Recovery Tracker
How We Compiled Our Data. Visit our Eye on the Stimulus blog. Data current as of March 2010.
Brazos County, Texas
| U.S. | Texas | Brazos | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 304,059,724 | 24,326,974 | 175,122 | |
| Total recovery funding | $312,735,579,044 | $18,771,214,004 | $121,672,048 | |
| Direct to County | $290,999,413,356 | $18,730,153,718 | $121,672,048 | |
| County Funds per Capita | $957 | $770 | $695 | |
| Unemployment (12/08) |
7.4 | 5.6 | 3.8 | |
| Unemployment (12/09) |
10 | 8.3 | 5.6 | |
| Median Household Income | $50,007 | $46,248 | $36,125 | |
| Poverty Rate | 13.3% | 16.9% | 28.7% |
Funding by Federal Agency and Department
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Projects
Stimulus contracts, grants and loans in Brazos County, Texas
Data last updated on March 2010.
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Note: County-level data does not include tax cuts, Medicaid, unemployment benefits or food stamps. There still may be overrepresentation of money going to counties where capitals are located because in some cases, awards to state agencies did not indicate that they were to be used statewide.
Amount refers to both the amount of stimulus funding going toward the project and the face value of the loan.
| Recipient | Amount | Type | Description | Federal Dept./Agency | Date | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $25,000,000.00 | Contract | To purchase 251 days of ship operations and fuel in support of the USIO expeditions | National Science Foundation | 9/04/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $7,641,708.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TRANSPORTATION, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF | $7,504,904.44 | Grant | Highway Planning and Construction Highway Infrastructure Investment | Transportation Department / Federal Highway Administration | 4/13/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $4,310,151.00 | Grant |
State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) - Education State Grants, Recovery Act Education Fund- for the support of public elementary, secondary, and post secondary education and, as, applicable, early childhood education programs and services.
This spending item is part of a $2,177,680,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 7/09/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $3,226,101.00 | Grant |
Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, Recovery Act Improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State academic achievement standards.
This spending item is part of a $948,738,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $3,132,072.00 | Grant |
Special Education Grants to States, Recovery Act Assist States in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities in accordance with Part B of the IDEA.
This spending item is part of a $945,636,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS VALLEY COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY | $3,006,045.00 | Grant |
Weatherization Assistance for Low-Income Persons The Weatherization Assistance Program assists low-income households control energy costs to ensure an healthy and safe living environment. Qualified households may receive weatherization materials installed in their residences and/or energy conservatioon education.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $326,976,000.00 allocation. See details |
Energy Department | 3/27/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS TRANSIT DISTRICT | $2,793,817.00 | Grant | Federal Transit_Formula Grants Invest in public transportation by constructing a multimodal transit terminal/parking garage in Downtown Bryan, Texas. The facility consists of a three story brick building with the 1st floor being 12,000 square feet of retail space; the 2nd & 3rd floors will consist oof 22,000 square feet that will be used for the Brazos County Probation Offices; A parking garage that will accommodate 900 automobiles; A transit terminal that will include a passenger waiting area, rest rooms, office space for Brazos Transit District, and office space for private carrier bus lines. The parking facility will also serve car and vanpool participants. The facility is designed to meet the latest crime prevention through environmental design principles regarding public safety. The terminal will serve the Brazos Transit District Fixed Bus Routes and Demand Response routes along with private carrier bus lines in the area. The terminal and parking facility will serve as a major hub for intra-city and bus routes in Brazos County, and will provide a primary focal point for bus services and many governmental services in downtown Bryan. The terminal will provide sufficient patron waiting areas for downtown transfers and inter-city bus service within one building. It is anticipated that the new terminal will provide greater convenience and thus greater incentive to increase transit ridership. The facility will provide much needed parking for civil servants of the City of Bryan, Brazos County and individuals seeking services from or conducting business at the nearby Brazos County Courthouse, the countyGÇÖs courthouse annex, Bryan City Hall, and the new Justice Center, as well as for parking for Downtown Bryan.... Show more | Transportation Department / Federal Transit Administration | 8/13/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $2,756,932.00 | Grant |
State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) - Education State Grants, Recovery Act Education Fund- for the support of public elementary, secondary, and post secondary education and, as, applicable, early childhood education programs and services.
This spending item is part of a $2,177,680,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 7/09/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sterling Auto Group | $2,000,000.00 | Loan | 504 Certified Development Loans TO ASSIST SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS BY PROVIDING LONG TERM FINANCING THROUGH THE SALE OF DEBENTURES TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $1,811,785.00 | Grant |
Special Education Grants to States, Recovery Act Assist States in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities in accordance with Part B of the IDEA.
This spending item is part of a $945,636,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS TRANSIT DISTRICT | $1,800,000.00 | Grant |
Formula Grants for Other Than Urbanized Areas Invest in public transportation: This grant includes the purchase of fleet vehicles/rolling stock at $23,218,679, the construction & reconstruction of transit facilities at $7,269,231, and the purchase of IT equipment at $2,332,000 for a total grant amouunt of $32,819,910.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $32,819,900.00 allocation. See details |
Transportation Department / Federal Transit Administration | 5/20/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS TRANSIT DISTRICT | $1,800,000.00 | Grant |
Formula Grants for Other Than Urbanized Areas This grant includes the purchase of fleet vehicles/rolling stock at $23,218,679, the construction & reconstruction of transit facilities at $7,269,231, and the purchase of IT equipment at $2,332,000 for a total grant amount of $32,819,910.
This spending item is part of a $32,819,900.00 allocation. See details |
Transportation Department / Federal Transit Administration | 5/20/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| WORFORCE SOLUTIONS BRAZOS VALLEY | $1,585,448.00 | Grant |
ARRA ? Child Care and Development Block Grant ARRA Supplemental Funding for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF): Provide child care financial assistance to low-income working families and fund activities to improve the quality of child care.
This spending item is part of a $214,852,000.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 4/09/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS VALLEY COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY | $1,537,698.00 | Grant |
ARRA - Community Services Block Grant Recovery Act supplemental funding for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Program. The purpose of the program is to allocate funds to a network of eligible organizations to support employment related services that create and sustain economic growth.
This spending item is part of a $48,148,100.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 4/10/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cash for Clunkers Participants | $1,406,000.00 | Grant |
Note: Though Cash for Clunkers was not part of the original stimulus bill, $2 billion in stimulus funds were used to extend the program. |
Transportation Department / National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Big Gas Truck Stop | $1,229,000.00 | Loan | 504 Certified Development Loans TO ASSIST SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS BY PROVIDING LONG TERM FINANCING THROUGH THE SALE OF DEBENTURES TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $1,226,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This award is an outcome of the NSF 09-524 program solicitation 'George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Research (NEESR)' competition and includes Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas (lead institution), The Universsity of Texas in Austin, Texas (subaward), Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania (subaward), and Texas A&M University in Galveston, Texas (subaward). This project will utilize the NEES equipment site at the University of Minnesota. Steel moment frames are widely used for seismic-resistant building construction throughout the United States and in many other parts of the world. Although steel moment frames were studied extensively following the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake, one critical technical issue remains unsolved: the role of the panel zone in steel moment frame joints (beam to column connections). Recent U.S. building codes have significantly increased the required strength of panel zones in steel moment frames. To satisfy these requirements, column sizes must be increased or doubler plates must be welded to the column, resulting in increased cost, sometimes substantially so. However, there is significant experimental evidence that moment frame joints with weak panel zones show highly ductile performance, and consistently achieve large interstory drift angles under cyclic loading without strength degradation. There is also analytical evidence suggesting excellent overall seismic performance can be achieved by moment frames with weak panel zones. This strongly suggests that current building codes have adopted an incorrect approach to panel zone design, needlessly increasing the cost of construction while potentially degrading seismic performance. The overall goal of this research is to resolve the question: how much panel zone participation should be permitted in evaluating the inelastic seismic response of a steel moment frame? Despite a number of past studies on this issue, there are sharply conflicting views of how panel zones should be treated in design, both within the research community as well as within the building regulatory community. At the crux of the disagreements are concerns regarding fracture induced by panel zone yielding. There appears to be broad agreement that panel zone yielding is a highly ductile process. However, there is broad disagreement on the role that panel zone yielding plays in joint fracture. To address these concerns will require the fundamental capability to predict fracture at joints with weak panel zones subject to seismic loading. Thus, the intellectual merit and a key objective of this research is to advance the state of the art in predicting cyclic rupture within critical ductile components of steel building structures, and to apply this knowledge to the problem of the panel zone in steel moment frames. To meet these goals, this research project will integrate (1) fundamental studies on cyclic rupture of steel components combined with high resolution finite element simulations of beam-column joints,(2) advanced frame simulation studies, (3) large-scale experimental studies conducted at the NEES equipment at the University of Minnesota, and (4) parametric computational studies on joint performance. With respect to broader impacts, the knowledge gained from this research is expected to impact design practice and building codes for seismic-resistant steel moment frames. The project team will conduct a professional development program for high school science and mathematics teachers to create and deliver web-based instructional materials to bring concepts of earthquake engineering-related problems into the classroom. Data from this project will be archived and made available to the public through the NEES data repository.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/20/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $1,063,684.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Signal transduction pathways play a key role in many cellular functions as well as intercellular communication. However, elucidating the exact mechanisms involved in signal transduction pathways is non-trivial: crosstalk exists between different pathways, the response within a population of cells can vary significantly, and only limited measurement capabilities are available for observing intracellular signals. One specific example highlighting the importance of signal transduction and how it is affected by cell population is stem cell differentiation. The resulting cell type is affected by the cell population and intercellular communication that activates different signal transduction pathways. This project is focused on the development of a new computational framework that enable the PIs to investigate the role of cell populations on signal transduction. In order to do so, they will derive techniques that allow them to distinguish between stochastic components and population effects. Unlike their past work, which dealt with average properties only, they will focus on developing techniques that consider information about individual cells within a population and use this information for investigating population effects on signal transduction activity. Intellectual Merit: This work includes the following portions: (a) Development of problem formulations and algorithms that can solve inverse problems considering cell populations, rather than just bulk averages, subject to the high level of measurement noise commonly found when studying signal transduction pathways. (b) Derivation of a new approach for determining the optimal set of parameters to estimate in a nonlinear signal transduction pathway model given the available data for a distribution of cells and considering uncertainty in the model. (c) Development of a computational technique for large-scale parameter estimation across populations to determine how intercellular communication affects signal transduction in individual cells, leading to a greater understanding of cellular behavior and improved experimental design. This includes determining the number of cells and their spatial location in experiments in order to avoid results that are skewed because cell population effects have not been considered. In summary, this work will develop and integrate mathematical, computational, and experimental approaches to partition stochastic and population effects with the ultimate goal of developing improved models of signal transduction pathways. These techniques will be applied to the Jak/STAT and the Erk-C/EBP-¥-¥ signaling pathways which play an important role in many cellular responses, such as stem cell differentiation and the inflammatory response of the liver. Broader Impact: Synergies can be created by integrating research and teaching efforts in the area of systems biology as well as by establishing long-term collaborations between research groups involved in modeling and in the experimental life sciences. Two of the PIs coteach a senior-level undergraduate/graduate elective class on systems biology which integrates theoretical and experimental aspects required for modeling and analysis of bio-systems. The class aligns with departmental curriculum reform plans and will include several modules which can also be used in other courses and outreach activities. Interactive and web-based learning aids will be developed along with the modules and incorporated throughout the course. Additionally, significant effort will be devoted to disseminating research results in the form of software, case studies, undergraduate student education and training, and outreach programs to underrepresented groups.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/28/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| WORFORCE SOLUTIONS BRAZOS VALLEY | $1,019,730.00 | Grant |
WIA Youth Activities 17.259 RECOVERY ACT-WIA YOUTH FORMULA GRANTS-STATES - $82,000,708: To help low income youth, between the ages of 14 and 24, acquire the educational and occupational skills, training, and support needed to achieve academic and employment success and successfully transition to carreers and productive adulthood. 17.260 RECOVERY ACT-WIA DISLOCATED WORKER-FORMULA-STATES - $53,768,305: The purpose of the program is to reemploy dislocated workers, improve the quality of the workforce, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the nation's economy by providing workforce investment activities that increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by the participants. This program is designed to increase employment, as measured by entry into unsubsidized employment, retention in unsubsidized employment after entry into employment, and extent of recovery of prior earnings. For cross cutting goals, the program intends to enhance customer satisfaction for participants and for employers. The employment goals will be measured using Unemployment Insurance Wage Records systems and customer satisfaction goals will be measured by sampling. 17.258 RECOVERY ACT-WIA ADULT ACTIVITIES-STATES - $34,344,771: The purpose of this program is to improve the quality of the workforce, reduce welfare dependency, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the nation's economy by providing workforce investment activities that increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by the participants. This program is designed to increase employment, as measured by entry into unsubsidized employment, retention in unsubsidized employment after entry into employment, and earnings. For cross-cutting goals, the program intends to enhance customer satisfaction for participants and for employers. The employment goals will be measured using Unemployment Insurance Wage Records systems and customer satisfaction goals will be measured by sampling... Show more
This spending item is part of a $170,114,000.00 allocation. See details |
Labor Department / Employment and Training Administration | 2/17/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| STARVISION TECHNOLOGIES, INC. | $1,000,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS VALLEY COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY | $943,350.00 | Grant | ARRA ? Health Center Integrated Services Development Initiative[g1] This award will fund the purchase and implementation of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for the medical clinics and an Health Information Technology system (Electronic Dental Record) for the dental clinics. The primary goals and obbjectives for the HIT/EHR project are reducing disparities, managing chronic diseases of patients, improving health education and prevention, reducing medical errors, improving patient care, tracking clinical outcomes, and improving heath center reimbursements. Several key factors will be monitored in order to evaluate financial impact and patient care.These will include monthly provider productivity reports, number of patients served, payer mix, and clinical quality measures.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / Health Resources and Services Administration | 6/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TRANSPORTATION, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF | $892,019.28 | Grant | Highway Planning and Construction Highway Infrastructure Investment | Transportation Department / Federal Highway Administration | 3/31/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $865,492.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $865,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The burgeoning revolution in high-end computer architecture has far reaching implications for the software infrastructure of tools for performance measurement, modeling, and optimization, which has been indispensable to improved productivity in computational sscience over the past decade. The heart of the problem is that new multicore processors are the foundation of next generation systems, ranging from workgroup clusters to petascale supercomputers. The main motivation by chip manufacturers for the movement to multicore processors is better performance per watt than the traditional single core processor. Hence, multicore processors are not equivalent to multiple CPUs that traditional tools addressed. While significant work is underway on understanding performance tradeoffs with multicores, much of this work is ad hoc and needs a unifying framework to which the community can contribute in a systematic manner. Furthermore, little work has been done on understanding performance-power tradeoffs in supercomputer systems for large-scale applications. It is important to understand performance and performance-power tradeoffs in the context of the significant resource sharing that occurs in multicore systems. This proposal is focused on developing the Multicore Application Modeling Infrastructure (MAMI) that will facilitate systematic measurement, modeling, and prediction of performance, power consumption and performance-power tradeoffs in multicore systems. In addition to developing MAMI, the proposed work will use MAMI to model, analyze and optimize performance and power consumption of key benchmarks and applications on multicore systems.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/04/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $841,243.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support In this project the PIs will investigate human-robot interaction in situations where a human is highly dependent upon a robot that serves as the medium for the outside world, such as emergency response, hostage negotiation, and healthcare. In these domains, thhe human 'dependent' is typically connected to multiple other human 'controllers' (medical specialists, structural engineers, rescue operations officials, etc.) via the robot proxy for long periods of time. The literature suggests that under these circumstances the dependent will respond to the robot socially, and will become distrustful as well as cognitively confused by a robot that presents a different affect for different controllers rather than a consistent communication strategy. The PIs believe that such a robot would occupy a novel 'social medium' position within the Computers as Social Actors (CASA) model, and would be perceived as a loyal and helpful go-between who is an advocate for the dependent rather than as a device for accomplishing the goals of the controllers. To explore this hypothesis, the PIs will make use of the Survivor Buddy, a multimedia attachment for a robot which allows trapped victims to engage in two-way video conferencing, watch news, listen to music, etc. Formative experiments will be conducted at Stanford's CHIMe lab, followed by comprehensive, high fidelity experiments at Texas A&M's Disaster City using point-of-injury care scripts developed under prior work with medical doctors and rescue professionals. The paralinguistic aspects of the associated communication strategy will couple the ongoing work by Nass in voice characteristics and mannerisms with research in affective physical mannerisms in non-anthropomorphic robots under development by Murphy; the intellectual merit of the project thus stems from its multidisciplinary merging of communications and computer science. The research will introduce the CASA spectrum of relationships as a complement to robot-centric taxonomies, and will define a new relationship where a human is highly dependent upon a medium for long durations along with a new identity of social medium, which the PIs expect will have a greater impact on integrating robots into society than autonomous social actors and tele-operation. Project outcomes will include creation of a formal and comprehensive communication strategy for HRI, which combines verbal and nonverbal affect; this will unify the theory and practice of social robots, thereby breaking the pattern of ad hoc application of affect currently seen in the robotics literature and establishing the fundamental models and paradigms for continuing basic research in HRI. Broader Impacts: This project will ultimately help save the lives of victims of accidents, disasters, and terrorism, and will also generally improve the quality of life for 'shut-ins.' The concept of social medium is well-matched to the current capabilities of tele-operation and semi-autonomy in civilian and military robotics; thus, the communication strategies developed will be immediately applicable to domains such as law enforcement and emergency response, which currently use robots, as well as to healthcare, where robots have not yet found a strong economic niche but have huge economic potential. The educational outreach plan includes multi-disciplinary curriculum development, as well as outreach to K-12 teachers and museums.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/13/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION, CITY OF | $791,100.00 | Grant | Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG) Sustainability Program, Parks Retrofits and Additional Hybrid Vehicles in the City Fleet | Energy Department | 9/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| WORFORCE SOLUTIONS BRAZOS VALLEY | $764,236.00 | Grant |
WIA Youth Activities 17.259 RECOVERY ACT-WIA YOUTH FORMULA GRANTS-STATES - $82,000,708: To help low income youth, between the ages of 14 and 24, acquire the educational and occupational skills, training, and support needed to achieve academic and employment success and successfully transition to carreers and productive adulthood. 17.260 RECOVERY ACT-WIA DISLOCATED WORKER-FORMULA-STATES - $53,768,305: The purpose of the program is to reemploy dislocated workers, improve the quality of the workforce, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the nation's economy by providing workforce investment activities that increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by the participants. This program is designed to increase employment, as measured by entry into unsubsidized employment, retention in unsubsidized employment after entry into employment, and extent of recovery of prior earnings. For cross cutting goals, the program intends to enhance customer satisfaction for participants and for employers. The employment goals will be measured using Unemployment Insurance Wage Records systems and customer satisfaction goals will be measured by sampling. 17.258 RECOVERY ACT-WIA ADULT ACTIVITIES-STATES - $34,344,771: The purpose of this program is to improve the quality of the workforce, reduce welfare dependency, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the nation's economy by providing workforce investment activities that increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by the participants. This program is designed to increase employment, as measured by entry into unsubsidized employment, retention in unsubsidized employment after entry into employment, and earnings. For cross-cutting goals, the program intends to enhance customer satisfaction for participants and for employers. The employment goals will be measured using Unemployment Insurance Wage Records systems and customer satisfaction goals will be measured by sampling... Show more
This spending item is part of a $170,114,000.00 allocation. See details |
Labor Department / Employment and Training Administration | 2/17/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| CRESTVIEW PLACE/TERRACE APTS | $703,508.00 | Grant | Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program Special Allocations (Recover Contract Svs S8 Funds | Housing and Urban Development Department / Federal Housing Commissioner | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN, CITY OF INC | $695,100.00 | Grant | Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG) Project Description: The City of Bryan in November of 2008, initiated a project to modernize a 40 year old facility focusing on significantly improving the efficiency and associated energy utilization using technologies that are minimallly ?Energy Star? compliant. An Architectural firm with LEED certified personnel was brought on board to partner with the city in developing energy saving strategies for this aged facility. Together we have developed a strategy to prioritize projects with the greatest potential for energy savings. Our focus at this point is to replace the primary systems that when replaced or upgraded will result in the greatest energy utilization reductions. These systems include heating and air conditioning system, the lighting system, roofing system, and external window/door systems. Our objective is to reduce the energy consumption of the facility by at least 20%, along with the associated reduction in the carbon footprint of the building. It is our intent that the technologies and strategies used in this facility will serve as a model for future new construction and remodeling projects performed by the City of Bryan.... Show more | Energy Department | 8/14/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $693,613.00 | Grant |
Education Technology State Grants, Recovery Act Educational Technology State Grants to States to improve student academic achievement through the innovative use and the effective integration of new and emerging technology with teacher training, curriculum development, and successful research-based innstructional methods in elementary and secondary schools.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $59,515,800.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 7/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TRANSPORTATION, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF | $672,160.99 | Grant |
Highway Planning and Construction Highway Infrastructure Investment
This spending item is part of a $672,161.00 allocation. See details |
Transportation Department / Federal Highway Administration | 3/31/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $668,160.00 | Grant |
Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, Recovery Act Improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State academic achievement standards.
This spending item is part of a $948,738,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN HOUSING AUTHORITY | $618,573.00 | Grant | Public Housing Capital Fund Stimulus (Formula) Recovery Act Funded project includes the general renovation of the plumbing of 300 units. the changing out of plumbing fitures in the kitchen and bathroom some sheet rock work to water heater closet and furnace closet. exterior trim paint of all 300 unitts.... Show more | Housing and Urban Development Department | 3/18/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $610,170.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $599,763.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The very early universe, in the first instance after its creation, was filled with a very hot and dense soup of matter, consisting of quarks, leptons and gluons. When the universe expanded and cooled, but still just milliseconds after the Big Bang, quarks and gluons suddenly condensed into protons and neutrons which eventually made up the nuclei of all the chemical elements around us. This process (called the QCD phase transition) and the hot and dense primordial matter (called the Quark Gluon Plasma), can be recreated nowadays in the laboratory in collisions of heavy nuclei with very large energies. Such experiments take place at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the US and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe. In this proposal the PI develops tools that will allow us to (a) understand how a Quark Gluon Plasma is formed in nuclear collisions, and (b) how its properties can be tested. The first part is important to separate the new phase that we want to study (the Quark Gluon Plasma) from the creation mechanism in the lab (the nuclear collision). This should eventually allow us to determine important properties of Quark Gluon Plasma and the nature of the QCD phase transition to much higher accuracy than before. The second part studies how probes which can penetrate this dense matter, photons and so-called QCD jets, can be used for a tomography of Quark Gluon Plasma and all nuclear matter. This is an existing method which works on a qualitative level, but will be dramatically improved in precision through the planned research. This proposal also includes an outreach program which will enhance the existing Saturday Morning Physics program at Texas A&M University by involving high school teachers and adding interactive components.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/02/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $577,631.00 | Grant | ARRA - Early Head Start ARRA Early Head Start Expansion | Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 12/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MHMR AUTHORITY OF BRAZOS VALLEY | $568,024.00 | Grant |
Special Education - Grants for Infants and Families, Recovery Act Assist States in the implementation of a statewide, comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency system of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.
This spending item is part of a $44,454,400.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services | 8/31/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| WELLBORN SPECIAL UTILITY DISTRICT | $538,000.00 | Loan | Water and Waste Disposal Systems for Rural Communities - ARRA 538 -(LOAN ONLY) WATER ONLY- 09/10 STIMULUS | Agriculture Department / Rural Utilities Service | 5/07/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $500,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This award provides funding for a 3 year standard award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering Site program at Texas A&M University (TAMU) entitled, 'RET Site: Enrichment Experiences in Engineering (E3) for Teachers Summer Researchh Program', under the direction of Dr. Robin Autenrieth. This program is a renewal of a successful RET Site and is a collaborative effort with the TAMU College of Engineering, College of Science, and College of Education. Led by Dr. Autenrieth, and co-PI, Karen Butler-Purry, the E3 RET Site will continue to match 10 inservice and 2 preservice teachers per year (36 total) with TAMU engineering researchers for a six week summer research experience. This Site addresses the program's goal of involving K-12 teachers in NSF-funded engineering research to bring knowledge of engineering and technological innovation into their classrooms. To accomplish this goal the program has the following four major objectives linked to the intended outcomes and impacts: 1) Provide contemporary engineering research experiences and enhance understanding of the nature of engineering. 2) Scaffold teacher development of authentic inquiry activities. 3) Improve public school teachers knowledge about careers in engineering. 4) Build a community of teachers who remain engaged with TAMU Engineering and network among themselves.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/11/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS TRANSIT DISTRICT | $463,000.00 | Grant |
Formula Grants for Other Than Urbanized Areas Invest in public transportation: This grant uses the remaining funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), enacted February 17, 2009. A previous grant TX-86-X001 included $32,819,910 from the total $50,587,402.00 appropriation for the -º5311 program for the State of Texas. Intercity Bus projects are being funded under TX-86-X002 ($7,588,111). This grant uses 100% federal funds, and will be used for capital projects only. We are able to operate and maintain the vehicles purchased under this grant. These grant activities are a categorical exclusion under NEPA. With the exception of support vehicles, all revenue rolling stock will be accessible. This grant includes the purchase of revenue fleet vehicles and non-revenue fleet vehicles, the construction of transit facilities, and the purchase of IT equipment and other support equipment for a total grant amount of $10,179,382. TxDOT will not use any funds from this award to administer the program.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $10,179,400.00 allocation. See details |
Transportation Department / Federal Transit Administration | 9/28/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS TRANSIT DISTRICT | $463,000.00 | Grant |
Formula Grants for Other Than Urbanized Areas This grant uses the remaining funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), enacted February 17, 2009. A previous grant TX-86-X001 included $32,819,910 from the total $50,587,402.00 appropriation for the -º5311 program for the Staate of Texas. Intercity Bus projects are being funded under TX-86-X002 ($7,588,111). This grant uses 100% federal funds, and will be used for capital projects only. We are able to operate and maintain the vehicles purchased under this grant. These grant activities are a categorical exclusion under NEPA. With the exception of support vehicles, all revenue rolling stock will be accessible. This grant includes the purchase of revenue fleet vehicles and non-revenue fleet vehicles, the construction of transit facilities, and the purchase of IT equipment and other support equipment for a total grant amount of $10,179,382. TxDOT will not use any funds from this award to administer the program.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $10,179,400.00 allocation. See details |
Transportation Department / Federal Transit Administration | 9/28/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $461,166.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $456,178.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The Earth today has major ice caps on Antarctica and Greenland, but this was not always the case. This research focuses on climate change during a time period known as the Oligocene (34 to 24 million years ago). This interval of time began with a big shift in climate, when a large ice sheet developed on Antarctica. Once the Antarctic ice cap was established, it waxed and waned many times between periods with relatively little ice and periods with very expansive ice sheets. However, the impact of these large variations in Antarctic ice volume upon tropical sea surface temperatures and marine biota are largely unknown. Previous estimates of Oligocene sea surface temperatures from microfossil geochemistry indicate tropical and subtropical temperatures that were substantially lower than modern. But there is a problem in previous studies: microfossil shell geochemistry can be altered post deposition and bias temperature reconstructions. To address this problem, PI will examine microfossils from sites with exceptional preservation (Konservat-Lagerstaette). A detailed study of well preserved microfossils will build an accurate picture of how the Oligocene climate changed and will lead to a greater understanding of Oligocene climatic events and the impact on tropical biota. This research will be integrated with a number of K-12, undergraduate, and graduate activities that involve project-based discovery learning. In partnership with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program at Texas A&M, PI will expand a successful pilot program for minority high school students, Summer pre-College Ocean Research Experience (SCORE), which emphasizes integrated research experiences in ocean sciences. A permanent exhibit on polar climates and the history of Antarctica will be designed and PI will create 3D podcasts of microfossils 'micropods' for incorporation into teaching activities.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/31/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $443,638.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $440,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The research goal of this integrated research and educational endeavor is to advance the fundamental understanding of the behavior of interconnected systems by studying the influence of delays on their stability and performance. The proposed theoretical approaach builds on a hybrid system formulation for networked systems with delays. The novelty lies in expressing the Lyapunov exponent ?a measure of stability- as a path average and characterizing the discrete structure associated with the hybrid system (the underlying graph). The statistical properties of the induced random walk on the underlying graphs will be used to quantify stability and performance properties of the networked system in terms of the moments of the delay distribution. This is achieved by combining techniques and tools of dynamical systems techniques (Lyapunov exponent, cell-to-cell mapping), discrete mathematics (graph theory and generating functions) and statistical physics (random matrix products, random walks). Systems of communicating components have impacted a broad range of applications including space exploration, mobile sensor networks, teleoperated surgical robots, control of teams of vehicles, and integrated building systems. With the proliferation of embedded processors interacting through networks, the analysis of communicating dynamic components is timely and important. Such systems are common in chemical/nuclear plants, cars, aircrafts, and thus questions regarding their stability and performance should be rigorously studied. Due to network traffic, the signal delays can only be statistically characterized. The fundamental contribution of this proposal is a novel theoretical and computational framework for studying stability and performance of interconnected systems with random time delays. The education goal is to excite students about the possibilities in science and engineering through engaging courses and involvement in a multidisciplinary and multilevel project emphasizing practical problem solving, creative design, and the scientific method. To integrate educational activities with experimental validation of the proposed theory, a distributed testbed of vehicles/robots will be built by a multidisciplinary and multilevel team supervised by the PI.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/20/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $438,431.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS AGRILIFE RESEARCH | $437,179.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support A major contributor to morbidity and mortality in trauma patients following emergency resuscitation is intestinal dysfunction caused by interstitial edema formation in the bowel. The mesenteric lymphatic system plays a crucial role in limiting bowel edema by rreturning interstitial fluid to the blood stream. Although lymph transport is recognized as the primary mechanism for edema resolution, we have recently identified that lymph transport is governed by two very different processes. When interstitial pressure exceeds central venous pressure, lymphatic vessels can act as conduit vessels, passively transporting lymph down a pressure gradient. However, because lymphatic vessels are muscular and cyclically contract, they can act as pumps, actively transporting lymph up a pressure gradient from the normally low-pressure interstitial space to the higher- pressure veins. Our preliminary data indicate that lymphatic muscle in existing vessels undergoes functional adaptation in response to changes in lymph flow within three days. This period of short-term adaptation corresponds closely to the critical period in the management of trauma patients. The responsible molecular pathways and the functional consequences of these adaptive changes are currently unknown. The central hypothesis for the proposed research is that mesenteric lymphatic vessels will adapt to mesenteric venous hypertension and intestinal edema by becoming better conduits and will adapt to downstream lymphatic obstruction by becoming better pumps. We will test this hypothesis by pursuing three specific aims. 1. Quantify changes in contractile function, biomechanics, calcium sensitivity and gene and protein expression in mesenteric lymphatic vessels in response to increased lymph flow induced by mesenteric venous hypertension. 2. Quantify changes in contractile function, biomechanics, calcium sensitivity and gene and protein expression in mesenteric lymphatic vessels in response to decreased lymph flow induced by partial downstream lymphatic obstruction. 3. Determine the degree to which functional and molecular changes observed after 3 days of mesenteric venous hypertension are reversible upon resolution of the hypertension. We will use 2 bovine models, mesenteric venous hypertension and mesenteric lymphatic obstruction, to explore lymphatic adaptation. This research effort is expected to identify the molecular pathways and key changes in molecular expression by which lymphatic muscle adapts to altered hydrodynamic conditions associated with organ edema formation. In addition, it will quantify the functional and biomechanical consequences of that adaptation. This information will give direction to the development of new pharmacologic or molecular therapeutic measures designed to enhance lymphatic removal of edema fluid and reduce the time and expense required by that therapy. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: A major problem contributing to sickness and death in trauma patients following emergency resuscitation is intestinal dysfunction caused by accumulation of tissue fluid within the wall of the intestine. The lymphatic system plays a crucial role in limiting the accumulation of this fluid by returning tissue fluid to the blood stream. This research effort is expected to identify how lymphatic vessels adapt to these conditions and, thus, provide information for development of new therapies to promote fluid removal from the intestine.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 8/28/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $435,757.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Numerical methods are the future of computation in algebraic geometry. The reason for this is that increases in computing power will be due to massive parallelization and symbolic algorithms do not appear to be parallelizable while numerical algorithms are eassily parallelized. This project aims to help build the infrastructure for this numerical future. It will do this through two main research programs and through the training of students and a postdoctoral fellow. One project is to develop and implement a radically new numerical continuation algorithm that computes only the real solutions to a system of polynomial equations, in contrast to homotopy continuation, which necessarily computes all solutions, both real and complex. The other is to use numerical methods to study subtle geometric invariants of important geometric problems, namely the Galois groups of Schubert problems. The first will extend the toolbox of numerical algebraic geometry, while the second will showcase its potential for pure mathematical research. A primary goal of this project is the training of one or more students in this area and the training and professional development of a postdoctoral researcher. Both projects are multi-year tasks requiring software development that will involve team-based research and collaborators at Colorado State and Georgia Tech and will result in publications, software packages, and Ph.D. theses. Algebraic geometry is concerned with theoretical questions about solutions to systems of polynomial equations, but it has great potential in applications, in particular through implemented algorithmic tools. Numerical algebraic geometry is a new field that uses numerical methods in algebraic geometry and has been driven by applications of mathematics. This project will further its progress by developing new numerical tools for studying real solutions, applying it to pure mathematical research, and the training of students and postdoctoral fellows.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $430,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The main objectives of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) proposal are to discover atomic-scale details governing nanomaterials? response to irradiation, and to explore the possibilities of property-tuning to achieve extremely radiation tolerant maaterials for high temperature reactor designs. The scientific goals of the project are to (1) obtain a fundamental understanding about the roles of boundaries in radiation damage development of nanograined materials; (2) study the stability limit of boundaries under extreme radiation environments; (3) evaluate the importance of boundary instability to defect sink efficiency; and (4) discover the keys in nanoscale design of radiation tolerant materials. The project will focus on SiC and T91 alloys, which represent important materials for reactor core structures. Starting with materials synthesis with different grain sizes, systematic ion irradiation and post irradiation characterization will be performed. The project will use atom probe tomography to provide the most comprehensive analysis of 3-dimensial atom distribution. Ion irradiation and in situ transmission electron microscopy will be used to observe the dynamics process of defect creation. If successful, the project will break new ground in understanding the basic physics of radiation damage in nanoscale materials and will contribute to reliable, affordable, and clean nuclear energy. Furthermore, the knowledge obtained through the project will impact the fabrication and application of a wide range of devices, sensors and detectors used in extreme radiation environments. Examples include fabrication of nanostructured materials, which requires ion implantation for doping, prediction of functional failures of nanoelectronics in space applications, and development of radiation detectors in particle physics and in homeland security applications. The project will also have broad impact with its educational and outreach plans to (1) increase participation of undergraduate students and minority students in emerging materials research; (2) develop curriculum for a new Master of Science program in nuclear materials; (3) create e-learning resources to integrate research, teaching and curriculum development, and to promote public learning in frontiers of nuclear materials science; and (4) develop the Center of Ion & Materials Research and use it as a platform for interdisciplinary research and teaching in ion beam related materials science.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/22/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS VALLEY COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY | $429,297.00 | Grant | ARRA ? Health Center Integrated Services Development Initiative[g1] The purpose of this award is to increase capacity to provide primary care services to low income uninsured whose numbers are increasing due to the economic downturn. The award will support hiring one Pediatrician, one medical supportt staff and one patient support staff. The award will provide services to 1100 new patients of which 800 are expected to be uninsured.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / Health Resources and Services Administration | 3/27/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $426,579.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Real-world software systems are large, complex artifacts built up over multiple layers of abstraction using diverse collections of components. Though individual components are often reusable, code that manages interactions between components seldom is. Such coode is large-scale itself, and encodes significant amounts of application logic. A potential for communication between components, typically effected by message passing between objects, forms incidental structures in a program. Though such structures are real data structures, they lack an explicit representation in program code and at run time, and are thus difficult to reuse, manipulate programmatically, and reason about. This project focuses on identifying incidental structures that arise in important domains of mainstream programming---human interfaces in particular---and modeling them as declaratively specified explicit software artifacts. The hypothesis is that large amounts of ad-hoc code can be obsoleted, and replaced by reusable algorithms and components. The particular source of incidental data structures in user interfaces is the event handling code, implementing propagation of values, validation logic, interface element enabling logic, scripting support, etc. The project seeks to demonstrate that these functionalities, typically implemented with application-specific non-reusable code, are not specific to a particular user interface; they can be realized with reusable generic algorithms, parameterized over a (declaratively specified) model that captures the relations, as a system of constraints, between values manipulated by the user interface. The proposed work will impact future large-scale software development, aiming to realize substantially increased productivity and software that is more reliable, efficient, and predictable.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/12/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $420,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This proposal will examine the effect of polymer microstructure, solvent additives and solution components on lower critical solution temperature (LCST) phenomena both in solution and at surfaces. The studies proposed will use solution statee light scattering analyses of cloud point behavior mostly using a bulk phase microanalytical automated digital melting point apparatus to study small scale samples in parallel. Other analytical techniques will be employed too. For example, fluorescence spectroscopy with labeled polymers will probe polymer aggregation events that occur before and after visible phase separation starts and ends. The effects of small molecule and macromolecular co-solutes on LCSTs of a variety of polymers with structurally isomeric repeating units will be carried out to determine how ionic, covalent and macromolecular co-solutes affect a given polymer's LCST. The structural and chemical information generated in these solution-state studies will then be used to develop new sorts of stimuli-responsive surfaces that reversibly change between being superhydrophobic or hydrophilic. Such surfaces physical properties will also be studied to determine if the hydration changes of the polymer grafts alter surface mechanical properties such as viscoelasticty and adhesion. These surfaces with be studied using a battery of analytical methods. The surface structural changes associated with reorganization of these surfaces that will be in the form of thin film nanocomposites in response to solutes in bulk water component will be followed, and, in suitable cases, will be monitored in real time. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This proposed work will study the molecular details of stimuli-responsive macromolecular solubility. This will primarily involve studies of how a macromolecule's temperature-dependent solubility changes in response to the presence of other species in solution. These studies will include studies of aqueous polymer solutions and studies of polymer-containing coatings on solid surfaces. Such responsive polymer solubility studies are important because such materials are components of responsive catalysts and sensors. Polymer solubility and the temperature dependence of polymer solubility is also critically important in determining the stability and activity of proteins and enzymes. Extending studies of solution behavior of macromolecules to include surfaces will lead to a better understanding of responsive wettability of surfaces and the design of 'smart' surfaces. Such 'smart' surfaces have potential as new materials that are self cleaning, that have controllable adhesion, or that have varied surface friction. These studies will have broader impacts that include both undergraduate and graduate education in the research laboratory and classroom. Extramural dissemination of results in presentations to audiences in industry, at predominantly undergraduate institutions, and at international venues will publicize the results of these studies. The chemical methodology used in this research will be developed into experiments that will be used in freshman chemistry courses to educate students about the consequences of enthalpy and entropy in macromolecule hydration. International research collaborations will be fostered and will involve programs with groups in Europe, China, and Qatar.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 5/29/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS AGRILIFE RESEARCH | $406,885.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The transmission cycle of many important infectious agents includes not only the hosts but also their environments. After infection of a host with a pathogen like Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, or Salmonella spp, large numbers of the pathogen may bee intermittently shed into the environment where they may survive, multiply, and infect new hosts. These pathogens have thus retained a combination of two traits: 1) intermittent shedding and 2) environmental persistence. The widespread occurrence of this combination of traits indicates that they optimize pathogen transmissibility, i.e., their ability to spread infection. There is a critical need to understand the evolution and ecology of the two traits, their effects on pathogen transmissibility, and their implications for the control of pathogens that carry this combination of traits. The current project will address this need by providing mechanistic insight into the tradeoff between intermittent shedding and environmental persistence traits through strategic pairing of mathematical modeling and empirical studies, using E. coli transmission among cattle hosts and their environment as a theoretical and empirical model system. Furthermore, the project will establish a general organizing principle for the systematic characterization of all infectious agents in terms of their aptitude for within-host replication and survival, and between-host replication and survival, all of which jointly define pathogen transmissibility. Broader Impacts: The educational impact of this project arises from extensive involvement and interdisciplinary training of undergraduate and graduate students in experimental, epidemiological, molecular, microbiological and mathematical modeling efforts as part of the multidisciplinary project. The anticipated benefits of this project include the advancement of animal and public health through a better understanding of the intermittent shedding and environmental persistence traits that characterize many infectious agents.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/14/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| LYNNTECH INC. | $405,605.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support A Novel Nanocomposite Photocatalyst for Water Treatment | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/17/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $401,841.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Understanding the behavior of 230Th is critical to interpret the sedimentary record and understand how climate change affects oceanographic processes. This study will address the controversy in using this technique based on assumptions made in the 230Th model.. Specifically, the PIs will address the issue of how one explains sedimentary 230Th inventories along the equator in the Pacific that are larger than those expected from a constant water column production rate. They will compare the assumption that the flux of laterally advected sediment can surpass the vertically rained flux by up to 2-4 times versus the argument that mass accumulation rates are affected by 230Th mobility and lateral transport of 230Th from the central Pacific gyres. This project teams up PIs who have reached different conclusions about this question. The award supports a research cruise that will collect water column, sediment trap, and sediment (low-flux red-clay environments) to determine if significant 230Th transport might occur out of the region. The award also supports education and training of a graduate student for three years, and the cruise will include sea-going experience for both graduate and undergraduate students.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| J Craig Scasta, DDS, PA | $400,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $400,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support CAREER: Information Theory and Coding for Wireless Broadcast Networks Broadcast is a fundamental nature of wireless communication. With appropriate coding architecture, the broadcast nature of wireless communication can be used to the advantage of simultaneouusly transmitting to several receivers at high rates. Most of the previous work focused on the following two scenarios: 1) to deliver the same message to each of the receivers; 2) to deliver completely different messages to different receivers. Between these two ?extreme? broadcast scenarios, there is a rich collection of ?intermediate? problems with message sets of interesting configuration and significant engineering appeal. Understanding the limits and the appropriate coding architectures of broadcast networks with general message set configurations is a relatively unexplored challenge that must be addressed to fully harness the broadcast advantage of wireless communication. This research takes a fundamental information-theoretic view of broadcast networks to shed insight into what coding architectures are appropriate for different message set configurations. An important component of this study is the focus on concrete and physically motivated models of wireless network communication. Of particular interest is to understand the impact of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication. Specifically, this research studies: 1) the impact of message set configuration on the appropriate coding architecture of wireless broadcast networks; 2) secrecy communication under physically motivated models; and 3) the value of receiver message side information for broadcast network communication. The research program is complemented by an educational effort to train the next generation of engineers to become skilled in the design of wireless networks, which involves developing a new course on information theory for wireless systems and writing an accompanied textbook.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/08/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $400,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The goal of this CAREER project is to develop an integrated research and educational program in molecular systems biology (MSB). This project focuses on soluble signal-mediated signaling between bacteria and human cells, termed inter-kingdom (IK) signaling, ass the research paradigm for MSB. The quantitative characterization of signaling mechanisms and the identification of regulatory networks has led to a fundamental understanding of how signaling pathways are involved in the regulation of biological processes. The next level of challenges in cell signaling is on understanding how different signals and signaling mechanisms function in heterogeneous and complex environments. Broader Impact: The broader impact of the project plan is four-fold. First, the molecular systems signaling framework to be developed in this project will lead to a fundamental understanding of signals, receptors, and recognition mechanisms, which will further the advancement of emerging areas such as synthetic biology. Second, these studies can form the basis of novel molecular therapeutic strategies against E. coli O157:H7 (EHEC) and other pathogens. Third, the microfluidic tools and reporter cells to be developed in this work can be applied to other paradigms in biology and medicine (e.g., stem cell engineering) where spatio-temporal behavior is important. Fourth, the dynamic profiling method described in this project will synergistically further efforts in computational systems biotechnology through the development of new models and algorithms for describing biomolecular dynamics and interactions. The broader impact of the education plan is two-fold. First, the biotechnology specialty certificate and mentored research will provide the framework for training the next generation of biotechnology professionals, introduce active learning into the biotechnology learning experience, and stimulate interest in biotechnology in a large and diverse undergraduate engineering student body. Second, the dissemination of research results through distance learning schemes to students in rural schools in Texas will provide a much-needed connection between higher education institutions and rural schools and society; thereby, leading to increasing number of minority students pursuing STEM careers.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/02/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $400,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This engineering education research award to Texas Engineering Experiment Station will employ researchers to develop a novel sketch recognition-based learning system which will allow students to use freehand sketching to enter their drawings of forces acting oon components of physical systems. This work will advance understanding of automatic real-time interpretation of combined text and drawings. As a result, engineering learning will be improved by providing students with a natural unconstrained input mechanism and immediate feedback which will reduce the probability of developing misconceptions. In addition, engineering faculty will have new capability to track common student errors. The tool will be deployed in a first-year core engineering course in statics but has application in a wide range of STEM courses. The improved learning in core courses will contribute to better preparation of engineering students for more advanced study.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/29/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $399,918.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Shallow marine carbonate rocks that are deposited at continental margins are subjected to intense deformation at convergent plate boundaries, and a growing body of evidence indicates that these carbonate rocks are entrained in subduction zones to significant mmantle depths. By comparison with rocks composed of silicate minerals, rocks composed of carbonates are weak, so that their deformation exerts a strong influence on the structures that develop in mountain belts resulting from continental collisions, and they may also influence deformation in the mantle during subduction. Carbonate rocks are composed largely of the minerals calcite, dolomite, and magnesite. These minerals have similar crystal structures, but are compositionally and mechanically different. While the rheology of calcite has been well established, the rheology of dolomite is less well constrained by experiments, and almost nothing is known about the rheology of magnesite, which is stable to greater depths in the mantle than calcite or dolomite. In order to accurately model deformation processes within the crust and mantle during subduction and mountain building processes, the rheology of dolomite needs to be refined, the rheology of magnesite determined, and then compared to the rheology of calcite. This project will use both experimental and observational approaches to achieve the following: (1) determine the rheology for dislocation creep of dolomite through experiments, in a triaxial rock deformation apparatus, to establish the temperature and strain rate dependence of this deformation mechanism in dolomite; (2) determine the mechanical properties of magnesite through experiments, in a triaxial rock deformation apparatus, over a wide range of pressures, temperatures and strain rates to establish the ranges of temperature and strain rate over which different deformation mechanisms operate; (3) investigate the microstructures and fabrics formed in experimentally shortened and sheared dolomite; and (4) compare the microstructures and fabrics formed during experimental deformation with those observed in natural dolomite shear zones to provide the foundation to apply laboratory determined rheologies to nature. This research will investigate, through deformation experiments and analyses of rocks deformed in nature, the strength and deformation processes of the carbonate minerals, dolomite and magnesite. Carbonate-bearing rocks make up a significant portion of the rocks that are deformed during mountain building at convergent plate boundaries. Therefore, the strength and deformation behavior of these rocks will strongly influence the structures that develop in mountains, which are responsible for the accumulation of natural resources. The data generated through this study will be used by theoretical modelers and field geologists to determine how and where resources accumulate. Carbonate rocks are also carried to significant depths in the earth?s interior within subduction zones, and their strengths and deformation behavior will thus exert a strong influence on processes such as subduction and mantle convection. Data on the deformation behavior of these rocks will enable theoretical modelers to more accurately predict the dynamics of these long-term geologic processes, including a better understanding of the dynamics of deep earthquakes.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $390,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports the research of Professor Janet Bluemel of Texas A&M University to synthesize a new generation of linkers for the immobilization of catalysts on oxide supports. New 4,4'-bisphosphine bipphenyl and p-tetraphosphine tetraphenyl-element linkers incorporate rigid backbones which prevent the phosphine groups and the bound complexes from bending down to the surface of the support and decomposing. These tetraphenyl-element scaffolds offer up to three metal coordination sites per surface binding site, so that optimal surface coverages are obtained. Solid-state NMR is used to measure their translational and precession-type mobility on the surface. Special attention is given to the [(biphenyl)-R2PEt]+-O-{oxide support} linkage, as this is the first time one can probe the 'flexibility' of an ionic bond. The rigid phosphine linkers are incorporated into metal catalysts for olefin hydrogenation and hydrosilylation. Students will receive interdisciplinary training.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $388,477.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support A postulated key factor in controlling the future fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, for instance in the area of the Amundsen Sea embayment, is the extent to which warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) intrusions may flow up onto the continental shelf and towarrds the base of the region's large floating ice shelves. Scenarios for a warming global climate, and a warmer Southern Ocean, indicate an increased shelfward heat transport resulting in aggressive basal melting of these large buttressing ice shelves. This possibly could lead to subsequent rapid acceleration of grounded, continental glacial flow into the ocean. As of yet, such CDW intrusions have not been observed directly adjacent to the massive Ross Ice Shelf to the west of the Amundsen. This project seeks an accounting of circulation features leading to increased (or not) net poleward intrusion of CDW into the Eastern Ross Sea region (Cape Colbeck, Edward VII peninsula) and under the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest ice shelf on the continent. By using standard current moorings, along with CTD and XBT casts made from aboard the RVIB Oden, observation of the occurrence of this water mass will be undertaken.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/12/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $374,865.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Self-control is an important key to success in life insofar as individuals who succeed at self-control enjoy more satisfying interpersonal relationships, better physical health, and greater subjective well-being than do people who fail at self-control. Understtanding the underpinnings of self-control is therefore crucial for understanding success in life. The purpose of this proposal is to integrate theory and research regarding impulse strength and self-control strength -- two major causes of self-control outcomes that have been conflated or studied in isolation in previous research. The researchers propose that impulse strength (i.e., the motivational force of an impulse) and self-control strength (i.e., the person's capacity to control impulses) are distinct but dynamically-interacting causes of self-control failure. The central hypothesis is that exercising self-control may paradoxically lead to a temporary increase in impulse strength, which in turn may increase the likelihood of self-control failure. In addition to short-term changes in impulse strength, the proposed research will also examine enduring individual differences in impulse strength and self-control strength to differentiate their contributions to failures of self-control. The proposed research features several different manipulations and measures of impulse strength and self-control strength, respectively, including perceptual acuity, attentional breadth, startle responses, impulse control, pain tolerance, participants' self-reports, and brain activity. The use of multiple measures also increases the validity and generality of the research spanning multiple levels of analysis. The intellectual significance of the research and its broader impact both derive from the implications for understanding the causes of self-control failure. For example, ascertaining whether failures of self-control stem mainly from overly strong impulses or weak self-control strength will suggest the most promising routes by which to minimize self-control failure. Self-control failure plays a central role in several undesirable behaviors, from unhealthy eating and profligate spending to violent behavior and drug abuse.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/16/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS AGRILIFE RESEARCH | $366,250.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Although biliary excretion of HDL cholesterol is the major route for net cholesterol removal from the body, how hepatocytes so rapidly take up and transfer HDL-derived cholesterol for biliary efflux is unknown. Understanding this process may provide new therapeeutic targets for lowering plasma cholesterol to improve adverse lipid metabolism. HDL transports cholesterol from tissues to liver, binding to SRB1 for cholesterol delivery to the hepatocyte basolateral membrane. Since spontaneous cholesterol desorption into cytosol is very slow, an unknown mechanism must exist for rapid uptake, desorption and massive transhepatocyte transport of HDL-cholesterol. Gene targeting studies show that SCP-2 and L-FABP enhance biliary cholesterol efflux without upregulating ORP, START, or NPC family cholesterol-trafficking proteins. As candidate proteins, SCP-2 and L-FABP are hypothesized to mediate these rapid steps by: binding basolateral SRB1 to enhance cholesterol uptake/desorption and increase cytosolic concentration or transport of cholesterol for canalicular efflux into bile. This 2 year ARRA R01 grant will test the most important aspects of this hypothesis, reduced to two aims, focusing on structural and functional analyses of hepatocytes from SCP-2 and L-FABP gain-of function and loss-of-function genetically-engineered mice: 1). Cholesterol uptake: Does SCP-2 or L-FABP impact HDL cholesterol uptake by binding with SRB1 in the basolateral membrane? Preliminary data show that SCP-2 binds SRB1 in vitro, SCP-2 overexpression increases, and SCP-2/SCP-x ablation decreases SR-B1 levels in hepatocytes. HDL increases SRB1/SCP-2 colocalization at the basolateral membrane. 2). Cytosolic cholesterol transport: Can SCP-2 or L-FABP facilitate transhepatocyte movement by increasing cytoplasmic concentration or rate of transfer of HDL-derived cholesterol? SCP-2 and L-FABP increase aqueous solubility, enhance cytosolic transport/diffusion, and cotransport another ligand (fatty acid) in hepatocytes. These experiments will address a key unanswered question in hepatic cholesterol excretion-how is HDL-cholesterol so rapidly taken up at the basolateral membrane and transferred through the cytoplasm to the hepatocyte canalicular membrane for biliary efflux? By testing the hypothesis that SCP-2 and L-FABP mediate rapid uptake and transfer, fundamental new insights will be gained regarding mechanisms mediating these rapid steps of biliary cholesterol efflux-the primary route for excess cholesterol removal from the body. If this process were understood, new therapeutic targets for increasing cholesterol efflux for lowering plasma cholesterol could potentially be developed.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 8/28/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $350,500.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Professors James D. Batteas of Texas A&M and Charles M. Drain of Hunter College of CUNY are supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry to systematically design and synthesize a series of porphyrin and alkyl based mollecular assemblies and orient them on metal surfaces. Molecular connectivity and local environment will be varied in order to rationally manipulate the electron transport properties of the molecules. The aim is to develop a global view of interfacial electron transport between optoelectronic molecules and substrates. The work encompasses molecular design, synthesis, and characterization by an array of spectroscopic techniques and theoretical methods. The ultimate goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of charge transfer and conductance in these assemblies in order to facilitate the development of nanoscale electronics. Students participating in this collaborative project will gain broad education and training in multidisciplinary research areas critical to the continued development of molecular electronics. The results of the proposed research will be incorporated in undergraduate courses, and in demonstrations at K-12 schools.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| WORFORCE SOLUTIONS BRAZOS VALLEY | $338,699.00 | Grant |
ARRA ? Child Care and Development Block Grant ARRA Supplemental Funding for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF): Provide child care financial assistance to low-income working families and fund activities to improve the quality of child care.
This spending item is part of a $214,852,000.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 4/09/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $331,910.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The objective of this research is to design and construct a self-aligned tunnel logic device will consume less power in the off-state and require less switching power for device turn-on. The approach will be to use simulations to determine the appropriate bandd-engineered heterostructures, implement the heterostructures with metallorganic chemical vapor deposition, develop the etching and spacer techniques needed to fabricate the 3D device, and to fabricate the devices for physical and electrical characterization. This work is innovative in the use of 3D III-V structures and utilization of self-aligned processes to fabricate the complex 3D device. Intellectual Merit The amount of energy used by the world?s electronic devices in the passive state is staggeringly excessive. The novel concepts implemented in this work will result in a reduction of passive energy consumption by several orders of magnitude making it a ?green? transistor for its energy saving nature. Thus this research is transformative both in its divergent nature from CMOS and in its potential environmental impact. Broader Impact The most significant broad impact of this work is in the energy savings that can be realized by the introduction of this passive power device. In addition, this project will also support the PI summer effort in a ?Too Cool for School? outreach program designed to reach those intelligent kids whose peer-pressure culture has turned them away from science education. By demonstrating to intelligent underachievers the cool-factors of nanotechnology, the PI hopes to sway them toward the culture of academic achievement.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 9/03/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $330,926.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This project's objective is to identify the source of oxidized iron minerals in the 3.26-billion-year-old Manzimnyama Jaspillite Member of South Africa, one of the oldest well-preserved examples of a class of rocks called banded iron formations. Banded iron foormations provide a record of iron oxidation occurring in the Earth?s oceans from >3.7- to 1.8-billion-years-ago. One of the first hypotheses explaining the origins of these rocks suggested that oxygen produced by photosynthetic bacteria growing in shallow water reacted with dissolved iron supplied from the deep ocean, producing oxidized iron minerals which settled to the sea floor. Banded iron formations were therefore thought to provide evidence for the very early evolution of oxygen-producing photosynthetic bacteria. However, later hypotheses have provided alternative explanations for early iron oxidation. In some circumstances, exposure to ultraviolet light can rapidly oxidize dissolved iron, so it is possible that some early banded iron formations may have been formed without the action of living organisms. It is now also known that some photosynthetic bacteria can oxidize iron directly without producing oxygen. Since non-oxygen-producing photosynthesis evolved before oxygen-producing photosynthesis, it is possible that early banded iron formations formed in this way. At present, there is no known way to determine which hypothesis is correct for any particular banded iron formation. Successfully testing these hypotheses will provide important new evidence about the evolution of photosynthesis and the early biosphere. Our approach exploits characteristics of two naturally occurring metals, manganese and cerium, both of which oxidize in the presence of oxygen. Critically, neither should be oxidized as rapidly as iron by ultraviolet light or at all by iron-oxidizing photosynthetic bacteria. Our predictions are that 1. banded iron formations formed in the presence of oxygen would contain oxidized manganese and cerium; 2. banded iron formations formed primarily from ultraviolet promoted iron oxidation would contain some oxidized manganese and cerium but much less than those formed in the presence of oxygen; 3. and that banded iron formations formed by iron-oxidizing (non-oxygen-producing) photosynthetic bacteria would not contain any oxidized manganese and cerium. We will test this hypothesis by conducting metal oxidation experiments with ultraviolet light, oxygen-producing photosynthetic bacteria, and iron-oxidizing photosynthetic bacteria to measure the relative oxidation rates of iron, manganese, and cerium under these three conditions. We will simultaneously test for variations in relative iron, manganese, and cerium sedimentation rates in the Manzimnyama Jaspillite Member and the 3.42-billion-year-old Buck Reef Chert, an iron-rich unit showing no evidence for iron oxidation. Geological results will be compared with experimental results to infer the major process responsible for iron oxidation during deposition of a 3.26-billion-year-old banded iron formation. Broader Impacts: All research will be conducted by a graduate student supervised by the PI and co-PI. In addition, experimental work will be aided by an undergraduate student, potentially for an undergraduate honors thesis. Results and specific experiments will be incorporated into a graduate level geobiology course taught by the PI and an undergraduate course in astrobiology and early life to be developed by the PI and co-PI. The undergraduate course will be organized so as to take advantage of long-distance learning web technology to serve undergraduates throughout the Texas A&M University System, including campuses with high populations of underrepresented minorities.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/31/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $329,625.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support The high incidence of tuberculosis worldwide is due to a number of factors, including the high frequency of co-infection in AIDS patients, continued emergence of drug resistance, incomplete sterilizing activity of therapeutic regimen and the ability of M. tuberrculosis (Mtb) to persist in the host indefinitely. The increasing incidence of extrapulmonary tuberculosis is a grave public health concern because of its higher mortality rates and the need for extended therapy. High HIV-tuberculosis co-infection rates are a likely cause of the increasing incidence of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, since dissemination occurs in >50% of AIDS patients, but only 5-20% in HIV-negative individuals. Miliary tuberculosis, a severe form of tuberculosis occurring in approximately 8% of the extrapulmonary cases, has a much higher rate of mortality. These observations suggest that dissemination is a key factor in the severity of tuberculosis. Since lesions that lead to reactivation are secondary lesions, dissemination also plays an important role in establishment of latent infections, which affect nearly one-third of the world's population. Despite the importance of dissemination in the severity of disease and establishment of latency, the molecular mechanisms involved are poorly understood. In order to better understand how tuberculosis disseminates and whether these mechanisms result in greater disease severity and/or contribute to latency, we plan to identify and characterize the mycobacterial factors involved in both processes. There are four alternative hypotheses regarding how dissemination might occur in tuberculosis: 1) transit through the epithelium within migrating macrophages/dendritic cells, 2) direct invasion of the epithelium, 3) cytopathic and inflammatory response in epithelium leading to permeability, and 4) encroachment of granulomas into vessels allowing release of bacteria/infected cells. Currently, only a single Mtb gene, hbhA, has been identified that affects dissemination. Our own work and that of others indicate mycobacteria have numerous genes that affect the efficiency of macrophage and epithelial cell infection. It has also been shown that growth of Mtb and other mycobacterial species within epithelial cells and phagocytic cells enhances their ability to infect macrophages. The presence of numerous regulated and constitutive mechanisms of host cell infection suggest there is a spectrum of mycobacterial genes involved in tissue invasion and dissemination that remain to be identified. Our specific aims are to: 1) identify the Mtb genes involved in hematogenous spread from the lung, 2) detailed comparison of dissemination in mice and guinea pigs, and 3) dissect the molecular mechanisms by which the mel2 locus affects dissemination and persistence. We will take advantage of our interdisciplinary team's experience in mycobacterial molecular genetics, tissue culture models and animal models to provide insight into the molecular basis of dissemination and persistence, which are critical stages of tuberculosis pathogenesis. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Tuberculosis remains one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in humans worldwide, infecting nearly one-third of the world's population and causing more than two million deaths each year. Latent infections are responsible for the majority of those individuals infected and mortality is higher in extrapulmonary infections that arise from dissemination of the bacteria to other tissues. The current proposal is focused on understanding how dissemination occurs and its relationship to latency so that we can better treat, prevent and diagnose tuberculosis.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $313,175.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Currently, one of the most important research problems encountered in molecular biology, bioinformatics, and systems biology consists in deciphering the mechanisms that lie at the basis of gene regulatory networks. The importance of gene regulatory networks iss due to their fundamental role in the control and operation of the processes taking place in the living cell. Learning the structure and operation of gene regulatory networks facilitates the identification and understanding of the functions of macromolecules in cells, finding out the biological mechanisms of diseases and organ development, and developing efficient disease diagnosis and therapeutics means. The aim of this project is to build a computationally efficient signal processing framework for global understanding of the structure and functionality of gene regulatory networks. Two major research thrusts are addressed in this project. The first research thrust develops information theoretic tools for efficient inference of causal regulations between gene expressions, and determination of global topologies for gene regulatory networks. The second research thrust develops a Bayesian information theoretic framework for inference of gene regulatory networks based on the integration of a multitude of heterogeneous data sources. A variational Bayes sampling formalism is also built to overcome the intractable computational complexity and convergence issues associated with the family of Monte-Carlo techniques. This project brings important scientific, technological and educational contributions. By combining microarray data with prior biological knowledge and other data sources, the proposed computational tools have the potential of uncovering new aspects of the logic that governs the transcriptional control and interactions between genes, proteins and other macromolecules.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/02/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY | $312,980.00 | Grant | Federal Work-Study Program Federal Work-Study provides need-based financial aid to students. | Education Department | 7/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY | $312,980.00 | Grant | Federal Work-Study Program Federal Work-Study provides need-based financial aid to students. | Education Department | 7/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY | $312,147.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This project is an effort to study the spatial/temporal variability of methyl bromide and other halocarbons in the upper ocean in response to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments. The long-term goals of this work are to understand thhe orgin and cycling of methyl bromide and other halocarbons in the oceans and to develop a predictive capability for how the air/sea fluxes of oceanic trace gases will respond to the coming global changes in atmospheric and ocean chemistry and climate.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/29/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $310,894.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier with the first supersonic flight in 1947, the crucial technologies of the day that enabled such an endeavor were associated with aerodynamic design and strength of materials. During the last few decades a more insidiouus sound barrier, associated with the combustion process necessary for propulsion, has imposed practical limits on aircraft speeds. Specifically, flow through the engine may become fast enough to compete with the chemistry that must take place for complete combustion, resulting in suppression and, ultimately, extinction of even the fastest flame. The research work in this award advocates a combined experimental and theoretical approach to the study of high-speed flames for aerospace propulsion. Its objective is to contribute to the fundamental understanding of supersonic combustion and ultimately to enable the technology that must be in place before new, commercial hypersonic aircraft can take flight in the coming decades. The main issue that will be addressed is the interaction between fluid dynamics and chemistry in turbulent compressible flames operating at extreme conditions. The central hypothesis of the present work is the importance of high Mach number and the associated pressure variation it induces onto flame suppression and extinction. Line-imaging spectroscopy of the rotational and vibrational Raman scattering will allow for complete measurements of local thermochemistry; the technique is capable of measuring pressure, temperature, and all major species along the line of the laser in a single-shot fashion within supersonic flames. The line-imaging experiments will also yield valuable information of two derived quantities: conserved scalar and scalar dissipation rate. The first is invaluable in the examination of flame structure, while the second serves as the best available measurement of the local characteristic timescale of the flow field. Both derived quantities will be used in this study to examine the flame suppression and eventual extinction in high Mach-number flames. Spatial and scalar supersonic flame structures will be examined in canonical configurations designed to maximize the flow-chemistry interaction effects. Fundamental understanding of the interaction between fluid mechanics and chemistry under supersonic conditions is the key expected outcome, and the experimental results from this work should prove valuable for model development as well as computational comparisons. The study of flow-chemistry interaction in turbulent flames that exhibit pressure variation has large significance to a wide range of aerospace propulsion applications, from jet engine combustors and afterburners, to pulse-detonation engines and rocket exhausts. In addition, graduate and undergraduate students will learn by participating in cutting-edge research involving laser diagnostics and supersonic flames. Students working with the group will also benefit from summer visits to Sandia National Laboratories and participation in conferences and workshops. The PI will also develop practical experimental educational modules on issues in optics and physics for use in grades 9-12. The modules deal with fundamental issues in optics and physics, and are closely related to the research aspects of the proposed work. Members of under-represented groups will be engaged by the outreach as well as the research program.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/26/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS VALLEY COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY | $306,692.00 | Grant | ARRA - Head Start COLA for Head Start and Early Head Start; Quality Improvement Funds for Head Start and Early Head Start | Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 7/06/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS VALLEY COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY | $306,692.00 | Contract | Head Start and Early Head Start COLA and Quality Improvement | Health and Human Services, Department of | 7/06/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $305,279.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Most cells generate intracellular forces that are transmitted to, and countered by, forces in the extracellular matrix. This mechanical force balance is necessary for maintaining both mechanical and biochemical cell equilibrium, i.e. homeostasis. When this ballance is disturbed, the cell cytoskeleton reorganizes in an attempt to reestablish homeostasis. A relevant example of this reestablishment of equilibrium is the alignment of cells and their actin stress fibers perpendicular to the direction of cyclic matrix stretch. Arterial endothelial cells, which are elongated and aligned with the vessel axis in most of the arterial tree, lack such alignment at regions prone to atherosclerosis. The Principal Investigator has previously shown that cyclic stretching of endothelial cells induces activation of JNK - a signaling protein involved in regulating pro-atherogenic gene expression - but that JNK activation subsides as cells and their stress fibers align perpendicular to stretch. Other studies, both in vitro and in vivo, support a relationship between cell alignment and an anti atherogenic cell phenotype; however, the mechanism remains obscure. The goals of this project are to 1) develop a mechanical model that incorporates actin turnover and actin-myosin interactions to describe the dynamic relationships between deformations in the matrix and associated reactive reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton; and 2) test and refine the model using traction microscopy, femtasecond laser ablation, and microscopy of live cells expressing fluorescently-labeled actin. The model developed during this project will provide a novel and comprehensive framework for understanding the roles of mechanical stretch and cytoskeletal remodeling on cell mechanics, signal transduction, and cell function. This effort will result in an unprecedented capability to model the dynamic changes in the actin cytoskeleton that occur in response to diverse spatial and temporal patterns of stretch. Further, a quantitative model will result in an improved ability to reinterpret existing data, as well as generate new experiments to elucidate the mechanisms of stretch-induced cytoskeletal reorganization. Importantly, this project will provide the foundation for models of signal transduction where the inputs are mechanical stimuli, rather than biochemical ligands. The proposed model provides a tool to understand how the mechanical properties of adherent cells change with time through cytoskeletal remodeling. Such knowledge will provide guidance toward the use of mechanical stimuli to regulate cell function in tissue engineering, surgical decision-making, and prognosis of cardiovascular disease. The model will be broadly disseminated by providing public access to the model software and incorporating the concepts developed in this project into undergraduate and graduate courses. Further, the proposed project will provide additional opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research, including students from underrepresented groups, in the laboratory of the Principal Investigator.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/11/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $300,551.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support This research seeks to exploit diastereoselective routes to bicyclic--+-lactones to access antitumor, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agents of interest for human health and as tools for studying basic biological processes. In this grant period, we will conntinue to exploit the potential of various methods developed in our group that enable concise and versatile total syntheses of several bioactive natural products including salinosporamides, scabrolides/ineleganolide, oxazolomycins, and haterumalides/biselides. These compounds all exhibit potent effects on various cell lines thus this project will also ultimately target the identification of their cellular targets where this is unknown or alternatively develop variants of these protein-reactive natural products as activity-based cellular probes to identify off-targets. The particular aims are: (1) Building on work from the previous grant period, optimization studies directed toward improved yields and diastereoselectivity of a concise (9 steps from serine) enantioselective synthesis of the potent proteasome inhibitor, salinosporamide A are proposed. Hypothesis-directed derivatives that may have increased potency are proposed based on the reported X-ray structures of the salino A- and belactosin-20S proteasome complexes (to be tested at Genzyme). (2) Building on our work toward the salinosporamides, we propose a synthesis of the oxazolomycin and neooxazolomcyin -+- lactam core involving modified bis-cyclizations. (3) We will exploit our recently developed, diastereoselective bis-cyclization reaction of keto acids to access the cyclopentyl core common to the scabrolide/ineleganolide family of marine cembranes. To construct, the bicyclic--+-lactone macrocyclic core, we propose a transannular CH insertion that would be of fundamental interest for the synthesis of this growing family of bicyclic '-lactone macrocycles and related targets. (4) We propose double- diastereoselective, bis-cyclizations for the synthesis of -+-lactone-fused tetrahydrofurans to access THFs found in the haterumalides(Hat)/biselides(Bise).... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| HONEY BAKED HAM AGGIELAND | $300,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $300,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This grant will initiate a new project on the design of catalysts that can harvest solar energy and relay this to the metal centers to promote the rate of reactions or to induce desirable selectivity effects. Specifically, ligands are designed to be in direct conjugation with the metal so that energy may be transferred fast through bonds. Such chemistry will contribute to environmentally benign methods for chemical synthesis as the reactions need only sunlight to drive them, and they may lead to useful selectivities that could only be achieved in this manner. With this Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program is supporting the research of Professor Kevin Burgess of the Department of Chemistry at Texas A & M University. Professor Burgess' research efforts revolve around the development of catalytic reactions for application in synthetic methodology. If successful, these reactions will have an impact on synthesis in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/29/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $300,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The project investigates temperature controlled activation of micro nano structured nanocomposite hydrogel materials to produce temperature controlled self cleaning surfaces. Cyclical changes in temperature will activate these nanocomposite hydrogel micropillaars by switching them back and forth from a water swollen to deswollen state. This activation process will lead to pronounced and rapid changes in surface properties ultimately allowing surfaces to rid themselves of adherent biofouling species such as cells. The proposed microstructured nanocomposite hydrogels may be particularly useful to design self cleaning implanted biosensor membranes or other surfaces whose performance is compromised by biofouling. Enhancing temperature activated self cleaning will be accomplished by a two pronged approach utilizing both material design and micropatterning design components. The investigators will prepare novel nanocomposite hydrogels consisting of poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogel matrices and variable levels of colloidal polysiloxane nanoparticles. PNIPAAm hydrogels are known to become more hydrophobic when they reversibly switch from a water swollen to a shrunken (deswollen) state at temperatures above the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) of ~35 -¥-¥C. Such temperature activated changes in surface hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity have been shown to disrupt the adhesion of adsorbed cells and proteins. In preliminary studies, variable polysiloxane nanoparticle levels were used to tailor the temperature dependent surface properties of PNIPAAm hydrogels. These nanocomposite hydrogels demonstrated superior mechanical strength but did not alter the VPTT (conveniently near body temperature) compared to pure PNIPAAm hydrogels. For each unique composition, nanocomposite hydrogel microstructures (e.g. micropillars) will be prepared and, as a result of their size scale, should produce fast switching surfaces in which changes in hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity are very pronounced compared to their planar (i.e. non micropatterned) analogues. Tailoring nanocomposite hydrogel composition and microstructure topography will ultimately result in surfaces which could quickly and drastically respond to changes in temperature and hence undergo temperature controlled self cleaning.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $299,927.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The research and education plan centers on understanding and manipulating energy transport phenomena within nanostructured complex oxide materials, as well as educating a broad spectrum of students including graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 students in aspectts of energy conversion processes. The research includes investigation of: (1) energy transport phenomena through confined oxide structures; (2) thermal transport in oxygen-deficient, impurity-doped nanostructured oxide materials; and (3) influence of multiple dopants on electron and phonon transport for thermoelectric applications. In addition, the proposed education and outreach program will: (5) educate graduate and undergraduate students, as well as K-12 students and teachers in nano- and micro-scale thermophysical phenomena for energy conversion; and (6) recruit minorities and women to study engineering disciplines and enroll in graduate schools. Intellectual Merit: Significant improvement in conversion of waste heat to electricity using thermoelectric devices hinges upon the simultaneous reduction of thermal conductivity and enhancement of electric conductivity of thermoelectric materials. Recently, several researchers have suggested that the suppression of phonon thermal conductivity is very effective in improving the performance of thermoelectric materials, as this influences thermal transport but often has a minimal influence on electronic transport properties. However, current efforts using state-of-the-art bismuth telluride alloys do not provide sufficient room to obtain a large reduction in thermal conductivity due to the intrinsically low thermal conductivity of these materials. In this regard, it is timely and important to explore materials that have not been considered extensively in the past, such as complex oxides. The electrical and thermal transport properties of these oxides can be altered using various methods, which provides an opportunity to develop new, high-performance thermoelectric materials. For example, the simultaneous use of property tuning methods might produce synergistic effects that will dramatically increase thermoelectric performance. The knowledge gained from this research will advance the fundamental understanding of energy carrier transport through confined structures and will provide a methodology to tailor the properties of many different materials. The understanding of energy-carrier transport will be obtained through a series of experiments and theoretical /computational calculations, that can be used as a platform to identify other promising complex oxides for thermoelectric applications. Broader Impacts: Highly efficient thermoelectric materials have the potential to generate large amounts of electric power from waste heat, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The research will be integrated into a graduate course as well as core undergraduate courses, and will form the basis for presentations in nanoscience-related courses and seminars, as well as for outreach to K-12 students and teachers through various education programs including the Enrichment Experiences in Engineering (E3) program at Texas A&M University. Visits to minority and K-12 schools in Texas will encourage women and underrepresented groups to pursue undergraduate and graduate studies in various engineering disciplines.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION, CITY OF | $299,821.00 | Grant | Community Development Block Grant ARRA Entitlement Grants (CDBG-R)(Recovery Act Funded) The project will provide low-mod housing, low-mod job creation and low-mod area benefit through the acquisition of land. Upon successful completion of the acquisition, a Request for Proposal will be released to aallow the development and construction of a proposed mixed-use development. The mixed-use development is anticipated to include affordable multi-family housing, retail and/or office space for the creation of jobs, and open recreation space. This project will leverage private resources with federal grant funds to create a development that will maximize the benefit to low- and moderate- income residents in College Station. The Low-Mod housing National Objective would be met by developing approximately 70 rental units, 80% of which would be available for low to moderate income households at current affordable rental rates and 20% at market rental rates. The Low-Mod Job Creation National Objective would be met by the development of approximately 70,000 sq. ft. of new retail/office space. It is anticipated that this will create approximately 112 jobs and require, by contract with the developer, that at least 51% of the full-time equivalent jobs involve the employment of low and moderate-income persons. The Low-Mod Area Benefit National Objective will be met by the creation of public open space to benefit the people living and working in this development, as well as the people living in the neighborhood adjacent to this development. These specifications are estimates and intended to be a general outline for the proposed future mixed-use development.... Show more | Housing and Urban Development Department | 8/13/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TRANSPORTATION, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF | $298,091.90 | Grant |
Highway Planning and Construction Highway Infrastructure Investment
This spending item is part of a $298,092.00 allocation. See details |
Transportation Department / Federal Highway Administration | 3/31/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $292,215.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Deciphering the origins of the giant large igneous provinces is a critical element for understanding mantle dynamics and its relation to terrestrial magmatism. Among a dozen or so large oceanic plateaus in the oceans Shatsky Rise is an important target becausee of its unique tectonic setting. It is the only giant plateau formed at a time of frequent magnetic reversal anomalies that show its relationship to coeval spreading ridges. IODP Expedition 324 is currently also scheduled to sample the sediments and upper igneous layers at five sites on Shatsky Rise in late 2009, which could provide important ground-truthing. The PIs propose a collaborative geophysical project with two foci: (1) constraining the crustal structure by an OBS reflection and refraction experiment, and (2) delineating the tectonic history by MCS profiling and reanalysis of bathymetry and magnetic data. A new model of crustal seismic structure will constrain the nature of mantle melting on the basis of correlation between thickness and velocity. The detailed upper crustal structure revealed by MCS will help to reconstruct the tectonic history of Shatsky Rise, which appears to be a huge volcano formed at a triple junction and then split apart by seafloor spreading. The PIs will synthesize the results of these geophysical studies to build a comprehensive tectonic framework, including better estimations of eruption rate, its temporal variation, its relation to ridge kinematics, and the coeval evolution of the parental mantle. International collaboration with the Japanese and Russian scientists and graduate and undergraduate students training and sea-going experience are some of the broader impacts of the study. Outreach to school students is also planned.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/22/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| WORFORCE SOLUTIONS BRAZOS VALLEY | $285,625.00 | Grant |
WIA Youth Activities 17.259 RECOVERY ACT-WIA YOUTH FORMULA GRANTS-STATES - $82,000,708: To help low income youth, between the ages of 14 and 24, acquire the educational and occupational skills, training, and support needed to achieve academic and employment success and successfully transition to carreers and productive adulthood. 17.260 RECOVERY ACT-WIA DISLOCATED WORKER-FORMULA-STATES - $53,768,305: The purpose of the program is to reemploy dislocated workers, improve the quality of the workforce, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the nation's economy by providing workforce investment activities that increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by the participants. This program is designed to increase employment, as measured by entry into unsubsidized employment, retention in unsubsidized employment after entry into employment, and extent of recovery of prior earnings. For cross cutting goals, the program intends to enhance customer satisfaction for participants and for employers. The employment goals will be measured using Unemployment Insurance Wage Records systems and customer satisfaction goals will be measured by sampling. 17.258 RECOVERY ACT-WIA ADULT ACTIVITIES-STATES - $34,344,771: The purpose of this program is to improve the quality of the workforce, reduce welfare dependency, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the nation's economy by providing workforce investment activities that increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by the participants. This program is designed to increase employment, as measured by entry into unsubsidized employment, retention in unsubsidized employment after entry into employment, and earnings. For cross-cutting goals, the program intends to enhance customer satisfaction for participants and for employers. The employment goals will be measured using Unemployment Insurance Wage Records systems and customer satisfaction goals will be measured by sampling... Show more
This spending item is part of a $170,114,000.00 allocation. See details |
Labor Department / Employment and Training Administration | 2/17/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $276,298.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support A significant majority of current Internet traffic is due to distributing content, yet the Internet was designed to be largely agnostic to characteristics of the content flowing over it. This research investigates the design and operation of a content-aware Innternet ecosystem, which thrives on the interaction between users (seeking seek fast and correct downloads), content providers (seeking to minimize network congestion and transit traffic), and network providers (who generate content, and seek the cost- and resource-efficient dissemination). This research takes a two-pronged approach. On one hand, it explores novel analysis of fundamental performance limits for a content-aware Internet ecosystem that rigorously characterizes the benefits of an intelligently designed cross-layer architecture. On the other hand, it includes developing mechanisms and practical implementation of a content distribution system, by which involved parties can interact constructively to achieve these gains yet respect each others' interests. This approach combines a range of techniques, including modeling and theoretical analysis, measurement and data analysis, system design, simulation, and system implementation. Affordable and ready access to digital content helps inform, educate, and entertain society as a whole. Additionally, by developing cost- and resource-effective delivery techniques, the friction continuing to build between involved parties can be reduced and the technical side of the network neutrality debate can be better informed. To enhance this impact, the project includes an educational component involving local universities from under-represented groups, curriculum development and interactions with industry.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $270,401.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Protein targeting and transport across lipid bilayers is a fundamental energy-requiring process in all organisms. Up to approximately half of the proteins in an organism's proteome are inserted into or transported across membranes by protein translocation systeems, or translocons. Many distinct types of translocation systems exist that allow large protein molecules to cross membranes without compromising the membranes' role as a permeability barrier to ions, metabolic intermediates, and other macromolecules. In order to further expand our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that exist to translocate large molecules across membranes, the proposed research will examine the bacterial twin-arginine translocation (Tat) export system. The Tat system transports fully-folded and assembled proteins. The number of proteins transported by the Tat system is highly species dependent, ranging from none to many (> 100). The absence of a functional Tat system often leads to growth defects in the host bacterium. Further, the Tat machinery is responsible for the export of numerous bacterial virulence factors of human health significance. In a particularly dramatic example, a functional Tat system is required for the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. Transport by the Tat system minimally requires three proteins, TatA, TatB and TatC. The dominant hypothesis is that a TatBC complex acts as a receptor, which recognizes the presequence of transport substrates, and a TatA oligomer provides a gated pore through which the cargo protein crosses the membrane bilayer. To further understand the basic mechanistic principles governing transport via the Tat system, we will: (1) probe precursor interactions with the lipid and the translocon, by attaching a fluorescence dye to the presequence; (2) construct a kinetic model of transport using a real-time, fluorescence-based transport assay with 1 s time resolution; (3) investigate the role of cargo size and shape on transport rate and transport efficiency; (4) determine the influence of the TatA to TatBC ratio on Tat transport efficiency, transport rate and cargo size restrictions; and (5) develop a single molecule Tat transport assay. These investigations are expected to substantially increase our understanding of how cargos are recognized by the Tat system, and what types of cargos can be translocated. In addition, they will further elucidate the role of the translocon components and the conformational changes required for transport. This characterization of the basic properties of the Tat translocation system will provide an essential foundation for future work, such as the possibility of developing drugs that target the Tat system, or for the utilization of the Tat system in biotechnological applications, such as th expression of protein therapeutics. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Tat machinery is responsible for the transport of numerous bacterial virulence factors of human health significance, and the absence of a functional Tat system often leads to growth defects in the host bacterium. Consequently, a better understanding of the Tat system is expected to help lead to the development of new antimicrobial drugs. Further, the ability of the Tat system to transport fully-folded protein complexes suggests that it will eventually find utility in the expression of protein therapeutics.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $262,106.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support To meet the rising need for analyzing functional data with complex structures, the investigators develop innovative statistical methods under three broad categories: (1) Multi-level functional data analysis. New methods for multi-level principal components anaalysis, multi-level clustering and classification will be developed. New methods will also be developed for fitting functional mixed effects models --- a very flexible class of models for functional data. (2) Correlated functional data. New methods will be developed for modeling time series of curves and spatially correlated curves. (3) Two-way functional data. A new principal components analysis is developed for two-way functional data, where both index domains of the data matrix are structured. In these projects, the structures of the functional data vary from case to case, but the common challenge is to deal with the covariance kernel of a random functional object. The main strategy is to reduce dimension through functional principal components. In addition, an alternative regularization strategy is also investigated based on shrinkage to simple structures. Penalized splines are used for estimating the principal components functions. By looking into functional data with complex structures, the research has significant potential to advance the knowledge of statistics. Functional data are data that can be represented as a collection of curves or functions. Examples of functional data include, but not limited to, a patient's vital signs over time, a digitized image, geographical data and demographic data. As automated measuring systems make data collection easy, functional data become more prevalent with increasingly complex structure. Our research is motivated by analyzing functional data arising from studies on colon physiology and colon cancer, studies of US ethnic diversity dynamics and business operational management. The statistical methodology innovations proposed are widely applicable in various fields that involve functional data, such as environment and global change, health and medicine, etc. The success of the proposed research will benefit people with deeper understanding of functional data.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/10/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $254,985.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The objective of this research is to address the computational challenges in multi-core power distribution design by leveraging recent advances in single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) graphics processing units (GPUs). The approach is to develop a massively parallel GPU-accelerated design engine to facilitate the analysis, design and verification of power-gated multi-core on-chip power delivery networks encompassing both electrical and thermal integrity issues. Intellectual Merit: Aggressive fine-grained power gating is essential to pushing the performance vs. power envelope of current and future multi-core chip designs. This need introduces significant challenges in the design and verification of power delivery networks under complex power gating scenarios. While the recent GPU advances provide a potentially promising computing solution, the effective use of such SIMD compute power requires rethinking computed-aided design. In this work, GPU-specific computing paradigms, algorithms and implementations will be developed to address multi-core power distribution design and associated full-chip thermal challenges via efficient parallel computing on low-cost SIMD graphics processors. Broader Impacts: This work exploits recent SIMD GPU based massively parallel platforms for addressing CAD challenges. The acquired experience is likely to contribute to computing advances in other science and engineering fields. The PI will promote the research participation from undergraduate students and students from underrepresented groups. The outcomes of this work will be integrated into the PI's graduate-level VLSI courses to provide educational and research experiences to students. The developed algorithms and methodologies will be disseminated in the research community at large and major semiconductor and EDA companies for potential industrial application.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $252,097.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The objective of this research is to develop a waveguide radio-frequency micro-electromechanical systems tunable filter as a unique three-dimensional microstructure in silicon. The approach is based on combining 1) bulk micromachining for miniaturized cavity iimplementation, 2) surface micromachining for radio-frequency micro-electromechanical systems planar circuit development, and 3) high-aspect-ratio-microstructure fabrication to bias the planar circuit embedded inside the cavity using vertical signal routing. With respect to intellectual merit, the proposed highly miniaturized three-dimensional filter enables vertical integration with front-end electronics to create a fully functional frequency-agile microstructure through the major paradigm shift of combining three aspects of microfabrication for the first time. The filter provides superior electrical performance including ultra-high selectivity, wideband tuning, low loss, high linearity and extremely low power consumption for tuning. A dielectric-filled, evanescent-mode, micromachined waveguide filter is proposed to provide low loss, and also to reduce the size of the filter relative to its bulky resonant-mode counterpart. A planar electrostatic micro-electromechanical systems circuit performs the task of tuning over a very wide range with ultra-low power consumption and excellent linearity by loading the capacitive posts fabricated inside the cavity. Vertical signal routing provides a novel approach to successfully combine two and three-dimensional microstructures and make the high performance vertically integrated tunable filter feasible. With respect to broader impact, the project has the potential to advance the development of novel microfabrication techniques and state-of-the-art microwave circuits. Providing a solution for ultra-miniaturized, high performance, frequency-agile filters enhances capabilities for reconfigurable systems including software-defined radios, electronic warfare systems, radars and instrumentation systems. The proposed project also promotes education and outreach activities by creating research projects for graduate and undergraduate students and extra-curricular summer activities for high school teachers and students. Educational opportunities for minorities and under-represented groups will be explored by collaborating with Enrichment Experience Engineering teacher summer research program at Texas A&M University to provide a one month workshop for minority high school teachers in science and engineering. Also, annual Society of Women Engineers summer camps inspire high school women to join the engineering program. The research and educational results of this work will be disseminated to academic, industrial and government sectors.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT | $250,205.00 | Grant | Community Development Block Grant ARRA Entitlement Grants (CDBG-R)(Recovery Act Funded) Community Development CDBG-R | Housing and Urban Development Department | 8/05/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN, CITY OF INC | $249,185.00 | Grant |
Recovery Act - Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program / Grants To Units Of Local Government This application is filed by the City of Bryan, Texas Police Department in conjunction with the City of College Station, Texas Police Department and the Brazos County, Texas Sheriff?s Offfice. This title of this joint project is the Future Technologies Recovery Program. The goal of the project is to reduce, control and mitigate crime and the effects of crime on the community and improve law enforcement service delivery. Strategies include the use of DNA for the purpose of identifying and apprehending subjects involved in burglaries of residences and businesses through the collection of DNA samples from know offenders and the collection of DNA samples from crimes scenes. A recent National Institute of Justice study revealed that the use of DNA samples for property crimes may increase subject identification up to 31%; the use of video surveillance systems for the purpose of identifying and apprehending subjects involved in criminal activity through the recording and archiving of digital video from high risk locations, critical infrastructure, and public places; the purchase and deployment of duty pistols with enhanced signature barrels for the purpose of allowing forensic identification of bullet projectiles and the weapon from which they were fired; the purchase and deployment of marked patrol vehicles to increase police visibility within the unincorporated areas of Brazos County; the purchase and use of a bar coding system for the purpose of improving the receipt, storage, retrieval of evidentiary items associated with the commission of criminal acts; video enhancement computer and software for the purpose of reviewing, enhancing and archiving video surveillance evidence associated with the commission of offenses; telephone call review software for the purpose of storing, archiving and recalling telephone communications associate with calls to the public safety answering point; replacement of automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) software for the purpose of enhancing the ability to scan, search and compare fingerprints from known individuals to fingerprints from crime scenes; directional message board for the purpose of notifying the public of alternate traffic routes, hazardous traffic conditions and other safety concerns relating to hurricane evacuation and special events; patrol rifle sights to replace standard iron sights as an alternative under low light conditions; hand held thermal imaging unit for the purpose of tracking and identifying fleeing suspects under low light conditions; SWAT radio headsets to replace aging equipment and technology for the purpose of improving tactical communications between members of the SWAT team; and crowd control equipment in an effort to outfit patrol officers with the necessary equipment to respond to civil disturbances involving large groups of individuals.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $425,421.00 allocation. See details |
Justice Department | 6/05/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY | $247,238.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This grant provides funds for upgrading an existing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer that will provide the only cryoprobe at Texas A&M University. The cryoprobe will have significant impact on research and education both intra- and extramurally. The future careers of students will be impacted decisively by the ability to obtain data from state-of-the-art instrumentation that is currently not available at Texas A&M. In addition the instrument will be available to the surrounding smaller institutions of higher education.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/26/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY | $229,134.00 | Grant | INERTIAL FUSION SCIENCE- ICF NA-121.1 DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNIQUES TO DETERMINE NEUTRON AND CHARGED-PARTICLE INDUCED REACTION RATES | Energy Department | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $227,785.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Telomeres are higher order nucleoprotein structures that physically cap the chromosome terminus and help to preserve genome integrity. In cells with unlimited proliferative capacity, including 95% of human cancers, telomeres are maintained by telomerase. By conntrast, telomerase is absent from most of the normal soma and telomeres shorten until chromosome ends become uncapped and indistinguishable from double strand breaks. End-to-end fusions are induced, ultimately leading to cell cycle arrest. Here we propose to exploit Arabidopsis to investigate essential components of the telomere cap in a genetically tractable higher eukaryote. Arabidopsis has an exceptionally high tolerance for telomere dysfunction. This finding, coupled with its facile genetics, completely sequenced genome, and arsenal of transgenic tools offer unique opportunities for investigating essential genes in telomere biology. In this renewal application, we will focus on the recently discovered Protection of telomeres 1 (Pot1) protein, which binds the extreme terminus of the chromosome and plays a central role in chromosome end protection and telomere length regulation. Arabidopsis encodes three strikingly different Pot proteins, AtPot1, AtPot2 and AtPot3, which appear to be functionally non-redundant. We hypothesize that the separation of function of Arabidopsis Pot proteins derives from their distinct interactions with telomeric DNA and with other protein components of the telomere. The proposal is comprised of five Specific Aims. The first two focus on defining the interactions of Pot proteins with telomeric DNA in vitro and in vivo, and elucidating interaction partners in the telomere complex in vivo. For the last three Aims, we will exploit a combination of genetic and biochemical approaches to examine the mechanism of positive regulation of telomerase by AtPot1 (Aim 3), the contribution of AtPot2 to chromosome end protection (Aim 4), and the apparent developmental regulation of AtPot3 as it impacts this protein's function at telomeres (Aim 5). As part of Aim 5, we will also test the hypothesis that telomeres are uncapped in a specific stage of the plant life cycle. Given the strong conservation in telomere architecture and composition in plants and humans, these studies should uncover mechanisms common to all higher eukaryotes.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/16/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $225,754.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This research aims to develop new fundamental theory and effective design methodologies to address practically important issues that existing control theories cannot effectively handle: specifically the proposal will develop methods for the design of fixed andd low order controllers for multivariable systems which satisfy multiple design specifications and which are based on the measured data and not on models. This is a very realistic engineering problem that remains open despite significant progress in computer-aided design. The objective of feedback control system design is to precisely regulate physical quantities such as position, velocity, temperature, pressure, flow-rate and level in dynamic systems despite significant uncertainty and knowledge of the behavior of the underlying processes. The present proposal approaches the control design problem with a view to overcoming several outstanding challenges. These are a) the need to develop design methods which use measured data directly since mathematical models are unavailable for most systems b) the design of low order or low complexity controllers since the existing methods yield high order controllers which are often fragile or acutely sensitive and therefore unimplementable and c) designs which satisfy multiple user defined specifications. Preliminary results on integral and first order controllers look promising. The research should have a significant impact on control applications ranging from chemical processes, manufacturing systems, disk drives, missile and aircraft control, internet congestion control and biological control systems including genetic networks. In each of these applications models are scarcely available and few effective design techniques exist for the effective design of simple controllers.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $225,609.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support An individual's relevant health information is stored in multiple, independent sources (Institute of Medicine 2001). Therefore not all the clinical information useful to providers is available during a patient encounter, meaning decisions frequently occur with incomplete medical knowledge (Kalra 2004). Health information exchange (HIE), the automated sharing of individuals' clinical information across organizations, holds the promise of quality improvements and cost savings. Specifically relevant to the continuing care of patients with chronic conditions, HIE has the potential to improve efficiency and timeliness by reducing redundancy of diagnostic testing. Additionally, the lack of access to information stored by other organizations can be a barrier to effective coordination of care between multiple providers (Casalino, Gillies et al. 2003). Efforts at establishing systems of HIE are widespread and advocated by the federal government (Walker, Pan et al. 2005). However, we currently do not know how these systems are actually used by health professionals (Ash and Guappone 2007). This proposal applies knowledge from previous research on information seeking behavior and organizational technology usage in order to understand health information exchange usage in the context of a healthcare encounter. The specific aim of this proposal is to examine which patient characteristics (like chronic conditions) are associated with system usage. In addition, since healthcare occurs within an organization, those characteristics contribute to the usage of the system by individuals. Hypotheses will be empirically examined by combining secondary data on patients in a HIE serving the medically indigent in Central Texas with primary surveys of the organizations participating in the system. This system provides a unique opportunity by providing both data on the patients and on the usage history of those providers who utilize the system. Data on the latter come in the form of system usage logs. This proposal will model the actual usage of the HIE during approximately 612,000 healthcare encounters occurring in 2007-2008 to determine the factors associated with system usage. The identification of the factors determining and affecting HIE usage will be useful to both local organizations working with, or beginning, HIE systems and to national policy makers. Understanding how HIE systems are actually used is particularly relevant to the continuing care of patients with chronic conditions, like cancer and mental illness, who require an effective coordination of care between multiple providers, have many medications and different laboratory tests. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: One reason the health care system fails to deliver efficient, timely and safe care is individuals' clinical relevant information is stored in multiple, independent sources. Health information exchange is a national goal, currently implemented in many locations, and promises huge financial and quality improvements. However, how these systems are actually used is not exactly known, and therefore a needed area of research.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 5/21/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $224,773.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health problem, putting infected individuals (~180 million worldwide) at risk of developing cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver failure. Chronic hepatitis C is the leading cause for liver transplanttation. Current standard interferon-based therapy, a costly and time-consuming process, has only a ~50% cure rate, and no anti-HCV drugs have yet been approved for hepatitis C therapy. Despite the promise shown by HCV-specific proteases and polymerases as drug targets, the rapid emergence of viral resistance indicates that additional targets and combinations of antivirals will be necessary for effective treatment. We propose to isolate genetic suppressor elements (GSEs) from a library comprising a fragmented HCV genome which could be used both as potent anti-HCV therapeutic agents and as probes to identify and validate new targets for further drug screening. GSEs are nucleic acid or protein/peptide molecules derived from a gene or genome that act as transdominant inhibitors of a particular biological function through a variety of mechanisms, which includes binding to and blocking essential interaction surfaces for protein activity. In order to identify GSEs from within the HCV genome that exert inhibitory activity against HCV, a novel function-based selection system will be developed and implemented. Briefly, a fragmented HCV genome will be delivered to a hepatoma derivative cell line that is sensitive to a cytopathic effect exerted by HCV. The cells containing the HCV-derived genetic fragments will be subjected to a cytopathic challenge by exogenously administered cell culture-derived HCV (HCVcc) infectious particles, and cells surviving this HCV challenge will be enriched in GSEs that exert an inhibitory effect against HCV. Iterative application of this selection procedure will result in the identification of highly potent GSEs that protect cells against HCV infection and cytotoxicity. Preliminary studies will evaluate the degree of the protective effect conferred by the identified GSEs against HCV-mediated cytotoxicity, and the stage in the HCV life cycle at which the anti-HCV effect of the GSEs is exerted. Future studies originating from the identified GSEs are expected to reveal the molecular basis of the anti-HCV GSE activity, thus providing new leads for anti-HCV drug development. It is expected that the GSEs identified from the proposed research, and molecular mimetics derived therefrom, will inhibit HCV infection/propagation through diverse mechanisms, including the inhibition of virus-host cell interactions, thus contributing to the urgent quest for new and effective HCV antivirals on multiple fronts. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Infection by hepatitis C virus is a serious global health problem that causes numerous debilitating liver conditions. The current treatment regime for hepatitis C is time-consuming, expensive, and often ineffective, creating an urgent need for new and effective drugs. Novel anti-hepatitis C genetic suppressor elements isolated from this research will serve both as hepatitis C drugs, and as keys to open doors to new avenues of research in hepatitis C antiviral development.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| SPMJ, LLC dba Cafe Fresh | $224,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $220,825.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Wildfires cause great destruction including the loss of life and damage to property, infrastructure and the environment. The complexity of wildfire management arises from the uncertain dynamic interactions and dependencies among multiple system components. Theese include highly dynamic and nonlinear wildfire behaviors, weather conditions, and firefighting resource management. In previous research, these components have been largely treated in isolation in their own fields. To achieve effective wildfire management, decision-making support tools that integrate all these components as a whole are needed. The objective of this project is to develop new models and computation methods that integrate weather prediction, wildfire simulation, data assimilation and stochastic optimization for effective wildfire response management. In doing so, the project will make two key paradigm-shifting advances in wildfire modeling and management: 1) coupled weather and wildfire modeling and data assimilation for two-way interactive dynamic weather-wildfire prediction, and 2) Integrated wildfire simulation and stochastic optimization for wildfire containment. The project focuses on computational thinking for understanding the complexity in the natural systems of weather and wildfire behavior, and in the man-made system of firefighting resources management. Due to the stochastic and multiscale nature of the problem data associated with these systems, the project also involves data assimilation and parallel/distributed computational methods for robust weather and wildfire behavior predictions. The results of this project will aid in wildfire management to alleviate losses caused by wildfires through robust firefighting resource management decisions. The collaboration with the Texas Forest Service will enable validation and transfer of the resulting knowledge, systems and tools to real wildfire management. The results of the research will also benefit other emergency response applications such as those in homeland security. The project will provide interdisciplinary training to both undergraduate and graduate students and will develop a web-based education and training simulation environment. The project will also strengthen and complement existing K-12 outreach programs at Georgia State University (GSU), University of Oklahoma (OU), and Texas A&M University (TAMU) for minority students, and will make a concerted effort to broaden the participation of underrepresented students in research and education. Results of the research will be presented at conferences and published in refereed journals.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 9/18/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $219,750.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, continues to be a public health problem in many countries including the United States because of its prevalence in HIV-infected patients and also due to the emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensivvely drug-resistant (XDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is estimated that one third of the world's population is infected with M. tuberculosis. M. bovis BCG is the only vaccine currently available for the prevention of tuberculosis; however, the efficacy of BCG vaccine has been highly variable in clinical trials. The majority of the infected individuals control the infection as they develop a robust immune response to the organism, however, many harbor residual bacilli throughout their life with no clinical manifestations of disease. Reactivation tuberculosis may develop years later in some individuals as their immune system is compromised by HIV infection, malnutrition or the use of immunosuppressive agents. It is clear from epidemiological studies that reactivation of latent infection is one of the contributing factors for the high incidence of tuberculosis. There is compelling evidence that ultraviolet radiation (UVR) causes immune suppression in both humans and experimental animals. We hypothesize that UVR might contribute to the reactivation of latent M. tuberculosis infection. Our previous studies indicated that exposure to UVR caused immune suppression and increased pathogenesis in experimental infections. The purpose of these studies is to investigate whether UVR alters the host-parasite interactions during persistent M. tuberculosis infection in the low-dose guinea pig model of pulmonary tuberculosis. In the first specific aim, we will determine the effect of UVR on persistent infection by examining the number of viable bacteria in the organs of infected guinea pigs and the cytokine and chemokine responses in lung granulomas by laser capture microdissection and real-time RT-PCR as well as whole spleen and lung digest cells following antigen stimulation by real time RT-PCR. The second specific aim will elucidate the mechanism of UV-induced effects by examining UVR-induced production of mRNA for immunosuppressive cytokines by epidermal cells (by real-time RT-PCR) and the effect of culture supernatants obtained from UV-irradiated epidermal cells on T cell and macrophage functions. These studies are crucial in understanding the interaction between UVR, immune suppression and reactivation of M. tuberculosis infection in a highly relevant animal model. Moreover, the results will provide insight into the host-factors that regulate mycobacterial growth during persistence and reactivation as well as serve as a basis for designing future epidemiological studies on the effect of UVR on tuberculosis. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Tuberculosis continues to be a public health problem in many countries because of its prevalence in HIV-infected patients and also due to the emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug- resistant (XDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Reactivation of latent tuberculosis is one of the contributing factors for the high incidence of tuberculosis in humans. The purpose of these studies is to determine whether an environmental toxin such as ultraviolet radiation from sunlight that is encountered on a daily basis contributes to the high incidence of tuberculosis by reactivating a latent infection. These studies will be addressed in the low-dose guinea pig model of pulmonary tuberculosis as the disease in these animals closely resembles the human disease.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/22/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $216,034.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Mechanical Forces play important roles in the normal development and maintenance of blood vessel structure. Perturbations in the normal mechanical environment contribute to the pathological remodeling associated with diseases such as atherosclerosis, hypertensiion, and aneurysm formation. In the current proposal we will investigate the interrelationship between mechanical-induced remodeling and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-a) bioavailability and activation from the latent complex in the extracellular matrix. To this end we will use a newly developed ex vivo mouse carotid culture system in which arteries can be cultured under precise mechanical environments for periods of hours to days to better understand the role of increased vascular wall stress, caused by pathological changes in the luminal pressure, modulates the growth and remodeling of the arteries. We will use this system to investigate the hypothesis that changes in wall stress in response to increased blood pressure modulates bioavailability of TGF-a, which contributes to growth and remodeling of arteries. To this end, we will test the role of specific components of the pathways that regulate TGF-a availability and signaling through the use of mice in which these components have been genetically manipulated. We will address the following specific aims to test our hypothesis: 1) To determine the role of ava5 integrin and smooth muscle 1-actin in mediating mechanosensitive activation of the TGF-a complex in the vascular wall. Carotid arteries from mice that are null for these genes will be used to test whether these proteins contribute to the mechanical activation of TGF-a. Understanding better interaction between ECM bound latent TGF-a and mechanical stresses in the vascular wall may aid in our understanding of local vascular remodeling events such as where aneurysms form and how the vascular wall responds to pressure changes. Additionally, these studies may aid in the development of scaffolding for tissue engineering. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The goals of this study are to determine if changes in the arterial wall in response to increased blood pressure result in activation of transforming growth factor-a. Transforming growth factor-a plays an important role in regulating changes in arteries during various pathologies so a better understanding of these interactions is important to understanding the early events in hypertension, aneurysm formation, and other vascular pathologies.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 5/15/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $211,398.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Diabetes is an international health concern with millions of patients worldwide. There is an unmet need to develop a biosensor technology that is a fast and convenient way to monitor blood glucose in diabetics. Thus, the particular goal of this research is the development of a self-cleaning hydrogel sensor membrane which undergoes cyclical, thermally driven removal of adhered cells to improve the efficacy and lifetime of an implanted glucose sensor. Implanted optically based sensors have the potential for continuous detection of an analyte (e.g. glucose). However, sensing is often compromised by the attachment and accumulation of cells from surrounding tissue as part of the host response. As a result, glucose diffusion is diminished and the sensor must be removed and replaced. We will develop novel self-cleaning thermoresponsive nanocomposite hydrogel membranes fabricated in the form of a hollow tube that houses a fluorescent glucose-responsive assay. The sensor will be implanted in the interstitial fluid just beneath the skin. After implantation, the glucose specific sensor will, when illuminated with the optical system developed, provide continuous measurement of fluorescence peaks that are proportional to the glucose concentration. There are three specific aims proposed in this research: (1) iteratively develop thermoresponsive nanocomposite hydrogel sensor membranes and characterize their mechanical properties as well as thermally-modulated swelling/dewelling behavior, surface hydrophilicity/- hydrophobicity, glucose diffusion and cell-release behavior, (2) iteratively evaluate the efficacy of selected thermoresponsive nanocomposite hydrogels sensor membranes to house a glucose-responsive assay, and (3) quantify the in vivo efficacy of the sensors prepared from selected self-cleaning hydrogel membranes containing the glucose-responsive assay, using both normal and diabetic rats. The facilities and individuals represented in this multidisciplinary team from the Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Departments at Texas A&M University are uniquely suited to carry out this research and have expertise in the chemical synthesis of thermoresponsive hydrogels, optical and electrochemical glucose biosensing, as well as biomedical and chemical engineering. The team has a history of collaboration and brings over 18 years of experience in the design and development of optical sensors for glucose and other analytes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Diabetes mellitus is a debilitating, chronic, disease that affects over 180 million people, according to the World Health Organization, with estimates projecting to 366 million in 2030. The disease requires the patient to monitor glucose levels several times daily. This monitoring is currently non-continuous and performed primarily by using a commercially available finger or forearm stick method blood glucose reading device. Thus, the ultimate goal of this work is the development of an implantable self-cleaning glucose sensor that, once implanted, could be used to monitor glucose continuously with light from a watch-type of device to help patients with diabetes mellitus.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/15/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $205,537.00 | Grant |
Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Congenital defects remain the greatest contributor to infant mortality; yet, the causes for the majority of these defects are either unknown or poorly understood. Amine- and amide-containing (nitrosatable) drugs and other compounds react with nitrite in the stoomach to form N-nitroso compounds. In animal models, N-nitroso compounds have been found to induce a variety of congenital malformations. The few epidemiologic studies conducted in the past have focused on the separate effects of nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosatable drugs on risk of congenital malformations without consideration of their interaction in the endogenous formation of N- nitroso compounds. This case-control study will examine the separate and joint effects of prenatal exposures to nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosatable drugs on risk of selected congenital malformations (neural tube defects, limb malformations, oral clefts, and heart defects). Cases and controls will be obtained from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), a multi-center study that covers populations in 10 different states. Subjects' usual intake of dietary nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines will be calculated from the NBDPS food frequency questionnaire. From the NBDPS interview, medications reported taken one month preconception and during the first trimester will be classified as to their likelihood of nitrosatability based on the literature and chemical structure. The periconceptional addresses of Iowa and Texas participants will be linked to community water systems and pertinent water nitrate sampling results. For Texas participants on private wells, we will model and predict nitrate levels with a multi-dimensional flow and transport model. We will analyze the separate and joint effects of nitrosatable precursors on risk of the selected malformations. We will also examine the effects of vitamins C and E (inhibitors of nitrosation) on the relations between nitrate/nitrite intake and nitrosatable drugs and risk of selected congenital malformations. Use of over-the- counter medications is fairly common during pregnancy according to a recently published study. Several over-the-counter preparations contain nitrosatable compounds as active ingredients. The proposed study will help us understand whether pregnant women who take these types of drugs and also consume greater amounts of nitrates and nitrites are at increased risk of having offspring with birth defects. The study is also designed to examine whether higher intakes of vitamin C or E decrease these potential risks.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $281,342.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/06/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $196,127.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support One of the greatest physicists Vladimir Gamow compared our universe with a giant reactor or cauldron, in which all elements are cooked up via nuclear reactions. The process itself is called 'nucleosynthesis.' We are all made of the products of this nucleosynthhesis. Studying how the nuclear reactions proceed inside stars is one of the main objects of contemporary nuclear physics and of this project. The question is how we scientists can get a look inside a star. Physicists use different observational methods to get information about nuclear reactions in the stellar interior, but mostly the sources of the information are located on the star's surface. Often physicists are trying to mimic nuclear reactions inside stars in the laboratory using accelerators. However, nuclei have electrical charges of the same sign and they repeal each other making it very difficult or often impossible to measure nuclear reactions in the laboratory at stellar (very low) energies. The purpose of this project is to develop reliable indirect probes of nuclear reactions occurring inside stars, which allow us to study astrophysical nuclear reactions in laboratories. One such technique is a very neat implementation in physics of Homer's Odyssey, namely, the siege of Troy, and Ulysses' scheme to hide his warriors inside a giant wooden horse presented to the Trojans as a peace offering. Once inside the gates, the warriors waited until nightfall, then emerged, and conquered the unsuspecting city. This idea has been implemented in Trojan Horse-like nuclear reactions. To overcome the barrier of electric repulsion in the nuclear reaction one of the interacting nuclei is hiding inside the so-called Trojan Horse nucleus, which is accelerated to energies sufficient to overcome the electrical repulsive forces. After the Trojan Horse nucleus penetrates through the electrical repulsive barrier, it breaks down leaving the hiding nucleus inside the target nucleus while the second constituent nucleus of the Trojan Horse leaves as a spectator carrying away all the excessive energy. Theoretical background for analysis of such reactions will be developed in this project. The project will be directly integrated into the education of students at the graduate and undergraduate levels.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/14/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $195,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Although natural radioisotopes, such as Th(IV), Pa(IV, V), Po(IV, II, -II), and Be(II), are important proxies that have long been used in oceanographic investigations, the molecular interactions and binding relationships between radionuclides and marine organiic matter remain unclear. Through years of research, it has become evident that metal ions in the ocean are mostly controlled by biopolymers and other organic molecules excreted by marine micro-organisms, and that biopolymers play a significant role in the biogeochemical cycles of the natural radionuclides that are used as oceanographic tracers. To identify and characterize the relationships between these biopolymeric carrier compounds and the radionuclides used in tracer research, scientists from Texas A&M University and the University of Southern Mississippi will conduct a comparative study on radioisotopes of thorium (Th), protactinium (Pa), polonium (Po), lead (Pb), and beryllium (Be). This laboratory and field experiment will identify the radioisotope carriers that are effective marine binding ligands and clarify the basics of oceanographic chemical tracer applications of various natural radioisotopes. Broader Impacts: The results from this research will enhance our fundamental understanding of the biogeochemical controls on natural radionuclide and carbon cycling, in the oceans. This research will also refine the interpretation of data collected in the GEOTRACES program. The project also involves the training of students and international collaborations. < Back to Search Results... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/15/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $194,750.00 | Grant |
Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Non-typhoidal Salmonella, including serotype Typhimurium (STm) are food-borne bacterial pathogens that cause ~1.4 million cases of diarrheal disease annually in the United States and hundreds of millions of cases worldwide. In the intestine, STm induces a stronng neutrophilic inflammatory response and the production of antimicobial compounds by intestinal epithelial cells. In the face of this inflammatory response the numbers of STm in the intestine increase sharply, while the intestinal microflora of the host are dramatically reduced. The objective of this proposal is to identify the bacterial factors that allow STm to resist being killed by antimicrobials produced by the intestinal epithelium. The calf is the natural model of diarrheal STm infection that is most similar to human disease in clinical signs, host responses, and intestinal pathology. We have developed a forward genetic system to make screening for mutants feasible in ligated ileal loops in calves, a model developed at Texas A&M. We have generated a collection of over 1000 targeted deletion strains in STm, including mutants in all 'Salmonella-specific' genes and we have developed microarray-based methods to screen this entire collection of mutants as a single pool. We have already confirmed the use of this system for forward genetic screening in animal infection. In AIM-1 we will screen the mutant pool in calf ligated ileal loops to identify mutants sensitive to intestinal epithelial cell-derived antimicrobials. In AIM-2 we will verify and complement these mutants in competitive infections in ligated ileal loops in calves. In AIM-3 we will determine which of these genes are important for resistance to the purified antimicrobials calprotectin and enteric 2-defensin, antimicrobials known to be produced by the intestinal epithelium during inflammation. This project is a first step toward a comprehensive determination of the molecular mechanism of the bacterial genes involved in the response to inflammation in the gut. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Salmonella is a leading cause of food borne illness, causing ~1.4 million cases of diarrheal disease per year and is the single most common cause of death from food-borne illnesses associated with viruses, parasites or bacteria in the US primarily in immunocompromised persons. The genes and mechanisms used by non-typhoidal Salmonellae to survive in the face of a host inflammatory response in the intestine are not well understood. These mechanisms allow Salmonellae to establish a niche in the intestine during infection, and they are shed from this niche in fecal material from infected persons and livestock continuing the cycle of transmission. Development of a better understanding of the genes and mechanisms involved in this important stage of infection is critical to breaking the cycle of transmission of this organism. This work will have a direct impact on public health.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $242,125.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 8/11/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ELM RIDGE APARTMENTS | $190,380.00 | Grant | Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program Special Allocations (Recover Contract Svs S8 Funds | Housing and Urban Development Department / Federal Housing Commissioner | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $183,093.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Archaeologists have long looked to Beringia, the region encompassing Alaska and far northeastern Siberia, for clues about the origins of the first Americans and spread of humans into the Arctic. The traditional view holds that humans first migrated from Siberiia to Alaska across the Bering Land Bridge, a land mass that connected Asia to America during glacial episodes of the Ice Age. Beringia, however, has not yet revealed a clear archaeological predecessor to Clovis, the earliest indisputable archaeological culture in North America dating to about 13,000 years ago. Instead Beringian sites contain an altogether different and highly varied set of stone-artifact assemblages. Explaining this archaeological variability is a topic of much debate in Beringian archaeology today. The archaeological differences either resulted from the presence of at least two distinct early Beringian populations or from one population that used site locations differently. Another issue has been tying human settlement in Beringia to dramatically fluctuating climatic conditions that characterized the region at the end of the Ice Age. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Kelly Graf and her colleagues will conduct archaeological excavations of the Owl Ridge site, located near Denali National Park, central Alaska. Their work in 2009-2010 will provide evidence needed to explain early Beringian archaeological variability and tie human adaptation to fluctuating climatic conditions. Test excavations at Owl Ridge have already yielded three separate archaeological components that date to terminal Ice Age times, between 13,500 and 8,000 years ago. Full-scale excavations of the Owl Ridge site will be conducted during 2009-2010 to determine the character of each of the site's artifact assemblages, investigate aspects of human technological and settlement change, and consider how these past human behaviors relate to climate and environmental change at the end of the Ice Age. The results of this study will help to answer some of the most compelling questions in peopling of the Americas studies today. What is the meaning of artifact variability in early Beringia? How did Ice Age environments condition human settlement of Beringia's landscapes? When and how did humans spread from the Bering Land Bridge area to the Americas? The project will provide invaluable learning experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students and further our understanding of the behavioral evolution of humans in the far north, specifically in the context of significant climatic and environmental fluctuation at the end of the Ice Age, 14,000-7,000 years ago. Therefore, the proposed study will lead to greater appreciation of the human experience in harsh arctic environments and the impacts of global climate change on small-scale human societies.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $175,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The research objective of this BRIGE award is to establish a performance-based design methodology to reflect the response of a bridge system prestressed with aramid fiber reinforced polymer (AFRP) tendons and subjected to service, cyclic (fatigue), and ultimatte loads. The validation will be performed by conducting experimental tests on two full-scale specimens consisting of a continuous slab with two bulb T-beams with continuous monitoring. The experimental results will lead to the calibration of predictive computational models using state-of-the-art software. The experimentally validated models will be used to gain new insight into the behavior and serviceability limit states of the bridge system, particularly at ultimate load. Emphasis is also placed on material characterization of the AFRP tendons, prestress losses, effect of aggregate type on prestress losses, and short and long-term durability of the bridge system. Standard methods for computing prestressing losses in steel tendons will be used to measure losses due to creep, shrinkage, and elastic shortening by replacing the modulus of elasticity of the steel tendon with the modulus of elasticity of the AFRP tendon. Relaxation loss profiles of the AFRP tendons will be developed based on the experimental data collected to determine relaxation losses, which have been less well understood given lack of sufficient experimental data. If successful, the results of this research will add to the knowledge base of AFRP prestressing tendons for implementation into design and performance recommendations for broader impact not only enhancing the sustainability of bridges but for other structures such as marine structures that exist in highly corrosive environments. The research is integrated with an education plan, where the education objective is to promote STEM learning by exposing students, including underrepresented minorities, from metropolitan areas in Texas to engineering through outreach activities fostered through campus visits in conjunction with the College of Engineering. Laboratory demonstrations and hands-on activities are planned to inform the students about career opportunities that exist within civil engineering and to stimulate excitement for learning and discovery.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/06/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $174,999.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support We propose to generate high porosity bone scaffolds that are both biodegradable and injectable using high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs). Current fabrication techniques can be used to generate either a porous scaffold or an injectable scaffold. A highly poroous scaffold that is injectable and cures in situ to suitable mechanical strength will represent a significant advancement in orthopaedic tissue engineering. This innovative fabrication platform will provide exceptional control over the architecture, which can be utilized to tune scaffold properties to enhance tissue regeneration. A limited number of studies have demonstrated the potential of polyHIPEs as scaffolds; however, the synthetic routes used in these studies limited the biocompatibility, biodegradability, or injectability of the candidate scaffolds. We propose to use an entirely new synthetic design based on addition reactions of multifunctional polyesters to harness the full potential of the polyHIPE scaffolds. Furthermore, we will utilize molecular hydrophobicity prediction software to identify relationships between compositional chemistry and scaffold architecture that will enable rationale design of polyHIPE scaffolds. Intellectual Merit: These studies will provide the proof-of-concept and design strategies for the application of emulsion templating in a wide range of biomedical applications. Technical: Completion of the proposed Tasks will generate high porosity scaffolds that are both biodegradable and injectable using emulsion templating. A highly porous scaffold that is injectable and cures in situ to suitable mechanical strength will represent a significant advancement in orthopaedic tissue engineering. Fundamental: Systematic study of these scaffolds will delineate the individual effects of molecular hydrophobicity, viscosity, and surfactant on HIPE formation and architecture of the resulting foam. The ability to predict foam architecture based on compositional and processing variables is critical in rational design of tissue engineering scaffolds. On a grander scale, the predictive models and methodology developed in this research are applicable to other clinical specialties in which high porosity foams show promise in improving patient care (e.g. wound dressings, endovascular intervention, fixation devices). Broader Impacts: Broad educational and outreach activities will be woven through every level of this innovative research program to address the national need to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in the scientific and engineering workforce. This integrated educational and outreach platform will focus on strategies that enhance recruitment, retention and promotion of women and minorities in engineering. Collaborative activities with a minority serving institution in conjunction with continued involvement with the Texas A&M LSAMP program will create new opportunities for underrepresented groups to participate in innovative research. The proposed studies will enable technical and fundamental advances in tissue engineering while training these students for engineering careers and instilling a commitment to diversity. The research program will be used to foster critical thinking and equip students with state-of-the-art experimental skills in chemistry, polymer science and engineering. In addition, reports, theses, manuscript drafting, presentations at weekly group meetings, and opportunities to present at regional and national meetings will foster effective communication skills. Finally, the principles and results of this research will be incorporated into courses taught by the PI to educate students and encourage interest in biomedical research.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $168,962.00 | Grant |
Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This Research award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports work by Professor Claudia Turro at The Ohio State University to carry out fundamental/basic studies on ligand-loss photochemistry of ruthenium complexes. The aim of the research is to design new metal complexes that can undergo ligand exchange with water molecules with low energy visible light, such that, when photoactivated, these systems will bind to DNA. The main goal of the research is to understand the principles that govern efficient excited state ligand-loss, its kinetics, and how this excited state process can be enhanced. Understanding how the binding properties of the leaving ligand and the structural characteristics of the ground state and the lowest energy excited state affect the photochemistry represents a primary focus of the work. Other ligands around the metal centered will be systematically varied in order to induce ligand exchange using low energy light. Once activated with light, the ruthenium complexes bind to DNA in an oxygen-independent manner. This work will provide the basic knowledge that can later be applied to the discovery of new antitumor agents that may circumvent the drawbacks of current drugs. The PI and both co-PIs are committed to the education of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as members of underrepresented groups. The PI is the faculty advisor for the student chapter of the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chem. Engineers at OSU, is a member of the departmental Diversity Committee, and attended national and regional meetings of societies geared to promote and retain underrepresented minorities and women in science. These efforts will aid in the training of highly qualified, diverse scientists at the undergraduate and graduate levels. An important aspect of the research is the potential for the new complexes derived from this work to act as antitumor agents, thus providing a clear benefit to society.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $690,000.00 allocation. See details |
National Science Foundation | 7/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $165,046.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The principal investigator (P.I.) will study three topics in measurement error models, develop relevant methodologies and analyze their corresponding properties and performances. The first topic concerns functional models in the situation when the main modell contains unspecified error, hence is a semiparametric model by itself. The P.I. will study the structure and interaction of the two nonparametric components, the unknown error distribution and the unknown latent variable distribution, and propose an operation to best treat each of them. The general approach is geometry based. The resulting estimating procedure possesses robustness to model misspecification in both components, and allows to achieve optimal estimation efficiency. The asymptotic consistency and normality will be demonstrated both theoretically and in numerical examples. The second topic concerns the model goodness-of-fit test in measurement error models. The P.I. will propose a pseudo-score type methodology. She will demonstrate that the new testing procedure is feasible in accommodating the computational issues specific in such models, and has the desired consistency and power property. In addition, the optimal power property associated with the usual profiling estimation procedure can be equivalently achieved via projection. She will also study the relation between the Wald test and the pseudo-score test and demonstrate their equivalence in a wider range than previously known in literature. The third topic concerns the small sample performance in measurement error models. Existing literature has indicated that the first order asymptotics in measurement error models often require very large sample size to show its relevancy. The P.I. will tackle this problem using a saddle point approximation technique, hence achieving a higher order approximation than the classical first order theory. Because the functional measurement error model is semiparametric, yet existing saddle point approximation theory is developed and heavily relies on parametric model assumption, the P.I. will develop and study new methodology in this area. The series of projects in this proposal will resolve some of the most fundamental issues in their most general form in measurement error models. Since errors in measurements widely present in almost all scientific fields, including health and medicine, environment and atmospheric science, finance and economics, material and chemical sciences, the new methodologies will generate wide interest and have important application in these fields. They will also provoke further studies and development in related semiparametric problems and computing methods in statistical sciences itself. < Back to Search Results... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/02/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ABC Dual Language Learning Center LLC | $159,000.00 | Loan | 504 Certified Development Loans TO ASSIST SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS BY PROVIDING LONG TERM FINANCING THROUGH THE SALE OF DEBENTURES TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $158,580.00 | Grant |
Office of Science Financial Assistance Program This project is to study the connectivity and flow patterns of complex multi-scale systems modeled as random networks. Networks provide effective ways to study global, system level properties, starting with local, multi-scale interactions at a componentt level. Numerous applications from biology, social science, telecommunications and transportation have benefitted from novel network models of data and their analysis. Optimization models that employ appropriate measures of risk, and algorithms for finding robust flows in networks under uncertainty would be developed in this project.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $589,092.00 allocation. See details |
Energy Department / Office of Science | 9/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $157,542.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS RESEARCH INC | $155,472.00 | Grant |
Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, Recovery Act Improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State academic achievement standards.
This spending item is part of a $948,738,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $155,295.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| WORFORCE SOLUTIONS BRAZOS VALLEY | $151,711.00 | Grant |
Employment Service/Wagner-Peyser Funded Activities To assist persons to secure employment and workforce information by providing a variety of job search assistance and information services without charge to job seekers and to employers seeking qualified individuals to fill job openings.
This spending item is part of a $27,188,100.00 allocation. See details |
Labor Department / Employment and Training Administration | 2/17/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $150,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This engineering education research award to Texas Engineering Experiment Station in collaboration with Saint Mary's University will employ researchers in the development of new methods and web-based tools to integrate design of automated manufacturing into thhe engineering curriculum. Automated manufacturing is highly complex and collaborative, and it requires systems level approaches to solving problems. This work will develop new virtual collaborative learning environments with emphasis on communication and teamwork for engineering students studying automated manufacturing. It will allow students to engage in more realistic collaborative activities with other students and also with working engineers. Input from 100 companies will provide an understanding of current practices, and the results of this research will be of benefit to both engineering students and industry. Advanced automated manufacturing capability is essential to national competitiveness, and effective integration of systems level thinking into the engineering curriculum using this research will better prepare engineering students to work in this area.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $146,889.00 | Grant | Renewable Energy Research and Development The thin-film polysilicon (poly-Si), which is also known as multicrystalline silicon (mcSi), solar cell is a promising low-cost, high-efficiency technology. However, currently, the technology bottleneck is the large-area, mass production process. The conventiional poly-Si thin film formation process requires a large thermal budget, i.e., either a temperature is too high to be compatible with low-cost substrates or the process time is too long for mass production. A novel concept of solid phase crystallization (SPC) using pulsed rapid thermal annealing (PRTA) enhanced with a thin metal seed layer, which transforms the multilayer amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film stack into a poly-Si stack in a short process step, is proposed. Our previous experience and literature data clearly show the feasibility of this idea. We plan to demonstrate this new process through fabricating the complete poly-Si solar cell showing with proper device functions. Upon the success of this project, the process can be transferred to the production environment after optimization of detailed parameters. This new process enables the economic production of large-area thin-film poly-Si solar cells at a high throughput. Based on extremely conservative assumptions, the US electric industry can save more than $IB in the 20-year life period of the new poly-Si solar cells. Therefore, this new technology will have substantial impact to the industry and society.... Show more | Energy Department | 8/14/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $146,783.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Mean-field spin glass models and, in particular, the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model were better understood in the past several years following the discovery of the replica symmetry breaking interpolation by Francesco Guerra and the proof of the celebrated Parissi formula for the free energy by Michel Talagrand. The current proposal consists of several directions of research that will attempt to build upon recent progress. One project proposes to study whether the Ghirlanda-Guerra identities for the distribution of the overlaps, which arise from a certain stochastic stability property of the Gibbs measure, imply the Parisi ultrametricity conjecture. Another project concerns a number of natural analogues of the Guerra replica symmetry breaking interpolation for various spin glass models, such as the perceptron, Hopfield, diluted p-spin and p-sat models. In all these models such interpolations formally reproduce the solutions predicted by theoretical physicists, but since the methodology of the proof of the Parisi formula in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model does not directly apply to these models, one needs to find new ways to control the error terms in these interpolations. In addition, the proposal includes several other questions regarding the joint distribution of the overlaps in the spherical Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model, properties of the Parisi functional, and characterization of the replica symmetric region in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model via the Almeida-Thouless line. Several models in statistical mechanics, called mean-field spin glass models, were originally introduced and studied by theoretical physicists who developed an impressive heuristic theory that gave detailed predictions about the behavior of these models and that influenced many other areas of research well beyond the scope of the original problems. Rigorous mathematical proofs of some of the physicist's predictions required a number of new ideas and approaches that are likely to be useful in other areas of probability, statistical physics, computer science and statistics. Current proposal will continue research in several promising directions.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/07/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS RESEARCH INC | $142,988.50 | Grant |
Education Technology State Grants, Recovery Act Educational Technology State Grants to States to improve student academic achievement through the innovative use and the effective integration of new and emerging technology with teacher training, curriculum development, and successful research-based innstructional methods in elementary and secondary schools.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $59,515,800.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 7/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $139,113.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support The focus of this proposal is on the mechanism of host lysis by bacteriophage. Building on recent progress, it is proposed to investigate the biochemical and genetic properties of holins, smallphage-encoded membrane proteins that act as the timers of phage infeections. Holins have the remarkable ability to accumulate during the phage infective cycle without harming the cell, then suddenly triggering to permeabilize the membrane. This terminates the infection and activatesmuralytic enzymes called endolysins, or lysozymes, resulting in degradationof the cell wall, leading to bursting of the cell and release of the progeny virions. The work is aimed at determining how these proteins can form holes inmembranes, and how the scheduling of the hole-forming event is programmed into the sequence of the holin. Fundamental issues of lipid-protein and protein-protein interactions in membranes will be addressed, including an investigation of how integral membranedomains of some lysis proteins actually are able to exit the membrane upon physiological cues. The holin-endolysin mode is completely general for all phages except those with very small genomes. However, single-stranded DMA and RNAphages, limited to 3 - 10genes for their entire genome complement, accomplish host lysis by expressing single genes. In two of these cases, recent progress has shown that the phage lysis protein causes lysis by inhibiting different enzymes in the murein precursor biosynthetic pathway. It is proposed to investigate the molecular basis by which these 'protein antibiotics' effect inhibition of these conserved enzymes. Other small single-stranded RNA phages effect lysis by an unknown mechanism, the elucidation of which is another goal of this project. Public health implications: These studies are critical to our understanding of how bacterial viruses, or phages, kill their prey and effect dispersal of their progeny. This may have direct practical benefits because there is a growing consensus that phages, as natural antibacterial agents, will become an important tool in combating bacterial pathogens, which are increasingly resistant to available antibiotics. In addition, the research may reveal new modes for design of chemical antibiotics.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $138,883.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Dendrimers are an understudied class of nanometer-scale, globular polymers that offer candidates for the next-generation of polymer therapeutics. Size, shape, and composition impact all aspects of these vehicles including overall efficacy, bioavailability, toxiicity, metabolism, absorption and excretion. Optimization of these parameters for drug delivery using dendrimers requires (1) exquisite control over the synthesis of dendrimer candidates; (2) an understanding of the physical organic chemistry of these macromolecules and macromolecule-drug complexes; and finally, (3) assessment of therapeutic efficacy. To date, owing to synthetic routes that lack an approach for systematic variation of size, shape, and composition as well as number of architectures for structure-property relationships (the hallmark of physical organic chemistry), there is little fundamental understanding of the design criteria for the use of dendrimers in drug delivery. There are three overall aims of proposed research which focuses on breast and prostate tumors: Specific Aim #1: Examine the fundamental physical organic chemistry of these macromolecules as it pertains to: 1 A) The number of 'phases' a biocompatible PEGylated dendrimer comprises in water and the impact that this has on the sequestration of drugs: In monophasic dendrimers, sequestration is proportional to MW. 1B) The ability to tailor release rates of drugs through systematic cleavage of bioloabile linkers in architectures showing a gradient of tethers and steric crowding. 1C) The global conformation of these macromolecules and the guests associated with them. Specific Aim #2: Identify the molecular determinants for biodistribution and tumor targeting using multifuctional dendrimers. Specific Aim #3: Explore macromolecular recognition to determine the molecular parameters that allow these dendrimers to serve as synthetic vaccines and as multi-functional adaptor units on antibodies.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $137,413.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Suzanne Eckert will investigate pottery and stone tool production during the Polynesian Plain Ware Period on Tutuila Island, American Samoa. Although ethnographic Polynesia is one of the model societies for which tthe development of chiefdoms in other parts of the world is compared, and craft production is recognized as an important aspect of such development, very little is known about the specifics of production in ancestral Polynesian society. Were early Polynesians making items in their own homes for their own uses? Were talented craftspeople producing more difficult-to-make items for use by their community? Were specialists making highly sought after items specifically for chiefs to use? Answers to these questions will help unravel the complexities of how craft production articulated with political organization as well as create an avenue through which models for production organization in chiefdom-level societies throughout time and space can be evaluated and refined archaeologically. Answering the above questions requires an understanding of how and where artifacts were produced. Attribute analyses focused on form, function, and style will provide insights into the technology of pottery and stone tool production on Tutuila, nd provide insight into the skill level of individual artisans, as well as the relative number and concentration of producers. Data informing on where artifacts were produced requires more technical studies. Specifically, Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) will be used to determine which clays on island were used to produce pottery, while Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) will be used to determine which basalt quarries were used for stone tool production during this period. Through the use of exploratory data analyses, the collected LA-ICP-MS and EDXRF data will be used to group ceramic and lithic samples, respectively, into chemical compositional groupings. These groupings, when matched to geological sources, will represent evidence of production within a specific area or village. Once completed, this study will have broader impacts in at least five realms. First, as the first study specifically designed to explore the organization of both pottery and stone-tool production during this period in Samoa, this study will add substantially to the growing body of knowledge on the development of ancestral Polynesian craft production. Second, by providing data comparable to studies performed on other islands, this study will allow for a discussion of production organization in Samoa in perspective with production organization in other areas of the South Pacific. Third, this study will augment understanding of the roles that production and played in the development and maintenance of chiefdoms. Fourth, Samoan and U.S. students will participate in this project to enhance their training and increase their knowledge of Polynesian prehistory. Fifth, during this research the people of Samoa will be informed of the ongoing research in order to promote archaeological awareness. In recent years, some Samoans have challenged the value of historic preservation; in response, this research will help to provide a positive framework for Samoan views of archaeology and historic preservation.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/16/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $137,096.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The adequate numerical treatment of free boundary problems exhibiting disparate scales is a formidable mathematical and computational challenge where the geometry plays a crucial role. Modern algorithms should be able to optimize and balance the computational effort to capture small scales without over-resolving the others producing in particular efficient interface geometry description. Adaptive procedures in this context are thus critical but yet suffering from their lake of mathematical understanding. The present research proposes to design, test and analyze space-time adaptive algorithms suited for free boundary problems. Particular instances in biophysics (such as biomembranes and cardiovascular system) and material sciences (such as crystal surfaces relaxation, injection molding viscoelastic flow, and micro-devices design) are addressed. All have in common the intriguing coupling between interfaces and some quantities of interest governed by partial differential equations. Deformable domains are ubiquitous in several areas of research but are still a serious computational challenge. This project proposes robust and efficient algorithms particularly tuned for such problems leading to realistic predictions and deeper understanding. The outcome will benefit many different research areas. In fact, the applications discussed are of interest in strategic topics such as human cells morphology, communication technology, nanotechnology, and high performance computing. This project is collaborative and interdisciplinary involving a number of scientists in the US and abroad. A substantial effort is devoted to education. < Back to Search Results... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/12/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $133,367.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $132,000.00 | Grant | ENERGY EFF & RENEW ENRGY INFO TECH ASST The Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) at Texas A&M University (through its contracting agency the Texas Engineering Experiment Station) will join with Texas Manufacturing Assistance Centers (TMAC) through the University of Texas at Arlington to provide enhhanced assessments for six large manufacturers. A letter of commitment for the participation of TMAC is appended. TMAC will be subcontracted to select and recruit the plants, participate in the assessment visits, and provide implementation assistance. The IAC will provide all its traditional services-utility bill assessment; leadership of the assessment visit by approved faculty or staff; assessment visit activities including student participation in data gathering; and writing a formal, technical report in the IAC formatGÇöexcept for recruitment of the plants. The IAC will work with TMAC to assure that plants recruited by TMAC are suitable for the large assessments desired by this RFP. Due to class commitments by students, students may only participate in one day of each assessment.... Show more | Energy Department | 12/22/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $131,963.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Exposure to environmental toxicants such as dioxin and benzo-a-pyrene (e .g.: from cigarette smoke) has severe adverse effects on maternal and fetal health. Placental stem cells which give rise to placenta are critical for the developing fetus. The effects off dioxin on these cells have not been studied. The supplemental proposal is to investigate the mechanism of toxicity of dioxin on the placental stem cells. Doxin and related halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons are ubiquitous, persistent environmental contaminants causing adverse responses to human and wildlife. Most of the toxic responses induced by dioxin are mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). Therefore, central to our understanding of dioxin-induced toxic responses is to elucidate the mechanism of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-regulated gene expression. In the parent R01 grant, we proposed to investigate the interaction between AhR and NF-kB to understand the mechanism of dioxin-induced toxicity. The central hypothesis is AhR/NF-kB interactions converge at the level of transcription, involving transcription elongation and histone modifications. We have investigated this hypothesis through two specific aims. AIM I: Regulation of cyp1a1 transcriptional elongation by AhR and NF-kB, and AIM II: To investigate the histone modifications ('histone code') and regulations of cyp1a1 through recruitment of co-regulators by AhR and NF-kB. Under the same central hypothesis, in this supplemental proposal, following the scope of the two specific aims in the parent grant, we plan to investigate the epigenetic mechanism of interaction between AhR and NF-kB in trophoblast stem (TS) cells. A series of experiments have been designed to investigate the effects of impacts of AhR and NF-kB interaction on the cyp1a1 expression in TS cells. Specifically, we plan to analyze the effects of transcription factor recruitment to the cyp1a1 regulatory regions in response to dioxin and effects of TS cell differentiation on the assembly of transcriptional machinery in the regulatory regions, which is within the scope of Aim I of the parent grant. We will also analyze the epigenetic changes of the cyp1a1 chromatin modifications in response to dioxin treatment as well as the changes as a result of the TS cell differentiation. The proposed research is an important new challenge area emphasized by NIEHS (i.e.: Stem cells 14-ES-101 - Effects of exposures to pluripotent cells growth, development and function). The proposed research in this supplement should accelerate and greatly advance our understanding of the mechanism of fetal and embryo toxicity in dioxin exposed human and wildlife. The supplement is essential to maintain a talented scientific workforce in the research areas that are Important for the NIH mission.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/14/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $129,120.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The object of the proposed research is the study of the distribution of mass of high dimensional convex bodies or more general of log-concave probability measures. Recently, several classical results from probability theory have been extended to the broader seetting of these measures. These new results appear to be out of reach of the classical probabilistic reasoning based on independence which is replaced by the geometric notion of convexity. The PI intends to further investigate the geometric parameters of high-dimensional measures and in particular the geometry of generalized centroid bodies associated to these measures. With this approach and applying techniques from local theory of Banach spaces, classical convexity, probability and information theory, the PI wishes to attack various open problems related to log-concave measures such as small ball probability estimates and the hyperplane conjecture, as well as, various conjectures in the theory of convex bodies such as the regularity of the entropy numbers and the optimal bound of the minimal mean width. There is a general principle that underlies the research in this proposal: the tendency of high dimensional systems to congregate around typical forms. This is a central fact that influences the study of complex systems which appear in probability, combinatorics, statistical physics and complexity. The unexpected regularity of high dimensional convex bodies when viewed as probability spaces is expected to add a new component to our understanding of this general principle. Applications to random polytopes, random matrices, and random algorithms (topics from combinatorics, mathematical physics and informatics respectively) have already been discovered, indicating that more should be expected in the future.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/16/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $128,084.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Multidisciplinary research at the Chemistry:Biology interface has expanded so rapidly in the past few decades that such cross-training is now crucial for the development of the next generation of chemists and biologists. The objectives of the proposed training program at Texas A&M University is to train predoctotal graduate students in the Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Biology departments in research at the Chemistry:Biology Interface (CBI). Since its inception in 1994, this NIH-sponsored program has played a major role in the successful training of our graduate students in the molecular life sciences. The program currently involves 27 faculty members, with highly diverse research interests including : a) mechanistic enzymology (Raushel), b) macromolecular interactions (Hu, Reinhart, Schultz); c) synthesis (Burgess, Connell, Darensbourg, Romo, Yang); d) bioanalysis (Cremer, Russell, Vigh); e) metabolism (Begley, Lindahl, Watanabe); f) structure/function relationships (Barondeau, Hilty, Sacchettini); g) computational reaction mechanisms (Gao, Singleton); h) chronobiology (Golden and Bell-Pederson); i) behavioral biology (Garcia) and j) chemical biology (Pellois, Liu, Ryan, Young). Such diversity is a major strength of our CBI program, as it makes it attractive to a wider range of students and affords for greater cross-training at the Chemistry:Biology interface. Students in the CBI program choose one of these trainers as their primary research advisor, and enroll in a core group of required courses in which training in quantitative biology is stressed. CBI students enroll in a weekly journal club in which research topics from these area are discussed, emphasizing the connection to human health, physiology and disease. Students also enroll in a class on the Ethical Conduct of Research. The CBI program sponsors an annual symposium in which existing trainees present their research results and new trainees are introduced into the program. Well- known external speakers are also invited as part of the training program. A former CBI student is invited to help current CBI students develop their careers. Towards the end of this 2-year program, students apply to attend a summer wo... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 8/03/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $126,789.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Social scientists recently exposed the myth of universal water services coverage in the United States: migrant farm workers, the rural poor, and urban homeless communities face substantial deficiencies in water and sanitation infrastructure. Although institutiional and location factors are thought to explain limited water and sanitation services, scholars have overlooked two key aspects of the water-poverty problem: (1) access to water infrastructure does not guarantee water security, which is defined as adequate, reliable, and affordable water and sanitation for a healthy life; and (2) considerable water security variability exists within low-income communities. Dr. Wendy Jepson at Texas A&M University will fill these gaps by examining household water security variability in low-income Mexican-American communities in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, one of the poorest regions with the largest population lacking suitable water supply and basic sanitation in the United States. The project will be executed in three parts. First, the PI and her research team will conduct household case studies, group interviews, and semi-structured interviews to describe the meaning and experience of household water security in colonias, low-income rural and peri-urban communities. Second, they will use information gathered in the first part of the project to develop and pretest a household water security survey instrument. Pre-testing and respondent evaluations will allow researchers to revise the survey for full implementation. Third, they will administer survey instrument and analyze results. Descriptive analysis and multivariate relationships with predictors will be assessed using standard statistical analysis, and hypothesis testing will be conducted. These data will enable the identification of the variables that predict different levels of water insecurity, relationships between the degree of water insecurity and household characteristics, and relationships between the degree of water insecurity and type of water service provider. This project will provide the basis for new empirical discoveries and advance conceptual innovations related to water security in low-income communities in the United States. Project outcomes include a new survey instrument that could be applied in other low-income areas where substantial water and sanitation deficiencies exist. In addition, the project changes the current understanding of water-poverty problems from 'infrastructure' at a regional scale to 'water security' at a household scale. The focus on the household as the unit of analysis allows for fine-grained assessments of a broad array of water and sanitation issues, incorporating physical, relational and behavioral dimensions of water deficiency. Therefore, expected research results will advance current knowledge about water and poverty, transform policy and social scientific study about poverty and water, and provide scientifically informed recommendations to improve the human condition of economically excluded groups in the United States... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/20/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $120,000.00 | Grant | INERTIAL FUSION SCIENCE- ICF NA-121.1: DETAILED MEASUREMENTS OF TURBELENT RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR MISING @ LARGE & SMALL ATWOOD NUMBERS | Energy Department | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| AC Express | $120,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $113,928.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support In the context of missing data and semiparametric regression models (i.e., models with both finite dimensional and infinite-dimensional parameters), little work has been done on efficient estimation and still less on estimating general functionals. Most studiees limit their attention to estimating the mean response. In contrast, this research project studies estimation of arbitrary expectations involving response and covariables. The investigator will also address estimating densities and distribution functions. The focus is on efficient estimation in semiparametric regression with responses missing at random. The analysis of semiparametric models is an important topic with practical, real-world implications: in applications there is typically some information about the structure of the data available, but not sufficient to specify an appropriate parametric model; semiparametric methods make optimal use of that information. However, even simple (widespread) semiparametric models, such as the partly linear model, are not yet fully understood. This research will further our understanding. Most of the anticipated results will also apply to cases where data are complete. The first research strand has the goal of deriving efficient estimators of expectations of covariates and the response variable in semiparametric regression. A second strand focuses on estimation of the response density in the nonlinear regression model. The investigator intends to show that, for certain classes of well-behaved regression functions, the response density can be estimated with a root n rate and, moreover, efficiently. It is not anticipated that it will always be possible to estimate the density with the parametric rate root n: limitations and possible alternative approaches will be investigated. The key methodological innovation in these two strands is the combination of full imputation, efficiency and empirical likelihood ideas. The third strand considers estimation of the error distribution function in nonparametric regression with missing responses. Many scientific investigations depend upon statistical analysis to draw conclusions. In many cases, however, incomplete data present a challenge to the accuracy of those conclusions. This applies in many fields, including epidemiology, pharmaceutical research and social/behavioral investigations involving the analysis of survey data. The results of this research project will enable data sets with missing values to be treated more efficiently and improve the accuracy of statistical conclusions about the data. Despite significant recent progress, inefficient methods remain in frequent use. Examples include listwise deletion of cases, and imputation methods which do not use all the available information about the data. Deleting or disregarding unique or scarce data is clearly not a desirable option. Efficient analysis will make use of all available information about the structure of the data, leading to unbiased, least-dispersed estimation methods: in other words, greater accuracy.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $113,742.00 | Grant | ARRA - Head Start ARRA Head Start Expansion | Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 9/18/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $113,742.00 | Grant | ARRA - Head Start ARRA Head Start Expansion | Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 9/18/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS AGRILIFE RESEARCH | $113,414.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The ability of coastal wetlands to survive accelerated sea level rise is a critically important and open question. Coastal marshes, which are dominated by the marsh grass Spartina alterniflora, build the land vertically (accrete) through a combination of ecoloogical, geological and hydrological processes. The U.S. Gulf Coast has numerous growth faults, where the sinking or subsidence of the land surface can be accelerated relative to other coastal areas. Contrasts in the rate of subsidence across these growth faults will result in spatially-identifiable effects on marsh vegetation and on the rate of relative sea level rise. The central hypothesis of this project is that the amount of accretion and vegetative change of Spartina alterniflora wetlands is directly related to the amount of fault displacement. The project will be centered at an established field research station in Matagorda Bay, Texas, where an active, known growth fault bisects a Spartina alterniflora marsh. The field site will be intensively studied using field surveys, the Global Positioning System (GPS), aerial LIght Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data sets, and tidal gauge cross-referencing to document ongoing elevation changes due to fault displacement; litho- and biostratigraphic methods, combined with paleo-sea level estimates, and radio-carbon (14-C) to provide a historical, geologic context for fault displacement and sea level change; Rod Sediment Elevation Tables (RSET) to directly measure contemporary rates of erosion and accretion; fallout radionuclides (7-Be, 137-Cs, 210-Pb) to provide historical data on sediment accumulation and chronology; and remote sensing imagery and field vegetative inventories, which will provide information on plant community transitions. This project has both national and global implications for managing the productivity of fisheries, documenting the rates of coastal erosion, and developing land-use policies in coastal environments. The ability to determine the contemporary and historical relationships between variable rates of marsh subsidence, accretion and/or erosion, sediment supply, and ecosystem sustainability in terms of relative sea level fluctuation will aid in projecting changes for the future and developing effective adaptation strategies. This project will integrate research, professional training, public outreach and education by the participation of graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 students from the Gulf Coast region.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/09/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BASKIN ROBBINS | $110,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $109,563.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support The long-term goal of our research is to understand the role that plays glycosylation in regulating cell interactions during animal development. Mammalian sialylation has become the focus of intensive investigation because of its involvement in important biologgical processes, such as pathogen-host interactions and the functioning of the immune and nervous systems. Defects in the sialylation pathway have been implicated in multiple pathologies, including tumor metastases, impaired synaptic plasticity, and neuromuscular disorders. At the same time, the complexity of sialylation, and the limit on genetic approaches impose significant difficulties on elucidating biological functions of sialylation in mammals. This project is directed towards a comprehensive understanding of molecular and genetic mechanisms of sialylation in the Drosophila model system. The advantages of this system are based on its advanced genetic approaches, abundance of information on well-documented developmental events, the complete genome sequence, and relatively low genetic redundancy. The proposed multidisciplinary research is aimed at a comprehensive characterization of the Drosophila sialyltransferase gene at the molecular and genetic levels, as well as elucidating the role of sialylation in Drosophila development. One of the specific aims of this project is to comprehensively characterize the sialyltransferase biochemical activity. To this end, the sialyltransferase protein will be expressed in cell culture, purified using affinity chromatography, and assayed for its enzymatic activity. Another specific aim is to investigate in detail the expression pattern of the sialyltransferase (both gene and protein) during different developmental stages. To precisely map the expression of the sialyltransferase, different molecular markers will be used in immunostaining and in situ hybridization analyses. The function of the sialyltransferase will be analyzed at molecular, cellular and organismal levels by comprehensive characterization of the sialyltransferase gene-associated phenotypes obtained by several genetic techniques, including gene targeting and RNAi approaches. Finally, in the framework of this project, the in vivo molecular targets of sialylation will be identified using a proteomics- based approach. This proposed research will elucidate the molecular mechanism and biological role of sialylation in Drosophila and should shed light on biological functions of sialylation in mammals, including humans.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $105,194.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Prior research has shown that neurons within the spinal cord can support some simple forms of learning. Learning in the isolated spinal cord can be studied by cutting communication with the brain by means of a thoracic transection. Transected rats given shock tto one hind leg whenever the leg is extended soon learn to maintain the leg in a flexed position that minimizes net shock exposure, a form of instrumental conditioning. Rats that receive shock independent of leg position (uncontrollable shock) do not learn and exhibit a learning deficit when later tested with controllable shock. This learning deficit can be prevented, and reversed, by training with controllable shock. Instrumental training also enables learning when subjects are tested with a more difficult response criterion. Our hypothesis is that instrumental training enables learning within the spinal cord, and has a protective effect, because it promotes the synthesis and release of the neurotrophin BDNF. Aim 1 explores this hypothesis using pharmacological techniques. The necessity of BDNF is evaluated using drug manipulations that disrupt BDNF function. Sufficiency is examined by artificially applying BDNF to the spinal tissue. If BDNF plays a key role, disrupting BDNF should eliminate the beneficial effect of instrumental training and the application of BDNF should have a protective effect. Preliminary data suggest that training with controllable shock up-regulates BDNF mRNA expression while uncontrollable stimulation down-regulates expression. Aim 2 uses assays for mRNA expression to examine the duration of these effects and their anatomical locus. Protein assays will evaluate how this expression affects BDNF levels and the signal pathways involved. Prior work has shown that uncontrollable, but not controllable, stimulation disrupts recovery after a spinal contusion injury. We outline a novel procedure to maximize the beneficial effect of controllable stimulation and seek evidence that instrumental training has a lasting effect in a contusion model. Additional work will evaluate whether training affects recovery because it promotes the release of BDNF. The long-term goal of this research is to characterize the mechanisms that underlie spinal plasticity at both a functional and neurobiological level. Instrumental training provides a model of a common behavioral technique (functional electrical stimulation [FES]) used to foster recovery after spinal injury in humans. By identifying key instrumental relations, and the neurochemical systems involved, we hope to develop more effective procedures to promote recovery. Further, procedures designed to promote neural growth across an injury require techniques to shape the appropriate pattern of neural innervation. Instrumental training could provide the procedure needed to select adaptive neural connections.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $103,134.00 | Grant |
Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support The goal of this proposal is to delineate the viral genes that lead to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) utilizing a novel rodent model of SARS. SARS infected over 8,000 persons globally with over 700 deaths. We propose to use a MHV-1 infected mouse modeel of SARS developed by our group to identify coronavirus genes that contribute to this severe pulmonary disease. The first aim of the research will utilize reverse genetics to examine the roles of structural proteins spike (S), matrix (E) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins and non-structural accessory proteins in the pathogenesis of SARS-like pneumonitis in our model. These studies will employ a targeted recombination approach. Chimeric MHV-1/non-pneumotropic recombinant viruses will be used to determine the MHV-1 genes necessary for targeting to the lung and for the development of SARS like pulmonary disease. In the second aim we will investigate the hypothesis that the ACE2 receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV spike protein (Srbd) contributes to SARS pathogenesis by abrogating the pneumoprotective effect of ACE2 in addition to its role in viral attachment to cells. MHV-1/SARS-Srbd recombinants will be isolated and their ability to enhance virulence and cause lethal SARS-like pulmonary disease in otherwise MHV-1 resistant mice will be determined. These studies will identify MHV-1 genes that are necessary and/or sufficient for the unique SARS-like pathology induced by this virus, and assess the role of the SARS-CoV Srbd in pathogenesis independent of its role as a viral attachment protein in a mouse model of SARS. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The goal of this proposal is to delineate the viral genes that lead to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) utilizing a novel rodent model of SARS. SARS infected over 8,000 persons globally with over 700 deaths. We will use a related coronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus type 1 (MHV-1), that produces a disease in mice that mimics SARS. We use this newly developed mouse model of SARS to identify coronavirus genes that contribute to this severe pulmonary disease. This information should be useful in advancing our understanding of SARS and other coronavirus pulmonary infections and may provide a basis for developing future therapeutic approaches to these diseases.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $197,634.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 5/21/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $103,000.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS RESEARCH INC | $101,247.00 | Grant |
Special Education Grants to States, Recovery Act Assist States in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities in accordance with Part B of the IDEA.
This spending item is part of a $945,636,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $100,764.00 | Grant |
Education Technology State Grants, Recovery Act Educational Technology State Grants to States to improve student academic achievement through the innovative use and the effective integration of new and emerging technology with teacher training, curriculum development, and successful research-based innstructional methods in elementary and secondary schools.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $59,515,800.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 7/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| AC Express | $100,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CORINNOVA INC | $100,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support 'SBIR Phase I: Pre-clinical Development of Device to Guide Heart Recovery via Assist and Support.' | National Science Foundation | 6/08/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $99,665.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support This research is directed at elucidating how the transcription factor NF-KB responds to diverse extracellular signals to control fundamental processes, such as cell proliferation, apoptosis and malignant transformation. Because NF-KB can promote cell survival tthrough anti-apoototic mechanisms, anti-cancer drugs targeting inhibition NF-KB activity can improve the efficacy of chemotherapy treatments. However, NF-KB can also promote cell death by repressing cell survival pathways. Similarly, the N-myc oncogene, which is frequently amplified in aggressive neuroblastoma, can both promote and antagonize cell survival. Therefore, efficacious cancer therapies cannot be achieved simply by targeting inhibition of NF-KB or N-mvc. It is of utmost importance to understand how NF-KB and N-myc are regulated by diverse signals to specify activation or repression of target genes, thereby facilitating the design of anticancer drugs that selectively target NF-KB and/or N-mvc functions. Preliminary data suggest that 1) NF-KB and N-myc can interact in vivo and 2) N-myc can repress the activity of NF-KB. Given the important, and sometimes opposing, roles that NF-KB and N-myc play in regulating cell survival and oncogenesis, Dr. Sitcheran's immediate goals are to gain additional training in the use of proteomics, microarray and mouse model systems to evaluate the biological significance of the interaction between NF-KB and N-myc and the mechanism by which Nmyc represses NF-KB. This proposal will elucidate how NF-KB responds to diverse developmental, physiological and pathological signals to specify unique patterns of gene expression. The following Specific Aims will be investigated: 1) Characterization of the NF-KB:N-myc protein complex; 2) Investigation of the mechanism by which N-myc regulates NF-KB activity 3) Identification and characterization of genes regulated by both N-myc and NF-KB; and 4)Analysis of cooperativity between N-myc and NF-KB in neuroblastoma pathogenesis. These studies have the potential to offer new insight into drug design targeting oncogenic pathways regulated by NF-KB and N-myc.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/28/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $99,660.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Brucella melitensis is a human and animal bacterial pathogen of global significance. Although bacterial factors mediating the host-pathogen interaction have been revealed, host factors that are important for B. melitensis entry and replication in mammalian cellls remain obscure. We have recently exploited a novel Drosophila melanogaster S2 cell model of Brucella infection to perform a pilot screen for host factors that support the replication of this intracellular pathogen. Our screen uncovered genes that have already been established as being important for B. melitensis strain 16M (Bm16M) entry and intracellular trafficking in mammalian cells. In addition, our screen uncovered several novel hits that were validated in mammalian cell models. Here, we propose to exploit these findings to perform a large-scale RNAi screen for additional host factors. Specifically, we aim: (1) To perform a large-scale screen for RNAis that disrupt or enhance B. melitensis infection of Drosophila S2 cells; (2) To classify hits into phenotypic and functional categories, and to compare the results obtained to those from the recently completed Mycobacterium fortuitum and Listeria monocytogenes screens. Finally, we shall employ siRNA technology to examine whether the mammalian orthologs of the hits obtained in our Drosophila S2 cell screen mediate Bm16M infection of mammalian cells. Taken together, these experiments will define additional host factors that support the uptake and replication of B. melitensis into animal cells, and thereby provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms mediating this important host-pathogen interaction. This proposal shall identify and characterize novel host factors mediating Brucella melitensis infection of animal cells. We expect that this effort shall therefore benefit public health by contributing significantly to our understanding of this pathogen of global significance, and by discovering potential protein targets for possible therapeutic intervention. Public Health Relevance. This proposal shall identify and characterize novel host factors mediating Brucella melitensis infection of animal cells. We expect that this effort shall therefore benefit public health by contributing significantly to our understanding of this pathogen of global significance, and by discovering potential protein targets for possible therapeutic intervention.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/11/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $95,922.00 | Grant |
Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The PIs propose to develop a new, high-resolution (annual to sub-decadal) paleoclimate record (0-1,000 y) from sediment cores taken on the Arctic inner continental shelf. The proposal is a follow-up to a regular Arctic Natural Sciences panel submission that waas criticized during review due to 1) absence of adequate data to substantiate a high-quality paleoclimate record in this setting, and 2) questions about the logistical success in light of the absence of UNOLS vessels to work in the high Arctic. Neither issue can be addressed without a proof of concept study such as proposed here. The PIs will collect sediment cores from the inner shelf on one cruise of the R/V Annika Marie, a local and privately chartered research vessel, presently scheduled for late September 2009 (ice free period) adjacent to the Colville delta on the Beaufort Sea coast of Alaska. Ancillary seismic transect data (sub-bottom CHIRP and side-scan sonar) will be collected prior to coring to locate the best preserved record of depositionally laminated sediments of this time interval. About 5 to 15 sites will be occupied on the shelf and adjacent Simpson Lagoon. All cores will be diver-collected in less than 8 m water depth: short push cores will be used to retrieve the high-porosity recent sediment layers, and longer cores (up to 5 m) will be collected with a submersible portable vibracorer. All cores will be analyzed for stratigraphy (x-radiography), bulk organic and mineral content, and geochronology of the last 100 to 200 y (using 210Pb and 137Cs radiotracers). Two cores will be selected from these for detailed analysis of paleoclimate proxies: the age-depth relationship for the deeper part of these cores will be determined using AMS radiocarbon dating of benthic foraminifera (5/core). Climate indicators that will be applied are organic biomarkers (ligninphenols, plant pigments, and ??13C) and mineral tracers (clay mineralogy, heavy mineral assemblages, granulometry, event layer stratigraphy). The PIs? central hypothesis is that the Colville inner shelf contains a high quality sediment record, that, if exploited, will dramatically improve knowledge of high Arctic paleoclimate over the last centuries to a millennia. They believe this deltaic region has sufficiently high linear sediment accumulation rates (>1 cm/y) to preserve a seasonal and interannual record of climate change-induced mineral and particulate organic carbon (POC) flux variations to the seafloor from three distinct sources. These are 1) rivers that drain the Brooks Range and the Arctic Coastal Plain (ACP), 2) coastal erosion of ACP permafrost deposits and 3) marine primary production by phytoplankton, ice algae, and benthos. After an initial micro-scale examination of recent event layer (annual and storm deposits) mineral and POC succession, necessary to interpret paleoclimate-induced fluctuations in composition, they propose to examine the downcore record of temporal variations in layers, comparing the two selected sites to decouple spatial changes in sources. Since the three end-member sources have distinct mineral/POC composition, temporal variations will provide proxy information about climate changes that influence their flux magnitude including 1) landfast ice extent, 2) river sediment supply from glacial (meltwater) and coastal plain (permafrost thawing) input, 3) summer-fall storminess and 4) primary productivity of the coastal zone.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $299,930.00 allocation. See details |
National Science Foundation | 6/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION, CITY OF | $92,235.00 | Grant |
Recovery Act - Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program / Grants To Units Of Local Government This application is filed by the City of Bryan, Texas Police Department in conjunction with the City of College Station, Texas Police Department and the Brazos County, Texas Sheriff?s Offfice. This title of this joint project is the Future Technologies Recovery Program. The goal of the project is to reduce, control and mitigate crime and the effects of crime on the community and improve law enforcement service delivery. Strategies include the use of DNA for the purpose of identifying and apprehending subjects involved in burglaries of residences and businesses through the collection of DNA samples from know offenders and the collection of DNA samples from crimes scenes. A recent National Institute of Justice study revealed that the use of DNA samples for property crimes may increase subject identification up to 31%; the use of video surveillance systems for the purpose of identifying and apprehending subjects involved in criminal activity through the recording and archiving of digital video from high risk locations, critical infrastructure, and public places; the purchase and deployment of duty pistols with enhanced signature barrels for the purpose of allowing forensic identification of bullet projectiles and the weapon from which they were fired; the purchase and deployment of marked patrol vehicles to increase police visibility within the unincorporated areas of Brazos County; the purchase and use of a bar coding system for the purpose of improving the receipt, storage, retrieval of evidentiary items associated with the commission of criminal acts; video enhancement computer and software for the purpose of reviewing, enhancing and archiving video surveillance evidence associated with the commission of offenses; telephone call review software for the purpose of storing, archiving and recalling telephone communications associate with calls to the public safety answering point; replacement of automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) software for the purpose of enhancing the ability to scan, search and compare fingerprints from known individuals to fingerprints from crime scenes; directional message board for the purpose of notifying the public of alternate traffic routes, hazardous traffic conditions and other safety concerns relating to hurricane evacuation and special events; patrol rifle sights to replace standard iron sights as an alternative under low light conditions; hand held thermal imaging unit for the purpose of tracking and identifying fleeing suspects under low light conditions; SWAT radio headsets to replace aging equipment and technology for the purpose of improving tactical communications between members of the SWAT team; and crowd control equipment in an effort to outfit patrol officers with the necessary equipment to respond to civil disturbances involving large groups of individuals.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $425,421.00 allocation. See details |
Justice Department | 6/05/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $92,139.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The proposed project is on approximation of operator functions, whose prototype in the case of functions of a scalar argument is the Taylor polynomial approximation. Values of operator functions do not commute in general, which makes the analysis of such functtions and, in particular, their approximations much subtler than in the classical case. Under certain assumptions, traces of the remainders of the first and second order approximations can be represented via spectral shift functions, which originate from Lifshits' work on the quantum theory of crystals in 1952. While higher order Taylor-type approximations are also of interest in applications (for instance, in perturbation theory for Schrodinger operators with long-range potentials), very little is known about the structure of their error terms. The project will concentrate on the study of the higher order Taylor-type approximations, in particular, on testing Koplienko's conjecture of 1984 on existence of higher order spectral shift measures. Perturbation theory has originated as mathematical modeling of some problems of quantum mechanics, where physical quantities are described by self-adjoint operators acting on a separable Hilbert space. The change of a value of an operator function under a perturbation of its argument is reflected in the spectral shift functions. A comprehensive theory with various applications, including those to perturbation theory for Schrodinger operators, scattering theory, and spectral flow, has been constructed for these functions. Finding higher order analogs of the spectral shift functions is one of the goals of the project. Many operators can be naturally affiliated with von Neumann algebras (for instance, the integrated density of states for some operators can be expressed in terms of the corresponding von Neumann algebras). We will work in both the original and the von Neumann algebra setting of the perturbation theory... Show more | National Science Foundation | 5/26/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| WORFORCE SOLUTIONS BRAZOS VALLEY | $91,027.00 | Grant |
Employment Service/Wagner-Peyser Funded Activities To assist persons to secure employment and workforce information by providing a variety of job search assistance and information services without charge to job seekers and to employers seeking qualified individuals to fill job openings.
This spending item is part of a $27,188,100.00 allocation. See details |
Labor Department / Employment and Training Administration | 2/17/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $90,830.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Tissue engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) may provide vessel replacements when conventional prostheses are unavailable or fail. Researchers are taking multiple approaches toward fabricating viable TEVGs, including the development of designer scaffolds. A major limitation to rational TEVG scaffold design is the absence of correlative relationships between specific scaffold properties and resulting smooth muscle cell (SMC) behavior. We propose the development of novel PDMSstar-PEO hydrogels with tunable material properties to enable the systematic evaluation of scaffold property impact on SMC behavior and endpoint TEVG mechanical properties. Another novel element of this research design is our focus on the effects of scaffold properties on internal cellular signaling rather than on ECM synthesis alone. Specifically, we will examine the expression of an array of genes associated with the SRF pathway, a key regulatory pathway of SMC phenotype, in addition to ECM production and organization. A unique signature of ECM synthesis/organization plus gene expression will result and will serve as a predicative link between initial scaffold properties and endpoint TEVG mechanical properties, significantly advancing rational TEVG scaffold design. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The success of tissue engineering vascular grafts (TEVGs) has been limited largely due to insufficient long term mechanical properties, which results from inappropriate cell responses. In the proposed research we will prepare a library of novel hybrid scaffolds formed from hydrophobic and hydrophilic macromers whose properties may also be systematically tuned over a broad range. We will then explore the effects of systematic alterations in scaffold properties on smooth muscle cell behavior and long term TEVG mechanical properties toward the development of predictive relationships that can be used for rational TEVG scaffold design.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/15/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $89,071.00 | Grant | ARRA - Head Start ARRA COLA and QI funding consistent with the provisions of Section 640(a)(5) of the Head Start Act | Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 7/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $89,071.00 | Grant | ARRA - Head Start ARRA COLA and QI Funding consistent with the provisions of Section 640(a)(5) of the Head Start Act. | Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration for Children and Families | 7/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $88,229.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support The long-term objective of this project is to learn more about how chromatin structure regulates transcriptional gene silencing in eukaryotes. The basic mechanisms used to generate inactive or silent chromatin are largely conserved in eukaryotic organisms rangiing from yeast to humans. Our studies focus on understanding the roles of chromatin-associated factors, such as histones, histone-modifying enzymes, and silencing proteins, in regulating the silencing of RNA polymerase II-transcribed genes located in the ribosomal DNA locus (rDNA) of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The experiments in this proposal will use a combination of genetic, molecular, and biochemical approaches to address how histones and silencing factors affect gene silencing and chromatin structure in the rDNA. First, studies to characterize the histone H3 methyltransferase complex, COMPASS, will be performed. Gene silencing is one of the only cases in S. cerevisiae, where H3 methylation has a clear effect on gene expression. The proposed experiments will investigate the role of COMPASS proteins in rDNA silencing, determine how rDNA chromatin is altered by methylation of histone H3, and address the possibility that methylated histone H3 recruits silencing factors to the rDNA. Mutagenesis studies focusing on the catalytic subunit of COMPASS coupled with in vivo and in vitro assays for COMPASS function will advance the molecular characterization of this evolutionarily conserved catalytic domain. Second, the histone composition of rDNA chromatin will be analyzed using molecular and genetic approaches. These studies will not only shed light on how histones and silencing factors function in gene silencing in S. cerevisiae, they will provide information about how related proteins function in humans. Furthermore, gene silencing is critical for normal growth and development. When the processes that regulate gene silencing are disrupted in mammalian cells, inappropriate gene expression and excessive recombination can lead to diseases, including cancer and leukemia. Our studies investigating the mechanisms that cells use to control gene silencing will provide insight into how changes in regulatory pathways can lead to malignancy and will contribute to the identification of targets for future therapeutics.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/18/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $88,198.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The proposed project focuses on a number of problems related to isoperimetric inequalities on discrete groups and metric spaces. Sobolev and Poincare inequalities are classical examples of such inequalities, properties like non-exactness or Kazhdan's property (T) can also be viewed as generalized isoperimetric conditions. The main objective of the project is to broaden the understanding of isoperimetric inequalities with coefficients in a C*-algebra on which the group acts by automorphisms and of their geometric implications. In particular, the problem of finding explicit, natural examples of groups carrying such inequalities will be addressed. This will lead to a better understanding of the geometry which lies behind recent progress towards the Novikov and the Baum-Connes conjectures in which exactness and a-T-menability played major roles. The isoperimetric problem is one of the most fundamental problems in mathematics dating back to antiquity. In its simplest form it amounts to finding the largest area on the plane enclosed by a closed curve of fixed length. This classical case has been studied extensively and has numerous applications in analysis and geometry. It is therefore natural to ask for generalizations in which 'area' and 'perimeter' are replaced by more flexible notions, allowing to implement ideas from the classical case to a more demanding setting. These problems lie at the intersection of several major branches of mathematics and one of the main goals of this project is to foster interactions between the underlying algebraic, analytic and geometric structures. This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law... Show more | National Science Foundation | 5/26/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $88,085.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The principal investigator proposes to work on three problems in the geometry of Banach spaces with a strong set theoretic and/or combinatorial flavor. Firstly, the principal investigator proposes to work on the classification problem of complemented subspacess of the classical function space of continuous functions on the unit interval, and in particular, on the fundamental question of determining the subspace structure of all complemented subspaces with separable dual. The problem is central mainly because of the importance of this space in other parts of mathematics and of mathematical physics. Secondly, the principal investigator proposes to continue his work on the existence of unconditional basic sequences in non-separable Banach spaces. Any result establishing the existence of unconditional basic sequences has immediate implications to the famous 'separable quotient problem' posed by Stefan Banach and asking whether every infinite-dimensional Banach space admits a separable infinite-dimensional quotient. Known results indicate that the 'separable quotient problem' has the deepest set-theoretic aspects among all problems in Banach space theory and is closely related to infinite combinatorics and large cardinal axioms of set theory. Thirdly, the principal investigator proposes to continue his work on applications of descriptive set theory to universality problems in Banach space theory.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 5/21/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $85,697.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This exploratory project involves the first field test of a new, Relaxed Eddy Accumulation instrument for measuring concentrations and fluxes of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in a long-term, unattended operational mode under limited infrastructure conditioons. During this deployment at Blodgett Forest in California in summer 2009, the instrument will measure emissions of biogenic VOCs as part of a multi-investigator study focusing on biogenic emissions and their effects on atmospheric chemistry within and above forest canopies. Scientific objectives related to biogenic VOC fluxes and chemistry will be addressed, such as comparing and contrasting results to those of earlier studies at the same site, but under changed plant physiological conditions. Minor modifications to the instrument, mostly prior to the field campaign, will be evaluated as part of a process to improve its suitability for an envisioned long term deployment to a remote rain forest location to observe tropical biosphere-atmosphere VOC exchange interannually. This project will allow a unique field research and networking experience for a talented graduate student at Texas A&M University. It will also allow the student to add an important thesis chapter on biogenic VOC fluxes and complete graduate studies latest in spring 2010. Results from this field study will be disseminated in the peer-reviewed literature and incorporated into the Principal Investigator's (PI) atmospheric chemistry graduate class at Texas A&M University. In addition, the PI will be given the opportunity to develop both old and new collaborative ties through this research, which will result in publication co-authorship. This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/05/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS, COUNTY OF | $84,001.00 | Grant |
Recovery Act - Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program / Grants To Units Of Local Government This application is filed by the City of Bryan, Texas Police Department in conjunction with the City of College Station, Texas Police Department and the Brazos County, Texas Sheriff?s Offfice. This title of this joint project is the Future Technologies Recovery Program. The goal of the project is to reduce, control and mitigate crime and the effects of crime on the community and improve law enforcement service delivery. Strategies include the use of DNA for the purpose of identifying and apprehending subjects involved in burglaries of residences and businesses through the collection of DNA samples from know offenders and the collection of DNA samples from crimes scenes. A recent National Institute of Justice study revealed that the use of DNA samples for property crimes may increase subject identification up to 31%; the use of video surveillance systems for the purpose of identifying and apprehending subjects involved in criminal activity through the recording and archiving of digital video from high risk locations, critical infrastructure, and public places; the purchase and deployment of duty pistols with enhanced signature barrels for the purpose of allowing forensic identification of bullet projectiles and the weapon from which they were fired; the purchase and deployment of marked patrol vehicles to increase police visibility within the unincorporated areas of Brazos County; the purchase and use of a bar coding system for the purpose of improving the receipt, storage, retrieval of evidentiary items associated with the commission of criminal acts; video enhancement computer and software for the purpose of reviewing, enhancing and archiving video surveillance evidence associated with the commission of offenses; telephone call review software for the purpose of storing, archiving and recalling telephone communications associate with calls to the public safety answering point; replacement of automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) software for the purpose of enhancing the ability to scan, search and compare fingerprints from known individuals to fingerprints from crime scenes; directional message board for the purpose of notifying the public of alternate traffic routes, hazardous traffic conditions and other safety concerns relating to hurricane evacuation and special events; patrol rifle sights to replace standard iron sights as an alternative under low light conditions; hand held thermal imaging unit for the purpose of tracking and identifying fleeing suspects under low light conditions; SWAT radio headsets to replace aging equipment and technology for the purpose of improving tactical communications between members of the SWAT team; and crowd control equipment in an effort to outfit patrol officers with the necessary equipment to respond to civil disturbances involving large groups of individuals.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $425,421.00 allocation. See details |
Justice Department | 6/05/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $83,543.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support In the United States (US) ticks transmit more vector borne disease agents than any other vector arthropod. Limitations associated with current acaricide based tick control strategies that threaten the future sustainability of tick borne illnesses containment prrograms, have necessitated the need for development of alternative tick control strategies. Our long-term goals are to identify important tick proteins, which if blocked, can compromise the tick's ability to feed, acquire and transmit disease agents. One important such class of proteins, are serine proteinase inhibitors that are commonly referred to by its acronym 'serpin', which is the largest class of proteinase inhibitors that have been found in most forms of life. In humans, serpins are involved in regulation of important of proteolytic pathways that are essential to life such as blood coagulation with serpin malfunctions arising from natural mutations causing numerous debilitating diseases. We have recently described a family of 19 Amblyomma americanum serpins that we have named as 'Lospins', an acronym for Lone Star tick serpins. Sequence and expression data analyses have revealed that 10 of the 19 Lospin cDNAs encode for Lospin proteins that are potentially secreted into tick saliva during tick feeding. Our hypothesis is that, the 10 Lospins are secreted into the host during tick feeding to facilitate the tick's escape from host defense and that disrupting their function will prevent the tick from feeding. In this proposal we will characterize six of the 10 Lospins via two specific aims. The first is to validate secretion into tick saliva of six selected Lospin proteins. The rationale is that Lospins detected in tick saliva will represent candidates that are secreted into the host during tick feeding and will be selected for further study. We will raise specific polyclonal antibodies to candidate Lospins and use them in standard western blotting analyses of collected tick saliva. The second, we will be to suppress expression of Lospins selected in aim 1 and study the effects on tick feeding. The rationale is that suppression of an essential Lospin will prevent the tick from feeding and it will be selected for future study. A. americanum is an important public health pest that is commonly encountered tick species particularly in southern and Atlantic states. The immediate utility of results from this proposal will be advancing our knowledge on the physiology of this important pest. This data will position us to rationale new methods to control this tick. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In the United States ticks transmit more vector borne disease agents than any other vector arthropod. Limitations associated with current acaricide based tick control strategies that threaten the future sustainability of containment programs for tick borne illnesses, have necessitated the need for development of alternative tick control strategies. Identification of important tick proteins that regulate tick physiology and facilitate tick feeding is important before alternative tick control methods can be developed.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/14/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $82,500.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support The design of clinically effective materials for the surgical repair of ruptured ligaments remains a challenging biomedical engineering problem. Currently, tissue grafts from the patient and cadaveric sources are the only clinically effective materials for reppair, as synthetic materials fatigue under cyclic loading. However, intrinsic limitations with these tissue sources include donor site complications and risk of disease transmission. An alternative approach to form functional ligament tissue - by combining a population of the patient's own adult stem cells with an oriented nanofiber scaffold - has been proposed, but is hindered by three technological constraints: 1) nanofiber scaffolds produced by electrospinning do not have the appropriate shape and size for ligament reconstruction, 2) cells do not migrate into electrospun scaffolds, and 3) adult stem cells do not readily form a robust collagen-rich extracellular matrix (ECM). Therefore, the specific goals of this project are to establish a methodology to process electrospun scaffolds into three-dimensional structures, implement co-electrospinning to facilitate cell penetration into scaffolds, and to employ cyclic uniaxial stretch to enhance deposition of a ligament-like ECM. The novelty of this project is that it seeks to create new technologies that can be used to fabricate engineered ligament tissues. The intellectual merits of this project are three-fold. First, it will establish novel methodologies to process electrospun scaffolds into three dimensional scaffolds, while ensuring cell penetration. Second, it will identify dynamic mechanical stimuli regimens that induce gene expression and the synthesis of ligament ECM proteins. Third, the objectives of this project are fundamental, and the new technologies that will be developed can be applied generally to the engineering of oriented soft tissues (e.g., peripheral nerve, blood vessel, muscle). Thus, successful completion of this project would significantly advance the field of tissue engineering. The broader impacts of this project include the development and implementation of a new K-12 outreach module 'Healing Biomaterials' for Virginia Tech summer engineering camps, and the design of a new module for the undergraduate 'Tissue Engineering and Drug Delivery' course at Texas A&M University. In addition, the work will be incorporated into the module 'Biomimetic Approaches to Tissue Engineering' to be presented annually at the International Workshop and Summer School 'Bioinspired Materials: Biomimetic Design and Assembly' in Lugano, Switzerland... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/25/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS RESEARCH INC | $81,936.00 | Grant |
State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) - Education State Grants, Recovery Act Education Fund- for the support of public elementary, secondary, and post secondary education and, as, applicable, early childhood education programs and services.
This spending item is part of a $2,177,680,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 7/09/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $81,687.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support International Research Experience for Students: U.S.-Ukraine Collaboration on Discrete and Nondifferentiable Optimization This US-Ukraine project provides US undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to conduct research at the Glushkov Institute of Cyybernetics in Kyiv, Ukraine. The research activities are focused in the areas of discrete and nondifferentiable optimization and their applications. The principal investigators are Sergiy Butenko from the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, Oleg Prokopyev from the University of Pittsburgh and Ivan Sergienko from the Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics. The US students spend three-week periods at the Glushkov Institute where they work in teams involving US graduate and undergraduate students, as well as Ukrainian students. The Ukrainian senior researchers serve as mentors. Students are offered a variety of research project ideas to choose from. They may also propose their own problems to work on. The problems to be solved include some well-known ones, as well as novel combinatorial optimization problems that have numerous applications. An example of a project topic offered is developing metaheuristic approaches for solving fractional 0-1 programming problems with application in biclustering of DNA microarray data. This project fulfills the program objectives of providing US students with a global perspective and opportunities for professional growth through international cooperative research training, networking and mentoring. This activity is continuation of a previous IRES project supported by NSF award # 0553513.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $80,952.00 | Grant |
Special Education - Preschool Grants, Recovery Act Assist States to make available special education and related services for children with disabilities age 3 through 5 years, and at a State's discretion, to 2 year old children with disabilities who will reach age three during the school year.
This spending item is part of a $24,328,400.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS COUNTY RAPE CRISIS CENTER, INC | $80,716.00 | Grant |
Recovery Act - State Victim Assistance Formula Grant Program Assists victims of crime to stabilize their lives after a victimization; to understand and participate in the criminal justice system; and provide victims of crime with a measure of safety and security.
This spending item is part of a $2,109,000.00 allocation. See details |
Justice Department | 4/24/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $75,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This engineering education research award to Drexel University in collaboration with Purdue University, Texas Engineering Experiment Station, and Northeastern University will employ researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of using a fully instrumented real ffunctioning bridge called the 'Learning Bridge' to provide a comprehensive laboratory experience for civil engineering students. The project will add sensing, monitoring, and data transmission capability to the bridge for use by academic institutions and develop internet portals to the learning modules which will use this data. This research would both create a unique and much needed infrastructure resource for civil engineering laboratory development and also advance understanding of how civil engineers learn about multi-domain systems. Most of the sub-disciplines of civil engineering will be integrated by exposing students to a complex infrastructure system linking social and technical concepts from the beginning of the undergraduate program. This work will contribute to better preparation of engineers to fill engineering jobs.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 7/22/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $75,000.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support This project studies classes of spatial-temporal covariance functions for nonstationary, multivariate processes on a globe. Many processes in geophysical and environmental problems these days take large portion of the Earth as their spatial domain and exhibit strong spatial nonstationarity (particularly with respect to latitude). Moreover, it is common to have multiple variables of interest, such as relationship between precipitation and temperature. However, there are not many spatial-temporal covariance functions that can deal with nonstationary processes on a globe and there are almost none developed so far for multivariate problems. In this regard, the investigator develops a flexible class of spatial-temporal covariance functions for univariate as well as multivariate processes on a globe. The idea of applying differential operators with respect to latitude, longitude, and time to an isotropic process on a globe is explored. The coefficients of the operators, varying over latitude, allow flexible nonstationary covariance models for univariate process. It also helps to create a rich class of cross covariance models suitable for real physical processes. The ultimate goal of this project is to build a joint statistical model for multiple climate model outputs. It has been demonstrated that these numerical climate models have correlated errors and it is critical to have flexible cross covariance models to accurately model the dependence structure among different climate model errors. There are several interesting computational issues that arise from this application. In particular, the investigator studies algorithms for fast computation of inverse of covariance matrix with special structures, covariance tapering, likelihood approximation, and missing data imputation method. This study is motivated by the scientific problem of evaluation and integration of multiple climate model outputs. Under the coordination of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), various organizations over the world are developing numerical climate models and the cost to develop and run these models are enormous. However, it is common to simply take averages of these models and assume they are independent. In addition to the contribution to the field of statistics, the proposed study will provide a useful tool for climate scientists for inter-comparison of multiple climate models. Moreover, it will help climate scientists to improve their understanding of past, current, and future climate by accurately integrating multiple climate models beyond simple averages and allow them to achieve more precise uncertainty in their predictions. The results of the proposed research will be formed as multidisciplinary courses for students of both statistics and atmospheric scientists. The investigator anticipates that this type of effort will boost future collaboration between statisticians and atmospheric scientists... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/02/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $73,250.00 | Grant |
Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Research Grant entitled 'Salmonella Genes Associated with Colonization of Specific Hosts'. The purpose of this research is to identify salmonella genes responsible for the colonization of specific host species.
This spending item is part of a $487,224.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 5/14/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| LYNNTECH INC. | $69,577.00 | Contract | Standardized Refillable Fuel Cartridge for Direct Liquid Fuel Cells | Army | 10/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $64,381.00 | Item | No federal agency specified | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $61,885.00 | Grant |
Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support The medical office visit is the foundation of medical care and one of the most important professional activities of primary care physicians who are often the only source of mental health services for older adults. Evidence continues to show that the gap betweenn science and clinical practice remains wide: as many as one half of older adults with a recognized mental disorder fail to receive any mental health services, and even fewer receive evidence-based treatments. Racial minority patients fare even worse. It is an urgent public health concern that such a high proportion of patients needing mental health services are without access to evidence-based care and that racial disparities in access to quality mental health care persist despite advancements in efficacious treatments for mental illnesses. Direct observation of how patients and physicians interact has led to research findings that are straightforward and easily understood by the public and policymakers. It offers a new perspective to study physicians' work and patients' contributions with potentially important new insights. We propose to leverage the infrastructure and data afforded by an ongoing NIH- funded study which is audio-recording 800 annual physical exam visits (checkups designed for physicians to comprehensively review their patients' health) among socioeconomically diverse older adults in a large integrated delivery system, the Henry Ford Health System, in Detroit Michigan and its surrounding suburbs. The proposed study is within the scope of the economics of mental health. We plan to apply mixed methods approach and combine perspectives from mental health services research with behavioral economics, communication research, and statistics. We will use data from audio-recordings, administrative benefits, medication dispensing, claims and encounter records, and surveys of patients and physicians to address the Specific Aims of our study: Aim 1: Examine the productivity of physician-patient communication by linking elements of quality of communication on mental health in the context of busy clinics and competing demands from co-morbidities in routine annual checkups with intermediate outcomes such as patient's satisfaction and treatment adherence and distal clinical and economic outcomes including service use and costs. Aim 2: Testing for racial disparities in communication content and time using the definition proposed by the Institute of Medicine in Unequal Treatment. We will first qualitatively compare the content and time devoted to mental health and physical health communications between racially concordant and discordant patient-physician pairs. We will assess the contribution of factors that are germane to the practice environment and malleable to policy, e.g., length of visit, co-location of mental and physical health providers to observed disparities. At the completion of the study, we seek to formulate concrete recommendations about specific organizational or clinical interventions that can address these national priorities: translating evidence to practice and eliminating disparities... Show more
This spending item is part of a $497,013.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 5/12/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $59,752.80 | Grant |
Child Nutrition Discretionary Grants Limited Availability The Texas Department of Agriculture received funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to assist in the purchase of equipment for School Food Authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch Program ((NSLP) through a competitive grant process. Grant will be used to Fund 939 pieces of equipment in 381 Texas schools. Equipment meets USDA definition of allowable equipment. These purchases will replace old, worn-out equipment to ensure children of Texas are receiving healthy meals. During this quarter, applications were reviewed and additional awards were made based on savings returned by subrecipients. Reimbursements were made after submission of supporting documentation was submitted, reviewed and approved.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $11,517,200.00 allocation. See details |
Agriculture Department / Food and Nutrition Service | 3/23/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| LULAC OAK HILL INC | $54,841.00 | Grant | Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program Special Allocations (Recover Contract Svs S8 Funds | Housing and Urban Development Department / Federal Housing Commissioner | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $54,054.00 | Grant |
Education for Homeless Children and Youth, Recovery Act Ensure that each homeless child and youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as other children and youth.
This spending item is part of a $5,547,620.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 4/10/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS VALLEY COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS | $53,566.00 | Grant |
Aging Congregate Nutrition Services for States ARRA provided funding for Congregate Nutrition Services. Established in 1972 under the Older Americans Act, the program provides meals to older Americans in congregate facilities such as senior centers, adult day centers, and faith-based settings.
This spending item is part of a $4,012,220.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration on Aging | 3/18/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $53,300.00 | Loan | Farm Operating Loans DIRECT OPERATING LOAN | Agriculture Department / Farm Service Agency | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $50,400.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Generalized geometries form a class of almost complex manifolds with reduced structure groups, which have become of central importance to the study of realistic string theory models. These are natural generalizations of Calabi-Yau manifolds and are of mathemattical interest in their own right. In one class important for string theory, the canonical structure one seeks on a generalized Calabi-Yau manifold is governed by a ``warp factor equation'' that couples a balanced Hermitian metric to an anti self-dual connection of a vector bundle. When the manifold is Kahler Calabi-Yau and the vector bundle is the tangent bundle, this system reduces to the Calabi conjecture for Ricci-flat metrics. The mathematical understanding of generalized geometries is still in its nascent stage. The purpose of this proposal is to develop this field further, into a full-fledged extension of Kahler Calabi-Yau geometries. We will focus on the following tightly interconnected problems: constructing new solutions to string theory in this class; characterizing the deformations and specifically the moduli of these spaces; understanding 'worldsheet instantons' and their enumerative geometry in these manifolds; and an understanding of 'generalized calibrations,' the analog of calibrated submanifolds of special holonomy manifolds. The proposed project is to study the mathematics of a new class of geometric objects called 'generalized geometries', and the appearance of this class in string theory. Mathematically, these structures provide interesting and natural extensions of a well-known class of geometric constructions in Calabi-Yau geometry. Physically, these extensions are known to be required to capture essential features of particle physics and cosmology, and will push string theorists closer to the goal of making contact with observations. The project is a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary effort, involving mathematicians and physicists at Brandeis, Harvard, and Texas A&M.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 6/19/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bay Safe, LLC | $50,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees PATRIOT EXPRESS | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MaidPro | $50,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $48,353.00 | Grant |
Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Medicinal plants produce a wealth of pharmaceutical compounds such as taxol, vincristine, and morphine. Unfortunately, the specialized secondary metabolic pathways leading to such compounds remain poorly understood and progress in elucidating and manipulating tthese taxonomically restricted metabolic pathways has been correspondingly slow. This has been exacerbated by the limited development of 'omics'-level resources for medicinal plants, which has meant that as a group, research in medicinal species have not benefited to the same extent from the genomics revolution, as have research in model plants and agronomic crop species. This proposal describes the combined use of state-of-the-art sequencing technologies, metabolomics capabilities, and bioinformatics to develop an unrestricted, public resource to address this growing gap in our knowledge base of species-specific plant metabolism and accelerate the identification and functional analysis of genes involved in natural product biosynthesis in 20 widely used medicinal plant species. This resource will provide the research community with user-friendly access to the DNA sequences and expression profiles of each plant's transcriptome and associated metabolome, which we anticipate will have a translational effect on drug development. To achieve this goal, we will utilize next generation sequencing approaches to determine the near-complete set of mRNAs encoded by each medicinal plant species. Transcriptome profiling of up to 20 chemically diverse tissues/treatments per species using the RNA-Seq method from Illumina will be performed and correlated with metabolite profiles generated through LC-TOF and GC-MS for these same samples. All sequence and gene expression data will be deposited into NCBI and made available, along with metabolite profiling data at medicinalplantgenomics.msu.edu, a custom website developed by the research consortium. Thus, this NIH Grand Opportunities Grant will provide searchable and downloadable databases for medicinal plant gene sequences, expression profiles and metabolites that can be accessed and utilized by the research community to facilitate discovery of the pathways and genes responsible for biosynthesis of key pharmaceuticals. High throughput sequencing of genomes and transcriptomes has revolutionized and accelerated the pace and progress of research across the life sciences and this proposal will for the first time extend these advances into the medicinal plant arena on a broad scale. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This proposal describes the combined use of state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technologies, metabolomics capabilities, and bioinformatics to develop an unrestricted, public resource to advance our knowledge base of species-specific plant metabolism and accelerate the identification and functional analysis of genes involved in natural product biosynthesis in 20 widely used medicinal plant species. This resource will provide the research community with user-friendly access to the DNA sequences and expression profiles of each plant's transcriptome and associated metabolome, which we anticipate will have a translational effect on drug development.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $3,027,580.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 9/30/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $47,362.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $47,286.00 | Grant | Trans-NSF Recovery Act Reasearch Support Existing beach-dune models do not consider how and when sediment gets transferred to the backshore where they become available for transport by the wind. Rather, existing models largely ascribe regional variations in dune morphology to fixed constraints on thee beach slope and sediment budget. The lack of information in this regard remains a central barrier to the development of a theory of beach-dune interaction that can form the basis of effective predictive models that can be translated across scales and between sites. Recent (process-scale) transport studies have shown that the transfer of sediment is both spatially variable and temporally intermittent as a result of transport limitations across the beachface. While these studies have identified varied controls on sediment transport and exchange, there remains a limited capacity to predict the evolution of beach-dune systems, largely because the beachface tends to be viewed as a static transport surface and without regards to supply. Understanding beach-dune processes has important implications for understanding how barrier islands recover from tropical storms and hurricanes, which in turn determines how the next storm impacts the island. This project, conducted by Dr. Christopher Houser at Texas A&M University will confirm and quantify the role of nearshore processes and morphological change on the exchange of sediment between the beaches and dunes. The exchange of sediment between the beach and dune depends on the synchronization of transport potential and available sediment on the beachface as the beach-state evolves. The specific goals of this study are: (1) to quantify time-dependent variations in the morphology and volume of the beachface in relation to the wave forcing and changes in the morphology of the nearshore bars, (2) to identify and quantify the time-dependent controls on aeolian transport (e.g. beach geometry, moisture, lag, etc.) in relation to the transport potential (wind speed and direction), and (3) to determine if the delivery of sediment from the beach and accumulation in the dune depends on the synchronization of transport potential and available supply of sediment deposited by nearshore processes in the upper-foreshore and backshore. This study represents a fundamental change in understanding of the beach-dune system. While process-geomorphologists are accustomed to thinking about small-scale processes as the building blocks of landforms, they typically consider these processes independent of the collective context, the specific landscape in which they are acting, to make sense to the evolution of landforms. Dune recovery requires sediment to be delivered first to the backshore by nearshore (surf and swash) processes and then delivered to the dune by the wind. With few exceptions, little attention has been paid to the mechanisms of dune recovery following storms, despite the importance of dune recovery to the impact of the next storm. Characterizing the factors that control the rate and mechanism of barrier island dune recovery is of great interest to coastal managers who need a means to predict the type of impact expected during the next storm and in determining if beach or dune restoration is required to protect property and infrastructure. In this respect, the study provides benefits to the communities of geographers, engineers and planners concerned with various aspects of beach and dune management.... Show more | National Science Foundation | 8/16/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $46,886.00 | Item | No federal agency specified | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| COSMOS FOUNDATION, INC. | $46,873.00 | Grant |
Special Education Grants to States, Recovery Act Assist States in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities in accordance with Part B of the IDEA.
This spending item is part of a $945,636,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $46,822.00 | Grant |
Special Education - Preschool Grants, Recovery Act Assist States to make available special education and related services for children with disabilities age 3 through 5 years, and at a State's discretion, to 2 year old children with disabilities who will reach age three during the school year.
This spending item is part of a $24,328,400.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BOYS CLUBS OF BRAZOS COUNTY INC | $42,500.00 | Grant |
Recovery Act - Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program With the current economic climate negatively affecting most all facets of business, government and industry, for-profits and not-for-profits alike are feeling the pinch, and most all family units are under some level of duress--especiallyy those families that reside in the nation's most distressed areas which are often those hardest hit by even subtle economic challenges. In light of the current recession, many Boys & Girls Clubs are in need of additional resources to help youth and their families cope during these difficult times and to ensure that the Clubs remain an institution of stability and predicatability in the lives of Club members, while essential programs and services continue uninterrupted. Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) will utilize American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA 2009) funding to issue more than 1000 OJP National Mentoring Program grants to sub-recipient Boys & Girls Clubs that will serve to promote economic recovery through the creation and/or preservation of more than 800 Full-Time Equivalents (FTE) jobs. The primary award goals are to preserve and create jobs to expand and enhance mentoring programs and experiences at local Boys & Girls Clubs and to maintain other essential services without interruption. These goals will be met through the administration of three grant objectives. Objective 1: Unit Level Clubs will be required to create and/or preserve Club staff jobs in order to deliver and support the mentoring objectives of the intitative. Clubs will also implement and report performance measures on at least one approved evidence-based mentoring program. Objective 2: Extension Level Clubs will be required to create and/or preserve Club staff jobs in order to deliver and support the mentoring objectives of the intitative. Clubs will also implement and report performance measures on at least one approved evidence-based mentoring program. Objective 3: Native American Clubs (both Unit and Extension Level) will promote economic recovery through the creation and/or preservation of Club staff jobs to deliver and support the mentoring objectives of the inititative. Clubs will also implement and report performance measures on at least one approved evidence-based mentoring program . It is projected that a significant percentage of the jobs created and preserved through this award will be realized in distressed and disadvantaged communities nationwide. Therefore, the mentoring experiences and opportunities created through this award will be delivered to large numbers of often high-risk youth residing in distressed and disadvantaged areas. Additionally, funding from this award will be utilized to ensure the continuation of a number of programs and services at local Boys & Girls Clubs that may have been reduced or possibly eliminated otherwise.... Show more
This spending item is part of a $44,400,000.00 allocation. See details |
Justice Department | 9/02/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $41,568.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRYAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $40,066.00 | Grant |
Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, Recovery Act Improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State academic achievement standards.
This spending item is part of a $948,738,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS AGRILIFE RESEARCH | $39,456.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Despite significant efforts to educate women to not drink during pregnancy, the incidence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders has not declined making it important to obtain understanding of the mechanisms by which prenatal alcohol exposure causes neurodevelopmmental damage in order to develop preventative and ameliorative strategies. In this proposal, we will exploit the unique advantages of the well established sheep model to investigate basic mechanisms by which alcohol causes brain injury and to begin exploring protective strategies. We have reported that alcohol causes maternal and fetal acidemia and reductions in maternal glutamine and glutamine-related metabolites. We hypothesize that alcohol mediated acidemia decreases fetal glutamine and glutamine-related metabolites and that this results in, or contributes to, elevations of oxidative stress and brain injury. In Specific Aim 1, we hypothesize that alcohol induces maternal and fetal acidosis that results in altered concentrations of glutamine and its nitrogenous metabolites in the fetus. Experiment 1 tests this hypothesis in chronically instrumented lamb fetuses in response to acute alcohol or acidemia manipulations and will determine if maternal glutamine will prevent the changes in metabolite concentrations. In Specific Aim 2, we hypothesize that prenatal alcohol exposure throughout the 3rd trimester equivalent of human brain development acts by causing acidemia, reductions in fetal glutamine and increases in oxidative stress. Experiment 2a will determine if alcohol or acidemia alters concentrations of glutamine and its metabolites in, and flux between, maternal and fetal compartments and across the fetal brain and if maternal glutamine administration prevents these changes. Experiment 2b will test whether the alcohol mediated decreases in pH and glutamine throughout the third trimester equivalent of human brain development results in increases in oxidative stress and if maternal glutamine is preventative. Specific aim 3 hypothesizes that maternal glutamine administration will prevent the fetal brain injury in response to 3rd trimester equivalent alcohol exposure (Experiment 3 tests this hypotheis). Because alcohol is known to act through more than one mechanism, we predict that glutamine will substantially but not completely prevent brain injury and that these findings will place us in an excellent position to develop a practical, combinatory, nutritional prevention, a stated goal in the NIAAA strategic plan. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The failure of education to significantly reduce the incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has made it important to obtain understanding of the mechanisms by which prenatal alcohol exposure causes neurodevelopmental damage in order to develop preventative and ameliorative strategies. In this proposal we test several hypotheses that would explain how alcohol causes this damage and will test a nutritional prevention based on the on these hypotheses. This research addresses a stated goal in the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse strategic plan.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/15/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION | $36,625.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support PROJECT SUMMARY When the vocal fold (VF) lamina propria (LP) composition, geometry, and viscoelasticity are altered due to scarring, VF vibratory function can be severely disrupted, with resultant dysphonias ranging from hoarseness to voice loss. VF scarring haas proven difficult to treat with current surgical techniques and standard augmentation substances (e.g., collagen, fat). Due to the size of the patient population suffering from voice impairment secondary to scarring, the development of augmentation materials optimized for the unique requirements of the LP is currently being actively investigated. We propose the systematic and quantitative assessment of specific material properties on VF fibroblast (VFF) behavior towards rational implant design. Our underlying premise is that in order to rationally develop a designer material suitable for restoration of scarred LP, we need to understand not only if the material meets the unique mechanical property environment of the LP but also the impact of critical material design parameters on VFF extracellular matrix production and phenotype. Specifically, the response of VFFs to a number of material parameters, such as pore size, biochemical stimuli, and degradation rate, can be successfully assayed in vitro and will form the basis of this proposal. The results can then used to guide the design of materials and to pre-screen materials for in vivo trials. We will employ a series of controlled, systematic modifications of a base material formed from diacrylate-derivatized poly(ethylene glycol) (PEGDA) macromers. Importantly, PEGDA hydrogels are intrinsically resistant to protein adsorption, resulting in a biological -+blank slate-+ which can be modified in a controlled manner to contain defined biochemical stimuli. In addition the pore size and degradation rate of PEGDA hydrogels can be systematically modified, making PEG-based materials ideal for systematic material property-cell response investigations. PROJECT NARRATIVE Chronic voice impairment secondary to vocal fold (VF) lamina propria (LP) scarring can be debilitating in terms of quality of life and has proven difficult to treat with current surgical paradigms, with the result that alternate treatments such as designer biomaterial implants are being actively investigated. We propose to conduct controlled in vitro tissue engineering (TE) experiments for and quantitative assessment of specific material properties on vocal fold fibroblast cell behavior toward the rational systematic design of LP restoration materials. This proposed uncoupled investigation of alterations in material property inputs on cell behavior is unique in its design and has significance for a range of tissue regeneration applications.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/15/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| COSMOS FOUNDATION, INC. | $35,909.00 | Grant |
State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) - Education State Grants, Recovery Act Education Fund- for the support of public elementary, secondary, and post secondary education and, as, applicable, early childhood education programs and services.
This spending item is part of a $2,177,680,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 7/09/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $35,582.00 | Grant | ARRA - Public Health Traineeship Program The School of Rural Public Health at the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center requested continued support for training students in epidemiology and environmental health. Students in this program will receive a unique combination of training and eexperience in the fields of epidemiology, environmental health, and biostatistics. At present, the two Departments include a total of 95 students: 89 student in College Station and 12 students in a Distance Education program in Austin. The mission of the School of Rural Public Health focuses on teaching, research, and service activities that involve rural and underserved populations. The goal of the public health traineeship is to produce health professionals that are capable of integrating the complex issues of disease frequency in a population, exposure assessment, and genetic factors influencing health. Faculty in the departments have research programs on injury in migrant farm workers, exposure studies in rural Texas colonias, the influence of pesticide exposure on cancer incidence in children, and health education programs to reduce exposures and improve quality of life. Through existing interactions with the State departments of Health and Environmental Quality, opportunities exist for students to obtain practical experience as part of their education.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / Health Resources and Services Administration | 9/03/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $28,785.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| COSMOS FOUNDATION, INC. | $27,247.00 | Grant |
Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, Recovery Act Improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State academic achievement standards.
This spending item is part of a $948,738,000.00 allocation. See details |
Education Department / Office of Elementary and Secondary Education | 4/01/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| BRAZOS VALLEY COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS | $26,371.00 | Grant |
Aging Home-Delivered Nutrition Services for States ARRA provided funding for Home-Delivered Nutrition Services. Established in 1978 under the Older Americans Act, the program provides meals to seniors who are homebound.
This spending item is part of a $1,975,240.00 allocation. See details |
Health and Human Services, Department of / Administration on Aging | 3/18/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER RESEARCH | $26,233.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Alcohol is an important teratogen. Much research has focused on the sensitivity of the third- trimester period of brain development, where ethanol has been shown to be neuro-toxic. However, we know very little about the vulnerability of the second trimester perriod. The second trimester is important, because during this trimester, fetal neural stem (NSCs) and progenitor (NPCs) cells give rise to most neurons of the adult brain. Previously, we showed that ethanol did not kill fetal cortical NSCs/NPCs. Rather, ethanol induced cell proliferation, but depleted NSCs and NPCs, suggesting that ethanol promoted aberrant NSC maturation. Importantly, ethanol suppressed four microRNAs; small non-coding RNA molecules that control large gene networks to determine cell fate. Our central hypothesis is that ethanol depletes NSCs by driving stem to blast maturation of NSCs. A secondary hypothesis is that microRNAs mediate teratogenic effects of ethanol. We will address three specific aims. (Aim#l) To determine the extent to which ethanol promotes premature cortical neuroepithelial maturation. Our hypotheses are that (a) in utero binge ethanol exposure, during the second trimester period will significantly deplete resident NSCsINPCs and (b) isolated NSCs/NPCs will exhibit aberrant maturation patterns following ethanol exposure. We will test the ethanol- sensitivity of NSC/NPC populations using flow cytometric approaches. (Aim#2) To identify ethanol- sensitive microRNAs and their biological mechanisms. Our hypothesis is that ethanol persistently suppresses microRNAs that promote NSC/NPC renewal. We will use microarray technologies to identify candidate microRNAs, and manipulate levels of these microRNAs, to identify their role in NSC/NPC maturation. (Aim#3) To determine the extent to which ethanol-sensitive microRNAs prevent or reverse the effects of ethanol on fetal NSCs/NPCs. Our hypothesis is that microRNA supplementation will prevent and reverse ethanol's effects on NSC/NPC renewal and maturation. Cell biological approaches and mRNA expression analyses and will be used to assess the capacity of ethanol-regulated microRNAs to reverse or prevent the effects of prior ethanol exposure. At the end of the project period, we expect to have identified sensitive NSC/NPC populations, critical second-trimester periods of vulnerability to ethanol, and specific microRNAs and microRNA- mediated mechanisms that are persistently altered by ethanol. These outcomes will be significant because they are expected to provide the foundations for developing therapeutic strategies to manage the persistent neural effects of a leading teratogen. PUBLIC HELTH RELEVANCE Alcohol is a potent teratogen. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can lead to a stereotypic spectrum of disorders in children, called the `Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders' or FASD. At the neuroanatomical level, birth defects can include microencephaly and brain malformations. Much research has focused on the sensitivity of the third-trimester period of brain development, where ethanol has been shown to be neurotoxic. However, we know very little about the vulnerability of the second trimester period. The second trimester is important, because during this trimester, neuroepithelial cells of the ventricular walls give birth to millions of new neurons, creating a cellular framework for the rest of neural development. Previously, we showed that fetal cerebral cortical neuroepithelial cells did not die when exposed to ethanol. Rather, ethanol induced cell proliferation, while depleting cells expressing neural stem (NSC) and progenitor cell (NPC) markers. This proposal will test two hypotheses, that ethanol depletes stem and progenitor cells by driving stem to blast maturation of NSCs, and that the effects of ethanol are mediated by, and consequently, can be reversed by microRNAs. At the end of the project period, we expect to have identified sensitive NSC/NPC populations, critical second... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/15/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MANUEL THRSAS SCHL HAIR DESIGN | $25,345.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ABC DUAL LANGUAGE LEARNING CENTER, LLC | $25,000.00 | Loan | 7(a) Loan Guarantees TO AID SMALL BUSINESSES WHICH ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN FINANCING IN THE PRIVATE CREDIT MARKETPLACE | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS AGRILIFE RESEARCH | $22,896.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support Cryptosporidium parvum is a unicellular pathogen that can cause severe watery diarrhea in humans and animals. This pathogen can cause one of the opportunistic infections in AIDS patients for which no complete effective treatment is yet available. Cryptosporidiuum is also a significant water- and food-borne pathogen, and listed as one of the Category B priority pathogens in the NIH biodefense research program. The slow development of anti-cryptosporidiosis chemotherapy is primarily due to the poor understanding on the basic metabolic pathways in this parasite. Many well-defined or promising drug targets found in other apicomplexans are either absent or highly divergent in C. parvum. Therefore, detailed molecular and functional studies on the unique C. parvum metabolic pathways are needed for the understanding and control of this parasite. Fatty acids are one of the essential components in all cells. We have pioneered the research on the fatty acid synthesis in C. parvum. Our current data have revealed that C. parvum differs from other apicomplexans by lacking Type II FAS and its associated apicoplast, and relying on three distinct pathway for elongating fatty acids (ie. a Type I modular fatty acid synthase (CpFASI), a polyketide synthase (CpPKSI), and a long chain fatty acyl elongase (CpLCEl). In addition, we have identified putative major components that constitute the highly streamlined fatty acid metabolism in C.parvum. These advances now allow us to rationally dissect the function of C. parvum fatty acid metabolism in detail. Our long-term goal is to delineate the function(s) of major components constituting the fatty acid metabolism in C. parvum and to explore this pathway as a rational drug target. Our hypothesis is that major enzymes involved in the C. parvum fatty acid metabolism differ from their counterparts in humans and animals at both structural and functional levels, and may serve as rational drug targets. In this proposal, we will focus on studying different mechanisms governing fatty acid elongation and activation in C. parvum by achieving the following three specific aims: 1) To delineate the molecular machineries governing the fatty acid synthesis in the parasite by functional analyses of CpFASI, CpPKS! and a membrane-associated fatty acid elongase. 2) To elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in the activation and transporting of fatty acids by functional analyses of acyl-CoA synthases and fatty acyl-CoA binding protein. 3) To validate that fatty acid metabolic enzymes may serve as rational drug target in Cryptosporidium by discovering inhibitors selectively against, parasite fatty acid metabolic enzymes.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 6/03/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $18,415.00 | Grant | Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support This supplement was issued in response to Notice OD-09-060, Recovery Act Administrative Supplements Providing Summer Research Experiences for Students and Science Educators, supporting NIH/NIDDKD parent grant 3R21DK078571, 'Biochemical and Molecular Analysis off Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome'.... Show more | Health and Human Services, Department of / National Institutes of Health | 7/13/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ARTS COUNCIL OF BRAZOS VALLEY, THE | $16,435.00 | Grant |
Promotion of the Arts_Partnership Agreements To support the preservation of jobs that are threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.
This spending item is part of a $427,300.00 allocation. See details |
National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities / National Endowment for the Arts | 4/29/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $12,296.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $8,762.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $8,585.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MANUEL THRSAS SCHL HAIR DESIGN | $6,345.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $5,677.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $5,364.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $4,731.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $4,731.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MANUEL THRSAS SCHL HAIR DESIGN | $4,730.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $4,456.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $4,178.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $3,130.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MANUEL THRSAS SCHL HAIR DESIGN | $2,871.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $2,366.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $2,366.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MANUEL THRSAS SCHL HAIR DESIGN | $2,366.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $2,366.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MANUEL THRSAS SCHL HAIR DESIGN | $2,365.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Big Gas Truck Stop | $2,000.00 | Loan | 504 Certified Development Loans TO ASSIST SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS BY PROVIDING LONG TERM FINANCING THROUGH THE SALE OF DEBENTURES TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR | Small Business Administration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $1,841.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MANUEL THRSAS SCHL HAIR DESIGN | $1,491.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MANUEL THRSAS SCHL HAIR DESIGN | $990.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $0.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $0.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM | $0.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $0.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $0.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $0.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $0.00 | Loan | Farm Operating Loans DIRECT OPERATING LOAN SUBSIDY | Agriculture Department / Farm Service Agency | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $0.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $0.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $0.00 | Loan | Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans - Guaranteed Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loans - ARRA | Agriculture Department / Rural Housing Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLES AND SUES SHL HR DGN | $-1,447.00 | Grant | Federal Pell Grant Program GRANT PROGRAM | Education Department / DOED - Student Financial Assistance Programs |
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