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UC Merced "Development of High-Density Microsystems for Wireless Biomedical Application" Presented by: Bruce Kim, Ph.D. Date: Wednesday, July 21, 2004, 11:00am to 12:00noon Location: Redwood Conference Room High density microsystems are increasingly in demand for modern computer systems including biomedical areas. Microsystems contain micro level transistor integrated chips and package substrates. There are two microsystem technologies that are about to emerge in near future: SoC and SiP. The System-on-Chip solution could delay time to market and the System-in-Package could be an alternate solution to move the product in time to market. If SiP can be an alternate solution to SoC, the substrates used in SiP must be defect free to ensure high reliability. In this talk we will introduce the test methodology used to verify SiP substrates from defects and a new scheduling algorithm to reduce the test cost further. We will then show some of the work in neural engineering with the SiP technology for newly developed flexible polymer neural bio MEMS. Bruce Kim received his B.S. from the University of California, Irvine in 1981, M.S. degree from the University of Arizona in 1985 and Ph.D. degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1996, all in electrical engineering. He is currently an associate professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Prior to his graduate program at Georgia Tech, he worked for Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) as a Research Engineer in the Electronics Research Laboratory where he worked on top secret Soviet communications equipment. He has also worked at Hughes Electronics Corporation as a circuit design engineer. He has been providing service to the IEEE as a newsletter editor, awards chair, technology group chair and associate editor of transactions. Dr. Kim received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 1997. He teaches courses in the areas of electronics, mixed-signal and digital IC. His research interests are in design and testing of a high density processor-ba sed Microsystems using digital, RF circuits and MEMS. He is a senior member of IEEE. For further information, please contact Juana Dumagan at 209.724.2949 or by e-mail at jdumagan@ucmerced.edu. |
UC MERCED "Why We Are Losing the Air Quality War in the San Joaquin Valley" Presented By: Thomas A. Cahill, Ph.D. Date: Thursday, June 24, 2004, 10:00am-11:00am Place: Redwood Conference Room California has spent enormous efforts in the past 35 years to clean up its air, and the results in the South Coast basin have been stunning. California regulations are now being adopted by many states. However, despite reductions in ozone and aerosol precursors, air quality in the San Joaquin Valley is almost unchanged. According to the US EPA, the valley is among the most polluted areas of the nation, with Fresno having (purportedly) the 4th poorest air quality nationally. In this talk, I will examine the three major pollutants that violate state and federal standards; summer ozone in the valley, summer ozone and haze in the national parks and winter fine particles in the valley. Finally, I will lay out a program to address these problems in a way suitable to Valley conditions, rather than continuing the ineffective efforts of the past decades. In this effort, the Bay Area, Sierra Nevada and even Asia play a role. Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Sciences and head of the Delta Group (Detection and Evaluation of Long-rang Transport of Aerosols), UC Davis. He got his Ph.D. at UCLA in nuclear physics (1965) and after fellowships in France and Chile, joined the Physics faculty at UCD. In addition to nuclear astrophysics, he began studying ambient atmospheric aerosols using optical, atomic, and nuclear techniques. He was Director of the Institute of Ecology (1972-1975) and Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, (1980-1989) and was co-founder the national IMPROVE aerosol and visibility network, 1987-1997. His pro-bono work on California's adoption of the catalytic converter (1975), Lake Tahoe, Mono and Owens Lakes, and the Grand Canyon power plants won him the UC Davis Academic Senate Public Service Scholarship Award in 1994. Since 1991, his work has been more directed to aerosols and climate forcing, with major international efforts, the Arctic, Kuwait and especially in Asia. However, he continues to work in very fine/ultra fine aerosols and health at the World Trade Center and in California, the latter with the American Lung Association. For more information, please contact the UC Merced Academic Resource Center at 209-724-4366. |
UC Merced "Environmental Effects upon Hydrogen Tunneling in Soybean Lipoxygenase 1: Understanding How Enzymes Perform Difficult Chemistry" Presented By: Matthew P. Meyer, Ph.D. Date: Tuesday, July 6, 2004, 2:00pm-3:00pm Location: Redwood Conference Room Because hydrogen tunneling rates are very sensitive to the proximity of the hydrogen donor and acceptor, systems in which hydrogen tunneling is operative are very sensitive to environmental changes. For this reason, changes in observables related to tunneling are sensitive probes of environmental changes. Soybean Lipoxygenase 1 (SLO-1) catalyzes the oxidation of linoleic acid to 13-(S)-hydroperoxy-9,11-(Z,E)-octadecanoic acid. The rate-limiting step in this transformation is the abstraction of the pro-S hydrogen at the C11 position of linoleic acid by the active site Fe(III)-OH cofactor. The associated isotope effect on kcat for the conversion of linoleic acid versus 11,11-d2-linoleic acid is 81±5 at 30°C. This unusually large isotope effect is strongly indicative of hydrogen tunneling. In a system where tunneling appears to be a large portion of the reactive flux, a unique opportunity exists for understanding how the environment provided by the enzyme aids in this fundamentally difficult C-H bond activation. This talk will explore the effects of the local and global environment upon experimental observables. Furthermore, a number of theoretical models will be employed to explain the physical origins of the observables. Matthew P. Meyer, born in Wichita, Kansas in 1971, received his B. S. in Mathematics and Chemistry at the University of Kansas in 1995. There he worked on simulating the solid/liquid interface of a hard-sphere ensemble (under the direction of Brian B. Laird) and substrate-fragment activation of a-chymotrypsin-catalyzed hydrolysis of unnatural esters (under the direction of Richard L. Schowen). In 1996, he completed his M. S. in physical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In the Fall of 1996, he moved to Texas A&M University to work in the laboratory of Daniel A. Singleton. His work there involved applying a synthesis of computational and experimental techniques toward understanding the origins of energetics and structure in the transition states and intermediates of organic reactions. He received his Ph. D. in organic chemistry in 2001. In 2001, he began working as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Judith P. Klinman at the University of California, Berkeley. There he has focused on developing experiments and computer models to probe the effects of the enzyme environment upon hydrogen tunneling in the oxidation of linoleic acid catalyzed by Soybean Lipoxygenase 1. For further information, please contact Annette Garcia in the School of Natural Sciences at 209.724.4309 or by e-mail at agarcia@ucmerced.edu. |
UC Merced "Computer Networking: Recent Developments, Trends and Issues" When: Friday, June 18, 2004, 11:00am-12:00noon Where: Dogwood Conference Room Presented By: Raj Jain, Ph.D. We are in a networking age, where computer networking developments affect all aspects of life, technology, and industry. They have impacted education and research as well. The time between research and productization has narrowed. Over the last few years, hyping the impact of networking technology has lead to the so called "hype cycle of technology." After a general discussion of networking and its impact, we will discuss the recent developments in optical and wireless networking. In optical networking, the industry has moved away from core networking issues to metro and access issues. These developments will be described. In wireless networking, the aspects of broadband access, mobility and handoff are becoming important. The talk is designed to entertain both networking and non-networking professionals. Raj Jain is a Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Nayna Networks, Inc - a next generation broadband access equipment company in San Jose, CA. Until August 2002, he was also a Professor of Computer and Information Sciences at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, where he is now an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Jain is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of ACM and a Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Communication Society. He is on the Editorial board of 4 technical journals and on Board of Technical Advisors to several companies. He has been the keynote speaker at many conferences including Concord Users Group Conference 2002, OpNetwork 2001, NREN Gigabit Networking Workshop 2000, Summer Computer Simulation Conference SCSC/SPECTS 2000, and International Conference on Networking (ICON) 1999. Based on his active participation in the computer industry, Dr. Jain was awarded 1999 siliconindia Leadership Awards for Excellence and Promise in Business and Technology. He obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University and is the author of 4 books and hundreds of papers, details of which can be found at http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~jain/index.html. For further information, please contact the School of Engineering at (209) 724-4411. |
UC Merced "Microbial Transformation of Halogenated Organic Pollutants" Presented by: Q. Shiang Fu, Ph.D. When: Tuesday, June 8, 2004, 2:00pm-3:00pm Where: Redwood Conference Room (1) Microbial dechlorination of chlorinated dioxins in estuarine
cultures: (2) Localization of Carbon Tetrachloride Transformation Activity in
Shewanella oneidensis MR-1: (3) Emerging contaminants - Aerobic transformation of
perfluorinated organic compounds: Dr. Shiang Fu obtained his Ph.D. degree in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan in 2000 under the supervision of Professor Peter Addriaens. His doctoral research focused on microbial reductive dechlorination of chlorinated dioxins. Having obtained his doctoral degree, he then joined Professor Craig Criddle's group at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow working on various research projects in environmental microbiology. He is currently an Engineering Research Associate working with Professor Criddle and Professor Richard Luthy on characterization of contaminant degrading organisms and transformation of perfluorinated organic compounds in natural and engineered systems. For further information, please contact the School of Engineering at (209) 724-4411. |
The following packages were updated on the Engineering and Natural Sciences server Zero due to a security vulnerability:
Also, Perl version 5.8.2 was updated with the addition of module XML::Parser. |
UC Merced "Anaerobically-biodegradable nonionic surfactants used as the sole carbon source to sustain the microbial reductive dechlorination of hexachlorobenzene in a contaminated sediment-derived, methanogenic consortium" Presented By: Daniel H. Yeh, Ph.D., P.E. When: Wednesday, June 2, 2004, 9:00am-10:00am Place: Redwood Conference Room In recent years, the use of surfactants to enhance the bioavailability of hydrophobic organic contaminants for bioremediation, or to assist the cleanup of aquifers polluted with nonaqueous-phase liquids (NAPLs), has increasingly gained acceptance. Food-grade nonionic surfactants, such as the polysorbate surfactants (known as the Tween or T-MAZ series) have received considerable attention due to their assumed biodegradability and benign nature associated with their approval for food applications. However, little is known about their actual fate when applied to anaerobic subsurface systems and few reports exist on the suitability of using surfactants in conjunction with anaerobic contaminant biotransformation processes such as reductive dehalogenation. Toxicity screening of nonionic surfactants, conducted using a contaminated sediment-derived, HCB-dechlorinating, mixed, methanogenic culture, indicated that Tween surfactants are fermentable to methane and were the least inhibitory towards HCB reductive dechlorination. Findings of this study demonstrate that the Tween surfactants are partially and slowly degradable and as such they may be used to simultaneously increase the bioavailability of sorbed halogenated organic contaminants while serving as the carbon and electron source for microbial reductive dehalogenation. While the surfactants themselves are unlikely to serve as the direct electron donor, they can provide a slowly-biodegradable carbon source and a steady stream of reducing equivalents (through fermentation to formate, acetate and H2) to sustain reductive dehalogenation. Pertaining to field applications, one implication of such a finding is that surfactant residuals from physical treatment (i.e., surfactant-enhanced aquifer remediation or surfactant soil/sediment washing) can provide further mitigation through second-phase biological transformation and removal of the contaminant. Following the presentation, Dr. Yeh will briefly discuss his current involvements with sustainable engineering efforts with Stanford University and the NSF WaterCAMPWS STC, in the area of membrane biotechnology for sustainable water reuse. He will outline his proposed research activities at UC-Merced, including water quality management and waste-to-energy options for agriculture, especially livestock operations, in California's Central Valley. Dr. Yeh's professional interests are in environmental bioprocesses/biotechnology and membrane technology for the purification of water and wastewater and the remediation of soils and sediments. He is also interested in sustainable engineering, especially sustainable water reuse and the biological production of renewable energy from organic wastes. He is presently appointed as a postdoctoral research fellow with the environmental engineering program of Stanford University, working with Craig Criddle and Bob Hickey on a membrane bioreactor project supported by the NSF Center for Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems (Water CAMPWS), a newly established Science and Technology Center based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Daniel's interdisciplinary educational background consists of a doctoral degree in Environmental Engineering (minor in Biogeochemistry) from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a master's degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and dual bachelors degrees in Civil Engineering and Natural Resources (Ecology), also from Michigan. Daniel is active with a number of professional organizations, among them AEESP, WEF, IWA, ACS, AWWA and ASCE. He currently chairs the Groundwater Committee of the Michigan Water Environment Association. He is a past recipient of the Robert A. Canham Award (outstanding graduate student) and the Willem Rudolfs Medal (noteworthy contributions to industrial wastes management), both from WEF. For additional information, please contact the School of Engineering at 209.724.4411. |
UC Merced "Chemical Composition of Atmospheric Aerosol" Presented By: Katharine Moore, Ph.D. When: Thursday, June 3, 2004, 9:00am-10:00am Place: Sequoia Conference Room Although the relative mass of suspended liquid/solid particulate matter in the Earth's atmosphere is comparatively small, there is increasing recognition that these aerosol particles play several important atmospheric roles. Substantial uncertainty clouds the understanding of their impacts on, for example, atmospheric chemistry, global climate change, visibility, and human and environmental health. Many of these effects depend upon both aerosol composition and size. Instrumentation to measure aerosol physical properties has progressed rapidly, but composition measurements - particularly at the extremes of the size range - lag behind. In response to the perceived need, a new instrument - the Thermal Desorption Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TDCIMS) - has recently been developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, CO) in collaboration with the University of Minnesota. The TDCIMS can directly measure the chemical composition of newly formed particles (roughly 4 - 20 nm in diameter) in the atmosphere in quasi-real time. Observations in Atlanta, GA during the summer of 2002 suggest bursts of new particle formation can be largely explained by (NH4)2SO4 (ammonium sulfate). Extended seasonal ambient background aerosol sampling campaigns during 2002/2003 in the same size range in Boulder, CO provide similar results. The particle-phase species observed in the largest concentrations are ammonium, sulfate and occasionally nitrate, although there is substantial evidence for the presence of additional species/species' fragments. Concentrations tend to peak in the early afternoon, although exceptions to this diurnal pattern often occur. At the other end of the aerosol size distribution, cloud and fog drop diameters are roughly three orders of magnitude larger (4 - 50+ mmmmm). Through varying mechanisms, fog and cloud drops can increase, decrease and re-distribute atmospheric species, with the potential to markedly affect the environmental fate of some atmospheric species. Winter 1998/1999 observations in Davis, CA radiation fogs indicate that inorganic drop composition is dominated by nitrate and ammonium, drop pH values are relatively high (5.5 - 7.0+), and drop composition varies strongly as a function of size. Smaller drops are often more highly concentrated than larger drops, although variations between species are observed. The size-dependent drop composition - as revealed by more highly resolved instrumentation - helps to explain additional in-fog measurements including the loss of species from the atmosphere via sedimentation. Using these studies as motivation, future research - combining field, laboratory and collaborative efforts - will be presented. The ultimate goal is to further our understanding of the chemical composition of aerosol and the accompanying impacts on the atmosphere and environment. Katharine Moore is a native San Franciscan with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, MS in Environmental Engineering from University of California, Berkerley, and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University. Although the formal degrees vary, they all fit together. After my defense, I started at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado as a post-doctoral fellow in the Advanced Study Program. I started working with Jim Smith and Fred Eisele in the Atmopsheric Chemistry Division where I remain as a Visiting Scientist. Also, in August 2004, I will start as a post-doctoral scholar at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California in the Earth Science Division/Atmospheric Chemistry/Chemical Kinetics Group. For additional information, please contact the School of Engineering at 209.724.4411 |
UC Merced "Biological Soil Crusts: The Desert's Secret Garden" Presented by: Ferran Garcia-Pichel, Ph.D. When: Thursday, June 3, 2004, 2:00pm-3:00pm Place: Sequoia Conference Room Biological soil crusts are thin, organosedimentary topsoil features prevalent in areas where plant cover is restricted by environmental extremes, such as aridity. They are formed through the growth of cyanobacteria and accompanying microflora and play a significant role in soil stabilization against erosion. We have been studying various aspects of the biology and biogeochemistry of these communities, including basic microbiology, microbial diversity and biogeography, biogeochemical cycling at the small scale, as well as adaptations of the biota to the harsh conditions imposed by this particular habitat. Ferran Garcia-Pichel earned a Bachelor's in Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), and Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology from the University of Oregon. He was a researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen (Germany), before moving to Arizona State University in 2000, where he is currently an associate professor of microbiology. He specializes in microbial ecology and geomicrobiology, and studies microbial communities in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. For further information contact Annette Garcia in the School of Natural Sciences at (209) 724-4309 or agarcia@ucmerced.edu. |
UC Merced "Has Impoundment Altered the Nutrient Dynamics of California's Waterways? - Seasonal and Temporal Variations in Solute Chemistry within the Cosumnes and Mokelumne Watersheds" Presented By: Dylan Ahearn When: Friday, May 21, 2004, 12:00noon-1:00pm Place: Sequoia Video Conference Room The spatial and temporal water quality dynamics in the last free-flowing watershed draining the western Sierra Nevada were investigated with the aim of establishing a criterion for comparison to analogous impounded watersheds. This study examines the effects of flow regulation on water quantity and quality by comparing an impounded system (Mokelumne River) with an adjacent unimpounded system (Cosumnes River). Water quality in the Cosumnes River displays a strong seasonal cycle with nearly the entire annual load of TSS, nitrate, and phosphate being exported during the stormflow season (Nov. - Mar.). The meltflow season (April - June) is marked by high discharges of dilute water, while the baseflow season (July - Oct.) is determined by groundwater chemistry that is characterized by median levels of dissolved salts. This seasonal cycle is not seen in the adjacent Mokelumne Watershed where the Pardee-Camanche Reservoir System impounds 0.73 km of water, buffering seasonal cycles and altering effluent chemistry. The reservoirs act as sinks of most constituents analyzed, except Chlorophyll-a, phosphate, and nitrate - inverting inflowing nitrate patterns the reservoirs tend to depress stormflow nitrate peaks and elevate nitrate levels during the melt and baseflow seasons, resulting in a net annual export. Major dams, similar to those found on the Mokelumne, exist on 19 of the 20 rivers that drain into the Central Valley of California. The results of this study suggest that the ubiquity of large impoundments in California has drastically altered the spatiotemporal chemical dynamics of downstream waterways. Dylan Ahearn has been analyzing the effects of impoundment on both small and large watersheds in the Sierra Nevada for four years. He received his B.A. in geology from Guilford College in 1996 and recently received his Ph.D. in hydrology from UC Davis. His most recent work has been looking at the ecohydrology and biogeochemistry of small dam removals. For additional information, please contact the School of Engineering at 209.724.4411. |
Engineering and Natural Sciences maintains a single level certificate structure to authenticate web and e-mail services. The root certificate is available here: eng.ucmerced.edu.pem The root certificate signs individual hosts certificates. Then only the root certificate is needed in browser or e-mail applications to authenticate Engineering and Natural Sciences hosts. The root certificate has a fingerprint of: MD5 Fingerprint=43:AD:A3:25:0F:6D:21:39:A1:BF:A8:02:7B:EC:56:0B SHA1 Fingerprint=42:E5:5E:99:11:2A:EC:11:9D:32:26:5A:90:6C:C2:C5:05:0E:F6:13 In most web browsers, clicking on the lock icon will show the host certificate. The Certification Path should show the host certificate, with the Engineering and Natural Sciences root certificate above it. Click on the root certificate and compare the string Thumbprint with the MD5 or SHA fingerprint described above. Also, a certificate revocation list is available here: eng.ucmerced.edu.crl Remember: Engineering and Natural Sciences computer staff make every attempt to keep the security of the certificates. In no event is UC Merced liable for any indirect, incidental or consequential damages, or loss of data in connection with the use of these certificates. The purposes of these certificates are for casual assurance of host identity. |
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