Eye-Opening Research

The National Institutes of Health awarded geneticists Amit Singh and Madhuri Kango-Singh a five-year, $1.65 million grant to understand the genetic basis of childhood retinal diseases and birth defects in the human eye.

The current investigation builds on an earlier research project, funded under a $485,000 NIH grant, in which Singh studied how genes transform a single layer of cells into a three-dimensional organ. Now the research will be expanded to examine the genetic machinery involved in regulating how an eye is formed at the cellular level.

When eyes are developing, they need to grow to the right size, contain the right features and functionality, and be located in the right place on the head. When cells do not generate properly, it can result in birth defects, cancer and other diseases, explained Kango-Singh.

This study explores birth defects associated with a particular transcription factor — a protein involved in the controlling expression of other genes.

"In layman's language, eyes are not the same on all organisms; they are placed far apart or close together," said Singh. "We have hypothesized that this transcription factor might be involved in the eye's placement and growth."

Fruit fly genes are similar to those of humans, which allows researchers to model defects and study growth at an accelerated pace.

"The life cycle of the fly is 12 days, so you can see two generations of fly life in a month's time," Singh said. "Whereas if you are a geneticist dealing with human disease and looking into a human population and trying to see how it is translated from one generation to the next, in your lifetime you can just see three generations. Working with flies, it looks like you're watching a long movie on fast forward, and the information generated here can be extrapolated to humans."

To support their investigation, Singh and Kango-Singh will each hire a postdoctoral researcher and two graduate assistants to work in their respective labs. In addition, between 12 and 16 undergraduates will work on the project.

"One of the pillars of UD's vision is experiential learning for undergraduate students," Singh said. "We actively involve these students in our research. They are primary authors on peer-reviewed publications. They present at local, regional and international meetings."

Singh and Kango-Singh published the second edition of Molecular Genetics of Axial Patterning, Growth and Disease in Drosophila Eye in May 2020. Singh also is editor of Mouse Genetics: Methods in Molecular Biology, which was published in February 2021.

Glacial Findings

University of Dayton environmental geologist Umesh Haritashya has researched the Himalayan glaciers for two decades and has made important contributions — including developing a new hydrological model and an automated glacier mapping tool.

His recent research resulted in two separate studies being published in Science. Both offer policymakers critical insights on disaster governance, sustainable development, watershed resources management and other issues.

Impact of Climate Change on Glacier Meltwater

In the first study, a research team examined how climate change and glacier melting affect the water supply for more than a billion people. Haritashya analyzed the impact of lakes and debris on glaciers, and overall glacier dynamics.

"The new work is the most thorough review ever of the region's glacier-fed rivers. Our team gathered the results of nearly 250 scholarly papers to arrive at a more accurate understanding — something approaching a consensus — of the links between climatic warming, precipitation change and glacier shrinkage," said Jeff Kargel of the Planetary Science Institute, an author of the paper.

While finding the links among climatic warming, precipitation change and glacier shrinkage, the group realized a one-size-fits-all approach to how climate change will affect each location will not work in the Himalayan corridor, because it is spread across many countries, and is home to the tallest mountain peak and vast topographic and climatic variations.

The study helped the group identify and address gaps in scientific knowledge of climate change. Questions include: how does snowfall and glacier health vary between river valleys, how long will glaciers survive, and why are some glaciers advancing.

"Changes in the runoff pattern from rain and glacier melting is expected to contribute heavily to extreme runoff and resultant flash floods, landslides and debris flows," said Haritashya, professor of geology and Mann Chair in the Sciences. "Since millions of people living in the high elevation mountain valleys can face major impacts with climate-change-driven snow and glacier melt, and associated hazards, understanding climate change impacts on Asian water towers is really important to humanity."

Findings on the 2021 Himalayan Landslide

As part of a separate research team, Haritashya helped investigate the landslide and flood in India that destroyed two hydropower plants and left more than 200 dead or missing.

This study analyzed satellite imagery, seismic records and eyewitness videos. Haritashya examined before and after satellite pictures of the affected land and river basin for irregularities in the structure of the rock at the site. He also served as a remote liaison to scientists visiting the area.

Early indications in February pointed to a glacial lake outburst flood, but the high-resolution satellite images showed no nearby glacial lakes large enough to cause a flood, according to lead author Dan Shugar, associate professor in the University of Calgary's department of geoscience.

"High-resolution satellite imagery used as the disaster unfolded was critical to helping us understand the event in almost real time," Shugar said. "We tracked a plume of dust and water to a conspicuous dark patch high on a steep slope. This was the source of a giant landslide that triggered the cascade of events and caused immense death and destruction."

The researchers are not clear on the direct link between climate change and this particular event but are sure climate change contributes to frequent mountain hazards in recent decades. The greater magnitude of the latest disaster is an argument to assess rapid developments in the area.

"Hazards don't always follow the pattern of past events," said Haritashya. "This calculation and modeling allowed us to understand the critical combination of rock and ice mixture present in the failed mass that transformed it into a large and mobile debris flow."

Along with these studies, Haritashya and his research team at UD have secured more than $3 million in research grants, primarily from NASA, to examine climate change impact on high mountain glaciers. See Haritashya's research on water towers and earthquakes.

Hell Hath No Fury

Religious studies scholar Meghan Henning has found her niche studying stories about the one place no one wants to go.

Just 20% of people believe in hell. Still, early Christian ideas about the underworld — and who is punished there — echo in society today, Henning writes in her new book, Hell Hath No Fury.

"What's important about hell is that it does not just describe punishment, it decides and prescribes who is culpable," Henning said. "When we look at Christian texts about the afterlife, hell is not an equal opportunity punisher. Women are often tortured for crimes like adultery while their male counterparts are noticeably absent."

Henning's findings, in what is described as the first major book to examine ancient Christian literature on hell through the lenses of gender and disability studies, draw from relatively obscure texts that offered "tours of hell." In these texts, a saint or apostle, even the Virgin Mary, is guided through hell by someone who explains the sins and tortures they see. The stories were popular among early Christians for their specific depictions of how people would be punished for sins — details lacking in the New Testament.

"The punishments are meant to 'fit the crimes,'" said Henning, associate professor of Christian origins. "Slanderers, for example, chew their tongues. Yet, we find clear double standards. In his most famous sermon, Jesus preached that men should avoid hell by plucking out their eyes rather than looking lustfully upon a woman. So it's pretty remarkable that later Christian hells see chastity as the purview of women and women alone."

Henning said that while the tortures in these tours of hell are imaginary, the depictions had a real impact by reinforcing the idea that people in authority have the right to make rules and decisions about women's bodies.

"This is one of the first places that we see women's bodies become communal and public property," Henning said. "That legacy is still felt in modern society and decision making. Even a cursory glance at school dress codes reminds us that we are not so far removed from a world in which women's bodies are hypersexualized and policed. So while we might want to congratulate ourselves on how far we have come from these scenes of fiery torture that disproportionally affect women, the gendered stereotypes are not as remote as we might imagine."

Henning's research has also been featured in "The Lesson from Hell," The Conversation and The Christian Century. She has also been interviewed or featured by CNN, Daily Beast and National Geographic.

Bright Ideas from Energy Audits

The University of Dayton Industrial Assessment Center has been selected to receive nearly $2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue free energy assessments for small- to mid-sized manufacturers in the region and to train the next generation of energy-engineering professionals.

The free assessments include teams of UD faculty, staff and students visiting companies for a day and then providing a customized report with recommendations for reducing energy, waste and production costs. To be eligible for an assessment, companies must have a Standard Industrial Classification code for "manufacturing," and annual energy bills between $100,000 and $2.5 million.

"We will examine your utility bills, facilities, equipment, manufacturing processes and waste streams," said Jun-Ki Choi, director of the UD Industrial Assessment Center and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. "Within six weeks an easy-to-read, confidential report will be delivered documenting current practices and recommending ways to save money. The report is an independent assessment of your facility needs and is not biased by the desire to generate sales or consulting opportunities."

The only one in Ohio and one of just 32 nationwide funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the UD Industrial Assessment Center has helped more than 1,040 manufacturers reduce energy costs since 1981. Clients usually save 10-15% of their energy costs, according to Choi.

"America’s best and brightest university students are successfully helping local manufacturers reduce pollution, save energy and cut their electricity bills," said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. "DOE's university-based Industrial Assessment Centers are assisting small- and medium-sized businesses — particularly those in disadvantaged and underrepresented communities — in the transition to a clean energy economy, building the next-generation energy workforce, and propelling America toward a carbon-free future by 2050."

UD's Industrial Assessment Center is a two-time winner of the U.S. Department of Energy's Center of Excellence Award, a three-time winner of the department's Excellence in Applied Energy Engineering Research Award, and a winner of the Ohio Governor's Award for Energy Excellence.

Like Father, Like Son

Parents who are exposed to predators pass on information about risky environments to their offspring through changes in gene expression — but how that information affects offspring differs depending on the sex of the parent.

In a series of papers published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, Jennifer Hellmann, assistant professor of biology, and colleagues illustrated this concept using sticklebacks — a small species of freshwater fish whose brightly colored males care for developing eggs.

After exposing both mother and father sticklebacks to predators, the researchers looked at the offspring and measured their behavior and gene expression. They found that the sex of the parent exposed to predators matters, but surprisingly, so does the sex of the offspring.

"Predator‐exposed fathers produced bolder sons that took more risks, but the father’s experiences had no effect on the boldness of daughters," explained Hellmann. "Predator‐exposed mothers, on the other hand, produced more anxious daughters and also more anxious sons. These sons and daughters had different patterns of gene expression, matching our behavioral results."

Research also showed that these changes persist into a second generation.

"It's not that the experiences changed what genes the parents pass on," said Hellmann. "Rather, what changes is how those genes are expressed in the offspring. This is called epigenetics."

Transgenerational plasticity is the ability for an animal’s experience to influence the development and behavior of their descendants. This capability is important, as it allows parents to give their offspring information about the environment before the offspring is even born. For example, in mice, when fathers are trained to fear a particular odor, their offspring will fear that odor even if they have not been trained to do so.

Previous research has shown transgenerational effects in many species, including people. However, Hellmann’s research is one of the most in-depth examinations of sex-specific transgenerational plasticity to date — and could help researchers better understand how stressful events today might affect future generations.

This article is adapted from a piece that originally appeared in The Conversation.

The Power of Pandemic Edutainment

Children who know how to get to Sesame Street can learn about more than numbers, letters and colors.

In recent research published by Health Communication, Angeline Sangalang, health communication expert and assistant professor of communication, shows how educational entertainment is being used to teach viewers about COVID-19.

Through this communication strategy, educational content is incorporated into entertainment media — essentially educating viewers without their active realization. For example, we may gain positive attitudes toward organ donations from an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and children may learn the importance of hand-washing from an episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.

"We process a lot through stories," Sangalang explained. "And we learn a lot through watching TV, especially shows that we all get around and talk about."

For this study, Sangalang and colleagues reviewed programming by three global organizations — PCI Media, BBC Media Action and Sesame Workshop — to analyze how it was adapted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As one example, Plaza Sésamo, Latin America's equivalent of Sesame Street, depicted Cookie Monster learning to cook at home since it was unsafe to attend culinary school in person.

Relevant storylines like this one can help enhance an audience's knowledge about a health issue, encourage them to engage in prevention behaviors and hold positive attitudes about the situation.

"You want to educate kids on the risk of the pandemic, but you have to remember that a pandemic is scary,” said Sangalang. “It's important to frame why it’s important to wash their hands and why they can't play with their friends in a way that won’t cause irrational fear. Using characters that kids know, love, trust and are familiar with is a way to provide comfort during uncertainty."

The results of this study provide insight into how educational entertainment can be used during future health emergencies.

"By utilizing existing infrastructure, tailoring programs to fit the local context and focusing on good storytelling, entertainment-education can be an efficient communication solution to support public health," explained Sangalang.

Waste Not, Want Not

The world is one step closer to turning wet waste into a sustainable aviation fuel, thanks to research by Josh Heyne, national expert on sustainable aviation fuel testing and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and graduate student Zhibin Yang.

Heyne and Yang are part of a team collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Lab to produce sustainable aviation fuels that are compatible with existing jet engines and are capable of supporting net-zero flight. Net-zero is the point where the reduction of carbon emissions balances what's emitted by jet engines.

The team is investigating the role of wet waste in the production process. Wet waste — which includes food waste, animal waste and wastewater sludge — is low-cost, readily available and has enough energy content to replace about 20% of the U.S. jet fuel consumption. Previous research showed producing fuel from wet waste is possible but, until now, did not show how such fuel could meet ASTM International’s fuel property requirements, which are mandatory.

"ASTM International and the aviation community are safety focused, meaning any new fuel, sustainable or not, needs to be safe," explained Heyne. "We focus on the property tests and predictions that are most important in flight safety. Our collaboration with NREL has shown it's possible to develop a fuel from wet waste that can meet these safety requirements while substantially reducing carbon emissions."

The researchers tested approximately a dozen fuel samples to meet ASTM requirements. Their findings, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identified a process to meet jet fuel safety, operability and environmental goals. Testing showed a 165% drop in net carbon emissions compared to fossil jet fuel, not only because it's cleaner, but also because the process removes millions of tons of food waste from landfills where it would produce methane, a greenhouse gas over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

"If our refining pathway is scaled up, it could take as little as a year or two for airlines like Southwest to get the regulatory approvals they need to start using wet waste [fuel] in commercial flights," said Derek Vardon, scientist at the National Renewable Energy Lab and lead author of the paper.

"That means net-zero-carbon flights are on the horizon earlier than some might have thought," Vardon added. "Our sustainable aviation fuel route is not a silver bullet, but as a piece of the puzzle it could make a significant dent in an industry notoriously hard to decarbonize."

This work was supported by DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office "Opportunities in Biojet" program, as well as the Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy Consortium. For more information, explore NREL's catalytic carbon transformation research.

5 Steps for Negentropic Success

Life is full of small decisions: Should I pick up that sock on the floor? Should I do the dishes before bed? What about fixing the leaky faucet in the bathroom?

Leaving a sock on the ground is a manifestation of entropy — a measure of how much energy is lost in a system. If a system loses too much energy, it will disintegrate into chaos. It takes only a little bit of energy to pick up one sock. But if you don’t take care of your yard, let pipes stay clogged and never fix electrical problems, it all adds up to a chaotic home that would take a lot of energy to fix. And that chaos will leach away your time and ability to accomplish other things.

The good news is that entropy has an opposite: negentropy. Ali Carr-Chellman, dean of the School of Education and Health Sciences, has found that thinking in terms of negentropy and energy can help fight against entropy and chaos in daily life.

Over the past four years, Carr-Chellman and her colleagues developed a theory of negentropy and studied how energy is lost or gained in many types of systems — including in higher education, leadership for online education, workplace organizations and online learning settings.

"Our work suggests that when people keep the idea of negentropy in mind and take actions that limit or reverse energy loss, social systems are more efficient and effective," explained Carr-Chellman. "This might even make it easier for people to achieve larger goals. In other words, yes, you should pick up that sock, and yes, you should improve your meetings, and doing so may allow you to see other ways to avoid future energy losses."

5 Steps for Negentropic Success

1: Find the entropy.

Identify places where energy is lost in the social systems in your daily life. It’s helpful to think of it like a thermal map of the outside of your house that highlights where heat — or energy — is lost. A badly sealed window leaks heat energy. A poorly organized kitchen makes things hard to find. A badly designed new employee onboarding system can lead to serious legal problems later.

2: Prioritize the losses.

Identify the largest or most annoying losses and those that draw your attention most often. For example, perhaps that leaky kitchen faucet drives you crazy. Fixing it might make room in your mind to consider other improvements to your kitchen that would make it more functional.

3: Come up with a plan.

Identify actions that will reverse the energy losses you noted and plan ways to address the highest priorities first. You could start by fixing the leaky faucet or picking up your socks; if pre-pre-planning meetings are causing your organization a lot of trouble, analyze the problem and figure out how to fix it.

4: Try it out and pay attention.

Put the ideas into action, but stay focused on energy gains and losses. As you try to implement negentropic ideas, keep track of what works, how much effort it took and ideas you come up with for future negentropic actions.

5: Go beyond fixing and maintenance.

As you work to reverse energy losses, you may find that at times you are actually maintaining a social system that isn’t beneficial no matter how smoothly it works. Spending time improving an orientation to introduce new workers to a company culture may not be very useful if the culture itself needs to change. The best way to apply the idea of negentropy to social systems is to not only improve the small processes, but also look at the big picture and see if the status quo itself promotes energy loss.

This article is adapted from a piece that originally appeared in The Conversation.

On the Scent of COVID-19

COVID-19 is not the only virus that affects our ability to smell, but it's unique in the way in which it does so. For example, the common cold causes an inflammatory response in the nose, and that builds up mucus, which reduces your ability to smell. With COVID-19, however, it is not nasal congestion that causes the smell loss. Rather, the virus gets into the nervous system, affecting the neural connections that are necessary to detect and interpret odor.

COVID-19 affects the nervous system and sometimes results in profound loss or a complete inability to smell. Some people recover their ability to smell within a few days or weeks, but for some people it's been going on for much longer.

"This is really taking its toll on the people who have not had their sense of smell, sometimes for months or more," said Julie Walsh-Messinger, assistant professor of psychology. "It can have real consequences. For example, if you can’t smell smoke, you are relying on a smoke detector to tell you there's a fire. It is also affecting quality of life. Food doesn't taste good anymore because how you perceive taste is really a combination of smell, taste and even the sense of touch. Some people are reporting weight loss due to loss of appetite, and they're just not able to take pleasure in the things that they've previously found pleasurable."

Research also shows that smell impacts decisions we make daily — but may not be consciously aware of. For example, smell can influence our attraction to others. It's one of the ways in which we select mates who are less genetically similar to us, which can be an advantage for reproduction. It can also help us detect fear in others, which is important for survival.

Resources are available to people who have lost taste and smell. For example, smell training retrains the body's ability to detect and identify an odor by smelling it over and over again.

"We are optimistic that the sense of smell will come back for some of the people who lose their sense of smell for several months," said Walsh-Messinger.

This article is adapted from a piece that originally appeared in The Conversation. Walsh-Messinger has also conducted research on how neurodegenerative diseases like schizophrenia impact sense of smell, lingering COVID symptoms among young adults and rehabilitation treatments for COVID-19 "long-haulers."

Ingenuity Meets Perseverance

As the Perseverance rover descended to the surface of Mars just before 4 p.m. Feb. 18, University of Dayton Research Institute scientist Chad Barklay closely watched NASA's live feed of its Joint Propulsion Lab control room, listening for touchdown confirmation.

Exactly four years prior, Barklay and UDRI colleague and engineer Allan Tolson were also closely watching as they essentially cooked a generator similar to the one that would power the Mars 2020 rover, heating it up to temperatures never before experienced by the unit or its sister units on earth and Mars. By assessing the effects of high heat on the prototype unit, the laboratory test was designed to predict whether the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) attached to Perseverance would continue to perform normally should it encounter unanticipated extreme temperatures during the rover's mission.

The successful test helped NASA prepare for the Mars 2020 mission, which launched in July and successfully delivered Perseverance by sky crane to the red planet surface seven months later.

Since opening UDRI's MMRTG Laboratory in late 2013, Barklay — group leader for advanced high-temperature materials in UDRI’s energy and power division — and his team have designed and performed qualification and evaluation tests on generators in support of NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rover and future deep-space missions. Their research, sponsored by the Department of Energy, provides critical information on the performance of the power units over time and under the punishing temperatures and other harsh operating conditions of space.

Photo courtesy of NASA.

"The MMRTG is essentially the lifeblood of the rover," said Barklay, who helped develop the layout and assembly procedures for the MMRTG that continues to power Curiosity at Mars’ Gale Crater. "Heat generated by naturally decaying isotopes within the generator’s core keep the rover warm during the extreme cold of Martian nights, and is also converted to electricity to power the rover's mechanical, computer and communication systems. The information we provide on MMRTG performance helps mission planners understand how much power they’ll have and how long they'll have it for the science they want to do."

In addition to helping NASA plan for the routine, UDRI researchers also help the agency prepare for the unexpected, Barklay said.

"There are a number of factors that can affect generator performance, including heat. Four years ago, there were still several potential elements of the pending Perseverance mission that each could have caused the MMRTG to run hotter than its predecessor unit on Curiosity, including landing site, which hadn’t been selected yet; the Martian climate at time of landing; the age of the generator at launch; and some minor design differences in the rover that could affect heat transference from its generator. So we were asked to design and conduct what was basically a worst-case-scenario experiment that would assume the hottest temperatures for each of those factors, and then some."

To prepare for that 2017 test, Barklay and Tolson wrapped a generator in an insulating material, then heated the unit to 428 F — approximately 100 degrees hotter than the maximum temperature Curiosity's generator experiences. They held the unit at that temperature for 24 hours, neither sleeping nor leaving the generator unattended, prepared to quickly shut down the experiment if they observed any behavior that threatened the system.

"The outcome was highly successful — better than we could have hoped," Barklay said.

Barklay said he will never tire of watching launches and landings, in spite of the number he has already seen.

"Nothing can really prepare you for the emotions you experience when watching," he said. "It's amazing to feel part of something so much bigger than yourself, and it's a profound experience to realize that you and your colleagues contributed to the success of the mission."

On Trial: Internet of Things

From wearable technology to security systems to smart thermostats, there are billions of devices around the world that can connect to and share data over the internet. Collectively, these items are referred to as the Internet of Things.

In a new book, Internet of Things and the Law, University of Dayton law professor Thaddeus Hoffmeister discusses how the Internet of Things can impact privacy, security, contracts and intellectual property. Hoffmeister also examines protections for consumers and how to prosecute offenders.

"At a minimum, anybody with a cell phone or devices hooked to Wi-Fi at home should be concerned about the law of the Internet of Things," said Hoffmeister. "But if people take the time to drill down further into their everyday lives, this affects banking, medical records and ordering food. It's a rare occasion when somebody does something that isn’t affected by some form of Internet connectivity."

With Wi-Fi seemingly around most every corner — and questions about its reliability and security — it's inevitable the Internet of Things will be the subject of legal battles.

"While all the ramifications of the Internet of Things are not fully understood today, one thing is very clear: The Internet of Things will impact our legal system," said Hoffmeister.

An expert on the internet and the law, Hoffmeister is also the author of Social Media in the Courtroom: A New Era for Criminal Justice? and Social Media Law in a Nutshell, and is editor of the blog Social Media Law.

Goodbye, Gridlock

Is a world without gridlock possible? It might be, thanks to research by Tam Nguyen and Phu Phung, assistant professors in the Department of Computer Science.

With a $248,338 grant from the National Science Foundation, the pair is using artificial intelligence to help urban planners address traffic and infrastructure problems in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — a city of 8.9 million people. Data from Ho Chi Minh City’s network of 10,000 traffic cameras allows for real-time analysis of traffic flow, congestion and accidents. The process, known as visual crowd-AI sensing, will provide city planners with actual data for simulating infrastructure changes, such as adding a new bridge or changing the direction of a traffic lane, to determine their potential impacts.

"Normally, for simulations we have to create some dummy data. For this project, we can retrieve exact data," said Nguyen, the project's principal investigator, whose research focus is computer vision and machine learning. "We analyze the data by using AI — artificial intelligence — and then we know exactly what traffic will do."

Formerly known as Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City is well-known for its traffic congestion and high density of vehicles, with nearly as many motorbikes — 7.5 million — as residents. Motorists tend to travel fast, cross at red lights and ride their motorbikes on sidewalks to circumvent traffic on city streets.

"If you find an empty space, you just ride your vehicle there," said Nguyen, a Ho Chi Minh City native. "Motorcycles weave through traffic like in the movies"

Nguyen and Phung's research collaborators in Ho Chi Minh City — including Minh-Triet Tran from the University of Science, and Duy-Dinh Le and Khang Nguyen from the University of Information Technology — provided one month's worth of data from about 100 traffic cameras in the city’s center. Tam Nguyen and Phung are using the data to train and evaluate their AI algorithms in University of Dayton computer labs. Their challenges include training the state-of-the-art AI model to detect vehicles at night and during Vietnam’s rainy season, which creates camera noise and distortion. After testing their model's accuracy for tracking vehicles and traffic flow, they will scale up the project to include data from all 10,000 cameras across the 796-square-mile city.

Phung, co-principal investigator and also a Vietnam native, has expertise in cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT), which allows interrelated, internet-connected objects to collect and transfer data over a wireless network without human intervention. He will help develop a framework that can stream data from IoT devices such as cameras and sensors for the AI component.

"We will adopt cutting-edge cloud technologies for handling large-scale and high-volume real-time traffic from our pluggable client-side framework," Phung said. "We anticipate that the IoT pluggable framework developed from this project can be used for future, similar crowd-sourcing applications for the common good."

In addition to creating simulations for city planners, the National Science Foundation wants the team to focus on real-time traffic analysis, which will allow workers monitoring city traffic cameras to quickly spot and resolve problems.

"You have 10,000 cameras and at least 1,000 people looking at the cameras all the time," Nguyen said. "That's not very efficient. If you have AI, it can tell you, 'Hey, there’s a traffic jam over there' or 'There's an accident over here,' for example. It can help save on labor costs and frees them up to address issues."

Once perfected, the technology could potentially be applied to any urban area with traffic issues, including U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle or Atlanta.

"If we can get access to the traffic cameras, then we can apply the same system," Nguyen said. "We can analyze the congestion, traffic jams and accidents, or we can use it for simulations for city planning."

At the Surface

The University of Dayton Research Institute will use a new $60 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to support the development of advanced aerospace coating protection systems.

The five-year award to UDRI's Nonstructural Materials Division will cover research and development of coatings and technologies designed to prevent corrosion and erosion damage to aerospace structures, which will in turn reduce system maintenance time, cost, and down time and improve safety to personnel and the environment.

Researchers also will work to develop testing that will better predict the lifespan of new protective systems and materials in the field.

"One of the most important ways to help extend the life of an aircraft is to prevent damage from corrosion and erosion," said Matt Rothgeb, group leader for coatings, corrosion and erosion at the Research Institute and principal investigator for the new program. "We've led research, development, testing and evaluation of coatings and corrosion-prevention technologies for nearly 20 years, so we've seen first-hand the effects corrosive damage can have on the safety, affordability and availability of aerospace systems across the Air Force and the aerospace community as a whole. Aircraft coatings are critical to mitigating corrosion and erosion of structural components."

Under the contract, researchers will work toward three main objectives, the first of which is to perform research, development, testing, evaluation, qualification and integration of advanced aerospace coatings and transition these technologies to the Air Force.

The second objective will focus on erosion, including research on erosion phenomena and developing new test methods and equipment to evaluate and qualify erosion-resistant materials. In erosion labs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, researchers will test the durability of coatings exposed to water erosion, such as simulated rainfall at varying speeds, and particle erosion, such as sand and dust.

The third objective will focus on the development of accelerated testing and tools designed to better predict how new coatings systems will hold up over time and in service conditions, such as extreme temperatures and humidity.

"Understanding the phenomena of corrosion and erosion is key to developing better protection materials, designs and systems," Rothgeb said.

Work will be performed in labs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as well as at Curran Place in Dayton.

AIMMing for Safer Face Masks

A reusable self-disinfecting N95 mask concept developed by a University of Dayton Research Institute scientist holds so much promise for success, the inventor has created a startup company to commercialize the technology.

Using principles applied in his work as a battery scientist in UDRI's power and energy division, researcher Luis Estevez developed an antimicrobial technology that can be used to create a face mask that will not only filter viruses such as COVID-19 and other particles, but will kill those pathogens as well. The extra layer of defense makes the mask not only more protective, but reusable — providing a significant tool in response to the critical shortage of masks for health care providers.

With support from the University of Dayton's Office of Technology and Entrepreneurial Partnerships, Estevez established Advanced & Innovative Multifunctional Materials LLC (AIMM) in order to advance the technology and ultimately create working prototypes. Once prototypes are developed, certified by a medical device testing laboratory and given regulatory approvals, Estevez hopes to partner with and license his mask to a medical equipment company for mass manufacture.

"N95 masks bear that name because they filter a minimum of 95% of airborne particles, including viruses and bacteria, from passing through the mask to the wearer. That means the wearer is at very low risk for infection from the few remaining particles," Estevez said. "While this type of mask is highly effective, there is a critical shortage of masks for health care workers — a shortage of hundreds of millions of masks in the U.S. alone, according to some reports. So providers are being forced to reuse them, but they are not designed to be reused because of the risk of infection to themselves and others from handling masks that may have been contaminated by viruses and bacteria."

Some providers are taking steps, such as treating masks with steam or hydrogen peroxide, to mitigate that risk, but such treatments render the mask much less effective, Estevez said. N95 masks are electrostatically charged during the manufacturing process, making them significantly more effective at blocking viruses and other particles from penetrating the mask, but that charge is disrupted if the mask becomes wet.

Estevez's solution involves adding a layer of biocidal silver nanomaterial to the exterior of the masks. Common in medical use for its antimicrobial properties, biocidal silver kills any microbial pathogens it comes in contact with.

"Not only does this coating of nanosilver create an extra layer of protection from viruses and bacteria, but treated masks can be used repeatedly and for long periods of time without risk of contamination to the wearer or others," explained Estevez.

There are some cloth masks currently available that include strands of silver and copper woven into the fabric, but they aren't as effective because the strands don't have enough surface area to be highly effective, many of the fibers are embedded below the surface of the mask, and because cloth masks are not as effective overall as the "gold standard" N95, Estevez said. What sets his technology apart is his "secret sauce" — a formula for controlling silver particle size, dispersal and adhesion to the surface of the mask.

Estevez has been working with Kenya Crosson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, to perform proof-of-concept testing on mask material samples. "We still have some fine-tuning to do, but we're excited about initial results," he said.

Estevez is also pursuing funding to advance the technology to prototype stage. Depending on funding, a prototype could be ready in as few as four months, he said.

"Once we have prototype masks in hand, we'll begin certification and regulatory approvals processes. Those are the steps needed to ensure the masks are breathable, safe and effective at stopping particles; in other words, that they will do what they are designed to do."

Estevez said he's eager to partner with a major manufacturer of medical supplies to bring a biocidal mask to the health care industry — whose providers will not only need access to safe masks for the near-term future, but will also need to stockpile masks for future events.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a major problem within the health care industry, which is the inability to physically stockpile enough masks for emergencies such as this," he said. "It's not that hospitals weren't prepared for a health crisis, it's that COVID-19 hit so fast and so widespread that emergency stockpiles were depleted in a short time. Antimicrobial masks are a ‘next-gen' solution for future emergency stockpiles, because their extended reusability means fewer masks would be needed during a pandemic."

In addition to developing a mask, Estevez is laying the groundwork to retool the same biocidal technology to develop a portable, gravity-powered water purification system to be used in emergency disaster relief or other situations where there is an urgent need for safe drinking water.

"Ultimately the goal would be to scale up the system to help provide purified drinking water in developing nations, where some 2 billion people have no access to local, noncontaminated water," he said.

Mathew Willenbrink, director of technology partnerships at UD, said a provisional patent on the technology and a license agreement between the University and AIMM are pending. "Luis' technology shows a great deal of promise in addressing a critical need, and he has already shown his ability to be an outstanding entrepreneur," Willenbrink said. "We are happy to be able to support him in this endeavor."

Enhancing Research Capabilities

Jeremy Erb, associate professor of chemistry, and Vladimir Benin, professor of chemistry, were awarded $240,379 from the National Science Foundation and $50,233 from the Ohio Department of Higher Education Ohio Action Fund to purchase a Bruker 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer.

NMR spectroscopy allows scientists to determine the chemical structure of a compound by bombarding molecules with radio waves while under the influence of a magnetic field. The new instrument will provide the Department of Chemistry with state-of-the-art technology to enhance faculty research capabilities and expand student engagement in research.

"This may be the most important instrument in any given chemistry department, because so many faculty and students use it," said Erb.

Some 2,500 undergraduate chemistry majors will use the instrument during the next 10 years, along with faculty and graduate students from the chemistry and biology departments. In addition, the instrument will be used to analyze compounds for students at Sinclair Community College and Central State University, a public, historically black land-grant university.

The new spectrometer will be equipped with an automation system to allow faculty and students to run multiple samples at any time of day or night, without someone monitoring the instrument. The resulting data will be loaded onto a network drive so users will be able to access their data remotely.

Erb uses an NMR spectrometer heavily in his organic synthesis research, which focuses on developing new methods to build organophosphorus molecules.

"This instrument will have greater sensitivity and greater ease to detect different atom types," he said. "I can run experiments faster, my data will look better and I can probably get more information out of the data, because it will be clearer to examine and analyze."

The NMR spectrometer also will encourage research collaborations across academic disciplines. For example, biology doctoral student Elizabeth Evans will use the instrument to study cell membrane composition in Cope’s gray tree frogs, which can tolerate their bodies being frozen and survive.

"Part of that phenomenon has to do with how cells behave," said Carissa Krane, professor of biology and Evans’ doctoral adviser. "Jeremy, as a chemist, was very willing to collaborate with us, using the NMR to start to think about ways to characterize the membranes of cells and how they behave and are able to recover. It opens up a whole new avenue of addressing questions that I wouldn’t be able to do with the things in my lab. From the scientific perspective, it brought us together to address a question in a new and different way that we wouldn’t have been able to address alone."

Counting the Benefits of Early Math Education

The National Institutes of Health awarded $438,829 to University of Dayton psychologist Mary Fuhs to study early development of mathematics skills in preschool-age children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Fuhs, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, will conduct three studies to assess children’s ability to distinguish differences in size and number. For example, if young children are asked to compare three elephants and six mice and say which group is greater in number, they often will pick the elephants because they are bigger in size.

"It is a common source of confusion among preschool-age children, and it’s something that isn’t really highlighted in number books or early math curricula, helping children understand the difference between size and number in space in their early math activities," Fuhs said.

Her pilot research, supported by a 2018 grant from the University’s STEM Catalyst Initiative, provided evidence this early ability to pay attention to numbers — and not be distracted by size, color or shape — predicts math achievement in preschoolers.

"The goal of my project is to develop a measure that assesses this ability in young children and then develop an intervention through number books that helps children understand the differences between the magnitudes. I think that will have an important effect on their early math skills."

Fuhs' research also includes a separate math cognition study under a $225,000 subaward from a $1.37 million National Science Foundation grant awarded in 2018 to Vanderbilt University. In addition, she works with Dayton-Montgomery County Preschool Promise, a nonprofit that helps area preschools improve their programming.

"All of this work is related to the goal of helping young children be more prepared for school readiness when they get to kindergarten, especially in the area of math," Fuhs said. "My research has mostly focused on children who come from under-resourced environments and often don't have access to high-quality resources for early learning, because we know that children from low-income homes typically start kindergarten behind their peers when it comes to academic learning."

Pandemics and Prisons

COVID-19 has created a new norm for human interaction: social distancing, improving hygiene with soap and hand sanitizer, wearing a mask and quarantining.

But what does this mean for the more than 2 million people held in local, state and federal jails and prisons?

In Aging in Prison, Martha Hurley, professor of criminal justice studies, notes that health concerns are magnified within incarcerated settings. Prisoners have often experienced poor health and limited access to health care before incarceration. Once incarcerated, they often age prematurely, experiencing health problems associated with people in the general population who are 10 to 15 years older. Their experiences in jail and prison can cause psychological distress and the manifestation of mental illnesses.

"Consequently, half of prisoners have either a chronic medical or a mental health condition," said Hurley. "That means that the incarcerated population is at heightened risk for developing severe complications from COVID-19."

Despite these challenges, the CDC recommends the same prevention protocols — social distancing, enhanced cleaning and hygiene practices — for incarcerated people as for the general public.

"However, social distancing is impractical for incarcerated populations, as they live, work, eat, sleep and even bathe in communal settings," said Hurley. "Disinfecting protocols and good hygiene can also be a challenge. Many correctional facilities restrict access to hygiene products or cleaning supplies containing contraband ingredients, such as alcohol-based hand sanitizer. While the incarcerated may have access to water, there’s no guarantee that they will be able to access soap and dry their hands."

Issues also arise when a prisoner becomes ill.

Behind bars, there is a shortage of health care professionals and a long history of denial of access to adequate medical care, including testing and treatment. In addition, many facilities charge inmates a copay for treatment that incarcerated people are ill-equipped to afford. Most jails and prisons do not have medical isolation units for those who are ill, and poorly ventilated buildings help airborne viruses spread.

"For these reasons, there will likely be a significantly higher prisoner mortality rate compared to the general public – not just for those sentenced to a period of incarceration in prison, but also those who are sitting in local jails who have yet to be convicted or sentenced," said Hurley.

To mitigate this reality, the police in some locations have decided not to arrest, but instead issue citations for offenses that just a few months ago would have landed the person in the local jail. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, parole board members and other advocates from across the country now call for the early release of incarcerated individuals who pose less risk of harm to society, including the elderly, nonviolent and low-risk prisoners, and those with severe medical conditions.

However, early release comes with its own risks.

If released prisoners were exposed to the virus but not tested, they may be ill but unaware they are contagious. As such, relatives may be less likely to take them in, resulting in homelessness.

"As jails and prisons release the incarcerated early, government officials should give greater attention to the process of release," said Hurley.

This article is adapted from a piece that originally appeared in The Conversation.

On Thin Ice

A study co-published by University of Dayton physicist Ivan Sudakov offers a model to better predict the effects of climate change on Arctic sea ice. The discovery, which was published in the New Journal of Physics and gained attention from Scientific American, Physics World and WIRED, could improve climate models for predicting ice loss in the Arctic.

The interdisciplinary study found a relationship between the patterns formed by pools of water from melting sea ice and the arrangement of atoms in magnetic materials. Using the Ising statistical physics model, which simulates the basic physics of ferromagnetic materials, the researchers were able to accurately replicate the melting of Arctic sea ice, using just one real-world measurement.

"It is the next important application of the Ising model itself and shows the universality of physics laws," said Sudakov, who specializes in mathematical modeling of physical and living systems. "It doesn't matter where you apply this model — superconductors or melt ponds."

Invented in 1920, the Ising model shows how natural systems can behave in related ways, such as showing phase transitions between solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter. It also has applications in the fields of neuroscience and socio-economics.

The two-dimensional Ising model consists of individual atoms arranged in a square-lattice grid, with the direction of their magnetic spins either aligned or anti-aligned with the direction of a uniform applied magnetic field. Each atom is then in either a "spin up" or "spin down" state, and is assumed to interact only with its four nearest neighbors — potentially changing the spin of adjacent atoms. This creates patches of atoms within the grid with all of their spins in the same direction.

While snow and ice reflect most of the sunlight on Arctic sea ice, melt ponds absorb and transmit that solar energy — impacting the areas of ice that surround them, much like the interaction between magnetized atoms in the Ising model.

"When the melting begins there is a horizontal heat transfer from one area of sea ice to the next, influencing expansion," Sudakov explained. "When you are melting, you need to release your heat, so you transfer it to your partner."

Solar reflectance and transmittance of the sea ice cover are key parameters in climate modeling, so the Ising model for Arctic melt ponds could help climate scientists better predict the loss of sea ice.

To help further global research efforts in Arctic climate change, Sudakov was awarded an AI for Earth grant from Microsoft. The grant provides machine learning tools and cloud computing services to accelerate his work on an algorithm to identify tundra lakes in satellite images of land surfaces using image segmentation. The process involves dividing a visual input into segments to simplify image analysis.

Tundra lakes are key components of the Arctic climate system because they represent a source of methane to the atmosphere, and they change shape and increase in size as permafrost thaws. Sudakov's work develops a novel and independent approach to image segmentation of tundra lakes using deep neural learning for future goals such as the estimation of greenhouse gas flux from permafrost surface, the detection of tundra lakes erosion, and identification of potential disruption of infrastructure on permafrost.

The one-year grant provides Microsoft services, consulting and support, including Microsoft Azure cloud computing credits. Using Microsoft Azure with this project will help reduce computer programming time because many processes are determined and automated.

Pandemic-Proof Your Kids By Dancing

"Ring around the Rosie, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down!"

Aili Bresnahan, associate professor of philosophy, grew up singing that refrain in the 1970s in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood while playing with friends. She didn't know then, and was not to learn for many years, that the Mother Goose rhyme and its accompanying dance, sprang from London's Great Plague of 1665. The tragic origin of that joyful childhood routine suggests that dancing in the face of tragedy can signify the affirmation of life and resilience in the face of struggle, death and despair.

The idea that something is good when it is part of helping human beings to flourish comes from Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher.

"Dance is good because it expresses human nature – it's not just fun, although it is certainly fun. It's not just exercise, either," said Bresnahan, who has studied law, philosophy and dance. "At its best, dance is an extension and expression of who we are as human beings in ways that can allow us to share emotions that increase our sense of community and connection. This is why, in good times and bad, in times of war, slavery, fleeing homelands and during pandemics, kids still bounce, leap and spin."

Dance helps children to flourish because it is an outlet for their natural impulses that has emotional and social benefits. As the philosopher of dance and religion Kimerer LaMothe has explained, a desire to dance and to move your body is the beginning point of all human life.

Soon after babies come into the world, they begin to move. This is readily apparent when observing toddlers and young children, who have a natural energy and joy and a love of exploring space and the world around them.

"Kids learn to move before they learn to read or sing. When parents allow or encourage their kids to dance, they are just stoking something that is already natural to them and that they often already like," said Bresnahan. "When kids dance freely, they're not on the receiving end of learning experiences. They are the givers, the makers."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children may be experiencing an array of stress brought about by social isolation, economic distress and illness. Dancing provides a way to release that anxiety.

Whether children dance on their own, in their living room with their families, over Zoom with friends or by performing dance challenges on TikTok, dance helps them reconnect with their bodies and minds, and connect with others.

This article is adapted from a piece that originally appeared in The Conversation.

Jet Fuel From Junk

That pizza box that was too cheesy to be recycled may still have a shot at a second life outside of a landfill — and in the fuel tank of your next flight.

In a process supported by the University of Dayton Research Institute, ASTM International has approved the use of a synthetic oil derived from municipal waste in the manufacture of jet fuel at petroleum refineries. The co-processing of "syncrude" with petroleum at the refinery level is the second new specification for jet fuel approved this spring by ASTM, which develops technical standards for product design and manufacturing across a number of industries.

"Approval by ASTM effectively greenlights the use of the new fuels in commercial and military aviation, because it signals to the industry that they meet all testing criteria for certification as viable and safe products," said Steve Zabarnick, division head for fuels and combustion at UDRI.

For companies like Fulcrum BioEnergy of Pleasanton, California, ASTM approval is a critical step in bringing a new fuel product or manufacturing process to market. At its new Sierra BioFuels Plant — currently under construction outside of Reno, Nevada — Fulcrum plans to begin mass production of its alternative fuel feedstock later this year. 

Billed as the world's first garbage-to-jet-fuel plant, Sierra will process 175,000 tons of municipal solid waste each year to create 11 million gallons of synthetic crude oil, which will then be delivered to Marathon Petroleum for use in transportation fuels.

The Research Institute has supported the approval process of all seven alternative fuels now available for aviation, beginning with the first alternative fuel and petroleum blend approved by ASTM in 2009. It coordinates testing and evaluation of all new alternative fuels through the Federal Aviation Administration sponsored “D4054 Clearinghouse.

"The Clearinghouse serves as a one-stop shop for fuel producers who want to introduce a new aviation fuel into the marketplace," Zabarnick said. "We work closely with them to guide them through the process, which involves testing and analysis of fuel samples for composition, material properties and performance, as well as for compatibility with engine components."

Zabarnick and his team perform most of the initial laboratory testing, and coordinate additional evaluations, such as full-scale engine testing, at external facilities as needed.

Once testing is completed, a technical report on the research results is sent to aircraft engine and airframe manufacturers, such as GE, Pratt & Whitney, Boeing and Airbus, for evaluation. When the original equipment manufacturers are satisfied, the report on the candidate fuel is sent to ASTM for a vote on whether to approve the product for standardization, which defines the specifications for manufacture and use.

Interest in alternative fuels has never been greater, largely for the environmental benefits, said Zabarnick, whose team has performed research and development in alternative fuels since 2005. Alternative fuels are cleaner, and therefore cleaner burning, than fuels made only from petroleum, and six of the seven approved fuels are from renewable feedstocks, such as algae and plant-based biomass.

"Increasing the variety of approved alternative fuel feedstocks and manufacturing processes also strengthens national energy security by reducing our reliance on foreign-based petroleum fuel," Zabarnick added.