From creating fragile crop harvest-aiding mobile robots (FRAIL-bots) for strawberry harvesting to developing an automated robotic orchard platform designed to optimize fruit pickers’ performance, Stavros Vougioukas is addressing agricultural challenges and making an impact on California agriculture.
In fresh market fruit production, harvesting is one of the most labor-intensive operations, incurring high cost and dependence on a large seasonal semi-skilled workforce, which is becoming less available.
Even when he was a boy growing up in Marin County, Daniel Choe wondered why some kids were more prone to behavioral problems.
“Some of my peers got involved with drugs, fighting and crime,” said Choe, who is now an assistant professor in the CA&ES Department of Human Ecology. “I felt bad seeing them damage their minds and bodies and futures. In retrospect, I see it gave me empathy for why people make certain choices. It made me wonder, ‘How can we prevent and treat behavioral problems so people can lead more fulfilling lives?’.”
There are good and bad fats, nutritionists say. But not all polyunsaturated fats, the so-called good fats, are created equal. CA&ES food chemist Ameer Taha is exploring whether eating too much linoleic acid—a type of polyunsaturated fat found mainly in vegetable oils and processed foods—can cause chronic inflammation, migraine headaches and other health problems.
For the first time since the 1980s, University of California, Davis, researchers have released new varieties of wine grapes. The five new varieties, three red and two white, are highly resistant to Pierce’s disease, which costs California grape growers more than $100 million a year. The new, traditionally bred varieties also produce high-quality fruit and wine.
6 Tips for Home Food Fermentation
6 Tips for Home Food Fermentation
In California, fermented foods and beverages are especially trending with young people, and food safety specialist Erin DiCaprio said information is in demand.
“I get calls every day from people asking things like, ‘There’s a white film on top of my sauerkraut. Is it still safe to eat?’” DiCaprio said.
Da Yang, a UC Davis atmospheric scientist who studies the physics of intense rainstorms like hurricanes and their relationship to the Earth’s climate, has been awarded a 2019 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Yang is among 22 early-career scientists and engineers nationwide to receive the prestigious award this year. Each will be awarded $875,000 over five years to pursue their research. He is the first recipient of the Packard Fellowship in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis.
Team Works to Improve Young People’s Mental Health Across the Globe
Depression is a debilitating conditionthat affects millions of people around the world. It usually starts early in life and can limit educational, economic and social opportunities.
Early intervention can help doctors prevent and treat depression, but there isn’t a good screening tool, and most of what we know about depression is based on clinical trials in high-income countries where only a small percentage of young people live.
Biosolarization shows promise for conventional and organic farmers
Farmers spend a lot of time and money controlling weeds and other pests, and often have to turn to chemical fumigants to keep the most destructive pests at bay. Farmers also wrestle with what to do with low-value byproducts of crop production, such as skin, seeds and hulls from fruit, vegetable and nut processing.
What if those agricultural waste streams could generate alternatives to chemical fumigants and make farming more productive, profitable and environmentally friendly?
Expert sees dramatic reduction when cows consume seaweed supplement
Seaweed may be the super food dairy cattle need to reduce the amount of methane they burp into the atmosphere. Early results from novel research at the University of California, Davis, indicate that just a touch of the ocean algae in cattle feed could dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions from California’s 1.8 million dairy cows.
Piglet #3 is not sure what to make of the empty kiddie pool where she finds herself standing at the UC Davis Swine Research and Teaching Facility. She grunts softly, sniffs at the ribbed-plastic floor, and glances at the humans watching her explore.
“See how she opens her mouth and sucks in air?” asks Professor Kristina Horback, an animal-cognition expert with the Department of Animal Science. “Pigs use their strong sense of smell to gather information.”
