and monitoring. According to various embodiments of the disclosure, an air leak may be detected utilizing at least one sensor to determine whether fluid extracted from a pleural cavity of a patient includes carbon dioxide and/or a second substance. The second substance may be a foreign substance inhaled by the patient to confirm presence of the air leak. The air leak may be further monitored over a period of time by collecting temporally successive measurements associated with detected concentrations of carbon dioxide. Therefore, tissue damage and recovery may be assessed according …

Hydrogen Peroxide Sensors For Biomedical Applications, Jakob Meier, Eric M. Hofferber, Joseph A. Stapleton, Nicole M. Iverson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is an important molecule within the human body, but many of its roles in physiology and pathophysiology are not well understood. To better understand the importance of H2O2 in biological systems, it is essential that researchers are able to quantify this reactive species in various settings, including in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo systems. This review covers a broad range of H2O2 sensors that have been used in biological systems, highlighting advancements that have taken place since 2015.