Corporation Of Haverford College

HAVERFORD COLLEGE HEERF INSTITUTIONAL FUNDS

HAVERFORD COLLEGE HEERF STUDENT AID

FUNCTIONAL HYBRID NATURAL PRODUCT SYNTHASES BY TRACKING ACYL CARRIER PROTEIN BINDING AND CONFORMATIONAL DYNAMICS

MRI: ACQUISITION OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR IMAGING INSTRUMENTATION.

HAVERFORD COLLEGE UPLIFT PROJECT

STEM CELL MANIPULATION VIA HOX GENE REGULATION

ADAPTIVE EVOLUTIONARY INFERENCE FRAMEWORKS FOR UNDERSTUDIED POPULATIONS USING GENERATIVE NEURAL NETWORKS - PROJECT SUMMARY IN THE FIELD OF POPULATION GENETICS, MACHINE LEARNING METHODS ARE EMERGING AS PROMISING FRAMEWORKS FOR UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTION. HOWEVER, THESE ALGORITHMS RELY HEAVILY ON SIMULATED DATASETS, WHICH CURRENTLY FAIL TO RECAPITULATE THE FEATURES OF DIVERSE NATURAL GENOMES. DEEP NEURAL NETWORKS IN PARTICULAR ARE DISCONNECTED FROM EVOLUTIONARY MODELING, AND THEIR RESULTS ARE DIFFICULT TO INTERPRET IN A BIOLOGICAL CONTEXT. IN THIS PROJECT, WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP SIMULATION FRAMEWORKS THAT AUTOMATICALLY ADAPT TO ANY POPULATION OR SPECIES. THE RESULTING CUSTOMIZED SYNTHETIC DATASETS WILL BE USED TO TRAIN NEURAL NETWORKS THAT QUANTIFY THE UNIQUE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORIES OF UNDERSTUDIED HUMAN GROUPS. BY INCLUDING GENEALOGICAL AND EPIGENETIC INFORMATION AS AUXILIARY INPUT, WE WILL BE ABLE TO LINK PREDICTIONS BACK TO GENOMIC FEATURES. OUR RESULTS WILL ENABLE US TO ESTIMATE THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN LOCAL PHENOMENA SUCH AS NATURAL SELECTION, MUTATION PATTERNS, AND RECOMBINATION HOTSPOTS. TAKEN TOGETHER, OUTCOMES FROM OUR WORK WILL ALLOW US TO CREATE A DETAILED MODEL EVOLUTIONARY OF PROCESSES, BOTH ALONG THE GENOME AND ACROSS HUMAN POPULATIONS.

CAREER: TOPOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT IN GRANULAR MATERIALS

CAREER: EXPLORING THE INVISIBLE UNIVERSE WITH MILKY WAY DWARFS AND STREAMS

RUI: MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION

CAREER: ACCESSING CHEMICAL DIVERSITY THROUGH THE CHARACTERIZATION AND REDESIGN OF NATURAL PRODUCT SYNTHASES

RUI: AGGREGATION AND COLONIZATION MEDIATED BY BACTERIAL SURFACE FACTORS

RUI: THE CHEMICAL BASIS FOR PROTEIN SELF-ASSEMBLY AND POLYMERIZATION

RUI: THE ROLE OF PP2A IN TCR-MEDIATED CELL FATE DECISIONS OF DEVELOPING T CELLS

CYANYLATED CYSTEINE AS VIBRATIONAL PROBE OF BINDING-INDUCED STRUCTURAL TRANSITION

CAREER: SITE-SPECIFIC VIBRATIONAL PROBES OF MEMBRANE BINDING AND PROTONATION IN PROTEINS

CAREER: A ROADMAP FOR QUANTUM SIMULATION

UNDERSTANDING DIRECTED RETINAL CELL AXON GUIDANCE.

RUI: THE CHEMICAL BASIS FOR PROTEIN SELF-ASSEMBLY AND POLYMERIZATION

RUI: THE ROLE OF OUTER MEMBRANE AGGLUTININS IN BACTERIAL COLONIZATION

RUI: BIOCHEMICAL COMPARISON OF TYPE II POLYKETIDE BIOSYNTHETIC ENZYMES ACROSS PHYLA FOR EXPANDED ACCESS TO CHEMICAL DIVERSITY -WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE PROCESSES PROGRAM IN THE DIVISION OF CHEMISTRY, DR. LOUISE CHARKOUDIAN AND HER TEAM FROM HAVERFORD COLLEGE WILL INVESTIGATE HOW ASSEMBLIES OF BACTERIAL PROTEINS CAN BE LEVERAGED TO SYNTHESIZE MOLECULES THAT BENEFIT SOCIETY. BACTERIA HAVE EVOLVED THE ABILITY TO EXPRESS PROTEIN ASSEMBLIES THAT CATALYZE THE MANUFACTURE OF VERY COMPLICATED MOLECULES. IF UNDERSTOOD AT THE MOLECULAR LEVEL, THESE PROTEIN ASSEMBLIES HOLD TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL TO PROVIDE SUSTAINABLE ACCESS TO IMPORTANT CHEMICAL COMMODITIES. THIS PROJECT WILL ENGAGE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE STUDY OF THE EVOLUTION OF THESE ASSEMBLIES, IN IDENTIFYING THE FEATURES THAT CONFER FUNCTION AND STABILITY UPON THESE ASSEMBLIES, AND IN THE ENGINEERING OF NEW ASSEMBLIES THAT HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO CATALYZE THE SYNTHESIS OF NOVEL MOLECULES. THE RESEARCH WILL PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT PROTEIN ASSEMBLIES THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN STUDIED IN THE LABORATORY. TOOLS TO FACILITATE FUTURE DISCOVERY AND ENGINEERING EFFORTS WILL ALSO BE DEVELOPED. THE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ENGAGED IN THIS RESEARCH WILL GAIN SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND LEARN RESEARCH SKILLS. THEY WILL ALSO LEARN HOW TO DEVELOP PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS AND ABOUT DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS AND CAREER PATHS IN A ?SYMBIOTIC PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR SERIES?. THIS SERIES WILL ALSO BE OPEN TO GRADUATE STUDENTS FROM RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES. TO SPARK SCIENTIFIC APPRECIATION AND FOSTER ENGAGEMENT OF THE COMMUNITY IN DISCUSSIONS OF SCIENTIFIC TOPICS, DR. CHARKOUDIAN WILL DEVELOP A ?BIOART GREETING CARDS? PROJECT IN WHICH PHOTOGRAPHS OF STUDENT-MADE PIECES OF BIOLOGICAL ART ARE TURNED INTO GREETING CARDS. TYPE II POLYKETIDE SYNTHASES (PKSS) ARE POWERFUL BIOCATALYSTS IN REACTIONS THAT PRODUCE STRUCTURALLY COMPLEX AND DIVERSE MOLECULES. PROGRESS TOWARDS RECONSTITUTING TYPE II PKSS IN VITRO HAS BEEN STYMIED BY THE LACK OF A ROBUST HETEROLOGOUS EXPRESSION SYSTEM FOR OBTAINING KEY TYPE II PKS COMPONENTS. IN THIS PROJECT, BIOINFORMATICS WILL BE USED TO CREATE AN UPDATED CATALOGUE OF TYPE II PKS BIOSYNTHETIC GENE CLUSTERS AND TO IDENTIFY THOSE RIPE FOR CHARACTERIZATION BASED ON PHYLOGENY OF ORIGIN, INFERRED EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY, AND OTHER SEQUENCE PATTERNS. NON-ACTINOMYCETE BACTERIAL SPECIES WILL BE EVALUATED AS A SOURCE OF TYPE II PKS ENZYMES THAT CAN BE EXPRESSED IN E. COLI AS STABLE, ACTIVE PROTEINS. SPECIFICALLY, KETOSYNTHASE CHAIN LENGTH FACTORS (KSCLFS), ACYL CARRIER PROTEINS (ACPS) AND PHOSPHOPANTETHEINYL TRANSFERASES (PPTASES) WILL BE CHARACTERIZED TO DETERMINE THE FEATURES THAT INFLUENCE THEIR STABILITY AND FUNCTION. THE COMPATIBILITY OF TYPE II PKS ACPS WITH PPTASES ACROSS DIFFERENT PKSS WILL BE EXPLORED. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

UNVEILING MARINE LANTHIPEPTIDES: FROM BIOSYNTHESIS TO ANTIBIOTIC POTENTIAL AGAINST ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANT PATHOGENS - PROJECT SUMMARY NATURE REMAINS THE MOST LUCRATIVE RESOURCE FOR IDENTIFYING NEW BIOACTIVE MOLECULES FOR PHARMACOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS. IDENTIFICATION OF UNIQUE CHEMICAL SCAFFOLDS AND NEW BACTERIAL RESERVOIRS FOR ANTIBACTERIAL NATURAL PRODUCTS IS REQUIRED TO REINVIGORATE THE ANTIBIOTIC DISCOVERY PIPELINE. LANTHIPEPTIDES ARE A CLASS OF NATURAL PRODUCTS THAT FREQUENTLY DISPLAY POTENT ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY WITH LOW SUSCEPTIBILITY TO ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE MECHANISMS, BUT AN INCOMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR BIOSYNTHESIS AND STRUCTURE FUNCTION RELATIONSHIPS IS CREATING A BOTTLENECK BETWEEN THEIR ANTIMICROBIAL POTENTIAL AND APPLICATION AS ANTIBIOTIC THERAPIES. BROADER CHARACTERIZATION OF NOVEL LANTHIPEPTIDE SCAFFOLDS AND THE ENZYMES CATALYZING THEIR BIOSYNTHESIS IS NEEDED TO CONVERT THIS UNTAPPED RESERVOIR OF BIOACTIVE NATURAL PRODUCTS INTO ANTIBIOTIC THERAPIES. GENOME MINING APPROACHES ENABLE FACILE IDENTIFICATION OF AN ORGANISM’S BIOSYNTHETIC POTENTIAL AND HAVE BEEN USED TO DEMONSTRATE THE IMPORTANCE OF MARINE BACTERIA AS UNTAPPED RESERVOIRS FOR NATURAL PRODUCT DISCOVERY, INCLUDING NOVEL LANTHIPEPTIDES. TWO ADJACENT LANTHIPEPTIDE BIOSYNTHETIC GENE CLUSTERS IN AN ECOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT SPECIES OF MARINE BACTERIA WERE IDENTIFIED, WITH ONE OF THESE CLUSTERS ENCODING FOR A PREDICTED HALOGENASE, WHICH IS A HIGHLY VALUABLE CATALYST IN MEDICAL CHEMISTRY. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO STRUCTURALLY ELUCIDATE THE LANTHIPEPTIDE PRODUCTS PRODUCED BY THESE NOVEL BIOSYNTHETIC GENE CLUSTERS, TEST THEIR ANTIBIOTIC POTENTIAL, AND DETERMINE THE SUBSTRATE SPECIFICITY OF THE HALOGENASE INVOLVED IN THEIR BIOSYNTHESIS. INDEED, THE LONG-TERM GOAL IS TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MOLECULAR TOOLKIT THAT CAN BE USED TO ENGINEER LANTHIPEPTIDES INTO “UNNATURAL NATURAL PRODUCTS” WITH ANTIBIOTIC ACTIVITY. IN AIM 1, ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS RESULTING FROM HOST-MICROBIAL INTERACTIONS WILL BE USED TO TRIGGER LANTHIPEPTIDE PRODUCTION FROM THE NATIVE MARINE BACTERIAL SPECIES, ALLOWING COMPARATIVE METABOLOMICS TO BE USED TO INFER THEIR CHEMICAL COMPOSITION FROM WILD TYPE CULTURE SUPERNATANTS COMPARED TO DELETION MUTANTS. IN AIM 2, THE HALOGENASE ENCODED WITHIN ONE OF THE LANTHIPEPTIDE BIOSYNTHETIC GENE CLUSTERS WILL BE CO-EXPRESSED WITH WILD TYPE AND MUTATED LANTHIPEPTIDE PRECURSOR PEPTIDES ALONG WITH THEIR COGNATE BIOSYNTHESIS ENZYMES. THE RESULTING TAILORED PEPTIDES WILL BE SUBJECT TO CHEMICAL ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE THE RANGE OF SUBSTRATE SPECIFICITY OF THE TAILORING ENZYME. IN AIM 3, LANTHIPEPTIDE PRODUCTS, AT VARYING STAGES OF MATURITY, WILL BE TESTED FOR ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AGAINST A PANEL OF GRAM POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE BACTERIA, AND THEIR MECHANISMS OF ACTION DETERMINED, AS WELL AS THEIR SUITABILITY TO ACT AS ADJUVANTS TO RESTORE ANTIBIOTIC POTENCY AND REVERSE RESISTANCE. THIS PROPOSAL DESIGN EMBRACES RESOURCES FROM A MARINE MICROBE WHOSE WELL-ESTABLISHED CHEMICALLY MEDIATED MICROBIOME INTERACTIONS HAVE LIKELY CONTRIBUTED TO THE EVOLUTION OF NEW LANTHIPEPTIDE SCAFFOLDS AND HALOGENATION MACHINERY THAT CAN BE EXPLOITED FOR NEW TO NATURE PHARMACOPHORES.

IDENTIFYING THE MECHANISM BY WHICH POSTPARTUM ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL IMPACTS MESOLIMBIC BRAIN CIRCUITRY AND MOTIVATED BEHAVIORS - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT ESTROGEN LEVELS INCREASE DRAMATICALLY DURING PREGNANCY, BUT QUICKLY PLUMMET TO BELOW PRE-PREGNANCY LEVELS AFTER BIRTH AND REMAIN SUPPRESSED FOR WEEKS TO MONTHS. DURING THIS TIME, APPROXIMATELY 15% OF WOMEN ARE DIAGNOSED WITH A MOOD AND/OR ANXIETY DISORDER, MAKING POSTPARTUM PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS THE MOST COMMON COMPLICATION ASSOCIATED WITH CHILDBIRTH. ALTHOUGH THERE IS STRONG EVIDENCE THAT THE SUDDEN DROP IN ESTROGEN FOLLOWING BIRTH CAN LEAD TO AN “ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL” STATE THAT IS RELATED TO THE SYMPTOMS OF POSTPARTUM PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS, FEW STUDIES HAVE DIRECTLY TESTED THE IMPACT OF POSTPARTUM ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL ON THE BRAIN, AND NONE HAVE EXAMINED THE IMPACT OF POSTPARTUM ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL ON THE MESOLIMBIC DOPAMINE CIRCUITRY. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS THEREFORE TO UNCOVER HOW POSTPARTUM ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL IMPACTS THE MESOLIMBIC CIRCUITRY AND ASSOCIATED MOTIVATED BEHAVIORS. A HORMONE-SIMULATED PSEUDOPREGNANCY MODEL IN RODENTS ALLOWS RESEARCHERS TO DIRECTLY TEST THE IMPACT OF ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL ON THE BRAIN AND ON BEHAVIOR. IN THIS MODEL, ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL INCREASES FOSB, A MEDIATOR OF LONG-TERM PLASTICITY, IN THE NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS (NAC). FURTHER, THIS NEUROPLASTIC CHANGE IS ASSOCIATED WITH DEFICITS IN MOTIVATED AND AFFECTIVE BEHAVIORS. THE EXPERIMENTS IN THIS PROPOSAL WILL EXAMINE A NOVEL NEURAL MECHANISM FOR POSTPARTUM CHANGES IN MOTIVATION/AFFECT; SPECIFICALLY, IT IS PROPOSED THAT REDUCED BINDING AT ESTROGEN RECEPTORS DURING POSTPARTUM ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL DECREASES THE EXCITABILITY OF VENTRAL TEGMENTAL AREA (VTA) DOPAMINE NEURONS, RESULTING IN DECREASED DOPAMINE RELEASE INTO THE NAC AND AN INCREASE IN THE DOWNSTREAM INDUCTION OF FOSB IN THE NAC. AIM 1 WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT POSTPARTUM ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL DECREASES DOPAMINE RELEASE INTO THE NAC. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL USE FAST SCAN CYCLIC VOLTAMMETRY TO MEASURE DOPAMINE RELEASE IN THE NAC FOLLOWING A HORMONE-SIMULATED PSEUDOPREGNANCY. AIM 2 WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT REDUCING BINDING AT ESTROGEN RECEPTORS IN THE VTA INCREASES DFOSB LEVELS IN THE NAC DURING THE POSTPARTUM PERIOD. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL USE A PHARMACOLOGICAL APPROACH TO BLOCK ESTROGEN RECEPTORS IN THE VTA DURING ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL, AND MEASURE FOSB IN CELL-TYPE-SPECIFIC NEURONS IN THE NAC. AIM 3 WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT INCREASED FOSB IN THE NAC FOLLOWING ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL IS REQUIRED FOR THE DECREASED MOTIVATION SEEN IN ESTROGEN-WITHDRAWN FEMALES. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL USE A VIRAL-MEDIATED GENE TRANSFER APPROACH TO PREVENT FOSB-MEDIATED TRANSCRIPTION IN THE NAC DURING A HORMONE-SIMULATED PSEUDOPREGNANCY AND MEASURE THE IMPACT ON MOTIVATED BEHAVIORS. TAKEN TOGETHER, THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL UNCOVER HOW POSTPARTUM ESTROGEN WITHDRAWAL MECHANISTICALLY IMPACTS THE MESOLIMBIC BRAIN CIRCUITRY. ULTIMATELY, THIS WILL YIELD NOVEL INFORMATION ABOUT HOW PERIPARTUM ESTROGEN FLUCTUATIONS CONFER HEIGHTENED VULNERABILITY TO PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS.

GENETIC AND CIRCUIT CONTROL OF VISUO-ACOUSTIC BEHAVIOR AND INTEGRATION - FUNCTION-DISRUPTING AP2S1 ALLELES HAVE RECENTLY BEEN LINKED TO LEARNING DISABILITIES AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS (ASD), THOUGH THE MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THIS GENE’S IMPACT ON HUMAN BEHAVIOR ARE UNKNOWN. UNDERSTANDING HOW, WHEN, AND WHERE THIS GENE REGULATES VERTEBRATE BEHAVIOR IS KEY TO ADDRESSING DEFICITS OBSERVED IN THESE AND OTHER NEUROPSYCHIATRIC CONDITIONS, YET VIABLE VERTEBRATE MODELS ARE LACKING. OUR LAB HAS ISOLATED VIABLE ZEBRAFISH AP2S1 MUTANTS AND HAS BEGUN TO CHARACTERIZE AP2S1’S ROLE IN COGNITIVE PROCESSES SUCH AS INTEGRATING MULTISENSORY INFORMATION, APPROPRIATE SELECTION OF BEHAVIORS, AND HABITUATION LEARNING. GIVEN THAT DEFICITS IN INFORMATION PROCESSING AND BEHAVIORAL SELECTION ARE CHARACTERISTICS SHARED BY MANY NEUROPSYCHIATRIC CONDITIONS, INCLUDING ASD AND SCHIZOPHRENIA, OUR GENETICALLY-ACCESSIBLE MODEL CAN BE LEVERAGED TO DETERMINE THE MOLECULAR AND NEURAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THESE CONDITIONS AS WELL AS MORE BROADLY CHARACTERIZE AP2S1’S ROLE IN MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION, BEHAVIOR SELECTION, AND LEARNING. WE WILL USE OUR ZEBRAFISH MODEL TO REVEAL THE NEURAL MECHANISMS BY WHICH AP2S1 MODULATES VISUAL AND ACOUSTIC BEHAVIOR AND SENSORY INTEGRATION. IN AIM 1, WE WILL DETERMINE WHAT ASPECTS OF VISUALLY GUIDED LEARNING, VISUAL BEHAVIOR SELECTION, AND VISUO-ACOUSTIC INTEGRATION REQUIRE AP2S1. OUR RESULTS WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT AP2S1 DIRECTLY MODULATES VISUAL PROCESSING AND VISUO-ACOUSTIC INTEGRATION, BEYOND ITS ROLE IN ACOUSTIC BEHAVIOR. IN AIM 2, WE WILL DETERMINE THE TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR AP2S1 TO MODULATE VISUALLY AND ACOUSTICALLY EVOKED BEHAVIOR USING INDUCIBLE AND CELL-SPECIFIC TRANSGENES. OUR RESULTS WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESES THAT THE BEHAVIORAL ROLE OF AP2S1 IS 1) TO REGULATE APPROPRIATE CIRCUIT DEVELOPMENT, AND/OR 2) TO REGULATE ACUTE NEURONAL FUNCTION, AND WILL DISTINGUISH IF AP2S1 REGULATES VISUAL AND ACOUSTIC RESPONSES THROUGH DISTINCT OR SHARED CIRCUITS. IN AIM 3, WE WILL FOCUS ON THE PAIR OF COMMAND-LIKE MAUTHNER NEURONS THAT INTEGRATE VISUAL AND ACOUSTIC INFORMATION TO DRIVE ESCAPE BEHAVIOR, AND DETERMINE HOW ITS FUNCTION IS MODULATED BY AP2S1. THROUGH SUBCELLULAR CALCIUM IMAGING IN BEHAVING FISH, OUR RESULTS WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT AP2S1 MODULATES ESCAPE BEHAVIOR SELECTION THROUGH A SPATIALLY-SPECIFIC IMPACT ON MAUTHNER DENDRITIC INTEGRATION, REVEALING THE DYNAMICS OF VISUAL AND ACOUSTIC INFORMATION INTEGRATION IN THESE CENTRAL NEURONS. OVERALL, THESE AIMS WILL POSITIVELY IMPACT HUMAN HEALTH INITIATIVES BY ADVANCING OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE GENETIC AND NEURAL MECHANISMS GOVERNING MULTISENSORY INFORMATION PROCESSING AND BEHAVIORAL SELECTION, AND THE DIRECT ROLES OF THE ASD-LINKED GENE AP2S1. FURTHERMORE, OUR PROPOSED WORK WILL VALIDATE THE USE OF THESE BEHAVIORAL ASSAYS AS A ZEBRAFISH MODEL FOR VERTEBRATE MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION THAT WILL BE USED TO CHARACTERIZE OTHER GENES AS THEY BECOME CLINICALLY RELEVANT.

POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION BY THE YBX3 RNA-BINDING PROTEIN IN SKELETAL MUSCLE - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL CONTROL PERMEATES BIOLOGY FROM PROLIFERATION TO DEVELOPMENT. RNA-BINDING PROTEINS (RBPS) DICTATE WHICH MESSENGER (M)RNAS ARE REGULATED, AND HOW, WHERE, AND WHEN THAT REGULATION OCCURS. THEIR ROLES IN BIOLOGY ARE INCONTROVERTIBLE, AND EMPHASIZED BY RBP DYSFUNCTIONS THAT CAUSE DISEASE, INCLUDING CANCER, OBESITY AND MUSCULAR ATROPHIES. THE LONG-TERM GOAL IS TO UNDERSTAND HOW RNA-PROTEIN COMPLEXES DICTATE AND RESPOND TO COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL EVENTS TO REALIZE HOW DEFECTS IN THESE COMPLEXES RESULT IN DISEASE. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO UNDERSTAND THE DIVERSE POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF THE RBP YBX3, AND CONNECT ITS REGULATION TO KEY BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES AND DISEASE. THE CENTRAL HYPOTHESIS, WHICH WAS FORMULATED BASED ON PREVIOUS FINDINGS AND PRELIMINARY DATA, IS THAT YBX3 POST-TRANSCRIPTIONALLY REGULATES MRNAS VIA MULTIPLE MECHANISMS, AND THIS CONTROL IS REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN AMINO ACID TRANSPORT IN SKELETAL MUSCLE. A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH THAT COMBINES BIOCHEMISTRY, “OMICS”, BIOINFORMATICS AND MAMMALIAN CELL CULTURE TO DISSECT HOW YBX3 REGULATES VIA DIVERSE MECHANISMS, AND THE ROLE FOR ITS POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL CONTROL OF AMINO ACID TRANSPORTERS IN SKELETAL MUSCLES. THE RATIONALE FOR THE PROPOSED WORK IS THAT ONCE THE DIVERSE POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL CONTROL MECHANISMS ARE UNDERSTOOD, THIS CAN BE USED AS A PARADIGM FOR OTHER CLINICALLY RELEVANT RBPS, AND TO POTENTIALLY DEVELOP THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES BASED ON THIS REGULATION. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED BY THREE SPECIFIC AIMS: 1) DEFINE HOW THE MODULAR DOMAINS OF YBX3 CONTRIBUTE TO POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION. THE WORKING HYPOTHESIS IS THAT THE MODULAR DOMAINS OF YBX3 HELP DETERMINE THE DIVERSE REGULATORY OUTCOMES. THE INVESTIGATORS WILL MODIFY A WELL-ESTABLISHED BIOCHEMICAL ASSAY TO ASSAY THE REGULATORY CONTRIBUTION OF EACH DOMAIN. 2) IDENTIFY YBX3-DEPENDENT COMPLEXES FORMED ON SPECIFIC MRNAS. THE WORKING HYPOTHESIS IS THAT DIFFERENT COMPLEXES FORM ON MRNAS THAT YBX3 EITHER ACTIVATES OR REPRESSES. RNA PULL-DOWN APPROACHES WILL BE USED TO IDENTIFY TRANSCRIPT SPECIFIC COMPLEXES USING TARGETED AND NON-TARGETED METHODS. 3) CHARACTERIZE THE ROLE OF YBX3'S POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL CONTROL OF AMINO ACID TRANSPORT IN SKELETAL MUSCLE. THE WORKING HYPOTHESIS IS THAT YBX3 STABILIZES TRANSPORTER MRNAS TO MAINTAIN AMINO ACID HOMEOSTASIS IN SKELETAL MUSCLE THAT IS CRITICAL FOR DIFFERENTIATION IN THIS TISSUE. AMINO ACID MRNA STABILITY, THE INTRACELLULAR LEVELS OF AMINO ACIDS AND DIFFERENTIATION WILL BE ASSESSED WHEN YBX3 IS DEPLETED IN SKELETAL MUSCLE CELLS. THIS PROPOSAL IS INNOVATIVE BECAUSE IT 1) ESTABLISHES HOW A SINGLE RBP CONTROLS MRNAS VIA MULTIPLE MECHANISMS, WHICH CAN BE USED AS A PARADIGM FOR OTHER MULTI-REGULATORY RBPS, AND 2) DEFINES HOW POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION IMPACTS AMINO ACID TRANSPORT IN SKELETAL MUSCLE THAT COULD LEAD TO NEW THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES OF A PROCESS THAT IS IMPAIRED WITH AGING. THE PROPOSED WORK IS SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE IT WILL 1) PROVIDE A MODEL OF HOW DISCRETE DOMAINS REGULATE, 2) IDENTIFY MRNA SPECIFIC COMPLEXES REQUIRED FOR REGULATION AND 3) UNCOVER HOW POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL CONTROL REGULATES AMINO ACID TRANSPORT AND DIFFERENTIATION IN SKELETAL MUSCLE.

GALAXIES AT REDSHIFTS Z~2: THE APEX OF GALAXY FORMATION

SINGLE SOURCE PROPOSAL FOR NICER FUNDING

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: BUILDING A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ROLE OF BACTERIAL-DERIVED CHEMICAL SIGNALS IN MEDIATING PHYTOPLANKTON POPULATION DYNAMICS

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: RUI: IMPLICATIONS OF BACTERIALLY DRIVEN CROSS-KINGDOM CHEMICAL INTERACTIONS

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: ACCELERATED DISCOVERY OF LEAD-FREE METAL HALIDE PEROVSKITOIDS USING AUTOMATION AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE -NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: HALIDE PEROVSKITES AND PEROVSKITOIDS ARE A BROAD FAMILY OF MATERIALS THAT HAVE MANY APPLICATIONS INCLUDING PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR CELLS, LIGHTING, LASERS, PHOTODETECTORS, X-RAY DETECTORS, AND CATALYSIS. HOWEVER, MANY OF THE APPLICATIONS USE MATERIALS CONTAINING TOXIC METALS, SUCH AS LEAD. IN THIS PROJECT, WITH SUPPORT FROM THE SOLID STATE AND MATERIALS CHEMISTRY PROGRAM IN THE MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES DIRECTORATE, AUTOMATED LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ARE GUIDED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO DISCOVER AND CHARACTERIZE NEW LEAD-FREE PEROVSKITES AND PEROVSKITOIDS WITH NOVEL PROPERTIES. THE DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL METHODS FOR USING GENERATIVE AI TO IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING IS ACCOMPLISHED BY THE EXTRACTION OF DATA FROM PUBLISHED EXPERIMENTS TO ARTICULATE THE CURRENT LIMITS OF CHEMICAL KNOWLEDGE AND TO IDENTIFY GAPS IN EXPERIMENTAL EFFORTS. THESE DATA ARE USED TO CONSTRUCT MACHINE LEARNING MODELS THAT HELP OPTIMALLY GUIDE EXPLORATORY SYNTHESIS EFFORTS. THE DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL ROBOTIC COMPATIBLE SYNTHETIC ROUTES ENABLES ITERATIVE TESTING AND REFINEMENT OF THE MACHINE LEARNING MODELS. TO AID IN THIS, AUTOMATED AI-BASED ASSISTANTS ARE DEVELOPED TO ASSIST IN COMPLEX MULTISTEP RESEARCH PLANNING. THE VALUE OF THIS APPROACH FOR LEAD-FREE HALIDE PEROVSKITES DEMONSTRATES THEIR WIDER IMPORTANCE, GENERAL-PURPOSE AI TOOLS ARE SHARED WITH THE BROADER MATERIALS CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY. UNDERGRADUATE, GRADUATE, AND POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS PARTICIPATING IN THIS PROJECT DEVELOP INTERDISCIPLINARY SKILLS COMBINING DATA SCIENCE AND CHEMICAL EXPERIMENTATION, ADDRESSING A SCIENTIFIC WORKFORCE GAP. ADDITIONALLY, UNDERGRADUATE-LEVEL TEACHING RESOURCES ARE CREATED, ALL OF WHICH ARE SHARED WITH OTHER INSTITUTIONS. TO HELP FURTHER IMPROVE THE PIPELINE OF SCIENTISTS, AGE-APPROPRIATE GAMES THAT TEACH PRINCIPLES OF MATERIALS DESIGN TO KINDERGARTEN-LEVEL STUDENTS ARE ALSO DEVELOPED, CREATED AND TESTED. TECHNICAL SUMMARY: WITH SUPPORT FROM THE SOLID STATE AND MATERIALS CHEMISTRY PROGRAM IN THE MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES DIRECTORATE, THIS PROJECT DEVELOPS AUTOMATED HIGH-THROUGHPUT SYNTHESIS METHODS BASED ON ANTISOLVENT VAPOR DIFFUSION, INVERSE TEMPERATURE CRYSTALLIZATION, AND IONIC-LIQUID BASED METHODS FOR LEAD-FREE HALIDE PEROVSKITES AND PEROVSKITOIDS, WITH AN INITIAL FOCUS ON COPPER HALIDES. COPPER HALIDES EXHIBIT HIGH STABILITY AND LUMINESCENCE (SERVING MANY OF THE SAME OPTOELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS AS LEAD HALIDES) AND ALSO HAVE THE POTENTIAL OF DISPLAYING NOVEL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES INCLUDING CHIRALITY-INDUCED SPIN SELECTIVITY, MAGNONIC RESPONSE, ENANTIOSELECTIVE ELECTROCATALYSIS, AND QUANTUM INFORMATION PROCESSING APPLICATIONS. ACTIVE LEARNING IS USED FOR EFFICIENT EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETER EXPLORATION, COMBINED WITH LARGE-LANGUAGE MODEL (LLM)-BASED LITERATURE EXTRACTION TO IDENTIFY PAST PRECEDENTS AND IDENTIFY GAPS IN SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING. AGENTIC LLM WORKFLOW STRATEGIES ARE STUDIED, DEVELOPED, AND EVALUATED FOR THEIR ABILITY TO ASSIST IN EXPLORATORY CHEMISTRY RESEARCH. BROADER IMPACTS INCLUDE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS THAT HAVE BOTH DATA SCIENCE AND EXPERIMENTAL SKILLS, AND SIMPLIFICATIONS OF THE AUTOMATED EXPERIMENTS THAT CAN BE PERFORMED ON FRUGAL TWIN AUTOMATION SYSTEMS IN AN UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING LABORATORY SETTING. ADDITIONALLY, ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IS USED TO PROTOTYPE AND PLAY-TEST TOYS THAT ENABLE PRE-K AND KINDERGARTEN AGED STUDENTS TO SEE, TOUCH, AND EXPLORE CONCEPTS OF MATERIALS DESIGN BASED ON THE 2D-ISING MODEL. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: EDGE CMT: GENOMIC AND MOLECULAR BASES OF POLLINATION SYNDROME EVOLUTION IN MONKEYFLOWERS -VARIATION OF COMPLEX TRAITS (E.G., HUMAN HEIGHT) ARE USUALLY CAUSED BY MULTIPLE GENES. IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CAUSAL GENES AND MUTATIONS UNDERLYING THESE POLYGENIC TRAITS REMAIN A CENTRAL CHALLENGE IN BIOLOGY. ONE OF THE MOST INTRIGUING EXAMPLES OF POLYGENIC ADAPTATIONS IN PLANTS IS THE POLLINATION SYNDROME, A SUITE OF FLORAL TRAITS THAT ENABLE SPECIALIZED ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN FLOWERS AND THEIR ANIMAL POLLINATORS (E.G., BEES, HUMMINGBIRDS, HAWKMOTHS). FOR EXAMPLE, HUMMINGBIRD-POLLINATED FLOWERS ARE USUALLY LARGE IN SIZE, RED IN COLOR, WITH COPIOUS NECTAR PRODUCTION AND EXERTED REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS, WHEREAS BEE-POLLINATED FLOWERS USUALLY DISPLAY VARIOUS COLORS (BUT NOT RED), A SMALLER QUANTITY OF NECTAR, INSERTED REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS, AND A CLEAR LANDING PLATFORM. EVOLUTIONARY TRANSITIONS FROM ONE POLLINATION SYNDROME TO ANOTHER REQUIRE COORDINATED CHANGES OF MULTIPLE FLORAL TRAITS, WITH EACH TRAIT CONTROLLED BY MULTIPLE GENES, YET THESE SWITCHES OCCUR RAPIDLY IN NATURE IN MANY PLANT GROUPS. THIS STUDY EMPLOYS A NEW GENETIC MODEL SYSTEM, MONKEYFLOWERS, TO INVESTIGATE HOW POLLINATION SYNDROME SWITCHES OCCUR AT THE GENOMIC AND MOLECULAR LEVEL. FURTHERMORE, THIS STUDY INTEGRATES RESEARCH WITH STUDENT EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH THROUGH THE LENS OF POLLINATION SYNDROMES. SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES INCLUDE ORGANIZED POLLINATOR OBSERVATION EXPERIMENTS IN A COMMON GARDEN ON THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT CAMPUS TO RAISE PUBLIC AWARENESS OF ANIMAL POLLINATION SERVICE, CREATION OF A BIOINFORMATIC COURSE-BASED UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPERIENCE AT HAVERFORD COLLEGE, AND PRODUCTION OF PROFESSIONAL VIDEOS THAT BRING POLLINATION SYNDROME RESEARCH TO LIFE AND THAT WILL BE RELEASED ON A HIGHLY SUBSCRIBED YOUTUBE CHANNEL, SCIENCE IRL (?IN REAL LIFE?). THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO SYSTEMATICALLY DISSECT THE GENOMIC AND MOLECULAR BASES OF FLORAL TRAIT VARIATION AMONG THREE CLOSELY RELATED MONKEYFLOWER (MIMULUS) SPECIES THAT DISPLAY THREE DISTINCT POLLINATION SYNDROMES, INCLUDING THE BEE-POLLINATED M. LEWISII, THE HUMMINGBIRD-POLLINATED M. CARDINALIS, AND THE SELF-POLLINATED M. PARISHII. THESE SPECIES ARE AMENABLE TO FINE-SCALE GENETIC MAPPING AND RIGOROUS FUNCTIONAL INTERROGATION THROUGH STABLE TRANSGENICS. WE PLAN TO ACCOMPLISH OUR OVERALL OBJECTIVE BY PURSUING THE FOLLOWING SPECIFIC AIMS: (I) GENERATE HIGH-QUALITY NEAR-ISOGENIC LINES (NILS), WHICH DIFFER FROM A PARENTAL SPECIES BY ONLY A SINGLE FLORAL TRAIT LOCUS INTROGRESSED FROM ANOTHER SPECIES, AND USE THE NILS TO GENETICALLY DISSECT EACH QUANTITATIVE TRAIT LOCUS (QTL) UNDERLYING THE POLLINATION SYNDROME SWITCHES. (II) FUNCTIONALLY CHARACTERIZE THE CAUSAL GENES AND MUTATIONS UNDER INDIVIDUAL QTLS USING STABLE TRANSGENIC EXPERIMENTS. (III) CONSTRUCT GENE REGULATORY NETWORKS/MODULES THAT CONTROL POLLINATION SYNDROME COMPONENT TRAITS USING WEIGHTED GENE CO-EXPRESSION NETWORK ANALYSIS. RESULTS FROM THIS STUDY ARE ANTICIPATED TO PROVIDE AN IN-DEPTH, GENOME-WIDE VIEW OF THE CAUSAL GENES UNDERLYING POLLINATION SYNDROME SWITCHES, TO IDENTIFY A SET OF GENE REGULATORY MODULES CONTROLLING INDIVIDUAL FLORAL TRAITS THAT SHOULD BE WIDELY APPLICABLE IN OTHER PLANT SYSTEMS, AND TO REVEAL NOVEL MOLECULAR MECHANISMS THAT CAN INFORM STUDIES OF PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION IN NOT ONLY PLANTS, BUT ALSO OTHER ORGANISMS. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

RUI: PARTICLE DYNAMICS: SWIMMING CELLS AND SHEARED PARTICULATE MATERIALS

SPATIOTEMPORAL CHAOS AND PARTICLE DYNAMICS IN COMPLEX FLOWS

X-CHROMOSOME MEIOSIS IN C. ELEGANS

IN VIVO AND CRUDE EXTRACT ANALYSIS OF POLYQ AGGREGATION INTERMEDIATES

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: SEARCHING FOR ULTRA-FAINT GALAXIES AROUND THE MILKY WAY

CAREER: CONFRONTING FUNDAMENTAL THEORIES WITH OBSERVATIONS IN COSMOLOGY

RUI: RIGOROUS PHYSICAL INTERPRETATION OF VIBRATIONAL PROBE FREQUENCIES IN PROTEINS

RUI: ENVIRONMENTAL MODULATION OF NOCICEPTION

RUI: EFFECTS OF ADVERSE AND BUFFERING CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES ON NEURAL MARKERS OF EMOTION REGULATION IN YOUNG ADULTHOOD -EARLY-LIFE STRESS AND ADVERSITY ARE KNOWN TO HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPING BRAIN, INCREASING RISK FOR OUTCOMES SUCH AS POOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH OVER THE LIFESPAN. THE EXPERIENCE OF ADVERSITY IN CHILDHOOD IS RELATIVELY COMMON IN THE GENERAL POPULATION, BUT THE MANY PATHWAYS THROUGH WHICH ADVERSITIES AFFECT DEVELOPMENT ARE NOT FULLY UNDERSTOOD. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND ONE ASPECT OF HOW ADVERSITY MAY AFFECT BRAIN AND COGNITION BY EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EARLY LIFE STRESS AND THE ABILITY TO REGULATE EMOTIONAL RESPONSES TO BOTH UNPLEASANT AND PLEASANT INFORMATION. THE PROJECT TESTS WHETHER A SPECIFIC NEURAL MARKER OF EMOTIONAL REACTIVITY IS POORLY REGULATED IN YOUNG ADULTS WITH A HISTORY OF GREATER EARLY-LIFE STRESS, COMPARED TO THOSE WITH LOWER LEVELS OF LIFE STRESS. THIS RESEARCH OCCURS AT A PRIMARILY UNDERGRADUATE INSTITUTION AND PROVIDES MENTORED RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR ABOUT A DOZEN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS WITH A FOCUS ON ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS METHODS, AS WELL AS INTERACTIONS WITH THE WIDER SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY, STRENGTHENING THEIR STEM TRAINING. THE PROJECT INCLUDES THREE STUDIES THAT TEST THE CORRELATION BETWEEN REPORTS OF EARLY-LIFE EXPERIENCES AND AN EEG (ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY) BRAINWAVE SIGNAL REFERRED TO AS THE LATE POSITIVE POTENTIAL (LPP). THE LPP SIGNAL, GENERATED FROM BROAD REGIONS OF POSTERIOR CORTEX AND MEASURABLE WITH SCALP ELECTRODE RECORDINGS, IS KNOWN TO BE ELEVATED WHEN PEOPLE VIEW PICTURES WITH EMOTIONAL MEANING. FURTHERMORE, THE LPP CAN BE DOWNREGULATED BY VOLUNTARY COGNITIVE REFRAMING, SUCH AS THINKING ABOUT THE IMAGE IN A LESS THREATENING WAY. STUDY 1 TESTS WHETHER THE ABILITY TO DECREASE THE LPP RESPONSE TO UNPLEASANT PICTURES BY COGNITIVE REFRAMING IS COMPROMISED IN YOUNG ADULTS WITH A HISTORY OF ADVERSITY. STUDY 2 TESTS WHETHER THE ABILITY TO VOLUNTARILY INCREASE THE LPP RESPONSE TO PLEASANT PICTURES, A PROCESS KNOWN AS ?SAVORING,? IS ALSO COMPROMISED IN THOSE WITH EARLY-LIFE STRESS. STUDY 3 INVESTIGATES WHETHER PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ADVERSE EXPERIENCES ARE ABLE TO MAKE ADAPTIVE CHOICES ABOUT WHICH STRATEGIES TO USE TO MODIFY THEIR BRAIN?S LPP RESPONSE TO EMOTIONAL PICTURES. THE PROJECT ALSO INVESTIGATES THE POSSIBLE ROLE OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILLS IN THE PATH LINKING ADVERSITY AND THE ABILITY TO REGULATE EMOTION. TOGETHER, THE STUDIES AIM TO BETTER UNDERSTAND ONE MECHANISM THAT MAY CONNECT EARLY-LIFE STRESS WITH ALTERED PSYCHOLOGICAL OUTCOMES. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

RUI: THE ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF MATURE NUR77LOW T CELL SUBPOPULATIONS IN THE THYMUS

THE DARK REACTION PROJECT: A MACHINE LEARNING APPROACH TO MATERIALS DISCOVERY

EAGER: DCL: SATC: ENABLING INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION: EVALUATING BIAS IN THE CREATION AND PERCEPTION OF GAN-GENERATED FACES -BAD ACTORS OFTEN USE BOTS AND FAKE PROFILES TO ATTACK INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS AND TO UNDERMINE SOCIAL HARMONY AND COLLECTIVE MOVEMENTS. THESE FAKE PROFILES MAY USE FACE IMAGES TO SIGNAL HUMAN AUTHENTICITY. UNTIL RECENTLY IT WAS POSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY BAD-FAITH ACTORS VIA REVERSE IMAGE SEARCHES BECAUSE MANY FAKE PROFILES USED STOCK PHOTOS. RECENT ADVANCES IN MACHINE LEARNING-ENABLED GENERAL ADVERSARIAL NETWORKS (GANS) HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE TO CREATE HYPER-REALISTIC FACES OF PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST AND CANNOT BE IDENTIFIED. THESE FACES CAN BE ANIMATED AND USED TO CAUSE HARM. TO HELP DEVELOP MORE SECURE AND TRUSTWORTHY CYBERSPACES, IT IS CRITICAL TO UNDERSTAND WHETHER AND HOW HUMAN PERCEIVERS (ALONE OR WITH COMPUTATIONAL AIDS) CAN DETECT REAL VS. ARTIFICIAL FACES, AND HOW THEIR DETECTION STRATEGIES AND OUTCOMES DIFFER ACROSS GROUPS. THIS PROJECT INVESTIGATES WHETHER THE GANS THAT GENERATE FACES ARE RACIALLY BIASED AND WHETHER THIS BIAS IS MANIFESTED IN DIFFERENTIAL DETECTABILITY OF INGROUP VS. OUTGROUP FACES. THE PROJECT TESTS THE HYPOTHESIS THAT GANS ARE RACIALLY BIASED BECAUSE THE TRAINING DATASET IS ITSELF BIASED, WITH WHITE FACES (ESPECIALLY WHITE FEMALE FACES) OVERREPRESENTED. FURTHERMORE, WHEN TOOLS ARE CREATED TO CONTROL WHAT KIND OF FACE IS GENERATED, THESE TOOLS MAY BE RACIALLY BIASED AS WELL BECAUSE THEY ARE EXTRACTING BIASED PARAMETERS. THESE BIASED PROCESSES MAY RESULT IN GAN-GENERATED FACES THAT ARE MORE DETECTABLE TO RACIAL MINORITY INDIVIDUALS VS. RACIAL MAJORITY INDIVIDUALS. TO TEST THESE HYPOTHESES, THE PROJECT IS DEVELOPING A TRAINING DATASET OF DIVERSE FACES, WITH ANNOTATIONS FOR DIMENSIONS OF INTEREST SUCH AS SKIN TONE AND GENDER. THESE ANNOTATIONS CAN BE USED TO TRAIN A GAN WITH ANY NUMBER OF CHECKPOINTS TO EXAMINE HOW GAN-GENERATED FACES APPEAR AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF CREATION. THE PROJECT IS EXAMINING HOW PEOPLE PERCEIVE THE GENERATED FACES AT EACH STAGE OF THE GAN. THIS PROJECT IS HELPING SPUR THEORETICAL INSIGHTS INTO HOW MACHINE-LEARNING WORKS, AND PROVIDES TRAINING IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY FOR A DIVERSE GROUP OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

RUI: INVESTIGATIONS OF HYDROGELS FORMED BY SEMENOGELIN I-DERIVED PEPTIDE SEQUENCES

RUI: PHYSIOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE CORRELATES OF ERROR-RELATED ALPHA SUPPRESSION

SBP: RUI: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: THE IDENTITY PATHWAYS PROJECT - A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF NARRATIVE IDENTITY PROCESSES, CONTEXTS, AND OUTCOMES

LEAPS-MPS: DEVELOPING A SPECTROSCOPIC MAP FOR TERMINAL ALKYNES -THIS AWARD IS FUNDED IN WHOLE OR IN PART UNDER THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021 (PUBLIC LAW 117-2). RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY IS AN IMPORTANT TOOL FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF A DIVERSE ARRAY OF MOLECULAR SYSTEMS. EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS TOOL REQUIRES A CLEAR AND DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF THE VIBRATIONS WITHIN MOLECULES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THE ABSORPTION OF LIGHT WITH SPECIFIC AMOUNTS OF ENERGY. ALKYNES, MOLECULES WITH CARBON-CARBON TRIPLE BONDS, HAVE RECENTLY BEEN USED IN RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY TO UNDERSTAND THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF PROTEINS THAT CELLS USE TO MAKE NEW MOLECULES. THIS NEW USE OF ALKYNES HIGHLIGHTS THE NEED TO MORE DEEPLY UNDERSTAND ALKYNE VIBRATIONS AND THUS THEIR RAMAN SPECTROSCOPIC SIGNALS. IN THIS PROJECT, FUNDED BY THE MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES DIRECTORATE AND HOUSED IN THE CHEMISTRY DIVISION, PROFESSOR CLYDE DALY AND HIS STUDENTS AT HAVERFORD COLLEGE WILL DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS CALLED ?SPECTROSCOPIC MAPS? BETWEEN THE RAMAN ABSORPTION OF ALKYNE MOLECULES AND THEIR MOLECULAR ENVIRONMENTS. THESE MAPS CAN BE USED IN MOLECULAR SIMULATIONS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND HOW CELLS MAKE NEW MOLECULES, RELEVANT TO THE DESIGN OF NEW DRUGS AND MATERIALS. THIS PROJECT WILL ALSO ADVANCE COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL USES OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY. THE METHODS DEVELOPED DURING THIS PROJECT WILL BE USED TO BUILD EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR ADVANCED AND FIRST YEAR COURSES RELATED TO VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY. ENGAGEMENT IN THE RESEARCH OF STUDENTS FROM BACKGROUNDS UNDERREPRESENTED IN MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES FIELDS WILL BE PRIORITIZED THROUGH AVENUES SUCH AS PAYMENT FOR WORK-STUDY (DISPROPORTIONATELY LOW-INCOME OR FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS) AND RECRUITMENT OF STUDENTS FROM DISADVANTAGED BACKGROUNDS. THIS PROJECT WILL ENGAGE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPIC MAP FOR TERMINAL ALKYNE CONTAINING MOLECULES AT HAVERFORD COLLEGE. THE CARBON-CARBON TRIPLE BOND STRETCHING VIBRATION OF TERMINAL ALKYNES HAS BEEN INCREASINGLY USED AS A RAMAN VIBRATIONAL PROBE TO UNDERSTAND PROTEINS, OTHER BIOLOGICAL MOLECULES, AND MATERIALS. A SPECTROSCOPIC MAP WILL ENABLE THE CALCULATION OF RAMAN SPECTRA FROM MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS. THE PROCESS OF BUILDING THE SPECTROSCOPIC MAP WILL ALSO UNCOVER THE REASONS FOR THE SUBSTANTIAL RAMAN FREQUENCY SHIFT OF THE VIBRATION OF INTEREST BETWEEN DIFFERENT SOLVATION ENVIRONMENTS. THE AIMS FOR THIS PROJECT ARE THREEFOLD: (1) CREATE A SPECTROSCOPIC MAP THAT IS APPROPRIATE FOR ANSWERING BIOPHYSICAL QUESTIONS RELATED TO THE ACYL CARRIER PROTEIN RELEVANT TO OUR COLLABORATORS; (2) ADVANCE THE PARADIGM OF SPECTROSCOPIC MAP DESIGN TO INCLUDE MACHINE LEARNING MORE FULLY AS A TOOL AND UNIVERSALITY AS A GOAL; (3) UNDERSTAND THE FACTORS THAT LEAD TO RAMAN FREQUENCY SHIFTS IN TERMINAL ALKYNES. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

THE GLOBAL IONOSPHERE ELECTRIC FIELD VARIES CONSIDERABLY LONGITUDINALLY AND FROM DAY-TO-DAY BUT THE CAUSES OF THESE CHANGES ARE NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD. THE MAIN PROCESSES THAT PRODUCE ELECTRIC FIELDS INCLUDE:

RUI: PHOTOELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF DNA-CHROMOPHORE HYBRIDS AND PORPHYRIN NANOWIRES

THE DEVELOPMENTAL FUNCTION AND EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE DROSOPHILA FOLDED GAST

PRECISION GENOMIC ENGINEERING OF THE GREEN ALGA CHLAMYDOMONAS REINHARDTII

RUI: SELF-ASSEMBLING PORPHYRINS AND PORPHYRIN-MODIFIED PEPTIDES AND STUDIES OF THEIR PHOTOELECTRONIC PROPERTIES

RUI: PHAGE-BASED COMPONENTS FOR NANOSCALE ASSEMBLY

EXECUTE A BALANCED SCIENCE PROGRAM BASED ON DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES AND DIRECTION FROM CONGRESS. PARTICIPATE AS A KEY PARTNER AND ENABLER IN THE AGE

BIGDATA: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: F: ALGORITHMIC FAIRNESS: A SYSTEMIC AND FOUNDATIONAL TREATMENT OF NONDISCRIMINATORY DATA MINING

COGNITIVE AND EMOTIONAL SELF-REGULATION IN DEPRESSION

RUI: GEOMETRY OF CONJUGACY AND K-THEORY IN AFFINE WEYL GROUPS -WE ENCOUNTER SYMMETRY IN NEARLY EVERY ASPECT OF OUR DAILY LIVES: LOOKING AT OUR FACES IN THE MIRROR, WATCHING SNOWFLAKES FALL FROM THE SKY, AND DRIVING ACROSS BRIDGES. SYMMETRIC ORGANISMS PERSIST THROUGH EVOLUTION IN NATURE, SYMMETRIC PROTAGONISTS ARE PERCEIVED AS ESPECIALLY BEAUTIFUL IN ART, AND SYMMETRIC COMPONENTS ARE CRITICAL TO ENGINEERING STRUCTURES THAT CAN WITHSTAND POWERFUL FORCES. THE SET OF SYMMETRIES OF A PARTICULAR PHYSICAL OBJECT ENJOYS A RICH ALGEBRAIC STRUCTURE, BECAUSE SYMMETRIES ARE OPERATIONS THAT CAN BE COMPOSED TOGETHER. THIS GROUP OF ALL SYMMETRIES CAN THEN BE CONVENIENTLY STUDIED BY ENCODING EACH SYMMETRY AS A RECTANGULAR ARRAY OF NUMBERS CALLED A MATRIX. THIS PROCESS OF PASSING FROM A SYMMETRIC OBJECT IN THE NATURAL WORLD TO A RELATED COLLECTION OF MATRICES IS THE HALLMARK OF THE MATHEMATICAL FIELD OF REPRESENTATION THEORY. REPRESENTATION THEORY THUS REDUCES THE COMPLEX STUDY OF SYMMETRY IN NATURE TO QUESTIONS IN THE WELL UNDERSTOOD AREA OF MATHEMATICS CALLED LINEAR ALGEBRA. AS SUCH, THE PROPOSED PROJECTS HAVE BROAD POTENTIAL TO SUBSTANTIALLY IMPACT OUR UNDERSTANDING OF MANY SYMMETRIC STRUCTURES OCCURRING THROUGHOUT THE MATHEMATICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES. THIS PROJECT ALSO PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIRECTLY INVOLVING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICAL RESEARCH, WITH A FOCUSED GOAL OF SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT AND RECRUITMENT OF WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS. THIS PROJECT WILL ADDRESS TWO TOPICS IN THE ALGEBRA, GEOMETRY, AND REPRESENTATION THEORY OF REDUCTIVE ALGEBRAIC GROUPS OVER NON-ARCHIMEDEAN LOCAL FIELDS. FIRST, APPLYING TECHNIQUES FROM GEOMETRIC GROUP THEORY TO THE ASSOCIATED BRUHAT-TITS BUILDING, THE INVESTIGATOR WILL PROVIDE A GLOBAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE CONJUGACY CLASSES OF ANY AFFINE WEYL GROUP. SECOND, THIS GEOMETRIC PERSPECTIVE WILL ALSO BE APPLIED TO REINTERPRET THE K-THEORETIC GENERALIZATION OF PETERSON'S ISOMORPHISM FROM THE EQUIVARIANT HOMOLOGY OF THE AFFINE GRASSMANNIAN TO THE EQUIVARIANT QUANTUM COHOMOLOGY OF A FINITE FLAG VARIETY. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES INCLUDE A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF AN AFFINE CONJUGACY CLASS IN TERMS OF THE UNDERLYING FINITE WEYL GROUP, AND NEW REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE SCHUBERT CLASSES IN THE EQUIVARIANT K-HOMOLOGY OF THE AFFINE GRASSMANNIAN. AS SUCH, THE RESEARCH WILL STIMULATE NEW INTERACTIONS AMONG THE MATHEMATICAL SUBFIELDS OF REPRESENTATION THEORY, ARITHMETIC GEOMETRY, ENUMERATIVE GEOMETRY, ALGEBRAIC COMBINATORICS, GEOMETRIC GROUP THEORY, AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

RUI: SYNTHESIS OF ORGANICALLY TEMPLATED GALLIUM SULFITES

RECOVERING LOST VOICES: A DIGITAL WORKSHOP FOR THE RESTORATION OF RENAISSANCE POLYPHONY

BRIDGE READABILITY TOOLS FOR HISTORICAL LANGUAGE TEXT ANALYSIS AND DATA-INFORMED PEDAGOGY [THE BRIDGE READABILITY TOOLS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP THREE PEDAGOGICAL AND SCHOLARLY TOOLS FOR THE BRIDGE, AN EXISTING DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM THAT SUPPORTS THE ENCODING AND READING OF ANCIENT GREEK AND LATIN AT THE SECONDARY, COLLEGIATE, AND PROFESSIONAL LEVELS. THESE INDEPENDENT TOOLS, WHICH WILL FORM A MUTUALLY-SUPPORTING SUITE OF BRIDGE READABILITY TOOLS, WILL (1) PRODUCE PRACTICAL ANALYSES OF TEXTUAL DIFFICULTY (I.E., READABILITY) FOR THE HUNDREDS OF TEXTS IN THE BRIDGE CORPUS VIA BRIDGE/STATS; (2) FACILITATE DATA-INFORMED LANGUAGE SYLLABUS AND CURRICULUM CONSTRUCTION VIA BRIDGE/ORACLE, WHICH WILL HELP INSTRUCTORS, STUDENTS, AND INDEPENDENT LEARNERS DISCOVER READABLE TEXTS AND PLAN DATA-SUPPORTED CURRICULA, FOSTERING MORE EFFICIENT ACQUISITION OF HISTORICAL LANGUAGES; (2) DEMOCRATIZE AND ACCELERATE THE ACCURATE ENCODING OF LATIN TEXTS FROM CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY TO THE MODERN PERIOD VIA THE BRIDGE/LEMMATIZER2 TOOL.]

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: RUI: KNOTTING PHENOMENA IN CONTACT AND SYMPLECTIC TOPOLOGY

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: UNDERSTANDING THE EXTREME DIVERSITY OF ATOMIC HYDROGEN DEPLETION TIMES IN GALAXIES -STARS FORM OUT OF CLOUDS OF GAS FOUND IN GALAXIES. MOST OF THIS GAS IS IN THE FORM OF COLD ATOMS OF HYDROGEN, BUT BEFORE STARS CAN FORM, THIS GAS MUST UNDERGO SEVERAL CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSES THAT ARE POORLY UNDERSTOOD. THE INVESTIGATORS LEADING THIS PROPOSAL WILL ANALYZE DATA FROM BOTH THE NSF-FUNDED GREEN BANK TELESCOPE (GBT) AND THE ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETER ARRAY (ALMA), WHICH CAN BE USED TO MEASURE THE AMOUNTS OF HYDROGEN GAS IN A BROAD SAMPLE OF GALAXIES. THEY WILL USE THIS TO TEST HOW THE DEPLETION TIMESCALES OF THESE GAS RESERVOIRS DEPEND ON OTHER MEASURED GALAXY PROPERTIES, PLACING IMPORTANT CONSTRAINTS ON THE GROWTH OF GALAXIES. AT THE SAME TIME, THEY WILL TRAIN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS IN THE TECHNIQUES OF RADIO ASTRONOMY. THIS PROGRAM SEEKS TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCES IN ATOMIC HYDROGEN (HI) DEPLETION TIMES USING THE SDSS-IV?S MAPPING NEARBY GALAXIES AT APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY (MANGA) AND HI-MANGA (21CM FOLLOW-UP FOR MANGA) GALAXY SURVEYS TO SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF SYSTEMATIC VARIATIONS DUE TO (1) IONIZATION/HEATING SOURCES, (2) FRACTIONS OF DIFFUSE VERSUS DENSE HI, AND (3) INTERNAL MOTIONS (E.G., VELOCITY DISPERSION AND BULK NON-ROTATIONAL FLOWS), ALL OF WHICH MAY ALTER THE EFFICIENCY WITH WHICH HI IS PROCESSED. THE INVESTIGATORS WILL ADD NEW DATA FROM THE GBT AND ALMA TO QUANTIFY THE MOLECULAR HYDROGEN (H2) FRACTION FOR A SUBSET OF GALAXIES TO PROBE WHETHER LONG HI DEPLETION TIMES ARE DRIVEN BY INEFFICIENT H2 FORMATION FROM HI OR INEFFICIENT FORMATION OF STARS OUT OF H2. IN PARALLEL WITH THESE EFFORTS, THE INVESTIGATOR WILL USE THE GBT TO FULLY COMPLETE THE HI-MANGA SURVEY, IMPROVING ITS LEGACY VALUE FOR THE ASTRONOMICAL COMMUNITY. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

RUI: LEGENDRIAN SUBMANIFOLDS IN CONTACT AND SMOOTH TOPOLOGY

RUI: PRECISION COSMOLOGICAL TESTS OF VARYING FUNDAMENTAL CONSTANTS

WE ARE REQUESTING $134 083 OVER THE 11-MONTH PERIOD BEGINNING NOVEMBER 1 2021 TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY TO THE NICER SCIENCE GOALS WITH TIMING PRECISION PROFILE STABILITY LIGHTCURVE MODELING MAGNETARS MAGNETOSPHERES AND PULSATION SEARCHES.

RUI: DISTRIBUTED PROGRAMMING WITH ALPHAZ

SUPERCOMPUTING ON A CLUSTER OF WORKSTATIONS VIA SCALABLE LOCALITY AND SCALABLE PARALLELISM

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: RUI: DENSITY OF MODES: A NEW WAY TO FORECAST SEDIMENT FAILURE -LANDSLIDES, SUBMARINE SLIDES, GROUND FISSURES, AND LIQUEFACTION ARE GEOHAZARDS THAT OCCUR WHEN NEAR-SURFACE SEDIMENTS SUDDENLY FAIL. THESE GEOHAZARDS CAN CAUSE LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE AND DESTROY INFRASTRUCTURE. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY HAS YET TO DEVISE A WAY TO FORECAST THESE EVENTS. THIS WORK AIMS TO DETERMINE WHETHER MEASUREMENTS OF THE DENSITY OF EXCITED VIBRATIONAL MODES (DOM), A TECHNIQUE THAT HAS SUCCESSFULLY PROVIDED A PRECURSOR SIGNAL TO FAILURE IN THE LABORATORY CONTEXT, PROVIDE A ROUTE FORWARD. TO DATE, THIS TECHNIQUE HAS YET TO BE TESTED IN NATURAL SAMPLES. THE RESEARCHERS WILL DEVELOP THE TECHNIQUE FIRST IN BEACH SANDS, THEN POSSIBLY IN MORE COMPLEX NEAR-SURFACE ENVIRONMENTS, INCLUDING FOR DATA ALREADY BEING COLLECTED AND PUBLISHED BY OTHER GROUPS. PROFESSORS ON THE TEAM WILL LEAD A DIVERSE GROUP OF STEM STUDENTS ACROSS DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES, USING BEST PRACTICES DEVELOPED BY EXPERTS THAT EMPHASIZE COLLABORATIONS AND MENTORSHIP. THE GROUND BENEATH OUR FEET SHIFTS OVER TIME, SOMETIMES SLOWLY CREEPING, SOMETIMES FLOWING LIKE A FLUID, AND SOMETIMES SUDDENLY FAILING. THESE SHIFTS CAUSE LANDSLIDES, SUBMARINE SLIDES, GROUND FISSURES, AND LIQUEFACTION. THESE GEOHAZARDS' FREQUENCY AND DESTRUCTIVE CAPABILITIES HAVE INCREASED AS GLOBAL WARMING WORSENS, SEA LEVELS RISE, AND EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS INTENSIFY. THE CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART LACKS A RELIABLE WAY TO FORECAST THESE EVENTS, LARGELY DUE TO A LACK OF RELIABLE METHODS FOR INCORPORATING SOIL-SCALE INFORMATION INTO FAILURE MODELS. THIS PROPOSAL HYPOTHESIZES THAT MEASUREMENTS OF THE DENSITY OF EXCITED VIBRATIONAL MODES (DOM), A STATISTICAL PHYSICS QUANTITY THAT PROVIDES WELL-ESTABLISHED FAILURE PRECURSORS SIGNALS (BROADENING AND INCREASE IN EXCESS OF LOW-FREQUENCY MODES) WITHIN LAB-RECONSTITUTED AND NUMERICALLY SIMULATED GRANULAR MATERIALS, PROVIDES A ROUTE FORWARD. THE WORK SEEKS TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: ?HOW DO DOM MEASUREMENTS COMPLEMENT AND CORRESPOND TO BULK GEOPHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS?? AND ?DOES THE DOM PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO THE EVOLVING STATE OF NATURALLY-DEPOSITED SEDIMENTS?? THESE EFFORTS WOULD REPRESENT THE FIRST APPLICATION OF THE DOM TECHNIQUE IN THE NATURAL SEDIMENTS; IF SUCCESSFUL, THE TRANSLATION OF THE TECHNIQUE TO EARTH SETTINGS WOULD PROVIDE A NEW WAY TO IDENTIFY AND MONITOR SLOPE STABILITY-RELATED HAZARDS WITHIN THE NEAR SURFACE. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

III: MEDIUM: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: EVALUATING AND MAXIMIZING FAIRNESS IN INFORMATION FLOW ON NETWORKS

RUI: AFFINE FLAGS, P-ADIC REPRESENTATIONS, AND QUANTUM COHOMOLOGY

COMBINATORICS IN HYPERBOLIC GEOMETRY AND EXPORTING TEICHMULLER THEORY

THE ROLE OF OUTER MEMBRANE AGGLUTININS IN ENTEROAGGREGATIVE ESCHERICHIA COLI COLONIZATION

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: NEW ESTIMATES OF ATMOSPHERIC PCO2 FROM THE PALEOCENE-EOCENE

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: SUBREGULAR INFERENCE OF MORPHO-PHONOLOGY -THE ABILITY TO LEARN LANGUAGE IS A FUNDAMENTAL PART OF BEING HUMAN, BUT RESEARCHERS DO NOT YET UNDERSTAND THE MECHANISMS THAT UNDERLIE THIS ABILITY. THIS RESEARCH FOCUSES ON TWO ASPECTS OF THIS MYSTERY: HOW HUMANS LEARN THE WORDS OF THEIR LANGUAGE (MORPHOLOGY), AND HOW THEY ACQUIRE THE SYSTEMATIC VARIATION IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF THESE WORDS (PHONOLOGY). FOR EXAMPLE, ENGLISH SPEAKERS CAN RECOGNIZE THAT THE WORDS ATOMIZE (AE-TUH-MAHYZ) AND ATOMIC (UH-TOM-IK) ARE BOTH BASED ON THE ROOT ATOM, EVEN THOUGH THE SOUNDS IN THAT ROOT ARE PRONOUNCED DIFFERENTLY IN THE TWO WORDS. AN INFLUENTIAL HYPOTHESIS IS THAT PEOPLE STORE MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE PRONUNCIATIONS OF WORDS THAT ABSTRACT AWAY FROM SOME FINER ASPECTS OF THEIR PRONUNCIATION. THIS RESEARCH AIMS TO MAKE PROGRESS TOWARDS ANSWERING THE QUESTION OF HOW THESE MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS ARE FORMED, AND HOW SPEAKERS LEARN THE LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC PATTERNS GOVERNING THE SYSTEMATIC VARIATION IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF RELATED WORDS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH INFORMS HYPOTHESES REGARDING THE ORGANIZATION OF MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WORDS AND PHONOLOGICAL PATTERNS IN CHILDREN, PROVIDES INTERPRETABLE ALGORITHMS AND SOFTWARE WHICH CAN BE USED FOR ANALYSIS AND PROCESSING OF LOW-RESOURCE LANGUAGES, AND PROVIDES INSIGHTS INTO SEQUENTIAL PROCESSING AND LEARNING MORE GENERALLY, WHICH HAS APPLICATIONS IN OTHER FIELDS SUCH AS BIOINFORMATICS AND PLANNING AND CONTROL SYSTEMS IN ROBOTICS. THE LEADING IDEA GUIDING THIS RESEARCH IS THAT LINGUISTIC GENERALIZATIONS ARE NOT ARBITRARY, AND ARE IN FACT GUIDED BY COMPUTATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL RESTRICTIONS RELATED TO MEMORY AND PERCEPTION. IT IS WELL-KNOWN THAT SUCH RESTRICTIONS CAN BE EXPRESSED WITH PARTICULAR (CALLED SUBREGULAR) FORMS OF LOGIC AND AUTOMATA. THIS RESEARCH APPLIES A MODULAR, INTERPRETABLE, AND SMALL-DATA APPROACH TO TACKLE THE PROBLEM OF SIMULTANEOUSLY LEARNING THE MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WORDS AND THEIR MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHONOLOGICAL PATTERNING. THIS RESEARCH IS BASED ON FOUNDATIONAL RESULTS CONNECTING THE COMPUTATIONAL COMPLEXITY OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHONOLOGICAL PATTERNS TO LEARNING PROCEDURES WHICH ARE SPECIFIC TO SUBREGULAR LOGICS AND AUTOMATA. COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE PRINCIPLES THAT GUIDE MORPHO-PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ARE COMBINED WITH ALGORITHMS BASED ON SUBREGULAR PROPERTIES OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHONOLOGICAL PATTERNING, WHICH ARE (1) SUITABLY GENERALIZED TO A VARIETY OF MORPHO-PHONOLOGICAL REPRESENTATIONS AND (2) MADE ROBUST TO OPTIONALITY, VARIATION, AND EXCEPTIONS. THE GOAL IS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND, QUALITATIVELY AND COMPUTATIONALLY, THE MECHANISMS WHICH UNDERLIE THE HUMAN CAPACITIES FOR BOTH CONSTRUCTING MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WORDS AND LEARNING THE MORPHO-PHONOLOGICAL PATTERNS GOVERNING THEM. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES ALSO PROVIDE THE RESULTING ALGORITHMS AS OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE AND EVALUATE THEM EMPIRICALLY AND QUANTITATIVELY, WITH A FOCUS ON LOW-RESOURCE LANGUAGES. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

CDS&E: D3SC: THE DARK REACTION PROJECT: A MACHINE-LEARNING APPROACH TO EXPLORING STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY IN SOLID STATE SYNTHESIS

MONITORING X-RAY PULSARS FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVE SEARCHES NICER GUEST OBSERVER CYCLE 4

SIMULATING THE MILKY WAY'S STELLAR HALO

EXECUTE A BALANCED SCIENCE PROGRAM BASED ON DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES AND DIRECTION FROM CONGRESS. PARTICIPATE AS A KEY PARTNER AND ENABLER IN THE AGE

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: RUI: STRUCTURED POPULATION DYNAMICS SUBJECT TO STOICHIOMETRIC CONSTRAINTS -AS HUMAN ACTIVITIES CONTINUE TO ALTER ENVIRONMENTAL BALANCES AND NUTRIENT CYCLES, IT IS BECOMING VITAL TO UNDERSTAND HOW THESE CHANGES CAN IMPACT THE ENVIRONMENT. ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES DEPEND ON THE FLOW AND BALANCE OF ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS SUCH AS CARBON, NITROGEN, AND PHOSPHORUS. THESE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS CAN AFFECT JUVENILE CONSUMERS DIFFERENTLY THAN ADULT CONSUMERS. SUCH AGE/STAGE-SPECIFIC EFFECTS AFFECT POPULATION DYNAMICS, SUGGESTING AGE/STAGE-STRUCTURED MATHEMATICAL MODELS ARE NEEDED TO ACCURATELY CAPTURE AND UNDERSTAND POPULATION DYNAMICS. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGE/STAGE-STRUCTURED POPULATION MODELS OVER THE DECADES HAS SIGNIFICANTLY CONTRIBUTED TO UNDERSTANDING ENERGY FLOW AND POPULATION DYNAMICS OF ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS. HOWEVER, CURRENT MODELS FAIL WHEN FERTILITY AND MATURATION PLAY IMPORTANT ROLES IN NUTRIENT RECYCLING AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION. HERE, INVESTIGATORS WILL DESIGN AND CONDUCT LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS IN CONJUNCTION WITH DEVELOPING MATHEMATICAL MODELS THAT INCORPORATE AGE/STAGE-SPECIFIC NUTRITIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON GROWTH, TIME TO MATURATION, AND REPRODUCTION. THIS WILL RESULT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW THEORETICAL APPLICATIONS IN ECOLOGY THAT INVESTIGATE HOW VARYING NUTRIENT LEVELS HELP SHAPE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES. THE PROJECT IS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY, HAVERFORD COLLEGE, AND CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NORTHRIDGE, AND OFFERS VALUABLE EDUCATIONAL, TRAINING, AND OUTREACH OPPORTUNITIES. SPECIFICALLY, UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS WILL RECEIVE INTERDISCIPLINARY TRAINING AND MENTORSHIP IN THE FIELDS OF MATHEMATICS AND ECOLOGY TO GAIN THE ABILITY TO ASK, ANSWER, AND ACHIEVE BROAD UNDERSTANDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS, THAT IS NECESSARY TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY ACROSS DISCIPLINES. INVESTIGATORS AND STUDENTS WILL BE INVOLVED IN K-12 OUTREACH INITIATIVES. THIS PROJECT SEEKS TO UNDERSTAND THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF STOICHIOMETRIC CONSTRAINTS AND POPULATION DYNAMICS, PARTICULARLY, HOW ORGANISMAL STAGE STRUCTURES AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION INFLUENCE EACH OTHER. TO THIS END, THE INVESTIGATORS WILL DEVELOP AND ANALYZE A SERIES OF EMPIRICALLY TESTABLE AND ROBUST MATHEMATICAL MODELS OF POPULATION DYNAMICS STRUCTURED UNDER THE FRAMEWORK OF ECOLOGICAL STOICHIOMETRY. THE THEORY OF ECOLOGICAL STOICHIOMETRY EMPHASIZES THE BALANCE OF ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS THROUGHOUT ECOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS. COMPARTMENTAL SYSTEMS OF ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND DELAYED INTEGRO-DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS WILL BE DEVELOPED TO ADDRESS COMPLEX QUESTIONS ABOUT STAGE-SPECIFIC NUTRITIONAL CONSTRAINTS, AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES ON MATURATION AND REPRODUCTIVE OUTPUT. DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS THEORY AND TOOLS WILL BE USED TO INTERPRET AND ANALYZE THE MODELS INCLUDING ANALYTICAL, NUMERICAL, AS WELL AS BIFURCATION ANALYSIS. THE SYNTHESIS OF THE MODELS AND EXPERIMENTS WILL INTEGRATE THE FIELD OF STRUCTURED POPULATION MATHEMATICAL MODELING WITH THE THEORY OF ECOLOGICAL STOICHIOMETRY. THE RESULTING THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND THEIR FINDINGS WILL HELP SHED LIGHT ON THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN ELEMENTAL CONSTRAINTS AND STAGE-STRUCTURES WITHIN ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND BROADEN THE TYPES OF ECOLOGICAL QUESTIONS THAT MODELS CAN ANSWER. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: RI: MEDIUM: HARD DATA TO THE MODEL: PERSONALIZED, DIVERSE PREFERENCES FOR LANGUAGE MODELS -TENS OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS INTERACT WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TOOLS TO FIND INFORMATION, ANSWER QUESTIONS, OR HELP THEM SOLVE PROBLEMS. ONE KEY DRAWBACK OF THESE SYSTEMS IS LACK OF PERSONALIZATION: SINCE MODERN AI SYSTEMS DO NOT KNOW WHOM THEY ARE TALKING TO, THEY CAN ONLY GIVE GENERIC ANSWERS TO USER QUESTIONS. BUT THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ?WHY IS THE SKY BLUE?? SHOULD BE DIFFERENT IF THE PERSON ASKING THE QUESTION IS A COLLEGE STUDENT OR A YOUNG CHILD. THIS PROJECT AIMS TO ENABLE AN AI MODEL TO PROVIDE MORE APPROPRIATE RESPONSES TO USERS DEPENDING ON THEIR UNIQUE BACKGROUNDS, EXPERIENCES, AND NEEDS. IT WILL FIRST GATHER A DIVERSE DATASET IN ORDER TO CHARACTERIZE WHAT KINDS OF RESPONSES ARE PREFERRED BY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. THE PROJECT WILL THEN USE THESE DATA TO DEVELOP AI SYSTEMS THAT CAN TAILOR THEIR ANSWERS TO INDIVIDUAL USERS, AS WELL AS EVALUATE HOW WELL THE AI SYSTEMS PERSONALIZE RESPONSES. TO ACHIEVE THIS PERSONALIZATION, THE AI SYSTEMS WILL LEARN TO EXPLICITLY REPRESENT THE KIND OF PERSON THEY ARE TALKING TO, BASED ON THEIR BACKGROUND OR PREVIOUS INTERACTIONS, AND THEN USE THIS REPRESENTATION TO GENERATE AN APPROPRIATE RESPONSE. THIS PROJECT WILL RESULT IN AIS THAT CAN PROVIDE PERSONALIZED, SPECIFIC RESPONSES BASED ON THE PERSON ASKING THE QUESTION AS WELL AS RESOURCES THAT WILL HELP OTHER PERSONALIZE AIS. THESE RESOURCES WILL INCLUDE DATASETS OF PERSONALIZED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, INTERFACES AND VISUALIZATIONS TO UNDERSTAND WHY AI PROVIDES SPECIFIC RESPONSES OVER OTHERS; INTERVIEWS AND DISCUSSIONS WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO UNDERSTAND THEIR NEEDS; AND CODE AND MODELS THAT WILL ALLOW OTHERS TO BUILD, TRAIN, AND DEPLOY PERSONALIZED AI SYSTEMS. WHILE LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS (LLMS) TRAINED ON MASSIVE DATASETS HAVE SHOWN IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE ON A VARIETY OF TASKS, THEY STILL EXHIBIT BIASES AND STRUGGLE TO BE EQUALLY USEFUL FOR EVERYONE. WHILE INITIALLY PRE-TRAINED ON A LANGUAGE MODELING OBJECTIVE, MOST LLMS ARE FURTHER FINE-TUNED TO ALIGN THEIR OUTPUTS WITH HUMAN PREFERENCES. HOWEVER, EXISTING TECHNIQUES ASSUME A ?ONE SIZE FITS ALL? APPROACH, IGNORING DIVERSITY IN USER NEEDS. THIS PROJECT WILL FIRST CONSTRUCT PROBES TO DETECT CASES WHERE MODELS FAIL TO ADAPT TO THE DIVERSE NEEDS OF DIFFERENT USERS. THEN, THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP PERSONALIZED FEEDBACK FOR DIVERSE POPULATIONS (PFDP) TO IDENTIFY WHEN MODELS SHOULD BE SENSITIVE TO THE UNIQUE NEEDS, KNOWLEDGE, AND BACKGROUND OF USERS BY EXAMINING THE TRAINING TRAJECTORY OF MODELS AND COMPARING MODELS' ANSWERS TO HUMAN PREFERENCES. PFDP WILL ENABLE THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODELS THAT CAN DETECT EXAMPLES THAT ARE DIFFICULT FOR COMPUTERS BUT NOT FOR HUMANS, EXPLAIN WHY SUCH DISPARITIES IN DIFFICULTY EXIST, AND REPRESENT USERS? NEEDS AND PREFERENCES WITHIN THE MODEL. TO CORRECT THOSE SHORTCOMINGS IN THE DATA, WE FOCUS ON DATA CURATION: WE PROPOSE TECHNIQUES TO AUTOMATICALLY CREATE NEW EXAMPLES THAT ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT UNDER-REPRESENTED GROUPS OR REQUIRE TARGETED RESPONSES TO CREATE ADVERSARIAL PROMPT AND RESPONSE PAIRS WITH A HUMAN IN THE LOOP. FINALLY, WITH THESE NEW DATA, WE DEVELOP TECHNIQUES TO ALLOW MODERN ARCHITECTURES TO MAKE THE MOST OF THESE DIFFICULT (BUT FEW) EXAMPLES. THESE TECHNIQUES WILL ALLOW FOR FINE-TUNING LLMS WITH A SMALL CURATED SUBSET OF DATA THAT IS ROBUST TO VARIATIONS IN PROMPTS AND WILL LEAD TO THE GENERATION OF ACCEPTABLE ANSWERS FOR A DIVERSE POPULATION OF USERS. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

WE PROPOSE TO PERFORM MONITORING CAMPAIGNS FOR FIVE PULSARS FOUR OF WHICH CAN ONLY BE DONE VIA X-RAY OBSERVATIONS. OUR REQUESTED TOTAL EXPOSURE TIMES ARE 260 KS FOR PSR J0537-6910 48 KS FOR PSR J1412+7922 294 KS FOR PSR J1813-1749 60 KS FOR PSR J1849-0001 AND 200 KS FOR PSR J2229+6114. THESE DATA WILL ALLOW US TO COMPUTE ACCURATE PHASE-CONNECTED TIMING MODELS FOR EACH PULSAR WHICH WILL ENABLE LIGO/VIRGO TO PERFORM SEARCHES OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THESE MOSTLY YOUNG AND POTENTIALLY STRONGER GRAVITATIONALWAVE EMITTING PULSARS. OUR PROPOSED OBSERVATIONS WILL OCCUR CONTEMPORANEOUSLY WITH LIGO/VIRGO'S NEXT MOST SENSITIVE OBSERVING RUN WHICH BEGINS IN SPRING 2019. IN ADDITION OUR HIGH CADENCE OBSERVATIONS OF PSR J0537-6910 WILL PROVIDE AN OPPORTUNITY TO FURTHER PIN-DOWN AND TEST THIS PULSAR'S UNIQUE GLITCH PREDICTABILITY AND TO MEASURE POTENTIAL X-RAY SIGNATURES ASSOCIATED WITH GLITCHES.

I AM REQUESTING $49 000 OVER THE 18-MONTH PERIOD BEGINNING MARCH 1 2017 TO LEAD THE EFFORT TO ACHIEVE THE NICER SCIENCE GOALS IN THE AREA OF TIMING PRECISION AND STABILITY. GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EXPERIMENTS SUCH AS THE NORTH AMERICAN NANOHERTZ OBSERVATORY OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES (NANOGRAV) RELY UPON UNDERSTANDING THE SOURCES OF NOISE IN PULSAR TIMING RESIDUALS. NICER WILL HELP CONSTRAIN SOURCES OF NOISE BY PROVIDING DATA FREE OF DISPERSIVE DELAYS DUE TO THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM. AS A PULSAR TIMING EXPERT AND FOUNDER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NANOHERTZ OBSERVATORY OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES1 (NANOGRAV) I HAVE ENORMOUS INCENTIVE FOR ACHIEVING TIMING STABILITY WITH NICER PULSARS. NICER IS GOING TO MAKE THE DEFINITIVE STATEMENT IN INTRINSIC STABILITY IN PULSAR TIMING

STELLAR OSCILLATION MODES KNOWN AS R-MODES CAN CONVERT ROTATIONAL ENERGY OF FAST SPINNING NEUTRON STARS INTO GRAVITATIONAL WAVES AND INTERNAL HEATING. BY MEASURING X-RAY FLUX FROM THE HOT SURFACE OF RAPIDLY ROTATING PULSARS WE CAN CONSTRAIN THE PHYSICS THAT GOVERN R-MODES SUCH AS THE STATE OF NUCLEAR MATTER. WITH A SPIN RATE OF 707 HZ PSR J0952-0607 IS THE FASTEST-SPINNING PULSAR KNOWN OUTSIDE A GLOBULAR CLUSTER. THE LOW INTERVENING NH (4 X 1020 CM-2) AND SMALL SOURCE DISTANCE (0.97-1.74 KPC) INDICATE THAT AN XMM-NEWTON OBSERVATION CAN SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE UPON THE X-RAY FLUX CONSTRAINT OBTAINED BY SWIFT. PSR J0952-0607 IS THUS AN EXCELLENT TARGET FOR INVESTIGATING WHAT LIMITS THE SPIN EVOLUTION OF MILLISECOND PULSARS. FINALLY MODELING OF A NONTHERMAL COMPONENT OF THE X-RAY SPECTRUM CAN YIELD VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO THE INTRABINARY SHOCK BETWEEN PSR J0952-0607 AND ITS COMPANION STAR.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: MAPPING THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES

EXECUTE A BALANCED SCIENCE PROGRAM BASED ON DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES AND DIRECTION FROM CONGRESS. PARTICIPATE AS A KEY PARTNER AND ENABLER IN THE AGE

23-NICER23-0006 MONITORING X-RAY PULSARS FOR THEIR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

E014042 - TIMING OBSERVATIONS OF MEV PULSARS PSR J1838 AND PSR J1846

WE PROPOSE MONITORING OBSERVATIONS OF THE YOUNG HIGHLY ENERGETIC PULSARS PSR J1838-0655 AND PSR J1846-0258. THESE SOURCES ARE ONLY EASILY DETECTABLE AS PULSARS AT X-RAY ENERGIES WHICH MAKES NICER THE IDEAL INSTRUMENT TO CONDUCT THE NECESSARY OBSERVATIONS.

FRIENDLY ASSOCIATION PAPERS AT HAVERFORD COLLEGE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

RAPID: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: ACUTE RESPONSE OF BENTHIC HARDBOTTOM COMMUNITIES TO OIL EXPOSURE IN THE DEEP GULF OF MEXICO

WE PROPOSE MONITORING CAMPAIGNS FOR FIVE PULSARS FOUR OF WHICH CAN ONLY BE DONE VIA X-RAY OBSERVATIONS USING NICER WITH TOTAL EXPOSURE TIMES OF 520 KS FOR PSR J0537-6910 300 KS FOR PSR J1101-6101 48 KS FOR PSR J1412+7922 60 KS FOR PSR J1849-0001 AND 200 KS FOR PSR J2229+6114.

WE PROPOSE MONITORING CAMPAIGNS FOR FIVE PULSARS FOUR OF WHICH CAN ONLY BE DONE VIA X-RAY OBSERVATIONS USING NICER WITH TOTAL EXPOSURE TIMES OF 520 KS FOR PSR J0537-6910 300 KS FOR PSR J1101-6101 48 KS FOR PSR J1412+7922 60 KS FOR PSR J1849-0001 AND 200 KS FOR PSR J2229+6114. THESE DATA WILL ALLOW US TO COMPUTE ACCURATE PHASE-CONNECTED TIMING MODELS FOR EACH PULSAR WHICH WILL

MID-ATLANTIC ALGEBRA, GEOMETRY, AND COMBINATORICS WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP ON FORMAL LANGUAGE THEORY IN LINGUISTICS: NEW ORLEANS, LA - JANUARY 2020

X RAY PROPERTIES OF THE UNIQUE RUNAWAY OR VERY COOL NEUTRON STAR PSR J0837 2454

RUI: RADIO ASTRONOMY IN THE SERVICE OF COSMOLOGY

FY 2017 SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP MATSCI/NCNR

FY 2016 SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP MML/NCNR-MATSCI

ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING DEVICES FOR HAVERFORD COLLEGE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS