Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Disturbances In Primary Visual Processing As A Function Of Healthy Aging, Seth D. Springer, Tara D. Erker, Mikki Schantell, Hallie J. Johnson, Madelyn P. Willett, Hannah J. Okelberry, Maggie P. Rempe, Anthony Wilson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

For decades, visual entrainment paradigms have been widely used to investigate basic visual processing in healthy individuals and those with neurological disorders. While healthy aging is known to be associated with alterations in visual processing, whether this extends to visual entrainment responses and the precise cortical regions involved is not fully understood. Such knowledge is imperative given the recent surge in interest surrounding the use of flicker stimulation and entrainment in the context of identifying and treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the current study, we examined visual entrainment in eighty healthy aging adults using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and a 15 Hz …

Design Of A Virtual Lab For Plate Heat Exchanger Sterilization System, Daniel N. Hauersperger

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

Online learning has become a staple in contemporary education, requiring new ways to display and promote experiences. Virtual labs can be used to give learners a way to enter a lab environment without the need for expensive equipment or materials. One example is to give students a “hands-on” experience using a sterilization process to preserve biological materials. Sterilization systems incorporate heat exchangers to bring product up to temperature and then cool product down quickly to prevent excess degradation of nutrients. Data generated from virtual labs will allow learners to use the system responses and build their understanding of how the …

Comprehensive Microenvironment Monitoring For The Productivity And Welfare Of Sows And Piglets, Jun Ho Kim

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

The world is facing increasing food demand and climate change. To improve piglet survivability and sow welfare through microenvironment management using precision technology, a USDA sponsored research project started in 2021 and is ongoing. A comprehensive yet low-cost system was designed and developed for continuous and real-time microenvironment monitoring in three rooms of Farrowing Building #1 at the Animal Sciences Research and Education Center, Purdue University. The system consists of two gas analyzers and 103 different sensors, including sensors in a weather station. The first trial of the project was conducted from Jan. 13 to Feb. 8, 2023, when the …

The Next-Gen Crop Nutrient Stress Identification With High-Precision Sensing Technology In Digital Agriculture, Zhihang Song, Ziling Chen, Xing Wei, Jian Jin

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

Crop yields are facing significant losses from nutrient deficiencies. Over-fertilizing also has negative economic and environmental impacts. It is challenging to optimize fertilizing without an accurate diagnosis. Recently, plant phenotyping has demonstrated outstanding capabilities in estimating crop traits. As one of the leading technologies, LeafSpec, provides high-quality crop image data for improving phenotyping quality. In this study, novel algorithms are developed for LeafSpec to identify crop nutrient deficiencies more accurately. Combined with UAV system, this technology will bring growers a robust solution for fertilizing diagnosis and scientific crop management.

The Effect Of Relative Humidity On Eddy Covariance Latent Heat Flux Measurements And Its Implication For Partitioning Into Transpiration And Evaporation, Weijie Zhang, Martin Jung, Mirco Migliavacca, Rafael Poyatos, Diego G. Miralles, Tarek S. El-Madany, Marta Galvagno, Arnaud Carrara, Nicola Arriga, Andreas Ibrom, Ivan Mammarella, Dario Papale, Jamie R. Cleverly, Michael Liddell, Georg Wohlfahrt, Christian Markwitz, Matthias Mauder, Eugenie Paul-Limoges, Marius Schmidt, Sebastian Wolf, Christian Brümmer, M. Altaf Arain, Silvano Fares, Tomomichi Kato, Jonas Ardö, Walter Oechel, Chad Hanson, Mika Korkiakoski, Sébastien Biraud, Rainer Steinbrecher, Dave Billesbach, Leonardo Montagnani, William Woodgate, Changliang Shao, Nuno Carvalhais, Markus Reichstein, Jacob A. Nelson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

While the eddy covariance (EC) technique is a well-established method for measuring water fluxes (i.e., evaporation or 'evapotranspiration’, ET), the measurement is susceptible to many uncertainties. One such issue is the potential underestimation of ET when relative humidity (RH) is high (>70%), due to low-pass filtering with some EC systems. Yet, this underestimation for different types of EC systems (e.g. open-path or closed-path sensors) has not been characterized for synthesis datasets such as the widely used FLUXNET2015 dataset. Here, we assess the RH-associated underestimation of latent heat fluxes (LE, or ET) from different EC systems for 163 sites in …

Spray Characterization Of An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle For Agricultural Spraying, Eray Önler, Hasan Berk Özyurt, Mehmet Şener, Sezen Arat, Bülent Eker, İlker Hüseyin Çelen

The Philippine Agricultural Scientist

Sustainability and higher efficiency in crop production are possible with the use of new technologies. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) brings many advantages, both in terms of monitoring agricultural areas and pesticide applications, and allows for early disease and damage detection as well as its application in areas without access to conventional sprayers. This study established parameters for spraying with clean water using a DJI Agras 14 MG-1P (RTK) UAV. Droplet distribution and droplet analyses were examined in the experiments carried out at different heights (1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 m) and flow rates (10, 15, 20, 25, and …

Metabolic Network Modeling To Unravel The Impact Of Copper Deficiency And High-Fat Diet On Liver Metabolism, Naeun Lee

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Fatty liver disease is a common health problem caused by an imbalance in the intake, utilization, and distribution of energy. High-fat and high-carbohydrate diets have been identified as major risk factors for fatty liver disease. Other contributors and modifiers can also influence the development of liver damage. Intriguingly, inappropriate copper (Cu) levels in the diet and organs are associated with fatty liver disease, though the exact way in which Cu deficiency or toxicity contributes to metabolic issues is not yet clear. Cu is necessary for several biological processes, including energy production and redox balance. Further research should be taken to …

Secreted Metabolome Of Porcine Blastocysts Encapsulated With In In Vitro 3d Alginate Hydrogel Culture Systems Under Going Morphological Changes Provides Insights Into Specific Mechanisms Involved In The Initiation Of Porcine Conceptus Elongation, Sophie C. Walsh, Jeremy R. Miles, Corey D. Broeckling, Lea A. Rempel, Elane C. Wright-Johnson, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Context. The exact mechanisms regulating the initiation of porcine conceptus elongation are not known due to the complexity of the uterine environment. Aims. To identify contributing factors for initiation of conceptus elongation in vitro, this study evaluated differential metabolite abundance within media following culture of blastocysts within unmodified alginate (ALG) or Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-modified alginate hydrogel culture systems. Methods. Blastocysts were harvested from pregnant gilts, encapsulated within ALG or RGD or as non-encapsulated control blastocysts (CONT), and cultured. At the termination of 96 h culture, media were separated into blastocyst media groups: non-encapsulated control blastocysts (CONT); ALG …

The Impact Of Organized Activism On Technology Sharing, Ahmed Chennak, Amalia Yiannaka

Cornhusker Economics

What factors influence a firm's decision to share its technology with competitors? While patent licensing has received considerable attention in the literature, studies have typically focused on the optimal licensing contract for product and process innovations in various market settings. A key finding of this literature is that the optimal licensing strategy depends on the type of the patentee; that is, whether the patentee is a producer in the market (insider patentee) or not (outsider patentee). Little attention has been given, however, to the role the general public can play on firms' incentives to share their innovations through licensing contracts …

Co-Culture Models Of Endothelial Cells, Macrophages, And Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells For The Study Of The Natural History Of Atherosclerosis, Martin Liu, Saurabhi Samant, Charu Hasini Vasa, Ryan M. Pedrigi, Usama Oguz, Sangjin Ryu, Timothy Wei, Daniel R. Anderson, Devandra K. Agrawal, Yiannis Chatzizisis

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background

This work aims to present a fast, affordable, and reproducible three-cell co-culture system that could represent the different cellular mechanisms of atherosclerosis, extending from atherogenesis to pathological intimal thickening.

Methods and results

We built four culture models: (i) Culture model #1 (representing normal arterial intima), where human coronary artery endothelial cells were added on top of Matrigel-coated collagen type I matrix, (ii) Culture model #2 (representing atherogenesis), which demonstrated the subendothelial accumulation and oxidative modification of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), (iii) Culture model #3 (representing intimal xanthomas), which demonstrated the monocyte adhesion to the endothelial cell monolayer, transmigration into the …

Soil Water Sensors For Irrigation Scheduling In The United States: A Systematic Review Of Literature, Sumon Datta, Saleh Taghvaeian

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Soil water sensors (SWS) have been widely researched and practiced for irrigation scheduling. Due to popularity of this approach, there is a need for frequent reviews of the SWS literature to keep the researchers, extension professionals, and end-users updated and to help with defining and modifying future directions. In addition, existing literature reviews do not systematically report and summarize the results of previous studies. To address this gap, a systematic review was carried out to identify and analyze related literature published in the United States in the past two decades. Two focus areas were SWS accuracy assessment and SWS application …

Evaluation Of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms With Sensor Data Assimilation In Estimating Crop Evapotranspiration And Crop Water Stress Index For Irrigation Water Management, Abia Katimbo, Daran Rudnick, Jingwen Zhang, Yufeng Ge, Kendall C. Dejonge, Trenton E. Franz, Yeyin Shi, Wei‑Zhen Liang, Xin Qiao, Derek M. Heeren, Isa Kabenge, Hope Njuki Nakabuye, Jiaming Duan

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Irrigation water management using automated irrigation decision support system (IDSS) as a smart irrigation scheduling tool can improve water use efficiency and crop production, especially under circumstances of limited water supply. The current study evaluated the performance of different artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and their ensembles in forecasting Crop Evapotranspiration (ET_c) and Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) against calculated single crop coefficient FAO56 ET_c and Jackson’s theoretical CWSI, respectively. Soil moisture, canopy temperatures (T_c) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were all measured from irrigated and non-irrigated maize plots in West Central Nebraska during 2020 …

Role Of Social Network On Technology Adoption: Application To Nebraska Producers In The Face Of Undesirable Vegetation Transitions, Sabrina Gulab, Holly K. Nesbitt, Simanti Banerjee, Theresa Floyd, Karina A. Schoengold

Cornhusker Economics

Conclusion

Producers need to have access to information regarding new conservation practices and technologies to ensure land management in the face of ecological threats in general and vegetation transitions (VTs) in the context of our study. This study investigates the role of an individual producer's social network on the willingness to seek information about technologies and management practices and the likelihood of new technology adoption with special attention to risk attitudes and producer spillover effects. Our results provide evidence that network composition and information obtained through a producer's social network don't influence an individual's willingness to seek information about new …

Clutch Analysis And Design For The Wildcat Pulling Team Quarter Scale Tractor Drivetrain, Lauren Doyle

Lewis Honors College Thesis Collection

The University of Kentucky (UK) Wildcat Pulling Team competes in the annual ASABE International Quarter Scale Tractor Student Design Competition. In 2022 the team placed 3rd overall in the competition, missing 1st place by 23 points. The loss in points was due to the clutch subassembly having issues related to maneuverability, manufacturability, and serviceability. The goal of this project was to redesign the 2022 tractor’s drivetrain for the new 2023 competition tractor. Background research was conducted on three types of clutches: manual, electric, and centrifugal. The electric clutch and centrifugal clutch with manual override were tested to determine their viability …

Evaluating Management Zones And Crop-Sensing Relationships For Improved Irrigated Maize Nitrogen Management, Joel D. Crowther, John Parrish, Joe Luck, Richard Ferguson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Active crop canopy sensors and management zones (MZ) are two methods of directing variable-rate, in-season nitrogen (N) fertilizer applications in maize (Zea mays L.). Researchers have suggested that integrating these two approaches may result in improved performance of sensor-based N application algorithms through increased N use efficiency and profitability. The objectives of this research study were to (1) identify soil and topographic variables that are related to in-season canopy reflectance and yield for soil-based MZ delineation and (2) determine if delineated MZ can identify areas with differential crop response to N fertilizer. N ramp blocks were placed end-to-end in field-length …

Crop Stress Sensing And Plant Phenotyping Systems: A Review, Geng Bai, Yufeng Ge

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Enhancing resource use efficiency in agricultural field management and breeding high-performance crop varieties are crucial approaches for securing crop yield and mitigating negative environmental impact of crop production. Crop stress sensing and plant phenotyping systems are integral to variable-rate (VR) field management and high-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP), with both sharing similarities in hardware and data processing techniques. Crop stress sensing systems for VR field management have been studied for decades, aiming to establish more sustainable management practices. Concurrently, significant advancements in HTPP system development have provided a technological foundation for reducing conventional phenotyping costs. In this paper, we present a …

Complab V1.0: A Scalable Pore-Scale Model For Flow, Biogeochemistry, Microbial Metabolism, And Biofilm Dynamics, Heewon Jung, Hyun-Seob Song, Christof Meile

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Microbial activity and chemical reactions in porous media depend on the local conditions at the pore scale and can involve complex feedback with fluid flow and mass transport. We present a modeling framework that quantitatively accounts for the interactions between the bio(geo)chemical and physical processes and that can integrate genome-scale microbial metabolic information into a dynamically changing, spatially explicit representation of environmental conditions. The model couples a lattice Boltzmann implementation of Navier–Stokes (flow) and advection–diffusion-reaction (mass conservation) equations. Reaction formulations can include both kinetic rate expressions and flux balance analysis, thereby integrating reactive transport modeling and systems biology. We also …

A Methodology To Optimize Site-Specific Field Capacity And Irrigation Thresholds, Hemendra Kumar, Puneet Srivastava, Jasmeet Lamba, Bruno Lena, Efstathios Diamantopoulos, Brenda Ortiz, Bijoychandra Takhellambam, Guilherme Morata, Luca Bondesan

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The determination of field capacity (FC), irrigation thresholds, and irrigation amounts is characterized by site-specific soil hydraulic properties (SHPs). This study, conducted in two zones (zone 1 and zone 2) delineated based on soil, topography, and historical crop yield in Alabama (USA), focused on determining zone-specific FC using negligible drainage flux (q_fc) criterion. The HYDRUS-1D model was used to optimize zone-specific SHPs using measured soil matric potential (h). The zone-specific FCs were determined using optimized and raw SHPs at 0.01 cm/day as q_fc. The results showed that the optimized FC at q_{fc …}

Goniometer In The Air: Enabling Brdf Measurement Of Crop Canopies Using A Cable-Suspended Plant Phenotyping Platform, Geng Bai, Yufeng Ge, Bryan Leavitt, John Gamon, David Scoby

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) quantifies the distribution of the spectral reflectance of a target surface at various viewing and illumination angles. In-field measurement of the BRDF of vegetation canopies improves the characterization of offnadir measurements and informs radiative transfer models of canopy reflectance, where the Lambertian assumption does not hold. However, current field goniometers are unable to measure BRDF efficiently, especially for tall vegetation across the growing season because of the limitations of clearance, field accessibility, and flexibility of the sensor field of view. In this study, we explored the potential of using a large-scale cable-suspended field phenotyping …

Osc-Co2: Coattention And Cosegmentation Framework For Plant State Change With Multiple Features, Rubi Quiñones, Ashok Samal, Sruti Das Choudhury, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Cosegmentation and coattention are extensions of traditional segmentation methods aimed at detecting a common object (or objects) in a group of images. Current cosegmentation and coattention methods are ineffective for objects, such as plants, that change their morphological state while being captured in different modalities and views. The Object State Change using Coattention-Cosegmentation (OSC-CO²) is an end-to-end unsupervised deep-learning framework that enhances traditional segmentation techniques, processing, analyzing, selecting, and combining suitable segmentation results that may contain most of our target object’s pixels, and then displaying a final segmented image. The framework leverages coattention-based convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and …

A Process Intensification Approach To Improve Volatile Fatty Acids Production, Extraction, And Valorization, Can Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a widely used biowaste conversion method. Recent studies have explored arrested methanogenesis as an alternative approach to leverage existing AD facilities and produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs) instead of biogas. VFAs have been recognized as precursors for a range of value-added chemicals and bioproducts. Arrested methanogenesis involves inducing acidic fermentation by halting the AD process before methanogenesis. It has been found that higher organic loading and thermophilic conditions enhance VFA accumulation and stabilize the acidic fermentation (AF) system.

Brewer's spent grain (BSG), a significant by-product of the brewing industry, was employed as the feedstock for VFA …

A Graduate-Level Field Course In Irrigation And Agricultural Water Management For An Immersive Learning Experience, Derek M. Heeren, László G. Hayde, Dean Eisenhauer, Peter G. Mccornick, Ali T. Mohammed, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Alan L. Boldt, Xin Qiao, David Mabie, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Effective irrigation and agricultural water management (IAWM) is critical for food security and water security. A key requirement in designing, implementing and operation of IWM is the necessary knowledge and capacity on the farm, in the service industry and within the supply chain. Educational opportunities that not only teach the relevant principles of irrigated agriculture, but also the necessary applied skills are essential. An Irrigation Field Course was initiated by the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education (IHE Delft) and was later developed as a joint field course with IHE Delft, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and the Daugherty Water …

Clim4omics: A Geospatially Comprehensive Climate And Multi-Omics Database For Maize Phenotype Predictability In The United States And Canada, Parisa Sarzaeim, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, Diego Jarquin, Hasnat Aslam, Natalia De Leon Gatti

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The performance of numerical, statistical, and data-driven diagnostic and predictive crop production modeling relies heavily on data quality for input and calibration or validation processes. This study presents a comprehensive database and the analytics used to consolidate it as a homogeneous, consistent, multidimensional genotype, phenotypic, and environmental database for maize phenotype modeling, diagnostics, and prediction. The data used are obtained from the Genomes to Fields (G2F) initiative, which provides multiyear genomic (G), environmental (E), and phenotypic (P) datasets that can be used to train and test crop growth models to understand the genotype by environment (GxE) interaction phenomenon. A particular …

Nanopesticide Influence On Nitrogen Cycling In Soils, Jacob Richardson

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Nanotechnology has several applications in the agricultural industry, as the small size of nanoparticles and high reactivity enables targeted delivery of pesticides and fertilizers to the intended crop. Copper-based nanopesticides such as Kocide, are proposed as a more efficient method for targeted pest control. Despite the potential benefits of nanopesticides, little is known regarding the transport and implications of nanopesticides under long-term inundation conditions often found in downstream wetlands. Specifically, the impact of nanopesticides on microbial nitrogen processes in wetland environments remains unknown. Therefore, this thesis explores the impact of nanopesticides, specifically Kocide, on microbial nitrogen cycles in agricultural and …

Densification Of Hemp Floral Biomass Pre And Post-Extraction: Determination Of Pellet Physical Characteristics, Gary Lopez

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

The production of cannabidiol (CBD) from the floral material of Cannabis sativa L.is of great interest to the hemp industry. The low bulk density oh hemp floral material presents challenges in terms of storage and handling. To improve handling and storage characteristics, both intact (pre-extraction) and supercritical CO₂ extracted hemp floral materials were pelletized. Intact floral material (BaOx) was passed through a hammer mill with a 5 mm screen; while, extracted floral material (Hawaiian Haze) was ball milled through a 60 mesh (250 microns) prior to extraction. Pelletization was conducted using a 3.7 kW pilot scale flat ring …

Impact Of Physicochemical Characteristics And Distillation Parameters On The Biomethane Potential Of Bourbon Stillage, Danielle Hockensmith

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Bourbon, or whiskey, production in Kentucky has been estimated to double within the next five years and an increase in the main by-product from bourbon distillation, stillage. Stillage is composed mostly of water along with the fermented grains after distillation. Stillage is expensive to dispose of and difficult to store due to the high biodegradability, posing a risk to the environment given the low pH and high chemical oxygen demand (COD). Anaerobic digestion has been identified as a potential solution for stillage valorization, but little research has been performed. Stillage from different mash bills has varying physicochemical properties, total solids …

Fate And Transport Of Emerging Contaminants Entering, Leaving, And Flowing Past Wastewater Treatment Plants In Central Kentucky, Kyra Sigler

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and neonicotinoid insecticides are two classes of emerging contaminants that have been recently detected in many environmental compartments. Both have been associated with negative impacts on humans and the environment. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as likely hotspots for introduction of these contaminants into the environment. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of PFAS and neonicotinoids in two WWTPs in Central Kentucky. Polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS) were deployed in WWTP influent and effluent and placed upstream and downstream of the effluent mixing zone (EMZ) for two …

Microalgae Immobilization With Filamentous Fungi: Process Development For Sustainable Food Systems, Suvro Talukdar

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Demand for sustainable food sources has increased because of the rapid growth of the world's population.  In this study, microalgae cells of Haematococcus pluvialis were immobilized using the edible fungal strain Aspergillus awamori for potential food applications. The study investigated the impact of fungal loading, pellet geometry, and initial microalgae cell concentration on the immobilization performance and product characteristics. It was found that higher fungal loading and larger fungal pellets contributed to increased immobilization performance while increased initial microalgae concentration inhibited the process. Larger fungal pellets had decreased biomass density, which led to decreased surface concentration of immobilized microalgae but …

Fate And Transport Of Nanopesticides In Agricultural Field Plots In Central Kentucky, William D. Rud

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Due to a growing world population, pesticide applications are necessary part to increasing agricultural production on the same arable land, but this has created environmental contamination, human toxicity, and endangerment to non-target species (i.e, honeybees, monarch butterflies) from bulk pesticide application. Nanoengineered particles or ENP are a potential solution with increased efficiency, longer duration, and enhanced stability of pesticides due to their unique formulations at smaller sizes. However, the potential long-term impact to agroecosystems is still unknown. Therefore, the goal of this project was to evaluate the fate, transport, impact, and persistence of two commercially available nanopesticides (copper hydroxide and …

Applying Hermetic Storage And Multiple Abiotic-Stressed Germinations To Actuate Desirable Effects In Wheat Phytochemistry, Food, And Biological Functionalities, Bababode Kehinde

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Wheat is one of the most widely consumed staple foods in the world, supplying both nutritional and caloric requirements for billions of people. The rising global population and increased food demand behooves all stakeholders across the wheat supply chain to significantly increase their output and efficiency. Beyond the target for increased farm yields, dietary, nutritional, and health requirements along with their continuous supply must be satisfied with improved storage and processing schemes. Post-harvest changes in wheat can result in a significant reduction in its quality. Such losses could be qualitative and/or quantitative, impacting its physical, physiological, organoleptic, and nutritional attributes. …