Award Data

Diseased potato tubers in storage produce volatile organic chemicals that can be used as an indicator of the type and quantity of disease in the storage facility. By measuring the concentration of such volatile molecules, disease formation can be detected at an early stage, thereby providing an opportunity to avoid widespread damage to the crop. The more sensitive the detector of the specific mole ...

We propose to develop a secure runtime environment for fuselet-based missile targeting and threat analysis built on a foundation of aspect-oriented secure web services. Aspect-oriented techniques enable the modularization of crosscutting concerns such as remote access, security, transactions, and monitoring. We will compose aspect-oriented instrumentation with distributed object technologies in a ...

The objectives of the proposed effort are to demonstrate the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a design tool for reducing engine development time and cost, to reduce fuel nozzle-combustor test requirements, and to demonstrate the capability of CFD to accelerate the incorporation of promising, actively controlled fuel nozzles and combustors into aircraft engines. These overall objectives ...

The rapid expansion in the electronics industry has given rise to what has become known as Moore's law. At its core, lies advances in lithography that enable the miniaturization of features patterned on semiconductor substrates. As the minimum feature patterned on modern integrated circuits approaches 100nm, projection photolithography is put under enormous pressure to satisfy the demands of indus ...

Human activities have allowed uncharacteristically dense forests of small diameter trees to develop. Fires, which are now suppressed, historically thinned these forests, reducing stand densities by removing weak and suppressed trees. Also, because the species harvested (ponderosa pine western larch, and western white pine) were more resistant to native diseases and insects than the remaining firs ...

Current animal studies are limited by the requirement for batteries in animal telemetry devices. Problems include limited operational life and duty cycle of the devices, as well as limiting the species studied due to battery weight. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of using animal motion to generate electricity to power animal telemetry devices. Our technology will deliv ...

Ethylene is a growth hormone for plants and therefore, removal of ethylene plays an important part in maintaining the freshness of plants, especially fruits and flowers. Ethylene is generated by the fruits themselves, and is therefore a self-ripening component. In shipping of fruits and vegetables there is a great deal of effort that goes into controlling the atmosphere around the fruits and veget ...

Military and commercial aircraft operators are moving toward predictive maintenance to minimize costs while maximizing asset availability and safety. Key technological prerequisites for this new approach are the ability to monitor the condition of critical components, and the ability to accurately forecast their remaining useful life. Phase I of this project clearly demonstrated the feasibility of ...

A number of military situations require individual soldiers and pilots to instantaneously respond to complex visual scenes and make rapid decisions regarding potential threats. Text and graphics overlaid on the scene provide a means to aid the soldier in the decision making process. Helmet mounted displays that simultaneously allow the direct view of the natural scene with text and graphic overl ...

Reliable and sensitive detection of biowarfare agents (BWAs) such as Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Francisella tularensis, ricin, botulinum toxin, etc. is an important challenge for both military operations and domestic anti-terrorism efforts. We are proposing to develop a biomimetic polymer coating, containing receptors for BWA targets, that becomes fluorescent when exposed to samples con ...