The National Science Foundation (NSF) has granted its most prestigious award in support of junior faculty, the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, to four University researchers this year.

Pierre Gourdain, an assistant professor of physics, will study the formation and evolution of plasma jets found around black holes, using the High Amperage Driver for Extreme States (HADES) at the University’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics. This research could more precisely determine the mass of a black hole, giving physicists a better grasp of the distribution of dark matter throughout the Universe.

John Nichol, an assistant professor of physics, will study non-equilibrium quantum physics, focusing on phenomena in objects that do not reach thermal equilibrium with their surroundings, such as an imaginary coffee cup that stays hot forever. This research has applications in fields such as high-temperature superconductivity and quantum computing.

William Renninger, an assistant professor of optics, will study the coupling of light waves and acoustic waves for optomechanical applications—such as improving the performance of radio-frequency signal processors in the near term, opening up new possibilities for controlling quantum information in the future, and perhaps even enabling the detection of dark matter.

Stephen Wu, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, will study the transformations of two-dimensional (2D) materials—as thin as a single layer of atoms — when they are stretched and pulled in transistor-scale device platforms, in ways that could transform electronics, optics, computing, and a host of other technologies.

Read more here.

Paula Cupertino will join the Medical Center as professor of public health sciences and oncology and as Wilmot Cancer Institute’s associate director of community outreach, engagement and disparities. Her appointment is pending approval by the University’s Board of Trustees. Cupertino will begin her tenure in Rochester in March.

A social behavioral scientist, Cupertino has focused her research on health disparities in underserved and minority communities, primarily among Latinos and immigrants. Much of her work has been in tobacco control, improving smoking cessation and access to cessation treatments using a community-based approach. Throughout her career, she has had more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, and she has been continuously funded for her research since 2003.

Cupertino will fill a key role at Wilmot, leading efforts to strengthen and expand Wilmot’s research and connections across its 27-county catchment area in upstate New York. These efforts will include enhancing community partnerships and improving recruitment into clinical trials, especially from minority and underserved communities. She will be a member of Wilmot’s Executive Committee and the Cancer Control and Supportive Care research program.

“To be successful, we need to develop a very good understanding of the community and how are we going to develop trust and engage with that population across the catchment area and in the outreach, education, training and research at Wilmot Cancer Institute,” Cupertino says. “I have the opportunity to take my experience and put it in a brand-new context, with a large catchment area and in a rich academic environment which is already fostering significant engagement in the community. There is momentum to further enhance the existing community engagement efforts because of the cancer center. It’s very exciting.”

Read more here.

Children diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)—caused by prenatal alcohol exposure—often face lifelong developmental, cognitive, and behavioral problems.

A new study by a team of University researchers, published in the journal Research in Developmental Disabilities, examines how FASD caregivers’ perceived confidence in and the frequency of self-care is related to stress, parenting attitudes, and family needs.

This paper is the first to describe caregiver strategies for self-care and the obstacles and barriers parents face in raising their children while trying to care effectively for themselves. Key findings:

• Caregivers who report greater confidence in their ability to use self-care also report reduced parental distress, higher family needs being met, and greater parenting satisfaction.
• The frequency of self-care increases a caregiver’s confidence that self-care really helps.
• However, the frequency of self-care does not show a positive effect on any other measure of child or family functioning, such as child behavior, parent-child interactions, or perceived parenting effectiveness.
• Caregivers report a range of useful self-care strategies, but say they can be hard to fit into busy lives.

Read more here.

Maternal prenatal vitamin D supplementation has little effect on preventing asthma and recurrent wheeze in young children up to age six, according to a new study conducted by lead author Augusto A. Litonjua, chief of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

The study, “Six-Year Follow-up of a Trial of Antenatal Vitamin D for Asthma Reduction,” was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and is a continuation of previous research — completed in 2016 — that suggested that prenatal vitamin D supplementation provided a protective effect on asthma in children up to age three.

The study aimed to determine whether, when maternal levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were taken into account, children born to mothers who had received 4400 IU of vitamin D3 per day during pregnancy (vitamin D group) would have a lower incidence of asthma and recurrent wheeze at the age of six years than would those born to mothers who had received 400 IU of vitamin D3 per day.

“The hypothesis was that vitamin D could affect uterine programming and immune development,” said Litonjua, “We wanted to study the effects on children for several years because asthma is very difficult to diagnose early in life.”

Read more here.

Funding is available through the Center for Research on Flavored Tobacco (CRoFT) at the University and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center for pilot projects to inform FDA regulation of tobacco products.

Pilot projects should address one or more of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products priority areas:  toxicity, addiction, health effects, behavior, communications, marketing influences, and impact analysis related to tobacco products and electronic nicotine.

The deadline for applications is May 3, 2020 for projects beginning September 1, 2020.

The application should be submitted through the REDCap portal at http://j.mp/39bC1WF. We encourage you to contact a CRoFT investigator prior to submitting to discuss your idea.

Questions?  Application contact: Jacqueline Attia, WNY_CRoFT@urmc.rochester.edu. Scientific/research contacts:  Scott Steele, scott_steele@urmc.rochester.edu or Deborah Ossip, deborah_ossip@urmc.rochester.edu

“Demystifying deep learning:  A practical approach in MATLAB” will help students and researchers at all levels of knowledge who are interested in understanding more about “deep learning” and how they can use Matlab to apply deep learning to a range of fields from the social sciences through engineering.

The seminar, conducted by Loren Shure, who has worked at MathWorks for over 30 years, will be held from 2-4 p.m. Monday, March 2, in Room 601 of the Computer Studies Building.

The seminar will demonstrate new MATLAB features that simplify deep learning tasks and eliminate the low-level programming. It will demonstrate how to build and train neural networks that recognize handwriting, categorize foods, classify signals, and control machines.

Highlights include:

• Manage large data sets (images, signals, text, etc.)
• Create, analyze, and visualize networks, and gain insight into the black box nature of deep learning models
• Automatically label ground truth or generate synthetic data
• Build or edit deep learning models with a drag-and-drop interface
• Perform classification, regression, and semantic segmentation with images or signals
• Apply reinforcement learning with deep Q networks (DQN)
• Leverage pre-trained models (e.g. GoogLeNet and ResNet) for transfer learning
• Import models from Keras-TensorFlow, Caffe, and the ONNX Model format
• Speed up network training with parallel computing on a cluster

RSVP now. Questions? Contact Alyssa Silverman, Senior Account Manager, alyssa.silverman@mathworks.com, 508-647-4343.

COMPETITION

March 9-13: Registration available for the Three Minute Thesis competition, open to current PhD and professional doctorate (research) candidates who have passed their qualifying exam or are in their third year of study or greater.  For more information, contact: Daniel Curran, PhD student in chemistry, or Olivia Marola, PhD student in pathology.

April 8: Final Three Minute Thesis competition that challenges doctoral students to describe their research within three minutes to a general audience. 4 p.m. Medical Center’s Class of ’62 Auditorium (G-9425), with a reception to follow.

TRAINING SEMINAR

March 2: “Demystifying deep learning:  A practical approach in MATLAB” for students and researchers at all levels of knowledge who are interested in understanding more about “deep learning” and how they can use Matlab to apply deep learning to a range of fields from the social sciences through engineering. Conducted by Loren Shure, who has worked at MathWorks for over 30 years. 2-4 p.m. Room 601, Computer Studies Building. RSVP now. Questions? Contact Alyssa Silverman, Senior Account Manager, alyssa.silverman@mathworks.com, 508-647-4343.

CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIUMS

LECTURES AND TALKS

Today: Center for Integrated Research Computing (CIRC) symposium, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Wegmans 1400. Paula Vertino from the Department of Biomedical Genetics will discuss the epigenetic mechanisms that control transcription and how these mechanisms can be used for cancer treatment, including approaches based on bioinformatics and machine learning. Ali Shargh from the Department of Mechanical Engineering will demonstrate the use of molecular dynamics simulations for designing more robust silicon-based nanoporous membranes. Lunch will be served.

Feb. 26: Phelps Colloquium. “Surgery of the Future: 3D-Printed Patient-Specific Organs Guide the Way for Complex Cancer Surgery,” by Ahmed Ghazi, associate professor, Department of Urology. “Structural Engineering to the Rescue of Cultural Heritage,” by Renato Perucchio, professor and chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and director of the Program in Archaeology, Technology, and Historical Structures. 4-5:30 p.m. Feldman Ballroom, Douglass Commons, River Campus. Register here.

March 4: Rosenberger Work-in-Progress seminar. Eduardo Herrera (Musicology, Rutgers) (external fellow). 12:30 to around 1:45 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Humanities Center. River Campus.  All are welcome to attend, exchange ideas, and have lunch.

March 18: Rosenberger Work-in-Progress seminar. Elena Bellina (ESM Humanities). 12:30 to around 1:45 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Humanities Center. River Campus.  All are welcome to attend, exchange ideas, and have lunch.

March 26: Phelps Colloquium. “Harnessing Immunity to Fight Cancer: Clues from the Tumor Microenvironment,” by David Linehan, professor and chair, Department of Surgery. “Preparing for the Worst: Portrayal of Downside Risk in Professional Investment Advice,” by Joanna Wu, professor of business administration,  Simon Business School. 4–5:30 p.m. Eisenberg Rotunda, Schlegel Hall, River Campus. Register here.

April 2: Rosenberger Work-in-Progress seminar. Alexandra Lindgren-Gibson (History, Univ. of Mississippi) external fellow). 12:30 to around 1:45 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Humanities Center. River Campus.  All are welcome to attend, exchange ideas, and have lunch.

April 16: Rosenberger Work-in-Progress seminar. Ash Arder (Studio Art) (visiting artist). 12:30 to around 1:45 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Humanities Center. River Campus.  All are welcome to attend, exchange ideas, and have lunch.

April 22: Phelps Colloquium. “Making Fuel and Fertilizer from Sun, Air, and Water,” by Kara Bren, professor in the Department of Chemistry. “A Black Musician in the Court of Henry VIII. You’re Kidding, Right?” by Lee Koonce, president and artistic director of the Gateways Music Festival in association with Eastman School of Music, and senior advisor to the dean, Eastman School of Music. 4–5:30 p.m. Max of Eastman Place, 25 Gibbs Street, Rochester.  Register here.

April 30:  Rosenberger Work-in-Progress seminar. Khan and Sullivan (Public Humanities fellows). 12:30 to around 1:45 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Humanities Center. River Campus.  All are welcome to attend, exchange ideas, and have lunch.

GRANT DEADLINES

Feb. 28: Deadline for new investigators to submit proposals for pilot project funding ($25,000 maximum for one year) from the Resource-Based Center for Musculoskeletal Biology and Medicine for research relevant to musculoskeletal diseases. Proposals must be submitted by email to Kristin Smith (585-275-1397). Learn more.

March 16: Deadline to apply for pilot project funding from five programs, through the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience. For more information on the awards, download the RFA.

April 15: Deadline to apply for pilot funding from the Rochester Roybal Center for Social Ties & Aging Research (The STAR Center) to promote the social well-being and healthy aging of those caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia. There are two pilot award opportunities—the STAR Constellation Pilot Award and the ProtoSTAR Pilot Award. Learn more.

May 3: Deadline to apply for pilot project funding from the Center for Research on Flavored Tobacco (CRoFT) for research to inform FDA regulation of tobacco products. The application should be submitted through the REDCap portal at http://j.mp/39bC1WF. Questions?  Application contact: Jacqueline Attia, WNY_CRoFT@urmc.rochester.edu Scientific/research contacts:  Scott Steele, scott_steele@urmc.rochester.edu or Deborah Ossip, deborah_ossip@urmc.rochester.edu