Donald Davis - US grants

The long-range goal of this project is to provide quantitative, experimental information about the relationships which link molecular structure and molecular dynamics to the functions of biological macromolecules. To obtain such information we have developed novel and sensitive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods which use carbon 13, nitrogen 15 and their attached protons to probe macromolecular structure and dynamics in unique ways. These methods, some of which may ultimately find applications in biomedical imaging and spectroscopy, can provide the following: (1) ultrasensitive, indirect detection of carbon 13, nitrogen 15 resonances via proton NMR, (2) unambiguous values for the torsional angles of the peptide back bone (phi, psi) and the side chain residues (chi), (3) detailed kinetic parameters for the internal, anisotropic motions of side chain groups, (4) identification of solvent-exposed and solvent-shielded peptide NH groups and the characterization of peptide back bone conformational fluctuations. Our initial efforts will focus on using these new methods to obtain integrated structural, conformational and dynamic information on the membrane-active, peptide antibiotics, alamethicin (ALA) and gramidicin-A GRAM-A, in solvents of different polarity and composition and, where feasible, in membrane-memetic environments. From the knowledge and experience gained through these studies we intend to proceed further with these methods to investigate the conformational and dynamic properties of more complex biomacromolecular systems.

Davis will work on problems in three general areas of homotopy theory. i) A primary goal is to prove that, in the Adams spectral sequence converging to the 2-primary stable homotopy groups of spheres, the line above which only the image of J survives has slope 1/5, or perhaps even 1/6, rather than the 3/10 already established. The odd primary analogue of this result will also be considered. Projects in unstable homotopy theory arising from the same circle of ideas include determining the v-one-periodic homotopy groups of the special orthogonal groups SO(n), the unstable Adams spectral sequence for SO, and a better bound on v-zero-torsion in the unstable Adams spectral sequence for spheres. ii) He hopes to study the classification of the stable homotopy types of smash products of stunted real projective spaces. iii) He will study a conjecture of Landweber relating the complex bordism of a finite group to its rank, by first attempting the abelian case. These problems all call upon expertise in computing with homotopy groups, but the computing will be mainly human rather than electronic, with only modest and occasional machine assistance. Flexible branching guided by seasoned intuition is expected to surpass brute force. Geometric applications are envisioned for the results of these calculations, which will provide new tools for the use of topologists.

The project will develop a fuzzy set framework to deal with the effects of climatic changes on water resources management and with the uncertainties in the prediction of hydrometeorologic extremes, such as floods and droughts, under changing climatologic conditions. Probabilistic and fuzzy set analyses will be combined and historical data will be used to link local climate elements to global circulation models for the generation of circulation patterns. Anomalies in these patterns usually produce drought or flood and these events will be developed as time series. Forecasting will be carried out of such time series on the basis of circulation pattern series and some of these forecasts will be used in water resources decision-making, e.g., reservoir operation. The value of this research will be to provide theoretical bases to engineering techniques for taking climatic fluctuations and global changes into account in decision-making related to extreme droughts and floods.

IRI-9314946 The research to be conducted concerns the generation of speech signals in terms of (a) an articulatory description of the vocal system, and (b) a fluid dynamic soluction to the generation, propagation, and radiation of audible sound produced by the acoustic system. This includes the computation of the speech signal from first principles, using the Navier-Stokes description of fluid flow, already demonstrated feasible.Anticipated results include a potentially significant improvement in the quality of synthesized speech and fundamentally new and more robust designs of speech recognizers stemming from a better understanding of the speech phenomena and how it can be made more immune to interference. Also it is expected that this research influence improvements in the coding of speech at lower bit rates.

EIA-0204430
Major, Debra A., Davis, Donald D., Mann, Joan, Sanchez-Hucles, Janis V.
Old Dominion University

Title: Climate for Opportunity and Inclusion: Improving the Recruitment, Retention and Advancement of Women and Minorities in IT

This ITWF award provides support to investigate how characteristics of the information technology (IT) workplace can foster increased retention and advancement of women and minorities. In the first year, several work organizations with IT departments of varying sizes and demographic compositions will be recruited to participate in the study. Survey and interview data will be collected from human resource directors, IT supervisors and IT employees in order to assess the climate for opportunity and inclusion of each department. The goal is to identify barriers and enablers to the career success of women and minorities in IT departments. In the second year, a survey feedback intervention will be conducted in each participating organization to encourage IT departments to capitalize on their strengths and improve their weaknesses with regard to opportunity and inclusion for all employees. In the third year, survey and interview data will again be collected to assess the effectiveness of the interventions implemented during the second year. The objective is not only to assist the participating organizations in establishing an inclusive workplace environment, but also to develop "best practices" that can be shared, through publications and presentations, with others in the IT field and researchers interested in workplace diversity issues.

Abstract

Award: DMS-0311913
Principal Investigator: Susan Szczepanski

The Co-PI's of this project will organize and host the next two
occurences (eleventh and twelfth) of the Lehigh Geometry and
Topology Conference. These three day conferences will be held on
the campus of Lehigh University, in Bethlehem Pennsylvania in
June, 2003 and June, 2004. The conferences will be international
in scope with a combined emphasis on the areas of geometry and
topology and will be designed to attract participants at all
stages of careers from a large geographic area.

Prominent researchers will be invited to prepare lectures for the
general audience on a range of topics highlighting significant
recent research developments and their connections to the fields
of geometry and topology as well as the applications of results
in topology and geometry to other areas of mathematics and
science. All attendees will be encouraged to present current
research results and to participate in mathematical discourse.
In particular, special effort will be undertaken to ensure that
this conference will benefit individuals in the early stages of a
career in mathematical research. Financial support will be
provided to undergraduates, graduate students, recent PhD's and
untenured assistant professors, and members of under-represented
groups; the invited speakers will be expected to serve as their
mentors by providing comment and suggesting additional problems
for study.

This study will advance current knowledge of the relationship between Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) directors and university administrators by investigating mutual leadership processes, a largely ignored area of inquiry in I/UCRC research. The research will also contribute to the research literature on leadership because of its focus on research center directors and university administrators, a subject population often neglected by leadership researchers.

ABSTRACT
ITWF Program - FY04

CNS 0420365, PI's Donald Davis, Debra Major, Janis Sanchez-Hucles, Old Dominion U.
Title: Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment: Enhancing Retention of Women and Minorities in Computer Science

Collaborative Projects:
CNS 0420365, PI's Donald Davis, Debra Major, Janis Sanchez-Hucles, Old Dominion U.
CNS 0420371, PI Sandra DeLoatch, Norfolk State U.

Old Dominion University and Norfolk State University have been awarded an ITWF grant to conduct a collaborative four-year implementation project designed to create an inclusive learning environment in computer science (CS) and thereby increase retention of women and minority undergraduate students. The two institutions will create an inclusive learning environment through (a) strengthening faculty-student and student-peer relationships using collaborative and multicultural teaching and learning practices and (b) strengthening student self-efficacy, optimism, career management, and collaboration and coping skills. All beginning CS students will participate in a required, semester-long class that presents a realistic preview of the challenges of being a computer science major, techniques and skills for coping with such challenges, training in attitudes and beliefs that foster persistence, and use of role models to describe the career rewards that are possible in computer science. Faculty will be trained in "wise schooling" techniques to foster inclusiveness. Faculty will also include pair programming and collaborative learning in programming classes.

Abstract

Award: DMS- 0511215
Principal Investigator: Susan Szczepanski, Huai-Dong Cao,
Donald M. Davis, David L. Johnson


The Co-PI's of this project will organize and host the next
occurrences of two important conferences on geometry and topology
cosponsored by the hosting institutions and the Journal of
Differential Geometry. The first conference will be held in May,
2005 and will be hosted at Harvard University, Cambridge ,
Massachusetts. This conference will be international in scope
and will highlight recent developments in the field of geometry
that will likely determine the primary direction of research in
this area for the next several years. The other two conferences
will be the next occurrences (thirteenth and fourteenth) of the
Lehigh Geometry and Topology Conference and will be held on the
campus of Lehigh University, Bethlehem Pennsylvania in June, 2006
and June, 2007. These conferences will be international in scope
as well with a combined emphasis on the areas of geometry and
topology. All three conferences will be designed to attract
participants at all stages of careers from a large geographic
area.

Prominent researchers will be invited to prepare lectures for the
general audience on a range of topics highlighting significant
recent research developments and their connections to the fields
of geometry and topology as well as the applications of results
in topology and geometry to other areas of mathematics and
science. All attendees will be encouraged to present current
research results and to participate in mathematical discourse.
In particular, special effort will be undertaken to ensure that
this conference will benefit individuals in the early stages of a
career in mathematical research. Financial support will be
provided to undergraduates, graduate students, recent PhD's and
untenured assistant professors, and members of under-represented
groups; the invited speakers will be expected to serve as their
mentors by providing comment and suggesting additional problems
for study.

This award is funded jointly by the programs in Geometric Analysis
and Topology.

This collaborative, multi-disciplinary project will exploit recent progress in genomics - the study of the complete genetic content of species and how it works - to greatly advance our knowledge of evolutionary relationships in the insect order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). A broad-scale "family tree" (phylogeny, genealogy) will be estimated using DNA sequences from approximately 250 species, representing all 126 families into which Lepidoptera are currently divided. A simultaneous review of known lepidopteran fossils will allow estimation of the geological ages of origin of the major groups. The 24 genes to be sequenced, identified by genome comparisons and screening in an earlier Tree of Life project, constitute far greater sampling of the genome than has heretofore been possible in most insects. Beyond providing a "backbone" phylogeny, the project is designed to catalyze a world-wide community effort to further resolve the lepidopteran tree, incorporating more traditional evidence from anatomy and behavior in addition to DNA. Annual lab workshops will help other lepidopterists to apply the numerous genes developed for this project, methods for which will be continuously updated on the web. An international network of >20 experts on Lepidoptera will help to choose species and provide specimens for project DNA sequencing. These experts will also jointly produce the first comprehensive catalog of anatomical features potentially informative about lepidopteran family genealogy, clarifying the chaotic terminology which has frustrated previous attempts to employ these traits for tree-building. A central project feature, also borrowed from modern genomics, will be an interactive website allowing the project team plus any other researcher to contribute and download data, methods, analysis and commentary on lepidopteran phylogeny at any level. The intent is to foster global cooperation and progress toward a fully-resolved tree. The web site will be "seeded" with most of the current evidence, to ensure a critical mass of information for others to build on. The same compilations will be used to greatly augment the available resources for public education on Lepidoptera, through contributions to popular web sites such as the Tree of Life.

The Lepidoptera are the largest single group of plant-feeding insects, numbering over 160,000 species. Ubiquitous and familiar, they are both a vital component of terrestrial ecosystems - what would birds and bats eat without them?- and arguably the most damaging group of pests overall to agriculture. As unusually conspicuous terrestrial non-vertebrates, Lepidoptera are extensively used in ecosystem assessment, and for educating and involving the public in environmental biology. They are also important focal organisms in many areas of biological research. For example, the evolutionary diversification of Lepidoptera in association with the rise of flowering plants, beginning in the Age of Dinosaurs, has figured prominently in the attempt to understand the origins of today's biodiversity. A well- corroborated "family tree" is essential both for understanding any aspect of lepidopteran evolution, and for constructing classifications that let us effectively organize and apply our voluminous knowledge about individual moth and butterfly species. However, relatively little progress toward such a tree has heretofore been made.

This project will automate the production of, and then produce, 10 Night Sky Brightness Monitors (NSBM), for distribution at major US astronomical observatories. The NSBM is a specially equipped photometer created to resist common outdoor conditions. The project aims to establish a network of NSBMs that will operate remotely in an autonomous fashion and that will provide continuous, long term measurements of the brightness of the night sky at ten major US observatory sites.

The NSBM was developed by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) and the Vatican Observatory. Each consists of a remote photometer head with two detectors and a base station that can be located up to 100 meters from the detectors and is connected directly to the Web. Each photometer samples an area of 5.6 degrees diameter of the sky, one near the zenith and another direction. The detectors are equipped with a broadband filter that allows accurate measurements of the skylight. The photometers will be calibrated for accuracy and stability and their response will be correlated with other photometric systems. A data collection and archiving center will be established at the headquarters of the IDA located in Tucson, Arizona, and the data will be made available to the public via a web-based interface.

Ground based astronomical observations are fundamental to our understanding of the Universe and consequently preserving our ability to access dark skies from the ground is critical. Today, the world is at risk of losing this important natural resource to the increasing sky glow. Both national and international astronomical observatories, which depend on the darkness of the sky to carry out their observations, are threatened by the encroaching urban expansion. However, to date, the only research by these observatories on the impinging sky glow comes from an occasional photometric or spectroscopic observation. The objective of the SKYMONITOR network is to change the way sky brightness is recorded and observed.

Data will be transmitted to a central location, where it will be collected, archived, and made available via the Web to the public. Such data will allow assessing the long term trends in sky brightness at major astronomical sites and other environmentally sensitive locations, and will also be available for research projects, education and public outreach. Besides astronomical applications, the equipment and the information created by this research can be utilized in engineering, urban planning, and in other sciences. For example, requesting a dark sky ordinance or laws to limit outdoor lighting nearly always brings questions about the need for such controls. Having sound data to demonstrate the quality of night skies at sensitive sites, or the impact of light pollution on the quality of these skies is essential to establish credibility with jurisdictional authorities while justifying the need to create an outdoor lighting ordinance or to improve an existing one. Data obtained under the project will also be useful in understanding the impact of light pollution on flora and fauna. Launching the project in 2009 will integrate it with the goals of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA).

Industry Clusters, Trade, and Growth
Economists have long recognized that a central effect of trade is to change the set of industries in an economy. When industries are heterogeneous, either in their potential for productivity growth, or in their ability to generate spillovers that improve productivity in other industries, these changes will affect a country's growth rate. Simple observation, as well as recent empirical evidence, suggests that such heterogeneity exists to a significant degree. The goal of this project is to understand how trade affects growth through its affect on the composition of industries in an economy. Particular attention will be paid to the role of industry clusters, by which is meant groups of industries where each industry in the cluster has significant productivity spillovers to other cluster industries.
The PI addresses this problem using both theoretical and empirical tools. The theoretical contribution is fairly well developed. The results suggest that trade may increase the growth rate of all trading economies, if it concentrates industries or strengthens clusters. Conversely, trade may decrease growth in all trading economies if it weakens industry clusters. These results are new and contradict previous studies, such as those by Young (1991) and Matsuyama (1992), who apply more restrictive and less realistic assumptions. An important implication is that the effect of trade on growth depends crucially on the initial set of industries in an economy and the pattern of industry clusters. The empirical portion of this project, which is still in its infancy, involves constructing a new data set describing the evolution of the economy of Lancashire County, England, from the Industrial Revolution to the present. Lancashire County, birthplace of the industrial revolution, is interesting as a clear case of successful trade-driven and cluster-based development. Another reason for choosing this case is the wealth of data available. These data will be used to illustrate the mechanisms described by the theory, and to test its predictions.
Intellectual Merit
The intellectual merit of this project rests on the importance of the question it addresses. As the world becomes more globalized the decisions countries make regarding trade policy will become more and more important. The recent experience of East Asia suggests that trade can be a powerful engine for growth, yet in other cases we see that trade need not lead to growth. The PI's work provides a new analytical framework for assessing the effects of trade and suggests how trade, technology, and industrial policies can be used to harness the power of trade to create growth. Furthermore, the results suggest that when trading partners coordinate to design proper policies, all trading partners can benefit.
Broader Impacts
The broader impacts of this work will be felt through its impact on trade policies, and related technology and industrial policies. With nearly every country involved in significant trading relationships, any knowledge that increases the ability of countries to enact trade policies that increase growth will have wide applicability. Once completed, the PI intends to disseminate the results both through academic publication and through channels focused on reaching policymakers.

The University of New Mexico-Los Alamos (UNMLA), in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Santa Fe Community College, is redesigning the Applied Technologies (AT) associate's program to include degree concentrations in electromechanical, solar, and nano-technology as an effort to prepare more highly skilled technicians to support the region's emerging need for high-tech employees in these areas. This critical need is given special urgency based on the State of New Mexico's vision and plan for the development of a new "green" economy.

The project involves an equipment overhaul, in addition to rigorous curriculum and instructional improvements in the three content areas noted above. Targeting high school students and teachers, the project articulates a career pathway for underrepresented students that leads to participation in advanced technical education, as well as opportunities at four year institutions . Problem-based learning incorporating engineering design principles and an interdisciplinary thematic approach guide the strategy for teaching and learning. The project also supplements instruction with authentic internship experiences at supporting companies and national laboratories. A total of 65 students will have moved through the program at its completion. The project takes advantage of UNMLA's pilot faculty share program supported by LANL and Santa Fe Community College as a means to build institutional capacity and sustain the efforts of the work. Thus, this important initiative serves as a model for revising and enhancing a pre-existing degree program, specifically targeting underrepresented student populations. The support and commitments at the state and local level ensure the efforts to build capacity to meet the demands of the participating institutions and the growing needs of the new economy.

This award provides partial support for meetings of the Lehigh-Harvard Conference on Geometry and Topology, to be held during 2017-2018 at Harvard University (2017) and Lehigh University (2018). The main purpose of the conference is to bring leading researchers of national and international stature in geometry and topology to present their latest work, to discuss the forefront of these fields, and to interact with other mathematicians from the region and around the country. In this way, it provides a great platform to promote research and advance knowledge in the fields of geometry and topology. The Lehigh-Harvard conference also makes it possible for the community of geometers and topologists from the region and around the country to learn the most recent developments, to meet with each other and to share mathematics. Through the participation of the conference, graduate students, post-doctoral scholars and members of under-represented groups are exposed to exciting research in geometry and topology and have the chance to interact with experts in the fields. When the conference is held at Lehigh, in addition to invited talks, considerable time is set aside for 40-minute contributed talks (in parallel sessions) by the participants, and a large percentage of such talks in the past have been presented by graduate students, postdocs and women mathematicians. The invited speakers and other senior researchers also attend these contributed talks, and they provide excellent feedback to the speakers, especially for junior faculty and graduate students. In this way, the Lehigh conference provides an excellent opportunity for graduate students and recent PhDs to present their own research.

The 2017 Conference on Geometry and Topology will take place at Harvard University from April 28 to May 2, 2017. It will feature a total of 33 invited talks by leading experts in many diverse areas of geometry, topology, and related fields: differential and symplectic geometry, algebraic and complex geometry, geometric analysis and geometric flows, geometric topology, mathematical physics, theoretical physics, etc. The conference will highlight some of the most exciting progress in geometry and topology in recent years. The scope and the large number of distinguished speakers makes this conference unique. Participation is open, and there is no registration fee. Graduate students, recent PhDs, and members from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to participate and to apply for support. The 2018 Lehigh Geometry and Topology Conference will concentrate on geometric flows. More specifically, the 3-4 day conference, in June of 2018, will invite 6 to 8 top experts to give plenary lectures which will survey recent significant developments in the field of geometric flows. In addition to contributed talks by participants in geometric flows, there will also be background lectures for graduate students and recent PhDs.

More information about the Lehigh-Harvard Conference on Geometry and Topology can be found at the following websites:
http://www.math.harvard.edu/jdg/
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dlj0/geotop.html

This project investigates how the provision of urban transportation infrastructure affect growth within cities and property values. Quantifying the effect of transportation projects on city growth and property values has proven difficult for at least two reasons. First, transportation infrastructure may produce growth and a rise in property values, but the latter may also lead to transportation projects. Second, some of the largest and most interesting transportation projects were undertaken long before the advent of computers, so that the associated data has been locked up in disparate paper records. To address these issues, the investigator exploits a unique historical setting in the introduction of the mass-public transit infrastructure in New York City, and further creates novel datasets that have not existed in machine-readable form. These new datasets provide a very high level of geographic resolution and enable the study of spatial economic interactions at a similarly high level of resolution within the city. This extensive database helps shed light on the evolution of spatial development in the city as transportation infrastructure is developed.

This project develops a structural model describing the expansion of the transit network and associated reorganization of economic activities within the city. To achieve this goal, the investigator (1) constructs an integrated spatial framework that explicitly models the impact of transit shocks on location choices of households and firms; (2) digitizes and creates a novel dataset of the late nineteenth and twentieth century New York City and its surrounding areas; (3) takes the data to the model and applies the framework to measure the impact of urban transit infrastructure; (4) develops an identification strategy that allows the estimated impacts to have a causal interpretation. This project provides an integrated framework that can be applicable to many fields where spatial linkages are present, contributing to integrate the fields of trade, economic geography, and urban economics in a unified framework. Results and tools developed from this proposal can be readily incorporated to other circumstances, enabling more theoretically-grounded empirical analyses. Using this structural estimation approach, researchers can conduct both retrospective and prospective policy analysis. Finally, the database created from this project can allow researchers to investigate complex general equilibrium effects in the presence of multiple spatial linkages.