Improving Mental Health of Children

What's the biological link between childhood hardships and mental disorders? To find out, Lucy Allbaugh, assistant professor of psychology, and a team of students partnered with researchers from McLean Hospital, a Harvard affiliate, and Dayton Children's Hospital on the Dayton Kids Project.

The project will enroll up to 1,000 families in a program to understand how trauma is passed down from generation to generation — and what can be done to improve the mental health of children.

"Epigenetics is the study of reversible biological mechanisms that regulate the function of our genome, or the brain's instruction manual," Allbaugh said. "Studies have shown that factors like toxic stress and poverty can change these epigenetic markers and lead to the development of mental and physical disorders over time."

Ultimately, the researchers aim to identify markers to help treat children before the onset of mental health problems. This will help to provide earlier and more effective interventions in mental health cases.

"This is some of the most exciting and groundbreaking work being done in psychiatric research," said Dr. Scott L. Rauch, McLean's president and psychiatrist in chief.

Allbaugh's research is driven by the question of what puts people on a risky versus resilient trajectory in relation to generational trauma and mental health disorders.

"Experiencing stress and trauma puts people at risk for mental and physical health problems, but what we also know is that most people who experience these types of trauma-related stressors do not experience these types of effects," Allbaugh said. "In fact, many people are resilient, meaning that they can bounce back and get to a place of wellness after the trauma."

Understanding what helps those resilient individuals is critically important for shaping interventions for those who are at risk for PTSD, other mental health problems and trauma-related illnesses.

"I want to focus on identifying those individuals at the highest need for intervention or services and looking at biological markers is one way to do this," said Allbaugh.

Solving Water Contamination

Kenya Crosson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has made it her mission to solve water contamination issues around the world. With Advanced & Innovative Multifunctional Materials (AIMM), she aims to make silver the gold standard in improving access to clean water.

"We are working with a material made of carbon and silver that could have antimicrobial and antiviral effects on unpurified water," Crosson said. "The material would also be able to filter out cloudiness, which can reduce additional harmful particles in unfiltered, natural source water or even previously used water."

Crosson is working with AIMM founder Luis Estevez; Lisa Brown, a University of Dayton Research Institute research biologist working as an independent contractor with AIMM; a University of Dayton graduate student; and two research assistants to identify the material's filtration abilities and its applications.

So far, Crosson said the material is working well in many trials to filter out impurities and kill or inactivate viruses and bacteria while not compromising the taste of the water. In addition to its water treatment properties, early indications are that the material can be used for long durations in commercial and personal applications, saving time and money. The eventual goal would be to create an easy and affordable solution comparable to large water treatment solutions that typically require electrical power.

The need for innovative approaches to water filtration is great and growing. According to UNICEF, half of the world's population could be living in areas facing water scarcity as early as 2025.

"The highest priority in this research field is protecting human health and the environment," Crosson said. "If we can take what we're doing and advance those treatments so they're more environmentally friendly, those are the things that are driving outcomes now. We are meeting goals in regard to protection of human health and access to clean water and doing it in a sustainable way."

Freezing Frogs – And Saving Lives

Cryogenically freezing people — and bringing them back to life — is still the realm of science fiction. However, a frog with a remarkable ability to survive freezing temperatures may hold the key to giving human organs scheduled for transplant a longer shelf life.

Carissa Krane, professor of biology, and Jeremy Erb, associate professor of chemistry, are studying Cope's gray treefrogs to understand freeze tolerance — and determine if this process could be replicated for biomedical applications like tissue or organ transplantation.

"Right now, we can preserve an organ for transplant for just a few hours, putting doctors and transplant patients on short notice, creating a small window of time for transportation and surgery," said Krane. "But if we can replicate the process these frogs use, we may be able to viably freeze organs and bank them for extended periods of time until they are needed."

The key to cryopreservation is to prevent damage to cells from ice forming inside a body, Krane said. As the temperature around a cold-blooded animal drops, the water inside the body begins to freeze, forming jagged ice crystals that could damage the surrounding cells' critical components. But that doesn't happen to these frogs. They have a method of moving water inside their bodies that allows them to survive — frozen — in temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

"As part of the freezing process, 65% of their body water becomes ice. They stop breathing. Their heart stops. They look dead," explained Krane. "Then within hours of thawing, they're moving around, they're eating, and they can even be mating. It's just an incredible feat."

Treefrogs prepare for freezing during a period of cold-acclimation that results in the production and mobilization of glycerol. This cryoprotectant prevents sharp ice crystals from damaging the cell membranes and provides stabilization, ensuring the cells neither collapse like a deflated balloon nor burst like an overfilled water balloon during freezing and thawing. Recent data have shown that cold-acclimation may improve cellular freeze tolerance and post-freeze viability by eliciting biochemical and biophysical modifications in cellular plasma membranes.

"We can monitor these changes in biochemistry and membrane composition using our current array of instrumentation in the chemistry department, most notably through nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy," explained Erb. "Once we collect more data, we hope to be able to use these measurements to understand freeze tolerance enough to replicate them for biomedical applications. It's very exciting to think about where this research is headed."

Helping Kids With Long COVID

Children who get COVID-19 typically recover quickly and will not require special support upon return to school. However, some people who contract the disease experience persistent symptoms and post-viral complications. These complications can include fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog, changes in taste and smell, and headaches. This post-viral syndrome is called long-haul COVID-19, more commonly referred to as "long COVID" in the medical community.

Children who experience long COVID will need support at school. Some symptoms – such as fatigue, brain fog and memory impairment – are similar to those experienced after a concussion. But because these symptoms are challenging to identify or to track, it can be difficult for teachers to know how to help.

Susan Davies, professor of school psychology, and Julie Walsh-Messinger, associate professor of psychology, believe that strategies that schools use to support students with concussions may also help those with prolonged COVID-19 symptoms.

School accommodations for long COVID

Students who continue to experience symptoms after they've tested negative and been cleared to return to school should notify the school of persistent issues. Even if the child is not officially diagnosed with long COVID, a gradual return to school and activities, as well as academic and environmental accommodations, can support children during recovery.

Davies and Wash-Messinger recommend that parents, teachers and doctors work together to support the child's recovery.

"This is what's called collaborative care," said Davies. "It is helpful if a school-based professional – such as a school nurse, counselor or psychologist – serves as a central communicator. This involves sharing accommodations with teachers, talking with doctors (with a signed release) and communicating progress back to the family."

Together, these collaborative care teams can establish temporary accommodations for the affected student, such as:

1. Allow a flexible attendance schedule with rest breaks to minimize fatigue.
2. Reduce physical activity and minimize exposure to overstimulating environments to prevent fatigue and headaches.
3. Modify the workload. This might include, for example, removing high-stakes projects and nonessential work, providing alternate assignments and allowing the student to drop classes without penalty. Base grades on adjusted work so the child is not penalized for memory problems.
4. Provide extra time to complete assignments and tests so a child with brain fog can process information.
5. Develop an emotional support plan for the student to prevent anxiety and depression. This might include identifying an adult at school to talk with if the child feels overwhelmed, or providing a support group for students to discuss their experiences and recovery.
6. Encourage the student to explore alternative extracurricular activities that are nonphysical and not cognitively taxing.

The researchers also recommend that schools front-load adjustments for a student with long COVID and gradually withdraw them as the student recovers. The symptoms, recovery rate and trajectory will vary for each student. Therefore, a gradual and monitored return to activity is important to help ensure that symptoms don't worsen when students engage in more activity. If symptoms do get worse, then accommodations should resume.

"We have much to learn about the long-term effects of COVID-19 and the prognosis for those who develop long COVID," said Walsh-Messinger. "These guidelines are based on what is known at this time and should be considered preliminary. As COVID rates and treatments evolve, it is important for parents, educators and medical providers to continue talking with one another about persistent symptoms and effective treatments."

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

Evolving Weather – and Humans

Using fossil evidence and modern water isotope measurements, Zelalem Bedaso — and colleagues from the U.S., Ethiopia and the Netherlands — are studying the climate and environment in which early humans survived and thrived.

With a three-year, $156,776 grant^* from the National Science Foundation, Bedaso is analyzing 200,000 years of seasonal rainfall variability in East Africa to understand the impact of extreme weather on early humans and the ecosystems on which they depended. The research data also could indicate how this sensitive, water-limited region will respond to current and future climate change.

"Our understanding of the paleoenvironment of eastern Africa in the last 5 million years was a shift from a vegetated, forested environment into a more savannah grassland — from a more wet to a dry climate," said Bedaso, assistant professor of geology. "That's what actually staged for early humans to evolve, because as the climate, environment and resources changed, that pressured early hominids to adapt to a different lifestyle, migrate or extinct."

Bedaso's project aims to establish a fine resolution timescale of seasonal weather pattern shifts, such as wet versus dry periods in a given year. The researchers hope to connect those changes to significant points in human evolution, related to the availability of natural resources and fresh water.

"Those critical times in human evolution, when the way they walked or their brain size changed, actually align very well with the changing environment and climate," Bedaso said. "So, a major shift in climate coincides with these major evolutionary milestones. That makes us think, maybe humans evolved because the climate, environment and resources are changing."

Bedaso and co-principal investigator Catherine Beck, from Hamilton College in New York, will work with Addis Ababa University environmental archeologist Alemseged Beldados on the sedimentary record in southwestern Ethiopia, where one of the oldest remains of anatomically modern human was discovered. They will search for fossilized ostracods, microscopic crustacea also known as seed shrimp.

After identifying the different species of ostracods, Bedaso and his students will analyze their isotopic composition to glean insight into the environment and climate that existed at that time. In addition, research colleague Jeroen van der Lubbe, assistant professor of geology and geochemistry at VU Amsterdam, will analyze the chemical composition of the sediment and fossil samples.

Bedaso and Beck have strong records of mentoring underrepresented students in their labs. Nearly 30 undergraduate students from the University of Dayton, Hamilton College and Addis Ababa University will participate in the research project. Each summer, one student from both UD and Hamilton will join the team at the field site in the Omo-Turkana Basin in southern Ethiopia.

"This is an opportunity for cultural exchange, global learning and teamwork," Bedaso said. "We will live in a tent for a couple of weeks. We eat together, we work together. Beyond academics, I think the students will learn how to live in that kind of environment."

*Hamilton College received a $132,318 National Science Foundation grant, bringing the project's total funding to $289,094.

Arctic Algae

Sea ice was thought to block sunlight and limit the growth of microscopic marine plants living under the ice, but in 2012 scientists discovered a massive bloom of phytoplankton beneath three-foot thick ice in the Chukchi Sea, north of Alaska. The unexpected bloom, which extended 62 miles under the ice pack, was fueled by sunlight penetrating the ice through pools of melted water on its surface.

The National Science Foundation awarded two UD researchers and a colleague at the University of Maryland a three-year, $201,655 grant to model critical changes in Arctic sea ice to detect and predict the growth and movement of large algae blooms in the Arctic Ocean, related to that region's warming climate. The interdisciplinary project combines artificial intelligence, theoretical physics and biology.

"In the past, the algae beneath the Arctic ice didn't bloom or produce too much energy because there was a nice balance," said Ivan Sudakow, assistant professor of physics and the project's principal investigator. "But once Arctic melting begins on this really rapid scale and the algae is absorbing solar energy through these melt ponds, it increases this process of the ice melting, leading our climate system to a tipping point."

Sudakow and co-principal investigator Vijayan Asari, director of the Vision Lab, are developing machine learning tools to analyze Arctic sea ice data. Sudakow will use the data to build new models to describe plankton dynamics and test the hypothesis about melt pond transformation triggering under-ice algae blooms.

The NSF-funded project builds on past work by Sudakow, who developed a model to better predict the effects of climate change on Arctic sea ice. The discovery, which was published in New Journal of Physics, also gained attention from Scientific American, Physics World, Eos and WIRED.

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. Sudakow, who specializes in mathematical modeling of physical and living systems, will work with an undergraduate student researcher to develop new Ising-based models to simulate changes in plankton dynamics.

"Standard mathematical methods like differential equations are not really helpful here, because they require a lot of parameters, a lot of data, and need to be solved numerically," Sudakow said. "We are going to use statistical mechanics, the methods of this branch of physics, to actually find a simple way to model algae bloom as a critical phenomenon."

The lack of expert annotated data about under-ice phytoplankton is an issue, said Asari, professor of electrical and computer engineering. Using a semi-automated algorithm, Vision Lab researchers are creating synthetic data by analyzing aerial images from satellites and aircraft and marking the location of melt ponds. They then re-run the program with the marked data to precisely detect and predict these areas of interest, based on their current movement characteristics.

"You will be able to detect and identify the ponds and their growth, and predict the dynamics of phytoplankton growth and movement," Asari said. "This will provide a lot of information for agencies and authorities to make the appropriate decisions to stop the formation and thickening of the algae."

Sudakow said the project's goal is to understand the interaction between phytoplankton, sea ice, melt ponds and the global climate system to determine possible tipping points in the climate system related to the phytoplankton bloom.

"Some small changes in the connection between the ecosystem and the climate system are actually leading to big changes in the state of the climate system," Sudakow said.

From Lab to Sky

The University of Dayton Research Institute has been awarded an$88 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory for research and development to advance, evaluate and mature Air Force autonomous capabilities. The contract was awarded with initial funding of $1.8 million.

Through the five-year program, dubbed "Soaring Otter," researchers will support the Air Force in its quest to increase its capabilities in autonomy by maturing autonomy technologies—including machine learning, artificial intelligence, neural networks, neuromorphic computing and data exploitation—from lab to field use.

These technologies—some of which are modeled after human information-processing systems—allow autonomous systems to gather information, process the information in order to "understand" the images or data it is collecting, and then use the information to solve a problem or execute an action to achieve a goal, said principal investigator Patrick Hytla, senior image processing engineer in UDRI's applied sensing division.

Air Force applications for autonomous systems include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; cybersecurity; and command and control systems.

"The Air Force is increasingly employing the science of autonomy to solve complex problems related to global situational awareness, resilient information sharing and rapid decision making, and UDRI researchers have developed specialized expertise directly related to these areas and to the Soaring Otter program," Hytla said. "Our expertise includes machine learning; neuromorphic computing; positioning, navigation and timing; open system architectures; automated decision making; and flight test planning, execution and analysis."

According to the Air Force, the scope of the program will include seven focus areas: autonomy development and testing, evaluation of autonomy capabilities, novel computing approaches, new application spaces, open system architectures for autonomy, autonomy technology integration and testing, and maturing system support.

"UDRI will lead a team of partners with expertise in these and complementary areas, and who have deep knowledge of how real-world requirements should inform and guide the development of novel autonomy research and development solutions with the greatest potential for transition to operational use."

Combining Day and Night Vision

Cell phones, cars and many other devices have separate cameras and sensors for day and night vision, but that need could go away thanks to University of Dayton researchers who developed a single device that can switch between day and night vision applications.

UD electro-optics graduate student Remona Heenkenda designed and fabricated the optical filter under the guidance of UD electro-optics professor Andrew Sarangan and computer engineering professor Keigo Hirakawa. The journal Optics Express published the researchers' tunable filter work.

Sarangan and Hirakawa said it ultimately would be up to manufacturers to implement these sensors and cameras into their devices, but they see a valuable practical application in reducing the number of cameras and sensors in smartphones and cars, which could reduce cost and increase night safety.

In the optical filter Heenkenda developed, a new material known as phase change material switches the camera between day and night operation. This optical filter can be switched on and off using very small heat pulses, according to Sarangan. The same type of material is used to store data in some computer chips, Sarangan added.

"At night, we want the camera to see better by allowing near infrared light. During the day, near infrared makes colors funky, so we want to block it from the camera," Hirakawa said. "So we need to filter out near infrared only during the day. Our switchable filter uses phase changes to block or pass near infrared light to the camera." Optimization, he added, would be automated switching based on the filter recognizing night by clock or the amount of light.

"Cars are going to be sensors on wheels. It's headed that way," Hirakawa said. “If you can recycle technology to do two things, and you can save a nickel or dime per 100 million parts, you can save $10 million. If you can cut costs and redundancies in your camera or your devices, then it can potentially be very, very helpful. In automotive, this will be something in all cars, not just luxury cars, because the savings makes it accessible for everyone."

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.