The 15th Annual International Scholar Research Exposition is available online. Supported by the Office of Research and the Office of International Affairs, the International Scholar Research Exposition showcases some of the world-class research undertaken by the more than 800 international visiting scholars at The Ohio State University. This year, the exposition will take place online through short videos.
Current international J-1 visiting scholars at The Ohio State University were invited to submit research summaries and 10 finalists from 8 different countries were asked to create research impact videos.
The videos are available on YouTube. Below are the finalists along with their research summaries.
Home Country
France
Faculty Mentor and Department
Nagareddy Prabhakara – Surgery
Research
Demargination and leukocytosis during Myocardial Infarction – Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the leading causes of death in today’s world. The number of neutrophils infiltrating the heart during the onset of the disease directly correlates with infarct size. The team's research found that neutrophil-depleted mice subjected to MI have worsened cardiac function, increased fibrosis and progressively developed heart failure, indicating that neutrophils are involved in cardiac repair after MI. The team’s hypothesis is to identify the source of early neutrophil and work to eliminate them.
Home Country
Pakistan
Faculty Mentor and Department
David W. Wood – Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Research
Higher expression of chitinase and its termite control – Termites are globally notorious as a silent killer as they cause massive irreversible wood losses in spite of the best control methods. Synthetic insecticides are widely used for termite control but their toxic effects to human life, including development of insecticide resistance call for alternative options to deal with these problems. In this concern, biological control methods such as chitinase (enzyme) are a prominent, safer and cost-competitive natural approach for termite control. This research deepened the understanding of chitinase usage for green industrial use in the future as a safe, nontoxic and natural biopesticide.
Home Country
Italy
Faculty Mentor and Department
Vicki Wysocki – Chemistry and Biochemistry
Research
Characterization of Salmonella FraR (Transcription Factor)-DNA Complexes Using Native Mass Spectrometry – Salmonella is a foodborne pathogen that causes nearly 1.35 million infections in the United States every year. During inflammation post-infection, Salmonella exploits fructose-asparagine (F-Asn) as a carbon and nitrogen source. Fructose-asparagine is metabolized by Salmonella using three enzymes and a transport protein that are encoded in a cluster of genes (called Fra). Genes in clusters (akin to fra) are either turned on or off because of built-in lock and key mechanism. Using native mass spectrometry, the research was able to confirm that FraR is a dimeric protein (two copies together) and that it binds the DNA. The team found that 6-phospho-fructose aspartate, an intermediate of fructose-asparagine metabolism, is able to bind FraR and works as a key that leads the protein to no longer bind the DNA. Thus, 6-phospho-fructose-Aspartate unlocks the FraR protein. This work has implications for drug discovery.
Home Country
Italy
Faculty Mentor and Department
Jeffrey Bielicki – Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering
Research
CO2-driven geothermal utilization – Two major challenges for modern energy systems are to increase electricity generation from renewable sources and decrease, stop and reverse CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. This work shows that geothermal energy can be produced while circulating geologically stored CO2 between the subsurface and a power plant. This integrated process is called CO2-driven geothermal utilization, and can be coupled to, and increase the efficiency of processes that extract CO2 from the atmosphere.
Home Country
Honduras
Faculty Mentor and Department
Luis Cañas – Entomology
Research
Thiamethoxam does not impact the survival length of convergent lady beetle when exposed via the food chain – Insect natural predators are important organisms for the control of crops insect pests. In addition to natural predators, applications with insecticides are also used for pest control. However, the use of both forms of control are usually mutually exclusive to each other, since insecticides are also toxic to natural predators. To protect natural predators, it is critical to understand their toxicological profiles. The main objective under this study is to further understand the general environmental impact systemic insecticides have on beneficial organisms.
Home Country
Guatemala
Faculty Mentor and Department
Rafael Jiménez-Flores – Food Science and Technology
Research
Isolation and characterization of bacteria from Appenzeller® Swiss cheese surface with potential impact on spoilage and food safety – Pathogenic microorganisms impact human beings through foodborne diseases, while spoilage microorganisms cause massive food loss during the transportation and storage stages. Moreover, the demand for organic foods to avoid chemical products consumption has increased. Thus, the substitution of chemicals, for compounds product of bacteria is a novel technique to ensure food safety and to help the food industry avoid spoilage and food waste. This study looked to find these microorganisms and isolate the compound.
Home Country
China
Faculty Mentor and Department
Richard P. Dick – School of Environment and Natural Resources
Research
Assessing Soil Health: Soil enzyme activities as indicators of tillage disturbance and crop rotation at seven long-term U.S. experimental sites – Soil degradation is a global problem caused by many factors including excessive tillage, inappropriate crop rotations, excessive grazing, etc. To meet the needs of an expanding global population, it is essential for humankind to recognize and understand that improving soil health by adopting sustainable agricultural and land management practices is the best solution for mitigating and reversing current soil degradation trends. Soils were collected from seven long-term experimental sites. Soil physiochemical properties, enzyme activities were measured. Results showed that no-tillage combined with crop rotation was the best choice and that B-glucosidase and arylsulfatase activity are sensitive to disturbance and can be soil health indicators.
Home Country
India
Faculty Mentor and Department
Namal Liyanage – Microbial, Infection and Immunity
Research
Role of Tonsillar immune cells during SIV infection in Rhesus macaques – In recent years, the incidence of HIV has decreased. However, 70-90% of individuals infected with HIV develop oral mucosal infections due to cell malignancies in tonsils. Tonsils are considered as oral-pharyngeal mucosal associated lymphoid tissues and play an important role in oral mucosal immunity. However, detailed study of human tonsillar immune cells during HIV infection is restricted due to limited sample availability. This study investigated the role of innate and adaptive immune cells in macaque tonsils by high dimensional flow cytometry analysis. The data suggest that the SIV (SIV infections are immunodeficiency viral infections in monkeys) associated immune responses are significantly distinct in the tonsils compared to other mucosal tissues.
Home Country
Brazil
Faculty Mentor and Department
Vanessa Hale – Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine
Research
Tetracycline ingestion disturbs important microbial groups in the gut of Africanized honey bees – Human activities, such as chemical use, can cause disturbances in ecosystems across the planet. Antimicrobials have been widely used in livestock for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes; however, these antimicrobials can also impact organisms beyond the intended species. Honey bees, for example, can be exposed to antimicrobial drugs by foraging in agricultural areas. These compounds can have direct or indirect effects on bee health and physiology through shift in the bee gut microbiota. The aim of this study was to investigate putative shifts in the gut microbiome of Africanized honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata x spp) experimentally exposed to tetracycline.
Home Country
Italy
Faculty Mentor and Department
Giorgio Rizzoni – Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research
Optimal configuration and control of a hybrid electric delivery truck – Online shopping, which was already growing at a constant pace in the last years, has seen a boom since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a direct consequence, delivery trucks and vans have become more and more present on the roads of our cities. This research aims at defining the most efficient hybrid configuration for a delivery truck and develop a control strategy to manage the battery and the engine in the most efficient and clean way through modeling and simulation. This work will lead to a demonstration of the efficiency improvement and emissions reduction of a hybrid delivery van as compared to today’s conventional ones.