OARS Research News

O September 2011 Edition >>>>>>> >>>OARS Research News

Welcome to this edition of OARS Research News. I am writing this in a new role as Interim Associate Provost for Research and Scholarship. I would like to thank Bruce Cochrane, who stepped down as Associate Provost in July, for his service and commitment to OARS and Miami University. Bruce was a great mentor to me, he continues to provide advice and wisdom, and I wish him well

as he continues his career here as a professor of Zoology. This issue of the newsletter comes at the beginning of a new

academic year, but our faculty, staff, and students work full time all year long to conduct meaningful research and scholarly activities. An easy measure of success is an accounting of the amount of extramural funding awarded to the university. Fiscal Year 2011 was another great year -- we received over $23M in extramural funds to conduct research and educational activities across all of our campuses. Much harder to count are the outstanding contributions faculty, staff, and students make to the body of knowledge and discourse in the scholarly arena. Needless to say, those scholarly efforts are one of the reasons that we so have many top-notch undergraduate and graduate programs ranked as being among the best in the nation. Inside you will see stories about faculty and students who

have been awarded grants and scholarships from competitive programs. Featured are Dr. Ellen Yezierski (CHM) on her NSF-funded work to help chemistry teachers incorporate inquiry-based curricula into their classes; Dr. Suzanne Kunkel in her role as director of our newest Ohio Center of Excellence, the Scripps Gerontology Center; Dr. Hailiang Dong (GLG) on his NSF-funded work to elucidate the nature of ancient microbial life in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth; and Dr. Chris Wolfe (PSY) on his National Cancer Institute-funded project to develop artifi cial intelligence systems to help women make informed decisions about genetic testing for breast cancer risk. Miami undergraduate students continue to win prestigious awards. Andy Zhou (CHM) and Benjamin Schwarz (ZOO) were selected as 2011-2012 Beckman Scholars ($19,300 scholarship to each), and Zoe Hesp (ZOO) was selected to receive a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

An integral part of Miami’s strategic goals is to use the student-as-scholar model to facilitate the intellectual growth of students. Miami University offers a wealth of undergraduate research opportunities. The process can begin with the First Year Research Experience (FYRE). 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 fi fth year, the theme for 2011-2012 MUITDC is “Realizing Tomorrow’s Technologies: A Focus on the Ohio’s Third Frontier”. With over $8,000 in awards available, I encourage you to facilitate a team and enter the fray. Related to our commitment to undergraduate research, I

am pleased to announce that Miami University (using funds received from indirect costs recovered from grants) has joined the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) as an enhanced institutional member. Any faculty, staff, graduate student, or undergraduate student at Miami University can now become a member of CUR at no additional cost! I strongly encourage you to join the society and become an active member. More information on this opportunity and all of our undergraduate research programs is provided in this newsletter and the OARS website.

Dr. James Oris, Interim Associate Provost for Research & Scholarship, & Dean of the Graduate School

Graduate School and Off 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

Principal Investigator Ellen Yezierski, Associate Professor in the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department at Miami University, and Miami Co-PI Ann MacKenzie, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, will receive $1.35M over the next fi ve years to implement

and study Target Inquiry at Miami University (TIMU), a new high school chemistry teacher professional development (PD) model. TIMU is a rigorous and comprehensive 2½-year PD program designed to improve the quality and frequency of inquiry-based instruction. It meets the PD needs of high school chemistry teachers by providing authentic chemistry laboratory research experiences and facilitating the integration of their research experiences into their classrooms through the design, implementation, and evaluation of inquiry-based curricula. The 15 credits of graduate course work in chemistry are suited for teachers with or without advanced degrees. MacKenzie will be instrumental in teacher recruitment as well as advising and mentoring TIMU teachers working toward the M.Ed. in the School of Education, Health, and Society.

The NSF award supports teacher participants who will be enrolling in TIMU as well as the 4-year study planned to determine TIMU’s effects on instructional quality and student outcomes (achievement and process skills). The TIMU study is coupled with a separate $1.1M grant awarded to Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Principal Investigator, Deborah Herrington, associate professor of chemistry. Herrington will direct the application and study of Target Inquiry (TI) in middle and high school and across multiple science disciplines at GVSU.

Yezierski and Herrington created the TI model in chemistry and began its implementation and study in 2006 with support from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and NSF. “Two teacher cohorts in Michigan have made remarkable instructional changes with dramatic student results; it’s great to be able to bring the

TI model to Miami and southwest Ohio,” Yezierski stated. In this new $2.45M collaborative research project, Yezierski and Herrington hope to replicate the success of the previous TI implementations while gaining further insights on how the TI model will affect teachers and their students. Graduate and undergraduate students in Yezierski’s research group will contribute to the data collection and analysis tasks required to answer these questions:

1) How do the three TI core experiences (research experience for teachers, materials adaptation, and action research) infl uence in-service high school science teachers’ (i) understanding of the nature of science; (ii) attitudes and beliefs about inquiry instruction; and (iii) classroom instructional methods in the derivatives of the TI model? 2) How does teacher participation in TI affect students’ process skills (scientifi c reasoning and metacognition) and conceptual understanding of science in the derivatives of the TI model? 3) What are the challenges and solutions related to implementing TI in science disciplines beyond chemistry and in other regions?

The project includes a number of different collaborations on Oxford campus. The high school chemistry teachers will be conducting research in the labs of chemistry & biochemistry faculty; Yezierski and MacKenzie will be collaborating on the implementation of the PD program; Yezierski’s research group will be working with GVSU TI personnel; and the Ohio Evaluation & Assessment Center will be conducting the project evaluation. “The collaboration between Chemistry & Biochemistry and Teacher Education plays a signifi cant role here. It will not only serve this [TIMU] project well but also has the potential to forge future, meaningful collaborations between education researchers and discipline-based education researchers at Miami,” Yezierski said. For more information about TIMU, visit http://www.chemistry.muohio.edu/yezierski.

Dr. Ellen Yezierski, Associate Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry

OARS Research News

OARS Research NewsDr. Suzanne Kunkel, Professor, Scripps Gerontology Center

Kunkel & Scripps Group

The Scripps Gerontology Center was originally established in 1922 as the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems. In keeping with its founding mission to study pressing issues related to population change and its consequences, the center began focusing on the aging population in the early 1970s. Recently designated as an Ohio Center of Excellence, Scripps Gerontology Center generates about 75% of its income through grants and contracts, and typically has more than ten externally-funded projects underway in a given year. The projects are conducted by teams of Scripps researchers, affi liated faculty from the Department of Sociology and Gerontology, and undergraduate and graduate students. Research currently underway at the center continues the nearly 90-year legacy of excellence in demographic and applied research.

Projections of population and long-term care needsBased on 2010 U.S. census data, and other national data sources, the Scripps team is projecting the size of the older population for every county in the state of Ohio, up through 2050. Several products are being developed based on these projections, including interactive maps showing growth of the 65+ and 85+ age groups, and web-based information about the demographic and health characteristics of each county’s older population. These population projections are combined with other Scripps research on the current system of providing long-term care for older people to analyze implications for the state budget. Several teams of researchers work on these projections and the policy implications, including Shahla Mehdizadeh (who leads the projections research), Taka Yamashita, Suzanne

Kunkel, Bob Applebaum, and graduate students.

Consumer satisfaction with nursing homesAbout 30,000 surveys will be pouring into the offi ces of the Scripps Gerontology Center next spring. These surveys will be received from families and friends of older people living in Ohio’s 970 nursing homes. Every two years, Scripps researchers refi ne, fi eld, and analyze data from the Nursing Home Family Satisfaction Survey. In alternating years, nursing home residents are surveyed about their satisfaction with the care and services they receive. Based on what nursing home residents and their families report on the surveys, overall consumer satisfaction scores for each nursing home are used as a quality component of Ohio’s nursing home Medicaid reimbursement formula. The information is also posted on Ohio’s Long-Term Care Consumer Guide (http://www.ltc.ohio.org). Undergraduate and graduate students assist Scripps researchers, led by Dr. Jane Straker, in processing these surveys and analyzing the data.

Building Capacity in the Aging NetworkConducted in collaboration with the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) and funded by the Administration on Aging, the “capacity building” project puts Scripps researchers in touch with a network of more than 600 local organizations and more than 200 tribal programs that serve older adults in their communities. The project has two major components: training leaders of these aging network organizations in business planning and performance management, and a biennial survey of the role that these agencies play in promoting health and independence for the older adults in their communities. To date, all of the training events have been hosted at Miami University, including the upcoming Aging Business Academy, which will be held in October 2011. Scripps Gerontology Center conducts the national surveys and is responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of the trainings. Over the past fi ve years, 8 graduate students have worked on this project, alongside the core project team including Suzanne Kunkel, Elizabeth Carpio, William Ciferri, and Jane Straker.

A fi ve-year study of “biological dark matter” in the Chinese Rehai hot springs by a 20-member team that includes Miami University geomicrobiologist and project co-leader Dr.

Hailang Dong, Professor of Geology is featured in the Sept. 2 issue of Science magazine.

The hot springs at nearly 100 degrees C and located in Tengchong, the largest geothermal area in China, are home to hundreds of unknown microorganisms — extremophiles, or archaea, single celled microorganisms that can exist in extreme environments. The research team’s fi ve-year study will be one of the most comprehensive studies of any geothermal habitat, from the ecosystem to the genetic level.

Dong, a professor of geology and environmental earth science at Miami, is one of four co-principal investigators with principal investigator Brian Hedlund, associate professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on a $3.75 million grant funded by the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) program. The 20-member team, from 14 institutions in China and the U.S., includes experts in geochemistry, microbial cultivation and physiology, microbial community activity measurements and genomics.

This, along with the use of new techniques such as single-cell genomics, will allow them to test their central hypothesis: that geographically distinct hot spring systems host genetically distinct microbial communities with similar carbon and nitrogen cycle functions. The team expects to unmask dozens of new species and higher taxonomic groups.

“Certain springs at Tengchong are almost 100 percent archaea,” Dong said. “These microbes are built to withstand the harshest conditions on Earth. Our preliminary data — which have attracted attention from academia and the public — have revealed certain trends of microbial response to environmental gradients,” Dong said.

A big challenge will be to unravel how archaea and other extremeophiles interact and form food webs, according to the researchers.

Their research in Tengchong will complement and build on what is known about life in other geothermal sites, such as Yellowstone National Park, with the goal of developing a holistic and global view of geobiology in geothermal systems.

Reprinted from the September 12, 2011 edition of the Miami University e-report.

Miami Professor Part of International Research Team Studying ‘Biological Dark Matter’

OARS Research News

Grant Supports Using Intelligent Tutoring to Improve Patients’ Medical Decision Making

OARS Research News

With a $364,120 grant from the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Christopher Wolfe, Professor of Psychology at Miami University, has begun exploring how to use artifi cial intelligence technology to develop a web-based intelligent tutoring system to help women

decide whether to undergo predictive testing for genetic risk of breast cancer.

The project will make use of AutoTutor Lite, artifi cial intelligence technology developed at the University of Memphis. “This is believed to be the fi rst use of an intelligent tutoring system to improve patients’ medical decision making,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe is working with co-principal investigator Valerie Reyna, professor of human development and psychology at Cornell University. Reyna is head of the laboratory for Rational Decision Making and is past president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. They will create an intelligent tutoring system with an animated “conversational agent” capable of engaging in a tutorial dialogue. It will both ask and answer questions, according to Wolfe. The tutoring system will be tested through a series of randomized, controlled experiments at Miami and Cornell.

The tutorials will teach women about qualitative and quantitative concepts related to predictive testing. The ultimate goal is to help women make better decisions about genetic testing for breast cancer risk.

Women who inherit a BRAC1 or BRAC2 gene with a mutation face a signifi cantly elevated lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, said Wolfe.

“Decisions about whether to be tested for genetic risk of breast cancer are diffi cult, yet there is no single calculus for deciding whether or not a person should undergo predictive testing,” he added.

Wolfe has created and studied cognitive technologies for 20 years, supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education and private foundations.

Miami students assisting Wolfe include graduate research assistant Chris Fisher and psychology majors Jessica Reigrut, Kate Bassolino, Eric Cooke, Kelly Papenfus and Amanda Withrow.

Reprinted from the August 12, 2011 edition of the Miami University e-report.

NIH, AHRQ, CDC, FDA and NIOSH are phasing in use of updated electronic application forms packages, the ADOBE-FORMS-B2.

The new packages include the following form changes:• A new version of PHS 398 Modular Budget form

to resolve issues causing rejections of application submissions at Grants.gov.

• A new version of Budget Information for the Construction Programs (SF-424C) form

• A New R&R Subaward Budget Attachment form.

The incorporation of the above forms does not result in any major changes to the SF 424 Application Guide for NIH and other PHS agencies.

Applicants need to carefully read the program announcements and appropriate “B Series” Application guide before completing their application.

If you plan to submit to these agencies, please contact Tricia Callahan or Anne Schauer in OARS.

NIH Notice Number: NOT-OD-11-096.

NIH, AHRQ, CDC, FDA & NIOSH Releases Updated Electronic Application Forms

Miami Students: Bright Futures in ScienceMiami University students Andy Zhou and Benjamin Schwarz have been selected as Beckman Scholars for 2011-2012, with both earning scholarships valued at $19,300. Zhou and Schwarz

will conduct research with their faculty mentors this summer and next and through the intervening academic year.

Andy Zhou, a senior biochemistry major from Oxford, has been working with faculty mentor Dr. Gary Lorigan, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Zhou’s project involves investigating the structure and function of integral membrane proteins using the new-pulsed EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) spectrometer at Miami. He is also investigating the new technology of electron spin echo envelope modulation spectroscopy (ESEEM) to probe the structure of membrane proteins and peptides.

Benjamin Schwarz, a junior zoology major from Oxford, started working with faculty mentor Dr. Michael Robinson, Professor of Zoology, the summer before his fi rst year at Miami. His research involves the goal of creating a transgenic mouse, using embryonic stem cells, into which he has inserted a myocardin isoform to determine if the inserted gene can rescue bladder function in mice with the megabladder mutation.

Miami University senior Zoe Hesp, a zoology and French double major and neuroscience minor from Dayton, has been awarded $10,000 from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). She is one of 25 students nationwide to be selected for the scholarship by ASF for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Ms. Hesp has conducted undergraduate research for the past three years with faculty mentor Dr. Lori Isaacson, Professor of Zoology, studying the regeneration of peripheral nerve cells following injury.

She has received three undergraduate research grant awards from Miami and a College of Arts and Science Dean’s Scholar award for her research efforts. She has presented her research in poster presentations at fi ve national conferences and in oral presentations at three regional conferences. She will also give an oral presentation on her work at the Microscopy and Microanalysis National Conference in Nashville in August, and she is preparing a manuscript for publication on her research fi ndings on re-innervation of the vasculature following injury.

Reprinted from the June 13, 2011 and June 30, 2011 News Releases of the Miami University News and Public Information Offi ce.

Space Shuttle Astronaut Gives Lecture At Hall Auditorium Astronaut Hall of Fame Robert Cabana, Space Shuttle Astronaut and current Director of the Kennedy Space Center will give a public talk on his experiences as a space shuttle Pilot and Mission Commander on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 7:30 PM at Hall Auditorium on the Oxford campus of Miami University.

He will also present the Astronaut Scholarship to Zoe Hesp, senior Zoology and French major.

Cabana was selected by NASA in June 1985 and qualifi ed as a pilot for Space Shuttle fl ight crews.He has fl own four space shuttle missions, as Pilot on STS-41 and STS-53, Commander of STS-65, and Commander of STS-88, the fi rst space station assembly mission, in December 1998.

Cabana currently serves as Director at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Prior to his appointment to Kennedy in October 2008, he served as Director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Cabana was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 3, 2008.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofi t organization. Its mission is to aid the United States in retaining its world leadership in science and technology by providing scholarships for college students who exhibit motivation, imagination and exceptional performance in these fi elds. ASF has awarded over $3 million to deserving students nationwide.

Sponsors: Astronaut Foundation and the Miami University Honors Program.

OARS- What’s New? New Forms & Templates

The more things change, the more they stay the same, or do they? At the start of the year, OARS rolled out a new Proposal Approval Form (PAF) which captures data necessary for setting up and tracking grant awards. Since that time, the PAF has

been updated, based on user feedback. We will continue to make updates based on user feedback and reporting requirements. Visit the OARS website for the updated forms, such as the PAF and Advanced Account Request Form (AARF) at http://www.units.muohio.edu/oars/proposal_development/index.php. You can also fi nd new fringe benefi t rates and budget templates which refl ect the new fringe rates at http://www.units.muohio.edu/oars/proposal_development/information.php. Check back to the OARS website periodically as we often make changes to bring you the most up-to-date information. Bookmark us at http://www.units.muohio.edu/oars.

Community of Science Gets a Facelift(http://www.cos.com)

The Community of Science (COS) database allows you access to over 400,000 funding opportunities from Federal and private agencies, including corporations, businesses

and industry. With the COS profi le, you can make your research interests known to potential collaborators, while searching for others with similar interests. COS will roll out a new database in the fall, providing easier search capabilities, the ability to save and share recent searches, plus a new feature that allows you to see which funding opportunities your collaborators are tracking. Join Dr. Helen Kiss and learn how you can receive up-to-the-minute information on funding opportunities in your area of interests by signing up for the workshop: Locating Grant Opportunities- October 28, 2011, 9-11 am, Bachelor Hall, Room 264; Contact: Helen Kiss.

COMING SOON- NIH PODCASTSResearch Administration Gets Tech SavvyRecently the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began offering free PODCASTS on grant related topics such as “ Composing Your Cover Letter,” “Appealing Your Review,” and “How Reviewers Are Selected.” Look for these on the OARS homepage as well as the “All about Grants” podcasts and Q&As on NIH funding and review topics. Visit:http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/all-about-grants-at-nih/id368511081.

Written by: Tricia Callahan, Assistant Director, OARS, 529-3600.

Committee on Faculty Research Program

“University Senate charges the Committee on Faculty Research (CFR) with supporting and encouraging the development of research and creative activity at Miami University.” In carrying out this charge, the CFR administers programs that support and celebrates faculty research and creative activities. Application to these programs is made through the Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS). See:http://www.units.muohio.edu/oars/mu_research/index.php

The Faculty Research Grants Program encourages proposals addressing new avenues of research and scholarship either for the investigator or for the institution, initiating new projects and pilot studies, or testing novel or transformative research/creative ideas.

The deadline for applying for the CFR Program is 5:00 p.m. Monday October 3, 2011. Awards generally are announced in November.

The Distinguished Scholar Awards Program celebrates the accomplishment of outstanding Miami researchers each year. Exemplary Miami faculty members are nominated by their peers to be recognized for superior research and scholarly activities. The deadline for OARS to receive nominations for the Distinguished Scholar Awards is Monday, October 31, 2011.

All continuing tenure-eligible or tenured faculty, including librarians holding the M.S.L.S. Degree or equivalent, are eligible to apply for these two programs.

Overview of MU Undergraduate Research OpportunitiesOARS Research News

Involvement in discovery-based learning is integral to the Miami mission and vision to provide an undergraduate experience that can engage our students in scholarly accomplishments. In addition to research within the classroom, Miami offers a variety of co-curricular

research experiences (http://www.muohio.edu/undergradresearch).

Doctoral Undergraduate Research Opportunities (DUOS)- The only deadline is the Monday after the midterm break October 17, 2011. DUOS initiative heightens the synergy between graduate and undergraduate programs through mentored research.

FYRE (First Year Research Experience)-FYRE community students promise to 1) work with a faculty mentor on a research project for both fall and spring semester and 2) to engage each other in a community of collaborative learning through the EDL 280 course. The FYRE program recognizes the importance for fi rst year students to interact, network, and socialize with a focus on learning.

Miami Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Technology Development Challenge 2011-2012- The team application Deadline was September 16, 2011. Topic: “Realizing Tomorrow’s Technologies: Focus on Ohio’s Third Frontier”. 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.

Undergraduate Research Award (URA) Program -Fall deadline is the Monday after the midterm break October 17, 2011. Spring deadline is March 2, 2012. Offered by the university senate, Miami’s Undergraduate Research Program encourages students to initiate and carry out small-scale, independent research projects in any discipline in fall or spring.

Undergraduate Summer Scholars (USS) 2012-The only deadline to submit an application is December 2, 2011. This nine-week summer program enables Miami sophomores and juniors to do research or other creative activities in the summer with the supervision of an individual faculty mentor. Students apply for an award in tandem with a faculty member as a student-mentor pair. USS award includes a student fellowship, 6 hours of academic credit with waiver of instructional fees and tuition, and an allowance for supplies, services, and travel; the faculty mentor receives a modest allowance.

Undergraduate Presentation Awards (UPA)- Rolling application deadline. Any Miami undergraduate student whose work has been accepted for presentation at a conference and who will be enrolled as a Miami University undergraduate at the time of the presentation is eligible to apply (once per year) for a small amount of funding towards cost of attendance.

By: Martha Weber, OARS Undergraduate Research Director.

MU a New Member of CURMiami recently joined CUR (Council on Undergraduate Research) as an Enhanced Institutional Member.Effective July 1, 2011 an unlimited number faculty, staff and students can register as a CUR member, at no cost, due to Miami University’s new enhanced institutional membership in CUR, sponsored by the offi ce for the advancement of research and scholarship (OARS).

To become a member, go to the online application at (http://www.cur.org); make sure to select Miami University (OH) from the institution drop down list.“We invite our academic community to take full advantage of

this networking and professional development opportunity,” said Jim Oris, Interim Associate Provost for Research and Scholarship and Dean of the Graduate School.

CUR supports and promotes high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and scholarship and provides information on the importance of undergraduate research to state legislatures, private foundations, government agencies and the U.S. Congress.

By: Martha Weber, OARS Undergraduate Research Director.

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:Animal Care Program orientation sessions are scheduled to be held twice per semester. The next session is to be held November 18th. An up to date schedule is always posted at:

h t tp ://www.muoh io. edu/comp l i ance/ i a cuc/ac_04training.htm .

Human Subjects:In July 2011, a federal proposal was distributed suggesting changes to the regulations governing human subjects research. These are changes that could signifi cantly effect the programs here at Miami. The proposal is open for comments until September 26th. More information can be found at:http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/anprm2011page.html

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

The Funding CornerAs the Fall semester is well under way, 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.

CUR Call for Abstracts – Posters on the Hill

The Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) will host a workshop for faculty and staff on “Strategies for locating grant opportunities using the internet”. The hands-on workshop will take place on October 28, 2011 from 9 – 11 am in the computer lab

located at 264 Bachelor Hall, Oxford Campus. Space is limited, so if you plan on attending one of the sessions, please contact Helen Kiss by email: [email protected], to make your reservation.

Fall 2011 Funding Opportunities Workshop

In the spring of 2012 the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) will host its annual undergraduate poster session on Capitol Hill. This event helps members of Congress understand the importance of undergraduate research by talking directly with the students involved in these experiences. CUR is calling for students of member institutions to submit an abstract of their research that represents any of CUR’s disciplinary divisions (Arts and Humanities, Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, Health Sciences, Mathematics/Computer Science, Physics/

Astronomy, Psychology, and Social Sciences). There is no limit on submissions per individual or per institution. Each independent project should be submitted with its own application (and recommendation letters). The same student or group of students may also apply in successive years. It is unlikely that more than one student project will be selected per school, but up to four students may be associated with a project. Applications must be submitted online. Details on the web at: http://www.cur.org/pohcall.html or on the FAQ link http://www.cur.org/poh/postersfaqs.html.

Compliance Corner News: Fall 2011

OARS Staff

James T. Oris, Ph.D.Interim Associate Provost for Research and Scholarship and Dean of the Graduate School,[email protected]

Tricia L. Callahan, M.A.Assistant Director for Research and Scholarship, [email protected]

Helen G. Kiss, Ph.D.Assistant Director for Research and Scholarship, andInformation Coordinator, [email protected]

Anne Schauer, M.A., CRAAssistant Director for Research and Scholarship, [email protected]

Neal H. Sulllivan, Ph.D.Research Compliance Officer, [email protected]

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Martha E. Weber, M.S.OARS Undergraduate Research Director, [email protected]

Support staff

Terri Brosius, A.A.B. (Miami)Master Administrative Assistant, [email protected]

Terri provides administrative support for the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the Institutional AnimalCare and Use Commitee (IACUC).

Brittany Isaacs, B.A. (Miami)Administrative Assistant, [email protected]

Brittany provides administrative support for Office for the Advancement of Research and Scholarshipinternal programs and for two University Senate Committees: Undergraduate Research Committee andCommittee on Faculty Research.

Affiliated staff

Amy Lamborg, M.S., MTSCRegional Grant Development Coordinator - Miami University Hamilton and Middletown Campus,[email protected]

Amy StanderRegional Grant and Development Writer - Miami University Hamilton and Middletown Campus,[email protected]

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Reid Smith, M.B.A, B.S.Technology Transfer Associate, [email protected]

Emily ErdmannStudent Aid

5th Year SeniorNursing Major, Nutrition Minor

Kat CooperStudent Aid

SeniorStrategic Communications Major, Spanish Minor

Alex McFarlandStudent Aid

JuniorZoology Major

Katie VogelStudent Aid

JuniorIntegrated English / Language Arts Education Major

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O November 2011 Edition >>>>>>> >>>OARS Research News

Welcome to this edition of OARS Research News. I am writing this on the heals of our 3rd Annual Graduate Research Forum. The program grew again, with over 125 presentations by students in 23 departments and four academic divisions. Poster and oral presentations

were evaluated by an engaged group of graduate alumni (24) and faculty/staff (13). The Forum could not have worked without these volunteers, and I appreciate their help and insights. Thanks go out to Associate Dean Ann Frymier and the rest of the Graduate School staff, who put on an outstanding program.

Miami is now home to three Ohio Centers of Excellence with the recent announcement of the Institute for Entrepreneurship as a center in Societal and Cultural Transformation. The Institute for Entrepreneurship joins the Center for Structural Biology and Metabonomics and the Scripps Gerontology Center as part of a state-wide effort to develop a network of centers that serve as magnets for talent and leadership in innovation and entrepreneurial activity within Ohio. I extend my warmest congratulations to all three groups, and we will see this list grow in the near future.

Inside you will see stories about faculty and students who have been awarded grants and internships from competitive programs. Featured are Brooke Flinders (Nursing – MUH) who received funding from DHHS Offi ce of Adolescent Health to conduct creative, service-learning activities for student nurses, Amit Shukla’s (MME) studies on the use of nonlinear models to predict the effect of deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s patients, Paul Schaeffer (ZOO) NIH-funded work on how energy metabolism affects the development of obesity and diabetes, and Brett Smith (MKT) as director of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the Ohio Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship. We also highlight Miami senior Lyndsey McMillon (MME) who is in a NASA Undergraduate Research Internship at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Lindsey is working on photovoltaic systems and optical instrumentation with her advisor at NASA and Osama Ettouney (MME) here at Miami.

As the semester draws to a close, we will try to keep you up to date on deadlines and news of funding opportunities. The team in OARS is here for you, so don’t hesitate to ask for assistance.

Message from Dr. James Oris, Interim Associate Provost for Research and Scholarship, and Dean of the Graduate School

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

FOCUS on Fantastic Service-Learning

If fantastic service-learning produces students who 1) Become passionate about the work, 2) Feel empowered, and 3) Realize the value of teamwork, then service-learning as a research assistant in the FOCUS project, a program teaching teenagers about pregnancy prevention, is fantastic.

While many faculty think of research when they think of grant

funding, when Miami project investigator Brooke Flinders (Assistant Professor, Nursing) read the Request for Proposals from the DHHS Offi ce of Adolescent Health (OAH), what she envisioned was a creative, sustainable service-learning project for student nurses.

The OAH required applicants to select one of 30 evidence-based curricula for replication. Brooke chose FOCUS, a program originally developed and studied in military populations, because of the model’s “train the trainer” approach—a feature Brooke puts to good use for service-learning. Brooke, an obstetric nurse and Certifi ed Nurse-Midwife, initiated a partnership with the Butler County YWCA and wrote a proposal to involve nursing students in conducting FOCUS across Butler County, which resulted in an award of approximately $2.3 million over fi ve years.

The project is structured so that the FOCUS program is embedded into an existing course, meeting the nursing student’s service-learning requirements. Each semester, 30 nursing students are divided into 14 teaching teams. Each team peer-educates approximately 25 high school students, equaling 700 teens (and 60 Miami students) served annually, or 3,500 teens and 300 nursing students over the life of the project. Over seven weeks, the nursing students learn and practice the material, teach for four weeks, and evaluate the project outcomes.

The three research assistants perform a wide variety of tasks, including serving as trainers and clinical facilitators for junior-level nursing students and completing data collection and analysis. They have also begun to establish their own scholarly work, through manuscript preparation and dissemination of FOCUS outcomes at professional conferences.

The Hamilton YWCA contributes to the project by serving as the fi scal agent. A FOCUS project director employed by the YWCA arranges the community delivery sites. The YWCA has also hired additional presenters who can implement the program when nursing students are not available.

The FOCUS project benefi ts everyone. The nursing students benefi t from learning how to present health information in a community setting and will use the content throughout their careers. The teens benefi t from content delivered by peers and from having nursing students serve as role models—encouraging the teens to focus on careers and higher education (future aspirations are powerful contraceptives). Brooke, who came to Miami out of clinical practice, has benefi tted too. “This work has really helped me to evolve” Brooke said. “Moving from nurse-midwife to educator was quite a transition. FOCUS enables me to tie my teaching, research and service together in an effi cient and meaningful way, and it allows me to educate students and local teens in the area of my clinical expertise.”

The current undergraduate research assistants (RAs) in the FOCUS share their thoughts below. • Nursing major Katelyn Gilb says:“When I volunteered

to help with this project, I had no idea what I was really volunteering for…. Now, I talk or think about it all the time.”

• Nursing and sociology major Louis Nicholson wrote: “I realized at the very moment of writing this, that this project represents a sensation that every person about to graduate should feel. I can do anything.”

• Nursing major Allison Carlascio states:“Through this project, I have become more independent and confi dent. This experience has pushed me out of my comfort-zone and taught me that I can successfully stretch and succeed in many professional venues.”

Written by: Amy Lamborg, MU Regional Grant Development Coordinator; and Amy Stander, MU Regional Grant and Development Writer.

Dr. Brooke Flinders, Assistant Professor in NursingOARS Research News

OARS Research NewsDr. Amit Shukla, Associate Professor, Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering

Engineering a Better Quality of Life for Parkinson’s Patients

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Parkinson’s disease is a disorder that affects nerve cells, or neurons, in a part of the brain that controls muscle movement hence human motor control functions. In Parkinson’s, neurons that make a chemical called dopamine die or do not work properly. Parkinson’s usually begins

around age 60, but it can start earlier. It is more common in men than in women. There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease. Scientists maintain that to be able to develop better treatments, and ultimately a cure, they need better predictive models of Parkinson’s disease.

Students in Dr. Amit Shukla’s research group in the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Department are developing accurate, patient specifi c, predictive models of Parkinson’s disease and its progression. This research is in collaboration with Dr. Fredy Revilla of the University of Cincinnati’s Neuro Science Institute and Director of the James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Center for Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders.

Parkinson’s disease results in many motor control symptoms and is usually treated by administering drugs such as L-Dopa or via deep brain stimulation (DBS). Deep brain stimulation is a surgical procedure which activates areas of the brain that control movement, improving symptoms such as tremors and stiffness. One person in every 500 has Parkinson’s but surgery is generally used only as a last resort. Deep brain stimulation involves implanting a wire, with electrodes at its tip, into one of three areas of the brain. The wire is connected to a small “neurostimulator” unit rather like

a pacemaker, which is implanted under the skin of the chest. This unit sends electrical impulses along the wire and into the brain. The impulses block the electrical signals that cause Parkinson’s disease symptoms.

Dr. Shukla’s research is to develop predictive models based on nonlinear dynamical systems theory to capture the effect of Parkinson’s and the associated treatment methods including DBS. According to Dr. Shukla, “The ultimate goal of this project is to fi nd neuroprotective treatments and improve the quality of life for people affected by Parkinson’s disease. We are developing predictive models, which can be fast forwarded in time to predict the outcome and success of a treatment such as DBS, for each specifi c Parkinson’s patient. Each person is different in how they respond to DBS and this variability makes it hard to capture the effect of treatment, however their quality of life depends on successfully treating the symptoms of Parkinson’s as these patients age.”

Dr. Shukla’s expertise is in engineering nonlinear dynamical systems – a class of systems which can exhibit a wide range of behavior including chaotic response. Application of nonlinear dynamical systems theory to problems related to neuroscience and human movement systems is being investigated by a team of researchers including Dr. Shukla and involves many undergraduate and graduate students in his department. The students utilize clinical data, obtained from Parkinson’s Patients at Gardner Family Center for Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders, to develop nonlinear models to capture and predict the effect of DBS by using method of normal forms and maximum entropy formulation to predict the variability in response. These methods are under development and evaluation as part of this multi-disciplinary research which is funded by a grant from National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety.

Dr. Paul Schaeffer, Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology

With funding from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Dr. Paul Schaeffer, Assistant Professor of Zoology, graduate students and undergraduate colleagues

are investigating how energy metabolism is changed throughout life in several systems.

One interest is in the role of activity and obesity in metabolic disease. Obesity is a growing health problem throughout the ‘developed’ world as people gain easy access to excessive amounts of food and lifestyles favor reduced activity. The US Centers for Disease Control have collected data on the growing obesity trend in this country and have clearly linked the rise in obesity to a rise in diabetes and related metabolic disease (see http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html). Using mice that are fed a high fat ‘Western’ diet, Schaeffer and colleagues are exploring how obesity develops into diabetes at the cellular level. Similarly, with colleagues at the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, efforts are directed to the metabolic responses to inactivity, which

often accompanies obesity. This work uses mice that are kept inactive without being obese. These studies should shed light on the importance of activity and the ways in which accumulation of fat within tissues such as the heart and muscle are contributing to metabolic disease.

While human metabolic disorders are coupled with obesity, this is not always the case in nature. Migrating birds often increase their body weight by 50-75% before beginning their annual fl ights (equivalent to an average person adding about 70 pounds). The weight is added very rapidly and has no apparent ill effects. Upon completion of migration, the animals quickly return to their normal weight, even without having burned that fat off during fl ight. In addition, the muscle responsible for fl ight becomes conditioned for their arduous journey even when the animals are caged and unable to exercise. Schaeffer and colleagues at Miami University, the City of Hope Research Center in Los Angeles and the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati are investigating the molecular regulation of fat storage and use as well as the role of diet and other external cues in the control of these phenomena.

OARS Research News

Ohio’s Innovation Platform ProgramThe Ohio Department of Development and Ohio Third Frontier Commission are pleased to announce the release of the FY2012 Innovation Platform Program (IPP) RFP at http://www.thirdfrontier.com/IPP.htm. A major goal of the Ohio Third Frontier is to support strong commercialization and innovation capabilities and capacities in defi ned technology areas that meet the needs of Ohio industry. The Innovation Platform Program (IPP) supports this goal by providing assistance for operating and capital equipment needs that will benefi t an entrepreneurial and commercial purpose. The IPP links the research capabilities/capacities of an already established technology platform and all its resources at an Ohio

university or college or non-profi t research institution to specifi c late-stage research, product development and innovation needs of Ohio for-profi t companies. Collaborations are formed to further the near-term commercialization of specifi c or platform technologies with signifi cant, defi ned market opportunities. Dates to look out for:

• Bidder’s Conference- 10:00 am –12:00 pm, December 12, 2011, TechColumbus, 1275 Kinnear Rd., Columbus, OH 43212

• Letters of Intent due 2:00 pm – December 29, 2011• Written Questions – through February 9, 2012• Proposals due by 2:00 PM – February 16, 2012• Review and Award approximately – June 2012

The Center for Social Entrepreneurship was originally formed in 2006 and offi cially recognized in 2007 with Dr. Brett Smith (Associate Professor, Marketing) as the Founding Director. In 2011, Dr. Smith was appointed as the director of Miami University’s Institute of Entrepreneurship.

The Center for Social Entrepreneurship resides within the Institute for Entrepreneurship which was recently recognized as an Ohio Center for Excellence in Societal and Cultural Transformation. The Center is focused on building a world-class program in the teaching, research and practice of social entrepreneurship. At the Center, “we defi ne social entrepreneurship in the broadest possible terms as innovative solutions for persistent social problems. In short, social entrepreneurship uses the imagination and creativity of entrepreneurship and uses it to address and alleviate social problems such as poverty and hunger” states Smith.

Established as one of the fi rst programs in undergraduate social entrepreneurship, the Center has garnered a great deal of recognition in its relatively short existence. To date, the Center has been involved in the creation of Edun Live on Campus (ELOC), a social entrepreneurial apparel venture that partnered with Bono’s company Edun to promote economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. ELOC has expanded to more than 20 campuses across the country.

The Center has also partnered with Community Enterprise Solutions to launch our initiative in the micro-consignment model, a next generation model of entrepreneurship at the Base of the (economic) Pyramid (BOP). The Center partnered with Room to Read to

develop and build a library in the developing country of Nepal. Finally, the Center for Social Entrepreneurship has received two grants totaling more than $250,000 from the U.S. Department of State, most recently to develop a seminar in social entrepreneurship for 62 Fulbright scholars from Afghanistan.

The Center for Social Entrepreneurship has been featured in Time, Business Week, Fin-ancial Times, and Forbes and won numerous international awards including the

Ashoka Exchange Award (Duke University), the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship Award (Oxford University), Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Award (University of Southern California) and Satter Best Paper Award (New York University).

One of the primary goals of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship is the creation of knowledge through academic research. The Center has a primary focus on applied research that is scientifi cally rigorous and practically relevant. The following is a brief overview of four current research projects of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship:

Funding Implications of Social Enterprise: Donor Reaction to the Initiation and Type of Social Enterprise. This research project seeks to understand how individual donors respond when nonprofi t organizations engage in for-profi t activities, an increasing trend to create greater fi nancial self-suffi ciency. The project uses mixed-methods of qualitative interviews and quantitative experimental design to generate theory and empirically test how donors respond when non-

Miami University’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship

OARS Research News

profi t organizations develop their own for-profi t funding strategies. The project is a collaborative effort of Brett Smith, Maria Cronley and Terri Barr, all faculty members in the Farmer School of Business.

Scaling Social Impact: The Development of the SCALERS Model. This research project is a partnership with Duke University to build a research agenda to better understand one of the most important variables in the fi eld of social entrepreneurship, scaling (or growth) of social impact. This initial project develops the theoretical framework and empirically tests the drivers of scaling – termed SCALERS (Staffi ng, Communicating, Alliance-building, Lobbying, Earnings-generation, Replicating, and Stimulating markets) with nearly 600 non-profi ts in the US. Recently, the project has added another research university – Catholic University in Milan, Italy – and replicated the data collection in Italy to compare cross country differences and to test situational contingencies.

Mitigating Agency Problems in the Base of the Pyramid: An Identity Spillover Perspective. This multi-method research project moves into the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) market in Guatemala. This project, in partnership with researchers from Ohio State University, combines qualitative interviews and two fi eld-based experiments with one of our partner organizations. The research project focuses on how organizations can overcome agency problems of individual micro-entrepreneurs as they distribute and sell basic products

(eyeglasses, water fi ltration buckets, and solar lamps) to rural villagers in the BOP.

Deconstructing the Triggers of Psychological Ownership within Base-of-the-Pyramid Development Initiatives. This research project, in partnership with researchers from Ohio State and Oregon State Universities, will use multi-methods to identify, manipulate and test different mechanisms to better understand both the quantity and quality of co-investment by local communities in the developing world, trigger better psychological ownership, repair and maintenance of co-developed schools in Nepal, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka. Building on the research design above, this project uses a fi eld-based experimentation approach with more than two hundred school projects in the developing world.

Future Multi-disciplinary Projects. These projects represent some of the most recent research activities of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of the fi eld of social entrepreneurship, the faculty of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship is interested in discussing multi-disciplinary projects with faculty from a range of disciplines from across the university. If interested, please contact Dr. Brett Smith for more information: [email protected].

Miami University’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship (con’t)

OARS Research News

Status of Federal Appropriations Legislation for Fiscal Year 2012Three sets of appropriations including Agriculture, Rural Development and Food and Drug Administration; Commerce, Justice, and Science; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) were signed into law on Friday, November 18th as part of the fi rst appropriations “minibus”, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 (H.R.2112).

To view the current 2012 Congressional Action on R & D, go to: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy2012/total12c.pdf.

New information will be updated on the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) website: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy2012.

Lindsey McMillon- NASA Undergraduate Research Internship

Lyndsey McMillon is a Miami senior who is majoring in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. She began her fi rst year with independent research under the advisement of Dr. Osama Ettouney. He helped to foster her growth as a researcher and assisted in developing an improved surgical needle driver – which is a device surgeons used to close lacerations and

incisions. The summer after her fi rst year she was awarded a grant to continue her research with Dr. Ettouney.

Lyndsey’s on campus research experience helped her to obtain an internship at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Glenn researcher Jeremiah McNatt served as her mentor as she worked in the Photovoltaics and Power Technologies Branch in conjunction with the Kent, Ohio based corporation Alpha Micron to create a smart window. This solar powered smart window can alter light transmission into a home allowing it to remain shaded and cool on a warm day, or allow light to enter to aid in heating on a colder day. These windows can be applied to residential or commercial structures aiding in energy savings.

Lyndsey also worked with transparent conducting oxides to develop a small-scale solar cell. This is a lightweight and very inexpensive solar cell that will power the smart windows of the future. She also completed two terms as an intern working on an interdisciplinary team comprised of an Electrical Engineer, Materials Scientist, and an Organic Chemist – located in Ohio, Texas and England to understand how different substrates and anneals reacted with solar cells.

After completing two internships, Lyndsey also participated in a Co-Op, a direct pipeline toward full time employment, where she completed one term measuring solar cells from manufactures for space applications such

as Solar Probe Plus, a space craft that will visit and survey the Sun’s outer atmosphere or corona. Next summer, she will return to Glenn Research Center to work in the Optical Instrumentation and Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) Branch developing robots. She will join Mike Krasowski and his team who have previously developed robots capable of responding to weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological, or HAZMAT threats in addition to performing countless tasks, measurements and surveys of many environments on Earth or beyond.

Lyndsey’s favorite thing about her job is the versatility of NASA. Even in a branch with a concentration of Photovoltaics, there still exists versatility in projects. Research opportunities range from terrestrial to deep space application – and everything in between! She also made sure to take advantage of volunteer activities at NASA by becoming a NASA Student Ambassador and traveling the country representing NASA and spreading the mission and research fi ndings of the agency. She had the opportunity to meet Senator Rob Portman(photo above) and discuss the importance of pursuing careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). She also judged a science fair and engaged elementary students with a presentation about planet discovery. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of NASA with younger students, encouraging them to be excited about science!

Lyndsey is pleased that all of her professors in engineering know her by name. Dr. Ettouney is her adviser, and he has taken her under his wing. She believes that he is “like my on-campus dad.” He taught her the basics of good research and prepared her to be a professional engineer. He also assisted her in getting involved with campus activities. She serves as President of the Student Advisory Council for the Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Department at Miami and is a member of numerous engineering societies. She also is in her third year as a Resident Assistant. Lyndsey was so intrigued by her experience at NASA that she would like to pursue materials science research in graduate school and eventually work at NASA Glenn Research Center.

OARS Research News

OARS Research News

Training Records

Through the efforts of Miami IT services personnel Gabe Campbell and Nick Parrish, individual research compliance training completion dates for all programs, Human Subjects, Animal Care, and Responsible Conduct of Research can now be accessed using an online utility. The primary means of accessing the utility will be through the training pages for each program. The utility can temporarily be accessed at: http://www.units.muohio.edu/gsrcompliance/home.php

After logging in, faculty can access the research training records of all Miami personnel; however, students will only be able to access their own records.

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 as available 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 [email protected]; or 529-2488.

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 that best fi ts your research interests.

Helen G. Kiss, Assistant Director, & Information Coordinator.

Compliance Corner News

Spring 2012 Funding Opportunities Workshops- Presented by Helen Kiss

The Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) will host a series of Spring workshops for faculty and staff on “Strategies for locating grant opportunities using the internet.” The hands-on workshops will take place on February 17, 2012 from 9 - 11 am,

March 16, 2012 from 2:30 - 4:30 pm and on April 20, 2012 from 9 - 11 am in the computer lab located at 264 Bachelor Hall, Oxford Campus. Space is limited, so if you plan on attending one of the sessions, please contact Helen Kiss by email: [email protected], to make your reservation.

O February 2012 Edition >>>>>>> >>>OARS Research News

Greetings and welcome to this edition of OARS Research News. As a new feature of the newsletter, let me thank the 26 faculty and staff who received new externally funded grant awards since our last issue. These funds help support the research and educational activities across campus and we are pleased at the success of the group that includes faculty and

staff from the College of Arts and Science, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Education, Health and Society and the Hamilton and Middletown regional campuses. In addition, it was great to meet and talk with all those who received grant awards in FY2011 at the OARS reception last week.

With the New Year, I am pleased to introduce three new members to the OARS team. Jennifer Sutton has replaced Terri Brosius as Research Compliance Assistant. Terri retired from the university in November, 2011, and we thank her for her long-term of service. Vanessa Gordon is the new OARS Administrative Assistant, replacing Brittany Isaacs as our “face of OARS”. Vanessa comes to us from a long stint in the Registrar’s Offi ce and their loss is most assuredly our gain. Finally, Elana Wang has fulfi lled the remaining spot in our technology transfer team as part of our collaboration with Wright State University. Elana comes from Massachusetts General Hospital and brings a wealth of experience to the team.

Inside this issue, we profi le Dr. Sven-Eric Rose (FRE/ITA, Jewish Studies) on his work funded by the Posen Foundation to incorporate research and innovative approaches to humanities courses. Dr. Justin Saul (CPE) recently joined Miami University, coming to us from Wake Forest University, and we are excited about the biomedical applications of his funded work on keratin biomaterials. Dr. Tom Crist (IES/ZOO) is no stranger to Miami, but he is new this year in his role as Director of the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability. Tom’s strength as an interdisciplinary researcher and teacher will be skillfully applied to the IES programs in the coming years. Finally, we profi le a group of fi rst year students, participating in our First Year Research Experience (FYRE), who will be working with Wright State Univ., NASA, and the USAF to send high altitude balloons to the edge of outer space to collect data and do research for extended periods. This group of students embodies the spirit of research and exploration at Miami University.

We have provided news and updates on the upcoming Undergraduate Research Forum, our (and your!) membership in the Council on Undergraduate Research, technology transfer activities, and an explanation of that oh-so important indirect cost category in your budgets. As always, we will try to keep you up to date on deadlines and news of funding opportunities. The team in OARS is here for you, so don’t hesitate to ask for assistance.

Message from Dr. James Oris, Interim Associate Provost for Research and Scholarship, and Dean of the Graduate School

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

OARS Research News

Name Department Agency AwardRobert Seufert Applied Research Center

(Sociology)- MCButler Technology & Career Dev. Schools $17,300

Chun Liang Botany US Department of Agriculture $20,000Catherine Almquist Chemical & Paper Engineering American Society for Engineering Education $300Justin Saul Chemical & Paper Engineering Department of Defense (2) $130,920

William Steinecker Chemistry & Biochemistry NoBull Innovation (4) $ 30,938

Kathleen Weber Corporate & Community Institute-HC

Hydro Systems $ 8,484

Kathleen Weber Corporate & Community Institute-HC

Epcor Foundries $20,400

Jason Abbitt Educational Psychology US Department of Education $20,000Jane Bogan Educational Psychology Ohio Dept of Education $90,883Adodele Abatan Engineering Technology-HC US Department of Education $ 13,400Robert Setlock English-MC Ohio Space Grant Consortium $4,428Sarah Woodruff Evaluation&Assess/Discovery Center National Science Foundation $161,512William Newsome Family Studies & Social Work Butler County Children Services $50,000Babacar Camara French & Italian-MC Arts Wave $2,000Mary Cayton History National History Center $5,000Thomas Crist Inst. Environment & Sustainability US Environmental Protection Agency $3,720Edgar Caraballo Mechanical and Mfg Engineering NASA $22,821Rob Schorman Middletown Campus-Administration Ohio Department of Education $78,466Philip Russo Political Science Scioto County Area Foundation $10,018Paul Flaspohler Psychology US Department of Education $72,640James Brown Scripps Foundation National Institute of Health $ 68,181Janardan Subedi Scripps Foundation National Institute of Health (3) $83,617Katherine Fowler-Cordova Spanish and Portuguese National Endowment for Humanities $15,000

Stephanie Dawson Student Services-Hamilton Campus OH Department of Alcohol & Drug Addiction $5,100

James Oris Zoology National Science Foundation $65,550Yoshinori Tomoyasu Zoology Monsanto Company $272,356Craig Williamson Zoology Lacawac Sanctuary Foundation Inc. $170,000

Total $1,484,335

Table 1: External Grant Awards from MU Faculty/Staff between November 1, 2011 - February 15, 2012

When thinking about undergraduates participating in faculty research, the fi rst images that come to mind are of students collaborating in laboratory research, or conducting surveys as part of social science studies; research in the humanities can be much harder to make tangible. A multi-year grant from the Posen

Foundation has allowed Dr. Sven-Erik Rose to design a cross-listed interdisciplinary Jewish Studies course that does just that. With support from the grant, cutting edge research is brought from areas of literature, history, and cultural studies into a 200-level classroom, putting students into conversation with internationally renowned scholars who share methodologies and questions that motivate their research.

In 2006-07, Miami’s Program in Jewish Studies was awarded a competitive grant from the Posen Foundation to support the development of innovative courses in secular Jewish culture and history. The award was of $50,000/year, renewable upon annual review for up to two further years. The competition for receiving support beyond the originally envisioned three-year grant period was stiff, yet the Posen Foundation deemed the courses and programming dynamic enough to continue supporting, and proposals for additional funding for 2010-11 and 2011-12 were both successful. From 2006 to date, the project has received a total of $160, 295.

This grant has permitted the Jewish Studies program to diversify course offerings, strengthen Miami’s library holdings in areas relevant to teaching and research, and to restructure the Jewish Studies minor as an interdisciplinary program that exposes students to the complexity and diversity of Jewish civilization. Courses originally developed with support from the Posen grant have been offered as First Year and Honors seminars, and are listed in Classics, English, French, German, History, Italian Studies, and Russian.

In Spring 2008, Dr. Sven-Erik Rose introduced an experimental format for one of these courses, “Secular Jewish Culture from the Enlightenment to Zionism.” The course is structured around a series of visits from scholars active in a range of fi elds and approaches, who present on current scholarship. The students prepare for each visit by reading primary and secondary work on the topic, and discuss the presentations with each other, and with the scholars themselves. The scholars students see “doing” Jewish studies are not custodians of canonical wisdom but rather scholarly risk-takers rethinking received ideas in light of current theoretical debates. Intellectual energy is contagious, and inspires students in their own exploration of Jewish history and culture.

This course format has been used in 2010, 2011, and is currently used this semester. Because the lectures are open to the public, they foster conversation across Miami and the Oxford community. Faculty from Philosophy, English, French & Italian, and Women’s Studies have brought classes to lectures, and faculty from French, German, History, Italian, Mathematics, Political Science, and Russian have attended. The series also draws faculty from institutions such as the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.

In Spring 2010 and Spring 2011, Dr. Sven-Erik Rose extended the infl uence of the lecture series and established a parallel faculty seminar series, which reviews the scholarship of scholars who visit Miami to deliver a Posen lecture. Seminar participants receive books in advance, paid for with funds from the grant, and then have the opportunity to discuss them at length with their authors. The Posen Faculty Seminar in Jewish Studies is open to all Miami and area faculty, and colleagues from an array of Miami departments and neighboring institutions such as the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College have participated. The series has also been a boon to graduate students and advanced undergraduates, who may attend by invitation of a participating faculty member. Since Fall 2007 the program has brought twenty-two prominent Jewish studies scholars to campus for lectures, faculty seminars and other events.

Dr. Sven-Erik Rose, Assistant Professor, Dept. of French & Italian, and Affi liate of Jewish Studies Program

OARS Research News

OARS Research NewsDr. Justin Saul, Associate Professor, Dept. of Chemical & Paper Engineering

That’s so gross!” That was the response of one Chemical and Paper Engineering (CPE) student working in Dr. Justin Saul’s laboratory the fi rst time that she obtained the “raw material” for her senior research design project. Dr. Saul joined the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) in August 2011 with a research focus in biomaterials and their use for the delivery of cells

and therapeutic agents. Dr. Saul and Dr. Amy Yousefi are members of the CPE faculty with expertise relevant to the new Bioengineering Major in the department. New laboratory space shared by Dr. Yousefi and Dr. Saul in the Engineering Building is being developed for bioengineering research. When complete the lab space will have capabilities to fabricate materials and conduct both mechanical and biological testing.

Dr. Saul’s current research focus is on the use of keratin biomaterials. Keratins are a family of structural proteins that are found in feathers, horns, nails, claws - and human hair. It is this last source of keratin that Dr. Saul’s group is using as a raw material and that caused the reaction of the CPE undergraduate student. Before joining the faculty at Miami, Dr. Saul was a faculty member at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine where he collaborated with Dr. Mark Van Dyke’s group. Dr. Van Dyke’s has expertise in extracting keratin from human hair for biomedical applications. Some of the technologies around the keratin extraction and application to biomedical problems are part of the patent portfolio of a company called KeraNetics, LLC in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Extracted keratin proteins are sold by KeraNetics, but Dr. Saul has a group of senior design students developing a small-scale system in his laboratory to investigate alternate methods of purifi cation that may be useful in enhancing the keratin biomaterials’ use for cell and drug delivery.

The keratin family of proteins derived from human hair is diverse in nature, encoded by 17 known genes. One interesting aspect of their chemical structure is the presence of a relatively large number of cysteine residues, which allows for the formation of intra- and inter-molecular cross-links. More intuitively, these disulfi de cross-links are

what we associate with the elasticity of hair and the ability to “perm” hair (through the breaking and reforming of the disulfi de bonds). Dr. Saul’s group is developing techniques to control the delivery of therapeutic agents by regulation of the keratin’s material and chemical properties. This research is an extension of previous work from Dr. Van Dyke’s group showing that keratin biomaterials have physical and chemical characteristics that make them suitable and interesting for biomedical applications. By incorporating therapeutic agents into the keratin biomaterials, their function is further enhanced.

The development of these materials has garnered interest from the Department of Defense (DOD) for the development of novel materials that may aid in the healing and recovery of injured soldiers. Dr. Saul currently collaborates extensively with KeraNetics through two on-going and one pending DOD Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants. Existing grants are investigating the ability of keratin biomaterials to achieve release of antibiotics for the prevention of bacterial infection and the ability of keratin biomaterials to deliver bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) to treat craniofacial bone injuries. A pending DOD SBIR grant would utilize keratin biomaterials for the delivery of cells and other growth factors to promote healing of skeletal muscle. Dr. Saul, in collaboration with researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology, also currently has a proposal pending with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that has received favorable reviews for the use of keratin biomaterials in the treatment of bone injury.

The goal for each of the existing and pending DOD SBIR grants is to conduct pre-clinical testing that could ultimately lead to human clinical trials. An existing system for delivery of BMP-2 sold by Medtronic has approximately $1 billion in annual sales due to its effi cacy in promoting spinal fusion for degenerative disc disease, so this area of research has both economic and human health implications. “There is a clinical need for new materials that can promote healing and tissue regeneration following traumatic injury, disease, or age-related degeneration”, says Dr. Saul. Thus, although the source of the keratin biomaterials used in Dr. Saul’s lab may seem “gross,” this area of research may provide next-generation materials to promote tissue regeneration.

Dr. Tom Crist, Director, Institute for the Environment & Sustainability (IES)

Dr. Thomas Crist is the Director of the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability (IES). The IES was founded in 1969 as the Institute for Environmental Sciences, and its Master of Environmental Science (MEn) program now has over 650 graduates working as environmental professionals in industry, public agencies, consulting fi rms, and non-profi t organizations. The IES was

renamed in 2010 to refl ect its broader mission as an umbrella institute for education, research, and outreach on the environment and sustainability. As part of its reorganization, the IES administers undergraduate co-majors in environmental science and in sustainability. The IES has over 30 faculty affi liates across departments from all divisions of the university.

As a professional degree, the hallmarks of the MEn are problem solving, teamwork, and quantitative and communication skills. As part of their core curriculum during fi rst year of the program, MEn students conduct a professional service project in which teams of students develop solutions to real problems confronted by public or private organizations. In 2011-2012, there are three student team projects: the development of a pilot program to foster sustainable farming practices in Clermont County, Ohio; the design of a trail system for outdoor education at the new Talawanda High School; and, the creation of a park master plan and site development plan for Union County, Indiana Parks and Recreation Board. IES Outreach Coordinator, Suzanne Zazycki, acts as senior project manager for the student teams. Two of the IES team projects involve collaborations with students in the Department of Architecture and Interior Design, led by professors Scott Johnston and Mary Ben Bonham. In addition to team projects and the core curriculum, MEn students pursue concentrations in applied ecology, land and water resources, energy, toxicology, or management and planning. The program is capped by an individual professional experience that involves a practicum, internship, or thesis.

The IES is also engaged in community outreach. The Butler County Stream Team, led by Dr. Donna McCollum, is a partnership between IES and Butler County agencies that coordinates a network of citizen volunteers to monitor

stream water quality. The IES is involved with Three Valley Conservation Trust through student internships and biodiversity assessments for conservation easements. Graduate students partner with the City of Oxford to organize Earth Day activities in uptown Oxford each April.

As a professor in the Department of Zoology for 18 years, Dr. Crist’s own research program spans a range of topics, including the effects of habitat fragmentation and land use on biodiversity, forest and agricultural ecology, and quantitative analysis of populations and communities. His PhD students in the Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology program and undergraduate researchers are investigating the roles of conservation grasslands in supporting the biodiversity of benefi cial insects that provide ecosystem services (regulation of pests, pollination, and soil engineering) in agricultural landscapes of SW Ohio. Another project is aimed at understanding the interactive effects of deer and an invasive shrub (amur honeysuckle) on forest community and ecosystem processes in the Miami Natural Areas. This research uses an experimental approach with honeysuckle removals in replicated plots inside and outside of large fenced areas to exclude deer. Dr. David Gorchov (Botany) and Dr. Melany Fisk (Zoology) are collaborators on this project.

Dr. Crist has also collaborated extensively with scientists in North America and Europe to synthesize cross-continental patterns of biodiversity in relation to agriculture and other land uses, and to develop new approaches to understanding spatial variation in the distribution of biodiversity. One of these collaborations recently led to a publication in Science, and was featured as a cover story in September 2011.

The photo below shows some of the IES graduate students at the Butler County Stream Team community outreach, and stream sampling program.

OARS Research News

Thirty-three extraordinary fi rst-year students who were inspired by the benefi ts of research have teamed up to pursue a project called High Flight. High Flight (name inspired by a poem of the same name by John Gillespie Magee, Jr) involves designing, fabricating, and fl ying a lighter than air vehicle (balloon or blimp) to edge of space, around 120,000 feet, sometimes also called “near space,” and keeping it there for an extended period of time. They are even working on a scientifi c experiment to test for microscopic life in the near space environment. The challenges associated with this project span a wide variety of specialties, including project management, website design, mechanical and electrical engineering, material science, computer science, and business development, necessitating a very interdisciplinary approach.

The High Flight project will last all four years these students are at Miami and culminate in an exciting capstone experience for everyone on the team. In the mean time, they plan to launch several shorter duration missions to the edge of space to collect important information and gain valuable experience. They will then progress on to longer and longer lasting missions, ultimately sending missions to circumnavigate the globe for months at a time. The fi rst mission will take place next semester, when the team plans to launch a stratospheric balloon that will return HD video imagery from the edge of space along with other important information. In preparation, members of the team will be traveling to Wright State University (WSU) to observe a group of students there launch a high altitude balloon. While the WSU team is not pursing development of an extended duration capability, they have successfully fl own over 20 missions to the edge of space.

The High Flight team is in the process of forming collaborations with WSU, NASA and the US Air Force that will involve

both technical assistance and in some cases funding. The team hopes to have these agreements in place sometime next semester. The High Flight team members are also reaching out to their hometown high schools to see if there might be some interest in working together. So far, the responses have been very positive and the team plans to invite selected high schools to send teachers and students to Miami this summer for a workshop on the High Flight project that will include launching another stratospheric balloon mission to the edge of space. It is the team’s hope that by reaching out to their high schools and to others, that High Flight might help inspire younger students from all over to consider pursuing careers in high technology areas.

Bob Setlock (SEAS/MME) and Glenn Platt (AIMS) have teamed up to mentor the High Flight team and plan to remain highly engaged with the students throughout the duration of the project. Jim Clarke, Miami’s Engineering Librarian, will also be working very closely with the students. In addition to the obvious technology development issues, High Flight will also challenge the students to explore the nature of their own creative thought processes and to experiment with different approaches to optimize the novelty of their innovations. To add more breadth, Bob and Glenn are currently interested in recruiting more fi rst-year students from other disciplines, including but not limited to, business, art, and the sciences. If you know of any fi rst-year students who might be interested in High Flight, please contact Bob Setlock ([email protected]) or Glenn Platt ([email protected]) and let them know.

Fig. 1.- Image from the Edge of Space Captured by a Stratospheric Balloon Mission Conducted by the University of California San Diego.

Fig. 2.- The High Flight Team at Miami University.

High Flight- A First Year Research Experience (FYRE) to Explore the Edge of Space

OARS Research News

The old urban legend was that 50 Inuit words for snow indicated snow’s importance in that culture. If this were true, then perhaps three terms with identical meaning—indirects, overhead, and facilities and administration costs (F&A) — indicate the importance of this budget item to anyone creating, funding, or accounting for a budget.

But when you’re frantically trying to fi nish your grant proposal and you’re at the penultimate line of your budget, there is little time to wonder “What is F&A? Why is it important?” Your main thought has probably been “How can I keep indirects from draining my budget?” Now that you’re not frantic, let’s answer each of these questions in turn.

What is F&A? Facilities and administration costs are real costs incurred by Miami in support of sponsored activities (research or some other activity paid for by an organization other than Miami). These F&A costs are “incurred for common or joint objectives and therefore cannot be identifi ed readily and specifi cally with a particular sponsored project” (OMB Circ A-21). For example, “Facilities” is defi ned as depreciation and use allowances, interest on debt associated with certain buildings, equipment and capital improvements, operation and maintenance expenses (i.e. electricity, phone), and library expenses. “Administration” is defi ned as general, departmental, sponsored projects, and student administration and services, grant accounting and regulatory compliance, and other types of expenditures not listed specifi cally in a subcategory of Facilities.

Why is F&A important? As described by Bienenstock (2002), in most other industrialized countries a large fraction of the basic and long-term applied research is performed in national laboratories and universities that are funded directly and completely by the government. In the US, the federal government relies on research universities to perform a large fraction of the basic and long-term applied research. The universities put up their own money for construction, operation, and

maintenance of research facilities, and they pay faculty and administrative salaries. They are reimbursed for a portion of the costs associated with federally funded research, but they get this money only after they have invested in the facilities and hired staff and only when their faculty members are successful in competing for research funds. Thus, universities take on a signifi cant fi nancial risk when they decide to pursue an area of research.

This system accounts, in large measure, for US leadership in almost every research fi eld as well as for the exceptional quality of US graduate education. The combination of state and private funding has built a research infrastructure and a graduate education system unmatched anywhere in the world. It is unlikely that the federal government would have paid for the development of such a system (Bienenstock, 2002). Therefore, indirect costs are not “extra dollars,” but are the system for federal support of research. Even so, Bienenstock argues that universities only recover between 70 and 90 percent of the F&A expenses associated with federal sponsored projects.

How can I keep indirects from draining my budget?Given the importance of maintaining a research infrastructure, indirect costs should not be seen as draining your budget (but we will give you some tips to ease your pain). Understanding the Miami system will help.

Federal indirect cost rates for Miami are reviewed and negotiated every 10 years with our audit agency, the Department of Health & Human Services. Our federally negotiated F&A cost rate is currently 42% of a budget’s modifi ed total direct costs. This 42% F&A is comprised of an “F” of 16% and an “A” of 26%. If your project is entirely off-campus, therefore, you may use the administration-only rate of 26%. It is Miami policy to use our 42% rate in proposal budgets for all sponsored projects unless the funder has a written policy that prohibits the recovery of F&A or specifi es a lower rate. For example, the US Department of Education

Proposal Process- Indirect Costs Do Not Drain Budgets

OARS Research News

and most State of Ohio agencies allow only 8% indirect costs, and many private foundations do not allow inclusion of indirect costs at all.

We occasionally hear from people who are frustrated about what they perceive to be Miami’s high indirect costs, but our rate of 42% is actually quite low when compared to other institutions in Ohio and nationwide. For example, OSU’s rate is 52.5%, UC charges 57%, OU’s F&A rate is 47%, Harvard’s is 68% and NYU’s rate is 69%.

Also, it is good to know that many sponsors allow F&A over and above their direct cost limits. (Direct costs are those for activities that benefi t specifi c projects of activities). In some cases, F&A must be included in the total cost limits. So why do we need to ask for these costs?

The money that Miami receives from indirect cost recovery is distributed across the university, with portions going to the general operating fund, to OARS, and to the PI’s academic division and department. For regional campus-based investigators, a portion is also allocated to the campus.

If you write a proposal, you can take advantage of the F&A funds that OARS receives. OARS can use these funds to help your budgets meet mandatory cost sharing requirements, fund your travel to a federal and/or state agency to meet with your program offi cer, and sponsor Miami workshops by federal agency representatives. Recovered indirects also fund the CFR Grants to Promote Research Program, an important source of internal funding that has helped to launch many active research agendas.

You may also be able to take advantage of the F&A funds that academic divisions, departments, and campuses receive. If you need small amounts of money to make up a cost share budget or to cover

aspects of your project, many deans and chairs are willing to occasionally relinquish portions of their F&A distributions…just ask them. On the Hamilton Campus, 5% of the campus’ share of recovered indirects are automatically returned to the PI for use in any research activity.

In very rare circumstances, a PI may request that a lower F&A rate be used on a particular project or may request a total waiver of indirect costs. This request must be approved by OARS and must include a detailed project budget along with an explanation of why this reduction in F&A is necessary.

Adding indirect costs to your budget can feel like a drain. But when your proposal is funded, you can feel good that your indirects are supporting important research at Miami.

References: Bienenstock, Arthur. (2002). A Fair Deal for Federal Research at Universities. Issues in Science and Technology. See:http://www.issues.org/19.1/p_bienenstock.htm

Offi ce of Management and Budget. (2004). Circular A-21, Cost Principles for Educational Institutions. See: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars_a021_2004/

Article written by:Anne Schauer, Assistant Director, OARS, and Amy Lamborg, Coordinator for Grant Development, Hamilton Campus, Miami University

Proposal Process- Indirect Costs Do Not Drain Budgets (con’t )

OARS Research News

MU Technology Transfer Update Miami University’s Technology Transfer Associate, Mr. Reid Smith, is pleased to welcome aboard the second Technology Transfer Associate under the Miami University –Wright State University collaboration for technology transfer and patent management. Ms. Elana Wang joins Miami and Wright State’s Offi ce of Technology Transfer & Development as the Licensing Associate for Physical Sciences. Elana’s prior role in licensing academic innovations was with Partner’s Healthcare, an organization founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. There she managed a portfolio of invention and software cases for 4 years before relocating to the Dayton area in August 2010. Elana earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and earned her J.D. from Suffolk University while employed as a technical specialist for Lahive & Cockfi eld’s intellectual property practice in Boston. She will be providing technology transfer services on a 25% FTE basis beginning in February 2012.

One of the most challenging aspects of licensing innovations that arise from academic research programs is securing the resources to advance inventions through the phase often referred to as the “valley of death.” To assist universities in the State of Ohio with meeting this challenge, the Ohio Third Frontier has announced and

released a Request for Proposals for the Technology Validation and Start-Up Fund. This program provides fi nancial support for projects that can advance a university invention case in a way that enhances the licensing prospects for the technology. A total of $6 million in funding is evenly allocated to Phase I and Phase II awards, with Phase II awards targeted toward Ohio-based start-up companies that have recently executed licenses for technology from Ohio institutions of higher education.

Phase-I awards are designed to support additional validation or proof-of-concept work that can lead to a more attractive licensing scenario, including prototyping, demonstration and/or scale-up planning projects. Awards of up to $50 thousand are available, with a requirement for a 1:1 cash cost share. Miami and Wright State submitted a joint qualifi cation proposal for this program, which was accepted by the Third Frontier. Reid and Elana will be working with Dr. James Oris in OARS and Miami inventors to identify cases that may be eligible for the subject matter areas identifi ed in the RFP (request for proposal) and to encourage development of proposals that would have strong prospect for funding under this program. The program will open four RFPs this year, and it is anticipated that this approach will continue to be a component of the Third Frontier’s support programs for academic innovation in the coming years.

OARS Research News

Miami Students Invited to Present at the Spring 2012 Undergraduate Research Forum

Miami University undergraduates have the opportunity to present results of independent research projects and other creative activities at our annual Undergraduate Research Forum to be held on April, 11, 2012. Students may choose to present their research in either a 15- minute oral synopsis, or in an interactive poster session format. This university wide event showcases a Miami strength - learning through undergraduate inquiry and research. Register online by the end of February 2012. Registration Instructions and other details available at:http://www.muohio.edu/undergradresearch.

Event contact: Martha Weber, OARS Undergraduate Research Director, 529-1775, [email protected].

Fig: 1- Students presenting their poster to a faculty member at the 2011 Forum.

MU Students, Faculty & Staff Invited to Join CURThe Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), founded in 1978, is a national organization of individual and institutional members representing over 900 colleges and universities. On July 1, 2011 Miami joined CUR as an Enhanced Institutional Member. An unlimited number Miami faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students are invited to register as a CUR member and to begin using the resources on the CUR website www.cur.org. See CUR Registration Instructions below. Martha Weber, OARS Undergraduate Research Director, serves as Miami’s CUR liaison.

About the Council on Undergraduate Research The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) and its affi liated colleges, universities, and individuals share a focus on providing undergraduate research opportunities for faculty and students at institutions serving undergraduates. CUR believes that faculty members enhance their teaching and contribution to society by remaining active in research and by involving undergraduates in research. CUR publications and outreach activities are designed to share successful models and strategies for establishing and institutionalizing undergraduate research programs. CUR welcomes faculty and administrators from all academic institutions and all disciplines, our primary advocacy is in support of faculty and students at the undergraduate level. CUR achieves its vision through efforts of its membership as organized in a divisional structure that includes arts and humanities, biology, chemistry, geosciences,

health sciences, mathematics and computer science, physics and astronomy, psychology, social sciences, an at-large division that serves administrators and other disciplines, and a division for directors of undergraduate research programs.

CUR Defi nition of Undergraduate Research: “An inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate student that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline. “

Resources available to CUR Members Only:(1.) Networking with other CUR members, (2.) Electronic subscription to The CUR Quarterly: a Journal, CUR Research Registry of Undergraduate Researchers. This registry facilitates matching undergraduates with research experience and a desire to pursue an advanced degree, with graduate schools seeking high quality students who are well prepared for research. Any undergraduate or graduate student may register at no charge. Student information records will only be made available to bona fi de graduate schools that contract with CUR for this service.

CUR Registration Instructions for Miami faculty, staff and students In a browser go to: www.cur.org, navigate to the CUR individual membership registration form. At the “Select Institution” drop down list, choose Miami University OH. Then continue to fi ll in the registration form.

OARS Research News

Welcome Vanessa Gordon- OARS New Administrative Assistant

Vanessa Gordon is the new OARS Administrative Assistant – the front desk face of OARS. Vanessa will manage the document fl ow and electronic document storage for both proposal submissions and for funded submission agreements and contracts. She will provide administrative support for OARS internal research programs and for two university senate committees

(Committee on Faculty Research and the Undergraduate Research Award Program Committee).

Ms. Gordon comes highly recommended for her solutions-oriented approach, and OARS is excited to blend her skills into their team. Prior to joining the staff, Vanessa was a valued team member and the “go to” staff member in Offi ce of the Registrar for Banner Web Registration, among a wide variety of responsibilities. Vanessa shines as a professional in customer service. She has already demonstrated a variety of technical skills and is eager to learn her new responsibilities at OARS. Please join us in welcoming Vanessa to OARS, [email protected].

OARS Research News

We welcome Jennifer Sutton to OARS as the Research Compliance Assistant. Jennifer comes to us from the E&A Center at Miami, and will be processing your applications and answering many of your questions.

Compliance TrainingTraining completion status and dates for persons interacting with human and animal research subjects can now be looked up with an online utility after logging in at: http://www.units.muohio.edu/gsrcompliance/home.php Faculty can access all records, but students can only access their own records.

Animal CareYou may have heard in national news sources that the federal adoption of a new set of guides for the care of research

animals earlier this year could cumulatively cost institutions millions of dollars to implement. Fortunately, the facilities at MU already meet the requirements although future methodologies may be affected by the changes.

Financial Confl ict of Interest and NIH (FCOI)The National Institutes of Health have issued a ruling that alter the provisions for FCOI. Among the changes are a lowering of the minimum threshold to $5,000 and the requirement for declaration of a FCOI on a publicly accessible website. Changes are summarized at: http://www.muohio.edu/compliance/RCR_FCOI.htm

As always, please contact us with any questions. [email protected], [email protected], 529-0454.

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 that best fi ts your research interests.

Helen G. Kiss, Assistant Director, & Information Coordinator.

Compliance Corner News

Spring 2012 Funding Opportunities Workshops- Presented by Helen Kiss

The Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) will host a series of Spring workshops for faculty and staff on “Strategies for locating grant opportunities using the internet.” The hands-on workshops will take place on March 16, 2012 from 2:30 - 4:30 pm

and on April 20, 2012 from 9 - 11 am in the computer lab located at 264 Bachelor Hall, Oxford Campus. Space is limited, so if you plan on attending one of the sessions, please contact Helen Kiss by email: [email protected], to make your reservation.

Undergraduate Research Award Program- March 2, 2012 DeadlineThe (URA) Undergraduate Research Award Programdeadline is 5:00 p.m. March 2, 2012 (to apply for funding to conduct a research project in Fall 2012). The program issponsored by the university senate committee on undergraduate research. It provides an opportunity for

all enrolled full-time undergraduates on all campuses to participate in a world of research and scholarly projects. Application and Guidelines available on the web at: http:www.muohio.edu/undergradresearch.

O April 2012 Edition >>>>>>> >>>OARS Research News

Welcome to the last issue of OARS Research News for the 2011-2012 academic year. Miami University had another great year in terms of successful, externally and internally funded research and scholarly activities. The news and profi les provided in our newsletter touch on just the tip of the iceberg that helps make the Miami Experience so amazing.

This message comes right before the Miami University Undergraduate Research Forum, to be held in the Shriver Center on April 11, 2012. In its 18th year, the Forum is our premier event to celebrate independent inquiry by undergraduate students at Miami University. We will again be fi lled to capacity for a one-day event, with over 300 poster and oral presentations that include more than 400 undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty mentors as authors. The close collaboration of students and their faculty mentors demonstrated at the forum is one of the highlights of the year! I also want to thank Martha Weber, Vanessa Gordon and the rest of the GSOARS team for organizing such a wonderful event. In this issue we profi le Professor Dmitriy Garmatyuk’s (ECE) work on cognitive sensing, where he and colleagues are developing autonomous robotic systems that can collect data about the environment and then make decisions based on that data. The work will be important for both defense and civilian related applications. Professor Andrew Casper (ART) is a scholar in Renaissance and Baroque art in southern Europe. He recently had accepted a new book, entitled “Art and Religious Image in El Grecco’s Italy” (Penn State Univ Press) – an in-depth investigation of the Renaissance artist El Grecco. As we lead up to the 40th Anniversary of the Freedom Summer, in which Western College served in

an important role, Professor Ann Elizabeth Armstrong, Co-Director of “Finding Freedom Summer” (THE) is highlighted for her programs that refl ect the historical events of the summer of 1964 through performance, as well as academic research and scholarship. With the goal of expanding Teacher Academy programs in Ohio, Professors Kevin Bush (Associate Dean EHS), Barbara Hueberger Rose (EDT) and Denise Baszile (EDL) are collaborating on a project funded by the Martha Jennings Foundation to enhance the preparation and diversity of students in teacher education. Professors Katie Fowler-Córdova (SPN) and Darcy Donahue (SPN) will be conducting a Summer Institute this year, funded by the Ohio Humanities Council, exploring issues that face Latino/Hispanic communities and help teachers prepare classroom experiences for their students. Cultural Anthropologist Melissa Rinehart (ATH-MUM) is not only an expert on Native American culture, but also has a great depth of experience in broad cross- cultural human experiences. She is developing a series of ‘cultural conversations’ to be recorded and broadcast on National Public Radio stations in northeast Indiana. Did you know that time is money? Our own Tricia Callahan and Amy Lamborg have written a nice piece on time/effort and compensation on grants and contracts. This semester we had the great fortune to host a wonderful undergraduate student communications intern, Jessica Sink. Jessica was our ‘go-to’ person for publicity, marketing and news writing. In addition, two of our undergraduates (Cooper and Katie Vogel) who work the GSOARS front desk will depart after this semester. We will miss you all, but wish you the best of luck. Finally, I want to extend a warm thank you to all of the staff in the Graduate School and OARS. It has been a rewarding but challenging year, and everyone stepped up to the plate, stayed steady in the box, and did an outstanding job.

Message from Dr. James Oris, Interim Associate Provost for Research and Scholarship, and Dean of the Graduate School

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

Miami Cognitive Sensing Research Offers New Possibilities for Air Force

While most robots remain confi ned to the big screen in Sci-Fi thrillers, researchers at Miami are working to bring independently thinking robots to life for real application in the

United States Air Force.

Dr. Dmitriy Garmatyuk, Associate Professor and Dr. Yu T. (Jade) Morton, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, along with a team of graduate students, are working on one aspect of a new project designed and funded by the Air Force to improve robotic target scene reconstruction and platform navigation through the use of an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) radar system. The work on this radar system will eventually allow robotic mechanisms, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and ground vehicles, to interact with the environment and make decisions without requiring human control.

The overall strategic goal of the project is to develop autonomous, free thinking robotic mechanisms that can scan the environment, sense human life or various other objects, and then make decisions based on the gathered data. As technology continues to get cheaper, the risk and value of human lives increases, and an independent robotic system would allow robots to take the place of human beings in dangerous disaster areas and be able to detect targets through rubble and debris.

The engineering team at Miami University is working to design a cognitive sensor platform capable of performing detection, ranging, communication, imaging, and navigation without the need for a human operator. This is one important aspect of the goal to generate independent mechanisms using a highly confi gurable ultra-wideband (UWB) software-defi ned radar system (SDRS) based upon orthogonal frequency division multiplexing to collect and make use of experimental

data to perform adaptive detection of targets in through-wall conditions.

Dr. Garmatyuk and Dr. Morton are leading the project at Miami University, with several graduate student researchers assisting with the project. Occasionally, undergraduate students also contribute. “Everyone who works on the project fi nds it a valuable experience,” said Garmatyuk. Brian Jameson, a graduate student in Computational Science and Engineering, received a special honor for his contribution to the project. He was one of fi ve fi nalists selected to attend the January 2012 International Waveform Diversity and Design Conference. Held in Kauai, Hawaii, the Conference honored fi ve student fi nalists for their work, with each student participating in a half-hour presentation and an evaluative poster session. Jameson presented his work “Target Scene Reconstruction in Indoor Environment with Cognitive OFDM Radar” in a both an oral and poster session, and won second place. Jameson was the only Master’s student competing with four other doctoral students, which made his win even more impressive.

“The conference was a great experience,” said Jameson. “In general, work on the project has been very interesting and it is great knowing that I am contributing to a process that will hopefully be relevant and useful one day.”

The radar project began in 2007 with a $200,000 grant from the United States Air Force. Currently, the research receives additional funding for further research from Wright Patterson Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

“Thinking in a sort of Sci-Fi way, in fi fty years or so, wars could actually be fought solely by robotic mechanisms,” said Garmatyuk. “The Miami group is focusing on a small part of that project. We are at the very beginning of a new type of research that has never been done before, and are excited to continue the process.”

Written by: Jessica Sink,Miami University Honors ProgramStrategic Communication, Marketing, History

Dr. Dmitriy Garmatyuk, Associate Professor, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering

OARS Research News

OARS Research News Dr. Andrew Casper, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Art

Casper’s Book Paints New Image of Famous Artist“Artistic images play a distinct role in defi ning periods in history. My research and work seeks to explore that role by looking at the infl uence of the great artist known as El Greco.”

Dr. Andrew Casper (Assistant Professor, Department of Art) will now fi nally see his research efforts come to fruition with the completion of his book, Art and the Religious Image in El Greco’s Italy, which has recently been accepted for publication by Penn State University Press. As of December, the work is offi cially under contract with a tentative publication date of 2013 or 2014. Art and the Religious Image in El Greco’s Italy is an in-depth investigation into the Italian phase of the Renaissance artist known as El Greco.

A prominent fi gure of the Renaissance and Baroque age, El Greco (“the Greek”) is best known for the works he created in Spain until his death in 1614. However, he had previously worked in Venice and Rome from 1567-1576, and before that was trained as an icon painter on the island of Crete in Greece, where he was born. Although his prominence has been most closely identifi ed with his Spanish ties, his work in Italy has been a largely unexplored period of El Greco’s career.

Casper’s work serves to capture the essence of El Greco’s Italian period by exploring this largely unstudied phase of the often-misunderstood artist. More importantly, the book examines El Greco’s artistic pieces from Italy to paint a broader picture of cultural understanding of the time. Art and the Religious Image in El Greco’s Italy identifi es how El Greco’s paintings offered solutions to basic problems concerning the proper form, content, and reception of sacred art in the period, and can help art scholars today better understand the role of religious images within a historical context.

“This project was an opportunity to not only explore the unexamined phase of a major artist, but also to better understand the wider cultural signifi cance of images within the period,” said Casper.

Dr. Casper is a scholar in the Renaissance and Baroque art of southern Europe, and earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. It was during his time as a graduate student at UPenn, when Casper settled on the dissertation topic that would eventually transform into his fi rst book project. His research into the life and cultural signifi cance of the artist El Greco developed through years of study and travel including spending one year each in Venice, Rome, and Berlin. In 2005 Casper was awarded a Fulbright grant for his research.

“My research involved not only studying El Greco’s art, but completely delving into primary sources of the time,” said Casper. “It was important to uncover the contextual cultural understanding in order to give me a sense of what those images meant to the philosophy and religion of that period.”

The process for publication of the book began in 2009 with Casper submitting proposals to various presses for peer review. The manuscript was accepted for contract in Fall 2011. In addition to its acceptance for publication, Casper’s manuscript has also been awarded acceptance into the Art History Publication Initiative (AHPI), a new collaborative grant involving four leading academic presses that publish art history scholarship to promote and cover the publication costs of fi rst books by selected art historians. As part of the AHPI, Art and the Religious Image of El Greco’s Italy will be published both in print and digital eBook editions.

“The publication process has certainly been daunting in the way that one has to be patient and persistent,” said Casper. “But I was fortunate to get great positive feedback and am excited to move forward.”

Dr. Casper has presented scholarly work at the conference of the College Art Association, the Renaissance Society of America, Sixteenth Century Society, and other national and international venues. His publications include articles in the journals World & Image, Zeitscrift für Kunstgeschichte, and Source. He joined the Miami faculty in 2007, and currently teaches courses in Renaissance and Baroque art in Europe and Latin America.

Written by: Jessica Sink,Miami University Honors ProgramStrategic Communication, Marketing, History

OARS Research NewsDr. Ann Elizabeth Armstrong, Associate Professor, Dept. of Theatre

Performance and Social Change: Armstrong’s Exploration of Freedom Summer

Performance is not only for the stage, it serves in a variety of settings to bring people together and create change. The Mississippi Summer Project, most commonly known as Freedom Summer, was a national campaign

led by groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to stop the racial injustices of the Jim Crow South. The orientation sessions for volunteers of Freedom Summer took place in June 1964 at the Western College in Oxford, now part of Miami’s campus. College students from all over the country convened here in Oxford, Ohio to study nonviolent resistance before they went to Mississippi to teach freedom schools and register voters.

Dr. Ann Elizabeth Armstrong, Associate Professor of Theater, is working to educate others on the signifi cance of Freedom Summer at Miami by exploring it through a lens of performance. She is co-director of the “Finding Freedom Summer Project” an initiative that works to refl ect the historical events that occurred on the Western College site during the summer of 1964. Through this initiative, Armstrong designed a walking tour of Western College campus to highlight the place where the training took place and also express the historical impact the event had on the Civil Rights Movement. In 2009, she directed a newly commissioned world premiere play about the history by Carlyle Brown called Down in Mississippi. She is currently investigating the role performance played in the history of Freedom Summer, merging her creative practice of theater with academic scholarship and historical research.

In 2010, Armstrong, along with Dr. Mary Jane Berman and Dr. Nishani Frazier, received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The NEH grant was based on a three-part focus for future expansion of the Freedom Summer project: a museum exhibit in Peabody Hall, an interactive media walking tour, and a series of educational programs to help reach a broader audience. All components are intended to provide a content-rich, historical context for the Civil Rights Movement and Freedom Summer.

Currently, Armstrong is researching grant opportunities for the creation of the interactive media component of the walking tour. This new addition would incorporate audio, photographs, songs, and stories accessible on a mobile device to provide greater historical background to visitors. Armstrong hopes to create a series of modules that would continue to expand with time and promote student interaction and engagement with the history and contemporary themes.

The interactive media component could help visitors really experience the personalities and emotions of the people in Freedom Summer. “The expansive nature of the project requires that I collaborate with many different people across disciplines to create a cohesive experience that truly conveys the memory of Freedom Summer.” Dr. Armstrong has collected archival research from the Martin Luther King Center Collection and the State of Wisconsin Historical Society for the project.

2014 will mark the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer and will include a special celebration, which is in the process of development. Armstrong believes the Freedom Summer initiative will continue to expand and reach new audiences. “We want people to see the events through the perspective of the people who were there in 1964,” said Armstrong. “We want them to recognize that although there were differences of race, religion, and geography, people came together to work to bring about social change.”

Armstrong currently has two publications at press. The fi rst, “Rehearsing for Dialogue: Facilitation Training and Miami University’s A More Perfect Union,” is an essay to be published in a book collection by Southern Illinois Press and focuses on how to train peer educators in the application of theater for social change. It is based on her work with the student group she advises, the Walking Theatre Project. The second is an introduction to an archival collection project by Jacky Johnson, a collection of documents of Freedom Summer, to be published by Miami University Press. Both essays have an estimated publication date of 2013. In her creative work, Armstrong directs productions in the Miami University Theatre season.

Written by: Jessica Sink,Miami University Honors ProgramStrategic Communication, Marketing, History

Martha Jennings Corporation Grant Received for Teaching Academy Program

Fig. 1- Dr. Kevin Bush, Dr. Barbara Heuberger Rose, andDr. Denise Baszile

In a technologically driven and diverse society, preparing high school students to enter the fi eld of education as teachers is more important than ever. Three Miami University faculty members have received a grant to further expand a program that will build a positive learning environment for students and teachers through community collaboration.

The teacher academy programs throughout Ohio are two–year intensive programs that introduce the teaching profession to high school students. At Miami, the School of Education, Health and Society (EHS) has worked with teachers in nine area schools, offering professional development with the purpose of improving the preparation of incoming undergraduates in teacher education and increasing the diversity of teacher education candidates, particularly in race and socioeconomic status.

The Miami project “Enhancing Critical Thinking Through High School Teacher Academy-University Collaboration,” (Fig. 1) headed by Dr. Kevin Bush

(Associate Dean of the School of Education, Health and Society), Dr. Barbara Heuberger Rose (Associate Professor, Teacher Education), and Dr. Denise Baszile (Associate Professor, Educational Leadership) received a $60,125 grant through the Martha Jennings Corporation to broaden the reach of the program through fi ve additional initiatives. These include (1) the creation and teaching of four online graduate courses for teachers to learn how to infuse critical thinking skills into lessons, (2) assessment and support of student-created portfolios, (3) monthly school-university learning community meetings, (4) junior and senior high school “summer campus days” at Miami, and (5) teacher academy symposia.

Dr. Baszile was asked to assist with the program after the grant was received, and will work as part of the team to expand the project.

“The objective is to get Teacher Academy back to its original concept,” said Baszile. “We can then work to expand its outreach and better address the needs of the community.

The goal of the grant is to create a program that can be continued and self-sustaining. Funding for the project will extend from September 1, 2011 through August 31, 2012, but the team hopes the initiatives enabled by the grant will help support the program long term.

Written by: Jessica Sink,Miami University Honors ProgramStrategic Communication, Marketing, History

OARS Research News

April 17, 2012 Deadline for Gerber Inquiry Award Student Developed Inquiry Projects

Dr. Hays Cummins is pleased to announce the 2012 Gerber Inquiry Award, hosted by the Inquiry Center and the Western Program.

The purpose of the award is to facilitate undergraduate students from all majors to pursue their own inquiries.

Typical awards will range from $200-$500, however for proposals with exceptional merit a project may be funded up to $1,000.

The application deadline is April 17, 2012. See:http://inquirycenter.muohio.edu/GerberAward.htmlProgram contacts: Dr. Hays Cummins at (513)529-1338 or Audree Riddle at (513)529-5819.

Educating teachers on the needs of the Latino/Hispanic community is increasingly important due to the rising number of multicultural students in the Ohio area. Miami University faculty in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Ms. Katie Fowler-Córdova and Dr. Darcy Donahue, are in the

process of coordinating a summer institute to explore the issues that the Latino/Hispanic community face and help teachers prepare and create pedagogical materials to use in the classroom.

The fi ve-day Summer Institute program, “Ohio Hispanic/Latino Community: Literary, Cultural and Pedagogical Perspectives” has received funding from the Ohio Humanities Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It will run from June 25-29, 2012 and will target middle school and high school educators and administrators from a broad, diverse group of school districts (Fig. 1). Participants will come from a variety of backgrounds and teaching specialties including History, Philosophy, English, Language Arts, and Economics.

“The workshop will have a dual focus which is both literary and cultural,” said Donahue. “The outcomes will address the needs of Latino/Hispanic community and the teachers who are in the classroom with Latino students.”

Participants will read two well-known works by Latina writers: When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. These works will then serve to facilitate discussion on the issues that they raise for Hispanic and non-Hispanic cultures.

“The books will provide a unique perspective on different issues including education, health, and women’s

rights,” said Fowler-Córdova. “We will also be bringing in guest speakers from the surrounding area to add to the discussion.”

Another focus of the program will allow participants to create an individual unit to use in the classroom, with a basis on the content of the reading material and how teachers can educate their students on the local Latino/Hispanic community.

“They will be actively doing hands-on work based on the class discussion,” said Donahue. “The goal is for participants to come away from the program with a better understanding of how to address culture in the classroom.”

Fig. 1- The Ohio Hispanic Latino Community: Literary, Cultural and Pedagogical Perspectives Summer Institute program.

Written by: Jessica Sink,Miami University Honors ProgramStrategic Communication, Marketing, History

Enhancing the Understanding of Latino/Hispanic Culture through a Summer Workshop

OARS Research News

A Cultural Conversation with Melissa Rinehart, Anthropology, Miami Middletown Campus

Dr. Melissa Rinehart is a Cultural Anthropologist and has worked as educator at various universities and colleges around the country for over 16 years. Although a specialist in Native American cultures and histories, she also has a deep respect for understanding more about cross-cultural human experiences.

She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. degree in Cultural Anthropology from Michigan State University with an emphasis on Native American Studies. She also obtained a M.A. degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and completed her undergraduate studies in Political Science Indiana University/Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Dr. Rinehart made seven recordings for her radio show. The show broadens cultural awareness while dispelling myths about peoples and the ways they live their lives. With creative cultural conversations, Northeastern Indiana listeners (WBOI/WBNI) become more aware of the cultural diversity around them and beyond from which deeper understandings of the human experience are uncovered. The recordings were launched as a podcast series for National Public Radio as follows:

• Recording 1: with Terri Noone from the Catherine Kasper Place. We discussed what Burmese political refugees experience when they come to Northeastern Indiana. Fort Wayne coincidentally has the largest Burmese political refugee population in the nation.

• Recording #2: with Herb Hernandez, an attorney, former President of the Fort Wayne Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and current interim Executive Director of United Hispanic Americans, Inc., in Fort Wayne. We discussed undocumented immigration in Indiana.

• Recording #3: with Gustavo Rodriguez. We discussed his journey from Cuba to the United States, and ultimately Fort Wayne. We also discussed Cuban (Cuban American) foodways. He’s the co-owner of Caliente – the only Cuban restaurant in NE Indiana.

• Recording #4: with Mike Woodruff (Old Crown Coffee Roasters) and Cyndi Demaree (Firefl y Coffeehouse). We discussed coffee culture and how it has evolved in the Fort Wayne area.

• Recording #5: with guest caller Mayanist Archaeologist, Dr. Jeb Card. We discussed the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy for Dec. 21 this year.

• Recording #6: with Marguerite Matiszik. We discussed her internment and escape from a German labor camp during World War II. We also talked about how this changed her life.

• Recording #7: with Larry Yoder. We discussed the maple tapping culture and how his family has been involved with it for fi ve generations.

Written by: Jessica Sink,Miami University Honors ProgramStrategic Communication, Marketing, History

OARS Research News

Compliance Corner News

Compliance TrainingTraining completion status and dates for persons interacting with human and animal research subjects can now be looked up with an online utility after logging in at: http://www.units.muohio.edu/gsrcompliance/home.php Faculty can access all records, but students can only access their own records.

Animal CareYou may have heard in national news sources that the federal adoption of a new set of guides for the care of research animals earlier this year could cumulatively cost institutions millions of dollars to implement. Fortunately, the facilities at MU already meet the requirements although future methodologies may be affected by the changes.

Financial Confl ict of Interest and NIH (FCOI)The National Institutes of Health have issued a ruling that alters the provisions for FCOI. Among the changes are a lowering of the minimum threshold to $5,000 and the requirement for declaration of a FCOI on a publicly accessible website. Changes are summarized at: http://www.muohio.edu/compliance/RCR_FCOI.htm

As always, please contact us with any questions: Neal Sullivan, Research Compliance Offi cer, [email protected], 529-2488, and Jennifer Sutton, Research Compliance Assistant, [email protected], 529-0454.

The purpose of a grant (or some other type of “sponsored agreement” like a grant or contract) is to provide resources to accomplish a goal, such as completing a research or scholarship project. Sometimes the needed resources are materials and supplies or funds for travel, while other times the resource needed is your time.

Overall, Miami funds your time. For instance, if your contract says you are to spend 20% of your time on service, 40% on teaching, and 40% on research, then you are already being paid 40% of your salary to do research. But if you have a very large project or multiple projects, which will require more than 40% of your time, then a “sponsor” (a funding agency), can provide funding to release you from your time in one area (such as teaching) so that you can devote more time in another area (such as research). In addition, a sponsor may be able to compensate you for time spent outside your normal contract hours.

While some sponsors will not allow time (or effort) to be charged to a sponsored agreement, many will. For all sponsored agreements, there are sponsor, Federal, state, and institutional rules and regulations that govern how time and effort can, and cannot, be charged. Yes, these rules do matter! Federal auditors check the time and effort reports of Miami researchers; if we are found lacking, it could impair Miami’s ability to be funded in the future.

The following is a brief explanation of the rules governing the time-is-money aspects of grants and contracts.

Summer Salary SupportA great way to get more time to devote to research is to not teach during the summer. Many sponsors are willing to compensate you for research done in the summer. For most faculty members, the maximum summer request allowed is 33% (or 3 months) of your institutional base academic-year salary. Some sponsors, like NSF, limit summer salary to 2 months institutional base salary and require that you not teach or perform other administrative duties during that time. Obviously, completing your research during the summer puts the least strain on your department—you are able to fulfi ll your academic-year obligations while completing valuable scholarship.

Course Release and BuyoutSometimes, your research and scholarly activities must be done during the academic year. If the tasks are for the University, such as serving as department chair, the university can reduce your teaching load—give you a “course release”—to perform your additional University duties. But if the tasks are for your research or contracted work, a sponsor may be able to pay for or “buyout” a portion of your time during the academic year. For instance, you may request that a sponsored agreement buyout some of your teaching time—a “course buyout.” Rather than reduce your teaching load, you might instead request that a sponsored agreement buyout, say, 10% of your other institutionally contracted time to work on a sponsored agreement.

When you construct a sponsored project budget, course buyouts are calculated by taking into account your teaching load and your teaching, research and service obligations. For example, if 40% of your time is devoted to teaching and you teach 5 courses per academic year (a “3 and 2”), then one course release equals 8% of your base salary plus benefi ts—currently 36.6% for full time employees. It is important to note that some colleges (such as Arts & Sciences and Education, Health & Society) have their own policies regarding course release. Please refer to your college policy when determining percent effort on course releases.

If you wish to arrange for course buyouts on sponsored agreements you must discuss the matter with your chair prior to submitting the proposal. The chair’s signature on the Proposal Approval Form will indicate that the course buyout has been approved by the department. After the award, you will complete Time and Effort reports for the Grants and Contracts Offi ce, and they will ensure that your time is charged to your grant account and not to your departmental account. The resulting salary savings to the institution can be used by the department for hiring an adjunct to teach your course during the buyout period, or for other departmental needs.

Please remember that if your proposal is successful, immediately notify your chair—he or she will need time to fi nd a suitable adjunct or make other arrangements for your buyout time. In fact, keep common courtesy in mind in general—course buyouts are not a right, they are a privilege, and

Time is Money: Compensation under Grants or Contracts

OARS Research News

other University employees must take on tasks to make this happen for you. And, course buyouts are not a sabbatical—during a course buyout, you must still fulfi ll your other University duties such as committee work and offi ce hours.

Extra CompensationAccording to the Miami University Policy and Information Manual (MUPIM), Section 4 Compensation and Benefi ts, “Extra compensation for work on government grants or contracts during the individual’s regular period of full time service to the University (academic year for a faculty member) is not allowable.”

MUPIM does go on to say that in unusual cases “…where consultation is across departmental lines or involves a separate or remote operation, and the work performed by the consultant is in addition to that person’s regular load, extra compensation above the base salary may be allowable.” If your work refl ects these special circumstances, you are limited to payments equaling the equivalent of one extra day per week.

Faculty members who wish to consult on grants and contracts outside their normal contractual obligations must obtain permission from their chair prior to entering into a consulting arrangement. Additionally, all consulting agreements should be

signed by the Associate Provost for Research & Scholarship or by someone with the proper authority to enter the institution into contractual agreements.

Final NotesAll proposals for sponsored agreements, including grants and contracts, must be approved through the Offi ce for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) prior to being sent to a sponsoring agency. This is important because technically you are not submitting the proposal to a funder, Miami is submitting the proposal. This protects you from taxes and liability, but Miami needs to protect itself, too, in order to ensure that everyone’s research and scholarly activities can take place. OARS staff members are knowledgeable in the cost principles that govern the institution, and they can assist you in preparing your budget request and in getting necessary approvals.

Written by: Tricia Callahan, Assistant Director, OARS, 529-1795; and Amy Lamborg, Regional Grant Development Coordinator, MU Hamilton and Middletown Campus (525-3254).

Time is Money: Compensation under Grants or Contracts (con’t )

OARS Research News

MU Students, Faculty & Staff Invited to Join CURThrough our Enhanced Institutional Membership in the Council on Undergraduate Research, Miami offers an unlimited number of our faculty, students, administrators, and staff the opportunity to join CUR at no additional cost. Membership Benefi ts include opportunities to participate in research programs, a subscription to the research publication CUR Quarterly, and additional resources. To join, make sure to choose Miami University OH when you navigate to the CUR individual member registration form:http://www.cur.org.

FYRE Program Faculty Mentor Recruitment 2012-2013Faculty members who are interested in mentoring a fi rst year student are invited to develop a short promotional paragraph about their research targeted at fi rst year students. This FYRE project summary will be posted on the OARS website to attract fi rst year students to become involved in a faculty mentored research project. FYRE students also enroll (for two semesters) in an undergraduate research course to become aware of the practice of research and to discover the benefi ts of research as a co-curricular experience. Read more about the FYRE program and look through the faculty profi les http://www.muohio.edu/undergradresearch.

OARS Research News

The Funding CornerAs the Spring semester is winding 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.

Since 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 that best fi ts your research interests.

Helen G. Kiss, Assistant Director, & Information Coordinator.

Miami undergraduate students from all disciplines will present their faculty-mentored research at the annual Undergraduate Research Forum to be held at Miami’s Shriver Center on Wednesday, April 11, 2012. This event is open to the public. Miami faculty, staff and students are especially encouraged to attend in support of colleagues and peers. Over 400 students will participate in one of three interactive poster sessions where attendees can talk with students about their research fi ndings and learn about the importance of undergraduate research to student education and society. The morning poster session runs from 10 :00 am to 11:30 am, and two afternoon sessions will be held from 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm and from 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm. Poster sessions will be in the Shriver Multipurpose rooms. Between 9 am and 4 pm, 34 students will present an individual 15-minute oral summary of their work in a variety of locations at Shriver Center.

The student and faculty mentor collaboration encourages students to construct an evidence-based understanding of how a particular research study contributes something original to the scholarship of that area and why that contribution matters. “Student researchers begin to construct their own understanding of ‘how to learn’ the context of their research area through interactions with experienced researchers,” said Martha Weber, OARS Undergraduate Research Coordinator.

The forum also includes a luncheon for participants and their mentors in the Shriver Heritage room. During the lunch, President David Hodge, Provost Bobby Gempesaw, and others will offer remarks regarding the value of undergraduate research experiences.

Martha Weber, OARS Undergraduate Research Director, [email protected].

Miami University Presents the 18th Annual Undergraduate Research Forum

Summer 2012 Locating External Funding for Scholarship, Research, and TeachingThis past year the OARS offi ce presented a few “Funding Opportunities” workshops. If you were interested in attending, but these did not fi t with your academic schedule, I would like to offer a session this summer.

If you are interested in attending a workshop this summer, please contact me and let me know whether the month of June or July works for you.

Helen G. Kiss, Assistant Director, & Information Coordinator. ([email protected])