Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Bacterial contamination of dental water lines is a major concern in modern dentistry and may cause infection in dental patients with compromised immune systems. This includes patients with cancer, diabetes, or AIDS; cardiac patients who often require prophylactic antibiotics prior to dental treatment; the elderly, young children, and pregnant women. Bacterial l ...

Project SummaryUltrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are known to reflect emotional processing, brain neurochemistry and brain function - key observations in animal model studies. Collecting and processing USV data is time-intensive, manual, and costly. Most importantly, it limits researchers’ ability to employ fully effective, and nuanced experimental designs, and is a barrier to entry for other rese ...

Abstract E cigarettes (E-cigs) are increasingly popular worldwide, in particular, among youths. E-cigs may contribute to nicotine addiction and are unlikely to discourage conventional cigarette smoking. Mainstream and second-hand E-cig aerosols contain, in addition to nicotine, detectable levels of toxins including carcinogens and heavy metals such as formaldehyde, benzene, nitrosamines, cadmium a ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Resident assistants (RAs) are often the first staff members at a college or university to learn that a student is engaged in alcohol or other drug abuse. This Phase II STTR application seeks support to further develop and test a web-based program called RA Resources (RAR) - Alcohol-Drug Problems. Phase 5, Inc. will conduct this theory-driven research project ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sleep deprivation (SD) occurs universally in modern societies and causes significant social and financial harm. Numerous human and animal studies indicate that various forms of SD are deleterious to mental and physicalhealth. Therefore, SD has been recognized as an unmet challenge to public health. There is increased need to study the effects of different forms ...

ABSTRACT SUMMARY In previous studies we identified novel non hematopoietic umbilical cord blood stem cellsnhUCBSCsthat could be expanded to high passages and exhibit restorative properties following ischemic brain injury repairWe found that the high passaged cells were equivalentif not even betterthan the low passaged nh UCBSCsThis finding suggests that these cells can serve as a source of highly ...

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of factors that increases the risks for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and mortality, and currently affects andgt; 40% of US adults. MetS is associated with endothelial dysfunction, decreased circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), and a pro-inflammatory state. We have made the exciting discovery that therapy with allogeneic me ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate a position tracking and mobility assessment system that will enable the elderly to live longer and more safely at home or in an assisted living facility. The ability to move is a critical function tat underlies the quality of life for the elderly. Changes in mobility such as speed of walking have been shown to ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Since its introduction in the 1960's, fluorescein angiography (FA) has been the gold standard for retinal vascular diagnosis. However, FA is costly, invasive, and time-consuming, which limits its usefulness as a screening tool. As a potential non-invasive alternative to FA for diagnosing retinovascular disease, we have developed an imaging method called ph ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Though not specifically FDA-approved for this indication, topiramate is among the most effective medication treatments for alcohol dependence. Topiramate is rarely used to treat alcohol dependence, however, because it has prominent side effects including somnolence, dizziness, and cognitive disturbances that require gradual dose titration. Many patients stop ta ...