2007-08 Seed Grant Program Funded Abstracts & Final Reports
The purpose of this program is to provide the College of Agricultural Sciences faculty and field-based educators with the resources (research, extension and instruction) to develop collaborative teams and/or preliminary information in new or expanding arenas of granting opportunity. These grants are intended to permit faculty to develop the linkages and data to enhance competitiveness for additional external funding. Funding for this program came from research, extension, and teaching sources.
The College received 53 grant proposals, from which 22 projects were funded for a total of $304,119. Successful investigators will submit a progress report of their project activities by September 1, 2008, and they have also agreed as a condition of these grants to develop a proposal for external funding in 2008-2009.
Ag & Bio Engineering
- Validation of In-Situ Flux Chamber Performance for Determination of Ammonia and Odor Emissions in Agriculture
Principal Investigator: Robin C. Brandt - Enhanced Cellulose Production by Acetobacter xylinum in Biofilm Reactors
Principal Investigator: Ali Demirci
Ag & Extension Education
- Building Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) Opportunities in the 4-H Youth Development Program
Principal Investigator: Christy Bartley
AG ECONOMICS & RURAL SOCIOLOGY
- Impacts of Agricultural Technologies on Food Security and Economic Prosperity for West African Farm Households
Principal Investigator: Leland Glenna - Coal Extraction, Quality of Life, and Community Development in the Coalfields of Appalachia
Principal Investigator: Albert E. Luloff - Incentive Mechanisms to Purchase Ecosystem Services from Agriculture: A Laboratory Study
Principal Investigator: James Shortle
Cooperative Extension
- Renewable Energy - An Inter-Disciplinary Approach to Reviving and Sustaining the Local Rural Economy
Principal Investigator: David Dowler
Crop & Soil Sciences
- Management to Optimize Release and Minimize Losses of Biologically Fixed Nitrogen
Principal Investigator: Robert Gallagher - Positioning the College of Agricultural Sciences for Evaluating Biobased Energy Feedstock Production Under Pennsylvania's Diverse Environmental Conditions
Principal Investigator: Marvin H. Hall
Dairy and Animal Science
- Role of Spermatogonial Stem Cells in Testicular Germ Cell Carcinoma
Principal Investigator: Jon M. Oatley
Entomology
- Advancing Forecasts of Migratory Pests in Pennsylvania Agroecosystems
Principal Investigator: Shelby J. Fleischer
Food Science
- Solid Lipid Nanoparticles in the Diet
Principal Investigator: John Coupland - Development of a Signature-Tagged Mutagenesis Protocol to Identify Essential Genes for Environmental Survival of Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli 0157:H7
Principal Investigator: Edward G. Dudley - Utilization of pancreatic a-amylase-resistant starch by Bifidobacterium species
Principal Investigator: Robert F. Roberts
Forest Resources
- Creating a Pennsylvania Web-Based Learning Center for Forests
Principal Investigator: James C. Finley - Determining Costs and Product Recovery Factors for Biomass Harvest Treatments in Central Appalachian Forests
Principal Investigator: Marc E. McDill - Woody Biomass on State Lands in Pennsylvania: Establishing Sites for Long-term Sustainability Research and Determining How Much is Actually Available
Principal Investigator: Eric Zenner
Plant Pathology
- Understanding the Mycotoxigenic Maize Endophyte Fusarium verticillioides
Principal Investigator: Gretchen Kuldau - Targeting and Recognition of Magnaporthe oryzae Effectors in Rice Cells
Principal Investigator: Yinong Yang
Poultry Science
- Role of T-Cadherin in Ovarian Tumor Development in Chicken
Principal Investigator: Ramesh Ramachandran
Veterinary & Biomedical Sciences
- Determining Phosphorylation Sites of the P Protein of PIV5
Principal Investigator: Biao He - Zebrafish as a Model System to Study the Physiological Role of Myo-Inositol Oxygenase
Principal Investigator: K. Sandeep Prabhu
