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The NIST patented six-degree of freedom micropositioner technology associated with this subtopic has been identified by E M Optomechanical, Inc. (EMOM) as a technology that could be incorporated into the company¿s long-working distance interference microscopes. A key element in these microscopes is a piezo-actuator device, installed in a manual pitch/yaw mount, which translates a small flat mirro ...

Over 10 million coral specimens a year are traded in the +$100 million/year ornamental-recreational aquaria industry. Over ninety percent of commercial coral specimens come from some form of mass harvesting of wild corals from coral reefs. This can have a detrimental impact to coral reefs. We have invented a method of perpetual propagation of corals through tissue engineering. Hundreds to thou ...

Argos Intelligence proposes the Stochastic Parameterization Toolkit (SPT) to bridge the technology gap between the established stochastic integration techniques and operations numerical predication models. SPT will provide a platform to introduce stochastic terms into existing code base using a simple, high-level, user-friendly language. The SPT paradigm is based on parsing and pre-processing th ...

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 near-field scanning optical microscope can supply information on the shape and electrical properties of surfaces with nanometer resolution. The quantitative interpretation of images is difficult because of the difficulty of electromagnetic field solutions in the near-field limit. We propose to supply software to aid in this analysis. The finite-element programs generate two and three-dimension ...

A growing number of fire fighters are suffering third degree burns; this has led to questions about the adequacy of thermal protective performance (TPP) measurements for protective clothing. A new heat flux sensor, whose response approximates that of skin, will be developed to provide better measurements of heat transfer in TPP tests. This sensor will be used with nonlinear parameter estimation an ...

As fire protection engineering moves towards the implementation of performance- based fire codes, the use of validated fire models is becoming a necessity. Part of the validation process involves demonstrating model capabilities for predicting key fire environment parameters. One of the key parameters for estimating time to ignition and fire growth is the heat transfer rate to compartment surfaces ...

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 ...