OARS Research News

O September 2010 Edition >>>>>>> >>>OARS Research News

Welcome to this edition of OARS Research News. Inside you will see three stories about faculty who have been awarded grants from top-notch programs. We were successful in receiving a Mellon Foundation Grant and two CAREER Awards. Our record of funding for the past year was solid, and we continue to show progress in securing funds that allow students and faculty to deeply engage in the scholarly

process of discovery and innovation. OARS is here to work with the Miami University community to help this endeavor.

In our present economy, there is increased emphasis at the state and federal levels on closer ties between universities and the private enterprise. Miami University is not exempt from that emphasis. Our role is not only to educate students to think and act in a rapidly changing world and produce graduates who will be productive members of the workforce, but also to interface with business and industry in a way that will help stimulate job growth and retention in Ohio and the nation. In May of this year, Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved a $700 million, bi-partisan extension of the state’s successful Ohio Third Frontier (OTF) program, a technology-based economic development initiative. The Ohio Research Incentive Program, Ohio Action Fund for capital equipment matching, and the Ohio Internship/Coop program are all being funded by the OTF, and we will benefi t directly at Miami University from these programs. However, we could play a stronger role in that program, and there are opportunities for signifi cant funding for investigators doing applied work in Advanced and Alternative Energy, Biomedical Applications, Advanced Materials, Instruments/Controls/Electronics, and Advanced Propulsion. Since the passage of the OTF extension, I have met with representatives from six different companies that are interested in partnering with Miami University on OTF fundable projects. You can explore opportunities for funding on the OTF web site, and let me know if you are interested in learning more about the OTF.

In addition, we are fortunate that the Oxford Community

Improvement Corporation has secured a $3.5 million capital development grant from the Ohio Department of Development to construct and establish the Miami Heritage Technology Park on the outskirts of Oxford. When complete, this will provide research and training opportunities for students and faculty, and will enhance collaborations with companies doing high-level technology development.

At the heart of the Miami Experience is a commitment to engage undergraduate students in meaningful research and inquiry-based experiences. With this end in mind, Miami University’s mission involves inviting students to actively engage with the learning community and to experience the excitement of research and the discovery of knowledge. In our experience, engaged learners become engaged citizens. An integral part of Miami’s strategic goals is to use the student-as-scholar model to facilitate the intellectual growth of students. We believe that research experiences for undergraduate students will help accomplish this goal. Miami University offers a wealth of undergraduate research opportunities, and I encourage you to explore the OARS web site to see how to get more undergraduates involved in research projects. The process can begin with the First Year Research Experience (FYRE), where students in their fi rst semester of college can become involved in research at a wide variety of levels. For more advanced students we offer Undergraduate Research Awards, the Undergraduate Summer Scholars Program, Undergraduate Presentation Awards, Doctoral Undergraduate Opportunities for Scholarship (DUOS), the annual Undergraduate Research Forum, and the Miami University Interdisciplinary Technology Development Challenge (MUITDC). In its fourth year, the theme for 2010-2011 MUITDC is “Innovations in Autonomy: Creating Smart Applications for Smart Phones and More”. With over $8,000 in awards available, I encourage you to facilitate a team and enter the fray. More information is provided in this newsletter, on our website, and you can fi nd us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=133993946636726.

As always the team in OARS is here for you, so don’t hesitate to ask for assistance and don’t be a stranger! Have a great fi rst semester.

Message from Dr. James Oris, Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship

Graduate School and Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship 102 Roudebush Hall, Oxford, OH 45056 http://www.muohio.edu/oarsphone: 513-529-3600 fax: 513-529-3762

The article “A Multistep, Cluster-Based Multivariate

Chart for Retrospective Monitoring of Individuals” by Marcus Jobe, Professor, Decision Sciences and Management Information Systems in Miami University’s Farmer School of Business (FSB) and Michael Pokojovy from the University of Constance in Germany was recently published (Oct. 2009) in the Journal of Quality Technology (JQT). (The work was partially funded by an FSB summer research grant.) The two researchers developed a methodology and associated computer program to effectively monitor multivariate individuals data occurring in a time sequence. Their methodology can be used to assess the stability of industrial processes where multiple variables are of interest simultaneously. Together, they have developed a simulation approach that refl ects the power of their method to detect outliers or shifts in multivariate individuals data occurring over time. While it is rather straightforward to evaluate the stability of univariate individuals data occurring over time, the task becomes mathematically and computationally much more challenging when the data are multivariate with unknown mean and variance/covariance structure. “Now, we are proposing a signifi cant improvement to our original method published in JQT,” Dr. Jobe said. However, because the required computations become so complex, they quickly ran out of computing power on their offi ce PCs.

At this point, Professor Jobe contacted Dr. Jens Mueller at Miami University’s Research Computing Support group (RCS). “Besides providing general scientifi c programming support”, explained Dr. Mueller, “we also help researchers use the high performance computer cluster here at Miami.”

After an initial meeting, Marcus Jobe brought in Michael Pokojovy via Skype and Jens Mueller proposed steps on how to best transfer their code to Miami’s 256

CPU-strong Redhawk cluster. Rather than running a series of simulations sequentially on a PC, multiple simulations were run concurrently on the cluster. “And, not only does sending your computer task to the HPCC (High Performance Compute Cluster) speed up your application”, Dr. Mueller pointed out, “it also allows you to continue normal work on your PC which would not be possible if you had a big program running at the same time that uses up almost all of your memory and processor resources.”

Dr. Mueller modifi ed their code enabling it to be optimally run on multiple Redhawk cluster processors. Recently, it took several days to complete their latest simulation using the Redhawk cluster (It would have taken on the order of months, 24 hours a day, on a normal PC). Professor Jobe commented on their collaboration with the RCS group “We are very appreciative of the assistance Dr. Jens Mueller has given. It has permitted us to pursue necessary computational tasks seminal to our research. The time to do similar work on local PCs would essentially prohibit our efforts.”

For more information on the projects where the Research Computing Support group has collaborated with other faculty, and on the services that it provides, e-mail the group at [email protected] .

Figure 1: Dr. Marcus Jobe, Michael Pokojovy, and Dr. Jens Mueller.

Highlights on MU Research Computing Support GroupOARS Research News

OARS Research News

Mellon Foundation Grant Recipient- Laura MandellDr. Laura Mandell, Professor of English at Miami University, was recently awarded $41,000 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Scholarly Communication and Information Technology

Program, in order to further develop 18thConnect, or 18th Century Scholarship online (http://www.18thConnect.org).

Mandell directs 18thConnect which is hosted by Miami University, and sponsored by the Universities of Illinois, Virginia, and Glasgow. A sister organization to NINES (the Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship, http://www.nines.org, 18thConnect is a scholarly community that includes an illustrative steering committee and editorial board for peer-reviewing digital scholarship in the fi eld of eighteenth-century literature, cultural studies, and history. In addition, programmers, project managers, and a development team under Dr. Mandell’s guidance are collecting information about library-quality primary materials and integrating them into 18thConnect. Putting all these things together—digital and traditional scholarship that has been peer-reviewed, as well as primary materials—18thConnect will constitute a major online fi nding aid and research environment: when you want to fi nd out information about the eighteenth century in Britain, America, the Caribbean, and more.

This Mellon grant will allow the development team led by Dr. Mandell and David Woods of IT Services to make searchable by word 180,000 primary texts (each one ranging in size from 50 to 1500 pages), and to make this search capacity available to all scholars world-wide. These texts are part of the

ECCO Collection which is sold by Gale Cengage and is often too expensive for universities to afford. Dr. Mandell worked out a contract with Gale: they will give 18thConnect search access to their collection in return for better-scanned page images. Dr. Woods has been developing Gamera, an open-source electronic typing program that converts pdfs (page images) into texts. A software company and Britt Carr (formerly of Miami University, currently of the Advanced Authoring Company) will design the interface to a tool that will allow visitors to the site to correct mistyped information. Additional tools will allow users of the site to do data mining and intensive searching as well as to collect and tag electronic editions, texts, and bibliographic information.

By the end of this short-term grant, 18thConnect will enhance research by giving scholars access to most of the eighteenth-century texts published in Britain and America. But more important, this grant allows 18thConnect to improve the digital archive that we pass forward to future scholars. Machines of the future may not be able to read the page images of texts that were scanned in the late twentieth century. Once mechanically typed, these texts are in effect “coded” and thus machine readable, ready to be transformed into any new formats that Apple or Microsoft or Google can cook up.

This work is innovative insofar as scholars are collaborating with business to better preserve the past and harnessing “the crowd” –users of and visitors to 18thConnect – in order to perform work that might otherwise never be done. We are in an “incunabula” stage of digital publishing, and 18thConnect will contribute to preserving scholarly-quality literature from the past.

The new Miami Humanities Center http://www.cas.muohio.edu/humanities gave Dr. Mandell encouragement and fi nancial support, funding meetings among partner institutions as well as contract negotiations with Gale Cengage, laying the groundwork necessary for the successful grant application.

Department of Energy Career Grant Recipient- Carole Dabney-SmithBiochemist Dr.

Carole Dabney- Smith, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Miami University was awarded an Early Career Research Award from the Department of Energy (DOE).

The $750,000 grant was one of 69 grants awarded to university-

or national laboratory-based researchers. The Award was part of $85 million in funds for the Early Career Program from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to specifi cally enhance the nation’s scientifi c workforce by supporting the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulating research careers in the disciplines supported by the DOE Offi ce of Science. 2010 was the fi rst year of the Early Career Research Program, and Dr. Dabney-Smith, who came to Miami University in 2008, was the only award recipient from the state of Ohio. Awardees were selected from 1750 applicants nationwide.

The grant, which spans a fi ve year period, will support Dr. Dabney-Smith’s project to study protein transport in chloroplasts of plant cells and how that affects assembly of photosynthesis complexes or photosystems. Chloroplasts, containing thylakoids, are organelles in plant cells that are responsible for photosynthesis, allowing the plant to make its own food. Assembly of functional photosystems complete with all of the necessary proteins requires the function of at least 2 protein transport pathways across thylakoid membranes into the thylakoid lumen. Research in Dr. Dabney-Smith’s lab focuses on one of those pathways, a unique and essential protein transport pathway found not only in the chloroplasts of plants, but also in bacteria and some archaebacteria. This pathway is the Twin arginine translocation (Tat) pathway, which takes its name from the presence of two obligate arginines in the targeting sequence of the precursor proteins needing to get across the thylakoid membrane. The cpTat pathway

employs three membrane-bound proteins to transport the precursors across the membrane. The chloroplast Tat (cpTat) system is thought to be responsible for the proper location of ~50% of thylakoid lumen proteins, many of which are necessary for proper photosystem assembly, maintenance, and function. Despite the importance of the cpTat system in plants, the mechanism of transport of a folded precursor is not well known. The long-term goal of the lab is to investigate the role protein transport systems have on organelle biogenesis, particularly the assembly of membrane protein complexes in thylakoids of chloroplasts.

One project involving graduate student Amanda Storm and undergraduates Julie Hancock and Nolan Mann investigate how one of the necessary membrane-bound transport proteins comes together to form small polymers and how the protein changes shape in the membrane during the transport process.

“We don’t know how this protein does what it does,” says Dr. Dabney-Smith, “But we hope by measuring changes in that protein as the transport of a precursor occurs, we can start to identify the contribution to transport of the precursor and thus better understand the whole process.”

The second and third projects are trying to identify the pathway through the membrane that a precursor takes on its way to the other side. Graduate student Debjani Pal and undergraduates Kristen Fite, Kayla Barker, and Charles Stevenson are devising ways to “trap” a precursor during its transport by covalently linking it to the transporter proteins.

“While we have a good idea of what is happening in the chloroplast leading up to the actual precursor transport moment, the transport event itself is still a bit of a mystery,” says Dr. Dabney-Smith. “If we can trap the precursor as it crosses the membrane and determine to which proteins it is covalently linked, then again we will have a better picture of the process.”

Our rationale for these studies is that understanding the mechanism of the cpTat pathway in chloroplasts will lead to a better understanding of the biogenesis of photosynthetic membranes in plants or photosynthetic bacteria, potentially leading to plants with enhanced photosynthesis capabilities.

OARS Research News

Dr. John Karro, assistant professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Miami University, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award for $588,345.

According to Dr. Karro, the sequencing of the human genome, completed in 2003,

unleashed an unprecedented amount of data for study and analysis by biologists working to understand how humans function. The subsequent release of other complete genomes from across the animal and plant kingdoms have left us with new opportunities to explore genome function, molecular evolution and the role of genetic variation in human health. But the quantity of data is too great to be handled in the laboratory: if we are to make sense of the sequence information, computers and computational techniques will by necessity play a signifi cant role in the analysis. Thus the creation of the fi eld of Bioinformatics: research into the use and application of computational techniques in advancing our understanding of biology.

Much of any animal or plant genome is non-functional. Genomes acquire non-functional segments for any number of reasons, including the evolutionary loss of function and the random insertion of new DNA. Developing the ability to distinguish non-functional from functional DNA is an important step towards understanding the genome’s role in human health. A highly successful technique for identifying important areas of the genome is through the comparison of closely related genomes – fi nding, for example, small portions of the human and the mouse genome of high similarity. Such similarity implies that the sequence was likely conserved from the common ancestor of the species, thus showing a resistance to random change that might result from the conservation of some function passed down to both species.

Identifying such commonalities can provide specifi c target genomic regions for the biologists to explore in the laboratory. However, identifying a stretch of DNA that has changed “more” or “less” than would be expected for non-functional DNA requires that we have some concept of a baseline – a quantifi cation of how fast non-functional DNA changes over time. It is around this objective that my recent NSF CAREER grant is built.

In order to study the rate of change in non-functional DNA, we need to identify DNA that is both non-functional and for which we can reconstruct earlier versions – that is, determine the sequence as it might have looked in our evolutionary ancestors million or 50 million years ago. For this we use transposable elements (TEs): DNA sequences that have, or had, the capacity to insert copies of themselves throughout the genome. Any higher order genome contains these in signifi cant quantities: they make up over 45% of human DNA and comparable amounts in other mammals. Those that have been present in the genome for long periods of time have changed – sometimes signifi cantly enough to make identifying them a signifi cant challenge. Thus the goal of the project: to create software tools for the fast identifi cation of signifi cantly diverged TEs, and use the resulting data for an analysis of the non-functional rate of change in a range of animals and plant genomes.

In addition to the research, the grant provides funds for the development of bioinformatics teaching programs. The grant also supports the development of upper level bioinformatics classes in an online format, with the intent of eventually being made available throughout schools in Ohio to allow for the offering of bioinformatics courses at institutions without the expertise or resources to develop their own program. Finally, the grant provides funding for working with faculty at Berea College – a college dedicated to servicing students from low-income families – helping them develop a program for providing their students with some exposure to the fi eld.

NSF Career Grant Recipient- John Karro OARS Research News

Regional Campus News- By Amy LamborgOARS Research News

MUH Microbiology Faculty Recieves a $10,000 Award

Dr. Donald Jay Ferguson Jr., assistant professor of microbiology at Miami University Hamilton, has been awarded a one-year, $10,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, under their Computational Bridge to Experiments (COMBREX) program at Boston University. This program is designed to

identify the function of unknown genes. Dr. Ferguson submitted a bid to determine the function of a putative bacterial methyltransferase gene which is predicted to encode the recently discovered amino acid pyrrolysine.

The COMBREX program is a unique solution to a massive scientifi c undertaking—identifying gene functions.

The diversity of living organisms on earth is determined in large part by which genes are expressed in each organism. There are a few hundred genes in the smallest independently living organisms, and tens of thousands in humans, mammals or plants.

The recent revolution in gene study revealed that the majority of genes in living organisms contain “blueprints” for proteins that don’t yet have a precisely defi ned

biochemical function. However these proteins could be performing very important biochemical tasks. Identifying the function of these genes could revolutionize our ability to design drugs, identify genes that can be targeted to extend or improve human life, engineer highly effi cient bacteria that can produce clean energy, or identify new functions that can be used in yet unforeseen medical, engineering or environmental applications.

The primary goal of this COMBREX program is to increase the pace of experimental discovery of the function of high priority gene families. This increased pace will result from a new model of collaborative research, which is in part motivated in spirit by EBay--where products are posted in a public forum and consumers are allowed to bid on these products. In this case the “products” are predictions of gene functions, and the “bids” are short research project proposals, written by scientists, to prove or disprove the predictions. The impacts of increasing the pace of experimental discovery are virtually limitless, potentially affecting: understanding the pathogenesis of disease and stimulating immunological and biodefense strategies; the production of biofuels for energy consumption; the environmental remediation of xenobiotics and pollutants, resistance of crops to pests, droughts, and the engineering of enhanced nutritive value; the fi xation of carbon dioxide; and the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Some of the text was paraphrased from: http://www.combrex.org

The Compliance Corner News: Fall 2010Research Integrity: As a response to increasing concerns about the ethical and sound practice of research, the NSF and NIH now require Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training for research funded through these agencies. OARS will be facilitating this training by helping to develop materials and arranging forums for a series of focus groups. If you have received NIH or NSF funding for a grant proposal considered a new submission since January 2010, you will be contacted later this semester about training requirementsHuman Subjects Research: Under the federal regulations, some research involving

human subjects may not require IRB review. The research must be minimal in risk or the data collected anonymously. The Compliance Offi ce has developed an administrative screening process and application as an alternative to submitting an application to the IRB. More information about this program can be found at: http://www.muohio.edu/compliance/irb/rco_exs.htm.

As always, please contact me with any questions or suggestions regarding any compliance issue.Neal Sullivan, Research Compliance Offi cer,([email protected]) at 529-2488.

OARS Research News

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will eliminate the error correction window for the submission of electronic grant proposals with due dates on or after January 25, 2011.

The agencies have made this decision after carefully evaluating the comments received from the public in response to the RFI (Request for Information) released on March 12, 2010. Eliminating the error correction window will ensure consistent and fair deadlines for all applicants and better align these agencies’ application submission processes with the submission processes of other federal agencies.

The error correction window originally was implemented in December 2005 as a temporary measure to facilitate the transition from paper to electronic submission of grant applications. The window allowed applicants an opportunity after the deadline to correct missing or incorrect aspects of their applications, identified by NIH system-generated errors and warnings displayed to the applicant after submission.

Beginning on January 25, 2011, all applications submitted after 5 p.m. local time of the applicant organization on the due date will be subject to the NIH late policy and may not be accepted for review. In addition, any post-submission application materials will be subject to the new policy detailed in the NIH Notice.

Note that NIH will continue to make accommodations for Federal system issues that threaten or prevent on-time submission of an individual application, if appropriately documented and verified by NIH support staff. Moreover, NIH still will determine and implement contingency plans on an as-needed basis for widespread system issues and natural disasters.

The agencies remain committed to assisting all grant applicants through the electronic submission process. To this end, NIH conducts periodic reviews of its system validations and has made many changes over the years to relax enforcement of business rules that may not be necessary to perform a thorough scientific review of each application. NIH will continue to re-evaluate its validations to determine the necessity of each.

The elimination of the error correction window does not affect the two-business-day application viewing window (i.e. the time an applicant has to view the electronic application image in eRA Commons upon NIH’s receipt of an error-free application). Applicants still will be able to view their application and reject and submit a corrected application prior to the submission deadline. NIH, AHRQ and NIOSH encourage applicants to submit in advance of the due date to take advantage of the opportunity to correct errors and warnings and to review the application in the eRA Commons before the deadline.

For more information, go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-10-123.html.

New Electronic Submission Window for NIH, AHRQ, and NOISH

Zoology and Microbiology Senior Capstone Poster Session

Senior Zoology and Microbiology students will be presenting their capstone research on Dec 6, 2010

from 4 - 6 pm at the Shriver Center Multi Purpose Room A, Miami University, Oxford campus.

Advanced Topics in Modern Biology

2010-11 MU Interdisciplinary Technology Development Challenge Program (MUITDC)

OARS Research News

Objective- This contest fosters interdisciplinary research by providing an opportunity for teams of undergraduate students to develop and demonstrate a technology at the laboratory scale, to provide fi scal projections that indicate fi nancial viability for that technology, and to identify policy issues that incorporate esthetic and societal concerns.

Background- “Innovations in Autonomy: Miami Students Creating Smart Applications for Smart Phones and More”. This year’s competition can include anything from a simple iPhone or iPad application alone, to some other more complicated portable or mobile communication device programmed with an application that would monitor and/or control complex machinery at a distance. This could include anything ranging from educational research or teaching applications, to autonomous control of unpiloted vehicles, to devices that continuously monitor and report life saving or life critical biomedical data, or any other creative idea you might have. Strongest consideration will be given to those projects that demonstrate 1) some aspect or approach that is clearly innovative and novel, 2) satisfaction of some genuine public service or societal need, 3) the development of technological capabilities that align well with Ohio Third Frontier priorities, and 4) promise for development into a commercial product or service.

SUBMISSION PROCESS- PHASE I- FALL SEMESTEREntry Deadline -- September 15, 2010

A contest team must:• Have at least fi ve and no more than eight student

members,

• Include at least one student that majors in each of these fi elds: engineering, science, business, design, and a department that studies societal acceptance/concerns of new technology, and

• Have at least one faculty mentor who will be responsible for oversight of the project.

Individual departments or programs may wish to consider providing independent study credit for this project. Submit contest entry form that identifi es the team members and faculty mentor(s) to the Miami University Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) no later than 5:00 pm, September 15, 2010. Entry forms are available at http://www.muohio.edu/oars. Additional resources and guidelines will be provided to each team after entry.

Technical Presentation –Late October, 2010Each team will create and present to a judging panel a

project overview, including:• An explanation of the technology.• A timetable for building the lab prototype.• A business analysis process.• A method for identifying societal concerns.• A plan for designing the system in an environmentally

and esthetically acceptable way.

The MUITDC Steering Committee will select Phase II Teams to conduct research during the remainder of the Academic Year.

The Funding Corner

As the Fall semester continues, faculty and staff may want to see me to discuss their current research and scholarship projects so that we can update the grant funding information that is sent to them. As

the information will be coming to you electronically,

it would be best if we work together at your offi ce computer. All you need to do is send an e-mail to me ([email protected]) or call at 529-3600 to set up an appointment. Together we will discuss the type of funding for which you are looking.

Helen G. Kiss, Assistant Director, & Information Coordinator, 529-3753.

O November 2010 Edition >>>>>>> >>>OARS Research News

Welcome to this edition of the OARS Newsletter. Once again, we are pleased to spotlight the research and scholarship of some of our prominent faculty members and to provide you additional information we hope you will fi nd helpful.

When I came to Miami three years ago, I was pleased to fi nd that

our offi ce was the Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship. To me, that better describes what we support and value than would the more commonly used “Offi ce of Research” designation. The profi les in this issue demonstrate this distinction. Not only do we describe research projects being carried out in laboratory settings, we also highlight Dean Lentini’s accomplishments as a performer and composer and Professor Akhtar’s cerebral work with undergraduate and graduate students in the area of higher mathematics. And even the laboratory projects we present – Professor Actis’ work on bacterial pathogens and Professor Money’s on spore discharge in fungi – are ones that have implications that go far beyond the scope of the basic sciences of microbiology and mycology.

On November 5, over 120 graduate students presented their work at the Second Annual Graduate Research Forum. Participants came from four of our academic divisions, and we were thrilled to have a number of our graduate school alumni return from as far away as California to assist in moderating and

judging sessions. Planning is already underway for an even bigger Forum next year, one that will showcase an even broader array of graduate research and scholarship at Miami.

We continue to look forward to opportunities to support faculty members in the search for external support for their work, and we continue to see major new awards from agencies like the NSF, the NIH, and the Department of Energy come to the University. Please feel free to come to us with any ideas and questions you might have about potential funding – facilitating your search is at the core of our mission.

Finally, please don’t overlook the information we provide you with respect to research compliance and related areas. These include upcoming training in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) and rules for time and effort reporting. We all know the importance of research ethics and the need for all of our students to be fully grounded in them. However, this training is now required for all new NSF-funded projects, so participation by those involved in those projects is critical. And while effort reporting may seem mundane and somewhat arbitrary, it is a federal requirement with which we have to comply.

So again, let me thank you for all of your hard work. Thanks to you, research and scholarship at Miami is truly impressive, and it epitomizes the kind of engaged learning that is fundamental to everything we do here. It is a tremendous pleasure to be part of it.

Message from Dr. Bruce Cochrane, Associate Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School


Composer and Guitarist, Creative Activity and Research

In the fi ne arts, the term “research” is often synonymous with “creative activity,” which may take on forms that include original artworks, plays, musical compositions, performances, and exhibitions. For Dr. James Lentini, creative activities in the

arts are at the heart of a liberal arts education, not only for arts majors, but for all students. In his role as Dean, Dr. Lentini works to further the missions of four accredited departments in the School of Fine Arts that include Architecture & Interior Design, Art, Music, and Theatre, in addition to the Performing Arts series and Miami University Art Museum. Along with the signifi cant duties of administration, Dean Lentini has found that remaining active as a composer and guitarist has allowed him to make deeper connections with students and faculty, while also contributing to his discipline nationally and internationally.

Since arriving at Miami University in 2007, Dean Lentini has completed several new compositions, including a piece for solo guitar commissioned by the Eastman School of Music, another commission for the Rawlins Piano Trio (an ensemble in residence at the University of South Dakota), and a piece for chorus and winds entitled The Trees of Miami performed by more than 300 students for Miami’s Bicentennial. He also completed a new symphony for the Bicentennial entitled Through Time and Place, which was performed by the Miami University Symphony Orchestra.

Most recently, a new CD of Dr. Lentini’s chamber music compositions has been released internationally on the Naxos label, featuring performances by Miami University faculty members Pansy Chang, Jacquelyn Davis, Mary E.M. Harris, Siok Lian Tan, and Harvey Thurmer. The disk has received critical acclaim from

major review publications such as Fanfare Magazine and the venerable publication Gramophone, which stated that: “The pièce de résistance of the disc may be Scenes from Sedona, perhaps the best piece for viola and cello since Beethoven’s ‘Eyeglasses’ duet.” Lentini’s Naxos disk has been entered in the fi rst round of the 2010 Grammy Awards in fi ve categories, including “Best Classical Album” and “Best Classical Contemporary Composition.” Dr. Lentini’s background in music technology led to his role as producer of the Naxos disk, a role that involves direction of the recording and digital editing process.

Classical guitar performances by Dean Lentini include the world premiere of a work by the distinguished composer Adolphus Hailstork entitled 2 Preludes for Guitar Solo during Hailstork’s residency at Miami in 2010. Dean Lentini frequently teams with his wife, soprano Dana Lentini, to perform works for guitar and voice in national and international venues, and the Lentini Duo has recently appeared locally on the Midday Music Series in Oxford, Ohio. Lentini’s guitar compositions include a suite entitled The Four Seasons, which was published by Mel Bay in 2009.

Upcoming activities include a schedule of performances by the Lentini Duo and a performance/recording project with the Sofi a Philharmonic (Bulgaria) of Lentini’s orchestra piece Through Time and Place.

James Lentini’s music is available at http://www.jameslentini.net

Dr. James Lentini, Professor and Dean of the School of Fine Arts

OARS Research News

OARS Research News

Dr. Luis Actis, Professor and Chair, Dept. of MicrobiologyGenetic and Functional Analyses of

Bacterial Pathogens

The research program in the lab of Dr. Luis Actis centers on the molecular, genetic and functional analysis of the virulence factors expressed by Acinetobacter baumannii. This bacterial pathogen causes severe infections in hospitalized patients and wounded soldiers, an outcome that poses a serious medical challenge because of the lack of understanding of the virulence properties of this bacterium as well as is its remarkable ability to resist a wide range of antibiotics.

One of our projects focuses on the mechanisms A. baumannii uses to acquire iron, an essential micronutrient for almost all living cells, under limiting conditions such as those encountered in the human host. Our research proved that A. baumannii expresses different iron acquisition systems that allow it to persist in medical environments and colonize and infect the human host. Furthermore, convenient animal and tissue culture models proved that A. baumannii iron acquisition functions are truly virulence factors since they cause cell and animal death. The ability of this pathogen to attach to and form biofi lms on medically relevant abiotic and biotic surfaces is another aspect being investigated in our lab. Biofi lm formation is recognized as an important virulence factor that allow bacterial pathogens, such as A. baumannii, to persist in medical environments and resist the human host responses as well as antimicrobial treatments. Surface proteins and cell appendages, such as somatic pili, play a role in the ability of A. baumannii to interact with medically relevant plastic surfaces and human respiratory epithelial cells, where bacterial cells can grow intracellularly. These observations have provided some insights on the mechanisms by which this bacterial pathogen interacts with the human host and causes severe respiratory infections. Very recently, we made the observation that, although non-photosynthetic, A. baumannii senses and responds to visible light. This environmental signal affects the productions of at least 40 different bacterial proteins and differentially regulates biofi lm formation, virulence and motility. These unexpected and novel observations

open new avenues to understand unexplored aspects of the biology and virulence of A. baumannii. In summary, the overall goal of this multifaceted approach is not only to acquire basic knowledge that deepens our understanding of the pathobiology of A. baumannii but also to apply this knowledge to develop new strategies to address the diffi culties encountered with the treatment of the infections this pathogen causes in humans. This research work, which has been supported by funds from Miami University, NSF and NIH, has involved numerous undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows, who have co-authored numerous meeting presentations and publications in international professional journals.

Fig. 1. Images of the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii.

Fig. 2. The Actis Research Lab Team.

Dr. Nicholas Money, Western Program Director and Professor of BotanyEvolutionary Masterpieces in Kingdom Fungi

Research in my lab in Pearson Hall concerns the biomechanics of fungal movement, from the slow penetration of soil and rotting wood by colonies of fi lamentous

cells to blisteringly fast mechanisms that launch spores into the air. Research on spore discharge mechanisms probably seems pretty tedious to the uninitiated, but spore movements are beautiful things to watch. The analysis of these mechanisms is also a signifi cant area of scientifi c inquiry, because all fungi produce spores and most of them are dispersed in air. Forest ecosystems and grasslands cannot work without fungi and all of the major terrestrial nutrient cycles would stall without them. Fungi are the most important agents of plant disease and cause billions of dollars of global crop losses; their spores are the leading stimulus of allergies, and some species cause lethal human infections. Life, as we know it, including us, would not be here without the fungi and we are studying how they move around the planet.

Using ultra-high-speed video cameras hooked to microscopes we have been the fi rst researchers to see how the spores of mushrooms are discharged by means of a catapult energized by surface tension, we have captured some of the fastest accelerations in nature (which are fungal squirt guns powered by hydrostatic pressure), and have begun to understand how the spores of many common fungi are propelled from surfaces by the explosive formation of gas bubbles. Fungal spores move really fast and the analysis of their motion requires the use of cameras running at frame rates of up to one million frames per second. In addition to the high-speed camera experiments, we have partnered with faculty and students at the College of Mount St. Joseph (MSJ), in Cincinnati, to pursue questions about the biochemistry of the pressure-generating mechanisms associated with the fungal squirt guns. We are also collaborating with MSJ physicist, Dr. Mark Fischer, who has developed mathematical models for the effects of viscous drag on the motion of spores. Air represents a tremendous physical obstacle to the motion of microscopic particles, like spores, which explains why these remarkably fast discharge processes have evolved.

Currently, botany undergraduate Zachary Sugawara, and fi rst-year masters student Maribeth Hassett, are working on splash dispersal in bird’s nest fungi. The bird’s nest fungi grow on rotting wood and their tiny, fl uted fruit bodies are common on wood mulch used for landscaping. Each fruit body contains packets of spores (called peridioles) that look like miniature eggs (Fig. 1A). These are splashed from their nests by rain drops. The process has not been studied for many decades and the use of high-speed video is revealing novel details of the mechanism. The developing eggs are tethered to the inner surface of their nests by tiny stalks (Fig. 1B). When the eggs are splashed from the fruit body, these stalks unravel at high speed and serve to fasten the spore packets to grass stalks or other vegetation. This is a fascinating project from the point of view of wider efforts by fungal biologists to unravel the evolutionary history of the fungi. The bird’s nest fungi are related to species that form conventional, umbrella-shaped mushrooms, but we know very little how their unique fruit body structures might have evolved. Aside from the science, spore movements are so elegant that our videos can be appreciated for their artistic merits alone (Fig. 1C).

Fig. 1. Bird’s nest fungi. (A) Photograph of a single fruit body (called a basidome) reproduced from okie-nature.blogspot.com. (B) Diagram of fruit body structure showing details of the funicular cord, from a classic paper by Harold Brodie. (C) Images from high-speed video recording showing splash discharge of eggs (or peridioles); individual frames in edited sequence are separated by 4 milliseconds.

OARS Research News

How does one do research in mathematics?

This is a question I have been asked many times - by students, colleagues in other fi elds, and non-academics alike. Many people - probably due to the focus of their own schooling - confl ate mathematics with calculation, and imagine that mathematicians pass their time

solving quadratic equations or computing integrals. Yet even those acquainted with the intrinsically theoretical and logical nature of the subject are puzzled as to the nature of advances in the fi eld: do mathematicians just sit at a desk all day long and think? No, replies the mathematician; we get our best ideas while in the shower or lounging on the living room couch. This quip, while containing a modicum of truth, obscures the reality of the process of doing research in mathematics: almost invariably, moments of insight only come after one has studied work on related problems in detail and given one’s own problem considerable contemplation.

When I came to Miami University in 2000, I had just completed my Ph.D. with a dissertation in algebraic geometry, more specifi cally studying algebraic cycles on varieties. The subject of algebraic cycles attracted widespread attention from the mathematical community during the 1990s with the seminal work of Voevodsky, Friedlander, and Suslin on motives.

Involvement in supervising student research projects at Miami was certainly a motivating factor in my exploration of other areas in mathematics. In the process, I ended up learning quite a bit of new mathematics. Thus, while my research interests are still rooted in algebra, most of my recent papers have focused on problems involving a blend of algebra and combinatorics, while other projects have been purely combinatorial in nature. For example, I have written several articles on the representation number of a graph. While the problem itself comes from combinatorics, the techniques used to study it come primarily from algebra and number theory. For me, part of the appeal of this topic is the interplay among these various sub-disciplines.

During my years at Miami, I have supervised three types of student research projects. Every summer since 2004, I have directed a group of four to six students in a joint research project under the aegis of the SUMSRI (Summer Mathematical Sciences Research Institute) program. SUMSRI recruits approximately fi fteen students from universities and colleges across the nation, and provides them with a regimen of courses, workshops, and seminars designed to prepare them for the rigors of graduate school in the mathematical sciences. SUMSRI lasts only seven weeks, and for all concerned the experience is very concentrated - the students spend roughly two weeks learning background and fi ve weeks working on research. For the most part, the students work essentially on their own, with some guidance from their Graduate Assistant and from myself. Two of these projects have led to jointly authored research articles, one of which has appeared and one of which is under review. In 2010, I took on an additional role as co-director of SUMSRI, along with Dr. Patrick Dowling.

I have also directed several individual undergraduate research projects, one during the academic year and three as part of the USS (Undergraduate Summer Scholars) Program. The students who have worked with me on these projects have all continued (or are intending to continue) their studies at the doctoral level, and I believe it was benefi cial for them to experience the intensive and often frustrating process of doing original research, but in a situation in which the stakes are not quite as high as they would be in a degree program. Finally, I have supervised two master’s theses. These were perhaps the most challenging for me as an advisor, since the mathematics involved was considerably more sophisticated than that encountered in undergraduate research projects.

How have these activities impacted my own research program? Although the majority of my own articles are not jointly authored with students, it is certainly the case that working with students has helped me expand my mathematical horizons and learn pieces of mathematics more thoroughly than I might have had I been working entirely on my own. Most signifi cantly, it has given me an outlet to share my passion for mathematics with others who feel similarly about the subject and wish to participate in the process of enhancing its development.

Dr. Reza Akhtar, Associate Professor, Dept. of Mathematics OARS Research News

Regional Campus News- By Amy LamborgOARS Research News

Students First

External funding dollars often serve faculty needs primarily, and student needs secondarily. But the CCAMPIS program of the US Department of Education puts student needs fi rst. The purpose of CCAMPIS is to subsidize childcare for low-income (Pell-eligible) student-parents so that the parents will be able to focus on studies and complete a degree. Miami University was recently awarded the second of two, four-year CCAMPIS awards to provide child care scholarships on the Oxford, Middletown and Hamilton campuses. The CCAMPIS grant is one of the few grants that serves all three Miami campuses.

The fi rst award, from 2005-2009, totaled $378,000 over four years. Approximately $179,000, or 47%, was distributed to student-parents; the remainder paid the salaries of extra staff, and purchased some minor renovations and equipment necessary to earn or maintain accreditation. The second award, from 2010-2014, will total $316,000 over four years, with $164,000 or 52% going directly to students.

Student-parents who received a CCAMPIS grant in the past were surveyed. The majority of the surveyed students stated that the fl exibility (74%) of on-campus childcare, its low cost (70%), and the quality of the care positively impacted their success as students. Many (53%) students mentioned the “peace of mind” that a childcare facility on campus staffed by quality instructors and a positive environment provides. In fact, one student reported “affordable quality childcare is absolutely essential to the achievement of my goal of obtaining a degree….”

Data from the fi rst CCAMPIS award suggests that the impact of this program is positive. For instance, the Pell-eligible CCAMPIS funding recipients are a demographic typically considered academically at-risk because of varied and numerous social, economic, and educational challenges. However data from MUH on the CCAMPIS recipients’ grade point average during 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 academic years showed that 75% of the students earned at least a 2.0 GPA, while over the same time the campus as a whole showed 80% of the entire student body earning at least a 2.0 GPA. In addition,

based on data from 26 CCAMPIS recipients in 2006-07, 14 of those 26 (54%) returned the followingschool year and 13 (50%) eventually completed their degree. This is good news given the road-blocks present in these students’ lives.

The best testimony of positive impact comes from the student-parents themselves. Here is how Megan described in 2008 how a CCAMPIS scholarship impacted her life:

“It’s pretty simple really: without the scholarship for [campus childcare] I would not be able to obtain a college education. They have had the biggest impact on my college career thus far. The [CCAMPIS] scholarship has directly contributed to helping me maintain a 3.7 GPA by giving me one less thing to worry about: not being able to afford daycare.

My son’s father works full time and I am a part-time homemaker, part-time student and full-time mother. We have a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, food in our bellies, and plenty of things to be thankful for, but not extra cash for daycare. Without the scholarship, I would have to drop out of school because we simply cannot afford to pay for child care.

With the help of the scholarship…I have peace of mind to be able to continue to focus on my education. I am doing everything I can for my son’s future and the [childcare] employees are too, and that lifts a huge weight off my family. My son continues to amaze me; each day he is learning something new.

In conclusion, [campus childcare] is almost like the vey ground beneath my feet at this stage in my life. They hold me up so that I may reach for my education. With them my family and I will be able to achieve things we never thought were possible, and play a productive role in society.”

In spring, 2009, 56% of the total number of student-parents in all three Miami childcare centers were Pell eligible, and received a CCAMPIS scholarship. This project will continue to make childcare more affordable and of higher quality for all student-parents, helping to improve retention and graduation rates.

For more information, contact Traci Anderson, MUH Campus Kids, at [email protected] or 785-3011.

Top Ten Things Every PI Should KnowOARS Research News

Congratulations, you’ve been funded! Did you know that when you accept a grant award as a Principal Investigator (PI) you are agreeing to take direct responsibility for your project and its funding? But have no fear, for the Offi ce for the Advancement of Research (OARS) and the Grants and Contracts Offi ce (G&C) are here to help. In fact, we’ve compiled is a list of our TOP TEN things that as a PI you should know.

1. Awards are generally made to the institution, not to individuals. We as an institution need to ensure that we are abiding by agency, state, and institutional policies and procedures when it comes to obligating funds. The institution is accepting all liability so you, as the PI are protected. And since the award is to the institution and not to you personally, you are not obligated to pay income tax on the award amount.

2. Faculty, Department Chairs, and Deans are not authorized to sign proposals or award notices on behalf of the institution. Only a few individuals in OARS (the three Assistant Directors & Associate Dean) along with the Dean of Graduate Studies, the Vice President for Finance, the Provost, and President are authorized to sign these documents on behalf of the University.

3. A Proposal Approval Form (PAF) is required for every external grant proposal submitted from the institution, even if you are included as a subcontractor on another institution’s proposal. Why? We still need to review and approve your budget and be sure you are in compliance with all applicable guidelines before submission. We also use this information to enter your proposal in our database, which gives you credit for your submission. Upon award, a completed PAF is needed before an award account can be established.

4. As the PI, you should be aware of any compliance requirements associated with your award BEFORE beginning work on the project. For instance, if you are working with human participants you will need to get Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval before beginning your work. The same holds true for faculty working with animals, as approval must be in place from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Additionally, if you are working with foreign nationals or are sending materials to foreign countries, you may be subject to Export Control Issues. Please contact the Research Compliance Offi ce (529-3600) if you are in doubt.

5. As the PI, you should read and become familiar with the terms & conditions of your award notice. The award notice will guide you in what is allowable and what is not allowable as you expend your funds. It will also give guidance on what types of reports (technical and fi nancial) you and the

institution will have to give to your sponsor, as well as what to do if you encounter problems along the way and need to request more time on a project.

6. Most grants are not funded upfront, but are funded on a cost reimbursable-basis. Therefore it is vital that you spend your funds according to your sponsor-approved budget. It is also vital that you do not spend your funds before your project start-date (as determined by the sponsor), and that you have your funds expended before your project end-date. (A word of caution: Do not wait to spend the majority of your funds in the last 90 days of a project—this is a red fl ag for auditors!)

7. You are responsible for tracking your time and effort on your Federal awards and associated cost share(s). Once a semester, G&C will ask you to complete a Time and Effort Report where you indicate the amount of effort that you spent on grant-funded or cost-shared activities. It is important that you and the other grant-funded personnel on your project are keeping track of time and effort either through a journal, electronic spreadsheet, or calendar. For more on time and effort, see G&C Manager Linda Manley’s article in this newsletter entitled, “Time to Refocus on Time and Effort Reporting?” or view The 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions When Completing a Time and Effort Report.

8. Financial reports should only be submitted by G&C. As the PI, you are responsible for submitting technical reports on your project’s outcomes to your sponsor. You should not submit fi nancial reports, as the university has systems in place for tracking fi nances and grant spending and undergoes an annual audit to ensure compliance with sponsor, state, and university rules and regulations.

9. We in OARS and G&C do not make up the rules. We know that PIs are often frustrated by the amount of paperwork necessary to submit an external proposal, but these required documents are often required by the sponsor and serve to protect you and Miami by ensuring our compliance with all the Federal, state, local and institutional regulations. There can be serious consequences, including hefty fi nes, suspension of grants and research, and even jail time in severe cases for failing to comply with these regulations.

10. OARS and G&C are here to help. The most important thing to know is where to turn for help. We work together and we are familiar with the myriad of compliance issues and rules and regulations when handling grant funds. We are here to help facilitate your proposals and awards. Look us up and give us a call if you have questions. Remember, you are not alone!---------------------------------------------------------------------------Tricia Callahan, Anne Schauer, Assistant Directors, OARS

Time to Refocus on Time & Effort Reporting?

OARS Research News

Salaries and wages (i.e., effort) represent the majority of direct costs on most externally funded research projects. When the associated fringe benefi ts and facilities and administrative (F&A) costs are added into the total costs, no one should be surprised that effort-tracking is a constant audit target.

Certifi cation of effort is required by the Offi ce of Management and Budget (OMB Circular A-21, Cost Principles for Educational Institutions). The risk of noncompliance in the Time and Effort (T&E) area could have numerous consequences, including cost disallowances, loss of credibility with awarding agencies, F&A rate reductions, audit fi ndings, or for some universities, negative publicity.

So why do you need to complete a T&E form? T&E reports serve two purposes. First, they are utilized in the compilation of the University F&A Rate Proposal. When effort reports are missing, the result is a potential loss of F&A recoveries for the University. Second, the T&E reports are a condition for acceptance of any federal grant or contract. They are used to certify that the pay received from a federal grant or contract was a reasonable refl ection of actual effort worked on the project.

So, you ask, “How do I keep track of and report my time and effort?” In order to comply with federal auditing requirements, you must complete a T&E report using a suitable means of verifi cation. Some examples of

“suitable means” are, but not limited to: (1.) Outlook or other electronic calendar, (2.) electronic spreadsheet, or (3.) a written log or journal. However you choose to track your time and effort, it may be subject to review in the event of an audit.

Time and Effort Reports need to be submitted each semester if you were paid from a federally sponsored award or from a cost share account associated with a federal award. If you have questions about how to track your time and effort or how to complete the T&E form, most answers can be found by visiting our “10 Most FAQ’s When Completing a Time & Effort Report” or by viewing our brief Time & Effort Power Point presentation located at http://www.units.muohio.edu/controller/prod/grants_contracts/?showme=TimeandEffort.htm.

If you are still unsure of how to track time and effort or how to complete a T&E report, please contact the Grants & Contracts Department at 529-5405 or by contacting by phone or email the Grant Accountant assigned to your Federal project. A list of Grant Accountants and their

contact information can be found at http://www.units.muohio.edu/controller/prod/grants_contracts/ .

Linda Manley, Grants & Contracts Manager, General Accounting, 529-5405.

Compliance Corner News: Winter 2010

Research Integrity:

As a response to increasing concerns about the ethical and sound practice of research, the NSF and NIH now require Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training for research funded through these agencies. OARS will be facilitating this training. If you have received NIH or NSF funding for a grant proposal considered a new submission since January 2010, any faculty, students, or staff whose research is supported by these agencies are required to complete the training as a condition of Miami receiving the funds.

The fi rst in the series of the six 50 minute sessions that constitute the training will begin during the second week of classes in January 2011. Principal Investigators subject to the requirement will be notifi ed by the end of this semester. More information can be found at: http://www.muohio.edu/compliance/rcr/rcr_training.htm As always, please contact me with any questions or suggestions regarding any compliance issue at [email protected]; or 529-2488.

-Neal Sullivan

OARS Research News

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH)- New procedures to submit annual progress reports --------------------------------------------------------------------

Multi-year funded (MYF) awards are where the project period and budget period are the same and are longer than one year. These instructions must be followed for all MYF awards with an annual progress report due on or after December 22, 2010. For MYF awards with an annual progress report due prior to 12/22/2010, grantees should continue to follow the specific instructions of the NIH Institute or Center (I/C) issuing the award.

Background: Appropriate stewardship of all NIH awards requires project performance monitoring and enforcement of terms of award. The majority of NIH awards are issued with multiple budget years within a single project period, and NIH receipt and review of the PHS 2590 Non-competing Continuation Progress Report is required in order for the grantee to receive each subsequent year of funding within the project period. A limited number of NIH awards are multi-year funded (MYF), i.e., not funded incrementally in budget years but funded in full at the start of the project period from a single fiscal year appropriation.

NIH has traditionally used multi-year funding for programs such as the R15: Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA).

For more information, go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-010.html.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (NSF)- Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)--------------------------------------------------------------------

The NSF Director, “shall require that each institution that applies for financial assistance from the Foundation for science and engineering research or education describe in its grant proposal a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research (RCR) to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers participating in the proposed research project.”

The RCR requirement became effective for new full proposals submitted or due on or after January 4, 2010. It does not apply to funding amendments on awards made prior to that date. Therefore, if an award was made before January 4, 2010 and a supplement was awarded after that date, the RCR requirement does not apply.

NSF expects institutions to be able to verify that those students (undergraduates and graduates) and postdoctoral researchers who receive NSF funds (support from salary and/or stipends to conduct research on NSF grants) will obtain RCR training. However, NSF anticipates that institutions will develop their RCR training programs in a manner that helps prepare the next generation of researchers, including the consideration of risks or other factors associated with student and postdoctoral researcher participation in research.

For more information, go to: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/rcr.jsp.

NIH and NSF- New Procedures and Instructions Regarding Annual Progress Reports and the Responsible Conduct of Research

Zoology and Microbiology Senior Capstone Poster Session

Senior Zoology and Microbiology students will be presenting their capstone research on

December 6, 2010 from 4 - 6 pm at the Shriver Center Multi Purpose Room A, Miami University, Oxford campus.

Advanced Topics in Modern Biology

2011 Undergraduate Summer Scholars Program- Deadline December 3, 2010

OARS Research News

Miami University announces it will provide 100 awards to Miami students through the 2011 Undergraduate Summer Scholars (USS) program. All eligible students must submit their application to the department or program of the faculty member who agrees to work with them. For 2011 there will be only one USS program deadline on December 3, 2010. All students must apply through their mentor’s department or program by the submission deadline.

In the USS program, Miami students partner with an eligible Miami faculty member to design and implement a 9- week summer research project. The USS program engages students in undergraduate research experiences to help build confi dence; self-esteem and sense of accomplishment while the students strengthens skills in discovery-based research, critical thinking, and refl ective judgment. USS students learn to take risks by accepting responsibility for creating and carrying out the research project, meeting the deadlines, publishing and/or presenting research fi ndings and interacting closely with a faculty mentor.

USS awards include a $2,600 student fellowship; up to 12 hours of academic credit with waiver of instructional fees and tuition; a $400 student allowance for supplies, services and travel; and a $600 faculty mentor allowance. Student participation costs vary depending on whether the student crafts a research project under Option A (a research project for 12 credit hours) or Option B (combination of summer Miami approved study abroad coursework with a smaller research project for a total of 12 credit hours).

To fi nd out more about the USS program, interested students are encouraged to contact previous student award winners. The program’s aim is to teach students how to

become lifelong learners through fi nding a mentor and creating and implementing an intensive summer research project. To get an idea of what USS researchers have studied, see the USS awardees names, project titles, and mentors at: http://www.muohio.edu/oars/undergrad_research/summer_scholars_program/awards/index.php.

Now in its seventeenth year, past participants highly recommend the USS experience. “This faculty mentored intensive summer research experience provides an experience documented to increase the intellectual maturity of its participants,” says Martha E. Weber who coordinates the USS program as part of her duties as Undergraduate Research Director in the Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship. “The USS program aligns with Dr. Hodge’s Student as Scholar model an educational process through which students actively engage, in discovery-based scholarly activities.”

Anecdotally, USS students appreciate the program’s inquiry-based focus for challenging them. One former student said, “The USS program gave me a great opportunity to experience what research is like. I was responsible for developing ways to approach questions or problems presented to us and I was responsible for seeing our solutions through. Seeing the research progress and identifying tangible results as the summer progressed was also very exciting. The USS program was a great learning experience.”

Direct program questions to Martha E. Weber, USS Program Director, [email protected], Miami University Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) located in Roudebush Hall Room 102. Download the application and guidelines from the Miami undergraduate research website http://www.muohio.edu/UndergradResearch.

The Funding Corner

As the Fall semester winds down, faculty and staff may want to see me to discuss their current research and scholarship projects so that we can update the grant funding information that is sent to them. As

the information will be coming to you electronically,

it would be best if we work together at your offi ce computer. All you need to do is send an e-mail to me ([email protected]) or call at 529-3600 to set up an appointment. Together we will discuss the type of funding for which you are looking.


O February 2011 Edition >>>>>>> >>>OARS Research News

Welcome! We have a lot of good news to share with you in this edition. Miami is now home to two Ohio Research Centers of Excellence. On January 20, 2011, Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut visited Oxford to announce Ohio’s newest Center of Excellence, the Scripps Gerontology Center. Scripps joins Miami’s Center for Structural Biology and Metabonomics as part of a

growing focus on strategic research and economic development priorities for the State. Ohio’s Centers of Excellence designations are meant to position state institutions as magnets for talent and leaders in innovation and entrepreneurial activity. Miami is proud of the recognition and we look forward to working with the leaders of the new Center as they continue their already outstanding work.

Speaking of innovation and entrepreneurial activity, there is increased emphasis at the state and federal levels on closer ties between universities and the private enterprise. In the current economic climate, it is essential that we play a role not only in the development of new knowledge and technologies, but also in the movement of knowledge and technology into the commercial marketplace. This process takes signifi cant expertise. I am happy to announce that Miami University has partnered with Wright State University to share resources in the technology transfer area. Funds obtained from external grants will be used to support the efforts of a 0.5 FTE position of a Technology Transfer Associate (TTA). No funds from tuition or the General Fund will be used. The TTA position will be shared between two different people with expertise in biotechnology and physics/engineering, respectively. Mr. Reid Smith started as the biotechnology TTA in January, 2011. Reid has a wealth of experience in tech transfer and has already played an important role in negotiating the commercialization of one of our patents. He will be on campus every Wednesday and every fourth Friday of the month, and is available to meet with faculty and staff to discuss inventions, patents, technology transfer, and commercialization. Wright State and Miami are currently developing a position description and adverstisement for the physics/engineering TTA.

In this edition, we highlight the research and scholarly activities of an excellent group of faculty and students. Professor Ricardo Averbach (MUS), Director of Orchestral Studies has had an award-winning year, and will soon begin a world tour as an invited orchestra conductor. Professor Leah Washburn-Moses (EDP) is leading a ‘one-of-its-kind’ program in the country on preparing teachers for at-risk students. Her Miami Connections program includes partnerships with Talawanda School District and Butler Tech. Using different approaches in different disciplines, Miami researchers are exploring the evidence for and impacts of climate change. Professor Susan Hoffman (ZOO) and her students explore the evolutionary genetics of small mammals and are examining short-term population shifts that provide evidence of a changing climate in the mid-west. In research supported by the National Geographic Society, Professor Ellen Currano (GLG) uses long-term evidence from the fossil record to examine insect herbivore migration and how they and their plant ‘prey’ adapted to periods of both rapid and gradual climate change. Inquiry-based learning and research at the undergraduate level is a key component of the Miami Experience, and we profi le one of our many award-winning undergraduate researchers in this edition of the newsletter.

Finally, we will be asking everyone who submits grants to external agencies to begin using a new Proposal Approval Form (PAF) this month. The PAF is an essential document that is used for tracking grant submissions, for auditing activities, and for federal compliance, and we must regularly update the form to stay current with agency guidelines and federal regulations. The new form is available on our web site and was sent to all Department Chairs and Deans a few weeks ago. It is a bit more complicated than the previous version, but mostly it is just a different layout and will take a few submissions to get used to the format. Please let anyone in OARS know if you have any questions about any aspect of the new PAF.

As always the team in OARS is here for you, so don’t hesitate to ask for assistance, and don’t be a stranger!



Director of Orchestral Studies

This has been a special year for Ricardo Averbach, Associate Professor in the Department of Music and Director of Orchestral Studies at Miami. It all started when he received the American Prize, as the best college level conductor among 19 fi nalists, while both of his

orchestras at Miami (the University Symphony Orchestra and the Oxford Chamber Orchestra) were among the 8 fi nalists for the award. In the end, the Oxford Chamber Orchestra came up as the fi rst runner-up (second prize) for the award. A little later, Dr. Averbach received the 1st honor diploma at the 31st Masterplayers International Music Competition in Lugano, Switzerland, where only 32 conductors make it past the fi rst round of the competition.

As a result, he has been doing extensive research activities abroad, being invited to conduct this year in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Denmark and Bulgaria. The fi rst concert in Brazil is partially sponsored by OARS. The concert in Denmark is scheduled during Spring break and the concert in Bulgaria is scheduled for next summer. In Bulgaria he will return to conduct the Sofi a Philharmonic in the most prestigious international festival of that country, the Sofi a Musical Weeks. The program will include two premieres: a piano concerto by Kracimir Taskov, Chair of the Composition Department at the National Academy of Music of Bulgaria and the European premiere of the fi rst symphony by our own Dean James Lentini, titled “Through Time and Place.” This work was written specially for Miami’s Bicentennial and dedicated to Ricardo Averbach and the Miami University Symphony Orchestra.

In the meantime, his productions at Miami continue at a high pace. A few weeks after conducting the last opera production of Cinderella by Massenet, where he was Music Director, he is scheduled to perform a concert with the internationally renowned pianist

Arnaldo Cohen in the Performing Arts Series at Miami, in a concert dedicated to Music and Totalitarianism, sponsored by the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies.

In the spring of 2011, he will host at Miami University the Regional Conference of the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA), the organization for which he became the Regional President since last spring. During that conference, the Miami University Symphony Orchestra will perform a gala concert in Hall Auditorium that includes a work by 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning composer Jennifer Higdon, as well as the world premiere of Averbach’s critical edition of Villa-Lobos imaginative composition The Insects’ Martyrdom, a work for violin and orchestra, which Ricardo Avebach discovered several years ago in the Villa-Lobos Museum in Brazil. His critical edition has been published by the Theodore Presser Company after a Summer Research Appointment through OARS, which allowed Ricardo Avebach to develop this project. The gala concert in question will happen on Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 8 pm in Hall Auditorium.

Figure 1- Dr. Averbach (center) and part of his music team.

Dr. Ricardo Averbach, Associate Professor of Music

OARS Research News

OARS Research News

Dr. Leah Wasburn-Moses, Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology Teacher Preparation for at-Risk Students

Leah Wasburn-Moses is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology. Her research interests are in the area of improving teacher preparation to work with at-risk students.

For the past year, Wasburn-Moses has guided the development and implementation of Miami Connections, a new, on campus, half-day alternative school program that assists local ninth and tenth graders in their transition to high school.

This project is a three-way partnership between Miami University, the Talawanda School District, and Butler Tech, the county career and technical education entity. Miami Connections provides a unique fi eld placement for Miami education majors and meaningful volunteer opportunities for students in any major. Talawanda High School students take online courses, guided by a veteran teacher. There are 30 Talawanda students involved, and over 100 Miami students support their learning as either academic tutors or mentors. The program is currently located in Boyd Hall room 132, and its website is:http://www.muohio.edu/connections.

Wasburn-Moses is currently directing a four-part evaluation of Miami Connections, involving both quantitative and qualitative data. Two of these pieces involve graduate and undergraduate students. Psychology Graduate Assistant Kari Sanders and First-Year Undergraduate Research Option Scholar Jessica Taylor are assisting in the evaluation of the mentoring class, EDP 450G, that supports one-on-one mentors. Undergraduate Researcher Ana Tanner is guiding the evaluation of the program from the perspective of Talawanda students, including needs assessment,

instrument construction, data collection, and data analysis.

Additionally, Undergraduate Researcher Paige Fryer has proposed a fi fth study that will create an opportunity for all three partners to provide direct feedback on the program in order to guide program modifi cation. The goal is to determine whether the program is effective in both increasing high school student success and in improving the preparation of future teachers and other professionals.

Figure 1: Butler Tech CEO Brett Smith and Miami President David Hodge visited Miami Connections Oct. 19 to check out what may be the only such program in the country. Pictured are Smith, Hodge, Leah Wasburn-Moses (project manager) and Pat Meade (Butler Tech teacher).

Figure 2: Miami student mentors are matched one-on-one to Miami Connections students based on interest.

Dr. Susan Hoffman, Associate Professor of ZoologyEvolutionary Genetics of Mammals

Dr. Susan Hoffman’s lab studies the evolutionary genetics of mammals. She is interested in the relationship between genetic diversity and population viability, especially as it relates to mammal conservation. Hoffman and her lab group are analyzing the levels of genetic diversity in

both endangered and expanding populations, taking advantage of recent dramatic shifts in the distributions of small mammals in the Great Lakes region.

The Great Lakes formed quite recently, as the glaciers that had covered the upper Midwest, which extended down almost to the Ohio River, started to retreat about 20,000 years ago. The lakes formed as water from the melting glaciers fi lled in low-lying areas, breaking up the land into numerous peninsulas and islands that were quickly covered with two different communities of plants. The southern part of the lakes region was covered with the same kind of eastern deciduous forest seen in woodlots around Oxford, while a more mixed forest that includes many conifer species spread from northern Minnesota to Maine.

These two types of forest support different animals, including north/south pairs of closely related species. For example, the southern deciduous forest is home to the southern fl ying squirrel, the eastern chipmunk, and the white-footed mouse, while the northern mixed forest has the northern fl ying squirrel, the least chipmunk and the woodland deer mouse. Even though most Midwestern forests have been cut down in the last 200 years, the small mammal communities have persisted in the remaining patches of woods.

Beginning about 30 years ago, however, the association between forest type and small mammal species began

to break down. Trapping records show that southern deciduous forest mammals began moving into the northern mixed forest. They have trapped small mammals regularly in the central Great Lakes region for the last 9 years, documenting the ongoing range shifts and collecting small skin samples for DNA analysis from each animal before releasing it. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Michigan and Michigan State, they have linked the overall pattern of small mammal movements in the region to warming overwinter temperatures, and are currently studying how the genetic viability of different populations is affected by these range shifts. Zachary Taylor, who recently completed his Ph.D. in

Hoffman’s lab, has also studied how the woodland deer mouse fi rst colonized the northern Great Lakes region after the glaciers disappeared. His analysis of the genetic relationships between mouse populations

shows that the mice did not follow the forests directly north as glaciers melted; instead, they moved north in at least two separate groups. One group moved up west of the lakes, through Wisconsin into the western part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The second group moved east of the lakes into Ontario, then spread to the southwest and crossed the water into the eastern Upper Peninsula. Some of those eastern mice later colonized the Lower Peninsula and the islands of Lake Michigan, again crossing water, either by moving across the ice in winter or by rafting on fl oating trees.

See a description of this research (with a great animation) at: http://greatlakesecho.org/2010/09/22/great-lakes-could-pinch-michigan-deer-mice-pushed-north-by-climate-change.

Photo Credit: Deer mouse- by Phil Myer.

OARS Research News

Insect Herbivore Damage Tracks Climate Change Ancient insects migrated northward and increased in diversity and abundance during a period when global temperatures gradually warmed about 60 million years ago, according to a

study by Ellen Currano, Assistant Professor of Geology. The study, cover article of the November issue of the journal Ecological Monographs, examined the long-term effects of temperature change on plants and insect herbivores in the fossil record of the Bighorn Basin, WY.

“Based on our results, we predict that present-day anthropogenic warming will alter insect herbivore populations and distributions and cause a cumulative increase in herbivore damage at middle latitudes,” Currano said.

Plants and insects have coevolved for millions of years, and the long-term response of plants and insect herbivores to temperature change can be interpreted by analyzing insect herbivore damage on fossil plant leaves, the study authors reported.

They examined more than 9,000 fossilized leaves from nine sites in the Bighorn Basin that had fossils dating back 52.7 to 59 million years ago. This six million-year period includes both abrupt and gradual warming events, as well as an interval of cooling. Temperatures reached the greatest sustained highs of the last 65 million years during this period.

“The abrupt warming event 55.8 million years ago was caused by a sharp increase in greenhouse gases, and the speed and magnitude of climate change make it the best geologic analog for what is occurring today,” Currano explained.

They identifi ed 107 plant species and recorded the presence or absence of 71 insect-feeding damage types.

They found that the rise in global temperature led to an increase in insect populations and diversity. Surprisingly, the study authors said, they did not fi nd a signifi cant correlation between plant richness and insect herbivory, suggesting that climate change affects coevolutionary links between plants and insect herbivores.

“Our fi ndings indicate possible changes to come as a result of anthropogenic climate change,” Currano said. “As temperatures rose some 60 million years ago, tropical and subtropical insects were able to migrate northward to Wyoming. It is likely that present-day anthropogenic warming will lead to similar distributions of insect populations and cause an increase in herbivore damage.”

The article, “Fossil insect folivory tracks paleotemperature for six million years,” written by Currano, Conrad Labandeira, Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution and Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park; and Peter Wilf, Department of Geosciences,

Pennsylvania State University, is available online at: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/full/10.1890/09-2138.1

Currano joined Miami in the fall of 2009 after serving as a National Science Foundation Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at Southern Methodist University. She received her doctorate from the Pennsylvania State University in 2008. Her major research interests include the effects of climate change on plants and their insect herbivores, and the ecology and evolution of African plants and insect herbivores. Her research is supported by a recent grant from the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration.

Dr. Ellen Currano, Assistant Professor of Geology OARS Research News

Miami Senior Wins First Place in Research Presentation

OARS Research News

Andrea Mueller, a senior exercise science major from Arlington Heights, Ill., won fi rst prize in the undergraduate research presentation competition sponsored by the Midwest American College of Sports Medicine at its annual meeting (ACSM) in Indianapolis.

Mueller, who plans to enroll in physical therapy school after graduation, worked on the project with two other students, who have since graduated. Randal Claytor, a faculty member in the kinesiology and health department, supervised the student researchers. It’s the second year in a row that a Miami student working with Claytor has won the award.

The hands-on learning involved in a research project was enjoyable, Mueller said, adding that she’s much more comfortable now in a lab setting. She examined the relationship between structured exercise sessions and daily physical activity in college students. The purpose was to determine whether a single bout of vigorous and/or moderate structured exercise results in an increase in daily physical activity.

Twenty-six normally active college students were outfi tted with an Actical accelerometer, a physical activity monitor, during the three-week study. After taking part in treadmill tests the fi rst week to determine aerobic fi tness, they then participated in randomly assigned moderate (walking) or vigorous (running) sessions, which lasted about 30-40 minutes.

After such structured exercise, physical activity dropped off the rest of the day for both moderate and vigorous exercisers. The drop was more signifi cant with vigorous exercisers. However, in both groups participation in structured exercise resulted in an overall increase in physical activity for the day.

The students participated in less physical activity on both the day before and after their structured sessions, with the drop most noticeable after.

“They were tired,” Mueller said. The study, she added, shows that as a society we tend to turn exercise into a regimented, repetitive thing and that overall fi tness could be enhanced by making spontaneous or unstructured physical activity a part of everyday life.

News Release, News and Public Information Offi ce, Miami University

Notice Number: NOT-OD-11-035

This notice provides information on NIH policies related to the submission of grant applications. The notice consolidates policy from previous notices (OD-08-027 and OD-08-111) on late submission of grant applications, updates the policy on late applications in relation to changes in other NIH policies, and includes additional guidance on application submission policies.

This notice specifi cally incorporates the policy eliminating the error correction window (effective

January 25, 2011) for electronically submitted applications (OD-10-123). In the announcement, you will fi nd the following information regarding:• On time submission• Special receipt dates• Late applications• Window of Consideration for Late Applications

For more information, go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-fi les/NOT-OD-11-035.html

NIH Policy on Late Submission of Grant Applications

New Edition of the OARS Proposal Approval FormOARS Research News

The Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) uses an internal document, the Proposal Approval Form (PAF), for recording commitments and gaining approvals prior to submission of grant proposals to external organizations. This approval process is essential for auditing and compliance purposes, and we must regularly update the form to stay current with agency guidelines and federal regulations.

OARS has made a major update to the PAF, which is available on the OARS website at: http://www.units.muohio.edu/oars/proposal_development/index.php.

This form supersedes any previous versions and by the

end of January 2011, will be the only form we will accept for grant approvals. The new form has several important additions/revisions that will allow everyone to track cost-share and compliance issues in a much more effi cient manner than the current form. We have specifi c sections for how budgets will be set up, how cost share is provided, and how F&A is distributed if a proposal is awarded. For most faculty, there will be little extra effort compared to the current form needed to complete the PAF.

We will eventually be able to run the entire approval process electronically, but for the near future, we will continue to ask faculty to print the relevant pages and get approval signatures in hard copy.

Compliance Corner News: Spring 2011Research Integrity:

If you have received NIH or NSF funding for a grant proposal considered a new submission since January 2010, any faculty, students, or staff whose research is supported by these agencies are required to complete Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training as a funding agency condition of Miami receiving the funds.

Two series of the six session training regimen is being held this semester. More information and the schedule can be found at: http://www.muohio.edu/compliance/rcr/rcr_training.htm

Animal Care:

The “Introduction to the Animal Care Program at Miami” seminar for which attendance is required by all persons interacting with vertebrate animals without direct supervision is now being offered twice per semester and once during the summer sessions. The next seminar is scheduled for April 25, 2011.

As always, please contact me with any questions. Dr. Neal Sullivan, Research Compliance Offi cer, [email protected]; or 529-2488.

NSF UpdateFor proposals submitted on or after January 18, 2011, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has a new requirement: All proposals must now include a Data Management Plan in the form of a two-page supplementary document. According to the NSF, this supplement should “describe how the proposal will conform to NSF policy on the dissemination and sharing of research results, and may include the:

1. Types of data, samples, physical collections, software, curriculum materials, and other materials to be produced in the course of the project;2. Standards to be used for data and metadata format and content;3. Policies for access and sharing including provisions

for appropriate protection of privacy,confi dentiality, security, intellectual property, or other rights or requirements;4. Policies and provisions for re-use, re-distribution, and the production of derivatives; and5. Plans for archiving data, samples, and other research products, and for preservation of access to them.”

Learn more by downloading the most recent NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) at:h t t p : / / w w w. n s f . g o v / p u b s / p o l i c y d o c s /pappguide/nsf11001/gpgprint.pdf

Tricia Callahan, Assistant Director, OARS, 529-3600.

Scripps Gerontology Center Designated Ohio Center of Excellence

OARS Research News

Miami University’s Scripps Gerontology Center is the third Cultural and Societal Transformation Ohio Center of Excellence (CoE) statewide, announced Thursday, Jan. 20, by Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut during a special event at the Knolls of Oxford.

“By helping raise the standard of living for Ohio’s older citizens, Miami University’s Scripps Gerontology Center models how an academic program can focus understanding across an institution to make progress on a major societal concern,” Fingerhut said. “This designation recognizes contributions and calls on the university to continue growing the quality, reputation and strength of this important scholarship.”

Ohio’s Centers of Excellence, which are outlined in the 10-year Strategic Plan for Higher Education, position state institutions as magnets for talent and leaders in innovation and entrepreneurial activity. This particular category, Cultural and Societal Transformation, recognizes programs studying factors directly impacting human condition and community welfare.

“As the older population dramatically increases, the research, education and services provided by Miami’s Scripps Center become increasingly important to society,” said Miami University President David Hodge. “We are proud at Miami University to be working to make a difference in the lives of older people, their families and

their communities and in developing fi nancially sustainable approaches to supporting an aging population.”

Established as the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems in 1922, the center began in the 1960s to recognize aging as the most important population issue facing all societies. The Scripps Gerontology Center focuses on making a difference in the lives of aging individuals, families and their communities. Drawing on several different disciplines to accomplish its work, the center serves as a resource to Ohio’s policy makers and service providers, illustrating how to structure and target programs effectively.

“The designation means so much to us at Scripps and Miami University. Any recognition we receive honors not only our staff, students and supporters, but the great work and tradition of excellence established by all who have gone before us here at the center, including E.W. Scripps,” said Suzanne Kunkel, director of the Scripps Gerontology Center. “We will work hard every day to live up to this designation as a Center of Excellence.”

This is the university’s second recognized Center of Excellence, joining Miami’s Structural Biology and Metabonomics Center.

Reprinted from the Miami E-report.

The Funding Corner

As Spring is just around the corner, faculty and staff may want to see me to discuss their current research and scholarship projects so that we can update the grant funding information that is sent to them. As

the information will be coming to you electronically, it would be best if we work together at your offi ce computer. All you need to do is send an e-mail to me ([email protected]) or call at 529-3600 to set up an appointment. Together we will discuss the type of funding for which you are looking.


O April 2011 Edition >>>>OARS Research News

Welcome to the last issue of OARS Research News for the 2010-2011 academic year. It has been a busy and productive year. We continue to be successful in obtaining grants and facilitating activities that provide opportunity for students and faculty to engage in ways that enhance the character of the Miami Experience.

This message comes closely on the heals of the 2011 Miami University Undergraduate Research Forum. In its 17th year, the Forum is our premier event to celebrate independent inquiry by undergraduate students at Miami University. Over the past few years, the Forum has experienced unprecedented growth. This year, in order to meet the increased demand for presentations, we added a third session to the poster presentation schedule. We were fi lled to capacity for a one-day event, with over 310 poster and oral presentations that included more than 600 undergraduate students and 210 graduate student and faculty mentors as authors. This represents a 25% increase in the number of presentations compared to 2010, which was previously the largest Forum to date. I cannot express enough gratitude and respect for the students and faculty mentors who do incredible work outside the confi nes of the formal classroom. I also want to thank Martha Weber and Rachel Pfeiffer for organizing such a wonderful event. If you attended and enjoyed the Forum, please let Martha and Rachael know!

In this issue we celebrate two new NSF CAREER award winners. Dr. Hong Wang, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Dr. Rachael Morgan-Kiss, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, recently received notice of their winning proposals. This brings the total number of active, federally funded early career grants to six. These awards closely align the research and teaching activities of early career faculty, and serve as a great model of Miami’s classic ‘teacher-scholar’ model. Professors Wang and Morgan-Kiss both attended an NSF- and Miami-sponsored workshop on NSF CAREER awards and on early career professional development. We hope to continue our institutional success in these competitive

grants programs and plan to hold more workshops like this in the coming semesters.

We also profi le the works of Dr. John Humphries, associate professor of architecture and interior design. John is using his skills to combine art and architecture as a new direction for his creative scholarship. In addition, we describe our efforts in collaboration with the MU Libraries to address the NSF requirement for Data Management Plans. The Libraries have taken the lead and have offered signifi cant institutional support for this new requirement.

We welcome Ms. Amy Stander to the regional campus grants development personnel. Amy is no stranger to Miami University and has signifi cant experience writing and facilitating grant proposals. She joins a reorganized team led by Amy Lamborg, and they will support grant development activities at our three regional campuses.

An example of our commitment to scholarship, innovation, and student engagement is demonstrated by the recent agreement between Miami University and start-up company PharynMed to commercialize a medical device designed for dental patients. The story of the patent-pending device, developed by a team of Miami professors, involves an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate students in an entrepreneurship class, a new technology transfer and commercialization collaboration with Wright State University and the new agreement between Miami and PharynMed.

And fi nally, we bid Rachel Pfeiffer, OARS Administrative Assistant, farewell. Rachel has been the smiling face and cheerful voice of OARS for nearly three years, and we will miss her greatly. Here within OARS, Rachel has been a great administrative organizer, and helps us all keep track of not only where everything should be, but also where everything is. Over the past few years, she took on many new responsibilities and helped make the offi ce effi cient and effective. Rachel will be leaving at the end of May to become a small business owner and manager here in Oxford. We wish Rachel all the best in the future and know she will succeed in her new path.



The National Science Foundation(NSF) CAREER Award is one of the organization’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who “exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”

Rachael Morgan-Kiss, Assistant Professor of Microbiology at Miami University, will receive more than $650,000 of research funding over fi ve years for her

research program on the infl uence of climate change on food web dynamics in one of the most sensitive aquatic ecosystems in the world - high latitude ice-covered Antarctic lakes systems, from the NSF Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems Program.

The grant “will support a research team of undergraduate and graduate students on three Antarctic fi eld seasons over fi ve years,” Morgan-Kiss said. “While in Antarctica, the fi eld team will interact in real time with undergraduate sophomores in a Polar Biology Module as part of a new microbiology honors course, as well as with middle school students as part of a new outreach program for Girls in Science.”

Her research will focus on single-celled microorganisms (protists) residing in permanently ice-capped lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) in Victoria Land, Antarctica. Protists have critical functions in aquatic food chains in energy fl ow and material cycling.

Morgan-Kiss joined Miami in 2007. She received her doctorate from the Univ. of Western Ontario in 2000 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Univ. of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 2001-2005. She was a research consultant at the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research Site, Antarctica, in 2005 and was a research associate at the University of Delaware 2006-2007.

Hong Wang, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Miami University, will receive nearly $550,000 of research funding over fi ve years to develop new bifunctional catalysts for

asymmetric organic transformations, which have potential applications in biological science, materials science and the pharmaceutical industry.

“The proposed research will establish a new research area in asymmetric catalysis,” Wang said. “This new approach has the potential to solve some long-standing problems in organic synthesis, which are presently diffi cult or impossible to achieve by currently available catalysis.”

Wang’s approach to bifunctional catalysts focuses on combining a metal center with an organocatalytic center on a single molecule. The resulting molecular architecture combines suffi cient fl exibility with rigidity to allow a wide range of organic reactions.

“Asymmetric catalysis is one of the most effi cient and atom-economic approaches to building up stereochemical complexity,” Wang explained. Wang’s project includes integrating results into a new graduate course in catalysis. She will also implement an outreach plan to provide summer research experience for underrepresented undergraduate students and their teachers from Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and to area high school teachers.

Wang joined Miami in 2007. She received her doctorate from the University of California-Davis in 2003 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University 2003-2005 and at the Scripps Research Institute 2005-2007.

Reprinted from the Feb. 28, 2011 & April 18, 2011 Miami e-Report.

Two Miami Professors are Recipients of the NSF CAREER Award

OARS Research News

In the summer of 2010, Dr. John Humphries received a small award of $500 from the PREP (Publication, Repring, Exhibition, and Performance) program at OARS to assist with travel

to the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA). While presenting work and being an active member of this artists and writers community, he was able to very seriously consider a new direction for his creative scholarship: design drawings. The drawings completed in this short period of time received an award for creative scholarship from the Interior Design Educators Council. This is the second highest accolade given by this international group. He will also be receiving an award from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators [despite its name, an international organization], and the Australian Association of Architectural Illustrators this fall in Tokyo. The drawings will be on exhibition for several months at the Pola Museum of ART in the Ginza district. Later, they will return to the US and travel for a year. He also participated in an exhibition in March at the CCAC (Clifton Cultural Arts Center).

Most recently because of the presentation and participation in the VCCA community Dr. Humphries was invited to work for the summer of 2011 at the St. James Cavalier Foundation as a visiting artists/designer in Malta where he will be presenting new work to the community. This represents a great deal of mileage out of one small bit of support for a faculty member at Miami University. It was by no means the only support; the backing of his department and division combined with other successful applications and hard work also contributed to these achievements. It is this seed of support from OARS which started the ball rolling on these projects.

About the drawings below:

As an adopted child of fi rst generation immigrants, Dr. Humphries’s drawings strive to generate and construct a conceptual and inwardly referencing narrative. The

goal is to reconcile a simultaneous search for identity and embrace a peculiar safety found within alienness through conceptual drawings. The work uses the visual syntax of architecture and design representation to generate drawings which probe the perception of new spaces and align one cognitive map [the page] with another [the viewer]. The drawings slowly shift from two dimensional lines and colored planes to three dimensional structures of wood and steel embedded within the plane of the paper. Oscillation between modes of representation projects the viewer into the visual equivalent of a state between two-dimensions and three, sliding from a delicately built object to a graphite and watercolor representation of that object.

OARS Research NewsDr. John Humphries, Associate Professor, Dept. of Architecture & Interior Design

“Realizing Tomorrow’s Technologies: Focus on Ohio’s Third Frontier”

(Entry Deadline: September 16, 2011)

ObjectiveThis contest fosters interdisciplinary research by providing an opportunity for teams of undergraduate students to develop and demonstrate a technology at the laboratory scale, to provide fi scal projections that indicate fi nancial viability for that technology, and to identify policy issues that incorporate esthetic and societal concerns.

BackgroundThe topic of this competition will focus on Ohio’s premier program promoting the development of new technologies and innovation that will lead to economic prosperity both today and for future generations. The Ohio Third Frontier Program (www.thirdfrontier.com) is a signifi cant, broad-based commitment to create new technology-based

products, companies, industries, and jobs. The program’s strategic intent is to create an “innovation ecosystem” that supports the effi cient and seamless transition of great ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace.

Ohio Third Frontier key technology areas include 1) Advanced Energy, 2) Advanced Materials, 3) Biomedical Products, 4) Fuel Cells, 5) Medical Imaging, 6) Photovoltaics, and 7) Sensors.

Strongest consideration will be given to those projects that demonstrate (not necessarily in order of priority): 1) alignment with Ohio Third Frontier key technologies, 2) evidence of meaningful research and discovery, 3) an aspect or approach that is innovative and novel, 4) team membership from at least four different disciplines, 5) promise for development into a commercial product or service, and 6) comprehensive analysis of public policy repercussions.

For more information contact the Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS), or visit the Web site at: http://www.units.muohio.edu/oars/undergrad_research/muitdc/index.php.

5th Annual Miami University Interdisciplinary Technology Dev. Challenge Program

OARS Research News

Miami University Joins BioOhioMiami University recently became a member of BioOhio, a non-profi t organization that works to build and accelerate bioscience industry, research and education in the state. Representing more than 275 companies and colleges, BioOhio’s focus is to promote the growth of Ohio biomedical companies and jobs through advocacy, networking, counseling and collaborations.

According to Jim Oris, Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship at Miami, BioOhio will help Miami develop stronger interactions with Ohio’s biomedical and bioscience-related industries. “The goal of fostering research collaborations will lead to new technologies

and job creation by creating start-up companies, increasing grant support and providing opportunities for student training and internships in the industry,” he said.

Biomedical facilities at Miami include Miami’s Center for Structural Biology and Metabonomics, one of 14 Health Care/Biomedicine Ohio Centers of Excellence, the Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics and the Center for Advanced Microscopy & Imaging. They provide additional resources to more than 35 faculty members in six academic departments involved in biomedical research.

Gag-refl ex Device Nearer to Reality

OARS Research News

A medical device designed for dental patients and others that suppresses the gag-refl ex via a novel glove device is a step closer to reality following an agreement between Miami University and start-up company PharynMed signed April 15.

The story of the patent-pending device, in development for fi ve years by a team of Miami professors, involves an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate students in an entrepreneurship class, a new technology transfer and commercialization collaboration with Wright State University and the new agreement between Miami and PharynMed.

PharynMed plans to develop, market and sell the patent-pending device invented by Donna Scarborough, Associate Professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology, and Michael Bailey-Van Kuren, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. The glove-like acupressure device diminishes the gag-refl ex in speech therapy and in people who are sensitive to activities such as dental procedures or taking pills.

The new company is a result of a student project in an entrepreneurship capstone class in Miami’s Farmer School of Business. Joseph (Jay) Kayne, Cintas Chair in Entrepreneurship; Wayne Speer, Markley Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship; and Jim Oris, Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship, conceived of the idea of using the anti-gag device as a test case for the student capstone group.

The student team pursued a business and marketing plan for the device during its capstone semester in fall 2009 and through a semester at the RedHawk Hatchery, a program designed to help Miami entrepreneurship students develop potential businesses by the time they graduate. Along the way the group won several regional awards for its business plan.

The entrepreneurship team — two who graduated last year and two current seniors — includes: graduates Benjamin (Wiley) Burch, interdisciplinary business management major, and Alexandria (Lexi) Lucchesse,

speech communication major and entrepreneurship minor; and seniors Kevin Nelson, fi nance major, and Chris Blanchard, general engineering major and entrepreneurship minor.

This year the team named a CEO for PharynMed: James Stahly, former president of Henry Schein Inc.’s North American Dental Group (West Chester). Henry Schein Inc. is the largest distributor of healthcare products and services to medical, dental and veterinary offi ce-based practitioners.

“This is an exciting device that addresses a serious problem for many dental patients; a problem for which there is currently no clinically proven solution available. Our market research and broad industry experience indicates a receptive audience in the dental community, and we expect widespread and rapid acceptance of the device upon its introduction into the marketplace.”

PhayrnMed has also formed a board of advisers, which includes Scarborough, Bailey-Van Kuren and business, fi nancial and legal professionals from the Cincinnati area. CEO Stahly, Burch, Lucchesse, Nelson and Blanchard and their board of advisers plan to launch PharynMed into the professional dental marketplace over the next two years.

Miami’s agreement with PharynMed provides a two-year royalty-free option to license the technology for commercial application, according to Oris. If PharynMed is successful during the next two years, Miami will license the technology to the company. “There will be a signifi cant royalty stream generated to the university if the business succeeds,” Oris said.

Reid Smith, technology transfer associate at Miami and director of technology transfer at Wright State University, assisted in the agreement with PharynMed. His position is part of the new fi ve-year agreement between Miami and Wright State.

Reprinted from Miami’s April 20, 2011 e-Report.

Highlights on Research Computing Support Group

OARS Research News

What is a computing cluster and how can it be used to support research? Miami has a High Performance Computing (HPC) Cluster, but some may not know what this is, and how it can help support research at Miami.

To answer this, Miami’s HPC cluster (known as the Redhawk Cluster) is a collection of computing resources. The heart of the cluster consists of 32 compute nodes, each with dual quad-core CPUs, for a total of 256 processing cores. Each node also has 24 GB of memory. The cluster also has a large memory node with 8 computing cores and 48 GB of memory. A storage system with 15 TB of raw storage is shared across all nodes of the cluster.

So, how can the Redhawk cluster help with research? The cluster is designed to fi ll a wide range of computing needs. At the low end of the scale, the cluster can serve as a replacement for a user’s main laptop or desktop machine. Rather than tying up this computer with research calculations that slow down other activities like e-mail web browsing, document editing, and spreadsheets, the research calculations can be moved to the cluster. Many popular research applications like Matlab, SAS, and R are installed on the cluster. Other software can be installed as needed (subject to license restrictions) as long as the software has a version that supports Linux.

To use the cluster a researcher would just login to the cluster from their laptop, upload needed fi les, submit their computation, and then logout. The computations could run for hours, days, or even weeks on the cluster and the researcher would be notifi ed via e-mail once they are completed.

A natural next step is for a user to run multiple processing jobs, each analyzing a different data set or performing an independent simulation. In addition, as more software packages add support for multi-core CPUs, the Redhawk cluster offers users a system with access to eight cores on a single node.

The Redhawk cluster is also used for a class of problems known as embarrassingly or pleasantly parallel. For these problems, work can be easily divided into many independent tasks that can be processed in parallel. Miami faculty doing research in bioinformatics and genomics come across many pleasantly parallel problems and will run hundreds or even thousands of jobs at one time on the cluster as part of their research.

The most diffi cult use of the cluster is for distributed computing. Here a problem is broken down into multiple related tasks. The tasks are distributed to different computing cores on the cluster, but must communicate with each other to share data. For example, in a weather forecasting simulation, the future weather at a given point in space depends on the current weather at nearby points, so as a future forecast is developed, data must be shared amongst the space points being modeled.

The need to communicate between tasks to share data makes programming for these types of problems very challenging. Some software packages installed on the Redhawk cluster are designed to use distributed computing to solve problems in specifi c disciplines. In addition, the staff of Miami’s Research Computing Support (RCS) group has the skills needed to write software that can use distributed computing techniques.

Miami’s Redhawk computing cluster is providing computing resources to support research by faculty and students in a wide range of disciplines. More information about the cluster is available on the web or by e-mailing the RCS group at [email protected].

Written by: David Woods, Ph. DAssistant Director for Research Computing,Miami University

OARS and MU Libraries Partner to Assist Researchers with NSF Data Management Requirements

OARS Research News

As many researchers may already know, National Science Foundation (NSF) grant proposals now require a “Data Management Plan” (DMP). The purpose of the DMP is to increase dissemination and sharing of research subsidized by NSF grants. Types of data which fall under this new requirement include (but are not limited to): data sets, publications, samples, physical collections, software, and models. Researchers may not be required to deposit their data in a publicly accessible repository, but they will be expected to make data accessible in a way that satisfi es the best practices of their communities of interest. Some data management standards have already been established, and the NSF expects further standards to evolve as technology changes over time.

In order to help NSF grant applicants navigate the DMP requirement, Miami University Libraries and the Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) have established a collaborative partnership. Librarians will consult with researchers about best practices in compiling and implementing the data management plan portion of their proposal in addition to offering their expertise in existing and forthcoming standards in data management and description. The library will offer the services of staff who are experts in information dissemination and the creation of descriptive metadata, thereby ensuring that data management plans are created, submitted and

followed within existing guidelines and standards.

Additionally, the Miami University Libraries, through its membership in the OhioLINK consortium, will provide researchers with the opportunity to store their data in virtually any format (as well as its associated metadata) in the OhioLINK Digital Resource Commons (DRC), which has been in existence since 2007. The partnership between the library and OARS will result in the implementation of several important changes in the coming months. Researchers will soon fi nd links on the OARS website which will direct them to additional information about data management plans, the OhioLINK DRC and its role in data management, templates for completing a data management plan, and an “expert’s list” of librarians to contact for help. Additionally, OARS and the library will be offering workshops focusing specifi cally on the data management plan portion of the NSF grant proposal—watch the newsletter and your e-mail for an announcement with details about these events.

MU Libraries Scholarly Communication Committee:

Jennifer Bazeley: [email protected], 529-4216 John Millard: [email protected], 529-6789 Andy Revelle: [email protected], 529-6231 Jen Waller: [email protected], 529-0566

The Funding Corner

As Summer is just around the corner, faculty and staff may want to see me to discuss their current research and scholarship projects so that we can update the grant funding information that is sent to them. As the information will be coming to

you electronically, it would be best if we work together

at your offi ce computer. All you need to do is send an e-mail to me, [email protected], or call at 529-3600 to set up an appointment. Together we will discuss the type of funding for which you are looking.


Reorganization of Grant Development Personnel on Regional Campuses

OARS Research News

Research Integrity: If you receive new funding from NIH or NSF, faculty, students, or staff whose research is supported by these agencies are required to participate in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) instruction. These agencies have set minimum requirements and at Miami these will be fulfi lled through a series of six didactic forums offered each semester. More information and the forum schedule for the fall when available will be found at: http://www.muohio.edu/compliance/rcr/rcr_training.htm

Animal Care:The Miami Federal Assurance Document specifi es the use of “The Guide” as the basis for the animal care program at Miami. A new addition of the “The Guide”

was recently published. Miami will begin incorporated changes in the guidance soon. The regulators recognize that some changes will take longer to implement than others.

Human Subjects:The initial application forms for HS research will undergo minor revisions during the summer of 2011. Forms for post-approval activities (annual status reports, modifi cations and amendments), will undergo major updating as well.

As always, please contact me with any questions. Dr. Neal Sullivan, Research Compliance Offi cer, [email protected]; or 529-2488.

Compliance Corner News: Summer 2011

It may sound redundant to say “Regional campus personnel are now regionalized,” but in fact there are two new ideas mentioned in this one sentence. The fi rst new idea is the regional campuses. The Regionals, as they are more properly called, includes the Middletown campus (MUM), the Hamilton campus (MUH), and the Voice of America Learning Center (VOALC. Technically, the VOALC is NOT a campus, hence the title “The Regionals” as opposed to the Regional Campuses). Until former governor Strickland called for Ohio public higher education institutions to be more closely linked…to create a “University System of Ohio”…MUM, MUH and VOALC were generally considered separately. Now the three locations are beginning to view themselves as one unit. As often happens, a linguistic change also helps to foster a cognitive change. So too with The Regionals, which over time will be seen more as an entity, rather than as separate locations.

The second idea that’s new is the idea of regionalized personnel. Not all Regionals personnel are regionalized! Regionalized personnel work at all three locations—

MUM, MUH and VOALC. Dean Mike Pratt is, of course, regionalized, but many other administrative staff are now also regionalized, including grant development personnel.

The regionalized grant development personnel are directed by Amy Lamborg, who is assisted by a new addition to the Regionals grant writing and development team: Amy Stander. Stander is actually not new to Miami or to grants; she has 18 years’ experience at the Miami University Center for Chemistry Education (CCE) producing successful proposals. At CCE, Amy Stander gained expertise in overseeing proposal submissions and managing large-scale funded projects. Her experience will be put to good use in her new role as she assists regional campus faculty in identifying funding sources, conceptualizing proposals, designing projects, developing budgets, writing and editing proposals, and forming partnerships.

You may contact Amy Lamborg at [email protected] and Amy Stander at [email protected].

OARS Research News

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