Award Data

A VAST BODY OF INFORMATION ON THE NATION'S CULTURAL RESOURCES, COLLECTED LARGELY WITHIN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS BY LEGAL MANDATE, EXISTS IN STATE AND FEDERAL ARCHIVES. MUCH OF THIS INFORMATION IS IN DIGITAL FORM, BUT EVEN MORE RESIDES ON PAPER FORMS AND MAPS. GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) TECHNOLOGY, WHICH HAS ONLY BECOME WIDELY AVAILABLE IN A PRACTICAL SENSE WITHIN THE LAST FEW YEARS, OFFE ...

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE WORK IS TO DEVELOP EFFICIENT AND ACCURATE COMPUTATIONAL TECHNIQUES FOR THE SOLUTION OF MOVING FRONT PROBLEMS SUCH AS THOSE OCCURRING IN PHASE-CHANGE, POLLUTANT DISPERSAL, GROUNDWATER TRANSPORT, AND OTHERS. MIMD PARALLEL PROCESSING IS TO BE USED TO OBTAIN THE COMPUTATIONAL SPEED NECESSARY TO SOLVE THESE COMPUTER-INTENSIVE PROBLEMS. A FIXED GRID METHOD AND A NEW NUMERICAL FORM ...

LASER APPLICATION FOR NONCONTACT TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT OF A SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER IS BEING DEVELOPED. THE TECHNIQUE CAN BE APPLIED FOR EITHER CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION (CVD) OR BY RAPID THERMAL PROCESSING (RTP) SYSTEMS. THE METHOD IS BASED ON THERMAL EXPANSION OF A SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER, AND USES SPECKLE PATTERNS GENERATED FROM THE BACK (ROUGH SURFACE) OF THE WAFER. SPECKLE PATTERNS ARE GENERATED ...

AMERICA IS FALLING BEHIND IN SCIENCE TEACHING. YOUNG STUDENTS' INTEREST IN SCIENCE MUST BE STIMULATED TO MAINTAIN THE INTELLECTUAL VIGOR AND ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS OF THE NATION. WHO HAS NOT BEEN FASCINATED BY A SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE (SEM) PICTURE OF A FLY, OR ANT, OR GRAIN OF POLLEN WITH EVERY BRISTLE IN PERFECT FOCUS? AN APPROPRIATELY SIMPLFIED AND LOW-COST SEM, WHICH PRODUCES FASCINA ...

RESEARCHERS ARE DEVELOPING AND DEMONSTRATING A MODEL FOR SCALABLE HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING SOFTWARE WHICH COMBINES TWO EXISTING COMPUTING PARADIGMS. THE FIRST IS A MODEL FOR DYNAMIC LOAD BALANCING THAT HAS BEEN TESTED ON MULTIPLE-INSTRUCTION MULTIPLE-DATA (MIMD) MACHINES. THE SECOND IS A REUSABLE SOFTWARE DESIGN CALLED A "FRAMEWORK." THE FRAMEWORK IS AN OBJECT-BASED SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE THAT ...

SINGLE CRYSTAL SILICON WAFERS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (IC) MANUFACTURING. RESEARCHERS ARE DEVELOPING A METHOD TO FABRICATE THESE WAFERS DIRECTLY IN SHEET FORM IN CONTRAST TO CYLINDRICAL BOULES CURRENTLY UTILIZED. THE TECHNIQUE REDUCES THE COMPLEXITY AND COST OF THE CRYSTAL GROWTH HARDWARE. WAFER SLICING FROM THE BOULE IS ELIMINATED ALONG WITH THE ASSOCIATED KERF LOSS; AND FABRICATI ...

THE HYDROXYL RADICAL (OH) PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN THE PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF BOTH THE TROPOSPHERE AND THE STRATOSPHERE. IT IS THE PRIMARY OXIDIZING AGENT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REMOVAL OF MOST TRACE GASES INCLUDING CO AND CH4. SINCE THE OH RADICAL DETERMINES THE LIFETIMES AND, THUS, THE CONCENTRATIONS OF MANY CHEMICAL SPECIES, ACCURATE DETERMINATION OF OH CONCENTRATION IS PIVOTAL IN UNDERSTANDING ATMOSPHERI ...

ULTRAFAST LASERS (LASERS THAT GENERATE PULSES WITH DURATIONS OF ~10 PICOSECONDS OR LESS) HAVE A LARGE NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS IN BIOCHEMISTRY, CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS, AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING. UNFORTUNATELY, THESE SYSTEMS ARE DIFFICULT TO USE LARGELY BECAUSE ULTRAFAST LASER PULSES ARE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO CHARACTERIZE AND FEW TECHNIQUES ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE. THOSE THAT ARE AVAILABLE USUALLY AR ...

TODAY, PROSTHETISTS HAVE DIFFICULTY IN OPTIMIZING LOWER-LIMB AMPUTEES' SOCKET FIT BECAUSE SCIENTIFIC MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING SOCKET GEOMETRY ARE LACKING. A PRECISE FIT TO THE AMPUTEE'S STUMP IS THE MOST CRITICAL FEATURE OF A LOWER-LIMB PROSTHESIS. FURTHER, WHEN THE AMPUTEE'S STUMP VOLUME CHANGES, THERE IS NO SATISFACTORY METHOD TO ADJUST THE SOCKET FOR A COMFORTABLE FIT. POOR SOCKET FIT RESULTS ...

A LARGE UNCERTAINTY EXISTS CONCERNING THE QUANTITATIVE ABILITY OF THE OCEANS TO TAKE UP ANTHROPOGENIC CO2. A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OCEAN ANDATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRIES WOULD BROADEN THE ABILITY OF SCIENCETO PREDICT THE MAGNITUDE AND RATE OF GLOBAL WARMING SO THAT APPROPRIATE COUNTERMEASURES COULD BE DEVELOPED AND IMPLEMENTED. AN ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENT IS NEEDED TO MAKE ...