Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Production Of Lithium Carbonate From Geothermal Brine By Selective Extraction Of Lithium Using A Novel Ion Sieve Method, Ujjwal Pokharel, Sandeep Kumar

College of Engineering & Technology (Batten) Posters

The project implements a novel approach to extract lithium from a geothermal brine with minimal water loss. Production of high-capacity lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for electric vehicles (EV) is believed to be the way to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel based vehicles. Currently, most of the lithium in the world comes from the mining of lithium or the evaporative/concentration of the brine. Mining is not environmentally friendly, and the evaporative process takes 12 months for the completion of the extraction process and results in a large amount of water loss which can lead to scarcity of water. The brines constitute 82% of …

Survey Data: Optimising Retrofitted Insulation For Irish Residential Building Walls, Rakshit D. Muddu, Aimee Byrne, Anthony Robinson Dr.

Datasets

A survey was conducted to determine the preferred set point temperature and heating pattern among Irish households. The survey was sent to 237 people living across Ireland, out of which 32 respondents skipped the survey and 9 surveys were found to be incomplete. Amongst the counties in Ireland 71.1% respondents were from Dublin, 6.34% from Kildare, 5% from Meath, 5% from Wicklow and in all the remaining counties response rate was below 2%. Part 1: This section of the survey recorded information regarding characteristics of the building such as house type, wall type, insulation type, period the house was built. …

Application Of Metagenomic And Molecular Microbiology Techniques To Elucidate Sources Of Fecal Pollution And Anthropogenic Antibiotic Resistance Genes To Surface Water: A Step Towards A “One Health” Approach To Watershed Management, Mehedi Hasan Tarek

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The use of fecal indicator bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, is a widely established regulatory and monitoring practice to detect surface water contamination associated with fecal pollution. However, the detection or quantification of fecal indicator bacteria alone does not accurately inform the sources of fecal pollution. The development of molecular and metagenomic methods that target the DNA of microorganisms has resulted in a host of new tools for monitoring fecal pollution and its sources, as well as for understanding emerging microbial threats, such as antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance is a critical “One Health” challenge presenting a high risk to …

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 …

Evaluation Of Cytocompatability And Safety Of Nerve Retraction Compounds For Local Disc Denervation To Treat Disc-Associated Low Back Pain, Fei San Lee, Uyen N. Nguyen, Rebecca A. Wachs

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Low back pain (LBP) is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Aberrant nerve growth into intervertebral discs is a common pathological feature of disc-associated LBP. Current treatments rely on short-term solutions using opioids or anti-inflammatory prescriptions which can lead to addiction and side effects, respectively. We hypothesize that removal of aberrant nerve fibers in the disc using nerve retraction compounds can alleviate discassociated LBP. We performed screening of nerve retraction compounds using adult rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) explant culture in hydrogels to mimic disc innervation in vitro. Capsaicin, known to induce nerve retraction, was used as a positive control …

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 …}

Agricultural Machinery Operator Monitoring System (Ag-Oms): A Machine Learning Approach For Real-Time Operator Safety Assessment, Terence Irumva, Herve Mwunguzi, Santosh Pitla, Bethany Lowndes, Aaron Yoder, Ka-Chun Siu

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The 2015 CS-CASH (Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, 2015) Injury Surveillance Surveys showed that around 19% of injuries to agricultural producers are related to tractors or large agricultural machinery, yet only a limited number of studies are found that address tools and methods for monitoring safety behaviors of agricultural machinery operators in real-time. The current safety behavior monitoring approaches require an in-person presence, which can be both time- and cost-inefficient, and the other available methods lack a feedback element to alert operators in realtime. As a result, the research presented in this study aimed to develop an …

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 …

Analysis Of Pervious Oyster Shell Habitat (Posh) Unit Performance Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Lauren E. Cope

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, pervious oyster shell habitat (POSH) units have been developed and deployed as part of living shoreline projects in Northeast Florida. POSH units are modular artificial oyster reef structures made from cement and recycled oyster shells. POSH units aim to attenuate wave energy, trap sediment, restore salt marsh habitat, and improve oyster recruitment. Previous studies demonstrated the units’ ability to attract oyster larvae and reduce shoreline bed stress in some areas. This paper looks to further understand the effect of POSH unit placement on bed stress under boat wake conditions using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Results indicated that …

Impact Of Eastern Redcedar Encroachment On Water Resources In The Nebraska Sandhills, Yaser Kishawi, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Troy E. Gilmore, Dirac Twidwell, Tirthankar Roy, Nawaraj Shrestha

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Worldwide, tree or shrub dominated woodlands have encroached into herbaceous dominated grasslands. While very few studies have evaluated the impact of Eastern Redcedar (redcedar) encroachment on the water budget, none have analyzed the impact on water quality. In this study, we evaluated the impact of redcedar encroachment on the water budget in the Nebraska Sand Hills and how the decreased streamflow would increase nitrate and atrazine concentrations in the Platte River. We calibrated a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT model) for streamflow, recharge, and evapotranspiration. Using a moving window with a dilate morphological filter, encroachment scenarios of 11.9%, 16.1%, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Estimating Battery Size Requirements For Tractor Electrification Of Row-Crop Planting Operations, Cheetown Liew, Andrew Donesky, Mark Freyhof, Ian Tempelmeyer, Santosh Kumar Pitla

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Power sources such as batteries, used for both on-road and off-road vehicles, are advancing at a rapid pace. Electric batteries are becoming more power dense, thus allowing them to be used as a power source to replace previous diesel or gasoline-powered systems. Efforts are underway to transition off-road agricultural vehicles from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs); however, the energy requirements of typical agricultural field operations need to be fully understood before such a transition can occur. Theoretical prediction equations available in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) standards or the use of engine …

Phosphorus Release And Recovery From Simulated Ferric Wastewater Sludge, Aseel Alnimer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Phosphorus (P) is a fundamental element necessary for all life forms and a key component in the fertilizer industry. Meanwhile, the excessive load of P to water bodies due to human activities has the potential to promote eutrophication. Wastewater treatment plants remove P either biologically or chemically and produce P rich sludge which could be a potential renewable source for P. At present, commercial technologies exist for P recovery from biological wastewater sludge. However, P recovery from chemical sludge particularly iron(III)-phosphate (Fe-P) sludge generated in chemical P removal plants that use iron(III) salts remains a challenge.

This study explored, in …

The Seasonality And Climate Predictability Of The Frequency Of Extreme Flood Events Across The Contiguous United States, Ololade S. Alonge

Dissertations and Theses

This paper investigates the seasonality of the frequency of extreme flood events across the United States (US) and outlines the impact of large-scale climate on its spatio-temporal variability. The analysis was conducted on 317 stream gages from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Hydro-Climatic Data Network (HDCN) over a period of 68 years (1950-2017), resulting in the estimation of the counts of extreme floods (defined as the number of days in each month when the streamflow is greater than the 95^th percentile of daily distribution) and the determination of the Markham’s seasonality index for it. 97% of the stations …

Hdd Dataset: Optimising Retrofitted Insulation For Irish Residential Building Walls, Rakshit D. Muddu, Aimee Byrne, Anthony James Robinson

Datasets

In this study, a thermal-economic analysis was conducted to determine the optimum insulation thickness of retrofitted insulation walls in different regions in Ireland. This was based on the Heating Degree Day method (HDD). This dataset contains optimum insulation thickness, payback period, cost savings and carbon emission for all 25 counties in the Republic of Ireland

Assessing Erosion Improvement In Beach Sand Treated With Bioslurry, Peter E. Schmillen

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last 10 years microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) has emerged as a possible solution to reduce shoreline erosion. To date, most MICP soil treatments that have been studied involve column injection using a pump. In recent years, MICP application through surface percolation has gained traction as an alternative technique, but data using this technique are limited. More recently, a new treatment recipe/technique was developed, and this technique was termed “bioslurry”. Like most MICP studies research with bioslurry concentrated on the column injection method, and surface percolation has received very limited attention. This paper discusses the treatment of Florida …

Investigating The Change In Pavement Cracking Data Due To Automated Data Collection Methods, Faisal Quibria Chowdhury

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Data collection on pavement surface cracks is crucial for the state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to make informed decisions on maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities. The collected cracking data is translated into a pavement performance indicator to assess the condition of pavement sections and identify MR&R needs based on predetermined threshold values set by the state DOTs. State DOTs have transitioned from manual to automated data collection as automation offers many advantages over manual data collection, such as improved data collection rates, efficiency, cost reduction, and safety. As the state DOTs have integrated automated data into the pavement performance …

Mixing, Metabolism, And Climate Change: A Modeling Case Study Of A Shallow Hypereutrophic, Polymictic Lake, Benjamin C. Reuss

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Globally, lakes are sites of significant carbon cycling, respiring an estimated 0.07 to 0.15 Pg as CO2 and sequestering 0.03 to 0.07 Pg C in sediments annually. These processes can be affected by nutrient availability, with seasonal mixing regulating nutrient transport in monomictic and dimictic systems. However, the effect of intermittent mixing on ecosystem production in polymictic systems has been much less studied. The timing and frequency of lake mixing are expected to be altered by climate change, which has the potential to impact nutrient transport. The first chapter of this thesis introduces lake mixing dynamics and indices of mixing. …