Engineering Commons^™

Smart-Insect Monitoring System Integration And Interaction Via Ai Cloud Deployment And Gpt, Ahmed Moustafa

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Insect Detection Server was developed to explore the deployment and integration of an Artificial Intelligence model for Computer Vision in the context of insect detection. The model was developed to accurately identify insects from images taken by camera systems installed on farms. The goal is to integrate the model into an easily accessible, cloud-based application that allows farmers to analyze automatically uploaded images containing groups of insects found on their farms. The application returns the bounding boxes and the detected classes of insects whenever an image is captured on-site, enabling farmers to take appropriate actions to address the issue …

Concentrated Wastewater Treatment Using A Ferric Iron-Dosed Anaerobic Upflow Sludge Blanket Reactor For Recovery Of Phosphorus And Ammonium, Carley E. Shingleton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study evaluated the performance of a novel, ferric iron-dosed anaerobic bioreactor to recover two separate nutrient products from concentrated wastewaters -- phosphorus as vivianite (Fe₃(PO₄)₂×8H₂O) and an ammonium-containing effluent with low organics. A bench-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor fed with a synthetic wastewater (458.0 mg/L total organic carbon, 282.7 mg/L ammonium, and 84.4 mg/L phosphate) was dosed with a ferric chloride solution at an org. C/Fe³⁺ molar ratio ~17.5 to facilitate organic carbon oxidation coupled to iron reduction. The reactor design allowed natural settling of vivianite to its …

Development Of A Framework To Support Community-Scale Nutrient Recovery For Local Crop Fertilization And Production, Scott A. Lopez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Nutrient and resource recovery (NRR) has become increasingly crucial as regions face deteriorating sanitation infrastructures, limited support, and growing environmental challenges. Implementing region-specific NRR technologies and systems could provide effective circular economy insights into addressing these challenges. Because of the multidisciplinary challenges associated with the design and implementation of NRR strategies, various government and local decision-makers need to collaborate effectively in the decision-making process. Structured decision-making (SDM) methodologies are practical when determining the most appropriate NRR strategy for nutrient-rich waste streams. However, applications of computational SDM limited because of the vast amounts of data that are needed to analyze the …

Dynamic Distributed Energy Resources For Expansion Of Ontario’S Greenhouse Sector, Lysandra Naom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The vegetable greenhouse sector is rapidly growing and adopting technology advances like supplemental lighting. Supplemental lighting has a dynamic impact on the demand and consumption of a greenhouse’s electricity load. There is uncertainty on the rate of adaptation of technologies and the impact this could have on the power consumption of the sector. Without electricity availability, the sectors innovation and expansion can come to a halt. This research focused on investigating greenhouse electrical load models and lighting trends to forecast demand on electricity grids and discover potential for Distributed Energy Resource (DER) applications.

This thesis presents a series of studies …

Comparative Analytics On Chilli Plant Disease Using Machine Learning Techniques, Sai Abhishta Roy Seelam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis concerns the detection of diseases in chilli plants using machine learning techniques. Three algorithms, viz., Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), and their variants have been employed. Chilli-producing countries, India, Mexico, China, Indonesia, Spain, the United States, and Turkey. India has the world’s largest chilli production of about 49% (according to 2020). Andhra Pradesh (Guntur) is the largest market in India, where their varieties are more popular for pungency and color. This study classifies five kinds of diseases that affect the chilli, namely, leaf spot, whitefly, yellowish, healthy, and leaf curl. A …

Evaluating The Viscoelastic Properties Of Alligator Skin Gelatin, Alligel, Compared To Mammalian And Fish Gelatins, Sarah E. Jimenez

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Spatial Heterogeneity Of Wild Blueberries And Crop Water Stress Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Technologies, Kallol Barai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The wild blueberry is one of the major crops of Maine, with significant economic value and potential health benefits. Due to global climate change, drought impacts have been increasing significantly in recent years in the northeast region of the USA, causing significant economic losses in the agricultural sectors. It has been predicted to increase further in the future. Changing patterns of the elevated atmospheric temperatures, increased rainfall variabilities, and more frequent drought events have made the wild blueberry industry of Maine vulnerable, suggesting the adoption of novel approaches to mitigate the negative impacts of global climate changes. Also, wild blueberry …

Land Use/ Land Cover Change Patterns And Trends In Two Dryland Regions, Omar Sulaiman Belhaj

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Development and climate change affect the environment in numerous ways and to varyingdegrees. This effect appears prominent and more influential in arid regions. Therefore, land use/ land cover in these regions experience profound changes such as plant cover decrease and extinction of some plant species. Also, land use/ land cover in these regions has critical impacts on the environment and its components, such as shrublands shrinking and losing the habitat of animal species. The degree of changes and effects reaches severe levels that become urgent to figure out the impacts and find solutions to stop or mitigate the negative consequences. …

Evaluation Of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Tumor Matrix, Alejandra Ham

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Nanoparticle Quantification And Distribution On Fluorescently Coated Angioplasty Balloons, Allison Dobson Zieschang

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Implementación Del Cultivo De Yuca (Manihot Esculenta Crantz) Variedad Mcol 2737 Mediante Un Manejo Tecnificado Y Un Enfoque Microempresarial, Kelly Yuliza Cifuentes Ulloa

Ingeniería Agronómica

El presente trabajo de grado busco establecer un cultivo de yuca (Manihot esculenta crantz) variedad MCol 2737, en las condiciones agroclimáticas en la cabecera municipal de Francisco Pizarro Salahonda ubicado en el departamento de Nariño, en el cual el proyecto se ejecutó en la Institución Educativa Agroecológica La Playa, donde se capacitaron a los estudiantes del grado once de la Institución, con el objetivo de incentivar el interés por la agricultura, específicamente por el cultivo de yuca, el cual es un producto esencial en la canasta familiar de la zona.

Por medio de la ejecución de este proyecto se pretendió: …

Design Of Affordable Polyaniline - Based Wearable Sensor For Real Time Plant Growth Monitoring, Temitope Borode

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The need for precision agriculture in today and future farming cannot be overstressed. Recent agriculture is characterized by numerous challenges such as environmental stressors and resource constraints resulting in low crop yield and unsustainable agriculture practices. Understanding plant growth mechanism and growth rate under the external influence is a bedrock towards precision agriculture practices ensuring optimum yield and sustainable utilization of resources. The current study addresses this need by developing and applying an affordable and stable sensor for monitoring plant growth. The sensor was fabricated by in-situ chemical polymerization of aniline on an elastic band substrate by dip coating. The …

Managing Water Quantity And Quality With Subsurface Drainage In Eastern South Dakota, Morghan Hurst

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Moisture extremes (excess and deficit) impact crop loss and water quality. Due to excessively wet springs and dry summers, crop damage can occur within the same county or field within the same year. To determine the magnitude of this problem in eastern South Dakota, indemnified crop insurance data for drought and excessive moisture claims were assessed for the years 1991-2020 for the occurrence of both excess moisture and drought in four counties in eastern South Dakota. Results show that there is greater than a 70% chance of the moisture extremes happening in the same year, making subsurface drainage, controlled drainage, …

Effects Of The Inclusion Of Rice Hull Derived Bio-Oil On Wood Pellet Production, Tyler E. Lowe

Theses and Dissertations

Wood pellet production has become an advancing industry for the sake of reducing greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere especially, in European Union countries. Researchers and industry executives seek new methods and materials to improve the pelletization process. Rice hulls or husks has the potential to aid in wood pelletization as they possess high calorific values. This study focuses on using rice hull derived bio-oil from pyrolysis, which will also decrease ash content, as an additive to aid in the wood pelletization process. Using two groups of rice hull derived bio-oil as an additive in wood pelletization: Group 1 uses heavy …

A Gis-Based Model To Assess On-Site Sewage Facility (Ossf) Contamination Risk To Local Water Resources, Alvaro Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

In a collaborative effort between Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI), Cameron County Public Health (CCPH), Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (TAMAE), and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), a GIS database that includes relevant OSSF information, such as location, system age, lot size, and other important parameters was created.

This OSSF database, along with publicly available GIS data, was used to create an integrative GIS-based risk assessment model where OSSF risk parameters were assigned a risk factor and combined into a spatial contamination risk for surrounding areas and their receiving waterbodies. Parameters were broken down into two categories: environmental …

The Race To Fifty Feet: An Effort To Determine The Benefits Of Deepening The Mississippi River, Brian Miles

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the benefits and drawbacks of deepening the Lower Mississippi River to fifty feet. It established that the deepening of the Lower Mississippi River will impact not only the local area but also the inland regions that rely on the river systems and lower river ports for product movement. The perspectives of vessel operators, maritime industry experts and charterers are provided to offer insight. The sources for the research include educational literature, maritime research and interviews of industry experts. Based on this research, it is clear that this project will benefit many parties. The beneficiaries will include both …

Development And Evaluation Of An Attachable Anti-Vibration Handle For Blueberry Hand Shaker, Jashwant Thota

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Blueberry production has skyrocketed in the past two decades due to an exponential increase in consumer demand around the world. The harvesting of fresh, high-quality blueberries requires extensive care. Large-scale automatic harvesters damage the fruit and make it unsuitable for storage and transportation, which requires more than two weeks to complete. Therefore, hand harvesters are used, avoiding damage to the fruit, and increasing harvesting efficiency multifold when compared with that of hand-picking. The downside of these hand harvesters is their high Hand Arm Vibration (HAV), which is very dangerous for the worker and can cause hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). This …

Economic And Ecosystem Impacts Of Gm Maize In South Africa, Kristiina Ala-Kokko

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

White maize in South Africa is the only staple crop produced on a widespread commercial basis for direct human consumption using genetically modified (GM) cultivars. Using a combined economic and environmental approach, we estimate the total welfare benefits attributable to GM white maize in South Africa for 2001-2018 are $694.7 million. Food security benefits attributable to GM white maize in South Africa also manifest through an average of 4.6 million additional white maize rations annually. To achieve these additional annual rations using conventional hybrid maize, the additional land required would range from 1,088 hectares in 2001 to 217,788 hectares in …

Estimating Irrigation In Rice Fields With A Water Balance Approach, Kristen Trinh

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Global food production must increase to meet the demand associated with increased population growth, so irrigation water use will continue to rise. Therefore, it is important to monitor water usage particularly when an irrigation flowmeter is unavailable. A field water balance was created for a selection of rice fields in East-central Arkansas under observation in 2018 and 2019. From those, irrigation inputs are deduced from the water balance alone. First, each field had sensors that collected water table level (WTL) data. Next, other water inputs and outputs such as precipitation and evapotranspiration (ET) were collected from two modeled sources. The …

Velocity Distribution And Stress Analysis In A Continuous Exchange Cell-Free Protein Synthesis System, Grace Nguyen

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Development And Mechanical Characterization Of A Composite Biomaterial Made From Agricultural Waste Reinforcement In A Fungal Mycelium Matrix., John Adam Howe

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Optimisation Of Grass Measurement Technologies Through Field Experimentation And Numerical Simulation Methods, Darren Joseph Murphy

Theses

Maximising pasture utilisation through optimal grassland management is vital in terms of ensuring the economic sustainability and mitigating the environmental impact of both Irish and global pasture-based livestock production. Frequent and accurate measurement of grass quantity and quality is one of the main methods of maximising grass production and utilisation on pasture-based farms. The most prominent grass measurement tool used on Irish pasture is the rising plate meter (RPM), however, there are a range of issues with this method including operator bias, precision and difficulties in accounting for spatial variation. Currently, there is no definitive protocol for grass measurement which …

Valorization Of Xylan In Agroforestry Waste Streams, Harrison Appiah

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Valorization of Xylan in Agroforestry Waste Streams.

Harrison Appiah

Microwave-assisted deep eutectic solvent and gamma-valerolactone metallic chloride catalyzed conversion of xylan to furfural were investigated using a 2x3 factorial experimental design at two levels of percent microwave power, reaction time, and catalyst concentration. The levels of each factor studied were (20%, 60% microwave power, 2, 4 minutes, and 10, 20mg) respectively. The effect of three metallic chloride catalysts (LiCl, FeCl3.6H20, CuCl2) on the conversion of xylan to furfural was also investigated. The gamma-valerolactone-ferric chloride sent system exhibited the highest mean yield of furfural (56.50%). The next highest furfural yield of …

Analysis Of Modern Barn Design, Gunther Soehnlen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The agriculture industry is always changing. Barn structures are one of the most important aspects of the agriculture industry. As the agriculture industry changes, so does the design and construction of barns. There are many types of barns, but over the last 300 years four of the most prevalent types have been the Bank Barn, Open Span Truss Barn, Hoop Barn, and Transverse Frame Barn. The Bank Barn and Transverse Frame Barn have been popularly built for over 200 years. The Hoop Barn and the Open Span Truss Barn have been recently introduced to the industry, becoming popular within the …

Evaluación De Impacto Ambiental En El Proyecto Red De Huertas Urbanas En Localidad Rafael Uribe Uribe De Bogotá D.C, Andrés Felipe Pinto Arias, René Alejandro Aguilar Díaz

Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria

La siguiente investigación tiene por objeto realizar la evaluación de impacto ambiental EIA de la RED huertas agroecológicas de la localidad de Rafael Uribe Uribe de Bogotá D.C, para esto se inició un marco teórico de las huertas urbanas y agroecológicas en diferentes países de América latina , su incidencia y el debate teórico entre el modelo actual de desarrollo agrícola desarrollado por la revolución verde y el de la propuesta del modelo de desarrollo alternativo agroecológico, en donde se definió que sus principales debates se centran en los impactos negativos que genera por medio de la agricultura industrial e …

Food From Somewhere: Envisioning And Practicing Aspirational Food Systems, Caitlin Morgan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This transdisciplinary dissertation explores the connections between material conditions, human engagements, and the social, economic, and ecological contexts in which they exist. It investigates imaginations of a better food system, projects people have already undertaken, and what happens when their visions meet reality.

Chapter 1 weaves together diverse literature: a justification for action-oriented research and a blending of ecofeminist scholarship, agroecology and sustainable agriculture, ecological economics, systems theory and food systems scholarship, and sensory studies. These disciplines tie together through notions of embeddedness, embodiment, and the context for action, which all translate to the dissertation’s methodological approach of mixed qualitative …

Exposure Assessment Of Emerging Contaminants: Rapid Screening And Modeling Of Plant Uptake, Majid Bagheri

Doctoral Dissertations

"With the advent of new chemicals and their increasing uses in every aspect of our life, considerable number of emerging contaminants are introduced to environment yearly. Emerging contaminants in forms of pharmaceuticals, detergents, biosolids, and reclaimed wastewater can cross plant roots and translocate to various parts of the plants. Long-term human exposure to emerging contaminants through food consumption is assumed to be a pathway of interest. Thus, uptake and translocation of emerging contaminants in plants are important for the assessment of health risks associated with human exposure to emerging contaminants. To have a better understanding over fate of emerging contaminants …

Evaluación De Modelos De Clasificación Para La Predicción De Heladas En El Sector Agricultor De Mosquera Cundinamarca, Colombia, Cristian Camilo Meza Gámez, Sergio Alejandro Gutierréz Barón

Ingeniería en Automatización

No abstract provided.

Engineering A Grapevine Pruning Training Tool For Use In Educational And Professional Environments, Catherine Anne Thornbury

Electrical Engineering

This report documents the design of a field-safe and portable tool that helps field hands identify how many wine grape nodes to prune per cane. This practice allows for a more bountiful harvest. The device indicates to the worker whether to leave one, two, or three nodes on a cane. The device is attachable to a set of industry-standard shears to allow for efficient and cost-effective pruning.

The device add-on can withstand a typical 8-hour workday and is able to be used in bright sun, clouds, and rain. Additionally, the device is able to differentiate between small, medium, and large …

Does Circularizing Source-Separated Food Waste Present A Risk To Our Food?, Astha Thakali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

About a third of the food produced annually is wasted. Food waste recycling can be a way to close the loop and attain a more sustainable food system, however, the system must be carefully monitored and managed to avoid the introduction and build-up of contaminants. To study the potential presence of contaminants in food waste, source-separated food waste was collected and screened for five classes of contaminants (physical contaminants, heavy metals, halogenated organic contaminants, pathogens, and antibiotic resistance genes) from two separate regulatory environments (voluntary vs mandated food separation). The regulatory environment did not affect the level of contamination, except …