Award Data

A new semisolid artificial diet enclosed in membranes that allow feeding by the predacious green lacewing, Chrysoperla rufilabris, has been invented by USDA/ARS scientist A. Cohen. Phase I studies conducted by Beneficial Insectary showed that the Cohen diet in the Cohen food pack was superior in several key areas to the live insect diet currently used for commercial mass rearing of C. rufilabris. ...

Fruit blotch is a serious seedborne disease of watermelon. In an attempt to control this disease, the seed industry has adopted a zero tolerance of infected seeds. Available tests for detecting infected seeds include grow-out, liquid plating, classical PCR tests. These tests are either not sensitive enough, resulting in false negative, not specific enough, resulting in false positives, or are very ...

This proposal addresses the recent EPA ruling, published in the Federal Register (January 22, 2001), to lower the As levels in drinking waters from the current Maximum Contaminants levels (MCL) of 50 ppb to 10 ppb. Furthermore, it has reported that 2,300 groundwater systems in small communities ranging from 25 to 500 (which make up 67% of the groundwater systems) will be out of compliance; whereas ...

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This project involves the development of a first-of-its-kind method for fractionation and recovery of industrial viable plant polyphenol material from spent tanning liquor (a.k.a. used color bath), a waste byproduct from the vegetable tanning and chrome retanning industry. Using a newly developed proprietary process currently being submitted for a provisional patent, a pilot facility will be built ...

We will conduct research on nutrition and food intake regulation mechanism in hybrid striped bass. We will determine: 1) how dietary energy density, satiated feeding, energy-to-protein ratios, fish size, and temperature affect food and energy consumption rates; 2) how "high-energy" diets can improve growth and feed conversion; and 3) how these diets affect fish health, effluent water quality, and ...

Increased restrictions on wild live-bait shrimp catches combined with significant annual increases in demand suggest that the supply problem of this industry will continue if no alternative source of live bait shrimp is established. The major obstacles in the development of the farm-raised live bait shrimp industry are the need for domesticated pathogen-free postlarvae (PL), the lack of reliable m ...

This is a Phase 2 proposal to develop an instrument to simultaneously measure particle size, velocity, and concentration in applications characterized by a large size range and high particle concentration. The instrument will be based on the Pulse Displacement Technique whose feasibility was demonstrated during Phase 1. Experiments performed during Phase 1 demonstrated a high accuracy in meas ...

One hurdle to improving the efficiency of commercial aquaculture is the lack of methods for reliably counting and sizing the stock. Conventional hydroacoustical methods exist for determining fish populations in natural waters, but these methods have not been successfully adapted to commercial fish farming, where population densities are orders of magnitude higher and where wall and boundary effect ...

Based on the outline for a theory of intelligence, and using NIST's hierarchical real-time control system (RCS) architecture, in Phase I, we developed proof-of-concept OpenSim and OpenAnimation toolboxes consisting of the following innovations, namely, (i) Simulation and Animation Software Design that will seamlessly interface with RCS Hierarchy, (ii) Knowledge hierarchy consistent with the f ...