UTSA Discovery

Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement at The University of Texas at San Antonio

2013 VOLUME 6

GLOBAL IMPACTS

Welcome to the sixth edition of UTSA Discovery. Researchers at UTSA continue to seek new insight and solutions for complex questions and problems in Energy, Health, Security, Sustainability, and Human and Social Development. Many of the research programs address two or more of these areas, and most require multidisciplinary collaborations. In this volume we present six feature articles on international research teams who are contributing to improve the quality of our lives now and in the future.

n Our cover story (“Global Impacts”) focuses on the university’s efforts to collaborate with researchers from around the globe in order to ensure advancements in research, instruction and public services.

n Malawian school children are offered books depicting their culture and experiences in a research project entitled “Read Malawi!”

n The study of the endangered Sanje mangabey primates which may inform fuller understanding of human behavior is detailed in “Using Science to Save Endangered Primates in Tanzania.”

n UTSA students and faculty work on the development of microanalytical chemistry and microfluidic devices in “IRES Facilitates Student Research in Brazil.”

n “Sustaining the Advancement of Multisensing Devices” discusses multisensing devices and the future implications such technology can have on medicine, industry and consumer products.

n In “U.S. – China Promulgation of Research on Diseases” focuses on a collaboration to enable research on vector-borne diseases and its impact on national security and health.

In addition to the above feature articles, the Abstracts give you an overview of the breadth of programs from basic to applied and translational research. The Commercialization Corner describes the growing recognition that universities have to help move research discoveries from the research lab to the market as part of their overall mission to develop and disseminate new knowledge.

Ricardo Romo, President

CONTENTS

Mauli Agrawal, Interim Vice President for Research

4 News UTSA is ranked among the world’s top 100 universities under 50 years old by Times Higher Education World University Rankings; UTSA Honors 16 researchers for innovation.

6 Abstracts A UTSA student develops an algorithm with South Korean computer scientists; Richard Hartley, professor of criminal justice examines differences in sentencing practices in Spain; Miguel Yacaman recognized by the American Physical Society for his work in the field of physics, plus more university news.

20 Sustaining the Advancement of Multisensing Devices Biotechnology that incorporates

miniaturized multisensing devices someday

could help restore sight, hearing, taste or

touch in people who have suffered injuries.

New technology could make artificial

limbs more useful for the fine-motor tasks

and sensing done by the fingertips.

12 Read Malawi! Hailed a Triumph The faces of 150 primary school

children stare into a camera as they

sit on a crumbling concrete floor,

there are no desks or pencils in this

classroom. Read how “Read Malawi!“

has changed these children’s lives.

22 U.S.-China Promulgation of Research on Diseases Researchers in the U.S. and China are collaborating to find ways to reduce the spread of Lyme disease and other tick- and vector-borne diseases, which pose a threat to human health, livestock and agriculture.

14 Using Science to Save Endangered Primates in Tanzania Much of what the world knows

about the Sanje mangabey—a rare,

endangered monkey species dwelling in

the dense mountain forests of Tanzania

—we know because of the work of Dr.

Carolyn Ehardt and her students.

24 Global Impacts From Spain to South Korea and

from Mexico to Malawi, Roadrunners

collaborate with researchers around

the world to discover the unknown

and the world becomes a little smaller

with connections bridged between

UTSA and other countries.

18 IRES Facilitates Student Research in Brazil Samir Bhakta, a chemistry doctoral

student, spent a summer in a university

research lab in Brazil learning how to

make an inexpensive, fast test to diagnose

periodontitis using a microchip printed

on a postage-stamp sized piece of paper.

26 First Edition Research conducted by UTSA faculty

has been published in a variety of

top-notch, peer-reviewed scientific

academic publications.

On the Cover Global Impacts

Photograph by Micki Ruiz

We hope that you will enjoy this volume of UTSA Discovery. For additional information, please visit the UTSA Research Website at http://vpr.utsa.edu.

11 Commercialization Corner There is a growing recognition that universities have to help move research discoveries from the research lab to the market as part of their overall mission to develop and disseminate new knowledge.

NEWS NEWS

54 UTSA DISCOVERY 2013 UTSA DISCOVERY 2013

“It is such an honor for UTSA to be recognized among this new generation of universities across the world,” stated UTSA President Ricardo Romo.

“It speaks to the culture of excellence that thrives at UTSA and is another affirmation of our progression to Tier One status as a research institution,” Romo continued.

Top 100 world universities under 50 years old

UTSA is ranked among the world’s top 100 universities under 50 years old and it holds its place as number 70 of the U.S. institu-tions ranked by Times Higher Education. The rankings are based on performance indicators including research, citations, teaching, international outlook and industry income. UTSA is one of only eight U.S. universities ranked in Times Higher Education’s list of top young institutions around the world.

In the area of research, three indicators including the university’s research volume, income and prestige, determined the ranking.

The research volume indicator provides a sense of the institution’s productivity in regard to the number of papers published by each academic staff member in the academic journals indexed by Thomson Reuters.

The performance indicator of citations examines an institu-tion’s research influence through the number of times its published works were cited by scholars around the world. The data is com-posed based on the 12,000 academic journals indexed by Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science database and include all indexed journals published in the five years between 2006 and 2010. Citations made in the six years between 2006 and 2011 are also included in order to stabilize the results.

The teaching category’s indicators were based on the Thomson Reuters Academic Reputational Survey which evaluates criteria such as faculty-to-student ratio, ratio of Ph.D. to bachelor’s degrees awarded by each institution and institutional income scaled against academic staff members.

The international outlook category looked at campus diversity and university’s faculty collaboration with international colleagues on research projects. Competing in a global market for undergradu-ates and postgraduates was also an influential indicator which was measured by the ratio of international to domestic students.

UTSA had a higher overall score compared to last year’s rank-ing due to increased individual scores in the categories of teaching, international outlook, industry income and research.

Industry income changed the most with a 6.9 increase in score over last year’s ranking results. This increase is most likely due to the strategic growth and continuing development of the UTSA Office of Commercialization and its role in protecting unique faculty and student discoveries , as well as its role in formalizing new research partnerships with organizations in the United States and abroad, making it easy for industry collaborators to partner with UTSA.

The other U.S. universities to make the list include Florida Inter-national University; George Mason University; University of California at Irvine; University of California at Santa Cruz; University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Univer-sity of Texas at Dallas.

“These are exciting times for anyone involved in education, and Times Higher Education’s pioneering 100 Under 50 ranking not only provides a welcome insight into the rising stars of global higher education, but also heralds a shifting world order in innovation and research. In my opinion, it is the best ranking of its kind,” stated Antony Seldon, Headmaster of Wellington College, in an article published by Reuters.

UTSA HONORS 16 RESEARCHERS FOR INNOVATIONUTSA President Ricardo Romo, Interim Vice President for Research Mauli Agrawal and the UTSA Office of Commercialization and Innovation recognized 16 researchers yesterday with UTSA Innovation Awards. The inaugural awards spotlighted the efforts of UTSA scholars who have greatly contrib-uted to creating a university environment that promotes innovation and the commer-cialization of research discoveries.

Thirteen of the 16 recipients were honored for receiving patents during the past fiscal year. They included:

n Sos Agaian, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

n David Akopian, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

n Arturo Ayon, Department of Physics and Astronomy

n Rajendra Boppana, Department of Computer Science

n James Chambers, Department of Biology

n Neal Guentzel, Department of Biology

n Karl Klose, Department of Biology

n George Negrete, Department of Chemistry

n Robert Renthal, Department of Biology

n Dhiraj Sardar, Department of Physics and Astronomy

n Bruce Smith, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

n Richard Tangum, Department of Architecture

n Jieh-Juen Yu, Department of BiologyAdditionally, Bernard Arulanandam,

assistant VP of research support and UTSA’s Roland K. and Jane W. Blumberg Professor in Bioscience, and Banglin Chen, professor of chemistry were presented with the licensing revenue their respective discoveries gener-ated during FY 2013.

Mechanical engineering professor and department co-chair Yusheng Feng was named UTSA’s Innovator of the Year. The award recognized Feng’s research on the use of nanoparticles for cancer treatment as well as his work in computational model-ing and visualization. Feng oversees UTSA’s Advanced Visualization Laboratory.

Since fiscal year 2008, UTSA has built a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem to encourage faculty and students to develop and commercialize innovative products and discoveries. That environment includes:

n academic programs of study to spur entre-preneurship and technology management, technology development and technology transfer;

n research administration support through the UTSA Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of Commercializa-tion and Innovation that includes a clear invention disclosure and patenting process as well as a structure to help researchers explore licensing partners;

n a generous royalty policy, by higher educa-tion industry standards, that allows UTSA researchers to split revenue from license fees and royalties with the university 50/50;

n a New Venture Incubator to help UTSA faculty and students move their ideas from the university to marketplace;

n the bi-annual Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (CITE) Boot Camp, a daylong crash course allowing entrepreneurs from throughout the region to explore key topics to nurture a success-ful start-up;

n CITE’s $100,000 Student Technology Venture Competition, which allows undergrads the opportunity to develop and market an actual technology before they graduate;

n a regional network of partners and sup-porters such as the Commercialization Council, an elite group of C-suite execu-tives dedicated to creating an entrepre-neurial ecosystem in San Antonio, and SBIR, STTR and ETF partnerships, among others.

Those efforts have proven beneficial. Over the past five years (FY 09 vs. FY 13), UTSA has increased its annual:

n commercial memoranda of understanding and nondisclosure agreements from 31 (FY 09) to 52 (FY 13)

n new invention disclosures from 24 to 62

n patents filed from three to 76

n students competing in the $100K Student Technology Venture Competition from 98 to 128

n entrepreneurs trained in the UTSA CITE Boot Camp from 155 to 295

n incubated companies from 3 to 13.

The University of Texas at San Antonio acquires regard from the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Times Higher Education (THE) rankings are the only global university performance tables to evaluate universities based on teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

UTSA ATTAINS RECOGNITION through reputable rankings YUSHENG FENG

ABSTRACTS ABSTRACTS


Sherette will participate in an NSF program in South Korea and work with an internationally known computer scientist this summer.

Jessica Sherette, a doctoral student in computer science within the College of Sciences, has been selected to receive a competi-tive U.S. National Science Foundation fellowship to participate in the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute this summer in South Korea.

“It was somewhat surprising to get this,” Sherette said. “There are a lot of nice universities who get this grant.”

Sherette will spend time refining an algorithm for computing sim-ilarity measures for complex surfaces and continuing research for her dissertation. She will work closely with Hee-Kap Ahn, associate pro-fessor of computer science, at the Pohang University of Science and Technology in Pohang, South Korea. Ahn heads the Geometric Algo-rithms Lab at Postech. Sherette will explore computational geometry, an area that melds theoretical computer science and geometry, while working with Ahn’s research group.

During her undergraduate years, Sherette learned that the theo-retical and mathematical aspects of computer science intrigued her.

Sherette and her doctoral advisor Carola Wenk, associ-ate professor of computer science at UTSA, have been examining how to create an algorithm that will compare polygonal surfaces. This could compare an object’s surface as drawn using computer-aided design to the object once it has been actually manufactured.

Sherette is exploring what may be a core problem in computing the similarity of surfaces. This problem, called the “flippy distance,” is loosely described for two curves in a two-dimensional plane, as determining the minimum distance needed to flip the curves over each other.

If the work can be refined, it could be used to study the manufac-turing process of items. The algorithm would help determine points of dissimilarity, thus allowing for improvement in the manufacturing process.

Since 2005, The University of Texas at San Antonio Mexico Center, under the direction of Dr. Harriett Romo, has been committed to the advancement of research regarding Mexico, providing funding for UTSA faculty and students for research in Mexico, collaborating with domestic and Mexican institutions to promote research developments, and public dialogues about U.S.-Mexico relations.

In addition to promoting research on U.S. and Mexico relations, the Center hosts cultural performers, academics, and professionals from Mexico or Mexico-related organizations and institutions, wherein issues such as immigration policies and how they affect familial and communal entities are addressed.

The Center’s goal is to introduce the San Antonio community to not just Mexican scholars and writers, but to also highlight Mexico’s rich, creative culture.

Moreover, Romo, a professor in the Department of Sociology at UTSA, affirms that the Center’s primary goal is to encourage an academic, analytical, and bilateral discussion on public policy issues rather than a political and unilateral focus. Through research promulgation, instruction and public service engagements, the Mexico Center assists in transnational concerns regarding immigration, economic development, families and children, health, and education and how those issues affect both sides of the border.

Promulgating ResearchRomo’s research foci involve Latino children and schooling, early childhood education, and immigrant families and children. Dr. Romo, as well as other university affiliates, are working on furthering research aimed at understanding the civic engagement of youth who are undocumented and living in the U.S.

“Our job as researchers is to tell the stories about what’s happening and explain what happens to these young people when they’re here and what’s going to happen to them in the future,” Romo stated.

The Mexico Center also collaborated

with colleagues in Mexico and the United States in developing a special issue of a journal known as International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education which is focused on qualitative research on education in Mexico and Latin America.

Furthermore, in order to accomplish its goals, the Center also collaborates with organizations and institutions both in Mexico and the United States. Among them are the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG), the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Mexico (UAEM), and the Universidad Veracruzana.

Ensuring Practical Applications According to Olivia Lopez, Program Coordinator at the Mexico Center, in addition to collaborative research, the Center provides grants to support research projects, is involved in community outreach, and engages students in courses related to Mexico and the border.

“So far, the Mexico Center has funded 28 small research projects from an array of disciplines ranging from Anthropology to Mechanical Engineering,” Lopez stated.

In the past, grant support has assisted students such as Cesar Lopez, an undergraduate International Business and Honors student, who collaborated with Dr. Viviana Rojas, an associate professor in the UTSA Communication Department, on Mexicans’ perception of U.S. retirees living in their communities.

Edith Lopez Estrada, a public policy graduate student and intern at the Center, conveys the encouragement she receives from the Mexico Center and the gratifying exposure she acquires.

“My experience has been great and I really love it here. I am challenged everyday which is always good. It gives me confidence in my field and in conducting research,” Estrada stated.

Recently, the Center reached out to a group of ten public schoolteachers from Mexico and organized a two-week English Language Learners Institute for them, to

assist with implementing English within Mexico’s new bilingual curriculum.

Through collaboration with instructors from UTSA, school districts in San Antonio, and other early childhood education organizations, the visiting teachers were exposed to different strategies and classroom management for bilingual education and interactive English language instruction.

Public ServicesRomo asserts that by sharing the stories of undocumented youth through the research at the UTSA Mexico Center, negative public perceptions regarding these young people will lack merit once the public hears the real stories about the youths’ academic achievements, how difficult their current status makes it to live in the U.S., and the need for immigration reform.

Such difficulties include minimal ac-cess to educational opportunities and the lack of opportunities to work. The Center also delves into studies regarding entre-preneurs who have come to San Antonio on investment visas and the social and economic contributions they have made to the regional economy. Such studies are made possible through funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

According to Romo, these migrants create jobs, enrich the Spanish lan-guage environment in their communi-ties, and bring economic resources that add to the dynamic economy in Texas.

As a result of the Mexico Center’s explorations and achievements, the Center remains at the forefront of academic research, instruction, and public engagement while assisting scholars, students, and transnational communities in cultivating educational advancements and social change.

Mexico Center: A Platform for Research and Public Service

Jessica Sherette receives competitive National Science Foundation grant

Anthropologist Joanna Lambert, recognized fellow of national science group

DR. HARRIETT ROMO

Joanna Lambert, professor in the UTSA Department of Anthropol-ogy, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her outstanding contributions in the field of primate feeding biology at evolutionary and ecological scales.

“I am very honored to be recognized at the national level by my scientific peers. The AAAS represents the largest scientific scholarly organization in the world,” said Lambert.

Lambert was one of 702 members worldwide selected for her scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science and its applications. She received an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin at a ceremony at the AAAS annual meeting in Boston.

For more than 20 years, Lambert has conducted research focused on the evolutionary and community ecology of primates, primarily in Kibale National Park in Uganda. Her studies have found that chim-panzees and an array of monkey species contribute an extremely high percentage of the seed dispersal in forests such as Kibale and else-where in equatorial Africa.

“A very high percentage of ape and monkey diet is comprised of fruit, so they are eating and dispersing thousands of seeds a day throughout the forest,” Lambert said. “They are undoubtedly amongst the most important agents of forest regeneration in Kibale National Park and elsewhere in Africa.”

Additionally, Lambert has been recognized for her research look-ing at the impacts of climate shifts on primate feeding adaptations

with a goal of shedding light on the evolution of human and primate diet.

Lambert’s love for Africa de-veloped at an early age. She was eight years old when she read a book that described how leop-ards consume prey by pulling it into the trees to avoid conflicts with other larger carnivores.

The author of more than 100 books, journal articles and abstracts, Lambert is also the

handling editor for the journal Oecologia, Academic Editor for PLoS ONE, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Tropical Conservation Science. Previously, she was Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and associate editor of the American Jour-nal of Primatology.

In Washington, D.C., she was the Director of the National Science Foundation Biological Anthropology program. She is the co-founder of the Northwest Primate Conservation Society and was an adviser to the United Nations Environmental Program on Great Ape Conservation.

Lambert’s accolades include the Vilas Associate Professorship for Research at the University of Wisconsin. Madison, the R.A. Bray Faculty Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship from the University of Oregon and the Emerald Professor of the Year, Oregon, in 2003.

She received her doctoral degree in biological anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in biology and anthropology from Northern Illinois University.

ABSTRACTS ABSTRACTS


Accompanied by four U.S. undergraduate and graduate students, Dr. Hatim Sharif organized and conducted a three year International Research Experience for Students (IRES) program in the arid-semiarid region of Asir in Saudi Arabia.

“The experience gave students the confidence to explore the scientific value of the research in arid and semi-arid areas and get involved in a gratifying way,” Sharif stated.

“Some of the students had never left the country so it was different for the American students because they were exposed to a different culture and language,” Sharif continued.

In collaboration with a Saudi team from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, which included four undergraduate and graduate students and one faculty member, IRES aims to increase underrepresented minority student participation and help UTSA’s Tier One doctorate/research extensive university strategy.

The IRES program was sectioned into three major activities which included: (1) Summer training of undergraduate students on field and research methods in hydrometeorology, (2) a field program in

the Asir region that includes instrument deployment and data collection and analysis and modeling, and (3) two-way mentoring where students are mentored by faculty and are required to mentor their peers and pre-freshman students.

Asir faces the problem of maintaining sustainable water resources which is a result of the high levels of population

growth, changes in the use of land, increasing water demand, and climate variability.

According to Sharif, the study represents the first of its size in the chosen area of study and one of few in the region due to the lack of available long-term data needed to properly examine precipitation changes.

Albeit the program provided further insight into hydrometeorol-ogy and a pragmatic international experience for students, a longer period of record is needed to properly examine long-term changes in precipitation intensity over the study area.

Study abroad in Spain inspires public policy research

While touring a courthouse on a recent study abroad to Spain, Richard Hartley, associate professor and chair of the Department of Criminal Justice, wondered if it might be possible to do a com-parative analysis of Spain’s court system and the guideline-based sentencing system in the U.S.

“Although in most European countries, drugs are not considered as serious a social issue as in the U.S., drug use and drug trafficking in some areas is on the rise,” Hartley stated.

“Because of these increases in organized trafficking, Span-ish authorities have increas-ingly undertaken efforts to interdict supply chains and reduce the amount of drugs that land on their shores,” Hart-ley continued.

With the blessing of the chief judge of the Provincial Court of Alicante and research space provided by the College

of Law at Universidad de Miguel Hernandez, Hartley traveled to Spain in the 2013 spring semester to collect data on narcotics traf-ficking cases prosecuted in 2012.

Hartley affirms that the majority of defendants were male (75.6 percent) and native born (78.9 percent). Non-citizen defendants, included persons born in 23 foreign countries such as neighboring

Germany, France and Morocco but also Ecuador, Bolivia and Argen-tina. Most prosecutions were for cocaine (almost 70 percent), mari-juana, heroin, and meth.

Roughly 70 percent of defendants were sent to prison with aver-age sentence lengths of just over two years, which is a lot lower than in the U.S. Moreover, the determinants of sentence length was the amount of narcotics and the type of drug in the case. For example convicts of heroin trafficking received the longest sentences averag-ing 50 months.

“These findings might in part be explained by the fact that males were charged with larger amounts of drugs and females were less likely to have prior convictions,” Hartley states.

Regarding citizenship, a higher percentage of native born defen-dants were sent to prison (74.3 versus 67.5) but foreign born defen-dants received longer average sentences (32 versus 26.1 months). Hartley affirms that the number of years from arrest to sentencing ranged from six to 15 months with an average of 4.5 years.

In the U.S., roughly 90 percent of cases are plea bargained, whereas courts don’t rely on plea bargaining to resolve cases.

Affording every defendant an opportunity to go to ‘trial’ backlogs courts to the point that some cases aren’t heard until years after the defendant’s arrest. In Spain, defendants are rarely detained, and so those charged are also not sitting in jail over this period of time.

Hartley realized a few judges expressed frustration with the back-log of narcotics and other cases in the Spanish court system. He is currently administering surveys to Spanish judges with the hopes of getting some additional context to better understand the complexi-ties of Spanish Criminal Courts. Likewise, the Chief Judge is hoping Hartley’s research can assist them in developing more efficient methods to administer justice.

Fostering U.S.-Saudi Arabia rela-tions through the IRES program

UTSA professor Christine Moseley in the College of Education and Human Development Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching will join more than 30 other educators from around the United States for the 2013 Educator Academy in Peru.

The academy, which runs from July 2 to July 16, is designed to teach educators from elementary level to the university level about the tropical environment of the Amazon rainforest and the high, mountainous environment of the Andes. It will include hands-on activities and discussions on topics that range from water sustainability practices and data collection to plant and animal adaptations.

During the workshop, which is co-sponsored by Arizona State University and EcoTeach, Moseley will facilitate the collection of data measurements from the rainforest floor and the canopy to analyze using the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program curriculum protocol. According to

Moseley, these inquiry inves-tigations and data collection methods are just some of the things she plans to bring back with her to UTSA, a national GLOBE partner school, and specifically, to the graduate-level science methods course she is teaching this fall.

“I can bring back to the classroom the investigation [done] out in the field -- how you can collect data with kids no matter where you live,” said Moseley, a national GLOBE facilitator. “I think a lot of the

discussions on the trip are going to be like that -- what do we do in our own environment that impacts the rainforest, climate, pollution. And, vice versa, if things happen over in the rainforest, how does that impact us?”

While in Peru, Moseley also will work with children at the Centro de Conocimiento Compartido public library, established by the Conservación de la Naturaleza Amazónica del Perú, A.C., or CONAPAC, a Peruvian non-profit organization. To continue the library’s literacy efforts, she collected fiction and non-fiction books in Spanish to take with her to Peru to give to children and adults.

“Personally and professionally, it’s like finally getting to see something that you’ve heard about and read about all your life but never really thought that I was going to get to experience it,” said Moseley. “When you do these types of things, it only makes you a better educator. Then I will have a better understanding and a bigger idea of the world, and I can only bring that back to the classroom,” Moseley continued.

Miguel Jose Yacaman, UTSA professor of physics and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has received the John Wheatley Award. The award is presented by the American Physical Society with support from the Forum on International Physics, and recognized Yacaman for his work in the field of physics throughout Latin American countries.

The award is presented every other year at the general meeting of the American Physical Society and recognizes a physicist who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of physics in a developing country by working with local physicists in research or teaching.

For seven years, Yacaman has directed the International Center for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (ICNAM), which promotes partnerships between scientists and engineers in Mexico and the University of Texas System. Yacaman’s laboratory has hosted numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from Mexico and other Latin American countries, and he believes the experience benefits all parties involved.

“Scientists from abroad can learn a lot about the American entrepreneurial spirit,” said Yacaman, who grew up in Mexico. “Also, practicing science abroad strengthens a number of skill sets including language and cultural understanding.”

At UTSA, a Hispanic-serving institution at which total Hispanic enrollment constitutes a minimum of 25 percent of the total enrollment, interactions with scientists from Latin America provide great value. Students working with international scientists here or abroad can develop a new perspective of how successful Hispanic scientists can be.

Hard work is important, Yacaman said, but higher education opens doors that hard work alone cannot. During the 1950s and 1960s, attaining higher education was a guarantee for a better life for people in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Yacaman believes it is important to students in Texas and hopes to instill that value in his students at UTSA.

UTSA College of Sciences Dean George Perry agrees. “Real examples of successful Hispanic scientists will help our students visualize themselves as succeeding,” he said. “Miguel is doing a great job of connecting people and making stronger bonds throughout Latin America.”

In addition to receiving the award at the American Physical Society’s meeting in Anaheim, California, Yacaman gave a talk, “Picometer Resolution Electron Microscopy: A New Tool to Tailor Materials at the Atomic Scale,” in which he discussed his research and connections to Latin America.

UTSA physics professor Miguel José Yacaman awarded for international influence

UTSA scholar Christine Moseley takes educational excursion to Amazon

11UTSA DISCOVERY 2013

ABSTRACTS

10 UTSA DISCOVERY 2013

There is a growing recognition that universi-ties have to help move research discover-ies from the research lab to the market as part of their overall mission to develop and disseminate new knowledge. For the users of these newly created products or services there is the potential of adding great value to their lives, while enabling significant positive impact on the economic wellbeing of the region in which the commercializing companies reside. The recognition gener-ated by these commercialization activities works to strengthen the reputation of the university researchers on a national and international scale, and can lead to longer term sponsored research agreements that help fund continued work in the university labs. The excitement this work brings to the students’ educational experience is immea-surable, not only in developing and applying new technology, but also in seeing it used in daily life.

This year a wealth of young UTSA companies are spinning off new biomedical device technologies and working to get their products approved and on the market. In-victus Medical is entering clinical trials with a pediatric cranial support device aimed at preventing hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs) and deformational plagiocephaly (DP) in young infants. Leto Solutions, Inc. has developed the Aquilonix System, a pros-thesis cooling and heat dissipation system for below the knee prosthetics, and has deployed working prototypes. Cardiovate is developing a stent-graft for aneurysm repair that will provide a natural, integrated barrier aneurysms while blending with the native vessel tissue, and has conducted numer-

ous animal trials. Mobile Stem Cell recently launched in San Antonio for delivering animal stem cell therapies for veterinarians to use on otherwise untreatable animals.

Bridging the gap between research at UTSA and these commercialization activities is important. In light of this UTSA continues to grow entrepreneurship programs and business incubation on campus, and its Office of Commercialization and Innova-tion (OCI) has created a dedicated budget item for proof-of-principle projects, aimed at bridging the gap between research ideas and applied technologies. These funds target short-term demonstration of a proof of principle (POP), typically for a project dura-tion of 3-6 months that clearly shows the concept can work. As an example, the OCI funded Dr. Jose Lopez-Ribot in the depart-ment of Biology to take five antifungal drug candidates through enteric animal testing and prove the efficacy of the compounds in fighting fungal biofilm infections – a clearly unmet need in the medical establishment. The success of this work is now leading to compound refinement activities with Dr. Doug Franz of UTSA’s Center for Innovation in Drug Discovery (CIDD), and will be ripe for a new university spin off in the com-ing years. The OCI will grow these proof of principle activities, and ultimately support UTSA technologies that have an invention disclosure, can be patented, and have a large enough market potential to result in returns to the university in excess of the cost of the POP funding and patent expenses.

These POP projects can help cover materials and students working with faculty to prove out novel new technologies, and

can play a significant role in inspiring young researchers to explore and innovate. The faculty thus build knowledge and excite-ment that inspires UTSA students to excel in their studies, and helps grow the research mission of the university. Solving biomedical problems is just a natural fit in planting the seeds of innovation at UTSA.

Planting the seeds of innovationby Dr. Cory Hallam chief commercialization officer

COMMERCIALIZATION CORNER

Professor of Economics and IBC Bank Senior faculty Fellow, Dr. Hamid Beladi focuses on expanding research within inter-national trade and ensuring provisions of a rewarding academic career for students.

Beladi’s research specializations include International Trade and Finance, Technol-ogy Transfer and Joint Ventures, Trade and Environmental Issues.

Research Expansion on Cross-border Mergers One of Beladi’s recent research analyses involves vertical integration and cross-border mergers. In “Cross-border mergers in vertically related industries,” Beladi, Chakrabarti and Marjit (2011) affirm that cross-border mergers are effective strategies used by multiple com-panies in order to increase diversification of production albeit mergers in vertically related industries are subject of debate among regulators, anti-trust authorities, as well as the media and academics due to monopolist upstream.

The authors also demonstrate how mar-ket concentration interacts with costs in the decision of a relatively efficient foreign firm located in one country (source) to merge with a disintegrated or an integrated firm in another country (target) when the industry is vertically related.

According to Beladi et al. (2011), cross-border mergers of firms in vertically related industries pose challenges for competition policy. Such mergers result in conflicting conclusions due to the potential gains that some countries may have, whereas others may bear more of the costs.

Beladi et al. (2011) provide a prominent exemplar of the $42 billion merger between General Electric (GE) and Honeywell. The merger was approved by the U.S. authori-ties but not by the European Commission.

His other most notable pursuits involve an analysis of the international trade deficit

in comparison to the U.S. deficit and its paradoxical implications on bond prices and interest rates, as well as his work on Intellectual Property Rights, where in recent decades globalization has led to fragmenta-tion of production across national borders, with each country specializing in a particu-lar stage of the production process.

More recently, this pattern of interna-tionalization has extended from produc-tion to further up the value-chain through research and development activities, with each country specializing in a particular stage of the research and development chain.

Beladi, et al. (2011) build up a theoreti-cal model to answer the question on how a developing country should reform its IPR policy to become more conducive to out-sourced research and development (R&D) activities in the era of globalization?

Beladi continues to increase the quan-tity of research within his field of expertise, as well as contribute to the overall success of the university and its research pursuits.

Ensuring a Rewarding Academic Experience“From a broad point of view, my life as a university faculty member has involved the pursuit of two objectives: the cultiva-tion and advancement of knowledge and the nurturing of students in acquiring that knowledge,” Beladi stated. Beladi continues

to further develop research regarding international trade, as well as aiding in the improvement of the quality of a UTSA degree.

Beladi supports the university’s objec-tive in attaining recognition for a promising education and faculty who further the quantity and quality of research produced at the university. Moreover, faculty commit-ment to research and publications would result in an increase in the value of a UTSA collegiate experience.

“Simplicity and creativity are the two basic principles of my philosophy of teach-ing. The purpose of teaching is to make the subject easily understood and interesting to the student,” Beladi stated.

“I believe teaching is a creative art. It stimulates creative thought on the part of the individual and combines it with group dynamics thus resulting in a group produc-tion and is not the result of a solo perfor-mance by the instructor,” Beladi continued.

Through the promulgation of research and the production of well-prepared gradu-ates, Beladi affirms that corporations and the general business sector, as well as pri-vate individuals, take notice of such univer-sities. Such institutions are thus rewarded with endowments and further recognition through the media and by word of mouth.

Consequently, the value of the institu-tion increases in the eyes of prospective students who demand an intellectual expe-rience. This ultimately leads to an increase in student enrollment and an improvement in student quality.

According to Beladi, larger endowments and higher enrollment also enable an insti-tution to offer world-class educational and research-related facilities which enrich the learning experience and research capability of both faculty and students.

“As university faculty increases its com-mitment to research and publications, an increase in competitive rankings will follow,” Beladi stated.

“The university will be ‘on the map’ and in a better position to absorb quality faculty and students. The interaction between quality faculty and students ultimately results in graduates who obtain better jobs and positions in society,” Beladi continued.

Hamid Beladi on International Trade and Pedagogy

AQUILONIX PROSTHETIC COOLING SYSTEM BY LETO SOLUTIONS, INC.

T


he faces of 150 primary school children stare into a camera as they sit on a crumbling concrete floor, their teacher stand-ing nearby at the front of the room. There are no desks or pencils in this classroom and the yellow walls stand void of posters, student artwork, or any other material. It is easy for outsiders to look at these pictures and see only what the children of Malawi don’t have.

Dr. Misty Sailors and her colleagues on the Read Malawi! research study encountered Malawian children living in a peace-ful, multilingual country, with a rich story-telling culture, car-ing adults in their community, and a strong desire to learn.

“We operate from the notion that we don’t go into a country and simply implement practices there. We work with local leaders to identify educational challenges and issues. And, then together we search for solutions, merging local knowledge and Western practices. That combination becomes a powerful intervention for teachers and kids,” Sailors, a professor of reading and literacy stud-ies in the department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching in the College of Education and Human Development stated.

Sailors began this project in 2009 and served as the primary investigator on the $8 million U.S. Agency for International De-velopment’s (USAID), Textbooks and Learning Materials Program, also known in Malawi as the Read Malawi! research study. Initially, the scope of the project was limited to work-ing with local educators to develop and distribute reading books throughout the country. Instead, the project expanded after Sail-ors met with representatives of the Malawian government.

“They said books are great, but we also need you to work with our teachers and our principals,” Sailors said. “We need you to work with our school inspectors. Everyone needs to know how to implement the books. We need you to advance our printers to develop the capacity to print all these materi-als. And we need you to work with our community so that the community helps the schools,” Sailors continued.

In addition, the Malawian government was inter-ested in academic studies that described whether the proj-ect helped build capacity, whether it was cost effective, and whether the program worked for children and teachers in the classrooms as well as the Malawian community.

The Malawi Ministry of Education, Science and Technol-ogy, as well as the Malawi Institute of Education, and two Malawian teacher training colleges served as the key col-laborators on the production of the teaching and learning ma-terials and the development of the literacy curriculum.

The Creative Centre for Community Mobilization, a nongov-ernmental organization in Malawi, worked with the community to support the schools in the implementation of the intervention. U.S. collaborators included the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California Berkeley, Intel Corp., as well as the UTSA Institute for Economic Development (IED), among others.

The first phase included working with local teachers and artists, who would serve as the authors and illustrators.

“The teachers wrote about the kids’ lived experiences and they

wrote about things that were unique to the Malawian child’s lives,” Sailors stated.

According to Sailors, the material needed to not only reflect the children’s culture and experiences, but maintain an instructional value to the teachers so that reading skills and strategies could be taught using the books.

The brightly colored books illustrate the rural Malawian landscape, with chil-dren or animals as the main characters.

Many of the stories in the books repre-sent Malawian folk tales that the children will resonate with. Other books demonstrate an envisioned life in Malawi. One book, for example, “What can girls do?” illustrates traditional roles of women in Malawian cul-ture, as well as non-traditional roles for girls, such as becoming president of the country.

Some of the books are printed in Chichewa, Malawi’s national language and others in English, the official language. Cur-riculum specialists at the Malawi Institute of Education worked closely with Sailors and her team to develop guides for the teachers that accompanied the books.

According to Sailors, although other U.S. project researchers suggested print-ing the material in South Africa as a cost effective alternate, Sailors dissented stat-ing that the printing in Malawi would be an investment in the economy.

The second phase involved training teachers and school leaders how to use the new teaching and learning materials, and organizing the community around supporting the literacy intervention.

“The government knew that unless you involve the community, your interven-tion is not going to be successful,” Sailors affirmed. “So it was the village leaders, the traditional chief, the mother groups, the school governance board, the PTA, and the principals, all involved and participating. It was amazing to see everyone holding every-one else accountable,” Sailors continued.

The government of Malawi then distrib-

uted the 5.2 million books and instructional materials to 1,200 schools. The team then set out to conduct their research on the effec-tiveness of the innovation in the third phase.

The project was concluded in Dec. 2012, but Sailors and her colleagues, both here in the United States and in Malawi, contin-ues analyzing data and drafting academic findings related to their experiences.

“Malawians told us over and over that our collaborative program was not like anything they had ever seen before,” Sailors stated.

According to Sailors, working with the teachers and the Malawi commu-nity enabled the success of the Malawi research study. The study was a new ex-perience for the teachers who had access to over 4,000 books in their schools

“Together, our international team worked with teachers to flood their school and classrooms with books. In all the schools where we placed books, we taught the teachers how to utilize the books, and the school leaders how to support the teachers in learning to use the books,” Sailors stated.

Sailors and her collaborators are in the process of writing and review-ing several studies that describe how the Read Malawi! intervention increased student reading achievement, improved teacher’s reading instruction, increased community participation in schools and built capacity within the organizations and institutions with whom it worked.

Additionally, the team is also exploring the short-term benefits of intervention in the reduction of dropouts in schools where Read Malawi! was implemented and the long-term benefits of using the program to reduce the government’s educational expenditures.

According to Sailors, each of the participating team members (U.S. and Malawian) were exposed to an array of experiences, such as the mechanics of main-taining large data sets across international team members and staying organized in

the field, as well as the logistics of arrang-ing international travel, interacting with people from a different country and learn-ing to live in an unfamiliar environment.

Lorena Villarreal, a graduate student working with Sailors on the research study, said she learned about resourcefulness, com-mitment and the difference a unified commu-nity could make in the education of children.

“The people of Malawi want everybody to learn to read, and they’re willing to go above and beyond to make sure that not just some but everyone in the community gets involved. It was amazing,” Villarreal stated.

Villarreal advises students to go into a research opportunity with an open mind because that is how true learning and appreciation for what the culture and community has to offer is realized.

“In the Western world we often have preconceived notions about the things we will experience in developing countries. I did not want those notions to impinge upon my time in Malawi. This allowed me to have a positive learning experience and enjoy my time in the community,” Villarreal said.

Furthermore, Sailors offers one key bit of advice for those inquiring about international research studies and that is to develop strong working relation-ships and trust with your collaborators.

“Our partners would sometimes go for days without electricity and subsequently no Internet. So, here we are in San An-tonio and we’ve got deadlines and we’re not hearing from them. But we trust that it’s something beyond their control. And you start worrying then, because the daily contact has been broken. You worry about them, because they’re not just our colleagues, they’re our friends,” Sailors continued.

According to Sailors, although the USAID contract has ended, evidently, the relationship with her Malawian colleagues continues to be collaborative and enriching as they engage in research composition.

READ MALAWI!hailed a triumph

MISTY SAILORSProfessor, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching

Misty Sailors’ research interests are organized around the following areas: a) Research on reading instruc-tion in elementary classrooms with a focus on the role of texts and comprehension instruction; b) Research on reading teacher education and the professional development of teachers; c) Research on international reading program development; and d) Reading research methodologies. She has authored or co-authored 52 research articles/book chapters in peer-reviewed national and international research journals/books and has procured over $19 million in federal funding for her research.

Sailors received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a master of education and a PhD (in curricu-lum and instruction with a focus on language and literacy studies) from The University of Texas at Austin.

13UTSA DISCOVERY 2013

by Analisa Nazareno


M

by Cindy Tumiel

uch of what the world knows about the Sanje mangabey – a rare, endangered monkey species dwelling in the dense mountain forests of Tanzania – we know because of the work of Dr. Carolyn Ehardt.

Ehardt is a Professor in the Anthropology Department at UTSA. Her research with the Sanje mangabey began in the 1990s when she conducted biodiversity surveys of primates, large mammals and birds in the Udzungwa Mountains of south-central Tanzania. Since joining the university in 2006, students from across the globe interested in studying the ecology of Sanje mangabeys and other threatened primates have tracked Ehardt to San Antonio, where she helped establish the Ph.D. program in Ecological Anthropology.

Through Ehardt’s guidance, bolstered by her decades of experience in Tanzania, these anthropology graduate students have had great success in acquiring research funds to study primates in this African nation. Several have focused on the Sanje mangabey, one of the world’s most threatened primates; the total population, confined to the fragmented forests of the Udzungwa Mountains, now numbers less than 3,000. Another of Ehardt’s acolytes has added to the rich scholarship on chimpanzees by studying a population living in the resource-limited woodland savannas of western Tanzania, rather than the forest ranges where most live.

They have spent months camped out underneath the forest canopy of the Sanje mangabey habituated study group’s home range; or traveled to dry, remote reaches of Tanzania collecting chimpanzee dung in the wood-lands. Their hope is that their ecological studies will aid in the conservation of these rare, distant cousins, and per-

haps inform fuller understanding of our own behavior.“Effective conservation rests on strong science; without

full understanding of the behavior and ecology of a spe-cies, one cannot formulate strategies to insure their survival” Ehardt said. Tanzania, especially the area that includes the Udzungwa Mountains, is now recognized as mainland Africa’s most important country for biological diversity and unique species, and critically important to the conserva-tion of Africa’s primates. A third of Tanzania’s 27 primate species are found nowhere else in the world. This includes the kipunji, a completely new species of monkey discovered by Ehardt and her research team in 2004 -- the first such primate to be discovered in Africa in the previous 20 years.

As the first UTSA anthropology graduate student to follow Ehardt’s path to her study site in Tanzania, Gráinne McCabe received funding from the Conservation Interna-tional Primate Action Fund in 2008, the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2009, and the Leakey Foundation in 2010 to study the reproductive ecology of the Sanje mangabey. McCabe worked in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park with the same “Mizimu” social group of monkeys which Ehardt habituated in 2004 in order to study their ecology and develop conservation strategies.

Collecting urine samples from adult females in the group every week for 13 months, McCabe analyzed the samples for a compound that revealed whether a reproduc-tive female had adequate energy levels or had low energy balance. Comparing the energy levels over time, throughout pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and nursing periods, she deci-phered the links between timing of reproduction and infant

Using Science to Save

in Tanzania

ENDANGERED PRIMATES

DEBORAH MOORE AT HER FIELD SITE IN WESTERN TANZANIA.

FEMALE CONSUMING ONE OF THE FRUITS THAT ARE IMPORTANT IN THEIR DIET. >>


pleted their field work and are sched-uled to defend their dissertations in the spring of 2014. Each found the research fulfilling and enlightening, while also acknowledging the difficulties of do-ing year-long field research in Africa.

“Collecting data on what a primate eats whilst wearing a rain poncho go-ing down a muddy hill is not as much fun as people think,” Pages said.

Like her colleagues, Deborah Moore has had a life-long fascination with animals and was particularly inspired by Dr. Jane Goodall’s research with chimpanzees.

“One cannot study chimpanzees without appreciating their close rela-tionship with humans,” Moore said.

To study chimpanzees in the savanna-woodland area of western Tanzania, Moore received a grant from the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation in 2008, the Leakey Foundation in 2011, and the Lambda Alpha National Collegiate Honor Society for Anthropology in 2011.

Focusing on a chimpanzee popula-tion living at the edge of their distribution in Africa, Moore applied cutting-edge genetic techniques to investigate po-tential flexibility in social organization that could result from adaptation to the ecological demands of an environment with extreme resource limitations.

“I was able to investigate the social structure of these chimpanzees by extract-ing DNA from their feces, which I collected

from an area of 624 square kilometers” Moore said. “Through this genetic analy-sis, I provided strong evidence to support the maintenance of the same chimpanzee social structure that is found in forested habitats, an unexpected finding given the immense territories necessary in this habitat.”

Moore defended her dissertation in May and graduated in August. Like Mc-Cabe, Pages and Lloyd, Moore is a foreign national – from Canada – who started her doctoral studies in the Ph.D. pro-gram at the University of Georgia with Ehardt and then followed her to UTSA.

“Dr. Ehardt has been my mentor, adviser, guide, translator, and I am now happy to call her my colleague and friend,” Moore said. “She was instrumental in shaping the framework of my dissertation, but through guidance rather than decree.”

For her part, Ehardt said that as a senior primatologist, she finds it reward-ing to work with student researchers.

“These are outstanding young people moving up the ranks to become profes-sional anthropological biologists who will move into productive academic careers in

research and teaching,” Ehardt said. “They also will be highly suited for careers in professional conservation organizations.”

Ehardt said that after having acquired funding support, investing extensive research hours and even some of her own personal funds to maintain the vi-ability of her research site, she is pleased that a group of young researchers has taken an interest in conducting conserva-tion ecology research with primates.

“It has been very rewarding to see these students become accomplished field researchers,” Ehardt said. “They are making recognized, theoretically-driven scientific contributions to ecological anthropology that also will serve the important broader impact of promot-ing conservation of the growing number of our world’s threatened primates.”

survival in the seasonally variable resource environment of these tropical mountains.

McCabe – a native of Canada – de-fended her dissertation in July 2012 and has been teaching at the University of Calgary, while continuing to do field research with the Mizimu group.

“The biggest threats to wild primate popu-lations are habitat loss due to deforestation and illegal hunting,” McCabe said. “Both of these threats are rampant in East Africa and are evident in Tanzania, specifically. By studying wild primates in such places, we draw attention to these conservation issues and we have the opportunity to increase the intrinsic value of these animals and their habitats to the local people living in the area.”

McCabe said field researchers contribute to the local economy by employing and

collaborating with locals, who have knowl-edge of the area and can share research findings with community members. While conducting research on sloped and often wet, forested terrain is challenging, she said she loved living in Africa and collaborat-ing with her Tanzanian research team.

“The wildlife was incredible and the ability to go out into the forest to follow the monkeys and learn about the intimate and complex social relationships among them was an honor,” she said. “It also was quite amazing – and often intimidating – to see el-ephants, buffalo, leopards and so many other species when going to work each day.”

Like McCabe, Emily Lloyd – a native of the United Kingdom – and Guillaume Pages – a French national – were gradu-ate students enrolled at the University of

Georgia, where Ehardt taught for 26 years, when she accepted the position at UTSA. Because both students wanted to work with her and at her field site, they followed Ehardt to San Antonio.

Pages received funding from Primate Conservation, Inc. (PCI) in 2009 and from the NSF in 2010 to study “fallback foods,” or the foods that Sanje mangabeys eat when their primary source of nutri-tion – fruits – are seasonally not available. His research details the intricate links between reliance on difficult to process, often toxic foods available during the dry seasons and the mangabey’s behav-ior and evolved chewing morphology.

Lloyd received funding from both the NSF and PCI in 2011 to study behav-ioral flexibility, specifically in relation to food competition. She is documenting a large range of strategies employed by group members to avoid direct competi-tion for resources, especially among the females who remain in the group they are born into for their entire lives.

Both graduate students have com-

The ability to go out into the forest to follow the monkeys and learn about the intimate and complex social relationships among them was an honor.”

Effective conservation rests on strong science; without full understanding of the behavior and ecology of a species, one cannot formulate strategies to insure their survival.”

CAROLYN L. EHARDT Professor, Department of Anthropology

Carolyn Ehardt’s research interests are in long-term conservation ecology research focused on Africa’s threatened primates. Her early work involved survey research to establish baseline distribution and abundance information for the various primates, larger mammals, and birds in the relict forests of the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania – part of one of the world’s biodiversity ‘hotspots.’ Subsequent research has focused on the Endangered Sanje mangabey Cercocebus sanjei, including the first ecological data for this endemic primate derived from study of an habituated group in Mwanihana Forest of the Udzungwa Mountains National Park. In 2004, this research led to ‘discovery’ of the first new African diurnal monkey species to be made known to science in the previous 20 years (now known as the kipunji, Rungwecebus kipunji). Her most current funded research has been the collection of genetic and vocalization data for this new primate and a number of other mangabey species in Africa to begin to decipher debated taxonomic relationships among these taxa, as well as continuation of conservation ecology research with the Sanje mangabey, including disease ecology. She has authored or

co-authored over 35 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and edited volumes.

Ehardt received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University, a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from The University of Texas at Austin, and was a postdoctoral fellowship scholar in ecology and epidemiology of infectious diseases at the School of Public Health, UCLA.

CAROLYN EHARDT CURRENTLY IS SERVING AS DIRECTOR OF THE BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOL-OGY PROGRAM AT THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. SHE RETURNS TO TEACHING AT UTSA IN AUG. 2014.

THE MOST DOMINANT ADULT MALE IN THE SOCIAL GROUP BEING GROOMED BY ANOTHER GROUP MEMBER. SUCH GROOMING IS AN IMPORTANT BEHAVIOR IN THE FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE OF SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE GROUP.


ground in analytical chemistry, but the program offers opportunities to explore different projects.

“We have students working with all aspects of microfluidics and micro fabrica-tion,” Carrilho wrote.

Carrilho affirms that these students design and fabricate microchips using low cost technologies such as direct printing which refers to laser printing over trans-parency overheads or wax printing over paper which is used to connect to a variety of detectors, such as a mass spectrometer, contactless conductivity detection, and digital cameras.

According to Carrilho, some students are working with capillary electrophoresis and some are working with cell culture inside the chips.

The three-year IRES grant was ex-tended into a fourth year this past summer. According to Garcia, the initial program was funded for almost $80,000 and has been recently upgraded by the NSF. This expansion could allow supporting up to 12 students each summer and will increase the number of participating university labs throughout Brazil.

Among the four students who partici-pated in the program, Kajari Bhattacharya, a third-year chemistry major at the Uni-versity of Texas at Austin worked on two projects in Carrilho’s lab, one of which involved trying to grow stem cells on a microchip made of toner and polyester and the other focused on developing a test that patients could use to more accurately check for the presence and level of phar-maceuticals in a patient’s system through the use of a type of microfluidic device. Ac-cording to Garcia, pharmaceuticals are ab-

sorbed differently by people depending on numerous factors and being able to quickly test for current levels would allow patients and doctors to more accurately gauge the necessary dose.

The experience has influenced Bhat-tacharya’s academic and career plans to pursue a doctoral degree within the field upon graduation.

“I hadn’t really considered research af-ter finishing my undergraduate degree but being here has really reminded me of how much I like doing research,” Bhattacharya wrote via email while in Brazil.

Albeit, potential applicants expressed concerns regarding their safety while in Brazil, Garcia assured them that their secu-rity was guaranteed regardless of the socio-economics of Brazil. The country received much exposure after the Olympics and the World Cup which resulted in more inter-ested applicants.

Transnational Relations and Fruitful Impacts Several students have told Garcia that their perceptions of the world were changed for the better by their time in Brazil.

“I didn’t know what to expect com-ing here since I’ve never been to South America,” Bhattacharya stated. “Everybody has been incredibly friendly and inviting so it’s been easy to get to know some great people.” Bhattacharya continued.

A significant benefit to studying in Brazil is developing resourcefulness in students who are accustomed to the imme-diate availability of supplies in the U.S.

Gomez, co-director of the program, has run similar programs for students in Ireland and Hungary, which has shown

him just how life-changing the experience of traveling abroad can be for student re-searchers.

“It allows the students to grow and persevere under the circumstances, which makes them stronger when they come back to the United States and to their universi-ties,” Gomez stated. “It allows them to grow as human beings. The students come home with a greater appreciation of what the U.S. has to offer,” Gomez continued.

Exposing students, especially under-graduates, to the kinds of research experi-ences available internationally can only expand their knowledge base and inform their choices about whether to pursue a career in research, said Waldemar Gorski, chair of UTSA’s Chemistry Department.

The program has forged connections among faculty and researchers at the par-ticipating universities, as well as, fostering collaborations and other exchanges. For example, three Brazilian doctoral students worked in Garcia’s lab last year and were funded by the Brazilian government.

But giving students a hands-on experi-ence that emphasizes the appeal of science and the possibility of making a life in the field is paramount.

With three papers published so far from research done as part of IRES and the anticipation of more to come, Garcia said the boost in confidence being published provides is a game changer.

“I would really love to see that produc-tivity going up because that is good for us, it’s good for the program but it’s especially important for the students. Once they see their name in a publication, they get a sense of what they can really achieve,” Garcia stated.

Samir Bhakta, a second-year chemistry doctoral student spent a summer in a university research lab in Brazil learning how to make an inexpensive, fast test to diagnose periodontitis using a microchip printed on a postage-stamp sized piece of paper. Once salivated, the chip allows for analysis of nitrite levels—a marker of inflammation. Moreover, the chip adjusts coloration, which can be analyzed using software available on mobile devices.

“Currently what dentists do to diagnose periodontitis is they probe the gum lines to see receding and bleeding gum lines,” Bhakta stated.

Bhakta affirms that the procedure is painful and that the method could be improved through the use of a point-of-care diagnostic device that could send out to a remote location and made accessible at home.

Bhakta traveled to the Institute of Chemistry at Sao Carlos, University of Sao Paulo in 2012 as part of the International Research Experience of Students (IRES) program funded by the National Science Foundation. The goal of IRES is to give undergraduate and graduate students the chance to work in a research lab in another country, preparing them not only to pur-sue doctoral degrees in science and technology, but also to be-come globally engaged.

UTSA associate professor of chemistry Carlos Garcia is the director of the program. Garcia’s collaborators include Frank Gomez, professor of chemistry at California State University, Los Angeles, and Emanuel Carrilho, professor of chemistry at USP, site director of the program.

Provisions of a Rewarding and Personalized ExperienceIRES funds up to four students per year, two students each from UTSA and CSULA or their areas, for a summer research experi-ence of at least eight weeks. Students, who attend area colleges

and universities, including community colleges, also are eligible to apply to the program.

The program’s projects are all in the area of microanalytical chemistry and microfluidic devices, which offer the advantage of being faster, cheaper and more portable than traditional methods.

“The project is specifically geared toward the development of microfluidic devices, but if the student is interested in any of the associated techniques, we allow them to pursue those interests,” Garcia stated.

“For example, the first year we sent them; there was a student who was particularly interested in learning about carbon nano-tubes. He ended up working on the development of a sensor for chemical warfare agents. That work was just published,” Garcia continued.

Microfluidics, as the term suggests, also uses a much smaller sample volume—measured in nanoliters.

According to Garcia, with a drop of liquid you can do thou-sands of analyses and if you take one milliliter and divide it by a million, that’s how much sample is required. While this could not be important when analyzing water from a lake, the volume of sample required is critical for some patients and children.

Researchers in all three professors’ labs are working on micro-fluidic devices that could be used to analyze all sorts of molecules, from glucose, to cancer markers, to pharmaceuticals, to soil con-taminants, to antioxidants. The technology enables these analyses to be done in remote locations including space.

“We are focused on the development of the technology, that later could be applied in diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring of diseases, or monitoring the environment for chemicals or pol-lutants,” Carrilho stated via email.

Students participating in the program should have some back-

IRES FacilitatesSTUDENT RESEARCH IN SAO PAULOby Kate Hunger

CARLOS GARCIA Associate professor, Department of Chemistry

Carlos Garcia’s research interest is studying the design, operation and biological applications of microchips and capillary electrophoresis. In addition, he is also interested in the rational design of biosensors. He has authored or co-authored over 50 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Garcia received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a PhD in Chemistry from the National University of Cordoba (Argentina).

DIAGNOSIS OF PERIODONTITIS CAN NOW BE PERFORMED USING THIS PAPER-BASED MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE, PRODUCED BY ONE OF THE IRES STUDENTS.


P

crystalizes and changes to ice when the temperature drops. Scientists such as Bhalla, alongside his domestic and international colleagues, are looking for metals and other oxide compounds that change shape and potential functions at key temperatures. These materials are being studied for their potential to power, multifunctional and multisensing devices in biotechnology and industry.

According to Bhalla, the potential applications are vast. Biotechnology that incorporates miniaturized multisensing devices someday could help restore sight, hearing, taste or touch in people who have suffered injuries. New technology could make artificial limbs more useful for the fine-motor tasks and sensing done by the fingers. High-tech sensors someday may be remotely deployed on robots to warn sol-diers of chemical or biological dangers that lie ahead. They have potential uses for col-lecting, storing and transmitting power in clean energy technology, and also could be part of a “smart” power grid that integrates different sources of power for businesses and consumers.

Bhalla affirms that the potential is limited only by human imagination. He envisions the day when the heat generated by an automobile engine is captured and recycled for another use or when the en-ergy from a beating heart may be captured to recharge the pacemaker battery inside the chest.

This field encompasses multidisci-plinary research, which incorporates electrical, and mechanical engineers with practitioners or researchers from neurosci-ence and other disciplines. And since the need for such innovation is worldwide, it makes sense for scientists to collaborate beyond their own national borders.

“Not a single nation can do all of this alone,” Bhalla stated. “The research and the needs are everywhere. We cannot do this science unless we do it in a multinational way. This is the future of biotechnology,” he continued.

The international network includes fully industrialized nations and those that still are developing their scientists, infrastructure and training programs. “The team is fully committed to use the blossoming research opportunity to train a next generation of multifunctional- materials researchers,” Bhalla said.

Since obtaining the grant funding three years ago, Bhalla and his Co-principal investigator, Professor Ruyan Guo and col-leagues Professor Chonglin Chen at UTSA have taken that training mission to heart. Researchers at UTSA and elsewhere have visited each other’s campuses and have conducted professional meetings together. They have been able to meet with each other via online conferences. Moreover through advanced computer connectivity, they are conducting experiments together through remote lab links in real time. Scientists in the network have published more than 60 research papers in scholarly journals and have given over 50 presenta-tions at research conferences around the world.

Currently, approximately a dozen of U.S. graduate students have received training through the research programs

of the network. Another handful of graduate-level students at UTSA are close to earning their doctoral and master’s degrees through work in the program. UTSA also has hosted 20 doctoral students and 15 university faculty from network countries over the last three years who came to pursue research projects through the collaborative network

“The beauty of it is that our NSF grants provided intellectual and financial framework in support of our exploration, yet most of our international visitors are supported financially by their respective governments,” Bhalla said.

“When they return home, they will recommend more students to study here, and most of the returned graduates are working for U.S. companies in their home countries, companies such as Intel, Cisco and General Electric, which have operations in Asia and South America,” Bhalla continued.

According to Bhalla, as the involve-ment grows, the network grows, with more researchers and more students producing new ideas and new inventions. “We are really growing very, very nicely. We have created that critical mass,” he said. “We have become quite visible and that adds a lot of visibility to UTSA.”

Bhalla affirms that this advanced re-search program fits nicely into UTSA’s long term objective of becoming a Tier-One research university.

“We are contributing to meet the goals of UTSA to becoming a Tier-One research university and to advance materials sci-ence and engineering,” he said. “It takes teamwork, it demands good science and it needs infrastructure and financial support. We have been fortunate to have the right elements come together,” Bhalla stated.

rofessor of engineering Amar Bhalla, Ph.D., sees the future of science in the tip of a human finger. Within that square inch or so of skin, Bhalla points out, a matrix of neurological sensors which detect pressure, texture, temperature, and pain. Accompanied by the mobility functions of the hands, such as abilities to flex, grip, and tense, the fingers and hands sense and manipulate the environment. Humans become adept at accomplishing functions such as grasping objects, using tools, writing words, playing musical instruments, and much more.

Bhalla, a distinguished research profes-sor in UTSA’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2007, directs an international program focused on discovering and developing the materi-als that will be the foundation for the next generation of technology. Bhalla affirms that multisensing devices, capable of doing more than one thing, are the future of medicine, industry and even consumer products.

“We humans are multifunctioning and multisensing beings,” said Bhalla. “This is the vision for our technology as well. We need to have each single device that can do many things,” Bhalla continued.

Bhalla, who came to UTSA six years ago, is developing a global network of scientists and inventors who share like visions and who work together on research and inventions, with the support of their governments.

“This is the science of a new era, and we are in a new era of science,” Bhalla says with a smile. “The new science is based on nanotechnology. The new era is learning, ‘How do we capture the benefits of science all around the world?’ ” he continued.

Bhalla is now three years into the pro-gram, called the International Network for Advanced and Multifunctional Materials (INAMM). It is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. UTSA is the lead institution, with Virginia Tech (Professor S. Priya) and other American collaborators. Joining them are university

and industry teams from India, South Ko-rea, Thailand, Belgium, China, France and Brazil that participate.

Bhalla affirms that each country’s researchers are supported by their gov-ernment-funded science and research agency, equivalent to the National Science Foundation in the U.S. Together, the scientists are doing research and train-ing young scientists in the discovery and development of multisensing materials and technology. Also the national labs, such as Los Alamos National Labs have provided a great intellectual and moral support in these missions.

“Each member of the network presents unique scientific strength related to the themes of the proposal and addresses the current status and challenges for future growth,” Bhalla said.

This field of study refers to Ferroics which refers to the study of materials whose physical characteristics and electri-cal properties change when environmental conditions change. For example, water

by Cindy Tumiel

AMAR BHALLA Distinguished Research Professor and Associate Dean for Research

Amar Bhalla’s research interests are in the preparation and properties of piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and ferroic crystals, ceramics, composites, glass ceramics, and bio-materials; nano-composites, nano structure science and fabrication; electro-optic sensors and materials; thin solid films; single crystal fibers; photorefractive materials, pyro-optics, smart sensors, substrates for high Tc superconductors, tunable microwave dielectrics; Advanced Electronic Sensors; Multifunctional Devices; Macro-Micro- Nanoscale effects in Sensing Materials; Meta materials, Bioferroics and Bio-multiferroics. He has authored or co-authored over 700 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Bhalla received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from Rajasthan University, India and a Ph.D. in solid state sciences from Penn State University.

This is the science of a new era, and we are in a new era of science.”

Sustaining the Advancement of

MULTISENSING DEVICES


Researchers in the U.S. and China are collaborating to find ways to reduce the spread of Lyme disease and other tick- and vector-borne diseases, which pose a threat to human health, livestock and agriculture.

UTSA associate professor of bacterial pathogenesis Janakiram Seshu serves as principal investigator for one of the teams participating in the program, which is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture Scientific Cooperation Exchange Program and the Ministry of Ag-riculture of the People’s Republic of China. The program encourages the ongoing ex-change of information between researchers from both countries, fostered by alternat-ing visits by teams from both countries.

Seshu led a team of three research-ers to China in the summer of 2012. Also making the trip were Adalberto Pérez De León, lab director and research leader, and Andrew Li, research physiologist of the USDA Agricultural Research Service at Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, which conducts research into pests of medical

and veterinary importance, such as biting flies and ticks. During the two-week trip, they visited several research institutions, including the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing.

“We had the opportunity to ob-serve all of their laboratories and their facilities,” Seshu stated.

According to Seshu, the USDA has a facility right in Beijing composed of people from the U.S. who are re-sponsible for surveillance and ensur-ing the containment of diseases.

“That is a major problem because of the global trade. We have to constantly think about what are the things that could come in and also be aware of some of the issues that they have there. If we don’t collaborate we don’t know much,” Seshu declared.

Fostering collaborative endeavours According to Seshu, a concern about the safety of imports from China is one reason the USDA wanted to include researchers of tick-borne disease in the program.

“They have a lot of other diseases

U.S.-CHINA Promulgation of research on diseases

that we don’t have,” Seshu said. “So the question is what are the surveillance procedures and other ways to prevent any potential transfer of diseases from China into the U.S.?” he continued.

Pérez De León affirms that secur-ing a healthy food source to feed a growing population is another mo-tivation for the USDA to solve the problems posed by livestock pests.

“By 2050 at least 9 billion people will be on this planet and we are going to have to increase food production by 100 percent,” Pérez De León stated. “There is less and less arable land, less land to raise cattle,” Pérez De León continued.

According to Seshu, the program’s aim is to help stop the reach of diseases spread by vectors such as ticks and other animals. The collaboration also benefits China, which has seen an increase in cases of Lyme disease in the Tibetan region and concerns regarding the spread of African swine fever and other vector-borne diseases.

Seshu asserts that the collaboration’s big-gest impact so far has been improving sur-veillance efforts to share information about potential disease outbreaks more efficiently.

“The most important thing we are doing now is we are enhancing our in-teractions with China in terms of sur-veillance measures so that if there is a major outbreak of something, we will know about it quickly,” Seshu stated.

Moreover, working with the USDA has expanded the nature of the research Seshu’s lab is conducting to include diseases affect-ing domestic animals and not just humans.

Seshu affirms that the collaborative grant enabled the success and expan-sion of the program, as well as research foci on the economic part of vector-borne infections and the agricultural consequences of vector-borne infections and also global trade related impact on our national security and health.

“It just completely changed our per-spective, rather than just focusing on one disease and one pathogen, it enhanced our ways of looking at it from a perspec-tive that is a lot more global and to other vector-borne infections in general.”

Seshu expresses his enjoy-ment of the educational opportu-nity and the overall experience.

“It wasn’t just me sharing our part of the story but we also learned a whole lot that we are implementing right now,” he said

Sophisticated genetics Seshu has several research projects related to Lyme disease—the most prevalent arthropod-borne disease in the U.S.—underway in his lab.

According to Seshu, the tick has been on Earth for around 300 to 400 million years and that evolutionarily, they have withstood a lot of changes on Earth.

Seshu’s research contribution involves unlocking the gene expression code that allows Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, to thrive in certain species of ticks and trans-fer to vertebrates. Researchers are trying to learn how the genes of the bacteria adapt to the significant changes in environment—such as temperature, immunities and pH—between ticks and the ani-mals on which they feed.

“What we are trying to do is essentially look at a lot of the mechanisms by which this bacteria is able to survive in a tick,” Se-shu stated. “What is happening to the bacteria that is enabling the bacteria to go from a tick vector to a vertebrate host?” he continued.

According to Seshu, a human vaccine for Lyme disease that used to be available is no longer manufactured. Most cases of Lyme disease are successfully treated with antibiotics. But in about 20-25 percent of cases, symptoms persist despite antibiotic treatment.

“One big problem with Lyme disease is once people get it, they can go to the doctor get some antibiotics and for the most part they get cured,” Seshu said. “But there is a proportion of people who continue to have this pathogen even after antibiotic treatment and they will go on to progressing to chronic arthritis or persistent manifestations of this disease,” Seshu continued.

The bacterial agent that causes Lyme disease belongs to a special class of bacteria known as spirochetes, which also cause syphilis and dental infection. In order to become infected with the disease-causing bacteria, ticks must feed on infected animals such as mice, rabbits, deer or lizards. Not all tick species carry the disease.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2011, 96 percent of Lyme disease cases were reported in 13 states including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Min-nesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin. By comparison, Seshu affirms that the likelihood of infected ticks in Texas is quite small.

“We have been looking at genes or regulators of gene expression that are allowing these bacteria to go from an environment in the tick to that of a vertebrate host,” Seshu said.

“If the ticks feed on you, the blood it takes is about 37 degrees Celsius. It has a lot of immune components and lot of other nutri-ents. How is it able to do it? We are focusing on two global gene regulators that are regulating a whole bunch of genes in the agent of Lyme disease that is allowing it to survive in the tick and also when the ticks take a blood meal it is able to change its gene expression to survive in the mammal,” Seshu continued.

Because ticks acquire the Lyme-causing bacteria from infected small mammals or lizards, researchers also are looking for ways to curb infection in those host animals, as well.

“We have two major questions: How is the bacteria able to adapt? And how are the bacteria able to go from the skin to the joint?” Seshu said. “How do you lock the bacteria in the tick mid-gut so that it is not able to come out?”

According to Edwin Barea-Rodriguez, Chair of the biology department, collaborations are essential in science research today.

“You have to think about the broad impact and the things we learn from each other,” Barea-Rodriguez stated. “Even if we are doing similar research their approach may be different,” Barea-Rodriguez continued.

Barea-Rodriguez affirms that international collaborations are especially important and are becoming easier to pursue.

“We (scientists) think, this is important and imperative that we do it. There may be barriers in communication, barriers in tech-nology. I think the barriers are coming down. It’s becoming less difficult,” Barea-Rodriguez stated.

The program will bring a team of Chinese researchers to visit UTSA and the USDA ARS lab in Kerrville in the summer of 2015, which hosted two Chinese students in the spring and fall of 2012.

In a time of limited resources, finding ways to maximizing them is crucial, said Pérez De León, explaining that his team was inter-ested in working with Seshu to pursue the grant enabling them to participate in the program.

“Science is so complex these days that there is no one who knows everything and can do everything,” Pérez De León declared.

by Kate Hunger

JANAKIRAM SESHU Associate professor, Department of Biology

Janakiram Seshu’s research interests focus on two infectious diseases- Lyme disease and Q fever. The laboratory is focused on identifying how the agent of Lyme disease- Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb)- is able to transition from a tick vector to vertebrate hosts such as mice, deer, dogs and humans. His research also focuses on identifying potential candidates that could be evaluated as vaccines against Q fever and on generation of targeted deletion mutants of Phase II C. burnetii for study intracellular trafficking kinetics in eukaryotic cells/cell lines. Seshu also focuses on developing new methods for rapid purification of proteins with biological relevant post-translational modifications using multiple prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression platforms from different pathogens to validate their potential as vaccinogens. He has authored or co-authored over 32 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Seshu received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Washington State University and performed post-doctoral training at Texas A&M Health Science Center. Seshu received his degree in veterinary medicine (B.V.Sc) from Madras Veterinary College, India.


Earlier this year, Doganer traveled to London to present a heritage research project that she conducted at the historic mis-sions in South San Antonio with some of her students at UTSA. The group explored and evaluated the potential the missions have to attract tourists and, in turn, create jobs and a sense of pride within the community.

FULBRIGHT SCHOLARSHIPS FUND RESEARCH OVERSEASUTSA faculty and one graduate student recently traveled the world as part of the Fulbright Program.

Nearly 300,000 scholars have participated in the Fulbright Program around the world. Last year, participants from UTSA studied music in Nigeria, architecture in Italy, opera in Hong Kong and Alzheimer’s disease in Chile.

One of the four Fulbright recipients was Aaron Carter-Cohn, who earned his master’s degree in music in conducting at UTSA in 2011.

Carter-Cohn will teach in Nigeria’s largest city at the University of Lagos and delve into the systematic organization of sounds in the languages of Nigerian music.

On another continent, Fulbright scholar Wing Chung Ng, associate professor of history at UTSA, took a closer look at the history of Cantonese opera to finish his book manuscript. His research focused on the development of this Southern Chinese performance genre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Business documents such as contracts and loan documents were of particular interest to Ng. They tell the story of Cantonese opera as a popular entertainment industry in rural society and how the genre became urbanized.

“As a historian, I’m really interested in the internal dynamics of this performance,” Ng stated. “How were troupes formed and how did they adapt? What traditions were kept once they went into the cities?” Ng continued.

The owner of Tai Ping Theatre recently donated its archive, providing a deeper look into the business of Cantonese opera. Ng spent 10 months researching that story and is now talking with publishers about his manuscript. He hopes it will soon be trans-lated so he can share his findings with the people of Hong Kong.

In Europe, while researching his book in 2003, John Alexander found letters between Cesare Gambara, the bishop of Tortona, and the Milanese Archbishop Carlo Borromeo.

According to Alexander, the two writers were at odds over a new cathedral planned in Tortona as part of a program of urban redevelopment and architectural projects that gave the city an ideal ecclesiastical center. Alexander discovered Bishop Gambara was adamantly opposed to the plans.

A Fulbright grant funded Alexander’s spring 2013 trip to search through the Italian state archives in Como, Milan and Rome, the Vatican archives and the archives of significant religious orders in hopes of finding more details.

George Perry, dean of the College of Sciences, traveled to South America on a research-sharing mission in Chile where he focused on Alzheimer’s disease.

Perry visited the University of Chile for two weeks to give seminars and advising its academic programs. He also became a consultant to a biotech company, offering advice about technol-ogy development, conducting clinical trials and entering the U.S. pharmaceutical market.

“Chile is a remarkable country – dynamic, safe, clean, orga-nized. It’s an incredible country,”

Perry stated. “All students should be able to get one of these scholarships to go for a few months,” Perry stated.

Public Service Efforts

GROWTH OF THE SMALL BUSINESS NETWORK OF THE AMERICASIn early 2012, President Obama launched the Small Business Network of the Americas (SBNA) to assist in job creation and economic growth. The SBNA links national networks of support centers, expanding the available resources and services for small businesses and encouraging international trade.

UTSA leads the way in increasing the network’s reach by establishing new Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) in the Caribbean and Latin America. Through SBNA, UTSA provides guidance to foreign governments to adapt and establish SBDCs in their countries, benefitting both local companies and businesses all over the Americas.

By expanding the SBDC network into other countries, UTSA creates trade partners around the world. With the support of the U.S. Department of State, the UTSA Institute for Economic Development helps countries create small business assistance pro-grams and has already established such programs in 15 countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Africa over the past 10 years.

UTSA also helps local clients expand into international markets through the International Trade Center. The center provides con-sulting, market research, and training so domestic companies can take their business worldwide.

The International Trade Center boasts numerous success stories, one of which is familiar to San Antonio. Michael Kiolbassa, the owner of Kiolbassa Provision Company, credits part of his business’ international success to the university’s SBDC. With its help, he secured an SBA 504 loan to modernize his manufacturing facility and widen his market.

Kiolbassa’a story adds to the accomplishments of UTSA’s pur-suits in research, instruction and public service.

by Ashley Festa

WING CHUNG NG JOHN ALEXANDER GEORGE PERRYGABRIELLA ZUNDT AARON ARRIAGA

Throughout the years, UTSA has encouraged initiative in regard to its extensive international reach, whilst promulgating research, instruction and public service.

From Spain to South Korea and from Mexico to Malawi, facul-ties and students broaden their research endeavors, while exploring faraway places, local businesses expand their market share interna-tionally and transnational concerns are illuminated.

Student researchers and faculty venture overseas to participate in mutually beneficial educational opportunities. Other explora-tions involve Fulbright scholars who visited other continents to extract information from ancient archives and faculties who evalu-ate the needs of other countries to provide instructional support. As a public service, UTSA offers its expertise to make commerce more profitable for local companies and businesses overseas.

Such opportunities are made possible through private, state, and federal funding which sponsor multiple programs benefiting student and faculty ventures. Furthermore, such pursuits contribute to the economic stability of the San Antonio region, the state of Texas, as well as support for global endeavors.

Explore some of the research, instruction, and public service achievements that UTSA’s very own students and faculties have engaged in from an international outlook.

Student Scholarship Opportunities

MUSIC EDUCATION FOR INCREASED BRAIN DEVELOPMENTTwin brothers Rustein and Travis Merriweather have long been interested in community improvement. The Merriweathers believed that it would be fitting to explore their musical talents further.“We look at being musical as being a public service,” Rustein said. “We wanted to take it a step further,” he continued.

The students were among 50 high school and university stu-dents invited to present research at Global Issues Network (GIN), held for the first time in Abu Dhabi. The GIN works with students from around the globe to create awareness about global issues through projects and activities.

According to the Merriweathers, one of the challenges they faced was to address a major concern for Abu Dhabi and offer a solution to the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec).

The brothers revealed a link between music and brain develop-ment. Rustein affirms that earlier research showed keyboard and piano players use both sides of their brains simultaneously. Studies on this type of activity revealed significant brain development in children ages 5-7, including increased blood flow to the brain and physically larger brains. The brothers hypothesized that a strong music education would create more developed critical thinkers.

The Merriweathers believed the research could benefit Abu Dhabi, a country that relies heavily on the oil industry. Considering the impending oil depletion, Rustein said the country lacks a plan for the future.

The brothers proposed a one to two year trial on four groups of students to evaluate the results of a stronger emphasis on music education in schools. Researchers would test the students’ cognitive functions to determine the effect of increased music education.

“It’s about creating a generation of people who can find solu-tions to world problems,” Rustein stated.

GILMAN SCHOLARS ABSORB NEW CULTURESThe Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program awarded several students from UTSA scholarships to travel overseas and broaden their university experience.

Aaron Arriaga and Gabriella Zundt traveled to China in the summer, as part of the University Studies Abroad Consortium. Both spent a month in Chengdu, China, at the Southwest Univer-sity for Nationalities.

Arriaga, a Cold Spring, Texas native, earned a $2,500 Gilman scholarship to immerse himself into the Chinese culture while living with a Chinese family.

“My ultimate goal would be to eventually work on foreign policy/relations with China,” Arriaga said. He hopes the experience he receives will provide the background he needs in order to do so.

Like Arriaga, Zundt also wanted to glean the most benefit from her summer study abroad in China. Zundt, from Portland, Texas, received $4,000 to discover what a new culture could add to her double major in communication and psychology.

“I hope to bring back a better understanding of the world we live in and a new outlook on life,” Zundt stated.

Faculty Scholarship Opportunities

EXTENSIVE RESEARCH EARNS PROFESSOR INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITIONDr. Sedef Doganer, assistant professor in the UTSA College of Architecture, earned the title of “docent” through the Council of Higher Education in Turkey after a rigorous review of her research, teaching and service work.

The docent designation is the first step above the Ph.D. in Europe. Albeit Doganer intends to continue teaching in the United States, she plans to give presentations and read papers at universities and conferences in Europe, where the docent title is widely recognized.

SCHOLARS ENGAGE IN INTERNATIONAL ENDEAVORS

Global Impacts

Sherrie Voss Matthews and Monica Alcoz contributed to this story.

FIRST EDITION


Faculty and students at UTSA are involved in a wide variety of exploratory and scholarly research projects. These efforts are documented through the research articles they publish. To highlight the scope and depth of this work, we have listed a few of these below.

In a highly cited article in the journal of Chemical Reviews, Dr. Banglin Chen, professor of chemistry explores metal-organic frameworks. His recent works involve luminescent microporous metal−organic framework Tb(BTC)G which has been developed for the recognition and sensing of anions, exhibiting a high-sensitivity sensing function with respect to fluoride.

Dr. Douglas Frantz, professor of chemistry recently published an article in the journal Cell in which he discovered exposure of cell or tissue lysates to a biotinylated isoxazole chemical precipitated hundreds of RNA-binding proteins with significant overlap to the constituents of RNA granules. These observations offer a framework for understanding the function of low complexity sequences as well as an organizing principle for cellular structures that are not membrane bound.

UTSA’s Dean of the College for Science and Professor of Biology Dr. George Perry, published an article in the Journal of Neurochemistry titled “Impaired mitochondrial biogenesis contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease.” This study demonstrated that impaired mitochondrial biogenesis likely contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Astrid Cardona receives recognition for her article titled “The Fractalkine Receptor but Not CCR2 Is Present on Microglia from Embryonic Development throughout Adulthood” which was published in the Journal of Immunology. It provides a novel model to monitor chemokine receptor expression changes in microglia and myeloid cells early in development and during inflammatory conditions.

Dr. Christopher Ellison explored religion through a quantitative approach in his study entitled “Religion and the Sense of Control among U.S. Adults.” This study develops a series of theoretical arguments linking multiple dimensions of religious involvement with the sense of control.

In an article published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, Department of Finance professor Dr. John Wald examines the relation between pay-performance sensitivity, the convexity of managerial compensation, and future stock risk and returns for a large sample of firms between 1992 and 2004.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor, Dr. Chunjiang Qian addresses the problem of using output feedback to globally control a class of nonlinear systems whose output functions are not precisely known in his work titled “Global control of nonlinear systems with uncertain output function using homogeneous domination approach” which was published in the International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control.

Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Human Development Dr. Anne-Marie Nunez examines the factors affecting Latino student’s enrollment in four-year institutions. Dr. Nunez discovers that academic preparation, navigation of financial aid, levels of school resources, and teacher quality are among the important areas to target.

Dr. Qi Tian, professor in the Department of Computer Science, explores visual codebooks in an article titled “Task-Dependent Visual-Codebook Compression”. Most existing codebooks are built based solely on the visual statistics of local

descriptors, without considering the supervise labels coming from the subsequent recognition or classification tasks. Therefore, Tian’s work proposes a task-dependent codebook compression framework.

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Shuo Wang, has pursued research exploring a new design for an ultra-fast, public electric vehicle charging station. Through the proper choice of a multi-level topology and staircase modulation, it is able to operate efficiently and provide galvanic isolation without the use of a large transformer.

Department of Physics and Astronomy professor Dr. Dhiraj Sardar’s article “Synthesis and spectroscopy of color tunable Y2O2S:Yb3+,Er3+ phosphors with intense emission” was published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds. His results show that the Y2O2S:Yb3+,Er3+ phosphor offers power dependent color tuning properties where the emission color can be tuned from 490 to 550 nm by simply changing the 980 nm excitation power from 10 to 50 mW.

Dr. Miguel Jose-Yacaman, professor of Physics and Astronomy explores the synthesis of gold nanoparticles passivated by 1-dodecanethiol in a two phase system (toluene/water), based on a microwave induced method. It was found that under the conditions studied, nanoparticles self-assemble spontaneously into flower-like self-supported superstructures, showing domains of ordered nanoparticles. This work was published in the esteemed journal, Nanoscale.

RESEARCH

UTSA DISCOVERY MAGAZINE 2013 Volume 6 www.utsa.edu/discovery

UTSA Discovery is published annually for the Office of the Vice President for Research by the Office of Communication and Research Advancement. The magazine serves to highlight research, scholarship and creative achievement of faculty, staff, students and alumni of The University of Texas at San Antonio. UTSA Discovery is a member of the University Research Magazine Association.

President Ricardo Romo Interim Vice President for Research Mauli Agrawal Vice President for University Advancement Marjie French Editor Noe Saldaña, ‘91 Copyeditor Nickelina Noel Graphic Designer Coral Díaz Contributors Monica Alcoz, Ashley Festa, Christi Fish, Cory Hallam, Kate Hunger, Jo Ann Jones, Sherrie Voss Matthews, Analisa Naza-reno, Nickelina Noel, Kris Rodriguez, KC Scharnberg, Cindy Tumiel. Photographers Patrick Dunn, Carolyn Ehardt, Mark McClendon, Halufani Mulalelwa, Nickelina Noel, Noe Saldaña.

We’d love to hear from you! Comments and questions about editorial content should be addressed to Editor, UTSA Discovery, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, Texas 78249. You can also e-mail us at [email protected].

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