Award Data

Many contaminated DOE sites are located in arid regions where depth to groundwater is significant and/or contaminants were discharged into a vadose zone through which transport to the groundwater table is dominated by unsteady, unsaturated groundwater flow. The absence of an effective means to monitor vadose zone moisture content in profile has been a persistent impediment to developing and calibr ...

Increased use of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) combined with engine downsizing has pushed automotive turbocharger compressor operation towards and often beyond its efficient and stable operating boundaries. Much of the drive cycle is spent operating the compressor at low flow rates and low pressure ratios, near the compressor surge line, in an area which is usually of low efficiency. Our prelimi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It has become evident that the microvasculature (i.e., the vasculature visible at the light microscopic level) plays a critical role in the plasticity of he brain under various physiological and pathological conditions,including fundamental processes in neuroplasticity such as axonal, dendritic and synaptic plasticity during brain development, learning, recover ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant In this Lab to Marketplace proposal we aim to develop the MBF SpineStudio software incorporating the innovative laboratory based NeuronStudio software created at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Our SpineStudio software will enable automated detection reconstruction and morphological classification of the structural analysis of dendritic spines By creating this ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will lower the cost of parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP), which uses trough-shaped mirrors to focus sunlight on tubes to harvest heat for generating electricity. The tubes are coated with a dark substance, 'absorber', that efficiently absorbs light and can withstand high temperatures. In present-day commercial ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This program will demonstrate the potential for commercial success of a novel approach for tracking and displaying the position and orientation of instruments in image-guided cancer interventions. Prototype systems will be demonstrated in selected pancreatic procedures in human subjects. New clinical applications will be examined and commercialization will beg ...

Diffraction LTD proposes to develop a novel occipital head-lock system to support advanced night vision goggles (NVG) used by Air Force personnel not wearing typical aviation or combat helmet. Phase I efforts will demonstrate the feasibility of a lightweight, direct head mount that maintains optimal NVG performance in the absence of a helmet, minimizes user fatigue, and reduces the risk of injury ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): Full participation in the human social milieu requires that one be able to understand that other people have their own goals, intentions, and beliefs (which may or may not be correct) - and that these epistemic state s govern people's behavior. This form of awareness has been called Theory of Mind (ToM). Unfortunately, the development of ToM is severely dela ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose the Sirius workstation, an innovative microscope system combining the capabilities of automated neuron reconstruction using guided image collection, cell electrophysiological recording, and cell filling in li ve tissue. Sirius will be the first commercially available system to a) enable direct recording of single distal synaptic connections formed be ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The soil nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), is a promising model organism to assess the effects of potential developmental and neurological toxicants on multi-cellular organisms. However, to determine the po ssibility of using C. elegans as a practical and efficient model in toxicology studies, medium throughput technologies must be created to monit ...