Award Data

The use of unattended floats, platforms, and drones addresses the immense challenge of cost-effectively characterizing the chemistry of the oceans. The proposed program strengthens this capability by demonstrating the feasibility of Laser Fluorescence Enhanced Flame Spectrophotometry (LFEFS) for the simultaneous and high precision measurement of calcium and strontium. These are key elements of the ...

The underlying framework for modern-day weather forecasting is numerical weather prediction (NWP). Even the current and planned weather observing platforms leave gaps that are insufficient to meet the requirements of NWP. Mano Nanotechnologies, Inc. proposes a new environmental sensing system, known as “GlobalSense”, which will enable transformational forecast improvements by filing these crit ...

The past decade has seen remarkable progress in the development of biobased fuel and chemical production. Biobased fuels and chemicals could create substantial economic benefits for farmers and rural communities, since biomass feedstock production and conversion to biobased products are predominantly rural activities. However, substantial challenges exist and achieving economic viability of large- ...

This project seeks to introduce web-based technology tools to the livestock industry that would equilibrate business risks between farmer and processor, moving the relationships toward mobile technology for convenience and reliability, and increasing business efficiency for both parties.Our project is designed to make small to mid-sized livestock farms more profitable by assuring the availability ...

Small to mid-size farms across America now face declining profits and a higher volume of agricultural residuals due to increasingly erratic weather patterns. Farmers are seeking innovative ways to create new revenue streams and adapt to a changing landscape. Bragdon Farm's Phase I SBIR research is committed to creating a hay fuel log and scalable business model that can help ameliorate these i ...

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the most common and economically significant disease in beef calves costing the industry over $700 million annually. Antimicrobial BRD therapy can be effective when applied appropriately; however, conventional diagnostic methods rely almost exclusively on human observation resulting in numerous misclassifications. A remote early disease identification (REDI) sys ...

Bovine tuberculosis (TB), a zoonotic disease caused by Mycobacterium bovis, continues to plague the cattle industry in the United States (US) and worldwide. Current diagnostic methods are inadequate; therefore, improved tests are urgently needed for disease control/eradication. The goal of the proposed research is to develop a simple, rapid, accurate, and cost-effective blood test for bovine TB in ...

Foot and mouth disease is distributed world-wide in over 100 countries, and has proven to be devastating to livestock of cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and buffaloes. Similar to other members of the Picornaviridae family, there is considerable natural genetic variation in the FMDV population found in nature. There are seven serotypes of the foot and mouth disease virus, ...

The current dependence of the United States on foreign oil has sparked enormous interest in the use of biofuels, specifically cellulosic biofuels. Cellulosic biofuels are a carbon neutral, renewable resource, and their use could drastically curtail total carbon dioxide emissions while also reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Worldwide biomass energy resources are estimated at 2 x 1021 J per y ...

Fertilizer is required for increasing crop productivity and gives farmers economic viability. However, the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers results in excess nitrate runoff in the ground water, and has the potential to cause significant health problems if consumed in large quantities. There is an increasing body of evidence that nitrate pollution of ground water is a large and growing problem aro ...