Award Data

PERFORMANCE OF OPTICAL DEVICES IS GREATLY AFFECTED BY SMALL SURFACE IRREGULARITIES. IN X-RAY OPTICS, FOR INSTANCE, ROUGHNESS CHARACTERIZED BY A ROOT-MEAN-SQUARE HEIGHT OF A FEW ANGSTROMS ON A THIN FILM SURFACE CAN SEVERLY AFFECT DEVICE PERFORMANCE, AND HIGHLY SENSITIVE TOOLS ARE GENERALLYREQUIRED FOR CHARACTERIZATION. SOPHISTICATED METHODS BASED ON X-RAY AND ELECTRON PROBE TECHNIQUES ARE RATHER SE ...

THE SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE PHENOMENON WILL BE EXPLORED TO DEVELOP A QUANTITATIVE, SENSITIVE, ASSAY SYSTEM FOR REPRODUCTIVE HORMONES OF CLINICAL INTEREST. THE APPROACH CAN ATTAIN, WITH RELATIVELY INEXPENSIVE INSTRUMENTATION, A SENSITIVITY LIMIT COMPARABLE TO EXISTING ASSAY METHODOLOGIES, WITHOUT THE USE OF DYES, RADIOISOTOPES OR ENZYMES FOR SPECIFIC SIGNAL GENERATION. PART OF THE PHASE I RESEARC ...

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WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A SIMPLE, PORTABLE, ONE-STEP ASSAY FOR THE DETECTION OF MYCOPLASMA PNEUMONIAE AND INFLUENZA A WHICH CAN BE PERFORMED INDEPENDENT OF A SOPHISTICATED LABORATORY BY UNTRAINED OR SEMI-SKILLED PERSONNEL. THIS SIMPLE, ONE-STEP METHOD IS CALLED AN OPTICAL BIOASSAY (OBA) AND UTILIZES AN INEXPENSIVE LASER AND PHOTODETECTOR TO DETECT AN ANTIGEN-ANTIBODY BINDING EVENT. ANTIBODY IS COVAL ...

WE WILL DEVELOP A NEW DIAGNOSTIC TEST TO SUBSTANTIALLY IMPROVE THE DEFINITIVE DIAGNOSIS OF PE. PE IS A COMMON DISEASE OF PREGNANT WOMEN AFFECTING THE MOTHER, FETUS, AND NEONATE. PE IS CHARACTERIZED BY THE ONSET OF HYPERTENSION, PROTEINURIA AND EDEMA AFTER THE 20TH WEEK OF GESTATION IN PREVIOUSLY NORMOTENSIVE WOMEN. RECENT STUDIES SUGGEST THAT THE PRIMARY PATHOGENESIS OF THIS DISORDER IS UTEROPLACE ...

THIS SBIR PROJECT EXAMINES A NEW AND INNOVATIVE METHOD OF IMPLEMENTING A RECEIVER THAT HAS SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE OVER THAT OF CONVENTIONAL RECEIVERS IN REJECTING INTERFERENCE. THE IMPROVED INTERFERENCE REJECTION ALLOWS THE TRANSMITTER TO USE LESS POWER TO ACHIEVE THE REQUIRED BIT-ERROR RATE PERFORMANCE, AND HENCE REDUCES THE PROBABILITY THAT THE TRANSMITTER WILL INTERFERE WITH OTHER USERS OF THE SP ...

AUTOMATIC AIDS FOR SITUATION ASSESSMENT, GENERAL INFORMATION FUSION, DECISION MAKING AND PLANNING ARE VULNERABLE TO DECEPTION IN ADVERSARIAL SITUATIONS. COUNTER-DECEPTION CAPABILITIES TO DETECT POSSIBLE DECEPTIVE ACTIONS AND OBTAIN THE CORRECT ASSESSMENT ARE NEEDED TO PRESERVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THESE AIDS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL CREATE TECHNOLOGICAL SUPPORT SO THAT THE EFFECTS OF DECEPTION ...

SUCCESSFULLY APPLYING MODEL-BASED REASONING TO REAL WORLD VISION PROBLEMS (E.G. AUTOMATIC TARGET RECOGNITION ?ATR?) REQUIRES ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THINGS IN THE WORLD AND OBSERVABLE IMAGE FEATURES. EVIDENCE ACCRUAL TECHNIQUES MUST BE ABLE TO OPERATE OVER THESE RELATIONSHIPS WITH LITTLE LOSS IN INFORMATION. CURRENT TECHNIQUES SUCH AS BAYESIAN NETWORKS SHOW PROMISE, ...

FOR ROTORCRAFT IN A NAP-OF-THE-EARTH (NOE) FLIGHT REGIME, COLLISION WITH WIRES PRESENTS A SIGNIFICANT THREAT TO SAFETY. WIRE DETECTION AND AVOIDANCE IS THUS AN IMPORTANT PART OF SAFE NOE GUIDANCE. WIRE DETECTION CAN BE DIFFICULT:WIRES ARE OFTEN NOT STRONGLY SPATIALLY EVIDENT, DANGEROUS WIRES OFTEN OCCUR AT THE FOCUS-OF-EXPANSION (FOE), THERE IS OFTEN SIGNIFICANT BACKGROUND CLUTTER AND NOISE, AND T ...

THE CONTRACTOR WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF USING SILICON AND TANTALUM BASED INORGANIC POLYMER COATINGS FOR PASSIVATING NEURAL PROSTHETIC IMPLANTS. THE CONTRACTOR WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF USING SILICON AND TANTALUM BASED INORGANIC POLYMER COATINGS FOR PASSIVATING NEURAL PROSTHETIC IMPLANTS.