For a seventh year of research, Dr. John Trefry, professor of oceanography, received $182,000 from the U.S. Department of Interior, Minerals Management Service, through a contract with Battelle Science and Technology International. The funding supports field research by Trefry and his team on the potential long-term impacts of offshore oil exploration and production in the Alaskan Arctic. Project funding now totals $1.1 million.
Scientists sampled water for suspended sediment and dissolved trace metals through six-foot ice in the coastal Beaufort Sea in May and June 2006. In July and August, during the open-water season, they checked the water for suspended and bottom sediment and several biological specimens, including clams and fish. The researchers seek to detect signs of industrial inputs early. “We want to know about possible problems before any significant impacts occur,” said Trefry.
Dr. Marc Baarmand, professor of physics and space sciences, received a $360,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for research aimed at discovering the origin of mass. This grant augments more than $740,000 that the DOE has previously granted Baarmand for his work on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) project. This work, involving a small army of scientists from all over the world, is located at the European Center for Particle Physics, CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The CMS project, an array of large particle detectors, is now in the final stages of construction. The gigantic experiment, the size of a five-story building, encompasses several million electronic readout channels that record data on proton-on-proton collisions that happen every 25 nanoseconds (one billionth of a second). The experiment sits in a tunnel beneath the earth, where CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, a proton accelerator, is reaching completion.
Two contracts, $400,000 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and $200,000 from the Alzheimer’s Association (in partnership with Intel Corporation and Agilent Technologies) energize the drive of two professors. Dr. Annie Becker, director of the Florida Tech National Center for Small Business Information, and Dr. Frank Webbe, professor of psychology, are developing information and communication technology (ICT) to promote quality of life for caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients.
The project, called Buddy Computer Coordinated Healthcare System (or, Buddy for short), supports quality of life and aging-in-place initiatives. Buddy takes advantage of information and communication technology in linking caregivers to a virtual support network of family and friends.
The caregivers will use PocketPCs to obtain information about health care, be reminded of daily events and activities, and to record family information in a journal. Family, friends and health care personnel stay connected through the Web by a “buddy blog” that provides controlled access to information gathered by the PocketPC.
Dr. Joshua Rokach, chemistry professor and director of Florida Tech’s Claude Pepper Institute for Aging and Therapeutic Research, got a boost to continue studies on chronic inflammatory diseases. He earned a four-year $1.3 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) organization’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Rokach’s research focuses on the enzymatic reaction of 5-hydroxyeicosanoid dehydrogenase in certain types of white blood cells, or leukocytes, which contributes to such diseases as asthma, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis.
The researcher earned worldwide recognition for the first syntheses of major inflammatory mediators such as leukotrienes and lipoxins, which are responsible for allergies affecting the lungs and nose. The availability of these synthetic mediators has opened the field to medical research in the areas of allergy and inflammation.
Studying the early life of coral reef fish is key to understanding their population dynamics. To support his insights, marine biologist Dr. Ralph Turingan received $200,000 from FILDUTCH Ventures and a $120,000 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Florida Sea Grant for his research on the biology of coral reef fish larvae.
Turingan’s studies involve spawning and larval rearing of coral reef fishes from the Caribbean and Southeast Asian regions. His team will also characterize the community structure of fish that congregate on coral reefs in the Philippines.
Turingan will examine the first-feeding period in the development of marine fish larvae. This is a bottleneck in the life history of coral reef fishes, in the wild and in cultured fish.
Adding sand to widen a beach may bring joy to the sunbather and shell collector, but it could mean unfavorable change to common, small beach animals. To study these effects, Dr. Elizabeth Irlandi, assistant professor of oceanography, was awarded $233,998 from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Added to this were matching funds of $77,999 from the Wildlife Research Institute. Dr. William Arnold of the institute is the co-investigator for the three-year research project.
Coastal zone managers, who regulate the timing and location of sand to help replace portions of Florida’s coastline, base their judgments on biological consideration for worm rock and sea turtles. Dr. Irlandi’s research will allow them to include in their decision-making other common animals, such as ghost and mole crabs, and coquina clams. These animals provide important ecological functions in coastal environments, such as cycling organic matter and providing prey to fish and birds.
Septic tanks have always been a potential culprit in water quality degradation in adjacent waterways. To study impacts on the St. Lucie River Estuary and Indian River Lagoon in Martin and St. Lucie counties, Dr. Thomas Belanger was awarded an $80,000 grant from the South Florida Water Management District. He’ll use the funding to add three more sites to three sites already under investigation, evaluating if septic tank effluent is contributing significant nutrients and bacteria to the river and lagoon.
“Our study, coupled with data collected by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Department of Environmental Protection, and county health departments should provide some answers on the importance of septic tank loading to the river and lagoon,” said Belanger.
Dr. Brian Lail, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has earned a $73,000 subcontract for work on antenna-coupled sensors from the University of Central Florida (UCF). The agreement is with the Infrared Systems Laboratory and Dr. Glenn Boreman at UCF’s Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers.
In this collaboration, Lail will research millimeter and sub-millimeter wave detection, and infrared detection in antenna-coupled sensors.
Antennae and antennae technology have vital government, military and commercial functions. They are useful for landing aids, obstacle avoidance in fog and dust, foul weather navigation, fire hot-spot location through smoke, detection of concealed weapons and biological agents, and for missile guidance.
Building on decades of testing and evaluating new boat antifouling coatings, Dr. Geoffrey Swain received $100,000 from PPG Industries to collaborate with PPG and Florida Gulf Coast University.
A professor of ocean engineering, Swain previously developed test protocol and hydrodynamic models to evaluate new generation nontoxic antifouling coatings. He has worked under grants from the Office of Naval Research, Dow Corning Corporation and General Electric.
Boats and underwater instruments risk bio-fouling from marine growths. Buildup decreases speed in boats, impairs effectiveness in instruments and causes corrosion in both. Marine antifouling coatings can prevent fouling buildup, but must be ecologically sound. |
