From the Chancellor: Research directs the rest of our work

Colleagues:

This special edition of the Scarlet is devoted to exploring the university's successes in research and discovery. One of my continued goals is to celebrate our successes and recognize the ongoing excellence at UNL. This section is part of that recognition and celebration of success in our research enterprise.

The university has a three-part mission of teaching and learning, research and discovery, and community outreach and service. Research is the mechanism that informs our teaching and drives our outreach and service efforts. We have had some spectacular successes in our research enterprise in the past year, and this section highlights just a few of them. The examples are many, and no four-page special section could list in a meaningful way every person engaged in research and every program that we offer. What we've attempted to do is to give you an idea of the breadth and depth of research and discovery at UNL.

Previous editions, which can be found on the university's website, looked at our outreach and teaching missions. These special editions have been produced within the usual budget for the Scarlet and are not an additional expense item.

I'm proud of the work we do at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It's important that all of us know the good news that continues to happen here.

Harvey Perlman

Chancellor

Walls help make racing SAFER Years of work and dozens of car crashes have helped researchers at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at UNL build an energy-absorbing wall and barrier system, named SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction). The SAFER wall's materials help absorb the energy created when a car crashes into it, dissipating the impact energy and distributing it over a longer distance of the wall without propelling the vehicle back into traffic, helping to make race-car crashes less dangerous. The outer wall is made of structural steel tubes, while underneath is as much as 14 inches of energy-absorbing plastic foam in polystyrene blocks spaced behind the steel skin to take the impact. The wall system was used on the speedway turns at the raceway for the 2002 Indianapolis 500 race, and the researchers say they have considered how to make the same technology help improve the safety of highways to protect all drivers.

Above: Dean Sicking, in red coat, director of UNL's Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, explains the SAFER wall during 2002 testing of the wall. The energy-absorbing pink foam is visible in the wall. Below: The car in the left photo crashed into a concrete test wall, while the car on the right suffered less damage striking a SAFER wall.

Above: Dean Sicking, in red coat, director of UNL's Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, explains the SAFER wall during 2002 testing of the wall. The energy-absorbing pink foam is visible in the wall. Below: The car in the left photo crashed into a concrete test wall, while the car on the right suffered less damage striking a SAFER wall.

Walls help make racing SAFER

Years of work and dozens of car crashes have helped researchers at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at UNL build an energy-absorbing wall and barrier system, named SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction).

The SAFER wall's materials help absorb the energy created when a car crashes into it, dissipating the impact energy and distributing it over a longer distance of the wall without propelling the vehicle back into traffic, helping to make race-car crashes less dangerous. The outer wall is made of structural steel tubes, while underneath is as much as 14 inches of energy-absorbing plastic foam in polystyrene blocks spaced behind the steel skin to take the impact.

The wall system was used on the speedway turns at the raceway for the 2002 Indianapolis 500 race, and the researchers say they have considered how to make the same technology help improve the safety of highways to protect all drivers.

E. coli projects focus on safety

Controlling E. coli O157:H7 on the farm is a critical step in reducing the odds that this dangerous bacterium will cause foodborne illness.

That's why intensive University of Nebraska research emphasizes finding ways to limit the chances of cattle carrying it into processing plants, said UNL Food Scientist Bob Hutkins, who coordinated this research.

The university launched intensive interdisciplinary E. coli research with funding from LB 1206, passed by the Legislature in 1998. Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources food, animal and veterinary scientists teamed with School of Biological Sciences and NU Medical Center researchers to tap diverse expertise. The team leveraged state funding to earn nearly $5 million in additional grants to expand studies.

"In a very short research timeline, we've gained tremendous knowledge. To be at the point where we are testing interventions for reducing this pathogen is a tremendous stride," said Sallie Atkins, Nebraska Beef Council director and member of the committee that advised researchers.

This team's discoveries and developments range from economical tests for E. coli in pens of feedlot cattle and promising controls to identifying genetically distinct O157:H7 populations and better understanding how E. coli infects cattle. NU is patenting some of these discoveries.

This intensive effort has expanded knowledge of E. coli and laid the foundation for future controls. Scientists are building on their collaborations as they continue joint research.

This dental model at right shows how the front four bottom middle teeth are replaced with implants during work done on Sudanese refugees at the UNMC College of Dentistry because of a program started by Mary Willis, a UNL assistant professor.

Dentistry helps Sudanese adjust to U.S.

Cultural traditions evolve over time. While some fade away unnoticed, others leave permanent marks that won't go away without intervention.

Today in the United States, many refugees who fled their homes in war-torn Sudan want to look, speak and be able to eat foods like their fellow Americans. They would like to get back the four to six teeth they had forcibly removed as children because the results of this ritual create social, language and dietary barriers in their new American lives.

Mary Willis, (shown at left), assistant professor of anthropology and geography, contacted Dr. Randy Toothaker at the UNMC College of Dentistry last year to see if it would be possible to help some of the Sudanese with whom she works.

In addition to helping the refugees obtain dental implants, Willis is researching the anthropological aspects of the teeth-extraction ritual and its effect on the individuals' diet, health and speech. She also is studying the history of the practice and its continuation in the tribes' cultures.

Wood trains Zambians to fight HIV

In Zambia, where one in every 10 babies is born infected with HIV, fighting the virus is literally a battle for the life of the country. UNL Virologist Charles Wood is helping Zambians to fight this battle by providing training for scientists and laboratory technicians. The program, funded with a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, brings Zambians to UNL and to the University of Miami, Wood's partner in the project, for training and education.

"Our idea is to train people who can go back home and build their own research and public health programs in Zambia," Wood said.

Program targets eating habits

UNL nutrition scientist Nancy Betts (shown at left) is collaborating on an 11-state study to understand why young adults eat so few fruits and vegetables and how to change these behaviors. Her preliminary research identified the best methods for reaching young adults with nutrition information. Researchers used these findings to develop new approaches to encourage young adults to improve their habits. This research will be the foundation for a broader national nutrition campaign targeting other groups and individuals.

Lake system of classification is national model

Combining a knowledge of the algae and plankton found in Nebraska lakes with remote sensing programs that measure reflected light, UNL researchers are developing a unique system for measuring water quality. By collecting data with a quick plane fly-over - or eventually, using satellite data - then plugging the data into a software program, scientists will be able to rank individual lakes according to their water quality, a key factor determining which lakes will be protected or restored.

The three-year project is funded by a $1.2 million Environmental Protection Agency grant.

Collaboration studies possible bioterrorism tool

Researchers from UNL and UNMC are collaborating on a $100,000 pilot study to conduct basic research on Francisella tularensis, an organism that, if used as a bioweapon, can cause tularemia, a potentially fatal disease.

The project is supported by the University of Nebraska and Tobacco Settlement Funds.

Tularemia, also known as "rabbit fever," is caused by a naturally occurring bacterium found typically in wild animals, especially rodents, rabbits and hares, and occasionally in pets such as cats. The inhalation variety has a death rate as high as 60 percent, and the government has classified it as at risk for becoming a bioterroristic weapon.

UNMC is authorized by the government to "grow" the bacterium in its labs and has developed the very pure strains necessary for genetic studies.

Using this material, one group of UNL researchers is doing comparative genomic studies on two subspecies. One is highly virulent and one is less virulent. The studies are to compare the genetics of both to determine differences.

Other UNL scientists are using these findings to look at the functions of the various genes that are present in one subspecies but not the other. Yet another group is looking at a specific protein in the bacterium that may be a candidate for therapeutic agents that could cure victims of the disease.

Nebraska team develops first plastic magnets

It took 13 years of painstaking investigation, but Andrej Rajca, a professor of chemistry, and his team (including his wife, Suchada Rajca, a research assistant professor at Nebraska) finally succeeded in 2001 in creating the world's first plastic magnet.

Rajca, who joined the Nebraska faculty in 1992, said no one should expect to stick a plastic magnet to a refrigerator door any time soon, however. That's because the magnets are unstable unless they are in an oxygen-free environment at temperatures more than 440 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

Nevertheless, he said he's relatively confident that the problems of stability and low temperatures can be overcome, but what the magnets' eventual uses will be is purely a matter for speculation.

Entomologists study insects' reaction to corn

The long-term effectiveness of Bt corn, which produces a natural insecticide for European corn borers, hinges on preventing this corn pest from becoming resistant.

If such resistance surfaced, UNL entomologists likely would spot it first. Insect Toxicologist Blair Siegfried has developed tests to detect changes in corn borers' susceptibility to Bt. He uses them annually to check corn borer populations. He's seen no changes since 1996, but he'll keep checking. His lab is responsible for establishing records of corn borer susceptibility nationwide. The goal is to detect resistance before it becomes widespread.

He's also working to develop monitoring techniques to detect changes in rootworm susceptibility to a new Bt corn for this pest.

Panhandle work yields a growing chicory business The Panhandle's emerging chicory industry is rooted in research by UNL's Panhandle Research and Extension Center scientists. Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers identified how to profitably produce chicory to optimize yield and quality in the region. The Food Processing Center now is assisting with marketing and food processing issues. In 2001, U.S. Chicory, a private company, opened North America's only chicory processing plant at Scottsbluff. About 1,000 acres of chicory were harvested last year and processed for pet food at the plant, which provides 25-50 seasonal jobs. Panhandle chicory acreage is projected to increase to 10,000 acres by 2005, which could gross $10 million for growers. With help from a USDA Small Business Innovation Research grant, IANR scientists continue collaborating with the company to identify how to extract inulin, chicory's active ingredient, for human food use.

Chicory is harvested in a field near Scottsbluff. Research conducted by UNL's Panhandle Research and Extension Center scientists helped launch this root crop as a new industry in the Panhandle. The only chicory-processing plant in North America is in Scottsbluff.

Chicory root grown in the Nebraska Panhandle.

Departments land millions in national grants

Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

UNL has won a competitive grant totaling $5.4 million over six years to establish a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center focusing on fabricating and studying new magnetic structures and materials at the nanometer scale, or a width of about four atoms. MRSECs are funded by the National Science Foundation to enable advanced materials research that could not be accomplished by funding individual projects. The MRSEC also includes programs for research and educational experiences for undergraduate and graduate students, educational outreach to K-12 schools and technology transfer with industry partners. David Sellmyer, George Holmes professor of physics and astronomy, will direct the center, which has a number of partner investigators.

UNL Redox Biology Center

The UNL Redox Biology Center is a Center for Biomedical Research Excellence established with funding from the National Institutes of Health. The center will link scientists at UNL and the University of Nebraska Medical Center conducting interdisciplinary research in redox biology, a field of research with applications in the study and treatment of heart disease, cancer, cataracts and aging. A major goal of the center is to build redox biology research capacity through support of primary research projects led by junior scientists and collaborative pilot projects, recruitment of five new faculty and support of key research facilities. The award is $10 million over five years. Ruma Banerjee, Willa Cather Professor and professor of biochemistry, is center director. Scientists from UNL's biochemistry, chemistry, veterinary and biomedical sciences, computer science departments and the Eppley Cancer Institute at UNMC are collaborating in the project.

Plant Genome Center

UNL is the lead institution for the Plant Genome Center, established with a grant from the National Science Foundation. The $6 million grant supports a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional center to study proteins that play an important role in how plants respond to environmental stresses, particularly drought and disease. The research projects will focus on the class of proteins, called protein kinases, that control the plant's response to the environment. Rice is being used as a model crop for this work because sequencing of its genome is nearly complete, and rice is highly representative of the other major cereal crops critical to Nebraskan agriculture, such as corn, sorghum and wheat. An important part of this project is UNL's Nebraska Center for Mass Spectrometry, which provides advanced capabilities in proteomics. Applying the technology of mass spectrometry to the study of proteomics is relatively new and allows identification of peptides within the protein chains. Michael Fromm, professor of agronomy and Plant Science Initiative, directs the center.

Research creates great steak

The flat iron steak, above, is the best known of several new higher-value beef products that are helping boost consumer demand for beef. University of Nebraska-Lincoln meat scientists' beef-muscle-profiling research provided the science behind these new cuts. Studies identified higher value potential for parts of the beef chuck and round, which traditionally are used for roasts and ground beef. Collaboration with the beef industry helped turn the UNL research findings into innovative products that provide economical new cuts for cost-conscious consumers and increase beef carcass value. The new cuts sell for $2.99 to $5.99 per pound compared with roasts and ground beef that typically bring $1.19 to $1.99 a pound.

Poll finds what rural Nebraskans really think

Policy-makers and the public better understand rural Nebraskans' concerns and opinions, thanks to the Nebraska Rural Poll.

Launched in 1995, the poll annually asks rural people's views on work, community, quality of life and public policy issues, according to John Allen, the NU Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources rural sociologist who started the poll.

Each year, researchers quickly analyze results of the mail surveys and share findings with state and federal lawmakers, policy-makers and the public. The scientific poll tracks trends and changes in rural Nebraska.

Decision-makers say results provide an objective rural perspective that helps them make more informed policy choices.

Finding ways to cut carbon dioxide levels

A unique high-tech laboratory created by installing sensors and instrument towers on 480 acres of corn and soybeans is dedicated to measuring and understanding how carbon dioxide cycles through the atmosphere, plants and soil. The laboratory, created by UNL researchers at NU's Agriculture Research and Development Center, is the only one of its kind in the world examining an agricultural system, said Shashi Verma, UNL agricultural meteorologist. Verma and Agronomy Chair Ken Cassman are co-leaders of the project, funded by a $1,875,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The ultimate goal of the project is to find a way to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - a major factor in projections of global climate change - by storing more of it in the soil, a process called carbon sequestration.

Humanities grants fund literary, drought work

UNL English Professor Ken Price has been awarded a grant of $200,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue developing an electronic archive of Walt Whitman's poetry, writings and other reference materials.

Price's work on the project involves creating an electronic guide to allow searching of the manuscripts by keyword or other text features. The result will be direct access to encoded, searchable, analyzable and machine-readable texts of Whitman's poetry manuscripts.

This year, the project also obtained a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to help create an electronic finding guide to Whitman's dispersed manuscripts. The finding guide resembles a card catalog or computer system for locating materials in a library. In the case of Whitman, however, about 70,000 manuscripts are spread out over some 60 repositories. Eventually, the goal is to create a single overarching guide so a researcher can ask a single question to find the relevant manuscripts regardless of where that manuscript is or how it is documented.

It's unusual for UNL to win a single National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. This semester, two faculty from UNL are enjoying that status.

Carole Levin, Willa Cather Professor and professor of history, is spending 2003 in residence at Chicago's Newberry Library on a National Endowment for the Humanities/Newberry Library Fellowship. She is a cultural historian of Renaissance England, and for this project, she will study how dreams and beliefs about dreams inform our understanding of 16th and 17th century England.

David Wishart, professor of geography, is spending the spring semester originating research for a project titled "The Drought of the 1890s on the High Plains of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado." That drought and its effects on people of the High Plains have dramatic similarities to the current drought of 2002-2003, according to Wishart.

Nebraskan seafood Keith Glewen, left, an extension educator at the University of Nebraska's Agriculture Research and Development Center near Mead, holds a freshwater prawn, one of thousands being raised in facilities at the center. NU research shows that prawns can be raised in indoor tanks built in empty farm buildings in Nebraska. The university is patenting the specialized equipment used for indoor prawn production, as well as developing educational programs for potential producers. NU researchers estimate 10 to 22 pounds of prawns can be raised per 1,000 gallons of water annually, bringing $6 to $10 per pound, depending on size and market prices. Researchers hope prawn production could provide additional income for farmers in the future.

This tiny neutron detector developed at UNL could be used in national security applications.

Professors develop small neutron detector

A highly sensitive, hand-held neutron detection device developed by UNL researchers could be used for locating hidden nuclear materials, monitoring nuclear weapons storage and other national security applications.

The detector, built around a boron-carbide semiconductor diode smaller than a dime, can detect neutrons emitted by the materials that fuel nuclear weapons.

"This is a leapfrog technology in neutron detection," said Peter Dowben, a UNL physicist who was the first to fabricate a boron carbide semi-conductor. Using Dowben's boron carbide semiconductors, the research team built a detector about the size of a Lego block that is much more efficient, lighter and tougher than existing detectors.

Five patents are held by UNL or are pending on the device itself and on the processes for producing the semi-conductors. The team is continuing to refine the device, focusing on improving its efficiency and reliability.

The team members, all affiliated with UNL's Center for Materials Research Analysis, are Dowben; Brian Robertson, associate professor of mechanical engineering; Jennifer Brand, associate professor of chemical engineering; and Shireen Adenwalla, research assistant professor of physics and astronomy.

Breeding research creates a beautiful landscape addition A UNL breeding program has created the Purple Majesty, right and below, a hybrid of pearl millet commonly called cattail or bullrush millet. The attractive ornamental plant, featuring purple leaves with a red stripe down the center of the leaves, earned a prestigious All-American Selection Gold Medal award and is featured as an AAS All-American Selection this year. It topped the floral class in AAS trials at 33 locations across North America and earned the Gold Medal award for its exceptional garden performance. The Gold Medal award is awarded rarely, only once or twice a decade, according to AAS. The annual plant is 4-5 feet tall and does well in well-drained, sunny locations. It was developed by David Andrews, NU Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources emeritus professor of plant breeding, and John Rajewski, research manager in the agronomy and horticulture department.

Cleanup technique saves soil and money

Iron fillings help alter contaminants

An innovative technology for cleaning up contaminated soil and water developed by UNL scientists could save Nebraska and the nation millions of dollars in toxic waste cleanup costs and speed up the remediation process.

The simple, cost-effective soil remediation technology developed by Steve Comfort and Pat Shea of the School of Natural Resource Sciences mixes iron filings, a readily available form of zerovalent iron, with contaminated soil to change the toxic wastes into products that are easily biodegradable.

The technique is especially effective on pesticide contamination, a major problem in Nebraska where agricultural pesticide use and inadvertent spills have created many sites with contaminated soil and groundwater. It also works on the soils contaminated with explosives that are found at the three major abandoned munitions facilities in the state. In a recent field-scale cleanup of pesticide-contaminated soil, the UNL team achieved a 99 percent destruction rate at a cost of $62,500. The common cleanup method ­ trucking the soil to a site and incinerating it ­ would have cost more than $604,000.

The team is seeking funding for large field demonstrations of the technique to prove its effectiveness to state and government agencies. With an estimated $1 trillion to be spent on cleaning up contaminated soil and water nationwide in the next 25 years, using this technique could save billions of dollars, Comfort said.

Projects study effects of industry, new residents on Nebraska's towns

Research looks at meat-packing plants

Meat-packing plants bring economic growth, rapid changes and new residents to rural communities.

Rochelle Dalla, a UNL family scientist, heads research examining meat-packing's economic, social and physical implications for communities and residents.

College of Human Resources and Family Sciences researchers are working with three Nebraska communities to identify issues important to long-term and immigrant residents alike, including availability of community resources, job training, housing and education. In the future, they'll expand their research to other rural Midwestern towns.

This work will provide information to help rural communities develop strategies for handling rapid changes and promoting cooperation between culturally diverse populations.

Architecture team focuses on quality of life

A team within the UNL College of Architecture hopes to improve life in some Nebraska communities through its quality-of-life research, which studies rural communities experiencing rapid demographic change.

The team studies four factors in each community - physical environment, social and cultural aspects of life, economic circumstances, and public services - and gathers perceptions about these aspects from two groups of residents: those who have lived in the town for more than 15 years, and newcomers who have lived there for less than five years. The team tries to identify the key factors affecting quality of life, then presents its findings to each town and helps create action plans that help communities assimilate new populations and enhance the quality of life for all living there.

The team is now working with Grand Island, and in the past has studied Schuyler and Crete. The team, which has worked on these projects for about 10 years, consists of James Potter, professor of architecture; Rodrigo Cantarero, associate professor of community and regional planning; Steven Larrick, community development coordinator, and Heather Keele, research assistant, College of Architecture; and Blanca E. Ramirez-Salazar, public information officer, Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission.

About this section "Research and Discovery" was written and produced by the University Communications and Office of Research staff at UNL and staff at Communications and Information Technology, Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources.