For more information on the research and creative activities at SIUE visit the Graduate School at siue.edu/research or contact us at 618-650-3010.

Research & Creative Activities

Fa

ll 20

10

16 Wo

rks of Eliza

beth

Spen

cer

2 C

hronic Pain Treatment

10 G

.R.E.E.N

. Team M

omentum

10%

Mixed SourcesProduct group from well-managedforests, controlled sources andrecycled wood or fibrewww.fsc.org Cert no. SGS-COC-004733© 1996 Forest Stewardship Council

SIUE is proud to support responsible use of forest resources.

103400_Cover.indd 1 12/1/10 10:06 AM

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) faculty and staff have achieved national recognition and distinction as evidenced by their scholarly accomplishments and receipt of extramural research grants and contracts. Over the past five years, SIUE has experienced a remarkable growth in scholarly productivity. In Fiscal Year 2009, we received more than $29 million in grants and contracts for research, instruction, and public service–a 56% percent increase since Fiscal Year 2004. Significantly, 42% of SIUE full-time faculty apply for and receive grants and contracts.

This extraordinary level of activity is reflected in SIUE’s ranking when compared to its current peers as defined by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. According to recent data available from the National Science Foundation,1 SIUE ranked highest among its peer institutions, with $26.9 million in total research and development expenditures.

Throughout the last several years, SIUE scholarship and research productivity has significantly grown in the health sciences, science education, special education, education policy research, basic sciences, computer science and electrical and computer engineering, humanities, social sciences, and the arts.

We hope that this publication provides a glimpse into the exciting research projects and creative activities at SIUE.

Jerry B. WeinbergActing Associate Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School

Research & Creative Activities

Ten

th E

ditio

n F

all 2

01

0

Community Health 2 Alternative Strategies for the Pharmacological Treatment of Chronic Pain: Bill Neumann

4 Landmark Children’s Study: Louise Flick and Team

5 Studying Metabolic Effects of Obesity and Weight-Management Strategies: Erik Kirk

Improving Diagnosis and Treatment of Children with Behavioral Disorders: Jeremy Jewell

6 Personality Spark Sparks Research: Laura Bernaix and Cynthia Schmidt

Environment 8 Naught to Waste: Treated Sewage as an Eco-Friendly Soil Amendment: Z.Q. Lin

10 G.R.E.E.N. Team Gaining Momentum: Susan Morgan, Bill Retzlaff, Serdar Celik

Alternative Cooling and Refrigeration Systems: Serdar Celik

11 Streamlining Illinois Highway Incident Management: Ryan Fries and Huaguo Zhou

Cultural Geographies 12 Fighting for Language Diversity in Nepal: Kristine Hildebrandt

14 NEH-funded Workshop on Lincoln Attracts Regional Schoolteachers: Caroline Pryor

Eugene B. Redmond Collection

15 Young Poet Explores Cultural Identity: Adrian Matejka

16 Discovering the South Unbound Through the Work of Elizabeth Spencer: Catherine Seltzer

17 Whitman’s Nineteenth Century: Jason Stacy

18 Exploring Human Impact upon Natural Systems in Prehistoric Southwestern Illinois: Richard Brugam, Julie Holt, Luci Kohn

19 Studying Community-based Factors in Crime and Gang Violence: Dennis Mares

Business Ethics 20 Studying Ethical Collusion in Organizational Environments: George Watson

21 Understanding the Relationship between Corruption and State Economies: Rik Hafer and Ayse Evrensel

22 Research Spotlights

Research Centers 25 Illinois Education Research Council

26 Institute For Urban Research

27 National Corn-to-Ethanol-Center

28 Supporting Agencies of Research & Projects

29 2010 SIUE Internal Grant Winners

4

8 12

23

On the Cover: Art by SIUE Associate Professor Laura Strand - Life’s Journeys, 2000Silk screen printing and collage on maps, aluminum screen cover

Jerry B. Weinberg

A Message from the Dean2

1Fiscal Year 2008, nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10311/

2010 Annette and Henry Baich Award The Annette and Henry Baich Award is given annually to the most outstanding S.T.E.P. grant proposal for basic research conducted within the parameters of the Sigma Xi Society.

Winner: Dr. Huichun (Judy) Zhang, Chemistry and Environmental Science, College of Arts & Sciences

Project: “Veterinary Pharmaceuticals: Reductive

Transformation and QSARs Development.” The project explores the contamination caused by veterinary pharmaceuticals exposed to aquatic environments.

2010 Hoppe Research ProfessorThe Hoppe Research Professor Awards are made to SIUE faculty members in order to recognize and support individual programs of research or creative activities. These Awards recognize faculty members whose research or creative activities have the promise of making significant contributions to their fields of study.

Winner: Dr. Andrzej (Andy) Lozowski, Electrical & Computer Engineering, School of Engineering

Project: “How to Plug-In Distributed Energy Resources.” This research will examine

the relationship between the power grid and power generated by individual “power islands,” such as windmills or solar panels, in order to better enable the conversion of alternative energy sources onto the grid.

2010 Vaughnie Lindsay New InvestigatorsThe Vaughnie Lindsay New Investigator Awards are made to tenure-track SIUE faculty members in order to recognize and support individual programs of research or creative activities. These awards recognize faculty members whose research or creative activities have the promise of making significant contributions to their fields of study and to SIUE in general.

Winner: Dr. Edward Navarre, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts & Sciences

Project: “A Tungsten Electrothermal Atomizer for Trace Element Determination of

Solvent Extracted Samples.” This project will develop a portable, automated instrument for elemental analysis in the field.

Winner: Dr. Jason Stacy, Department of Historical Studies, College of Arts & Sciences

Project: “The Future’s Past: Experimental Histories in the Early American Republic.”

The project will explore nineteenth century popular histories and their role in shaping Americans’ conceptions of their past.

These awards are supported annually through the SIUE Graduate School Research & Development Fund and are made possible through the generosity of SIUE donors, alumni, emeriti, and friends. You may also help support the research conducted by SIUE faculty by choosing to designate a gift to one of the programs on the Graduate School Giving Tree. An envelope has been provided in this publication for friends of SIUE research to designate gifts, or if you choose, you may visit siue.edu/research/give.shtml to support an SIUE research program today.

Acknowledgements

The SIUE Graduate School would like to thank the following people for their generous contributions to this project:

Jennifer Barnhart

Emily Beck

Laura Bernaix

Kathleen Sullivan Brown

Richard Brugam

John Caupert

Serdar Celik

Patience Graybill Condellone

Ivy Cooper

Ayse Evrensel

Louise Flick

Ryan Fries

Teri Gulledge

Rik Hafer

Roberta Harrison

Kristine Hildebrandt

Jeremy Jewell

Christa Johnson

Erik Kirk

Brenda Klostermann

Eric Lichtenberger

Faith Liebl

Z.Q. Lin

Frank Lyerla

Dennis Mares

Bill Neumann

T.K. Parthasarathy

Caroline Pryor

Howard Rambsy

Cynthia Schmidt

Joseph Schober

Catherine Seltzer

Linda Skelton

David Smalley

Jason Stacy

Laura Strand

Andy Theising

Jackie Twitty

George Watson

Brad White

Ron Worthington

Brian Wrenn

Ann Yap

Yanhong Zhang

Huaguo Zhou

2010 SIUE Internal Grant Award Winners

Printed by authority of the State of Illin

ois, 11/10, 5m, 10040677

103400_Cover.indd 2 11/24/10 8:09 AM

After twelve years of outstanding service to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville as Dean of the Graduate School and, since 2007, as Associate Provost for Research, Dr. Stephen L. Hansen has returned to full time teaching and research in the Department of Historical Studies. As reflected in the words of the poet/essayist, Kahlil Gibran, Dr. Hansen will be long remembered for his collegial leadership in graduate education, wise counsel, and his deep commitment to faculty development and shared governance.

Since beginning his service in the Office of Research and Projects in 1984, Dr. Hansen has overseen key initiatives promoting outstanding graduate education. He was pivotal in instituting a rigorous schedule of graduate assessment and developed Project SAGE, the Strategic Advancement of Graduate Education, elevating the quality of graduate programs. He worked with the Provost, Academic Deans, and Faculty to establish competitive graduate assistantships, new doctoral programs including the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) and cooperative Ph.D programs in History and Engineering with SIUC, in which students working with faculty from SIUE and SIUC could pursue advanced degrees from their home campus in Edwardsville. He worked to articulate the SIUE Teacher-Scholar philosophy, which describes the ideal qualities of our faculty with a rigorous commitment to scholarship and its impact on teaching.

Dr. Hansen also ushered in a period of significant growth in research and sponsored activities at SIUE. His commitment to supporting faculty led to a suite of internal grant programs, including the Distinguished Research Professor Award, the Vaughnie Lindsay New Investigator Award, the Hoppe Research Professor Award, the Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Award, and the S.T.E.P. program. Steve managed significant changes in the university’s research infrastructure that allowed for an expansion in proposal development services to faculty as well as a restructuring of the internal programs meant to support faculty projects. In the last five years, the Office of Research and Projects, under Steve’s leadership, has experienced a steady growth in sponsored programs, from $22.2 million in FY 2005 to $29 million in FY 2010. Such leadership is consistent with Dr. Hansen’s recognition and election as President of the National Council of University Research Administrators in 1995.

One cannot fully appreciate the impact of Stephen Hansen on this university without also noting his wit, humor, and commitment to shared governance. Steve’s ability to resolve often difficult situations with searing humor facilitated many agreements across campus, and it exemplified the fairness and humanity with which he approached the development of our students and our faculty’s professional needs.

Lastly, and especially from the Provost’s perspective, The University is indebted to Dr. Hansen for his long term and consistent commitment to keeping true to the core academic values of this institution and for his leadership in research administration and graduate programs that have advanced the academic agenda at SIUE. We value Steve as a colleague and friend. And, we wish Professor Hansen continued success.

Paul W. Ferguson, Ph.D. Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Tribute to Dr. Stephen L. Hansen“When we turn to one another for counsel, we reduce the number of our enemies.” - Kahlil Gibran

Stephen L. Hansen

1Fiscal Year 2008, nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10311/

103400_Text.indd 2 12/1/10 11:03 AM

According to Neumann, the most promising classes of agents in development are

metal complexes that mimic naturally occurring enzymes.

103400_Text.indd 3 11/23/10 12:56 PM

A near epidemic health problem in the U.S. is the inadequate treatment of pain. One third of all Americans suffer from some form of chronic pain, and, of those, a third have pain that is resistant to current medical therapy. According to recent studies, the economic impact of pain is about $100 billion annually, and will continue to rise as an aging population suffers from diabetes, stroke, and cancer. “Compounding the problem” says Bill Neumann, “is that many otherwise effective drug therapies prescribed in doses high enough to treat disease also cause pain as a side effect, so many people discontinue these therapies. This means doctors and patients must make tough choices when considering the costs and benefits of effective treatment over increased risk and reduced quality-of-life.”

Drugs used to treat a host of health conditions have many side-effects that complicate treatment. For example, patients using the most effective narcotic painkillers, like morphine, often develop tolerance and increased sensitivity to pain. This requires higher doses to achieve the same relief over time. While pain may subside, patients’ quality-of-life suffers due to debilitating side-effects like over-sedation, decreased physical activity, respiratory problems, constipation, and potential addiction. Another class of anti-inflammatory drugs called COX-2 inhibitors can be effective in treating chronic pain and some cancers, but their side-effects entail increased risks of heart attack and stroke.

Considering the significance of this problem, researchers have spent the last decade determining what chemical factors contribute to chronic pain. They have found that a chemical called peroxynitrite (PN) plays a key role in pain caused by several different types of conditions. That PN plays a role in human disease has also been supported by encouraging results in clinical trials with recombinant bovine Cu/Zn SOD (Orgotein®). The first clinical pilot studies with this native enzyme were done as early as the 1970’s in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA), with results demonstrating that Orgotein® led to a 60% decrease in the consumption of painkillers. Furthermore, Orgotein® was effective in patients who had failed to respond to standard therapy, reduced pain in patients with ulcer pain, provided pain relief in patients with chronic pancreatitis, and relieved pain in patients that underwent post-irradiation of breast cancer. These findings, although preliminary, are very exciting because they provide some evidence that in humans, regulation of PN can relieve pain.

Bill Neumann’s research thus focuses on the strong pharmacological basis for preventing the formation of PN as a new, non-narcotic way to manage pain. He and his co-investigator, Dr. Daniella Salvemini of the St. Louis University School of Medicine, are exploring how the scavenging of PN by small molecule drugs can offer an unconventional approach to painkilling. They use synthetic agents that act as catalysts to continuously destroy toxic targets like PN. This strategy differs

from typical pharmaceutical agents that act only once on their targets and are fully cleared from the body.

According to Neumann, the most promising classes of agents in development are metal complexes that mimic naturally occurring enzymes. Two of these also have promise as agents that can be developed for clinical use. Neumann’s research, therefore, focuses on designing agents with PN-decomposing features and drug-like properties. They will explore how the same agent can be both effective for treating pain and safe to treat disease. Through this medicinal chemistry approach, these powerful synthetic enzymes have entered the realm of potential pharmaceutical candidates. Importantly, the PN decomposition catalysts currently analyzed by Dr. Neumann’s research group can also work with existing drugs such as COX-2 inhibitors and narcotics. This is a promising discovery because it offers the possibility of increasing the efficacy of drugs at much lower doses, while also reducing their negative side-effects. Last fall, Dr. Neumann’s research team was awarded a Challenge Grant from the National Institutes of Health through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support this research. Neumann is conducting these studies with his collaborator, Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacological and Physiological Science at St. Louis University’s School of Medicine.

Chronic pain represents a large unmet medical need. Traditional drug treatments for managing it are not very effective, produce highly variable results, and often have unacceptable side effects. However, research over the last decade shows that a chemical called peroxynitrite (PN) plays a critical role in the development of pain. Dr. William Neumann of SIUE’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences is targeting PN with a novel, evidence-based approach to developing new ways to manage chronic pain.

One for the Pain: Seeking Alternative Strategies for the Pharmacological Treatment of Chronic Pain

3 Co

mm

un

ity Hea

lth

103400_Text.indd 4 11/23/10 12:56 PM

In 2008 a team of investigators from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, St. Louis University, Washington University, and Battelle Public Institute, Inc. received funding from the National Institutes of Health to participate in the National Children’s Study. The ground-breaking National Children’s Study (NCS) is the largest study of children ever launched in the United States. It will enroll 100,000 children, recruited at preconception or early in pregnancy and followed until their 21st birthday. The study will address environmental exposures like contaminates in air, water and or soil, or agricultural chemicals and their effects on child health and development. The interaction of genes and environment also play a prominent role in the research. We know that the old nature versus nurture argument about what has the greatest effect on children was missing the point. New knowledge indicates that environmental exposures can turn on or off expressions of genes inherited from families. Therefore, it really is the interplay of nature and nurture that most effects children’s health. The study takes a broad view of environment, including relationships with parents, community characteristics, other factors from the social environment, as well as physical and biochemical exposures.

Researchers will examine the role of environment in the causes of child

health threats like autism, schizophrenia, asthma, preterm birth, and childhood obesity. Until now similar studies have been too small or have had other design limitations that interfered with their ability to shed much light on these important childhood disorders.

In the NCS, children throughout the continental US and Hawaii will be recruited from 105 randomly selected locations representing both urban and rural areas as well as different race and ethnic groups. Seven locations began recruiting participants in a pilot study to test the procedures and recruitment strategies this past January and now report their first births. The regional effort in the St. Louis area will be conducted through the Gateway Center based at St. Louis University School of Public Health.

After the unexpected death in April of 2009 of study lead investigator, Dr. Terry Leet from St. Louis University, Dr. Louise

Flick assumed leadership of the National Children’s Study’s Gateway Study as the Interim Principal Investigator. The Center, formed in 2007, started as a consortium of three universities (SIUE, St. Louis University and Washington University) and Battelle Public Health Institute, Inc. It now includes SIU Medical School and SIU Carbondale. Participating schools include a nursing school (SIUE), a school of public health (SLU), three medical schools (Washington U, SLU and SIU Springfield) and a Center for Rural Health (SIU Carbondale). The project also has affiliations with county health departments in each study location and many other community agencies serving each of the locations, and over 16 hospitals.

Planning is underway in the region to collect data for the NCS in four study locations: St. Louis City and Jefferson County, Missouri as well as Macoupin County, Illinois and three counties in southern Illinois (Johnson, Union and Williamson Counties). Each study location will recruit 1,000 children and their families over a four-year period. The Gateway Study Center has been awarded $52 million dollars for the first six year period (2007-2013) to plan and initiate data collection; five million of which will come to SIUE. Data collection in St. Louis City, MO and Macoupin County, IL will begin in mid-2010 and in mid-2011 in the other locations.

SIUE Faculty Collaborates in Landmark Children’s Study

The ground-breaking National Children’s Study (NCS) is the largest study of children ever launched in the United States. It will enroll 100,000 children, recruited at preconception or

early in pregnancy and followed until their 21st birthday.

4 Community Health

103400_Text.indd 5 11/23/10 12:56 PM

A recent addition to SIUE’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, Assistant Professor Erik Kirk is interested in questions of obesity and its metabolic complications. Dr. Kirk has served as lead or co-investigator on numerous studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In recent studies, Dr. Kirk’s lab evaluated the effects of 16 months of exercise training on body weight and energy balance in overweight young adults. He found that long-term exercise (225 minutes/week) alone, without dieting, reduced body weight by up to 5% in men and prevented weight gain in women. An additional NIH-funded analysis allowed Kirk’s research group to review over 600 peer reviewed articles, in which they concluded that weight loss was greater with 60 minutes than with 30 minutes of aerobic exercise per day. This work then inspired later studies on the effects of different types of resistance training on muscle mass gain and energy balance.

In projects extending from these early studies, Dr. Kirk has begun to employ metabolic research techniques to address important physiological and clinical questions in obese adults. His current work focuses on understanding normal fat tissue physiology, alterations in fat metabolism associated with obesity and diabetes, and the question of how weight loss improves metabolic problems caused by obesity. Particularly noteworthy is Kirk’s current involvement in clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of obesity therapies, such as physical

activity, nutrition, and drug therapy. One project, supported through a 5-year NIH Career grant, will measure the effect of aerobic exercise on liver, skeletal muscle, and fat tissue insulin sensitivity in obese adults with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (a condition associated poor blood sugar regulation).

In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Kirk works in communal outreach programs to both educate and learn from regional children and adults struggling with obesity. He currently serves as co-investigator on a study investigating teacher-led physical activity in a regional Head Start program for children from 3-5 years. He has also established the SIUE Weight Management Clinic (siue.edu/wmc), which involves weekly hour-long meetings for small groups of overweight middle-age adults. The cornerstone of this year-long weight-loss and maintenance program is a weekly lifestyle clinic that serves as both educational forum and support group. All classes are developed by a multidisciplinary staff of registered dieticians, exercise physiologists, and behavioral psychologists. Of his clinic, Kirk says, “Weight management is a set of learned behaviors, and this clinic is designed to teach and promote those behaviors.”

Jeremy Jewell has been interested in the backgrounds of children with behavioral disorders since early in his academic career. This passion for understanding

how best to treat young people with conduct disorders stems from his long-term relationship with Father Flanagan’s Girls and Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska, where he held a pre-doctoral internship. As “a small, self-sufficient city where about 500 or more foster children live and go to school,” Girls and Boys Town has been the center of Jewell’s work on how children are diagnosed with and treated for behavioral disorders.

Jewell’s first study in Omaha analyzed the accuracy of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC), a widely-used computer program that tests subjects for symptoms of disorder. Jewell and colleagues found that adolescents who had self-reported symptoms of conduct disorder on DISC exhibited more conduct disordered behaviors in treatment, compared to those who arrived with a diagnosis from a clinician. This was a significant finding that validated the DISC and offered a critique of clinicians’ typical approach to diagnosing children with conduct disorder. In attempting to explain why psychologists were misdiagnosing, Jewell also found that clinicians were more likely to diagnose African-American

adolescents with conduct disorder. “This pointed to a potential bias in how we diagnose kids with various problems,” says Jewell.

In 2009, Jewell collaborated with researchers at Girls and Boys Town to explore how treatment of kids in foster care is affected by their own ethnicity and that of their foster parents. They discovered that ethnicity congruence of children and their foster parents does matter, but only for African-American children. In fact, African-American kids placed with Caucasian foster families exhibited higher rates of aggression and school problems compared to their African-American “matched family” counterparts.

The 2009 study led to a current collaboration with Girls and Boys Town and Dr. Danice Brown, SIUE Associate Professor of Psychology, in which they will consider possible connections between ethnicity and under-diagnosis of disorders like depression and anxiety. With the help of his collaborators and a lab of 7-10 undergraduate students, Jewell hopes to continue to improve current practices.

Studying Metabolic Effects of Obesity and Weight-Management Strategies: Erik Kirk, Ph.D.

5 Co

mm

un

ity Hea

lth

Improving Diagnosis and Treatment of Children with Behavioral Disorders: Jeremy Jewell, Ph.D.

103400_Text.indd 6 11/23/10 12:56 PM

Personality Spark Sparks Research

R & CA: How did you two first decide to start working together? Was it a project that brought you together, mutual interests?

LB: It was a slow process that grew out of our acquaintance and our friendship. We knew each other a long time before we started doing research together.

CS: Yes, I was her teacher in the undergraduate SIUE Nursing program. We didn’t get to know each other well at that time; however, Laura became an instructor in our program in 1987 and we started to work together on school projects. Through the years, we gained respect for each others’ scholarship and also became good friends.

LB: As an undergraduate, I thought she was one of my best teachers, if not the best. She was an excellent role model. As faculty members we developed a friendship and started asking each other for feedback on our respective projects. We worked together on the topic of prenatal lead. Even though we had distinct interests then and still do today (Schmidt: diabetes, Bernaix: breast-feeding), we found that we shared a similar work ethic, that we respected the other persons’ perspective, and that we liked each other.

“We are able to combine our skill sets in a way that complements our

work. Although we each maintain our own unique

research program…”

Laura Bernaix and Cynthia

Schmidt, SIUE Nursing, discuss

how good personal chemistry

drives research collaboration.

103400_Text.indd 7 11/23/10 12:56 PM

CS: And those things are really important to the success of our relationship: a similar work ethic, a desire to produce good outcomes, a willingness to be vulnerable to the other person and trust them—we learned to value each others’ strengths and seek out the others’ skills to make up for our weak points.

LB: We also have similar writing styles, we work at the same level, and our personalities clicked.

CS: All of those things have been important to our research partnership. A collaborative partner should be someone from whom you can take criticism and who can take constructive criticism from you. It’s like a marriage--you need to be able to debate and agree on a strategy, and in a time of stress and discouragement, you need a partner you can trust, someone who can laugh and cry with you.

LB: Yes, and while I may admire the skills of others, I may not interact with them personally the way I do with Cindy. I can work with others who are not friends, but it certainly wouldn’t be the same. Having this partnership makes it enjoyable coming to work every day.

R & CA: So as regards your research projects, did the relationship come first or the project?

LB & CS: We each developed our personal program of research during our doctoral programs. Because of our work relationship and mutual respect, we frequently consulted one another about manuscripts and research proposals we were working on independently. It was through this give-and-take that our research partnership grew. We are able to combine our skill sets in a way that complements our work. Although we each maintain our own unique program of research, we have also worked together as Co-PIs on several projects of shared interest. We have also identified new opportunities for each other related to their main program of research.

LB: We have a lot of fun doing our work together. We can look at a draft of our work or field notes that we had written and say, “What is that supposed to mean? Who wrote that…not us!!” We can laugh at our mistakes. We’re also each others’ cheerleaders—and this is important in a variety of situations, both positive and negative (like when a grant doesn’t get funded).

R & CA: You’ve mentioned so many benefits to your relationship and what makes it work. Do you struggle with any challenges to working in a partnership? Is there anything you need to do to compensate for working as two people rather than as individuals?

LB & CS: We don’t really have to deal with difficult issues. We have our own research and can pursue those avenues while being supported by the other. When working together on a project, one usually serves as lead and main decision-maker, and the other works as a consultant, or co-PI. The roles are pretty defined based upon our research focus and our expertise with different research methodologies (Cindy is very knowledgeable in qualitative methodologies, and my expertise is in quantitative research).

R & CA: Has your collaboration changed the course of your research? Opened new opportunities?

LB: There are some opportunities that we may not have pursued otherwise. I may not have pursued one particular external grant without Cindy’s encouragement. But through our collaboration we have combined our networks and that has provided opportunities for us.

R & CA: Do you have tips for people seeking collaborations or currently in one?

CS: Get to know other faculty members and their personalities. See if your research interests and/or expertise in

research methodologies can complement each other. You want a partner who you can really enjoy being with because when you are working on projects together, you have to spend a lot of time with that person. When there is down-time from your mutual work, you still need to be able to “gel” and get along, so that when you get busy again, you can focus better on the work. When your personalities click well, you don’t have to reinvest the energy in getting to know each other and how you work together when it’s time to start up again.

CS: I think a lot of people could work together but wouldn’t necessarily have a successful collaborative relationship. You need to have someone with whom you can brainstorm and who is open with you. You need more than a common work interest; you need someone you respect, find trustworthy, and is willing to receive criticism from you.

LB: I think the work ethic and the personal chemistry is the main thing. I know I can rely on her and vice versa. The research is driven by that chemistry. You would start losing interest in the topics if these things weren’t in place. Not everyone needs or wants to partner with someone, and many have initiated a partnership, and it has not worked well. So for some, partnerships are not the answer. But when a partnership does work, it can be a very rewarding experience, on many levels.

7 Co

mm

un

ity Hea

lth

103400_Text.indd 8 11/23/10 12:56 PM

Lin and his colleagues potentially offer an

environmentally-friendly way to re-use waste water treatment products to boost soil nutrient

levels without compromising the surface water quality.

103400_Text.indd 9 11/23/10 12:56 PM

SIUE Environmental Biologist and phytoremediation expert Dr. Zhi-qing (Z.Q.) Lin might feel shy about his latest research involving waste from municipal waste water-treatment facilities, but the funding agencies disagree. The U.S.-Egypt Joint Sciences & Technologies Board and the National Science Foundation have tapped Lin’s collaboration with scholars at Alexandria University in Egypt for its potential to offer new understanding about how the co-application of biosolids (or municipally-treated sewage sludge) and drinking water treatment residuals (WTRs) can moderate high phosphorous levels in soil. Lin and his Egyptian colleagues, A.M. Mahdy, E.A. Elkahatib, and N.O. Fathi, hope that their work in biosolids and WTRs will allow farmers to address significant environmental challenges caused by farm water runoff. Their work strives to reduce the amount of soil-released phosophorus and to enhance plants’ ability to receive phosphorous. Such outcomes promise not only to reduce the loss of phosphorous in agricultural runoff, but also to increase soil nutrient levels and promote crop yields. Furthermore, their studies focusing on different soil types and pH-levels suggest that current findings may offer solutions for farmers dealing with various soil types across the planet.

As the sludge remaining from sewage treatment processes, “biosolids” have long been used as an alternative to inorganic fertilizers. The approach brings vital nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous to soil. It is also a cost-effective and sustainable method, recycling municipal waste materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. Studies have shown, however, that the use of biosolids may increase build-up of phosphorous in soil and encourage phosophorus runoff from agricultural lands. This poses an environmental threat that increases the growth of algae in water systems. A

byproduct of municipal water treatment facilities, WTRs are high in aluminum and clay particles. When WTRs are applied to soil, they increase the soil’s buffering capacity and enhance the adsorption of phosphorous in soil. In other words, the addition of WTRs may increase the soil’s ability to “store” phosophorus (rather than releasing it into the water runoff). However, some worry that the use of WTRs alone may reduce the amount of plant-available phosphorous in soil, compromising the plants’ ability to take in the vital nutrient. Lin and his collaborators test the theory that using biosolids with WTRs reduces excessive amounts of phosophorus in the soil while also increasing plants’ ability to absorb phosphorous and produce higher yields.

To study the effects of the dual application of biosolids and WTRs, Lin joined University of Alexandria researchers to review the method on various soils, especially alkaline soils. Grants from the U.S.-Egypt Joint Sciences & Technology Board and the National Science Foundation enabled their collaboration, and the NSF’s International Research Education in Engineering (IREE) program allowed them to incorporate SIUE graduate and undergraduate student researchers. The resulting greenhouse study used a co-application of biosolids and WTRs on various clay, sandy, and calcareous soils to study its effects on corn production. The group’s findings, published in the July-August 2009 edition of the Journal of Environmental Quality, showed that soils treated at with of 1% biosolids and 0-3% WTRs significantly increased the plants’ ability to take in phosphorus and increased corn yield. Increasing the application rate of WTRs to 4%, however, reduced the yield. Yet, Lin and his partners also found that corn yield corresponded with the soils’ capacity for holding water, a capacity that was increased through higher levels of WTR.

The potential impact of Lin’s studies is significant for regions with alkaline soils, such as those in the Middle East and U.S. Midwest, but their findings also promise to bolster the established use of biosolids as agricultural organic fertilizer throughout the world. By using biosolids in conjunction with WTRs, experiments by Lin and his colleagues potentially offer an environmentally-friendly way to re-use waste water treatment products to boost soil nutrient levels without compromising the surface water quality. Their cost-effective application also suggests a potential avenue for cooperation between local municipalities and governments seeking to manage public waste, and farmers wanting to boost crop production. Thus, for a researcher who bashfully describes his “dirty work,” Z.Q. Lin and his colleagues may provide surprisingly “clean” water solutions for private farmers and public administrators.

Naught to Waste: Treated Sewage as an Eco-Friendly Soil Amendment

Z.Q. Lin, SIUE phytoremediation expert, works with Egyptian scholars to

address localized solutions for an international agricultural challenge.

9 Enviro

nm

ent

103400_Text.indd 10 11/23/10 12:56 PM

A team of SIUE collaborators have established the Green Roof Environmental Evaluation Network (G.R.E.E.N.) to conduct research on the benefits of green roof implementation and the performance of green roof materials and techniques. Dr. Bill Retzlaff from the SIUE Department of Biological Sciences, Dr. Susan Morgan from SIUE’s Department of Civil Engineering and Dr. Serdar Celik of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering test the viability of green roof technologies at a ground-level site and two roof sites on campus. G.R.E.E.N.’s experiments measure temperature distributions within green roofs as well as plant performance under extreme conditions. The energy savings of building envelopes, especially those with a high roof-to-wall area ratio (such as warehouses or box stores) are studied using analytical, experimental, and numerical approaches. The behavior of plants and growth media under varying wind speeds is also being studied using the SIUE wind tunnel, one of the largest in Illinois. About 100 undergraduate and graduate students have participated in the research, and initiatives have been undertaken with Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Hawaii. Grants from the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, the National Roofing Contractors Association, the U.S. EPA, the SIUE Research Grant for Graduate Students and SIUE Undergraduate Research and Creative Academy have all enabled G.R.E.E.N. team members to conduct and publish research about the thermal effects of green roofs, storm water quantity and quality, and plant performance.

Dr. Serdar Celik joined SIUE’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in 2007 after several years of industrial experience on environmentally-friendly cooling technologies. Upon arrival, he immediately began work in areas spanning from alternative cooling systems to green roofs to solar energy. Primary among these, however, is Dr. Celik’s work on alternative HVAC systems and refrigeration technologies. His work in this area has led to a patent on an environmentally-friendly cooling device, for which he won an Industrial Invention Award in 2004. Professor Celik’s interests lie particularly in the development of an alternative to Freon-based refrigeration systems. He notes that while conventional refrigeration and air-conditioning systems have generally become more energy-efficient, most still use Freon-based refrigerants that may have significant global warming potential (GWP) and ozone depletion potential (ODP). “In recent years,” Celik states, “the negative effects of conventional vapor compression refrigeration systems on nature have been noticed. Therefore, studies on alternative systems, like Stirling refrigeration and magnetic cooling, have risen.” Celik is exploring the development and improvement of alternative refrigeration systems, in which water instead of Freon can be used as the cooling fluid. Celik says, “The advantage is not only the reduction in energy consumption compared to conventional refrigeration and air-conditioning systems that we use in our homes, autos, offices etc,

but also the fact that water, as the working cooling fluid, has zero GWP and ODP.”

Celik is currently exploring the potential of Stirling and magnetic cooling systems. Stirling refrigerators are interesting to Celik for their ability to use helium gas to achieve variable cooling capacities and maintain low energy consumption. Magnetic refrigeration, on the other hand, uses magnetic materials to heat up and cool down the system. The advantage of such systems is that they do not need the inefficient and expensive compressors in conventional refrigerators. According to Celik, “For any alternative cooling technology today, the main challenge is designing heat exchangers that are compact and effective.” He has therefore pursued these two avenues as potential answers to the engineering challenge.

This year Celik and his team are working with SIUE to patent a new heat exchanger that can be applied to magnetic refrigeration systems. He is also working with undergraduate and graduate students, providing them hands-on experience while they develop jet-impingement heat exchangers for the Stirling systems. But he has not stopped there: “We are also keeping up with the nanotechnology in our environmentally-friendly refrigeration studies. Nanofluids having suspended aluminum particles of dimensions of <100 nm are being tested as the refrigeration fluid in our cooling systems.”

In 2008, a Stirling refrigerator prototype was designed, built and tested by a Senior Design group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Alternative Cooling and Refrigeration Systems: Serdar Celik, Ph.D.

G.R.E.E.N. Team Gaining Momentum

10 Environment

103400_Text.indd 11 12/1/10 11:04 AM

It’s something with which most Americans are familiar—long hours spent in traffic, choking on vehicle emissions while waiting for an accident to be cleared from the road before safely moving forward. More than half of U.S. congestion is caused by traffic incidents, defined as any non-recurring event, natural or man-made, that disrupts the normal flow of traffic. While such incidents can have significant impact on individual drivers, their effects on communal traffic can range from congestion to pollution, and increase the risk of secondary accidents. Considering the burden incidents impose on the transportation networks, particularly in urban areas, many studies have investigated tools and strategies to improve the management of incidents.

Two young SIUE researchers, Ryan Fries and Huaguo Zhou of Civil Engineering, have teamed up with Illinois State Highway responders to streamline their response mechanisms to incidents. Since the effective management of severe accidents often involves multiple agencies, consistent training is important. State police, freeway service patrol, departments of transportation, fire departments,

emergency medical services, and towing companies all play roles in smoothly remediating accidents. New technologies also constantly change the workplace, incorporating new developments in computer-aided dispatch, automated vehicle location, traffic cameras with machine vision, and 800 MHz radios. Efforts to coordinate these agencies and technologies through a comprehensive training program can be daunting. Through a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation, Fries and Zhou are working with respondent agencies to develop a consistent statewide training manual, which will enable the better coordination of responders in their various roles. Dr. Fries brings his expertise in intelligent transportation systems (ITS) while Dr. Zhou offers his knowledge of the safety effects of roadway design, access, and traffic control devices.

With the assistance of undergraduate and graduate student researchers, Fries and Zhou have surveyed regional agencies to depict the current “state-of-practice” for incident management training in the Midwest. Knowledge gained from the survey is being used in conjunction with existing literature to create a best-practices manual, which will serve as a basis for the virtual training guide developed by the SIUE lab. State-of-the-art simulation software will be used to illustrate typical incident scenarios and corresponding management methods. Due to the expense and danger of physically demonstrating incident management scenarios, the SIUE simulation offers a safe, cost-effective solution for training. Fries further hopes that the virtual system can expose state responders to the technologies available to them, while Zhou also sees the new manual as a way to improve the safety of responders and motorists by facilitating better coordination between agencies. Future directions of this collaboration include the possibility of developing incident management training workshops throughout the state of Illinois.

Streamlining Illinois Highway Incident Management

11 Enviro

nm

ent

State-of-the-art simulation software will be used to illustrate typical incident

scenarios and corresponding management methods.

Ryan Fries and Huaguo Zhou bring

technology and traffic flow design to

state responder education.

103400_Text.indd 12 11/23/10 12:56 PM

A sobering fact: according to a recent UNESCO report, it is estimated that of the approximately 6,000 languages spoken in the world today, over 50% are threatened with extinction before the end of the 21st century. A language becomes extinct when there are no more living native speakers to pass the system on to future generations. These figures are particularly meaningful in Nepal, a small Southasian country roughly the size of Illinois, and located between India and China. Nepal is home to over 100 distinct languages from multiple familial lineages. Despite this diversity, 30% of these languages are categorized by UNESCO as ‘definitely endangered’, and 20% are categorized as ‘severely or critically endangered’, many with just a few hundred speakers, and very few of them children.

Assistant Professor Kristine Hildebrandt (Department of English Language and Literature, College of Arts and Sciences) has made it her professional mission to gather, organize and publish documentary

material on some of these most endangered languages, and to advocate countermeasures to language extinction in Nepal. Her work over the past 12 years has repeatedly taken her to Nepal to work with speakers of threatened languages like Nyeshangte, Gurung, Gyalsumdo, and currently, Nar-Phu. She has published grammatical sketches, a dictionary, and other analyses of these systems.

Nar-Phu in particular has fewer than 500 speakers, and other than some preliminary descriptive material from the 1990’s, very little is known about the structure of this language or its patterns in daily use. Similarly to other endangered languages, Nar-Phu has no standard orthography, and its role in public domains is limited outside of the villages where it has traditionally been spoken. Recent generations have seen a sharp decline in the speaker population of Nar-Phu, largely due to urban migration and increasing pressures from national (Nepali) and other regional languages. With funding from

the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Dr. Hildebrandt will work with Nar-Phu speakers to provide documentation and archived material on Nar-Phu. She will create a vocabulary database in comparison with other related and regional languages. The project will also provide a detailed corpus of narratives, songs and conversational exchanges to facilitate analyses of the discourse patterns in Nar-Phu. Additionally, Hildebrandt hopes to provide the community a Nar-Phu/Nepali word-book aimed at primary school use, and copies of recordings for the communal archive.

At SIUE, the Nar-Phu project team includes three student assistants: Joshua Yardley, a graduate student in the Teaching English as a Second Language program, Carl Bringenberg, a Foreign Languages (German) major, and Devang Patel, a Business (Computer Management) major. Joshua and Carl will assist with

Documenting Nar-Phu: An SIUE Linguist Fights for Language Diversity in NepalKristine Hildebrandt, Ph.D.

According to Dr. Hildebrandt many languages of the Americas, Africa

and South- and Southeast Asia have historically faced endangerment or extinction as a result of colonialism and migration-related movements.

12 Cultural Geographies

103400_Text.indd 13 12/1/10 11:05 AM

data organization and translation aspects of the project, while Devang will hone his skills in information systems by creating a blog with information and audio-video clips of Nar-Phu (siuenarphu.blogspot.com/).

“The reasons behind language endangerment are as varied as the threatened languages themselves, but never have anything to do with their sound systems, grammatical structure or family history,” says Hildebrandt, “rather, the reasons are societal in nature.” According to her, many languages of the Americas, Africa and South- and Southeast Asia have historically faced endangerment or extinction as a result of colonialism and migration-related movements. In such cases, the arrival of an economically and/or politically-dominant culture may have a negative impact on the societal role and self-perception of indigenous languages and the people who speak them. But other threats to language vitality come from within national borders, where one (or a handful) of languages are designated as national, official languages. Such languages have a privileged position in society as the main code of education, commerce, government and the media. Thus, Hildebrandt argues, “those who do not speak the dominant language are viewed as backwards and uneducated, and this opinion extends to the indigenous language itself. Moreover, non-fluency in the official code can be viewed as a threat to national identity or even security.”

Such is the scenario in Nepal, says Hildebrandt, where the national language is Nepali. “Despite a constitutional recognition of the right of indigenous languages of Nepal to survive, the role of Nepali (and Hindi and English), and the hub status of the capital city Kathmandu have had displacement effects for younger Nar-Phu speakers in particular.” This effect has been exacerbated during the past decade by a violent civil conflict between the government and Maoist rebels. Extreme force used by the military, combined with the (often-forced) recruitment of children as soldiers towards the Maoist cause has resulted in a large-scale exodus of younger people from rural communities—

with devastating impacts on village infrastructure and local languages.

For Hildebrandt, the threat that language loss presents is metaphorically similar to the loss in plant and animal species biodiveristy. She continually works with students and colleagues to show that “when language diversity is lost, a component of our own human diversity disappears, along with those characteristics that uniquely identify different cultures and traditions.” She argues, “On a scientific level, linguistic research has revealed an amazing range of variation in sound, vocabulary and

grammatical systems across languages. The loss of languages therefore results in a growing gap in our own knowledge base about the possibilities of the human mind.”

In a global society, where a specific set of languages become increasingly dominant, Hildebrandt’s mission finds particular resonance. Her work recognizes the tension between the need for a small number of shared communication codes and the desire to preserve the many

systems that uniquely identify us and our communities. Language documentation and preservation, according to

Hildebrandt, legitimizes all communication codes, showing speakers that their language has a place alongside dominant or national languages. She particularly favors documentation projects that provide the community materials promoting their local language in domestic, business and educational environments. This “not only generates data on the threatened language, but creates contexts in which it can be viewed as useful and worth preserving for current and future generations.”

Graduate Assistant Joshua Yardley echoes this viewpoint: “As an ESL teacher, I am aware that the spread of one language may have an impact on the vitality of another. I also know that in order to be effective you need to get to know your student, which often means getting to know their language. That’s why I think making language preservation a mission of language teachers is just and natural. I look forward to continuing this kind of research after graduation using the skills I learn from this project.”

Hildebrandt and her team will contribute in this dimension

by creating elementary school resources composed in the local language. Hildebrandt hopes that the Nar-Phu project will lead to an increased general awareness amongst SIUE students about the facts and issues concerning language diveristy, endangerment and preservation. Even Devang Patel, an undergraduate assistant on the grant, notes that his involvement in this project increases his understanding of language co-existence and pressures in the Indian sub-continent, from which his family originally hails.were in a constant state of creative unrest.

13 Cu

ltura

l Geo

gra

ph

ies

“The reasons behind language endangerment are as varied as the threatened languages themselves, but never have

anything to do with their sound systems, grammatical structure

or family history.” Kristine Hildebrandt

103400_Text.indd 14 11/23/10 12:56 PM

Funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) Landmarks of American History and Culture, SIUE’s “Abraham Lincoln and the Forging of Modern America” spent its third year as an exploration of Lincoln’s role in shaping American identity. Spearheaded by Dr. Carolyn R. Pryor, Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, SIUE scholars and other leading national Lincoln experts presented on four major themes: American nationalism, power, freedom, and race. SIUE hosted eighty K-12 teachers from schools throughout the country in two, one-week workshops. In 2009, at the request of the U.S. Department of state, workshop organizers hosted one international teacher from South Africa.

Participants spent the intensive one-week course discussing the four main topic areas, visiting sites in and around Springfield and New, Salem, Illinois, and developing practical applications for the classroom. While the workshop has already proven exceptionally popular among applicants in the past (this year there are close to 400 applicants), Pryor states that the themes are in continual revision and are reevaluated to consider Lincoln’s relevance in current scholarship: “We are constantly considering the way in which Lincoln as a topic has changed and how scholarship has changed.” This year’s program, for example, included an exploration of Lincoln through literature and the arts, including his presence in stories of African-American women.

NEH-funded Workshop on Lincoln Attracts Regional Schoolteachers: Caroline Pryor, Ph.D.

Lovejoy Library Welcomes the Collection of Eugene B. Redmond, East St. Louis Poet Laureate

In 2009, accomplished poet and former SIUE English Professor, Eugene B. Redmond donated his life-long collection of literary documents and artistic samples to SIUE Lovejoy Library. A legend of the Black Arts Movement during the 1960s and -70s, Redmond’s experiences placed him at the center of black arts activity and literary/civil engagement throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. With its vast offerings of literary samples, documents, audio recordings, and correspondences, the Eugene B. Redmond (EBR) Collection, represents potentially one of the greatest post-civil rights collections of African-American culture ever assembled.

Friend and colleague Howard Rambsy writes, “Although many observers pinpoint the late 1970s as a time of declining significance for the cultural enterprise known as the Black Arts Movement, it was during these years that Redmond began to dramatically increase his methods of charting African-American cultural activity. The results of Redmond’s tremendous efforts form the basis of [this] collection.” Currently in process, the EBR Collection entails an extensive compendium of books, literary magazines, rare program booklets and flyers, audio recordings, and more than 150,000 photographs of literary artists, musicians, entertainers, supporters of the arts and political activists. This vast array represents what Rambsy might offer as a subtitle to the collection: “the ongoing mission of black arts activity.”

Author, literary historian, and arts organizer, Redmond was named Poet Laureate of East St. Louis in 1976, the same year that Doubleday published his critical history, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry. He has authored or edited more than 25 volumes of poetry and collections of diverse writings. Blending his skills as a reporter with his interests in literary history, Redmond began documenting the activities of fellow writers and cultural workers during the late 1960s. Redmond’s tremendous and ongoing efforts to record developments in African American artistic culture and history form the basis of the EBR Collection.

14 Cultural Geographies

African tote with shells and Pencil drawing of Eygene Haynes, school mate of Miles Davis

103400_Text.indd 15 11/23/10 12:56 PM

The artists Egon Schiele, Miles Davis, Pablo Neruda, and José Alfaro Siqueiros, Matejka says, all pressed the expectations of their art while exploring the peripheries of their individual imaginations. “Their explorations weren’t the result of personal whimsy. Rather, as artists, they responded to the dynamic world around them: shifting politics, realigning social strata, the ambiguity of cultural morays. Their artistic responses—and the subsequent reactions to the art they created—were so visceral that Schiele was put in prison, Neruda was forced into exile, and Miles Davis was put in the hospital thanks to a police officer’s billy club.”

In the tradition of his mentors, Matejka’s first collection, The Devil’s Garden (Alice James Books, 2003), engages in a contemporary poetic dialogue through narrative verse, dwelling on issues of identity and family history. Matejka says, “The Devil’s Garden is, in essence, my search for cultural identity. As the great Nigerian writer Ben Okri said, ‘It is only with searching and the molding that the unyielding world becomes transformed in a new medium of song and metaphor.’”

Matejka’s second book, Mixology, adopts a lyric mode of poetry, striving for an imagistic, musically-founded expression. Published by Penguin books in 2009, the volume investigates the meaning of “mixing” to explore and explode ideas of race, skin politics, appropriation, and cultural identity. In choosing this structure, Matejka argues that his book “reflects that America now is a different America than it was in 2003 and it requires a different kind of story and a different way of telling it.” Allusions to popular culture, literature, and music become Matejka’s means to engage cultural morays and attitudes in a proactive way.

This variety of cultural allusions and “mixed” voices gained attention from funding agencies like the Illinois Arts

Council and other poets like Kevin Young, who selected Mixology for the 2008 National Poetry Series. In nominating the volume, Young proclaimed the work “a post-soul tour de force that places pop culture in a blender.” While enjoying national recognition from colleagues, Matejka also caught the attention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who named him a finalist for the 2010 Image Award.

Recent projects, however, have taken Matejka in new directions. Titled The Big Smoke, his new work adopts the voice of Jack Johnson, the first African-American World Heavyweight Champion. Johnson became Champion by beating Tommy Burns thirteen years after the Supreme Court upheld Plessy vs. Ferguson (1909). It was the first time an African American held a world-recognized title in any sport. Though African Americans celebrated his endeavor as a race-wide accomplishment, Johnson was denigrated and stereotyped by the media and white public.

Inhabiting a historical figure has proven challenging for the young poet: “Writing in the voice of a historical figure has required an entirely different artistic consideration than my previous work. I researched Johnson’s biography, the cultural climate of his time, and the concurrent history of boxing for almost two years before I actually wrote a poem.” Matejka finds that while a few of the contemporary portrayals of Johnson were

accurate, the majority of the reporting on the fighter was colored by extreme bigotry and jealousy. “My goal with this project is to utilize historical conceptualization and persona poetry to explore Johnson’s life with an eye toward reassessing his stereotyped image.”

Matejka sees this poetic reclamation as necessary for clarifying both literature and history, “because as the scholar Emery Neff points out, ‘history nears perfection in so far as knowledge and art work in harmony.’” For Matejka, this historical reassessment is essential since dominant cultures frequently dictate history in a manner most beneficial to themselves, regardless of actual happenings: “In the case of descendants of Africans in America, cultural identity and development have been collateral to the growth and fortification of the overarching American culture. In a historical context, acknowledging the accomplishments of African Americans like Jack Johnson could undermine the cultural structure.”

The Big Smoke, therefore, seeks a balance between “knowledge and art” through first-person narrative and imagery. In doing so, the poems “create a bridge between the unfamiliar audiences of poetry and history” and, consequently, enable Matejka to “reexamine some uncomfortable truths about America’s treatment of African Americans after Reconstruction in an authentic and unflinching manner.”

For Matejka, his new project creates a poetic document following the progression of The Devil’s Garden and Mixology. But it also becomes his own means of accepting Ben Okri’s poetic challenge: “If the poet begins to speak only of narrow things, of things that we can effortlessly digest and recognize, of things that do not disturb, frighten, stir, or annoy us…then what hope is there for any of us in this world?”

Big Smoke: Young Poet Explores Cultural Identity through Myriad Voices and Histories Adrian Matejka, Ph.D.

“In the case of descendants of Africans in America, cultural

identity and development have been collateral to the

growth and fortification of the overarching American culture.”

Adrian Matejka

15 Cu

ltura

l Geo

gra

ph

ies

Jack Johnson, the first African-A

merican W

orld Heavyw

eight Cham

pion

103400_Text.indd 16 12/1/10 11:06 AM

The cover of Assistant Professor Catherine Seltzer’s book, Elizabeth Spencer’s Complicated Cartographies: Reimagining Home, the South, and Southern Literary Production, features a manipulated image of an old school map of the South, its boundaries blurred at points and abruptly truncated at others, its sense of perspective slightly warped. The image is reflective of the book’s thesis: Elizabeth Spencer, a Mississippi writer who traveled widely and lived abroad for much of her adult life, was able to re-imagine the South through a series of often competing lenses in her fiction. But the map serves as a broader reflection of Prof. Seltzer’s research interests and experiences as well.

“This project is engaged in so many different kinds of journeys,” explains Seltzer of the English Language and Literature Department, “the most obvious of which are Spencer’s really amazing geographical, spiritual, and literary ‘excursions.’ She was a young sheltered woman from small-town Mississippi who knew she wanted to be a writer, and through sheer will and talent she was soon studying under—and writing with the approval of—the Fugitive-Agrarians, arguably the most important men of southern letters at the time.” Seltzer explains that, as one might expect, Spencer’s earliest work is often imitative: “Spencer herself acknowledges that her first few novels bear ‘a claw mark or two’ left by the ‘lion’ of Southern literature,

William Faulkner. But her own voice quickly emerged: her widely heralded 1956 novel The Voice at the Back Door was a critical depiction of race in the South. While it earned Spencer a much wider audience, its relatively liberal stance outraged Donald Davidson, her conservative mentor, and her father, who, in essence, kicked her out of the house.”

“It really must have been a terrifying time for her: she was completely untethered from everything that had provided her with a clear sense of identity as a good southern daughter and a writer. Yet it’s at this point when she began writing her most compelling fiction, beginning with her 1960 novella The Light in the Piazza, which has enjoyed amazing success.” To date, Spencer has published nine novels and multiple short story collections, including the Modern Library’s 2001 fairly comprehensive collection of her short fiction, The Southern Woman, a title that belies Spencer’s regular use of European and Canadian settings.

“I had long been an admirer of her work, especially her short stories,” explains Seltzer, “but as I worked on this project, I developed an enormous appreciation for Elizabeth as a person. She is a path-blazer, not only in the kinds of thematic and formal risks she regularly took in her work, but in her life. She emerged from an age when there were few models for her, and that makes her artistic and professional accomplishments that much more remarkable.”

Seltzer’s research included regular conversations and email exchanges with Spencer, who now resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “Perhaps the biggest honor, though, was that Elizabeth granted me access to her papers, now housed in the National Library of Canada in Ottawa. I suppose everyone who does archival works feels this way, but I found it to be such an unexpectedly intimate experience: there is something about reading those letters—actually touching them—that changes your understanding of everything.”

Even though Seltzer has now moved on to new research projects, she says they are informed by her work on Spencer. “Right now, I’m engaged in a project in which I look at connections between Irish and Southern literature. It’s a project that was inspired in part by a brief residency in Dublin, but I think that Elizabeth Spencer’s work has also opened my eyes to the fact that scholars of southern literature cannot be bound by geography.”

Discovering the South Unbound Through the Work of Elizabeth Spencer: Catherine Seltzer, Ph.D.

“This project is engaged in so many different kinds

of journeys, the most obvious of which are

Spencer’s really amazing geographical, spiritual, and

literary ‘excursions.’”Catherine Seltzer

16 Cultural Geographies

103400_Text.indd 17 11/23/10 12:56 PM

Jason Stacy’s historical research analyzes the intellectual and cultural structures of America between 1820 and 1860. Within this broad field, he has come to concentrate on Walt Whitman (1819-1892) who sought, through his journalism and poetry, to incorporate the enormous economic and social changes of this period into his idealized vision of the United States. Dr. Stacy’s book, Walt Whitman’s Multitudes: Labor Reform and Persona in Whitman’s Journalism and the First Leaves of Grass, 1840-1855 was said by Ed Folsom, editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, to offer “explanations of a number of seeming contradictions in Whitman’s early writings that have puzzled critics for decades.” Book News described it as “persuasive and full of valuable insights into the early years of Whitman the poet.” In the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, M. Wynn Thomas wrote that the “strength of Stacy’s study is the rewarding, and largely unprecedented, thoroughness with which it scrutinizes Whitman’s journalistic output.”2 The Modern Language Association’s flagship journal, American Literature, wrote that Stacy’s book “offers a new perspective on Whitman’s oscillation between frequently ambiguous politics and a radical poetic

form that sought to represent the contradictions of U.S. democracy.”3 Walt Whitman’s Multitudes was selected by the library trade magazine Academia to be one of the “Core 1000” texts which are “major titles that will stand the test of time and be expected to be contained within good collections.”Dr. Stacy’s fascination with Walt Whitman continued when he edited the 150th anniversary critical edition of Whitman’s 1860 Leaves of Grass for the University of Iowa Press’s “Iowa Whitman

Series.” This is the first critical edition of Leaves of Grass (1860) to be published in nearly fifty years and in an endorsement of this book, Robert Roper, author of Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and his Brothers in the Civil War, called Stacy’s “unraveling of Walt’s motives [for a] New Bible...richly persuasive.”

In addition to his longer publications, Stacy’s articles have,appeared in the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, Social Education, the MickleStreet Review, the Journal of Illinois History, and Popular Culture Review.

Stacy has reviewed books on Whitman and antebellum American history the Journal of American History and American Literature.

In spring 2009, Dr. Stacy also co-authored, under the auspicious of the St. Clair county superintendent’s office, a successful grant proposal for $986,482 from the Teaching American History program through the U.S. Department of Education. The project, entitled “People and Places: Our Story of Freedom, Liberty and Equality,” seeks to deepen 120 4th–6th grade teachers’ knowledge

of traditional American history and historical pedagogy. Historical tours provide opportunities for these teachers to visit some of the most prominent sites that shaped the nation’s early quest for freedom and provide rich pedagogical resources; workshops led by experts in historical content and pedagogy also provide unique, guided learning opportunities for teachers over at least 13 days per year. Stacy (of the SIUE Historical Studies Department) will serve as the lead historian for this five-year grant, thereby helping to enrich the education of 45,000 students in St. Clair County.

Whitman’s Nineteenth Century: Jason Stacy, Ph.D.

2 M. Wynn Thomas, Review of Walt Whitman’s Multitudes: Labor Reform and Persona in Whitman’s Journalism and the First Leaves of Grass, 1840-1855, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, Vol. 27 (3) 2009. 3 American Literature, Volume 81, Number 3, September 2009, 648.

17 Cu

ltura

l Geo

gra

ph

ies

Jason Stacy, Ph.D., reads American economic and

cultural development through the author’s political lens.

103400_Text.indd 18 11/23/10 12:56 PM

All human societies are supported by coupled human and natural systems that provide for basic human needs. Cahokia in Southwestern Illinois was the home of the largest community of prehistoric Native Americans north of Tenochtitlan (modern day Mexico City). The Illinois River Valley was a densely populated region with people dependent upon river resources. Many writers have pointed out how modern societies have progressively degraded their support systems. It is likely that ancient societies also used natural systems in an unsustainable manner. Southwestern Illinois was especially modified by Native Americans due to the large populations living there. Cahokia survived from about 1050 to 1250 CE, but its collapse has been attributed to resource depletion. This suggests that modern societies are not the only communities to have had negative impacts upon their environments.

In order to reconstruct the impact of Native Americans on local ecosystems, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, including Dr. Richard Brugam of SIUE Biological Sciences, Dr. Julie Holt of SIUE Anthropology, Dr. Luci Kohn of SIUE Biological Sciences, and researchers at the Center for American Archaeology in Kampsville, IL, is using a combination of paleoecological and archeological techniques. By extracting pollen and diatom fossils from lake sediments and archeological sites near Cahokia Mounds and along the Illinois River, Brugam and colleagues will reconstruct past environments. Since lakes record the history of their watersheds in their sediments, Brugam and team will examine the chemical makeup of local lakes as well as fossil remains contained in the sediment. They expect that extensive landscape disturbances associated with the city at Cahokia Mounds would have left a strong record in the nearby Horseshoe Lake. Deforestation of the

landscape to produce wooden structures at Cahokia should have also resulted in a shift from the pollen of forest trees to herbs and shrubs of open landscapes. The presence of humans and their structures would have increased the flow of plant nutrients into lakes, consequently increasing plant growth in the lakes. Smaller sites at The Koster and Mound Houses along the Illinois River, they expect, will show a similar pattern of deforestation and nutrient increase.

“Archaeological sites also contain a self-contained record of past environments,” says Brugam, “These appear in the form of middens, or refuse heaps, containing bones of animals used as food.” The team will examine chemicals trapped in such bones to track environmental change. They are particularly interested in sites along the Illinois River, where middens contain the remains of river animals. Isotopes of carbon and nitrogen tell of the food that the animals ate and, indirectly, the state of the River at the time the animals died. The team hopes that these bones can also be analyzed for

pollutant elements to track how pollution from industrial societies has changed river environments. Lead is particularly important, thanks to the large number of smelters and mines in southwestern Illinois. Middens and lake sediments will therefore be used to track the spread of lead pollution since the arrival of European settlers.

Dr. Brugam and his team are particularly excited about the possible implications of their unusual approach: “Our method of combining archeological and paleoecological research to answer questions about human environmental impact has not often been used. The most significant contribution of our work is a test of the hypothesis that Native Americans had a stronger than expected impact on natural ecosystems and that some of their practices were unsustainable. Both these hypotheses are strong challenges to the accepted view that Native American lived sustainably and in ‘harmony’ with their environments.” For Brugam and colleagues, this means that if Native Americans significantly impacted North American ecosystems, then it will be difficult to establish a baseline for ecosystems restoration in locations where modern human activities have damaged landscapes. “Humans have been altering the North American landscape for the last 12,000 years,” Brugam says, “While prehistoric landscape modifications are generally not perceived to be as dramatic as historic ones, they were enough make Illinois into a cultural landscape rather than a natural one.”

In the future, Brugam and team plan to make their work the basis of teacher education workshops, allowing teachers and students to be involved in studies of long-term environmental problems created by the different societies that have inhabited Illinois.

Mark of the Cahokians: Exploring Human Impact upon Natural Systems in Prehistoric Southwestern Illinois

18 Cultural Geographies

103400_Text.indd 19 11/23/10 12:57 PM

As a criminologist, Dr. Dennis Mares has studied the causal factors in violence for over a decade, focusing much of his research on the role that neighborhoods play in mitigating or promoting levels of violence. An Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies at SIUE, Mares first became interested in the causes of violence through his ethnographic study of gang members in Manchester, England, where he interviewed and observed active gang members. “While studying different neighborhoods in this city, I found that those neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty and social exclusion typically had higher levels of gang violence,” says Mares. “Furthermore, areas that had easy access to a city’s infrastructure, such as nightlife areas and interstates, typically developed gangs that were involved in the narcotics trade, resulting in even higher levels of violence.” His results ultimately showed that the recent increases in gang violence were not a result of the spread of popular cultural images of gangs, as was often argued in the media, but rather that gangs became a way for kids to move into roles of adults as it became increasingly difficult for urban youth to find employment.

His interest in the roles that communities can play in the production of violence led Dr. Mares to publish several more

articles in this area. One article focuses on the ways neighborhood structure can increase one type of violence, while undermining others. In a study that compared homicide counts by motive (i.e. gang related, domestic, robbery, or drug related) in Chicago, Mares found that neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and residential turnover promoted many types of homicides, including homicides between intimates, drug-related homicides and robbery-related homicides. “However,

gang-related homicides were much lower in more mobile neighborhoods, and appear to occur in much higher volumes in neighborhoods that were residentially stable, but extremely poor.” The study suggested that this type of violence may be an outcome of the fact that homicides involving multiple offenders spring from long-term interactions between offenders.

Whereas many policy measures attempt to strengthen neighborhood cohesiveness, Mares argues, this may prove to be counterproductive when attempting to lower gang violence.

In a recent seed grant award from SIUE, Dr. Mares received funds to further his research through collaboration with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. He plans to review data pertaining to neighborhood crime and policing issues to determine whether climatic conditions may have a larger impact on disadvantaged communities than on more affluent areas. “Previous research has identified temperature and precipitation as important predictors for daily fluctuations in levels of crime. But little is known about how the impact of climatic conditions may be modified by neighborhood conditions,” says Mares. He believes that it is possible that disadvantaged communities may have less resistance against climatic extremes such as very hot or cold conditions. Crime rates in these places may be boosted more than in communities better able to cope. For Mares, results of such studies may inform policy makers in decisions about how to deal with predicted climate challenges and the roles that community conditions may play in the impact of these challenges.

Studying Community-based Factors in Crime and Gang Violence: Dennis Mares, Ph.D.

“Gang-related homicides were much lower in more mobile neighborhoods, and appear to occur in much higher volumes in neighborhoods that were residentially stable, but

extremely poor.”Dennis Mares

19 Cu

ltura

l Geo

gra

ph

ies

103400_Text.indd 20 11/23/10 12:57 PM

According to Dr. George Watson, Associate Professor of SIUE’s Management and Marketing Department, organizational ethical behaviorists are discovering that morality is not a prerequisite for getting to the top of the food chain. In fact, it is likely that humans carry with some natural inclinations that are decidedly immoral. Says Watson, “Given the pressures of competitiveness, the nature of human psychology and the dynamic complexities of human interactions we may easily, with or without specific awareness, act to severely injure other people.” Understanding human moral nature in organizational settings and devising theories that allow us to better adapt ourselves to the needs of our society, community, and organization is the central research goal of Watson and his team of researchers in the SIUE School of Business.

“The joke has been that business ethics is an oxymoron, or a course with a blank book, and so forth, but these things are changing. We have historically believed that only bad people do bad things,” claims Dr. Watson, “but we know now, that once people are emerged in organizational contexts, they mold themselves to be an effective, productive, and valued contributor to the organizational goals.” Unfortunately, argues Watson, neither organizational goals, nor the means of achieving them always passes the test of moral acceptability. He points out that recent events at Abu Ghraib began as an effort to gain information to save U.S. troops but ended as an international disgrace when photographs of abusive behavior of prisoners surfaced.

One of the major research questions in this field addresses why reasonable and well-educated people band together in collusive behavior that is unethical or illegal. Dr. Watson’s current research seeks to illuminate the factors and dynamics of interpersonal collaborations that lead to unethical group decisions. A recent seed grant awarded through SIUE’s S.T.E.P. competition will allow him to create advanced modeling of collusive behaviors. In the fall 2010 Dr. Watson will use this grant opportunity to study the roles of skills, authorities and opportunities in the formation and membership of collusive groups.

In these efforts to develop models of organizational ethics, students serve as valuable contributors at every level. Joe Bosico, a recent Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (URCA) Associate, assisted Watson in studying the effects of moral disengagement on perceptions of fair labor practices. In addition, through the Senior Project in the

College of Engineering, a team of young software engineers are developing a neural network model that simulates the way the mind reduces dissonance in a morally-ambiguous decision, act or policy. This application may also be used to depict how groups of people come to either an explicit or implied consensus regarding questionable practices. Finally, projects by some of Watson’s graduate students have extended the study of organizational behavior to explore the impact of various patterns of industrial innovation on the workforce and the changing roles of women in business internationally. “I am most excited about neural network technology and agent-based modeling approaches to better understand unethical behavior at work,” says Dr. Watson. “The truth is that no one in an organization calls me to say: ‘Hey, I’m doing bad things, come and study me.’ Secrecy, legal constraints and our own need to see ourselves as good people prevent researchers from getting to the bottom of these issues. One of our best chances in understanding and coping with human behavior resides in these emerging and advancing artificially intelligent modeling techniques.” In the future, Dr. Watson hopes to collaborate with white-collar criminologists to bring a fuller range of factors to the study of misbehavior in organizations.

But It’s My Job: Studying Ethical Collusion in Organizational Environments George Watson, Ph.D.

“I am most excited about neural network technology and agent-based modeling

approaches to better understand unethical

behavior at work.” George Watson

20 Business Ethics

103400_Text.indd 21 12/1/10 11:07 AM

“When you think of corruption, what comes to mind?” asks Rik Hafer, Distinguished Research Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics and Finance. “A popular image is that of some bureaucrat seeking personal gain at the expense of the public and national economy. This stems partly from the fact that corruption has existed for as long as society has used some centralized form of administration.” Indeed, as long ago as the fourth century the existence of corruption amongst government workers was well known. For example, the author Kautiliya observed: “Just as it is impossible not to taste the honey (or the poison) that finds itself at the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up, at least, a bit of the king’s revenue.”

But the actual relation between corruption and economic systems, Hafer argues, is more complicated than the simple comparison suggests. He points out that some forms of corruption occur everyday. “Bribing the maitre d’ for quicker seating in a crowded restaurant may be a ‘corrupt’ if you ask your fellow patrons, but it isn’t illegal,” says Hafer. In fact, in some situations, he states, “the government’s bureaucracy is so inefficient that bribing an official in order to expedite a business license is not only expected, but economically efficient.”

Together with colleague Ayse Evrensel, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at SIUE, Hafer hopes to determine if there is any significant relation between corruption and economic activity at the state level. The team will explore whether previous results based on international and cross-country analyses hold when applied to states.

“We are asking if corruption can actually be measured at the state level,” says Hafer. “Researchers in political science and sociology have long used a data set based on convictions in Federal courts to measure corruption. This conviction data, collected by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, reflects annual convictions in U.S. federal district courts for a variety of offenses. Not only have others found these data to be highly correlated with other measures of corruption, but they are available across a long span of time.”

Building upon the small number of existing studies, Hafer and Evrensel will study whether corruption can be used as a variable to help explain observed differences in economic success across states: “If we find that higher levels of corruption are associated with relatively lower rates of economic activity, this provides even more reason to concern ourselves with the issue of government quality.”

Depending upon the results, Hafer foresees several extensions of the research. One such extension is to consider the effects of corruption on government activity. “Cross-country studies have found, for example, that higher corruption is associated with lower expenditures on education,” says Hafer, “Is that true across states as well? Also, does a higher level of state corruption negatively affect a state’s ability to borrow funds in financial markets?” Excited about the project’s potential implications for various fields, Hafer hopes that understanding the role that corruption plays in state’s economic systems will provide a better understanding of how economics, government and the legal system interact.

The King’s Pocket: Understanding the Relationship between Corruption and State Economies

Drs. Rik Hafer and Ayse Evrensel

undertake a study to determine whether

corruption is a factor in a state’s

economic condition.

“If we find that higher levels of corruption are associated with relatively lower rates of

economic activity, this provides even more reason to concern

ourselves with the issue of government quality.”

Rik Hafer

21 Bu

siness Eth

ics

103400_Text.indd 22 11/23/10 12:57 PM

Uncovering the Relationship between Gene Mutations and Neuro-receptors: Faith Liebl, Ph.D.

Scientists estimate that the human brain contains billions of cells called neurons. Each neuron connects to an average of 10,000 other neurons. Researchers believe that the brain uses this network of cells to translate experiences into memories by changing the strength of connections between neurons at structures called synapses. Synapses responsible for learning and memory use the chemical transmitter glutamate as a means to communicate. Glutamate signals to other cells by binding to glutamate receptors (GluRs).

Associate Professor of Biology Faith Liebl, with her lab of student researchers, is working to identify genes and mechanisms that regulate the expression, trafficking, and localization of GluRs. This work poses an important neurobiological question since glutamate neurotransmission is also considered important in pathological processes like epilepsy, neurodegeneration, and cell death.

Liebl’s lab is currently tracing the effects of certain gene mutations on GluRs. Primary among these is the effect of mutations in the atg1 gene on GluR expression and localization. Atg1 is required for autophagy, a process of removing cytoplasm and organelles from cells. Preliminary tests show that animals that lack a functional atg1 gene show a 35% reduction in the normal number of GluRs at a key synapse. This was the first time that autophagy was implicated in the regulation of GluRs. A proactive researcher and trainer of students, Liebl applied for and received funding through the National Institutes of Health’s AREA programs4 to further explore the mechanism(s) by which atg1 regulates GluR expression and/or localization. Preliminary findings, as well as the field’s current interest in GluRs’ impact on human health, suggest that Liebl’s search for important genes in GluR reception has the potential to develop into many future projects.

Stopping the Spread of Cancer Cells: Jo Schober, Ph.D.

The spread of tumor cells can be cancer’s most dangerous threat, often resulting in a poor prognosis for cancer sufferers. One key quality of metastasis is the high motility of cancerous cells. Assistant Professor Joseph Schober of the School of Pharmacy has therefore made it his mission to develop a new way stop the movement of cancer cells and prevent metastasis.

Focusing on a relatively new protein, called EB1, Schober and his collaborator at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Department of Pharmacology, discovered that EB1 is needed for the proper motility of melanoma, or malignant skin cancer cells. “We used RNA interference to knock down, or deplete, melanoma cells of EB1 protein and examined the effect on cell motility.” The result was a dramatic decrease in overall cell velocity. According to Schober, “These findings are exciting because they identify a role of EB1 protein in cancer.”

Schober is now asking how going after EB1 protein could slow the spread of cancer. Together with collaborator Dr. Guim Kwon of SIUE’s School of Pharmacy, he is exploring how knocking down EB1 might achieve the proper balance of filopodia and lamellipodia, two cell structures that help maintain proper cell motility. The goal is to find the point at which EB1 acts in important biochemical signaling pathways. It is their hope that results of this work will expand our understanding EB1 in metastasis and lead to the development of new cancer therapies.

Creating a New Diabetes Management Tool for Health Care Providers: Roberta Harrison, Ph.D., RN, CRRN and Frank Lyerla, Ph.D., RN

In 2007 approximately 24 million Americans were affected by diabetes, the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S., which is also associated with such complications as heart disease, kidney failure, vision loss and amputation. Health care professionals deal with the disease on a regular basis, using clinical and technological assessment tools to help patients manage their condition. Glycemic control, or control of blood sugar levels, is a key aspect of outpatient care and in managing the disease. However, healthcare facilities frequently report problems in complying with standard guidelines for managing hypoglycemic episodes. Technology may assist in managing such episodes, but many facilities are not able to make the best use of their existing systems.

Roberta Harrison and Frank Lyerla from SIUE’ s School of Nursing are teaming up to help heath care facilities streamline their existing information system via clinical decision support systems (CDSS). The CDSS is designed to improve guideline adherence for managing hypoglycemia. With funding from SIUE’s S.T.E.P. grant program and support from undergraduate researchers, Harrison and Lyerla will survey best practices to develop a hypoglycemia management protocol. The team will further work with information systems experts at a local site to integrate the protocol into their existing systems. It is their hope that the protocol call will assist nurses to more easily adhere to guidelines while enabling health care facilities to make better decisions about patient care.

4 Parent grant: “Investigating the Role of Atg1 in the Regulation of Glutamate Receptors”, $214,500, August 2007 – July 2011; ARRA Student Supplement: “Investigating the Role of Atg1 in the Regulation of Glutamate Receptors”, $9,296, June 2009 – July 2011.

Res

earc

h S

po

tlig

ht

22

103400_Text.indd 23 12/1/10 11:07 AM

Exploring the Connection between Cigarette Smoking and Hearing Loss: TK Parthasarathy, Ph.D.

T.K. Parthasarathy knows and understands various natural causes of hearing loss. He has established himself as an expert in such areas as central auditory processing disorders (CAPD) and the effects of aging on otoacoustic emissions (OEAs), or inner ear electrical activity. A recent project funded through SIUE’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) program will explore the effects of a more environmental agent—cigarette smoking—on the hearing of young adults. In a study exploring the hearing of 10 male and 10 female participants aged 20 -30 years, Dr. Parthasarathy and URCA Assistant, Rebecca Howard, are examining the difference in cochlear function between smokers and non-smokers. By measuring the otoacoustic emissions for various frequencies and intensities, they have noted a significant decline in OAEs for smokers compared to nonsmokers. Further preliminary results also show a distinct difference between male smokers, who have a better hearing threshold at higher frequencies than their female counterparts.

Dr. Parthasarathy has also authored a 2006 book on the diagnosis and treatment of auditory disorders in children and a contribution to the book Aural Rehabilitation for People with Disabilities (2005). He has numerous publications in the American Academy of Audiology and The Hearing Journal. Dr. Parthasarathy also supervises graduate students at the SIUE Hearing Clinic.

Exploring How Art Can Engage Its Viewers: Ivy Cooper, Ph.D.

Dr. Ivy Cooper, Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Design, likes art that engages its public. She focuses on contemporary artists who make site-specific art and projects based in real time. “I am fascinated by artists who create extended situations that engage viewers in real-time experiences,” says Cooper. Among these, Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has become a key figure. Cooper’s current project uses film theories by Gilles Deleuze to interpret Eliasson’s light and space environments. This project is an extension of her recent article on Deleuze, Eliasson, and the French artist Pierre Huyghe called “Being Situated in Recent Art: From the ‘Extended Situation’ to ‘Relational Aesthetics’,” published in Janus Head, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts. A forthcoming Special Topics course in fall 2010 called “Time and Space in Contemporary Art” will allow her to explore these themes with her students.

Cooper’s interests have also extended into other critical avenues, including writing reviews of art in St. Louis for national and local journals. She writes for national journals like Art Forum, Art in America and Art News, but she also reviews local art exhibitions for the St. Louis Beacon. “I am gratified to have the opportunity to cover art in the area and give exposure to some of the wonderful artists working in St. Louis and Illinois.”

Tracing the Roots of African-American Literary Movements and Publishing: Howard Rambsy II, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Howard Rambsy has spent his young, yet prolific, career disentangling intricate webs of publishing culture—from the significance of periodicals and anthologies to the prevalence of distinct modes of writing. He seeks thus to offer new insight on the unfolding histories of African American literary art. Rambsy’s most recent manuscript The Black Arts Enterprise (forthcoming, University of Michigan Press) explains how a diverse range of poets, editors, publishers, illustrators, literary critics, musicians, and supporters of the arts collaborated to enact a cultural movement and increase the visibility of African American poetry during the 1960s and 1970s.

In “Catching Holy Ghosts: The Diverse Manifestations of Black Persona Poetry,” which appeared in a recent issue of African American Review (AAR), Dr. Rambsy illustrates how several modern poets, including Amiri Baraka, Robert Hayden, Tracie Morris, Sonia Sanchez, Evie Shockley, and Saul Williams produced persona verse in multiple formats. The article strives to make a useful, if not unique, contribution to literary studies by analyzing an understudied approach to poetic practice. A recent Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (2007-2008) also made it possible for Rambsy to pursue an extensive project on novelist Colson Whitehead, poet Kevin Young, and cartoonist Aaron McGruder, all of whose compositions and receptions indicate significant, developing trends in the production of black writing. His current work on these figures is developing into a book-length study accounting for the ways a select group of black male writers modified literary traditions and drew on expanded publishing networks in order to become accomplished artists.

23 Resea

rch Sp

otlig

ht

103400_Text.indd 24 12/1/10 11:08 AM

International Banking Crises and Banks in Developing and Developed Countries:Ayse Evrensel, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Economics & Finance, Ayse Evrensel spent her early career researching the IMF and international lending to developing countries. It is perhaps this background that makes her most qualified to study different institutional qualities of banks in developed and developing countries. At a time when financial crises and banking regulation debates dominate the international financial scene, Evrensel has found much to say about different experiences of banks across the globe as they experience new financial and regulatory pressures.

Dr. Evrensel’s recent paper “Banking crisis and financial structure: A survival-time analysis” (2008), for example, analyzes the survival rates of various banks using international bank crisis data. Her results suggest that not only does a higher concentration of banks in a country’s banking sector increase the survival time of its banks, so too do survival rates distinguish themselves according to whether the banks were in G-10 or non-G-10 countries.

Another project suggests that countries’ choices regarding bank regulations reflect their historical and political characteristics. Examining 151 developed and developing countries, Evrensel found that banking freedom, constraints on political power, longer history of institutional evolution and the presence of common law are associated with less powerful and more accountable bank supervisory agencies. Out of this study, Evrensel argues that policy changes in banking regulations should be mindful of countries’ historical and political characteristics. Of late, Dr. Evrensel pursues a new interest in the correlation between institutional corruption, bank regulation, and national economic performance.

Multidisciplinary Team wins NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Grant, Opens New Pathways to Research in Anthropological and Forensic Sciences

Forensic exploration of materials is an essential tool for researchers in more than just the chemical sciences. Anthropologists, chemists, biologists, environmental scientists, and even museum curators depend upon a close analysis of material objects. They rely upon the tiniest elements to unveil worlds of information. This year a multidisciplinary team of SIUE researchers, led by Julie Holt of Anthropology, successfully applied for funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to acquire Raman and Infrared Microscopes. Enabled through the 2009 American Recovery and Rehabilitation Act, NSF’s special MRI competition sought to fuel U.S. economic recovery through the purchase and development of high-end instrumentation.

Holt and colleagues successfully argued that the purchase of Raman and Infrared microscopes would broadly impact campus research, enabling innovative work in such areas as anthropology, archeology, environmental science, and forensic science. The microscopes, Holt states, “will redefine our relationship to our research samples.” Potential applications include precise analysis of archeological artifacts, animal tissue, metal oxide surfaces, and the biologically-relevant porphyrin-NO complex. Holt sees the acquisition of the microscopes as a means to open collaborative pathways between social and physical sciences at SIUE as well as an opportunity to train undergraduate and graduate students in cutting-edge research.

Pharmacogenomics --Genetic Testing for Drug Efficacy: Ron Worthington, Ph.D.

Patients undergoing heart surgery are often treated with blood-thinners weeks before the procedure. Such drugs are meant to calm blood platelets so they do not overreact to surgery. But in 20-30% of all heart disease, the drugs do not work. Some patients die due to platelet plug formation in the heart or brain, and many others suffer strokes or heart damage. Dr. Ron Worthington of the SIUE School of Pharmacy and his collaborators at the University of Tennessee, are studying ways to identify patients at risk for these outcomes before surgery.

Worthington’s lab is exploring genetic variation among individuals that might account for increased risk in heart surgery. Although the team has ruled out one specific genetic variation as an explanation for the drug treatment failure, they continue testing a variety of other genes that could be involved in this problem.

In a project recently published in the medical journal Thrombosis Research, Worthington’s group, including School of Pharmacy students Jason Scott (Pharm. D. 2009) and Ashley Jarrett (Pharm. D. 2010), studied four genes in 60 patients undergoing angioplasty at the University of Tennessee Graduate Medical Center at Knoxville. Although the study was limited, they found a connection with one specific genetic variation in a gene involved in platelet activation. Worthington’s lab hopes to extend their study to include a sample size sufficient for understanding more meaningful relationships between gene variation and the risk of treatment failure.

Res

earc

h S

po

tlig

ht

24

103400_Text.indd 25 11/23/10 12:57 PM

Illinois P-20 CouncilWorking collaboratively with the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Community College Board, and the Governor’s Office, the Illinois Education Research Council (IERC) will serve as the research arm of the newly appointed Illinois P-20 Council. The IERC was named in legislation that created the P20 Council to “provide research and coordinate research collection activities for the Illinois P-20 Council.”

Who is Leading Illinois Schools? A Comprehensive Analysis of the State’s PrincipalsThis study is supported with a grant from The Joyce Foundation. Co-led by Kathleen Sullivan Brown and collaborator Brad White, the IERC has received a grant to conduct a comprehensive four-part study of principals in Illinois. The research will focus on academic backgrounds and career paths of principals in Illinois public schools; estimates of principal effects, and characteristics associated with successful school leaders; the roles that principals play in managing teacher talent and improving teacher quality; and school administrators’ attrition and retention patterns.

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Induction and Mentoring Pilot ProgramsThis study was supported with a grant from the Illinois State Board of Education, led by Kathleen Sullivan Brown with research support from Brenda K. Klostermann, Brad White and Jennifer Barnhart. This project evaluated the beginning teacher induction programs that have been developed and applied in various school districts. The work documents processes, activities, relationships and outcomes, and supplements the information collected by INTC on “Common Data Elements.” The IERC evaluation focused on issues related to administrator involvement with the induction programs.

Study of Teacher Induction in the Midwest—PHASE 2 This study was supported with a grant from The Joyce Foundation, led by Brenda Klostermann, with research support from Brad White and Jennifer Barnhart. For two years, SRI and the IERC have studied induction efforts in Illinois and Ohio. The first report from the current study describes induction policies in each state, identifies overarching factors affecting the design and implementation of induction programs. It presents policies and practices likely to raise these programs’ quality. The study’s second

phase explores relationships between various inputs—induction and mentoring supports, teachers’ backgrounds, and work contexts—and various teacher outcomes—teachers’ reported professional growth, efficacy, and retention.

Illinois Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 2002This study was led by David Smalley with research support from Brad White and Eric Lichtenberger. Its goal was to understand minority and low-income students’ transitions from high school to college and their persistence over time. A dataset containing ACT scores and background information for the cohort of 2002 high school graduates in Illinois has been merged with 2002-2003 higher education enrollment information from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). Together, these data allow IERC to follow the 2002 class of Illinois public high school graduates into college. The IERC compared patterns of enrollment for different student groups (e.g., low-income, minority) and examined the influence of students’ high school environments, locale of upbringing and family backgrounds on these patterns. A Higher Education Cooperative Act grant was awarded by the IBHE for 2003/2005. IERC researchers have followed the cohort for six years, i.e., through the 2007-08 academic year.

The Illinois Education Research Council

25 Resea

rch C

enters

103400_Text.indd 26 11/23/10 12:57 PM

The SIUE Institute for Urban Research (IUR) seeks to advance the scholarship and understanding of urban governance issues through the facilitation of teaching, research, and service by SIUE faculty, professional staff, and students. The IUR produces various publications of scholarly material on urban topics, maintains an active research agenda and data collection around urban topics, and participates in various regional efforts and initiatives. Above all, the IUR delivers applied research services: Engaging Faculty: The Urban Research Scholars Program The Urban Research Scholars Program offers internal seed funding to encourage SIUE researchers to pursue urban topics and seek external funding for those topics. Urban Scholars have done work on a wide variety of issues, including lead pollution, Brownfields management, juvenile justice, local culture, transportation, and sustainable development. Direct Services: IUR Consulting and Fee-for-Service Projects

Strategic Planning and Organizational Development: The IUR has practical experience in the development of strategic plans—most recently for a children’s service provider in Madison County.

Grant Writing and Grants Management: The IUR assists SIUE faculty in submitting external grants, and provides grant services on a consulting basis for local government.

Research Design: IUR research associates are experts at research design and have provided research design assistance for campus faculty, University contracts, and outside agencies.

Data Collection and Analysis: The IUR collects and analyzes data in both qualitative and quantitative fashions; this has been done in support of several faculty and University contracts, including program reviews for a community college nursing program and for a major nonprofit.

Access to Databases and Data Selection: The IUR has access to many robust data bases (census data, economic data, property data), and can readily access more to meet specific project needs.

Program Evaluation: IUR has capacity to do program evaluation for governmental and nonprofit entities; the IUR has worked with the State of Illinois to identify evaluation needs, and with a local housing authority applying for funds to conduct a major construction project.

Handling Large Data Sets for Targeted Applications: IUR can manage significant datasets and prepare these for specific project applications; in the past, the Center has worked to examine property tax strategies using a database with hundreds of thousands of entries.

Project Management: The IUR has capacity for project management and oversight of complex programs; recently, a Metro East nonprofit that was a finalist for a substantial EPA grant approached the IUR for help in preparing for a major funding award.

Engaging Expertise: The IUR engages faculty members from SIUE to assess additional capacity from external professional sources, and to supplement existing teams as an effective and reliable subcontractor.

Joining with Other Institutions: The Applied Research Collaborative (ARC) The IUR has helped develop the Applied Research Collaborative (ARC) ARC is a powerful partnership between SIUE, Saint Louis University, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, allowing the IUR to engage additional capacity outside of SIUE’s internal reach and jurisdictional boundaries. This multi-university team is ready to accomplish major undertakings. St. Louis is one of ten cities in the United States to have such a team in place.

A Resource for the Entire Region The IUR can be viewed as a gateway to University resources. It functionally serves as a one-stop shop for leaders and agencies seeking consulting and fee-for-service arrangements. The IUR uses its connections to campus resources to build specialized working groups and interdisciplinary teams that can accomplish many complex tasks.

The Institute for Urban Research: 10 Years of Ideas, Scholarship, and Solutions

26 Research Centers

The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) is a unique public entity conducting research and commercial testing of ethanol products and technologies on behalf of academia, industry, government, and trade associations. The Center is the only facility in the world to house analytical and fermentation laboratories, a pilot-scale biofuels production plant, and a workforce training program all under one roof.

Industry Support:The ethanol industry is undergoing rapid transformation, and technology is dramatically altering the processes of ethanol production. NCERC has undertaken an Advanced Biofuels Initiative to assure the continued growth of the biofuels industry. Through expanded capital investments, NCERC will remain on the cutting edge of conventional ethanol, advanced biofuels and cellulosic ethanol research.

NCERC supports industry in the following areas: validation of processes to enhance ethanol / biofuels production; the movement from near-term research into commercial production; development of the biofuels workforce through workforce training programs; assistance to corn growers, livestock producers and the ethanol industry by working together to utilize distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS).

The Center also provides key opportunities for companies needing to conduct laboratory- and pilot-scale studies to assist commercialization of innovative technologies for the biofuels industry. It has spearheaded research on DDGS, the main co-product of ethanol production from corn. NCERC has particularly excelled in its research on nutrients and risk factors in DDGS.

Research: Amino Acids in Swine Diets: NCERC has conducted detailed investigations on behalf of the animal feed industry. In recent experiments, Dr. Yan Zhang identified and quantified the presence of furosine in DDGS. This is promising as furosine is one of the key products of Maillard reaction, and possibly indicates the digestibility of a key amino acid, lysine, in swine diets with DDGS. Along with collaborators at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Dr Zhang conducted an animal feeding study that confirmed that furosine is a reliable in vitro indicator for lysine digestibility in swine diets.

Study of Possible Contaminants in Food Crops: A 2008 report published in Asia cited data that showed alarmingly high levels of mycotoxins, indicators of fungual contaminants, in U.S. DDGS. This study did not describe the methodology or the geographic distribution of the sources

of DDGS. In response, the U.S. Grains Council commissioned NCERC to conduct a study on mycotoxins in U.S. DDGS. Led by NCERC director John Caupert, we conducted a survey using samples in our National DDGS Library, the most representative collection of geographically traceable DDGS samples in the world. Results of this study were recently published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.

The Effects of Processing on DGGS: NCERC has conducted a series of pilot studies to evaluate the effects of processing conditions on DDGS’ physical and chemical qualities. These studies were led by Dr. Brian Wrenn, in collaboration with Dr. Kurt Rosentrater, from the USDA-ARS North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Brookings, SD. Drs. Wrenn and Rosentrater focused on three treatment factors: fermentation, dryer outlet temperature, and the ratio of syrup (condensed distiller solubles) to wet cake (wet distillers’ grains). Results from their studies will enable the ethanol industry to develop guidelines used to control ethanol production and operations in a way that will improve the nutritional quality and consistency of DDGS.

The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center

27 Resea

rch C

enters

FederalDepartment of Health & Human ServicesDepartment of Health & Human Services/ HRSAFulbright Scholar ProgramIllinois Space Grant ConsortiumLibrary Of CongressNASANational Science FoundationNational Endowment for The HumanitiesNational Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of Health/NINDSNational Wildlife FederationReading Is Fundamental, INC.U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development AdministrationU.S. Department of EducationU.S. Department of Interior- Fish and Wildlife ServiceU.S. Geological SurveyUSDA – Agriculture Research Service

StateCapital Development BoardChicago State University – NSFChildren’s Home and Aid Society of IllinoisConsortium of Academic and Research Libraries in IllinoisDepartment of Natural Resources, Office of Mines And MineralsEast St. Louis School District #189Illinois Arts CouncilIllinois Attorney General’s OfficeIllinois Board of Higher EducationIllinois Campus CompactIllinois Center For TransportationIllinois Clean Energy Community FoundationIllinois Community College BoardIllinois Department of Children & Family ServicesIllinois Department of Commerce & Economic OpportunityIllinois Department of Human ServicesIllinois Department of Natural ResourcesIllinois Department of Public HealthIllinois Department of TransportationIllinois Environmental Protection AgencyIllinois State Board of EducationLewis & Clark Community CollegeLewis & Clark Library SystemNational Great Rivers Research and Education CenterNorthern Illinois UniversityUniversity of Illinois Urbana Champaign

Other State Government EntitiesUniversity of Missouri Columbia/ Missouri Foundation For HealthWisconsinSouth Florida Water Management DistrictState of NebraskaEast Side Health District

LocalAlliance of Glen Carbon & EdwardsvilleAlton Community Unit School District #11Chief County Assessment Office, Madison Co. IL

City of CollinsvilleCity of O’FallonCity of University CityEdwardsville Community School DistrictLewis & Clark Community College – DHHSMadison CountyMadison County Community DevelopmentMadison County Employment and Training DepartmentMadison County Planning and DevelopmentSt. Clair Housing AuthorityUniversity City

Companies and Private FoundationsAdisseo France SASAg-Defense Systems, Inc.Amsted RailAnderson HospitalAnheuser-Busch, Inc.Arisdyne Systems, Inc.Basler Electric CompanyBrown Shoe Company, Inc.Bruce E. CookBuckman Laboratories, Inc.CCI Charter SchoolCenter Ethanol Company LLCChildren First FoundationChris RobbinsCommerce BankCrowder CollegeDaughters of Charity FoundationDmrkynetecE.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co.Feet First – dba FFIFleishman HillardForward Research, Inc.G.S. Robbins & Co.Gateway CenterGreg Browne & Associates, Inc.Growmark, Inc.Holland Construction CompanyHydrodynamics TechnologiesIllinois Corn Marketing BoardIllinois Council on Economic EducationImpact CilInternational Filter Manufacturing CorpIowa Renewable Fuels AssociationIpsos Forward ResearchJazz at Lincoln centerJetro New YorkJohn I. Haas, Inc.Kraft FoodsLallemand Specialties Inc.Lallemand Specialties Inc.Madison County Employment and Training DepartmentMallinckrodtMaritz ResearchMaritz Inc.Marketing Strategies InternationalMay day Foundation of new YorkMemorial Protestant HospitalNatural Enrichment IndustriesNutracea, Inc.Nutracea, Inc.

Oenon Holdings, Inc.OnlylinkOsage Bioenergy, LLCPrivate Payees For WFTPursuit Dynamics PLCRalcorpRenessen-Cargill Inc.Renewal Fuels AssociationResearch & Planning GroupRoadsnarrow LLC/NSFRobert GriggsSignature Health Care FoundationSRI International/Joyce FoundationSSM DePaul Health CenterStrategic Diagnostics Inc.The AndersonsThe Arbor day Foundation/Dimensions Education Research FoundationThe Bank Of EdwardsvilleThe MaschhoffsThe Mattson Jack GroupTrouw Nutrition International Trouw Nutrition USAUnicom-ArcWarner Chilcott

Other Non-ProfitsThe Nature Conservancy/ TX Parks & WildlifeChestnut Health SystemHuman Development Corporation of Metropolitan St. LouisNational Writing ProjectAmerican Association of Colleges of PharmacyAssociation of American Colleges and UniversitiesEast Side Health DistrictAmerican Astronomical SocietyJefferson Elementary of St. Louis Public SchoolsBridges Community Support ServicesNCURANational Council For Geographic EducationEast Side Health DistrictApme NewstrainFraternal Order of EaglesBelleville Area Special Services CorpThe Joyce FoundationAmerican Justice InstituteIllinois Council on Economic EducationNational council on Economic EducationNational Roofing Contractor AssociationCovidienHigher Education ConsortiumEast-West Gateway Council of GovernmentsWolders Kluwer HealthInstitute for the Study of AgingAlton Memorial HospitalNational Pork BoardU.S. Grains CouncilWashington University Institute of Clinical & Translational SciencesHigher Education ConsortiumUniversity of Illinois/Illinois Corn Marketing Board

Supporting Agencies of Research & Projects 2008-2010

28 Supporting Agencies

103400_Text.indd 29 11/23/10 12:57 PM

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) faculty and staff have achieved national recognition and distinction as evidenced by their scholarly accomplishments and receipt of extramural research grants and contracts. Over the past five years, SIUE has experienced a remarkable growth in scholarly productivity. In Fiscal Year 2009, we received more than $29 million in grants and contracts for research, instruction, and public service–a 56% percent increase since Fiscal Year 2004. Significantly, 42% of SIUE full-time faculty apply for and receive grants and contracts.

This extraordinary level of activity is reflected in SIUE’s ranking when compared to its current peers as defined by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. According to recent data available from the National Science Foundation,1 SIUE ranked highest among its peer institutions, with $26.9 million in total research and development expenditures.

Throughout the last several years, SIUE scholarship and research productivity has significantly grown in the health sciences, science education, special education, education policy research, basic sciences, computer science and electrical and computer engineering, humanities, social sciences, and the arts.

We hope that this publication provides a glimpse into the exciting research projects and creative activities at SIUE.

Jerry B. WeinbergActing Associate Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School

Research & Creative Activities

Ten

th E

ditio

n F

all 2

01

0

Community Health 2 Alternative Strategies for the Pharmacological Treatment of Chronic Pain: Bill Neumann

4 Landmark Children’s Study: Louise Flick and Team

5 Studying Metabolic Effects of Obesity and Weight-Management Strategies: Erik Kirk

Improving Diagnosis and Treatment of Children with Behavioral Disorders: Jeremy Jewell

6 Personality Spark Sparks Research: Laura Bernaix and Cynthia Schmidt

Environment 8 Naught to Waste: Treated Sewage as an Eco-Friendly Soil Amendment: Z.Q. Lin

10 G.R.E.E.N. Team Gaining Momentum: Susan Morgan, Bill Retzlaff, Serdar Celik

Alternative Cooling and Refrigeration Systems: Serdar Celik

11 Streamlining Illinois Highway Incident Management: Ryan Fries and Huaguo Zhou

Cultural Geographies 12 Fighting for Language Diversity in Nepal: Kristine Hildebrandt

14 NEH-funded Workshop on Lincoln Attracts Regional Schoolteachers: Caroline Pryor

Eugene B. Redmond Collection

15 Young Poet Explores Cultural Identity: Adrian Matejka

16 Discovering the South Unbound Through the Work of Elizabeth Spencer: Catherine Seltzer

17 Whitman’s Nineteenth Century: Jason Stacy

18 Exploring Human Impact upon Natural Systems in Prehistoric Southwestern Illinois: Richard Brugam, Julie Holt, Luci Kohn

19 Studying Community-based Factors in Crime and Gang Violence: Dennis Mares

Business Ethics 20 Studying Ethical Collusion in Organizational Environments: George Watson

21 Understanding the Relationship between Corruption and State Economies: Rik Hafer and Ayse Evrensel

22 Research Spotlights

Research Centers 25 Illinois Education Research Council

26 Institute For Urban Research

27 National Corn-to-Ethanol-Center

28 Supporting Agencies of Research & Projects

29 2010 SIUE Internal Grant Winners

4

8 12

23

On the Cover: Art by SIUE Associate Professor Laura Strand - Life’s Journeys, 2000Silk screen printing and collage on maps, aluminum screen cover

Jerry B. Weinberg

A Message from the Dean2

1Fiscal Year 2008, nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10311/

2010 Annette and Henry Baich Award The Annette and Henry Baich Award is given annually to the most outstanding S.T.E.P. grant proposal for basic research conducted within the parameters of the Sigma Xi Society.

Winner: Dr. Huichun (Judy) Zhang, Chemistry and Environmental Science, College of Arts & Sciences

Project: “Veterinary Pharmaceuticals: Reductive

Transformation and QSARs Development.” The project explores the contamination caused by veterinary pharmaceuticals exposed to aquatic environments.

2010 Hoppe Research ProfessorThe Hoppe Research Professor Awards are made to SIUE faculty members in order to recognize and support individual programs of research or creative activities. These Awards recognize faculty members whose research or creative activities have the promise of making significant contributions to their fields of study.

Winner: Dr. Andrzej (Andy) Lozowski, Electrical & Computer Engineering, School of Engineering

Project: “How to Plug-In Distributed Energy Resources.” This research will examine

the relationship between the power grid and power generated by individual “power islands,” such as windmills or solar panels, in order to better enable the conversion of alternative energy sources onto the grid.

2010 Vaughnie Lindsay New InvestigatorsThe Vaughnie Lindsay New Investigator Awards are made to tenure-track SIUE faculty members in order to recognize and support individual programs of research or creative activities. These awards recognize faculty members whose research or creative activities have the promise of making significant contributions to their fields of study and to SIUE in general.

Winner: Dr. Edward Navarre, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts & Sciences

Project: “A Tungsten Electrothermal Atomizer for Trace Element Determination of

Solvent Extracted Samples.” This project will develop a portable, automated instrument for elemental analysis in the field.

Winner: Dr. Jason Stacy, Department of Historical Studies, College of Arts & Sciences

Project: “The Future’s Past: Experimental Histories in the Early American Republic.”

The project will explore nineteenth century popular histories and their role in shaping Americans’ conceptions of their past.

These awards are supported annually through the SIUE Graduate School Research & Development Fund and are made possible through the generosity of SIUE donors, alumni, emeriti, and friends. You may also help support the research conducted by SIUE faculty by choosing to designate a gift to one of the programs on the Graduate School Giving Tree. An envelope has been provided in this publication for friends of SIUE research to designate gifts, or if you choose, you may visit siue.edu/research/give.shtml to support an SIUE research program today.

Acknowledgements

The SIUE Graduate School would like to thank the following people for their generous contributions to this project:

Jennifer Barnhart

Emily Beck

Laura Bernaix

Kathleen Sullivan Brown

Richard Brugam

John Caupert

Serdar Celik

Patience Graybill Condellone

Ivy Cooper

Ayse Evrensel

Louise Flick

Ryan Fries

Teri Gulledge

Rik Hafer

Roberta Harrison

Kristine Hildebrandt

Jeremy Jewell

Christa Johnson

Erik Kirk

Brenda Klostermann

Eric Lichtenberger

Faith Liebl

Z.Q. Lin

Frank Lyerla

Dennis Mares

Bill Neumann

T.K. Parthasarathy

Caroline Pryor

Howard Rambsy

Cynthia Schmidt

Joseph Schober

Catherine Seltzer

Linda Skelton

David Smalley

Jason Stacy

Laura Strand

Andy Theising

Jackie Twitty

George Watson

Brad White

Ron Worthington

Brian Wrenn

Ann Yap

Yanhong Zhang

Huaguo Zhou

2010 SIUE Internal Grant Award Winners

Printed by authority of the State of Illin

ois, 11/10, 5m, 10040677

103400_Cover.indd 2 11/24/10 8:09 AM

For more information on the research and creative activities at SIUE visit the Graduate School at siue.edu/research or contact us at 618-650-3010.

Research & Creative Activities

Fa

ll 20

10

16 Wo

rks of Eliza

beth

Spen

cer

2 C

hronic Pain Treatment

10 G

.R.E.E.N

. Team M

omentum

10%

Mixed SourcesProduct group from well-managedforests, controlled sources andrecycled wood or fibrewww.fsc.org Cert no. SGS-COC-004733© 1996 Forest Stewardship Council

SIUE is proud to support responsible use of forest resources.

103400_Cover.indd 1 12/1/10 10:06 AM