Award Data

A water-borne net coating is described that will prevent biofouling of netting materials used inaquacultural applications. The novel composition functions through the use of trace quantities ofnaturally occurring antifouling compounds. In addition, it contains no volatile organiccompounds (VOC). The proposed technology is especially attractive since it involves onlyenvironmentally benign compon ...

This research proposes development of a low-cost, Wide Area Differential GPS (WADGPS) capability utilizing a dense network of multiple reference receivers (RR). The research will focus on determination of possible resolution with the dense network of reference receivers as applied to precision farming applications. "Resolution" is defined as repeatability vs. accuracy at a location once a Differ ...

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Water quality and soil erosion are high priority issues for U.S. agriculture. In more humid areas of theU.S., vegetation filter strips have proven to be an effective method of reducing erosion and improvingwater quality. Filter strips are less effective in the West due to sparser vegetation and more variablerainfall. In addition, establishment of vegetation is more difficult in many western wat ...

Simulation models that replicate the dynamics of rural growth and decline would provide aninvaluable analytical tool for rural leaders, program administrators, educators and communityprofessionals. A Rural Community Modeler (RCM) was developed in a previous Phase I effortusing the system dynamics methodology to interrelate social, educational, economic,demographic, environmental and agricultural ...

Simulation models that replicate the dynamics of rural growth and decline would provide an invaluable analytical tool for rural leaders, program administrators and community professionals. The system dynamics methodology offers a structured approach to collecting and organizing the knowledge needed to develop models that capture the essential feedback relationships that describe the elements of t ...

Insect pests are annually responsible for multi-million dollar grain losses. A promising detectionsystem is the ARS-developed Acoustic Location Fingerprinting Insect Detector (ALFID) which countsinsects in a grain sample by pinpointing sounds from individual adult and larval (potentially the mostdestructive in wheat) stages. The low-cost piezo-electric microphones currently used are sufficiently ...

Cytokines play a key role in the immunobiology of swine, and have the potential to improve themanagement of these animals. The pattern and tissue distribution of inflammatory cytokine expressionmay be indicative of the health or infectious status of the animal. Thus, the development of rapidcytokine tests is necessary to exploit this useful diagnostic information.Cytokines may also play another ...

Phase I research proved the feasibility of EnerTech's Slurry Carbonization technology for economically producing clean and marketable fuels from high-moisture agricultural residues and wastes, especially animal manures. The Slury Carbonization technology effectively transformed low-grade animal residues, through a moderate temperature and pressure carbonization process, into a uniform and especial ...

A major problem in the hardwood lumber industry is the loss of production as the result of theformation of splits, checks, or ring failure during kiln drying. A primary cause of these drying defectsis the degradation of the green lumber as a result of bacterial infection. The optimum drying scheduleis dependent on the initial quality of the green lumber. Unfortunately, it is currently not possi ...