Clinical and Immunological Investigation of Subtypes of Autism, Diagnosis and Treatment of Childhood-onset Behavioral Disorders, Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and other PDN neurophysiology data

Contracting Office Address: Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institutes on Drug Abuse, Station Support Simplified Acquisitions, Introduction: This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. Background Information: The Pediatrics and Developmental Neuroscience Branch (PDN) is in the process of analyzing data collected as part of a large phenomenological study of children with autism compared with children with other developmental disabilities and with typically developing children. As part of our medical and clinical evaluation, the children all had electroencephalograms and modified polysomnograms (without respiratory parameters). Our preliminary neurophysiologic data from our modified polysomnograms for the first 60 children with autism reveals that many of them have abnormal sleep architecture when compared to the other two groups. These differences in the organization of the sleeping bran likely reflect differences in underlying neural organization. Purpose or Objective of the Requirement: The contractor shall analyze polysomnographic and EEG data collected from participants from NIMH's PDN branch in the following manner: a) Power spectral analysis awake and asleep b) Paired electrode coherences c) The construction of network maps d) The quantification of epileptiform activity e) Analysis of changes in connectivity pre and post sleep manipulation with donepezil. f) Analysis of recordings will occur in a blinded fashion with only the patient's age available which will afford the best possible interpretation of data. Contractor's Requirements: The contractor shall provide maps of the neural networks of the subjects involved in the above protocols. The contractor will perform hierarchical clustering on a configured data matrix to determine the intrinsic groupings of networks within the study population. To further investigate the ability of correlation networks to classify children with autism and to extract defining structural features from these networks, the contractor shall use support vector machines (SVM). The analyses will consist of between-group comparison of all electrophysiological measures (power [absolute, relative, and ratios], spectral coherence/Pearson correlations, phase lag, and amplitude asymmetry). Coherence values will be subjected to Fisher-transformation for statistical analysis. The contractor will not have access to government facilities or government websites. The contractor will not be restricted from saving or printing data from their own network; however, the contractor is not required to save data to their network resources to evaluate it. All data analysis will be submitted to NIMH. None of the results will be published unless approved by NIMH. Anticipated Period of Performance: The period of performance shall be a 12 month period with two (2) 12 month option periods. Capability statement /information sought: Interested organizations must provide clear and convincing documentation of their capability of providing the item(s) specified in this notice. Interested organizations that believe they possess the ability to provide the required services must submit specific documentation of their ability to meet each of the project requirements to the Contract Specialist. Interested organizations must provide their Company Name, DUNS number, Physical Address, and Point of Contact Information. Interested organizations are required to identify their type of business, applicable North American Industry Classification System Code, and size standards in accordance with the Small Business Administration. The Government requests that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in a response to this notice. However, responses that indicate the information therein is proprietary will be properly safeguarded for Government use only. Capability statements must include the name and telephone number of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Capability statements in response to this market survey that do not provide sufficient information for evaluation will be considered non-responsive. When submitting this information, please reference the solicitation notice number. All responses to this notice must be submitted electronically to the Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer. Facsimile responses are NOT accepted. All capability statements sent in response to this Sources Sought Notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Megan Ault, Contract Specialist, at megan.ault@nih.gov in MS Word format by or before the closing date of this announcement. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered. The response must be received on or before March 9, 2016 by 11:00 AM (EDT). Note: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a presolicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. The solicitation release date is pending. The Government intends to negotiate a fixed-price purchase order. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).