IUPUI Research Day 2012

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    Impact of medical, health related, social and occupational factors on post-liver transplant recovery: a longitudinal study
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Scott, Patricia J.; Winslow, Emily; Krause, Audrey; Bah, Fatoumata
    Purpose: Organ transplantation is a serious surgery with nearly 10% of patients failing to survive the first three months. Studies of quality of life reflect an increase post-transplant, as compared to pre-transplant, then reports vary including a trend towards decreasing QOL scores by the end of the first transplanted year. In this first year, patients have an increased risk of re-hospitalization due to infection, failure of the body to accept the graft, problems with anti-rejection medications or post- surgical complications. Methods: A longitudinal study of liver transplant recipients (n=23) followed medical, social, and occupational factors, along with SF-36 measures. Results: Variability in QOL scores at 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months were directly related to identifiable factors. In those subjects where health returned in an uncomplicated manner, QOL scores consistently improved with the greatest change occurring over the first six months and then tapering off through the end of the first year. Conclusions: These subjects almost uniformly expressed frustration at the length of time it took to return to a healthy state. In circumstances where recovery was delayed due to medical reasons, QOL scores declined significantly until the problems were resolved. In several cases, QOL scores stayed low as these individuals were unprepared for the potential complications associated with this difficult surgery.
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    NOVEL NANOSTRUCTURED HIGH-PERFORMANCE ANION EXCHANGE IONOMERS FOR ANION EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELLS
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Sun, Lu; Guo, Junsong; Zhou, Jie; Xu, Qingming; Chu, Deryn; Chen, Rongrong
    A novel block copolymer, styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene (SEBS), was chosen as the starting material to prepare pendant quaternary ammonium-based ionomers with an ion-exchange-capacity (IEC) of 0.66, 1.30, and 1.54 meq g-1, denoted by QSEBS-L, QSEBS-M, and QSEBS-H, respectively. These QSEBS ionomers were demonstrated to have excellent dimensional stability against hydration without significantly sacrificing the ionic conductivity as compared to the widely studied polysulfone (PSf) based ionomers. The water uptake of the QSEBS-based ionomers depended on their functionality; a higher IEC in the ionomer resulted in more water uptake and a higher ionic conductivity. The MEAs fabricated with the QSEBS-M and QSEBS-H ionomers showed the best H2/O2 fuel cell performance with peak power densities reaching 210 mW cm-2 at 50 °C, which was significantly higher than that of the PSf-based ionomers (~30 mW cm-2). Electrochemical impedance spec-troscopy (EIS) analysis indicated that the superior fuel cell performance ob-served with the QSEBS-based ionomers can be attributed to: (1) the low in-ternal cell resistance due to good comparability of the QSEBS-based ionomers with the membranes and (2) the low mass transport and charge transport in both the anode and the cathode due to the excellent dimension-al stability and balanced conductivity-hydrophobicity originated by the unique morphology of the QSEBS-based ionomers. AFM phase imaging measurements of the QSEBS-based ionomers revealed unique nanostruc-tures containing isolated hydrophobic and continuous anion conducting hy-drophilic domains. By further optimizing the chemistry and morphology of the ionomers and the membranes, the resistance of the anode and cathode of the AEMFCs will be further reduced.
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    TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER IN AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Watts, Thomasina; Henry, Rhonda; Jordan, Patricia
    Studies comparing African American and Caucasian women show that African American women are three times more likely to contract triple negative breast cancer. Triple negative breast cancer cells lack estrogen receptors (ER) ,progesterone receptors (PR) and HER2 receptors, which are all hormones that fuel tumor growth. In triple negative breast cancer, the lack of receptors implies that hormone treatments that are typically used to treat breast cancer will not work. African American women are also more likely to die from contracting breast cancer than any other group. Many researchers have said that possible reasons for the high mortality rate in African American women can include: diet, lifestyle and genetic predisposition. This re-search project will explore the genetic predispositions underlying African American women’s higher rates of more virulent forms of develop breast cancer. I hypothesize that African American women are more likely to develop triple negative breast cancer due to a genetic mutation. This research will also address the genetic and biological reasons why African American women are more susceptible to TNEG cancer cells. Beginning data collection methods for this research will include a literature review and interviews with professionals in the field of oncology. Later investigative methods will include genealogy tests of African American women with breast cancer and performing biopsies to find similarities within the cancer cells.
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    Failure Detection for Over-Discharged Li-Ion Batteries
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Xiong, Jing; Banvait, Harpreetsingh; Li, Lingxi; Chen, Yaobin; Xie, Jian; Liu, Yadong; Wu, Meng; Chen, Jie
    Li-ion batteries are high density, slow loss of charge when not in use and no memory effect. Vast research on Li-ion batteries has been focusing on increasing the energy density, durability, and cost. Due to its advantages it has been widely used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Apart from its advantages, safety is a major concern for Li-ion batteries. The Li-ion safety issues have been widely publicized due to devastating incidents with laptop and cell phone batteries. Despite of much research towards the safety of Li-ion battery, it remains as a major concern related to Li-Ion batteries. A failure of Li-ion battery may result in thermal runaway. Li-ion battery failure may be due to overcharge, over-discharge, short circuits, particles poisoning, mechanical or thermal damage [1, 2]. Short circuit, overcharge, and over-discharge are the most common electrical abuses a battery suffers. This poster presents preliminary results for the failure signatures of over-discharged Li-ion batteries, and proposes a rule-based method and a probabilistic method for failure detection. The two methods Rule-based method and Probabilistic method are verified using experimental results for a Li-ion battery. The proposed methods were successfully implemented in a real-time system for failure detection and early warning.
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    Securing Sensor Networks
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) ZareAfifi, Saharnaz; Verma, Romil; King, Brian
    Sensors can have significant impact on one's life. They can measure temperature, level of humidity, speed, motion, distance, light or the presence/absence of an object and many other phenomena and then these measurements can be processed together to provide the information that we use to make informative decisions. Today with the use of smart devices, such as iPhone, android phones, etc, we can interface with these sensors and use them in our daily lives. In the future, we will encounter even more intelligent and precise sensors, some that can significantly change our society. For example, consider sensors which can track eye movements and then process these movements to move the cursor within a windows session on a computer [1], envision how this could impact a paraplegic or even be applied within a computer aided surgical unit. Consider future sensors that can analyze the protein contents of a single cell and how they can be used in applications for medical diagnosis [2] or sensors that allow you to track and modify your energy usage [3]. Again, a potential conduit to these sensors may be our smart devices. In general, these sensors will provide us data, for which we can make decisions that improve our lives. In the future these sensors will be interconnected, data will be collected, and processed and automated decisions will be made and implemented by our smart devices. If humans collect the data to make information, i.e. make decisions, then the human can intercede when they view the data is inaccurate, but if devices make automated decisions then such information/decisions will be limited by the accuracy of the sensor data. We cannot rely on faulty information generated by inaccurate data. Faulty data can be generated by sensors that are acting improperly, perhaps because of a consumed power source (i.e. battery) or by entities, i.e. malicious parties, who infuse false data into the sensor network. The potential of a malicious party within the sensor network exists, and in order for us to rely on the sensor data we must be able to detect faulty data as well as malicious behavior (possibly by the sensor device). In this research project we will explore several potential attacks to the sensor network. In this work, we will briefly discuss two security problems. First, if a sensor is sending faulty data then the information generated can be faulty. This information is usually characterized as data aggregation (the data from multiple sensors is aggregated into information) and such an attack is characterized as the Data Aggregation attack. In this project, we will explore methods to detect the Data Aggregation attack and develop countermeasures to protect against the attack. Secondly, because malicious parties (or sensors) may exist, there is a potential in an automated system, of one device accusing another device of inappropriate behavior. For example, a malicious device may accuse other devices to avoid detection. This type of attack is characterized as the Reputation attack. In this work we will discuss the Reputation and Data Aggregation attacks, and develop power friendly countermeasures (fewer complexes with small amount of calculation) to these attacks.
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    AN INVESTIGATION OF QR CODE USE IN INDIANAPOLIS FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Yang, Heui-La; King, Carina
    According Mostyn, market research specialist, (2012), global smartphone shipments increased by 62.7 percent in 2011. In the US, smart phones are gaining in popularity. A Quick Response (QR) code is a type of barcode that can be read by smart phones. It can be used to link print to other interactive information (e.g. access URLs, send an e-coupon, download video, etc.). The QR code is considered new technology in food and beverage industry and there is limited information about its use. Nation’s Restaurant News (2011) reported that QR codes are slowly being used to promote restaurants, such as Taco Bell and Boudin Bakery. The purpose of this research is to investi-gate if and how QR codes are being used in the Indianapolis restaurant in-dustry. The study will provide baseline information and the potential for QR code use in the Indianapolis restaurants. Effective use of QR codes may even influence consumer choices and/or company profitability. Archival and web search in addition to interviews with restaurant managers is the method of data collection. Approximately 10 restaurants in the Indianapolis area will be sampled. Some interview questions include: What is the purpose of using QR code? And what are the advantages and disadvantages of using QR codes? The study is currently in the data collection phase. Preliminary results sug-gest that QR code use is in its infancy in Indianapolis, when compared to restaurants in Chicago or Vancouver. Also, more franchise restaurants and big chain restaurants have embraced this technology than the smaller family owned restaurants. QR codes are typically used for menu nutrition and res-taurant history information, marketing via coupons, and customer surveys. This study was sponsored by the IUPUI Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
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    Charting the Unexplored RNA-binding Protein Atlas of the Human Genome
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Zhao, Huiying; Yang, Yuedong; Janga, Sarath Chandra; Chen, Jason; Zhu, Heng; Kao, Cheng; Zhou, Yaoqi
    Detecting protein-RNA interactions is challenging–both experimentally and computationally– because RNAs are large in number, diverse in cellular location and function, and flexible in structure. As a result, many RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) remain to be identified and characterized. Recently, we developed a bioinformatics tool called SPOT-Seq that integrates template-based structure prediction with RNA-binding affinity prediction to predict RBPs. Application of SPOT-Seq to human genome leads to doubling of RBPs from 2115 to 4296. Half of novel (>2000) RBPs are poorly or not annotated. The other half possesses Gene Ontology leaf IDs that are associated with known RBPs. In particular, we identified 36 novel RBPs in cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes and neurodegenerative pathways and 26 novel RBPs associated with disease-causing SNPs. Half of these disease-associating, predicted novel RBPs are annotated to interact with known RBPs. Accuracy of predicted novel RBPs is further validated by same confirmation rate of novel and annotated RBPs in human proteome microarrays experiments. The large number of predicted novel RBPs and their abundance in disease pathways and disease-causing SNPs are useful for hypothesis generation. These predicted novel human RBPs (>2000) with confidence level and their predicted complex structures with RNA can be downloaded from http://sparks.informatics.iupui.edu (yqzhou@iupui.edu)
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    AN INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENT: TRANSFORMING MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE TO ECONOMICALLY VIABLE ENERGY
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Zamenian, Hamed; Iseley, Tom; Ray, Matt; Rardin, Jake; Aslan, Bugra
    The world population is increasing daily, and waste is rising proportionally. The increase of the population, health development, economic growth and shifting population from rural life to urban life has made waste for municipalities an infrastructure concern. Currently, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage, is one of the challenging problems for municipalities. There have been three particular ways for discarding MSW: landfilling, burning, and recycling. The usual method for waste disposal has been landfilling which handles 54.3% of produced MSW in U.S. (Environmental Protection Agency, 2010). According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP),“The increasing volumes of waste being generated would not be a problem if waste was viewed as a resource and managed properly” (2001). We can produce more waste; on the other hand we can generate more energy from that waste. Waste to Energy (WTE) technology is a green opportunity to continue the path of human ingenuity and technological advancement. The WTE goal defines a new solution that can efficiently deal with substantial percentages of waste, while also creating energy as a co-product. This study will evaluate common WTE technologies that are currently available: pyrolysis, gasification, plasma arc gasification, and anaerobic digestion. Pyrolysis, gasification and plasma arc gasification are all thermal decomposition technologies that can treat waste material in elevated temperature conditions; anaerobic digestion is a biological treatment process. Incineration is also a current WTE technology that is classified as a thermal treatment option but it is not environmentally friendly. Also, existing national and international technology providers will be discussed and their technologies in industry will be assessed while considering MSW as a feedstock and energy as a co-product.
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    HUMAN ADIPOSE-DERIVED STEM CELLS ATTENUATE CIGARETTE SMOKE INDUCED BONE MARROW HYPOPLASIA VIA SECRETION OF ANTI-INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINE TSG-6
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Xie, Jie; Petrache, Irina; Broxmeyer, Hal E.; March, Keith L.; Feng, Dongni; Cook, Todd G.; Schweitzer, Kelly; Johnstone, Brian H.
    Introduction We have previously observed bone marrow (BM) hypo-plasia in a murine model of chronic smoking, which was ameliorated by mu-rine adipose-derived stromal cells (ASC). This study was designed to test the hypothesis that ASC exert their marrow protective effects through key paracrine factors. Methods Mice (NSG or C57BL/6) were exposed to ciga-rette smoke (CS) for 1 day to 6 months. Human ASC or ASC conditioned media were administered through intravenous (i.v.) or intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections. Secretion of TSG-6 from ASC in response to TNF alpha and IL-1 beta were measured by ELISA. Expression of TSG-6 in ASC was knocked down by siRNA. BM hematopoietic progenitors were quantified by colony forming-unit assays. Possible engrafted human ASC in mouse BM were ex-amined by anti-human nuclei staining. Results The myelossupressive effect of cigarette smoking occurred acutely (1 day: 65.6% of nonsmoking control, NSC, p<0.01) and worsened with prolonged exposure (3 days: 34.3% NSC, p<0.01). Such damage could be ameliorated with either ASC (111.0% NSC, p>0.05) or ASC conditioned media (105.7% NSC, p>0.05). Inflammatory cytokines (TNF alpha and IL-1 beta) elevated in smokers (Kuschner et al, 1996; de Maat et al, 2002) demonstrated strong cross-species stimulatory effects on secretions of an anti-inflammatory cytokine, TSG-6 from ASC (TNF alpha: 8.7 +/- 1.3 fold, IL-1 beta: 8.2 +/- 1.1 fold). Knocking down TSG-6 (>90%) abolished the marrow-protective effect of ASC. No human cells were detected in recipient mouse bone marrow. Conclusions The pro-tective effects of ASC against smoking-induced myelosuppression are medi-ated by trophic factors rather than cell engraftment or differentiation. TSG-6 appears to play a significant role in the modulatory pathway: smoke--inflammatory cytokine release--TSG6 secretion from ASC--bone marrow protection.
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    ARE RACE AND AGE THE FACTORS THAT DRIVE THE DECISION MAKING WITHIN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN INDIANA?
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Williams, Kendrea; Jarjoura, G. Roger
    The objective of this research is to replicate an Iowa Study regarding Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC). (DMC) tracking requirements are the result of a study conducted by Huizinga and Elliott done (1987) which reported that “African-American kids were apprehended and charged more often in serious crimes, than white youth who were involved in the same type of offenses.” We are analyzing data from the 92 counties in Indi-ana to find out if race and age are in fact contributing factors that determine whether or not youth are committed to secure confinement. Our research will be based on two questions: Does race increase the likelihood for African American youth to receive a harsher sentence? Does the age discount (where younger kids are less likely confined) apply equally among the sub-groups? The Iowa study concluded that race and age did play a major role in the Juvenile Justice Decision making process in Iowa. The results of this study will be submitted for publication to some of the leading Criminal Jus-tice journals.