College of Sciences E-newsletter

May 2006

In this issue:

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GeoSINposium, April 21-22, 2006

The UNLV Geoscience Department held the 1st GeoSINposium on April 21-22, 2006. The symposium is student-run and designed to provide graduates and undergraduates with an opportunity to present their original research and receive feedback from industry, civic, and government professionals as well as academics. UNLV Geoscience graduate students planned the two-day event including presentations on Friday April 21st and field trips on Earth Day, Saturday April 22nd. Oral presentations were offered on Friday morning, and the 15 minute sessions will include time for discussion with audience members. Following lunch, poster sessions occupied the afternoon schedule. A review panel awarded prizes for the best presentations and posters in several geoscience specialties as well as graduate and undergraduate divisions. The day concluded with a post-symposium gathering of all students, faculty, and invited guests at a reception with food, and refreshments. Two field trips were scheduled for Saturday, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. The field trips focused on the geology of the Lake Mead area. Interested participants toured Lake Mead on a houseboat, the Forever Earth, in the company of experts on the surrounding geology of this unique region.

The GeoSINposium showcased a wide range of important graduate research and provided a forum for participating students to develop presentation skills in a friendly, relaxed environment. Graduate student research projects included such diverse topics as: soils, geomorphology, hydrogeology, paleontology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochemistry, volcanology, seismology, structural geology and economic geology. In this initial year, more than 20 UNLV Geoscience graduate students offered presentations. The 2006 Symposium will be the start of a dynamic and fruitful annual tradition.

GeoSINposium Committee Members : Wendy Barrow, Willy Rittase, Denise Honn, Mike Howell, and April Azouz.

Donors who supported the GeoSINposium include: Dawn Arnold, Christine Bosselman, Geological Society of Nevada, Maureen Wruck Planning Consultants, Walter J. Slack, Dawn Arnold, Kleinfelder, Inc. (Lisa Warren), Willard Lacy, Wende S. Lestelle, Pahrump Engineering, Inc., SAIC, and Michael C. Stojanoff. The Electron Microanalysis and Imaging Laboratory (EMiL) also contributed to this event.

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John and Mary N. Knight Estate Gift for Alzheimer's Research

The College of Sciences received a generous donation from the estate of John and Mary N. Knight. The gift of $56,250 is designated to support Alzheimer's research.

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College of Sciences Awards

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2006 College of Sciences awards:

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Southern Nevada Regional Science and Engineering Fair, April 27-29, 2006

The Southern Nevada Regional Science and Engineering Fair (SNRSEF) is currently sponsored by the Clark County School District (CCSD) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The fair is hosted jointly by the College of Sciences and the College of Engineering within UNLV.

UNLV and CCSD work together to make the SNRSEF possible. This includes providing a regional structure to draw on resources from higher educational institutions, business and government within the Las Vegas Valley. UNLV and CCSD obtain funding to support the fair, recruit volunteers to judge and work in the fair, coordinate teacher/science fair coordinator training, process the required approvals, obtain awards and prizes, and publicize the fair.

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UNLV and Research: A Chase for the Holy Grail?, Las Vegas Sun , April 9, 2006

A recent Las Vegas Sun article explored the role of research at UNLV and highlighted a number of individuals noting, "...When UNLV research officials talk about successes in research, they point to professors: BJ Das, who is working on how to mass-produce nanotechnology that will benefit everything from computers to cancer research; Clemens Heske, who is studying solar cells and alternative energies like hydrogen; Ken Czerwinski, who started UNLV's doctoral program in radiochemistry and is looking at how radioactive particles might change with the environment over time at both the Nevada Test Site and Yucca Mountain."

Read the complete text.

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Rebel Science: Grad Studies Fault Lines of Black Hills," Rebel Yell, April 3, 2006, by: Lora Griffin

The Las Vegas Valley is a broad alluvial basin composed of relatively young sedimentary deposits that range in depth from about two km in the southwest corner of the valley to more than twice that amount in the northeast. These young deposits combined with multiple fault zones, an active seismic history in Nevada and its fast-growing population has put Las Vegas at number seven on the Nevada Seismological Laboratory's list of American metropolitan areas that have the potential to suffer massive economic losses in the event of an earthquake...But, as most Californians already know, one does not have to live at the epicenter of an earthquake to feel its effects. The shock waves can radiate out for hundreds of miles, causing damage to homes and businesses in the surrounding areas as well.

One such Californian is Shelley Zaragoza, a UNLV master's student. She is studying the Black Hills Fault, located in the northern McCullough Range, forming the northwest boundary of the Eldorado Basin at the southern edge of Henderson, Nev. Her master's thesis focuses on determining the length of the fault. The length is important, she said, because if the fault ruptures, the magnitude of the resulting earthquake will be relative to the length of the fault. If the fault is only as long as the exposed section, which is relatively short, the rupture will have a smaller magnitude. If the fault is longer, as she suspects, it will produce a higher magnitude quake.

The location of the Black Hills Fault, situated between Las Vegas and Boulder Dam, makes it an area worth studying because if the fault ruptures and the magnitude of the quake is high, it could impact homes and businesses in Las Vegas as well as the critical dam structures to the south.

Read the full text.

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Rebel Science: Preserving History: UNLV, BLM Partner to Preserve Local History and Promote Cooperative Research, Education," Rebel Yell, April 17, 2006, by Lora Griffin

"...Faculty at UNLV are currently using the property in some of the classes they teach," said Dr. Jean Cline, project manager for WBR. "For example, Dr. Mark Hoversten (associate professor/coordinator, UNLV Landscape Architecture and Planning,) has taken a class to WBR which then produced landscape architecture designs for the property. UNLV history instructor Dr. Elizabeth Fraterrigo has taken a graduate class that examines museum design to the ranch, and they are doing some preliminary museum planning for the property..."

Read the full text.

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"Desert Survivors," Educational Television Show Website

As part of a large National Science Foundation (NSF) project, assistant professor Frank Van Breukelen and colleagues have developed, "Desert Survivors," a television show aimed at promoting scientific literacy among local elementary school children.

View the website. There are over 25,000 5th graders alone in the Clark County School District and the website is designed to supplement a series of television programs.

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College of Sciences Advisory Board Meeting, April 12, 2006

The College of Sciences Advisory Board held its second meeting on April 12, 2006. In addition to reports from Dean Ron Yasbin and Director of Development Bill Brown, the Board heard brief presentations from Joe "Nik" Nika, on pre-health advising activities and assistant professor Carryn Bellomo on mathematics tutoring efforts and related projects.

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Physics Forums

On April 20th Dr. Yosuke Mizuno (NPP/MSFC/NSSTC) spoke on, "General Relativistic MHD Simulations of Jet Formations and Development of New General Relativistic MHD Codes."

Abstract: Relativistic jets have been observed in various astrophysical objects, including active galactic nuclei (AGNs), microquasars, and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Using a 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic code made by Koide et al., we have simulated jet formation from an accretion disk with/without initial perturbations around a rotating black hole. We input a sinusoidal perturbation in the rotation velocity of the accretion disk. The simulation results show the formation of a relativistic jet from the accretion disk by the interaction between an accretion disk and a large-scale magnetic field in a rotating black hole magnetosphere. The detailed results of this simulation will be presented. The Koide GRMHD code has been applied to many high-energy astrophysical phenomena and showed pioneering results. However, the code can not perform calculation in highly relativistic or highly magnetized regimes. In order to improve this numerical difficulty, we have developed a new, three-dimensional, general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) code by using a conservative, high-resolution shock-capturing scheme. The detailed code performance and jet simulation results with this new code will be presented. We conclude that the newly developed GRMHD code is more robust than our previous GRMHD code.

On April 21st Dr. Ken-Ichi Nishikawa (NSSTC, National Space Science and Technology Center) spoke on, "Particle acceleration, magnetic field generation and emission from relativistic jets."

Abstract: Nonthermal radiation observed from astrophysical systems containing relativistic jets and shocks, e.g., active galactic nuclei (AGNs), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), supernova remnants, and Galactic microquasar systems usually have power-law emission spectra. Fermi acceleration is the mechanism usually assumed for the acceleration of particles in astrophysical environments. Recent PIC simulations using injected relativistic electron-ion (electro-positron) jets show that particle acceleration occurs within the downstream jet, rather than by the scattering of particles back and forth across the shock as in Fermi acceleration. Shock acceleration is a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability, other two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. The simulation results show that the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying highly nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields. These magnetic fields contribute to the electron's transverse deflection behind the jet head. The "jitter" radiation from deflected electrons has different properties than synchrotron radiation which is calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter radiation may be important to understanding the complex time evolution and/or spectral structure in gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and supernova remnants. We will review recent PIC simulations of relativistic jets and try to make a connection with observations.

Talks are held in the Physics conference room (BPB 217) at 3:45pm.

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Geoscience Lecture

Dr. Corne Kreemer, University of Nevada Reno, Geodetic Laboratory presented a talk entitled "GPS Research on Basin and Range Tectonics," at the Lily Fong Geoscience Building.

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Chemistry Lecture

Ned D. Heindel, Past President of the American Chemical Society, delivered a presentation entitled, "Folk Medicine in the 19th Century" at the Bigelow Health Sciences Building (BHS) Room 132, on Tuesday, April 18, 2006.

Abstract: In the absence of enforced licensing laws and in the presence of a malevolent and painful medical orthodoxy that focused its therapy on bloodletting and leeching, the 18th and 19th centuries saw the growth of a vigorous alternative medical system. In the Eastern United States, this unorthodox medicine was especially well entrenched, and pow-wow "doctors", hydropaths, Thomsonians, electropaths, and homeopaths maintained sizable practices. Substantial reliance on herbal preparations of folk culture origin, on charms and semi-occult chants, and on defined acts and manipulations characterized many of these medical systems. Vestiges of these unorthodox practices still survive, but even more important several of the therapies and natural product preparations that they devised have found their way into the medicine of today.

Also see: Rebel Science: Folk Medicine: Respected Chemist Speaks on Folk Medicines Used In Old Time, Rebel Yell, April 24, 2006, by Lora Griffin. Read the full text.

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Biosciences Lecture

Les Krushel, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center spoke on the topic, IRESes. I nternal R ibosome E ntry S ite mediated initiation of translation is a recently recognized alternative to the typical 5' cap mediated initiation with which many of us are familiar. IRES activity was first recognized with viral infection e.g. polio virus hijacking the cell's translational machinery to make its own proteins. Our understanding of its biological significance has since been extended as a putative mediator of stress responses. During times of stress like mild hypothermia and ischemia/reperfusion injury, IRES activity is enhanced over cap-dependent initiation of translation. As a result, stress proteins like chaperones and the like are preferentially translated.

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Physics Forums

On Wednesday, April 12th, Dr. Leslie Sage, Astronomy editor for Nature , lectured on How to Publish a Paper in Nature."

Abstract: Nature is one of the world's leading scientific journals, publishing many papers that receive wide attention by the general public. But, Nature is very selective — < 7% of submitted papers are published. In order to maximize your chances of getting published, papers should present fundamental new physical insights, or startling observations/results. Theory papers pose additional problems, as we want only those papers that are likely to be the correct explanation, and not simply exploring parameter space. The writing should be clear, concise and directed at the level of a graduate course in the subject. I encourage authors to contact me in advance of submission of a paper, both to ascertain the appropriateness of the result for Nature , and to ensure that the writing is close to our standards.

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Submit Your News Stories

The College of Sciences E-Newsletter is published on or about the first of each month. Please submit news items via email by the fifteenth of each month, for consideration. You may send your submissions to: Bill Brown, Director of Development (william.brown@unlv.edu).

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