Thirty-five range cows of various breeds were obtained for the study. Body measurements taken were live weight and hip height and all cows were condition scored for level of fatness. The cows were slaughtered and the following morning several carcass measurements were taken and the plate was removed from the left side. These plates were boned and the remaining flesh ground for chemical analysis of percent carcass fat. Regression equations were calculated for estimating percent carcass fat from condition score, weight:height ratio and hip height (R2=.765). However, condition score alone is the single best estimator for percent carcass fat (R2=.759).

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No description available.

This thesis examines the impact of spillway surface roughness on discharge capacity determination in hydraulic models. The study combines physical hydraulic modeling in a laboratory with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling using Fluent. The aim is to evaluate the effect of material roughness on spillway discharge determination for prototype spillways and outlets. The project includes a literature review, data collection, 3D modeling, model setup, numerical modeling, result analysis, comparison with other reports, and report writing. The results concluded that varying roughness heights as well as changing turbulence model and mesh settings did not significantly impact the final discharge (kg/s) at steady state. P-values less than 1e-7 for the average discharge at flowtime of [150 − tfinal[s]] suggests strong confidence in the statistical insignificance of varying roughness height affecting the discharge.

Trunk height, diameter, and stomatal conductance measurements were taken over a three-year time frame on clonal red maple cultivars [Acer rubrum ‘Frank Jr’] on two sites with varying conditions. Physiological and morphological effects on tree growth were measured on both sites in response to Pneumatic Fracturing (PF) and Liquid Injection (LI) treatments. The primary questions asked in study one were: (1) Does stomatal conductance differ among the two sites during mid-summer? and (2) Do height and diameter measures differ among the two sites? In study two, I asked: (1) Do height, diameter and stomatal conductance differ between site modification treatments within each site? Control samples on the Site 2 had significantly more growth than the controls on the Site 1. PF and LI treatments showed significantly more diameter growth on the Site 1 while a significant difference was also seen in stomatal conductance following treatments on Site 1.

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More efficient and reliable High-Throughput Field Phenotyping (HTFP) approaches are essential for the development of plant breeding and carbon storage studies, as well as the improvement of yield estimation in the food production sector. The use of ground-based platforms in combination with other data sources such as UAVs and satellites addresses constraints related to payload capacity restrictions and reduced below-canopy data collection. This study describes an early approach to the deployment of agile robots for HTFP that aims to estimate height, diameter at breast height (DBH), and volume for forty-three unique trees corresponding to two different species (E. variegata and F. altissima) occupying an urban-park. The data acquisition system consists of an agile robot from Boston Dynamics and a navigation enhancer LiDAR module from the same company. In order to obtain a point cloud using this system, it is necessary to overcome two challenges: a reduced vertical FoV of the LiDAR and limited management of the LiDAR module. A multiway registration approach is implemented to reconstruct a low-density digital twin of the experiment site, which is later georeferenced using points surveyed with a GNSS system. Subsequently, the point cloud is manually segmented using CloudCompare software to obtain individual tree point clouds. Three different algorithms are implemented to obtain height, DBH, and tree volume estimates from the individual point clouds. The results are statistically analyzed by species in order to characterize sources of error. The height estimation method had a Median Percentage Error (MPE) of 1.4% for E. variegata and 1.2% for F. altissima. The DBH estimation had an MPE of 20.1% for E. variegata and 13% for F. altissima. The volume estimation model returned an R2 of 0.86 for E. variegata and 0.98 for F. altissima. Finally, all three feature estimations are mapped into a GEOJson file. These findings, combined with the numerous advantages of using agile robots as mobile platforms in HTFP, enable more efficient and reliable estimation of important parameters such as aboveground biomass and carbon storage sequestration, as well as delivery the potential for improvements in crop monitoring and yield estimation.

The purpose of this thesis was to observe psychological, physiological, and performance changes to determine when two high-level weightlifters were peaked for a major competition. We addressed this purpose by conducting a two-part case study series with one USA international level female and one USA national level male weightlifter. Both athletes were considered to be peaked on competition day. The results support our hypothesis that jumping performance would be peaked on competition day corresponding with an increased recovery and decreased stress state. However, contrary to our hypothesis, each athlete exhibited small decreases in muscle size leading into the competition relative to baseline values. Further, changes in inflammatory markers were inconsistent for each athlete and were not reduced as hypothesized. Based on our findings, this investigation supports the use of overreaching and tapering for individual strength-power athletes providing insight into underlying psychological and physiological basis for observed changes in performance.

Blocking is highly correlated with team success. The identification of specific techniques that produce a more successful block would be helpful knowledge for coaches and players. This study compared the traditional, swing, and chicken wing arm swings in combination with the running step footwork pattern in order to determine which arm swing enabled athletes to perform a more effective block. The time it took the athletes to get off the ground and get their hands above (vertically) the net was calculated. The distance the hand reached over the net or hand penetration (displacement between the net and finger in the anterior and vertical planes) was also measured. Lastly, jump height was calculated. High-speed videography was used to capture the blocking movements of thirteen female NCAA Division I athletes. Data were analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA test, pairwise comparison, and co-variate analysis. The chicken wing block arm swing was quickest in getting the athlete off the ground and getting their hands above the net. The swing block was greatest for hand penetration and jump height. These results can help coaches and players decide which arm swing will benefit them most as a blocking team and as individual blockers.

Due to their unique properties, carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) are becoming ever more prevalent in today's society. Unfortunately, CFRP suffer from a wide range of failure modes and structural health monitoring methods are currently insufficient to predict these failures. It is apparent that self-sensing structural health monitoring could be advantageous to protect consumers from catastrophic failure in CFRP structures. Previous research has shown that embedded nickel nanostrand nanocomposites can be used to instantaneously measure strain in carbon fiber composites, but these methods have been severely limited and can induce high stress concentrations that compromise the structural integrity of the carbon fiber structure. In this research the strain sensor material and the connective circuitry to the sensor are analyzed to improve the practicality of in situ strain sensing of carbon fiber structures. It has been found that the use of nickel nanostrands embedded directly onto carbon fiber as a strain sensor material has no advantages over a carbon fiber strain sensor alone. Additionally, it has been shown that the circuitry to the strain sensor plays a critical role in obtaining a strong, consistent piezoresistive signal that can be related to strain. The use of nickel coated carbon fiber in the circuitry has been evaluated and shown to reduce the noise in a piezoresistive signal while allowing for remote strain sensing from greater distances away from the strain location. The piezoresistive strain sensing utilized in the tested sensor designs relies on electrons tunneling through an insulting barrier between two conductors. This phenomenon is known as quantum tunneling. Two factors - tunneling barrier height and gap distance - affect the probability of quantum tunneling occurring. Thus, to accurately model and predict the piezoresistivity of nanocomposites these two parameters must be known. Through the use of dielectric spectroscopy the gap distance can be determined. Using nanoindenting, the barrier height for various polymers was also determined. The measured values can be used, in future work, to improve the modeling of nickel nanostrand nanocomposite.