University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 20, Feb. 20, 1997

                                   
                              UDRF grants
            Funding supports broad range of campus research
     
     A cross campus, younger researchers are now
investigating new "drop-and-measure" sensors for easily
detecting earthquake-related structural damage, better
strategies for scrubbing excess phosphorous from soil and a
method for predicting heart disease based on facial
expressions-thanks to grants provided by the University of
Delaware Research Foundation Inc. (UDRF).
     For the 1996-97 school year, the foundation awarded a
total of $327,000 to 12 faculty members in the early stages
of their careers, UDRF President Richard E. Emmert reported
Jan. 11 during the group's annual luncheon. "The mission of
the UDRF is to ensure that early career, non-tenured, tenure-
track faculty who submit very high quality research
proposals are able to move forward with their work," Emmert
explained.
     The UDRF grants, which provided an average of $27,250
for each recipient in 1996-97, often give researchers a
boost by helping them secure more substantial funding,
University President David P. Roselle noted. "A very smart
person once said that there are only two things that really
matter in life: love and leverage," Roselle said. "The UDRF
grants have provided the University's younger researchers
with excellent leverage. Most recipients go on to leverage
their UDRF grants to get more research funding and
laboratory equipment from other sources."
     Campuswide, the value of research now under way has
increased by 63 percent over the past six years, according
to Roselle. For F.Y. 1990-91, he said, UD researchers
conducted $39.8 million worth of research supported by a
variety of sponsors, compared to $67.6 million for F.Y.
1997. At the same time, he added, applications for admission
by freshman students are up by 20 percent, compared to 1991.
     During the luncheon, held at Arsht Hall on the
Wilmington Campus, nine UDRF grant recipients described
their work, either through poster exhibitions or formal
presentations.
     The researchers (listed here in alphabetical order),
offered the following summaries of their UDRF projects:
     The Mathematics of Materials- Metals are often
subjected to annealing-slow heating followed by cooling-to
remove stresses and to control the material's small-scale
internal structure, which may undergo changes caused by
casting or other industrial production processes. During
annealing, metals transform from a "heterogeneous" or
disordered state to "other states in which the arrangement
of atoms gives the material more desirable properties,"
explained Richard J. Braun, mathematics. Braun has developed
a numerical method for calculating this transformation over
time. "I hope that my work will enhance our fundamental
understanding of how phase changes occur within materials,"
Braun said. "The work might also be helpful to industry, for
controlling material properties more effectively."
     A Hot Topic: Deep-Sea Thermal Vents-When researchers
first spotted deep-sea thermal vents 17 years ago, the
discovery triggered a frenzy among researchers who wanted to
know how bacterial life forms could survive in such a harsh
environment. One of those investigators, S. Craig Cary,
marine studies, has already made nine trips to the bottom of
the ocean, by jumping into a submersible named Alvin. Deep-
sea thermal vents occur when oceanic plates move in opposite
directions, Cary explained. The resulting volcanic activity
can super-heat water deep in the earth's crust, ejecting it
through the ocean floor at temperatures as hot as 680
degrees Fahrenheit. While thermal vents produce dramatic
towers of black smoke, or "chimneys," he said, they also
generate "diffuse-flow sites," where bacterial communities
thrive on a diet of hydrogen sulfide. In collaboration with
departmental colleague George Luther, Cary collects samples
of these organisms and he measures the chemistry of their
dynamic habitat, using a rugged microelectrode probe
developed at the University. Then, Cary uses molecular
genetic techniques to "tease apart individual members" of
the samples. The resulting data provide crucial information
about the organisms' geochemical impacts on diffuse-flow
sites.
     'Natural Disinfection' of Drinking Water-Since 1990, 71
percent of all water-borne illness outbreaks in the United
States have been linked to contaminated groundwater, said
Yan Jin, plant and soil sciences. Yet, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency is now developing a
Groundwater Disinfection Rule that may allow water utility
companies to avoid costly chemical disinfection of source
water-if they can prove that nearby soil offers adequate
"natural disinfection," Yin said. That's why she's studying
the effectiveness of different soil types and conditions for
stripping pathogenic viruses from drinking water. Clearly,
she noted, "the distance between the source of the water and
its collection is critical." In addition to her UDRF grant,
Jin recently received funding from the American Water Works
Association Research Foundation, to study the survival of
microorganisms in various soils, under different
environmental conditions.
     Mitigating Phosphorus in Soil-In Delaware and many
other states, past applications of commercial fertilizers,
along with waste from farm animals, has accumulated in
soils, resulting in excessive levels of phosphorus,
according to a 1993 report of the National Research Council.
Runoff from phosphorus-saturated soils is a serious problem,
because it can threaten nearby streams and lakes, notes John
H. Martin Jr., animal and food sciences. Some farmers
effectively reduce phosphorus concentrations in soil simply
by continuing to raise crops without adding more fertilizer.
But, Martin says, the situation is more complex on farms
where animal manures such as broiler litter are a key source
of phosphorus. A UDRF grant will allow Martin and his
colleagues to test the effectiveness of immobilizing
phosphorus in soil by adding aluminum sulfate to broiler
litter. The researchers will measure phosphorus levels in
soil-litter mixtures treated with varying amounts of
aluminum sulfate, at different pH levels.
     The Chemistry of Early Life- Working in the Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Eugene G. Mueller hopes to
learn more about the chemical origins of life by
investigating RNA, or ribonucleic acid, the material that
mediates the conversion of genetic information into
proteins. Specifically, Mueller is looking at enzymes that
chemically alter RNA. How could this information shed light
on the origins of life? One theory suggests that, at one
point in time, all organisms on earth contained only RNA-and
no DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or proteins, Mueller
explained. "According to this theory, early RNA did the jobs
that proteins and DNA do now: catalysis and serving as
genetic information," he said. The chemical composition of
modern RNA does not appear to be sufficiently diverse for
many of the tasks currently performed by proteins. But,
Mueller thinks that early RNA may have modified itself to
increase its chemical diversity. To test this hypothesis,
he's tracking the chemical reaction that occurs when sulfur
replaces oxygen in uridine, a component of RNA, to form 4-
thiouridine. The reaction "may be a likely first step" that
would allow RNA to do more of the work of modern-day DNA and
proteins, he said.
     Understanding Fear and Anxiety- Fear is "a normal
adaptive behavioral response to danger," according to
Jeffrey B. Rosen, psychology. By contrast, anxiety is "the
pathology of normal fear," or an exaggerated response to
danger. If researchers could explain the molecular
neurobiology associated with anxiety, Rosen noted, it might
be possible to develop better and more specific anti-anxiety
drugs to help anxiety-plagued patients lead healthier, more
productive lives. Rosen's study of the startle reflex in
laboratory animals has shown that a part of the brain known
as the amygdala processes information about danger. The
amygdala processes environmental stimuli to determine their
threatening properties, he said. If stimuli are deemed
dangerous, the amygdala then activates the brain stem and
finally the muscles to produce a normal, or in some cases a
pathological fear response.
     Anger, Facial Expressions and Heart Disease-Noting that
studies have shown a link between hostility and heart
disease, Erika L. Rosenberg, psychology, will study angry
facial expressions among 200 healthy young men and women.
Facial expressions of anger in provocative situations may be
effective "predictors" for individuals who are likely to
develop heart disease, she said. The key to the research,
Rosenberg added, is to set up "realistic situations" in the
laboratory, where she will videotape people subjected to
both "harassing" and "non-harassing" situations. By late
spring, Rosenberg expects to gather data in the form of
facial expressions, self-reports and verbal behaviors. These
emotion variables will be related to cardiovascular measures
in the laboratory, and the health of the subjects will then
be studied at 15-, 20- and 30-year intervals following
initial assessments.
     Stand-Alone Sensors Detect Structural Stress-Most
sensors for detecting structural stress are attached via
cables to a recording device that continuously collects
data, explained Harry W. Shenton III, civil and
environmental engineering. In a large office building, "it
might take a whole day for a work crew to string cable to
collect just a few minutes of data," he noted. To simplify
the process, Shenton is devising analytical methods to
support the development of "smart" stand-alone sensors that
detect peak vibration levels. "You could just walk into a
building and set these down," he said. "This would allow you
to collect before-and-after measurements, say to determine
the structural integrity of a building, after an
earthquake."
     'Spin-Control Engineering'-Inside atoms, electrons
revolve around a nucleus. They also spin on their own axes.
This spinning generates a "magnetic moment" that can be
manipulated to design better materials and microelectronic
components, said John Q. Xiao, physics and astronomy. For
example, engineers can make more efficient semiconductor
chips, the "brain" of all computers, by manipulating the
spin directions of electrons in two magnetic materials
separated by a non-magnetic material. In this way, Xiao
said, "You can control the direction of current flow"
throughout the device. Spin-control engineering is expected
to boost the recording density of electronic recording
disks, and it also should make random access memory (RAM)
chips more reliable, Xiao noted.
     In addition to projects described at the luncheon,
three other faculty members received UDRF grants for the
1996-97 school year.
     Andrew P. Evans, chemistry and biochemistry, will try
to synthesize two sugar-like molecules, mycalamide A and B,
which demonstrate anti-tumor and anti-viral activity in
mice. "They have what I call a molecular switch, which
allows them to switch from one mode to the other," Evans
said.
     Another researcher, John Lambros, mechanical
engineering, will determine how fiber-reinforced composite
materials react when they are subjected to strain very
quickly, or more slowly.
     The work could ultimately help engineers design more
fracture-resistant composites for use in airplanes and space
vehicles, he said.
     Lian-Ping Wang, also of mechanical engineering, will
investigate a new algorithm, known as the Lattice Boltzmann
method, to simulate the microscopic behavior of complex
fluids.
     The technique "needs to be developed further," Wang
said, but it might prove useful for understanding and
controlling a number of industrial processes.
      In April, the UDRF will award additional grants for
the 1997-98 school year.
                                          -Ginger Pinholster