1974 — 1977 |
Miller, James [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Ultrasonic Effects in Magnetic Materials |
0.961 |
1977 — 1979 |
Miller, James [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Research On An Ultrasonic Receiving Transducer Based On the Acoustoelectric Effect |
0.961 |
1980 — 1983 |
Miller, James [⬀] Roberts, B. Lee |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Exotic Atom Studies @ Trustees of Boston University |
0.961 |
1981 — 1984 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Studies |
0.972 |
1981 — 1984 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Chemistry and Origin of Kairomones Promoting Host Finding by the Onion Fly, Hylemya Antiqua @ Michigan State University |
0.961 |
1981 — 1983 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Conodont Biostratigraphy of the Cambrian-Ordovician Boundry @ Missouri State University |
0.961 |
1983 — 1987 |
Booth, Edward (co-PI) [⬀] Miller, James [⬀] Roberts, B. Lee |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Proton Scattering and Photopion Reactions in the Delta Region, and Studies of Strange Atoms (Physics) @ Trustees of Boston University |
0.961 |
1984 — 1985 |
Booth, Edward (co-PI) [⬀] Miller, James [⬀] Roberts, B. Lee |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Data Acquisition and Processing System For Intermediate Energy Physics @ Trustees of Boston University |
0.961 |
1985 — 1992 |
Miller, James |
N01Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Maintenance of the Nci Drug Information System @ Fein-Marquart Associates
neoplasm /cancer pharmacology; drug metabolism; chemical information system;
|
0.907 |
1985 — 1992 |
Miller, James |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Auditory-Perceptual Processing of Speech @ Central Institute For the Deaf
The sensory and perceptual processes whereby the acoustic waveform of speech is transformed into a sequence of phonetic units are to be studied. Novel combinations of methods of short-term spectral analysis will be studied and evaluated with regard to their effectiveness in deriving a psycho-accoustically appropriate spectral envelope and subsequently eliminating from it confusing perturbations due to spectral tilt, nasalization, and voice quality. The spectral envelopes resulting from such short-term analyses will be subjected to further "higher" processings designed to reveal the phonetic content of the speech. These higher processes will be modelled in terms of an auditory-perceptual theory of phonetic recognition. The theory, itself, is to be implemented in a digital computer with three-dimensional display capabilities. In this way, precise quantitative evaluation of the theory as well as rapid modification of its parameters and concepts are possible. Experimental studies designed to estimate the parameters of these models and evaluate their usefulness include the study of samples of naturally produced syllables, sentences and connected discourse. The human perception of synthetically produced speech will be studied with the technique of identification. Emphasis will be placed on the perception of vowels, diphthongs, r-colored vowels and voiced stops; on an hypothesized sensory-perceptual transformation; and on hypothesized dynamic criteria for the segmentation of the auditory stream into events and "speech sounds". To shed further light on the adequacy of the auditory-perceptual approach, we will program an automatic system designed to recognize limited vocabularies of single words for a single male talker and a single female talker, but with the potential for generalization. The improved understanding of the speech perception process that might emerge from these studies could have profound implications for the rehabilitative procedures and devices for those with impaired speech perception.
|
0.907 |
1985 — 1987 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Conodont Biostratigraphy of the Upper Cambrian-Lowest Ordovician and International Correlation of the Cambrian- Ordovician Boundary @ Missouri State University |
0.961 |
1986 — 1990 |
Booth, Edward (co-PI) [⬀] Miller, James (co-PI) [⬀] Roberts, B. Lee |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Intermediate Energy Kaon, Hyperon, Muon and Photonuclear Physics @ Trustees of Boston University |
0.961 |
1986 — 1994 |
Miller, James N |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Immune Mechanisms in Experimental Syphilis @ University of California Los Angeles
Studies will be initiated or continue to be directed toward the elucidation of humoral immune mechanisms potentially operative 1) in acquired experimental syphilis, and 2) following vaccination of rabbits with Treponema pallidum inactivated by time and Y-irradiation; methods for assessment will include passive protection, blockage of attachment, in vitro-in vivo neutralization, T. pallidum immobilization, and an in vitro radiolabeled staphyloccal protein A microassay. Studies will also be initiated or continue to be directed toward the elucidation of operative cell-mediated immune mechanisms; methods of assessment will include assays for in vitro phagocytosis and digestion of opsonized T. pallidum by macrophages (mPhi), in vitro destruction of T. pallidum by lymphokine-activated mPhi in the presence or absence of specific antibody, host-resistance to challenge following non-specific and specific in vivo mPhi activation by purified BCG cell wall skeletons, and in vitro destruction of T. pallidum by mPhi cationic protein 1. Functional and functional-related characteristics of murine monoclonal antibodies directed specifically against T. pallidum will be determined using several of these assay systems as a prelude to their use in collaborative studies designed to isolate putative "protective" immunogens and virulence factor(s) by affinity chromatography. Additionally, efforts will continue toward the development of an experimental congenital syphilis model in the rabbit and toward the characterization of innate humoral factor(s) which may influence pathogenesis and resistance in the neonatal rabbit. These studies should lead to 1) a more complete understanding of the role of the immune process during the pathogenesis of the disease; 2) methods for the assessment of the immune status of patients and potential future vaccinees; and 3) a sound rationale for the isolation of "protective" immunogens and virulence factors.
|
0.919 |
1986 — 1988 |
Miller, James |
N44Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Conversion of the Nci Drug Information System @ Fein-Marquart Associates |
0.907 |
1986 — 1988 |
Banathy, Bela Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
An Information System For the Assessment of Organizational Effectiveness in Schools @ Far West Lab For Education Res & Development |
0.904 |
1987 — 1991 |
Miller, James |
S07Activity Code Description: To strengthen, balance, and stabilize Public Health Service supported biomedical and behavioral research programs at qualifying institutions through flexible funds, awarded on a formula basis, that permit grantee institutions to respond quickly and effectively to emerging needs and opportunities, to enhance creativity and innovation, to support pilot studies, and to improve research resources, both physical and human. |
Biomedical Research Support Grant @ Central Institute For the Deaf
health science research support; educationally disadvantaged; congenital deafness;
|
0.907 |
1987 — 1989 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Equipment For Computer Interfacing in Undergraduate Physiology Laboratories.
New laboratory experiences for undergraduates in three Biology courses which have a substantial Physiology component (Human Anatomy and Physiology, Principles of Biology, and The Biological World) are being developed using new equipment acquired through this grant. The project has three major foci: teaching students how to interface computers with laboratory equipment, how to use computers to acquire data, and how to manipulate and analyze data with computer assistance. This equipment makes it possible to consider aspects of cardiovascular physiology, respiratory physiology, and the physiology of reflexes that previously could not be addressed in these courses because the requisite equipment was lacking. Laboratory experiments in other areas also are being upgraded by involving students more directly. Laboratories being improved in this way include the EKG labs; lung physiology labs; exercise physiology labs; and labs in biochemistry and human genetics (where computer simulations are being used extensively). A laboratory manual is being prepared that reflects the hands-on experiences of this P.I. and his students.
|
0.951 |
1988 — 1992 |
Miller, James G [⬀] |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Compensating For Anisotropy in Myocardial Ultrasound
The overall objective of the proposed research is to contribute to the noninvasive detection and evaluation of myocardial pathology based on quantitative ultrasonic characterization of the tissue itself, as opposed to assessment of dimensions or motion. Previous research suggests that integrated (frequency averaged) backscatter shows promise for myocardial tissue characterization. The time averaged (over the heart cycle) integrated backscatter is elevated in ischemic myocardium. Furthermore, myocardial contraction and relaxation are paralleled by a cyclic variation in integrated backscatter, which is reduced substantially with even brief ischemia in dogs, and which recovers with reperfusion. A significant obstacle for extending these findings to studies of patients results from the fact that spatial orientation of the structure of myocardium gives rise to systematic variations (i.e., anisotropy) in its ultrasonic properties. Clinical applications of ultrasonic tissue characterization require measurements to be made with the propagation of ultrasound at varying angles with respect to the average fiber orientation of the heart and throughout the contraction-relaxation cycle. Successful characterization of myocardium with ultrasound will require compensation for the effects of this angular variation. We propose to investigate the anisotropy in the ultrasonic properties of the heart and their relationships to cardiac-dependent variation in myocardial backscatter: 1) by measuring the angular dependence of myocardial backscatter in vivo in open- and closed-chest dogs, 2) by characterizing the mechanisms responsible for the observed anisotropy in myocardium through application of a time domain low contrast approximation for the scattering of ultrasonic waves from cylindrical scatterers, and 3) by evaluating the consequences of anisotropy for clinical tissue characterization carried out through standard echocardiographic windows in studies of normal volunteers and patients with documented scar from remote infarct or with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Results of this research should permit the implementation of appropriate compensation for the effects of anisotropy and thus broaden the diagnostic power of ultrasound by contributing to the foundation of tissue characterization as a complementary modality to high resolution ultrasonic imaging.
|
0.919 |
1988 — 1992 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Conodont Biostratigraphy of the Upper Cambrian -- Lowest Ordovician and International Correlation of the Cambrian-Ordovician Boundary @ Missouri State University
Cambro-Ordovician conodonts are abundant and the same species are more widely distributed than other contemporaneous fossil groups. Because of their utility they will be the primary group utilized for choice of a boundary point by the International Working Group on the Cambrian-Ordovician Boundary. The project will fund the PI's continuing work as Secretary of this committee. Other aspects of the project are study of Cambro-Ordovician eustatic sea-level fluctuations. Strata in Nevada deposited during these sea-level changes will be studied in cooperation with U.S. Geological Survey personnel who have studied the Nevada strata and equivalent beds in Kazakhstan. The goal of this part of the research is to correlate unusual sedimentation patterns in platform and continental-slope deposits in these areas. A final aspect of the study is continuation of a project on biostratigraphy and paleoecology of Cambro-Ordovician conodonts in western Utah. Facies changes in the area make it a natural laboratory for study of the Cambro-Ordovician conodont paleoecology and the influence of facies changes on conodont biostratigraphy. Some of these facies changes are related to the eustatic fluctuations discussed above and can be correlated with data on sedimentation patterns in Nevada, Kazakhstan, and other areas to form an integrated picture of the effects of these eustatic events. These events are related to faunal extinctions and evolutionary changes which must be understood before a Cambrian-Ordovician boundary point can be chosen wisely.
|
0.961 |
1988 |
Miller, James |
S15Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Small Instrumentation Program @ Central Institute For the Deaf
biomedical equipment resource; biomedical equipment purchase;
|
0.907 |
1988 |
Miller, James L |
F32Activity Code Description: To provide postdoctoral research training to individuals to broaden their scientific background and extend their potential for research in specified health-related areas. |
Regulation of Cytoplasmic Calcium in Cone Outer Segments @ University of California San Francisco |
0.919 |
1988 — 1990 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Rui: Purchase of a Scanning Electron Microscope and X-Ray Microanalysis System @ Missouri State University
This award will provide partial (25%) funding for the acquisition of a scanning electron microscope and x-ray analysis system by Southwest Missouri State University. The equipment will be installed in the Department of Geosciences and used primarily by researchers in that department and the Department of Biomedical Sciences. Research projects that will utilize the new system include: Cambro.Ordovician conodont evolution and stratigraphy, the study of factors affecting attachment of pancreatic necrosis virus to salmon embryos, and the geochemistry of weathering processes in rocks.
|
0.961 |
1989 — 1998 |
Booth, Edward (co-PI) [⬀] Miller, James [⬀] Roberts, B. Lee |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Photonuclear and Fundamental Particle Physics @ Trustees of Boston University
Studies of CP violation, photoproduction of the 3-3 resonance, and the muon anomalous magnetic moment (g-2) will be carried out. The CP violation work will be carried out at CERN/LEAR using tagged, neutral kaon and anti-kaon beams to help determine the source of known CP violation. BU will provide the time-of-flight system for that experiment. Photoproduction of the 3-3 resonance will be studied in hydrogen and in nuclear systems through photon scattering, neutral pion photoproduction, and pion capture reactions. The emphasis will be on measurement of coherent production and scattering, for which there is a well developed isobar-hole theory. The muon anomalous magnetic moment will be determined to 0.3 parts-per-million accuracy. At this level of sensitivity, a 20-fold improvement over existing data, it is possible to test the unified electroweak theory. Deviation from the predictions of the standard model will indicate the existence of new physics.
|
0.961 |
1989 — 1991 |
Miller, James |
N01Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Aids Dtp Computer Dis Installation @ Fein-Marquart Associates
The adaptation of the Drug Information System (DIS) for the management of anti-AIDS data.
|
0.907 |
1990 — 1992 |
Miller, James |
S15Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Small Instrumentation Grant @ Central Institute For the Deaf
biomedical equipment purchase;
|
0.907 |
1991 — 1995 |
Miller, James [⬀] Roberts, B. Lee |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Electron Calorimeters For the Measurement of the Muon G-2 @ Trustees of Boston University
An electron calorimeter will be constructed for use in a new generation measurement of the muon anomalous magnetic moment. The detector will be used in conjunction with a large muon storage ring being built at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where the experiment will be conducted. A twenty- fold increase in sensitivity over previous measurements is anticipated, providing improved understanding of electroweak renormalization effects and muon substructure to an equivalent mass of several teV.
|
0.961 |
1991 |
Miller, James |
R13Activity Code Description: To support recipient sponsored and directed international, national or regional meetings, conferences and workshops. |
Conference On Biological Replacement in Sensory Systems @ Central Institute For the Deaf
sense organs; nervous system transplantation; nervous system regeneration; regeneration; meeting /conference /symposium; taste buds; eye transplantation; vision; hearing; olfactory lobe; cell differentiation; cell cycle; ear; eye; eye regeneration; growth factor; histocompatibility; touch; olfactions; travel;
|
0.907 |
1992 — 1993 |
Miller, James |
N01Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Plant Collection and Taxonomy:Central African Republic @ Missouri Botanical Garden |
0.912 |
1993 — 2011 |
Miller, James G [⬀] |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. R37Activity Code Description: To provide long-term grant support to investigators whose research competence and productivity are distinctly superior and who are highly likely to continue to perform in an outstanding manner. Investigators may not apply for a MERIT award. Program staff and/or members of the cognizant National Advisory Council/Board will identify candidates for the MERIT award during the course of review of competing research grant applications prepared and submitted in accordance with regular PHS requirements. |
Anisotropy in Myocardial Ultrasound
The ultimate objective of the proposed research is to elucidate the physical principles underlying the use of ultrasound fore the definitive quantification of acoustic properties of heart muscle needed for optimal diagnosis and assessment of function. In clinical echocardiography, scans are made with the direction of propagation of ultrasound at varying angles relative to the local fiber orientation of the myocardium and throughout the contraction-relaxation cycle. We have demonstrated that the magnitudes of backscatter and attenuation vary substantially with the angle of insonification relative to the arrangement of myofibers in the ventricular walls. Anisotropy is responsible for the drop out of the lateral and septal wall echoes in parasternal short-axis echocardiographic views and is especially pertinent for quantitative tissue characterization which has as its goal assessment of the properties of the tissue itself, as opposed to assessment of dimensions or motion. We propose to continue and extend our systematic investigations of the extent of angular variation of the ultrasonic properties of the heart and their relationship to conventional echocardiography, automatic echocardiographic detection of tissue-blood interfaces, myocardial tissue characterization, and ultimately to ultrasonic assessment of myocardial elastic properties. Research during the current grant period has focused on anisotropic properties averaged over the entire thickness of the ventricular wall. In this competitive renewal proposal, we outline studies designed to delineate the transmural variation of elastic properties that parallel significant transmural variations in the three-dimensional architecture of normal and diseased myocardium by measuring the transmural variations of the anisotropy of backscatter, attenuation, and velocity of myocardium and comparing with appropriate experimental and mathematical models. We further propose strategies for overcoming potential stumbling blocks arising from anisotropy for echocardiographic imaging, automatic detection of cardiac chamber dimensions, and myocardial tissue characterization. The proposed research is designed to lay the groundwork for exploiting the anisotropy of myocardial elastic properties to achieve improved understanding of cardiac mechanical properties (elasticity and compliance) in normal and diseases hearts. Our goal is to provide definitive answers to a series of explicit questions posed in the text of the proposal and thus to provide a basis for improving the diagnostic power of ultrasonics.
|
0.919 |
1994 — 1995 |
Miller, James |
N01Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Plant Collection and Taxonomy--Central African Republic @ Missouri Botanical Garden
plant extracts; plants; systematic biology; biomedical registry /referral center; medicinal plants; Africa; plant ecology;
|
0.912 |
1994 — 1997 |
Miller, James A [⬀] |
P01Activity Code Description: For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal. |
Analyses of Metabolic Activation/Inactivation of Select Chemical Carcinogens @ University of Wisconsin Madison
The studies to be carried out under this limited-scope application are a continuation of our previous and current studies on the electrophilic (active) and non-electrophilic (inactive) metabolites of three selected groups of chemical carcinogens and their DNA adducts. 1. The first group consists of ethyl carbamate, vinyl carbamate, vinyl carbamate epoxide, and the related human liver carcinogen, vinyl chloride and its epoxide. Considerable medical exposure of Japanese patients to ethyl carbamate occurred unwittingly in Japan from 1950 to 1975. Humans are also exposed to very low to low dietary levels of ethyl carbamate present in many foods and beverages derived from ethanolic fermentations. We wish to study the metabolism and DNA adducts of these hepatic carcinogens in rodent and human tissues. 2. The second group consists of the asarones and the precocenes that occur naturally in certain spice herbs and in certain plants as insecticides, respectively. Our previous work has included detailed studies of specific allylbenzenes (safrole, estragole, and methyl eugenol) that occur in many spice herbs. These compounds are activated via hydroxylation of the benzylic carbon followed by esterification to form electrophilic sulfuric acid esters. The asarones and the precocenes are propenylbenzenes. Our initial work suggests that the hydroxylation-ester pathway apparently does not apply to these compounds. We particularly wish to study the probable electrophilic epoxide metabolites and DNA adducts of these compounds. 3. The third group consists of the carcinogens S-vinyl-homocysteine (vinthionine) and S-ethyl-homocysteine (ethionine). They appear to have interesting differences in activation in carcinogenesis and in mutagenic properties. Our previous work included the first synthesis and discovery of the carcinogenicity and mutagenicity of vinthionine.
|
0.919 |
1994 — 1998 |
Miller, James N |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Rabbit Lyme Disease Model--Pathogenesis and Immunity @ University of California Los Angeles
We have developed a rabbit Lyme Disease model in which early erythema migrans (EM) lesions and disseminated infection occur and in which complete infection-derived immunity results. The long term - objectives of this study are to determine protective and pathological immune mechanisms operative during the course of rabbit infection with Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). The rabbit model of Lyme disease provides a unique opportunity to address local and disseminated disease manifestations similar to those in human infection, and to address the cellular and humoral immune mechanisms in infection-derived immunity. Specific and cross-reactive immunity to challenge will be determined utilizing several well-defined strains. The in situ localization and fate of Bb in skin following intradermal challenge will be correlated with the presence and distribution of PMN's, B cells, and T cell subsets both in situ and in peripheral blood. correlations with acquired resistance will also be made with in vitro lymphocytic cell proliferative responses and humoral immune responses including quantitative ELISA and Western blot analysis, passive protection, opsonophagocytosis, complemet-dependent borreliacidal activity, adherence inhibition, and freeze-fracture electron microscopy for the detection of antibody against Bb outer membrane proteins. The rabbit model will also be employed to address the efficacy of Bb challenge following vaccination with OspA, OspB, an avirulent Bb OspA- and OspB-less mutant, and with a recombinant gene product encoding an exported plasmid protein antigen (EppA). The cellular and humoral arms of the immune response as it relates to the development and healing of the EM lesion will also be addressed utilizing the above described procedures. Further, continued persistence, location, and subsequent elimination of the spirochete after EM healing will be determined by specific in situ analysis. Passive protection studies will be conducted with serum obtained at the time of Bb clearance from the skin in order to determine the immune status of these animals. The possibility of exotoxin in EM formation will be determined by injecting rabbits intradermally with concentrated supernatants from in vitro Bb cultures and by the use of filtrates prepared and concentrated from surgically implanted subcutaneous chambers containing Bb. The rabbit model permits the elucidation of those mechanisms that control persistence versus elimination in tissues to which the organism has disseminated. Studies directed toward the elucidation of dermatotropic, arthritogenic, and/or neurotropic strains utilizing several isolates of Bb are proposed and should contribute toward our understanding of chronicity in humans.
|
0.919 |
1994 — 1996 |
Miller, James Miyamoto, David [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Scanning Electron Microscopy, Eds, and Image Analysis With Networking Capability For Biology and Chemistry Laboratories
9452128 Miyamoto A digital scanning electron microscope (SEM), with energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer (EDS) and equipped to do image acquisition, enhancement and analysis, will be linked to an existing academic local area network (LAN). With this system we will engage our students in the use of an up-to-date instrument that uses digital technology to acquire and analyze images. We will develop a pedagogical sequence that develops student abilities in handling a complex instrument system in a step-wise fashion. Beginning with an introduction to the concepts of electron microscopy and imaging in a first year foundational biology module, we progress to applying this instrumentation to compare different kinds of cultured cells in a second year biology module. Upper level biology and chemistry classes complete the sequence by providing students the opportunity to learn and extensively use a number of advanced applications in different settings. In this fashion we give our students a gateway exposure to imaging applications that have become pivotal for research and analysis in biology, chemistry, and medicine.
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0.972 |
1995 — 1998 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Runaway Electrons and Nonlinear Ion Acceleration in Impulsive Solar Flares @ University of Alabama in Huntsville
This project will formulate a comprehensive and self-consistent theory of electron and ion acceleration in impulsive solar flares, and specifically to account for the near simultaneous acceleration of electrons and ions as manifested by the approximately coincident observed time profiles of X-ray and nucleation de-excitation line emission. The PIs will investigate in detail the evolution of an initially Maxwellian electron distribution in response to an applied DC electric field, taking into account wave generation and the resulting feedback of the waves on the electrons. They will also investigate the parametric decay of these waves into lower hybrid sidebands and low-frequency electrostatic waves. Theoretical results will be compared with observations of solar flares whenever possible to guide subsequent work and progressively constrain model parameters. This research aims to explain near simultaneous acceleration of electrons and ions, as well as the high electron/proton ratio in impulsive solar flares.
|
0.961 |
1996 — 2000 |
Miller, James Emslie, Gordon |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Reu Site: Space Physics and Instrumentation At the University of Alabama in Huntsville @ University of Alabama in Huntsville
This project will continue an REU site, involving eight undergraduate students per year in a summer internship program. Students will study space plasma physics, optics and materials science. Students will construct and observe the optical characteristics of space instrumentation, as well as the resulting scientific return from spacecraft and ground-based instruments studying the Earth, Sun, interplanetary space, and distant astronomical objects. Students will meet weekly with their advising faculty to discuss progress, and give a formal presentation of their results at the end of the summer, as well as a written research report.
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0.961 |
1996 |
Miller, James |
N01Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Plant Collection and Taxonomy @ Missouri Botanical Garden
To continue the exploration of selected tropical regions of the world as a source of potential new agents, which can be developed for the selective treatment of cancer, and AIDS in humans. This plant collection shall be conducted in Tropical Africa, with emphasis on Madagascar.
|
0.912 |
1997 — 2005 |
Miller, James [⬀] Roberts, B. Lee Carey, Robert (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Intermediate Energy Physics At Boston University @ Trustees of Boston University
Our Intermediate Energy research group at Boston University consists of three faculty, two postdoctoral fellows, four graduate students, and several part-time undergraduate students. In the next three years, we will: 1) Continue to work on the Muon g-2 experiment. The muon is like a heavy electron but is unstable and decays like a radioactive nuclear isotope. Because it has both spin and charge, it behaves like a microscopic bar magnet, whose magnetism we measure in our experiment (g-2). Our latest value, based on a small part of our data, disagrees with the Standard Model (a theory which describes the particles in nature and the forces between them) prediction by several times the error. If this disagreement persists after we analyze all of our data, it will be very exciting since it suggests the existence of new physics beyond the standard model. We plan two other experiments using the same large storage ring magnet which is used for g-2, the measurement of the muon electric dipole moment(EDM) and the direct measurement of the muon neutrino mass. The EDM is expected in theory to be smaller than we can measure, while indirect measurements from other experiments suggest that the neutrino mass is not zero. 2) Measure the muon lifetime, which determines the strength of the weak interaction within the standard model. 3) Measure the muon to electron conversion rate to unprecedented accuracy, a process which is forbidden by the Standard Model. All of these measurements directly test the Standard Model. Any significant deviation of the experimental values from theory would imply that there is physics beyond what we already know.
|
0.961 |
1998 — 2000 |
Miller, James Rossby, H. Thomas [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Development of a Low-Cost Rafos and Telemetry Sound Source @ University of Rhode Island
9811289 Rossby Funding is provided to design and build a light-weight, inexpensive sound source for ocean circulation and other ocean research applications. Tracking the paths of neutrally-buoyant floats within the ocean has relied on heavy and expensive acoustical sound sources. The new acoustic projector is based on the classical resonant pipe design, but uses syntactic foam to shape the resonant cavity instead of steel or aluminum. The new design is intended to be less costly than existing devices and more buoyant, thereby reducing deployment and mooring costs. In parallel with the acoustic projector design, the necessary electronics and power pack will be designed and built. These will include the timing circuitry and output amplifiers. By using a modular design approach, the navigation function (clock) can be swapped out and replaced with an acoustic telemetry function (transponder). The new sound source is intended to meet the needs of research programs requiring limited area coverage, including areas with complex topography, and the growing need for real-time acoustic telemetry from ocean bottom instrumentation.
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0.961 |
1999 — 2002 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Physiology Laboratories Improve the Analytical and Collaborative Skills of Students Through Inquiry-Based Activities
This project will use modem pedagogical methods and computer data acquisition technology to improve biology education at Goshen College. Goshen College has a reputation for strong science programs, but the current curriculum is weak in the area of modem physiology. This project will develop a large number of inquiry-type physiology lab exercises. Students, working in groups, will develop a hypothesis, design a way to test it, collect appropriate data, and present the data. In these exercises, students will develop a range of analytical and collaborative skills. Appropriate concepts and laboratory techniques will be embedded in the process.
This proposal requests funding for equipment, personnel time, and related costs to effect these changes. Goshen College will match the amount requested. The equipment will provide capability for computer data acquisition and access to data analysis and presentation tools. The project will focus on student work in laboratories of two classes: (I)Vertebrate Physiology; and (2)Human Anatomy and Physiology. Many of the key exercises in these classes will be adapted from work previously funded by the NSF. Students will make more limited but significant use of the equipment in courses in Health, Biological Principles, and Physiological Psychology.
The new inquiry activities will be offered in the 1999-2000 academic year, involving 200 students. Revised activities, final assessment and dissemination of results will occur in the 20002001 academic year. Student work will be evaluated by regular oral and written reports. An independent evaluator will review student work at the beginning and end of each semester. Evaluations will focus on student's quantitative, analytical, and collaborative skills, and on their communication of experimental data. Laboratory exercises and examples of student work will be posted on the web, and presented at local and national conferences.
|
0.951 |
1999 — 2003 |
Miller, James Emslie, Gordon |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Reu Site: Space Science and Instrumentation At the University of Alabama in Huntsville @ University of Alabama in Huntsville
This is a renewal of an REU site program. It will provide summer research opportunities to undergraduates to work on problems in space physics and instrumentation related to space physics experiments. Research topics cover a wide area of space physics and instrumentation. Topics in solar physics include: computer modeling of solar flares, studies of the corona using data collected during solar eclipses, and modeling of coronal mass ejections. Topics in Magnetospheric Physics include: computational simulations of plasma transport in the plasmasphere, simulations of turbulence in the plasma sphere, development of magnetometers for future small satellites, laboratory work using lasers to investigate the formation of plasma clouds from small objects of space debris. Topics in Astrophysics include: studies of X-ray binaries using data from EUVE, ROSAT and BeppoSAX. Topics in Optics and Materials Science include: computational ray tracing and testing of advanced mirrors and imaging systems and the Orbiting Wide-angle Light-collector project for studying the highest energy cosmic rays
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0.961 |
1999 — 2003 |
Miller, James Nathaniel |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Lyme Disease Model--Pathogenesis and Immunity @ University of California Los Angeles
We have developed a rabbit Lyme Disease model in which early erythema migrans (EM) lesions and disseminated infection occur and in which complete infection-derived immunity results. The long term - objectives of this study are to determine protective and pathological immune mechanisms operative during the course of rabbit infection with Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). The rabbit model of Lyme disease provides a unique opportunity to address local and disseminated disease manifestations similar to those in human infection, and to address the cellular and humoral immune mechanisms in infection-derived immunity. Specific and cross-reactive immunity to challenge will be determined utilizing several well-defined strains. The in situ localization and fate of Bb in skin following intradermal challenge will be correlated with the presence and distribution of PMN's, B cells, and T cell subsets both in situ and in peripheral blood. correlations with acquired resistance will also be made with in vitro lymphocytic cell proliferative responses and humoral immune responses including quantitative ELISA and Western blot analysis, passive protection, opsonophagocytosis, complemet-dependent borreliacidal activity, adherence inhibition, and freeze-fracture electron microscopy for the detection of antibody against Bb outer membrane proteins. The rabbit model will also be employed to address the efficacy of Bb challenge following vaccination with OspA, OspB, an avirulent Bb OspA- and OspB-less mutant, and with a recombinant gene product encoding an exported plasmid protein antigen (EppA). The cellular and humoral arms of the immune response as it relates to the development and healing of the EM lesion will also be addressed utilizing the above described procedures. Further, continued persistence, location, and subsequent elimination of the spirochete after EM healing will be determined by specific in situ analysis. Passive protection studies will be conducted with serum obtained at the time of Bb clearance from the skin in order to determine the immune status of these animals. The possibility of exotoxin in EM formation will be determined by injecting rabbits intradermally with concentrated supernatants from in vitro Bb cultures and by the use of filtrates prepared and concentrated from surgically implanted subcutaneous chambers containing Bb. The rabbit model permits the elucidation of those mechanisms that control persistence versus elimination in tissues to which the organism has disseminated. Studies directed toward the elucidation of dermatotropic, arthritogenic, and/or neurotropic strains utilizing several isolates of Bb are proposed and should contribute toward our understanding of chronicity in humans.
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0.919 |
2000 — 2002 |
Miller, James S. [⬀] |
P01Activity Code Description: For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal. |
Identification and Characterization of Botanicals @ University of Missouri-Columbia
catalogs; plants; classification; systematic biology;
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0.919 |
2001 — 2004 |
Miller, James Fritz, Gayle Asa, Cheryl Salick, Jan |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Be/Cnh: Intellectual Imperatives in Ethnobiology: Research, Methodology, Analyses, Education, and Funding For a Rapidly Expanding Field @ Missouri Botanical Garden
This workship will bring together biologists, anthropologists, and archaeologists engaged in research on etnobiology, together with applied mathematicians, to identify future directions to facilitate growth and maturation on the field. The workshop will be organized in two parts: an initial 3-day workshop of the organizing committee of mid-career leaders in the field, followed by a widely advertised seminar to which attendance will be open. The workshop will attempt to define and focus research objectives; explore modern methodology appropriate for studying plant/animal-people interactions; assess and strengthen techniques for quantitative analyses of multidisciplinary data; develop interdisciplinary education models to train students and practicioners of ethnobiology; and develop strategies to improve access to academic funding sources. International research partners from the International Society of Ethnobiology will attend. The participants will be pledged to apply the insights and collaborative linkages developed in the workshop to preparing competitive proposals in etchnobiology to submit to relevant programs in NSF. The output will be a bulletin defining the intellectual imperatives in ethnobiology, which will be broadly distributed to professional societies, universities, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations.
There are a variety of practical problems that would benefit from a more holistic and theoretically strong ethnobiology discipline. Due to the global nature of the workshop and the involvemente of foreign participants, the impact on research and education could be global in scope.
This project is an award emananting from the FY 2001 special competition in Biocomplexity in the Envionment focusing on the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems.
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0.912 |
2003 — 2005 |
Miller, James Gegan [⬀] |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Improving Cardiac Imaging With Nonlinear Ultrasound
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long range objective of the proposed research is to contribute to extending and enhancing diagnostic ultrasound by elucidating the physical principles underlying the use of nonlinear imaging. Echocardiography evolved from linear (fundamental) imaging to nonlinear (harmonic) imaging in a remarkably short period of time. The instrumental advances that facilitated this rapid evolution were initially developed to capitalize on the properties of contrast agents. However, it soon became clear that the nonlinear properties of tissue alone were sufficiently strong that images could be formed at frequencies near 2-f from an ultrasonic beam transmitted at 1-f. For many patients, the resulting harmonic images are of notably higher quality than the corresponding fundamental images. The rationale that underpins our proposed research is that a better understanding of the physics responsible for the generation (with distance traveled) and the propagation of the nonlinear signals, which arise from the (linearly generated) fundamental ultrasonic field developed at the face of the imaging transducer, will lay the foundation for even more significant improvements in image quality. We propose experimental studies under laboratory conditions of nonlinear ultrasonic propagation in excised hearts and other tissues interrogated through phase-aberrating media analogous to chest or abdominal wall, and in tissue-mimicking media with well-controlled attenuation, backscatter, and speed of sound. We propose to compare the results of our measurements with predictions based on a Burgers equation enhanced, nonlinear angular spectrum simulation approach. Using the results of these experiments and simulations, we propose to evaluate the strengths and limitations of the concept of "effective apodization" to characterize the central features of the diffracting and attenuating nonlinearly generated field as it propagates in the patient. The proposed research is designed to enhance the role of ultrasound in the clinical environment by providing definitive answers to a detailed series of explicitly posed questions.
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0.919 |
2004 — 2015 |
Miller, James (co-PI) [⬀] Roberts, B. Lee Carey, Robert (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Precision Measurements in Intermediate Energy Physics @ Trustees of Boston University
This award will support our group's leadership of two major new experiments at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab): Mu2e, and muon g-2 (E989). The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab, co-led by J. Miller will search for the lepton flavor violating (LFV) muon to electron conversion reaction at the 10^{-16} level, a factor of 10,000 times more sensitive than the present limit. B.L. Roberts is co-leading the muon g-2 experiment. Both experiments involve a dipole operator, and in the context of supersymmetry probe complementary aspects of that particular beyond-the-SM (BSM) theory. Mu2e is sensitive to a wider range of physics than the LFV decay of the positive muon to a photon and positron, which must go through the dipole interaction. The muon anomalous magnetic moment (g-2) is also sensitive to a wide range of BSM physics. It is a chiral-changing, flavor-diagonal interaction, which could have contributions from the chargino and neutralino in SUSY, or the "dark photon" from a hidden U(1) sector, or from Randall-Sundrum models. At present the difference between the SM and the Brookhaven experiment is around 3.5 standard deviations. Fermilab E989 is designed to cross the five standard deviation threshold. Whatever the result from Fermilab E989, it will provide an important constraint on the interpretation of new phenomena found at the LHC. The MuSun experiment is measuring the weak matrix element for muon capture on deuterium, which is related to the weak pp fusion matrix element that powers the sun.
This award will support our group's leadership of two major new experiments at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab): Mu2e and muon g-2. It will also support our participation in two other experiments: the MuSun experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and the neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) experiment being prepared for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. J. Miller is co-leading the Fermilab Mu2e experiment that will search for the conversion of a muon into an electron without the emission of neutrinos. B.L. Roberts is co-leading the Fermilab muon g-2 experiment which will measure the magnetism associated with the muon a factor of four times more precisely than the previous experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Both of these experiments are looking for evidence of New Physics that cannot be explained by the Standard Model, a theory that at present describes all measured quantities in particle physics, but is known to be incomplete. Results from the previous g-2 experiment show a hint of something new, which should be clarified by the Fermilab experiment. This program is complementary to the searches at the energy frontier at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva Switzerland. R. Carey is working on the MuSun experiment, which measures the rate at which a negative muon captures on the deuterium nucleus (made up of a proton and neutron), and breaks it apart by changing the proton into a neutron. This process is interesting since it can be related to the fusion of two protons together to form deuterium, the "burning of hydrogen" that powers the sun.
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0.961 |
2004 — 2005 |
Miller, James Miller, Richard [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Acquisition of a High Performance Computing Cluster For Solar and High-Energy Astrophysics Research @ University of Alabama in Huntsville
This is a proposal to acquire a High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC) to facilitate the study of solar physics, solar-terrestrial physics, high-energy astrophysics, and astrophysics instrumentation development at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The proposed facility would consist of a high-performance computational engine, data storage, and archiving hardware, as well as visualization hardware and software. The goal would be to develop a significant facility that is freely available to senior scientists, postdocs, and graduate students in the participating research groups.
Specifically, the proposed HPCC would support the proposers' primary science goals by enhancing efforts to simulate and model solar and astrophysical processes, facilitating the analysis of large volume datasets from multiple experimental programs, and aiding the characterization of existing (and the development of future) instrumentation by providing a platform for generating instrument simulations with high statistics.
The proposers have outlined a model system to achieve these goals that includes a multi-CPU design based on commercially available equipment, high-speed interconnects between CPUs, large data storage capability, archiving hardware and software, data analysis and visualization hardware and software, and software development workstations for students and postdocs.
The increasing volumes of experimental data, as well as the complexity of ongoing and future analyses, pose significant data analysis challenges. These factors have the potential to severely restrict data processing throughput, instrument characterization studies, and theoretical modeling programs. A modest investment in computing resources would make a major impact on the scientific return of both existing and future research programs at UAH. The proposed HPCC system is designed to address these issues and to provide a resource that would ensure UAH's continued leadership in the study of the Sun and the Cosmos. This new computational infrastructure would also complement the ongoing efforts of UAH's newly established High Energy Photonics Laboratory (HEPL) by enabling the simulation, design, calibration, and analysis of instrumentation developed in that laboratory.
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0.961 |
2005 — 2007 |
Miller, James Fowler, Lauren [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Research Experience For Undergraduates in Circadian Disruption of Military and Law-Enforcement Personnel Through Shift-Work
This project is a research experience for undergraduates (REU) site that provides 10 psychology students a hands-on, ten-week summer independent research project, working collaboratively with a faculty member from one of the departments within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Weber State University. Students conduct research on the effects of circadian disruption through shift-work on military and law enforcement personnel. Intellectual Merits- Through a collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratories Human Effectiveness Directorate, Warfighter Fatigue Countermeasures Branch, REU students research the effects of fatigue on performance, quantifying and optimizing existing Air Force and law-enforcement shift-work scheduling practices. Research is conducted on a variety of levels, including physiological, cognitive, behavioral, and social aspects of shift-work. Broader Impacts- Four populations of students are targeted for participation in this REU site-women and underrepresented minorities, nontraditional students, students from institutions where research opportunities are limited, and students contemplating graduate school. The goal is to provide students with the opportunity to design and conduct research and to participate in a number of professional development activities intended to assess their desire toward pursuing graduate school. In addition, the research conducted by student investigators will directly contribute to the growing pool of knowledge necessary to improve working conditions for our military and law-enforcement personnel.
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0.961 |
2006 — 2010 |
Meyen, Edward [⬀] Miller, James Deshler, Donald (co-PI) [⬀] Greer, Diana (co-PI) [⬀] Poggio, John (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Preparing Students With Learning Disabilities For Careers in Math and Science by Achieving Curriculum Standards @ University of Kansas Center For Research Inc
Objectives: The objectives for this project include reducing the achievement gap between the performance of students with learning disabilities and their non-disabled peers in math; enhancing the math preparation of individuals with LD to enter postsecondary institutions to pursue programs and degrees in math, science, engineering, and technology; and the national dissemination of instructional resources in the form of lessons and online tutorials aligned with curriculum standards that have been validated to improve the achievement of students with LD . This proposal builds from a major internally funded project identified as the Blending Assessment with Instruction Program (BAIP) that is comprised of two validated interventions in the form of lessons for teachers to employ in their instruction and online tutorials for independent use by students with LD. Both interventions are aligned with curriculum standards in math. The research initiative is designed to investigate the effects of the lessons and the tutorials on the achievement of students with LD in math. Significance and Intellectual Merit of Research: National Center for Educational Outcomes reported in 2004 that not only were students with LD performing below all students across the country, but also that the gap actually grew significantly larger as students got older (Thurlow & Wiley, 2004). Research has found that students with LD typically function two to four grades below expectancy across the mathematics curriculum (Parmar & Cawley, 1997). Many students with LD perform poorly on assessments that are tied to state standards (Thurlow, Albus, Spicuzza, & Thompson, 1998). Thurlow et al determined that only 34% of students with LD passed a state test on basic math skills, versus 83% of their non-disabled peers. This is of serious concern given that students with LD are held to increasingly higher standards and will need higher-level math and reasoning skills to meet the demands of high school and beyond. In less than 20 years, one in every four jobs will require technical skills (Tarlin, 1997, as cited in Jarrett, 1998), and many careers require a strong basis in math. If students do not experience a standards-based curriculum at an early age, they will be disadvantaged when being assessed via a standards-based assessment as required by NCLB. To focus only on postsecondary interventions to increase the presence of persons with LD in math, science and technology careers fails to recognize what research demonstrates as the contributor to the underrepresentation of persons with LD in the math, science and technology fields. Research Strategy: We propose to research the effects of BAIP in aligning local curricula with national curriculum standards and statewide assessments as a model for improving the performance of students with LD. The lessons and tutorials are developed for grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 in compliance with NCLB. Two distinct empirical approaches are planned. First, lesson tests will be directly tied to content. These tests will be piloted to assure their validity and reliability. Once quality tests are available, they will be administered prior to and following lesson use with targeted students. In concurrence with this "experimental group" testing, we will pre and post test other comparable students with the same measures. As we will not be able to control for group equivalence due to the absence of randomization to intervention, and also considering that the pre and post test measures will not be equivalent, analysis of covariance procedures will be used to control "pre-lesson" instructional group differences. This method will be used within schools and as numbers of participants increase will carry out more robust empirical studies relying on hierarchical linear modeling. Thus in six months we will quasiexperimentally research the impact on learning of the lessons. Finally, student item score results will be evaluated descriptively to guide us regarding needed lesson changes. Comparisons will be made across students with LD who experience (a) the lessons taught by teachers, (b) tutorials, (c) lessons and (d) tutorials with disability and non-disabled peers. Broader Implications of Proposed Research: The vast majority of students with LD receive their math instruction in the general education classroom. Thus, the project has the potential to benefit all teachers and, ultimately, all students.
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0.961 |
2007 — 2010 |
Miller, James [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Nsf/Fda Scholar-in-Residence At Fda
0717830 Miller The proposed research is designed to enhance the knowledge base underpinning ultrasonic devices for the diagnosis of bone and heart disease. The premise is that expanding the knowledge base will permit the understanding of basic mechanisms by which such ultrasonic instruments interrogate the tissue. A broader goal of this proposal is the support of the FDA in its mission to facilitate the introduction of new, safe, and effective medical devices into clinical practice. The proposed work is structured to permit the integration of research and education by enabling a professor of physics and graduate students from Washington University in St. Louis to participate in research collaborations within the intramural research environment at the FDA. Ultrasound is the specific area of research targeted for this collaboration, which is designed to contribute to the generation of new knowledge underpinning the development of devices for improved assessment of bone quality and advances in myocardial tissue characterization as an adjunct to echocardiography. Research projects dealing with bone disease will include (1) the effects on diagnostic measuring devices of the potential interference of fast wave and slow wave compressional ultrasonic modes and (2) the impact on diagnostic measurements of phase aberration and phase cancellation at phase sensitive ultrasonic receiving transducer apertures. The potential impact of the results of these studies on diagnostic measurements of bone will be evaluated in part with the aid of microcomputed tomography (microCT) and mechanical testing of bone samples. Projects related to heart will focus on identifying and refining methods to combine multiple features derived from myocardial backscatter. At the present time, most laboratories report only the magnitude of the cyclic variation of backscatter. Additional features that are expected to improve the basis for diagnosis include the time delay of the cyclic variation relative to cardiac systole, the duty cycle of the cyclic variation waveform, and the time rate of change of backscatter during the cyclic variation.
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0.961 |
2007 — 2009 |
Carter, Clay Rutkowski, Gregory Miller, James Goodge, John Yu, Xun |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of a Variable-Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope For Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research At the University of Minnesota-Duluth @ University of Minnesota Duluth
This project acquires a variable-pressure scanning electron microscope (SEM) for research and education in the earth sciences, biology, and engineering. This instrument will be used for advanced morphological, textural and compositional characterization of materials. With the ability to work under both low- and high-vacuum, the variable-pressure SEM allows for imaging of both dry materials and wet biological samples. In addition to back-scattered and secondary electron detectors, the instrument will be equipped with an energy-dispersive x-ray analysis system (EDS), cathodoluminescence imaging system (CL), electron back-scatter diffractometer (EBSD), and low-vacuum secondary-electron detector (ESED). In terms of broader impacts, this instrument will be the first of its kind in northern Minnesota. It will be used extensively for student research and education, as well as development of industry partnerships.
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0.961 |
2007 — 2010 |
Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: a Virtual Reality Laboratory and Curriculum For Undergraduates @ University of Kansas Center For Research Inc
Computer Science (31)
The "Collaborative Research: A Virtual Reality Laboratory and Curriculum for Undergraduates" project is evaluating a variety of low- and moderate-cost equipment suitable for immersive virtual reality.
Intellectual Merit: This project is evaluating the plausibility of purchasing and constructing low cost equipment for teaching immersive virtual reality. It is also developing educational materials to support using this equipment in a variety of computer science courses.
Broader Impact: The project is exploring developing low cost equipment with tailored educational materials which can be inexpensively adopted. The equipment is enabling students to experience immersive virtual reality and can be adopted for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and game programming courses. The PIs are disseminating their results through presentations at both regional and national conferences.
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0.961 |
2007 — 2012 |
Miller, James Fowler, Lauren [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Research Experience For Undergraduates in Fatigue Effects On Performance in Military, Medical, and Law Enforcement Personnel
ABSTRACT Proposal # 0648735 PI: Dr. Lauren A. Fowler Research Experience for Undergraduates in Fatigue Effects on Performance in Military, Medical, and Law Enforcement Personnel.
This NSF-REU Site is for a ten-week summer program at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. This program will provide support for ten students from across the United States to participate in ten-weeks of independent research in collaboration with faculty from Weber State University and researchers from the Air Force Warfighter Fatigue Countermeasures Branch. Students participating in this program will conduct research on the effects of fatigue on physiological, psychological, cognitive, behavioral, health, and social performance in military, medical, and law enforcement personnel. This REU will target women and underrepresented minorities, nontraditional students, students from institutions where research opportunities are limited, and students considering graduate school. The major component of this program is the opportunity for students to design, conduct, and present all aspects of a research project during the summer. Students, working with their mentors, have the opportunity to become principal investigators, delving into the scientific study of the impact of fatigue on performance in workers who are required to work 24/7 schedules. Other aspects of the program include training on Air Force fatigue countermeasure software, a seminar on circadian rhythms and shift-work, a course in research ethics, a course in graduate school preparation, field trips, social events, an end-of-program research symposium, and presentation of research at a national conference. Participation in this REU program will transform students from passive learners to active investigators. Students will learn the process of science by active involvement in research and come to understand the sense of community that cooperation in research promotes. The program seeks to encourage participation in research by providing role models and close interaction with faculty mentors and experts in the field. The impact of this program is to provide students with the opportunity to design and conduct research, assess their desire toward graduate school, and gain first hand knowledge of the application of the scientific method. In addition, the research conducted by student investigators in this REU will contribute to the growing pool of knowledge necessary to improve working conditions for our military, medical, and law-enforcement personnel. Students will have the unique opportunity to do both basic and applied research to help prevent decrements in performance related to fatigue in our emergency personnel. This site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the National Science Foundation REU Program.
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0.961 |
2007 — 2011 |
Miller, James Evans, Kevin |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Age and Origin of the Weaubleau Structure: a Possible Meteorite Impact in Missouri @ Missouri State University
Large meteorite impacts pose small but potentially significant risks for the future of civilization. The largest impacts precipitate mass extinctions. Knowing the possible consequences of such events, it is important to study ancient terrestrial impacts because they provide records of environmental devastation and give insight into predicting the effects of future collisions with meteorites. Over the last two decades, an enormous amount of information has been gathered concerning large impacts, but the effects of mid-sized impacts have not been documented thoroughly.
The Weaubleau structure of west-central Missouri is a possible impact site. It contains many of the hallmarks of impacts: locally deformed rocks (intensely fractured, faulted, and folded strata), an uplifted central (rebound?) area, and microscopic features that seem to have developed from shock pressures. Ten shallow drill cores already have been recovered from the structure, providing a rare glimpse at the depth of deformation within the structure. If evidence ultimately supports the idea that Weaubleau is an impact, it would be the third mid-sized impact in southern Missouri; Decaturville and Crooked Creek are both widely accepted as impact structures. Other scientists have hypothesized that these features, together with structures in Kansas and Illinois, record a serial impact. All of these features fall on the same trend, but Crooked Creek and Decaturville are deeply eroded, and their ages are poorly understood. In contrast, the Weaubleau structure was buried shortly after the event that produced it, and it is now partly exposed by modern erosion. Study of the Weaubleau structure offers an extraordinary opportunity to investigate a possible impact, determine its age, examine the lateral extent of devastation, and examine potential relationships with other structures in Missouri.
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0.961 |
2008 — 2009 |
Miller, James Nathaniel |
R21Activity Code Description: To encourage the development of new research activities in categorical program areas. (Support generally is restricted in level of support and in time.) |
A Novel Approach to the Development of a Syphilis Vaccine Using Rabbit Monoclonal @ University of California Los Angeles
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Syphilis is a global public health problem that results in significant morbidity and infant mortality. The continued worldwide prevalence of adult and congenital syphilis, and the increased risk of transmitting HIV infection in patients co-infected with syphilis, underscores the need for a safe and effective syphilis vaccine. The focus of this proposal is the isolation of rabbit monoclonal antibodies directed against Treponema pallidum surface antigens that are targets of treponemicidal activity. We believe that such monoclonal antibodies and the identification of their respective targets would facilitate the development of an experimental syphilis vaccine. Previous studies aimed at identifying elements of protective immunity in syphilis have sought to characterize the surface of T. pallidum on the basis that surface proteins of the spirochete were certain to be involved in pathogenesis and to constitute targets of protective immunity, as in the case of other microbial pathogens. An approach we previously employed to characterize the T. pallidum surface was based upon our finding that immunization of mice with purified T. pallidum outer membrane vesicles (OMV) induced remarkably high titer treponemicidal antibodies. It is pertinent to note that subsequent efforts to immunize rabbits with OMV did not generate treponemicidal antibodies in spite of a good immune response to outer membrane associated lipoproteins as determined by Western blot analysis. A monoclonal antibody, termed M131, was identified with potent in vitro treponemicidal activity. M131 binds a phosphorylcholine epitope on the T. pallidum surface. Because phosphatidylcholine contains phosphorylcholine, which is a constituent of mammalian membranes, future vaccine development based upon this antigen would be unacceptable due to the induction of autoimmunity in the host. The aim of this study is to utilize a similar strategy by generating monoclonal antibodies from the spleen of a syphilitic rabbit immune to challenge reinfection, in order to identify more promising T. pallidum determinants of killing antibody and protective immunity. The development of a human vaccine represents the ultimate long-term objective of future studies. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Syphilis is a global public health problem that results in significant morbidity and infant mortality. The continued worldwide prevalence of adult and congenital syphilis, and the increased risk of transmitting HIV infection in patients co-infected with syphilis, underscores the need for a safe and effective syphilis vaccine.
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0.919 |
2009 — 2012 |
Davis, Robert Gellman, Andrew [⬀] Rohrer, Gregory (co-PI) [⬀] Kitchin, John Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Deveopment of An Apparatus For Deposition of Multi-Component Thin Films With Lateral Composition Gradients @ Carnegie-Mellon University
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
0923083 Gellman
High throughput methodologies have the capacity to accelerate progress in the surface science and materials science of multicomponent materials such as alloys. High throughput methods couple the preparation of libraries of multicomponent materials of many compositions with efficient analysis of the properties of the entire library. Development is proposed of an ultra-high vacuum apparatus housing a device for deposition of thin alloy films with lateral composition gradients. These composition spread alloy films (CSAF) will contain all possible binary or ternary alloys, The UHV apparatus deposition tool will be interfaced with a commercial apparatus for high throughput surface analysis that is being purchased independent of this proposed instrument development effort. It will allow automated, point-by-point analysis of the sample surface using angle resolved x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and low energy ion scattering (LIES). These methods will determine the composition of the near surface region, the composition of the topmost atomic layer, and chemical state information of the CSAFs; all resolved as functions of bulk composition or nanoparticle size. The bulk structure of the CSAFs will be determined ex situ using an automated orientation imaging microscope developed at Carnegie Mellon. These bulk and surface analysis methods are sufficient to allow complete local characterization of bulk and surface alloy properties with <1% resolution in composition space on a time scale equivalent to that for preparing a CSAF (~1 day).
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0.961 |
2009 — 2012 |
Miller, James Gegan [⬀] |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Enhancing Bone Quality Assessment Using Quantitative Ultrasound
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Fracture risk associated with osteoporosis represents a concern that is likely to become ever more serious as the nation's population ages. The FDA has approved 7 drugs designed to slow or reverse osteoporosis. The gold standard for monitoring pharmacological treatment is Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA), which provides a measure of bone mineral density (BMD). In principle, bone sonometry is capable of providing additional information regarding bone quality because it is sensitive not only to bone mineral density but also to microstructure and orientation which influence fracture risk. In spite of its promise, however, sonometry has not yet been shown to provide such additional bone quality information, in part because of the specific limitations to be addressed in the proposed research. Phase cancellation at the receiving transducer has a negative impact on bone sonography. Transmission of ultrasound through bone is results in the generation of multiple modes of propagation including fast and slow waves, mode convertion, and multiple scattering - effects that can mask the underlying material properties of bone that determine fracture risk. At present, sonometry is limited to sites permitting through transmission such as the cancaneus, whereas sites at highest risk of fracture such as the hip would be accessible only to backscattered ultrasound. We have therefore identified three specific aims: 1) Identify, segregate, and overcome limitations of current transmission-based calcaneus sonometry arising from phase cancellation at the receiving transducer, 2) implement Bayes inversion of the ultrasonic signals to estimate the underlying bone material properties from received transmission sonometry signals complicated by the presence of multiple modes, and 3) validate, expand, and refine methods for estimating fracture risk in high risk sites such as the hip based on backscattered ultrasound. The long-term goal of the proposed research is to enhance and expand bone sonometry to facilitate its role in monitoring bone quality and the potential regression of osteoporosis with the aid of pharmacological interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Osteoporotic fractures reduce quality of life and carry enormous health care costs. Sonometry could improve bone quality assessment because, unlike DEXA, it is sensitive to bone microstructure and orientation. The proposed research addresses fundamental improvements to existing sonometry techniques, and explores new techniques applicable to the hip and spine that are at relatively high risk of fracture but currently cannot be monitored.
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0.919 |
2009 — 2012 |
Litt, Amy Little, Damon [⬀] Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of a High Performance Computer Cluster For the New York Botanical Garden @ New York Botanical Garden
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award funds the acquisition of a high performance computer cluster at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). The cluster will be used to study a wide variety of topics in plant biology including evolution, gene function, three-dimensional image reconstruction, ecosystem function, and DNA based specimen identification. The analyses conducted with the computer cluster will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
A computer cluster at NYBG will broadly impact the research of a wide variety of constituencies: (1) An internship program formed between NYBG and the Bronx High School of Science, a school of highly gifted students from predominantly minority background, will give at students the opportunity to perform independent research in a laboratory. (2) The quality of the graduate program will improve as students will have a more powerful data analysis option and will be more broadly trained in current techniques. (3) Undergraduate and graduate students will be offered a class on Computational Methods in Biology at Lehman College (CUNY), a predominantly minority institution.
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0.906 |
2010 — 2013 |
Gellman, Andrew (co-PI) [⬀] Miller, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Development of Pd Alloy Membranes For Ultrapure Hydrogen Production @ Carnegie-Mellon University
Multicomponent alloy materials are used in a variety of applications in which surface properties are critical. For Pd-based alloys used as dense metal membranes in hydrogen purification processes, critical surface properties include the ability of the alloy surface to dissociate H2 and its ability to resist contamination. A fundamental alloy characteristic that can influence both of these properties is surface segregation, the propensity of the alloy's surface composition to differ from its bulk composition. The proposed effort will develop and apply a novel, high-throughput methodology for fundamental study of these surface properties in Pd100-x-yAgxRuy and Pd100-x-yAgxCuy alloys. This approach will enable measurement of segregation, H2 dissociation kinetics, and sulfur poisoning across continuous regions of alloy composition space, providing an unprecedented and comprehensive understanding of how these surface properties depend on composition.
One of the challenges inherent in the study of multicomponent materials is that of understanding their properties over a wide range of composition space without the need to prepare and characterize a prohibitively large set of discrete, fixed-composition samples. For efficient study of alloy surfaces, the PIs have recently developed two unique tools that will serve as the basis for the proposed investigation. The first is a deposition source for preparation of Composition Spread Alloy Films (CSAFs), such as Pd100-x-yAgxRuy, with lateral gradients in composition across their surfaces, thus exposing all possible alloy compositions on a single compact (~1 cm2) substrate. The second tool is a 10x10 multichannel microreactor for spatially resolved measurement of reaction kinetics on CSAF surfaces. In the proposed research, these tools will be combined with spatially resolved surface analysis techniques to deliver a fundamental understanding of the composition dependence of a number of alloy surface properties that are critical to the performance of dense metal hydrogen separation membranes.
The tools and methods for preparation and characterization of CSAFs that are developed and refined during the proposed research program will be applied broadly to the study of alloy properties far beyond those relevant to hydrogen purification membranes. Highthroughput study of alloy hardness, corrosion resistance, catalytic activity for fuels conversion reactions, etc., will generate comprehensive data sets across all possible compositions for a nearlimitless number of binary, ternary and even higher order alloys.
The proposed work will train students in the application of high-throughput approaches to a wide variety of problems in alloy materials science. Collaborations with Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Santa Fe, Argentina and the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory will give students opportunities to work with world-class scientists outside Carnegie Mellon; we plan to pursue separate funding that would support student travel to work in Argentina. Students from Argentina will also benefit from their exposure to this research and their interactions with Carnegie Mellon researchers.
The results of the proposed work will be disseminated to the scientific community through publications and presentations at national meetings. Beyond the research impact of the proposed work, the PIs are very active in the research community; they serve several professional organizations in various capacities, including organization of research symposia on topics related to high-throughput catalysis and surface science. They are also active in service to professional student organizations.
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0.961 |
2011 — 2014 |
Miller, James [⬀] Xu, Ming (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Quantifying Feedbacks Affecting High Altitude Climate Change @ Rutgers University New Brunswick
In many mountain regions there is evidence that temperatures are changing at different rates than the global average. Three questions arise: Are temperatures in mountain regions increasing faster than the global average? Within mountain regions are warming rates dependent on elevation? And if the answers to the above are yes, why do such differences occur? Several different feedbacks can contribute, including those related to snow-albedo, atmospheric water vapor, cloud cover, and cloud properties. These feedbacks are difficult to quantify because the relationship between two climate variables is invariably interconnected with other variables as well. Also, the sparsity of observations in high-altitude regions exacerbates this difficulty.
This project will combine surface-based and satellite observations with climate model simulations and a neural network analysis scheme to (1) quantify some of the principal relationships that contribute to feedbacks on temperature in high altitude regions, and (2) investigate how these relationships and feedbacks might change through the 21st century in response to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases. The focus will be on the Tibetan Plateau and the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado. The neural network analysis calculates partial derivatives between pairs of climate variables (e.g., downward longwave radiation and cloud cover) so that the strength of the various links in a feedback loop can be determined.
Broader impacts of this work include: (1) The neural network can be applied in other regions and can enable researchers to quantify important feedbacks in the climate system and analyze non-linear processes; (2) By combining surface-based and satellite observations, a new spatially and temporally expanded observational data base will be available to the research community; (3) A better understanding of climate change in mountain regions will benefit the public by improving management practices that affect the future of water resources, agriculture, tourism, and ecosystems in high altitude regions; (4) A high-school teacher will be supported to work with the investigators to help develop and implement podcasts on mountains and climate change; (5) There will be training for a postdoctoral fellow and undergraduates; and (6) Educational materials will be developed in collaboration with the Mountain Studies Institute in Colorado.
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0.961 |
2012 — 2013 |
Miller, James Gegan [⬀] |
R21Activity Code Description: To encourage the development of new research activities in categorical program areas. (Support generally is restricted in level of support and in time.) |
Bayesian Enhancement of Echocardiographic Strain Assessment
Project Relevance. Cardiac disease reduces quality of life and carries enormous health care costs. The proposed research uses novel Bayesian methods for improving the stability and reliability of myocardial strain measurements resulting in their more routine use as a diagnostic tool in the clinical setting. These fundamental improvements are designed to identify cardiac abnormalities more reliably, thus enhancing patient care.
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0.919 |
2012 — 2017 |
Miller, James Johnson, William (co-PI) [⬀] Slocum, Terry (co-PI) [⬀] Hasiotis, Stephen (co-PI) [⬀] Hirmas, Daniel |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Developing Virtual and Physical Models to Enhance Conceptualization of Soil and Biogenic Structures in Undergraduate Geoscience Classes @ University of Kansas Center For Research Inc
The project utilizes recent technological advances to develop, implement, and evaluate the use of virtual and physical 3-D models of soil and organism-formed structures in the undergraduate geoscience curriculum. Multi-stripe laser triangulation scanning is transforming physical specimens into digitized virtual models that students can manipulate and measure using readily available software. The resulting digital collection is being made broadly available via dissemination through web portals utilized by geoscience educators. In addition, rapid prototyping technology (3-D printing) is creating light and durable plastic models for direct manipulation of selected specimens, including rare and/or fragile examples.
Learning impacts of using the virtual and physical models, both separately and together, are being evaluated in multiple laboratory sections of introductory geoscience courses at the University of Kansas. Results are providing insights into effective strategies for enhancing 3D visualization and conceptual understanding of features and processes in soils. These insights and the technological approaches are being shared with the community of undergraduate geoscience educators, stimulating adaptation and broader applications elsewhere.
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0.961 |
2012 |
Litt, Amy Goffinet, Bernard [⬀] Buck, William Miller, James Poli, Dorothybelle |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Joint Bryophyte Genomics and Phylogenetics Conference: Moss2012 and 3rd International Conference On Molecular Systematics of Bryophytes-New York Botanical Gardens, June 14-23,2012 @ University of Connecticut
Mosses, liverworts and hornworts (bryophytes) are modern representatives of the earliest plants that colonized land approximately 500 million years ago; they remain key components of modern ecosystems. Scientists from two biological disciplines approach the study of bryophytes in very different ways, with evolutionary biologists focusing on understanding diversity of all bryophytes and plant genomicists focusing on a single genetic model species within bryophytes to better understand gene function. Cross-disciplinary efforts are challenging yet they lead to a synthetic understanding of the evolution of both genes and species, greatly advancing our understanding of the origins of biodiversity. This award supports student participation in a joint conference on the evolution and genomics of bryophytes, and will engage early career scientists in activities that lay the groundwork for future cross-disciplinary collaborations. Additionally, it will engage teachers of grades 4-12 in a professional development day, and provide them with expertise and tools to advance the understanding of biology in their students.
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0.961 |
2014 — 2017 |
Miller, James Schenker, Jeffrey |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Interpreting Data From Trapping of Stochastic Movers @ Michigan State University
This collaboration between mathematical physicist Prof. Jeff Schenker and entomologist Prof. James Miller aims at a fundamental understanding of the science of trapping of insects, particularly agricultural pests. Capture of individual insects in traps baited with a lure, often a pheromone, has long been a critical measurement technique in field biology. The number of individuals caught in a trap can reveal which insects are present and when they active. However, the difficult problem of converting the number captured into an accurate estimate of pest density (the number of pests to be found in a given region) is at present poorly understood. This project aims to solve that problem through a combination of field experiments, computer simulations, and theoretical investigations into random movements that approximate insect flight. Better understanding of trapping will be of use to agricultural pest managers, in the detection and management of invasive species, and in monitoring and controlling the spread of insect disease vectors. In particular, the aimed-for improvements in population estimation will be a boon for farmers, allowing pest managers to recommend interventions like insecticide sprays only when there is clear scientific evidence that the cost of application is offset by the potential loss to the grower.
The work will follow an integrated program of mathematical investigations on competitive trapping of stochastic movers and field experiments of marked release/capture of insects. The aim is to answer two questions: (1) Given an array of several traps what information about the dispersal, mobility and population density may be inferred from the various catches? (2) Given several traps how may we best arrange them to accurately infer estimates on population density from catch data? In the past, a missing link in regards to both problems has been an accurate representation of the probability of catch as it varies with the distances animals originated from the trap. The investigators have made considerable progress on modeling catch using computer simulated random walkers. By bringing mathematical analysis and numerical study of diffusion and random walks to bear on the problem, the research team anticipates being able to extract important scientific measurements from data that can be gathered easily and inexpensively in the field.
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0.961 |