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Leaves of absence are granted for purposes of intensive study or research
that will increase the quality of the individual's future contribution to
the University.
The following leaves of absence have been approved:
Marc D. Abrams, associate professor of forest ecology, to conduct research and lecture in the Hokkaido Japan Overseas Guest Researcher's Invitation Program.
Thomas H. Bruening, associate professor of agricultural and extension education, to serve as a visiting scholar and develop curricula materials to teach Chinese agricultural educators new methods of instruction at the Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome.
Harry A. Carey, professor of agricultural and extension education,
to
study cultural differences in educational methodology and to lecture to
faculty on improving their ability to teach effectively at the University
of Zimbabwe.
Nancy E. Crago, extension agent in Allegheny County, to complete course work and research for a doctoral degree in agricultural and extension education at Penn State.
James W. Dunn, professor of agricultural economics, to study the effects of different agricultural policies when trade restrictions are reduced, Queens University of Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Stephen A. Ford, associate professor of agricultural economics, to develop new methods of teaching agribusiness management and to acquire additional research skills to apply to the economics of livestock-forage systems, Texas A&M University.
Martha R. Gregory, associate extension agent in Lebanon County, to pursue graduate study in training and development at Penn State Harrisburg.
Karen S. Hack, extension agent (Franklin County), to complete course work for a master's degree in training and development at Penn State Harrisburg.
Jayson K. Harper, associate professor of agricultural economics, to study the economic evaluation of alternative pest management options at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
Leif Jensen, associate professor of rural sociology, to study poverty and children's labor force participation through the quantitative analysis of data from Chile, Peru and Mexico, at the University of Bergen in Bergen, Norway.
Mary H. Keihl, associate extension agent (Susquehanna County), to complete course work for a master's degree in interdepartmental human resources and family sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Nick T. Place, county extension director (Susquehanna County), to complete course work for a doctoral degree in agricultural education at Penn State.
Robert C. Pollock, county extension director (Armstrong and Indiana counties), to complete course work for a master's degree in adult education.
Jeannine R. Richlin, associate extension agent (Sullivan County), to complete course work for a master's degree in interdepartmental human resources and family sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Carole L. Toubakaris, associate extension agent (Beaver and Butler counties), to complete course work for a master's degree in interdepartmental human resources and family sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Albert A. Anderson Jr., associate professor of art education, to conduct research and prepare a book manuscript on the history of American craft education.
Kim Cook, associate professor of music, to record a recital of cello literature performed at Carnegie Hall and to study 20th-century literature with cellist Janos Starker at Penn State and Indiana University.
George Dickie, professor of landscape architecture, to study and record compositional design aspects of key urban spaces in Florence, Frascati, Rome and Sienna, Italy.
Kelleann Foster, associate professor of landscape architecture, to conduct post-development evaluation of the Visual Interactive Code and to participate in teaching and research opportunities at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the University of Adelaide in Australia.
Daniel R. Jones, professor of landscape architecture, to develop a set of principles and a catalog of example applications for the integration of human activity and wild and scenic rivers.
Loukas N. Kalisperis, associate professor of architecture, to conduct research for a book on a method of teaching architectural design that integrates computers into the conceptualization phase of the making of architecture at the National Technical University of Athens.
James T. Kalsbeek, associate professor of architecture, to conduct research and complete a book on mnemonic design and its application to the understanding of architectural theory, history and design at the Warburg Institute in London and in Rome.
Robert E. Leonard, professor of theatre arts, to establish mutually beneficial relationships with several notable professional playwright organizations.
Romolo Martemucci, associate professor of architecture, to conduct research for a book on the cartography of the Early Renaissance in Italy.
Dale E. Monson, associate professor of music, to write a book on a major work by Johann Adolf Hasse, Venice, Italy.
Christopher P. Staley, associate professor of art, to develop a new body of ceramic and photographic art work at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia.
Keith P. Thompson, professor of music education, to study exemplary practices in the teaching of middle and junior high school general music.
Peter B. Everett, associate professor of marketing, to study how cities are marketed in Seattle.
Marvin E. Goldberg, the Irving and Irene Bard professor of marketing, to conduct cross-cultural research on children's and adolescents' role in the Asian marketplace, University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong.
Scott A. Snell, associate professor of business administration, to study strategic human resource management within the United States and abroad in Australia and New Zealand.
Eric W. Stein, associate professor of management science and information systems at Penn State Great Valley, to study the design, development and marketing of new software by small to mid-sized companies at the Prague University of Economics, Budapest University for Economic Sciences and Manchester Business School.
James B. Thomas, associate professor
of management, to develop a theory
of strategic learning of how managers learn; to identify barriers to strategic-focused
learning; and to develop
prescriptions for the learning aspects
of strategic management at IBM in Chicago.
Alfred A. Actor, professor of physics at Berks-Lehigh Valley College, to study quantum field theory at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and the University of Capetown in South Africa.
Barbara Cantalupo, associate professor of English at Berks-Lehigh Valley College, to expand two formerly published essays to book-length chapters for a study of the "paradoxical insignificance" in the writings of Hawthorne, Melville and Poe.
Margaret R. Christian, associate professor of English at Berks-Lehigh Valley College, to write chapters for a book-length study of 15th- and 16th-century English sermons.
Ivko M. Dimitric, associate professor of mathematics at the Fayette campus, to study finite-type submanifolds and methods of calibration at Michigan State University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Martin M. Goldberg, associate librarian at the Beaver campus, to study the historical foundations of the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh at the Heinz Historical Center in Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Archives in New York.
Wendy N. Greenberg, associate professor of French at Berks-Lehigh Valley College, to study the autobiographical writings of the soldier-writer at the Biblioteca Nacional of Mexico.
Charles R. Hackenberry, associate professor of English at Penn State Altoona, to complete research and begin writing a literary novel.
Karen L. Hill, associate professor of kinesiology at the Delaware County campus, to complete three monographs for publication, each examining a different theoretical approach to sport psychology.
Marilyn D. Maltese, associate professor of speech communication at the Worthington Scranton campus, to complete work on a book dealing with the teaching of sign language in elementary education in the United Kingdom.
James E. May, associate professor of English at the DuBois campus, to prepare critical editions of Tobias Smollett's multi-volume works on the history of England.
Paul A. Orlov, associate professor of English at the Delaware County campus, to study connections between Rebecca Harding Davis' 1961 brief novel Life in the Iron Mills and Eugene O'Neill's 1922 play The Hairy Ape; and to complete critical studies of several works of American fiction writers Fitzgerald, James, Melville and Wharton, for a book-length manuscript.
Lois Rubin, associate professor of English at the New Kensington campus, to study coming of age novels (bildungsroman) of Jewish-American women.
Margaret L. Signorella, professor of psychology and women's studies at the McKeesport campus, to conduct a meta-analysis of children's gender-related preferences.
Suzanne Stutman, professor of English, American studies and women's studies at Penn State Abington, to edit and write an introduction for an unpublished manuscript by Thomas Wolfe, "A Passage to England," at Harvard University, Chapel Hill, N.C., and Philadelphia.
Girija Subramaniam, associate professor of chemistry at the Hazleton campus, to conduct collaborative research on supra molecular nonlinear optic materials at the University of Strasbourg in France.
William S. Toothacker, professor of physics at the Mont Alto campus, to conduct collaborative research with an international team of scientists on elementary particle physics at the German Electron-Synchrotron Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany.
Harold J. Webster, associate professor of biology at the DuBois campus, to develop a computerized database on the mosses of Pennsylvania at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and various sites in Pennsylvania.
Stephen M. Zemyan, professor of mathematics at the Mont Alto campus, to study the omitted arc of a support point for the class S and to complete a textbook on an introduction to the classical theory of integral equations at Lehigh University.
Christopher J. Bise, Centennial Professor of mining engineering, to study curricular and instructional issues related to occupational health and safety at Johns Hopkins University.
David J. Green, professor of ceramic science and engineering, to study distance education techniques used for materials engineering; aid in revision of a course on fracture; and consult on research programs concerning mechanical behavior of ceramics at Open University in the United Kingdom.
John R. Hellmann, associate professor of ceramic science and engineering, to develop oxide fiber reinforced oxide composites for gas turbine combustors in collaboration with researchers at the German Aerospace Research Establishment in Koln, Germany.
Glendon W. Blume, professor-in-charge of mathematics education and associate professor of education, to study the implementations of technology-intensive secondary school mathematics curricula.
Daniel D. Hade, associate professor of education, to study the changes in children's book publishing since 1969.
James K. McAfee, associate professor of special education, to study police officers' reactions to crimes involving individuals with mental retardation and to develop a training curriculum designed to improve police officers' responses to individuals with mental retardation at Edith Cowan University in western Australia.
Madhu S. Prakash, professor-in-charge of educational theory and policy and associate professor of education, to study indigenous knowledge systems in India and Mexico.
James L. Ratcliff, director and senior scientist, the Center for the Study of Higher Education and professor of education, to study curriculum design and development in higher education, the use of technology in university teaching and the role of policy formulation in the governance of higher education.
John Salvia, professor of special education, to study the literature on educational reform and the potential impact on special education of various proposals to reform education curricula and teaching methods.
David W. Saxe, associate professor of education, to conduct collaborative research on educational issues at the Hudson Institute and also in Washington, D.C.
Thomas D. Yawkey, professor of education, to document the origins and development of a 15-year national-level cultural and language minority project and to develop a new area of expertise in distance education for English-as-a-foreign-language in third world early childhood and family education teacher programs.
David A. Anderson, professor of civil engineering, to conduct collaborative research on asphalt cement for highway construction in Lyon, France.
James K. Breakall, professor of electrical engineering, to study antenna and electromagnetics at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center in Arecibo, Puerto Rico; Cornell University; the Center for Remote Sensing in McLean, Va.; and Bangalore and Calcutta, India.
Lance R. Collins, associate professor of chemical engineering, to conduct collaborative research in experimental work related to combustion in Orleans, France, and to conduct collaborative research in computational fluid mechanics at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
George S. Dulikravich, associate professor of aerospace engineering, to conduct collaborative research on the mathematical formulation of inverse design and optimization problems at the Institute for Fluid Mechanics in Goettingen, Germany.
Randall M. German, Brush Chair Professor in materials, to study micromechanical modeling of sintering and the control of materials processing conditions for net shape fabrication of precise engineering materials and structures at the University of California, San Diego.
Alireza Haghighat, associate professor of nuclear engineering, to conduct collaborative research on calculations on an experimental facility at the Belgium Nuclear Research Center.
Iam-Choon Khoo, professor of electrical engineering, to conduct collaborative research on theoretical and experimental studies of liquid crystals and nonlinear optical phenomena at the University of Ancona, Italy, and the National Research Council in Ottawa.
Budugur Lakshminarayana, Evan Pugh professor of aerospace engineering, to conduct collaborative research on transonic turbomachinery at Kyushu University in Japan.
Byung-Lip Lee, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics, to study new hybrid composite materials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and the Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center in Natick, Mass.
Lyle N. Long, associate professor of aerospace engineering, to study and teach high-performance computing at the University of Edinburgh.
Michael M. Micci, associate professor of aerospace engineering, to apply molecular dynamics modeling to supercritical fluid phenomena in combustion chambers at Edwards Air Force Base in California and to write a textbook on electric propulsion.
Robert M. Owens, professor of computer science and engineering, to study computer vision, image processing and parallel architecture at the University of Pavia, Italy.
Jonathan Phillips, professor of chemical engineering, to conduct collaborative research in catalysis at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.
Robert J. Santoro, professor of mechanical engineering, to study gas turbine engine and rocket combustion engineering at Princeton University.
John M. Tarbell, professor of chemical engineering, to conduct collaborative research on the principles and methods of modern molecular biology at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
H. Randolph Thomas, professor of civil engineering, to study labor productivity at the University of Azgreb in Croatia.
Ralph L. Webb, professor of mechanical engineering, to conduct collaborative research on condensation coefficients for heat transfer at the National Institute for Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md.
Grenville K. Yuill, professor of architectural engineering, to study computer modeling of air flow and pollutant transport within large buildings at the Building Research Establishment in Watford, England, and to study the simulation of energy transport in buildings at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.
David T. Doran, associate professor of accounting, to serve in a "faculty in residence" program at Monahan and Monahan, certified public accountants, in Erie, Pa.
Faisal K. Fadul, associate professor of electrical engineering, to study signal recognition and supervision and pulse-to-tone conversion.
Robert E. Farrell, associate professor of engineering, to complete a doctoral degree in plastics engineering.
John K. Gamble, professor of political science and international law, to study new information technologies and international law at the University of New Brunswick in Canada.
Kathryn Willis Wolfe, associate professor of French, to complete the third and final volume of writings on unpublished letters written between 1650 and 1654 by Christophe Dupuy in Rome to his brothers, Jacques and Pierre, in Paris.
Chester L. Wolford, professor of business and English, to compile Japanese business short stories for a book project and to gather information for a new course on Japanese leadership.
Omid Ansary, associate professor of engineering, to write a textbook and a laboratory manual on control system analysis and design.
Robert J. Bresler, professor of public policy, to complete a book on the impact of cultural issues upon the politics of post-1945 America and the consequent tension that arose between the dominant and adversary culture.
Krishna S. Dhir, professor of business administration, to study the intellectual capital created through technology transfer in organizations.
Richard M. Foxx, professor of psychology, to develop strategies for ensuring the long-term maintenance of the successful effects of behavior change programs.
Barry Kanpol, associate professor of secondary foundations, to complete a manuscript on the ethics of critical pedagogy.
Ching-Chung Kuo, associate professor of operations management, to study the international dimension of operations management.
Glen A. Mazis, associate professor of humanities and philosophy, to complete two book-length manuscripts and conduct research on a third book project, all dealing with the philosophical bases of postmodernism.
James F. Rooney, professor of sociology, to write a book analyzing the controlling social institutions for alcohol use in Spain and contrast alcohol use in Spain with the United States.
Cheryl A. Dellasega, associate professor of nursing, to study long-term medication use in Swedish elderly in Linhoping, Sweden.
Michael J. Rovine, associate professor of human development, to complete a book on statistical solutions of problems related to developmental processes and longitudinal data at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Manitoba.
Michael R. Baye, professor of economics, to conduct collaborative research on the reform of institutions that govern the patent process, the tort system and lobbying activities at the Tinbergin Institute in The Netherlands, Purdue University and in Washington, D.C.
Michael B. Berkman, associate professor of political science, to develop an institutionally based theory of how states respond to the newly emerging federalism.
Thomas J. Bernard, professor of criminal justice and sociology, to study recent theory and research on men and masculinity, particularly within sociology and psychology, and develop a theory that relates masculinity to crime within the context of American society.
Karen L. Bierman, professor of psychology, to complete writing journal articles on the findings from data collected from a five-year project that assesses strategies for preventing children's conduct disorders.
Patricia Draper, professor of anthropology and human development, to study and write on the Khoisan hunting and gathering peoples of southern Africa at the University of Edinburgh.
Arthur E. Goldschmidt Jr., professor of Middle East history, to study the biographical dictionary of Egypt since 1750 in Cairo, London and Paris.
Thomas A. Gresik, associate professor of economics, to study the tax regulations of the United States and other developed countries in order to develop an accurate model of how countries compete for foreign direct investment via their tax codes at the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C.
Kathryn Hume, distinguished professor of English, to study and write a book that will examine control-oriented theory and apply it to a group of writers who explain the human condition in these terms.
Robert D. Hume, Edwin Erle Sparks professor of English, to do archival research on the finances of theatre and operas in London during the 18th century.
J. Philip Jenkins, professor of religious studies and history, to study and write on the political and social impact of the Cold War on the state of Pennsylvania, c. 1945-56.
Christopher L. Johnstone, associate professor of speech communication, to complete a book on classical rhetorical theory.
Kang Liu, associate professor of comparative literature and Chinese, to write a book-length study comparing the cultural upheavals that took place both in China and the West in the 1960s, Beijing University.
Leon F. Lyday, professor of Spanish, to edit two books and write essays on Columbian literature and culture and Latin American theatre.
Melvin M. Mark, professor of psychology, to write a book and review a paper on the application of realist philosophy to social science research methods, at Georgia State University.
Benedicte M. C. Monicat, associate professor of French and women's studies, to conduct research for a book on rare and unavailable books by 19th-century French women authors of children's literature at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
On-cho Ng, associate professor of history, to complete archival research and begin writing a book on lay Buddhism and Confucian culture in 18th-century China.
Robert N. Proctor, professor of the history of science, to conduct research for a book joining two previous topics, an analysis of the Nazi war against cancer.
James M. Rambeau, associate professor of English and American studies, to conduct research with a focus on the public memory of the Civil War.
Anne C. Rose, associate professor of history and religious studies, to write a historical monograph on the religious lives of interfaith families in the 19th century.
David Shapiro, associate professor of economics and women's studies, to complete work on a book dealing with women's education, employment, fertility and household economic and demographic behavior in Kinshasa, Zaire; at the University of Kinshasa; and the New Economic School in Moscow.
Alan M. Sica, professor of sociology, to explore for book features of current social and cultural theory which benefit or detract from contemporary social research.
Robert M. Stern, distinguished professor of psychology, to study the similarities and differences in the phychophysiology of nausea when caused by different factors such as motion sickness, cancer chemotherapy and diabetes at the University of Rochester, Heinrich Heine University, University of Aachen and the Athens Naval and Veterans Hospital.
Allan I. Stoekl, professor of French and comparative literature, to study and write a book of critical essays on capital punishment in literature.
Marylee C. Taylor, associate professor of sociology, to compile data sets that will explore attitudes about race, immigration and multiculturalism, and to begin a new edition of a classic work of social psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
John F. Cardella, chief of cardiovascular/interventional radiology and professor of radiology, to serve as a physician reviewer of Food and Drug Administration approval requests and to gain familiarity with the organization, reporting channels, ultimate responsibility for decisions and inner workings of committees at the FDA in Washington, D.C.
David W. Knutson, professor of medicine, to conduct collaborative research on epidemiology and health systems and outcomes research by developing cost-effective mechanisms for treating hypertension at the Lehigh Valley Hospital and the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lebanon, Pa.
Susan E. Lederer, associate professor of humanities, to research and write a social and cultural history of blood donation and transfusion in 20th-century America at the Urban Archives, Temple University, Philadelphia, and the State Library in Harrisburg.
Cara-Lynne Schengrund, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, to study computer modeling of protein-carbohydrate interactions and of procedures for the synthesis of novel carbohydrates at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
Robert C. Vannucci, professor of pediatrics, to prepare a competitive renewal program project research proposal to be submitted to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and to develop an expertise in analytical procedures.
David L. Allara, professor of materials science and professor of chemistry, to study advanced concepts and devices for chemical and biosensing at the Swedish National Center for Biomaterials at Linkoping University and the University of Uppsala in Sweden.
George E. Andrews, Evan Pugh professor of mathematics, to study exactly solved models in statistical mechanics at Melbourne University in Australia.
Jean E. Brenchley, professor of microbiology and biotechnology, to develop methods for studying proteolytic enzymes and to establish future research projects at North Carolina State University.
Robin Ciardullo, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics, to use the Hobby-Eberly Telescope to launch a program on galaxy dynamics at the University of Texas and Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz.
Gregory K. Farber, associate professor of biochemistry, to work on sequence analysis of families of proteins at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Gary L. Mullen, professor of mathematics, to study polynomials over finite fields and their applications to information science at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
Susan A. Murphy, associate professor of statistics, to develop two areas of statistical theory, transformation models and methodology for prevention research, at Harvard University and the Free University in Amsterdam.
Calyampudi R. Rao, professor and holder of the Eberly Chair in statistics, to conduct collaborative research on theoretical statistics at the Indian Institute of Management and Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta.
Ming Tien, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, to study how cells which use oxygen radicals to break down aromatic polymers are themselves protected from the deleterious consequences, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
Boris Tsygan, professor of mathematics, to work on several research projects in noncummutative differential geometry and related topics at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Strasbourg.
William C. Waterhouse, professor of mathematics, to prepare an English translation of the French, German and Latin writings of Carl Friedrich Gauss on number theory and algebra.
Diane Zabel, social science reference librarian, to research and co-author a reference book on workplace flexibility.
Stephen Smith, associate professor of agricultural economics,
left, and Joe Carrol of Mount Nittany Winery examine some white wine.
Photo: Greg Grieco
By Eston Martz
College of Agricultural Sciences
Research under way in the College of Agricultural Sciences suggests that Pennsylvania's vineyards and wineries will expand in the next five years.
The state has supported a small wine industry since the early 1970s, when the Pennsylvania Farm Winery Bill allowed for the establishment of wineries, which currently have a production limit of 200,000 gallons annually. The law also permits the operation of retail sales locations and direct sales to businesses and individuals.
"The state's vineyard and winery industry is vibrant and growing," said Stephen Smith, associate professor of agricultural economics. "In the 1980s, an average of 2.3 vineyards and 1.1 wineries were started per year. In the 1990s, the average was 2.7 vineyards and 1.5 wineries started per year. It's still a small industry, but it's becoming very well established and is carving out an important niche in the state's agricultural economy."
Smith, Jayson Harper, associate professor of agricultural economics, and Barbara Goulart, associate professor of horticulture, surveyed Pennsylvania vineyard and winery owners about production costs and business characteristics, markets and marketing problems, and the future of the wine industry in Pennsylvania.
"Wineries are very optimistic, with 79 percent of the respondents expecting to increase production in the next five years," Smith said. "Seventy-eight percent of the wine makers also expect on-premises retail sales to increase. Between 52 percent and 62 percent expect sales to increase through the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, retail expansion of premises, direct sales to hotels and restaurants, and food expositions."
Respondents also were asked about Pennsylvania's winery laws. "More than 64 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the law should be changed to allow wine sales in grocery stores, with only 26 percent disagreeing," Harper said. "About 80 percent also agreed or strongly agreed on instituting a 1-cent per bottle tax on all wine sold within Pennsylvania to support wine research, extension and promotional programs."
Pennsylvania ranks fourth nationally in total grape production, behind California, Washington and New York. Most of the state's acreage is in Concord grapes for juice, not wine grapes.
By John Wall
College of Agricultural Sciences
When it comes to improving the quality and shelf life of packaged fresh mushrooms, it's not the heat, it's the humidity, said a food scientist in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
The shelf life of the common button mushroom is limited to three to five days on a store shelf, said Ramaswamy Anantheswaran, associate professor of food science. Typically, mushrooms are packaged in containers covered by plastic film with air holes.
Anantheswaran has completed research on two mushroom packaging methods. One project focused on modifying the oxygen concentration within individual wrapped packages, and the other sought ways to modify the humidity within single wrapped packages.
Anantheswaran's idea to control oxygen content within mushroom packages evolved from research on controlled atmosphere storage, in which precisely controlled gases are used to keep produce from ripening or spoiling.
"Controlled atmosphere storage has been in use since the 1930s," Anantheswaran said. "If we can maintain the atmosphere inside the package within a certain range of factors, we can improve the quality of mushrooms and other produce."
In the laboratory, Anantheswaran found that controlling oxygen within a package worked well. Unfortunately, the package had to be maintained at a relatively constant temperature, a factor that cannot be guaranteed on the mushrooms' trip to market.
Anantheswaran then turned to humidity. "When mushrooms are harvested, more than 90 percent of their weight is water," he said. "Mushrooms also don't have a skin like other types of produce, and give off much more water vapor."
This vapor can collect within the package and cause discoloration and growth of bacteria. Humidity within produce packaging is a common problem that can affect the appearance and safety of the food product. Anantheswaran said that excess water causes button mushrooms to brown or yellow and also fosters the growth of harmful microorganisms.
Anantheswaran is currently testing several commercially available moisture adsorbers to regulate moisture within food packaging. Adsorption occurs when thin layers of molecules adhere to the surface of solids or liquids, much like odors are adsorbed by baking soda.
According to Anantheswaran, the modified humidity packaging improved the maturity of the mushrooms, effectively increasing the shelf life for the product. Anantheswaran is currently looking into a package design that would incorporate moisture adsorbers into the structure of the package.
A Penn State/industry team has shown that it is possible to build a lightweight, "smart" vibration absorber that could track the changing frequencies of noise and vibration and continuously re-tune itself to control them.
Such a device could quiet industrial machinery and consumer products, such as cars and home appliances. Applications in planes, helicopters, satellites and space platforms promise increased safety as well as enhanced performance and comfort.
Christopher L. Davis, doctoral candidate; George A. Lesieutre, associate professor of aerospace engineering; and Jeffrey Dosch of the AVC Instrumentation Division of PCB Piezotronics Inc., Depew, N.Y., conducted the study.
The AVC Division of PCB Piezotronics Inc., with assistance from Penn State's Center for Acoustics and Vibration (CAV) and NASA support, has developed an absorber based on a thin disk of piezoelectric ceramic, or piezoceramic. The disk acts as part of a "spring" that, when placed between the vibrating structure and a dense mass, can counter with a force that cancels the structural motion.
Gary H. Koopmann, professor of mechanical engineering and CAV director, participated in the device's development.
Experiments show the natural frequency of the piezoceramic absorber could be predictably shifted by more than 5 percent, enough to accommodate typical variations in aircraft engine speeds during cruise.
