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Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering

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Articles 511 - 540 of 919

Full-Text Articles in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Effect Of Coal Fly Ash Leachate On The Bioluminescence Intensity Of Vibrio Fischeri, Shiro Ikeda, Irena Kostova, Hideaki Sekine, Yoshika Sekine Jan 2016

Effect Of Coal Fly Ash Leachate On The Bioluminescence Intensity Of Vibrio Fischeri, Shiro Ikeda, Irena Kostova, Hideaki Sekine, Yoshika Sekine

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Coal fly ash is a residue of coal-fired thermoelectric power plants (TPPs) and is mostly dumped in ash ponds or landfill sites, even though it potentially contains significant amounts of water-soluble hazardous contaminants. Bioassay using the bioluminescent bacterium *Vibrio fischeri* is known to be applicable for assessing the short-term and sublethal toxicity of complex mixtures without the need for precise chemical characterization. However, this type of bioassay is potentially adversely influenced by the pH-induced protein denaturation of cells. Because coal fly ash leachates often have alkaline or acidic properties, when applying the *V. fischeri*-based bioassay to the samples, we need …

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Influence Of Coal-Fired Power Plant Emissions Regulations And Consequent Engineering Controls And Coal-Supply Modifications On Fly Ash Chemistry And Petrology: Examples From Kentucky Power Plants, Madison M. Hood, John G. Groppo, Michelle N. Johnston, James C. Hower, Herek L. Clack, Diego S. De Medeiros, Silvio R. Taffarel, Cesar M.N.L. Cutruneo, Luis F.O. Silva Jan 2016

Influence Of Coal-Fired Power Plant Emissions Regulations And Consequent Engineering Controls And Coal-Supply Modifications On Fly Ash Chemistry And Petrology: Examples From Kentucky Power Plants, Madison M. Hood, John G. Groppo, Michelle N. Johnston, James C. Hower, Herek L. Clack, Diego S. De Medeiros, Silvio R. Taffarel, Cesar M.N.L. Cutruneo, Luis F.O. Silva

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

The chemistry and petrology of fly ash are controlled by a number of factors: (1) chemistry of the feed coal (and added fuels, such as petroleum coke, tires, biomass, etc.), (2) particle size of the fuel feed (controlled by pulverized fuel vs. cyclone combustion, maintenance of pulverizers, etc.), (3) design of the boiler and pollution-control system, and (4) temperature of the flue gas at the collection point. In general, for any electrostatic precipitator or baghouse system, the concentrations of volatile trace elements in fly ash will increase with a drop in the flue gas temperature and a decrease in the …

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Object Detection For Agricultural And Construction Environments Using An Ultrasonic Sensor, Joseph S. Dvorak, Marvin L. Stone, Kelvin P. Self Jan 2016

Object Detection For Agricultural And Construction Environments Using An Ultrasonic Sensor, Joseph S. Dvorak, Marvin L. Stone, Kelvin P. Self

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

This study tested an ultrasonic sensor‘s ability to detect several objects commonly encountered in outdoor agricultural or construction environments: a water jug, a sheet of oriented strand board (OSB), a metal fence post, a human model, a wooden fence post, a Dracaena plant, a juniper plant, and a dog model. Tests were performed with each target object at distances from 0.01 to 3 m. Five tests were performed with each object at each location, and the sensor‘s ability to detect the object during each test was categorized as "undetected," "intermittent," "incorrect distance," "good." Rigid objects that presented a larger surface …

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Use Of Lidar In The Design Of Grassed Waterways: Case Study In Agricultural Management In Oklahoma, Annette Sparks Jan 2016

Use Of Lidar In The Design Of Grassed Waterways: Case Study In Agricultural Management In Oklahoma, Annette Sparks

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Before the advent of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, farm-level infrastructure for sustainable agriculture was designed using topographic maps. LiDAR is a remote sensing method whereby reflected laser pulses are measured to generate high-resolution 3D images of the terrain. This report compares these two methods in the design of grassed waterways for flood drainage and evaluates how the quantitative difference between the two methods can affect the overall hydrologic design. The benefits of LiDAR are expected to be higher accuracy and precision in design, as well as greater reproducibility or consistency, regardless of the designer. To carry out this …

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2016 Nebraska Groundwater Quality Monitoring Report Jan 2016

2016 Nebraska Groundwater Quality Monitoring Report

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The 2001 Nebraska Legislature passed LB329 (Neb. Rev. Stat. §46-1304) which, in part, directed the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) to report on groundwater quality monitoring in Nebraska. Reports have been issued annually since December 2001. The text of the statute applicable to this report follows: “The Department of Environmental Quality shall prepare a report outlining the extent of ground water quality monitoring conducted by natural resources districts during the preceding calendar year. The department shall analyze the data collected for the purpose of determining whether or not ground water quality is degrading or improving and shall present the …

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Control Architecture For Multi-Robot System, John H. Posselius, Christopher A. Foster, Santosh K. Pitla, Scott A. Shearer, Joe D. Luck, Michael P. Sama, Rodrigo S. Zandonadi Jan 2016

Control Architecture For Multi-Robot System, John H. Posselius, Christopher A. Foster, Santosh K. Pitla, Scott A. Shearer, Joe D. Luck, Michael P. Sama, Rodrigo S. Zandonadi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A multiple robot control architecture including a plurality of robotic agricultural machines including a first and second robotic agricultural machine. Each robotic agricultural machine including at least one controller configured to implement a plurality of finite state machines within an individual robot control architecture (IRCA) and a global information module (GIM) communicatively coupled to the IRCA. The GIMs of the first and second robotic agricultural machines being configured to cooperate to cause said first robotic agricultural machine and said second agricultural machine to perform at least one agricultural task.

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Objective Climatological Analysis Of Extreme Weather Events In Arizona During The North American Monsoon, Jeremy J. Mazon, Christopher L. Castro, David K. Adams, Hsin-I Chang, Carlos M. Carrillo, John J. Brost Jan 2016

Objective Climatological Analysis Of Extreme Weather Events In Arizona During The North American Monsoon, Jeremy J. Mazon, Christopher L. Castro, David K. Adams, Hsin-I Chang, Carlos M. Carrillo, John J. Brost

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Almost one-half of the annual precipitation in the southwestern United States occurs during the North American monsoon (NAM). Given favorable synoptic-scale conditions, organized monsoon thunderstorms may affect relatively large geographic areas. Through an objective analysis of atmospheric reanalysis and observational data, the dominant synoptic patterns associated with NAM extreme events are determined for the period from 1993 to 2010. Thermodynamically favorable extreme-weather-event days are selected on the basis of atmospheric instability and precipitable water vapor from Tucson, Arizona, rawinsonde data. The atmospheric circulation patterns at 500 hPa associated with the extreme events are objectively characterized using principal component analysis. The …

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Long-Term Effects Of Forestry Best Management Practices On Hydrology And Water Chemistry In Three Appalchian Headwater Catchments, Kameryn I. Wright Jan 2016

Long-Term Effects Of Forestry Best Management Practices On Hydrology And Water Chemistry In Three Appalchian Headwater Catchments, Kameryn I. Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

In 1982, a study was initiated in the Field Branch watershed, in the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Forest, to evaluate forestry best management practice (BMP) effectiveness after intensive harvesting. The study utilized a paired watershed approach on three adjacent Field Branch subcatchments. One subcatchment was left as the control, one had BMPs implemented (including a 50-ft undisturbed buffer along the stream), and one was clear-cut to the stream’s banks without the use of BMPs (i.e. logger’s choice). Prior research has shown that logging can negatively impact watershed functions by altering stream hydrology, geomorphology, water quality, and instream habitat. Thus, the …

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Development Of Regional And Hydraulic Geometry Curves For The Eastern Kentucky Coalfields, Ashlan Berry Jan 2016

Development Of Regional And Hydraulic Geometry Curves For The Eastern Kentucky Coalfields, Ashlan Berry

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Regional curves and hydraulic geometry curves relate bankfull channel dimensions to drainage area and bankfull discharge, respectively. These curves are used in the natural channel design process to help identify bankfull and to estimate bankfull dimensions of the design channel. Nineteen streams were surveyed to determine their bankfull parameters (cross-sectional area, width, mean depth, discharge, slope, and Manning’s n), along with 27 streams previously surveyed in other studies. The data were used to create regional and hydraulic geometry curves for three hydrologic landscape regions (HLR 9, HLR 11, and HLR 16, individually) in the Eastern Kentucky Coalfields (EKC) as well …

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Early Life History Of Three Pelagic-Spawning Minnows Macrhybopsis Spp. In The Lower Missouri River, T. A. Starks, M. L. Miller, J. M. Long Jan 2016

Early Life History Of Three Pelagic-Spawning Minnows Macrhybopsis Spp. In The Lower Missouri River, T. A. Starks, M. L. Miller, J. M. Long

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

Life-history characteristics of age-0 sturgeon chub Macrhybopsis gelida, shoal chub Macrhybopsis hyostoma and sicklefin chub Macrhybopsis meeki were compared using several methods. All Macrhybopsis species consumed mostly midge pupae, but M. meeki had the most general diet (Levins’ index, B=0⋅22) compared with M. hyostoma (B=0⋅02) and M. gelida (B=0⋅09). Morisita’s diet overlap index among species pairs ranged from 0⋅62 to 0⋅97 and was highest between M. hyostoma and M. gelida. Daily ages estimated from lapilli otoliths for each species ranged from 15 to 43 days for M. gelida, 19 to 44 for …

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Using Swat To Enhance Watershed-Based Plans To Meet Numeric Water Quality Standards, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Daniel E. Storm, Michael J. White Jan 2016

Using Swat To Enhance Watershed-Based Plans To Meet Numeric Water Quality Standards, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Daniel E. Storm, Michael J. White

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The number of states that have adopted numeric nutrient water-quality standards has increased to 23, up from ten in 1998. One state with both stream and reservoir phosphorus (P) numeric water-quality standards is Oklahoma. There were two primary objectives of this research: (1) determine if Oklahoma was meeting the stream and reservoir numeric water-quality standards in the Illinois River and Eucha–Spavinaw watersheds, respectively and (2) identify various combinations of management practices required to meet the water-quality standards. A Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was developed for each watershed. After runoff and P calibration and validation, each model was …

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Temporal Dynamics Of Maize Plant Growth, Water Use, And Leaf Water Content Using Automated High Throughput Rgb And Hyperspectral Imaging, Yufeng Ge, Geng Bai, Vincent Stoerger, James C. Schnable Jan 2016

Temporal Dynamics Of Maize Plant Growth, Water Use, And Leaf Water Content Using Automated High Throughput Rgb And Hyperspectral Imaging, Yufeng Ge, Geng Bai, Vincent Stoerger, James C. Schnable

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Automated collection of large scale plant phenotype datasets using high throughput imaging systems has the potential to alleviate current bottlenecks in data-driven plant breeding and crop improvement. In this study, we demonstrate the characterization of temporal dynamics of plant growth and water use, and leaf water content of two maize genotypes under two different water treatments. RGB (Red Green Blue) images are processed to estimate projected plant area, which are correlated with destructively measured plant shoot fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW) and leaf area. Estimated plant FW and DW, along with pot weights, are used to derive daily plant …

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Pumpage Reduction By Using Variable Rate Irrigation To Mine Undepleted Soil Water, Tsz Him Lo, Derek M. Heeren, Derrel Martin, Luciano Mateos, Joe D. Luck, Dean E. Eisenhauer Jan 2016

Pumpage Reduction By Using Variable Rate Irrigation To Mine Undepleted Soil Water, Tsz Him Lo, Derek M. Heeren, Derrel Martin, Luciano Mateos, Joe D. Luck, Dean E. Eisenhauer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Conventional irrigation schedules are typically based on portions of the field where root zones hold the least available soil water. This leaves undepleted available water in areas with larger water holding capacities. The undepleted water could be used through variable-rate irrigation (VRI) management; however, the benefits of VRI without in-field mapping are unexamined. In this research, the field-averaged amount of undepleted available soil water in the root zone was calculated from the NRCS Soil Survey Geographic database for 49,224 center-pivot irrigated fields in Nebraska. Potential reductions in pumpage from mining undepleted available water were then estimated. Results of the analysis …

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Analytical Solution For Speed To Achieve A Desired Operating Point For A Given Fan Or Pump, Michael F. Kocher, Jeyamkondan Subbiah Jan 2016

Analytical Solution For Speed To Achieve A Desired Operating Point For A Given Fan Or Pump, Michael F. Kocher, Jeyamkondan Subbiah

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The Affinity Laws for fans (and pumps) provide a way of determining new fan or pump speed given fan or pump performance curve data and a desired operating point (combination of flow rate and pressure) that does not fall on the curve. However, the affinity law calculations require using a point on the curve (hereafter referred to as the “basic point”) to determine the new speed. Most references regarding the Affinity Laws do not give a clear description of the method for determining the “basic point”, and improper selection of this point can affect the results considerably. This article describes …

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In-Field Fuel Use And Load States Of Agricultural Field Machinery, Santosh Pitla, Joe D. Luck, Jared Werner, Nannan Lin, Scott A. Shearer Jan 2016

In-Field Fuel Use And Load States Of Agricultural Field Machinery, Santosh Pitla, Joe D. Luck, Jared Werner, Nannan Lin, Scott A. Shearer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The ability to define in-field tractor load states offers the potential to better specify and characterize fuel consumption rate for various field operations. For the same field operation, the tractor experiences diverse load demands and corresponding fuel use rates as it maneuvers through straight passes, turns, suspended operation for adjustments, repair and maintenance, and biomass or other material transfer operations. It is challenging to determine the actual fuel rate and load states of agricultural machinery using force prediction models, and hence, some form of in-field data acquisition capability is required. Controller Area Networks (CAN) available on the current model tractors …

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Inter-Row Robot Navigation Using 1d Ranging Sensors, Tyler A. Troyer, Santosh Pitla, Ethan Nutter Jan 2016

Inter-Row Robot Navigation Using 1d Ranging Sensors, Tyler A. Troyer, Santosh Pitla, Ethan Nutter

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this paper a fuzzy logic navigation controller for an inter-row agricultural robot is developed and evaluated in laboratory settings. The controller receives input from one-dimensional (1D) ranging sensors on the robotic platform, and operated on ten fuzzy rules for basic row-following behavior. The control system was implemented on basic hardware for proof of concept and operated on a commonly available microcontroller development platform and open source software libraries. The robot platform used for experimentation was a small tracked vehicle with differential steering control. Fuzzy inferencing and defuzzification, step response and cross track error were obtained from the test conducted …

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Tractor Hydraulic Power Data Acquisition System, J. B.W. Roeber, Santosh Pitla, Michael F. Kocher, Joe D. Luck, Roger M. Hoy Jan 2016

Tractor Hydraulic Power Data Acquisition System, J. B.W. Roeber, Santosh Pitla, Michael F. Kocher, Joe D. Luck, Roger M. Hoy

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Tractor hydraulic power is used on a wide range of agricultural implements; however, the availability of operational hydraulic data at points other than full engine throttle position is limited. Operators could utilize this hydraulic data to maximize field efficiency and minimize machinery costs when determining suitable machinery for field operations. A field usable hydraulic test apparatus capable of measuring tractor hydraulic pressure and flow rate data was developed. The goal of this study was to determine if a hydraulic flow and pressure measurement device could be installed on the rear of a tractor to provide implement hydraulic power consumption at …

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Quantifying The Fate Of Agricultural Nitrogen In An Unconfined Aquifer: Stream-Based Observations At Three Measurement Scales, Troy E. Gilmore, David P. Genereux, D. Kip Solomon, John E. Solder, Briant A. Kimball, Helena Mitasova, Francois Birgand Jan 2016

Quantifying The Fate Of Agricultural Nitrogen In An Unconfined Aquifer: Stream-Based Observations At Three Measurement Scales, Troy E. Gilmore, David P. Genereux, D. Kip Solomon, John E. Solder, Briant A. Kimball, Helena Mitasova, Francois Birgand

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

We compared three stream-based sampling methods to study the fate of nitrate in groundwater in a coastal plain watershed: point measurements beneath the streambed, seepage blankets (novel seepage-meter design), and reach mass-balance. The methods gave similar mean groundwater seepage rates into the stream (0.3–0.6 m/d) during two 3–4 day field campaigns despite an order of magnitude difference in stream discharge between the campaigns. At low flow, estimates of flowweighted mean nitrate concentrations in groundwater discharge ([NO-3 ]FWM) and nitrate flux from groundwater to the stream decreased with increasing degree of channel influence and measurement scale, i.e., …

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Groundwater Transit Time Distribution And Mean From Streambed Sampling In An Agricultural Coastal Plain Watershed, North Carolina, Usa, Troy E. Gilmore, David P. Genereux, D. Kip Solomon, John E. Solder Jan 2016

Groundwater Transit Time Distribution And Mean From Streambed Sampling In An Agricultural Coastal Plain Watershed, North Carolina, Usa, Troy E. Gilmore, David P. Genereux, D. Kip Solomon, John E. Solder

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

We measured groundwater apparent age (s) and seepage rate (v) in a sandy streambed using point-scale sampling and seepage blankets (a novel seepage meter). We found very similar MTT estimates from streambed point sampling in a 58 m reach (29 years) and a 2.5 km reach (31 years). The TTD for groundwater discharging to the stream was best fit by a gamma distribution model and was very similar for streambed point sampling in both reaches. Between adjacent point-scale and seepage blanket samples, water from the seepage blankets was generally younger, largely because blanket samples contained a fraction of ‘‘young’’ stream …

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Comparing Various Hardware/Software Solutions And Conversion Methods For Controller Area Network (Can) Bus Data Collection, Samuel E. Marx, Joe D. Luck, Santosh Pitla, Roger M. Hoy Jan 2016

Comparing Various Hardware/Software Solutions And Conversion Methods For Controller Area Network (Can) Bus Data Collection, Samuel E. Marx, Joe D. Luck, Santosh Pitla, Roger M. Hoy

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Various hardware and software solutions exist for collecting Controller Area Network (CAN) bus data. Digital data accuracy could vary based upon different data logging methods (e.g., hardware/software timing, processor timing, etc.). CAN bus data were collected from agricultural tractors using multiple data acquisition solutions to quantify differences among collection methods and demonstrate potential data accumulation rates. Two types of data were observed for this study. The first, CAN bus frame data, represents data collected for each line of hex data sent from an ECU. One issue with frame data is the resulting large file sizes, therefore a second logging format …

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Removal Of Cattle Manure Constituents In Runoff From No-Till Cropland As Affected By Setback Distance, John E. Gilley, Aaron J. Sindelar, Brian L. Woodbury Jan 2016

Removal Of Cattle Manure Constituents In Runoff From No-Till Cropland As Affected By Setback Distance, John E. Gilley, Aaron J. Sindelar, Brian L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Vegetative filter strips located at the bottom of a hillslope have been shown to substantially reduce nutrients and sediment in runoff. Cropland areas could serve a similar function. However, little scientifically derived information is available to help identify the setback distances required to effectively reduce the transport of contaminants in runoff. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of setback distance and runoff rate on the concentrations and mass transport rates of selected constituents following land application of beef cattle manure to a no-till cropland area. The study site had a residue cover of 8.84 Mg ha-1 …

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Impact Of Scale/Resolution On Evapotranspiration From Landsat And Modis Images, Vivek Sharma, Ayse Kilic, Suat Irmak Jan 2016

Impact Of Scale/Resolution On Evapotranspiration From Landsat And Modis Images, Vivek Sharma, Ayse Kilic, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Understanding the role of landscape heterogeneity and its influence on the scaling behavior of surface fluxes as observed by satellite sensors with different spatial resolutions is a critical need to investigate. In this study, the effects of pixel scales on ETc estimation and other parameters that are used to calculate ETc were investigated over different vegetation surfaces in south central Nebraska, USA. Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) was used to estimate spatially distributed ETc by combining ground-based meteorological data for Landsat and MODIS imagery. The estimated surface energy fluxes were compared and validated to the measured Bowen Ratio Energy Balance …

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Removal Of Cattle Manure Constituents In Runoff From No-Till Cropland As Affected By Setback Distance, John E. Gilley, Aaron J. Sindelar, Bryan L. Woodbury Jan 2016

Removal Of Cattle Manure Constituents In Runoff From No-Till Cropland As Affected By Setback Distance, John E. Gilley, Aaron J. Sindelar, Bryan L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Vegetative filter strips located at the bottom of a hillslope have been shown to substantially reduce nutrients and sediment in runoff. Cropland areas could serve a similar function. However, little scientifically derived information is available to help identify the setback distances required to effectively reduce the transport of contaminants in runoff. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of setback distance and runoff rate on the concentrations and mass transport rates of selected constituents following land application of beef cattle manure to a no-till cropland area. The study site had a residue cover of 8.84 Mg ha …

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262. Direct Measure Of Cervical Interbody Forces In Vivo: Load Reversal After Plating, Eric H. Ledet, Josh Peterson, Rebecca A. Wachs, Mary Beth M. Grabowsky, Joseph C. Glennon, Darryl J. Dirisio Jan 2016

262. Direct Measure Of Cervical Interbody Forces In Vivo: Load Reversal After Plating, Eric H. Ledet, Josh Peterson, Rebecca A. Wachs, Mary Beth M. Grabowsky, Joseph C. Glennon, Darryl J. Dirisio

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Biomechanics play an important role in spine fusion, but the in vivo biomechanics of the cervical spine are not well characterized and the in vivo biomechanics after spinal arthrodesis have never been studied. Load sharing facilitates fusion, but overloading of interbody implants can lead to subsidence and failure. In vitro studies have demonstrated that anterior plating significantly alters mechanical loading in the cervical spine. The instantaneous axis of rotation is shifted anteriorly and loading is reversed relative to an uninstrumented spine; the interbody space is compressed during extension and unloaded during flexion. However, this has never been tested …

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Moisture Insensitive Prediction Of Soil Properties From Vnir Reflectance Spectra Based On External Parameter Orthogonalization, Nuwan K. Wijewardane, Yufeng Ge, Cristine L.S. Morgan Jan 2016

Moisture Insensitive Prediction Of Soil Properties From Vnir Reflectance Spectra Based On External Parameter Orthogonalization, Nuwan K. Wijewardane, Yufeng Ge, Cristine L.S. Morgan

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Moisture is the single most important factor that affects soil reflectance spectra, particularly for field applications. Interest in using soil VNIR spectral libraries, which are commonly based on dry ground soils, to predict soils in the intact field-moist condition (in situ VNIR) is growing. External parameter orthogonalization (EPO) has been proposed as a useful method that links dry ground VNIR models to field moist scans. The goal of this study is to test EPO on a wider set of soil properties and four different modeling techniques, namely, Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Random Forest (RF), and …

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Neural Encoding Of Saltatory Pneumotactile Velocity In Human Glabrous Hand, Hyuntaek Oh, Rebecca Custead, Yingying Wang, Steven M. Barlow Jan 2016

Neural Encoding Of Saltatory Pneumotactile Velocity In Human Glabrous Hand, Hyuntaek Oh, Rebecca Custead, Yingying Wang, Steven M. Barlow

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Neurons in the somatosensory cortex are exquisitely sensitive to mechanical stimulation of the skin surface. The location, velocity, direction, and adaptation of tactile stimuli on the skin's surface are discriminable features of somatosensory processing, however the representation and processing of dynamic tactile arrays in the human somatosensory cortex are poorly understood. The principal aim of this study was to map the relation between dynamic saltatory pneumatic stimuli at discrete traverse velocities on the glabrous hand and the resultant pattern of evoked BOLD response in the human brain. Moreover, we hypothesized that the hand representation in contralateral Brodmann Area (BA) 3b …

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Analyses, Calibration And Validation Of Evapotranspirationmodels To Predict Grass-Reference Evapotranspiration In Thesenegal River Delta, Koffi Djaman, Hossein Tabari, Alpha B. Balde, Lamine Diop, Koichi Futakuchi, Suat Irmak Jan 2016

Analyses, Calibration And Validation Of Evapotranspirationmodels To Predict Grass-Reference Evapotranspiration In Thesenegal River Delta, Koffi Djaman, Hossein Tabari, Alpha B. Balde, Lamine Diop, Koichi Futakuchi, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Study region: Grass-reference evapotranspiration estimation by the Penman-Monteithmethod (PM-ETo) requires a number of climate variables which are not always availableat all weather stations. Different alternative ETo equations have been developed and theirutilization for various local climate conditions requires analyses of their accuracy as com-pared to the standardized Penman-Monteith method. There is a significant lack of data andinformation on this topic in the Senegal River Delta (SRD). Study focus: The objective of this study was to evaluate, calibrate and validate six EToequations ((Trabert, Mahringer, Penman1948, Albrecht, Valiantzas1 and Valiantzas2) forthe SRD. Although all six equations showed good agreement with the PM-ETo …

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A Multi-Sensor System For High Throughput Field Phenotyping In Soybean And Wheat Breeding, Geng Bai, Yufeng Ge, Waseem Hussain, P. Stephen Baenziger, George L. Graef Jan 2016

A Multi-Sensor System For High Throughput Field Phenotyping In Soybean And Wheat Breeding, Geng Bai, Yufeng Ge, Waseem Hussain, P. Stephen Baenziger, George L. Graef

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Collecting plant phenotypic data with sufficient resolution (in both space and time) and accuracy represents a long standing challenge in plant science research, and has been a major limiting factor for the effective use of genomic data for crop improvement. This is particularly true in plant breeding where collecting large-scale field-based plant phenotypes can be very labor intensive and costly. In this paper we reported a multi-sensor system for high throughput phenotyping in plant breeding. The system comprised five sensor modules (ultrasonic distance sensors, thermal infrared radiometers, NDVI sensors, portable spectrometers, and RGB web cameras) to measure crop canopy traits …

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A Multi-Scale Comparison Of Modeled And Observed Seasonal Methane Emissions In Northern Wetlands, Xiyan Xu, William J. Riley, Charles D. Koven, Dave P. Billesbach, Rachel Y.-W. Chang, Roisin Commane, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Sean Hartery, Yoshinobu Harazono, Hiroki Iwata, Kyle C. Mcdonald, Charles E. Miller, Walter C. Oechel, Benjamin Poulter, Naama Raz-Yaseef, Colm Sweeny, Margaret Torn, Steven C. Wofsy, Zhen Zhang, Donatella Zona Jan 2016

A Multi-Scale Comparison Of Modeled And Observed Seasonal Methane Emissions In Northern Wetlands, Xiyan Xu, William J. Riley, Charles D. Koven, Dave P. Billesbach, Rachel Y.-W. Chang, Roisin Commane, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Sean Hartery, Yoshinobu Harazono, Hiroki Iwata, Kyle C. Mcdonald, Charles E. Miller, Walter C. Oechel, Benjamin Poulter, Naama Raz-Yaseef, Colm Sweeny, Margaret Torn, Steven C. Wofsy, Zhen Zhang, Donatella Zona

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Wetlands are the largest global natural methane (CH4) source, and emissions between 50 and 70° N latitude contribute 10–30% to this source. Predictive capability of land models for northern wetland CH4 emissions is still low due to limited site measurements, strong spatial and temporal variability in emissions, and complex hydrological and biogeochemical dynamics. To explore this issue, we compare wetland CH4 emission predictions from the Community Land Model 4.5 (CLM4.5-BGC) with siteto regional-scale observations. A comparison of the CH4 fluxes with eddy flux data highlighted needed changes to the model’s estimate of aerenchyma area, which …

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Direct And Indirect Effects Of Climatic Variations On The Interannual Variability In Net Ecosystem Exchange Across Terrestrial Ecosystems, Junjiong Shao, Xuhui Zhou, Yiqi Luo, Bo Li, Mika Aurela, David Billesbach, Peter D. Blanken, Rosvel Bracho, Jiquan Chen, Marc Fischer, Yuling Fu, Lianhong Gu, Shijie Han, Yongtao He, Thomas Kolb, Yingnian Li, Zoltan Nagy, Shuli Niu, Walter C. Oechel, Krisztina Pinter, Peili Shi, Andrew Suyker, Margaret Torn, Andrej Varlagin, Huimin Wang, Junhua Yan, Guirui Yu, Junhui Zhang Jan 2016

Direct And Indirect Effects Of Climatic Variations On The Interannual Variability In Net Ecosystem Exchange Across Terrestrial Ecosystems, Junjiong Shao, Xuhui Zhou, Yiqi Luo, Bo Li, Mika Aurela, David Billesbach, Peter D. Blanken, Rosvel Bracho, Jiquan Chen, Marc Fischer, Yuling Fu, Lianhong Gu, Shijie Han, Yongtao He, Thomas Kolb, Yingnian Li, Zoltan Nagy, Shuli Niu, Walter C. Oechel, Krisztina Pinter, Peili Shi, Andrew Suyker, Margaret Torn, Andrej Varlagin, Huimin Wang, Junhua Yan, Guirui Yu, Junhui Zhang

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Climatic variables not only directly affect the interannual variability (IAV) in net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) but also indirectly drive it by changing the physiological parameters. Identifying these direct and indirect paths can reveal the underlying mechanisms of carbon (C) dynamics. In this study, we applied a path analysis using flux data from 65 sites to quantify the direct and indirect climatic effects on IAV in NEE and to evaluate the potential relationships among the climatic variables and physiological parameters that represent physiology and phenology of ecosystems. We found that the maximum photosynthetic rate was the most important factor …

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