Roles of Moist Static Energy Transport in the Changing Arctic System

Award Number: 455262

Program(s): ARCTIC SYSTEM SCIENCE PROGRAM

Start Date: 3/15/2005

Principal Investigator: Francis, Jennifer

Co-PI Name(s):

PI Email Address: francis@imcs.rutgers.edu

Abstract: The Arctic system appears to be heading toward a new state that may be unprecedented, and there are no apparent feedbacks within the Arctic that can arrest the cohesive change. Can negative feedback mechanisms involving lower latitudes offset widespread reductions in permanent ice and corresponding changes in physical and biological components? Possible candidates are feedbacks related to horizontally transported moist static energy. The likely amplification of warming in the Arctic relative to lower latitudes implies that heat transport should decrease as the poleward temperature gradient relaxes, but how do the fluxes of moisture and potential energy respond? Can they offset the reduced heat transport? How is advection affected by large-scale climate features such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation and changes in tropical sea surface temperatures? In which regions and seasons are transports most affected? This activity will attempt to answer these questions using a new combination of data sources. The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast Reanalysis (ERA-40) will be used in regions where radiosondes and other observations are plentiful south of 70?N. Over the Arctic, however, there is little information for the reanalyses to assimilate, which is responsible for large uncertainties in many parameters and observed discrepancies with independent measurements. To ameliorate this problem, new products derived from satellite retrievals will be merged with ERA-40 output to create a hybrid hemispheric data set. This effort will use this resource to investigate how horizontal energy fluxes have behaved during the past 23 years, a period during which the Arctic system underwent widespread change. The effort contributes to a system understanding by focusing on the primary energy source for the Arctic climate system, exploring its role as a possible mitigator of Arctic change, and investigating its relationships with the global climate system.

The objectives and methods of this project are:

1. Calculate daily mean fluxes of potential energy from satellite-derived temperature profiles for the Arctic region. Sensible heat and moisture fluxes have already been completed.

2. Calculate daily mean energy and moisture fluxes from ERA-40 fields and merge them with satellite-derived fluxes for the region north of 70?N to create a hybrid data set for the entire Northern Hemisphere (NH).

3. Investigate spatial and temporal patterns (annual and seasonal anomalies and trends, dominant modes of variability) in fluxes and convergences at several atmospheric levels throughout the NH using a variety of spatial statistical techniques and time series analysis.

4. Relate observed changes in a variety of Arctic parameters to changes in horizontal fluxes and correlate energy advection with large-scale circulation patterns, such as the ENSO and NAO using multivariate correlation methods.

Mathematics of Neurite Outgrowth and Pathfinding

Award Number: 424882

Program(s): INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAM, OFFICE OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY AC

Start Date: 3/15/2005

Principal Investigator: Shinbrot, Troy

Co-PI Name(s): Martin Grumet Wise Young

PI Email Address: shinbrot@sol.rutgers.edu

Abstract: The overarching objective of the work proposed here is to support a productive interdisciplinary collaboration that will simultaneously generate meaningful quantitative research results in the neurosciences and foster the acquisition of the physiological background that will permit me to develop an independent research program in quantitative modeling of neuronal morphogenesis. The proposed work will be performed at the Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers University, and will focus on developmental and regenerative mechanisms associated with Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) neurons and their associated glia. This work will involve two research projects to be performed under the guidance of Prof. Wise Young, MD PhD and Chair of Cell Biology & Neuroscience, and Prof. Martin Grumet, PhD and Director of the Center, in close collaboration with appropriate faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and visiting scientists affiliated with the Center. The aims of this work are to quantitative test the hypotheses that morphogenesis of Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) neurites in vitro can be well described by a stochastic model, and that the function of such stochastic morphogenesis is to efficiently explore space in search of targets. The approach that will be used to achieve these aims will involve direct numerical simulations of axonal and glial structures that are validated and modified to accord with 3D imaging of neuronal cultures. Throughout this work, the guiding objective will be to use modeling to derive concrete, testable predictions.

This IGMS project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).

The Basal State of Hox Gene Control and Function in Ray-finned Fish Phylogeny

Award Number: 447478

Program(s): GENES AND GENOME SYSTEMS

Start Date: 3/1/2005

Principal Investigator: Chiu, Chi-hua

Co-PI Name(s):

PI Email Address: chiu@biology.rutgers.edu

Abstract: Hox genes encode transcriptional regulator proteins that play an important role in body axis formation and are likely to have a major influence on the development and evolution of body plans. Human and mouse possess thirty-nine Hox genes distributed on four Hox clusters, A, B, C, D. Recent studies have found a dynamic mode of Hox cluster evolution occurred in the ray-finned fishes. Derived ray-finned fishes (teleosts) such as zebrafish and pufferfish have 7-8 Hox clusters that have undergone considerable sequence evolution. Hence, comparisons of Hox gene control and function between taxa such as zebrafish and human are complicated. The PI will investigate Hox gene control and function in the bichir (Polypterus senegalus), the most basal living ray-finned fish that possesses several primitive fish morphological characters including primitive pectoral fins. The PI has already shown that the bichir has a single HoxA cluster; hence, the bichir does not have the duplication that produced extra HoxA clusters in derived teleosts. This research has three Objectives: (1) to determine the Hox complement of clusters and genes in the bichir, (2) to utilize bichir HoxA cluster sequences to identify HoxA11 cis-regulatory elements that are responsible for the expression pattern in an ancestral fish fin, and (3) to survey for the presence of so-identified ancestral HoxA11 cis-regulatory elements in additional teleost lineages. The experimental approach involves (1) cloning, sequencing, and informatics of bichir Hox clusters, (2) using transgenic reporter technologies to functionally test candidate ancestral HoxA11 cis-regulatory sequences, and (3) isolating HoxA clusters of additional teleost lineages with targeted sequencing of so-identified ancestral HoxA11 cis-regulatory sequences. Results of this research will contribute to a mechanistic foundation for the evolution of terrestrial limbs from aquatic fins. Knowledge on Hox gene control and function in the earliest ray-finned fishes will enhance understanding of the evolutionary forces acting on duplicated Hox clusters of derived ray-finned fishes. This research has/will generated a large body of genomic sequence data of Hox clusters in the bichir and other ray-finned fishes that are/will be deposited in GenBank and shared openly in the scientific community via research publications and websites. In terms of broader impact, this project will provide good training opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students in the postgenomic era.

CAREER: Recipe for the Taming of a Chimaera: Toward No-Futz Computing

Award Number: 448070

Program(s): ADVANCED NET INFRA and RSCH

Start Date: 3/1/2005

Principal Investigator: Nguyen, Thu

Co-PI Name(s):

PI Email Address: Tdnguyen@cs.Rutgers.Edu

Abstract: Today's enterprise computing environments resemble the mythological chimaera: they are comprised of heterogeneous devices, ranging from PDAs to servers, which individually presents distinct, fragmented views of available data and services. To exacerbate the problem, devices are often managed by individuals with different interests and expertise. Thus, the parts are not even coordinated by a single brain! Unsurprisingly, these monsters are hard to use and maintain.

This project is exploring two ingredients for the taming of these monsters: a peer-to-peer (P2P) file system and a decentralized coordination mechanism. The file system serves to unify the fragmented data views of devices into a global namespace, providing device-independent name and content addressing. Underneath the global view, the file system continually monitors device characteristics and user behaviors, and automatically adapts the replication and placement of data to achieve specified availability and durability targets.

The coordination mechanism serves to govern the interactions between components within a decentralized system according to explicitly specified policies. Critically, this mechanism is based on an intrinsically decentralized system called Law Governed Interactions (LGI). This work explores the applicability of LGI to the above P2P file system and the experimental use of the resulting integrated system in the computing infrastructure of the Rutgers Computer Science Department.

The expected outcome of the project is a demonstration of how P2P technologies can be used to build powerful and flexible, yet low-futz enterprise computing systems. The project will also produce two prototype building blocks that can be used for future investigations of decentralized systems.

Microbially Mediated Cycling of Organohalides in Marine Sponges

Award Number: 451708

Program(s): CHEMICAL OCEANOGRAPHY, BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY

Start Date: 3/1/2005

Principal Investigator: Haggblom, Max

Co-PI Name(s): Lee Kerkhof Young-Beom Ahn

PI Email Address: haggblom@aesop.rutgers.edu

Abstract: ABSTRACT

OCE-0451708

Microbially-mediated dehalogenation processes in the ocean contribute to the global cycling of anthropogenic and biogenic halogenated organic compounds with applications in both natural products chemistry and in bioremediation. In this study, researchers at Rutgers University will investigate the dehalogenating bacterial populations within the sponge animal with the goal of understanding the roles and metabolic activities of the endomesohyl microbiota. Sponges (Porifera) harbor large numbers of bacteria that can amount to 40% of the biomass of the animal, although little is know about the specific roles of the bacterial populations associated with them. Sponges are known to produce a plethora of secondary metabolites that may function as chemical defense against predators and biofouling. Many secondary metabolites are organohalogen compounds that may constitute over 10% of the animal dry weight of some species. The abundance of halogenated compounds in sponge tissue and the high bacterial biomass implies that sponge-associated microorganisms may have the ability to metabolize the organohalide compounds. The sponge Aplysina aerophoba and related species of the order Verongida are chosen as a model system because the presence of brominated compounds is characteristic for this taxonomic group and because this species is experimentally tractable. The overall working hypothesis is that dehalogenating bacteria form stable populations within the sponge that function in the cycling of organohalide compounds.

Broader impacts: This project will provide unique research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Undergraduates will be trained through summer internship programs at Cook College and actively partake in the laboratory analysis, providing them with hands on research experience and study on a multidisciplinary topic to foster both career development and professional placement in diverse scientific fields. The project will integrate with the new Microbiology undergraduate curriculum at Rutgers University and employ students from under-represented ethnic groups through the RISE @ Rutgers program.

WCR: Coupled Climatic-Hydrologic Change in the Terrestrial Water Cycle of North America in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Natural Variability and Anthr

Award Number: 450334

Program(s): BE-UF: WATER CYCLE

Start Date: 3/1/2005

Principal Investigator: Robock, Alan

Co-PI Name(s): Christopher Weaver Ying Reinfelder

PI Email Address: robock@envsci.rutgers.edu

Abstract: This interdisciplinary project team has recently built a new modeling system for exploring coupled climatic-hydrologic processes by fully integrating all surface and subsurface terrestrial reservoirs, and their governing dynamics, into a state-of-the-art regional climate model, the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). With this tool, i.e., RAMS-Hydrology, the project team will produce downscaled scenarios of regional climate change impacts on the terrestrial water cycle and investigate the two-way interactions between the atmospheric, surface, and subsurface reservoirs that modulate these impacts. The study will employ the model, along with current understanding of large-scale climate variability over the past decades and estimates of the range of potential global climate changes in the future, to examine coupled climate and water cycle change over North America in the 20th and 21st centuries.

First a post-doctoral research associate and subsequently a graduate student will be involved in the research.