Tag Archives: delaware

Shark Social Networking

Shark migrations studied with underwater robot along Delmarva Peninsula

University of Delaware researchers are using an underwater robot to find and follow sand tiger sharks that they previously tagged with transmitters. The innovative project is part of a multi-year partnership with Delaware State University to better understand the behavior and migration patterns of the sharks in real time.

“In the past week our new, specially equipped glider OTIS – which stands for Oceanographic Telemetry Identification Sensor – detected multiple sand tiger sharks off the coast of Maryland that were tagged over the past several years,” said Matthew Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. “This is the first time that a glider has found tagged sharks and reported their location in real time.” (more…)

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Tiny Cloud Droplets

UD’s Wang contributes invited paper on cloud microphysics

Lian-Ping Wang, professor of mechanical engineering and joint professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware, recently published an invited critical review paper in the 2013 volume of the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, a high impact journal for the fluid mechanics community.

Co-authored with Wojciech Grabowski, a senior scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the paper, titled “Growth of Cloud Droplets in a Turbulent Environment,” addresses a classic cloud physics problem of how cloud turbulence affects the growth of tiny cloud droplets. (more…)

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Student Success

UD conference highlights diversity and student retention

Freeman Hrabowski and Vincent Tinto both believe that creating a culture of trust and support is a key ingredient in retaining students from underrepresented groups while achieving genuine campuswide diversity.

Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and Tinto, Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at Syracuse University, shared their expertise on diversity and student retention during the Student Success and Retention Conference, held Wednesday, Oct. 3, in the Trabant University Center on the University of Delaware campus in Newark. (more…)

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Right to Science?

Workshop helps to define the human right to benefit from science

Conscience. Expression. Property. Fair trial. Peaceful assembly. And science?

Yes, says the University of Delaware’s Tom Powers, the international community has declared that there is an inalienable human right to science.

In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees in Article 27 “the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”

The same right was reaffirmed by the U.N. General Assembly in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966. (more…)

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Technology in the Classroom

A professor uses clickers and UD Capture to make a large class feel smaller

Susan McGeary, associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Delaware, incorporated clickers and UD Capture for the first time in spring 2012 to see if she could increase student participation. What McGeary did not expect was the level of engagement in her Geological Hazards course, which is a 250-300 person class.

“Clickers seemed to remove the barrier between me and the students; they approached me more, asked more questions, were more involved during the class — it was exciting,” McGeary said. (more…)

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What’s that Noise?

Paper describes new method to understand sources of noise in gene-expression

Abhyudai Singh, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware, describes a new method to understand sources of “noise” in gene-expression that create variability in protein levels in a paper published in Molecular Systems Biology, a publication of Nature, on Aug. 28.

This noise is expressed as variability in the levels of proteins/mRNAs in a cell. (more…)

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Cracking the Oyster’s Code

International team of scientists finds adaptations to stress in oyster genome

When it comes to stress, oysters know how to deal. The tough-shelled mollusks can survive temperature fluctuations, toxic metals and exposure to air, and a new study of their genetic makeup is helping to explain how.

An international team of scientists, including the University of Delaware’s Patrick M. Gaffney, professor of marine biosciences, sequenced the genome of the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, in a Nature paper published on Sept. 19. (more…)

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Technology in the Classroom

UD faculty member teaches sociology and statistics with technology

Victor Perez, an assistant professor in the University of Delaware’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, has found multiple ways to reach students using diverse technological approaches. Perez makes his classroom presentations highly interactive by combining a tablet with an engaging PowerPoint presentation.

Using the Wacom Bamboo tablet and its accompanying app, Perez creates illustrations of statistical formulas and distributions in class. “Bamboo Dock is something that I’ll use pretty frequently in the statistics course, and it looks literally like a journal. What’s great about this is that you can write any statistical formula, and it’s what students will see directly on the screen,” Perez said. (more…)

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