Award Data

Historically organophosphorus compounds such as insecticides and nerve agents have been susceptible to decomposition by proteinaceous enzymes. Organophosphate hydrolases (OPH) represent a practical method to deactivate such compounds peripherally and on surfaces. However, when such organophosphates are ingested, the use of proteinaceous enzymes such as OPH can be problematic because of their tende ...

Orion requires a rendezvous and docking sensor to provide relative navigation information during proximity operations and docking. In order to dock, the sensor must provide full six degree of freedom (6 DOF) relative position and relative attitude information at a rate sufficient for the rendezvous spacecraft guidance system to robustly control the docking maneuver. Orion faces critical weight iss ...

During the phase I program Northwestern and APS, Inc., have manufactured several different materials systems that are lighter than Beryllium and stiffer than Aluminum. These high specific strength materials are also easily fabricated into larger shapes or even net shape processed. The mechanical (tensile and modulus) and thermal physical (CTE, thermal conductivity) property data for several syste ...

Given the possibility to administer prophylactic doses of protein bioscavengers inactivating OP nerve agents before they reach their acetylcholinesterase target, much attention has been given to proteins such as human butyrylcholinesterase and paraoxonase I. As small nucleic acid catalysts can exhibit triphosphoesterase activities, the identification of new molecules active against nerve agents w ...

Shelter enclosures for military working dogs in the event of a CB attack is a technology gap identified by the Joint Requirements Office. Important parameters to consider in the design of protective enclosures include low weight and size to minimize transport requirements; rapid setup; and accommodation of canine physiological and psychological comfort needs. The overall operational weight of th ...

We will develop an efficient tool for formal verification of PowerPC 750 executables. The PowerPC 750 architecture is used in the radiation-hardened RAD750 flight-control computers that are utilized in many space missions. The resulting tool will be capable of formally checking: 1) the equivalence of two instruction sequences; and 2) properties of a given instruction sequence. The tool will automa ...

Balcones Technologies, proposes to adapt actively controlled suspension technology developed for high performance off-road vehicles to address NASA's requirement for Active Vibration Control for Ground Support Equipment (GSE). This innovative approach to meeting NASA needs exploits approximately $23M of highly successful R&D since 1993 at the University of Texas Center for Electromechanics (CEM) ...

The objective of this study is to demonstrate the efficacy and broad applicability of the human immune-modulating alphaGal Adjuvant Technology for antiviral vaccine development. We will use viral vaccine candidates for the select Category A viral pathogens Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV, filovirus), Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV, bunyavirus), and Lassa virus (LV, arenavirus), to evaluate the adjuvant pot ...

Increases in amount and diversity of high-throughput data presents tremendous organizational and analysis challenges to researchers. Our objective in this effort is to address these challenges by designing and implementing a database management system (cipherDB) for the storage, management, analysis, and visualization of diverse biological data types. The Phase I design and implementation of ciphe ...

Long-term exposure to microgravity and radiation during space exploration can pose a critical threat to the health of a flight crew. Real-time monitoring of urine protein levels is an effective way to follow the onset and progress of many diseases and guide the prompt selection of proper therapy. The success of such diagnostic tasks, which is strongly desired for flight missions, critically depend ...