For the past several years, Jessica Cantlon  has been working to understand how humans develop the concept of numbers, from simple counting to complex mathematical reasoning. Early in her career at the University of Rochester, the assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences began studying primates in her search for the origins of numeric understanding.

In 2013, she, PhD candidate Steve Ferrigno, and colleagues at Rochester and the Seneca Park Zoo made a surprising discovery: in an experiment using varying quantities of peanuts, baboons (even as young as one year of age) clearly showed an ability to distinguish between large and small quantities of objects.

But the finding raised another question. To what extent might that ability be influenced by other dimensions of those objects—such as their relative surface area—in addition to their number?

A new study by Cantlon, Ferrigno, and two additional coauthors—Steven Piantadosi,  an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences at Rochester, and Julian Jara-Ettinger, a postdoctoral researcher in brain and cognitive sciences at MIT—suggests primates do, in fact, have the ability to distinguish large and small quantities of objects, irrespective of the surface area they appear to occupy.

Study subjects included both humans and primates: adults and children in the United States; adults of the Tsimane’, a predominately “low numeracy” cultural group that inhabits an area of remote rain forest in Bolivia, and rhesus monkeys, a species with strong neural and cognitive similarities to humans.

The researchers found that all groups showed a bias toward numbers over surface area in their estimations.

“This shows that the spontaneous aspect of extracting numerical information likely has an evolutionary basis, because this has been seen across all humans and also with other primate species,” said Ferrigno.

The study, published in Nature Communications, is an exciting development for anyone interested in improving early math education. Because the testing process was nonverbal, it could be especially useful in assessing math abilities in young children.

Read more here.

Board-certified sleep specialists are uncommon, especially in remote or rural areas, which means that patients with sleep apnea in many areas of the country must travel long distances for their care.

A new $20,000 grant from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine will enable Michael Yurcheshen,  associate professor of neurology and medicine, and his colleagues to explore the use of telemedicine in the diagnosis and care of individuals with sleep apnea, and compare the accuracy of care received via telemedicine to that provided by a doctor in a traditional office setting.

Results from the study will help to develop a telemedicine care model that can be replicated across the country.  As health systems like UR Medicine expand their networks and clinical programs across a greater geographic area, telemedicine programs for sleep apnea and other conditions allow patients to receive their care closer to home.

An estimated 2-4 percent of people in the U.S. live with obstructive sleep apnea, a medical condition in which restricted air flow can interrupt sleep.

Read more here.

Chenliang Xu has joined the Department of Computer Science as an assistant professor after receiving his PhD from the University of Michigan. His research interests include computer vision, robot perception, and artificial intelligence. His work has focused primarily on the problems in high-level video understanding, such as video segmentation, activity recognition, and vision and language. His dissertation advanced the uses of supervoxel hierarchies as a new type of generic video representation in video analysis. He built the first framework for streaming hierarchical segmentation of arbitrarily long videos with constant memory. He is working on a book project on video segmentation.

(This is part of a monthly series to help principal investigators understand their role in ensuring that human subject protection requirements are met in their studies.)

 The primary responsibilities of a principal investigator (PI) are to protect the subjects who participate and to maintain the integrity and quality of the data. Often during a study, errors that put subjects at risk and compromise study data are identified too late in the process.

The Office for Human Subject Protection (OHSP) will roll out a new Site Quality Management Plan (QMP) reference guide to assist the research community in identifying continuous quality improvement opportunities that can be implemented within a study, research group, division, or department. OHSP quality improvement staff will also be available to consult with individuals or groups wishing to implement the procedures.

An overview of the guidance document, as well as comments from research colleagues already implementing QMPs, will be provided from noon to 1 p.m. January 26 in Helen Wood Hall Auditorium (1W-304). Live streaming of the seminar will be available through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Presentation materials and a video of the presentation recording will also be posted to the OHSP website following the seminar. Additional information regarding the QMP is also available on page 4 of OHSP’s Q1 Newsletter. Contact Kelly Unsworth with any questions.

A scientific social hour sponsored by the Del Monte Institute for Neuromedicine and the Dean’s Office for Basic Research will give basic science, translational, and clinical faculty an opportunity to share their research interests in an informal setting — and hopefully attract collaborators.

The next in the monthly series of mixers, called Seeds for Collaboration, will begin at 4:30 p.m. January 31 at LaChase Assembly G.9576 with drinks and snacks, followed by three 5- to 8-minute presentations by:

• Jiebo Luo, associate professor of computer science: “Big Data Strong Medicine.”
• Patrick Oakes, assistant professor of physics and biology: “Force and the Cytoskeleton: How Cells Interact Mechanically with the Extracellular Environment.”
• Feng Vankee Lin, assistant professor of nursing: “Mechanistic Understanding of the ‘Supernormal’ Aging Phenomenon.”

Discussion will follow. The goal is to foster discourse that will ultimately result in interdepartmental and crossdisciplinary collaboration, discoveries, publications, and grant applications.

Researchers are invited to a brainstorming event on March 25 for the Healthy Weight Initiative, which aims to increase the proportion of people with healthy weight in Rochester and beyond.

The goal of the event, sponsored by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, is for participants to identify potential collaborators and research topics in any area related to body weight development. It will provide a first step toward developing new transdisciplinary research teams to obtain more research funding.  For more information, contact Diana Fernandez.

The University’s Center for AIDS Research requests applications for focused, highly innovative research projects and pilot studies that use the center’s Pharmacology Shared Resource to address key gaps in understanding HIV/AIDS pharmacology and therapeutics and that address HIV/AIDS High Priority Research Topics as designated by the National Institutes of Health and Office of AIDS Research.

The deadline for applications is 5 p.m., February 27.

Specific topic areas of interest include:

1) HIV, antiviral pharmacology and drug development.
2) HIV, antiviral pharmacology and drug interactions research.
3) HIV pharmacology and cure.
4) HIV pharmacology and HCV/HBV co-infection, tuberculosis, and end-organ/inflammation.

Applications should include principal investigators and co-investigators from both the University of Rochester and the University at Buffalo. Up to three awards will be made for a one-year period with maximum funding of $10,000 in direct costs for each award. Additional information and specific application requirements can be found in the RFA.

This pilot program is intended to provide support for investigator teams to generate preliminary data that will enable the submission of subsequent competitive proposals for NIH-sponsored/other grants.

The Medical Center has been selected by the Association of American Medical Colleges as one of eight institutions to join the new Building a Systems Approach to Community Health and Health Equity initiative, a three-year effort which aims to coordinate community health-focused efforts of the nation’s medical centers.

It will map community- and patient-health promoting activities at the Medical Center and other participating institutions and evaluate the impact of these activities on patients, communities, learners, and the institutions.

It will also serve as a network for sharing successes and lessons in an effort to solve problems found in virtually every community across the nation. Read more here.

The Center for Community Health is accepting Community Health Mini-Grant applications for funding to be awarded in March 2017.  This program has provided Medical Center-community partnerships with additional funding to address issues such as transportation, child care, meeting space rental, and refreshments for meetings.

Grant funding of up to $1,000 is made on a quarterly basis. Applications are welcome from either Medical Center or community partners. The application deadline is noon February 10. Click here for the full application and instructions.

Julianne Feola, Neuroscience, “The Role of Astrocytic Transglutaminase 2 in Mediating Cellular Viability.” 9 a.m., January 17, 2017. K-207 Auditorium (2-6408). Advisor: Gail Johnson.

Ahmed Elliethy, Electrical Engineering, “Vehicle Detection and Tracking in Wide Area Motion Imagery by Co-Registering and Exploiting Vector Roadmaps.” 9 a.m., January 25, 2017. Hopeman Building Room 335. Advisor: Gaurav Sharma.

Adam Feinberg, Chemistry, “1. Fragmentation Mechanisms of Aryltrialkylsilane and -Germane Cation Radicals. 2. Alkoxyl Radicals as Hydrogen Atom Donors.” 2 p.m., 473 Hutchison Hall. Advisor:  Joseph Dinnocenzo.

Today, Jan. 20: The Center for Integrated Research Computing (CIRC) symposium, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Goergen 108.  Chenyu Yang from the Simon Business School will demonstrate simulations of the effects of vertical integration on innovation. James Miller from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology will discuss the trials and tribulations of de novo assembly.

Jan. 26: CTSI Seminar Series: Annual Office for Human Subject Protection Updates & Introduction to ‘Site Quality Management Plan Reference Guide. Noon to 1 p.m., Helen Wood Hall Auditorium (1W-304).

Jan. 31: Seeds for Collaboration social hour, to encourage research collaborations. 4:30 p.m., LaChase Assembly G.9576. 5- to 8-minute presentations by Jiebo Luo, associate professor of computer science; Patrick Oakes, assistant professor of physics and biology;  and Feng Vankee Lin, assistant professor of nursing. Sponsored by the Del Monte Institute for Neuromedicine and the Dean’s Office for Basic Research.

Jan. 31: Deadline to enter “America’s Got Regulatory Science Talent” competition, promoting student interest in the science of developing new tools, standards, and approaches to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of FDA-regulated products. Click here for information and instructions on how to apply.

Feb. 10: Noon deadline for Center for Community Health mini-grant applications to be awarded in March 2017.  Click here for the full application and instructions.

Feb. 27: 5 p.m. deadline to apply for Center for AIDS Research funding for projects that use the center’s Pharmacology Shared Resource to address key gaps in understanding HIV/AIDS pharmacology and therapeutics. Read more here.

March 20: Deadline to submit applications for a University Research Award of up to $37,500, matched by the applicant’s home school for a total of $75,000. The program provides seed money on a competitive basis for innovative research projects that are likely to obtain external support.  Completed applications should be directed to adele.coelho@rochester.edu. Click here to view the full RFP.

March 20: Deadline to submit applications for an AS&E PumpPrimer II award. Click here for more information. Faculty in the School of Arts & Science should refer questions to Debra Haring, and those in the Hajim School of Engineering to Cindy Gary.

March 25: Brainstorming for the Healthy Weight Initiative, which aims to increase the proportion of people with healthy weight in Rochester and beyond. The goal is to identify potential collaborators and research topics in any area related to body weight development as a first step toward developing new transdisciplinary research teams to obtain more research funding.  For more information, contact Diana Fernandez.