Award Data

The whitefly pest and vector, and the geminiviruses that it transmits, have become the principaldeterrents to vegetable production in the U.S. sunbelt states, in Mexico, and throughout the CaribbeanBasin since the introduction and spread of the B biotype whitefly vector in the late 1980's. The mosteffective means of controlling geminivirus-incited diseases is through resistant tomato varieties. ...

The successful development of an acoustic mouthpiece based audio in formation system for rebreathing apparatus will revolutionize military, professional, and recreational diving. The system proposed provides the diver with voice and tonal audio imformation regarding depth, bottom time, tank pressure, gas mixture data, time, temperature, and any other critical information which is available from ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project envisages new thermoset coating materials derived from lesquerella oil. The proposed research will result in the creation of markets for lesquerella oil and wil assist the USDA efforts to replace imported castor oil with domestically produced lesquerella oil. Bench-scale investigations of lesquerella oil modification will focus on addition ...

Plants are increasingly being used to provide industry with high-value chemicals, biochemicals, and drugs. This proposal focuses on the isolation and purification of specific components in plant-derived oils. For example, L-menthod is a valuable chemical that is the major component of peppermint oil. L-Menthol is widely used in the flavoring of chewing gums, candies, desserts, and beverages; an ...

Past applications of wood fibers in cement-based materials have been limited to the specialty market of thin cement panels. Synthetic fibers have recently gained tremendous popularity as secondary reinforcement in conventional concrete for shrinkage crack control. Concrete reinforcing fibers should provide high levels of slenderness ratio, elastic modulus, tensile and bond strengths, and finenes ...

There is a need for a simple, cost-effective procedure for making accurate estimates of crop residue in agricultural fields. The objectives of this Phase I effort is to conduct the research required to design a light-weight, affordable hand-held spectral radiometer and associated spectral algorithm for quickly making field estimates of percent crop residue cover. The specific tasks that will be ...

The ability to measure the hydraulic infiltration and permeability properties of soils and various geotechnical materials is a growing need in science and engineering with the increased emphasis on groundwater quality protection, water conservation, erosion control and other water relevant issues. These measurements have classically been performed on soils using various forms of infiltrometer and ...

The striped snakehead or murrel is a highly prized foodfish in Asia. Several thousand metric tons of frozen snakeheads are imported annually to supply the existing demand for this fish by the domestic Asian seafood market. The striped snakehead was introduced to the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, in the early 1800s, where a small established population remains. The successfully completed Phase I research ...

The objective of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of the FLP/FRT site-specific recombinase inexcising a transgenic tapetum-specific promoter driving an inverted (antisense) Arabidopsis fertilitygene, bcl1. Plants containing the antisense of bcl1 (flanked by FRT sites) will be male sterile and whencrossed to plants containing the FLP site-specific recombinase, FLP should excise the sterili ...

For over a hundred years, the agricultural base in Hawaii has been sugar cane. In recent years,all plantations on the major islands of Oahu and Hawaii have closed, and many are jobless. Onealternative to work opportunities is specialty crop production, but changes in global trade haveeroded Hawaii's market share through increased competition in U.S. and foreign markets.Problems faced by the indu ...