VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 2 | FALL 2017

Some Like It COLD What makes 14 glaciers tick?

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Mega Data Fixing Ribs Patients on the Move Life Under Enemy Rule Research Penn State Research/Penn State digital edition: research.psu.edu/ovpr/magazine

More research news: news.psu.edu/topic/research The Power of Research facebook.com/pennstateresearch

All around me and every day, I’m excited to see Penn State faculty and twitter.com/psuresearch students harnessing the power of research. This issue of Research/Penn

State magazine is filled with recent examples. Research/Penn State is published by the Office of the Vice President for Research at The Pennsylvania State University. The magazine samples the diversity and At our College of Medicine, a team of doctors and engineers have found drama of Penn State’s $863-million-a-year research program as a public service to inform, entertain, and a simpler, less invasive way to mend a broken rib, a painful and all-too- inspire the University community. Opinions expressed common injury. Meanwhile, biologists Nita Bharti and Matt Ferrari are do not reflect the official views of the University. Use of trade names implies no endorsement by Penn State. using satellite imagery and cell-phone data to improve vaccination rates ©2017 The Pennsylvania State University. For permission and minimize measles outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa. In both cases, an to reprint text from Research/Penn State (U.Ed. RES 17-122) contact the Editor: phone 814-863-4750; innovative approach brings a creative solution to alleviate human suffering. e-mail [email protected].

Publisher: NEIL SHARKEY Vice President for Research Our ice and climate group, led by Richard Alley, is one of the world’s Director of Research Communications: best. Its hardy members go literally to the ends of the Earth to under- DAVID PACCHIOLI stand how glaciers grow, flow, shrink, and retreat, and how their current Editor: CHERIE WINNER and future melting will impact sea level rise. The complementary efforts Production Manager: KERRY NEWMAN of its observers and modelers demonstrate the power of teamwork to Designer: KEVIN CARLINI advance scientific understanding. Photographers: PATRICK MANSELL, MICHELLE BIXBY Contributors: KRISTA WEIDNER, LIAM JACKSON, JOHN TIBBETTS

Research entails looking beyond the obvious to see what lies beneath. This publication is available in alternate media on request. ™ The University is committed to equal access to programs, facilities, admission, At the Center for Supply Chain Research , that means recognizing that and employment for all persons. It is the policy of the University to maintain an entire ecosystem underlies the simplest product in a consumer an environment free of harassment and free of discrimination against any person because of age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, economy. With the same goal, historian Sophie De Shaepdrijver digs service in the uniformed services (as defined in state and federal law), veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status, pregnancy, pregnancy- deep in historical archives; her reward is the human stories that show related conditions, physical or mental disability, gender, perceived gender, gender identity, genetic information, or political ideas. Discriminatory conduct war’s lasting effects beyond the battlefield. and harassment, as well as sexual misconduct and relationship violence, violates the dignity of individuals, impedes the realization of the University’s educational mission, and will not be tolerated. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to Dr. Kenneth Lehrman III, Vice Provost for Af- firmative Action, Affirmative Action Office, The Pennsylvania State University, Finally, Penn State’s new state-of-the-art data center exemplifies the 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Email: [email protected]; high-performance computer power that is critical to solving complex Tel 814-863-0471. problems in the era of big data. VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 2 | FALL 2017 ON THE COVER: Rivers of ice: Two huge Antarctic glaciers meet as they flow toward the sea. Recent warming speeds These and other stories are unfolding all the time. Right outside my the loss of ice and adds window and around the globe, Penn State faculty and students are to sea-level rise. See story, page 14. harnessing the power of research to make the world a better place. Some Like It COLD Photo by Don Voigt. What makes 14 glaciers tick?

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Mega Data Fixing Ribs Patients on the Move Life Under Enemy Rule Research Penn State

Ne i l A. S h a r k e y Vice President for Research Member, University Research Penn State Fall 2017 State Fall Penn | Magazine Association

Research More research news: news.psu.edu/topic/research Research Penn | State| VOLUME 37 NUMBER 2 FALL 2017

2 10 34 36

In Brief At Large Off the Shelf In Touch With Black holes, atomic In Mongolia, horses Rock & roll, war poems, Supply-chain expert stencils, and other news provide a special harvest. climate change, and more, Steve Tracey on how highlights from Penn in recent books by faculty things get made. State researchers. authors.

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Nuts & Bolts: Power Up! Moving Targets New data center crunches Bringing vaccinations to big numbers, solves big people on the move. problems.

24 30 14 Some Like It Cold Dancing With a Bully Fixing Ribs Going to the ends of the When war isn’t just at Penn State doctors invent Earth to find out what the front: life under a better way to help broken makes glaciers tick. enemy rule. ribs heal. Photos Ethan Welty/Aurora Research | Penn State Fall 2017 2 Research D cate elevatedstatusareburialartifacts. historic archaeologicalruinstoindi- Typically, theonlythingsfoundinpre- either.” “But wedon’t thinkitwasegalitarian head andprofessorofanthropology. level society,” saysDouglasJ.Kennett, “We arenotsayingthatthiswasastate- New Mexico,formorethan300years. ruled PuebloBonito,inChacoCanyon, shown thatamatrilinealdynastylikely carbon datingandancientDNAhave combinationofradio- using apowerful ficult, Throughout theSouthwestitisunusual Women Rule at PuebloBonito large room Ruins ofa but nowateamofresearchers ruins ofarchaeologicalsitesisdif- even ifleadersexisted,fromthe iscovering whowasaleader, or to findformalburialswithin

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in Brief structures, but excavations

in and agrandmother-grandson relation- we identifiedamother-daughter pair combined withtheradiocarbondates, sequences fromthenucleargenome the mother. Next,“UsingDNA inheritance wasmatrilineal—through they allfromthesamefamily, butthe quence, indicatingthatnotonlywere the samemitochondrialgenomese- found thatalltheindividualsshared year period.Theresearchersthen indoor burialsoccurredovera300- Radiocarbon datingshowedthatthe Natural History. fellow attheAmericanMuseumof says AdamWatson, apostdoctoral these wereveneratedindividuals,” “It hasbeenclearforsometimethat contained 14burials. withinthe650-roompueblothat crypt Bonito, archaeologistsfoundaburial carried outinthe1890satPueblo

—A’NDREA ELYSE MESSER hierarchy intheancientSouthwest.” “This isthebestevidenceofasocial University ofVirginia, rater StevePlogofthe According tocollabo Kennett. ship,” says NEW MEXICO NEW

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Thinkstock Our brains process foreign-accented speech

better if we recognize the IStock Photo/Ociacia accent we’re hearing. - JANET VAN HELL Psychology and Linguistics How Would You Like Your Robot? In a study of robot use in a retirement home, senior citizens reacted differently to robots with dif- ferent personalities depending on how they perceived the robot’s role in their lives. “Ciao!” “We were actually surprised to find out that they wanted ‘companion’ robots to be serious and ‘assistant’ robots to be playful,” says S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communica- tions, Penn State. “But it’s pretty clear from our data that a serious demeanor adds credibility to a companion robot, whereas a playful demeanor softens the tension when interacting with an assistant robot.” Dangerous ozone levels Assistant robots are designed to help people with everyday tasks, such as dispensing medications, can now be predicted whereas companion robots are designed to support people emotionally, serving as friends or pets. 48 hours in advance. Knowing how people might react to a robot’s demeanor and role could help designers make - NIKOLAY BALASHOV robots that people are more likely to accept and use, says Sundar. Both companion and assistant Meteorology robots will likely find roles in hospitals and retirement homes to assist senior citizens with the physical, mental, and emotional challenges of growing old. “In the future, we might see robots working in the healthcare system to provide senior citizens with physical assistance and emotional support in the comfort of their own homes,” says Sundar. “Therefore, it’s becoming more important to understand how we can promote healthy communi- cations between senior citizens and robots.” —MATT SWAYNE

MIND THE GAPS

hole-exome DNA sequencing—a uneven in whole-exome sequencing, our new technology that saves time and methods are the first to really quantify this,” W money by sequencing only protein- says Santhosh Girirajan, assistant professor of coding regions and not the entire genome— biochemistry and molecular biology and of may routinely miss detecting some genetic anthropology. variations associated with disease, according The researchers have developed two different to Penn State researchers who have developed methods to identify low-coverage regions, and new ways to identify such omissions. packaged both methods into an open-source Whole-exome sequencing has been used software for other researchers to use. in many studies to identify genes associated “One solution to this problem is for research- with disease, and by clinical labs to diagnose ers to use whole-genome sequencing, which patients with genetic disorders. However, the examines all base pairs of DNA instead of just new research shows that these studies may miss the regions that contain genes,” says Girirajan. mutations in a subset of disease-causing genes “However, the costs of whole-exome sequenc- associated with leukemia, psoriasis, heart ing are still significantly lower than whole-ge- failure, and others, that occur in regions of the nome sequencing. Until the cost of whole- genome that are read less often by the cost- genome sequencing is no longer a barrier, saving technology. Three methods commonly human genetics researchers should be aware “Although it was known that coverage—the used to diagnose genetic of these limitations in whole-exome sequenc- average number of times a given piece of disorders miss hundreds ing technologies.” of mutations in disease- DNA is read during sequencing—could be causing genes. —SAM SHOLTIS 33

Research | Penn State Fall 2017 Penn State College of Medicine 4 Research NANO NO-NO’SMELANOMA T noma cells. Researchers noma cells.Researchers work togethertokillmela- Plumbagin, atoxin,which agent,and inflammatory bines Celecoxib,ananti- dubbed CelePlum-777,com- The newmedication, resistance toasingledrug. cells fromdeveloping also helpskeepcancerous be used.”Usingtwodrugs effective andlesstoxiccan tions ofeachthataremore the drugs,lowerconcentra- tage isthatbycombining the study. “Anotheradvan- dra Gowda,leadauthorof pharmacologist Raghaven- where theyneedtoact,”says drugs toaparticularsite deliver multiplecancer innovative approachto into nanoparticlesisone “Loading multipledrugs Medicine researchers. Penn StateCollegeof treatment, accordingto becoming resistantto may keepmelanomafrom of drugsviananoparticles delivers a combination delivers acombination of medicationthat he firstofanewclass melanoma, examinesatissuesamplewithstudents. Gavin Robertson,co-developerofanewdrugtofight

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tests. next seriesofFDA-required the cals, whichwillperform it toCipherPharmaceuti- and licensed this discovery Penn Statehaspatented this one.” will comefromadruglike in melanomatreatment that thenextbreakthrough clinic todayanditislikely is nodruglikeitinthe Skin CancerCenter. “There Penn StateMelanomaand Robertson, directorofthe development,” saysGavin the possibilityofresistance that haspotentialtoreduce tively killmelanomacells, tiple agentstomoreeffec- new class,loadedwithmul- a “This drugisthefirstof and intumorsmice. cells bothinculturedishes CelePlum-777 killedcancer The researchshowedthat ticles releasethedrugs. a tumor, thenanopar to cancercells.Onceinside in aspecificratiodirectly ticles todeliverthedrugs used microscopicnanopar —MATTHEW SOLOVEY - - wells inKansastodemonstratethepotentialconnection. United States,andusedasmallsetofregionalpumpingdatafrom ships betweenclimateandgroundwaterdatafromacrossthe Russo andUpmanuLallofColumbiaUniversityanalyzedrelation- climate change. knows howmuchwatertheycontainormightreactto Despite theimportanceofthesedeepaquifers,noonereally times ofdrought. reliable sourceofwaterthanshallowaquifers,especiallyduring try isalmostalwaysdrawnfromdeepwells,whichprovideamore with theclimate.Groundwaterusedbymunicipalitiesandindus- and betterdefineshowwaterheldindeepaquiferscouldchange The researchshedsnewlightongroundwaterbudgetsintheU.S. precipitation, thenitmaybecomingfrompumpingchanges.” ral rechargecausingtheresponseofgroundwatertochangesin Slingerland EarlyCareerProfessorofGeosciences.“Ifit’s notnatu- major climatecyclesandlocalprecipitation,”saysTess Russo,R.L. “We sawarapidresponseindeepgroundwaterlevelstoboth industries. is involved,suchaspumpingofaquifersdonebyagricultural through naturalinfiltration,thefindingssuggestanotherfactor Because rainwatermaytakeyearstoreachdeepaquifers many caseswithinayear. detected indeepgroundwateraquifersfasterthanexpected—in The researchersfoundthatresponsestoclimatevariationscanbe hydrologists. ter aquifers,accordingtoPennStateandColumbiaUniversity Changes inclimatecanrapidlyaffect eventhedeepestfreshwa- Going DeepFast —MATTHEW CARROLL from deepunderground, depletingthedeepaquifers. more water. In areaswithirrigation,morewater ispulled As averagetemperaturerises,plants (includingcrops)need Warming Before Before After Warming

Thinkstock (10) Winter by a Nose

ig, small, broad, narrow, long, to temperature and humidity.” mon in short, turned up, pug, hooked, They considered a variety of nose cold-dry B bulbous, or prominent, the measurements, made using 3D facial climates,” shapes of our noses come from our imaging, and found that measure- the research- parents, but ultimately, the shape of ments differed across populations ers note. a person’s nose evolved through a more than could be accounted for One purpose of the nose is to condition long process of adaptation to local by random genetic drift, indicating inhaled air so that it is warm and moist. climate, according to an international a role for natural selection in the Narrower nostrils may accomplish this more team of researchers. evolution of nose shape. To show efficiently, an important trait in cold and dry “We are interested in recent human the contribution of climate, the climates, says Shriver. evolution and what explains the evi- researchers correlated the spatial Sexual selection may also play a role. If an dent variation in things like skin color, distribution of these traits with local entire group thinks bigger is better, for hair color, and the face itself,” says temperatures and humidity. example, then people with small noses will Mark D. Shriver, professor of anthro- “The positive direction of the effects have more trouble finding mates and less pology. “We focused on nose traits that indicates that wider noses are more success in reproducing. differ across populations and looked common in warm-humid climates, at geographical variation with respect while narrower noses are more com- —A’NDREA ELYSE MESSER

5 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 6 Research T sica Waite, cattleshedsareoftennext According topostdoctoralscholar Jes- both cowsandhumans.” malaria restincattleshedsand feedon of themosquitoesknowntotransmit that hasahighburdenofmalaria, most ogy. “We foundthatinanareaofIndia Matthew Thomas,professorofentomol- often restwithinhumanhouses,”says are specialistfeedersonhumansand toes responsiblefortransmittingmalaria “In manypartsoftheworld,mosqui- researchers. according toaninternationalteamof ship betweenmosquitoesandcattle, efforts takeintoaccounttherelation- Consider theCows achievable if mosquito-control achievable ifmosquito-control countries likeIndiacouldbemore he goalofeliminatingmalariain

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in Brief insecticide sprays, are less effective insecticide sprays, arelesseffective secticide-treated bednetsand indoor conventional controltools,such asin- “Our modelanalysissuggests that simulated thelifeofanadult mosquito. data tobuildacomputermodel that Next, theyusedtheirfield-collected which hoststheyhadbeenfeedingon. determine whichspeciestheywereand then usedmoleculartechniquesto six villagesinOdishastate.Theteam mosquitoes indifferenthabitatswithin control problembycapturingadult importance ofcowsinthemalaria- The researchersdeterminedthe domestic dwellingsonly. current controleffortsarerestrictedto a sharedwallto,humanhouses,yet to, andsometimesevenconnectedby

dramatically.” sheds—could helpreducetransmission insecticide spraystoinclude cattle broadening coverageofnon-repellent zoophilic mosquitoes—forexample, by extending controlstobettertargetthe man animals),”saysThomas.“However, behaviors (i.e.,anattractiontononhu- —SARA LAJEUNESSE INDIA exhibit ‘zoophilic’ exhibit ‘zoophilic’ when mosquitoes when mosquitoes

Thinkstock Babies whose mothers are happy in their spousal relationship and have good social support are less likely to get colic. MEDICAID HELPS PARENTS OF KIDS WITH AUTISM KEEP WORKING - CHANDRAN ALEXANDER Pediatrics & edicaid waivers that One parent often significantly - KRISTEN KJERULFF improve access to reduces his or her work hours Public Health Sciences Mhome- and communi- or stops working altogether, ty-based services for children increasing financial stress on with autism also help their the family. parents keep their jobs, ac- Leslie’s team used informa- cording to research from Penn tion from a national survey State College of Medicine and Epicardium and Medicaid waiver data to 2 steps collaborators at the University determine how waivers affected of Pennsylvania and the RAND parental employment from 1 step Corporation. 2005-2006 and 2009-2010. They Previous research found that found that waivers allowed Medicaid waivers for children parents to remain in the work Myocardium with autism spectrum disorder force and helped families at all help their families obtain ser- economic levels. Human Heart vices they may not otherwise be Keeping these parents in Kevin Carlini Stem Cells Progenitor Cells Heart Cells able to afford. The new study shows another way that waivers the workforce goes beyond benefit the parents of children monetary considerations, says Scientists can now produce two of the three main kinds Leslie. of heart cells in the lab. with autism. “When you’re spending all “Caring for a child with autism A Little Piece of My Heart that time just trying to help is difficult. Having an outlet your child, there’s less time for through a job can be very ben- Scientists at Penn State have devised a process to prompt work,” says Douglas L. Leslie, eficial to the parents’ mental human stem cells to develop into epicardial cells, which form professor of public health well-being. It gets them out the external layer of the heart. into the community.” Thinkstock sciences and psychiatry, Penn This work extends the research team’s 2012 finding that State College of Medicine. —ABBY SAJID treating stem cells with chemicals that activate and then inhibit a specific signaling pathway causes them to become myocardial cells. Myocardium, the middle of the heart’s three layers, is the thick, muscular part that contracts to drive blood through the body.

“We needed to provide the cardiac progenitor cells with THinkstock additional information in order for them to generate into epicardium cells, but prior to this study, we didn’t know what that information was,” says biomedical engineer Xiaojun Lance Lian, who led the research team. The scientists found that activating the same pathway again stimulates the pro- genitor cells to become epicardium rather than myocardium. Lian says the new method could benefit patients who suffer a heart attack. www.rps.psu.edu “Heart attacks occur due to blockage of blood vessels,” he says. “This blockage stops nutrients and oxygen from reach- ing the heart muscle, and muscle cells die. These muscle cells 7 cannot regenerate themselves, so there is permanent dam- age, which can cause additional problems. These epicardium cells could be transplanted to the patient and potentially Broader updrafts in severe storms increase repair the damaged region.” the chance of large, damaging hail. The group’s results bring them one step closer to regenerat- - MARK KUMJIAN ing an entire heart wall. The last piece will be turning cardiac Meteorology and Atmospheric Science progenitor cells into endocardium cells, which form the heart’s inner layer. —STEPHANIE TOMLINSON

7 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 8 Research P wild-type E.coliand25mutantstrains,issubstantiallymoreaccuratethanpreviousmodels. strate-level regulatoryinteractions.Itwasdevelopedwithinformationonthemetabolismof The model,calledk-ecoli457,includes457chemicalreactions,337metabolites,and295sub lab,” Maranassays. many combinationsandfindingthebestonebeforehavingtoexpendtimeresourcesin about geneticandmetabolicchangestoE.coli.“Thisopensthedoortestingincomputer genes, toharnesstheorganism’s machinery. Thenewkineticmodelprovidesthisinformation production ofchemicalsorbiofuels.Thekeyistofindthebestcandidates,outhundreds turn themicrobesintofactoriesfor of severalgenesatthesametimeto microbes allowforthemanipulation for changingthenativemetabolismof says recently-developedtechniques ton ProfessorofChemicalEngineering, Costas D.Maranas,DonaldB.Brough- make valuableproducts. to betterdesignmicrobialstrains they interact—whichwillallowscientists tions, howtheyarecontrolled,and showing theorganism’s chemicalreac- metabolic processes—asortofblueprint a kineticmodelof Optimization Lab State’s ChemicalandBiologicalSystems insulin, andmore.ResearchersinPenn ing aminoacids,bioethanol,vitamins, important microorganismsforproduc- engineering field,itisoneofthemost food industry, butinthechemical The microbeE.coligetsabadrapinthe Model Microbial Factories ATOMIC STENCILS material willbe deposited. polymer overthesubstrateon whichthe2D technology techniques.They start withathin patterns of2Dmaterialsusing commonnano- group devisedamethodformaking precise Materials scientistJoshuaRobinson andhislab integrate themwithsiliconin transistors. to them inpreciselocations,whichisnecessary part becauseithasnotbeenpossibletodeposit tions. Theirpromisehasnotyetbeenfulfilled,in fast electronics,computation,andotherfunc- in 3Dmaterialsandofferthepossibilityofultra- atomic layerthick—possesspropertiesnotfound Two-dimensional materials—thoseasingle —AMANDA JACOBSON SNYDER use innext-generationelectronics. locations, overcomingabarriertotheir tive wayto“stencil”high-quality2Dmaterialsinprecise enn Stateresearchershavediscoveredasimpleandeffec-

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have developed Escherichia coli’s in Brief The image wasjustone atom thickand about 20microns across—about one-fifththe diameter ofahuman hair. The researchgroup createdthisapproximation of thePennStatelogowiththeir newstencilingtechnique.

R x R x develop it like a photograph,” says Robinson. “Where the polymer develop itlikeaphotograph,”saysRobinson.“Wherethepolymer “We thenexposeittoultravioletlightinthedesiredareas,and we R Sarah Eichfeld/Penn State x —WALT MILLS the substrate without completely setting it free. the substratewithoutcompletely settingitfree. ened thebondsconnecting 2Dmaterialto saysRobinson.Thatweak- ‘crack’ theinterface,” into liquidnitrogenandpulling itoutintoairto “We simplytrieddunkingtheas-grown material and notbeaffectedbythesapphire. allow the2Dmaterialtodisplayitsownproperties from itssapphiresubstrate,justfarenoughto to separatea2Dlayerofmolybdenumdisulfide grow intheareasthathavebeencleaned.” etching processes.The2Dmaterialswillonly furtherwithstandardplasma- clean thesurface was exposedtolight,itwashesaway, andwethen The researchersalsodiscoveredasimpleway -

Kevin Carlini wisdom, menandwomen Contrary toconventional Contrary Indigenous peopleliving Psychology andNeuroscience first humanstolivein - MICHAELDeGIORGIO Alaska andthewest the area, more than are equallygoodat descendants ofthe 10,000 yearsago. today in southern today insouthern recognizing faces. coast ofBritish Columbia are - SUZYSCHERF Biology

Thinkstock Artist’s conception of a black hole

Early Black Holes

n unparalleled image from “With this one amazing picture, we zon, or point NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observa- can explore the earliest days of black of no return, A tory is giving an international holes in the universe and see how producing bright team of astronomers the best look yet at they change over billions of years,” X-ray emissions. the growth of black holes over billions says Niel Brandt, Verne M. Willaman The new ultra-deep X-ray image allows of years beginning soon after the Big Professor of Astronomy and Astro- scientists to explore ideas about how super- Bang. This is the deepest X-ray image physics, who led a team of astrono- massive black holes grew one to two billion ever obtained, collected with about mers studying the deep image. years after the Big Bang. Using these data, 7 million seconds, or 11 and a half About 70 percent of the objects in the the researchers showed that these black weeks, of Chandra observing time. new image are supermassive black holes in the early Universe grew mostly in The image comes from what is known holes, which may range in mass from bursts, rather than via the slow accumula- as the Chandra Deep Field-South. The about 100,000 to 10 billion times the tion of matter. mass of the Sun. Gas falling toward central region of the image contains —CHANDRA OBSERVATORY the highest concentration of supermas- these black holes becomes much hot- sive black holes ever seen. ter as it approaches the event hori-

9 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 10 At

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Mongolian horseman gathers his mares prior to milking. Every year, from late August through late October, he and his family A milk their mares four times a day to collect the raw material they ferment to make airag, a mild alcoholic beverage. Kirk French, a senior lecturer in anthropology, took this photo in September 2016, as part of his research on the social and economic impacts of small-scale alcohol production in cultures around the world. His work has taken him to sites in Mexico where locals ferment agave sap and distill whole cane sugar; Scotland, where whiskey production is a fine art; and North Carolina to interview “moonshiners.” Later this year he’ll visit Denmark to look at the role of akvavit and glögg consumption during the winter holidays. Photo© Kirk French

1111 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 12 Nuts &Bolts puter models that simulate planetary system formation. puter models that simulateplanetary What heand his teamcando,withhelp fromthedatacenter, is integratewhattheyknow aboutbasicphysicsintocom- bouncing offeachotheror shatteringintosmallerparticles.Butwecan’t createasolar systeminalab.” determine whichcombinations ofgrains,pebbles,androckfragmentscollideto merge intoalargerbody, asopposed to “Lab experimentsonlygoso far,” Fordsays.“Theyletusmeasurethetemperatures atwhichgascondensesintoiceand predict wheretolookforplanets thatmightbehabitable. The computingpowerofthedatacenterwillhelpastronomer EricFordbetterunderstandplanetmassesandorbits incredible rangeofscales—fromnanomaterialstoplanets inothergalaxies,”saysEvans. Foundation, theteam“includesastronomers,physicists, materialsscientists,andcomputerworkingonan and Physics(CyberLAMP).LedbyastrophysicistYuexing Liandfundedbya$1milliongrantfromtheNational Science One researchgroupisgearinguptoemployacomputer clustercalledtheCyber-Laboratory forAstronomy, Materials, PARTICLESPLANETS AND researchers canshareresources.” computing component.“Insteadofhavingcomputer clusters allovercampus,weputitinthissecurefacilitywhere teorologist JenniEvans,directoroftheInstituteforCyberScience(ICS),whichisresponsiblecenter’s research “The datacenterenablesustoprovideworld-classcomputationinanenergy-efficientandeconomicalway,” saysme- cores. Atypicaldesktopcomputerhastwo models thatweregrindinglysloworimpossibletohandlebefore.The49,500-square-footfacilityhosts23,500 computer Thanks toanewdatacenteratPennState,researcherscannowanalyzehugeamountsofinformationandcomplex searchers isgrowingatadizzyingpace—sofast,thatinmanycasesithasoutstrippedourabilitytomake sense ofit. thepileofdataavailabletore- gatheringinformationallthetime,everywhere, With sophisticatedsensorsandsurveys too

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Thinkstock Evidence of a neutrino: Data from the IceCube project that detects neutrinos as they collide with matter on their way through Earth.

“We can compute predictions of dif- IceCube Collaboration ferent models for planet formation and compare those to observations to test hypotheses for how planets are formed,” Ford says. “The CyberLAMP cluster will let us create much more sophisticated simulations with much greater realism.” At the other end of the scale, fellow astronomer Doug Cowen will soon start using CyberLAMP to study neu- Thinkstock trinos, the smallest sub-atomic par- NASA ticles known. Sometimes called “ghost particles,” neutrinos are everywhere Penn State’s new data center Artist’s conception of crystals of in the universe, and understanding is helping us understand how the mineral olivine near a brown them can help scientists answer fun- changes in a natural system such dwarf star. Such crystals are damental questions in physics. Cowen as rainfall affect human systems thought to help seed the is a member of the international such as agriculture and energy. formation of planets. IceCube project that uses neutrino detectors embedded up to 2 kilome- MELDING MODELS ters deep in Antarctic ice. emphasizes the interconnectedness of The data center’s ability to integrate all the systems, and how stresses on one “Cosmic rays crash into our atmo- data and models from many sources is can reverberate through all the others. sphere, and in those cosmic ray essential to a multi-institution project To do that by combining our standalone showers you have neutrinos,” he says. headed by Penn State and Stanford models from different fields would be “Most of them keep going straight University. Funded by a $20 million a computational nightmare. Our goal through the Earth, but rarely, some U.S. Department of Energy grant, the is to create a state-of-the-art framework interact with matter in our detector Program on Coupled Human and of computational tools that allows us to and produce tiny amounts of light.” Earth Systems aims to develop tools model the interconnected ‘system of to assess how stresses in a natural systems,’ so sharing data across all those The South Pole ice cap—where the system—such as a major hurricane or fields will be seamless.” crystal-clear ice allows even the tiniest drought—or a human system—such flashes of light to be detected—serves as dramatic population growth—af- ICS director Evans expects the data as an ideal spot to record these rare fect other systems, such as energy center to play an ever-expanding role interactions. The data center’s 100 infrastructure, water supply, and food for Penn State researchers in coming years. “Sciences such as astronomy and graphic processing units (GPUs) will production. allow Cowen and his colleagues to meteorology have a history of using Big rapidly analyze more neutrinos, in “Current models for understanding Data,” she says. “Now, new instrumen- much finer detail, than has been pos- the impacts of climate-related variabil- tation and data availability are bringing sible before. “Right now, if we want to ity or other natural disasters deal with new research areas, such as biology and reconstruct one year’s worth of data, their effects on one or a few parts of political science, into the Big Data ven- it takes a couple of months,” he says. other systems,” says economist Karen ue. The data center will continue to be “It will be an enormous benefit to Fisher-Vanden, Penn State’s lead in- integral as it provides an incredible lever- shrink that down to a few days.” vestigator on the project. “Our project aging of shared computing facilities.” Thinkstock

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Research | Penn State Fall 2017 14

look insidesuchacanyon.©Alexis Fagnoni canyons intheice.Seephotoon page1fora rappelling intostudyhowmeltwater carves Kiya Rivermanlooksdowninto a glacierbefore SOME LIKE SOME LIKE IT COLD

Penn State glaciologists are at home on the ice SOME LIKE IT COLD

As graduate student Kiya Riverman plants her crampons into solid ice, she inspects the surrounding walls. No cracks, so she knows she is safe here. She unhooks her carabiner from the rope used to rappel fifty feet down into the ice cave where she now stands, inside a glacier on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. She pulls out a scratch pad and pen and begins sketching the shape of the tunnels before her, tunnels carved by water melting at the glacier’s surface and cutting its way down, forming deep canyons whose walls later closed in above them.

Nearly 4,000 miles away, senior scientist David Pol- This close collaboration between modelers, lard sits at his desk on the University Park campus, observational scientists, and others focused on next to whimsical pictures drawn by his children, the ice has allowed PSICE to make a number of and types numbers into his computer. He hits Enter significant advances in glaciology since its formation to start a simulation which, after it finishes running in the early 1990s. in several days, will yield the most accurate predic- tion yet of what Antarctica’s ice sheets will look like in 500 years. Pollard’s model shows how the warm- BRIDGING BOUNDARIES ing from increasing greenhouse gases will melt The PSICE group originated when Charles large portions of the ice sheet that now caps the Hosler, then dean of Earth and Mineral Sciences, pole, and how that meltwater, dispersed into the ocean, will contribute to a rise in global sea level. created the College’s Earth System Science Center. Hosler and his successor, John Dutton, helped lay The explorer and the modeler. They work in very the groundwork for researchers to pursue a broad, different modes, yet Riverman and Pollard share a holistic approach to understanding how Earth’s passion for understanding what makes glaciers and systems—air, ocean, water, ice, and more— ice sheets move, shrink, and grow, and their efforts function naturally, and how human activity might are closely linked. Both are members of a cadre be affecting those systems. They hired climate of scientists known as Penn State Ice and Climate scientist Eric Barron, now Penn State’s President, Exploration, or PSICE. as the center’s first director. One of Barron’s first Riverman’s goal in exploring ice caves is to track hires, in turn, was a young glaciologist named the path of glacier meltwater as it descends from Richard Alley. surface to bedrock. Once it meets bedrock, this wa- ter can provide lubrication that speeds the glacier’s “He was working to assemble a broad-based, slide toward the sea. The data Riverman collects are comprehensive group of Earth system researchers, an invaluable commodity for computer modelers and wanted coverage of ice,” says Alley, now Evan like Pollard. His work, in turn, can determine what Pugh University Professor of Geosciences. “I was Riverman or another explorer will look for next. hired to provide that.”

by Liam Jackson

1515 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 16 the groupin yearssince,addingahalf dozen research- without cutting intothem.Thetwohavecontinued tobuild vices haveprovidedresearchers awaytoseethroughglaciers waves, GPScoordinates,and otherdata.Hisnetworksofde- in theicesheetsusingacombination ofseismicandradar devices thatcanmonitorsubtle changes in electricalengineeringtodevelop Anandakrishnan useshisbackground Alley. Nowaprofessorofgeosciences, as aresearchscientistworkingwith when SridharAnandakrishnanjoined In 1992,thePSICEgroupdoubled ALL IN THE FAMILY glaciers, andtheworld’s oceans. ing meansforthefutureoficesheets, gists tounderstandwhatthatwarm- it’s becomingimperativefor glaciolo- and othergreenhousegasemissions, ing intensifiesduetocarbondioxide urgency. Today, astheEarth’s warm- not consideredamatterofpressing spheric carbondioxidelevelswere When hestartedinthefield,atmo- Alley says. over aperiodofabouttenyears,” lar tosouthernMainethatoccurred northern Alabamatoconditionssimi- changes fromaclimatelikethatof in arelativeheartbeat.“We’ve seen Earth’s climatecanchangedrastically out oftheicecoredatawasthat One ofthemajorrevelationstocome more than100,000years. and otherpartsoftheclimateover of changesinsnowfall,temperature, cores, vitaltoestablishingarecord accurate methodfordatingthe collaborators thendevelopedamore extracted thecores.Heandseveral State hewaspartoftheteamthat drill, andsoonafterarrivingatPenn to Greenlandhelplearnwhere As agraduatestudent,Alleyhadgone Earth’s climate. of a uniquewindowintothehistory gradually densifiedintoice,provide buried overthousandsofyearsthat of layerssnowaccumulatedand ning in1989.Thesecores,composed from theGreenlandicesheetbegin- and hadbeenpainstakinglydrilled bottle thattotaledtwomilesinlength land icecores,tubesofthediameteratwo-litersoda Alley hadcuthisteeth,glaciologicallyspeaking,onGreen-

Greenland’s Jakobshaven Glacier. Peters laysdownseismicsensorson (Bottom) ResearchassociateLeo (Top) SridharAnandakrishnan. interacts with the land, how ice interacts with erosion, the interacts withtheland,howiceerosion, skillsets.“PSICEstudies howice ers withcomplementary World War II.’” radioactive, so itcouldhavebeenfromyears rightafter say ‘here’s whenitwasdirtier,’ or‘thisiceoverhereis go backandreadthatdiary, pagebypage,andwecan all thetemperaturesit’s experiencing,”hesays.“We can

Don Voigt Penn State growing,” shesays. glaciology familythatkeepson “Richard andSridharhavebuilta May 2017,planstodothesame. Riverman, whoreceivedherPh.D.in nan, andotherPSICEresearchers. collaborate withAlley, Anandakrish- tered aroundtheworld,continueto Alumni fromthegroup,nowscat- to comestudyhere.” those meetingsandIknewwanted science atitsfinest.Icametooneof week forpizza,spit-ballingideas.It’s works,” shesays.“We meetevery uring outhowthispartoftheworld of peoplewhoareexcitedaboutfig- the firstplace.“It’s adynamicgroup says, iswhatdrewhertoPennStatein energy andcamaraderie,Riverman members shareaspecialbond.Their Not surprisingly, then,theteam’s at thesametime.” sunburn, windburn,andfrostbiteall ice. “It’s arareopportunitytohave ate andveteranof18seasonsonthe Don Voigt, aseniorresearchassoci- ing; there’s nothingtostopit,”writes “When thewindblowsitisunrelent- wind andcold. grueling daysatthemercyofsunand in atentandworkontheice,long in AntarcticaorGreenland,tolive to signonforathree-monthseason It takesaspecialbrandofhardiness level rise.” understand howiceisadriverofsea- our mainfocusrecentlyhasbeento as a historicalarchive,” says Alley. “But properties oficeasamaterial,and that it’s ‘breathing,’ifyouwill,and and dustthatfallonit.Allthe gases “It writesdowninitsbodyallthedirt is likeadiary. As Anandakrishnanseesit,aglacier HISTORY ONICE

Fresh ice near the surface traps bubbles of gas, which provide even more insight into Earth’s past. “You can pull the bubbles out and put them into a gas analyzer as you would with air today, and that’s a powerful tool that’s unique to glaciers,” Anandakrishnan explains. “With most Earth systems, animals breathe gases, or use oxygen and inter- act, so you don’t have a pristine view of what the air looked like. But there are no animals on ice sheets. Once snow and air and dirt are captured in ice, they’re there forever.” Senior scientist Todd Sowers, another PSICE member, analyzes the gas from frozen bubbles to build long and exquisitely accurate histories of the composi- tion of past atmospheres. The bubbles can be used in other ways as well, as Alley realized when working with Matthew Spencer, a graduate student during the early 2000s. The density of bubbles in an ice core, for example, provides a gauge of temperature and other factors. Alley and Spencer developed a method for gathering information from air bubbles without destroying them in the process. Other innovations the team has devel- oped build on existing data-gathering techniques, such as GPS, radar, and satel- lite imagery. Recently, geosciences grad student Nicholas Holschuh worked with PSICE members to devise a better way to use radar data to map the interiors of ice sheets. “The way a radar wave refracts tells us something about the nature of the ice through which it’s traveling,” Alley says. As new approaches help to fine-tune our understanding of how glaciers change and move over different time scales, the PSICE team is finding, to its surprise, that the path to understanding the future of Earth’s glaciers lies in combining understanding of short-term changes with the earlier work on long-term factors such as ice ages. Courtesy of Richard Alley Richard Alley

Flags mark spots on the Jakobshaven Glacier where a PSICE team later set off explosive charges to fire sound waves down through the ice. Reflections of the sound gave researchers information about “It’s a rare thickness of the ice and stickiness or fluidity of the bed below it. opportunity to Photo by Don Voigt. have sunburn, windburn, and frostbite all at the same time.”

1717 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 18 that fallonit.” quite a bit, not just at the coast but also far inland.” quite abit,not justatthecoastbutalsofar inland.” found thatitwas enoughtochangethespeed oftheseglaciers “It’s arelativelysmallforce,”saysAnandakrishnan, “butwe movement entirely. comes initpushesonaglacier, sometimes enoughtostopits in speedwerelinkedtothetides. Specifically, when thetide their data,theteamnoticed an oddcorrelation—thechanges Astheybegantoporethrough denly stopatregularintervals. fast-flowing riveroficeinthearea,wouldmoveandthen sud- He andhiscolleaguesnoticedthatBindschadlerIceStream, a by asmuch13feet. ocean assomescientistspredict,itcouldraiseglobalsea level with anicesheetsovastthat,ifitonedaycollapsesintothe Antarctica isarapidlychangingareaofthecontinentcovered tors inWest Antarcticatotrackthemovementofglaciers. West centuries. HeandhisteamhadsetupanetworkofGPS moni- that glaciersundergochangeoverperiodsofhoursaswell as Anandakrishnan wasoneofthefirstglaciologiststoconfirm starts toflowfaster.” the glacierapproachesedgesofcontinentitsitson, movement issteadyandslow, butwhatwe’vefoundisthatas is alsonottrue,”saysAnandakrishnan.“Insomeplacestheir ciers’ movementisslow, whichisnottrue,andsteady, which “There aretwoideasthatcomeoutofphrase—thatgla- phrase isamisnomer. extended timeperiods–“ataglacialpace,”asitwere.Butthe conventional wisdomisthatthismovementtakesplaceover its ownweightoutwardordownward,towardthesea.The As snowaccumulatesonaglacier, theglacierispushedby MOVE ON THE dirt anddust body allthe like adiary. down inits A glacieris “It writes operation. CourtesyofGifford Wong. where hewasChiefScientistoverseeingthe core fromtheWest AntarcticIceSheetDivide, Don Voigt examinesmeltlayersinashallow

ward astheold adage“justaddwater.” water oniceflow speedsinGreenlandis not asstraightfor melt- have thusfarconfirmedthat theimpactofsurface byotherscientists to thebed.”Subsequentobservations water accessedthebedinregions wheretheicewasfrozen “We predictedrelativelyminor changesunlessthemelt- and partofthePSICEteam. sor ofmathematicsandgeosciencesatPennStateDuBois Greenland IceSheet,”saysByronParizek,associateprofes - lubrication couldhaveonthelong-termevolutionof some modelingtoseewhattypeofimpactthisprocess drill itswaythroughathick,coldicesheetandthendid meltwatercan “We onhowsurface cameupwithatheory speed and“slipperiness”ofaglacier. effectsonthe path downthroughtheicecanhavevarying meltwater thendrainsthroughtheicesheettobed.Its layeroficeandsnow.the sunmeltssurface This ing theeffectofmeltwaterlakes,poolsthatformwhen The PSICEgrouphasalsomadeheadwayinunderstand - roller skates.” pushing apersoninsneakerscomparedtosomeoneon to frictionalinfluences,”Anandakrishnansays.“It’s like bumpy,“If thebedrockisvery theforceisdissipateddue water fromabove. heatandfrictionmelt- mix withhelpfromsubsurface pieces ofthebedrock,whichgetsturnedintoamuddy that isn’t justsolidrock.Asaglaciermoves,itbreaksoff Anandakrishnan says.Thegiantmassessitonamaterial glaciersare, The differencehastodowithhow“slippery” tides, however. Somearebarelyaffectedatall. Not allglaciersstopdeadintheirtracksresponsetothe - To test the meltwater penetration-mechanism hypothesis, results of a simulation suggesting that, given a continuation Sarah Das, a former PSICE grad student, traveled to Green- of current trends, global sea level could rise by up to 50 feet land to witness a drainage event. The by the year 2500, with ice crumbling amount of water she saw draining from the larger East Antarctic ice was staggering—“twice the volume of sheet as well as West Antarctica. Niagara Falls in less than one hour,” says Alley—and the team was able to Such a change, though catastrophic, confirm its hypothesis. would not be unprecedented. “In past ice ages, global sea level has dropped and then risen about 100 AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE Patrick Mansell meters with the growth and then What ice sheets will look like 10, 50, shrinkage of huge ice sheets over or 100 years from now—and whether North America, Europe, and Asia,” they will disappear into the sea as says Pollard. “The question is, how Earth continues to warm—is a ques- much will the remaining ice sheets tion at the forefront of climate sci- melt and raise sea level over the next ence. To try to answer it, glaciologists thousand years?” rely on computer models that simu- It’s a complex question, one whose late future climate—models informed answer will require both ingenuity by observations from the field. and a mix of minds. Parizek says For years, David Pollard had been that the PSICE group’s accomplish- working on a model that simulates ments over the years are an ongoing both Antarctica’s past and its future. example of that. Replicating past conditions on Earth, “Every time someone comes back which scientists can confirm from ice from the field with a new data set, cores and other evidence, is critical we look at and interpret it to see if for ensuring that a model is accurate. Patrick Mansell we have accounted for the physical Pollard was struggling to get his processes in our models that likely model to conform with some aspects led to the unexpected behaviors in of the historical record, when he nature,” he says. An updated model, heard Alley describe for the first time in turn, can suggest a new direction the huge ice cliffs that would arise for experiments in the field. if the margins of the West Antarctic This accumulation of small, Ice Sheet continued to retreat deep complementary steps and varying into the interior, where the bed is far perspectives adds up to a growing below sea level but thick ice towers far understanding of how ice sheets above. “This led us to add large ice and glaciers change over a day, a cliffs that can fail structurally into our year, and a century. And an under- model,” Pollard says. standing that stretches across these These failure events result when the multiple timescales, PSICE scientists ice can’t support its own weight. A believe, will be key to predicting how giant chunk falls off into the ocean, Don Voigt much and how quickly the ice sheets exposing a new cliff face. When will contribute to sea-level rise. Pollard and his collaborator, Robert Byron Parizek (top) and Dave Pollard “Right now we’re trying to reduce DeConto of the University of Massa- (center) use field data to refine the uncertainties by learning more chusetts, incorporated cliff failure and their models. Parizek’s addresses how about the flow of the ice in Antarc- hydrofracturing, the effects of water lubrication from meltwater affects tica,” Alley says. “Then we can get to- wedging open cracks the way Sarah glacier flow. Pollard’s predicts how gether and make informed decisions Das’s lake did in Greenland, into their much sea level is likely to rise as great model, they were able to simulate ice sheets melt into the ocean. about the best solution.” documented levels of past sea level “It’s a zero-sum game between rise. Theirs was the first model to do so. oceans and glaciers,” adds Anandakrishnan. “Every time That same model drew a lot of attention last year when you change the size of a glacier, it will immediately affect Pollard and DeConto applied it to the future and published sea level. There’s nowhere else where this water can go.”

1919 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 20 outbreaks predict disease help biologists technologies remote

Thinkstock/ Kevin Carlini BY JOHN TIBBETTS

ach autumn in the Sahel, a vast band of grasslands just south of the Sahara desert, seasonal farmers and their families move from their farms when the long dry season begins. Many travel long distances to large towns and cities where they squeeze into already crowded districts, finding spaces in extended family compounds or temporary sites on the city’s edges.

In places like Niamey, capital of the West African size. By comparing satellite images over time, they nation of Niger, the dry season also brings measles. were able to estimate population changes, and then Every autumn, a fresh outbreak. When the rains correlate those changes with public-health records of come in spring and the people return to their measles outbreaks. This provided a more precise un- farms, measles cases drop off abruptly. derstanding of the links between human movement Was the virus itself affected by weather? Or, as re- and disease, and could in turn help them to more accurately predict future outbreaks. searchers suspected, were the outbreaks related to the influx of seasonal migrants? Measles, after all, is As a graduate student, Bharti had begun collaborat- highly infectious; it flourishes under crowded con- ing with fellow biologist Matthew Ferrari, who was ditions. But with no good way to track the changing then a post doc and is now an associate professor at population in a densely populated place like Nia- Penn State. Ferrari, a specialist in quantitative epi- mey, they had little chance to test their hypothesis. demiology, developed a way to estimate transmission Nita Bharti, now an assistant professor of biology rates of measles at different times, including during at Penn State, began working on this problem as a the spikes in urban populations which Bharti could now measure. postdoc at Princeton. “We knew these places had very important and predictable fluxes in popula- “I count things—that’s what I do,” says Ferrari. “I tion,” she says, “but no one had ever found a way to count people because we need to know where popu- measure those changes.” lations are, how large those populations are, how Bharti first looked at infectious disease as an often they move, and where they are going. When anthropologist, with a focus on the role of behav- are places experiencing high population density, at ior on epidemiology. When she began her Ph.D. which times? These factors not only influence the research in biology at Penn State, she found that incidence of infectious disease but also the effective human behavior, especially long-distance move- functioning of the health system.” ments, had been somewhat neglected as an impor- tant driver of infectious diseases. POPULATIONS AT RISK She and geographer Andrew Tatem, who was then at the University of Florida, devised a novel method “Because measles is so infectious and potentially to measure fluctuating populations. They used deadly, it’s an important disease for aid and develop- satellite images of nighttime lights, a data source ment organizations to study,” he adds. “Measles is that had been previously used to create composite relatively easy to diagnose, and easy to see in health images over large periods of time in order to study surveillance data. Because it’s so transmissible and urbanization and economic development, but had visible, it is a bit of a ‘canary in the coal mine’—if never been analyzed across shorter time scales or you see a place that is having measles outbreaks, applied to predicting disease outbreaks. then you know their immunization system is not working.” When large numbers of migrants moved into Niamey, they reasoned, the nighttime city would ap- Migrant families frequently live beyond the reach of pear both brighter and larger in satellite imagery, conventional health care; the Sahel is no exception. reflecting the increased number of cooking fires Many children are malnourished, unvaccinated, and and electric lights associated with a swollen popula- suffering from weakened immune systems. When tion. When seasonal migrants left the city to return these families move into the cities, public health au- to agricultural areas, the nighttime images of the thorities often don’t know how many have come and city would dim to reflect a reduced population which urban districts they are staying in. Thinkstock/ Kevin Carlini

21 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 22 slow thespreadofdisease.The team’s retrospective coverage—too fewchildren vaccinatedtoeffectively of migrantfamilies.Thatmeant only50percent had originallybeenestimated—a resultoftheinflux dren presentinthecityduring theoutbreakthan that therewere11,000to17,000 moreyoungchil- Reviewing thesatellitedata,researchteamfound target population. But theyhadunderestimatedthetotalsizeof five, ahighenoughcoveragetohalttheoutbreak. seasonal andresidentpopulationofchildrenunder immunity, wouldreach57percentofthecombined the vaccinationeffort,togetherwithexistingmeasles expected. Publichealthofficialshadcalculatedthat off. Butthecampaigndidnotworkaseffectively season,whenmeaslescasestypicallytake the dry thorities hadundertakenavaccinecampaignduring In the2003-04event,Niamey’s publichealthau- population. because ofthosepredictableseasonalspikesin biological cause.Instead,outbreaksspreadrapidly the measlesvirusitselforsomeotherphysical big citieswerenotdrivenbysomecharacteristicof conclusively shownthatmeaslesoutbreaksinNiger’s Bharti’s had previousworkusingsatelliteimagery measles casesand397deathsfromthedisease. During thatoutbreakthecityexperienced10,880 pal districtsofNiameyinthewinter2003-2004. cases, deaths,andvaccinations—fromthreemunici- with healthcaredata—suchasthetimingofmeasles ulation estimatestheyderivedfromsatelliteimagery leagues, developedamodelthatcombinedthepop- In a2016study, Bharti,withFerrariandothercol- maydothemostgood,”saysBharti. interventions measles persist.Theyarealsoplaceswherewell-timed places wherevaccine-preventablediseasessuchas population innearbycities.“Thesearethekindsof of theyear, constituteasignificantportionofthe priority. However, thesefamiliesmay, foratleastpart populated, makingthemstrategicallylowriskor growing seasoncanbedifficulttoreachandsparsely campaigns. Thesmallvillageswheretheyspendthe andvaccination lation censuses,healthsurveys, Migrant familiesarealsooftenoverlookedbypopu- the mostgood.” well-timed interventionsmaydo persist. Theyare alsoplaceswhere where vaccine-preventable diseases “These are thekindsofplaces

says, andthesemustbefactored in. lation, butphonedatahave inherentbiases,Bharti Mobile calltracescouldbeuseful totrackthispopu- beyond thereachofgovernment healthservices. pastoralists liveandroamacross vastdesertareas of livestockinpursuitsuitablegrazingland.These Namibia, whoseinhabitantsmigratewiththeirherds why sheisstudyingpastoralvillagesinthedesertof areas wheredataandhealthcarearescarce?That’s under-resourcedwill theyworkinunderserved, Phone dataaregreatforbigcities,Bhartisays.But individuals withtheiridentitiesconcealed. or textsandtheirlocationsforlargenumbersof purposes. Researcherscananalyzesequencesofcalls tower, isrecorded bynetworkoperatorsforbilling that usage,alongwiththelocationofrouting phones. Eachtimeanindividualplacesacallortext, cell In sub-SaharanAfrica,manypeoplecarry interventions. to reachthemwithvaccinesandotherhealthcare people acrossremoteregionsinordertobeable track finer-scale movementsofsmallgroups ing amuchnewertechnology—mobilephones—to ments. Bhartiandotherresearchersarealsoexplor- the pasttopredictlarge-scalepopulationmove- images areespeciallygoodatofferinginsightsfrom Satellites areanestablishedtechnology, andsatellite A PHONECALL AWAY?

for governmentstoprovide.” health carearemostaccessibletothemandeasier portunity,” shesays.“That’s whenimmunizationand “We couldusemigrants’timeinthecityasanop- officials couldtakeadvantageofthem. as atimeofhighrisk,Bhartisuggests,publichealth than seeingtimesofhighpopulationdensityonly where fluctuatingpopulationsplayarole.Rather forotherhighlycommunicablediseases terventions are eagertouseitbettertargetpublichealthin- Now thatthey’veproventheirmethodworks,they paign coveragemadefollowingtheoutbreak. estimates matchedactualmeasurementsofcam-

Thinkstock Bharti wrote a program to convert the brightness of nighttime lights, as recorded by satellite, into population density, shown here as spikes above cities and towns in Niger. The tallest spike is over the capital, Niamey. Ferrari’s interest in immunization began in grad school, when the aid organization Doctors With- out Borders asked him to work on a measles project. “Once I got into it, I was hooked,” he says. Photos by Patrick Mansell.

Nita Bharti Matthew Ferrari

“We’ve found that less than one third of the adult population in these villages has ever used a phone, and far fewer own a phone. Additionally, very few locations in the large desert have network coverage,” she says. More- over, “Men are far more likely to own and use phones, and they are more likely to be the herders. Women are more likely to work near their homes.” In other words, “Mobile phone usage data do not provide an accurate picture of this population, so we can’t use them assuming that they’re representative. But they’re a great resource and we don’t want to throw out a data source that we could use if we could simply interpret it better.” Bharti is currently using video footage shot by drone and household survey data she has collected to compare against phone records, in order to account for the biases in the phone data and interpret it accurately. As researchers like Bharti and Ferrari work towards the global elimination of measles and other scourges, they rely on remote technologies to pinpoint the last stubborn reservoirs of disease, the areas that are the most difficult and expensive to reach. These reservoirs, says Bharti, “persist in populations that we’re not measuring accurately, or where we’re using remote technologies without understanding their biases. “We need to develop better tools and better understanding of these cultures to learn what we’re missing.”

23 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 24 Illustrations ofGabriellePetit© StateArchivesofBelgium,Brussels. ones thatmakeobscureheroes,” areferencetoherlowsocialstanding. Gabrielle Petit.Oneshowedher writingonhercellwall,“It’s thehumble After World War I,popularbookscelebratedtheheroism ofBelgianspy D with aBully ancing under enemyrule courage inacountry and extraordinary Ordinary life BY CHERIEWINNER n Europe in the summer of 1914, war loomed. What started as sabre-rattling between Austria-Hungary and Serbia quickly I escalated into a continent-wide war. Belgium, however, remained neutral; its independence guaranteed by an international agreement, the small country tucked between France and Germany had no quarrel with either side.

That changed when Germany tried to use the low-lying Belgian farmlands as a quick route to Paris before Allied forces could fully mobilize. “Then, of course, Belgium became a belligerent,” says Penn State historian Sophie De Schaepdrijver. “The Belgian army fought to defend the country.” In early August, in the first battle of the First World War, Belgium’s army fended off the Germans at the southeastern city of Liège long enough to delay the quick-strike strategy. Belgium’s defiance helped Paris, but it also consigned Belgian civilians to years of occupation by German soldiers. Every invader from the Romans through Napoleon had set up an administration in its conquered territories, but this occupation was different: The occupier had not yet won. The armies became mired along a front across northern Belgium and France that stayed much the same for the duration of the war. Fighting raged just a few dozen miles from Belgian cities, and the Germans were understandably jumpy and mistrust- ful. There was still a chance they could lose. So civilian life went on, but under the control of a foreign power “within the soundscape of the guns,” as De Schaepdrijver puts it. “The question is, to what extent does life go on? It’s not all repression and it’s not all coercion. In some cases, if you know how to deal with the occupying army, you can still maintain some kind of routine. So it’s actually a kind of dance—but it’s a dance with a bully.” She pauses, considers. “And you dance with a bully at your peril.”

TALES TO TELL As a native of Belgium herself, De Schaepdrijver (pronounced “sharp- driver”) would seem like a natural to explore the country’s role in World War I. But the Great War wasn’t talked about when she was growing up. Her paternal grandfather, who fought in the war, and her father, who might have been a conduit for his stories, died when she was very young. School was silent on the subject. “I never heard a word about the First World War, not in school, not at university, even though I was a history major,” she says. “It was a war that at that time, very few people were interested in.” For one thing, she says, Belgians’ sense of their history had become in- creasingly segregated between French- and Dutch-speaking populations. Today, says De Schaepdrijver, “You basically have two political universes, and the dogma is that there is nothing in Belgian history that pertains to both linguistic groups.” Thinkstock

Gabrielle Petit, photographed not long before her arrest for espionage. © Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History, Brussels, Belgium.

25 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 26 one. “IstillhavethePost-it tity, wouldbearich De Schaepdrijver sensedthatherstory Although Petitnolongerseemed partofthenationaliden- woman ofnosocialstatus.” toacontemporary the firstmonumentinEuropean history time thataworking-classgirliscommemoratedlikethis. It’s Schaepdrijver says,“Suddenlyitcametome,thisisthe first tyranny. While visitingamonumenttoPetitinBrussels,De a folkheroafterthewar, asymbolofBelgianresistanceto Petit, ayoungwomanwhospiedfortheAlliesandbecame just waitingtobetold.OneofthoseinvolvedGabrielle years, shecameacrossintriguinghintsaboutotherstories andcuratinghistoricalexhibits. Overthe sion documentary ects suchaswritingandpresentingaprize-winningtelevi - proj- inhabitants. Shealsogotinvolvedwith“publichistory” andwhatthatmeantforits German submarinewarfare, War intheFirstWorld Her 2014book,Bastion:OccupiedBruges a yawningdemandforthatkindofthing,”shesays. through 35printingssofar. “Therewasclearly became abest-sellerandhasgone people’sas ordinary diaries,it “unimportant” sourcessuch cultural approachthatfavored De Schaepdrijver’s shifttoa an entiresociety. Marking examined thewar’s impacton in DutchandlaterFrench) the FirstWorld War (published Her 1998bookonBelgiumin still gratefultohimforthat.” lisher topointthisoutme.I’m to Belgium.’IttookaDutchpub- the warandissocrucial although Belgiumissocrucialto Belgium intheFirstWorld War, “He said,‘Thereisnobookon direction. gested shemoveintheopposite 1700s. Butapublisherfriendsug- ofcitiesintothe in thehistory thought oftakingherinterest of Amsterdamandpublishingherfirstbookin1990,she mid-1800s. AfterdefendingherthesisattheUniversity heavy Ph.D.thesisoncitygrowthandmigrationinthe can onlyusewhatyoumeasure.”Shewroteanumbers- can’t sourcessuchasdiaries,”shesays.“You useliterary sources andquantitativeanalysis.“Thenotionwasthatyou long avoidedanarrativeapproachinfavorof“serious” inBelgiumhad In addition,theacademicstudyofhistory write herbook!’ AndsoIdid.” , illuminated the role of that Belgian city as a base for , illuminatedtheroleofthatBelgiancityasabasefor

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flower inherhair. long coatshownonpreviouspageandno a postwarbooklet.Inreality, sheworethe Petit facesthefiringsquad,asdepictedin

western Belgium andnorthernFrance. movement oftroopsandmatériel throughtrainstationsin immediately uponherreturn startedreportingonthe assets. ShewenttoLondon for twoweeksoftraining,and the confinesoflifeasadiscarded child,becamevaluable of justice,whichhadledtonothing buttroubleforherin British intelligenceoperators. Heraudacityandkeensense nascent underground,andin1915shewasrecruitedby German invasiongalvanizedher. Sheranerrandsforthe fered littleopportunityforimprovinghersituation.The For thenextfewyearsPetitmarkedtimeinjobsthatof- things atonce,”saysDeSchaepdrijver. silly andextraordinarilyintelligent,whowasallofthose but atthesametimeagreatstoic,andwhocouldbepretty this highschooldropoutwhocouldbeatotaldramaqueen “I foundherprofoundlyengaging,sometimesinfuriating— she felthadbeenunjustlyaccusedofaminorinfraction. forever outofreach:Sherefusedtosnitchonaclassmate that gotherexpelledfromschoolandplacedoption cable recommendations,butatage14shetookastand position thatwouldrequirefurtherschoolingandimpec- thought wereunfair. Sheaspiredtobecomeagoverness, troublesome reputationforresistingauthorityandrulesshe that heofferedlittlefinancialsupportandnothinginthe who soonplacedGabyandhersisterintoorphanages.After early deathleftherinthecareofne’er-do-well father, She wasbornintoamiddle-classfamily, buthermother’s defiance shehadbynature,herupbringingaccentuated. with theGermanbullyoranyother. Whateverdegreeof Gabrielle Petitdoesn’t seemtohavebeentempteddance SPY BORN TO Petit was a bright student with a Petit wasabrightstudentwith At herorphanageschool, part ofthestory.” I madethesearchforevidencea we trustthis,canthat?’ nation. “You havetocheck,‘can for aheroandheroicviewofthe the warwereshapedbyneed the accountspublishedsoonafter scraps,” sherecalls—andmostof little inherownhand,justafew uted toher, but therewasvery “A lotofwordshavebeenattrib- into aneffectivespy. early lifeandherdevelopment evidence availabletosketchPetit’s drijver drewonthemeager in theFirstWorld War, DeSchaep- The DeathandLifeofaFemaleSpy In her2015book,GabriellePetit: emotional realm.

Governess Mary Thorp with the three sons of the Wittouck family. Courtesy Oxford University Press.

An entry in Mary Thorp’s diary describes a friend’s visit to a German prisoner-of-war camp: “When the Van den Brandens and Carola go to see their sons, prisoners at Liège, only one person is allowed in, & only for 5 minutes. The other day they saw a woman have her baby of 3 months old, thrown on a table while she “ein person” was allowed in alone to see her husband.” © In Flanders Field Museum, Ypres, Belgium.

By all accounts, she was a very good spy—accurate, detailed, tireless. But the Germans were cracking down on the resistance and infiltrating the spy networks. Petit was arrested on February 2, 1916. She was tried on March 2 and sentenced to death. Throughout her trial and imprisonment she refused to name her contacts. She also refused to ask for leniency. “I want to show them that I don’t give a damn,” she wrote on the walls of her cell, a German witness would later recall. After the war, those promoting her as a heroine would leave these un-ladylike words out of Petit’s story. Execution was usually carried out shortly after sentencing, so as her stay in prison lengthened, Petit began to think she would be spared. But the delay was merely procedural. Six months earlier, occupation officials in Brussels had executed English nurse Edith Cavell for helping Allied soldiers escape Belgium. International condemnation had been fierce. “After that it was determined that if another woman was ever on death row, Berlin would have to decide,” says De Schaepdrijver. Not just some official in Berlin, but Kaiser Wilhelm II himself. De Schaepdrijver recalls the moment when, looking through a box of documents in a German archive, she struck gold. “Sometimes you have these discoveries, like, ‘No, I can’t believe it!’ ” she says. “I found the actual telegram from the Emperor saying ‘You can proceed with the execution.’” It was dated March 27. Petit was killed by firing squad on April 1. Thinkstock

BUTTER AND SOAP Several months after Petit was shot, another woman in Brussels began keeping a diary. All five volumes of it, from autumn 1916 through the end of the war, had been in an archive in Belgium since the 1980s. De Schaepdrijver had known of the journal for some time, “but nobody knew who had written it or recognized its value as a record of life under occupation,” she says.

27 ENGLISH Research | Penn State Fall 2017 YPRES CHANNEL 28 BRUGES PARIS

BELGIUM FRANCE the frontfor durationofthewar. Belgian civilians weretrappedontheGermanside of ern Front,whichranclosetothe French-Belgianborder. Belgian forcesstoppedthemat what becametheWest- lowlands, German troopsdrovetowardFrance throughtheBelgian hoping tocaptureParisquickly. ButAlliedand NETHERLANDS BRUSSELS

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Thinkstock and shoes. and shoes. challenging task ofobtainingfood,blankets, soap, the frontorinothercountries, andtheever-more- noted hereffortstogetletters tofriendsnearer keen internationalperspective. Inherjournalshe U.S., Russia,Austria,andFrance, whichgavehera Belgium sincechildhoodand hadfriendsfromthe in EnglandtoEnglishparentsbuthadlived Thorp, whohadbeenborn The writerwasMary concluded ithadtobeher.”ing inthediary—and was hersignature.Icomparedthattothehandwrit- “Sadly, therewasnopicture,”sherecalls,“but ledgers listingallforeignerslivinginBrussels. Schaepdrijver wenttotheforeigners’registers— With thenameofgovernessinhand,De a prominentBrusselsfamily, theWittoucks. that address,”whichturnedouttobethehomeof “That’s whenIsawthere’s anEnglishgovernessat census recordslookingforpotentialcandidates. English speaker. DeSchaepdrijversearchedthe she says—andinfact,appearedtobeanative “My onecluewasthattheauthorknewEnglish,” been digitized. per recordsbecausenoneoftheinformationhad down thewriter, pa- combingthroughcentury-old associated withthedocument,shesetouttotrack the diary. ArmedwithonlyanaddressinBrussels University, DeSchaepdrijverdecidedtopublish With colleagueTammy ProctorofUtahState Finally, in2015the temptationbecametoomuch. on roots.”©BainNewsService. their childrenontheroads,peopledining people packingtheirfewbelongings,losing see theexactsamestorieswetoday— was arefugee,”saysDeSchaepdrijver. “You 1914, oneinsevenBelgianswasontheroad, German troopsinvadedtheirhomeland.“In Belgian refugeesarriveinParissoonafter Patrick Mansell Sophie De Schaepdrijver

She recorded the forced deportation of Belgian men to work in German factories, and, almost every day, the blasts of artillery shells at the nearby front. Rarely mentioning her own discomfort, she went out of her way to help others who were suffering more. Whenever she obtained butter or good soap, rare treats during those years, she parceled them out to acquaintances who were worse off than she and the Wittoucks. “It was part of her sense of self,” says De Schaepdrijver. “It was simply what you did. She also was able to acknowledge that other people had it way harder than she did. She would say that over and over again: ‘Well, it’s tough, but oh my goodness I am so privileged compared to others.’ ” “An English Governess in the Great War: The Secret Brussels Diary of Mary Thorp,” edited with commentary by De Schaep- drijver and Proctor, came out in early 2017. Despite its detailed and moving depiction of life under enemy rule, De Schaepdrijver thinks Thorp was not intentionally bearing witness and never meant for her diary to be made public. “She is like many people who, because of living under occupation, started writing a diary because time seems to be los- ing its form. It just flows with nothing to show for it,” she says. “Keeping a diary was a form of daily discipline, the notion being that if you record your thoughts and actions every day, then the time that goes by is not completely lost.” Thorp kept a diary until a few months after the Armistice and then, apparently, never did so again.

THE LONG ARC OF MEMORY Gabrielle Petit became a public figure after the war, when the story of her spying, arrest, and death came out. But com- memoration changes over time, as the world around us changes, or how we wish to be viewed changes. Petit’s promi- nence as a Belgian hero dimmed during a period of anti-war sentiment in the late 1920s, recovered a decade later when Nazi Germany began to flex its muscles, and declined again in the 1960s, when the linguistic division in Belgium deepened and opposition to the Vietnam War took hold. “For western Europe, that was the moment when the whole idea of dying for ‘the fatherland’ takes a nosedive,” says De Schaepdrijver. That was the end of “the long arc of her memory” as a public figure, as De Schaepdrijver calls it. Now, two generations later, appreciation for Petit has returned, due largely to a flowering of interest in the cultural history of the war— “culture” in the wider sense of how people lived and how they sought to understand what was happening to them.. In honor of her work, in 2017 the King of Belgium named De Schaepdrijver Baroness (comparable to being made a “Dame” in the U.K.). She has just returned from a year as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Kent, in England. While there she started working on a book about occupations throughout Europe during the First World War. “We tend to associate military occupation with World War II, but we forget that close to 40 million people in Europe, from France to Ukraine, lived under occupation regimes in the First World War,” she says. Bringing out the stories of individuals who struggled as unwilling partners in their nation’s forced dance then may help us see that none of us are immune to violence and oppression today. “Calamities can happen. They can all of a sudden break into your very ordered life, and you might find yourself as helpless as those people, through no fault of your own.”

Sophie De Schaepdrijver is professor of history at Penn State. In 2017 she was awarded the university’s Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities.

2929 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 30 only incaseswith multiplebreaks,especially ofad- isso hardonpatientsthatitis used The surgery “like somethingoutofGameThrones.” one ofDillon’s colleaguesdescribestheoperation, red intercostalmuscles.“Skeletonizing” ishow to revealthepaleribsand from waisttoarmpitfolded back patient onhisside,aslabofflesh ofabrokenrib,hasthe surface attaches aplatetotheouter conventional method,which overhaul. A typicalsceneofthe has longbeenripeforan The treatmentofribfractures invasively?” can’t youdothatminimally better way,” recallsDillon. “Why “I justsaid,there’s gottabea somewhat bloody. was stilllong,laborious,and for patients,buttheprocedure ing ribs,makingitlesstraumatic modified thestandardwayoffix- elderly patient.Mackayhad plates tothebrokenribsofan Don Mackayaffixedthinmetal in early2010hewaswatchingasstaffsurgeonDr. drop inonhisdoctorsatwork,andthatday Health MiltonS.HersheyMedicalCenter, likesto Dr. atPennState PeterDillon,chiefofsurgery “THERE’S GOTTA BEABETTERWAY.” New procedure promises fasterhealing, less painforpatientswithchestinjuries BY CHERIE WINNER BY College ofMedicine of surgeryatPennState Dr. PeterDillon,professor of traumadeaths. normally, broken ribsarethesecond leading cause how muchtheycompromise theabilitytobreathe you onaventilator—orinthe morgue.Becauseof in thelungs,whichleadsto infections, whichputs as shallowlypossible,which leadstofluidbuild-up of dyingduetopneumoniaorotherinfections. have tobestabilized,orthepersonrunsahighrisk fering withtheabilitytobreathe.Thebrokenribs moves oppositethewayit’s supposedtomove,inter- chest,” aconditionwherethatsectionoftheribcage jacent ribs.Suchaclusterofbrokenribscauses“flail

Penn State Health To minimizethepain,youbreathe ers whoselungcapacityislimited. pecially forolderpatientsandoth- lead tomoreseriousproblems,es- timeyoubreathe.Thatcan is every time thebrokenendsmove,which A brokenribhurtslikehellevery later, but it wasexcruciating. his nephew’s weddingfour weeks managed toplaythebagpipesat Africa withstrongScottishroots car accident.ThenativeofSouth years agohebrokeseveralribsina from personalexperience:Afew Mackay. “Forweeks.”Heknows aspirin, gohome,andsuffer,” says to leavetheribalone.“You take the trauma;standardtreatmentis usuallyisn’tthe surgery worth rib, orwhodon’t haveflailchest, For patientswhobreakjustone Our ribs form a flexible basket that encloses the lungs and heart. They move with every breath, and their delicate structure makes them susceptible to injury, especially in the back. A new device invented at Penn State stabilizes a broken rib and speeds healing.

Thinkstock 3131 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 32 to the broken ribs, without making a big incision. to thebrokenribs,withoutmaking abigincision. to figureouthowgetthe hardwareinandattachit scope wouldletthemseeinto thechest;nexttheyhad spective. Butwasitdo-ablein reallife?Thethoraco- from theinsidewouldwork from amechanicalper Fell’s plateslookedgood:solid,secure.Splintingribs you think?’” I putsomeplatesandscrewsintoribs;whatdo called meuponedayandsaid,‘Hey, comeonover. ribs fromthemeatdepartment,”saysDillon.“He “He endedupgoingtoGiantandgettingasideof engineer: Hetinkered. scope tofixribs,Felldidwhatcomesnaturallyan While thesurgeonsconsideredhowtouseathoraco- high-definition view,” saysHaluck. magnified, to wherethingsare,youhaveawonderful, outside orevenwithanx-ray. “Onceyouareoriented break is—somethingnotalwayspossiblefromthe ing thescope.Thesurgeoncanseeexactlywhere ribs arevisibleandcanbefixedwithoutreposition- pink andwhite.Fromthisvantagepoint,mostofthe a roomincave,thesmootharchedwallsglistening thoracoscope insertedlowintheribcagelookslike mits liveimagestoavideomonitor. Theviewfroma cable throughashortslitinthechestwallandtrans- chest: thethoracoscope,whichcarriesafiber-optic inthe doing sometypesofminimallyinvasivesurgery sue largelyundisturbed.Adevicealreadyexistedfor procedure, becauseitwouldleavetheoverlyingtis- the lungs,wouldbelesstraumaticthanstandard ofthebrokenrib,sidefacing to theinnersurface The PennStategroupthoughtattachingtheplate enthusiasm forplayingicehockey. ribs—in hiscase,manytimes,mostduetolifelong Mackay, Fellhasgonethroughthepainofbroken pedic devicessuchasartificialhipsandknees.Like whose company, TPCDesign,specializesinortho- Medical Center, Fell,abiomedicalengineer andBarry atthe Haluck, chiefofminimallyinvasivesurgery Mackay andDillonenlistedthehelpofDr. Randy To deviseabetterwayto‘fix,’orstabilize,brokenribs, BETTER WAYFINDING A State Health. (center) withjustthreeshortincisions. system givessurgeonsaclearviewinsidethechest that inventedanewwaytotreatbrokenribs.Their and Dr. DonMackay(lowerright)werepartoftheteam Dr. RandyHaluck(top),engineerBarryFell(lowerleft), surface (left). the ribandlockintopostsinsertedfromrib’s outer surface ofarib(right)withscrewsthatpassthrough Health. Thesplint(purple)isattachedtotheinner New rib-fixinghardwaredevelopedatPennState Photos byPennStateHealth. Photos by Penn Photos byPenn - “You need to hold the screw; you need to get the To take it the last ten percent, the team sought screw and the plate to the right angle and location,” advice from Kevin Harter, director of Penn State’s says Haluck. “And how do you then introduce a brand-new Center for Medical Innovation. He first screwdriver that goes in, down, and up? Consider verified that there is a market for the procedure. Na- all the angles that you have in here, and where the tionwide, around 100,000 people per year are seen breaks might be. at trauma centers, suffering from multiple broken ribs—a huge potential market for the new technique. “It’s like building a ship in a bottle, with two or three And that doesn’t count the hundreds of thousands parts simultaneously.” more with just one broken rib, especially seniors, for Over the next several months, the group designed new whom repair might be an excellent option now that hardware and a system that lets them bring a plate and there’s a minimally-invasive way to do it. screws into the chest cavity through two short incisions Fell started a business, SIG Medical, to produce above the broken rib, while the thoracoscope provides and sell the system, now named AdvantageRib, in a view of the injury from a slit lower down. conjunction with the Medical Center. Ethics rules Their procedure is much quicker than the prevent the surgeons from taking a director’s or conventional method—less than an hour, compared management role in the business, but they have to several hours—which greatly reduces the cost of invested in it, as have Ben Franklin Technology Part- ners and several private investors. SIG Medical also the operation. Most importantly, the group says, by won the $75,000 top prize at Penn State’s Venture being so much less traumatic than the conventional and Intellectual Property Fair last fall. surgery, it should speed recovery, keep patients off a ventilator, and get them back to their normal Although clinical trials aren’t required, the group activities sooner. wants to demonstrate that their system offers an improvement over current methods of rib fixation before taking it to market. This spring and summer, PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE other surgeons at the Medical Center started trying it with live patients. Their first case was a tough chal- In 2013 the group filed patent applications for the lenge: a young girl with flail chest due to 13 fractures new system and licensed it to Synthes, the market of eight ribs on the left side of her chest, caused by a leader in conventional rib repair hardware. Because car accident. The surgery restored the normal shape it uses materials and methods—stainless steel, of her chest, allowed good lung ventilation, and titanium, thoracoscopy—already approved for use reduced her need for pain medications. in patients, it did not have to go through lengthy clinical trials. Instead, it quickly won a “510k If AdvantageRib continues to prove itself, the team’s clearance” from the FDA. next step is to ask leading surgeons around the country to try it. Harter calls this a “seed strategy” But it nearly died before it could be brought to that relies on opinion leaders spreading the word, market, when mega-corporation Johnson & Johnson rather than on a sales force and advertising. Initially, bought Synthes and decided not to market the new at least, all prospective users will come to Hershey for system. And then, surprising everyone, J & J allowed training. Synthes to return the license to the group at Hershey. “You always hear about doctors going to Cleveland “We were a little taken aback by that,” says Fell, Clinic or Johns Hopkins to learn new techniques,” “but we said ‘Thank you very much!’ Because it was says Harter. “This is a Penn State technology. The already FDA-cleared, it had everything that’s required first surgeries will happen here. The experts will to market the product 90 percent completed.” be here.”

3333 Research | Penn State Fall 2017

34 34 Off the Shelf Off help butlove. themtotheworktheywantdo,liveslead,andpeoplecan’tcarry Holmes paintsasurprisingportraitofonefamily’s intimatestruggletofindthepathsthatwill never anticipate,downthroughthegenerations.Byturnsironic,hopeful,andwr characters—a familyofvisualartistsandpoets—endupshapingthosetheyloveinways Carolina coast,thesestoriesexplore,overathirty-yearspan,howthechoicesmadeby Whether inacollegetownPennsylvania,loftBrooklyn,orramshacklecottageonthe visited onthosewhoshareanartist’s life. Grass Labyrinth A successfulartistisexpectedtogivehisorherallfor“thework.” by CharlotteHolmes,associateprofessor ofcreative writingandwomen’s studies THE GRASSLABYRINTH

› challengethereadertodetermineifartist’s workisworththepainoften

American War ofIndependence. tense andbloodydays,anintimateretellingofthecampaignthattippedbalancein richly detailednarrativeofthetwobattlesfoughtatSaratogaovercoursethirty-three journals, andmemoirsofthemenwomeninbothcamps,DeanSnow’s 1777providesa Assimilating thearchaeologicalremainsfrombattlefieldalongwithmanyletters, that independencefromGreatBritainwasallbutinevitable. ultimately handedtheBritishastunningdefeat,and,forfirsttimeinwar, confirmed England fromtheothercolonies.Despiteinferiororganizationandtraining,Americans forces ledbyGeneralJohnBurgoyne.TheBritishstrategywastoseparaterebelliousNew army ledbyGeneralHoratioGatesfacedoffagainstthehighlytrainedBritishandGerman In theautumnof1777,nearSaratoga,NewYork, aninexperiencedandimprovisedAmerican by DeanSnow, professor emeritusofanthropology 1777: TIPPINGPOINTAT SARATOGA change andinjoiningthedebate overthebestwaytocombatit. with thelatestIPCCinformation andisamust-readforanyoneinterestedinunderstandingclimate bookis updated have documentedinIPCCfindings andclimatechangestudies.Thispowerful understandable graphics.Dire Predictions showstheevidenceandcauses thatrespectedscientists These expertstakescientificfindings aboutclimatechangeanduseanalogies,strikingimages, and warming problemclearly. that explaincomplexclimatequestionsinsimpleillustrations presentthetruthofglobal the IntergovernmentalPanelonClimateChange(IPCC)andbreaking itdownintocleargraphics questions aboutglobalwarmingandclimatechange,divinginto theinformationdocumentedby In thissecondeditionoftheirimportantbook,MichaelMannand LeeKumpaddressimportant DIRE PREDICTIONS:UnderstandingClimateChange Earth andMineralSciences Earth by MichaelMann,DistinguishedProfessor ofAtmosphericScience,andLeeKump,DeantheCollege of

Thelinkedstoriesin BOOKS y, Charlotte

BY PENNSTATE FACULTY BOOKS BY PENN STATE FACULTY

LIFE AS JAMIE KNOWS IT: An Exceptional Child Grows Up by Michael Bérubé, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature Published in 1996, Life as We Know It introduced Jamie Bérubé to the world as a sweet, bright, gregarious little boy who loves the Beatles, pizza, and making lists. At four, he is like many kids his age, but his Down syndrome prevents most people from seeing him as anything but disabled. Twenty years later, in Life as Jamie Knows It, Michael Bérubé chronicles his son’s journey to adult- hood and his growing curiosity and engagement with the world. With a combination of stirring memoir and sharp intellectual inquiry, Bérubé tangles with bioethicists, politicians, philosophers, and anyone else who sees disability as an impediment to a life worth living. Far more than the story of an exceptional child growing up, Life as Jamie Knows It challenges us to rethink how we approach disability and is a passionate call for moving toward a more just, more inclusive society.

LET’S ROCK! How 1950s America Created Elvis and the Rock & Roll Craze by Richard Aquila, professor emeritus of history, Penn State Behrend Rock & roll was one of the most important cultural developments in post–World War II America, intertwined with the rise of a youth culture, the emergence of African-Americans in society, the growth of consumer culture, technological change, the expansion of mass media, and the rise of a Cold War culture. Richard Aquila’s book demonstrates that early rock & roll was not as rebellious as common wisdom has it. The new sound reflected the conservatism and conformity of the 1950s as much as it did the era’s conflict. Rock & roll supported cen- trist politics, traditional values, and mainstream attitudes toward race, gender, class, and eth- nicity. The musical evidence proves that most teenagers of the 1950s were not that different from their parents and grandparents when it came to basic beliefs, interests, and pastimes. Young and old alike were preoccupied by the same concerns, tensions, and insecurities.

WHERE WAR WAS: Poems and Translations from Eritrea by Charles Cantalupo, Distinguished Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and African Studies, Penn State Schuylkill Located in the Horn of Africa, on the Red Sea, and roughly half Christian and half Muslim, Eritrea is a new nation but an ancient country with a tradition of writing going back at least 4,000 years. A former Italian colony, Eritrea has nine major ethnic groups, each with its own language. Charles Cantalupo has been visiting and writing about this place since 1995. His latest book crosses genres: Where War Was is part translation, part reflection, and part epic, and is illustrated with starkly beautiful photographic images by Lawrence Sykes. The book includes Cantalupo’s own poetry as well as his translations of poems by Eritrean writers. Cantalupo’s previous translations of Eritrean poetry include We Have Our Voice, We Invented the Wheel, and Who Needs a Story, and he has written War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry. He is also the author of a memoir, Joining Africa: From Anthills to Asmara.

35 Research | Penn State Fall 2017 36 In touch C SUPPLY STEVE TRACEY

H with

A › I N S ON

Almost any item we buy or sell today was made with contributions Our highest level marries industry and academia to from many companies and individuals in many places. The Center do research that’s applicable to the business but also for Supply Chain Research™ in Penn State’s Smeal College of fundamental to the supply-chain area. In 2015 one of our Business is dedicated to understanding the logistics of supply, faculty members won an award for research he did with Dow transport, and distribution at local and global scales. Steve Tracey, AgroSciences. He created a solution for a complex problem executive director of the center, talked with us about the challeng- they had, published it in an academic journal, and won an es of doing business in our highly interconnected world. award for it. We also do ‘practitioner research,’ like a project

on maintenance and repair in highly automated businesses— WHAT’S A “SUPPLY CHAIN?” how do they keep track of all their spare parts? And our It’s a whole ecosystem of organizations that starts with a students do about 40 projects a year that companies come to company’s suppliers’ suppliers and ends with the customers’ us with. It’s really good for the students—they learn how to customers. Think about how a pencil is made—the yellow do research in a supervised way, and they get a lot of contact pencils that we’ve all used since we were little kids. What’s in with the companies. a pencil? There’s wood, there’s paint, there’s the lead inside, ARE BUSINESSES LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WITH TRAINING the metal that holds the eraser on, and the eraser itself. All SPECIFICALLY IN SUPPLY CHAIN? of which originate in different places, from different firms. On the other end, a company that makes the pencils might Yes! Most of the people who are in these roles today don’t sell them to office supply companies, but they’re not the have professional training in it. They tend to be later-stage ultimate purchasers. Consumers are, or businesses or professionals with broad expertise. I would be a classic example of that. I was a finance guy by training. I ended up school districts. in supply chain sort of by accident, five or six years into my DOES THE CONCEPT OF A SUPPLY CHAIN APPLY TO career. It was called “operations” back then. Companies now SMALL BUSINESSES? recognize that their supply chain is this big ecosystem that has to be managed in a thoughtful, organized way, but there’s It exists no matter what size the firm is. Even if you’re a one- a big talent gap in the profession. That’s wonderful for our person operation, you still have the same challenges. Let’s students—they get plenty of job offers! say you own a little shop that sells ornaments for the holi- days. None of that comes from here. It’s being manufactured WHAT QUALITIES ARE NEEDED TO DEAL WITH SUPPLY CHAINS? overseas somewhere. A lot of these firms use services to run their supply chain, handle all the paperwork that’s necessary You have to be good with numbers, you have to be able to with U.S. Customs, pay the duties and the brokers’ fees and think on your feet, and you have to be able to find creative all that. And that store owner may have no interest in how solutions to problems. Students often ask, ‘How do I do this?’ they do it. All the owner is interested in is, ‘I give them the and I always say, ‘There’s a hundred ways to do it—and order, and the product shows up at my door.’ the hundred-and-first way might be the best way.’ You have to be a little bit of a scientist, DEALING WITH INTERNATIONAL TRADE SOUNDS because people are constantly ESPECIALLY COMPLICATED. experimenting with new It’s as complex as you can possibly imagine. Everything ways to do things. is an export or an import somewhere. I was in the textile business. We had manufacturing facilities in 14 countries, and we sold in 92 countries, and we sourced in others. So probably 20 countries of origin and 92 countries of delivery. And that’s just the movement of goods; that’s not making anything. WHAT KINDS OF RESEARCH DOES THE CENTER DO?

The Center for Supply Chain Research™ is supported by contributions from corporate sponsors. With its emphasis on research, its educational programs for business execu- tives, and more than 1,000 undergraduates majoring in supply chain and information systems, Penn State is a world leader

in supply chain research and education. Michelle Bixby Steve Tracey

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Moving Targets Satellite images of nighttime lights help scientists track seasonal move- ment of people into cities, aiding efforts to deliver vaccinations and prevent deadly disease outbreaks.

SEE PAGE 20 NASA Earth Observatory/ NOAA NGDC