Engineering Commons^™

Manure As Carbon Source For Soil Improvement And Crop Production: Site-Specific Application, Bahman Eghball, Daniel Ginting, Charles A. Shapiro, James S. Schepers, Christopher J. Bauer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Manure, a renewable resource, is an excellent source of nutrients that can be substituted for synthetic types of fertilizers. The C in manure can enhance the physical and chemical properties of soils, especially infertile soils, as these soils typically contain low levels of organic matter and nutrients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of C and nutrients in manure on soil C dynamics and crop production. The treatments included applications of site-specific manure (SSM), uniform manure (UM), uniform commercial fertilizer, and a no treatment check. Field strips 40 ft (16 corn rows) wide and 2200 ft …

Impact Of Manure Application On Phosphorus Runoff And Soil Erosion, Daniel T. Walters, C. Gossin, Gregory J. Teichmeier, Galen E. Erickson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Phosphorus (P) losses from agricultural land is a serious environmental issue because of the impact of P on freshwater eutrophication (McDowell, et al., 2001). The movement of P from soil to surface water is impacted by P input to soil and manure management practices that impact P transport processes. Twenty-one natural runoff plots were established to monitor the effect of time and method of composted beef feedlot manure application and feed P input on net losses of bio-available P and sediment in surface runoff. Reducing feed P inputs resulted in a 33% reduction in manure P content. Runoff losses of …

Ft-Nir Spectroscopic Analysis Of Nitrogen In Cotton Leaves, Mark R. Riley, Loreto C. Canaves

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Near-infrared spectroscopy was evaluated as a means to quantify the nitrogen content- in fresh cotton leaves (Gossypium hirsutum L. var. Delta Pine 90) subjected to a factorial design experiment of varying nitrogen and water applications. Absorbance spectra were collected in the 10000-4000 cm^-1 (1000-2500 nm) region from fresh cotton leaves over a two month portion of the growing season. Total nitrogen content was quantified by a wet chemistry Kjeldahl method for validation purposes. Partial least-squares regression analysis, using an automated grid search method, selected the spectral region 6041 to 5651 cm^-1 (1650-1770 nm) for analysis based on having …

Giant Photoresistivity And Optically Controlled Switching In Self-Assembled Nanowires, N. Kouklin, L. Menon, A. Z. Wong, Daniel W. Thompson, John A. Woollam, P. F. Williams, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We report the observation of giant photoresistivity in electrochemically self-assembled CdS and ZnSe nanowires electrodeposited in a porous alumina film. The resistance of these nanowires increases by one to two orders of magnitude when exposed to infrared radiation, possibly because of real-space transfer of electrons from the nanowires into the surrounding alumina by photon absorption. This phenomenon has potential applications in ‘‘normally on’’ infrared photodetectors and optically controlled switches.

Boron Carbide/N-Silicon Carbide Heterojunction Diodes, Shireen Adenwalla, P. Welsch, A. Harken, Jennifer I. Brand, A. Sezer, Brian W. Robertson

Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience: Faculty Publications

The fabrication, initial structural characterization, and diode measurements are reported for a boron carbide/silicon carbide heterojunction diode. Current–voltage curves are obtained for operation at temperatures from 24 to 351 °C. Plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD) -deposited undoped boron carbide material is highly crystalline and consists of a variety of polytypes of boron carbide (BC) with crystal sizes as large as 110 nm. Crystal phases are similar to those for PECVD BC on Si but only partially match known boron and boron-rich BC phases.

Hybrid Transient-Parametric Method And System To Distinguish And Analyze Sources Of Acoustic Emission For Nondestructive Inspection And Structural, Health Monitoring, Yuris Dzenis

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

A nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique for inspecting or health monitoring of Structures and/or Specimens by analyzing acoustic emission (AE) signals emitted by the Structures and/or specimens. The method and System ana lyzes acoustic emission (AE) signals emitted by structures and/or Specimens. AE Signals emitted by the Structures and/or Specimens are parametrically filtered as a function of parametric filters corresponding to characteristic waveforms of transient AE classes of predefined AE signals. In para metric analysis, the filtering may be pre- or post-recording. In transient AE analysis, the filtering may be prior to transient recording of the transient signals.

Acuta Enews December 2001, Vol.30, No. 12

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Michigan Tech Chooses Network Appliances

ACUTA Events

The "New Member Roundup"- Why It's Important

DC Update

ACUTA EVENTS

Mexico Dialing Pattern Change

Did the Lights Go Out? Events, Results, and Impacts

Board Report

Thanks to Our Sponsors!

Fourth Quarter 2001 Web Sites to See

Welcome New Members

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Will Voluntary And Educational Programs Meet Environmental Objectives? Evidence From A Survey Of New York Dairy Farms, Gregory L. Poe, Nelson L. Bills, B. C. Bellows, Patricia Crosscombe, Richard K. Koelsch, Michael J. Kreher, Peter Wright

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results from a survey of New York dairy farms that links manure management practices and farmer willingness to participate in voluntary environmental programs, focusing on those operations that are not automatically designated as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. A wide divergence is found between actual and recommended manure management practices on individual dairy farms (high), the apparent ability of farms to divert financial resources to environmental practices (mixed), and the willingness to participate in voluntary programs at various annual costs per cow (low). These findings have policy implications for the USDA/USEPA National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations.

Non-Repressing Carbon Sources For Alcohol Oxidase (Aoxi) Promoter Of Pichia Pastoris, Mehmet İnan, Michael M. Meagher

Papers in Biochemical Engineering

The growth of Pichia pastoris in a mixture of either glycerol or glucose and methanol follows a diauxic growth, with C1, utilizing enzymes being repressed. Therefore, these carbon sources can not be used as a mixture with methanol to simultaneously grow P. pastoris and induce C1, utilizing enzymes, especially in shake flask cultures of AOX-deficient P. pastoris. Among the alternative carbon sources tested, alanine, sorbitol, mannitol and trehalose, did not repress β-gal production when methanol was used as an inducer in mut- strain of P. pastoris. Our results show that either one of alanine, sorbitol, …

Acuta Enews November 2001, Vol.30, No. 11

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Tornado Strikes Maryland Campus

Thanks to Exhibitors for 2001

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IT Disasters Recovery Near the World Trade Center

Board Report

Business Continuity Planning in Higher Ed

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Mechanical, Geometrical, And Electrical Characterization Of Silicon Membranes For Open Stencil Masks, E. Sossna, A. Degen, I. W. Rangelow, M. Drzik, P. Hudek, T. E. Tiwald, John A. Woollam

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Silicon membranes are used for stencil masks which are key to charged particle projection lithography, particularly for ion projection lithography, electron beam projection. Quantitative and qualitative determination of the mechanical properties of the true thickness, thickness variations (morphology), electrical conductivity and stress is critical to the development of next generation lithography. The metrology setup includes high accuracy thickness, refractive index and electrical conductivity measurement based on infrared variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry, thickness variation characterization based on the Fizeau interferometric scheme and mechanical stress evaluation based on a novel double bulging technique.

Crash Attenuation System, John D. Reid, John R. Rohde, Dean L. Sicking

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

A crash attenuation system having an impact head, and energy absorption mechanism. The energy absorbing mechanism has a mandrel for rupturing thin-walled tubes in a controlled rupture to absorb impact forces from a colliding vehicle. A frame may be used to mount the system to a truck, trailer, guardrail, median barrier end treatment, or a crash cushion. Stress concentrators may be incorporated into the tubes and the mandrels to selectively control rupturing and energy dissipation.

Statistical Evaluation Of Image Quality Measures, Ismail Avcibas, Bulent Sankur, Khalid Sayood

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this work we comprehensively categorize image quality measures, extend measures defined for gray scale images to their multispectral case, and propose novel image quality measures. They are categorized into pixel difference-based, correlation-based, edge-based, spectral-based, context-based and human visual system (HVS)-based measures. Furthermore we compare these measures statistically for still image compression applications. The statistical behavior of the measures and their sensitivity to coding artifacts are investigated via analysis of variance techniques. Their similarities or differences are illustrated by plotting their Kohonen maps. Measures that give consistent scores across an image class and that are sensitive to coding artifacts are …

Oct 2001, Tractor Museum

Lester F. Larsen Tractor Museum: Planning and Development Documents

Software Program Storage Space Needed 16 new members

Fabrication Of 2- And 3-Dimensional Nanostructures, Hong Jiang, Camelia N. Borca, Bo Xu, Brian W. Robertson

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Amongst tools for fabricating periodic and aperiodic nanostructures and nanodevices, electron beam-induced organometallic chemical vapor deposition (E-OMCVD) offers a highly flexible and controllable one-step deposition process. E-OMCVD enables maskless fabrication of nanoscale research and custom structures that have least dimensions near or below 10 nm–a scale at which other methods prove difficult or costly. Using the focused electron beam in a modified HB501 field-emission scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), pads and wires with uniform thickness and well-defined shapes have been defined and deposited. Although conditions for fabricating the smallest deposits have not yet been optimized, the edge acuity (sharpness) of …

Acuta Enews October 2001, Vol.30, No. 10

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How Telecom Answered the Call

ACUTA EVENTS

New Member Roundup

DC Update

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Characteristics And Sequence Of Phosphoglycolate Phosphatase From A Eukaryotic Green Alga Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Tarlan G. Mamedov, Kensaku Suzuki, Kenji Miura, Ken-Ichi Kucho, Hideya Fukuzawa

Papers in Biochemical Engineering

Phosphoglycolate phosphatase (PGPase), a key en¬zyme of photorespiration in photosynthetic organisms, was purified from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The en¬zyme was an ~65-kDa homodimer with a pI value of 5.1 composed of ~32-kDa subunits not connected by any S–S bridges. It was also highly specific for phosphoglycolate with a Km value of 140 μM and an optimal pH between 8 and 9. The activity was strongly inhibited by CaCl2, and it recovered competitively following the addition of MgCl2 or EGTA. A mobility shift was observed in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis by the addition of CaCl2, indicating that the enzyme binds to Ca2+ . …

Acuta Enews September 2001, Vol.30, No. 9

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Conference Highlights

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ACUTA Plans Audio Seminar on Taxes, Surcharges, and Fees

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Nutrients In Runoff Following The Application Of Swine Manure To Interrill Areas, John E. Gilley, Bahman Eghball, B. J. Weinhold, Phillip S. Miller

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The P content of swine manure can be reduced through the addition of feed supplements or the use of selected corn hybrids. This study was conducted to compare interrill runoff losses of P and N from three soils following the application of swine manure obtained from selected diets. The soils used in this investigation included a Hersh sandy loam, Pierre silty clay, and Sharpsburg silt loam. Simulated rainfall was applied during both initial and wet runs to a soil pan on which swine manure produced from low phytate corn (LPC), phytase added to the diet (PHY), or a traditional corn …

Electrode Modification Using An Unzippable Polymer Paste, Ravi F. Saraf

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Patents

A paste is described for capping electrodes with an oxide free metal layer incorporating a solvent, an unzippable polymer and particles. The electrode could be an interconnect such as a C4 bump. A method for forming a coating and for testing integrated circuit chips is also described. The invention overcomes the problem of interconnecting Pb containing electrodes that are covered with an insulating oxide on integrated circuit chips by coating the Pb containing electrode with Au to provide an oxide free surface for testing and interconnection.

Anisotropy Of Conducting P States And 11B Nuclear Spin-Lattice Relaxation In Mg1-XAlXB2, Kirill D. Belashchenko, Vladimir B. Antropov, S.N. Rashkeev

Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience: Faculty Publications

We calculated the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate in the Mg_1-xAl_xB₂ system and found that the orbital relaxation mechanism dominates over the dipolar and Fermi-contact mechanisms in MgB₂, whereas in AlB₂ due to a smaller density of states and strong anisotropy of boron p orbitals the relaxation is completely determined by Fermi-contact interaction. The results for MgB₂ are compared with existing experimental data. To validate the theory, nuclear resonance experiments for the studied diboride alloy system are needed.

Radio Frequency (Rf) Transponder (Tag) With Composite Antenna, Ravi F. Saraf

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Patents

An antenna composed of composite material which can be screen printed is proposed for RFID transponders and other RF communication systems.

Coexistence Of Covalent And Metallic Bonding In The Boron Intercalation Superconductor Mgb2, Kirill D. Belashchenko, Mark Van Schilfgaarde, Vladimir P. Antropov

Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience: Faculty Publications

Chemical bonding and electronic structure of MgB₂, a boron-based newly discovered superconductor, is studied using self-consistent band-structure techniques. Analysis of the transformation of the band structure for the hypothetical series of graphite–primitive graphite–primitive graphitelike boron–intercalated boron, shows that the band structure of MgB₂ is graphitelike, with π bands falling deeper than in ordinary graphite. These bands possess a typically delocalized and metallic, as opposed to covalent, character. The in-plane σ bands retain their two-dimensional (2D) covalent character, but exhibit a metallic hole-type conductivity. The coexistence of 2D covalent in-plane and three-dimensional (3D) metallic-type interlayer conducting bands is …

Acuta Enews August 2001, Vol.30, No. 8

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Safety First at Section Hall

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Overheard on the Listserve: RF Interference on Campus

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The Effect Of Ethanol And Acetate On Protein Expression In Pichia Pastoris, Mehmet İnan, Michael M. Meagher

Papers in Biochemical Engineering

Pichia pastoris is an excellent host for high-level heterologous gene expression, but there is still much interest in improving the productivity of recombinant protein production. P. pastoris produces a small amount of ethanol as a by-product during the glycerol fed-batch phase and the mixed-feed induction phase (glycerol-methanol) of high cell density fermentations, regardless of the phenotype (Mutf, Mut" or Mut-). We have investigated ethanol repression of the AOXl promoter using strains, GS115 (Mutf) and MC100-3 (Mut-), expressing an AOXI-lac2 fusion. The addition of 10 mg t1 ethanol at the start of methanol induction delayed P-galactosidase production and methanol utilization …

Delamination Resistant Composites Prepared By Small Diameter Fiber Reinforcement At Ply Interfaces, Youris A. Dzenis, Darrell H. Reneker

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

A fiber reinforced composite material comprising a resin matrix and primary reinforcement fibers and further comprising secondary, smaller diameter, reinforcement fibers at one or more ply interfaces, or portion thereof, provides improved interlaminar toughness, strength, and delamination resistance and without substantial increase in weight. In one embodiment, the small fibers are attached to one side of a conventional prepreg prior to lamination. The small fibers are flexible and are expected to conform to the shape and distribution of the primary reinforcing fibers at the interface.

Jul 2001, Tractor Museum

Lester F. Larsen Tractor Museum: Planning and Development Documents

UN Foundation Tractor Raffle Oliver Tractor Repair

Expression Of A Heterologous Protein C In Mammary Tissue Of Transgenic Animals Using A Long Whey Acidic Protein Promoter , William H. Velander, Henryk Lubton, William N. Drohan, Lothar Hennighausen

Papers in Biotechnology

An isolated DNA sequence which regulates the expression of a heterologous gene composed of a mouse whey acidic protein promoter having a length of greater than about 2.4 kb extending upstream from the unique KpnI site in the mouse whey acidic protein gene is disclosed. Specifically a mouse whey acidic protein promoter of about 4.1-4.2 kb in length extending upstream from the unique KpnI site is preferred. This mouse whey acid protein promoter is operably linked to a DNA sequence encoding a heterologous polypeptide and used to prepare transgenic non-human mammals expressing the heterologous polypeptide in their milk. Particularly efficient …

Rfid Transponders With Paste Antennas And Flip-Chip Attachment, Ravi F. Saraf

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Patents

A radio frequency transponder is provided which comprises a substrate layer, a radio frequency integrated circuit affixed to said substrate layer; and an antenna provided on said substrate layer in electrical connection with said radio frequency integrated circuit. The antenna is comprised of a conductive paste material having a resistivity of approximately 20 µΩ-cm, which is greater than the resistivity of a conventional etched copper antenna, but still sufficiently low to provide a radio frequency transponder having acceptable read range. The substrate layer further comprises a flexible organic material. The radio frequency integrated circuit is disposed in a flip-chip configuration …

Transgenic Non-Human Mammals Expressing Human Coagulation Factor Viii And Von Willebrand Factor , William H. Velander

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Patents

A non-human transgenic mammalian animal, as described above, contains an exogenous double stranded DNA sequence stably integrated into the genome of the animal, which comprises cis-acting regulatory units operably linked to a DNA sequence encoding human Factor VIII protein and a signal peptide, where the cis-acting regulatory units are active in mammary gland cells and the signal peptide is active in directing newly expressed Factor VIII into the milk of the animal. The promoter may be a milk protein promoter such as for whey acidic protein, casein, lactalbumin, or beta-lactoglobulin promoter. The transgenic mammals are preferably farm animals, for example, …