College of Sciences E-newsletter

February 2008

In this issue:

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College of Sciences Receives the Harry Reid Biotechnology Award from the Nevada Biotechnology and Bioscience Consortium (NevBio)

The College of Sciences will receive the Harry Reid Biotechnology Award from the Nevada Biotechnology and Bioscience Consortium (NevBio) at a luncheon to be held at the Wynn Hotel on February 18, 2008. The board of NevBio was impressed with the College of Science’s accomplishments, leadership, and vision in biotechnology and the life sciences.  John Laub, President of NevBio, noted that many advancements in bioscience and biotechnology have occurred at universities,” and this research often become the basis of new treatments for disease, for economic diversification in a region, and leads to improvements in the quality of life. He added, “The Board of NevBio is pleased to honor UNLV's College of Sciences in recognition of their impressive accomplishments they have made in the last few years.” The NevBio Board identified the College of Sciences’ increase in research grants and publications, new academic programs, state-of-the art research facilities, business and community outreach efforts, and prehealth advising program as among the deserving attributes that support the college’s selection for this inaugural award. Faculty members who will offer poster presentations at this event include: Ernesto Abel-Santos, Amei Amei, Michelle Elekonich, Ron Gary, Brian Hedlund, David Lee, Stephen Roberts, and Helen Wing.

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NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Swift Team Visits UNLV

Members of the NASA Swift team will visit UNLV on February 4-5, 2008 for two days of meetings to review the progress of current research and plan for future activities. 

With Swift, a NASA mission with international participation, scientists now have a tool dedicated to solving the gamma-ray burst mystery. Its three instruments will give scientists the ability to scrutinize gamma-ray bursts like never before. Within seconds of detecting a burst, Swift will relay a burst's location to ground stations, allowing both ground-based and space-based telescopes around the world the opportunity to observe the burst's afterglow. Swift is part of NASA's medium explorer (MIDEX) program and was launched into a low-Earth orbit on a Delta 7320 rocket on November 20, 2004.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions the Universe has seen since the Big Bang. They occur approximately once per day and are brief, but intense, flashes of gamma radiation. They come from all different directions of the sky and last from a few milliseconds to a few hundred seconds.

Using the powerful NASA’s Swift satellite, astronomers have detected more than 300 bursts since launch. The Swift team made several breakthrough discoveries over the past three years, including solving the mystery of the short-duration GRBs, identifying a canonical early X-ray light curve for GRBs, detecting a GRB that happened 7.4 billion years ago more than halfway back to the Big Bang, and detecting a nearby low luminosity GRB associated with a supernova. Due to these discoveries, the Swift team was honored Bruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomy Society in 2007.

UNLV astrophysicist and Swift team member Bing Zhang will coordinate meeting activities. Other faculty members and students in the UNLV astronomy group will also participate the meeting.

The details of the meeting can be found at: http://grb.physics.unlv.edu/swiftmeeting/

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Faculty Profile: Paul Forster

 
Assistant professor of chemistry Paul Forster (paul.forster@unlv.edu; (702) 895-3753; Office:  CHE-117 took a few minutes to introduce himself to the College of Sciences and the UNLV community

Why did you choose to come to UNLV?
I chose UNLV for a variety of reasons. A combination of several aspects of the College of Sciences convinced me to accept a position.  Several professors in the department have assembled first-rate research programs, demonstrating that it was possible to build a collaborative group that did the quality of research I anticipate carrying out.  More importantly, I was very impressed with two professors in my area of chemistry whose research programs complimented my own.  Even better, both colleagues specialize in areas that are useful to my research and these are areas in which I have little expertise.  I never expected to be in a situation where I my research would fit in so perfectly with others.  I was also impressed by the Radiochemistry Program and the UNLV High Pressure Science Center.  Both programs will enable me to consider exciting potential research projects that would not be possible in most chemistry departments.  Finally, UNLV had a surprising amount of equipment directly useful to my research program.  In fact, for several of the most important tools for what I do, UNLV has better capabilities than I have had access to in the last four programs where I studied.   

What has surprised you the most about the campus?
I am both delighted and grateful for how friendly and helpful the chemistry department has been in helping me to settle into the area and get started.  I’ve never worked in a department that has been as cohesive as this chemistry department, and I am excited to become a part of it.

What are your teaching activities and research projects?
This semester, I am teaching a course on scientific software for chemistry undergraduates.  I am working on adding a section to the course on crystal structures and how to use information available from crystal structure databases for a variety of applications.

My main research project here will be exploratory synthesis of new compounds for hydrogen storage.  Currently, the problem of how to safely and economically store hydrogen on automobiles is recognized as the major obstacle that must be overcome to develop practical hydrogen-powered vehicles.  I synthesize new materials that have small tunnels running through them that are large enough to admit small molecules such as water or gasses.  Although there are lots of compounds out there with such channels, none interact strongly enough with hydrogen to be practical.  I am working to discover new compounds where an accessible metal site will improve the interaction energy, similar to the way hemoglobin binds oxygen. 

As a part of this project, I need to understand how atoms and molecules are arranged within new materials produced.  The most useful tool for this is called crystallography.  I have enough experience with this technique from working on my own compounds that I often help other groups who have difficult crystallographic problems of their own.

Finally, I am about to start several projects where I will apply my knowledge of several synthesis techniques to problems that are important to research going on in radiochemistry.  Specifically, I am interested in finding new compounds of technetium, which we anticipate will be relevant to understanding issues related to high-level nuclear waste as well as fundamental issues of trends in the periodic table.

How did you develop your interest in chemistry?
I always liked science courses, and was leaning that way when I was finishing high school.  Fortunately, I was able to get a position carrying out a summer research project in the University of Oregon’s chemistry department during the summer between high school and college, and I fell in love with doing research.  I did undergrad research every summer after that, and went to graduate school so I could make a career out of it.

What do you do in your spare time?
I enjoy cooking, reading, watching movies, and hiking.  I love classical music, and am looking forward to the concert series UNLV hosts.  The last two universities where I attended/worked did not have extensive concerts.  I have to travel often for work, and will frequently add in an extra day or two to explore new places.

What books are you reading now?
I just started rereading the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Not exactly typical reading for me, but it’s been my favorite story ever since my parents read it to me when I was in early elementary school. 

What are your future plans?
Right now I am focusing on getting my research program here at UNLV off the ground. 

Outside of work, I am beginning to look into purchasing a house here later in the year and settle down.  I’m still single, so it’s hard to plan for much else at this point.

What would people be surprised to know about you?
I have a minor hobby of collecting and reading old science textbooks.  I am in the middle of a general chemistry book from 1834 at the moment (although I haven’t read it in a while).  My favorite part so far has been the section on what would now be called thermodynamics.  All the experimental observations necessary for understanding basic thermodynamics are there; what’s missing is the concept of different forms of energy being related.  Instead, there is heat, caloric, latent caloric, and some others but no one had realized that everything starts to make sense once you treat these all as energy.  Consequently, there is virtually no math to the section (very different than my memories of taking a thermodynamics as a student!).

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Faculty Profile: Kaushik Ghosh

Kaushik Ghosh head shotAssistant professor of biostatics Kaushik Ghosh (kaushik.ghosh@unlv.edu; 702-895-0392; Office CBC B-406), took a few minutes to introduce himself to the College of Sciences and the UNLV community.

Why did you choose to come to UNLV?
I was attracted by the tremendous potential of the university in the rapidly growing Las Vegas valley area. Coming to UNLV, I felt, would give me a chance to participate in the development process and be part of the shaping of this newly emerging research university in one of the most dynamic and world-renowned cities. I also liked the proximity of abundant outdoor recreational opportunities that the southwest has to offer and the relatively moderate year-round climate. 

What has surprised you the most about the campus?
No slot machines!

What are your teaching activities and research projects?
I am a statistician by training. As a statistician, I develop techniques, which allow one to reach scientifically sound conclusions in the face of uncertainty and apparent randomness in the data. I work on both the methodological development and applications of statistical techniques for various problems. Currently, I have several ongoing research projects in statistics and biostatistics. One of the projects involves joint modeling of longitudinal data of HIV-RNA concentration and the time of drop-out for a study using Bayesian methods.

Another project involves prediction of upcoming cancer mortality/incidence counts using state-level data across the United States and clustering states with similar profiles. A third project focuses on developing regression models involving predictors and responses that are both circular (or directional) variables. Such models are useful, for example, in predicting wind direction in terms of time of day.

In addition, in the past, I have worked on problems in statistical genetics, environmental sciences, and theoretical statistics. I am, of course, interested in new challenges and am looking for new collaborations in the College of Sciences or with other units inside or outside UNLV.

Last semester (Fall 2007) I taught a course in Statistical Decision Theory and this semester I am teaching Applied Statistics for Engineers.

How did you develop your interest in mathematics?
Growing up in India, I always enjoyed the logical thinking that the sciences had to offer. Mathematics was my favorite subject, although biology was one of my less favorite science courses, as the latter sometimes involved drawing pictures and diagrams, which I was not one of my strengths. So, when it was time to choose either Statistics or Biology as “additional” courses in high school, I naturally chose the former. I liked it so much, that I decided to attend the Indian Statistical Institute where I received my B.S. and M.S. degrees in Statistics. That led to my coming to the United States to obtain my Ph.D. degree (also in statistics) and I decided to pursue a career in academia. I have been a statistician ever since, although ironically I am now an assistant professor of biostatistics, and most of my current work involves biomedical applications.

Statistics is truly an exciting and interdisciplinary subject. I like the fact that as part of my job, I can decide to prove theorems one day, I can develop algorithms or run simulations the next day, and I can collaborate with doctors the following day.

What do you do in your spare time?
I like to explore the natural beauty of the surrounding areas and take photographs with my digital camera. Other times I am happy to curl up on my sofa with a book or catch up on the latest episode of “Myth Busters”.

What books are you reading now?
I am currently reading “The Man Who Loved Only Numbers”, which is a biographical account of the life of the famous mathematician Paul Erdös.          

What are your future plans?
My goal is to increase the quantitative literacy and statistical awareness in society. I hope to do that through a successful well-rounded career in academia and thus help others follow their dreams.


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Cover Story

Journal of Physical Chemisty cover"Nanoscale Building Blocks for the Development of Novel Proton-exchange Membrane Fuel Cells," will serve as the cover story for March 20, 2008 (volume 112) issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. Authors of this article include Chulsung Bae, Bala Naduvalath, Philippe Weck, and Eunja Kim.


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Can Fruit Flies Help Treat Stroke And Transplant Patients?

ScienceDaily (Dec. 11, 2007) — Las Vegas NV. Reperfusion injury takes place when an animal or an organ is starved of oxygen, then exposed to oxygen again. This occurs in strokes and organ transplants and causes many deaths per year. Now scientists at UNLV, Sable Systems International and UCSD have discovered that reperfusion injury can be induced in fruit-flies, a convenient, cheap, well-characterized model animal.

"With this new model, researchers can explore the mechanisms of reperfusion injury with a classic animal model that's much cheaper and easier to use than vertebrates such as mammals", said Dr. John Lighton, an adjunct professor at UNLV, president of Sable Systems International (a Nevada based company that manufactures precision respirometry systems) and lead scientist. Dr. Pablo Schilman, a physiologist at UCSD, co-authored the research.

"Use of this method creates a window into the cells' mitochondria. Using Drosophila as a model may mean faster progress in mitigating the human toll of reperfusion injury, which we still don't fully understand. And what we don't fully understand, we can't treat effectively."

The study, which was funded by Sable Systems International's Basic Research Initiative and took place in Sable Systems' respirometry laboratory in Las Vegas, started out with the first detailed metabolic examination of the fruit-fly's ability to survive a complete lack of oxygen for an hour or more.

"By accident," explains Dr. Lighton, "we discovered that exposing fruit-flies to one or more brief bursts of oxygen while they were otherwise oxygen-starved, injured their respiratory systems irreversibly -- classic reperfusion injury."

Dr. Lighton and Dr. Schilman tracked damage to the flies' respiratory systems by measuring the water vapor and carbon dioxide lost by individual flies weighing less than a thousandth of a gram. The carbon dioxide output provided an index of mitochondrial activity, while respiratory water loss tracked the functional state of the fly's neuromuscular system.

When asked how such tiny signals were measured, Dr. Lighton said "Carefully. For more details, see the paper. But in any event, we now have ways of measuring reperfusion injury in Drosophila. So, it's possible both to improve our understanding of the process and to test strategies for mitigating it - using," continued Dr. Lighton, "an animal most people don't have an emotional reaction to, other than a desire to swat it. We hope that biomedical researchers will pick up on this opportunity."

Journal citation: Lighton JRB, Schilman PE (2007) Oxygen Reperfusion Damage in an Insect. PLoS One 2(12): e1267. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001267

Adapted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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H.R. 2764

A new federal law governs open access to research funded by the National Institutes of Health.  Researchers whose work is funded by the NIH must submit their peer-reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central for public consumption.   The text of the law (H.R. 2764) pertaining to NIH-funded studies reads: SEC. 218. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

The full text of the published research will be stored in PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's open access medical database (you can access PubMed through the UNLV Libraries' list of databases).  If you're conducting NIH-funded research, information on manuscript submission can be found at http://publicaccess.nih.gov. 

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Nuclear Forensics Graduate Fellowship Program

UNLV is one of eight participating universities, joining Clemson University, Pennsylvania State University, Washington State University, University of Missouri, Columbia, University of Texas, University of Florida and Georgia Institute of Technology as institutions designated with radiation chemistry (radiochemistry) programs suitable to host fellows. This program is designed to meet the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) needs for appropriately and highly trained personnel for the research and development in areas related to ongoing DHS sponsored programs in nuclear forensics.  Increasing costs for graduate education and a high demand for nuclear-related scientists and engineers with a bachelor’s degree have had a negative impact on the number of well-qualified students seeking advanced degrees in nuclear technologies and sciences.  This problem has been particularly acute in programs in nuclear and radiochemistry, which have witnessed closure of several programs and declining enrollments over the past two decades.

In addition to the closure of academic programs in radiochemistry, two additional elements are having a negative impact on the nuclear forensics workforce pipeline. First the demand for nuclear and radiochemists has increased dramatically over the past five years.  The employment demands from the radiopharmaceutical, nuclear power, nuclear defense, and waste management industries for workers in this field have caused a dramatic increase in the demand for radio chemists. Secondly, recent surveys have shown that the majority of radiochemists currently in the workforce are rapidly approaching retirement age. As a result, it is expected that the demand for workers in this field will continue to increase in the near future. The fellowship program is designed to provide incentive for universities to invest and develop their radiochemistry programs, in general. Specifically, this program’s goal is to encourage talented students to continue their education and seek a graduate education in radiochemistry research related to the nuclear forensics program. 

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Donate Your Spiders

The UNLV Barrick Museum is seeking native Nevadan spiders. Stephanie Norcott, museum reptile curator, noted, “As you may know, this requires a group effort to search for these spiders during this time of year. We request this statement to be sent to science students, in the hopes that they will bring us a wonderfully "creepy" donation!

The UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History requests native Nevadan spiders for their Wildlife Exhibit located in the lobby of the museum. The museum is looking for large and unique native Nevadan spiders. If any students or staff would like to donate their backyard spider to the museum, please contact the museum before donating. The Barrick Museum is a non-profit organization.

The UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum is located between the Lied Library and the WRI, next to the xeriscape gardens. Telephone: 702.895.3381; Fax: 702.895.5737. 

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Geoscience Seminar

On Wednesday, January 23rd, assistant professor of chemistry Clemens Heske presented a seminar entitled, “Studying chemical and electronic properties of surfaces and buried things with soft x-rays.”

 

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Statistics Seminar

Toby White, who is currently finalizing his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Statistics, University of Washington, Seattle, will offer a seminar entitled, "Extensions of Latent Class Transition Models with Application to Disability Survey Data," on Friday, February 1, 2008, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. in the CBC-C Building, room 224.  Refreshments & snacks starts at 1:30 p.m. 

White is expected to join the Statistics/Actuarial and Business/Finance faculty at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa in Fall, 2008.

Faculty, researchers, graduate/undergraduate students and campus community are cordially invited to attend.

Abstract:   Latent class transition models are used to partition a population into a small number of relatively homogeneous subgroups so that the movement of individuals among these subgroups can be followed through time.  One context for these models involves the U.S. elderly chronically disabled, who may be grouped into one of 4-5 disability classes which differ by both type and severity of disability.  Such data appear in longitudinal surveys, which can have large assessment intervals, considerable right and left censoring, and staggered entry and exit.  Thus, methodology is needed to account for all the possible time sequences at which individuals can be observed, since traditional latent class transition models assume a complete set of observations for each individual.  I develop a group-based modeling approach that encompasses various time sequences of observation, and use the E-M algorithm with adjustments to estimate model parameters and parameter standard errors.  I also extend basic latent class transition models to incorporate age, period, and cohort effects, while satisfying identifiability constraints.  I illustrate this methodology using ADL and IADL data from the National Long-Term Care Survey (1982-2004), and discuss transition probability estimates among classes of varying disability level and death.

 

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Mathematics Seminar

Associate professor Jichun Li, UNLV Department of Mathematical Sciences, will offer a seminar on Friday, February 1, 2008, 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. in CBC-C323 entitled, “Numerical Analysis of Maxwell’s Equation in Complex Media.”

Abstract: Solving Maxwell's equations plays an important role in many science and engineering areas. Examples include device design (such as antennas, radar and waveguides), nondestructive testing and imaging (geophysical probing for oil reservoirs and tumor detection), near field control and manipulation (detecting low levels of chemical and biological agents). In this talk I will start with three most popular dispersive media models: cold plasma, one-pole Debye medium and two-pole Lorentz medium. Next, I will show some finite element methods and corresponding error estimates for solving those models. Then I will extend the discussion to double negative metamaterials and present some numerical results. I will conclude the talk by posing some open problems and potential applications in nanotechnology and biomedical applications.

 

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School of Life Sciences Seminar

On Friday February 1, 2008, professor Kenneth Baykes, department of pathology and microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center will present a seminar entitled, “The molecular control of bacterial programmed cell death and lysis" from 3.30 - 4.30 p.m. in White Auditorium.

Abstract: Recent studies have revealed that the regulated death of bacterial cells is important for biofilm development. Following cell death, a sub-population of the dead bacteria lyse and release genomic DNA, which then has an essential role in intercellular adhesion and biofilm stability. This Opinion focuses on the role of regulated cell death and lysis in biofilm development and provides a functional comparison between bacterial programmed cell death and apoptosis. The hypothesis that the differential regulation of these processes during biofilm development contributes to the antibiotic tolerance of biofilm cells is also explored.

 

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Upcoming Seminars

The College of Sciences has established a listserve to better publicize and promote scientific seminars offered throughout the academic year. For more information on upcoming seminars and to subscribe to the listserve, please visit: http://cmse.unlv.edu/seminar/.

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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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