Elliot Anderson
Art Department

Average Landscapes

The project is an investigation into the traces of 19th century landscape painting and the construction of tourist sites in the contemporary tourist snapshot.  Software creates images by searching for and averaging together tourist snapshots from the Internet based on titles from 19th century landscape painting, specifically Hudson River School paintings.  The project is in three integrated parts, an Internet based application and website, a video installation of the process, and large-scale digital transparency prints on lightboxes.   By combining from ten up to a hundred images certain consistent characteristics of the formulation and framing of landscape appear that resonate with earlier portrayals of place.  The images make visible a historical trace of the enframing of the natural world and the structuring of the tourist experience.  The pieces are scheduled for exhibition at the De Young Museum in San Francisco from October 2006 to January 2007.

Work in progress can be viewed at http://danm.ucsc.edu/~ewanders

George Bunch
Education Department

Jerome Shaw
Education Department

Language Demands of High School Science Assessments for English Learners

The proposed project allows for collaboration between a faculty member with expertise in assessment of student learning in science and one who specializes in language and literacy development. The study explores the language-related challenges and opportunities inherent in assessments of student learning at the high school level. This research is especially significant for English Learners, students who speak languages other than English at home, are still in the process of developing their English language proficiency, and face school curricula delivered primarily in English. The context for this study is freshman science classrooms in a rural high school whose student population is culturally and linguistically diverse. Located in the western United States, teachers at this school have chosen to implement a nationally recognized curriculum that aligns with current standards-based reform efforts in science education. The project includes the collection of classroom interaction data, assessment documents, and student work associated with the implementation of that curriculum. These data will be analyzed using a multi-dimensional framework that includes identification of grammatical, lexical and functional aspects of language. The results will expand basic knowledge of the role that language plays in the assessment of English Learners as well as the particular linguistic challenges and opportunities inherent in performance assessment.

Melissa Caldwell
Anthropology Department

Rebuilding Communities and Saving Souls: The Political Economy of Salvation and Faith-Based Benevolence in Post-Soviet Russia

As the Russian state withdraws from welfare provision, American religious groups have emerged as the most significant providers of charitable assistance in Russia. By focusing on the dynamics between American sender congregations and Russian receiver programs, this project analyzes how foreign religious communities define and justify the charitable projects they support, how Russian aid recipients and other local observers interpret these forms of welfare assistance, and how these programs influence the Russian state’s changing vision of welfare. Ultimately, my goal is investigate the changing nature of welfare in Russia and the long-term impact of religious organizations on economics, spirituality, and the practices and ethics of benevolence, responsibility, and salvation in Russian welfare philosophies. This project requires ethnographic field research in both the United States and Russia. The U.S.-based research will focus on American religious groups that sponsor Russia-based programs and send aid workers, funding, and material goods to Russia. The Russia-based research portion of this project will examine how these foreign faith-based charities implement their projects “in-country."

Sharon Daniel
Film & Digital Media Department

James Davis
Computer and Information Science Department

Community Stories

We propose to develop a wireless device and network server that will enable marginalized communities (not traditionally thought of as scholarly or academic) to produce and interpret knowledge and represent their own experiences and perspectives. The design and testing of the prototype will be pursued in collaboration with a working group convened by Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires and the University of California. The working group is researching the impact of privatization and economic globalization on impoverished communities with a focus on the complex processes producing inequality, social exclusion and poverty. The goal of this collaboration is to develop tools and interfaces for the collection of data and dissemination of research in Public Economy, and Law. The device will be designed in consultation with the working group. The prototype will be built at UC, Santa Cruz. Working group members in Buenos Aires will develop contacts with test user groups through affiliation with NGOs serving a variety of economically marginalized community groups in Buenos Aires. Test users will be asked to use the device to examine and document the impact of privatization of public resources, particularly the privatization of water, on their communities and their own daily lives.

Nathaniel Dominy
Anthropology Department

Evolution of Diet in the Genus Homo

The role of plant underground storage organs (USOs) in human evolution has received considerable theoretical attention. To achieve a better understanding of the importance of USOs in human evolution, I have conceived of an integrative and comparative research program with three objectives. The first is to characterize variation in the starch and mechanical properties of USOs. Differences in the morphology and microwear of Australopithecus and Paranthropus have been interpreted as adaptations to foods that differ mechanically, yet few data exist on the toughness or hardness of putative hominin foods, particularly USOs. The second objective is to understand the molecular history of genes that code for amylase, the enzyme responsible for starch hydrolysis. Because USOs may contain considerable quantities of starch, and because consuming USOs places an adaptive premium on starch hydrolysis, it stands to reason that much can be inferred about hominin diets by examining the evolution, expression, and activity of amylase across primates, as well as USO-specialist taxa, such as African mole-rats. The third objective is to characterize variation in the isotopic composition of USO-bearing plants and of mole-rats. Each of these independent lines of research is part of overarching objective: to test or falsify the USO hypothesis.

Pascale Garaud
Applied Math and Statistics

Steller Internal Dynamics

The proposal is aimed at supporting three research projects in astrophysical fluid dynamics, with particular emphasis on the internal dynamics of stars. The first project involves the development and testing of a turbulent closure model for convection in a rotating, sheared environment. The second project involves compiling observational evidence for deep mixing in stars. The third project involves the study of the dynamics of point vortices on a sphere, with application to the interaction of descending plumes with the solar radiative zone. Each of the three projects will be assisted by a student, two of which will be incoming graduate students in the fall, and the third is a current undergraduate at UCSC. Some equipment and specialized software support is also requested towards the completion of the projects.

Claire Gu
Electrical Engineering Department

Photonic Crystal Fibers for Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Sensing Applications

We propose to explore the applications of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) in chemical, biological, and environmental detections. The demand for such detections is increasingly urgent in early disease diagnostics, environmental protection, defense and homeland security applications, etc. Conventional optical fibers have been used in many optical sensors due to their flexibility, compactness, and light guiding characteristics. PCFs have attracted significant attention in the fiber optics community primarily due to their superior dispersion and nonlinear optical properties. However, their applications in optical sensing, especially in chemical and biological sensing, have not been extensively explored. Besides their well recognized optical properties, PCFs offer unique characteristics for the optical sensing of liquid or gas molecules when combined with fluorescence or Raman technologies as the air channels in PCFs can be easily filled with liquid or gas samples due to the capillary effect. We propose to begin our research with the hollow core PCFs in which the large air channel in the center serves to confine the optical wave that interacts directly with the sample. The high intensity due to the optical confinement offers a stronger interaction, therefore a higher sensitivity, than most of the fiber sensors that are based on evanescent wave interactions.

Melissa Gwyn
Art Department

“Greener”
A series of 20 paintings and a video in response to the landscape of Palm Springs

I am applying for a special project grant to create a series of paintings and a video in response to the culture and landscape of Palm Springs. The title of these paintings will be “Greener”. The video will be titled “Walk in the Wash”. I intend to exhibit the paintings and show the video within the same exhibition space. I propose to return to the Palm Springs area next spring break to gather research material in the form of video footage and still photographs of golf courses. The completed paintings and the finished video will be shipped to exhibitions in university galleries and art centers.

Jorge Hankamer
Linguistics Department

Investigations in Turkish Morphosyntax

It is usually assumed that morphological parsing (the analysis of words into their component morphemes) can proceed on the basis of word-internal information alone.  In recent work on Turkish (Hankamer 2004a, 2004b), I found evidence that certain suffixes in Turkish are ad-phrasal affixes, i.e. they combine not with stems but with phrases.  A consequence of this is that words containing these ad-phrasal affixes cannot be parsed on the basis of word-internal information alone; rather, morphological parsing and syntactic parsing must proceed in parallel.The present project is an empirical study to test a number of predictions flowing from this hypothesis: in addition to the properties of the ki-construction that I have investigated already, there are predictions regarding scope of negation effects, quantifier scope, and ellipsis.  While the predictions are quite clear, many of them are very difficult to confirm or disprove by the study of texts; rather, what is required is linguistic field work with native speaker consultants.  To carry out this work I propose to spend the summer of 2007 (three months) in Istanbul, Turkey, where I will have access to a sufficient number of consultants via my contacts with members of the Linguistics Department at Bogazici University.

Margaret Delaney
Ocean Sciences Department

Russell Flegal
Environmental Toxicology Department

James Zachos
Earth Sciences Department

Seed Research for an NSF MRI Laser-ablation ICP-MS Acquisition Proposal

In January 2007, a multi-departmental group of PIs will seek acquisition of a new, state-of-the-art laser-ablation inductively-coupled-plasma mass-spectrometry facility (LA-ICP-MS) through the NSF Major Research Instrumentation program. The addition of laser ablation capabilities will complement existing UCSC facilities by providing for high-spatial-resolution to(~4 micrometers) in situ trace element and isotopic analysis of solid samples. Hourigan has secured a one-year loan of a 213 nm laser ablation system from Stanford Earth Sciences that will facilitate seed research in the UCSC Element ICP-MS lab. Research funds will be used to: (1) collect new LA-ICP-MS data across multiple disciplines; (2) run a “hands-on” microanalytical seminar in fall 2006; (3) develop a facility management plan, a key evaluation criterion for NSF instrumentation programs; and (4) expand collaborative research with nearby research institutions. Provocative seed data sets and a proven facility management plan will demonstrate PI expertise and experience in running a multi-user facility and increase chances for success in the MRI competition. Funds will support graduate student and outside researcher participation in the seminar and data collection and thus will foster educational and scientific outreach.

Kimberly Jannarone
Theater Arts Department

Artaud and His Doubles: Archival Research and Residency

The argument of Artaud and His Doubles is that Artaud's work, taken out of its received interpretations, reveals affinities directly related to the thinking of his time, the between-wars era in Europe--not with the avant-garde circles concerned with activating the individual or with progressive political thinking, but with right-wing and reactionary circles of the avant-garde and politics, in the context of terror, crowds, and power.  By examining these, I suggest that we re-consider Artaud's status as a figure of the freedom-seeking American sixties avant-garde and of French liberatory or post-structuralist thought and consider instead what figure, exactly, these influential, to the point of absolutely dominant, schools have embraced.  My point is that Artaud's enormous desire for power, his anti-progressive thinking, and his belief in the sickness of the world have much more in common with the thinking that fueled authoritarian systems during this period than has been acknowledged.  His demand to be read a-historically has been taken at face value by his major interpreters, to the huge detriment of understanding his work and the world in which it is a participant and reflection.  Thus, this book situates Artaud in the most important and most neglected context of his work: the entre-deux-guerres era,  the nouveau mal du siecle, the period of reaction, the age of the crowd.  Through this lens, we examine the aesthetic and political implications of idealized freedom, engineering crowds, and totalizing visions of life and culture.

Pradip Mascharak
Chemistry and Biochemistry Department

Novel Polymer-encapsulated NO-drugs for Cancer Phototherapy

Although high concentration of nitric oxide (NO) at a selective locale has been shown to kill cancer cells, it has not been possible to use conventional NO-donors to combat cancer due to the inexorability of NO release by these drugs inside human body.  We have synthesized several NO-donors that release NO only upon illumination with visible light of low-intensity.  In the present proposal, we plan to encapsulate these NO-donors into biocompatible polymer matrix and attempt to use them as local NO-donors to kill breast, prostate and skin cancer cells.  Since the NO-donors will be highly localized, such hybrid NO-drugs will be extremely valuable for phototherapy of cancer without any other side effects of excess NO (such as abnormally low blood pressure).

Mara Mather
Psychology Department

How stress modulates emotional memory consolidation in younger and older adults

This study investigates two questions that are important for understanding the mechanisms of emotional memory: 1) How does stress influence consolidation of associative memory; and 2) Are the effects of stress on memory consolidation different among older adults than among younger adults?  Participants will complete an attention task in which they see emotional and neutral pictures in various locations on a computer screen.  Some participants will receive a stress induction (holding their hand in ice water). We will measure stress hormones levels throughout the session to see how they relate to memory performance a week later.  Studies with younger adults have shown that stress hormones selectively enhance memory for emotional stimuli but not neutral stimuli. This study will be the first to examine if this relationship also holds for older adults. In addition, this study will examine whether stress-related enhancements are seen for two types of associative memory (memory for the location of a picture and memory for which shape a picture was seen with) for emotional stimuli but not neutral stimuli.  One intriguing possibility is that stress may enhance memory for emotional items, but impair memory for what they were associated with.

Leta Miller
Music Department

San Francisco's Musical Life, 1906-45

Preliminary research for a book on San Francisco's music life as a reflection of cultural sensibilities from 1906 to the end of World War II. The anticipated result will be a series of articles in 2007-08 that will feed into a book-length study. Subjects for the articles are envisioned to include: music at the world fairs of 1915 and 1939; the role of women in San Francisco's musical life; the two-decade-long political fight over the building of War Memorial Opera House; and the racial struggles of the musicians' union.

Olga Najera-Ramirez
Anthropology Department

Zamarripa: A Master of Folklorico Dance

This proposal requests funding to complete the production of a broadcast-quality video on the internationally acclaimed Mexican dance choreographer, Rafael Zamarripa.

Federico Ravenna
Economics Department

International Trade Patterns and the Optimal Choice of Exchange Rate Regimes

This project proposes a new approach to quantitatively evaluate how the pattern of international trade affects the optimal monetary policy and exchange regime choice. Except in simple models, analytical results on monetary policy welfare implications in open economies have proven very difficult to obtain. We take advantage of recent developments in solution methods for general equilibrium models to numerically compute the optimal monetary policy in economies under various assumptions about international trade patterns and goods market structure. By creating a dictionary of economies indexed by trade features, this research provides a coherent framework and an objective, quantitative base for the policy debate ongoing at international policy-making institutions. The project would open the path to the quantitative welfare analysis of policies in dimensions other than the international trade one. The numerical approach can explain how and whether the welfare results available in simpler models can be generalized. As an application, we plan to explain the monetary policy choice of new European Union member countries aiming at adopting the Euro in the next five years.

Nirvikar Singh
Economics Department

Managing Communication and Adaptation across Organizational Cultures

I proposed to conduct laboratory experiments with human subjects, in order to address key issues regarding adaptive change in organizational culture and interactions across cultures, with special reference to IT services engagements. The laboratory tasks require teams under time pressure to reach shared understandings. I will test the effectiveness of various interventions, including rotating assignments and cross-cultural training, among other variables. The project goals are to provide insights that can improve the organizational architectures and business processes that govern IT services engagements, by identifying factors that enhance positive adaptive change in organizational culture and interactions across cultures, through faster learning and innovations in organizational architectures and dynamics.

David Smith
Physics Department

Prototype preamplifier for germanium strip detectors

This proposal is for funding intended to eke out work being done with startup funding to enable us to design and fabricate a prototype Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) to serve as the preamplifier for an advanced gamma-ray detector.   The detector (a prototype is already available) detects not only the energy deposited in it, but also the position of each interaction of the gamma-ray as it is stopped.  This will allow a leap in sensitivity for future gamma-ray telescopes for astrophysics, solar physics, and planetary science.  Existing preamplifiers use too much power to be feasible for an instrument to fly on a satellite or interplanetary probe.  The ASIC design we will pursue will minimize power so as to make this possible, while attempting to retain as much performance as possible.

John Thompson
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department

The Divergence of Species through Coevolution

This request is for seed funds for an analysis of how coevolution organizes the genetic diversity of species across ecosystems amid environmental change. Specifically, the request is for funds to obtain preliminary data on molecular divergence of coevolving plant and insect populations in far western North America. I submitted last summer an NSF proposal on this research problem and the panel’s recommendation was “do not fund but encourage resubmission of a revised proposal” after additional preliminary data have been obtained. This request is therefore targeted directly at obtaining the preliminary data needed to garner multi-year NSF funding for a new direction in my research program.

Su-hua Wang
Psychology Department

Toward a Coherent Representation: How do Infants Learn to Use Task-relevant Information?

The world consists of constant changes, and yet we are able to maintain a coherent view by directing our attention to the aspects most relevant to the present task. The goal of this research is to investigate the origins of this ability. Three projects are proposed to examine the mechanisms by which human infants learn to use task-relevant information. Prior studies show that infants' ability to represent physical characteristics in an event is mediated by the spatial context involving in the event. Contextual manipulation, even when subtle and brief, can enhance or hinder infants' representation, suggesting the remarkable plasticity of their representational process. Using a combination of action tasks, looking-time experiments, and eye-tracking methods, I will examine infants' ability to represent and use task-relevant information and how contextual information affects the content of their representation. The proposed research will push forward our overall understanding of infant cognition and its mechanisms of change. The results will help bridge existing accounts of attention, memory, and representation, and bear on the broader issue of promoting cognitive development in infancy.