Digital Commons Network^™

Creeper Legume, In Conjunction With Biochar, Is A Potential Tool To Minimize Soil Erosion, Sujani De Silva, Priyantha Indralal Yapa, Kushani Mahatantila, Saurav Das, Bijesh Maharjan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Accelerated soil erosion and landslides are destructive consequences of road development and intensive agriculture in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. Properly designed vegetation covers can play a vital role in erosion control. Identifying a plant that can adapt to eroded land with a low-nutrient supply is critical for natural erosion management. A perennial creeper legume, Vigna marina, adaptable for marginal lands and used to control soil erosion in Australia, was introduced to Sri Lanka via the 2004 tsunami. The objective of this study was to assess V. marina under five different soil substrates, including a reference treatment (RT) …

Assessing The Release Of Microplastics And Nanoplastics From Plastic Containers And Reusable Food Pouches: Implications For Human Health, Kazi Albab Hussain, Svetlana Romanova, Ilhami Okur, Dong Zhang, Jesse Kuebler, Xi Huang, Bing Wang, Lucia Fernandez-Ballester, Yongfeng Lu, Mathias Schubert, Yusong Li

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study investigated the release of microplastics and nanoplastics from plastic containers and reusable food pouches under different usage scenarios, using DI water and 3% acetic acid as food simulants for aqueous foods and acidic foods. The results indicated that microwave heating caused the highest release of microplastics and nanoplastics into food compared to other usage scenarios, such as refrigeration or room-temperature storage. It was found that some containers could release as many as 4.22 million microplastic and 2.11 billion nanoplastic particles from only one square centimeter of plastic area within 3 min of microwave heating. Refrigeration and room-temperature storage …

Union Pacific Railroad Company Strategic Audit, Alison Steger

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Union Pacific Railroad Company (Union Pacific, UP, UPRR) is a freight railroad based in Omaha, Nebraska, servicing 23 states in America, with additional ports and country interchanges. The 160-year history of this railroad began with Abraham Lincoln and continues into 2023, with the recent announcement of CEO Lance Fritz’s departure. A PESTEL analysis provides an in-depth look at UP's external operating environment, and Porter’s Five Forces industry analysis assesses the industry's competitive environment. Analyses of Union Pacific's competitive advantages, essential resources, and projected roadblocks are followed by strategic recommendations for UP to remain a Class I freight railroad industry leader.

A Novel Graph Neural Network-Based Framework For Automatic Modulation Classification In Mobile Environments, Pejman Ghasemzadeh

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Automatic modulation classification (AMC) refers to a signal processing procedure through which the modulation type and order of an observed signal are identified without any prior information about the communications setup. AMC has been recognized as one of the essential measures in various communications research fields such as intelligent modem design, spectrum sensing and management, and threat detection. The research literature in AMC is limited to accounting only for the noise that affects the received signal, which makes their models applicable for stationary environments. However, a more practical and real-world application of AMC can be found in mobile environments where …

Nature Nurturers Sustainability And Journalism Club, Bruce Baker, Shelby Rickert

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

Afterschool club that teaches basic sustainability and journalism knowledge to kids in a fun, hands-on, and engaging way. Kids will learn over the course of several weeks and then make posters about their environmental interests.

Revisiting The Definition Of Field Capacity As A Functional Parameter In A Layered Agronomic Soil Profile Beneath Irrigated Maize, Paolo Nasta, Trenton E. Franz, Justin P. Gibson, Nunzio Romano

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The soil water content at the condition of field capacity (θ_FC) is a key parameter in irrigation scheduling and has been suggested to be determined by running a synthetic drainage experiment until the flux rate (q) at the bottom of the soil profile achieves a predefined negligible value (q_FC). We question the impact of q_FC on the assessment of field capacity. Moreover, calculating θ_FC as the integral mean of the water content profile when q is equal to q_FC is strictly valid only for uniform soil profiles. By contrast, …

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, …

Modern Practices For Responsive Web Design And Web Accessibility, Keyaun Washington

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Responsive web design and web accessibility play crucial roles in ensuring an optimal user experience on the web. By designing websites with responsiveness and accessibility in mind, more opportunities are opened up for a wider audience to access and interact with our content. Through modern practices, responsive web design allows websites to reach several different devices ranging from compact smartwatches to expansive television screens. Designing for accessibility provides accommodations for individuals with impairments while also providing benefits for individuals without impairments. However, designing for responsiveness and accessibility can present challenges; a poor attempt at providing accessibility features can worsen a …

Stump Grinder Project, Wyatt Hopper

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This project covers the analysis of a Portable Stump Grinder device sponsored by private investors known as Gary and Carol Sherman, two farmers out of Lincoln, Nebraska. The ultimate goal of this project, in terms of the work we were assigned, was to provide the foundation work for future engineering teams to design and build the stump grinder for Gary and Carol Sherman.

Columbus, Nebraska: Southern Housing Development Design Proposal, Ryan Weyers, Caiden Dynek, Alex Papa, Brexton Robertson, Kaden Perala

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The following paper proposes the design and creation of a new housing development in the city of Columbus, Nebraska in a lot to the south of the city and directly north of the Columbus wastewater treatment plant. The goal of this proposal is to provide readers with confidence that our company is the most qualified to complete the project and will create the safest, most comfortable, most efficient, and most cost-effective final design. This proposal seeks to offer a solution to the lack of affordable housing for the growing workforce in Columbus. In order to arrive at this solution, each …

The Efficacy Of Conservation Practices In Reducing Floods And Improving Water Quality, Shivendra Srivastava, Andrea D. Basche, Elbert Traylor, Tirthankar Roy

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Conservation practices such as crop rotation, filter strips, and constructed wetlands are nature-based approaches intended to safeguard natural resources in agricultural landscapes. In this study, we reviewed the literature on how conservation practices, both at watershed and field scales, have been proven to subdue flood peaks, surface runoff, soil erosion, sediment transport, and nutrient loss. We classified different conservation practices based on the mode of their application (i.e., in-field, edge-of-field, and structural practices) and described what prior research efforts have concluded about the efficacy of different practices. At the field scale, practices such as reduced or no-till farming, grassed waterways, …

Game Design: Competitive Mobile Games, Kalen Wallin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis explores the design process for a competitive multiplayer game mode in “baldorf,” a ball-throwing mobile game developed by Mystic Rhoads Productions. The research aims to enhance the overall gaming experience by introducing a competitive mode that challenges players’ skills and facilitates interaction with others. The research methodology included reviewing the popular competitive mobile games: Marvel Snap, Clash Royale, and Clash of Clans, which boast high download numbers and chart rankings. This analysis helped identify key features and mechanics that contribute to an engaging multiplayer experience. As a result, several designs were proposed, covering the profile, matchmaking, match, and …

Meta-Analysis Of Driving Behavior Studies And Assessment Of Factors Using Structural Equation Modeling, Duong Ngoc Hai, Chu Cong Minh, Nathan Huynh

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

The aim of this paper is to understand the factors that influence unsafe driving practices by examining published studies that utilized the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict driving behavior. To this end, it reviews 42 studies published up to the end of 2021 to evaluate the predictive utility of TPB by employing a meta-analysis and structural equation model. The results indicate that these studies sought to predict 20 distinct driving behaviors (e.g., drink-driving, use of cellphone while driving, aggressive driving) using the original TPB constructs and 43 additional variables. The TPB model with the three original constructs is …

Effectiveness Of Tadreb-B1 And 1-Feh W3 Kasp Markers In Spring And Winter Wheat Populations For Marker-Assisted Selection To Improve Drought Tolerance, Shamseldeen Eltaher, Mostafa Hashem, Asmaa A. M. Ahmed, P. Stephen Baenziger, Andreas Börner, Ahmed Sallam

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Due to the advances in DNA markers, kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers could accelerate breeding programs and genetically improve drought tolerance. Two previously reported KASP markers, TaDreb-B1 and 1-FEH w3, were investigated in this study for the markerassisted selection (MAS) of drought tolerance. Two highly diverse spring and winter wheat populations were genotyped using these two KASP markers. The same populations were evaluated for drought tolerance at seedling (drought stress) and reproductive (normal and drought stress) growth stages. The single-marker analysis revealed a high significant association between the target allele of 1-FEH w3 and drought susceptibility in the spring …

Leadership And Project Management In Engineering: Baja Tube Bender, Maysyn Tm Sorensen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Typical coursework for Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering students does not deeply focus on project management and leadership. Detailed in the following documentation is review of my Mechanical Engineering Senior Design capstone project as well as analysis of final presentations of other capstone projects. The Senior Design capstone projects spanned both semesters of the ‘22-’23 academic school year. After the first semester of my project I produced a post-mortem report to analyze the project’s progress and suggest improvements for the project, design, and team interaction. These improvements were compiled into an action plan and implemented in the spring semester. When the project …

Design Of University Small-Scale Dairy Processing Facility, Philip J. Hildebrand, Joshua Arejola, Alicia Andersen, Terry Howell Jr, Tami M. Brown-Brandl

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This project was assigned to research the feasibility and value of implementing a dairy processing facility on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The facility would process milk produced from cows under the same roof and will serve as an educational experience for Nebraska dairy farmers, UNL students, and K-12 students in the Lincoln-Lancaster County area. If the project is successful and replicated across the state, this facility could have a significant impact on the reduction of milk transportation costs in the Nebraska dairy industry.

The project began with researching milk processing methods and steps from production to consumption. …

Dynamic Resource Optimization For Energy-Efficient 6g-Iot Ecosystems, James Adu Ansere, Mohsin Kamal, Izaz Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Naveed Aman

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

The problem of energy optimization for Internet of Things (IoT) devices is crucial for two reasons. Firstly, IoT devices powered by renewable energy sources have limited energy resources. Secondly, the aggregate energy requirement for these small and low-powered devices is translated into significant energy consumption. Existing works show that a significant portion of an IoT device’s energy is consumed by the radio sub-system. With the emerging sixth generation (6G), energy efficiency is a major design criterion for significantly increasing the IoT network’s performance. To solve this issue, this paper focuses on maximizing the energy efficiency of the radio sub-system. In …

Long-Term Conservation And Conventional Tillage Systems Impact Physical And Biochemical Soil Health Indicators In A Corn–Soybean Rotation, Anuoluwa O. Sangotayo, Jemila Chellappa, Udayakumar Sekaran, Sangeeta Bansal, Padma Angmo, Paul J. Jasa, Sandeep Kumar, Javed Iqbal

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Agricultural management practices tend to influence soil structure stabilization, mediating many physical, chemical, and biological processes in soils. Therefore, understanding the long-term effects of management practices on various soil health indicators is crucial to develop sustainable agricultural practices. This study aimed to assess the long-term conventional and conservation tillage effects on soil physical (aggregates) and biochemical (soil organic carbon [SOC], enzymes, and microbial biomass) parameters under a range of tillage practices in a corn–soybean rotation in Nebraska. The experiment was conducted at two locations as follows: (1) Concord site (36 years) with the three treatments: no-till (NT), disk, and moldboard …

Increasing Racial Diversity In The North American Plant Phenotyping Network Through Conference Participation Support, David Lebauer, Alexander Bucksch, Jennifer Clarke, Jesse Potts, Sonali Roy

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

A key goal of the North American Plant Phenotyping Network (NAPPN) annual conference is to cultivate a new generation of scientists from diverse backgrounds. As part of their effort to diversify the plant phenomics research community, NAPPN acquired funding to cover all attendance costs for participants from historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) for the 2022 annual meeting. Seven award recipients represented the first attendees from HBCUs in the conference’s 6-year history. In this commentary, we report on the impact of the conference awards, including lessons learned, and the future of the award.

Early Executive Control Buffers Risk For Adolescent Psychopathology During The Covid‐19 Pandemic, Lauren M. Laifer, Cara C. Tomaso, Olivia D. Chang, Eric Phillips, Tiffany D. James, Jennifer Nelson, Kimberly Andrews Espy, W. Alex Mason, Timothy D. Nelson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has had a global impact on youth mental health, and there is a critical need for research examining individual factors that contribute to increased psychopathology during the pandemic. The current study explored whether executive control (EC) abilities in early childhood interact with COVID‐related stress to attenuate risk for adolescent psychopathology during the first 6 months of the pandemic.

Methods: Participants were 337 youth (49% female) living in a small midwestern city in the United States. Participants completed EC tasks when they were approximately 4.5 years old as part of a longitudinal …

Mythic Quest: An Analysis Of The Representation Of Women In The Gaming Industry, Mitchell Lohmeier

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis covers the history of the Gamergate movement, its impact on women working in the video game industry, and how the television show Mythic Quest portrays both through its representation of game developer companies. By taking information and content from episodes in Mythic Quest, to diving deep on research about Gamergate and the history of the gaming industry in the last decade, I found that Mythic Quest effectively depicted the gaming industry and its representation of women. While Mythic Quest explores issues with misogyny in the gaming universe, the show also raised awareness and promoted solutions to solve gender …

Airbnb Strategic Audit Overview, Andrea Curnes, Audrey Kreun, Tyler Royal, Jacob Zadalis, Cody Hohn, Jason Dirks

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This study provides an overview of Airbnb, an online marketplace for short-term rentals and experiences. It highlights the company's history, business strategies, value chain, acquisitions, code of ethical conduct, and organizational structure. With a Blue Ocean strategy combining differentiation and cost leadership, Airbnb has achieved remarkable success, boasting a valuation of over $67B and generating annual revenue exceeding $1.5B. The company's unique business model involves participating in all parts of the value chain, and it has expanded geographically through acquisitions and product market expansion. Airbnb's code of ethics reflects its core values, and its organizational structure fosters flexibility and remote …

Vanmoof Strategic Audit, Chi-Chun Chang

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

VanMoof is an e-bike brand originated in Amsterdam that has expanded to Western Europe, Eastern Asia, and North America. This paper will analyze the e-bike industry using PESTEL analysis. It will also analyze the industry’s competitive environment using the framework of Porter’s Five Forces, followed by an analysis of the strategy VanMoof’s currently employing. Based on the results, the paper will end with a recommendation for future strategies.

Hybrid Allele‑Specific Chip‑Seq Analysis Identifies Variation In Brassinosteroid‑Responsive Transcription Factor Binding Linked To Traits In Maize, Thomas Hartwig, Michael Banf, Gisele Passaia Prietsch, Jia‑Ying Zhu, Isabel Mora‑Ramírez, Jos H. M. Schippers, Samantha J. Snodgrass, Arun S. Seetharam, Bruno Huettel, Judith M. Kolkman, Jiashi Yang, Julia Engelhorn, Zhi‑Yong Wang

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: Genetic variation in regulatory sequences that alter transcription factor (TF) binding is a major cause of phenotypic diversity. Brassinosteroid is a growth hormone that has major effects on plant phenotypes. Genetic variation in brassinosteroidresponsive cis-elements likely contributes to trait variation. Pinpointing such regulatory variations and quantitative genomic analysis of the variation in TF-target binding, however, remains challenging. How variation in transcriptional targets of signaling pathways such as the brassinosteroid pathway contributes to phenotypic variation is an important question to be investigated with innovative approaches.

Results: Here, we use a hybrid allele-specific chromatin binding sequencing (HASChseq) approach and …

A Generalization Of The Chomsky-Halle Phonetic Representation Using Real Numbers For Robust Speech Recognition In Noisy Environments, Peter Z. Revesz

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Speech recognition is difficult when the speech signal is weak or occurs in a noisy environment. This paper presents an efficient and robust method that can reconstruct the standard pronunciation of English phonemes and words given a weak or noisy signal. The reconstruction is based on a novel representation of the reconstruction task as a problem of data retrieval from a database in two different cases: (1) when the phonemes are represented in the database as binary tuples and the input is also a binary tuple from which deletion errors occur, and (2) when the phonemes are represented in the …

Spontaneous Allelic Variant In Deafness–Blindness Gene Ush1g Resulting In An Expanded Phenotype, Vladimir Vartanian, Jocelyn F. Krey, Paroma Chatterjee, Allison Curtis, Makayla Six, Sean P. M. Rice, Sherri M. Jones, Harini Sampath, Charles N. Allen, Renee C. Ryals, R. Stephen Lloyd, Peter G. Barr-Gillespie

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Relationships between novel phenotypic behaviors and specific genetic alterations are often discovered using target-specific, directed mutagenesis or phenotypic selection following chemical mutagenesis. An alternative approach is to exploit deficiencies in DNA repair pathways that maintain genetic integrity in response to spontaneously induced damage. Mice deficient in the DNA glycosylase NEIL1 show elevated spontaneous mutations, which arise from translesion DNA synthesis past oxidatively induced base damage. Several litters of Neil1 knockout mice included animals that were distinguished by their backwards-walking behavior in open-field environments, while maintaining frantic forward movements in their home cage environment. Other phenotypic manifestations included swim test failures, …

Improving The Cotton Simulation Model, Gossym, For Soil, Photosynthesis, And Transpiration Processes, Sahila Beegum, Dennis Timlin, Kambham Raja Reddy, Vangimalla Reddy, Wenguang Sun, Zhuangji Wang, David Fleisher, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

GOSSYM, a mechanistic, process-level cotton crop simulation model, has a two-dimensional (2D) gridded soil model called Rhizos that simulates the below-ground processes daily. Water movement is based on gradients of water content and not hydraulic heads. In GOSSYM, photosynthesis is calculated using a daily empirical light response function that requires calibration for response to elevated carbon dioxide ( CO₂). This report discusses improvements made to the GOSSYM model for soil, photosynthesis, and transpiration processes. GOSSYM’s predictions of below-ground processes using Rhizos are improved by replacing it with 2DSOIL, a mechanistic 2D finite element soil process model. The photosynthesis …

Revitalizing Main Street, Usa: Recovering From The American Dream And The Destruction Of The Rural Main Street, Rebecca Virgl

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The American Dream is a national ethos that states any person, with enough hard work, can succeed in the United States; it is both critique of the pitfalls of capitalism and advocacy of the potentials the system offers. Over time, suburbia has come to represent the physical manifestation of the American Dream. In the world of planning and architecture, much discussion is given to the suburbanization of the United States. The relationship between the city and the suburb is well documented, and many plans for suburban improvements focus on making suburbs more like cities, where they are more walkable, dense, …

Implicit Leadership Theories In The Performing Arts, Alison Gillespie

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Within the performing arts industry, the social and financial consequences of leadership failure have proven costly. Additionally, the industry is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of standard operating procedures. Furthermore, leadership scholarship in the arts indicates that performing arts leaders are challenged by the need to balance artistry with administrative ability in their work (Secore, 2016).

As the performing arts industry endeavors to recover post-pandemic and to prevent future leadership failure, this study seeks to answer the question “what leadership expectations are held by those involved with the performing arts?” To answer this question, summative qualitative content analysis …

Self-Assembly Of Exfoliated Graphene Flakes As Anticorrosive Coatings For Additive Manufactured Steels, Kaleb Hood, Wen Qian, Yi Xia, Savannah Krupa, Annie Dao, Sarah Ahmed, Samuel Olson, Nam Nguyen, Joseph A. Turner, Jun Jiao

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study demonstrates the feasibility of using liquid exfoliation of expandable graphite into multilayer exfoliated graphene flakes (EGFs) to form a self-assembled thin film on an air–water interface. The film can coat the surface of additive manufactured (AM) steel substrates to enhance surface properties, specifically AM 316 stainless-steel (AM316), AM 8620 steel (AM8620), and samples of the same alloys made by conventional manufacturing (CM) processes. Liquid exfoliation offers a high yield route for an EGF coating that can cover up to 95% of the sample surface with a single application. The thin, flexible EGFs can coat a rough AM metal …