Source: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN submitted to
USDA HSI COLLABORATION: INTEGRATING FOOD SCIENCE/ENGINEERING AND EDUCATION NETWORK (IFSEEN)
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1007099
Grant No.
2015-38422-24059
Project No.
TEXW-2015-07123
Proposal No.
2015-07123
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
NJ
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2015
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2020
Grant Year
2018
Project Director
Lozano, K.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN
1201 W. UNIVERSITY DRIVE
EDINBURG,TX 78539-2999
Performing Department
Chemistry
Non Technical Summary
The IFSEEN consortium comprised of the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, the University of Texas at San Antonio, New Mexico State University, and the University of New Mexico is to create an educational linkage to collaboratively enhance the presentation of underrepresented Hispanics in the food/agricultural science area by generating future Hispanic food safety/science professionals and leaders through collaboration among the four major HSIs in Texas and New Mexico. To accomplish the goal, IFSEEN team will outreach to local high schools, develop new course materials, target incoming students, train them as cohorts as they matriculate through their undergraduate education, conduct cross-disciplinary food science research, and partner with USDA agencies and Tier 1 agricultural institutions nationwide. The program will outreach more than 1000 middle and high school students. Above that, our IFSEEN program will directly support at least 58 students (48 UGs, 8 MSs and 2 PhD) on hands-on research projects related to food science/safety. At least 40 students will be placed at Tier 1 institutions, USDA or other federal agencies. Our students will publish journal articles, present at national conferences, and attend workshops. The IFSEEN activities will increase students' scientific knowledge, strengthen their research skills, establish a food science research environment, prepare them to matriculate into in food/agricultural science graduate schools, facilitate their placement into career of food/agricultural sciences, and increase community awareness of food science research. Collectively, the IFSEEN program will increase the number of Hispanics that pursue careers in the food/agricultural science fields.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
80%
Applied
20%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
50250102000100%
Knowledge Area
502 - New and Improved Food Products;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
2000 - Chemistry;
Goals / Objectives
The goal of the IFSEEN consortium is to create an educational program to address the NIFA areas mentioned above through collaboration among four major HSIs in Texas and New Mexico. The team will also partner with governmental and agricultural institutions nationwide on food and agricultural sciences (F&AS). IFSEEN will use the expertise/enthusiastic nature of the PDs to attract and recruit underrepresented students by developing innovative curricula and hands-on research opportunities in state of the art technologies related to food science/safety. The materials to be developed will bridge innovation, education, and fundamental research on food science/safety. HSIs traditionally struggle to recruit and retain students, as the PIs have effectively proven, providing UG students with hands-on research opportunities promotes their development and motivation to graduate and pursue graduate programs. Participating faculty members have been invited based on their strong commitment to student success. Working collaboratively on the new curricula and research projects will promote the development of high quality instruction and mentoring in food science/safety. IFSEEN will increase the number of underrepresented professionals in careers related to the F&AS in the United States.More specifically, the objectives include:I. To attract, retain and graduate students from underrepresented groups in a timely manner by exemplary outreach activities, innovative instruction and active mentoring in the STEAM fields at Texas and New Mexico region;II. To strengthen institutional educational capacities to serve the needs of Hispanic students by developing lecture modules, lab modules, web-based instructional videos, courses and a minor degree at the four major HSIs in the food and agricultural fields;III. To strengthen institutional research capacities by providing research opportunities on smart food packaging and sensors for students in the four HSIs;IV. To establish strong educational, scientific and technical partnership among regional major HSIs and with governmental and agricultural institutions nationwide on food and agricultural sciences to facilitate placement of Hispanics into careers addressing USDA priorities;V. To build a network of Hispanic students and professionals who study and work in food and agriculture sciences.
Project Methods
To increase student recruitment, in each late spring, IFSEEN key personnel coordinated by the Outreach Director, Dr. Lozano, who has ample experience and has impacted thousands of k-12 students, will travel and present recruitment seminars at high schools in the local areas. This ensures that the IFSEEN program would have a large number of highly qualified underrepresented students, translating to a highly successful program. In the upcoming years, we expect this applicant pool to increase based on the institutional enrollment trends over the last five years (8% increase in five years) and due to the success of the outreach efforts proposed in this grant. To increase the perception of food science, a seminar entitled "Careers in Food and Agricultural Science: The IFSEEN Program" will be presented in undergraduate freshman/sophomore level courses by all IFSEEN faculty. An additional independent seminar (not during class) will be advertised to attract students that may not be taking those courses. The seminar will be highly publicized through multiple media outlets, times and locations, so that all students at the four HSIs have the ability to attend. As part of recruitment and retention efforts, a USDA HSI IFSEEN Outreach Center (UHIOC) will be newly implemented at Edinburg, TX to serve as an outreach provider to local middle/high schools and community, and a graduate program and career locator for students pursuing a graduate education in food and agricultural science. Coupled with the IFSEEN team members' extensive experience in promoting recruitment and retention of UG students and establishing successful pipelines of students for Tier I institutions, these activities will serve to: increase awareness of the program to incoming freshman, increase awareness of the four HSIs as viable institutions suitable for training students interested in a career in food/agricultural research, familiarize the community with graduate school and emphasize research as a viable career option, and explain the benefits of participating in the IFSEEN program.On the curricula design and materials development area, in year one, each of the participating faculty will develop two to three new lecture modules and one lab module relevant to food safety/science and one web-based two-hour instructional video related to food packaging/sensing to reinforce students learning during non-classroom hours (Fig. 3). In years 2-3, these modules will be incorporated into our current courses to reinforce student learning on concepts related to food science/safety and made available to upper level students and to a larger audience via TTVN WebMeeting, online or hybrid course instruction. In year 4, new courses and related labs after evaluating and selecting from all developed lecture modules, lab modules plus web-based instructional videos will be combined and offered to students at all four HSI campus coherently. After working with curriculum committees at different levels in years 1-3, a minor will be offered to our students from year 4. Moreover, Dr. Pribis at UNM has experience on teaching the course of Principles of Food Science and is able to guide other participating faculty to develop new lecture/lab modules and courses.For student experiential learning, students will be selected following a stringent procedure to become IFSEEN fellows. Only students wanting to pursue a career in a food/agricultural science field will be accepted and committed students will be supported for 2 years. The IFSEEN program will preferentially target sophomores that have completed 2-3 semesters. It has been reported that participation in research activities enhances the quality of student's education and promotes retention and graduation in STEAM fields. For minority students it is essential to promote participation in research projects. The IEC will work hard to insure that all IFSEEN fellows conduct research in their food science/safety field of interest and the research interests of fellows and mentors match well. Accepted IFSEEN Fellows will be required to take several training courses before they can participate in research at each HSI. At the end of each semester, IFSEEN fellows are required to submit a progress report along with one from the mentors to monitor students as they progress through the program. The reports will be assessed by the PD and any deficiencies will result in a one on one student consultation by the PD to address problems and correct them. Selected IFSEEN fellows will focus on the development of smart food packaging and sensors to gain hands-on experience on food science/safety under the guidance of faculty members (Fig. 4). Given the complementing expertise of the participating faculty in materials science and bioengineering areas, efforts will be tailored towards developing state of the art technologies to promote food safety and hands-on research opportunities. Dr. Flores at NMSU is an expert of food safety and is able to advise the IFSEEN team on student experiential learning.Also, the IFSEEN program will endow a new social network (website, Facebook, Twitter, and youtube) to increase student interaction and participation in IFSEEN and institutional programs. The addition of an IFSEEN seminar series will introduce ground breaking research to the institution and community. The monthly IFSEEN meeting with student presentation will allow them to practice their communication and presentation skills. Furthermore, the IFSEEN program will add a food and agricultural research component to the Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology (HESTEC) conference, a national model for promoting STEM careers among South Texas students who are predominantly Hispanic (further details are provided in the Facilities & Other Resources attachment).

Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Undergraduate and Graduate students and the general community to outreach activities and to promote food, science and engineering. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In terms of training activities, more than 30 students have been involved in research projects with participating IFSEEN faculty members as Research Assistants in projects related to nanoscience and food science. Lozano, Mao and Flores have developed a productive collaboration related to edible nanofibers and edible food packaging which has benefited UG and MS students. Other PIs have worked in a variety of projects that have facilitated exposure of students to a variety of areas and learning of high-tech instrumentation as well as developing analytical assessments to analyze results obtained from their samples. This exposure to the usage of high tech instrumentation and developing of samples not to mention the outstanding mentoring from PIs has played a key role in the retention and graduation of our minority students. Many other students have benefitted through the curriculum development and active outreach participation. The IFSEEN team has completed the following goals: * Engaged in multidisciplinary team meetings with the IFSEEN laboratories monthly throughout the year * Included both undergraduate and graduate students (>50) to participate in research projects in food science/safety and nanoscience * Trained and involved undergraduate research students for a full summer on the developing projects. These students learned techniques in the lab, read research articles, made formal presentations, and completed written assignments on papers * Held regular meetings to discuss research directions, project, and progress * Collected a range of scientific data related to food safety/science, published more than ten journal articles with many underway, presented at various conferences by both faculty and students. * Outreached to thousands of k-12 and UG students and public. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All of our research results have been published (under review or to be submitted for publications) as journal articles and presented at various conferences/workshops and cross the collaborating research institutions of this multi-institutional project, as detailed in the Products session, or as informal poster sessions presented by IFSEEN student within IFSEEN participating campuses. In terms of outreach, many activities have been performed. For example, the IFSEEN participating faculty and students did food science related demonstrations during the HESTEC (Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology) community day in October 2017 and 2018. HESTEC week (http://www.utrgv.edu/hestec/) is a nationally acclaimed annual week-long event for promoting STEM to thousands of pre-K to college students, teachers, parents and community members. Events include leadership workshops, robotic competitions, Latinas in science, chemistry magic shows, engineering and technology, congressional roundtable on science literacy, professional development courses for educators, and community day - a science fair that is free and open to the public, >50,000 people attend. Many IFSEEN faculty members were key players in this event with highly visible research programs on science and engineering. This innovative program provided an opportunity to attract high school students and teachers to work with the IFSEEN. Our IFSEEN booth and developed demos attracted more than 1000 visitors. Other activities include presentations given by former alumni of UTRGV, a magic and science show, science stations for hands-on activities (IFSEEN) and tour of the labs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Faculty developed food science/safety lecture modules since the first year of the award, 2015, taught the lectures and continued polishing their own course modules and offering these modules in their classes. For example, Dr. Lozano targeted both UGs and MS students through the course modules implemented during the Intermediate Nanotechnology and Polymer Engineering courses. Dr. Alcoutlabi taught his module on the Applications of Nanotechnology in Food Science to UG students in engineering during Spring 2018. For Lozano and Alcoutlabi, the audience has been >95% Hispanic. Dr, Mao developed and taught a full Food Science class EEMS 6360: Food Science which was opened for MS students. At University of New Mexico (UNM), the target audiences also extended from UNM UG students and College of Education faculty to elementary school students. At UTSA, course modules related to food safety, nanotechnology, especially nano-biosensor techniques to detect food bacteria, were implemented to undergraduate classes BME3303 and BME3503. Students developed YouTube videos to increase awareness of food science/engineering. The video were developed in English and Spanish, these are the videos: Nanotechnology in food science/engineering (Additives/Preservatives) Fresh water, still a grand challenge Permeability and its role in food packaging Nanotechnology in agriculture Introduction to food science Nanofibers as sensors for food packaging Barcodes Coaxial spinning of fibers for drug delivery or other biocompatible applications IFSEEN has trained undergraduate students in research projects related to food science/safety, each of the participating faculty members of the IFSEEN program are mentoring one to four students, including undergraduate students, master students, and Ph.D. students, with the vast majority being Hispanic. For example, high school and UGs students have participated in developing edible nanofibers and nonwoven functional fibers for the detection of pathogens in the food industry (through the high scholar program). IFSEEN goals had also been introduced to K-12 students through different outreach venues where the importance of food packaging has been discussed. Through collaboration between UTRGV and NMSU among three faculty, several undergraduate students were involved in new areas of research, development of edible nonwoven nanofiber films that could be used for drug delivery and/or to better package and or promote ease of handling of the components, these edible films were developed through the Forcespinning® technology developed at UTRGV. Over 20 students have been trained in this technique. A collaborative project between UTRGV (mechanical engineering) and the University of Utah (chemical engineering) has provided opportunities for two students to work in Dr. Alcoutlabi's group on the use of fibers for food science. The project provided an opportunity for 2 UG students to do internship during the summer at the University of Utah. Our IFSEEN students have attended and presented at several conferences. Because of the positive effects of the IFSEEN program, a cluster hiring of three new faculty (food chemistry, microbiology and food technology) was successfully conducted and three new faculty members joined the UTRGV campus. The IFSEEN faculty members at NMSU include Drs. Hongmei Luo, Jessica P. Houston, and Nancy Flores. The expertise of all three PIs' is unique and includes nanoscience, flow cytometry, and food safety, respectively. They have also mentored students in research in their respective fields. Three of them also have incorporated ideas that lead to the development of methods that led to multi-disciplinary projects, those that will build into future collaborative grant submissions. Specifically projects focused on measurements of nanoparticles using flow cytometry, measurement of bacteria with flow cytometry (identification of the bacterial species), establishment of flow cytometry protocols to measure phenotypes of bacterial species, cultured and studied pure bacterial strains. NMSU team also performed gram staining, which allowed visualization of the aquaculture samples under standard microscopy. Also they measured nanoparticles and use them as a means to detect specific phenotypes on bacteria when tagged to individual cells and measured with flow cytometry. They screened aquaculture and interpreted by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy data, performed gram staining, size analysis with flow cytometry and measured carbon dot nanoparticles in flow cytometry when combined with bacterial cells. Furthermore, Dr. Meng Zhou joined NMSU IFSEEN project team. He is an Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering. Many students benefitted from IFSEEN at NMSU, among them, student Clarita Yosune Regalado Vera received the following awards: (i) AVS Short Course Scholarship, May 21, 2018, (ii) Preparing Future Faculty Graduate Assistantship Award ($8000), NMSU, 2018-2019, and (iii) Outstanding Graduate Assistantship Award ($2000), NMSU, 2018-2019. She graduated in April 2019 and moved on to her PhD. More so, Dr. Hongmei Luo was promoted to full Professor from Associate Professor in August 2019 and Dr. Jessica Houston received the following honors: became a Fulbright Faculty Fellow (2018-2019). Her Research Project involved collaborative research and a 6-month appointment at Saitama University in Saitama, Japan from July 2018-January 2019. received a 4-year NIH R01 Grant ($1.2M) on "Microflow time-resolved flow cytometry for FRET and Fluorescent Protein Development," R01GM129859 received the 2019 New Mexico State University College of Engineering Frank Bromilow Excellence in Research Award At UNM, Dr. Qin and his group have developed a facile methodology for the preparation of boron main-chain conjugated polymers, the fluorescence intensity of which can be easily modulated by the presence of varying amount of small anions, including the toxic fluoride and cyanide anions. These polymers can find applications as toxic substance sensors in water and food additives. They also have developed a interfacial synthetic method to precisely incorporate metal-organic framework nanostructures into polymeric membranes that can find application in gas separation and water purification. This project has trained one undergraduate and one graduate student in the areas of organic synthesis, polymer chemistry and sensors. Dr. Pribis has worked on the Eat Smart, Be Smart project with the goal to develop education materials for elementary students. His objectives include: 1. Explain the importance of fruit and vegetable consumption; and 2. Explain the importance of whole grain foods. He used his developed two videos with additional curriculum instructions and games in English and Spanish to provided step by step information how to use the videos for elementary students nutrition education. For the Survey Development project, the goal is to develop a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and the objectives include 1. Explain the theory behind a FFQ; 2. Choose a healthy diet as comparison tool; and 3. Develop the FFQ. Students under his guidance developed a simple assessment tool that can be used to estimate student's adherence to healthy diet and monitor changes in nutritional habits. At UTSA, researched focused on developing orderly oriented biofunctionalization of gold nanorod on solid substrates to construct a biochip in a 3D printing chamber. Protein G resulted in highly consistent antibody immobilization with enhancement in the sensor sensitivity.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Javier Vassell, and Yuanbing Mao, Effects of CuO Nanoparticles on the Growth of Kale, ES Materials and Manufacturing, 2019, in press. DOI: 10.30919/esmm5f212.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Marisol Valdez*, Santosh K. Gupta , and Yuanbing Mao, Forcespun polydiacetylene nanofibers as colorimetric sensor for food spoilage detection, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2019, 297, 126734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2019.126734.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Hisham Abdou*, Santosh K. Gupta , and Yuanbing Mao, Defect and dopant induced photoluminescence of molten salt synthesized BaZrO3 crystals, Journal of Luminescence, 2019, 214, 116599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2019.116599.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Maya Abdou*, Santosh K. Gupta , Jose P. Zuniga#, and Yuanbing Mao, Insight into the Effect of A-Site Cations on Structural and Optical Properties of RE2Hf2O7:U Nanoparticles, Journal of Luminescence, 2019, 210, 425-434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2019.02.059
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Zhaofeng Wang, Songshan Zeng, Gaurav N. Joshi, Andrew T. Smith, Huidan Zeng, Zichao Wei, Xiaoyuan Yu, Madhab Pokhrel , Yuanbing Mao, Weixing Wang, and Luyi Sun, Design and fabrication of highly photoluminescent carbon incorporated silica from rice husk biomass, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2019, 58(11), 4688-4694. DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.9b00151
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: H�ctor A. De Santiago*, Santosh K. Gupta , and Yuanbing Mao, On high purity fullerenol obtained by combined dialysis and freeze-drying method with its morphostructural transition and photoluminescence, Separation and Purification Technology, 2019, 210, 927-934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2018.08.033. (IF = 3.927)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jose Zuniga#, Maya Abdou*, Santosh K. Gupta , and Yuanbing Mao, Molten-Salt Synthesis of Complex Metal Oxide Nanoparticles, Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2018, (140), e58482. DOI: 10.3791/58482.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wenjuan Bian, Meng Zhou, Gen Chen, Xue Yu, Madhab Pokhrel , Yuanbing Mao, Hongmei Luo, Upconversion luminescence of ytterbium and erbium co-doped gadolinium oxysulfate hollow nanoparticles, Applied Materials Today, 2018, 13, 381-386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmt.2018.11.006
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: W. J. Bian, M. Zhou, G. Chen, X. Yu, M. Pokhrel, Y. B. Mao, H. M. Luo, Upconversion luminescence of ytterbium and erbium co-doped gadolinium oxysulfate hollow nanoparticles, Appl. Mater. Today, 13, 381-386 (2018) (paper collaboration between NMSU and UTRGV)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: H. Z. Wang, W. Xu, S. Richins, K. Liaw, L. Yan, M. Zhou, H. M. Luo, Polymer-assisted approach to LaCo1-xNixO3 network nanostructures as bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts, Electrochimica Acta, 296, 945-953 (2019)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: H. Z. Wang, L. Yan, T. Nakotte, W. Xu, M. Zhou, D. Ding, H. M. Luo, IrO2-incorporated La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 as a bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst with enhanced activities, Inorganic Chem. Frontiers, 6, 1029-1039 (2019)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: J. Yu, D. Huang, Y. Liu, H. M. Luo, Ternary Ag-TiO2/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite as anode material for lithium ion battery, Inorganic Chem. Frontiers, 6, 2126-2134 (2019)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Wang, Z.; Zeng, S.; Joshi, G. N.; Smith, A. T.; Zeng, H.; Wei, Z.; Yu, X.; Pokhrel, M.; Mao, Y.; Wang, W.; Sun, L. Design and Fabrication of Highly Photoluminescent Carbon-Incorporated Silica from Rice Husk Biomass. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2019, 58, 4688-4694.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Zhen Z. and Qin, Y. Cross-conjugated poly(selenylene vinylene)s. Polym. Chem. 2019, 10, 1018-1025.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Zhang, Z.; Zong, X.; Sun, Z. and Qin, Y. Impact of side-chain extension on physical and electronic properties of cross-conjugated Poly(thienylene vinylene)s (PTVs). Polymer 2019, 166, 115-122.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Hisham Abdou*, Kuzy Zarzosa, Evan Braswell, and Yuanbing Mao, Synthesis and characterization of streptomycin and penicillin G capped silver nanoparticles for the management of the citrus Huanglongbing Disease, 2018 SACNAS Conference, San Antonio, TX, October 11-13, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Maya Abdou*, Santosh K. Gupta, Jose P. Zuniga, and Yuanbing Mao, Speciation studies on RE2Hf2O7:U nanoparticles as a potential nuclear waste host: the effect of changing A-site, 2018 SACNAS Conference, San Antonio, TX, October 11-13, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Marisol Valdez* and Yuanbing Mao, Development of Polydiacetylene-embedded nanofibers for detection of biogenetic amines through food spoilage, 2018 SACNAS Conference, San Antonio, TX, October 11-13, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Hongmei Luo, Epitaxial oxide films and nanoparticle network from polymer-assisted deposition for battery and electrocatalyst applications, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, July 2, 2019 (invited)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Clarita Regalado, Julia Fernald, Jessica Houston, Nancy Flores, Hongmei Luo, Fe-doped Ni3S2 nanowires on nickel foam as bifunctional water-splitting catalysts with low overpotentials, USDA PI meeting, Costa Mesa, CA, Feb. 27  March 2, 2019 (poster)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Hongmei Luo, Epitaxial oxide films and nanoparticle network for battery and electrocatalyst, University of Texas at El Paso, September 7, 2018 (invited)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Weichuan Xu, Litao Yan, Meng Zhou, Hongmei Luo, Metal oxides for bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst in alkaline solution, the International Conference on Electrochemical Energy Science and Technology, Niagara Falls, Canada, August 13-17, 2018 (invited)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Di Huang, Qi Zhou, Hongmei Luo, Metal oxide nanoparticle network from polymer-assisted solution method for lithium ion battery anodes and cathodes, the International Conference on Electrochemical Energy Science and Technology, Niagara Falls, Canada, August 13-17, 2018 (invited)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Hongmei Luo, Epitaxial oxide thin films and nanoparticles for battery and electrocatalyst applications, University of Texas at San Antonio, June 6, 2018 (invited)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: LaChance, A. M.; Ding, F.; Liu, J.; Sun, L. Biomimetic Nanocoatings with Exceptional Mechanical and Barrier Properties for Polyolefin Films 2019 International Polyolefins Conference. February 24-27, 2019, Houston, TX.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Maya Abdou*, Santosh Gupta , Partha S. Ghosh, Jose P. Zuniga#, and Yuanbing Mao, Correlating structure and photo- and radio-luminescence of Eu3+ doped Gd2Hf2O7 nanoparticles: interplay of experiments and theory, Southwest Theoretical & Computational Chemistry 2018 Conference, Edinburg, TX, October 19-21, 2018. (Poster)


Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:To create an educational linkage to collaboratively enhance the presentation of underrepresented Hispanics in the food/agricultural science area by generating future Hispanic food safety/science professionals and leaders through collaboration, we outreached to our current students and our local communities at/around our four major HSIs in Texas and New Mexico in classrooms/communities and guided mostly minority students on various research projects related to food science/safety during the third year of the performance for our USDA NIFA funded IFSEEN project. The target audience of the IFSEEN program includes HSI university students, Hispanic undergraduate/graduate students, K-12 students, general scientific communities and general public communities. The efforts to reach these audiences in thousands include formal classroom instruction, practicum experiences, development of curriculum, internships, workshops, experiential learning opportunities, scientific conferences, journal publications, extension and outreach. Specifically, each of the participant faculty members developed lecture modules related to food science/safety. Each of us then gave our own lecture modules to our classes. In this way, we outreached to more than 1000 UGs and graduate students. Moreover, surveys have been conducted before and after these lectures. Furthermore, one of our goals was to receive feedback as to how accessible the module was for a broad audience. Suggestions were considered and the modules enhanced and distributed to other IFSEEN faculty members within the IFSEEN team. In terms of hands-on research projects related to food science/safety, each of the participating faculty members of the IFSEEN program is mentoring one to four students, either undergraduate students, master degree graduate students, or Ph.D. degree graduate students, with majority as Hispanics and some female. Further details are provided below, especially in the Products and Accomplishments sessions. Some specific examples are provided below: 1. Research students with the IFSEEN faculty members. For examples, at UTRGV, experiential learning opportunities and hands-on experience in laboratory are provided to Hispanic UG and MS students. At UTSA, one Hispanic undergraduate student (Marcelo Vital) was working on the project "Orderly oriented biofunctionalization of the gold nanorod on solid substrate to construct a biochip in 3D printed chamber". This is a continuation of the MS thesis by one graduate student. Mr. Marcelo Vital has presented his work in undergraduate research presentation in Annual meeting of Biomedical Engineering Society in Oct. 2017. One manuscript is in preparation to be submitted to Biosensor and Bioelectronics journal. One PhD student (Sharon Kwee) is in progress towards PhD study in her 3rd year for the project of ordered assembly of gold nanorods as unique biosensing platform based on plasmon-enhanced fluorescence enhancement. This unique nanoarray substrate provides significantly enhanced Plasmon and SERS property to improve detection limit potentially for food safety monitoring. 1 PhD student (Lijun Wang) has worked on smaller gold nanorod synthesis with aspect ratio of ~ 5 to explore innovative biomedical applications. The nanoparticles were characterized using absorption spectrophotometer and TEM. She has passed all requirements to become a PhD candidate. At UMN, during the spring semester of 2018, seven undergraduate students took the Advanced Synthetic Laboratory course directed by Prof. Yang Qin. This course is one of the requirements in order to obtain an ACS certified B.S. degree in chemistry. The teaching assistant, who was supported by this grant during the summer, helped develop one of the six experiments in this course, the squaraine dye synthesis. 2. Students in our classrooms For example, at UTRGV, modules on the applications of nanomaterials in food science were given to BS and MS students in science and engineering. Also, the role of polymers in the food industry was discussed in the MECE 6326 Polymer engineering and MECE 4326 Introduction to Nanotechnology. At UTSA, The course modules related to food safety, nanotechnology, especially application of nano-biosensing to ensure food safety was implemented to undergraduate classes BME3303 and BME3503. The enrollment of the class was 37 and 25 students respectively, of which 70% audience are Hispanic. 3. Local communities At UTRGV, multiple outreach activities were presented to k-12 students and local communities, especially during our annual HESTEC community weekend. At UNM, Prof. Yang Qin organized a booth representing the department of chemistry and ACS local section at the NM Science Fiesta, held on May 19, 2018 at downtown Albuquerque. An estimated 4000 people from all background participated, most of which are families with children. 4. Scientific communities Many of us, including IFSEEN faculty and students, have published journal papers and given presentations at various conferences, as listed in the Products section. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In terms of training activities, more than 30 students have been involved in research projects with participating IFSEEN faculty members as Research Assistants. For example, in Mao's lab, six UGs have been trained and involved in research projects related to nanoscience and food science. In Dr. Lozano's lab, through collaboration with Dr. Mao at UTRGV and Dr. Flores at NMSU, students at all levels have been introduced to food related fields such as food packaging through the outreach activities and course modules and food research through the development of edible nanofibers. Dr. Alcoutlabi's project provided two students to work in his research group. The students have gain a tremendous experience in research and training. In Houston Lab, two undergraduate students have had the benefit of performing research in a chemical engineering research lab. In Luo Lab, two Ph.D students, one Master students, nine undergraduate students and high school students have had opportunity working on the project including reading literature and doing experiment. In Qin lab, his projects have trained two undergraduate and two graduate student in the areas of organic synthesis, polymer chemistry and sensors. His projects provided excellent opportunities for training activates like curriculum development, one-on-one mentoring, development of educational materials and hands-on-research. In terms of professional development, many of participating IFSEEN students have attended and presented at conferences, as listed on the Product session above. Throughout the year, our IFSEEN team had our regular monthly meeting and in general two students present their research work during each of the meetings plus discussion on relevant businesses related to agricultural and food sciences. With our key efforts on experiential learning opportunities, curriculum development, active outreach participation, the IFSEEN team has completed the following goals: • Engaged in multidisciplinary team meetings with the IFSEEN laboratories monthly throughout the year • Included both undergraduate and graduate students (>30) to participate in research projects in food science/safety and nanoscience • Trained and involved undergraduate research students for a full summer on the developing projects. These students learned techniques in the lab, read research articles, made formal presentations, and completed written assignments on papers read • Held regular meetings to discuss research directions, project, and progress • Collected a range of scientific data related to food safety/science, published more than ten journal articles with many underway, presented at various conferences by both faculty and students. • Outreached to thousands of k-12 and UG students and public. Therefore, other than local and scientific communities, the target audience during this reporting period includes undergraduate and graduate students involved in research projects and attended classes taught by our IFSEEN faculty. The research students are served by the IFSEEN program because they are provided a research opportunity in our science and engineering laboratory and gain experience in developing as young scientists, learning the scientific method and the empirical work that coincides with research projects. The other groups served by this project are graduate students who are actively engaged in learning processes in the laboratory and who are matriculating through our degree programs. More broadly, our IFSEEN team has outreached to many students and general public through both formal and informal events. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All of our research results have been published (under review or to be submitted for publications) as journal articles and presented at various conferences/workshops and cross the collaborating research institutions of this multi-institutional project, as detailed in the Products session, or as informal poster sessions presented by IFSEEN student within IFSEEN participating campuses. In terms of outreach, many activities have been performed. For example, the IFSEEN participating faculty and students did food science related demonstrations during the HESTEC (Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology) community day in October 2017. HESTEC week (http://www.utrgv.edu/hestec/) is a nationally acclaimed annual week-long event for promoting STEM to thousands of pre-K to college students, teachers, parents and community members. Events include leadership workshops, robotic competitions, Latinas in science, chemistry magic shows, engineering and technology, congressional roundtable on science literacy, professional development courses for educators, and community day - a science fair that is free and open to the public, >50,000 people attend. Many IFSEEN faculty members are key players in this event with highly visible research programs on science and engineering, and will continue our participation. This innovative program also provides good opportunity to attract high school students and teachers to work with the IFSEEN. Our IFSEEN demos attracted more than 1000 visitors to our booth. Other activities include presentations given by former alumni of UTRGV, a magic and science show, science stations for hands-on activities (IFSEEN)and tour of the labs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?While keeping pushing the boundaries and frontlines of our research work, many of our IFSEEN faculty members and students will prepare and publish more manuscripts and present more scientific talks with data collected already and continue on the development of the project initiated in the past three years. At the meantime, current cohort of students will keep their momentum on the projects they are working on, and we will hire more UG and graduate students for training and hands-on learning experience in laboratory while others are moving forward to their career. Also, during the next stages of this IFSEEN program, we will continue to develop collaborative projects within our participating laboratories. We are working on other USDA grants for submission related to nanoagriculture science and food safety and biosensors to detect pathogens. Additionally, with data collected in each respective laboratory we are continuing to collect results for more collaborative publications. Our general long-term goals are to train and promote students in this research field as well as publish high quality journal articles. For the next reporting period, we are also planning to work with students to develop more education videos for the Hispanic elementary students.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? First, based on the food science/safety lecture modules developed by the participating IFSEEN faculty members during academic year 2015-2016, many participating faculty members continued polishing their own course modules and offering these modules in their classes. For example, Dr. Lozano targeted both UGs and MS students through the course modules implemented during the Intermediate Nanotechnology and Polymer Engineering courses. Dr. Alcoutlabi taught his module on the Applications of Nanotechnology in Food Science to UG students in engineering during Spring 2018. At University of New Mexico (UNM), the target audiences also extended from UNM UG students and College of Education faculty to elementary school students. At UTSA, course modules related to food safety, nanotechnology, especially nano-biosensor techniques to detect food bacteria, were implemented to undergraduate classes BME3303 and BME3503. The enrollments of the classes were 37 and 25 students, respectively, of which 70% audience are Hispanic. The overall goal of the NMSU IFSEEN project is to train undergraduates in research (with an emphasis on underrepresented students) as well as to develop a multidisciplinary research program that combines chemical engineering with food science. In terms of hands-on research projects related to food science/safety, each of the participating faculty members of the IFSEEN program is mentoring one to four students, including undergraduate students, master degree graduate students, and Ph.D. degree graduate students, with majority as Hispanics and many female. For examples, UGs students impacted through research projects in the field of edible nanofibers, high school students impacted through research in the area of nonwoven functional fibers for the detection of pathogens in the food industry (through the high scholar program), and K-12 students through different outreach venues where the importance of polymer engineering within food packaging has been discussed. Through collaboration between UTRGV and NMSU among three faculty, two undergraduate students are opening up new areas of research through the development of edible nonwoven nanofiber films that could be used for drug delivery and/or to better package and or promote ease of handling of the components. Good training to one UG students and one graduate student has been accomplished in Dr. Alcoutlabi's group. One manuscript has published on a peer reviewed journal along three conference proceedings. These students have been trained in our laboratory and have been able to conduct research in the area of nanomaterials for food science. Both students presented their work at the USDA HSI PD meeting in March 2018. A collaborative project between UTRGV (mechanical engineering) and the University of Utah (chemical engineering) has provided opportunities for two students to work in Dr. Alcoutlabi's group on the use of fibers for food science. The project gave also the opposites to the 2 UG students to do internship during the summer at the University of Utah. The Mao group has six IFSEEN students involved in research. Two of them started their graduate studies in Fall 2017. Our IFSEEN students have attended and presented at conferences, e.g. the American Chemical Society national meeting in New Orleans in March 2018. More excitingly, the university (UTRGV) is putting her emphasis on food and agriculture science. Because of the positive effects of the IFSEEN program, a cluster hiring of three new faculty (food chemistry, microbiology and food technology) was successfully conducted and three new faculty members are coming to the UTRGV campus. The IFSEEN faculty members at NMSU include Drs. Hongmei Luo, Jessica P. Houston, and Nancy Flores. The expertise of all three PIs' is unique and includes nanoscience, flow cytometry, and food safety, respectively. Therefore, in the past year we have accomplished much toward the goal of developing a collaborative research project. In their individual laboratories they have mentored students in research in their respective fields. Three of them also have incorporated ideas that lead to the development of methods that lead to multi-disciplinary projects, those that will build into collaborative grant submissions. Specific projects focus on measurements of nanoparticles using flow cytometry, measurement of bacteria with flow cytometry (identification of the bacterial species), establishment of flow cytometry protocols to measure phenotypes of bacterial species, cultured and studied pure bacterial strains. NMSU team will also perform gram staining, which will allow them to visualize the aquaculture samples under standard microscopy. Also they measured nanoparticles and use them as a means to detect specific phenotypes on bacteria when tagged to individual cells and measured with flow cytometry. They screened aquaculture and interpreted by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy data, performed gram staining, size analysis with flow cytometry and measured carbon dot nanoparticles in flow cytometry when combined with bacterial cells. Furthermore, Dr. Meng Zhou joined NMSU IFSEEN project team. He is an Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering. Tyler Balding (advisors: Hongmei Luo, Jessica Houston, Nancy Flores) defended his M.S. thesis on May 24, 2018 and will receive his M.S. degree in Chemical Engineering in August 2018 at NMSU. Undergraduate students Steven S. Liaw and Joshua Gomez received BS degree in May 2018 at NMSU. Joshua Gomez will stay at NMSU for his MS study. Clarita Yosune Regalado Vera received the following awards: (i) AVS Short Course Scholarship, May 21, 2018, (ii) Preparing Future Faculty Graduate Assistantship Award ($8000), NMSU, 2018-2019, and (iii) Outstanding Graduate Assistantship Award ($2000), NMSU, 2018-2019. At UNM, Dr. Qin and his group have developed a facile methodology for the preparation of boron main-chain conjugated polymers, the fluorescence intensity of which can be easily modulated by the presence of varying amount of small anions, including the toxic fluoride and cyanide anions. These polymers can find applications as toxic substance sensors in water and food additives. They also have developed a interfacial synthetic method to precisely incorporate metal-organic framework nanostructures into polymeric membranes that can find application in gas separation and water purification. This project has trained one undergraduate and one graduate student in the areas of organic synthesis, polymer chemistry and sensors. Dr. Pribis has worked on the Eat Smart, Be Smart project with the goal to develop education materials for elementary students. His objectives include: 1. Explain the importance of fruit and vegetable consumption; and 2. Explain the importance of whole grain foods. He used his developed two videos with additional curriculum instructions and games in English and Spanish to provided step by step information how to use the videos for elementary students nutrition education. For the Survey Development project, the goal is to develop a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and the objectives include 1. Explain the theory behind a FFQ; 2. Choose a healthy diet as comparison tool; and 3. Develop the FFQ. Student under the guidance of the program administrator developed and simple assessment tool that can be used to estimate student's adherence to healthy diet and monitor changes in nutritional habits. At UTSA, orderly oriented biofunctionalization of gold nanorod on solid substrate to construct a biochip in 3D printed chamber was investigated. Protein G resulted in highly consistent antibody immobilization with enhancement in the sensor sensitivity. One manuscript is in preparation to be submitted to Biosensor and Bioelectronics journal.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Luissanyi Campos, Luis Sosa, Loreana Molero, Yuanbing Mao, Nancy Flores, Efren Delgado and Karen Lozano; Development of Pullulan/Cayenne Pepper Edible Nanofibers based Films Submitted to Journal of Functional Foods
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Akia, M., N. Salinas, R. Gilkerson, L.A. Materon, and K. Lozano 2018. Texas sour orange juice used in scaffolds for tissue engineering. Membranes. (under review)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: W. Xu, L. Yan, M. Zhou, H. M. Luo, Perovskite oxide nanoparticles as high performance bifunctional catalyst, 233rd ECS Meeting, Seattle, May 13-17, 2018 (oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jiuling Yu, Litao Yan, Hongmei Luo, TiO2-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites as advanced photocatalytic materials, MRS Spring Meeting, Phoenix, April 2-6, 2018 (poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Weichuan Xu, Litao Yan, Meng Zhou, Hongmei Luo, Polymer-assisted chemical solution synthesis of perovskite oxide as high performance bifunctional catalyst in alkaline solution, MRS Spring Meeting, Phoenix, April 2-6, 2018 (oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Stephanie Richins, Hongmei Luo, LaNiO3 catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reaction, BYU AIChE Regional Conference, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, March 23-24, 2018 (oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Weichuan Xu, Hongmei Luo, Perovskite oxide electrocatalysts from polymer-assisted solution method for oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reaction, 2018 Mesilla Chemistry Workshop, Interplay between theory and experiment in nanocatalysis, Mesilla, NM, Feb. 3-7, 2018 (invited).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kim Pestovich, Jessica Houston, Nancy Flores, Hongmei Luo, Nanomaterials for nitrate removal from water, NM Space Grant Scholarship Colloquium, Las Cruces, Nov. 3, 2017 (oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Hongmei Luo, Lithium-ion battery research and outreach at New Mexico State University, ASEE Summer School, Raleigh, North Carolina, July 28-August 3, 2017 (poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: K. Lopez, A. Torres, D. Munoz, R. Rivera, E. Delgado, N.C. Flores. Optimization of the Spray Dryer to Dry Cottonseed and Soy Protein. Undergraduate Research Creative Arts Symposium New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM April 27th, 2018. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: D. Munoz, K. Lopez, R. Rivera, E. Delgado, N.C. Flores, S. Munson-Mcgee, Forming a Protein Curd with Glandless Cottonseed Meal Utilizing Microbial Transglutaminase and Coagulants. Graduate Research and Arts Symposium. New Mexico State University. Las Cruces, NM April 6, 2018. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: C. Hatch, E. Moncada, A. Torres, L. Rodriguez-Uribe, S. Munson-McGee and N.C. Flores Functional Beverages from Jujube Fruit. College of Agriculture Consumer Environmental Sciences Open house Graduate competition. New Mexico State University. Las Cruces, NM April 14, 2018. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: David De La Garza, Dr. Mataz Alcoutlabi, Dr. Luis Materon, Forcespinning of Polymer & Composite Microfibers Used to Inhibit Microbial Growth, Presentation at the USDA/NIFA Annual Meeting, March 2018, Washington, DC
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Francisco De Santiago, David De La Garza and Mataz Alcoutlabi, Antimicrobial Activity of Polyvinylpyrrolidone/Tin Microfibers, Presentation at the USDA/NIFA Annual Meeting, March 2018, Washington, DC
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yuanbing Mao and Lin Wei, Nanohybrids of metal alloy nanoparticles and graphene with enhanced hydrogen storage with spillover mechanism, XXVI International Materials Research Congress (IMRC 2017), Canc�n, M�xico, August 20-25, 2017 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Jahangeer Ahmed, Swati Mohan, and Lingbo Mao, Synthesis and Electrocatalytic Properties of Nanostructured Complex Metal Oxide Delafossites, XXVI International Materials Research Congress (IMRC 2017), Canc�n, M�xico, August 20-25, 2017 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Kareem Wahid*, and Madhab Pokhrel , From Synthesis and Structure to Optical and Scintillating Properties of Complex Metal Oxide Nanoparticles, XXVI International Materials Research Congress (IMRC 2017), Canc�n, M�xico, August 20-25, 2017 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Molten Salt Synthesized La1-xSrxCoO3 as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Water Splitting, 14th International Meeting on Ferroelectricity (IMF2017), San Antonio, TX, Sep. 4-8, 2017 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Molten salt synthetic method for making perovskite nanoparticles, 14th International Meeting on Ferroelectricity (IMF2017), San Antonio, TX, Sep. 4-8, 2017 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Javier Vassell#, and Alexis Racelis, Effects of metal oxide nanoparticles on the growth of Kale, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: H�ctor A. De Santiago*, Swati Mohan , Mike Manno, Eric McCalla, Chris Leighton, Yuanbing Mao, Influence of particle size and stoichiometry on the magneto-electronic properties of La1-xSrxCoO3 nanoparticles, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Victoria Trummel*, Madhab Pokhrel , Donald E. Wall, and Yuanbing Mao, Investigating the Impact of Gamma Radiation on Rare-Earth Hafnate Nanocrystals, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Raiven Balderas* and Yuanbing Mao, Synthesis and optical/scintillating properties of Transparent Ceramics, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jose Zuniga#, Santosh Gupta , Madhab Pokhrel , and Yuanbing Mao, Molten state synthesis of Pr3+ activated lanthanum hafnate nanoparticles as potential downconversion phosphor, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Santosh Gupta , Jose Zuniga#, and Yuanbing Mao, Multicolor emitting La2Zr2O7 nanoparticles and its tunability on europium doping, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Santosh Gupta , Jose Zuniga#, and Yuanbing Mao, On the difference in luminescence properties of red emitting La2Zr2O7:Eu3+ and La2Hf2O7:Eu3+ nanoparticles, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yuanbing Mao and Swati Mohan , (Photo)electrocatalytic Properties of Copper Gallium Delafossite Nanoflakes, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Swati Mohan and Yuanbing Mao, Iridium Dioxide Nanocrystals Synthesized by Molten-Salt Method for Oxygen and Hydrogen Evolution Reactions, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Geometric Influence on Photoelectrocatalytic Properties of Assembled ZnO Nanonetwork, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Swati Mohan and Yuanbing Mao, Investigation on the Electrocatalytic Water Splitting Performance of Molten Salt Synthesized La1-xSrxCoO3, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Molten Salt Synthetic Method for Making Complex Metal Oxide Nanoparticles, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Effect of Gamma-Ray Irradiation on Rare-Earth Hafnate Nanocrystals, 2018 MRS Spring Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, April 2-6, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Design of Hierarchical Nanostructured ZnO Network for Efficient Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting, 2018 MRS Spring Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, April 2-6, 2018 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yuanbing Mao and Swati Mohan , (Photo)electrocatalytic Properties of p-Type Delafossite CuMO2 Oxides, 2018 MRS Spring Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, April 2-6, 2018 (Oral).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yuanbing Mao, Doped Lanthanum Hafnates as Scintillating Materials for High-Energy Photon Detection, SciX2017, Reno, Nevada, October 8-13, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jaycob Pena#, Swati Mohan , and Yuanbing Mao, Delafossite CuBO2 Nanoparticles as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Water Splitting, 255th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 18-22, 2018 (Poster).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: L. T. Yan, H. Z. Wang, D. Huang, H. M. Luo, Electrodes with High Conductivities for High Performance Lithium/Sodium Ion Batteries, Engineered Science (invited review),1, 4-20 (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: W. Xu, L. T. Yan, L. Teich, S. Liaw, M. Zhou, H. M. Luo, Polymer-Assisted Chemical Solution Synthesis of La0.8Sr0.2MnO3-based Perovskite with A-site Deficiency and Cobalt-doping for Bifunctional Oxygen Catalyst in Alkaline Media, Electrochimica Acta, 273, 80-87 (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: S. Sarker, P. Chaturvedi, L. T. Yan, T. Nakotte, X. Q. Chen, S. Richins, S. Das, J. Peters, M. Zhou, S. Smirnov, H. M. Luo, Synergistic Effect of Iron Diselenide Decorated Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Enhanced Heterogeneous Electron Transfer and Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution, Electrochimica Acta, 270, 138-146 (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: W. Xu, L. T. Yan, H. Wang, S. Liaw, H. M. Luo, Niobium-doped Titanium Dioxide on Functionalized Carbon Supported Palladium Catalyst for Enhanced Ethanol Electro-oxidation, RSC Adv. 7, 34618-34623 (2017).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Howard Campos, Jonathon Ayala, Carolina Valdes, Parsons JG, Mataz Alcoutlabi, The use of Fe3O4/Carbon composite fibers as anode materials in lithium ion batteries, MOJ Poly Sci. 2018;2(2):44?46. DOI: 10.15406/mojps.2018.02.00045
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Cremar, L, J. Gutierrez, J. Martinez, L. A. Materon, R. Gilkerson, F. Xu and K. Lozano. 2018. Development of antimicrobial chitosan based nanofiber dressings for wound healing applications. Nanomedical Journal 5(1):6-14.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Keda Hu, Zhen Zhang, James Burke, and Yang Qin, Boron 'Doped' Polyacetylenes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 11004-11007
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Wenhan He, Maksim Y. Livshits, Diane A. Dickie, Zhen Zhang, Luis E. Mejiaortega, Jeffrey J. Rack, Qin Wu, and Yang Qin, 'Roller-Wheel' Pt-Containing Small Molecules and the Impact of 'Rollers' on Material Crystallinity, Electronic Properties and Solar Cell Performance. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 14109-14119.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Roberto C. Arbulu, Ying?Bing Jiang, Eric J. Peterson, Yang Qin, Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) Nanorods, Nanotubes, and Nanowires. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 130, 5915-5919
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Jennifer L. Bravo, Hermes Chirino, and Yuanbing Mao, Heterogeneous TiO2@carbon core@shell nanostructured photocatalysts for high efficient waste water treatment, New Journal of Chemistry, 2017, 41, 13600-13610. DOI: 10.1039/C7NJ02083J.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Swati Mohan and Yuanbing Mao, Hydrothermal synthesized copper gallium delafossite nanoflakes for (photo)electrocatalytic water splitting, ECS Transaction, 2017, 77, 1985-1994.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mandana Akia, Dulce Capitanachi, Misael Martinez, Carlos Hernandez, Hector de Santiago, Yuanbing Mao, Karen Lozano, Development and optimization of alumina fine fibers utilizing a centrifugal spinning process, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2018, 262, 175-181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2017.11.039.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Zichao Wei, Zhaofeng Wang, William R. T. Tait, Madhab Pokhrel, Yuanbing Mao, Jingjing Liu, Lichun Zhang, Weixing Wang, and Luyi Sun, Synthesis of green phosphors from highly active amorphous silica derived from rice husks, Journal of Materials Science, 2018, 53(3), 1824-1832.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jose Zuniga, Santosh K. Gupta, Madhab Pokhrel, and Yuanbing Mao, Exploring optical properties of La2Hf2O7:Pr3+ nanoparticles under UV and X-ray excitation for potential lighting and scintillating applications, New Journal of Chemistry, 2018, 42, in press (back cover). DOI: 10.1039/c8nj00895g.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Lin Wei, Karen Lozano, and Yuanbing Mao, Microwave Popped Co(II)-Graphene Oxide Hybrid: Bifunctional Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Hydrogen Storage, Engineered Science, 2018, in press. DOI: 10.30919/es8d723.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jose Zuniga, Santosh K. Gupta, Maya Abdou, and Yuanbing Mao, The Effect of Molten Salt Synthesis Processing Duration on the Photo- and Radio-luminescence of UV, Visible and X-ray Excitable La2Hf2O7:Eu3+ Nanoparticles, under final revision (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Lingbo Mao, Swati Mohan and Yuanbing Mao, Delafossite CuMnO2 as an Efficient Bifunctional Oxygen and Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalyst for Water Splitting, under final revision (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Swati Mohan and Yuanbing Mao, Dependence of (photo)electrochemical properties on geometry factors of hydrothermally synthesized delafossite copper gallium oxide CuGaO2 toward oxygen evolution reaction, under final revision (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Gen Chen, Xue Yu, Madhab Pokhrel, Yuanbing Mao, Mahinda I Ranasinghe, Hongmei Luo, Synthesis and upconversion luminescence properties of Yb, Er doped gadolinium oxysulfate hollow spheres, under revision (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Z. Wang, S. Zeng, H. Zeng, M. Pokhrel, Y. Mao, W. Taita, and L. Sun, Design and fabrication of highly photoluminescent carbon incorporated silica from rice husk biomass, submitted (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jose Zuniga, Maya Abdou, Santosh K. Gupta, and Yuanbing Mao, Molten-Salt Synthesis of Complex Metal Oxide Nanoparticles, Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2018, submitted.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Maya Abdou, Santosh K. Gupta, Jose Zuniga, and Yuanbing Mao, Synthesis of La2Hf2O7 Nanoparticles with Uranium Doping Induced Phase Transformation for Speciation of Uranium Ions, submitted (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: H�ctor A. De Santiago, Santosh K. Gupta, and Yuanbing Mao, A green, facile and cost-effective method to prepare polyhydroxylated fullerene with high purity and its vibrational, thermal and optical characterizations, submitted (2018).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Javier Vassell, and Yuanbing Mao, Effects of CuO Nanoparticles on the Growth of Kale, submitted (2018).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jorge Lopez, Jahaziel Villarreal, Jesus Cantu, Jason Parsons and Mataz Alcoutlabi, Metal Sulfide/Carbon Composite fibers as Anode Materials for Lithium Ion Batteries, 233 ECS Meeting, Seattle, WA, ECS Trans, Submitted, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jahaziel Villarreal, Luis Zuniga, Alejandra Valdez, Mataz Alcoutlabi, The use of Mixed Organic/Ionic Liquid Electrolytes with Forcespun Metal Oxides/Carbon Microfiber Electrodes in Lithium Ion Batteries, 233 ECS Meeting, Seattle, WA, ECS Trans, Submitted, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Alejandra Valdez, Jahaziel Villarreal, Luis Zuniga, Mataz Alcoutlabi, MoS2 and MoO2 loaded Carbon Microfibers as Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion and Sodium-Ion Batteries, 233 ECS Meeting, Seattle, WA, ECS Trans, Submitted, 2018.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Loreana Molero, Luissanyi Campos, Luis Sosa, Yuanbing Mao, Nancy Flores, Efren Delgado and Karen Lozano; Development and Characterization of Glandless Cottonseed Meal/Pullulan Nanofibers for Food Related Applications Submitted to Journal, Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies


Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:To create an educational linkage to collaboratively enhance the presentation of underrepresented Hispanics in the food/agricultural science area by generating future Hispanic food safety/science professionals and leaders through collaboration, we outreached to our current students and our local communities at/around our four major HSIs in Texas and New Mexico in classrooms/communities and guided mostly minority students on various research projects related to food science/safety during the second year of the performance for our USDA NIFA funded IFSEEN project. The target audience of the IFSEEN program includes HSI university students, Hispanic undergraduate/graduate students, K-12 students, general scientific communities and general public communities. The efforts to reach these audiences in thousands include formal classroom instruction, practicum experiences, development of curriculum, internships, workshops, experiential learning opportunities, scientific conferences, journal publications, extension and outreach. Specifically, each of the participant faculty members developed lecture modules related to food science/safety. Each of us then gave our own lecture modules to our classes. In this way, we outreached to more than 1000 UGs and graduate students. Moreover, surveys have been conducted before and after these lectures. Furthermore, one of our goals was to receive feedback as to how accessible the module was for a broad audience. Suggestions were considered and the modules enhanced and distributed to other IFSEEN faculty members within the IFSEEN team. In terms of hands-on research projects related to food science/safety, each of the participating faculty members of the IFSEEN program is mentoring one to four students, either undergraduate students, master degree graduate students, or Ph.D. degree graduate students, with majority as Hispanics and some female. Further details are provided below, especially in the Products and Accomplishments sessions. Furthermore, we have outreached to local communities through various events and activities as detailed in the sessions below. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In terms of training activities, a new course Food Science was offered to 15 students (11 UGs + 4 MSs) during spring 2017. More than 30 students have been involved in research projects with participating IFSEEN faculty members as Research Assistants as well as four summer interns to our collaborating Tier 1 Agricultural Universities and ARSs. For example, in Mao's lab, six UGs have been trained and involved in research projects related to nanoscience and food science. In Dr. Lozano's lab, students at all levels have been introduced to food related fields such as food packaging through the outreach activities and course modules and food research through the development of edible nanofibers. Dr. Alcoutlabi's project provided two internship opportunities to 2 UG students (one in 2016 and the other in 2017). The students have gain a tremendous experience in research and training under the suppression of their Advisor. By interaction with faculty from other institutions, the monies to peruse new avenues of research, and generate new collaborative work. In Houston Lab, two undergraduate students, who have never before been in a research laboratory, have had the benefit of performing research for a full summer in a chemical engineering research lab. In Luo Lab, one Ph.D student, two Master students, nine undergraduate students and high school students have had opportunity working on the project including reading literature and doing experiment. In Qin lab, his projects have trained three undergraduate and one graduate student in the areas of organic synthesis, polymer chemistry and sensors. One of the undergraduate students is pursuing a PhD degree in Chemistry at University of Arizona, and another undergraduate student is currently conducting an internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Both project provided excellent opportunities for training activates like curriculum development, one-on-one mentoring, development of educational materials and hands-on-research. In terms of professional development, many of participating IFSEEN students have attended and presented at conferences, as listed on the Product session above. Throughout the year, our IFSEEN team had our regular monthly meeting and in general two students present their research work during each of the meetings plus discussion on relevant businesses related to agricultural and food sciences. Some special events include the following: On April 20, 2017, Dr. Mao give a seminar to the public on An Introduction to Food Science and more than forty individuals attended the event. On April 25, Mao's Food Science class plus a few more interested individuals had a trip to the local El Gallo Hot Sauces Manufacturing Facility. We all participated on solving the coloring issues of the company facing and provided a report on May 15th, 2017. With our key efforts on experiential learning opportunities, curriculum development, active outreach participation, the IFSEEN team has completed the following goals: • Engaged in multidisciplinary team meetings with the IFSEEN laboratories monthly throughout the year • Included both undergraduate and graduate students (>30) to participate in research projects in food science/safety and nanoscience • Trained and involved undergraduate research students for a full summer on the developing projects and summer internships. These students learned techniques in the lab, read research articles, made formal presentations, and completed written assignments on papers read • Held regular meetings to discuss research directions, project, and progress • Collected a range of scientific data related to food safety/science, published more than ten journal articles with many underway, presented at various conferences by both faculty and students. • Outreached to thousands of k-12 and UG students and general public. Therefore, the target audience during this reporting period mainly includes undergraduate students involved in research projects. The students are served by the project because they are provided a research opportunity in our engineering laboratory and gain experience in developing as young scientists, learning the scientific method and the empirical work that coincides with research projects. The other groups served by this project are graduate students who are actively engaged in learning processes in the laboratory and who are matriculating through our degree programs. More broadly, our IFSEEN team has outreached to many students and general public through both formal and informal events. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All of our research results have been published (under review or to be submitted for publications) as journal articles and presented at various conferences/workshops and cross the collaborating research institutions of this multi-institutional project, as detailed in the Products session, or as informal poster sessions presented by IFSEEN student within IFSEEN participating campuses. In terms of outreach, many activities have been performed. For example, the IFSEEN participating faculty and students did food science related demonstrations during the HESTEC (Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology) community day in October 2016. HESTEC week (http://www.utrgv.edu/hestec/) is a nationally acclaimed annual week-long event for promoting STEM to thousands of pre-K to college students, teachers, parents and community members. Events include leadership workshops, robotic competitions, Latinas in science, chemistry magic shows, engineering and technology, congressional roundtable on science literacy, professional development courses for educators, and community day - a science fair that is free and open to the public, >50,000 people attend. Many IFSEEN faculty members are key players in this event with highly visible research programs on solid-state materials and will continue his participation. This innovative program also provides good opportunity to attract high school students and teachers to work with the IFSEEN. Our IFSEEN demos attracted more than 1000 visitors to our booth. In March 2017, IFSEEN participated in the Nurturing Education Undergraduate Research and Opportunities in Nanotechnology Symposium. We performed demos to over 375 high school students from LaJoya ISD and Mission ISD. Former Alumni of UTRGV gave presentations, a magic and science show, science stations for hands on activities (IFSEEN)and tour of the labs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?While keep pushing the boundaries and frontlines of our research work, many of our IFSEEN faculty members and students will finalize the preparation of the manuscripts with data collected already and continue on the development of the project initiated in the past two years. At the meantime, current cohort of students will keep their momentum on the projects they are working on, and we will hire more UG students for training and hands-on learning experience in laboratory while others are moving forward to their career. Also, during the next stages of this IFSEEN program, we will continue to develop collaborative projects within our participating laboratories. We also will plan a large USDA grant for submission related to food safety and biosensors to detect pathogens. Additionally, with preliminary data collected in each respective laboratory we plan to continue to collect results for more collaborative publications. Our general long-term goals are to train and promote students in this research field as well as publish high quality journal articles. For the next reporting period, we are also planning to work with students to develop more education videos for the Hispanic elementary students.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Specifically, based on the food science/safety lecture modules developed by the participating IFSEEN faculty members during academic year 2015-2016, the Program Director of the IFSEEN program, Dr. Mao, offered a Food Science course to both senior undergraduate students and graduate students (cross-listed) for the first time during Spring 2017. This time there were 15 students taking the class (11 UGs and 4 graduates), we are very confident the enrollment will grow significantly because it is well-received and students who took the class are helping spread the words. Other than this new course, many participating faculty members continued polishing their own course modules and offering these modules in their classes. For example, Dr. Lozano targeted both UGs and MS students through the course modules implemented during the Intermediate Nanotechnology and Polymer Engineering courses. Dr. Alcoutlabi taught his module on the Applications of Nanotechnology in Food Science to UG students in engineering during Spring 2017. He also gave a lecture on the Application of Nanomaterials in Food Packaging for the newly developed Food Science class substituting Dr. Mao when he was travelling. At University of New Mexico (UNM), the target audiences also extended from UNM UG students and College of Education faculty to elementary school students. At UTSA, course modules related to food safety, nanotechnology, especially nano-biosensor techniques to detect food bacteria, were implemented to undergraduate class BME3301. The enrollment of the class was 46 students, of which 70% audience are Hispanic. The overall goal of the NMSU IFSEEN project is to train undergraduates in research (with an emphasis on underrepresented students) as well as to develop a multidisciplinary research program that combines chemical engineering with food science. In terms of hands-on research projects related to food science/safety, each of the participating faculty members of the IFSEEN program is mentoring one to four students, either undergraduate students, master degree graduate students, or Ph.D. degree graduate students, with majority as Hispanics and some female. For examples, UGs students impacted through research projects in the field of edible nanofibers, high school students impacted through research in the area of nonwoven functional fibers for the detection of pathogens in the food industry (through the high scholar program), and K-12 students through different outreach venues where the importance of polymer engineering within food packaging has been discussed. Two undergraduate students are opening up new areas of research through the development of edible nonwoven nanofiber films that could be used for drug delivery and/or to better package and or promote ease of handling of the components. Good training to 2 UG students and 1 graduate student has been accomplished in Dr. Alcoutlabi's group. The graduate student has been working on a manuscript that will be submitted very soon to a peer reviewed journal. The students have been trained in our laboratory and have been able to conduct research in the area of nanomaterials for food science. The graduate student along several other IFSEEN students presented his work at the USDA HSI national conference in New Mexico in February 2017. Dr. Parsons and his group have developed a way to remove specifically heavy metals such as Cr(VI) from aqueous solution using waste from agricultural production. In addition, we have also observed that unlike many materials used for water remediation the biochars are not affected greatly by extremely high concentrations of common "hard" cations. The IFSEEN faculty members at NMSU include Drs. Hongmei Luo, Jessica P. Houston, and Nancy Flores. The expertise of all three PIs' is unique and includes nanoscience, flow cytometry, and food safety, respectively. Therefore, in the past year we have accomplished much toward the goal of developing a collaborative research project. In our individual laboratories we are mentoring students in research in our respective fields. We also are incorporating ideas that lead to the development of methods that lead to multi-disciplinary projects, those that will build into collaborative grant submissions. Specific projects focus on measurements of nanoparticles using flow cytometry, measurement of bacteria with flow cytometry (identification of the bacterial species), establishment of flow cytometry protocols to measure phenotypes of bacterial species, cultured and studied pure bacterial strains. NMSU team will also perform gram staining, which will allow them to visualize the aquaculture samples under standard microscopy. Also they measured nanoparticles and use them as a means to detect specific phenotypes on bacteria when tagged to individual cells and measured with flow cytometry. They screened aquaculture and interpreted by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy data, performed gram staining, size analysis with flow cytometry and measured carbon dot nanoparticles in flow cytometry when combined with bacterial cells. At UNM, Dr. Qin and his group have developed a facile methodology for the preparation of boron main-chain conjugated polymers, the fluorescence intensity of which can be easily modulated by the presence of varying amount of small anions, including the toxic fluoride and cyanide anions. These polymers can find applications as toxic substance sensors in water and food additives. Dr. Pribis has worked on the Eat Smart, Be Smart project with the goal to develop education materials for elementary students. His objectives include: 1. Explain the importance of fruit and vegetable consumption; and 2. Explain the importance of whole grain foods. Therefore, two videos with additional curriculum instructions and games were developed in English and Spanish that provided step by step information how to use the videos for elementary students nutrition education. For the Survey Development project, the goal is to develop a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and the objectives include 1. Explain the theory behind a FFQ; 2. Choose a healthy diet as comparison tool; and 3. Develop the FFQ. Student under the guidance of the program administrator developed and simple assessment tool that can be used to estimate student's adherence to healthy diet and monitor changes in nutritional habits. At UTSA, orderly oriented biofunctionalization of gold nanorod on solid substrate to construct a biochip in 3D printed chamber was investigated. Protein G resulted in highly consistent antibody immobilization with enhancement in the sensor sensitivity. A M.S. thesis titled "Oriented immobilization of antibodies through recombinant protein-G on assembled gold nanorods for label-free biosensing application" was produced on the project. One manuscript is in preparation to be submitted to Biosensor and Bioelectronics journal. One provisional disclosure for patent application is in preparation as well.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Q. Li, X. Sun, K. Lozano, and Y. Mao, Dependence of Photoelectrochemical Properties on Geometry Factors of Interconnected Caterpillar-like ZnO Networks, Electrochimica Acta, 2017, 222, 232-245. DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.162.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: M. Pokhrel, A. Burger, M. Groza, and Y. Mao, Enhance the Photoluminescence and Radioluminescence of La2Zr2O7:Eu3+ Core Nanoparticles by Coating with a Thin Y2O3 Shell, Optical Materials, 2017, 58, in press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2016.11.008.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: K. Wahid, M. Pokhrel, and Y. Mao, Structural, Photoluminescence and Radioluminescence Properties of Eu3+ Doped La2Hf2O7 Nanoparticles, Journal of Solid State Chemistry, 2017, 245, 89-97. DOI: 10.1016/j.jssc.2016.10.004.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: M. Pokhrel, M. Alcoutlabi, and Y. Mao, Optical and X-Ray Induced Luminescence from Eu3+ Doped La2Zr2O7 Nanoparticles, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2017, 693, 719-729. DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.09.218.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: J. Bravo, H. Chirino, and Y. Mao, Heterogeneous TiO2@carbon core@shell nanostructured photocatalysts for high efficient waste water treatment, submitted, 2017.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Z. Wang, S. Zeng, H. Zeng, M. Pokhrel, Y. Mao, W. Taita, and L. Sun, Design and fabrication of highly photoluminescent carbon incorporated silica from rice husk biomass, submitted (2017).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: A. Castillo and Y. Mao, An Optical Paper Strip Sensor for the Determination of Tetracycline in the Pico-Molar Range, to be submitted (2017).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Victor A, Agubra, Jorge Lopez, Luis Zuniga, David Flores, Mataz Alcoutlabi, Optimizing Sn-nanoparticle Content in Sn/carbon composite Fiber Electrode for Improved Electrochemical Performance, Submitted to Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, 2017.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mitsuo Inukai, Alejandra Valdez, Luis Zuniga and Mataz Alcoutlabi, Forcespinning: An alternati,e method to produce Metal-oxides/Carbon composite fibers as anode materials for Lithium-ion batteries, ECS Transaction, 2017, Accepted.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Loreana Molero, Luissanyi Campos, Luis Sosa, Lee Cremar, Yuanbing Mao, Nancy Flores and Karen Lozano; Preparation and Characterization of GCSM / Pullulan via Forcespinning� for Food Applications To be submitted
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Loreana Molero, Luissanyi Campos, Luis Sosa, Yuanbing Mao, Nancy Flores, and Karen Lozano; Preparation and characterization of cayenne fine fibers nonwoven films for ease of hanfling To be submitted
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: L. Yan, J. Yu, J. Houston, N. Flores, H. M. Luo, Biomass derived porous nitrogen doped carbon for electrochemical devices, Green Energy Environmental 2, 84-99 (2017)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: L. Yan, J. Yu, H. M. Luo, Ultrafine TiO2 nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide as anode materials for lithium ion batteries, Appl. Mater. Today 8, 31-34 (2017)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: L. Yan, Y. Lin, X. Yu, W. Xu, T. Salas, H. Smallidge, M. Zhou, H. M. Luo, La0.8Sr0.2MnO3based perovskite nanoparticles with the A-site de?ciency as on the surface of LSMI is more than that of LSM high performance bifunctional oxygen catalyst in alkaline solution, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces (revision under review 2017).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: . Xu, L. Yan, H. Wang, S. Liaw, H. M. Luo, Niobium-doped titanium dioxide on functionalized carbon supported palladium catalyst for enhanced ethanol electro-oxidation, RSC Adv. (revision under review 2017).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: G. Chen, X. Yu, M. Pokhrel, Y. Mao, H. M. Luo, Upconversion luminescence of ytterbium and erbium co-doped gadolinium oxysulfate hollow nanoparticles, RSC Adv. (under review, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Litao Yan, Hongmei Luo, Perovskite oxide as high performance bifunctional catalyst in alkaline solution, ECS Spring Meeting, New Orleans, May 28-June 1, 2017 (invited)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Litao Yan, Hongmei Luo, Ultrafine TiO2 and Nb2O5 nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide as anode materials for lithium and sodium ion batteries, ECS Spring Meeting, New Orleans, May 28-June 1, 2017 (oral)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Hongmei Luo, Carbon-coated metal oxide network for lithium ion battery electrodes, 12th Pacific Rim Conference on Ceramic and Glass Technology (PacRim12), Waikoloa, Hawaii, May 21-26, 2017 (oral)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Di Huang, Qi Zhou, Hongmei Luo, Polymer-assisted deposition epitaxial Li(Ni,Co,Mn)O2 thin films, 12th Pacific Rim Conference on Ceramic and Glass Technology (PacRim12), Waikoloa, Hawaii, May 21-26, 2017 (oral)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Courtney Alston, Steven Liaw, Hongmei Luo, Nancy Flores, Jessica Houston, Development of nanoparticle-based assays for flow cytometry, Undergraduate Research and Creative Arts Symposium (URCAS), April 28, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Hongmei Luo, Polymer-assisted solution method for metal oxide nanoparticle network, New Mexico Tech Fourth Annual Interdisciplinary Symposium on Nanotechnology, March 29, 2017 (invited)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Steven Liaw, Lara Teigh, Chris Catanach, Jessica Houston, Nancy Flores, Hongmei Luo, Synthesis and application of carbon quantum dots for imaging and counting of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in shrimp and water, Workforce diversity and career opportunity within the USDA for current and recent graduates, USDA PI meeting, Albuquerque, Feb. 16-18, 2017 (poster)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Litao Yan, Jessica Houston, Hongmei Luo, Nancy Flores, Biomass derived porous nitrogen doped carbon for electrochemical devices, Workforce diversity and career opportunity within the USDA for current and recent graduates, USDA PI meeting, Albuquerque, Feb. 16-18, 2017 (poster)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Effect of Almond Consumption on Plasma Concentration Ratios of Large Neutral Amino Acids - Nicole M. Chavez , Peter Pribis , Deborah A. Cohen , Diana Gonzales-Pacheco , Nathan H. Cole  Submitted to The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Nutritional Knowledge, Beliefs, Experiences, and Attitudes Toward the Mediterranean Diet in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Patients - Dianne M. Crowley , Peter Pribis , Diana Gonzales-Pacheco , Kevin Rosenberg , Tevni Grajales  Submitted to the journal Nutrients.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Boron "Doped" Polyacetylenes, Keda Hu and Yang Qin.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: "Roller-Wheel" Pt-Containing Small Molecules and the Impact of "Rollers" on Material Crystallinity, Electronic Property and Solar Cell Performance. Wenhan He, Maksim Y. Livshits, Diane A. Dickie, Zhen Zhang, Luis E. Mejiaortega, Jeffrey J. Rack, Qin Wu and Yang Qin
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: 1. Yuanbing Mao, Swati Mohan and Jahangeer Ahmed, Oxygen and Hydrogen Evolution Activities of IrO2 Nanocrystals Synthesized By Molten-Salt Method, 231st Electrochemical Society Meeting, New Orleans, LA (May 28-June 1, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yuanbing Mao and Swati Mohan, Dependence of Photoelectrochemical Properties on Geometry Factors of ZnO Nanostructured Networks, 231st Electrochemical Society Meeting, New Orleans, LA (May 28-June 1, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yuanbing Mao and Swati Mohan, Hydrothermally synthesized copper gallium delafossite nanoflakes as efficient and stable oxygen evolution (photo)electrocatalysts from water, 231st Electrochemical Society Meeting, New Orleans, LA (May 28-June 1, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: K. Wahid, M. Pokhrel, Y. Mao, Doped Lanthanum Hafnates as Scintillating Materials for High-Energy Photon Detection, APS March Meeting, New Orleans, LA (March 12-17, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: M. Pokhrel, K. Wahid, Y. Mao, Chemical and Physical Phenomenon Underlying Novel Low Temperature Pyrochlore Nanoparticle Synthesis, APS March Meeting, New Orleans, LA (March 12-17, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: L. Mao, S. Mohan, Y. Mao, Sol-Gel Synthesized CuMnO2: An effective electrocatalyst for Water Splitting, 2017 Center for Electrochemistry Annual Workshop, Austin, TX (Feb. 11-12, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: J. Ahmed, S. Mohan, Y. Mao, Exploration of delafossite CuGaO2 as electrocatalysts for water splitting, 2017 Center for Electrochemistry Annual Workshop, Austin, TX (Feb. 11-12, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: S. Mohan, Y. Mao, Oxygen evolution activity of IrO2 nanocrystals synthesized by molten-salt method, 2017 Center for Electrochemistry Annual Workshop, Austin, TX (Feb. 11-12, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Presentation 253rd ACS national Meeting April 2017 San Francisco. ENVR: 758 - Removal of chromium(VI) and chromium(III) ions from aqueous solution using bio-char generated from agricultural waste products. Diego Gonzalez, Kenneth Flores, Manuel Gonzalez, Austin Cantu, Clarissa Serna, Thomas Eubanks, Jason Parsons.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Presentation 253rd ACS national Meeting April 2017 San Francisco. ENVR: Division of Environmental Chemistry 798 - Adsorption of chromium(VI) metal ions via amino modified biochar. Kenneth Flores, Diego Gonzalez, Jason Parsons
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Mei Z, Tang L. Surface plasmon coupled fluorescence enhancedment based on ordered gold nanorod array biochip for ultra-sensitive DNA analysis. Analytical Chemistry, 89:633-639, 2016.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Arguero V, Tang L. Oriented antibody functionalization on gold nanorod surface using protein G for enhanced biosensing performance. Biosensor and Bioelectronics, in presparation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Arguero V, Tang, L, Immobilization of protein-G on assembled gold nanorods for label-free detection of human IgG, BMES annual meeting, Oct. 5-8, 2016, Minneapolis, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Mei Z, Tang L. Vertical gold nanorod array based DNA sensing with improved performance, BMES annual meeting, Oct. 5-8, 2016, Minneapolis, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mei Z, Tang L. Ordered gold nanorod assembly with surface plasmon enhanced fluorescence manipulation Pittcon conference, March 5-9, 2017, Chicago, IL.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Tang L, Mei Z. Engineered nanoarray biochip based on ordered gold nanorod self assembly for Plasmon enhanced DNA detection 5th Biosensing technology conference. May 7-10, 2017, Riva del Garda, Itay.


Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience:To create an educational linkage to collaboratively enhance the presentation of underrepresented Hispanics in the food/agricultural science area by generating future Hispanic food safety/science professionals and leaders through collaboration, we outreached to our current students at our four major HSIs in Texas and New Mexico in classrooms and guided mostly minority students on various research projects related to food science/safety during the first year of performance for the IFSEEN project. The target audience of the IFSEEN program includes HSI university students, Hispanic undergraduate/graduate students, high school students, and general scientific community. More specifically, each of the participant faculty members developed a one-hour lecture module related to food science/safety. Each of us then gave our own lecture module to our classes during both the fall 2015 and spring 2016 semesters. In this way, we outreached to 1000 students roughly. Moreover, surveys have been conducted before and after these lectures. As one example, a course module related to food safety, nanotechnology, especially nano-biosensor techniques to detect food bacteria was implemented to an undergraduate class. The enrollment of the class was 19 students, of which 65% audience are Hispanic. As another example, lecture module on Edible Nanofibers were developed during this first year and presented to a group of master students to obtain feedback from an audience that have some knowledge in nanotechnology. Before the presented information, 68% of the students thought nanotechnology could have an impact in the food industry, after receiving the information 93% thought nanotech could impact the food industry. Furthermore, one of our goals was to receive feedback as to how accesible the module was for a broad audience. Suggestions were considered and the modules enhanced and distributed to other IFSEEN faculty members within the IFSEEN team. We will be keep polishing our lecture modules in Year 2 of this program, and also plan to offer a new course based on these lecture modules. In terms of hands-on research projects related to food science/safety, each of the participating faculty members of the IFSEEN program is mentoring one to four students, either undergraduate students, master degree graduate students, or Ph.D. degree graduate students, with majority as Hispanics and some female. For examples, some of these research students (more specifically, all three students are Hispanics with one female) are involved in the remediation of heavy metals from aqueous solution using biochar synthesized from three different waste biomass products. These biomass products include corn (husks, and cobbs), Pineapple (skins), and grass clippings. The students are investigating the removal of chromium, and arsenic using the native-biochar and the effects of the chemical modification of the biochar to enhance the uptake of toxic elements. The chemical modifications include activation of the biochar using sulfuric acid to increase the number of sulfonic acid groups present, an amination reaction to increase the amino groups on the bio-char. Changes/Problems:There have been two issues during Year 1 of the IFSEEN program. First, due to the delay of account setting up and therefore funds available to participating research groups for expenditure, we were only able to hire students three to six months after the official program starting date September 1, 2015. The second issue happened at the UTRGV campus was that students were paid by direct wages instead of stipend before the end of May 2016. After obtaining the approval from the Program Manager, Dr. Irma Lawrence, deficit in the direct wage ($11045.54) has been rolled over from stipend. Overall, due to the slow start of the program, the unspent funds from Year 1 will be spent in Year 2 in a timely manner as we updated and budgeted. Otherwise, everything else went very smoothly, and there are no other significant deviations from research schedule or goals, or unexpected outcomes, nor changes in approved protocols. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Mr. Tyler Balding, a Ph.D. candidate at NMSU, was brought by Drs. Mao and Flores as a student representative to attend the USDA NIFA HSI PD meeting on Dec. 7-9, 2015 in Washington, DC. To get familiar with each other, foster further collaborations among different IFSEEN campuses and research labs, and promote participating students' understanding within the IFSEEN team, all faculty members have given brief 15-minute presentations on our expertise, interest and link to the IFSEEN program during our first five IFSEEN monthly meetings. Two Ph.D. students, three M.S. students and twenty-one UG students have been recruited as IFSEEN fellows to work on collaborative research projects related to food science/safety. Four UG students have supported and sent to USDA ARS and tier 1 research universities as summer interns during the summer 2016. Several students attended and presented at conferences, e.g. Steven S. Liaw from NMSU attended ACS meeting in San Diego in March 2016; and Andrea Cantarero from UNM attended the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego from April 2-6, 2016 and presented a poster. To increase curriculum materials, knowledge and skill, Dr. Mao attended the Food Chemistry workshop (NSF-sponsored Chemistry Collaborations, Workshops & Communities of Scholars) at Clarke University during June 26-July 1, 2016. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Other than give oral and poster presentations on experimental research by participating faculty and students at scientific conferences, newly developed lecture modules have been presented by participating faculty members to many students at various classes. Without the IFSEEN program supported by USDA NIFA, these students, so as their family members, relatives and friends in the communities with majority of Hispanics in the south Texas and New Mexico, are not usually aware of these activities on food science/safety. While we plan to further outreach to the local communities in our next step, we have already been enhancing public understanding and increasing interest in learning and careers in the fields of food science/safety. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? To accomplish these goals and objectives in Year 2, the IFSEEN team will continue to outreach to local high schools and Hispanic communities, develop new course (both lecture and lab) materials, target incoming students and train them as cohorts as they matriculate through their undergraduate education. Based on the strong foundation built in Year 1, the IFSEEN program will further promote activities including "career in scientific research" academic advising, cross-disciplinary laboratory technique courses, food science laboratory research with mentors at the four HSIs, external summer internship at USDA agencies and Tier 1 agricultural institutions, presenting at national conferences, and attending workshops. The IFSEEN team will keep increasing our students' scientific knowledge, strengthening their research skills, promoting a food science research environment, preparing them to matriculate into in food/agricultural science graduate schools, facilitating their placement into career of food/agricultural sciences, and increasing community awareness of food science research. The IFSEEN program will continuously increase the number of Hispanics that pursue careers in the food/agricultural science fields.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Based on the progress and foundation established in Year 1, the IFSEEN consortium has made smooth progress and established a strong foundation in Year 1 to achieve its primary objective - the creation of an educational linkage for collaboratively generating future Hispanic food safety/science professionals and leaders at our four major HSIs in Texas and New Mexico. The IFSEEN team has successfully achieved its Year 1 goals including: (1) attraction and retention of underrepresented students in food and agricultural sciences, (2) strengthening institutional educational capacities to serve the needs of students in the four HSIs, (3) enhancing research capabilities, (4) facilitating collaboration and partnership among the four HSIs, USDA agencies, agricultural institutions and external scientists, and (5) building the network of Hispanic students and professionals of food science. More specifically, the major accomplishments of our IFSEEN program include: Each of the participant faculty members developed a one-hour lecture module related to food science/safety. Each of us then gave our own lecture module to our classes during both the fall 2015 and spring 2016 semesters. In this way, we outreached to 1000 students in classrooms roughly. Surveys have been conducted before and after these lectures to track students' understanding on food science/safety since one of our goals was to receive feedback as to how accesible the module was for a broad audience. Suggestions were considered and the modules enhanced and distributed to other IFSEEN faculty members within the IFSEEN team. The feedback helps us polish our lecture modules in Year 2 of this program, and to offer a new course based on these lecture modules. In terms of hands-on research projects related to food science/safety, each of the participating faculty members of the IFSEEN program is mentoring one to four students, either undergraduate students, master degree graduate students, or Ph.D. degree graduate students, with majority as Hispanics and some female. In total, there are 26 students participants - 21 Undergraduate and 5 graduate students. Based on the hard work of Year 1, four referred journal publications have been made (as listed above as "Products"), three conference presentations have been given, and one conference presentation is under review. For meta evaluation, surveys have been sent to participating students and are to be completed by August 31, 2016. Since day 1 of the IFSEEN program, the whole team has convened monthly for discussion and presentations by both participating faculty members and students. So far, ten participating students have had opportunities to give research presentations at our IFSEEN monthly meetings. Four UG students have opportunities to participate with summer internships during the summer 2016 (two at the Beltsville ARS, one at Iowa State University and one at the University of Utah). Recruitment efforts have been made by demonstrating IFSEEN posters and giving short presentations at various classrooms. Program website (www.utrgv.edu/ifseen), Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/USDA.IFSEEN/), and designated email account (usda.ifseen@utrgv.edu) have been made available. The IFSEEN website has been linked to the homepage of the UTRGV College of Science (http://www.utrgv.edu/cos/). Other than interactions among the faculty members and participating students in each HSI campus and virtual meetings during our IFSEEN monthly meetings, there are visits between different campuses, e.g. Dr. Yang Qin from UNM visited NMSU in April 2016, gave a talk in Chemistry department, also visited labs and talked to Dr. Jessica Houston and Dr. Hongmei Luo; Dr. Nancy Flores traveled from NMSU (~823 miles) with students Tyler Balding and Chase Delventhal to visit UTRGV labs for collaboration. To further establish strong collaborations with USDA agents, Dr. Mao, PD of the IFSEEN program, has connected and met Ms. Ruby S. De La Garza, Regional Director- Texas of U.S. Department of Agriculture. He also visited the Center for Plant Health Science and Technology, Mission Laboratory, US Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas and met many scientists there. In return, he also hosted the visits of two of the APHIS scientists and gave lab tours to them.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: N. Obregon, V. Agubra, M. Pokhrel, H. Campos, D. Flores, D. De la Garza, Y. Mao, J. Macossay, M. Alcoutlabi, Effect of Polymer Concentration, Rotational Speed, and Solvent Mixture on Fiber Formation Using Forcespinning", Fibers, 4, 20 (2016).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: M. Pokhrel, K. Wahid, and Y. Mao, Systematic Studies on RE2Hf2O7:5%Eu3+ (RE = Y, La, Pr, Gd, Er, and Lu) Nanoparticles: Effects of the A-Site RE3+ Cation and Calcination on Structure and Photoluminescence, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2016, 120, 14828-14839. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b04798.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: M. Pokhrel, C. Valdes, and Y. Mao, Ultraviolet upconversion enhancement in triply doped NaYF4:Tm3+,Yb3+ particles: the role of Nd3+ or Gd3+ co-doping, Optical Materials, 2016, 58, 67 - 75.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2016 Citation: M. Pokhrel, A. Burger, M. Groza, and Y. Mao, Enhance the Photoluminescence and Radioluminescence of La2Zr2O7:Eu3+ Core Nanoparticles by Coating with a Thin Y2O3 Shell, submitted (2016).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: V. A. Agubra, L. Zuniga, D. Flores and M. Alcoutlabi, Forcespinning of Microfibers and their Applications in Lithium-ion and Sodium-ion Batteries, ECS Transaction, 229th ECS Meeting, Accepted, May 2016
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Y. Mao, J. Bravo, Metal Oxide Nanoparticles for Destructing Dyes and Bacteria, 251st ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA (March 15, 2016).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Andrea Cantarero and Peter Pribis, Trends in Early Childhood Obesity in a Large, Urban School District in the Southwest from 2007 to 2014. Experimental Biology conference in San Diego April 2-6, 2016 (poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Under Review Year Published: 2016 Citation: Chase Delventhal, Tyler Balding, Cassandra Walters, Steven Sun, Hongmei Luo, Nancy Flores, and Jessica P. Houston, Analysis of bacterial species from pond water used in organic shrimp farming Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering-- Student Conference, San Francisco, CA, November 13-18, 2016. (under review)