Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Currently there exists no technology for routine measurement of cardiac output (CO) in neonates (0.4-2.5Kg) and low weight pediatric (2.5Kg+) patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Accurate measurement of CO would a llow for better assessment of therapies and thereby improve patient health care. Conventional methods used with adults for routine CO measureme ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is submitted as a Phase II SBIR application, pursuant to our existing Phase I grant, which was funded in response to the NIMH Program Announcement #PA-02-027 entitled: "Pharmacological agents and drugs for mental disorders". The development of new pharmaceuticals for neuropsychiatric disorders is limited by the lack of rapid and effective methods ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Traumatic brain injury (TBI), principally as a result of impaction on the intact closed skull, occurs in vehicular incidents, falls, acts of violence, and sports accidents. TBI is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States, with an annual incidence rate of 1.5 million. Of these, 50,000 die acutely, over 230,000 are hospitalized, and 80,000 ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Problematic peer relations, particularly when chronic, can have a tremendous impact on children's functioning and mental health. Decades of research indicate that peer rejection, isolation, and victimization negatively impact adjustment and place children at increased risk for a myriad of later negative outcomes. Prevention and treatment research supports the ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Growth factors are potent signaling molecules, initiating essential cellular programs for differentiation, proliferation and survival. Only recently have large molecules like growth factors, been employed to enhance the efficacy and specificity of medical implant therapies. In particular, procedures that require native tissues to interact with an implanted mat ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Lung transplantation is the only effective treatment modality for patients with end-stage lung disease. Ischemia-reperfusion injury, associated with the retrieval, storage and transplantation of the lung is a major immu ne-independent factor adversely affecting early graft function, graft viability and recipient morbidity and mortality. Marginal donor lungs, ar ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Image segmentation is a commonly performed clinical practice for extracting geometrical descriptions of internal anatomical objects from volume images such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance images. Shortcomings of current practice have motivated an important area of research involving statistically trainable deformable-shape models (DSMs) for automa ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The language barrier between immigrant parents and their English-dominant children is a pervasive and relatively unrecognized problem in an estimated 12 million U.S. households. This intergenerational language gap often leads to adverse health outcomes for both children and adults for the following reasons: (1) it hinders young children's ability to communicat ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Infection surrounding metal implants is a common and sometimes devastating cause of implant failure in a number of fields including oral, craniomaxillofacial (CMF), orthopedic, and cardiovascular surgery. These infectio ns, which arise from the establishment of biofilms on device surfaces, not only necessitate new surgeries but in themselves present a significa ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, 86% of adults over 70 years of age have at least moderate periodontitis with over a quarter having lost their teeth, resulting in serious health a nd quality of life repercussions. Bone grafting is routinely necessary prior to the placement of Dental implants due to bone loss caused by per ...