Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Land Use Influences The Composition And Antimicrobial Effects Of Propolis, Amara J. Orth, Emma H. Curran, Eric J. Haas, Andrew C. Kraemer, Audrey M. Anderson, Nicholas J. Mason, Carol A. Fassbinder-Orth

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Honey bee propolis is a complex, resinous mixture created by bees using plant sources such as leaves, flowers, and bud exudates. This study characterized how cropland surrounding apiaries affects the chemical composition and antimicrobial effects of propolis. The chemical composition and compound abundance of the propolis samples were analyzed using Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and the antimicrobial effects were analyzed using the 50% minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC₅₀) assay against four relevant bee pathogens, Serratia marcescens, Paenibacillus larvae, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Propolis composition varied significantly with apiary, and cropland coverage predicted mean sum abundance of …

Precipitation And Temperature Extremes And Association With Large-Scale Climate Indices: An Observational Evidence Over India, S Rehana, Pranathi Yeleswarapu, Ghouse Basha, Francisco Munoz-Arriola

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Climate change exposes more frequent natural hazards and physical vulnerabilities to the built and natural environments. Extreme precipitation and temperature events will have a significant impact on both the natural environment and human society. However, it is unclear whether precipitation and temperature extremes increase physical vulnerabilities across scales and their links with large-scale climate indices. This study investigates the relationship between precipitation and temperature extremes, as recommended by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI), and large scale climatological phenomenon indices (Indian Summer Monsoon Index (ISMI), Arctic Oscillation (AO), and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)), using India as …

Conceptual Framework To Integrate Economic Drivers Of Decision Making For Technology Adoption In Agriculture, Thiago L. Romanelli, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, Andre F. Colaço

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study evaluates how much technology adoption could cost in a variety of crop-production scenarios. Cost-reduction simulations consider scenarios of higher input use efficiency such as reducing the usage of diesel, labor, irrigation, fertilizer, herbicide, and seed, among others. The scenarios aim to increase yields by integrating the effect of each input-reduction on the total operating costs. Agricultural production estimates for Nebraska in the US indicates that a technology that saves 1% of diesel is cost-effective, costing between USD 0.15/ha and USD 0.32/ha (for corn). Improvements on input use efficiency should be prioritized to incentivize technology development and adoption. This …

Maize Response To Coupled Irrigation And Nitrogen Fertilization Under Center Pivot, Subsurface Drip And Surface (Furrow) Irrigation: Growth, Development And Productivity, Suat Irmak, Ali T. Mohammed, Meetpal S. Kukal

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Water availability and water quality problems negatively impact agricultural productivity due to improper nitrogen (N) and irrigation management, which can also negatively affect environmental services. Coupled irrigation and N management practices must be developed and practiced for alleviating these challenges. Investigating crop growth and development and yield response to coupled irrigation and N management under different irrigation methods can aid in developing optimum agronomic management practices to enhance crop production efficiency. Field experiments were conducted in 2016 and 2017 growing seasons to measure and compare maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield, leaf area index (LAI), plant height (and their …

Nebraska Water Center Annual Report 2022, Nebraska Water Center, Daugherty Water For Food Global Institute

Nebraska Water Center: Administrative Materials

CONTENTS

Overview: The Nebraska Water Center (https://watercenter.unl.edu)

Fast Facts: NWC 2022 Snapshot

Our Work

Water Sciences Lab Sees Rapid Growth in 2022 (https://watercenter.unl.edu/water-sciences-laboratory2)

WSL is Key to AltEn Contamination Monitoring (https://go.unl.edu/mead)

Know Your Well Project Enters Third Phase (https://knowyourwell.unl.edu)

Computer Science Students Build New Platform for Know Your Well Data Collection

Water Sciences Laboratory Helps Nebraska Tackle Nitrate (https://watercenter.unl.edu/water-sciences-laboratory2)

Nebraska Rural Poll Includes Water Quality Questions (https://ruralpoll.unl.edu and https://go.unl.edu/nitrate_strategy)

NWC Holds Platte River Basin Conference (https://watercenter.unl.edu/2022-nebraska-water-conference)

Spring Seminar Series (https://watercenter.unl.edu/spring-seminar-series)

Water Center Undergoes Five-Year …

Maize Response To Coupled Irrigation And Nitrogen Fertilization Under Center Pivot, Subsurface Drip And Surface (Furrow) Irrigation: Soil-Water Dynamics And Crop Evapotranspiration, Ali T. Mohammed, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Determination of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and root zone soil-water dynamics/distribution coupled with nitrogen (N) management strategies is important for effective management of agricultural fields for enhancing production efficiency. However, limited data and knowledge exist that sufficiently inform how soil-water dynamics and ETc response may vary with coupled irrigation levels and different N application timings under different irrigation methods. Extensive field experiments were conducted in 2016 and 2017 under center pivot (CP), subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), and furrow irrigation (FI) at full irrigation treatment (FIT), 80% FIT, 60% FIT, and rainfed treatment (RFT) with N application timing treatments of traditional N …

North 14th Street Corridor Improvements Project, Ashley Nguyen, Samantha Corey, Maricela Paramo Reyes, Pooja Rajeev

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The following project report was a study of the North 14^th Street corridor ranging from Adams Street to Virginia Street conducted by University of Nebraska-Lincoln students for a senior design capstone project. Main focuses of the project were the intersection of Adams and 14^th Street and the 14^th Street bridges over Cornhusker Highway and Oak Creek. Study of this area included work in transportation, traffic, structural, geotechnical, water resources, and environmental engineering. However, this report done by students should not take the place of work done by licensed professional engineers.

This project was done in collaboration with …

Resistome And Mobilome In Surface Runoff From Manured Soil As Affected By Setback Distance, Noelle Mware, Maria C. Hall, Selvakumar Rajendran, John E. Gilley, Amy Schmidt, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, Yifan Zhang, Xu Li

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Land application of livestock manure introduces antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) into the soil environment. The objectives of this study were to examine the changes of resistome and mobilome in runoff and soil as a function of setback distance, i.e., the distance between manured soil and surface water, and to quantify the contributions of manure and background soil to the ARGs and MGEs in surface runoff. The resistome and mobilome in runoff and soil from a field-scale plot study were characterized using a high throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction (HT-qPCR) array. It was estimated that a …

Emission Of Volatile Organic Compounds From Land-Applied Beef Cattle Manure As Affected By Application Method, Diet, And Soil Water Condition, Bryan L. Woodbury, John E. Gilley, David B. Parker, David B. Marx

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Land application of beef cattle manure may result in the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC). This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of diet, land application method, soil water condition, and time since manure application on VOC emissions. Manure was collected from feedlot pens where cattle were fed diets containing 0%, 10%, or 30% wet distillers grains with solubles (WDGS). The effects of manure application method (surface-applied or incorporated) and soil water condition (saturated or wet) on VOC emissions were measured over a 48 h period. Heptanoic, hexanoic, isobutyric, and isovaleric acids contributed 23.5%, 17.6%, 9.26%, and 3.39% …

Geospatial Synthesis Of Biogeochemical Attributions Of Porphyrins To Oil Pollution In Marine Sediments Of The Gulf Of México, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, José Vinicio Macías-Zamora

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Porphyrins are highly persistent in the environment and represent a helpful biogeochemical attribute to assess the spatial distribution of the effects of oil spills on ecosystems and their resilience. In areas prone to natural and human-originated oil spills, the measurement of VO– and nickel– porphyrins in marine–sediment samples can identify the effects of oil pollution across spatiotemporal scales. The goal is to explore whether or not these compounds can be useful indicators of the geospatial attributions of oil contamination in the surficial sediments. We hypothesize that the geospatial gradients of porphyrins in marine sediments from petroleum spills and seepage activities—related …

The Brazilian Soil Spectral Service (Braspecs): A User-Friendly System For Global Soil Spectra Communication, José A. M. Demattê, Ariane Francine Da Silveira Paiva, Raul Roberto Poppiel, Nícolas Augusto Rosin, Luis Fernando Chimelo Ruiz, Fellipe Alcantara De Oliveira Mello, Budiman Minasny, Sabine Grunwald, Yufeng Ge, Eyal Ben Dor, Asa Gholizadeh, Cecile Gomez, Sabine Chabrillat, Nicolas Francos, Shamsollah Ayoubi, Dian Fiantis, James Kobina Mensah Biney, Changkun Wang, Abdelaziz Belal, Salman Naimi, Najmeh Asgari Hafshejani, Henrique Bellinaso, Jean Michel Moura-Bueno, Nélida E. Q. Silvero

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Although many Soil Spectral Libraries (SSLs) have been created globally, these libraries still have not been operationalized for end-users. To address this limitation, this study created an online Brazilian Soil Spectral Service (BraSpecS). The system was based on the Brazilian Soil Spectral Library (BSSL) with samples collected in the Visible–Near–Short-wave infrared (vis–NIR–SWIR) and Midinfrared (MIR) ranges. The interactive platform allows users to find spectra, act as custodians of the data, and estimate several soil properties and classification. The system was tested by 500 Brazilian and 65 international users. Users accessed the platform (besbbr.com.br), uploaded their spectra, and received soil organic …

Unmanned Aerial System-Based Data Ferrying Over A Sensor Node Station Network In Maize, Jasreman Singh, Yufeng Ge, Derek M. Heeren, Elizabeth Walter-Shea, Christopher M. U. Neale, Suat Irmak, Mitchell S. Maguire

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

High Throughput Analysis Of Leaf Chlorophyll Content In Sorghum Using Rgb, Hyperspectral, And Fluorescence Imaging And Sensor Fusion, Huichun Zhang, Yufeng Ge, Xinyan Xie, Abbas Atefi, Nuwan Wijewardane,, Suresh Thapa

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Leaf chlorophyll content plays an important role in indicating plant stresses and nutrient status. Traditional approaches for the quantification of chlorophyll content mainly include acetone ethanol extraction, spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography. Such destructive methods based on laboratory procedures are time consuming, expensive, and not suitable for high-throughput analysis. High throughput imaging techniques are now widely used for non-destructive analysis of plant phenotypic traits. In this study three imaging modules (RGB, hyperspectral, and fluorescence imaging) were, separately and in combination, used to estimate chlorophyll content of sorghum plants in a greenhouse environment. Color features, spectral indices, and chlorophyll fluorescence …

Maize Response To Irrigation And Nitrogen Under Center Pivot, Subsurface Drip And Furrow Irrigation: Water Productivity, Basal Evapotranspiration And Yield Response Factors, Ali T. Mohammed, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Information and data about quantification and comparison of crop water productivity indices for various irrigation levels and methods and nitrogen (N) application timings “simultaneously” under the same conditions do not exist. Unprecedented and extensive field experiments were conducted for maize (Zea mays L.) in 2016 and 2017 under center pivot (CP), subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) and furrow irrigation (FI) methods with full irrigation treatment (FIT), 80% FIT, 60% FIT and rainfed treatment (RFT) with three N application timings. N treatments were: (i) traditional (TN), (ii) non-traditional-1 (NT-1) and (iii) non-traditional-2 (NT-2). Irrigation yield production functions (IYPF); evapotranspiration-yield production functions …

Sources Of Variability And Uncertainty In Food-Energy-Water Nexus Systems, Heydi Calderon-Ambelis, Deepak R. Keshwani

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A nexus approach contributes to the strategic allocation of resources to secure food, energy, and water for the world population. Integrated models considering the complex interactions across food, energy, and water (FEW) enhance decision-making and strategic planning towards resilience. However, a significant number of the existing integrated models leave unaddressed the inherent variability and uncertainty present in the FEW sectors. Here, we review the importance of characterizing variability over spatial and temporal scales and the importance of decreasing the uncertainty present within a FEW nexus systems. The review also discusses existing modeling tools that address variability and uncertainty on single …

Modeling Water Quantity And Quality Nonlinearities For Watershed Adaptability To Hydroclimate Extremes In Agricultural Landscapes, Juan Carlos Jaimes-Correa, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Changing water supplies and demands, inherent to climate fluctuations and human activities, are pushing for a paradigm shift in water management worldwide. The occurrence of extreme hydrometeorological and climate events such as extended wet periods and droughts, compounded with contaminants, impair the access to water resources, demanding novel designs, construction, and management across multiple hydrologic scales and biogeochemical processes. A constraint to studying hydrologic and biogeochemical disturbances and improving best management practices for water quantity and quality at the watershed scale resides in the suitable monitoring, data availability, and the creation of frameworks. We hypothesize that streamflow and contaminants, simulated …

Comparison Effect On Biogas Production From Vegetable And Fruit Waste With Rumen Digesta Through Co-Digestion Process, Anika Tasnim, Muhammad Rashed Al Mamun, Md Anwar Hossen, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Md Janibul Alam Soeb

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Biogas is the best renewable energy as it can be produced from any biomass for example any plant or living organism. The purpose of this research was to produce biomethane from co-digestion of vegetable and fruit waste with rumen digesta through anaerobic digestion process. In this research, two trials of experiment were conducted. Each trial has three different sample with different mixing ratios. Raw materials used in the experiment was rumen digesta of goat and cow, potato, capsicum, cucumbers, onions, radish, cauliflower, carrot, leafy vegetables, apple, banana, and papaya. In each sample, 1200 gram of raw materials were used. Hydraulic …

Influences Of Artificial Light On Mating Of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia Illucens): A Review, Md Rabiul Awal, Md Masudur Rahman, Md Abdur Razzak Choudhury, Md Mehedi Hasan, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Md Fuad Mondal

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) is a potential insect species which can convert biodegradable materials and some indigestible organic waste into valuable biomass. Because of having good quality of fat and protein, its production and use in animal feed are being extended day by day. To fulfill the future demand re-searchers are trying to find out the successful mass rearing techniques of H. illucens in laboratory or indoor condition. However, the most critical part of H. illucens mass production is obtaining successful mating. This insect is very sensitive to light. It prefers direct sunlight for its …

Inspiring Young Students To Pursue Engineering, Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Brian Steward

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Imagine elementary school students understanding inputs and outputs, choosing appropriate sensors, and programming an autonomous robot. Imagine middle school students learning about PID control and creating advanced programs for sensor-based decision making. Imagine high school students using CAD to design drive trains, manufacturing parts with CNC machine tools, using finite element analysis to adjust the design, ordering custom components from a machine shop, using image processing for target recognition, and applying path planning and motion control. We have witnessed all of these skills. They happened outside of traditional classrooms, and they were all student-driven.

Yes, it’s true, and it’s amazing. …

Low-Level Groundwater Atrazine In High Atrazine Usage Nebraska Counties: Likely Effects Of Excessive Groundwater Abstraction, Moses New-Aaron, Olufemi P. Abimbola, Raheleh Mohammadi, Oluwaseun Famojuro, Zaeema Naveed, Azar M Abadi, Jesse E. Bell, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, Eleanor G. Rogan

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Recent studies observed a correlation between estrogen-related cancers and groundwater atrazine in eastern Nebraska counties. However, the mechanisms of human exposure to atrazine are unclear because low groundwater atrazine concentration was observed in counties with high cancer incidence despite having the highest atrazine usage. We studied groundwater atrazine fate in high atrazine usage Nebraska counties. Data were collected from Quality Assessed Agrichemical Contaminant Nebraska Groundwater, Parameter–Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM), and water use databases. Descriptive statistics and cluster analysis were performed. Domestic wells (59%) were the predominant well type. Groundwater atrazine was affected by well depth. Clusters consisting …

Gis-Based Volunteer Cotton Habitat Prediction And Plant-Level Detection With Uav Remote Sensing, Tianyi Wang, Xiaohan Mei, J. Alex Thomasson, Chenghai Yang, Xiongzhe Han, Pappu Kumar Yadav, Yeyin Shi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Volunteer cotton plants germinate and grow at unwanted locations like transport routes and can serve as hosts for a harmful cotton pests called cotton boll weevils. The main objective of this study was to develop a geographic information system (GIS) framework to efficiently locate volunteer cotton plants in the cotton production regions in southern Texas, thus reducing time and economic cost for their removal. A GIS network analysis tool was applied to estimate the most likely routes for cotton transportation, and a GIS model was created to identify and visualize potential areas of volunteer cotton growth. The GIS model indicated …

Injectable Decellularized Nucleus Pulposus Tissue Exhibits Neuroinhibitory Properties, Logan M. Piening, David J. Lillyman, Fei San Lee, Alvaro Moreno Lozano, Jeremy R. Miles, Rebecca A. Wachs

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Chronic low back pain (LBP) is a leading cause of disability, but treatments for LBP are limited. Degeneration of the intervertebral disc due to loss of neuroinhibitory sulfated glycosaminoglycans (sGAGs) allows nerves from dorsal root ganglia to grow into the core of the disc. Treatment with a decellularized tissue hydrogel that contains sGAGs may inhibit nerve growth and prevent discassociated LBP.

Methods: A protocol to decellularize porcine nucleus pulposus (NP) was adapted from previous methods. DNA, sGAG, α-gal antigen, and collagen content were analyzed before and after decellularization. The decellularized tissue was then enzymatically modified to be …

Global Analysis Of Differential Gene Expression Within The Porcine Conceptus Transcriptome As It Transitions Through Spherical, Ovoid, And Tubular Morphologies During The Initiation Of Elongation, Sophie C. Walsh, Jeremy R. Miles, Brittney N. Keel, Lea A. Rempel, Elane C. Wright‐Johnson, Amanda K. Lindholm‐Perry, William T. Oliver, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study aimed to identify transcriptome differences between distinct or transitional stage spherical, ovoid, and tubular porcine blastocysts throughout the initiation of elongation. We performed a global transcriptome analysis of differential gene expression using RNA‐Seq with high temporal resolution between spherical, ovoid, and tubular stage blastocysts at specific sequential stages of development from litters containing conceptus populations of distinct or transitional blastocysts. After RNA‐Seq analysis, significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and pathways were identified between distinct morphologies or sequential development stages. Overall, 1898 significant DEGs were identified between distinct spherical and ovoid morphologies, with 311 total DEGs between developmental stages …

Preferential Flow In Riparian Buffers: Current Research And Future Needs., Derek M. Heeren, Lucie Guertault, Kyle Mankin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Preferential flow in riparian buffers can substantially compromise their effectiveness in reducing contaminants from overland runoff. The objective of this article is to introduce a collection of five articles on current research into subsurface preferential flow measurement, visualization, modeling, and impacts on contaminant fate and transport at scales ranging from the subsurface pore scale to the plot scale to the watershed scale. This collection presents selected works from a broader invited session on “Preferential flow and piping in riparian buffers” at the 2020 ASABE Annual International Meeting. Major findings include: new methodologies, such as light transmission and geophysics, to characterize …

Corn Fiber As A Biomass Feedstock For Production Of Succinic Acid, Lisbeth Vallecilla-Yepez, Divya Ramchandran, Dianna Long, Rajib Saha, Mark R. Wilkins

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The selection of an economical carbon source is a fundamental parameter to establish a successful industrial succinic acid (SA) bioprocess. In this work, corn fiber (CF), a renewable and an inexpensive source of carbohydrates, was successfully used for bioproduction of SA. Optimized liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis were used to obtain corn fiber hydrolysate (CFH). Results in batch fermentation with Actinobacillus succinogenes showed that a control solution mimicking CFH produced 28.7 g/L of SA with a yield of 0.67 g SA/g sugars, while fermentation of CFH produced 27.8 g/L of SA with a yield of 0.61 …

Inter-Relationships Between Water Depletion And Temperature Differential In Row Crop Canopies In A Sub-Humid Climate, Jasreman Singh, Yufeng Ge, Derek M. Heeren, Elizabeth Walter-Shea, Christopher M.U. Neale, Suat Irmak, Wayne Woldt, Geng Bai, Sandeep Bhatti, Mitchell S. Maguire

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Irrigation has a great impact on global food security as it contributes to the majority of the world’s agricultural food supply. It is essential to judiciously utilize water resources through efficient irrigation management since the majority of U.S. groundwater aquifers are rapidly depleting. Thus, quantification of the relationships between water depletion and environmental factors is important for understanding crop response to varying levels of water stresses that depletion can cause. The objectives of this research were to: 1) investigate the relationship between root zone water depletion (D_rw) and canopy temperature differential (ΔT) at different ranges of D_{rw …}

Characterization Of Tea (Camellia Sinensis) Granules For Quality Grading Using Computer Vision System, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Sabiha Ferdous, Mariya Sultana Jenin, Tanjina Rahman Mim, Masud Alam, Muhammad Rashed Al Mamun

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Tea (Camellia sinensis) has been found as an important medicinal beverage for human which is consumed all over the world. Primarily, the majority of tea is being cultivated in Asia and Africa, however it is commercially produced by more than 60 countries. Though substantial amount is produced, its processing system is still underdeveloped which leads to decrease in export opportunity as well as low monetary value. Moreover, the traditional method of tea grading and sorting is laborious, inefficient, and costly which ultimately produces the low-quality heterogeneous products. Processing and grading of tea granules after drying is very important …

Disturbance Triggers Non-Linear Microbe–Environment Feedbacks, Aditi Sengupta, Sarah J. Fansler, Rosalie K. Chu, Robert E. Danczak, Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso, Lupita Renteria, Hyun-Seob Song, Jason Toyoda, Jacqueline Wells, James C. Stegen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Conceptual frameworks linking microbial community membership, properties, and processes with the environment and emergent function have been proposed but remain untested. Here we refine and test a recent conceptual framework using hyporheic zone sediments exposed to wetting–drying transitions. Our refined framework includes relationships between cumulative properties of a microbial community (e.g., microbial membership, community assembly properties, and biogeochemical rates), environmental features (e.g., organic matter thermodynamics), and emergent ecosystem function. Our primary aim was to evaluate the hypothesized relationships that comprise the conceptual framework and contrast outcomes from the whole and putatively active bacterial and archaeal communities. Throughout the system we …

Making Space For Social And Emotional Learning In Science Education, Erin Ingram, Kristie Reddick, Jessica M. Honaker, Gwen A. Pearson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is known to improve student outcomes but is rarely combined with STEM. In this paper we present an action research study to examine the impact of a STEM + SEL curriculum intervention to address a real-world school conflict. One hundred sixth–eighth graders and four teachers participated in an in-person facilitation of a SEL Arthropod curriculum, DIFFERENT. After the intervention, students completed open-ended couplet statements about arthropod behavior, tarantulas, and humans designed to measure sentiment change. Answers were manually coded using inductive coding on a scale of negative (1) to positive (5). Statement sentiments significantly shifted from negative …

Biofiltration Application At Ethanol Plants: Analysis Of Aqueous Streams And Treatment Of Vocs, Katie Marie Mowat

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

The United States used 14.5 billion gallons of the biofuel ethanol in 2019 produced primarily (82%) in dry-mill corn ethanol plants. These plants produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — some of which are hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) — during production. Traditional treatment methods for gaseous emissions use a large quantity of water or natural gas. Thus, a bio-trickling filter (BTF) is considered an innovative alternative treatment method. A lab-scale BTF was used in this study to look at the effect of ethanol concentration and temperature on the treatment of a HAPs mixture. Gaseous and aqueous testing were performed on the …