Award Data

Basic science discoveries have led to the development of a series of human biotherapeutic drugs for the treatment of cancer and HIV as well as many other diseases. Currently there are over 400 drugs in clinical trials just for the first two diseases. The current biotherapeutics' manufacturing platforms have not kept pace resulting in a dramatic rise in treatment cost and more importantly unmet the ...

Removal and disposal of agricultural mulch films made from polyethylene requires large expenditures of time and money, and creates excessive demand for landfill space. The purpose of this project is to create agricultural mulch films from renewable resources that can be incorporated into the soil for disposal rather than being landfilled.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) biopesticides are an environmentally safe alternative to chemical pesticides but less efficacious than chemical alternatives. The purpose of this study is to determine the suitability of BtBooster in improving Bt biopesticides so that it as good as or better than the more efficacious chemical alternatives.

An important problem facing rural America is the lack of job opportunities. This is particularly true in much of the arid southwestern U.S. These rural communities have little that they can export into commodity priced markets. Hence, this region has among the highest incidence (% of county population) of poverty in the U.S. Yet, the southwestern U.S. has abundant solar energy which could provide ...

Economic losses due to inadequate ripeness detection in the orchard and post-harvest continue to plague the apple industry. It is anticipated that the in-orchard/packinghouse sensor approach will significantly reduce the waste/spoilage-to-edible-fruit ratio, thereby increasing fruit quality and availability and resultant consumer demand at the domestic retail level as well as in the export market. ...

Durable, economical, and highly functional erosion control materials for use in high stress, arid and semi-arid environments are not generally available. And, few uses exist for value-added products made from woody residuals created by small-diameter forest thinning and wildland/urban interface fuels reduction operations. The project will create a durable erosion control system using the lowest va ...

One problem that exists for manufacturers producing standardized medicinal plant products is variability of raw material. Most medicinal plant products are produced from material which has been collected from the wild resulting in a wide range of bioactive ingredient content. Increasing demand for these products has resulted in some of the more effective plants, including Hydrastis canadensis (gol ...

Due to environmental and regulatory concerns, research and development of non-chemical alternatives for pest suppression is necessary. Entomopathogenic nematodes are environmentally friendly biocontrol agents that can suppress a wide variety of economically important insect pests including the black vine weevil, the Japanese beetle, diaprepes root weevil, and fungus gnats. Commercialization of the ...

The short read range of current cattle electronic identification ear tags threatens to hinder the widespread adoption and utility of the USDA-developed National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Tag readers that require placement within inches of an animal's ear in order to read the NAIS number introduce obstacles at various points in the beef production cycle. This project will determine if be ...

The use of sub-therapeutic concentrations of anti-microbial agents in animal feed has contributed to theproductivity of the U.S. meat and dairy industries by preventing infectious diseases, by decreasing theamount of feed required and by increasing the rate of animal weight gain. However, failure to observerecommended practices of drug withdrawal can result in concentrations of antibiotic residue ...