Focus: Hidden - South Dakota

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The French have spent centuries developing grapes with the unique flavor and character of Burgundy region wines. Cold-climate grape producers are counting on science to help shorten that process. Plant scientists Anne Fennell and Rhoda Burrows from South Dakota State University are part of the research team helping cold-climate grape growers carve a niche in the American wine industry through two U.S Department of Agriculture projects.

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A survey of 324 multiunit owners/operators in South Dakota showed that adopting those policies reduced maintenance costs while improving safety. The research was a collaborative project involving nursing researchers at South Dakota State University and the South Dakota Department of Health. State tobacco control officials have developed materials to help more apartment owners institute voluntary smoke-free policies.

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Over a 35-year period, the length of forest fire seasons worldwide increased by 18.7 percent due to more rain-free days and hotter temperatures, according to South Dakota State University professor Mark Cochrane, a senior scientist at the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence. The wildfire expert is part of a team of researchers led by W. Matt Jolly of the U.S. Forest Service Fire Science Laboratory that examined weather data from 1979 through 2013 to determine how a changing climate impacts forest ecosystems.

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A mosquito in western South Dakota has tested positive for West Nile virus—the next step is transmission to humans. Two South Dakota State University researchers will help mosquito control officials use mosquito surveillance and environmental data to target West Nile virus through a three-year NASA grant.

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The Edith Sanford Breast Foundation announced today it will be the official charity partner of the 2015 SoCal Reebok Spartan Race in Vail Lake, California, Sept. 26-27.

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Through a 2015 Google Earth Engine Research award, South Dakota State University imaging engineer Larry Leigh will search for remote places where the surface properties and therefore the energy readings do not change over time. The SDSU image processing laboratory uses these stable sites to calibrate orbiting earth-imaging satellites, such as Landsat. Leigh is one of nine researchers worldwide whose geospatial analysis projects received funding from the Google Earth Engine team this year.

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Guidelines developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement recommend that a patient suffering from blood poisoning receive a series of care processes known as the sepsis resuscitation bundle within six yours of diagnosis. About half the time that doesn’t happen. Collaborating with researchers at Mayo Clinic, professor Huitian Lu of the South Dakota State University Department of Construction and Operations Management used a systems engineering approach to identify bottlenecks. Simulations suggest that improvements in six areas may improve the sepsis resuscitation bundle compliance rate by 21 percent.

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Strategic use of locally produced, renewable energy through smart microgrids can reduce power costs and help prevent outages. Assistant professors Wei Sun and Reinaldo Tonkoski of the South Dakota State University Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department are developing the smart power management technologies that will make it possible for communities and businesses to use locally produced wind and solar energy yet maintain a consistent, reliable power system. The automated system will also facilitate development of a self-healing smart grid that can help prevent power outages.

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The same spring rains that lessen producers’ concerns about drought can also lead to soil erosion and nutrient runoff. Keeping soil and fertilizers where they belong—in the field—benefits producers and the environment, according to South Dakota State University plant scientist Sandeep Kumar. He and graduate student Sagar Gautam used computer modeling to determine which farm management methods will produce the best reduction in surface runoff.

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Scientists at South Dakota State University analyzed a half-mile slice of Western Antarctica ice core to help determine that climate change begins in the Arctic and moves southward, according to chemistry professor Jihong Cole-Dai of the SDSU Ice Core and Environmental Chemistry Lab. Since 2006, the SDSU research team have been part of a National Science Foundation project to uncover the secrets within the 2-mile long Western Antarctica Ice Sheet Divide ice core.

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A compound and an enzyme that occur naturally in cruciferous vegetables—cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts—may help prevent recurrence and spread of some cancers, according to associate professor Moul Dey of the South Dakota State University Department of Health and Nutritional Sciences. When Dey and her team treated human cervical cancer stem cells with phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) in a Petri dish, about 75 percent died within 24 hours using a 20-micromolar concentration of the compound.

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The new strain of flu that affected more than 1,000 dogs in Chicago has not yet spread to South Dakota, but South Dakota State University veterinarians advise owners to be vigilant. To test for the virus, veterinarians will swab the animal's nose and throat and send the samples to the Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory at SDSU, which typically processes them the same day they are received.

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Collaboration Aims to Expand Treatment Options and Improve Outcomes for Patients

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Farmers count on South Dakota State University plant breeders to develop new varieties that give crops greater yield potential and make them more resistant to diseases. The university fulfills its commitment to producers through a licensing agreement with the South Dakota Crop Improvement Association. As curator of new varieties of grain, SDCIA oversees the production of successive generations and thus greater quantities until it can be sold to farmers as certified seed.

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Figuring out what’s happening at a cellular and molecular level may help scientists develop ways to treat or prevent age-related, neurogenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Through National Institutes of Health funding, pharmacy professor Xiangming Guan and his team at South Dakota State University, Guan and his team developed the first imaging reagent that can determine thiol levels in intact living cells. Now they are working on reagents that can selectively show thiol density in subcellular structures, specifically the nucleus and mitochondria. Guan hopes to develop a nontoxic reagent safe enough to be used for diagnostic imaging, like an MRI.

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Fulfilling a sow’s increased nutritional needs in the last trimester may lead to greater productivity for both the mother and her piglets, according to assistant professor Crystal Levesque of the South Dakota State University Department of Animal Science. Through a pilot study, she has found “fairly clear preliminary evidence that we’re impacting at least piglet survivability in the first week post-weaning.”

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A victim of cyanide poisoning can die within 30 minutes.The diagnostic test to determine cyanide exposure takes 24 hours.Two chemists at South Dakota State University have developed a prototype that can detect exposure to cyanide in 70 seconds via a blood sample. The device could save lives, whether it be diagnosing exposure from an industrial fire or a terrorist attack

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“Secure, healthy caregiving is just as important as genetic factors in preventing physical and emotional problems,” according to South Dakota State University nursing professor Marylou Mylant. That’s the premise behind research on strengthening families to fight a dramatic increase in obesity among Native American preschoolers. Less than 25 percent of the preschoolers at the intervention site have normal BMIs.

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Using natural soil components to trap pollutants will allow producers to control soil contaminants and reuse draining water while protecting their agricultural crops, according to Mohamed Elsayed, a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar at South Dakota State University’s chemistry and biochemistry department. His research seeks to increase the ability of humic acid to adsorb, or trap pollutants, in combination with either of two clay minerals—kaolinite or montmorillonite.

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Tumor cells require high levels of glucose to multiply. This, in turn, creates more lactic acid, a byproduct that negatively affects the body’s immune response thereby reducing the effectiveness of drug therapies. Scientists from Sanford Research and South Dakota State University are using a low-glucose diet and specially designed anti-cancer drugs to improve therapeutic outcomes in cancer patients.

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Sanford Health is enrolling patients for a clinical trial using a less-invasive method to treat thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. Patrick Kelly, M.D., developed the investigational device and associated surgical procedure.

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During long Midwest winters, deer can wreak havoc on hay and other stored livestock feed. However, planting fall cover crops, such as clover, turnips and peas, may help wildlife managers provide deer with a nutrient-rich alternative that can lure them away from livestock feed. Distinguished professor Jonathan Jenks of the South Dakota State University Natural Resource Management Department is conducting a controlled experiment to identify which cover crops deer prefer.

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As the price of gasoline drops, the number of automobile crashes increases, according to analysis of monthly crash data. from the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety for 1998 to 2007. However, the time frame within which this occurs varies based on the driver’s age, according to South Dakota State University sociologist Guangqing Chi. He led the multi-institutional team of researchers who analyzed crash data from Minnesota, Mississippi and Alabama in relationship to gasoline prices.

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Tillage practices that conserve moisture, plants that use water more efficiently and soil with more organic matter have produced higher yields even in dry conditions, according to soil scientist David Clay, professor of plant science at South Dakota State University. In addition, scientists have a better understanding about how water stress decreases the plants’ ability to take up nutrients and recover from pest injury.

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Scientists will examine living cells at a molecular level to find out how cells become cancerous, how viruses attack animals and humans and how plants can capture more nitrogen through a new collaborative research center called Biochemical Spatio-temporal NeTwork Resource (BioSNTR). The center brings together South Dakota plant and animal scientists, biochemists and biomedical engineers to improve human health and agriculture as part of the state’s science and technology plan.

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It’s about transforming corn stover, dried distillers grain solids and even native grasses into a product more than 1,000 times more valuable—graphene. Assistant professor Zhengrong Gu of the South Dakota State University agricultural and biosystems engineering department is converting biochar into graphene which he hopes can one day be used in place of expensive, activated carbon to coat the electrodes of supercapacitors.

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Nurses, doctors, pharmacists and therapists care for the same patient, but often don’t meet until they are practicing health professionals. Simulations at the Sullivan Health Science Center in Sioux Falls involving pharmacy students and graduate and undergraduate nursing students from South Dakota State University are giving them a taste of reality and building their confidence.

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Organic solar cells are less expensive to produce than silicon-based technologies, but to make them competitive a method must be found to increase their efficiency. Qiquan Qiao of the South Dakota State University Center for Advanced Photovoltaics is using tunnel junctions to provide effective pathways through which charge can travel and thus reduce energy losses

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Lola (Swedlund) Stampe sat on a secret for 82 years. Though she’s not exactly sure why, Lola never told anyone she was an orphan in South Dakota State College’s practice cottage in the 1930s. “I guess I just kind of washed it out of my memory,” said Lola. Not unusual for colleges in the early 1900s, South Dakota State College operated a Home Management House beginning in 1921, where home economic students lived and cared for an orphan as part of an internship.

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Rift Valley Fever, a mosquito-borne disease, can devastate a sheep herd causing 90 percent mortality in lambs and 100 percent abortion rates in pregnant ewes. Current vaccines either don’t provide long-term immunity or cause spontaneous abortions in pregnant ewes. Medgene Labs is developing a new vaccine that is proving to be both safe and effective.

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Sanford Research collaborator boasts human antibody program

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Technology may be the key to helping college-age adults make healthier choices when it comes to food and physical activity. The Youth Adults Eating and Active for Health project found that participants in the intervention groups ate more fruits and vegetables and were more physically active than those in the control groups. The 15-month U.S. Department of Agriculture study involved researchers from 14 institutions, according to lead researcher Kendra Kattelmann, head of the dietetics program at South Dakota State University.

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In an era when consumers have a wealth of information at their fingertips, where do consumers go for recommendations on meat-purchasing? A pilot study by consumer economist Kuo-Liang “Matt” Chang and a team of researchers from South Dakota State University showed that websites and social media are sources of information about nutrition and cooking that then may lead to recommendations on meat purchasing.

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The use of expensive, marine-derived protein drives up the cost of high-quality fish feed. A South Dakota State University microbiologist and fisheries expert joined forces to produce fish feed ingredients from plant-based proteins, such as soybean meal. Their company, Prairie Aquatech, is scaling up production of the feed ingredients and expanding fish feeding trials.

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Caring for a chronically ill family member can impact the caregiver’s physical, biological and mental health, according to assistant professor SunWoo Kang of the South Dakota State University counseling and human development department. “Higher levels of marital strain among family caregivers exacerbate the negative health impact,” she said. “In contrast, less strain from the spouse buffered this effect.”

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A robot capable of scanning a tray of insect specimens in a few minutes will help make the virtual images and tagging information available online, according to South Dakota State University entomologist Paul Johnson, director of the Severin-McDaniel Insect Research Collection. The InvertNet Project, led by the University of Illinois in Champaign, involves 23 universities and two natural history museums.

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Energy storage devices and computer screens may seem worlds apart, but they’re not. When associate professor Qi Hua Fan of the South Dakota State University electrical engineering and computer science department set out to make a less expensive supercapacitor for storing renewable energy, he developed a new plasma technology that will streamline the production of display screens.