Award Data

Swine morbidity and mortality caused by porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus is a threat to the U.S. pork industry causing losses of $664 million last year that may exceed $700 million in 2014. Vaccines against PRRS virus have failed to stem the occurrence of PRRS in U.S. herds. Here we propose to ascertain the technical feasibility of developing an effective autogenous (kill ...

Terrorist use of radioactive nuclear materials via nuclear and/or radiological dispersion devices (dirty bombs) is a serious threat. Therefore, it is critical to detect the proliferation of nuclear material. Critical challenges facing this objective include: (a) high sensitivity detection of signature emissions (e.g., gamma rays) from common radioactive isotopes behind shielding, and (b) cost-effe ...

Protecting the effectiveness of US advanced weapon systems and the technology they rely on is a national priority. Unfortunately, individuals tasked with this mission are met with disjointed guidance, no training, and competing processes to consider. It is no wonder adversaries continue to exploit these weaknesses in the Department of Defense (DOD); stealing our Critical Program Information (CPI) ...

This application describes research to further advance an innovative algal-based productionsystem for the manufacture of a suite of novel biobased ingredients for sustainable andenvironmentally advantaged skin care products. Specifically we propose the mass cultivation ofgenetically enhanced photosynthetic algae (cyanobacteria) in specialized photobioreactors(PBRs) to produce mycosporine-like amin ...

IT IS PROPOSED TO DEVELOP A STRESS GAGE FOR THE RANGE 1/2 TO 10 KILOBARS, SUITABLE FOR USE IN SOIL AND WEAK ROCK, IN FREE-FIELD AND ON-STRUCTURE APPLICATIONS. IN ADDITION TO THE USUAL COMPRESSIVE STRESS SENSING CAPABILITY, THERE WOULD ALSO BE A SHEAR STRESS SENSING OPTION; THE TWO MEASUREMENT CHANNELS COULD ALSO BE COMBINED IN A SINGLE GAGE BODY PACKAGE. FIELD DATA RECORDING COST AND SYSTEM PROBLE ...

The goal of this project is to develop a validated, commercial quality reagent kit for the reliable collection of fingerprints (i.e., latent ridge impressions) that would subsequently be used for both comparison and DNA profiling. The kit would provide all required materials, reagents, solutions and would include a detailed protocol describing the steps to (i) identify latent ridge impressions (al ...

Mission times for high velocity projectiles (HVP) are very short and detection and discrimination of targets must happen quickly and decisively. One way to achieve this is through the enhanced contrast resulting from polarized sensing, which tends to highlight manmade objects and suppress natural background clutter. Thermal polarimetric sensing in a small package has been demonstrated already but ...

The capability to reliably and remotely detect and track tactical surface targets in a high-velocity projectile after launch is a critical need. The discrimination of man-made objects can be assisted by the detector technology, with options including two-color detectors and polarimetric filtering in the thermal infrared bands. The level of complexity in the focal plane array affects its survivabil ...

50% of produce goes uneaten. Loss in the produce supply chain costs $80B eachyear in the United States and represents a tremendous waste of key natural resources:land water and energy. A major cause of loss in the agricultural supply chain is spoilagebrought on by fungi and bacteria. Post-harvest pathogenic damage can be mitigated bya variety of strategies such as applying fungicides ozone chlorin ...

THIS PROJECT DEMONSTRATES AN EFFECTIVE METHOD FOR RESOLVING THE PROBLEM OF TRANSIENT BACKGROUND PHOTON NOISE (TEMPORIAL REDOUT VARIATIONS) CAUSED BY AN INTERMEDIATE ALTITUDE (40 TO125 KM) NUCLEAR FIREBALL WHICH AFFECTS THE FUNCTIONS OF BMD OPTICAL SENSORS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I STUDIES IS TO:1) DEVELOP A PERMANENT DATA BASE FROM DIGITIZED IMAGE EN- HANCE ORIGINAL TEST FILM IN WHICH TO DEMON ...