The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to announce the results of the 2015 ASPIRE I, II and III internal funding competitions. ASPIRE grants were initiated in 2012 to fund promising research and shared research infrastructure to help strengthen the University of South Carolina’s competitiveness for external grants and bolster scholarship throughout the USC System.
USC Faculty researchers submitted a total of 174 proposals to the ASPIRE programs this year. The proposals were reviewed by faculty review committees appointed by the Vice President for Research. Of the 174 proposals received across all three major ASPIRE tracks, a total of 72 were funded, for a total dollar amount of $1,812,303, which represents a 41 percent funding rate.
Prakash Nagarkatti, the Vice President for Research, notes, “ASPIRE awards have a significant impact on research and scholarly activities of our faculty across all disciplines. They are aimed to encourage interdisciplinary and creative collaborations with the goal towards enhancing scholarly publications and research funding.”
The 2015 ASPIRE recipients are listed below, by funding track. It is the Office of Research’s pleasure to recognize this distinguished group. Complete details about the ASPIRE program, including criteria for each funding track and sub-track, are available on the program’s home page.
2015 ASPIRE-I: Innovation recipients
Sub-track I, junior faculty development
| Principal Investigator | Title | Department | College |
| Christina Andrews | Assessing the Impact of State Medicaid Policy on Access to Buprenorphine among Adolescents with Opioid Use Disorders in the United States | Social Work | College of Social Work |
| Sourav Banerjee | Is it Possible to Quantify the Growth of Entropy due to Material Damage? | Mechanical Engineering | College of Engineering and Computing |
| Jenay Beer | A Robot Teaching Assistant for Rural Minority South Carolina Students | Computer Science and Engineering | College of Engineering and Computing |
| Nansi Boghossian |
Impact of a lifestyle intervention among overweight/obese pregnant women on cardiometabolic biomarkers |
Epidemiology & Biostatistics | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Jeanne Britton | Mapping Scotland: Cartography, Literature, and Environment in the Industrial Age | University Libraries | University Libraries |
| Anindya Chanda | Purification and Characterization of aflatoxin synthesis inhibitors from Penicillium virginium | Environmental Health Sciences | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Robin Estrada | Experiences of rural southeastern Latino parents of children with asthma | Nursing | College of Nursing |
| Daniel Fogerty | Maximizing speech understanding in noise: Temporal processing of partial auditory information | Communication Science and Disorders | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Norma Frizzell | Understanding the Mechanism of Action of Dimethylfumarate: Identification of Succinated Target Proteins | Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience | School of Medicine |
| Michael Gavin | R Package for Humanities Text Analysis | English | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Marco Geraci | MIBO – Multiple Imputation for Bounded Variables Using Flexible Transformation Models | Epidemiology and Biostatistics | Arnold School of Public Health |
| April Hiscox | Characterization of forest fire smoke plume dynamics with an eye-safe scanning lidar | Geography | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Cassandra Jones | Searching for the Lost Novel: The Parable of the Trickster | USC Upstate | USC Upstate |
| Andrew Kaczynski | ParkIndex: Development of a Prototype Tool for Advancing Parks and Public Health Research and Practice | Prevention Research Center | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Courtney Lewis | The Business of Being Cherokee | Anthropology | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Eric Montie | Using Long Term Acoustic Recorders to Understand Daily and Seasonal Patterns of Spawning in Sciaenids: Baseline Information Necessary to Understand the Impacts of Climate Change | USC Beaufort - Academic Affairs | USC Beaufort |
| Kelly Lynn Mulvey | Challenging Exclusion: An Experimental Assessment of Children's Resistance to Social Exclusion Based on Language | Education Studies | College of Education |
| Otis Owens | Evaluation of an Avatar-Led Decision Aid to Promote Informed Decision Making for Prostate Cancer Screening Among African-American Males in Faith-Based Communities | Social Work | College of Social Work |
| Dmitry Peryshkov | The Role of Boron-Metal Bonds in Cooperative Activation of Small Molecules | Chemistry and Biochemistry | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Sarah Rothenberg | The Contribution of Gut Microbiota to Prenatal Methylmercury Exposure | Center for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Minsub Shim | Development of a novel, versatile mouse model of sporadic colorectal cancer | Biological Sciences | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Jill Stewart | Deficits in planning reach distance after stroke: motor capacity or learned non-use | Exercise Science | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Joshua Tarbutton | 3D Printing-assisted Piezoelectric Device Manufacturing Technology for Lead-free Sensors, Actuators and Energy Harvesters | Mechanical Engineering | College of Engineering and Computing |
| Jill Turner (Ortinski) | Behavioral and Genomic Effects of Selective Hippocampal CREB Deletion During Nicotine Withdrawal | Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences | SC College of Pharmacy |
| Zhu Wang | Reduced Order Modeling of Complex Fluid Flows | Interdisciplinary Mathematics Institute | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Colin Wilder | Libri Legales (Books of Law): A Meta-Archive Connecting Law across Time and Space | University Libraries | University Libraries |
| Sheryl Wiskur | Exploring the Reactivity of Novel Silicon Lewis Acids | Chemistry and Biochemistry | College of Arts and Sciences |
Sub-track IIA, research faculty development
| Principal Investigator | Title | Department | College |
| Salai Ammal | Multiscale modeling of non-noble metal catalysts for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass model molecules | Chemical Engineering | College of Engineering and Computing |
| Xiao Androulakis | A Prospective fMRI Study on Resting-State Brain Activity in Healthy subjects and in Chronic Migraine patients Undergoing Long Term Sphenopalatine Ganglion Blockade | Neurology | School of Medicine |
| Andrew Binks | Development of an Animal Model of Dyspnea | School of Medicine Greenville | School of Medicine Greenville |
| Melanie Gall | Feasibility of Automated Hurricane Damage Detection using Object-Based Image Analysis | Geography | College of Arts and Sciences |
Sub-track IIB, postdoctoral scholar development
| Principal Investigator | Title | Department | College |
| Alexander Chumanevich | Quinacrine: Repurposing for anti-colitis properties | Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences | SC College of Pharmacy |
| Jennifer Flynn | The development of a home-based intervention to promote outdoor time and physical activity among elementary school-age children | Exercise Science | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Kelly Gibson | Ba/Ca in Planktonic Foraminifera as a Recorder of Freshwater Input to the Ocean: Proxy Refinement in the Gulf of Papua, Papua New Guinea | Earth and Ocean Sciences | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Laura Hahn |
Specification of the Infant Phenotype in Down |
Psychology | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Alison Hendricks | Influence of variable input on typical and disordered language acquisition | Communication Sciences and Disorders | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Seung Joon Lee | Shaping Subcellular Transcriptome through Alternative Splicing | Biological Sciences | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Hongyu Li | Tracing the Fate of Permafrost Soil Carbon from River to the Coastal Arctic Ocean | Earth and Ocean Sciences | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Courtney Monroe | Using Technology to Enhance Social Support for Weight Loss | Exercise Science | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Kathleen O'Connell | The Development of a Novel Diagnostic for Breast Cancer Based on a Synthetic Lectin Array | Chemistry and Biochemistry | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Allison Randel | Increasing Physical Activity for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) | Exercise Science | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Nirav Shah | Identification of miRNA-489 novel targets in HER2 positive breast cancer | Biological Sciences | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Amanda Sharko | Orexin-A as a modulator of individual differences in PTSD-like behavior | Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience | School of Medicine |
| Tarkeshwar Singh | The Interaction of Visual Attention and Handedness in Action Selection and Action Specification | Exercise Science | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Cun Wen | Fundamental Studies into the Role of Surface Crystallographic Faceting on CO2 Methanation on Cobalt Catalysts | Chemical Engineering | College of Engineering and Computing |
Sub-track III, bridge funding
| Principal Investigator | Title | Department | College |
| Richard Adams |
Ethane to Ethanol: New Bimetallic Catalysts Containing Gold for the |
Chemistry and Biochemistry | College of Arts and Sciences |
Sub-track IV, senior faculty exploration
| Principal Investigator | Title | Department | College |
| Wayne Carver | Role of myocyte-derived exosomes in regulation of myocardial fibrosis | Cell Biology and Anatomy | School of Medicine |
| Joanna Casey | Specialized Traders in Tigray, Ethiopia | Anthropology | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Stephen Criswell | South Carolina Native American Folklife and Oral History Project: Expansion and Implementation | USC Lancaster | USC Lancaster |
| Andrew Dyer | Adaptive trans-generational plasticity in Cyperus esculentus | USC Aiken | USC Aiken |
| Hunter Gardner | Transmitting Roman plague in the West | Languages, Literatures and Cultures | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Andrew Graciano | Art and Electricity: Identifying an Artist and Sitter in an Eighteenth-Century (Dutch) Portrait | Art | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Xianzheng Huang | Consistent Model Diagnostics and Improved Wrong-Model Inference in GLM(M) Using Error-Prone Data | Statistics | College of Arts and Sciences |
| David Reisman | The mechanism of action of a novel p53-related long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in myeloid cell differentiation | Biological Sciences | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Linda Shimizu | Development of Templates for Enantioselective Photooxidations | Chemistry and Biochemistry | College of Arts and Sciences |
| David Tedeschi | Search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay | Physics and Astronomy | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Shane Thye | Status and the Development of Relational Cohesion | Sociology | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Katrina Walsemann | Making visible that which is hidden: Examining the health status of undocumented immigrants | Health Promotion, Education and Behavior | Arnold School of Public Health |
| Cuizhen Wang | Remote Sensing of agricultural water budget with bioenergy land use in the Mississippi River Basin | Geography | College of Arts and Sciences |
| Xingjian Xue | Novel Concept towards Fabricating Nanostructured Cathodes for Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells | Mechanical Engineering | College of Engineering and Computing |
ASPIRE-II: Integration recipients
| Title | Investigative Team |
| Handheld Art: Arader Collection, McKissick Museum, Florence County Museum of Art, The Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art, & South Carolina State Museum | Principal Investigator: Karen Heid, Department of Art, College of Arts and Sciences Collaborators:
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| Establishing Screening Strategies for Prostate Cancer Patients | Principal Investigator: Zaina Qureshi, Health Services Policy and Management, Arnold School of Public Health Collaborators:
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The Center for Biomaterials and Cardiovascular Repair |
Principal Investigator: Francis Spinale, Cell Biology and Anatomy, School of Medicine Collaborators:
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| QuitConnect: Developing and Evaluating Inter-disciplinary Smoking Cessation and Smoking Relapse Interventions using an Online Community of Smokers | Principal Investigator: Scott Strayer, Family and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine Collaborators:
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| Advanced Membranes for Solar-Hydrogen Production in a Hybrid Sulfur Electrolyzer | Principal Investigator: John Weidner, Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing Collaborators:
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| Development of New Hexaferrite Related Multiferroics | Principal Investigator: Hans-Conrad zur Loye, Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences Collaborators:
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ASPIRE-III: Infrastructure recipients
| Principal Investigator | Title | Department | College |
| Suzanne Adlof | m_Eye Lab: Mobile Eyetracking Lab for Research with Special Populations | Communication Sciences and Disorders | Arnold School of Public Health |
| April DeLaurier | Request for funds for a fluorescent confocal laser scanning microscope to advance research activities at USC Aiken | USC Aiken | USC Aiken |
| Michael Gower | Proposal for an In Vivo Animal Imager | Chemical Engineering | College of Engineering and Computing |
| Sarah Harmon | Purchase of a CFX96 Touch Real-Time PCR Detection System | USC Aiken | USC Aiken |
| Boris Kantor | Integrating RNAi-technology in the Viral Vector Core | Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience | School of Medicine |
| Daniel Reger | Acquisition of Two Solid-State NMR Probes | Chemistry and Biochemistry | College of Arts and Sciences |
27 April 2015