Nitrogen (N) fertilizer rate is important for high yield and good quality of potato tubers. In this dissertation, I seek to study the response of different potato cultivars under different N fertilizer rates and how that can impact tuber quality, examine the performance of active optical sensors in improving a potato yield prediction algorithm, and evaluate the ability of active optical sensors (GreenSeeker (GS) and Crop Circle (CC)) to optimize a N recommendation algorithm that can be used by potato growers in Maine. This research was conducted at 11 sites over a period of two years (2018–2019) in Aroostook County, Maine; all sites depended on a rainfed system. Three potato cultivars, Russet Burbank, Superior, and Shepody, were planted u

Abstract: The development of highly sensitive sensors has become an efficient field of research. In this work, an ArF Excimer laser of 193 nm with a maximum pulse energy of 275 mJ, 15 ns pulse duration and a repetition rate of 1 Hz is utilized to form a Laser Induced Periodic Surface Structures (LIPSS) of three different morphologies (nanochains, contours, grooves) on surface of CR39 polymer at a fluence range above the ablation threshold (250 mJ/cm2). The laser ablated polymer surface is then Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) activated by deposition of a gold layer of 30 nm thickness. The capability of the produced substrate for surface enhanced Raman scattering is evaluated through thiophenol as an analyte molecule. It is observ

The physical and morphological characteristics of porous silicon (PS) synthesized via gas sensor was assessed by electrochemical etching for a Si wafer in diluted HF acid in water (1:4) at different etching times and different currents. The morphology for PS wafers by AFM show that the average pore diameter varies from 48.63 to 72.54 nm with increasing etching time from 5 to 15min and from 72.54 to 51.37nm with increasing current from 10 to 30 mA. From the study, it was found that the gas sensitivity of In2O3: CdO semiconductor, against NO2 gas, directly correlated to the nanoparticles size, and its sensitivity increases with increasing operating temperature.

Single mode-no core-single mode fiber structure with a section of tuned no-core fiber diameter to sense changes in relative humidity has been experimentally demonstrated. The sensor performance with tuned NCF diameter was investigated to maximize the evanescent fields. Different tuned diameters of of (100, 80, and 60)μm were obtained by chemical etching process based on hydrofluoric acid immersion. The highest wavelength sensitivity was obtained 184.57 pm/RH% in the RH range of 30% –100% when the no-core fiber diameter diameter was 60 μm and the sensor response was in real-time measurements

Photonic crystal fiber interferometers are used in many sensing applications. In this work, an in-reflection photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based on Mach-Zehnder (micro-holes collapsing) (MZ) interferometer, which exhibits high sensitivity to different volatile organic compounds (VOCs), without the needing of any permeable material. The interferometer is robust, compact, and consists of a stub photonic crystal fiber of large-mode area, photonic crystal fiber spliced to standard single mode fiber (SMF) (corning-28), this splicing occurs with optimized splice loss 0.19 dB In the splice regions the voids of the holey fiber are completely collapsed, which allows the excitation and recombination of core and cladding modes. The device reflection

PVC membrane sensor for the selective determination of Mefenamic acid (MFA) was constructed. The sensor is based on ion association of MFA with Dodecaphospho molybdic acid (PMA) and Dodeca–Tungstophosphoric acid(PTA) as ion pairs. Nitro benzene (NB) and di-butyl phthalate (DBPH) were used as plasticizing agents in PVC matrix membranes. The specification of sensor based on PMA showed a linear response of a concentration range 1.0 × 10–2 –1.0 × 10–5 M, Nernstian slopes of 17.1-18.86 mV/ decade, detection limit of 7 × 10-5 -9.5 × 10 -7M, pH range 3 – 8 , with correlation coefficients lying between 0.9992 and 0.9976, respectively. By using the ionphore based on PTA gives a concentration range of 1.0 × 10–4 –1.0 × 10–5 M,

This study involved preparation of Graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) using Hummer method and chemical method respectively. These carbon nanomaterials were used as starting material to make novel functionalize with thiocarbohydrazide (TCH) which was prepared by reacting CS2 with hydrazine to form GO or RGO- 4-amino,5-substituted 1H,1,2,4 Triazole 5(4H) thion (ASTT) ,(GOT) and( RGOT) respectively via cyclocondensation reaction. Also MnO2 nanorod was prepared to form hybridized with GOT and RGOT. A commercial multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and functionalization with carboxylic groups' (f-MWCNT) and its nanocomposite with GOT were also prepared. All carbon nanomaterials were characterized with different techniques such as

Abstract

The fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology has been rapidly applied in the sensing technology field. In this work, uniform FBG was used as pressure sensor based on measuring related Bragg wavelength shift. The pressure was applied directly by air compressor to the sensor and the pressure was ranged from 1 to 6 bar.

      This sensor also was affected by the external temperature so as a result it could be used as a temperature sensor. This sensor could be used to monitor the pressure of dams. It has been shown from the result that the sensor is very sensitive to the pressure and the sensitivity was (67 pm\bar) and is very sensitive to temperature and the sensitivity was (10p