Award Data

City planners and engineers need detailed assessments of public rights-of-way to evaluate existing conditions, determine compliance with draft accessibility guidelines, and plan reconstruction projects. Current assessment methods are inadequate and inefficient due to the time and resources required. This project will develop an automated public rights-of-way assessment process and the measuremen ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this project is to develop a safe, cost-effective, off-the-shelf, and well characterized bone filler material based on plastics derived from blood plasma. Over 800,000 bone procedures are performed in the US per year, and with the aging US population, this number will only continue to grow. However, current materials, including autografts ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chromatin assembly and structure is highly regulated during DNA replication, gene expression, and progression through the cell cycle. Dysfunctions of epigenetic factors, including methylation states, are associated with a variety of cancers. Histone methyltransferases (HMTs), including lysine and arginine methyltransferases, are considered a new and important c ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this application is to develop an imaging device for the early detection, diagnosis and quantification of the degree of midperipheral retinal ischemia in Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). Earlier diagnosis of DR could facilitate intervention at a stage that may prevent or lessen permanent damage from the ravages of the disease, in turn, impr ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Previous work has identified a subgroup of chronic alcoholism subjects with severe, generalized cognitive impairment and a very poor outcome. What is critically lacking are brain molecular biomarkers that antedate both the cognitive impairment and the earliest, most minimal brain structural changes. Given the increased morbidity associated with cognitive impair ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant: In this Phase II NIH SBIR, the Low Insertion Force Epidural (LIFE) device will be further optimized and efficacy measured on human cadavers and live porcine models. Piezo Resonance Innovations, Inc. successfully designed and demonstrated the Phase I LIFE device insertion tool in various tissue models, including trials by senior anesthesiologists. The Phase II de ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The prevalence and severity of mental health and chemical dependency disorders on college campuses have reached crisis levels. A national survey of 29,230 college students in 2002 found that, at some point during the previous year, 45 percent had felt so depressed that they could not function; 65 percent had felt things were hopeless. Chemical dependency is w ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Oral infections of Candida albicans represent an increasing problem in human health. In immunocompromised individuals, especially those suffering from AIDS, candiasis can result in both localized, yet painful lesions in the oral cavity as well as life-threatening systemic infections. Furthermore, due to the use of standard antifungal treatments, an increasing n ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Density functional theory (DFT) is perhaps the most widely applied quantum chemistry method in molecular simulations due to its ability to accurately and efficiently model a wide range of molecular systems. Still, it has a major deficiency, namely the lack of nondynamic correlation. As a result, it can yield unreliable results for chemical reactions, radicals, ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Q-Chem is a state-of-the-art commercial quantum chemistry program that is used to model atomic and molecular processes over a wide range of disciplines, including biology, chemistry, and materials science. Among the quantum chemistry methods, density functional theory (DFT) is perhaps the most widely used, especially in molecular biology, due to its ability to ...