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

September-October 2005 • Vol. 31, No. 5

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.

Donald M. Johnson received the NACTA Teacher Fellow Award at the annual conference of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture in June at the Ohio State University, Wooster campus.

Judy Howard, AGCS, won first place and third place awards in the National Federation of Press Women communications contest. Awards were presented Sept. 11 in Lexington, Ky. First place was for page layout in a specialized circulation publication (Arkansas Land and Life). The third place award for four-color magazine was for her role as an Arkansas Land and Life graphic designer.

Otto Loewer has been installed as President of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) for the year 2005–2006. Dr. Loewer is founding director of the University of Arkansas Economic Development Institute. (See story in Headlines.)

Lalit Verma was awarded the “President’s Citation” on July 20, 2005 from the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) for his work on the ASAE “Name Change Task Force.” The task force proposed a name change of ASAE to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). (See story in Headlines.)

Jin-Woo Kim was awarded the “Imhoff Outstanding Researcher Award” by the College of Engineering. Dr. Kim also acted as a member of the program organizing committee for the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biominetics (ROBIO 2005), held June 29-July 3, in Hong Kong, and as an editorial board member for “Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine,” published by Elsevier Science.  In addition, Dr. Kim presented refereed papers at the International Conference on Bio-Nano-Informatics (BNI) Fusion in Marina del Rey, Cal.; DNA 11: 11th International Meeting on DNA Computing in London, Ontario; the 5th IEEE Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-Nano 2005) in Nagoya, Japan; and the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biominetics (ROBIO) in Hong Kong. Dr. Kim also coauthored papers presented at the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) Annual Meeting in Athens, Ga.; the 229th American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting (Sessions: Biosensors and Sensors III: Bacteria-Based and Cell-Based Sensors and Biosensors and Sensors II: Nanosturctures) in San Diego; the AIChE Annual Meeting (Sessions: Nanoscale Science and Engineering, Extremophile Bioprocessing) in Austin; and the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and R&D Expo (IMECE) in Anaheim.

Indrajeet Chaubey gave an invited presentation titled “Identifying runoff source areas in a pasture dominated watershed” at the Annual International Conference of the Soil and Water Conservation Society in Rochester, N.Y., August 2.

Sreekala Bajwa coauthored 3 papers presented at the ASAE Annual Meeting & Conference in St. Joseph, Mich.: “Hydrologic modeling of L’Anguille watershed using soil and water assessment tool,” coauthored by V. Vibhava and Indrajeet Chaubey; “Modeling spectral indices of cotton canopy with soil compaction, soil electrical conductivity and yield,” coauthored by Subodh Kulkarni; and “Effect of near-infrared scanning angle in prediction of tenderness and sensory attributed of Longissimus Thoracis steaks,” coauthored by Kandaswamy, J., J.K. Apple, and J. T. Sawyer.

Yanbin Li presented a paper titled, "Nanoparticles based QCM immunosensor for detection of foodborne pathogens" at the IAFP (International Association for Food Protection) 2005 92nd Annual Meeting Aug. 13-17 in Baltimore.

Karl VanDevender participated in the Joint Foreign Animal Disease meeting sponsored by The National Pork Board Swine Health Committee, the National Pork Producers Council and the AASV Foreign Animal Disease committee held a meeting on Aug. 16, 2005 at the National Pork Board headquarters in Des Moines. The meeting goal was to initiate development of educational materials on disaster preparedness as the result of a foreign animal disease outbreak.

Dennis Gardisser is the joint developer of training for PAASS (Professional Aerial Applicator Support System) during 2005-06.  The topic will be "Ag Aviation System Maintenance."

Gary Huitink attended the National Institute of Farm Safety Annual Conference near Charlottesville, VA, June 26-29, 2005.  He presented a paper titled, "Alerting Management to Vital Aspects of Preventing Agricultural Tragedies."

Carlos Avila was invited to present his research at a Cotton Inc. Nematode Workshop on June 9 in Memphis, TN.  His presentation, “Transfer of reniform nematode resistance from diploid cotton species to tetraploid cultivated cotton,” was co-authored by J. McD. Stewart and R.T. Robbins (PLPA). 

Dick Oliver and Nilda Burgos attended the 2005 Cereal Herbicide Resistance Management Workshop organized by Syngenta in Minneapolis. They were invited to present an overview of grass weeds that have developed resistance to ACCase- and ALS-inhibiting herbicides in the South.

Bill Hendrix attended the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists in Seattle July 18-19 and presented a poster, "A model of gene expression in the roots of a drought tolerant cotton cultivar in response to osmotic stress.”  The presentation was co-authored by T.A. Wilkins (UC Davis) and J. McD. Stewart. As a part of the Spooner Scholar Award, Hendrix also visited Monsanto Company in Chesterfield, Mo., on June 20-21 to learn the industry’s approach to developing transgenic plants. As the second part of the award he visited the laboratory of Dr. David Stelly at Texas A&M University from Aug 8-12 to learn cytogenetic techniques.

The Arkansas Weed Team continued their winning streak with another first place win at the annual Weed Contest and another year of possessing the coveted Broken Hoe Award. Team members this year were Jason Alford, Chad Brewer, Nathan Goldschmidt, and Vinod Shivrain, and alternates were Drew Ellis and Bree Pearson. In addition to their team placement, our graduate students garnered several individual awards. Chad was the high individual for the mathematical problems category, and Nathan was high individual for the unknown herbicide category. Of the top three individual rankings across all categories of competition, Nathan had the highest and Vinod had the second highest individual scores. Team coaches were Nilda Burgos and Mohammad Bararpour. The contest was held July 21 at Ashland Bottoms Research Center at Manhattan, Kansas, and was hosted by faculty and students from Kansas State University. This win for the Arkansas team makes 19 first-place wins since the inception of the contest in 1980 and 10 first-place wins in the last 12 years.

Ron Talbert, University Professor of weed science, retired in May after almost 42 years; however, he continues to serve the university as University Professor Emeritus. Dr. Talbert earned his B.S. degree in Agriculture (Soils) from the University of Missouri and continued for his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agriculture (Field Crops Weed Control). He joined the Agronomy faculty at the University of Arkansas as Assistant Professor in 1963 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1968, to Professor in 1973, to University Professor in 1990, and served as Interim Head of the Agronomy Department in 1980-81. Dr. Talbert is a leading researcher on herbicide resistance in weeds; weed biology and control in rice; weed control in horticultural crops; behavior, persistence, and fate of herbicides in soil; and selectivity of herbicides. His publication entitled “The Adsorption of Some s-Triazines in Soil,” published in Weeds in 1965, was recognized as a Citation Classic in 1986. Dr. Talbert was awarded the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) Teacher Award in 1998 and the Southern Weed Science Society (SWSS) Outstanding Educator award in 1999. In addition to his official duties, Dr. Talbert was a mentor and counselor to undergraduate students and staff. Dr. Talbert will continue working with weed control in vegetable crops and advising his last graduate students as they complete their research.      

Justin Morris presented 2 papers at the 56th Annual Meeting in Seattle June 20-24 as posters, titled, “Laboratory handling of red grapes to estimate wine composition,” and “Evaluation of mechanical pruning on Cynthiana grape and wine composition.” Renee Threlfall coauthored one and Gary Main was a coauthor for both. Another of Dr. Morris’ papers, entitled “Influence of Macerating Enzymes and Grape Seed Tannin on Color Extraction and Retention in Cynthiana Wine,” was presented at the American Society of Enology and Viticulture Eastern Section, 30th Annual Meeting in St. Louis July 13-16, also coauthored by Dr. Main. Dr. Morris was invited to present “U of A Enology and Viticulture program and its research on muscadine grapes,” at the NC Muscadine Grape Grower’s Assoc in July.

Faculty members and staff made oral and poster presentations at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Expo in New Orleans, La., July 16-20. They were Ramakrishna Nannapaneni, Tiffany Hagar, Daniel Webber, Ronny Horax, Ashlee Webber, Mohammed Saleh, Cindi Brownmiller, Kim Tran, Deborah Piland, Mi Jin Cho, J.F. Meullenet, Mamun Monsoor, Satchi Eswaranandam, Woo-Kyung Chung, Henry Lam, Tabra Alpers, Theivendran Sivarooban, Vishal Jain and Rui Xiong.

Mike Johnson received the dual award for Distinguished Service and Outstanding Division Member from the Food Microbiology Division of the Institute of Food Technologists at the IFT annual meeting. He has served the FMD-IFT for 32 years as their 1st newsletter editor (1974-80), as Division chair (1992-3), and most recently as a member of the education committee.

Tabra Alpers placed first for her graduate oral research presentation, “A Novel density plot method for determining the optimal sensory profile of vanilla ice cream from an internal preference map," at the IFT Annual Meeting.

A team of graduate and undergraduate students competed in the Intercollegiate Food Science and Technology College Bowl Competition at the IFT Annual Meeting. Team members included: Ilankovan Paraman (captain), Emily Bennett, Vishal Jain, Ken Over, Noy Phoumivong and Daniel Webber. The team was coached by Navam Hettiarachchy.

Several members of the Food Science department attended the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Oil Chemists Society in Salt Lake City in May. Andy Proctor and Henry Lam, along with coauthors J. Nyalala, M.D. Morris and W.G. Smith, gave a presentation titled, “FTIR evaluation of LDL oxidation, in the presence of flavonoids, and -tocopherol.” Drs. Proctor and Lam and Luke Howard presented “Rapid antioxidant capacity determination of fruit extracts by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy”; and Dr. Proctor gave the presentation titled “Aqueous extraction of rice bran emulsified oil and the oxidative stability or rice bran” along with Mamun Monsoor.

Rama Nannapaneni, Bwalya Lungu, Robert Story, Keith Wiggins, and Josh Saldivar with Mike Johnson, respectively, presented papers entitled “Development of a new monoclonal antibody probe specific for Campylobacter jejuni," “Control of Listeriamonocytogenes on raw and cooked white and dark turkey meat using nisin, sodium diacetate and sodium lactate," “L. monocytogenes Scott A cells starved in physiological saline for one year remain highly virulent” and  “Total Campylobacter and total ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter counts in rinses from raw chicken carcasses from 2001-2004” at the Annual General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Atlanta June 5-9.

Horticulture

Curt Rom is coauthor of a paper that received the Shepard Award as the best research paper in the Journal of the American Pomological Society in 2004. Kenda Woodburn and Dan Chapman contributed to the success of the project. The paper citation is: Reighard, G.L. R. Andersen, J. Anderson, W. Autio, T. Beckman, T. Baker, R. Belding, G. Brown, P.Byers, W. Cowgill, D.Deyton, E. Durner, A. Erb, D. Ferree, A. Gaus, R. Godin, R. Hayden, P.Hirst, S. Kadir, M. Kaps, M Larsen, T. Lindstrom, N. Miles, F. Morrison, S. Myers, D. Ouellette, C.R. Rom, W. Shane, B. Taylor, K. Taylor, C. Walch, and M. Warmucnd. 2004. Early performance of 19 peach rootstocks at 20 sites in North America. J. Amer. Pomological Society 58:174-202.

Keith Bramwell gave invited presentations at the Poultry Federation Spring Symposium in Springdale in April, the U.S. Poultry Association Hatchery Breeder Clinic in Atlanta in July, the Tyson Breeder Manger Tech Meeting this August, and will be giving two invited presentations at the Symposium ACAV 05 held in Balneário Camboriú, Brazil in October. As part of the Poultry Science Association Dr. Bramwell will also be chairing the National Chicken Council Broiler Research Award Committee in the coming year and the Physiology Section at the annual PSA meetings held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, in July 2006.

Joe Beasley, emeritus faculty member, was named the 2005 Arkansas Veterinarian of the Year.

Dustan Clark was invited to speak at the Dallas Bird Society meeting held in August. Dr. Clark was also invited to speak and coordinate the meeting agenda for the Arkansas Poultry Veterinarian Association’s annual meeting Oct. 6-7.

James Denton was selected to serve on the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection for the USDA. This appointment will run until March 2007. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns will take advice and recommendations on current and new policies affecting state and federal meat programs from representatives of the committee.

Annie Donoghue gave an invited presentation on mechanisms for pathogen control in the avian gastrointestinal tract at the World's Poultry Science Association (WPSA) UK Branch Symposium, Sept. 13-18.

Gisela Erf received the Helene Cecil Leadership Award at the Poultry Science Association’s annual meeting held at Auburn University July 31-Aug. 3. This award of $3,000 and a plaque is given to a female PSA member for scientific contributions in the field of poultry science or for significant leadership in the promotion or development opportunities for women in poultry science.

Brian Haggardwas presented with the 2005 Scientist of the Year Award for Early Career Research Scientists in the Southern Plains Area. The award was presented by the USDA for outstanding research evaluating nutrient sources and transport from the landscape through aquatic ecosystems.

Bill Huff received the National Chicken Council’s Broiler Research Award of $2,500 and a plaque from the Poultry Science Association at their annual meeting July 31-August 3 at Auburn University. This award is given for distinctive research work that has a strong economic impact on the broiler industry.

Frank Jones is hosting the International Short Course on Modern Poultry Production at the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science Sept. 26-30. Dr. Jones also conducted an Anti-Terrorism Workshop in cooperation with LEARN, Inc., Aug. 8-10, at the Pauline Whitaker Livestock Arena. Fourteen people from five states participated in the workshop, including three from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

John Marcy hosted a Culinary Experience for Tyson Foods, Inc., Sept. 19-23 in the poultry science test kitchen on campus. This was the second culinary school that Dr. Marcy has hosted in cooperation with Chef Susie Stephens, formerly of Nibbles Café. The school is designed to teach those in the food industry, without formal culinary training, common terms and processes in order to help them better serve their customer base. On July 13, Dr. Marcy was also presented with the “Pillar of Support Award” from Yum Brands for his continued efforts in food safety. Yum Brands is the world’s largest restaurant company with nearly 34,000 restaurants in 100 countries. Some familiar restaurants they operate are KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and A&W.

Susan Watkins was recently asked to serve as the Chair of the 2006 National Waste Symposium Committee (NWSC). Dr. Watkins was also invited to speak on water quality at the Mennonite Broiler Grower Group’s meeting in Robards, Ky., and at the West Virginia Poultry Association’s annual meeting. Both meetings were held in August.

Three Poultry science graduate students won awards at the Annual Poultry Science Association’s (PSA) Annual Meeting July 31-Aug. 3 at Auburn University. Those students were Marc DeBeer, Hilary Pavlidis and Arijit Saha. DeBeer, a doctoral student from Durban, South Africa, won the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper award in the area of nutrition for his paper, “The effect of feed restriction programs on body weight, frame size, flock uniformity and in vitro lipgenesis in broiler breeder hens.” His major professor is Craig Coon. Pavlidis, a doctoral student from Virginia Beach, won an Outstanding Graduate Student Paper award in the area of poultry breeding and genetics for her paper, “Broiler growth and development as influenced by divergent selection for ascites incidence.” This is Pavlidis’ second time to take top honors at PSA for her research. Her major professor is Nick Anthony. Saha, a doctoral student from New Delhi, India, received an Outstanding Graduate Student Paper award in the area of products andprocessing for his paper, “Effect of chronic heat stress on meat quality parameters of two commercial broiler strains.” His major professor is Casey Owens.

The following students were elected to serve as Poultry Science Club officers for the fall 2005-spring 2006 school year: Neda Tilley – president; Ashley Swaffar – vice president; Valerie Brewer – treasurer; and Brookee Davis and Jada Thompson – publicity officers. Students are nominated and elected by their fellow POSC club members.

The Poultry Science Graduate Student Association (PSGA) won the 2005 Outstanding Service Project of the Year award from the Registered Student Organization at the University of Arkansas. The PSGA raised, fed, processed and donated turkeys to the Ozark Food Bank during the 2004 holiday season.

Paul Beck attended the 20th International Grassland Congress in Dublin, Ireland, June 26-July 1 and presented a poster titled, “The impact of tillage system for small-grain pasture establishment on the performance of growing beef calves in Arkansas,” co-authored by Stacey Gunter, Merle Anders, Keith Lusby, and Donald Hubbell.