Award Data

50% of produce goes uneaten. Loss in the produce supply chain costs $80B eachyear in the United States and represents a tremendous waste of key natural resources:land water and energy. A major cause of loss in the agricultural supply chain is spoilagebrought on by fungi and bacteria. Post-harvest pathogenic damage can be mitigated bya variety of strategies such as applying fungicides ozone chlorin ...

Specialty crops such as pineapple and other tropical fruits beverage and nut crops are importantcomponents of the economy of Hawaii the subtropical areas of the mainland U.S. and many othertropical areas around the world. Significant opportunities exist to improve productivity harvestefficiency and reduce in-field losses by the application and integration of new technologies. Onesuch example is to ...

This application describes research to further advance an innovative algal-based productionsystem for the manufacture of a suite of novel biobased ingredients for sustainable andenvironmentally advantaged skin care products. Specifically we propose the mass cultivation ofgenetically enhanced photosynthetic algae (cyanobacteria) in specialized photobioreactors(PBRs) to produce mycosporine-like amin ...

Swine morbidity and mortality caused by porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus is a threat to the U.S. pork industry causing losses of $664 million last year that may exceed $700 million in 2014. Vaccines against PRRS virus have failed to stem the occurrence of PRRS in U.S. herds. Here we propose to ascertain the technical feasibility of developing an effective autogenous (kill ...

Potentially insufficient corn stock supplies make necessary the development of industrial yeast strains for converting alternative cellulosic materials for renewable fuel sources. This project investigates the feasibility and develops the capability of using Holographic Optical Trapping as an automated manipulation tool for yeast cells, to characterize and evaluate yeast strains.

Regenerative medicine is an emerging, interdisciplinary field that will result in new engineered medical products. The introduction of a high-resolution, non-destructive imaging technique that is capable of penetrating deeply into the highly-scattering scaffold medium has the means to accelerate the development and commercial utilization of these novel materials. Multi-photon microscopy (MPM) is b ...

Conventional methods of providing power require expensive pole-drop utility connections, high replacement cost of battery-backup systems, other regular maintenance, or inordinate size and substandard reliability. The proposed device uses an optimized combination of battery and solar power, which when coupled with sophisticated power electronics circuits, is capable of supplying 50 W-hr/day of elec ...