/news-archive/tag/shanzhi-wang/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:05:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2019/02/07/surf-fellowships-2/ Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:05:26 +0000 /news/?p=73359 ... Four 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students receive SURF research fellowships]]> Four 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students have received the prestigious Student Undergraduate Research Fellowships from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education to conduct research this spring with help from faculty mentors. The (SURF) program provides up to $2,750 to undergraduate students to conduct in-depth research projects in their specific fields of study with the assistance of faculty mentors. To be eligible, all fellowship recipients must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.25, at least 30 hours of credit toward a degree, and support of a faculty mentor. Funds also are provided for students to travel to conferences to present their accomplishments. The students will complete their research this spring semester and will exhibit their work at the Student Research and Creative Works Showcase on April 18 in the Jack Stephens Center. In addition to the SURF grants, the students receive some matching funds through 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 Office of the Vice Provost for Research. The 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock fellows include the following: Bonn Belingon – 鈥淓nzymatic Studies of BbI06 from Borrelia burgdorferi,鈥� ($2,750 from SURF, $1,250 match to equal $4,000) Belingon, of Marion, Arkansas, is researching how to isolate and target specific enzymes that are found in 聽B. burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Currently, drug resistance to B. burgdorferi has surged and new strategies are needed to combat the disease. Belington and his mentor, Dr. Shanzhi Wang, will purify and characterize the BbI06 enzyme and determine 10 inhibitors against the bacterium. Madeline Burke – 鈥淒uck and Cover: How the Outdated Maritime 1851 Limitation of Liability Act Shields Shipowners From Liability,鈥� ($2,750 from SURF, $1,250 match to equal $4,000) Burke, of Little Rock, is investigating the legal and ethical considerations of the 1851 Limitation of Liability Act that protects shipowners from liability. This act was cited by Ride the Ducks, the company that owned the duck boat that sank and killed 17 people on Table Rock Lake in Missouri on July 19, 2018. Burke will use library and government databases to create a research presentation for a national conference and submit an article for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Dr. Casey Rockwell from the Department of Marketing and Advertising is Burke鈥檚 mentor. Caroline Kornelsen – 鈥淯nderstanding of 贵枚谤蝉迟别谤 Resonance Energy Transfer in Ionic Materials,鈥� ($2,750 from SURF, $1,250 match to equal $4,000) Kornelsen, of Fallbrook, California, and her faculty mentor, Dr. Noureen Siraj, are researching novel and inexpensive approaches to developing new materials that possess 贵枚谤蝉迟别谤 Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) characteristics. FRET is a non-radiation energy transfer process between donor and acceptor moieties. Ionic material with FRET characteristics will be developed using a fluorescent organic ion as donor and counterion as acceptor. FRET characteristic in an ionic material will be understood by developing several derivatives of ionic materials using same cation but variable anion or vice versa. These materials are important in the arena of energy, healthcare, and the environment. This project will allow Kornelsen and Siraj to learn more about the parameters that depend on FRET efficiency in ionic material. Michael Meziere – 鈥淓xamining the Relationships between Religiosity, Rape Myth Acceptance, and Sexual Misconduct,鈥� ($2,125 from SURF, $625 match to equal $2,750) Meziere, of Little Rock, is examining if religiosity plays a factor in the misconceptions and myths surrounding sexual assaults on college campuses. To carry out this study, Meziere will conduct surveys to gather information on religious beliefs and sexual attitudes. The data gathered will be presented in a poster presentation at the Academy of Criminal Justice Studies annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in March 2019 and the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Student Undergraduate Research Expo in April 2019. Dr. Molly Smith from the Department of Criminal Justice is Meziere鈥檚 mentor. Madeline Burke is one of four 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students to receive a聽Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship. She is researching an old maritime law which says the owner of a sunken vessel is not legally responsible for its cargo. Photo by Benjamin Krain]]> /news-archive/2018/09/21/seed-grant-competition/ Fri, 21 Sep 2018 14:22:04 +0000 /news/?p=71902 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock awards funding to six projects in Seed Grant Competition]]> The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has awarded funding to six research projects by 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock faculty members through the 2018-19 Seed Grant Competition.聽 This year, the competition accepted research proposals in two tracks. Four projects were awarded funding of $6,000 each in Track A, while two projects were awarded $12,000 each in Track B. The grant period for each award is from Aug. 16, 2018, to Aug. 15, 2019. The 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Seed Grant Competition aims to kickstart compelling research projects that can later be funded by external support after the term of the seed grant. The Track A winners and their projects include:

• Annie Childers and Liangfang Lu, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, 鈥淧lacement and Retention in Developmental Mathematics at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥�
• Amar Kanekar, School of Counseling, Human Performance, and Rehabilitation, and Joseph Williams, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, 鈥淗ealth Quest 鈥� A Training Simulation for Health Education Students and Workers鈥�
• Rebecca Glazier, School of Public Affairs, and Heidi Skurat Harris, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, 鈥淚dentifying Reliable Indicators of Instructor-Student Rapport in Online Classrooms鈥�
• Fusheng Tang, Department of Biology, 鈥淥sh6-Mediated Sterol Redistribution Extends the Lifespan鈥�

The Track B winners and their projects include:

• Hirak Patangia, College of Engineering and Information Technology, 鈥淎n Experimental Investigation of a Faster Voltage Equalizer for a String of Batteries in Electric Vehicles鈥�
• Shanzhi Wang and Brian Berry, Department of Chemistry, 鈥淚nvestigation of the Pre-steady State of MTANs from Borrelia burgdorferi鈥�

Kanekar and Williams鈥� project involves testing a digital simulation that will train health education students in how to conduct public health initiatives by learning aspects of program planning and evaluation for preventing a condition/disease of public health importance. 鈥淢y co-investigator, Dr. Joe Williams, and I feel great about winning this grant as we believe that this pilot project may open up doors for extending educational games for student learning in other health courses and looking into advanced gaming projects for student learning,鈥� Kanekar said. Proposals were judged based on the significance of the research or creative activity, quality of the research plan, expected outcomes and direct impact to the community, strength of plan to seek external support, ability to enhance and acquire external support, and qualifications of the researchers. 鈥淭he quality of the proposals for this year鈥檚 Seed Grant competition blew me away,鈥� said Jerry Damerow, chair of the Dean鈥檚 Science Council for the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences and one of judges for the seed grant competition. 鈥淭he quality was so good it made judging very difficult.鈥� Damerow said the judges looked for projects that would give 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock a competitive advantage and projects that could lead to commercially viable products or services. 鈥淚n this regard, Dr. Childers and Dr. Lu鈥檚 project to improve outcomes in developmental mathematics has the opportunity to give 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock an advantage in retaining and graduating students versus other universities that use a more traditional approach,鈥� Demerow said. 鈥淒r. Patangia鈥檚 project aimed at improving the efficiency of charging a string of batteries has important potential in the rapidly growing field of alternative energy.鈥�]]> /news-archive/2018/07/18/cals-summer-research-grants/ Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:13:54 +0000 /news/?p=71075 ... College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences awards four Summer Research Fellowship Grants]]> The University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences awarded $10,480 in Summer Research Fellowship Grants to four professors who are spending their summer breaks performing unique research.聽 The grant winners include Michael Warrick, professor of sculpture from the Department of Art and Design; Shanzhi Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry; Heather Hummel, assistant professor in the Department of English; and Zachary Hagins, professor in the Department of World Languages. Warrick received $2,480 to enlarge his traditional clay portraits of contemporary architects of peace in his project, 鈥淧ortraits of Peace.鈥� Utilizing contemporary 3D scanning and scaling technology, he plans to produce monumentally scaled portraits reflecting the benefits of meditation and spiritual centeredness. Additional long-term prospects for the project include a touring exhibition and a lecture series titled 鈥淧ortraits of Peace in Clay and Bronze.鈥� In his project, 鈥�Enzymatic studies of BbI06 from Lyme disease causing Borrelia聽burgdorferi,鈥� Wang has received $4,000 to fund an early step of a larger research project that has a long-term goal to eliminate Borrelia burgdorferi, bacteria that causes Lyme Disease, by inhibiting all three isoforms of methylthioadenosine nucleosidases of Borrelia burgdorferi (pfs, bgp and BbI06). Hummel has received $1,650 for a research trip that follows the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. She will visit historic sites and museums on her week-long, 1,300-mile loop through Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. The information gathered along the way will be used to write a collection of poems that reconsiders the historic civil rights narratives against the urgency of social justice issues today. The final grant recipient, Hagins, received $2,350 to travel to Arles and Paris, France, to gather primary sources to finish drafting two chapters of his book manuscript. 鈥淰isualizing Diversity in the Republic: Contemporary Photography and the French Urban Periphery鈥� explores how engaged photography can show how underprivileged social actors in France negotiate political, social, and cultural obstacles in their everyday lives. After completing the research, Hagins will be able to submit the manuscript for publication. In the upper right photo,聽Michael Warrick stands by his sculpture, 鈥淪traight Lines on a Round World,鈥� in front of the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock, which commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase Survey.]]>