Award Data

There are a significant number of people in the U.S. whose literacy deficits significantly limit opportunities for written self-expression, including individuals with intellectual disabilities. While this population can offer revealing insights given their unique perspectives, self-expression often occurs in the dependent context of transcription by another person, or, perhaps too often, not at al ...

People with intellectual disability depend a great deal on work for their quality of life. Working in community-based jobs can make substantial differences in income, relationships and self-esteem. Technology has improved opportunities for this population to independently express their career interests, but current tools are limited in that they do not support customization to reflect local job an ...

Diabetes is an epidemic disease in the United States and worldwide. Diabetes care accounts for 10% of all U.S. healthcare costs, most of which is consumed in the care of complications from diabetes, but also includes lost economic productivity from illness, disability and blindness. Despite the high incidence of diabetes, low health literacy and limited access to health care resources keeps famili ...

Despite a 40 year history of aquaculture production of edible marine mussels in the United States, domestic mussel farmers currently capture only about 10% of the fresh mussel market, valued at $40 million and growing. The growth of U.S. mussel raft culture, which is utilized to protect crops from avian predators, has been hampered by a lack of improved production technology in semi-exposed waters ...

The respiration of fresh fruits and vegetables (FF & amp;V) converts oxygen from the surrounding air into carbon dioxide, moisture and ethylene. While ethylene is used under controlled conditions as a ripening agent, the presence of even small amounts of ethylene gas in shipping and storage containers causes most fresh produce to deteriorate much faster, potentially spoiling it before it reaches t ...

This project will develop a catalytic process to manufacture a new renewable and degradable bio-plastic that could be used to replace polyethylene in many applications, including those that constitute a large part of land and ocean litter such as bags, food packaging and disposable tableware.

The production of turpentine in the U.S. exceeded 301,000 tons in 2004 (Romney 2004) and the production of resin acids exceeded 800,000 ton in 2003 (Romney 2004), which also includes the production from directly tapping trees (e.g., gum turpentine, gum rosin). There is growing demand for bio-plastics (non-petroleum derived polymers); for example Pepsi announced it will be using bio-plastic bottles ...

The market for natural colorants is growing. Trends in food, cosmetics, and textiles show consumers are concerned over the use of synthetic, petroleum-derived dyes and seek a more environmentally friendly option. However, manufacturers cannot compromise on quality, stability, or functionality of colorants in their products. Natural colorants, including from plants, have been used as dyes for thous ...

Modern agriculture is highly dependent on nitrogen (N) fertilization to maintain high yields and profitability. In organic agriculture, cover crops and bulky organic amendments supply N; transport costs can be prohibitive, and energy used in transport is substantial. In conventional agriculture, industrial N fixation uses natural gas, high temperatures, and high pressures to convert atmospheric N ...

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