Award Data

Intelligent Automation proposes to develop voice-based automated Tele-PTSD Monitor (TPM), which can remotely screen, monitor, and provide assistance to clinicians in diagnosing a PTSD patient"s mental healthiness and readiness. A soldier (or other service man/women who may suffer from PTSD) can access the TPM system via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or the Internet. The voice data is ...

We propose a high performance library of signal processing tools that incorporate a newly developed technique known as fluctuation enhanced sensing (FES) to enhance the novel microsensor developed at NIST. Our goal is to improve the performance of the NIST sensor from two angles. One is to apply our existing proven algorithms to the NIST data. The other one is to incorporate advanced FES concept t ...

Single chirality of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is critical for their superb mechanical, thermal, optical and electronic properties. All known methods for producing nanotubes give mixtures of tubes with different chiralities. Physical separation of SWCNT by chirality is thus an enabling step for many potential applications and fundamental studies. The existing anion exchange resins are ...

G2 proposes to develop an intuitive, interactive SCAP content creation and editing utility that will provide a user-friendly operating environment. The promise of security automation offers the opportunity for great advances in software assurance, security governance/reporting, and ongoing monitoring activities. Hindering that promise is the fact that current data exchange protocols are cumbersome ...

Testing of machine tools has been evolving for nearly 100 years. The advent of low cost computer data analysis, control and communication has allowed the design, manufacture and inspection of complex contoured surfaces. The need to ever decrease the tolerances has led to the development of machine tools which can no longer be tested with these old methods. These machines must be evaluated within ...

Fugitive emissions of VOCs from gasoline marketing facilities are an energy, safety and environmental issue. All new vehicles made after the year 2000 must have an Onboard Refueling Vapor Recovery System (ORVR) which increase fugitive emissions of refueling stations because of interface between ORVR vehicles and gasoline station underground storage systems (UST). The increase of VOCs is attributed ...

Vegetable oil is commonly extracted from oil seeds using hexane. Separation of oil and solvent (hexane) from this extracted mixture (known as miscella) is usually carried out by solvent evaporation or distillation. Solvent recovery from miscella consumes about 50% of the total energy required for the edible oil production. Solvent evaporation is an energy intensive operation and explosive vapors i ...

Woody cut branches are portions of trees or shrubs used for floral design or decorative purposes, including foliage, flowering branches, fruit and seeds, and bare stems and branches. Specialty cut flower growers add woody cut branches to their production line in order to diversify their products, expand their markets and extend market season. Within the cut flower market, woody cut branch material ...

The black walnut grows throughout the central and eastern United States. It's rich, tasty flavor is a high-valued food additive. Although 15.4 acres of black walnuts yield approximately 4 billon pounds of raw nuts annually, only about 20 million pounds are commercially processed. With low economic incentives and small processing capacity, growers lack motivation to harvest. However, the growers ca ...

Situation: The U.S. poultry industry annually produces two billion pounds of feathers; considered waste biomaterials, they are converted into low value protein for use in animal feed. Feathers are not utilized for their unique structural properties as strong, lightweight fiber made of the protein keratin, which can be used to enhance the strength of polymers. The USDA Beltsville Agricultural Resea ...