Award Data

Cavity Ring-Down (CRD) spectroscopy is developing into a precise tool for measuring gaseous contaminants in ultrahigh vacuum and other environments. Optimum sensitivity is obtained by driving the CRD spectrometer in the mid-IR part of the spectrum with about 100 mWatts of average power at 5 kHz and with pulse lengths of 10-50 nsec. Bandwidths of 100 MHz are required. There are no commercial lasers ...

The use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect contaminants such as solvents, fuels, and pesticides in soil and water samples is now well established. Although ELISA and related methods can facilitate analysis of samples, several washing and separation steps are involved that require 30 to 120 minutes per sample to reach equilibrium. Recently, near infrared fluorescence immunoassa ...

Arca proposes research leading to development of a suite of methodology support products to help meet the need for innovative assurance techniques appropriate for emerging information technologies. The product will consist of a licensable methodology and supporting materials for specifying, building, and evaluating assurance arguments for products and systems based on the capability of security en ...

American health care is in the midst of momentous change. Quality improvement principles are being used increasingly to enhance productivity and efficiency of health care delivery and to help contain costs. In producing patient outcomes and resource utilization measures, it is vital to control appropriately for case mix (i.e., differences in patients due, e.g., to illness severity) in the predicti ...

We will develop technology, termed a Ruggedized Wind Measurement System (RWMS), to measure directly extreme winds with high space and time resolution, focusing on the winds that occur beneath hurricanes at land fall. This development effort will include design, fabrication of two prototype RWMS units, and a series of proof-of-concept demonstrations in strong mountain-induced downslope and severe t ...

The ability of high speed photography to record useful images of spray plumes generated by metal atomizers, metal spray deposition equipment, and plasma spray coatings depends on a light source capable of providing illumination suitable to record high velocity, specularly reflecting droplets. Due to the reflective nature of the surface of these particles, point sources and collimated light only al ...

This Phase I project involves the development of a portable system for the analysis of trace metals in aqueous solutions based on an innovative disposable multi-element nanoband electrode sensor. The system will be capable of real-time detection of a variety of heavy metals in aqueous solutions, including Zn, Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu, and Hg with a 100 ppb detection limit. The system also will be capable ...

We propose to characterize the early stage of consolidation of non-spherical powders to further the development of process models to enable simulation of powder metallurgy manufacturing for the consumer market, especially the automotive industry. Typically, spherical powders with a narrow size distribution are used for aerospace applications, while low-cost powders with irregular shapes and a wide ...

This project will develop an on-line analyzer instrument for rapid automated sequential analysis of water samples for nitrate nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen, ammonia, pH, and dissolved oxygen. These common chemical constituents and characteristics are essential to the management of aquacultural production facilities. These parameters must be measured frequently and accurately to maintain the health of ...

Accurate and timely information about space weather has become essential for managing many technologies on which our lives depend (e.g., radio communications, Global Positioning Systems). A major limitation to accessing this information from NOAA and private vendors is the lack of well-defined, standardized methods for accessing data or running models remotely over the Internet. Northwest Research ...