Award Data

Leveraging Agiltron’s industrial leading developments for optical measurement of motion in MEMS devices, we propose to use electro-optical sensors for measuring the displacement and gap in the NIST micro-rheometer. No electrical connections are required to the moving parts. All electronics and optics are removed from the chip so that it is inexpensive and disposable. A fixed, simple micro-fluidi ...

Currently, there are over 10,000 MRI scanners used in the US alone. US citizens today are mobile and many times medical treatments may require MRI scans from several different facilities. Images from MRI scanners can also drift over time. There is a tremendous need for all medical imaging scanners to be on the same level. Sigma-K will develop the commercialization of the ISMRM/NIST MRI Calibration ...

The technical objective of this project is to develop a prototype of a face recognition application in a cloud computing environment utilizing MBARK as the middleware. The application will have a client piece that will run on a mobile device such as a laptop and a server piece that will run on a higher-performance computing cluster. The specific objectives of this development project can be enumer ...

To further advance the characterization and utility of microcantilevers, next generation optical detectors with higher frequency response, improved displacement resolution and lower noise for weak signal detection are needed. Consequently, Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc. (RMD) will develop a turnkey optical detector module for use in characterizing the displacement and resonant frequencies of m ...

Severe weather impacts our daily lives, society and nation’s economy. From an average of $10B (2005 dollars) annual loss due to tropical cyclones since 1900 to $200B in the commercial shipping industry that is threatened by severe ocean storms to the hundreds of lives and assets being lost in the $20B recreational boating industry. In these cases and many more, accurate now-casting and forecasti ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, Lyme Disease (LD) can affect the skin, heart, joints or nervous system leading to an array of symptoms that overlap with those of other illnesses. LD is the most common vector-borne infectious disease in the United States and remains a significant public health concern. Early diagnosis and treatment is key to improving disease ou ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Staphylococcus aureus is the second leading cause of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections. In 2003, nearly 300,000 patients in US hospitals acquired an S. aureus infection, which accounted for nearly three million days of hospitalization, 9.5 billion in excess costs, and at least 12,000 inpatient deaths. Additionally, approximately 50% of the US population ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There are high unmet medical needs in the limited biologic therapeutics for 1.0% of adults with rheumatoid arthritis [RA] associated with staggering 39.2 billion annual US health care and societal costs. These are dueto inadequate efficacy; patient's inconvenience, prohibitive costs, poor adherence and treatment discontinuations; manufacturing risks and s ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Approximately two million burn injury cases require medical attention on a yearly basis in the United States alone, with 20,000 of these cases requiring admission to specialized burn centers. One of the foremost causesof morbidity and mortality in the burn patient is infection. Indeed, for those patients with burn size greater than 40% of total body surface are ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Improved diagnosis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) infections represents a critical unmet medical need. The CDC estimates that approximately 700,000 people are infected by GC annually, with approximately half of these cases reported. The clinical spectrum of GC infection includes urethritis and cervicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and disseminated disea ...