And what University of Florida researchers are finding could give grape growers a way to boost production of the $20 million Florida wine industry with fewer worries from diseases that have long plagued grapes here.

In the current issue of the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, a team led by biotechnology researcher Dennis Gray describes detailed methods on ways to genetically alter 19 grape varieties, including Shiraz, Merlot and Thompson Seedless.

The paper provides a virtual “how-to” for other scientists studying grape, and covers more varieties than previously published works.

Sharing the information will likely lead to faster development of disease-resistant plants that otherwise would take decades to create through traditional breeding, said Gray, based at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ Mid-Florida Research and Education Center in Apopka.

“Everything that we’re going to end up with in grape could’ve been accomplished with breeding,” he said. “It just would’ve taken maybe 200 years to get there.”

Florida has traditionally been the nation’s second-largest state in grape consumption, both through table grapes and wines. But it’s also been hamstrung by its often wet and humid climate, as well as fungal diseases and the bacterial malady Pierce’s disease.

While the United States produced about 634 million gallons of wine in 2006, only about 1.7 million gallons were produced in Florida, according to the U.S. Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Division.

Pierce’s disease has been seen from California to Florida and is spread by an insect called the glassy-winged sharpshooter. It appears mild the first season but returns with a vengeance the second, killing the vines.

Pierce’s disease has left Florida growers with few options but the hardy muscadine, which has seeds, a less desirable trait in a snacking grape.

And that is where Gray believes his research team — which has perfected genetic modification to the point it has become routine — can change the face of grape production, both worldwide and in Florida.

The group is working on two fronts: Toward the creation of seedless muscadines and to boost disease resistance in other grapes, such as the more traditional wine-making varieties not typically viable in Florida.

Success on any front could lead to big increases in grape acreage in Florida, as well as help growers around the world who struggle with disease.

While some critics suggest that Florida has little future as a wine-making state, Gray suggests it’s too early to say.

“One thing people will kind of throw at us: ‘Well, so what if you can grow wine grapes? You can’t make the wine,’” he said. “And that may be true for some varieties — but there are 2,000 to test. So some of them will probably make wine here.”

Gray’s research now emphasizes cisgenic genetic modifications, which means using plant genes only from a particular species — for example, grape genes into grapes — to create an improved plant, such as one with heightened disease resistance.

Jeanne Burgess, vice president of winemaking for Seavin, Inc., the company that runs Lakeridge Winery in Clermont and San Sebastian Winery in St. Augustine, believes the UF research will vastly improve the outlook for the state’s vineyards.

“If we could get a handle on Pierce’s disease, we would then have the option of growing a much more diverse group of grapes,” said Burgess, who has grown the UF-created Blanc du Bois grape for more than 15 years. “Then all of a sudden, our choices are enormous.”

For more information on Gray’s research, visit: http://www.mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/grapes/genetics.

The program designed for adults between 18 and 24 presents positive images and messages about wellness at the touch of a fingertip, said Chad Werch, director of the Addictive and Health Behaviors Research Institute in UF’s Department of Health Education and Behavior.

Images such as a slim and fit young person will be part of the tutorials that encourage participants to exercise, eat healthy, manage stress wisely, stop smoking, practice safe sex and avoid abusing alcohol and prescription drugs, Werch said.

“Not only are these high-risk behaviors a major cause of illness, injury and death, but they cost billions of dollars,” he said. “If we’re able to control them, it can mean a tremendous savings for the state and nation.”

The public health program, being developed with a two-year $926,607 federal stimulus grant, aims to change many bad habits at the same time, but not by resorting to the lecture method or browbeating young people with dire warnings about dangerous lifestyles, he said.

Rather, the program provides participants with favorable descriptions of what young adult peers look like who regularly engage in healthy behavior – such as exercising vigorously, eating nutritionally or practicing stress management. In addition, the program encourages participants to develop positive mental images of what they would look like in the future if they changed their health behavior, and helps them identify steps to reach those goals, he said.

After filling out the necessary paperwork, a patient will sit down in front of a notebook computer in a quiet spot in the waiting room, where they will respond to a series of questions about their health risk behavior, Werch said. Based on their responses, they will be asked to identify goals for specific behavioral changes, he said.

The computer will then print a copy of an individual contract and a calendar log, which will help them to monitor their behavioral changes over time, and provide a list of health resources in case they need online or local support, he said.

The topic is timely as the nation discusses the multibillion dollar questions about health care, Werch said. “While that debate is about health insurance, this is much more important because it addresses the underlying risk factors for health care costs,” he said. “In industrialized countries like the United States, things like physical inactivity, poor nutrition, inability to handle stress and misusing alcohol and tobacco drive health care costs. Addressing these can cut expenses dramatically.”

Current prevention efforts are more limited in scope, focusing on the importance of having specific procedures such as mammograms or colonoscopies, he said.

“The real cost savers are any kind of preventative or health promotion type of activities that get young people to engage in health-enhancing behaviors and avoid those behaviors that are going to damage their health either immediately like getting into a car and driving drunk or 20 years down the road by eating a diet full of saturated fat,” he said.

Traditionally it’s been considered too difficult for someone to change more than one bad habit at a time, but the reality is that people often have many problems in their lives, Werch said. “It’s not uncommon for young people who are physically inactive to also suffer from poor nutrition and experience considerable stress, for example,” he said.

The project will test the effects of a public health model called Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment, which has been used to treat problems with alcohol or tobacco. It will be tried at a UF clinic in Jacksonville, with participants evaluated three months later for changes in behavior.

Instead of merely giving warnings about health hazards, the program will present positive illustrations and messages about the merits of living a fit and healthy lifestyle, Werch said. The prototype of a physically active person, for example, might be one who is slim, has clear skin and has other desirable qualities, such as being smart and popular, he said.

“That’s quite a bit different from the typical risk message that might say ‘if you’re going to misuse prescription drugs, you’re going to end up in jail or get liver cancer,’” he said.

Using computers allows participants to tailor the program to their individual needs, as well as saves the expense of regular appointments with doctors or nurses, Werch said. Applying it in a doctor’s office will allow the medical staff to provide additional health promotion and prevention services, if needed, including referrals for drug treatment, he said.

In a process called soil solarization, farmers prepare planting beds by covering them with clear plastic sheets for several weeks during the summer, trapping heat that destroys weeds, nematodes and fungi. Popular in California and Israel, solarization is well-suited to Florida’s climate though the practice is seldom used here, said Bob McSorley, a nematology professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

A study published in the current issue of the International Journal of Pest Management showed solarization effectively prepared planting beds for snapdragons, in some cases as well as the soil fumigant methyl bromide.

“The big challenge is getting (growers) to adopt it,” said McSorley, an author of the study. “They never thought of doing without soil fumigants.”

Soil fumigants are chemicals sprayed or injected into soil to kill pests and pathogens before planting. The best known is methyl bromide, which is being phased out. Federal law now restricts methyl bromide use nationwide; in Florida it’s allowed for a handful of crops including cut flowers, ornamentals, eggplant, pepper, strawberry and tomato. Growers and researchers want cost-effective alternatives.

Solarization has some advantages over fumigants, McSorley said. It’s inexpensive, and it’s environmentally friendly, though the sheeting requires disposal.

The downside is, solarization requires intense sun exposure, so it can only be used during summer, to prepare beds and fields for fall-grown crops. And three to four months after solarization, harmful organisms start to return.

“There are some limitations to it,” he said. “If you want a spring crop you have to use another method in the wintertime.”

McSorley recommends interested growers try solarization on a small plot, and see if it gives the results they need.

One farm that’s taken that first step is Sunshine State Carnations, in Palm City and Hobe Sound. Last year, the Hobe Sound operation took part in a U.S. Department of Agriculture study. It was successful, and this year both locations are using solarization on half-acre plots, said USDA plant pathologist Dan Chellemi.

The study is meant to demonstrate that solarization is practical on a commercial scale, said Chellemi, based at the USDA research laboratory in Fort Pierce. This week, he will give a soil solarization presentation at a conference on methyl bromide alternatives in San Diego.

Overall, he says, solarization has “tremendous potential” for Florida floriculture and vegetable farms, when used as part of an integrated pest management approach. Also known as IPM, this approach emphasizes prevention, monitoring and control of pests with a minimum of pesticides.

Peter Nissen, co-owner of Sunshine State Carnations, says if this year’s study goes well, his company will use solarization on a larger scale, in rotation with soil fumigants.

“We’re trying to save money and help out the environment as well,” he said.

One other group might find solarization helpful: home gardeners.

McSorley plans to publish an extension document in 2010 on solarization for home use.

For more information, see “Solarization for Pest Management in Florida,” http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IN824.

“Florida leads the nation in bicyclists killed in traffic crashes, even outpacing California, which has about twice its population,” said Dan Connaughton, a professor in UF’s department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management and the program’s director. “Other than the motor vehicle, there is no other commercial product that leaves more children injured than bicycles.”

Statistics from the Florida Department of Transportation show that 118 bicyclists were killed and 4,380 were injured in the state in 2008, he said.

About 90 percent of children’s deaths on bicycles occur when they dart into traffic from a driveway or when they cycle through a stop sign, Connaughton said. The vast majority of bicycle fatalities result from head injuries, with some studies estimating that the simple act of properly wearing a bicycle helmet reduces the risk of head injury by up to 85 percent, he said.

The mission of the Florida Traffic and Bicycle Safety Education Program is to reduce injuries and fatalities by teaching children the lifelong skills needed to be competent, as well as predictable, cyclists and pedestrians.

Connaughton received a three-year contract from the Florida Department of Transportation’s Safety Office to administer statewide workshops to “teach the teachers” bicycle and traffic safety tips they can pass on to their students. Using curriculums specifically designed for elementary, middle and high schools, Connaughton works with certified cycling instructors around the state in delivering the free workshops. Workshops are currently scheduled in Alachua County on Thursday, with others to be held in Pinellas and Lee counties later this fall.

For younger children, the curriculum covers such basics as safely crossing streets, traffic signals and related laws, and school bus safety, said Connaughton, who is an expert in sport safety and risk management. The curriculum also addresses traffic and bicycle laws, helmet importance and correct use, how to perform a bicycle safety inspection, how to navigate a bicycle while sharing the road, and other traffic and bicycle safety skills, he said.

“We feel it’s extremely important to educate our youth at a young age,” he said. “Our hope is that as they become more knowledgeable and experienced pedestrians and bicyclists, that some of these skills will translate into them becoming safer motor vehicle drivers.”

According to the National Safety Council, the total cost of bicycle injuries and deaths is almost $5.4 billion a year, Connaughton said.

“Besides saving lives, this program has a tremendous impact on the state’s economy,” Connaughton said. “By cutting down on the number of cars on the road, we reduce traffic congestion as well as our dependence on fuel and the environmental costs associated with it. And with the rise in obesity, getting young people to be more active eliminates a substantial number of health problems and the costs that go with them.”

The program works with Safe Routes to School programs throughout Florida to encourage more children to walk or bike safely to school and ties in with the goals of the Florida Department of Transportation’s Pedestrian/Bicycle Program, he said.

Bicycle use has increased in the United States as more people recognize the importance of physical activity and as rising gas prices make it a popular commuting alternative, Connaughton said. “Along with the greening of America, there are more people on bicycles than ever before,” he said.

The success of American Lance Armstrong in winning the Tour de France seven years in a row also has created an interest in bicycling, particularly the sport of racing, he said.

The program and its instructors also train law enforcement personnel and recreation leaders to teach bicycle safety in their local communities. Future plans call for developing a university curriculum to educate college students about traffic and bicycle safety in Florida, he said.

The program estimates that each trained teacher passes the information on to 100 children per year. The training workshops cover outside on-bike skill practice and classroom instruction with curriculum overviews, including interactive videos and activity worksheets.

School districts interested in hosting traffic and bicycle safety training workshops can contact the program at 352-392-4042, ext. 1370. More information about the Florida Traffic and Bicycle Safety Education Program can be found at: http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/safety/index.html.

The UF research and teaching center, Citylab-Orlando, an initiative of the College of Design, Construction and Planning, will be housed at the UCF Center for Emerging Media. The center is already home to UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, a graduate video-gaming school, and other UCF programs.

Scheduled speakers are Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, UF President Bernie Machen, UCF Provost and Executive Vice President Terry Hickey and FIEA Executive Director Ben Noel. In addition to Citylab-Orlando, the center is expanding to include UCF’s graduate art program and fine arts press. Each new program’s projects will be on display.

With several other hands-on academic programs, a commercial motion-capture studio and soundstage, the Center for Emerging Media expands downtown Orlando’s digital media and simulation presence and furthers the city’s vision for a Creative Village, while connecting students with professionals.

Citylab-Orlando will bring UF students and faculty to the center to work on community design projects. Through the center, faculty and students from UF and UCF will have opportunities to collaborate. A UF graduate-level architecture studio already is working on different uses for future public space under Interstate 4 in downtown Orlando, dubbed the city’s “Bridge District.” The program also will address various design projects through grants, contract work, pro-bono projects, continuing education classes, exhibits and lectures.

“Citylab-Orlando provides our students a unique opportunity to engage in the work of building in a great city and to learn by doing,” said Christopher Silver, dean of the UF College of Design, Construction and Planning.

UCF leaders also plan to expand community research programs, including the UCF College of Arts and Humanities’ Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology and Entertainment (CREATE). Other existing academic programs at the center are UCF Film and Digital Media Visual Language.

“Our new partners will strengthen UCF’s academic offerings and this state-of-the-art center’s important role as an economic driver for downtown Orlando and the Central Florida region,” said UCF Provost and Executive Vice President Terry Hickey. “We look forward to providing more hands-on educational opportunities that help our students secure high-paying jobs in a variety of high-tech fields.”

UCF leaders, with support from the City of Orlando, officially renamed the former Expo Centre the UCF Center for Emerging Media last year.

The Center for Emerging Media is located at 500 W. Livingston St. in downtown Orlando. Parking is available across the street in the Amway Arena parking lot. Call Christine Dellert at 407-823-5300 for further directions.

The mandarin hybrid — a mix of the sweet Clementine and the colorful, bell-shaped Minneola — has a rich taste and strong aroma, said UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences plant breeder Fred Gmitter.

The new sweet-tart fruit may be best described as a mandarin with a tangy punch.

“Many old-timers in citrus have said this is the best-tasting citrus they’ve ever had,” Gmitter said.

The fruit, which has a patent pending and is also known as LB8-9, has been in the works since 1985.

Mark McLellan, IFAS’ dean for research, said he believes the time that went into breeding this variety will be worthwhile.

“Sugar Belle is positioned in a unique market window, and its flavor characteristics are expected to make this variety a consumer favorite,” he said. “We’re very excited to offer it on behalf of the university.”

Recently, Florida Foundation Seed Producers Inc., a direct support organization of UF, awarded an exclusive U.S. license to the New Varieties Development and Management Corporation.

Funded by the Florida Citrus Commission, the not-for-profit corporation was set up in 2005
to help assure Florida growers access to new patented citrus varieties, manage new varieties and direct resources to citrus breeding research.

The corporation was granted the exclusive license for the fruit through the university’s Invitation to Negotiate process, designed to benefit everyone from IFAS to citrus growers.

“It’s becoming more common for grower-backed organizations to help monitor the markets for growers and ensure that everyone has a chance to be successful,” said John Beuttenmuller, the intellectual property and licensing director for Florida Foundation Seed Producers, which led the ITN process.

In that process, a company is selected to deliver new cultivars to the public. In return, the company pays royalties back to the Florida Foundation Seed Producers and the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, to be reinvested in breeding and development programs.

Sugar Belle is a unique variety, said the corporation’s executive director, Peter Chaires. He believes it will make a big splash in the $52 million specialty citrus market.

Chaires describes its flavor almost like one would describe a fine wine.

“It has a flavor that takes it to the top of the show wherever it goes. It’s got a very, very deep flavor,” he said. “I don’t want to say it’s rich, but it’s a very deep, complex flavor.”

Despite strong ties to the citrus industry, UF has never before released a citrus cultivar developed solely by its scientists — likely because citrus breeding is an excruciatingly slow endeavor. The average time for new citrus — from creation to its commercial release — can be up to 20 years.

And in this case, what became the UF’s inaugural citrus variety could just as easily have been plowed under.

Gmitter, who arrived at UF’s Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred as an assistant professor in 1985, was a young plant breeder desperate for citrus trees to work with. After locating a small tract of trees left by a retired professor, Gmitter went for a look.

“I went out in early November of my first year … This one tree had beautiful, bright orange fruit. The best citrus I’d ever eaten in my life,” Gmitter said. Those trees were used to create his new cultivar.

UF officials hope Sugar Belle will be as lucky when it comes to reaching consumers — which could be as early as this year, in some markets.

The fruit matures early, so it should be a good fit for the December holiday market, Chaires said. It can be grown in a manner to produce low-seeded fruit. And with his organization keeping tabs on how the fruit fares in groves and the economics of the citrus market, he believes the new fruit has the potential to be a big hit.

“Every time we’ve tested it with different groups, it’s been wildly popular,” he said.

UF Tech Connect received the Award of Excellence in Technology Commercialization from the University Economic Development Association. The center reported helping client companies generate more than $86.9 million in private investments and create more than 77 jobs in Fiscal Year 2008.

UF Tech Connect was one of three finalists, along with the University of South Florida and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

“We are thrilled to be recognized for our contribution to the regional and state economy,” said Chris Brown, UF Tech Connect coordinator, who accepted the award at the 2009 Summit of the University Economic Development Association Oct. 11-13 in San Antonio.

“The UF Tech Connect program plays an important role in bringing together UF faculty, entrepreneurs and investors,” said Jane Muir, director of UF Tech Connect. “We’re honored to be recognized as a leader in the creation of high-tech companies and jobs in the state.”

UF Tech Connect is at the pulse-point of the region’s high-tech startup activity and serves as a magnet for entrepreneurs and investors seeking new opportunities. The center also develops new programs and sponsors events that foster new business creation.

“The UF Tech Connect program plays an important role in helping to commercialize university discoveries by helping create technology-based startup companies,” said Win Phillips, UF vice president for research.

Established in 1976, the University Economic Development Association focuses on the nexus between higher education institutions and economic development partners. Many EDA-funded University Centers choose to join this professional organization for a number of reasons, including UEDA’s efforts to:

• promote the role of higher education in economic development;
• provide valuable training and networking opportunities to members; and
• increase the effectiveness of, and the appreciation for, higher education in regional and national economic development strategy.

To learn more about UEDA go to http://www.universityeda.org/.

Headquartered at the University of Florida Office of Technology Licensing, UF Tech Connect was created as a partnership between UF and the U.S. Economic Development Administration to provide a venue for bringing together the necessary elements to create companies.

As the University of Florida’s main commercialization center, OTL has in-depth experience in technology management and commercialization. For more information about UF Tech Connect, visit http://www.otl.ufl.edu/ or contact Chris Brown, coordinator, at 352-846-1840.

“The economic benefits of an advancement like this in a health care field are tremendous, particularly in a state like Florida where there are so many elderly and people with hearing impairments,” said Alice Holmes, a professor in UF’s Department of Communicative Disorders at the College of Public Health and Health Professions. “If you develop a hearing loss, you may end up having to retire early or go on disability. By keeping people functioning in society, it has all sort of positive outcomes.”

At the suggestion of one of Holmes’ patients at UF’s hearing clinic, who was severely hearing impaired, she and other UF researchers pioneered a way to program digital hearing aid devices and cochlear or inner ear implants, based on speech sounds such as “aba,” “ata” and “asha” instead of tonal beeps. People with hearing loss can now hear spoken words much more clearly and their hearing aid devices can be adjusted in a fraction of the time, Holmes said.

“I really think we have the possibility of revolutionizing how digital hearing devices can be programmed,” said Holmes, who collaborated with Rahul Shrivastav, another UF professor in communicative disorders, and Purvis Bedenbaugh, a former UF neuroscience professor. “Our next step is looking into the possibility of accomplishing the same thing with cell phones.”

After UF researchers received a patent, Lee Krause, Holmes’ patient whose training in computer engineering led him to propose the idea of using speech sounds, started the company Audigence Inc. in Melbourne to develop and market the software.

Audigence, which now has 12 employees, is licensing the technology to a hearing aid company in Orlando, Holmes said. “We’re hoping to have the product launched in October at the national meeting of the Academy of Dispensing Audiology in Clearwater,” she said.

In addition, a major clinical trial is now under way with an international hearing aid company that could result in another licensing agreement within the next year, she said.

The arrival of these products on the market will offer economic benefits to audiology clinics as well as improving the lives of their patients, Holmes said. By being able to program hearing aids quicker with better results, audiologists can see greater numbers of patients in a shorter period of time, she said.

An estimated 31 million Americans have hearing loss that could be helped by some form of amplification, yet only about 20 percent of them use hearing aids, Holmes said. Besides the stigma attached to hearing aids, many people who should wear them give up because they are adjusted incorrectly, she said.

“Hearing loss, particularly in the older population, is second only to arthritis as a permanent disability,” she said.

The problem with the traditional method for programming hearing aid devices is it relies on standardized formulas developed for the average patient, while the UF technology customizes the tuning to a patient’s individual hearing deficiencies, Holmes said. Hearing loss occurs at different pitches, which vary from one person to the next, she said.

Krause, chief executive officer and president of Audigence, had lost so much hearing that he needed a cochlear implant, an electrical device that is attached in one’s head and stimulates auditory nerves. Krause continued to have difficulty understanding human speech, especially on the phone, but that changed when it was programmed by speech sounds, Holmes said.

“We do conference calls probably every other day and he leads the calls,” she said. “I almost think he hears better than I do at times.”

Oysters are typically considered safest to eat in cooler months (September through April) because the shellfish-infecting bacteria in the genus Vibrio flourish best in warm temperatures.

Even in the “r” months, slurping an oyster opens some people to infection from these bacteria, which can cause fever, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea and has even led to finger amputation when it’s given a chance to penetrate a cut or skin lesion.

However, a new quick and inexpensive diagnostic test developed by DuPont Qualicon and refined by UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences could make weeding out pathogen-loaded oysters much more practical and efficient. Oysters are a $14 million industry in the Sunshine State, according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The test is based on a technology dubbed “quantitative polymerase chain reaction,” or QPCR diagnostics. Given a small sampling of oyster, shrimp or ahi tuna, the system tracks genetic material found in three harmful species of Vibrio by amplifying their DNA into large amounts that are easily detected.

This is the first time this technology could be used in detecting pathogens in seafood on an industrial scale. So, after initially developing the basic lab-bench test, DuPont turned to UF to prepare it for commercial use and regulatory approval.

“Whether you have raw oysters or if you’re trying to validate some sort of treatment method, the old way of testing these bacteria in oysters just isn’t very practical because it’s pricy and takes about a week,” said Anita Wright, a UF food science professor whose Florida Sea Grant work is validating and expanding applications of the new test for seafood processing and research purposes.

This USDA-funded research evaluates treatments such as freezing, high pressure, irradiation, or mild heating, and is funded by the Florida Gulf Coast Oyster Industry Council.

Wright will present findings from her work at the Oct. 17-23 biennial meeting of the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, followed by a workshop to demonstrate the methodology. Her findings will also be published in the next issue of the American Organization of Analytical Chemists.

The ISSC is a shellfish regulatory cooperation that will determine if the test is reliable enough to be used industrywide. If approved, the test could be an especially big boon for oyster harvesters in the Gulf of Mexico, the source of a third of all U.S. oysters.

Warmer water temperatures and factors such as pollution make Vibrio species a major concern for Gulf-harvested shellfish. Forty percent or more of Gulf oysters carry these pathogens in the “non-r” months, according to the FDA.

Now, scientists with the University of Florida and several other institutions have been awarded a three-year, $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant to research transmission of the virus, known as PaV1.

The research should answer many lingering questions about the spread and geographic distribution of the pathogen, and could lead to management strategies and new methods for identifying infected lobsters, said Don Behringer, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

One of the main issues to be investigated: whether the virus is dispersed long distances by lobster larvae, which float hundreds of miles during their first months. Infected spiny lobsters have been found in far-flung places, including the Florida Keys and parts of Mexico, Belize and St. Croix.

“This project will give us insight into how pathogens are spread in the marine environment,” said Behringer, a co-discoverer of the virus. “Anything we can do to understand how the disease spreads, and how we might limit its spread, has implications for management of the disease.”

If the study confirms that PaV1 is spread by lobster larvae, that would have implications for other species and other diseases, because many marine animals go through a free-floating larval stage, said Mark Butler, a professor with Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

During the project, researchers will examine possible forms of virus transmission, the virus’ effects on lobsters, and factors influencing local disease outbreaks, Butler said. They will also hold workshops for fishermen and resource managers in Florida and the Caribbean.

The virus was discovered in 1999 by Behringer, Butler and Jeffrey Shields with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Many of the early findings regarding PaV1 epidemiology came while the team was working at the Keys Marine Laboratory located on Long Key. This work showed that the disease primarily kills juvenile spiny lobsters, though some become infected without apparent harm.

The PaV1 virus attacks blood cells and tissues, causing lobsters to become listless and solitary, Behringer said. Most eventually die from metabolic depletion, a condition characterized by loss of energy.

Beginning with the 2000-2001 lobster season, harvest declined approximately 30 percent from previous harvest years and has yet to rebound, said John Hunt, a longtime lobster biologist and program manager with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Hunt said he believes the virus is a likely cause of the reduction.

Florida produces more than 90 percent of the nation’s spiny lobster; in 2007 the harvest was about 3.8 million pounds, with a dockside value of $27 million, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Recreational lobster diving is also a significant tourist industry.

The Caribbean spiny lobster is found in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean, from Bermuda to Brazil, Behringer said.

In the United States, spiny lobster represents less than 10 percent of national lobster production, with Maine lobster accounting for 90 percent or more, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Worldwide, Maine and spiny lobster each represent about one-third of the total harvest.

The research team includes faculty and students from UF, Old Dominion, the University of Miami and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Behringer, Butler and other members of the research team are researching methods for managing PaV1, with funding from the Florida Sea Grant program.

Participants in “Achieving Success through Exceptional Service” should expect to learn the knowledge and skills to create a service-driven organization. The full-day workshop will be presented in Tampa on Oct. 23; in Miami on Oct. 27; and in Jacksonville on Nov. 10.

“Delivering great service is critical for companies looking to survive and prosper in these economic times,” said Jeff James, vice president, Disney Institute. “This program is a rare opportunity for Florida business professionals to go inside the Disney organization and learn innovative, easy-to-implement best practices that can give them a competitive edge.”

The program will give participants an ‘insider’s look’ at business practices that have helped Disney consistently rank as one of the world’s most admired companies and brands. Participants will learn how to exceed customer expectations using a well-defined service infrastructure, ongoing research and service standards.

“In an era where everyone is competing for business and market share, excellent customer service isn’t a luxury, it is mission critical,” James said. “This program is made for organizations large and small that are looking to create a service experience that exceeds customer expectations and drives repeat business.”

One of the most recognized names in professional development, the Disney Institute travels the world offering engaging seminars, workshops and presentations, as well as fully customized programming. Immersive learning experiences are also offered at Disney Destinations in the Americas, Europe and Asia, enabling participants to go behind the scenes and see firsthand how business theory drives operational excellence.

Ron Kirsch, director of the University of Florida’s Leadership Development Institute, said he is “very excited about the powerful program that has resulted from the combined efforts of the University of Florida and the Disney Institute. Participants will learn how Disney achieves unparalleled service and how they can apply the same concepts to their organization.”

The Disney Institute client roster includes Fortune 500 companies as well as a wide range of small businesses, nonprofits and government agencies. Program registration is $396 per person and includes all course materials. Members of the University of Florida Alumni Association and graduates of Disney Institute programs will receive a 15 percent discount. For more information or to register, call 800-835-4104 or go to http://leadership.dce.ufl.edu.

The path of a hurricane is notoriously difficult to predict, but the computerized model will estimate damage to utility systems based on hundreds of factors including the strength of winds, level of storm surge and amount of flooding, said Ted Kury, director of energy studies at UF’s Public Utility Research Center. PURC is developing the model in conjunction with a consortium of Florida electric utilities in an agreement with the Florida Public Service Commission.

With this knowledge in hand, utilities can take steps to soften the blow from the tropical cyclones, Kury said.

“When storms knock down utility poles and burn out transformers, utilities have to pay the costs to replace them, which are then passed on to the customers,” he said. “And when the power goes out, people suffer in other ways. They lose food to spoilage. Even if they have their own generator, it costs money to run it.”

Installing underground wires and using different building materials to strengthen power poles are among the ways to upgrade equipment, and the model also estimates the costs of making various improvements, Kury said.

“There really isn’t anything out there like this that addresses these kinds of issues,” he said.

Sometimes spending money to make the system more secure can actually have the opposite effect, Kury said. For instance, transferring overhead wires underground makes them less vulnerable to wind damage but can make them more susceptible to storm surge, he said.

“That is where having the model is useful,” he said. “Otherwise the utility could spend an awful lot of money — which would have to be recovered from the rate payers — and actually make the equipment less secure in the event of severe weather.”

The model breaks the state into four parts — the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, southeast Florida and northeast Florida — and uses historical data on how often hurricanes have hit each region to base predictions for future damage, Kury said.

“Hurricanes are more likely to hit the southeast coast and the Panhandle, and we see many more hurricanes that are category one than category four or five,” he said.

After the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, which caused an estimated $28 billion in property damage, the Florida Public Service Commission directed each electric utility to put together a storm preparedness program that addressed 10 initiatives. The utilities asked PURC to coordinate the collaborative research initiative, which would offer cooperative benefits to the state’s different types of utilities, including not only ones that are investor-owned and but those operated by cities and co-operatives Kury said.

The model, which is scheduled to be completed in March, is similar to one used by Federal Emergency Management Agency to assess damages to residential and business property, he said.

In addition to the model, which estimates the costs of making utility systems more resistant to storms, PURC has worked with the utilities to construct a database of equipment damage from storm events, and a central system for tracking this damage, Kury said. Other than tracking overall damage from storms, it is difficult for utilities to collect detailed information themselves because their main job is restoring power, he said.

“When a storm hits, utility workers are not going to stand around looking at poles and wires and taking notes about how everything happened,” he said. “What we’ve done for them here at PURC is try to set up a system that is as seamless as possible for them to track some of this data on a very granular level.”

Ultimately, the state’s utilities, their customers and the Public Utilities Commission will decide which, if any, specific changes to make and how widely to implement them, Kury said.

“We’re just trying to help them to understand the costs and benefits of their decisions,” he said.

“The NRC Faculty Development Grant is very valuable to our department and comes at a time when it can really make a difference in the number of students graduating in this area,” said David Hintenlang, interim chairman of UF’s nuclear and radiological engineering department. “The grant will be used over the next several years to jump-start the careers of two young faculty members who have just started at the University of Florida. These faculty will in turn mentor students into the nuclear engineering profession, which directly benefits the state of Florida where nuclear power generates a significant portion of our electricity and we expect a new nuclear power plant to be built within the next decade.”

UF is one of 70 institutions to receive funding from a total of nearly $20 million designed to boost nuclear education and expand the work force in nuclear and nuclear-related disciplines, the NRC announced.

The faculty development grant can either be used to pay for an existing faculty member who has been in a tenure-track position in the fields of nuclear engineering, health physics or radio chemistry for less than six years or to recruit someone to the faculty from outside the university, said John Gutteridge, an NRC spokesman.

“The grant is very important because there is a work force shortage in the fields of nuclear engineering, health physics, radio chemistry and other related fields,” Gutteridge said. “To attract students, NRC provides scholarships and fellowships, and obviously to educate those students, we need to attract faculty as well.”

The grants provide research money to faculty, who in turn can use part of it toward stipends for the graduate students assisting them on projects, he said.

“There is a shortage of faculty at the nuclear engineering schools around the country, whose numbers have grown in the last seven or eight years, and educated and trained people are needed to work at nuclear power plants and all sectors of the nuclear industry,” Gutteridge said.

At least four more nuclear power plants are likely to be built in the United States in the next decade and more are possible, he said.

“We have over 20 applications for new power plants and while not all of them are going to be built, quite a few will be, and since it appears that all of the 104 existing plants will have their licenses renewed for another 20 years, obviously those plants will need to be staffed with trained personnel,” he said.

The need to replace an aging work force over the next five years will create additional demand for skilled professionals in the field, he said.

Congress provided the NRC funding for a $5 million Educational Curriculum program and an additional $15 million toward NRC’s grant program for scholarships and fellowships, faculty development, trade schools and community colleges.

The NRC awarded 102 grants for scholarships ($2.9 million), fellowships ($5.4 million), faculty development ($4.8 million), trade and community college scholarships ($1.8 million) and nuclear education and curriculum development ($4.7 million). The grants were distributed in 29 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The faculty development program is one of five grant programs the NRC offers. Eleven awards were made from the 37 applications received for these grants.

In 2007, harmful algae blooms killed sponges in large tracts of the shallow lagoon, where fresh water draining from the Everglades meets the Gulf of Mexico. University of Florida and Old Dominion University researchers are trying to restore the invertebrates by slicing up healthy sponges, then planting the cuttings in affected areas to grow and reproduce.

The results of the study will lay the groundwork for larger restoration efforts that would boost populations of economically important seafood species that depend on sponges, help the state’s commercial sponge industry and improve water quality, said Don Behringer, a research assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“Sponges don’t get as much attention as other, more charismatic marine species,” said Behringer, co-leader of the project. “But in hard-bottom habitats they dominate the biomass and are important to ecosystem health.”

In Florida Bay, the seabed is a mixture of hard-bottom areas, sea grass meadows and almost featureless sand and mud areas. Within the hard-bottom, marine sponges, some of them several feet in diameter, are the dominant source of structure and shelter, he said. In parts of the bay the animals were so abundant prior to the algae blooms that they were estimated to filter all surrounding water every three days, straining out bacteria they consume as food.

The 2007 algae blooms affected about 200 square miles of the 1,100-square-mile bay, wiping out nearly every sponge in some areas. Similar blooms may have occurred for at least a century, but hard evidence is lacking, Behringer said.

Armed with $157,000 in grants from The Nature Conservancy - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Community-Based Restoration Program, and Everglades National Park, the researchers will try to reintroduce sponges in the Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary areas of Florida Bay.

In this feasibility study, four species will be used: loggerhead and vase sponges, large species that provide habitat for sea animals; and glove and yellow sponges, important to Florida’s commercial sponge fishing industry, said Mark Butler, a professor with ODU’s biological sciences department and the project’s other leader.

Florida is one of the world’s major marine sponge providers, producing 60,000 to 70,000 pounds annually.

Butler said the exact methods used for placing sponge cuttings are still being developed, but it’s likely that small sections will be attached to weighted bases and placed on the sea floor. For the next three years, researchers will assess the cuttings’ survival, growth and reproduction.

The project came about partly because sponges are little-studied, Butler said. He has studied lobsters for 25 years and appreciates how sponges provide habitat for the crustaceans.

Another reason is that sponge populations spread slowly—larval sponges are free-swimming, but anchor after a few hours and spend the rest of their lives in one place.

Sponge die-offs are an emerging problem worldwide, said Joseph Pawlik, a professor with the University of North Carolina Wilmington Center for Marine Science.

Scientists have only recently begun to understand the need for sponge restoration, Pawlik said. He called the restoration project important, particularly because loss of marine sponges may enhance harmful algae blooms.

Led by double-digit increases to both the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the university’s total for the 2008-2009 fiscal year that ended June 30 represented a $12.4 million increase over $561.6 million in 2007-2008.

“During a challenging economic period when the university has been under extreme budgetary pressures, our faculty continued their commitment to securing external funding for their research,” said Win Phillips, UF’s vice president for research. “In addition to furthering science, this funding impacts all facets of Florida’s economy, benefiting everyone from construction workers to graduate students.”

The $574 million in research funding generates more than $1.2 billion in business activity and 10,500 jobs, according to economic impact methodology from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Federal awards, which account for 58 percent of UF’s total, rose 4.3 percent to $336.5 million, led by the National Institutes of Health with $131.7 million and the National Science Foundation with $46.3 million. Funding from state agencies, which make up 13 percent of the total, was down by 8 percent to $75.8 million.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recorded a 14.3 percent increase to $47.9 million. Funding to the physics department for research about gravitational waves from the earliest moments of the universe reached nearly $4 million last year. Other significant CLAS grants included $780,000 from NSF to help fund a graduate education program in ecology.

IFAS awards rose 13.8 percent to $120.1 million, bolstered by $4 million from the Department of Defense to UF’s Center for Food Distribution and Retailing, to develop better tracking systems for military food. Other IFAS awards included $1.3 million to study the citrus genome and $911,000 to improve the flavor of tomatoes.

College of Engineering awards rose 8.7 percent to $72.8 million, including $15 million from the State of Florida for research and administration of the Florida Energy Systems Consortium, a statewide program to develop alternative energy sources.

“Florida’s academic research is focused both on energy generation and energy conservation, making it highly relevant to the state’s future path,” Phillips said. “This consortium brings together energy researchers at our universities to address the larger, statewide energy challenges facing Florida.”

Funding to the Health Science Center, which accounts for half of UF’s total, remained about the same as last year at $289.3 million. Major Health Science Center awards funded projects on smoking cessation, hypertension and blindness.