Award Data

Maintaining the expected quality and safety of food products is often difficult due to potential chemical and biological contamination. Of particular concern is the threat of food poisoning. Over 40 different foodborne microbial pathogens cause an estimated 30 million cases of human illness each year costing >$12 billion annually. Over the last 20 years, food-borne diseases caused by microbes have ...

Ethylene is a plant hormone that is involved in regulating various aspects of plant growth and development such as seed dormancy, seedling growth, root and stem thickening, promotion of flowering, and promotion of fruit ripening and spoilage. Measurement of ethylene is important for developing a basic understanding of these processes, as well as for utilization in advanced agricultural practices. ...

The development of an inexpensive, field pesticide sensor would serve a large market for researchers, municipalities and regulatory agencies to minimize the risks involved in pesticide use. The long-term vision is for this technology to become a key environmental science tool to support water quality monitoring efforts. The proposed device will solve two of the most important shortcomings of prese ...

It has been well established that disease in stored potatoes and many other vegetables and fruits generate a variety of volatile compounds that are released into the storage space Furthermore, specific types of disease produce volatile compounds that generate unique fingerprints on ultra-sensitive spectrographic molecular detection devices. The background atmosphere of commercial storage facilitie ...

Bonner and Boundary Counties, Idaho, are rural areas in transition. The people in these areas currently rely on increasingly fewer timber and forestry jobs as well as low-paying, seasonal tourist industry positions. The purpose of this project is to foster critically needed economic development in a chronically depressed rural region by leveraging and expanding technology-based entrepreneurial act ...

Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. There are currently 18 million patients in North America and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Disease (NIDDK) estimates that approximately 800,000 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed each year in the U.S. alone. In 2002 the direct costs of T2D were estimated to be $92 billion (up from $44 billion in ...

Millions of dollars in personal property and thousands of acres of natural resources will be saved annually if wildfires can be controlled effectively by increasing the safety and efficiency of helicopters in aerial firefighting. The purpose of this project is to research and develope a computer controlled water bucket system to increase safety and efficiency by automating weight management of loa ...

The USDA recognizes the need for improved instrumentation to monitor atmospheric ammonia which is a major environmental concern and a health hazard. Ammonia is a public health concern at high levels, as can be found in animal feed lots. At low levels, ammonia is a source of particulates which are not only a human health problem but also affect visibility and global climate. It has been estimated t ...

Current animal telemetry devices are large and heavy due to their reliance on batteris to power the electronics and radios. Because of this, many species can't be effectively studied since they can not support the device weight. The smaller size will allow animal telemetry devices to be developed for species that have not had effective monitoring devices previously. The longer duration devices wil ...

Sheep ranching and wool production have been a part of our country & #8223;s rural heritage for more than a hundred years, with small and mid-sized ranches serving as the backbone of our country & #8223;s sheep operations. Presently, small operators account for more total ewes than larger operations. This means that small ranches offer the best potential for growth of sheep operations in the futur ...