Read the research blog Further Findings.
Research Prizes and Honors
[Have you or a colleague won a research-related prize or honor? Let the Research Alert know.]
HISTORIAN’S RESEARCH EARNS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK RECOGNITION
The site of New Philadelphia, Illinois, a town founded in 1836 by slave-born African-American Frank McWorter, has been named a National Historic Landmark based on the research of Juliet E. K. Walker, professor of history at The University of Texas at Austin. Fewer than 2,500 historic places bear this distinction.
New Philadelphia is the first known town platted and officially registered by an African American before the American Civil War. Walker documented the historic significance of the town and McWorter (1777-1854), her great-great grandfather, in the seminal book “Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier” (1983, 1995).
News and Information
OSP OFFERS INFORMATION ON EXPORT CONTROLS
UT employees traveling outside the U.S. are affected by the export control regulations. There are a number of procedures put in place to not only protect you, but also the University.
Kay Ellis, MHR, associate director and export controls officer in the Office of Sponsored Projects, will present information designed to clarify what the regulations permit you to take in support of your work or conference abroad, as well as to correct any misinformation.
When: 9-10 a.m., Monday, Feb. 16, 2009 in ACES 2.302
Repeat presentation: 2-3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009, also in ACES 2.302
There is no cost. Contact Elena V. Mota, evmota@austin.utexas.edu, with questions.
FORT WORTH PHILANTHROPIST GIVES $18 MILLION FOR ENDOWMENT IN ENGINEERING SCIENCES
Fort Worth philanthropist W.A. “Tex” Moncrief has given $18 million to create the W. A. “Tex” Moncrief Jr. Endowment in Simulation-Based Engineering Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin.
The gift will be combined with an $18 million gift from an anonymous donor to create the endowment.
The endowment will allow the University’s Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) to support eight new Faculty Fellows, nine Grand Challenge Faculty Fellows and eight undergraduate interns.
QuotedUT Researchers in the News
[A sampling of recent quotes by university faculty members and researchers. To be included in this section, let the Research Alert know when you or a colleague have been quoted.]
New York Times
Feb. 2, 2009
HEADLINE: Math Backs Limited Profiling in Airport Screening
[From an article about computer sciences William H. Press’s paper on profiling passengers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.]
If the profile suggests certain people are 10 times more likely than average to be terrorists, they would be screened only three times, or the square root of 10, more than average.
At that level, Dr. Press said, it is fair to ask if you should be profiling at all. “We have been told that strong profiling will somehow find and siphon off the worst offenders and we’ll be safe,” Dr. Press said. “It’s not true. The math does not support that.”
Research Opportunities
Important university research deadlines:
Awards and Grants
Limited Submissions
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
DOD Neurofibromatosis New Investigator Award
Deadlines: Pre-Application, March 24, 2009; Application, April 14, 2009
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Biomass Research and Development Initiative
Deadline: March 6, 2009
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
Strategies and Tools for Archives and Historical Publishing Projects
Deadlines: First competition: Draft (optional), April 1, 2009; Final Deadline, June 5, 2009
Second competition: Draft (optional), Aug. 1, 2009; Final Deadline, Oct. 5, 2009
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Resources to Assist Investigations in Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, March 13, 2009; Application, April 14, 2009
Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, March 30, 2009; Application, April 30, 2009
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Joint Domestic Nuclear Detection Office-National Science Foundation:
Academic Research Initiative
Deadline: April 27, 2009
Broadening Participation in Computing
Deadline: May 13, 2009
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
American Educational Research Association Research Grants
Deadline: March 6, 2009
United States Capitol Historical Society Fellowships (for graduate students)
Deadline: March 15, 2009
American Jewish Archives Fellowship Program
Deadline: March 18, 2009
American Cancer Society
Research Scholar Grants in Basic, Preclinical, Clinical and
Epidemiology Research
Deadline: April 1, 2009
Alex C. Walker Foundation
Grants in Traditional and Ecological Economics
Deadline: April 1, 2009
Society for the History of Technology
The Brooke Hindle Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Technology
Deadline: April 15, 2009
Research Project
[Let the Research Alert know about your research projects.]
CHANGES IN CONTROL OF MOVEMENT TIMING AND STABILITY WITH MUSCLE FATIGUE
RESEARCHER: Jonathan Dingwell, associate professor, Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, College of Education, principal investigator
AGENCY: National Institutes of Health
AMOUNT: $141,849 (two years)
We will ask 30 healthy young adults to perform an upper extremity low-load continuous work task similar to sawing for 5 minutes in time with a metronome. These participants will then perform one of two fatigue protocols to induce either widespread fatigue of all of the muscles involved in this task, or localized fatigue of only specific individual muscles (i.e., shoulder flexors). Each participant will then perform another 5 minutes of low-load sawing.
We will analyze the cycle-to-cycle dynamics of each subject’s kinematic movement patterns, the forces they apply to the handle, and the electrical activity of their muscles (EMG). Specifically, we will directly quantify how the data from each time series change from cycle-to-cycle. These cycle-to-cycle fluctuations determine each subject’s innate sensitivity to small perturbations encountered during the continuous sawing task trials.
This work will yield vital new insights into how muscle fatigue affects task performance and about the neuromuscular and biomechanical strategies humans use to achieve this performance. Answering these questions is critical for understanding the causes of work-related musculoskeletal injuries and for developing effective strategies for rehabilitation.
