Georgia Institute Of Technology Research Articles

The first bout of global warming

Chris Reinhard and Kazumi Ozaki at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and their colleagues suggest that a major contributor to greenhouse effect was methane generated by primitive microorganisms that had evolved to photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and many microbes sustain themselves. The researchers modelled the microbes and their primitive biosphere by including factors such as the amount of hydrogen spewed from volcanoes, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, the burial rate of iron and organic matter on the sea floor, and the breakdown of methane by the sun's ultraviolet rays.

Life as an Early Career Researcher: Interview with Yu Shrike Zhang

Yu Shrike Zhang talks to Francesca Lake, Head of Open Access Publishing: Yu Shrike Zhang received his BE degree in biomedical engineering in 2008 from Southeast University, PR China and PhD degree in biomedical engineering in 2013 from Georgia Institute of Technology. He is currently an Instructor of Medicine and Associate Bioengineer in the Division of Engineering in Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. His research interests include organs-on-chips, biomaterials, bioprinting, biomedical devices, biomedical imaging and biosensing with a focus on innovating medical engineering technologies to recreate functional tissues and biomimetic tissue models. He was also a finalist in the inaugural Future Science Early Career Research Award.

米国大学図書館における利用者行動調査とラーニング・コモンズの整備について : ロチェスター大学とジョージア工科大学の事例

検索ツールや学術情報資料の電子化が進む現在，大学図書館に求められる役割が変わりつつあり，専任職員の必要性についても議論されている。変化する利用者のニーズをどのように調査し，応えるかについて，ロチェスター大学，ジョージア工科大学の利用者行動調査と，ラーニング・コモンズの事例を報告する。

The hot spot transformation in the research evolution of maker

The rapid development of digital technology together with the grassroots innovation has led to a new landmark of maker culture. Recently, a search with the query of ‘‘makerspace’’, ‘‘maker movement’’ and ‘‘maker culture’’ in Google Scholar found over 10,000 documents in total. As the volume of the literature grows rapidly, thus, a systematic review of maker research and its current challenges becomes essential. This study surveys the literature of maker between 1975 and 2016. The overall structure of its intellectual landscape is illustrated in terms of thematic concentrations of knowledge clusters of maker study, hot research categories and keywords, major contributing factors including contributing countries, organizations, and authors. Our review is based on 836 bibliographic records retrieved from the ISI Web of Science and visualized by the scientometric software of CiteSpace. This application results in comprehensive knowledge maps of maker research. The study identifies major intellectual cooperation network, co-occurrence keywords, research clusters and landmark articles, including: (1) the thematic clusters of ‘‘maker movement’’, ‘‘DIY culture and extended milieu’’, ‘‘craftsman hero’’ reflects the biggest knowledge base clusters of maker study. (2) “Physical computing”, “maker space”, “maker movement”, “3D printer” are the major frontiers of maker research based on analysis of citation burst. (3) In terms of contributing countries, institutions, authors, the major driving force of maker research is from the United States of America, England and Germany, with University of California Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology being major contributing institutions. Paulo Blikstein from Stanford University USA, Vasilis Kostakis from Tallinn University of Technology Estonia, Hans-Joachim Bohme from Technische Universitat Ilmenau German all have published three articles and rank at the top of the author list.

Life Cycle Inventory Assessment as a Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering Education Tool

Chemists and chemical engineers are involved in and responsible for the life of a product from the discovery stage to manufacturing, market introduction, and end of life. They participate in and contribute to all segments of the supply chain, from cradle to grave. In the industrial sector, they work hand in hand with other professionals in engineering, business, intellectual property, and environmental safety and health. To better prepare students to understand industry-focused grand challenges and contribute to the long-term sustainability of the enterprise, we designed a course for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the Schools of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The pilot class of 26 students was introduced to chemical manufacturing, the eight sustainability grand challenges, intellectual property, regulatory and registration, and process hazard and safety. Invited speakers from industries such as Albemarle, BASF, Dow,...

Research Challenges in Avoiding “Showstoppers” in Developing Materials for Large-Scale Energy Applications

Krista Walton is a Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Director of UNCAGE-ME, a DOE-funded Energy Frontier Research Center focused on the interactions of acid gases with materials. She has worked extensively on characterizing the stability of adsorbent materials, including metal-organic frameworks and porous carbons and developing these materials for practical applications. David Sholl is the John F. Brock III School Chair of the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also the Modeling & Simulation Focus Area Leader for RAPID, a DOE-funded manufacturing institute focused on process intensification and the author of a textbook about using Density Functional Theory for materials modeling. His research focuses on using materials modeling to accelerate development of materials for large-scale chemical separations.

Nanostructured Microcantilevers for the Sensing of Volatile Organic Compounds for Environmental and Food Safety Applications

Biomolecular detection has applications in many fields, including environmental monitoring, food quality monitoring, hazardous gas detection, and medical diagnostics. Three volatile analytes are of particular interest; trimethylamine (TMA) is associated with seafood spoilage and Trimethylaminuria [1], acetic acid (AA) is a biomarker for asthma [2], and ammonia (NH3) is a biomarker for protein degradation [3]. Detection of these molecules requires a highly sensitive and highly specific sensing platform. For the purpose of detecting these molecules, a microcantilever is designed with a nanostructured surface and is functionalized with odorant-binding peptides. The hammerhead microcantilever shown in Figure 1 was designed and fabricated at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The hammerhead shape provides greater surface area and causes the cantilever to resonant in-plane. Nanostructure is fabricated on the microcantilever surface in order to increase the sensitivity of the device. Silicon dioxide nanostructure is created using glancing angle deposition (GLAD) and increases the overall surface area, allowing more molecules to be captured. Images of the nanostructure taken using a high-resolution scanning electron microscope are shown in Figure 2 and 3. The odorant-binding peptides are attached to the SiO2 surface using aminosilane. Validation of the surface chemistry was performed by attaching biotin-streptavadin with a fluorescence tag and viewing under a Fluorescein Isothiocyanate (FITC) light microscope. Further validation is performed by attaching a fluorescence tag to the ammonia-binding peptide and introducing it to a SiO2 surface. Additionally, Raman spectroscopy was used to show the attachment of the silane. The peptides are modeled using the PEP-FOLD servers [4], and binding interactions are modeled using the AutoDock routines in the PyRx software, Figure 4. A scanning Kelvin probe (SKP) is used to demonstrate a charge differential between the flat surface and nanostructure-coated surface. In addition, a charge differential is shown between a surface that is functionalized with peptides and one that is not. This charge differential can be used as a numerical indication of the success of the nanostructure and surface chemistry strategies. The improvement in sensor surface area with added 250 nm nanostructure is estimated to be on the order of a 12-fold increase. BET with Krypton analysis is being used to confirm the amount of nanostructured surface area for both the 250 and 600 nm nanostructure additions. Peptide-functionalized nanostructured cantilevers are being tested for specific VOC molecular binding characteristics. The relevant parameter is the change (decrease) in resonance frequency with added molecular mass. Acknowledgements Research supported by NSF Award #1445488 to KMH. Additional support for RJM provided by the University of Dayton Graduate School.

RETRACTION OF Southward migrations of the Atlantic Equatorial Currents during the Younger Dryas

The article by Youjia Zou, Xiangying Xi, and Chaoyang Zhang entitled “Southward migrations of the Atlantic Equatorial Currents during the Younger Dryas” (doi 10.1002/lno.10529) published in Limnology & Oceanography has been retracted by journal Editor in Chief, Robert W. Howarth, the Association for the Sciences of Limnology & Oceanography, and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Author Zhang had no affiliation with the Georgia Institute of Technology as claimed, and the authors have been unable to provide information that would allow verification of critical aspects of how the research was conducted, leaving the journal unable to verify the intellectual integrity of the data and work. The paper was first published online on 29 March 2017 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) and subsequently in the July 2017 issue #3 of volume 62 of the journal, pages 1732–1741.

Progress in the U.S./Japan PHENIX Project for the Technological Assessment of Plasma Facing Components for DEMO Reactors

The PHENIX Project is a 6-year U.S./Japan bilateral, multi-institutional collaboration program for the Technological Assessment of Plasma Facing Components for DEMO Reactors. The goal is to address the technical feasibility of helium-cooled divertor concepts using tungsten as the armor material in fusion power reactors. The project specifically attempts to (1) improve heat transfer modeling for helium-cooled divertor systems through experiments including steady-state and pulsed high-heat-load testing, (2) understand the thermomechanical properties of tungsten metals and alloys under divertor-relevant neutron irradiation conditions, and (3) determine the behavior of tritium in tungsten materials through high-flux plasma exposure experiments. The High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Plasma Arc Lamp facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Tritium Plasma Experiment facility at Idaho National Laboratory, and the helium loop at Georgia Institute of Technology are utilized for evaluation of the response to high heat loads and tritium interactions of irradiated and unirradiated materials and components. This paper provides an overview of the progress achieved during the first 3 years and discusses the plan for the remainder of the project.

Editor's Introduction

Editorial| July 01 2017 Editor's Introduction: Data as Media Miriam Posner, Miriam Posner Miriam Posner is coordinator and core faculty for the Digital Humanities program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Lauren F. Klein Lauren F. Klein Lauren F. Klein is an assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she also directs the Digital Humanities Lab. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Feminist Media Histories (2017) 3 (3): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2017.3.3.1 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Miriam Posner, Lauren F. Klein; Editor's Introduction: Data as Media. Feminist Media Histories 1 July 2017; 3 (3): 1–8. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2017.3.3.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentFeminist Media Histories Search Accustomed though we are to films, files, moving-image apparatus, and books, media scholars often still find the concept of “data” jarring. As evidenced by any number of scenes of what might be called data montage—think of the reference library sleuthing in Spotlight (2015) or the now-iconic scrolling green type in The Matrix (1999)—we struggle to picture data, let alone begin to analyze it as a media object. Even in information studies and data science, fields in which data is a primary object of study, specific definitions of the term are contested and often unsatisfying. Does information become data when it is converted from undifferentiated content to structured form? When it is translated from text or image into machine-readable form? Or when marshalled as evidence or proof of results? The information scholar Christine Borgman has argued for the contingent and time-based nature of data: information becomes data not by virtue of... You do not currently have access to this content.

Reversed Heat Flux Study of Impinging-Jet Water Cooling for Helium-Cooled Finger-Type Divertors

Experimental evaluation of the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of helium-cooled divertor concepts is important in developing commercial magnetic fusion energy (MFE). Although experimental studies of a variety of concepts have been performed at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) over the last decade, achieving prototypical steady-state incident heat fluxes of 10 MW/m2 remains a major challenge. As an alternative to heating the test section, this work presents an initial assessment of a “reversed heat flux approach” that cools the test modules (instead of heating them) with water to determine the heat transfer coefficients (HTC). This approach was pioneered by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in their initial studies of the helium-cooled modular divertor with multiple jets (HEMJ).The objectives of this design study are to: 1) determine whether such a reversed heat flux approach can be used to experimentally study the thermal-hydraulic performance of helium-cooled divertor concepts, while minimizing safety and operational issues associated with the extremely high temperatures (>1200°C) reached when testing at prototypical conditions (inlet conditions of 700°C and 10 MPa with an incident heat flux of 10 MW/m2), and 2) determine the design and operational parameters for a small-scale submerged water jet impingement cooling facility suitable for validating these numerical predictions. Numerical simulations were performed to determine the impinging-jet (water) mass flow rates required to remove heat fluxes up to 10 MW/m2 from a single HEMJ module at prototypical conditions (i.e., 700°C and 10 MPa). Initial axisymmetric simulations at water pressures up to 3 MPa suggest that a submerged single-phase impinging water jet at (300 K, 1 MPa) and = 3.5 kg/s can remove heat fluxes as great as 7.5 MW/m2 over a 2 cm diameter area.

Paper wasps really recognise each other's faces

Sculpting delicate nests from chewed-up wood pulp, Polistes fuscatus paper wasps are master architects. But the social insects have another skill that makes them appear even more similar to humans: they are capable of face recognition. In fact, the females that found new colonies learn to recognise their nestmates’ faces faster than they learn to distinguish other visual patterns. ‘Very few animals are known to have the special ability to recognize each other's faces’, says Ali Berens, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, adding that the skill ‘likely evolved to reduce costly competitive interactions among nest-founding queens’. However, other paper wasp species, such as Polistes metricus, are less choosey and never learn to recognise each other visually; they simply learn to recognise patterns. Realising that the difference in the wasps’ facial recognition abilities presented the ideal opportunity to begin dissecting the essential components of wasp face recognition, Berens and her colleagues Elizabeth Tibbetts, from the University of Michigan, and Amy Toth, from Iowa State University, USA, decided to discover which genes are essential for wasp face recognition.Tibbetts and members of her lab collected females of both species from under the eaves of local buildings as the insects founded new colonies and began constructing nests in spring. Back in the lab, they patiently trained some of the insects to recognise simple black-and-white patterns, while others had to learn to identify P. fuscatus faces from their distinctive coloured markings. Once the wasps had completed their training and their memories were secure, Tibbetts froze them and shipped the insects to Berens and Toth in Iowa, where the duo analysed the wasps’ brain gene expression patterns.Comparing the gene expression patterns in the brains of the P. fuscatus wasps that had learned to recognise simple shapes with those of P. fuscatus that had learned to recognise faces, the team was impressed to find differences in 257 genes, including genes that are involved in neuron signalling – such as the serotonin receptor and tachykinin. However, when Berens searched the P. metricus gene expression patterns for evidence of the 257 P. fuscatus face recognition genes, none cropped up. ‘This suggests […] that there is something special about face learning – that it is not just hyper-developed visual learning, but a highly specialized learning response’, says Berens.Having identified the genes that lie at the heart of P. fuscatus’s ability to recognise individuals, Toth is now keen to learn more about how these genes function in facial recognition. ‘We want to experimentally manipulate some of the genes that we uncovered in this study and then see whether we can make wasps forget each other or, conversely, enhance their memories of one another’, says Toth. However, it is less clear how much we will be able to learn from wasps about our own remarkable ability to distinguish between faces. ‘As wasp facial recognition evolved independently from human facial recognition, the same genes will not necessarily underpin this behavioural phenotype. However, it is not out of the realm of possibility that some of the genes might be shared’, Berens concludes.

Rigoberto Hernandez is Herty medalist

Rigoberto Hernandez is the recipient of the 2017 Herty Medal, awarded by the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes outstanding work and service by a chemist in the Southeast U.S. Hernandez is the Gompf Family Professor at Johns Hopkins University and adjunct professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he served on the faculty for 20 years. The award recognizes Hernandez “for transforming our view of chemical dynamics in nonequilibrium environments, his creative approaches to improving diversity within the chemistry profession, and his leadership at the local and national levels of the American Chemical Society.” The medal will be presented at the 83rd Herty Award Celebration on Sept. 7.

Hypohydration Alters Brain Morphology and Function While Impairing Fine Motor Performance

The impact of body water deficits on brain morphology and function are poorly defined, while its impact on cognitive‐motor performance is controversial. We hypothesized that body water deficits following exercise‐heat stress would enlarge brain ventricles, reduce volume of periventricular structures, and alter the neural resources required to perform a fine‐motor task in order to maintain performance. Eleven healthy adults (6 males, 5 females) were evaluated for fine motor performance during control (CON) and 45 min after exercise‐heat stress (2.5 h graded treadmill walking at ~3 mph in 45°C, 15% RH) with (Euhydration, EU) and without (Hypohydration, HYPO) fluid replacement. Fine motor (right index finger paced tapping at regular and irregular intervals) performance (reaction time and temporal accuracy) was evaluated in a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner while determining changes in brain morphology and Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) responses. Body mass loss was −3.0 ± 0.6% (P < 0.01) for HYPO. Plasma osmolality was 286 ± 5 and 281 ± 4 for CON and EU trials but 295 ± 5 mOsm/kg for HYPO (P < 0.01); while plasma glucose was maintained within the normal range (> 4.0 mmol/L). Reaction time was not different between the three trials for either the irregular or regular interval variations. Accuracy was impaired by HYPO (vs. CON) during both regular (−19%, P < 0.01) and irregular interval variations (−18%, P < 0.01) but was not different for EU (vs. CON). Brain morphology (n = 9) changes were evaluated. HYPO (vs. CON) induced lateral ventricle expansion (0.86 ± 0.67 cm3, P < 0.01) while EU (vs. CON) induced lateral ventricle shrinkage (−0.82 ± 0.67 cm3, P < 0.01). Thus, the net difference in lateral ventricle size was 1.68 ± 0.67 cm3 between the EU and HYPO trials. The only periventricular structure that changed was thalamus shrinkage (−0.49 ± 0.41 cm3, P < 0.01) with HYPO (vs CON). BOLD responses (n = 8) were not different between the three trials during the irregular interval variation; however, during regularly‐paced interval variation HYPO (vs. CON) elevated (P < 0.05) BOLD responses in the bilateral thalamus, bilateral basal ganglia (putamen, caudate, pallidum), bilateral hippocampus, and right amygdala. These data demonstrate that hypohydration alters brain morphology and require greater neural resources in areas associated with motor production and emotive responses. Furthermore, the elevated neural resources were insufficient to mitigate impairments in fine motor performance. These findings demonstrate the susceptibility of the cognitive‐motor system and fine motor performance to hypohydration, which has profound implications to occupational/military/athletic populations. In addition, it raises the possibility that hypohydration might exacerbate impairments in cognitive‐fine motor task performance in persons suffering from neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., dementia and traumatic brain injuries).Support or Funding InformationSupported by Center for Advanced Brain Imaging Seed Grant, Neuroengineering Seed Grant, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Gisolfi Research Award, American College of Sports Medicine

Facile Synthesis of Pd@Pt3–4L Core–Shell Octahedra with a Clean Surface and Thus Enhanced Activity toward Oxygen Reduction

AbstractThe front cover artwork for Issue 3/2017 is provided by the Xia group at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The artwork shows a strategy for the synthesis of Pd@Pt3‐4L core–shell octahedra with a clean surface and their transmission electron microscopy images. See the Full Paper itself at https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201601438.

Learn Morse Code, Semiconsciously.

The article examines how mobile devices might be able to teach humans manual skills. Particular focus is given to how this relates to the learning of Morse code. Additional topics discussed include research on the topic from the Georgia Institute of Technology, video games and their relationship to learning and insights from the researcher Paul Lukowicz.

The essential conference: A report on the 2016 Access Services Conference, Georgia Institute of Technology

A couple of years ago, in these pages, we reported on the annual Ivies+ Access Services Symposium (Wilson, 2014), a gathering that brings together Access Services staff from Ivy League schools and ...

Frank H. Field & Joe L. Franklin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry: Vicki H. Wysocki

NATIONAL AWARDS Frank H. Field & Joe L. Franklin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry: Vicki H. Wysocki ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2017, 95 (1), pp 49–50January 2, 2017Cite this:C&EN 95, 1, 49-50Vicki H. Wysocki (Credit: Courtesy of Vicki Wysocki)Figure1of1Sponsor: Waters Corp. Citation: For her outstanding accomplishments in the development of surface-induced dissociation for native mass spectrometry structural characterization of noncovalent complexes. Current position: professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Ohio Eminent Scholar, Ohio State University Education: B.S., chemistry, Western Kentucky University; Ph.D., chemistry, Purdue University Wysocki on her scientific role model and why: “Nobel Prize winner John Fenn moved to my department when I was an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and showed that you can set up a lab and do strong science without a huge group or a huge budget; he remained humble and attended our joint analytical chemistry group meetings and insisted he was just one of the students. Carol Robinson of Oxford is also a great role model. She worked in industry first and took eight years off to have children and has become one of the top scientists in the world today. Some people may see this as a single outlier datapoint, but I think it is simply an illustration that our ideas of what ‘works’ in a career are often false.” What her colleagues say: “Her more recent research in the area of mass spectrometry of large protein complexes, which builds upon her fundamental studies of surface-induced dissociation, has provided structural biology research groups around the world with new approaches for macromolecule characterization. Fundamental studies of surface-induced dissociation (SID), which has been a focus of her research for the past 20-plus years, has led to the development of novel approaches for interrogation of macromolecule complexes, including the conformations of the protein complexes and subunits as well as stoichiometry of the subunits.”—Facundo Fernandez, Georgia Institute of Technology

Carbon molecular sieve membranes aim to cut energy use in hydrocarbon separations

In the USA, scientists working at multinational oil and gas company Exxon Mobil Corp and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed what they claim is a potentially revolutionary technology that could significantly reduce the amount of energy and emissions associated with manufacturing plastics.

Nitrate radicals and biogenic volatile organic compounds: oxidation, mechanisms, and organic aerosol.

Oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) by the nitrate radical (NO3) represents one of the important interactions between anthropogenic emissions related to combustion and natural emissions from the biosphere. This interaction has been recognized for more than 3 decades, during which time a large body of research has emerged from laboratory, field, and modeling studies. NO3-BVOC reactions influence air quality, climate and visibility through regional and global budgets for reactive nitrogen (particularly organic nitrates), ozone, and organic aerosol. Despite its long history of research and the significance of this topic in atmospheric chemistry, a number of important uncertainties remain. These include an incomplete understanding of the rates, mechanisms, and organic aerosol yields for NO3-BVOC reactions, lack of constraints on the role of heterogeneous oxidative processes associated with the NO3 radical, the difficulty of characterizing the spatial distributions of BVOC and NO3 within the poorly mixed nocturnal atmosphere, and the challenge of constructing appropriate boundary layer schemes and non-photochemical mechanisms for use in state-of-the-art chemical transport and chemistry–climate models.This review is the result of a workshop of the same title held at the Georgia Institute of Technology in June 2015. The first half of the review summarizes the current literature on NO3-BVOC chemistry, with a particular focus on recent advances in instrumentation and models, and in organic nitrate and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation chemistry. Building on this current understanding, the second half of the review outlines impacts of NO3-BVOC chemistry on air quality and climate, and suggests critical research needs to better constrain this interaction to improve the predictive capabilities of atmospheric models.