Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

November-December 2005 • Vol. 31, No. 6

Notables

Departments, Centers, Branch Stations, other units and individuals may submit items to Amalie Holland, AGCS, AGRI 110 (ahollan@uark.edu)

Eligible items include invited presentations, awards, trips abroad, election to leadership positions, new faculty and staff, retirements, etc. Include jpg photos @72 dpi.

Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness

Conner McNair spent the summer in Sen. Mark Pryor's office as the Spitze Public Policy Legislative Intern.

Megan Varvil is the first recipient of the Simmons Honors College Academy scholarship.  This is a $4,000 per year scholarship, renewable annually for outstanding young freshmen.  Varvil was also elected this summer as the Arkansas FFA Secretary.

AgriBusiness freshman Randy Renfroe is currently serving as Arkansas FFA President.

Trish Watkins was recognized as University of Arkansas Employee of the 4th Quarter in the Professional/Non-Faculty Category.

Students competed in the Student Section activities of the American Agricultural Economics Association (SS-AAEA) during the annual meetings in Providence, RI, July 24-27. The Quizbowl team members were Sarah Knox, Kelly Pyle and Carmen Albright. Albright won third place in the undergraduate paper competition. Pyle was named AAEA Southern Regional Vice President at the conference.

Rita Carreira gave a selected paper at the 2005 AAEA conference, “Too Litter, Too Late: Economic Logistics of Transporting Nutrient-Rich Poultry Litter Out of Nutrient-Saturated Regions.” On July 30, Dr. Carreira gave a presentation titled “Poultry Litter: Potential for Expanded Applications by Arkansas Agriculture Producers” at the Arkansas Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher Statewide Conference in Little Rock.

Mark Cochran attended the annual meeting of the International Network for the MBA in Agribusiness and Commerce in Scotland.

Bruce Ahrendsen, Bruce Dixon and John Nwoha made a presentation in Washington, D.C., Aug. 19 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency. The presentation, "Farm Service Agency Direct Loan Program Effectiveness Study," highlighted the research findings of a report of the same name. The report by Drs. Nwoha, Ahrendsen, and Dixon, along with Eddie C. Chavez, Sandra J. Hamm, Daniel M. Settlage and Diana Danforth, was funded by a grant from the FSA through the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. Dixon and Ahrendsen also presented the paper, "Farm Service Agency Direct Farm Loan Volumes and Market Penetration by Farm Size, Socially Disadvantaged, and Beginning Farmer Cohorts, 2000-2003," at the annual meeting of the north central regional research project Agricultural and Rural Finance Markets in Transition. The meeting was Oct. 3-4 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Coauthors of the paper are Dr. Nwoha, Eddie Chavez and Daniel Settlage.

H.L. Goodwin, Dustan Clark of Poultry Science and Sandy Hamm met with the Farm Foundation’s Food Safety and Animal Health working group in July. Goodwin is chair of the group, which is preparing a report on The Future of Animal Agriculture in North America. The final report will be presented in December. Goodwin and Frank Jones of Poultry Science gave a presentation on the status of the nation’s agricultural economy to the Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas Aug. 24 in Russellville.

Agricultural and Extension Education

Donald M. Johnson received the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Teacher Fellow Award at the Annual Conference of NACTA held at Ohio State University, Wooster, in June. Dr. Johnson was also the coauthor of a paper by graduate assistant Aaron Dickinson, which was presented at the ASAE Annual International Meeting in Tampa, July 17-20. The title of the paper was, “A Low-Cost Programmable Logic Control (PLC) Trainer for Use in a University Agricultural Electricity Course.”

Biological & Agricultural Engineering

Leverett Elementary School dedicated the outdoor learning environment designed by Kyle Kruger, Katie Merriman, and Amanda McAlister.

Seniors Adam Jokerst, Leslie Bartsch, Jennifer Reible and Britt Hill are working with the Community Design Center at the University of Arkansas to design ecological services and create Habitat Trails, a Habitat for Humanity Green Community. Habitat Trails will include 12 homes, a common courtyard, and a meadow/trail complex in Rogers.  The first of the 12 homes was fully funded on Oct. 14; construction will be complete on the final home in 2007.

Marty Matlock, Bob Morgan, and Brian Schaffer received an Acknowledgement Award in the 2005 Holcim International Sustainable Design competition for the Warren, Arkansas stream restoration and greenways design.  The design team was lead by Steve Luoni, director of the UA Community Design Center.

Abani Pradhan, a PhD student working with Yanbin Li, won the $250 first prize in the Graduate Students Poster Contest during the Food Safety Consortium 2005 Annual Meeting, Oct. 2-4 in Manhattan, Kansas. The title of Abani's poster was "Interactive predictive modeling of pathogen kinetics, heat and mass transfer for thermal inactivation of Listeria in ready-to-eat poultry products." In addition, four other posters were presented: Xiaoli Su, Qian Sun, Byungchul Kim and Dr. Li presented a poster titled "Microfluidic filter chip based chemiluminescence biosensor for detection of E. coli O157:H7"; Madhukar Varshney, Dr. Li, Balaji Srinivasan and Steve Tung presented a poster titled "Microfluidic filter chip based chemiluminescence biosensor for detection of E. coli O157:H7"; Hong Wang, Dr. Li and Michael Slavik presented a poster titled "PCR-based fluorescent method for rapid detection of Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella Typhimurium, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes in poultry samples"; and Liju Yang, Dr. Su and Dr. Li presented a poster titled "Quantum dot bioconjugates for simultaneous detection of Salmonella Typhimurium and Escherichia coli O157:H7". Dr. Li also gave a presentation on "Impedance biosensor for detection of multiple foodborne pathogens" at the meeting.

Yanbin Li gave an invited presentation on "Biosensors for rapid detection of foodborne pathogens" at the Workshop on Food Quality and Safety, sponsored by the USDA and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology in Beijing, Sept. 20-24.He also gave an invited presentation on "Biosensors and their applications in agriculture and food" at the World Agriculture Congress 2005: Agricultural Information Forum, also in Beijing, Sept. 15-17.

While in Beijing, Li visited China Agricultural University and met Porf. Maohua Wang of the College of Information and Electrical Engineering and Prof. Changxin Wu of the College of Animal Science and Technology to discuss the research collaboration on biosensors for screening of avian flu viruses, Sept. 19-20. He also visited Zhejiang University in Hangzhou to conduct research on biosensors for detection of pesticide residues in foods in collaboration with Prof. Yibin Ying and Prof. Jiangping Wang of the College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Sept. 25-27. Earlier, Aug. 28-Sept. 22, Prof. Wang of Zhejiang University then visited the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering here in Fayetteville to conduct the research on biosensors for detection of foodborne pathogens in the Biosensors and Bioinstrumentation Laboratory. This research was funded by the USDA/FAS and Zhejiang University.

Mahendra Kavdia and P. Deonikar gave the presentation, “Biochemical interactions of nitric oxide and red blood cell- effects of oxygenation and hematocrit” at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) meeting in Baltimore in October.  Kavdia and S.S. Potdar also gave two more presentations at the meeting: “High glucose effect on nitric oxide and superoxide release from HUVECs under shear stress”; and “Nicotine induced alterations in endothelial cell release of nitric oxide and free radicals.” Dr. Kavdia also visited the Society for Free Radical Biology andMedicine in Austin in November to present “Model to Evaluate Oxidative Stress Effect on Nitric Oxide Transport in an Arteriole.”

Brian Haggard was chosen as a 2005 ARS Scientist of the Year for “outstanding research evaluating nutrient sources and transport from the landscape through aquatic ecosystems.”  The purpose of this awards program is to annually recognize the creative efforts, scientific leadership and the major research accomplishments of ARS research scientists. Sixteen scientists are selected and rewarded annually for this program. All award winners receive cash wards and additional research support funding.  Dr. Haggard and the other winners will be formally recognized with an award plaque at the ARS Annual Recognition Program to be held February 7 in Washington, D.C.

The paper, “Water Quality at the Buffalo National River, Arkansas, 1991-2001,” received a 2005 ASABE Honorable Mention Paper Award. The paper was coauthored by K.L. White, B.E. Haggard and I. Chaubey. The ASABE Paper Awards are selected annually from papers of engineering merit published the prior year in ASABE publications.

Crop, Soil & Environmental Sciences

Students from the Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences Department attended the Arkansas Environmental Federation Convention in Hot Springs, November 7 - 9.  Ryan Neal (left) of Rogers and Brittany Kaufman of Hattieville presented a poster detailing community involvement activities of the undergraduate student club.

Tomlinson and SSSA president John Havlin

Peter Tomlinson received the 2005 Francis and Evelyn Clark Soil Biology Scholarship, from the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) presented at the SSSA Annual Meetings held in conjunction with the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America Nov. 6 to 10 in Salt Lake City.

Tomlinson will be a Ph.D. candidate and senior graduate research assistant working with Dr. Mary Savin in the Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences Department. He earned his B.S. degree from the University of Connecticut and his M.S. degree under the direction of Dr. Savin at the U of A. His master’s thesis research focused on the dynamics and structure of microbialcommunities, and an assessment of antibiotic resistance, in soils with a history of long-term annual poultry litter additions. His dissertation work will involve soil ecology in relation to gross carbon and nitrogen dynamics in earthworm burrows as model biological systems.

Entomology

Jackie McKern and Donn Johnson (advisor) were invited to attend the IR-4 Southern Region Liaison meeting in Padre Island, Texas on Aug. 23.  McKern presented a portion of hermaster’s thesis research titled, “Biology and control of the raspberry crown borer in blackberries.”

Food Science

Daris Kuakpetoon, Nel Landerito, James Patintol, Linfeng Wang and Ya-Jane Wang authored or co-authored 5 poster presentations at the AACC International annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Wang also gave an invited presentation to the Rice Symposium at the same meeting. Daris Kuakpetoon, a Ph.D. candidate, won the best poster presentation from Corn Refiners Association.

Horticulture

John R. Clark gave an invited presentation, "Blackberry Breeding Progress in the United States" at the Interberry Conference on Strawberry and Soft Fruits in Levico Terme, Italy, Oct. 7.  He also toured small fruit production in the regions of Trentino, Veneto and Calabria.

The American Pomological Society selected a paper, "Eight Year Performance or 19 Peach Rootstocks at 20 Locations in North America,” for the Shepard Award as the best publishedresearch contribution to the Journal of the American Pomological Society.  The paper was co-authored by Curt Rom, Kenda Woodburn and Dan Chapman.

Human Environmental Sciences

Jerald C. Foote gave an invited presentation on Sept. 27 to the National Kidney Foundation of Eastern Missouri in St Louis. The title was, "Evaluating the safety of herbal supplements used by patients with chronic renal disease."

Plant Pathology

Yulin Jia was invited to chair and present a plenary seminar at an International Conference on Plant Molecular Breeding from October 27 to November 1 in China.  His topic is “Translational Genomics: A case study of the rice Pi-ta resistance gene.”

Poultry Science

Jason Emmert (left) and Jerry Wooley both received Honorary American FFA Degrees during the National FFA convention held in Louisville Oct. 24-28. Dr. Emmert also served as the Poultry CDE Event Superintendent at the same event.

Gisela Erf gave an invited presentation at the National Vitiligo Foundation meeting, in Fort Worth August 4-8 titled, "Animal model for autoimmune vitiligo: the Smyth line chicken.” Dr. Erf also presented a paper at the International Pigment Cell Research meeting in Washington, DC coauthored by H.D. Wijesekera, B.R. Lockhart, and A.L. Golden. The title of the presentation was “Antioxidant capacity and oxidative tress in the local environment of feather-melanocytes in vitiliginous Smyth line chickens.” Dr. Erf was a member of the Program Selection Committee for the 2006 meeting of the Pan-American Society for Pigment Cell Research and of a newly formed network on Animal Models for Pigment Cell, which will include research from 40 researchers from the Pan-American, European, Japanese and Societies for Pigment Cell Research.

Keith Bramwell was an invited speaker at the Small Commercial Flock workshop held at Heifer International, in Perryville, Ark., October 24-26; at the ACAV 2005 Symposia in Florianopolis, Brazil, October 27-29; and at the Hatchery Breeder Clinic on November 30 in Toronto.

Frank Jones coordinated the International Short Course on Modern Poultry Production at the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science Sept. 26 – 30.

John Marcy coordinated a Departmental Seminar on Culinary Training for Product Developers for the Food Science Department and their Industry Advisory Board, at the University of Tennessee on November 11th. He also conducted his third culinary school at the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science test kitchen the week of October 23.

Park Waldroup gave invited presentations on the challenges in broiler nutrition at the 12th International Symposium on Animal Nutrition, held in Kapsovar, Hungary on October 12. Dr. Waldroup also gave an invited presentations titled “Striving for a feed conversion of 1.00 --The challenges we need to overcome,” and “Maximizing poultry performance in the face of low cost competition," at a conference held in Dunboyne, Ireland, on October 18-19.

Susan Watkins was an invited speaker at the following events in October: The Maple Leaf/Cold Springs Turkey Grower meeting in London, Ontario; the Annual Charleston Farm Show in Charleston, Ark.: the U.S. Poultry and Egg Production and Health Seminar in Memphis; the Pennsylvania Poultry Production Seminar in Harrisburg, Penn.; and the Poultry Service Industry Workshop in Banff, Alberta.

Jerry Wooley served as a poultry judge at the following events in September and October: the Clay, Ouachita, Randolph, Greene, Perry, Stone, Cleburne, Carroll, Garland, Clark, Van Buren, Columbia and Conway County Fairs. He also conducted the 4-H Poultry Judging Contest at the Arkansas-Oklahoma Fair in Fort Smith.

Southeast Research & Extension Center

Kelly Bryant, Director of the Southeast Research and Extension Center, represented the Division of Agriculture as one of 75 participants in the national-level LEAD21 program for 2005. The primary purpose of the program is to develop leaders in land-grant institutions and strategic partners who link research, academics and extension. The program is comprised of three on-site sessions at Indiana University-Purdue University, Kansas City, Mo., and Washington, DC.  Bryant has completed the first two sessions of the program and will attend the final session in Washington, D.C. in March 2006.

The Southeast Research and Extension Center recently hosted three groups of clientele at the SEREC-Rohwer station: on July 27, representatives from Agrialliance toured plots used for research on pest control options; on July 29, area rice producers visited the station to observe research work in rice and soybeans; and on August 4, area cotton producers visited the station to observe research in cotton.

Kenneth Smith traveled to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Aug. 13-19 to discuss weed resistant management practices with Liberty Link cotton.  The meeting, sponsored by Bayer CropScience, included weed scientists from universities in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.