FY2022 CoRE Projects

Lead: Diliang Chen (Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CEPS)

Abstract: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WrMSDs) are the leading nonfatal occupational injuries. Although force, posture, repetition, and vibration are recognized as four main risk factors of WrMSDs, there is little knowledge about the quantitative relationships between these risk factors and WrMSDs. This limits the development of effective control and prevention strategies for WrMSDs. To address this problem, our interdisciplinary research group proposes a novel wearable sensing system to measure WrMSDs risk factors accurately and completely in real-time through the workday. Using this robust data, the combined effects of risk factors on the human body, including load and muscle fatigue, can be estimated through artificial neural networks. Our long-term goal is to explore the quantitative relationships between risk factors and WrMSDs to help develop effective training programs, safe work practices, sensitive early markers, and effective engineering control technologies for the control and prevention of WrMSDs.   

Lead: Carlota Dao (Dept. of Agriculture, Nutrition, & Food Systems, COLSA)

Abstract: The US Hispanic/Latino population has historically been, and continues to be, at higher risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease, lower diet quality, and food security, when compared with US non-Hispanic whites. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, US Hispanics are additionally experiencing disproportionately higher risk of infection as well as increased rates of hospitalization and COVID-19-related mortality. Given these existent disparities, the impacts of COVID-19 on food access and security, physical and psychosocial wellbeing, and health behaviors such as dietary intake and vaccination uptake must be assessed in Hispanic communities longitudinally throughout the pandemic. The goal of the current proposal therefore is to assess the relationship between the food environment, food insecurity, and health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in NH Hispanics.

Lead: Sherine Elsawa (Dept. of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences, COLSA)

Abstract: Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with tissue damage. The transmission of pain is initiated by the activation of neurons called nociceptors that innervate the peripheral tissues such as the skin or joints. Inflammation is a defensive response by the immune system to promote healing of damaged tissue. However, pain is common during inflammation because immune cells stimulate nociceptors and therefore increase pain. Pain can often prevail even after the inflammation has subsided. This is often seen in arthritis, irritable bowel disease, injuries, infections and allergies. Treatments for chronic pain associated with inflammation are very limited and cause serious side effects (e.g. opioids and addiction). Therefore, there is a need to identify novel therapies to treat inflammatory pain. We are investigating the role of the Gli3 protein in inflammatory pain. This may provide evidence to therapeutically target Gli3 to control inflammation.

Lead: Jeff Garnas (Dept. of Natural Resources and the Environment, COLSA)

Abstract: Many organisms are experiencing geographic range shifts as a consequence of changing climate. In some cases, such shifts may be benign or even beneficial from the perspective of landowners and managers. In other cases, the arrival and establishment of a new organism can represent the threat of significant ecological or economic damage and an expensive and difficult management challenge. The Southern pine beetle (SPB; Dendroctonus frontalis) is among the most economically important insect pests of pine in North America and has recently been detected well north of its historical range boundaries. Once limited primarily to the southern states and Central America with marginal populations as far north as the pine barrens of New Jersey, SPB is now experiencing prolonged outbreaks on Long Island, NY and has been detected in northern New York (Albany), Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The beetle appears poised to become resident in New England where it seriously threatens the ecologically valuable pitch pine (Pinus rigida) and other pine species that occur in the region. Management efforts in Long Island have been complicated by altered timing of seasonal beetle colonization of and development within trees, by altered spatial patterns of attack and local population (SPB “spot”) growth, and by atypical rates and patterns of discoloration of infested trees, the primary symptom for the detection and delineation of spots. Our project proposes to explore the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, or “drones”) equipped with high resolution visible light (RGB) and multispectral cameras to map infested stands. As part of this research, we will design custom algorithms to extract key data and indices of tree stress and decline in response to SPB. By comparing imagery-derived data with on-the-ground assessments of beetle population abundance, developmental phenology, spot attack history, and tree condition at aerially mapped sites, we hope to enhance spot characterization with the goal of optimizing management interventions.

Lead: Shawna Hollen (Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, CEPS)

Abstract: Atomically-thin crystals provide a vast set of electronic properties that promise future innovation in sensors, flexible electronics, and quantum computers. Even more exciting is what happens when the crystalline layers are stacked with a twist between them: an artificial crystal since this structure would not grow naturally. This twist causes a moiré pattern on a scale 10's to 1000's larger than the atomic spacing. The same pattern you get when overlapping two window screens, or taking a picture of a computer screen with your phone camera. When this happens in these twist-stacked 2D layers, the extra pattern can dramatically change the electronic behavior of the material and control its quantum ground state. With this project, we will study how twisted tantalum disulfide crystal layers change a native charge wave pattern that forms in that material. These native charge waves are very sensitive to the atomic positions and associated electronic potentials in the crystal. We plan to control those through the twist, and thus control the formation of the charge wave. This control has never been shown before. It would be a strong candidate material for quantum computing, and could enable thin, flexible, and ultra-fast electronics.

Lead: Michele Holt-Shannon (NH Listens, Carsey School of Public Policy)

Abstract: Everyone in a community should have the opportunity to participate and have a voice in the public affairs of their towns regardless of such factors as social class, gender, race, ethnicity, age, or how long they might have lived there. In broad terms, a Civic Health Index measures the degree to which residents of a community are aware of the civic activities where they live and how to participate in those activities, connect with and trust each other when it comes to working together to improve their communities, and to what extent and how residents volunteer in their communities and contribute their time and resources to public and nonprofit causes.

Current measures of civic health are limited to states or large metropolitan areas, reflecting the nature of data available in national surveys like the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey. Smaller cities and towns, such as the hundreds found in New Hampshire and other primarily rural states, would benefit from access to tools for assessing civic life in order to design interventions that can increase public participation in ways that are inclusive, equitable, and effective. This team will design and demonstrate effective, replicable methods for the description of civic infrastructure and assessment of civic health at the community level. A community based civic health Index can help to assess the degree to which those opportunities are experienced equally or if there are disparities in civic health that might lead to inequities regarding who gets to participate in civic life and have their voices heard.

Leads: Elizabeth Moschella (Prevention Innovations Research Center, Office of Research, Economic Engagement, and Outreach) and Julianna Gesun (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, CEPS)

Abstract: Gender-based bias and harassment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in academia can create an unwelcoming and often hostile climate that poses major obstacles to the retention and advancement of women. Yet efforts to reduce harassment and bias, such as trainings and reporting systems, have historically been unsuccessful. Thus, the purpose of this study is to adapt and pilot an interactive theater intervention, Speaking Up, developed by PowerPlay Interactive Development, to reduce gender-based harassment and bias and promote thriving outcomes, including academic persistence and sense of belonging, among undergraduate students in engineering. The project team will implement a three-stage iterative research adaptation and evaluation process informed by theoretically-based frameworks that note the importance of incorporating insights from the target audience in the development of prevention tools. The research team will facilitate focus groups with undergraduate engineering students to adapt scenarios that depict gender-based bias and harassment in engineering (e.g., verbal and physical, exclusion of social and professional opportunities) for the Speaking Up workshop to ensure they are contextually relevant and believable and realistic. The Speaking Up workshop will then be piloted with undergraduate engineering students at three universities to evaluate the impact on (1) gender-based harassment victimization, (2) attitudes toward gender-based harassment and bias, and (3) students’ self-reported academic persistence and sense of belonging. This collaboration brings together a multidisciplinary team to adapt and pilot an innovative intervention to address gender-based harassment and bias and improve the retention and advancement of women in engineering.

Leads: Sarah Walker (Dept. of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences, COLSA) and Linqing Li (Dept. of Chemical Engineering, CEPS)

Abstract: Breast and ovarian cancer remain deadly diseases. While very distinct cancers, one defect that links them is a protein called STAT3. In cancer, this protein functions inappropriately and this promotes the cancer cells to grow, not respond to chemotherapy, and to move to other locations in the body. Developing drugs to target STAT3 could have a major impact on the treatment of breast and ovarian cancer. However, in 2003, it was estimated that 10 years and $800 million dollars were needed to bring one new drug to market. While a number of drugs are identified early in the process, one of the major problems is that drugs are generally identified in cells grown on plastic which doesn’t mimic what is going on in the body as the cells are generally in a three-dimensional conformation. In addition, these models used do not take into account the method of delivery of the drug which is through the veins. Thus, when drugs are moved through the stages of preclinical testing and clinical trials, many of these drugs fail. To address this issue, we propose to establish a tumor-on-chip model that will culture cancer cells in three dimensions with veins to deliver the drugs. The goal is to more closely mimic the delivery of a cancer drug in the body so that we can identify drugs targeting these cancers to have a better chance of getting into patients in the future. This project brings together the drug discovery and cancer biology expertise of Dr. Walker’s lab and the vascular biology and microfluidics expertise of Dr. Li’s lab to develop a model to better assess drug efficacy.

Lead: Kai Ziervogel (Ocean Process Analysis Laboratory, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space)

Abstract: Plastic pollution in the sea has been recognized for several decades as one of the largest environmental tragedies of our time. Research on ecosystem responses to plastic waste in the sea mainly focuses on the detrimental effects on megafauna. Comparatively little is known about interactions between plastics and their byproducts (i.e., potentially toxic additives) and marine microbes (bacteria, microalgae, fungi) that have the potential of utilizing plastic waste as carbon and energy source as well as surfaces to grow on. Small plastic debris (microplastics) may also get incorporated into microbial aggregates acting as precursors for rapidly sinking, macroscopic aggregates (marine snow) that accelerate sinking of plastic waste into the ocean’s interior. This collaborative study brings together a microbial oceanographer (PI Ziervogel, EOS) and an environmental geochemist (co-PI Stubbins, Northeastern), to work on both of these aspects of microbial responses to plastic contamination in the ocean. We developed a research strategy that combines laboratory incubations with exploratory field work in the Gulf of Maine. Our results will provide new insights into these highly understudied yet critical aspects of plastic pollution in the sea.