The following is a sampling of the campus's recent public-sector research awards:
Conger takes long look at families
The connection between economic pressure, such as the loss of family income, and the risk of problematic behaviors in adolescents has been the subject of an Iowa State University study since 1989. And Assistant Professor Katherine Conger - who came to UC Davis from Iowa State University last June - has received a $173,303 award from Iowa State University to continue her analysis of 560 Iowan families for the research program "Critical Transitions in Rural Families at Risk."
Using self-report questionnaires from adolescents, siblings and their parents, along with ratings of videotaped family interactions, Conger's research examines the influence of economic conditions on family relationships and individual well-being. A Family Stress Model guides the research. The model suggests that there are three primary pathways of influence: parents' emotional distress, marital conflict, and harsh inconsistent parenting.
Unique to this project is the prospective, longitudinal design that will allow Conger and her colleagues to examine how family relationships influence individual adjustment across three generations of the same families.
"We've followed these adolescents for years, and now we're looking at their children," says Conger. "We're analyzing how economic stress affects family interactions, and what processes contribute to, or might predict, future anti-social behavior."
Study aims to help horses
Assistant Research Virologist Udeni Balasuriya has received a $228,000 award from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service to study the genetic determinants of the virulence of equine arteritis virus (EAV).
The virus causes flu-like symptoms in adult horses, pneumonia in young foals, miscarriages in pregnant mares, and chronic infection in the reproductive tract of stallions, who may shed the virus in their semen, transmitting it to susceptible mares during natural or artificial insemination.
"Recent importation of European warmblood stallions and semen has introduced new strains of EAV," said Balasuriya, who hopes that identifying the genetic determinants of its virulence will assist in understanding the evolution and nature of the infection.
"These efforts should facilitate the rapid identification of new strains of the virus with enhanced virulence, better delineate of the role of the carrier stallion in generating them, and lead to the development of im-proved and safer vaccines for EAV," he said.
Uyemoto seeks root of health problem in grapes
U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Pathologist Jerry Uyemoto and UC Davis Specialist Adib Rowhani discovered a previously unknown closterovirus while investigating health problems of declining Redglobe table grapes.
The virus infects not only the UC-patented Redglobe grapevine, but commercially important wine grape varieties as well.
Funded by a $4,800 research award from the California Tree Fruit/Nut and Grapevine Improvement Advisory Board (as well as by a $20,000 grant from the California Competitive Grant Program for Research in Viticulture and Enology), Uyemoto and Rowhani are evaluating the response of Cabernet Sauvignon test plants growing on 18 different rootstocks to graft-inoculation with 44 field collections of wine grapevines.
"With table grape production, plants grafted on rootstocks are being used more often now to overcome nematode and other site-related problems," said Uyemoto.
"In contrast, rootstocks are routinely used with wine grape plants. There can be a big problem if we find that the foundation stock used for grafting carries an unknown virus capable of interacting with the rootstock causing graft-rejection."
Other grant recipients:
M. Levent Kavvas; Civil and Environmental Engineering; California Department of Water Resources; to June 30, 2003; $600,000; Trashrack Design Investigations Study Proposal Agreement.
Anthony Cheung; Medicine Pathology; National Institutes of Health/Miscellaneous Agencies and Departments; to Nov. 30; $333,469; Bioengineering Methods to Study Blood Substitutes.
Richard Maselli; Medicine: Neurology; Department of Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity; to Dec. 9; $231,849; Effect of Pyridostigmine on the Physiologic and Morphologic Changes Induced by Soman at the Human Neuromuscular Junction.
Udeni Balasuriya; Veterinary Medicine: Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology; US Department of Agriculture/Miscellaneous Agencies; to Dec. 31, 2004; $228,000; Genetic Determinants of Virulence and Attenuation of Equine Arteritis Virus.
John Reuter; Environmental Science and Policy; Contra Costa County Water District; to June 30; $177,000; Guidance Manual on Minimizing MTBE and Other Fuel-Related Contaminants in Lakes and Reservoirs.
Prasant Mohapatra; Engineering: Computer Science; National Science Foundation; to June 30, 2003; $131,359; Service Differentiation and Overload Control in Internet Servers.
Cheuk-Yiu Ng; Chemistry; UC Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; to Sept. 30; $82,407; End Station 2 of the Chemical Dynamics Beamline at the Advanced Light Source.
Bruce Kutter; Civil and Environmental Engineering; UC Berkeley; to Sept. 30; $70,000; Performance of Shallow Foundations.
Daniel Sperling; Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering; California Transportation Commission; to June 30; $65,652; Measuring the Contribution of ITS to Transportation Services.
Boris Jeremic; Civil and Environmental Engineering; UC Berkeley; to September 30, 2002; $55,000; 3D Soil Simulation Models in Open Seas.
Ross Boulanger; Civil and Environmental Engineering; UC Berkeley; to Sept. 30; $50,000; Simulation of Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction of Deep Foundations.
Sashi Kunnath; Civil and Environmental Engineering; UC Berkeley; to Sept. 30; $50,000; I-880 Testbed Simulation.
Candace Floyd; Medicine Neurological Surgery; UC Los Angeles; to Aug. 31, 2002; $49,000; The Effect of Mechanical Injury on Intracellular PH and Calcium Regulation in Astrocytes and Neurons.
Douglas Gubler; Plant Pathology; UC Agriculture and Natural Resources; to May 31; $40,000; Perennation of Powdery Mildew in Grapevine Buds: Factors Influencing Colonization of Buds and Preservation of Fungal Structures During Dormancy.
Deborah Harkness; History; UC Office of the President; to June 30; $31,500; Area 3 History and Cultures Project.
William Horwath; Land Air and Water Resources; U.S. Department of Agriculture/Forest Service; to Aug. 12, 2006; $30,000; Influence of Fuel Reduction Alternatives on Forest Soil Properties and the Carbon Cycle.
Charlene Sailer; Crocker Nuclear Lab; California Department of Forestry; to May 1; $30,000; Investigation of Avris Data in the Navarro Watershed.
Jean-Xavier Guinard; Food Science and Technology; California State University/California Poly Foundation; to June 30; $29,000; Sensory Properties of Buttermilk and Their Relation to Processing and Storage Parameters.
Jonna Mazet; Veterinary Medicine: Wildlife Health Center; UC Office of the President; to Dec. 31; $25,000; Assessment of Recent Spatial Trends in Cause-Specific Mortality in Southern Sea Otters.
Rick Snyder; Land Air and Water Resources; UC Mexus; to Feb. 28, 2003; $24,000; Extension of CIMIS to Baja California to Improve Irrigation Efficiency.
Daniel Sperling; Institute of Transportation Studies; UC Transportation Center (Berkeley); to Sept. 30; $22,125; UC Transportation Center Year 14 Dissertation Grant for Wenlong Jin.
Abid Rowhani; Plant Pathology; UC Agriculture and Natural Resources; to May 31; $20,000; Development of Molecular Detection Methodologies and Characterization of a New Virus Associated With Rootstock Stem Lesion.
Jerry Uyemoto; Plant Pathology; UC Agriculture And Natural Resources; to May 31; $20,000; Discovery of New Graft-Transmissible Agents (GTAs) Causing Union-Incompatibility in Young Grape Plants.
Joan Florsheim; John Muir Institute of the Environment; East Bay Municipal Utility District; to Dec. 31; $19,936; Baseline Storm Sediment Monitoring on Murphy Creek.
John Florsheim; John Muir Institute of the Environment; East Bay Municipal Utility District; to June 30; $18,855; Preliminary Assessment of Floodplain Restoration Potential: Lower Mokelumne River.
Doug Gubler; Plant Pathology; UC Agriculture and Natural Resources; to May 31; $18,385; Study of the Endophytic Nature of Phaeoacremonium and Phaeomoniella SPP. In Grapevines.
Anne Driscoll; Human and Community Development; UC Mexus; to June 30; $14,864; Assisting Mexican-American Teen Parents in California.
William Kremen; Medicine: Psychiatry; Columbia University; to Feb. 28; $13,980; Early Development Insult and Adult Brain Disturbance in Schizophrenia.
Sean Riain; Sociology; UC Los Angeles; to June 30; $12,000; Structuring Expertise and Inequality in the New Economy: A Comparative Study of Healthcare and Software in Oakland MSA, California and Dublin, Ireland.
Ernest Chang; Bodega Marine Laboratory; U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation; to Sept. 30; $10,522; Study of Sexual Plasticity and the Regulation of the Onset Of Vitellogenesis in Crayfish Using Intersex Animals and a Gene Expressed Specifically During Secondary Vitellogenesis.
Thomas Gradziel; Pomology; California Department of Food and Agriculture; to June 30; $2,100; Monitoring of Almond Non-Infectious Bud-Failure Status of Carmel, Nonpareil, and New Varieties in Rvt.
John Meeks; Microbiology; Department of Energy/Miscellaneous Offices and Programs; to Feb. 14; $10,000; The Nostoc Punctiforms Genome: Finishing Gaps in Contig Linkage and Second Level Annotation.
Edwin Grosholz; Environmental Science and Policy; UC Sea Grant College Program; to Sept. 30; $9,998; International Caulerpa Taxifolia Workshop: Research, Management and Outreach.