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NIDCD - National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Project Summary Olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) facilitate our sense of smell but constantly need to be replaced, likely because they are in direct contact with the external environment. The olfactory epithelium (OE) houses OSNs, and maintains our ability to smell throughout adulthood through nearly life-long neurogenesis. This remarkable ability for adult neurogenesis is not limitless, however. With increasing lifespan and a hostile external environment, a near majority of people develop hyposmia or anosmia by the age of 80. This is correlated with reduced quality of life, a slew of mental disorders, and malnutrition. Pathologic examination of aged human patient tissue suggests that olfactory neurogenic stem cells exhaust with age, and previously neuronal olfactory epithelium gradually becomes a-neuronal potentially even becoming respiratory epithelium. Unfortunately, no facile preclinical model that closely mimics this human OE pathology exists, hampering research and therapeutic development. Previous models were slow and poorly penetrant. Here, we describe a new model using an engineered nitroreductase enzyme (OMP-NTR2.0) that is highly effective at accelerating OSN turnover, can strikingly mimic aged human olfactory epithelium in as little as 12 weeks time, and could be used as the first platform for testing therapeutic approaches. In this grant, we propose to (Aim 1) extensively characterize this new model of accelerated aging in the OE, stage and compare it to human biopsy and donor tissue, (Aim 2) test the hypothesis that respiratory metaplasia results from conversion of exhausted olfactory epithelium as well as invasion from the surrounding respiratory epithelium, and finally, (Aim 3) test targeted therapies developed on our knowledge of olfactory epithelial stem cell dynamics. The objective of this proposal is to establish the OMP-NTR2.0 model as the viable preclinical model of age-associated olfactory dysfunction and use it to test first-generation therapeutic approaches. Our approach is innovative because it leverages a novel mouse model that we generated de novo that incorporates an engineered enzyme, which effectively accelerates aging of the olfactory epithelium and creates a platform for drug testing. Our long-term goal of our research is to develop prophylactic or curative treatments for age-associated anosmia.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

New treatments are desperately needed to control the ongoing tuberculosis (TB) pandemic. Newly emergent antibiotic-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of TB, are hampering control efforts. Mtb is an unusual pathogen with the remarkable ability to cause both acute life-threatening disease and symptomless latent infections that can last a lifetime. It is estimated that 25% of the world has latent tuberculosis, and in 2023 alone, there were more than 8.2 million TB cases and 1.3 million deaths, making Mtb the leading cause of infectious disease world- wide. Mtb is such a successful pathogen partly due to its extraordinary metabolism; part of its virulence stems from the metabolic flexibility to utilize and scavenge a range of nutrients derived from its human host. A fundamental and currently unanswered question regards how the bacterium regulates its metabolism to cause infection. Answering this question is of therapeutic significance as targeted dysregulation would both starve the bacteria and prevent it from successfully colonizing the human host, effectively killing the bacteria and stalling pathogenesis. We have discovered a novel regulatory system that Mtb requires to consume essential energy sources for its survival in the host and to cause disease. Our hypothesis is that Virulence Associated Dikinase (VadK) coordinates metabolism and virulence by interacting with partner proteins. Importantly, VadK also represents a novel drug target. We will test this hypothesis using a combination of biochemistry, structural biology and microbiology. We will investigate how VadK physically and functionally interacts with its partner proteins to gain insights into how this novel histidine kinase system functions, while also unraveling the mechanism of action of VadK.

NIDA - National Institute on Drug Abuse

Project Summary The brain's development is a complex interplay among the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Disruption of any of these systems can disturb the delicate balance of normal neurodevelopment, increasing the risk of neuropsychiatric diseases later in life. The developing brain is characterized by its sensitivity to gonadal steroid hormones, particularly androgens produced by the fetal testis during the perinatal period. The surge of androgens from the fetal testis establishes the critical period of masculinization, during which androgen-sensitive brain regions undergo morphological and functional changes to prepare males for appropriate behaviors later in life, such as mating and aggression. The ability of androgens to organize neural substrates depends on the direct or indirect activity of the androgen receptor. The androgen receptor is a nuclear steroid receptor capable of binding to the promoter regions of specific genes, many of which function as epigenetic modifiers to alter transcriptional regulation. In addition to these direct effects, the androgen receptor has been shown to recruit the immune system through cannabinoid signaling to promote the masculinization of androgen-sensitive brain regions. The relationship between androgens and endocannabinoids creates a delicate balance during neurodevelopment, as endocannabinoids are potent regulators of neuroimmune molecules involved in homeostasis and pathology. With recent changes in legalization and shifts in cultural perspectives on cannabis, there has been an increase in cannabis consumption during pregnancy, which has been associated with a heightened risk of neuropsychiatric disease in offspring, possibly due to the disruption of the delicate endocannabinoid system recruited by androgens. However, our recent work highlights an additional and direct role of cannabis, primarily its psychoactive component 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in disrupting androgen-mediated brain development. We demonstrate in silico that THC can bind to the androgen receptor with an affinity similar to that of testosterone, thereby creating the potential to directly affect brain development through actions at the androgen receptor. This proposal seeks to characterize this novel and unexplored action of THC through advanced structural and genomic techniques. In Aim I, I will characterize the binding kinetics of THC at the androgen receptor through surface plasmon resonance and identify ligand-induced conformational changes to the ligand binding domain of the androgen receptor through NMR spectroscopy. In Aim II, I will differentiate the effects of THC and testosterone on androgen receptors in regulating transcription within androgen-sensitive brain regions through ATAC-seq. These findings will highlight a previously uncharacterized role of THC and provide greater insights into the mechanisms through which gestational cannabis exposure alters normal androgen- mediated neurodevelopment and how it may contribute to the susceptibility of offspring to neuropsychiatric diseases later in life. Scientific mentorship from Drs. McCarthy, Weber, and Ament will provide me with unparalleled training to support a future career as a clinician-scientist in the field of child neurology.

State Treasurer's Office

Eligibility General Requirements -Must be a health facility as defined in the Authority's Act (Section 15432(d) of the California Government Code) -Must be a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation or  public health facility (e.g., district hospital) as defined in the Authority's Act (Section 15432(e) of the California Government Code) -Must have been in existence for at least three years, providing the same types of services -Must demonstrate evidence of fiscal soundness and the ability to meet the terms of the proposed loan Use of Funds Funds may be used for: -Construction, remodeling, renovation, and/or improvements -Land acquisition -Acquisition of existing health facilities -Equipment and/or furnishings -Refunding of prior debt -Working capital for start-up facilities -Costs of bond issuances, feasibility studies & reimbursement of prior expenditures Loan Terms -Market determined fixed or variable rate interest rate, depending on maturity -No loan maximum -Maximum loan maturity typically 40 years -Loan security provisions and bond covenants that correspond with bond rating Fees -No application fee -Initial fee of 0.05% of the issue amount (maximum $100,000), set fee of $1,000 for smaller health systems and public health facilities -Annual administrative fee of 0.0175% of the bonds outstanding (maximum $150,000), maximum of $500 for small health systems and public health facilities Required Documentation -Three most recent fiscal years of audited financial statements    

Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association, Inc.

The Long Island Science Center will train a fleet of Citizen Scientists to conduct environmental investigation

Shelton

City Hall Key Fob Security System

City of Vale

City of Vale Water System Master Plan Update

Department of Public Health

This grant opportunity allows Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs), non-profit organizations, consumer advocacy organizations, and more to apply for funding to execute projects to improve the lives of SNF residents. Examples of projects include, but are not limited to, developing and implementing methods to increase Person-Centered Care, Infection Control Training, Arts and Engagement projects, and other topics. Examples of projects that will not be approved for CMP funding include, but are not limited to, research-only projects, projects with an indirect benefit to nursing residents, capital improvements to a facility, duplication of CMS requirements, paying for nursing home staff salaries, or high-dollar, complex technology, such as but not limited to engagement technology, telemedicine, alert systems, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, etc.  Applicants must use the template provided on the CDPH website. Projects may vary in length up to a maximum of 36 months. Award size is dependent on project request up to the allowable amount.  Keywords: Civil Money Penalty, CMP, CDPH, CMS, Skilled Nursing Facility, Reinvestment, Public Health, SNF

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Project Summary or Abstract: Gut barrier dysfunction leads to endotoxemia, characterized by increased levels of endotoxin/lipopolysaccha- ride (LPS) in the blood circulation, which affects multiple organs and is associated with liver diseases and sev- eral other LPS-associated diseases. LPS, a potent microbial ligand from gram negative bacterial membrane, induces intense systemic inflammation via TLR4 in immune cells. As a proactive host defense mechanism, the liver clears gut derived LPS from portal circulation. However, the cell types in the liver, receptors involved in LPS clearance, and inflammatory response of those cells is unknown. Identifying the innate immune cells, re- ceptor and the molecular mechanism involved in rapid clearance of circulating endotoxin by liver will provide critical insights to develop therapeutic options for endotoxemia. In this proposal, we present six novel findings. First, we found that liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC) eliminate a major portion of LPS from blood circu- lation very rapidly within a few minutes, and that clearance of LPS is facilitated by high density lipoprotein (HDL). Second, LSEC clear circulating LPS via Stabilin-1 (Stab1) and Stabilin-2 (Stab2) receptor mediated endocytosis and localize to lysosomes for degradation. Third, the lack of both Stab1 and Stab2 (double knock out mice) results in diminished LPS uptake, clearance, and endocytosis by LSEC, but escalated systemic in- flammation and early death. Fourth, Stab1, and to a lesser extent Stab2, participates in LPS clearance and host defense. Fifth, Stabilin and TLR4 are functionally opposite receptors for LPS mediated immune response. Six, Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry has identified novel serum and intracellular proteins as potential facilitators of Stabilin receptor-mediated LPS clearance. These results lead us to hypothesize that Stabilin receptors clear LPS through a distinct pathway involving serum and intracellular proteins, leading to enzymatic inactivation of LPS in human and mouse LSEC. Upregulating the clearance function of Stabilin re- ceptors will control TLR4-mediated systemic inflammation. This hypothesis will be tested with following aims: Aim 1: Determine the molecular mechanism of Stabilin-mediated LPS clearance. Aim 2: Determine the relative immune function of Stabilin receptors with TLR4. Aim 3: Determine how the enhancement of Stabilin receptor- mediated LPS clearance protects mice from endotoxemia. This project presents a new paradigm in which Sta- bilin receptors expressed by LSEC offer a host defense mechanism and protection against LPS -associated diseases, and points to novel targets to treat endotoxemia both prophylactically and therapeutically.

CLARITY PARTNERS LLC

Medical Equipment and Accessories and Supplies-Medical cleaning and sterilization products-Sterilization indicators and controls-Sterilization indicator records

Wildlife Conservation Board

These projects must be consistent with the State’s climate adaptation strategy (Safeguarding California Plan), contribute to the carbon sequestration goals of AB 32, and support WCB’s Strategic Plan. In addition, projects will be consistent with other statewide plans and priorities, including the California Water Action Plan and California State Wildlife Action Plan 2015 Update. Program funding is directed toward projects that: Protect and restore ecosystems on natural and working lands to provide climate change adaptation and resilience for wildlife.Assist natural and working lands managers in implementing practices that provide climate adaptation and resilience.Increase carbon sequestration in natural and working lands, and provide additional social, economic, and environmental benefits, or "co-benefits".

NINDS - National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Project Summary & Abstract Developing efficient gene therapies and biologics can unlock new cures for neurological diseases, but is hindered by inefficient delivery, especially to the central nervous system (CNS). Traditional delivery vehicle discovery and validation pipelines rely on cellular and animal models that often fail to predict CNS delivery in patients. What is needed is to assess delivery efficacy in humans at the beginning of the discovery process. We propose to revolutionize the field by discovering and validating vectors in physiologically maintained deceased (PMD) human cadavers. Delivery vector performance in a PMD cadaver will provide confidence in their efficacy in humans and greatly reduce the reliance on preclinical animal discovery research, ultimately increasing the success of clinical trials. Our ethics-informed PMD platform will provide a blueprint for the safe, ethical, and just use of human donors in discovery research. Our discovery platform will help future researchers and clinicians find the most effective vectors to enable gene and biologic therapies that could be used to treat millions of patients with CNS indications.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide. People with HIV (PWH) with virus suppression on antiretroviral therapy (ART) have a 2-fold increased risk of developing CVD compared to people without HIV (PWoH), even when controlling for age and traditional CVD risk factors. One factor that may contribute to the increased CVD in PWH is cytomegalovirus (CMV) coinfection. Nearly all PWH and about half of all adults without HIV in the United States have CMV, which is independently linked to CVD. In preliminary spatial transcriptomic analyses of vascular tissues of PWH and PWoH, all of whom have peripheral artery disease, we find that the proportion of myeloid cells in regions of interest (ROIs) across arteries is significantly higher in tissues from PWH. CMV can reactivate from latently-infected monocytes as they differentiate into macrophages, and virological and immunological evidence suggests that PWH have more frequent CMV reactivation events than do PWoH, so the cardiopathogenic effects of CMV may be more pronounced among PWH due to the increased numbers of macrophages harboring replicating CMV. We hypothesize that CMV reactivation in infiltrating macrophages provides antigenic signals for CMV-reactive T cells in vascular tissues. We will use the following Specific Aims to test this hypothesis. Aim 1: To define the spatial context of CMV expression in vascular tissues of PWH and PWoH. In Aim 1, we will test this hypothesis by (1) defining the spatial context of CMV expression in situ in vascular tissues of PWH and PWoH with and without CVD, (2) quantifying CMV expression in macrophages in vessels from PWH and PWoH with and without CVD, and (3) confirming spatial relationships of CD4 and CD8 T cells and CMV-expressing target cells in the vasculature. Aim 2. To determine if serum-derived MDMs from PWH with CMV are more effective at activating and presenting CMV antigens to T cells than are MDMs from PWoH with CMV. In Aim 2, we will use in vitro experiments to determine if serum-derived MDMs from PWH with CMV, which preserves the influence of systemic inflammatory mediators, are more effective at activating autologous T cells than MDMs from PWoH with CMV. Then, we will determine if that activation is due to CMV antigen presentation by the serum-derived MDMs, and whether statin treatment of the MDMs, which inhibits CMV replication in vitro, directly impairs their T cell activating capacity. Our studies may define mechanisms whereby chronic viral infection drives T cell- mediated vascular pathology and may identify novel targets beyond traditional risk factors to prevent/treat CVD in PWH and PWoH. Furthermore, understanding the role of CMV in CVD, and whether its activity is susceptible to statins, will help inform the interpretation of the A5332/REPRIEVE (pitavastatin) and A5383/ELICIT (letermovir) trials in PWH.

NIA - National Institute on Aging

This application seeks funding to continue a series of international and interdisciplinary research conferences on cognition, speech communication and aging. Scientists approaching this problem have typically been working in the areas of sensory and perceptual processing, especially hearing, cognitive psychology, or auditory neuroscience. Aging can have a negative impact on all of these systems and understanding how deficits in these areas, both independently and combined, affect speech understanding requires cross- disciplinary understanding and collaboration. We have developed a set of learning objectives for the conference and we currently have agreements from leading national and international researchers for oral presentations addressing these objectives (1) age-related changes in auditory perception and physiology; (2) animal studies of aging and hearing; (3) age-related changes in speech production, perception, and understanding; (4) cognition and aging; (5) multi-sensory perception and aging; (6) hearing loss and assistive devices; and (7) technical advances. In addition, we have requested funds to provide student scholarships to promote and support early-stage investigators. An important aspect of the conference is to encourage early- stage investigators in hearing research. By bringing together scholars actively involved in research across the disciplines, it is hoped that further progress will be made in understanding and remedying the speech- communication difficulties of older adults.

NIA - National Institute on Aging

Falls are the leading cause of injury in older adults, leading to costly injury, high stress on the healthcare system, reduced quality of life and fatality. With a rapidly aging population, fall rates are growing exponentially. Thus, there is a critical need for high-efficacy fall prevention interventions. Among various strategies, volitional stepping-based exercise interventions are promising due to their low-cost, accessibility, and fall rate reduction. Despite the demonstrated benefits of volitional step training in reducing fall risk and improving cognitive and motor functions, not all older adults benefit uniformly. This variability is linked to heterogeneity in the age-ability and task complexity of these training paradigms. Regardless of an individual’s age or the complexity of the stepping task, effective stepping relies on cognitive-motor processes. Currently, there is a critical gap in the knowledge of these processes in the context of effective stepping. This is limiting our ability to optimize fall prevention interventions to greater efficacy rates. Today, this gap can be overcome with innovations in mobile electroencephalography (EEG). Thus, this study will quantify the cognitive-motor processes of effective stepping across age groups (younger and older adults) and task complexity (simple and complex cues). This knowledge will provide essential data to guide the optimization of volitional step training design parameters, making them population-specific and more effective in reducing fall rates. We will recruit 30 healthy younger and 30 healthy older adults to complete a clinically validated step training paradigm. This will involve volitional stepping in response to visual cues while standing in place, with electrocortical activity recorded via high- density mobile EEG and stepping performance monitored via motion capture. Our first aim is to characterize the electrocortical activity of effective stepping by age group and task complexity. This will provide the fundamental knowledge to aid the optimization of intervention design parameters to elicit necessary cognitive- motor processes for training benefits across diverse age populations. Our second aim is to discover new biomarkers for fall prevention in older adults via cognitive-motor processes of effective stepping. Identifying individual cognitive-motor processes of effective stepping has the potential to provide objective biomarkers of fall risk and forecast individual benefits from step training interventions. Success in these aims will lead to transformative knowledge for fall prevention research and clinical practices for older adults.

NIA - National Institute on Aging

Half of all persons who develop clinical dementia become symptomatic after age 85 years, whereas most studies of dementia have focused on younger patients in their 70s. Compared to dementia beginning at a younger age, dementia in the oldest-old has a more heterogeneous, multifactorial etiology. Although, Alzheimer disease remains important there are greater contributions from vascular brain injury, systemic disease and dysfunction that indirectly affects the brain, and recently described, poorly understood brain pathologies. Vascular and lifestyle risk factors may contribute differently to risk of dementia in the oldest-old. Conversely, it is also important to learn what resilience factors permit persons to remain alive and cognitively normal as nonagenerians. Studies that enroll persons aged 85+, often lack information from when these individuals were middle-aged. Longitudinal cohort studies that enrolled participants between ages 45 and 70 years and followed them past age 80 years, till they died or developed dementia, would be ideal study samples, but each such cohort usually has only a small number of participants surviving beyond age 80. One solution is to combine data across multiple longitudinal studies with harmonizable protocols. The Cross-Cohort Collaboration Consortium (CCC) was established in 2018, as an offshoot of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium. The Neurology working group within the CCC (led by MPIs Seshadri, Ikram, Dufouil, Debette, Satizabal) brought together 8 cohorts (RF1 AG059421) to study late life dementia. We now request a renewal of this grant to expand and continue the collaboration. We will add 5 new cohorts reaching 13 cohorts, to study 102,285 participants, 37,803 with brain MRI, and add a new MPI in Suchy-Dicey who will bring her experience working with AD in American Indians. We propose the following aims. Aim 1: To relate various risk factors, systemic illness and MRI markers in midlife (ages 45 to 70) to (a) the risk of late life dementia, and (b) the probability of reaching age 85 (+/- 5) years, alive and dementia free (‘wellderly’). Aim 2: To assess (a) the impact of multimorbidity examining how persons with two or more chronic conditions differ in life-expectancy and dementia risk and (b) to combine various risk and resilience factors, multimorbidity and MRI measures using artificial intelligence and machine learning to create parsimonious models that predict late-onset dementia and wellderly status. Aim 3: To examine the biological pathways underlying the observed associations using pathway analyses and structural equation modeling to explore the mediating role of plasma proteins. The proteins we study will include known biomarkers of amyloid, tau and neurodegeneration (Aβ40 Aβ42, p-tau181/217, NfL, GFAP) in 37,824 individuals, as well as an array of 3000+ plasma proteins in 38,067 persons (new assays on Olink Explore 3072 + available data) so we can identify previously unsuspected biology using Mendelian randomization methods to examine causality. Aim 4: We will investigate any effect modification by sex-, age-, race-, ethnicity-, urban or rural residence, menopause, APOE genotype on findings from Aims 1-3. We hope to uncover putative drug targets to reduce risk of late life dementia.

NSF

The Great Salt Lake (GSL) is vital to Utah’s economy, contributing over $1 billion annually through mineral extraction, brine shrimp harvesting, and recreation. However, the lake has reached historically low water levels due to upstream water diversions for agriculture, industry, and municipalities. As the lake shrinks, the newly exposed lakebed is emitting wind-blown dust containing harmful heavy metals like arsenic and lead—byproducts of past industrial activity. This toxic dust threatens public health, agriculture, and ecosystems, with risks that extend far beyond the lake itself. This project will shed light on the role that dust plays in depositing heavy metals into ecosystems and onto important crops including corn and alfalfa. As metals accumulate in plants, they may ascend the food chain into livestock, predators, and ultimately humans, with a variety of negative health outcomes. Therefore, the results of this study will have direct implications for the health of ecosystems and communities both within the Great Basin and around the world. The results of this research be shared with communities that may be directly impacted by increased dust emission, by leveraging partnerships with local and state agencies and non-profit organizations in outreach through their regular programming such as fact sheets, newsletters, and community presentations. The research will be integrated with education activities by building and distributing soil test kits for students to use within their local communities, and by engaging local K-12 teachers in hands-on research through teacher internships. As the Great Salt Lake continues to shrink and emit more dust, native and agricultural plants may act as vectors of metal contamination, locally and regionally. As such, this study will utilize a combination of greenhouse and field-based sampling and atmospheric modeling to evaluate the risk to humans and ecosystems posed by GSL dust deposited on key native plants and agricultural crops through: 1) Assessing the extent to which plants take up these heavy metals through root and foliar (leaf) uptake, 2)Evaluating differing plant bioaccumulation among taxa key to the Utah economy, 3) Determining the impact of GSL-sourced dust on plants in the Great Basin region, and 4) Identifying potential source regions of dust that are impacting plants. The project will also analyze strontium, neodymium, and lead isotope ratios in plant tissues to determine the ability of these isotopic signals to determine soil and/or foliar dust compositions or “fingerprints”. Through geochemistry and atmospheric modeling, the research will assess the sources and transport pathways of dust from the GSL lakebed and other regional dust emissions areas and quantify the dust contribution to regional soils. The data generated by this project will contribute to environmental and health-related planning and serve as a new tool for understanding heavy metal (re)distribution during natural processes expedited by environmental change and human activity. These insights are essential for addressing the immediate consequences of the lake’s decline and for predicting more severe impacts in the future, as continued drought and future water management practices could expose more lakebed and increase the risk of toxic dust emissions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The United States is home to nearly 4,000 species of native bees, which are important for the ecosystem. Unfortunately, declines in many economically important species have been documented in past years. Recent studies found regenerating forests that are managed for timber in the United States can be refuges for wild and native pollinators, including rare and economically important species of bees. However, despite this knowledge, there remains a lack of sustainable management practices for conservation of wild bees in managed forests. Moreover, monitoring bee pollinators in forests is currently very difficult and unfortunately destructive in nature, as it requires lethal trapping of individuals, which are then identified in a laboratory. Lethal trapping methods can have negative impacts on pollinator populations and are labor-intensive and inefficient. Furthermore, pollinators may be shifting their activity based on changes in average temperature, and we currently do not have effective ways to track these changes. The primary goal of this project is to develop, test, and implement non-lethal methods for monitoring pollinators in forests using acoustics and camera-based artificial intelligence (AI). Native bee species in the Unites States contribute as much as 3.5 billion dollars annually to agricultural pollination, but bees are on the decline. This project will develop AI technology that can be deployed in a field setting to automatically identify pollinator species in real time, thereby tracking patterns of activity. By combining different cutting-edge AI techniques, the system will learn and adapt over time, making it more accurate and user-friendly. The goal is to create easy-to-use software that can help track pollinators in the wild, giving scientists and conservationists valuable insights into how structural changes affect these important species. The new technology will enable assessment of the status of pollinators across forests in the southeastern and northeastern United States in real-time, tracking of changes in pollinator activity, and determination of how changes in the forest landscape may affect pollinator abundance and diversity. This information will then be integrated into a harvest scheduling program that forest companies can use to help them in conservation planning, which is part of sustainable forest certification programs. This research will inform conservation strategies, helping protect pollinators and the ecosystems that depend on them. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

U.S. National Science Foundation

Combustion and Fire Systems

Transportation Department

FMCSA announces its decision to renew the exemption granted to International Motors, LLC (International), formally known as Navistar, Inc., from the commercial driver's license (CDL) regulations for one of its commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. The exemption allows Mr. Erik Holma, manager of Drivability Control Systems for Scania AB for International's parent company, TRATON SE, to test drive fleet vehicles on U.S. roads.

DEPT OF DEFENSE.DEPT OF THE NAVY.NAVFAC.NAVFAC ATLANTIC CMD.NAVFAC SOUTHEAST.NAVFACSYSCOM SOUTHEAST

Commercial Kitchen Exhaust System Cleaning and Inspection Services at Naval Air Station Meridian, Mississippi

Morris

Communications System Upgrade

U.S. National Science Foundation

Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems

Friends of the Jackson Park P-Patch

The purpose of this project is to build community, not just amongst the gardeners at Jackson Park P-Patch, but especially within the community that exists around the garden. We intend to do this by putting a pumpkin patch on the south side of the garden, and a children's garden consisting of pollinator friendly flowers on the west side of the garden. To make this a reality, we will hire a contractor to add two hose risers and bring the P-Patch irrigation system up to current city code. This project will be completed by December 30, 2022.