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 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."

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."

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.

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."

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.

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."

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."

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.

Quickly Detecting COVID-19

In a matter of hours, University of Dayton Research Institute scientist Barath Narayanan tailored existing medical diagnostics software to quickly diagnose COVID-19. The technology can detect the presence of COVID-19 on chest X-rays in seconds — with 98% accuracy. Then, in less than three days, University of Dayton alumnus Srikanth Kodeboyina exclusively licensed the technology, driven to bring it to the health care industry as quickly as possible. Kodeboyina, who owns Blue Eye Soft in Greenville, South Carolina, has filed a provisional patent on the technology.

Both men were driven by the same mission: Finding a way to rapidly provide another resource in the fight against COVID-19.

“We hope to be able to bring this new tool to market very quickly,” Kodeboyina said, adding that his startup company’s staff of 40 employees was virtually joined by more than 100 professionals based in Singapore, India and across the U.S., all contributing their expertise in artificial intelligence, medical licensing, cybersecurity and other related fields, to expedite further development of the product in preparation for a proposal to the FDA for approval. In the United States, end users would include hospitals, laboratories and medical professionals, he added.

Narayanan, a research scientist in UDRI’s sensor and software systems division, developed his technology using the “deep learning” branch of artificial intelligence — the same technology he uses to perform sponsored research for manufacturing and other commercial applications at the Research Institute. And for the last several years, after the workday ends, he’s continued working with the technology on his own time and for his own purpose: advancing research in AI to help doctors diagnose and treat patients more quickly.

Narayanan had already developed a number of software codes that successfully detect — with 92% to 99% accuracy — lung and breast cancers, malaria, brain tumors, tuberculosis, diabetic retinopathy and pneumonia on respective medical images, including X-rays, CT scans, blood smear slides and eye scans. When a set of chest X-rays from patients with and without COVID-19 were made available for research, just days into the pandemic, Narayanan quickly switched focus.

Drawing on expertise and coding developed on and off the clock, he quickly developed a deep learning algorithm that searches for markings on X-rays that indicate the presence of the disease. In a matter of hours, his software was classifying the images as having, or not having, markings of the disease with a high degree of accuracy. 

Narayanan, who holds master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from UD and teaches part time in the University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said he enjoyed the image processing aspect of his graduate student research, and decided to use the field to help people in some way. “I wanted to do something for the common good, and medical imaging seemed a good way to do that,” he said.

“Software-based diagnostic tools can help reduce human error and serve as a valuable, virtual second opinion for medical professionals, especially in parts of the world where medical teams are short-staffed. With additional research, these technologies can be fine-tuned to detect even the slightest anomalies on images — those that are difficult to see with the human eye — helping doctors diagnose and treat patients more quickly.”

Kodeboyina, who received his master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from UD in 2011, has also been on a mission to develop software that will enhance human life, he said. “Right now, one of the most pressing needs on the planet is addressing the COVID-19 crisis. Artificial intelligence can be an important solution to support the health care industry in its fight to mitigate the impact of the disease, and we are on the leading edge of developing that technology.”

UD vice president for research John Leland said the University has been working to execute technology licenses quickly, but completing an agreement between UD and BES in only two and a half days was unprecedented. “We were driven to help Blue Eye Soft make this technology available as quickly as possible,” Leland said. “We are also excited that a UD grad has licensed one of our technologies and is working diligently to provide medical professionals a new tool in the fight against the spread of this devastating disease.”

While Narayanan is hoping to find funding that will enable him to further develop AI tools for the medical field, he said he will continue to work on his own time to help bring them to the health care industry.

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.

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.

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.

Digitizing Dunbar

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the University of Dayton nearly $100,000 to develop interdisciplinary courses and create a digital archive to help preserve the legacy of Dayton native Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first influential black poets in American literature.

The three-year, $99,992 implementation grant supports the "Paul Laurence Dunbar: Life, Works, and Legacy" project through the NEH's Humanities Connections program.

The Dunbar Library and Archive created by the project will make thousands of Dunbar writings and artifacts virtually accessible for search and use. It also will bridge the campus and Dayton communities through new, place-based courses and experiential learning opportunities co-created by faculty and community partners. The courses will span such disciplines as music, history, sociology and computer program design, with potential others to be added.

Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the first black writers in the U.S. to attain national prominence, including publication in the Atlantic Monthly and The Saturday Evening Post. During his short life, he produced hundreds of poems, short stories, novels, plays, song lyrics, libretti, journals, essays, letters and political writings. Dunbar's first editorial undertaking, The Tattler, a newspaper written for Dayton's African American community, was printed on a press designed by his close friend and classmate, Orville Wright.

The project is a collaboration between Jennifer Speed, former director of extramural funding and strategic resource development, Minnita Daniel-Cox, associate professor of music, and Ju Shen, assistant professor of computer science. The interdisciplinary collaboration began as an offshoot of research by Daniel-Cox, who in 2014 established the Dunbar Music Archive — an online, searchable database of music with texts by Dunbar.

"What began as a tool for my performing and teaching has evolved into a diverse program of courses with community partners, all sharing Dunbar as the common theme," Daniel-Cox said. "It has truly been a labor of love to help preserve and celebrate Dunbar's legacy and work.

Now, the project will introduce students and faculty to digital humanities tools and investigative methods, and facilitate cross-disciplinary teaching and broaden engagement with Dunbar-related cultural materials. It also will integrate computer science with a number of humanities and social sciences disciplines.

"This interdisciplinary project particularly benefits our computer science students, who usually focus on technology development but do not pay much attention to experiential learning and location-based education," said Shen, whose research and teaching focuses on virtual reality (VR). The Dunbar project gives us a concrete example to link our technologies to a real story that happened in the local place, which motivates many students to design interactive VR systems to recover Dunbar's real life.

The project leadership team is now recruiting the first faculty cohort to create or revise interdisciplinary courses, which will be offered starting in fall 2021. They also will start meeting with partners, community members and digital humanities consultants to refine the scope of the Dunbar Library and Archive.

Community partners include the National Park Service, which operates the Paul Laurence Dunbar House Historic Site in Dayton; Ohio History Connection in Columbus, which holds more than 10,000 Dunbar-related objects; and Dayton Metro Library, whose Dunbar Collection contains the only complete run of The Tattler and other Dunbar literary artifacts. Individual partners include Herbert Woodward Martin, English professor emeritus, and Dayton artist and educator Willis "Bing" Davis. The Center for Digital Humanities at Saint Louis University will serve as consultants.

An Illuminating Discovery

For 20 years, researchers have studied how light rotates around a longitudinal axis parallel to the direction light travels. But could it move in other ways? After two years of research, and thanks to a sabbatical, University of Dayton researchers Andy Chong and Qiwen Zhan became the first to create a new “state of light” — showing it also can rotate around a transverse axis perpendicular to the direction light travels, like a cyclone. 

Their findings were published in Nature Photonics, an international publisher of top-quality, peer-reviewed research of light generation, manipulation and detection.

"The sabbatical allowed us the time to fully concentrate on this research and was very instrumental in putting us in a position to make this discovery," said Chong, associate professor of physics and electro-optics and photonics. 

Zhan and Chong didn't go into their research with preconceived notions on what to look for or what they would find.

"It was more of a curiosity. Can we do this or make light do that?" said Zhan, a professor of electro-optics and photonics and managing director of the UD-Fraunhofer Joint Research Center. "Once we discovered we're able to do this, we then asked, 'What's next?'"

"What's next?" may be a while off for the researchers and others who will examine the pair's basic research findings for applications, but they surmise this new state of light could be used to improve the transmission of large amounts of data with greater security, among many other potential applications.

"We don't know yet. But the sky's the limit," Zhan said.

The duo is most interested in how the light interacts with materials.

"We want to better understand how this state of light interacts with materials in space and time," Chong said. 

Power of Song

From the moment of capture, through the treacherous middle passage, after the final sale and throughout life in North America, the experience of enslaved Africans who first arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, some 400 years ago, was characterized by loss, terror and abuse.

“From this tragic backdrop one of the most poignant American musical genres, the Negro spiritual, was birthed,” explained Donna Cox, professor in the Department of Music. “Sometimes called slave songs, jubilees and sorrow songs, spirituals were created out of, and spoke directly to, the black experience in America prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, that declared all slaves free.”

Even with a new language, English, and without familiar instruments, the enslaved people turned the peculiarities of African musical expressions into the African American sound.

Rhythms were complex and marked by syncopation, an accent on the weak beat. Call-and-response, a technique rooted in sub-Saharan West African culture, was frequently employed in spirituals. Call-and-response is very much like a conversation — the leader makes a statement or asks a question and others answer or expound.

“An example of this is the spiritual, ‘Certainly, Lord,” said Cox. “The leader excitedly queries, ‘Have you got good religion?’ and others jubilantly respond, ‘Certainly, Lord.’ Using repetition and improvisation, the conversation continues to build until everyone exclaims, ‘certainly, certainly, certainly, Lord!’”

In Africa, drums were used to communicate from village to village because they could be used to mimic the inflection of voices. As early as 1739 in the British colonies, drums were prohibited by law and characterized as weapons in an attempt to prevent slaves from building community and inciting rebellion. As a result, enslaved people “played” drum patterns on the body. Hands clapped, feet stomped, bodies swayed and mouths provided sophisticated rhythmic patterns.

“Some spirituals were derived from African melodies,” said Cox. “Others were ‘new,’ freely composed songs with a melodic phrase borrowed from here and a rhythmic pattern from there — all combined to create a highly improvised form.”

The spiritual was deeply rooted in the oral tradition and often created spontaneously, one person starting a tune and another joining until a new song was added to the community repertoire. Textually, the spiritual drew from the Hebrew-Christian Bible, particularly the Old Testament, with its stories of deliverance and liberation.

“Songs like ‘Go Down Moses’ direct the awaited deliverer to ‘go down’ to Southern plantations and ‘tell ole Pharaoh’ — the masters — to ‘let my people go,’” said Cox.

For the slaves, the spiritual proved to be an ingenious tool used to counter senseless brutality and the denial of personhood. In order to survive emotionally, resilience was critical. In the spirituals, slaves sang out their struggle, weariness, loneliness, sorrow, hope and determination for a new and better life. Yet these are not songs of anger. They are songs of survival that voice an unwavering belief in their own humanity and attest to an abiding faith in the ultimate triumph of good over systemic evil. 

The spirituals could also serve as acts of rebellion. They were used to organize clandestine meetings, and announce activities of the Underground Railroad. Songs like “Great Camp Meeting” were used to announce when secret gatherings were being planned.

“The spiritual served as a mediator between the dissonance of oppression and the belief that there was ‘a bright side somewhere,’” said Cox. “Four hundred years after the birth of slavery, as the world still struggles with racial division, injustice and a sense of hopelessness, spirituals can teach how to build hope in the face of despair and challenge the status quo.” 

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

Rock Star

Allen McGrew is a video "rock star." The associate professor of geology shares his field research into the extreme stretching of the Earth’s crust in northeastern Nevada on the RuGGEd YouTube channel, which has received thousands of views from students, science educators and geoscience professionals.

The videos are produced with colleagues from the University of Colorado Boulder and Great Basin College under a National Science Foundation grant totaling nearly $400,000. The University of Dayton received $200,000 from the grant.

The growing collection of Nevada geology tutorials are linked to an interactive Google map, so geology students and tourists can download the material before field trips or hikes. The channel also has videos about laboratory practices featuring University of Dayton geology students, and videos of the researchers discussing results at Geological Society of America conferences.

The research highlighted on the YouTube channel centers on a large section of the western U.S. —between Salt Lake City and Reno, Nevada — that has roughly doubled in width over the last 40 million years due to extreme stretching and extension of the Earth’s crust. Focusing on a well-exposed section of crust in the Ruby Mountains-East Humboldt Range-Wood Hills metamorphic core complex, McGrew and his colleagues are examining rocks that were brought to the surface from 12 to 24 miles deep by large, geological faults. Using radiometric age-dating, their goal is to determine the timing and rate of the extension, which is the subject of scientific debate.

“These rocks were deep and they were hot,” McGrew said. “They were probably at least 600 degrees Celsius at their original depths. As they are brought up by these faults, they cool as they get closer to the surface. We use that cooling as a fingerprint for this ‘unroofing’ — the rate at which these rocks were brought up to the surface. You can apply this technique to different minerals and they will begin recording this history at different temperatures, so you can develop a fairly continuous cooling history from over 500 degrees to about 50 degrees Celsius. Then, when they get to the surface they begin eroding and they show up in surface deposits, so you can really track the complete history of their journey.”

Some geologists believe 90% of the extension occurred after 17 million years ago, when the North American tectonic plate began to drift over the “Yellowstone hot spot,” a long-lived volcanic center. However, McGrew and others have argued that the extension actually began about 40 million years ago during a series of large geological events, including a widespread outburst of volcanism across Nevada.

“What we’ve been able to show is that the latter view is basically correct,” he said.

McGrew has done field work in northeastern Nevada since he joined the University faculty in 1995. Under the NSF grant, he has made regular trips to the Ruby Mountains, accompanied by five University of Dayton undergraduate students, as well as several from CU Boulder and Great Basin College in nearby Elko, Nevada. He is interested in the geological history of the mountains, but the area is also of great economic interest because it sits in the heart of North America’s largest gold-producing province.

Currently, he is completing the age-dating and working with his colleagues — James Metcalf of CU Boulder and Carrie Bruno Meisner of Great Basin College — to synthesize data and prepare their findings for publication.

Pakistan: From Place to Displacement

Formerly part of the British Empire, Pakistan became independent in 1947 and is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. But when a nation’s boundaries are created by a former colonizer, how does that impact people’s sense of belonging? 

Shazia Rahman, University of Dayton literary critic and associate professor of English, explores that question — and others — in Place and Postcolonial Ecofeminism: Pakistani Women’s Literary and Cinematic Fictions. With each chapter focusing on a different place in Pakistan, the book traces the ways in which Pakistani women explore alternative, environmental modes of belonging. 

For example, one chapter explores how the people who live in the desert in India and Pakistan feel they belong to the desert; the nation-state isn’t as pressing to their way of thinking about where they live.

Through analysis of films such as Sabiha Sumar’s Khamosh Pani and Mehreen Jabbar’s Ramchand Pakistani, and novels that include Sorayya Khan’s Noor, Uzma Aslam Khan’s Trespassing and Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows, Rahman illuminates how these works simultaneously critique and counter stereotypes about Pakistan as a country of religious nationalism and oppressive patriarchy.

“Just because something is dominant and mainstream doesn’t mean it is all that is out there,” Rahman said. “I wanted to draw attention to less dominant voices, what women were saying and the ways in which they have a more environmental way of thinking about where they live and how they belong.” 

The book grew out of Rahman’s teaching about postcolonial literature from around the globe. She previously spent 17 years at Western Illinois University, where she was a tenured full professor. After seeing news reports about Pakistan that largely focused on regional tensions and terrorist attacks, she developed a course in Pakistani literature to offer her students a different perspective.

“I want to humanize the people from this country, and what better way to do that than to have students read literature from that country and get to know the people,” she said. “As I started to do that, I found I had a lot to say about what I was teaching.”

And from there, the book was formed.

“There is a lot more going on than what you see on the news in Pakistan,” she said. “Hopefully, my book will help you see the rest.”

Water Towers: Roles and Woes

Earth is home to 78 mountain glacier-based water systems, known as mountain water towers, that supply water for 1.6 billion people globally — roughly a quarter of the world’s population.

University of Dayton environmental geologist Umesh Haritashya is one of 32 international scientists who contributed to research published in Nature that assessed and ranked these mountain water towers in order of their importance and vulnerability.

“Mountain glaciers supply a considerable amount of water to the rivers and support increasing human water demands in the downstream region,” said Haritashya, associate professor in the Department of Geology and the Brother Leonard A. Mann, S.M., Chair in the Sciences. “However, as demands on this vital resource are increasing, so does their vulnerability. Therefore, in this study, we developed a water tower index and ranked each one of the world's water towers based on numerous possible factors.”

The study provides evidence global water towers are at risk, in many cases critically, because of threats of climate change, population growth, mismanagement of water resources and other geopolitical factors. The authors conclude it is essential to develop international, mountain-specific conservation and climate change adaptation policies and strategies to safeguard both ecosystems and people downstream.

The researchers determined the world’s most relied-upon mountain system is the Indus water tower in Asia. The Indus tower — made up of vast areas of the Himalayan mountain range and covering portions of Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan — is also one of the most vulnerable.

“The significance of this research is enormous, especially because more than a billion people living in the downstream areas can be significantly impacted by the changes in the world's water towers,” Haritashya said.

To determine the importance of these 78 water towers, researchers analyzed the various factors that determine how reliant downstream communities are upon the supplies of water from these systems. They also assessed each water tower to determine the vulnerability of the water resources, as well as the people and ecosystems that depend on them, based on predictions of future climate and socioeconomic changes.

Of the 78 global water towers identified, the following are the five most relied-upon systems by continent:

• Asia: Indus, Tarim, Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Ganges-Brahmaputra.
• Europe: Rhône, Po, Rhine, Black Sea North Coast, Caspian Sea Coast.
• North America: Fraser, Columbia and Northwest United States, Pacific and Arctic Coast, Saskatchewan-Nelson, North America-Colorado.
• South America: South Chile, South Argentina, Negro, La Puna region, North Chile.

National Geographic and Rolex supported the research as part of their Perpetual Planet partnership, which aims to shine a light on the challenges facing the Earth’s critical life-support systems, support science and exploration of these systems, and empower leaders around the world to develop solutions to protect the planet.

“Mountains are iconic and sacred places around the world, but the critical role they play in sustaining life on Earth is not well understood," said Jonathan Baillie, executive vice president and chief scientist at the National Geographic Society. "This research will help decision-makers, on global and local levels, prioritize where action should be taken to protect mountain systems, the resources they provide, and the people who depend on them.”

Since 2012, Haritashya and his research colleagues have received nearly $3 million in NASA research funding to study glacial lakes and landslides in the Himalaya and Karakoram mountains of southeast Asia. He recently received a $100,433 NASA grant to study a new type of data from Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) that will help scientists better detect and understand glaciers. His research involves field work, as well as the use of satellite imagery and computer modeling.

Fouled Fuel

The tiny white clusters in the jet fuel sample were all too familiar. Steve Zabarnick and his fuels research team at the University of Dayton Research Institute had seen them before, during a study related to low-temperature jet-fuel freezing. So when they were asked to help determine the cause of multiple related inflight aircraft engine failures, the researchers were quickly able to identify the culprit.

The white clusters, formed when urea bonded with large normal alkanes (carbon chains) in the jet fuel, clogged filters, nozzles and other parts of the aircraft fuel systems. Urea is not naturally found in fuel; it was introduced when an aircraft refueling technician inadvertently added what he thought was an icing inhibitor into fuel that was then pumped into the engines of several aircraft. Instead, he’d added diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), a urea-based solution designed to reduce polluting emissions from refueling trucks.

The UDRI fuels research team first identified the problem in 2017, after several military and civilian jets were unintentionally serviced with DEF-contaminated fuel at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska. Since then, at least three aircraft have experienced in-flight engine flameouts or other issues resulting from two separate DEF-contaminated fueling events in 2018 and 2019. In the most recent event, two air ambulances fueled at Punta Gorda Airport in Florida were forced to make emergency landings after engine failure.

Although affected aircraft from all three events were able to land safely, there have been several close calls. And Zabarnick believes all aircraft involved are no longer airworthy, since there is no way to flush the urea complex from the fuel systems.

Zabarnick said the problem started after a 2014 mandate by the Environmental Protection Agency required DEF to be added to the exhaust systems of off-road, diesel-fueled ground vehicles — including airport refueling trucks — to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides and other harmful pollutants in vehicle emissions. Airport operators began storing DEF onsite to service refueling trucks, but the clear, colorless liquid is identical in appearance to fuel system icing inhibitor (FSII), an additive designed to keep trace water in jet fuel from freezing at cold temperatures.

“If DEF and FSII are stored in similar style containers and not properly labeled, it would be visually impossible to tell them apart,” Zabarnick said, adding that reports from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board indicate misidentification at the root of all three contamination events.

“When urea is added to ground vehicle emissions systems in the form of DEF, it binds with nitrogen oxides and other pollutants and prevents them from getting through the exhaust system and into the air. But when urea is added to fuel, it binds with hydrocarbons to form clusters of crystals that will clog filters and other fuel systems components. These crystals are not soluble in fuel, so it’s virtually impossible to flush or otherwise remove them from the fuel system — meaning the engine is irreparably damaged,” Zabarnick said.

Ironically, it was their 2002 study into the potential of using urea to lower jet fuel freeze points that helped the research team quickly identify urea contamination as the cause of the engine failures in 2017, he added. “We were able to show that urea selectively binds with and removes the long-chain hydrocarbons in jet fuel that cause it to freeze, but the process generates large quantities of clumpy white deposits. So when we saw the same types of clusters in the fuel samples we received in 2017, we quickly suspected they were urea-alkane based.”

Using gas chromatography, a process which isolates components of a solution for identification, the researchers confirmed their suspicion. 

Since then, the fuels team has worked closely with the Federal Aviation Administration during investigations into related engine failures in 2018 and 2019, confirming each time that urea-alkane complexes were present in the fuel systems of the affected aircraft.

“It’s important to note that this issue has only been seen in aircraft for which FSII is injected during refueling, such as business and military jets,” Zabarnick said. “The vast majority of commercial passenger flights will not be affected, because they do not require FSII.”

Zabarnick said a report issued by a working group of the FAA and industry participants indicates that the risk of DEF contamination is still high, but that efforts are in place to mitigate that risk. The report recommends a number of short- and long-term actions and processes designed to prevent contamination, including distinct labeling for FSII tanks and dyeing DEF a unique and distinguishable color. The National Air Transportation Association now offers free training on contamination prevention and free decals for DEF storage containers.

“We know the industry is working on measures to prevent contamination, which could include standardized containers, couplings, and pipes and hoses for fuel dispensing equipment,” Zabarnick said. “We believe the risk for DEF-related jet fuel contamination can be greatly reduced as these and other safety measures are put in place.”