Award Data

WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A SIMPLE TO USE, QUANTITATIVE DEVICE TO ACCURATELY MEASURE SOIL WATER CONTENT WITH SUFFICIENT RESOLUTION TO DEFINE WETTING FRONTS DUE TO RAIN EVENTS IN DEPTH PROFILES. THIS GEOPHYSICAL TOOL SENSES CHANGE IN THE ELECTROMAGNETIC ENVIRONMENT, SPECIFICALLY THE DIELECTRIC CONSTANT OF THE SOIL, WHICH IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO SOIL WATER CONTENT. THE SOIL WATER CONTENT PROFILING DEVICE ...

BIOMASS MATERIALS, DERIVED MAINLY FROM AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY BYPRODUCS BIOMASS MATERIALS, DERIVED MAINLY FROM AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY BYPRODUCTS, REPRESENT A LARGE SOURCE OF VALUABLE ORGANIC CHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS. FOR UTILIZATION OF BIOMASS TO BE ECONOMICALLY ATTRACTIVE, ALL THE MAJOR POLYMERIC COMPONENTS OF IT (CELLULOSE, HEMICELLULOSE AND LIGNIN) MUST BE CAPABLE OF BEING DEGRADED. THE LIGNIN ...

TWO APPROACHES WILL BE EXAMINED TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THESENSITIVITY OF LAUNDRY MONITORS TO DETECT AND SPECIFY LOCATION OF HOT PARTICLES ON LAUNDERED GARMENTS. THESE PROPOSED TECNIQUES HAVE HIGH POTENTIAL FOR DETECTING BOTH LOW ENERGY BETA AND ALPHA PARTICLE RADIATION AS WELL AS IMPROVING SENSITIVITY BY REDUCING BACKGROUND COUNT RATE.

THIS RESEARCH PROPOSAL DEALS WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GAMMARAY DOSIMETER THAT IS BASED ON A SOLID STATE DETECTOR AND A MICROPROCERSSOR AND WILL DISPLAY THE DOSE AND DOSE RATE OF THE SKIN, AT A GIVEN DEPTH OF THE BODY OR THE BODY-AVERAGED DOSE, BY MEASURING THE SPECTRUM OF A RADIATION FIELD AND CALCULATING THE TISSUE EQAUIVALENT DOSE OF INTEREST. THE DETECTOR IS A PROPRIETARY DESIGN FEATURES OF TH ...

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 ...

The proposed project seeks to identify superior strains and families of white bass for aquacultureby evaluating the progeny of three wild strains collected from a broad geographic range. Thecollections will be designed to evaluate the performance of genetically distinct strains. In orderto control for the effect of family differences, five families will be collected from each of thestrains and t ...

The incidence of food borne outbreaks associated with Salmonella has risen steadily since the mid1970's. The monetary cost of salmonellosis has been estimated at $4 billion annually. The primarycause of salmonellosis has been linked to the consumption of eggs or egg products containingSalmonella enteritidis and 80% of all eggs consumed in the United States are transported to thepurchaser in the ...

The ready-to-assemble (RTA) construction system is a new method for assembling wood structuresbuilt from the following engineered wood products: parallel strand lumber (PSL), laminated strandlumber (LSL), and laminated veneer lumber (LVL). The RTA system is designed for rapid assemblyby small crews of unskilled labor using common hand tools. The design of the RTA systemincorporates engineered w ...

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 ...

Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is a retrovirus that causes a chronic infection in horses. In theabsence of a vaccine, the control of this disease depends on the diagnosis and elimination of infectedhorses. Currently approved diagnostic procedures utilize agar gel diffusion (AGID), or enzyme-linkedimmunosorbant (ELISA) methodologies to detect antibodies against the virus in horse sera as e ...