Award Data

The limited availability of donor hearts for people with end stage heart failure has driven the condevelopment of mechanical circulatory support systems (MCSSs). MCSSs can be broadly classified intocontinuous flow systems. Pulsatile systems drive blood indirectly through blood pumps, resulting inThis disadvantage of these systems, however, is their relatively large size. Continuous flow systemssim ...

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): ACell is a tissue engineering company and its core technology is based upon a porcine derived extracellular matrix (ECM) harvested from the urinary bladder (UBM) that serves as a constructive scaffold for tissue reconstruction. Successful completion of Phase I studies showed that the UBM-ECM can be configured into a tube shaped device with mechanical and materi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): ACell is a tissue engineering company and its core technology is based upon a porcine derived extracellular matrix (ECM) harvested from the urinary bladder (UBM) that serves as a constructive scaffold for tissue reconstruction. Successful completion of Phase I studies showed that the UBM-ECM can be configured into a tube shaped device with mechanical and materi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sudden cardiac death kills 300,000 people in the United States yearly. More than half of these deaths are caused by arrhythmias including ventricular tachycardia. Radiofrequency ablation, which successfully treats supraventricular tachycardia, is not successful at treating ventricular tachycardia because conventional RF ablation catheters cannot treat a large e ...

"Nondestructive inspection is a key component of programs aimed at extending the service life of aging aircraft. One important capability is the detection of cracking and corrosion around fastener holes. In thick, multiple layer structures, there is oftenno solution but removal of the fasteners for inspection, a costly and potentially damaging process. Phased array ultrasonics offer a novel and ...

"Current manufacturing technology for cast titanium components cannot guarantee theabsence of hard alpha inclusions.Under the effect of fatigue, such inclusions become likely sites for structuralfailure. By performing nondestructive inspections on the manufactured parts usingphased array ultrasound, one can eliminate parts with the largest inclusions.Despite such quality control, undetected inclus ...

ACX proposes an alternate approach to damping for extreme environments, which uses an electrically shunted, surface mounted, smart material. This shunting approach has been most widely used in less extreme environments in conjunction with piezoceramic materials. The smart material is bonded to the surface of the target structure, in this case a part inside an aircraft engine. Stress on the part ...

Active Control eXperts, (ACX) Inc. proposes to design, fabricate, and demonstrate a novel hybrid vibration ccntrol actuator system capable of very precise, controllable motion. This system will combine the advantages of a capacitive actuator with feedback control capability. This system will possess the force and stroke characteristics of a small hydraulic device and the bandwidth of electric moto ...

In many structures with vibration problems, the nature of the problem is uncertain, or varies over time. Thus it is not possible 'a priori to design a linear, time-invariant, (LTI) feedback control law which is guaranteed to meet performance, or possibly even stability requirements over the entire operating range. These applications require an intelligent control system which can adapt to the ch ...