Invention Description Globally, wildfire frequency and severity are increasing, creating significant challenges for rapid detection and suppression, especially in remote or difficult-to-access areas. Traditional suppression methods, such as ground crews, retardants and manned aircraft can be costly, labor-intensive, and face limitations with access...

Invention Description Improving crop productivity while conserving water and resources is a major challenge in modern agriculture, especially under increasing climate-driven water scarcity. Traditional farming methods often struggle to optimize oxygenation, nutrient uptake, and water use efficiency (WUE) in the root zone, limiting plant growth and...

Invention Description Assessing honeybee worker populations is a critical index for monitoring colony health, productivity, and survivability in both agricultural and natural ecosystems. While essential for hive management, traditional population measurement techniques remain the industry standard despite being inherently labor-intensive and disruptive...

Fresh fruits and vegetables (FVs) can cause foodborne diseases as they are able to harbor a variety of human pathogens and parasites. The short shelf life of fresh produce, due in large part to microbial induced spoilage, is a serious problem that costs the food industry billions a year. Further, nutrients, polyphenols and other bioactive compounds...

Background Many current sensors, including gas concentration analyzers based on laser absorption spectroscopy, provide simultaneous, precise, and accurate measurement of gases (e.g., CO2 and N2O) for agriculture, soil science, ecological, and emissions quantification applications. However, they are often expensive to produce and operate. Recent research...

Background Current methods for estimating high-resolution hyperspectral images focus on using spectrometer data to estimate the spectral response of each pixel in the high-resolution image, and then fusing this information with the multispectral data. This results in a high-resolution hyperspectral image that has proven to be effective for high-resolution...

Background Robotic technology has a wide range of applications, particularly when it is backed by a comprehensive network of sensors and data, as is the case with unmanned aerial systems (UAS). For agricultural applications, UAS-based aerial imagery can provide information about crop stress and yield and is a common tool for in-field data collection....

Black-footed ferrets have become one of the most endangered animals in North America due to the emergence of the sylvatic plague, a flea-borne bacterial disease of wild rodents. To mitigate the loss of this species, a sylvatic plague vaccine (SPV) has been developed in combination with a peanut butter bait for oral administration to wildlife. Current...

Vaccines are an essential tool in preventing and controlling many diseases. Most approved vaccines are inactivated or live attenuated type, however, alternative platforms like mRNA and virus-like particles (VLPs) are being increasingly explored and approved because they generate potent immune responses with great safety profiles. VLPs are particularly...

The streamflow regime is a critical determinant of many ecological and hydrological processes and plays an important role for regulatory purposes. Three regime categories are often used to describe a river reach: perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral. This distinction has important consequences for water resource management, e.g., since the Clean...