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Engineering assistant professor Ruilan Guo receives CAREER Award

2013-05-20T16:00:00-04:00

Ruilan Guo

Ruilan Guo, an assistant professor in the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been named a recipient of a 2013 U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Development Research Program award. The program, now in its fourth year, is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work.

Guo’s primary research interests are focused on development and characterization of novel polymeric materials with applications in areas impacting both energy and the environment. Her research topics include studies on molecular design, synthesis and characterization of new co-polymers for cleaner energy production (fuel cells), high-performance polymer membranes for gas/liquid separations and water purification, structure-property relationship of polymer networks/gels, atomistic study on polymer-free volume, and polymer coatings.

Her Early Career Development Research Program project is titled, “Design Synthesis and Characterization of Tripycene-Containing Macromolecules with Hierarchically Controlled Architectures as Functional Membrane Materials for Energy Applications.” Membrane technology, which takes advantage of materials’ selectivity rather than energy to perform separations, is a promising approach because of its low-energy consumption, environmental friendliness, modularity and reliability. The objective of her research is to design and develop a new platform of high-performance functional polymeric membranes with hierarchically controlled architectures derived from three-dimensional, shape-persistent triptycene molecular units.

Guo earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Beijing University of Chemical Technology. She earned her doctorate from Georgia Tech and completed postdoctoral research at Virginia Tech.

Guo joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2012.

Notre Dame to open three new international programs

2013-05-15T14:30:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s International Studies office has announced that it will offer three new opportunities for study abroad in South Korea, Spain and Switzerland in spring 2014.

Notre Dame and Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, will begin a bilateral exchange program in the spring 2014 semester. Open to undergraduates in all majors, the program does not require knowledge of the Korean language, since its courses will be taught in English. Available courses will include Korean language, Korean studies, business and economics, politics, sociology, engineering, sciences and human ecology.

Notre Dame and the Polytechnic Institute of Valencia in Alcoy, Spain, will begin a bilateral exchange program in spring 2014. Designed for sophomore or junior engineering majors, particularly those in chemical, electrical and computer science engineering, the program will be offered to students who have completed at least two semesters of college-level Spanish or the equivalent.

Through Boston University’s Geneva-Physics program, Notre Dame students will have the opportunity to study at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. The program, which combines coursework in quantum physics and electrodynamics at UNIGE and directed research at CERN, is open to physics majors who have completed at least two semesters of college-level French or the equivalent. Additionally, students will be required to complete a specially designed French-language tutorial before going to Geneva.

Applications for all these new programs are available online.

Contact: Kathleen Opel, director of international studies, 574-631-9525, kopel@nd.edu

Nobody likes a 'fat-talker,' study shows

2013-05-08T16:00:00-04:00

Women who engage in “fat talk” — the self-disparaging remarks girls and women make in relation to eating, exercise or their bodies — are less liked by their peers, a new study from the University of Notre Dame finds.

Led by Alexandra Corning, research associate professor of psychology and director of Notre Dame’s Body Image and Eating Disorder Lab, the study was presented recently at the Midwestern Psychological Association annual conference.

In the study, college-age women were presented with a series of photos of either noticeably thin or noticeably overweight women engaging in either “fat talk” or positive body talk; they were then asked to rate the women on various dimensions, including how likeable they were.

The women in the photos were rated significantly less likeable when they made “fat talk” statements about their bodies, whether or not they were overweight. The women rated most likeable were the overweight women who made positive statements about their bodies.

“Though it has become a regular part of everyday conversation, ‘fat talk’ is far from innocuous,” according to Corning.

“It is strongly associated with, and can even cause, body dissatisfaction, which is a known risk factor for the development of eating disorders.”

Although fat talk has been thought of by psychologists as a way women may attempt to initiate and strengthen their social bonds, Corning’s research finds that fat-talkers are liked less than women who make positive statements about their bodies.

“These findings are important because they raise awareness about how women actually are being perceived when they engage in this self-abasing kind of talk,” Corning says.

“This knowledge can be used to help national efforts to reduce ‘fat talking’ on college campuses.”

Contact: Alexandra Corning, 574-631-9928, acorning@nd.edu

Reilly Center releases new publication on ethics and policy in science and technology

2013-05-07T15:35:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values has released Reilly Center Reports, an online collection of essays addressing the ethical, social, legal and policy implications of science and technology.

The short essays are intended for anyone interested in urgent and emerging issues in the ethics and policy of science, engineering and medicine. The Reilly Center Reports are an open-access resource geared to concerned citizens, policymakers, policy advisers, journalists, educators and religious leaders.

The new issue features five essays:

Retired Maj. Gen. Robert H. Latiff calls attention to the need for greater discussion about the ethical implications of war technologies. He also describes steps taken at Notre Dame to encourage this conversation among students of ROTC, peace studies and engineering, as well as between governmental, industrial and academic sectors. Latiff is an adjunct professor in the Reilly Center and at George Mason University.
Mark A. Largent provides a historical explanation for parents’ anxieties about vaccinating their children and suggests ways to constructively broach the topic of vaccine policy compliance. Largent is an assistant professor in James Madison College and associate dean in Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University.
Jessica J. Hellmann considers the need for human interactions to counteract the problems that climate change is causing for ecosystems as well as to act on the advantages that climate change brings. Hellman is an associate professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Biological Sciences.
Agustin Fuentes explains misconceptions about race, aggression and sex and presents eight take-home messages that help to bust these myths of human nature. Fuentes is an associate professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Anthropology.
NASA historian Erik M. Conway describes and deconstructs the current state of NASA in political discussions and policy decisions. Conway works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

The Reilly Center explores conceptual, ethical and policy issues where science and technology intersect with society from different disciplinary perspectives. Its goal is to promote the advancement of science and technology for the common good.

The Reilly Center coordinates various events on campus that encourage interaction and dialogue including the Reilly Center Forum and Ethics Café and recently a conference on Climate Change and the Common Good.

Traumatized moms avoid tough talks with kids, study shows

2013-05-03T16:00:00-04:00

Mothers who have experienced childhood abuse, neglect or other traumatic experiences show an unwillingness to talk with their children about the child’s emotional experiences, a new study from the University of Notre Dame shows.

According to the study, which was presented at the Society for Research in Child Development 2013 Biennial Meeting in Seattle, a sample of low-income mothers who had experienced their own childhood traumas exhibited ongoing “traumatic avoidance symptoms,” which is characterized by an unwillingness to address thoughts, emotions, sensations or memories of those traumas. This avoidance interfered with mothers’ ability to talk with their children about the child’s emotions, leading to shorter, less in-depth conversations; those mothers also used closed-end questions that did not encourage child participation.

“Traumatic avoidance symptoms have been shown to have a negative impact on the cognitive and emotional development of children,” said Kristin Valentino, Notre Dame assistant professor of psychology who specializes in the development of at-risk and maltreated children. Valentino conducted the research with Notre Dame undergraduate Taylor Thomas.

Kristin Valentino

“This research is important because it identifies a mechanism through which we can understand how maternal trauma history relates to her ability to effectively interact with her child. This finding also has implications for intervention work, since avoidance that is used as a coping mechanism is likely to further impair psychological functioning,” Valentino said.

In a related study published recently in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect, Valentino found that maltreating parents, many of whom had experienced childhood trauma, could successfully be taught to use more elaborative and emotion-rich reminiscing with their preschool-aged children, which has been linked to a children’s subsequent cognitive abilities in a number of areas including memory, language and literacy development.

Contact: Kristin Valentino, 574-631-1641, Kristin.Valentino@nd.edu

Mallory Meter named 2013 valedictorian

2013-05-01T17:55:00-04:00

Mallory Meter

Mallory Meter, a psychology major from Beverly Hills, Mich., has been named valedictorian of the 2013 University of Notre Dame graduating class and will present the valedictory address during the University Commencement Ceremony on May 19 (Sunday) at Notre Dame Stadium.

Meter, who has achieved continuous Dean’s List honors each semester, currently has earned a 4.0 cumulative grade point average.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society, Meter has worked as a research assistant for Notre Dame’s Center for Advanced Measurement of Personality and Psychopathology, under the direction of David Watson, Andrew J. McKenna Family Professor of Psychology. She also evaluated the cognitive development of preschoolers at Notre Dame’s “Ready for Kindergarten!” lab.

Meter conducted research at the Undergraduate Research Internship Program at Northwestern University’s Family Institute, and served as a student volunteer for Project Recovery Intensive Services for Mothers at Oaklawn Family Services in Pontiac, Mich.

While at Notre Dame, she served as a Lyons Hall Lector and as a volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House in South Bend.

Shawn Steurer

This fall, Meter plans to pursue a master’s degree in social work with a mental health concentration at the University of Chicago, where she was awarded an academic scholarship.

The Commencement invocation will be offered by Shawn Steurer, an electrical engineering major from Batavia, Ill., who currently has a 3.982 grade point average.

The search is over: Internet content is looking for you

2013-05-01T06:00:00-04:00

Where you are and what you’re doing increasingly play key roles in how you search the Internet. In fact, your search may just conduct itself.

This concept, called “contextual search,” is improving so gradually the changes often go unnoticed, and we may soon forget what the world was like without it, according to Brian Proffitt, a technology expert and adjunct instructor of management in the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

Contextual search describes the capability for search engines to recognize a multitude of factors beyond just the search text for which a user is seeking. These additional criteria form the “context” in which the search is run. Recently, contextual search has been getting a lot of attention due to interest from Google.

Utilizing contextual search, Google Now provides information based on location, and by accessing calendar entries and travel confirmation messages in Gmail accounts. Available on Android for the last six months, Google Now was just released for the iPhone/iPad platform.

“You no longer have to search for content, content can search for you, which flips the world of search completely on its head,” says Proffitt, who is the author of 24 books on mobile technology and personal computing and serves as an editor and daily contributor for ReadWrite.com, one of the most widely read and respected tech blogs in the world.

“Basically, search engines examine your request and try to figure out what it is you really want,” Proffitt says. “The better the guess, the better the perceived value of the search engine. In the days before computing was made completely mobile by smartphones, tablets and netbooks, searches were only aided by previous searches.

“Today, mobile computing is adding a new element to contextual searches,” he says. “By knowing where and when a search is being made, contextual search engines can infer much more about what you want and deliver more robust answers. For example, a search for nearby restaurants at breakfast time in Chicago will give you much different answers than the exact same search in Tokyo at midnight.”

Context can include more than location and time. Search engines will also account for other users’ searches made in the same place and even the known interests of the user.

“Someday soon,” Proffitt says, “you’ll watch a trailer of the latest romantic movie, and the next time you search for movie times at the local theater, that movie will be prominently displayed.”

Also on the horizon, contextual searches may be teamed up with the Internet of Things, a euphemism used to describe an inter-connected network of devices large and small, reporting data on what’s going on around them.

“Imagine a part in your car sending a malfunction signal that schedules your car for a repair appointment,” Proffitt says, “followed up by an automated function that checks your calendar online and schedules the appointment for you. Or, consider a hydro-sensor in your garden that sends you a message to let you know the plants need more water.”

This is just the tip of what the Internet of Things will do, according to Proffitt.

“Coupled with contextual searching, it could transform our online experience to something where, instead of us searching for knowledge, objects and machines around us will be delivering information to us or taking direct action,” he says. “Clothes could grow more opaque if the UV rating is too high on a given day. Pricing information for a new TV in the electronics store might display right on your phone. Nutrition information for cupcakes in your favorite bakery…”

“It will all be there at your fingertips.”

Contact: Brian Proffitt, 574-383-9257, bproffit@nd.edu

Notre Dame engineering team receives NSF I-Corps Award for innovation training

2013-04-23T13:00:00-04:00

A team from the University of Notre Dame has been awarded a $50,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) award to perform a commercialization assessment of a diagnostic technology that resulted from prior NSF-funded research coming out of the Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics Initiative (AD&T). The I-Corps program was established in 2011 to help jump-start a national innovation ecosystem by providing entrepreneurial training to more effectively move technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace.

I-Corps teams are composed of a principal investigator who has a funding track record with the NSF; an entrepreneurial lead, which can be a student or junior researcher having significant experience in the technology as well as entrepreneurial aspirations; and a business mentor who has experience transitioning technologies to the market. The Notre Dame team included Hsueh-Chia Chang, Bayer Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, as principal investigator; Sunny Shah, senior scientist at AD&T, as entrepreneurial lead; and mentor Kerry Wilson, founder and president of Springboard Engineering Solutions.

The Notre Dame I-Corps project, titled “A Low-Cost, Rapid, Sensitive, PCR-Free Pathogen Diagnostic Platform,” was based upon a microfluidic-based nucleic acid detection system for rapid sensing of DNA and RNA from harmful pathogens.

“The platform technology has the capability for highly sensitive, selective and rapid detection of nucleic acids from bacteria, viruses and other living cells such as human or even plant tissue,” Chang said. “Products enabled by this technology can be low-cost, low-power, portable and will have great implications for clinical diagnostics, public health, global health, food safety, environmental monitoring and biodefense.”

“A typical challenge for platform technologies is in defining the product road map and identifying the first best market to target,” said Kirk Reinbold, managing director of AD&T. “By understanding the dynamics and needs of these markets, academic researchers can make better decisions on defining the next steps toward commercialization. Getting the resources to assist researchers in positioning the technology for a market ‘pull,’ where the market dictates what it needs, instead of a technology ‘push,’ where researchers often guess at where the technology will be best accepted, is notoriously lacking at most universities.”

The I-Corps program kicked off this past January at a meeting with 23 other teams in Washington, D.C. It was administered by four consultants with deep knowledge and success in starting technology ventures.

“This was an eye-opening experience,” said Shah. “We decided to explore food safety as our initial market, specifically the detection of bacteria in food processing plants, thinking this would be a perfect market with a low barrier for entry. I had worked with Kerry Wilson to develop a portable prototype, Rapisense, funded through Notre Dame’s Proof-of-Technology Development Center. We thought we were ready to rock and roll.”

The I-Corps program immerses the teams in a purposefully stressful startup-like environment, infusing them with the importance of customer discovery.

“It doesn’t matter what we, as researchers, think is the value of our technology; it’s what the customer thinks that is important,” Shah said. “We developed what is called a business model canvas where you hypothesize the value proposition (or the cure to the customer’s pain) that your technology addresses. To test the hypothesis, we were expected to conduct 100 interviews with potential customers in the food processing industry, preferably in person, and in six weeks.

“Talk about pressure! We learned quickly that the best way to get feedback was to not discuss the technology, but rather to listen to the customer and hear what their pain points were, what would be possible solutions and how this affects their bottom line.”

“In the business world, you pretty much have a grasp on where the needs are and that helps guide your product development,” Wilson said. “In academia, however, there is no marketing department. I-Corps truly forced the academics to think about the customer. It was customer focus on steroids.”

“After the first 50 or so interviews, from California to Minnesota to Maryland, we found out quickly that a rapid test in a food processing plant was not going to work since the current practice of sending samples to labs was not a problem,” Shah said. “Why rock the boat?”

The team did a pivot and looked at the actual labs themselves.

“With food labs, we gained additional insight in that with food you need to typically use culture enrichment methods to grow bacteria for a day or two, because that’s the only known method to find that one bacteria in a pound of ground beef,” Shah said. “This shot down our value proposition because rapid diagnostics was limited by culture time, and all we could compete on was price.”

The analysis was that food safety was not as attractive a market as the team believed. Its final decision was that this was a “no go” and that it should look at other markets, in a similar customer discovery-focused fashion. Such markets are clinical diagnostics, environmental testing and biodefense.

“The lessons learned from customer discovery have been truly phenomenal,” Shah said. “All researchers desiring to commercialize their discoveries should learn this.”

I-Corps is a public-private partnership that helps propel scientific and engineering discoveries into useful technologies, products and processes. Through I-Corps, academic researchers bring their technology concepts to an intensive, hypothesis-driven curriculum in which venture capitalists and entrepreneurs lead the scientists and engineers through the customer discovery process. The course is based on the Lean LaunchPad method developed and taught at Stanford University by Silicon Valley entrepreneur-turned-teacher Steve Blank. I-Corps participants learn by doing, as they “get out of the building” and speak to scores of potential customers in order to assess the market for their technology.

AD&T creates technologies and tools to combat disease, promote health and safeguard the environment. Its investigators focus on the common purpose of advancing micro- and nano-scale research to improve lives around the world. The application of AD&T innovations range from the home, to doctor’s offices to developing countries.

A fundamental characteristic of AD&T is the commitment to move discoveries out of the lab and into the field or market, where they can have real world impact. The initiative has established a record of success in generating new intellectual property in areas such as diagnostic biochips, cancer-fighting nanoparticles and paper-based diagnostic tools for the developing world.

Contact: Kirk Reinbold, managing director, AD&T, kreinbol@nd.edu

New study: Risk factor for depression can be 'contagious'

2013-04-22T13:00:00-04:00

According to a new study from the University of Notre Dame, a particular style of thinking that makes people vulnerable to depression actually can be “contagious” to others and increase their symptoms of depression six months later.

The study, conducted by Notre Dame Psychology Professor Gerald Haeffel and former Notre Dame undergraduate student Jennifer Hames ’09, is published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

Research on depression has shown that people who interpret stressful life events as the result of factors they can’t change and as a reflection of their own deficiency are more vulnerable to depression. This “cognitive vulnerability” has been shown to be such a potent risk factor for depression that it can predict who is likely to experience a depressive episode in the future, even if they have never been depressed before.

Though cognitive vulnerability has been shown to solidify in early adolescence and remain stable throughout adulthood, Haeffel theorized that it may be malleable or “contagious” during major life transitions when our environments are in flux.

He tested this hypothesis by tracking 103 pairs of randomly assigned college roommates, all of whom were first-year students. During their first month on campus, the roommates completed a questionnaire that measured their cognitive vulnerability and depressive symptoms. They completed the same questionnaire three months and six months later, and also completed a measure of stressful life events.

The findings provide striking evidence for the contagion effect, confirming the researcher’s initial hypothesis: The results revealed that the first year students who were randomly assigned to a roommate with high levels of cognitive vulnerability were likely to “catch” their roommate’s cognitive style and develop higher levels of cognitive vulnerability; those assigned to roommates who had low initial levels of cognitive vulnerability experienced decreases in their own levels. The contagion effect was evident at both the three-month and six-month assessments.

The most striking finding showed that changes in cognitive vulnerability impacted the risk for future depressive symptoms: Students who showed an increase in cognitive vulnerability in the first three months of college had nearly twice the level of depressive symptoms at six months than those who did not show such an increase.

“Our findings suggest that it may be possible to use an individual’s social environment as part of the intervention process, either as a supplement to existing cognitive interventions or possibly as a stand-alone intervention,” according to Haeffel.

“Our study demonstrates that cognitive vulnerability has the potential to wax and wane over time depending on the social context, which means that cognitive vulnerability should be thought of as plastic rather than immutable.”

Contact: Gerald J. Haeffel, ghaeffel@nd.edu

Chang receives 1st Source Commercialization Award

2013-04-19T16:00:00-04:00

Professor Hsueh-Chia Chang and Chris Murphy, Chairman and CEO of 1st Source Bank

Hsueh-Chia Chang, Bayer Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been named recipient of the 1st Source Commercialization Award celebrating research that has made it to the marketplace.

Chang, who also is an investigator with the University’s Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics Initiative (AD&T), is a leading researcher in micro/nanofluidics, particularly in the area of nano-electrokenetics.

He was honored for his research that explores and applies electrokenetic phenomena to develop new diagnostic and micro/nanofluidic devices that are portable, sensitive and fast. Devices and techniques under development include DNA/RNA sensing, on-chip pH actuation, Carbon Nanotube /Nanocolloid molecular sensors, nanofluidic diodes, and plasmonic sensors.

Three of Chang’s technologies have been licensed to F Cubed LLC, housed in the University’s Hillcrest Hall, and are being integrated into diagnostic devices for environmental, medical and food safety applications.

The award, which carries a $20,000 cash prize, was presented April 15 during a dinner at Club Naimoli of the Purcell Pavilion, with the theme “It Takes a Village to Commercialize an Idea.” In addition to Chang, numerous other individuals and organizations were honored for their innovative work in 2012, including:

Ninety-two inventors who submitted 54 disclosures (17 of whom had multiple disclosures);
Nineteen inventors who were awarded U.S. Patents, including three Notre Dame faculty members who received their first — David Cavalieri, Timothy Ovaert and Peter Bauer;
Eight inventors who were involved in the licensing of 10 new technologies to five different firms;
The ESTEEM program, the Gigot Center and its McCloskey Business Competition, the Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Clinic, the Master of Science in Patent Law, and the Proof of Technology Demonstration Center, which were recognized as evidence of Notre Dame’s investment in building internal support programs for the commercialization of its intellectual property;
The regional Small Business Development Center, Irish Entrepreneurs Network, the Irish Angels, and the local MAGNET Investment Group, all recognized as active, essential “off-campus” partners; and
Michael Vogel, an adjunct instructor and entrepreneur in residence in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, for his outstanding personal commitment to providing sound counseling and advice to dozens of students and start-up organizations.

Established in 2010 with a $1 million gift from 1st Source Bank, the award is presented each year to faculty from Notre Dame or the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend who have successfully transitioned their technology from the lab to the marketplace.

The keynote speaker at this year’s event was Pamela Contag, who is chief executive officer of Cygnet Biofuels and a member of the Merrick & Co. Consultancy. She founded three venture-backed start-up companies: Xenogen Corp., Cobalt Technologies and Cygnet Biofuels, which is developing microbial systems for biofuel production.

In addition to the commercialization award, the 1st Source gift funds an annual lecture or symposium on technology commercialization, bringing to campus experienced entrepreneurs and investors, legal experts on company formation and other university technology transfer professionals.

Notre Dame astrophysicist discovers planets similar to Earth

2013-04-18T14:05:00-04:00

Justin Crepp

Researchers for the first time have identified Earth-sized planets within the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. Images of the star taken by University of Notre Dame astrophysicist Justin Crepp rule out alternative explanations of the data, confirming that five planets orbit Kepler-62, with two located in the habitable zone. The results were published in Science magazine today.

“A five-planet system with planets of 1.41 and 1.61 Earth-radii in the habitable zone of a K2V star has been detected with the Kepler spacecraft and validated with high statistical confidence,” the paper reports. Those two, named Kepler-62 e and f, are the outermost of the five observed planets and receive a solar flux from the star similar to that received from the Sun by Venus and Mars. Their size suggests that they are either rocky, like Earth, or composed mostly of solid water. A planet discovered more than a year ago in the habitable zone of another Sun-like star, Kepler-22, has a radius 2.4 times the radius of Earth, leaving researchers less sure of its composition.

“From what we can tell, from their radius and orbital period, these are the most similar objects to Earth that we have found yet,” said Crepp, the Freimann Assistant Professor of Physics. Data from the Kepler mission, launched in 2009 to identify extrasolar planets, have so far resulted in several dozen of some 3,000 “Kepler Objects of Interest” having been studied in detail.

Researchers use fluctuations in the brightness of a star to identify the presence of a potential planet whose transit periodically dims the light of the star. Crepp uses large ground-based telescopes to image the host star and analyzes the system to make sure other astronomical phenomena, such as nearby eclipsing binary stars, are not causing the fluctuation, a common “false positive” encountered in the research. Crepp noticed a faint dot near Kepler-62 a year ago, leading to months of detailed study to confirm the planet interpretation.

“What really helped is that this star has five planets,” he said. “You can mimic one planet with another event, but when you have five of them and they’re all periodic, that helps to put the nail in the coffin. It’s hard to make that kind of signature with anything else that you can dream up.”

Contact: Justin Crepp, 574-631-4092, jcrepp@nd.edu

GAIN Index moves to Notre Dame

2013-04-18T12:00:00-04:00

The Global Adaptation Index (GAIN) — the world’s leading Index showing which countries are best prepared to deal with the droughts, super-storms and other natural disasters that climate change can cause — is moving to the University of Notre Dame. GAIN, which ranks countries annually based on how vulnerable they are to climate change and how prepared they are to adapt, was formerly housed in the Global Adaptation Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

GAIN is being given to the University by the Global Adaptation Institute with full support of its primary founding sponsor, NGP Energy Capital Management, a $13 billion investment fund based outside Dallas. To help draw attention to the importance of climate change adaptation, the chairman of the Global Adaptation Institute and NGP’s CEO and founder, Ken Hersh, said, “The era of climate change denial is over, the world is getting warmer, and numerous countries are not ready for the chaos that climate change will bring.” The gift includes a $2 million donation from the Natural Gas Partners Foundation.

“GAIN highlights those countries that urgently need help adapting to a warmer world,” Hersh said. “We are thrilled about our new partnership with Notre Dame and its ability to help us take GAIN to the next level.”

Notre Dame researchers will make GAIN more detailed by ranking the vulnerability of states within selected countries — as well as continuing to rank the countries themselves — making GAIN an even more important tool for disaster planning, infrastructure development and ecosystem management around the world.

GAIN Index map

“At Notre Dame, we want to be the researchers who help solve climate adaptation problems, rather than fiddling while people suffer,” said Professor David Lodge, director of the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative (ND-ECI), where GAIN will be housed. “In just two years, GAIN has captured the attention of multinational corporations, NGOs and government agencies — including those concerned with intelligence and security — and we will continue to get GAIN into the hands of those who can make a difference.”

Recent climate statistics speak for themselves. In the United States, the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1995. More than 34,000 high temperature records were broken last year alone. Similar issues have arisen overseas, from record-breaking heat waves in Australia, to dramatic sea ice losses in the Arctic.

Under the United Nations-led climate talks, billions of dollars have been pledged to help the world adapt to climate change. But key questions remain on where that money should be spent. GAIN is designed to help governments, NGOs and the private sector better target those and other investments. “When I worked at the World Bank, I was responsible for more than 100 countries. Adaptation is an urgent issue in the developing world, and people are fed up with politicians who care more about the next election than the next generation,” said Juan José Daboub, GAIN’s founding CEO, who was managing director of the Bank from 2006-10 and currently serves as chair of the World Economic Forum’s Council on Climate Change.

“Adaptation is a way to rapidly build consensus, take effective action, and produce immediate benefits, including life-saving benefits. Notre Dame is the best school to take GAIN closer to the people in need because of the University’s track record of putting the human being in the center of their actions.”

Key faculty working on GAIN include Professor Nitesh Chawla, a renowned big data scientist and director of the Notre Dame Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications, and Professor Jessica Hellmann, a leading climate expert, who directs ND-ECI’s Climate Adaptation Program.

“Adaptation is one of the greatest challenges of our time,” Hellmann said. “By combining the intellectual resources of GAIN with Notre Dame’s leading research capacity in adaptation, we can help decision-makers prepare for the challenges ahead.”

“This story is all about data — translating big data into real solutions that have real societal and global impact,” Chawla said. “And Notre Dame has a long and successful track record of translating big data into action on behalf of the private sector and government agencies alike — data and network science for the common good. Now we look forward to doing just that with ND-GAIN.”

GAIN, which will now be called “ND-GAIN,” will continue to be an open-source tool that analyzes a number of sectors to make its calculations, including water, infrastructure, coastal protection, agriculture and energy.

ND-GAIN also will award annual prizes to results-oriented demonstration projects during an ND-GAIN annual meeting. Winners will be selected on criteria such as effectiveness, scalability, impact, marketability and relevance to the ND-GAIN Index. The awards are designed to spark sustainable change and present innovative solutions to adaptation challenges around the world.

Contact: Peter Annin, ND-ECI, pannin@nd.edu

Child’s counting comprehension may depend on objects counted, study shows

2013-04-18T09:00:00-04:00

Concrete objects — such as toys, tiles and blocks — that students can touch and move around, called manipulatives, have been used to teach basic math skills since the 1980s. Use of manipulatives is based on the long-held belief that young children’s thinking is strictly concrete in nature, so concrete objects are assumed to help them learn math concepts.

However, new research from the University of Notre Dame suggests that not all manipulatives are equal. The types of manipulatives may make a difference in how effectively a child learns basic counting and other basic math concepts. The study will be published in the May edition of Child Development.

University of Notre Dame Associate Professor of Psychology Nicole McNeil, who researches how children think, learn and solve problems in mathematics, together with Notre Dame graduate student Lori Petersen found that use of certain objects have mixed results with preschoolers, particularly if those objects are rich in perceptual detail (bright and shiny).

Nicole McNeil

Objects that are brightly colored, unusually textured or highly dimensional may capture children’s attention and help children stay focused on the given task. However, the researchers found that when children already were familiar with the objects, then these perceptually detailed objects actually hindered performance on counting tasks because they require dual representation — they must be represented both as objects themselves and as the abstract mathematical concept they are intended to represent. When children already have established knowledge of the objects, this increased attention often is directed to the objects and their known purpose rather than to the mathematical task at hand. Conversely, when children didn’t have established knowledge of the objects, perceptual richness helped performance.

“These findings suggest that it is easier for children to use objects in mathematical tasks when those objects have maximum ‘bling’ and minimum recognizability,” McNeil said.

“More generally, these findings suggest that teachers may benefit from taking children’s previous knowledge into account when deciding which materials to bring into their classrooms.”

New research reveals dangers to humanitarian workers in conflict zones

2013-04-17T15:00:00-04:00

Larissa Fast

Larissa Fast, assistant professor of conflict resolution at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, has co-authored three new research reports documenting and analyzing the dangers facing humanitarian aid staff working in conflict zones around the world. The reports, recently published in Insecurity Insight, have already been downloaded more than 2,000 times.

In recent years, the number of aid workers killed and injured by firearms, explosive weapons, bombs and other forms of severe violence has risen to unprecedented levels, said Fast.

“Aid workers are first and foremost civilians," said Fast, whose forthcoming book, “Aid in Danger,” also addresses this issue. “Protecting them is a critical part of the overall effort to protect civilians in armed conflict.”

Fast coauthored the reports with Christina Wille, director of Insecurity Insight, a Swiss organization that generates data on the impact of insecurity on people’s lives and helps organizations set up data-gathering systems on related topics.

The three new reports are:

“Operating in Insecurity. Shifting patterns of violence against humanitarian aid providers and their staff (1996-2010).” (download)

“Humanitarian staff security in armed conflict: Policy implications resulting from changes in the operating environment for humanitarian agencies.” (download)

“Security Facts for Humanitarian Agencies. Shifting patterns in security incidents affecting humanitarian aid workers and agencies: An analysis of fifteen years of data (1996-2010).” (download)

This research was funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland. The Kroc Institute and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, both at the University of Notre Dame, provided additional support for data entry in the Security in Numbers database used for the analysis.

Contact: Larissa Fast, 574-631-7096, lfast@nd.edu

Student-run conference to focus on research, commercialization and entrepreneurship

2013-04-15T15:00:00-04:00

“Spark,” a student-run conference focusing on University of Notre Dame research, commercialization and entrepreneurship, will take place Tuesday (April 16) in the Jordan Auditorium of the Mendoza College of Business.

The organizers of Spark hope to demonstrate the possibilities of research at Notre Dame and to highlight projects that have the potential to become viable businesses. They hope to “spark” intellectual curiosity in all Notre Dame undergraduates and present them with opportunities and tools to get them involved in these projects in the future.

The event features 12 speakers delivering 15-minute lectures from 2 to 6 p.m. A reception will take place from 6 to 8 p.m.

The keynote speaker for Spark is David Murphy, associate dean of the University’s ESTEEM (Engineering, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Excellence Masters) program and former president and chief executive officer of Better World Books.

Conference sponsors include the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation Park at Notre Dame, the College of Science, the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement, the Office of the Vice President for Research, the College of Engineering and ESTEEM.

More information on Spark is available at ndspark.com.

Notre Dame astrophysicists discover farthest supernova using Hubble Space Telescope

2013-04-09T14:55:00-04:00

Peter Garnavich

Peter M. Garnavich, professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, and Brian Hayden, a physics graduate student, are members of the CANDELS+CLASH Supernova Project that recently discovered a supernova that exploded more than 10 billion years ago. The Type Ia supernova, part of a class used for measuring the expansion of space, is the farthest yet found by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Garnavich and Hayden are co-authors of a paper announcing the discovery, which has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

Since 2010, Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 has surveyed faraway Type Ia supernovae to determine whether they have changed over the 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang. The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) and the Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH) have studied thousands of galaxies.

“We realized that in building up the deep images, we could take data every few months, and by staggering the visits we could search for fresh exploding stars,” Garnavich said, adding that Hayden’s dissertation is on the study of Type Ia supernovae. “Brian and I have great fun searching for supernovae in the Hubble data, and we have personally found a few. We have also contributed to the ground-based follow-up studies including observations with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT).” The LBT, which is partly funded by Notre Dame, is one of the largest telescopes in the world.

“These supernovae are important tools for studying the dark energy that is speeding up the expansion of space,” said census leader Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University. “This study gives us a chance to ‘stress test’ the supernovae themselves to test how well we understand them.” Reiss, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the accelerating universe, and Garnavich were member of the High-Z team, one of two teams that discovered the acceleration using Type Ia supernovae.

The supernova is named SN Wilson after President Woodrow Wilson. The CANDELS+CLASH collaboration has found more than 100 supernovae, including SN Wilson, 350 million years older than the previous record, and seven other Type Ia supernovae that exploded more than 9 billion years ago.

Among other things, the study has provided evidence that supernovae result from the merger of two white dwarfs, rather than the explosion of one white dwarf that was feeding from another. Understanding supernovae explosions can also provide insight into the nature of dark energy and the production of iron and other heavy elements in the universe.

“The addition of the new infrared camera on Hubble has made this supernova search and study of early galaxy formation possible,” Garnavich said. “But NASA’s Shuttle program has ended, so that was the last visit by astronauts to improve the Hubble. We will need new telescopes in space if we want to continue to understand the early universe.”

Contact: Peter Garnavich, 574-631-7262, pgarnavi@nd.edu

Notre Dame researcher offers perspective on microbial perchlorate reduction

2013-04-05T14:00:00-04:00

This week’s editions of the journal Science include a perspective piece by University of Notre Dame researcher Rob Nerenberg on the microbial reduction of perchlorate. The piece offers comments on a new paper in the journal that changes several paradigms about perchlorate-reducing microorganisms.

Nerenberg, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, points out that roughly 20 years ago, investigators discovered that perchlorate, a chemical widely used in rocket propellants and explosives, was present in many water supplies across the United States. Perchlorate can inhibit thyroid function, potentially leading to developmental problems in fetuses and infants. The public outcry led to intense research on perchlorate and its remediation.

“Researchers became very interested in perchlorate-microorganisms for use in biotreatment systems,” Nerenberg said. “The perchlorate reducers were found to be ubiquitous in the environment. Perchlorate provided these microorganisms with energy for growth, just as oxygen helps humans obtain energy from our food. Perchlorate is a strong oxidant, like oxygen, and therefore can provide a significant amount of energy.”

Robert Nerenberg

Nerenberg notes that the previously known perchlorate-reducing bacteria were closely related to each other, and had a specialized two-enzyme pathway: one enzyme to reduce perchlorate to chlorite, a toxic byproduct, and a second enzyme to detoxify chlorite by splitting it into oxygen and innocuous chloride. The oxygen provided further energy for the bacteria.

The new paper in Science reveals that the attribute for perchlorate reduction is not limited to a narrow group of microorganisms. Also, it can be done without the second detoxifying enzyme by using a chemical detoxification reaction. By following the authors’ strategy for culturing their microorganisms, researchers may find an even greater diversity of perchlorate reducers.

“Since the new microorganism grows under conditions similar to early geologic times, the authors suggest that some microorganisms, like this one, may have developed the ability to use perchlorate before they were able to use oxygen,” Nerenberg said. “It could show how bacteria developed the ability to use strong oxidants before the atmosphere became aerobic.”

Nerenberg has developed new types of perchlorate-reducing bioreactors including hydrogen-based, membrane-supported biofilm reactors and microbial fuel cells. He also has studied novel species of perchlorate-reducing bacteria that have unique kinetic behavior. Most recently, he is exploring the possible ecological role of the special second enzyme, called the chlorite dismutase, which has been found in non-perchlorate reducing bacteria.

Contact: Rob Nerenberg, 574-631-4098, nerenberg.1@nd.edu

Study finds Asian carp DNA not widespread in the Great Lakes

2013-04-04T09:00:00-04:00

Asian carp

Scientists from the University of Notre Dame, The Nature Conservancy and Central Michigan University have presented their findings of Asian carp DNA throughout the Great Lakes in a study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.

“The good news is that we have found no evidence that Asian carp are widespread in the Great Lakes basin, despite extensive surveys in Southern Lake Michigan and parts of lakes Erie and St. Clair,” said Christopher Jerde, the paper’s lead author and a scientist at Notre Dame. “Looking at the overall patterns of detections, we remain convinced that the most likely source of Asian carp DNA is live fish.”

Some recent reports regarding environmental DNA have suggested that birds, boats and other pathways, but not live fish, are spreading the bighead and silver carp DNA.

“It’s really very telling that the only places DNA has been recovered are where Asian carp have been captured,” Jerde points out. “If birds or boats were commonly spreading the DNA, then we should be detecting DNA in other places we have surveyed in the Great Lakes.”

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in 2010 commercial fishermen captured a 20-pound bighead carp in Lake Calumet, 30 miles above the electric barrier meant to block the advancing carp from the Illinois River. Lake Calumet is seven miles of river away from Lake Michigan. Likewise, in 1995 and twice in 2000, USGS records indicate that bighead carp were captured in the western basin of Lake Erie.

“It shouldn’t be surprising that we found evidence of Asian carp in these areas where Asian carp were already known to exist from captures,” said Lindsay Chadderton, co-author on the paper and director of The Nature Conservancy’s Great Lakes Aquatic Invasive Species program.

This study builds upon a growing area of research to find invasive species when they are at low abundance and can be potentially managed.

David Lodge with Asian carp

“Catching these fish by net, hook or electrofishing is ineffective when the fish are at low abundance — that’s why we were asked to deploy this eDNA approach in the first place,” said David Lodge, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative and author on the paper. “If we wait for the telltale signs of Asian carp jumping out of the water, then we are likely too late to prevent the damages. Environmental DNA allows for us to detect their presence before the fish become widespread.”

“When we first discovered DNA from Asian carp at the Calumet Harbor and Port of Chicago, we were concerned that Asian carp may already be widespread in the Great Lakes,” said Andrew Mahon, co-author and assistant professor at Central Michigan University. “But because of our collaborations with state and federal partners, we now have a better picture of the Asian carp distribution, and we are optimistic that with continued vigilance, it will be possible to prevent Asian carp becoming established in the Great Lakes.”

This work is part of a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative project funded through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help develop a program of invasive species surveillance of the Great Lakes. This research grew out of a formal partnership between Notre Dame and The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s largest and most established conservation organizations. The mission of Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative is to conduct innovative research that helps to solve complex environmental problems regarding invasive species, land use and climate change, focusing on their impacts on water resources.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. For more information or to watch a video, visit nature.org/carpscience. The Notre Dame-TNC partnership is designed to develop science-based solutions to environmental problems.

The Institute for Great Lakes Research at Central Michigan University is committed to promoting and facilitating collaborative research and education on the Great Lakes. The institute partners with other institutions and agencies to leverage expertise and training and takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the complex environmental issues affecting the Great Lakes basin.

The Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS) is one of the world’s top fisheries journals and is the primary publishing vehicle for the multidisciplinary field of aquatic sciences. It publishes perspectives, discussions, articles and rapid communications relating to current research on cells, organisms, populations, ecosystems or processes that affect aquatic systems. The journal seeks to amplify, modify, question or redirect accumulated knowledge in the field of fisheries and aquatic science.

Contact: Christopher Jerde, 574-217-0267, cjerde@nd.edu

Notre Dame imaging specialists create 3-D images to aid surgeons

2013-04-02T16:00:00-04:00

University of Notre Dame researchers have successfully created three-dimensional anatomical models from CT scans using 3-D printing technology, a process that holds promise for medical professionals and their patients. A paper by the researchers, “3D Printing of Preclinical X-ray Computed Tomographic Data Sets,” was published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments this week.

The strategy was initiated last spring by then-freshman Evan Doney, a Glynn Family Honors student in the laboratory of W. Matthew Leevy, research assistant professor at the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility. “It’s a very clever idea,” Leevy said. “He did a lot of it independently. He figured out how to convert the tomographic data to a surface map for editing and subsequent 3-D printing.”

The paper reports results based on using X-ray CT data sets from a living Lobund-Wistar rat from the Freimann Life Science Center and from the preserved skull of a New Zealand white rabbit in the laboratory of Matthew Ravosa. Co-authors of the article with Doney, Leevy and Ravosa are Lauren Krumdick, Justin Diener, Connor Wathen, Sarah Chapman, Jeremiah Scott and Tony Van Avermaete, all of Notre Dame, and Brian Stamile of MakerBot Industries LLC, a 3-D printing company.

“With proper data collection, surface rendering and stereolithographic editing, it is now possible and inexpensive to rapidly produce detailed skeletal and soft tissue structures from X-ray CT data,” the paper said. "The translation of pre-clinical 3-D data to a physical object that is an exact copy of the test subject is a powerful tool for visualization and communication, especially for relating imaging research to students, or those in other fields.”

“Our project with 3-D printing is part of a broader story about 3-D printing in general,” Leevy said, adding that the work has spawned several more ideas and opportunities, such as providing inexpensive models for anatomy students. “There’s a market for these bones, both from animals and from humans, and we can create them at incredibly low cost. We’re going to explore a lot of these markets.”

A clinical collaborator, Dr. Douglas Liepert from Allied Physicians of Michiana, is enabling the researchers to print nonidentifiable human data, expanding the possibilities. “Not only can we print bone structure, but we’re starting to collect patient data and print out the anatomical structure of patients with different disease states to aid doctors in surgical preparation,” Leevy said.

Notre Dame researchers using new technologies to combat invasive species

2013-03-28T08:00:00-04:00

A new research paper by a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative (ND-ECI) demonstrates how two cutting-edge technologies can provide a sensitive and real-time solution to screening real-world water samples for invasive species before they get into our country or before they cause significant damage.

“Aquatic invasive species cause ecological and economic damage worldwide, including the loss of native biodiversity and damage to the world’s great fisheries,” said Scott Egan, a research assistant professor with Notre Dame’s Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics Initiative and a member of the research team. “This research combines two new, but proven, technologies — environmental DNA (eDNA) and light transmission spectroscopy (LTS), to address the growing problem of aquatic invasive species by increasing our ability to detect dangerous species in samples before they arrive or when they are still rare in their environment and have not yet caused significant damage.”

Egan points out that eDNA is a species surveillance tool that recognizes a unique advantage of aquatic sampling: Water often contains microscopic bits of tissue in suspension, including the scales of fish, the exoskeletons of insects and the sloughed cell and tissues of aquatic species. These tissue fragments can be filtered from water samples, and then a standard DNA extraction is performed on the filtered matter. The new sampling method for invasive species was pioneered by members of ND-ECI, including Notre Dame’s David Lodge and Chris Jerde, Central Michigan University’s Andrew Mahon and The Nature Conservancy’s Lindsay Chadderton.

Egan explains that LTS, which was developed by Notre Dame physicists Steven Ruggiero and Carol Tanner, can measure the size of small particles on a nanometer scale (1 nanometer equals 1 billionth of a meter). LTS was used in the research for DNA-based species detection where the LTS device detects small shifts in the size of nanoparticles with short single-stranded DNA fragments on their surface that will only bind to the DNA of a specific species.

“Thus, these nanoparticles grow in size in the presence of a target species, such as a dangerous invasive species, but don’t in the presence of other species,” Egan said. “In addition to the sensitivity of LTS, it is also advantageous because the device fits in a small suitcase and can operate off a car battery in the field, such as a point of entry at the border of the U.S.”

The Notre Dame researchers demonstrated the work with manipulative experiments in the lab for five high-risk invasive species and also in the field, using lakes already infested with an invasive mussel, Dreissena polymorpha or the zebra mussel.

“Our work implies that eDNA sampling and LTS could enable rapid species detection in the field in the context of research, voluntary or regulatory surveillance and management actions to lower the risk of the introduction or spread of harmful species,” Egan said. “In the Great Lakes alone, 180 nonindigenous species have been established since European settlement, with about 70 percent arriving through the ballast tanks of transoceanic ships. Ballast water monitoring is one of many potential applications for LTS with ramifications for environmental protection, public health and economic health.”

The research paper appears in the journal Conservation Letters. In addition to Egan, the team included Notre Dame researchers Ruggiero, Tanner, Lodge, Jeffrey Feder, Matthew A. Barnes, Ching-Ting Hwang, and Central Michigan University’s Andrew Mahon.

Contact: Scott Egan, Scott.P.Egan.28@nd.edu