Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Hospital Vozandes Del Oriente Wastewater Treatment System Design, James Dykstra, Rachel Koopman, Ben Vander Plas, Sungmin Youn

All Engineering Faculty Research

Shell is a town located in the Eastern foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes approximately 94 miles Southeast of Quito. Hospital Vozandes del Oriente (HVO) is a hospital located in Shell owned and operated by Hoy Cristo Jesús Bendice (HCJB) Global. HCJB is a non-profit mission organization committed to Biblical values and community development principles.

Pure Pastaza, a senior design team from Calvin College, in conjunction with HCJB, has designed a wastewater treatment system for HVO. The design promotes the protection of human and environmental health by providing a sustainable solution to wastewater treatment and sets an example of stewardship to …

Gis Based Pavement Maintenance: A Systematic Approach, Robert J. Kmetz

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

Abstract

According to 2008 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) statistics, there are 2,734,102 miles of paved public roads in the United Sates, with an additional 1,324,245 miles of unpaved public roads.  Road conditions deteriorate with time as the result of weather effects, deicing salts, and vehicle loads.  The most common pavement distress includes cracking, rutting, and potholes.  These pavement defects must be repaired to restore the pavement to a satisfactory service level for road users. According to the FHWA, in 2006 approximately $54.2 billion dollars was spent on maintenance and expansion, just on U.S. highways alone.

Routine maintenance is a cost …

Do Invasive Riparian Woody Plants Affect Hydrology And Ecosystem Processes?, Julie Huddle, Tala Awada, Derrel Martin, Xinhua Zhou, Sue Ellen Pegg, Scott Josiah

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

© 2011 Copyright by the Center for Greot Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Stochastic Hybrid Embodied Co2-Eq Analysis: An Application To The Irish Apartment Building Sector, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu

Articles

Although embodiedCO2-eq analysis has seen recent developments as evident in the establishment of the ISO14040 and 14044 LCA standards, it is recognized that due to weaknesses in gathering data on product-related emissions,embodiedCO2-eq values are probabilistic. This paper presents a stochastic analysis of hybrid embodied CO2-eq in buildings to account for this weakness in traditional methods and, by way of example, applies it to an Irish construction-sector case study. Using seven apartment buildings, 70,000 results are simulated with Monte Carlo analysis and used to derive probabilistic and cumulative embodied CO2-eq intensity distributions for apartment buildings in Ireland. A Wakeby distribution with …

Addressing Water Quality Issues In Rural Cameroon With Household Biosand Filters, Laine Klopfensten, Laura Petrasky, Valerie Winton, Jeff Brown

Publications

This paper describes an ongoing collaboration between the Hope College student chapter of Engineers Without Borders – USA and the rural community of Nkuv in the Northwest Province of Cameroon related to improving drinking water quality using Manz biosand filters. The collaboration began in 2006 and focused on developing a community-based construction and distribution model for household water treatment units. Results from microbiology testing of the constructed filters indicate that this water treatment method is effective for improving water quality in rural areas. The results also highlight the need for ongoing assessment and adapting community education programs to provide necessary …

A Microsimulation Of Traffic, Parking, And Emissions At California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo, Steven Michael Kilbert

Master's Theses

Traffic and parking congestion are significant issues at many universities nationwide. The delays experienced result in wasted time, money, and fuel for students, faculty and staff, not to mention the negative contributions to the environment. This paper quantifies the amount of vehicle emissions generated during an average morning peak hour in the university environment. Using VISSIM and CMEM microsimulation packages, a model is created for California Polytechnic State University- San Luis Obispo to aggregate the collective transportation behaviors and practices of the campus and recognize the implications these behaviors pose on the transportation network as a whole. Reasonable estimates are …

Personas As A User-Centred Design Tool For The Built Environment., Emma Siddall, Corelia Baibarac, Aimee Byrne, Niall Byrne, Ashling Deasy, Nuala Flood, Camille Goulding, Shane O'Driscoll, Niamh Rabbitt, Angharad Sweeney, Yue Wang, Mark Dyer

Articles

The physical structure of a city frequently defines how people interact with each other and their environment. This paper examines the use of personas as a user-centred design tool for the re-engineering of a city to promote sustainable behaviour and social inclusion of its citizens (the Eight Eyes of Dublin Project). The research was carried out through the adoption of personas and collaboration with design partners to identify barriers to sustainability, and resulted in recommendations for the future development of Dublin city, Ireland. These recommendations are then compared with the draft Dublin development plan 2011–17 to determine the effectiveness of …

Magnetite Nanoparticles For Medical Mr Imaging, Zachary R. Stephen, Forrest M. Kievit, Miqin Zhang

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become one of the most widely used and powerful tools for non-invasive clinical diagnosis due to its high soft tissue contrast, spatial resolution, and penetration depth1. In addition, images are acquired without the use of ionizing radiation or radiotracers that would cause unwanted harmful side-effects. A considerable amount of research in medical MR imaging is focused on the development of contrast agents that can provide better delineation between healthy and diseased tissue. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are a major class of nanoscale material currently under extensive development for improved diagnosis of a wide range of diseases, …

Wind Charged Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, John Patten, Nathan Christensen, Steven Srivastava, Gary Nola

Green Manufacturing Research Journal

With the emergence of electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid vehicles HVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) from a variety of automotive manufacturers, the electrical grid will need to meet new challenges in supplying the electricity required to charge these vehicles.  To help supply the electricity needed by these vehicles, we compared the electricity consumption of a modified Toyota Prius (PHEV) and the output of a small residential wind turbine over the course of one year.  Our research seeks to determine whether a small residential wind turbine can supply the necessary electricity demanded by the PHEV annually.

Design Of A Centralised Anaerobic Digestion Plant In Ireland., Diarmuid O'Meara

Theses

Climate change is brought about by greenhouse gases emitted to the earth’s atmosphere by fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources are seen as an alternative to fossil fuels. Examples of renewable energy sources are biofuels which are a method of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. One form of biofuels is biogas that is produced during the anaerobic digestion process. In this thesis pig slurry is used to produce biogas.

In this project, the optimum design process for a centralised anaerobic digestion plant was established in the literature review, The optimum process for anaerobic digestion plant design in Ireland was investigated. …

Optimal Loop Placement And Models For Length-Based Vehicle Classification And Stop-And-Go Traffic, Heng Wei, Qingyi Ai, Deogratias Eustace, Ping Yi

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Inductive loops are widely used nationwide for traffic monitoring as a data source for a variety of needs in generating traffic information for operation and planning analysis, validations of travel demand models, freight studies, pavement design, and even emission impact analysis of traffic operation. The loop data have also been used for vehicle length-based classification in many states including Ohio. The dual-loop detector consists of two single loop detectors which are placed apart at a fixed short distance, and this configuration enables the dual-loop detector data a potential real-time data source for speed and vehicle classifications. However, the existing dual-loop …

Development Of An Angular Scanning System For Sensing Vertical Profiles Of Soil Electrical Conductivity, Viacheslav Adamchuk, Ahmad S. Mat Su, Roger A. Eigenberg, Richard B. Ferguson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Apparent soil electrical conductivity (EC_a) is typically mapped to define soil spatial variability within an agricultural field. Knowledge of the vertical variability of EC_a is desired to define the site‐specific behavior of the soil profile. A pneumatic angular scanning system (PASS) was developed to sense horizontal and vertical changes of EC_a on‐the‐go with an electromagnetic induction (EMI) instrument using an angular scanning method. This sensor system consists of a sled with a rotating mechanism, an EMI sensor, an inclinometer, and a pneumatic actuator. The system was evaluated at the University of Nebraska‐Lincoln Agricultural Research and Development …

Improved Soil Mixing And Delivery System For A Storm Runoff Simulator, William C. Alms, Thomas G. Franti, David P. Shelton

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

An earlier version of a storm runoff simulator to test conservation buffers reproduced target hydrographs and sedigraphs using uniform, fine sand; however, it was unable to uniformly mix and deliver native sediment. The objectives of this work reported were to create a method to process native agricultural sediment, mix a uniform sediment slurry at a target concentration, and create a control system that will deliver the slurry in varying flow rates corresponding to a target sedigraph. Eroded silty clay (14% sand) was scraped, dried, and processed with a hammer mill. A sand (93% sand) and loam (44% sand) were dried …

Identification Of Holocarboxylase Synthetase Chromatin Binding Sites In Human Mammary Cell Lines Using The Damid Technology, Dipika Singh, Angela K. Pannier, Janos Zempleni

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Holocarboxylase synthetase (HCS) is a chromatin protein that is essential for mediating the covalent binding of biotin to histones. Biotinylation of histones plays crucial roles in the repression of genes and repeats in the human genome. We tested the feasibility of DNA adenine methyltransferase identification (DamID) technology to map HCS binding sites in human mammary cell lines. Full-length HCS was fused to Dam for subsequent transfection into breast cancer (MCF-7) and normal breast (MCF-10A) cells. HCS docking sites in chromatin were identified by using the unique adenine methylation sites established by Dam in the fusion construct; docking sites were unambiguously …

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 …

Performance Of Extended Shuttleworth‐Wallace Model For Estimating And Partitioning Of Evapotranspiration In A Partial Residue‐Covered Subsurface Drip‐Irrigated Soybean Field, Lameck O. Odhiambo, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Estimation of actual evapotranspiration (ET), especially its partitioning into plant transpiration (T) and soil evaporation (E), in agricultural fields is important for effective soil water management and conservation and for understanding the interactions between ET, T, and E with the management practices. Direct field measurements of ET, T, and E rates are difficult and costly; hence, mathematical models are used for estimating them. The objective of this study was to evaluate the practical applicability of the Shuttleworth‐Wallace (S‐W) model to estimate and partition ET in a subsurface drip‐irrigated soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) field with partial residue cover. While its …

Irrigation Efficiency And Uniformity, And Crop Water Use Efficiency, Suat Irmak, Lameck O. Odhiambo, William L. Kranz, Dean E. Eisenhauer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This Extension Circular describes various irrigation efficiency, crop water use efficiency, and irrigation uniformity evaluation terms that are relevant to irrigation systems and management practices currently used in Nebraska, in other states, and around the world. The definitions and equations described can be used by crop consultants, irrigation district personnel, and university, state, and federal agency personnel to evaluate how efficiently irrigation water is applied and/or used by the crop, and can help to promote better or improved use of water resources in agriculture.

As available water resources become scarcer, more emphasis is given to efficient use of irrigation water …

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 …

Glypican-3 Targeting Of Liver Cancer Cells Using Multifunctional Nanoparticles, James O. Park, Zachary Stephen, Conory Sun, Omid Veiseh, Forrest M. Kievit, Chen Fang, Matthew Leung, Hyejung Mok, Miqin Zhang

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Imaging is essential in accurately detecting, staging, and treating primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC]), one of the most prevalent and lethal malignancies. We developed a novel multifunctional nanoparticle (NP) specifically targeting glypican-3 (GPC3), a proteoglycan implicated in promotion of cell growth that is overexpressed in most HCCs. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to confirm the differential GPC3 expression in two human HCC cells, Hep G2 (high) and HLF (negligible). These cells were treated with biotin-conjugated GPC3 monoclonal antibody (aGPC3) and subsequently targeted using superparamagnetic iron oxide NPs conjugated to streptavidin and Alexa Fluor 647. Flow cytometry demonstrated …

Role Of Information On Probability Of Traffic Conflict On The Onset Of Yellow, Nathaniel P. Burnett, Anuj Sharma

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the effect of information provided to drivers through advance warning flashers (AWFs) on driver’s probability of conflict at the onset of yellow at a high-speed intersection. AWFs are specifically designed to minimize the number of vehicles trapped in their respective dilemma zones at the onset of yellow. A probit modeling technique was used to establish dilemma zone boundaries. Based on the dilemma zone boundaries probability of a perceived conflict curves was computed and compared against actual conflicts observed at each of the studied intersections. The comparison between the actual and theoretical probability of conflict curves generated a …