Award Data

N/A

N/A

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over 5 million word recognition tests are administered annually by audiologists in the United States with an associated cost of more then $100 million. These tests are currently performed manually by high-trained audiologists. This application describes a Phase I development of an automated clinical speech recognition test using clinical test recordings and an ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is to complete the feasibility prototype of an adjustable systemic-pulmonary artery (SPA) shunt. Children with single ventricle physiology (SVP) and reduced pulmonary blood flow (PBF) are palliated with an SPA shunt until approximately 6 months of age. Current shunts are made from simple (unadjustable) polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) vascular gr ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): Diagnosis of rheumatic diseases is inefficient, time consuming, and frustrating. Indeed, many patients suffer unnecessarily. We wish to develop a parallel assay system for the serology of autoimmune rheumatic diseases involving multiple analytes (on the order of 1,500 per assay performed) by concentrating upon the anti-Ro autoantibody system. Anti-Ro is as ...

The threat of biological attack can be mitigated by deployment of acost-effective bioaerosol sensor network. For U.S. forces inparticular, the high false alarm rate of the Biological AerosolWarning System is very costly. This project will demonstrate thefeasibility of a novel bioaerosol sampling system to enhance opticaltriggering. The sensitivity and selectivity of FT-IR instruments canprovide ra ...

Transgenic plant cells as source of hepatoprotective drugs. Alcoholic liver damage (ALD) is among the ten most common causes of death in the USA. The liver may be uniquely sensitive because it metabolizes ethanol at a high rate. This generates acetaldehyde intracellularly, damaging cell components directly, and/or inducing apoptotic cell death. Although some plant natural products are protective i ...

Nomadics, teamed with the University of Rhode Island, proposes to develop sensors for the detection of weapons of mass destruction underwater for protection of the nation's coastlines and the protection of deployed forces. The Phase I effort successfullydemonstrated that payloads using these types of sensors could be deployed on REMUS underwater autonomous vehicles and be capable of detecting exp ...

Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful technique for detecting and identifying target analytes, such as CBW agents, even at very small concentrations. However, traditional SERS techniques often suffer from poor reliability andreproducibility. Nanoparticle-based SERS has a tremendous advantage over bulk-surface SERS due to a very high amount of surface area for interaction in a ...

Military aircraft are largely constructed from special aluminum alloys, which typically have secondary precipitate phases that substantially improve mechanical strength. However, these regions also promote corrosion in such common environmental conditionsas acid rain, saltwater, and thermal cycling. The problem is significant enough that the U.S. Air Force expends approximately $1 billion per year ...