DCS Contracting, HSC/PKR, 8005 9TH Street, Brooks AFB TX 78235-5353

A -- BRAOD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) PKR-95-01-01 FOR RESEARCH IN ARMSTRONG LABORATORY (AL) HUMAN-CENTERED TECHNOLOGY AREAS. PART 1 OF 4. SOL PKR-95-01-01 POC Major Julius Clark, Contracting Officer, (210)536-6343, Research and Development Contracting Division. A--PART 1 OF 4 PARTS. BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) PKR-95-01 FOR RESEARCH IN ARMSTRONG LABORATORY (AL) HUMAN-CENTERED TECHNOLOGY. POC: Major Julius Clark, (210) 536-6343, Research and Development Contracting Division. A.--INTRODUCTION: The Air Force Human Systems Center, Armstrong Laboratory (AL), announces a special program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI). This acquisition is a 100 percent set-aside for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI) as defined in DOD FAR Supplement (DFARS) 226.7003. The offeror must represent and certify as part of its offer, that it is a HBCU/MI as shown in DFARS provision 252.226-7001. The HBCU/MI submitting an offer shall agree that at least 50 percent of the cost of the contract performance incurred for personnel shall be for employees of the HBCU/MI. The AL is interested in receiving research abstracts with a preliminary cost estimate on multiple human-centered technology research areas. Research abstracts in response to this BAA shall be submitted to Ms. Patricia Ladwig, AL/XPPM, 2509 Kennedy Circle, Brooks AFB Texas 78235-5118. This announcement is open and effective until 95JUN30. Research abstracts in response to this announcement may be submitted anytime during this period, however, responses within the first 60 days are strongly encouraged. Research abstracts must be received at the designated office by 4:00 p.m., Central Time, 30 June 1995. There will be no other solicitation issued and offerors should be alert for any BAA amendments that may be published. B--OBJECTIVE: (1) Technical Description: The AL conducts basic and exploratory research in five major research areas: Crew Systems, Human Resources, Aerospace Medicine, Occupational and Environmental Health, and Environmental Quality. The offeror may propose research in one or more of the following technical areas, but a separate proposal should be submitted for each different topic. BAA TECHNICAL AREA NUMBER: 95-lA-PKR. AL/AOT, Melvin S. Kaufman, 210-536-2757. Analysis of Drugs of Abuse in Hair. Develop a fast, easy, and routine method for the confirmation of drugs of abuse in hair, approach would be based - at least initially - on methods described in the current literature. Direct insertion of hair specimens into a tandem mass spectrometer would be the analytical method of choice. Attempts should be made to correlate drug or metabolite levels in urine specimens with those in head, pubic, and other hair samples. An attempt should also be made to elucidate the mode of drug deposition. BAA TECHNICAL AREA NUMBER: 95-2A-PKR. AL/AOE, Dr. Joel Michalek, 210-536-3441. Regression to the Mean in Half-Life Studies. Half-life studies of biomarkers for environmental toxins in humans are generally restricted to k measurements per subject, where k is usually less than 5, taken at least one half-life after exposure. The initial dose is usually unknown because the exposure occurred before the substance was known to be toxic. In this setting, subjects are selected for inclusion in the study if their measured body burden is above a threshold (C), determined by the distribution of the biomarker in a control population. We assume a simple one-compartment first order decay model and a log-normal biomarker distribution, which together imply a repeated measures linear model relating the logarithm of the biomarker and time, with the slope being the negative of the decay rate ''sigma''. Unless the data set is properly conditioned, the ordinary weighted least squares estimates of ''sigma'' are biased due to regression toward the mean. If the within-subject correlation matrix is Toeplitz, the weighted least squares estimate of ''sigma'' is unbiased when the data set is conditioned on all repeated measures being above a line with slope - ''sigma''. In the case of k=2, unbiased estimation may be possible due to an expected nonlinearity induced by the truncation. The objective of this research is to characterize the nonlinearity in terms of the underlying parameters. BAA TECHNICAL AREA NUMBER: 95-3C-PKR AL/CFH, Gary B. Reid, 513-255-8749 Neural Network Characteristics for Measurement Models of Workload/Situation Awarement. Human performance in complex systems is characteristically multidimensional and nonlinear. Traditional research paradigms used in psychological research are based on statistical techniques that are primarily linear and based on a normal distribution. This approach does not adequately address issues associated with constructs such as mental workload and situation awareness which are used to account for operator performance in complex environments. Neural networks is a family of techniques that seem to hold considerable promise for application to measurement in these types of environments. Neural networks are based on a notion that a task environment may not be precisely defined and adequate human responses are more likely probabilistic. Also, individual strategies may be employed to obtain a desirable outcome. Networks can be constructed that, when presented with enough data from performance and an appropriate criteria, can ''learn'' to classify various categories of behavior. Recent work has demonstrated that using only performance data, a neural network can be trained to discriminate between experimental conditions of a laboratory dual-task paradigm. However, this ability was dependent on the selection of the input variable, the network structure, and individual subjects. Research needs to be extended to investigate the characteristics of the dependent variables, more complex tasks including simulation of real-world flight tasks, inclusion of subject variable such as physiological measures, and network structures such as hierarchical networks. BAA TECHNICAL AREA NUMBER: 95-4C-PKR AL/CFD, Dr. Ngai Wong, 410-671-3111 Detection and Unique Identification of Biological Materials. The problem of detection and unique identification of biological materials is of paramount importance not only to the Air Force but to the medical community as well. The current overall concept is to rapidly detect by using the chemical and physical properties of the biological materials followed by the unique identification based on an immunoassay technique. This overall concept, in general, is slow, logistically burdensome (requiring large amounts of supplies), and requires skilled operators and high maintenance. The ideal system would be one that is rapid, automatic, and requires minimal consumables and minimal maintenance. The system needs to detect and identify samples that are very small in size (generally picogram to nanogram, emphasis on picogram in quantity). BAA TECHNICAL AREA NUMBER: 95-5C-PKR AL/CFH, Dr. Rik Warren, 513-255-8762 Perception and Control of Self-Motion. High-speed, low-altitude flight can occasionally exceed the perceptual and performance capabilities of unaided humans. Because such maneuvers are dangerous, but important, flight simulators have become popular. However, their design is driven by technological availability, and their usage is determined more by intuition than by empirical facts and a general theory of human perception and action. Objectives are (1) to determine the optical concomitants of self-motion and mathematically describe the information available for its control, (2) to develop an ''active psychophysics,'' that is, a methodology appropriate for studying perceptually guided action, (3) to obtain empirical data on the perception of self-motion and its control, (4) to develop a general theory of perception and action that is useful outside the laboratory, (5) to predict ''visually risky environments,'' which are naturally occurring scenarios that may result in misperceptions and inappropriate actions, (6) to define human limits and develop principles for perception/action aids especially in high information processing and workload events affecting situation awareness, and (7) to determine the psychological principles for the design, use, and evaluation of flight simulators. Sample research topics are (1) developing an active psychophysics, (2) identifying and empirically assessing visual cues to self-motion, (3) studying visually risky environment, (4) evaluating effects of size, direction, and content of the field-of-view on the impression and control of self-motion, (5) studying perceptual learning within and between flight simulators, and (6) developing and evaluating performance metrics. BAA TECHNICAL AREA NUMBER: 95-6C-PKR AL/CFB, T.L. Chalette, 513-255-4096 Telepresence and Hazardous Materials Handling. The Air Force has acquired vast knowledge in understanding the biological impact of hazardous materials on Air Force personnel and the effects on equipment, instrumentation, and supplies. With increasing awareness of the long-term effect of hazardous materials on the environment, revised protocols for proper storage and handling of these materials are being implemented. A requirement exists for research in the field of hazardous material handling and cleanup. Areas of expertise should include the use of telepresence and virtual reality for personnel protection during handling, scientific visualization techniques for modern monitoring and presentation of data, the predicted effects of hazardous materials spills on ground water systems, and the use of force reflection technology to control telemanipulations of hazardous materials under conditions of human error or failure. Current problems the effort could address would include safety and protection of personnel during the handling of these materials, handling problems associated with storage containers with deteriorating characteristics, and the effects of these materials on the handling of equipment itself. BAA TECHNICAL AREA NUMBER: 95-7C-PKR AL/CFB, Ints Kaleps, 513-255-3665 Analytical and Mechanical Human Neck Models. Injuries to the neck occur during emergency escape from aircraft, aircraft maneuvering accelerations, and survivable crashes. Analytical and mechanical models that properly emulate the neck kinematics, dynamics, and internal forces are sought to provide improved understanding of neck mechanical response, a predictive simulation capability, and a mechanical surrogate for testing and model validation. Proposed efforts may address one or more of these technical objectives. BAA TECHNICAL AREA NUMBER: 95-8E-PKR AL/EQ-CA, Dr. Michael G. Katona, 904-283-6111 Environmental Remediation, Fate and Transport of Hazardous Chemicals. Air Force requires expertise in biological and chemical (and integration of these) approaches for degrading and detoxifying compounds of Air Force interest. The problems to be addressed are related to the chemical and biochemical (metabolic) breakdown of toxic Air Force compounds to inert constituents. The research could lead to new technologies to detoxify contaminants in soil, ground water and air emissions. Approaches may explore detoxification prior to release of these chemicals into the environment. Also, the Air Force requires expertise to address problems related to the fate and transport of chemicals once they enter the environment. Chemical binding and release mechanisms, bioavailability and metabolism and mathematical modeling of kinetics of these processes could be a research focus. The research could investigate the fate and transport of chemicals in soil and ground water and also could perform photochemical studies to determine their atmospheric interactions. (0074)

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