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Imaging systems are commonly used for conducting pavement evaluations. AASHTO Standard Practice for Collecting Images of Pavement Surfaces for Distress Detection (AASHTO Designation: PP 68) addresses the collection of images. However, there are no widely accepted methods for measuring the characteristics of pavement surface images (such as 2-dimensional optical images and 3-dimensional surface elevation images). There are also no widely accepted AASHTO standard practices for the calibration, certification, and verification of such images. Research is needed to identify the characteristics of surface images that are essential for pavement evaluation and develop methods for measuring these characteristics, and also to develop recommended standard practices for implementing these methods. This information will help highway agencies better evaluate image data collection systems and improve the process of pavement condition evaluation. The objectives of this research are to (1) identify and develop methods for measuring the characteristics of surface images used for pavement evaluation and analysis; and (2) develop recommended standard practices for the calibration, certification, and verification of such images, for consideration and adoption by AASHT

Devices to maintain beauty are already available on the market. However, care provided by these devices is still limited to one based on the age or skin characteristics measured at special facilities. Devices for personalized treatment suitable for every individual condition and every environment is not yet provided. A personalized beauty care that incorporates innovative technologies is therefore supposed to possibly offer new beauty care experiences. The Client aims at building a device or service to meet any one of the following needs through cooperation with a partner: Allow individuals to grasp their beauty conditions and environment by using a device or service in an easy, speedy, and accurate manner at home. The beauty conditions include: skin conditions (e.g., wrinkles, blemishes, pores, texture, moisture content, sebum quantity, blood flow volume, color, elasticity, inflammation, pimples, porphyrin, desquamation, lymph, hidden blemishes, infiltration of cosmetics),  hair characteristics (e.g., temperature, moisture content, color, glow, electrostatic charge amount, pH, damages [e.g., cuticle peel-off, porosity, component balance, breakage, split hair], waviness, length, amount), and  beard characteristics (e.g., length, thickness, color, hair-raising angle, direction, ingrown hair, hairline).  The environment includes temperature, humidity, and ultraviolet quantity.

Growing Convergence Research (GCR) at the National Science Foundation was identified as one of 10 Big Ideas. Convergence research is a means for solving vexing research problems, in particular, complex problems focusing on societal needs. It entails integrating knowledge, methods, and expertise from different disciplines and forming novel frameworks to catalyze scientific discovery and innovation. GCR identifies Convergence Research as having two primary characteristics: Research driven by a specific and compelling problem. Convergence Research is generally inspired by the need to address a specific challenge or opportunity, whether it arises from deep scientific questions or pressing societal needs. Deep integration across disciplines. As experts from different disciplines pursue common research challenges, their knowledge, theories, methods, data, research communities and languages become increasingly intermingled or integrated. New frameworks, paradigms or even disciplines can form sustained interactions across multiple communities. A distinct characteristic of convergence research, in contrast to other forms of multidisciplinary research, is that from the inception, the convergence paradigm intentionally brings together intellectually diverse researchers and stakeholders to frame the research questions, develop effective ways of communicating across disciplines and sectors, adopt common frameworks for their solution, and, when appropriate, develop a new scientific vocabulary. Research teams practicing convergence aim at developing sustainable relationships that may not only create solutions to the problem that engendered the collaboration, but also develop novel ways of framing related research questions and open new research vistas.

This FOA has two components, A and B. Component A: To support a 5-year multi-center research network of innovative, non-health system-based, natural experiments approaches to alter the diabetogenic characteristics of US communities. Priority areas include population-level approaches to the promotion of healthy eating and active living by evaluating the impact of environmental and policy interventions on population-level risk factors for diabetes. Component B: To fund a Central Coordinating Center (CCC) to provide organizational, logistic and communication support to enhance the efficiency, productivity, and impact of the Natural Experiments research centers that are funded as part of Component A.

This FOA has two components, A and B. Component A: To support a 5-year multi-center research network of innovative, non-health system-based, natural experiments approaches to alter the diabetogenic characteristics of US communities. Priority areas include population-level approaches to the promotion of healthy eating and active living by evaluating the impact of environmental and policy interventions on population-level risk factors for diabetes. Component B: To fund a Central Coordinating Center (CCC) to provide organizational, logistic and communication support to enhance the efficiency, productivity, and impact of the Natural Experiments research centers that are funded as part of Component A.

NineSigma, on behalf of a global food producer, invites proposals for technology to evaluate the sensory characteristics of foods. The client wishes to quantify the customer's sensory experiences when consuming the client's products.

Focus on diversity among women faculty: The ADVANCE program is centrally focused on funding projects to support systemic change for gender equity in STEM academic careers. Barriers to gender equity may not be identical for all groups of women faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, however. For example, African-American women, Hispanic/Latina women, and Native American women are underrepresented as tenured and tenure-track faculty in STEM disciplines compared to white women, and the challenges to recruitment, retention, and advancement may not be the same for these groups of women. All ADVANCE proposals are expected to address intersectionality and should offer strategies to promote gender equity for all faculty. Intersectionality is a concept found in the social sciences which recognizes that gender does not exist in isolation from other characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, disability status, sexual orientation, foreign-born and foreign-trained status, faculty appointment type, etc.

RWJF is now looking for researchers to study the impact the program has had on the changing face of nursing. Up to four grants of $3,000 each will be awarded to individual researchers for the development of a manuscript in one of the following categories: supports and barriers for accelerated nursing students; characteristics of male nursing students; increasing diversity and cultural climate of nursing schools; student debt and accelerated nursing education: policy implications; and effective mentoring/necessary components.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, seeks applications for research on how pollution affects human health in the context of the total environment - built, natural, and social environments interacting together with inherent characteristics and interactions. Proposed research should develop and test innovative models or impact assessment approaches to examine causal relationships of chemical pollutants and health effects with modifying interactions among the variables representing all of the major stressors and factors involved in a person's life. Proposals that integrate a diverse field of disciplines (social science, economics, epidemiology, engineering, environmental science, biology, statistics, toxicology, chemistry, etc.) to address the complexity of the total environment research problem are highly recommended.

The Mind, Machine and Motor Nexus (M3X) program supports fundamental research at the intersection of mind, machine and motor. A distinguishing characteristic of the program is an integrated treatment of human intent, perception, and behavior in interaction with embodied and intelligent engineered systems and as mediated by motor manipulation. M3X projects should advance the holistic analysis of cognition and of embodiment as present in both human and machine elements. This work will encompass not only how mind interacts with motor function in the manipulation of machines, but also how, in turn, machine response and function may shape and influence both mind and motor function.

Reducing risk through improved drilling success rates is critical to securing financing and ultimately lowering overall costs for developing geothermal power projects. This success hinges on knowledge of the geological, geophysical, and geochemical characteristics that indicate geothermal favorability; along with improved coverage of data that are signatures of the key properties of temperature, permeability, and fluid. To this end, GTO is interested in projects that apply innovative exploration technologies to collect new data and/or apply new analysis methods to extract new value from data. Successful applications will focus on one of the regions identified in GTO?s Data Gap Analysis, and include a significant component of uncertainty analysis that directly demonstrates potential or real impact on success rates. Projects should lead to the development of a Geothermal Play Fairway, which details a specific region constrained through a favorabl e combination of structural and hydrological conditions.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to encourage applications to the newly authorized Direct-to-Phase II SBIR grant mechanism.  Applications are invited from eligible United States small business concerns (SBCs) that have demonstrated the scientific and technical merit and feasibility of the prototype stage of developing a biomedical technology that has commercial potential, R&D that is characteristic of Phase-I (R43) SBIR projects.  The Direct-to-Phase II grant mechanism is intended to facilitate SBIR-type R&D, to expand R&D opportunities for applicant small business concerns (SBCs), and to enhance the pace of technology development and commercialization.   

NIFA initiates a new challenge area to address critical water resources issues such as drought, excess soil moisture, flooding, quality and others in an agricultural context. Funding will be used to develop management practices, technologies, and tools for farmers, ranchers, forest owners and managers, public decision makers, public and private managers, and citizens to improve water resource quantity and quality. NIFA's approach will link social, economic, and behavioral sciences with traditional biophysical sciences and engineering to address regional-scale issues with shared hydrological processes and meteorological and basin characteristics.

The MES program supports research on design, planning, and control of operations in manufacturing enterprises. Research is supported that is both grounded in an interesting and relevant application and requires the development of novel analytical and computational methodologies that may be of broader interest. Topics of interest include supply chain optimization and management; production planning and scheduling; monitoring and control of manufacturing processes; and maintenance and repair. Of particular interest are methods that incorporate increasingly rich enterprise process and product information and models, methods that address sustainability, and methods that incorporate characteristic uncertainty and risk.

The MES program supports research on design, planning, and control of operations in manufacturing enterprises. Research is supported that is both grounded in an interesting and relevant application and requires the development of novel analytical and computational methodologies that may be of broader interest. Topics of interest include supply chain optimization and management; production planning and scheduling; monitoring and control of manufacturing processes; and maintenance and repair. Of particular interest are methods that incorporate increasingly rich enterprise process and product information and models, methods that address sustainability, and methods that incorporate characteristic uncertainty and risk.

United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is seeking multiple non-federal partners ("Collaborators") from industry and/or academia to be considered for participation in Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) (described in 15 USC 3710a, quoted below). Under CRADAs, USTRANSCOM seeks to explore, research and initially develop the concept and business model for the Multi-Mission Logistics Vessel (MMLV), a ship-based delivery system to rapidly provide support to worldwide (U.S. and foreign nation) crisis response/disaster relief operations. The challenge is to understand the feasibility of the concept, considering user needs, economic factors, vessel characteristics and capabilities, appropriate command and control systems, ownership models, support and maintenance concepts, operations costs and user fee structures, and all other system aspects of a small fleet of MMLVs, geographically assigned to specific areas of operation.

The Mechanics of Materials program supports fundamental research on the behavior of solid materials and respective devices under external actions.?? A diverse and interdisciplinary spectrum of research is supported with emphasis placed on fundamental understanding that i) advances theory, experimental, and/or computational methods in Mechanics of Materials, and/or ii) uses contemporary Mechanics of Materials methods to address modern challenges in material and device mechanics and physics. Proposed research can focus on existing or emerging material systems across time and length scales. Intellectual merit typically includes advances in fundamental understanding of deformation, fracture, fatigue, and contact through constitutive modeling, multiscale and multiphysics analysis, computational methods, or experimental techniques.??Recent interests comprise, but are not limited to:?? contemporary materials including multiphase materials and material systems, soft materials, active materials, low-dimensional materials, phononic/elastic metamaterials, friction, wear;??multiphysics methods, mechanics at the nano, meso and microscale and multiscale integration thereof, as well as approaches incorporating fundamental understanding of physics and chemistry into the continuum-level understanding of the response characteristics of materials and material systems.

The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems. Projects must address at least one of five focus areas: Research in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and other methods to improve crop characteristics; Efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases, including threats to specialty crop pollinators; Efforts to improve production efficiency, handling and processing, productivity, and profitability over the long term (including specialty crop policy and marketing); new innovations and technology, including improved mechanization and technologies that delay or inhibit ripening; and methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production efficiency, handling and processing of specialty crops.

NineSigma, representing a Global Leader in medical devices, invites proposals for technologies that can create micron scale structures on metal surfaces. The challenge is to obtain a robust micropatterned surface with a high aspect ratio that can maintain the surface characteristics in a high pressure, high temperature environment.  The approach must be applicable to curved (non planar) metal surfaces. Microstructures on the surfaces of medical devices have many advantages for the various medical application. Surface patterning imparts critical functional features to the device, such as anti-fouling, hydrophobicity, adhesion, etc. The RFP sponsor is seeking innovations that allow creating precise microstructured patterns on non-planar metal surfaces.

The typical method for the application of seasoning is for the chips to pass through a curtain of falling powder. This system has the undesirable side effect of a portion of the seasoning falling between chips. To counter this inefficiency, this seasoning can be recycled for use during later production runs. Unfortunately, the flow characteristics of the powdered seasoning can be negatively impacted by exposure to air or airborne oil particles, limiting reuse potential.

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of "Big Ideas," 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering (seehttps://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas/index.jsp). The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering leadership by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. As such, when responding to this solicitation, even though proposals must be submitted tothe Division of Emerging Frontiers in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO/EF),once received, the proposals will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors. The purpose of the Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics (URoL:Epigenetics) program is to enable innovative research and to promote multidisciplinary education and workforce training in the broad area of epigenetics. The URoL:Epigenetics program is a widecollaborationacross Directorates/Offices within the National Science Foundation with a focus on understanding the relationship between epigenetic mechanisms associated with environmental change, the resultant phenotypes of organisms, and how these mechanisms lead to robustness and adaptability of organisms and populations. Understanding the Rules of Life (URoL): PredictingPhenotypeis one of NSF's 10 Big Ideasand is focused on predicting the set of observable characteristics (phenotype) from the genetic makeup of the individual and the nature of its environment.