The ARS Quarterly Report, produced by the ARS Information Staff, provides an up-to-date "snapshot" of current projects in the chief scientific research agency of USDA. About 2,000 scientists in ARS conduct research at more than 100 locations. At the end of each summary, one or more scientists familiar with each research project are listed for further information. If the scientists are unavailable, others at the same telephone number may also be familiar with the work. For general questions or comments about this report, contact Sean Adams, ARS Information, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Building 1, 2nd Floor, Beltsville, MD 20705; (301) 504-1623, e-mail sadams@asrr.arsusda.gov.

Items marked with the word Patent are being patented by ARS. Patent or patent application numbers are included. For more information on ARS patents, Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) and patent licenses, contact ARS Office of Technology Transfer, Bldg. 005, Rm. 416, BARC-West, Beltsville, MD 20705, (301) 504-5734. Questions about a particular company's product and/or research should be directed to the company itself. For general information on patents and to conduct searches, contact the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

To search a catalogue of more than 13,000 ARS research summaries, try the ARS TEKTRAN database at the National Agricultural Library. Also available at NAL is the USDA Current Research Information System (CRIS), which includes about 33,000 project summaries, including the latest progress reports and lists of recent publications from USDA research.